Fallen Empire: Ten Davids, Two Goliaths (Kindle Worlds Novella)

by Matthew Quinn

  “Yes sir. Right in front of me.”

  “Hit that with two torpedoes.” Half his fighter’s load. Geun’s gaze returned to the Achilles. Scorch marks marred the hull where he’d been firing. Thank you, lowest bidder. “I’ve got a spot on my twelve.”

  Red-orange energy fire flashed and Geun instinctively set the fighter spinning again. The Striker shook and the console beeped. That one had bitten him a little harder than he’d have liked. His gaze dropped to his console. Tammy was still green, so whatever ghost she was chasing didn’t have teeth. He frowned. At least teeth it’d revealed.

  Duty first. Geun’s finger sank to the red button to the left of the trigger. The e-cannon fire flickered away. Click once to arm the torpedo and lock it on the target. Click twice to fire. The Striker rocked as one torpedo dropped from its left wing and hurtled toward where the shield looked weakest. Click once to arm, click twice to fire. The second torpedo fell away.

  Geun’s finger snapped back to the trigger. The e-cannon had recharged, just a little. Hopefully enough. He fired over the oncoming torpedoes.The Achilles returned fire. One torpedo splintered. The other kept on racing...

  Blue-white light flashed. Detonation. When the flash cleared e-cannon fire splashed on the Achilles’ hull. Great patches of metal were split and warped, atmosphere leaking from them.“Raptor Five, the shields are down!” His Striker jerked as another torpedo leaped away. Then another. “Let them have it!”

  “Aye aye sir!”Two torpedoesstreaked from Raptor Five right toward the embattled cruiser. Raptor Five at least had kept something back, but Geun had shot his bolt. Unease slithered through Geun’s intestines. If the Imperials supercharged their remaining shields, shifting power from every nonessential system — and perhaps even some essential ones, like the brig’s life support — they might withstand the assault. And Raptor Squadron would have nothing but e-cannons...

  ***

  Tammy threw her Striker downward as the torpedo streaked toward her. Splashing it wouldn’t be that difficult, but if she missed, she and her fighter would be a trillion tiny pieces. She dipped under the torpedo’s flight path. The torpedo dove with her, brighter and brighter as it streaked toward her cockpit. The blue-white glow danced in her eyes, and Tammy could swear she saw the faces of the saints of the Suns Trinity within. Their mouths opened, speaking the wisdom of the Xerikesh...

  No. This isn’t real. She breathed in and out, calming techniques Geun had taught her when she had panic attacks. The voices ceased. The faces began fading back into the torpedo’s blue-white glow.

  She calmly pulled the trigger. Red light flashed, and the torpedo disintegrated. Bits of metallic shrapnel flared against her shields as she plunged toward the clipper. Within seconds, she was on the enemy, red e-cannon bursts burning into the enemy shields. The clipper returned fire. She threw the Striker into a spin. Her vision blurred. One shot missed, then another. “Suns, please!” Ten, nine, eight, breathe, seven, six, five, breathe. Her next shot hit. She exhaled in relief.

  The Imperial energy fire kept coming. She continued spinning, weaving between the red bolts flying at her. Twice the blurring in her vision threw her timing off. The blasts sizzled against her shields, carving away double-digit percentages of their power. Clippers were lightly armed by capital-ship standards, but their e-cannon could pack quite a punch.

  At least her own blows were hitting metal, not energy. Scorch marks scarred the enemy’s ahridium flesh. The metal was starting to warp in places, but she didn’t see any spots where she’d burned through to something important. A torpedo would end the fight just as quickly for the clipper as it would for her if she’d gotten hit, but the Alliance needed the torpedoes.

  Her finger hovered near the button that would connect her to her squadron commander. She looked at her LIDAR. The other members of the squadron were still in their run against the Achilles. Those still alive that is. Geun didn’t need her interrupting him, disrupting his concentration.

  No battle plan survives contact with the enemy. Her fighter jerked as a torpedo dropped away from her left wing. She shifted her energy fire, aiming for the clipper’s drive rather than already-damaged parts of the hull. “You’re not going anywhere.”

  The clipper leaped forward, dodging her attacks on its rear. Her torpedo raced after it. She kept hot on its heels, throwing energy bolts into the shields protecting its drive.The shields continued shimmering as the barrage continued. The torpedo kept closer, closer...

