R.A.E.C.E. Genesis

by Geoffrey C Porter

  "Ahhh, you'd be looking for Colonel Wilson then. He's overseeing the battle right now."

  "Thank you, sir, permission to go aboard?" Jack asked.

  "Certainly, Sergeant. How many more people are with you?"

  "About forty, still in the hills. Don't leave Amber without us."

  "You'll have to convey that to the Colonel."

  Jack said, "Thank you, sir," and climbed the ramp into the bowels of the ship. Junior followed as did Che and Rob. Jack went to the mess hall and dialed up Wilson on a terminal.

  Wilson smiled when he saw Jack. "Thank god, Jack, they didn't catch you."

  "No, they didn't catch me--I've been living in the hills. I've got people still out there. You need to keep the ships here long enough for me to collect them."

  "We're smashing the resistance. We have a new toy, Fighters, similar in design to a hover tank but remote piloted and much faster. I need to oversee the rest of this battle. You need to call home, right now. Then take one of the hover transports out to where your people are and gather them up."

  "Will do, Colonel, signing off."

  Jack clicked the disconnect button, then paused for a minute, thinking about his home number to remember it.

  Wilson reappeared for a moment on the screen. "Get a haircut." And he disappeared.

  Then Jack's number came to him, and he dialed away. Lexi answered without even looking at the screen. She just said, "What is it?"

  "It's me, Lexi."

  Lexi turned and looked at the screen. Her jaw dropped. "Jack, is that you?"

  "Yes, it's me."

  Tears started rolling down her cheeks. "I didn't recognize you at first with the beard… Were you captured? What happened?"

  "I wasn't captured. I've been living in the hills, in a cave for the past year waiting for Fleet to return. Do you like the beard? I hadn't really noticed it. I haven't looked in a mirror for the last year or so."

  "No, I hate the beard. Shave it off. Is that a cat with you?"

  "Yeah, he's my friend. I call him Junior. He's very smart."

  "Speaking of Junior. I'll go wake up Jack Junior so you can talk to him. He's talking now."

  Lexi wandered back into the back bedroom and came out carrying Junior in her arms. He blinked and blinked to clear the sleep out of his eyes. Lexi sat back down in front of the terminal and said, "Say Dada, Junior. Say Dada."

  Junior looked around at the terminal and touched the screen. "Dada."

  It touched Jack's heart in a way that nothing had ever done before. It brought tears to his eyes. The cat broke the moment by reaching out one paw and touching the monitor on the terminal and doing a quiet 'Rawr.' Lexi broke out into laughter. "You're not bringing the cat back with you are you?"

  "I don't know yet. I don't know the Fleet regulations about it. He's very tame, although a great fisherman."

  Jack Junior spoke again, "Dada, come home…"

  "Dada is coming home," Lexi said. "How long, Jack?"

  "Likely a month worth of cleanup and salvage on Amber, then six months travel time. You know the routine."

  Lexi wiped the tears off her face. "It's the middle of the night here, and now I have this boy to put back to sleep. Call me back in the morning. I'm so glad you're alive. You don't know what it's been like for me…"

  "I'm sure it's been bad. Put the boy back to bed and get some rest. I'll call again once my people are secure with Fleet."

  Lexi clicked the disconnect button. Rob commented, "You're very lucky, Jack."

  Che smiled. "He's right you know."

  "Yes, I'm lucky," Jack said. "Now, let's go commandeer a transport and go pick everybody up."

  * * *

  The cat had to stay behind because of Fleet regulations. Colonel Wilson tried to appeal, but with no luck. Jack couldn't seem to get the cat to understand that it had to stay behind. Every time Jack walked up the ramp into the ship the cat followed. Finally Jack kneeled down in front of the cat…

  "You have to stay here, Junior. You live here. You're native to here."

  The cat just 'meow'd,' "Go find yourself a girl cat and have kittens, hunt and fish for them…"

  The cat just looked at him. Jack raised the tone of his voice, "Go home, Junior, run home! Go!"

  The cat paused then took off in a run towards the south. He had been a great friend to Jack, and he would be missed.

