Empire Ebook Full

by B. V. Larson

  “Ha!” His shout rang from the walls of my ship. “Your alien dogs got one good ship, but that won’t happen again. They’re too busy dying now. I gave you your chance, Riggs. I shouldn’t have, but I thought you might listen to reason. You’ve started a war, but I plan to finish it, rebel.”

  The message ended. I looked at Marvin in surprise.

  “That’s all he said?” I asked.

  “The channel has been closed, and refuses to be reopened.”

  I shook my head. Decker was mad. “Tell the Worms to disable Decker’s engines, if they can be that precise. Tell them if they do that much, they can break off and they’ve satisfied honor. Call them Worm-brothers, or whatever makes them happy.”

  “Message sent.”

  The Worms did as I asked. They were closer now, and they could hit with more accuracy. They fired at the exhaust ports of the enemy ships, which made easy targets as they were trying to escape. Then the Worms broke off, spreading out in every direction. The Worm fighters stopped firing and spread into a flying streams that reminded me of a disturbed flock of bats flooding out of a cave at night.

  Figuring out our plan, Decker took action. He swung his cruisers about to point every weapon in our direction. He could no longer outrun us, and we were rapidly coming into range.

  “At least they aren’t killing Jasmine’s ships anymore,” Sandra said.

  I nodded. I eyed the green counter and did the math. The Worms had lost twenty-three ships to help us, about half their number. I owed them.

  “Miklos, apply full braking power. Slow us down. Have the gunships come up at flank speed. We want to land on them with both feet.”

  Decker figured out what was happening soon thereafter. He could shoot at the unarmed transports, but that was pointless, as they weren’t doing him any harm. He could fire at the Worms, who had dodged up and down and off to every side, escaping him. It was clear that my fleet was now on the attack, and we were almost in range. More importantly, we were pulling together into a single fist, not hitting him in pieces. Anyone could count ships, and right now it was fifty-one to five against the Imperial forces.

  “He’s calling us again,” Sandra said.

  “I know, I can see the contact request on the boards. Leave it closed for now.”

  We came within range a minute or two later. I wanted to see if he was going to fire on my cruiser. If he was having second thoughts about this entire battle, he might wait. That would buy me more time for the fleets to come together.

  As it turned out, I’d made a tactical error. I think maybe it was the psychology of the moment. When I didn’t answer, Decker took that to mean screw you and figured we weren’t going to make any bargains. He opened fire on Nostradamus, which was now within range.

  There was a strange sound of groaning metal from the ship, and the bridge filled with wispy trails of vapor.

  “We’ve taken a glancing hit, sir,” Miklos said. “The beam was unfocussed, fortunately. Hull temperature is up by about twelve hundred degrees.”

  The metal squealed and crackled as my nanites attempted to repair the burnt spot. I knew the sounds were from the variance of temperature. We’d been burned, but it wasn’t that bad. A direct hit would have vaporized a section of the hull and blown it wide open.

  “Full gear everyone, we could lose pressure at any moment!” I shouted over the general com channel. The order was quickly relayed to the entire fleet.

  “Should we attempt evasive action, sir?” asked the helmsman.

  “No,” I said. “Pump out the new smart-chaff. We’ll stay right behind it until they burn through. That should give us some time.”

  Miklos manipulated the controls. I caught my bridge staff exchanging glances. The nanite-chaff was a new, experimental defensive system. Essentially, we’d taught constructive nanites to group up into disks on their own in a vacuum. Forming chains with their bodies, they created reflective surfaces that got in the way of incoming energy beams and deflected most of the killing power. Theoretically, this approach should provide much better cover than dodging around or using the traditional bits of foil to diffuse the incoming beams. But it was pretty much untested. I could tell that my crew wasn’t thrilled about placing their lives on the line by betting on experimental tech.

  What I didn’t tell them was it was our only hope, in my opinion. The situation was mathematical. The enemy had damaged engines, but they outgunned my cruiser five to one. They’d already proven they were reasonably accurate, even against dodging targets. Unless the new chaff worked extremely well, we only had minutes left to live.

