Empires in Ruin

by Anthony James

  “Got them! They jumped right on top of Lustre!” said Burner. “Almost a million klicks from our position and accelerating for the blind side.”

  “What about the Toll? Did we hit them?” demanded Recker.

  “No, sir – they entered lightspeed before the projectile could impact.”

  Cursing the fractions of seconds which separated success and failure, Recker brought the Aeklu around and aimed it straight at the planet. If luck were on his side, maybe the enemy would require a few seconds to obtain a sensor lock, though he wasn’t pinning his hopes on that happening.

  “The Langinstol targeted and launched a single lightspeed missile, sir, and Captain Vazox reports a successful detonation. The Incendus has no more lightspeed missiles to fire.” said Burner. “Commander Aston did not active mode 3 on the Vengeance.”

  “Give me a course projection overlay for the Hexidine.”

  “Course projection overlay added to your tactical, sir,” said Burner.

  Holding the Aeklu steady, Recker checked the overlay. If the Hexidine continued on its current heading and at its current velocity, it would come within direct sensor sight of the Langinstol and the Incendus in twenty seconds. Aware of the danger, the annihilator and the desolator were accelerating in the opposite direction.

  “We’re on the enemy’s battle network, so they know our position,” said Larson. “What are they playing at?”

  “The Lavorix have had enough of the lightspeed missiles,” guessed Recker. “They’ve decided to go hunting for the source.”

  “I have communicated your insight to the Daklan, sir,” said Burner. “We’ll have sensor sight on the Langinstol and the Incendus in less than fifteen seconds,” he continued. “Commander Aston is hugging the surface and taking the Vengeance north towards the pole. The Hexidine should pass straight by without obtaining line of sight.”

  “Do the Lavorix have the benefit of our sensor satellites?” asked Recker.

  “They did have for a couple of minutes, sir, but not anymore,” said Burner. “I’ve just diverted the data feed from one of the terrestrial TV channels into the satellite network. As of this moment, the Lavorix are watching Casablanca.”

  “How long before they regain access to the sensors?”

  “I don’t know, sir,” Burner admitted. “A minute at the most.”

  “That’ll have to be enough.”

  “Enough for what?” asked Larson.

  “A plan. I’ll let you know as soon as I think it’s got a chance. Lieutenant Burner, can you put a hold on our battle network pings to the Hexidine?”

  “Yes, sir, but they’ll realise we’re up to something.”

  “We only need a few seconds. Wait for my command.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The Aeklu’s velocity gauge sped to seven thousand kilometres per second and Recker suddenly banked it so that it was heading away from the planet as if he’d decided to run from the engagement. He held it on course and watched the Hexidine, the Langinstol and the Incendus as they sped around Lustre.

  “Ten seconds and we’ll have sensor sight on the Langinstol. Five after that and we’ll see the Hexidine. The enemy ship is less than ten klicks from the surface, sir. The atmospheric friction will be draining their shield.”

  “Not nearly enough,” said Recker.

  He chose his location – a place on the northern tip of the Sonlund continent and within five hundred kilometres of the Vengeance. There wasn’t enough time to communicate his intent and he was relying on fast reactions from everyone.

  “Here come the Langinstol and the Incendus.”

  “Hold the battle network packets, Lieutenant Burner.”

  “Done.”

  Recker activated the last available mode 3 charge and the Aeklu sped more than half a million kilometres in almost zero time. It emerged a hundred kilometres above the bleak northern Sonlund coastline, where the white foam of breakers created an uneven line separating hard stone from the dark sea.

  Across the distant horizon, the Langinstol and the Incendus were burning pinpricks of white, and the smoke trails they left behind stretched for thousands of kilometres. After them came the Hexidine. Surrounded by its energy shield, the Lavorix ship left no trail, but the sensors tracked it anyway, four hundred kilometres south and low to the planet in its pursuit of the Daklan.

  “Main armament targeted.”

  “Make the shot, Lieutenant.”

