Stars shined outside the bay doors. The O Class Star blazed with blue-white light. Then I saw the starcity, a gleaming cylinder with docking bays here at the one end.
“Do you see corvette B?” I asked the driver of my one-man flyer.
“I do,” the woman radioed.
“Head straight for it,” I told her.
She turned the throttle. Thrust ignited from the back, and the narrow sled zoomed off the decking, heading for the dark object less than twenty kilometers away.
What did the Saurians see? Maybe it was like bees boiling out of a hive. Maybe they didn’t notice yet.
They did the obvious, reacting against us by lighting up their lasers. Hot beams smashed against the huge Jelk freighter. If they had lit off a few small nukes instead, it would have finished us off.
I didn’t think they would do that for several reasons. For one thing, they were too close to the starcity. Nukes this near would damage it. For another, that would take initiative on the lizards’ part. I’d fought Saurians before. The day after the Earth died, they’d landed in Antarctica to capture people. I’d turned the tables on them by attacking with ferocity from the get-go. That was my plan here today.
I gripped the flyer as Bess, my pilot, pointed us at corvette B. The small combat vessel had two main laser cannons. We had a smaller shooter, but I didn’t give the command to fire yet. I had a different idea.
A glance back showed me hundreds of glowing dots. Those were thruster-packs pushing their troopers at the starcity. Every flyer we possessed aimed at a corvette. If the Saurian pilots woke up in time, they would take off, putting greater distance between the corvettes and us.
What I was counting on was plain, old-fashioned surprise. I had the initiative this time. Besides, we acted like pirates. That’s what Vikings had been in the end. We stormed their ships like buccaneers with swords between our teeth.
The enemy lasers began melting the freighter’s outer hull. Now, Saurian missiles zoomed at the Jelk hauler. They meant to take us down fast. What the corvettes didn’t do was leave. If they would wait just a few more minutes, we’d have them.
My stomach tightened. Then I felt the edges of anger draining the fear away. I knew what was happening. The bio-suit squirted combat drugs into my bloodstream. It wanted me to go berserk. Jelk technicians had made the symbiotic skins for humans. We’d modified them, but those modifications didn’t always remain during battle.
“Now,” I radioed. “Beam at grid coordinates ten-ten-eight.”
Our sled shifted, no doubt so Bess could aim at the targeted specifics. All around me, small laser beams fired at the enemy corvette. The Saurian vessel had grown in size. Each flyer-laser now struck at exactly the same hull spot on the corvette. We needed a breach, and we needed it now.
Luckily for us, corvettes didn’t have heavy hulls or much armored plating. They were meant as patrol vehicles, needing speed more than anything else.
An explosion behind me threw intense white light outward. I glanced back. The Maynard Keynes expanded as light and debris blew outward. Had a Saurian laser hit the main fusion engine? This could be bad.
It would be terrible news for the people orbiting Earth. Six hundred thousand humans had called the Maynard Keynes home for the past few years. Now, they would have to stay on the remaining freighters in Earth orbit, increasing crowding. This freighter was never going anywhere again.
With a shake of my head, I ignored that aspect. I found myself snarling, with my teeth clenched. The corvette loomed before us. I could see Saurians peering out of the main viewing port.
Our many small lasers struck the hull at the same spot, turning it cheery-red.
“Deploy!” I shouted.
Bess’ head twitched. It let me know I’d spoken too loudly.
I pushed off the flyer. So did Bess and the other assault trooper. All around me, others did likewise on their sleds. I didn’t know what happened elsewhere. Here, though, the plan worked.
Flyer after flyer rammed against the corvette’s heated hull. Most of the combat sleds crumpled into junk. The last few blasted a hole into the corvette.
I gripped the controls of my thruster-pack. Jamming my thumb on a button, I zoomed for the opening.
All I needed was a few more seconds to reach the breach. I still couldn’t believe the Saurian commander hadn’t flown elsewhere.
I guess surprise had the same effect on aliens that it had on people. Given time, they could decide on the right course of action. Having to think fast in the middle of a battle was something else entirely.
