by Shawn Jones
“That’s been a challenge, sir. I would love to have the gravity on, but the munitions would collapse the holds instantly. Until we get to the fourth target we cannot use any gravity generators. Even then we will only be able to use them in a few areas.” JJ pointed to a rope and said, “That’s our ride, General.”
It took almost five minutes to pull themselves to the bridge and get strapped in. On the way, Cort found out the ships had to be spaced further apart because their increased masses were playing havoc on communications and sensors. “The nice thing about it is that we need less compensation from the engines when we fire. The recoil is much lower because of the way the mass is distributed,” JJ had told him.
“A hundred and twenty million metric tons of tungsten will do that, I suppose,” Cort said.
“Yes it will, sir.”
After they were secure on the main bridge, Cort listened as JJ went through her final preparations for the attack. All three ships had their firing patterns for the planet, and were loaded for their first shot.
“Captains, this is Admiral Jones. Synchronize your transition computers.” After her flexpad showed compliance, she said, “Synchronize firing computers.” Another pause, three more acknowledgements, and Jones touched a corner on her pad that pulled her ships out of spacetime momentarily. A moment later, they materialized hundreds of light years away and began to rain fire and brimstone upon those who would stand against the allies of humanity.
Unknown System
“Sir, we have news from Government World.”
“Yes?”
“Forty days ago, General Addison stormed Speaker Lap’s office. All three of our agents there were taken captive. We have not heard from them since. Other agents on the planet are unable to ascertain their whereabouts.”
“We’ve heard nothing at all? What about Bazal?”
“Bazal has a human military escort at all times. They arrived on Government World at the same time.”
Sirens began chirping throughout the building. The two insectoids left the office made their way to a control room. “What is it?” The senior asked.
“Three of the human ships have arrived in system and have fir…”
The entire city disappeared.
--
It took just over twenty-five minutes for the ships to fire a total of six hundred, eighty-meter long tungsten slugs into the planet. Some of the slugs had been energized to a plasma state, even more were fired at significant fractions of the speed of light. The impacts blackened the the skies and caused seismic disturbances across the world. By the time the last slug hit the planet, there was not a living creature still alive, above or below the surface.
Back at the rally point, the Taurus appeared and notified the fleet that the next planet was ready for assault. The cycle repeated itself eight times before the first glitch.
Klaxons blared in the background as Admiral Jones called in the SAR ships. The other two Remington-class ships continued their firing pattern, altering their flight paths only enough to avoid firing toward their wounded companion.
General Addison was monitoring the chatter between ships as the rescue carried on. The Peacemaker was in charge of evacuating the fallen Ithaca while the other stealth ship constantly destroyed incoming enemy weapons. Admiral Jones called the general on a secure line. “Do we know what happened, General?”
“It sounds like an asteroid strike. Twenty-three dead, forty-three seriously wounded, another couple of dozen are walking-wounded. We won’t know the cause for certain until the sensor logs are examined. We’ve got all our people out. The transition system is ruined. Captain James has the bridge crew scuttling the ship now. I’ve ordered him to launch it into the planet once everyone is off.”
“What about the other two planets, sir?”
“Continue the attack. It will just take a little longer. Use the Taurus’s sensor data to re-prioritize your targets. In fact, keep her with us. Get a scan of the systems just before you begin your attack runs. I don’t want this to happen again. Target populated areas first. Don’t stop until you are out of ammo or the mission is complete. Then take us to rally point Hotel.”
“Yes, sir.”
Argyre Military Headquarters, Ares Federation
Two days later, Admiral Book conducted the debriefing, since Jade Jones had been directly involved in the action. “It was not an asteroid strike. Well, not quite,” he said. “The insectoids launched against us. It appears to have been a fractional kinetic weapon launched from an orbital platform. It was not a threat to any of our ships, but it collided with a comet moving across the targeting area. That collision sent a large chunk of rock and ice into the ship, destroying the transition system, the port conventional drive, and several Gauss capacitors.”
“I’m not sure if you are aware,” Book looked at Jones and Addison, “But Captain James supercharged the remaining capacitors as well as the loaded slugs before sending the ship into the planet. It was great thinking from a military standpoint. The impact would have been spectacular to watch. I sent the Taurus back to take a look afterward. The planet looks like a scoop of ice cream was taken out of it. It will probably break apart to some extent over the next few years.”
Cort stood and walked to where Captain James was sitting and shook the man’s hand as he said, “Captain, you did an incredible job. According to the SAR teams, your work clearing corridors and holds for them probably saved a dozen lives. I couldn’t have asked for a better response to the accident. Thank you.”
James said, “Thank you, sir. I don’t know what to say.”
