Set the Galaxy on Fire: An Aeon 14 Anthology Read online

  Normal relativistic missiles achieved near-luminal speeds and delivered their energy purely through kinetic force. The rail-delivered round released a massive amount of energy on impact—usually an order of magnitude more than a fusion bomb’s energy—these missiles packed an extra punch. After delivering their kinetic strike, the energy would trigger a secondary effect, causing the vessel of liquid metallic hydrogen within the missile to undergo fusion. The goal was to disable shields with the kinetic strike and obliterate the enemy ship with the subsequent nuclear explosion.

  Getting the materials for the secondary explosion to survive the kinetic impact had been a closely guarded secret of the Terran Space Force back in Sol, but Earnest had figured it out back in Victoria and now the Andromeda carried hundreds of the advanced weapons.

  “Captain, some of the enemy corvettes are advancing,” Trevor announced.

  Gwen, his AI, added.

  “What are they doing?” Joe mused as he leaned forward in his chair. “They’re moving slowly…like they expect to capture her.”

  “Eight fighters moving in to intercept them,” Trevor reported aloud as everyone watched the action unfold on the holo tank.

  “Wow, they are boosting hard,” Petrov said with a whistle. “I guess those inertial dampeners are the real deal.”

  Joe nodded in silent agreement, mentally praying that the shields would work as well, because the tags on the holo display told him that Jessica was in the formation.

  The engagement was energetic, and over in seconds.

  The Arc-6’s flipped their engines and boosted hard to re-engage the pirate corvettes. The fighters appeared to be intact, and none of the corvettes had taken significant damage either. Then, the fighters did something he would never have expected.

  Almost lazily, they drifted over the enemy ships and dropped directly into their engine wash—a maneuver which would normally be fatal. There was a brief moment where the Arc-6s paused, and then the five enemy ships exploded.

  “Ho-lee shiiit!” Trevor cried out. “Did you see that? They just…what the hell did they even do?”

  “Something that’s not in any book,” Joe said and shook his head. A fighter that was impervious to kinetics, beam-fire, and gamma rays coming out of an AP engine…it was a game-changer.

  “If those pirates know what’s good for them, they’ll bugger off now,” Trevor grinned and Joe shot him a stern look. “Uh… Captain,” he added.

  “No such luck,” Ylonda said. “They’re moving to engage—it doesn’t make sense, why would they do that?”

  “Because their armada has over two-hundred corvettes and cruisers against forty fighters,” Joe replied. “There’s no scenario that existed, before five minutes ago, where they would be in any danger.”

  “But it’s not five minutes ago, Captain,” Ylonda replied.

  “Some people are slow to catch up to reality,” Tori supplied. “Besides, if we didn’t have Fleetcom data telling us those fighters are in tip-top shape, none of us would believe they could do that again.”

  The bridge fell silent as every ship in the pirate fleet opened fire on the Black Death squadron, which had formed up in a protective cocoon around Cary’s ship. The barrage obscured the Arc-6 fighters, and when the seven-second salvo ended, scan refreshed and the squadron came into view, intact and undamaged.

  Cheers erupted on the bridge and Joe breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Fleetcom has provided updated data. Their reactors are running too hot to survive another attack of that magnitude,” Ylonda said.

  “So there is a limit to what these shields can take,” Joe mused as they watched the pirate fleet break into two groups and loop around to engage the fighters from both sides.

  The crew looked to him and Joe shook his head. The orders from Fleetcom were to stay clear while the Enterprise and Defiance filled the paths of the enemy ships with kinetic grapeshot. He passed control of the relativistic missiles they had seeded to Fleetcom and sat back to watch.

  The timing had to be perfectly coordinated, but if it worked, this rag-tag flotilla of pirate ships wouldn’t be bothering them again.

  It was as though the scene unfolded in slow motion on the holo tank. The lead ships of the enemy fleet hit the grapeshot and their shields held for a moment before the kinetic pellets began to slip through. A second later their shields failed entirely and the lead ships were torn to ribbons. Even one of the larger cruisers disintegrated under the assault, and Joe found himself hoping that whoever had tortured Tanis during her captivity was on board.

  Then the twenty-two relativistic missiles came to life, powerful engines boosting them toward the pirate fleet and striking the ships that had taken the least damage from the grapeshot.

  Explosions from the kinetic strikes and nuclear fire obscured the entire pirate fleet; when the radioactive haze cleared enough for scan to get a clear look, less than fifty ships remained operational.

  Another round of cheers sounded on the Andromeda’s bridge and Joe joined in with his crew.

  “Now that’s how you take out a fleet!” Tori hollered.

