ARMS Beckland's Fall: (Book 5)

by Stephen Arseneault

  Harris stood in the supply hut with an image of Alex on the wall. "What's our next best target for xenotime?"

  "The former colony of Blewitz looks promising. Data shows possible monazite sands, which are another source of this element."

  "Well, why didn't we go there in the first place?"

  "The salvage material on Nesua had the best yield for salvage. The wreckage on Blewitz is scattered."

  "OK, well, our boson problem is a bigger issue at the moment. Let's make that the priority until we have a hundred of those bombs stockpiled anyway. We can't fight this war without them.

  "We'll be eating lunch as soon as everyone gets in here. In the meantime, prep our salvage and scan plans for Blewitz. We'll follow the same process we just did on Nesua."

  A set of MREs was devoured and a new salvage effort began. Again, scans of the planet showed no recoverable dysprosium-laced minerals. The operation ran for four hours with no sign of Denzee or Earther ships coming in, but material harvests provided only enough salvage for construction of one Banshee, with some spares. The team returned to Midelon with a lowered level of enthusiasm.

  Harris stood in front of the others. "We still have half a dozen colonies to check out. One of those places has to have the minerals we're looking for. We now have two of those bombs, which we'll be taking with us, but we only have material for another seven. So I'm proposing we skip the salvage for now and focus fully on finding the minerals."

  Trish said, "Do we even need to go out, then? Isn't this something the bots can do? Send in the Banshees to scan a planet. With all of them running, that would take what... ten minutes? The Hailstorm can sit out with the boson bomb until they discover something."

  "Hailstorm needs to be on the ground with the bots when they find the material. We don't know how long it will take to mine it, but I do like the scanning idea. We'll pop in with the Banshees doing the heavy work while Tawn and I take on security out in the Bangor. So that's ten minutes in, ten minutes of scan and ten minutes coming out if nothing is found. If the Denzee try to surprise us we set off our bomb and leave."

  Tawn nodded. "In the meantime you three can keep this place running."

  A comm was opened to the Retreat.

  Harris said, "Colonel, any luck with the dysprosium?"

  "I'm not a miracle worker, Mr. Gruberg. We just got word to our contacts on Domicile. Tracking a supply of that element down will take time. And you should surmise from that statement that we didn't find any here."

  "We could use a few miracles, Colonel. Our first two searches turned up nothing. We have about a half dozen more colonies to run through. After that, it'll be a complete crapshoot."

  "There are thousands of planets we have access to. You aren't limited to habitable ones."

  "I guess that's true. Hadn't considered that. I was thinkin—"

  Alex interrupted: "Harris, I apologize for the intrusion, but I thought you should know: the Earthers and Denzee have just assaulted one of the final three truce worlds. Oviedus has more than a hundred fifty warships in orbit. By last count, according to available data, there are still fifty thousand Domicile colonists there."

  Harris patched the colonel into the comm. "The Earthers and Denzee just took Oviedus. We have fifty thousand people still there. The Denzee were supposed to allow time for them to evacuate."

  "The president stopped all further transport. The refugee camps set up on Domicile are overflowing. You know how independent those colonists can be, well, they're rioting for rights in many of those camps because they don't like being caged up like they are. This whole effort has been poorly handled."

  Harris rubbed his forehead. "Alex, are there any of the colonies where the Denzee only have ten or twenty ships?"

  "One moment... from the latest scan data, it appears this fleet was taken from Rumanta. There are currently forty-two Ratoons remaining in orbit there. This might be a good opportunity to strike."

  Harris nodded. "Colonel, we have to go. Keep searching for the dysprosium. I'll give you a comm when we're back."

  Harris and Tawn hustled to the Bangor. The remaining two Legions and the twenty Banshees that were available lifted off together. Twelve minutes later, a boson bomb was detonated in Rumanta space. The Legions and Banshees raced in, piloted by their AI processors, as the Bangor followed.