Turning next to Jones, Cort said, “Admiral, I assume you will make sure Captain James has another ship as soon as possible.”
“I intend to give him the Remington, sir.”
“Good call.”
“Ahem. If I may continue, sirs,” Book said. “You did a great job, Captain James, but I have a debriefing to conduct. We ended up losing a total of forty souls. Of the rest of the injuries, only three will not be able to return to duty. Two of them will remain here at the academy. That leaves Jane Munroe. She was crushed by a rolling slug after the impact, lost both legs just below the hips, and her left arm had multiple compound fractures.”
“I would like to meet her,” Cort said.
“Yes, sir. She is on Earth now. The best robotics doctors in the Ares Federation are at Poltava. I have sent her there for treatment and rehab.”
“Okay that will be my next stop.” Cort turned to Captain James and said, “Would you care to join me, Captain?”
“Yes, sir. Thank you.”
An ensign appeared at the door. After saluting, the young man walked across the room to General Addison and handed him a flexpad. After looking at it, the general said, “I need to cut this short everyone.” Turning to Jones, he added, “Admiral, I will be taking the Taurus to Government World immediately. It appears Jeff Pence has found a few more spies. I need video from the attacks on their planets.”
Government World
“We were escorting Bazal through the plaza on way to a meeting when we passed this lot, sir.” Jeff Pence met Cort when the general stepped from a conventional shuttle that brought him to the planet’s surface. Now they were standing in a makeshift holding area. “He saw twelve Blatterians, but heard four. A little detective work led us to twenty more pseudos that he could not hear. Ultimately, we ended up with fifty-seven of them.”
“Good work, Jeff. I’ve got some video to show our prisoners.”
After keying up the video, Cort stepped onto platform and began speaking. “Your species has been busy for thousands of years. I’ve been busy for a week. Do you recognize the planets? They are the ten oldest in your empire. Or they were, anyway. Now they are dead rocks.”
A chorus of shrill clicking filled the room, but one voice rose above them. “You lie, human!”
Cort raised his sidearm and shot the loud creature in its thorax. Its kin on either side, one a female, began shrieking. “Sh
ut up!” Cort commanded.
“Your species is a plague. You are relentless and you care nothing for your fellow species in our galaxy." Cort paused. “But I am cruel. I am Death, and not even your crystals can stop me. I am going to wipe the threat you represent from the cosmos. I am not your cousins in the Collaborative. Nor am I Bazal. I. Am. Death.”
With his last words, Cort holstered his sidearm and pulled the bastard sword Kim had given him and began walking down the line of prisoners. Every tenth insect, he stopped and decapitated the enemy in front of him. After the decimation was complete, he sheathed the blade and stepped back the podium. It was a full two minutes before the clicking screams died down enough for him to speak again. “Your dead confederates,” he said, pointing at the still twitching bodies. “Are the lucky ones. They died quickly. Unless you do as I say, most of you will not.”
Cort played another video. This time it was a recording of the vivisection. An hour later he said, “You see, your species is no longer the apex predator in our galaxy. Mine is. I am. Who here can communicate with one of your planets?”
No one spoke, so Cort withdrew his blade again, and walked back to the line of prisoners. After cleaving the first creature in half, he asked his question again. It took the deaths of four more insects before a female spoke. “I am now the primary of this cell. I can contact our world. But you will have to kill us all before I tell you where it is.”
Cort cut her bonds and said, “I know where your worlds are. I want you to contact whatever is left of your leadership and deliver a message for me.”
“What is the message?”
“Your species is to abandon every system it has colonized, save one. The system you may keep is System 641 by Collaborative nomenclature. You may never leave that system.”
“How many planets are in that system, General? We have over a trillion citizens. No single system can support that number. What will we do with the rest of our citizens?”
“There is only one planet in that system. Most species you have attacked over the centuries hold lotteries to determine who will be seeded to the refuge planets. It’s time for your species to have that experience.”
“My government will not agree to your terms.”
“Then your species will die,” Cort said. “What is your name, primary?”
“I am Heroc.”
“How do you contact your government, Heroc?”
“I will not say, General.”
Cort walked to the nearest alien and said, “Heroc has decided you must die.” Without powered armor, it would have have been impossible to do what Cort did next. Wearing the CONDOR, the attack was nearly effortless. Shrieks and clicks filled the air as a powered gauntlet plunged into the carapace of the bug, and Cort drew it down the body, the suit’s wrist parting the thick, black, skin. When the hand came out of the body, it held an unidentifiable mass of sinew and flesh. The body went limp and Cort walked to another, yellow-green muck dripping from his fingers.
