Empires in Ruin

by Anthony James

  “How about you, Lieutenant Eastwood?” said Recker. “Did you and your engine buddies figure out all the technical data?”

  “Yes, sir, my engine buddies and I did exactly that. As you know, the Aeklu has a Gateway that taps into the same ternium ore reserves as the tenixite converter, but I suspect we don’t have enough for even a single activation. Aside from that, we have a shedload of thrust even with the propulsion running unstressed. Switch over to a stressed state and the output climbs eight hundred percent and gives us the ability to hit mode 3 several times in rapid succession.”

  “As you said, I know the tech specs, Lieutenant. It’s the green lights I’m interested in.”

  “Everything is good to go, sir, including the energy shield. Did you hear the latest discovery about how that works?”

  “No. Tell me,” said Recker. His own checks were finished, leaving him to contemplate the control bars protruding from the sloped front of his console.

  “I’m sure you guessed that the propulsion modules sustain the shield during normal operations. However, it turns out that during a sustained bombardment, the tenixite converter kicks in and supplies an extra boost to stop the shield collapsing.”

  “That’s why the Aeklu’s tenixite stores are so nearly depleted,” said Recker in understanding.

  “Yes, sir, and it’s the reason why it survived the Dark Bomb. I was given access to the shield data logs and at the time of the blast, they show an output spike way off the scale. The tenixite stores originally held ten billion tons of ore.” Eastwood let that one sink in.

  “The Aeklu had to convert nearly ten billion tons of tenixite into energy to sustain its shield during the blast?” asked Recker in disbelief.

  “Not quite ten billion, sir. This spaceship must have been away from base for a long time already and I estimate its stores were down to four billion tons when the Dark Bomb went off.”

  “It was due a refuel and still it managed to resist the biggest explosion ever recorded,” said Recker.

  “So how come we drove off the Galactar by shooting it with the Tri-Cannon?” asked Burner.

  “I don’t have an answer to that,” said Eastwood. “Each Law of Ancidium is different and it’s possible they don’t all have the ability to convert tenixite into energy, or can only do so in a limited way.”

  “We have weapons and we have propulsion,” said Recker. “Now we need those sensors.”

  “Sensors online!” said Burner.

  The bulkhead screens lit up with feeds from the Aeklu’s numerous arrays and the world outside was not pretty. Parts of Ivisto still burned, and the furrow created by the Lavorix capital ship’s approach was an immense open wound neither the HPA nor the Daklan would ever attempt to heal.

  Nearby, the construction yard was littered with flaming wreckage of Lavorix transports and ground launchers, while countless smaller shapes of allied vehicles swept in, mainly from the west.

  “The Langinstol, Ildinir and Pulveriser are close by, sir,” said Larson. “The desolator Incendus is back in the air and is stationary overhead.”

  “Any news from Captain Razdin-Tiel?” asked Recker. “If the enemy ship comes back, I’d prefer we had the Verumol with us.”

  “Negative, sir, he’s still off-grid,” said Burner.

  It sounded increasingly as if the Daklan’s efforts to reach the Verumol had resulted in his death and Recker had no idea if the aliens had a backup officer, or who that officer might be.

  “We’re lifting off,” said Recker. He rested his hands on the familiar HPA control bars. “Coordinate with the Langinstol and the other warships.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Recker requested power from the Aeklu’s propulsion and the grumbling background note increased in volume. He half-expected the entire warship to begin vibrating in tune, but instead, everything settled and the ever-present creaking and groaning vanished completely, as if the warship had never been meant to sit idle.

  “We’re still held by the trench gravity chains, sir,” Eastwood warned.

  “Damnit, how stupid of me,” said Recker. “Someone figure out how to switch them off.”

  “I don’t know how to do that, but I’ll link in with the construction yard control mainframe, sir,” said Larson. “Maybe it’ll accept your command codes.”

  Recker swore at the unwanted delay and considered the simpler method of using brute force to tear free. He mentally gave Larson one minute to accomplish the task by finesse.

