Broken Stars (Universe on Fire Book 1), page 17
“Captain,” Commander King whispered when Aiko didn’t respond for a long minute.
“Designate the new contacts as hostiles one through three. What do we know about their ships?” Aiko asked finally.
“Two are about half our size, with the Hadsone being slightly larger. Their hulls are made out of unknown ceramic alloys, but we can assume that they are inferior to ours. The Hadsone carries five laser turrets as well as twelve missile launch tubes, the other two ships are of the same class and have around half the missile launchers and three laser turrets each. The Hadsone also has a single plasma turret. All ships show visible signs of repairs and patchwork. It is safe to assume that they are not operating at the same levels as the Prometheus,” Commander King answered.
“Yet they still think that they have the upper hand… Any idea as to why, Commander? Do they know something that we don’t?”
“I don’t think so, Captain. I think that it is actually the other way around, we know something that they don’t. They know what weaponry we have on the hull, and can extrapolate our firepower based on that, but they can’t know about the fighter squadrons, or our magitech weapons.”
“So they know that our ship is more advanced, but our hull doesn’t mean that we are invulnerable. They’ve brought three ships, which combined outmass us and outgun us, or at least outgun what they think we are capable of. I can see why they would think that this was a good plan…” Aiko said, her hand tightening on her armrest. She had known that they would betray them in some way, so she wasn’t surprised much.
She turned toward the sensor station. “Have we seen anything on the signal from the planet?”
“No, Captain, they’ve moved over the pole and around the planet. We can’t see them now.”
Aiko took a deep breath. She had two hostile forces in the system, one far more dangerous than the other. The problem was she wasn’t exactly sure which one that was. The Val’ayash were an unknown; the three ships she could see were something she could measure. In any case there was nothing she could do about the Val’ayash, and the three ships were dangerous in their own way. Numerical advantage was nothing to be scoffed at.
“Which of the enemy ships is the closest to us?” Aiko asked.
“Are we going to send a message back, Captain?” Commander King asked.
“I have no desire to engage in conversation with pirates. After we’ve given them a bloody nose I might consider allowing them to surrender. Now, which one of their ships is the closest?”
Commander King nodded resolutely. “Hostile-3, it is coming at us from above and seems to be the fastest of the ships. It is already inside our extreme missile range at three hundred thousand kilometers, Captain.”
“Plot a course toward hostile-3, get ready to launch all fighters, squadron Alpha is to move and engage hostile-2, squadron Beta is to move against hostile-3. I don’t want the hostiles anywhere near us. Ready long range missiles.”
***
Kane jumped out of the Leviathan and immediately let the crew take care of it.
“Refuel and change the cells, equip A-5 set,” Kane ordered as he stepped away and toward the Squadron Control Center. The SCC didn’t really control the fighters during the battle, it just relayed the broad orders from the ship and acted as the go-between for the ship and the squadrons.
Inside the SCC Kane immediately saw Commander Wang Shu Jiang standing over a large table with holograms above it. “What do we know?”
“We have three hostiles, one is the Hadsone.”
“Wait, the Hadsone? No Val’ayash?” Kane asked, confused.
“Val’ayash? Is that who you found down there?” She shook her head before he could answer. “Right, the contact on the planet. Commander King has relayed that it’s moved around the planet, we can’t see it. The three hostile ships are from Jar Allera. We believe that it was their plan all along, get our ship away from the station and ambush it.”
“Piracy…” Kane shook his head in disappointment, the beings living among the stars all seemed far too human-like. “Who are we going after first?” Kane asked, there was no need to ask if they were attempting to negotiate. He knew Aiko and their orders well enough to know that she would never negotiate with pirates.
“Hostiles-3 and -2, hostile-1 is the Hadsone, which is the slowest and the probably the biggest threat,” Jiang said.
“Alright, I’ll take the Alpha squadron against them, you take the Betas,” Kane ordered.
“Right, what about your squad-mates?”
Kane’s face twitched as he was reminded of the death of one of his squad-mates. “They are injured, I’m benching them.” He had already told them as much as they were coming back to the ship. By now they should be in the medbay.
“The fighters will be ready for launch in two minutes.”
“What set did you equip them with?” Kane asked.
“A-5,” Jiang responded.
Kane’s lips twitched in a small smile. He had known the Commander for a while now, but seeing that she had chosen the same as he had just reinforced his trust in her. There were several loadout sets for the fighters and the mech-frames which could be changed based on their mission. A-5 was a balanced missile load of half magitech Firestorm plasma missiles, and half lower yield and fast striker missiles. Both types were upgraded versions from the ones they had used against the Qash’vo’tar.
“Good, let’s go.”
***
Leviathan flew out of the Prometheus and immediately oriented itself toward its target. The rest of the Alpha squadron fell into formation and they engaged their thrusters and burned away toward the hostile ship. The enemy ship was about four hundred thousand kilometers away, but the fighters were closing the distance fast. Kane was certain that the crew of that ship had no idea what the fighters were, most likely they would assume that they were missiles. The max range of the human ship’s missiles was three hundred thousand kilometers, and the Qash’vo’tar range was somewhere around three hundred and fifty thousand. They were assuming that these pirates had inferior weapons, but they would still be dangerous.
