V’ka’sith settled himself in for a long trek into the system.
Hours passed and V’ka’sith made his way back to the bridge with thirty minutes to go before they reached the planet. In all the time from the hyper limit out to that planet, the sensors picked up no unusual activity or nearby vessels. The closer to the outer planet, the more V’ka’sith grew convinced that the most obvious choice for a base in this system was not the one that the Committee for Public Safety chose to place their installation.
“Full scan,” he ordered. “If they are here, they surely have seen us by now.”
The sensor watch nodded. “Understood, Kapitan.” The light cruiser had good sensors, but they lacked the sophistication and scanning bandwidth of those of a dedicated science vessel or perhaps even an assault transport. Warship sensors concentrated more on passive detection anyway, but even despite that, the sensors swept their active beams over the small planet, looking for any trace of their quarry.
“Found something!” the sensor watch crowed, pounding a carapace covered fist on the console. “Kapitan, I’m showing a small relay antenna, an outpost, really, on the southern pole of the planet.”
V’ka’sith nodded, pleased. “Is it broadcasting?”
The comms operator rechecked his screens. “Not so far… wait! Showing a single burst transmission, directional, heading in system, Kapitan.” The zheen’s antennae swirled.
Djarok nodded in agreement. “I can confirm that, Kapitan. Definitely going in system.”
“Tactical, are we in range?” V’ka’sith asked, getting the answer from his own feeds.
“Yes, Kapitan, we are,” the human male said wolfishly.
“Then destroy it,” the commander ordered.
“Locking on,” the man said, pressing a few controls. “Ready.”
“Fire!” he roared. On his screen, he saw lasers flash and pound the tiny outpost. After a dozen shots hit the small installation, there was nothing left.
“Target destroyed,” the tactical officer replied.
“Good. Helm, set a course heading in system. Take us within five light-seconds of the gas giant. Sensors, make sure you’re making good sweeps of the area.”
“I will, Kapitan.”
((--[][]--))
Astrid Markaasdottir, Vice Chair of the Committee for Public Safety and Commander of Base Alpha, grimaced as the news came in. A small flotilla of warships led by a light cruiser has just entered the system and was on its way in system. Four ships were not a massive display of power, but it was enough. Especially since they seemed to be dedicated vessels of war, not retrofitted freighters.
What brings you out here? Astrid wondered. Novquizon was a pure hell hole. It wasn’t very close to any other civilized star systems and had no inhabitable planets of its own, and the star’s radiation made mining extremely expensive and impractical. No one just wandered in here without a purpose, which was one reason she’d chosen this system as a base of operation.
And according to Alpha’s passive sensors, whoever that was had just blown up the listening post on Merced’s rocky surface. Astrid shrugged. Merced was only really useful for early detection of ships from the hyper limit, coming from a vector roughly along the small planet’s orbit. So at best perhaps a twentieth of the sky in that direction. But what made it especially useful was that Merced and the gas giant they’d nicknamed Puffer shared the same stellar year. Merced was moving at an incredible pace compared to the more starward Puffer. Thus, any ship coming in from Merced would be on a direct course. And since anyone coming into Novquizon looking for the Committee base would be methodical, checking each planet in turn, Astrid would have a clear view of anyone coming toward Alpha.
And she’d prepared some nasty surprises for those coming in uninvited.
The bulk of the Committee’s fleet was here as well, most importantly, the carrier. Harmony and Providence squadrons were well-trained and experienced, having flown missions for the Committee for over eight years. Some forty missions against space and ground targets. Yes, they were ready for those interlopers, whoever they were.
Astrid checked one last feed, the one for the special project. As she’d expected, things were unchanged. It would still be a while, more than six months at the rate the builders were going for the project to be viable. No, the pilots on Shield of Argos will have to be sufficient to destroy or chase off the invaders. And what we have, they should be more than enough.
