by Alex Guerra
“Good, let’s get it done, people,” I said. “For the conglomerate!”
“For the conglomerate!” the team cheered.
TWENTY-TWO
It didn’t take long to get the Yau and their belongings onto Dagger. Vira took off for Nemetor with her prototype weapons aboard her ship. Strapping Feylan into one of the seats in the hold, I switched to Piki next to her. Her big, yellow eyes studied me as I worked the harness.
“Arthur,” said Piki. “Will you all be alright?”
I gave the question some thought. “I don’t know honestly,” I admitted. “But I’d like to hope so.”
“Oh…” she wrung her hands anxiously. “Do you have to go?”
“A lot of people are counting on us, and we can’t let them down,” I said, finishing with the harness. I crossed my arms and looked at the young Yau.
“You’re going to rescue people…like you did with us?” she asked.
“Something like that,” I said with a shrug.
“That was very dangerous,” she said. “Are your friends okay?”
“Piki,” said Entosh, interrupting the girl. “Arthur needs to prepare for what lay ahead.”
“I’m sorry, Arthur,” she said, looking guilty.
“It’s alright,” I said, wanting to put the young child at ease before she left. “Garvo—the big guy—he’s doing better now. He was down on the planet with me earlier. Del will be healing for another day at most, and we will eventually get him a new leg as well. I’ll let them know you were thinking about them.”
“Good,” she said.
I glanced at the timer on my dataslate, noting that we only had over thirty minutes until the jump.
“We have to get you going,” I said. “Dotty will fly you to Dawn’s Horizon and drop you off. I still have a few things to do here before we leave.”
“Be safe,” said Entosh, and Piki nodded with the sentiment.
“Come back in one piece. I still have lots of questions to ask you,” said Piki.
“How about you write down your questions on that dataslate of yours, so you don’t forget anything. I will happily answer every single one of them when I come back?” I suggested.
“Okay, I will,” she said with a smile.
“Be well,” I said, giving her a final reassuring smile before leaving Dagger. “Dotty, send them off.”
I watched the three Yau as the ramp slowly closed. We waved at each other until the ramp obscured our views. Leaving the hangar, the door sealed behind me, and Dagger went on its way.
*****
Dagger returned with fifteen minutes to spare, and the troopers placed all their weapons and equipment aboard. Fully geared, the team took their seats on the bridge.
“Open a channel to Nemetor,” I said, tucking my helmet under my arm. I wanted to show my face to the admiral and address him properly before going underway.
“Channel open,” said Dotty. The main screen displayed the bridge of Nemetor, showing several red-uniformed personnel working at their stations. An imposing, barrel-chested alien was front and center, with one hand behind his back and the other resting on the railing before him.
“Nemetor, this is Captain Holland of The Pillar,” I said to the light, gray alien with yellow dots patterned throughout his skin.
“This is Admiral Rannek, we read you, Captain,” said the admiral in a gruff and raspy voice.
“Has Vira installed the new weapons aboard your ship?” I asked.
“She finished installing the first and will have the second ready to go before we are underway,” he replied, as the tentacles around his mouth resembling a mustache, moved up and down vigorously.
“I trust that all of the ships have set their proper coordinates?” I asked. “We will be jumping right into the thick of it.”
“The fleet is ready to go as soon as the timer reaches zero. I will command the fleet from here, but I am not quite sure as to the armament of your ship, although…” the admiral paused, “I have heard rumors of its combat prowess.”
“The Pillar can handle herself,” I said.
“Very well then,” he said. “I will leave it to you to attack and assist as you deem necessary.”
“Admiral,” I asked. “What do your ground forces look like? Do you have significant transport if we need to make landfall and begin evacuations?”
“I was hoping it would not come to that, but I share your concerns,” he said, with a grunt akin a sigh. “The fleet has 1,200 troopers and two armor divisions with tanks and armored suits. We will have sufficient ground forces coupled with whatever the other systems’ fleets bring along. Unfortunately, we will not have the means to carry out a planet-wide evacuation should it come to that.”
