A heavily damaged light cruiser had jumped into the Newton System to report the shocking news of the attack on Earth. The ship’s commander had barely managed to escape and lost over half of his crew in the brief battle above the planet. The report of the attack had shaken the colony and after conferring with the colony’s leaders, it had been decided that Admiral Vickers would return to the Solar System. His mission was to determine the current condition of Earth as well as the number of alien ships still present.
“What now?” Captain Randson asked as he stepped closer to the admiral. Upon the tactical screen, a large number of red threat icons were visible. “There are twenty alien ships in orbit above Earth. Four of them are approximately the same size as the Star Cross, and the rest seem to be similar to our own light cruisers.”
Vickers nodded. “From the reports we received from the captain of the light cruiser, the alien ships are heavily armed. I don’t want to risk an engagement with them at this time if we can avoid it. We need more information.” Kurt had spent hours with Captain Owens going over the tactical data recorded during his light cruiser’s brief battle above Earth.
“Our new particle beam weapons should give us an advantage,” Randson carefully pointed out. “None of the ships we had over Earth were equipped with them.”
“Can we detect any transmissions from Earth, the Moon, or from Mars?” The Moon and Mars both held sizable human colonies. Kurt didn’t like the fact they were going into such an unknown situation and the Solar System was so quiet.
“No, and all the scientific outposts are also silent. There’s not a peep coming from the asteroids or the moons of Jupiter and Saturn,” Randson replied with growing concern in his eyes. His wife was on Earth just outside of Houston. He hoped she was okay; he didn’t know what he would do if something had happened to her. They’d been married for fourteen wonderful years. They also had a twelve-year-old daughter about to enter those rebellious teenage years. “We could send a couple of the destroyers in to check on some of the outposts. It’s just too damn quiet! I can’t believe they’ve all been wiped out.”
“Not yet,” replied Kurt, shaking his head as he thought about the communication silence. “They might be detected. Right now, our biggest tactical advantage is that the aliens don’t know we’re here. I want to keep it that way for a while longer.”
“Sir,” Ensign Brooks spoke her eyes alight with fear. “The long-range sensors are picking up elevated radiation levels from Earth.” Styles had been working at her console fervently, trying to get better readings on the home planet.
Captain Randson stepped over and studied the data, the frown on his face deepening. “There have definitely been a few nuclear weapons dropped on the surface,” he stated, taking a deep breath. “The level isn’t dangerous, but it’s four times higher than normal. I’m not sure we can afford to wait. What if they drop more bombs?” He gazed at the admiral, his eyes showing his deep concern over the radiation readings. He was itching to find out if his wife and daughter were okay.
“The bombs may have been dropped in the original attack,” Kurt said evenly, struggling to stay calm.
He knew if the radiation levels were correct millions of people could be dead on the planet. He felt anger growing inside him at an enemy who would nuke a planet from orbit. This said a lot about the temperament of the aliens they faced. He’d never married, though he did have a sister working at Houston. Both of his parents were deceased and he and his sister, Denise, were very close. She was married with a six-year-old son.
“You’re correct,” responded Randson with a curt nod. “What are your orders?”
Admiral Vickers studied the tactical screen for a few more moments as he tried to decide what the best course of action was. It was obvious the enemy ships could not be allowed to continue to orbit the planet; they had to be driven off before they nuked Earth again. The presence of an elevated radiation level changed things considerably. Vickers was afraid to even guess at how many people had already died. He wondered if the aliens had landed ground troops to occupy the planet.
“It looks as if the shipyard is relatively intact,” Kurt said as he looked at the large green icon on the tactical screen. Earth’s only shipyard orbited forty thousand miles above the planet.
“It is, sir,” Ensign Brooks spoke, nodding her brunette head as she studied one of her data screens. “My scanners are showing only minor damage to the shipyard, and its power systems still seem to be operating.”
“I wonder why they spared the shipyard?” asked Captain Randson with a questioning look upon his face. “You’d think it would’ve been one of their first targets.”
“Unless they want if for themselves,” Kurt responded as he thought about the two thousand men and women who operated the station. He wondered if they were still alive or had been killed by boarders. There were just so many unknowns facing them.
“The first alien race we encounter and they are the ones to find us,” Randson spoke as his eyes narrowed. “Why did they attack us in the first place?”
The higher officers in Earth’s space fleet had always expected to eventually encounter an alien race as the planet’s exploration ships ranged deeper and deeper into unexplored space. First contact protocols had even been set up, with linguists and other specialists assigned to each exploration mission just in case another exploring spacecraft from an alien civilization was encountered. A number of warships had been built to ensure the safety of Earth if the aliens turned out to be hostile.
“We may never know,” replied Kurt, brusquely. “Ensign Brooks, are you detecting anything else on the long-range sensors?”
“No,” responded Brooks, shaking her head.
“What about communications?”
“Nothing,” replied Randson. “There are no radio or video broadcasts of any type being picked up from Earth, the Moon, or Mars. Everything is silent.”
“I’ve managed to get some additional information on the radiation in Earth’s atmosphere,” Lieutenant Brooks added her eyes indicating growing worry. “It’s originating from twenty-two different sources. All points of origin are where major cities are located.”
