Shadow Space Chronicles 1: The Fallen Race

by Kal Spriggs

  “Oh, crap, it’s in Chxor.” He stared at the console.

  “Already ahead of you,” Lauren laughed. “What do you need to know?”

  “I need the sensor repeater, targeting data…” She pointed out the things he required.

  “This won’t work, we need two people trained in weapons systems to handle the main guns. And with how they’ve got it set up, neither of them will be able to operate the air defense systems. We’ll need those up to deal with the Chxor combat shuttles that will come as soon as we open fire.”

  “I can operate ship’s guns,” Mason said. “I just need someone to read Chxor.”

  Both looked over at the smuggler. He was just as dirty and blood spattered as them, but there was a new vitality to his face. Lauren nodded, “I’ll show you. Just show me how to operate the air defenses.”

  He gave a sharp nod.

  The three settled at different consoles. Lauren moved from one to the other, now and again directing individual rebels to push toggles or buttons at various areas around the room.

  “How are we getting targeting data?” Lauren asked.

  Reese smiled from the communications console. “Live feed from the Chxor. They’re forwarding us their positions, for now.”

  “Seems fitting.” Mason said. He looked over at Beeson. “I’m ready here.”

  “Me too.”

  The entire base vibrated slightly as the massive lasers began to fire.

  ***

  “Planetary Governor, one of the planetary defense centers just opened fire.”

  Kleigh peered down at his screens. “What is their target? There can’t be anything in their range.”

  “They’re firing on our own ships.”

  Kleigh jerked his head up, at a loss for words.

  “Dreadnought 05848 reports severe damage, they are evacuating ship. Officer Krath reports that enemy fire has destroyed two cruisers and that he has ordered troops to attack the facility from the ground.”

  “No, order the first assault to be by air. It will be more rapid that way.” Kleigh said instantly. He knew that he must correct his officer in at least one way to show that he was in charge.

  “Tactical Planning Officer Krath respectfully responds that he believes the air defenses will knock out at least half of such an assault.”

  “Casualties are irrelevant, only victory matters.” Kleigh snapped. “Have—”

  “Planetary Governor, Tactical Planning Officer Krath reports that a new warship has begun firing on his forces. He reports it possesses sophisticated stealth systems and their sensors are unable to target it.”

  Kleigh shook his head. He looked first at the retreating human force, then at the ongoing battle near the moon, and lastly at the battle which had erupted at Faraday. “Order the other planetary defense center to open fire on the intruder. Tell Officer Krath that we will return to Faraday as soon as these other humans are crushed.”

  “Sir, the other planetary defense center is not responding to communications. Krath believes that a rebel force has attacked both sites. He—”

  “Cut all further communications from Faraday, we must focus on the task at hand.” Kleigh typed in several notes. First, he would insure that both planetary defense commanders and their officer cadre received demotions. Next, he typed up a request for reinforcement and a detailed list of the failures of his officers that led to the current losses He attached his expectations of the next battle. This one he forwarded immediately to the Sector Commander, his superior at the Melcer system.

  Chxor High Command would act best on the most relevant information.

  ***

  Lucius tightened his restraining straps one last time. His gaze roved the bridge.

  “Thirty seconds fer’ the Chxor comin’ around the gas giant.”

  “Thank you Lieutenant Palmer,” Lucius said. He contemplated the forces he’d mustered. The two squadrons of fighters launched from the War Shrike and the three from his makeshift carrier Success hung in a halo around the gathered warships. They’d rearmed in record time, due to Captain Naevius’s ritual of constant drill.

  Those fighters were joined by another squadron launched from the Gebneyr, and brought the total to thirty six Harassers.

  The fighters of Admiral Mannetti joined his own. The smaller Interceptor-class fighters carried a lighter payload and two lighter guns. She was able to bring more of them for their size, though. The Peregrine carried three squadrons rather than two..

  Admiral Collae’s carrier carried another three squadrons.