Not being able to evacuate the population was a concern, but it would be impossible to bring so many people offworld. “Very well then, we will see you on the other side. Good luck, Admiral,” I said.
“Same to you, Captain,” he said, closing the channel.
“That’s a lot of forces we’re bringing with us,” said Kayton.
“This will not be a repeat of Vallus,” said Seya. “Knowing how The Pillar performed in the last fight, I believe the empire will be in for a bit of a surprise.”
“We can only hope,” I said, walking towards the front of the bridge to address the team. “I don’t know what we are going to run into when we enter the Kenadus system. While Dotty will take care of the ship’s combat tasks, I ask that you be ready to depart at a moment’s notice. In the meantime, prepare yourselves for one hell of a ride.” I scanned the room and looked at each team member. Besides Seya and Garvo, each of the Codari troopers looked nearly identical to one another with their helmets on. Even without my HUD, I had learned to distinguish each Codari individual. “Thanks for sticking with me.”
“We wouldn’t miss a chance like this,” said Kayton with the team responding in kind.
Taking my seat in the captain’s chair, I donned my helmet—the suit popping and hissing around my collar. The harness came over the top of me, pressing me firmly into the seat. The timer had a little over a minute left. To my left sat Kayton, who keyed away at her dataslate. To my right, Seya stayed eerily still with her hands positioned in the meditative stance I had seen her do countless times. Throughout the bridge, everyone was going through their own preparation rituals—be it prayer, meditation, or fidgeting.
Thirty seconds left. My skin squirmed beneath my suit, and a chill slowly ran down my back.
All viewports had their blast shields engaged with the panoramic view displayed in their stead, showing the normal ships view. I spotted the Fengar fleet flanking us on either side of The Pillar, poised and ready for the engagement.
Twenty seconds left.
“Engaging shields. Beginning wormhole sequence,” said Dotty in its calm and smooth voice. What I would give to be a computer about now as the adrenaline gushed through me, forcing me to squeeze my hands into fists while fighting for a sense of calm. A hum rolled through the ship as the shield enveloped us.
Ten seconds remaining.
A green crack appeared before us and all the Fengar ships, slowly tearing open into a hole just big enough for the vessels to slip through with a few dozen yards of clearance around it.
Beyond the wormhole, we spotted Darkkon ships engaged with the dwindling conglomerate ships of the Kenadus system. The coordinates worked, and we would be jumping in mere miles aft of the enemy ships.
Here we go, I thought, taking a deep breath. The Pillar inched forward, nosing through the opening as the timer reached zero. Fengar ships simultaneously made the jump alongside us. The bridge passed over the plane separating the two systems. Dotty opened the comms from the fleet. Status updates came streaming in from multiple voices, one at a time.
“Group one is clear of the gateway,” came one of the captain’s soft voice.
“Group two is clear. No issues,” came another. The Fengar fleet divided itself into five separate groups—mix
ed vessels ranging in size from small fighters and carriers to frigates and destroyers. Nemetor was a hulking capital ship in the fifth fleet.
“The Pillar is clear,” chimed in Dotty to the fleet. The green glow was no longer visible on the hull of our ship, signaling the wormhole closing behind us.
“Nemetor to groups two and three, engage. All other groups move to your designated waypoints,” voiced Admiral Rannek.
Dotty zoomed in on other points of space. The viewports and the other three system fleets, successfully followed instructions to enter the system, lagging only a few seconds behind us. The few seconds of delay was remarkable, given the coordination between lightyears of travel.
A small screen by the arm of my chair noted that there were now 341 conglomerate ships in the system, including the dwindling defenders of Kenadus. The Darkkon fleet was at a total of 296 ships—an even fight I hoped, although many of their ships were larger than what we had.
