Ghost of an Empire (Sentinel Series Book 3)

by Richard Flunker

  “Harmoa, give me some good news,” he barked into the mic.

  “Wing Alpha command, damage sustained, but unable to ascertain if this has affected the enemy or not. Incoming wings will continue to hit the target. Bring the wing about sector three, two-five and prepare for a second run.”

  Ragula watched the numbers come onto his screen, and he relayed the plan forward. The entire wing swung up high above the ancient one, getting their first clear view of the emerald planet beneath them. He could barely make out some of the islands down below, a mix of natural browns and artificial metallic colors. Then he saw some of them moving. He squinted and pointed his ship’s scopes towards it, pulling it onto his screen.

  It wasn’t an island, but several ships in low orbit, coming right at them. It was almost a cloud of them, and that’s when he knew.

  “Harmoa, relaying visuals. I have inbound craft from low orbit. Looks like fighters, please confirm.”

  “Wing Alpha command. Confirmed. ID’d as Joyce V unmanned.”

  “Shit,” Ragula barked.

  Drone fighters, short range, generally used for orbital defense. They were launched planet side and controlled by a station on the surface somewhere. If these drones were coming after them, they were going to be in some trouble.

  “Wing Alpha, inbound unknown. Break seventeen and reroute to vector three. Escorts, prepare to engage,” Ragula ordered. “Harmoa command, I need orders. Do we know if inbound are hostile?”

  “Negative Alpha,” the comm officer replied, “unable to contact surface. Please standby.”

  The entire wing spun around and began flying outwards from the planet. As they swung around the ancient one, they watched as the second wing was doing their bombing run. As the torpedoes splashed into the hull of the ship, vanished in a cloud of debris, they flew up and over the black obstacle in the same path his own wing had taken. His entire wing had cleared the horizon of the black vessel when his comms exploded.

  “All wings be advised. We are to believe that incoming drones are under control of enemy. I repeat, inbounds are hostile.”

  Ragula craned his neck back just as the second wing was clearing up and over the ancient one. The drones came flying in like flies over a carcass, firing their short range cannons that lit up the dark of space like a roman candle. Beta wing escorts returned fire, but Ragula could make out several collisions, and his sensors picked up several bombers blinking out of his crew readout.

  “They are targeting the bombers,” someone cried over the comms.

  “Zip the chatter. All escorts, break formation and engage the drones. Bombers, trace up to sector three and prepare for a second run.” Ragula switched comms. “Harmoa, I need something here. Did that second run do anything?”

  “Wing Alpha, still running data on scans.”

  “Harmoa, we need something before we keep sending the bombers through that buzz saw. They won’t survive the drones and were going to pay to defend them. If those torpedoes aren’t doing anything, we need to pull them out.”

  “Please hold Alpha, incoming commands,” the comm officer interrupted.

  Ragula got a little irritated. He tried pulling in targets, but the drones were still a bit too far off to single out. He watched on his scanner as his bombers pulled further out beyond the second wall of debris and began to circle back into formation. Meanwhile, his escort ships sped off into the incoming drones.

  “Alpha, new orders. Scanners have just picked up three new inbound vessels. One carrier and two destroyers, Alliance vessels. All believed to be under enemy control. Sending new flight paths for attack. Engage the ships with your bombers before they reach the Harmoa.”

  Ragula waited as the information popped up on his screen. It was the small carrier Heston and two Alliance destroyers, Charles Migton and Jolie. They were smaller ships, but still very capable.

  “Harmoa, those are manned ships. Is attacking them a good idea?”

  Blowing up enemy drones was one thing, but if they were able to destroy one or more of the Alliance ships, all the deaths on board would be on them, whether they could explain what was happening above their home world or not.

  “Alpha command, the two destroyers are on ramming intercept and still picking up speed. Their people are already dead.”

