Gary bit down a curse. The missiles would guarantee the destruction of the parasite ships — if they were allowed to hit them. The aliens now had every reason to burn the missiles out of space before they reached their targets… and the missiles were easy to hit. They weren’t armoured like the shuttles.
“Deploy the rail guns,” he ordered. He’d hoped to hold it in reserve for the Guiding Star, but there was no longer any choice. The lasers just weren’t inflicting enough damage on the alien ships. Their armour was just too strong. Craft designed to skim to the very limits of Earth’s atmosphere wouldn’t be too troubled by their lasers. They just didn’t have the power. “Prepare to engage.”
“Rail guns deployed and locked on target,” Simon said. Three more shuttles vanished in bursts of fire, the wreckage falling down towards the planet below, while one of the parasite ships started to leak air. Somehow, Gary doubted that that would really put the aliens off the attack. They were fighting to protect themselves as well as suppress the human race. “We’re ready to fire.”
“Fire,” Gary ordered.
The rail guns fired pellets at incredibly high velocities. At such speeds, even marshmallows would be dangerous, but the slugs were depleted uranium. The downside was that they were difficult to aim and the alien point defence could still engage them, although they would have to vaporise them completely to be sure of their safety. The shuttles fired several bursts each, while the aliens started to fire their own missiles, their targeting getting more accurate as the two sides closed…
“Got you,” Gary burst out, as one of the parasite ships disintegrated. The pellets had struck the ship so hard that their mass vaporised and converted to energy. The aliens, suddenly very aware of the threat, burned five more shuttles out of space, but one by one, the remaining parasite ships were picked off. They didn’t stand a chance now that they were in range. “What’s our ammunition status?”
“We burned off seventy percent of our total rail gun rounds,” Simon said. Gary cursed under his breath. He’d expected expenditure, but not that much. No simulation had truly grasped how hard the rail guns were to aim. The remaining parasite ships might have been caught out of position, but they were moving now to intercept… and, ahead of them…
He could see the Guiding Star. The alien battle section hadn’t been moving, but now, judging by the emissions, it was on the verge of bringing up its main drive and trying to escape. They couldn’t allow that to happen; the aliens would simply find a piece of space junk and push it down towards Earth. If they aimed properly, they wouldn’t even kill many of their own people, although they’d have to be carefully. He allowed himself to consider the prospect of an alien own goal by dropping an asteroid in the Indian Ocean, before checking his console one final time.
“Take us in,” he ordered, running through it again in his head. The aliens could bring up their drive now and still cheat the human race out of victory, but they would never forget this day. “Bring the remaining weapons online and prepare to fire.”
Chapter Forty-Six
General Gohblair: “That is why Bun-Bun will underestimate us."
Mrs Claus: “Because of your resolve?"
General Gohblair: “We’re freaking nuts!"
— Sluggy Freelance
The alien shuttles, particularly those designed for civilian service — insofar as they had civilians — were superior to the human-built craft in one very neat respect; they had portholes. Brent, despite feeling a little sick as the gravity ebbed away into nothingness, found the view of Earth to be exhilarating. It was easy to see why the aliens wanted Earth now; he would have happily paid half of his salary just for the chance to see the Earth from space, if only for a few seconds. The thought reminded him, though, that if the aliens won, the only humans who would see the sight would be their collaborators… and those raised within their religion.
Perhaps that’s what they have in mind for us, he thought, as the shuttle tilted slightly. It was harder to breathe the alien air than he had expected — it was hot and very dry — but somehow he held himself together. Luke, of course, looked utterly untroubled by the temperature; for him, of course, it was just like coming home. The aliens were, in their own way, as adaptable as humans, but they preferred a given environment and created it for themselves wherever possible. Perhaps there would be aliens who would be happy to live in Antarctica or at the North Pole, but somehow he suspected that they would prefer the Middle East and the other hot zones on Earth.
He’d expected, somehow, to see lights and starfighters zipping past, but the laws of physics didn’t allow such things, not outside of a science-fiction movie. There was a battle raging behind them, according to the radars and the download from the alien ships, but there was no sign of it in the darkness of space, not even twinkling lights. The engineers had warned that if they were detected, the shuttle wouldn’t provide more than a moment’s protection against the lasers defending the Guiding Star, but so far, it seemed that they had passed unnoticed. Their survival was proof of that.
“They have accepted our clearance codes and have granted us permission to dock,” Luke said. The alien didn’t even have the decency to look winded by the effort of speaking in a thoroughly alien tongue. Of course, to him it was as warm and natural as English. “They’re suggesting, very strongly, that we expedite.”
Pearson glanced over at him. “Do they say why?”
“There’s a human attack force following us and engaging the parasite ships,” Luke said. If Brent didn’t know better, he would have sworn that the alien was learning sarcasm. “They’re going to bring up the drive and attempt to escape.”
Brent frowned. “Can they do that?”
“If what we were told about the ship is accurate, then yes, they can simply outrun the attacking craft and make it to high orbit or even further away,” Pearson said. “If they do that, we’ve lost.”
