Fires of Oblivion

by Anthony James

  The fact wasn’t lost on the others. “They’re going to get us soon,” said McGlashan. “I just registered one missile go by at fifty metres.”

  “We’re hot, we’re launching our own missiles and we’re trailing particles from the Planet Breaker,” said Breeze. “We must stick out like a sore thumb - it’s a wonder we’ve lasted this long.”

  “What to do, what to do?” muttered Duggan under his breath.

  “Pyramid number eight down,” said McGlashan. “One more to go until we can take another shot at the main emplacement.”

  At that moment, disaster struck. There was a thumping roar far to the back of the Crimson. Waves of vibration coursed through the walls and floor. The noise of the engines changed, losing a fraction of the smoothness.

  “Missile strike to the rear,” said Breeze. “Now you can add positrons to everything else we’re leaving behind.”

  “What’s the damage? I need specifics, Lieutenant!”

  “There’s an armour breach and we’ve lost some of our engines, sir. The life support and stealth modules are undamaged.”

  “Three more missiles have come within twenty metres, sir,” said McGlashan.

  “Shit,” said Duggan. The anger built and this time it was difficult to keep it under control. The battleship was faster than the Crimson and could unleash four times the firepower. “But they didn’t bother with the armour.”

  “What’s that, sir?”

  “How far behind is the enemy tracking us?”

  “Less than one thousand klicks now.”

  “Commander McGlashan, get ready to launch everything we’ve got. I want the disruptor first, then everything else.”

  “The last pyramid isn’t in range yet, sir.”

  “It’s not the pyramid we’re aiming for.”

  “Oh.”

  The timing was going to be crucial. In their haste, the enemy had allowed themselves to come too close, buoyed by the protection of their shield and the scent of victory over the much smaller Crimson.

  “Get ready.”

  With that, Duggan wrenched hard on the control sticks. The gravity engines grumbled and the life support modules plundered the ship’s power reserves in order to maintain the stability of the interior. The ESS Crimson decelerated suddenly. Caught unawares, the Dreamer battleship overtook within a second, barrelling past so close it was visible to the naked eye.

  “Fire,” said Duggan. At the same time, he increased their speed in order to match that of the enemy vessel.

  “Disruptor fired. Four nukes away, with two Shatterers and a hundred and fifty Lambdas joining them.”

  “Their shields are gone and engines offline.” said Breeze.

  The dark skies of Tybalt erupted in light. There was too little oxygen for the nuclear warheads to produce anything more than a stunted explosion. They thumped against the battleship’s armour, flooding it with toxic rays and utterly destroying the delicate equipment which generated the protective shield. Lambda and Shatterer missiles plunged into the warship, producing a bloom of white along its five-kilometre length. The warheads inflicted terrible damage, yet Duggan could see that it wouldn’t be enough. He hadn’t underestimated the strength of their armour, it was simply that the ship was so big.

  Without pausing, Duggan put the Crimson into a roll, in order that the port-side clusters could launch. McGlashan didn’t need his instruction and she fired immediately, sending a salvo of ninety-six missiles at the battleship. Whatever technology the Dreamers used to prevent missile targeting, it continued to function and the Lambdas were launched without guidance, relying on AI prediction and luck to find their intended destination.

  “Their engines are coming back,” said Breeze.

  Duggan completed the roll, bringing the starboard clusters to bear again. “Fire more Lambdas, Commander. Use countermeasures immediately.”

  McGlashan fired the shock drones and they accelerated away from hundreds of launch tubes around the hull. The drones glittered and gleamed, sending bursts of static and a maelstrom of nonsense communications in order to confuse inbound missiles.

  “Lambdas not ready, sir.”

  The Lambdas on the Crimson were equipped with the newest rapid-reload facility, which cut the firing interval to eight seconds. Even so, the crew were forced to endure the most agonising two second wait before McGlashan was able to complete the next launch.

  “Done,” she said.

