The AIs then turned their attention to the fortress and began pummeling it with their anti-matter missiles. The screen wavered as massive explosions hammered it, then it failed in one small area and an anti-matter warhead slammed into the surface. A huge glowing hole over a kilometer wide and half a kilometer deep was blasted out of its surface, but then the shield strengthened, and the brief hole shut. The fortress continued to fire with its crew knowing that the AI’s anti-matter weapons were capable of destroying it if enough could get through the wavering energy screen.
-
The bomber strike flew toward the embattled Hocklyn fleet. Suddenly two AI ships appeared in their path and bombers began to die in fiery explosions as Hocklyn short-range energy beams began to take them out. In moments, hundreds were gone and then the others swept around the two AI spheres and targeted the Hocklyn ships. Hundreds more died as the survivors fired off their missiles. Very few would make it back as the two AI ships continued to kill. In the Hocklyn fleet, hundreds of missiles impacted and more Hocklyn ships died. Six war cruisers and sixty-two escort cruisers were annihilated by the bomber strike.
-
Fleet Commodore Resmunt smiled in satisfaction seeing the destruction the AIs were delivering to the human forces. The bomber strike had hurt, but it would not save the humans. “Split the fleet into its individual war fleets,” ordered Resmunt to First Leader Ganth, knowing the battle was now won. “We will move toward the planet and commence bombardment.”
First Leader Ganth nodded. Much honor was coming to the fleet and, once this system was destroyed, they would move on to the other human worlds. With the addition of the new AI ships, the human worlds would rapidly fall. If all went well, Ganth would soon become a War Leader.
-
The WarStorm shook as if a hammer had struck it. The lights in the Command Center went out and then came back on, but much dimmer. Several consoles shorted out, sending bright arcs of sparks across the room. Several damage control people hurried over and shut down the damaged consoles.
“We took an anti-matter hit just above Engineering,” Commander Evans reported as the damage report came in over her mini-com. “The main fusion reactor is down, and we are running on the secondary reactors. The screen is back up, but it’s barely holding, and we don’t have the power to fire the power beams or the pulse lasers any longer.”
Amanda nodded in understanding. She coughed several times as the Command Center filled with smoke from the damaged consoles. This was it, then. She wished she could say goodbye to Richard. “Load all missiles tubes with Devastator Threes and target the Hocklyn fleet. At least we can take some of them with us. Order all ships except the strikecruisers to target the Hocklyns; there is little the rest of us can do against the AIs.”
Heavy missile fire erupted from the WarStorm and Amanda watched with grim satisfaction as a Hocklyn dreadnought died. The ship then shifted its fire to a nearby war cruiser.
The other ships of Second Fleet joined the WarStorm as it continued to close with the Hocklyns. A battlecruiser died, and then a Monarch exploded in a blaze of light as two war cruisers bracketed it with nuclear missiles. Two light cruisers interposed themselves between a heavily damaged human battlecruiser and a Hocklyn dreadnought in an attempt to allow the cruiser to get its energy screen back online. Both died in nuclear fire as the dreadnought turned its wrath upon them. But the battlecruiser raised its shield back up and began to fire once more upon the dreadnought. Two minutes later the dreadnought exploded as its self-destructs initiated from the severe damage the ship had suffered.
Amanda watched all of this on the viewscreens and the tactical display. Her fleet was dying, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. It was less than a minute later when another of the deadly sublight missiles penetrated and struck the bow of the WarStorm, blasting a massive hole in the front of the ship. Numerous compartments were instantly exposed to vacuum and fires began spreading in other areas. Hundreds of lives were snuffed out in an instant.
Amanda felt herself slammed forward and her head struck the command console. Everything instantly went black.
Commander Evans picked herself up off the floor and rushed over to the admiral. Amanda was unconscious and had a vicious bruise on her forehead. The air in the Command Center was becoming difficult to breathe as smoke filled the room from several more electrical fires. Looking over at Lieutenant Stalls, she made a quick decision. “Lieutenant Stalls, I want you and Lieutenant Trask to get the admiral to a shuttle. Get away from the WarStorm to another ship. We’re not going to last much longer.”