((--[][]--))
“We have arrived in Alok Krovi, my Lord. No ships at the hyper limit, and we’re not detecting any satellites or probes within five light minutes. We’re heading in system now.” Commander Tyler sounded confident and calm, especially since he was unilaterally deciding to move the ships into the system without clearing it with the leader first.
But he needn’t have worried. Verrikoth nodded. “Very well. Increase the sspread of our two sshipss to three light ssecondz. I want to make ssure that we have the best ssensor coverage possible.” He thought for a few seconds. “And deploy a sspread of ssenssor dronez. Extend our range out. I want to ssurprizez.”
Tyler nodded, frowning only slightly. “It will be done, my Lord. I shall report back the instant we have anything.”
“Very well,” Verrikoth replied, pressing a control and ending the call. He returned to his main display, showing the planetary bodies in the Alok Krovi system, everything is known before they’d arrived here anyway. As expected, the system had only four planets: a Jovian and three planets and one of them was inhabitable… barely. The second planet was an oxygen world, but it was on a far orbital track, which meant that the temperature rarely rose above freezing and it seemed that the oxygen was generated by a large amount of algae in the planet’s oceans. There were some deciduous trees and other flora to be found on the small land masses, but the planet was mostly a barren, frozen desert.
The other two planets were airless rocks, one in a temperate orbit, but without any atmosphere, and the other between the habitable world, Krovi 2 and the Jovian. They each boasted a scattering of moons, but again, none of them were habitable. So far from the old star system charts the techs on Hyperidon had pulled from the data bases were bearing out true, but unfortunately, the Committee pirates had not been foolish enough to leave open copies of their citadels in their computers. They had information concerning the star system, in a general sense, but no more. There was no information about what might be here in the system, or on the planets or the moons or even what ships might stop by for a chat. No, they’d have to go in blind and simply work their way in, blind if need be.
((--[][]--))
“Commander, there is a ship moving out from the gas giant,” the sensor operator piped up. The young zheen sitting there turned his head back to look over to the command seat at Jensen Tyler.
Tyler looked over at his own virtual display window. “On an intercept?”
Helk’s mouthparts moved slightly as he double checked his display. Then he shook his head. “No, sir. Looks like they are just shadowing us, maintaining a five light second distance.”
Tyler watched the icon for a long moment. “If we deploy gunboats or Sparhawks do we have any chance of catching it?” He squinted at the display. “What is that, a corvette? A cutter?”
“Cutter, sir,” Helk replied. “Sensors confirm. But I doubt we’d be able to catch them. They’re far enough out that they’d be able to pour on the acceleration and with the fuel loads on our fighters and gunboats we’d never get them. Barring any serious engine trouble or anything like that.”
“Understood,” Tyler told the zheen. “Keep an eye on them. I want no surprises.”
“Yes, Commander.”
Tyler tapped a few controls, sending a virtual report to the Warlord. It wasn’t time critical, so he didn’t call him directly. Not for something as paltry as a cutter keeping its distance.
A few hours passed as the two ships, and their shadow moved further in system. It didn’t take long for the expande
d sensor envelope on the tactical net to pick up stray emissions coming from one of the inner planets.
“Commander, I’m reading a cluster of energy signatures on the second planet. One of those signatures is down on the planet, and there are two more in orbit. Look to be ships, too small for a station.”
“Very well. Time to intercept?”
“Little over seven hours, present speed,” Helk told him.
“Very well.” Tyler checked another window, confirming the sighting for himself. There were two ships in orbit, and the power signatures were low enough for freighters. They could be armed, and they probably were, but unless they were equipped with some serious weaponry, they were no threat to Nemesis and Kopesh. They had some time. He pressed a control. “All stations, this is the Commander. All crew not currently on duty is to stand down. Make sure all of you get a hot meal and some rest. No alcohol is allowed.” He grinned. “We have a fight coming!”
The bridge crew let out a lusty cheer, which Tyler could hear echoed by the whole crew throughout the ship. The Warlord might take umbrage to that, but the commander was confident that his boss wouldn’t countermand the order. If the crew was rested and ready, well that could only be to the good.
