CHAPTER 54: THE ART OF THE SEIGE
Lindin signed off. He had his helmet cap up as did a few, though most in his squad still had theirs locked and down, standing in wait while the scan operators set their device and zeroed coordinates for the Kel starship they were about to board. Everything was happening fast, like it had to, rushing to capture the element of surprise and act before the Kel cracked the overrides that were freezing their command and control. It felt like falling off a cliff, no time to think, and Lindin was quickly recalling this was exactly what being in combat was all about.
“Cross-check confirmed,” one of the operators reported, making final locks. “Coordinates applied.” That meant the device had matched and confirmed their target, in coordination with the others around the globe—and the coordinates had been applied to the transit devices in their suits.
They were set.
“Ready.” Lindin looked to his men. A squad of a dozen, about to leap again, to experience that sickening sensation of crossing the void, only to land aboard a hostile spacecraft this time, fight their way to control, then hurry to remember, under duress, all the training they’d been through to operate one of the Kel craft, to actually take an alien ship into combat, against other alien ships, and win the day.
“Last checks.”
Helmet caps closed and snapped shut. The device operators stood; done with their task and poised. Lindin was the last. He lingered, a few seconds, a few seconds too long, he knew, but in that quiet moment before they went, he was compelled to absorb everything he could about this new world. Earth. First time on another planet, maybe his last, and it was something he’d been working toward for so long. So brief, this instant, such a flash of time in which to experience what he’d just done; leapt across light-years to an alien land. It was beautiful. In that little wooded vale, a random spot chosen for geographic placement and lack of proximity to any sign of civilization. The air was sweet and warm, fragrances like he’d never smelled, local flowers in bloom. Everything was green, dotted with bright flowers, a clear blue sky, and he just wanted to pause and take it all in. So much like home.
There was no sign here of any war, of any danger whatsoever. Birds chirped.
He fired his helmet closed. The interior dome came alive and fresh oxygen rushed his senses, overtaking the sweet smells outside.
“Looks like we’re taking a battleship,” he reviewed the Kel schematics hovering at the lower left of his screen. “Everyone got their settings? Ready?”
Affirmatives over the helmet speaker. He checked the telemetry on his operators.
They would prevail, and he would be back. Maybe even he would come to this same spot. In honor of this moment. Sit and stare at the sky for an afternoon. Maybe have a cup of tea. Absently he wondered what Earth had to offer in the way of tea.
He cleared his head. “Activate in three.” The countdown began. Two. One.
The blackness gripped him.
**
Kel warlord Eldron paced in frustration, checking every few minutes with his specialists, though all eyes were on the situation and he would know the instant it was resolved.
The humans had managed an incredible coup, and he could not decide whether to be enraged or impressed. A little of both, perhaps, and while he would rain destruction down on them for this outrage, he would do so out of high regard. His respect for them grew.
The Kel were paralyzed.
His ship was not one of those that had been boarded; not yet, at any rate. It was alarming; as yet no decisive outcomes but, even now, battles were heating up aboard their ships and there was nothing they could do to stop it. Humans in powered armor, leaping aboard with quantum devices, seizing ships of the line, and Eldron expected his heavy cruiser could also be a target.
Damn! Each second was agony, like waiting for the hammer to fall. If they did not reverse this compromise soon ...
“We’re clear,” came the word from his specialist, relaying the notification that was coming in fleet-wide. There was a collective intake of breath on the bridge and operators at every station shifted in their chairs.
Beyond ready to get to the fight.
The human’s brief control of the battlefield had been snuffed.
**
“That’s it,” said Fang. “They’ve locked us out.” He and his hacker team were working feverishly to cover their tracks. Fang tapped in a flurry at his keyboard as he spoke, fingers flying. “All who can get aboard are. Most of them made it.”
Drake checked his screens, mousing over and monitoring what he could. In space the teams were beginning their siege. On land the bulk of the Anitran forces were in action against the few Kel strongholds around the globe, emplacements the Kel put in place regionally for ground operations—more in the recent week as the alien invaders prepped for whatever they planned next.
And so the counter-invasion was underway. Anitran powered armor units were engaging the Kel on the ground, en-masse. Squads of the same powered units were aboard as many enemy ships they could gain, hoping to take control and turn those very ships to the fight. The Trojan hack was now shut down and the control they had just moments ago was gone. No more upper hand, no more tricks or surprise.
Now it was down to the fight.
May the best man, or Kel, win.
**
“Go left! Go left!” Lindin barked orders to his squad, directing them deeper into a bay filled with Kel fighter craft. The Skull Boys filled the halls of the Kel battleship, just enough room to make it through single-file—as they’d known would be the case—and those confines were intensifying the fight beyond belief. Whoever was up front bore the brunt of each wave, and so Lindin had been working to use every larger space possible to navigate the innards of the battleship.
“Disperse!” he shouted and his squad scattered across the wide bay, fanning out and taking cover. The telemetry in his helmet was completely lit up, targets converging from at least four points in the maze ahead. All across the bay lethal Kel fighter craft squatted in asymmetrical patterns—fascinating machines Lindin had no time to admire—creating large blocks around which to maneuver.
