Morgan surprises Marlee at her apartment and apologizes for her poor behavior during Marlee’s visit to Chalmun Station. Morgan says she’s going to start helping Devon test new weapons tech and invites Marlee to join her.
Mia settles on Romane and starts developing a plan to open a multi-species expo and cultural center to educate humans on the other species of Concord. She sends a conciliatory message to Malcolm, opening the door a crack to them trying to mend their relationship.
Following the incident with the antimatter bomb, the Kats offer a solution to the Savrakath problem. Lakhes activates a device, called an Echo Rift, that will both lock the Savrakaths on their planet and prevent outsiders from reaching it, effectively isolating the Savrakaths from the rest of the universe.
Miriam and the others are enjoying a relaxing lunch at HQ when Pinchu arrives with dire news. During the Toki’taku battle, a Khokteh warship was captured by the Rasu, likely revealing many Concord secrets to the enemy. They then learn that a Rasu fleet is approaching Pinchu’s homeworld of Ireltse. The war has come to Concord.
CONTENTS
* * *
PART I
KINDRED
PART II
COUNTER
COUNTER
STRATAGEMS
PART III
FOG OF WAR
PART IV
AWAKENINGS
ALL OUR TOMORROWS
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“Let her sleep,
For when she wakes,
She will move mountains.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte
PART I
KINDRED
1
* * *
CAF AURORA
Ireltse Stellar System
Large Magellanic Cloud
Fractured shards of burnished metal littered the upper fringes of the planet’s atmosphere like the scattering of leaves in autumn. Twelve thousand Khokteh warships had been obliterated in a single, sweeping strike by the vanguard of the Rasu fleet.
Now the bulk of the enemy’s vanguard shielded Ireltse as if it owned the planet, preventing Concord vessels from setting up their own defensive perimeter while laying a treacherous gauntlet for any friendly ships that tried to reach the surface.
With plenty of forces to spare, a swarm of Rasu heavy frigates stretching at least five megameters wide and twice as deep were hot on Miriam Solovy’s tail as she sought a foothold from which to begin to turn back the onslaught.
Despite their exhaustive preparations over the last month, today the Rasu had caught them as flat-footed as rookie grunts on their first morning at boot camp. In the opening salvo of their now-explicit war with Concord, the Rasu had sneaked past their sensors and patrols to strike at one of Concord’s most important planets. Worse yet, this looked to be their largest assault to date.
Miriam had changed all the Concord protocols immediately upon learning of the presumed capture of a Khokteh vessel, but immeasurable damage had already been inflicted, in more than one respect.
It was what it was; nothing to do now but fight and scrape their way out of the ditch and through to the other side, where hopefully they could engineer a victory.
Commandant Solovy (CAF Aurora)(Ireltse Command Channel): “Fleet Admiral Jenner, until the Katasketousya fleet arrives to take over, I want the entire AEGIS presence to form a reverse blockade on our rear. Keep the Rasu’s second wave away from the planet until we’re able to gain control of the interior defensive perimeter.”
Fleet Admiral Jenner (AFS Denali)(Ireltse Mission Channel): “All AEGIS Battle Groups, with me.”
Not a peep of argumentativeness from the Fleet Admiral. It was good to have Malcolm back at the head of the AEGIS fleet.
Commandant Solovy (CAF Aurora)(Ireltse Command Channel): “Navarchos Casmir, demand the attention of the Rasu vessels in Upper Planetary Quadrant 3. While he’s doing so, Pointe-Amiral Thisiame, direct your fast-attack squadrons to flank the enemy along the fringes of Quadrant 3. So long as their trajectories are parallel to the surface or a minimum fifty-degree vector away from Ireltse, utilize negative energy weapons to rid us of their presence.”
Terse acknowledgments followed, and across the battlefield ships moved by the tens of thousands.
