by Aer-ki Jyr
Mak’to’ran’s Kafcha was one that was caught in the shadow of a Star Force interdictor, unable to move along with several other vessels as they urgently tried to destroy everything between them and the vessel pinning them in place. He’d already ordered a chunk of the free vessels to leave, knowing that if they were to stick around and fight they’d die against the planetary defense weaponry, so right now those further into the naval brawl were having to fight their way out…but his ship was one of many that couldn’t.
The Era’tran could also see that the Star Force vessels were making holes in their formation to allow the Tar’vem’jic through, letting him know where it was going to fire next. Wisely, it was now targeting the largest vessels and eliminating them with a handful of shots each. When the Kafcha pinned next to him took a hit to its weakened shields they fell completely, then the second shot punched into the hull armor so hard it burnt through with the single hit…then the third landing in the same place ate through the interior and punched a dome out the far side from the internal explosions, cracking the armor there for a few seconds before the next shot cut through the ship entirely, with the remaining beam continuing on out into space.
With the Star Force vessels realigning to clear a shot to his Kafcha, Mak’to’ran was given a slight reprieve as the Tar’vem’jic put more shots in to the massive vessel beside him, for even with the critical amount of damage it had sustained in one area it was still fighting out of others. The next four shots hit on the underside of the right prong and all but severed it from the ship as the interdictor holding them in place was finally disabled.
Engine power returned to a number of ships and Mak’to’ran ordered an immediate retreat, wanting to stay and help others escape that were still pinned, but at this point the battle was snowballing in the enemy’s favor and most ships that stayed around were going to be destroyed. Had the defense station not been in play that would have been a different story, but it was killing their largest vessels with ease.
There were hundreds still trapped without engine power and more fighting their way to get free of the Star Force vessel swarms. Knowing he had to act now, he set a course to take him and those ships around him out through those swarms with his Kafcha physically ramming several to make way. He managed to link up with another group of 7 with a small redirect, but he couldn’t risk delaying more than that. As soon as he dragged those ships into the clear while keeping the bulk of the Star Force fleet and even his own dying ships between him and the defense station to block incoming Tar’vem’jic shots, the Era’tran commander and his surviving fleet group made emergency jumps out beyond the range of the massive weapon, then moved to regroup with the badly damaged Mach’nel that was limping its way into a high planetary orbit…though moving through the cluttered ring of Star Force orbital stations around the planet and blasting apart a lot of them on the way out.
Mak’to’ran could understand their frustration, but this was no time for vengeance. That would come later and, damaged or not, he needed the Mach’nel back at the center of what was left of his fleet. He gave the order for a rendezvous and the limping ship finally broke off its strafing attack as it redirected up from that circular plain and towards the jumpline for the star where Mak’to’ran and every other surviving ship was congregating…though he quickly had to amend that and took his and another Kafcha back towards the planet when several heavily damaged ships had successfully fled the range of the planetary defense station, but were being hounded by the tiny ship swarms and picked apart.
Mak’to’ran thought he could pull a few vessels out of that mess before they were destroyed, but he knew he wasn’t going to be able to save them all.
“Roger, can you and Ethan tidy up here?” Rio asked in a mildly ecstatic voice as he was seeing reports from the surface that several crashed ships were spilling out V’kit’no’sat into the Antarctic cities.
“Go,” Roger said. “And take Ethan too. I’ve got this.”
“You sure?” Ethan asked.
“Unfortunately we don’t have that many ships remaining. I can handle them all. Get to ground and link up in a triple battlemeld. You’ll need it for the big ones.”
“They’re not what I’m worried about,” Rio said ominously, knowing that the larger V’kit’no’sat races climbing out of the ship debris could be taken down by mechs and aerial craft. It was those small enough to disappear into the cityscape that were going to be a problem, for a lot of the crash areas were still populated...and in addition to the deaths resulting from the enemy ships crushing them, he was already starting to get reports of the V’kit’no’sat going on a killing spree and taking out as many civilians as they could find.
“Go,” Roger insisted even as he was assuming operational command over what was left of the other three fleets and sending them on pursuit courses for the disabled and pinned V’kit’no’sat ships in orbit, along with those limping away on one or two gravity drives at most.
Rio, Sara, and Ethan all disconnected from the battlemeld at the same time and within minutes Roger saw dropships emerging from their respective command ships that took them down to the surface. Out of prudence he sent a few smaller drones ahead of them to help pluck any remaining weaponry off the crashed V’kit’no’sat ships. Losing one of his peers to a single working battery at this point was something he wasn’t going to risk…plus it was a lot easier to kill V’kit’no’sat with close-in naval guns than with mechs.
Roger assigned that submission to another Archon and let her handle it while he sent two more of his most trusted naval comrades off to chase the slowly fleeing ships while he stayed put and handled those that couldn’t run and were slugging it out for all they were worth with the drone fleet that had now fully surrounded them save for firing lines being opened up for the pyramid weaponry. Right now it was doing more damage than his entire fleet combined, and the remaining V’kit’no’sat ships weren’t going to last more than a few minutes at best, so the trailblazer opened a comm to them.
