The Chosen Race (Space Empires Book 2)

by Caleb Selby

It was reassuring to watch the massive conglomerate of metal and firepower in front of his ship plow through the enemy fighters effortlessly. Even before the lopsided skirmish was over, the rest of the Sixth Fleet, as well as the three Sion vessels, had arrived.

  “Nice to see you, Admiral,” Carter transmitted to the Iovara. “You got here just in time. It was getting a little uncomfortable out here.”

  “My pleasure,” Fedrin replied. “Now get out of here and head up our landing force. They’ll be needing leadership.”

  Carter nodded. “After fighting these Unmentionables, I’m up for some good old fashioned Krohn killing!”

  “Have at it,” Fedrin said with a nod. “My tactical officer is uploading our troop landing coordinates to you now. Good luck!”

  “Keep all the luck for yourselves,” Carter answered gruffly. “Killing Krohns is second nature for me. Thank you though!”

  Fedrin smiled and shook his head.

  The reformed Sixth Fleet comprised of only eight warships, assumed a tight, crescent formation and began to slowly advance toward the volcanic moon where the newly calculated figure of more than eight hundred Unmentionable vessels awaited them. Only unimaginable luck, or a higher power, could help them at this point.

  “Report,” Kesler ordered as he finished yet another turn around the Idok’s bridge, reexamining all the stations for a fifth time.

  “We’re all good, Commodore,” Tarkin answered. “We’re in formation per Iovara Command orders and we’re closing in on our target,” he finished and nodded at the moon which lay frightfully far beyond the Unmentionable force.

  “What of the enemy?” Kesler inquired. “Any change?”

  Tarkin nodded and switched views on one of his screens and pointed with three hands. “They’ve started concentrating the bulk of their forces directly on the direct approach from us to the moon.”

  “They know what we’re after,” Kesler said.

  “It would seem so,” replied Tarkin in dismay.

  Kesler nodded and slowly made his way to his command platform. “What of the Sion ships?”

  Tarkin tapped a few keys and then nodded. “Like they said they would, they’ve set up some sort of energy array around our ships.”

  “And that all seems to be working?” asked Kesler skeptically.

  Tarkin shrugged. “What they’re doing is essentially impossible according to our computers so I guess we won’t know if it’s working until they start shooting at us.”

  “How comforting,” Kesler said with a shake of his head.

  An alarm sounded at the tactical station.

  “Looks like the enemy ships are heating up primary weapons,” a tactical officer spoke up.

  “Let’s follow suit,” Kesler ordered. “I want incinerator beams and plasma rounds charging. Keep the EMOD turrets cool until we get closer.”

  “You got it,” answered Tarkin as he typed out orders on one of his interfaces, his many pairs of hands making short work of it. “Lets feed them their own entrails!”

  “Are all our weapons armed?” Fedrin asked, glaring at the enemy ships now closer then ever.

  “Nope,” Jonas answered casually. “We decided to do our regularly scheduled maintenance on them today. They should be back on-line sometime tomorrow.”

  “Jonas!” Etana snapped.

  “Yes the weapons are armed and ready!” Jonas shouted back. “Goodness! Just because we are going to die in twenty minutes is no reason to be so uptight! You’ll give yourselves high blood pressure!”

  Fedrin shook his head. “Are all ships in place and ready?”

  “They are,” Etana answered after glancing down at one of her screens. “All vessels are reporting armed and ready status. Primary plasma weapons and Sion incinerator weapons on all vessels are hot and ready to go!”

  “Gallo, what of the Sions?” asked Fedrin.

  Gallo nodded. “We are receiving a transmission from Merik that all Sion ships are ready and waiting your orders. He reminds you that their tactical ability will be limited due to the energy fields they are emitting but they will do what they can.”

  Fedrin nodded and then clasped his hands tightly, bringing them to his lips while staring out into space. “And how long until we are in firing range?”

  “We will be entering plasma weapons range in one minute!” Jonas responded enthusiastically.

