The Star Cross: The Forever War
Page 20
Prince Brollen was deeply satisfied with the harvest so far. Over 170 worlds had been harvested, and a number of Collector ships had already been sent to the staging system. From there they would be taken by the intergalactic transports to the Vorn habitats. Brollen had taken care to include a number of specially sealed cases to be delivered to certain members of the Royal Court and the military. Soon something would have to be done about Queen Alithe if Brollen wanted to become the High Ruler of the Vorn. He was still debating what his new title would be.
Exiting hyperspace in eight minutes, sent Military Leader Ansolk.
This is a Protector World, added Military Leader Gallet. They had long ago perfected a universal translator for languages. While they never responded to messages from food species, they did monitor their communications, so they were very familiar with what a Protector World and an Enlightened World were. Long-range sensors indicate several large fleets near the target planet.
Prince Brollen nodded. He had seriously considered bypassing all the known Protector Worlds. Not many were in this sector, and, for the most part, they had not been a challenge for his fleets. In time, the Protector Worlds would be isolated and easier to deal with. However, he felt uncomfortable leaving an enemy behind him which someday could become a threat. Easier to deal with them now rather than later. For that reason he had decided to destroy the one in the system his fleet was about to enter.
We will drop from hyperspace four million kilometers from the target planet, reported the Vorn at Navigation.
Fleet is ready for battle, reported Military Leader Ansolk. We do not believe this food world has any ships with weapons dangerous to us. We have encountered some of their ships before as we have harvested several of their colony worlds. Their weapons could not penetrate our energy screens.
This suited Prince Brollen just fine. Since coming to this sector, the combined Vorn fleets had suffered very few losses. For the most part, the few enemy fleets that resisted had been annihilated with impunity. Over the last several weeks Brollen had added considerably to his private collection of food pellets. Fourteen food species had been found which were pleasing to his palate. He was certain, over the coming weeks, he would find more.
-
Fleet Admiral Baalish gazed at the tactical display with dismay. The Destroyers of Worlds were coming to the Abold System which contained the Protector World of Abold Three, responsible for twenty Enlightened Worlds as well as seven of its own colonies.
Already twelve of the twenty Enlightened Worlds had been harvested by the Destroyers of Worlds as well as three of its seven colony planets. Fleets placed in front of the black fleets had been crushed and, in most cases, never heard from again. Scout ships sent to the systems after the Destroyers of Worlds had departed found destruction and a total absence of life.
In several instances a few survivors were found, having taken refuge in deep underground cave systems or bunkers. However, finding any living creature was rare, and the degraded conditions on the planets made any hope of long-term survival nonexistent.
“Status?” asked Baalish, looking at his second in command, Tamil.
The Abold species could live both on the land or in water. While most of their cities were located on land, a few were still located in the deep blue oceans of Abold. The average Abold stood five foot tall with webbed feet and hands which allowed them to swim very fast.
“The Destroyers of Worlds fleet will egress hyperspace shortly,” Tamil replied, “between four million to six million kilometers from Abold Three. They are not using their sensor-dampening fields.”
“Our own fleets?”
“On War Footing One,” Tamil replied. “The defense grid around Abold has been activated, and as many of our citizens as possible are being evacuated to the underground shelters.” On Abold a number of deep underground shelters had been constructed in the hope they would protect the people inside them from the Destroyers of Worlds’ harvesting rays. Reports from other worlds stated some people deep underground had managed to survive, though only a handful had been found.
“Prepare the fleet,” ordered Fleet Admiral Baalish. “As soon as the Destroyers of Worlds’ fleet exits hyperspace, we will attack.” Baalish had over two thousand ships available to him. He had pulled all of Abold’s fleets from the colonies as well as the Enlightened Worlds they were supposed to protect. Abold could not be allowed to fall.
-
The Vorn fleet dropped from hyperspace, and instantly sensor alarms sounded.
Enemy fleet detected, confirmed the Vorn at Sensors. Short-range sensors show 2,217 ships.
