The Lost Swarm

by Vaughn Heppner

  “I am Driving Force Galyan from Starship Victory. I have rendered a naked New Man unconscious in your main engine area, 511-B. Before he revives, you must send Space Marines to capture him. The New Man is attempting to detonate your antimatter core.”

  With that, Galyan vanished, continuing his search from battleship to battleship. He found another New Man, and floated toward him, shouting.

  The just-appearing New Man halted in shock. The engineers in the chamber whirled around to witness the event.

  The New Man swung at Galyan, his fist passing through harmlessly. Galyan attempted another surge of power, but nothing happened. The unit on Victory hadn’t recharged yet.

  Galyan turned. “He is here to explode the antimatter core. Kill him before he kills all of you.”

  The New Man glared at Galyan, and then charged the engineers. One of them, First Cadet Charles Danforth from destroyed Tau Ceti II, wore a sidearm. He had washed out of training several years ago when he’d tried to join the Marines, and still had martial dreams of becoming a combat hero. The others often chided him about them.

  Now, he drew his needler and fired. Thirteen tiny slivers entered the New Man’s chest, four of them reaching his racing heart.

  The New Man staggered. Charles Danforth steadied his shaking gun-hand and fired again, this time into the naked madman’s face, killing the New Man and saving the battleship and crew from destruction and death.

  Galyan had already disappeared, continuing his search for teleported New Men.

  -22-

  Aboard the Agamemnon, Drakos pressed the com control of his command chair.

  “Nar Falcon, you destroyed two battleships. More should be detonating. Is everything well?”

  “Lord, I have sent others,” Nar Falcon said. “I have more to send. I have no idea why the other battleships haven’t detonated.”

  Drakos scowled. Could the submen have reacted to his tactic so quickly? It didn’t seem possible. He should be wiping out the battleships. He had counted on the Builder Teleportor to take out at least half of the heaviest Star Watch vessels.

  Drakos rubbed his fingers together. Should he call Nar Falcon again? That might show worry, but wouldn’t it be better to get to the bottom of this?

  “Nar Falcon,” Drakos said. “Send two dominants at a time.”

  There was a moment’s hesitation before Nar Falcon replied, “I hear your words and am ready to obey, lord. But we only have a limited supply of volunteers.”

  “Send two,” Drakos said, his voice hardening. “We need kills, not near misses. This is the moment. We must shatter their morale. The rest will follow. If they see more battleships blow up, the battle is ours.”

  “I obey, lord,” Nar Falcon said.

  “You’d better,” Drakos mumbled to himself.

  On the main screen, the bug squadrons continued to accelerate. Drakos’s twelve star cruisers were catching up fast, straining to join the fray to help the attack saucers. Now would have been a good time to throw three Juggernauts into the battle.

  The signals operator had still failed to reach the last Juggernaut, which continued to maneuver the phantom fleet.

  The last SWS cruiser had exploded. The monitors had braked their initial velocity and direction and were now heading at the much larger bug fleet. There were only ten monitors. But they were not like cruisers, which were meant as maneuver vessels. A monitor’s function was to slug it out in a line of battle contest. They had been made for this. Their shields were powerful and the hull armor among the best in a non-battleship vessel.

  From the monitors’ one flank and still well behind raced thirteen Bismarck-class battleships, warships augmented with the latest heavy metal upgrades, and Starship Victory, the deadliest vessel in Star Watch. Seventeen Throne World star cruisers raced up from the other flank.

  That made forty-one ships against one hundred and twenty-five attack saucers, with twelve enemy star cruisers rushing up to help. But it was forty-one heavy ships, forty-one killers against one hundred and twenty-five bug vessels that hadn’t had a complete overhaul since the war many years ago. Many of the attack saucers had overheated and nearly burned-out laser equipment from firing for so long already. Yet, the bugs had slaughtered thirty-three lesser capital ships and all the strikefighters, fold-fighters, escorts and destroyers.

  The time of maneuvering for better position was over. Now, the slugging, the pounding, the dishing out and absorbing was about to start. Would the much-greater numbers tell against the bigger, heavier, tougher and so-far-untested warships spoiling to rip out the enemy’s combined throat?