  With a delicate touch of her finger, Larson discharged the Toll.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The distance between the two warships was so insignificant that the projectile’s travel time was only a split second. The Aeklu’s sensors registered a blur of motion and then the Toll slug impacted with the Hexidine’s shield. The faint ovoid surrounding the enemy ship turned to the deepest of blues and the huge warship immediately broke off its pursuit of the Daklan.

  “Forward clusters one through thirty: fired. Upper clusters one through fifteen: fired. Underside clusters one through fifteen: fired. Gauss repeaters set to track and destroy.”

  The enemy pilot demonstrated his reactions and twisted the huge warship quickly enough in the air that the Aeklu’s upper and underside missiles flew wide, while all 360 warheads from the forward thirty clusters detonated against its energy shield. The blue deepened further.

  “Enemy missile launch detected,” said Larson.

  “Halo charging,” said Eastwood. “And I reckon the enemy are burning through their tenixite stores to keep the shield up.”

  “If their shield doesn’t collapse soon, we’re going to be in the crap,” said Recker.

  Accelerating from stationary left the Aeklu an easy target and despite his best efforts to avoid them, almost a thousand warheads from the Hexidine detonated successfully, causing the gauge to drop significantly.

  The enemy pilot could have forced a collision, but instead the Lavorix warship banked in a tight curve, ejecting missiles from its rear tubes and spraying the Aeklu’s shield with gauss fire. Recker struggled to recover and knew he’d put too much faith in the main armament. His ship gathered speed and he tried to bring the Toll into line for a second shot. The clunking of the reload was enough reminder that the gun wouldn’t be ready for many seconds yet.

  If they fire the Extractor, it’s game over.

  Having watched the Hexidine empty its rear clusters, Recker anticipated the enemy would bank one way or the other to bring its loaded portside or starboard tubes into play. It went left, cutting through the thin, high atmosphere and heading for the planet’s north pole.

  Aware that he was dancing to his enemy’s tune, Recker gave chase, listening for the Toll reload to complete and hoping it would happen before the inevitable Extractor or Halo discharge.

  “Five seconds on the main armament,” said Larson.

  “The power spikes on their hull are levelling off, sir,” said Eastwood. “I think they’re about to discharge.”

  Having used the Aeklu’s last mode 3 charge getting here, Recker didn’t have much choice other than to find out what was coming his way. A close-range missile launch from the Hexidine wrapped the Aeklu’s shield in plasma and the reserve gauge dropped again.

  “Firing the main gun,” said Larson.

  The Toll discharged a moment before the Halo, and Recker saw the Hexidine’s shield turn even darker as it absorbed the impact - now it was more ternium in colour than it was blue. Then, a crackling black web of tightly woven, undulating energy tendrils appeared around the Aeklu’s shield. In an instant, the reserve gauge fell from sixty-five percent to zero.

  “Shield down!” yelled Eastwood.

  “Get it back,” growled Recker.

  “I’m trying, sir.”

  Recker scanned the console, hunting for something to nullify the Halo attack. Maybe he could channel the energy elsewhere or perhaps the Lavorix had built in a defence that would only become available under these specific circumstances. He found nothing – in fact, the other onb
oard systems were also affected and several of the minor ones had already gone offline.

  They Lavorix still want their ship back. They’re going to bring us down and recover the Aeklu.

  Instead of leaving themselves open to another Toll shot from the failing Aeklu, the Hexidine decelerated suddenly. The Aeklu’s response to the controls was already blunted and Recker couldn’t prevent his spaceship from overshooting.

  “Everything’s failing, sir,” said Eastwood. “I’m doing what I can to divert power to the critical systems, but all I’m doing is shuffling chairs on the deck.”

  The Aeklu wasn’t travelling at anything like maximum velocity and on a downward trajectory which Recker guessed would see it hit the surface in the next couple of minutes, with the most probable landing place being one of Lustre’s extensive oceans. Less than a hundred kilometres behind, the Hexidine, which had slowed dramatically, began accelerating in pursuit, doubtless intending to keep pace and soak the Aeklu’s conventional attacks until it crashed down.

