-
It’s sure lonely out here,” commented Andrew as he stared at the viewscreens. All that was visible were distant galaxies. There wasn’t a star for thousands of light years.
“There are a few rogue stars and some isolated star clusters,” Aleea said. “Even the void between galaxies isn’t as empty as it seems.”
“The Vorn found an older star cluster of red dwarfs,” replied Kurt. “From the data we got out of the Scythe, the Vorn habitats are in one of the red dwarf systems while the others were mined for material to build their habitats.”
“Habitats which I’m going to destroy,” said Lieutenant Mays with a wide grin.
Andrew spent a quiet moment gazing at the nearby galaxies. “I never dreamed we would be so far from home.” On one viewscreen, a stern view showed the Milky Way. “I don’t think I’ll ever forget what our galaxy looks like from here.” The spiral arms and the brilliant central hub of the galaxy were plainly visible.
“It’s beautiful from here,” admitted Lieutenant Mays. “It’s hard to imagine the battles that must be going on there.”
Kurt nodded his head. “It should make us realize how small we are in the grand scheme of things.”
Kurt had to admit the view was breathtaking. Everything he held dear was in that spiral galaxy. He also knew Lieutenant Mays was correct about the battles. By now Fleet Commodore Dreen and Fleet Captain Waelt would have launched full-scale attacks against the Vorn with the extra Glaymon ships Councilors Marshton and Valen had sent them. Only a few thousand Glaymon vessels were being kept to protect the new Glaymon habitat as well as Newton’s small Alliance of worlds.
-
Prince Parthain dropped his fleet out of hyperspace at the third food world they were going to harvest. Once again they were in a system which was lightly defended.
What do our scans of the system indicate?
Planet four is heavily inhabited, replied Military Leader Kawold. The planet has several small space stations in orbit, and the inhabitants have begun mining their two asteroid fields. Their ships are very primitive and capable of only minimal subspace speeds. Detailed scans of their ships indicate they are not armed and there is no defense grid around the planet.
Prince Parthain was pleased with this information. Drop the stealth fields and let us begin the harvest of this world. Parthain was anxious to fill the holds of all five motherships with food pellets and return to the new staging system.
-
The Vorn fleet dropped their stealth fields and began moving openly toward the planet. Almost instantly they began receiving communications from the planet asking who they were and what they wanted. As usual the Vorn ignored the pleas for explanations. Several slow moving spacecraft were in the way of the Vorn fleet and black antimatter beams flicked out, erasing them from existence. The pleas from the planet requesting communication only increased.
-
However, the Vorn were not the only ones in the vicinity of the system. Lakiam Captain Veen was on board his flagship the Hadlor and monitoring the Vorns’ approach to the planet. He had nearly three thousand ships under his command. His Lakiam battlecruisers were 1,700 meters long and all equipped with the new KEW cannon which fired a modified energy round provided by the Glaymons. While not as powerful as the Zero-Point Energy rounds the Humans used, they should still be sufficient to destroy a Vorn vessel. However, the Glaymon vessels within his fleet were still his heavy hitters.
“Drop us out of hyperspace directly in front of the Vorn ships,” Veen ordered. “I don’t want them to strike the planet with any of their weapons.”
Tamith nodded from Navigation. “Course plotted. Ready to implement.”
Captain Veen smiled. “Take us in. Let us show the Vorn the galaxy will no longer tolerate their harvesting of innocents.”
-
Prince Parthain was feeling enthusiastic about sampling a food pellet from this new food species when alarms began sounding on the sensor console.
Unidentified ships are exiting hyperspace between our fleet and the planet, sent the Vorn at sensors.
Put the ships up on the viewscreens, ordered Parthain, shifting his multifaceted eyes to the screens. On one of them a massive disk ship was visible while on another a slimmer vessel appeared. Both were heavily armed. Parthain instantly recognized the ships. Those are ships of the Ancients and food species 236!
Military Leader Kawold gazed at the screens, looking perturbed. Those ships should not be here.
They are nearly in weapons range, warned the Vorn at the sensors.
