Resolute Victory (The War for Terra)

by James Prosser

  At the moment the priest reached to press the airlock release, a blast of plasma seared a hole through its chest. The creature looked back at the human with fear in all four eyes. Alice held the priest in her arms as it shuddered and slid to the floor. Alice finally realized the creature did look different from the rest of its kind.

  Rather than the thick neck stalk most Ch’Tauk had, this creature had a long neck and nearly delicate features. With a start, Alice realized it was female. With its last ounce of energy, the creature reached to the airlock release and pressed her dark hand over the control.

  The guard who had fired finally made its way to Alice and raised the rifle to fire again. In a rage, Alice let out a screech of her own and leapt at the centurion. Energized by the fruit and her nearness to safety, Alice became a creature without mercy. She ripped the rifle from the hands of the alien and swung it back against its wide head. The creature fell as she bashed the weapon into its body. Chittering and screeching, the Ch’Tauk fell to the floor on all fours. Alice put the rifle to her shoulder and took aim. As the centurion looked back at her with all four eyes, she pulled the trigger, exploding the creature’s head. Green blood and gray matter sprayed across the heaving deck of the station. In the panic, no one seemed to notice the violence of her escape. Alice turned back to the airlock. She had one chance if the priest had truly been offering her freedom.

  She rushed back to the open door and leapt through. She tried to press the control again to close the door, but her hand was too thick. She tried to remember what the guards did to open and close her cell door. She slid a finger down the control and was rewarded with a hiss of the pneumatic gears. Just before the door closed, she threw the rifle back through. She saw it land on the body of the priest just before the door closed. As she turned to look at the small ship in front of her, she said a pilot’s prayer Lee had taught her for the soul of the priest.

  Lee looked into the eyes of his love. She had endured so much pain, but still had the energy to fight her way to freedom. The story had worn her out though, and he watched as her eyes closed. Her breathing had finally slowed, and now the only sounds were the faint beeps of the sensor readout over her bed. He felt tears on his cheeks again. She was back with him and they loved each other. The rest of the galaxy could go to hell as far as he was concerned.

  “Captain,” Farthing’s voice intruded from the speaker near the wall. “Engineering reports ready for combat.”

  “Lee took a deep breath. He wanted to run. He wanted to fight the creatures who had done this to her. Lee reached his hand to hers and held it for a moment. The memory of her lips on his gave him strength for the decision he needed to make. He withdrew his hand and stepped to the speaker panel.

  “Commander,” Lee said. “Set course for the Ch’Tauk home world.”

  “Aye sir,” Farthing replied with his smooth voice.

  “Alert the crew, Commander,” Lee added. “Battle stations.”

  “Aye, Captain,” Farthing replied. “Can I tell the fire crews to ready a target? Profile, sir?”

  “Tell them…” Lee said, pausing to look back at Alice. “Tell them to target … Alliance vessel Victory, Commander.”

  “Yes sir,” Farthing replied calmly. “Target Victory.”

  “And Farthing,” Lee added. “Anything else that gets in the way. Kill them all if you have to, but we have to get Victory.”

  24

  Peeling away the energy layers that shrouded the ship from view, Resolute exited the blue brown vortex of M-space. The ship was beyond the orbit of the seventh planet in the system and well out of range of most sensor nets. Lee Pearce stared at the dim red star in the distance, knowing it had spawned the race that enslaved Earth. His crew was tense, but ready for battle. The journey had taken an additional forty hours and that time had been spent finishing repairs and strengthening the ship’s systems for whatever they would face. Alice had been released to Lee’s quarters, where she was resting.

  The woman had recovered quickly and begun to eat solid foods again. Doctor Demsiri had repaired some of the liver and kidney damage from malnutrition, but she was still not well enough to resume her duties. She seemed preoccupied with the knowledge she had helped ready the Ch’Tauk for more death. They had not yet shared a bed for fear of her injuries and fragile mental state, but Lee could wait. He wanted to protect her, and if that meant staying nearby but not together, so be it.

  “We have translated back to normal space, Captain,” Farthing announced. “Orders?”

