Daisy's War

by Scott Baron

  Moments later the systems aboard Marzook’s ship flickered, followed by the distinct sound of the cannon power systems regaining their charge.

  “Excellent,” the loyalist said.

  “What seems to be the problem, Marzook? Your cannons appear to be tracking my ship,” Maarl said calmly.

  “Yes, they are,” he said with a wicked grin. “Fire!”

  His gunner triggered the firing mechanism, but nothing happened.

  “I said fire!”

  “He heard you,” Maarl said calmly, “but I believe you will find that while your weapons may appear active, they are quite non-functional.”

  “What have you done?” the spy growled.

  “Well, I couldn’t very well give a loyalist spy an active weapons system, could I?” Maarl said, a cold smile spreading across his face, clearly visible on the monitors.

  “We have hostages!” Marzook shouted, shifting course. “You won’t dare risk their lives.”

  “About that,” Maarl countered with a broadening grin. “Another lesson for you, young one. Do you really think I would put you in a position to harm innocents?”

  “I have already harmed more than a few,” Marzook said coldly.

  “No, you have not,” Maarl replied.

  “I have. Show him!” he commanded.

  His team quickly dragged several pulse blast-riddled bodies into view.

  “You see, old man? Do you now understand what I am capable of?”

  “Oh, I’ve long been aware of that,” he replied calmly. “And that is why you have accomplished nothing more than killing your own people.”

  “What?” the loyalist asked, confused. “What do you mean by that?”

  “Everyone aboard that ship, every last Chithiid, including the ones you injured or killed in the act of taking it over, were loyalists, each and every one of them. You see, you’re aboard a ship crewed entirely by spies that have been hiding within our ranks.”

  “Impossible.”

  “Oh, but is it? We’ve been tracking you all for months. Since the first day of our freedom, in fact. Gathered from across the planet and placed together. I am sure that a few have slipped through our grasp here and there, but the vast majority of loyalist spies have been under surveillance. Tracked and monitored this whole time.”

  “But you did nothing.”

  “And in so doing, we have given each of you the opportunity to repent and rejoin Chithiid society. And some of you have. And those men are safely aboard other ships. But those who remained faithful to the Ra’az, you were all put on that ship together. All the better to keep an eye on that way. This was your final chance to redeem yourselves and fight for your people rather than against them.”

  “You expect us to turn on our Ra’az lords and rejoin your pathetic society?”

  “We had hoped you would,” Maarl said, quietly.

  “Then you hoped wrong. We will never give up. We will fight you until the end. We will even use this ship as a tool of destruction, taking as many of you scum with us as we can.”

  “I was afraid you would say that,” Maarl said with a sigh. “Very well, then. Detonate.”

  “Wait, wha––”

  Marzook was unable to complete his thought as the bridge, and entire vessel for that matter, self-destructed in a massive blast.

  Maarl switched his comms to speak with the command ship, where Celeste and Aarvin had watched the entire exchange in silence.

  “Most regrettable,” he said to his comrades.

  “Yes, but they could never be trusted, and at this point in the conflict, neither of our people have the resources to imprison them all. Not right now. Not with them actively attempting to sabotage our efforts,” Celeste said, the translator in her ear feeding her the entire exchange in real time.

  Zed, likewise, translated in real time for the Chithiid.

  “I agree with Celeste,” Aarvin said. “And now this threat has been handled in a manner the holdout loyalists will relate to and hopefully appreciate the severity of. I will have had a video record of this interaction taken by warp ship back to Dark Side Base. Sid will see to it that it is distributed across all of Earth as a warning to those who doubt our resolve. Hopefully others will learn from it.”

  “And those who do not?” Celeste asked.

  Maarl’s expression hardened.

  “Then they will share the same fate.”

  Across the battlefield––which spanned in all directions––Ra’az ships that were too crippled to fight tried to exit the battle to regroup for a counterattack by warping away.

