by T. R. Harris
“That was…unnecessary,” Riyad commented.
“I thought you were going to say thrilling,” Adam replied back.
“Yeah that, too.”
15
Captain Davis Morris carried his cup of steaming coffee onto the bridge and sat in his command chair. He lifted the hot liquid to his lips and took a cautionary sip. He was still shaking off the cobwebs from a good night’s sleep. The coffee would help.
Ensign Callie Jacobson came up to his chair and handed him a datapad.
“Good morning, ensign, anything to report?”
“Good morning, sir,” replied the young, dark-haired officer. She was slightly plump, and the buttons of her kakis strained over her bosom. “Not much to report…except some unusual movement along the Juirean lines.”
“Ensign, after a couple of months of border duty, any movement by the Juireans is unusual. What’s going on?”
“They seem to be shifting position, sir.”
Morris tensed. Command had been expecting an invasion by the mane-heads once their forces had been sufficiently enhanced. For a couple of months beforehand, Juirean ships had been added to the line. The buildup ended a week ago. Had the Juireans reached the point where they felt they were ready?
“A consolidation?”
“No, sir. They appear to be just moving their ships from place to place.”
“But not to a staging area?”
Ensign Jacobson shook her head.
“Do we have a count?”
“I can get one, sir, but the way they’re moving around, it’ll be hard to get a true number.”
“Get it anyway.”
After the officer left, Morris forgot about his coffee, instead staring out the forward viewport while trying to figure out what the mane-heads were up to. Moving troops along a static line was a classic maneuver…when trying to conceal your numbers. In fact it was used to trick your opponent into believing you had more than you had. But why would the Juireans be doing that? They already had two times the forces the Union had aligned along the border.
Ensign Jacobson returned a moment later. “It’s even stranger, Captain,” she said. “If the numbers are right, there’s been a thirty percent reduction in opposing forces since two days ago.”
“And we have no indication if they’re being grouped for an invasion?”
“None, sir. Intel does report gravity trails heading back into the Frontier, but away from the border.”
“So the mane-head are only holding a slight numerical superiority facing us now?”
“It would appear so, sir.”
Morris slipped out of his chair. “Thank you, ensign. Monitor the situation closely, with particular attention to Juirean strength and density. See if there are any areas along the border that are thinner than others. I’ll be in CIC if you need me. And have Commander Said join me there.”
“Yes, sir.”
“So where are they going, if not to mass for an invasion?”
Lieutenant-Commander Omar Said was the XO of the Union Starship Monitor, and a fiery young officer of boundless energy. He was a man of action, and the last two months of mind-numbing border duty had been torture for him.
Two months before, the Monitor had led an armada of nearly a hundred Union warships from in and around the Luminis Cluster back over the border and without firing a shot. They were escorted by a smaller Juirean force and were under orders not to engage. That was only days after the mane-heads annexed the Frontier and a week before they declared war on the Union. At the time, there was no justification for a fight. Now, if any Juireans crossed the border, they were authorized to fire.
It had been agonizing watching the Juireans add thousands of warships to their border force, while the Humans and their Union allies were maxed out with what was already there. Sending all allied forces to the Kidis would have left open the region around The Fringe, as well as inviting an attack on the Union from above the plane. Ample forces also had to be left in reserve around Earth to deter a pre-emptive strike on the Human homeworld, something the Juireans were not above contemplating.
As the enemy forces built up along the Kidis Frontier, it didn’t take a military genius to realize that when the invasion came, there would be very little the frontline defenders could do to stop it. They would be tasked with a stalling tactic, sacrificing themselves until more forces could be moved up to plug the hole. The Humans and their allies didn’t have the resources to fight a multi-front war with the Juireans, only selective engagements with the best chance of success.
This wasn’t something the Humans were used to; however, the Sol-Kor war had taken a terrible toll on the once mighty war machine of Earth. They emerged victorious in that conflict, if diminished. The mane-heads quickly moved in to exploit the situation.
But now the Juireans were disguising the fact that they’d pulled forces from the line. Why?
Captain Morris was attempting to link with distant Earth, with his XO at his side. A series of clocks on the wall of the comm center showed shipboard time, Earth Command time and Juirean time—for some reason. It was four am in Phoenix.
Admiral Morton Hollingsworth came on the screen. He had dressed in a paisley-print robe and what hair he had remaining on his head was ruffled and standing on end. His eyes were mere slits. There was an inset screen showing the face of Admiral Curtis Logan, Morris’s area commander, whom he’d contacted first.
“What is it, Admiral?” Hollingsworth asked with no irritation in his voice. He knew that if one of his area commanders was contacting him at this hour, it had to be important.
“Sorry to bother you, Admiral, but Captain Morris reports a thirty percent drop in Juirean forces along the border over the past two days.”
“Good morning, Captain,” said Hollingsworth, addressing Davis. “Do you think this is a prelude to invasion?”
“No sir, I don’t. The ships they’re pulling are heading back into the Frontier, and apparently in a hurry.”
