Something else he did not do was question his Primor, which rendered the internal dialogue moot in any event.
They approached the Provision Network Gateway and found the region surrounding it empty. The colossal portal hung quietly in space. During the time it had been within sensor range, no vessels had traversed it, which could be a sign something was amiss.
He checked Ziton, who stood stoically off to the side of the bridge overlook, but received no indication the Inquisitor desired any particular course of action.
“Tactical, launch a probe through the portal. Before we traverse it, I want to know if there are any traps awaiting us.”
“Yes, sir.”
The probe pierced the Gateway silently. Its presence failed to set off any attacks or explosions. It returned ten seconds later and transmitted nominal readings: empty, normal and unpopulated space beyond the barrier.
“Squads MW R14-20 and 21, proceed through the Gateway to a distance of 0.5 megameters and assume a defensive formation. Squads 22 and 23, prepare to proceed after them. Same directive.”
Forty ships neared the portal in precise rows configured to stretch ninety percent of its width. The noses of the vessels comprising the first row began to disappear through the plasma—
—space warped in on itself.
Multiple vortexes formed within the plasma, devouring the bright white-blue energy until the portal grew blacker than the space surrounding it.
The Gateway wrenched apart as its frame buckled and fell into the whirling chasms of negative energy. The ships closest to the Gateway followed, row after row annihilated in the blink of an eye.
Waves of energy surged outward as the very fabric of space-time was dragged in multiple directions, falling into hidden dimensions only to be hurled back out into their own.
Farther from the nucleus of the turbulence, ships began to fall prey to the tremendous forces unleashed like dominoes set in motion, and the viewport lit up in the fire of engine core explosions.
Casmir should not have hesitated to act; military commanders must never hesitate. But the attack—if that’s what it was—did not seem possible. Ambushes such as this did not happen.
He blinked. “All back full, all formations!”
He felt the propulsion strain against the weakening but still tenacious waves. His Imperium was positioned near the rear of his forces, and many of the vessels ahead proved unable to elude the chaos. He could only watch on as they succumbed to a kind of slow-motion dismemberment.
Fifteen megameters reversed, they finally pulled free of the perturbations. “Regiment captains, report in.”
Dismay overtook him as the damage reports rolled in. He’d just lost over a third of his forces, with another quarter hobbled. The Provision Network Gateway was gone, rendering his mission a failure before it had begun.
And he had no idea who or what had struck at them.
“Sir, I’ve got multiple readings centered S 90° 21° z E, four megameters distance and closing.”
The bridge shuddered. Had they been fired on? “All Regiments, battle stations!” He expanded the radar in front of him and was greeted with a multitude of contacts.
The helmsman cleared his throat. “Navarchos, is that…an armada of warships?”
Casmir’s mind threatened to reel from the successive shocks. It had been two centuries since he’d faced an ambush, and for his memory never one of this fashion. But he was an elasson-rank Machim, bred and molded to be the most formidable and stalwart of combatants.
His jaw locked into resilience. “We must assume it is.”
“But…whose?”
62
AFS STALWART II
MILKY WAY SECTOR 41
* * *
THE REMAINS OF THE MACHIM FLEET, vaunted for its structure and order as much as for its size, lay strewn haphazardly across six megameters of space in front of Miriam.
The Provision Network Gateway, a marvel of construction millennia beyond anything humans could create hung in shambles behind said fleet, ripped apart at a particle level by twenty-two 5,000-kilotonne equivalent negative energy bombs.
She allowed herself a small, private smile of satisfaction, then swiftly banished any glee-like sentiments and imposed combat decorum on herself once more. The element of surprise and the confusion it sowed only worked if they capitalized on it.
Commandant Solovy: “All Class A weapons free. Class B and C weapons are to be used solely within their safety parameters. Take out as many enemy vessels as possible before they recover and reform ranks. Go on the offensive and thin the herd.”
She switched to the command channel. “Marshal Bastian, sensors indicate the spatial disruptions from the negative energy bombs have dissipated. Stealth and swing your forces around behind the enemy vessels.”
