Archangel One

by Evan Currie

  “Echoes?” she asked. “Oh, I see. That is . . . odd.”

  “Enemy ships?” Tyke asked.

  “Not certain. If they are, then they would appear to be quite far out of position,” Milla said, sounding confused. “These would be well beyond the comet shield, Stephan. Likely at the very edge of the system’s gravity influence.”

  “Could they be rogue planetoids?” Steph asked, thinking about the small rogue system they’d hidden in when approaching the stellar neighborhood.

  “Perhaps. However . . .” Milla made some adjustments and ran the telemetry scans backward. “No. We can track their approach in our records. No, Stephan, they are most certainly vessels of some sort. However, they are well beyond the range by which they could provide support to the Belj destroyer squadrons.”

  “Huh.” Steph frowned.

  “What are you thinking, Crown?” Tyke asked, eyes now scanning the display intently as he looked for any further anomalies.

  “Observers,” Steph said after a moment. “Someone wants to know what happens here but doesn’t really care who wins.”

  “That’s a bit of a stretch,” Tyke said uncertainly.

  “Maybe, but I don’t think so,” Steph said, pointing out a few of the sensor shadows. “They moved into the system right behind the Belj destroyers but appear content to hang back. From there they’ll be able to follow all actions in the system, and I’ll lay good money that the Kingdom and Belj destroyers don’t have the scanners to even note that they’re there. Milla, can we tell what class those are?”

  “Possibly,” Milla said as she worked out a few calculations, setting the computer to crunching the numbers. “They are larger than the destroyers, of that I am certain. We would not be able to scan even the shadows at this range if they were not.”

  “Cruisers, then,” Steph said firmly. “And not locals, at least not Belj or Star Kingdom.”

  “How do you know that?” Tyke asked, exasperated.

  “If either of those two had them, they’d have used them.”

  “I can think of a dozen other reasons they might not deploy larger ships here,” Tyke countered.

  “None that fit the intelligence we and the Auto gathered, I’ll bet,” Steph said.

  Tyke grimaced, but finally shrugged. “It does seem odd that the Kingdom would hold back forces like that, I’ll admit. We don’t know much about the Belj, however.”

  “We know enough. They’ve invested too much in this to just leave their biggest guns sitting out the fight,” Steph said. “No, that’s someone else. How many are out there, Milla?”

  Milla hummed softly to herself as she worked. “We’ve spotted at least a dozen, Stephan. I expect there are more we’ve missed.”

  “A dozen cruisers.” Steph shook his head. “We need a bugout plan, just in case they’re not content to watch. We’re not a match for that kind of firepower.”

  “Well, I ain’t arguing with you about that,” Tyke said with feeling. “I’ll start running multiple escape vectors.” He paused, thinking. “Should we tell our new friends?”

  Steph considered it, expression grim, before he finally shook his head.

  “No. We still need to hide our capabilities,” he decided. “Worst case, assuming they’re not somehow behind this despite what I think, we’ll advise them on escape vectors when the boom comes down. We should have a few hours’ warning, no matter what.”

  Tyke nodded, his own visage as weary as that of his friends.

  It sucked to do that to allies, no matter how new they might be, but mission parameters often sucked one way or another. The situation could be a lot worse, and had been for the pair of them more than once in the past.

  “Meantime, make sure everyone is locked and loaded for the immediate threat,” Steph ordered. “We have a role to play in this little drama. Make sure we nail the performance. We need them to want an encore.”

  Belj Fleet

  The destroyer squadrons spread formation as they descended into the gravity well of the system, vectoring for the asteroid cluster as they continued to accelerate to combat velocities. Weapons charging, the eight squadrons assumed diamond formations as they dove.

  On board the fleet command vessel, the Belgra, Mir watched the scenario unfold in what felt like slow motion as the ships under his command rapidly approached large percentages of light-speed and yet still managed to barely crawl across the soon-to-be battle space.

  Odd, he thought, how much of his life was spent at velocities that most people couldn’t even begin to comprehend, and yet how very slow it all was in reality.

  Most combat was held deep within a system’s gravity and, while it was technically possible to engage sufficient warping of space and time to exceed light-speed even within powerful gravity fields, it was not recommended. Even successful ventures past light-speed inside a solar gravity were almost certain to massively damage most vessels, as the stellar density of debris was considerably higher there on average.

  Space-warping could only do so much to protect a ship from debris. Smaller chunks, gasses, dust, and the like were absorbed easily enough by the powerful twisting of space and time that squeezed a vessel through the void at high speed, but past a certain mass there was no amount of warp that would save you.

  Striking an even slightly massive asteroid at better than light-speed, for example, would end in one way: with your atoms and charged particles scattered across the system in question with enough energy to radiate anything in your previous path, friend or foe.

  When one factored in the general lack of responsiveness of average ship systems, quality of faster-than-light scanners, and such—well, it was generally not considered a good idea to attempt.

  Belj Empire Destroyer Belgra

  “Closing on enemy positions, Admiral. The Kingdom destroyers are racing for the asteroid cluster.”

  Mir nodded. “Calculate their expected turnover point. Ready firing sequences to my commands.”