  The next nineteen minutes were some of the longest of my life. Only the initial nanite injections, which had left me raging in mindless agony, were possibly worse. The really difficult part was based on a critical limitation of my chaff-based approach. They couldn’t burn through to me, but I couldn’t fire at them, either. It was as if we were charging at them from behind an upraised shield. If I fired, I would only damage my own shield, so our guns remained silent as we plunged closer. That was the agonizing part. We took glancing hits, and watched numbers flash and burn as their beams dug into my chaff shield. Millions of nanites were transformed into bursts of energy and puffs of vapor. All along, I could not even order my own guns to return fire.

  After those long minutes were over, my gunships caught up with us. I ordered them to fire the moment they came abreast of us.

  “But sir,” Miklos said. “They aren’t going to be accurate at this range.”

  “I know that. Fire!”

  Miklos was a good officer, even if he asked too many questions. The single big cannon on all fifty gunships opened up, disgorging huge bolts toward the distant Imperial ships. These weapons were essentially identical to the belly turret on every Macro cruiser. It had been far easier to order the Macro factories to produce weapons they knew how to manufacture than to design something new, so I’d stuck with the tried-and-true.

  A few minutes later, Decker tried to communicate with me again.

  “Put him through,” I said.

  “You really are a mad-dog, just like everyone says, aren’t you?” Decker asked me. His voice was somewhat fuzzy, no doubt affected by the mountain of smart-metal chaff that constantly reformed itself into tiny mirrors in front of my ship.

  “Not only do you consort with vile biotics like the Worms, but now you seem to have small Macro allies in those ships with you. Crow was an idiot. He should have killed you years ago.”

  “Decker,” I said. “Your situation is hopeless. You can’t outrun us. You can’t outgun us. You can’t even do much damage. Ceasefire and surrender your ships.”

  “The sheer, unadulterated arrogance!” he raged. “It really must be seen to be comprehended. You not only want to win this battle on the cheap, but you also dare to fantasize I’ll hand over my command as well so you might turn these fine ships against Earth.”

  “It’s better than dying, Decker.”

  “I disagree. And let me tell you, Emperor Crow is well-prepared, should I fail here today. You’ve taught him how to overcome your natural guile and deceit.”

  “How’s that?”

  “By overkill.”

  I frowned at the holotank as the channel went dead. I glanced over at Miklos, who made a pinched face and shrugged.

  I couldn’t be so nonchalant. What did that rat-bastard Decker have in mind? What did he mean that Crow was waiting for me out there, planning in terms of overkill?

  -18-

  Decker’s next move pissed me off. Instead of breaking off, surrendering, or coming at me blazing with every gun he had—he turned on the civilian ships again.

  They were closer now than before. They’d broken off and were no longer on a collision course, but in space when two groups of ships are coming at each other at high speeds, it isn’t easy to turn away from one another. Just try giving your car’s steering wheel a hard swerve to one side or the other while speeding on the highway. The car will tend to keep
moving forward with the momentum. When moving at thousands of miles per minute, the effect is magnified. We could turn our noses and fire our jets, but we changed course relatively slowly.

  I recognized the developing situation in the holotank. While Decker’s fleet and my fleet were converging, the refugee transports were a green crowd all around us. They were easy pickings for Decker, who had been ignoring them and firing at my ship. He hadn’t bothered with them while I was in range. But now that he realized he couldn’t knock out Nostradamus and the rest of my gunships were closing in, he changed his tactics. As I watched, and the six red contacts representing his cruisers reached out with flickering beams to scorch more helpless transports.

  “Dammit!” I roared slamming an armored fist into the console. The glass cracked, and the screen rippled in every direction. I ignored it. Even as I pulled my fist loose from the damaged screen, the thin coating of nanites that serviced the control systems frantically scrambled to effect repairs.

  “The initial barrage from our gunships has reached the enemy line,” Miklos said.

  “Any hits?”

  “…No—no effective damage detected. We have, however, lost three more transports. Four more.”

