Dreadnought: War Mage: Book Two (War Mage Chronicles 2)

by Charles R Case

  Sara gasped at the size of the dreadnought. It dwarfed anything humanity had built thus far; it could easily hold a city’s worth of people, and probably needed them to power the thing.

  Twenty Aether cannons blasted from its broadside, along with hundreds of gauss rounds. A full fifth of the United Human Fleet was torn to flaming shreds in the first surprise volley before they scattered.

  “Prepare for battle, we’re going in,” Sara barked, not waiting for the orders she knew were coming. She slipped into the command ring at the center of the bridge and shot some Aether into its small spellform. A bubble formed around her, giving her a view of space from the ship’s perspective. She brought up the 3D image of the battlefield in front of her, and marked a location with the swipe of a finger.

  “Cora, power the Aether cannons and prepare to jump. Ensign Hon, you’re weapons free once we engage, but send your initial burst here,” she said, marking a spot on the dreadnought. “And use those new warheads; I want to split this thing open. Mezner, let Baxter know we’re heading in and tell him to be prepared for a quick departure. Connors, give me fifty g acceleration for five seconds.”

  There was a flurry of activity as everyone carried out her orders. The ship shot forward, pushing the limits of its acceleration, and leaving the rest of the second fleet behind. At the five-second mark, Mezner spoke up. “Ma’am, the admiral is ordering the second fleet to engage.”

  Sara smiled. “I guessed as much. Hon, prepare to fire. Cora, time your Aether bolts to hit right before the gauss rounds. I want their shield down before the rounds get there.”

  Cora and Hon said, “Aye, ma’am,” in unison.

  Sara checked their speed: two point five kilometers per second.

  That should get us deep enough. I hope. She looked over at Alister, who was sitting on her shoulder. “You ready for this?”

  He locked his yellow eyes on hers. “Merp.”

  She smiled. “Yeah. Me too.”

  He licked her cheek, then hopped to the floor and stood tall next to her, prepared for battle.

  She looked out through her view bubble, at the battle happening millions of kilometers away. From where they were, it was just some barely visible flashes of light in a tiny speck of the vast sky, but she knew the fate of the world rested on the victory of the right specks of light.

  “Fire.”

  36

  Twelve slugs with the new warheads nestled in their centers shot out at nearly the speed of light, and streaked toward the lumbering target. A few seconds later, Cora let loose with the Aether cannons, and two brilliant blue lines of pure magic lanced through the dreadnought’s shielding, quickly burning the section down to a deep red before the beams winked out. A split second later, the gauss rounds slammed into the thick, armored hull. Each slug burst with brilliant energy as the warheads ignited. The rapid explosions tore chunks of the ship free, and a white geyser of atmosphere shot out of the resulting rupture.

  “Jump,” Sara ordered, and powered a specialized shield that Alister provided.

  The view changed from near empty space to the looming side of the dreadnought, as they instantly jumped a couple million kilometers. Sara had placed them only two kilometers from the damaged side of the dreadnought, and at their speed, they’d covered that distance in under a second.

  The shield form Alister had provided formed a spike of golden energy that extended in front of the Raven for several hundred meters, growing larger like a cone as it swept back to surround the rest of the ship. The tip of the shield easily pierced the damaged hull section, spreading the hole wider the deeper they went. The internal gravity compensated for the sudden deceleration, as the shield punctured deeper and deeper into the side of the beast.

  Sara pushed more and more Aether into the shield, assuring its integrity. It was a costly move, but in the end, they had decided it would be the quickest way to get their troops onboard the dreadnought. Sara felt her well draining, but at a much slower rate than she would have guessed.

  Baxter must be providing me with more power. Good to know the tank is a little larger, she thought with a smile.

  The ship slammed to a stop, lodged deep within the dreadnought’s belly. Sara turned and looked behind herself in the viewing bubble, and could see half a kilometer of ruined ship, exposed to the vacuum of space where the Raven had plowed through.

