Citation Series 1: Naero's War: The Annexation War

by Mason Elliott

  “Blockade the worlds in this region and then push on, like the Admiral said, with all speed. That is the only way. Sandusky’s shadow fleets and rear-area forces will be spread thin, but they can handle the job, once me remove the main threats. Perhaps Spacer Intel can do a little more. But the cold hard truth of the matter is, that there is only so much that we can do. We can’t control everything on the ground on hundreds of new systems. We can’t let that slow us down. That is exactly what Triax is hoping for. To prolong the war as long as possible and outlast us. To somehow find a way to survive, and hold onto their power.”

  Nevano Kinmal nodded. “Admiral Sandusky is correct. Once the war sweeps past these worlds, there will be less impetus for them to have any reason or pretense for scorching themselves. Any strategic value will be gone. They will have no fleets to use against us. And we can move on, especially if they are merely blockaded and not invaded.”

  “Under a blockade,” Admiral Klyne said, “perhaps this will buy us time we need to find a way to get our pacification elements on these worlds, in order to change things for the better–more quietly.”

  Admiral Maeris pweaked the battle plan in several ways as they looked on.

  “I agree, overall, the main objective has to be to continue prosecuting the war, and advance as fast as possible. The Capital Class Homeworld of Tarissa-1 must fall. The Hevangians must be contained and bottled up, taking them out of the war as a factor. We can always come back to them and deal with them later, with the full power of the entire Alliance. And if they still insist on offing themselves, fighting to the last, or being burned out for no reason at all—we can oblige them.”

  “I think we are in general agreement, then, on Captain Maeris’ basic strategy,” Admiral Joshua noted. “Adjustments will need to be made along the way, of course. But concluding the war remains the ultimate, primary objective. Bypass, blockade, and neutralize the various Hevangian threats as best we can. That is the only viable solution for now.”

  Admiral Maeris rose up, hands flashing through the displays, shifting units and key supplies and resources. “The logistics look good. I say we proceed immediately. We’ll need to bring up many more shadow fleet forces and secondary forces from the rear areas.”

  Kinmal and Sandusky spoke at once. “That should not be an issue.”

  Sleak continued. “Most of those systems are fully pacified already, any way.”

  Naero did see a potential danger of attacks in their thinly-protected rear systems. But even that was unlikely, with the Spacer Navy guarding their back door.

  On their way back to their transports to rejoin their ships, Naero received an emergency call from an old friend of the family on her wristcom, via their secured channel.

  Her outcast uncle, Baeven.

  “Any word on Jan or Dan yet?”

  “Negative. I promise you, Naero. I will inform you the instant that there is. But you and the Alliance have bigger worries at the moment.”

  “Wha–”

  “Just listen Naero. I don’t have much time where I am. Two things: First, the Hevangians are going to go after your Admirals and the Alliance leadership directly.”

  “Take out our command and control?”

  “Exactly. And that also includes you, Naero. Strike Fleet Six has been a major thorn in their side since day one. Good for you. And don’t forget, you still carry the KDM.”

  Naero shrugged. “Yeah, for all the good it’s done me, and Spacer Intel. I’m completely cut off from it, and Intel hasn’t been able to make a dent in decoding or understanding any of it.”

  “Give them time. Triax doesn’t know any of that, and still wants both you and it, desperately. They’ve made you a priority target, right up there with the Admirals. And Shalaen too, for some reason.”

  “Our security is the best, and Intel has agents guarding the admirals constantly. How do the Hevangians plan on pulling this off?”

  “More new tek–a game changer called phaze armor. It’s a new type of experimental cloaking that allows them to actually enter the astral plane, and take an astral form for a short time. In that form they are virtually undetectable and invulnerable. Plus, they can phaze right through walls, shields, bulkheads. Anything. Then uncloak and go on the attack.”

  Naero thought about Kono’s ship and resisted the urge to cover her mouth with one hand. That would explain what happened to The Silver Devil.

