Extinction Wars 3: Star Viking

by Vaughn Heppner

  The strikers raced for the asteroid belt. My attack cruisers lagged behind the faster beamships, following the forward elements the best we could.

  Thirty-eight hours later, Ella told me, “There’s a signal coming through.”

  I nodded.

  “It’s Kaka Ro, sir,” she said. “He’s ordering the beamships to hide at the outer edge of the belt. Lokhar warheads just went off near the inner star gate. Kaka Ro believes the enemy will be coming through soon in force. If that is so, he plans to bring the Lokhars to us.”

  “Signal our acceptance of the order,” I said. For the present, I was content to listen to the Starkiens. They helped the last humans. So, I’d do my part the best I could.

  Along with the beamships, our attack cruisers braked hard, slowing our velocity. Five hours later, my three ships waited behind an icy asteroid the size of Australia.

  Before I relate what happened next, I should point out that space battles were much different from old naval wars on Earth. There, even in fights between carriers, planes were hours away from their targets, not days. Here, one made a plan and executed it, and waited a day or three to see if it would work or not. The stellar distances mandated the time delay.

  Fed with data from the forward strikers, we watched the Starkien warships spew their drones. The drones were slender needles, dark as sin, made of a composite materiel hard to spot. The missiles used cold propellants, which meant they lacked speed until a final hot burn. That was clever, as the cold propellants would help keep the drones invisible from enemy sensors.

  Three hours later, as I studied the main screen, the advance arm of the crusading armada began to pour through the gate. Warship after warship entered the system.

  The Lokhars had mobs of attack cruisers, big carriers and masses of pursuit destroyers. In a short amount of time, four hundred and twenty warships deployed.

  “That’s too many,” Ella said. “Kaka Ro should order us to run while we have a chance.”

  “No,” I said. “One way or another, we have to buy humanity a chance. Unless Sant arrives in time, the Earth freighters are doomed.”

  “You have to bargain with the Emperor, Creed. You won’t be able to do that if you die in this star system.”

  “N7 can bargain with the Emperor just as well as me, and Rollo can take my place for the other task. I’m no longer invaluable.”

  Ella didn’t respond to that. She watched the main screen. We all did. The Lokhars were good, maneuvering their numbers with precision. That made us even queasier than before. Our Starkien allies didn’t move like that. Clearly, we were going against the best, personnel who obviously knew what they were doing. Finally, en masse, the large enemy fleet began to head for the asteroid belt.

  Even with their numbers, the strikers managed to remain hidden among the asteroids near the inner edge. They reminded me of American colonials fighting the British Red Coats on the road to Concord.

  As the Lokhars approached, the Starkiens maneuvered stealthily, heading deeper into the rock field. The striker pilots used intervening objects to mask their movement from the enemy. Then something gave them away, likely an old-fashioned heat signature.

  The Lokhar admiral reacted, sending a wide-beam message. I recognized her. It was Admiral Saris, looking as stiff as ever.

  “Foreign vessels,” Admiral Saris announced, “we are here under Jade League orders. The Emperor and his Court has decreed the humans a walking plague. We will annihilate them from existence. Whoever stands against us will share their fate.”

  I wondered if Kaka Ro would answer. He didn’t. Neither did I.

  The pursuit destroyers led the way, followed by the Lokhar attack cruisers and then the carriers. It took hours as they accelerated for the belt.

  We waited behind our asteroid as the other reserve vessels waited behind theirs. What could twenty-seven Starkien beamships and three Earth cruisers do against the Lokhar fleet? The strikers needed to whittle down the enemy.

  Hours later, Kaka Ro’s first move paid dividends. Cold, dark Starkien drones burned hot. Because of the Lokhars’ acceleration, the missiles were almost on top of them.

  Even so, the Lokhars were ready. Saris had seen enough to know that something was up. Beams and destroyers’ point defense cannons took out ninety percent of the first wave. The trouble for the tigers was the Starkien missiles kept coming. Kaka Ro clearly believed in a hard first strike.

