"Nicole?" asked my cousin, immediately realizing my intention, her eyes lighting up. "Alright then, that sounds fine. But make sure it looks good. Tell her about it in person, but first, let's gather all her old friend's here in this cabin. It would be an excellent reason to show our warm feelings to her, and to get her to think about what side of the Unatari-Orange House conflict she should be on."
* * *
"I need you, Miya!!!"
As always, I didn't actually see Miya's arrival. All I saw was a vague motion with the corner of my eye. I then turned sharply to see my beauty, sitting cross-legged in a deep armchair wearing a white track suit, her fire-red hair pulled back into a bun and concealed beneath a hat. In Miya's hands, there was an armful of red maple leaves.
"You pulled me out of an autumn day’s walk through the park with Deia. What immediate help did you need this time?"
Autumn? Impossible! My second contract began in late autumn, already bordering on winter. The leaves had almost totally fallen off the trees already. Miya couldn't have been gathering maple leaves with her daughter unless a whole year had already passed. Also, did that mean little Deia was all alone in the park?
"Don't worry about our daughter. My servants will take her home. And as for autumn, as you may have noticed before, the passage of time in Perimeter Defense is not strongly correlated with that of the real world."
Miya wasn't even trying to hide the fact that she was flagrantly reading my thoughts, trying to suss out all the facts as quickly as possible. Another few seconds later, her face stretched out in surprise.
"Where are we? Where have you dragged the fleet off to this time?"
"The D56KT system. It isn't on Imperial maps. This is Alien space."
"Ugh, I thought I asked you not to take risks like this after your first raid through Alien space!" Miya tried raising her voice, but I put her in her place:
"Let's leave the fleet movement and war strategy to the experts, not the aristocrat who traded five fearsome battleships for a pleasure yacht."
My spouse opened her mouth to speak, but met with my gaze and stayed silent.
"Miya, the Aliens' main fleet is in the next system over charging energy to jump here to us. There are a great many enemies, but that shouldn't worry you. Space battles are my concern. Your mission is to restore as much energy as you can after the jump into the game. You'll be helped in that by a team of Beta Iseyek. They will feed you energy. And, in approximately six hours, you need to be ready for a strike on the Alien Queen together with some other Truth Seekers."
"Who else will be participating?" my spouse asked in a business-like tone.
I numbered off the Truth Seekers who would be taking part in the attack. Miya nodded contentedly:
"An impressive cast. Especially Krista. To be honest, her and I don't really get along."
"What do you mean?" I wondered, curious.
"It's a very old story. She was my teacher in a school for psionics on the Throne World..."
"Don't tell me it was you that caused the whole mess that closed her school down a century and a half ago."
It was basically just a joke, though the unmistakable horror that appeared on my spouse's face was evidence enough that I had guessed right. A Truth Seeker cannot lie to her master, and is obliged to answer honestly, even if it is a difficult question. Miya admitting to it could have very serious consequences; she would be heard by the invisible Chameleons, Phobos and Rosss, and perhaps some others as well. So, I hurried to add:
"Don't answer that. It was just a joke."
The fear and gloom on the woman's face were replaced with a good-hearted smile, and Miya nodded thankfully.
"Thank you. There are many ears here that shouldn't hear that. I would have been forced to kill all your bodyguards."
I tried to change the difficult topic:
"Miya, once again, you should be ready in six hours. Go to your chambers, change into something more befitting of a Queen."
"Very funny. You could first explain where my chambers are on this massive ship. After all, I don't have interactive implants, so I can't just call up a map."
"I'll call Ayna right away. She'll take you to your cabin. By the way, why don't you have implants? They don't get in the way of psionic abilities, after all."
"That's a strange question, Georg. Did you see an interactive guide pop-up on Krista or the Dark Mother? I was also born before those chips started getting implanted into all people, and never wanted one. Have you seen the 'achievements' Marian Sabati has? And now, imagine what a long list would be hanging over me for all to see, like a shameful brand that could never be washed off. Ancient Creature, Cannibal, Dirty Whore, Childkiller, Artifact Looter... And those are just from the war with the Swarm. There have been plenty of unflattering episodes in my biography since then, too. I will never agree to get electronic implants, Georg."
