“Six minutes till the Shatterers reach their target,” said McGlashan.
“What do we have on the approaching ship?” asked Duggan.
“It’s smaller than we are,” said Chainer. “Between two and three klicks in length. It’s got the same energy output as the one we fought on Prot-7, so it’s got shields. Definitely a Dreamer ship – what the hell is it waiting around here for?”
“If it’s more than two klicks long, this ship is bigger than the one on Prot-7,” said Breeze grimly. “It might have a lot more juice to maintain its shields.”
“Good job we’ve got a hold full of nukes,” said McGlashan.
“They’re definitely going to work?” asked Reyes.
“They did last time, Lieutenant. Who knows what they’ll do against this particular warship? Just keep your fingers crossed it’s only the mothership which has the engine scramblers,” said Duggan. “Otherwise it’s going to get really messy for us.”
Reyes crossed himself, a gesture Duggan hadn’t seen in a long while. “I’m praying, sir,” he said.
“Captain Duggan, if the probabilities show the incoming vessel to have superior capabilities to the Terminus, I recommend you commence the transition to lightspeed,” said Nichols. “They’ve already disabled our comms.”
“Your advice is noted, Lieutenant Nichols,” said Duggan, struggling to keep his voice calm. “My mission is to learn about our enemy, not to run away as soon as they appear in the distance. Nor can we abandon our allies to face this threat alone.”
“They’re not our allies yet, sir,” said Nichols smoothly. “Negotiations aren’t complete.”
“We’re staying,” snapped Duggan. “This discussion is over.”
“Yes, sir,” said Nichols. There was the faintest hint of something in his voice, which bordered on mockery.
“The Dreamer vessel has launched something, sir,” said Chainer. “Twelve objects, moving fast.”
“Missiles?” asked Duggan. This was the first time he was aware they’d used ballistics.
“I’d guess so. Our AI has plotted their trajectory. They’re trying to shoot down the Ghast missiles. Damn those things are even quicker than the Shatterers.”
“I’m detecting another six launches from the Dretisear,” said McGlashan. “I hope they’ve got plenty of ammunition.”
The distance between the three ships steadily closed. Duggan ground his teeth in impotent anger, unable to do anything more than watch. None of the Terminus’ weapons would target an object from so far and he knew from experience they couldn’t lock onto the Dreamer ships anyway. Range and targeting had become the most important factors in ship-to-ship combat, rather than the ability to launch hundreds of missiles simultaneously. The Space Corps needed to catch up and soon.
“Four of the Ghast missiles have been destroyed,” said Chainer. “The remaining two from that wave will impact shortly. Maybe the Dreamer technology isn’t so infallible after all.”
It wasn’t the best time to take comfort from the possibility and Duggan watched his tactical display like a hawk. “Commander McGlashan, as soon as we’re in range I want to see thirty-two nuclear missiles heading for that Ghast ship and I want three hundred Lambdas following right behind.”
“We can only launch ten nukes directly forward.”
“Fine, launch ten.”
“There’s been another launch from the enemy vessel,” said Chainer. “Shit – dozens of them this time.”
“They’re not all targeting the Shatterers,” said Massey. “I’d estimate we’ve got twenty aimed at us and another twenty at the Dretisear. The rest of them are on an intercept course with the Ghast missiles.”
“Another six Shatterers have just left the Oblivion,” said Reyes. “This is going to be intense.”
“You’d better get used to it,” muttered Chainer, his eyes flicking between three different screens at once.
“We won’t be within firing range until after their missiles reach us,” said McGlashan.
“Here come some more,” said Massey. “Another fifty.”
“Two more of the Ghast Shatterers have been intercepted,” said Chainer.
“Get our countermeasures ready,” said Duggan.
“We’re not lacking in those,” said McGlashan. “Shame they’re untested against the Dreamer missiles.”
“It’s going to be a very brief fight if our countermeasures are ineffective,” said Duggan.
