by Charles Lamb
It was as he was considering the last that he suddenly was brought back to now with a transmission in his ear.
“Daniel, can you hear me?” Patti’s voice sounded.
“Yes, Luv. I am kind of busy at the moment,” he replied somewhat impatiently.
“Yes, I know idiot. I have an idea for you, but it’s risky,” she answered sarcastically.
“I’m all ears luv,” he replied.
“Is the NeHaw still alive?” she asked.
“Yes, slumbering nicely,” he replied as he had the team pull back into some kind of storage room so they could talk.
“I think we can make him forget what has happened. Do you have any Aspirin?” Patti asked a confused Daniel.
----*----
GeSec was preparing his crew for what was to come. A mere few microcycles away from leaving FTL, he wanted them to be ready to engage at once. Privately he feared they would arrive before the rest of the ships assigned to this mission, but that was not a thought he shared.
Checking the roster once more of warships assigned to this attack, he mentally calculated how many should be with him provided they performed their duty as ordered. It did little to ease his concerns as most were not upgraded as his cruiser had been.
Regardless of that fact, there would be additional firepower with their presence and a distraction for the humans once they began the attack. Checking the countdown clock once more, he heaved a sigh and braced himself for what the next few microcycles might present.
----*----
Popping four aspirin down the NeHaw’s throat, he managed to get the thing to swallow without choking. The reaction was swift as the tech suddenly went limp and slumped over.
“Did we kill it?” Daniel asked, surprised at the reaction.
“No, aspirin makes them pass out and then forget. Just get out of there now,” Patti replied urgently.
Daniel wanted to know how in the blazes they learned that, but took the advice to heart. Placing the NeHaw’s pad next to the body, he backed away. Next he led the troopers quickly out of the storeroom, after making sure it was clear of traffic and then they made their way back to the airlock without incident.
“We are a go,” he transmitted to the phantom after all four had entered the airlock, sealing the door behind them.
Almost immediately, the outer door opened, surprising the trooper next to it. With a shove, the next man pushed her out and the remaining two followed, Daniel being the last to leave. With that, the four made their way to the still cloaked Phantom, insuring they left no trace of their passing behind them.
Once inside the ship, Colonel Banks lifted off and gently maneuvered the ship back into the sensor shadow before engaging the FTL drives and sprinting away.
----*----
KaJep woke to find himself lying on the floor of a storage room, alone. Slowly sitting upright, he checked his head to see why it hurt so badly. Finding nothing wrong, just a swelling on his forehead, he assumed that had come from impact with the floor, he looked around.
He recognized the room as he had retrieved supplies from here many times. At this point, however he couldn’t remember why he was here at all. Finding his data pad nearby, he checked the log and found he had been in the computer room microcycles earlier.
From his notes, everything had been normal and he must have departed after completing his inspection rounds. He had no idea how he had found his way here and decided the best course was to keep the incident to himself and head back to his quarters to rest the bump on his head. Who knows, maybe the rest would help him remember at some point.
----*----
Jake reached out to ALICE and ALICE-9 to arrange the movement of a doomsday device, should things go badly. Not quite ready to head to Georgia himself, he just ordered a ship to be ready and the area evacuated before his arrival.
Rather than assign a badly needed destroyer, as he had before, he simply had his fighter transferred to the hangar there. Once it was clear that the NeHaw were headed inbound, he had plenty of time to send the bomb once more on a one way intercept mission.
Chapter 25
HeBak was sitting in the detention area of the military High Command building, waiting to be called before General KaLob. He was well aware that he could be here for a short period or for a very long time depending on the mood of the General and what they found on his ship.
He had no delusions that they were not scouring every part of his ship at this moment, looking for clues as to what he had been doing and why he was now here. Fortunately the humans had also been quite thorough in helping HeBak sanitize the ship before leaving Earth. It had been in their best interest to insure there was nothing there to incriminate HeBak as a human conspirator.
With that in mind, he simply made himself comfortable and requested a meal consisting of favorites he had been missing since leaving.
----*----
General KaLob was anxiously awaiting the convergence of his ships on target. To his knowledge, this was the first time the NeHaw Military had ever attempted a maneuver of this type and so the outcome was unsure. As he scanned the situation room, he could see that there were others that understood the significance of the attempt.
Well known by most space travelers was the concept of mustering ships that intended to travel together. Once positioned, they coordinated travel, insuring that they maintained the same separation while in FTL and upon arrival at their destination.
What most did not understand was, if you did not perform this synchronization, the possibility of dropping out of FTL on top of one another was not only possible, but highly likely as captains tended to share their flight programs. In addition the military had their regular routes mapped out for rotation of assignments.
If successful, the events that were about to unfold should take the humans completely by surprise and give NeHaw a long deserved victory in this war of attrition.
