Turning to look at the admiral, Barry asked, “You have video, pictures, and damage assessments for my engineers to review?”
Bailey nodded. “We do. Fortunately, the Rook didn’t sustain many hits from these plasma weapons.” He paused the video. “We succeeded in crippling that enemy carrier after that. We sent a boarding party over, and after a two-day intense battle, we captured it.”
Holding his right hand up to stop the admiral from saying anything further, Barry exclaimed, “Whoa, you’re saying we have a captured Zodark carrier? Is there any way we can get it back to our shipyards for study?”
Bailey shook his head. “Not right now. The ship was severely damaged in the battle. Maybe in time, once we’re able to rebuild its engineering section and figure out how to use their FTL system, we might be able to get it back to Earth. Admiral Halsey’s message said they’re going to send a few dozen captured plasma torpedoes, some enemy fighters, and a plethora of other captured equipment on the next transport back to Earth. But before we talk about that, I have one more video I need to show you.”
The admiral changed to a different video file, time-stamped a few days later. The footage showed several of the allied warships in orbit over New Eden. A new battle took place as the fleet battled planetary defensive weapons. Barry noted how powerful the Zodark ground-based lasers were. Despite being fired from the ground, they kept most of their potency through the atmosphere and still hit the ships hard enough to cause considerable damage. They were also extremely effective at targeting the fleet’s Havoc missiles.
Then he saw more of those little fighters entering orbit, heading toward the fleet. The human forces engaged them the best they could with their weapons, but eventually, several of those plasma torpedoes emerged. Barry watched as three of those torpedoes plowed into the TPA ship, the Xi, tearing the heavy cruiser apart. A slew of escape pods emerged around the wreck as the ship fell into the atmosphere of the planet. The Voyager succeeded in dodging the plasma torpedoes, but the Rook took two more hits and the rear half of the ship was completely sheared off.
Admiral Bailey chimed in at this point in the video. “We lost the Rook,” he announced matter-of-factly. “A lot of the crew was able to abandon ship, but casualties were pretty high. The Xi was also a total loss, as you can see.”
“Damn…that leaves us with only the Voyager, a destroyer and the other TPA cruiser in the system? Are we going to send the Bishop? It’s the only other major warship we have left,” Barry asked in a hushed tone.
The RNS Bishop was the Rook’s sister ship. It had just completed construction a year ago and for the time being, was anchoring First Fleet protecting Sol.
Bailey shook his head. “No, we can’t send the Bishop. That would leave Sol defenseless. The Voyager and what’s left will have to make do.”
Barry shook his head in disbelief. These two warships plus the three other destroyers represented the bulk of the fleet’s firepower. He wasn’t sure they’d be enough.
“We’re going to need a lot more ships and soon,” Barry urged.
Admiral Bailey nodded at the frank assessment. “That’s putting it mildly. Admiral Halsey said she was ordering the ground forces to begin their operation and get the space elevator constructed. They’re going to start mining operations immediately. She’s under orders that as soon as she has enough minerals mined to construct two of our new battleships, she’s to send those resources back on one of her transports. Before she left with the fleet, I told her she needed to send a transport back to Sol every five to seven days with whatever they had mined up to that point.”
Bailey paused. “As we get these resources brought back to Sol, I need everything done to get some of these warships completed as rapidly as possible. We have no idea how long it’ll take the Zodarks to send another fleet. If they send more ships soon, then I’m not sure the Voyager and a handful of cruisers are going to cut it. When these resources arrive, how long will it take you to have at least one of these new battleships ready to go?”
Barry sat back in his seat, thinking for a moment. He honestly wasn’t sure. He had been hoping they’d have more time to gather resources, but it was clear that time was something they were going to be short on.
“We’ve already started construction on a lot of the ships,” Barry replied. “We just haven’t pieced them together yet. If I know the resources are on the way, then we can start putting the ships together. By the time we get the Trimar and the Morean we need to build the reactors and fuel them, we’ll be ready to close the ships up. Once that happens, most of the construction can move along briskly.