  Enough drones struck Lokhar warships to cause massive detonations all along the line. Seventeen pursuit destroyers exploded. Nineteen more took damage. Five of those kept coming. Something inside them no longer worked. Escape pods jettisoned from those five. The other damaged destroyers began to decelerate.

  I expected Admiral Saris to order the rest of her warships to attack vigorously. These were Lokhars, the headlong attack artists. Maybe Kaka Ro knew a few things about Lokhars. The cold needle drones had proven a clever tactic.

  Faced with unknown and unseen assailants, the Lokhar fleet slowed its velocity. Our sensors showed them scanning hard. Tiger drones burned brightly, racing ahead of the main fleet. In such a fashion, Saris crawled into the rock field.

  The battle changed demeanor then, turning slow motion as the Starkiens played drone games with the Lokhars. This wasn’t like our asteroid belt in the solar system. This belt had an incredible mass of rocks and debris. Because of that, stealth counted for as much as speed and firepower. Ambushes constantly occurred. The Starkiens retreated, leaving hundreds of dark missile surprises. The Lokhars destroyed most of the enemy drones, but kept taking hits nonetheless. This went on for an amazing two days.

  We waited back here to do our part with the beamships when the time came.

  Finally, Kaka Ro sent us a pulse message. I expected the Starkien lord to demand our firepower. The Lokhars kept pursuing. Instead, the lord said, “Run for the distant jump gate. Try to lure the Lokhars after you.”

  “Smart,” Ella said.

  I shook my head. “I came here to fight.”

  Ella swiveled around to face me. “You came to slow down the Emperor’s advance. We’re doing that.”

  “The Starkiens have done it, not us,” I said.

  “We’re here. We’re part of the effort. Maybe the Starkiens wouldn’t have come if you’d hung back at Earth. Well, now we need to save our ships for the next star system. Kaka Ro must realize that as well.”

  I could see Ella’s logic, and I wanted to live. Finally, along with the beamship captains, I acknowledged the message by accelerating at full speed for the distant jump gate.

  Kaka Ro was clever. I’d never seen the Starkiens in their element before, making plans their way.

  Twenty-seven beamships fled for the distant gate. Three attack cruisers did likewise. I shouldn’t have been surprised Admiral Saris singled us out.

  She hailed our accelerating cruisers. I refused to speak with the Lokhar.

  After a time, Saris sent a wide-beam message. “Renegade Lokhars, we have marked your ships’ registries. I am putting you on the Emperor’s proscription list. Even if you reach the jump gate, you are doomed.”

  Yeah. I could see what was going on. Our attack cruisers had been built on Sanakaht, the reason for Admiral Saris’ mistake about who we were. After the message ended, a mass of T-missiles appeared near us and the running beamships. Our particles beams destroyed some. We’d been waiting for the tactic. For just such a reason, I’d also seeded proximity mines behind us. Some of those detonated, annihilating T-missiles, but not all. Three thermonuclear warheads exploded.

  “Get ready!” Dmitri shouted.

  Our shield went dark as the electromagnetic field around the attack cruiser absorbed the heat and deadly X-rays and gamma rays.

  Admiral Saris wasn’t through with us or with the beamships. For over two days, her vessels had faced dark drones streaking from cover. Lokhar rage must have built during the time. Maybe Kaka Ro had counted on that. It was a big asteroid belt, meaning the Lokhars were already
at far teleportation range from us.

  In any case, more T-missiles appeared, but the beamships and our cruisers kept raying them. As another thermonuclear detonation flared nova-white on our screen, I began to see another aspect of Kaka Ro’s cunning. Our attack cruisers and the beamships had heavier armor and better shields than the strikers did. If we took the brutal hits now and depleted the Lokhar stocks of teleporting missiles, afterward, the strikers could flee without worrying about the same thing happening to them.

  Fortunately, we had a few critical advantages in this contest. T-missile technology was chancy at best. The longer the teleportation range, the less likely the warhead would appear in the exact targeted location. We tried to put more separation between Admiral Saris and us, as we were already near their operational limit. The other thing was this: before a T-missile appeared, it created a hazy image in space. Then, its form became distinct and finally it solidified into existence. The first haziness—like a heat wave on blacktop—was a telltale giveaway. It allowed our gunners to fire before the warhead could ignite.