  “OK, people, settle down, we still have work to do out here. That was the weakest, most poorly organized enemy on the field. You can bet that everyone else just learned a lot about our tactics and is adjusting theirs.” Joe cautioned his bridge crew.

  They nodded and bent to their tasks while he opened a connection to the Intrepid.

  he said.

  Tanis replied.

  Angela broke in.

  Joe replied.

 

  Joe said and closed the connection with a mental embrace.

  THE ADMIRAL’S RETURN

  STELLAR DATE: 10.29.8927 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: BWSS Freya, Near Kithari’s L4

  REGION: Bollam’s World System, Bollam’s World Federation

  Captain Ren watched Admiral Senya storm onto the Freya’s bridge, the rage on her face enough to keep even the boldest member of the crew from glancing at her.

  “What the fuck just happened?” she hollered at Ren. “I thought things were under control out here!”

  Ren ran a hand through his hair and held back a sigh. “They were. Our negotiations were going well, but then they got new intel and everything changed. They have…some sort of shielding that we’ve never seen before. That pirate fleet couldn’t even touch their fighters, the colonists wiped out over a hundred ships in five minutes.”

  “I can’t believe the president didn’t call me back sooner. What was he thinking, leaving me out in the Sidian Reach when the biggest prize we’ve ever seen drifts into our system?” She turned the full force of her gaze on Ren and he did his best not to flinch.

  “I found out from a trader, a trader! That our system was on lockdown and under siege from pirates—and the Hegemony of all things.”

  Ren shifted uncomfortably and tried to look as if he agreed with the admiral. “That’s unbelievable. I was under the impression they had sent for you immediately.”

  “Well, they didn’t,” Senya replied. “And then they put that fool Nespha in charge of the fleet. Of all the bone-headed things to do, he couldn’t find his asshole to shit out of.”

  “Have the chiefs put you back in charge?” Ren asked, unsure whether or not he’d prefer it. If Senya was back in charge, there was no telling what she’d do, but if she wasn’t, he’d have to listen to her rail for days.

  “Of course they did,” Senya cast him a cold look. ough dirt on them to bury each and every one of those bastards. When this is over, I may do it anyway just to punish them for trying to keep me away.>

  Ren nodded solemnly, the only response he could think of. Admiral Senya was like a ticking time bomb, it was impossible to tell what would set her off. He never could tell if she behaved irrationally to keep those around her off-balance, or if she really was as unhinged as she acted.

  Nevertheless, she commanded his division of the Bollam’s World Space Force, and his cruiser was her flagship. It was a destiny conceived in hell.

  There was little he could do about it; Senya had spent decades running her family’s business interests and consolidating power before setting her eyes on the military. With her deep pockets and intimate knowledge of the government’s inner workings, she had risen through the ranks quickly and was now the top admiral in the fleet.

  It was only a matter of time before she moved on to seize the presidency.

  The prospect did not excite Ren one iota, but there was no way he could stop Senya from getting anything she wanted. His only play was to make sure he didn’t get steamrolled by her.

  “We have an ambassador on board the Intrepid,” Ren said. “We could open a channel with their captain and resume negotiations.”

  “That’s not the message I want to send,” Senya said with a smirk. “Recall our ambassador and get me targeting options on the ships they’ve deployed. I want every rail in the system to pound them to dust.”

  “Sir?” Ren asked. “Is that wise? What if the legends are true?”

  “If the legends were true, the Victorians would have been able to defend themselves. Our people came from Sirius, and that ship was their enemy. They stole from our people then, and they’ll not steal from us now.”

  * * * * *

  Nespha said to Ren over a private connection.

 

  Nespha’s avatar sighed in Ren’s mind.

 

  Ren waited for Nespha to respond, he didn’t like having this conversation with the other admiral—Senya would have his hide if she knew—but refusing to respond to Nespha was not an option either.

 

  Ren replied.

  Nespha’s tone was more dour than usual.

 

  Nespha replied before closing the connection.

  Ren didn’t know what to think of the conversation. Nespha didn’t like Senya, but he had always treated fairly with Ren and the other captains. He wasn’t a firebrand like Senya; he was cautious. Often too cautious. Senya may be nearly impossible to deal with, but she did get results.

  PREPARATIONS

  STELLAR DATE: 10.29.8927 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: ISS Andromeda, Near Fierra

  REGION: Bollam’s World System, Bollam’s World Federation

  In the wake of the pirate fleet’s destruction, Tanis addressed the fleet.

  Joe watched the Andromeda’s bridge crew smile at one another and sit up straighter as they listened to Tanis’s speech. The news that the FGT would meet with them and that a colony world was still waiting had the desired effect on their spirits.

