Shadow Space Chronicles 1: The Fallen Race (44 page)

“Nothing yet sir.”

They waited, and Lucius finally sighed.  He would have preferred the launch, for it would have meant the Balor had half of the larger missiles to throw his way.

The next possible engagement, unless they merely played with him, lay at two hundred fifty thousand kilometers.  Even with the new missiles, Lucius’s maximum range lay at only a hundred eighty thousand kilometers given their closing velocities.

Both forces kept their speeds low; their combined closure rate meant he’d be in range in just under fifty minutes.  The Balor’s destroyers could volley their external racks, potentially forty of their hundred megaton warheads for each of the twelve destroyers in twenty five minutes more.

He’d have to weather that storm just to fire in return.

The clock ticked away the time.  Lucius’s eyes returned to the icons of the ships in the outer system.  This whole engagement set the ground for that battle.  He knew, quite confidently, that he could defeat this force.  He wasn’t sure he wanted to pay the price it would cost.

He just didn’t see any other way to win.

He looked up.  The Balor launch approached.

“Missile launch, multiple launches.”  Reese reported, his voice calm.  “I have excess of seven hundred enemy birds in the air.”

Lucius bit back a curse.  “Activate jammers, launch the decoys.”

He felt the acid bite of anguish at the coming onslaught.  His people were good.  They would survive it, but it was going to cost them.  They had three minutes to watch the wave of missiles approach.

As the inbound missiles drew closer, they launched counter-missiles.  The
War Shrike
and the
Peregrine
had replaced their standard load-out with interceptor missiles.  The eight Nagri battlecruisers mounted external racks of interceptor missiles.  Even so, less than a hundred counter-missiles lanced out.

They took eighty of the inbound missiles.

Jamming burned out many more.

When the missiles swept into range, they traveled at seventy two thousand kilometers per second.  The firing solutions gunners programmed into the defense guns and even the main batteries swept a cone of destruction through the space ahead of the formation.  They angled the fire in coordinated, overlapping patterns.

That left nearly two hundred missiles that slipped through or around the defensive fire.

The ships, moving evasively, did their best to generate misses.

Sometimes that wasn’t enough.

The
Peregrine
heaved, struck at least one glancing blow that made it through the defensive screen.  “Missile tubes three and four are destroyed.  The refueler is destroyed.  Loss of atmosphere on decks six through fourteen.”

Lucius’s eyes went to his other ships, seeing his own had survived.

Others in the formation had not been so lucky.

The Kriss-class destroyers
Fox
and
Vixen,
and battlecruisers
Royal Gorge
and
Yosemite Park
did not survive.  Bands of gas and a haze of small debris signaled the futility of a search for survivors.  The destroyer
Minx
barely coasted along, damage icons near it suggested that even if it survived the upcoming battle, it would be best to scuttle the ship.  All of his other ships took damage to one degree or another, and two of his remaining battlecruisers boasted less than half their weapons systems operative.

“
Nearing launch range.” Commander Beeson said.

Lucius waited, a dark hunger growing in his belly.  “All ships, fire.”

“All ships firing, sir.”  Reese relayed.

Lucius gave a feral grin, “My turn, bastards.”

Nearly seven hundred missiles went out.  They were slower, they probably would be less accurate, but each of those missiles carried a kilogram of antimatter in a polarized matrix designed to maximize energy release.

“
Roosevelt Forest
reports damage to missile racks, they had to jettison their missiles.”

“
Understood.” Lucius answered.  His eyes remained intent.

The Balor had almost four minutes to watch the inbound missiles.

“I’m detecting no counter-missiles.  I think they fired everything they had at us.” Reese said.

Lucius nodded, it fit their standard of operations.  They were used to facing lighter human ships.  A Republic force of cruisers and destroyers would not have survived, he knew.

The Balor scout force began evasive maneuvers.  They lay down their own cone of destructive fire.  Three hundred missiles died.  The jamming burned out another hundred.

Lucius waited.

Massive explosions blossomed in the midst of the Balor formation.  The first destroyer died, then a cruiser, followed by another destroyer.  The shields took a beating, but nothing the size of a destroyer could take more than a couple of hits from the massive warheads.

Lucius snarled in satisfaction as the last of the explosions faded.  One cruiser and three destroyers remained.  All lacked shields.  All bled atmosphere from damage. The survivors altered course and moved to escape.

“Close with them, wipe them out.”

Lucius ships went to full acceleration.  “We’ve got them as long as—“

He broke off as the surviving ships split.  Each ship’s course took them on radically different paths.  Lucius could divide his force to chase them down or watch them get away.

“
Break off the pursuit.” Lucius sighed.  He was not about to throw away the victory by scattering his forces, not with how the main body lurked at the edge of the system.  “Begin withdrawal towards Shadow Point, take it slow, let’s see if we can sucker them in.”