“What about you?” Angela yelled as she rushed over to the admiral who was being put on a stretcher by two medics.
“I will do my duty,” replied Evans, somberly. She looked down at Admiral Sheen on the stretcher and then back over at Lieutenant Stalls. “Tell the admiral when she awakes that the WarStorm fought with honor, and her crew died for the Federation.”
Benjamin swallowed and nodded as he turned and led Angela and the two medics carrying the stretcher out of the Command Center. He knew they didn’t have much time to get out of the dying warship.
Commander Evans waited until she heard a confirmation from the flight bay that the admiral’s shuttle, as well as several others with injured crewmembers, had launched. “Fine,” she said turning toward Colonel Bryson the executive officer. “Activate the sublight drive at one hundred percent and target the nearest AI ship. We will ram the son of a bitch!”
Colonel Bryson nodded as he carried out the order. He knew the WarStorm was finished, and now all that mattered was how they were going to die. Going to Navigation, he set the course and then looked up at the viewscreen as the targeted AI ship grew rapidly on the screen. The WarStorm was shuddering violently as several energy beams struck it and another anti-matter missile vaporized a large section of the aft side of the ship.
Samantha sat down in the command chair and looked at the viewscreen. Explosions were continually rocking the ship as she eyed the large red buttons, which controlled the ship’s self-destructs, hoping they wouldn’t go off before they struck the AI ship. It was strangely silent in the Command Center as the remaining crew watched the viewscreen.
The WarStorm was a burning wreck when it hit the AI ship’s energy screen. The self-destructs on the ship instantly detonated, and the screen went down as the flaming wreckage struck the AI’s armored hull. Other Second Fleet warships instantly launched Devastator and Devastator Three missiles at the AI ship, destroying it in a series of fiery nuclear explosions. Second Fleet’s flagship had died, but it had taken an AI with it.
-
“WarStorm is down,” Captain Reynolds reported in a stunned voice. “She rammed an AI ship, destroying it in the process.”
“Admiral Sheen,” Colonel Trist muttered in shock, looking over at Admiral Streth.
“She did what she had to do,” replied Hedon, feeling numb at the loss. He knew that Richard had probably witnessed Amanda’s sacrifice from the Command Center of his asteroid fortress.
First Jacob and now Amanda, Hedon thought as he looked at the tactical displays, which showed a steadily deteriorating situation. His shoulders drooped as he felt the devastating losses of war. Two of his oldest friends were now gone, and he strongly suspected that he would soon be joining them. With a heavy sigh, he knew he would soon be seeing his brother Taylor and Lendle. The only thing left was to decide how to die. He turned and looked over at Clarissa who was standing next to him.
“Clarissa, I’m turning command of the StarStrike and the Tellus over to you. Your targets are the AI ships. I want to destroy as many of them as possible. Our survival is not paramount.”
“Yes, Sir,” replied Clarissa, feeling a strange pain at knowing Admiral Sheen was gone. She also knew that her own life could probably be measured in minutes. She wished there was someway she could tell Ariel goodbye.
-
Richard had watched in anguish as the WarStorm rammed the AI ship, k
nowing he was powerless to do anything. For a brief moment, he had felt his anger nearly take over. Even down this deep inside the command asteroid, he could feel his command vibrating from the anti-matter strikes that were getting through the screen.
“Keep firing Devastator Threes,” he ordered, knowing he did not have time to mourn. All he could do was kill as many AIs as possible to avenge his wife and then join her in death.
-
Major Arcles had gathered the survivors of his squadron around him. There was one notable exception, Lieutenant Sanders’ Anlon fighter was not among them. “Did anyone see what happened to Lieutenant Sanders?” Karl demanded as he tried to look out of his cockpit windows to see if he could spot her fighter.
“I think she took a missile hit,” one of the other pilots reported.