* * *
My speech to our soldiers had been composed by Katerina. I only changed a few sentences in it to draw attention to the fact that the forthcoming battle was important not only to humanity, but to all free races. I also emphasized the fact that we were the only thing standing between the Aliens and the Swarm Capital, and the last serious obstacle keeping the Aliens from capturing Perimeter Sectors Nine and Eight.
"You did an ideal job, Georg!" My cousin told me after I finished the speech. "Even I was impressed by the significance of the moment, and stood to applaud. That's how good your speech was. I should clarify the details with the Communications Ministry, but it seems very likely that we just set a record for the largest audience ever for an interstellar broadcast. The direct broadcast was made to four hundred star systems and twenty-five intelligent species! And in twelve minutes, a direct broadcast of the most grandiose space battle in human history will begin. The viewers are in such a frenzy that even the Antagonists have asked to watch."
I dried my sweat-covered forehead. During the speech, I had to totally close the faction and personal relationship change system, because it was impossible to concentrate with so many lines of text flashing by. Instead, I just looked at my own information:
Georg royl Inoky ton Mesfelle, Crown Prince of the Empire, Ruler of the Unatari State, Swarm Five-Star-Admiral
Age: 48
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Class: Aristocrat/Mystic
Achievements: Elder Chameleon Female, Discovered Arites, Got through Alien Blockade, Researcher of the Unknown, Imperial Land Grabber, Ex-Fleet Commander for Sector Eight, Malingerer, Denied Paternity, Respected by the Swarm, Dekeye Champion of No Rules Fighting, Defender of Humanity
Fame: 65
Standing: +12
Defender of Humanity? That was a new one. And also, the dubious achievement "Abandoned Friend" had disappeared, though that may have happened earlier. My standing had jumped a lot, and was finally in the positive. Now, ignoring faction, fame and standing, I turned to my work seat. My assistant Max Gregor sounded off immediately:
"Commander, we have finished setting the mines. There's one every half-mile from the warp beacon on a straight line for twenty-five hundred miles. We weren't greedy with the bombs, either. The enemy is sure to end up in the blast zone after coming out of the warp tunnel."
"Good, though it is like hitting an elephant with a pebble, for the big ships, at least. Though if we do reduce the amount of small ships, that would also be good. There's far too many of them. Has Krista come out of the woodwork, yet?"
"The Blue House told us that their Truth Seeker would be joining us a few minutes before the enemy appears. Another message came in, from Duke Takuro royl Andor: the Purple House is also providing a group of psionics to take part in the attack."
"Excellent. So, everyone, stand by in five minutes. Disconnect all data terminals not necessary for battle from the network. Check all the systems once again. Are the cloaked bombers ready to attack?"
"Yes they are, tuki-tuka-de-sa. All space around the station has been mapped
out. Coordinates for all prewarp points have been entered. Three divisions of five bombers each are standing by. Immediately after the mine explosion, we are ready to attack. In every group there is one electromagnetic bomb, a gravity bomb and three thermonuclear ones."
I closed my eyes and threw myself back into my chair, trying to ignore the hustle and bustle going on around me. There were four minutes left before the battle that would define the fate of, at the very least, the Swarm. If we lost, the Iseyek would be erased from the star map in short order. And after them, it would be a matter of months before Sector Nine fell. There would be no one to defend it. Practically all of its ships were here today in the unnamed D56KT system.
"We are ready, Georg. Miya is leading our trio of Truth Seekers. Marian Sabati and I are backup, and the Beta Iseyek are behind us providing support. Seven Purple House psionics have joined us as well! And now the Blues have linked up. Krista, and with her... Woah-ho-ho!!! What am I doing standing in front of stars like these?!"