Parthain looked at the ships on the screen and then over to the tactical display. They are outnumbered and we have twelve hundred updated battleships. Move in and engage. Parthain was confident his ships could defeat this fleet of the Ancients and food species 236. It was time to show them not to interfere with the Vorn.
-
The two fleets closed to weapons range. From both powerful weapons fire erupted. The Lakiams were firing their force beams, direct energy projectors, and launching thousands of dark matter hypermissiles. In the Vorn fleet, defensive energy screens began to go down.
The Vorn were hitting back with their black antimatter beams, black antimatter spheres, and their ten-megaton antimatter missiles. Unfortunately for the Vorn their weapons fire was being stopped by the powerful energy screens the Glaymon-Lakiam fleet possessed.
The Glaymons were firing their deadly energy beams, which ripped right through the shields of the Vorn ships, causing tremendous damage. The beams were blasting out huge craters in the hulls of the Vorn vessels causing critical damage to the ships.
Force beams from several Lakiam battlecruisers penetrated the screen of a Vorn battleship, setting off massive explosions and hurling glowing debris away from the ship. Numerous compartments were opened up to space as secondary explosions began tearing the Vorn ship apart.
A Glaymon energy beam struck a Vorn spindle-shaped cruiser causing the top section of the ship to explode and sending debris drifting away from the ship. A five hundred-megaton dark matter missile arrived, vaporizing the vessel and leaving behind only a few wisps of glowing gas.
-
Prince Parthain gazed in shock at the viewscreens seeing how ineffective his fleet’s weapons were. Concentrate our fire on fewer ships. We need to knock down their screens so we can damage or destroy their vessels. Parthain was convinced the weapons fire from the Vorn ships was too spread out to be effective.
I am switching our battleships’ fire to the Ancient vessels only, replied Military Leader Kawold. Our cruisers will continue to fire upon the ships of food species 236.
-
In the flagship of the Glaymon vessels, the commanding officer grimaced as one of his battleships came under intense fire from the Vorn, causing its energy screen to fail. Almost immediately the ship was riddled by hundreds of black antimatter beams, causing the ship to blow apart. “Intensify our rate of fire,” ordered the ship’s commander. “I don’t want any Vorn ships escaping.”
-
Lakiam Captain Veen felt the Hadlor shake violently as several Vorn antimatter missiles slammed into the protective energy shield. His eyes focused on a pair of Vorn battleships closing with the flagship.
“Fire enhanced energy rounds,” he ordered. “Let’s see how the Vorn ships do against them.” The enhanced energy rounds were the new ones for the KEW cannon. Upon detonation they were supposed to release over one thousand megatons of explosive force.
“Firing,” reported Barston from Tactical. The ship shuddered slightly as the massive KEW cannon fired.
On the viewscreen, a massive explosion struck one of the approaching Vorn battleships. When the glare from the blast died down, the forward third of the Vorn ship was gone and secondary explosions were annihilating the rest.
“Targeting the second battleship,” said Barston as he pressed an icon on his computer screen.
On the viewscreen, the second Vorn battleship vanished as the re
leased energy from the KEW round struck the ship’s energy screen. When it died down the Vorn battleship was broken in two. A few well-placed force beams and the ship was no longer a threat.
“It seems these enhanced energy rounds work very well against the Vorn,” commented Captain Veen, feeling pleased with the results. “Inform the rest of our fleet to use more of them.”
No one had known for sure how the new enhanced rounds would work. The Glaymons had assured Fleet Commodore Dreen they would be nearly as effective as the Zero-Point Energy rounds the Humans used. Veen now knew for certain that assertion was correct. The Lakiams now had a weapon which was deadly to Vorn ships.
-
In the Vorn fleet, dark matter missiles began having an effect. Vorn cruiser after cruiser was being blown apart by the powerful missiles. Those that survived the blasts were finished off by energy beams or force beams. The entire Vorn formation was lit up by the steady detonation of thousands of dark matter explosions. The Lakiams began firing more of the enhanced energy rounds, adding to the mayhem.
