Exodus: Empires at War: Book 10: Search & Destroy

by Doug Dandridge

  At that moment they picked up another warhead going off, this one about five million kilometers away, taking about seventeen seconds for the signal to reach them. There were still hundreds of those warheads, minus missile bodies, drifting through this space, all set on timers to go off at various intervals, keeping up the interference for the next forty-eight hours.

  It didn’t take forty-eight hours for the enemy to leave. Seventeen hours later the Ca’cadasans started to jump back into hyper and move away.

  Chapter Nineteen

  If the battle for civilization comes down to the wimps versus the barbarians, the barbarians are going to win.

  Thomas Sowell

  Closing speed was a mere nine thousand kilometers a second, almost standing still by modern standards. Alpha was pushing ahead at point nine seven light, enough to turn so called empty space into a soup of radiation, enough to blast through the electromag fields and most of the armor. If not for modern methods of radiation scrubbing, the crew would have absorbed enough rads in an hour to make death inevitable. Still, the spacers outside of the additional armor of the central capsules were soon sick to their stomachs.

  In hyperspace the particles were not matter as known in the normal Universe. They were something else, a type of material which didn’t interact well with normal atoms, and as such were much deadlier. Much as regular matter couldn’t exist in hyper, so these couldn’t exist in the realm of normal space for more than a couple of seconds. The realm of normal space was simulated within the hyperfield, and particles entering were soon quantum teleporting back into hyper. But since the particles were traveling at near light speed, most had passed through the length of the ship before that could happen.

  Nagawa forced back the vomit that wanted to rise in his throat. He didn’t have time for being sick, none of them did. They were almost through, but there were still a few small areas that were resisting their efforts.

  “Move that cutter over here,” he ordered the Spacers with the heavy cutting head. Neither were on his team, but they didn’t hesitate to follow his orders, since he was the ranking petty officer on the job. They manhandled the cutter into position with their augmented suits and engaged, sending an invisible beam of high energy photons down into the hull. Sparks rose, along with wisps of vaporized alloy, making the beam visible as long as it moved through that material.

  The ship shook underneath, and the cutter head swung away from its tracks, the beam striking one of the two controlling Spacers in the leg. In an instant the armor and the biological limb encased within it were floating away, while the Spacer screamed in agony over the com.

  “Get her out of the way,” yelled Winston, moving to grab one of the woman’s arms and pull her away from the job. She continued to scream for several seconds, then stopped with a final sob as her suit injected her with strong painkillers. Nagawa checked to make sure that the stump of the armor had sealed over her leg, then placed her on the hull, using his own implant to override her suit and latch it to the ship with its magnetic grapples.

  “Should we get her below?” yelled her partner on the cutter, already back at work.

  “We don’t have time right now,” said Nagawa, feeling guilty as he voiced it. “We have to get this done, then we’ll take her in with the rest of us.”

  Her team partner didn’t seem too happy with that, but he continued to do his job. The ship shook again, and Nagawa tapped into the ship’s systems to see what was going on. What was going on was what he feared, as the ship was now being struck by the enemy’s lasers.

  * * *

  “Put all fire on that grabber unit,” ordered Zhukov, pointing at the unit on the starboard stern of the enemy battle cruiser. As he pointed, the unit glowed, indicating his selection.

  They were at extreme range now, one light minute, and at that distance the enemy ship was still hard to hit, since it was changing its vector slightly every second, moving the target area. As the destroyer got closer, it would be able to target the grabber unit more efficiently, while at the moment it was just sending a spotlight of photons over the region.

  They would keep moving up on the enemy ship, a light second of distance every thirty odd seconds. It would take them fifteen minutes to get to point blank range, and during that time the battle cruiser and her consort would continue to fire at them, increasing their targeting solution and the damage they dealt out every second.

  The ship shook again as a spotlight of laser energy hit the hull. It was too diffuse to burn through, but it could vaporize enough of the surface alloy to make it act like a thruster. Their beam was probably doing even less to the other ship’s grabber, but it was loading some heat into the region, and every bit helped.

  “Do you want us to dodge, sir?” asked the Helmsman in an anxious tone.

  “Keep her steady, Helm,” he replied. “We have people out there.”

  As long as the ship stayed steady, the people on the hull would have no problem. Start to move with any kind of energy, and he would start losing them through the hyperfield.

  He looked over at the tactical holo that was showing all of the ships of Alpha formation coming in on the enemy. A cruiser was to either side, along with three destroyers on one side and two on the other, allowing them targeting of all of the enemy’s stern grabbers. All of the ships were turned to broadside, freeing up all of their lasers, with the exception of Collins, which, due to her problems with her reactor, was coming in bow first. All of the ships had lines going from them to the battle cruiser, indicating their targeting.

  The ship shook once again. The battle cruiser was targeting each ship in turn while they were still not really in the most effective range. He was sure that later they would start working on ships in sequence, blasting one from space before moving on to the next.

  “Missiles from Charlie and Delta incoming, sir.”

