Exodus: Machine War: Book 4: Retribution

by Doug Dandridge

  The plot was showing more and more enemy appearing every second, decelerating down at over a thousand gravities so they would be able to jump through the dimensions, then back to normal space. After each jump they accelerated again, then deceled at the halfway point. It used a lot of energy, but got them in through the dimensions of hyper much faster than the normal coast at three c method.

  “Order all civilians that can to get to the shelters to do so. If they’re in a ship, they are to get to the closest body they can hide behind and power down.”

  The com officer gave a head motion of acknowledgment and got to his system. Kessarlja wasn’t sure how much good it would do the non-warriors to cower in the dirt, or to hide in space. The artificial life forms could bombard the planet from space with enough kinetics to make sure everything was dead. And ships couldn’t power down to nothing, they needed heat and other life support to keep their passengers and crew alive. If the artificial life forms moved through the system they would gain enough sensor aspects to find everything. And since they weren’t alive, they wouldn’t have to hurry, and they wouldn’t get bored. They were here to kill every living thing in this system, and that they would do.

  “We can send your family out in fast ships, my Lord,” said his chief of staff, standing over his shoulder.

  The plot was now showing some of the artificial life form ships starting to curve around the hyper barrier, obviously going to surround the system and cut off any escape.

  “No, sending them away would just lead them into the teeth of that,” said Kessarlja. He would rather be with his children, especially his sons, when the artificial life forms came for them. And there was no way he was going to desert his post.

  “All of our warships are boosting into position between the planet and the enemy,” came a call over the com. “It won’t be enough, but we will do our duty.”

  The system lord knew that the courageous male who commanded the force would die before he let the Machines through. Which meant he would die.

  Kessarlja stared at the plot, watching the icons of his system defense fleet on the move. Forty-three hyper capable warships, a battleship, eight cruisers and thirty-four destroyers. They were being joined by all the interplanetary warships that could get to them in time, another hundred and three vessels, none larger than a cruiser. Those ships were actually very useful within the system, being able to out accelerate the hyper capable ships, though not the vessels of the enemy. And so far over five hundred artificial life form ships were on the plot, the first of them jumping down to hyper V before hitting the VI barrier.

  “We will let them know they have been in battle, my Lord,” said the chief of staff, seeing the expression on the leader’s face.

  And they will feel nothing about how much of a fight we put up, thought Kessarlja, his nostrils flaring in a sign of helplessness. They will care nothing for their losses, or our courage in facing them. All they will care about is that we end, and they won’t even feel the pleasure of crushing an enemy. If I had to die, to see my people die, I would much rather it be to something that felt elation at beating us, something that actually mattered.

  Would that be the fate of all of his species, to end against something that wasn’t alive, and therefore wasn’t a worthy opponent? He could think of no more terrible end to a warrior people. There had to be a way out of this. Maybe the aliens that were said to be in contact with his race. But they were not here. Neither was the battle fleet of his people. And every living thing in this system was doomed to die.

  “Enemy ships jumping down to hyper IV, my Lord.”

  “I can see that, you fool,” he growled at the officer. He felt bad a moment later. The male was doing his duty, making sure that the commander missed no detail of the death heading their way. He was to be commended for it, not cursed.

  It seemed to take forever, even if it was only a little over an hour, but eventually the enemy force dropped into normal space just beyond the hyper barrier. Four hundred ships appeared on the plot, still too far away for a visual. He knew what they looked like, robot ships made entirely for killing, with no room or need for life aboard them. The other hundred odd continued to curve around the system, dropping dimensions of hyper, but not as fast as the others, aiming to appear at points surrounding the globe of the barrier and cutting off all escape.

  “Enemy force firing,” announced the com officer.

  Hundreds more icons appeared on the plot, the very large missiles of the enemy. Not capable of the same kind of acceleration as those of his kind, they were much harder to kill. He was sure his force would kill some of them, and was also sure it wouldn’t be enough.

  All Kessarlja could do was sit in his chair and stare at the plot as the missiles headed for the defensive force and the planet beyond. Males hurried in and out of the control room, voices continually made reports, and he paid attention to none of it. He had given all the orders he could think of. Everything was out of his hands. It was really out of the hands of his subordinates as well, but they still had jobs to do to, their part to play in this drama before it ended.

  His fleet had fired, missiles appearing on the plot, heading out. Most were targeted on the incoming weapons, about a third on the enemy force which had yet to launch a second volley.

  They want to see what their initial volley did first, so they won’t waste any missiles, thought the lord. They don’t want to waste ordnance that could be used to kill off more life in other systems.

  “The artificial life forms are starting to change vectors,” called out one of the males manning a board.

  “Why in the hells are they doing that?” asked one of the senior officers. “There’s no reason..

  “My Lord. We are picking up fifty-four more objects moving through hyper, on a heading for the system.”

  “More of the robots?” asked Kessarlja, looking up, then back at the expanded plot to see the objects the officer was talking about.

  “I’m not sure, my Lord. But they are giving off different resonances, and they’re traveling in hyper VII.”