-
The battle computer reports a 78 percent probability of defeat, reported Military Leader Kawold in disbelief.
Prince Parthain was unsure what to do. His fleet was destroying a few of the attackers but not enough to bring about a Vorn victory. On one of the viewscreens, he saw another Ancient battleship fall victim to Vorn black antimatter beams.
His flagship suddenly shook violently. The lights dimmed and then brightened. What was that?
We lost the Scavenger, reported the Vorn at the sensors. The Scavenger was one of the five motherships with the fleet. Food Species 236 is also deploying some type of new explosive round fired from a cannon on the bow of their ships. It has an explosive force of over one thousand megatons. The weapon is capable of bringing down our energy screens.
We are defeated, said Military Leader Kawold, his twin antennae wavering. If they can bring down our energy screens so easily they can destroy us.
Gazing at the viewscreens, Prince Parthain could see more Vorn ships dying, far more than the enemy were losing. We must withdraw and report to High Prince Brollen. If there are more of these fleets in operation, the harvesting of this galaxy may no longer be feasible.
Kawold gazed at Parthian, his twin antennae standing straight up. If we do not harvest this galaxy then it will be the end of the Vorn.
Prince Parthain turned to look at his military leader. Perhaps he had given Kawold too much leniency in expressing his opinions. Maybe it was time to delete Kawold and train a new military leader. Take the fleet into hyperspace and set a course for the new staging system. We must report to High Prince Brollen. He will decide what needs to be done.
Military Leader Kawold sent the order telepathically to all the surviving ships of the fleet.
-
Moments later the Vorn ships began to enter hyperspace to escape the deadly weapons fire of the Ancients and food species 236.
-
Captain Veen watched in elation as the Vorn fleet entered hyperspace. From the initial sensor tracking reports they were on their way back to their new staging system.
“We won!” exclaimed Barston from Tactical. “Our new enhanced energy rounds broke their backs.”
Veen had to agree. The enhanced energy rounds combined with the dark matter missiles made the Vorn energy screens utterly useless. For the first time Veen began to feel there was a light beginning to shine for an end to this terrible war. “What were our losses?”
“We lost six Glaymon battleships, eighteen disk battlecruisers, and twenty-seven of our own battlecruisers.”
Veen winced at hearing of the Glaymon losses though he knew the Vorn battleships had been concentrating their firepower on them. “The Vorn?”
“Six hundred and seventy of their battleships and sixteen hundred of their smaller cruisers.”
Captain Veen’s eyes widened upon hearing of the Vorn losses. He had achieved a major victory against the Destroyers of Worlds. He also knew there were ten other fleets out in this region of the galaxy seeking Vorn fleets to engage. Some of those fleets were composed entirely of Glaymon vessels.
“Send a message to Fleet Commodore Dreen and Fleet Captain Waelt informing them of our victory and the effectiveness of the new enhanced energy rounds. Inform them we are going on to seek other Vorn fleets to annihilate.”
Feeling exhilarated by their victory, Captain Veen leaned back in his command chair. It was time to take the battle to the Vorn and drive them out of this galaxy once and for all.
Chapter Twenty-Three
High Prince Brollen watched the tactical display as a seventh shattered Vorn harvesting fleet arrived in the staging system. The report from the military leaders and princes in this fleet were the same as the others. Ships of the Ancients had exited unexpectedly out of hyperspace and then shortly after engaged the harvesting fleet, inflicting heavy ship losses. This particular fleet had lost three of its five motherships. It was becoming apparent to Prince Brollen the Ancients were making it a point to target the motherships. They were trying to deprive the Vorn of food.
From the reports we have gathered so far the battle computer estimates we are facing at least 22,000 ships of the Ancients as well as vessels from food species 111 and 236, reported Military Leader Ansolk. There may be more Ancient fleets active we are not aware of.
Prince Brollen was livid with anger. The scientists had assured him the new improved energy shields would protect his ships; instead, it seemed they were more vulnerable now than ever. Send out ships to recall all of our harvesting fleets. We will send what food pellets they have gathered back to the Conclave Habitat for our Queens.
