The Warlord

by CJ Williams

  “That may not be the case,” Tetsu said worriedly. “They turned up here less than a day ago; unexpectedly I might add. They told me it was urgent that I meet with them, so we met. Strange looking critters, by the way. But I’m stonewalling them. They want replicator technology and I’m not too interested in giving that away. At least not without more information on who they are and what they want to do with it. From what you say, they’re not savory characters.”

  “No, Uncle, they are not. It’s good that you haven’t made any agreements.”

  “Well, you are the king now and seem to have an understanding of these aliens. So, it’s your decision. What is your plan?”

  “I suggest we tell the Greys to get back on their side of the treaty space and if they refuse, we force them. Any other choice is either dangerous or a waste of time. I don’t trust them one bit.”

  “Nor I,” Tetsu agreed.

  “But that’s only part of the problem,” I said with a sigh. “I’ve been told there is a massive Bakkui armada headed in this direction. The numbers I was given means they are too large for my forces. If you happen to have a military handy, this would be the time to get it ready.”

  “We’re not helpless,” the king replied. “But it’s more of a planetary defense. Your warcraft are quite different from ours. For one thing, all of my ships are manned. You say that yours are much like the Bakkui? They are AI only warcraft?”

  “That’s right. I believe my Reapers will prove very capable.”

  “And how many times have you gone to war with your…Reapers?”

  His question made me wince. “This is the first time,” I admitted.

  It wasn’t the best news I could give him, but facts are facts. It didn’t diminish my optimism, however. I’ve dealt with the tools of war for most of my life. I know what works. And the success of my mechanized army gave me a lot of confidence that the Reapers would prove equally capable.

  We sat facing each other for a moment, digesting the discussion and contemplating the decisions we had to make. We were on the same page, but one of us had to say it out loud. I decided that was my job.

  “Okay, Uncle Tet. I guess I’ll get started.”

  “What will you do?”

  “Kill them all. I’ll destroy the Greys in orbit and then head for the moon where you’ve got them bivouacked. Hopefully we’ll destroy most of them before they take off.”

  Concern creased his much-wrinkled face. “You can’t just strike without giving them a chance to withdraw. That would not be honorable.”

  I tried not to let my feelings show. What else should I have expected from a long-lived nobility king? These guys were all pacifists at heart. They thought everything should be fair. “What did you have in mind?” I asked.

  He nodded at the doorway. “We have their negotiator down the hall. Can you at least ask if they would be willing to withdraw?”

  Both of us already knew the answer, but it would make him feel better for having tried. “Fair enough. Is the room shielded electronically? I don’t want him sending a warning to his ships.”

  “Nothing can get past these walls. I am sure of that.”

  “Lead the way.”

  Just as King Tetsu said, the Greys were literally next door. I followed the King and two of his soldiers twenty paces down the hallway to the adjoining room. The king knocked and entered. A pair of the hairless goats stood guard against the far wall. A third sat at a conference table astride one of their saddle-like chairs. He was obviously the negotiator.

  As soon as I entered the room, he jumped to his feet bleating at his guards. “Kill him! Kill the white male!”

  His guards whipped out their weapons, but died instantly, blown to bits by both my Barbicans and the King’s two escorts. The negotiator backed against the wall pleading with King Tetsu.

  “Do you not know who he is?” the creature shouted. “He’s mad! He’s a violent traitor to his race. The last time I spoke with him he almost killed me.”

  I burst out laughing. It was the same Grey I almost throttled back in the Haiyanas system. As far as facial recognition was concerned, the Greys had me beat. I would never have recognized him, had he not blurted it out.

  “Schmitty!” I said chuckling. “Long time no see.” I glanced at the King Tetsu. “Make your offer, Uncle Tet.”

  Tetsu was surprised that the Grey and I knew each other but didn’t inquire further. “Ambassador Schamisttmaz, I offer you a chance to withdraw from this solar system and from all nobility space. If you do not accept this offer, I will consider that an act of war. What is your answer?”

