War Mage Chronicles- Part One

by Charles R Case

  Grimms again played the voice of reason. “The prince has proven himself unreliable, and the UHF Command thinks a rescue mission is a waste of time and manpower during the battle. They would rather disable the dreadnought and attack in force, when we control the battlefield.”

  “The emperor could be dead by then. Our only chance to save him is if we hit the Teifen fast and hard; they’re not going to sit around and wait for us to pick them apart,” Sara said, crossing her arms.

  “I agree, Captain,” Grimms said, drawing a shocked look from Sara. “Command has sent word that they have developed a few new toys from the plans on the core we delivered. We already have some impressive warheads loaded into the gauss cannons, as do the rest of the fleet. We can hit a lot harder than the Teifen are used to. We are even able to prevent the enemy from warping away, but the higher-ups don't want to use that device until it becomes absolutely necessary. It will disrupt not only the Teifen’s capabilities, but also our own.”

  “So, we wait? Just stand by while the battle takes place?” Sara inferred flatly.

  “Captain, you’re already in a lot of trouble with Command. I don't want to see you compound the problem by disobeying orders during an engagement. Despite the fleet not having actual combat experience with the Teifen, they are trained well, and will perform to the best of their abilities. I think we should follow their lead,” Grimms said, holding up a hand before Sara could interrupt. “That being said, I agree with you that the emperor should be a top priority. It seems that the Admiralty is split on this issue, as well. Admiral Franklin has sent a message requesting we carry out an attempt at rescue, if the chance presents itself.”

  “Wait, the admiral is ordering us to go in?” Cora asked.

  “Not ordering, just making a strong suggestion. He will cover for us if the need arises.”

  The alarm for battlestations went off, sending a wail through the ship. Sara and Grimms ran out of the ready room, and onto the bridge.

  “One Teifen carrier has warped in. The fleet is engaging, ma’am,” Mezner reported.

  Sara and Grimms bellied up to the holo projector to observe the battle.

  “Cora, jump us to the designated support area,” Sara ordered, marking the location on the holo projector. Admiral Johansen had sent the second fleet the coordinates as soon as the enemy was spotted.

  They slipped into the Aether and back out again a few million kilometers from the battlefield. Sara settled in to study the battle as it unfolded.

  A red icon appeared, twenty-six light minutes from Earth. As they watched, the first fleet began warping in formation, their green icons disappearing, and then, a few seconds later, reappearing on top of the new icon. Sara zoomed in to view the engagement area. The first formation of ten ships had warped in almost on top of the Teifen carrier, at less than five hundred kilometers, and opened up with gauss cannons. A thin line of orange showed the path of gauss slugs, and blue lines showed the Aether cannons. Two blue lines shot out from each of the cruisers, hitting the Teifen carrier broadside, followed by thirty or more gauss rounds. The carrier was still spilling fighters out of its bays when the overwhelming attack ripped the ship in half.

  A cheer went up from the bridge crew at first blood, but the fight was far from over. A second Teifen ship warped in, followed closely by a third, then a fourth. The number of warships grew rapidly, until the space was filled with them; then the battle was on in earnest. Fire was being exchanged at incredible rates.

  The human forces fought in formations of ten ships: one carrier, two cruisers, three destroyers, and four corvettes. The carriers quickly dumped their fifty fighters, then took a defensive position, providing cover fire for their heavier hitters. The cruisers focused on damage, having two Aether cannons, and ten of the large, tri-barrel, gauss turrets. The destroyers provided cover with their heavy armor and mage-supplemented shield generators, similar to what the Teifen themselves used. And finally, the corvettes would use their mobility to warp in and out of the battle, hitting soft spots in the enemy, before jumping out again. The entire dance took close communication and organization, as the group would make moves in unison, dodging incoming fire as best they could.

  The tactics worked well, until the formation was broken. When a destroyer went down, it would open the rest of the formation to attack until a reserve could be called up from the second fleet, which was on standby. Those few seconds it took for the reserve to get to the line could cost another ship, creating a chain reaction that would end with several ships disabled or destroyed.

  The Teifen fought in packs rather than formations. The carriers would spill their fighters out as close as they could to the human ship formations, then warp away, leaving the small, fast fighters to fend for themselves. Each of the fighters were armed with heavy torpedoes that they would only fire when right on top of their targets, giving the defenders less of a chance to shoot them down. The torpedoes were not all that powerful, but the Teifen were good at timing their strikes, and would wait for their targets to take several hits before letting the ordnance drop. On more than one occasion, a cruiser or carrier had succumbed to this blitz technique.

  To make things more complicated, packs of Teifen cruisers and destroyers would take turns firing on a formation, before warping to another and coming at them from an unseen angle. No one pack would look for the kill shot, instead wearing the enemy down one volley at a time, in a relentless torrent.

  After twenty minutes, it was obvious that the Teifen—while having slightly fewer ships, and being already damaged from their engagement with the Galvox—were keeping the battle in balance. Their superior tactics and highly aggressive natures made them far more dangerous than the UHFC had anticipated.

  A ship icon appeared outside the battleground, behind human lines. It was the dreadnought, still badly damaged from its engagement with the Galvox. Despite its wounds, it began pouring fire into the rear guard of the human formations.

