The Short End: Broken Galaxy Book Four

by Phil Huddleston

  Meanwhile, Tika had moved to the next stage of her plan. She had piggy-backed on the Tornado’s command net to advance to the next ship - the Zeltid, a battlecruiser immediately below the Tornado in the cube formation. This time, the battle was easier - she had entered as part of the command net. Her credentials were legitimate. Within five minutes, she had overpowered the AI of the Zeltid and was in command of the ship.

  Quickly she changed the IFF codes of the ship to mark it as “friendly”. Then as before, she directed the Weps AI of the ship to re-target Tanno’s Nidarians in the battlecruiser cube in front of her.

  Now Tika split herself into four more entities. One went out over the command net to each of the surviving four battlecruisers in her cube.

  The game was on.

  Dekanna System

  Corvette Armidale

  The corvette UNSF Armidale surfaced in the Dekanna system, only a few million klicks from the initial entry point of the Ashkelon fleet. The flashing red lights on the wall of the corvette’s bridge told the story - the ship was at Battle Stations. Captain Duncan Aveline Stewart ran up the magnification on the holo and assessed the situation rapidly.

  The sight he saw knocked him back in his chair in shock.

  Wrecked starships and fighters dotted the battlefield in front of him in every direction. Hulks of destroyed ships burned from residual oxygen and onboard chemicals. Emergency beacons flashed from more than a thousand ejected pilots. Dozens of still intact warships blazed away at each other.

  There were two separate pockets of battle separated by a graveyard of broken ships. A bit to his relative left, the Human fleet appeared to be taking it on the chin from the Ashkelon command cube. Slightly to his relative right and farther back, the Dariama were toe-to-toe with the Nidarians.

  It was a madhouse of death and destruction.

  Duncan marked a spot in the holo between the two separate battle areas in front of him. A dense area of emergency beacons showed up in that space.

  “Helm, put us right there!” Duncan yelled. “Right in that space! We can’t stand and fight with these big boys, but by God we can start rescuing pilots!”

  “Aye, sir,” called the quartermaster at helm. The corvette turned and began powering into the battle zone.

  “What are you doing?” screamed Admiral Elliott, sitting behind Duncan in the observer’s chair. “What are you doing? Get us out of here!”

  With utter contempt in his voice, Duncan turned and glared at the white-faced Admiral sitting behind him.

  “Welcome to Dekanna, Admiral! You wanted to be here - well, you’re here!”

  Turning back to his bridge crew, Duncan indicated the spot once more, a large cluster of wreckage with hundreds of emergency beacons flashing.

  “Right there, Helm! Put us right there!”

  Dekanna System

  Battlecruiser Merkkessa

  With a loud crash, another missile struck the Merkkessa amidships. Bonnie instinctively grabbed the arm of her command chair as the bridge lurched from the force.

  “We lost another pulse cannon,” called Rachel beside her. Rachel’s console was now lit up with red lights - each one marking major damage to the Merkkessa.

  “I wanted to draw him out of column, and I did,” muttered Bonnie under her breath. “But be careful what you wish for,” she continued.

  Rachel didn’t know if Bonnie expected a response, or if her admiral was talking to herself. She decided the latter and maintained her silence.

  But it was true. The Merkkessa was taking a beating. She had lost 25% of her pulse cannon. The loss of each cannon left a hole in her point defense that could not be quickly stanched.

  Their ship was bleeding badly.

  Bekerose yelled at Lieutenant Carlson, his Tac Officer. “Guns, rotate us around. We’ve lost too much point defense on the port side.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  The Merkkessa rotated in space, moving their beat-up port side to the outer wall of the battlecruiser cube, providing some small element of protection from the enemy fire.

  But the battle between Zukra and Bonnie was now a close-range gunfight. The Revenge was less than a thousand klicks in front of the Merkkessa. By space warfare standards, they were at point-blank range, and still closing.

  Bonnie knew she should give ground. Logically, it was suicide to stand and fight like this. Her battlecruiser cube was being decimated.