  “Haisha,” Naero said. “Normal cloaking makes the user invisible–but not immaterial. How are they getting their hands on such advanced tek like this?”

  “Unknown. But they have it now and intend to use it. Only problem is, it’s still experimental–even for them. Utilizing this tek is a one way ride. Anyone using it gets phaze-sickness. Within a week or two after exposure, the user begins to dissolve away. Their flesh melts off into the astral plane, leaving behind a very clean and very dead skeleton.”

  “Gross. That sounds…extremely unpleasant.”

  “And dangerous, N. Yet despite such high costs, the enemy can still use this tek to attack anyone, anywhere, without warning.”

  “The Hevangian assassins were once legendary for their suicide squads before,” Naero said. “I wonder why we haven’t seen more of these phaze attacks, yet?”

  “Plan on it. You can bet they’ll be coming straight for you and soon. Even in the midst of battles, possibly. So tell Sleak and the rest to be ready for them.”

  “Will do.”

  Naero suddenly heard alarms going off over Baeven’s link.

  Then weapons firing.

  “Baeven?”

  “Haisha–Gotta fly,” he said. Naero heard a large explosion.

  The link broke off.

  Be safe, Baeven.

  Then other alarms began sounding, right in the hanger deck of the flagship The Pear Harbor.

  A voice sounded over the ship’s com.

  “All hands, all ships. Battle stations and report. Arm yourselves and repel boarders. Strange infiltrators have appeared on several ships without warning, including The Pearl Harbor. We need to learn the extent of this attack. Protect the fleet leadership at all costs!”

  Baeven said it would start soon. Naero didn’t think it would be instantly. She paused a moment.

  Most of the leadership could be on their way to their separate transports after the planning session, to get back to their ships, just like her.

  Aunt Sleak and Zalvano might already be under attack on their bridge.

  She snapped her head at Tarim. “Get Leftenant Hayden and his Marines to help protect the transports, the leadership, and the decks in the vicinity. Let’s proceed directly to the bridge.”

  She and her people raced back into the flagship, making calls on their wristcoms.

  Several large explosions suddenly rocked the flagship. Power and life support flickered. Then backups brought them back online.

  Naero continued feeding Klyne what her secret sources of Intel had uncovered.

  Then she called Aunt Sleak.

  That there was no reply filled her with concern.

  She called Zalvano.

  “Naero. Haisha, they came right through the hull. Hevangian assassins, the bloody sons of bitches!”

  She heard the staccato sounds of blasters and other weapons blazing, grenades going off.

  “Are you and Aunt Sleak all right?”

  “Could be better. We’re fighting on the bridge. Sleak got stunned after she shot a couple of them. Help’s on the way. Get up here if you can.”

  “On my way,” Naero said. She checked all of her weapons again.

  These were the same murderous assholes that had attacked her mom’s ship years before, killed many of their Clan, and ruined her brother Danner’s life.

  And that indirectly led to her parents’ deaths.

  They had also attacked Naero and her fleet, killing their people.

  Time for a little payback.

  31

  The gravity on Aunt Sleak’s flagship st
ill worked when Naero and her small security team reached the shattered bridge blast doors.

  A Spacer body lay just inside the entrance, crew shot dead as she had tried to charge in.

  Blood trailed down the floor, out of the bridge.

  They heard intense weapon fire, shouting, screaming, and explosions within.

  The fight with the assassins continued to rage.

  Naero moved her people back, sensing an ambush just within.

  From cover and concealment, she sent in a few fixers first to spy things out.

  That included two of the precious new Intel prototypes that could use stealth mode, and cloak themselves.

  Most of the regular fixers got popped, showing brief views of a fire team of Hevangian sharpshooters blasting them.

  The foe also covered the entrance with a pair of portable, crew-served chain guns. For good measure, the enemy also sent out a wave of float grenades and seeker mines against whoever sent the fixers in.

  Explosions and stun blasts rocked the deck and pock-marked the corridor all around the bridge entrance.