  Then, all our advantages vanished as a T-missile exploded a mere three kilometers from one of our vessels. Given the admiral’s present distance from us, that was a fantastically lucky break for the Lokhars.

  At the blast, the nearest attack cruiser’s shield buckled and overloaded, going down. The rest of the nuclear discharge tore the ship’s armored hull apart. It must have also done something to the vessel’s core. A furious internal explosion sent a geyser of light and radiation out of the craft’s exhaust ports. Then, the attack cruiser began to tumble end over end, heading away from us.

  Ella tried to raise the stricken crew. They must have all been dead already.

  “Expend our mines!” I shouted. “Seed them everywhere.”

  The Lokhar T-missile assault continued. Two Starkien beamships blew apart, another took crippling hits, its accelerating rush slowing down. Another round of T-missiles finished it off.

  Our particle beams rayed. Mines raced outward in all directions. Another round of exploding warheads poured massive doses of radiation against our shield, enough leaking through the armored hull to affect us. Fortunately, we wore our symbiotic suits. The living skins seeped anti-radiation drugs into our bodies.

  My attack cruiser still functioned, although several ship systems began to go offline.

  We accelerated, but so did our Lokhar tormenters. That meant Admiral Saris’ warships in the asteroid belt came after us. That was their mistake. The Lokhar vessels raced smack into waiting Starkien needle missiles. The drones burned hot and detonated. Twenty-eight Lokhar warships blew apart. Others took damage.

  For the next several hours, Admiral Saris turned her attention onto the nearby snipers. An eighth the number of T-missiles popped near us. The mines helped destroy most of them. Our gunners had also become expert now, recognizing the telltale shimmer sooner than ever. As the objects solidified, particle beams already chewed into them.

  Nine hours later, our two attack cruisers and the surviving beamships gained enough separation that no more T-missiles appeared.

  Far back in the inner asteroid belt, the Starkien strikers burst into open space. Kaka Ro made his run for the portal.

  “Are any T-missiles attacking them?” I asked.

  Ella watched her panel. “Not yet,” she said.

  By the time we reached the jump gate, she hadn’t seen any more of the deadly Lokhar T-missiles strike the Starkien vessels. It looked as if Kaka Ro was going to make it to the next star system with us.

  We’d hurt Admiral Saris’ fleet more than she had hurt us. Unfortunately, the Lokhars still outnumbered us.

  ***

  We accelerated through the next system. It possessed many jump gates, branching off to various stars. We raced for the gate that would take us into the Wolf 359 system.

  In time, we entered Wolf 359. Advance guard Orange Tamika battle cruisers waited there, one hundred and ten altogether. We signaled them. Seven hours later, the strikers came through. Kaka Ro told Baron Visconti, who commanded the advance guard, that Admiral Saris was hot behind them.

  The Starkien lord proved right. Purple Lokhar warships began to appear in the Wolf 359 system. With T-missiles, Visconti hit the entering warships, obliterating all nine enemy vessels.

  Time passed as we waited for more of them. Five and a half hours after the slaughter, enemy drones slid through the gate. They exploded with thermonuclear warheads. Thirty minutes after that, more Purple Tamika drones appeared.

  From three hundred thousand kilometers away, Visconti let them advance.

  Finally, another group of Purple Tamika pursuit destroyers came through. Once more, the baron saturated the jump gate area with T-missiles. It was a devastating tactic. The advancing Purple drones used heavy jamming equipment, but it didn’t matter this time.

  Soon, Starkien needle missiles destroyed the ECM drones.

  We were doing it.

  For two more days, Baron Visconti and Kaka Ro held off Admiral Saris. The Purple Lokhar commander must have feared to send the bulk of her fleet through the jump gate into the Wolf 359 system.

  Then a messenger ship came through our back gate, signaling us. The messenger brought news. Using other gates and star systems, the Purple Tamika fleet had gained reinforcements from the Emperor. Using different jump gates, Saris worked her way around. It appeared she was trying to trap us in the Wolf 359 star system by coming in from behind.