Through the void outside, dozens of missiles raced towards the Terminus and the Dretisear with combined velocities of over six thousand kilometres per second. At his station, Duggan hunched over the controls of the warship, his jaw set and his eyes hard. The thrill of the unknown electrified his mind and body and his eyes never left the incoming swarm of red dots on his tactical display. He tried through the power of his will to force the Bulwark cannons to target, not knowing if they’d fire or not. The seconds counted down and the crew waited to see how this first round of battle would conclude.
Chapter Eight
At intervals along the front and top of the Terminus, hatches opened. Bulwark cannons tore along reinforced alloy runners in a fraction of a second, emerging into their exterior positions. Stubby muzzles rotated at terrifying speed as their tracking modules sought a target. In-built sensors sent out pings, detecting the inbound Dreamer missiles. The targets were travelling at a speed in excess of the design capabilities of the Bulwarks. Nevertheless, nine of the seventeen cannons locked on and sprayed thousands upon thousands of their projectiles into space, while the ship’s AI tried to predict the future position of the missiles.
At almost the same time, other hatches opened in hundreds of places about the hull of the ES Terminus. Dense, metal globes shot away into the darkness, their transmitters spewing out interference to confuse the enemy missiles. There were other openings – a series of tubes ran along the back of the Terminus, protruding like the spine of an enormous, metal creature. Spheres of glowing white were hurled outwards, to explode in a blinding cloud that hid everything with its intensity.
Thousands of kilometres away – a tiny distance in the context of such engagements - the Dretisear lit up the darkness with its own ceaseless expulsions of superhot plasma. A dozen Vule cannons unleashed a barrage of projectiles, their trajectories converging, changing and converging once more, as their tracking systems switched from one target to the next.
“Countermeasures away,” said McGlashan. “The Bulwarks are targeting.” Her relief was palpable.
“I believe the Oblivion has launched six more missiles,” said Chainer. “It’s hard to read through their flares.”
“We’ll be able to launch our own missiles in a few seconds,” said McGlashan.
“They won’t target,” said Duggan. “Make sure you’ve disabled their guidance systems and fire them in a straight line. I want the nuclear warheads to detonate automatically when they come into range of those bastards.”
“Aye, sir. On with it now,” she replied.
“Quickly,” said Duggan, gritting his teeth.
“The Dreamer ship has launched another fifty missiles,” said Massy.
A series of status warning lights appeared on one of Duggan’s screens. The background hum of the Terminus became a rumbling.
“Two impacts aft,” said Breeze. “Shit, and a beam strike in the same place.”
“The Dreamer ship has been hit by four Shatterers, sir,” said Chainer. “Their energy output went up by four hundred percent.”
“Ten of our nukes are on their way,” said McGlashan. “Flying straight outwards.”
“Two hundred Lambdas hot on their heels,” added Reyes. “It’s the most we could launch, since half of the clusters are pointing the wrong way.”
“Come on,” said Nichols to himself. It was cool, but the man had a sheen of sweat across his forehead – the first sign he was affected by events around him.
“The Ghasts are launching too. Almost five hundred missiles!” said McGlashan. “They c
ouldn’t even launch their conventional plasma warheads at the Dreamers back on Prot-7. Seems as if they’ve done some work to sort it out.”
There wasn’t time to dwell on it – the Dretisear outgunned the Terminus by a wide margin. The Space Corps’ newest heavy cruiser wasn’t a match for the Ghasts’ most recent battleship. Foolish to think that it was, thought Duggan. “What’s our damage?” he asked.
“Two big holes out the back,” said Breeze. “And it’s pretty hot in there, too. We’ve lost some of our engine output.”
“The enemy have fired more missiles,” said Massey. “Another fifty. From their trajectories, these are intended to intercept our nukes.”
“We’ve been hit by their particle beam again,” said Breeze. “The Dretisear has taken at least two hits as well. She’s spilling positrons from four places – a few of the enemy missiles got through the Ghast countermeasures.”
