Admiral Ryynaall stood stoically in the situation room watching the battle play out. The Founder ships were dealing out death with each volley, the Vyysarri strafing runs were working like clockwork! The F’Rosian fleet was in complete disarray… and somewhere out there, General Khail and his team were throwing another wrench into the works. The only part of this battle that was weighing the heaviest on him was the loss of most of the Forward Fleet. The Protectors were gone and less than half of the fleet remained, the rest had either been destroyed or disabled.
Another ship exploded and cracked in half; the bow floating one direction, the aft floating another. The lights along the hull flickered and died signifying thousands of lives gone in a flash of fiery light. Each life lost was like a small pinprick in his heart.
Another F’Rosian ship exploded sending a ring of energy expanding outward from the epicenter when someone called out. “Admiral! I’m detecting a massive buildup of energy in the lead ship.”
From the main view, the two forward mandibles lit up, illuminating the black hull of the ship. Two beams shot out diagonally and collided in a brilliant flash of light. The beams coalesced into an iridescent ball of energy before discharging straight past the fleet and impacting on the planet.
“What the hell was that?” Ryynaall demanded.
“A high density beam of a kind I’ve never seen,” an aged science officer reported.
“Damage?” Ryynaall almost didn’t want to ask.
“The beam struck… and… by the Founders!” the man gasped.
“What? What happened?” Ryynaall asked anxiously.
The man couldn’t say anything; he was too close to tears, too grief-struck to form the words, so he simply pulled up a visual and Ryynaall’s legs buckled, forcing him to plop down on the command chair. A crater roughly eight miles wide and who knows how deep was punched into the earth, a great river—the Great Rush—was already beginning to fill the crater with water. Seryys City, the greatest city to ever exist this side of the galaxy, was gone in the blink of an eye! As they stood, mouths gaping wide, another ship moved forward and fired. Again, passing the ships, the beam struck ground. Another city, Butallstown—a city of roughly six hundred thousand, vanished in a billowing cloud of dust. A third ship moved forward and fired. A brave pilot threw his ship at the beam hoping to deflect it. His sacrifice was in vain as his tiny fighter did nothing to even remotely alter the trajectory of the blast and another city fell.
Ryynaall’s horror turned very quickly to rage. “Forward Fleet, stop those ships at all costs!”
“Another ship is powering up!” the science officer announced. “There is a specific tell I’ve tracked from the previous ship. Just before the energy build up, the ship will transfer power from the engines and other systems to power the weapon. I’ll paint the ship for you to attack!”
After the fourth city became ash, the officer painted the next ship. A Lance-Class dreadnaught moved into position. The beam shot out and struck the ship as it barely got into position. The ship vanished in an expanding ball of fire and debris.
Ryynaall thumbed his chin for second then asked a very, very relevant question. “What ‘other systems’ are they transferring power from?”
“Let me look deeper,” the officer said as he painted another ship. He watched it closely.” Power transfers are coming from the engines, life-support, sensors and… shields!”
“Fire on that last ship!” Ryynaall literally shouted.
The fleet converged on the ship that used its weapon last. With the combined fire, the ship was rocked with explosions. Sustaining catastrophic hull damage, the hull integrity collapsed and the ship broke apart. No other ship attempted to use the beam weapon again. With that little problem quelled, they could once again focus on the battle as a whole. He didn’t even want to think about how many lives were lost in those blasts; the thought nearly turned his stomach.
As the fight progressed, things got even grimmer. One of the four Dark Fleet groups was completely gone. The Forward Fleet was a total loss. Only a handful of ships remained. That left the F’Rosian Fleet unhindered with a direct line of attack on the planet itself. They moved forward and launched warheads next.
“Damn!” Ryynaall growled. “Go to point defense! Shoot down those warheads. This is your top priority!”
As the remaining ships directed all their fire at the incoming warheads, the F’Rosian ships concentrated fire on the defending ships, blasting them to oblivion. Though most of the warheads were stopped, a few made it past and detonated on the surface with the power of a nuclear blast.