  “Sir, I’m getting some crazy readings from the tenixite converter,” said Eastwood.

  “I thought you said our tanks were dry,” said Recker, detecting the fear in the other man’s voice.

  “I’m not talking about our storage bay. I mean that tower out there, sir!”

  Recker shifted his gaze to the portside feeds, where the eight-kilometre tenixite converter cylinder was visible, towering above every other structure on the base except the Aeklu and the Verumol.

  “What readings?” Recker had already guessed. He took one hand off the controls and aimed his fingertip at one of the reconfigured buttons on the panel.

  “Massive readings. I think it’s about to drop a full-strength depletion burst on Trinus-XN, sir.”

  Recker had no idea if the planet held enough ternium ore to allow the tenixite converter to fire. He suspected there’d be plenty.

  “How?” asked Burner in shock.

  Making no effort to answer, Recker touched his finger on the activation button for the Aeklu’s shield. Instantly, an ovoid of translucent energy sprang into being around the warship, which the sensors penetrated without impediment. A gauge appeared on one of Recker’s screens and glowing digits informed him of the shield’s status: 100%.

  “Energy spike gone. Discharge,” said Eastwood.

  Outside the Aeklu’s shield, everything went black.

  Chapter Twelve

  The Aeklu’s shield gauge plummeted and Recker didn’t want to see how far it would drop.

  “Tell those four warships out there to stay within our shield!” he shouted.

  He hauled on the control bars. A roar of propulsion came through the walls and the warship accelerated ferociously. As far as he was aware, the ovoid of the Aeklu’s shield was not interrupted by the surface of the construction yard and he wondered if the matter inside the shield would be dragged upwards or if it would pass clean through into the destruction outside.

  Nothing came up with the shield and Recker knew that he’d effectively killed everyone who was left down there. The guilt would come later, but for now his only concern was keeping the Aeklu intact so that it could be used against its creators.

  “The Langinstol, the Incendus and the Pulveriser are with us, sir,” said Burner.

  “What about the Ildinir?” asked Recker. Too late, he saw that the annihilator was no longer on the sensors – they must have flown outside of the shield’s perimeter while the Aeklu was on the ground.

  The bad news piled up. “The enemy capital ship came back, sir,” said Larson. “It’s attacking what’s left of our fleet.”

  “Now we know what triggered the depletion burst,” said Aston.

  “Get me a target lock on that ship,” yelled Recker.

  “It’s the Hexidine, sir,” said Larson. “The name just came up on my screen.”

  Recker had his hands full with the Aeklu. The technicians hadn’t loaded his preference data and the controls felt stiff in his hands, while the arrangement of programmable options on his screen and top panel had been left at the factory defaults. It was something Recker knew he’d adapt to, but this was not the best time to find out how long that would take.

  “Our ships are having a hard time keeping up, sir,” said Burner.

  “We haven’t even set our propulsion into overstress,” said Eastwood in wonder.

  Having experienced the Galactar’s incredible ability to be wherever it wasn’t wanted, Recker was not surprised that the Aeklu could significantly outperform a
Daklan annihilator. Hoping his obligation to protect the other members of the allied fleet wasn’t going to see his own ship destroyed at the same time, he held the acceleration at a level the three accompanying warships could match. The darkness outside was still absolute and the sensors received no input whatsoever, while the shield gauge continued falling.

  “Thirty percent left on our shield,” said Recker.

  “The fall rate is declining, sir,” said Eastwood. “I think we’re coming out of the blast.”

  “We’ve still got the Vengeance on our roof,” said Burner.

  At twenty percent, the shield gauge stabilised for a moment and then began climbing. Watching the rate of increase, Recker could understand why the Laws of Ancidium were such challenging opponents. The Aeklu’s shield had just held off a depletion burst and in a short time it would be back to one hundred percent. In combination with mode 3 manoeuvrability, it was no wonder these warships had brought down the Meklon empire.

  Yet the Lavorix are losing their war. What opponents the Kilvar must be.

  “Sensors clear!” called Burner. “Shit, there’s not much of Trinus-XN left.”

