Warlord's Invasion (Starfight Book 1) Page 17

  What good fortune!

  As she stared at the red navigation area in her helmet’s HUD, she realized that she was given a grand opportunity. She literally had nothing to lose.

  You feline slime, you’re going to pay.

  She saw hundreds of fighters zooming at over 50,000 SL beside hers. Wing to wing. She could see them through her t-sensors even though space around her was black. Then she saw the enemy. They looked like massive beetles with a hundred legs.

  She fired at it with an h-beam field no more powerful than 1/20th the width and strength as a destroyer’s cannon. She followed the beam as it zoomed through h-space and slammed into a stabilization shield of a beetle. Lucinda grunted, then fired again. Hundreds of other fighters fired the same thing.

  Die!

  The insect twisted around to point its main cannon at her and fired. A massive wave of destabilization field sped towards her.

  Lucinda’s fighter had no h-deflectors, but she didn’t care, even as that wave slashed past her right, narrowly missing her warp bubble. In her HUD, she saw thirty or so of her comrades die as their fighters dematerialized off the universe.

  “Spread out!” Lucinda shouted into the T-Net. “Night Shadows, spread out!”

  The ones that survived acknowledged.

  Now, she surged past the alien ship. She felt remiss that the most dangerous part was over. Grunting again, she veered behind the feline ship and fired. Her beam slashed into the ship’s unprotected side, where its h-deflectors had not moved to block. Of course, she thought, there was no way it could block the hits from all these random directions. Her h-beam dematerialized an entire twenty meters of armor and hull. Score!

  She fired, again and again. Combined with the might of twenty other fighters, the feline destroyer succumbed to the destruction. It wavered, then its warp bubble began to fade…

  Betelgeuse Combined Fleet

  Flagship, Beginner’s Luck

  Flag Bridge…

  “Concentrate fire!” Vier yelled at her fleet. People around her worked frantically to relay her orders. The new flag bridge was rampant with activity.

  The battle of twelve million human souls and ‘god who knew how many’ Cats was in its heyday. On the main holo, it looked like a massive insect nest gone wild, as if ten thousand mosquitos swarmed around each other, giving each other no rest, on a hot sunny day. Ships attacked each other while moving at speeds from 15,000 SL to over 30,000 SL.

  Yet, as alien h-waves smashed into her ships, as thousands of humans died every second, and as the enemy’s magical wormhole weapons tore her hulls from inside, Vier couldn’t help but smile.

  This was it. This was what she lived for. The thrill of combat. The rush of battle. She could feel her heart pumping. The realization that every little thing she did could and would cause irrevocable outcomes—mind was orgasmic. She felt honored that she was in command of this gigantic organism that fought another gigantic organism. She was grateful, that she was here on this day, this evening, this hour, in the middle of a storm that played an important part in humanity’s future. In her mind, there was no greater bliss.

  Happiness was not an end-state or the attainment of a goal, it was the ability to make decisions that mattered, and every decision Vier made right now—mattered.

  And, she was smiling because she wasn’t faring too badly.

  Sure, the enemy’s h-waves was much more superior to her h-beams…sure they were able to cause explosions without ever touching her ships, but because of the density of the combatants within the battle, she was able to target individual enemy craft with as many as nine human warships and plenty more fighters. Thus, her h-beams were mostly unblocked as well.

  And although the h-waves were powerful and deadly, they came from smaller ships, whereas her h-beams came from dreadnoughts and battlecruisers. The two were almost matched…Almost.

  On a ton by ton analysis, she knew her fleet was dramatically underperforming, but she was glad she stood a chance, however slight, that she could avoid complete annihilation.

  She just had to work harder…to force a bit more into her performance, so that she gained that little edge, separating a loss or a tie with a victory.

  A little bit more…

  Then she remembered. Her marine assault boats! She could have sent them away at fastest possible speed–and indeed the MABs were fast—they could travel at 29,000 SL—but she didn’t retreat them out of this mess, and now she knew why. Unconsciously, she must have known she would have a use for them. “All Valkyries groups,” Vier said. “Get within range of an enemy vessel and activate your M-E-C Jammers. Once you incapacitate an enemy ship, board it immediately.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” came the replies.

