Shadow Stars (Universe on Fire Book 2)

by Ivan Kal

  “We’ve studied the scans that you took while the Prometheus was engaged with the Val’ayash cruiser, when their scout ship entered FTL. Upon analysis, UTS scientists came to the conclusion that it formed some kind of a field around itself, most likely shielding it from real space and allowing it to ignore the laws of physics. The missiles most likely work on the same principle. If they are not in real space, it is most likely that they either couldn’t collide with matter in real space, or the results wouldn’t be as destructive as they would under the laws of conventional physics.”

  Aiko nodded. “But if they have this technology adapted for their missiles, it probably means that their ships are capable as well. I wonder why they haven’t used that capability to close the range.”

  “My assumption is that their larger ships are unable to form the FTL fields; we’ve only ever seen their smaller ships use FTL travel. My guess would be that they simply cannot, or do not have a great enough power source to form larger FTL fields,” Ethan told her.

  Aiko turned to the holo as she digested his words. What he said made sense, but she couldn’t act on those assumptions; at any moment the Val’ayash might decide that they were done playing and go FTL, then hammer her ships from close range. And they still hadn’t seen the Val’ayash light cruiser, the one ship which she was certain could go FTL.

  She couldn’t see her missiles, but she knew that they would be closing in on the Val’ayash. On their side, the Val’ayash hadn’t tried to evade. They were still closing the distance—and then, as they crossed the 400,000-kilometer line, the battleships opened fire with their beams at the Fury. Aiko had felt those beams on the Prometheus once before, but now, as the Val’ayash focused fire on the Fury, they were doing almost no damage. She knew that those beams gained far more power the closer one got to their source, but she was still surprised. The thick hull of the Fury was barely getting scratched, but as several strikes hit the same location they started to deal some damage.

  “Roll the ship,” Aiko ordered, just as her missiles reappeared just fifty thousand kilometers from the enemy, now in a spread formation and their thrusters kicked in sending them flying toward the Val’ayash ships. The Val’ayash opened up with their point defense, again demonstrating that their tech was superior as they opened fire from almost double the range anyone else was capable of. They began taking down the missiles even with their advanced ECM. Then, as the missiles closed in to fifteen thousand kilometers, they disappeared in a flash of blue—only to reappear barely a thousand kilometers closer. The first wall of missiles crossed the distance in a few moments, even as the Val’ayash point defense re-targeted them and took down many, a large number passed through and smashed against the Val’ayash ships’ shields. The shields of their battleships turned to yellow, and those of their battlecruisers to dark orange, just as the second and third wall reached them. The remaining missiles followed and hammered the Val’ayash.

  The battleships’ shields turned orange but held, while the remaining two battlecruisers lost their shields. Aiko cursed the fact that they couldn’t get their missiles to blink inside the Val’ayash shields. Their shields were very close to their hulls, and their magi-tech wasn’t yet good enough for them to be able to program closer blinks.

  Then, the fighters engaged the Val’ayash ships.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Jian watched as the long-range missiles hammered at the Val’ayash ships—and seeing the results, she immediately changed her orders.

  “All striker craft: focus on the battlecruisers.”

  She pushed her thrusters to their maximum and came in hard, attempting to evade the incoming point-defense fire. As soon as she got close enough for an attack blink, she opened her comms. “Execute blinks now!”

  The fighters blinked across space, and appeared in close, firing missiles almost immediately. Jiang focused her fighter on one of the battlecruisers, which lost its shields, her missiles flying from her launchers and her lasers scorching its hull. The kotarium hull held, and the battleships sacrificed their own protections to keep the cruisers safe. Their point defense added to that of the cruisers themselves, took down many, with only a few passing through to do light damage.

  Jiang and the rest of her strike crafts executed an escape blink just as the Eagles came in. The point defense reoriented quickly at the new missiles fired by the Eagles, but there were just too many of them. Striker missiles got taken down by the hundreds, but the few that did manage to pass through hit the cruisers hard. Then the shadow missiles exploded out of nowhere, blowing holes in the enemy ships. One of the cruisers was littered with holes, leaking atmosphere everywhere. A moment later the ship exploded.