More lives were lost.
The Bright Fleet was fairing the best because they had both the Protectors and Founder ships to protect them. The Forward Fleet was gone now, two of the four Dark Groups were gone and one of the Blood groups was gone. Things were not looking good. With a nothing to stop them, the F’Rosian fleet could use their beam weapon again and leave nothing living on Seryys.
At their darkest hour a miracle happened! As the F’Rosians went for the kill, trying to glass the planet, four hundred ships emerged from black holes and immediately opened fire on the F’Rosian fleet. Ryynaall recognized a Vyysarri Fang-Class destroyer when he saw one. He looked back at Braac who smiled and folded his arms. “Chuumdar sends his regards,” he said.
“We owe him a drink!” Ryynaall said.
The unannounced arrival of the Vyysarri fleet threw the F’Rosians into an immediate retreat back to regroup.
“This is Chuumdar of the Vyysarri flagship Warrior’s Might,” a deep resonant voice boomed in the speakers. “I offer my assistance with this invasion that maybe once this is over, we may form an alliance forged as strong as steel!”
“Chuumdar, this is Prime Minister Puar. Nothing would make me happier than to take your hand in friendship and continue to find a new, suitable home for you and your people.”
“Then let this day mark the beginning of a Vyysarri and Seryysan bond that will not be broken by petty lies and deceit, nor be broken by differences of opinion, nor be broken by outside interference.”
“I couldn’t’ve said it better myself, Prefect!” Puar said warmly. “Now let’s kick some F’Rosian ass!”
Chapter Seventeen
These Seryysans and Vyysarri were adaptive, that much was certain. The unforeseen entrance of reinforcements momentarily sent his fleet into disarray, but they were F’Rosians; they were adaptable and cunning warriors, not easily shaken in the heat of battle. He felt some satisfaction in knowing that several of their cities now lay in ruin, nothing more than smoking craters. They fought with bravery, with courage to sacrifice themselves to save their people. The Alpha Centaurians did the same thing. But they had not had the ability to mysteriously stop torpedoes from reaching their sun, however.
The introduction of stealthy ships was also an ingenious plan! It took him by complete surprise, but their quaint vessels were no match for the F’Rosians! They had only suffered a total loss of sixteen ships out of the remains from the blunder in Vyysarri space. Plus, somehow they managed to break through the dampening field that disabled their black hole drive, but apparently not entirely, otherwise they would be dropping black holes within his fleet and they had not so far.
“Tactical,” Vor’l called out.
“Yes, my Alpha?”
“Dispatch twenty ships to the Seryysan sun. Find out why our torpedoes are not making it through and destroy any opposition.”
“At once!” he shouted back.
The small group began to break away from the main pack and head for the sun. At top speed it would take less than two minutes once they broke formation. He had faith that his warriors would prove triumphant and it was clear that they would not be needed here as he watched two more Vyysarri ships become burning hulks. He had received word that a small landing party had made it onto the vessel that projected the dampening field, but had not heard anything in quite some time, so he assumed that meant the pathetic attempt
was thwarted. He allowed himself a small victorious grin.
“My Alpha!” it was his tactical officer again. The urgency in his voice was not welcome.
“What?”
“The gravity well projection is failing!”
“How?” Vor’l demanded.
“I do not know! I have not received word from the Victor in some time! She is now broadcasting a distress signal! They are saying that someone activated their self-destruct sequence and rewrote the program as to make it irreversible!”
How? Vor’l wondered. HOW? He fumed!
“Science!” Vor’l shouted. “Disable our self-destruct—now! We will not have that happen to us, is that understood?”
“Yes, my Alpha!”
“I hope so,” Vor’l warned menacingly. “Your life depends on it.”
“We need to leave—now!” Sibrex shouted over the din of battle.
“What? Why?” Puar asked.
“This ship will self-destruct in ten minutes!”
“How the—” Brawl said, but was cut off by an advancing F’Rosian. Kay jumped and cut him clean in half with a single swipe.
