“What gave you that impression?” the younger Puar asked.
“Call it a hunch,” Khai answered with a shrug. “Besides, can you blame them?”
“No, not really,” he replied.
The two fleets continued to exchange fire, as the F’Rosian fleet advanced, Admiral Ryynaall began barking orders.
“Dark Fleet,” he addressed the fleet waiting on the dark side of Seryys, “begin your advance, nice and slow. Let’s not draw their attention if we can help it. Blood Fleet,” he addressed the Vyysarri ships waiting within Seryys V’s dark side, “begin pre-jump checklists. Bright Fleet,” addressing the fleet of ships hiding in the sun with all of the Founder ships—Ryynaall thought it would be a bigger surprise if the trap was set with them, “begin pre-jump checklists as well.”
He got affirmatives from his fleets. Everything was almost ready.
“Forward Fleet, power up your Eve’Zon Drives. The moment they reach the PNR, send them to hell!” Beads of sweat formed on Ryynaall’s head while the enemy ships advanced slowly. “Status on the Protectors!”
“Shields are holding at eighty percent,” a young officer announced. “But the advancing fleet has taken zero damage.”
“That’s troubling,” Khai murmured ominously.
“Indeed,” Sibrex agreed.
“Sir! The enemy fleet has reached the PNR!”
“Good,” Ryynaall said. “Forward Fleet, give them a warm welcome!” A long moment passed as everyone watched to see several black holes form amongst their ranks, but when none came, the radio crackled to life.
“This is Captain Redyyk of the Ryyket” the panicked voice announced. “We are unable to activate our drives! The enemy ships have emitted a gravitic projection that is fooling our Eve’Zon fail safes!”
“Sir! The Protectors are starting to fail! We’ve lost three of them and there is now a gap in the shielding arcs. Our Forward Fleet is now taking heavy fire!”
Ryynaall’s mind whirled through countless scenarios, but this one never even occurred to him. Not only would that prevent the Forward Fleet from sending the F’Rosians into a black oblivion, it would also prevent Bright Fleet and Blood Fleet from jumping in for the ambush!
“Sir, we’ve lost the Ryyket and the Battery. Three other ships are reporting heavy damage and casualties! What do we do?”
Ryynaall froze, panic gripping his face and paralyzing his body. That was when Khai stepped in. “This is General Khail, I’m taking over! Dark Fleet, move forward for support, but do not rush or engage until you have reached the enemy fleet’s flanks. Let’s hope they’re so concerned with the easy kill in front of them, they don’t notice you! Everyone, back in the old days, the Vyysarri had developed a technology to project gravity wells, we were able to counteract that by overriding the safety protocols on the navigational computers. Have your techs and engineers start working on this right away!”
Khai knew that once his people had developed a way to counter the gravity wells, the Vyysarri abandoned the tactic and thusly the Seryysans abandoned the counteracting research and the newer ships were harder to override. But they were out of options.
“Do we know where the gravitic emissions are coming from?”
“Reports are coming from the Forward Fleet saying it’s coming from a ship at the rear of their ranks, but they’re not getting a clear signal—some kind of interference.”
“Forward Fleet,” Khai called out, “release your fighters! Puar, Brix, Brawl, Sibrex and Kay, you’re with me!”
“Where are we going?” Puar asked.
“To find and disable that ship!” Khai answered, checking his trusted gun. “Meet in the hangar by the Splitter in five minutes battle ready! Ryynaall, the command deck is yours again. Be steady. Be calm. You can do this.”
Ryynaall nodded and straightened his uniform. “You heard General Khail,” he shouted, a new cool confidence in his voice. “Let’s get this going! All fighters engage as soon as you leave your respective hangars! Create as much confusion as you can, I think I know what General Khail is up to.”
In less than five minutes, the group was ready to go. They filed into the Splitter and took their places. “Command, this is General Khail requesting permission to debark.”
“Permission granted, Khai!” Ryynaall’s voice came over the speaker. “Good hunting!”
“Thank you command,” Khai responded. “We’ll be home in time for supper!”