Field Marshal Bastian (SFS Medici): “Solid copy.”
Stealth on a dreadnought. Add it to the list of concepts thought impossible a short year ago. It burned too much power to use during weaponized combat, but in short spurts, especially to conceal tactical movements, it represented a potent tool that stood to redefine the role of dreadnoughts in warfare.
Commandant Solovy: “Admiral Rychen, give the enemy a set of big targets to shoot at so they don’t notice the Field Marshal’s flanking maneuver.”
She wasn’t throwing Rychen, his impressive new dreadnought, the EAS Virginia, and those under his command to the wolves. Alliance warships were and had always been the sturdiest vessels built. Now more than ever, they should be able to weather the assault.
Admiral Rychen (EAS Virginia): “Eager to do so.”
Back to the all-forces channel.
Commandant Solovy: “AEGIS 1st and 2nd Assault Brigades, swarm at will. 3rd Assault Brigade, glue yourselves to the Imperium currently located at the marked coordinates. Sabres, let the fighters shield you while you fire from a distance. Remaining formations, assign yourselves enemy battlecruisers and destroyers and go to work.”
If all those moves progressed smoothly, the Machim contingent may never successfully reform into proper lines, but she didn’t dare hope for it to be so easy. “Thomas, what are we looking at? Talk numbers to me.”
‘Nearly three thousand battlecruisers, nine thousand destroyers, thirty-five hundred specialized vessels and approximately eighty thousand fighter-type craft.’
Based on Alex’s figures, this meant the enemy was down thirty-five to forty percent of its ships. Scanning the scene out the wraparound viewport, she shuddered to think how the entire contingent would have looked. As it was, the Machim ships were a horde clogging the void.
She tracked a number of early AEGIS victories in the opening salvos while the enemy struggled to reorganize and properly engage their attackers. Another twelve percent of the enemy formations went down in the first minute, primarily due to the ability of the Sabres to unleash their considerable firepower unopposed.
At eight hundred meters in length and only sixty meters width, the vessels were glorified flying plasma railguns, staffed by less than a dozen personnel and an Artificial. The flipside to the armament-heavy design was a dearth of defensive shielding, and criminally thin sheets of adiamene represented the Sabres’ primary protection.
A massive explosion cascaded in the region designated Quadrant Five, off her starboard. She glanced at her XO. “Report.”
“One of the Machim cruisers fired what was likely an Igni missile. One hundred sixty-four Federation vessels and ninety-eight AEGIS vessels are unaccounted for.”
She exhaled. That was a lot of ships taken out in one hit. So the Machim commander was going to use the missiles intended for the portals against them instead.
Well, the news couldn’t all be good, could it?
Commandant Solovy: “All ships. Artificials need to monitor nearby battlecruisers for Igni missile launches—the launch profile is being distributed now. When such a launch is detected, immediately disengage from your targets and evade at maximum velocity until you’re
outside the range of the projected blast radius. Once the Igni missile has detonated, reengage. Vessels operating on the active perimeter, spread out. Extend the battlefield, and let’s buy everyone some space.”
There was nothing she could do for a ship targeted by one of the missiles—no shield or adiamene hull was capable of surviving a point-blank antimatter explosion—but she could save many ships that would otherwise be caught in the blasts.
Mnemosyne’s intel, as relayed by Alex earlier, suggested the Machim forces carried one hundred of the forbidding missiles in their arsenal. Perhaps some had been destroyed in the Gateway explosion, but she couldn’t afford to count on it.
Her orders should lessen the collateral damage, but the use by the enemy of anything close to a hundred of the missiles stood to wipe out her armada. And she had no way to know which of the three thousand odd battlecruisers carried them.
…Or did she? “Reconnaissance, launch an additional set of probes to the periphery of the combat zone. Have them focus on the movements and energy signatures of the Machim battlecruisers. Feed all the data into the Connexus.”
