by Marc Stevens
“Justice, hold position but continue passive scan.”
“Acknowledged, Commander.”
I would have liked a better seat to the upcoming battle. There were more than just a few asteroids in our direct line of sight. Justice would only move the Legacy when it became evident a piece of debris would cross our exact location.
“Commander, I detected fourteen separate transitions originating from the edge of the asteroid field. I am now detecting exit distortion waves very close to the hostile targets.”
“Justice, move us as close to the edge of the asteroid field as you can without leaving it. I am really interested in seeing how the Operative takes care of business.”
“Commander, asteroid movement in the outer band of the field is significant. To move farther would require continuous maneuvering to avoid collisions. I will illustrate sensor feed information to generate an interpretation of actual events.”
The bridge view dome temporarily blacked out and then we saw outlines of the planets along with the hostile targets in red boxes. The blue oblong boxes of the Chaalt warships had non-stop green lines blinking between them and the Quill target boxes. I noticed all the Quill target boxes blinking, insinuating strikes. The Chaalt could only engage so many targets at one time. It had to be missile strikes. I pondered the reality of what I was seeing. Justice took the guess work out of the equation.
“Commander, data suggests the Chaalt launched a time-on-target assault. The attack coincided with stealth missile strikes. I detected no missile launches. I now surmise the length of time it took for the Chaalt to engage the Quill was in fact a predetermined delay to allow the cloaked missiles to reach their targets. Without knowing when or how the missiles were launched, I can only speculate as to whether or not they traversed the entire distance. There is a possibility they have an interdimensional capability and I failed to detect the diminutive transitions. Regardless of my hypothesis, sixty-one of the Quill ships have been destroyed outright or have crashed to the surface of the planets. Seven are still under power and have severed the large tubes extending to the planet’s surface. The remaining eighteen targets are heavily damaged and have no active emissions from their star drives. They are, however, launching hundreds of missiles. I have detected strikes on the shields of Chaalt ships. The strikes indicate the Quill missiles are two hundred megaton fusion weapons. They rapidly deplete the Chaalt shields and force them to jump to another location to renew their attacks.”
As I watched eleven more hostile ships disappeared from the screen. The Operative was kicking the shit out of the Quill. I figured she must have had a damn good reason for doing so. It did not look like there would be any survivors.
“Commander, I am detecting transition wave distortions I cannot identify. The distortions have increased in intensity. I now have an unknown number of Quill ships entering the star system. I am now detecting a separate exit transition that matches the profile of the Quill previously detected. The first transition propagation has ceased. I have sixteen Quill spacecrafts closing with Chaalt warships. They are exchanging heavy fire. The second exit is complete and another sixteen Quill ships are attacking the Chaalt from a second vector.”
I was on the edge of my command chair, gripping the arms till my fingers hurt. A Chaalt warship came out of hyperspace directly in front of the second assault wave. It came under withering fire and then we saw the star bright flashes of nuclear hellfire envelope the ship. It disappeared from the screen. OH SHIT! I did not know if this was a Quill response, tactic or a coincidence. It no longer mattered.
“JUSTICE, ATTACK THE SECOND WAVE NOW!”
The dome became a dizzying blur of movement as Justice rapidly extracted us from the asteroid field. We made a very short jump that suddenly filled the view dome with the bizarre pulsing star drives of the Quill ships. Now that we were close, I could see a faint violet glow around the spiked organic looking vessels. Justice poured fire from our main weapons directly into the drive nozzles of the first ship we encountered. He was pumping out full yield anti-matter missiles two at a time, every fifteen seconds. The first target’s shields failed and it blew apart, sending huge pieces of its thorny hull into the other ships in the tight formation. The shields on three failed from the collisions. Our missiles flew into the unprotected star drives unimpeded. The rear ends of the ships blew outward in massive clouds of tinsel like debris. One detonated, momentarily blacking out the view screen. The other two were spinning end over end, spewing their contents as they started their endless journey into the void.
