Rising Star

by Donald Nicklas

  The gunships and hover tanks took out all of the cannons, but not before, they were able to fire a second volley, this time at the legion. Since the Romani had dropped and covered themselves with their shields, this volley had little effect. They would have been better served to fire it at the tanks. Two more tanks were taken down by the Gatling guns, which were finally silenced by the gunships. The gunships and tanks then started firing into the camp, but the camp itself covered close to 40 hectares, and the troops were well protected against bombardment by shelters. When the legion was one kilometer from the ramparts, the Legatus called the tanks and gunships back. The defenders came out of their shelters and moved back to the rampart. At one kilometer, the cadence stopped as did the legion. They stood there with shields up, at the maximum effective range of the defenders small arms. Some of the mercenaries started to fire their automatic weapons at the legion, but with no effect, as the bullets bounced harmlessly off their shields. The Legatus once again turned to her communications tech, “Start the cadence at attack speed.”

  Immediately the cadence returned but this time much faster as the legion sprung forward at marching double time. The resistance was again caught by surprise and had to run a little to catch up. When the legion was a half kilometer from the ramparts, the Legatus ordered, “Set cadence to charge.” The drumbeat doubled and the legion surged forward at a run. The defenders started to fire their automatic weapons at the advancing shield wall with minimal success. They were still unaware of the danger they faced from the serpents and felt confident the height of their rampart would prevent the enemy from quickly scaling it. They were hoping to inflict large casualties on the Romani as they attempted to scale the wall. They viewed this as almost a medieval type of siege. The front ranks of the serpent cohort reached the ditch, which was filled with iron stakes. To the horror of the defenders, the Romani troops leapt over the ditch as if it was not there. During this process, the defenders were finally able to see what constituted this front line and were shocked to see some kind of combat animal. They were well trained and they didn’t seem to wait for human trainers. The fire from the rampart became more concentrated on the serpents as they cleared the hundred meters from the ditch to the rampart. Again, to the shock of the defenders, the serpents leapt to the top of the two story high rampart as if it was a shallow step. While the serpents occupied the defender’s concentration, the legion reached the ditch and brought their engineers forward to span it. They brought in some small, tracked vehicles, which laid out a flexible, linked roadbed. As they used cutters to remove the stakes ahead of them, the legion followed and crossed the ditch with minimal casualties from enemy fire. By the time the legion reformed on the other side of the ditch, the serpents were on the top of the rampart, fighting with the defenders.

  General Upton was watching the action on the ramparts. She had ordered her troops to take cover when it appeared the gunships would take out the cannons and Gatling guns. At least they took some of them out before losing the heavy weapons. The bombardment was not heavy enough to damage her troops in the underground shelters. After the bombardment, they came out and went back to defending the ramparts. To their shock, the enemy was using combat animals. Something she had heard about from wars past, but never experienced. A quick check with the computer revealed that animals usually could be turned back with explosions. Before she could tell her troops to use grenades against the animals, they had leapt to the top of the rampart and were engaging her troops in hand-to-hand combat. As Henrietta watched, she had to admit; whoever trained these animals was a master at the job. Nothing seemed to faze them.

  The order given to the serpents was to breach the rampart and form a defensive crescent inside the rampart to allow the legion and resistance to come over unhindered. When General Upton realized this is what they were doing, she ordered her troops to train their weapons on the top of the rampart and shoot at the legion as it came over. This they did, but again, their unfamiliarity with Romani battle tactics had them hitting the shields and wasting their ammunition. They fared better with the Romani marines and the Petrov resistance. Since they were not using shields, many of them were hit in areas not protect by armor. There were a few hit in the face and killed instantly, but most wounds were of the extremities and easily patched up. Romani medics were tending to the wounded in the battle zone. As the legion came over the rampart, the serpent cohort pushed further in. They were doing devastating damage with their short spears and the mercenaries were receiving and succumbing to massive wounds through their armor. The fact that the body armor was useless against the strength and weapon of the serpents was demoralizing to the mercenaries and some level of fear was beginning to show itself. The other problem they had were the serpent tails. They could lash out and impale through the armor. The mercenaries were used to distant combat with projectile weapons. The close, personal combat of the Romani was foreign to them. The mercenary line fell back far enough to use their guns to better advantage. As they did this, they found out the Romani can do distance combat also. The front ranks of the serpent cohort opened up and the third line, consisting of male serpents and their Gatling guns, came forward and opened fire. By the time the one hundred males used up both boxes of 6000 bullets each, there was not much left above ground. The males then moved to the rear to get two more ammo boxes each and the full legion charged forward. Centurion Ash kept her cohort of serpents in the forefront of the combat as the rest of the legion and the resistance moved to form a battle line.

