Triumph & Defeat (Shaitan Wars Book 4)

by Sudipto Majumdar

  “We have done our calculations seer. If our fleet were to rush out to isolate one of the squadrons of the split fleet of the enemy, and by some miracle instantly destroy that squadron and immediately reverse our thruster to make a dash back to defend the system, we would still arrive back here many cycles after the other enemy squadron would have arrived at the core worlds. You have to remember that the enemy fleet has two advantages. First, it is decelerating from its high speed journey to come to a stop somewhere at the edge of this system. If they were to observe our fleet rushing to meet up with one of their squadrons of their fleet, the other squadron can rush in to arrive directly at the core by simply reducing its thrust. Second is that the observed acceleration capability of these class of ships is far superior to our warships. So in a chase situation, the enemy will always win.

  “I hope that adequately answers your question seer, as to why we warriors are not too keen to rush out and meet up with one of the squadrons of the enemy. That, and the fact that we can expect a lot of support for our defense efforts from non-combat vessels out here close to the core of the system using tricks that we have learnt from the Ka-Baal themselves, makes us partial to the strategy of staying put close to the core of the system and prepare our defenses here. We let the enemy come to us, seer.” Taste of Domination finished his answer.

  There were many more questions from the council members, some of which Taste of Aggression could not avoid having to answer directly himself. In the end, when the entire council was convinced that the warriors had come up with the best possible defense plan in the given circumstances, they had to appoint the Warmaster for the campaign. Seer taste of Aggression despite his age was chosen as the Warmaster. The council felt that this was the one of the most critical battles that would be fought in the history of their beings, and it was only natural that the most experienced of the warriors was asked to lead it, despite his advanced age. Seer taste of Domination was chosen as Aggression’s backup. Domination would be on another war vessel of the fleet ready to take over, if something were to happen to the vessel on which Aggression was.

  Chapter XXX

  Battle of Hades

  Shaitan Core Worlds

  2142

  “Warmaster, the enemy fleet is making their move! You would not believe which direction they are heading! I have sent the data to your tasting station. I will await your instructions on our move.” Scent of Vigor said over the channel, and Taste of Aggression could taste the incoming data. Scent of Vigor had joined the command vessel of Aggression as his adjunct. He was the equivalent of a flag staff on the flag bridge, just as Aggression as the Warmaster was the equivalent of an admiral of the fleet.

  After studying the data for a moment, Aggression said. “This is interesting. It is unexpected and baffling, but as of now totally harmless. We do not need to be in a tearing hurry to respond. Monitor the situation for me and report if anything changes. I need to consult with Seer Domination on this strange opening move of the enemy.”

  Aggression cut off the channel, and connected to the ship of Domination. After Domination had studied the data, he said. “To me it looks like the enemy may not have as much intelligence on our system as we originally feared. The slow pace at which the enemy is progressing towards that moon, and the fact that it is one of the outermost of the moons, makes me believe that the enemy is slowly conducting a survey of the landscape before deciding on the best course of action. The fact that this moon has nothing of critical importance for the defense of this system strengthens that belief.”

  “Those were my initial thoughts as well.” Aggression said. “On the other hand, it is possible that the enemy is testing our response to check if they can lure us out to the periphery. May be they think that if they get lucky and can lure us out there, then with their superior acceleration, they would be able to make a dash for the core worlds and quickly inflict some damage on our void infrastructure uncontested, before we are able to catch up with them.”

  “Yes Warmaster that is more than a likely scenario. But do we leave that moon to its own devices? Although it has no strategic value, there are a many of our own kind on the tiny base out there. Those poor beings would have no hope against the enemy fleet. They would get slaughtered.” Domination asked.

  “I am hoping it will not come to that. Let us observe for some more time before we come to a decision on our next course of action. As you said, the enemy fleet is not moving in a great hurry, which gives us some time before we need to act.” Aggression replied.

  ---XXX---

  “All systems at hundred percent L.T., the second platoon is ready for action, sir!” Sergeant Rangjo Dorji literally barked into his suit speakers. Lt. Jesus Pimenta winced a bit at the loud shout coming to his earpiece, but gave a smile. The “Sarge” was the quintessential drill sergeant, if one ever existed, but he could trust his life at the hands of no better a soldier than Sergeant Dorji.

  “Understood Sergeant, standby. Checking the readiness of our friends.” Lt. Pimenta replied.

  The ‘friends’ were being readied in the adjacent hangar, where the air pressure and the air mix had been adjusted and kept according to their liking.

  “Master Scent of Swiftness. Is the deployment of your warriors on schedule? The countdown will start any moment.” Lt. Pimenta asked over his suit mike.

  After the customary delay from the translator, Lt. Pimenta got to hear the neutral computer generated voice of the translator. “The warriors are suited. The equipment has been checked and they are ready to jump at a moment’s notice Master Offspring of God.” Lt. Pimenta felt weird every time he was addressed by that name, but he let it go. He acknowledged and connected with the ‘Chief of Operations’. “Chief, we are all good to go, waiting for instructions from above.”

