Star Clusters: New Arrivals

by Dalo Lorn

  Zeshaira looked at the formation he created on the board. A single black pawn sat surrounded by all the white figures, presumably as a representation of what he had just said. “And if it’s the truth?”

  “Then we might as well go down fighting. And if we can’t win,” he started knocking down some of the white figures with the black pawn at that, finally dropping the pawn itself, “we’ll take as many of them down with us as we can.”

  “Somehow,” Zeshaira said silently, “that does not sound encouraging at all.”

  “It wasn’t meant to be,” Lanis simply said. “We should probably get some rest, though. Poteran’s men just informed me that they’ll be hitting Lieproi within the next forty-eight hours, so I had to turn us around - we’ll reach the Holsen system soon.”

  “Yes, you are probably right,” she said, returning to her cabin.

  Lanis stood there for a few more seconds, looking at his chessboard. “Go down fighting, indeed...” he said to himself before heading into his cabin.

  Some four hours later, an alarm started beeping throughout the ship, waking everyone from their sleep - they were about to reach the Holsen system. Lanis ran into the cockpit, and when the Eagle dropped out of hyperspace near Holsen Seven, he flew it down to the ancient ruins on the night side of the planet. Just like they had done in orbit of Daserus Three, the crew met in the main hold to plan their excursion.

  “Alright,” Lanis started, “Holsen Seven is, for all intents and purposes, a big, dead rock. There is nothing interesting down there - none of the minerals or chemicals down there are worth the effort it’d take to extract them. Now, because of this, very few people visit the planet - most ships proceed deeper into the system, so we should remain undetected so long as we’re gone by sunrise.”

  “Unfortunately,” Fanra added, “the place is also extremely inhospitable. We’ll need environmental suits - it’s very cold down there, and I’m not even sure the planet has an atmosphere worth mentioning; even if it does, it isn’t anything we can breathe.”

  “I was getting to that.”

  “Right. Sorry.”

  “So it’s basically a frozen wasteland,” Herrun said. “What are we waiting for again?”

  Lanis looked at Herrun, trying to decide what to say to that. After a brief pause, he shrugged and went to put on his AEA suit; the others followed him. Within minutes, everyone was outside the Ivory Eagle and exploring the ruins.

  Meanwhile, the Hippasrus and its fleet were moving through hyperspace towards the Lieproi system, their attack plan a simple and efficient one: while the main fleet, led by the Hippasrus and the Soscut, assaulted the military outpost near Lieproi Three in an attempt to seize their resources, a smaller group protected by the Piluams and a few lighter ships would head to Lieproi Five and conduct a detailed sweep of the ancient ruins on the planet surface.

  “All ships, prepare to drop out of hyperspace. Weapons and shields to maximum, prepare attack shuttles for launch,” Poteran ordered. “Do not fire until I say so or we are fired upon; let’s try diplomacy first this time.” The main fleet dropped out of hyperspace at roughly the same time as the survey ships. “Looks like we’re evenly matched. Hail the station, let them know this doesn’t have to end in bloodshed.”

  The communications officer pressed a few buttons on his console. After a brief delay, the crystalline viewscreen formed, displaying the control center of a typical Petran space station. “What do you want, traitor?” the outpost’s commander asked.

  “I am not the traitor here,” Poteran bluntly stated, “but you might not be one either. The reason I’m fighting against the government is not because of some petty conflict or a lust for power, Commander; but a desire to expose the corruption within.”

  “Just give me a good reason not to shoot you down, or open fire. I don’t have the time or the patience to argue with anyone right now.”

  “I have reason to believe that the Petran High Council has been infiltrated by a new breed of Xargan. Is that good enough for you?”

  “Alright,” the commander said in a suspicious tone, “how do I know you’re not one of them? How do I know you’re not the infiltrator?”

  “How do I know you’re not one of them?” Poteran answered. The fact that the station commander hadn’t opened fire yet was a good sign - perhaps this could still be resolved. “We’ve devised a series of tests which we think can detect these new Xargans. If I could, I would test the Council - but that is rather hard to do when I’m considered a renegade.”

