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

  “It lines up with where we saw the last two missiles come from,” Ren nodded.

  “I want that ship dead,” Senya’s venomous voice spoke over his shoulder. “Move in, we’re taking it out.”

  “Sir,” Ren said. “We just watched it destroy nearly twenty of our ships, we need to move cautiously.”

  “Captain,” Senya’s voice turned to ice. “Move the Freya toward that colonist piece of garbage and take it out. Bring the rest of the battlegroup with us.”

  Ren passed the order to his comm officer and pilot. Normally a fleet admiral would have her own staff, which managed fleet coordination, but Senya’s staff had not made it to the Freya with her, and she used his as though it were no inconvenience at all.

  Not the greatest tactician in the BWSF, Senya won most battles through the brute application of force, though most times she managed to undercut her enemies politically before things ever came to blows.

  That meant it was up to Ren to organize the fifty-ship battlegroup to seek out and destroy the enemy cruiser.

  Nespha’s querying voice entered his mind.

  Ren replied.

  Nespha asked.

  “Captain Ren,” Senya said, pulling his thoughts from the conversation with Nespha. “I want the other four battlegroups in this division to push in as well. We’ll overwhelm them and end this.”

  “Yes, sir,” Ren responded and sent the orders on to the other battlegroup commanders, assigning his division’s AI to manage the tactics while he responded to Nespha who was signaling him with more questions.

  the other admiral asked.

  Ren replied, growing annoyed with Nespha. If the man wanted to confront Seyna, he should do it directly, not through him.

  Nespha asked.

 

  Nespha didn’t respond, and Ren hoped he would leave him alone. He didn’t disagree with Nespha, but disobeying a direct order from his commanding officer was treason, and his people had a better chance of surviving with him as a buffer between them and Senya’s orders.

  He examined the region of space on the holo tank and directed two elements of his battlegroup to arc above and below the asteroids. He would bring the bulk of their forces around the asteroids on the planetary plane and catch the enemy ship from three sides.

  Provided there was just one of them.

  There was an upper limit to how many ships the Intrepid could carry. While the fleet the colony ship had disgorged was surprising in size and strength, it was not impossible to believe that they could house many more vessels. For all he knew the bulk of their fleet was comprised of these stealth ships and there was a dozen of them lying in wait.

  Just as disconcerting were the missiles they were using. His tactical group had determined that somehow they were able to shield a fusion device during the missile’s kinetic strike and then detonate that device in the moments a ship’s shields flickered.

  No one wanted to be hit by a relativistic missile, but it was an event that their ships—at least the destroyers and cruisers—should be able to weather on full shields. However, these missiles and their one-two punch were more powerful than any he had ever witnessed before.

  He reminded the captains in his battlegroup of this and directed them to increase their distance from one another—the enemy fighter’s tactics had caused the fleet to bunch up.

  The bridge was silent as the ships moved past the asteroids and toward the empty space, which lay between them and Kithari…and the Intrepid. The enemy fighters were falling back to provide close support for their cruisers and he prayed there were no surprises left behind.

  Ren directed his ships to deploy any combat and sensor drones they still had to sniff out whatever they could in the asteroid field. His ships found two dormant missiles and destroyed them, but amidst the hot gas and wreckage from the previous incursion, it was difficult to find anything else.

  “Were those just leftovers, or is there another wave of those damn things in there?” Senya asked from his side.

  Ren glanced over at the admiral. Perhaps she really was thinking of the tactics behind the situation.

  “Hard to say. The fact that they launched the final two missiles from their ship would make you believe that there were no more in the asteroids—until we just found those two.”

  “Sir, perhaps they were duds?” the tactical officer asked.

  Senya cast the man one of her hard glares. “Do you think that these people have dud missiles? They’ve obviously geared themselves up for conquest as much as colonization.”

  “We’ll know soon enough,” Ren replied. “Be ready to fire chaff and all countermeasures at the first hint of an ion trail.”

  “Yes, sir—” the weapon’s officer began before raising his voice. “Firing countermeasures! Multiple ion trails detected.”

  “How many,” Ren asked as he pulled the data onto the main tank.

  He didn’t hear the officer’s response as he watched the display light up with over a hundred missile signatures.

  It was going to be devastating.

  The ships deployed every ounce of chaff and countermeasures they had at their disposal while firing at every signature they could lock onto. Dozens of the enemy missiles fell to their defenses, but many dozens more made it through.

  The scan, tactics, and weapons officers worked frantically with their AI counterparts to stop the assault, and when scan cleared, Ren saw that the majority of the fleet had survived unscathed, though many ships had suffered shield failures and minor impacts.

  “Is that their best?” Senya asked and Ren glanced her way to see a hungry fire in her eyes.

  Their moment of relief was brief as ships across the battlegroup began to suffer kinetic impacts and tear apart.