  “No long range weapons yet from the enemy?” Fedrin asked, knowing that if they were facing a Krohn Fleet, their missiles would have already launched.

  “Nothing yet...oh, wait a second. Yes, we do have small, unmanned objects inbound! They don’t have heat signatures though, so it will be tough for the point defense computers to target them.”

  “That will complicate things,” Fedrin said calmly.

  “Yeah, like staying alive,” remarked Jonas.

  “How many objects are there?” asked Fedrin.

  “Initial scan is putting the number around nine hundred,” Jonas answered despondently.

  Fedrin couldn’t believe it. “Nine hundred?” he said in total bewilderment. “Can we take evasive action?”

  “No,” Etana answered calmly. “They will be here in twenty seconds. There is no place to go.”

  Fedrin had no recourse. He watched as the tiny dots that couldn’t be targeted by the point defense computers sped toward his fleet. They were nearly there when several blinding rays of light burned past the Iovara and struck one of the objects. It exploded violently, engulfing dozens of the other projectiles and causing them to also explode. More rays of light, dozens of them, crossed in and around the Iovara and the rest of the fleet striking the missiles in the distance causing them to explode.

  “What’s going on?” asked Fedrin.

  “What do you think?” Jonas answered with a disgusted expression on his face. “Who is always taking all the fun out of battle?”

  “It’s the Sions!” Etana reported, her eyes flashing with excitement. “Their incinerator beams are destroying the enemy weapons!”

  Fedrin nodded with contentment but didn’t dwell on the news. “Are our own weapons in range yet?” he asked as the last of the inbound weapons erupted.

  “That they are!” replied Jonas. “Just came into range now!”

  “All right then,” Fedrin said as he breathed out deeply. “Let’s blow a hole in that line! Zero all weapons on their weakest spot.”

  “They don’t have any weakest spots,” Jonas answered.

  Fedrin rolled his eyes. “The lower left half of the enemy formation has the fewest ships. Concentrate our fire there.”

  “Aye Sir!” Jonas answered. “Here comes some plasma you Unmentionable pigs! Eat up!”

  In sequence, the ships of the Sixth Fleet released their powerful plasma weapons. They sped toward the huge cluster of ships in the distance. Like the precious gems of a jeweler on black velvet, the plasma rounds sparkled against the darkness of space. Right before the fiery spheres reached the first enemy ships, large silvery beams of light from the Sion warships sped past them, striking several enemy ships causing them to instantly incinerate. A large hole in the otherwise thick enemy line began to appear which was made larger still by the plasma rounds that followed, smashing deeper into the formation of ships, destroying several and badly damaging others.

  “All ships full ahead!” ordered Fedrin as he saw the hole in the enemy line grow. “Keep the fighters in close formation!”

  The Namuh and Sion ships advanced at full speed toward the soft spot in the enemy line, changing their formation at the last moment from an open crescent, which they had assumed to maximize their firing potential, to a single file line with which to pierce the thicket of the enemy. The Iovara was at the lead of the formation with Sion vessels alternating with the remaining Namuh ships with the Hornell and Defiant taking up the rear.

  “
More enemy projectiles inbound!” Jonas shouted down to Fedrin.

  Fedrin looked up at a monitor just as the next wave of enemy missiles were again dispatched by the powerful Sion anti-missile weaponry with only two of the projectiles managing to find marks on the Sion vessel amidships but inflicting no serious damage.

  The Sion and Namuh ships continued to speed toward the enemy conglomerate of ships with the sheer determination of victory fueling their seemingly reckless charge. They were nearly at the outskirts of the opposing fleet when several bright red flashes began emitting from multiple opposing ships.

  “What was that?” asked Fedrin anxiously. “Talk to me Jonas! What was that?”

  Jonas glanced at several screens before answering. “Its nothing our instruments can get a lock on but I’d bet my marriage counseling business that they are weapons of some sort.”

  “You don’t have a marriage counseling business!” Gallo retorted.

  “I might if we survive this!” Jonas shot back.

  “Are they missiles?” interjected Fedrin.

