Out of the Ashes (Rise of the Empire Book 3)

by Ivan Kal

  Chapter Twenty Five

  The Monarch and the Second Fleet sped towards the Ra’a’zani ship, that likewise sped towards them. Soon the Ra’a’zani ship entered the Second Fleet maximum missile range. But Johanna waited, she wanted the ship into their optimal range before firing. She ordered her ships to lock their laser weapons on the Ra’a’zani ship. She wanted to see the full speed of the Ra’a’zani ship as it tried to evade the laser fire. A few seconds later, she gave the order for her ships to fire.

  ***

  Suddenly dozens of invisible laser beams struck out from the human ships, reaching out at the speed of light to strike at the Ra’a’zani ship. The lasers reached their target, striking the scale like hull of the Ra’a’zani ship. Immediately after being struck the hull plates shimmered and the heat of the lasers reflected off the hull, leaving it unscathed.

  ***

  “The humans have opened fire with Tarsha’ka weapons Dakar.” One of the bridge crew said. Vit’r’an looked at the status of his ships, seeing that there was no damage. The human Tarsha’ka were not powerful enough damage his ship’s hull. Now finally convinced that human ships posed no threat to his ship, Vit’r’an focused all his skills on a plan to capture a human ship. Preferably he would need to disable one, without destroying it. Which definitely meant destroying its drives.

  “Should we return fire Dakar?” Another of his crew asked. Vit’r’an though about it for a moment. The Blood Claw had weapons that could reach the human fleet, but that would mean switching to the war mode, and he didn’t want to scare them off. If they started running away, he would need to hunt them across the system. And he didn’t want to bother with that.

  “No, let them get a bit closer.” Vit’r’an said. He showed his teeth. He planned on destroying this human fleet utterly for the insult he was given by the human female. And then when he returned to Earth he would kill half of their population for failing to tell them that the human race had colonies. Maybe he would first learn the details about how that came to be. But then, he would make them pay.

  ***

  “Our weapons have no effect Ship Master!” The Sensor Handler called out.

  Andros watched the holo as the information came back. The Ra’a’zani ship was not even bothering to roll and spread out the heat of lasers.

  “Keep at it!” Andros ordered. Perhaps if they keep at they might inflict some damage. The Ra’a’zani ship kept coming not concerned about the Second Fleet. Andros got a sick feeling in his stomach. He glanced at Johanna, who was busy reading the information on her c-board and formulating new orders. Then his own board got new orders.

  “Stop firing lasers. Lock missiles!” Andros ordered.

  His Weapons Handler started sending out orders to the missile firing teams throughout the ship. “Missiles locked!” Weapons Handler yelled out.

  Andros saw an order come to his board, All ships fire.

  “Fire missiles!” Andros ordered. A moment later the holo was filled with new signatures. Hundreds of missiles were on their way towards the Ra’a’zani ship.

  ***

  Vit’r’an saw the hundreds of Pasha’ka speeding towards his ship. For a moment he was worried, but then one of his Taskmasters yelled out, “The Pasha’ka have no defenses against the Srasah’uk!”

  Vit’r’an pulled back his lips showing his teeth in a Ra’a’zani smile, the human ships were firing such primitive weapons at his ship that he was almost tempted to maneuver his ship around their fleet in circle letting them try all of their arsenal, just to show them how futile it was. “Start scanning their Pasha’ka frequencies.” Vit’r’an said. He waited as the human Pasha’ka passed the half-way point between his and their ships. A Taskmaster let Vit’r’an know that they had acquired the frequencies of all the human Pasha’ka. But Vit’r’an waited some more, letting the Pasha’ka draw a bit closer to his ship. Then when he thought that letting them any closer was a risk for his ship he called out, “Engage the Srasah’uk!” Vit’r’an ordered. And within moments, all of the human Pasha’ka exploded at the same time.

  ***

  Johanna watched as the missiles her fleet fired drew closer and closer with no response from the Ra’a’zani ship. The closer they came the more she felt like something was wrong. And then she watched as the every missile on her holo disappeared.