  Recker tried not to be distracted by the sight on the underside feeds, but it was hard not to stare. The depletion burst had gouged out a hemisphere which was likely sixty percent or more of the planet’s mass and this matter had been turned into a fine dust that didn’t seem more than the tiniest fraction of the original quantity, as if the weapon had somehow completely unmade part of the universe.

  The section of Trinus-XN which had escaped the initial obliteration reminded Recker of a volcano, only on a vastly larger scale. With its cold outer crust and burning inner core exposed by the depletion burst, the planet was doomed and he had no idea if its remnants would hold together or if the weapon’s effects would continue at a slower pace until nothing was left other than dust.

  “Sensor lock on the Hexidine!” shouted Larson. “It’s stationary at one million klicks.”

  A huge red circle representing the enemy ship appeared on the tactical with four green dots nearby. Four became three. The last count Recker had been told was that twelve members of the Trinus-XN fleet remained. With the three inside the Aeklu’s shield, that meant only six were left, plus the Vengeance.

  Larson finished her adjustments to the forward arrays and Recker got a view of the engagement. Those few allied warships which remained had suffered considerable damage and he doubted they’d survive much longer than a few seconds.

  “Our warships lack the firepower to hurt the enemy, sir,” said Aston.

  “Get me a weapons lock, Commander Aston.”

  “Only the depletion burst and topside cannon will lock from this range, sir, and we don’t have enough tenixite for anything other than a low-level discharge. Since our shield survived a full-strength blast on Trinus-XN, I’d suggest we hold the depletion burst.”

  Recker was desperate, but not so much that he wanted to risk the main armament this early in the confrontation. “Lieutenant Eastwood, program in a mode 3 jump with an end point right next to those Lavorix bastards.”

  “No need sir – just select a target on the tactical and then activate mode 3 from the control bars.”

  The method was beautifully simple and Recker took advantage. His finger touched the enemy ship on the tactical and a series of additional options appeared, one of which was to approach it using a short-range lightspeed transit.

  “Ready on the weapons, Commander,” he said.

  Feeling his anger rising, Recker activated mode 3. He experienced the stacked nausea and he refused to let it cloud his brain. The Lavorix had evidently overcome the usual delay in the sensors coming online and each of the arrays began gathering data almost immediately.

  “The Hexidine,” said Recker.

  Ten thousand kilometres to starboard - though the magnification of the sensors made it appear close enough to touch - the Hexidine continued its attack on the last members of the Ivisto defence fleet, its shield flashing up in scant patches that indicated its battle with the allied ships was almost done.

  Recker saw that the hull of this Lavorix ship was scraped and scarred, with dents covering much of its plating. From the slight mismatched colours of the armour, he was sure it had been repaired many times, in stark contrast to the Galactar which he remembered as being almost pristine. From what Recker had learned, the Hexidine had faced the Kilvar, while the Galactar had been left with the easier task of cleaning up the last few Meklon planets and sucking the life energy from their inhabitants.

  The crew on that ship know how to fight, Recker warned himself.

  There again, however clean their hull, the crew on the Galactar had known how to fight as well. The Lavorix were opponents only a fool would underestimate.

  “We lost the Vengeance and our escort during that mode 3 transit, sir,” said Burner.

  “No surprise there, Lieutenant,” said Recker.

  The Aeklu had emerged stationary from its mode 3 transit and Recker pushed the engines straight to one hundred percent output before switching them into an overstressed state. Expecting the noise to be dramatic, he was not prepared for the bestial roar that filled the bridge. The sound was akin to nothing he’d heard from a spaceship before, like the Aeklu had transcended its creators and become a god rather than a mere construction of alloy and ternium.

  Recker heard many of the soldiers – their presence forgotten in the circumstances – swear profusely and he didn’t blame them. The hairs all over his body wanted to stand on end, only the constriction of his spacesuit preventing them from doing so, while the stale scent of Lavorix was washed away by a sharp tang of metal coming through the bridge vents. Recker breathed it in, savouring the heady odour of straining technology.