  Tawn yelled, "Incoming!"

  Harris replied in a calm tone as he jerked the control stick to one side. "I'm right here. You don't have to yell. You slugs always get so excited."

  Tawn smirked. "Funny. I don't think I've been called a slug for a year now. Didn't come to mind until you just said it right there."

  "We can't change who we are, just how we act. Does it bug you to be called that now?"

  Tawn chuckled. "Heck no. That's a badge of honor. Slugs kick ass."

  Harris nodded. "That they do."

  Two Banshees were annihilated before the first of the Ratoons engaged. The fight quickly went the way of the automated fighters. Groups of Ratoons were soon overpowered and disabled. Twenty minutes into the fight, the defending Denzee fleet was down by half, and two additional Banshees had been destroyed.

  Harris dodged a beam and streaked in for Tawn to do her handiwork. The targeted Ratoon took a dozen tungsten rounds to its forward plating, disabling its main weapon. A zip down one side saw its missile defenses and plasma cannons put out of commission. A pair of bursts into her drives had her listing into a slow roll.

  After another fifteen minutes had passed, seven Banshees had been destroyed, but the Denzee ships had fared far worse. The remaining four Ratoons turned away and fled, knowing the fight had been lost.

  Tawn gestured toward the immense complex on the planet's surface. Let's go flatten that place."

  As a dozen fireballs dropped through the Rumanta atmosphere, sixteen sections of the main building crumbled and fell away. As suspected, newly-constructed Denzee warships began to lift. The Banshees, the Legions, and the Bangor fell hard upon them.

  The first five Ratoons to emerge fell back into the manufacturing bays, crushing and smashing the workers and equipment that had surrounded them only moments before. Another six were caught before reaching the building tops. All had been unable to fire their main weapons while in atmosphere. The remaining five never lifted from their bays.

  The Human ships fired in a relentless barrage, spreading their rage and chaos out to the rest of the massive Denzee complex. Another half hour of carnage and mayhem was unleashed before the Human controlled fleet turned for free space. A forty minute run had them to the edge of the shrinking boson negation field, where a wormhole opened for their trip home.

  Harris was still grinning as the Bangor landed. The hatch opened and the Biomarines hopped out onto the grass. The others were waiting for them in the supply hut.

  Tawn said, "Couldn't have gone better."

  Gandy replied, "What do you mean? You lost eleven of our ships. That's half our fleet."

  Harris nodded. "That hurts, but we took out close to forty Ratoons in space, and another sixteen that never made it into the fight. The entire Rumanta colony is nothing but rubble. By all accounts, that was a major victory today."

  Trish said, "You should have three new Banshees tomorrow, and one the day after. Then we're out of materials again."

  A comm was opened to the Retreat. "Good to see you made it," the colonel said.

  "Big victory today, Colonel. We took out their colony on Rumanta. Took down fifty-two warships in the process. We lost eleven, which is about half our fleet, but it was a trade that was well in our favor. I now have confidence that with enough of these Banshee fighters we could take the Denzee out permanently."

  "Well, I have a troubling development. My DDI contact says the president wants to contact the Denzee to make a new deal. Rumor has it he's willing to throw half the outer colonies to the wolves if the Denzee and Earthers will sign a permanent peace deal. He's willing to give them up without a fight."

  "Does that
include the Rabid system and the Retreat?"

  "My source says no. As much as they despise having a warrior force in their midst, they want to keep us as an option."

  Harris shook his head. "We're not much of a force without ships to move us into the fight."

  "That word has been passed to them repeatedly. I think they fear letting us out of our box. Not sure why, we've always been loyalists to Domicile. Probably always will be."

  "They're pacifists, Colonel. Most think patriots are warmongers. Which brings me back to my request, I think getting the dysprosium we need is now the key to winning this war. It allows us to isolate the Denzee in smaller fleets that are better managed in a fight."

  "I'll keep working it from this end, Mr. Gruberg. Congratulations on the victory. That's something that's been in short supply around here of late."

