by Scott Baron
Marty had been retrieved from within the asteroid field, and once he was back with the fleet, it had been quick work for Arlo to source the components required to boost his friend’s reserve power systems to an acceptable level.
“Still no warp power, though,” Arlo griped as he finished installing the last of Marty’s new componentry. “There, all done. See how it works.”
Marty ran through a quick systems check.
“Looks like we’re green across the board. Thanks, Arlo.”
“You got it, bud.”
The stealth ship moved to a spot at the edge of the fleet and took up an observational post, while the big wigs decided their new course of action.
“I tend to agree that while it is a disappointment we were unable to capitalize on the opportunity provided by the successful insertion of our ships into the Ra’az fleet, we nevertheless have what I think is a rather viable backup plan, courtesy of Joshua,” Mal said. “Zed, what’s your take on this?”
“You know, Mal, while you and I don’t always agree on things, this one we see eye to eye on,” he said. “I mean, hell, it’s a ballsy move, and utterly novel, but I’d be willing to bet that’s the exact reason the Ra’az won’t see it coming.”
“One thing,” Celeste interjected. “A lot of our smaller ships, while possessing a fair amount of firepower, do not have the thrust capability needed.”
“So they follow behind. Let the bigger ships do the heavy lifting, as it were,” Captain Harkaway said. “If we’re going to truly work as a team, it’s the only thing that makes any sense.”
“And what of the enormous asteroid you sent on a trajectory targeting the Ra’az world, Joshua?” Celeste asked. “We had hoped to utilize it for a diversion before everything went to shit.”
“It was on its way and on course when we left it, and that was some time ago. If my calculations were correct, it should be plowing through the asteroids in about thirty hours, or so.”
“We don’t have that long,” Daisy noted.
“Obviously. But it’s still far out from the asteroid field, and there’s nothing we can do about that.”
“Damn it,” Daisy grumbled. “So our options are pretty much limited to a direct frontal assault, or Joshua’s crazy-ass plan. I guess that means I vote for the crazy option.”
“Me too,” Arlo said.
“Ditto,” Zed chimed in.
In short order, all commanders were on board with the decision. It was utterly mad, but it just might work.
“Okay,” Gus transmitted to the selected ships. “You guys come with me. We’ve got a lot of work to do, and not much time to do it in.”
“Copy that, Gus. We’re right behind you,” Mal said as she and the other craft fell into line.
They dove into the asteroid field, but just at the innermost edges, selecting the biggest chunks they could find and positioning themselves against the far sides before diverting all energy to their forward-most shields. Slowly at first, then picking up speed, they began pushing the rocks forward.
Soon, a decent-sized group of asteroids had been gathered at the front of the fleet. There were even some rather impressive-sized ones among the cluster, pushed in place by the large Ra’az ships they’d captured. Of all the vessels, they didn’t really care if they damaged them a bit in the process.
“They’ve seen what we’re up to,” Mal noted. “The Ra’az fleet is moving toward us.”
“Shit. Then I guess this will have to be enough,” Daisy replied. “Okay, lead ships, push hard! Get some momentum on these things. The rest of you, hang back a few beats, then follow them in. They should absorb most of the Ra’az blasts, for a time anyway.”
The ships took up their positions, once again shifting their shields to the front as they pushed with all their power. The asteroids began moving, and quickly at that. Peeling off and flipping a one-eighty, the group of ships quickly rejoined the fleet as they prepped to attack.
The Ra’az were coming in fast, despite the wall of stone the fleet had thrown at them.
“Bastards aren’t even slowing down,” Sarah observed.
“Told ya. They’re too aggressive. And that’ll be their downfall,” Daisy replied.
The lead Ra’az ships began hitting the incoming asteroids with small weapons fire. Too small to damage them.
“What are they doing, Daze?”
“Oh, shit,” she said, as she realized what was happening. “They’re slowing them down using their smaller weapons systems. Saving up the big stuff for us. It looks like they’ll be able to maneuver through them safely any time now. We’ve got to attack, and we’ve got to do it now.”
