Invasion

by Donald Nicklas

  “Captain, we must brush these humans aside and gain control of those freighters,” the translator around his neck said.

  “It is not my intention to stand down,” Captain Neumann said as he looked at the alien on the bridge. He had trouble sometimes even looking at them. They were vastly different in appearance than humans. They were a pale green color and had eight appendages, four at the rear end of the body what functioned as legs and caused them to move with a gliding motion over the deck. They carried themselves at human height by bending near the rear appendages into the form of an ‘L’ with the upper four appendages functioning as arms and ending in worm-like digits, as did the feet. There was no neck and their face was piggish with eyes on short stalks. They had an insect-like mouth below the face. They called themselves the Saltic and no one knew where they came from.

  Aboard the Tempestas, Slone awaited a response to his warning that never came. As they were about to enter weapon range Slone started to give combat orders. “Load all missile tubes with ship killer missiles.”

  Raul Cortega at the sensor station reported, “Captain, we are in weapons range.”

  Slone now blocked out all other matters and concentrated on the battle at hand. “Seal the ship, set cadence to charge,” The ship rapidly picked up speed and Slone could hear the internal bulkheads closing to compartmentalize the ship. Slone now looked at the tactical plot and the readouts of the system weather, the term used to describe the star wind in a system. He would use the system sails and the star wind to rapidly pivot in combat. As the battleship advanced at flank speed towards the enemy line, Slone waited to see if the Brandenburger ships would change course and leave Highline space. Alaya was ready to follow them to make sure they returned to their own space. Once inside weapon’s range, the forward enemy dreadnought fired its bow cannons and missiles. Four cannon shots and two missiles streaked towards the Tempestas. The point defenses took out the missiles but the cannon shots hit the bow of the ship. Two glanced off of the curved bow, whereas two hit. One failed to penetrate the bow armor, however one entered the opened gun port and detonated in the loading room, killing the two serpent gunners and dismounting the cannon.

  “Forward guns fire, forward missiles lock and fire, helm turn 45 degrees to port,” Slone ordered and the remaining five forward cannons and the four missiles flew out of the bow, after which the battleship began to turn 45 degrees to port.

  Admiral Holt had heard about the accuracy of the serpent gunners. Now he had a chance to see it for himself. The cannon shots rapidly closed the distance to the first dreadnought and slammed into the front of the bow in a tight cluster. When they detonated, the four cannons and two missiles in the bow were dismounted or destroyed. Never had the admiral seen such precision. As the ship turned to port, the enemy came into range of the starboard broadside. As soon as the enemy was aligned, Slone ordered the starboard cannons to fire. A full broadside of thirty-six cannons fired and could be felt as a rumble throughout the ship.

  After the exchange of bow shots, Captain Neumann could see the massive enemy ship turning to its port side. This told him that they were lining up for a broadside and forced him to respond by turning to port to allow his broadside to come into play. He had no idea how many cannons a ship that large carried, but he was sure they outgunned him. As the enemy ship came to bear, he ordered the twelve cannons of his broadside to fire, just as the giant vessel also fired. Both ships then began to rotate along their long axes to bring their other broadsides into play. As the BC Graf von Moltke began to rotate, the thirty-six shot broadside of the Tempestas hit home with all 36 shots penetrating in a devastating manner with the follow-up explosions totally disarming the starboard side of the vessel and resultant destruction of the starboard engine and the sail ring. Fires were started in the engine room and the starboard fuel bunkers had to be vented to the outside or risk losing the ship. It was clear that whatever that ship was, a normal corporate dreadnought could not stand up to her. The twelve shot broadside of the Graf von Moltke hit the battleship. Two of the shots bounced off the curve of the hull. The remaining ten penetrated and the follow-up explosions did some damage to the compartments directly below the outer hull. The modification of making the entire hull self sealing to counteract the energy weapons of the Saltic, worked just as well for the damage from cannon shots. Due to the sheer size of the vessel, little damage was done. The missiles sent by both ships were mostly taken out by the point defenses. Two from the Brandenburger vessel penetrated the Tempestas defenses and did minimal damage. Three of the battleship’s missiles hit the dreadnought and penetrated. Two did little damage in the crew’s quarters, but the third took out the generator and the point defenses went down along with a large part of the ship. The batteries finally kicked in but she was permanently out of the fight, as space was now the enemy.