“If we had to, we could deploy the ships with only the basic essentials needed to fight and finish the ships while traveling to New Eden. I don’t like the idea of doing that, but clearly, the situation is dire. It warrants us doing something drastic like this to make it happen.”
Leaning forward, Admiral Bailey fixed Barry with a hard stare. “Then I suggest you get to it. We may not have much time, Andrew. The fate of our entire people may be relying on the ability of five shipyards to produce the needed tools of war. We mustn’t fail, Andrew—we may not get another chance.”
Chapter Five
The Rescue
New Eden
Planetside
Before he left the escape pod, Captain Hunt had made sure to grab the small backpack with emergency supplies in it. Who knows how long we’ll be out here? he’d wondered.
As he advanced toward one of the other escape pods in the field, he saw some survivors climbing out and went to check on them. His head of security from the ship, Victor Dubois, was with that group, along with a couple of the masters at arms.
Dubois immediately took charge of the situation and began organizing search parties to look for more survivors, while Hunt used the radio from their pod to contact the fleet above. Their first priority, aside from organizing a rescue mission, was locating the rest of the survivors.
No one knew for certain if there were any Zodarks in the area. What they did know was that hundreds of escape pods streaking through the sky like a meteor shower would certainly have given their positions away.
Three hours after they had made planetfall, they had managed to round up several hundred survivors. Hunt was starting to feel disheartened by just how few crewmembers they’d found, until he remembered that many of the crew had probably managed to escape while the ship was still in higher orbit, before it had fallen into the atmosphere. They would have been picked up by the Voyager or the Xi.
“Captain Hunt,” said Dubois, “I think we should start breaking the survivors down into smaller groups and begin positioning them at certain intervals along our perimeter. We don’t know how many Zodarks are in the area and if they are, we should look to organize some sort of defense.”
Hunt nodded. He was grateful Dubois was there since he wasn’t exactly the expert on ground combat. “That’s a good idea, Commander. Figure out how many weapons we have and make sure those who know how to use them best are the ones to get equipped first. Then use your discretion to dispense the rest of the arms.”
For the next twelve hours, survivors continued to trickle in, but otherwise, all was quiet. Maybe the Zodarks were too far away and didn’t even realize we’d landed, thought Hunt.
Around midnight, Hunt awoke suddenly to the sound of screams of agony. “What the hell is that?” he yelled. It was the most horrifying and gut-wrenching noise he’d ever heard, and it grew louder and louder until it suddenly stopped. Just as he was about to go grab Dubois, one of his crew members ran toward the center of camp, and then summarily threw up.
“Sir…I don’t think you want to see that,” the man said, after he’d finished emptying his stomach.
Captain Hunt and Dubois had to investigate after that. What they found was truly gruesome. A Zodark had captured one of the guards along the perimeter, tortured him, and then thrown the dismembered body parts toward the center of the camp. Hunt felt sick.
O
utside the camp, Hunt suddenly heard the Zodarks hooting and hollering. It sounded like they were doing some kind of war dance.
Hours later, they were still keeping up their ritual, keeping all of the Earthers awake and on edge. The Zodarks managed to pick off a few more guards, subjecting Hunt and his crew to the horrifying noise of one of their comrades being dismembered and slowly killed.
A few times, the Earthers had managed to catch a few of the Zodarks before they succeeded and picked off a few of their numbers, but as the evening went on, tensions continued to rise.
“Why don’t’ they just attack us already?” Fran McKee bemoaned to Hunt when it was just the two of them.
“They will. Soon. Right now, they just want to wear us down, terrorize us a bit before they move in for the kill,” Hunt replied, speaking softly so only she could hear him. “They are toying with us is what they’re doing.”
Dubois suddenly appeared. “Captain, I think we should have everyone collapse in close,” he suggested. “Let’s tighten up our perimeter for the time being. It’s too hard to cover this much ground in the dark.”
