Retribution

by T. R. Harris

  What made Zorin sick was the fact that this was all by design. While Zorin and his Consolidated Fleet fought their way to Earth, the Antaere and Ha’curn ships—numbering over a thousand—would lay back and let Zorin and his forces suffer the bulk of the losses. When he pointed this out to the Antaere commanders, they simply looked at him with disgust, saying it was the price they would pay for their disloyalty to the Order. They always said it was about disloyalty to the Order, when they really meant disloyalty to the Antaere. Millions of beings would die today because the Antaere had been disrespected.

  And now it was the fate of his fleet that they would be used simply to clear the minefield for the main force. It was a thoughtless task, but one which Zorin would obey.

  Perhaps—when the Humans are gone—things will change, Zorin thought. Again, he prayed to the Order, even though he knew in his heart his prayers would go unanswered.

  “Your forces are in position,” said Lead Insir Aric Nesan impatiently on the comm link. “Why do you delay?”

  “Assessing the position of the screen targets, Lead Insir,” Zorin answered.

  Aric studied the Enif Califont, a comparable rank to First Insir in Antaere military. He knew the being was lying. He was scared, and it showed. Aric fumed. Never should a commander show fear leading into a battle. It did not bode well for coming fortunes.

  “Commence your move into the system; you are so ordered.”

  “I obey, Lead Insir. All battle recordings are linked with your flagship. Updates in real-time.”

  “Just do it, Califont. The Order will protect your troops, even as you make amends for your blasphemy. Prove your worth today and all will be forgiven.”

  “Proceeding with first phalanx.”

  Zorin gave the order for the first piercing squadron to enter the contested zone. With the defenders spread over a large sphere, he intended to make a quick strike into the heart of the system, entering from above the ecliptic to avoid the cover of planets, moons and other obstacles. He knew the Humans would then attempt to consolidate their defenses along his path. If this became too effective, he would divert some of his force to a less-guarded region and proceed from there.

  Zorin had been involved in only a handful of major battles in his career, with this being the largest by far. In all the others, there was a feeling of excitement and anticipation at the outset. This time he felt drained, and not a single shot had been fired to this point. He was leading his people into a slaughter, and apparently only he was concerned.

  Eighty-fours ships—one lumos—entered the sphere, and immediately, fourteen disappeared from his screen. Combat techs began shouting reports from their stations aboard his flagship. Mines—possible magnetic—had locked onto the ships and destroyed them. Such devices were immune to energy shields, which were designed to absorb and then dissipate plasma bolts, and not solid objects.

  Other energy signatures now appeared, these being uncrewed, autonomously controlled spaceships packed with high explosives, steering toward his ships without fear or hesitation. His cruisers opened fire, destroying most of the incoming. Even so, eight more of his units were taken from the board.

  Zorin ordered a second lumos to enter the fray. The first sortie cleared out a region of space at a distance from Earth equal to that of the large blue gas giant Neptune. Zorin had all the information he needed about the Solar System; Earth had once been a welcome member of the Grid with no secrets from the Antaere. Now he sent additional ships in and watched with almost sad detachment as more of the defending contacts began to move toward the line of his penetration. All these vessels and mines had gravity drives, so it did not take them long to fill the space forward of his advance. More of his ships became casualties, as it appeared the Humans had a greater number of passive mines in the area than anticipated.

  However, their numbers were limited, as were his.

  He watched as the myriad of contact lights on the screen moved to the battle zone, now forming an almost solid white line of resistance into which his forces flowed. For a moment, there appeared to be a stalemate, as his ships and the white line of the defenders met and remained static for several moments with all of his leading ships being destroyed at that point. Fortunately, the balance did not sustain itself for long, and his fleet began an inexorable move closer to the target world.

  Zorin checked the numbers. He was down to only eight hundred four serviceable ships, and it looked as though the defense screen was almost gone.

  “Detach lumos nineteen through twenty-four to grid section thirty-eight,” he commanded. Orders were barked across the bridge.

  The time had come to send some of his ships into clearer space and make a mad dash to Earth. All his ships were equipped with nuclear devices, and if he could get close enough, he could unleash several to disrupt the command forces on the planet. He had specific orders which parts of the planet he could bomb. The Antaere knew their Ha’curn savages could not destroy the entire population of Earth themselves. The southern continents were to be irradiated, leaving an area called America and Europe to the Ha’curn. Even then, the radiation would eventually spread around the globe. The Ha’curn could only stay on the planet for a limited time. Then the rest of the planet would be destroyed. It was a sensible and straightforward plan, and one Zorin had no doubt would succeed. The only question was whether or not any of his weapons would lay the groundwork for the invasion. As it looked at this time, they would.

  “Califont K, recall your ships.”

  It was the Lead Insir on the link again.

  “Repeat,” Zorin said, confused.

  “Recall your ships. The space on that side of the system appears clear enough for my forces to make the run to Earth. You shall continue to clear out the defenders in your sector.”

  “There is no need, Lead Insir. If we can reach Earth, all resistance should subside.”

