The Sakkara

by Donald Nicklas

  Tavia responded immediately, “The centurions of the serpent centuries are issuing orders to put all of the unconscious humans near the sickbay area. They are also preparing for the defense of the ship and the humans.”

  “Ask them what is going on and why are the serpents not unconscious?”

  Tavia spoke into the battle channel and it immediately went quiet as the serpents heard her voice and listened with reverence to their former World Mother. When she was finished, there was a report from the lead centurion in charge of the defense. When the message was finished, Tavia turned to Alaya and reported, “The primary centurion of the second cohort has taken over command. Apparently, the EMP burst had absolutely no effect on the serpents and they have secured all of the humans and brought them to several large mess halls near the sickbay. They have also brought down the bridge crew and the flight deck personnel. They can hear the Saltic in the next compartment over and are ready to fight them.”

  “Tavia, tell them no quarter for the Saltic. They must all be killed.”

  “Yes, Alaya,” Tavia responded and conveyed the orders to the centurion.

  The serpents of the second cohort were the first line of defense with the remaining cohorts ready to fill gaps as they developed. The blast door in the bulkhead leading to the large area where the cohorts drill opened and the Saltic began to glide in on their rear set of legs. They stopped when they saw the double shield wall set up by the serpents. As soon as more of the Saltic entered the drill area, the shields came down and the third row of armored males stood up and fired their Gatling guns until all the Saltic who had entered the room were dead. The cohort then stood up and let out the blood-curdling shriek they use before entering combat. This was followed by the charge of the cohort towards the blast doors, through which the Saltic now fired. As the energy bolts came through the doors, some hit the shields and they were stopped but some burned through the shields and the next ones in that area then passed through and killed or wounded the serpent behind the shield. Since only male serpents used ranged weapons, the majority of the cohort had to close with the enemy.

  Most of the Saltic aboard the Tempestas were crowded into the first ship section off the hangar. The way the ship was designed, the blast doors that sealed the ship into cylindrical sections were all on the central level to limit movement during boarding actions. The bulkheads had multiple entrances at all level for movement when not in combat. When the ship was sealed during combat, those doors slid out of the ceiling and were held shut by a peg that deployed automatically but had to be manually removed. This prevented a group, such as the Saltic, from forcing them open or even making them open with a power source. The blast door opening on the hangar deck level allowed four abreast to exit, the cohort now hit the door with full force, shields up, spears forward, and spike tipped tails darting over the shield wall. The Saltic were still stunned from the casualties inflicted by the Gatling guns and this was when the cohort hit them. They began to give ground and head towards the next blast door that led to the hangar and their shuttles. However, the ship had another design feature that was confusing to a boarding party. The blast doors were offset, alternating between the starboard and the port side. This forced a boarding party to zigzag through the ship. It also meant that when they retreated, there was no effective way for the forces in the rear, to move rapidly out of the way. The groups the Saltic called gatherers were unarmed scientists who were expecting the guards to protect them. They had been moved to the rear of the section entered from the hangar. The relentless attack of the serpents, caused some initial panic among the guards and they ran back, only to run right into the gatherers. These were now an obstruction and some of the panicked guards actually killed a few of the gatherers who were not moving fast enough. The guard captain finally restored some order and they began to fire on the serpents with reasonably good results. The Saltic guards began to take cover in side corridors and behind equipment and anything else, they could find. The serpents took cover behind their shields and the armored males suddenly stood up and peppered the area in front with Gatling fire. Some of the Saltic who had chosen weak cover were killed or wounded, but they returned fire and took down some of the males. The fighting finally broke off for a respite when the serpents filled the corridors and open areas with smoke from grenades. This blinded the Saltic, who did not have infrared vision, but allowed the serpents to see their targets in infrared, since the Saltic were warm blooded. The Saltic commander reported progress to captain Hek’Lok and requested more troops. A quick head count indicated they had in excess of two hundred casualties among the guards and over a hundred gatherers.