“Make it happen, Dubois,” Hunt replied.
The masters at arms not only had the M85 rifles, they also had night vision goggles, which allowed them to see at night. The problem was they didn’t have enough of them for everyone. They were also short on weapons. They had a total of forty-two M85 rifles and forty-eight pistols—not exactly a lot of weapons to protect and defend a few hundred crewmen on a hostile planet.
Roughly an hour before dawn, the Zodarks launched their first assault, swarming toward their right flank. The MAs who had night vision goggles were able to see them coming and opened fire from a distance. They cut down a number of the vicious beasts with the magrails before they were able to breach their perimeter. However, once the Zodarks made it inside their lines, the enemy used shortswords and their talon-like fingernails to slash and cut the Earthers apart.
The attack was swift, violent and short-lived. It wasn’t until daylight rolled around that they knew the true horror of what had transpired that evening. Fifty-two of Hunt’s crew members had been killed in the attack and another thirty-eight were injured. The captain himself couldn’t help but vomit when he saw his fellow spacers’ ripped and torn apart bodies.
They also got a good look at the Zodarks themselves. For many, this was the first time they’d seen one up close and in person. They were truly hideous beasts—something about their torsos having four arms just seemed so unnatural. Their bluish skin matched the blue blood that pooled around their enormous ten-foot carcasses. They were a monstruous enemy to contend with.
*******
Captain Miles Hunt heard that horrible primordial scream the Zodarks were known to make, and it sent a shiver down his spine. The initial attack had ended hours ago, but since then, the enemy had continued waging a campaign of psychological warfare.
“Where the hell is that rescue party?” demanded Commander Fran McKee, his XO. Her face had streaks of dirt and dust on it, her hair was matted with sweat and grit, and her uniform was covered in grime from a day of hard work and fighting.
The MAs along the perimeter were checking their M85s and the handful of Zodark weapons they’d captured, making sure they were ready for the next Zodark attack. They’d already expended their supply of 20mm smart grenades, so they were down to just a few magazines of magrail rounds and a powerpack for the blasters.
Holding just a pistol in his hand, Hunt yelled, “Listen up, people! Admiral Halsey said our rescuers have already disembarked the Voyager. They should be landing within the next twenty minutes. We need to hold it together for a little while longer.”
Another guttural yell rang out in the distance, and Hunt felt the hairs on the back of his neck stick out straight. The remaining crew members were on edge. It had been a rough twenty-four hours.
Commander McKee messaged Hunt through the neurolink. Sir, I’m not sure we’ll survive another Zodark attack. They nearly wiped us out during the last one.
I know, Commander, he replied. But we’re in charge, and we need to stay strong for everyone. If we freak out, they freak out. I need you to help me hold it together, OK?
Without saying anything, she nodded, then looked down at the sidearm she was holding and walked over to the perimeter line. If the Zodarks attacked in the next twenty minutes, they were going to need everyone with a weapon on the fighting line.
Hunt looked to the sky above them. He hoped like hell those forces arrived soon, or they were dead.
*******
The air suddenly snapped, like a lightning bolt had shot through the air. One of Hunt’s fleeters was hit by a single blaster shot fired from the tree line a few hundred meters away. A guttural yell emanated from the same position seconds later.
“Here they come!” shouted one of Hunt’s security officers.
“Let ’em have it!” barked another one of his security members.
The fleeters who had the M85 rifles tore into the ranks of the charging Zodarks. Their magrails sent slug after slug at the charging horde.
Blue blaster fire from the Zodarks raced across the distance between the two groups as small clusters of Zodarks charged forward. Each time they attacked, they let out a hideous scream, which definitely had a psychological impact. Due to their size, the Zodarks covered a lot of ground very rapidly.
The fleeters did their best to shoot at the charging Zodarks, trying to keep the enemy as far away from them as possible. Once the Zodarks got within knife range, they easily slaughtered the fleeters. Unlike the RA soldiers or the Deltas, the stranded fleeters weren’t equipped with body armor or exoskeleton combat suits.