  “VII,” blurted Kessarlja, leaping up from his chair and covering the distance to the sensor plot in an instant with one jump. “Then who the hell are they.”

  “We don’t know, my Lord. But the artificial life forms seem to be discomfited by their appearance.”

  The robots on the plot were definitely changing vectors, boosting at their maximum acceleration. Even the ones coming into the system on different vectors were starting to shift. Whatever it was, it appeared the robots knew them, and did not like the implications of their arrival.

  “Any other information you can get on the newcomers?” asked Kessarlja, hoping this might be salvation, and afraid to hope at the same time.

  “Some of them seem to be very large, my Lord. Around ten million tons.”

  That was as large or larger than the most powerful Gorgansha vessel, and traveling in hyper VII showed they were more advanced in some ways than either his people’s ships or the robots.

  “Decelerating at over five hundred gravities, so they aren’t as advanced as the robots in that respect,” said the chief of staff.

  “Or it shows they are living creatures, who can’t handle anything past what their compensators can convert to heat,” said another officer.

  Which means they are more advanced than we are in that area as well, thought Kessarlja, letting himself hope some more.

  The lord continued to watch as the enemy missiles bore in, most destroyed by the fleet, some hitting ships and turning them into clouds of plasma. A little over forty made it past, taken under fire by the fort and the orbital batteries. Two made it past those defenses, one intercepted by an orbital craft that vectored a collision course, the other to strike in the center of the largest ocean on the planet.

  Tsunamis swept out from the strike, destroying the coastal regions around that sea. The devastation to Gorganshan and native life was terrible, but the people survived in the deep shelters. />
  By that time the unknown ships had entered normal space twenty light minutes from the enemy force, and were starting to change their vectors to pursue the now fleeing robot force.

  “Why don’t they fire?” asked the chief of staff as the artificial life forms sent off volleys of missiles and the newcomers didn’t return.

  It seemed to defy all logic that the newcomers weren’t firing. It seemed they were destined to have come in just to be destroyed, when hundreds of icons appeared on the plot almost on top of the robots missiles, twenty light minutes from the newcomers, already traveling at point nine-five light and boosting furiously to generate hits against the enemy weapons. Hits they did generate, and more of the robot weapons fell off the plot. Ten minutes later the same was happening to the robot force, missiles appearing out of nowhere within light seconds of the enemy, then shifting into the attack, blasting over a hundred of the enemy ships out of space.

  “Such power,” said the chief of staff in an awed voice.

  Yes, thought the lord. And on our side. We are saved, until they decide we are ripe for the conquest.

  * * *

  “Next reloads are ready, ma’am,” reported the tactical officer.

  “Fire when they bear, Mr. Stumpfield,” ordered Commodore Leticia Boroslav, leader of the task group. She had six hyper VII battle cruisers, fifteen light cruisers, and thirty-three destroyers, normally too light a force to be taking on almost five hundred of the Machine ships. But each of the battle cruisers had a wormhole, making them the offensive weapons of the force, capable of putting out a mass of fast moving weapons. The smaller ships were there for missile defense, making sure that the powerful wormhole platforms weren’t hit and taken out of the fight.

  The ship shook slightly as it released the next stream of thirty wormhole launched missiles in less than a second. The five battle cruisers with the flagship fired within seconds of each other, and one hundred and eighty weapons were on the way, untraceable until they reached final engagement range. Thirty seconds later the next group was ready, and one hundred and eighty more were on the way. Thirty seconds after the next group launched.

  “Hold up on the next launch,” ordered the commodore. They had sent off enough to theoretically destroy the entire Machine force in the system. There were still a half dozen preacceleration tubes ready for each of the ships, but it would take thirty minutes for those fired to get new weapons up to speed.

  “Enemy ships have just released missiles,” exclaimed the tactical officer.

  “So I see,” said the commodore, looking at the new icons that had appeared on the plot, boosting at just over four thousand gravities, well below the capability of her own ship launched weapons. “They’re targeting the planet?”

  A total of two hundred weapons had appeared. The Machine missiles were in the ten thousand ton range, really more like robot attack ships. They were much harder to kill than human missiles, their mass able to absorb more energy. But the enemy ships were not able to carry many of them, about fifty for each of their capital ship sized vessels, fewer for the smaller.

  “Either that, or the Gorgansha force, ma’am. Maybe both.”

  “Order all ships to target those missiles and release two wormhole launches.”

  The tactical officer acknowledged, and moments later the first of the launches was away. The tactical plot showed lines connecting the human missiles with their targets, with velocity figures and ETAs filled in underneath the mass. The preaccelearted weapons would reach the enemy well before they got to their targets. And if they didn’t take all of them out, it was a sure thing there wouldn’t be many left, which would give the aliens a fighting chance.

  “Enemy ships are firing on us now, ma’am. Three hundred and seven weapons. And that should do it for their missile capacity.”

  “Ask command to get us some interceptors in the tubes,” ordered the commodore. “And go ahead and fire another spread of weapons at their swarm.”