  “Dammit,” Ragula grumbled, relaying the orders back to his wing. He pulled his ship back, getting a quick look at the reactor power gauge. He still had thirty-five minutes left and he just hoped he had that much time. Beta wing was going to have to deal with the drones on their own. Already they had suffered seventeen losses, all of them bombers.

  A new set of sensor readings came in. Gamma wing was beginning their bombing run and were already taking fire from the drones. Directly behind that run were the incoming Harmoa torpedoes. The capital ship had unleashed its entire allotment of torpedoes. That was nearly three hundred missiles bearing down on the enemy. A salvo like that would easily take out any ship that he knew existed, but something told him the ancient one was going to be just fine.

  They bore down on the two destroyers and the carrier. It was an actual carrier, a smaller vessel than the Dominion counterpart, but actually designed to house and launch fighter craft, unlike their converted hauler. Neither of the three incoming ships were putting up any kind of flak wall or cloud nor were they firing their short range defense guns. Even more odd was the fact the carrier hadn’t launched its vessels.

  “Bombers, target rings on all three vessels. I want the big boys to come in tight and then see if they can get some beams on any reactor vents. Let’s see if we can just put these boys out and make them float,” Ragula ordered, despite what his orders from the Harmoa were.

  The closer they got, the more he expected the three Alliance ships to open fire, but they never did. Several dozen torpedoes flew out towards the three ships, and at the very last moment, close range defense guns opened fire on the torpedoes, knocking a few out, but not before they hit the rings of each ship, knocking them out or off alignment completely. Without the rings, the ships would be unable to fly in any path other than the one they were on now.

  The moment the rings were blown off, all three Alliance ships opened up fire on them.

  “Guess it finally figured out what we were doing,” Ragula shouted, turning his Falcon off upwards.

  The heavy bombers, able to take some forward flak, dove in up against the ships, and their close range beams spat plasma like dragons, directly onto the sides. By hitting the vents and plugging them with molten metal, each ship’s power supply would be greatly diminished. This was noticeable right away as their defense weapons began to fire a little slower.

  Ragula’s falcon came about and he watched as the three ships continued on their flight path. A quick calculation showed that they would completely miss the Harmoa fleet now. Then a bright flash made the Captain close his eyes. For a slight moment, he thought that the Alliance ships had exploded, but instead, it was the Harmoa. The Union ship, like a spear tip, had flown right towards the ancient one and had begun to fire its beam weapon. Shot after shot lit up the dark space above Alioth, a deep purple shaft of energy that spewed out towards the black enemy.

  But the ancient one was just too big. Each beam of energy splashed into it harmlessly, like a needle into a coconut. Sure, damage was done, but was negligible. The problem was the deep layer of salvaged metals the enemy had wrapped around its body, like armor. It was certainly doing the job. To make matter worse, reports were coming in from the Harmoa that the beast was reabsorbing the debris from the attacks back into his armor shell.

  They weren’t going to win this fight. Not like this.

  3127 – Alioth, Harmoa

  The report was frustrating. The ancient one was simply absorbing all the damage it was taking back into hits shell. Like a magnet, all the metal debris simply drifted back into the beast. It was also starting to spin, not allowing the Harmoa to hit it with its beam in the same spot every time, thus healing its own wounds. Ev
en Stargazer had no idea on how to overcome it. The actual physical mass the ancient one had around was just too much, and the only way to get to him would be virtually. The AI had attempted on several occasions to counter-hack the enemy, but had been completely unable to. The interference the ancient one was emitted was foreign, and the AI had been unable to get around it.

  Alpha wing had disabled the three Alliance vessels, but scopes had already picked up a lot of movement from the surface of Alioth. One thing Stargazer had confirmed: the ancient one had begun a large scale takeover of the planet’s electronic systems. Deespa could only imagine what everyone down below them was thinking.

  “Tracking seven ships now, polar side, high orbit. Two cruisers and five corvettes.”

