Behind the Lines: Ganog Wars Book 1

by Chris Fox

  Their movement left a gap in the line, exactly the kind of hole Fizgig had been hoping to force. Khar's booster mechs poured into the gap, moving swiftly to surround the cruiser.

  Their line met the wave of enemy fighters, booster mechs flitting between the larger fighters. The spindly ships fired pulses of red, struggling in vain to pin down Khar's mechs. The mechs fired mixed volleys of missiles and particle cannon pulses, carving deep holes in the enemy's lines.

  "Sir, the cruiser is hailing us," Juliard said.

  "Open a channel."

  The viewscreen shifted, showing the dim interior of an unfamiliar ship. A knot of Coalition soldiers stood in the foreground, but they were surrounded by green-scaled Saurians. A short, stubby little alien in a blue environmental suit stood next to the soldiers.

  "I never thought I'd be so glad to see you, Admiral," a bearded soldier said. His armor was dented and dirty, his face covered in sweat.

  "Burke, is that you? You're the senior most surviving officer?" Fizgig dug her claws into the arm of the chair, scratching furrows in the metal.

  "I'm afraid so, sir." Burke looked decidedly uncomfortable. Fizgig leaned forward, licking her chops. He paled further. "Nolan decided to remain behind, to destroy one of the planetstriders. We knew that if we couldn't take it out, there was no chance of me breaking orbit. There still isn't. The fighters can dodge that thing, but the moment we break for orbit that monstrosity is going to kill us."

  "Nolan said he'd remove this threat?" she asked, settling back into her chair.

  "Yes, sir."

  "Our fighters will escort you as far from the battle as possible. Hopefully, Nolan disables the planetstrider. If not, you'll have to take your chances." Fizgig killed the communication, turning back to the battle. She had to buy Nolan time, but the cost was already mounting.

  The three remaining dreadnoughts were keeping her forces at bay, trying to pin them in a way that would allow the planetstriders to pick them off. Thus far her line was holding, but it wouldn't be long before her fleet buckled entirely.

  "The Civilis just went down," Juliard shouted. "Our line is adjusting to compensate."

  Fizgig closed her eyes, taking slow, deep breaths. She forced her tail to stillness. For good or ill, the battle would be decided soon.

  Chapter 55- Complications

  Nolan tried not to hover, but couldn't resist pacing back and forth over the ladder leading back to the hatch. Hannan sat a few feet away, munching on a soybar. Both of them pointedly avoided looking at Lena.

  The Tigris scientist was bent over a terminal next to a floating blue cube. That cube's design was unmistakably Primo, and it raised some very troubling questions. Most of the technology used by the Ganog was similar to what the ancient Primo had used, but this one piece was nearly identical.

  For that to have happened, the Ganog must have run into the Primo at some point--or they'd run into the Void Wraith. Given these Nameless Ones, Nolan was fairly certain the latter possibility was more likely.

  "I've tried every command I can think of, but nothing is working. This core requires specific codes to access, and we don't have those codes. I'm not a hacker, Nolan. I cannot find a way around this. I do not know what to do." Lena's tail drooped, but her attention stayed on the cube.

  "Noted. Looks like we'll need to move on to plan B." Nolan gave a sigh. He'd hoped it wouldn't come to that, but the pragmatic side of him had always understood that this would likely be the only way to stop the planetstrider.

  A new voice crackled over the comm. "Captain Nolan, this is Admiral Fizgig."

  "Fizgig? It is damned good to hear your voice, Admiral. Time's short, as always. What do you need?"

  "We're losing, Nolan. We've inflicted a great deal of damage on their fleet, but we have no way of countering their planetstriders. We must withdraw. Quickly. Do you have some way to reach safety?"

  "Negative, but don't worry about us. Did you get Burke up safely?" he asked.

  The planetstrider took another step, sending Nolan lurching toward the wall. He caught himself on the lip of the window over the monster's head. It provided a breathtaking view of the ruined city below.

  "No, and it is for that reason I have contacted you. Can you disable the planetstrider? Burke's fate lies in your hands, Nolan."

