Devastator

by Isaac Hooke

  But then the aliens stopped releasing boarding party units.

  “They’re catching on to our strategy,” Mark said.

  “Of course,” Gavin said. “You thought this was going to be easy?”

  The blobs continued, however, so that the fleet members were forced to continue rocking to and fro, presenting one bank of lasers and then the other to fire at the incoming targets, at least when the raptors had enough charge.

  At the twelve thousand kilometer range, Hax transmitted: “Prepare to fire barracuda.”

  A constant stream of black hole bolts launched from another nearby battle group.

  The cloaked Mind Refurb ships out there, including Medeia, had been briefed on the planned trajectories of the bolts beforehand, and hopefully were well out of their paths.

  Black holes began to form in front of the incoming enemy units; represented as swirling gaseous masses on the tactical display, they influenced the nearby blobs, but otherwise didn’t affect the enemy starships. Most of the pyramids were forced to change course however, as the black holes had opened directly in their paths.

  More black holes appeared in rapid succession, herding many of the pyramids down specific trajectories as they continued toward the Mind Refurb fleet.

  “Concentrate fire on this target,” Hax sent. One of the herded pyramids became highlighted on Jain’s display. “Fire barracuda.”

  Jain unleashed his energy cannon at the target. He fired straight on, but also in a circular pattern around it so that, if the ship tried to avoid it, the enemy would find itself barreling straight toward the next energy bolt. He created multiple circular patterns like that, trying to guess where the enemy would move. Other bolts came in from different members of the battle group under Hax’s command, and they were arranged in similar hard-to-dodge patterns.

  The targeted pyramid moved left, then right, then up, narrowly avoiding all of the incoming attacks. But finally it dodged directly into the path of one of Jain’s energy bolts. The impact ripped a big gash into the hull. The Mimic warship successfully dodged the next attack, but moved right into the path of a bolt from another Hull Burner. Another blast crater appeared in the hull. More bolts struck then in rapid succession, and the pyramid was battered. It hurtled to the left, trying to get out of the line of fire, and smashed directly into a black hole. In seconds the entire vessel was spaghettified and engulfed.

  “Nice one,” Mark said.

  The other herded Mimics suffered similar fates; another accidentally keeled into a black hole, while eight more had taken enough damage that they were drifting lifelessly in the void. That was ten enemy units off the grid.

  “Now I know why they call them the Hull Burners,” Gavin said.

  “Ten down, another one hundred and ninety to go,” Sheila commented.

  More black holes launched, and once again Jain released a barrage of energy bolts, until his weapon overheated and he could no longer fire.

  This second round was slightly less effective: eight enemy ships went down.

  “They’re launching their pyramid boarding parties again,” Xander said.

  Jain saw the swarms on his tactical display. They moved forward at a speed faster than the source pyramids.

  “Release missiles!” Hax said.

  Jain did so.

  Then cloaked units began to appear across the board, including Medeia; they were all equipped with appendages formed of incredibly strong alien metal, similar to Medeia’s sword extension. Some of those additions were shaped like big hammers, others wrecking balls, still others battering rams. Whatever the shape, the formerly cloaked vessels used those add-ons to incredibly deadly effect: they smashed into the upper portions of the different pyramids they had targeted and tore right through, sometimes obliterating the entire area, or else severing it cleanly from the remainder of the ship. The damaged pyramids continued forward, presumably still under power, but unable to fire.

  “That’s another twenty-five down,” Sheila said.

  “It’s not going to be enough,” Cranston said.

  Medeia and the others cloaked as quickly as possible, but some of the pyramids were able to open fire before they all vanished, and several Mind Refurb vessels were disabled as the sparks from the lightning weapons flashed across their hulls. Even some of the cloaked vessels went down: either the Mimics detected their weak thermal emissions as they changed course, or guessed at their positions. As a result, several formerly cloaked vessels faded into view, electricity flashing across their exteriors.