  “You don’t need instructions form above Jesus boy! You are ‘Master Offspring of God’, remember! But you do need instructions from higher up the chain of command. Stand by for further instructions.” Lt. Pimenta could see the impish smile from the ‘Chief’ on his screen as he conducted the operations from his operation center. He let the bar room dig by the chief go. The chief was a very likeable guy, and it was not possible to hold a grudge against him. The chief was only repeating the joke that was anyway prevalent in the entire ship, if not the entire fleet.

  “Ok. Jesus boy, the big guy upstairs has decided to do you a slight favor. Looks like they are trying to drop you off a bit closer to your destination. Looks like you will have to pee in your suit for a shorter while. Any way the big guy is going to speak to you directly in a while.” The chief said to Lt. Pimenta with a wink.

  “How is it a favor chief? We are already in our suits, we would end up spending the same amount of time in our suits wherever they drop us.” Lt. Pimenta retorted.

  “Hey, el stupido! Your suits are hooked up to the mains right now. You are saving on battery as long as you are in this ship. Be thankful for that, for where you are going the battery math is touch and go. You are just as much in risk of dying by running out of suit power as of being shot out of space by the Shaitans. So be grateful for every extra minute of charge that gets saved on your suits… and just in case I forget to say it later. Best of luck to you and your jar heads. You are going to need it.” Chief ended with a soft tone, realizing the perilous mission that these brave marines were about to embark upon.

  Lt. Pimenta floated in his suit in the hangar for another fifteen minutes before his com buzzed and he saw the captain on his visor. “Sorry to keep your marines suited and waiting in that hangar lieutenant. We have managed to delay your release for about half an hour, which should give you that much extra operational time in your suits. Hope it will help. The admiral decided, that it was too early to turn away. We needed the Shaitans to get the feeling that we took some time to debate the next course of action and then turned away, and not the feeling that this was a preplanned action. Which is good for your platoon. You get released that much closer to the target. Please stand
by. I will be addressing the marines and your Shaitan comrade in arms shortly, which would be followed by the start of the countdown.”

  “Acknowledged captain, and we are grateful for the extra suit time.” Lt. Pimenta replied.

  The Shaitans had been told of the human tradition. The master of a vessel gave one final address to any warrior who departed on a mission as a matter of courtesy and morale booster to the warriors, as well as a recognition of the bravery of the warriors, and in the gratitude of their service. The Warmaster had appreciated this gesture and had insisted that his Shaitan troops be addressed as well by the master of the vessel simultaneously.

  This meant that the Capt. Barr couldn’t give his usual ‘Go and kick some Shaitan ass’ speech. He had to take care of the heretic Shaitan sensibilities. They were the lynchpin of this mission. It had taken all the diplomatic skills of Sandy and her team to compose an appropriate speech for the captain, which is what Capt. Barr started speaking out over the com.

  “Marines and brave warriors of the believers of the Truth. You are about to embark on the most crucial mission that has been undertaken by our people. This mission will be remembered in the history of all our beings, so let it be remembered for its glorious success. You are the best at what you do, and you know your mission well, so I trust and believe that you will make us all proud. This is the first time our two beings are fighting side by side together. Let both our beings fight together in the same spirit of brotherhood, and cover each other with our lives just as we would do for our own kind. The biggest gift that the Marines and the warriors of the believers of the Truth can give us from this mission is not victory, but the trust and the respect of each other as a species that is earned in battle by shedding blood for each other. That invaluable gift will ensure that we two beings will always stand together, and no force in this universe can then defeat us. Good Luck.”

  The countdown began shortly after the captain’s address. The Marines waited through the countdown, some in silence, thinking about the difficult mission they had in front of them, while others passed time in idle banter amongst themselves. The air had been drained out of the hangar, which was far bigger than the Avenger class warships. This hangar actually accommodated the shuttles inside, so the door of the hangar was fairly big. As the countdown clock turned to zero, thirty one marines gently pushed themselves out of the hangar and started free floating in space.

  Lt. Pimenta checked the IFF signals of his marines, and his suit computer confirmed that the tally matched. Next he thought clicked and switched his IFF to the Shaitans and again his suit computer confirmed one hundred and twenty eight Shaitan signatures. He opened up a channel to the ship and said “Hercules, all birds out of their nest safely and on their way. Thanks for the ride!”

  “You are welcome second platoon, we will see you on the other side.” Came the reply. Then the operations center put the channel in broadcast mode and addressed all the floating marines and the Shaitans simultaneously. “All marines and believers of the Truth be advised that we go into our initial burn in one eighty seconds. You should be well out of our way by then, so don’t worry. None of you are going to get fried by our engines. Your packages have also been dispatched, and they should arrive at your objective ten to twenty minutes behind you. Can’t give you better estimates, since the packages are free floating on their own momentum, just like you. At this time I remind Master Scent of Swiftness and Lt. Pimenta that your warriors and marines go into total radio silence in thirty seconds. Best of luck marines and warriors, we will see you on the other side.”

