by Ivan Kal
“Fire.”
***
The Erebus dropped its stealth and fired upon the Erasi cruiser. Ion beams struck their shields and revealed its matrix. Proton beams rained down and three s-missiles slammed into their shields. The onslaught was targeted at the same area of the ship in hope of breaking through the shields and inflicting catastrophic damage. The Erasi shields struggled, and as they were momentarily overwhelmed, a hole appeared in the shield matrix.
The Erebus immediately took advantage, firing its main weapons. Proton cannons lit up and opened fire, beams struck the hull, and crackling arcs of energy jumped from the impact point to scorch the surrounding hull. Four s-missiles left the launch tubes and skimmed to their target, exploding directly against the hull. The Erasi cruiser rolled, removing the areas that were no longer shielded from their cone of fire and preventing the Erebus from firing through the opening they had made.
Then the Erasi cruiser returned fire.
***
Quas watched as the Erasi cruiser rolled away. The damage that the Erebus inflicted was not enough to cripple the ship, but they had at least inflicted the first blow. The Erasi cruiser’s hull was made out of compressed matter, so it would take a lot more for them to get through—but the area that they had hit did show some cracks and small craters.
The Erebus kept firing, using its ion and proton weapons to attempt and break through the shields. But with the cruiser now rolling, it was that much harder. They were keeping their unshielded area away from the Erebus, and were most certainly working on repairing the shield emitters in that region. Quas need to end this fight quickly—a prolonged battle would favor the Erasi.
The Erebus was not meant to be a ship of the line, and its weapons reflected that. Its most powerful weapon system was its six proton cannons. While it had a small amount of s-missiles, only twenty four, almost half of them were already gone, and their only other offensive weapons were the ion cannons.
“Status on the cyber-warfare attacks?” Quas asked.
“We have a tentative connection. It will take time for us to gain access to anything important if we want to remain undetected,” Hassal reported.
Quas debated an attempt to smash through the Erasi firewalls. No—they most certainly have backup systems and other tactics in place to battle such attacks, he mused. They would gain little. They needed to get in without the Erasi knowing.
The Erasi cruiser opened fire, its own ion beams slashing against the Erebus’s shields.
“Shield integrity down to forty percent in sector A-13.”
Quas winced. The Erasi weapons were powerful, and the Ship Master knew that the shields wouldn’t hold against that much fire for long.
“Roll the ship, and keep firing. Get us above them and try to position a shot against their unshielded hull.”
The Erebus’s shields were shining bright around the ship as they barely held against the Erasi attack. Then a sequenced attack managed to overload the emitters, and a part of their shield collapsed. The Erasi immediately fired and particle beams cut in to the nano-hull. Six s-missiles left the cruiser but only two found their target, the other four arriving just as the Erebus had rolled enough to bring a shielded area in position. Quas rocked in his chair as the ship shook.
“We lost six percent of volume, Ship Master.”
“Rearrange the nanites, integrate the hull,” Quas ordered. He grimaced at the amount of nanites that the ship had lost. Unlike the traditional solid-hull ships, the Erebus’s solid core was surrounded by a sea of nanites. The nanites could bond with each other to create solid surfaces, but they were not as tough as the compressed matter hull. But they did have an advantage—as long as there was enough of them, undamaged nanites could just flow into the damaged areas of the hull and reintegrate.
Thankfully the Erasi weapons hadn’t penetrated deep enough to hit the core, and within seconds the hull had been rearranged and was as smooth as it had been before. The shields blossomed above the previously damaged area as new emitters were formed by the nanites. The Erebus was whole, although six percent smaller in volume.
***
The Erasi cruiser and the Empire’s nano-ship danced around each other. Beams firing from both ships filled the space between them. Then the Erasi cruiser’s largest cannon rose up from its hull and swiveled to target the Erebus. In the breadth of a moment, the entirety of the cruiser’s weapons targeted the same spot. Two s-missiles hammered into the shields; six particle and four ion cannons aligned and fired. The Erebus’s shields were overwhelmed and the entire front section of the shields disappeared. Particle beams ate into the nano-hull, burning nanites by the millions.
