Star Raider

by Vaughn Heppner

  “The only problem I foresee will be following the apeman’s strict procedure,” Acton said.

  “It must be done exactly as I have outlined,” Greco said. “Otherwise, the planet will not split in two. Then, I will have failed. This is my supreme moment. You cannot let me down, Lord Acton.”

  “I am not attempting this for the sake of your koholmany,” Acton said. “I am doing this in order to halt the cyborgs.”

  “Yes, yes,” Greco said. “I understand. But this is my moment of glory. I have always believed planet-splitting possible. The centurion once said such splitting could be a weapon. Now, I understand what he meant. Before, by pure concentration—”

  “Enough!” Tanner shouted. “Will you two eggheads finish this? We’re almost out of time. Surely, the Doom Star is filled to capacity by now. It will lift off before we start. We won’t destroy it then in the coming inferno.”

  Greco scowled.

  Acton nodded slowly. “The centurion could have a point. We might also take the Doom Star down with the planet. Should we begin?” he asked Greco.

  “Yes, your lordship,” the apeman said, “I would love to start. I am giddy with the possibilities.”

  The three of them were jammed in the control room. Tanner stood behind Greco and Acton. The Dark Star was in midlevel orbit around Planet Zero.

  Acton took a deep breath. Once finished, he began to manipulate his slate. A secret war now took place as the Shand attempted to activate the takeover of hundreds of orbital missiles and sensors. At the same time, he tried to force the laser missiles to target the Doom Star.

  He had worked at this for hours, setting everything up for a mass cyber-assault. Greco and he had infiltrated the orbital AIs and computers. At this precise moment of time, the takeover began in earnest.

  “Something is fighting back,” Acton said. The glowing slate shined on his face. He put the slate on his lap and began tapping faster, like a man possessed.

  Tanner leaned over the seat, looking down. He didn’t understand the constantly changing schematics he saw.

  “Oh, clever, clever,” the Shand muttered. “But that isn’t going to foil me. It might stall a few missiles, nothing more.”

  “No,” Greco said. “The missiles must all hit in the exact sequence I’ve outlined. Everything will be ruined if they fail to act precisely. Then, we might as well not have tried this.”

  Tanner had never seen Greco so worked up. The intensity was something to behold.

  “Ah,” Acton said. “I have a breakthrough. The missiles should begin to head down soon. The lasers will give the Doom Star and maybe the Phaze something to think about.”

  Tanner waited, anxious, wondering if they could actually pull this off.

  “No,” Acton hissed. “No, I will not allow you to do that.”

  “Do what?” Tanner asked. “What’s going on?”

  Acton didn’t answer. His fingers blurred furiously, the tips tapping the slate. Tanner had never seen anyone type like that.

  Acton must have entered the zone. He no longer spoke, but typed, paused and typed so the schematics changed one right after the other on the slate. Soon, it seemed as if the schematics blurred on top of each other.

  Tanner looked out the port window. He saw a missile burn hot as it angled down toward the planet.

  “Oh, yes, oh yes, yes, yes,” Greco said. He began to hop up and down, hooting with delight. “It is happening. The great moment has come. I have made my koholmany. I understand vibrations better than anyone, even better than the legendary Tesla.”

  ***

  All around Planet Zero, the orbital missiles began to streak down toward the surface. Each missile had exact coordinates. Each moved in a perfect sequence.

  At the same time, orbital lasers moved into position high above the Doom Star. A cannon poked out of each nosecone. Then, ancient fusion drives thrummed, building up energy. At once, several orbital lasers beamed the mighty warship.

  The first attacks seemed to have caught the Doom Star by surprise. Heat boiled against collapsium armor, doing nothing destructive at first.

  More laser missiles slid above the giant battlewagon. They, too, beamed into the atmosphere, losing some strength but not much. Like the others, the beams boiled against the thick collapsium. While Doom Star armor was fantastic, even it couldn’t sustain this ravenous assault for long.

