The Sword In The Stone, page 12
part #5 of Space Lore Series
As soon as he was at ground level, Lancelot picked up a vibro lance, still ignited, and threw it like a javelin at the bounty hunter. It entered his armor below his ribs and appeared through the other side of his torso. The weapon’s momentum carried the bounty hunter sideways, into the wall.
Lancelot raced across the alley and with one stroke of her Meursault, sliced off the alien’s helmet. It bounced on a shoulder, then off the edge of the vibro lance, then clanked against the ground. The bounty hunter’s body was still upright but only because the vibro lance was driven through the wall and was holding him up. When Lancelot withdrew it, the vanquished bounty hunter thudded to the ground in a heap of armor.
A sound to her side made her spin once again. J’onne Marks, the gentlemanly bounty hunter, was there, standing by the trapped Turgdorian. He had both hands on the handle of the Meursault and was trying to get it away from the much heavier alien.
“What are you doing?” Lancelot asked.
J’onne froze. His hands slowly retreated away from the prize.
“I was, uh, trying to help you get your marvelous blade back.”
“I appreciate it,” Lancelot said as she turned and crossed the alley, pausing only feet away from the bounty hunter so she looked like a giant looming over him.
With one of her front feet, she pushed with all of her strength and flung the fallen Ogrish off the Turgdorian. With her other front foot, she stood on top of the Turgdorian’s chest until it realized the brevity of the situation and understood that if it did anything at all other than give her back the Meursault it wouldn’t live. It did the smart thing and released its grip.
“Good move,” Lancelot said as she wiped off the invisible blade and put the sword back behind her shoulder. Then, turning to J’onne, she said, “Why did you send me here? Did you think it was funny to waste my time?”
The gentlemanly bounty hunter backed slightly away, his palms out. “I only try to help.”
“Have you even been inside that bar? Criminals don’t hang out there.”
“I think you’re wrong,” J’onne said.
Lancelot laughed and shook her head. “You think I’m wrong? Have you been inside there before?”
“I can only tell you what I know.”
A figure at the end of the alley caught Lancelot’s attention. It had been walking down the street but paused to inspect what was happening down the side alley. The figure looked like a human male but its posture was too perfect. An android. Not only that, but an android that had been on its way into ThatAm.
As soon as Lancelot turned and noticed it, it darted away.
Without saying anything, Lancelot raced after it.
“See? ” J’onne shouted after her. “I told you.”
37
Three flagships were posted at the edge of the 16-D-10 sector. When the two Athens Destroyers and one Solar Carrier docked for resupply, they did so at the spaceport above Quad-Lun, a planet which, although it was inhospitable to life, was littered with nearly a dozen different small colonies. The three flagships patrolled the border between the Cartha sector and the 16-D-10 sector, providing reassurance to those who had converted to the Round Table that the space they controlled would be free of intergalactic pirates and gangsters.
Colonel Krull was the officer in charge of the three ships. As such, he had been alerted that a giant unknown vessel was making its way through the Cartha sector, apparently destroying everything in its path. Although no one could be sure until the ship was spotted again, it was assumed the vessel would maintain the same course and enter the 16-D-10 sector next.
“They’re calling it the Juggernaut,” Krull’s first captain said.
“So they do.”
It was Colonel Krull’s mission, if possible, to make contact with the Juggernaut and deter it from continuing further into Round Table controlled space. He was ordered to offer a diplomatic solution before providing one of brute force. He had received orders to only fire if the foreign vessel fired first or else it dispatched forces to attack Quad-Lun. Outside of that, Colonel Krull had the freedom to address the situation as he saw fit.
It was not the type of assignment Krull had envisioned for himself back when he was in the Vonnegan academy. In those days, Mowbray Vonnegan had still been ruler and Mowbray’s son, Minot, hadn’t yet been born. Neither Krull nor any of the others in his graduating class had cared about Mowbray’s glory. Most of them were there because they had been taken from their homes and forced to serve the empire. Others, like Krull, had joined because they felt a calling to explore the stars and would take any available means of doing so, even if it meant delivering fear across the sectors in the form of an Athens Destroyer.