A powerful fleet by most standards, sent Military Leader Ansolk. This will be the largest fleet we have faced since coming to this sector.
Enemy fleet is equipped with standard energy weapons and hypermissiles, reported Military Leader Gallet. Strength of the missiles is unknown until they use one, but, from previous encounters with similar ships, the missiles should be of the fifty to one-hundred-kiloton range.
No danger to our shields, added Military Leader Ansolk. They will easily absorb the power of warheads that size.
Very well, responded Prince Brollen. Take us in and eliminate the enemy fleet. A food world awaits us.
As you command, replied Ansolk with a slight bow as he communicated telepathically with the rest of the fleet—100 Vorn battleships and 1,400 battlecruisers protecting six motherships, including the Reaper. The motherships were at the heart of the Vorn battle formation.
-
Fleet Admiral Baalish waited expectantly as the Destroyers of Worlds’ fleet approached. His ships were gathered into one massive fleet, barring the path of the enemy to Abold Three. He had heard rumors of a new Alliance being formed by the Lakiams and the Andocks to hold the line against the Destroyers of Worlds in their sector of space. An even wilder rumor was circulating that the Glaymons were involved. He didn’t believe that as the Glaymons were merely a legend.
“Combat range in two minutes,” reported the sensor operator. “Detecting 1,500 enemy ships. The majority are their standard five-hundred-meter-long cruisers, but I’m also detecting one hundred of their twelve-hundred-meter-long battleships.”
Baalish’s own fleet consisted primarily of eight-hundred-meter-long battlecruisers. He looked at his hand, four fingers all connected by a fine webbing. Useless in space but great for swimming. He wondered if he would ever swim in the warm ocean waters of Abold again. “Stand by to fire weapons. Hit their lead ships with our energy weapons first, followed by a full strike from our missiles. Empty all tubes. Each ship is to target one enemy ship and continue to fire until it is destroyed.”
“Orders sent,” replied Tamil. “Should we spread our fleet formation?” The fleet was pretty bunched up with energy shields nearly touching.
“No,” replied Baalish. “It will give us added protection from their weapons. Our energy shields are extended to maximum range, and they’re nearly overlapping.”
“Weapons range!” called out the sensor operator.
“Energy weapons firing,” reported the tactical officer as his hands flew over his console. “Missiles launching.”
Admiral Baalish leaned forward in his command chair, watching the viewscreens intently. Energy beams struck the shields of the enemy ships, and then brilliant flashes of light appeared as eighty-kiloton nuclear warheads detonated. Baalish’s eyes narrowed as he watched the explosions. They seemed to vanish almost as soon as they appeared. That wasn’t right. He had seen warheads detonating in space before, and they didn’t behave like this.
“What’s happening to our missiles? The detonations don’t seem near as powerful as they should be.”
“The enemy’s energy screens seem to be absorbing the energy from our missile strikes,” reported the sensor operator. “Even our energy beams are ineffectual. None of our weapons are penetrating the enemy’s screens.”
As Baalish watched the viewscreens, black rays suddenly shot out from the enemy ship
s toward his fleet. He felt an icy shudder pass through him. The beams looked like death.
“Antimatter detected,” warned the sensor operator. “Of a type I’m not familiar with.”
Baalish had heard of this weapon; it was one of the reasons he had tightened his fleet formation, hoping the deadly beams would be stopped after passing through one energy screen. It should allow some of his ships to escape destruction. “All ships fire as squadrons and target one enemy ship.” His fleet was divided into squadron groupings of fifteen vessels. Perhaps by concentrating his firepower on fewer targets, they might destroy some of the enemy warships.
His flagship shook violently, and the lights dimmed. “What was that?”
“The Arils just exploded,” reported the sensor operator. The Arils was the battlecruiser nearest the flagship. “We were struck by some of the debris.”
Baalish looked at the tactical display; an uncomfortably large number of green icons blinked out—Abold warships dying in space.