  They were close to the prison level, according to the plans provided by Sir Reitus. He had contacted the Elif Spy network, and ordered everything they had on the governor’s dreadnought be sent to the Raven. A plan was made to storm the complex quickly from the inside, reasoning that the mass majority of Teifen soldiers would be guarding the docking bays and airlocks against boarders; no one in their right mind would guess that the enemy would dive into their massive ship with their own—a feat that was only possible with a War Mage’s power.

  “Baxter, we’re in. Get your men to the prison, quickly,” Sara said into her comm.

  She could hear the smile in his voice. “Yes, ma’am. One emperor, coming up. Give ‘em hell.”

  “Baxter?” She hesitated. “Be careful. I can't afford to lose you.”

  His reply was slightly more somber. “Yes, ma’am. This time you’ll owe me a beer.”

  Sara laughed. “There will be a cold one waiting for you—the real stuff this time, not that non-alcoholic crap you gave me.”

  “Looking forward to it. Baxter out,” he said, cutting off the channel.

  Sara looked to her side in the viewing bubble and saw the troopers running across a shield bridge from the Raven’s docking bay to the ruined edge of the dreadnought’s interior. She dropped the shield around the ship, letting them pass through. After a minute or two, all five hundred Marines, plus Boon and Sir Reitus, were aboard the dreadnought. A figure Sara recognized as Baxter, despite the distance and identical black armor of his compatriots, turned and gave a wave to the ship before following the troops through a broken doorway.

  “Ma’am, there are fighters coming around behind us. They know we’re here,” Hon reported from fire control.

  “Connors, give me a hard reverse out of this heap. Hon, we’re going to be doing our best to disable this hulk, so target any and all gravity drives you can. Cora, we’re going to be doing a lot of jumping, but I’m going to need those Aether blasts as soon as you can recharge; coordinate with Hon on shot placements. Set all PDCs to auto, for the fighters.” Sara’s face split into an evil smile, “Let’s show these horned bastards who they’re dealing with.”

  She powered a tight shield around them, exposing only the barrels of the Raven’s numerous guns, as Connors backed the ship out at high speed. As soon as they were clear of the dreadnought, the PDCs began spitting fire at the closing fighters, taking several by surprise, and splitting their unshielded hulls open with hundreds of high velocity slugs. The five surviving small fighters banked hard to avoid the guns, but the gun’s tracking ability at this close a range was more than the pilots could handle, and they were soon nothing but tightly packed scrap, hurtling through space.

  Hon began firing the gauss cannons, targeting shield projectors and gun emplacements on the dreadnought’s hull. A dozen or more sensitive spots on the hull were torn to shreds, before the rest of the guns began returning fire.

  “Aim for the shield projectors. We want this section unprotected for our return,” Sara ordered, pumping more power into the shield, and shrugging off the return fire as best she could.

  “Aye, ma’am,” Hon replied, readjusting his aim.

  While the Raven’s shields were produced by magic, they needed to be amplified and directed through shield projectors. Unlike the Raven, the Teifen used normal troopers to power their shields. A dozen or more people could pour their Aether into the spellform, which would redirect that power out through the projectors. This produced a shield, but one that could not be modulated for specific damage, and therefore was much more costly to maintain. If the projectors were damaged or destroyed, it le
ft that section without the ability to use a normal trooper. Mages could be called in to produce shields directly, but they were much less powerful than the amplified versions, because they needed to cover such a large area.

  The human ships used troops to power the shields as well, but instead of powering the rigid spellforms like the Teifen did, they powered an Aether accumulator that the captain could use as a sort of short-term battery in their own spellforms—though this made the process sluggish compared to what the smaller corvette class ships did. The Raven and other small warships didn't use the inefficient accumulator, instead relying on the captain to use the amplifiers directly. The small size of the ship was easier for one mage to cover, and because they had direct control of the Aether, they were able to manipulate the spellform quickly to fit the situation. This made them able to deflect relatively large amounts of fire for short times during their quick assaults.