“Our beam weapons aren’t in range,” said Reyes. “Not by a long shot.”
“Give them another ten nukes,” said Duggan. “Follow up with Lambdas.”
“The nukes aren’t ready to launch, sir,” said McGlashan.
“Fire the Lambdas. Everything we’ve got.”
“They’re on their way. Our Bulwarks are going again,” she said.
“Most of our first wave of nukes was successfully intercepted, sir,” said Reyes. “Three have detonated.”
“Another one of their missiles got through,” said Breeze. “That’s a third hit.”
The light on the bridge changed abruptly, to the rich, deep red of danger. Warnings and alerts rolled over Duggan’s screen in an unending wave.
“Some of our weapons have been disabled by the strikes,” said McGlashan.
“That last one came close to the life support modules,” said Breeze.
Duggan wasn’t paying attention to the damage reports. He saw three growing circles bloom over his tactical display as the gamma rays from the nuclear warheads expanded from the centre. The Dreamer warship appeared as a red dot, moving at an incredible speed through the fringes of one of the circles. Hundreds of smaller dots converged on it, the human and Ghast missiles launched with their homing capabilities disabled.
“The Dretisear is changing course,” said Massey.
“Running?” asked Duggan sharply.
“Damaged, I think,” she replied.
“What about the enemy shields, damnit?” he asked.
“Another two jumps in their output, sir,” said Chainer. “We got a couple of lucky hits, but their shields are still functioning.”
Duggan swore – the nuclear detonations mustn’t have been close enough to disable the enemy shields. “Are we ready to launch again?” he asked.
“Only Lambdas. The nukes have a different reload mechanism, which is taking a whole lot longer.”
“Fire the Lambdas then,” he said.
“Away they go.”
“They haven’t fired the particle beam for a while,” said Breeze. “I wonder if they’re unable to use it when their energy shield is under heavy bombardment.”
“We’ll think about it later, Lieutenant,” said Duggan.
“Another missile launch from the enemy, sir. Divided between us and the Ghasts,” said Massey. “Their ship is coming in real close to us.”
“The Ghasts have fired their disruptor, and launched another four Shatterers.” said McGlashan. “They’ve lost two of their launch tubes.”
“The Dreamer energy shield has gone, sir!” said Chainer excitedly. “The disruptor must have knocked it out.”
Duggan gripped the control bars tightly. Experience suggested the enemy shields wouldn’t stay down for long. In fact, he was surprised the disruptor had disabled them at all. On his tactical screen, the Lambdas and the inbound Dreamer missiles crossed over. Two of the Lambdas connected with the larger dot of the Dreamer warship, while the remainder flew onwards. The Shatterers appeared at the extremes of his display, their trajectory changing as they homed in on their target.
“We got a missile hit!” said Chainer. “Two hits!”
“Fire the Lambdas again!” said Duggan. He saw how close the enemy had come. “And get our particle beams on them. See how much they like it.”
“I can only give you sixty Lambdas, sir. Half of our port tubes are jammed.”
“Do it!”
A distant whining sound rose to accompany the rumbling of the damaged warship. “I got a beam weapon hit on them,” said Reyes.
“Don’t fire them again!” shouted Breeze urgently. “That last one pulled too much from our engines and they’re already dispersing a lot of heat close to the infantry quarters.”
Reyes jumped as if he’d stuck his finger in an electrical socket. “Sorry,” he mumbled, even though there was no way he could have been aware.
“Their shields are back!” said Chainer in dismay.
A faint thrumming came through the floor and the walls as the Bulwark cannons discharged once more. McGlashan activated the countermeasures again and the shock drones flew in all directions. Duggan watched the tactical screen from the corner of his eye as one-by-one, the Dreamer missiles winked out of existence. One final missile remained, having evaded a torrent of Bulwark fire and it plunged into the side of the ES Terminus, midway between the bridge and the troops’ quarters. The shockwave of it coursed through the metal walls.
