Fires of Oblivion

by Anthony James

  “It’s good they’re committing their own warships.”

  “They’ve got the same motivation we have. They don’t want to lose Sinnar.”

  “What are they sending?”

  “You already know the Trivanor. The Sandarvax will be less familiar. It’s impressive, John – makes me glad we’ll be on the same side.”

  “The more the merrier.”

  “Destroy the planet. It’s the only way to save Atlantis and Sinnar. If it flushes the mothership out, so much the better. Let’s hope they don’t know how to fight in the rubble of a shattered world.”

  “I’ll keep you updated. Goodbye, sir.”

  With Teron gone, Duggan looked at each of the other crew members in turn, trying to gauge their mood.

  “It was always likely to come to this,” said McGlashan.

  Duggan nodded. “Yes. I suppose I knew it.”

  “There’s no one living there,” said Breeze.

  “The Planet Breaker has got a thirty second warm up and a range of approximately fifty thousand klicks. Are we firing when ready?”

  “That we are, Commander.”

  “There could be valuable intel if we do a quick orbit, sir,” said Chainer. “It would be nice to know how they’ve constructed this super-weapon.”

  “Thank you, Lieutenant, but we’ll follow Admiral Teron’s order to the letter. I would hate to be responsible for the loss of Atlantis because we delayed for ten minutes.”

  “Okay, sir. I’ll continue scanning as we approach to see if anything else turns up.”

  Duggan did his best to get comfortable while the Crimson tore through local space towards its destination. He couldn’t settle and shifted constantly, until he finally stood up and paced around.

  “There’s a second pyramid, sir,” said Chainer. “It’s a few thousand klicks to the north of the first one – it’s only just visible.”

  “Run a scan over an area the same distance to the south of the first pyramid.”

  “Yep, there’s a third one,” said Chainer after a moment of concentration. “And a Dreamer battleship in a high orbit.”

  “Has it detected us?”

  “No, sir. It’s following a course that I believe will allow it to monitor the entire surface of the planet.”

  “It shouldn’t make a difference to what we have planned,” said Duggan.

  “It had to be here, didn’t it?” asked McGlashan.

  Duggan grinned. “I’m starting to feel as if it’s my nemesis. How high is their orbit?”

  “Thirty thousand klicks, sir.”

  “I don’t suppose we can run a simulation to predict the likelihood of their destruction once we use the Planet Breaker?”

  “I could program you one in a few days,” said McGlashan. “My non-scientific instinct tells me they stand a realistic chance of being smashed to pieces.”

  “That’s what my equally non-scientific guts tell me,” said Chainer.

  “If we assume an equal placing about the surface, how many pyramids are down there?”

  “Nine,” said Chainer promptly.

  “They’ve invested a whole lot of resources in this place,” mused Duggan. “I wish I understood the reasons better.”

  “Let the analysis teams worry about it, sir,” said Breeze. “We’ve got enough on our plate.”

  The viewscreen image of Tybalt became steadily more clearly-defined as the Crimson approached. Duggan wouldn’t have usually spent much time looking at such an uninteresting place, but he felt an obligation to commit its details to memory. If I’m going to destroy it, I should at least have the decency to look at it first.

  The enemy battleship continued orbiting, altering its trajectory with each circuit in order that it could monitor each of the emplacements on the ground. Chainer watched it carefully, but found no evidence to suggest the enemy were aware of the inbound ESS Crimson.

  “I don’t want to be too close to that warship when we come into the Planet Breaker’s firing range,” said Duggan. “I’d rather get in and out. If the bastards live through the destruction, we can join the Archimedes and Maximilian in trying to shoot them down.”

  “We’ll be at fifty thousand klicks in five minutes,” said Chainer. “The enemy will be around the other side of the planet by then.”

  “Good. There’s no reason for us to delay.”

  The bridge fell silent, except for the subdued humming of engines and electronics. There was something humbling about being in charge of a weapon with such monumental destructive power and none of the crew wished to disturb the quiet by speaking anything irreverent.

