Talosian Chronicles 6: Armageddon

by Ben Winston

  Star Dancer's laser and particle weapons began firing sustained beams in an effort to disperse the rapid build-up of energy from the armor absorbing missile and weapons impacts. Three of the mid-ship heavy mount weapons focused on the rear of BS5 and had soon blown completely through the hull and out the other side. As they began cutting down through the ship, secondary explosions began to dot the hull and power in the big ship died completely. It's weapons stopped firing and the shields failed. The big ship was venting atmosphere in hundreds of places. It would soon be completely dead.

  The crew of Star Dancer did not get the time to celebrate the victory though, because the other battle ship was still very much alive and it wasn't happy. The imperial battleship designated BS3 had not taken as much damage in battle as it's counterpart had, and was in much better shape before Star Dancer made it's assault. With the death of the other battleship, it fired every weapons it had into Star Dancer's battered hull.

  The last thing Ian remembered was hearing screams and seeing equipment exploding. One young technician was hurled into the air and across the room. Just as Ian was moving to help, he could hear the decompression alarms as something slammed into him from the side, hard. Bright lights exploded before his eyes and everything went dark.

  The next thing Ian knew was the pain. His head arm and legs hurt. His chest too, but not as badly as his head. Something really bad had to have happened to him. He began to hear noises and they seemed overly loud to his throbbing head. He groaned but quickly discovered that was a bad idea too.

  "Easy Ian, you've been banged up pretty badly," a familiar sounding voice said. He tried to open his eyes, but only one of them seemed to be working.

  "What… happened?" he tried to ask. His vision was very blurry and he was having a hard time focusing. It didn't look like he was in MedBay though.

  "The Imperial Battleship we were fighting exploded right next to us," the voice replied.

  "Beth? I… can't see very well. My head really hurts," Ian croaked out.

  "It's Andrea Johnson, Ian. Beth is down in main medical. You've sustained a pretty bad head wound, I'm trying to get you fixed up, but you need to lay still for a bit longer," the woman said.

  "How bad is it?" Ian asked.

  "You've lost your left eye and ear, there is some damage to your right eye as well, but we should be able to restore that soon. Your left arm was shattered and your left hand is gone. You have four broken ribs, both legs are broken and you've been burned on your upper left side," she said. "We already knitted the bone breaks, but the arm and shoulder are going to need more work."

  "Okay, but, where are we?" Ian asked. "How's the crew? Jenny?"

  Andrea paused for a moment. "Jenny was taken to main medical. She was in critical condition when they got to her; she is recovering now, but will be out of commission for a couple of days. We don't have an exact count yet, but we've lost around eighty people. Another two hundred are wounded, about fifty or so badly enough to be taken to main medical. Colonel Brighton sustained only minor injuries, but Major Eischens was killed." She paused again. "As for where we are, we are in a hallway near the forward residential areas. It was the closest place that still had atmosphere."

  "Doctor, we can get him in now," someone said a few feet away.

  "Good! Now Ian; I'm going to sedate you and put you into the autodoc unit in the clinic to try and fix your eye and treat the burns. The rest is going to have to wait until we can get you to main medical," Andrea explained.

  "Wait, what about the fight?" Ian asked.

  "Ian, this should only take a few minutes, you should probably wait to get caught up on that until after you get out of the AD unit. This shouldn't affect your memory, but like I said, it's a very bad head wound," Andrea said and sedated him before he could object. She knew it wouldn't effect his memory, but felt he simply didn't need the added stress until after his wounds were properly treated.

  True to her word, his treatment did only take a few minutes. She put him in a hover chair for two days to let the legs finish healing, put his arm in a sling and a big bandage on his head, were the new skin was still pink and raw looking. The eye and ear would not be replaced until later, after the battle.

  The main bridge and CIC were open to space. About the only thing still working in the forward section of the ship was Star's AI core in it's protected vault, although she had lost the ability to project her hologram.