  “We’re going to lose the weapons systems in a few seconds, sir,” said Larson. “I can’t figure out a way to prevent it happening.”

  “Commander Aston is on the open channel, sir!” yelled Burner.

  Aston kept it short and sweet. “Wish me luck.”

  The channel went dead and Recker’s eyes jumped to the rear feed, where he spotted a tiny, grey shape appear within the Hexidine’s shield.

  “Come on!” he shouted. “Do it!”

  The explosion from the Vengeance’s Executor discharge came so deep within the opening created by the earlier shot, that the dark edge of the blast sphere only just peeked out. Following the blast, an immense flash of plasma indicated Aston had sent a bunch of missiles into the guts of the Hexidine for good measure.

  Recker’s first reaction was disappointment – the ovoid shield protecting the Lavorix ship remained in place and their pursuit continued. Realisation came.

  “They didn’t mode 3 out of here,” he said.

  “I’m scanning the Hexidine’s hull output,” said Eastwood. “Something’s wrong.”

  “Find out what it is!” Recker’s initial disappointment was replaced by a tentative excitement, though he didn’t want to get his hopes up yet, especially with the enemy shield being operational. “And find out what happened to the Vengeance!”

  “Commander Aston has taken shelter in the Executor hole, sir,” said Burner.

  “Rear missile tubes reloaded. Clusters one through thirty: fired,” said Larson. “Uppers one through fifteen: fired. Lowers one through fifteen: fired.”

  At the same time as the Aeklu’s missiles became visible on the rear feed, Recker spotted two vast explosions ripping into the Hexidine’s armour plating.

  “Lightspeed missiles!” he said. “The enemy ship must have slowed down enough that the Daklan became confident they could target it accurately!”

  As the Aeklu’s wave of missiles detonated, Eastwood came out with a bombshell.

  “The enemy has lost their propulsion, sir!” he yelled, his voice a full octave higher than normal.

  It was an electrifying, monumental change in fortune and Recker could scarcely believe his luck.

  “What about the enemy shield?” he asked.

  “Still holding, sir. Our own propulsion output is dropping like a stone.”

  The news brought Recker crashing down again. Even deprived of its ability to escape, the Hexidine was far from defenceless, while the Aeklu no longer had a shield to rely on and its own propulsion output was heading rapidly towards zero as the Halo brought the spaceship to the brink of complete failure.

  “Enemy missile launch detected,” said Larson.

  Recker hauled the control bars to the side and the Aeklu responded sluggishly, more akin to a lifter shuttle than a warship. The gauss repeaters punched dozens of the inbound missiles into glittering shards, which sparkled against the rising sun. Those warheads which evaded the countermeasures plunged into the Aeklu’s stern plating and exploded with devastating effect and to Recker’s eyes, it appeared as though the rear fifth of his warship was completely hidden in the immense series of blasts. A sprinkling of red lights appeared on his console and, given the number of impacts, he was surprised there weren’t more.

  “We need to get out of range, sir,” said Larson.

  “Easier said than done, Lieutenant.”

  The Aeklu was gradually pulling away from the now-drifting Hexidine, but Recker wasn’t convinced they’d beat the enemy ship’s reload. He pulled back on the controls and the Aeklu hardly gained any altitude, making him wonder if it would reach escape velocity. Even with most of the planet’s population evacuated, there was a risk of enormous casualties if an object as large as the Aeklu, the Hexidine or both hit the surface without control.

  “Two more lightspeed missiles hit the Hexidine, sir. Same place as last time,” Burner reported. “The Langinstol and the Incendus are coming to offer support.”

  “Recommend they hold back,” said Recker sharply. “The enemy ship is far from helpless.”

  “I passed on the warning, sir.”

  Another flash, which the Aeklu’s sensors detected through the near opacity of the Hexidine’s shield, informed Recker that the Vengeance was operational and giving the Lavorix ship hell. Maybe those warheads would take out another piece of critical hardware, but Recker wasn’t banking on it.

  “We’re losing altitude,” he said. “The response to my input is minimal. There’s no chance we’re coming about for another Toll shot.”