Verrikoth heard the announcement over the 1MC and chittered to himself. Wish I’d thought of that myself. He grumbled to himself, then grabbed the bowl of nutrient paste he’d been snacking on. Now, he thought, reading through the most recent sensor update, what is going on with that cutter?
((--[][]--))
“Coming into range now, my Lord,” Helk reported from the sensor station. “Thirty seconds to firing range on Nemesis’s forward turbolasers.”
Verrikoth pressed a control. “All sshipss, thiss iz the Warlord.” He felt a bit… silly, giving such an order when he was only in command of two ships, but it was the right thing to say. “Target forward weaponz on those cargo sshipss, but hold fire until my order.”
He pressed a few other controls. “To the memberz of the Committee of Public Ssafety, thiss iz Lord Verrikoth. In ressponsse to your actionz in the Amethysst ssysstem, I am taking the following actionz. The Committee of Public Ssafety iz no longer a viable entity. I will sscour it from this galaxy until only the baresst memory remainz, a warning. An example of what happenz to thoze who dare to defy me.”
His antennae bobbed up and down a few times. “I am willing to be merciful, however. If you were to ssurrender to me, pledge your livez to me, I will let you live.” He hesitated, sitting up straighter in his chair. “You have one minute to decide.”
It didn’t take a minute. The comms specialist turned to him less than twenty seconds later. “Warlord, they’re responding.”
“Let’ss ssee it.”
A new virtual window opened showing a human male whose brown-skinned face was twisted into what humans might call rage. In fact, Verrikoth found himself impressed with the amount of anger he saw there. Not that it fazed him, but he was impressed that a human could conjure up that level of menace.
“You come here into this star system, into the Committee’s star system and start issuing threats?” the man spat. “You? A… bug?”
“Who are you?” Verrikoth asked, genuinely curious.
The man drew himself up, presumably to his full height, as uninteresting as that was. “I am the Chairman of the Committee of Public Safety,” he said, as though that was supposed to intimidate the zheen looking down on his from the flag bridge of a heavy cruiser. “You would do well to mind your tongue, zheen.” Then the man chuckled. “Or whatever you use for speech.”
Verrikoth found himself chuckling, a sound that disconcerted the human. “Bold wordz from ssomeone looking up at my turbolaserz.”
“I am not afraid of you, zheen,” the Chairman retorted. “You’re nothing but a coward and a bully, lording what little influence you have over the poor people of the Argos Cluster and now you have come here to deal with me.”
“I have come here to exact retribution for an attack on my ssovereignty.” Verrikoth drew out the last word, making sure that the Chairman understood his intent.
But instead, the man looked confused. “What sovereignty? We have not attacked you.”
“Your attack on ssoldierz and crewmen aboard Hyperidon Sstation in Amethysst would ssuggesst otherwize.”
The Chairman gaped at him. “That is neutral space.”
But the zheen shook his head, his antennae bending down. “No. It iz mine.”
The man stared at Verrikoth’s image for a long moment. “Enough of this. You will leave this star system immediately, or I will destroy you.”
At this, Verrikoth hissed in laughter. “You will desstroy me?”
The man sneered. “I will.” And he cut the connection.
“Full scan!” Tyler barked to Helk. “Coordinate with Kopesh.”
“That man looked too confident,” Verrikoth agreed. “He haz ssome ssort of ssecret sstrategy.” He considered that for a long moment. “Flight Opss.”
The woman (was her name Garabon?) turned to him. “My Lord?”
“Launch the Ssparhawkss and the gunboatss. They are to move out in front of the capital sshipss and sscreen our approach.” Unfortunately, neither the gunboats nor the Sparhawk starfighters were designed to fly in the atmosphere and in fact would crash like bricks to the ground if they tried, else he would have sent them in to assault the base. But they could act as an effective screen, not that the Committee had any assets here that could seriously threaten this task force.
“Yes, my Lord,” the woman replied, sending the orders. A few minutes later, the assault ships launched from the heavy cruiser’s small hangar bay, and from the docking ports along the hull: an equal number of the gunboats and starfighters. It was a small light force, to be sure, but it would be effective.
