Invasion

by Donald Nicklas

  Slone had been watching the tactical and knew that the invisible fleet was now in the combat zone and would become visible shortly. Suddenly, as if the Consul could read his mind, Slone heard Lorenzo’s voice over the battle channel, “All ships become visible, and attack all targets. Destroyers weave in and out of the enemy fleet and fill the space with missiles.”

  Throughout the battle zone the ships of the Romani, including the serpent ships and corvettes became visible. The plan the Romani had was to suddenly give the enemy so many targets that they would become confused and not know where to point their guns. Slone only hoped that what would overwhelm a human will also overwhelm a Saltic. Slone glanced at the tactical plot and saw the harvester ship that had lagged behind suddenly break orbit. Rather than add its firepower to the Saltic fleet, Slone saw it pulling away in the other direction.

  Aboard the flagship, Fleet Captain Kel’Bey was watching the battle unfold. After his escorts were taken out, he was more confident with the actions of his cruisers. They were engaging the large enemy ships and holding their own. He had ordered his captains to use the EMP weapon when they were close enough to the big ships to overpower them. As the battle progressed, that small ship still kept coming and would soon be in the battle zone. He still felt very uneasy about that ship. Never had such a small ship ever dared to move in on even an escort, much less a fleet. Then, without warning, his sensor tech reported a massive fleet just materialized in the battle zone and were now engaging all ships. On the other hand, the Saltic ships were getting confused with too many targets already in weapons range. As his captains were calling in for instructions, fear won out in the mind of the Fleet Captain and he ordered the navigator to break orbit and move away from the battle at flank speed. Since all on the bridge could see how this battle was going, none voiced any objection. If anything they showed relief.

  The captains of the other Saltic ships were ready to fully engage the fleet that suddenly appeared. They were holding their own and if their leader had only had enough faith in them, the addition of his cruiser could have made a big difference. Instead he turned out to be a coward. It was true that the Saltic had never faced the kind of resistance that the humans were giving them. So far all of the sentient species they harvested had always been manageable. Now here was a species that seemed to relish combat and would not give up or accept defeat. They had sent a cruiser with its escorts to the home world of the Highline Corporation, and it had not yet returned from testing the planetary defenses of that world. They were now down to only six cruisers and they could use the missing one, since the Fleet Captain had fled.

  On the human side, things were getting intense. The Saltic were capable of putting up a good fight and they were powerful. The destroyers were taking a lot of damage with several already out of the fight. Two had sustained fuel bunker hits and broke apart with the loss of most of their crews. Commodore Rand, in command of the 10th legion’s destroyers was doing an admirable job of keeping the pressure on the escorts and the harvester ships, but that kind of dedication cannot happen without casualties. A half hour into the fight, he had lost five of his 20 destroyers but they also took out three more escorts. The now visible serpent ships were also doing their job with some attacking the escorts and others attacking the energy weapons of the Saltic ships. The cruisers and dreadnaughts were also dishing a lot of damage against both the escorts and the six harvesters, but Saltic ships seem to have a lot of space to absorb damage. The Romani never really had a ship in their own space to fully examine, so its strengths and weaknesses were unknown outside of combat. All the Romani ever had to study were the wormhole drives of the Saltic. That was why it was imperative to take a harvester ship back to Romani space.

  As the Tempestas continued to give and take damage from the harvester it was engaged with, Raul Cortega suddenly spoke up from his console, “Captain, they are powering up their EMP weapon. I also detect several other harvesters doing the same.”

  Slone then spoke over the combat channel, “All ships without EMP protection pull away from the harvesters at flank speed.” Slone could see on the tactical that the Saltic escorts were also pulling away. Obviously they were as susceptible to the weapon as were human ships. From previous experience, Slone knew it took some time to power up the weapon, but this is the Saltic Achilles heel. Once they used the weapon, they were helpless for over two hours. That was when the Romani needed to attack them. After the time was up, Slone said, “Brace for discharge.”

