by M. D. Cooper
Both arms of the enemy fleet were obscured as the RM’s nuclear warheads detonated. When the scan cleared, most of the enemy ships were still intact and operational, but their shields were either weakened or gone entirely.
Then the grapeshot hit.
It wasn’t the devastating swaths that the rail platforms in the Kapteyn’s system delivered, but it was enough. The unshielded vessels were torn apart, and many of the ships, whose shields survived the RMs, saw them fail under the high velocity kinetic impacts.
Bravely, remnants of the Boller fleet pressed forward, though not a few ships turned back.
Fifty ships advanced, now only a hundred-thousand kilometers from the Intrepid. This form of warfare was strange to Tanis. The ships were moving slowly, fighting as though they were taking a two-dimensional battlefield, yet they flickered from position to position, moving erratically to avoid beam fire.
It was entirely unlike the high-velocity battles she had fought in Sol or over Victoria, where an engagement was measured in seconds.
She issued a final warning to the advancing fleet. Turn back, or be destroyed.
Ten ships did; following which—over the next sixty seconds—two events occurred. One Tanis enacted, and the other she anticipated.
Firstly, the Intrepid altered course, pulling away from the moon Fierra and flew toward a strong band in the gas giant’s Van Allen belts, drawing in the radiation with one side of its ES scoop, and funning it out the other in a focused stream of solar radiation.
More powerful than the beams of a hundred starships, the stream of radiation sliced through the weakened shields of the last forty ships.
Then the second event occurred far across the battlefield: the eleven AST cruisers began to break their distant orbits.
Jessica replied.
Unlike the Intrepid, the AST dreadnaughts were built exclusively for war. Moreover, they were built to stop wars from ever happening. Each vessel supported hundreds of laser batteries, and dozens of rail guns.
Forming up in a loose line, roughly eight thousand kilometers across, the core-worlder ships pushed through the Boller ships with little resistance. As far as the pilots of the Black Death squadron could tell, not a single beam or missile broke through their shields.
The pilots of the Black Death pulled back from their harassment of the Boller Space Force’s second wave, letting the ships defend against the AST dreadnaughts. After just a few minutes it became apparent that the core-world ships were not going to be slowed by any force thrown at them.
Tanis’s voice entered the minds of the twenty-three pilots.
No one responded for several seconds until Rock remembered himself and flagged acknowledgement on behalf of the squadron.
Sera stepped onto the Intrepid’s bridge and approached the holo tank where Tanis stood with the captain and admiral.
As she threaded the consoles, a whistle sounded, then a congratulatory shout, and a moment later, the entire bridge crew was cheering.
“I’m not sure that’s deserved,” Sera said, once the noise died down.
“I’m pretty sure it is,” Captain Andrews replied.
“One ship taking out two-hundred? Yes, that will go down in the history books for sure,” Admiral Sanderson said with a rare smile.
Sera looked over the holo projection of the battlefield.
“Quite the mess you guys have made—though it’s a miracle you’ve not lost any capital ships.”
Tanis nodded. “Keeping them out of range is key.”
“You can bet that a lot of systems will be considering the creation of single pilot fighters after this. Even the ones without stasis shields are nothing to sneeze at.”
“I can’t believe they ever fell out of fashion,” Tanis replied.
“A lot was lost, or discarded over the years,” Sera said with a sigh. “So what’s your plan for those AST ships? They’ve always been the real threat. Everything else was just a warmup.”
Tanis turned back to the holo tank, her expression grim. “Watch and see.”
Jessica and Jerry maintained a pattern of evasive maneuvers as they raced past the Boller ships, though little heed was paid to them as the fleet desperately defended against the AST dreadnaughts.
They passed into the vacant space surrounding their target, the massive warship looming large as they pushed their fighters with everything they had. Cordy had programmed the ship’s onboard NSAI to drop the picobombs during the short time the fighters would be within the dreadnaught’s shields.
There was barely a moment to think as the enemy vessel filled her vision and then, following a brief shudder as her fighter smashed through the dreadnaught’s shields, she was out in space again.
Jessica spun her vision, looking at her target, when she realized that Jerry wasn’t where he was supposed to be. Her sensor log showed that his ship entered the dreadnaught’s shields, but didn’t come out.