  Medeia’s Arcane wasn’t among either group, thankfully.

  The raptors among the fleet continued to fire at the incoming blobs, eliminating most of them. However, some got through to the main group, and those ships that couldn’t dodge in time were hit. Large portions of their hulls dissolved on impact, and two vessels were disabled entirely.

  Jain’s skin itched as his railguns began to fire. He glanced at his tactical map.

  “Boarding party units are approaching,” Xander said. He looked up in alarm. “They’re not decelerating!”

  “They’re using them as kamikazes,” Sheila commented.

  Though his stingers were firing full-tilt, as usual some enemy units got through to the hull. Jain felt multiple pricks on his skin, similar to the stings of wasps.

  “Got breaches on decks five, seven, eleven, and fourteen,” Xander said.

  “We have intruders?” Jain asked.

  “Negative,” Xander said. “Wait, some enemy units are decelerating.”

  Jain felt a gentler touch on his forearm and thigh.

  “Two pyramids docked in the confusion,” Xander said. “They’re beginning plasma drilling.”

  Jain felt the prick then. It was gentler than a wasp sting, more like a biting ant, but persistent.

  “Get munchkins down there and handle them,” Jain said.

  “You got it,” Xander said.

  No doubt the other members of the team were likewise dealing with their own boarding parties. Jain sent a few quick commands to the Peltast and Warwolf to deal with their own intruders.

  “Main enemy force is closing to eight thousand kilometers,” Xander announced.

  “Things are getting hectic,” Gavin said.

  Hax gave the expected order. “Launch decoys!”

  Jain and the others didn’t have these decoys—there hadn’t been time to construct them. But the rest of the fleet had prepared special reflective balloons attached to thermal emitting frameworks, and they launched these now in rapid succession behind them, hidden from the view of the incoming Mimic fleet. The frameworks were equipped with propellant sources, and quickly assembled, matching the source ships that launched them on the visual and thermal bands.

  “Activate lateral thrust for flanking maneuver!” Hax transmitted.

  Jain and the others activated thrust; the Mind Refurb fleet split in two, with one half moving toward the left of the incoming pyramid, and the other half moving toward the right.

  Jain cut his power output and overlapped with the Peltast and the Warwolf, at least relative to the viewpoint of the enemy, so that the two Direct Reports would shield him from any attacks. He kept the ships spaced six thousand kilometers apart, to prevent the lightning weapon from arcing between them. Other ships similarly arranged themselves throughout the fleet, even those that didn’t have Direct Reports.

  As the Mind Refurb fleet split in half, several of the pyramids continued forward, targeting the decoys—to the enemy, it would look like the fleet was splitting into three units, with the majority, the decoys, remaining in the same location. It might even look like the Mimics were currently outnumbered, depending on how many of the human vessels had decided to overlap during the split.

  Though about a hundred Mimic ships continued forward to the decoys, the pyramids on the two outskirts broke formation, matching the movements of those that were fanning out, using their superior maneuverability and speed to close with them.

  “
Oh, this is going to be interesting,” Sheila said.

  14

  Via the tactical display, Jain watched as the fleet continued to separate into two halves, leaving behind the decoys. Units continued to peel away from the triangular alien formation on either side, drawn toward the Mind Refurb vessels.

  The Void Warriors were part of the leftmost group, labeled Battle Force I on the tactical display. They remained on the outskirts of that group, adjacent to the Hull Burners.

  Sheila was located at the front of the Void Warriors, with Gavin and her Direct Reports just behind. Gavin had his shield drones in front of her vessel, adding his force field to hers, so that when the closest pyramid opened fire at her, the bolt passed through his shield, and hers, hitting her with reduced power. Electricity weakly sparked across the surface near the impact site on her hull before fading.

  “I’m still in the game, so far,” Sheila said. “Though that hit drained my shields entirely.”

  “My drones have to recharge as well,” Gavin said. “Swapping places with my Direct Reports.”