----*----
The sudden appearance of three NeHaw warships just off the space station was not really a surprise, as everyone was prepared for the attack. The startling thing was they appeared from three different angles and opened fire on the station all at once.
Typically, they would see the massed fleet appear as one and then concentrate fire accordingly. This had them redirecting fire as various parts of the station came under attack at once. In addition, the close proximity to the station itself magnified the effects of the energy cannon and particle beams, giving them a greater damaging effect.
As the station’s stasis shields had been up already, the initial onslaught was absorbed or deflected with little effect. However, there was a third weapon in play that was causing considerable damage to one section of the stations saucer.
“What the hell is that?” Jake asked as they watched the portion of the space station saucer explode into space.
“Unknown, analyzing,” ALICE replied, her reverting to monotone replies, a sign of stress.
As they watched, the cruiser closest to the damaged section came under a withering counter fire, causing it to divert its approach. Within seconds more ships appeared, popping up all over the open space around the station.
“Jake, I think they are targeting the station itself, not us. Several had an opportunity to bypass the station guns and turned into its path instead,” Patti said as she appeared in the command center. Several more of her analysts stood near the doorway watching the hologram that consumed more of the command center. In the mix, Jake picked out both Sam and Grace as they watched the hologram in the center of the room.
“Patti is correct, the NeHaw are concentrating fire on the station from all sides,” ALICE confirmed.
“And that explosion?” Jake asked.
“Still analyzing,” came the reply.
----*----
General KaLob was overjoyed at the first images they received in the attack. As theorized, the NeHaw ships had appeared well inside the effective range of their weapons and struck a solid blow to the structure
the humans had created there. The newly developed micro missile system had performed exceptionally well at that distance.
Unable to discern how the humans transported the ferrous components in their railgun weapons in FTL, a race loyal to the NeHaw had developed a weapon of similar abilities. Rather than accelerating the projectile using the magnetic rail accelerators, they made the rounds self-propelled, like miniature missiles.
Each projectile was additionally infused with an explosive element that detonated on contact. While the human shields could absorb the impact of the missile, they could not withstand the additional explosion created by the explosive charge.
As he continued to watch the feed provided by a surveillance ship that had arrived with the first wave, he could see more destroyers and cruisers joining the fight. Unfortunately, he did witness two destroyers impact one another as a second appeared from FTL, leaving the first with no time to maneuver.
That incident was offset by the appearance of the other two ships fitted with the micro missile guns. Dropping from FTL almost on top of the station, both opened fire before being driven off. One delayed just a little too long and erupted in light and debris as it exploded in place.
KaLob sighed at the loss, but was content to watch the other two equipped ships wreak havoc on the station.
----*----
“These things are dropping in on each other!” Jake commented as he watched two NeHaw destroyers collide. The observation did nothing to diminish the effectiveness of the tactic they were watching.
With energy cannons and railguns firing in all directions, the station was ablaze in streams of fire, both outgoing and incoming. Operating as designed with overlapping fields of fire, Jake was both impressed and panicked at the same time. While he expected the NeHaw to challenge its effectiveness, this was hell in space.
He could see several small eruptions on various saucers, as the new NeHaw mystery weapon scored hits with the appearance of two more ships. It looked to fire like a railgun, but seemed to be effective only within a minimum distance. In addition, it was not coming from every vessel, only from a select number of ships.
One of the newcomers got raked by the stations railguns, leaving it a flashing field of debris as it exploded, showering the station as it did so.
“Jake, that’s the cruiser that attacked ALICE-3 at Wawobash,” Patti pointed out as they worked to identify every ship attacking the station.
As if to emphasize the statement, they saw it turn to close on the station once more, and the mystery weapon sent a stream of fire at the central hub of the station. Everyone watched as an energy cannon beam caused part of the stream to explode in space while the initial fire struck the station. The resulting impact breached a part of the saucer, belching flame and chunks of station into space.
“That’s some kind of explosive projectile!” Jake announced as the NeHaw cruiser peeled away once more to avoid the concentrated return fire. As it did so, Jake could see where two of its four repulser drives were almost gone on the back of the ship.
Pausing to consider the situation, Jake went to one of the open display panels in the room and taped in a query. Reading the results, he turned to the hologram once more. The station was absorbing so much energy in its shields, Jake could actually see the grid pattern light up as it dissipated the energy blasts coming in from all directions.
“ALICE, what’s the station damage report?” he asked.
“3 of 6 modules are damaged, but all are operable. Shields are at 70% and weapons capability is at 68%. Casualties unknown,” she reported.
“Hang on just a little longer baby,” he whispered as he watched several more NeHaw ships appear.
----*----
GeSec was both elated and concerned. As the only remaining NeHaw vessel with the micro missile gun still in operation, his place in history was guaranteed. The effectiveness of the weapon against the human shields was proven, provided one could close on the enemy within the effective range.