The shields on the front of the Legacy were glowing almost as much as the red giant behind us. We turned away and made a jump to keep our shields from failing.
“Commander, our shields are at twenty eight percent and regenerating. We are fortunate the Quill formation could not target us with their nuclear arsenal. The Quill ships have separated and no longer face such constraints. For reasons unknown, the Quill have made no intersystem transitions. They prefer instead to make swarm attacks on individual targets. I have detected the loss of another Chaalt warship. The Chaalt tactics now comprise of jumping in and out of interdimensional space. They are making hit and run attacks, then jumping away to avoid the nuclear missiles. We shall copy their tactics.”
Not knowing if Sael Nalen’s flagship was one of the ships destroyed was eating at me. I mourned the thousands of Chaalt lives that were lost. I said a prayer to my maker in hopes he might shelter their spirits. There was now a total of twelve Chaalt warships still fighting, thirteen counting the Legacy. I was not a huge fan of that particular number. The Chaalt had thinned the Quill numbers considerably and we now faced twenty-one remaining Quill ships. The hostiles gathered in loose formations of seven ships each. They were attempting to chase down the Chaalt warships when they came out of hyperspace. The Chaalt would quickly jump away and re-engage from another trajectory.
Justice was making it a point to introduce our weapons fire into the star drive nozzles of any Quill ship formation, turning away in pursuit of a Chaalt warship. The discharge from their star drives had no shielding. Shooting the ships right in the ass quickly turned to the target of choice. It was the Quill’s Achilles heel. The crazed maneuvers of the hostile ships had our missiles chasing them around the already cluttered battle zone. We were wasting more and more of our finite supply of the Ilor-designed armaments. One out of five was destroyed due to collisions with debris. We came out of hyperspace and blundered into the detonation of a mega nuke. Our shields dropped to a dangerously low seventeen percent. The Legacy shook violently as the shock wave and hard radiation washed over our hull. Justice once again snap jumped us out toward the asteroid field.
I wanted to call out on my Backscatter link but knew if the Operative was still alive, she would not appreciate the distraction. Two more Quill ships disappeared from our screen. Justice turned us back to the fray and a Chaalt warship exited hyperspace in close proximity to us. Justice made a crazy sharp turn away from them. As we moved away Justice momentarily froze the view screen. I looked on in horror at the devastation we saw. Several decks were open to space and there was a hellish glow coming from just forward of the engineering spaces. The ship was mortally wounded and trailing atmosphere and debris, some of which were bodies of the Chaalt crew. I looked over to Tria, her eyes were closed and she was slowly shaking her head.
A surviving three-ship formation of Quill was turning back in our direction. They were going after the badly damaged Chaalt ship. One of the Quill ships was streaming a thick, smoke-like trail behind it. The two ships on either side of it were using their shields to try and protect it. Looking at my crew, I saw grim faces.
“Justice, we can’t let them re-engage the damaged Chaalt ship. We have to stop them. Ram the Quill ships if you have to, but don’t let them destroy that ship. The crew was staring at me wide eyed then all three nodded in agreement. Justice turned the Legacy. We were now driving right at the oncoming Quill ships. He accelerated to maximu
m and poured all of our rail cannons and energy beams into the oncoming hostiles. The intense fire was a wedge forcing the two lead ships apart.
Justice called out, “BRACE FOR IMPACT!”
The view dome was obscured by our shield flare. The point defense weapons of the lead Quill ships had us lit up like a Christmas tree. I could have sworn I saw a huge explosion in front of us just before I was ripped from my seat. I came to lying on the deck. Tria was staring down at me. My head was throbbing. Klutch was helping Coonts to his feet. My crew was able to brace against their control boards. I did not have one, so I was thrown into the consoles between Coonts and Klutch. I could taste blood in my mouth.
Tria smiled at me and the pain from the prominent knot on my head instantly went away. “Nathan, it would have been wise to secure your combat harness before you ordered Justice to ram the Quill.”