  We saw the danger. Every ship accelerated for the exit. As our ships left Wolf 359, the last trooper on my attack cruiser recovered from radiation poisoning. Unfortunately, some of our vessel’s weapons systems no longer worked.

  I learned that the trick to this kind of jump gate battle was to funnel the enemy’s advance. If you stopped her too cold at one particular gate, she would go around a different way. Then, it became a guessing game. Our strategy called for hit and run attacks. We tried to whittle them down just enough so they took longer. We didn’t want to damage their flotilla so much that the fleet came at us from a different set of jump gates.

  Maybe Visconti had miscalculated by hammering them too hard at the Wolf 359 entrance gate.

  At this point, the baron played a hunch. He met with Kaka Ro. I attended the battle meeting. Visconti told us his father had once been Admiral Saris’ chief of staff. That had been many years ago. Saris used to eat at the Visconti home and discuss tactics with the young baron-to-be. After having studied a star chart, Visconti assured us Saris would try to sneak through by going around to Ross 128.

  Instead of splitting off and guarding each gate with minimal force, we rushed our beef-up strike force to Ross 128. The system possessed three gates. The red dwarf star was faint to the naked eye. It had fifteen percent of the Sun’s mass, but it generated energy so slowly that it only had 0.036 percent of the Sun’s visible luminosity. Ross 128 was 10.89 light years from Earth in a straight line, but not part of the closest jump routes.

  “Saris would rather travel farther for a better position than battle head-to-head,” Visconti said. “She is an artist of maneuver.”

  It turned out that the baron knew his opponent. Saris entered the system a mere three hours after we did. That put us too far from each other to attack right away. Her reinforced fleet had far more warships that we did. But if Kaka Ro’s escape from the Beta Tarn asteroid belt was any indicator, the admiral’s ships likely didn’t have masses of T-missiles. Of course, she might have received more from supply ships.

  Visconti didn’t think so. Saris used speed whenever she could. The problem was that our side only had a minimal number of T-missiles left. The baron had used most of them in the Wolf 359 system.

  After gaining Kaka Ro’s agreement, Visconti decided to bluff the admiral. He teleported every T-missile he had left, sending them as far as he could. Then, the drones accelerated for Saris’ approaching fleet.

  None of our T-missiles had a chance of doing damage, of course. That hadn’t been the
point. Before the flock of T-missiles reached the enemy fleet, Admiral Saris’ ships maneuvered, turning hard. She wasn’t going to brake and accelerate back to the gate she’d used to enter. Instead, she headed for the third gate in order to escape us.

  “Amazing,” Dmitri said. “Admiral Saris has more ships, yet she flees.”

  “That is sound tactical doctrine,” N7 said. “The baron would not expend his T-missile like that unless he had a vast supply. Visconti’s strike also predicates a lack of T-missiles on the admiral’s part. Saris does not wish to sustain massive T-missile damage from us before entering beam range. Thus, she retreats until such time as she can replenish the number of her T-missiles.”

  “It seems too elementary a tactic to work,” Dmitri said. “I would realize the baron was trying to bluff, close in and smash us.”

  “Saris’ actions tell us that she is not Dmitri Rostov,” N7 replied. “She wishes to preserve her ships for the great battle.”

  In order to seal the bluff, Visconti had us accelerate after the fleeing enemy, increasing our strike force’s velocity. Only after the last enemy warships departed the Ross 128 system did we begin braking. It was time to go back the way we had come.

  Baron Visconti’s hunch had paid off. Even better, our strike force had slowed down the enemy advance to Earth. Had the other strike forces done likewise? Or was the crusading armada knocking on Earth’s door. It was time to find out.

  -31-

  It turned out that two taskforces fought masterful delaying actions. The third perished but gave a hard fight. Three strikers from the destroyed force raced back to give an account of the battle.

  The senior captain believed the Lokhars had been surprised at Starkien ferocity. Although the way had been open for the Lokhar flotilla, they had paused and sent messenger ships back to the main armada.

  “I believe the admiral wished for new instructions,” the senior striker captain told us. “One last ship remains at the farther gate. It will arrive to tell us when the Lokhars enter the star system.”