  As the Tempestas ended its rotation, the second enemy dreadnought pulled closer. The tactical also showed the other three dreadnoughts breaking formation and moving to swarm the battleship. Ironically, they seemed to be totally ignoring the Avenging Talon. Slone ordered the starboard cannons to fire a broadside at the second dreadnought and then continued the rotation. He also ordered Captain Artok to finish off the second dreadnought if needed. He then pulled the Tempestas away from the enemy line and moved to meet the three untouched dreadnoughts. “Invisible serpent ships, engage the remaining dreadnoughts. All ships leave the lead enemy dreadnought alone for now,” Slone ordered. He needed the commander of the enemy fleet alive to surrender when the time came.

  As the Tempestas approached the remaining three enemy dreadnoughts, Slone could see one of them lagging behind. The two in the front were going to pass on either side of his vessel. The last rotation brought the ship back in line with the orientation of the oncoming vessels. All guns reported ready and all missile tubes were loaded with ship killer missiles. As the battleship neared the lead dreadnoughts, the invisible serpent ships began to open fire on the gun and missile ports of the enemy. They were using their railguns, rather than energy weapons mounted below the guns. The serpents had been instructed to fire directly into the open gun ports and take out the gun crews. The gun crews had no idea where the shots were coming from and soon they feared even servicing the guns. As they were trying to avoid the rail shots entering through the force fields, the Tempestas pulled between the ships. Slone opened fire with both the port and starboard broadsides. Since the Brandenburger ship’s cannons were already loaded, they fired almost at the same time. It was the job of the serpent ships to keep them from reloading if any cannons remained after the Romani broadsides hit home. The cannons shots passed each other on the way to their respective targets. The Brandenburger shots all hit home on the battleship and the follow-up explosions caused mostly minor damage, except for one that hit the manifold of the starboard engine and forced the helm to quickly compensate for the loss of propulsion and the tendency of the ship to pull in the direction of damaged engine. The results of the broadsides from the Tempestas were devastating. The dreadnought on the starboard side of the battleship had 33 of the 36 cannon shots penetrate along the length of the ship. Its missile racks were loaded but had not yet had a chance to fire. As the shots exploded, the missile racks were caught in the blast and the lower starboard side of the vessel was blow out along with large numbers of crew members and body parts. Gallons of blood and hydraulic fluids were pouring out of gaping holes in the hull. The ship was still operational but badly damaged. The dreadnought on the port side took the full broadside with multiple shots entering the aft portion of the ship and totally destroying the engine room and taking out the generators. With the generators out, the point defenses would be down until the batteries kick in.

  “Port missiles, lock and fire,” Slone ordered and the weapons tech pushed a button and twelve missiles leapt from their tubes and streaked towards the enemy. Shortly before impact, the dreadnoughts batteries kicked in and the point defenses activated, but too late, they only managed to
take out two missiles. The remaining ten hit the ship; some punched new openings in the hull which widened when the nose cones detonated. Four missiles actually entered the gaping holes made by the cannon broadside and detonated deep in the bowels of the vessel. This was too much for the structure to withstand and the dreadnought’s seams began to open and atmosphere bled out and froze in the cold of space. As the ship came apart, the interior bulkheads blew outwards when the atmosphere on one side caused too much pressure against the vacuum on the other side. As each bulkhead ruptured, more bodies, body parts and blood came out of the compartments. Finally, the captain must have ordered the crew to abandon ship, as an increasing number of escape pods came out. The only intact dreadnought still untouched was the one lagging behind. This now turned as rapidly as possible and made a run for the outbound slipstream. Slone ordered the serpent ships to harass the enemy until they left the system. He then ordered the Tempestas to come about and move towards the first dreadnought.

