Star Crusades Nexus: The Second Trilogy

by Michael G. Thomas

  Nukes, about damned time!

  They tracked quickly from the launch tubes aboard the Battlecruisers as they moved on the carrier. There were only twelve of them, with three times as more decoys launched from the other warships. Three made it through what was left of the defensive gunnery and smashed deep inside the stern of the ship.

  Nothing happened.

  * * *

  Admiral Lewis watched with a bitter expression on his face as one of the frigates took the full brunt of the Ravager’s gunfire. The ship had been able to turn its guns away from the retreating fighters, and in less than thirty seconds, the frigate had sustained over five hundred separate impacts from the high-velocity guns.

  “What’s happened to my atomics?” he demanded angrily.

  There was no answer until finally the tactical officer spun about to look at him.

  “Admiral, the activation signal has been jammed by the carrier. We can’t activate them this far away.”

  “What? Are you kidding? Burn through it and trigger them.”

  “It won’t work, Admiral. The jamming is coming from the bow of the ship. We need to get right against their stern to get through the jamming.”

  “What about another volley?”

  Lieutenant Vitelli checked his computer for a moment, calling out while keeping his eyes on the screen.

  “Three minutes till they’re ready, Admiral, but they will have the same problem.”

  “Then remove the safeties and set them for proximity detonation. That ship is already moving in on ANS Sentry. It must be stopped, now!”

  Lieutenant Vitelli almost protested, but the bright flash of ANS Narwhal as it exploded near the Ravager persuaded him otherwise. There were now just three of the small frigates remaining, and he doubted the others had more than a few minutes of life left.

  “Aye, Sir, working on it.”

  General Daniels looked at the disposition of ships and pointed at the group of Hammerheads leaving the scene of the battle.

  “Who are these?”

  Admiral Lewis glanced at them before answering.

  “They’re the controller craft from the drones, why?”

  The General knew what he was about to say would consign the crews to their deaths but time was not on their side, and they were the only crew in the area.

  “Give them the order.”

  The Admiral looked at him and then at the flashing marker indicating the craft. He knew it was the right thing to do but hated the General for reminding him of it. He hesitated, but every second that went by saw more casualty reports coming in. He placed his face in the palm of his hand as he picked up the intercom.

  * * *

  Lieutenant Jim Davidson tapped in the data for the last time into the navcomputer. It was a long shot, but he was damned if he was going to lead his electronic warfare crew to their deaths on a suicide mission.

  “Are you sure this will work?” he asked the two engineers sitting inside the transport section of the craft.

  “It’s on a timer. As long as she gets within ten meters of the ship, it’ll work.”

  The Lieutenant was one of newest pilots in the unit, but his aptitude for seat of the pants flying had almost got him the top spot in the fighter squadrons. It was only his failure on the gunnery trials that had pushed him back to the support units. Now he was starting to wonder if the fighter squadrons would be safer.

  “Okay, the computer is set. Get ready for ejection in ten seconds.”

  He looked out of the cockpit and at the shape of the Ravager right in front of them. It was a big ship, perhaps bigger than any Alliance ship ever built, and from this distance it might have been a moon. The timer continued to run down until it reached the last digit. His muscles tensed, and he almost panicked, thinking for a second that he’d not fitted his helmet. He reach up and found he was right.

  “Oh...crap!” he groaned.

  A powerful blast flew him and his co-pilot out of the bottom of the craft at the same time as the crew section detached from the rear mountings. Retro thrusters pushed them down and away from the craft as it continued forward on its course with the massive ship. Lieutenant Davidson kept his eyes and mouth closed for as long as he could manage, but the force of the escape and his own nerves reduced that to just a few seconds. He groaned as he blew out the air to find fresh, clean air coming back.

  What?

  He opened his eyes to see the compartment was drifting away from the ship, and his co-pilot sitting directly next to him.

  You fool!

  In the panic, he’d forgotten the escape sequence blew out the crew modules rather than the individual crewmembers. He knew this, and it made him feel like an idiot that he might have thought otherwise.

  “Jim, look,” said Jonas, his co-pilot.

  Both of them looked out of the window section as the tiny dot that was the Hammerhead crashed into the stern of the ship. It looked like they must have failed, but a tiny red flash appeared and then expanded to engulf the entire rear third of the ship. It shuddered and split as great chunks were blown off the Ravager.

  “Yes!” he cried in excitement.

  * * *

  Jack had only just entered the CIC of the Battlecruiser to find the officers arguing about what to do next. The escape to the fleet had been fast and violent but incredibly, the bulk of the marine rescue craft had made it away from Eos. He’d given his opinions to the Admiral, but it was now out of his hands. Gun and the General were right next to him, and he began to feel like a naughty pupil at school, unsure whether to move or speak.

  “They’ve done it. The Ravager is burning!” said a seated officer.