Jessica watched in mixed horror and sadness as the picobomb’s swarm became visible and began to consume the enemy ship. She hoped that Jerry hadn’t survived his collision. No one should die watching their body dissolve.
All the fighters struck their targets within seconds of each other, and, as the first dreadnaughts began to disintegrate and crumble into clouds of dust, escape pods began to pour out of all the AST vessels. Most made it free in time, but some dissolved even as they launched.
The Black Death squadron arched stellar north over the remnants of the Boller fleet, watching in horror as the system’s military shot down every last one of the AST esca
pe pods.
REVALATIONS
STELLAR DATE: 10.29.8927 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: ISS Intrepid, Orbiting Fierra (6Mj Jovian)
REGION: Bollam’s World System, Bollam’s World Federation
Murmurs filled the bridge as the crew watched the AST ships disintegrate and the Boller fleet take up their grizzly task. No one cheered, though there were worn smiles while what remained of the enemy fleet pulled back and began rescue and recovery operations.
“Are you going to rescue any of Padre’s fleet?” Sera asked Tanis.
Tanis shook her head. “I will not. Though I sent a message to whoever is running the Bollam’s World fleet now that I won’t hinder any of their rescue operations.
“Better late than never,” Captain Andrews gave a soft chuckle.
Tanis gave orders to recall the rest of the fleet and took a seat, trying her best not to wince at the pain in her head.
“We’re going to need to refuel before we make the jump,” Captain Andrews said. “The entire fleet is nearly dry.”
“You’re also going to need to get halfway across the system,” Sera added. She looked to Tanis, who nodded in response, and expanded the view in the holo tank to encompass the system. “The jump point we need to exit through is here,” she said and pointed to a location stellar north, beyond the bloated gas giant, Aurora.
“Well, that works out,” Andrews replied. “I wasn’t too excited about scooping around Kithari after you smashed through its upper clouds and we messed up its Van Allen belts.” He smiled in Sera’s direction. “Not that I mind overmuch—though the Bollers weren’t too happy about it.”
Tanis glanced at a holo display nearby. It showed the moon Fierra covered in dark clouds as fires caused by the debris from The Mark fleet spread across its northern hemisphere.
“Did the bios get off the world?” she asked, it was something she didn’t even bother to check in the heat of battle
Sanderson nodded. “They evac’d less than two minutes after Sera did her little light show.”
“Smart,” Sera replied.
“So it’s decided then,” Tanis said as she stood. “We’ll scoop at Aurora—which is what I think they made it for anyway…I think.”
“Make sure you fill up your tanks—or whatever this ship uses—all the way,” Sera said. “If we scoop there, then run hard to the jump point, this monster can hit what… a tenth the speed of light before we drop to FTL?”
“That’s about right,” Captain Andrews replied with a nod. “What is your concern?”
“Well, the first is that FTL is a speed multiplier. If we hit at only 0.10c you’re looking at over two years to get to Ascella. The second is that we have a lot of work to do to cover our tracks.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Tanis said with a sigh.
Sera nodded. “The AST isn’t going to just let you go. They’ll send fleets along your departure trajectory, skipping across space, looking for where we drop out. Then they’re going to extrapolate destinations and spread out the search.”
“Given their resources, and the half-life of the isotopes in our engine wash, we may need to course correct a dozen times,” Andrews said with a frown.
“Yes, hence the need to top off your tanks,” Sera replied. “Don’t forget, those AST ships can hit FTL at over 0.9c. That means they can also get to any destination way faster than we can. It’s going to be a hell of a race if they find our trail.”
“Captain, Sirs,” the comm officer interrupted. “We have heavy communications between the Boller ships. They’ve word that there are more AST ships coming. A full battle fleet.”
“That doesn’t sound good.” Captain Andrews ran a hand through his hair. “Any idea what that entails, Sera?”
Sera resisted the urge to mimic his gesture and run her own hand through her hair. “Depends on what they could muster up this far out, but I’d bet it will be a few dozen more of those dreadnaughts; plus they’ll bring cruisers this time—a couple hundred at least.”