  On the map, she watched as all one hundred Valkyries responded by moving towards the enemy ships. The Valkyries were equipped with Matter-Energy-Conversion Jammers, which could disable an enemy ship and prevent it from powering its weapons, or for that matter, anything that required fusion, fission, or antimatter annihilation. So far, she had never actually seen the MEC Jammer work on a feline ship, because every time a marine assault transport tried to activate it, the feline target would self-destruct to prevent itself from being boarded. But that is exactly what she wanted them to do in this case. Whether they destroyed themselves or got boarded was both fine. If she could board one, she might be able to bring home valuable information on their technology, a total game changer in the overall war.

  Of course, the fact that the Cats self-destruct each time meant she didn’t actually know what would happen if the MEC Jammer was activated on an enemy ship. They could have countermeasures that humans had never encountered, but it was time to try. It was time to gamble.

  Hopefully, they don’t, Vier thought.

  Battlespace…

  Throughout the pitch black battlefield, Marine Assault Transports zoomed forward at 29,000 SL, which was almost as fast as the fastest ship in the human fleet. They had to be fast in order to overtake and assault an enemy target. MABs carried exactly 1000 marines each, with 50 assault flyers for each of the 20 marines. As each MAB sped towards an enemy light cruiser or destroyer, they were instantly fired upon by h-waves from the front.

  But the h-waves did minimal damage.

  …Because unlike normal human warships, MABs had eight h-deflectors, most of them concentrated in front of their reverse wedge shaped design. The MABs blocked off the h-waves with their stabilization shields. They were equipped with so many h-deflectors for several reasons: one, they had no weapons, besides a laser cutting cannon designed to cut holes into enemy hulls, thus without weapon placements, there was space especially in the frontal hull to store h-deflector emitters. And two, they knew they would be priority targets during a hyperlight fight because of their MEC Jammers.

  However, as the MABs passed enemy starships in their effort to reach their assigned targets, they were also shot in their flanks and rears. Hundreds of marines died sitting inside their flyers. The MABs had far less protection from those directions. What made it worse, was the fact that the enemy knew exactly what these transports were, and how dangerous it was to have them near their ships; they priority fired their shots into these transports with everything they had—especially with their wormhole weapons. Numerous MABs suffered severe damage as their insides burned to a crisp, due to the emergence of unknown rampant energy.

  After ten minutes, the MAB losses became heavy.

  Out of the one hundred MABs that began the battle, less than twelve made it to extreme M-E-C Jammer range. Those that made it turned on their jammers and—it worked!

  All the targeted feline roaches lost power. Everything on board the roaches shut down—weapons, shields, hyperdrive suspenders. The Cats’ power cores stopped fusing atoms, nor did their antimatter systems convert any energy. As expected, the MEC Jammer crippled the roaches’ ability to create stable warp bubbles, which meant the targeted ships were beginning to fade out of the universe. As a result, the M
ABs extended their warp bubbles around their targets, and the marines began preparations to board…

  Betelgeuse Fleet

  Alpha-nine Wing, Squadron 8 “Night Shadows”

  Fighter 1

  Lucinda wondered why she wasn’t dead, yet. She was supposed to die—right? Everyone she loved had died, so why wasn’t she dead? What great divinity thought it’d be best, that it’d be right—to keep her alive?

  What was the purpose of living if she couldn’t even die in a brilliant flash when she wanted to?

  “Fire! Fire!” she shouted into the squadron net while panting in her cockpit. “Give them hell!”

  Her squadron mates yelled back with gusto.

  She saw her previous target, a feline light cruiser, fade out of existence—as holes appeared inside its hull and fireballs blasted in every direction as result of broken power flows—she knew her work was done and it was time to change targets. She designated a new target using her eye scanners. Her new target selection was sent to the rest of her squadron – all 16 fighters – and they obeyed.

