Opening Moves

by James Traynor

  “Where are the Érenni?”

  “Still focusing on our attack, Ma'am,” her XO stated. “They are deployed in our path. Only token forces are engaging Captain Farwalker's forces.”

  “That'll change when she opens fire. I suppose they might direct ships from their lines to engage her. If that happens we will hit whichever location they weaken.”

  “Aye, Ma'am.”

  “Give Farwalker the word, commence attack.”

  The second force of Ashani ships which had outflanked the Érenni came about, pointing their noses to the planet. With deliberate actions Captain Farwalker sent targeting data to her remaining missile ships and ordered a planetary saturation strike. Missiles began to launch from the Stormwave-class vessels, a steady pouring of slow moving warheads that entered the atmosphere and arced downwards at ballistic speeds.

  The Érenni almost ignored the weapons. Too much of their defenses were already engaging the ships above. The planetary lasers and anti-missile silos simply had reached the peak of their capacity, and detecting no fusion warheads amongst the volley, local defense computers gave the inbound missiles low priorities. It was a hard choice to ignore the attack fully knowing thousands would likely die, but many more would perish if the main enemy fleet broke through, and there was still a sense within the defenders that they might just grab victory from the jaws of defeat. The missiles went unchallenged save by a few surface based batteries, and they detonated at their predetermined release points.

  Their payload was an innocuous liquid rendered aerosol by the weapons, scattered through clouds and hanging like mist in the bright blue sky before slowly descending. It took a few minutes to register and understand what was happening, and by then it was far too late to do anything. A second volley of missiles was fired, carrying their biological warheads to another location in the planet's atmosphere, a carefully calculated pattern to cover the whole globe with maximum efficiency. It was the science of planetary genocide. Then more 'conventional' missiles streaked down, bathing cities in lethal doses of neutrons, overpowering ground defenses as low-yield fusion bombs buried themselves into military installations.

  The Érenni immediately sent ships to engage the relatively weakly armed missile ships, but in the instant those Republican cruisers retreated the Dominion's main force hit the lines even harder, throwing in everything they had, right down to ramming Érenni ships to create holes in the defensive line. They were caught between two impossible choices: abandon their defense or abandon their people to bombardment, and like a house of cards discipline fell apart. Some commanders held position and fired on Pyshana's forces, others turned to engage the missile ships. With the loss of Sector Command and the Fathal-class station there was no centralized command to direct the battle. Worse, none of the surviving officers had the force of will or knowledge to rescue the situation. Confusion swept across the defenders, and the weapons of the Ashani were close behind.

  * * * * * * *

  The clouds of white mist were visible from orbit, and every member of the IRON MAIDEN crew was watching silently as more and more puffs appeared between the bright flashes of neutron warheads and the dark plumes of groundbursts. Neither Annie nor Rául had read out the sensor reports. They didn't have to. Nobody in the crew had ever seen a planet wide use of biological and nuclear weapons. They were cargo haulers, the equivalent of space truckers. None of them had ever considered what it would look like or how it would be carried out, yet instinctively they knew that was what they were witnessing. An entire world was being poisoned and sterilized before their eyes, a hundred million souls trapped on the surface were being systematically and efficiently killed by the ships in orbit without even an attempt to land troops and take the world by conventional means. It made no sense. Why fight so hard for something and then just destroy it? It was purely terrifying.

  Alexej broke the silence. “We have an issue developing.”

  The Ashani line had continued to expand, and the arrival of Érenni warships had brought the battle to the bombardment group. Right now the IRON MAIDEN was almost nose to nose with an Ashani warship. Thankfully it was too busy with the attack on the planet to notice them, or care about destroying the small freighter.

  “Can we go around?” Tarek questioned quickly, eyes darting from ship to ship and trying to work out the odds. They weren't good.

  “We need to exit the minefield at a very specific point, and the only way to reach it is through them,” Alexej pointed at the edge of the yellow and red-hued fleet.