  The ship itself had been towed clear of the battle area by a Croanian cruiser, and was currently surrounded by a repair ship while they made their way slowly back towards Earth.

  Ian rejoined a haggard looking Chloe Brighton in the much smaller control center near the secondary bridge. "I'm sorry about Ike, Chloe. I know you two were close friends."

  "Thanks Ian. I think the worst part of it is that his son was killed on the bridge at the same time. His wife had to be sedated and their daughter is taking care of her in their quarters," she replied. "We lost a lot of good people today."

  Ian could only nod. "I know that attack was insane, Chloe, but it had to be done."

  She smiled at him sadly. "I know that; Earth would have been leveled if we had allowed them to make the jump. As it was, several of the smaller ships did make it. I hope you don't mind, but I used a hologram of you to warn the Earth defenders."

  "That's fine, but why would you need to use a hologram of me?" Ian asked. "You could have done just as well."

  "Morale. The entire fleet knows we were beat-up pretty badly, and most of them know you were gravely injured," She explained. "I spoke to Doctor Johnson and she assured me you would be fine, so I used your image, your current image, to help kinda reassure them. Like it or not, you're a symbol not only to our troops, but to the Alliance forces as well." She snorted. "The Croanians think you're some kind of bloody god for pulling off that attack on the battleships. The rest are beginning to believe you have more lives than a cat, and any battle you lead will succeed." She shrugged. "Truth or not, they needed to see you were still in alive."

  Ian nodded. "I understand; I don't like it, but I can understand it. So, how are we doing, and what's happened while I was taking a break?"

  Chloe nodded. "The Caldarians are gone. In true Caldarian fashion, they fought to the last ship. It's caused some issues on Earth since most of the attacking forces self-destructed. There are still some that are fighting, but we're starting to think they either didn't get the order, or are ignoring it thinking they can establish their own little kingdoms. Either way, it's only a matter of time before they're all gone.

  "The second wave of Imperial ships began arriving about ten minutes ago. The fleet is deployed roughly according to the battle plan. They got closer to Mars than we had anticipated and they managed to destroy the civilian space dock before we could push them back. The facilities there took some damage, but are still intact and functional.

  "Phoenix Base is holding their own since the Imps don't seem to be too concerned with it. So far, they've only sent a few fighters and bombers and one troops transport," she finished.

  "What's happening on Earth? What are those cruisers up too?" Ian asked, looking into the smaller holotank. "If they're carrying those chemical weapons…"

  "We don't think they are. For some reason, they hit Earth with fighters and bombers in an attempt to take out the defenses. Right now, the light cruisers seem to be trying to destabilize the tectonic plates in various locations. Our people down there are working very hard to keep that from happening, but might need some help, I just don't know where to find it. I have just sent in a request to have Raptors go to each of the fighter bases so the AI can help with controlling extra drones for repairs and so the teams can help with the defenses. Raptor Command said they would handle it.

  "Two medium cruisers and one heavy cruiser also made the jump. The heavy didn't go until after the battleships had been destroyed. Dawn's Path moved out and engaged the heavy cruiser while the Tiamat took on the mediums. Dawn's Path has all but won
the fight, but has taken moderate damage. Tiamat will also win eventually, but the fight is slower there."

  Ian nodded and moved the image display to the Martian theater. What he saw startled him. "What the… Is that a dreadnought?"

  "Confirmed. An Imperial dreadnought is leading an assault against the Martian forces. The Guards have engaged and the Terra is in a slugging match with the dreadnought," She looked back at her data. "Sir, the dreadnought is losing quickly!"

  As the two officers watched the icon for the Terra turned and headed straight into the larger icon for the dreadnought. Just before they crossed, the icon for the dreadnought split into two pieced and turned red. As the Terra sped away from it's victim, the holotank showed the two separate pieces either exploding or breaking up.