  “I still don’t believe you.” The transmission ended, and the station - along with the ships near it - opened fire.

  “I’d say expecting diplomacy to work here was a bit silly, Kellas,” Rotgen said on the fleet’s comm channel as they returned fire. “At least we bought Boller and her team some time.”

  One of the enemy corvettes was destroyed by focused fire from the Hippasrus. “Yes, at least there’s that,” Poteran answered as some of the debris smashed into the ship’s shield bubble, bouncing off its smooth surface. “You think we can beat them?”

  “Before their reinforcements get here? I doubt it. If we want to get any resources out of there, we’ll have to launch the shuttles while the station’s turrets are still active; we can keep most of the fleet from targeting them, but not the turrets.” Several hostile fighters attacked the Soscut, but were mostly obliterated by the ship’s own fighter squadrons.

  “What about the drop pods? They’re fast enough to avoid getting shot down.”

  “Well, that could work - but we could end up destroying the things we’re after. Not to mention the fact that they could get stuck there.”

  “That’s not good enough, Jalno,” Poteran interrupted while several of the Hippasrus’ supporting corvettes lost shields.

  “Yes, but you’re on the right track. We could launch a few empty pods into the turrets. Even the smaller ones should do it.”

  “I guess we’re going to find out soon. All ships, focus fire on the enemy fleet. Soscut and Hippasrus will disable the station’s shield and commence boarding operations.”

  While the Soscut and Hippasrus fired at comparably insignificant sections of the station to safely deplete its shields, all the other ships fought in a chaotic mess nearby. “Sir,” the Hippasrus’ tactical officer suddenly said, “I’m picking up a lot of hyperspace signatures, but they’re not coming from Petran space!”

  As he said that, a large amount of hyperspace windows opened. A large swarm of Xargan ships of various sizes emerged from hyperspace and started firing at the Petrans fighting over Lieproi Three.

  ”Hail the station again!” Poteran commanded. The station’s commander appeared on the viewscreen. “Commander, tell your men to cease fire and engage the Xargans! Board shuttles, load them with whatever equipment you can - we can’t win this fight!”

  The suspicious Petran hesitated for a moment. “Do it,” he finally said to his crew, and the transmission ended. The station’s defense fleet moved into the Hippasrus’ formation; the real battle for Lieproi had begun.

  “All ships, move in to attack! Do not let the Xargans destroy the station or the evacuation shuttles! Piluams, what’s your status?”

  “We’re still working here - thankfully, we’re on the other side of the system, or they’d have taken us out by now,” Boller reported. “I’d say this’ll be done by the time the station’s evacuated, but I can’t be certain.”

  “Soscut here - our shields are down to seventy percent and weakening rapidly. I don’t know what tricks you have up your sleeves, Kellas, but it looks like we won’t last long enough.”

  “We have to last long enough!”

  “There’s simply too many of them!”

  “Can’t we take the station with us?” Boller suggested as a Petran frigate was overpowered and destroyed by the Xargan swarm. “Split it into manageable pieces, jump into hyperspace with them attached to our hulls?”

  “That could work,” the station comman
der said, having tapped into their communications. “I’ll see what we can do.”

  “We still have the issue of the ruins on Lieproi Five to solve,” Poteran reminded them. “We can’t take a planet into hyperspace, remember?”

  “I’ll try to rush it,” Boller said, “but Captain Rotgen’s right - holding them off long enough to evacuate the station isn’t going to work. We have to get out of here.”

  “Soscut’s shields are now down to forty percent. Whatever you’re going to do, do it fast.”

  “Our shields are down to twenty percent,” the station commander reported. “We think we’re ready, though.”

  “Alright - all ships bigger than a frigate, move to secure the station components. Once that’s done, jump to Lieproi Five.” The station fell apart - the fleet used tractor beams and clever maneuvering to collect the various modules before the Xargans could destroy them, then jumped into hyperspace to reach Lieproi Five. A couple of seconds later, the fleet dropped out of hyperspace again, maneuvering into a defensive formation.