  The Raven, however, was powering her shields with a War Mage, who could channel enough Aether to rival a destroyer, while her entire crew powered the shield accumulator.

  But even a War Mage has their limits.

  After thirty seconds of direct fire, Sara was beginning to strain to maintain her shield.

  “The fleet is in trouble, ma’am. We need to get out there and start taking out some of that firepower,” Grimms updated her from his position at the holo table.

  Sara took a quick look, and decided on a target. She swiped a finger indicating a location and direction for Cora. “How are we doing, Hon? You about done with those projectors?”

  “Aye, ma’am. That was the last in the immediate area,” he reported, before switching his guns to fire on the dreadnought’s hull directly.

  “Jump,” Sara ordered, as her shield began to turn orange.

  They disappeared, leaving the Teifen gun operators confused at their suddenly missing target.

  37

  The battle was turning in a very slow and costly way.

  After the dreadnought’s initial appearance and subsequent devastating artillery volley to the rear line of the UHF, the lumbering ship became less of a problem. The human fleet had executed emergency jumps to the opposite side of the battlefield, putting the Teifen fleet between themselves and the dreadnought. This cut down the direct fire from the capital ship, but it was still able to saturate areas with gauss and Aether fire, once cleared of its own ships.

  However, the improved ordnance of the UHF, in the form of the warheads, was hitting much harder than the Teifen had expected. In addition to the increased firepower, humans were good at shield magic, making them as tough a target as the Elif, with their exceptional shielding. But where the Teifen were at a loss was with the highly aggressive tactics humans used, which were on par with their own.

  The Teifen had become used to fighting the Elif; while the humans used the same formation tactics as the less aggressive race, they used them to much more devastating effects. Where the Elif focused on protection and escape from naval battles, human forces attacked and pressed their advantages, hitting targets harder when they became damaged, in order to eliminate them completely—not satisfied that they were merely out of the fight.

  It soon became apparent that even with the humans’ devastating losses, they were not giving up. On the contrary, they became more aggressive, even taking a page from the Raven’s playbook and ramming the smaller of the Teifen ships. This sometimes proved too much for the human ships, and they were left either damaged beyond functionality, or shieldless, open to enemy fire. The tactic was used only in moments of desperation, but was still a tactic that left the Teifen horrified.

  By the time the Raven was freed from the dreadnought’s belly, the battle had reached balance once again, and was slowly turning in the humans’ favor.

  The Raven appeared beside a damaged Teifen destroyer. The huge ship had been trading blows with Admiral Johansen’s flagship, and both were damaged nearly to uselessness. The Teifen destroyer still had its front shield powered, and was heading directly for the admiral, firing everything it had.

  “Admiral, warp out of here. We can take this one. You need to get your people to safety,” Sara said to the flagship over the open channel.

  Not waiting for an answer, Hon began pummeling the unprotected rear of the destroyer. A full volley of gauss rounds tore at the armored aft of the ship. Cora sent an Aether blast as a follow-up to the gauss rounds, punching a hole through the weakened armor and causing the destroyer to buck and begin to drift sideways. Hon followed up with several rounds of the warheads, which punched deeply into the ship before detonating. The resulting explosion blew off the rear quarter of the ship, ripping the reactor away from the main body. The hulk went dark, and several explosions tore through the remaining sections.

  Sara noted that the admiral had warped when she gave him the chance, allowing the ship the opportunity to recover, and letting him replace personnel on the Aether accumulators.

  “I thank you for the assist, Raven. The battle is turning, but we are picking up on a cruiser that is attempting to run. As soon as it clears the debris field, it will warp away. We cannot let that happen. I need you to stop it before it escapes,” Admiral Johansen said over their comm link.