  The Gatling barrage had stunned the mercenaries and killed a good number. However, the legion still faced close to 19000. Everything to this point had been preliminary. The mercenaries now took cover behind the rubble that used to be their camp. It was now going to be a fight with no set battle lines. The camp housing had been destroyed by the Gatling guns and this now presented hiding places that had to be cleared out individually. The mercenaries were putting up a much better fight than the ones on the Rising Star had, and the Legatus could see they were all ex-military. The command hover came over the rampart and the cadence was set to attack speed. The legion moved forward in order and started fighting from rubble to rubble.

  Centurion Marshal was now ordered to take his Special Forces and reduce the rubble. When Bill Marshal decided to train four centuries of serpents to act as a Special Forces unit, it was his intention they would go in and tackle the tough jobs. Now he had his chance to prove they could. Each Special Forces serpent carried her spear and shield. They also carried a bag with them loaded with explosives and other tools needed for any kind of mission. The bag was much too heavy for a human, but feather light for a serpent. Marshal carried only a pistol, a short sword and dagger with the standard Romani bandolier containing grenades. He wore scout armor, rather than the heavy armor of the legion. With his helmet, he was in communication with the legion command structure. Five serpents stayed with him at all times, they were his bodyguard. The rest he ordered to fan out and take out any bunkers or rubble that could hide enemies. Three hours into the battle, the camp was littered with bodies, most of them mercenaries but also some serpents and Romani. The resistance was fighting in a fashion similar to the mercenaries, since they had no training in using a shield. This resulted in quite a few resistance casualties in the form of both dead and wounded. Resistance on the part of the mercenaries was diminishing and they were starting to have a growing fear of the serpents, which by hour three had turned to panic. They were now attempting to surrender to humans whenever possible, since they still thought the serpents were mere animals and would not accept their surrender. Centurion Marshal and his bodyguards came to a bunker near the city side of the camp. He pulled out his pistol and opened the hatch to allow his bodyguards to jump down. Since serpents can see in the dark as well as if it were day and had infrared vision, he let them lead in all situations where it was likely to be dark. When they were all inside, they realized this was not a bunker but rather a tunnel and it lead in the direction of the ci
ty. The battle in the camp was winding down, but an unknown number of mercenaries were heading to the city. Centurion Marshal reported this and followed the tunnel.

  Alaya was alerted about the tunnel and told the partisans who were helping her. They said they knew nothing of a tunnel, but the mercenaries had been secretive about some construction at the spaceport.

  “Do they have any ships there?” Alaya asked the partisan contact on the roof with her.

  “They have a scout ship and their landing shuttle. But without a fleet to join with, only the scout ship can take the slipstream.”

  “Ok, so only the leaders are making a run for it. I bet they have their gold there as well.” She passed that information on to Centurion Marshal. Then she contacted Tavia, “Tavia, bring the Gladius into the city and pick me up.” She then pulled three of her snipers off the roofs and told them to follow her. She went to the square just as the Gladius landed. Alaya and the snipers got aboard and she told Tavia to take them to the spaceport. As the Gladius took off the mercenaries in the camp broke and ran over the rear rampart and headed to the city, trying to fight a rear guard action. They had finally discovered their leaders were missing. As they came within a kilometer of the city limits, with the legion hot on their tail, the rooftop snipers started to do their work and killed dozens of them, but hundreds made it to the city, exhausted. Unfortunately, they had committed many atrocities and they caused a great deal of starvation to keep the citizens in line. This was not forgotten and thousands of citizens armed with clubs and knives awaited them. There was no way either the Romani or the resistance fighters could stop the slaughter and the streets ran red with blood. The cadence stopped and the battle was over. Only the race to capture the mercenary leaders was not resolved.

  Centurion Marshal and his serpents raced through the tunnel and made it to the end, where they ran into the mercenary rear guard. There was a quick exchange of gunfire and Bill Marshal took two hits on his chest armor that knocked him backwards but did not penetrate. His serpents ran forward and ripped the rearguard mercenaries to shreds, covering the floor with blood. By the time, the serpents were finished; Centurion Marshal was up again and heading for the ladder, behind the lead serpent. As the serpent came out on the floor of a hangar, she could see the mercenaries just boarding a corporation-style scout ship. Before the serpents could get any closer, the ship leapt into the atmosphere and left the city behind.

  Aboard the corporate scout vessel, SS Boone, Henrietta Upton and her close friends and commanders were speeding away from the planet. When they breached the atmosphere, they could see the shattered fleets in orbit and veered away from them to the nearest outbound slipstream. Henrietta didn’t care where that one led, as long as it was away from here. When the fleet battle was taking place, she took the precaution of putting three tons of gold onto the Boone. She thought it was an unnecessary precaution, but it now looked like she could see the future. What a mess this assignment turned out to be. They were told there was no chance of a counter attack and the Mobile Fleet would keep all enemy ships away. Now there was no fleet and she left all the scum and losers she was forced to hire, in the dust with their gold in her hands. She and her closest officers got away and they would all be rich for the rest of their lives.