  “Turiel! What happened?” She called out to the Ai.

  “All the missiles exploded Fleet Commander.” Turiel said.

  “Why? Was there a malfunction?” Johanna asked, although she already knew that it wasn’t.

  “I detected no malfunction. The reason for the explosions is unknown.” Turiel said, and Johanna’s heart stopped for a moment. She reached over and started forming new orders.

  “Turiel, program the missiles to engage their second stage early. At the half way mark.”

  “Yes Fleet Commander.” Turiel responded.

  ***

  Vit’r’an watched as the human ships started firing even more Pasha’ka. In a short time thousands of Pasha’ka were again on their way towards the Blood Claw. Vit’r’an ordered his Taskmasters to lock on to the Pasha’ka frequencies again. He followed the Pasha’ka tracks on his terminal, and then they reached the half way mark. Suddenly the number of the Pasha’ka increased, new tracks started appearing on his terminal.

  “We lost the locks! Whatever they have just done changed the frequencies!” A Taskmaster yelled out panicky. Vit’r’an felt a moment of panic himself. The number of Pasha’ka was great, and even his ship might be destroyed under the onslaught of so many.

  “Lock on the new frequencies!” Dakar Vit’r’an ordered. He watched as his crew worked frantically to get them all, but he saw that they wouldn’t make it in time. When the Pasha’ka reached the same distance as the last time, Vit’r’an yelled out,

  “Engage the Srasah’uk!” He ordered. His crew didn’t manage to lock on them all, but Vit’r’an had no choice but to hope that the explosions of the others would take out those not locked on, he had no time to switch his ship to its war mode, and engage the other defenses. And so he prayed that if any passed through, they wouldn’t be able to deal enough damage to his ship.

  ***

  In space more than nine thousand human missiles sped towards their target. Then suddenly more than ninety percent of them exploded, taking with them most of the others. But four missiles, by some miracle managed to survive. They reached their target, and impacted with the front of the Ra’a’zani ship. Four explosions hit the Ra’a’zani ship in quick succession. But the ship kept going. Its hull suffering minor damage.

  ***

  “Minor damage Dakar. The hull integrity for the forward section has fallen to eighty three percent. But it should still be sufficient to prevent human Tarsha’ka weapons from inflicting any damage.” A Taskmaster said.

  Vit’r’an felt his anger rise to the surface. The slaves had managed to hit his ship! Their primitive weapons damaged his hull! He would not allow that again. He didn’t know if they had more of those multiplying Pasha’ka but Vit’r’an wouldn’t be caught off guard again.

  “Engage the war mode.” Vit’r’an ordered. “And get us above their formation, half speed. I’m done playing.” Vit’r’an growled looking at the human fleet.

  ***

  Johanna looked at the Ra’a’zani ship after her failed attack. They managed to hit the Ra’a’zani ship, but whether their defenses were overwhelmed or four of her missiles simply got lucky, it didn’t matter. Her ships didn’t have enough missiles for another salvo of the same size. She debated using torpedoes, but if Ra’a’zani could destroy them from afar it would serve little point. The only thing she had left was her ships kinetic weapons. And if she fired them at this distance they were unlikely to hit her target. That was her last chance. The Ra’a’zani ship was much more formidable than they could have ever imagined. The ease with which it shrugged off their attacks was freighting.

  Johanna debated turning around
and running away, but she knew that she couldn’t. The attacks on Earth had already begun. If she ran away, there was nothing that could save Earth from the wrath of the Ra’a’zani. No, they needed to fight. Johanna studied the Ra’a’zani ship’s hull, it was certainly damaged. Her missiles did hurt them, although it seemed like it was minor damage. Perhaps if she could close the distance, and get a torpedo to hit… Then Johanna saw a change take over the Ra’a’zani ship. She watched as its hull plates moved in a wave like motion, overlapping, moving around, and opening. Johanna watched as platforms rose up from within the Ra’a’zani ship. The platforms held things that looked like her ships turrets, only wider and shorter. When the transformation finished the hull plates moved back closing over the platforms, so that only the turrets were visible. The shimmering that they saw when their lasers hit the hull now appeared over the weapons.

