Rise and Fall of Interstellar Empires

  CHAPTER TWO

  Alliance Armoured Assault Ship 'ANS Relentless', Centauri Rim

  Nate was already running when the sirens began to sound inside the ship. The shudder he could feel through his feet was coming from the ship firing her powerful front facing 255mm mass driver cannons. These powerful weapons were unstoppable and could punch through even the armoury of a Warlord Class battleship. Each volley could be felt throughout the ship. Then came the buzzing vibration of particle blasters, the weapons that fired pulses of explosive energy into space.

  “We’re going to miss the fight!” Nate yelled as he crashed right behind Billy.

  “Then run!” Billy suggested as they passed through a triple intersection. They moved to the left, while a marine squad approached from the right. Both narrowly avoided crashing into each other as they moved to their allotted stations.

  “I thought we’d be needed with the Firehawks,” he said as they reached the last passage to the drone control and simulator suite, “We were waiting on the port side hangar deck for a reason.”

  Another group of marines stepped out in front of them, narrowly avoiding crashing into Billy, and cutting off Nate for several seconds. He waited patiently, and then chased after his friend. Their squadron had been involved in four skirmishes so far, and though they’d lost no fighters, it had left five of their Firehawks damaged. Even so, with all the commotion he would have thought launching the three undamaged craft an obvious choice. Half of the Lightnings were already gone, but the message from Wing Commander Holder said otherwise.

  I guess the plan’s changed.

  Nate ran through the passage as fast as his legs would take him, past the guards, and into the simulator suite, and almost knocked Billy flat on his back. Billy pushed himself upright and then looked to the floating projection of the battle in the centre of the suite. More and more of the Knighthawks were arriving, including the new contingent of three Helions. Nate nodded as they entered and moved to their allocated pods.

  “Why aren’t we launching our fighters?”

  “I have no idea, Billy. I thought that’s why we were on standby.”

  Neither noticed that Wing Commander Holder was already there and waiting next to a pod. She was dressed in her PDS naval gear and looked even more agitated than usual.

  “You’re here because we’re launching as a full squadron for the first time, all twenty-four of you, and me. Now…Drone pilots to your stations!”

  Billy stumbled, and then moved to his own pod. Technicians waited to get them ready. The system was relatively simply, with the pod functioning as little more than a reclining chair to keep the pilot safe during the mission. It was not fully enclosed, and a neural interface web hung from the top like a spider waiting to pounce. More shapes appeared at the door as Harry, Kyla, and others streamed inside.

  “Pods…now!” Holder said.

  Nate looked to Billy, his best friend on the ship, and nodded.

  “Let’s do this.”

  Nate leant back in his pod, but not before spotting one of the Helions looking at him. They were a pale, elfin looking people. Nate had already learnt the hard way that their thin and light bodies were not to be underestimated. They were quick thinking, arrogant, and sometimes very harsh. Yet as far as he could tell, they were also loyal and reliable. They had been a rich and successful race until the decimation of their worlds in the Nexus War. As part of the Alliance family, they were becoming more and more common. This particular Helion was L'Gnini, the son of a famous Helion Soldier, and one of the old Sh’Dori ruling caste. His distaste for Humans seemed to pale next to his distaste for the lesser castes among his own people.

  “Good hunting,” said Nate.

  He tried to keep it nonchalant, yet somehow he messed it up, and it came across as sarcastic. L'Gnini said something in his own tongue, and too far away for Nate to have any idea of what it might be. So, he leant back and let the technician fit the web to his forehead.

  “Nicely played,” said Billy from the pod next to him, “I see Ensign Douche is still playing the same game.”

  Nate sighed as the last few of them were connected up to the system.

  “Tell me about it. It’s not my fault we’re different species. These Helions need to get a grip. It’s not like we’ve never flown spacecraft before.”

  “Yeah,” Billy laughed, “Maybe if they spent less time trying to prove they’re better than everybody else, they might actually start sorting out their own planets.”

  “Interface activating in twenty seconds. Prepare yourselves,” said the Wing Commander, “This is not a drill, not even close to it. The fight has got up close and personal, and we’re gonna be in the thick of it.”

  “See you on the other aside.” Nate nodded to his friend, and Billy smiled back in reply. For a second Nate was taken back to a time before all of this, before the Academy, before their adventures on Dreadnought, and even before the border war with the Byotai rebels; a time when the two of them had been a pair of videogamers and nothing more. He missed that part, but he knew he could never go back, not now.

  “You, too, Billy. Let’s do what we do best.”

  The pod lid lowered so that it blocked out most of the light in the room. There were still large gaps, but it was enough to remove the worst of the distractions. Nate closed his eyes and began his breathing exercises. Images of their recent battles and simulated engagements popped into his mind.

  “Ten seconds,” said Holder, “The fight is getting brutal out there. Stay sharp, or you’ll burn.”

