by Gary Caplan
As St. John looked at the task force damage and casualty reports, he groaned. “Let’s see if we can manage an escape. Our ships are moderately to severely damaged, and we will be hard pressed to defend our ships.” He realized things could have been worse if it were not for the Rhyn sacrificing their explosive drone ships. They watched on the view screen as another huge Rhyn ship separated multiple drone hulls from the main ship’s body and moved rapidly toward the Varlon ships, some exploding close to the Varlon cruisers.
“Sir,” Captain Kestral said, “there is a message from the Rhyn. It asks us to head for the final escape point and enter hyperspace.” St. John smiled in relief, nodded, and gave the orders. Upon arriving at the coordinates, the ships of his task force activated their translight drives and jumped into hyperspace.
* * *
In Tashar Sector, negotiations continued on a large Rhyn orbital base above the Rhyn home world with Alliance of Worlds’ ambassador Alotar and his staff. Alotar was dressed in an Alliance ambassador’s robe uniform. Executor Nombrin was again the senior minister present for the Rhyn government, dressed resplendently in a black-and-silver-edged jacket suit.
The conference room had a spectacular view of the star system, and most of them were looking out at the viewscape. “From the reports, it seems that our joint task force was successful in opening a breach in the Varlon defenses and allowing a large fleet of your ships to safely escape,” Ambassador Alotar said.
“Yes, we have escaped their grasp…” Nombrin replied, “or perhaps as you humans might say, their arthropodic— or do you use ‘coelenterate’—clutches?”
“Well, yes, the humans would describe the Varlon as arthropods, and in a sense, their appendages are more reminiscent of a cross between a Terran octopus and a cuttlefish, which are coelenterates by those Earthly descriptions,” Alotar replied.
“Hum…” Nombrin nodded and said, “In any case, my people have arranged a large military contingent with the escape vessels, including colony and drone construction ships.”
“I imagine they will want to gather new resources with which to build, and the Hegemony-granted star systems we are taking them to will have both colony-adaptable and military construction resources,” Alotar said.
“You and the Hegemony have lived up to your arrangements,” Executor Nombrin said. “Therefore, in the spirit of our affiliation treaty, the Rhyn will now agree to send military aid to the Rhendal sector to help the Alliance of Worlds against the Varlon and their allies, the Accad.”
* * *
Grand Admiral Pendragon’s vanguard fleet began to exit hyperspace. A fleet of over three hundred ships comprising the first fleet gathered to support the ongoing campaign. Pendragon was a thin, older human, but he kept physically fit. He was one of the Alliance of Worlds’ best tacticians. He sat observing the bridge from the fleet command deck that was behind and partly adjacent to the bridge of the battlecarrier Poseidon as he looked at a status report through the interlink system.
As he scanned the link data, he saw that Fleet Admiral Peregrine had decided to release the acting admiral of the sixth fleet, Commodore Sheppard, to go on a cooperative mission with his fellow Star Knights. Pendragon hoped they would be successful, especially now that they had intelligence that the Varlon were moving more forces across into Rhendal and beyond toward more Alliance of Worlds’ systems.
Pendragon had received recent communication that the Hegemony realized that if Rhendal were not retaken from the Varlon, the latter would soon be able to set up bases to directly strike Hegemony worlds. Therefore, they would be sending an expeditionary force to assist in Rhendal. Even the Betellians had agreed to send a military force now that the Accad were involved and had, along with the Varlon, attacked one of their world spheres.
“That’s a relief,” he murmured, as he looked at the list of ships and commanders. He recognized a few, especially Admiral Viess, the Betellian who had provided useful information about the Accad during one of the admirals’ board meetings several months ago.
One of his tactical support commanders was standing nearby waiting for him to notice. “Sir, we have received a message from the Hegemony…they have detected Varlon on the hyperspace route, and the projected destination is Star One.”