  Johanna looked in disbelief at the how much more menacing the enemy ship looked, then its speed increased and it changed its course. Seeing what the Ra’a’zani ship was trying to do, Johanna started issuing orders to her fleet, changing its formation. The Ra’a’zani ship was coming for them, and she knew that this time it would be going on the offensive. Johanna knew her only shot was to hit it with her last card, and hope that it would work.

  Chapter Twenty Six

  Commander Vladimir Domnin stood at a top of a building overlooking the St. Petersburg Ra’a’zani base. The people around the base have already been evacuated. And Vladimir and his people waited for the signal before they started their assault. His men were already positioned in the darkness, unseen waiting for his command. Then Vladimir’s comm chirped, and he knew that the time had come.

  “Go, go, go!” Vladimir said over the comm grid of his suit. Every member of his assault team heard the message and they began the assault. Vladimir dropped from the roof of the four floor building, as his feet hit the pavement it cracked. The suit absorbed all the force of the drop. The suits he and his team wore were made during the war by Concordis, for special ops teams. Powered suits allowed them to move faster, hit harder, and survive things that would otherwise kill them.

  His twenty man team moved quickly towards the Ra’a’zani main entrance, their suits stealth mode engaged. There were supposed to be forty Ra’a’zani inside, plus a dozen or so thralls. The Taskmaster of this base didn’t like slaves, so most humans were not allowed inside. Instead they remained outside the base, until Ra’a’zani needed something. That’s why they couldn’t destroy the base by planting bombs.

  Vladimir reached the base entrance. A standard Ra’a’zani checkpoint with two Ra’a’zani standing guard. The two were engaged in conversation. They didn’t even notice when two plasma blasts fired from Vladimir’s sides and burned their heads off. His people kept moving going inside. The Ra’a’zani scanner would soon detect their movement, but they wouldn’t be seen by the naked eye. The confusion will add to their advantage. As soon as they entered the base itself, they split off into teams of two. They started moving through the base killing everything in their way. The Ra’a’zani knew that they were under attack, the human weapons were as invisible as the suits, but their fire was not.

  Vladimir entered a room, and saw there Ra’a’zani, they were in the process of putting on their battle armor. But sadly for them, Vladimir decided to not let them finish. He raised his SH-7 plasma rifle and fired at the closest Ra’a’zani. The plasma bolt burning through his back. Vladimir’s team member killed another one as he tried to turn. And Vladimir put two quick bolts into the third one as he tried to charge their positions.

  Communicating through their suits and implants, the entire assault team moved efficiently and quickly through the base. Within another twenty minutes, there was no Ra’a’zani left alive.

  ***

  Commander Anya Lane was not having a good day. Her team began their assault on the Ra’a’zani base in the Sydney mega-zone more than ten minutes ago, and they were still pinned down in the base’s lobby. Somehow the Ra’a’zani were ready for them. They had been waiting for Anya and her people in their battle armor. Whether her team was betrayed minutes before the attack, or somehow the Ra’a’zani managed to detect them, didn’t matter now. The fight was on. She had already lost three of her men. And knew that she would lose a lot more before the night was over.

  Rising her weapon over the cover, she used her implant’s interface - that connected to her plasma rifles small camera - to aim and fire without being exposed. The Ra’a’zani had trouble taking cover because of their size, but their armor more than compensated enough.

  She fired four shots in a quick succession, hitting one Ra’a’zani three times in the torso. The Ra’a’zani was too slow to move, and the first two shots weekend its armor enough for the third to penetrate and kill him. Anya lowered her weapon, checking on her imp the heating level of her rifles power cell. She had maybe another seven shots, before she needed to dispose of the cell. She had two more reserve cells. But she knew that if they don’t manage to break the stalemate soon, it wouldn’t be enough.

