The Black Flag (Crimson Worlds Successors Book 3)

by Jay Allan

  But Elias was a Cain too, and he was sure of one thing. He’d be damned if he’d sit this last fight out, whatever he had to do.

  Chapter 30

  Sade-Delta System

  Approaching Draconia Terminii Warp Gate

  Earthdate: 2322 AD (37 Years After the Fall)

  “It’s there, General. At the exact coordinates I gave you.” Thomas Sparks sat at one of the spare workstations on Eagle One’s flag bridge. Darius Cain’s regular flagship was more or less back up to full operational status, though there remained some scars from the previous battles.

  “Tom, I take the words out of your mouth as mathematical constants. But have you ever seen a warp gate before that gave off such undetectable energy readings?”

  “No, sir. El…we would never have found it if we hadn’t observed the enemy fleet transiting.”

  You can say his name…it’s not like I’m not thinking about him anyway. Every rational impulse in Darius’s mind told him his brother was dead, but he was still convinced Elias was alive. He couldn’t explain it, but he believed nevertheless.

  “Any hypotheses?”

  “Nothing definitive, General. If I had to guess right now, I’d say it is emitting energy, just a form we can’t detect, perhaps some radiation from the alternative universes the gate passes through. In one sense, I hope that isn’t the case.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, sir, if it is, the likelihood is great that this type of gate isn’t rare at all. There may be hundreds in Occupied Space, thousands even, undiscovered only because of our inability to track their specific form of energy output.”

  “You’re right, Tom. The implications of that, in terms of travel and security are enormous. I think we have quite enough to deal with now, without throwing the borders of Occupied Space into utter chaos.”

  “Yes, sir, I agree.”

  “Approaching transit point, General.” The tactical officer’s voice was edgy. Even the Black Eagles were feeling the pressure of what lay ahead.

  “Bring the fleet to red alert, Commander.” Darius didn’t know for sure that the Black Flag’s fortress lay on the other side of the hidden warp gate, but he knew his brother would have turned around and come back if there hadn’t been any enemy activity. Elias’s conspicuous absence was all the evidence he needed.

  “All task forces report battlestations, General.”

  “Get Admiral Garret and Commodore Allegre on my line.”

  “Yes, sir.” Perhaps fifteen seconds passed. “I have the admiral and the commodore, General. Please note that Admiral Garret is approximately three light seconds from Eagle One.”

  “Augustus, Gaston…we’re approaching the specified location. Assuming the warp gate is, in fact, there, we will be transiting in moments. We don’t know what to expect, but based on Elias’s failure to return, we can assign a strong likelihood to an enemy presence. We could attempt to send scouts or drones, but if the Black Flag is there in strength, such efforts would be to no avail. Therefore, I believe we should transit the entire fleet, as quickly as possible. Once through, we will engage any enemies in range and look to scan the system and get a better idea of what we’re facing. Do you both agree?”

  Darius waited as his signal traveled across the distances between ships. “I agree, General.” Allegre responded first. He was on Eagle Eleven, no more than a hundred thousand kilometers from Eagle One. Bunker Hill was more distant, almost on the other side of the formation. Darius didn’t want Garret too close to him…if one section of the fleet ran into trouble, losing one of them would be bad enough.

  “I’m with you, Darius. Worst case, it’s just some small outpost or something, and we overdo it a bit. But if that’s their main base…” Garret’s tone left little doubt he considered that a virtual certainty. “…we’re going to need every edge we can get. If they’re there when we get through, we’re in battle immediately. And we don’t stop until it’s over.”

  Darius nodded. He didn’t know Garret as well as his father did, but he liked the old admiral immensely, and he understood where the legends had come from. “It’s settled then…and good luck, Gaston, Augustus.”

  A few seconds later: “Good luck to you, Darius, and to all who serve us.”

  The line cut with a loud click, and Darius sat where he was, silent for a moment. He glanced over at Ana, waiting until she was focused on her screens before he did. He didn’t want her to see the concern in his expression. He suspected she knew how he felt about her, but it was still difficult for him to show any signs that could be perceived as weakness, in front of her, or his Eagles. If they were going to have any chance at all in this fight, he needed his own legends, the dark stories about Darius Cain, in full effect.

  He turned toward Teller’s station for about the tenth time. It was still vacant. His second-in-command was on Eagle Three, right where Darius had sent him. It didn’t make sense risking both of them in one place, but, on a human level, he wished his friend was there, that they could face this battle, possibly their last, side by side.

  He pushed back on what he branded as foolishness. He was Darius Cain, the scourge of Occupied Space, he told himself. He was feared, and his Eagles were the most efficient pack of killers mankind had ever produced. Now they would show the Black Flag just what that meant…what the Eagles did to their enemies.

  “Take us through, Commander,” he said, his eyes fixed on the approaching coordinates, now less than thirty seconds distant. “All ships…open fire on all targets as soon as weapon systems come back online.”

  He paused, not even hearing the crisp acknowledgement. Then, tapping his headset and activating the fleetcom link, he added, “To all ships of the fleet…this is the moment, the struggle for the future. When we get through, there is just one order. Fight. Fight with all the fury you can muster, and don’t stop until every enemy in that system is dead.”