“Curt, do we have any actions taking place within Kidis at this time?”
“No, sir, we don’t. But after receiving Captain Morris’s link, I checked with some of our local assets. There does appear to be something going on, although I don’t know exactly what.”
“Explain.”
“There are reports from as far away as Incus of attacks on Juirean ships. We just got a new one about Visidor—wherever that is. And then another from Worak-nin.”
Hollingsworth came awake instantly. “You said Worak-nin?”
“Yessir. Not as big of an action as on Incus, but something that still resulted in Juirean casualties. Does this mean anything to you?”
“You’ve heard the news about Captain Cain stealing a prototype warship?”
“Yessir…but.”
“He was going to Worak-nin to rescue what remained of Admiral Tobias’s team left there.”
“But…he has only one ship. The reports out of Incus alone speak of the Juireans losing twenty-two ships, including the only Class-7 in the Frontier.”
“I’m not sure what it means, gentlemen, but I’m going to find out. If this is Cain, then he’s found a way to power the prototype to its fullest potential. This is both good and bad. It’s good because he’s able to destroy Juirean ships at will. It’s bad if the Juireans get their hands on the ship. We need more information.”
“What about the thinning of the line, sir?” Morris asked. “This could be our chance to take back some territory?”
“Hold onto that thought for a while, Captain, at least until I find out if it really is Captain Cain out there kicking Juirean butt. Frankly, it sounds like something he’d be doing.”
“Then doesn’t he deserve support from the rest of us, sir” said Omar Said.
“Always itching for a fight, aren’t you commander?” said Hollingsworth with a grin. “That may happen, but not before we know what Captain Cain is up to. If he has recovered the team on Worak-nin, then why hasn’t he returned to Union
space? And what the hell was he doing way out on Incus? Curtis, monitor the local situation closely. If this thinning of the line is permanent, then we might have an opening. But if it’s just a temporary thing as they go slap a mosquito from their arm, we’d be foolish to escalate.”
“The latest count has the Juireans losing nearly forty ships in the past week. That’s a substantial attrition rate,” said Admiral Logan.
“I agree, and if Cain is behind this, then we’ll be behind him one hundred percent. But patience, men. At least until I have my breakfast.”
16
“Thanks to the datapad so graciously provided by Overlord Andis lo Pindoc on Worak-nin, this is what we know of the Juireans strongholds between here and Juir.” Adam pointed at the graphic display on the video screen he’d set up in the supply bay of the Vengeance, the largest open space on the ship—if it wasn’t for the small shuttlecraft packed inside.
“Over the past three weeks we’ve hit enemy concentrations at Hannon VI, Westolia, Burnis and Cap’o’licon Three, if I pronounced that right. The only major base left in the Frontier is Woken. After that we enter the main part of the Expansion with another nine major centers before we reach Juir, and each one of them bigger than any in the Frontier. We’ll hit Woken on our way out of Kidis.”
“Sir, won’t they be expecting that?” Travis asked.
“Hopefully. The purpose of a scorched earth campaign is not only to destroy enemy assets along a line of advance, but to also provide a path for trailing forces to follow. Woken is at the entrance to the Frontier. If the mane-heads pull enough resources from the rest of Kidis—which we’ve noticed them doing at all our other attack locations—our guys can pour in and have our backs. I’m sure our recent raids haven’t gone unnoticed.”
“It might be a good time to open communications with Hollingsworth,” Riyad offered. “I know you’ve been ignoring his calls, but a little coordination is called for at this point.”
Adam had placed a restriction on links coming from the Union. They were outlaws and he didn’t want to have to justify his actions to anyone. It had been a little over a month since they absconded with the Mark VII. Perhaps Riyad was right. Now was the time to mend fences.
“I’ll take it under consideration, Mister Tarazi, but for now, let’s prepare for a strafing of Woken. We’ll be there in eighteen hours. This will be the biggest target we’ve hit to date, and it’s a good bet it’s been fortified even more. Our success there may be limited, but we can’t leave it unmolested. After that, we’re in the main part of the galaxy, an area most of us are more familiar with. We might even find a few friends along the way.”
17
When the Vengeance popped into space near the planet Woken, the crew was expecting a substantial Juirean presence. As the unofficial capital of the Frontier, it was the first major planet when entering the Kidis arm. The system would be a logical staging area for the Juireans as they allocated their forces to the newly annexed territory. In addition, Adam’s trail of death led to Woken. The mane-heads would have seen this and made preparations.
Even so, what they saw on their screens was ridiculous.
“Initial scan shows over three hundred starships, Class-3 and above,” Lt. Commander Paulson reported a little breathlessly. “Either they’re preparing for an invasion, or that’s one hell of a welcoming committee.”
“Incoming, Captain!” Travis shouted. “They fired the moment we materialized; some kind of automatic response, I would guess.”
“I’m jumping,” Adam said, and the Vengeance disappeared.