  “Go! Go! Night Shadows!” Lucinda shouted.

  The next target was a destroyer, about 12 light-hours away from her. It looked like a giant beetle, two hundred meters wide, with so many moving legs.

  Well, either you’re going down or I am, Lucinda thought as she spearheaded the attack.

  As if the beetle had read her thoughts and accepted her challenge, it turned its entire body to greet her. It directed its main cannon at her—and fired.

  A massive h-wave slashed towards her and her comrades.

  “Evade!” She slammed her fighter to the side and watched as the h-wave passed through a giant hole that her squadron had suddenly made just for it. As a result of this quickly improvised maneuver, she only lost four of her wingmates.

  Four dead. Quite minimal.

  Not bad, Lucinda surmised, except that she had hoped it’d been her. Disappearing and fading out of the universe seemed like the best way to go.

  She fired back with her own unique version of death, revenge, and spite.

  Betelgeuse Combined Fleet

  Flagship, Beginner’s Luck

  Flag Bridge…

  Vier couldn’t believe her eyes. She’d succeeded when all attempts at capturing an enemy vessel had failed. They were supposed to blow up before she could incapacitate them, weren’t they?

  Now, there was another dimension to her game.

  Sitting in her admiral’s chair, surrounded by holograms and interfaces, she still couldn’t believe it. Now, a new goal existed. To give these twelve—no, eleven Valkyries enough time to board the alien vessels and take over their ships. It was the find of the century—if it could be done.

  Vier bit her lower lip. She absolutely would love it if her marines succeeded, but the reality didn’t favor her. There were two obstacles for this to happen. One, although the alien ships may no longer be able to use their antimatter or fusion cores to self-destruct their ships, that didn’t mean they didn’t have chemical explosives to damage the most important parts. Two, she had no idea what was inside these ships. Were they made to withstand an assault by marines?

  As she watched the battle continue, she hoped everything worked out in her favor. If it didn’t, she could always pull the marines out.

  Meanwhile, she ordered her warships to form a protective sphere around the MABs, to make sure they could do what they needed to do without being destroyed by h-waves or wormholes blasts from outside. She also ordered other MABs to move towards a location that was easier to protect. She felt lucky. As long as the warp fields of these MABs extended around the incapacitated targets, the entire bubble could be moved, just like a normal warp bubble.

  Got to protect these MABs. They could be the key to winning the war!

  She surveyed the rest of the battle as a whole. Her fighters were doing extremely well, although their losses were extreme as well, since they had no h-deflectors. The damage they were doing to the enemy ships made up for the tonnage she lost in terms of fighter weight. She made a note to herself that if she survived, she would also recommend more effort be put into producing hyperspace fighters and pilots as well as missiles. Her warships, on the other hand, were being mauled by the wormhole weapons and the h-waves. So much dead…she glanced at the kill count. So much…At least 3000 humans each minute.

  Then she glanced at the incoming main fleet of alien warships. They were there, moving at a steady speed of 14,000 SL as always. She estimated they’d enter the battlefield, which was stationary now that the battle was being fought in every direction, in about two hours.

  Two hours was more than enough time for the battle to be decided, but two hours was not enough time to eliminate the crews of captured starships and to find a way to control the starship after its main computer had been encrypted or worse yet destroyed. But it didn’t matter, she could move the captured vessel using the same warp bubble as the marine assault boat at speeds faster than 14,000.

  What else to do? What else to do?

  She gave out more orders to her lower ranking flag officers and manually controlled squadrons of ships herself.

  It was all a mess, but she loved every moment of it.

  Marine Cutter 001, Delta Battalion

  Deployment Compartment

  Marine Captain Huang Rui shouted, “Alright, boys! You’ve done this drill before. Keep your heads cool and perform your function. Let’s kill those suckers and take over that vessel!”

