Storm Clouds, page 32
part #1 of The Guild Wars Series
Inside was a dedicated computer designed and built by Ghost. A rack of twenty specialized computer chips were plugged into it. She entered a code into the little screen, then sent another code from her pinplants. One of the twenty chips flashed, and she pulled it out. The case had created a one-way jump key to New Warsaw.
For almost a century, those keys had ensured nobody except the Winged Hussars knew where New Warsaw was. She looked at the chip and sighed. The Mercenary Guild and Peepo had somehow found out her secret; however, she didn’t know if the coordinates were widely known. Maybe nobody else knew about it? She wasn’t sure so she erred on the side of caution.
Alexis programmed a second key, then she opened another section of the secure case. Inside was a cylinder full of credit chits. She counted out twenty and slid them into a pocket on her uniform and sealed the case. A minute later, a pair of Maki appeared at the door, and she let them in. “Greetings,” she said, “please come in.”
Just five minutes later, they were leaving with the code keys for New Warsaw and the twenty million-credit chits. It was an unbelievable sum of money, and probably worth every single credit. One would take their ship to New Warsaw, the other to Earth. Reading the updates from Jim and Sansar, she wanted to be extra sure her friends had a way to reach New Warsaw.
Two weeks for the Maki courier to reach New Warsaw, a few days to gather a fleet, another two weeks for them to rendezvous with her and the others at I’qodsa. She thought of what the advanced weapons could mean to her Hussars and for an upcoming confrontation with the Kahraman.
With the two Maki ships’ masters gone, Alexis walked to the meeting room’s window, with its wide, sweeping vista of the bleak desolation of Capital. The Mercenary Guild headquarters was almost directly in front of her, five kilometers away. To her near right was the bulbous 20-story building of the Merchant Guild. In the other direction was the Trade Guild. The Science Guild building was only just visible to the extreme right, an octagonal building with no visible windows.
The Peacemaker Consulate—the building housing the last of the six founding guilds of the Union—was nowhere near the other buildings. It was just over the horizon, out of sight. Unlike the other guilds, the Peacemakers didn’t keep their headquarters on Capital—they were on Kleve, with the Peacemaker Academy on Ocono.
Alexis gazed toward the center of the star the buildings created. A tiny monument sat there, no more than three meters tall. On it was carved the inscription, “To The First Peacemaker—Entropy Comes.” She’d never seen it herself, but she wanted to. While the Peacemaker Guild only maintained a consulate on Capital—nothing as lavish as the other guilds—it also lovingly cared for that monument with its strange words, situated in the middle of them all.
After the six founding guilds, the Union added others over the years, and a few sub-guilds as well. An intricate collection of organizations with some overlapping authorities. It might have been elegant if it didn’t function so haphazardly. The thin veneer of democracy the Galactic Union maintained was meaningless because the guilds had all the true power.
“The Galactic Union,” she said to the empty room. After a minute a line came to her. “It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, but perhaps there is a key.” She grew a half smile thinking of the words of her distant relative. She wished Ghost would help her figure it all out.
Alexis turned and left. “Pegasus, this is Colonel Cromwell.”
“Pegasus, Shefoo here.”
The new comms officer sounded enough like Hoot to almost make her forget her previous comms officer was dead. “Put me through to Engineer Long.”
“Right away.”
A second later, Long’s typical clicking Jeha voice was translated by her pinplants. “Long here.”
“Long, I want you to get a team together with Afeeko and start installing the deflectors the transport brought from New Warsaw.”
“I thought you were worried they’d be spotted?” Long asked.
“I am, but I’m more worried about things going sideways without an edge. Send the ones over to Durendal and Excalibur as well. We have enough, right?”
“Oh, certainly. I’ll get on it right away.”
Alexis nodded as she climbed into the elevator to travel back down and meet up with Nigel. No matter what happened to the other merc forces, she had every intention of making it home to have the babies. After that? Who knew what the fates had in mind?
* * * * *
Chapter Sixteen
CIC, EMS Pegasus, Toscolda System
Alexis watched the Toscolda patrol boats skulking near the edge of the emergence point. When the lead elements of the fleet emerged, those boats immediately began transmitting threats. However, as more and more ships emerged, they changed their minds and maneuvered away.
She’d been through Toscolda before. It was a consortium world that produced food and raw wood for export. A half-dozen races operated the planet in what could only be called a subsistence scheme. Nobody made money except the consortium. It was a real shithole.
As the fleet formed up and began moving toward the stargate, more and more warships came up from the nearby planet to shadow their movements. By the halfway point, the number had grown to 62 ships. Alexis smiled. Against Pegasus and her two escorts, they would stand all the chances of an ice asteroid in a giant blue star.
“They going to take a swing at us?” Lieutenant Sofeeka asked. Pegasus’s new TacCom was battle proven and eager to fight. He was an outlier for the reptilian elSha, who were not a merc race.
“For their sakes, I hope not,” Lieutenant Bainbridge said. The SitCon was watching things just as carefully.