“Watch the right flank! They’re trying to get around us on that side!” shouted Commander McKee, doing her best to help manage the fight.
Dubois had unfortunately been killed during the previous attack. The next two officers in line had either been killed or injured as well. Hunt and his remaining officers were trying their best, but they weren’t trained for ground combat. They fought starships, not soldiers.
Something isn’t right. Everyone’s moving over to the right. Sensing something was wrong, Hunt turned and trotted over to the left flank. A couple of laser blaster shots whipped over his head as he crouched and moved from one covered position to another. Hunt saw six of his people hunkered down against clumps of dirt, tree stumps, or whatever else they could find to take cover behind while the Zodarks fired at them.
One of the fleeters popped up and fired several rounds from his M85 rifle in the general direction of the Zodarks. When they dropped below cover again, several blue lights pierced the sky right where they had just been. Another one of his people jumped up and fired several shots—before they could duck back down, their head was ripped clean off by one of the Zodark blasters. The headless corpse fell to the ground, to the horror of one of the female enlisted members sitting nearby. She screamed as blood squirted from the decapitated body.
Hunt wanted to join her and scream in terror himself. Instead, he choked down his horror, ran up to the corpse and grabbed the M85 from the man’s dead hands.
“Look out!” someone nearby shouted. Hunt turned just in time to see a Zodark soldier jump into their position.
The Zodark howled, its talon-like fingernails clawing at the closest humans, slashing through their flesh.
One of the security personnel fired his M85 into the back of the Zodark, punching several holes through it. Its lifeless body collapsed on the two humans it had just mauled.
Turning to where the Zodark had emerged from, Hunt pointed the rifle in that direction, ready in case another one of those hideous beasts appeared.
“I need you up here with the rifle, sir,” one of the fleeters thundered as she pointed to a position not far from her.
Hunt saw where she had pointed and nodded; she was right. If he was going to handle one of the rifles, then he needed to be up on the firing line, helping them hold the enemy back.
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Looking over the lip of his new covered position, Hunt saw close to three dozen Zodarks charging the right flank. Another two dozen were charging their center position, and so far, no one was charging directly in front of him, the left flank.
Looking to the fleeter with a rifle not far from him, Hunt asked, “Should we shoot at the Zodarks attacking the center of our lines?”
She turned briefly to look at him. Hunt saw she was a lieutenant from one of the weapon departments. “We can,” she replied. “Just make sure you don’t stick your head up too long. I think they have some snipers in that tree line further back. That’s how they got Bill over there.” She pointed to her dead companion, the man Hunt had taken the rifle from.
Suddenly, a sonic boom ripped through the air. Hunt looked up to the sky, hoping it was their rescue transporters. Two all-black Ospreys descended from the clouds. They approached from the northeast, probably a thousand feet in the air. Hunt thought it was strange that they didn’t appear to be slowing down.
If this is a rescue operation, then why aren’t they preparing to land? he asked himself.
As the Ospreys got closer, a twin-barreled chin-mounted magrail gun opened fire on the charging Zodark soldiers, cutting many of them down. Excited cheers rang out among the stranded fleeters. Hunt realized these were Special Forces Ospreys when he saw a side gunner behind the pilot tear into the Zodarks with a high-firing multibarreled gun. The damn thing sounded like it was ripping fabric in the air from their vantage point.
The Zodarks appeared to be caught off guard at the appearance of a spacecraft out of nowhere. Many of them stopped charging their positions and fired at the aircraft overhead.
When one of the Ospreys turned away from them, Hunt saw the rear hatch was open.
Oh my God, that’s insane, he thought. Soldier after soldier jumped right out the rear ramp. They were a hundred meters in the air with no parachutes or ropes to manage the descent. They just ran right off the back of the aircraft in a scattering pattern throughout his lines.
Into the Battle Page 7