The Deadly Pact

by Michael Freeport

  Coffee exchanged looks with Misato. Coffee said, “You can’t be serious, Commander. We have no intention of surrendering under any conditions.”

  “Perhaps you’ve failed to recognize the threat the Woduur ships we’ve brought with us represent. They are not like the single ring ship you’ve previously had in your possession. They are combat dreadnaughts. These represent the most powerful fighting vessels in known space. Nothing can withstand their attack.”

  “They’re welcome to give it a try, Commander. We won’t surrender ourselves as you demand. Turn around and leave before you cause a lot of innocent people to die,” Coffee said.

  Machast simply said, “So be it, then.” The screen displaying his comm signal went blank.

  “Sir,” Ellison said. “There is a large energy buildup around one of the Woduur ships. It’s passing through the defense perimeter. “It’s-oh!” The plot showed a streak as the ship transitioned back to FTL flight, slowing to a stop just outside of Lashmere’s atmosphere.

  Coffee whistled softly. “Nice piloting.” The ship turned on its side and began descending toward the surface. “What’s their destination?”

  “If they maintain their entry profile, it looks like they’re going to hit the ground around Istyul City.”

  Coffee nodded and said, “Alert our ground forces to prepare to defend against a surface attack.”

  “Aye, sir. The rest of the fleet is moving in system at sublight speeds.”

  Misato nodded. “Very good. Let them get to defense zone Charlie before launching our drones. If they show signs of having detected the drones, launch immediately, without asking me for orders.”

  Ellison nodded and said, “Aye, sir.”

  Sergeant Valencia of the Lashmere Marines had been stationed in Istyul city for about six months. This was his first assignment in the Karn region. The Karn weren’t the friendliest people at first, but as he got to know some of them, he found they were generally decent folks, just unhappy about how the war had gone. He found that if he didn’t rub it in their faces, they were usually polite enough.

  He was on alert with the rest of his battalion. They’d been stationed around the old Karn capital to occupy one of the bases that dotted the area. His lieutenant checked in on the suit comm. “Heads up, people. We’ve got incoming. One of the ships is making a landing right on top of the city.”

  Valencia felt his guts clench up in trepidation. He turned his gaze towards the sky and soon saw the glowing point of the descending ship. It grew until it was a fireball five kilometers across and falling directly towards his unit.

  “We’re going to be inside the ring when it lands. Expect attacks from all directions. Formation Charlie four,” came the lieutenant’s voice. The Marines got into a triangular formation with a small reserve of troops, mostly officers, inside the hollow center.

  The ring slowed down until it was approaching at what seemed like a sedate pace. Sedate until it hit the ground, that was. Buildings were crushed, and the ground shook violently as it touched down. Valencia struggled to keep his feet. Once it stopped moving, he realized the scale of the ship that had landed. The streets filled with screaming, running civilians. Karn citizens, armed with weapons from the war boiled out of side streets and passed by Valencia’s squad with barely a second look.

  Valencia looked around. He was surrounded on all sides by a massive, burnished silver wall more than a kilometer high. Hatches opened along the interior surface, and huge spider-like troops began to pour out onto the surface. Gunfire erupted from all sides. Civilians fired at the invaders next to the small contingent of Karn troops that had been stationed in Istyul City.

  Valencia heard his lieutenant say, “Anti-energy weapon canisters launching. Switch to projectile weaponry, everyone.”

  Valencia pulled a long magazine of ammunition from his belt and slotted it into the underside of his rifle. The ammo counter on the top of the weapon flickered to life and showed he had one hundred rounds remaining. His suit also displayed the ammo count.

  A series of muffled thumps sounded all around him, and the air started to grow hazy with the mist that was designed to knock down energy weapons effectiveness. Valencia sure hoped the egg heads had gotten that part of their math right.

  “Movement,” he called out on the squad channel. A large creature, all made out of metal charged out of an alley across the street from the plaza where his unit had been ordered to draw up. It was moving at a good thirty kilometers per hour, the long legs flickering as it ran. It had an upright torso and held a large rifle in its hands.