***

An hour later, the Balor fleet finally began its approach into the system.  Lucius stared at their course, and he felt the stirrings of depression.  They swept in slowly, on a course that would take them past the ice moon with its penal colony.  They could alter course, they could speed up, but Lucius felt certain the Balor would take a cautious sweep of the system.  They couldn’t know what waited, but the enemy commander suspected something might.

“Why the long face?” Kandergain asked as she came up to stand near him.

“
An aggressive commander, we could have trapped.  A cautious one…” Lucius pursed his lips, “not good.”

“
Any hope?” Kandergain kept her face placid, but he heard the despair in her voice.

“
We’ll keep the speed down.  With the damage we did take, they’ll think we’re worse off than we are.  They might try to catch us short of the planet.”

“
But not likely?”

“
No.  Not with the course they’re on, right now.  It looks like they wanted the measure of us, and they got one.”  He sighed, “We’re refining our data on their ships, as they get closer, but it looks pretty close to a nightmare case.”

“
They’ll pass the ice moon in a couple hours.  They won’t be in engagement range for another six, maybe eight hours, depending.”

“
All ships, go to battle stand-by.  Half-on watches, three hour rotations.” Lucius said.

“
Are you going to rest?” Kandergain asked.

Lucius shrugged, he didn’t feel tired, but he knew even a few minutes rest could make all the difference between a poor decision and a good one.  “A couple hours.”

She clasped his hand, “You can do this, Lucius.  I believe in you.”

Lucius squeezed her hand, “I haven’t given up.”  He snorted, “Though God knows, that’s been a recurring problem for me.”

***

Four hours later, Lucius stared at the screens and wished some kind of change.  The Balor scout force and the main body had combined and they swept in towards Lucius’s small force, and the as-yet concealed United Colonies Fleet.  “Come on, I could use anything,” he muttered.

“
Sir, multiple new contacts, just emerged, vicinity the rocky planet.” Reese snapped.

Lucius blinked in surprise, looking over at Kandergain, who shook her head, not her doing.

“Who are they?” Lucius asked.

Reese stared at his screen for a long time in silence.  Finally he looked up.  “Significant Chxor force.  Looks like thirty dreadnoughts, around a hundred and twenty cruisers.”

Lucius stared at the new contacts.  He felt his heart sink.  The Chxor, either through luck or coordination with the Balor, had put themselves in a position to squeeze his fleet between the Balor and their forces.  He figured the UCF fleet could engage and destroy the Chxor force.  Doing so would compromise the position of his forces to the Balor.  The added damage might also tip the balance even more against him.

He stared at the screen, suddenly out of ideas.

He looked up to find Kandergain’s eyes.

Lucius just shook his head.

***

CHAPTER
XV

May 2, 2403 Earth Standard Time

Faraday System

United Colonies

With the majority of the fleet in emissions control, Lucius couldn’t talk to Admiral Drefyus without possibly giving away his position.  That meant he could contact Admiral Mund and Emperor Romulus.  “I’m not seeing any viable options.” He said.  He sat in the conference room aboard the
Peregrine
, away from the eyes of his crew.

“
Perhaps it’s time we withdraw,” the Emperor said.  “It might be too late to evacuate most of the planet, but we can still save millions.”

Lucius felt the temptation, but he just shook his head, “No, if we run now, the Balor will smell our defeat, they’ll hunt us.”  He looked over at Kandergain and she nodded slightly.  “Besides, I won’t abandon millions to their deaths, not when we have a chance at stopping them.”

“We don’t, you said it yourself,” the younger man said angrily.  “With the Balor and the Chxor working together to bring us down—”

“
Wait,” Admiral Mund said, “Why would the Chxor and Balor work together?”

Lucius frowned, “Can it be anything else?  They arrived at the same time, I don’t see how they coordinated this but…”

David Mund shook his head, “This doesn’t fit with the mentality of the Balor or the Chxor.  Does it?” His question went to Kandergain.

She frowned, “No…  No, the Balor might use the Chxor, provoke them into attacking us, but they don’t have any kind of alliance.  The Balor don’t negotiate with anyone.”

“So, you’re saying the Chxor just happened to attack us at the same time as the Balor?”  Lucius frowned, “That doesn’t make any sense.  Not unless they’re reacting to something.”

“
Like our attack at Melcer?” The Emperor asked.

Lucius’s eyes went wide, “That’s it, your Highness!  The Chxor aren’t here to smash us against the Balor, they’re here to retaliate against the attack at Melcer!”

“How does that change anything?” Kandergain frowned.

