by Kal Spriggs
The other mines in that formation sensed the passing Chxor dreadnoughts only a few seconds later. Detonations in space did not propagate as well as those in atmosphere. Even so, the massive explosions wreaked terrible damage to the dreadnoughts. The screening cruisers, even out in front, also took damage.
Before the first chain of detonations finished, the Chxor hit the second.
“Orders to the strike force, move out from behind Melcer VII and engage Force Bravo.” Lucius turned his attention to the other Chxor force and ignored the chain of explosions as the Chxor System Commander committed suicide in a very spectacular fashion.
His own force, led by the two battleships, swung out from behind Melcer VII and its dense debris cloud.
Most Chxor, Lucius knew, would be paralyzed by the loss of their commander. Many would hesitate, waiting to see if any orders would be forthcoming. A few, a small few, would realize what was had happened and do their best to take action to salvage a situation.
Unfortunately, it looked the commander of Force Bravo was one of the latter.
“He’s moving towards the repair base.”
***
Forrest Perkins knew an opportunity when he smelled one, and either Boris had actually used a water ration to bathe or the series of massive explosions stank of it.
The explosions had to be massive, they were visible to the human eye, hundreds of thousands of kilometers distant. The pinprick flashes of light signified some kind of battle, at least. The Chxor force out there wasn’t even on their radar anymore, “Someone’s sure as hell getting the shit kicked out of them,” Forrest crowed.
“Da, is probably not Chxor.” Boris cautioned.
“Either way, get on the net, call Chelsea and Bruno, have them get the others, we’re blowing this turkey joint!” Forrest pumped his fists in the air. “Woohoo!”
Boris shook his head then growled into his handmike.
The Chxor used ten of the small, labor-intensive mining ships and they’d planned to use all of them for the break. The ships didn’t have much for engines or anything for FTL. They didn’t have any real weapons, either, just the mining lasers and the tractor beams. They had the handheld cutters for some people and just about everyone except the brand new guys had at least a shank.
Forrest seated himself in the pilot jump seat. “Tell the boys that Bren the Chxor can breathe vacuum.” If nothing else, they’d kill the one Chxor. Cruel bastard deserves it, too, Forrest thought.
He spun the ship away from the hunk of rock they’d mined for the past week. The ship’s fusion drive shoved them forward at a sluggish sixteen kilometers per second per second.. Behind him, his tractor cables drew the rock along with them.
The plan, such as it was, put a lot of hope into surprise of the Chxor and to somehow capture a transport or something.
Boris pointed at the screen, “The Chxor, that new force and the other one, they’re headed for the station. They try to cut us off.”
Forrest cursed, “No, they must realize the attackers are here to free the prisoners. Why else lure most of the ships away for the battle? Those Chxor are going to destroy the base, and kill the prisoners.”
Boris stared at the screen, a fierce scowl on his face. “The human ships won’t reach them before they can fire.” His accent had gone thick with anger.
“We could be alright... if we waited here.” Forrest said, even as he started to alter course to intercept the closest Chxor. “We don’t have to be heroes.”
Boris was too busy on the radio with the other mining ships.
“Buddy, this is when you say ‘nyet, not vorth my life,’ and tell me to turn around.”
“Nyet. I think this might be.” Boris sounded… almost happy.
Forrest looked over at the hairy face with its big broad smile and suddenly scowled, “You’re kidding me right? Four years on this clinker, you don’t smile once. You just mope and say we’re doomed to die. We set on a suicidal course to throw away our best chance of survival, and you’re suddenly mister sunshine?”
The other man gave a shrug, “How many Chxor we kill before today?”
“None,” Forrest growled.
“How many we going to kill today?” Boris asked, as they drew within range of the Chxor ships. He coerced the pitiful radar to give them a firm lock on the large dreadnoughts.