“They won’t,” Alexis assured them. “Price, you have the con.”
“I have the con, aye, Captain,” Alana Price replied.
Alexis enjoyed the light gravity as they were under acceleration and hopped toward her ready room. As soon as she was inside, she closed the door and spoke. “Okay, we’re out of Capital. Will you talk to me now?”
“What can you tell me about the Weapons Conglomerate?”
“Oogar shit. They’re using meson weapons and other tech you recognized from the Battle for Earth. It dates to the Great War.”
“You were the tip of the spear,” Alexis said. “You told me as much.”
“Just you, and the ones we found in 2nd level hyperspace.”
“It doesn’t explain some of these crazy rules you have. Can’t or won’t go some places. Can’t or won’t tell me some things. Entropy, it’s infuriating sometimes!”
Alexis blinked. What? “Are you saying you are operating under some old set of rules?”
Alexis let her breath out in a long sigh. Conclusions weren’t hard to draw—answers were.
* * *
CIC, EMS Pegasus, Lacabo Prime
“ETA Lacabo in ten minutes,” Lieutenant Commander Price announced.
Alexis nodded to her XO and linked her pinplants with the ship’s command and control elements. A battlespace formed within her mind’s eye, which was currently blank. Off to the side were the various ships she’d brought with them for the battle. As they emerged into normal space those ships would blink out of the staging square and into formation.
The rally at I’qodsa had gone as planned. She’d been a little nervous that the couriers hadn’t gotten through in time. But when the fleet arrived, she’d found her seven requested ships waiting, along with a dozen other races’ transports and support ships. She smiled to see the alien vessels holding off quite a distance from the Winged Hussars’ ships.
“Welcome to the party, Captain Drizz,” she’d called.
“Commander Cromwell,” Drizz replied. The Zuul captain of Nuckelavee grinned. It was more attractive than a Besquith smile. Somewhat. In addition to his Egleesius-class battlecruiser, he’d brought with him the Steed-class cruisers Sir Barton and Seattle Slew, Stem-class Maki light cruiser Capuchin, Sword-class frigates Tizona and Tyrfing, and the Fiend-class carrier Manticore.
“What’s your squadron’s condition, Captain?”
“We’re one hundred percent, sir,” Drizz confirmed. “Manticore is still making drones, but I understand we’re still two jumps out of combat. She’ll be at capacity by the time we arrive.”
“Have deflectors been installed on all the ships?”
“Yes, sir. We’re having an issue with the Maki light cruiser, but the techs say it’ll be up and running before we arrive.”
They’d only spent twelve hours in I’qodsa before jumping out—just enough time to exchange some personnel, form up, and move to the stargate. Then it was back into hyperspace to rush toward their destination.
“Emergence in one minute.”
“Battle stations,” she ordered.
The CIC lighting turned from normal to red-tinted as the ancient warship’s crew prepared for battle. Alexis felt a profound feeling of concern, an unusual feeling for her before a fight. She’d led her ship and the Hussars into countless life-or-death struggles. Of course, never with others to care for. Unconsciously, a hand went to her stomach. She’d noticed that morning in the mirror she was starting to show quite a bit. Owing to her thin physique, it was pronounced. Owing to the Hussar’s model, she’d planned ahead and ordered extra uniforms. Good thing, too.
Somewhere out in the featureless white void of hyperspace, the father of those babies rode in his personal warship, Revenge, aptly named by a Shirazi some time ago. Their family had lived for revenge since the days of first contact. She hoped he was growing past it, for all four of their sakes.
“Emergence in five…four…three…two…one…”
A brief sensation of falling, and stars surrounded them again. A distant red star burned dimly, the remnant of a once-larger star. The battlespace began to build as ships from their fleet appeared singly and in pairs. “Drones in the black!” Pegasus’s complement of drones streaked away at a thousand Gs of thrust, their tiny fusion torches bright on the scanner’s screens. In seconds, they were expanding their readings out into the system.
“Data matches what we got from the Bakulu ship,” Ensign Lopez confirmed as he examined the growing sensor data. “Three separate shipyard facilities—” He suddenly stopped talking and closed his eyes. “Contact!”
“What do you have?” Sofeeka asked.
“Drones,” Lopez said. “Lots of drones. At least a thousand.”
“Lieutenant Bainbridge,” Alexis said, “order the fleet into swarm defense posture. All merc transports and support vessels in our shadow.” Bainbridge carried out her orders. “Manticore, begin your launch.”
* * *
CIC, EMS Revenge, Lacabo Prime
“As briefed, it looks like there are three separate shipbuilding facilities in orbit around the planet,” Captain Gallagher, the CO of Revenge, said. “Based on the information we have from the Bakulu, the one we are looking for—Gamma—is the one on the left as we approach the planet.”
“Continue toward Gamma,” Nigel directed. “The other assault forces should be breaking off shortly for the other facilities.”