  Shuttles racing for the hangar bays veered off. Cyborg fighters began to climb for the stratosphere, afterburners roaring as flames lengthened. Clearly, they went after the orbital lasers.

  Still, the orbitals beamed their combined rays against the Doom Star.

  Now, the Old Federation battlewagon began to rise. As it did, mighty laser and particle beam cannons poked from its hull. It attacked its attackers.

  An orbital laser missile exploded. So did another and a third. The Doom Star began to annihilate its tormentors. Orbital lasers continued to heat the hull armor, though. Now, many of the beams combined on one location. The first particles of collapsium burned away.

  The cyborg space fighters began to target the orbital lasers.

  At that point, low over the horizon from every point on the compass appeared more cyborg fighters. There were larger ships, as well. They converged on the Doom Star.

  These cyborg vessels responded to the Web Mind deep underground. It had given them special instructions. Afterward, each cyborg pilot would maintain radio silence, not accepting any further instructions from anyone.

  Time passed as the Doom Star gained speed. Yet, it was a giant vessel, never made to operate in an atmosphere. That made it more sluggish than it would have been otherwise.

  The last of the orbital lasers slid into position above, adding their beams. The Doom Star had obliterated most of them. The Phaze’s cyborg fighters would finish the rest.

  That’s when the first air-to-air missiles launched from the wave of new cyborg vessels that streaked at the great battlewagon.

  Abruptly, the Doom Star’s lasers, particle beams and point defense guns began to blaze at the new threat. It was a testament to the Old Federation. The Doom Star was an engine of destruction. It wiped a wide swath of destruction through the approaching air-to-air missiles, but not a total obliteration of them.

  At that point, the Phaze-controlled cyborg fighters reached low orbit. The fighter cannons smashed the remaining orbital lasers.

  Those lasers no longer burned against the now pitted collapsium armor. They had weakened the hull in many places, though. Those places glowed red, throbbing like bleeding wounds.

  The masses of Web Mind-controlled fighters and heavier attack vessels zoomed at the great Doom Star. It was like thousands of bees swarming a lion, stinging it repeatedly.

  Thousands of Web Mind fighters and attack vessels exploded, raining metallic debris onto the ground. Fires raged on the surface. All the while, little missiles, big missiles and anti-ship laser streaked against the hull. A few missiles hit. Some of those were nuclear.

  Finally, a crack appeared in the great hull. The Doom Star seemed to stagger.

  The mass now aimed there, pounding the crack with more missiles, gushing lasers into the widening gap. One missile made it into the level behind the hull. It exploded, ripping bulkheads with a nuclear explosion. That caused coolants to bubble and froth, spilling onto laser coils. A hiss of steam rose, water boiled and a secondary explosion ripped into a battery storage area. Acid bubbled, burning through a deck.

  The Doom Star stopped its upward motion, lowered a fraction and then resumed its flight into space.

  ***

  Clack staggered once more. He had no idea what was going on outside. He was in the convertor chamber, a nightmare from Hell.

  He’d witnessed too many crewmembers strapped onto the terrible conveyor. He had often closed his eyes, moaning, vomiting more than once. It was a terrible process, the skin choppers, the new muscles and the circuits inserted into each brain.

  Soon, it would be his turn. There w
ere only a few others left now. What would it feel like? What—

  A muffled explosion shook the chamber. Clack staggered. He looked up. The bulkhead nearest the explosion blew apart. For a second, Clack could see the atmosphere outside. That didn’t seem right. What could break through a Doom Star’s armor?

  The next moment, he saw a missile. It was a big thing. It sailed into the convertor chamber and exploded. The blazing white was the last thing Clack Urbis saw before the nuclear blast reached him.

  ***

  Outside, the great Doom Star rolled as it began to sink. One too many explosions had destroyed its propulsion and gravity control. Still, the last cyborg fighters and attack vessels threw themselves at the giant battlewagon from a lost era.

  Now, the Phaze’s fighters struck back.

  It seemed impossible the Doom Star could survive this pounding. Yet, the masses of attackers had dwindled. Those left ignored the space fighters hitting their flanks. They had one order, and one order only: hit the Doom Star. That was the order they were going to obey as long as they breathed.