  On the bridge of the Saltic cruiser Ver’Tau, the captain and the bridge crew were stunned. This had never happened before. Reports were coming in of significant casualties and there were no humans on the enemy ship. There was a different type of alien seemingly immune to the effects of the EMP weapon. Captain Hek’Lok ordered another thousand guards into action, to take over the enemy ship. It was now necessary to capture the ship and some of the new aliens alive for analysis. This mission had just taken a turn for the worse. As the captain was mulling over how further to proceed, a thousand fresh guards entered shuttles, each holding two hundred Saltic guards. The shuttles left the hangar of the Saltic cruiser and started towards the Tempestas. Since the battleship was still disabled and the engines of the Saltic ship had not yet recharged, both ships had been drifting further apart. The battleship would regain control before the Saltic ship was back on line and this presented a problem if they could not defeat the aliens aboard the enemy vessel. Captain Hek’Lok watched the video feed on the bridge showing the shuttles making their way to the enemy. Suddenly two of them exploded and a third was hit by energy bolts out of nowhere and just made it to the hangar deck along with the two undamaged ones. Reports came into the bridge indicating the loss of 400 guards in the destroyed shuttles and 15 hit from an energy blast on the damaged shuttle. What was happening here? There were still invisible ships out there not affected by the EMP weapon. The captain now regretted ever using that weapon, but he was only following protocol. Suddenly it seemed very important to get out of this system, but he had no engine power yet and the open wormhole back to where he came from was near the third planet and a long distance away. Nothing to do but tough it out and trust his troops to prevail.

  Aboard the Mary Rose, reports of the battle were coming in and there were moderate losses among the serpents. The centurions felt they were doing considerable damage to the boarding party. They also reported that a large portion of the boarding party was not armed. They were giving priority to the armed members. The best the serpents could hope for was to hold the enemy until the humans woke up. Since only serpent males used the Gatling guns, there were a limited number of ranged weapons available to them and the first cohort had already lost half their armored males to the energy weapons of the Saltic. The energy weapons of the Saltic also prevented the serpents from readily closing to melee distance for combat. A stalemate was starting to develop. As Alaya and Tavia were discussing events on the Tempestas, Raul reported five shuttles leaving the Saltic ship.

  “They are sending over reinforcements. All ships attack the shuttles. Raul take us in for an attack run.”

  “Yes, captain.”

  Only three serpent ships and the Mary Rose were close enough to reach the shuttles before they reached the Tempestas. All four ships now opened fire and two shuttles exploded from the railgun hits and a third was heavily damaged from the energy bolts sent out by the scout ship’s weapons. The shuttles that made it to the hangar rapidly discharged their guard units who then ran to reinforce their comrades. By this time, the gatherers had all returned to the hangar and wanted the shuttles to take them back to the cruiser. The shuttle pilots warned them there were invisible ships out there, but they just wanted off this horror of a ship. The shuttle pilots reported this to their captain and Captain Hek’Lok ordered them to return. The Saltic were ruthless to
their own and other species. The captain did not care about the well-being of the gatherers, but decided to use them to help his gunners pinpoint the source of the railgun shots.

  “Captain, there are shuttles leaving the Tempestas hangar,” Raul reported.

  “Tavia, find out from the centurion if any of our people are aboard.”

  After a short interchange, Tavia reported, “No, captain. None of our people are aboard.”

  “Order all ships to destroy those shuttles.”

  The serpent ships opened fire, as did the Mary Rose. As the shuttles became space debris, the Saltic ship suddenly opened a barrage of energy weapons fire blanketing the area containing the invisible ships. Three serpent ships were hit, one simply turned to dust and the other two broke apart with no escape pods. The Romani were impressed with the abilities of the Saltic gunners to zero in on the source of the incoming fire.

  “Blue, Order all ships to use skirmish formation.”