“Commander, I’m detecting power signatures from one of the planet’s moons,” Helk suddenly reported. “They just appeared. They’re on the side facing Krovi 2.”
“How far?” Tyler demanded, turning to glare at the sensor operator.
“Roughly one hundred eighty thousand klicks, Commander,” Helk told him. “There are a dozen signatures, but I don’t know what they are.”
“Weaponz emplacementss?” Verrikoth asked.
The zheen looked frustrated, his antennae curling and straightening repeatedly. “I don’t know, my Lord. It’s certainly possible.”
“Missile separation!” the tactical officer barked. “Inbound, twenty-two missiles, vectoring on us!” He then flared straightened his antennae for a second, indicating confusion. “They’re also releasing some sort of chaff along with them.”
“What?” Tyler declared, stunned.
Verrikoth hissed at the same time. “From where?”
“The cargo ships,” Helk reported. “They’re turning away, Warlord.”
Flushed all their missile tubes. “Flight Ops, send the gunboats and starfighters after them!”
“Aye, aye, my Lord,” the woman replied, her eyes flashing.
“Tactical, put all guns on point defense,” Tyler ordered. “Shoot down those missiles. Helm, turn us into the missiles, I want our engines angled away from that salvo.”
Verrikoth kept his gaze on the light combatants, letting Commander Tyler fight his ship. After the massive salvo volley of missiles Nemesis received back in Seylonique (and survived with only minor damage), he was confident that the heavy cruiser could handle these weapons. Out of the corner of his compound eyes, he saw all of the weapons on the heavy cruiser and destroyer open up on the display, filling the space between the ships and the weapons with coherent light. The missiles were dumb, coming in straight at them, and it took only a matter of seconds for the guns of his vessels to begin shooting them down. First five, then eight, then twelve.
He turned his attention back to his light groups. The Sparhawks, designated Group Zeknix, and the gunboats, Group Kekzikan, were racing past the missile salvo almost in range to pounce on the pair of armed freighters.
The freighters weren’t massive, but they weren’t light units either. The ships were each three hundred meters in length, but of different designs. One was constructed of a pair of long rectangles, connected by a long cylinder of a spine, but sensors could detect two sublight engines aft, and a hyperspace nacelle rising above the main body of the ship. The other was sleeker, but slightly smaller, perhaps two hundred eighty meters in length and it didn’t have the boxy appearance of its fellow, it looked more like some sort of squat, fat sea creature, but without any lateral fins. It too sported a pair of sublight engines and a dorsal nacelle.
He saw his attack groups just clearing the missile salvo, when suddenly, two of the missiles changed course. “What…?”
“Commander!” Helk called. “Starfighter separation! Two of those missiles were actually starfighters! They were hiding in the chaff!”
((--[][]--))
Seth Maxwell, pilot and leader of the small flight, smiled with grim intent. He and his wingman, another man named Hector Boyce, had been living a boring existence, being tolerated by the crews of the two freighters for the last six months, doing nothing but breathing their air and eating their food. Oh, and running simulations. But up until today, they’d been just taking up space. Both freighters had been making legitimate cargo runs, between Bases Alpha and Beta, as well as to a few nearby worlds. It felt almost wasteful, keeping armed ships like this on a leash and the even worse feeling was knowing that he and Boyce’s considerable skills were being set on a shelf to atrophy.
Until today. Maxwell had seen the communications with the zheen Warlord and realized that his prayers had finally been answered. The stars or the universe or some sort of deity had finally delivered a proper enemy to fight.
And the captain of the freighter had seen fit to use his missiles on them, with the Chairman’s approval, of course, and that was fine. Only the Chairman here at Beta, or his chosen successor, had the moral authority to allow such a strike. But as Maxwell knew, the Chairman was no fool. Both men also knew that a stand-up fight against the Warlord would be suicide, considering the difference in firepower.
The Warlord's Path Page 9