  “Centurion Marshal, send a boarding party to the lead dreadnought and also board any remaining dreadnoughts that are operational. The last dreadnought will be allowed to escape, but not without harassment,” Slone ordered.

  On the forward hangar deck, two cohorts took off in 12 boarding shuttles. Half the shuttles went to the lead dreadnought and the other half to the only other dreadnought still crewed. As the first cohort approached the command ship, Centurion Marshal was worried about the point defenses taking out some of his boarding shuttles. There were ways to mitigate some of the effects of the point defenses. When the boarding party was just outside the range of the point defense Gatling guns, Centurion Marshal said over the battle channel, “All shuttles fire missiles now.”

  At the command all of the shuttles fired both of their forward missiles at the enemy to impact near the hangar opening. The idea here was to keep the point defenses occupied against the missiles in the hopes they would take less fire against the boarding shuttles. As the point defenses began firing at the cloud of twelve missiles moving in towards the ship, the Centurion ordered, “All shuttles advance to maximum speed and enter the hangar.”

  The shuttles responded by speeding up and almost all made it within the arc of the point defenses except for two. One was hit multiple times and its hull was breached. The shuttle then started bleeding atmosphere and a few of the legionaries seated on the side hit were killed or wounded. Fortunately, all of the boarding party was wearing their hard vacuum armored spacesuits and this prevented any deaths from decompression. The last shuttle to enter the hangar was hit in an engine which was leaking fuel with electrical sparks. As long as they were in the vacuum of space, nothing happened. Once inside the hangar deck with atmosphere, the fuel was ignited by electrical sparks and the fire was carried into the engine compartment. The pilot had the presence of mind to cut the fuel flow, but this also meant the shuttle came in hot and made a rough landing. It came to rest after it hit one of the other shuttles, resulting in impact damage as well as some minor injuries. The cohort exited the shuttles and those on the one burning, first put out the fire then formed up. The cohort consisted of three human centuries and three serpent ones with the fifth century in the line consisting of armored serpent males carrying very large Gatling guns with two boxes of 6,000 rounds each. As the cohort deployed in the hangar, there was no resistance at first. Shortly a large number of Brandenburger marines started to enter from the forward portion of the ship. Marshal sent one of the serpent centuries aft to capture engineering. From the troops pouring into the forward portion of the hangar, it looked to the centurion as if most of the enemy were going to contest the bridge. He also sent 25 of his hundred armored males with the force going to engineering. The enemy began firing at the Romani, but they had their shield wall up and few bullets got through. The Romani fought with the use of body shields along with their body armor. They also used short swords and daggers for close combat and pistols and automatic rifles for ranged combat. Each Romani carried five grenades, three fragmentation, one smoke and one flash-bang grenade. These were on the bandolier that was worn over the left shoulder and ended at the right hip with a sheath containing the short sword. Now that they were formed up, the first row consisted of one hundred legionaries with shields up and short swords sticking between the shields. The second row was returning fire with their rifles over the shoulders of the front line. The Brandenburger troops were using cargo crates and boarding shuttles for cover and were in a loose skirmish formation. Both sides were facing each other across the hangar and little was happening as far as casualties were concerned. Finally, Centurion Marshal blew his whistle and the Romani stopped firing and the second row put their shields above the first two and overlapped them to form a double high shield wall. This protected the cohort against all small arms and grenade attacks. Once the Brandenburger troops realized they were making no progress and just wasting ammunition, they stopped firing. At this point, Centurion Marshal came forward with a white flag to parley with the commander of the marines. The marine major also came forward and they met in the no man’s land between the forces.