It first appeared as a twinkling star, hanging over the Earth, and then rapidly swelled into a shining Matchbox toy, a city hanging in space. Brent had seen the images from the space-based telescopes when the starship was heading towards Earth, and then the much more detailed images taken from the ground when the aliens had opened fire and brought so much death and destruction to the world, but none of them had truly captured its immensity. There had been nothing in human experience to compare it to, no words that could capture it and bind it to a common reality, a shared understanding of what it was. It was beyond imagination, beyond perception; he could barely make out tiny fractions of the immense whole…
It was conical, floating in orbit, and yet it wasn’t smooth. Like the rest of the alien technology, it had an almost crude appearance, despite the advanced science that had gone into building it. Spacecraft of all kinds fussed around it, while others hung on the hull like barnacles to a watery spacecraft, clinging on for dear life. He could see the shape of a parasite ship, clear even at their distance, and wondered why it hadn’t been launched to take part in the battle. The conical landing craft, the ones that condemned an army to victory or inevitable destruction, could be seen, in perfect position for launch.
Pearson’s eyes were shining with tears. “That could have been us,” he whispered. “We could have built something like that.”
Brent said nothing. The Internet had taken on an increasingly anti-NASA tone as the news of the first attacks sank in… and how much could have been avoided, if only NASA had done its job. It had been easy to share that when he’d been down on the planet, but now, looking at the alien ship, he wondered if that had really been the problem. The human race was so limited, so short-sighted; how could it really have prepared for such an invasion. The aliens had sent generation ships to hundreds of stars, knowing that there would be no real return on the investment, while humanity frittered and played with junk science and oil. The future might yet belong to the aliens. They had done something the human race had never matched.
“They’re taking a download from the flight comput
ers,” Luke said, suddenly. A new icon had appeared on the small display. “That’s fairly normal; they just want to know if there are any problems they should be compensating for. Their main computer may take over the approach…”
“Bastards,” Pearson said, suddenly. “I didn’t trust anyone on the ground to try to tell me how to fly and I never met a pilot that did. Can your computers really dock this craft?”
“Yes,” Luke said, slowly. The tension was rising sharply in the cabin. “Unless, of course, they realise what we are. They might decide to direct us back down towards the planet instead.”
The alien craft grew larger. In an instant, it transformed from an object in the distance to a massive wall, covering the entire skyline. Brent had been wondering if they would be brought inside the hanger bay, but it seemed that there wasn’t time for it, not if the battle was going badly. The alien craft was turning slowly, preparing to inject itself into a transfer orbit to leave Earth behind… and come back with a world-wrecking asteroid. He saw other shuttles, just like their own, docking… and then it was their time. The alien ship reached for them and drew them in.
* * *
The engineering report scrolled across the screen and the High Priest allowed himself a moment of relief. The Takaina had invented rail guns as well, but using them against targets that could move and evade fire was something that they had never required. Even assuming a degree of efficiency beyond anything they’d come up with themselves, the human weapons had to be running short of ammunition by now… and two of their shuttles hadn’t fired a shot in the last ten minutes. That suggested, to the High Priest, that they were either laying low or had shot themselves dry… and he was betting on the latter.
The situation was almost intolerable, but the humans seemed to have shot their bolt completely, despite their surprise. The projections confirmed it and confirmed it again. They couldn’t get into close range of Guiding Star in time to prevent the battle section from boosting out on a transfer orbit, escaping their reach completely and heading out to one of the near-Earth asteroids. The remaining parasite ships could evade as well, remaining out of effective range of the human craft, secure in the knowledge that, in time, the human life-support systems would run down. There was no way, unless they’d made a real breakthrough, that such small craft could carry a self-renewing life support system. They would either exhaust themselves in orbit or land… and either decision would ensure their defeat.
They can’t have many more ships like those, the High Priest thought, coldly. They’d used the data they’d obtained from the Middle East to smash up the American industrial plant, but it was clear now that they’d failed, badly. He wasn’t sure if that was because of bad intelligence or because the humans were irritatingly resourceful, but it hardly mattered. He would see to it that the American humans and their European allies were pounded to scrap from orbit before a single Takaina warrior set foot on their lands. They would be reduced to such a condition that they would be begging for the priests to come amongst them and bring them to the Truth. The Takaina would not heed their calls until they had proven themselves submissive… and he would extract a high price. He would…
Something changed on the display. “No!”
* * *
The lone warhead was lucky, if luck could be applied to a missile head, when the parasite ships engaged the missile that had launched it on a ballistic trajectory. The Chinese missile engineers had known for years that American ABM systems were only going to get better and better… and doubted that the Americans would stick to any treaties relating to the deployment of ABM weapons. They wouldn’t have hesitated to shield all of China if they had had the capability and suspected that the Americans, in secret, had actually deployed such a capability. No one had been insane enough to test it, but the warheads loaded into the Ju Lang-2 missile had been supported by enough decoys to make knocking out the warhead a fearsomely difficult task. The aliens had engaged the missiles… but missed the warhead.