  “We’re too close to the nuclear blasts,” said Breeze. “The hull is absorbing a crap-load of radiation.”

  “I need to be sure we’ve taken the enemy down,” said Duggan.

  “They’re not coming out of that, sir,” said McGlashan.

  The second and third wave of Lambdas had turned the battleship into a five-kilometre length of shattered metal. Nevertheless, it hadn’t broken up in spite of its delicate appearance. Struts and beams with unknown functions spun lazily away from the hull, while plasma fires continued to rage.

  “Give them one last round,” said Duggan, preparing to take the Crimson away.

  “There they go,” said McGlashan. “Another hundred to say goodbye.”

  The enemy battleship wasn’t quite done with them. Somewhere within the remains of the ship, a command was given. Here and there, the few remaining operational missile tubes on the battleship launched their ammunition. The captain of the Dreamer vessel had disabled the missile guidance systems, in order to try and land a lucky hit on the stealth-clad ESS Crimson. The shock drones were useless against unguided projectiles and one of the Dreamer missiles exploded against the side of the Crimson, rocking the ship on its axis. Moments later, a series of Lambda blasts tore the last vestiges of the battleship into countless pieces.

  Duggan grunted when he saw the damage warnings flood onto his screens. He pulled the Crimson high up and away from the defeated enemy vessel, rapidly escaping the sphere of intense gamma radiation.

  “Give me the bad news,” he said.

  “The stealth modules have disengaged. That was a high-payload missile,” said Breeze. “It burned out a chunk of our gravity drive.”

  “What’s the shortfall before we can get the stealth modules online?”

  “The AI is working on it. It predicts we might be able to achieve sixty percent of our maximum sub-light output in two hours, give or take. We’ll have the cloak but we won’t be going anywhere fast while it’s activated.”

  “Any possibility we can scavenge some power from the fission drives?”

  “In time, sir. Add several more hours to the total.”

  “There’s more bad news,” said McGlashan. One look at her face was enough to tell Duggan it really was bad.

  “Tell me.”

  “The Planet Breaker is out of action, sir. Previously it was charging up, now I can’t even access the command menu to check its status.”

  Duggan took a guess at the reason. “Radiation. The Dreamer stuff must be vulnerable to it.”

  Breeze rubbed his hands over his eyes. “I’ll bet you’ve hit the nail on the head.” He growled angrily. “We couldn’t afford to lose it.”

  “No Lieutenant, we could not. The labs might be able to repair it, given time. However, for the moment we are denied the opportunity to use it for the purpose we intended. That does not mean we are about to abandon this mission when there is so much to do.”

  Breeze nodded at the words. “There’s one more pyramid out there and a weapon array to disable.”

  Duggan smiled widely at his crew. “And on the bright side, our enemy fell for the oldest trick in the book, allowing us to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.”

  “If any of them live, they’ll not enjoy filing the report for that one,” said Chainer.

  The moment of levity passed. “Come on, people. Let’s get on with business,” said Duggan.

  “How long until backup gets here?” asked McGlashan.

  “Two hours or more,” said Duggan. “Admiral Teron wasn’t precise, so we’ll have
to wait and see.”

  “Should we wait?” asked McGlashan.

  Duggan gave the matter serious thought. He was close to acquiescing when Chainer dropped a bombshell on them.

  “When we arrived in this system I assigned a few spare cycles from the AI to the task of checking planetary alignments and rotations.”

  It was apparent from Chainer’s voice that he was building up to something which none of them would be happy to hear.

  “Until we found the position of the main array on Tybalt’s surface, I lacked data to complete the task. It’s been a little busy since then, but the report is complete.”

  “What does it show?”

  “They’ll have a clear shot at Atlantis in two hours thirty minutes, sir. After that, there’s only another fifteen minutes until there’ll be a straight, unimpeded line between the weapon and Sinnar.”

  Chainer’s words took the decision out of Duggan’s hands. There was no choice but to try and finish what they’d started and hope that backup would arrive in time to assist in the event that they failed.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  In the few moments it took Commander McGlashan to target and destroy the final pyramid, Duggan spoke to Admiral Teron to apprise him of the situation.