  “I am Centurion William Marshal of the first cohort of the Legio I Celeri of Nova Romae. It is my hope we can resolve this without your destruction.” This was not the usual way the Romani settled things, but Bill Marshal’s wife, Tavia Marshal, was starting to rub off on him and he was becoming a much better diplomat. He also had no idea how long they would be on this mission and he may need all of his troops.

  “I am Major Rüdiger Falkhern of the 37th Marine division of Brandenburger Corporation. It would be preferable for me as well to avoid further bloodshed. What do you propose and what is the name of your corporation? That monster of a ship you have does not belong to Highline Corp.”

  “Major, we are not part of any corporation. We are a democratic federation of free systems called Nova Romae and we are known as the Romani.”

  “The Romani? We always heard you were a bunch of pirates in the Matsua Rim. You are not pirates.”

  “That label was given us by others, not by ourselves. We are far from pirates and we are here to help the corporations face a much greater threat than human greed. We are here to defend against a group of aliens known as the Saltic.” When the Major heard that name, he looked shocked.

  “How do you know about the Saltic? I thought my government was the only one who was dealing with them.”

  This shocked Bill Marshal. How could these people think they could deal with them in any way other than supplying brains? “There is no dealing with the Saltic, all they want is human brains and they don’t care how they get them.”

  The Major had a strange expression on his face. “What do you mean human brains? They have been taking some of our citizens to their world as an exchange and we have taken some of them into our capital. My own daughter and her husband went to vacation on their home world.”

  Centurion Marshal began to explain to the Major just exactly what the Saltic were all about and the fact that they didn’t even come from our galaxy. As Bill Marshal described what was known about the Saltic, the Major and those of his troops close enough to hear, began to look sick. Bill assumed many of them may have had family members vacation on the Saltic home world, wherever that might be.

  “Are you telling me that our family members may be dead and their brains are used as computer control nodes?”

  “Yes, Major, that is exactly what I am telling you and if your government let them willing onto your home world, then they will take over. We have fought them many times and they are opportunists. If your corporation thought they could profit from allying with the Saltic, I am here to tell you that will never happen. We are fighting an entire galaxy full of enemies and they can travel here from the Andromeda galaxy any time they want.”

  The Major thought this over, “How do I know I can trust you?”

  “You can’t, but why would I make it up, especially since I have no axe to grind here and I would prefer not to fight you. I p
refer to keep my troops intact to fight the Saltic.”

  The Major thought this over. “Let me contact my captain.” The Major did this while standing next to the Centurion. “Captain Neumann, I am in parley with the commander of the boarding forces. He does not want to fight us if he doesn’t have to, but he has told me some disturbing things about the Saltic.” The Major then filled his captain in on what Bill Marshal told him.

  On the bridge of the BC Graf von Moltke, Captain Neumann was digesting what he had just been told. He had many misgivings about his corporation’s recent actions. All his career he was a loyal member of the Brandenburger military, but recently his government had cut a deal with aliens that no one knew existed a year ago. At that time these aliens attacked Coreward Industries as well as some of the farther outposts of Brandenburger Corporation. Rather than be conquered, his corporation sought out a way to deal with the aliens and they were more than happy to ally with humans against humans. Now he had one of the worm-like aliens on his bridge and was told he had to take orders from it. Those orders led him and his command into this disaster. His ship was lost, he knew that but so were three of his others. One got away but seemed to be under fire from some kind of invisible enemy. Now there was a boarding party on his vessel and they were not attacking, but rather parlaying with his marine commander. Now that very commander told him a story that made his blood curdle. He would not have believed the story about using human brains, but why else would the alien want them to capture freighters full of refugees from Coreward Industries. That story actually breathed sense into this mission. He looked over at the worm-like alien standing next to him. He knows he heard the conversation, since the translator hanging around his neck was constantly converting the human language into the squeaking sounds that constituted the Saltic language. If the captain read the actions of the alien correctly, he seemed to be very agitated. Suddenly, he began to speak.