Then the cruiser’s main weapons fired: a harsh beam of yellow light instantly appeared, seemingly as if it had always been there, punching right through the Erebus. A mere moment later, it was gone—but the gaping hole through the Empire’s ship remained.
***
The force of the attack nearly dropped Quas from his chair. The lights dimmed and for a few seconds his mind and implant were fuzzy as the control system attempted to fight the sudden power surge and not incinerate the minds of its users.
“Was that—”
Hassal answered before Quas could finish the question. “Molecular disintegration weapon.”
Quas knew that the Erasi had advanced far, but to see it firsthand was another thing entirely. The MD weapon was one of the most powerful technologies that the Empire had learned from the Enduring. In fact those were the Enduring’s only weapons: a beam of faster-than-light energy that dissolved any matter it came in contact with. It was also the weapon that the Empire’s Star-Guard stations used.
“Damage report?”
“We lost thirteen percent of volume, and the shot went clean through the nanites. The power surge was from the intensity—it didn’t hit the core of the ship. Several of our minor systems have suffered energy surges. If it had been just a few meters to the left…”
He glanced at the sensor readings, seeing that the weapon’s power level was nowhere near the output of a Star-Guard station, nor even one of the Empire’s heavy cruisers. The size of the beam was small as well, but it didn’t really matter. It was a weapon that the Erebus couldn’t match. It was more than enough to destroy the Erebus—all they needed was one good shot that pierced the core of the ship.
With the interface again running at full capacity, Quas had time to think. The interface allowed for a kind of time dilation; his mind processed things faster and he and his crew could speak entire conversations in a span of a couple of seconds. He knew the capacity of the MD weapons that the Empire had, so he knew that the Erasi would most likely need to recharge it. That gave them some time.
“Were are we with the infiltration of their systems?”
“I have access to the sensors; still working on weapons and drives,” Hassal answered.
“ETA?”
“Several minutes at least.”
Quas knew that they didn’t have that long. Once the cruiser’s MD cannon recharged, they would lose, if they even survived until then. Already the cruiser’s superior firepower was close to overwhelming more of their shields.
“Reintegrate the hull as best as possible. Cut power to all our weapons, and I want full control of their sensors,” Quas ordered.
“That won’t last long. They will figure out that something is wrong.”
“We won’t need long. I need you to show them a shadow image of us spinning in space damaged by their attack. As soon as you do it I want us in stealth and under full thrust,” Quas ordered, a plan forming in his mind. They would have only one chance at this.
***
Invading and gaining control of an alien computer system had once been thought hard, but then people had realized that the basics of every computer system was almost always the same. And with so many races in space, it was only a matter of time before someone developed an adaptive system that could converse between different systems. It was ironic,
then, that it was the Erasi who had built the first one. The Empire took their system and improved upon it, and then eventually weaponized it.
The worm that the Erebus planted in the Erasi systems slowly weaved through their firewalls as the battle raged. It was a slow process, but it did manage to get to the cruiser’s sensor systems, which weren’t as heavily protected as some of the vessel’s other systems. Once the command from the Erebus came, the worm woke up and took complete control of the system. If the cruiser’s crew hadn’t been so engrossed in the battle, they might’ve noticed the moment it took over.
The worm showed the crew what it wanted them to see, which was a damaged ship rolling slowly with a gaping hole in its side. The Erasi cruiser fired several more times with its particle beams, making more holes in the ship. If the crew had paid more attention they might’ve noticed that their secondary passive sensors showed their shots passing clear through empty space. Unfortunately for them, they never did.
Another order went out to the worm embedded into the pirate base. Their systems were less advanced, and easily controlled. And under the guidance of the Erebus, the weapons on the surface of the base swiveled to target the Erasi cruiser.