With that, Khai lifted the Splitter up off her landing skids and left the hangar in a hurry. They cleared the asteroid-shaped base orbiting one of Seryys’ two moons and pushed full throttle to the fight. Even from this distance, they could see the battle raging. Multicolored lances of light zipped back and forth, conflagrations lit up the cockpit. All the while the constant chatter of war talk filled the space. As they drew nearer, they could see tiny flecks of silver writhing about like gnats buzzing around bulls. Tiny flashes of light signified another lost life. It pained Khai seeing this all again. He fought so hard for peace, but violence, it seemed, always found a way into his life.
“So what’s the plan?” Puar asked.
“We’re going to use the fighters as cover to get in nice and close to the rear ships and use the Splitter’s short-range sensors to pick out which ship is broadcasting that gravity field. Then, assuming their shield tech is comparable, board the ship, fight our way to the engineering level, set charges and get out before the thing goes up.”
“Oh, is that all?” Puar asked wryly.
“Yep,” Khai said causally. “Is there a problem?”
“Yeah,” Puar spat. “I’m gonna get shot—again!”
“Just get out of the way!” Khai barked.
“Says the guy with a reflex chip inserted in his brain!” Puar shot back.
“I’m getting old,” Khai justified. “I needed an edge. Besides, you’re still young and vibrant!”
That prompted some chuckles. “Ha ha,” Puar growled. “Laugh it up. It won’t be funny when we’re pulling the bullet out of one of your asses!”
“Pipe it down, guys,” Khai got serious. “It’s go time!”
The battle loomed up ahead. The small ships began to expand to fill the whole canopy the closer they got. The F’Rosian ships were nearly impossible to see with the flat black hulls flecked with white lights. Every now and then one would be silhouetted with a shimmering blue energy as the ships’ shield would shunt a blast from an enemy ship. Thanks to the Sibrex’s algorithm, Khai was able to track their movement, which was steadily forward as they tore through the Forward Fleet.
The Dark Fleet groups were steadily creeping into position. It was only a matter of time before they took the F’Rosian fleet completely by surprise… or at least Khai hoped, since it was his plan and all. The painstaking path Khai was taking would put them far outside the kill zone. He was hoping that the fighters would draw the F’Rosians’ attention long enough for the Star Splitter to slip in unnoticed. That was the easy part; the hard part was going to be determining which ship was projecting the gravity well and getting into that ship to disable it.
As the fight raged on, Khai pushed the ship to full throttle and darted into the battle at the midpoint of the enemy fleet. Khai bobbed and weaved as wayward laser fire buffeted the ship while he had Sibrex to narrow the sensors’ scope so that he could pick one ship at a time and check them off quickly rather than a broad scan to get a vague direction. As Khai deftly piloted the ship, Sibrex did quick scans of every ship they passed to no avail.
“We’re sure the ship we’re looking for is in the rear?” Puar asked as each ship checked out negative.
“According the Forward Fleet’s sensor logs, yes,” Sibrex responded, not taking his eyes off the console.
“I don’t know how much longer I can hold this up,” Khai announced, his voice full of strain. The web of cannon fire provided a little wiggle room as Khai dove hard, then pulled up, rolling the Splitter ninety degrees to port and diving again. “I thin
k they’re on to us.”
As if on cue, a lock siren shrieked in their ears. The Splitter lurched to the starboard side as a power failure cascaded across the instrument panel. Warning chimes for this or that began ringing in the cockpit as system failures began to plague the ship.
“Shit!” Puar yelped. “Those weapons pack a punch!”
The ship bucked again, and this time, the scariest alarm one could hear on a ship rang through the halls. That alarm was a hull breach alarm.
“Damn!” Khai growled. He reached out and hit a few buttons. Everything from the sensor console back was sealed off with a blast door. “Joon, shut off life support to the rest of the ship.”
“Done.”
There was a terrified silence in the cockpit for several minutes.
“And to think I was afraid of getting shot again,” Puar said. “Not once did I think about getting sucked out a hole the size of my fist into space.”