  Jack turned his head slightly to look at the large mainscreen positioned so most of the officers could see it. The space battle filled the rectangular space, but nothing was more significant than the massive carrier as it was torn apart by a series of micro-atomic warheads that fractured and shattered her hull. Even he found himself caught up in the jubilation as the most powerful ship in the Biomech fleet was torn apart.

  “Excellent work, people. How are we doing on the Biomantas?” asked the Admiral.

  The ship’s XO spoke to a woman before replying.

  “Just one left, Admiral, and the fleet is converging on them.”

  The mood seemed to shift as more news arrived of the shattered Biomech fleet. Only then did General Daniels nod to Jack and Gun to walk with him. The three approached the Admiral and waited patiently. Finally, he turned to look at them. He seemed almost happy, but the look on General Daniels’ face halted that.

  “General?”

  The marine officer pointed to the tactical display.

  “Eos? What are we going to do?”

  The Admiral nodded slowly and took a single step to close the distance. He used his hands to expand the image, isolating the ruined Fort so recently abandoned by the marines. He looked back at the General.

  “What about the insurgents, and these Khreenk?”

  “Admiral, the insurgents melted away and back to their inhabited regions. Those are the ones the Biomechs are advancing on.”

  He could see the look on Admiral Lewis’ face, and for a moment thought the man might simply leave it so the civilians would be killed. He opened his mouth to object, but the Admiral spoke first.

  “They may not like what has happened on Helios, they might not even like us, but if we let the Biomechs overrun their homes, we will be no better than the machines. This is an opportunity to show them our strength and our solidarity.”

  General Daniels liked what he was hearing but was still unclear as to what was being suggested. It came to Gun to ask the blunt question.

  “We can’t save them, Admiral, not in the time we have.”

  Admiral Lewis gave a half smile.

  “I know. Eos is just a moon, a minor world they hit while heading for Helios.”

  He changed the display to show the projected course for Helios of the comet.

  “The only positiv
e point is that that the elliptical course they are on is deceptively unremarkable, probably to give the effect of being a naturally occurring event.”

  “They may also only have the ability to partially modify their course instead of making radical changes,” suggested the XO.

  Admiral Lewis considered this for a moment.

  “True, in the long-term they can probably make massive changes, but altering the course of something so massive as a comet would require more energy than we have ever had access to.”

  He looked to the General.

  “It doesn’t give us much of an edge though. It might be slightly slower than the direct route we could take on full burn, but we’re still talking a difference of hours. Nothing more.”

  He paused, not wanting to say it, but time was moving quickly, and he knew he needed to act fast.

  “General, I will leave behind any ships and marine units unable to make the journey, but the rest of us have to leave in a matter of minutes for Helios.”

  “What about them?”

  Admiral Lewis closed his eyes for a second and thought one last time about what he was about to suggest. He couldn’t remember a time in the last decades, even generations where the same had been done, but there was nothing else he could think of, not with the time and resource constraints he faced.

  “General, the only option is an orbital bombardment with ground-strike neutron missiles.”

  He watched as the General’s eyes widened in shock.

  “I know it seems excessive, but it is the only way I can guarantee our forces can wipe out the bulk of these machines and their servants.”

  Jack was stunned at the news, but neither the General, nor Gun said anything.

  “What about the civilians down there? You can’t just nuke the place!”

  The General examined the map of the surface before speaking.

  “No...he’s right. Neutron atomics have a very small blast radius, not much more than the Fort itself. The neutron blast and shockwave will cause far heavier casualties, but if we’re smart, the impact should only be felt up to about here.”

  He used his hands to create a circle around the base and then enlarged it to cover the approximate lethal range of the weapons. It covered all the land around the Fort and a single industrial site to the north.

  “That’s the only place that could be affected.”

  Admiral Lewis looked at the site intently.

  “Population?”

  “Less than a hundred workers plus a few Helion Army guards.”

  The Admiral scratched at his chin for a second.

  “If we’re going to do this, it has to be now. What do you think?”

  Gun reached out to General Daniels’ shoulder and twisted him about to face him.

  “This is quick and painless. Wipe out their forces, and then we can send in a few small squads to finish them off.”

  All of them remained silent for what seemed like an eternity. Jack watched them and then remembered the others they had brought with them.

  “The Khreenk, they know the area better than us. Leave them behind and some marines to finish the job. Who knows, it might get a response from the Helion insurgents.”

  General Daniels shrugged and looked far from convinced. He walked around the display, adjusting it to see the potential blast effects from different angles. He stopped and looked directly to Gun.

  “Get a signal to the Helions. Tell them to get underground and fast. There are nukes on the way.”

  * * *

  A day had passed and still ANS Dreadnought moved at a slow, yet steady pace through the storms. Her hull had been lashed by a hundred impacts, though none had caused more than a few scorch marks and burns on the hull. The route through the storms was proving tiring but remarkably free from danger. Teresa had been at her post in the CIC without a break when Captain Vetlaya approached her.