  Five of the six harvesters discharged their EMPs and the pulses hit the capital ships and any unfortunate support ships that were in range. All of the serpent ships and the corvettes were outside the pulse, but a few destroyers that had engine damage were caught by the EMP. Since only cruisers and up were large enough to carry the EMP protection, those destroyers hit were knocked out along with their crews. Only their serpents were unaffected and they would have to repel any boarders. Slone had a feeling there would not be any. If he judged correctly, most of the troops carried by the Saltic ships were on the planet and the escorts carried too small a crew to effectively board another ship. He was not quite sure what the plan was in using the EMPs, unless it was just normal procedure to do so. In any event, except for their weapons, the enemy harvesters were now helpless, all but the one that did not use its EMP.

  “Tempestas gunners, cease fire. Centurion Marshal, take your legion over there and secure that ship. Leave no Saltic alive and make sure the bridge is taken so we don’t have a repeat of the self-destruct we had on the Sakkara mission.”

  “Yes, captain. We are deploying now.” Slone watched the first legionary shuttles leave the hangar deck and then he watched the rest of the battle. It was going well. With five of the six remaining harvesters out of action due to their own weapon, he concentrated on the sixth one. The serpent ships as well as some of the dreadnoughts were attacking it and the remaining escorts that had moved away from the EMP pulse. Now that they had moved out of range, they were too far to make it back to take out the Romani boarding shuttles. Not only the Tempestas, but also the other battleships and some of the dreadnoughts sent boarding parties to the other ships. If all went well, they would have a chance to take more than one harvester ship back with them. As Slone watched the action and kept track of the boarding action, he noticed the sixth harvester ship pulling away from the battle zone. He was making a run for it, pursued by some of the destroyers and serpent ships. Three escorts were staying with him and Slone figured they must be part of his screening ships.

  “Do not follow the enemy into any wormholes they open,” Consul Lorenzo was heard to say over the battle channel.

  As Slone was watching the action, he saw the small ship combat taking place closer to the planet. One of the Romani ships engaged was the Mary Rose. Suddenly the blip marked Mary Rose veered rapidly towards the planet with two escorts in pursuit. Following the escorts were five serpent ships. As the Mary Rose reached the outer atmosphere, both of the escorts were taken out by the serpent ships and plunged into the atmosphere to burn up. At this point Slone expected to see his wife’s scout ship pull up, but instead she kept course for the planet with the five serpent ships now forming an escort. “Tom, see if you can raise the Mary Rose,” Slone ordered, knowing something was wrong.

  “I have her,” Tom reported.

  “Alaya, what is your status?”

  There was crackling on the channel with some words dropping out, “Chris, -- took a bad hit. Life sup---- is out. Bleeding ---osphere. Heading for pl—et to open air –takes.” Slone suddenly heard some commotion in the back ground and the line went dead. He would worry about his wife and daughter, but he also had to keep track of his battleship flotilla. He knew Alaya and Olivia could take care of themselves. They also had Tavia along with her serpents. The five serpent escorts would protect them since Tavia was there. His thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of fighting from his boarding party coming over the battle channel.

  The Mary Rose had b
een fully engaged with the escorts along with half of the serpent ships. The other half was attacking the weapons on the harvesters. This was the most intense battle Alaya had ever participated in. Normally scouts just stayed at a distance and watched the action. Their job was to look out for enemies entering from the slipstreams. The wormhole drives had made that job obsolete when dealing with the Saltic. Wherever she went, some serpent ships usually tagged along. She had no doubt that was because Tavia was aboard. About an hour and a half into the battle, the Mary Rose had taken several hits, but the breaches were patched with field patch kits that form a portable force field. Alaya and some of the serpent ships were engaged with two of the Saltic escort ships when she felt a shutter in the ship and then the air circulators cut out.

  “Liv, head back to engineering. I think we lost our life support. See if you can get it back up.”

  “Yes, captain.” Olivia responded and headed down to engineering. When she got there some of the techs from her special forces were already at work. One of the human techs came over to her.

  “Commander, we have a big problem. One of the energy bolts from the enemy hit the life support controls. We can fix it but not before we run out of air.”