“Watch beneath!” he warned, even as he squatted to strafe a squad of Kel taking up position under one of the craft. The volleys from the Skull Boy ultra-sonic rail-guns—guns made for engaging tanks and other powered armor units, not men—were ripping up the interior of the battleship and shredding bodies, absolutely shredding them, a sonic assault that was loud even through the thick armored helmets. So many controlled bursts, coming so fast one after the other—it was nonstop. Lindin stitched a dozen gaping holes through the last Kel in sight and rose.
“Move across! Clear and move!”
Behind them through the door to the hall a fresh squad of Kel came pouring out. Two of his units turned to engage.
“Attention,” a centralized broadcast got Lindin’s attention. An announcement to all squad leaders. “Kel have recovered command and control.”
Great. The humans’ little escapade was over. That meant the Kel starships would come online and go active. Lindin had a feeling that wouldn’t take long.
They had to gain the bridge.
Somewhere, during the discussions of all this, he’d argued for bombs. Just transmit bombs aboard each ship, he said. If we can send suits, we can send bombs. Blow up the Kel starships from the insides. Other voices joined him, but in the end he was overruled. The Kel had tremendous resources, it was reasoned, and they, the humans, had none. If they wasted the element of surprise to destroy only a handful of Kel ships … that ultimately did them little good. A fresh fleet—many fresh fleets—waited and could easily swoop in and mop up. This was their one chance, so the prevailing argument went, to build their forces. Commandeer resources and be able to put up a fight when the next fleets came. Pack some power to their punch; give the Kel pause before they raced in to clean up. Don’t just kill the Kel and destroy their guns, it was supposed. Kill the Kel and take their guns.
<
br /> That tactic, unfortunately, was making things a whole lot harder.
Lindin snapped his full focus back to the deadly barrage all around him. Electric beams, burning the Skull Boy armor but not taking it down. So far the Skull Boys’ greater bulk was saving them. It was as Nani said; in this particular arena, with the powered armor, they were overmatched for the Kel soldiers. He moved his team forward, deeper into the bay, skirting fighters, laying down ultra-sonic death, peppering the dim green lighting with white fire, the blue-white electric light of the Kel rifles blistering the air with their own, unique sound, and soon they were at the chosen exit across the wide room and passing through single-file.
“Right and to the next left!” So far they hadn’t lost anyone. They needed to reach the bridge.
“Go! Go!”
And they were running.
CHAPTER 55: WAR
“Strap in,” Nani settled into her chair and pulled on her harness.
“Here,” Bianca looked to the others from her pilot’s console, indicating the activation for the Kel harness at each seat. Willet and Satori knew how, Darvon, Heath and Pete watched and did what she did, pressing back as the harness snugged and held them firm.
“I’m locking targets,” said Nani, eyes on the screens before her. All across the dome tactical information was lighting up. “Associating allies. I have twelve Kel capital ships showing under our control.”
“I have them,” Bianca flagged those units. Hoping the Anitran soldiers who’d taken over the Kel ships could actually do something useful with them. If nothing else it would be twelve ships they didn’t have to fight.
“You have your first targets?”
“Got it.”
Behind her and Nani, at side consoles, Willet and Satori were focused on their own efforts, managing traffic from units on the ground, passing information directed by the Reaver.
“It’s not too harsh,” Bianca took a moment to reassure everyone, especially the two American soldiers who were already holding on, like getting ready for a legendary rollercoaster ride they’d never been on but had only heard bad things about. “We’re gonna be moving fast, and crazy, but it doesn’t hurt.”
Satori was speaking into her headset; operators on the ground. “Have units eight and thirteen move south. Kel resistance is there, small infantry and six armored.” She was directing the fight below; all the rest of the Skull Boys and Astake that had come through.
“Copy,” Willet’s voice joined her, directing a different skirmish. Together the two of them were busy overseeing what they could. “Engage there.”
“Here they come,” Nani warned. Bianca got herself on-point, settled into the harness and took the flight controls. Seven Kel starships had grouped and were heading for them. The rest looked to be selecting targets on the ground. Of the twelve ships they’d commandeered, three had begun moving.
Bianca took a deep breath, poised for the first attack. She held her hand near the Reaver’s throttles. Ready.
And, for some reason, as the brief, anticipatory pause seemed to take on epic proportions, the next movement about to send them to war, she looked across at Heath and Pete, the only other Earthlings aboard, and, though she didn’t know why—it just felt right—said:
“Hang on, boys. Shit’s about to get real.”
**
Lindin paced the bridge of the Kel battleship, still in the Skull Boy armor, helmet up. They’d shot and killed their way to the control room, sealed the door and loaded the localized hack from Nani that not only gave them control but should, if it held, prevent anyone aboard from wresting control. Only Lindin and his team had access, and they were in the CIC and the ship was theirs.