  “My forces are the ones who will reach the planet first. Is that understood? You are to continue with your original mission.” The screen went blank.

  Zorin trembled with anger. He was being ordered to send his remaining forces into a maelstrom where several hundred more ships would be destroyed, and for no purpose he could see. Already, the main Human military force was engaging his ships. Many would break off to meet the threat posed by Aric Nesan, but it would not come soon enough.

  The destruction of Earth was a foregone conclusion. Why make it any more tragic for his fleet than necessary? Zorin knew the answer; it was Aric’s way of punishing the Grid.

  Reluctantly, Zorin recalled his ships and steered them along the original course. As expected, he had to wait several minutes before Aric’s fleet showed up on his screens, giving his ships and the Human fleet more time to engage. If the battle continued as it was, with no break off of the Human military forces to engage Aric, his entire fleet would be destroyed. That was never part of the plan.

  But apparently, plans change.

  Lead Insir Aric Nesan stood upon a raised platform in the center of his huge battle bridge. He was aboard his flagship—the Order Flame—a massive battle-carrier, the largest vessel in the Antaere fleet. It was also the only remaining carrier in the Antaere arsenal. In truth, the Antaere warships that made up a third of his attack force were nearly the last of their inventory. The ever-lasting Antaere-Human war had not been kind to his people. Their fleet had been drawn down to such a level that only the inclusion of the Ha’curn ships gave them any great firepower. Of course, the Ha’curn ships were in reality Antaere ships, built by the feline race with subtle differences that disguised their origin. But now they were an integral part of his strike force, rounding out his numbers of just over one thousand vessels. That wasn’t counting the two thousand attack fighters carried in the bays of his carrier and those of the larger cruisers. That was the normal complement of fighters, although Aric doubted they would be needed in this operation. Califont K and his Consolidated Fleet were doing an admirable job of clearing the space surrounding Earth of
the defenders. There should not be much resistance for his run to Earth.

  Even so, Aric gave credit to the Humans. They were putting up a stiff defense even in the face of overwhelming odds. K and his forces would be fortunate to survive with even a tenth of their strength intact. However, Aric couldn’t count on that. The Humans still had a respectable military space force, including two of their battle-carriers. They would surely send them against his fleet. That was when the fighters would come into play. He wasn’t worried. As with all things Human, the Antaere had intimate knowledge of their capabilities. For nearly ten years, the Antaere maintained a Temple on Earth, with thousands of his people living on the planet. Most were spies, and they accumulated a wealth of information on what would soon become the Antaere’s greatest enemy. Aric knew what weapons the Humans could bring to bear on his fleet. And although he would overwhelm them, he would not come out of this unscathed. The Humans would fight to the last ship. They had no choice.

  Unlike Zorin’s flagship, Aric had his vessel positioned as part of the main force racing toward Earth. It was the most powerful ship in the fleet and, therefore a vital part of the mission. However, out of caution, he had a screen of defensive fighters out to a half a million miles around his ship, watching for any of the pesky mines or suicide missiles. He laughed out loud, drawing the attention of those around him. What amused him: Unlike Zorin’s flagship, it would take more than a single mine to disable or destroy the Order Flame. A lot more.

  “Contacts appearing, Lead Insir,” reported a scope-tech. “From dark status.”

  This was expected. Not all the Human defenders would be visible through energy signatures. This would be their stealth fleet, in anticipation of Aric’s strategy.

  The Lead Insir was an experienced military officer, and therefore, he knew not to underestimate an enemy. And the Humans had proven to be the most capable of any in the history of the Antaere. He would be a fool to take them for granted. That was why the security screen was in place.

  “Track and engage the enemy. Give me a count.”

  “At the moment, only forty or so,” said the tech. “More are appearing, although sparingly.”

  “Model?”

  “Signatures match the M-308 fighter.”

  Aric nodded. The 308 was supposedly the most advanced fighter the Humans had; he’d experienced them on Menkar. Antaere technology proved to be effective against them, and he’d come equipped with the same interference programs as before.

  “Engage countermeasures. Launch additional units. Clear the space ahead.”

  Without the computers running the 308s, they were equal to his Glorybats in most respect. Again, he wasn’t worried. He had many more fighters at his disposal than the Humans had of their advanced starfighter.

  “My Insir!” the tech exclaimed. “Enemy vessels accelerating at light speed, closing on screening ships.”

  “The countermeasures?”

  Another tech answered. “Engaged and effective. We have penetrated the computer wall, yet the operations program is not active.”

  Aric sat in his command chair and studied the tac screen on the main bulkhead. The Human fighters could jump to lightspeed to close on targets, yet they could not operate at close to that speed in actual combat.

  “Monitor the situation,” he ordered. “Detail first contact.”

  12

  Zac Murphy floated down to his seat and strapped in. The Command Pod was a huge metal sphere devoid of internal gravity to help hide it from detection. That meant all the REV operators, along with the non-REV commanders, were floating around the vast void, moving along thin guy-wires or attached to retractable cords. The senior officers had to be more mobile, while Zac and his team had designated seats to sit it, complete with seatbelts.