  “Yes Admiral. Turnover expected within the next few minutes.”

  Mir tapped in a few commands as he stood over his command crew. “Prepare all banks for firing.”

  “All banks, all ships, standing by for your command, Admiral.”

  The admiral nodded, satisfied with the progression of the mission thus far and with the performance of his squadron. The end result, of course, would be the deciding factor, but that would soon be known.

  “Enemy vessels have hit turnover, Admiral.”

  “Analyze acceleration, extrapolate course vectors, and fire when you have a solution calculated,” he ordered firmly.

  “On your command, Admiral!”

  In a few moments the whine of laser capacitors discharging could be faintly felt more than heard, vibrating through the decks of the destroyers as they continued to accelerate down system toward their target.

  “Weapon estimated time to contact is thirteen minutes.”

  Berine Gael

  “Asteroid cluster dead ahead, Commander.”

  “Reverse thrust, bring us to a zero/zero velocity relative to the cluster by one light-second.”

  “As you command, zero/zero trajectory entered.”

  The destroyer rumbled around him slightly as the stress of the space-time warp shifting vectors made itself known. Auran winced slightly, knowing that was a sign of his drives being slightly out of alignment with the rest of the ship, but there was little he could do about it. Correcting drive alignment was a shipyard task, and there weren’t remotely enough of those work slots to go around in the Star Kingdom.

  “Enemy squadrons continuing to accelerate.”

  Auran didn’t bother to acknowledge that announcement as it echoed around the bridge, more a perfunctory notice than anything else. No one expected them to do anything other than keep coming.

  The Belj have committed a significant portion of their fleet to this. I suppose we should be flattered.

  Eight squadrons, forty destroyers: a formidable force in the Free St
ars. Short of attacking one of the capital worlds of a major power, the Belj could be forgiven for assuming it was enough of a force to handle practically any mission they chose.

  Certainly, he knew that they could easily have taken the orbitals of his own homeworld with no problem. The only reason they hadn’t was that taking the orbitals was one thing, but actually pacifying the citizenry of a planet below? That was something else entirely. It was rare, in fact, for any of the polities of the Free Stars to actually capture an enemy world, because the costs associated with annexing an independent population were almost always far in excess of the value of the world itself.

  It had been tried, and often, early in their history.

  The Kingdom had done so, capturing many worlds during an imperial phase of its own. Holding those worlds became a nightmare as the Kingdom was forced to continue expanding, gaining resources only to pour them into the endless pit of malcontent planets, while new ones demanded even more.

  Eventually the expansion became unsustainable and the Kingdom’s empire collapsed, dropping them from the premier polity in the Free Stars to the very bottom almost overnight.

  A harsh lesson for a prideful people.

  Over the centuries many had learned the same lesson, which led to the way things were now. Steal resources, not lands. Occupy valuable territory, not people. A grim reality, in his opinion, that made thieves of every citizen of every polity, as their governments stole from whoever had what they wanted.

  “Arrival at cluster in three minutes.”

  Auran nodded. “All ships are to prepare for immediate combat action.”

  This is just the way the game is played.

  The Aerin Star Kingdom destroyers decelerated at maximum power as they approached equilibrium with the asteroid cluster, warping fields twisting space-time intensely to bring the massive hulls to heel. Visually, the asteroids were barely noticeable without significant augmentation by the scanners, the light from the local sun being mostly absorbed by the solid masses clustered in the point of stable gravity on the leading edge of the closest gas giant’s orbit.

  Decelerating took time, and even with a powerful warping of space, it took more time the more massive the object being affected was. Destroyers were not particularly massive as far as starships went, but neither did they have the same power of much larger vessels. The Aerin squadron swung into orbit at high military power and were within several light-seconds of the cluster when the Belj lasers crossed their position.

  Fire and destruction raged as metal hull and armor were vaporized in a flash of light and explosive power, throwing the small ships around violently as parts of their own construction became explosive jetting material streaming into space.

  The battle had officially begun.

  Chapter 15

  Imperial Third Fleet Command Vessel

  “So this is what the rabble were gathering all those ships for,” Jesan Mich said as he looked over the telemetry they were scanning from the system, idle curiosity guiding him more than anything else.

  The battle that was shaping up was of little interest other than learning what was being fought over.

  The remote possibility that there was something out there worth the temporary interest of the Empire struck him, though he rather doubted that was the case.

  The so-called Free Stars were in a constant state of warfare, as Imperial edict demanded, and they’d learned to kill one another for the slightest of excuses. He expected this was much the same, but at least while they were killing one another, he wouldn’t be forced to sully his forces with the deed.

  His fleet had crossed the warp trail of the fleet belonging to the laughably named Belj Empire, and he’d diverted them from their previous course to see if the matter might warrant his attention. As it turned out, the answer seemed likely to be no. By the time the battle was over, his analysts had calculated that very little would be left of the Belj and nothing would be remaining of their foes.

  He shook his head, amused at the trap the Belj were flying into.

  The asteroid cluster was undoubtedly supposed to be some resource-harvesting location, but the scanners on his fleet told a very different story.