Without giving Heroc a chance to speak, Cort grabbed the upper limbs of his new prey, pulling them from their sockets, sending more shrieks into the air.
“You are a monster, General.”
“Heroc, you have no idea. How many do I have to kill?”
“Civilized beings…”
“Are not something you would understand, Heroc. How many more do I have to kill?”
“I have a tachyon transmitter in my quarters.”
“Where in your quarters?”
“Beneath my nest, General.”
Turning to Pence, Cort said, “Send two men. Get me the transmitter.” Turning back to Heroc, he added, “I doubt you have anything that can harm us, but if my men find any kind of trick or trap, I will stop questioning you. Do you understand?”
There was a deep rumbling from Heroc that seemed to Cort something like a sigh. “I should go with them.”
--
While Pence was gone, Cort spoke to Admirals Jones and Book on Mars. “I want to know how they could stop us.”
“Pardon me, sir?” Book asked.
“They aren’t going to give up without a fight. I haven’t cost them enough yet, and complying with my demands will cost them even more. So if we wanted to stop us, how would we do it?”
“Ah, I see. The simplest way would be to keep our ships from transitioning into their systems. We could still get there using the Jonah drive construct, but we would not be able to jump around and avoid their weapons. At least not with the Remington-class ships. The Jonah drive ships would probably be safe, but we cannot utilize that system for a ship as large as the coach guns yet. Nor can the smaller ships utilize the larger weapon systems.”
“Okay, so work on how to stop the transition system. Pence is back, I have to go. Keep me updated.”
--
“Heroc, I will never harm you. Ever. But if you lie to me, if you try to escape, or if you deceive me in any way, I will torture one of them.” Cort pointed at the other prisoners. “Do not doubt me. Now, how does the communicator work?”
“It uses a controlled tachyon wave. Tachyons cannot travel slower than the speed of light, but they do not have an upper limit. Our transmission time is limited only by our computing ability. The portable unit transmits at the sixteenth exponent of c, while fixed units can transmit much faster. My signal will be sent to the nearest fixed station, then be relayed to the command planet.” She paused before saying, “It will now be relayed to another planet, though I do not know which one. In any case, the response will be very fast.”
“Heroc, I know you have codes and secret messages you can use in your message. I won’t try to stop that. But let me be clear, if your people do not do as I say, I will make you extinct. Now you may broadcast.”
“General, I will be asked what you intend to do with our people.”
“You will be well-treated. Once your species has complied with my demands, I will deliver your survivors to System 641.”
Heroc activated the transmitter and began sending her message.
Unknown Planet
“Who is Heroc?” Primary Cupla asked.
“She was a secondary of our group on Government World. Her identification is verified.”
“What happened to her primary?” Cupla asked.
“According to Heroc, General Addison, who is the human military leader, vivisected him as an example to the others. When the rest of the team assigned to Government World was taken into custody, the other secondary was also killed. Many tertiaries have been killed as well. Heroc does not know the location of two tertiaries originally taken, but they are probably dead. General Addison has no respect for life.”
“Where is the human homeworld? It must be destroyed.”
“That is not possible for several reasons, Primary. First, we do not know its location. Also the humans are the manufacturers of the resonators. Without crystal, we cannot overtake a planet without the use of ground forces.”
“Weela, do you have any good news for me?”
“The attack by the humans, who are known as the Ares Federation, was carried out by three ships. In the eighth attack, one of the ships was damaged by chance.”
“By chance?”
“The last signal received from that world indicated a defensive weapon deflected a comet toward the transition point of the ship. The Ares Federation ship was damaged beyond repair by impact with the comet. Unfortunately, when the ship was able to move under its own power, it crashed into the planet. The other two ships finished the attacks.”
“The ship was purposefully ordered to crash into the planet? What about its crew? Did they sacrifice them?”
“It would seem so, Primary. The tachyon nets were disabled at the beginning of the attack, but visual sensors did not detect other vessels, or a rescue attempt by the other ships involved in the attack.”
“If they are willing to die in such a way, they will be a formidable enemy.”
“Yes, Primary. What message do you wish to rel
ay through Heroc?”
“You are certain she is not compromised?”
“Yes, Primary.”
“Very well, I will draft a message and send it to you, Weela. Thank you.”
“Primary, there is one other thing,” Weela said.
“What is it, Weela?”
“Primary Cupla, you are now to be the Supreme. Queens will expect you soon.”
“I had forgotten. Husks! My brood-queen would never have suspected she would lay a Supreme. How many queens are on planet?”
“Seven, sir.”
“Seven. How long do I have to assert, Weela?”
“You have until dawn, Primary.”