“And results of our own attack?” Baalish was certain by attacking the enemy in squadron-size units he could destroy some of their ships. He looked at the sensor operator expectantly.
“Nothing,” reported the sensor operator, shaking his head. “All our weapons fire is still being absorbed by the enemy energy screens.”
“We can’t keep them from Abold,” said Tamil with great concern in his voice.
“Yes, we can,” answered Fleet Admiral Baalish. His expression looked determined as he gave his next order. “All ships are to accelerate to full sublight and ram the enemy ships.”
“Ram!” cried out Tamil, horrified. “You don’t mean that. Surely there’s another way.”
“Yes, ram. If we do not, we will all die here on our ships, and the enemy will then advance on Abold. Perhaps this way, we can keep them away from our home planet. Our weapons are ineffective. Let’s hope our ships are not.”
Tamil nodded and then passed on the order to the other ships. “Awaiting your command.”
Looking at the tactical display, Baalish saw another twenty ships of his fleet die. “Implement. Helm, target one of their battleships. Today we die for our world.”
The Command Center went strangely silent as the helm officer activated the ship’s sublight drive and then aimed the ship toward the nearest Destroyers of Worlds’ battleship.
-
Prince Brollen watched the viewscreens, showing highly magnified views of the enemy fleet. Ship after ship was exploding in bright fireballs of released energy as black antimatter beams pierced their hulls.
Enemy weapons having no effect on our screens, reported Military Leader Gallet. It is as we expected.
Enemy ships are breaking formation and accelerating toward us, warned the Vorn at Sensors.
They’re attempting to ram! sent Military Leader Ansolk as he quickly sent new commands by telepathy to all the Vorn ships. Other races had attempted to ram in the past, and the Vorn had developed a defensive strategy to handle it.
-
Suddenly thousands of black antimatter spheres launched from the Vorn fleet toward the incoming ships. The globes struck the shields and instantly drained them. Moments later the Vorn ships emptied their missile tubes of their small antimatter missiles. The missiles passed through the weakened energy shields, detonating against the hulls of the ships. Small novalike explosions swept across the onrushing formation of enemy ships.
-
Fleet Admiral Baalish felt his flagship shake violently. The lights dimmed, then brightened, and then died out to be replaced almost immediately by the dim glow of the emergency lights. Even the sound of the air moving through the ventilation ducts died to a bare murmur.
“Energy shield is down. Main power is out. I have no response from anyone in the rear half of the ship,” reported Tamil as he frantically listened to damage reports coming in. “There are also reports of multiple breaches in the hull, and numerous compartments are inaccessible. We have massive casualties throughout the ship.”
“All weapons are nonfunctional,” added the tactical officer from his darkened console. “We have no power for the weapons.”
The ship shook again, and Baalish could hear the sounds of tearing metal.
“Can we get power to the viewscreens?” He had to see what was happening to his fleet. By now some should have rammed the black ships.
“Maybe one,” the sensor operator reported. “I’ll have to adjust the emergency power.”
Moments later the lights dimmed even more, and the sound of air moving through the ducts faded completely. One of the viewscreens flickered and then came to life. It showed a disaster. All around the flagship was the wreckage of Abold warships. Even as he watched, an explosion rocked the partial remains of a battlecruiser, causing it to come apart in hundreds of pieces. All across the ruins of the fleet were bright flashes of light, indicating antimatter missiles still detonating.
“Did any of our ships manage to ram?” Baalish couldn’t believe the black fleet had stopped all his warships. Surely a few had gotten through.
Tamil slowly shook his head. “I don’t think so. The Destroyers of Worlds launched some type of black spheres that drained the power from our shields. They then fired thousands of antimatter missiles at our fleet. We never stood a chance.”
Baalish stared in anguish at the ruins of his fleet. Tens of thousands of fleet personnel were dead. “Did we destroy any of their ships in the battle?”
“No,” Tamil replied. His eyes widened in sadness. “These are the Destroyers of Worlds, and they have come for Abold. There is nothing more we can do.”
