Shadow Space Chronicles 1: The Fallen Race

by Kal Spriggs

“I'm picking up a thermal spike,” Ensign Miller said. “They're bringing their reactors online!”

  Jessi already had both ships bracketed. She and her weapons officer launched the eight missiles before the last word left the Ensign's mouth. Two Pilum missiles lanced out towards the Liberator-class cruiser, while the eight lighter warheads sped toward the destroyer.

  There was a long moment before the two ships noticed the attack. “Their weapons are going hot, I'm picking up active radar from both ships!” Ensign Miller said.

  Jessi saw that her engineer had begun the start-up process aboard the Mongoose. For a moment, their own sensors lost track. Just two minutes until our defense screen comes up... she thought.

  Her sensors cleared to show the missiles on final acquisition. The enemy destroyer had gone into evasive maneuvers and the cruiser began to do the same.

  A moment later, two pinpricks of light signified that both Pilums had detonated. The electromagnetic hash that filled the sensors cleared to show only a spreading cloud of debris. Jessi's eyes went to the sensors that showed the destroyer. It too was enveloped in detonations, and its hulk streamed air as it drifted out a moment later.

  Jessi heard a gasp a moment later, “Ma'am, the doppler, it was a second destroyer!”

  Head snapped around, ready to give the order for evasive maneuvers... but it was too late.

  The second destroyer's volley arrived only seconds behind its emission and struck the Mongoose a full minute before the defense screen could come up.

  There were no survivors.

  ***

  Lucius's alliance gathered in orbit above Faraday. The War Shrike, Peregrine, Gebneyr , and the Rubicon lay in similar orbits. All four ships had taken heavy fire, though Lucius had no doubt the others had managed to avoid his extent of damage.

  “We’ve managed to capture two dreadnoughts.” Admiral Collae said. “I’ve got engines operational on both of them. They’ll need some yard time, but my men will take them to one of my bases.”

  “We captured two dreadnoughts as well,” the Garu leader said. Lucius still didn’t know the man’s name. “Admiral Collae has graciously offered a number of cargo ships he’s acquired in exchange. We will keep the captured cruisers.”

  “I received a message from an Officer Krath stating he surrenders all remaining Chxor forces on the planet.” Lucius nodded, “Now, I think, we need to—”

  “Now, Baron Giovanni, I think we need to discuss the distribution of the Dreyfus Fleet.” Admiral Mannetti said. Her voice had gone sharp. A glance at her showed a look of thinly veiled hate.

  “Excuse me, Lady Kale?” Lucius asked.

  She smiled. “I tolerated your arrogance and the uneven distribution of the wealth before. I could even tolerate the amusing notion that these nomadic vagabonds deserved a share.” Her face was flushed. “What I will not tolerate is the losses my ships have taken, the drastic losses in my fighter squadrons, for your gain. I will not accept a third of the Dreyfus Fleet. Not, at least, when I can have half.”

  “What exactly, do you mean by that?” Lucius asked, his voice cold.

  Admiral Collae shot her a cold look. “What she means, I’m afraid, is that we’re renegotiating.” His craggy face showed nothing, “Though, I think, she spoke sooner than we’d previously discussed.”

  “Baron, Admiral Mannetti’s ships just went active. They’re targeting us.” Anthony Doko’s level voice held a note of tension.

  Lucius didn’t look away from the conference screen. “Both of you, then, are voiding our contract?”

  Admiral Collae nodded to someone off screen. Lucius noted, on his own screen that Collae’s ships, too went active. “It’s nothing personal. I actually thought that this went very well, Baron. It’s just that fifty-fifty is a much better division.”

  “And all of it is better than that?” Lucius asked, eyes going from Mannetti to Collae.

  Neither of them so much as twitched, but Lucius could see both had a plan for the other. “I’ll let you leave, Lucius, and you can keep the cruisers and the dreadnought you’ve captured even. You fought for and earned those.”

  “And Faraday?” Lucius asked. He typed in a command into his chair’s arm.

  “It’s a well-positioned world. We’re just off the axis of the Balor advance. From here I can accomplish much. I think it will make a good base of operations.” Collae smiled.