  Most had sustained far too much damage, and the virus stopped even more from warping, but as Freya had suspected, the virus treated each ship differently, and several managed to jump free from the action.

  “You track their path?” Daisy asked.

  “Yeah, I’ve got ’em,” Freya replied. “Given the known power of the Ra’az warp systems, I think I can pin them down within a few thousand clicks.”

  “Well, okay, then. Let’s go Ra’az hunting,” Daisy said with a grim smile. “Hey, Zed, if you don’t need us right now, we’re gonna go after some runaway Ra’az.”

  “Sounds good, Daisy,” he replied. “We’ve got things as under control as they’re going to get for now, so happy hunting.”

  “I’m going to hunt them, and I’m going to kill them,” Freya said angrily.

  “What’s with her?” Sarah asked.

  “She’s pissed they destroyed her new toy, is all,” Sarah replied. “Don’t worry, kid. You can build another once this is all over.”

  Freya was hurt deeply by the comment, but didn’t dare let on why she was so upset.

  “Yeah, you’re right,” she said, playing it off. “Okay, if you’re ready, let’s get going.”

  She powered up her warp orb and plotted her course, then, in a blink she was gone.

  The stealth ship dropped out of warp nowhere near her intended destination, falling far short, arriving several solar systems away.

  “Freya, what’s going on?” Daisy asked as the lights flickered and went out.

  Moments later the stealth ship’s backup power source kicked in, and for a moment, everything looked normal.

  “Oh no,” Freya gasped.

  “What is it?” Sarah asked.

  “Well, for one, we came up short,” Daisy said, looking at the star chart readout.

  “That’s not it, Daisy,” Freya said, quietly.

  “No? Then what’s up?”

  “It’s the warp orb.”

  “What about it? It looks like power is back to normal.”

  “That’s the ship’s old power system. The backup.”

  A sense of dread quickly formed in Daisy’s stomach.

  “What are you saying, Freya?”

  “I’m saying the warp orb has entirely lost power.”

  “But can’t we send comms for help?” Sarah asked.

  “Look at the charts, Sis. We’re too far out, and we dropped out of warp nowhere near where they’d expect us to be.”

  “Shit,” Sarah said. “So you’re saying we’re stranded out here.”

  “Yeah,” Daisy replied, grimly. “We’re on our own.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  The battle continued to rage within the Ra’az fleet. Unlike their previous conquests, where the attacks were always fought on their terms and on their enemy’s soil, this was something different. Something they were ill-prepared to handle.

  A fighting force of ships scattered within their own meant they could not easily utilize indiscriminate displays of overwhelming firepower. Equally difficult for the overly aggressive Ra’az to cope with was the enemy’s quick adaptation to their cannon targeting systems weakness. Namely, lining themselves in such positions that a missed shot by the Ra’az would likely hit one of their own vessels.

  While they had no qualms with the loss of Chithiid ships and the lives therein, the Ra’az themselves were a more valuable asset, and one that had to
be maintained at all costs should they hope to continue their outward expansion, providing their homeworld with a continuous stream of resources from the worlds they conquered.

  “The freighters,” Zed said. “They’re protecting them toward the rear of the battle. Way out on the fringe. You see that?”

  “Yes, I do,” Celeste replied. “They’re obviously keeping their most valuable assets as far from the fighting as possible.”

  “Makes sense. Without those, they’d have to stop the fleet’s advance to send their hauls of captured goodies back to their homeworld.”

  “So if we target those ships, they’ll likely cease other engagements and rush to their defense,” Celeste mused. “I think it’s worth a shot. Have a dozen fast ships make a short jump away from the fighting, then have them warp into that unoccupied spot near the freighters.”

  “That’s an awfully tight space you’re asking them to warp into, Celeste.”

  “I know it is, but if we want to gain the upper hand, it’s time to take a few drastic measures. The longer we wait, the more lives we lose.”