That will not be sufficient food for all of the habitats, sent Military Leader Gallet, his triangular shaped head turning toward High Prince Brollen.
There is more food in those habitats than the Queens are admitting, replied Brollen dismissively. If not they can begin a second series of deletions.
That will make the Military and Scientist Castes uneasy, sent Military Leader Ansolk. They are already wary due to the mass deletions to the Worker Caste.
Prince Brollen turned toward the two military leaders, allowing his growing rage to be felt in his thoughts. We have no choice. We will gather our fleets here to wait for the Ancients and the two food species to attack us. We will have vastly superior numbers and should be able to destroy them. Once we have accomplished that we can resume the harvest.
As you command, replied Military Leader Ansolk. We will recall the harvesting fleets.
Looking at several viewscreens showing the shattered Vorn fleet which had just arrived Brollen wondered if he should have brought more ships from the habitats. He had left nearly one-third of the Vorn fleet there in fear the Ancients might attack the system. They had the coordinates and Brollen dared not risk them damaging a single habitat or his days as High Prince would be over.
-
Fleet Commodore Dreen was far away from the Lakiam Alliance. He had received a message from Fleet Captain Waelt that the Vorn were in full retreat. The new enhanced energy rounds the Lakiam ships were using were proving to be deadly to Vorn ships. Not only that but the improved power systems and energy shields were holding losses to a minimum. Fleet Captain Waelt was convinced the Vorn were falling back to their new staging system in the hope of drawing the Glaymon and Alliance fleets into a major battle. No doubt the Vorn thought their superior numbers would carry the day. Dreen was determined not to let that happen.
He had called in all of Lakiam’s fleets except for one fleet, which he had repositioned near the home system. He had even stripped ships from the planetary defenses. He was leading a fleet of 12,220 Lakiam battlecruisers on a course for the Vorn staging system. A few light years behind him was an Andock fleet led by Fleet Leader Moor. He was bringing over 8,800 vessels, a mixture of battleships and battlecruisers.
“We are risking a lot to destroy the Vorn,” said Alborg with an uneasy look on his face.
“We could be outnumbered by four or five to one.”
“This is a battle which must be fought,” Commodore Dreen replied. “Fleet Captain Kriegon and Fleet Admiral Vickers are off to attack the Vorn home system. If they are successful and we can destroy these harvesting fleets then the war with the Vorn will be over. They will never return. No longer will any galaxy have to fear the Destroyers of Worlds.”
-
Kurt was over on the Limeira visiting Mara in her quarters. The fleet had stopped just short of the Vorn home system while the advance ships scouted the system. Sometime tomorrow the fleet would attack the Vorn habitats.
Mara was dressed in a gorgeous gown designed to evoke mystique and desire. As long as she stood perfectly still the ankle length gown covered everything but if she moved, tantalizing glimpses of her nude body beneath were clearly visible. She had asked Kurt to come over for an evening meal before they went into battle.
“This is a Merton steak,” Mara said as she placed a medium cooked steak on his plate. “It is considered a delicacy and is very hard to come by.”
Kurt cut off a piece, looking curiously at it. He hadn’t sampled a lot of off-world foods. Even on Kubitz the food at the embassy was shipped in from Newton.
Mara grinned. “Try it; I think you will enjoy it.”
Kurt took a cautious bite and was pleasantly surprised. It tasted a little similar to beef but there was a unique sweet flavor to it that was very pleasing. With a smile, he cut off another piece.
“I knew you would like it,” said Mara, looking pleased. “I have several other foods I want you to try. If Newton is to become a part of galactic culture, you should become familiar with some of the more exotic foods highly desired by many races, including mine.” She placed several large spoonfuls of something that looked like mashed potatoes on his plate. “These are similar to your potatoes but different.”
-
For the next hour Mara plied Kurt with various foods until he was feeling stuffed. If she intended to seduce him, filling him up with food was a bad idea. All he really wanted to do now was lay down and get a good nights sleep.
The Star Cross: The Vorn! Page 32