  Ian entered a command into the computer opening a channel to the commander of the ship. When the image took form over the tank Ian grinned at him. "Argyle, you are one crazy bastard, you know that? How badly damaged are you?"

  "Dirty blighters messed up our paint Admiral! We couldn't let that stand!" the man replied grinning. "Singed armor is all, Sir. She's a hell of a ship sir, but I don't think we'd fair as well again fighters and smaller ships. They move to fast for the weapons system to target effectively. She'll stand toe to toe with any of the larger ships except a carrier. We'd be in a hurt right quickly against that many fighters without support," the Aussie Commander reported.

  Ian nodded and made a note in the computer to record his words for later review. Alex would normally do that for him, but she was still in medical. "Commander, I need you to jump to Earth; several light cruisers got through and are attempting to destabilize the tectonic plates. I need you to go ruin their day. The rest of the Guards can catch up when their done, but I need you in Earth orbit ten minutes ago."

  "You heard the man lads! Get us to Earth and step on it!" the man said and looked back at his commander. "It looks like you've seen better days Sir; are you sure you should be up and about?"

  Before Ian could reply the image blinked, then stabilized, indicating the Terra had jumped. "Probably not, but someone has to keep control of you crazy Aussies! There's no telling what kind of trouble we'd have if we just let you run amok out here!"

  "To bloody right! We're here, time to go back to work. If there is nothing else, Sir?" Argyle asked.

  Defense Command Bunker

  Site NY-4, New York City

  Earth, Sol System

  Colonel Adam Wells, Commanding

  “Red Alert! We have incoming fighters and missiles. All personnel take cover immediately. Stand-by for weapon's firing!” The announcement was closely followed by the rumbling as the huge guns rose from their hiding positions underground. In several locations around the park, the ground erupted as doors flew open on hidden missile batteries.

  Armored troops, still trying to get the remaining rioters to get to safety, retreated to the shielded area to take defensive positions. Missiles being launched must have been the final straw for the remaining rioters; But instead of following the troops, they scattered and tried to take cover behind the surrounding buildings. When the big guns started firing and the shock wave knocked them to the ground. None of them had been wearing hearing protections because they had believed the threat to be specious. Most of them were knocked unconscious and had burst eardrums; some had broken bones. Of the hundred and fifty-three people, all of them were seriously wounded, fifty-nine critically, and three older gentlemen did not survive.

  Unwilling to leave the people lying on the ground wounded. The troops called for medical assistance to get them to the emergency hospital for treatment. Floating gurneys were sent and the troops put the people on them. The hovering gurneys were like small, short-ranged space craft. They erected a protective field over their patient, They were capable of fly over or around obstacles while returning to their programmed destination. The gurneys carried all the wounded to the small emergency hospital built in the park. The dead were also retrieved and taken to the morgue at the hospital.

  In the command center of the armory, Adam, F'ren, Tonya and Adam's XO, Major Paul Hines stood around the big holotank that served as a tactical display unit for their area of operations. Currently, the tank displayed hundreds of targets, all of them Caldarian. Terran fighters were working on the enemy fighters and fighter carriers, and the surface emplacements were dealing with the inbound missiles and helping with the fighters. However, a small group of ships were shown to be almost on the surface, several miles west of Staten Island, and south west of Brooklyn. There was another group coming over the water to the northwest as well. Both groups were moving very slowly.

  "What's with those two groups? Why aren't they heading in like the fighters?" Adam asked.

  "They're troop transports," F'ren replied. "I imagine they are waiting for the missiles to soften us up first."

  Paul snorted. "That isn't going to happen with Tonya's guns on the job. Besides, won't the shield protect the city from nukes?"

  "Yes and no; the shields are good, but can only withstand one or two direct hits. The nukes they are using are far more powerful than those of Earth. These carry enhanced yield, anti-matter warheads designed to take down shields. Of course, if there is no shield to absorb the energy of the blast…" Tonya explained. "If one gets through, we could be in big trouble."