  An energy bolt from the clipper struck her full-on. Her frontal shields outright shattered. The fighter shook with the impact. She screamed, instinctively closing her eyes. When she opened them, schematics of her fighter flashed yellow. Nothing red—no critical damage—but she didn’t envy the hangar crew for the patchwork they’d need to do.

  Still the clipper fled, but the torpedo was almost there. The torpedo danced oddly as it drew closer and closer to the target. She blinked and everything was back to normal. The torpedo was too close for her to keep firing without risking destroying her own weapon. She prayed to all three sun gods that were weapon would strike true.

  Blue-white light flashed like the supernovas that seeded the universe with the building blocks of life. The canopy darkened for a moment. The radiation momentarily washed out her instruments. Her breath caught in her throat. Had she done it? Had she killed the thing that was helping the two cruisers kill Geun and his pilots?

  The sensors revealed a rapidly expanding debris cloud where the clipper had been. Tammy laughed. “Yee-ha!” She pumped her fist into the air.

  ***

  Another torpedo — Geun didn’t know whether it was Raptor Five’s or his — disintegrated. The remaining three dove into the seething cauldron of energies spewed forth by the Imperial ship. Another torpedo broke up beneath the assault. Geun pressed the triggers down so tightly he’d probably break something in his stick. He hoped to the Buddha and all ten thousand bodhisattvas he’d get a point-defense e-cannon before they could destroy the last two torpedoes. An e-cannon burst flashed by another torpedo, almost but not quite touching it...

  Blue-white light flashed twice and then there was nothing but black as the Striker’s canopy darkened to save Geun’s eyes. Geun kept his eyes welded to his instruments. Although the radiation from the torpedo detonation had momentarily overwhelmed most of his sensors, some indication of oncoming e-cannon fire was better than nothing. A long moment passed with nothing happening. Geun strained to see through the artificial darkness. The shroud faded. He choked off a gasp.

  The Achilles’ pointed bow had been caved in, like it had been struck by an enormous hammer. The thrashing bodies of the deck crew, their uniforms not much lighter than the surrounding space, spewed through enormous gash running from the prow along the top of the ship. The gash narrowed before widening again around a second enormous hole and extending almost to the enormous exhaust ports at the cruiser’s rear. The great fusion-fires at the cruiser’s rear were quenched.

  “Did...did we do that?” Raptor Five said. “We killed a cruiser?”

  Geun’s jaw worked, but no sound came. They’d done it. They’d splasheda capital ship. Had the Alliance managed this before? As far as he knew, they’d mostly raided Imperial supply convoys and soft targets, even civilians sometimes. Could they actually win? Sweat prickled along his hairline. He reddened. And he’d been ready to desert not long before.

  He shook his head. “Don’t speak too soon.” Though no more e-cannon fire hurtled their way, that didn’t mean the fire wouldn’t start back up again once fire control pulled its head out of its asteroid or emergency power kicked in.

  Geun’s Striker shook suddenly. With the pounding his shields had taken on the way in, debris from the Achilles’ shattered face must be getting through. Geun frowned. Good way to go, getting waxed by the aftermath of one’s own victory.

  A huge lump of gray metal appeared right in Geun’s path. “Hell of the Suns Trinity!” He jerked his stick upward, pulling him
self mostly but not entirely out of the path of the vast chunk of ahridium. Blue-white energies flared as the piece of the Achilles’ hull slammed into what remained of his belly shields. Geun kept tearing his stick upward.

  The shield shattered. Metal scraped metal. Red lights flared on his console. Then he was free. His gaze dropped to the console. His underside was scraped up, but no major damage done.

  “Did you see that?” Raptor Five started babbling. “We killed a cruiser!”

  Geun had more immediate concerns. “Raptor Two, come in, Raptor Two.”A long silence. Geun’s stomach churned. She was probably out of range. There weren’t any other Imperial ships to bushwhack her. But if she’d had a flashback, she might have steered her ship into the oncoming debris from the Achilles rather than away from it. He looked at his console. Her ship was still marked as functioning.

  “Yes, Raptor One?” A great weight lifted off Geun’s shoulders.

  “Did you get that LIDAR platform?”

  “Yes sir. It was a clipper, by the looks of it. I didn’t know the Imperials had a clipper with that kind of sensor suite.”