  “An act of war?” Schmitty cried incredulously. “We will destroy your pitiful world. My cubs will feast on your species until you are forgotten in this universe. You have no idea…”

  I so wanted to splatter the alien against the wall, but Uncle Tet would have been scandalized. “Arrest him,” I told the Barbicans.

  They clomped across the room and subdued the shrieking cannibal. The king’s guards had handcuffs but they were far too small for the Greys’ thick appendages. Plain old rope was brought in and in no time Tetsu’s guards had the alien hogtied.

  I looked at Tetsu. “I took that as a no, highness.”

  The violence that took place just one door down from his living room had shocked Tetsu to his toes, but he pulled himself together. “I agree. I was afraid it would end this way, but at least we tried. Thank you for humoring me.”

  “Not at all, Uncle. You are correct that decorum is important. But for now, I need to launch our attack.”

  “All right. If it would help, my military can take care of the Grey ships in orbit. They don’t know it, but we’ve attached mines to each of their vessels while they’ve been waiting. It seemed prudent.”

  I smiled at the ancient monarch. He was not a fool. “Thank you, Uncle. That would be greatly appreciated. In that case, my fleet will head directly to eighth planet and try to destroy them while they’re still grounded on its moon.”

  Uncle Tet took both of my hands in his. “Thank you, Your Majesty,” he said formally, acknowledging my departure. “When this is all over, I hope you will return for a longer visit. I’d like to hear more about your plans for the future. So far, I think you’ve done your father very proud.”

  It would be hard to describe how gratified those words made me feel. I took my leave and the faithful Captain Chaseom escorted me to the landing pad. We had just exited the elevator when I got a call from Marian.

  The Bakkui have arrived.

  “Well isn’t that just great,” I growled, breaking into a run. “Tell our ships to break orbit and form up on us. We’re headed to the moon on Saja Eight.”

  “You need to delay five minutes for the Barbicans to board,” Marian reminded me.

  I didn’t have time for that; not with the Bakkui breathing down our necks. And besides, the Barbicans wouldn’t do me any good during the coming space battle, anyway. “Have the Barbican commander report to Captain Chaseom. They work for him until I get back.”

  I reached the ship and shouted, “Take off!” By the time I got to the bridge we were already above the atmosphere. “Tell approach control to execute their plan against the Grey ships in orbit.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  From the viewing window, several of the Greys blossomed into yellow fireballs. It was not simultaneous however, nor was it thorough. In my field of view alone, two of the Grey dreadnoughts unceremoniously broke orbit, heading toward the Saja Eight moon.

  “I’d like to get there before those guys,” I told Marian.

  “Understood,” she replied. “However, since we must slow down for our attack, I suspect the Grey force will know we are coming.”

  It meant we would face at least some of the Greys in space.

  “Divide us into three groups,” I said. “Group One and Two will engage the Greys who get airborne. Have Group Three attack those still on the surface.”

  “Acknowledged. I am displaying
the battle on the tactical display.”

  The screen lit up showing our position in the center as one large white oval icon. The single icon quickly split into the three fighter groups. In front of us a half-dozen Greys were heading to Saja Eight.

  Unexpectedly, hundreds of small purple dots began appearing on our flanks, almost as if they were joining on my fleet.

  Before I could ask about the newcomers Marian said, “You are being hailed by forces of King Tetsu.”

  “King Lucas,” a voice spoke from the bridge speakers. “I am General AttiTan. We will fight with you against the Greys, compliments of the King.”

  That was the last thing I needed; a bunch of inexperienced pilots in some antique warships that I knew nothing about. One of the Sajan fighters pulled up on my left. It was a ridiculous looking starship, round-shaped with fins sticking out like a 57 Chevy. It looked more like Cinderella’s carriage than a fighter. The pilot caught my eye. He gave me a thumbs-up and his machine spat out a stream of bullets. Real smoke blasted out of the underbelly cannon. That meant the projectiles were explosively fired, just like an old-fashioned nose gun on an earth-based aircraft.