  Her two cruisers and the added bulk of the Peregrine herself made up one flank of Lucius’ force. The War Shrike and the Gebneyr made up the other. Admiral Collae and his heavily armed destroyers and the modified cruiser Rubicon lay in the middle.

  “Here they come.”

  The Chxor force crested the horizon of the moon. They finally received solid sensor readings of the force they faced.

  At that moment, every fighter and ship launched their missiles.

  Over two hundred and twenty missiles stabbed out. Most of those came from the halo of fighters. The Gebneyr launched forty from its external racks. Most of the other ships mounted only a couple or more missile tubes.

  The Chxor commander didn’t have time to gain sensor lock on the numerous ships. Lucius wanted it that way. The Chxor might claim to be above emotion, but he knew even they knew panic.

  The Chxor force split, half went to full deceleration in a vain attempt to avoid the battle. The other half continued their course, too stunned to take action. Sporadic fire lashed out at the inbound missiles as all the Chxor ships attempted evasive maneuvers. One of the dreadnoughts, and Lucius had a suspicion it was Kleigh’s, rolled behind the others. That ship couldn’t lend its firepower to support its fellows, only hide behind them.

  Lucius marked that icon, “I want this ship. If it survives, we go after it.”

  The Chxor had almost a minute before impact. Lucius’ ships began to match their course. The two fleets lay separated by twenty thousand kilometers on launch. By the time the missiles began to impact, they had closed to fifteen thousand kilometers, just at the edge of range for the heavier ships.

  The two hundred missiles slammed into the Chxor force. Explosions blossomed and ships died. The screening cruisers did their job, this time, for every one of those lighter ships took two, sometimes three ship-killer missiles that otherwise would have hit a dreadnought.

  Even so, cruisers could only take so much damage. Over a hundred missiles made it through to target the larger dreadnoughts. The six dreadnoughts shuddered in the grasp of that firepower. Two of them vanished, wreathed in nuclear fire. Two more came through as gutted hulks, lifeless irradiated tombs.

  One dreadnought, streamed air and water but still managed sporadic fire at the human forces. The other, relatively untouched, heeled over in an attempt to evade the enemy forces.

  “Close the range. Don’t let them withdraw.” Lucius said. “That one! Target that ship.”

  Admirals Collae and Manetti swarmed over the damaged dreadnought. They fired their lighter weapons into the massive ship from point blank range. Their lighter ships dodged and wove as they closed the distance and fired everything they had. The War Shrike and the Gebneyr closed on the relatively undamaged flagship. The cloud of fighters swarmed around them to strafe the damaged and crippled cruisers that sought to intercept.

  “Target his engines, he’ll try to jump to Shadow,” Lucius snapped. Commander Kleigh had a knack for surviving defeats.

  Fire snapped out. The dreadnought, as if it finally realized that its pursuers would not allow its escape, returned fire. The War Shrike shuddered as it took a grazing hit.

  “We just lost forward hangar rails and missile tubes three and four.”

  The ship thrummed as the EPCs cycled. Explosions and debris marked the effectiveness of Kral and Doko’s fire.

  Lucius spared a moment’s attention to look at the rest of the battle. One of Mann
etti’s cruisers spun, powerless, a shattered wreck ripped lengthwise by fire. A squadron of Naevius’ fighters had strayed into the path of a Chxor broadside. Twelve more bunks would be empty tonight.

  Lucius jerked against the seat restraints. The War Shrike lurched and then heaved again from a second hit. A third and fourth hit signaled they’d received the love of a full battery. “Major hits, Baron. We lost our port fuel tank, the hangar, and environmental in sections—“

  Another hit cut off the list, and the forward bulkhead exploded. A fireball cut through the compartment. Lieutenant Palmer vanished, along with half his department.

  ***

  Planetary Governor Kleigh forgot about his legacy. He forgot about his duty. As his squadron died around him and his ship reeled from impact after impact, everything ceased to have meaning beyond his own survival.