  That might explain why the Achilles’ e-cannon had missed that last critical shot. Thank the Buddha. Thank bloody-eyed Begtse.“Good. Raptor Five and I are going to help Dragon Squadron. Youhang back. If we don’t come back, I want you to throw some torpedoes into the Achilles’ corpse before you bug out.”

  A long pause. “Aye aye sir.”

  Geun hailed Geller. “Dragon One, we’re coming to help. Raptor Two is hanging back to blow the Achilles to hell if we can’t finish this fight.”

  “Good.” A pause. “I lost two on the first pass and the Sarpedon’s bugging out.” Geun looked up. The Sarpedon grew larger. It was heading his way. He swallowed. Geller continued. “At least the accuracy of its flak has dropped.”

  “Give Raptor Two credit. She splashed that LIDAR platform.” He paused. “What shape is the Sarpedon in?”

  “A couple near-misses with torpedoes.” A quick glance showed warped ahridium patching its hull. Stopping eighty percent of a torpedo’s detonation didn’t mean stopping it all. “No critical damage I can tell, but its shields aren’t recharging like they should.”

  “That’s good to know. Raptor Five and I are going in.”Geun kicked his fighter forward, Raptor Five coming in beside him on his three.“Raptor Five, I’m out of torpedoes, but you’re still packing.” He gave the oncoming Sarpedon a quick scan and fired some coordinates Raptor Five’s way. “Fire on this sector and throw the torpedoes through when they’re down.”

  “Aye aye sir.”

  The two fighters streaked toward the surviving cruiser. Geun fired on the cruiser’s frontal shields, with Raptor Five joining in. The shields flashed blue-white as the red bolts struck, but it wasn’t long until crimson energy started leaking through.“Holy,” Raptor Five gasped. “That lowest bidder must’ve bid really low.”

  “Don’t get cocky,” Geller ordered. “That thing took everything we threw at it and killed two of my people. Kill it.” The venom was clear in his voice, to the point Geun raised an eyebrow. Here was a man very protective of his squadron, not just one of them.

  He shook his head. Later. “Aye aye sir.” Red light flashed in the corner of his eye. He took the Striker into a barrel roll. The fighter’s shields flared blue-white as the energy beam slammed into it. The attack took his shields down by a quarter. A similar blow had cost Raptor Three all his shields. Was its powerplant damaged? No wonder they couldn’t keep up the shields.

  “Raptor Five, any time now.”

  “Aye aye sir!” A torpedo streaked away from his wingman, hurtling like a blue-white spear straight for the weak spot in the cruiser’s shields. A beam of red light reached out for it. The torpedo went into a tumble but — thank the Buddha and Begtse— the warhead seemed intact. Another red spear leaped from the Sarpedon and —

  Blue-white light flashed. By the time Geun’s canopy lightened, the Imperial cruiser had begun tumbling, a wound gaping red-hot in its bow. Fires burned deep within as the air rushed out, along with several kicking soon-to-be corpses. Raptor Five shouted with exultation. “Don’t rejoice just yet,” Geun cautioned. “It’s wounded but not dead.”Geun sent his Striker into another spin, pumping e-cannon fire into the open wound.

  The Sarpedon’s rear shields flared. Dragon Squadron had caught up, throwing red energy into the shields protecting its drive. Rearward-facing guns fired back, forcing the remaining fighters under Geller’s command into an elaborate dance of blue-white shields and orange drive fires. Two torpedoes hurtled toward the cruiser. Point-defense fire clipped one, but the other struck home, an explosion silhouetting the oncoming monster.

  And throwing it all the faster at what was left of Raptor Squadron. “Break!”Geun shouted, throwing his Striker hard to port. This broke his bombardment, but it kept him out of the way as the great gray arrowhead hurtled through where he’d been. Fires burned on the edges of his fighter as he dipped into the atmosphere.

  Proximity alarmed howled in his ears. “What?” he snarled. “I’m not that close —”

  Something slammed into his fighter. The shields held, but the blow sent the Striker tumbling. More heat and fire around him. As the fighter rolled, Geun got a glimpse at just what had hit him. “Buddha!”

  It was an escape pod. Four cylindrical engines glowed at they carried whoever survived toward the green planet below. A grin split Geun’s face. The Imperials were abandoning ship!