  Gavin and Sheila applied deceleration, allowing two of their Direct Reports to take their places, acting as shields. Those vessels quickly accelerated perpendicular to the movement vector of Battle Force I, maintaining their six thousand kilometer distance from all other ships.

  Another pyramid ship fired. It struck one of Sheila’s Direct Reports. The vessel in question went down; the lightning bolt didn’t arc to any other vessels because of its six thousand kilometer spacing from everything else.

  Jain felt more itches on his skin, and he knew additional boarding party units had attached. He hoped Xander was capable of dealing with them. If not, then Jain would probably simply shut down at some point in the middle of combat, with no idea of what happened.

  A third Mimic fired its lightning weapon, taking down Gavin’s Direct Report.

  “We’re running out of Direct Reports here…” Sheila said.

  “Those three ships can’t fire their lightning weapon again for the next minute,” Jain said. “Xander, every time a Mimic fires its lightning weapon, I want you to mark it on the tactical display, and attach a one minute timer so we know when it can fire again. Update the display with the latest values, based on currently recorded discharges.”

  “Updating,” Xander said.

  “Get ready to switch to an intercept course,” Jain said.

  Even though those ships couldn’t fire, they couldn’t yet close, not while other pyramids behind them were within firing range of their lightning weapons.

  The three pyramids unleashed blobs while waiting for their lightning weapons to recharge, and the team used their raptors to eliminate them. Boarding parties continued to arrive, and Jain’s stingers were working overtime.

  “We’re going to run out of slugs for the railguns, soon,” Xander said.

  “Fire conservatively,” Jain said.

  “I already am,” the Accomp said.

  Several flashes appeared on the external display. On the tactical display, cloaked ships began to reappear, embedded within both sides of the spreading alien formation. They smashed into the pyramids, ripping off the upper portions, and cloaked again. Some of the Mind Refurbs were taken down by the enemy before they could vanish, others were struck after dematerializing.

  The cloaked vessels had cut a momentary gap between the three pyramidal ships in front of the Void Warriors and the rest of the Mimic fleet, clearing the way for an attack.

  “Now,” Jain said. “Intercept course. Cranston, teleport at will.”

  Jain’s nose was rotated toward the closest incoming enemy, and he applied emergency aft thrust.

  Meanwhile, Cranston teleported the Forebode directly in front of that same enemy. The Mimic swerved to the side, having no intention of ramming the Forebode, which would have resulted in its own destruction. Cranston formed a long, jutting spike with his micro machines, and the Mimic flew directly into it, carving a gash into its right side. Cranston lost all of the micro machines involved in the impact, of course, but he had more.

  Jain was rapidly closing with the pyramid, along with the Peltast and the Warwolf. His barracuda had cooled enough to fire once more, so he unleashed several quick shots in rapid succession, forming “donuts:” a central bolt surrounded by a circle of other bolts. The Mimic dodged the first few of those, but because of the dispersion pattern Jain had used, it flew directly into the next wave. The energy bolts dug into the gash Cranston had made, and enlarged it, while at the same time creating more of them.

  The Peltast and the Warwolf fired their missiles; Gavin and his own Direct Reports were with Jain, and they launched the remainder of their missiles into the gash as well. The Mimic couldn’t dodge them all, and the weapons impacted; the vessel shifted slightly and ceased accelerating. Drifting.

  “One down,” Gavin said.

  “Until it repairs,” Jain commented. He was hit by a fresh wave of boarding party units.

  Mark and Sheila closed with another Mimic ship; Mark fired his black hole weapon at the blobs the pyramid unleashed, drawing them away. When he was close, Mark targeted the main Mimic with his black holes, releasing a “donut” dispersion pattern similar to Jain, in waves. The Pyramid dodged the first two, but flew into the third, which struck the ship head-on; it was instantly spaghettified.

  As Mark receded, he swung his nose backward and fired dispersion bolts to eliminate most of the black holes. There were still some out there, but he’d just have to clean them up once the battle was done. Along with the many other black holes that were still active out there.