  "Not just Burke. Annie is on that ship, along with Aluki, and a number of other refugees. Those refugees can put us in contact with dissidents throughout the Ganog Imperium. You're going to need them, sir," Nolan explained pragmatically.

  He met Hannan's gaze, and she gave him a half-smile. She knew what they were being asked to do. What the cost was.

  "Your courage will be remembered, Nolan. Your songs will be sung by my pride until the stars go cold, you have my word on that," Fizgig promised.

  Nolan almost thought he detected a note of sadness. "As last acts go," Nolan said, "it's not a bad one. We need sixty seconds to stop this thing from firing. Tell Burke he can go at that point. Nolan out." Inexplicable calm washed over him. He took a deep breath, then turned to Lena and Hannan. "You heard the lady. We've got sixty seconds to end this."

  "Captain," Lena said, her tone accusing. "We can't do any such thing. I am not going to be able to stop this thing."

  Hannan rose, opening her pack. "Sounds like we're going with plan B."

  "Hannan, get out the explosives and start setting them up." Nolan reached into his own pack, removing a block of plastique. He glanced at Lena. "If you've got something for us in the next sixty seconds, wonderful. If not, we're going to use everything we have. Hopefully an explosion of that magnitude directly above this thing's head will kill or disable it. One way or the other, we're taking out this planetstrider."

  "Nolan," Fizgig's voice crackled over the comm again. "Die well. You have more than my respect. You have my friendship. Hannan, I did not know you well, but you have always had my respect. I know that Izzy will be saddened by your death."

  "You're a hell of a fighter, Admiral," Hannan said, smearing adhesive above a row of terminals. "Good luck up there." She affixed the block of explosives, then reached for another.

  "Holy one," Fizgig said, her voice cracking. "Above all, you will be remembered. Your contributions to our race are beyond priceless."

  "Yes, yes," Lena said impatiently. "Go blow up some Ganog, Fizgig. We have work to do, if you want us to destroy this planetstrider." Her attention never left the cube, her face bathed in blue as she typed furiously at the terminal.

  Chapter 56- Hell Yes

  Lena tapped furiously at the keypad, using unfamiliar symbols to navigate through the archaic system. The Ganog language was logarithmic, but she needed a lot more time to familiarize herself with the system. That made her work frustratingly slow

  The planetstrider rumbled, and a low, subsonic hum built. It presaged the firing of the cannon, and Lena knew every time it fired another part of their fleet died.

  Hannan had finished placing her explosives. She squeezed past Lena to overlook the ladder, ready to defend them should these Ganog send another assault team.

  "Aha! I think I've found something resembling a manual." She scanned the contents, looking for a symbol for off or shut down. Green text scrolled, until she finally reached the end. Lena's ears drooped, and she closed her eyes. "There's nothing, no means of shutting it down."

  "It's fine, Lena." The captain finished attaching his last block of explosives. He moved to her side, placing a hand on her shoulder.

  The gesture helped more than she could express. Her tail drooped. Tigris didn't cry, not like humans did, and in this instance she wished she could. She stared at the blue cube, searching for any plan, any idea, no matter how ludicrous.

  "Hmm, I wonder." Lena's tail lashed back and forth behind her. She scrolled back up, tapping a red sigil. It led to another menu, and she saw a symbol she thought she understood. Tapping the symbol caused the screen to flash red. "It worked! I can't shut down the mech, but I did find the sequence to eject the cor
e."

  "Will that get this thing to stop firing?" Nolan asked, peering at her with those intense eyes with their oddly round pupils.

  "I do not know," she admitted, and turned back to core. The cube flared brilliantly, then went dark. Whatever force had been holding it in place vanished, and it clattered to the deck.

  "What happened?" Hannan snapped, glaring at her.

  "Nothing. Go back to shooting things." Lena scooped up the cube, setting it atop a terminal. Outside the high-pitched whine came again, then the planetstrider fired another burst of scarlet death into the sky. "Looks like removing the cube didn't do anything."

  T'kon's voice crackled over the comm. "Nolan, you've been detected. A Saurian kill squad is docking with the hatch. Expect six to eight combatants. They'll be on you in under a hundred heartbeats."