The unfortunate aspect of that caveat was his ship had taken a beating and was almost inoperable. With two of his four drives shot to pieces, he was unsure if his FTL systems even operated. There were hull breaches everywhere and he had ordered his engineering staff to don environmental suits to address the breaches from the outside of the ship if necessary.
The chief engineer had thought him joking at first, and then crazy when he realized he was serious. The appearance of several more ships had given him the relief he needed to take a moment and repair, before he engaged with the enemy once more. Moving away from the fighting, they had paused to deal with the worst of their damage.
“Sir, we have two more ships dropping from FTL on my scope directly astern.”
Those were the last words GeSec heard before the side of his ship peeled away and he was sucked into space.
----*----
Brian was not a particularly religious man. Some might even say that after the loss of his wife so long ago, he had even forsaken the concept. However, the scene in front of him was as close to a depiction of hell as any he had ever envisioned. The space station was actually glowing red from all the energy its shields were absorbing.
Dropping from FTL they had appeared right behind a NeHaw cruiser that had retreated from the fighting, apparently making repairs, as they could make out suited figures crawling over the hull. Without waiting for orders ALICE-3 had sliced the ship in two with a battery of forward facing railguns.
Beyond that, the station itself was a blaze of energy cannon and railgun streams as they targeted ships in all directions. Nearby, Brian got a tinge of nostalgia as Revenge appeared and began firing on the unsuspecting ships in its path toward the station.
“All guns commence firing,” Brian announced unnecessarily as the initial railgun burst was taken as tacit approval.
----*----
Jake finally exhaled as ALICE-3 and Revenge appeared behind the NeHaw ships harassing the station. With the removal of the three specially armed warships, the remainder of the attacking force found little opportunity to inflict damage beyond rubbing salt in the existing wounds.
With the destruction of several more NeHaw ships, the remaining attackers apparently took the hint and vacated the area. As the command center erupted in celebration, Jake quietly sent the stand down message to ALICE and ALICE-9, happy he would be skipping the Georgia trip after all.
----*----
General KaLob was not in the mood to entertain remnants of the old regime much less someone he considered corrupt and a bureaucrat. The upheaval of recent events and the setbacks they caused, had him reassessing plans for future offensives against the humans.
The fact that the incompetent possessed a communique from the Human leader was the deciding factor in receiving him at all. Normally when a ship appeared out of nowhere with criminal technology on-board, like this one had, the General would have had it vaporized.
This ship, however, had first begun transmitting secure military codes, known only to those in the High Command offices and the ship’s commanders. They were outdated, but quite valid none the less.
Once it appeared, it was escorted to a secure landing pad next to the High Command building where it was screened and then searched before its single occupant was allowed to disembark. KaLob had the security team escort the pilot to a holding area where he had him wait for an appropriate period of time to establish who was in command here.
Once he was satisfied, KaLob ordered the pilot brought before him. As he sat at his desk, he watched security escort a sorry excuse for a NeHaw before him.
“You are?” KaLob asked the disgusting blob of NeHaw flesh standing before him.
“I am HeBak, former Supervisor of High Command Secure Communications,” the blob declared.
“And you have a message from the humans?” KaLob asked suspiciously.
“Yes Sir,” was the reply. As HeBak started to step forward, both security members latched on to his arms preventing him from moving furth
er. KaLob gave a subtle signal and HeBak was permitted to step forward. As he did so, he produced a small data cube, one the General recognized as a NeHaw standard device.
“How did the humans get this?” he asked sternly as he stared at the cube, hesitant to touch it at first.
“I suggested that they use a data cube to aid in transporting the information required. They are a primitive species and use audio waves as a means of interaction. Their first proposal was to send you written material in their native language. They are really quite a backwards race,” HeBak stated.
“Yet they continue to win battles,” KaLob replied. He doubted much of what was being said, however, he needed to know what was on the cube.
“You have seen what is on the cube?” KaLob asked.
“Ah, no sir. They have coded the cube’s security so that anyone but me can see the message,” the NeHaw admitted, looking embarrassed by the admission.
“But really quite a backwards race you say? How did you end up with the humans anyway?” KaLob asked, still looking at the cube as it sat untouched at the end of his desk.
“I was captured on a secret reconnaissance mission for MeHak, Head of the High Council. She required someone above suspicion and loyal to the Empire to seek out and report on the threat,” HeBak replied confidently.
“Certainly, as no one would suspect that you were capable of such a thing. Why is there no record of it in the archives?” KaLob replied, adding emphasis to the first part of his statement.
“Perhaps she feared other council members would betray me to the enemy?” HeBak replied speculatively.
“Perhaps. You are dismissed for now, but will remain under guard until the Intelligence Service has had an opportunity to extract everything you know about the humans. Once that is finished we will see if your life is of any more value,” KaLob replied as he finally picked up the cube and examined it.