  The rifle leveled at his squad and made a high piercing sound as it fired. A long bolt of blue energy shot out, but by the time it made it to the squad, it had lost so much of its energy that it only caused a singe on the armor of the private who was hit. Valencia joined his squad in immediately opening fire with their rifles.

  The projectiles had their own kind of noise as they were discharged from the rifles. More of a booming, thunderous sound as they accelerated past the speed of sound. The creature took several hits before going down. Its legs flailed wildly for a moment before it went still.

  “Valencia, Cooper recon that enemy unit, make sure it’s dead and then get back in formation.” The lieutenant’s voice was stressed.

  Valencia waited for Cooper to come up to him and the pair covered each other as they advanced on the alien who’d fallen in the street.

  “Fall back! Fall back!” The lieutenant shouted as a wave of at least fifty of the metal creatures flooded over the rest of the squad. Individual Marines fought and killed some of them, but his unit was taking heavy casualties. The creatures were armed with heavy fighting knives along with their rifles. Valencia and Cooper fired and fired from their position while the rest of their unit died in front of them. Three enemy troops remained and began to advance towards the two remaining Marines.

  Cooper dropped one quickly, but he overheated his rifle by emptying an entire magazine on full auto. Valencia aimed at the head of the second one. The third was moving slowly and seemed like it was injured. He tried to control his breathing and make steady shots, but the enemy was moving fast, and its head was a small target. Finally, he landed a clean headshot about ten meters from his position. The enemy dropped to the ground like a switch had been flipped.

  The third one went down much more easily, but that left Valencia in command of a single private. The rest of his squad status showed as dead. “Command this is Sergeant Valencia. The rest of my squad is down, and I need instructions.”

  Nothing. He ran a self-test on his suit transmitter. It checked out fine. “Cooper, can you get a signal out?”

  “No, Sergeant. They must be jamming us. What’re we going to do?”

  “Since the ship has us completely cut off, we’ll just have to go through it, won’t we?” The men grabbed replacement weapons and ammunition from their fallen squad mates before heading out. They began moving towards the closest section of the Woduur ship with purposeful strides.

  Stokes gripped the arm of his command chair, silently willing the engines to cool down faster. Seconds ticked by slowly. He watched the rest of his bridge crew. All of them were sitting alertly at their watch stations, their faces lined with tension and anticipation. Finally, the engines were cooled down enough to make the jump. They’d need to complete some serious maintenance once this was all over, but they would make it. “Jump ship, Exec.”

  “Aye, sir,” Bendel said.

  Victorious, followed by the rest of the small fleet left through their jump rings. The plot updated to show the situation in clear detail. A fleet of Woduur ring ships was massed about a hundred thousand kilometers in front of his position.

  “Combat launch all drones. Prepare for maximum acceleration. Once command launches the system defense drones, we’ll sweep in and attack whatever’s left.”

  Aye, sir,” Bendel said. He turned and passed Stokes’ orders along to the rest of his fleet. “All ships report they are launch
ing their drones, Admiral.”

  “Very well.” Stokes took a deep breath to settle his nerves. The Woduur were slowly pushing into the system. They were holding their speed down, but they were almost too far inside the defensive envelope to escape.

  “I’m sure they detected our arrival. Perhaps they don’t think we’re a threat,” Woodard said from the science station.

  “Perhaps,” Stokes said. “Give it a few more minutes. They’re nearly in the optimal position.” With a suddenness that was breathtaking, more than ten thousand drones launched simultaneously. They streaked on, some firing energy weapons at the now wildly maneuvering Alliance ships and some boring in for nuclear strikes on the Woduur ships.

  Stokes watched the plot intently. The torpedoes outdistanced the actual combat drones quickly. Detonations appeared across all of the Woduur and Alliance ships. The Alliance ships were devastated by the heavy alpha attack. Nearly all of them were annihilated. One of the ring ships exploded, and the others showed signs of damage. The ring ships started to shift into a semi-circular formation, facing the incoming threat.