  -23-

  If the three Juggernauts had still been intact and leading the charge, absorbing the monitors’ beams, the battle might have gone differently. If the Builder Teleportor had allowed more New Men to detonate more battleship engine cores, the contest would have gone completely differently.

  But “if” had no meaning in war. All that mattered was “is.”

  The monitors were heavy sluggers, and it showed quickly. The attack saucers used their usual gang-up tactic, only more so. Ten saucers concentrated on one monitor. The monitor shields turned red, brown and a few of them black. Those round heavy bull-baiters kept absorbing enemy laser beams, though. It was a thing to witness. As they did, the monitors lashed back with disrupter beams.

  The first attack saucer fell to one monitor salvo. Then, five more exploded in quick succession.

  At that point, concentrated laser fire smashed a monitor shield and started on that heavy hull armor. These battle-barge monitors did not go down easily.

  Lasers coils in some attack saucers burned out. Vents burst, spilling acid everywhere, killing the engineer bugs in them. The continuous heavy laser beam fire from the bug fleet started to slacken.

  A monitor finally blew up, though. It had taken far longer than anyone had anticipated. Then, a second one exploded, and more might have started to die.

  But finally, oh finally, the long-range heavy disrupter beams from the Bismarck-class battleships lashed out. Joining them was Victory’s disrupter beam.

  At Captain Maddox’s suggestion, Admiral Byron aboard the flagship ordered the battleships to concentrate on one attack saucer at a time.

  That meant fourteen terrible annihilating beams reached out from a tremendous distance and struck one pitiful straining attack saucer. That saucer lasted mere seconds. Its shield went down, and its armor was a pathetic joke to these hoary beams. The saucer might as well have had no hull armor. The bug ship ignited and blasted apart.

  By that time, the fourteen heavy beams, guided by Galyan’s targeting, struck another poor bastard of an attack saucer.

  For a short time, attack saucers blew up one after another in what seemed a never-ending succession of deaths. It was wonderful. It was glorious—to the Star Watch crews. How horrible, how agonizing—to Supremacy Thrax Ti Ix and his bug controllers.

  What helped in this annihilation were Ural’s seventeen star cruisers using the cone of battle. The ships used a circular formation, overlapping shields. Then, they fired their disrupters in a joint beam that had the same effect as the Star Watch battleships.

  Did the Star Watch crews try to show the New Man crews how much more destructive they were? And did the other side try to do the same thing?

  Supremacy Thrax’s bug fleet was disappearing in explosion after explosion.

  “Hang on,” Drakos told Thrax. “My ships are joining yours.”

  The twelve star cruisers started firing. They did not use a cone of battle, but fired as individual ships. Was that upsetting to some of Drakos’s captains?

  Golden Ural broadcast to everyone who would listen. “This is the Throne World Emperor’s cousin and representative. Lord Drakos is an outlaw. He is declared anathema to superior society. He faces death by torture, administered by the Emperor’s killer. All who knowingly aid Lord Drakos from this moment forward will face a similar fate.

  “However,” Ural said, holding up a han
d and an index finger. “There is a way to return to the Emperor’s good graces. You must act immediately, targeting the bug saucers. Help us destroy the Swarm creatures, vile things that desire to kill all life but their own, and the Emperor will grant you a full pardon for aiding the criminal Drakos. I speak these words, Golden Ural, who is known for keeping his word. Act now, before you disgrace yourselves further by aiding bugs.”

  Ural said the last word with extreme disgust.

  Drakos listened to the message with horror from his command chair on the Agamemnon.

  Byron kept blinking on the Kaiser Wilhelm.

  Thrax was too busy shaking his pincers, cursing the day he listened to the golden-skinned devil named Drakos. He should have slain the mammal the first time.

  Ural sat back on his chair in the Boreas, stroking his chin, quite sure his cleverness would bring a quick response, silently laying three-to-one odds on it.

  On Victory, Maddox waited, knowing this was critical. Beside him, Galyan smiled, glad that his quick thinking had saved the battleships and thus the fleet. Captain Maddox had already told him so.

