“Pilot, give the order.”
“With pleasure, Captain.” Pilot Tom Slovensky made the call and the other ships of Task Force 2 slid from behind the largest moon of the third planet.
As soon as the ships cleared the gravity well of the moon, they jumped in unison.
“Whoa! More bogeys entering the fray, Captain. They just jumped in from somewhere.” Hal counted quickly. “There’s more than sixty of them. That brings their number up to about ninety ships. That evens the odds a bit. No matter. We still have superior firepower and shields.” He paused as he checked the sensors. “And here comes the cavalry!”
From behind the fourth planet where they had awaited the pirates’ counterattack, Wave 2, consisting of Squadrons 1 through 4, who had thus far stayed out of the fight, jumped into the area beyond the newly arrived pirate ships, catching them in a pincer move between the ships of Wave 1 and Wave 2.
“Hoo-boy!” Hal exulted. “The pirates are in for it now!”
“Now, Tom,” Captain MimKestral ordered without a trace of strain showing in her voice.
The pilot eased the bulk of The Sword of Sestra out from behind the third moon.
Formerly the passenger liner Thelvian Moonbeam, The Sword of Sestra had undergone a startling transformation. Gone were the zero-gee ballroom, the luxurious dining halls and staterooms, the swimming pool and the sporting arenas. Of all the fun-and-games amenities, only the casinos remained, for the amusement of the pirates.
Filling all that unused space were industrial-sized power generators and a full two dozen shield generators, as well as armories, banks of missile launchers, and arrays of energy weapons not typically seen on any vessel short of a battleship—certainly not on a “police” vessel of the type the Unity had at their disposal. The remaining space was outfitted for storing cargo—“cargo,” in this case, meaning slaves and swag. The Sword of Sestra was equipped to haul a lot of cargo.
As soon as Sword left the moon’s gravity well, the pocket battleship jumped.
“What the hell? Another ship just arrived and she’s a big mother. It’s three times our length and ten times our mass. Holy shit! It’s got some monstrous power readings and a whole lot more missile doors than we do.”
“Damn.” Kalen thought for a moment. “Inform the other ships, in case they haven’t spotted it yet, and do what you can to stay out of its way. Can you keep some pirate ships between us and the big one?”
“I can’t promise anything, but I’ll do my best. Between attacking and dodging, and with all the other ships weaving in and out, I can’t swear Goliath over there won’t get a shot or two in.”
“I understand, Hal. Do what you can. Maybe if the fleet can whittle down the number of smaller vessels, several of us can gang up on Goliath and take her out later.”
“I hope so. It’s gotten a lot tougher to keep track of everything that’s going on at once.”
That was an incredible understatement. With more than two hundred ships engaging one another, tracking the motions of all ships in both fleets was like trying to keep track of all the kernels in a bucket of popcorn popping simultaneously. With hundreds of ships, missiles, mass driver slugs, and assorted energy blasts whizzing by in every direction, accidental hits were inevitable. Some of those hits resulted in the destruction of a ship.
“Goliath’s opened up on Wave two. The ships are scattering. So much for our flanking maneuver.”
Kalen shrugged. “That’s war. Amazingly enough, the enemy doesn’t always do what you expect.”
Hal snorted between shots. “Ain’t that the truth! It would sure make life easier, though. It’s starting to look like we brought a knife to a missile fight.”
Vessels were being destroyed even faster than before. However, the results were no longer as one-sided. With the pocket battleship for backup, the pirates could afford to have several ships gang up on one Unity vessel. The Sword of Sestra could target one Unity ship and send a dozen missiles its way, or a massive pulse of energy from sixteen huge APC cannons, and the Unity ship would go up like a moth flying into a candle. Or it could target half a dozen Unity ships at once, to supplement the pounding the other pirate ships were administering.