  Olivia nodded and activated her comlink. “Captain, the life support control is damaged. We can fix it but not before the air runs out. Any chance we can make it to atmosphere or we will have to abandon ship.”

  “I would rather not do that with an enemy out there looking for human brains. We should be able to make it to the atmosphere before we run out of air. Stay down there and start working on repairs.”

  “Yes, captain,” Olivia said just as another bolt came in and hit an electrical panel. “Captain, we have to get the Saltic off our tail. We are taking major hits down here.”

  “Working on it, Liv,” Alaya said and turned to Blue Scale, “Blue, ask the nearest serpent ships if they can get those escorts off our tail.”

  “Sss. Yes, Captain,” Blue said and then started to speak in serpent language into the communications console. When the serpent ships heard that Tavia may be in trouble, they swooped in with all weapons firing and did not relent until both of the Saltic escorts were so damaged that they plunged into the atmosphere just ahead of the Mary Rose. Five of the serpent ships decided to follow the scout ship down to the planet and stay with it until it could be repaired or rescued. Once the Mary Rose reached the atmosphere, Tavia opened the air intakes and life support was no longer necessary.

  “Captain, where would you like me to land?”

  Alaya looked at the area and saw a small village below them. “Tavia, put us down next to that small village.”

  “Yes, captain.” Tavia brought the ship down and landed next to a village that showed no signs of life. They knew from their last visit that the closer villages were cleared of humans, but they could also not hide the fact that they landed here and only hoped the maglev system was still inoperative. When the ship was secured, Alaya told the serpent ships to return to the battle, she would call them if they needed them. The five serpent ships then flew off and headed back into space.

  “Lets keep the ship sealed tight for now,” Alaya ordered. She then went on the comlink, “Liv, see if you can fix the life support, I will set some of the troops on patching the major hull breaches. Also, check the stabilizers, she felt sluggish as we were landing.”

  “Yes, captain.”

  “Lower the bridge armor.”

  “Sss. Yes captain,” Deadeye responded and the armor plating covering the bridge bubble retracted.

  Alaya had a look around and could clearly see the houses of the village, but there was no movement. “Deadeye, what is the remaining pulse count on the pulse cannons?”

  “Sss. We have thirty-four pulses remaining on each cannon.”

  The Pulse cannons in the turret were only good for about one hundred energy bursts before the crystals that focused the light became unpredictable. When that happened, the canisters in the end of the barrel needed to be replaced. That took about 15 minutes and could not be easily done in space, since the turrets were on the outside and not pressurized. They were usually changed on the fight deck. They could also be changed on a planet with atmosphere, but it was suicide to do so during combat. Alaya hoped they would not have to do any fighting while they were down. She just wanted to get her ship repaired and back into the fight.

  “Tavia, keep a close sensor watch on our surroundings and Deadeye, keep your finger on the trigger.”

  “Yes, captain,” Tavia responded.

  “Sss. Yes, captain,” Deadeye replied, though she was not sure where the trigger was that she should keep her finger on. The serpents had learned a long time ago that humans did not always use their language literally, as serpents did. The Slones swore this was why serpents did not seem to have a sense of humor. It never dawned on the humans that serpents may just not find human jokes all that funny.

  Alaya went down to the crew’s quarters and found the Optio Brave Claw in the mess hall eating with some of the Special Forces. She went over and stood next to the optio and addressed her, “Optio, I think it may be wise to make sure the village near us is free of Saltic. I think we should send some scouts to check it out.” Alaya could not just order the optio to do so, since all ground command went to the optio the moment the ship landed. It was the way of the Romani to totally separate ground command and space command, even though the same individuals may be part of both operations.

  “Sss. I will send two serpents to scout the village, Decurion Slone,” the optio said, using Alaya’s rank when in ground combat. Optio Brave Claw sent out two of her best scouts to check out the status of the village. The rest of the ship went to work on patching the hull and working on the life support. The Tempestas was finally contacted with a good connection and Slone was told his wife was fine and they were attempting to repair the life support. Alaya knew she could have just told everyone to put on vacuum suits, but the fleet was still engaged with the enemy and there was no way of knowing if they could land on the battleship before the air in their suits ran out. As long as the ship was in combat, the Tempestas would not be able to drop the flight deck armor to let them land. For now the safest place was on the planet, provided the enemy left them alone.