It had passed through space on a trajectory that would take it down over Texas. The insurgent attacks on the ground-based ABM systems prevented the aliens on the ground from engaging the warhead when it became detectable… and all of the parasite ships were either destroyed or out of position. The targeting system might have been less advanced than the Chinese engineers could wish, but the warhead wasn’t intended for precise work; there was really no such thing as a near-miss with a nuke. It detonated, almost perfectly, over the largest alien settlement in Texas.
In Austin, miles to the east, people saw the mushroom cloud rising up in the distance. Joshua, watching a third insurgency from the safety of a rooftop, saw the blast and knew what it meant. As the dirty shape became clear in the air, both sides separated and broke contact, too awed by the sudden destruction of a major target to keep fighting. They both knew what it meant. Thousands of aliens were killed… and the remainder were naked to human attack.
* * *
“They will pay for that,” the High Priest vowed. The reports were vague and scanty — a part of his mind insisted, nastily, that the human leaders in America and Italy must have gone through the same experience — but fairly clear. The warhead had detonated and released ninety kilotons of nuclear power onto the defenceless city below. They wouldn’t have been in protective gear, for all the good it would have done; they would have been naked and helpless against such a towering blast. “I swear, before God himself, they will pay!”
He glared down at the screen, and then, in a moment of anger, turned it off. There would be time, later, to bury himself in the details, a fitting punishment for his mistake. He would watch the dead and dying a thousand times over to steel himself for the task that lay ahead. It took a moment to compose himself and then he keyed his radio.
“Find me an asteroid, one near Earth,” he ordered. The destructive power of the nuke wasn’t as bad as he had feared, but it wasn’t something that he was going to allow to happen again, not when the Texas Foothold was more vulnerable than it had ever been. It would take careful planning to chart an impact point that wouldn’t slaughter thousands of his own people, but it could be done. An asteroid in the heart of Europe would put them off anything, but bare survival for years. A second one in North America would complete the destruction of America. “Find one and chart us an interception and capturing course.”
“Yes, Your Holiness,” the War Leader said. The High Priest could feel the growing power of the drive now. The last of the shuttles had docked and they could move. “We will punish them for this impudence.”
“And summon the Inquisitors,” the High Priest added. He had a final order to give. “Those who converted to the Truth must face the ultimate test.”
* * *
Brent had been nervous about combat in zero-gravity, but the handful of aliens who had come to meet the shuttle hadn’t suspected a thing, not until they popped open the hatch and came face-to-face with silenced gun barrels. Brent disliked silencers — he’d yet to meet one that didn’t screw up his aiming — but they had to be used… and the heavy ammunition punched through the alien skins like a knife through butter. Blood, dark alien blood, bubbled off the bodies and floated in the air, slowly falling towards the rear of the ship as the drive started to push them away from the planet.
“You two, stay and guard the shuttle,” Brent said. “The rest of you, follow me.”
The aliens clearly had their own problems in zero-gravity and had thoughtfully rigged up a series of hoops and railings to help their people manoeuvre around the ship. Gary had been right, Brent decided, after five minutes of swarming through the tunnels and corridors down into the heart of the ship; the aliens had designed the battle section to have gravity, at least some part of the time. It wasn’t shaped like the interior of the International Space Station, but rather more like the Starship Enterprise, although a decidedly less advanced one. They passed — and killed — groups of surprised aliens, wondering how long they would have before the alarm was sou
nded. If they could take out something vital… they might survive this crazy mission after all.
* * *
“We’ve been boarded!”
The High Priest couldn’t believe his ears. No one had ever boarded a Takaina starship before, not since the Unification Wars… and even then, the boarding actions had been minimal and designed to hamper operations. They had never even anticipated the possibility! The human prisoners they’d taken and held onboard, before returning them to Earth, had been watched carefully… but naked and unarmed, what could they do?
But the display was clear. The internal security system was reporting humans, real armed humans, moving unerringly down into the vitals of Guiding Star, right towards the main drive shaft. If they started to wreck havoc down there, their very success of their holy mission would be in peril. They would be crippled, at the very least, their plans to defeat the human race shelved until they could rebuild the starship. The High Priest’s hindsight was nagging at him now, reminding him of all the things that could go wrong, and his mind snapped under the pressure.
“Send the warriors,” he screamed. If nothing else, they couldn’t know about the security system, or that they were being monitored all the way; the sterile bitch had never known about that! They knew where they were going, all right, but they didn’t know to knock out the system as they moved, and even if they did… they would mark out a clear pathway for the warriors to follow. “Destroy them!”
* * *
“Shit, we’re hopelessly lost,” Jack called. The corridors all looked the same to the humans. If they’d had a chance to navigate, they’d blown it somewhere once they left the hanger deck. “Captain, you got any idea of where we are?”
“No,” Brent said. He looked over at Luke, but the alien was coming apart at the seams. The sight of one of his priests blown apart by a spray of bullets seemed to have unhinged him slightly. He wouldn’t be any use at all and it was damn lucky that they’d never given him a weapon. “We just keep heading into the ship and…”
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