The Lost Swarm

by Vaughn Heppner

  The sensor officer looked up, shaking her head. “There is no enemy jamming, sir. I am…” She studied her board.

  “Yes,” Byron asked, trying to contain his excitement.

  “I’m detecting some odd readings, sir,” the sensor officer said, one of the best in the fleet. She was Lieutenant Maddie Jones, a dark-haired, slender woman from the Sigma Draconis System.

  “Jamming?” asked Byron.

  “No…” Jones said. “I’ve never detected anything like it. Normally, I wouldn’t even be checking this band.” She turned to Byron. “Sir, I don’t know what to think.”

  “No need,” Byron said. “A few minutes from now, none of that is going to matter. Why, I’m beginning to think the missiles will take out the enemy all by their lonesome. I have yet to see the enemy react at all.”

  “I know,” Captain Austin said. “It seems ominous.”

  Byron turned to the captain sharply. “Nonsense, man. We’ve caught the great Lord Drakos and that hideous bug commander by surprise. This is the greatest moment of my life.”

  Austin studied the admiral before turning to Lieutenant Jones. “I’d like to know what exactly you’ve been detecting. It might explain why they aren’t doing anything.”

  “What are you suggesting?” Byron asked. “Do you think the enemy possesses super-shields so they’re immune to us?”

  Austin frowned. “That would explain their sangfroid, certainly. They have to see us. Look, the cone has formed. The New Men are starting their attack run. It’s impossible that Drakos’s fleet hasn’t seen us. Sir, I think something is wrong.”

  Byron felt a flutter of unease in his gut. “Let’s not get carried away,” he said. “Once the missiles ignite, we’re going to know a lot more.”

  -15-

  The Far-Tracker behind the gas giant in the Teres System showed its first “photograph,” a broad look at Laumer Point Two and its greater environs.

  Drakos studied the photograph with a keen eye. Nar Falcon would have done this if he had been on the bridge. The second in command was in the hangar bay, ready at the Builder Teleportor to send the first hypnotized dominant into an enemy’s engine room.

  Drakos studied the photograph quickly and effectively. He had arranged seven different possibilities beforehand. The enemy formation looked most like Plan 5. Yes, Plan 5, and he would not add any contingency orders to it.

  Drakos’s gut seethed. The fools had fallen for the trap as they attempted to ambush him. He couldn’t believe this was going to work.

  “Broad channel,” he said.

  “Open, lord,” the com officer said.

  “This is Lord Drakos. Initiate Plan 5. I repeat: we will jump using Plan 5. Strike hard. Strike fast, and we will annihilate the first enemy fleet. Begin Plan 5 now.”

  “Sir!” the sensor officer said.

  Drakos pointed at the agitated superior.

  “An enemy ship has come out of a star-drive jump, and apparently out of Jump Lag too.”

  Drakos’s gut tightened. Had the enemy outmaneuvered him? Had his Pluto spy given him away? He should have known never to trust the—

  “It’s Victory, lord,” the sensor operator said. “The starship is alone.”

  “Maddox,” said Drakos. “Maddox is out there. Damn. I’d like to stay and capture the upstart. That will have to wait.” He gave the sensor operator a piercing glance. “You’re sure there are no other warships with Victory?”

  “No, lord,” the sensor operator said.

  “Well, he’ll know what I’m doing,” Drakos said. “But it shouldn’t make any difference at this point. This is about gaining position, and we’re going to have the drop on Star Watch.”

  “Captain Maddox is hailing us,” the com officer said.

  “Ignore him,” Drakos said. “Helm, why haven’t we jumped yet?” The superior feared that Victory carried some special device that would stop the Joint Fleet from jumping. Then, he saw on the main screen that the first attack saucers were disappearing. It was happening.

  Drakos laughed like a wolf about to tear open the belly of his prey. Then, the Agamemnon jumped, disappearing from the Teres System.

  ***

  Admiral Byron watched with building anticipation from his command chair on the Kaiser Wilhelm. The missiles were almost in range.

  He shouted with exultation as the first missile warhead detonated. These were shaped-charged nuclear warheads with rods on the cones. As the nuclear warheads detonated, gamma and X-rays traveled up the rods, directed at targeted attack saucers.