Forrest suddenly smiled as target carats appeared on the nearest dreadnought, “A lot.” He flipped on the ship’s intercom, “Fire up them lasers boys, we’re killing us some Chxor today!” He tweaked the tractors and juggled the ship’s trajectory. He juked the maneuvering thrusters at the same time as he cut the tractor cables and watched as the vessel-sized rock began to drift ahead of them. “Woohoo!”
***
Kral the Chxor stared at his screen, plotting the intercept with the four remaining dreadnoughts and their cruiser screen. The Squadron Commander had just sent a message for them to unite forces, to destroy the shipyard and then turn and fight the human forces.
They were followed the first part of that plan, though the enemy commander had figured things out sooner than planned.
“Squadron Commander,” Technical Officer Frel said, “It appears that the mining ships are attempting to interpose themselves between Force Bravo and the station.”
Kral nodded. To a normal Chxor, that suicidally brave action would be inexplicable. He thought he understood it, at least somewhat, now. “We shall give them, ‘supporting fire,’ I believe is the word. We must stop them from killing the human prisoners. Message to all ships, open fire, primary target is the enemy Ship Commander.”
The three dreadnoughts of Force Trojan opened fire.
***
Lucius watched the battle unfold ahead and bit back a curse. His missiles had plenty of range to the enemy force. The chance that a single missile might impact the repair base kept his force from engaging. He watched, throat swelled in pride as ten small mining ships, obviously crewed by men who’d had enough, moved out of the debris field to interdict the oncoming Chxor.
“Get a message to them, tell them they only need hold a little while. And for God’s sake, tell them Force Trojan is friendly!”
He watched as the first fire left the mining ships. The mining lasers fired from only a couple thousand kilometers, caused minor damage. The Chxor retaliated and fired their massive fusion lasers. One of the light ships vanished and a second spun away to leak air into the void. Lucius hoped those on board had vac-suits. Knowing the Chxor, the prisoners kept as slaves probably didn’t.
“I think they’ll realize that, Baron,” Reese said, as Kral’s force opened fire.
Force Bravo’s screening cruisers lay to the rear of the formation, positioned to interdict fire from Lucius’s force. The massed fire of three dreadnoughts targeted one ship. That dreadnought took hit after hit, before it finally vanished into a haze of debris.
“Plot the course of that debris, make sure it’s not headed straight at the station.” Lucius commanded.
“Should be clear, Baron, the Chxor angled for a firing pass.”
A second dreadnought shuddered suddenly and then the forward end exploded. “What was that?” Lucius said.
“Looked like it hit something.”
***
Forrest crowed as two hundred thousand tons of rock smacked head-on with one of the lead dreadnoughts. “I got me a dreadnought, I got me a—“
The ship lurched, and the engineering console exploded. Alarms blared. Forrest looked over at Boris. “Oh, bummer dude.”
Something hit the mining ship. The whole ship shuddered and a scream of escaping air swirled through the cabin. Forrest flew out of his chair and slammed against the wall. Boris threw himself across the cockpit to wrestle with the heavy manual door where he finally threw it closed.
Forrest stared up through the canopy, “Is that what I think?”
Boris looked up, then looked at the dead lights across his panels. “Da.”
They stared as the af
t end of their ship drifted away.
“Well, shit.” Forrest looked over at Boris. “I think we’re done here. Got a bottle?”
“Da. Two.”
***
With the loss of the second dreadnought and their commander, the squadron split its fire between the mining ships and the ships of Force Trojan. The screening cruisers of Trojan Force stayed in position to deflect that inbound fire. In this case, the standard Chxor formation worked perfectly. Two cruisers received moderate damage.
Both enemy Chxor dreadnoughts got badly mauled. One lost power after only a few minutes more. The other continued to fire right up until it exploded when one or more of its fusion reactors lost containment.
Lucius breathed a sigh of relief, “Contact the cruisers, order them to surrender or be destroyed.” If those ships weren’t already in the midst of mutiny, he figured they would surrender.
He looked up and his eyes ranged to Chxor Force Alpha. All eight dreadnoughts, and ten of the twenty four screening cruisers were gone. The remaining cruisers lay stretched out over thousands of kilometers of space. Some of them leaked atmosphere; others, unharmed, drifted without purpose.