“There are a million ways to die,” Khai added. “Some even worse than that.”
“Comforting,” Puar growled.
The Splitter tumbled aimlessly.
“How bad is the damage, Joon?”
“There is a hull breach in the engineering section, main power offline, backup reserved for life-support only. Maneuverability is limited to forward thrusters only, main propulsion is damaged beyond repair.”
Khai didn’t use the thrusters to stop the Splitter tumbling but to change the direction of the tumbling to a trajectory that could be easily matched. The battle did not stop for them as they looked out the canopy to watch the F’Rosian Fleet chew through what was left of the Forward Fleet. None of them could spot the Dark Fleet groups off hand, but they knew they would start their attack very soon.
“What’s the next move?” Brix asked impatiently.
“Call for help,” Khai said, pulling out his com unit and dialing up Dah’s identification.
“You can’t keep yourself out of trouble, can you?”
“Need a pickup!”
“ETA forty-five seconds,” Dah reported.
“And not a second too soon,” Khai added.
“Wait,” Puar chimed in. “What’s going on here.”
“It’s all part of the plan,” Khai said with a devious grin.
“You meant for the Splitter to be destroyed?” Kay asked, almost offended.
“Well, not entirely,” Khai quipped. “If we found it on our own, great. If not, we had a backup plan. A better plan. Now, the F’Rosian Fleet sees a ship that was scanning them dead in space along with its occupants. Now we have a distinct advantage.”
“Yeah?” Puar asked sarcastically. “And who’s going to protect Dah?”
“Docking complete,” Joon announced.
“What the?” Puar squawked.
“The cloaking tech that Tander developed is what’s going to protect Dah,” Khai answered.
The Star Splitter hung dead in space, tumbling in a very predictable trajectory in her own debris. It pained Dah to see his old ship in such a vulnerable and wounded state.
“Jarv, use the thrusters to match the Splitter’s rotation while I prep the docking ring.”
“Adjusting course now, Master Dah.”
The canopy displayed a dizzying course change as the Savvy Merchant spun to match the end-over-end tumble of the Splitter. Dah got up and whizzed through the lavishly decorated corridors of his late brother’s ship on his hoverchair to the docking ring.
“Course matched, sir,” Jarv’s voice announced.
“Extending docking ring now,” Dah replied.
In one fluid motion, the Merchant inched to the port as the docking ring extended to touch and form around the Splitter’s hatch. A muted thud signaled Dah that a seal had been made. A rush of frigid air blasted in as the airlock cycled open.
“You’re clear to open up!” Dah shouted into his com unit.
Another cold rush of air buffeted him as Khai popped the hatch.
“Ahoy!” Khai shouted cheerfully.
“What did you do to my ship?” Dah yelled back angrily.
“Your ship?” Khai asked incredulously.
“It’s all part of the plan,” Puar said as he shouldered past Khai in to the airlock. “Remember?”
“Don’t remind me,” Dah growled back.
Once everyone boarded Dah’s new ship, they got under way. Only seconds later, a bolt of energy struck the remains of the Star Splitter and she was no more.
Vor’l had a satisfied grin on his face as he watched ship after ship in the Seryysan Fleet go up in massive conflagrations. His victory was all but sealed. This small speck of a planet would soon be decimated and left to rot.
“My Alpha, I am detecting some activity coming from that freighter-style ship that was scanning every ship individually.”
“It would appear that it was not destroyed. Ensure that it is, for safe measure. My instincts tell that that was a boarding party looking to disable the ship in our fleet projecting the gravity well. This bodes well for us.”
“May I ask why, my Alpha?”
“I suspect this is an act of desperation because they cannot harm us. We mustn’t get complacent, though. Keep looking for other ships of similar design. They may send another boarding party.”
“It will be done, my Alpha.”