“
It changes everything!” Lucius slammed his hand down on the table in excitement.  Then he pulled up a map of the system, and the course of the Balor Fleet.  “Right now, they’re approaching the gas giant.  They’ll be in the shadow of that, probably as they launch their fighters and shake down into their final formations.  Their psychic sensors or whatever won’t have range on us, and their longer range sensors will be blocked by the gas giant.”

“
So they won’t be able to see us do what?”

Lucius stroked his chin in thought, “I’m not sure.”

Admiral Mund spoke, “Alright, what are the Chxor here for?”

“
To engage and destroy a threat to the Chxor Empire.”

“
So… we give them that threat?” the Emperor asked.  “My ship’s can advance to meet them.  That will give your forces time to deal with the Balor.”  For a moment, he looked almost eager to throw his massively outnumbered force against the Chxor.

“
No…” Lucius stared at the map, thinking.  There had to be a way.  “If we could get the Chxor turned, headed for us, we might get them to engage the Balor.”  He checked the movement of the Chxor versus the position of his own fleet and the powered-down ships of Dreyfus’s command.  “Now… if we bring our fleet’s drives up in... thirty-three minutes, the Chxor will see them, and alter course to engage.  At the same time, the Balor will be behind the gas giant and they won’t be able to see my force.  When the Balor come from behind the gas giant, the Chxor will see them, and move to engage the new threat.”

“
Is that before or after they shoot their way through your fleet to get there?” Admiral Mund asked dryly.

Lucius turned to Kandergain, “The Balor can do intrasystem jumps because they’re psychics, right?”

She frowned, “Yes.”

“
Can you plot me a near-real-time jump to take all our ships?  It doesn’t have to be quick, we can afford a couple hours transit time, but I need that jump to happen in the next forty five minutes,” He licked his lips, “and it would be best if we jumped behind a planetary body.”

She frowned in thought, “I’ll need the ship’s nav computer.  And, as soon as Admiral Dreyfus’s ships go active, I’ll need access to the
Patriot’
s nav computer.”

“
Go.”

She was out of the room before he messaged the bridge, “Kandergain will need full access to the navigation computer.”

“Yes, sir, uh, how—” there was a shout.

“
Lucius, this is Kandergain, I’m plugged in.  Make sure Dreyfus is ready to give me access as soon as his ships go active.”  The line went dead.

Lucius hurried up to the bridge.  His navigation officer stood, looking somewhat dazed, “Uh, Baron, she—“ He shook his head, “She just threw me across the compartment.”

“She was in a hurry.” Lucius said.

***

The strike force and the rest of the fleet merged twenty five minutes later.

The Chxor, with their limited sensor range, couldn’t see them well enough to target.  They would have to be blind as well as deaf not to see them coming.

The drives of the five Crusader-class ships threw off enough background radiation to give someone sunburn.  The drive of the
Patriot
at full acceleration threw off a larger signature than all thirty of the Chxor dreadnoughts.

“
Come on, you bastards,” Lucius muttered, starting at his screen.

“
Surely they’re not that blind?” he heard someone say.

Lucius glanced at the timer displayed in the corner of his screen.  They had just under twenty minutes to change the course of the Chxor, and then to jump.  If they passed that window, then the Balor would see his entire force.  Lucius didn’t know what their course of action would be then, but he doubted it would favor him.

“Chxor force is altering course, they’re swinging around, sir.” Reese said.  “Looks like they’re going for a least-time closure rate.”

Lucius let out a sigh of relief, “Kandergain, we ready yet?”

“Did I mention I
hate
being pressured when I work?” She snapped.  “I need thirty more minutes.”

“
You’ve got…” Lucius checked the timer, “eighteen minutes and thirty seconds.”

“
Sir, I can link the Fleet’s processing power if that—”

“
Do it.”  He and Kandergain spoke simultaneously.

That took five minutes.

“Transferring the calculations,” Kandergain said.

Lucius’s screen flickered.  He looked up, “What was that?”

“She’s sucking up all the processing power from our computers, sir.” Reese said.  It took Lucius a moment to recognize the emotion of awe in Reece's voice.  “Sir, I’ve never seen anything like this.  If she put those computations in wrong, she could shut our computers down, crash every system in the fleet.”  He looked over at Lucius, “We’d have to go over to manual controls for everything.”  That would doom them.

“
Can you pull the plug?”

“
Don’t,” Kandergain snapped, “I’m nearly done.  Five minutes.”

Lucius looked at his flickering screen and watched Chxor ships as they accelerated towards his fleet.  He glanced again at the timer, as it ticked away the seconds.  “We wait,” he said to Reese.

The Chxor force drew closer.  In another ten minutes, they would be within missile range.   “They’re hitting us with targeting sensors.” Reese said.

“
Done!” Kandergain shouted.  “Transmitting the jump calculations.”