  “Sss. Yes captain,” Blue Scale responded and conveyed the order, which required the ships to increase their distance from each other and make them harder to hit.

  The Saltic captain was pleased with the results of his gunner’s fire. He had determined where the shots were coming from and then fired a cluster of energy bolts in that direction, taking out three enemy ships. The problem is there must be many more of them out there and they are a constant threat. In addition, time was running out for his boarding party, though it did not look like there were any humans aboard. The captain had unwittingly discovered a new and powerful race that was immune to the EMP weapon and were tough. This is not what the coward who brought the news of the attack on the outpost conveyed. He had never once given a hint of an alien race. Most of his last set of guards made it across to the enemy ship and they were starting to engage. The enemy was slowly pushing the guard units back to the hangar. There were only a thousand guards left on the cruiser and these he now ordered to their shuttles and committed them to the battle on the alien vessel. This time they took smaller shuttles that held only one hundred guards each. This meant there were more targets for the invisible ships and perhaps more would get through. The shuttles left the hangar in a group and started across to the battleship. The problem they faced was the fact that the ships were constantly drifting farther apart and this meant each set of shuttles had farther to travel. Alaya and her ships were now more scattered but they went in fast for attack runs on the shuttles. They managed to destroy half of them and only allowed another five hundred Saltic guards to reach the Tempestas. The serpent ships and Alaya were too fast on their attack runs to be hit and this time they were unscathed. Captain Hek’Lok had to admire the way this enemy adapted. He just wished he were not the one who would have to deal with them. All of his frontline forces were now over on the alien vessel and that left his secondary troops to deal with anything that came up. The Saltic military was so constructed as to giving all ships primary, frontline troops, of which the cruiser had 3500, all of which had now been sent over to the alien vessel. He now still had 5000 second line troops. These were draftees and trained only to deal with garrison duty and other problems related to keeping conquered areas in line. They were armed with less powerful weapons and wore no armor. If the alien beat back the boarding parties and decided to board them, these troops would be expected to repel them.

  Aboard the Tempestas, things were changing. The combat was still hot and the serpent cohorts were taking significant casualties along with the Saltic. Fresh Saltic troops had just come over and were now entering the fray. The combat had been going on just over an hour and the humans were slowly starting to come to. The serpent medics had their orders as to how to revive the humans. They went to the medical personnel first and injected them with a stimulant. Once these were awake, they joined the serpent medics in reviving the human legionaries and the bridge crew. The ship was also starting to return to life. When Slone woke up, he could not believe he was still in his body. He had fully expected to wake up as a control computer for a Saltic vessel. He was stunned and gratified to learn that the serpents were not affected by the EMP pulse. As the command crew and the legionaries revived, they soon learned of the desperate fight the serpent legionaries were putting up and that they had pushed the Saltic boarders back to the hangar deck, but at great cost. Casualties and casualty reports kept coming in and it looked like the first and second cohort serpent centuries had been almost wiped out along with their centurions. The serpent centurions of the third cohort were now in command at the front and had incorporated the remains of the first and second into their cohort. As soon as Centurion Marshal was apprised of the situation, he ordered all legionaries to form with their cohorts and enter battle as soon as they could. The bridge crew were now all revived and headed to the bridge. It was time to show the Saltic what the Romani were made of.

  Alaya watched the ships drifting and awaited further opportunities. As she was keeping an eye on the Tempestas, the ship suddenly sprang to life and fired its engines. Since the Romani ship only had to shake off the effects of the EMP pulse and not the massive energy needed to fire it, she got underway well before the Saltic vessel. Alaya wondered who got the ship going when there was a sudden, familiar voice on the battle channel. “Attention all ships; this is captain Slone requesting an update on ship status. We are still heavily engaged with the Saltic boarding party but our full legion is now coming on line. All units man your stations and prepare for combat.” Alaya could hear the battle stations klaxon in the background.