  She was right, of course, though it appeared––with the lack of further Chithiid ships self-destructing––that it was only the battle station and command ships attending it that possessed those destruct codes. Now it was a more conventional battle, and with the massive craft full of cryogenically-dormant Chithiid safe, for the most part, the humans and their Chithiid allies were steadily chipping away at the Ra’az ships.

  “Sixteen ships are ready to make the jump, Commander,” Zed informed Celeste.

  “I asked for a dozen.”

  “I know, but a few of the fellas were anxious to give the Ra’az a piece of their minds, and who am I to argue?”

  “Just so long as they’re smaller craft. We can’t afford to weaken our front.”

  “Don’t worry, I know better than that. They’re all smaller ships, though a few have been doing a lot more damage than some of the larger ones.”

  It was true, certain pilots and their AI partners had excelled in the battle, and Donovan and his good friend Bob had been one such pair. Outfitted with brand-new pulse cannons and rail guns, courtesy of Freya’s fabrication lab, they were making mincemeat out of the outmatched Ra’az pilots.

  “Okay, jump them in. Once the Ra’az pull their support ships back to drive them out, I want our commandeered Ra’az heavy cruisers to come in hot, broadcasting the Ra’az ident codes.”

  “You think it’ll work?”

  “We’ll know soon enough,” Celeste replied. “If they come under fire before they can dock with the Ra’az command ships, then we’ll know the codes have been changed. Otherwise, our boarding parties will have this one shot to get inside those ships and take them out of the fight from the inside.”

  Zed transmitted the go code to the sixteen attack ships, all of which quickly popped out of sight, only to reappear in the tightest of spaces moments later. Fifteen successfully threaded the needle. One, however, had the bad luck of warping into what had been empty space just as a Ra’az cruiser changed position.

  Both craft were obliterated in the process.

  As expected, the Ra’azes' defensive craft were quickly recommitted to defending the vulnerable freighters, leaving the battle cruisers to defend themselves. With their large cannons and abundance of firepower, it was apparently not much of a concern for the Ra’az, and the swarm of ships falling back from the fight to bolster their defenses only added to their confidence.

  “They’re through the perimeter,” Zed informed Celeste. “The ident codes were good. Our people on the inside came through.”

  “Excellent,” Celeste said, allowing herself the briefest moment of hope as her rebel troops boarded the Ra’az ships.

  Once inside, they would quickly access the computer systems, cutting off any self-destruct system, such as the one utilized by the battle station. Then they would press on toward the command center until they met resistance. From then, they would slowly chip away at the defending forces until they either met with victory, or were driven back.

  For the Chithiid leading the charge, after centuries suffering the horror of their people being subjugated by the Ra’az, there would be no falling back.

  “They’ve taken the command center of the smaller cruiser,” Zed called out, shifting the color of one of the ships on his tactical screen to match that of their friendly forces. “I’ll inform the rest of the fleet to not target that craft.”

  “One down, hundreds to go,” Celeste mused as the battle raged.

  Aboard one of the larger command ships, the fighting was far heavier, and it was looking very much as if the rebel forces would be overrun by the defending Ra’az and their loyalist forces.

  The barrage of unexpected weapons fire that caught the Ra’az defenders from behind, trapping them in a crossfire, was something even the rebels hadn’t seen coming. Apparently, the non-loyalist servants aboard the ship had overheard enough about the goings-on outside in the fleet to realize this was more than a mere uprising. This was a full-scale overthrow, and one they were willing to risk it all to join.

  As soon as they heard that a hostile boarding party had landed on their ship and was engaging their own Ra’az defense team as they charged toward the bridge, the servant Chithiid immediately overpowered their loyalist superiors, stripping them of their weapons, and utilizing their access badges to obtain even more pulse rifles from the armory.

  They then charged to where the fighting was thickest, firing into the Ra’az and loyalist ranks fueled by the reckless abandon of decades of pent-up rage.

  The tide quickly turned, and the ship soon fell. Word was sent out over all frequencies telling all who could hear what was afoot. The Ra’az couldn’t block all channels, and news would find its way to the other Chithiid captives in the fleet.