  “Aye, sir. We’re on it,” Sara said, marking the location on her map. “Cora, jump.”

  They slipped through the Aether, appearing directly behind a damaged ship that was maneuvering around a spinning hulk that was once a UHF destroyer.

  “Hon, light it up,” Sara ordered, scanning the battlefield for any more runners. To her horror, there seemed to be quite a few.

  It seemed, after the first Teifen ship broke away, that several of the enemy took it as a cue that the battle was to be fought another day.

  “Admiral, I’m seeing several ships trying to flee. We need to activate the warp dampener,” she said, knowing what that would mean for the fleet. Without the ability to warp, the battle would turn into a slug fest, ships trading blows until one or the other crumbled. It would cost a lot of lives, but Sara knew there was no other way to stop all the Teifen.

  She hardly noticed the Teifen cruiser ahead of them, as Hon pounded the aft of the ship with round after round, until there were a number of white sprays, venting atmosphere. Cora followed up his pounding with an Aether bolt right up the rear of the ship. The bolt tore through the unprotected craft, and punched out the front in a burst of metal and fire.

  The admiral sighed. “You’re right, make your last jump. I’m activating the device in ten seconds.”

  “The warning has been sent fleetwide, ma’am,” Mezner reported.

  Sara searched frantically for the best place to be and decided they needed to be close to the dreadnought to retrieve their people. Then she saw a pack of cruisers headed the admiral’s way, and knew she needed to protect the capital ship and the warp dampener onboard.

  With a frustrated growl, she marked the location. “Jump.”

  38

  “That’s a lot of horns,” Boon said, peeking around the corner of the corridor they were occupying inside the dreadnought. The five hundred Marines were spread along the wall of the vast, high-walled passage, awaiting orders.

  “I was surprised we didn't find any troops along the way; I guess they were all here, waiting for us,” Baxter said, consulting the map on his palm projector. “Gonders, take a look at this,” he said, his second leaning in to study the map. “If this map is accurate, there are several ways around to come in from the sides. If we can flank them, the fight should go a little easier. I need you to make your way around here, and wait for my signal. We’ll hit them from the front, then you can sweep in and overrun their position. We outnumber them two to one, but our numbers mean nothing if we all try to attack from one direction. The corridors are large, but we can still only fit so many in at a time.”

  Gonders studied the map for a second before nodding. “You should send Deej with a group of a hundred around this way. Keep the main force with you, and send another
hundred with me. That way if the map turns out to be crap, we have a better chance of one of us being in position.”

  “Good point. Deej, you copy that?” he asked over the command channel.

  “Got it, sir,” came the immediate answer.

  “What about Sir Reitus?” Gonders asked, flicking a glance in the Elif’s direction.

  Baxter considered. “Take him with you. He could be a help if the intel is bad.”

  “Yes, sir,” Gonders said, motioning for the guard captain to join her.

  “Right, get going, I don't want to take too long and miss our ride out of here,” he said, checking his clock. They had been on the dreadnought for just under twenty minutes, and he knew the battle outside must be taking a toll on the fleet.

  “I think we’re lost,” Boon said, cocking her head. According to the map, they were standing inside a wall.

  Gonders motioned for the troops to hold their position. The hundred Marines took up the best defensive positions they could, kneeling beside the walls on either side of the corridor.

  “Reitus, the map is no good,” Gonders said, slightly accusingly.

  Sir Reitus pulled up his own map, and studied it before saying, “The plans we stole for this ship were preliminary, it hadn’t been built yet; they probably changed during construction. The overall layout should be close, however.”

  “I think he’s right. The plans are almost correct, but it’s like the measurements were off. I think we’re actually in this passage,” she said, pointing to the corridor that, according to the map, was fifty meters to their left.

  Boon felt a flash of worry come from Gonders as she considered what to do next. Despite their current situation, Boon felt a swell of happiness. Gonders looked up at her, and Boon guessed there was a smile behind her faceplate.