  Sara gasped at the size of the dreadnought. It dwarfed anything humanity had built thus far; it could easily hold a city’s worth of people, and probably needed them to power the thing.

  Twenty Aether cannons blasted from its broadside, along with hundreds of gauss rounds. A full fifth of the United Human Fleet was torn to flaming shreds in the first surprise volley before they scattered.

  “Prepare for battle, we’re going in,” Sara barked, not waiting for the orders she knew were coming. She slipped into the command ring at the center of the bridge and shot some Aether into its small spellform. A bubble formed around her, giving her a view of space from the ship’s perspective. She brought up the 3D image of the battlefield in front of her, and marked a location with the swipe of a finger.

  “Cora, power the Aether cannons and prepare to jump. Ensign Hon, you’re weapons free once we engage, but send your initial burst here,” she said, marking a spot on the dreadnought. “And use those new warheads; I want to split this thing open. Mezner, let Baxter know we’re heading in and tell him to be prepared for a quick departure. Connors, give me fifty g acceleration for five seconds.”

  There was a flurry of activity as everyone carried out her orders. The ship shot forward, pushing the limits of its acceleration, and leaving the rest of the second fleet behind. At the five-second mark, Mezner spoke up. “Ma’am, the admiral is ordering the second fleet to engage.”

  Sara smiled. “I guessed as much. Hon, prepare to fire. Cora, time your Aether bolts to hit right before the gauss rounds. I want their shield down before the rounds get there.”

  Cora and Hon said, “Aye, ma’am,” in unison.

  Sara checked their speed: two point five kilometers per second.

  That should get us deep enough. I hope. She looked over at Alister, who was sitting on her shoulder. “You ready for this?”

  He locked his yellow eyes on hers. “Merp.”

  She smiled. “Yeah. Me too.”

  He licked her cheek, then hopped to the floor and stood tall next to her, pr
epared for battle.

  She looked out through her view bubble, at the battle happening millions of kilometers away. From where they were, it was just some barely visible flashes of light in a tiny speck of the vast sky, but she knew the fate of the world rested on the victory of the right specks of light.

  “Fire.”

  Chapter 36

  Twelve slugs with the new warheads nestled in their centers shot out at nearly the speed of light, and streaked toward the lumbering target. A few seconds later, Cora let loose with the Aether cannons, and two brilliant blue lines of pure magic lanced through the dreadnought’s shielding, quickly burning the section down to a deep red before the beams winked out. A split second later, the gauss rounds slammed into the thick, armored hull. Each slug burst with brilliant energy as the warheads ignited. The rapid explosions tore chunks of the ship free, and a white geyser of atmosphere shot out of the resulting rupture.

  “Jump,” Sara ordered, and powered a specialized shield that Alister provided.

  The view changed from near empty space to the looming side of the dreadnought, as they instantly jumped a couple million kilometers. Sara had placed them only two kilometers from the damaged side of the dreadnought, and at their speed, they’d covered that distance in under a second.

  The shield form Alister had provided formed a spike of golden energy that extended in front of the Raven for several hundred meters, growing larger like a cone as it swept back to surround the rest of the ship. The tip of the shield easily pierced the damaged hull section, spreading the hole wider the deeper they went. The internal gravity compensated for the sudden deceleration, as the shield punctured deeper and deeper into the side of the beast.

  Sara pushed more and more Aether into the shield, assuring its integrity. It was a costly move, but in the end, they had decided it would be the quickest way to get their troops onboard the dreadnought. Sara felt her well draining, but at a much slower rate than she would have guessed.

  Baxter must be providing me with more power. Good to know the tank is a little larger, she thought with a smile.

  The ship slammed to a stop, lodged deep within the dreadnought’s belly. Sara turned and looked behind herself in the viewing bubble, and could see half a kilometer of ruined ship, exposed to the vacuum of space where the Raven had plowed through.

  They were close to the prison level, according to the plans provided by Sir Reitus. He had contacted the Elif Spy network, and ordered everything they had on the governor’s dreadnought be sent to the Raven. A plan was made to storm the complex quickly from the inside, reasoning that the mass majority of Teifen soldiers would be guarding the docking bays and airlocks against boarders; no one in their right mind would guess that the enemy would dive into their massive ship with their own—a feat that was only possible with a War Mage’s power.

  “Baxter, we’re in. Get your men to the prison, quickly,” Sara said into her comm.

  She could hear the smile in his voice. “Yes, ma’am. One emperor, coming up. Give ‘em hell.”

  “Baxter?” She hesitated. “Be careful. I can't afford to lose you.”

  His reply was slightly more somber. “Yes, ma’am. This time you’ll owe me a beer.”

  Sara laughed. “There will be a cold one waiting for you—the real stuff this time, not that non-alcoholic crap you gave me.”

  “Looking forward to it. Baxter out,” he said, cutting off the channel.