“Puar, would you be so kind?”
“With pleasure!” Puar took aim and fired multiple grenades down the hall. After that, they all ran for their lives. Sibrex guided them. With two minutes left, the alarms started going off. There was pandemonium and mass hysteria as F’Rosians practically crawled over each other to get to the designated escape routes. With the party in vac suits, they were able to leave from any point, but they prayed Dah was able to affect enough repairs to get them out of there in a timely fashion.
“Dack!” Khai shouted into his radio,
“Yeah?”
“We’re making a hasty evac! I need you to get the Merchant running hot when we arrive!”
“When will that be?”
They had just entered the corridor from which they originally emerged. “One minute and counting!”
“Oh! Shit! I’m on it!”
While they donned their helmets, Sibrex worked his magic on the door and it reluctantly slid open as air began to rush out. They ran with the air current to the Merchant where Dah had just started up the engines.
“We’re hot!” Dah shouted. “Now get your asses aboard!”
“You don’t have to tell me twice!” Brix said.
They ran up the ramp and the hatch practically slammed behind them. Dah pushed the throttle as far as he thought the ship could handle and they left the hangar in a hurry just as a ball of fire coming from the corridor leading to hangar belched out and engulfed them. For a few tense seconds, all they saw was fire and all they felt was the ship rumbling. Eventually, they emerged from the fire ball and were safe—relatively speaking; there was, after all, a war going on outside the hangar.
A few tense moments later and they were clear of the battle, safely hiding on the fringes of the battle. The ship they had just sabotaged began its final moments—which began with a large plume of fire from what they assumed was the bridge. Then smaller, sequential explosions went off one at time along the ship’s spine where the spike-like antennae were located. The final nail in the coffin came via an explosion in the aft that caused the hull to bulge like a bloated snake that swallowed its prey whole. Then the lights flickered and went out, leaving the ship to float lifelessly in its own metallic entrails.
Khai spotted a small group of ships breaking off and heading somewhere outside the battle zone. When he pointed it out, the all looked and wondered what the hell they were doing. Were they running? Were they finally tracking the Blood Fleet’s jumping points? Were they going to look for what stopped their sun-killing projectiles? It didn’t matter when triumphant cheers erupted in the cockpit after they saw micro-black holes yawning wide amongst the F’Rosian ships. The twenty-or-so ships that had broken off from the main fleet began trying fruitlessly to escape the gravitational pull. One unfortunate crew had their ship caught between two black holes and was literally ripped apart by opposing gravitational fields.
Morbidly, Khai thought about what it would feel like to be sucked through a black hole without the protection of ship. He imagined it would be a rush until the radiation cooked him in his clothes –and that’s if he made it that far.
With their job done, they sat back and watched the battle’s tide turn. The momentum was now most definitely in favor of the Seryysan/Vyysarri fleet. That was when Khai noticed the four hundred Vyysarri battleships exchanging blows with the forward ships of the F’Rosian fleet. Khai’s heart was happy at that moment and he pointed it out to the rest of his friends.
“What does that mean?” Brawl asked.
“It means that we will finally have a lasting peace with the Vyysarri for a long time,” Khai answered. There they were: Vyysarri and Seryysan battleships in the same space and not trying to blast each other to oblivion, but working together against a common foe for a common purpose… survival. It wasn’t the way he wanted it to go particularly, but any way to avoid all-out war was a good way.
Khai’s stomach lurched when he saw the forward F’Rosian ships go to a full burn and started ramming into the Vyysarri ships as if they knew they were defeated but refused to accept it. Take out as many enemies as you can, if you know you’re going to die! His old drill sergeant/father-figure used to say to him and his fellow recruits. There is nothing more heroic and honorable than taking those bastards with you! Khai still remembered the day Sergeant Moon’Sinder Moor took down hundreds of Vyysarri in his dying breath to save him.
“Would you look at that?” Brawl gasped.