  Chapter 32

  A.D. 2134

  Steve's first fleet…

  Steve recruited twenty new Privates to fly his Corvettes. He arranged for two of his crew to go through the two-week crash course officer candidacy school for their Lieutenant's bars and put them in charge of the other ships. Two weeks didn't really cut it, but Fleet high command wanted officers at the helm of their ships, even if the officers were undertrained and underqualified. They said their goodbyes and lifted off of Orion. They steered a course at high gravity to a Lithor planet codenamed Hellpit. Three separate scouting missions disappeared there, one of them a Corvette class ship. Fleet needed intel on that system. With its large population it could easily be producing warships.

  Fleet orders required the ships do a high speed flyby of the system, hopefully getting a count of how many cloaked ships are there. Then, turn and engage them. The technicians claimed that Lithor sensors wouldn't pick up the Corvette during a high speed flyby.

  At just under one percent the speed of light, the fleet cut its deceleration and coasted towards Hellpit. They took pictures and sensor readings of the planets and obvious fleet locations--they found definite signs of cloaked ships. The flyby seemed to go smoothly. The computers quickly went to work on the data. Three dreadnaughts in orbit it claimed. Four or five other ships of the line, although two may have been under repair as they seemed docked.

  Julie asked the question Steve had been dreading, "How many Dreadnaughts does Fleet expect us to take down?"

  "All of them," Steve replied.

  "So we're expendable. Just another wave we're throwing at them."

  "I aim to win, and you know that." Steve climbed into his captain's chair and hit the communication button. "All hands. Battle Stations."

  Within ninety seconds they heard back, "Right wing, online." Then, just a few seconds later, "Left wing, online."

  "All stations. Five gravities decel, on my mark. Mark."

  Steve's gel cushion sucked him in, and he started to wait. It would be hours before they would engage the Lithor. When they were within 30 minutes of Hellpit, they slowed to one gravity and stretched their legs. They resumed battle stations. They flew in a simple formation, three in a row, with The Attrition in the center.

  Steve ordered the helm to his station, and he proceeded to target one of the dark clouds that signified a Dreadnaught. He put a mark up on the screen, and it transferred to the computers on his wingmen's ships. Steve called out, "Fire!" Streaks of light blazed from the Corvettes to the waiting metal skin of a Dreadnaught. The target's shields were down, and the energy bolts set off munitions inside its hull. Great explosions jetted from within.

  Steve targeted the next Dreadnaught in line, painting it in the targeting computer, so his wingmen knew where to hit. Steve counted out the seconds waiting for the weapons to recharge. He wanted to be sure about his targets--he ordered the use of the spray paint bombs. They showed a fourth Dreadnaught that came from behind another one.

  The weapons finally charged. All three Corvettes tracked the same ship and fired in unison. They had their shields up this time, and the blasts flashed across the defensive screen surrounding the Dreadnaught. It did drop its cloak though, likely to send more power to its shields. One by one, Mongrels streaked out of their mother ships towards the Corvettes. Steve called out, "Stay on that ship we just hit, another blast may get through its shields. Set your anti-missile defense to large targets. It'll fire at the Mongrels and with a lucky shot could take them out. All ships, ready four nukes, that next Dreadnaught in line will be our target."

  By then the weapons powere
d, and they fired them again. The Dreadnaught's shield caved but enough energy drained from the Corvette's fire that they merely scratched the hull on their target.

  The Lithorian ships began powering engines and weapons, calling out orders, "Battle Stations!" The first of their ships came online and targeted The Attrition's right wingman. Creech read their shield strength from his console, and it showed 93%. He fired on the Dreadnaught for the third time, rupturing its hull in numerous places. They rapidly approached missile range of the next Dreadnaught in line. Creech ordered, "Fire two atomics at 10km range then split up. We'll regroup and go after the fourth Dreadnaught."

  The Lithor continued to target the rightmost ship. Its shields dropped rapidly. They reached missile range, and Creech called out, "Atomics away! Split up! Turn!" The six missiles streaked towards their target, and brilliant flashes of anti-missile defense lit up the space around the Dreadnaught.

  As the three Corvettes split up, the fourth Dreadnaught brought all its energy weapons to bear on Steve's right wingman. Steve watched on the display as the Corvette's shield dropped to zero. They came across the radio, "We've lost hull integrity on the lower decks!"