  -58-

  Aboard the Dark Star, Tanner stood transfixed by the images on the main screen. This was awesome. It was clear the Web Mind was in the fight, throwing its resources at the Phaze-controlled Doom Star. The great battlewagon staggered with its hull ruptured in places.

  At the same time, hundreds of Old Federation orbital missiles all over the planet raced to reach their detonation points on the surface. The orbital satellites that had circled Planet Zero for so long finally came down.

  The first hit sandy surface and exploded, sending up a giant mushroom cloud. At the same time, the force traveled into the earth and struck a fault line. That caused an interior vibration. It wasn’t a great vibration in the scheme of things, but it was the first of many.

  More nuclear explosions went off around the planet. More mushroom clouds climbed into the heavens. The continuous and precise strikes made the planet vibrate more than before. Continental pressure points slipped, causing further earthquakes. This happened to every fault line on the surface. Every pressure point slipped. Every tectonic plate moved. A vast, worldwide earthquake began to take place. It shook greater than the day the twin asteroids had struck the planet.

  The entirety of Planet Zero quivered. Under the surface, caverns and halls fell, crushing millions of cyborgs and their military equipment. The Web Mind more than a kilometer underground did not escape the destruction. The time warp around it merely meant that its death would occur a little later, but it was as good as destroyed.

  The vibrations shook the planet harder and harder. Vast cracks appeared on the surface. Those cracks zigzagged with ominous intent.

  On the Dark Star, in the control room, Greco hooted wildly as he jumped up and down.

  Tanner couldn’t believe this. It was working. Would he see the planet split apart before his eyes?

  The quakes intensified…and began weakening. The zigzags grew still. Underground water fountained into the air. Then, the vibrations all around the world lessened. The cracking surface no longer splintered. The earthquakes and vibrations quit.

  On the Dark Star Greco stopped hopping up and down. Instead of smiling, he frowned at the main screen

  “What happened?” the apeman asked.

  “We’ve succeeded against the hidden cyborgs,” Tanner shouted. “You did it, Greco. My instruments show planet-wide, massive destruction. Those quakes surely crushed the cyborgs out of existence. We only have the Doom Star to worry about now. Everything else is gone.”

  Greco looked dejected. “My koholmany,” he muttered. “My koholmany failed. I don’t understand. The planet should have splintered apart.”

  “You defeated the underground cyborgs,” Acton said. “Isn’t that good enough?”

  Greco stared at the Shand. Finally, the apeman shook his head, saying, “No, it isn’t good enough. I can’t believe it. I failed.”

  “No,” Tanner said, slapping his friend on the shoulder. “You’re the greatest success ever.” He turned to Acton. “Now we’re going to have to figure out what to do with the Doom Star.”

  ***

  The Doom Star seemed like a smaller version of the planet. Giant cracks split the hull, but the ancient battlewagon was somehow still intact. It continued to roll, though, and it lost height.

  No more orbital lasers beamed at it. Those were all dead. The last cyborg attackers either succumbed to the Phaze’s fighters or tumbled in the howling, nuclear-created winds that had begun sweeping the planet. That cyclone also swept Phaze fighters end over end.

  “Is it finished?” Tanner asked.

  “Look,” Acton said. “Do you see that?”

  Tanner tapped his board. He saw it all right. A comet-shaped thing flew out of the Doom Star. The Phaze headed for space.

  Tanner looked at Acton. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

  “Enlighten me,” Acton said.

  “It’s time to hunt the last Phaze.”

  “Then, the answer is yes. That is what I was thinking.”

  Tanner nodded curtly, tapping the controls. It was time to head down and catch the Phaze by surprise if they could.

  As the Phaze rose, as the Dark Star plummeted, the great and ancient Doom Star rolled around and around. As it did, the Old Federation battlewagon gained speed. Wind shrieked around it. The ball rolled faster.