  Lt. Pimenta saw the IFF codes of the marines and the warriors slowly wink out as each of them put their suits into complete radio silence. From here on, each of the floating suited figure was truly alone for nearly sixty hours. They would not be able to talk to anyone, and they would be hurtling in the space silently. The only sound they would hear, would be that of their own breathing.

  Lt. Pimenta saw USC Hercules light up its massive engines. He switched on his tactical display and saw that all the fourteen ships of the fleet had opened up their engines simultaneously, no doubt coordinated by their computers. He watched the display for many minutes as it showed the fleet slowly moving away from him. Once the fleet was too far for his suit to track, he changed his view and put up an overlay on his faceplate screen showing him his objective drawn in false lines – Hades-EK.

  Hades-EK was a fairly non-descript moon of Hades, one of the smaller ones barely large enough to attain a spherical shape. It was one of the outermost moons of the Hades system. Intelligence provided by the heretic Shaitans indicated that this moon was pretty much useless to the Shaitans for any practical purpose. It did not have any mineral worth mining. It could not support easy habitation. It did not produce any heat in its core, and its eccentric orbit made it unsuitable as an observation post.

  The only installation on this moon was a small training academy. The inhabitants were a small garrison of trainee Shaitans and their trainers, who came here for a limited period of time to get acclimatized to space and learn to cope with long periods in zero G environment and ships operations in zero G environment. The small underground academy supported a single space station orbiting the moon in a geostationary orbit right above the academy. The moon’s gravity was minimal, less than five percent of Earth, but it was still not zero. So a lot of the training happened on the space station orbiting above. The trainees and the trainers shuttled between the surface and the space station using shuttles.

  With such a low gravity, it took little time and effort for the shuttles to ply between the surface academy and the space station above. Lt. Pimenta had been told to expect multiple shuttles plying continuously between the surface and the space station, as trainees used the trips to learn to fly those shuttles. It was neither the training academy, the space station nor the shuttles plying up and down, which were the objective of this mission. The objective of this mission was something that Lt. Pimenta was told he could expect to be docked along with the space station – two interplanetary class shuttles.

  The heretics had informed that these shuttles were always docked with the space station as a means of emergency escape from the moon for the trainees. Interplanetary shuttles from other moons brought trainees, teachers, equipment and supplies to this moon and carried back returning trainees. These two interplanetary shuttles would usually not be used for such routine transport. Lt. Pimenta hoped that the Intel was good. The lives of the marines, and the mission hinged on that Intel from the heretics.

  ---XXX---

  “Warmaster, the enemy fleet has turned. Preliminary analysis of their course change shows that they have tentatively turned towards our prime mining colony on the forty third moon. When I say tentatively, I mean that the enemy fleet seems to be crawling towards that moon.” Scent of Vigor informed Aggression.

  “Finally the enemy seems to be showing their intention, and heading towards a reasonable target. Although I am disappointed. They are heading towards the least rewarding of the targets possible. The Prime mining colony does have one void vessel building yard and some important mining function, but the origin world and World #2 have many more rewarding targets for the enemy. I guess the enemy is just being cautious in its approach.

  “The enemy fleet would have gotten close enough to that training moon, and then realized that there was nothing on it worth fighting for. Then they would have seen our fleet start inching towards them, and decided to pick a juicier target, but not too important that our fleet rushes into defend it. The reason they are going slow I guess, is that they are apprehensive of what we might have laid on their path. Overall, the enemy Warmaster has been fairly predictable so far.

  “Scent of Vigor, instruct the master to plot a path towards the prime mining colony. Let it be a very slow crawl towards the mining colony, so that we don’t get outflanked at any time in our defense of the core world. If at any time the enemy fleet were to change direction and head towards the core worlds
, we should be able to reach there before the enemy. Let us see how the enemy Warmaster reacts to this move of ours.” Seer Taste of Aggression instructed his adjunct.

  Then, as an afterthought, he added. “And please instruct the proctor of that academy on that moon to be on the lookout for any cold dark objects floating towards them. These Ka-Baal are sneaky. I wouldn’t put it past them to have slipped in a few missiles floating silently towards that moon, before they changed course. Such missiles would silently float towards that moon and the academy, and they would not be aware of it till the very last moment, when the missiles wake up and detonate.”

  “Warmaster, with all due respect, the academy has no specialized tracking equipment to detect such cold missiles floating towards them. If such missiles have been released by the enemy fleet before they turned, then there is almost no way for the academy to detect them without outside help. I have trained in that academy, and I know the kind of equipment they have out there.” Scent of Vigor said to his teacher.

  “I am aware of that reality Vigor, and I wish we could do more to ensure their safety, but right now we can’t do more. The academy will have to look after itself. I have fond memories of that academy too, for I too trained out there, but unfortunately in this situation, the academy is way down in the priority list. Hopefully that very fact would be their protection, and the Ka-Baal would not waste their missiles on them. Inform the academy anyway about the possibility, because it is our duty to do so.” Aggression replied with a taste of sadness.