  It was exactly the wrong kind of distraction, drawing an irritated swish from Lena's tail. She tuned out the Ganog, tuned out Nolan's orders, tuned out everything except for the monitor. She looked at the dark cube, then at the screen. If she understood the syntax, it was asking for her to insert a core.

  "It cannot be that simple," Lena muttered. She picked up her pack from its place near the terminal, withdrawing the Edwards core. It was only about sixty percent of the size of the core she'd removed, and the symbols on the outside were different--yet there was no denying the common ancestry between the devices. "Why not? It worked with the Void Wraith."

  She placed Edwards on the pedestal where the old core had hovered, then tapped the button on the screen asking for confirmation. The pedestal began to hum again, and the Edwards core rose into the air. The surface glowed brightly, and began to rotate just like the old core had.

  Her suit didn't perfectly translate the glyphs on the screen, but if she understood what she was seeing the cube was being scanned. The system was attempting to calibrate it. It was entirely automated, and she saw no way to influence the process. So she waited.

  "Give me some news, Lena," Nolan snapped. He fired off a burst from his particle pistol, and Lena winced as the sharp whine echoed through the control room. "I'll extend that deadline by thirty seconds, but after that we're blowing this place."

  The deeper whine of Hannan's rifle came a moment later, answered by plasma fire from below. Lena wasn't a soldier, but she was a Tigris. She knew enough of combat to see that they had a well-defended position, but they also had nowhere to go. Sooner or later they'd be overwhelmed, and Nolan knew it.

  "I'll do what I can," Lena called over her shoulder, eyes fixed on the screen. The process went from red to blue, then to purple. The Edwards core flared brightly. "Edwards, this is Lena. Can you hear me?"

  Edwards's voice came from a speaker set into the wall. "Uhh, yeah I can hear you. Where the hell am I? It's dark, and I'm floating. I can feel something in here with me, but I can't see it. Like, another mind maybe? Lena, I'm scared. Can you get me out of here?"

  "Edwards I need you to focus on the sound of my voice," Lena said. She kept her tone firm, but friendly. It was the same way she instructed her classes back at the New Academy. "We removed the core that controls the planetstrider, and put you in its place. That mind you feel? That's probably the creature itself."

  "Oh, okay. So this is that dino thing? You're just like a giant dog. Hi there, fella. Good boy." Edwards sounded a little calmer. Maybe even cheerful.

  "Edwards, listen very carefully," Lena commanded. "You have to find a way to get the planetstrider to stop firing at the fleet. If you can't, Captain Nolan, Lieutenant Hannan, and myself are all about to die. So will you."

  "Uh...shit." Edwards confused voice came from the wall speaker. "Hold on a sec. I'll see what I can do. I'm not too good with computers."

  "They're making another push, Captain," Hannan roared. She fired down the hole again. Answering fire caught her in the shoulder, and she stumbled back with a cry.

  "Hannan!" the captain roared. He leaned over the hole, firing a trio of pulses. Then he moved to Hannan's side. "Looks like it punched through your armor. We'll need a medic."

  "We don't have time for that, and we both know it. Blow it, sir," Hannan said through clenched teeth.

  The planetstrider shuddered, and Lena held her breath, waiting. "I believe in you, Edwards."

  The subsonic whine of the weapon began to build. Lena's tail drooped. Then the whine softened, and finally stopped. The planetstrider's metal arm descended; the cannon stayed blessedly silent. Lena gave a delighted laugh. "Well done, Edwards. Well done."

  "So, I can give this thing orders?" Edwards asked, like a mischievous kit who'd just been given permission to play a prank.

  "Yes, it should respond to your commands. I need you to do two things, okay?"

  "Uh, sure. What do you need?"

  "First, I need you to unlock the terminal I'm at. All you should need to do is think about granting me full access."

  A few seconds later the terminal flared green, then showed a new menu. It was much more comprehensive than the first.

  "What now, Lena?" Edwards asked, clearly proud of himself.

  "Now I need you to do what you do best. Stop the other planetstriders from firing on our fleet, whatever it takes," Lena ordered.