“Freg,” muttered Pendragon, “and of course we have moved several task forces away to this sector, while the Varlon plod onward.” Pendragon continued to scan reports via his interlink. He saw a new spark of good news within the updated interlink brief. “At least we now have reports that two of three Varlon long-range torpedo-launching locations are offline or destroyed,” he continued with a hint of hope in his voice. “Soon it will be safe to deploy the additional Alliance of Worlds’ forces in the Rhendal sector.”
The other good news was that the Aharri had finally signed an affiliation and would send the equivalent of several task forces to assist in the Rhendal sector, since that was not far from their home systems. Additionally, a message had come from the Talcon who would join the Alliance in battle against the Accad and their Varlon allies. Unfortunately, the number of ships they would commit was not included in the message from their leader, Prince Kir.
Pendragon considered the other interesting development—that the Betellians and members of the Hegemony, with Karratin, Estrian, and Lyramenian cruisers, were beginning to assist militarily with task forces to recover some of the Rhendal sector. That was something that had not occurred before, and even the Cynz, under an agreement they had with the Hegemony, were sending some of their own task fleets. This mixed fleet of elder races had already eliminated a Varlon military facility capable of launching long-range torpedoes after that facility targeted some Hegemony worlds.
* * *
In space above one of the planets used by the Varlon for their long-range torpedo-launching facilities, starships from the sixth fleet had arrived to deal with the small task force of Varlon ships in orbit around the planet, now that the launching facilities had been disabled or destroyed. The ships in the Alliance of Worlds’ task force were hard pressed until the Hegemony ships arrived. Among them were the Zeloc, Garfield’s sentient ship, and it remained phase cloaked between dimensions. An Estrian and a Quarran cruiser, as well as a Lyramenian carrier had also arrived to assist, since this base could potentially assault some of the Hegemony colonies.
The Zeloc had been waiting for instructions from Garfield for potential scenarios that would require extraction from the danger zone. Such instructions did not come, since the groups of Star Knights had been successful in disrupting or destroying the long torpedo-launching centers located on the planet and had not yet been placed in a situation that required their emergency extraction. Garfield trusted Tairic but remembered his friend’s aggressive tenacity and decided to have the Zeloc on standby just in case of an emergency.
From space, the Zeloc telepathically communed with Garfield, and he saw though his telepathic connection to the Zeloc that it would be necessary to strike defensively, since new Varlon and Accadian battlecruisers had just appeared out of hyperspace and were on course to attack the approaching allied fleet.
As the Varlon were still moving toward the Alliance fleet, the Zeloc prepared phase-cloaked mines and deployed them across the course of the Varlon and Accadian ships. The Zeloc timed the phasing mechanism to dissipate after the first group of ships passed. That would place active mines between the first and next line of enemy starcraft. Damaged Varlon ships would vent gases that could be picked up by Alliance sensors to assist with weapons targeting. During the deployment phase, Zeloc sent coded coordinates to the ships in the sixth fleet approaching the Varlon ships that used the chameleon cloak operative. That device was very effective against the Alliance ships; however, the Zeloc could sense the Varlon by methods not available to the Alliance Navy.
Because the Varlon had not yet matched the phasing technology of the Karratins, to the Varlon, the mines would just seem to materialize. The explosions of the mines were powerful enough t
o cause moderate damage even to the few Accadian ships present, none of which were Jiyarr-alloy reinforced. The exploding mines’ shock waves also provided location telemetry information to the Alliance ships. With their strike advantage gone, the Varlon and Accad had to focus on countermeasures to an incoming wave of Alliance strike missiles and antimatter torpedoes.
Zeloc examined the situation tactically and realized that the Varlon had not expected to lose the offensive function of the local torpedo facility and therefore did not allocate enough ships to successfully defeat the Alliance forces. Rather than become aggressive, the Zeloc transmitted location codes through secure channels to some of the Alliance ships to counteract the effectiveness of the Varlon’s chameleon cloak, while remaining phase cloaked itself. Zeloc continued to observe the deadly battle between the fleets as it waited for opportunities to help in some way.
* * *
Tairic continued to track and follow the Bm’ Kroth on a parallel course as he and the other Star Knights reviewed recent sensor reading and other reported information.