The Connexus was a micro-Noesis of sorts, a mindspace shared by the Artificials and Prevos serving in AEGIS. They had formed it on their own initiative and, since the Prevos involved were military first, instituted their own strict security measures to keep it private and protected.
‘Very clever, Commandant.’
She appreciated that she didn’t need to explain her idea to Thomas. “Do you think the Connexus will be able to identify enough of a variation?”
‘Given the significant size and weight of the missiles, I estimate a 43% probability, in 52% to 68% of the targets, which is—’
“Better than nothing.” She cringed inwardly as another explosion flared on the far side of the engagement zone. The small perceived size due to its distance belied the damage she knew it had caused. “Unfortunately, they need to hurry.”
Admiral Rychen (Virginia): “That left a mark. Not to give them ideas, but why don’t they simply fire all the Igni missiles and be done with us?”
Commandant Solovy: “Cascading explosions of such magnitude will take out most of their vessels in addition to ours. It’s a suicidal tactic.”
Alexis Solovy: “The Machim Navarchos will sacrifice his entire fleet in a heartbeat if it means victory. They view their ships and crew as disposable, because, well, they kind of are. No, it’s something else.”
Miriam smiled. She might chide Thomas later for giving Valkyrie access to the command channel, but…probably not.
Commandant Solovy: “Hello, Alex. Brilliant job at the Gateway.”
Alexis Solovy: “Hi, Mom. Thanks for the firepower.”
Commandant Solovy: “Okay, so it’s something else. If we knew what, we may be able to use their reluctance against them.”
Thomas (Transcendentally Hallowed Overlord of the Milky Way, AEGIS Sector): ‘They expect to be surprised again.’
She rolled her eyes and quickly deleted the call sign moniker from the system. She was definitely going to chide him for that, however.
Commandant Solovy: “What do you mean?”
Thomas: ‘You have caught them unawares twice in a row. They are accounting for the non-negligible possibility you will do so a third time. In such a scenario they will want to have their remaining missiles on hand in case the weapons are needed to counter the new threat, the nature of which is, by definition, unknown.’
Admiral Rychen (Virginia): “Good. It means we’ve already earned their respect.”
‘The Connexus has identified the fifty-four Machim battlecruisers likeliest to be carrying Igni missiles based on anomalies in their movements and engine output.’
“Excellent work.” They weren’t all accounted for, but each missile disabled in a contained manner was a win.
Now she switched to the Stalwart II’s internal comm channel and contacted Logistics on Deck 5. “Commander Lekkas, has ESC Flight One returned intact and unharmed from its mission?”
“It has indeed.”
“Good to hear. See that they’re resupplied, then have them join up with Flights Two and Three to drop targeted negative energy bombs on top of the battlecruisers marked by the Connexus. We need to take those craft out before they decide to fire their Igni missiles.”
“Fun. We are on it.”
Admiral Rychen (Virginia): “It’s starting to resemble a stalemate out here. Other than the Sabres, our weapons aren’t causing enough damage to do more than whittle down their still ridiculous numbers. Any chance we do have a third surprise?”
Alexis Solovy: “Oh, yes.”
Commandant Solovy: “Alex….”
Alexis Solovy: “Don’t freak out, Commandant Solovy, but you might want to look to your…right.”
Miriam’s gaze darted to her right automatically, assuming Alex meant on the bridge. Her daughter was a ship junkie; if Alex had meant to the right of the ship, she would’ve said ‘starboard.’
She didn’t freak out at the sight of the Metigen swirling into solidity beside her, because ‘freaking out’ was not something she did. Ever. In fact, she even waved down the two MPs who had leapt to attention.
“Mnemosyne?”
I am known as Lakhes, Commandant Solovy.
She’d learned quite a bit about the Katasketousya in the last couple of months. “You’re the leader.”
An imprecise characterization, but it suffices. I recognize you have no time for idle consultation, so I am here only to convey this message to you: our vessels are at your disposal.