  The new ships blinked into view on the bridge battle space board, a large display that showed everyone involved in the battle. In the middle was the cocoon of the ancient one, and around it were the hundreds of ships locked in combat. Every few moments, another Union bomber blinked out of the board, only to be replaced by a red X. The data was then transferred to a secondary screen which listed casualties. The screen was getting full.

  “Admiral, get the bombers out of there,” Deespa shouted.

  The Admiral nodded, “All wings, bombers pull back. Deploy in sector negative three and prepare to engage incoming Alliance vessels.”

  Deespa watched the giant screen as a plethora of blue dots started to move away from the center of the screen. Tiny counters next to each ship showed a number, positive or negative, that gave its position on a 3d scale. The screen could be rotated to show a true 3d view, but Union military were already well used to the 2d screen and its 3d workaround.

  Watching the wing of fighters and bombers move away from the main battle, Deespa noticed many more red dots begin to appear around the edges of the screen.

  “New inbounds. Sectors twelve, one, three and twenty three. Nineteen Alliance vessels, mostly corvettes and destroyers. Confirmed under enemy control.”

  “Dammit, did they just have to have their whole fleet here?” Deespa heard the Captain grumble from his chair.

  A new klaxon erupted in the chaos on the bridge and a new symbol appeared on every screen.

  “Nuclear launches detected. Nuclear launches detected. Seven, no, nine missiles inbound from the surface. Low yield, ship busters.”

  “Planetary defenses compromised?” the Admiral asked, looking over to the Queen. “Lock on and fire intercepts now.”

  “Thirty Alliance ships on the board now my Queen.”

  Deespa ran over to the Admiral and pointed the ships out on his screen.

  “These are all smaller ships. Not planetary defense skiffs, but the smaller vessels, support ships. Where are the capital ships?” he asked.

  “We won’t be able to destroy all those ships before they get into range?”

  “Coming into range now,” the Admiral pointed out.

  Seven of the destroyers began to fire their long range cannons, super-heated slugs flying at incredible speeds across the horizon. Alpha wing was already among them, knocking out their rings as well, but it was going to take too long. They would never be able to disable them all before the Harmoa took too much damage.

  The sound of impact began to resonate inside the bridge. In the chaos of the battle, a hush came over the bridge as the slugs impacted against the hull.

  If there was one thing that Dominion ships were good for was the relentless attrition of war. They were never the most advanced, but they were always extremely well built, and armored beyond any other navies. The old Dominion arrogance and pride was now their shield. Damage reports began to pour in from the entire port side of the Harmoa, but it was all hull damage, and minimal at that. The pride of the old Dominion, and the spearhead of the new Union, was going to take a lot of punishment before she went down.

  “Captain,” Deespa said.

  He clenched his teeth, then gave the order.

  “Prepare all starboard guns. Fire when ready, wide spread. Go for frontal hits, maybe we can minimize casualties if we can punch in the front.”

  The Harmoa responded with its guns, silent from the inside of the ship, but on the battle space board, long, thin, white lines traced the trajectory of each gun salvo towards the incoming destroyers. Under ordinary situations, those destroyers, smaller and quicker, would already be engaging in evasive maneuvers. Today, they flew straight at the incoming shells. The ancient one was pitting men and women against each other, and watching them destroy themselves.

  Three destroyers were disabled, but one destroyed completely. Several more Alliance ships came into range and added to the incoming attacks. As the Harmoa ate up more shells, slugs and rockets, she continued to fire her beam at the black behemoth above Alioth, without much result. New damage reports began to come in, deeper hull damage and some internal damage now. They wouldn’t be able to survive the attacks if they didn’t react accordingly.

  “Dammit,” Deespa seethed, “Captain, turn her around, get the beam onto those ships.”

  “Eight nuclear missiles intercepted my Queen,” a message came relayed in. Deespa lunged towards the console, and brought up a list of targets.

  “Where is the ninth missile?” she asked. “Get it taken care of immediately.”

  “It’s not headed towards us,” a sensor comm officer pointed out, pulling the section of the battle up. “It’s headed on a separate vector, up and towards the southern pole.”