  Stokes ordered, “Flank speed, Helm. Intercept the closest ring ship. Bring our drones into maximum defensive formation. We’ll bore in and then turn to hit them with our broadside at point-blank range. That should get through their armor. Send a message to our salvage ships to hold station here and jump out to rally point Charlie if they’re threatened. Leave four of the stealth corvettes here to watch them.”

  “Aye, sir,” Bendel said. Victorious led the charge forward. The ring ships turned in unison to meet Stokes fleet head on. Stokes saw the other four battleship formations moving up to intercept the ring ships as well. They wouldn’t arrive until Stokes was well inside weapons range. If his ships were defeated, the rest of the battle groups should be able to retreat and reevaluate their strategy. Stokes hoped that wasn’t a necessary step.

  “We’re entering weapons range of the first ring ship, Admiral,” Ira Lokin, the tactical officer, said. “I’m picking up a lot of the stray drones in the area and integrating them into our defensive fire.”

  “Very well, Mister Lokin. Are they firing yet?”

  “No, sir. I’m not sure what their plan is. I’m not getting any energy readings that might be a weapon either, sir.”

  “Prepare to launch torpedoes. Most of the ships in the closest part of their formation show signs of serious damage. Any sign of how effective our energy fire is yet, Mister Lokin?”

  “Limited. Perhaps twenty or twenty-five percent. I’m trying to tune the emitters to get better penetration, but their armor is well suited to stand up to our energy fire.”

  “Very well. Wait to launch torpedoes until you think they have a good chance of making a hit.”

  “Aye, sir. We’re almost in range to come about and hit them with our broadsides.”

  As Stokes watched, one of the destroyers guarding his flank vanished in a flash.

  “Sir,” Bendel said, “We just lost Scorpion. It’s like it was just plucked out of space.”

  “Get an analysis going and figure out what happened,” Stokes said. “Launch our torpedoes, Mister Lokin. We need to hit these ships harder than we have so far.”

  “Aye, sir. Launching. We’re ready to fire broadsides as well.”

  “Present our starboard side to the Woduur ship and open fire as they bear.”

  Victorious was a huge ship. It took time to turn. The Woduur ship hovered over them, almost menacingly. A flash and Indomitable vanished from the plot.

  Bendel stared at the plot and said, “No. Whatever that weapon is, we have to get out of its range.”

  Stokes fought to control his shock as the human battleship just vanished. Finally, Victorious got her big guns into the fight. Massive impacts scored along the Woduur ship. The broadside fire bored holes through the massive hull of the Woduur ring ship, but it continued to maneuver.

  “Any changes in his power readings, Mister Lokin?”

  “No, sir. It looks like we missed their reactor. I’m trying to line up a second volley. Broadsides are charging.”

  Stokes watched as the four battlegroups executed tactical jumps to enter combat at the far side of the line of ring ships. The formation started to rotate to meet the arriving battlegroups.

  “Broadsides are charged, sir. Firing now.” Victorious’ broadsides roared out for a second time. This time, they hit the reactor Lokin had been aiming at. Half the ring ship vaporized in a huge explosion.

  Stokes stared at the damage. Despite losing half of its structure, the ring, half ring now, continued to maneuver. “Incredible,” Stokes said. “Now, get some drones up screening us. We’re too exposed here. Don’t let them get us surrounded. We need to take them one at a time if at all possible.”

  “Aye, sir. Helm come to zero-seven-one by one six-nine.”

  As Victorious turned to maintain its broadside on the damaged ship, another of the accompanying cruisers vanished from the formation. Stokes looked at the tactical plot that showed the rest of the battlegroups. Two of the groups were completely gone, and the remaining two forces had been severely damaged.

  Stokes pounded the arm of his command chair with his fist. “Dammit.” What’s the recharge time between shots, Mister Lokin?”

  “Observed minimum is roughly two minutes, sir.”

  “We have to finish them before their weapon recharges. Emergency acceleration.”