“Alright, people, listen up. We are going in fast and hot, we are executing assault plan Delta. Be ready to fire two salvos at my command,” Kane said over the command channel.
The Prometheus’s point defense was effective at thirty thousand kilometers, which was also about the range of the fighters’ missiles. Kane’s plan was an altered version of the one they’d used against the Qash’vo’tar ship. Come in fast and close, fire missiles and blink away.
“Cut thrust, and activate silent mode,” Kane ordered. The squadron cut their thrust at two hundred thousand kilometers away from their target, coasting in order to preserve their fuel and power cells. The enemy ship could theoretically hit them at this distance, but the fighters and the Leviathan’s silent mode would make it harder for the enemy scanners to see them. And Kane ordered them to change their position sporadically with their maneuvering thrusters in order to make sure. The enemy ship was coming toward them, so their closing speed was quite high. They used their momentum to coast until they reached the last hundred thousand kilometers and then Kane ordered the squadron to start accelerating again.
At this distance his sensors could get him the rough look of the ship. It was about two hundred meters long and about eighty wide, and was shaped like an elongated box.
Kane watched his sensor board, seeing that the hostile-2 was beginning to move in an evasive pattern, one that would allow them more time to shoot down missiles. Obviously they still hadn’t figured out what the fighters truly were.
At forty thousand kilometers Kane flipped the comm on again. “Alpha squadron, execute double blink on my mark. Now!”
He activated the blink, jumping forward five thousand kilometers, then immediately after he exited the blink he did it again. The Alpha squadron blinked to a range of thirty thousand kilometers, closing in fast.
“Fire the first salvo!” Kane ordered, and emptied one of his missile pods, firing ten striker missiles at hostile-2. The rest of the squadron did the same, firing all of their striker missiles. That put four hundred and ten missiles in the space between the enemy ship and the fighters. And if the pirate ship had a point defense that was comparable with that of the Prometheus, then the missiles would be at the edge of their effective defense range.
But that was not the end of Kane’s attack plan. “All fighters, execute double blink and begin evasive maneuvers.”
The Leviathan blinked twice across another ten thousand kilometers, getting ahead of the missiles they had just fired. The pirate ship’s point defense turrets had already opened fire toward the missiles and the sudden appearance of the fighters confused their systems. Immediately the squadron spread out to avoid any defensive fire, and Kane opened the command channel again.
“Launch the second salvo and open fire!” he ordered and launched the remaining missiles in his pods, the Firestorm plasma missiles. He and the rest of the fighters used their thrusters to evade and open fire with their other weapons. The fighters fired their rail-guns and their laser turrets and Kane aimed his large laser turret and opened fire as well. The pirate ship was evading so most of their fire missed, but they did do some damage. One of the fighters got hit by a laser turret and started spinning out of control, then the pilot punched out just before the fighter exploded.
The pirate ship fired its own missiles, and the rest of its weapons opened fire in a confused and clearly desperate attempt to take down the missiles and the fighters. Their missiles tried to lock on to the fighters, but most were too slow and their tracking too inferior to lock on properly.
“All fighters execute an away blink!” Kane ordered as their missiles reached the pirate ship. The squadron blinked away around the ship, and Kane ordered them to regroup and they changed course, turning around for another pass.
There was no need for that.
The first missiles to reach the pirate ship were the Firestorm plasma missiles. The pirate ship’s point defense managed to take down about a third of them before they closed the range enough. As soon as they were close enough to the ship their magitech cores activated and bolts of plasma launched straight forward. The pirate ship had been only lightly scratched by the weapons fire from the fighters, their rail-guns mostly missing, and the lasers barely scratching the hull. The pirate ship was still maneuvering and trying to evade, its movements resulted in about half of the plasma missiles that got close enough to activate missing their target. The other half hit exactly on target.
Plasma splashed against the pirate ship, burning and penetrating the hull. Its maneuvering suffered as a series of explosions took their main drives offline. And then the first salvo arrived. The striker missiles carried conventional explosive warheads of a small 40 kiloton yield. The pirate ship’s point defense was still operational, but there was no time for it to target the striker missiles.
Most of them reached their target and exploded against the hull. The hull cracked under the onslaught, blasting craters that then exploded outward as the superheated atmosphere inside found a way out into the vacuum of space. The ship tore apart into pieces.
Kane watched the destruction, knowing in his head that hundreds of beings had just died at his hands. Somehow he couldn’t summon any remorse for the deaths of pirates.
“Alpha squadron, we are going back to the Prometheus for resupply. Set a course,” Kane ordered. He then sent a message forward to the SCC along with the heading of the ejected pilot for recovery.