  Sure enough, the icons of those two forces were reaching their intercept, thirty six from Charlie, three light cruisers and a destroyer, twenty-four from Delta, the four destroyers. They weren’t going to arrive simultaneously, basically over a minute apart, and the Fenri ship was still in the best aspect to handle them with all of its defensive weapons.

  The enemy started firing counter missiles at the closest wave, the larger one from the light cruisers. They got off forty-one counters and stopped, and Zhukov was pretty sure that they were out of the hyper capable interceptors. They started firing lasers a couple of minutes later, taking out more of the missiles, leaving only eight to get into close in weapons range. All eight were detonated before they could get close enough to cause damage to the Fenri ships. It was a wasted launch as far as the battle was concerned, every missile in the wave expended for nothing.

  A few minutes later the wave from Delta was engaged by lasers, which took out over half of them before they reached close in weapons range. Four made it close enough to be a threat, two of them taken out almost immediately. And then it happened. The last two broke through that final line of defense, against all odds. One detonated less than a thousand kilometers off the amidships of the light cruiser, sending waves of heat and radiation, as well as almost a quarter of the missile’s mass converted to plasma, into the side of the cruiser.

  It was not a killing blow, though the damage was severe, and hundreds of Fenri spacers died in an instant. The cruiser survived, but its combat capability, especially the defensive fire it lent to the pair, was significantly reduced.

  The second missile detonated at much the same distance from the battle cruiser. The armor of the big ship gave it more protection than the light cruiser had enjoyed. Still, it suffered significant damage, including the loss of one of her stern laser rings and the nearby particle beam accelerator.

  The bridge erupted in cheers as the information on the missile near misses came through. The missiles didn’t win the battle, but they made the possible survival of the attacking forces something that was no longer a pipe dream.

  “Ejecting reactor, now,” shout
ed the Chief Engineer over the com.

  Zhukov was about to fire a question at the Engineer, was he sure he couldn’t wait a few moments to let the damage control parties clear out? He stopped himself, since he had already given the officer permission to do this, and he had to trust the man who was in charge of the reactors.

  The ship shook as the explosive thrusters started the reactor on its way, taken over by the grabber units that would accelerate the unit far from the ship. A moment later the panicked cries of the damage control teams came over the com, several cutting off with frightening suddenness.

  * * *

  “Ejecting reactor, now,” came the voice of the Chief Engineer over the com.

  “Wait,” yelled Nagawa over the com, realizing as the words left his mouth that they wouldn’t do any good.

  The hull bulged outward, then the large plug they had been working on flew out in a blur, followed by the reactor, going by in a flash. Along with it went two of the damage control crew who were still working on the last holdout of the hull metal. Both were killed instantly as they were accelerated away at thousands of gravities, well above the ability of their built in compensators to handle.

  One Spacer from the other team had been attached to one of those who had been sped away by the reactor. The cable snapped in an instant, but she was still pulled away from the hull, screaming as she moved quickly toward the hyperfield.

  Nagawa didn’t even think as he jumped from the hull, reaching for the woman. He saw that he wasn’t going to make it, that she was already moving through the barrier. She was already starting to fade from hyper before he reached the barrier, and he could see that she was not translating easily. In fact, he could see that she was starting to come apart, disrupted by the translation.

  Nagawa felt something pull on his left boot, and he looked down to see Corporal Schmidt, one of the Marines on his team, holding onto his suit and pulling him back down to the hull.

  “Cover up,” yelled the other PO on the damage control party, a Second Class.

  A bright flash appeared above, now over twenty thousand kilometers away, the explosion of the gigatons of force contained in the reactor. Nagawa was waiting for the illness of radiation poisoning to sleet through his body when the bright flash disappeared.

  “Thank God,” said one of the party members over the com. “They turned the ship.”

  “Get your party back inside, Nagawa,” said Senior Chief Kongbo over the com.

  “I lost some people, Chief.”

  “That happens, and I will buy you a drink later so we can toast them, if we’re still around. But now you need to get your people back into the hull. We’re still in a fight, and we’re going to need your services before long.”

  * * *

  “Damage control teams are back aboard, sir,” called out the Senior Chief over the com.

  “Very good, Chief. Good job.” They had lost three killed and one severely injured, but their actions had saved the ship and almost three hundred Fleet personnel. He still felt responsible for their deaths, which was as it should have been. The buck stopped with him aboard this ship.

  “They’re starting to turn, sir,” called out the Tactical Officer.

  Zhukov looked at the vid that showed the battle cruiser changing its aspect, going into a broadside mode that would allow it to fire all of its lasers at the ships coming up on it from behind. Thanks to the missile strike from minutes before it only had three laser rings to turn on them, not the four it would have had.

  “Helm, keep the top aspect of the ship away from them.” That was the part that now had a hole in the hull, leading down into engineering, and needed to be kept away from enemy fire.

  “Aye, aye, sir.”

  “New orders coming in from the flag,” called out the Com Tech. “Due to their change in aspect, all ships are to target the front and stern grabbers facing us as designated.”