“They are, sir!” the sensor tech exclaimed. “The Oogar and Tortantula assault forces have separated and are proceeding to the other stations.”
“Comms, have we heard anything from the Weapons Conglomerate?” Nigel asked.
“Not a word, sir.” The technician shrugged. “It’s spooky. If I saw a big force emerge in my system, I’d want to talk to them. I don’t know…maybe try to work something out? But so far, nothing.”
“Understood,” Gallagher said. “Continue toward Gamma.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” the helmsman said. “Heading toward—”
“Oh my God!” the sensor tech interrupted.
“What is it?” Gallagher asked.
“Drones. Hundreds—no, thousands of them. They’re pouring out of the stations. I’ve never seen so many.”
“I guess that’s their response.” Gallagher said. “It’s game time.”
Nigel nodded. “I guess so.” He looked at the display then shrugged. “Well, hopefully Alexis will pull something masterful from out of her hat and stop that mess. There’s nothing I can do about it so I’m going to hope she does and go get suited up.”
* * *
CIC, EMS Pegasus, Lacabo Prime
“Laser defenses to maximum!” Alexis yelled.
“Two batteries are down,” Sofeeka warned.
“Freep, roll her!” Alexis ordered.
The SalSha helmsman complied and the ancient warship groaned as he fired the powerful maneuvering thrusters, hard.
“Entropy!” Alexis groaned. “Freep, not all of us are SalSha!”
“Sorry, Captain,” he said, but Alexis could see a little grin on his otter-like face.
Pegasus’s laser batteries blazed, as did the escorts’ and standard frigates’. The enemy drones bore down on them with zero regard for the horrendous losses they were taking. Worse, they bore directly for Pegasus.
“Who knows you’re here?”
“They’re going to get through!” Sofeeka warned.
“Deflectors up!” Alexis said, and bared her teeth. A second later the drones hit.
More than a hundred drones slammed into Sato’s gift to the Hussars before he disappeared. The deflector shields simply shunted the drones’ impact forces away, wrecking them before they could set off their explosive charges. There was no damage.
“More drones being launched,” Lopez said. “The facilities are cranking them out as fast as we can destroy them.”
“Ghost?”
“We came here to take this facility, not destroy it.”
Alexis ground her teeth together. “Fine.”
“Spinal mount is charging!” Sofeeka called out in alarm.
“It’s okay,” Alexis said.
“What?” Sofeeka asked and turned one of his eye turrets back to look at her.
“I said it’s okay,” she replied.
Freep looked around in confusion with Sofeeka. The other command officers were just as confused, except for Afeeko.
“It’s the Ghost,” he said. Alexis nodded. “This is going to be interesting.”
The massive spinal-mounted particle accelerator energized, the petal-like doors opening as the ship changed bearings. A single, quick 40-terawatt pulse struck out at the facility designated Alpha. A substructure, which looked like nothing more than a housing module, was destroyed. Instantly, all the enemy drones ceased maneuvering and continued on their previous trajectories.
“Well I’ll be a grub,” Sofeeka said.
Alexis quietly sighed. “Inform all ground forces they may proceed with their assault.”
* * * * *
Chapter Seventeen
Gamma Facility, Lacabo Prime
Private Rosenstein flung open the hatch to the station, extended his laser shield, and burst into the facility, racing forward on his thrusters. The other members of First Platoon, Headquarters Company, followed closely behind, crowding the narrow passageway that ran the length of the station’s spine. Following them—but nowhere near as enthusiastically—was the squad of Veetanho that accompanied them.
The passageway was empty, though, and after a few seconds, the troopers slowed to a hover.
“Don’t bunch up!” Mason roared from the middle of the pack.
“Damn hard not to,” Rahimi said. “This passageway is tighter than a hooker’s—”
“Shut up, damn it!” Mason exclaimed.
“I was just going to say ‘wallet,’” Rahimi muttered.
Mason shook his head. “Colonel, what are you orders?”
“Move forward slowly,” Nigel said, “while we wait to get Second Platoon and the rest of our ‘allies’ here.” He looked back at the hatch. The last man in the platoon, Private Wright, had latched it after he’d entered, and the shuttle was already detaching so the next one could move into place. “Look for access ports into the main facility.”
“Ooh, that is so bold,” one of the Veetanho said from next to Nigel. Like the rest of Prava’s troops, she wore light combat armor and an enclosed helmet—as expected, the facility had been evacuated of atmosphere. “The men in the giant metal suits are going to move forward slowly.”
“Listen, rat,” Nigel said. “It wouldn’t be hard for something to happen to you while we’re here.” In response, almost as one, the squad of Veetanho turned and pointed their laser rifles at Nigel. Most of the Asbaran Solutions troopers turned and drew down on the Veetanho.
“Really?” Nigel asked. “You think you can take us? The moment one of you fires, you’re all going to be plastered along the walls. This is stupid—we’re here for a purpose. Prava, either control your troops and shut them up, or we can just have it out now and be done with you.”