“Launch the Marines to secure the repair base. Have the shuttles begin recovery operations as soon as they’ve dropped the Marines.” Lucius said. “I want every one of those miners saved, every one that survived.”
Only four of the mining ships remained under power. He didn’t know how many people had just died, but he did know he wanted to be able to personally thank the people who had placed themselves between the other prisoners and the Chxor.
***
“We’ve finished loading the personnel transports, and begun salvaging the base. Best guess is around eight hundred thousand prisoners of war. Mostly human, but also some Ghornath, a few thousand Iodans, and even a couple hundred Wrethe,” said Captain Urenski, the commander of the transports they used to evacuate the prisoners. “Colonel Proscia and Brigadier General Morris have handled security, they’ve got teams aboard all my ships. Most of the prisoners are too grateful to be out of Chxor hands to make any problems anyway.”
“How many Chxor captives?” Lucius asked as he turned to Brigadier Morris. He’d offered Colonel Proscia another promotion, but the Marine argued he wanted to retain his battalion. Lucius let him win that battle for now, but soon, he knew, the Colonel might get a promotion from necessity.
“Looks like around seven thousand. We’ve got them secured in the cargo holds of a couple ships, under guard. We… uh, failed to capture the base command staff alive.” The Brigadier looked slightly embarrassed, “Some of the prisoners got to them first.”
Lucius nodded, “Understood. I’m not sure I want to dissuade people from rebelling against the Chxor. I’m also not sure I want a policy of killing the bad ones discouraged.” Lucius shrugged, “Even so, I’d prefer some of them got a trial for their crimes, however apparent their guilt is.”
“Understood, sir.”
“What about the recovery of the miners?” Lucius asked.
“That’s been rough, sir.” Captain Doko spoke, “It’s been pretty gruesome, so far. None of those ships were designed for battle. Most of the people aboard the ones that took damage are dead. We’ve found a handful of survivors off a couple, but… we’re finding a lot of people who could have survived if the Chxor just gave a damn about basic safety.”
Lucius nodded. “How many?”
Captain Doko sighed, “Each of those ships had between eighty and a hundred and twenty crew. Of the six that were destroyed, we’ve picked up thirty survivors. I don’t think we’re going to find any more at this point.”
Lucius winced, “I see.” He let out a ragged sigh. “Were you able to get names of the dead?”
Captain Doko nodded, “The Chxor kept extremely accurate records on these prisoners. I take it, they considered all of them troublemakers. We know exactly who manned what vessels, even if we don’t know what position they held.” He cleared his throat, “We, uh, also recovered the two men who claim they’re responsible for leading the attack on the dreadnoughts. One of them claims he threw the asteroid that destroyed the Chxor dreadnought in a collision.” He coughed slightly, “We found them drunk off home-made alcohol in the cockpit of one of the destroyed mining ships.”
“That’s…” Lucius found himself at a sudden loss of words. “Bring them in, I suppose.”
“Yes, sir, I had them brought on-board already. I understand they’ve had some time to sober up.”
Two Marines escorted the two men in. The lead man’s scarecrow appearance startled Lucius. His gaunt face split in a wide grin and it looked like he did a lot of that. The man who followed looked like he should have had excess weight, his skin hung loosely off his frame. A fierce black beard carpeted most of his face.
Lucius held out a hand, “Gentlemen, you saved a lot of people’s lives today. I want to personally thank you for your efforts, and to tell you that your companions’ sacrifices will not be forgotten.”
The lead man stared at Lucius as if he’d sprouted tentacles. “Aw bloody hell, all this time in a Chxor prison and a fecking Nova Roman’s gotta be the one to rescue us?” He turned to his companion.
“Boris, tell me you still got that second bottle.”
***
CHAPTER XIV
May 2, 2403 Earth Standard Time
Faraday System
United Colonies
“So we’re down to two weeks,” Lucius said.