  Creech pushed the comm. button. "Get away, max accel!"

  "We'll try… We lost an engine…"

  "Left wing, follow my course and heading. We need to get the fourth Dreadnaught." A cheer rang out: one of the gunners watching a missile. The missile hit the third Dreadnaught and tore it in half.

  Right wing radioed in. "We can't shake'em, commander!"

  "Get them as far away from us as you can then. Buy us some more time." Creech had a hard time giving that order, but they needed time. Time to get to the planet and drop their bombs.

  "Aye, Captain, we'll do our best…" Right wing's captain ordered all power from weapons and half power from shields diverted to propulsion, and then they set in a straight course away from the planet.

  The Attrition and her remaining wingman lined up their weapons on the last Dreadnaught and fired. The Dreadnaught's shields flashed with light as the energy weapons impacted on it. It fired its weapons on Creech's left wingman. The Corvette's shields held, and both sides waited for their weapons to recharge. The Dreadnaught started launching its nuclear arsenal. Creech ordered, "Reset the anti-missile defense for small targets, or it won't track those missiles! Prepare our atomics, three from each of us. Pilot, plot our bombing run!"

  The Pilot said, "Course plotted, Captain."

  Creech ordered, "Helm to my station." Then he punched the accelerator down. They fired their energy weapons again, and the Dreadnaught's shields held. The Dreadnaught scored another hit on the left Corvette, and its shield strength was at 22%. The Corvette's anti-missile defense started intercepting the first of the atomics from the Dreadnaught. The missiles detonated when the defenses hit them, great flashes of light and balls of fire.

  Within a few moments they reached missile range, and each Corvette fired three missiles at the Dreadnaught and then veered away at full throttle. The Dreadnaught fired again and hit left wing dead on. The shields caved, and the energy blasts tore into her hull. The ship started to turn off course.

  Creech radioed, "Left wing, damage report!"

  Left wing started to slow down and fall back. The atomics had almost reached their destination. Left wing radioed in, "This is engineering. We lost the command deck. We can do almost everything from here, but it's gonna take a few minutes to rig the consoles."

  "Bring her online as fast as you can…"

  The two atomics detonated against the hull of the last Dreadnaught. Left wing had slowed down too much, and the atomic fire engulfed it. The radio went to static…

  Creech checked his arsenal--four missiles left. Three planet-side population centers, although one possessed 90% of the planet's population. That one would be heavily defended from the ground. Creech heard Right Wing on the radio, "We're not going to last much longer, commander. We just lost another engine. We're powering shields and weapons and giving them hell."

  "We're about to do our bombing run," Steve said. "Hold them off as long as you can. We'll be there in minutes."

  Then the radio went to static on that channel.

  Creech marked the city on his tactical computer--he headed straight for it and punched the accelerator. At 15km altitude the city's air defenses started kicking on, firing bolts of energy skyward. Either they advanced their targeting capabilities or trained their gunnery crews more, but the shields on The Attrition fell as Steve watched the altimeter count down. At 10km the shields fell to 23%.

  "Set the atomics to arm at 2.5km," Steve said.

  "If one of those detonate at that altitude," Julie said. "We'll be destroyed."

  "We'll be ok. We're about to launch…"

  Steve's altimeter showed 8km, and he shouted, "Missiles away, all power to engines!" He jerked the control stick straight back and maxed the acceleration. The crew sank into their gel cushions, barely able to breath.

  Four windows open on his computer showed the missile camera view and altimeter for all four missiles. At six kilometers the first one went to static. The Attrition streaked towards the heavens. Another missile camera view blinked out. The two remaining atomics altimeters read 4km. At 3.5km another missile view blinked out.

  Creech considered arming the missile, The Attrition might be far enough away, but it might not. At 3km altitude, he overrode the preset and armed the bomb. Steve pushed his ship as hard as it would go, not to mention his crew. The atmosphere around the ship started to get thin, and the gunner detonated the atomic at 2km altitude and the blast could be felt on The Attrition.

  Creech eased back on the accelerator and ordered, "Tactical view!"