  The orders given, all there was to do now was wait. The Machine ships surrounding the system were changing vectors and would soon be heading back out into deep hyperspace. There was nothing the human force could do about them at the moment. All the commodore could hope for was that they would form a battle group and come back into the system, though she doubted they would. Her force would never run out of offensive missiles, unless the Donut ran out of them, which wasn’t about to happen. She could have sent some of her ships around to attack the other Machine vessels, but thought it better to keep her force together and take out their main group. The fleet commander might have issue with her decisions, but she thought Bednarczyk would sign off on her tactics.

  After a boring hour things started happening very quickly. Missiles started going off among the incoming enemy weapons and they began to drop from the plot. There were a few direct hits, which totally vaporized both weapons. The Machine missiles had their own defenses, counter missiles and lasers, and these took out some of the incoming, despite the minimum time given for reaction, since the Machine computer brains were levels of magnitude faster than those possessed by organics. Gigaton warheads still had an effect when they detonated in front of or close to the side of the Machine weapons. Not as much as they would have on a two hundred ton human weapon, but enough. When the flares had died half of the enemy missiles were gone.

  Some few minutes later the missiles struck at the enemy weapons heading into the system with similar results. Forty-six missiles of the original two hundred continued in, and several of the survivors were boosting at a reduced rate. Right into the counter missile fire of the Gorgansha ships. When those blasts cleared there were only a half dozen weapons still forging ahead, while the Gorgansha ships hit them with lasers and particle beams.

  The commodore let herself breathe again as the last of the of the enemy missiles heading for the planet fell off the plot. That was their primary mission here, to stop the Machines from killing any more living worlds. And though the planet had been hurt by the earlier hits, it would survive, as would the intelligent beings on it.

  Missiles started going off among the enemy fleet, the first one hundred and eighty slamming into seventy-three Machine ships and converting them to plasma. Several more were damaged and began to lose boost. The second wave hit thirty seconds later, and the enemy force was reduced to less than half its original strength.

  The third and fourth launches struck, and only thirteen Machines vessels were still moving, none of them capital ships.

  “We could launch another spread, ma’am,” said the tactical officer. “But they’ll probably have jumped into hyper before they get there.”

  “Don’t bother,” said the commodore. “But order Goeben, Honshu, Forrestal and Hudson and their escorts to boost for the barrier. Captain Charleston of Goeben is in command, and they are to harry this enemy through hyper until they are destroyed.”

  As far as she knew, none of the Machine ships had hyper VII capability, and her vessels would be able to overtake them and launch strikes between dimensions. Charleston was a good captain, a division commander, and he wouldn’t have any problem ensuring that this enemy force never got home.

  “Now boost the rest of the force into the system. We need to talk to these people.”

  * * *

  “Thank you for coming to our aid,” said Lord Kessarlja over the com, looking at the strange appearing alien on the holo. The skin looked weak, while he was not sure the purpose of the long fibrous substance coming out of its head and showing over its narrow shoulders. Some of the slave races of the dominion had fur, but that was a shorter length fibrous substance, used to insulate their bodies, while that growth from the head couldn’t serve that purpose in any manner he could see.

  It had taken the alien capital ship sixteen hours to boost into close com range with his force, along with a couple of cruisers and a half dozen destroyers. The rest had boosted out of the system and jumped into hyper, most probably in pursuit of the artificial life forms.
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  “Glad to be of service,” said the creature in a high-pitched voice, the words translated into his language and a more comfortable timbre. “Our emperor has ordered that we be of help to you people against the artificial life forms, and so, here we are. One of our senior officers is currently in consultation with your dictator in your home system.”

  “Then I thank you again, you and your very brave males. And what is your name, good sir?”

  The being on the holo looked to be confused for a moment, her eyes widening. “I am a female of our species, sir. As are half of my crews.”

  Now it was Kessarlja’s turn to be surprised. Females in his society were always subservient. There had been female leaders among some of the slave races before they had been conquered, probably one of the reasons they had fallen so quickly. That these humans had females of their species in charge of warships, and battle groups of those ships, showed that they were not as wise as they pretended to be, nor as strong. Or were they?

  “Is something wrong, Lord Kessarlja?” asked the commodore, wondering what she could have said.

  “Nothing,” said the lord after a moment’s hesitation. “What are your intentions, now that the artificial life forms are gone?”

  “I’m not sure they are gone for long. But my whole force can’t stay here guarding you when they are out there trying to kill off everything they can get to. So we will leave one battle cruiser and its escorts here, for now. They can communicate any moves by the Machines on this system.”

  “So, it’s true. You have instantaneous communications.”

  “We do. And sorry, we can’t give that tech to you at the moment. Maybe someday. And, if you would like, I can come aboard your ship for a face to face meeting. We have always found that to be best in past contact situations.”

  “I would like that,” said Kessarlja, not really liking the idea at all. But what could he do? These people had saved his system and all the people under his protection. And they might save them again in the future.