Two more Seryysan ships exploded at the might of the F’Rosian fleet. His ancestors would remember this moment as if it were their own: the day they brought down yet another empire; the day the F’Rosians sent a clear message to all corners of the galaxy that they were a force with which to be reckoned; a force that was unstoppable; a race of beings superior in every way. His fangs dripped with anticipation for when he would find the Seryysan leader and sink his paws into the man’s flesh and feed on his remains. History would look back on this day and brand Vor’l a hero of the F’Rosians! The day he finished his conquest and took down two empires in the matter of a week! It would be glorious with songs of his bravery, tactical prowess, and unwavering loyalty to his people! His great, great, great, great grandchildren would ride the wave of his success, be praised wherever they went and offered fleets of their own to command when they were of age.
His only concern was that his progeny for generations might have looked back on this day and said that it was small victory. The Seryysans were barely putting up a fight. The fleet before him was negligible; just over a hundred ships, nothing that would signify their dominance in this sector of the galaxy. In the back of his mind, he wondered if a trap was being set.
As if on cue, his tactical officer shouted a warning. “Sir! We are taking heavy fire from all flanks!”
“Return fire!” he shouted, angry that any ship got past them, especially when he was supposed to be looking for ships!
“I can’t get a firing solution! The sensor read nothing out there!”
“It’s a trap!” he shouted. “Full reverse! Regroup at these coordinates!”
“We cannot!” Tactical shouted.
“Why not?” Vor’l practically screamed.
“Open fire!” Ryynaall said with a satisfied sneer.
From the main screen in the situation room, they watched all four groups of Dark Fleet open fire on the unsuspecting F’Rosians who thought that they had their enemies reeling. There was an air of satisfaction in the situation room as the F’Rosian fleet began to withdraw.
“They’re running!” someone shouted.
“Not for long!” a voice came over the channel. “We’ve found a workaround with the Eve’Zon drives!”
“Now would be a good time to jump in!” Ryynaall was standing now, eyes glued to the main viewer. From their vantage point, they saw the Founder ships along with the Bright Fleet emerge from black holes and begin firing immediately. Cheers erupted loudly as two of the F’Rosian ships went up in balls of fire!
“Blood Fleet,” Ryynaall called out. “Begin your strafing runs! It’s time to seal this crypt!”
The overview of the battle di
splayed new contacts marked in red, they slowly moved over the green contacts that signified the F’Rosian fleet. The blue contacts on all four sides were the Dark Fleet and the yellow contacts behind the green were the Bright Fleet. The white contacts had dwindled down significantly, but were now staying steady. That was the Forward Fleet.
“This is Captain Myyndarr replacing Redyyk. We still can’t get our Eve’Zons to power up. We applied the workaround the Bright Fleet used, but we still can’t get ours running. We will continue to work on it!”
“Acknowledged! Keep me updated. In the meantime, keep at it! We’ve got them on the ropes!”
Chapter Sixteen
Dah piloted the Merchant like he’d owned it all his life. Being of similar make and design as the Bucket, he was able to pilot it with ease. The stealth tech was working like a charm. They were able to do fly-bys within a hundred feet of a F’Rosian ship without detection, scan it briefly and move on and all the targeted ship would detect was a brief spike on the tertiary electromagnetic band, nothing more.
As the fighters zipped about, Dah weaved a path through the flurry of ships and cannon fire. Beads of sweat formed on Dah’s forward and his knuckles were white on the control yoke. Just as they were approaching another ship, a stray lance of brightness struck the ship sending it listing hard to the port side. Dah fought the controls to get the ship back under control. Just he started to do so, another bright flash caused the ship to lurch and barrel roll.
“Damn it!” Dah growled. “We must be leaking fuel or emissions or something for them to be tracking us!” Another hard buck and damage reports started skittering across his screen. “We can’t take another hit like that.”
The ship was acting sluggish and lazy as Dah tried fruitlessly to avoid a consistent stream of laser fire coming at them. A glancing strike shook them all right down to their stomachs.
“Sibrex, see if you can’t get some more maneuverability, will ya?”
“I will return,” his gravelly voice croaked as he quickly released his crash restraints and headed for the aft section.
The Seryys Chronicles: Steel Alliance Page 20
