Third Player

by Warren James Palmer

  The Guardian was concerned that this new development made these humanoids far more dangerous than the presiding mainframe presumed. It was 4920/61’s opinion that the Starweb was, for the first time since its creation, at risk of being defeated.

  There was some connection between the female found in the sub-ether, and the ability of the other humanoids to make good use of this dimension, which was outside the normal confines of space and time; the mainframe was sure of that. So the aquatic Guardian decided it would take the unprecedented action of studying the captured female, to discover the limits of the creature's abilities. However, the Guardian would do this unilaterally; at least until such time as it had the proof to support its theories.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Combat zone

  Jenson flexed his muscles and the nose of the Flyship kicked up and decelerated rapidly, in a classic cobra manoeuvre. As he’d hoped, the Web-fighter was completely unprepared for such an unpredictable action and overshot the almost stationary Flyship. Jenson vectored the thrust and brought the enemy fighter into his sights. He opened fire with the laser cannons, but it was his turn to be surprised. The Web-fighter performed a slewing, vertical flick roll, receiving only a glancing blow from the laser fire, then made good its escape. Jenson cursed as Sandpiper took the lead position and dived after it.

  ‘Excalibur, this is Alpha one. We’re coming under severe pressure here,’ Jenson called on his comm links. ‘The Starweb is getting the measure of our tactics. They’re rapidly learning all our tricks and adding a few of their own! We’re beginning to take heavy casualties. Request withdrawal!’

  Moss extended his perception and took an overview of the battle. The invasion fleet was attempting to regroup after being scattered by the three humanoid starships. Excalibur, Dominator and Valvia were wheeling around for a second pass, but several formations of Web-fighters were breaking off their engagements with the Flyships and heading for the allied starships. The remainder were dog-fighting hard and gaining the upper hand on the allied fighters. As Moss watched, a pair of Flyships erupted into fireballs, destroyed in the crossfire of several Web-fighters. Jenson was right, the Starweb was learning new tricks fast. If they weren’t careful the allies would end up with no more cards up their sleeve and the Starweb would have won.

  Moss spoke briefly to Jennifer and Black who passed the order on to Jenson. ‘Alpha one this is Excalibur. Disengage, disengage! Send a flight to engage the Web-fighters heading for our starships; the remainder make for Silago.’

  ‘Roger that!,’ Jenson confirmed, then fired on a fighter harassing a Flyship of Delta squadron. He felt a grim satisfaction as the Web-fighter spun away, apparently out of control. ‘Alpha squadron, this is Alpha one, disengage and follow me. We’ve got to protect our vessels. Bravo, Charlie and Delta squadrons make for Silago as briefed. Acknowledge.’

  The pilots of the three squadrons confirmed the new orders and did their best to disengage. Sandpiper cursed and called out when he saw a green-flashed Flyship of Bravo squadron, disengage from the Web-fighter it was pursuing, only to pull up into the sights of another machine.

  ‘Bravo four, break right! Break right!’ Sandpiper called out desperately, but the pilot realised the danger too late and her Flyship was hit in the port engine by a needle-thin lance laser, which scythed through the fighter.

  ‘I’m hit! I’m hit!’ she called out. ‘Ejecting!’

  There was a flash from cockpit area and the pilot, in her environment suit, was ejected away from the disintegrating machine. To Sandpiper’s horror the Web-fighter altered its aim and fired on the hapless girl. Her screams were mercifully cut short when the laser-fire sliced her in two.

  The Guardians of the Starweb felt a smug sense of satisfaction as the humanoid fighting ships fled from the battle, the fighters of their invasion fleet in hot pursuit. In the end it was as they expected, the humanoids were a cowardly species, with no real stomach for a fight.

  However, satisfaction turned to confusion and dismay, as the pursuers swept low over the far side of the first of the twin moons of Dyason. To the Starweb’s astonishment their machines ran into a wall of plasma and projectile gunfire, which originated from a moon-base the Guardians weren’t even aware existed. Four of the Web-fighters immediately buckled under the power of the molecule-warping weapons. Their hulls split wide open and they broke up, the wreckage falling toward the surface of the moon in slow motion. The remainder of the Web-fighters managed to vector away from the lethal plasma fire, only to be pounced by scores of humanoid fighters. However, these machines were a different design to the others and originated from the moon-base. The Web-fighters suddenly found themselves vastly outnumbered.