***
With a burst of speed, the Erebus moved, angling on a course that brought them below the Erasi cruiser and within point-blank range of the area where the cruiser’s shields were weaker: the same area where they had attacked in the beginning. The Erasi weapons were firing at empty space, at the area where the Erebus had been previously. Then they stopped and slowly moved closer to the where they thought the Erebus was.
Quas knew that they didn’t have much time. Soon the cruiser’s crew would notice that something was wrong. With a thought, he gave the order for the Erebus to fire.
All of the ship’s four ion cannons opened fire, followed by the six proton cannons. Their fire struck at the exact same spot that they had targeted with their opening shot. The now weakened shields collapsed, and the weapons fire started biting into the cruiser’s hull. The pirate base’s less powerful plasma weapons fired as well, their strength increased by the amount of the turrets.
Quas ordered all of their remaining s-missiles fired, and watched as they rained onto the Erasi warship. The cruiser was bathed in fire from two sides, and soon Quas noticed the shields drop on the other side due to the heavy fire from the pirate base. Explosions broke through the cruiser’s hull from the inside as the Erebus’s fire punched through the tough hull and damaged the systems inside.
The cruiser’s crew must’ve realized that their sensors were showing them false data, and within seconds their weapons found the true location of the Erebus. Nevertheless, the damage already inflicted was too extensive, and soon the cruiser’s weapons grew silent and their shields dropped. The Erebus and the pirate base’s turrets kept firing, pounding the cruiser to pieces.
Chapter Twenty
Pirate base
Ryaana stood behind one of the platoon’s techs as he worked on the base’s computers. They had taken full control of the base, with most of the pirates killed and a few taken prisoner. As they had started going through the computers and the hangars filled with various goods, it quickly became apparent that the Erasi were fully behind both the pirates and the liberation force.
They found crates filled with weapons, explosives, and spying devices. Laboratories that worked on developing poisons that would be undetectable, and many more vile things. The good news was that as far as they were able to find out, this base was from where their leadership had planned their attacks.
Most of them had been killed, but a few of the liberation force’s higher ranking officers had been captured. They would be transported back to Sol for interrogation and eventual imprisonment. The problem she now had was the information they had recovered from the pirate’s computers.
The Erasi had been planning something big. The pirates and the liberation force had been instructed to begin a large-scale operation across the occupied zone and several of the Empire’s Clans in five months’ time.
The targets for the liberation force included politicians, colony leaders and even a few Fleet commanders. The pirates were supposed to sow as much unrest in the occupied zone as possible, attacking civilian merchant vessels. The pirate’s ships were fairly lacking, so their only targets could be the merchant vessels that operated in the occupied zone. If they had tried to move into the Clans, they would’ve encountered the CDF ships, which were far more formidable.
But while the occupied zone had been integrated greatly since the Empire and the Shara Daim took over, there were a lot of races living there, and uplifting them all with advanced technology hadn’t been easy. Their merchant fleets still used outdated ships compared to those within the Empire. Perfect targets for the pirates.
The pirate attacks would’ve harmed the precarious balance of the sector. It had taken the alliance a lot of time to get the sector under control, as there were many that resented the fact that the Erasi had been forced out. The alliance was seen as the aggressor.
And the fact that the Erasi had given a timetable meant that something was going to happen. Another incursion by their forces was most likely, which meant that she needed to get this information back as soon as possible.
She ordered her people to copy as much of the data as possible and to plant explosives to destroy the base. She was not about to leave her people here to wait until some pirates came back, nor was she about to leave the base for them.
They were going back to Sol.
***
Jacob approached Vas. The man was standing in a corner, leaning against the wall with his helmet removed, observing the soldiers as they moved about. The Erebus was en route back to Sol, but it would take them almost a week to get there.
“Did you get what you came here for?” Jacob asked.
