The Lost Fleet: Genesis: A Slaver Wars Novel
Page 27
“Hold your fire!” ordered Corporal Metz. “It could be Reesa coming out.”
A figure appeared and stepped through the opening. Brenda felt her breath catch in her throat. It was a man and he was easily eight feet tall. Feeling disappointed, she didn’t see any sign of Reesa.
“It’s an Originator,” said Kelnor in amazement. “Some of them survived!”
The man calmly walked over to where the exploratory team was now gathered. No one spoke; even the Marines appeared to be nervous. The man resembled the Altons in skin color, but his hair was a deep golden blond.
“I’m Tamon, an AI of the race you call the Originators.”
“An AI,” said Kelnor in dawning realization. “Why have you come?”
The AI slowly looked around the assembled group. “A situation has developed that may require your assistance. Reesa Jast told us you would cooperate.”
“Reesa!” echoed Kelnor, his eyes lighting up. “Then she’s alive?”
“Yes, she’s waiting back at one of our Control Centers. Once we arrive there everything will be explained.”
“What’s happening, can you at least tell us that?” asked Brenda not wanting to walk into a completely unknown situation.
“It’s the Simulins,” Tamon replied. “There is a remote possibility the Simulins will gain access to the Shrieel, or Dyson Sphere as you call it. If they do, we may need your Marines to drive them out.”
“Simulins,” said Corporal Metz, gripping his rifle tighter.
“We’ll come,” Brenda said without hesitation. She knew under no circumstances could she allow the Simulins to take control of the Dyson Sphere though she wasn’t certain what her twenty-five Marines could do to stop them.
-
Simulins are at one hundred and ten million kilometers from the Dyson Sphere,” reported Captain Davis. “We’ll be in combat range in four minutes.”
“All ships, standby to fire,” ordered Admiral Tolsen.
He had the Simulins heavily outnumbered. Not only that, he had the WarHawk and seventeen other dreadnoughts, forty-four Federation battleships, one hundred and eighty Alton battleships, one hundred and thirty Alton battlecruisers, plus nearly four hundred support ships. He was fully confident he could destroy the Simulin fleet. However, he was concerned about the ship losses he might suffer and what that might mean if the Shari decided to attack. The Simulin fleet would be no pushover. They would inflict some major losses on his fleet.
On the massive viewscreen, the image shifted to show a number of Federation and Alton ships in battle formation. Race had formed the fleet up into a massive wall fifty ships wide and seven ships high with a depth of two. He intended to hit the Simulin fleet head on and eliminate it as quickly as possible. The battle would be vicious, but it also should be brief.
-
Lower Lord Samarth watched the tactical screen waiting for the Humans and Altons to begin their battle with the Simulins. Only a few moments before he had received a message from the Human admiral warning once more that setting off the explosive charges on the Dyson Sphere could have dire consequences. Samarth hadn’t reported the message to the High Lord.
There was no doubt in his mind that once the battle was over, the Shari could then attack and destroy the weakened Human and Alton fleets. Not only that, Abrade was about to set off the nuclear charges on the Dyson Sphere, which would give them admittance to the inside of the megastructure. Once within they would have access to the technology that had built it. Samarth was already contemplating how to take credit for the strategy, which would lead to the Humans’ and Altons’ destruction as well as Shari access to the Dyson Sphere. He would become a hero and elevated in rank, perhaps even to the Council of High Lords itself.
-
“Optimum weapons range,” called out Captain Davis from his sensor console. Simulin fleet is at ninety-eight million kilometers from the Dyson Sphere.”
“Fire!” ordered Race over his minicomm connecting him to all the ships in the fleet.
“Launching antimatter missiles,” reported Major Daniels. “Particle beams and power beams are firing.”
“All dreadnoughts, launch defense globes,” ordered Race. “Use their ion beams to take down the Simulin energy screens.”
“All fleet units have opened fire,” Commander Arnett reported. “Simulins are responding.”