Outside the Command Center Baalish could hear screams of pain as another explosion rocked the ship, and then there was silence. The metal hatch to the Command Center groaned and buckled. Before Baalish could call out a warning, the hatch gave way, and the air rushed out, leaving the Command Center in a vacuum and killing everyone inside.
-
Prince Brollen gazed at the viewscreen with his triangular-shaped head, his twin antenna swaying slightly from side to side. All the enemy ships had been annihilated just short of the Vorn fleet. On the viewscreens, secondary explosions occurred in the wreckage of the destroyed fleet, hurling debris in every direction. Some of it had already impacted the energy screens of Vorn cruisers.
Enemy fleet destroyed, confirmed Military Leader Ansolk. None could ram.
Prince Brollen was pleased with this report. In the past, several food species had used cargo ships to ram his fleet, such as food species 236 where his fleet had been defeated. New strategies had been developed to prevent such an occurrence from happening in the future.
Move us past the wreckage and to the planet, Brollen ordered. He was growing impatient to sample this food species. He had not eaten in several days just so he could enjoy the taste of this species’ food pellets.
Three shipyards and a large space station are in orbit as well as an orbital defense grid, Military Leader Gallet reported. Sensor scans indicate none of the weapons on the shipyards, the station, or the defense grid are a danger to our fleet.
Destroy all the orbital structures and the defense grid so we can begin the harvest.
-
The fleet moved closer to the planet and came under heavy energy weapons fire from the shipyards, the station, and the orbital defense grid. The overall commander of the Abold military was on board the large space station and directing the defense of the planet. He had observed the recent battle between the Abold fleet and the Destroyers of Worlds.
In an act of desperation he had every energy weapon under his command fire at just one of the approaching spindle-shaped cruisers. Hundreds of energy beams struck the small warship, causing its energy shield to glow and fluctuate. Then a massive barrage of nuclear missiles slammed into the wavering shield. The shield suddenly collapsed, releasing all of its stored energy. In a sudden flash of light, the cruiser ceased to be.
Before the military commander could feel elation
at destroying one of the black ships, numerous black energy spheres appeared. The spheres struck the shields of all the remaining defensive installations, including the shipyards and the space station. In only moments the shields failed. Shortly afterward the lights slowly faded, and then they went out completely.
Emergency lighting came on, but, after a few moments, it faded and then died. Inside the Command Center of the space station the military commander stood in darkness, listening to the frightened voices of his officers. Then a roaring sound came, and a bright flash of light pierced the Command Center with searing heat.
-
In space, the shipyards, defensive platforms, and the space station blew apart as small antimatter missiles detonated against their hulls. Large pieces of glowing wreckage were hurled across space, much of it captured by the planet’s gravity. Over the course of the next few days, most of it would burn up in the planet’s thick atmosphere.
-
All orbital structures have been destroyed, confirmed Military Leader Ansolk.
Still a few small defensive satellites are in orbit, and our fleet is targeting them with our black antimatter beams, added Military Leader Gallet. Orbital space should be clear within the next three minutes.
Take us into orbit so we can begin the harvest, ordered Prince Brollen. He was ready to taste a food pellet of this world. However, none would be added to his collection. He had already tasted this food species when one of its colony worlds had been harvested. While the food pellets were acceptable, nothing made them special.
-
The Vorn fleet went into orbit, and, on the six mother ships, fourteen large hatches slid open. From each a black ray flashed forth to strike the surface of the defenseless planet below. Wherever they struck, any usable organic material was transformed into a black ashy substance and transported to the ships. In less than two hours the planet was devoid of all living beings, including animals, birds, fish, and even insects.
From the Vorn fleet white energy spheres dropped through the atmosphere toward their targets. The condensed balls of energy burst like bubbles just before reaching the surface. When they burst, they released a torrent of energy which swept outward, annihilating everything in its path. Buildings collapsed, others blew apart, and fires erupted, turning the center of the cities into firestorms. Dark clouds of smoke and ash rose into the atmosphere, blotting out the sun.