  “Admiral Collae, I think letting him go might be overly generous.” Mannetti said, “He’s betrayed me once before and he’s certainly shown a determination to return here. Besides, the War Shrike was mine and I want it back.”

  Admiral Collae stared at Lucius, “Perhaps you’re right.”

  Lucius nodded, “I see. I wish that things could be otherwise.” He nodded to Doko, and the War Shrike’s defense screens came active, along with those of the Gebneyr .

  “Surely you don’t want to fight this out?” Collae said. “You won’t cost your crew’s lives for nothing will you?”

  Lucius waited.

  “You know things can get quite painful for those civilians on the planet, don’t you?” Collae said. “A weapons exchange in orbit can have shots hitting planet-side.”

  “Let’s just get this over with.” Admiral Mannetti said. “We’ve got—” She broke off and her mouth hung open as she stared at her screen.

  A new fleet crested the horizon of Faraday. It came around from the far side of the planet. Led by a screen of destroyers and cruisers came a massive superdreadnought. The first, and only, of its class, the Emperor Romulus swept forward menacingly, a massive, black wedge.

  “Attention pirate craft. This is Emperor Romulus IV of the Nova Roma Empire. You have voided our treaty and insulted the honor of our military. You are trespassing on my sovereign territory.” The young man’s voice could sound quite stern when backed by that firepower, Lucius decided. “I offer you this chance to surrender.”

  Admiral Mannetti stared at the screen, totally speechless.

  “To the crew of the traitor to the Empire, Admiral Mannetti, I offer leniency for your crimes should she be apprehended alive and turned over for Imperial Justice.” There was a slight pause.

  Admiral Mannetti looked around rapidly. “Don’t you—” Her transmission cut off.

  “Admiral Collae, what do you have to say about this?” Lucius couldn’t, quite, withhold a smile.

  “It appears you planned to betray us, in turn.” Admiral Collae said, his face as emotionless as a stone bust. “I suppose it’s only foresight that I took my own precautions.”

  “That’s absurd.” Lucius snapped. “I would have split the fleet—”

  “Whatever you say is irrelevant.” A relayed tactical screen replaced Collae’s image. It took Lucius a moment to recognize the Zeta Tau system, and Alpha Seven. He immediately recognized the Forerunner-class destroyer that rested in high orbit above the moon. “I interpolated that your base of operations would have to be a system receiving little traffic, and still retain a place to keep several thousand refugees in relative comfort. Few places manage to meet those requirements.” Admiral Collae’s gruff voice said, “Unfortunately, my men had to destroy the corvette you had on station. They fought valiantly, I’m told.”

  “What is the meaning of this, Admiral?” Lucius said.

  “Simple enough. That destroyer can kill everyone in the base on Alpha Seven. They can finish the job that the PCRA never did. It might even be lauded as a victory.” Admiral Collae's gruff voice cut through the silence of the bridge. “But I’ve no taste for that. My offer is that you withdraw. Leave this planet and the Dreyfus Fleet. I’ll leave your people alive.”

  Lucius let out a sigh, “No deal. You’ve shown you can’t be trusted. I’m not going to let you have an entire planet’s population to use as pawns. I’m not going to let a callous bastard like you have the Dreyfus Fleet. I’ll let you leave, alive, and that’s all you get.”

  “I don’t think you understand the gravity of the situation, Baron.�
�� Collae said. “Perhaps I didn’t make it clear?” On the screen one of the destroyers fired, once. A blossom of gas vented from the hit on the base. “How many people just died, a hundred, a thousand?”

  Lucius shook his head and cut the connection. He broadcast out to all of the ships, “All units who surrender will be treated favorably. I gave Collae a chance to leave, he didn’t take it.”

  They waited almost a full minute, “Collae is trying to reach you, sir.”

  Lucius shook his head. “Open fire.”

  Weapons went hot. The ship thrummed as weapons prepared to fire on the Republic officer’s ships. An instant later, Collae's ships vanished. “They jumped to shadow, sir,” Doko said. “It had to be an emergency jump.”

  Lucius shook his head, looking over at Kandergain. “He had Mistress Blanc plot the course, didn’t he?”