  It never failed. You plan and strategize for months until you think you’ve got every contingency planned, and then some yokel shows up and throws a monkey wrench into everything.

  “How many fighters are we talking about?” I asked Marian.

  “I count roughly twenty thousand of King Tetsu’s spacecraft.”

  That was a lot of help, certainly, but this was not the battle for these guys to be initiated. Not against the Greys’ arc-beam.

  “Thanks, General,” I said. “But the Grey dreadnoughts have a weapon you are not prepared to handle. Let me take care of the Greys and then we can both fight the Bakkui. You know about them, right?”

  “Nonsense!” the General exclaimed. “The Imperial Spectaculars cannot be restrained! We will grind the enemy to dust!”

  Before I could respond several of the Sajans dashed ahead.

  “One of the Grey dreadnoughts is closing,” Marian said. “It appears he will engage with the King’s warships.”

  “Attack that dreadnought,” I ordered. “Quickly!”

  Two of my fighters moved forward, firing a full salvo but it was too late. The dreadnought’s arc-beam lanced out and the Imperial Dunderheads turned into chunks of smoldering metal. In the next instant, our missiles struck the Grey and it too, disintegrated into sparkly bits of space debris.

  “General,” I said. “Please hold back. Let me take care of the Greys.”

  There was no answer.

  “Who is second in command?” I asked.

  “I am, Your Majesty,” a nervous voice replied.

  “Show me the Bakkui,” I told Marian.

  The tactical display widened to show more of the system. The Bakkui were approaching from a different axis.

  “All right, captain,” I said to the unknown Sajan pilot. “Take your forces and turn left ninety degrees. The Bakkui will be on your nose. I think your fighters have a chance against them because they have old style weapons. Or at least they did, the last we met.”

  I needed to tell the poor Sajan officer so many things, but I had other concerns. The Greys on Saja Eight’s moon had realized something was up and were launching into space. It was time for my own fleet to engage.

  “ETA thirty seconds,” Marian said.

  “Launch chaff missiles,” I said. Most of the Greys would be in space by the time we got there. “Auto hammer. You have control.”

  “I have control,” Marian said. It was weird to hear the excitement in her voice before battle. In quick succession, she maneuvered behind two of the dreadnoughts and hit each one with a full salvo of missiles.

  There’s no better feeling than to out-maneuver an air-to-air opponent and get him in your sights. The problem is, that’s not the best way to win the war. If you are dogfighting another spacecraft, you’re not paying attention to the bad guy who is sliding into your own six o’clock. I could feel it in my bones.

  “Break left!” I shouted to Marian, holding onto the grab rail. She executed a gut-wrenching turn and through the top of the canopy dome I saw two missiles scorch past the space we had just been in. “Fall back,” I said. “We should be using our missiles from longer range.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  The tactical display sparkled like a Christmas tree. All the colored icons were intermixed. It was difficult to say who, if anyone, was winning. As if anticipating my next command, Marian put up the numbers.

  We were pulling ahead, but this had been an expensive battle. The worst damage we had inflicted came at the onset, when we took out several of their spacecraft still grounded on the moon. Since then, our losses had to be comparable to the Greys. We needed to do better.

  “On my mark, have everyone bug out toward the ninth planet, but keep firing chaff. We’ll reform and reattack with a solid front.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  “Mark!”

  The view window turned toward black space and we left the battle behind. The tactical display showed my fighters quickly rejoining into a spread formation.

  “That’s good enough,” I said twenty seconds later. “Re-engage now. You have the hammer.”

  “Re-engaging,” Marian said, her voice more controlled. “I have the hammer.”