  ‘These humanoids show incredible initiative! Far more than anything we have encountered before,’ one of the Guardians noted, ‘are we sure that we do not want to revoke the rules of engagement? The risk of our failure has increased to seven point two percent!’

  ‘I agree that they possess unusual talent and a great will to survive, but this does not change the final outcome,’ the presiding mainframe responded. ‘We must show faith in God. This is His will and we shall be guided by Him.’

  Guardian 4920/61 wasn’t convinced and renewed its efforts to discover the source of the humanoids unheard of power.

  ‘Arrrgh!’ Ereed yelled at the top of his lungs as he dived his X34 Snubfighter down toward the unsuspecting Web-fighters. ‘This is it! Let’s show these bastards nobody screws with Masorak!’ he called out to the other Dyason pilots.

  Surprise had been total. By using a combination of stealth technology and the natural protection of the far side of the moon, the Snubfighters were able to pounce upon the completely unprepared Starweb machines. So intent had the android pilots been on pursuing the apparently fleeing Flyships, they made the classic mistake of allowing themselves to be drawn into a trap. A trap which Ereed and his squadrons of Masorak Snubfighters merrily sprung.

  Caught between the blazing wall of plasma, and projectile fire being thrown up by the moon-base, and the descending Snubfighters, the Starweb machines were forced to fly near the surface of the moon and engage their opponents as best they could. Once again, the battle had swayed in favour of the humanoids.

  Ereed locked an ALAM missile on the glowing exhaust of a Web-fighter hugging the contours of the moons surface, and gleefully fired it. The missile unerringly followed the desperate evasive manoeuvres of the enemy machine and struck the centrally mounted powerplant. There was a blinding flash as the status fields collapsed, and the artificial singularity was released in a blaze of energy. When the light faded, the Web-fighter was gone. Ereed whooped in joy and searched for another target.

  The three squadrons of Flyships turned back on their pursuers and joined the melee of dog-fighting machines, flashing in and out of the massive canyons gouged out of the moon of Silago. However, in springing the trap, the Masorak moon-base had revealed its position to the Starweb fleet and a heavy cruiser broke away from the regrouped formation. It accelerated toward the humanoid outpost intent on its destruction.

  Colmarrie saw the solitary cruiser break formation and head toward the moon. ‘Silago moon-base this is Dominator. You have a heavy cruiser heading in your direction! I repeat you have a heavy cruiser heading straight for you!’ she called on the battle-net communications channel.

  ‘Acknowledged!’ the calm tones of the Masorak controller replied. ‘We are tracking the enemy vessel and engaging our defences.’

  Sitting at his workstation, ensuring both the main engines and the gun emplacements had sufficient power supplies, Josh Brabazon wished he had the nerve of the Masorak. His own heart was beating like a hammer in his chest, and he knew when he spoke, it was with a nervous stutter. Combat always did that to him. He’d asked Polesy about how the men and women of Masorak always appeared so calm. The head of the Dyason secret service had told him it was because the members of Masorak knew they were the best—it was as simple as that. It occurred to
Brabazon they were about to find out just how true that statement was.

  Up on the main viewer Brabazon could see Dominator was about to make a second pass at the Starweb fleet. Once again, Moss had co-ordinated the three starships to make another attack, which should keep the invasion fleet off-balance. A holographic image, projected onto his monitor from Dominator’s battle centre, showed how the invasion fleet had regrouped. Shaped like a cone, the core of the formation was comprised of the massive unarmed troop ships, surrounded by a defensive layer of cruisers.

  Although offering a good defensive screen, this formation was unwieldy and spread thin, due to the destruction of two of the cruisers during their earlier attack. With a third cruiser sent to engage the moon-base, there were holes in the Starweb’s defensive screen and Brabazon could see Moss was intent on exploiting those gaps.

  However, the allies weren’t getting it all their own way. Web-fighters had broken through the defending Flyships and were now strafing Dominator, Valvia and Excalibur. Jenson’s Alpha squadron were doing their best to keep the needle-nosed machines at bay, but the android pilots had learned fast, and were now more than a match for the veteran Flyship crews.