  “We’re almost done here,” Boller said.

  “Good; they’re coming,” Poteran responded. Indeed, the first Xargans were emerging from hyperspace after conducting an in-system jump of their own and starting to engage the Petrans as he said that.

  “Shuttles are coming back. Give me thirty more seconds.”

  “We’ll try. All ships, scatter into hyperspace once the Piluams’ shuttles are aboard; rendezvous at these coordinates.”

  Several smaller Xargan flyers went through the blockade and attacked the shuttles. “Shuttles are under fire!” Boller said.

  “Soscut, send your fighters to protect the shuttles!”

  A squadron of fighters broke away from the main battle and engaged the Xargan raiders. “Fighters are already en route,” Rotgen said. “We’re losing shields!”

  “The first wave of shuttles is aboard. Fifteen seconds.”

  “Shields are out! Hull breaches on decks ten and eleven!”

  “Ten seconds! Soscut, recall your fighters - we can manage, but you need to get out as soon as possible!” Boller said.

  The fighters were already flying back to their mothership - by the time the shuttles were aboard, the Soscut was ready to jump to hyperspace, and promptly did so. The rest of the fleet followed suit.

  In the meantime, on Holsen Seven, Lanis and the others finished their survey. Unfortunately, as with Daserus Three, there seemed to be very little of interest. This time, however, there were no old Tarhedian texts to be found, either.

  As they headed back to the ship, Fanra tripped over a rock and fell - as Lanis helped her up, she inadvertently looked up into the sky. “Uhh, guys? I think we have company,” she said, pointing at a medium-sized Xargan fleet approaching the planet.

  “You have got to be kidding me…” Lanis muttered. “Into the ship, now!” he yelled, following his own order at the same time while a group of the smaller Xargans flew down towards the dig site, followed by a series of Xargan drop pods. As soon as everyone was aboard, the Eagle lifted off, flying with all guns blazing into the approaching flyers.

  The ship’s turrets brought a few of the incoming Xargans down as it passed through their formation, and it dodged several projectiles from the larger craft before attempting to open a hyperspace window. When no hyperspace window appeared, Lanis was more than a little puzzled. “What’s wrong with the hyperdrive?” he asked over the intercom.

  “It’s not the hyperdrive - they’ve got a disruptor!” Fanra answered from the engine room.

  The Xargans were known for their adaptive nature, but mimicking such advanced technology had always seemed to be beyond their abilities - and, until the Interdictor prototype used to capture Admiral Jackson was developed, hyperspace disruption was considered impossible for starships even with the most advanced technology known to both the Terrans and the Petrans. “That’s impossible!”

  “I guess it isn’t,” Fanra noted. “I’ll tap into the sensors, maybe I can find it.” As she said that, she accessed the sensors from the engineering console - a function that was usually managed by the Eagle’s cockpit. It didn’t take long to determine that the hyperspace disruptor was deep within the largest Xargan ship. Meanwhile, the Xargan in question extended several tentacles from its sides and sent them towards the Eagle, forcing Lanis to be even more creative in his evasive maneuvering. “We have a problem!”

  “We’ve got tons of problems, which one are you talking about?” Lanis asked, avoiding another tentacle. Suddenly, one of them hit the hull - overpowering the Eagle’s shields within moments - and held on to it. Furthermore, the tentacle created a laserproof bubble around the ship, rendering its weapons useless. “Okay… I think we’re stuck.” He tried moving the ship around, but the tentacle remained attached, slowly pulling the Ivory Eagle in. “Yeah, we’re stuck.”

  “Well, we’re stuck either way. Turns out their disruptor’s pretty well protected - our guns wouldn’t have done a thing to them,” Fanra explained.

  “Do we not possess explosives of considerable power?” Zeshaira asked, remembering the story Lanis recalled to Jackson in the Carthan system.

  “Yeah, I got some new bombs back at Cartha that should rip this thing apart, but without our shields, we’d be torn to bits along with it.”