  Alaya checked out the areas of hull damage and then went aft to engineering where she saw her daughter hard at work with both serpent and human techs. Since the crew of the ship were also the special forces, everyone aboard was cross trained on all ship’s systems. What allowed Alaya to get away with only half the crew normally needed on a corvette was cross training and the fact that the only guns were energy weapons in a turret.

  “Liv, how are we doing with the life support repairs?”

  “We are trying to patch it together but the damage to the system is massive. One of their explosive bolts hit the life support directly. That is an unbelievably lucky shot, one in a million,” Olivia made sure her mother understood the true nature of the damage. “We are trying to bypass some of the systems to jury-rig the controls, but we are missing two critical parts which we don’t carry as spares due to the rarity of them getting damaged. I think we’re out of the fight until we can get back aboard the Tempestas and replace those parts.”

  “Pull your people off the life support then. Since we are in a breathable atmosphere, life support is not as much a priority. See to any damage you and your techs can repair and leave the rest for later,” Alaya ordered. Olivia acknowledged the order and pulled her techs off to help the rest of the damage control crew patch some more of the holes in the hull.

  Alaya kept track of the combat over the battle channel and could sense that the Saltic were putting up a ferocious resistance. They were indeed a worthy opponent. The frigate Hermine finally made it to the battle zone and all indications were that Captain Bogarde was engaging a small escort and acquitting herself well. She was able to knock it out of the action and even boarded the ship to capture it. Alaya could tell by the rapid
speech coming through the battle channel that Captain Bogarde’s forces were not prepared to deal with the Saltic still alive. They fought desperately to the death. The escorts did not have the non-combatant crew of the harvesters. Alaya hoped the frigate captain and her crew could handle themselves.

  As she was monitoring the communications, she could see one of the scouts, running back from the village at a speed much faster than humans. She left the bridge and moved down to the lowest deck where the scout came in through the lower airlock. As she got there the scout was giving report to the optio in the serpent language. She waited until the report was finished and the optio came over to her.

  “Sss. Captain, the scout reports that there are enemy in the village looking for some humans. Humans are present in the basement of one dwelling. The other scout is watching the area but there are too many enemies for her to act.”

  “Do they have any idea how many enemies there are?”

  “Sss. The scouts counted twelve.”

  “We have to help the humans get clear of the Saltic.”

  The optio ordered her troops to arm themselves and be ready to move out. Alaya had twenty-one Special Forces left and she would go along to make it twenty-two. If the Saltic remained at 12, then they would be fine. Before they left, Alaya told her bridge crew to be ready to use the turreted weapons and take to the air if needed. The combined squads left the ship through the airlock. The group moved rapidly to the outskirts of the village, where they met up with the serpent that had stayed behind. She reported that the Saltic unit was searching each building but had not yet arrived at the one harboring humans in the basement. The optio waved them forward and they moved through the village, which consisted of one main street on an east/west axis. The village was to the west of the capital and the main street cut the village in half with a maglev station entrance in the center of town. From the small number of houses, Alaya estimated there had been no more than six thousand inhabitants. That number seems to have been whittled down to the four individuals the serpent’s infrared vision told them were huddling in the basement of a building two side streets down from where the group was. The serpents could also sense Saltic troops moving along the main street, checking every building from top to bottom. Time was of the essence. The Romani moved quickly but quietly to the building hiding the humans and went in, leaving one squad under its Decanus to guard the first floor, while the other squad with its decanus and the optio along with Alaya went into the basement. The humans were hiding but could not hide from the infrared vision of the Serpents. The optio pointed out to Alaya where the humans were hidden and she went over to a part of the basement piled with boxes and other debris. She then spoke to the make shift hiding place.