  Sara looked to her side in the viewing bubble and saw the troopers running across a shield bridge from the Raven’s docking bay to the ruined edge of the dreadnought’s interior. She dropped the shield around the ship, letting them pass through. After a minute or two, all five hundred Marines, plus Boon and Sir Reitus, were aboard the dreadnought. A figure Sara recognized as Baxter, despite the distance and identical black armor of his compatriots, turned and gave a wave to the ship before following the troops through a broken doorway.

  “Ma’am, there are fighters coming around behind us. They know we’re here,” Hon reported from fire control.

  “Connors, give me a hard reverse out of this heap. Hon, we’re going to be doing our best to disable this hulk, so target any and all gravity drives you can. Cora, we’re going to be doing a lot of jumping, but I’m going to need those Aether blasts as soon as you can recharge; coordinate with Hon on shot placements. Set all PDCs to auto, for the fighters.” Sara’s face split into an evil smile, “Let’s show these horned bastards who they’re dealing with.”

  She powered a tight shield around them, exposing only the barrels of the Raven’s numerous guns, as Connors backed the ship out at high speed. As soon as they were clear of the dreadnought, the PDCs began spitting fire at the closing fighters, taking several by surprise, and splitting their unshielded hulls open with hundreds of high velocity slugs. The five surviving small fighters banked hard to avoid the guns, but the gun’s tracking ability at this close a range was more than the pilots could handle, and they were soon nothing but tightly packed scrap, hurtling through space.

  Hon began firing the gauss cannons, targeting shield projectors and gun emplacements on the dreadnought’s hull. A dozen or more sensitive spots on the hull were torn to shreds, before the rest of the guns began returning fire.

  “Aim for the shield projectors. We want this section unprotected for our return,” Sara ordered, pumping more power into the shield, and shrugging off the return fire as best she could.

  “Aye, ma’am,” Hon replied, readjusting his aim.

  While the Raven’s shields were produced by magic, they needed to be amplified and directed through shield projectors. Unlike the Raven, the Teifen used normal troopers to power their shields. A dozen or more people could pour their Aether into the spellform, which would redirect that power out through the projectors. This produced a shield, but one that could not be modulated for specific damage, and therefore was much more costly to maintain. If the projectors were damaged or destroyed, it left that section without the ability to use a normal trooper. Mages could be called in to produce shields directly, but they were much less powerful than the amplified versions, because they needed to cover such a large area.

  The human ships used troops to power the shields as well, but instead of powering the rigid spellforms like the Teifen did, they powered an Aether accumulator that the captain could use as a sort of short-term battery in their own spellforms—though this made the process sluggish compared to what the smaller corvette class ships did. The Raven and other small warships didn't use the inefficient accumulator, instead relying on the captain to use the amplifiers directly. The small size of the ship was easier for one mage to cover, and because they had direct control of the Aether, they were able to manipulate the spellform quickly to fit the situation. This made them able to deflect relatively large amounts of fire for short times during their quick assaults.

  The Raven, however, was powering her shields with a War Mage, who could channel enough Aether to rival a destroyer, while her entire crew powered the shield accumulator.

  But even a War Mage has their limits.

  After thirty seconds of direct fire, Sara was beginning to strain to maintain her shield.

  “The fleet is in trouble, ma’am. We need to get out there and start taking out some of that firepower,” Grimms updated her from his position at the holo table.

  Sara took a quick look, and decided on a target. She swiped a finger indicating a location and direction for Cora. “How are we doing, Hon? You about done with those projectors?”

  “Aye, ma’am. That was the last in the immediate area,” he reported, before switching his guns to fire on the dreadnought’s hull directly.

  “Jump,” Sara ordered, as her shield began to turn orange.

  They disappeared, leaving the Teifen gun operators confused at their suddenly missing target.

  Chapter 37

  The battle was turning in a very slow and costly way.

  After the dreadnought’s initial appearance and subsequent de
vastating artillery volley to the rear line of the UHF, the lumbering ship became less of a problem. The human fleet had executed emergency jumps to the opposite side of the battlefield, putting the Teifen fleet between themselves and the dreadnought. This cut down the direct fire from the capital ship, but it was still able to saturate areas with gauss and Aether fire, once cleared of its own ships.

  However, the improved ordnance of the UHF, in the form of the warheads, was hitting much harder than the Teifen had expected. In addition to the increased firepower, humans were good at shield magic, making them as tough a target as the Elif, with their exceptional shielding. But where the Teifen were at a loss was with the highly aggressive tactics humans used, which were on par with their own.

  The Teifen had become used to fighting the Elif; while the humans used the same formation tactics as the less aggressive race, they used them to much more devastating effects. Where the Elif focused on protection and escape from naval battles, human forces attacked and pressed their advantages, hitting targets harder when they became damaged, in order to eliminate them completely—not satisfied that they were merely out of the fight.

  It soon became apparent that even with the humans’ devastating losses, they were not giving up. On the contrary, they became more aggressive, even taking a page from the Raven’s playbook and ramming the smaller of the Teifen ships. This sometimes proved too much for the human ships, and they were left either damaged beyond functionality, or shieldless, open to enemy fire. The tactic was used only in moments of desperation, but was still a tactic that left the Teifen horrified.

  By the time the Raven was freed from the dreadnought’s belly, the battle had reached balance once again, and was slowly turning in the humans’ favor.