Relic Hunted (Crax War Chronicles #2)

by Terry W. Ervin II

  Instead, Tech Yin and Gorgio strung some trip cords across the area, several carrying a current like an electric fence, one strong enough to drop a bull.

  We each had two syringes filled with a broad spectrum anti-toxin to combat the Stegmar Mantis needle projectiles, and Dr. Goldsen had configured the research facility’s audio system to emit sound waves to nullify the anticipated Stegmar sounding. We didn’t have access to any pathogens to spread in the air and infect any of the enemy that might survive—if they retreated or, more likely, overwhelmed and defeated us.

  I tied my com-set’s frequencies to Dr. Goldsen’s desk computer to coordinate information on enemy movements. I thought it better that everyone witness events rather than stand at their posts, uninformed, nervous, and confused. A combination promising lowered effectiveness. None in Dr. Goldsen’s staff had ever been under fire. While some would stand up to the challenge, odds were several would freeze up, hopefully not crippling our already woefully inadequate defense.

  “Engineer Carvascious has been detained,” came over the Colonial Marine frequency. “He’s been turned over to an Intel rep.”

  They’d repaired the sabotaged generators and they were ready to go online. The interrogation tied Carvascious to the sabotage effort. I figured it was now up to Guymin to determine extent of guilt and if Carvascious knew anything else. And he didn’t have much time to do it. I imagined him right now pumping drugs into her veins to get her to talk.

  Heartwell, a sadistic CGIG lawyer had tried that with me. Fortunately, months before, Deputy Director Karlton Simms had injected me with a drug cocktail meant to counter such measures. I hoped Carvascious didn’t have a similar cocktail running through her veins. Or a latent Crax device imbedded in her body that might be activated by interrogation drugs, or something else—I didn’t know the parameters or how they worked—that would release a catalyst, turning her blood into a caustic fluid able to devour her body in a matter of seconds.

  A horrid way to die. There was no question about that. I’d seen it more than once. It reminded me how life and death our struggle against the Crax was. Battling against enslavement, if not extinction, of the human race.

  I smiled and nodded to Gorgio and then to Yin. I didn’t have to say anything. They knew they’d contributed to the colony’s defense.

  The next call over my com-set came from the defending gunboat. “Colony Command, this is Thor’s Thunder. Crax jamming has commenced. Unable to reach Alpha Squadron. Communication Protocol B19 in effect.”

  Everyone looked to me for a translation. “I don’t know Protocol B19’s specifics. Unquestionably it dictates countermeasures for set levels of communication disruption without openly detailing it.” I looked around. “Communications are encrypted but there might be another traitor willing to transmit intelligence info to the approaching enemy.”

  Scratching behind my ear, I added, “My guess is that Colony Command is sending and receiving with Umbelgarri assistance.”

  The captain of Thor’s Thunder reported, “Enemy rounding the horizon. Thirty-nine seconds, they will be within extreme weapons range.”

  “Alpha Squadron, remain in reserve,” Colony Command ordered. “Wait for the Umbelgarri to fire, then open up along with them when you get a targeting solution. If communications are severed, implement Combat Protocol Gamma Three Delta.”

  The captains of the two police cutters, Blue Star 3 and Solar Wind 9, and Thor’s Thunder acknowledged, as did the fighter and attack craft squadron leader. The latter’s reply came through distorted by enemy electronic warfare efforts.

  Dr. Lundox asked Dr. Goldsen, “May I?” gesturing toward the command corner of her desk screen.

  She nodded and placed her finger on a square green icon. “Enable temporary Level Two access to Dr. Rogo Lundox.”

  Dr. Lundox then tapped a few icons and selections, providing a four view display, including the overall tactical display supplemented by what had to be live views from two satellites and one identified as that of Thor’s Thunder. The three latter views experienced fluctuating distortions. The interference wasn’t significant, but I suspected it’d increase as the enemy closed.