  Inside, the enemy waited for anyone foolish enough to charge the entrance. Several more dead Spacers and Spacer Marines inside attested to the enemy’s lethal battle skill.

  These were elite, professional assassins.

  All of the Spacer bodies had been stripped of weapons and explosives.

  Sounds of battle still rocked the flagship on other decks.

  By all reports, suicide squads of Hevangians spread throughout the flagship, keeping others away from the bridge, while the main assault unit pursued its objectives.

  The admirals, and herself, most likely. Shalaen wasn’t with them currently.

  The smaller enemy teams were just distractions and decoys to buy the main units time. Yet they would still cause a great deal of damage, as they sold their lives dearly.

  If the foe could reach the power cores, Naero had no doubt that the enemy would attempt to sabotage, cripple, or destroy the flagship–if they were able.

  But by now they were being swarmed on by Spacers and Spacer Marines.

  Those foes would not last very long.

  Naero, Tarim, and the rest of Naero’s team took precious seconds to evaluate the battle data the remaining stealth fixers fed them.

  Eight heavily armed attackers guarded the entrance.

  Sixteen more, including one who appeared to be a leader, directed the assault on a secondary blast screen that had slammed down in front of the main bridge.

  Within, seven Spacer bridge crew and one remaining Marine guard fired weapons and sent out smart explosives of their own to hold the enemy off.

  The defenders appeared to be led by Fleet Captain Zalvano, and Admiral Sandusky. About twenty other crew and Marines lay stunned or wounded within the barrier, including Aunt Sleak, still clutching a smoking blaster rifle.

  A dozen dead Hevangians lay scattered within also.

  Every one of the assassins had been shot in the head or face to make certain of them.

  Zalvano had the defenders set up back-to-back in a tight ring. Half of his people kept their weapons trained on the walls, constantly scanning and covering every angle.

  Even the outside hull of the ship.

  Naero spoke in a low voice. “The enemy must have used that phazing tek we’ve heard about. I bet some of them came right through the hull and the walls.”

  Tarim nodded. “The pattern of the fighting supports that. You can see where some of our people were caught by surprise and gunned down or knifed at their stations. Just like we saw before. My guess is, the enemy will use phaze tek again to get in there quick.”

  “I think that’s a good guess,” Naero said. “But they’ll do so sparingly. That tek kills them a little more and a little faster each second they use it. Now follow me. I know of a secret escape passage that Aunt Sleak and Zalvano had put in, when the life pods were doubled. We can get at the goons guarding the entrance through that.”

  Tarim smiled and readied his plasma machine pistols.

  “Sounds good. Everyone, keep a full spread of micro grenades ready.”

  They slipped down the hall and coded entrance into a small meeting room. From there they gained access to two other chambers adjacent to the bridge and some of the additional escape pods.

  Naero coded the hidden panel to the escape passage.

  “Activate gravwings. We’ll open a panel slightly above and behind them. They might spot us, but there’s nothing for it. We swoop in fast and take them out. Full on attack, with everything we have.”

  Leftenant Hayden cut in on their secured link.

  “We’ve put down any attackers we could locate. Proceeding to the bridge. Other forces converging.”

  Naero turned to Tarim.

  “Warn Hayden and the others what they’re walking into. Tell them to hold up until we begin our attack.”

  “Will do.”

  They swarmed into the escape tube like angry hornets, single file, moving fast. The kept their weapons trained out in front.

  Naero coded open the hidden panel just inside the bridge itself.

  She and her small team shot out and wheeled to attack, scattering a spray of microgrenades and bomblets below.

  They fired down even as the enemy trained their weapons up at them.

  The element of surprise worked both ways.

  First the grenades knocked the Hevangians around and took out their shields.

  The waiting micro-fixers quickly rendered the chain-guns into non-firing scrap metal and plasteel.

  Naero hit two of the enemy with glowing energy blades set to detonate.