“It will follow our comrades,” Natarris said. “From observing and from the reports of several recent encounters with the Behemoths, I have determined they are made of the Jiyarr alloy, and the majority of our weapons would be ineffective. We therefore need to get inside to damage it.”
“I agree. I think the Accad must now be helping the Varlon in various capacities,” Tairic said. “Also, they must want to establish a future military outpost for some reason here as well.”
“I think I might be able to influence one to open a hatch doorway. I am familiar with their language patterns,” Garfield said.
“Otherwise, one of us will have to attempt a more difficult remote compulsion to force one to open a hatchway,” Rhentun stated.
As the cloaked vehicle approached the Behemoth, a hatch opened nearby and an Accad stepped out. Sheppard readied his weapon and sensed Natarris use his telekinetic ability to fling the Accad off the Behemoth; then Sheppard jumped out the transport vehicle’s door and, using a Star Knight discipline, jumped up to the hatchway. A human could have died from the fall, but the hardier and resilient reptilian Accad struck some bushes, and Sheppard sensed that he was only injured.
Garfield began channeling, using a more advanced Star Knight discipline, and the ground and stones around the Accad molded and grasped his feet and arms, effectively preventing him from moving and using any communication device, at least for the next several minutes. As the Behemoth was slowly moving away, the Accad would be left behind.
They set the vehicle to follow, staying in a secure area adjacent to the path the Behemoth had traveled, and each grabbed an explosive to plant inside it.
“We don’t have enough explosives to destroy this thing,” Sheppard said.
“We only need to damage it enough to give us time to escape in the stealth ships, and long enough for the allied fleet to bombard this area,” Rhentun said.
“We have enough explosives for that,” Tairic said. “And I think they are using Jiyarri technology to breach our stealth, now that they have had time to analyze our defenses.”
“I have a few programmable matter devices that can be attached to the explosive devices. The programmable matter devices once attached will be able to move as a unit ambulating toward an optimal position, once the devices are placed near the target,” Garfield said.
“Good. That will limit our time inside and allow us to escape with less exposure,” Natarris said. “I am familiar with that type of device and will move swiftly to get the unit to a secure location from where the joined programmable matter device and explosive unit can, as you suggest, move toward a more optimal explosive position.”
The entrance corridor inside the Behemoth led to a series of connecting corridors. There was an organic feel to the oval-shaped corridor; it reminded Sheppard of insect trails. Tairic informed Sheppard through the link that it was not insects but a type of machine. Initially, Sheppard and his team were able to sense and avoid the Accad, but a security scanner inside evidently gave a warning. “I think a sensor was not completely blocked or avoided,” Natarris said.
“Now I think they will be after us or at least come to check what occurred,” Joran said.
“I think we’re ready for them,” Sheppard said quietly, as his thoughts moved through their mind link. They split up into two groups near a corridor junction so they could place at least nine explosive charges before leaving.
Tairic was not sure of the best places to set the explosives, since this was his first time inside a Behemoth. Garfield and Rentun both thought they could determine the best places given the time, but Accad security was mobilizing even now. The plan was to place the explosives they carried in various critical areas to maximize the effect. Sheppard went with Garfield and Natarris, while Rhentun and Joran went with Tairic; they would place their explosives with the attached programmable matter movement device with a program set to find a hidden and secure spot.
A pulse weapon burned the wall next to Garfield, who had activated his personal force shield at the last moment to decrease its detectable energy signal. The Accad flew backward as Garfield disarmed him and telekinetically buffeted him back. Other Accad showed up quickly. One reached Sheppard and grabbed his arm and flung him like a doll several feet down the corridor. Sheppard had seen the move coming, but the Accad’s strength was far greater than his, so Sheppard rolled and used his own telekinesis to soften his fall.