Roaring at the top of my lungs, I flashed through the opening. Then, I braced myself. Without my steroid-68 enhanced muscles, I never would have tried this. Without the bio-suit to absorb much of the impact, I wouldn’t have dreamed of smashing my way aboard another vessel. Too many troopers would break bones. Of that, I had no doubt. The bio-suits could harden there, though, and help them to walk during the fight. It would also pump drugs into the trooper to make him savage enough not to worry about the pain.
I struck a bulkhead, and for several seconds at least, I went unconscious. My eyes flew open. I lay in a heap with others sprawled around me. A few raced out a hatch to attack the Saurian crew. I shouted and gnashed my teeth. My head throbbed as I sat up, and I didn’t know if I had any broken bones.
Climbing to my feet, I found that my eyes didn’t work quite right. Well, maybe they would get better as I went along. I staggered through the hatch, groaning, tasting blood in my mouth.
I had a Bahnkouv in my hands. Three minutes later, I killed my first Saurian, beaming the suited creature in the chest, burning a hole there. That seemed to wipe away my pains, and I shouted with glee.
What can I say? This was a fight to the death. I stormed corvette B with the others. Like a blood-maddened weasel, I slaughtered lizards as if they were chickens in a hen house. They didn’t have a chance against us in this kind of savagery. Thus, twenty minutes after our breach through the hull, we gained control of the patrol vessel.
***
As I said earlier, this was a ruthless situation. Mercy didn’t have any part in the process. Would a lioness show a fawn mercy on the Serengeti Plains of Africa? I would like to say I did this the nice way. I’d be a black-hearted liar, though.
Dmitri and I conquered our corvettes. We both did it fast, leaving the interior bulkheads splattered with Saurian blood. I’ll give the lizards this. They never tried to surrender. It didn’t matter, though. We were at the top of our game and they were amateurs in face-to-face encounters.
The last corvette rushed us as it spewed missiles and pumped its lasers. It would have been better off making a run for it. The last patrol vessel disabled Dmitri’s corvette, shredding the outer hull with lasers. That killed five assault troopers, half the number lost in the engagement. We had already deployed our corvette’s guns, obliterating the approaching missiles. If the enemy warheads had been nuclear, it would have been a different story. Corvettes didn’t carry that kind of firepower, though.
As the enemy zoomed closer, the Saurian captain switched targets, blasting my captured boat. He must have had a marksman over there. The lasers took out our guns. We had no more counterbattery fire. His missiles would have free rein against us, and that would likely kill too many assault troopers here.
What the last Saurian captain must not have counted on was the seemingly immobilized Aristotle. Shortly after the first assault, troopers exited the freighter, N7 and Ella, along with a handful of others, had relocated to the Lokhar cruiser. They started the cold engines, working fast to get it mobile. Now, the cruiser’s main laser cannons fired red-hot beams. They were battle-grade weapons, not dinky patrol rays. Under the devastating assault, the last corvette shuddered, belching colored lights. Then it exploded, raining hull, bulkheads, engine parts, water and bloody flesh in a growing radius.
By that time, the belated Saurians in the starcity’s tactical center began to act. They launched three missiles.
One of them struck my corvette, disintegrating half the vessel. Another smashed against Dmitri’s hulk without igniting. The last missile died to the cruiser’s counterbattery fire. After that, Rollo put a stop to the tactical center’s efforts. His thruster-pack assault troopers gained control of the launch sites, disabling the tubes.
From the cruiser, N7 radioed the giant cylinder. The Saurians refused to answer. I guess they wanted us to knock before they talked. That’s fine, because we could oblige them.
With its tractor beam, the Aristotle grabbed the least wrecked corvette. The cruiser accelerated, dragging the corvette with it. At the last moment, N7 roared past the great cylinder, turning off the tractor beam. The hulk of the corvette smashed against the starcity’s hull, breaking through. Air spewed from the gaping hole, a hurricane force that must have meant plenty of Saurian dead inside.