On the viewscreen, Race saw a Simulin escort cruiser suddenly blow apart as an antimatter missile detonated against its hull, destroying it in a fiery explosion.
Particle beam fire slammed into the bow of a Simulin battlecruiser, shearing off three of its energy beam spires. Power beams tore through the battlecruiser’s energy shield, striking the stern of the vessel and setting off secondary explosions. Moments later, the ship lost all power and was soon riddled by power beams, turning it into a drifting wreck.
The WarHawk shuddered as several Simulin antimatter missiles exploded against the energy shield, severely jarring the ship. The massive viewscreen seemed to flicker and then normalized as the screen returned to full power.
“No damage,” reported Colonel Cowel. “Energy shield is at 98 percent.”
“All batteries, continuous fire,” ordered Race, determined to end this as quickly as possible.
“Vice Admiral Tolsen is launching her fighters,” confirmed Commander Arnett as hundreds of small green icons began to appear on one of the other tactical displays. “Defense globes are being deployed.”
-
In space, the weapons fire between the opposing fleets rapidly intensified. An Alton battleship suddenly blew apart as several Simulin battlecruisers bracketed it with their energy beams. A Federation strikecruiser suddenly found itself powerless as its engine room was destroyed by an energy beam strike. Moments later, a Simulin antimatter missile turned the warship into glowing plasma. On both sides, ships died like moths drawn to a flame as the fleets steadily drew nearer to one another.
-
High Commander Hark Brasht felt growing anger at the organic ships standing between his fleet and the Great Sphere.
“There are eighteen very large vessels in that fleet,” Second Commander Habra reported. “All of them are much more powerful than our own battlecruisers.”
“We must reach the Great Sphere with the command key,” grated out Brasht, his eyes narrowing sharply. “Take command of the fleet; I’ll be going to the sphere in one of our shuttles. Prepare the Conqueror Drone pods; they are to be launched as well.”
Habra looked uncertain. “The pods will take too long to reach the Great Sphere.”
“Irrelevant,” snapped Brasht. “They will serve as decoys. All ships are to launch their shuttles. I want two Conqueror Drones on each shuttle in case we need them on the sphere. If I can activate the intergalactic vortex with the command key, we can summon reinforcements. Once they’re here, we can wipe out all the organic ships in this system and the Great Sphere will be ours. Once we’ve secured this system we can begin the conquest of this galaxy.”
“All must be Simulin,” Habra said devoutly.
“There can only be Simulin,” Brasht responded as he turned and left the Command Center.
-
“Admiral!” called out Captain Davis worriedly. “The Simulins are launching hundreds of small shuttles and what appear to be Conqueror Drone pods. They’re going around our fleet formation.”
“Massie,” Race said over the ship-to-ship minicomm. “We have Simulin small craft coming your way.”
“We see them, Race,” Massie answered unperturbed. “I’m already directing the Talons to intercept.”
The big viewscreen switched to a highly magnified view of a squadron of Talon fighters accelerating toward the Simulin small craft.
Race was feeling growing concern. There was no doubt the command key to gain access to the intergalactic vortexes was on board one of those small ships. The problem was they had no way of telling which one.
-
Above the surface of
the Dyson Sphere, the Shari scientist Abrade nodded in satisfaction as the Simulin fleet crossed the one hundred million kilometer mark. “Set off the first group of charges,” he ordered. “Then the next set after ten seconds. We will continue to fire warheads into the breach every ten seconds until we penetrate to the interior of the sphere or I give the order to stop.”
Abrade was on board a Shari battlecruiser ten thousand kilometers directly above the site on the Dyson Sphere where the first set of specially shaped charges had been set. He was certain once these charges penetrated the outer layer of the hull, the other warheads would be able to finish the job.
“Detonation in five seconds,” the ship’s Lower Lord reported.
Abrade turned his attention to the ship’s main viewscreen focused on the Dyson Sphere.
“Detonation.”