  “What the fuck is that?” Senya swore and Ren enhanced the scan resolution, attempting to discern what invisible force was shredding the ships.

  “Captain, it’s…it’s pebbles!” the scan officer called out.

  “Pebbles?” Senya asked, confusion breaking the power she always projected in her voice.

  Ren had read about this tactic, though he had never heard it employed.

  “It’s rail-fired pellets. They used to call it grapeshot,” he said, watching in despair as every ship whose shields had failed under the assault from the missiles was shredded by the small kinetic impacts.

  “I see that cruiser again,” the scan officer called out. “It’s on the move back toward the colony ship.”

  “Take it out,” Senya growled. “Get that ship now!”

  Ren had no option but to comply, though he noticed that some ships, which reported engine failures, were able to brake and turn from the fight. He wasn’t sure if they were cowards, or far smarter than he.

  MANOUVER

  STELLAR DATE: 10.29.8927 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: ISS Andromeda, Near Kithari’s Trojan Asteroids

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

  “They’ve spotted us again, Captain,” Trevor called out.

  Gwen added.

  “We’ve gotta get clear so that Tanis can use the scoop to hammer them—I don’t fancy being nearby when that happens,” Joe said.

  “With their pincer, we don’t have a lot of options,” Tori said.

  “We c
an go through them, Captain,” Petrov said without turning. “Drive right up the middle, firing on their flagship.”

  “I don’t know if you’ve forgotten,” Ylonda said. “We don’t have a stasis shield.”

  “We won’t have any shields if we stay here,” Petrov replied. “We can get a flight of Arc-5’s to give us cover.”

  Joe nodded. “Tori, get Jim to prep the chaff on the rails. We have five minutes before we’re at max burn.”

  Tori nodded, and the bridge crew set to their tasks, coordinating with the fleet, arranging the fighter cover, and loading the last of their RM’s into the tubes.

  Jim asked from engineering.

  Joe replied.

  Jim chuckled.

  Tanis said privately to Joe.

  Joe replied.

  He felt Tanis’s agreement as her support filled his mind.

  Joe replied.

  Tanis replied and ended the direct communication with a mental embrace.

  Joe brought his focus back to his bridge. Everything was ready a minute early and he directed Petrov to begin his burn.

  Under normal circumstances, this attack run would be suicide, but of the remaining fifty ships advancing on the Intrepid, only twenty were within range of the Andromeda, and most of those did not yet have their shields up to full strength.

  With the assistance of twenty Arc-5s, the maneuver was downgraded to merely insane.

  Petrov ramped up the Andromeda’s burn, bringing the fusion and AP engines to their max output. Thirty g’s of force pushed everyone back into their seats and Joe smiled to himself. This was what flying in the black was all about.

  The enemy ships came into range, and beams lanced out, playing across the Andromeda’s shields, some penetrating and burning away ablative plating.

  Tori fired the reflective chaff from the ship’s rail guns, flashing it ahead of the cruiser and wreaking havoc on the enemy targeting systems. To their scans, the Andromeda was now lost in a massive cloud. The Arc-5’s flitted about, within the expanding wave of chaff, firing their beams and missiles at the enemy ships, masking their true location, which was no longer in the center of the cloud.

  Joe wondered what it would be like to be on the Boller flagship, watching a huge cloud of reflective chaff racing toward you, unable to see the ship you know must be within.

  Several of the enemy destroyers pulled ahead, moving into the cloud to seek out the Andromeda and Corisa let fly the last four of the ship’s relativistic missiles.

  The weapons didn’t have time to achieve significant speed, but their nuclear blasts were enough to disable two of the destroyers and push the others off course.

  The explosions disrupted the chaff cloud, and out of it flew the Andromeda, located near the bottom of the cloud’s cover. They were seconds away from the enemy’s flagship, and Joe watched as Tori and Corisa prepared to fire, while Ylonda coordinated with the fighters.

  Every rail and beam on the ship and the Arc-5’s fired at once, overwhelming the Boller cruiser’s shields and tearing through its hull. For a moment, the ship held, but then, in a blaze of fire, plasma, and shrapnel, it flew apart when its reactor’s housing was breached and a nuclear plume filled the space where it had been.

  The fighters let fly their beams and missiles at several other ships, and then the formation was past the Boller fleet. The Intrepid lashed out with its MDC, killing the shields on the remaining ships and disabling many.

  The Andromeda’s bridge erupted in cries of joy and amazement, as Petrov dialed back the thrust and the crew leapt from their seats to slap hands and embrace one another.

  Joe stood and smiled at his bridge crew.

  “Well done people, well done. Petrov, take us home.”

  ROOM WITH A VIEW

  STELLAR DATE: 11.06.8927 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: ISS Intrepid

  REGION: Interstellar Dark Layer near Bollam’s World

  Several days after the Intrepid’s first FTL jump…

  Joe took a moment to take in the sight of his wife as they exited the maglev train and walked across the small station platform to the corridor beyond.