  “Active scan,” Lee ordered. “I want to know where their sensor net is and whether or not Rao is already here.”

  “They’ll see us, sir,” Josh replied, tapping keys into his console.

  “They already know we’re here, Lieutenant,” Lee replied. “If I were them, I would be waiting for the vortex signal and launching ships to intercept by now.”

  “Let’s hope you ain’t one of them, then,” Goldstein replied with a smirk. “Passive scans engaged.”

  The secondary navigation console was empty and lifeless. After the death of her co-pilot, Resolute had become a one man show. The console was burnt out beyond Booth’s ability to repair in space. The parts were needed for more critical systems elsewhere, so Lee had decided to leave it empty. The bridge felt empty without the woman’s pale hair to his right.

  “Get our shields up as soon as possible,” Lee ordered the octopod. “I don’t want them sneaking up on us. We’re on their track now and they have the advantage.”

  “Captain,” the eight legged creature replied. “Have we ever had the advantage?”

  The question was a serious one. The octopod had no real sense of humor. His toneless inflection supplied by the electronic vocoder around his bulbous head made the question sound ominous, though. Lee turned to stare at the creature.

  “We’ve always had the advantage, my friend,” Lee said. “They’ve never known where we were before. Now we’re like a target out here just waiting for them to come get us. If Rao doesn’t show soon, we may have to run for it.”

  A tactical display snapped onto the main projection. Lee called up several sensor angles and tried to find Victory among the planets and cosmic debris. The Ch’Tauk system was remarkable for the absence of an asteroid belt. In most systems, a band of leftover rock and ice orbited the star at roughly the same relative distance as Terra’s Kuiper belt. The Ch’Tauk system, however, seemed to have been swept clean. Lee assumed most materials had either been mined or carried off centuries before. It made the scans much easier. A line drawn in red dashes appeared several thousand kilometers in front of their position. It indicated the edge of the Ch’Tauk sensor web. It didn’t mean they weren’t being followed by passive sensors, but it did mean that they had more time.

  “Anything on long range?” Lee asked. “Incoming vortexes or enemy fighters?”

  “Negative, sir,” Goldstein replied. “I am reading trace weird energy particles, though. I would guess they moved a large fleet out of here not too long ago.”

  “Maybe they sent aid to the monastery planet,” Farthing postulated. “Or maybe they are reinforcing Earth.”

  “Either way, they aren’t here right now, so we can get in closer. Extend the scans and have the Demons mount up. I want to be ready if anything shows up. It’s a big system and he could come out of M-space anywhere.”

  “Jackal reports the squadron is ready and warm,” Farthing announced. “Merlin is reporting that he is hungry.”

  “I need to watch that boy or we’ll be calling him Fluffy again,” Lee replied, recalling the first call sign for the young man. “Alright, people, keep your eyes peeled for anything getting twitchy.”

  Hours passed with no sign of the modified battleship or the enemy fleet. In system, it made no sense for the Ch’Tauk to use M-space conversion. At sub-light, it could take days for them to reach Resolute. Goldstein had formulated a quick-jump plan to catch Victory unaware if they needed to. The maneuver was risky and could cau
se an unplanned jump out of their own galaxy, but Booth had assured them he could hold the ship together and get them there. Lee hoped Rao would come out on their side of the system and make the pursuit easier, but had no illusions about where the former minister would be. They were scanning towards the home world of the enemy because that was where Rao would be.

  “Captain!” Goldstein shouted, breaking the near silence on the bridge. “I’m reading an incoming vortex.”

  Bright red dots opened on his heads-up display as the vortex gathered energy from the surrounding space. The display showed the location of a common Alliance vortex signature near the inner planetary orbits. Lee almost whistled at the audacity of opening the vortex so close to the Ch’Tauk star. Magnetic interference could have disrupted the energies and torn the ship in half. Rao was even more desperate to attack than Lee thought.

  “Josh, can you get us close?” Lee asked his helmsman. “I want to intercept him before the Ch’Tauk know we’re there.”