  As soon as the first warhead ignited, the majority of the missile warheads did likewise, each of them sending their gamma and X-rays and producing a whiteout as well. That meant waves of hot gamma and X-ray radiation speared at pre-targeted enemy warships.

  The crews aboard the monitors, heavy and attack cruisers, the destroyers and escorts could not see what was happening, as they were behind the missiles. The whiteouts thus hid the Joint Fleet from their combined sensors.

  The crews aboard the fifteen Bismarck-class battleships and the star cruisers on the other flank could see to a degree, although their sensor images were fuzzy from the mass of radiation and expanding EMPs.

  “This is amazing,” said Lieutenant Jones on the Kaiser Wilhelm’s bridge. “The enemy ships are shimmering, but then reappear just as before.”

  Admiral Byron leaned forward on his chair. “That’s not possible. The missiles should have taken out half their fleet, maybe all of it. You’re telling me nothing is happening?”

  “I don’t understand this, sir,” Jones said. “This is impossible. It can’t be happening. Yet, it is.”

  Byron shot to his feet, staring at the main screen. “Your sensors must be frozen. The computer must be showing us how the enemy fleet was, not how it is right now.”

  “I’m running a diagnostic, sir. Everything is in working order.”

  “Sir,” the com officer said. “I’m getting reports from other battleship captains. The enemy fleet is unfazed.”

  “What does Ural see?” Byron asked.

  The com officer shook her head. “I can’t beam a message to him just yet, sir. I’ll have to wait until the whiteouts and EMPs dissipate.”

  “That field you detected before,” Byron told Jones. “Is it still there?”

  “I’m checking, sir,” Jones said as she manipulated her board. “Yes. The odd readings are still there.”

  “The radiation had no effect on the field?” Byron asked, with panic in his voice.

  “It did, momentarily. The gamma and X-rays disrupted—oh, this is interesting. There are various fields, sir, nodes of energy, if you will. I wonder why I didn’t see that earlier.”

  “What does that mean?” Byron shouted. “Is that how they absorbed the missiles?”

  “I don’t know, sir.”

  “I want some answers,” Byron shouted. “I want them now. Why can’t we hurt the Joint Fleet?”

  -16-

  Aboard the Star Cruiser Agamemnon, on its bridge, Lord Drakos raised his head. As he did, the main screen came back online. An explosion flared into existence, shown on the screen.

  “What was that?” Drakos slurred.

  “Antimatter explosion,” the sensor operator, a dominant, said.

  “Ours?” asked Drakos.

  “Negative, lord. That was a Star Watch detonation.”

  As the sensor operator spoke, another antimatter explosion blossomed into existence on the screen.

  More of the Agamemnon’s bridge crew came out of Jump Lag. The star cruiser’s engines began working properly and the shield shimmered into view.

  “The explosions are hampering our sensors,” the operator said.

  “Show me the planet,” Drakos snapped.

  The second terrestrial planet of the Gomez System appeared large as could be. The star cruisers had dropped out of star-drive jump almost in near planetary orbit. A few—

  “There’s a Star Watch carrier, lord,” the se
nsor operator said.

  On the screen appeared a large, oval-shaped ship with oversized hangar bay doors, an SWS Themistocles-class carrier.

  “That must be what is happening,” Drakos guessed. “The carrier’s fold-fighters came back, or a few fold-fighters remained behind the planet, probably guarding the carriers. Damn them. Get the cannons online. We have to destroy those gnats now. I believe each fold-fighter carries an antimatter missile.”

  A third detonation out there meant a third antimatter missile doing horrendous damage. This latest antimatter warhead had exploded too near the Star Watch carrier. The wave energy knocked down the carrier’s shield and caused armored hull to buckle. After the wave passed, half of the carrier was a mangled, twisted mass of metal.

  Now, the star cruisers of Drakos’s flotilla had shields up and sensors straining. They didn’t know it, but each time a fold-fighter had launched its antimatter missile, the pilot had died with the fantastic detonation. Drakos had guessed correctly that these were the few defensive fighters that had stayed behind as carrier protocol dictated. The pilots had taken their fighters as close as possible before launching.