  "What I find curious is that the Caldarians are sending troops here at all. According to our records, they should be trying to obliterate this entire area, not invade it," F'ren replied.

  "How so?" Adam asked.

  "Standard Caldarian invasion doctrine is to destroy the major populations centers, then capture the civilians in the rural areas as slaves. This entire area, for a hundred miles in all directions is a pretty major population center. They should be showering this area with missiles and orbital bombardments," F'ren explained.

  "Maybe that's why, Major," Tonya said. "We took out the two Super Nova's; they don't have anything close enough that's capable of that level of destruction anymore."

  "Is that what happened to Europe?" Paul asked.

  Both Tonya and F'ren nodded, but Tonya explained. "Our shields are good, but concentrated fire from a capitol ship like a Super Nova is just too much for them. One sustained blast from a heavy mount laser, combined with repeated missile impacts, and the shield will fail."

  "Inbound radiological alert! Multiple surface skimming missiles!" Tonya's people in the tracking area reported.

  The troop transport ships had gotten tired of waiting and fired their own tactical missiles into the city. The missiles were too low for the guns to target, and the flight time was too short for fighters to intercept them.

  The ground shook as several anti-matter warheads detonated over the wide spread city.

  "Damage report!" Adam called.

  "Fourteen impacts, Our shield is down to ten percent. Most of the missiles hit Long Island in a line from Queens to The Hamptons. All Long Island weapons sites report shield failure and heavy damage to the surrounding area, the weapons are still operational but the city has been destroyed. Site NY-One reports total destruction of Perth Amboy and the southern end of Staten Island. However, they have a lock on the incoming transports. Sites NY-two and NY-three report shield damage only," one of the soldiers manning a console in the command center reported.

  "Tell site one to take those bastards out if they can," Adam ordered. "What about the northern group?"

  "Moving in towards the northern Long Island weapons, it looks like they are going to deploy their troops, Sir."

  Adam brought up the information for the area. "It looks like all we have up there are National Guards. F'ren, feel like taking a trip? Paul, send lats send one of our company's with them."

  Paul nodded and began issuing orders quietly. F'ren smiled softly. "I thought you'd never ask!" She turned to the soldier who made the report. "Please transfer the relevant data to the T'gal and notify the people up there we are on our way."

  "Yes Ma'am!"
the soldier replied automatically. F'ren grinned at him as she left the command center, issuing orders over her own comm.

  "Tracking, keep an eye on the southern group. I need to know immediately if any of them get through," Adam ordered. "Tonya, can we repair the shield? Get it back to full strength somehow?"

  "The drones at each of the shield generator stations are already working on it, Sir," Tonya replied.

  "Southern transport group reduced to two ships. Second salvo from the southern group! Staten Island and lower Brooklyn are targeted." The ground shook again, but not as hard as the last time.

  "The shield is down, four generators destroyed, three hours to repair," the man reported. "Sirs, Site NY heavily damaged; weapons and command center are off-line, but I'm still getting a green status from the shelters. NY two reports heavy damage, one gun is still operational, but glitchy. The other gun and missile launchers are off-line. Most of Staten Island and the lower Brooklyn area have been flattened, Wait!" he paused for a moment. "Caldarians transports are moving in! They're entering the harbor, it looks like they're heading for the Narrows."

  "Missiles! Put some hurt on those ass-holes! We have to keep them from getting to shore!" Tonya ordered.

  "Navy ships are deploying in the upper bay, If the Caldarians stay on course, they'll fly right over them," the tracking soldier reported. "Another transport is down. It blew in mid-air. No survivors. Remaining ship is passing Fort Hamilton and has entered the Narrows. Navy ships are firing."

  "Any chance they'll take it out?" Adam asked.

  "They might damage it more, but I don't think they'll…"

  "Heavy damage to navy ships, three ships sinking. Caldarian is past their line and approaching Lower Manhattan!" the soldier reported.