  Tanis was only three months pregnant, and wasn’t showing yet, but there was a glow about her, a new elegance to the way she moved. He wondered if his reaction was due to evolution, a million years of human instinct built up to revere and protect pregnant females, but Joe knew that wasn’t it. She was moving differently, subconsciously protective of her precious cargo, and proud of her ability to create a new life.

  The dress she wore was one he had bought for her years ago in a shop in Landfall. He picked it because it reminded him of the one she wore for the first VIP event on the Intrepid when they were attacked by mercenaries. That gown didn’t survive the night, and she had always worn her dress blues for all following events, insisting that it was all the fancy clothing she needed—and far more practical.

  Tanis wore her uniforms a bit tighter than regulation suggested, so Joe never minded, but he did like how she looked when she did herself up, and when he asked her to wear the dress to dinner tonight, she smiled and did as he asked, knowing him well enough to understand where his head was at.

  He trailed behind for a moment, taking one last look at how the shimmering red fabric slid across her ass, before catching up and linking his arm with hers, as they walked sedately down the corridor.

  “Wow, they put it back together just the way it was!” Tanis exclaimed as they entered the bow lounge above the ramscoop emitter.

  “Yeah,” Joe replied. “I hear that the scoop techs weren’t about to lose their little piece of heaven just because some little pebble blew it clear off the ship.”

  Tanis smiled at Joe and he got that warm feeling that started in his toes. Even after all these years, she could still cause his heart to feel like it skipped a beat. Maybe it was because he still felt as if there was an element of mystery to her. Like Tanis was a wild animal at heart and there was no way to ever tame her.

  That was fine by him.

  Tanis slipped past several other guests in the lounge and he followed her to the bar, taking a seat beside her as the servitor handed them paper menus.

  “Thanks, Steve,” Joe nodded to the servitor.

  Tanis laughed and shook her head. The servitor didn’t actually have a name, but they had unofficially granted him one long ago during those long years as the ship drifted toward The Kap. By some miracle, he had survived the lounge’s near total destruction when the ship exited the Kapteyn’s Streamer, and seeing him there, pouring drinks as though nothing had changed gave them both some measure of happiness.

  “Paper…huh,” Tanis said and Joe nodded, feeling the coarse cellulose fibers between his fingers.

  “From the flooding in the cylinders after we hit that pebble. It gave the ship a pretty good shake and the lakes and rivers jumped their banks,” Joe said. “The botanists decided to make paper from all the downed trees.”

  “Right, I remember reading that—and I did notice that the forest on the far side of the lake by our cabin starts a lot further from the shore than when I last saw it,” Tanis replied.

  They pursued the menus for a while before Joe narrowed his choice down to just a few options.

  “What are you going to have?” he asked.

  “A soup I think, I need something to warm me up,” Tanis said with a smile. “Not that you won’t be doing that later.”

  “W
ould you like a drink to go with that, General?” the servitor asked. “We have a fantastic oaked chardonnay from the vineyard in Lil Sue that our other patrons have thoroughly enjoyed.”

  Joe watched Tanis give it some thought before replying. “Sure, let’s go with that.”

  “Are you ready to order as well, sir?” the servitor asked Joe.

  Joe studied the menu for a final moment. “Yes, Steve, I’ll have the Jerhattan Strip, and a glass of your dark amber lager.”

  “You know, Bollam’s was my fourth stellar system,” Joe said as they watched Steve pour their drinks. “I only expected to ever see two.”

  “Lightweight,” Tanis chuckled. “I’ve seen nine now.”

  Joe smiled in return. “I guess we’re both lightweights in this age. I imagine Sera has seen hundreds of systems.”

  “At least,” Tanis replied.

  Steve set down their glasses and Joe raised his in a toast.

  “To finally getting to our colony world,” he said.

  “To our colony world, wherever it may be,” Tanis replied and clinked her fluted glass to the top of his tankard.

  “Bets on where it is?” Joe asked.

  Tanis flicked her wrist, deploying nano to create a silencing field around them.

  Tanis let out a long sigh. “Honestly? Not a clue. I guess that I could ask Sera, but I’m still processing everything she told us. Somewhere in the Transcend, I suppose.”

  “The Transcend,” Joe said with a shake of his head. “First we go from learning that humanity expanded from under a hundred extra-Solar colonies to tens of thousands. And now to this, a second human civilization acting like gods out on the fringes of known space.”

  “Do you think what they’re doing is wrong?” Tanis asked, her expression one of genuine curiosity.

  Joe shrugged. “Who knows? From what Sera says, they started off honestly enough, just trying to keep themselves safe as the interstellar wars broke out. But you know how it goes, today’s solutions are tomorrow’s problems. Now they have this entirely separate civilization that’s bigger—in scope, if not in actual population—than the rest of humanity.”