Tanis whistled appreciatively. “It’s a good thing we’re invincible now.” Sanderson frowned and she shrugged in response. “Well, let’s hope we are.”
“Comm, let the folks in the Boller Space Force know that we’re leaving, and tell them sorry about their moon.”
The comm officer paused. “Should I really tell them that?”
“If you don’t, I will,” Sera grinned.
No one else provided any direction and the comm officer bent to her task.
“Wow, they are really unhappy,” she said partway through her transmission.
“Serves them right,” Tanis muttered, to which Sera nodded emphatically.
Helm began to ease the Intrepid away from Kithari, on a course to pick up the last of the Arc-6s on the way to Aurora, while Tanis spun the holo display to show a wider view of the space they were traversing.
“You’re sure the FGT will get your message?” The captain asked as he watched the Boller ships work through the wreckage of their fleet. Though the search and rescue ships were careful to offer no threat, several of their larger cruisers also shadowed the Intrepid from a hundred-thousand kilometers.
“They’ll have it in a month.” Sera replied.
“That fast? I thought that they were likely over a thousand light-years out.”
“They probably are.” Sera nodded.
“You’re not going to share how a message can make it a thousand light-years in thirty days are you? That’s over twelve thousand times the speed of light,” Captain Andrews asked.
“It’s actually closer to fifteen thousand. The message will have to pass through a few relays,” Sera smiled enigmatically.
The captain ran his hand through his hair and looked to Tanis.
“Both of you, come to my office, please. Admiral, you have the conn.”
“Aye,” Sanderson replied, looking very much like he would like to hear what was to be discussed.
Inside his office, Andrews closed the door and stood, arms akimbo and head down for a long minute before speaking.
“Sera, I want to thank you for what you’ve done for us. You returned Tanis to our ship, and brought us tech that, without a doubt, has saved the lives of every person on the Intrepid.”
“Tha—.” Sera began, but the captain held up his hand.
“But this cloak and dagger shit has to stop. We’ve laid our secrets bare to you, and been forthcoming and transparent at every turn. Hell, we even gave you stasis shielding—something that, while I’m glad we did in this case, I am now certain is a tech that we should never share.”
“Uh…thanks…” Sera replied awkwardly.
“Look at this from our point of view,” Tanis said, while leaning against the bulkhead. “You are, more or less, the only person in the ninetieth century that has treated with us fairly. That makes you an anomaly. You have tech no one else has—not even the AST from the looks of it. Anomaly. You can communicate with the FGT. Anomaly. We’re not stupid. There’s a pret
ty narrow list of possibilities for who you are. Bob says he knows and will tell us if you don’t.” She raised her hands, palms outward. “So just tell us already.”
Sera took a deep breath, and her eyes danced between Tanis and Andrews.
“OK, OK, I was planning to tell you earlier. You know, before we got interrupted by all the fleets in the galaxy,” Sera said and gestured for Tanis and Andrews to take a seat. She sat across from them and placed her hands on her knees.
She decided not to pussy-foot around.
“Humanity is in the dark, manipulated, and kept that way by design.”
“Manipulated?” Tanis sat up straight. “By who?”
“The FGT.”
“The FGT manipulates humanity?” Andrews asked with uncertainty.
“Not with the deftest of hands, but for all intents and purposes, they run the show. Let me start from the beginning.”
Andrews gestured for Sera to proceed.
“Back in the fourth millennia, before this ship even left Earth, the FGT realized that the core worlds of humanity would be too self-centered to be a positive force in the expansion of mankind. They would develop greater levels of technology and lord it over colonies. Colony worlds would become little more than slaves to the core.
“Unfortunately they didn’t have the means to do anything about this. While the various terraforming flotillas did communicate with one another, they were, for the most part, islands in the dark; messages took centuries to pass between all the terraformers and there was no cohesion.
Still, they began to craft a solution to counter the core world strength.
As with everything else, FTL changed their plans—granted, the FGT was probably the last group to become aware of the technology—it wasn’t until the end of the fourth millennia that they acquired it.
“By then humanity had already started to fall. The first true interstellar wars had already occurred and the Great Dark Age settled in. But because of their remote, and often unknown locations, the worldships retained their advanced levels technology.”