“Thomas, clear out the vessels that have been chasing us, then open fire on any Rasu larger than a frigate—conventional weapons only, but let’s make them feel it. We need to protect the forming blockade at our rear until our ships are firmly in position.” Her ship was staffed by a helmsman and a weapons officer, but at this point they served as backups. Thomas could handle both tasks with far greater speed and precision than any human, and with nearly as much ingenuity.
Rasu weapons fire peppered the Aurora’s double-shielding, since this close to the planet she was forgoing the use of the Dimensional Rifter, but she paid it no mind. The reality was, the only thing the Rasu could do to damage the Aurora was to swallow it whole, and that was not going to happen a second time.
‘Weapons are hot and…firing.’
The viewport lit up with the beams from the Aurora’s ten discrete laser weapons, and Miriam’s thoughts raced onward to the next tactical step. Initial scans picked up less than two thousand Khokteh warships still flying above the planet, and none of them was the flagship.
Tokahe Naataan, please respond. Concord forces have reached Ireltse space. I need to know your location and status.
Thankfully, a swift response arrived.
As the entire planet is my responsibility, I am overseeing its defense from the Center. Wohasi Heaka is commanding the space fleet. However, as of six minutes ago, he is no longer responding to comms.
I regret to inform you that your space contingent took a brutal hit shortly before we engaged the Rasu. Please continue to direct your forces from the ground. We’ll handle things up here.
I’ve just ordered another three battalions to divert from Nengllitse and—
Tokahe Naataan, if a ship is not equipped with either a Dimensional Rifter or double defensive shielding, I must advise you to keep it out of direct fire for now. It’s ugly above the planet.
Understood.
She heard the undercurrent of a growl in his reply. The Khokteh were a proud people, and none more so than Pinchu, but the Rasu had obliterated their planetary defenses and most of their fleet in minutes.
Not for the first time, she rued the stubborn arrogance of the AEGIS bureaucrats in their flat-out refusal to share adiamene with any alien species. She understood their professed arguments in favor of the choice, but right now people were dying—people who, due to the particularities of their biology, were unable to take advantage of regenesis—and they didn’t have to be. The Khokteh worlds were uniformly metal-poor, for reasons only the Kats knew. The Khokteh scraped together every kilo of metal they could mine to make the strongest hulls possible for their warships, yet those hulls were collapsing like muslin beneath the might of concentrated Rasu firepower.
Over the last fourteen years, the Khokteh had become more than simply allies. They were Concord, as surely as humanity was, and she would not allow the Rasu to take this planet.
Another message came in from Pinchu then.
Commandant, the planetary sensors that are still operational have registered several dozen Rasu ships in the lower atmosphere and descending rapidly. Ground forces are moving to intercept them.
Acknowledged. Expect some help on the surface soon.
Of course the Rasu had already reached the ground. Dammit, she’d been scrambling to play catch-up since the minute she’d arrived. How to alter the battlefield to regain the advantage?
‘Commandant, a notification from Hyperion indicates the Kat fleet is now on rapid approach from the outskirts of the stellar system.’
Well, their presence would certainly help in this regard.
Com
mandant Solovy (CAF Aurora)(Ireltse Command Channel): “Hyperion, welcome to the battle. Everyone, let’s spin the Rasu’s heads. Hyperion, take over for the AEGIS forces and maintain a reverse blockade facing outward from the planet.
“Fleet Admiral Jenner, have the AEGIS Battle Groups take the Machim fleet’s place in burrowing a beachhead through Upper Planetary Quadrant 3, then expand from there as you’re able.
“Navarchos Casmir, shift your space forces to Quadrant 4 and send all ground detachments and planetary aerial squadrons to the surface. Fleet Admiral Jenner, send yours as well. Interface directly with the Tokahe Naataan to coordinate your responses to Rasu atmospheric incursions.”
She took the time to admire the beauty of several hundred thousand warships erupting in seeming chaos, flinging themselves across the battlefield then regrouping in unconventional formations, all within seconds. Thanks to Artificials, Prevos and the accelerating advancement of technology they brought with them, this was not her father’s warfare.