  Etana shook her head. “Initial analysis is suggesting that they are composite charges made up of photons with neutron cores.”

  Fedrin looked up at Jonas for an explanation. Jonas shrugged. “It’s likely an energy based projectile of some sort, not that dissimilar to the composition of our own plasma weapons.”

  Fedrin nodded and looked at his monitor as the short-range globules of fiery photons sped toward his line of warships, preferentially targeting the Namuh vessels. The first salvo slammed into the fleet, grimly reminding all that the Sions did not provide an all-encompassing shield of invincibility.

  “Report!” yelled Fedrin as his ship was tossed about, having absorbed several hits herself.

  “We’ve lost EMOD battery twelve on the port side,” Etana shouted out over a host of blaring sirens.

  “I’m also getting a report that the starboard docking bay field barrier is inoperable,” Gallo added. “I’m sealing the blast doors now and rerouting power to auxiliary shields in that sector.”

  “The others?” asked Fedrin, his eyes wide and attentive; absorbing every detail he could but remaining calm.

  “The Hornell is reporting that they were hit six times and apparently has three separate hull breaches,” Etana said. “She is not doing well Fedrin. She isn’t meant to take a beating like this.”

  Fedrin shook his head. “Tell Kendrick to get out of here!”

  “He won’t like it,” Etana warned.

  “Too bad!” Fedrin snapped. “He’s no good to us out here with his ship beat up that bad!”

  “Aye, Sir,” Etana said, obediently turning back to her station and quickly contacting the Hornell.

  “Tell the rest to keep going!” ordered Fedrin. “They have a soft spot now and we need to take advantage of it! It’s now or never!”

  The column of ships pressed on until they were in the very midst of the enemy. Above, below and to either side, the enemy ships were encompassing. The Namuh vessel’s short range EMOD turrets energized, finding a bountiful supply of targets and sending up a barrage of dazzling light that could not have been described with mere words. Hundreds of turrets between the Namuh and Sion warships fired relentlessly, inflicting heavy damage on the stout enemy ships. The closest Unmentionable battleships were struck multiple times with the intense weaponry until their shields began to collapse and their hulls disintegrated under the continuous firepower.

  Commander Kendrick looked into the cracked main screen on his bridge as he saw the single line of ships penetrating the large mass of opposing vessels with fire, lasers, missiles, plasma, photon-rounds and explosions following the procession. “Good luck, my friends,” he whispered as his own ship withdrew from the action at top speed.

  At first, the Namuh and Sion forces made good progress, taking advantage of the fact that the distal enemy ships couldn’t target them without risking friendly fire. The enemy’s overwhelming numbers, thus mitigated by Fedrin’s brazen strategy, allowed the Sixth Fleet to press on, inflicting heavy damage as it went. The Sion’s powerful incinerator weapons swept back and forth across the battlefield, destroying dozens of Unmentionable ships while the Namuh warships were nearly as deadly as their Sion counterparts. Aiming wasn’t necessary as the enemy targets were so prevalent that it didn’t matter. A plasma round or EMOD bolt was bound to hit something!

  But as the small force got closer and closer to the moon, the heat of the battle intensified. The enemy’s short range weapons, although not as powerful as the upgraded Namuh or Sion’s, were so numerous that even the strongest ships began to succumb. Eventually, several of the Sion ships began to become overwhelmed with the intensity of the enemy’s weaponry and began to fall apart.

  “We’ve just lost one of the Sion ships!” Etana called out as she looked in horror at her screen.

  Jonas shook his head, realizing that the defensive Sion chain would be markedly weakened with the loss of the ship. As if on cue, the Iovara suddenly shook violently following a barrage of Unmentionable’s weapons fire.

  “We’ve just lost another EMOD cannon!” Gallo announced following the rumble.

  “Stabilize the breach!” Etana ordered to an engineering station operator. “We can’t vent any atmosphere! The life support systems are already running on minimum power!”

  The engineer nodded and immediately went to work stabilizing the damage.

  “We can not proceed any further!” yet another officer spoke up. “All ships are coming to a standstill.”