“We were expecting they’d be expecting us,” Riyad said. His smile was forced.
“Updated count: four hundred plus ships,” Paulson reported.
“Well, what to do?” Adam leaned back in his seat and began thinking aloud. “I’d really hate to leave that many enemy ships clustered in one place. However, if they’re looking for our jump signature, we’ll have to go in conventionally. With that many ships moving around, we just might be able to slip in under cover of all the other gravity sigs. Fortunately, well-dampeners don’t affect the jump-drive, not completely. We can still jump almost a light. If they spot us, we can always bug out pretty fast.”
“Not unless we’re hit, sir,” Travis pointed out dryly.
“Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen. All right, I’m going to hop over a little closer and then go to straight gravity-drive. It’ll take longer to get on station but it shouldn’t trigger any automatic response of flash cannon fire. Hopefully.”
Adam had been right about the sheer number of starships in the system providing cover. The problem came with trying to navigate through so many competing gravity sources. It took him four hours to thread his way in-system to where the target-rich environment was more to his liking.
After their first appearance, the fleet was in an agitated state; disorganized would be a better word for it. A third of the ships had descended on their previous entry point, leaving virtually no maneuvering room for anyone, the Juireans included. The other vessels had scattered, attempting to anticipate their next entry point. When the Vengeance didn’t materialize, the Juirean commanders became confused, and the deployment of their ships showed it.
“Pogo, what if we cut the recycle time to only four seconds, knowing that some of the boards will have to be replaced eventually?”
“That will be the case. I realize we have ninety-six replacements, but we still have three months left on our mission.”
“But we could take out a huge chunk of these four hundred ships.”
“You’re in command. I will do as you instruct.”
“Is that a wise move?” Riyad asked.
“We’ll see. If we start burning through boards I’ll reevaluate. Travis, get back to the engine room and be ready to snap in new boards as the old ones burn out. Riyad, you have sentry duty. Let me know what’s around us.” He took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s make our presence known.”
Adam steered the Vengeance to the edge of the cluster of ships still milling around their original entry point. There were over fifty of them within a million miles of their location. He punched the small gravity-well and set off on a course right through the middle of the pack. Even if they were fired upon, a lot of the bolts would continue along their straight-line trajectories and possibly impact the other Juirean ships in the cluster, creating a form of circular firing squad.
“They’re taking notice,” said Riyad.
“Fire at will, Tom.”
Light filled the exterior viewports as the graphic on the main screen displayed the first four-beam burst. Adam thought that by reducing the recycle time by half, it would make the sequence of fire-recharge seem quicker. It didn’t. Even with cutting the total cycle time to eight seconds, it was still a lifetime between flashes.
The Juireans weren’t sitting on their hands. They unleased a devastating barrage of flash bolts of their own, adding even more light to that of Paulson’s laser bursts. The battlefield was lit up like a one big fireball of white. Adam closed the viewport shields to keep the flood of light from blinding them. The graphic on the screen told them all they needed to know.
The first pass took out nineteen Juirean ships and damaged another eight. Adam jumped before surveying what effect the plethora of mane-head cannon bolts was having on their own fleet. The threat computer had counted over eight hundred of the deadly balls of plasma being released before the jump. These would continue for up to thirty-five hundred miles before dissipating. With such a large number of warships converging on the path of the Vengeance, there would undoubtedly be friendly-fire casualties among the Juireans.
Now a little less than a light-year from Woken, Adam and his crew were able to relax. “Tell me about the boards?” Adam called out over the ship’s 1-MC.
“Six boards fried,” came the voice of Travis Morgan. “How many ships did we get?”
“Twenty-seven were hit, most out of commission. There’s still over thr
ee-hundred seventy-five. At this rate, it might be possible for us to take out most of the fleet, but we wouldn’t have too many boards left.”
“We’re going to have cut down our expectations,” said Riyad. “Go back to eight-second recycles and hit them along the fringes—”
“I’m picking up gravity sigs, Captain,” said Paulson.
Adam looked down at his screen. Tom was right. A massive wave of gravity interference was surging their way, not directly at them, but toward Woken. The signatures indicated Juirean warships.
“Something like another six hundred ships,” Tom said. “They’re coming from within the Frontier.”
“And I thought they’d already pulled all the units from the line they needed,” Adam said. “They’re really taking us seriously.”
“I know we’re a badass starship with a crew of superheroes, but this is ridiculous,” said Riyad. “Almost nine hundreds ships against only one.”
“This could be when we use our torpedoes. The closer they’re packed in, the more we can take out.”
“Don’t you have enough monuments in your honor? Now you want to win the war singlehandedly?”
“You guys can help; I’m not above sharing a little of the glory.”
“I don’t have any monuments dedicated to me!” Tom Paulson pointed out.
“Me, neither, sir,” came Travis’s voice over the bridge speakers.
Adam smiled. “Charge ‘em up, Pogo. They didn’t build the super-torpedoes to sit around looking pretty.”
