With his NIAI, Moretti sent their operatives their orders. “Phase two, comply.”
This time around Roma, the Union, and the surrounding stations, worlds, and spaceships, he knew thousands of heads would fall.
She reached out, taking hold of his mess of hair that was slipping off the bed. Still dripping, she held it out for Moretti.
Moretti took the head, his words for her direct from Mark: “Thank you.”
Zedra indicated the door. “Let’s go. Damus will be waiting.”
Chapter Eighty-One
Senator Rimateus’s Residence
Roma, Hellenic System
10/3557
Feeling a little more than tipsy, Rimateus wandered the room, making sure that each of these dignitaries were worked fully. He wasn’t sitting back now while this was happening; he was securing his place higher up.
Talking to Senator Kris was one of his biggest highlights for him. This man had money and power, and Rimateus wanted more of it.
But, he noticed that Yi had stopped drinking. “Something the matter, my dear?”
Yi turned to him. “There have been several hits across the city. My informants are saying it’s starting to cause panic.”
Rimateus grinned. “Of course it would trigger panic. This is the downfall of everyone who supported the Victors. Those ships fighting them in Emarl will crush them and then there will be no one to stand in our way.”
Senator Kris stared him down. “No, Senator Rimateus. There’s more to this than your planning. Something else is going on. I don’t think our ships are doing that well, or are we not watching the same thing on that screen?” Kris pointed toward the main viewer.
When Rimateus looked, he could see the LMF ships firing on the EN, blast after blast.
But the view changed. He wasn’t just watching them fight; he was watching his fleet take a battering. There may have been more of them, but they were pushed into a zone where it was starting to become obvious there were hidden depths to the Victor Corp.
Rimateus laughed, but his NIAI pinged in his ear. Reports were starting to come across of his operatives being taken out. Not those close to the emperor. His men. And more importantly, his men in the legion.
Rimateus could do nothing but stare as things started to unravel around him. The men and women in the room all looked to him, to see whether he could turn this around. But all he saw was red, sheer anger. His chest tightened, but nothing like heart failure happened in this day and age; it was just fake and he knew it.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he started, his words just as slippery as he was. “We might be receiving some false information. I want to assure you that my men have everything under control and that we’re more than capable of taking out the Shadow Legion.”
Yi threw him a glance. “You want to what?”
“We’re not doing this for fun,” he said. “The Shadow Legion must be eliminated.”
Kris picked up a glass. “They stand for everything that we don’t. We have better goals than keeping Roma under their old-fashioned rules.”
“Here, here.” Rimateus raised his glass too.
Yet, this time when he looked at the screen, there was still a lot more going on. He tried to contact the captain for a more direct report, but he couldn’t get through.
Instead, he contacted Atia. “Report?” he asked, knowing full well he would not be lied to by her. She was his best and was his last resort if things went really bad.
“We’ve been getting messages across the city that the legion are taking out your men. We’ve locked down the base, no one in or out, though there’s been a few trying to slip in. I put a bullet in a few myself.”
Rimateus smiled, sure she was reveling in the chaos. “Find out the truth about what’s going on. I need to get other plans in motion as soon as needed...” He wouldn’t say the words, though he felt them. If this failed, he had to not only get out of the city but find somewhere to hide. That would start by slowly winding his way across to the base. Backup plans were good. He just didn’t want to use it.
Chapter Eighty-Two
ENS Moby
Oort Cloud, Emarl System
10/3557
They had entered hell.
That was all Chen could think as all of the mergers aboard the ENS Moby were merged, using all of the computing power and abilities to assist one another.
They were using nanites to repair key systems and continue to be in the fight.
Their gunners were blasting out rounds faster than their rail cannons could take, having to repair them as they were firing.
They were out of missiles and all around them, their close-in defense system was firing. Reactive armor exploded and tried to knock out the incoming missile rounds.
The ship was shaking from the continuous bombardment of rail gun rounds and explosions. A terrible tearing and shearing noise could be heard through the ship as Chen reviewed what had happened.
“Anti-matter weapons confirmed,” Francis reported to Chen.
“Reporting to the admiral,” Liang yelled, his voice tense and focused as if he was a fighter bracing his body for a punch.
The Moby lurched as a direct hit scoured their hull and tore their side apart.
Chen gritted his teeth as he felt mergers being killed by that explosion and saw people being mangled in the wreckage.
More hits landed as the Moby fought to rebuild itself and damage crews started to move to try to save people.
The Moby was being torn apart underneath them.
Chapter Eighty-Three
LMFC Righteous
Oort Cloud, Emarl System
10/3557
The gliders were acting as a good screen against the missiles, relaying information back to the freighters so they had more time to react.
They also stopped a lot of the new small and deadly fighters that the Emarl navy had. The fighters were much better than the gliders at combat in space, but it didn’t take much to destroy them, if you could get a hold of them. You also couldn’t be too close or else, if you hit one of the anti-matter missiles in their hold, you’d probably be going up with them.