  Now that the star cruisers were ready, they beamed three other fold-fighters and a flock of strikefighters that zoomed around the planetary horizon. Afterward, in short order, Drakos’s star cruisers butchered the nearly defenseless carriers, eliminating them from the battle equation.

  At the same time that the star cruisers appeared behind the second planet, Thrax’s attack saucers came out of star-drive jump before it.

  Plan 5 meant that the star cruisers would take the dangerous job of appearing among the Star Watch vessels behind the planet. This would free the attack saucers to start accelerating at the weakest ships in the enemy Allied Fleet.

  That, at least, was how Drakos had sold Plan 5 to Supremacy Thrax. Drakos had decided the star cruisers and Juggernauts would take the least amount of damage this way.

  The appearing attack saucers of Supremacy Thrax Ti Ix had faced a few strikefighters, taking hull damage but without losing any vessels. Once the bugs overcame Jump Lag, they slaughtered the rest of the fighters.

  Afterward, the attack saucers began accelerating, heading after the “fleeing” heavy and attack cruisers and the destroyers and escorts around them.

  This was the essence of Drakos’s plan: hit the enemy fleet while it was piecemeal, doing it each time with the bulk of his Joint Fleet. In this way, he would have a majority of firepower at each point of contact. That should give him an overwhelming victory.

  The first part of the plan had worked beautifully and was still working, as Byron and Ural’s flotillas still focused on the fake Joint Fleet, the alien devices inside the rearward, intact Juggernaut continuing to duplicate its photographed ships.

  If Drakos had known the alien device was still working after the bombardment of gamma and X-rays from the nuclear warheads, he would have been overjoyed. He had expected the enemy to be bewildered, but regaining his senses by now. The enemy crews were bewildered all right, making plans on how to destroy the fake Joint Fleet, still not realizing they were phantom warships, and thus immune to firepower.

  It was at this point in the battle that Victory appeared two hundred thousand kilometers from the Patrol Fleet Flagship, Kaiser Wilhelm.

  -17-

  Maddox was panting as he raised his head. His upper lip was wet, and he couldn’t understand why. With a weary arm, he moved his hand and touched his lip, peering at red fingers afterward.

  “Oh,” Maddox whispered. He was coming out of Jump Lag. He had made a critical decision, deciding to jump back near the position where he figured Byron would have moved the battleships.

  His bloody nose was one of the costs of jumping this soon. Victory was a unique vessel due to many of the ancient Adok designs. No other warship of either side could have made two quick jumps like this in such short order. Many of the crew were out, however, but not all, and not Galyan.

  The shimmering, barely visible Galyan approached Maddox in jerky fits and starts.

  “Bring the main screen online,” Maddox panted.

  “Cannot yet, sir,” Galyan said.

  Maddox drew more air into his lungs. The blood no longer dripped from his nose. He was glad of that. He hoped there were no brain hemorrhages among the crew due to the quick second jump.

  He focused, glad that his eyesight was good. “How about now, Galyan?” he asked.

  “Soon, sir. I promise to tell you when.”

  Valerie groaned at her station.

  “Get me Admiral Byron,” Maddox told her.

  Valerie nodded even though her eyes were still closed. Her fingers roved over her board. Maybe she knew how to run it blindfolded.

  “Soon, sir,” she whispered. “I have to wait…to wait on a few components.”

  Maddox tried to practice the Way of the Pilgrim. He could not. He stood, swayed and forced himself to stand still. In the Teres System, he’d tried to hail Lord Drakos before the enemy fleet used its star-drive jump. Wisely, Drakos had ignored him.

  Maddox scowled. Galyan had counted the enemy attack saucers, star cruisers and Juggernauts hiding behind the Teres gas giant. The amount had fit with the number the Lord High Admiral had told them. Yet, if he saw the enemy fleet behind the Teres gas giant—

  “I have Admiral Byron, sir,” Valerie said.

  “The main screen, sir,” Galyan said.

  A scowling Admiral Byron appeared on the main screen. “Do you know what’s going on?”

  “Explain,” Maddox said in a calm voice.