  “This is crazy! We're a freighter and not a dreadnought! We can't fly through that!” Rául exclaimed, hitting his console.

  “We have two choices,” Alexej said slowly. “Either we try and fly past them and get killed, or we stay here and get killed.”

  “We need another option!” demanded Rául.

  “In an effort to get us out I overtax the engines and they explode, and we get killed,” Alexej added with a grin. “Either way we're screwed.”

  “Alexej, all ahead full,” Tarek announced in a hard voice. “There will be no more discussions. This is my ship and I say we run the blockade. Look at those Érenni ships. They'll keep the Ashani busy long enough for us to make a run.”

  “This is a monumentally bad idea, I just want you all to know that,” Rául remarked with obvious terror despite trying to calm his voice. “So when we all get blasted your last thought can be 'oh, Rául was right', okay?”

  “Well, I always said if you were right about anything it'd be over my dead body,” Tarek shrugged. “Let's see what happens.”

  The small freighter dashed forward as the few operational Érenni ships engaged, a dazzling laser beam slicing into the missile ship immediately in front of them. The strike must have hit something important within the ungainly looking vessel as it exploded with massive force, the stacks of missiles inside lending their explosive force to the ship's final moment of existence. Alexej dropped the nose of his ship down, the blast wave jolting them badly and pushing them farther down as white hot drops of molten metal rushed past the IRON MAIDEN like illuminated snowflakes. The view coming from the bow sensors was dominated by warships moving forward to battle, bright beams of energy dashing between the vessels and ending in fire whenever they contacted an object.

  “Keep to starboard, down the Zed,” Tarek growled. “There aren't so many of them over there.”

  They skirted the battlefield, weaving past the blackened ruins left behind by the destruction, and trying to keep a low profile. While Alexej concentrated on not hitting anything and Tarek kept an eye on sensors the rest of the crew were transfixed by the battle unfolding right beside them. The fight was close enough to them that the entire cockpit was illuminated in the orange light of fire coming from the incessant explosions. A spinning Érenni cruiser with half its hull missing collided with one of the missile ships, tearing both vessels apart in a fury of destruction. Ashani fighters and frigates danced through the battle, striking here and there to weaken enemy ships and provide opportunities for the larger cruisers to exploit. The fight for Senfina had turned into a cauldron with Érenni ships surrounded and fighting frantically for every extra second of survival, time they used to try and destroy more of the missile carriers dropping plagues on the world below. It was too late, of course. The population's fate was by now sealed, but that did not stop them from trying.

  “Incoming, hard to starboard!” Tarek yelled. “Quick!”

  The freighter burned its bow thrusters and Alexej slackened the output from the left hand engine, causing the ship to swing rapidly around. As it did so a cluster of what once had been several warships hurtled past, spinning through the mess of the battle to impact on the surface or Senfina. Between and around them other Dominion warships opened fire on planetary targets, too. The Ashani were determined to leave absolutely nothing alive when they departed.

  Tarek was pulled back in his seat as Alexej slewed the ship around again, putting them back on course for the escape
path and to the edge of the minefield.

  “We're here,” he commented plainly as if he were on a simple supply run.

  “Follow the course of the convoy exactly. We don't want to run into a surprise,” Tarek ordered, letting go a sigh of relief. At least they were out of the crossfire.

  The IRON MAIDEN had covered about half the distance with the battle still raging behind them when sensors warned of a ship closing.

  “Dominion frigate,” Tarek said through gritted teeth. “It's on an intercept course. Damn thing could cut us open from stem to stern.”

  From just off the port side the frigate closed, arming its weapons and locking on to the struggling freighter. At barely twenty thousand kilometers the MAIDEN was basically within spitting distance of the ship. A flight of Érenni fighters tried to stop it but the warship simply ignored them, their ultralight laser posing no real threat to even its light armor.

  “Can we evade?” Rául suggested frantically.

  “Not in this old tub,” Alexej replied calmly. “Never mind.”