Florianna's joy and amazement forced me to open my eyes and look at the screen. And there was plenty to be surprised at. Forty additional black-robed women I didn't recognize had joined us. There was another woman with them, though, who I knew very well. The Dark Mother!!! I gave a deep bow to show my respect to the most powerful Truth Seeker and activated my microphone.
"Attention, fleet! Ten seconds until the enemy arrives! Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Detonate!!!"
I don't know if there had ever been an official record in the Empire for the longest fireworks display ever, but today we must have broken it. Twenty-five hundred miles of fiery hell! A surreal spectacle! Katerina, in obvious elation from the image on screen, gave me a thumbs up.
The voice of Max Gregor returned me to reality:
"The enemy hasn't been defeated. All the large Alien ships are still on the battlefield. Distance: six hundred eighty miles. Two hundred forty-seven Behemoths, five Mammoths and one Queen. And... one Tyrant-class battleship!"
"It’s Orange Majesty, Viscount Sivir ton Mesfelle’s ship," I explained to the officers. "I would love to kill that traitor, but we should probably try to take him alive... The devil!!! Remaining bomber groups, delay attack!"
The last sentence came at almost the same time five of my cloaked bombers appeared forty miles from the enemy fleet. They were totally destroyed instantly. It seemed like the cloakers weren't yet ready to launch bombs and were forced out of invisibility. A message came in from the communications officers:
"The Queen is emanating strong electromagnetic pulses at three second intervals!"
"She is interfering with our radio frequencies, jamming our communications!"
What an unpleasant surprise. There was no way to approach the Alien fleet invisibly now; the Queen had revealed our cloaked frigates with her pulses.
"The enemy fleet has begun maneuvers! It is coming in our direction!"
"Attention, fleet! Accelerate toward the sun. Keep your distance from the enemy."
In a few minutes, Max Gregor turned toward me, turned off his microphone and said:
"Crown Prince, the enemy has no small or even medium-class ships, only battleship-class and higher. They are slow and cannot reach firing distance. What are they hoping to accomplish?"
"Excellent observation, Max. You're making headway!" I said, praising my assistant.
The slow Behemoths, and even slower Mammoths and Queen couldn't get near my ships. Even the Quasar and Uukreshes could go a bit faster than the enemy ships with their main thrusters. On the other hand, both the Mammoths and the Queen, essentially motherships, could release a black cloud of the speedy little frigates inside of them. For that reason, I sent several Pyros out in front of the fleet to provide us with warp jump coordinates and make sure my ships would be able to quickly move away from the enemy if necessary.
"Attention! All ships warp to Pyro-26," the worried scream ripped itself from me when the Alien ships started warp jumping in our direction one after the other.
Three thousand ships of my fleet jumped four hundred miles forward, fleeing the predicted arrival of the deadly enemy. No Aliens showed up in the place we fled from, though.
"Find out where they went, now!" I demanded.
Ten seconds later, an answer followed from Valian ton Corsa:
"Crown Prince, based on trajectory calculations, all enemy ships went to the second planet."
The second planet? I realized almost immediately what they wanted and laughed happily. Who cares, though? Let them search for their invisible dock. On my order, the battleship Svetlana the Great had dragged it to the other end of the star system and hid it among the massive moons of the eleventh planet. Meanwhile, a group of engineers had already detected and removed all the signal beacons that had once sent messages to its former owner on the location of the dock and the manufacturing progress.
"Crown Prince, incoming call from an enemy ship!"
I gave my approval, and Viscount Sivir came on screen in a strange outfit made of sticks and leaves instead of the standard Orange House uniform. In an utterly lifeless tone, not expressing any emotion, he said:
"Georg, give us the Mammoth and your fleet will be allowed to leave unharmed."
"If I wanted to leave, I would have done so long ago. And I wouldn’t have had to ask anyone’s permission, either. The thing you're looking for has already been gone for some time."
"My kind masters wanted to first offer you a peaceful solution to this conflict. But I already knew you would refuse it. Now you will die. Georg, you aren't even close to imagining the forces at play here."