Speaking of weapons that had been unimaginable a mere two decades ago, though, where was their promised Rift Bubble?
2
* * *
AFS TAMAO
Ireltse Stellar System
“M arine squads A3, A4 and A5, report to your DAR craft for immediate deployment to the surface. Dropship pilots, acknowledge when you are heavy. Marine squads B4 and B6, prep to deploy in fifteen minutes.”
Colonel Carl Odaka studied the list of available forces, searching for ways to augment the groundside squads, then sent a message on one of the mission sub-channels. “Lt. Colonel Grenier, my men are going to need air support in the marked grid in ten minutes. What can you give them?”
DAR A: “We are heavy and ready to launch.”
“Two fighter squadrons and one Eidolon squadron are launching in two minutes to help clear the road to the surface. Once your squads are on the ground, I’ll give them cover down there for as long as it’s practical.”
“My intent is for it to be practical all the way to victory. Sending you the squad contacts now.” He’d think uncharitable thoughts about the courage of fighter pilots, but in truth most he’d known were certifiably insane. It was their commanders who were the milksops.
DAR B: “We are heavy and ready to launch.”
DAR C: “We are heavy and ready to launch.”
“DAR A, B and C, you are go for launch. DAR D and E, prepare for deployment in twelve minutes. Marine squads B1, B2 and B5, begin deployment preparations.”
Odaka wanted to send entire regiments down in one fell swoop, but the reality was they could better penetrate the Rasu blockade and establish defensible positions by moving in small groups. And in half an hour, he’d have over a thousand Marines engaging the enemy on the ground.
In the corner of his vision, the intra-ship activity screen confirmed the DARs’ exit from the carrier’s massive ship hold and initial descent into the atmosphere.
A twinge in his gut protested; he wanted badly to be on one of those dropships. Wanted to get his hands dirty with Rasu blood, or grease, or whatever they bled. But he wasn’t going to make the same mistake Malcolm Jenner had. His men needed him alive and commanding them far more than they needed one additional gun on the ground. So he would stay on the bridge and do his duty.
IRELTSE
AFS Drop and Recovery Vessel B
Lieutenant Tele Diya leaned in over Major Whalesk’s shoulder to peer out at the battlefield as they descended, stealthed, toward the surface. The fortified isolation of the Tamao’s hold hadn’t allowed him to get any sense of how they were faring so far, and this was his first glimpse at the ongoing clash. But he was a Marine, not a warship commander, and from this vantage all he saw was bedlam and destruction on both sides.
Whalesk, however, kept his attention fixed on the HUD. “Tele, get your ass in a jump seat before you land face-first in the supply closet.”
“Yes, Major, sir.” He’d known Whalesk for a couple of years, and he and the pilot had shared at least half a dozen missions by now—most recently the nightmare of a mission on Savrak. So while he obeyed the order from a superior officer, he laced his retort with a teasing tone.
Diya had barely gotten strapped in when the first hard bumps of the atmosphere hit, and he privately conceded that had he been standing, they might well have tossed him face-first directly into the supply closet.
He nodded a greeting at Captain Chacko across the hold. He knew Chacko somewhat less well than Whalesk, but the man had played a large role in pulling his broken body out of the literal fire on Savrak, so he was now forever prepared to take a laser shot for the man. Granted, he’d take one for any of his teammates, but he’d jump in front of one for Chacko.
The rough-and-tumble atmospheric run finally eased, and the interior walls transformed into visual projections of their descent path so they’d know what they were heading into.
It would be too pithy by half to say what they were ‘heading into’ was a warzone, but it was the most apt description. Rasu aerial vessels created havoc, haze and rubble across the city. Squads of Khokteh fighters and interceptors gave chase, but he watched four of them explode in less than twenty seconds. Damn, was everyone getting their butts kicked out here?