  Alaya filled Slone in on the loss of several serpent ships, but also on their success in keeping the boarding party numbers down. They both realized what a stroke of luck it was that the serpents were immune to the EMP weapon. Now it was time to settle scores with the Saltic. The bridge stations were all manned and Slone knew that the gunners were all serpents so not affected by the EMP. “Load ship-killer missiles and begin the cadence at attack speed.” Immediately the drumbeat began at double time and this inspired the legionaries dealing with the boarding party.

  Down in the hangar, the arrival of the human legionaries began to tip the balance. Command was immediately relinquished to Centurion Marshal and he changed the deployment of the legion to bring the ranged weapons of the humans to bear on the Saltic. The sudden arrival of hundreds of humans with more coming every few minutes began to press hard on the Saltic. Bill Marshal had to admit, the Saltic were a worthy opponent and the Romani valued worthy opponents. They moved into the hangar under cover of smoke grenades and fire from the enemy. The smoke had the effect of disrupting the energy weapons and that was a plus. The Romani were using their automatic rifles and they began to form a bulge into the hangar behind their shield wall. The energy bolts were still making scrap of their shields but they were firing much faster than the Saltic weapons could return that fire. The Saltic were now starting to fall back more and move towards their boarding shuttles. It was now time to make sure they didn’t get away. Since the serpents were much stronger than humans were, Centurion Marshal ordered them to throw grenades at the nearest Saltic shuttles. They did this and the shuttles collapsed on their landing gear and some had their shells cracked open making them useless. The Saltic moved to the further shuttles, went aboard, and powered them up. The few left behind were quickly eliminated. Bill Marshal reported to the bridge that the shuttles were taking the remaining Saltic back to their vessel. Unfortunately, for the Saltic, while the ship was incapacitated when they boarded the Tempestas, that was no longer the case. As soon as they cleared the hangar and moved away from the battleship, the point defenses came on and took out all of the shuttles. Not a single Saltic who boarded the Romani ship returned alive.

  “NO,” Captain Hek’Lok shouted as he saw his remaining troops blown into dust. He was becoming increasingly concerned. He now knew from his field commander’s reports that there were humans aboard the enemy ship. It had a mixed crew of aliens. That was unusual since the officers reported that both aliens took orders
from each other, none were dominant and none servile. This group of humans was on equal terms with this new type of alien and that could spell trouble for the Saltic. One species they could handle, but two has never happened before. What the one lacks in ability the other can make up for. Moreover, which one had the gift of invisibility? He had to capture that ship or one of the others out there to find out who had this ability. However, how could he accomplish that, since his frontline troops were all dead and he had no faith in conscripts? His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by his sensor tech.

  “Captain, the enemy ship has powered up and is moving in our direction.”

  Captain Hek’Lok suddenly moved his eyestalks and concentrated on the visual projection of the battle area. Sure enough, the enemy had regained control of their vessel and was moving to close the distance. “Engineering, how long before we have our engines recharged?”

  The engineering tech reported an amount of time close to a human hour. It didn’t take a genius to tell the bridge crew this was a disaster in the making. They could fire back but they could not maneuver. “Notify all commands to prepare to repel boarders. Notify the gunners to fire on the enemy and keep firing once they are in range.”

  “Yes, captain. Fire control reports that the crystal packs are deteriorating and we came here without waiting for resupply.”

  Another problem he had forgotten about. When the alarm concerning the science station was brought by the escort ship, the Ver’Tau left immediately when ordered, without replenishing the crystals they needed for the projection cannons. They had not expected to get into a major space combat, but now the captain wished he had taken the time to restock.

  Aboard the Tempestas, things were winding down. The bodies of the Saltic were collected and sent out of the airlocks. There was just enough time to bring the dead to the crematorium and bring the wounded to sickbay, when the captain called all cohorts to be ready to board the enemy ship. Slone was back in control of his ship and he meant to make it count.