On the surface of the Dyson Sphere, a brilliant flash of light suddenly appeared as ten specially designed nuclear warheads detonated. From an orbiting battlecruiser, ten more specially designed missiles flashed down to the surface, delivering their shaped charges to the target. Then for the next seventy seconds like clockwork more missiles with normal warheads were sent every ten seconds. A massive cloud of unleashed nuclear energy was rising above the surface of the Dyson Sphere.
“Report!” demanded Abrade as he called the missile launch to a halt.
He was anxious to see what effect the explosions were having on the Dyson Sphere and how far they had penetrated. The battlecruiser had special sensors he had personally calibrated capable of seeing through the nuclear energy still broiling on the surface.
“I don’t understand,” said the Lower Lord in confusion. “The sensors are showing no damage to the hull. There has been no penetration.”
“Impossible!” yelled Abrade in disbelief, his eyes shining with anger. “You must be mistaken!” Could this Lower Lord be so incompetent he couldn’t even read the sensors properly?
Even as he spoke, he saw massive hatches begin to slide open on the Dyson Sphere. With a sickening feeling, he realized the Human admiral had been right. The Dyson sphere was preparing to defend itself. There could be no other reason for so many hatches to open simultaneously.
-
From the open hatches, spheres of blue energy launched themselves into space. Each sphere targeted one of the one hundred and eighteen Shari warships in close orbit above the Dyson Sphere. As each sphere struck, the energy shield of the targeted vessel was drained away, and then the sphere latched onto the ship itself. The very molecular structure of the ship began to lose cohesion as the atoms could no longer hold their bonds with one another. This was repeated on all of the Shari vessels in orbit. In less than forty seconds, all the Shari ships and their crews were turned into drifting dust.
-
“Admiral!” yelled Captain Davis with fear in his eyes. “The Shari set off their nuclear charges and the Dyson Sphere has responded.”
Race felt a cold chill run through him. “The Shari vessels, what’s happening to them?”
“They’re gone,” Davis said in a stunned voice. “The Dyson Sphere launched some type of balls of energy, and they obliterated all the Shari vessels. It was over within seconds!”
“Admiral,” called out Captain Travers. “I just received a message from Reesa Jast, she says we have less than two minutes to leave the system or our ships will be destroyed as well. This is some type of automated defensive system controlled by the Dyson Sphere’s core computer. It can’t be stopped! She also said for us never to return.”
“What do we do?” asked Commander Arnett, shifting her gaze to the admiral.
“All ships,” Race said over his ship-to-ship minicomm. “Break off contact with the Simulin fleet and jump immediately to the emergency coordinates. Massie, bring all of your fighters back. Emergency landings!” Any fighter not on board in ninety seconds will have to be left. This order is not debatable.”
“Fighters are being recalled,” Massie replied. “Race, some of them are too far out.”
“I know,” Race said, feeling a cold knot in the pit of his stomach. “It can’t be helped.”
“Preparing to jump,” reported Admiral Stoddard.
“All ships will be jumping within thirty seconds,” added Alton Fleet Admiral Baasil.
“Corvus, how close are you to finishing the evacuation from the battlestations?”
“Last shuttle is coming on board now,” Commander Smart replied. “We’ll be jumping in forty seconds. What about the exploration cutter?”
Race’s face paled. There was no way the cutter could take off in time. “They’ll have to stay.” Race hope the Originator AIs would let them go once all the hostilities were over.
“Should we tell the Shari fleet?” asked Commander Arnett.
Race looked at the tactical display and then shook his head. “No, we warned them not to detonate those nukes, and they did it anyway. Whatever happens to their fleet they deserve.”
“I want the WarHawk to jump last; leave a twenty-second window.”
“Yes, Admiral,” replied Commander Arnett.
-
The seconds passed and the other ships of the fleet began to jump. At the battlecarriers’ location hundreds of fighters were rushing to land. Some were so far out they knew they couldn’t make it back in time. With acceptance of their impending death, they turned upon the Simulins’ small ships with a heightened fury, blowing them out of space by the dozens.