  She nodded, “She’d be able to plot a course in under thirty seconds, she could have transmitted that to the other ships.”

  Lucius sighed, he opened a channel to the Emperor’s flagship, “Well, your Highness, I hope the evacuation went as planned?”

  The younger man nodded, “We left a small caretaker force. Hopefully they got into the deeper bunkers in time.”

  Lucius nodded, but he thought of Lieutenant Jessi Toria and her crew. Only the latest of the ghosts on his conscience. “Can you dispatch some ships to look into it? I don’t think Collae is the vengeful type…”

  “But he’d kill every man woman and child on Faraday or any other world to accomplish his goals.” The Emperor nodded. “I understand, Baron.”

  Lucius nodded. “I believe we'd better get some Marines aboard Mannetti's ships before some enterprising person decides to emulate Admiral Collae. Thank you for your help. Excellent timing, your Highness.

  “Do you think I’d let him be late, brother mine?” Alanis said as she jutted her head into the screen. There was a slight pause, “Let me know as soon as you hear anything about Reese.”

  Lucius nodded. He did not mention the fact he’d specifically told her not to be anywhere near a ship that might be involved in the fight. He had a terrible suspicion that she’d ignore any such orders from him or any other person. He cut the link, “Thank god she hasn’t joined the military, she’d be impossible.”

  Kandergain smiled at him, “I can’t imagine.”

  Lucius shook his head, “She’s too smart for her own good. She’d never follow orders, she’d always be haring off on her own missions, she’d probably have some kind of cult of personality of followers…” He trailed off, then gave her a suspicious glance as the psychic giggled.

  “What?”

  She burst out into full laughter.

  “Lets just get down there and see what kind of mess the Chxor made.”

  ***

  The first shuttles to land on Faraday contained medics and their supplies.

  Lieutenant Lauren Kelly was very, very glad of that.

  Just over five thousand rebels had attacked Flattop Mountain. After the Chxor surrender, less than two thousand remained. She heard of substantially more casualties at Grey Coast.

  She didn’t want to know about civilian casualties in the cities. Some people always took the chaos to heart, and aerial footage still showed riots in progress. She looked over at Mason, who stood cold and silent nearby. “It shouldn’t be like this. We won.”

  He turned dead eyes towards her, “This is a victory. Defeat is worse.” He shook his head and pushed his own dark memories aside. “Was it worth it?”

  “I hope so.”

  ***

  Chapter VIII

  February 15, 2403 Earth Standard Time

  Faraday System

  (status unknown)

  A week of frenzied activity later, Lucius finally set foot on Faraday again. The tiny customs station remained, bullet pocked and windows smashed. The tower of the space port, gutted by fires from the riots, lay empty. The handful of cargo ships left by the Chxor lay abandoned as well.

  The celebration underway had a muted quality. The men and women that survived Chxor occupation possessed a dark attitude. It was as if the Chxor had leached away their ability to experience joy.

  The once-refugees return had not been a thing of welcome. Though the populace hated the conservatives who’d ousted the Contractor, there remained a core of resentment to those who had left. Part of that seemed to be a sense of abandonment, part was simply a sense that the refugees had not suffered to their extent.

  Lucius learned, as evidenced by the riots and collapse of Chxor surrender, that the occupation had destroyed the society of Faraday. Many of the educated and knowledgeable people fled with the refugees. Most of the rest went to the Chxor death camps. The Chxor killed the military, teachers, doctors, judges and police. They hadn’t killed the lawyers. Perhaps they possessed a professional courtesy.

  Lucius met a crowd of self-appointed officials and leaders who’d filled the power vacuum. “How many of them will I have to shoot for corruption or outright treason?” he asked rhetorically.

  “At least three of them were Chxor supporters,” Kandergain said. “Five others spent the whole occupation reporting on their neighbors. Two more of them used the riots and witch-hunts to kill off political opponents. One of them is a child murder-rapist.” She frowned distastefully.

  “There’s two leaders of organized crime, they actually think of themselves as patriots, though and they did help to fight the Chxor. They, by the way, have plenty of evidence on the others in this deputation. I’m sure it is enough for trials and executions.”

  Lucius stared at her for a long moment. “You’re certain of all that?”