  “Plot us a course, now!” His throat felt raw and he couldn’t seem to get enough air. “Jump as soon as you have a course plotted through shadow space!”

  ***

  The fire died and a vortex of air ripped through the bridge. Pressure doors slammed down. Lucius slammed his visor. “First responders to the bridge. Medic team to the bridge.” He looked over, Doko and Kral still typed in firing orders. Chief Winslow seemingly teleported from his console to the helm and managed to replace the wounded helmsman and put the War Shrike through a dizzying evasive maneuver at the same time.

  When he looked back at his screens, Lucius saw the fleeing dreadnought had finally turned at bay. As he watched, sections of the ship’s defensive screen flickered. A haze of escaped gas and water vapor boiled around the damaged ship.

  One of the engine pods exploded. Another series of hits stippled the flank.

  Half the enemy’s batteries still fired. The War Shrike lurched again at another glancing hit. Lucius tuned out the damage description, “Focus fire on his rear quarter. We’ve weakened him there, time to finish him off.” Later he could think about faces and names, people he’d known who would never have a future.

  Sustained fire finally hit something vital and the dreadnought’s defense screen went down. The Gebneyr swept by, underneath, and raked the larger ship from point-blank. A series of explosions nearly engulfed the smaller ship.

  A squadron of Interceptors swept over the top of the larger ship and fired their light guns. One of the tertiary batteries swatted two of them in return. Atmosphere and hydrogen fuel leaked from the dreadnought. Only one main battery still fired. Kral hammered that one till it too went silent.

  The dreadnought finally lay still.

  The fight ended so suddenly that Lucius looked around in shock. He saw the crew busy at damage controls and that the immediate battle seemed completed. Lucius turned his attention to the battle reports and responded with a voice raw from shouted commands. The Garu secured the remnants of Force Bravo. Mistress Blanc and her stealthy battlecruiser along with the captured planetary defense centers had Faraday secure. The remaining Chxor ships of Charlie were either gutted hulks or wreckage.

  Lucius let out a deep breath. “Message to all elements, commence clean up operations. Rendezvous at Faraday in eight hours.”

  ***

  The hammer-blows on Planetary Governor Kleigh’s flagship had stopped. Sparking electronics and dim emergency lights left most of his bridge in the shadows.

  Kleigh wiped a smear of green Chxor blood off his visor and his hands worked at the straps of his command chair. His previous emotional detachment felt as hollow and empty as all his previous declarations of emotionless rationality.

  Kleigh realized now that Chxor could feel emotion. The hit that had shattered his bridge left him totally unharmed, an untouched center in a whirlwind of destruction.

  Kleigh stared at the empty shattered, airless abattoir around him and felt total terror.

  The indicator lights on his suit began to blink red.

  Two hours later, the Marine boarding party found him, vacuum frozen to his command chair.

  Kleigh had neglected to check his suit seals.

  ***

  Lieutenant Jessi Toria rubbed at tired eyes as she monitored her screen. She loved her ship and crew, but there were times where the long watches grew exhausting.

  In particular, she wished her ship was the one chosen to scout out Faraday. She wanted a chance to prove herself, to test herself.

  She knew that the Mongoose wasn't up to a full engagement with the Chxor. For that matter, it was an elderly corvette, built for raids or scouting, not for full combat with warships. Still, she wanted to make a difference... and to show that her ship could serve as good as any.

  “Ma'am,” Ensign Miller spoke up from the sensor station “Got something on our sensors.”

  Jessi straightened in her chair, “Oh?” She wondered if it were another mining ship to scare off... or maybe another ambitious pirate.

  She gazed at the reading for a moment. “That's... odd.” It looked like a drifting asteroid. But it was hotter than it should be... and it wasn't one of the ones they had already mapped in the system. For that matter, it had come in way off the elliptic plane, it was lucky they noticed it at all.

  “Yeah,” Ensign Miller said. “That's what I thought. So I used one of the sensor platforms to hit it with active radar. The 'asteroid' knocked out the sensor with a missile.”