  She flipped our Starfighter on its axis and the glowing wreckage around the eighth planet’s moon grew in the viewing window. The maneuver surprised the Greys. They were still trying to get organized when we blew through their formation firing everything we had.

  A dreadnought on our nose fired its arc-beam but the chaff was doing its job. The deadly beam split into a hundred forks and fizzled away to nothing. Marian’s salvo caught him right on the nose and must have penetrated to the ship’s very core before detonating. It turned into a miniature sun as we rocketed by. The port side of our shields glowed red from the dreadnought’s debris.

  The successful bug out and re-engagement was worth another shot. “Have all ships carry straight through the battle toward the sun and we’ll try that once more.” I didn’t think the Greys were stupid, so I needed to add a twist to the next maneuver. “In thirty seconds, split our formation in half and have each group attack forty-five degrees off axis.” The geometry of those maneuvers would give the enemy commander two fronts to defend. I was banking they couldn’t react that fast.

  “Acknowledged.”

  The numbers on my tactical display said our last sweep cut the Grey force almost in half. If we could do the same damage one more time, the battle would be about over. But then I noticed the yellow diamond icons were anticipating my next maneuver.

  “They’re better than I thought,” I said. “They’re going to try to catch us off guard when we turn about.”

  “It appears so,” Marian agreed.

  “Do a starburst instead. Split the formation into seven parts. One big loop to a reattack.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  “Start now! Extend off-axis for another fifteen seconds and then loop back.”

  “Executing.”

  “You have the hammer,” I said once more, just to make sure we both knew who was flying the spaceship.

  “I have the hammer,” Marian acknowledged.

  The stars outside the viewing window spun dizzily as Marian performed her Immelmann-like maneuver. Off either side our fighters maintained a wide spread formation. As we rolled out Marian maneuvered the Grey force into our sights.

  “Firing,” she said.

  The attack could not have gone better. Not being prepared to track over two thousand aircraft engaged in combat acrobatics, the Greys had slowed down to reform a solid barrier with their fellow dreadnoughts. It might have worked, given more time, but in aerial combat one rule prevails, speed is life. We hit them at full throttle while they were still in disarray.

  The conglomeration of Grey warcraft glittered with reflected sunlight as our new set of mi
ssiles ripped into their midst. One after another, the dreadnoughts erupted in a silvery mist as their ship’s atmosphere explosively decompressed into space. Our seven arrow-like formations rocketed through their battleship formation and out the other side.

  “Let’s try that again,” I told Marian. “But this time have all fighters join up on us in a single column. Let’s see if we can play William Tell and split that apple into pieces.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  After thirty seconds I said, “Turn back now.”

  Marian initiated our wide swooping turn as the rest of my fighters gathered together. We rolled out looking for the Greys but they weren’t where I thought they’d be. I looked at the tactical display.

  “They’re bugging out,” I said with relief. “That was enough for them.”

  “It does appear so,” Marian confirmed. “Their vector is back toward Grey space, in the direction they came from.”

  “All right, then,” I said in a tired voice. “One down, one to go. Let’s meet the Bakkui.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  “Put our fighters in a wide spread formation and load our missiles with nukes. I don’t want to fool around with these guys.”

  “Target formation on the nose,” Marian said.

  The tactical display indicated a force of fifty thousand. Based on Carrie’s intel, I had anticipated almost two hundred thousand. The lower number was a surprise, but I wasn’t going to complain.

  “What happened to the rest of the Bakkui?” I asked. “Do you suppose the Sajans took them out?” That wishful idea strained even my optimistic credulity.

  “As to your first question, unknown. As to the second, I estimate the Sajan forces have destroyed slightly more than three thousand Bakkui. However, I am afraid they lost five thousand of their fighters in the process.”

  “Well, that’s better than I thought they’d do. Maybe with our support it won’t be so one sided.”

  “We can hope so,” Marian agreed. “Engaging in ten seconds.”

  “Auto-hammer on,” I called.