“Status?” Precious seconds were ticking. On all the monitors around the bridge the Kel fleet was composing themselves after the brutal, initial shutdown. Out there in space dozens of warships were now coming back to life.
“Almost there,” came the answer. They’d inserted controls and his core team were out of their suits and at the battleship’s control stations, prepared to take them to war. A Kel battleship, about to be run by a dozen humans, humans who’d had only remote, and limited, virtual training. Not only that, this first “live fire” exercise was about to happen in a real fight, no time to adjust, everything—absolutely everything—on the line. Not just their lives, not just the fate of an army, the fate of all of humanity—the fate of worlds—if they failed.
No pressure.
“We’re live,” his pilot reported. Lindin was the only one still suited up, standing on the wide, green-lit bridge, giant Skull Boy rail-gun in hand. He planned to stay that way. If anyone managed to reach them, to try and breach the door … he would be waiting. Meantime his crew would fly.
“Good,” he looked around the impressive, alien control center. “Everything coming up?” His operators continued their checks.
“Powerplant is live,” came the report. “Navigation ready.” Another voice: “Weapons charged.” Another: “Comm systems online.”
And the summary: “All systems go.”
Lindin surveyed the vast, black nothingness on the wide forward screen. They were, as of that moment, in command of a fully functional, fully loaded, three-million ton starship built for war.
It felt kind of amazing.
After everything, after the training, after the preps, the execution of this impossible mission and now here they were and they’d done it and the moment of reckoning, the real moment of reckoning, had finally arrived and they were ready.
“Pick a target.” He raised his free hand and gripped a thick overhead crossbeam that spanned the bridge, bracing himself.
Here we go.
“Engage.”
**
Cee strode into her throne room at a fast clip, guards, Voltan, Kang, her bishop and the rest of her entourage in her wake. A trio of her top generals waited to deliver a briefing. Curiously, her chief scientist was also there. At the sight of him her stride slowed, unconsciously, and she turned the reaction to a deliberate step, went across to her throne and sat.
What news did her scientist bring?
“How did this happen?” she asked her senior commander, speaking to him first. It had taken her some time to regain her composure following the assault in the streets, and now this.
The commander took a step forward; full regalia, tailored black body armor, perfect white fur wrap at his shoulders. “The humans have staged a counter-invasion of Earth.”
She’d heard that much on the way over. “How?”
“It is too early yet to know the details, my queen, but we believe they came from another world. Possibly Anitra, as described by Kang. They meet his descriptions of those forces.”
Cee looked sharply to Kang, who was nothing if not surprised. She saw his gaze cloud over with confusion, mind piecing together scenarios that could’ve led to this.
She turned back to her general. “And?”
“They used transit devices,” he said. “That much we’ve been able to establish. Since I received notice we’ve been able to determine they did not originate on Earth. They came to Earth from elsewhere. Their communications are in English. Based on other, sporadic info, at present we believe them to be from Anitra.”
Kang had begun a low growl. More tangible than audible, and it made more than a few in the room shift uneasily.
“There’s more,” said her top general. “Immediately upon arrival they engaged an interrupt of our command and control. We’ve since overridden it and shut it down, but during those initial moments we were paralyzed.”
Cee was leaning forward in her throne. “How? We were shut down?”
“Only briefly, my queen, but yes, they held us immobilized. We believe they planted something within our core systems, perhaps during the raid on your ship. That is our current theory.”
Now her burning gaze locked to Voltan, who continued to stand with his hands behind his back in that infuriating way. If the humans truly had comprom
ised their networks, and it was done using gains made during that raid, then he allowed it to happen.
She seethed.
“That is not all, my queen,” and her eyes were back to her general. “During that time they used the opportunity to employ their transit devices and make secondary leaps. From the ground. Designated squads among their forces locked onto our stationary fleet and jumped aboard a number of our ships. Some twelve capital ships have been compromised.”
And with that she was standing, out of the throne and before it, staring everyone down.
“The humans have taken our ships of the line!?”
Silence. For a moment no one spoke. Kang had taken to grinding his teeth, and into that new, dangerous sound her general said: “The Jakar fleet has been alerted and is preparing to debark if needed. They can be ready—”
“If needed!” She regained lost composure. “There will be no more reinforcements sent. Help will not be ‘needed’. You will fix this mess you’ve allowed to happen and you will do it with what’s there.” She was furious.
“My queen, their tactics so far have been quite a surprise. We are now through the initial moments and in control, but after this we can no longer count on their weakness.”
“Crush them,” she leaned in. “That is your order. Crush them, general. Earn your rank.” Her invective shifted directly to Voltan. “We’ve let go too much already. Burn them all!” She decided in that moment to have Voltan jailed. To hell with what any of them thought. “Seize their world once and for all and we continue our march! If these forces truly are from Anitra we will learn of its location and take our fight there. I will have my empire!” She was losing her grip on her inner circle, on everything, and she knew it, but her days of subterfuge, of careful politics were over. She was Queen and they would do as she said.
Star Angel: Prophecy Page 59