I could see a thin layer of smoke in the air. Tria helped me to my feet. “What the hell happened?”
Klutch looked around at me and gave me a toothy smile. “Justice put enough fire into the Crits that the trailing ship exploded. It caused enough damage to the lead ships that their shields faltered. He then detonated an anti-matter missile between them. We collided with the debris field. Justice is working on the damage now.
“Justice, how bad is the damage?”
“The starboard side of the ship suffered a hull breach on deck two. I have sealed those spaces. The cargo bay door is partially sprung and leaking atmosphere. We lost both starboard rail cannons. I managed to reset the shield emitters and have partial coverage of the damaged areas. The view dome is resetting as well. The battle is still ongoing and the Chaalt have lost an additional warship. The ship we were protecting is now maneuvering under power and has taken refuge in the asteroid field. The three-ship formation we attacked has left two ships intact and they are both drifting. Our main weapons are now back online. I recommend we do not give the Quill time to repair their battle damage.”
I gave Tria a quick hug and she returned to her station. Coonts and Klutch both gave me an Earthman thumbs up. The view dome flickered and came back online. I could see the Chaalt were still mixing it up with the two remaining Quill formations. The number of red hostile indicators was twelve. The enemy formation gathered then split up into equal groups of four. Whoever was commanding the Quill still thought they could win this. If they had additional ships on the way, there was a good chance they would. I could only see eight blue boxes maneuvering wildly and jumping in and out of hyper space. Several ships on both sides had sustained damage and were leaking contaminants into the void. Justice got us moving again. We made a hard turn that lined us up on the first Quill ship drifting closest to us.
“Don’t wait for me Justice, give them a shot of everything.”
The Quill ship blew apart in a spectacular flash of debris. The other ship managed enough power to get their aft point defense weapons working. Justice turned hard to port, using our best shields to bear the brunt of the attack. He thanked them with a non-stop stream of rail cannon fire. The fire hose line of munitions blew a row of the spiny segments off the ship and into space. The enemy ship’s short-range weapons promptly failed. We stared wide eyed at the alien ship when Justice magnified the view screen. The exterior of the ship was crawling with Quill. They were swarming like ants in their attempts to repair the ship. We got our first good look at the Crits. They resembled praying mantises with thick black bodies. It was the only glimpse we would get. Justice sent them all to hell with a barrage from our main weapons. The Quill bodies registered as small sparks on our forward shields as we plowed through the debris field searching for more targets.
11
I heard a small beep I had never noticed before. My link came alive. “Your suicidal tactics have me questioning your sanity. You have done well, Nathan Myers. You saved many lives, but the battle goes poorly. My people have recalled our warship crews and a strike force should be here within the hour. You should jump clear before you sustain further damage.”
“Now Mother, you must remember the fruit does not fall far from its tree. Besides, we only came here to dump some obsolete ordnance. We have yet to complete the task.”
I heard a bark of a laugh and a small beep, and then the link went dead. I personally did not think the battle was going that poorly. It was, at one time, one hundred and eighteen against fourteen. Two more bright flashes brought the enemy ship count down even farther. It was now ten hostiles against eight friendlies. Nine when you counted the Legacy. Justice called to us.
“Commander, after your last Backscatter communication, I was able to pinpoint its source. I have placed an identifier on the Senior Operatives flagship. Our supply of expendable munitions is down to minimum capacities. We have twenty-two anti-matter missiles and three hundred and eleven projectiles for the rail cannons. I have fault warnings on one of our Galactic Union beam weapons and will only use it as a last resort.”
“Roger that, Justice. I don’t see any point in saving anything for later. Take us back around and let’s stomp some more bugs.”