“Your—”
“Commandant, we’re picking up multiple new energy signatures eight megameters distant past Quadrant Four.”
“I need a visual.”
A new feed materialized in front of her to zoom past the chaos of the ongoing conflict. Out of the darkness a host of ships emerged from her nightmares—from most humans’ nightmares.
Column after column of superdreadnoughts entered the engagement zone as hundreds of thousands of swarmers detached and sped straight into the melee.
She spun to Lakhes. “What is this?”
They fight for you, and with you. On this you have my word.
A little warning would have been nice, and might have prevented a few heart attacks which were likely just suffered out among the crews.
Miriam drew in a breath and activated the all-forces channel once more.
Commandant Solovy: “All ships and all personnel. The superdreadnoughts and their swarmers are allies. Do not fire upon them. I say again: do not fire upon the Metigen vessels. They are here to…help us.”
She turned back to her unexpected guest, and found that a second Metigen had joined Lakhes on the bridge.
Hyperion commands our vessels and will see to any tactical requests you have for them to perform. I wish you victory, Commandant. For all our sakes.
Lakhes faded away, leaving Miriam standing facing the Metigen who had orchestrated the slaughter of over fifty million people a short year ago.
There were limits to even deals with the devil, lines which should never be crossed…but she was beginning to wonder when she might find one.
She swallowed past the acrimony in her throat. “Follow the lead of our cruisers in choosing your targets. Fomenting disarray in the enemy ranks is one of our primary goals, and your swarmers are well suited to this task.”
Hyperion’s form coalesced into an ethereal representation of a giant horned owl. I understand. Do you have any further guidance you wish to impart?
“Yes. Betray us, and no corner of this or any other universe will be safe for you.”
63
ECS FLIGHT TWO-CHARLIE
MILKY WAY SECTOR 41
* * *
TRICKY TASK, PLACING a negative energy bomb with high precision and slipping away before it detonated and took you out along with the target.
The target in question was invariably moving, of course, so proper placement required analyz
ing its trajectory and historical movements and predicting where it would be in another five seconds. Except this was a space battle—a tremendous, unprecedented and chaotic space battle, to be more accurate—so the targets rarely moved in a straight line.
Seeing as she had hitched a mental ride and wasn’t actually doing any of that difficult work, Morgan took the opportunity to soak in the ambiance of the clashes going on around her.
The amount of debris littering the field surprised her; the fact the vast majority of it originated from the enemy cheered her. The Machim ships were tough and robustly shielded, but with enough firepower applied, they were destructible, and by conventional means.
On the other hand, thanks in part to some creative hit-and-run combat tactics employed by a bunch of not merely unshackled but fucking unleashed Prevos, only the nasty Igni missiles had managed to take out more than the odd, unlucky AEGIS vessel. Missiles she and her little cadre of Artificial ships were here to remove from the field of play. Go adiamene.
Do you wish you were piloting for real? Your adrenaline level is well below its typical level during hostile engagements, and I seem to recall you enjoying the rush.
Sure I do, Stanley. But supervising isn’t so bad—and being able to relax and soak in the view isn’t terrible, either. Besides, yesterday I was in a coma, and I suspect you, Harper, the doctors and half the Connexus would kill me if I tried to get in a cockpit today.
We would probably opt for tranquilization rather than murder, but for certain.
The Eidolon she vicariously inhabited—ECS Flight Two-Charlie by name—glided unseen beneath the hull of a mammoth battlecruiser. The vessel cut an imposing profile, but mostly it was ugly. The Anadens, or at a minimum their Machim branch, clearly had no sense of style or panache. Not when it came to starships, anyway. She’d reserve judgment on their style in other venues, but she didn’t harbor high expectations.
HarperRF: How are you doing?
Commander Lekkas: Flying around leaving surprise gifts for a few select Machim battlecruisers—virtually, so don’t freak out. My weak and kitteny body is still safe in its lounge chair on the Stalwart II.
Relativity: Aurora Resonant Book One (Aurora Rhapsody 7) Page 37