The Alton ships jumped, followed quickly by the rest of the Federation ships. Then the Corvus jumped from the vicinity of the twenty Indomitable Class battlestations. Moments later, the battlecarriers opened spatial vortexes and vanished from the system along with the noncombat ships. Then the battle dreadnought WarHawk opened up its own vortex and flew into it.
-
High Lord Aktill of the Shari sat in his command chair in shock. The nuclear blasts had failed, and the Dyson Sphere had retaliated for the attack upon its surface by destroying the Shari fleet orbiting above it. Not only that, the Humans and the Altons had fled, leaving the Dyson Sphere to the Simulins.
“I don’t understand,” said Lower Lord Samarth, seeing his future plans crumbling before his eyes. At some point in time, the High Lord would learn of the last warning message sent by the Human Admiral. When that occurred, Samarth knew he would face execution.
“The Human admiral was right,” growled Aktill, his eyes filled with anger. “We must attack the Simulin fleet ourselves before they gain control of the Dyson Sphere.”
“High Lord,” spoke up the Shari, who was sitting in front of the sensor console. “We’re detecting numerous hatches opening up all over the Dyson Sphere.”
Aktill felt momentary fear and then he relaxed. They were too far out for any weapon to be able to reach his fleet. No, this must be an attack upon the small Simulin vessels nearing the surface of the megastructure. He noticed with some surprise a number of Human fighter craft were still actively engaged blasting the small Simulin vessels down. It puzzled him as to why they had been left behind.
-
From the Dyson Sphere hundreds of the destructive spheres of energy rose up. Then they accelerated into hyperspace, hurtling at many times the speed of light toward their targets. The battlestations went first as their massive structures came apart and became floating balls of dark dust. Then the spheres of energy struck the Simulin small craft, sweeping through them as if they were nothing more than empty space. Before the Simulin battlecruisers and escort cruisers could attempt to escape, the spheres of deadly energy were upon them. In a matter of a few seconds, the powerful Simulin warships were obliterated.
-
“I don’t like this,” Lower Lord Samarth said as he watched the Simulin ships vanish off the tactical screen.
“Me either,” said High Lord Aktill, turning toward the communications console. “Order Lower Lord Dalold to take his fleet into hyperspace and return to our position. We’ll continue to observe the Dyson Sphere
for a few hours and then determine our next move.”
-
From the open hatches on the Dyson Sphere, more of the blue spheres of energy appeared. As soon as they exited the hatches they vanished as they jumped into hyperspace, only to emerge a few seconds later at Lower Lord Dalold’s fleet. In less than twenty seconds, all two hundred and thirty Shari vessels were annihilated. Only a few clouds of drifting dust indicated where the powerful warships had been.
-
“We need to leave!” Lower Lord Samarth cried out in shock as Dalold’s fleet died. “We may be next!”
Aktill nodded. He now knew the Dyson Sphere was not for the Shari or anyone else. “All ships,” he announced over the ship-to-ship comm, “We must enter hyperspace or risk being destroyed. Rendezvous at star system X-246. Leave as soon as your drives are fully charged.” He now knew why the Humans and the Altons had left in such haste. It also explained why some of their small fighters had been left behind. Somehow, they had been warned about what was going to happen.
“High Lord,” said the sensor operator. “I’m detecting more energy discharges at the Dyson Sphere.”
“What do we do?” called out Samarth in fear.
On one of the viewscreens, Aktill saw a blue ball of energy suddenly appear and surge toward the battlecruiser Glorious Dawn. The energy ball struck the ship’s energy shield, which instantly faded away. Then it latched onto the ship’s hull and seemed to be slowly consuming it. In just a few moments the ship vanished with only gray space dust to mark its passing.
On another viewscreen, other ships were being destroyed in similar fashion. Ship after ship fell victim to the ravenous, destructive energy of the mysterious blue spheres.
Then High Lord Aktill felt his flagship, the Judgment of Dawn, begin to shake violently. The lights flickered and then dimmed. Several consoles exploded in flame. On the damage control board lights were quickly turning red.