  As the comm closed, Trish said, "You finished doing your victory dance?"

  Harris nodded. "As a matter of fact I am."

  "So what do we do when we run out of Banshee parts?"

  "Bots. What's our latest count?"

  "Two hundred twelve. Tomorrow we'll pass three-fifty. In about six days we'll be out of bot materials."

  Gandy said, "We talked before about grabbing New Earth ships. That still under consideration? They have to be sending them out on patrols. If we can catch one, we use a boson bomb to keep it from running, then board it with a few dozen worker bots with rifles."

  "Still want to be a pirate?"

  "If it gets us the parts we need, yeah."

  "Alex, give us an analysis of what we could expect to salvage from an Earther destroyer."

  "Hulls for fifty-two. Drives for thirty-six. Other systems for twenty-four."

  "So twenty-four complete ships?"

  "Yes."

  Tawn said, "You take a ship, that means you’re taking down her crew as well."

  Harris asked, "What about a fully functioning Ratoon?"

  "The materials required for sixteen full Banshees would be possible."

  "That tells me we take out a Ratoon and skip the Human losses. Alex, any ideas of how we could disable their self-destruct?"

  "The ship's core systems must be taken offline."

  "Any way to do that and still have it be drivable? We can't just take it and salvage it in place. We'd be vulnerable during that process, which I would assume would be time-consuming."

  "An estimation of thirty-six hours would have the Denzee vessel stripped of the desired materials."

  "Way too long to just do out in open space. We’d need to bring it here."

  Alex interrupted: "A New Earth and Denzee fleet has just arrived in orbit around Motis. A single truce world colony remains free."

  Tawn scowled. "We need a way to stop that fleet. Should we plan something for Great Falls? It's the last free colony. We know they're heading there next. Any way to take advantage of that?"

  Harris sat. "We have one boson bomb available right now. I almost hate to use it on a lost cause. We'd only delay the inevitable for a couple hours."

  Gandy said, "If we detonate it when the first dozen come through, we still have a force large enough to take that on."

  Harris shook his head. "If we had a healthy supply of those bombs and parts for new ships I'd say we do it. But we don't. And until we have another bomb at the ready, I don't want to risk having us sitting there and it doesn't work. We've only had the one dud, but I'd rather not risk going in with a single unless it's an emergency."

  Tawn sighed. "So I guess that's it then. We sit and watch."

  "Not much else we can do."

  — Chapter 27 —

  * * *

  The colony at Motis quickly surrendered. The following day, Great Falls was overrun. The entirety of the truce world colonies were now in the hands of the Earthers and their Denzee partners. The main fleet of the Denzee returned to Rumanta, where reconstruction was begun.

  Alex's attempts at tracking Denzee ships continued to fail. It was believed there was a main base somewhere that held the Denzee Vaaka ships, the bulk of their Dulons, transports, freighters, fuelers, and every other kind of ship that would be used to move an entire species across the stars. On Midelon, the supply of ship parts had run dry.

  Trish sat with her arms crossed. "Nothing left but bot building. And there's nothing there for me to work on or manage. They have that process down pat."

  Gandy came into the hut. "Our boglers have another new calf. That's six since we got them here. And I can see why. They're the humping-est of animals. Something’s going on with at least one pair every time I go to check on them."

  "How's your garden?" asked Tawn.

  "Sprouts are coming up for each of the veggies. Reggie tends them constantly."

  Harris looked over at Sharvie. "You still working with Alex on cracking into the Denzee ships?"

  "Those and the Earthers. They've both really tightened up their security. Don't know what else we could look at or try."

  Tawn said, "What we need is a new way to fight the Denzee with what we have. Would love to get a dozen of those bots down to the surface on Jellon. Let them loose in that complex and they'd probably have it cleaned out in a week."

  Harris shook his head. "We don't have a way of getting a ship down there. I'd sacrifice a dozen bots and our shuttle out there if we could get them to the ground."

