by Dan Worth
The Leonides began to recharge its weapon for another barrage. As Chen watched, three quarters of the K’Soth force began to break formation and leave orbit. The huge War Temples were taking their time coming about amid the confusion of the gigantic formation that hung in orbit above Maranos.
The Leonides fired again and this time the Incinerator was crippled. She began to drift without power or shields. A volley of kinetic ship killing missiles was already en route from the Commonwealth force as the Leonides began to launch its fleet of Azrael bombers. The small but deadly ships gathered in two growing swarms on the flanks of the carrier group.
Defenceless and immobile the Incinerator could do little to prevent its fate. The volley of missiles pierced the hull in a dozen places, sending out great gouts of atmospheric gases and debris. There were a few internal explosions before its magazine detonated amidships and the craft began to break up.
The K’Soth force was now deprived of its commander, but they would carry out his last order to the letter. Now correctly aligned, the fleet powered its jump engines to pounce on the Leonides.
Another shot from the Commonwealth carrier caught the War Temple Blood Thirst just as it initiated its jump. The sudden energy surge had catastrophic consequences, overloading the ship’s jump drive systems and causing the warp wave to collapse as the ship began to enter hyperspace. The Blood Thirst imploded and then vanished without trace as the entire ship was sucked into a singularity of its own making as the rest of the fleet surged forward to engage the humans.
The space that confronted Rekkid and Katherine was almost incomprehensibly huge. They stood at the mid-point of the gigantic cylinder that had been torn from the centre of the planet by the Bajenteri. They were standing on what appeared to be a maintenance access road, metallic and a dozen metres in width. Close at hand the road appeared almost flat, but looking into the distance they could see its steady upwards curve up and around the walls ahead of them until it disappeared, before curving back around behind them in a full circle with a diameter of about a hundred kilometres. Transparent fields held the atmosphere in place over the road, whilst artificial gravity generators beneath it kept the two archaeologists standing firmly on its surface.
Looking left, the cylinder continued for thousands of kilometres into the distance. Perspective made it seem to taper to a narrow bright point, its seamless metallic walls transmitting the light that filtered down from the distant aperture at the end.
Looking right, cuboid machines the size of cities formed a ring around the interior. They held between them an indistinct disk of energy, black and edged with vivid blue. The portal itself: the device was active but not open. Beyond, the cylinder continued as to their left, though the view to its end was blocked by the ring of machines.
The two archaeologists were dumbfounded by the sheer scale of the spectacle, by the mindboggling level of technology on display. Rekkid began to record footage of the scene with a small hand held camera that he had produced from his pockets. He doubted whether he would believe his own accounts otherwise.
‘Rekkid, we should keep moving,’ said Katherine, a sense of urgency in her voice. She glanced behind her to the door from which they had emerged. Looking ahead down the road she saw more doors and access hatches a few hundred yards further on that led into a series of bunker-like structures. ‘Come on Rekkid,’ she urged. ‘We have to hide. The K’Soth will be here any moment.’ She grabbed the reluctant Arkari’s arm, urging him down the metal road. Their boots rang on the surface as they ran.
Breathless, they arrived at the first of the doors and tried it, only to find it locked. They tried a second and a third with no success. There were more mysterious structures ahead, also with access doors on their sides, perhaps they might offer sanctuary? As they turned to head towards these other structures a chilling howl rang out in the vast empty space.
It took a mere second for the armada to spring upon the Commonwealth forces. Thirteen War Temples, a score of destroyers and a handful of flak cruisers, flying in a diamond box formation, emerged fifty kilometres in front of the Leonides group – the inaccuracies of hyperspace travel preventing a closer approach. They began to close rapidly, powering weapons and bringing their turrets to bear on the smaller Commonwealth fleet.
Then, thirty five kilometres out something unexpected happened. The entire left flank of the K’Soth fleet suddenly lost all power. Five War Temples, three destroyers and two flak cruisers were now drifting in space, their shields and weapons inactive, their engines lifeless. Each Nereid frigate in the Leonides force had each successfully paralysed two vessels, battering them with hyper-dimensional wave fronts. Time was now of the essence. The waiting squadrons of torpedo bombers pounced on the helpless ships as the Leonides group opened up on the foremost of the still active vessels.
Defenceless, the stricken K’Soth vessels were powerless to act as the comparatively tiny bombers swooped in at close range before releasing their deadly cargoes of fusion torpedoes into the reactors of the helpless capital ships.
The cumulative explosions merged as one. A vast expanding shell of charged particles and debris swept across the remaining K’Soth vessels, those nearest the detonations bearing the brunt of the wave front. The bombers swooped clear of the Inferno, only a few having been lost and those mainly to the effects of their own weapons.
The remaining K’Soth destroyers were in trouble. The Commonwealth ships were out of range of all their weapons save for the War Temples’ plasma cannons, which they now desperately tried to bring to bear on their enemies. The Nereids were now locking onto new targets, refocusing their arrays for another wave of paralysing attacks.
They were too slow. Three Commonwealth destroyers, the Chuikov, the Trajan and the Joffre fell victim to the immense energies unleashed by the War Temples before the Nereids could stop them. Hundreds of lives were snuffed in an instant, before dozens suffered agonizing deaths in the freezing vacuum as the ships began to break up.