  The Crax fired first, launching three waves of caustic canisters in ten second intervals. Those came from the welded-H-shaped ships manned by the Selgum Crax. Although reptilian like the others, they were the most manlike, being bipedal and erect, their scale pattern a splotchy yellow and green, like a ripening banana. The Coregar or Gar Crax were less advanced technologically, but the warriors, being between 400 to 700 pounds resembled a cross between a human and a prehistoric ground raptor. I’d read a description suggesting a Deinonychus-human crossbreed, eighty percent favoring the reptilian parent. Their shields and combat armor were certainly designed and built with Primus Crax support. The Primus Crax, very few humans have seen, but they’re reported to resemble five-foot chameleons with bulbous foreheads. Theirs were the spherical ships. I’d seen their firepower, shearing emerald energy beams that tore through the armored hulls of human ships like .22 caliber rounds through an old-style aluminum beer can. Our only armored ship was the gunboat, sturdy but small, less than ninety yards in length. The police cutters were even smaller and unarmored.

  Only the Umbelgarri’s silver energy beams could match the Primus ones. While serving aboard the civil transport Kalavar, I’d seen an Umbelgarri frigate slice into Selgum Crax vessels, before being overwhelmed and destroyed by superior numbers.

  The Umbelgarri battle cruiser returned fire. Three silvery beams lanced from the front of the planarian-shaped ship, striking two of the five Selgum heavy cruisers leading the assault. The damage was minimal, but the scarred hull allowed less-advanced human targeting systems to get a lock.

  Within seconds, a wave of nuclear-tipped missiles raced from their launch tubes toward the damaged enemy cruisers. The lightly scarred ships could either turn away in an effort to break target locks, or weather the onslaught, counting on the taskforce’s multitude of point defense pulse lasers.

  I counted two missiles each from what I guessed to be five defense satellites, one from each police cutter, and two from the patrol gunboat. Not very many. It’d be easy for the Crax defensive weapons to wipe them from space. On the other hand, the Crax heavy carrier’s canister launch, added to that of the five heavy cruisers, meant 660 canisters, each capable of eating through any of our ships’ hulls. Even with its energy shielding and superior point defense weapons, the Umbelgarri battle cruiser wouldn’t be able to survive that.

  “If they want to live,” I said, “their best option would be to fire once, then turn and run.”

  That statement garnered me a round of stares. Most were angry, with clenched jaws and narrowing eyes. Tech Yaley’s bob haircut framed her open mouth and wide eyes. She was surprised. Dr. Goldsen and Chahal simply nodded, their eyes never leaving the screen.

  Colony Command must’ve had target lock confirmation as the order came, “Launch interceptor rockets.”

  Three missiles, far larger and faster than those launched from the def-sats and ships, rose from their silos hidden on Io’s surface and raced toward the enemy.

  “The Umbelgarri must have something to help,” Med Tech Yaley said.

  “I believe they do,” Dr. Goldsen replied.

  I started to say something but Dr. Lundox said, “I believe they will wait for a better shot. Once revealed, their weapon ports can be targeted and destroyed.”

  The three Primus medium cruisers opened up next. Lancing emerald energy spears lashed out, not at the opposing ships or fighters and attack shuttles, but at Io’s surface. The target wasn’t the Io colony. They sheared into the immense Umbelgarri metal towers, each lined with wavy strips of sandwiched metal alloys. I knew the Umbelgarri towers gathered energy from Jupiter’s magnetic field. Our alien ally harnessed subsurface thermal energy, and probably used nuclear generators, but losing the towers would hurt. Lightly shielded, each collapsed wherever a green shaft sliced into them.
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  That overrode any doubt. “They won’t be satisfied with bombardment,” I said. “They’re coming.”

  Chapter 7

  “They have to get through our ships,” Maintenance Tech Gorgio said, just above a whisper. “That big Umbelgarri ship, before they can try to land. That won’t happen.”

  Nobody believed what she said, even the Systems Techs Frist and Bowser. The way their eyes met said everything. Probably the same way mine met Dr. Goldsen’s.

  I took a deep breath. “We’ll know soon enough.”

  While serving aboard the Kalavar, we’d dropped out of condensed space just as a large Crax taskforce was approaching the Zeta Aquarius Space Dock. There we, the human defenders, had more firepower in ships and a space dock, but still not enough—even with an Umbelgarri frigate and a Chicher battlewagon.