  The helm dialed up the emergency order. Victorious leaped forward and closed with their next target. The ring ship must have been ready as a part of Victorious’ stern shattered. Damage alarms blared, and power from the aft reactor stopped completely.

  “Damage report,” Stokes shouted into the cacophony of alarms filling the bridge.

  “The ship is completely destroyed aft of frame seven-ninety-two. The aft reactor is gone. We’re still combat capable, but we should avoid taking any more hits in the aft section.”

  “Fire all weapons at the closest ring ship.” Victorious lashed out with her broadsides once again, damaging another of the ring ships. During the exchange of fire, two more destroyers were annihilated.

  “Sir, I’m not sure if there’s a correlation, but there’s a massive increase in metallic particulates in the area,” Bendel said.

  “Later. Get me to another target,” Stokes ordered. He was not going to let the Woduur kill his people without answering for it.

  The ship swung her bow towards another of the ring ships. This one appeared to have taken some damage from the initial drone strikes.

  “How many more of these ring ships are there in the system?”

  “Fourteen, sir. Some of them are damaged, and one is half destroyed, but they’re all still maneuvering.

  “How many ships left in our escort?” Stokes asked.

  “Five ships left, sir,” Lokin said. “Two cruisers and three destroyers.

  “What’s the status of the ring ships?”

  “They’ve taken out almost all of the other four battlegroups. We have thirty-one ships left. They’re trying to make a tactical withdrawal before the rest of them are destroyed. We’re getting a comm signal from one of the ring ships.”

  Stokes sighed heavily. “Put it up.”

  A metallic face appeared on the main plot. “Humans of Lashmere, I represent the Woduur Cooperative. You have engaged in the use of our technology without authorization. If you evacuate your ships and withdraw to the surface, we will allow you to leave without further loss of life. Should you continue to resist us, your forces will be utterly decimated. No negotiation is possible at this time.”

  “Admiral Coffee is responding,” Bendel said. The main plot split to show Coffee’s face. “Woduur invaders. You’ve invaded our home system, and you have killed thousands of our people. We will not surrender our forces.”

  The screen shut off. “They both stopped transmitting, sir,” Bendel said. “Oh, Admiral Coffee is sending us a signal.

  “Admiral Stokes, I want you t
o withdraw our remaining forces to rally point, Charlie.”

  “Sir, I can’t just leave Lashmere.” Stokes felt a clutch of icy fear wrap around his heart.

  “I’ve spoken with President Mitchell. We’ve lost more than two hundred ships, including five battleships. In exchange, we’ve destroyed two ring ships and heavily damaged two others. We can’t win this fight. Preserve your strength, repair your ships. Take some time to revise your strategy and return to rescue us. Until we have an effective weapon against the Woduur, we have no chance.”

  Stokes hung his head and said, “Aye, sir. I’ll coordinate the withdrawal.”

  Victorious and its remaining fleet turned away from the Woduur ships and made the jump to the edge of the Lashmere system. As soon as the human ships pulled back from engaging the ring ships, the Woduur turned to move to the edge of the system as well.

  “Leave one stealth corvette in system to observe. We’ll need to find a way to maintain a watch over Lashmere.”

  “Aye, sir,” Bendel said.

  Stokes sighed. “It all seems so wasteful,” Stokes said. Victorious made the transit through the defensive barrier and made a coordinated jump to the designated rally point.

  Thirty-nine ships rendezvoused in the Buckman’s Star system. Once the ships were sorted out, and damage control efforts were well underway, Stokes initiated an FTL comm to Lashmere Naval Headquarters.

  Misato answered the call. His face was lined with worry. “Admiral, the Woduur left a single ring ship in the system to watch over the one on the surface. Istyul City is a battlefield. Thousands of Woduur troops have been ranging through the area encircled by the ship. We have reports indicating they’re taking prisoners and killing anyone who offers resistance. What’s that status of your fleet?”

  “We have thirty-nine ships, including two salvage ships. Our damage is light since most of the ships hit by the Woduur didn’t survive. We’re still trying to organize an analysis of their battle capabilities.” Stokes was about to say something else, but Misato raised his hand.