Chen looked on at the awesome destruction being meted out in the space above Maranos. It was hypnotic, the terrible beauty of flashing energies against the velvet blackness of space and the sandy orb of the planet. She awaited the order to join them. The bulk of the enemy fleet was now on its way to the system and Admiral Haines had now initiated the counterstrike. Over two thousand vessels were now converging on the Maranos system for the decisive battle. The K’Soth fleet was charging forward in a great arrowhead formation whilst the Commonwealth ships appeared to be spreading into a three dimensional pincer movement, a huge four fingered claw reaching out to envelope the Empire’s ships whilst a central strike group pushed forward through the centre.
There were unfamiliar warp signatures among the K’Soth ships, resonances that hinted at vessels larger still than the War Temples. Haines’s fleet was centred around the carriers, twenty in each group including some of the new Saturn class vessels. His own command ship, the Abraham Lincoln, led the main frontal assault. Haines, as always, was leading from the front.
The Gustavus Adolphus group, so far idle, now joined the battle. Powering their drives, the ships jumped towards Maranos, emerging dangerously close to the planet and right on top of the K’Soth ships that had remained in orbit.
Paralysed by the Nereids, the smaller group of War Temples and destroyers stood little chance. They perished in moments. Only a single Commonwealth frigate, the Zaitsev was lost, falling to a lucky shot from a dying K’Soth ship. Their work done, the Adolphus group turned towards the pitched battle already in progress a million kilometres away.
Chen could see that the Leonides group was having trouble. The K’Soth now seemed to have realised how the Commonwealth fleet was powering down its vessels and had somehow altered their shield frequencies accordingly, it was now taking two Nereids to paralyse each vessel, though Chen noted with satisfaction that the ships in Maranos orbit had been wiped out in short order. Ensign Andrews stirred her from her contemplation.
‘Captain
, transmission from the Leonides.’
‘Put them through.’
Captain Diaz appeared in her vision. The transmission was distorted slightly by the intense energies washing over the Leonides from the fierce battle around it.
‘Mark Antony, we’re having some difficulty here. We request the support of all available ships within the system…’ she looked away for a second. ‘Damn it we just lost the Pitt,’ Diaz commented grimly. ‘Repeat, we request all available ships.’
‘Leonides, we will be on station asap. Chen out,’ she turned to Andrews. ‘Ensign, signal our ships. Tell them to reform and follow us out of the belt. The Leonides needs us. Helm, take us out of the Kuiper belt and prepare to jump to the position of the Leonides.’
The ship began to move, edging around the chunk of rock and ice she had hidden behind, then powering forward toward the distant twin suns.
‘Captain,’ whispered Ramirez. ‘Are you sure this is wise? The ship is in bad shape and we have many casualties on board, surely the Adolphus and her ships will be enough…’ Chen cut him off.
‘We are still battle worthy Commander. The Leonides group needs our assistance. I am aware of the risks.’
Ramirez sat in silence as the Mark Antony formed up with her group for the jump to Maranos space.
Katherine and Rekkid looked back in horror at the three reptilian figures now charging down the curving road, their heavy clawed feet thundering against the metallic surface.
They tried to run. Primal fear in both Human and Arkari urged them forward away from the terrible predators that hurtled towards them. They had to run, hide, anything to get away from those slavering jaws and wickedly curving claws. But even with such a head start it was no use, they might as well have tried to run from a charging lion. The K’Soth caught up with them in moments and tripped them both, sending the pair of archaeologists sprawling and skidding onto the smooth floor.
The three K’Soth surrounded them, looming armoured figures that dwarfed them both. One seemed to be the leader and was attired more elaborately than the rest. Its armour was decorated with panels of precious metals depicting K’Soth religious imagery and it carried a number of grisly totems that hung on fine chains from its spines. They clattered sickeningly. The leader spoke, using a translator of Commonwealth design that it hung from one the chains as a pendant.
‘Human, Arkari. I am Inquisitor Razortail of the Emperor’s Purification Legion.’ He drew his sword, the long wicked blade still smeared with Dendratha blood. ‘You will tell me absolutely everything you know about this place, you will tell me… now.’ He grinned, showing row upon row of razor-sharp teeth. Rekkid and Katherine cowered at the sight.
Their backs against the wall, the K’Soth ships were trying to sell themselves dearly. By the time the Mark Antony arrived on the field of battle, the engagement had descended into a chaotic melee. The careful strategy of the Commonwealth planners had collapsed completely into a multitude of smaller engagements as ships fought each other on an individual basis. Both fleets were now mingled amongst one another as hundreds of searing beams pierced the vacuum and ravaged the mighty vessels as the two sides now fought with new found ferocity. A cloud of fighters and bombers surrounded the larger vessels, fighting one another amid the super structures and wreckage of the capital ships and exploiting any weakness that an enemy vessel might display to unleash their deadly missiles and torpedoes.