“Formerly located,” Randson said his eyes widening in anger. He hoped Houston wasn’t one of those sources. His eyes shifted back to the admiral. “We need to get into Earth orbit. What if they drop more nukes?”
“Get me Captain Watkins on the Vindication,” ordered Kurt, folding his arms across his chest as he thought about his options. He knew he didn’t really have any but one. The knowledge that some of Earth’s cities had been nuked changed everything.
“Captain Watkins is on the comm,” the Communications officer reported after a moment.
“Henry, we need to drive those alien ships away from Earth. From our scans, it’s obvious Earth has suffered a nuclear bombardment. We can’t afford to allow them to bomb the planet again.”
“I was afraid of that,” his long time friend replied. “Our scanners are showing the same thing. What do you have in mind? We’re outnumbered by nearly two to one.”
“I’ll jump in first with the light cruisers. We’ve spotted what looks like four enemy capital ships. We’ll try to take them out with the new particle beam weapons. Once we’re engaged, you and the destroyers will jump in. Launch your bombers and target the smaller ships with tactical nukes. Hopefully, we’ll have enough surprise on our side to carry this out.”
“It’s risky,” Henry replied after a moment’s pause. “But I don’t see that we have any other choices.”
“Get your bombers ready,” Kurt ordered decisively. “We make the jump in twenty minutes.”
Lieutenant Brooks stepped over and handed Kurt a list of cities hit by nukes. He noticed with relief Houston wasn’t included. However, Chicago, Washington, Paris, Cairo, Moscow, and numerous other cities scattered around the world were. He felt his heart grow cold as he looked over the list. If this was correct, there could be well over forty million casualties from
the orbital attack.
“It’s not too late to turn back,” Captain Randson reminded Kurt in a quiet voice. “We could return to the Newton colony, load everyone up, and head out for parts unknown. We could find a new world to start over on.”
“I thought of that,” replied Kurt, somberly. “But what do I tell all of our crews? Most of them have family on Earth or one of the outposts here in the Solar System. I think we’d have a mutiny on our hands if we didn’t at least try to find out what happened. For all we know there could be a lot of survivors depending on us to drive these aliens off. It would also take us too many trips to move everyone off Newton. We don’t know of any other inhabitable planet we can go to.”
“You’re right,” Randson conceded with a sigh, his shoulders drooping. “Let’s just hope this is a battle we can win.” He was also relieved that they were going in. He didn’t want to leave his family stranded on Earth.
-
The tension and anxiety in the Command Center had increased considerably as the time for the attack neared. All the ships in the fleet were at Condition One with their crews at battle stations. This would be the first time any member of Admiral Vickers’s fleet had actually gone into combat.
“Ready to jump,” Captain Randson reported as he listened to the readiness reports from various ships over their short-range comms. His eyes focused on the admiral, who was still studying the large tactical screen on the front wall of the Command Center.
Kurt nodded. There was no point in waiting. “All ships initiate jump in sixty seconds,” he ordered. “They are to fire upon targets as soon as they exit hyperspace and don’t need to wait for orders from the flag.”
“Message sent,” responded Captain Randson as he activated a counter on his console. “Helm; prepare for hyperspace insertion.”
Randson buckled himself into his chair in preparation for combat maneuvers. He knew the hyperspace jump would only last a few seconds. He wondered what they would find when they reached Earth.
“Tactical, ready the main particle beam cannon,” ordered Kurt, seeing the increased activity in the command crew as they prepared for combat. “Lock on the enemy’s nearest capital ship and fire as soon as you have a confirmed firing solution.” The cannon could only be fired once every forty seconds due to heat buildup, so they needed to make every shot count.
“Jump!” ordered Captain Randson his hands gripping the armrests on his command chair.
-
High Profiteer Creed stood in the Control Room of the pirate ship Ascendant Destruction. He was bipedal and slightly taller than a human. His skin was a light blue color with coarse white hair on his head. His face, while humanoid, had larger than normal eyes. The last few days had been quiet as he waited for the return of the rest of his ships. They were escorting a large fleet, ships to carry detainees as well as heavy cargo ships to haul valuables off the planet.
“We’ll make huge profits from this planet,” gloated Second Profiteer Lantz as he gazed at the main viewscreen on the front wall of the Control Room and the blue-white planet beneath them. “Their people will sell well in the slave markets on Kubitz.”
“Their world is rich in many things that will bring us great profits on the black markets,” added Creed, recalling his last trip to the bustling black market world of Kubitz as he folded his powerful arms across his chest.
Hundreds of alien races could be found on Kubitz either selling or buying, some of it openly and some done in the back rooms of the pleasure palaces. It was also a very dangerous place for someone unfamiliar with the workings of the black market system. People were known to vanish quite routinely and the local authorities always seemed to look the other way.
“We were fortunate to find this world in these backwater systems,” Lantz spoke as he thought greedily about the five percent profits he would receive as his share. “There have been few ships which have ventured out into these areas where the stars are so far apart.”