He hadn’t realized at the time that “exploring the stars” would one day mean commanding three flagships at an outpost no one cared about, in a sector not many people visited. However, he was better off than his father and older brother. Both had died in Mowbray’s silly wars. Periodically reminding himself of that helped in adjusting his personal expectations; he wasn’t exploring nebulas or collapsing stars like he had dreamed of as a child but he was out in space and he was alive.
The higher ups had sent Colonel Krull intelligence stating that the Juggernaut could somehow jump through space without the use of traditional portals. They still weren’t sure how. Gathering more information on that capability was Krull’s secondary objective. It was the Juggernaut’s unknown capability that forced Krull to keep his ships near Quad-Lun. If he took them away from the 16-D-10 sector in hopes of confronting the approaching vessel, the enemy might be able to leap past him, bypassing all defenses. Instead, the three flagships stayed with weapons systems ready, every officer dressed in space armor.
Looking out through the viewport of the command deck of his Athens Destroyer, he saw a distorted reflection of himself. His skin was a more vibrant shade of purple than most Vonnegans. His jaw was wider. His mother had told him this was because he was meant for great things. After all, Mowbray Vonnegan had shared the same qualities and he was royalty.
What Krull now understood was that greatness didn’t come from sending husbands and sons, wives and daughters, into war but from ensuring violence was the last resort. The proof of this was in the diversity around him. There were only two other Vonnegans on his command deck. The others were human, Gthothch, and other aliens from around the galaxy. Only a couple years earlier, that would have been unheard of. It was a glorious thing to be a part of.
“Sir,” Krull’s watch officer said, “vessel approaching from the Cartha sector. Mark 11-74-18.”
“Put it up.”
A hologram filled the air in between where the colonel was standing and the front of the command deck. Most of the hologram showed empty space littered with stars. The very edge of it, however, showed what at first glance appeared to be some sort of armored frigate.
“Magnify.”
Krull’s teeth dug into his lower lip as he immediately recognized his miscalculation. It was no frigate at all, armored or otherwise. It was something slightly akin to his own Athens Destroyer, only with more armor, sharper edges, and a wider surface. Even from a distance, he could tell it was enormous.
“Measurements,” he said.
The watch officer provided them, causing everyone on the deck who had been focused on their job to see what was coming toward them. The ship was significantly larger than all three of Krull’s flagships combined. Even if his command was doubled to six flagships, the approaching Juggernaut would dwarf them. Even if all of the colonies down below on Quad-Lun were combined, they wouldn’t equal the surface area of the approaching ship.
“Juggernaut, indeed,” he said. Then, focusing on the task at hand, added, “Open communications.”
His comms officer tapped a series of buttons on the console in front of her.
“Comms open, sir.”
“This is Colonel Krull of the Round Table forces. Please identify yourself.”
He waited for the ship to transmit his request across every known verbal and visual language. All the while, the Juggernaut made its way out of the Cartha sector, closer to the first sign of civilization in the 16-D-10 sector.
“This is Colonel Krull,” he said again. “I am with the Round Table forces. Please identify yourself.”
The hologram of the enormous vessel had to zoom out as the ship began to fill the entire image and nothing else could be seen.
“Ensign Chipe,” he said to his comms officer. “The message is going out in every possible translation?”
“It is, sir.”
Krull nodded and turned back to the viewport. Silence filled the command deck as everyone focused on their duties so as to not have to think about the behemoth approaching them.
“This is Colonel Krull of the Round Table forces. Please identify yourself.”
“Transmission being received from the vessel, sir.”
“Put it up.”
The hologram of the Juggernaut shrank to half its size and moved to the left side of the command deck. On a new hologram, to the right of the main image, text appeared in the air.