  Colmarrie cursed when she received the damage report of another gun emplacement being taken out action by the harassing fighters. The Web-fighters armament wasn’t sufficient to cause any critical damage to Dominator, their laser-lances weren’t powerful enough for that. However, they were able to scythe their way through the newly fitted gun-blisters, of the secondary armament. Dominator’s firepower was gradually being reduced, increasing their vulnerability to the Starweb cruisers.

  She ordered damage control teams out onto the hull of the ship, to attempt repairs to the emplacements wherever possible. It was dangerous and desperate work, but she felt there was no option but to try. Stuck inside their one-man repair ships, the work crews were at constant risk of being hit by a marauding fighter. There was also a grave risk that as Dominator went through its combat manoeuvres, the repair ships would become detached from the molecule thin umbilical lines, which kept them attached to the ship. If this happened, the unfortunate worker would be tossed into the void of space, with very little chance of being rescued. However, it was a risk that had to be taken.

  Colmarrie snapped out orders to the gunnery control officer, to pick out a suitable target, as Gulag banked the huge starship around and followed Excalibur and Dominator, in a loose line-astern formation. The three vessels ran parallel to the weakest point of the Starweb cone formation, and gave one heavy cruiser a full broadside, concentrating the main armament of all three ships. Excalibur’s laser cannons punched massive holes though the armoured hull of the cruiser, in three devastating salvos. The plasma weapons of Dominator and Valvia made good use of the damage created and tore the cruiser’s hull apart. There was a flash as the ship’s singularity was released and the ensuing explosion sent huge sections of armour plating flying in all directions. The entire bow section rammed into another cruiser which rocked from the impact and fell away from the fleet, venting streams of vapour.

  There was a cheer from everyone on the bridge when they saw the devastating effect of the combined broadside, but it was cut short when Dominator was struck by a retaliatory cone of fire.

  The artificial minds of the fleet had indeed learned fast, observing and taking note of the humanoids slashing attacks. This time, as the three starships swept past the Starweb’s defensive formation, they accepted one of their number would most probably be destroyed. They accepted this because they realised the humanoid ships were most vulnerable when they pulled away from their attack. Dominator was the last vessel in the loose line-astern formation hence, that was the ship on which the fleet would mimic the humanoids tactics. As Dominator swept past the last cruiser in the formation, every weapon which could be brought to bare, fired upon the ancient vessel.

  Colmarrie could see the shock in Gulag’s face as the interactive flight controls transmitted the multiple strikes to his nervous system. He shook as if having an epileptic fit then went limp, his face devoid of colour. There was supposed to be a fail-safe, built into the system, which was designed to stop the helmsman from being overloaded. However, along with Moss and Daal, Gulag had reduced the tolerances of the system to increase the sensitivity of the flight controls.

  ‘Medic to the bridge!’ she shouted, sweeping the clone into her massive arms and placing his inert body on the bridge. Quickly, she leapt into the helmsman’s couch herself—this was not the time to leave the ship without a pilot.

  ‘Dominator,’ she mentally called out to the ship’s computer, ‘increase the tolerances to a sustainable level and patch me into the flight controls!’

  ‘It’s done,’ the computer responded it’s thoughts reflecting the intense pain it felt. ‘I’m badly hurt Colmarrie—I have sent a damage report to Brabazon, but I’m afraid I must shut down some of my systems…’

  ‘Fine! Do that,’ Colmarrie told the sentient computer in a firm controlled manner, ‘Just ensure I have sufficient power to move us away from the Starweb fleet!’

  Even with the tolerances adjusted, the pain transmitted to Colmarrie through the flight system was intense. Only her mutant talent of controlling the pain centres of her mind, stopped her from suffering the same fate as Gulag. Thankfully, the main engines were still on line and she was able to halt a roll from becoming an uncontrollable tumble. She regained some control of the ship and steered Dominator out of range of the fleet’s weapons. However, they were unable to keep up with Excalibur and Valvia, which pulled away and around for another pass at the cruisers.