  Making a mess of the system.

  But that was what combat did to places in general.

  War is never clean.

  Other Mind Refurbs in both forces had broken formation to target Mimics. The Mind Refurbs concentrated on those vessels along the outskirts that had already fired their lightning weapons; such attacks were feasible now that the cloaked vessels had snipped away the Mimics formerly in range behind them.

  Cloaked ships still occasionally winked into and out of existence, slicing into enemy units as they did so. But the Mimics were ruthlessly hunting them down, and their numbers were dwindling. Jain saw Medeia’s indicator flash into being on his tactical display as she momentarily materialized, and was relieved that she was still in the game, but he was worried it wouldn’t be for long: every time five cloaked units materialized, two were destroyed. A forty percent attrition rate.

  Chaos ensued across the battle space: both the Mind Refurb and the Mimic formations dissolved, and any semblance of order evaporated. It was a free-for-all, with each battle group to itself, or sometimes even each ship.

  Jain hoped the sensor add-on remained operational; he could only imagine how much worse the chaos would have become out there if he couldn’t separate friend from foe. Then again, he could always tap into the sensor feed of another Void Warrior or Direct Report if it came to it; it would reduce his bandwidth slightly, lagging communications with the others, but he could dismiss their avatars and revert to voice-only at that point.

  Gavin launched his shockwave weapon, then veered away from three enemy ships that were rapidly bearing down on him. Gaps in the shockwave allowed it to pass over his Direct Reports without disabling them; and since Jain was close to him, Gavin had also created a thin line in the expanding energy sphere to account for Jain’s current trajectory. Unfortunately, that gap restricted Jain to his current course, which would take him directly toward the enemy ships.

  “Sorry about that,” Gavin said, realizing too late what he’d done.

  “Damn it,” Jain said. He ordered the Peltast and Warwolf into his same trajectory, and waited for the shockwave to pass. Then he quickly decelerated, firing his starboard thrusters to get away from the enemy units.

  The shockwave continued expanding and struck the three Mimics; the blast caused portions of their hulls to break away along the edges of each pyramid, but the three ships otherwise c
ontinued toward Jain unimpeded.

  Jain ordered the Peltast to remain behind, physically shielding him and the Warwolf.

  A few moments later, the closest pyramid vessel fired its lightning weapon at the Peltast and it went offline. The Mimic followed up with a blob barrage that broke the ship apart entirely.

  “Sorry about that, Pellie,” Jain muttered.

  The other two nearby Mimics were rapidly closing. They fired blobs almost constantly, forcing Jain to divert his raptors toward staving them off. The charges on Jain’s heavy lasers were low, both starboard and port sides, so he ended up using his barracuda to disperse the closer blobs. The Warwolf was low on laser charge, too, and fired only sporadically. It was covered in boarding party units—its stingers had stopped firing a while ago, as all of its slugs were expended.

  The rest of the Void Warriors, though farther away, were well within raptor range, and they unleashed their heavy lasers at the blobs to help him out.

  Gavin, the closest to Jain, sent both of his remaining Direct Reports forward, separated by six thousand kilometers.

  “Sacrificial lambs…” Sheila said.

  “I appreciate the time you spent building these for me,” Gavin told her.

  The two Mimics took the bait and fired at both Direct Reports. The vessels went offline.

  “All right, let’s take down these three bastards,” Jain said, switching the Talos and Warwolf to an intercept course.

  The blob barrage continued, and he dodged them as best as he was able, while at the same time releasing his raptors—when they had charge—or his barracuda.

  Jain swung his nose toward the lead ship, but before he could fire, Medeia materialized, slicing off the top half of the pyramid.

  She appeared on the virtual bridge in her witch’s outfit. “Well, my cloaking device needs some time to recharge. Guess I’ll be joining y’all for a while.” Her raptors were fresh, and she was able to stave off the latest barrage of blob attacks.