Statistics—only available on my personal screen—showed that we currently had a sixty-eight percent chance of victory in a standup fight, but I wondered if that was considering the ambush we were about to commit to or not.
Chatter between the newly arrived fleets and our own was getting hectic. “Dotty, filter only the messages from the admirals at this point,” I ordered.
The flood of communications ceased immediately. Darkkon ships scattered throughout the system, but the bulk of their fleet was bearing down on the forces outside of the nearest planet of Lumarus.
The initial groups sent to engage were underway, beginning their attack. Only a minute passed before the entire fleet joined in the firefight. Conglomerate ships moved in directly behind the enemy and also attacked from below, targeting the thinnest locations of the hulls and engines.
Plumes of smoked washed out from around the conglomerate ships, as they let loose a coordinated barrage on the enemy, catching them off guard. The streams of missiles and laser fire pierced and punched many of the ships, with their shields taking the brunt of the damage. Shields dropped, damaging the hulls only on the ships that faced consecutive, focused attacks of the initial volley. Enemy decks glowed orange with fire that erupted from the attack, as some of the ships blew up entirely—their large chunks of hulls splashing over their nearest allies, causing more damage like giant frag grenades in space.
Our ambush paid off, damaging or crippling about a quarter of their fleet, but we were still in for a hell of a fight.
The enemy was now countering our missiles with their phalanx turrets, only allowing a small percentage of the projectiles to go through.
“Dotty,” I said after seeing the battle play out before me. “We need to stay on defense, for now, to conserve our power as much as we can. Assist the fleet for any return fire we encounter. Only attack if there is a prime target.”
“Parameters set,” replied the A.I.
It wasn’t long before the enemy committed more of their fleet towards the attacking conglomerate ships. Similar plumes of smoke erupted from their side, as the familiar red missiles slowly arched away and found their heading towards our forces. While the missiles bore down on us, the Darkkon ships repositioned themselves as best as they could in the interim, safeguarding their weak spots.
Our ships countered the missiles with small projectiles that fragmented once they were within range. We set the open field between us ablaze with explosions, successfully countering most of the incoming missiles. Our fleet shot down any lucky missile that escaped the initial barrage with another volley. The Pillar joined in, spitting a stream of green plasma at the incoming threat.
A few missiles made it through the firestorm, damaging eleven of our ships. It was nearly impossible to shoot the swarm down completely. Ships rocked throughout the formation, their stabilizers firing rapidly to right the ship from the incredible forces that came off the powerful blasts. Any space dust or residual smoke from the initial attack blew away in perfect spheres around the ships affected.
The conglomerate didn’t have the protection of the shields that the Darkkon did. We couldn’t afford to take hits like they could. Eight of the eleven ships exploded, while the remaining three suffered catastrophic failure due to either their weapons systems or controls. Two rolled out of control—the nearby ships desperately evading the runaway vessels just in time to avoid a collision.
“Energy spikes coming from the enemy fleet,” noted Dotty.
“Locate and disable those ships,” I ordered.
“Locked. Firing,” said the A.I.
Six green orbs shot out in quick succession. The enemy tried to fire at the orbs, but their attacks failed, either passing right through or missing completely. Reaching their destination throughout the enemy fleet, the orbs expanded, each engulfing several ships—their lights dimming and shutting off.
“Admiral Rannek,” I called over comms. “Use the lull to our advantage. Fire at the spots where the orbs hit.”
Relaying the order, all our forces rained missiles and struck out with concentrated laser fire upon the disabled enemy. Throughout the Darkkon fleet’s line, ships exploded like fireworks, and chaos ensued as their ships struggled to navigate through the debris. Ships collided, their shields lighting up with blue electricity before popping, as their hulls scraped and bashed each other.
Their rear line repositioned themselves in front of the now damaged forward line, shrugging off the follow-up attacks the conglomerate threw at them with fresh shields.
“Another energy spike throughout the line,” said Dotty.
“Fire again,” I ordered.