As quickly as that, the tide changed. A dozen Unity ships died in the first ten minutes, compared with only eight pirate vessels. In the next ten minutes, fourteen more Unity ships fell victim to the one-two punch of the small, nimble ships and the battleship sitting back and picking off Unity targets one by one. It even held off a charge by eight Unity ships at once.
After thirty minutes, the pirate ships for the first time outnumbered the Unity ships.
“Captain! We have nineteen missiles incoming! I can’t…lose…them all. Nothing’s working. There are too man—”
No ship could withstand the impact of seventeen missile strikes within seconds of one another, not even one with enhanced shielding. Just like that, Senior Captain and Acting-Admiral Tra Mastul and his ship Hurricane Force ceased to exist.
Minutes later, Senior Captain MarLekzol and her ship had even less warning. Eight tremendous jets of antiprotons emanating from The Sword of Sestra sliced Emancipator into nine pieces, each spraying debris in every direction as it tumbled.
“That’s fifty ships down, seventy-some-odd to go.” Tom Slovensky grinned to see the Unity ships being destroyed faster and faster now.
He and The Sword of Sestra had personally accounted for more than twenty kills. “This is like shooting fish in a barrel. A big barrel, maybe. But they’re just as dead.”
“Less talk, more shooting,” Captain MimKestal admonished. Her long antennae vibrated from her agitation.
“Aye, Captain. With pleasure. There’s a nice, big, fat target now.”
“Captain,” Hal relayed, “incoming message from Senior Captain Jesthentar.”
“Put him through to my console.”
“Roger.”
Kalen flipped to the external channel. “This is Jeffries.”
“Captain, this is Jesthentar. With Mastul and MarLekzol gone, I am the senior officer. We cannot continue to take losses like this. Soon we will no longer have the firepower to complete our primary mission. We must take out the pirate fortress while we still can. I am ordering Squadrons 5 and 6 to begin the assault on the fortress, while the other squadrons provide covering fire to keep the pirate ships off your backs. Once you are through, we will follow. Understood?”
“Understood, sir.”
“Good. Senior Captain Wessel will take the lead.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good fortune, Kalen.”
“Thank you, Jes. I think we’ll need it. Good luck to you, too.”
Kalen closed the communication channel. “Hal, inform the rest of the squadron that it’s time. We’re going in. We’re to close ranks with Squadron 5.”
“Roger that.”
Senior Captain Kalen Jeffries closed his eyes for a moment.
Heaven help us.
Hal toggled the intercom to reach Senior Munitions Chief Tremden Vo. “Chief, it’s time to release the hounds. We’ll be needing them in a few minutes.”
“Yes, sir. You will have them.” The Melphim’s deep voice betrayed no hint of fear. That was always a good sign. Fear unchecked was a killer.
“Thanks, Trem. Load the missiles as soon as they’re armed.”
“Will do.”
Hal turned to Kalen. “I have the asteroids targeted. We’ll be ready when we reach the designated coordinates.”
“Very good. Keep me posted.”
“Roger that.”
The seven remaining ships comprising Squadron 6, along with the six left in Squadron 5 had twenty-six tactical nukes between them, two per ship. They were the most powerful warheads that would fit inside a Type-26 missile; however, even in the aggregate they had nowhere near the firepower needed to destroy all the asteroids guarding the pirate fortress. However, destroying the asteroids was not the mission. Although the pirates had left meandering pat
hways through the asteroid shield, those pathways were clearly kill zones for any ship without the proper transponders. The Unity attack force needed another way in.
Thirteen ships bore down on the shield asteroids. The ships took numerous hits from missiles and energy weapons against their energy shields. The ships’ APCs picked off as many missiles as possible, but their mission brooked no deviation from the flight plan. They had to take whatever the pirates dished out.
Three ships sustained heavy damage but all kept going.
At the designated distance, Wessel’s ship launched its nukes. They sped for the gap between two asteroids. Each missile was programmed to detonate at the proper distance from the asteroids and each other, at exactly the right moment.