  “Fleet Commander, do you have orders?”

  Jesan glanced aside at his second, considering for a moment, then shrugged.

  “Enjoy the show?” he asked with a casual gesture. “This might be amusing, if nothing else. Let the crews watch the rabble fight.”

  “Ah, yes Commander.”

  Jesan returned his focus to the scans. The augmented screens were tagging each of the ships with identification markers and tracking them, making the entire affair more interesting and informative. His crews were due some entertainment after the fighting they’d been tasked with of late.

  On the large display, the eight aggressor squadrons plunged into the system, their lasers firing near constantly according to the luminosity his sensors could detect from stray space particulate. An aggressive opening move, one he normally would have approved of, in fact.

  Pity they didn’t properly scout their battle space, Jesan thought sourly as he recalled his last, and all too similar, mistake in that regard. It will be an expensive error.

  Gaia’s Revenge

  “Laser strikes on allied targets.” Milla’s voice carried over the communication system as Steph locked himself into the flight control deck and activated the NICS interface on the back of his neck.

  “Roger that,” he said, feeling the heat of the lasers wash over him as the bidirectional feedback from the interface fully initialized. “Archangels, Revenge. Hold your positions. Let them come.”

  “Roger, Revenge,” Cardsharp said from Archangel Three, tension and eagerness in her voice. “By the way, when do the rest of us get cool pirate names?”

  “Have one in mind, Three?” Steph asked, laughing softly.

  “I’ll get back to you on that,” Cardsharp responded. “But the rest of us have been wondering something.”

  “Why do I get the feeling I don’t want to know?”

  “No idea,” Cardsharp said, keeping her tone serious momentarily. “We just want to know when you’re going to stop shaving, Commander.”

  Steph rolled his eyes. “Of course you are. Tell you what, I’ll stop when you do, Sharp.”

  “Who says I haven’t?” Jennifer “Cardsharp” Samuels riposted instantly.

  Steph winced. “More information than I needed, Sharp.”

  “Don’t start what you can’t finish, Stephanos.”

  Steph killed the audio.

  “I swear I cut myself every time I speak with that woman,” he muttered.

  “She does seem to be aptly named, Crown,” Tyke answered from behind him, amused by the exchange.

  “We called her that when she fleeced us at cards before a mission,” Steph said. “Didn’t know her well enough then to check that I had all my fingers after shaking hands with the woman.”

  Tyke just laughed.

  “I get no response,” Steph bemoaned before putting the audio back up and grinning. “Enemy positions?”

  “Closing on predicted trajectories, Stephan,” Milla responded instantly. “Fifty-three light-seconds and dropping.”

  “Showtime,” Steph said over the squadron channel. “You all know your roles. Wait for the moment, then slice them up.”

  “Roger, Commander,” the squadron pilots responded nearly as one.

  Steph let out a happy sigh.

  This was the way things were meant to be.

  Belj Fleet

  “Direct strikes, Admiral.”

  Mir nodded, pleased with the results of the initial moves against the Kingdom’s destroyers. They’d achieved a respectable hit ratio according to the long-range scans, and that would be certain to increase as they continued to close the distance.

  With the enemy only minutes away now, less than one light-minute, the odds of them being able to evade laser fire diminished with every passing second.

&nb
sp; “Enemy destroyers are coming around!”

  “Continue firing,” Mir ordered. “Be ready for maneuvering orders.”

  “As you command, Admiral. All ships report ready.”

  Thus far, the enemy hadn’t had the opportunity to return fire, but that would change shortly, assuming that ship hadn’t sailed already. It would be a short while before any return beams could have made it back, after all. Mir was an old hand at space combat, and he expected he knew the rules as well as any man alive.

  “Split formation,” he ordered. “Shift pattern three.”

  “Pattern three, as you command!”

  Berine Gael

  “Return fire as the beams align!” Auran ordered sharply, a hint of smoke in the air of the command deck as he strode forward.

  “As you order, Commander!”

  The whine of laser capacitors charging filled his ears, the old banks loud enough to penetrate the interior insulation of the destroyer as the ship came around to align the beam cannons with the approaching enemy. A loud click followed by silence was the only evidence of a beam firing its hellish payload off into the vacuum of space.

  His squadron were taking hits, but Auran held their space as the plan called for. It was paramount that the enemy come closer, and that meant giving them cause to feel they were gaining ground.

  The story was easy enough to sell for two reasons. First, it was what the enemy wanted to believe—and second, it was true.

  Auran gritted his teeth as another barrage of strikes turned the armor of his destroyers into expanding gasses, sending shudders through his Gael that could be felt through the decks as the whine-click of their laser discharges filled the air alongside the smoke of fires burning somewhere.

  He hoped that the repair squads were on the job, otherwise he suspected that victory or defeat would end the same for him this time.

  “Enemy squadrons passing thirty light-seconds, Commander!”

  “Hold the line!” Auran ordered. “Let them come!”

  Archangel Three

  Jennifer “Cardsharp” Samuels shivered slightly in anticipation as she locked in her NICS interface and secured herself into the flight controls system of the fighter wrapped around her.