  "Hell, YES!" Edwards boomed.

  Chapter 57- Brawl

  Edwards felt around experimentally inside his temporary home, seeing what he could control. The creature was big, and its brain was unfamiliar. But the longer he was around it, the more he relaxed. It was basically just a big cow, just like the herd he'd tended on Horton before joining up.

  The way he made it do things was a lot different than piloting a mech. A mech worked kind of like an extension of his own body. He thought about moving, and it happened. This was quite a bit different. It was weird, and strange, and he didn't really like it. The planetstrider did most of the moving, though Edwards could feel both metallic arms. Those he could move on his own.

  "Let's start with a name. How about we call you Rex?" Edwards asked. Rex didn't respond. "You're waiting for orders, huh? Okay."

  Edwards experimented with one of the creature's arms, thrilled when the metal limb moved. He tried the other arm, the one with the claw. That one worked too. He thought about Rex turning toward one of the other planetstriders, but that didn't work.

  "Okay, so that confirms it. I can control the metal parts, but I gotta ask you to move us around. Rex, walk toward your buddies, okay?"

  Rex took a ponderous step toward the closest planetstrider.

  "Perfect, just like that. You just walk in a straight line," he muttered. Edwards wasn't sure if he was seeing through the creature's eyes, or if there were sensors of some damned sort. Didn't much matter. He could see the enemy, and he had a gun bigger than the UFC Johnston.

  No one had ever accused him of brilliance, but this situation hardly called for finesse. It called for brute force, and he could do brute force. Edwards aimed the cannon at the next planetstrider, lining the weapon up with its narrow, ugly face. The other planetstrider didn't react, just kept firing at the sky. Edwards powered up the cannon, humming as the energy built within the weapon. It took about four seconds to charge, and once it was ready he fired. Waves of crackling red energy washed over the reptilian face, melting flesh, scale, and bone.

  The planetstrider shrieked, tumbling away from the blow. It staggered, then toppled. The thing seemed to take forever to fall toward the spires below, and when it finally landed it flattened dozens of buildings. A wave of orange rust and chunks of debris rolled out in all directions.

  Edwards started lining up another shot, aiming for the face again as the wounded planetstrider fought to roll over. If he could finish this thing off before it got back up, then he could focus on the last one.

  Then Edwards's perspective tipped violently forward, and Rex was suddenly in free fall. His planetstrider crashed to the earth, crushing the few remaining buildings. "Guess that other bastard wanted in, too. Can't believe he hit us from behind. We can't let that stand,
Rex. Let's kill his monkey ass."

  The last planetstrider loomed over them, blotting out the sky behind it. Its cannon was moving into place, and waves of scarlet were crackling inside the barrel.

  "Oh, no you don't," Edwards roared. He extended the metallic claw, reaching for the cannon. The arm took forever to close the distance, and Edwards willed it forward, trying to make it go faster. The light from the barrel was blinding now.

  The claw tightened around the weapon, and Edwards jerked the barrel out of alignment. Just in time. A beam of hot death passed blazed by overhead, burning another city block to glass.

  The first planetstrider had finally stood back up. The right half of its face was gone, the eye a gaping socket, the scales blackened to ash.

  The remaining eye was focused on Rex, and it looked pissed.

  "Oh, shit."

  Chapter 58- Die Well

  "Admiral, the fire from the surface has stopped," Juliard said.

  Fizgig nodded tiredly. It wasn't much consolation. Her fleet was in shambles, all but two of the vessels in the 1st disabled or destroyed. They'd gone down swinging, but not a single dreadnought had fallen. They'd disabled four of the main cannons, but the last two operational dreadnoughts were still savaging her fleet.

  As she watched, they fired another joint salvo at the Joker. The first shot impacted on the destroyer's aft side, tearing off a wing and exposing much of the crew quarter to space. The second hit the engines, sheering one of them off in a bright explosion.

  "Sir, Admiral Sheng just requested a channel," Juliard said.

  She didn't wait for confirmation. The viewscreen shifted to show Sheng's bridge.