  “Colonel, we have a clear route now to Prometheus. My helmsman estimates no more than seventy-two hours to reach the station.”

  Teresa let out a sigh of relief. Her body was exhausted from the constant checking and course corrections she’d been forced to feed to the officers of the ship. Although the navbeacons had guided them through the storms, they had still come across more than a dozen Anomalies that only her experience allowed them to pass.

  “That’s good news,” she said happily.

  The Captain looked less than pleased about something.

  “What is it?”

  “Come with me.”

  The two walked across the CIC to the banks of displays where the Captain usually commanded the ship. On the screen was an image of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

  “The General?” she asked.

  Captain Vetlaya nodded.

  “Yes, there’s news from across the Alliance, and it isn’t good.”

  The Captain tapped the screen, and the image burst into life. As well as showing the General, there were multiple feeds from different parts of the Alliance. Images of ground combat on Eos, space battles, and fighting near a dozen Rift stations throughout Alliance space; all contributed to a growing feeling of dread in her body.

  “It looks like they’ve woken up,” said Captain Vetlaya despondently.

  “Yes,” replied Teresa, “and they all seem to be heading in the same direction.”

  She turned to look at the Captain, but it was Teresa who spoke first.

  “Helios.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  The Fairwater Corporation Secpad was the latest in a long line of personal computer and communication devices that dated back to before the Great War. Based around a hardened shell and a direct connection to the Alliance mainframes, it was a critical component in the digital communication and battle space for years. The technology was far from state-of-the-art, but it did allow all Alliance personnel to stay in permanent contact and acted as a portable computer terminal for medical use, tactical planning, and administrative management on a hundred colonies.

  Computer Science 101, 7th Edition

  Jack couldn’t believe quite what he was seeing as he restarted the video stream. They had all watched the video from the CIC when it had first arrived, but he’d been unable to stop himself from watching it more than a dozen times from the temporary quarters they’d been assigned aboard ANS Conqueror. The room was one normally used by the engineers, but after the battle there were many rooms and quarters freed up due to casualties and deaths in the battle for Eos.

  “I can’t believe it,” said Riku, sitting next to him in her nightclothes.

  They were the only two in the room designed for four people in separate bunks, and their small number of holdalls lay in the corner, still unpacked. Jack shook his head bitterly as they looked at the screen. The main video feed showed images from the space battle with an emphasis on the destruction of the Ravager and the Biomanta fleet. There were some scenes showing Alliance ships taking damage, but none showing any losses. It was the aerial feed of Fort Macquarie that stunned them the most. Riku moved closer to Jack to sit behind him and rested her head on his shoulder.

  “I know,” he said quietly in reply, “The base is gone, just like the other two.”

  He reached out to the unit to switch it off, but a new window appeared with a flash alert message. He considered hitting the accept icon, but it ignored him and instead brought up the imagery in front of him. It was the face of General Rivers.

  “What’s happening now?” asked Riku.

  Jack could sense the nervousness in her voice. He looked at her face and the temporary stitches on her cheek from a wound she’d sustained during their escape. He moved his hand to touch her face, but he could see her tense up. The voice of the General burst out from the device, making him turn around. Facing him was the smartly dressed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the highest-ranking military officer in the Alliance, and a good friend of his parents.

  “Men and women of the Alliance Armed Forces. It with great regret that I must announce the at
omic bombardment of enemy forces on Eos, the primary moon of the Helion planet Gaxos.”

  “Atomics?” said Riku under her breath.

  The image changed to show a view from high orbit over Eos. The imagery was slightly blurred and occasionally shook. A dozen white flashes, followed by large fireballs and clouds of dust marked the impacts on the surface.

  “This was a strike of last resort, following the Fort Macquarie Massacre. Alliance ground forces are already working alongside fresh Helion Army units to reclaim Eos.”

  The imagery moved to show the fleet of Alliance ships around the moon. Jack instantly recognized several he knew to have already been lost in the space battle. It gave the impression more ships were at Eos when he knew only three remained, and they were those unable to continue the chase to Helios.

  “As prophesied by the Helions, T’Kari, and countless other races, the Biomechs as we call them are here. Many have been found lurking on planets and moons, but most are hidden within the confines of the so-called Doomsday Comet.”

  Jack was all too familiar with the object. It’s coming had been talked about for weeks throughout the battalion. It was the first time he’d heard of it discussed so openly though.

  “By order of the President, all Alliance forces are being mobilized to defend our allies and ourselves against this Biomech threat.”

  The video feed of Eos changed to show the vast structure of the Alliance, with its many stars, planets, moons, and colonies.

  “Biomech forces are attempting to break through our Rift networks, as well as the Anicinàbe and Byotai.”

  Jack shook his head as he listened.

  “All of these forces are heading toward a single point, one objective they are intent on capturing or destroying.”

  Jack turned away from the screen and looked at Riku. The scar running down the side of her face always seemed to become more prominent the more upset or stressed she became, and it was clear to see.