“We can thank the Kreel for that,” Creed said. “Several of their cargo ships have reported unknown ships appearing on their satellite marker buoys in a number of systems they have laid claim to. It wasn’t difficult for the computers on Marsten to correlate the data and extrapolate the most likely location of those ships’ home world.” It hadn’t been quite that simple. The computers had given them an area of space roughly thirty light years across, which had contained quite a few stars, even in this sparse region. It had taken the Profiteer Fleet two weeks to finally pin down the system they were seeking.
Lantz nodded in agreement. Marsten was the capital of the Gothan Empire, which was a loose Federation of one hundred and eighteen star systems that routinely raided many of the civilized races of the galaxy. It was a dangerous living, but the huge rewards from the bounty they collected more than offset the danger. Lantz was already thinking about how he would spend some of his share in the pleasure houses upon Kubitz. Any type of pleasure one desired could be bought for the right price.
“It is good we found this system when we did,” Lantz spoke with a nod of his head. “They had a sizable fleet and in a few more years would have been too powerful to overwhelm without major losses. Even now, they are hesitant about obeying our demands, despite us having destroyed their cities. More examples might need to be made.”
Before Creed could reply, warning klaxons began sounding and red lights started flashing in the Control Room. His eyes instantly went to the Sensor operator.
“We have ships exiting hyperspace,” reported Third Profiteer Bixt as red threat icons began appearing on the sensor screen in front of him. Then, after a moment, he looked at First Profiteer Creed with astonishment on his face. “They’re human!”
-
Admiral Vickers felt the familiar gut wrenching feeling as the Star Cross dropped out of hyperspace within close proximity to its intended target. The tactical screen quickly updated, showing the alien ships in orbit around Earth.
“Target lock!” yelled Lieutenant Evelyn Mays as green lights flashed on her console. “Firing particle beam cannon.” She reached forward and pressed several buttons in front of her, activating the deadly weapon. Beside her, two ensigns were targeting the ship’s KEW batteries and preparing to fire the ship’s missiles.
From the Star Cross, a deep blue beam flashed across space smashing into the enemy battlecruiser they’d targeted. The cruiser was still in the process of raising its defensive energy screen, which failed to stop the beam. A massive explosion tore into the cruiser, leaving a gaping hole forty feet across in its hull and blasting a huge fragment off into space. The ship seemed to stagger as valuable systems inside were compromised and went down. Several secondary explosions rattled the ship, sending waves of fire through shattered compartments and corridors. Frightened crewmembers slammed bulkheads shut, trying to stop the growing destruction.
From the bow of the Star Cross, the two KEW cannons fired, sending a pair of two thousand pound rounds toward the reeling enemy cruiser at ten percent the speed of light. They impacted the alien ship, tearing completely through it and setting off more secondary explosions. The energy generated was like twin nuclear explosions going off. With a brilliant flash the battlecruiser exploded, sending debris in all directions.
“Enemy battlecruiser is down!” Lieutenant Brooks reported excitedly as the red threat icon swelled on the sensor screen and then vanished.
“We caught them before they could raise their shields,” spoke Captain Randson, jubilantly. “We’ve got them in the same position they caught our fleet in when they attacked Earth.”
“Switch to secondary target,” Kurt ordered as he intently watched the tactical screen, seeing what success his other ships were having.
“The enemy battlecruiser the Hampton was targeting is down,” reported Brooks elatedly as she saw another red icon vanished from her screen.”
“Vindication is jumping in!” added Captain Randson as he saw more green icons beginning to appear on the tactical screen.
-
First Profiteer Creed picked himself up from the deck, looking around the Control Center in anger. “What’s happening?” he demanded as his eyes shifted to the ship’s tactical screen. He could see numerous red threat icons appearing close to his ships. Too close!
“It’s a human fleet and they’re attacking,” reported Second Profiteer Lantz, breathlessly. “We’ve already lost the Warriors Pride and the Addax. The enemy is using a powerful particle beam against us as well as kinetics.”
“Particle beams and kinetics!” roared Creed in disbelief his eyes growing wide.
He knew that for most warships particle beams were impractical as they required a tremendous amount of energy and needed a long cool down time between firings. Most Gothan ships were armed with ion cannons and missiles, which were cheap and efficient. Kinetics were a thing of the past and had been given up to be replaced by more modern weapons.
“One of the new arrivals is a carrier of some kind,” Third Profiteer Bixt warned, feeling worried. “It’s launching smaller warships toward us.”
“We’ve lost four of our escorts as well,” spoke Lantz, seeing the ships drop off the tactical screen. He groaned, seeing his profits from this venture rapidly dissipating. His fantasies of the pleasure houses were rapidly fading. “All of our ships have their shields up and are returning fire, but I fear we’ve already lost too much. The Glimmer Fire is reporting heavy damage and they’re asking to withdraw.” The Glimmer Fire was their only other remaining battlecruiser.
Creed looked at the viewscreen showing numerous explosions in space. He could even see the path of a few beam weapons. “Order all ships to jump!” he grated out, knowing he had no other choice but to withdraw or be destroyed.
The Lost Fleet: Into the Darkness Page 30