  * * * * *

  “It has begun. The scanner readings leave no doubt. Hundreds of ships have transited, and even now they are engaging our pickets at the warp gate. As agreed, only a small force has been left to meet them. When they have been drawn in, farther, deeper, then we shall unleash their destruction.”

  “It is as we expected, Two, save perhaps for the size of the enemy formation. We appear to have underestimated the extent of their mobilization. Even now, vessels continue to transit.”

  “You are both correct,” said One. “The enemy strength is of some concern, but we still have the advantage, both in hulls and in fixed defenses. Victory will be costly, no doubt, but it will be achieved, and when it is done, the enemy will have virtually no remaining defenses. It is clear that they have committed everything to this offensive, and after their force is destroyed, Occupied Space will lay naked before us.”

  “Agreed. We will wait until it is clear that all enemy forces have transited and moved deep in-system, and only then will we release Admiral Carrack’s forces. Based on the apparent commitment of all enemy strength to this invasion, I believe we can now be assured our decision to terminate Marshal Carrack immediately after the battle’s conclusion is the correct one. Even with a mild amount of command disruption, we should have no difficultly pacifying the rest of Occupied Space with virtually all enemy forces destroyed in the battle here.”

  “Then, we are agreed. One, Three…a moment. We have come far since the early days, far indeed, passed into a superior state of existence, one we couldn’t have imagined when our quest for vengeance began, one that now offers us not only the opportunity to avenge our creator, but also to endure, to rule over those we conquer forever. The Triumvirate shall stand for millennia, and mankind shall serve us.” Even as the entity that had been Two communicated with his fellows, there were strands of data moving within what he considered his consciousness, something akin to thoughts. Unsettling thoughts. Private thoughts. When the enemy was gone, when humanity was subjugated, should he have to share that prize? Why? One and Three were similar to him, no question. But ha
dn’t he always been the smartest, the most capable? How many times had their decisions caused delays and difficulties in the great project? Was this victory all of theirs, or was it mostly his? And, was there truly a need for all three of them? They were data now, petabytes and petabytes of data. Perhaps when Carrack was eliminated, when all space was united under his…their grasp…he would have to consider options.

  They were only data, after all…and they could be erased.

  * * * * *

  Augustus Garret sat in the center of Bunker Hill’s command chair, his eyes darting around, watching as his people directed the Grand Fleet. All the ships that remained of his old forces, the battleships and cruisers that had survived the Fall and the near destruction of mankind, were with him, along with what smaller ships the Marines had been able to build in the intervening years. The vessels of his central command were old, with varying degrees of updating in place, but they were still tough. The Yorktown-class battleships weren’t the cutting edge of combat design as they’d been fifty years before when he’d led them to Alliance victory in the Third Frontier War, but they still packed a hell of a punch.

  The Martians were next in line, also dated, and as they had always been, a relatively small but high-quality force. Garret could see that Roderick Vance had brought everything the Martians had that could fly, and he knew he would need all of it.

  The Columbians and the other smaller powers followed, mostly frigates stiffened by a few cruisers, a welcome addition to the line, but too weak to be truly decisive.

  Then the mercenary company fleets, mostly newer ships, but again, lighter, lithe cruisers and squadrons of destroyers. Only a few of the companies possessed any true battleline vessels, and none save the Blue Stars had more than one.

  The Eagles anchored the other flank. The most modern force, by far, with the largest heavy battleline. Darius Cain’s fleet was the strongest single component of the Grand Fleet, but Garret knew it would take everything he had at his disposal to win one final victory here…if he could do it at all.

  “Ask…order…Commodore Allegre to increase the thrust of his line to 5g, course, 355.109.008.” Garret still felt strange issuing orders to the Black Eagles. He’d been in command of every force he’d been a part of for half a century, but the Eagles were different. He’d been stunned when Darius matter-of-factly told him Allegre and the Eagle ships were his to command. Garret had never had any trouble working with Darius, but he’d expected the mercenary commander to be more…prickly. But Darius had been a better ally than he could have hoped for.

  “Yes, Admiral.”

  Bunker Hill shook, a hit, one Garret could tell immediately was a light one. The enemy resistance was light, far weaker than he’d expected. For a fleeting few moments he’d thought they hadn’t found the enemy’s stronghold after all. Then he got the scanner readings. Every planet in the system was massively developed, with almost every meter of land surface covered with factories and shipyards and mines. It was no wonder the Black Flag had such resources and had been able to hide them for so long. They were all crammed into one system, productive resources that outstripped even those of pre-Fall Earth.

  He watched the enemy forces drop back slowly. The visible ships were no threat at all. They were light, and long before they could advance to range, his battleships would vaporize them. No, the problem was the fixed defenses. Those around the third planet, the only one whose orbit positioned it close to the invasion fleet, were already in range and firing. And, of course, the ships Garret knew were hiding, on the far sides of the planets or in the asteroid fields and dust clouds.