  Everything in the pod was centered around the huge, green glowing hologram dominating the center. It detailed the Solar System, filled with red, white and green contacts. Although none of the contacts appeared to be moving, in reality they were traveling at incredible speeds. It was the inconceivable distances involved that made everything appear to be stationary. But occasionally, a contact would flare and a streak of light appear, showing when a 308 was sent into full gravity drive to rendezvous with one of the six docking platforms located a safe distance outside the system. At multiples of light speed, the journey would only take a few minutes, after which another line would signify the 308 being placed back on station with a fresh REV pilot at the controls.

  At first, Zac was overwhelmed by the hologram. He’d seen them before, even used some on a much smaller scale. This one was huge, taking in a greater area than any he’d seen. Their use were still relatively new to the Humans, at least ones with this detail. Zac was just getting the grasp of things, able to decipher the three-dimensional battlefield as it unfolded in near real-time.

  Fortunately, the officers assigned to oversee the battle were intimate with the technology and how to read the glowing ball hovering in the air. They were barking out deployment orders to the REVs stationed around the hologram, placing units where they would do the most good.

  Zac never expected to be this intimately involved in the battle between the 308s and the Antaere/Ha’curn fleet. It had come about during the training and testing sessions at Groom Lake when a serious flaw in his plan was discovered.

  With Dr. Cross’s reduced dose of AC-3, it was found the pilots could operate for as much as forty-five minutes before being Twilighted. This was great news; however, it seldom took a REV-controlled 308 that long to engage and destroy an enemy vessel, even several of them. The REV pilots and their AIs were great at clearing a designated area of enemy ships; the question became what to do with them afterward? The REVs reacted to hostiles, but they couldn’t make the decision to move to another location to hunt for them. Even the AIs weren’t tied into the overall battlefield stats to know where they would be needed next. That’s where the Command Pod came in.

  It was a last-minute addition to the operation, a giant, floating command center placed out around the orbit of Mars. Thousands of passive wormhole relays were spread throughout the system, designed to pick up continuous broadcasts from the 308s and other units operating in the area. These signals were then transferred to the Command Pod and the information displayed in the glowing green light of the hologram. The system was very basic, but it was also tamper-proof.

  Zac’s REV team consisted of five Deltas and fifteen Alphas, all seated around the sphere, and assigned a specific region of space. However, as the battlefield moved, so did their assigned areas. The REVs wore virtual reality goggles that could switch back and forth between normal view and the view from the cockpit of their assigned starfighter. The REVs were here to decipher the high-speed motion of the pilots and relay that to the hovering commanders. The information received at the Pod was delayed by five seconds or more, which was fine for making overall deployment decisions, but was what made real-time control of the REV pilots impossible. Five seconds to a REV-activated pilot was an eternity.

  Zac was just getting his first taste of VR warfare. Most of the operations of the Command Pod were theoretical. Now that the first units were moving to engage, everyone was about to get a severe dose of reality, Zac included.

  Unlike those of the conscripted fleet, the main units from the Antaere and Ha’curn fleet made their approach to Earth from the far side of the Sun, zipping in past Saturn and heading in-system from there. At one point, they would cut across the orbits of Jupiter and the inner planets—Mercury included—and whip around the Sun, heading for Earth. Although Earth had a fairly dense screen of defending units around the planet, by now, that screen had deformed to only a shadow of its former self. All available defenders were being shifted to meet the threat from the conscripted fleet, including the three hundred-plus ships of the regular Earth Navy, and it was all they could do to keep the sixteen hundred enemy vessels from breaking through and reaching the planet.

  But that now left a large swath of sp
ace around Earth unguarded. Fortunately, this was expected, and the 308s were placed in dark status to await the anticipated moved by the Antaere/Ha’curn fleet. They were predicted to go to the clearest area, and they did. That was where the 308s were waiting.

  But now the cat was out of the bag, as over five hundred starfighters made their presence known. The first of these were the ones directly in the line of attack of the enemy fleet. The pilots were activated and set about clearing the local vicinity of hostile spacecraft. Most of these lead vessels were the destroyer and frigate class, with only minimal fighter cover. The 308s performed magnificently, taking out a number of much larger warships with only the loss of five starfighters. But then the enemy kept moving, leaving the activated pilots with nothing more to attack, and plenty of time remaining on their Runs.

  Officers in the Command Pod sent orders to the seated REVs on where to send their units. The AIs were instructed to jump to specific coordinates and prepare to engage. Unfortunately, the Antaere didn’t always cooperate. Once the battle was joined, their ships began to take different tracks, designed to avoid direct contact and race to Earth as fast as possible. Command anticipated such action, and there was a small squad of 308s lying in wait about a million miles out from the homeworld. Several of the Antaere ships used full gravity drives to jump the distance closer to Earth, intending to launch their nukes as soon as they could guarantee a clean shot.

  The 308s reacted accordingly, destroying most of these advanced units. Even then, fourteen nuclear devices were sent racing toward the planet. Three were intercepted, but eleven made it to the surface.