Invasion

by Donald Nicklas

  “Ambassador Slone, the CEO of our protectorate, Alexandra Stewart, brings grave news. Her home world is under attack from the forces you call the Saltic. They engaged her fleet in orbit around her home world and were still fighting them when she left.”

  “More like made a run for it,” Alaya responded.

  “How dare you. I don’t even know who you are?” Alexandra Stewart said indignantly. She was in her fifties and it was easy to see that she lived a soft life. Her husband, a man close to or just over sixty was at her side in the corporate uniform of the secret police. Within the corporations, all rank insignias were the same to make it clear with whom one was dealing. Secret police all wore an ‘S.P.’ on their collars.

  “My name is Alaya Slone and I and my associate, Tavia Marshal, are the only ones here who have fought the Saltic and lived to tell the tale. We were here to warn Highline of the danger but I fear we are too late if they are already engaged in combat. By now that combat has long been resolved and soon the Saltic will arrive here. In the past they have been reluctant to invade human space, but I am concerned their whole race is coming down on us.”

  “Who are they and what corporation would dare to attempt to conquer human space?” Alexandra’s husband, Richard Stewart, asked in a haughty tone.

  “They are not from any corporation. The Saltic are aliens from the Andromeda Galaxy.” Alaya then tried to explain the nature of the Saltic and why they wanted humans, but it was obvious that the leaders of Coreward Industries were not prepared to deal with the concept of an alien invasion.

  “What is your corporation? I do not recognize any of your rank insignias.” This time it was Alexandra who asked.

  “We are from the republic of Nova Romae and are not from a corporation.” It was obvious that the concept was beyond the Stewarts and there was no time to clear things up. Alaya now turned to the CEO of Highline Corp. Andrea, if the Saltic arrive at our doorstep, what defenses do you have?”

  Now it was Andrea DiSanto’s time to be suspicious. They had been observing the ambassadors for the past five days and they made no attempts to spy or get weapons other than the swords they carried. Those weapons were confusing to the corporation, since no one used swords and rumors of the Romani had not reached this far coreward. However, now they were asking questions about planetary defense that were kept top secret. She did not plan to tell them about how they defended the home world. They did find out from the Stewarts that the Saltic attacked with three very large ships, the type the Romani called harvesters but the Saltic called cruisers, and a large number of smaller vessels. Alaya and Tavia went back to their quarters on the military base and spent the next few days watching a total lack of preparation. There was no mobilization and not even a concern on the part of the military. Whatever their planetary defenses were, they must have thought them sufficient to handle an enemy they had never even dealt with before. Complacency ran rampant through the human race. Three days after meeting with the Stewarts, Alaya, Tavia and Hatch were suddenly awakening by sirens blaring over the city. They got up and dressed in a hurry, telling Hatch to get back to the yacht. After a short time, a soldier came into their room and told them the CEO wanted to see them.

  “What’s going on?” Alaya asked as they left the room with the soldier.

  “No idea, Mam. The planetary defense systems came online about ten minutes ago and that set off the sirens. We’ve all been called to battle stations.”

  Alaya could sense the tension laced with fear in his voice and decided not to press him. They were sped, not to the office building but rather to the space station in synchronous orbit above the city. They had not expected this and knew that Hatch would have to fly the yacht solo to get them if necessary. They were ushered into a tactical control room on the station. Both CEOs were there as well as their staffs. Alaya had to admire the fact that the CEO of Highline Corp did not hide in a bunker but rather took a hands-on approach to the defense of her home world. When she saw Alaya and Tavia she waved them over.

  Andrea DiSanto filled Alaya in on the situation. “We picked up an energy surge about thirty minutes ago and five ships came out of it. They are shaped like the ones on your video log of the encounter with the Saltic. To our surprise, they were followed by several of our own vessels who must have hitched a ride through the wormhole. They are still four hours out but we detect cannon fire from our ships and energy bursts from the Saltic. I am truly sorry that I did not take your warning seriously. We are waiting to hear from our ships soon.”