  “Do you think you can take out the Dreamer weapon?” asked Teron.

  “I’m unsure, sir. It’s well-protected against missile attack. We’ve got plenty of ammunition, but not enough to sustain a two-hour bombardment in the hope that something gets through. When our ships arrive, we’ll be able to swamp their countermeasures easily.”

  “I double-checked the Archimedes’ flight logs. Their estimated arrival time is two hours and five minutes. It’ll be more than just the Archimedes, of course.”

  “That gives them less than thirty minutes to get here and assist with the destruction of the emplacement, assuming we are unable to accomplish it ourselves. If they’re late, Atlantis will cease to exist.”

  “You don’t sound hopeful.”

  “I’ll do what I can, sir.”

  “It’ll have to be enough. I’ll have a message sent to the Archimedes telling them to do an immediate lightspeed hop as close to the surface as they can get. They’ll receive the coordinates of the target in the same message, as soon as they exit lightspeed. Admiral Franks commands the Archimedes, but she’ll report to you for the remainder of the mission. It’ll be easier that way.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Keep me informed.”

  With that, Teron was gone. It took a few minutes for Duggan to pilot the Crimson to a position high above the weapon emplacement. He looked at the sensor feed impassively as he tried to figure out the best approach.

  “What if we fired Lambdas first, then nukes?” asked McGlashan. “One of the nuclear warheads might get close enough if we did that.”

  “Could we use the disruptor?” asked Chainer.

  “The disruptor won’t be much use,” said Breeze. “There are four pyramids and a central turret. Assuming the pyramids are generating the energy shield, we can’t use the disruptor often enough to disable them all simultaneously.”

  “We’re reduced to throwing numbers at them and keeping our fingers crossed,” said McGlashan.

  “Let’s give that a try,” said Duggan. “I want the Lambdas first, to reduce the chance they’ll intercept a nuke.”

  They gave it a go. Lambda missiles streaked towards the surface, followed by four of the Crimson’s dwindling supply of nuclear warheads. A handful of the Lambdas escaped the countermeasures and they detonated off the energy shield. All bar one of the nuclear missiles were intercepted. This final one exploded automatically when it reached a hundred kilometres above the surface. The blast itself was muted, but the radiation expanded in a huge sphere. Duggan watched on his tactical display as gamma rays beat down onto the surface.

  “Something’s happening,” said Breeze, his eyes glued to the readouts in front of him.

  “Did we get the shield generators?” asked Duggan.

  Breeze swore. “Their power output stuttered for a second, but it’s steadied. The nukes need to detonate closer to the shield.”

  “We need to go lower,” said Duggan. “What about if we fired from a thousand klicks up? That would reduce their time to intercept our missiles.”

  “As long as we don’t get caught in the blast ourselves.”

  “I’m taking us closer. Prepare to launch from a thousand klicks.”

  The method didn’t go to plan. As soon as the Crimson came within twenty-five thousand kilometres, the Dreamer ground batteries opened up, firing thousands of uranium rounds against the spacecraft’s hull. The slugs punched into the protective layers of armour, prompting Duggan to increase their height quickly. He imagined the spaceship groaning under the stresses of the attack and from the loads on its damaged engines.

  “We’re an easy target without the stealth modules,” said McGlashan.

  “What about if we perform a quick flyover at a low height and launch at the last moment?” said Breeze. “Their batteries won’t see us coming over the horizon until it’s too late.”

  “It’s too risky,” Duggan replied. “We might get our payload away, but they’ll have an easy time shooting at us.”

  “Unless they’re too busy firing at our missiles.”

  “We’ll be caught up in our own nuclear blast,” said Breeze.

  “True.”

  “We’ll be able to use the stealth units in slightly under two hours, not that the Crimson will travel fast with them active,” Breeze added. “Then we can attack without the enemy being able to retaliate effectively.”