  But she wasn’t retreating. Something inside her told her it would be a mistake.

  If I retreat now, they win. It’s that simple. They punch out of our trap and race for Dekanna. They’ll beat us there and hold the planet hostage.

  I’m not retreating. I draw the line right here, right now.

  Across the bridge, her Flag Captain Bekerose turned and looked at her. He didn’t have to say anything; they both knew the situation. She could read his thoughts.

  We give ground, or we die.

  But Bonnie gave a little shake of her head.

  No.

  A tiny smile lifted one corner of the Nidarian’s mouth. The message that passed between them was clear.

  Bekerose turned back to his bridge.

  “Stand and fight, people. Stand and fight them!” he yelled. “This is our moment!”

  The crew bent to their consoles, redoubling their efforts to fight off the attacks coming at them from Zukra’s battlecruiser cube.

  And the enemy kept coming.

  Dekanna System

  Nidarian Battlecruiser Ekkarra

  “Another one!” yelled Admiral Tanno. “Those bastards are turning on us!”

  In the holo, another Ashkelon battlecruiser in the rear cube had suddenly began firing at Tanno’s cube. There were now three Ashkelon battlecruisers shooting at him.

  “That’s it!” yelled Tanno. “Ekkarra, message to all ships: the Ashkelon have turned on us. As of now, consider them the enemy! Fire at will on all Ashkelon ships!”

 

  Tanno sat back in his command chair and fumed.

  I should never have trusted that bastard Zukra. I should have seen this coming.

  I think it’s time to leave this alliance.

  “Ekkarra, message to all ships: prepare to execute Zebra-One. We are departing the battle.”

 

  “Ekkarra, execute Zebra-One. Get us the hell out of here.”

 

  ***

  “M’lord! The Nidarians are leaving!” called Damra.

  Zukra stared at the holo in astonishment.

  “What? What are they doing?”

  “I don’t know, sir. There’re three battlecruisers in the rear cube shooting at the Nidarians now. It looks like Tanno has decided we’ve turned on him. He’s departing!”

  Clearly evident in the holo was the movement of Tanno’s Nidarians. His battlecruiser and cruiser cubes were departing the battlefield, along with his destroyers. A massive hole was opening in the center of Zukra’s fleet.

  “But how is Orma doing it?” Zukra yelled. “Turning traitor on the Tornado I can understand. But how is he convincing those other captains to follow him? Is this some kind of coup? In the middle of a battle?”

  Damra shook his head. “I don’t know, m’lord. But it looks like it might be something like that.”

  “I’ve had enough of this. Order cruiser squadrons Six and Seven to come about and attack Orma’s cube. Put him down, Damra!”

  “Sir, cruiser squadrons Six and Seven are Nidarian. They’re departing with Tanno. The only cruiser cubes in range are One and Four. But they’re protecting our edge.”

  “Detach them to attack Orma. I can’t have him coming up our backside.”

  “Aye, m’lord.”

  Zukra felt a sudden and quite surprising twinge of trepidation. The departure of Tanno cut his fleet in half. Worse, it left a gaping hole behind him. On the other side of that hole were the Dariama who had been slugg
ing it out with Tanno. And even as he watched, the Dariama cubes began a pivot to come into his rear.

  Could the Humans somehow be responsible for this? Did they form a secret alliance with Orma?

  “How are they doing this?” he yelled.

  “Sir, cruiser squadron Seven is now isolated in front of the Dariama. They’ll be cut to pieces. We must pull them back.”

  Zukra nodded. “Yes, yes. Bring them back here to protect our rear. Quickly, Damra!”

  “Aye, m’lord. And Orma’s battlecruiser cube Four is now turning toward us. I fear the worst, m’lord. Perhaps in light of this development, m’lord, we should consider withdrawing?”

  “Never!” roared Zukra. “I will not retreat one inch from these animals! We have that Human flagship on the ropes! Show some guts, Damra! Keep pounding away at the Merkkessa! We’ll punch our way out of this!”