  Then, on many main screens, witnessed by many crews, first one and then another hardliner star cruiser stabbed Thrax’s attack saucers in the back. Finally, ten of the twelve did so.

  That was when the real slaughter started.

  -24-

  No bug attack-saucer survived the Battle of Gomez System. No one ever found the body of former Commander Thrax Ti Ix. He was dead, burned to a crisp during the final cauldron set-piece when every bug vessel turned on their traitorous allies, trying to kill them for their perfidy.

  Surprisingly, Drakos lived through the fight. The Agamemnon sustained heavy damage. The hangar bay holding the Builder Teleportor ignited with everything in it, including Nar Falcon. The wonderful piece of Builder equipment…no one knew yet if it had withstood the repeated blasts that had destroyed everything else in there.

  Seven of Drakos’s twelve star cruisers survived the battle, including his damaged Agamemnon. Drakos had fallen unconscious due to an explosion and fire on the bridge that killed half of his bridge personnel.

  Claiming the right to board the disabled Agamemnon almost caused the victorious allies to break out in battle against each other.

  Golden Ural retained sixteen of his seventeen star cruisers. Of all the combatants, his flotilla sustained the least damage. With those sixteen star cruisers were four of Drakos’s former ships still able to move and fight. Their captains had already spoken to Ural via com and sworn the Emperor fealty as newly proclaimed softliners. They therefore augmented his warships, giving him twenty deadly craft.

  Four monitors were left of the Patrol Fleet, one heavy cruiser, it turned out, two attack cruisers that had pretended to sustain damage and two destroyers. Combined with eleven battleships and Victory, that gave Admiral Byron twenty-one warships of varying types. Since the majority was battleships, Byron felt himself at least on equal terms with Ural. How times had changed since the initial New Men invasion of “C” Quadrant.

  Amidst the debris of a slaughtered bug saucer fleet and other sundry vessels, the two allies began to position themselves against each other as they circled the badly damaged Agamemnon.

  From Victory, Maddox spoke to Byron via screen. “Admiral, I commend you on gaining a hard-won victory.”

  “Too hard-won,” Byron said listlessly from his command chair. “Cook said I must smash the enemy.”

  “You did.”

  “And without taking heavy damage to the Patrol Fleet,” Byron finished.

  “The bug saucers are effectively gone,” Maddox said. “All that needs doing is demolishing their colony world.”

  “That’s a big project, as it means heading out deep into the Beyond.”

  “Half full or half empty,” Maddox said. “The choice is yours.”

  Byron brooded, finally shaking his head. “I’m exhausted, Captain. I’m broken inside. I’m appalled by the carnage today. I so wanted to bring the Lord High Admiral a nearly unscratched fleet back home. I have failed.”

  Maddox shifted on his chair. “Sir, with your permission, I could speak to Golden Ural for you and see if we can avoid a shooting match between us.”

  “I don’t intend to fire on the New Men.”

  “The Agamemnon—”

  “I don’t care about any of that,” Byron said, interrupting. “I just want to return what’s left of my command back home. The destruction today—”

  “Sir,” Maddox said, interrupting. “There is still the matter of the last Juggernaut. Perhaps I could acquire it for you, and you could present it to the Lord High Admiral.”

  “What’s one Juggernaut?”

  “Another super-heavy ship that could help Star Watch’s regain its power,” Maddox said.

  Byron exhaled. “I’m too tired for this, Captain.”

  “I could speak to Golden Ural for you,” Maddox said in an offhanded manner.

  “Why would you do this?” asked Byron.

  “Someone has to. Why not me?”

  Byron exhaled again. “You have ulterior motives. But since your robot saved my battleships from New Men kamikazes, why not? Go speak to Ural. See what you can salvage for Star Watch.”

  -25-

  Before calling, Maddox maneuvered Victory nearer the drifting Agamemnon. Three of the least-damaged battleships followed close behind.

  “Sir,” Galyan said. “Several New Men shuttles are headed for the Agamemnon.”