The next time N7 radioed, a bedecked and glum-looking Saurian answered.
“You must surrender to me,” N7 said.
Rollo had already broken into the main starcity. Dmitri and I—together with our teams—jetted to join the action. We’d lost another thirty troopers when the missiles hit, but most of us had already evacuated the corvettes.
“I can ram the starcity again,” N7 informed the Saurian.
“This is an outrage,” the lizard said. “You are a berserk android. We will decommission you and destroy your entire series.”
“Very well,” N7 said. “With your words, you have sealed your fate.”
“No, wait,’ the Saurian said. “I…must consider the rest of the Family. On further thought, we will surrender on terms.”
I shut off my HUD display. Terms would be fine. The thing was to get in and get out with as little loss of human life as possible.
***
We hit the jackpot with the Demar Starcity. The difference between gross defeat and splendid victory could be a very close-run thing. This time, we had come out on the right side. Instead of hundreds of dead troopers and capture for the rest of us, we had the pick of a major production center. Just as important, we grabbed several small haulers in port.
The haulers were newer and sleeker than the old freighter we’d lost. For the next fifteen hours, our troopers loaded the haulers with missile defense systems: improved Iron Domes as the Israelis used to use before the coming of the aliens. We found planetary laser cannons, air-cycles, newer laser coils, advanced targeting computers, floating gas giant scoopers and the latest combat rifles and packs.
Choosing what we should loot caused arguments among us. N7 suggested we take unpackaged androids along. Dmitri was against it, and Ella hemmed and hawed. In the end, I took several hundred. They might prove useful in the asteroids, because I ordered mining equipment loaded up, too.
I not only wanted fish, but fishing poles. How many times could I pull the stunt we’d managed here today?
Just before departure, I decided to quiz the senior Saurian. Rollo and N7 had been busy watching our captured lizards. They brought me an old boy.
Like Earth crocodiles, Saurians continued to grow as long as they lived. That made it difficult for the aged among them to hide.
I stood in a control room with a view of the rest of the Demar system. With big missiles, we’d shot down two other system corvettes that had raced from the Middle Asteroid Belt to get here. I’d been right in taking the starcity first.
After that, the rest of the system waited to see what would happen next.
Rollo shoved the old Saurian. The creature stood at five and a half feet. His jaws were bigger than normal, and he had huge eyes. It gave him a wondering look, as if he was continually surprised. Instead of a uniform, he wore long flowing robes that dragged against the decking.
“Are you a priest?” I asked.
“I am the Wisdom of the Family,” the old Saurian told me.
“What does that mean?”
He blinked his big eyes as if wondering about answering. Finally, he said, “I decide on the code of behavior for the Demas system.”
“You’re the one who officially surrendered to me?” I asked.
This time he closed his big eyes. I don’t think he liked the question. When he opened them again, he must have decided he had to warn me.
“The Jelk will remember you,” the old Saurian said.
“Of that, I have no doubt. Do you know who I am?”
“A destroyer,” the Wisdom said, “a creature vomited from the cosmos to plague the Family and their Masters.”
“There you go,” I said. “You have it all figured out. Oh, wait a minute. I’m going to leave you your lives. I’m not half the destroyer you and your ilk were to us.”
He held his forked tongue as he watched me with his wondering eyes.
“Where did the Tenth Saurian taskforce go?” I asked.
The Wisdom waved a clawed hand as it to indicate into the distance.
“How about you be a little more specific,” I said.
“The Masters summoned the warships.”
“Sure, but where?”
“Away from the frontier,” the Wisdom said.
“Now we’re getting somewhere. How far away did they go?”
“This is wrong,” he told me. “You cannot expect me to reveal the workings of the Masters. I am loyal to the corporation.”
I unslung the Bahnkouv from my shoulder. “You’re making a category error, old son. I don’t give a fig about your loyalty. What I’m going to do is ask you again.” I put the tip of the laser rifle under his jaws. “If you fail to answer, I’m going to sizzle your head clean off your sorry shoulders. Then I’m going to bring the next highest ranked Saurian in here. He or she will first examine your corpse. Then I’ll see if they want to tell me what I’m asking.”