  I stood up and marched in a clanking circle around the holotank. A stream of curses came out my mouth. “This is just sheer spite. He can’t hurt us, so he’s taking out the helpless ships he can damage.”

  “I beg to differ, sir,” Miklos said. “Decker knows we need those ships to reinforce our position and replace losses in our ranks. He’s delivering a serious strategic blow, from his point of view.”

  “They’re unarmed transports! Full of people promised free passage out of the Solar System!”

  Miklos shrugged. “War is not always clean and fair, Colonel.”

  I spent thirty seconds or so thinking hard. I couldn’t come up with an easy way out the situation. There were some moves I could make—but they were unpleasant ones.

  “Weapons officer,” I shouted suddenly, clapping a heavy metal glove on his shoulder. He was wearing a crewmen’s nanocloth uniform, and cringed in pain. I barely noticed, as I was too focused on the battle to coddle my crew today.

  “Sir!” he responded, gritting his teeth.

  “Heat up the lasers. Prepare to fire. How long will you need, Ensign?”

  He glanced at his tablet. “Eighteen more seconds, sir.”

  I noticed with approval that he was working the controls. Apparently, the eighteen seconds were already counting down. I liked a man that kept moving even while I crushed his shoulder in my grip. I released him and he looked relieved, but his eyes never left his control board.

  “Order the smart chaff to dissipate,” I said.

  Everyone glanced at me then, except for Miklos. His face was grim, but he worked his controls, obeying without question.

  “But,” Sandra said, “they’ll fry us, Kyle.”

  “Maybe,” I said. “But in that case they won’t be firing on the transports anymore, will they? Ensign, you have seven of your eighteen seconds left. If you take out one of Decker’s ships, you will be instantly promoted to Lieutenant. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Absolutely, sir.”

  I liked the kid. I could tell right away, I’d made his day. He wanted to fight, to fire the weapons he’d been trained to operate. He hadn’t enjoyed a second of the ordeal we’d just been through, hiding behind a shield of glittering nanites and hoping they could stop the powerful energies coming at us from the depths of space. He wanted to shoot his cannons, and he was finally getting the chance.

  I smiled grimly, as did the Ensign. No one else around us looked happy. Miklos looked resigned and determined, while everyone else appeared to be freaked out.

  The smart chaff obeyed our orders to disintegrate the disks they’d formed and they fell away over the flanks of our cruiser like showers of silvery sand. The moment they were out of the way, the Ensign fired his weapons, exactly as I’d instructed him to do.

  The move caught Decker by surprise. He’d killed ten of our transports by now, and he was expecting to be beaten down by my gunships when they got into closer range, but I think he’d discounted the six heavy lasers on my own flagship.

  One final detail made itself evident as all six beams leapt out from my ship to the enemy vessels: they were all concentrating on a single enemy vessel in the line-up. It was the one to the far left, the ship that had hung back a fraction during this entire fight.

  “Damage?” I asked.

  Several pairs of eyes glowed as they examined scopes and fingers flicked this way and that, operating the software.

  “She’s breaking apart, sir,” the Ensign said. There was pride in his voice.

  I clapped him on the back and he coughed.

  “Well done!” I roared. “That was Decker’s ship, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes sir,” said the Ensign, beaming. “I believe it was.”

  I laughed harshly, and grinned with him. Miklos was the only one that didn’t seem to get the joke.

  “You have killed the enemy commander,” he said. “That will not make it easier to arrange any negotiated end to this conflict.”

  “Who said we were negotiating?” I demanded.

  “Sir,” Miklos said seriously. “Do not forget that these are biotics we’re killing. These Earth ships are some of the best armament we have in four systems. Every ship lost is a tragedy for our side.”

  I frowned, and I wanted to call Miklos a wet blanket. But I couldn’t, because he was right.

  I heaved a sigh. “Open a channel to the enemy fleet,” I said. “Ensign, cease fire. Sandra, oversee the pumping out of fresh chaff.”

  “We’re hiding again?” asked the Weapons Officer, unable to hide his disgust.

  “Ensign, I like you. What’s your name again?”