  ***

  Taskmaster Rag’r’an, commander of the Ra’a’zani base in what the humans called Sydney mega-zone, stood in his battle armor in the middle of his base’s main command center. He watched on the terminals as humans pushed through the entrance hall, and slowly progressed into the base. Both sides were losing people, but for every one human that fell, three of his people fell as well. Rag’r’an shook with rage, this was the first time in the history of the Ra’a’zani race that a slave race dared to rebel after its been conquered.

  The humans attack began with the sabotage of Rag’r’an’s comm system. His people were lucky that they noticed it early enough, and that Rag’r’an put the base on alert. Otherwise the humans would have killed them all already. He saw the power of their weapons first hand, as the scorch mark on his shoulder attested to.

  “How long before we regain communications?” Rag’r’an asked.

  “Soon Taskmaster.” His subordinate answered.

  Rag’r’an growled in his battle armor. Once he managed to contact the Dakar, the humans would pay dearly for every Ra’a’zani life lost.

  ***

  Anya watched as her people slowly gained ground. They were pushing the Ra’a’zani back. Soon they would reach their main room. Plasma bolts flew from the human side, while some kind of other energy weapons fire flew from the Ra’a’zani. They had never managed to get their hands on Ra’a’zani functional weapon. And they didn’t know what kind of energy it fired, but they knew that their armor could withstand a few hits. She got a message on her imp from the command. They had reinforcements incoming.

  “Commander! The Ra’a’zani are trying to get their comms back up!” Anya heard over her imp. Immediately she opened a channel to everyone under her command.

  “Pull back! We got heavies incoming!”

  ***

  “The humans are nearly through Taskmaster!” Someone yelled out.

  “Stall them!” Ra’g’ran growled out. He turned to the Ra’a’zani working on the comms.

  “Hurry!” He said.

  “I’m almost done Taskmaster. Rerouting the power source, and… There!”

  “Contact the headquarters immediately!” Ra’g’ran ordered.

  “There is no response Taskmaster!”

  Ra’g’ran looked in disbelief, the humans couldn’t have attacked the headquarters as well.

  “Try the other bases. Start with the closest first.”

  “There is no response from anyone. All the bases on the planet have gone silent Taskmaster!”

  Rag’r’an couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

  “Access the grid, figure out what happened.” Ra’g’ran ordered. The grid was separate from their comm systems.

  “There is no mention of anything wrong Taskmaster. Wait… it looks like ships entered the system and the Blood Claw moved to meet with them.” Ra’g’ran felt a shiver, this couldn’t be coincidence.
>
  “Send the message to the Blood Claw. Tell them that all the bases on the planet are under attack!” Ra’g’ran ordered. Then another Ra’a’zani in battle armor walked over to him.

  “The humans are retreating!” He said.

  Ra’g’ran engaged his hand cannon, and started towards the action. He wouldn’t let the humans get away without first making them pay in blood.

  ***

  Sergeant Nathan Bell sat in the driver’s seat of the League Ravager Mk3 class tank. Behind him, on their own posts were his best friends, Donald Hall and Chloe Grant. Nathan’s tank was a part of the four tank squad, moving into position to attack a Ra’a’zani base. They couldn’t have approached the base before, fearing that the Ra’a’zani sensors would detect them before they managed to disable them. But now the Ra’a’zani defenses were down, his people had retreated, and his job was to level it to the ground. Their squad got in position on the hill overlooking the Ra’a’zani base. Their large 160mm caliber guns swiveled and locked on their target. A moment later their bombardment began. The large explosive rounds rained fire on the defenseless Ra’a’zani base. Within minutes the base crumbled in fire and smoke.

  After the dust settled, two ten man teams moved in on foot, making sure that there were no survivors.

  ***

  The first thing Aileen saw when she opened her eyes was the orange sky. For a moment she thought that it was dawn and moved to get up, she had things to do. But then she remembered. She realized that she was in a vehicle of some kind, bundled up in the back seat with someone sitting next to her. Through the vehicle’s window she saw that it wasn’t dawn, the orange color was from the flames rising up in the distance. Slowly Aileen rose up, the person sitting next to her noticed and turned to her.