The screen went out, and the call cut off.
"He doesn't look too much like a living person!" Bionica commented on what we'd seen. "He wasn't blinking, and his facial muscles didn't move. An android doing such a bad job of imitating human behavior would be labeled defective and dissembled for parts."
"That was not Sivir," my cousin confirmed, standing nearby overhearing our conversation. "Some kind of zombie, sure, but no human."
"Were you filming that for the viewers?" I clarified with Katerina, and she nodded.
I shook my head in frustration. Too bad. the fact that I had a Mammoth had just become an open secret. After the battle, there were sure to be unpleasant questions. On the other hand, the footage could also be used for propaganda purposes. I turned on the microphone.
"We've just seen a graphic example of what happens to traitors who surrender to the Aliens. There are no emotions left, no person, just an empty husk controlled by its masters. So then, if the Queen tries to tempt anyone else with her promises, remember what became of the unfortunate Viscount Sivir. He trusted her. Do not repeat his mistake. And now, get ready." The Alien fleet had "slightly missed" by a half a billion kilometers and jumped to the wrong coordinates. But now, they would be returning and were sure to be quite peeved.
A few minutes went by, and my prediction came true. The enemy fleet did in fact return to the D56KT warp beacon, and was now just two hundred fifty miles from my ships, right in our path. We had to take immediate maneuvers to maintain a safe distance.
"All ships, change direction! Turn toward the sixth planet. Heavy cruisers, do not lag behind, step on your main thrusters for all they've got, otherwise we'll be in firing range of the Behemoths in one minute!"
And meanwhile, the enemy was clearly up to something. Our computers were simply wailing trying to depict all the new red markers on the tactical map.
"They're releasing frigates! The Behemoths too!" reported Max Gregor with surprise in his voice, before immediately correcting himself. "No, those are not frigates. They are combat drones. A black cloud of combat drones!!!"
I had already seen the red dots pouring out on the map. The tactical computer began noticeably freezing up, no longer even trying to show the data from the targeting system, but having plenty of trouble simply counting the number of drones the enemy had released. A few seconds later, the computer coughed up a number on the screen
: 281,825.
"That is impossible! That must be a mistake! Where did they all come from?!" Bionica, sitting next to me, said with completely authentic notes of panic in her voice.
"It is accurate though, unfortunately," I answered my assistant. "Each Behemoth can carry around six hundred fifty drones, and there are two hundred forty-seven Behemoths here. There are also the Mammoths and the Queen, who seem to also have brought combat drones with them instead of the light ships we usually tear straight through in battle. Perhaps they were sitting in Himora for so long precisely because they were stocking their huge ships with drones. In Himora, by the way, there is a huge freight station with big storage facilities. There were more than enough materials...
But now, the next logical question must be asked: what should we do with this black cloud? My heavy ships need one more minute to turn around, and there definitely isn’t enough time for that. Every Alien combat drone has firepower equal to that of a frigate. Almost three thousand of them are tearing off toward us, with every second noticeably closing the gap. For some reason, the image of turd coming into contact with the blades of a fan is coming to mind. The shit has hit the fan. There is no other way to put it here.
Release all Leech-As to cut them off! Have them launch their nuclear bombs to stop the drones from getting any closer! Second division of Surprises, attack immediately after that! All ships, after the cloaker attack, release all of our drones! Frigates, prepare for combat! Work as quickly as possible! Antisupport, you need to..."
I wasn't able to finish explaining what exactly I wanted from my destroyers and other ships for destroying fast targets. I was overcome with pain. An unseen weight began pushing my head into my chest.
"SO THAT'S WHERE YOU GOT OFF TO!"
The Alien Queen! I was expecting just such a mental attack. It was the basis of my whole plan of attack against the Queen. But it hurt a lot! And where were the psionics now? It was growing harder to resist with every second.
New Contract (Perimeter Defense Book #3) Page 31