  “Patterson, sir.”

  “Well, you’re Lieutenant Commander Patterson now,” I said.

  That made Patterson happy again. He watched my gauntlets, but I didn’t slam one of them into him or try to shake his hands in congratulations.

  “Channel request accepted,” Marvin said.

  “Imperial cruisers,” I said loudly. “I request a short ceasefire on both sides. I know you’ve lost your commander. Please decide amongst yourselves which captain is in charge and negotiate with me.”

  There was no response for about twenty seconds, then someone finally answered us. “Captain Yuki here,” said a female voice. “As the senior officer present, I’m now in command of this task force.”

  “Do you agree to a ceasefire?”

  “I cannot. You’re stalling until your gunships are in optimal range.”

  “You are blowing apart defenseless transports, many of which contain civilians!” I shouted back. “Fire at my warships if you like, and die well, but please stop killing innocents.”

  There was another hesitation. Neither side was firing now, which was fine by me. Yuki had rejected my ceasefire, but it was temporarily in effect anyway while we talked.

  “There are no innocents, as you put it, in this system. We represent the Empire, and we—”

  “Look,” I said, interrupting, “I appreciate that you’re new to your command, Captain. And I know the easiest thing to do in these situations is to continue on the course laid for you by your previous commander. But I implore you to take this offer: accept a ceasefire, and retreat with all your ships. Take them back to the Solar System, and save all these ships and personnel to battle the machines.”

  “The machines have been defeated,” she said primly and confidently.

  I raised my eyebrows in surprise. “Says who?”

  “The Emperor.”

  I laughed then. “Well, I’ll send you some data then, if you want it. Consider it valuable intel on what we’re facing. You do not have to reciprocate with any data of your own. But Crow and every military on Earth should know how hard they hit us only a few weeks ago.”

  I signaled urgently at Sandra,
who dug out recorded vid files from the Thor system. They depicted in vivid detail the Macro fleet as it advanced upon our battle station. We edited out any reference to the battle station itself, or the fact that we’d destroyed the fleet weeks ago. I only wanted to show them vids of the Macros throwing fresh ships at us.

  While the files were retrieved and transmitted, I had a chance to reflect upon Yuki’s words. The machines were defeated? What an odd conclusion to make. We’d stopped them temporarily on our side, but at the other chain of four systems was the blue giant, Bellatrix. That star system at the other end of the ring embedded in Venus’s crust had been full of mining equipment and presumably Macro factories. Even if Crow figured that I’d wiped out the Macros at my end of the known systems, what had he done at his end?

  “Captain Yuki,” I said, as the data finished downloading. “I would like to ask for a single piece of information from you. Understanding is the first step toward peace. Why do you think the machines have been defeated? What happened to the Macro stronghold in the blue giant system? They had a lot of mining machines and factories there as I recall. Are they no longer a threat?”

  Captain Yuki’s voice became guarded as she answered me. “Our glorious leader eliminated all threats from that system. I’m surprised he didn’t inform you of his victory. The daily news talks of little else back on Earth.”

  Her words caused my frown to deepen. I glanced over at Miklos, who was frowning and thinking, just as I was.

  “Data upload complete,” Sandra said.

  “Captain Yuki. Please take a few moments to peruse the files before you continue destroying Earth’s tiny defensive force. When the machines come again, they may well wipe out my outpost on Eden. After that, Earth will be next. For your own survival and mine, accept our ceasefire offer and return with this new intel to Earth.”

  I waited after that for a full minute. Our ships were now almost nose-to-nose. I’d ordered them to begin braking, otherwise we’d shoot past them and have to reverse course to catch up. Possibly, that was their plan. Once we’d gone out of range, they could continue to fire at the transports at will, then proceed on to the Eden system, where my defenses were stretched very thin. Almost everything I had was guarding the far ring that led to the Crustacean home system. Nothing was going to be able to stop them if the cruisers evaded us and pressed onward to attack Eden. Fortunately, Captain Yuki didn’t know that. I’d only sent her the vids of the Macros in the Thor system.