  “Shit,” Jessi said. “What did you get?”

  “Looks like its a ship, trying to run cold and avoid notice. I'm getting some kind of weird doppler effect, I think it might have some stealth systems but they're not at a hundred percent.

  “Right,” Jessi nodded. “Estimate on class?”

  “Looks like a destroyer,” he shrugged, “When it goes active, we'll know more.”

  She nodded. They didn't have the capability to launch probes themselves, and the enemy ship had tagged their one sensor platform in that area. That left her in a jam, though. The enemy knew they'd been discovered. They continued on their current course despite that, which suggested that they were either very brave or that they had some other kind of backup.

  “I want you to sweep this entire sector,” Jessi said as she highlighted the region. “Passive sensors only.”

  She watched her own tactical screen as the ship coasted closer. Her own vessel mounted only a single spinal laser and eight missiles on external racks. The Baron, thankfully, had authorized her to draw two Pilums, in case something truly nasty came calling. Still, the other six missiles were the light ones they had captured with the ship. They would be marginally effective against a destroyer... but would barely scratch the paint on anything larger or better armored.

  Finally, a second blip appeared on the screen. “Got them, it is cruiser-sized, ma'am.” He paused, “I've plotted their course.”

  Jessi nodded. It was pretty much what she had both expected and feared. Both ships were en route to Alpha Seven. They had gone engines cold and powered most of their systems down, but they could bring them online with a few moments notice.

  Her corvette had no business engaging a cruiser. She was positioned as a tripwire... yet her corvette had been chosen to remain behind because they couldn't mount an ansible on it, the ship was too small and there wasn't enough room. The only way that she could warn the Baron was to go back and tell him.

  At the same time, if she did so, these unknown enemies would have days, possibly weeks, of control over the base. True, they had already moved the refugees as a precaution, and reduced the base to a caretaker staff.

  Still, those people down there needed protection. The base hadn't been sanitized and still held information on their operations, supplies, and other resources that a pirate might utilize.

  Her orders had left her leeway in her response. She knew that no one would second guess her if she withdrew from the system without a shot fired...

  But she also knew that she'd never forgive herself if she abandoned the people down below. “Alright, here's what we're going to do.”

  ***

 
The Mongoose coasted still and silent as the two enemy ships continued their own silent approach. Jessi tapped updated commands on her console even as she made a mental estimation on the enemy course of action.

  She had accelerated her ship below the horizon of the airless moon and made use of the gravity well to bring her ship on line with the enemy vessels. Neither ship had lit off their drives yet, and Jessi wondered if they somehow hoped to sneak into orbit unnoticed.

  Regardless, she wouldn't give them that option.

  Her optics had identified the larger ship as a Liberator-class cruiser, a standard Colonial Republic class. It wasn't uncommon for a Colonial Republic officer to go renegade or for their crew to mutiny and turn pirate, she knew. The ugly, boxy vessel packed far more firepower than Jessi wanted to engage, but she had the advantage with her two missiles... if she got to use them.

  The other destroyer continued to elude her tactical section. She couldn't blame them, plenty of pirates conducted extensive modifications to their ships. They still had the odd, doppler effect, which Jessi had come to agree must be some kind of stealth system.

  “They will reach initiation point in three minutes,” Ensign Miller said softly.

  “Right,” Jessi took a deep breath. In theory, the two ships would have to light off their drives and engines at that point in order to take up an orbit. If they did so, there would be a brief moment when their reactors and drives lit off that their other systems, to include sensors, would operate at reduced efficiency. Most smaller vessels couldn't operate their defense screens for up to a couple of minutes after they brought their reactors online.

  In that window, they would be vulnerable... and that was when Lieutenant Jessi Toria would order her ship to fire.

  As the timer wound down, Jessi had a strange moment of disjunction. Only a year ago, she never would have dreamed that she would be in command of her own warhip... or that she would risk her life for people she had never met.