  Alaya had to admire the dedication of the Highline navy. They must have plunged into the wormhole after the Saltic with no clue where it was leading. Of course, they had no idea that they could have become stranded somewhere in this or the Andromeda Galaxy.

  “Are you ready to let me help now?” Alaya asked.

  “Anything you can do to help would be appreciated. This is Admiral Miguel Guzman,” DiSanto indicated a naval officer standing next to her. “I have explained your qualifications to him and he is eager to know how to defeat the enemy.”

  Alaya nodded in his direction. “Admiral, what we know about the Saltic is this. Our cannons work better than their energy weapons and they have no knowledge of missile weapons. There are no point defenses on their ships so they are defenseless against all but the slowest missiles.”

  “That is good to know. What about this EMP weapon they have?”

  “It is only on their largest ships as far as we know. It is also dangerous for them to use if there are still operational opponents in the system, since their engines are incapacitated by the weapon until they can recharge. The problem for them is that humans and their ships recover before the Saltic ships do. So if they use the weapon they have to board our ships and kill us before we wake up. The nearest ships will detect the charging of the EMP weapon and can move all of their personnel to the center of the ship and seal it before the weapon discharges.”

  The admiral ordered the communication tech to transmit all of that information to the ships engaged with the enemy. As far as they could tell, there were three dreadnoughts and seven destroyers who followed the Saltic through the wormhole. Highline ships were smaller than the equivalent type in the other corporations due to the concept of attack over defense. They could harass and destroy better with large numbers of smaller and cheaper ships than the big ones from the other corporations. As Alaya watched the threat board, she could see one of the Highline dreadnoughts suddenly veer off and wink out, indicating loss of power and transponder signal. The rest were pressing the Saltic hard, Highline was giving as good as it got.

  “I admire the courage of your navy.” As Alaya watched, two more ships vanished from the Highline forces and only one smaller Saltic vessel. Highline forces were now down to one dreadnought and six destroyers, but as she watched, two more destroyers vanished. “You are losing ships faster than they are.” Just as the admiral was nodding agreement, the com implant behind Alaya’s ear buzzed and her husband’s voice came on and asked her to ask the Highline command if they could help them.

  “Admiral, you are aware from the CEO that I am from the Republic of Nova Romae. We would like to help you defend your home world if you would allow us.”

  Both the admiral and the CEO looked at Alaya. It was Andrea DiSanto who spoke first. “I personally would appreciate any help you could bring, but I doubt you could get anything here before the Saltic send more ships. That is if we manage to win this battle.”

  “Captain, they have formally requested our help.”

  Everyone in the room looked at Alaya. It would still be just over an hour before the request reached the Romani ships, and the others in the room thought her crazy. “It will take an hour for the request to reach our forces, and then we will help you rid this system of the Saltic,” Alaya said without further discussion. The Admiral shook his head and returned to watching the results of the battle, though what they were seeing happened over an hour ago and there was no way of knowing who was act
ually winning.

  Chapter 4 – The Defense of Saint John

  The Romani ships had now been in the Saint John system for several days and nothing was happening. There was minimal preparation to repel any Saltic attacks and there was no evidence of any home fleet activity. If Highline maintained a home fleet presence, it was not here. Some of the picket destroyers had been sent for and they were now congregated near the space station in orbit above the capital city of Malta on the planet of Saint John. The Highline home world was a beautiful planet similar to old earth or even Nova Romae. After several days in the system, Slone was sitting on the bridge when Raul Cortega looked up from his console.

  “Captain, there is a large energy surge developing about five hours out from the home world. A wormhole is forming.”

  “Paul, move us towards that wormhole. How old is the information?” Slone was asking how far away it was.

  “Just over an hour. We should be there in the next two hours.”