  “What for?” she asked.

  She looked at the targets, and there was nothing there. Just as she was going to look away, two red dots appeared.

  “Two more Alliance ships.”

  “Scratch that. One Alliance, I think. And something else.”

  Deespa looked back and up at the row of sensor comm officers behind her.

  “My Queen,” the officer started, “sensors aren’t tagging the two ships. They are large, but no working IDs. Getting scopes on them now.”

  As the Harmoa began to slowly turn to bring the brunt of its beam down on the unwilling Alliance ships, Deespa waited for the image of the two new ships.

  “Incoming hail,” the Captain said, pointing down at his console. Deespa looked back at the Captain with a bit of a confused look, then nodded. He accepted the hail.

  “Union ship Harmoa, this is the Alliance Navy vessel Galaxy. I am Admiral Marcus Mueller here to provide any assistance I can, but I have brought a friend who can help much more than I can. Please refrain on firing on my helpless vessels, they will soon be disabled.”

  Deespa reached out and transferred the hail directly to her earpiece.

  “Admiral Mueller,” she started, “This is Queen Magyo, of the Union of Free Worlds. Am I to believe that your ship is not under the influence of our enemy?”

  “We are not, and shortly, neither will our other vessels. It seems that you and I have a very similar defense against this creature we face.”

  Stargazer chipped in. “Deespa, they have an AI on board their ship. Different, but remarkable nonetheless.”

  “My Queen,” the sensor comm officer shouted, “All alliance vessels have stopped firing.”

  “I can only thank you for your timely arrival. Please understand that our presence here in your home system is nothing but a coincidence of war, created by this thing that now besieges your home,” Deespa spoke into her comm.

  “I am well aware of what this creature is. It is not the first time my ship has encountered one like it. It nearly destroyed us last time. It appears though, that it is quite alone though. And, as I mentioned, I brought a friend along.”

  “My Queen?”

  A new image came on the screen. The first was the Galaxy, a truly unique ship. Its head-on profile gave the appearance of an X. But just ahead of it, much closer to them, was something much larger. It was hard to describe, for against any other backdrop than the darkness of space, the image was of a very large brown bird. It even had large wings, which moved slowly through the ‘ai
r’ of space. The skin of this incredible being was like that of a tree, rough, like bark, but fluid and flexible, like human skin. As the scope showed this image, data started to pour in. It was much larger than the Alliance vessel Galaxy, its wingspan nearly two miles wide. Instead of two claws, like an earth bird, it had six limbs that trailed behind like a jellyfish’s strings in water.

  “Admiral,” Deespa exclaimed, “Please explain to me what I am witnessing here.”

  “Queen Magyo,” Admiral Mueller’s voice echoed in her ear. “What you see in your screens is the image of what is called a Vahe. It is the space going vessel of a people called the Gadoni. What you see is an organic space ship, with the capabilities to combat the dark spirit, this enemy that you and I face.”

  This space eagle flew towards the ancient one and landed on it. The large black rock still dwarfed this bird, but the six limbs dug into it and began to worm through the armor it wore. Deespa stood shocked, unable to completely comprehend what was happening. Wherever the limbs dug into the rock, the layers of metal armor came floating off.

  “My Queen,” the Captain related, “We are getting some incredibly high level EMP blasts from that thing.”

  “Deespa. The interference,” Stargazer piped in. “There is a small window. I can get you in now.”

  When she heard the words, she shouted. “DO IT!”

  A wave of darkness flowed over her as Stargazer established a subspace link between her neural node and the most powerful connection he found. The Ancient one. A bright light blinded her, and she was no longer on the Harmoa.

  3127 – Subspace, Elquix

  She’d been here before, but just hadn’t realized it. There was an ethereal feeling to it, like a dream. Only she would know what it was, because, in a different iteration of her life, this was her consciousness. A virtual representation of the biological mind, a digital construct of a human’s internal thoughts.