  There was a sudden flash. Tarek expected it to be weapons' fire but when nothing further happened he had to look at his sensor station. It showed the frigate spinning out of control with heavy damage to its bow. “The minefield!” he yelled joyously. “The fucker hit a mine!”

  As he spoke the frigate blundered into two more fusion devices, essentially ending its contribution to the battle and the lives of its crew.

  “Glad we stuck to the path,” Annie observed. “And unless someone gets the weird idea to waste a one hundred ton anti-ship missile on this rust bucket we should be clear.”

  “Take us out of the gravity well. No messing around, just go for it!” Tarek emphasized. “Get us outta here before the Ashani finish off the planet and start looking for more sport.”

  * * * * * * *

  Captain Natara wiped away a bead of sweat from her head, reacting with surprise when she saw the trickle down her face had in fact been black blood. Her ship had taken a beating and wouldn't have lasted any longer on the front line – was there even such a line left? – so instead she had opted to protect the convoy of civilian ships trying to make it out of the star's gravity well. They were already several dozen million kilometers away from the blue orb of Senfina. A small part of her had felt like staying behind, even accepting the likely outcome, accepting death as long as it meant doing her duty. It was a strange feeling she had never encountered before today. But rationally she understood she could do more with the convoy group than she could defending the colony, a world which was now lost and condemned. The PERISAI kept monitoring the attack, watching the plague deliberately introduced to the verdant world, observing from a distance the final destruction of the fleet they had served.

  “Our fighter cover's down to a bare handful,” Commander Torok Sen relayed in her shrill tone. The cruiser's bridge was damaged and the PERISAI punched full of holes, but at least her crew was still holding together. Over the comm they'd heard cries of panic from other vessels less ready for war, whose crews had just fallen apart when the Ashani broke through. Those ships hadn't lasted long.

  “Tell them to stay close so we can support each other.” Natara felt strangely calm. The convoy had been struck by repeated fighter attacks but mercifully few warships were around. Most were too busy hitting the last defenders over Senfina itself, the battle now a distant blaze of light and radiation.

  “Captain, those Ashani fighters that were shadowing us,” weapons' officer Batal pointed to a display. “They ain't shadowing anymore.”

  “Power up the weapons batteries again, fire at will,” Natara said wearily. “Let them come.”

  * * * * * * *

  “Annie, get the railgun turrets ready, we're going to have company.” Tarek had hoped that escaping the planet was the end of their problems, but it seemed the Ashani were quite determined to kill everything in the system. Roving fighter patrols and pickets of smaller warships were patrolling the edge of the inner system. They had almost caught up with the convoy when a number of these fighters moved to strike, going for the weaker commercial ships rather than the few escorting cruisers.

  “Friendlies coming in from twelve o'clock,” Rául stated, his demeanor a little more relaxed now that they were in open space and he had something to do. “The enemies are at nine through eleven.” It was kind of an archaic way to give positions but everybody knew what he meant.

  “Guns are ready to fire, boss.”

  “Time to get even,” Tarek snarled. “Open fire!”

  The four turrets on the IRON MAIDEN engaged, firing on the Ashani fighters as they crossed their path. Érenni interceptors joined the fray while the other freighters and their escorts tried to bring down the attack with their own fire. Swiftpaw fighters were hit and destroyed, but not before their squad mates had brought down two freighters, tearing apart their engines and leaving them drifting, slowly falling behind the convoy. The surviving fighters moved out of range and regrouped, eying the wounded ships like a shark smelling blood in the water.

  “They gonna be taken under tow?” Rául asked as the IRON MAIDEN passed the damaged ships.

  “By whom?” Alexej chuckled mirthlessly. “None of these ships will stop long enough to help. That'd be suicide. Well, assisted suicide.”

  “They can't just leave them! Why don't the warships do something?”

  “Like what? They are doing exactly what their job is: they're protecting the convoy. Forty ships here or two ships back there,” Annie pointed out from the weapons' station. “Cold hard numbers.”