  Alaya saw the scout ship take off and told hatch to make them invisible. She sent a tight beam to the fleet to let them know what was happening and they breached the atmosphere and poured on the speed. Serpent ships were faster in the slipstreams but not in system space, so she knew they would not overtake the scout until the next system. With the Gladius invisible, the mercenaries felt safe. Alaya would not give them any reason to feel otherwise. “How long is the transit time to the slipstream, Tavia?”

  “Nine hours and forty-three minutes.”

  “Ok, set a watch and keep alert if they should change course. This could be a faint to the slipstream to throw us off.”

  “Yes, captain.”

  The Gladius powered on through the system space and left the carnage of the fleet and the ground combat behind. They would settle accounts in the next system.

  Chapter 15 – Negotiations

  While the Gladius was chasing the mercenary leadership, the cleanup started on the planet. First, the inhabitants had to accept the fact that humans were not alone in the galaxy. As usual, getting used to the serpents was a challenge but soon they were working side by side to dismantle the mercenary camp and to get rid of all signs of the Sinclair invasion. What the Slones had noticed was that once anyone realized the serpents could speak human language and they could communicate, it all became easier. It helped that serpents using human speak had a soothing effect on humans. After the mercenary camp was flattened, the legionary camp was moved from the mining complex to the spot the mercenary camp sat on. The Romani requested to use the shipyard facilities in orbit and, of course, this was readily granted. They put in the ships they could quickly bring back to fighting condition, but the real repairs awaited the arrival of the parts and techs from Nova Romae.

  As these events were happening on Petrovia, the Gladius was in the slipstream, still five hours from the next system. Alaya and Tavia were on the bridge with the serpents curled up at their stations. Raul and the snipers were getting some sleep. Suddenly a light appeared on the sensor console. Tavia looked at it and said, “We are passing an object with mass consistent with the scout ship. We will arrive in the next system two hours ahead of them.”

  “Excellent. Get some rest; I’ll catch some shuteye here on the bridge.”

  Tavia left for her quarters and Alaya closed her eyes. She must have nodded off, since the next thing she heard was the alarm telling them they were fifteen minutes from system insertion. She sat up in her seat, just as Tavia came in and sat in the pilot’s seat. The rest of the crew was in their places. “Hatch, make us invisible,” Alaya said.

  “Sss. Yes captain.” After a few seconds, “Sss. Ship is invisible.”

  Tavia then said, “Dropping out of the slipstream in 3…2...1…” Tavia pressed a button and the pure white in front of them turned into stars and the system ahead.

  “Raul, what does this system look like? Any habitation?”

  “The system is uninhabited and we are the only ship in system. At least there is no telemetry from ships already here. There is only one incoming and one outgoing slipstream. The star is a single, main sequence red star, spectral class M. The outbound slipstream will be very slow with that little energy from the star.”

  “Tavia take us 100,000 kilometers away from the inbound slipstream on the route to the outbound. We will ambush them there.”

  “Yes, captain.”

  The Gladius moved to the position indicated and waited. At the predicted time, the scout ship came out of the slipstream. Their engine came on and they must have felt themselves very safe. As they approached the position of the Gladius, Alaya had Raul open a channel in the clear.

  “Attention mercenary scout ship. This is the NR Gladius of the Romani 10th legion. Surrender now and you will survive.”

  Aboard the scout ship, Henrietta Upton looked at her fellow officers. They thought they had gotten away clean and were plotting a course back to their home base, now here was a message of warning. Henrietta went to the bridge, “Are there any ships out there?”

  Her sensor tech looked at his console, “No, general, there are no vessels and no message capsules.”

  “Give me an open channel.” The communications tech nodded that the channel was open.

  “This is General Upton. State your business and your location.”

  To the general’s surprise, there was no lag time for the response to come back. That would normally indicate a nearby source. “This is Alaya Slone, captain of the Nova Romae scout vessel, Gladius, your troops on Petrovia are defeated and now you are also our prisoners. Heave to and prepare to be boarded.”

  Henrietta looked around the bridge. “Where is that signal coming from?”

  The sens
or tech indicated, “There is nothing out there. If there is a ship out there, it is invisible.”

  “Open our weapon ports,” the general ordered. All aboard the ship could hear the cannon and missile doors open. The mercenaries had modified the scout vessel to fire standard ship killer missiles with multiple reloads.

  “Mercenary vessel, we have detected your weapon ports opening and will take that to be your answer,” the next message came in from the unknown source.

  “General, I am detecting a weapon port opening near us. There is still nothing out there.” The sensor tech reported then suddenly said, “Incoming missile.”

  This was visible as they could see it streaking towards them. The scout pilot took evasive maneuvers but the missile detonated well away from them and ejected a light gray cloud. The momentum of the scout drifted it into the cloud and the mercenaries could hear tapping on their hull.

  “What is that cloud?” the general asked.

  “It is nothing our sensors recognize.” The tech reported then suddenly shouted, “General there is a ship appearing in front of us.”

  As they watched, one of the strange winged ships they saw on the planet appeared out of nowhere, right in front of them. “They are invisible.”