Natarris began a Star Knight discipline, using a cryokinesis to alter the temperature around the Accad to subzero levels. Through the mind link, Garfield sent a telepathic message that this would not work well, as the Accad are essentially a warm-blooded life form rather than a true reptile. Instead, as Sheppard rolled and recovered and began shooting his pulse pistol, Garfield caused a suspended animation effect on the three Accad. “We can go now and place the remaining explosives,” Garfield said. “The energy of the pulse pistol was likely detected along with the energy of my personal force barrier.”
Natarris placed one of the explosives on a programmable matter holder and watched the small device skitter along the floor and into a floor vent toward its target area. Then the men moved rapidly down the corridor to locate the next site.
Meanwhile, Tairic had already positioned over half of his explosives as he headed to what he believed was an engine section; suddenly, they noticed several security force fields were being generated to block or entrap them. While Joram seemed pensive when blocked by the force field, Rhentun and Tairic used Star Knight psionic disciplines to part the force fields and allow Joran and themselves to pass unhindered. They moved to plant the rest of their explosives and then headed back to the exit hatchway.
Sheppard and Natarris passed together through a blocking force field that Garfield was parting so they could all enter the open hatchway down the corridor. Tairic was just past the hatchway, surrounded by unconscious and severely injured Accad strewn about. Rhentun, just beyond him, signaled them forward. “What took you so long?” Rhentun asked.
“We wanted to make sure we got an explosive near the bridge and its major relays,” Sheppard said.
“And we encountered their security,” Natarris added, “and your group.”
“Several followed us, and we had to strike back. Tairic was fairly aggressive,” Rhentun said. Sheppard nodded and stepped over several Accad bodies as he exited the hatchway, followed by the others, as they all moved toward the exit.
The mission successful, they rendezvoused back with the others at the ships and did a brief after-action report. Sheppard noted they were all successful, but several knights had been injured, although none was left behind. After administering some restorative psionic and various other healing methods, the more advanced masters went to their individual ships. Tairic took Sheppard to the Phoenix, where he docked and stayed to trade for supplies before returning to his command ship, the Orgnar, to help remove the Varlon presence and stabilize the system.
Tairic indicated he would join the Hegemony fleet assisting the Alliance in the Rhendal sector. The other members of Sheppard’s group of Star Knights headed back to their respective starships. Garfield was pleased with the Zeloc’s defensive actions and returned to the Zeloc to support the final task of repelling the remaining Varlon and Accadian cruisers in orbit.
Upon returning to the Phoenix, Sharon greeted Sheppard with a warm kiss and a hug. He soon learned some disturbing news—the Varlon had sent a fleet toward Star One, the Alliance’s Headquarters. Sheppard worried for his friends on Star One as he scanned a brief indicating that the Varlon had arrived at a staging point in the neighboring star system a short hyper-jump away from Star One. Other reports indicated that the Varlon had been transporting occupation forces, while he and his fellow Star Knights had struck the Varlon’s long-range torpedo-launching facilities. The Varlon were even now in the process of a final occupation assault on Caltha Three, one of the larger Alliance of Worlds’ colonies in the Rhendal sector.
CHAPTER 17
BACK ABOARD
PHOENIX AND OLD
ENEMIES
Sheppard had reboarded the Phoenix the previous day and was so busy he barely had a few hours’ sleep. The journey back to the Phoenix took less time, since it was much closer. He told Sharon that he’d pushed himself to keep up with the likes of Tairic, Garfield, and Rhentun, since they used offensive and defensive Star Knight maneuvers and disciplines to keep themselves relatively safe. Sharon had to keep some officers at bay to allow him the small amount of sleep he did get.
Sheppard directed Sherman to set course to rendezvous with the rest of the sixth fleet while he got caught up on the fleet admirals’ work. He did get congratulations from Peregrine, but also a not-as-pleasant reminder to keep caught up with his logs and admirals’ record reviews. Sheppard knew Sherman could only cover so much for him. The fleet information and briefings that he’d missed while he was on stealth approach to the Varlon facility took a great deal of his time just to get caught up. One of the tasks the sixth helped with on the way to rendezvous with the combined fleets was to begin accelerated terraforming operations.