“Use the anti-matter weapons!” Karain yelled.
Strong made to stop her. After all, these weren’t any simple weapons and if someone saw them fighting with anti-matter, then it would become a lot harder for Rimateus. But he had okayed the weapons as a fallback plan.
The enemy had anti-matter weapons anyway, so it didn’t seem to matter.
Strong, who had never seen so much anti-matter being thrown around, had cold sweat on his back as anti-matter missiles were fired from different freighters.
The Emarl fleet erupted in fire as they entered the Luyten forces. RSDs moved through their formations as the battleships unleashed hell on those around them.
Cannons on both sides blasted at one another. Missiles and their explosions rocked ships and the space itself. RSDs and gliders crossed one another in vicious dogfights, trying to get to the opposing forces where they unleashed their missiles up close and personal.
“LMFC Purge has massive power outages!”
“LMFC Prize took a direct hit from anti-matter rounds.”
“LMFC Lawmaker took multiple hits to the bow. The rounds went deep into the ship. Communications are down and the ship is drifting.”
“Direct hits on the Moby. Their hull was opened up.”
“Target Alpha Three was hit amidships—damage unknown.”
The LMFC Righteous shook. Karain had to hold onto her seat and Strong onto the table as the lights flickered.
“We’ve taken a nasty hit starboard side!”
Another series of hits shook the ship, making Karain go pale.
“LMFC Crusader and Atonement are accelerating away from the battlefield!”
The fighting left everything in chaos. Even with all of the reports, Strong knew that there was nothing that they could do as command staff. It was down to the people fighting on their ships to bring t
hem victory or defeat.
The freighters were getting hammered, but so was the Emarl fleet.
“Charlie Nine just exploded!” an excited voice yelled a moment later.
One of the carriers had been hit, its weapons locker holding anti-matter warheads for the RSDs being struck and taking out the ship.
“Order LMFC Crusader and Atonement back into formation!” Karain yelled. Her veins popped out along her neck.
Suddenly the chaos calmed down.
As the Emarl fleet was accelerating through the Luyten fleet, the engagement lasted nearly twenty seconds.
“They are not taking our hails,” a communications officer said. The whole room was filled with conversation as people tried to get reports and up-to-date information on the conditions of the ships in the fleet.
“If they don’t return to the formation, then we’ll fire on them!” Karain spat.
This seemed to chill the command center as Strong quickly moved to Karain’s side.
“We can’t do that,” Strong hissed in her ear.
“They’re betraying us and running for it,” Karain shot back, keeping her voice just low enough so that the others couldn’t hear them.
Strong could clearly see how rattled she was right now.
“We just went through a hellish battle. If we start killing our own people, then the Emarl fleet’s job is done for them. We’ll see if our operatives can’t get control of the ships and punish those responsible,” Strong said.
This seemed to at least appease Karain as she gave Strong a terse nod. “Rescind my last order.” Karain threw herself back into her seat.
Strong hid his relief and moved to the command table, which was updating with the latest information regarding their forces’ strength and combat capability.
It was a telling sight.
Seven of the freighters were badly damaged. Three were destroyed or effectively useless. When the Emarl fleet had come in and fired their broadsides, the rounds hit most of the ships in the bow, breaking them open and then forcing their way into the weaker and unarmored interiors.
They were just freighters with containers, after all, so most of them had opened up, sending cargo containers everywhere and breaking the freighters apart into their components.
The status of the Emarl fleet was unknown but one of the ships had been destroyed outright and the others looked to be heavily damaged.
Strong didn’t watch as people rushed to repair the ships and try to get them functional again. He could feel the heavy atmosphere in the command center and across the fleet.
This was supposed to be an easy fight but the Emarl fleet that appeared out of nowhere had slapped them sideways without any effort at all.
Chapter Eighty-Four
Refinery Seventy-Seven
Oort Cloud, Emarl System
10/3557
Johnny was linked in with everyone he needed to be from the main hub of Seventy-Seven, and he was pacing. Up, down, up, down. Most important to him, he had Carly and Felicia on a private channel.
“You’ll wear the fucking carpet out,” Felicia said.
Johnny looked down. There was no carpet but at least he stopped pacing. “We’ve just arrived here, and we’re facing this!” His exasperation came through in quick breaths.
He looked at the 3D view he had from his position. Two of his finest were at monitoring stations and also watching the view ahead of them. Misha Naqvi and Leon Starek were eyes wide, and fully alert. He had two relief chief heads on standby, but this was already exhausting all of them. Sleep when they could; eat, drink when someone below them pushed a plate of food in their face.
Carly was the voice of reason that came through first. “Johnny, whatever happens here is the fate we all decided that day in Osdal. Whatever these assholes throw at us, we’re ready for it.”
Throw might be the actual term for what he saw coming.