  “Tom, send a message to Captain Slone and ask her if Highline wants our help.” Slone knew it would take longer for his message to get to the planet than the information from the wormhole. He just hoped they would ask for help. If not he would have to fight the Saltic and violate Highline sovereignty. His orders were clear. Attack the Saltic wherever he found them, no exceptions.

  “Raul, anything new on the wormhole?”

  “Yes, Captain. Five Saltic ships came out of the wormhole. One harvester and four escorts.”

  “Paul, plot an intercept course and notify Captain Artok to be ready to engage when we reach them.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Raul suddenly spoke up, “Captain, ten ships exited the wormhole after the Saltic. Transponders indicate they are Highline Corp vessels. There are three dreadnoughts and seven destroyers. They are engaging the Saltic vessels.”

  Slone thought that over for a moment. “That would mean the Highline fleet threw itself into the wormhole created by the Saltic with no indication of where it led. I like these people,” Slone said and there were nods of approval from the Romani. As the Romani watched, the Highline fleet took out one of the Saltic escort ships, but also lost two dreadnoughts and three destroyers, reducing them to one dreadnought and four destroyers. Yet, despite this, they continued to engage the Saltic, but Slone already knew they could not prevail. The Highline concept of smaller, more maneuverable ships worked only if you had enough ships to make up for the lower cannon count. They got lucky taking out one of the escort vessels, but Slone knew it took a lot of punch to take out the harvest ship. As the invisible Romani ship moved closer to the action, word came in that they were officially asked to help the Highline forces.

  “Tom, order all serpent ships to launch and form up for attack on the enemy. Skirmish configuration.”

  “Yes, Captain. Serpent ships acknowledge.”

  “Open the battle channel.”

  “Channel open, sir.”

  Slone now spoke into the battle channel. “Captain Artok, launch your serpent ships. All serpent ships remain invisible during the attack. Captain Artok, your ship and the battle ship will attack visible. Load Highline transponder codes so we don’t get locked by their missiles. Tom, begin the cadence at attack speed. Capital ships become visible and attack. Serpents take out the escorts. Avenging Talon on me and attack the harvester ship.” All ships acknowledged and the capital ships became visible. “Sound General Quarters.” The klaxon immediately sounded and the ships came up to battle readiness. The defense of Saint John was now underway.

  Admiral Holt stood on the bridge of his flagship, the HC Bentley, and had the sensor tech make sure that all vessels were through the slipstream and into the system. They were on patrol in a system near the border of Coreward Industries. Fleet command had sent him here to assess the situation and guard the border. So far there had been no action. Rumor had it that there was an unknown force out here wreaking havoc with Coreward Industries. The CEO of that corporation had fled to Saint John after the destruction of what passed for their fleet. The admiral had a small fleet to perform reconnaissance and deal with any enemies found in Highline Corp or Coreward Industries territory. He had seen the recordings and the odd shape of the ships. He had even heard rumors of aliens, but doubted any of it. These were pirates who somehow learned how to manipulate video logs and he intended to capture them and find out how they did it. As the admiral was ruminating about this, his sensor tech suddenly interrupted his thoughts.

  “Captain, there is a large energy field forming near the sixth planet.”

  “Any idea what it is?”

  “No, sir. There is nothing in our computer banks that identifies this type of energy.”

  The admiral thought a moment then said to the communications tech, “Sparks, send a flash message to the fleet to form a skirmish line and follow the flagship towards the energy anomaly.” The fleet consisted of five dreadnoughts and ten destroyers. Highline Corp opted to save money by forgoing the use of cruisers, but their dreadnoughts were only three quarters the size of corporate dreadnoughts and could move fast like a cruiser but carried more cannons, though less than a standard dreadnought.

  “Captain,” again the sensor tech interrupted, “there are ships coming out of the anomaly. They are elongated cuboids and are not sending out any identifiable transponder codes.”