  Their target came up on a holo over the Tactical Officer’s station, one of the stern grabbers.

  The ship shook, again taking a laser hit that was still very diffuse. Soon ships would start taking the kind of hits that ripped through protective fields and armor and tore their guts out.

  * * *

  “The humans are going for our propulsion systems,” said the Master of Battle, looking back at her commander.

  “They certainly are brave enough,” said the Lord of Millions. “They must know that most of them are not going to survive this battle.”

  “If they cripple this ship, they will have all but won,” cautioned the Bridge Manager. “We will not receive any aid or comfort where we are, and they will soon have more powerful units vectored on to us.”

  “Our deaths will have served the Emperor,” said the force commander, bowing his head. “And we will have gathered a hundred thousand human souls to serve us in the afterlife.” He looked up and met the eyes of the Master of Battle. “Try and keep our propulsion system as intact as possible.”

  “I will try to save them, my Lord. But they were already somewhat degraded before this current action.”

  The Lord of Millions turned away, not wanting his subordinate to see the expression on his face. Like all of his kind he was not afraid to die. Still, if given the choice he would have preferred to live. He would have preferred to be with his wives, and his children, on his estate, his slaves waiting on him. But he had given his oath to his Emperor, and his oath was his honor. And what was one of his people without honor? An animal.

  * * *

  “They will try to disable the battle cruiser’s grabbers on the way by, your Majesty,” said Rear Admiral Innocent to Jennifer.

  “And how many of them will make it past that monster and get away?” asked the Empress, a troubled expression on her face.

  “Not many, if any,” said Sean when Mary Innocent looked down and didn’t speak. “But they will have done their duty to the Empire.”

  Jennifer looked as if she was ready to cry, holding back the tears by force of will.

  This can’t be easy for her, thought Sean, remembering that she had lost her fiancé on Sestius, another honorable warrior, a Marine captain, who had done his duty and died.

  “Maybe you should go home,” he suggested, putting his hand on her forearm.

  “This is part of ruling the Empire,” she said, shaking her head. “Sending these people into harm’s way. Something I may have to do someday when you are absent. So I will stay and witness their sacrifice.”

  Sean felt pride in his wife, who was not born to this, as were most Empresses. He didn’t correct her in her assumption that she would lead if he were permanently made absent. That wasn’t how it worked in the Empire, or how it worked in most historical monarchies. The spouse that was not born into the line did not assume command if something happened to the one raised for rule. If there was an heir, she became the Empress mother, responsible for the baby until it reached adulthood, but not as the regent. If no heir, she became the dowager Empress, while another in the line was elevated to the throne.

  “Remember the lives they save through their actions, my love,” he told her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

  * * *

  Three full power lasers speared from the Fenri battle cruiser to strike the body of the light cruiser Dover. The range was now fifteen light seconds, and every ship on both sides were shifting like mad creatures, trying to avoid giving the other side an easy target solution. The Dover was not an easy target, and the lasers flew through the space where she had been, then traversed down, slashing through the field and into the hull of the ship, ending below. Again streaming out into empty space. The laser left behind three rips through the hull, each a meter wide, penetrating the armor. Damage klaxons went off throughout the ship as crew fell off the medical monitors, in the wrong place at the wrong time to intercept the laser energy.

  Dover continued to fire, though she increased her evasives, throwing off her own targeting. The grabber she was firing at still took the brunt of
her four full strength beams, vaporizing supermetals and the supporting structure of the unit.

  The battle cruiser fired again, this time clear misses with all beams. A couple of seconds later she fired another volley, this time ripping the beams into the nose of the ship just forward of the bow laser ring. A following volley hit the hangar bay doors and blasted a wide hole through them, opening the compartment to space and blasting one of the shuttles to pieces that flew through the compartment, opening more compartments to the vacuum.

  Dover continued to battle it out, sending her four cruiser class beams into the grabber unit of the battle cruiser, doing a little more damage with each strike, until the cumulative effect was a complete meltdown of that grabber. The battle cruiser kept hitting back, opening holes in the ship that spat armored spacers out into hyper, where they disappeared back to normal space. This was the horror of battle in hyper that struck fear into the hearts of most Fleet spacers, the sure death of entering hyper, where even survival of the translation, a rare event, meant drifting forever in normal space.

  Meanwhile, the other ships of the force were firing into the battle cruiser, ignoring the crippled light cruiser consort. Each ship was doing a tiny amount of damage, but like the death of a thousand cuts, the cumulative effect would cripple the ship.

  Dover staggered under one hit that ripped through the hull over engineering, spearing in to strike a containment vessel that breached moments later. The center section of the cruiser exploded outwards, then detonated in an even bigger blast as both reactors and all other antimatter containers breached, turning the ship into a cloud of fast moving plasma that disappeared back into normal space in seconds.

  Now it was Scranton’s turn, as the battle cruiser turned all her weapons on the only other cruiser in the attacking force.