They exploded, each exerting incredible force against the nearest asteroid. Furthermore, the blasts’ shockwaves were timed to reinforced one another and increase the concussive force tremendously in opposite directions.
The blasts disintegrated meters of solid rock on the facing sides of the asteroids, but that damage was irrelevant. Slowly, ever so slowly, the asteroids began to move away from one another, creating a gap large enough for several ships at a time to slip between. The shockwave from the blasts buffeted the thirteen ships, but their enhanced shielding held, withstanding even the tremendous gamma and X-ray emissions generated by the detonations, and they entered the gap between the asteroids. Their passage triggered a net of gee mines launched at the lead ships from the far sides of the asteroids, where they were shielded from the electromagnetic pulse of the nukes.
Four of the mines snared Apogee, Senior Captain John Wessel’s ship, in beams of directed gravity and held it fast in place as eight missiles targeted it. Apogee’s pilot picked off two of the quems, and two of his squadron picked off three others. But the final three got through, the first two weakening the shield and the third smashing into the hull and damaging both the port and starboard shield generators at the bow. Missiles struck five other ships in the two squadrons, but they managed to intercept most of the quems.
Adventurer received an incoming call. “Captain, call from Apogee.”
“Put it through, Hal.”
“Roger.”
Kalen flipped to the appropriate channel. “Jeffries.”
“Kalen, we’re dead in the water. Our shields generators are fried. We’ll try to get free, but the odds aren’t good. One more strike and we’re dead meat. You’re in charge now. Take the ships through and complete the mission.”
“Forget it, John. We’re not leaving you alone. We’ll fight off the missiles and block the energy weapons with the other ships until you get free.”
“Negative. We don’t know how long the rest of the fleet can hold off the pirates. And if you and the other ships stay here shielding us, you won’t last long either.”
A jolt from a combination of an energy blast and a missile jarred Adventurer, driving home the message.
“That’s a direct order, Kalen. You need every ship you have to try to take out that fortress. You can’t afford to lose any protecting us. Go.”
Kalen swallowed as the awesome weight of responsibility suddenly descended on his shoulders. He knew Wessel was right. The fate of the Merchants’ Unity—and to a large extent the entire sector—rested in his hands. He took a deep breath.
“I understand. Godspeed, sir.”
“You too, Kalen.”
Captain Jeffries closed the communication link. He knew that Wessel would order his ships to close ranks with Squadron 6. “Take us in, Hal.
“Roger tha— Shit. Apogee’s gone. A missile just took them out. It looks like it’s all up to you now, Captain.”
“So far, so good, Tarl. Our secret weapon caught them completely by surprise.” Ishtawahl bared his teeth in a feral grin.
“Yes, the battle is progressing nicely,” Penrod agreed. “Do you want to wager whether they get through?”
Ishtawahl shook his head. “I might have taken that bet earlier, but no longer. I would say it is simply a matter of time until we crush them.”
Beyond the outer shield wall—a sphere composed of hundreds of asteroids loosely arranged three to five layers deep—lay an inner wall consisting of hundreds more. The eight-kilometer band of open vacuum between was a perfect trap, a killing zone. Batteries of missiles and energy weapons opened up on the dozen ships from asteroids both before and behind. The pilots performed heroically, backed up by other crewmembers concentrating on the decoys and other defensive weaponry. Still, two Unity ships died within seconds of reaching the open band. There simply was not enough room to maneuver and avoid the worst of the threats.
“Fire!” Kalen ordered.
“Roger.” At Hal’s thought, the two nuclear-tipped missiles sped toward the gap between two smallish asteroids, using the same tactic as before. And as before they detonated, forcing the two rocks aside, as well as three beyond them, and leaving a gap wide enough for several ships to pass abreast.
Adventurer led the remaining ten ships past the shockwave and through the gap between the asteroids. Again they had to defend against incoming quems and hellish bolts of energy. Solar Flare died next, impaled by a missile directly through the bridge right after firing its nukes to push aside the next set of asteroids.