“You are beaten,” he said in V’kit’no’sat. “Signal your surrender now and I will let you live. Fail to do so and you won’t have time to regret your decision. Cease fire and signal your compliance by individual ship. If not, would you mind telling me why you were stupid enough to enter firing range of the planetary defense station? Or did you think it wasn’t still here? I was pretty sure we didn’t hide it all that well.”
While no surrender came in, his goading did prompt a response from a Brat’mar vessel that was still half intact.
“Who unlocked the weaponry for you traitors? Tell us so we can kill them before we come back for you.”
Roger raised an eyebrow. “Unlocked? What made you think it was locked in the first place?”
“Only the Oso’lon and J’gar had those codes. Which is it?”
Roger smiled widely, connecting the dots and realizing that the pyramid weaponry must have been under some kind of lockdown prior to the Zak’de’ron visit. When the dragon unlocked the restricted files he must also have unlocked everything else…and if there had been a block on the weaponry above and beyond what was restricted to Zen’zat, that explained why they thought they could assault Antarctica and not come under fire. In fact, that ground assault run was probably to deliver ground troops with the intention of retaking the pyramid…and then unlock it for themselves.
That was a sweet bit of strategy, which made their karma-induced failure all the more gratifying. They’d all but wiped out the Zak’de’ron, and yet with a simple code they’d managed to vicariously get their first dose of revenge…though he wasn’t going to tell the V’kit’no’sat that.
“Why don’t you wipe both out just to make sure?” Roger suggested, but no reply was forthcoming as battle damage cut the transmission. He kept a keen eye on each of the V’kit’no’sat ships under heavy assault, but none of them transmitted a surrender or deactivated their weapons. They stubbornly fought to the death, but Roger had the pyramid cease fire while there were stil
l a few damaged ships remaining. The drones finished them off, but left several mostly intact hulks stripped of weapons and power intentionally…and by design they were mostly the smaller V’kit’no’sat races.
Roger left a scattering of drones behind and ordered in one of the command ships and multiple jumpships to that location, using their weaponry to maintain possession of the remnants of that destroyed V’kit’no’sat fleet and to beginning scanning for survivors to be captured later, but for right now they were simply going to be contained while Roger’s command ship and the rest of the controlling vessels that had been waiting safely out of firing range followed the drone swarm as the trailblazer took it out past the limping V’kit’no’sat ships that were already being taken down.
Roger left a few jumpships behind there with orders to offer a surrender, but he didn’t stick around to find out how that went down. He bypassed them entirely with the bulk of his swarm and headed straight to the stellar jumppoint, racing the Mach’nel that clearly had most of its propulsion disabled. There was no way it was going to leave this system, but so long as that primary weapon was still online it was going to be a problem. Before it could regenerate its shields they needed to take it out, though the secondary shield generators covering the aperture of both it and the other weapon systems were very hard to destroy…both because of their small surface area and because they had to be designed so robustly to match up with the Yeg’gor armor, otherwise you could just shoot out all the weapons and leave the floating fortress impotent.
The pyramid was too far away to pinpoint target its twin weapon system and the drones had been ordered not to shoot the Mach’nel, focusing on the other vessels in order to protect the Ultimas, but now that that wasn’t the case Roger was going to hit that weapon directly. If the ship tried to run he knew he had the engine power to overtake them unless they were playing more wounded than they actually were.
If they delayed, then the few summons he had enroute would catch up and they could hammer them further, but Roger knew that he couldn’t give the Mach’nel time to make repairs, no matter how much of its interior had been gutted. As powerful as the pyramid weaponry was the sheer size of that ship was too much to destroy quickly…but the holes were big enough that he could slide his smallest drones inside them, and once he did that they could methodically gut the entire ship and the V’kit’no’sat would have no defense against it.
So Roger had two primary objectives as his swarm approached the stellar jumppoint. Kill the Tar’vem’jic before it ate away another significant portion of his drones and get some of his cutters and corvettes inside so they could either force a surrender or take out the occupants…though blasting through hundreds of miles of interior decks would take forever with only a few holes punched through the armor. Roger could have his fleet chip away at it and wear it down from the outside, but with over a thousand V’kit’no’sat vessels remaining to escort it, damaged as they were, he knew he wasn’t going to have that option.
But then suddenly those ships that were closing on the Mach’nel to protect it from his fleet reversed course, heading instead back to the jumppoint where they coalesced, waiting for other damaged ones to catch up as an incoming transmission from one of the Era’tran Kafcha popped up. Roger accepted it and was suddenly looking at the hologram of an unarmored T-Rex. He’d seen visual records of them before, but this was the first live one he had ever encountered, despite the fact it was just a hologram. That said, he could feel a chill as the big head swung slightly to orient on his image and its teeth became partly visible as its lips rippled in some type of gesture he wasn’t familiar with.