  And I’d seen what waves of Crax canisters, caustic or acid-filled, could do, and how many of our missiles the Crax vessels could take out. Io’s defenders had launched too few. Not nearly enough to overwhelm and get through, even if they split into multiple warheads before impact.

  “Whatever happens will be decided in the next fifty seconds,” I said, pointing at the desk screen, first toward the missiles, and then the three waves of Crax canisters. Before coming into range of effective defensive fire, the missiles split into multiple warheads. The fourteen ship-launched and defense satellite-launched missiles divided into three, and the three fired from silos beneath Io’s surface split into twenty-four total. In the terminal targeting phase, they all raced toward the lead Selgum Crax heavy cruiser.

  Colony Command ordered, “Defending flotilla, maneuver and enact self-defense measures as you see fit. Fighter squadron, remain in reserve.”

  The Crax taskforce opened up with their point defense pulse lasers. With impressive accuracy they destroyed every warhead before even one got within range to detonate using a proximity fuse setting.

  Groans and frustrated muttering filled the office.

  Analyst Frist said, “They’re launching more!”

  I didn’t pay attention to the launch she announced. Instead, I focused on seeing if any of our ships survived.

  The Crax targeted the majority of their canisters at the Umbelgarri battle cruiser. Barrages of silvery energy beams zipped out like flashes of static electricity. Each time one struck, a canister flashed out of existence. But they weren’t easy to target, shifting trajectory as they closed. Some from each of the three waves got through, only to impact on the battle cruiser’s energy shield. Flashes of energy erupted like miniature thunderstorms wherever a canister released its destructive force.

  Humanity didn’t have A-Tech targeting. Nor did we have energy shielding.

  Scores of canisters passed by the Umbelgarri battle cruiser and raced towards the gunboat and two police cutters. Turreted dual and tri-beam pulse lasers fired first, taking out over half coming their way. The police cutters maneuvered behind a def-sat, enabling the satellite’s single-beam defensive pulse laser to come into play. The fighter and attack shuttles added long range sniping fire.

  A third of the canisters that survived the laser onslaught collided with the metallic contents of the gunboat’s debris pods fired to intercept them. The resulting premature detonations sprayed caustic contents ineffectually into space. Humanity had adopted the Chicher tactic.

  The police cutters lacked such defenses. Three canisters impacted Blue Star 3’s hull and two survived to strike Solar Wind 9. Their hulls breached, they didn’t survive the second wave. The third left the two police cutters nothing more than drifting hunks of metal, pitted and holed, resembling sheet metal blasted by buckshot. Thor’s Thunder continued to fare better, having more defensive firepower and reactive armor plating that exploded away from the hull wherever a Crax canister struck.

  Before the third wave reached our ships, the Crax had launched three new canister waves. The three Primus medium class cruisers began firing their emerald energy beams at the Umbelgarri battle cruiser. The battle cruiser’s defensive screen absorbed those that were on target.

  “They’re draining the Umbelgarri shielding,” I said. “Softening them up for the oncoming canisters.”

  The Umbelgarri returned fire, targeting the trailing Crax assault ships.

  “Why are they doing that?” Med Tech Corbett asked. “Firing on those ships in the back?”

  Everyone looked to me, as if I knew what the Phibs were thinking.

  Through my com-set relay, routed through Dr. Goldsen’s system, we heard Colony Command say, “Thor’s Thunder, initiate offensive fire as you see fit. Enact Protocol Gamma Gamma Nine, in conjunction with the Yellow Nine Green Three.”

  The captain of Thor’s Thunder replied, “Acknowledged. Out.”

  Within two breaths, the Thunder’s single beam offensive laser reached out, scoring a near miss on one of the trailing assault ships.

  After absorbing a second round of emerald fire, the Umbelgarri again sent silver energy, targeting the assault ship missed by Thor’s Thunder. Due to the extended range, the repeated hits did minimal damage to the armored hull.

  Before Thor’s Thunder could fire again, the Crax boosted their electronic warfare efforts. Three views on Dr. Goldsen’s screen distorted digitally, then went blank. All that remained was the tactical display. Even that showed increasing signs of inaccuracy, going fuzzy in pulsing digital bursts, frustrating efforts to track the Crax ships and their oncoming canisters.