  “We’ll be in range in one minute,” said McGlashan. “I’ve activated the Planet Breaker warm-up routines. Thirty seconds and it’ll be ready to fire.”

  “Hold till fifty thousand klicks.”

  “The Planet Breaker is charged up and able to fire on your command, sir. Twenty seconds until we’re in range.”

  It was a long twenty seconds. Duggan didn’t take his eyes away from Commander McGlashan’s face. He saw the apprehension and the excitement. She knew this weapon was an abomination, yet there was an allure – the infinite power to destroy at the press of a button. Encompassing it, her overriding emotion was sadness, along with the hope she wouldn’t be judged for taking part in what was to come.

  “Now,” said Duggan.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  The Planet Breaker hadn’t been fired for many months. It didn’t matter – the shriek of its charge-up was etched into Duggan’s brain forever. The sound built to a howl and the walls of the bridge shook with the force of a vibration which felt as though it might tear the Crimson apart. When he thought his ears could take no more of the punishment, the sound ebbed away so quickly that it left his head and ears ringing. Through it all, he maintained a death grip on the spaceship’s control bars in preparation for turning away from the doomed world.

  The expected did not come to pass.

  “What the hell?” asked McGlashan. “How long did it take to work last time?”

  “It was instantaneous,” Duggan replied. “You didn’t misremember.”

  “There’s a power spike from the closest pyramid,” said Breeze. “A trillion percent increase.” He sounded bewildered at the number. “There are lesser spikes from the other visible pyramids, sir.”

  “Fire again,” said Duggan.

  “Not a hope, sir,” McGlashan replied. “I have no idea what the charge-up time is, but it’s not going to fire again any time soon.”

  Duggan swore loudly and thumped his fist against the arm of his chair. “What’s going on? Someone tell me what happened!”

  “The pyramids must have absorbed the energy from the Planet Breaker, sir.”

  “How did they know what to do?”

  “I doubt they guessed what we had planned,” said Breeze. “We know hardly anything about the weapon or our opponents. Perhaps where they come from everyone has a Planet Breaker and they developed defences to prevent their use.”

  “What if we destroy the pyramids?”

  “I imagine that would do the trick. There are nine pyramids plus a weapon array with unknown capabilities and defences. I doubt our opponents are going to sit idly by as we destroy each in turn.”

  “They certainly aren’t,” said Chainer. “Here’s their battleship coming over the horizon.”

  “Are they coming directly at us?” asked Duggan sharply.

  “Not directly. They must have a good idea where we are, since they’ll not be too far off.”

  “Let’s get away,” said Duggan.

  He spun the Crimson around and accelerated in a random direction, keeping at fifty thousand kilometres from the surface.

  “What now?” asked McGlashan.

  “This isn’t what I had planned,” Duggan replied, failing to answer the question. “I don’t know what now.”

  “The enemy battleship has changed course and dropped to fifty thousand klicks to match us,” said Chainer.


  “Have they got a lock on?”

  “I don’t know, sir. Their course matches ours exactly and they’re closing to three thousand klicks.”

  “Damnit! Have the stealth modules suffered damage, or did they just get lucky?”

  “The stealth modules are fully operational,” said Breeze.

  “They could have learned something from our last encounter,” McGlashan suggested. “They chased us for long enough.”

  “They didn’t catch us, so they can’t have learned too much.”

  “I think I know what it is,” said Breeze. “We’re trailing something behind us. A type of particle I don’t recognize.”

  “The Planet Breaker!” said McGlashan. “It must have a signature.”

  “And they can detect it,” said Duggan angrily.

  “They haven’t fired yet,” said Chainer. “We’re well within range.”

  “Get me some details about what’s happening. How vulnerable are we?”

  “There’s a wide arc behind us, sir. If that’s what they’re following, they can’t pin-point us.”

