Immediately nukes started going off on the surface of Lenox-5.
“What’s going on?!” Jackie demanded.
“It appears the defenders have been compromised enough that the Zikars missiles are getting through!” Tabitha exclaimed.
Five major cities went up in giant fireballs, incinerating tens of millions of civilians.
“We’re going to give them the surprise of their lives,” Jackie said, typing her plan into the battle computer. “They don’t get to walk away from this. We’ll give them something to think about other than killing unarmed civilians!”
They ceased firing the ACP’s, of which many thousands had now been seeded into the theater, then engaged their FTL drives, but only for a short jump that planted them right in the midst of the fifty-or-so thousand ships enemy ships.
Five more nukes went off planetside. Five more cities dead.
More than a hundred million lives snuffed out in an instant, Jackie thought grimly.
All the core worlds of the Westerly Federation, sans Lenox-5, were destroyed, and over a third of the smaller Westerly worlds had been overrun by the Zikars. If they just held their current gains, in twenty years, they would return even deadlier than they presently were. No, they had to be stopped, then their gains reversed. Then she would pay a visit to them that they would never forget.
“Weapons free! All ships are weapons free!” Tabitha commanded.
This was the boldest part of the plan. They dropped directly into the midst of the Zikar fleet. With the FTL satellites seeded throughout, they had real-time positioning information for every ship, whether friend or foe. This allowed for insane maneuvers like they were now doing.
Immediately the massive railguns fired off giant metal slugs that ripped smaller ships in two and punched holes straight through the larger ones. The heavy lasers began firing in every direction at the enemy ships that were all around them. Many thousands of missile tubes began to spew forward their rockets, delivering additional death and destruction.
“Release all fighters! Release all boarders!” Tabitha commanded.
The dreadnoughts released all their AI-driven fighters. There were ten Bojovník-class dreadnoughts in this combined allied fleet, each possessing three thousand fighters that poured out like angry bees. The ten smaller Warrior-class dreadnoughts released their fighters as well. But among the prizes, the Commonwealth had brought along were three Eagle-class carriers. Carriers were lightly armed and were only used for carrying the small Bolzen fighters. Each one belched out six thousand of the little unmanned fighters, before going to FTL to get to the safety of the outer system rather than staying behind to fight.
All of Jackie’s ships and most of the Commonwealth ones contained MACs that could transport hundreds of combat droids or dozens of marines each. And there was no way the marines were sitting this one out, except for hers on the Mars. The troops assigned to the Mars would forever be restricted to that ship unless the High Queen was not on it, in which case they would be with her.
Thousands of very stealthy marine assault craft entered the theater of battle loaded both with man and machine ready to do combat aboard the enemy ships.
And if that were not enough, Jackie had her two heavy troop transports along with ten from the Commonwealth. They had offered her more, but with each ship holding over thirty-five thousand ACUs. The heavy troop transports also released their thousands of dropships, ships that served double-duty as heavy atmospheric dropships and for boarding actions. After they had released their cargo, the transports went to FTL to join the carriers to wait out this huge battle.
Even with the vastness of space, the area around Lenox-5 had become crowded as there were now tens of thousands of active vessels in the system. Most computers could not keep up with this, though the battle computers aboard each Askirti dreadnought were programmed to track millions. If a dreadnought was in the system, any ensuing battle could be properly coordinated. This was due mostly to the efforts of the ancient AI, Pari, who designed the systems to optimize available technologies. According to the AI, with the proper equipment, the computers should be able to track billions simultaneously, but that technology was not yet available to the Askirti.
##
Eigor came running onto the bridge as the ship shook again, klaxons blaring. Ships this large were not supposed to shake!
“Status report!” he demanded.
“Sir, another fleet has jumped into the system and are attacking us!” Abdul said.
“Have they identified themselves?”
“No, sir! They exited FTL directly within our formations! I’ve never seen anything so ludicrous! All our ships were out of position! We already have ships that report they’ve been boarded by...by...robots!”
“Robots?”
“Yes, sir!”
“I’ve seen an intelligence report that suggests the Commonwealth has been using those,” Eigor said. “We can assume that it is them we are facing. Have they attempted to communicate with us yet?”
“No, sir, they have not!”
“Hmm. Perhaps they are not interested in talking after we nuked the last few worlds. It seems high command might have put us on a disadvantaged path in that regard. What else is happening?”
“Some of our ships have begun to fire on one another!” Abdul stated.
“What? Why in the world would they do that?”
“I don’t know, sir! But the enemy may have technology we are not aware of!”
“Okay, prepare a ship, no, make that three ships, to FTL out of here at once to bring a status report back to high command. And make ready three more ships, send them out a few light minutes to watch and observe, then have them report back as well if this does not go our way.”
Eigor was furious at this change of events. Not only were his plans for Lenox-5 interrupted, but his evening with the two blond Westerly women was on hold after only an hour with them. At the unusual sound of ordinance exploding on the hull of the dreadnought, one of the blonds, Emilia perhaps, suddenly had a renewed spirit and tried to strike him. Thankfully Julie was there to subdue her and the other woman. She always stood guard over him during his liaisons, having two shock-sticks at the ready. She shocked Emilia because she deserved it, and the other one, whatever her name was, for good measure, both at the same time. Then she shocked them both again. Her steward then dragged the women back to their room and chained them back up all before Eigor finished getting redressed.