  “Call the fleet to battle stations, destroyers to the front.” The Klaxon went off throughout the fleet and the destroyers maintained a loose formation as they moved ahead of the dreadnoughts. As soon as the enemy detected the fleet, they turned towards the Highline ships and the energy anomaly vanished.

  “Give me fleet wide communications,” the Admiral ordered. “All ships, weapons free. Destroyers attack the smaller vessels, dreadnoughts on the capital ship.” The admiral now turned over the ship to its captain, who would do all the fighting.

  Captain Eleanor Deeney had been captain of the Bentley since she was commissioned a decade before. She had taken out some pirates with her but had never really fought a serious enemy. The captain knew these were not pirates, despite what the admiral believed. Something told her this was going to be a lot more difficult than taking on a pirate fleet.

  As the ships came into weapons range, the destroyers began to engage the smaller vessels which were positioned ahead of the large ship. The capital ship had been measured larger than an automated freighter. The smaller vessels were sized between a destroyer and a cruiser. There was one large vessel accompanied by five smaller vessels. The destroyers opened the battle with missiles and cannon shots which were not returned by the enemy. As the destroyers moved in, they were able to fire another salvo of forward missiles, now accompanied by a salvo of broadside missiles. There did not appear to be any point defenses and the missiles tracked in and hit their marks, causing what looked like considerable damage to the fronts of the smaller vessels, yet it neither slowed them down nor deterred them. At half maximum weapons range the enemy finally fired back and concentrated their fire on one destroyer at a time with devastating effect. To both the captain and the admiral’s horror, the enemy was using energy weapons that sent bursts of energy into two of the lead destroyers. One of the destroyers must have sustained a fuel bunker hit and it blew apart into several fragments. No escape pods were seen. The second destroyer was badly damaged but still mobile, though it had to pull away due to damage to its top engine which caused an imbalance and jerked the ship upwards into a loop. For now she was out of the action. The remaining eight destroyers continued to engage the enemy. Highline had a proud military tradition and did not run from a fight unless all hope was lost. As the destroyers engaged the smaller ships the dreadnoughts went through the combat area and headed towards the larger vessel. As they passed the destroyer skirmish line, each dreadnought fired ten cannon broadsides into the nearest enemy ships. These penetrated and detonated inside but did not seem to slow the ships down. Whoever this enemy was, they were not distracted by battle damage. As the dreadnough
t line approached the capital ship they could see how huge it actually was. It was of the type the Romani called a harvester and it carried the EMP weapon. The Highline forces knew nothing of this, they only knew this was an enemy and they violated Highline space.

  The dreadnoughts sealed their bridges and compartmentalized against battle damage. They then moved in on the enemy. Again it was noted that the enemy’s weapons had only half the range of ships’ cannons. The admiral ordered his forces to stay at three quarter range and there was no return fire. The skirmish line reported the loss of one more destroyer, bringing the admiral’s force down to seven destroyers. The one with engine damage was harassed by the enemy and had to withdraw totally from the battle. The smaller enemy ships now disengaged from the destroyers and moved against the dreadnoughts. This forced the dreadnoughts to fight a running battle with the smaller ships and inevitably resulted in them getting close to the capital ship, which was not exactly standing still. The enemy capital ship moved closer to the dreadnoughts as the smaller vessels were harassing the destroyers and the dreadnoughts. Admiral Holt noted that this enemy was not interested in the classic ship duels between two opponents. They fired at anything and everything that was not them. Once the capital ship was in range, large bursts of energy came out if its front and sides, slamming into the nearest dreadnoughts on each side of the cuboid. The admiral’s ship was just out of range when he saw the energy bolts hitting the dreadnoughts nearest to the harvester ship. The admiral noted that there was no attempt to destroy the dreadnought, but the energy bolts were aimed at the engines to disable the ships. It was apparent that, for some reason, the enemy only wanted to make certain the ships could not leave the system. To that end they also were aiming at the sail rings and destroying the slipstream sails. A few moments later the admiral knew why the enemy wanted to disable his fleet.