  The inside of the marine assault flyer cramped like hell. It had a right to be. Twelve meters long and holding twenty men, it was heavily armored with the latest durotitanium and a power core that fueled two laser cutters, a gravitic drive, and a miniature grav shield. Its cylinder shape made it look like a long slender can, but in the darkness of hyperspace, its black body slithered like a shadow.

  Huang Rui had never met a Cat before, but he had heard reports of their assaults on human worlds. He knew what to expect, but what he didn’t know was whether the ships themselves were equipped to handle a human marine assault. The faces of his men glanced back him inside his HUD—cold, gruesome, like monsters ready to be unleashed. Besides being trained combat troops, these men were also trained technicians. They had been prepared to quickly learn how a hostile space vessel worked and to quickly learn how to manipulate its controls.

  Huang had read the reports – how each attempt to board a feline vessel with marines ended with the targeted ship self-destructing. He wondered why the ship before him didn’t self-destruct. He reasoned that it was probably because if every feline ship self-destructed before being hit with a MEC Jammer field, then the felines would have done the work for humanity in this battle. Now, it was too late. The ship before him couldn’t self-destruct even if it wanted to.

  He heard a clunk. His in-helmet display read that their assault cutter had attached firmly with the enemy light-cruiser. The lasers should be cutting anytime soon…

  Inside Huang’s helmet, information about the target suddenly displayed in front of him. The flyer-cutter automatically began running resonance scans through the targets hull. Now, Huang knew the 215 meters long target had outer armor made of some type of material unknown to man, but it still wasn’t strong enough to resist laser cutters. Although the ship may have been deadly prior the marine assault, its grav shielding and outer defenses were powered down. As his cutter began scanning the target’s internal schematics, Huang didn’t like the fact that it would take a long time to fight to the control center or its power core. Huang only hoped he had enough time to do what was needed…

  Ga First Fleet, Light Cruiser Hukna Sevank

  Bridge…

  Mila Commander Ky-Dorat growled inside the battle bridge of the Imperial Cruiser Hukna Sevank. He saw through his holodisplays everything that was happening in and around his ship. He saw the Decha-Pra drilling holes into his vessel’s outer armor, and what was more unsatisfying was that he was powerless to stop it. How dare they do th
at to his ship!

  Ky-Dorat, son of Hal-Dorat, was no inexperienced commander when it came to infantry battles on board a starship. The enemy’s variation of the matter-conversion jammer field was no new technology to the Ga. Before the battle, he had been briefed by his father about the enemy using that possible tactic.

  High Command had assured Ky-Dorat that in the event he or any of his warrior brothers were targeted by a jammer field, he ought to prevent the enemy from taking control of the ship. He’d also been told to destroy key systems the moment he felt they were threatened, as well as encrypt the main computer or destroy it outright if regaining control of the ship was impossible.

  He’d been informed that help would arrive soon, that there was no way the Pra could control the ship for long… All he needed was to repel the Pra for several hours until they were forced to abandon their attempt.

  “Combat armor!” Ky-Dorat shouted into the shipwide comm system. “All warriors, prepare for battle inside the Hukna! Directions will be displayed inside your armor interface!”

  Ga warriors were unique in that every personnel on board a warship, no matter whether he was a lowly technician or a ship commander, were all capable of defending the ship if it was attacked by enemy infantry. Every Ga warrior was trained in infantry combat, and was given a set of powered armor and fusion-less weapons to fight enemy boarders.

  Come, Pra…You will see how warriors of the Ga Empire fight!

  Although Ky-Dorat no longer had enough power to control his starship’s weapons or his grav shield, he had enough energy in his ship’s auxiliary batteries to power a lot of anti-personnel defenses. The Ga were not unused to be being surrounded by a jamming field. For centuries, they have had experience inside fighting one. It was an honor, actually. A testament to hunting instincts of a natural predator.

  “Warriors on deck 5 to 6, form a group on deck 5 section 2,” Ky-Dorat shouted over the intercom. “Warriors on Deck 9, prepare to rebuke the attack from the hole being drilled in Deck 9 section 4…”