Vas turned to look at him, his expression unreadable. “I think that I have, yes.”
“Revenge isn’t always what one hopes it to be,” Jacob said as he turned to look at the dead.
He didn’t mourn for them; they had killed innocents for their own personal greed. To do so was a crime without forgiveness, even in the Empire. Some—if they knew anything about who Jacob was and what he had done before joining the Hand of the Empire—might’ve thought him the same class of criminal as these pirates. But in the Empire, motives mattered a great deal more—the intent and reason behind actions were paramount. The pirates did these things for themselves, not caring that they would be killing innocents. What Jacob had done, he had done to save others. He had sacrificed the few to save the many. Not that that somehow made his crimes just; he would never think his scales balanced, no matter how much good he did in his life.
“What are you going to do now?” Jacob asked.
“Go back to Sol with you. I think that I might like trying to join the Sentinels organization,” Vas said.
Jacob tilted his head. Vas didn’t really strike him as someone who would enjoy being a Sentinel much. But that was not his decision to make.
“Being a Sentinel requires a lot of knowledge outside of being proficient with the Sha,” Jacob said.
“Oh, I know. I don’t plan on becoming a Sentinel right away, of course. But joining the organization as a support staff for a Sentinel is something that I can do right now,” Vas said as Sentinel Ryaana walked in to the room and approached the Platoon Leader. It had been a great stroke of luck for the young Vas to be taken under the Sentinel’s wing—just a chance to train with her once was something for which many would have given all they owned. And from what Jacob heard from the other crewmen, young Vas had improved greatly in the short time he had been training with the Sentinel.
“Well, I guess that you couldn’t have picked a better mentor.”
“Yes,” Vas said slowly. “She is fascinating.” His eyes narrowed as he looked at her.
Jacob silently agreed. He gave his goodbyes to the young man. He doubted that they would meet again, and if the
y did, Jacob would have another codename—Vas would never even know that he was speaking with the person that he had encountered before. That was the way of the Hand. He turned and left. He and Nkiruka would now return to Sanctuary for a debriefing. The mission was finished, and with all of the information they had recovered, they would finally be able to put a stop to the pirates and the liberation force.
Another mission done well, and another mission that would ultimately result in lives saved. And yet Jacob still didn’t feel like it was enough to remove the taint from his soul. But he had already made his peace with that, and he knew that he would spend every moment of his life in service to the Hand of the Empire.
***
Two days after they left the pirate base, Ryaana finally found the time to track down Vas and ask him some pointed questions. She was very curious about how he had managed to keep his wits under the Gatrey’s attack. She herself had barely kept her cool, although as much as it pained her to admit it, it had mostly been her fault for not paying attention. If she had been expecting the attack she would’ve been able to repel it without much difficulty.
But for someone who was relatively untrained to do the same was unheard of, though there had been cases in both the Empire and the Shara Daim where individuals had awakened amazing abilities under duress, or had found talents previously unknown. She reached the training room and entered. She fount Vas in the room among several soldiers, training their telekinesis. She watched him for a moment, and noted that the soldiers seemed to genuinely like him. He hadn’t spent much time with them previously, but Ryaana knew that combat had a way of bringing people together. She found herself smiling as she saw him interact with the soldiers. He was obviously hanging on to every word they had to say, listening intently. He was like that with her as well, always wanting to hear more about anything and everything.
She was going to stand back and wait for them to finish, but then they noticed her and promptly left, bowing as they stepped around her. She was tempted to scowl at them, but she had already grown used to the way most people treated her, so she just nodded. She was as much royalty in the Empire as she was in the Shara Daim, especially in the circles that she moved in. The only people that didn’t act that way around her were the Sentinels, but even they had a wall between her and them. They considered her a comrade, and that came with a certain closeness, but none were willing to approach her on a more personal level. She could count on one hand the amount of friends she had made in her life, if she included her siblings.