“The enemy is boosting their shields,” replied the A.I.
Looking closely at the viewscreen, the enemy was making a formidable shield wall, pressing forward together as one. Our forces continued firing missiles at the line of vessels, but the shields coupled with phalanx turrets, made short work of them as they continued towards us on an intercept course.
“The enemy wishes to engage in close quarters,” said Admiral Rannek.
“This is Admiral Aslen,” said the admiral of the Bekuni system’s conglomerate fleet. “My fleet will attempt to do an intersystem jump to lock up the enemy ahead of the line.”
“Is that even possible?” asked Rannek.
“Yes, we have tested it extensively in our system,” Aslen replied. “I suggest you send your fleets forward for a pincer attack.”
“Do it,” ordered Rannek.
Off the portside of our ship, the Bekuni ships fired off one last salvo of missiles, using the smoke to temporarily mask the jump. The green tears formed some distance in front of the conglomerate ships and then simultaneously off to the starboard side of the enemy line approaching us. With incredible speed, the ships slipped through the opening, appearing in both places at once for a moment.
Admiral Aslen’s fleet screamed out of the exits which were now slightly behind the first line of advancing Darkkon ships and in front of the damaged line behind it. The conglomerate ships slipped through the two rows of enemy ships, leveling them with large broadside attacks. Aslen’s fleet didn’t stop until they had run through the entire fleet, exiting out of the line to the right of our screens.
Either due to fear of hitting their own ships or pure astonishment, the Darkkon didn’t fire at the conglomerate fleet in their midst until it was too late.
Cheers erupted from the team, throwing fists into the air and bouncing in their seats as much as the restraints allowed at the successful attack. On my chair’s smaller screen, the attack replayed at a slower speed. It looked as if the enemy’s shields were stronger in the front, but some of Aslen’s attacks penetrated the exposed rear of the ships pressing in on the front line.
They couldn’t completely envelope themselves!
Fengar ships closed in on the distracted enemy, and a swarm of strike ships shot out of the swollen carriers. Darkkon fighters responded and intercepted the opposition. Anti-air turrets lining the large ships gunned down any fighters that strayed too
far from their formations and fireballs streaked through open space.
“Bekuni fleet, going in for another pass,” said Admiral Aslen once again. Ending their previous run, wormholes opened on the far portside of the enemy line, cracks and tears of the exit forming again behind the damaged second line.
We moved forward with the Fengar ships, and upon reaching a proper effective range, the fleet streamed large lasers which splashed over the enemy’s blue shields. The shields slowly turned pink then red before they popped, while the red lasers splashed and melted into the exposed hulls.
While the conglomerate forces continued to press on the enemy, being closer allowed the enemy to retaliate with lasers of their own. The monstrous weapons erupted, sending lines of red-orange energy over the weaker, unshielded conglomerate ships. The best defense against the lasers was to keep moving or to rotate the ships while firing back. This would reduce the amount of time the laser could focus on one spot on a hull long enough, weakening it and eventually melting through its outer layers. But it didn’t take long for the weapons to do their damage.
Despite the fleet moving and rotating, the energy output of the enemy lasers seemed to be a lot higher than our own. A mere four or five second burst from the sustained laser would easily burn holes through our ships, the slagged hulls melting white hot and the affected decks venting atmosphere—and on occasion, people.
Ships on both sides of the field were going up in flames. Upon the Bekuni fleet’s second strike, the rear line recovered enough to shoot back. Some of the friendly vessels received critical damage before completing their attack run. They used their momentum as best as possible to steer their doomed vessels into the enemy fleet in a last-ditch, kamikaze attack, smacking into Darkkon vessels and smashing their bodies together.
Secondary explosions rattled through the line as the ships crashed and sent chunks of debris in every direction, some entering the area the small strike ships were battling. The meteor shower of busted hulls screamed through the dense fighting and continued into infinity, taking with them the ships of distracted or unskilled pilots.