  The computer displayed the enemy Lithor ships, enough of a fleet to dispatch a Corvette on their own. The enemy ships cut straight towards them at maximum acceleration. Creech laid in a course for Orion and punched the accelerator down all the way. He ordered, "Engineering, give me full power to shields and engines, no weapons or non-essential systems."

  "Aye, Captain."

  The enemy ships steered straight for them, ever increasing in speed. The Attrition went faster and faster as well. Julie asked, "What are we doing, playing chicken? We might be able to outrun them!"

  Steve simply smiled. "They will try and ram us for sure. I intend to dodge, relax. Everything is under control…"

  The Lithorian fleet started firing their energy weapons, most missed. A few hit, but the shields absorbed their damage. The chief gunner asked, "Return fire?"

  "No, don't return fire."

  The distance between the Lithors and The Attrition closed rapidly. One of the Demons steered to ram them. Creech evaded just enough.

  The Lithors fired again. Julie called out, "Shields at eight percent!"

  Then in an instant The Attrition flew past the Lithor fleet and kept on accelerating. The Lithors, realizing their mistake, started turning their ships and decelerating. Within a few minutes The Attrition couldn't be picked up on the Lithor sensors, and she changed course to pick up her fuel and food stockpile modules for the trip home. Creech opened an FTL channel to Fleet HQ, "Four Dreadnaughts destroyed. The main population center a radioactive pit, but two Corvettes lost…"

  Chapter 33

  A.D. 2121

  War brews…

  Fleet launched all of their available warships. Five fleets, each of which consisted of a Light Cruiser, two Destroyers, and five Frigates. They sent the cream of the Human crop to man their ships. They picked out five Lithorian planets, including the Lithorian homeworld. When they reached the Lithorian homeworld, they encountered three CromSys ships, none large enough to be slavers. That fleet stayed put over the planet. Lithorian governments protested, and Fleet simply responded, "You crossed into Human space and kidnapped six thousand scientists, return them, immediately."

  The largest, wealthiest nation on Lithor replied, "Six thousand souls is no reason to violate our agreement. Let us compensate you for th
e lost scientists. Two kilos of gold for each one."

  The lead captain of the fleet radioed back, "We don't put a price on Human lives. They must be returned to us."

  "We don't know where they are… Please leave our space…"

  "We'll leave when we get our people back."

  The other four fleets encountered similar luck, although, one did come across a CromSys slaver ship. The Humans demanded to be allowed on board, and the slaver ship turned tail and ran. The Human ships gave chase, easily catching the other vessel. They fired on the Humans with some kind of conventional weapons, machine guns it looked like. The Human fleet returned fire, with orders to aim for the craft's engines. They incapacitated the Lithor ship. The Humans sent out grappling tubes and cut "doors" into the hull of the slaver ship.

  They boarded it and were met by a hail of gunfire, and the Humans returned fire with laser rifles. All the Lithor fought back and died. They didn't find their scientists. They set the ship's self destruct mechanism and watched from afar as it detonated.

  The five fleets stayed in orbit over the Lithor worlds. They encountered two more CromSys slaver ships and seemed forced to destroy them. CromSys went on the offensive and launched a hundred warships against the Human fleet over the Lithorian homeworld. The CromSys ships, armed with machine guns and artillery pieces mounted in their hulls, didn't compare to the modern Human fighting vessels. The battle lasted three hours--the Lithor didn't seem to understand that their ships couldn't compete with the Human fleet.

  Tens of thousands of Lithor died that day. The Humans at the Lithorian homeworld requested reinforcements, and the four other Human fleets joined them. Fleet high command made a joint decision with their Kilken allies: all Lithor ships would become targets until the kidnapped scientists could be found. The Humans destroyed every ship over the planet. The Lithor engaged the Human fleets over their homeworld with two hundred warships, and the Humans destroyed all of them.

  Fleet started building more gunships. They sent battle groups to police Lithor space and continue the search for the lost scientists. A year passed, then another. From time to time the Lithors would launch a fresh batch of warships, only to have them destroyed by the Human fleet in orbit. The Kilken helped patrol Lithor space. The Lithors had crossed into Kilken space and tried to take captives, so the Kilken had no moral problem fighting back.