“The victory is yours, Star Force,” he all but spat with contempt, “but we leave with the knowledge of your sponsors. Either the Oso’lon or the J’gar are responsible for this, and once we determine which we will get the answers from them as to what they’ve created in you. Your secrets will be exposed and your weaknesses determined, then we will return and destroy you all. You have my promise on that.”
“So…I guess you’re not going to surrender if I offer it then?” Roger responded with a touch of lag in the transmission.
“There is no surrender. You are an abomination that cannot be allowed to exist. We are your death.”
“Still. I offered your other ships a chance to live and I’ll offer your remaining fleet the same.”
“Chase us if you wish, but you will not catch us. Nor will I wait for more of your reinforcements to arrive, but from one warrior to another, you have done well this day. You could not have done so without such treason, but you had an opportunity and you seized it. Do not expect another one.”
“Are you leaving your Mach’nel behind as a victory gift?”
“They don’t have the engine power to flee, but they can destroy many more of your ships before they succumb. You may regard it as such if you like, but they will not surrender.”
“Abandon half of your ships and I will let you recover their crews and those onboard the Mach’nel before you leave.”
The Era’tran twitched its head violently.
“There will be no deals made between us. You are our enemy. We will not be lulled into thinking otherwise and provide you with another opportunity for treachery.”
“Hey, you’re the ones that came here to kill us. We didn’t go knocking on your door.”
“No, you did not. We’ve discovered you prior to your preparations being complete…and we will not allow them to come to pass. We know of your Hadarak. Grow as many more as you are able, but it will not be enough. We will return shortly, and when we do we will annihilate you and all of your abominations. You have fought well here, and it is a pity that your sponsor has brought this upon you, for you would have made respectable Zen’zat, but there can be no consolidation between us. In addition to what you are, your victory here has sealed your fate. Should we meet again, all I can offer you is a swift death.”
“You’ll have to earn it.”
“We will.”
With that the Era’tran’s comm cut out and the surviving V’kit’no’sat fleet began making microjumps towards the star, though some ships had to combine into linked pairs and be towed out. That appeared to leave Roger with only the Mach’nel to deal with, but he knew better than to take the V’kit’no’sat at their word. He sent a chunk of his ships after them, not to engage but to shadow them closely enough that they couldn’t attack another world or facility with impunity. If they tried his ships would engage and delay them until the main group could catch up, but that wasn’t to happen.
The V’kit’no’sat headed directly for the star then to a shorter jumpline than the one they’d come in on, probably choosing it due to the reduced engine power many of their ships were forced to deal with. When they jumped out Roger sent a warning to every system along their expected path, but he didn’t chase after them. He recalled the pursuit fleet back to his main group, for they still had the sitting Mach’nel to deal with and it had already drifted back towards the ring of orbital stations and was blasting into them as one last gesture of defiance.
It had to be destroyed, but Roger was going to need everything he had available to reduce the losses he was going to take…and there was no time to call in additional summons. Of the few enroute only another Ultima and two Shivas had arrived. The others he had summoned were still creeping in from their deep space holding stations and he couldn’t wait for them. He needed to take the Mach’nel out now and get after the limping V’kit’no’sat fleet before it left their territory.
5
“Let’s go, let’s go!” Trevor yelled to the pilots in the lounge as he ran in. “Troops on the ground!”
Irene Darrington jumped up off the couch where she was glued to the holographic battlemap next to several hundred other pilots watching the battles over their heads take place. All of them moved instantly, not fully understanding what they were needed for but ready to get into the fight rather than waiting to get shot from orbit when the shields over the
m eventually went down. Fortunately their base in Antarctica wasn’t in the attack corridor, but they weren’t more than 70 miles away from the edge of the breached shield.
Irene ran with the others to the hangar, already fully dressed for combat given the situation save for her torso armor. That was waiting for her next to her gunship on a nearby table, which she grabbed and slapped on her chest as he headed for the ladder to the cockpit.
The armor formed around her, connecting to what she already wore around her waist and extending up into a helmet that she immediately took back down, with the material forming a bulge behind her neck and leaving her face exposed to the air as she climbed up the catwalk-like stairs and dove into the wide cockpit of the gunship while the other pilots jumped into mostly skeets and an assortment of other craft.
Irene slid into the seat, which was a full model as opposed to the pommel that the skeets carried. She could even have fit two more people in the cock pit with her if needed, but Irene was a veteran pilot that had learned long ago to master the insane firepower that this ship carried. It wasn’t the most agile craft and required escorts against enemy fighters, but give it a target to annihilate and it could lay down more damage than a full squadron of skeets.
The ship was five times bigger and essentially a thick frisbee with boxy edges, originating from a design that had been modified many times over the years as opposed to the skeets which had remained basically the same, but inside the ship the holographic displays were identical. The cockpit disappeared and Irene’s eyes were seeing the hangar and outline of the gunship as she connected to the mental interface. When that happened the very efficient holographic displays were overridden and her mind linked directly to the gunship, with its sensors becoming her senses and her being able to see everything around it in all directions simultaneously…which at this moment showed skeets and other gunships around her lifting off the deck and drifting towards the distant hangar doors.