  Byron did, his voice showing his agitation and confusion.

  “I don’t know how Drakos is doing it,” Maddox said. “But those aren’t real ships you’re seeing. I mean the ones that came out of Laumer Point Two.”

  “Speak sense, man,” Byron said.

  “It’s a fake fleet,” Maddox said. “I saw the real fleet just before it used its star-drive jump.”

  “The enemy used Laumer Point Two.”

  “That’s what I’m telling you. No. They did not. Those ships are phantom vessels meant to trick you.”

  Admiral Byron shook his head. “This isn’t the time for one of your games, Captain. I’m in charge of all Star Watch ships. Tell me straight, sir, what is going on?”

  A surge of annoyance zigzagged through Maddox’s chest. He willed it away. He needed calm. He needed to soothe the admiral.

  “Sir,” Galyan said. “I do not want to interrupt you, but I suggest you look at the second planet.”

  “Put it on the main screen,” Maddox said.

  “Now see here, Captain,” Byron said.

  The admiral’s face disappeared. In its place was a wide-angle shot of the second terrestrial planet, a rocky world. A mass of specks dotted the planet. No. Those were accelerating—

  “Attack saucers,” Maddox said.

  “I thought so too, sir,” Galyan said. “They appear to be chasing the second line.”

  “Right,” Maddox said. He turned to Valerie. “Put the admiral back on.”

  Byron was fuming, his cheeks bright red as he glared at Maddox. “I’ll have you up on charges, sir. This is—”

  “Admiral,” Maddox said, interrupting, and then he realized how he needed to do this. “You were right, sir.”

  “What? Eh?” Byron asked.

  “I said you’re right, sir. The attack saucers have used their star-drive jump. They’re trying to take the second line from behind.”

  “What?” asked Byron, confusion filling his aristocratic features.

  “The first force—the one that came out of Lamer Point Two—is a fake force of phantom vessels,” Maddox said. “Drakos and Thrax have tricked us, sir. But you see that. You know to turn the battleships toward the attack saucers, toward the real Swarm vessels.”

  Byron looked at Maddox with incomprehension.

  “If you aim your sensors at the second planet, sir…” Maddox suggested.

  Byron weakly
waved his right hand at someone off-screen. A moment later, Byron leaned forward, looking at something, maybe on a split main screen. The admiral swore softly. Then he said, “I-I-I don’t understand this.”

  “I don’t either, sir,” Maddox said, “except for this: we must attack those saucers and destroy them. I think Drakos is trying to hit us while we’re piecemeal.”

  Byron’s mouth hung open. He slowly closed it. “This must be a New Man trick.”

  “No doubt. Admiral Byron, should we attack the bug saucers?”

  Byron blinked several times before cocking his head as he peered at Maddox. “How did you know this?”

  “I didn’t know any of… Intuition, sir,” Maddox said, switching tack. “I knew it by intuition. A lucky guess.”

  Byron nodded weakly. “Yes, yes, they say you make uncanny guesses.” The admiral sat straighter. “Yes,” he said, his voice firming. “We must attack the saucers. They’re heading for our second line. This is an outrage.”

  “Hard fighting will save us yet, sir, under your leadership,” Maddox said.

  Once more Byron peered at him. The admiral nodded abruptly. “Yes, hard fighting and my leadership, you are correct. The enemy may have tricked us, but we have heavy metals upgrades. Now, it’s time the bugs learned just how deadly Star Watch battleships have become.”

  -18-

  As the other events occurred, Golden Ural on the Boreas held a meeting with his chief captains via screen-link. They were superiors like him, other highly ranked men on the Throne World, two of them his cousins.

  They had observed the detonating missiles’ gamma and X-rays striking the enemy ships and doing absolutely nothing to them.

  “I dislike correcting you, Ural. But those ships shimmered for a moment. I saw that before the whiteouts made it impossible to examine longer. So the gamma and X-rays did do something.”

  “The enemy ships shimmered,” Ural said. “That would imply—”

  “Phantom vessels,” another captain said. “This is an enemy trick.”

  As the council of ship-captains debated via screen-link, Ural’s sensor officer asked for his momentary attention.