  The Eagles executed escape blinks and turned to follow Jiang’s Wraiths.

  The result of their attack run was clear. One battlecruiser destroyed, the second damaged, and one of the battleships whose shields had failed in the Eagles’ attack had sustained light damage. This time they hadn’t fired all of their missiles, as they had used the confusion caused by the missiles fired by the Fury to get their attack through.

  They reorganized and turned around for another attack run, this time from their back. Jiang knew that it was risky; they had done simulations on what could happen if an attack was executed from that vector. But the fighters were still their best weapon.

  Her Wraiths came in fast, with only a small amount of point-defense fire directed at them, as the Val’ayash ships were oriented forward. They focused their attack on the battleship whose shields were down. They attacked without executing a blink; instead, they fired their lasers as they came in, scorching their hulls. The plumes of their drives negated much of their attack, so they focused more on the surrounding hull. They fired missiles, then flew in a close formation behind them.

  As they got closer, more point-defense turrets were able to open fire on them, and Jiang lost more fighters. But many of their missiles passed through, hammering the shields of the other two battleships and damaging the unprotected one. Jiang saw an explosion rock it, and its drives shudder, but they weren’t completely out. Then, as they were just on top of the Val’ayash warships, Jiang ordered an escape double blink. They surged beyond the warships, and came into range of their point defenses. The lasers fired at the fighters’ backs as they tried to evade, but there were just too many of them. The rate at which she lost fighters increased.

  She noticed one of the battleships—this one largely undamaged—turn to cover their backs as the Eagles came in and fired the rest of their missiles. The battleship’s point defense filled the space with fire, and somehow took down many missiles; it almost looked like they had managed to improve their targeting between the two attacks. Still, there were too many missiles for them to stop them all.

  The battleship took the explosions on its shields, until the shields failed and the rest came through to explode against its side, opening a nasty gash to space. Still the battleship fought, taking down Eagles as they blinked away.

  Jiang kept her fighter burning as fast as possible as they didn’t have any more power to use more blinks, and needed to rely on conventional evasion to stay safe. She lost many more fighters on her way back to the carriers.

  ***

  Another ship went up in flames, but Aiko didn’t cheer. She knew what a powerful weapon her fighters were, something which no one else in space had and therefore had never encountered. But soon this fight would become a traditional engagement. She couldn’t delay it for much longer; the Val’ayash ships were just too fast for her too keep away and have her fighters attacking without endangering the carriers. Earth didn’t yet have an escort fleet which could keep the carriers safe in such a situation.

  The Val’ayash had been focusing their fire on the Fury, and even with her rolling the ship they had been doing damage, which only increased as they closed the range. Their weapon was getting more powerful by the kilometer. Thankfully, the Fury was large enough to keep the other carriers covered from most of it.

/>   Aiko wondered why the Val’ayash hadn’t yet fired more of their FTL missiles, but figured that they probably didn’t have any more. She knew that she would’ve used all of them in the first attack if she were them. So, for now, she didn’t worry about that. Instead, she focused on what was to come. They were getting closer to each other, and soon they would enter conventional-missile range. Based on the records of the battle for Earth, they knew that Val’ayash had at least a 400,000-kilometer range with their missiles, compared to the just over 300,000-kilometer range her missiles were capable of. That meant that the Val’ayash would get the first strike. Technically the missiles didn’t have a range, they could just coast until their target. What was considered effective range was in fact the distance from which it was impossible for the enemy ship to evade the missiles. If she was to fire missiles from beyond that range, the enemy could just turn around and out run the missiles which had limited fuel.