We probably don’t have enough ships left to reserve any nukes to force an exit on the way out. Our only option is to use the pathways provided by the pirates and hope we can fight our way through. And that’s assuming we can even get out before the nukes obliterate the fortress and us along with it. These next few minutes will probably tell the tale.
This could be it for all of us.
Kalen shrugged off the thought. If I have to die, I can think of worse causes to die for. What we do here today could save thousands—hell, tens of thousands—of innocent people from suffering and death at the hands of these cutthroats.
Let’s get this show on the road.
At last, Adventurer and eight others burst through the far side of the inner shield wall and into the sixteen-kilometer sphere of vacuum enclosed by the shield wall: the sanctum sanctorum of the pirate fortress. The other eight ships had their sixteen nukes armed and ready to fire at the fortress. A solitary asteroid lay dead ahead, with no ships defending it.
Strange.
That’s when Tarl Penrod played his trump card.
“Now, Jern.”
Penrod’s second-in-command tripped the switch that slammed the trap door closed on the Unity fleet. Within milliseconds, the massive gravity generators on the asteroid in the center of the sphere kicked in and connected the 640 gee mines located around the interior of the shield wall together into a huge spider web of gravity fields. Within seconds, all nine ships were immobilized by the force beams. Some got farther than others, but all were equally snared.
“Damn it, we’re stuck just like Apogee! So’s the rest of the fleet.” Hal pounded the console in front of him in frustration.
Kalen was equally frustrated. “That’s it, then. We can’t fire the nukes without them getting stuck, too. If they all detonate while we’re stuck inside this enclosed space, we’re all dead anyway. These shields couldn’t possibly stand up to the force of sixteen nukes.”
“Captain! The Sea of Jestron just fired her nukes!”
“Damn that FerThrenil! Doesn’t he realize—?”
“It looks like the missiles are on partial-thrust, trying to avoid the strands of the web; they’ve passed several so far. Wait. One’s caught, but the other’s still going. If it gets through, it might disrupt the generators in the center and break us loose. C’mon, baby, go, go! Five kilometers away…still going. Three. Two kil— Damn. The second nuke’s caught too, less than two klicks from the asteroid and about six-and-a-half klicks from us.”
“Shit! Even if the proximity sensors don’t set them off, they’re on a timer. We only have a few seconds. Signal all the ships to safe their nukes and redirect maximum power to the shields. Maybe if we’re very lucky we can sur
vive this and get another crack at the bastards.”
“Sir, one of the ships has fired two missiles.” Ishtawahl looked up from the console in surprise. “Sensors detect radiation! They actually resorted to nukes! The gee web caught them well short of the asteroid.”
“Damn those fools!” Penrod grimaced. “They’re going to deprive me of my prizes. Eight captured Unity ships would have made a nice addition to our collection.
“Perhaps the missiles will not detonate. They are nearly two kilometers from the asteroid.”
“Perhaps.”
“One of the ships just fired an APC at the first nuke and destroyed it before it could detonate! Maybe they will destroy the other as wel—”
The second nuke detonated, creating a colossal blast wave that split open the asteroid at the heart of the sphere and destroyed the gravity generators. A split second later, the ships, no longer anchored in place, were dashed backward by the blast, against the asteroids of the inner shield wall at supersonic speed. No shield ever invented could withstand such a blow. The Unity ships might have been gnats flattened by a giant’s hand for all the chance they had.
“Ah well,” Penrod sighed. “It was a thought. Maybe we can salvage something from the wreckage. Perhaps there are survivors we can sell as slaves.”
“Not likely. They had to have taken quite a beating. I would be very surprised if there was anyone still alive.”
“Pity. It would have been fun to see the expressions on their faces when I informed them that all their planning, all their effort, all the deaths, were for nothing. That we knew they were coming and moved Smuggler’s Cove elsewhere weeks ago. All that fighting and they never got within a hundred and sixty kilometers of us.
My Other Car is a Spaceship Page 11