Misha’s soft voice startled him. “Sir, we need to start evac.”
She pointed, and he saw it. The enemy was headed their way. “Felicia, get those miners out of there. Carly, as planned, dump and run.”
The two gals started firing off orders to their own while he stepped toward Misha’s console. The woman’s eyes were filled with fear and although she knew what to do, she’d almost frozen in place. Johnny smiled at her. “This isn’t like coordinating ships and drops, but you can do it. Leon, back her up. No one is left behind.”
Johnny watched on then as they started to work together and coordinate their efforts. This task, if handled badly, could be deadly.
But, it wasn’t that they’d never planned for this. If a major issue in the refinery itself ever cropped up, evac was a possibility. His workforce spent most of their early days training in nothing but health and safety. They’d run drills; they’d work together to make sure that each person in their section got out alive. More importantly, it was done to the letter, and it was done fast.
He had every faith in them.
Johnny, however, felt more than exhausted, and he watched the scenes unfolding before him as if they were in super, super slow motion. This was his first build, and those memories of its construction and those who had lived and died there were memories he would always cherish. However, he knew that those memories weren’t worth anything compared to seeing his people alive. Each team leader and crew were working fast and hard to save it. His life’s accomplishments, everything and everyone he cared about was here. If things turned to shit now, he knew what he had to do. Johnny sat down. A slight niggle of pain spread through his chest. He ignored it, but he wouldn’t ignore what he could see happening before him.
Chapter Eighty-Five
ENS Moby
Oort Cloud, Emarl System
10/3557
Mark heard the screaming of the injured and dying as he rushed forward with a group of mergers toward the damaged areas of the Moby.
The carrier had taken a pounding, being in the lead.
With most of its crew mergers and having the most advanced ship, they wouldn’t have survived if they were any other ship.
The mergers didn’t need suits and could rush from atmosphere to void, helping with getting injured, dealing with damage and pulling them back.
Merger wounded were fine, only needing to be supplied with enough materials to rebuild themselves.
It was the human crew who had suffered the most. Mark felt guilty as he passed through an air lock and entered a section that had been opened to space. It had been the port side gunnery, but rounds had ripped it apart.
Mark batted debris aside. In space, it was oddly quiet as he could only hear the footsteps that reverberated through the deck.
A group of mergers rushed past, with sealed-up stretchers with wounded that they’d found.
Mark saw other parts of people and dead who hadn’t made it and were secured to the ship.
The nanite repair systems were at work, trying to seal the area and rebuild the hull.
Mark hopped onto the hull of the ship with the rest of the team and moved aft, entering through another open section with dead who had died from rapid decompression or from shrapnel.
He shook his head. The Moby was the worst damaged ship, but it was by no means the only one.
“Shit, this one’s alive!” someone said over the net as they found a person with multiple puncture wounds from metal shards that had punched through the person’s body.
They were coughing up blood into their helmet, a look of fear in their eyes.
“You deal with the lung. I’ll deal with sealing up the rest,” Mark said. They didn’t have time to waste; the blood had made a temporary seal with the metal and the space suit, but there was no knowing how long it would last, or whether the person wouldn’t die from their injuries.
“Got it.”
The two of them used nanites, threading through the person’s space suit to stabilize them before they tried to move them. It was touch-and-go but they got them stabilized.
&nbs
p; “Take them to the med bay,” Mark said.
“Yes, sir.” The other grabbed the injured crew member and headed toward the sealed sections of the ship.
Mark moved on with the rest of the Vanguard. With their armor, they easily passed through blocked areas and started to help with the repairs as they used their sensors to look through what was left of the ship.
There were several more survivors. They secured the bodies to the deck and set to rebuilding the ship.
They’d wiped the floor with the Luyten forces, but the fact remained that they hadn’t defeated them. Two freighters were headed off toward one of the refineries while the rest of the fleet was on a course for the Yard.
The supply ships were linking up with the other ships, passing them supplies and building replacement parts that they needed.
Ammunition was cross-loaded as the fleet prepared themselves for the next fight.
Chapter Eighty-Six
ENS Homeland
Oort Cloud, Emarl System
10/3557
Hall’s face was grim.
“The Moby is under repairs. Captain Chen says it will be fine if they move and repair themselves at the same time,” Guy said.
“Understood.” Hall’s voice was heavy.
They’d lost one carrier; another was out of the fight for now and a battleship’s reactor had to be jettisoned, not before it overloaded their power systems. They were working on replacing systems and running on emergency backup power relays.
The two ships were limping toward Tricticus with the wounded from the rest of the fleet.
Even though they had won the battle, tens had died and hundreds were wounded.
All of that weighed down on Hall as he checked on the forces under his command. The Moby was the worst, but the ship was quickly being repaired and with a crew of mostly mergers, although they had wounded, most of them would be combat-capable shortly.
Enemies on All Sides (Maraukian War Book 4) Page 33