“Plus or minus,” Kandergain answered from where she sat at his desk. “It really depends on how many ships they put together, where they departed from, and a dozen other factors. And as you know, I’m not omniscient.”
“I think you mentioned something like that before,” Lucius said, as he stepped behind her and kissed the top of her head. He inhaled her scent and felt some of his tension leave him. Seven days after the fight at Melcer, he still had a lot of work to keep on top of. He also had too many new issues to worry about.
“How are things with the Saragossan prisoners?” She asked.
Lucius sighed as she mentioned the most painful problem, “Most of them still remain hostile. There’s a couple, like the one who led those miners on their attack, who seem at least somewhat open to peace.”
“But?”
“But that leaves thirteen thousand, many of them ex-military, who would love to start a war here. We’ve had to keep them secured in a separate processing facility and that hasn’t exactly made them more friendly. We’ve had numerous escape attempts already.” Lucius shrugged, “I’m tempted to ask the Garu to ship them off somewhere in the Republic.”
“Might be your best option,” Kandergain said, with a sigh. “Some bridges can never be repaired.”
“I just wish I could get through to them that we’re trying for a fresh start,” said Lucius.
“Give them passage to a different world, and something to start their new life, that might help,” Kandergain said.
“Yeah.” He rested his hands on her shoulders and began massaging them.
She laughed, “You’re the tense one, shouldn’t I do that?”
“Just touching you relaxes me.” Lucius said. It was true enough.
“Well, in that case—”
The com unit on the table chimed. Lucius bit back a curse. He hesitated before pressing the answer button. Somehow, he knew this would be bad news.
“Yes?”
“Lucius!” Admiral Mund spoke, “Not interrupting, am I?”
Lucius bit his inner lip, “No of course not.”
“Well then, if you can disentangle yourself from Kandergain, we need you and her up here immediately.”
“I am not entangled with Kandergain,” Lucius growled. He heard her chuckle behind him.
She snagged the unit from him, “We didn’t have time, you old goat!” She yelled.
He snagged the phone back, even as he started to prepare, “What’s the crisis this time?”
; He froze at Admiral Mund’s next words, “We just detected a Balor force arriving at the edge of the star system.”
“I’m on my way.”
***
“Any ideas why they’re here two weeks early?” Aboard the Patriot, Lucius and Kandergain stepped into the conference room. Admirals Mund and Dreyfus had a number of links open and both snapped out commands to officers and ships preparing for battle.
“They don’t tell me their plans, Lucius. The two month mark was an estimate. If the Balor feel you’re a real threat, they might have assembled more quickly than we expected. Also, they could have played games with their navigation, cut some time off their transit, though it’s harder with their drives.”
He nodded, then looked to the waiting Admirals. “What’s the weight?” Lucius asked.
“They’re pretty far out,” Admiral Dreyfus hedged.
“How bad is it?” Lucius said, not liking that answer.
“Pretty bad.” Admiral Mund admitted. “They are far out, almost at the system’s Oort cloud. There’s a lot of junk in this system, so that and the range has made our a mass estimate very rough,” he warned, as Lucius stepped forward to the repeater screen.
“Six superdreadnoughts? Thirty capital ships?”
“We think around half of those are carriers.” Admiral Dreyfus said. “They don’t have as high a power signature.”
Lucius closed his eyes, “That’s over a thousand of their fighters. That’s over two thousand two hundred megaton warheads and four thousand sixty megaton warheads, just in their fighters alone!”
“We know.”
He felt Kandergain’s hand on his shoulder, “Focus, Lucius.”
He sighed, “That’s more than we’d expected.” He didn’t have to say it was far more than their most pessimistic plans. “What are they doing, so far?”
“Right now, they’re just waiting.” Admiral Dreyfus said. “Best guess, from looking at the tactical chip you brought back, they’re scanning the system. We know they’re capable of doing inter-system jumps, though they don’t undertake such actions normally due to difficulty with the calculations.”