“Are you sure, Daisy?” Celeste asked.
“No. But you can see it as clearly as I can. We don’t have a choice.”
“Agreed,” she said after a moment’s reflection. “All ships, attack!”
The commanders had already been on edge, nervously awaiting the opportunity to stop watching and start fighting. Finally given the go-ahead, their ships lunged forward, free to engage the enemy in their sights.
The Ra’az had slowed the asteroid attack enough to easily pass through them, leaving them behind as the rocks drifted lazily toward their planet, where the remaining defensive systems would surely stop them with little effort.
The big ships opened fire, sending out a shocking amount of ordinance in a short span. The human fleet dove into evasive maneuvers, narrowly avoiding the incoming attack as they spun back toward their enemy and let loose a fusillade of their own. The Ra’az copied their opponents’ moves, dodging the blasts as best they could.
A great many of their ships, however, sustained varying degrees of damage as their shielding failed just enough to allow some of the pulse blasts through.
“They’re dumping everything they have,” Sarah said.
“I know,” Daisy replied, her spirits rising ever so slightly. “Celeste, are you seeing this?”
“Yes, I am,” the commander replied. “Zed, what’s your analysis?”
“The Ra’az have successfully avoided the asteroid attack, but as we had hoped, it spread them thin, leaving them vulnerable to our firepower.”
“As I said it would,” Joshua interrupted. “Now, if you’d please hurry and make use of the advantage while it is still ours, we can inflict a great amount of damage on them before they have the opportunity to regroup.”
“You heard the man,” Zed bellowed. “All ships, press the attack. Wipe them out! All weapons fire, all ships move in!”
The combined human and alien fleets reacted as one, the smaller, faster ships darting out front to hector the Ra’az craft, while the larger and more powerful ones launched wave after wave of pulse blasts.
It was quickly apparent that the Ra’az had not prepared for so intense a showing from what they’d obviously assumed to be a weaker foe. And then they did something Daisy found amazing. Something entirely un-Ra’az.
They turned tail and fled.
“We’ve got them on the run!” Zed broadcast on all bands. “Press the advantage. Chase them down. All ships ahead full!”
The fleet began moving faster, straining their ships to close the gap with the Ra’az ships hurrying toward the relative safety of their orbiting planetary defenses. The typically aggressive Ra’az were on their heels, and it seemed victory was at hand.
Joshua, however, felt something was amiss.
“Freya, this isn’t right,” he called out. “This is not Ra’az tactics.”
“We’re winning, Joshua,” she replied, “but I see your point, and you’re right. Something feels off about this.”
She slowed her pursuit a moment to look at the big picture, taking in the movements of not just a handful of the nearest ships she had been targeting, but the entirety of the fleeing force. She and Joshua linked minds, sharing the data, pooling their analytical powers.
“Oh, fuck,” Freya blurted.
“What is it, Freya?” Daisy asked, alarmed.
“They’re all stopping just behind their defenses.”
“That’s to be expected.”
“No, you don’t understand,” Freya said. “It’s a trap!”
She flashed a series of images onto the screen. There, nestled just behind the planet’s nearest orbiting asteroid belt, were hundreds of stationary vessels. Equidistant and facing outward.
“What are those things?” Daisy asked.
“We don’t know,” Joshua replied. “But this has all the markings of an ambush. Celeste! Zed! Call off the pursuit,” Joshua transmitted.
“What do you see, Joshua?” Zed replied. “We’ve got them on the run.”
“It’s a trap.”
“I don’t see any––”
As if they had been waiting for someone to tempt fate, the mysterious craft all powered up at once, sending every AI’s scanners spiking with the activity.
“The Ra’az weren’t running,” Zed realized. “Everyone abort! Retreat!”
“What’s happening, Zed?” Celeste asked in a panic.