  Then, the Doom Star smashed against the surface. Billions of tons of metal crumbled and pushed against rock and sand. It created a mighty boom. Metallic shrieks tore into the air. Rock splintered and sand rose in geyser after geyser.

  The cyborgs new and old, all the humans on the craft, smashed and bounced, shattered and died. Everyone aboard the Doom Star perished even as the giant battlewagon continued to crumple onto the barren surface.

  ***

  Tanner laughed. “It’s about time. I wondered when the Phaze would get wise to us.”

  Acton nodded.

  The comet-shaped Phaze abruptly changed direction. Instead of traveling for space, it headed down.

  “That’s what it should have done in the first place,” Tanner said. “If I were it, I’d ooze into the ground. What could we have done then?”

  “Nothing,” Acton said.

  “Right,” Tanner said. “That’s what I’m saying. It was stupid.”

  “Or it miscalculated,” Acton said.

  On the screen, the comet zoomed for the radioactive surface. The tail wriggled madly.

  “Target acquired,” Tanner said.

  “The gun is ready.”

  Tanner waited, waited, and then pressed the tab. The Dark Star’s special cannon fired, hitting the Phaze.

  The familiar scream sounded in Tanner’s head. He didn’t like it even though he desperately wanted to finish this creature. Then, outside the raider, the Phaze from the Triangulum Galaxy exploded with a multitude of colors.

  The energy being was dead.

  -59-

  Everything should have been over then, and it mainly was except for one small problem. The Phazes were dead and by now, so was the Web Mind. The people aboard the Dark Star had thwarted the terrible calamity of revived cyborgs with photon-electrical allies. Planet Zero couldn’t hurt anyone anymore.

  The new menace was the old menace, although it wasn’t critical to them at the moment. After all this, the Coalition admiral had decided to begin heading for Planet Zero. Every surviving ship of the Coalition expeditionary fleet was coming this way. Unfortunately, it appeared Admiral May had the codes to the system’s Old Federation sensors, mines and moon turrets. A few drones were also headed this way. That meant the Dark Star would not go out the way it had come in.

  “Even if we can sneak past the drones and fleet,” Tanner said, “why take any risks at this point?”

  The centurion presently squirted gravity waves from the raider. He piloted the Dark Star toward the system’s F type star.

  It had been a day now since the Phaze’s death, th
e Doom Star’s destruction, the missile barrage and the planetary earthquake that had smashed the hidden cyborgs and their ancient equipment. Greco was still in a blue funk at their failing to split the planet. Tesla’s ancient boast still stood unfulfilled.

  Tanner sighed. The apeman reminded him of the smart kid in class who was always deflated if he got an A- instead of an A+.

  The days merged into each other as the Dark Star left the last planet behind. For the first time in a long time, Planet Zero was truly a dead world.

  For hours, Tanner or Acton sat at the controls, listening for signals from Planet Zero. Nothing ever blipped. Could even cyborgs survive under trillions of tons of sand and rock? Somehow, Tanner doubted that.

  The raider passed the star, swinging wide around it. Now, they no longer sped toward the interstellar gulf. They went to the side, as it were, to ride along the galactic rim.

  That meant more delay, but it switched their direction as they drifted through velocity alone. Tanner could have squirted more gravity waves, but after all they had been through, he decided to play it safe.

  “What’s another week after our ordeals?”

  No one liked it, but no one disagreed. Old Federation drones launched by the Coalition continued to search for them. The various devices in the systems had joined in the hunt. It didn’t matter, though, not against their fantastic stealth equipment.

  “We can go anywhere we want,” Tanner said. “This is the stealthiest vessel in the Backus Cluster.”

  “It might be the stealthiest in the Orion and Perseus Spiral Arms,” Acton said.

  At last, the day came when the raider reached hyperspace territory. Now, they had to decide where to go next. Everyone agreed that the Nostradamus System was a good pick. What helped was that it was a straight shot from here, with no interstellar objects between them and their destination.

  The Dark Star entered hyperspace without a hitch, leaving the hunting drones and the Coalition fleet behind in the star system.