“We got another three Lambda hits on their shield,” said Chainer. “Their energy output went up sixty percent. I think they’re struggling to hold it, sir.”
“Fire whatever we’ve got,” said Duggan. It seemed like it would be too little, too late. The next wave of Dreamer missiles would destroy both the Terminus and the Dretisear.
“The Oblivion’s fired its disruptor again,” said McGlashan, an edge to her voice that could have been fear or excitement.
“Their shields are gone,” said Chainer, with the same unidentifiable quality to his words.
Duggan didn’t say anything. Aside from the three spacecraft, there were only four objects on his tactical screen. The four Shatterers reached their target, flickered and then disappeared. The red dot of the enemy vessel remained in place for a further two seconds then it too, disappeared.
Chapter Nine
“Yes!” said Chainer, jumping from his seat. “That’s taught those bastards!” He sat down quickly when he realised their situation was still far from ideal.
“I need updates and I need them fast,” said Duggan. “What’s our damage? How is the Ghast battleship? And get me confirmation of the kill. I want to know for certain we’ve got them.”
The details spilled out from his crew.
“The kill is definite, sir,” said Massey. “There’s a cloud of white-hot debris spread across a few thousand klicks. We’ve already passed a few of the bigger pieces.”
“What’s our status? I need someone to speak to the guys below and find out if they’ve had any casualties. Lieutenant Chainer, I want you to use the backup comms circuit – try and talk to the Ghasts. We can’t be certain there aren’t any more Dreamer ships in the locality.”
“We’d be dead if there were,” said McGlashan.
“Our status is that we’re full of holes,” said Breeze with concern. “Our engines have suffered a near-critical failure. Luckily, there’s no sign of a breach into the life support modules.”
“What about our weapons?”
“Not looking great,” said McGlashan. “We’ve got multiple failures across offensive and defensive systems. I’m completely locked out of the nukes and we’ve lost twenty-two of our Lambda clusters.”
“Is the loss permanent?” asked Duggan.
“Too early to say. The AI’s looking to repair or reroute where it can. If it’s heat damage, there’s a chance we’ll be able to recover some of our capabilities. I really don’t know what’s up with the nukes – they have their own reload and launch instruction set. It’s different to what I’m used to.”
Duggan swore under
his breath. A single Dreamer spacecraft had nearly managed to destroy two of the most powerful warships in the human and Ghast navies. He didn’t know what capabilities the Terminus had remaining now it was over – certainly they couldn’t put up much of a fight if any other hostiles showed up. The most sensible course of action for the safety of the ship and its crew would be to leave the area immediately – assuming that was an option. Unfortunately, they’d been sent here to gather intel and there was something unexplained that needed to be investigated.
“I want details on the object you detected on the surface,” he said to Chainer. “Lieutenant Breeze – I need to know if we can go to lightspeed and if not, when we will be able to.” He turned to McGlashan and Reyes. “Get those weapons back online. We’re a sitting duck without them.”
There was a chorus of acknowledgements and Duggan dropped into his seat to do some testing of his own. He discovered there was some output from the gravity engines, but they were at a fraction of their maximum. The status of the deep fission drives was buried beneath layers of alerts and errors. He ignored them for the moment – that was something for Breeze to explore.
“Sir? I’m getting a response from the Dretisear,” said Chainer. “They must have installed additional comms systems as well.”
“What do they say?”
“It’s difficult to understand and I keep losing the signal,” said Chainer. “I think a summary is that they’re pretty beat up.”
“Tell me something I didn’t know,” said Duggan.
“Their fission engines are offline and their gravity drives nearly at zero. They won’t be going anywhere until they cool down.”
“I appreciate their honesty,” said Duggan. “Update them with our status and ask if they have sufficient power to maintain an orbit over the planet – tell them it’s called Trasgor.”
“It’s going to take them four or five hours to get there,” said Chainer.
“I doubt we’ll be going very much faster,” replied Duggan. “We’re going to see what it is the Dreamers left on the ground.”
Chains of Duty Page 6