  “They probably have already scrambled ships, sir,” Goldstein replied. “I’m reading energy surges from the planet. I can get us within a few hundred kilometers, maybe, if the solar currents don’t disrupt the projector.”

  “Set course and engage M-space engines,” Lee ordered. “Farthing, tell the crew to stand ready.”

  Resolute moved quickly through space, gathering magnetic energy from the surrounding area and projecting a vortex. The blue-brown vortex opened and the ship glided in. Goldstein was staring intently at the display on his console and tapping keys wildly. Lee had never tried the maneuver this close to a gravity well and this tight. It seemed they were only in the liquid membrane for moments when the ship began to shudder. Goldstein held his fingers over a red control button as the ship seemed to shear through the blue waves of energy. Lee’s screens blinked out as the energy wake they were projecting overloaded the projection system on his chair. The ship bucked and seemed to corkscrew through space. Lee held tight as he saw another vortex open in front of the ship. They were already at their destination and it couldn’t come quickly enough.

  Fiery coronas of energy surrounded the ship. It took almost a minute for the plasma shield to bleed off into space this time. They hadn’t been in M-space long enough to use up the excess. From the outside, Lee imagined they looked like a burning comet against the Ch’Tauk star. As the corona melted away, Lee could see dark space beyond the screen.

  “Where are we?” Lee called out. “Did we make it?”

  Lee’s screens flickered on as the power relays reset. They had come out of the M-space jump closer to the star than Victory, but near enough they could catch her quick. Systems were turning back on and the crew was readying stations for battle. Lee searched the screen until he found what he was looking for. A small fleet of Ch’Tauk ships was already heading in their direction. Lee could spot smaller ships representing destroyers and frigates, as well as the silhouettes of fighters buzzing around a dreadnought. He estimated only ten minutes before the Ch’Tauk ships would be in firing range and they would be fending off both Rao and the enemy.

  “Open a channel to Victory,” Lee ordered. “I want to talk to them before this gets bad.”

  Farthing tapped keys and brought up a clear frequency. Solar radiation was charging the collectors along the spine of the ship and her power systems were drinking it in. There was a pause as static fed in through the speakers and then a voice crackled in.

  “Alliance vessel Resolute,” the voice said. “Stand down and clear the area. Victory is preparing to end the war. We don’t want you damaged if things go wrong.”

  Lee could feel his jaw open and shut as he heard the words of the communications officer. Victory believed they were actually going to end the war with this insane plan. Rao must have convinced the crew his mission was the only way to win back Earth. He quickly regained control as the vessel in front of them turned directly towards the planet.

  “Victory,” Lee started. “We know what you are planning. We are here to stop you by any means necessary.”

  “Resolute, stand down,” the voice replied. “Why can’t you follow orders, Captain Pearce? We can end the war and take back Earth in one shot. You saw what we did back there. We can end this now.”

  “I’m sure the Ch’Tauk thought the same thing when they invaded Earth six years ago, Victory,” Lee replied. “That didn’t work out for them. Why do you think this won’t make them fight back even harder?”

  Banu Rao’s voice came over the speaker. “There won’t be any of them left to fight. If they try to move to another planet, we will destroy that one too. This will only end with the eradication of their entire species, Captain Pearce. You know this.”

  “This will end when we take back Earth, Banu,” Lee responded, standing up and staring at the screen. “The plan is already underway.”

  “They can’t stop us, Lee,” Rao responded. “Their fleet isn’t strong enough for a counterattack. We will wipe them out like this.”

  A surge of energy from ahead lit up the boards on the octopod’s console. Lee saw a bright flash as a projectile was hurled at the advancing fleet. In less than ten seconds, the kill object slammed into the dreadnought, atomizing the ship and the surrounding fighters. The rest of the fleet was thrown away in the explosion, some bursting as energy bled from the site of the impact. A static burst screamed over the speaker as the explosion ruptured the M-space engines of the dreadnought. Josh rolled Resolute hard to avoid debris careening towards the star at a high percentage of light speed. Resolute’s shields flared with the near impact but held.

  “Are we close enough to fire?” Lee shouted above the din. “Can we shoot her?”