  “We’ve got another three mode 3 activations available, sir,” said Eastwood. “Then the control hardware goes on recharge for ten minutes.”

  “Weapons locked,” yelled Aston, her own eyes wide. “Starboard side clusters one through thirty, forwards one through thirty, uppers one through thirty, all fired. Gauss countermeasures set to track and destroy. Failures on eighty-five launch tubes. Checking.”

  Deep within the Aeklu, Recker heard nothing of the discharge. Normally, he craved the visceral thunder of a spaceship’s weapons systems. Here on the Aeklu, the propulsion note had hold of him and it was all he wanted. The Aeklu accelerated into the vacuum, pulling away from the Hexidine at a phenomenal rate. Meanwhile, the orange propulsions of almost a thousand missiles flashed across the intervening space.

  The enemy were quick to react and they launched missiles of their own, though only five hundred. A faint drone – perhaps real, perhaps imagined - came to Recker as the Aeklu’s mighty array of gauss turrets fired at the incoming warheads.

  “Our shield recharge has slowed right down, sir,” warned Eastwood. “With the engines at full output, the ternium has less spare for the other systems.”

  “I hear you, Lieutenant,” said Recker. He backed off the controls a fraction and banked to portside, intending to bring the rest of the loaded missile tubes to bear.

  “Aeklu missiles: impact imminent,” said Aston.

  A moment before detonation, Recker suddenly realised he was about to be sucker punched. Sure enough, the Hexidine entered mode 3, breaking missile lock and appearing five thousand kilometres ahead of the Aeklu and with its loaded missile clusters pointing directly towards Recker’s ship.

  “Missile launch detected,” said Aston. “Five hundred coming our way. They’re not committing to a full launch, so they’ve always got some missiles ready to fire.”

  The previously launched missiles from the enemy ship had enormous propulsion sections and they flew unerringly across the tactical. Recker glanced at the velocity gauge and discovered that the Aeklu had gone past six thousand kilometres per second, yet still the missiles closed the gap.

  “Hit them with a partial launch,” Recker said.

  “Portside clusters one
through fifteen launched.”

  Recker touched an area of the tactical closer to Trinus-XN and the mode 3 button on his controls lit up. “Entering mode 3.”

  The in-out transition felt worse than the previous one and Recker’s head thumped painfully. He cursed under his breath, wondering if fate were rolling a six-sided die to determine how bad the outcome would be for each transit.

  Rolled a one, there Carl. You’re gonna wish it came up a six.

  The sensors cleared in moments, though Recker already had the Aeklu’s propulsion at maximum. Dead ahead, Trinus-XN was crumbling faster than before and its outline was becoming indistinct because of the dust particles drifting from its surface.

  “Sensor lock on the Hexidine,” said Burner.

  Sure enough, the enemy warship had followed through lightspeed and emerged only a few hundred kilometres off the Aeklu’s stern.

  “Enemy missile launch detected,” said Aston. “Aeklu rear clusters one through fifteen launched. Our gauss repeaters are still set to track and destroy.”

  Several of the Hexidine’s missiles evaded the Aeklu’s countermeasures and the energy shield activated.

  “Estimated twelve hits on our shield,” said Eastwood. “Hardly moved the gauge.”

  “They’re waiting for us to enter mode 3 again,” said Recker.

  This was a new kind of engagement with an additional set of rules and his mind tried to predict the course of the battle. The Hexidine fired another hundred missiles and accelerated diagonally away from the Aeklu.

  “Fifteen of our missiles detonated against their shield,” said Aston. “A scratch.”

  A nagging feeling that something was wrong wormed its way into Recker’s brain. The Aeklu’s main armament was likely potent enough to give the Hexidine’s crew something to worry about, but their ship appeared to lack anything devastating that would trouble the Aeklu’s shield gauge in return. Recker doubted the Lavorix had ever foreseen a time when these two Laws of Ancidium would be duking it out, but he felt sure the opposing ship was holding something back and he didn’t want to find out what it was.