  “In that case, we’ll wait for the time being. Once the stealth modules are available, we will be in a much stronger position.”

  “We don’t have many options remaining to us until then,” McGlashan said. “And what if we lack the firepower to overcome the array’s countermeasures?”

  “The Archimedes and Maximilian have the best AIs onboard, which means they’ll arrive at the intended time, give or take a minute. There should be ample time for them to get to the target site,” said Chainer. “I can’t imagine the sixty-four cannons protecting the array will have much success against a hundred nukes and eight hundred Lambdas coming in at once.”

  Duggan didn’t like inaction, especially when it was forced upon him. Nevertheless, he didn’t hate it so much that he would do something reckless in order to avoid having to wait. “The timing will be tight, but we’re going to hold back until our situation has improved,” he said. “If there’s any sign the reinforcements have been delayed we’ll attempt a low-level flyover, with or without the stealth. We might have to sacrifice ourselves for the greater good, folks.”

  “Yeah, that’s what they told me when I signed up for the Space Corps,” said Breeze. “It was somewhere in the small print underneath the bit where it said I’d be a hero.”

  There was no more fuss than that. The crew were not desperate to rush to their own deaths, nor would they shy away from the risks. Duggan increased their altitude once again and kept them at a steady fifty thousand kilometres and slightly to one side of the weapon below. After a few minutes, he got it into his head that the Dreamers might be able to use the main turret to target nearby spacecraft, so he piloted the warship around the planet’s curvature. It meant he was unable see if there were signs of activity from the array, but it was a price worth paying in the circumstances.

  The greatest distraction during the wait was the series of countdown timers which Breeze sent to the bulkhead screen. The left-hand timer showed when the stealth modules would be ready to activate, the middle timer counted the minutes until the Archimedes’ arrival, while the right-hand timer showed how long Atlantis had remaining until it was destroyed. In spite of his best efforts to only look at them infrequently, Duggan found his eyes drifting constantly to the numbers. He considered asking Breeze to take them down, before accepting the weakness was his and that the information was
too valuable to hide.

  Disaster struck when there was a single minute remaining on the stealth timer.

  “Sir, the Dreamer mothership has exited lightspeed. They’ve come in right on top of the array,” said Breeze.

  There was no time for Duggan to appreciate how close they’d come to being killed. If he hadn’t succumbed to his worries about the ground turret being able to shoot the Crimson out of the sky, the mothership would have destroyed them immediately.

  “What are they doing?”

  “I don’t know, sir,” said Breeze. “I only see the fission signature. They must be worried given how close they came in.”

  “They’re hidden from me,” said Chainer. “I don’t recommend you have a peek over the horizon, though.”

  “Why does this always happen?” Duggan growled in frustration.

  “The stealth modules are available for activation,” said Breeze. “There should be just about enough juice remaining to keep us in the air and to travel at a walking pace.”

  There seemed like no point in waiting. “Activate them.”

  As soon as the stealth modules kicked in, the hum of the Crimson’s engines became an intrusive roar. It was the sound of power being stretched to its very limit. Duggan reached for the control bars and attempted to rotate the spaceship. As he’d feared – there was close to zero response.

  “Watch out for incoming,” said Duggan. “We’re not going anywhere fast.”

  “It should improve gradually, sir,” Breeze suggested. “Though I wouldn’t expect to be nimble any time soon.”

  Duggan increased their altitude and took them cautiously towards the Dreamer weapon site. It was a pitifully slow process to reach a position where the ship’s sensors were able to gather a picture of what was happening.

  “They’re not moving,” said Chainer. “They’re completely still, directly over the emplacement.”

  “Are they aware we’re here?”

  “Almost certainly.”

  “They don’t seem interested in coming closer,” said McGlashan.

  “I wonder if they’ve decided against taking risks,” Duggan mused. “This place must be really important to them.” He looked at McGlashan. “Can you access the Planet Breaker?” The question was asked in hope rather than expectation.