  Slowly, the Aeklu fell towards the ground, its engines unable to defy gravity any longer. The warship didn’t drop as rapidly as expected and Recker could still hear the propulsion as a spluttering on-off background grumble and he guessed the kickstarter modules were unaffected by the Halo and were trying to fire up the engines again. He wasn’t sure if they’d be successful in time, but those kickstarters were allowing him a tiny amount of control over the Aeklu.

  “Oh shit, the Hexidine is charging up for something else, sir,” said Eastwood.

  “Another Halo?” asked Recker. As soon as the words left his mouth, he knew that couldn’t be right. The enemy had already disabled the Aeklu, giving them no reason to fire the weapon again.

  “Their tenixite converter, sir,” said Eastwood. “They could probably take us out and the planet at the same time, if they’re carrying enough ore in their hold.”

  Thoughts flew through Recker’s mind. The Vengeance was equipped with the Fracture and if Aston fired it from within the Hexidine’s shield, the huge warship would be turned to dust. But maybe the planet would be affected at the same time. They knew so little about how the Fracture worked.

  Recker opened his mouth, unsure what he was going to say. The Hexidine fired another wave of missiles at the same time as Larson announced she was giving them the same in return.

  We can’t lose the planet, thought Recker desperately. Still the words wouldn’t come and he knew that whatever he said, he could do nothing to alter the fate of Lustre.

  While the Aeklu’s and Hexidine’s missiles were in flight, another flash appeared within the latter’s hull and two more lightspeed missiles detonated in the same place as the previous impacts. Recker had no idea which of the two attacks brought about the result, but the shield protecting the Lavorix warship vanished, winking out like it had never existed.

  “Impact!” shouted Larson.

  Recker wasn’t sure which impacts she was referring to. The Aeklu was struck by missiles at the same time as the Hexidine. A dozen new alerts appeared at once on his console and it didn’t take an instinctive feel for space flight to understand that the accumulating damage had changed from heavy to catastrophic.

  “We lost two thousand metres of our stern,” said Eastwood. “And there goes another few billion tons.”

  The Hexidine had fared no better and a huge section of its nose plummeted towards the ocean far below. Yet more of the Vengeance’s missiles
exploded within the vast cavern in the enemy warship’s hull and wreckage spilled out in a nonstop rain.

  “Commander Aston, get out of there,” said Recker.

  “We can’t let them escape from this, sir,” said Aston, determination in her voice.

  “They won’t get away with it. I’ll destroy them with the Aeklu.”

  “One more salvo,” said Aston, her tone indicating she wouldn’t be persuaded otherwise.

  “You’re in command of the Vengeance,” said Recker. “It’s your call.”

  He cut the channel and resumed his efforts to keep the Aeklu in the sky. Its engines were coughing and Recker guessed the kickstart modules were nearly out of juice. The controls were only responding in the loosest sense and every critical system had a low power warning. Once the life support cut out, the Aeklu’s crew would be killed upon impact with Lustre. Doing his best with what he had available, Recker guided the spaceship through a layer of thin clouds high above the ocean.

  “The Hexidine is going down fast, sir,” said Burner.

  Although the Lavorix ship had lost many of its forward clusters, it ejected warheads from several of its uppers. Meanwhile, Larson targeted and fired a similarly reduced quantity of missiles from the Aeklu, while gauss repeaters raked to and fro, destroying some warheads and missing others.

  “Going to be tight,” said Eastwood.

  “Tighter than tight,” said Recker.

  His eyes kept jumping to the Hexidine, which was arcing straight for the same ocean as the Aeklu. The angle of its descent prevented him seeing the detonations from the Vengeance’s next wave of missiles and he hoped Aston wasn’t about to misjudge the time to exit.

  “The Vengeance!” shouted Burner.

  A grey shape – tiny in comparison to the Hexidine – raced into sight, accelerating hard across the sky in the direction of the Aeklu. It was a good tactic, allowing the Vengeance to benefit from the Aeklu’s gauss countermeasures. Recker hoped it would be enough.