He looked at the clock, two minutes remained.  “Message to all ships, jump to Shadow.”

The transition hurt.  Lucius felt his insides twist.  He heard the ship groan.  Then they entered shadow space and the gray nothingness surrounded them.

Reese spoke, his voice strained, “All ships reported jump successful, we’re on course.”

Lucius looked over at Kandergain, “Now where are we going?”

“
I figured the gas giant Sanctuary would be far enough out the Balor wouldn’t be looking there.” She said.  “I had to rush the calculations, that’s why the transition was so rough.  We may be off by a few hundred thousand kilometers, but I don’t
think
we’ll hit the planet.”

Lucius hoped the last was a joke.  “How long?”

“Fifty three minutes,” She said.

“
Message from Admiral Dreyfus, Baron,” Reese said.

“
Put him through.”

The old Admiral actually looked angry, “What the hell did that just buy us?”

“Excuse me?” Lucius asked.

“
I couldn’t ask you why the hell we’re running before, but I am now!” Admiral Dreyfus snapped.  “Why the hell did we just abandon almost twenty million people!”

“
Admiral, first off, you ceded command to me.  I expect you to trust my decisions.  I didn’t want this job, but you damned well better believe that if I got it, I’d need your support.”  Lucius glared the older man into silence.  “Second, we’re not running.  Kandergain did a system jump, that’s why we tied up our communications and computers for so long.  Third, I hope we just turned our enemies against each other.”

Dreyfus frowned, “Explain.”

“When I was at the academy—”

“
Before you were expelled?”

“
Before I was expelled,” Lucius nodded and ignored the jibe, “I wrote a controversial paper on your battle against the Wrethe Incursion in what later became the Nova Roma system.  In that battle, you took advantage of a military convoy that jumped in on the Wrethe’s flank, and used that force to turn their flank and break them.”

“
Not that I don’t enjoy the embellishment, but most of that was accidental, you realize.  I had no idea Commodore Jacent’s convoy would come in then.”

“
I know, Admiral.  My paper was controversial because I derided the common notion that your genius won that battle. As a matter of fact, in my paper, I noted you would have lost the battle if not for that accident, primarily to underestimating the effectiveness of their bombers and poor deployment of your forces.”

The Admiral winced, “Is that what I’ve come to?  Being backstabbed by cadets?”

“Well, Admiral, they expelled me not long after.  You’re something of a folk hero for Nova Roma, and after my other issues there, the paper certainly didn’t help me stay.”

The Admiral chuckled.  “Okay, so you’re hoping, what, the Chxor cooperate?”

“More, I’m hoping the Balor think that Chxor force are our ships, either captured or allied.” Lucius said.  “Think about it, they go behind that gas giant, seeing my strike force fleeing towards… something.  They come out, and there’s a force of thirty dreadnoughts, no sign of my ships, and no sign of a battle.”

“
It looks like you joined up with the larger force,” Admiral Dreyfus said.  “Either that, or you jumped out.  Either way, if the Chxor and the Balor aren’t working together, they’re still two armed forces, neither particularly happy to see the other.”  The old Admiral nodded grudgingly, “I like it.  I apologize.”

Lucius nodded, accepting the apology.  “Sorry I didn’t keep you informed, Admiral, but time very nearly undid the entire plan.”  He realized, like the bruised navigation officer, he’d bruised the Admiral's pride in his hasty actions.  “We’ll emerge from Shadow in,” he checked the timer, “forty two minutes.”

“What’s the plan, then?”

Lucius grinned slightly, “Plan, what plan?”  They both chuckled slightly, “Well, assuming a couple things go our way, we’ll see the Chxor try to implement our original plan, charging down the throat of the Balor.” Lucius shrugged, “After that we’ll see.”

Admiral Dreyfus nodded, “Understood.  I do think, however, it is best for you to transfer your flag, now, Baron.”

“
Excuse me?” Lucius blinked.

“
The
Peregrine
is a fine ship, but it’s not as tough as the
Patriot.
  You’re the commander of our forces, and the leader of a planet.  How do you think things would go if a couple of Balor missiles get lucky hits on the
Peregrine?
”

Lucius looked away, “I think there’s plenty of capable people to step up.”

“I disagree.  Leaving that consideration aside: my ship has better communications systems and computer systems.  I understand your ships computer nearly crashed from the load.  If you’d been aboard the
Patriot,
you would have been able to relay messages through the secondary computer system.”

Lucius stroked the arm rest of the chair.  He realized suddenly, the reason he didn’t want to give up his position on the
Peregrine.
  Doing so would be the abdication of his last ship command.  On the
Patriot
, he’d be in the flag bridge.  A ship only had one captain.  Lucius spoke finally, his voice low, “I’ll transfer over once we exit shadow space.”