“Did she eject?” Karl asked as his world spun. He couldn’t imagine going on without Lacy.
“No, I didn’t see anything,” the pilot replied. “I don’t think she got out.”
Karl didn’t know what else to say. Most of the Hocklyn fighters were gone, and there was nothing his remaining fighters could do against Hocklyn warships or the AIs. All he could do was keep his fighters away from the fighting and wait until the battle was over, and then hope there was somewhere they could land.
-
Admiral Tolsen had watched the WarStorm die and knew that in all likelihood Admiral Sheen had died with her ship. He knew it was only a matter of time before his own flagship, the Defiant, would meet the same fate. Already over half of his fleet had been destroyed and his remaining ships were backed up next to New Tellus Station, offering what protection he could give to the now besieged shipyard. Everywhere he looked was death and destruction. The tactical screen was full of red and orange threat icons, with the green Federation icons steadily dwindling.
“This is it then,” Colonel Arnett spoke in a somber voice, her eyes glued to the main viewscreen. Flashes of light were visible everywhere as devastator and anti-matter missiles detonated against ship’s shields.
“We will take a lot of them with us,” Race replied with determination as the Defiant fired its main power beam batteries at a nearby Hocklyn escort cruiser. He watched in satisfaction as one of the beams penetrated the shield and tore a huge, glowing rent in the hull.
Colonel Arnett nodded. She had hoped someday to be able to raise a family; she knew now that day would never come.
-
Hedon felt the StarStrike shake badly as another nuke hit the hull. In the last ten minutes, Clarissa had taken out four AI ships with the StarStrike and the Tellus and was currently targeting another. On the main viewscreen, which was pointed at New Tellus, he could see the horrifying flashes of nuclear weapons striking the surface of the planet. This must be what the ships defending the old Federation had witnessed, he realized, feeling numb as Clarissa turned both battleships in a tight turn and accelerated toward her next target.
-
The command AI watched with interest as the human’s two battleships fought with uncanny precision as they destroyed AI ship after AI ship. They seemed to be unstoppable.
“It is as we postulated,” one of the AIs in front of the data screens reported. “That battleship is commanded by an AI. We must destroy it.”
“Send the virus,” the command AI ordered. From the data they had analyzed in all the battles with the humans, they had determined there was a high probability that the humans had two highly competent AIs in their fleet. There had been discussions about attempting to turn the AIs against the humans, but it had finally been decided to destroy them instead.
-
On board the StarStrike, a computer virus was inserted into the ship’s computer system through an open communications channel. The virus was instantly detected and firewalls slammed down, then individual systems disconnected from the ship’s mainframe, allowing the ship to continue to fight. However, the damage was done. This virus searched for and found the AI controlling the ship.
The first thing Hedon knew that something was seriously wrong was when Clarissa’s holographic image suddenly vanished from his side with a shocked look upon her face. A moment later, the computer console that contained her program exploded and shorted out.
“Clarissa is offline,” Colonel Grissom reported as her hands ran over a console. “She is no longer responding.”
Colonel Trist ran over to Clarissa’s computer console and jerked the front off it. Inside was a large green crystal that contained the matrix for the AIs complicated program. The crystal was cracked and looked as if it had been burned. Trist shook his head at Hedon. “She’s gone, Sir.”
Hedon nodded. “Pull us back to New Tellus Station; we will make our final stand there. Hedon passed on the order to all of the surviving ships. They would die together.
-
Fleet Admiral Johnson looked at the steadily worsening situation knowing that the trap they had been building for all of these years was going to fail. They had never intended for it to stand up to nearly three hundred AI ships.
“Admiral, screen two!” Admiral Bennett suddenly yelled in consternation.
Looking up, she saw that one of the asteroid fortresses was under attack by nearly forty AI ships. The fortresses shields had finally failed, and its surface was being bombarded with anti-matter missiles. The asteroid seemed to be glowing from the massive amounts of energy that was being released, and then it suddenly broke apart as the intense pressure from the attack finally overwhelmed it.