Some of the ships moved past the Vyysarri ships and headed for the planet. It became clear the ramming ships were nothing more than a distraction—albeit, a costly one—to get the others past the impromptu blockade. They began bombarding the planet form low orbit with some intense firepower. They could see mushroom clouds forming on the surface of their beloved planet as the F’Rosians began firing indiscriminately. Their purpose was clear: to render Seryys uninhabitable.
“Bastards!” Dack growled with rage and frustration, knowing there was nothing—nothing—he could do.
They all just watched helplessly as the stray ships ravaged their home. The Vyysarri reinforcements concentrated fire on them. It didn’t take long for the Vyysarri ships to take down the enemy ships. It must have become apparent to the F’Rosian commander that things were not going to end well because one ship broke formation and pushed full throttle for deep space.
Anger boiled up in Khai. “The man we need to kill in on that ship!” he pointed at it. “Can you catch it?”
“I can sure as hell try!” Dah said through clenched jaws.
The ship shuddered as Dah pushed it past what he would normally deem a safe speed with the ship in its current shape. He didn’t care. If the ship flew apart in a million pieces, he didn’t care so long as he made it to the fleeing vessel before it escaped! The ship grew in size as they streaked toward it. Before long, the ship filled the entire canopy outside.
“Just get me close enough!” Khai said with determination.
“Close enough to do what?” Puar asked.
“Jump the gap!”
“It would be unwise to go alone,” Sibrex warned.
“Yeah,” Puar agreed. “That’s a suicide mission for sure!”
“Doesn’t matter,” Khai said with rage boiling just beneath the surface. “We need to send a clear message to the F’Rosians that if you fuck with the Seryysans, you lose! Plain and simple. No ship leaves this space today. Now are you gonna get me there, or not?”
“I will go with you,” Sibrex said.
“I’m not looking for volunteers,” Khai shot back.
“I matters not,” Sibrex insisted. “We are brothers and I will die with you if it comes to that.”
“You guys are nuts!” Puar said. “Space-jumping to an enemy ship and getting killed—possibly before even getting there—is not my idea of being a hero.”
“And that
’s the difference between you and me, Puar,” Khai said with disappointment in his tone. “I’m not doing this to be a hero.” He turned to Dah. “Prep the airlock.”
“It’s already prepped,” Dah said, sadly. “I wish I could go with you.”
“Me, too. But you have an empire to run.”
“Is there anything you want to me tell Brindee?” Dah asked.
“Just… ‘I love you,’” Khai said. “She’ll understand.”
“You got it,” Dah said. Khai turned to leave. “Hey! You might need this.” Dah pulled two small backpacks from a compartment. “Just in case you need to make the jump home.”
“Thanks,” Khai said, then gave Dah a tight embrace.
With that, they left the cockpit.
“There is an access point here,” Sibrex pointed at his computer. “It is a maintenance hatch into the crawlspace above the main hangar. I have the override code to force the hatch open and we can make our entrance there.”
“What other information were able to get from the computer?”
“A few other surprises,” Sibrex answered mischievously.”
“I don’t want you setting another self-destruct. I want to face this commander on my own.”
“I highly doubt it would work twice,” Sibrex said. “If they even managed to get a short message out to their commander, he would have his fleet affect changes to the self-destruct protocols.”
“Are you sure?”
“I would.”
“Point taken.” Khai and Sibrex reached the airlock. “You ready?”
“I am.”
“All right, Dack,” Khai called out. “We’re ready.”
“Cycling airlock now.” The inner door sealed shut with a faint hiss. The air was pulled from the small room and the outer door slid open. “Good luck and may the Founders smile upon you.”
“Thanks, Dack. It’s been a pleasure.”
The Merchant was flying parallel to the Fur’l. A few buttons pressed disabled gravity in the airlock and Sibrex and Khai maneuvered themselves to crouch on the inner door. With great effort, they both pushed off and cleared the Merchant. They sailed soundlessly toward the F’Rosian flagship. Within seconds, they impacted the black hull and activated their magnigrav boots. From there, they walked to the access hatch atop the ship.
The Seryys Chronicles: Steel Alliance Page 22