The K’Soth had realised the source of their woes. Half of the vulnerable Nereids had now been destroyed or disabled by capital ship or bomber attack, denying the Commonwealth some of the tactical advantage that they had enjoyed. The K’Soth were losing, but in the process it seemed that they intended to take as many of their enemies with them as possible. The Leonides and her fleet were bearing the brunt of the fighting, whilst the Gustavus Adolphus and her group were hanging back, bombarding the K’Soth ships from a standoff position, and launching additional bomber wings in a desperate attempt to let the Leonides withdraw.
Chen assessed the situation for a moment, before urging her ships forward into their firing positions.
Steven paced the spacious interior of the lift. His impatience was unbearable. Each moment seemed to last forever as he waited for the device to reach its destination. He checked and rechecked his weapons, swung the sword he carried in preparation for his confrontation with the K’Soth he pursued. Maran mocked him all the way down, describing in lurid detail what might be happening to Katherine and Rekkid. Of course the entity really did know what was happening to his friends, but wouldn’t tell him. Steven tried to block the mocking and the cackling laughter from his mind as he prepared himself, mentally and physically for the challenge ahead.
There was no hope of escape, nowhere to run or hide. Razortail stepped forward and bent down until his fang filled jaws were inches from Rekkid’s face.
‘Your name, wretch,’ he demanded.
‘Professor Rekkid Cor, citizen of the Arkari Meritocracy and of the Commonwealth.’ He met Razortail’s gaze levelly and confidently.
‘Well then Rekkid Cor, you will tell me everything you know about this installation. How you found it, how you activated it and how it works, or else I will extract the information from you myself. I should warn you, I enjoy my holy works.’ Saliva dripped from Razortail's lolling tongue onto Rekkid’s tunic, he wiped it off with distaste.
‘And I should warn you,’ he replied, ‘about the terms that were enforced upon the Empire by our government at the end of the last war that you started. That if any Arkari was to die at the hands of the Empire we would remind of your rightful place in the scheme of things, that you would find a full Arkari battle fleet within Sothon orbit again and that this time our weapons would not remain idle and those responsible would meet very unfortunate ends.’
Razortail did not flinch; he appeared to be contemplating something.
‘Brave words indeed, and foolish ones given your predicament. Typical Arkari, you benighted filth are always too arrogant, too obsessed with your own images of greatness. Little do you realise you are all damned! Your people cannot help you here, how will they know if I choose to slice you open right now?’
Rekkid wasn’t backing down. ‘They will know,’ he replied. ‘They will find out somehow since they already know I’m here. Then you will die. Tell me, is that what you want?’
Razortail pondered this for moment and then he grinned wide. Rekkid could smell his rank, carnivore’s breath.
‘Perhaps another way then!’ Razortail cried and grabbed Katherine, pinning her to the floor with one hand. She cried out and tried to struggle free against his iron grip, but to little avail. The two bodyguards leapt upon Rekkid and held him down also as Razortail squatted above Katherine. He produced his selection of knives and held them up for Rekkid to see. They glittered in the wan light.
‘This is how we will proceed,’ Razortail declared. ‘I will ask you questions. You will answer them, or I dissect your human friend.’ A claw caressed the contours of Katherine's cranium as he admired the fine geometry of her skull.
The battle was reaching its desperate climax. The Leonides, now badly damaged, was attempting to retreat from the field under the covering fire of the Gustavus Adolphus and her group. The carrier’s aft quarter was on fire, fuel had ignited on the flight deck and even now her crew were initiating emergency procedures to vent the oxygen rich atmosphere and douse the flames.
Chen had led her group around the opposite side of the melee in an attempt to draw the now suicidal K’Soth ships away from the stricken carrier. Near chaos reigned. Chen sought order amidst it.
‘Captain, the Thermopylae reports that she and the Crazy Horse have destroyed the Infanticide.’
‘Excellent! Tell them to now concentrate all fire on the War Temple Retribution of the Faith. We have to stop that ship.’
‘Captain the Retribution is on fire and has lost all power to weapons. But she isn’t stopping. Thirty seconds until she rams the Leonides!’
‘Jesus! Beowulf, Tipu Sultan, launch all remaining anti-ship rounds at the Retribution of the Faith. Take her down, now!’
‘Beowulf and Tipu Sultan are firing… Multiple hits on the Retribution… her reactors are going critical. She’s going down.’
‘Good job everyone, the Leonides owes you their lives.’
‘Captain, incoming bombers two o’clock high, looks like they’re on a suicide run.’
‘Defence grid, take down those ships, we can’t let a single one get through!’
‘Incoming message from the Wellesley.’
‘This is the destroyer Arthur Wellesley, we have suffered multiple kamikaze attacks on our engineering section, requesting permission to withdraw and undertake battlefield repairs.’
‘Permission granted Wellesley. Stillwell, accompany the Wellesley and provide covering fire whilst she makes repairs.’
‘The Leonides is almost clear of the field of engagement, but she is suffering hits on her aft quarter from the destroyers Defiler and Sanctity of Pain. Captain Diaz reports hull breaches on ten decks and fires on the flight deck, they are now venting atmosphere to extinguish the blaze.’
‘All vessels, concentrate fire on the destroyers Defiler and Sanctity of Pain, we have to let the Leonides get clear.’