  Colony Command ordered, “Slave defensive systems to Umbelgarri control.”

  Who exactly was ordered to do so…Io’s missile defense and def-sat command? I had no idea. Was there a reason for the omission? Why relay that in the open, not a coded protocol?

  Dr. Lundox enlarged the remaining display and pointed. “They’re moving away. Retreating.”

  “What?” Analyst Frist asked. “They’re leaving?”

  Dr. Lundox said, “The Umbelgarri ship and our gunboat are using Jupiter’s gravity to speed their retreat.”

  The fighters were pulling away too. Dr. Lundox must’ve had the same question as me. He tapped the screen.

  “Ceres,” he said. “The dwarf planet might be in range, if they launched with boost tanks.”

  Ceres had a small ice harvesting operation there. If they could reach it. While aboard the Kalavar, I’d had the opportunity to participate in simulations as an attack shuttle rear turret gunner. I closed my eyes, trying to recall life support parameters.

  “They’re abandoning us?” It was Tech Yin’s concerned voice.

  I opened my eyes. “There’s nothing they can do to change the tide of this battle.” I didn’t add that there was no sense dying with us. The Crax were on a hit and run raid. Even if nothing was left of the Io colony, military ships would show up, eventually. The retreating ships and fighters could return and form up with them.

  Reinforcements were supposed to be on the way. Originally I’d estimated three hours. My wrist watch showed over two hours remained, if that timeline held true.

  Most of the Crax canisters vectored after the retreating battle cruiser and gunboat, gaining fast. The Umbelgarri ship might survive, being shielded, having better defensive fire, and moving faster. If even a tenth of the canisters were chasing Thor’s Thunder, it was doomed.

  Colony Command ordered, “All colony sectors, take up defensive stations. If communications are severed, resist to the last. The cavalry is on the way.”

  My eyes met Dr. Goldsen’s.

  “Let’s get to our assigned positions,” I said. “Dr. Goldsen will keep us abreast. Relay to computer clips, via hardwire plug in.” When eyebrows raised, I added, “If there are any enemy sympathizers, we don’t want to broadcast what digital info the Umbelgarri are sending to Dr. Goldsen. Remote as that possibility may be.”

  No one argued.

  Dr. Goldsen asked, “Specialist Keesay, before we separate, I would like you to say a few words.” She looked around at her staff. “Dr. Chahal and I have see
n portions of the Documentary.” She paused, adjusting her wire-rimmed glasses. “Unfiltered confrontations with the Crax and the alien races that have allied with them. They bear no resemblance to the news vids provided by our government.

  “Until today, the war has been distant. Already brave men and women perished while in Io’s orbit. Died defending us.”

  She took a steadying breath. “I believe it likely that some of us…maybe each and every one of us gathered around my desk, may be joining those brave souls lost aboard Blue Star 3 and Solar Wind 9.”

  I nodded once, thinking back to those that died aboard the Kalavar, on and around the Zeta Aquarius dock, on the quarantined planet Selandune, and at the Tallavaster Colony. Dr. Goldsen was right. Within the next hour, we may all be dead. Captured or dead.

  I knew what Dr. Goldsen was requesting so I combined two scriptural quotes committed to memory in my childhood. “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation,” I said. “And every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.”

  I met the gaze of everyone around Dr. Goldsen’s desk, focusing on her last. “May He watch over not only us, but every defender in the battle to come.”

  A few said, “Amen,” before everyone picked up their issued firearm, paired up, and silently moved to their positions.

  I stayed to remind Dr. Goldsen that she needed to remain out of harm’s way. Of everyone, her brain and knowledge was the most valuable. I didn’t mention that fact when she argued, keeping her voice down to a harsh whisper.

  I gripped her shoulder. “You put me in charge of security, right?” Without giving her time to answer, I grabbed a nearby laser carbine and adjusted the sling for her. “Just in case they get past us.” I shrugged, forcing a grin. “I’ll fight better knowing you’re not up on the line.”

  My grin shifted to a lopsided one. “Don’t fret. When they get past us, hunker down behind your desk. It’ll give you a few additional seconds to fire from partial cover.” When she began to object, I said, “Don’t worry, it won’t provide enough time to drain your carbine’s battery clip.”