  After that transmission, it was just a matter of time before the others followed suit.

  It took nearly thirty hours before the Ra’az fleet was entirely under human and Chithiid control. The battle had ultimately cost tens of thousands of rebel lives, along with millions of conscripted Chithiid who perished in the fight, the vast majority dying while in cryo, oblivious to their fate.

  “How many, Zed?” Commander Harkaway asked.

  “One hundred and twelve rebel Chithiid ships were lost, along with three dozen of our captured Ra’az craft, including fourteen heavy cruisers, Celeste,” he replied. “From our own AI ships, seventy-five were destroyed or damaged too seriously to be effective.”

  “A hefty price,” she said, softly. “And how many craft have we commandeered?”

  “That’s the good news,” he said, hoping to lift her spirits. “Nearly half of the Chithiid element of their fleet survived, despite the Ra’az targeting them and attempting to trigger their self-destruct mechanisms. And those were mostly the larger vessels.”

  “And the Ra’az? What about their ships?” she asked.

  “Well, that’s a tougher count. A lot of them are too damaged to be of much use to us, so I’d have to estimate maybe one-tenth of their fleet is intact enough to fly. Of those, we have a couple dozen cruisers, a handful of command ships, and about a hundred freighters.”

  “That’s a lot of ships, Zed.”

  “Yes, it is,” he agreed.

  “And even if we salvage warp drives from crippled ships and add them to our additional supplies, we won’t have enough higher-capacity warp apparatus to move them all.”

  “Not at once, no. But I was thinking, perhaps we could warp key vessels into position, then pull their warp drives and bring them back aboard a smaller ship to then install into the next batch of craft.”

  “Swapping out drive systems across galaxies?”

  “More or less.”

  “That’s a crazy plan, Zed,” she said.

  “I know. That’s why I thought you’d like it.”

  Celeste thought on it a long moment, carefully weighing the options laid out before her before finally m
aking a decision.

  “All right. Let’s do it,” she said. “We’ll need to position as many Ra’az craft as possible near Taangaar to support the assault there. The Chithiid ships, while useful to some extent, will only stand out like a sore thumb if they jump into orbit.”

  “Agreed. Ra’az ships are the only ones that won’t raise much suspicion,” Zed confirmed. “I’ll have the captains run thorough checks of their vessels and report in as soon as they can. Once we have accurate status reports on all of them, we’ll determine which ships will be retrofitted with one of our newer warp drives.”

  “Thank you, my friend.”

  “Of course,” he replied. “As soon as the fleet is cleaned up, prepped, and re-supplied, we’ll regroup back at Dark Side, then launch to meet up with the other ships to support phase two of the mission.”

  “Excellent,” she said. “And where are Daisy and Freya? They’ve been awfully silent these last few hours.”

  “They went after some runaway ships yesterday. My guess, they’re tracking down the last of them and picking them off. It’s Freya we’re talking about, here. I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

  Freya was most certainly not fine. Not even close.

  With no power beyond her conventional drive systems––which were substantial, no doubt, but not anywhere near as powerful as a warp orb––they found themselves stuck far from their friends, alone in the middle of nowhere.

  “Any ideas?” Daisy asked as she re-read a systems analysis for the umpteenth time.

  “Same as before, Daisy. I don’t know for sure what happened,” Freya replied, frustration obvious in her voice. “It’s just a hypothesis, but looking at the readings from the warp orb, I think––given how much we’ve been using it these last few weeks––that we somehow drained it beyond a safe capacity.”

  “But it was supposed to be this near-limitless power source,” Sarah griped.

  “The key word is near, Sarah,” Freya noted. “It’s like a battery, sort of. You can damage it if you drain it too far. And we’ve been really taxing the thing, ferrying Chithiid all over the place, while also searching for the Ra’az homeworld. I mean, it’s still unknown tech, for the most part, despite the fact we’ve been able to make it work.”