  “What about the transporter?” Fanra asked, realizing the idea behind Zeshaira’s question. “Xargans don’t have shields, so we should be able to send a couple of bombs over--”

  “And blow up this tentacle thing and the hyperspace disruptor,” Herrun interrupted. “Nice thinking.”

  “Alright, but I’ll need some help with this,” Lanis said. “Herrun, get over to the cockpit - you’ll have to take us into hyperspace once the bombs go off, and I need everyone else’s help to put this together.”

  It didn’t take long at all for the bombs to be extracted from the Eagle’s makeshift minelayer; finally, they were beamed into the hyperspace disruptor and the root of the tentacle holding the ship, resulting in two powerful explosions. “Alright, punch it!” Lanis said into the intercom, and they made the jump to hyperspace. The Holsen system, however, was lost once again to the merciless Xargan onslaught.

  Of course, these were not the only battles being fought against the Xargans. Deep in the interstellar void, the U.S.S. Orion - having been seized and sent to Earth, with Eugene Jackson confined to his quarters - was pulled abruptly from hyperspace along with its escort.

  The admiral looked out of the window and saw a Xargan task force similar in size to that encountered by the Ivory Eagle in the Holsen system. To his great annoyance and concern, it was clear from the fleet’s maneuvering that the Orion’s acting captain was inexperienced or incompetent - and would be incapable of winning this battle. He headed towards the door, but was stopped by the heavily armed - and armored - soldier standing outside. “Sir, you have to stay inside,” the trooper insisted, pushing him back through the door.”

  Jackson wasn’t going to give up, though. “I have to get to the bridge,” he said, trying to get past the guard.

  The ship shook as Xargan projectiles impacted its shielded hull. “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that, sir.”

  “Look at my uniform. Does it say ‘I give a damn about your orders’ anywhere on it? Let. Me. Pass.”

  “Admiral, my orders include shooting you with a stunner if you keep resisting.”

  “Have you ever seen a Xargan kill his victims? I have, and believe me, it’s bad. It’s even worse than it looks. We’re about to be wiped out by a whole army of these things; if you’re lucky, they won’t board us and you’ll be incinerated in the explosion or left to die a slow death in the debris. Assuming they don’t find you, that is. If they find you, or if they board us, you’ll probably be eaten, dissolved, or just torn apart one piece at a time - and the worst part is, you’ll be alive as they do it to you. Let me get to the bridge, and maybe, just maybe we’ll get out of this place in one piece.”

 
As Jackson explained the trooper’s likely fate to him, he couldn’t see the reaction through his visor until the latter finally put down his gun. “Alright, but I’m coming with you,” he said.

  “Fine. Come on.” They rushed towards the nearest turbolift, soon arriving on the ship’s bridge. “What’s the situation?” he demanded upon exiting the elevator, surprising the entire bridge crew, especially the captain who had arrested him near Menlon.

  “What are you doing here? Crewman, I ordered you to--”

  “I’m here because somebody has to win this fight, and it sure as hell doesn’t sound like it’s going to be you,” Jackson interrupted. “You can add ‘forcibly took control of a US task force’ to my charges if you like; now, what’s the situation?”

  “A large Xargan mothership somehow pulled us out of hyperspace, several smaller ships and a swarm of fighters are attacking us,” the tactical officer reported. “Welcome back, sir.”

  “This-- this is mutiny!” the captain protested furiously.

  “Send all fighters to engage the mothership, concentrate their fire on the thing’s brain. Route power from hyperdrive capacitors to shields, order the escort ships to target enemy fighters and use us as cover, and lock on to the closest Xargan ship with all available tractor beams,” Jackson ordered before turning to the outraged officer. “This, ‘Captain’, is war. You don’t leave any resources unused if you want to live. Now, either shut up or get off my bridge.”

  The displaced captain chose the former, silently observing the battle. The Orion quickly ensnared a medium-sized Xargan with its tractor beams, then opened fire, tearing the creature apart with a few well-aimed volleys from its main weapons. The admiral just smiled at the ease with which the maneuver was executed. “Alright, let’s try catching two at a time… try to split our graviton emitters and weapons as evenly as you can, targeting the next two ships. Shield status?”