  “Missile launches,” an officer reported just as her fighters started coming back in. The two assaults had cost her two hundred and thirteen fighters. She still had a large number, but the battle was about to get far more chaotic. The Val’ayash had fired at 400,000 kilometers, and Aiko watched as the battleships spewed out a truly insane number of missiles toward them. By the time they finished, there were almost five thousand missiles coming their way. Far more than their point defense could take down—if the Fury had conventional point defense.

  “Have the defensive squadrons move forward and start taking down missiles.” The Wraith squadrons she had kept back had been equipped with missile-defense load-outs, and now they surged forward toward the oncoming swarm of missiles just as the offensive squadrons arrived and started landing for resupply.

  “Have the carriers move up and put their point defense to work, but don’t let any come within five hundred kilometers of us. Engage the first d-wave,” Aiko ordered.

  The Wraiths split into two formations and attacked the missiles from the sides. Soon they started taking down many with their lasers, and even more once they started firing missile-killing missiles. Smaller missiles left their launch tubes, then blinked forward into the oncoming missile formations and split off into six, each seeking a missile near it and ramming it.

  But already Aiko could see that they weren’t taking them down fast enough. The missiles entered the range of the other carriers’ point defenses and they opened fire adding their fire to that of the fighters. Still many came through. Aiko waited—a few reached the Fury and detonated. Aiko knew that the d-wave was in the hands of the weapons teams and the computers. With such a short range there was no time for her to give out orders for it to be fired; instead, the computer would calculate when the best moment was for it to be used.

  Aiko waited and watched as a large group of missiles came at her ship. Then her ship shook, not from their explosions, but from the firing of the Fury’s most powerful defense system. The disintegration wave pulsed around the ship, and the Val’ayash missiles just disappeared. Then, a few moments later, as the last wave of missiles came in, it pulsed again. The missiles were obliterated with no explosion—no signs that they had been triggered or even taken down by defensive fire. They were just gone. Aiko knew that it would look strange to the Val’ayash, and she wondered what they were thinking. They knew about magi-tech, but they could know only what Kovac knew, and he hadn’t known about this. She also knew that they wouldn’t have seen anything on their scanners; magic didn’t show up on them. To the Val’ayash, it would look as if their missiles had simply disappeared.

  The few straggler missiles remaining were taken down by the defense squadrons.

  “How long until the d-wave recharges, and how long until we are in weapons range?” Aiko asked. She knew that the Val’ayash had to have fired a large percentage of their missiles, but if they fired any more soon, she would likely still need to have her best defensive weapon.

  “Seven minutes, and they will be in range of our lasers in five minutes, Commodore,” Jones answered her.

  “Start targeting the damaged battleship with lasers, and tell the Everest and Chimborazo to do the same,” Aiko ordered.

  “And the Prometheus?”

  “I want it to stay back and fire at targets of opportunity,” Aiko said. Her old ship wasn’t really up to par with the Val’ayash. Neither were the Everest and Chimborazo, but she had no choice but to risk them.

  She continued watching as the Val’ayash beams reached out to strike at her ships, without her being able to do anything. Fury was already leaking atmosphere, but thankfully the Val’ayash hadn’t yet hit anything really important. The hull of the super carrier was far too thick and the ship was far too large for them to be able to take it down quickly. But the damage was piling up—she could see it the reports showing up on her screens.

  “The Val’ayash have opened fire with their laser weapons.”

  Aiko cringed. She knew that they had greater range than her ships, who had a range of 250,000 kilometers. “Alter course. We are heading straight down their throats,” Aiko ordered. There was no more point in attempting to delay, it would only prolong the time that the Val’ayash could fire while she couldn’t.

  “Flight command reports that the fighters are resupplied and ready to be launched.”

  “Get them out! We are going for those battleships,” Aiko said. Now, when they were close, the battleships were the greatest threats.

  “Missile launches!”

  “How long until d-wave?”

  “Three minutes,” an officer reported.