  Maddox twisted his head, listening to neck bones pop. He didn’t feel tired. He didn’t feel pent up with emotion. He felt…if not serene, then ready for the fight of his life. It was strange how calm he had become, even without resorting to the meditation.

  He was not sure he would use it ever again. It had helped him settle himself with his newfound energy and internal zeal. But now that he was settled—

  “Warm up the neutron cannon,” Maddox told Galyan.

  Everyone on the bridge turned to look at him.

  Maddox examined the fingernails of his right hand. “Is the cannon online yet and targeted on a shuttle?” he asked.

  “Working, sir,” Galyan said, with his eyelids fluttering. “There. It is ready. May I ask you a question, sir?”

  “You’ve earned the right,” Maddox said. “Go ahead.”

  “Why did you let Admiral Byron call me a robot? I am a defied holoimage.”

  “I know that,” Maddox said. “We know that. If Byron is so tired as to make that kind of error—” Maddox shrugged. “He would have been too tired to make a mental note of the correction.”

  “I see,” Galyan said.

  “Sir,” Valerie said from her station. “Golden Ural is hailing us.”

  “Put him on the main screen.”

  A moment later, the tallest of New Men stared languidly at Maddox. “You’ve targeted several of my shuttles. Is there a reason for that?”

  “As a matter of fact, there is,” Maddox said lightly. “I’m intending to destroy them as punishment for boarding Star Watch property. Why, do you have a problem with that?”

  “You will be declaring war against the Throne World if you fire.”

  “I’ll repeat myself so you can understand me. They are attempting to board Commonwealth property. I am sworn to defend Commonwealth property. If that means starting a shooting war—so be it.”

  “Shall we dispense with the chicanery?” asked Ural.

  “If the shuttles alter course and go elsewhere, I would be happy to oblige you.”

  “A moment then,” Ural said.

  “Sir,” Galyan said. “The shuttles are altering course.”

  Maddox could see that on the main screen, but made no comment.

  “Satisfied?” asked Ural, who had reappeared on the screen.

  “Yes.”

  Ural sat straighter. “I claim the Agamemnon for the Throne World. It is a star cruiser, and I do not feel like letting Star Watch have one.”

  “Inter
esting,” Maddox said. “I claim the Agamemnon, having won it by right of combat and suffering.”

  “Tell me, how may we avoid a shooting war?” Ural asked.

  “You know about the Builder Teleportor, I presume?”

  “Naturally,” Ural said. “My sensor operator tells me it’s intact.”

  “I assume you desire the teleportor.”

  “Hmmm, yes, I do,” Ural said

  “Me too,” Maddox said.

  “What would you take in exchange for the teleportor?”

  “Rights to the last Juggernaut,” Maddox said crisply, “and a live Lord Drakos in my custody and the right to go to the bug colony world and destroy it.”

  “You mean study the bug colony world and see what you can glean from it,” Ural said.

  “I stand by my words, sir.”

  Ural cocked his head, studying Maddox. Finally, the New Man leaned forward. “Captain, I would like to speak to you in person, just you and me. Then, I will discuss terms for the teleporting platform.”

  “Granted,” Maddox said. “Where would you like to meet?”

  ***

  Two shuttles went down to the second terrestrial planet. The rocky surface was nearly devoid of atmosphere.

  Ahead of them, an auto-packet dropped, landing on a flat rocky area. The packet hissed as it unfolded, revealing a plastic tent with two airlocks. Galyan went down and inspected the tent. Satisfied, he went back to Victory declaring it safe. There were no listening devices or other tricks there.

  In time, one tall, space-suited individual left each landed shuttle. The two walked easily enough. Finally, the two entered the tent, one from each side. Each of them went through an airlock, entering into the center of the spacious tent. The shorter of the two unlocked his space helmet as the taller did the same. Each removed his helmet at almost the same instant.

  Captain Maddox stared into the eyes of Golden Ural. The New Man was taller by a head, and his eyes seemed to glitter with intensity. For once, though, the captain did not feel even slightly intimidated by a New Man. Perhaps, with his new energy, he would be the equal to one in a physical fight.