Such efficiency, he thought.
To show his gratitude, he said a rare “thank you” to Julie, then gave her a kiss on the unmarred cheek while patting her bum. She always seemed so pleased whenever he did this and this time was no different.
He was no longer in the mood for Westerly women. Perhaps once this battle was over, he would just have Julie attend to his needs for the coming weeks. Zikar women were the best women. And that was why he fought this war, to make them all Zikar women, just like Julie, who really knew her place.
Just then, an alarm went off.
“INTRUDER ALERT…INTRUDER ALERT…”
Chapter 21
Lenox System
In high orbit around Lenox-5
Emilia was chained like an animal inside this holding cell with her mother and two other women. After the last hour of being raped by this so-called admiral, she had never felt littler. As if that was not bad enough, her mother was there too, being raped with her. In a rush to secure them in the holding cell, neither of them were allowed the dignity to dress. As such, they were both naked and chained.
Her mother, who looked no older than she did due to the Westerly Federation’s anti-aging treatments, was dealing with the situation better than her. She did not have that broken look on her face that Emilia now wore, or that the two other women in here had, having spent several nights with the admiral.
Though she despised her mom for what she had become, she did feel a tad bit of sympathy for her. She did notice how her mom tried to get the ad
miral’s attention on her and off Emilia, seemingly glad to grant him every pleasure he could want, even offering up suggestions. The more her mom did, the less she had to do. But that did not completely stop the man who took more of a shining to Emilia than her mother.
“Thank you,” she said to her mother.
“It’s the least I could do for being such a terrible parent,” Margaret said meekly.
“Mom, why? Why this ‘Chosen’ group?”
Upon trying to flee Loyola Sentra in the face of battle, Emilia learned the truth, that her mother was a traitor, one who played a key role in a plot to overthrow the Westerly Federation.
“I did what they told me to. What he told me to,” she said.
“But why?”
“They had dirt on me, dirt that if found out, I would be executed,” she answered, looking away.
“What is it? I hardly think it matters at this point if I know.”
Her mother sighed, with resignation.
“A long time ago, I sold the codes to get past the Gatekeepers in Sol,” she replied, the look of shock on the other women noticeable. “The massacre on Earth was preventable,” she started crying now. “They offered me so much money! I thought I needed it! How was I to know what they’d do once they got there?!”
Emilia and the other two women were just staring at her now, mouths open but no words coming out.
“And now, they blackmailed me to do worse with the core worlds. Yes, they couldn’t get through the Gates because of that woman, but the sabotage to the networks was my fault.”
Emilia was stunned. Her mother was the biggest traitor in Westerly history. At this point, she wanted to get a shock-stick herself and punish the woman. She knew now she would only be remembered as the daughter of The Traitor.
“Mom, billions have died to protect your secret.”
Margaret was hysterically weeping at this point.
At this point, she heard the sound of distance gunfire.
Boarders, she thought. There is hope for me.
Just then there was a small explosion at the door to the suite. From their vantage point, they could see only a part of the main suite, but they did see the marines coming into the room, stunning the admiral's steward.
I wish they would just kill the wench.
Two of the marines came up to the door, both men. At this point, Emilia was not worried about modesty, neither was her mother.
“A little help here?” she said to them, holding her shackled hands up.
To their credit, the men were complete professionals, and did not ogle them, but had a look of utter disgust on their faces knowing these women had been abused.
“Sir, are you Lieutenant Shepard?” one of them said while unshackling them while another got their clothes for them.
“Yes, I am,” Emilia answered. “And why would you care?”
“Well, I don’t. I mean, that sounds bad, it’s just that facial recognition popped up a flag on my HUD concerning you and your mother over there.”
Oh great, The Traitor and her daughter.
“What is THAT?!” Emilia cried out, looking at the broken doorway
“Those are our ACUs, Automated Combat Units. There’s more of them than are of us now. They work well with us and are very helpful. You won’t be able to order them around as you are part of a different military, only we get to do that. Anyway, we need to hurry, I have orders to evac you and your mother at once while the others are being located.”
“Others?”
“Yeah, we found out that Zikar officers like their women in chains. Disgusting, but many officers have a suite with a holding cell, usually with several women in it,” he said, making a face. “We have to go now. Follow me.”
Now dressed, and exiting the suite, she kicked the unconscious steward ‘Julie’ on the way out. She was still out from being stunned, but it felt good to leave her a little present.
Her escorts included a dozen of the robots and a half-dozen marines.
All this for me? Shouldn’t they be securing this ship?
A blast went off just down the corridor just as heavy weaponry began to discharge in their direction. The heads on the first two robots popped right off at the first blast, then two of the marines took a blast in the chest, killing them both instantly.
“We need reinforcements! We have priority packages!” cried out of the marines on his comm before his head had a large hole blasted through it.