With that he activated the Leviathan’s thrust and flew away from the spreading wreckage.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Garix Wex sat in his small scout ship awaiting to exit from the wormhole. Almost two months ago, he had observed as the newcomers suddenly left Jar Allera. His contacts had made him aware that the trader Jaquil had made a deal with the newcomers and that they were leaving on his behalf. And although he didn’t know what the deal was, he could guess. But then as they left the system, Garix took notice of something strange occurring. Captain Anterix’s ship—the Hadsone—left its berth and rendezvoused with two other ships, whose captains were known associates of the trader Jaquil. Immediately suspicious, Garix had elected to follow the three ships. Based on the rumors he had overheard over the years he was almost certain as to why they had left at that time. Following them required him to keep close enough to their ships to be able to reach their position quickly, but also far enough to not be noticed. His ship was a small one, and unimpressive on the outside. But inside it was anything but, it held the latest Zhal technology, some of which was not yet even made public.
He had kept his ship on a curved trajectory, one that kept him close to their ship but not close enough for them too suspect him of following them. Although that was unlikely with the amount of traffic in the system. Then as they finally moved far enough away, he watched as they opened a wormhole and entered it, leaving the system.
He immediately changed course and got closer to their exit point. Once there he turned his scanners on. His ship was equipped with the technology that allowed him to scan and read wormhole signatures. Meaning that he could tell exactly where they were headed. It was a technology that no one else possessed at the moment. Something that they had figured out from the few pieces of old tech that Garix had personally been responsible for recovering. It was why he had been given the first version of the device.
Reading the signature and the calculations took a couple of hours, but at the end he did have a destination. He had debated making a detour or even just sending a message and getting a few patrol ships to meet him there, but he decided against it. He knew little about the newcomers, and this way he could observe. His ship had some stealth systems, and seeing as he was already several hours behind them, he should arrive far enough behind them so that his arrival wasn’t immediately detected.
Now he was just about to leave the wormhole and enter the system, only a few hours after Captain Anterix’s ship and its compatriots. He was very interested to see what was happening.
As soon as he left the wormhole, he engaged the stealth systems which obfuscated his ship’s signature. Then he engaged his passive systems and watched. After a minute or two he started getting the readings from his surroundings, and noticed three ships burning hard toward one settled into the orbit of the fourth planet inside the system. Even with passive sensors it was obvious that the ship in orbit was the newcomers.
Then he was surprised as the newcomers changed course to head directly for one of the ships, and fired what looked like missiles, although they fired only two small salvos, twenty each. One at the ship they were heading for and the other salvo toward the second closest ship. The range they fired from told him that their missiles were as advanced as those of the Zhal Confederation, as they had fired them outside the range that Captain Anterix’s and her compatriots’ ships were capable of.
Interested, he turned on his recording systems and settled in to watch the battle.
***
Aiko watched as the two fighter squadrons began their burns toward their targets. Kane and his Alpha squadron moving away from the Prometheus, and the Beta squadron burning ahead of the Prometheus. As the Prometheus came within three hundred thousand kilometers from its target, Commander Jiang and her fighters separated into two groups and started burning in a curved course that would allow them to hit the pirate ship from two sides. But it also cleared the line of sight between the Prometheus and the pirate ship.
“Launch the first salvo,” Aiko ordered.
“Launching missiles now, Captain.”
Aiko gazed at her screens as missiles launched from her ship, the first salvo was one hundred striker missiles. Only the versions her ship carried were larger, designed to be fired from further away as well as to be more powerful. Each warhead carried 80 kilotons worth of explosives.
The two ships were closing the distance between them fast, and as they reached two hundred thousand kilometers the pirate ship fired its own missiles. One hundred and fifty missiles launched from the pirate ship on their way to the Prometheus.
Aiko debated firing more missiles, but she held back. She didn’t know much about the pirate ship’s capabilities. She had no idea how many missiles they had, how good their point defenses were, or at what ranges they could engage with the rest of their weapons. It made her play it a bit more safely, she did not want to show all of her cards immediately.
Her missiles flew ahead of the fighters, which had kept to a moderate burn on her orders, not wanting to arrive before the Prometheus’s salvo. She wanted to see how good their point defense was. The one hundred missiles entered the pirate ship’s point defense range, and started their evading protocols just as the pirate ship began its defensive fire. Their point defense was good, but not as good as what they had seen from the Qash’vo’tar. But still their ship’s evading combined with their point defense allowed them to take down most of the missiles, with only a few passing through to explode against the hull. Aiko couldn’t tell how much damage her ship’s missiles had done, but the ship was leaking atmosphere.
Then the enemy missiles reached the Prometheus’s point defense range. Her smaller laser turrets opened fire, the targeting computers attempting to compensate for the missiles’ ECM and their evading patterns. They started taking down missiles, but Aiko could tell that it wasn’t going to be enough.
She was right.
Ten missiles passed through the defense to hit the hull, each explosion was weaker than her own missiles had been but still she couldn’t help but wince as the hull of the Prometheus felt enemy fire for the first time.