“You lack decorum,” the Wisdom said.
“Yeah, what are you going to do, huh? It’s a birth defect I’ve carried with me my whole life. You have three seconds to start explaining. Then—pfft, your turn at life is over.”
He took two of those seconds to think about it. At the third, he said, “The Tenth left to join the Jelk Grand Fleet. They speed for the inner core.”
“Why build a Grand Fleet there?” I asked.
“To repeal the invaders,” the Wisdom said, watching me with his wondering eyes.
So, Doctor Sant had spoken the truth. The rumors were true. I wondered again if my dream about Abaddon meant anything. But how could it?
“What is the nature of these invaders?” I asked.
“I do not know.”
“Who does know?” I asked.
“The Jelk,” he said.
I studied the robe-wearing Saurian, finally deciding he told the truth. Well, well, well. The Jelk had truly stripped the frontier of warships after all, building the Mother of All Fleets in the core worlds. Who were the invaders?
I shrugged, and said, “Take him away.”
“Wait,” the Saurian said. “Did you speak the truth earlier? Will you leave us our lives?”
“If you follow my orders, pops, yeah. You’ll live.”
He folded his clawed hands and those wide eyes become half-lidded. He looked like a Saurian Buddha then. The lizard even managed a half-bow.
“I go,” he said, “and you will go. May our paths never cross again.”
“Sounds good to me,” I said.
We left the starcity three hours later. To ensure their good behavior, and from those in the rest of the system, we left seven floating missiles as active drones. I radioed the Wisdom and told him the missiles would attack whatever moved. It would be best to let whoever entered the system next deal with the waiting drones.
Afterward, with the Aristotle leading the pack, we entered the jump gate, heading home. Given what happened later, I should have made different plans.
-11-
When we returned to the solar system, I felt like Sir Francis Drake. I knew a little about the famous sailor who had gone against the Spanish Armada.
Drake had plagued
the Spanish Main in the Caribbean Sea, raiding settlements as he sought the gold of the Incas. During his trip around the world, he passed through the Strait of Magellan, a horrendous passage between South America and Antarctica. That put him on the western shore of South America. His ship, the Golden Hind, had been the biggest and baddest cannon-armed vessel allowing him to raid the Spanish settlements at will. At first, they had no idea an Englishman had made it onto that side of the world. By the time they understood, he was gone.
Drake packed his galleon with loot and set out across the Pacific Ocean. The return to England proved to be a harrowing voyage. Most of the crew died of scurvy, a vitamin C deficiency. When he sailed into Plymouth, he met cheering crowds. His investors were rich from his plunder, and Queen Elizabeth had taken her share, too.
It was like that only better when we returned with our haulers, mining equipment and armaments.
The next few days proved sharp with haggling. Diana demanded more as her share. I gave her less, keeping two of the haulers for the Star Vikings. One of those vessels I proceeded to sink into the poisoned Caspian Sea. The other kept watch near Ceres, as we unloaded the last missile launchers and beam cannons onto the asteroid.
Maybe I should have turned around fast and gone on another Star Viking raid. One thing after another kept popping up, though, needing my attention.
Three months and four days after returning from our raid, Admiral Saris reappeared in the solar system. That changed the equation in a way I hadn’t foreseen. It happened like this:
Dmitri roved the jump gates. Sometimes, he used the Pluto gate. Other times, he went through the Neptune route. I wanted more advance notice of approaching aliens. This seemed like the best way to get it. Sure, it used up fuel and put a strain on the starship, but we had spare parts now and extra fuel coming from our scoop floating in Jupiter.
The Jupiter scoop was nothing more than sturdy balloons floating in the higher atmosphere. There, the processor dangling under the inflatables collected rare deuterium swirling here and there in the clouds. When the time came, a booster launched a filled cell, which arrived at a container tube fifty thousand kilometers from the gas giant.
Extinction Wars 3: Star Viking Page 10