Half the marines escorting her had already died to protect her and her traitorous mother. These were honorable soldiers and her mother was not. And now knowing who her mother was, she felt she would never again know what it meant to live a life with honor.
Just then the battle reached a higher pitch as the ACUs flooded the corridor, some of which were brandishing heavy weaponry in response to the enemy’s actions. Unless Emilia had seen it, she never would have believed robots could be so fluent in their movements, and deadly in close quarter combat.
After the Zikars that had them pinned down earlier had been killed, her escort led her down a series of corridors that led to an airlock.
“Through here, sirs,” the marine gestured as they exited the enemy dreadnought and boarded the tiny marine craft.
Immediately they put on disposable vac-suits and helmets then got into their harnesses which would keep them secure should the ship have to make sudden maneuvers.
Detaching from the massive ship, she brought up external feeds and was taken back by just how many ships were in the field of combat. Querying the computers revealed tens of thousands of craft were at play here, from the mighty to the minuscule, such as the craft she was on. That made this indeed the largest battle in recorded history.
A shiver ran down her spine watching as the MAC dodged both ships and debris. At one point the most logical course the ship took was between two pieces of a battleship that met its end in a blaze of glory, each chunk slowly spinning in separate directions. There were thumping sounds on the outside of the ship as it carefully tried to maneuver around the debris, but small pieces of ships and human bodies were so abundant they were unavoidable.
Just as they were getting free of the wreckage, the MAC lurched as random fire hit it. At least Emilia thought it was random because it did not hit again. Nevertheless, when the tiny ship lost pressure from the single hit she was suddenly very thankful for the vac-suit.
As they cleared the debris field they were in, there was another just ahead, but more than that, she could see on sensors there was a fleet of ships plowing through the Zikar fleets like a boat would the water. The largest one she was familiar with during her tour that included the Battle of Wellington while serving on WFS Nemesis. It was the Bojovník, or one of that class. Her heart rate went up when she noticed more of them, a lot more of them.
At this point, their shuttle was flanked by a fighter escort. The curious little black ships seemed to come out of nowhere and surround the shuttle in a formation so tight it felt like her heart was going to stop.
Looking back to an external feed, she watched as they passed a battleship, then another, both heavily damaged, firing back at the Zikar fleet. As she zoomed in, she was amazed at the level of damage these ships were taking and yet they were still fighting. Entire chunks of the ships were missing.
What kind of warships are these?
As she flew past the battleship formations, approaching the dreadnoughts, she could see several of them were heavily damaged as well, but still plowing forward as if undisturbed by it all.
Suddenly, there was a flare, she pressed a button to change camera positions and she saw one of the battleships she had just passed was breaking up into pieces. Some escape pods were coming from it as it tumbled in the void, but nowhere near what she thought would be enough.
She then oriented the camera to the planet below, and a sickening feeling came over her, as she saw two nuclear warheads suddenly ignite, and signs dotting the planet where others had already exploded. She closed her e
ye for a moment, thinking of the tens of millions that died just then.
How many have died because of my mother? The Traitor?
Just then the craft dove into the hangar of one of the nearby dreadnoughts, the fighter escort peeling off, presumably to rejoin the battle.
“Welcome to the ARNS Mars,” said the pilot over the comm while landing the small ship in the hangar.
As they exited the shuttle, there was an armed escort waiting.
“Sir, you are under arrest,” she heard one of the marines say.
She knew she deserved it, being the daughter of the biggest traitor ever to live meant her life was over. As it was, she was pondering suicide, not really believing her life could have a purpose anymore. It was a dark feeling thinking about taking the next breath, when her mom was one of the biggest monsters to ever walk on two legs, costing the lives of billions.
The marine stepped forward with a set of shackles, not unlike the ones she had spent the last week in. And to her surprise, there was only one set of them, and they were placed on her mother, who looked almost relieved.
“You are under arrest, for treason, sir,” the marine said, clearly addressing her mother.
The marines escorted her away.
“Lieutenant, if you will come with me,” said another marine.
##
Jackie was observing the battle from the flag bridge. Their losses were horrendous, but the damage to the Zikar fleet was proportionately more so.
More than ever she was thankful that the upgraded ships used less fleet personnel, as the level of damage to some of these ships would have meant substantially higher loss of life otherwise. And the use of the ACUs meant crew members that did not need air to breath. Her ships kept working, kept getting critical repairs done where an all human crew would have failed. But still, the souls that were lost were in the many thousands.
The AI-operated Bolzen fighters had been a resounding success at disabling or destroying the smaller ships of the Zikar fleet, the fighters that the Zikars had launched were simply no match. There was, of course, the occasional hotshot pilot that outperformed the AIs, but with so few of them, they never stood a chance against the numbers the Askirti and Commonwealth were fielding. With the enemy fighter screens destroyed, and the smaller ships out of commission, the allied fighters swarmed medium-sized ships, damaging weapons ports or engines whenever possible. At this point, they were throwing away fighters, but they had enough to burn through that it was worth it to keep these ships tied up as boarders subdued the crews.
Rumors of Wars: The Askirti Chronicles - Book 2 Page 20