WE ARE HANNIBAL. FOR TOO LONG YOU HAVE SPREAD DEATH AND SUFFERING ACROSS THE GALAXY. JUDGMENT IS UPON YOU.
38
Colonel Krull’s Athens Destroyer was transmitting a live feed back to Edsall Dark. Julian and Hector watched it from the control room. Most of what they stared at was a three-dimensional hologram of the Round Table’s trio of flagships hovering in space between Quad-Lun and the approaching Juggernaut. Although the data was transmitted at the fastest speed back through every portal until it got back to CamaLon, Hector and Julian knew everything they were seeing had already happened minutes earlier. Not even the newest and most advanced communication technology could transmit speech or video fast enough to get it across multiple sectors without a significant delay.
That was part of the reason neither man asked to be patched through to the colonel’s command deck, because Krull would have already reacted to anything they were seeing. The other reason was that they both knew Krull would need to focus on what was happening rather than take advice from generals on the other side of the galaxy.
Even in the simple visual they watched, the immense size difference between the foreign vessel and the Athens Destroyers and Solar Carrier was clear.
“A ship that size can only serve one purpose,” Hector whispered.
Julian nodded, remembering how he had felt upon seeing the same vessel. He had gone from feeling like he really was the Terror of the Cartha Sector, invincible with his fleet of flagships, to feeling extremely vulnerable and naive.
A second hologram appeared in the control room. This one relayed the same message that the Hannibal had sent to the three flagships.
Seeing the words, Hector had to put a hand out to brace himself.
“You okay?” Julian asked.
A conversation came back to Hector.
“There will always be more of the galaxy to explore. There will always be another civilization to try and bring under the Round Table. How much longer until we come upon someone who isn’t intimidated by our ships of war? How much longer until we go too far and reach someone who wants to do to us what we have done to everyone else... or worse?”
The Juggernaut moved closer to Quad-Lun and the three ships that were in its way.
Julian frowned and asked who Hector had quoted.
“I said it a couple weeks ago to the representatives at the Round Table as you were approaching the Cartha sector.”
39
It might have been possible for the Juggernaut to ram its way through the blockade that the three Round Table flagships formed. It wouldn’t have been much different than Colonel Krull having his Athens Destroyer fly directly into the path of three Llyushin fighters. Instead of utilizing this maneuver, however, the behemoth slowed its approach and launched just over one hundred projectiles.
Colonel Krull had already ordered all three ships to raise their shields. His next command was to launch a defensive salvo of countermeasures with the hope that most if not all of the Hannibal missiles would be caught in the net of explosions. Three clustered mines were launched from the underbelly of the Athens Destroyer. Each had a thruster that ignited and sent it on a course toward the Juggernaut in an attempt to intercept the oncoming projectiles. Once the cluster mines were a mile away from the Destroyer, they exploded into a ball of energized shrapnel that would hopefully draw the attention of the approaching projectiles and make them explode on contact.
But instead of going toward the clusters, the small cylinders launched by the Juggernaut dispersed all around the three Round Table flagships before coming to a stop. None of them exploded. None of them impacted Krull’s vessels.
Krull’s weapons officer glanced at him to see if an order was going to be forthcoming to target and destroy the devices. Krull, though, was deep in thought, trying to figure out what might happen next. None of the devices tried to attach themselves to the Round Table ships. They were just floating in space, a wide net of metal dots.
In the distance, four of the Juggernaut’s hangar doors opened and the four mechs lifted off.
“Open comms.”
“Comms open, sir.”
“This is Colonel Krull of the Round Table forces. Please turn around and exit the sector.”
As he watched, the four mechs—one a pale white, another a rusted red, the third black, and the last a dull grey—began to descend toward Quad-Lun.
“This is Colonel Krull. Please state your purpose.” After waiting five seconds and not getting a response, he said, “Any objects launched toward our colonies without our consent will be considered aggressors and will be dealt with accordingly.”