  “Nor can we lose them.”

  “I doubt they’re going to let us go this time.”

  “Of course not,” said Chainer. “What’re the odds there’s a mothership coming this way at Light-Z or whatever speed they can push it to?”

  “I’ve got a plan,” said Duggan through gritted teeth.

  “Two waves of fifty missiles just went by us,” said McGlashan. “They’re close enough to launch and miss before I can open my mouth.”

  “Lieutenant Chainer, I want you to provide me with the most efficient course that takes us directly over each of the pyramids on the surface. Commander McGlashan, you’re going to fire two nukes and thirty-six Lambdas at every pyramid. When we come across the weapon array, fire everything we’ve got. I want that emplacement reduced to a radiation-filled hole that won’t cool down for a thousand years.”

  “Yes sir!”

  “I’ve sent you details of the most efficient trajectory, sir,” said Chainer. “If you have to deviate because of evasive manoeuvres, it should update automatically.”

  “Three more waves of fifty have passed by,” said McGlashan. “One of them came within eighty metres.”

  “Crap,” said Chainer. “Missed us by a whisker.”

  “They must be conserving ammunition for a long fight,” said Breeze. They’d witnessed this same battleship fire many hundreds of missiles simultaneously in their previous encounter.

  “First pyramid coming up, Commander. Prepare to fire.”

  “Nukes away and Lambdas close after. Twenty seconds to impact.”

  Duggan watched the missiles on his tactical screen. They flew unerringly towards the pyramid far below. Then, a cloud of smaller dots appeared from behind and tore across the intervening space. One-by-one the Crimson’s Lambdas and nuclear missiles were intercepted by the enemy battleship’s anti-missile system. A handful of the Lambdas reached their target and detonated fruitlessly off the pyramid’s energy shield. Both nuclear missiles were destroyed before they could explode.

  “You’ll need to get us closer, sir.”

  Duggan refused to let frustration take hold. “I’ll bring us to ten thousand klicks. That should cut the travel time of our missiles sufficiently to prevent further interceptions.”

  “It’ll need to be lower - much lower. Their interceptors travel far faster than the Lambdas.”

  “Very well. We’ll launch from three thousand klicks.”

  This was much closer to the surface than Duggan wanted to be. The higher they stayed, the better the vantage they had. On top of that, he’d have to slow the Crimson’s speed. Tybalt’s atmosphere was thin, but there was sufficient nitrogen and carbon dioxide to heat the alloys of the hull. The stealth modules were capable of disguising heat signatures, but Duggan didn’t want to risk giving the enemy any advantage if he could avoid it.

  Even at three thousand kilometres, the Crimson was travelling high enough and fast enough that they were upon the next target within a few seconds.

  “Missiles away.”

  The Dreamer battleship launched its missile interceptors once more. This time they failed to destroy a single one of their targets.

  “The pyramid’s energy shield is down and the target destroyed,” said McGlashan.

  “Eight more to go,” said Chainer. “Plus the big one, when we find it.”

  They came upon the main weapon array within a few seconds of destroying the first pyramid. At least they assumed it was what they were searching for. The Crimson’s sensors picked out a cluster of metallic objects on the ground. Chainer took less than a second to interpret the results of the scan.

  “Four pyramids in a square, with a huge rotating turret in the centre.”

  “Blow the shit out of it,” said Duggan.

  “Six nukes and one hundred Lambdas away.”

  The travel time was a little over one second. It was more than long enough for the sixty-four Dreamer defence emplacements to track and destroy most of the inbound missiles in a spray of alloy slugs and airborne electronic scramblers.

  “Only two Lambda strikes, sir. We have to launch the nukes first in order to disable the energy shield. Unfortunately, that means they get knocked out quickest.”

  “We’ll leave the main site for the moment. If we can knock out the remaining pyramids, the Planet Breaker will finish the job.”

  “What about the four pyramids around the turret?” asked Breeze.