A squad of hardier Eidolons swept in from above to join the battle, and he started to feel a little better about their chances. The Artificial fighters were unequivocal badasses.
Whalesk came over the speaker. “Thirty seconds to drop.”
Everyone unfastened their restraints and stood. Diya double-checked all his gear—which, as the team’s tech officer, amounted to twice as much as anyone else carried. Though at least he didn’t need to haul around one of the bulkier heavy guns everyone else toted.
He did, however, sport one of the new handheld negative energy guns. The Rectifier was the damnedest weapon he’d ever laid eyes on. Interdimensional magical destruction that he could hold in one hand.
The DAR was sturdy enough to take a beating, and it descended through constant fire to hover less than three meters above a dusty street in the central quadrant of the city. The rear bay door lowered and everyone leapt out, adopting a defensive formation once boots were on the ground.
Captain Harris checked everyone off. “The Center is four hundred meters to our east. Khokteh troops are manning the immediate perimeter. Our job today is to keep ground-based Rasu from so much as ruffling their fur. Lieutenant Diya?”
“Launching surveillance drones.” The five drones were each no bigger than a fly. They were programmed to sweep the area around the squad in all four directions up to a kilometer in the sky, sending visual and auditory feeds to Diya to alert him to any Rasu advances.
Harris pointed to his left, then his right. “Team Alpha, establish a defensive position on the—”
Diya had no choice but to interrupt him. “Four giant Rasu mechs are incoming from the south-southwest. Sixty meters and closing fast.”
“Snipers on the roof to the left! I want rocket launchers staged behind that trashed vehicle over there. Everyone else, defensive positions. Let’s set the net.”
Diya had just flattened himself against the alley-side exterior wall of what appeared to be a weird Khokteh clothes shop when the four Rasu mechs rounded the corner one block down, charging ahead like buffalo in a stampede. Lieutenant Viyan let loose a rocket that slammed into the right-most one, shredding it into a hundred pieces. But it didn’t disintegrate the Rasu, because Diya’s squad had not yet been blessed with a supply of the much-rumored Asterion Rima Grenades.
‘Sniper rifle’ was something of a misnomer for the weapons the marksmen carried as they used a combination of lift boots and powered backpacks to ‘climb’ up the wall to the roof and sight down on the mechs. The slugs their weapons fired were akin to tiny drones, adjusting their trajectories mid-flight to strike moving targets at a location designated by the shooter to cause maximum damage.
Two more mechs shattered while he got into posit
ion, then a follow-up rocket launched to tear up the fourth, and scattered-but-not-dead Rasu pieces darkened the stone street.
Now it was his turn. He sent a specialized drone toward the wreckage that emitted a signal shown to interfere with the Rasu’s…intentional activity, he guessed. In testing, it slowed down the Rasu’s ability to move and reform by up to thirty percent, but this was the first time he’d used it in the field.
One of the surveillance drones swept by overhead to give him a close look at the kill zone and…well, the Rasu pieces were slinking around listlessly and not glomming themselves back into mech shapes, so the emitter must be working.
The squad had spread out beyond earshot, so he switched to comms.
Lieutenant Diya: “Targets R1-4 neutralized for now.”
An encroaching shadow heralded the approach of a long, flattish Rasu vessel. He peered up to see it stop to hover eighty meters from their location. A circular platform descended out of its belly, carrying several dozen additional Rasu mechs toward the street below.
Captain Harris: “Prepare for incoming.”
AMF IMPERIUM ALPHA
Ireltse Stellar System
As the bulk of his warships rearranged themselves and prepared to drive a wedge through the Rasu forces blockading the planet, Casmir elasson-Machim dispatched four hovertank regiments to the surface. The Rasu were gaining a major foothold in the northwest sector of the city, and troops on foot were not going to wipe them out on their own. Air support looked to be occupied dogfighting the smaller Rasu craft for the foreseeable future, so it was up to the hovertanks to tip the balance on the surface.
All Our Tomorrows Page 2