  The Ashani fighters lurking behind began to close, moving in on the damaged ships.

  “Why don't we help, try something?” Rául persisted. “We shouldn't just leave them to die!”

  Nobody answered. None of them wanted to just leave, but to go back would leave them prey for the Fighter units, and in the end would leave three wrecks for the Ashani to salvage instead of two.

  Llyr took off his headphones, for an instant tiny voices shouting for help were heard before he turned the channels over. They didn't need reminding what would happen.

  “The transition zone's ahead,” Tarek pointed at the green area growing in the main sensor display. “Nearly there, folks.”

  * * * * * * *

  “Seven destroyers, the standard fleet escort type,” Batal reported without taking his eyes off his displays. “That, plus a hefty fighter detachment's converging on us, Ma'am.”

  “We'll have to clear them away,” Natara nodded sullenly. “Form up with the other ships. We don't need to destroy them, just push them past our perimeter to allow the convoy to safely transition into foldspace.”

  The PERISAI lumbered into range, its engines still not fully repaired, and fired its twin lasers at the ship closest to them, striking it squarely and tearing into its hull. In response the Ashani unleashed a constant barrage of missiles and lasers, but instead of firing across the line they picked one ship at a time and systematically overloaded its defenses. The Érenni didn't have the tactical finesse or training to link their vessels together into a coherent fire control. The most intact cruiser in the fleet was the first to go, exploding in less than a minute, shortly thereafter followed by the second most capable vessel.

  “They're taking out our best ships first,” Natara noted, once again cursing the ruthlessly effective Ashani way of war. “Where's the convoy?”

  “Almost ready, Ma'am. The first ships are spooling up their drives.”

  * * * * * * *

  Tarek Winters almost cheered when the MAIDEN slipped over the invisible barrier that kept it inside the doomed Érenni star system. “Here we go, people, straight back home,” he assured.

  The first ships slipped into the fold, hundreds of thousands of tons of steel and ceramics wavering like Fata Morganas in the desert before they vanished from their sight and sensors. The Érenni cruisers kept on fighting. Each freighter that escaped took thousands of survivors with it, and even though they
were but a tiny fraction of the population of Senfina every refugee that escaped was a victory rescued from this tragic disaster.

  “Alexej, heat up the Malenkov-Okudas and get us the hell out of here!”

  “Fighters moving in,” Annie warned.

  “You know what to do. Let's not blow it at this stage.” Tarek involuntarily ducked as a Dominion fighter passed literally meters from the cockpit windows, its dirty beige fuselage a long blur as it raced past with an Érenni fighter chasing it. The ship ahead was struck by a squadron of Swiftpaws, bright plumes of fire erupting from its hull as the weapons' fire tore through it and caused it to list and tumble. Another ship was hit, and yet another. The first barely managed to keep going, long streams of atmosphere gushing out of its broken hull while the second lost its engine feed and disappeared in a fireball.

  “Watch the debris!” Tarek warned, and Alexej altered the MAIDEN's heading so the tumbling wreckage slid past them, the disturbing scene plainly visible up close from the large window. Another Érenni cruiser fell apart under Ashani heavy fire, but by now most of the convoy had vanished into the fold and hopefully was on its way to Akvô. But they weren't exactly in a position to celebrate yet.

  “Watch our six!” Rául yelled while Annie quickly tracked the guns.

  The cannons fired again, sending twelve millimeter projectiles straight through a Swiftpaw's cockpit at two percent the speed of light, much to the crew's satisfaction. None of them held any love for the Ashani after today. But other fighters kept coming, and as one, fired on the ship. The weapons' fire tore into the rear of the IRON MAIDEN, crucially eating into the engineering bay and the engine feeds, blowing out the power relays and shutting down two of the four engines. The ship veered suddenly as the thrust changed, sending it spinning off course. Shrill alarms blared through the whole ship.