“The Ra’az weren’t running, Celeste. They were just getting clear.”
“Clear of what?”
The last of the Ra’az ships cleared the perimeter of their defenses, and as a single unit, all of the now fully powered craft unleashed their payload.
Individually they wouldn’t cause too much damage, but fired together at once, the massive focused pulse detonation radiated out from their positions, creating an outward-moving ball of energy around the planet.
The wave of pulse energy shattered the asteroids surrounding the Ra’az world, sending them flying out in all directions. The pulse weakened a bit as it traveled, but it nevertheless had enough force to fracture the rock attack the human fleet had launched as well, reversing its course and turning the weapon on its original users.
The nearest of the fleet’s ships, the smaller, faster craft that had been nipping at the fleeing Ra’azes’ heels, were incinerated instantly in the initial pulse before it even reached the first of the asteroids.
The subsequent waves of ships––those that hadn’t been caught in the blast as the asteroid field shattered––were moving at top speed, trying to escape back to the safety of the fleet. But the fleet was in jeopardy, too, and would provide no such refuge.
“We can’t warp clear,” Zed said in a panic.
“Get us out of here, Zed!” Celeste bellowed. “Give it all you’ve got!”
Like the rest of the ships in the human fleet, Zed spun in place and opened his engines wide, but without the benefit of their warp systems powering the ships, none of them, it appeared, would be able to make it clear of the cascading wall of rocks and energy.
“What can we do, Daisy?” Freya asked. “Joshua, do you have a plan?”
“Protect yourself, Freya. At all costs, protect yourself,” was his grim reply.
The slower of their ships that had been the vanguard of the pursuing force began detonating one by one as they were overtaken by the hurtling debris. A shrapnel tsunami made of shattered rock, a wave that was shredding everything in its path.
Daisy watched in horror as she realized the grim reality of what had happened. The Ra’az queen had baited her with threats against her unborn child and drawn her into an aggressive stance. She tricked her into fighting as the Ra’az would fight, throwing all of their resources into pursuing the smaller force, and that had given her the edge.
Fueled by anger and a need for vengeance, Daisy realized they had chased them right into a well-laid trap.
Chapter Thirty-Five
The devastation was widespread, as more and more smaller ships were caught up in the hail of deadly debris. The first wave, the one carrying the lesser pieces of debris, had hit first, but the successive waves were pushing the far deadlier, far larger fragments.
“All ships, evasive maneuvers!” Zed called over open comms in desperation.
Unfortunately, no maneuvers would shield them from the onslaught of flying rocks about to impact their fleet.
“We’ve got to get out of here!” Sarah blurted as she watched the screens in horror.
“Where can we run?” Daisy replied, morosely. “There’s no way we make it back to the asteroid field behind us in time to get deep enough into it to provide cover.”
“So we target the incoming projectiles,” George said. “Fire off everything we’ve got and blow them to bits.”
“A great suggestion under almost any other circumstances, my friend, but I’m afraid that would just create smaller shrapnel that would still be pushed right at us by the second and third pulse waves,” Joshua interjected.
“I’m trying, Joshua. I’m just not a tactician of your caliber,” he quietly replied.
“I know, George. And it’s appreciated. Truly. But right now we need to find another way. One that won’t add to the incoming debris field. We may survive the smaller pieces, but the next wave will be the end of us.”
“Time?” Daisy asked, racking her brain for a way out.
“Forty-five seconds until the first of it hits the main body of the fleet,” Joshua replied. “After that, another twenty before the second wave.”
“What about the third?”
“It would just shake things up a bit, but there’s no debris left for it to push,” he replied. “Of course we’ll all be dead by then. Some of us for the second time.”
“Third, here,” Sarah said. “Gotcha beat.”
“So it seems,” Joshua said, managing a faintly amused tone.
It was gallows humor, no doubt, but in the face of certain death, even a slight lightening of the mood was appreciated.