  “Close, Captain,” the octopod replied. “Thirty seconds.”

  “What’s the status on the Ch’Tauk fleet?” Lee asked. “And where the hell is Sweet Liberty?”

  “Sweet Liberty has not yet appeared on our screens, Captain,” the octopod replied. “I have no information on Captain Jakes’ whereabouts. The Ch’Tauk fleet is scattered but two destroyers are rallying and heading in this direction. Intercept in three minutes.”

  Lee’s mind raced as he tried to find a way to save Victory. Rao had gone over the edge and had taken the ship with him. He was going to fire his weapon and destroy the enemy world, and Lee was afraid he could do nothing to stop it. His screens showed the ships closing fast.

  “We are in firing range in three … two … one…”

  “Fire!” Lee ordered. Target engines and power systems. I want those disabled. We can tow them if we have to. Just stop that ship.”

  Streams of plasma fire lanced from the two cannons in Resolute’s nose. Blue haze enveloped the tail of Victory as her shields resisted the energy. Resolute was faster than her sister ship, but the other had reinforced shields. Lee waited with his hands on the arms of the command chair as they pulled alongside the other battleship. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up. Alice was standing there, watching the screen with him. He was so focused on the battle he had not heard her enter the bridge.

  “Alice…” Lee said, turning to take her from the bridge.

  “Lee, I’m fine,” Alice replied, pushing him away. “Command your ship. I’ll be right here.”

  Lee turned back to the screen and watched as the two ships began to trade fire. Victory had sealed many of her gun ports, but still had enough to cause damage to Resolute. Lee felt the shudder of each impact as they drew up near. His crew was bombarding the other ship with all batteries. Rao must have been falling over as the ship was assaulted by Resolute’s guns.

  “Power levels are fluctuating, sir.’ Goldstein said. “She’s recharging on the solar winds. I think she’s getting ready to fire again.”

  “Keep it up. Pull ahead if you have to and get in the way. Stop that ship!”

  A massive impact sent Lee tumbling to the forward console. He looked back to see Alice sitting in the command chair. She must have fallen straight into it during the impact. He turned
to the main screen and saw the cause. The Ch’Tauk fleet had regrouped and was now attacking Resolute directly. Victory was on the other side and had not yet been hit. Rao had used Resolute as a shield as they recharged and turned back to the enemy planet.

  “Aw hell!” Goldstein shouted. “Not again.”

  25

  Earth

  It had taken the signal less than two minutes to circle the globe. First, dozens of survivors had braved the call and responded. In less than two hours, hundreds of stations were reporting increased activity from the Ch’Tauk forces as they zeroed in on the transmission. In less than two days, the Earth had become consumed in battle. When the Ch’Tauk had invaded the first time, they had used surprise and overwhelming numbers to pacify or destroy the population. Now, six years later, they were being made to work for every kilometer of valuable Earth.

  Henry had slept the first six hours after Emma had taken the cloned chip and activated the planet’s remaining transmitters. He had shouted for nearly twenty minutes before the first barrage struck the hidden installation. He had raced down on shaky legs to the depot where the skimmers were kept. Colonel Sadler had mobilized the entire population of the mountain fortress to man the retired tanks. Those who could not ride or shoot were taken to the lowest levels to wait. The rest were assigned duties, and prepared to move out. Henry was instantly promoted to field commander and given a heavily armored command skimmer.

  The first two tanks were blasted from the mountain before they crossed the threshold of the big door. The Ch’Tauk had found the entrances and stationed fighter craft around them. Henry ordered the next skimmers to use their cannons to clear the wreckage and move on. They exited four abreast with cannons aimed upwards and firing. The two Ch’Tauk fighters nearest were caught in a hail of projectile explosions and plummeted from the sky. The remaining two ships covering the exit rounded the mountain and were blasted away from the next line of tanks. For nearly an hour, tanks and command vehicles streamed from the mountain. Henry issued orders the whole time, seated on a revolving chair surrounded by screens and scanners. Emma minded the on-board weapons systems which defended the vehicle. Time was lost in travel over the mountainous terrain and constant explosions.