  The blasts blew off their head and arms, even as precise small arms fire riddled their bodies.

  The six foes went down hard and fast, especially with Leftenant Hayden and his Marines charging in to lend their support, behind a shield pod warping the air in front of them to deflect heavy fire.

  Naero whirled just in time to see the main enemy strike force activate their phaze armor, and walk through the barrier in bright flashes.

  Naero pointed at the secondary blast barrier.

  “Get everyone in there. Cut the foe down. I can snap the blast shields out of the way. Give me a sec.”

  She struggled on her wristcomp to input the override code as quickly as possible.

  Vital seconds passed.

  At last, the secondary blast shields popped back down into the floor and up into the ceiling.

  She could only spot about half of the enemy strike team in a firefight with the dwindling bridge crew.

  Where had the others gone? That was a new problem.

  Even as they moved to engage, enemy agents appeared behind the defenders, as if by magic.

  They lifted their ritual, Hevangian shokkog, death blades steeped in lethal cocktails of poisons that dripped and ran off them, and hissed on the duranadium floor. No known antidotes.

  Two Spacers and the last Marine within died outright, screaming in agony as the assassin blades pierced their backs and throats from behind and hit them with those lethal poisons.

  Naero fired four exploding needles in the face of the one trying to knife Zalvano. The head and helmet puffed away into red mist.

  Tarim knelt and fired full bursts of automatic plasma bolts into the assassins crouching over Aunt Sleak.

  The precise plasma fire scorched gaping, charred holes through the assassins and flung them back against the chairs and consoles.

  Tarim, Hayden, and the others kept up a steady hail of precise fire, moving in, cutting down any Hevangian and keeping fire on them until they were obviously dead.

  Off to one side, Naero trained her weapons on five remaining Hevangians, including the leader–a tall young man with vicious scars crisscrossing his face,

  They all held guns and weapons trained on a disarmed and battered Admiral Sandusky.

  Sandusky snarled defiantly. “I’m good as dead. Kill these fucks!”

  Two assassins stunned the
Admiral and slipped a rescue bag up around him, sealing him in it.

  Naero barely spotted the shaped cutting charges packed on the outer hull behind them. She realized what they were going to do.

  The male leader of the Hevangians sneered at her.

  “Clever little spack. Cut her down!”

  Naero shouted aloud in warning.

  “They’re going to blow the hull to escape!”

  The enemy could have passed through walls–but they wanted Sandusky.

  She sealed her combat armor and dove behind a bridge station all at once, just as the enemy fired and the shaped charges went off.

  The hull instantly decompressed.

  The assassins let themselves get sucked out into space.

  Naero kicked off the console she hid behind and shot after them.

  Leftenant Hayden and several of his Marines came on fast behind her.

  Then the hull on the flagship auto-sealed behind them, throwing up shields to close off the breach.

  In space, the Hevangians swept toward the wide-open loading hatch of a high-speed Alliance courier, backing up toward them.

  The other Hevangian agents on board the captured ship kicked and tossed the bodies of the courier’s real crew and passengers out of the cargo hatch into the black.

  Naero, Hayden, and the Marines hit their gravwings and raced after the enemy at top speed.

  They swept in so fast, the enemy in the hold didn’t even have a chance to shoot or get out of the way.

  All of them smashed into each other and tumbled back into the courier’s cargo bay. The loading hatch closed.

  They wrestled and fought together amid the chaos within, as the small ship took heavy fire from all sides without. The Alliance fleets attempted to cut off the small armored ship and disable it.

  The courier shot away, spinning and taking expert, evasive action.

  The assassins selected their escape vehicle with great care and cunning.

  Naero grappled and kicked and stabbed at not one, but several Hevangian assassins, bouncing around in zero-G.

  She shot one in the guts, both of them propelled in the opposite direction. Blood and entrails boiled out into the null gravity.

  One of the assassins sliced at her with a dripping shokkog, and just missed cutting deep through the arm of her combat suit.