  Colmarrie made for the relative safety of Dyason’s second moon, planning on putting it between Dominator and the Starweb fleet. As they limped away from the battle they left a blazing trail of venting gas and spinning debris. Moving at barely half their normal attack speed, the wounded starship was constantly harassed by the Web-fighters which like Terran sharks, smelt the blood of victory.

  Brabazon leapt out of his seat and dashed to the clone who lay prone at Colmarrie’s feet. Quickly he checked for a pulse and was relieved to find one. It was weak and shallow, but still there. Gulag was still alive, although God only knew what state his fried nervous system was in. Paramedics arrived on the scene and he got out of their way.

  ‘Brabazon, here!’ Kallke, the bridge officer demanded. He dashed over to the Dyason and quickly read the damage report being displayed. With practiced efficiency he scanned the information and mentally assessed the damaged caused by the barrage of laser fire.

  ‘What’s our status?’ Kallke demanded impatiently. ‘How badly are we hit?’

  The Terran scientist sat down at the workstation and rapidly began to tap in commands to the damage control centre.

  ‘It’s bad, but it’s not fatal,’ he told the Masorak officer. ‘At least, not yet! The barrage was concentrated on the main hull, forward of the engines and powerplants. There are several deep gashes in the hull, some several hundred metres long. We’ve lost the atmosphere in decks three to seven. However, the emergency bulkheads have sealed those areas. The biggest problem is the computer. Deck four contains one of the main processing units and its been thoroughly trashed. There are backups of course, but there’s no way of knowing how much reciprocal feedback damage has been caused to them. The higher functions of Dominator’s mind have been closed down. We’re on our own for the time being.’

  ‘Can we effect repairs and enter the battle again?’ Kallke demanded.

  ‘It’s going to be difficult,’ Brabazon told him bluntly, ‘A lot of the work crews were already on the outside when we were hit. I don’t know how many survived the barrage, but I doubt if it’s many! The best we can do is contain the damage, but that’s difficult when we’re under constant attack from those damned Web-fighters!’

  ‘Can we make the jump to hyperspace?’

  ‘Negative,’ Brabazon answered, shaking his head, ‘the stresses on the hull of the jump into hypers
pace would be too much. We’d break up into a thousand pieces. All we can do is limp along as best we can.’

  ‘Okay, do the your best!’ Kallke told the Terran.

  ‘Sir, Excalibur’s hailing us. They want to know what our status is!’ the comm officer called out. Kallke opened the channel and looked at the face of Jennifer on the monitor.

  ‘How bad is it Kallke?’ the young Terran asked anxiously.

  ‘Gulag’s nervous system got fried. He’s unconscious and we don’t know how bad he is. We’ve got several huge hull breach’s and Dominator’s main computer processor is down. We lost a lot of damage control crews in the barrage, so it’s going to be difficult to implement any repairs. We’re making for the shelter of the second moon, but we’re not going to make it unless we can shake off these Web-fighters. They could easily finish us off before we get there! Is there anything you can do?’

  ‘The Flyships are already on their way to you and some of the Snubfighters will be there as soon as possible. Hang on in there Dominator! We’ll do everything we can to protect you!’ Jennifer told them then cut the link.

  Brabazon cursed when saw the status fields were beginning to creep out of alignment. He got up and made for the turbo-lift. ‘We’ve got another problem,’ he told Kallke. ‘The status fields are beginning to drift. If we can’t clamp them down, we’re gonna be history very quickly. I’m going down to engineering to see what I can do!’

  The Masorak bridge officer nodded and took over the organisation of the damage control teams.

  Still suppressing the horrendous pain being sent through the flight controls, Colmarrie made what evasive manoeuvres she could in an attempt to throw off the Web-fighters, but it achieved very little. The tiny fighters kept on snapping at their open wounds, but all she could do was limp. It didn’t look good; Dominator was dying and taking them all to the grave.

  Jenson could only look on in horror, as Dominator was struck by a devastating cone of fire from the Starweb fleet. He saw the laser cannons and lances slice through the upper decks of the main hull, cutting huge gashes in the starships composite shell. He could only feel a huge sense of frustration as he saw the ship stagger and drop out of formation. Inevitably, the Web-fighters broke off their engagements with Alpha squadron and made for the damaged starship, intent on finishing Dominator.