  "There has to be some other way to hit them."

  Sharvie slowly raised her hand.

  Harris looked over with a chuckle. "If you have an idea just spit it out. You've been around us long enough to know any reaction or criticism isn't personal."

  "I was thinking about the alien complex on Gondol and what you said about the Denzee and their food. And the other suggestion that we look at where the Denzee said they were heading. Well, I did. If the crop they're growing on Beckland is so important, you would think the new world they are heading to would support it. It doesn't."

  Gandy asked, "And?"

  "And I checked the dozen systems near that location. Two have habitable planets, but neither are similar to Gondol or Beckland."

  "And?" Gandy rotated a hand with a finger extended.

  "And I don't think the Denzee plan on leaving our space. At least not for any of those planets... if this food is so important."

  Tawn said, "We suspected as much, but how does it change anything?"

  "Beckland. According to the Domer scientists they ran off, it may have the same terraforming complex buried there as does Gondol. What if we were to go in and start it running? The Denzee wouldn't have their food source and would have to leave."

  Harris sat up. "Alex, how many Ratoons were at Beckland on your last scan?"

  "Forty-two."

  "Hmm. We have sixteen fighting ships in our fleet. That might be enough to take on forty-two. Alex, has the number been any lower than forty-two in any of your recent scans?"

  "They seem to rotate four ships out about every three days. Those are generally replaced within minutes by four new ones."

  "Good. So we have it down to thirty-eight. Do we have any data as to where the entrance to the complex is on Beckland?"

  Tawn replied, "Would have to be that research center."

  "Assuming it to be the same as Gondol. If we were to make it to the surface, it's a half hour run down those stairs before needing to bust through the control room door. We could potentially have that started and running in five minutes. That leaves another three hours to come back up those steps."

  "What are you thinking?" Tawn asked.

  I'm thinking we need at least three boson bombs to give us the time we need to fight that fleet and start that terraforming complex running."

  "If it's even the same thing."

  Harris shook his head. "Has to be. Everything tells us it is. A huge complex deep underground on a planet that's covered with swamp and bog? Trish, when will we have three bosons?"

  "First thing in the morning according to my schedule. If you wait until afternoon, we ca
n push that number to four. Gives you that safety margin you've been wanting."

  "Alex, open a comm to the Retreat."

  "Mr. Gruberg, still don't have your element. Although I believe we have a good lead on a potential source."

  "Excellent. But I have a new need now. What intel about the scientists who were on Beckland can you get us from your DDI contact? We need to know if it’s the same structure we found on Gondol. If so, we want to start it up. That would end any Denzee food production there."

  "I'll see what I can come up with. That whole facility was highly classified, but this administration is loose with their information. They seem to be the type that like to brag about what they know."

  "Get us all you can, Colonel. To fill you in fully, we believe the Denzee have no plans to leave. If Beckland is so important for them to replenish their food supply, why are they telling us they're traveling to a system that doesn't support growing that same food? The designated star system, and any within ten light years, doesn't have a planet like Beckland. How important is this food to them?"

  "Good question. Give me an hour and I'll see what I can get for you."

  The comm closed.

  Harris looked over at Sharvie. "If that complex is down there and if we can start that machine up, we just might defeat the Denzee yet. If they can't eat, they won't survive."

  "Harris," Alex said, "I've done an analysis of the Denzee digestive tract and have discovered an item of interest. It seems the smaller creatures they consume are their diet mainstay, there is no other reference to any other food source for their queens. They eat nothing but bogwem."

  "How does this help us?"

  "In the data collected from our most recent scan of Beckland, it would appear the bogwem have a specialized diet of an aquatic grass they call 'trellis.'"

  Tawn said, "I thought they stewed their dead and fed them to the bogwem."

  "They do, but the primary feed is trellis grass."

  "Aquatic grass? We have plenty of water planets. Why can't they grow it on one of those?"