Suddenly, the captured Ra’az ships turned and accelerated, though not away from the oncoming asteroid barrage, but toward it.
An all-channels vid signal flashed onto the screen. Standing in his smoking command pod, a tall Chithiid held fast to his console, looking, Daisy found herself musing, like a seven-foot-tall alien Ahab as he chased down the white whale.
“All rebel-controlled Ra’az ships, fall in behind me! Form five columns, mine central, then stack up!” Aarvin bellowed over the open comms as his massive ship began absorbing the first of the smaller pieces bearing down on the fleet. “The rest of you, form a single line behind us, facing away. Keep your shields entirely focused behind you and your engines on full. That might just stop any debris that makes it past us.”
“What are you doing, Aarvin?” Celeste shouted back over comms. Zed, however, wasted no time, jumping in line and ushering the others nearby to do the same. The Kathiri vessels merged with the others, the entirety of the fleet forming a single column.
Quickly, the remaining Ra’az ships under Aarvin’s command followed suit, following his lead and speeding straight toward the blast, instead of away from it. Once they were on course, they spread themselves slightly, as ordered, fanning out into a stack of ships lined up a dozen deep at the four corners as well as behind the fifth, central one.
Seconds later, every escape vessel and shuttle docked to those ships launched, flying the opposite direction as fast as they were able, directly toward the human fleet as it powered ahead away from the blast, a single ship-wide column.
“What’s he doing?” Sarah asked. “That’s suicide!”
“Holy shit,” Joshua said, as he realized the Chithiid’s plan. “That fella has got balls of steel,” he said, admiringly. “I hope to hell he survives this. I want to buy him a drink.”
“You don’t have a body,” Freya reminded him.
“Doesn’t preclude me from buying one for someone who does,” he shot back.
“How can you joke?” Sarah said, exasperated. “We’re all about to die.”
“About that,” Joshua replied. “I really don’t think that’s going to happen. Not anymore.”
On their screens, the bright explosions of the first layers of commandeered ships lit up the sky, then went dark. While a good many ships had been destroyed, the ones behind them were sti
ll intact, powering forward on auto-pilot as their crews escaped to the rear.
“Here comes the second wave,” Joshua said. “Wait for it... Wait for it.”
The larger asteroids tore into the remaining ships, their mass vaporizing in short-lived explosions in the vacuum of space. A few moments later, they were gone.
Daisy looked at the screens, plotting the course of the hail of deadly debris. Sarah looked over at them as well, eyes wide at the sheer number of incoming projectiles.
“We’re dead,” she said, resolved to her fate. “I love you, Sis.”
“I love you too, Sarah,” Daisy said, hugging her. “But we’re not going to die.”
Sarah looked at her, confused.
“Look at the screens,” Daisy said. “Look closely.”
It was hard to see at first, given the sheer density of debris clouding the scans, but then Sarah saw it. The key to their survival.
“They created a funnel effect,” she said, amazed.
“Now she’s got it,” Joshua said. “Welcome to the party, Sarah.”
“Be nice. She’s only got a meat box to think with,” Freya chided him.
Daisy activated her video comms line to the Váli. Vince, though drenched in sweat and covered in grease and soot from his frantic repairs, was in one piece.
“Hey, babe,” he said with a relieved grin. “Looks like you don’t get rid of me that easily after all.”
Her stomach warmed, then shimmied a bit.
“Let’s be sure to keep it that way,” she replied. “And honey, I’ve got some news for you.”
“Oh?”
“It can wait until this is done. You focus on your work. Keep that old bird in the air.”
“Will do,” he replied. “Oh, and Finn says to tell Sarah he looks forward to continuing their cooking lessons, if they survive this. Said he’ll show her that special trick, whatever that means.”
Sarah couldn’t help but laugh.
“Tell him it’s a deal,” she said, before Daisy signed off.
All around them, space shuddered as the second and third pulse waves rumbled past. The fleet shook, but remained surprisingly intact.