The defense grid was also under attack by the Hocklyn fleet and a group of AI ships. Satellites, missile platforms, and even defensive battle stations were being destroyed in massive numbers. Over thirty nuclear detonations had already been detected on the surface of New Tellus.
Karla looked over at Admiral Freeman, knowing that she had failed the Federation. “Send a message to President Kincaid and inform him that we will soon lose the New Tellus system to the AIs. We will try to inflict as much damage as possible in the hope that the Sol system can survive the coming attack.”
Admiral Freeman nodded and went over to communications to send the message. Just as he was about to transmit it, the main sensor screen began screaming its alarm again.
“New contacts jumping into the gravity well of the planet,” the sensor operator reported, looking confused. “I don’t recognize the ships.”
“Put one up on the screen,” ordered Karla, feeling baffled. Were these more AI ships of a type they hadn’t encountered before?
One of the new ships appeared on the main viewscreen. The ship was over one thousand meters in length and no more than two hundred in width. A large sphere nearly four hundred meters in diameter was at the front.
“Admiral, the new ships are firing on the AIs!” the colonel sitting at one of the tactical consoles suddenly called out.
“Who the hell are they?” demanded Admiral Freeman as he rushed back to Karla’s side.
“They’re Albanian!” Major Ackerman the Intelligence officer spoke. “Those ships are similar to their research vessels, but much larger.”
“Albanian?” Admiral Freeman said feeling faint. “But the Albanians have refused to participate in the war; why are they here now?”
“I don’t care why,” Fleet Admiral Johnson commented with a wolfish smile as she watched an AI ship explode on one of the viewscreens. “But their weapons are tearing right through the AI’s shields. See if we can contact whoever is in charge of that fleet!”
-
In space, four hundred Albanian battlecruisers had jumped inside the gravity well of New Tellus. Each was armed with energy weapons specifically designed to penetrate an AI ship’s energy screen. AI ship after AI ship died as the powerful energy weapons flashed through the defensive shields as if they were butter. The beams impacted the armored hulls and easily cut deep into the heart of the 1,500-meter spheres, causing them to self-destruct. In less than a minute, sixty AI ships had been annihilated in bright explosions of sheer
energy.
The command AI stared in shock at a ship of the new arrivals on a viewscreen. “Those ships can’t exist,” the command AI stated in a disbelieving voice. “They’re dead!” For the first time, the command AI was at a loss as to what to do.
-
On Earth, the Albanian ambassador stepped into the main chamber of the Federation Council, which was in emergency session. He had demanded an immediate meeting to address the senators.
President Kincaid watched as Ambassador Tureen walked to the front of the council table and stopped. He was at a loss as to why the Albanians had demanded this meeting. The ambassador then turned around to face the council.
“As you know, the AIs have launched an attack against the New Tellus system. What you don’t know as of yet is that an additional two hundred and sixty AI ships have jumped into the system and are currently destroying the defenses around New Tellus.”
“Two hundred and sixty,” moaned Senator Fulbright looking accusingly at President Kincaid. “We’re doomed!”
“How do you know this, Ambassador Tureen?” President Kincaid demanded, his eyes focusing on the Albanian. “And why are you telling us this now?” He knew if what the Albanian ambassador had just said was true, then the Federation was finished. They could not fight that many AI ships. He doubted if even the massive defenses around Ceres could stop that many AIs.
The ambassador took a deep breath and then began speaking again with his eyes taking on a haunted look. “We know that because thousands of years ago our remote ancestors created the AIs.”
“What?” Senator Barnes from Ceres asked, his eyes growing wide in disbelief. “The Altons created the AIs; we all know that!”
The ambassador nodded. “We are the Altons, or at least their remote descendants. When our research expedition originally found Earth, it was decided to take some of your people and animals to populate another world closer to the center of our galaxy. You see, at that time there was a great debate amongst my people about the AIs we had created.”
The Slaver Wars: Retaliation (The Slaver Wars Book Five) Page 34