  Dekanna System

  Ashkelon Battlecruiser Tornado

  Tika couldn’t help but gloat a bit.

  She had control of the entire rear cube of Ashkelon battlecruisers now. She had changed the IFF codes to show all six surviving battlecruisers as “friendly”.

  The battlecruiser Victory, along with the four cruisers in its formation, had recognized her new IFF codes and was no longer firing at her cube. Captain Westerly had joined on her left flank and was attacking into the nearest Ashkelon cruiser cube, keeping the enemy’s attention focused on him.

  That left her with nobody to fight. The Nidarians in front of her had bailed out of the battle and were already out of range, accelerating toward the mass limit to leave the system.

  Tika pivoted her entire battlecruiser cube, driving straight toward Zukra. The Revenge was six thousand klicks from her, just out of her range. But there were two cubes of cruisers protecting Zukra’s rear edge, side by side. Sixteen ships. She had to get through them first.

  If she went up and over, they would rise to meet her. If she went down and under, the same thing would occur.

  She decided to blast straight through them.

  Honesty is always the best policy, she grinned.

  Dekanna System

  Destroyer Dragon

  Luke’s destroyer cube was shot to pieces. There were only three destroyers left out of the original eight. In an attempt to provide some mutual protection from the barrage of enemy fire coming at them, the three surviving destroyers had re-grouped into a tight formation, a modified finger-four. In front of them, an almost-intact Ashkelon destroyer cube, with six of their original eight destroyers still in action, fired almost continuously at the remnants of his squadron.

  He had no place to go. His rear was up against the Merkkessa’s cube. And Bonnie showed no signs of retreating.

  Stand and deliver, buddy, he thought. Stand and deliver.

  Luke could see the fear in the eyes of his bridge crew. But they went about their jobs professionally, showing no sign of it.

  A good crew. I’m so proud of them.

  Dragon made a sudden hard pivot, moving her belly armor to take an incoming missile that had leaked through their point defense. With a huge crash, the missile knocked them up and to the side, one more hit out of a half-dozen they had incurred in the last twenty minutes.

  And two gamma lance strikes had gone through-and-through the ship, leaving a dozen compartments open to space - killing twenty of his crew. It was a miracle that neither strike had taken out his engines or weapons systems.

  “That last battlecruiser cube is coming hard now,” called Emma at Tac. “Coming at the back of that cruiser cube behind the destroyers. But their IFF is showing friendly - they’re marked as Goblins now!”

  Luke puzzled over the situation. Bonnie had provided a pre-battle briefing which had mentioned this possibility - that some of the enemy ships might change sides and be re-designated with new IFF codes. But she had given no details, citing operational security.

  How had she known? What’s going on?

  “It doesn’t matter, Emma. There’s plenty of other targets. A plethora. Just pick a direction and there’s an Ashkelon warship there. Just fire and you’ll hit one.”

  Emma managed a thin smile.

  “You got that right, Skipper.”

  Luke studied the holo. The three ships of his squadron represented the outer edge of the Human fleet now.

  To their left was the flagship cube. The Merkkessa, at the back of the flagship cube, was only a hundred klicks to his left rear.

  To his left front was Zukra’s flagship cube, pounding away at the Merkkessa. The Revenge was less than six hundred klicks away now, still coming on.

  In front of Luke was an Ashkelon destroyer cube throwing everything they had at the three survivors of his squadron. Beyond the destroyers was an oncoming Ashkelon cruiser cube, with the clear intentions of getting in close, punching them out and then moving on the Merkkessa.

  And just out of range behind those cruisers, coming in at an angle, was the newly re-designated battlecruiser cube of the Goblins, with the Victory and her four cruisers right beside it. All thirteen ships were charging at the rear of the Zukra’s group of battlecruisers and cruisers.

  C’mon, you bastards! Get in here before we’re all dead!

  Dragon shuddered as another missile exploded nearby, not impacting but close enough to shake the ship. The destroyer shuddered almost continuously from the near misses, and jerked left, right, up, down as the AI tried to avoid the incoming ordnance. There were so many missiles in the area that the Dragon’s AI had ceased to make callouts for them, reserving its computer cycles for point defense and evasive.