  Aiko glanced at the closing speeds. Especially now that her ships were coming straight at the Val’ayash, she knew that it wouldn’t come back online in time. “Get the defense squadrons on them and have the Everest and Chimborazo cover us. Start firing our missiles, every salvo we have left,” Aiko ordered

  Aiko saw that the Fury was the Val’ayash’s prime target, and she hoped that it would remain that way, as that would allow her two carriers some room to maneuver. The Prometheus was still behind them; she kept it there as it wouldn’t be much help elsewhere, and it could still fire missiles from its position. On her holo the lasers and the beams from the enemy ships burned the Fury’s hull, and out between the two fleets her defense squadrons engaged the enemy missiles. Behind them surged her attack squadrons, followed close behind by her missiles.

  Aiko knew that this engagement was close to ending.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Jiang’s fighter flew by the defensive squadrons as they reversed course and came in behind the enemy missiles, taking them down. Her squadrons followed behind her. Out in front of them loomed the enemy ships, and Jiang knew that they were nearing the end of the fight.

  “All craft, focus your fire on the damaged battleship,” Jiang said as they flew, marking one of the battleships on her screens. It was leaking atmosphere and lagging behind the others, which was a problem as they had to get by the other two battleships and the remaining battlecruiser in order to get to it—but Jiang knew that it was worth the price.

  The Val’ayash opened fire on her fighters. Jiang and her squadrons pushed on, holding their fire. Then, as they reached twenty thousand kilometers, she opened the comm channel. “All craft: execute attack blink now.”

  Four hundred and ten of her remaining Wraiths blinked in close to the two battleships, then fired half of their salvos while continuing to fly straight at their targets. The battleships switched their fire to the missiles coming at them, and the fighters flew by as their missiles fell on the two battleships. Their shields were getting hammered, but she didn’t have the time to see what happened.

  She had the most damaged out of the three battleships in her sights. She opened up with her lasers—only to see them hit the battleship’s shields. She cursed as she realized that it had managed to get them back on-line, but she pushed on, firing the remainder of her salvos. Missiles streamed from her fighters at the damaged ship. Its point defense had trouble keeping up and missil
es started hammering its shields. And then she flew by it, followed by the rest of her strike squadrons.

  The battleship’s shields flickered out and a few missiles exploded against it, but it was still going, still fighting. The Eagles came in fast behind, firing their missiles and taking advantage of the confusion caused by the Wraiths’ attack. Their missiles flew out of their launch tubes and the Val’ayash’s point defense fired.

  Suddenly, every missile that the Eagles had fired blinked away and reappeared closer. This attack run, they had been supplied with the remainder of the Fury’s blink-missile supplies. The Val’ayash point defense recovered quickly, but it was too late—the two forward battleships were bathed in bright flashes as their shields soaked up the missiles. One of the battleship’s shields failed and seven missiles exploded on its nose, opening up a large hole which bled atmosphere. The second battleship’s shields flared brightly in a dark orange glow, but they held.

  The rest of the missiles were meant for the third battleship. The injured Val’ayash ship attempted to maneuver, its point defense spouting invisible laser fire, but it wasn’t enough. Missiles rained down on it, covering it in bright, brief flashes in space. It took more damage than Jiang thought possible, but in the end, it faltered. The explosions tore the ship to shreds, leaving only a twisted, broken husk rolling in space.

  Jiang ordered her squadrons on a curving course which would take them around the ships and toward their carriers, but she had no intention of going for a resupply. There wasn’t enough time for that—the battle wouldn’t last much longer.

  The human ships had just entered laser range.

  ***

  Aiko’s ship was getting hammered. Enemy missiles flew at them, and her defensive fighters, together with the Everest and Chimborazo’s point defense, took down most of them, but a few still passed through. These salvos had nowhere near the same amount of missiles as the previous one, but there were still many. She watched as her attack squadrons destroyed one of the battleships, but there was no cheering. Her crew was in the moment, soaking up laser fire as they surged toward the Val’ayash, just as they finally opened up fire with their own lasers at 150,000 kilometers—and that range was dropping fast.