  “We’ll take out the easier targets first and hope it weakens whatever defences they’ve got against the Planet Breaker enough that we can use it.”

  “It hasn’t charged up yet,” said McGlashan. “There’s no way of knowing when it’ll be ready and I’m afraid I didn’t pay attention on the previous occasions we used it.”

  “None of us did,” said Duggan. “It’ll either be available when we need it, or it won’t.”

  “Next target ahead, sir,” said Chainer.

  “The enemy battleship has commenced firing,” said McGlashan. “Three waves of fifty followed by another three.”

  None of the inbound missiles hit the Crimson. There was no need to announce it aloud – the fact that they remained alive was enough.

  “Nukes and Lambdas on their way…pyramid number two destroyed.”

  How long can we keep it going? thought Duggan. With surprise, he noticed how high the hull temperature had climbed. The distraction of the last couple of minutes had caused him to miss it. It jumped another five percent in the few seconds his eyes remained on the gauge, spoiling his hopes that it might stabilise long enough to complete the destruction of the remaining pyramids.

  “They’re still launching, sir. There’s no sign of them letting up.”

  “We’ve ridden our luck for long enough. Hit them with the disruptor and launch both Shatterer tubes.”

  McGlashan gave a thumbs up sign. “Done and done.”

  “Their shields are down,” said Breeze. “Engine output at zero.”

  The Shatterer missiles were incredibly fast. They burst out of the Crimson’s front-mounted launch tubes and accelerated for several thousand kilometres. Then, they performed an impossibly tight turn in the air and shot back the way they’d come at a speed of four thousand kilometres per second. The two missiles flew to either side of the Crimson, before crashing into the enemy battleship. The combined velocities were enough to force the warheads deep into the spaceship’s armour before they detonated with catastrophic force, peeling away the outer skin of armour and leaving two gaping holes, smouldering and angry.

  “Where are they?”

  “Gone, sir. Lost over the horizon.”

  “Their engines were coming back online,” said Breeze. “The disruptor didn’t last long.”

  “It did well enough. I should have used it sooner.”

  “It’s done now, sir,” said McGlashan. “We’ve got an opportunity to destroy a few more targets before the bat
tleship finds us again.”

  “And find us it will,” said Duggan, berating himself for being too timid. There’d been no need to delay using the disruptor. He asked himself if he feared his opponent, allowing it to cloud his judgement and make him act too defensively. If I hold back, we have no hope.

  He permitted his anger to swell, released a small part of it into his conscious mind. His anger could not countenance defeat and it filled him with vigour. He turned the Crimson onto a new heading, in order to confuse the pursuing battleship. The next target was ahead and Duggan focused on getting them to it as quickly as possible.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  There were only two pyramids remaining when the battleship found them again. It had waited high above the surface until the Crimson passed underneath. The enemy had evidently discovered a way that allowed them to track a cloaked vessel easily, yet without having enough precision to allow them to unleash the full force of their arsenal. Duggan didn’t dwell on the reasons – he simply wanted to complete his task and see if he could destroy the planet in order to save the ten billion people who lived on Atlantis.

  As soon as the battleship came close, Duggan ordered the disruptor and Shatterers to be fired again. The tactic wasn’t nearly so effective on this occasion and the enemy got their shields back up before the inbound missiles could smash into them.

  “It might be that they can adapt,” said Breeze. “Each time the same disruptor is used against them, it becomes less effective.”

  “Do you know that for definite?” asked Duggan.

  “No, sir. I’m just thinking out loud.”

  “We could do with the Archimedes right about now,” said Chainer. “Along with those Ghast warships to act as a meat shield.”

  “We’re on our own for a while yet, Lieutenant,” said Duggan, his eyes roving constantly over the screens around him. His tactical display showed an unending barrage of Dreamer missiles in the skies around them. He had the ship’s AI run through the average distances by which the misses occurred. It was as he feared – the average had fallen significantly.