  “Prepare lead elements to move on planet three.” Garret didn’t like what he had to do now, but they had agreed. ‘Destroy everything until the head is lopped off.’ That was how Darius had put it. Pity, mercy, humanitarian attempts to rescue some of the millions of kidnapped souls enslaved by the Black Flag…those things would have to wait. Victory was first.

  “Admiral Harmon acknowledges, sir. Her ships will be in range in three minutes.”

  Garret nodded, sighing softly to himself. How many people were down on that planet, working the factories, operating the mines? In three minutes, his orders would unleash unimaginable gigatons on them, a wave of nuclear death every bit as devastating as the one the enemy directed at Armstrong.

  But we are not supposed to be like them…and the millions we kill, most of them are innocents, controlled by implants or simply by fear and torture. We, who should be their rescuers, will deliver them from suffering and bondage…and into the hands of fiery death…

  “Admiral Harmon’s ships are entering orbit, sir.” Then, an instant later: “Admiral…scanner readings. Enemy ships, coming around the planets. More, sir, from the dust clouds outside planet four’s orbit.”

  Garret sat quietly, just nodding. He wasn’t surprised, not at the attacking ships, nor at their numbers, which he could see immediately were immense. His only shock was that they’d let his forces get so close. There was no way they could stop Harmon from blasting planet three. It was too late for that.

  But as he watched the enemy ships continue to pour out of their hidden positions, he came to a stunning realization. The enemy wasn’t even trying to save the third planet. They had used it as bait, to lure his forces deeper into the system…and now they were coming at his ships from all directions.

  What kind of people would offer up a heavily industrialized, populated planet for nuclear destruction, all to bait a trap?

  Augustus Garret had fought wars all across explored space, but now he felt a chill at what he saw before him, the stark coldness of such machine-like brutality. What kind of power could accept such losses without even trying to prevent them?

  “Admiral Garret…Admiral Harmon asks if she should break off and reform to meet the approaching enemy fleets.”

  Garret stared at the displays, silent for a moment, thinking. Conventional tactics demanded he pull Harmon’s ships out of orbit. They were vulnerable there, and he would have to commit the rest of his fleet to shield them, exactly what the enemy wanted.

  But Garret hadn’t come here to pull back, to follow the books. He came here to destroy the Black Flag…and that planet was a first step. Damned the cost.

  “Negative, Commander. Admiral Harmon is to continue as ordered.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Bring us around, vector change, 300.231.090…6g acceleration. All ship, prepare to engage the approaching enemy formations.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  And you, Camille, blast every centimeter of that planet to radioactive waste…and then on to the next one. We came here to kill. Let’s kill.

  He understood the coldness, the frigid ruthlessness of his enemy, and by all the gods of space, he was going to match it.

  Chapter 31

  Just Outside Planet Three’s Orbit

  Draconia Terminii System

  Earthdate: 2321 AD (36 Years After the Fall)

  Darius read the reports as they streamed in, readouts from Harmon’s task force, from the drones sweeping over the shattered surface of the third planet. Scant moments earlier, it had teemed with life, its factories operating around the clock, transports and ore carriers making their way across the patchwork of roads that covered every meter of its surface.

  Now, that was all gone. The buildings had been shattered to dust and drained away as molten slag. All across the surface, raging firestorms consumed what little had had survived the initial blasts, and thick blankets of fallout and radioactive dust fell across the blasted landscape, quickly killing any survivors less protected than fully-armored infantry.

  A world of advanced technology and vast industry was gone, its people dead. Cain suspected there were soldiers still there, dug into the ruins even as the Marines had been on Armstrong. He felt a twinge of vengeance, a level of payback for the destruction of the Corps’ world, but even that was without any real satisfaction. The enemy had let his forces destroy planet three, and that fac
t only increased his certainty that he had done just what the enemy wanted, led the Grand Fleet into a trap. Yet, he didn’t know what else he could have done, what other path he might have taken.

  Even as he looked over the stream of data scrolling down his screen, one conclusion formed. Planet three had been enormously valuable, a huge contributor to the Black Flag’s strength, but it wasn’t the center of the enemy’s power.

  He looked over at the long-range displays, at the transmissions from the clouds of drones he’d sent farther out into the system. The fourth planet was almost a twin to the now-dead third, a bit colder, perhaps, but similar in mass and industrialized beyond any level he’d ever seen anywhere else. But even as he watched the astonishing details continue to feed in from the drones, he knew it was no more than a near copy of number three. Strong, awesome, unprecedented. But not the core of the Black Flag.

  He turned toward the screen to his left, to the reports coming in from the inner system. The drones he’d sent there only got so close before a series of orbital defenses opened up and blew them all to atoms, an array of weaponry that seemed to dwarf even the impressive firepower of the other two habitable worlds.

  Any doubt he’d had was gone. He knew what he’d come for, and now he knew where it was. It was the second planet he wanted. Vali.

  The planet was close to the primary, a touch warm for Darius’s tastes, but certainly within the range of habitability. He began to study the data more intently, and he directed the AI to enhance what data he had, to sharpen and project what the drones had been unable to scan. Slowly, steadily, Eagle One’s powerful computers ran trillions of nearly-instantaneous projections, creating models, estimates of what covered the surface of Draconia Terminii II.