Justice zeroed in on a Quill straggler like a shark following a blood trail and jumped us in close. The Quill ship made an attempt to turn into us. The ship’s point defense had our shields flaring bright with fire. We had a close-up view of the wounded vessel. There were hundreds if not thousands of Quill clinging to the outside of the ship. Most were firing some type of handheld weapons at the Legacy. Justice was giving some of the denser concentrations of bug troops precise, single-round shots from our remaining rail cannons. It looked like the Quill crews were amassing around the star drives, trying to protect them. I guess Justice must have thought we were too close to show them why it did not matter. He was making a turn to put some distance between us when a blinding flash whited out the view screen. The Legacy was violently thrown aside by a massive detonation. I was glad we had belted ourselves into our seats. The view screen flickered and came back to life. The universe was doing crazy corkscrew rotations that Justice quickly corrected.
“Justice, what the hell was that?”
“Commander, I postulate it was a trap. The debris field behind the damaged ship had a Quill nuclear missile hidden in the detritus. When I turned away they detonated the warhead, trying to destroy us before we could escape the blast zone. It will no longer be necessary to expend munitions on the target. The view dome zoomed in on the Quill ship. The star drive nozzles the Quill crew was trying to protect were no longer visible. The rear of the ship was bent to one side. The whole mess was spinning like a boomerang on a course that looked like it would end in the massive red central star. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a Chaalt warship with a flag above the blue box surrounding it. It had just appeared at the edge of the asteroid field. It blinked once and disappeared again. To my horror it reappeared directly in the path of a Quill three ship formation. It collided with at least two of the three ships and all were now drifting without active shields registering on my view screen. The third Quill ship turned back around and was moving directly at Sael Nalen’s flagship.
“JUSTICE, JUMP US IN THERE NOW!”
The jump only registered as a blink of an eye. As we exited hyperspace, one of the drifting Quill ships was in very close proximity to us. Justice did not hesitate to give them a double tap with our main weapons. The unshielded ship broke in half, vomiting its crew and equipment out into the void. We were making another hard turn to try and line up with the ship closing on the Operative’s flagship. My eyes went wide when the Quill vessel rapidly closed the distance with the drifting Chaalt ship. If they attacked with nuclear missiles, the flagship would be destroyed. I was mystified when the Quill ship failed to open fire. I was stunned to disbelief when the Quill ship’s central spine shot out like a harpoon and buried itself into the side of Sael Nalen’s flagship. There was a long tube connected to the spine. The bugs were using it to reel their ship down to the damaged Chaalt warship. I could not believe what I had just witnessed.
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OH SHIT! “Justice, we need to do something and we need to do it now!”
“Commander, the flag ship might be destroyed if I engage with our main weapon systems!”
I looked up wild eyed at where the rest of the Chaalt warships were. The five remaining friendlies were fully engaged with the last six Quill ships. It was a knife fight to the death. Justice took us through withering defensive fire that was rapidly degrading our shields. He all but parked on the rear of the Quill ship. He put at least a hundred of our remaining rail cannon rounds right between the drive nozzles of the enemy ship. The rear of the ship blew outward sending several large pieces of hull through our badly depleted shields. The impacts shook us violently. The control boards in front of my crewmates were covered in red warning lights. The point defense weapons were no longer pounding away at us. The Quill ship was starting to drift, but the umbilical tube was holding it secure. A bright flash shook the Legacy violently. We were being targeted and Justice started zig-zagging to shake any missiles that might be pursuing us. We made another sweeping loop and headed back to the Operative’s stricken warship. Justice took us into point-blank range and gave the tube a burst with the rail cannon. It blew apart, spewing Quill troops. The Quill had been boarding the Chaalt ship.
I threw my combat harness off and yelled to my teammates, “ARMOR UP, we are going in heavy!”
Without hesitation, my crew headed for the ready room. As we came out of the down tube, I could see a glaring red light. It was on the access control panel that controlled the large hatch allowing entry into the hangar. Normally the door was always open, and the atmosphere retention field was operating around the clock. The light indicated the field was not functioning and the hangar doors were not sealed. The void was now waiting for us on the other side of the hatch.