  Fedrin shook his head passionately. “We need to keep moving or we are going to get ripped apart! There is no stopping!”

  “There’s no place to go Fedrin!” Etana shouted, nodding toward the screen where a Sion vessel stood still, unable to advance.

  The small line of Sion and Namuh ships, now crippled and wounded, had indeed been stopped. There was no retreat and no room for advance. The enemy ships didn’t let up, however. Now that their foe was down, they went to work with a greater zeal. They got in closer, pounding away with a fury at the dead and dying ships that dared to defy them! The situation was deteriorating rapidly.

  The lights on the Iovara’s bridge flickered as the power shorted in and out. Sparks rained down on the command crew from shorted conduits in the ceiling as the shields began to give way and the outer hull began to crack under each consecutive blasts it endured. Red lights were flashing and warning sirens were going off at nearly every station as the ship’s primary systems began to shut down and the Iovara began to die.

  “Status report!” yelled Fedrin over the sirens and chaos of his bridge.

  “I can’t get readings on half the fleet!” Etana yelled back, tears forming in her eyes, her voice trembling. “No one is answering!”

  Fedrin swallowed hard, fearing the end was near.

  A large explosion suddenly shook the ship, momentarily casting the bridge in complete darkness.

  “We have a hull breach!” Jonas announced when the emergency lights returned. “Atmosphere is venting! I repeat, we are losing atmosphere!”

  Fedrin shook his head. “Where is the breach?”

  “Section thirty-eight B!” Gallo answered.

  “Seal it off!” ordered Etana.

  The engineer shook his head. “We got people down there! We seal it off they’re as good as dead!”

  “If we don’t we all die!” Fedrin snapped, himself sick with the order. “Now seal it!”

  The engineer nodded and promptly flipped a switch thereby sealing off the damaged section and effectively killing a dozen crewmen.

  Fedrin shook his head in anguish as the breach alarm was silenced, implying the deed was done.

  “Three photon projectiles inbound!” Etana announced in response to a fresh array of automated warnings. “Evasive maneuvers impossible to execute. They’re goin
g to hit us!”

  Fedrin looked up. “Will we be able to absorb them?”

  “Not this time,” Jonas answered grimly, for once not making a joke of the situation.

  “Take evasive action!” Fedrin promptly yelled. “Bring us about!”

  “There’s not enough room Fedrin!” Etana yelled. “The Arbitrator is in our way!”

  Fedrin watched as the three red spheres of energized photons sped toward his ship with lethal intent. He gripped the armrests of his chair and locked his jaw. This was it, this was to be the end of the Iovara and their last hope for victory! The weapons were moments from striking when a Sion ship came up, from seemingly nowhere, and took up position between the Iovara and the inbound projectiles.

  Merik’s face then appeared on the Iovara’s main screen, uncovered from his robe. His glowing countenance evoked a calming sensation over the chaotic bridge. A deep voice then called out, “Admiral, make us proud!”

  The view then switched back to the Sion ship just in time to see three monstrous holes get punched through her furiously. The ship then violently ripped apart and exploded in a large fireball that engulfed two nearby enemy battleships.

  “We’ve just lost the lead Sion ship,” Jonas confirmed, after glancing at his instruments.

  “And there goes the last one,” Gallo added, noticing a separate explosion on his screen. “Looks like she took several missiles intended for the Idok.”

  Etana shook her head. “We are on our own now.”

  “They’ve kept us alive for as long as they could,” Fedrin said quietly. “It’s up to us now.”

  Another blast shook the bridge brutally, causing tiles and wires to rain down from the ceiling. A small fire broke out in the rear of the bridge. Several officers quickly ran to put it out.

  The main screen in the front of the room showed nothing but carnage. Derelict ships, unidentifiable debris and dead bodies spilt from their destroyed ships and cluttered the battlefield. Fedrin was hopelessly staring at the wreckage and the swarm of enemy ships all about him when a series of fresh alarms sounded at Gallo’s station.

  “What is it?” asked Etana, glancing up at the communication station.