  She nodded, “I’m surprised half of them aren’t screaming about their guilt. The worst part about being a psychic is that sometimes you can't shut people's thoughts out... not when they are this worked up.”

  “Point out the two we can use,” Lucius turned to Colonel Proscia. “Take those men into custody, minus the two she points out.”

  “With pleasure, Baron.”

  The Marine Colonel spoke into a hand communicator, and a moment later, a dozen Marines started to move forward.

  Lucius smiled coldly, “The one advantage in putting down riots with Marines is that the law-abiding citizens know to stay down when they start moving forward.”

  “There’s something odd, though.” Kandergain said, “Something about— Get down!” She moved impossibly fast and shoved Lucius to the ground. Something hot and bright cut through the air above him.

  Someone screamed. Shouts and gunfire erupted. Lucius got his head up and saw something blur across his vision. Dark shapes moved rapidly among the humans. A shape collided with a Marine. The Marine screamed and flew backwards twenty or more feet to sprawl out. Another Marine disappeared as a beam of energy cut through him.

  Another blur, that moved too fast to register, intersected two dark blurs. For a moment, Kandergain stood still over two dark alien forms. Then she lurched into motion again.

  Marines fired and one of alien attackers fell to the ground and bled dark blood. Another flew away from Kandergain and smashed into a wall to lie still. Another beam lashed out from the remaining alien, to cut down two more Marines. The return fire wounded the last and Kandergain caught the creature and finished it off.

  Lucius stood. He felt a sense of horrified detachment at the carnage. At least a dozen Marines were down, many of the civilians lay dead as well. Colonel Proscia snapped out commands at the dozens that had swarmed to the sounds of fighting.

  Lucius walked over to stand next to Kandergain where she looked down at the dead alien. A hairless, eyeless, dark purple head surmounted a slender body. It looked vaguely insectoid, though Lucius could not tell if it had some kind of exoskeleton or body armor. “God, that’s ugly. What is it?”

  She looked up, her eyes dark, “This is a Balor drone.”

  The hairless creature looked totally alien in a way that made Lucius want to vomit. A small pistol lay ne
ar its outstretched limb.

  “So this is the enemy?” Lucius asked.

  “This is the enemy.”

  ***

  Lucius and Colonel Proscia spoke quietly, as Kandergain paced nearby. She looked uneasy and Lucius wasn’t sure whether that should make him more worried.

  “My men have established a perimeter, and—”

  Distantly, they heard a scream.

  Around them, the light seemed to dim.

  Lucius let out a startled gasp and noticed his breath fogged. The warm spring day turned suddenly cold. He looked over at Kandergain, who stared across the pavement.

  The ground began to tremble. “What the hell?”

  Lucius fell to his hands and knees, unable to stand against the shaking earth.

  He didn’t see the figure cross the landing strip. Suddenly, it was there, only a dozen meters from Kandergain. The ground continued to rumble.

  Lucius heard screams and shouts from around him. The shaking earth threw everyone to the ground. Everyone except the insectoid figure in glossy gray armor, and Kandergain. The two stood silent and motionless. A gust of wind buffeted Lucius. He saw the wind stir Kandergain’s ponytail, and ruffle her clothes. She didn’t move.

  “What’s happening?” Colonel Proscia shouted.

  An arc of lightning crashed out from the armored figure to Kandergain and bounced back. The roar of thunder deafened Lucius. The wind strengthened and spiraled around Kandergain and the mysterious figure. Shards of broken pavement, bits of trash, and pieces of equipment spun in the hurricane.

  Another arc of lighting crashed out. The noise assaulted Lucius’s ears.

  The ground’s shaking rose to greater heights.

  A boulder-sized square of pavement flew up suddenly and swatted the gray armored figure like a bug.

  The wind died. The earth stilled.

  Lucius stood, hesitantly, to his feet. “What was that?”

  Kandergain turned, for a second, her eyes seemed to glow. The second passed, and she returned to normal. “That was their leader. He decided to try his luck. He failed.” A faint sheen of sweat beaded her forehead. She turned to Colonel Proscia, “I need you and your men. We have to cleanse the Balor infection.”