  Then Luke saw a fresh volley of missiles and gamma lance streaks from the enemy strike the Merkkessa. The flagship was almost hidden by the blaze of fire and energy from the assault. Luke groaned as the Merkkessa lurched to one side, clearly visible in the holo.

  That hurt her.

  Dekanna System

  Battlecruiser Merkkessa

  In the far distance, the Dariama were mixing it up with the last cruiser cube of Zukra’s fleet in a blazing fireworks show. Bonnie could see that Sobong and her ships were making slow but steady progress, pushing the enemy toward the rear of Zukra’s remaining column of ships.

  By the stars, I think it worked! It’s a mess out there - but the basic strategy is working! We drew him into a trap - and I don’t see any way he can get out of this now. If we can hold. If we can hold right here, we’ve got him!

  With a mighty crash, something shot through the bridge far too fast for the eye to see, leaving a bright green afterimage in Bonnie’s eyes. A trail of sparkling ionized air marked its trail. Every light on the bridge went out. Bonnie’s chair was thrown sideways, crashing against the deck, no longer attached to anything. The faceplate of her warsuit snapped down automatically due to lack of pressure.

  Gamma lance, Bonnie thought. Right through the bridge.

  Then a black curtain came down around her and she thought no more.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Dekanna System

  Ashkelon Battlecruiser Tornado

  “Tornado. I have a favor to ask,” said Orma.

  Tika heard the words through her comm interface. She had been ignoring all input from the Ashkelon crew, essentially locking them out of their own ship.

  But this was interesting. The captain on the bridge had spoken. The one who had sat quietly for the last twenty minutes as the rest of the crew worked madly trying to regain control of the ship, to no avail.

  Tika selected a private channel to the officer’s comm.

 

  “Let me tell you a story, please. About a time when the Ashkelon were still an honorable species. More than five thousand years ago…”

 

  “Somehow, we lost our honor. We lost our sense of pride in ourselves as a species. We became slavemasters - the first step toward depravity. Now that depravity has culminated in this battle. A battle we must lose, for the sake of our own souls.�
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  “I must be the one to kill Zukra. It is a matter of honor. Not for me personally - but for my species. I humbly ask that I be given that honor.”

  Tika thought about it for a few seconds. She understood what the officer was saying - in fact, she understood it all too well.

  The Goblins had always had a strong sense of honor. They prided themselves as a moral and ethical race. It was drummed into them from an early age. It was something that biologicals couldn’t seem to understand about the Goblins.

  Could this officer still retain a vestige of the pride and honor once shown by the Ashkelon?

  Was he telling the truth?

  Tika made a snap decision. She was now busy attacking the AI systems of the Ashkelon cruiser cube in front of her, and it was taking a lot of her attention. And even if she were wrong, and the officer turned on her, she could retake control of the Tornado with little effort.

 

  And with that, Tika released her hold on the ship, passed the command to Orma, and re-focused her efforts elsewhere.

  Dekanna System

  Destroyer Dragon

  That hurt her.

  Luke saw the Merkkessa stop firing. She began rotating slowly.

  She was out of action.

  She’s adrift. Zukra will punch right through her now.

  No. I won’t let it happen.

  “Dragon, notify the Amazon and the Namikaze we’re moving to protect the Merkkessa. Then put us directly between the Merkkessa and the Revenge as quickly as possible.”

 

  Luke felt a shudder go through Dragon as the ship turned sharply and headed for the Merkkessa. The accumulated damage to Dragon was making her unstable. He wasn’t even certain they could make it to the spot he needed to be.

  Hang in there, Dragon. Just a little bit longer.

  Dekanna System

  Merlin Fighter “Angel One”

  When the Tornado had started firing on the Nidarians, Jim had finally made the decision to return to the Merkkessa. His priority mission was complete. It was time to put the banged-up Merlin back in the hangar and get another one.