The only message the Juggernaut sent in response was nearly identical to the one from before. The words popped up as a hologram directly in front of where Krull was standing on the command deck.
WE ARE HANNIBAL. JUDGMENT IS UPON YOU.
The Juggernaut did not activate its cannons and begin sending laser blasts at the flagships. It did not launch fighters or any other type of weapon. The mechs, ignoring Krull’s warning, descended toward the planet’s surface atop their transports.
Colonel Krull motioned for the comms officer to turn off the feed, then said, “Launch two squadrons of Thunderbolts. Tell them to circle the mechs but not to fire unless I give the command.”
A lieutenant behind him sent the command to the Athen Destroyer’s hangars. There, pilots already dressed in their navigation suits would be climbing into their fighters and soaring into space.
Within seconds, the first pair of Thunderbolts roared past the Destroyer’s command deck on their way to intercept the mechs. A moment later, two more flew by. Then another pair and another after that.
The eight fighters circled the mechs while the foreign objects continued their descent. Krull watched from the side viewport of his vessel. None of the mechs were deterred from continuing toward the planet. Likewise, none of the Thunderbolts sent volleys of laser blasts or proton torpedoes.
“Sir,” an officer said. “The mechs are entering Quad-Lun’s atmosphere.”
As the colonel watched, the Thunderbolts began flying in wide loops when they were to the sides and behind the mechs but were passing at extremely close range when they got in front of them. The maneuver was designed to discourage vessels from continuing in their current course.
Krull signaled for the comms to reopen, then said, “Call off your ships or my fighters will be forced to repel them.”
A moment later, the mechs still continuing on their path toward the planet’s surface, Krull nodded to a lieutenant to pass along his orders to the fighters.
Everything in space happens at relative speeds that are much faster than they appear. It looked as though the mechs were taking their time approaching the planet but they were actually flying hundreds of miles per hour. The fighters, in order to be able to keep flying in circles around them, were travelling up to four times the speed of the invading objects.
The fact that the objects out the viewport were actually flying many times faster than the speed of sound was why what happened next was so impressive. The second mech, the one that was the color of dried blood, was scorched by the heat of a Thunderbolt as it passed within mere feet of it. The mech ignited the large ion sword in its hands and, faster than human eyes could make sense, brought the blade—itself the length of the thunderbolt—down the middle of the next fighter to pass by. That ship split into two pieces, each of which burst into explosions that extinguished as the oxygen reserves burned out.
“All ships engage,” Colonel Krull said. “Fire at will.”
Alarms filled the command deck. A new hologram formed in the air near Krull to show a map of the battlefield. Additional dots appeared as both of the other flagships launched fighters of their own.
In the moments before his own Destroyer’s cannons sent laser blasts at the Juggernaut, Krull saw the other three mechs also ignite their weapons. One had a bow that sent an arrow of energy into the nearest Thunderbolt, causing it to explode in a flash of blue. Another had what looked like a vibro scepter that sent out long waves of sickly yellow energy. When the Thunderbolts flew too close to a ripple, they disintegrated. Another ion arrow tore through a fighter. The long sword, glowing and outstretched, sliced through a Llyushin fighter. The final mech, the one with what appeared to be a scale in one hand, continued toward the planet without engaging the nearby ships. As it did, one side of the scale emitted black gas and the other a black sizzling energy. A Thunderbolt broke away from the rest of the fighting and targeted that mech. The two substances on either side of the scale expanded until they touched each other. Mixed together, they caused a chemical reaction that formed a cloud of energy that spread out toward the oncoming fighter. The Thunderbolt raced straight through the cloud. Rather than explode, it continued flying straight ahead. The craft was intact but the pilot, no longer doing anything intelligible to fly the ship, was apparently dead. Seconds later, the ship began to fall apart, piece by piece.