  The moment Tanis’s signed off, orders came in to reposition between the Intrepid and the Boller fleet. He passed the order on to Petrov who turned to look at him.

  “Really, Captain? What with that weird thing those other pirates are doing?”

  “Comes from Fleetcom,” Joe replied. “Sabrina is on its way out there to help out too. They have the new stasis shields, so they should be able to take whatever that rag-tag armada throws at them.”

  Corsia cautioned privately.

  Even as Joe spoke, he knew his words were disingenuous. Tanis had told him of what she did to Kris and Trent. She was no stranger to torture either.

  Corsia replied.

 

 

  Joe laughed.

  * * * * *

  Time passed slowly as the Andromeda passed behind Fierra before drifting out into the van of the forces positioned between the Intrepid and the Boller fleet.

  “Petrov, let’s lay in two lines of missiles. The first fifty-thousand klicks from the Intrepid, and the second at the two-fifty-kay mark.”

  “You got it, Captain,” Petrov replied as he plotted a course and ran it past Corsia and Ylonda.

  “I have the next batch racked and ready to drop, Captain,” Tori added from the weapons console. “I recommend that we seed a dozen defense turrets out here as well—keep any anti-missile fire from taking them out if it comes to that.”

  “Save them for the next picket,” Joe replied. “I just got word from Fleetcom that some tugs are going to pull out some meaty turrets to keep our birds safe.

  “Oh really?” Tori asked. “Are they those new rhinos?”

  Joe nodded. “I guess they got them done sooner than they thought with some of the new grav-tech. They were able to solve the recoil issues that had necessitated more fuel than we had handy.”

  “Oh that’ll be good,” Tori rubbed his hands. “I almost hope the Bollers get that far.”

  Petrov and Ylonda both sent a frown his way and the weapon’s officer shrugged. “What I can I say? I like to see things go boom.”

  Ylonda straightened in her seat, a physical gesture Joe had noticed her use recently when shifting her focus. He wondered if it was deliberate, or affected.

  “Orders from Fleetcom. Tactical suspects inbound kinetics,” she said. “They’re instituting an updated jinking pattern.”

  “Steady on,” Joe said. “They can’t see us, and jinking will give us away—just don’t be predictable, Petrov.”

  “Aye, captain,” the pilot replied.

  “Those kinetics are a ballsy move,” Tori commented. “What’s their play, captain?”

  Joe wanted to tell Tori to focus on the task at hand, but the entire crew had turned to him, curious to hear his response. Well, everyone except Petrov, though he could tell that the pilot was also listening, by the way he cocked his head. His marriage to Tanis often made everyone think that he had direct access to the inner workings of her mind, and by extension, the minds of their enemies.

  However, he didn’t need Tanis’s insight for this one.

  “They can probably tell the difference between our regular shielding and the Arc-6’s shields, so they know that not all our ships have stasis shields. What they don’t know is whether or not we just have them turned off at the moment. They also know that if all our ships have stasis shields, we will simply crush everyone and win. So a surprise attack with kinetics to take out any of our vessels that don’t have stasis shielding right now is their best play.”

  “What about The Mark’s fleet?” Trevor asked. “If they take out our ships, then th
ose pirates will take the Intrepid.”

  Corsia added.

  His crew remembered themselves and everyone returned to their work and finished seeding the first line of relativistic missiles. Petrov was carefully maneuvering the ship to the location of the second line when Fleetcom confirmed the Boller kinetic attack.

  “Looks like they had shots lined up on every one of our cruisers—except us, of course,” Ylonda said.

  Corisa added.

  “I think the whole fleet is rather happy with them,” Joe chuckled. “What’s Fleetcom’s response?”

  “They’re returning fire.”

  Joe widened the view of the Boller system on the main holo tank, watching as Fleet Tactical lit up targets. The ISF didn’t have the firepower to deliver the type of slugs that the platforms back in Kapteyn’s could—had been—capable of delivering, which made long-range shots at enemy ships impossible. However, the selected targets were stationary rail platforms positioned on moons and asteroids. Bodies, which had predictable paths.

  The holo lit up with shots as the fleet let fly their kinetic rounds at the enemy emplacements. A minute later, two hundred and sixty slugs sailed through space.

  The ISF’s ship-mounted railguns were much easier to detect than the ground-based ones. For starters, they moved the ships when they fired, and the vessels used thrusters or main engines—depending on the size of the slug—to compensate.

  Because physics weren’t willing to budge on this point, the Bollers saw the shots coming.

  “They’re scrambling to intercept our slugs,” Trevor said from the scan console. “Our guys masked their trajectory well, though. I think enough will slip through.”