  Then red e-cannon fire flashed. One of Dragon Squadron’s Strikers tumbled, mostly intact but with a broken wing. Clearly somebody was still on board, or the crew set the weapons to computer control before they’d fled.

  “Raptor One, clear out!” Geller shouted. “I’ve got another shot!”

  “Aye aye sir!”Geun shouted. He fed as much power as he dared into the Striker’s engine, shooting free of the oncoming escape pods. He pulled the stick back and soon found himself in open space. Below, pods continued erupting from the Sarpedon as it hurtled toward Aldrin.Friction-fire bloomed around them as they fell like rain.

  Then the last torpedo struck home, exactly halfway between the hole Raptor Five had torn into its bow and the mangled mess of its exhaust ports. The explosion slewed the Imperial cruiser across the planet’s atmosphere, red-orange flame blooming against what was left of its shields and exposed portions of the hull. One last escape pod leaped away from the dying cruiser, falling like a tiny meteor. The Sarpedon continued its death-sail beneath him. No new metal cylinders emerged from the ship. Geun let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. There couldn’t possibly be anybody left aboard.

  Raptor Five cheered again. “That’s two cruisers down! Two!”

  Geun grinned, and this time he didn’t even try to stop himself. They hadn’t just bloodied the Imperials and bolted, but won a straight-up knife fight. Two capital ships! Two!

  “Increased Imperial activity at Aldrin,” Geller interrupted. Geun checked his own scopes, but didn’t see anything. Geller must’ve been hearing straight from Intelligence.“I think we’re going to have company sooner than we’d like. Let’s get out of here.”

  Geun nodded, but kept his eyes on the two wrecked Imperial cruisers. The ravaged Sarpedon sank into the green world’s gravity well, wreathed in fire, while the dead Achilles continued to drift. He’d never seen anything more beautiful before in his life. “Aye aye sir.”

  Chapter Four

  Tammy brought her Striker to a complete stop on the vast concrete floor of the Alliance hangar. A couple other fighters from Geller’s squadron were already there. One by one their canopies popped open, allowing the tired pilots to climb out.

  A few deck crew attended to the craft as soon as they’d come to a stop, but it wasn’t long before others rushed into the hangar. First they came in ones and twos, ground crew not on duty or pilots whose quarters were close to the hangar. Then more and more arrived, including paper-pushers whose less urgent work kept them deep
er in the winding tunnels of the asteroid fortress. They gathered around Geller’s pilots, shouting and cheering.

  Tammy grinned. This wasn’t just bushwhacking an Imperial patrol or hijacking a freighter belonging to one of the corporations supporting the emperor’s tyranny. Two cruisers! Two capital ships! Had Raptor and Dragon Squadrons won the most significant Alliance victory yet? Maybe, maybe not. But it sure felt good.

  A quick press of the button and the canopy hissed open. She climbed out of the cockpit and placed her boot down on the red corrugated metal of a walkway a dark-skinned crewman had pushed up against her fighter. “Is it true?” the man asked. “Did your squadron take down an Imperial cruiser?”

  Tammy’s grin widened. “Yes sir!” She swung herself down onto the ladder and quickly descended. “Two of them!” She laughed as more people gathered around her. She soon began to tell the story, leaving out the flashbacks of course, and the growing crowds ate it up.

  But despite the cheers, despite her telling the story again and again to those gathering to hug her or shake her hand, it all began to ring hollow. The great victory had been purchased at the cost of Jackie’s life. Arjun’s life too, but she didn’t know the young man who’d flown as Raptor Three as well. Jackie had been her first friend in the Alliance and, despite not believing in the Suns Trinity, had even replaced the copy of the Xerikesh she’d left on Arkadius.

  She looked toward the hangar entrance. The last fighters were coming in. Geun brought up the rear, first to go out, last to leave, as usual.

  She looked back to the newest mob of admirers. “I’ll tell the rest of you the story later.” She slipped under her Striker and made her way toward the far end of the hangar where the last fighters were powering down.

  ***

  The cheers echoed off the hangar’s brown rock ceiling and thundered in his ears as Geun emerged from the cockpit. Dozens if not hundreds of men and women in a motley mix of ordinary clothes and the mottled blue-and-gray that was becoming the Alliance’s standard uniform swarmed around the returning Raptor and Dragon squadrons. He smiled. This was a day of days. Ten fighters had left base the day before and bagged two Imperial escort cruisers. Two cruisers.