  All thoughts of the ship faded, and Nate concentrated on the craft he was about to take control of. It was not the heavy fighter he’d been using recently, but the MQ-5 Avenger, a completely unmanned combat fighter. At less than half the overall size of a heavy Firehawk, it was smaller and more agile. These robotic fighters were propelled not by one, but eight small engines, four on each of the bat-shaped wings. The centre of the craft would normally have been taken up by the crew and life support systems. Now it housed a massive quadruple barrelled railgun. Sat under the fuselage was a pair of hardpoints carrying anti-ship missiles.

  “Launch!”

  Nate opened his eyes and for a short time there was only blackness. It was a disconcerting feeling, but soon vanished as the external hatch opened. The fighters were not launched from the hangars, but waited upright in launch tubes, much like missile cells on a warship. Their wings were retracted in towards the hull to reduce the overall size of the craft. Different coloured lights showed that he was looking out into space, and then his craft ejected from the ship. It was so fast that it appeared he’d merely transported from one place to the next.

  “Deploying wings,” he said calmly, looking around for the others. They were small and fast, two things that made identification almost impossible. Luckily, the onboard computer was able to track the fighters and showed a blue schematic around the outline of each of them. There were so many that he audibly gasped.

  “Okay, pilots, listen up,” said Wing Commander Holder, “There have been another five hijackings in this area in the last three days. These bandits are turning the Rim into their private circus. Law and order must be restored before they make travel through the Alliance all but impossible.”

  “Yeah,” said Billy as he listened to the Wing Commander, “It’s time we got out there and showed them that this is Alliance space. We don’t ignore piracy, not on our watch. Right?”

  Nate smiled to himself.

  “Something like that, Billy.”

  “Command is concerned that the Rim may become a neutral haven for the worst scum in the sector. That’s a threat to our shipping lanes, colonies, and patrols. So it’s up to us to get a handle on this, and that can’t happen until we smash their organisation. We’re going into this fight in three flights of eight. I will take A Flight, Ensign Lewis will lead B Flight, and L'Gnini will take C Flight.”

  As she spoke, the colours of the drones changed, with the others shifting to shades of green while Nate’s own flight turned blue. He allowed himself a chance to look at the enemy and was stunned by the battle now taking place. The Alliance fleet was deployed into its standard mutually supporting box formation, with the carrier in the centre. While the enemy was advancing in a scattered crescent, the smaller craft swept in from the sides and above. Swirling streaks showed the massed fighters of Corsair Squadrons as they chased after any fighters daring to close with the fleet.

  “We will punch through the fighter escorts and on to the ships. This is a harass and scatter raid. Do not linger. We will cause as much damage as we can in the time we have. We will use the pre-set Spiral attack patterns you’ve been practicing, and as suggested by Ensigns Lewis and his comrades. Good hunting!”

  As one, the formation hit their burners, and the eight sets of engine thrusters boosted the Avengers away from the fleet and towards the enemy.

  ​ “There’re a lot of fighters out there,” said Séraphine, “Should we clear a path with our missiles?”

  “Negative,” replied Holder, “Stay in formation, and divert all power to engines.”

  “She’s following our last scenario,” said Billy excitedly on the local channel.

  “Yeah. That’s what worries me,” said Nate, “We only got it right three out of five times.”

  “Then let’s make this four out of five.”

  “Four for six,” corrected Nate.

  The twenty-four Avengers were an impressive sight as they screamed away from the ships, and already fire from the approaching enemy fighters reached out to them.

  “Evasive action as we practiced,” said Holder.

  The fighters moved in a coordinated fashion, almost like insects as they used their lateral thrusters to make subtle adjustments to the height. A few projectiles landed, but the Avengers shrugged off the damage. They were very well armoured to the front, at the expense of the rest of the craft.

  “Closing distance, fifty kilometres. Be ready to circle the corridor on my mark.”

  Nate gulped upon remembering the first time they’d tried this. L'Gnini had moved half a second too early and collided with Silvia, destroying them both. Even worse the collision had scattered their formation, leaving them open to attack. In thirty seconds, they’d lost every single drone.

  Not today. Today we do it right.

  “Ready…go!”

  The three flights of fighters moved into a bizarre ever-widening corkscrew, leaving a growing open space inside the formation. They continued to rotate, throwing off the aim of the attacking fighters. Coming right at them, and now just five kilometres away, were the first twenty enemy spacecraft. Nate could see their outlines, and computers tagged their types and configurations. There were only a couple of military craft, the rest were custom built, and constructed from multiple different models. All of them fired with a variety of automatic cannons, while almost two-dozen missiles launched ahead.

  “This is it!” Billy yelled.

  A warning sounded in the drone, and then a barrage of light punched through the centre of their circling formation. One drone lost the tip of a wing as the stream of fire from Relentless’ forward mounted particle cannons crashed through the dust of the asteroid strewn battlefield. Anything in its path was pulverised, including the nine fighters in the middle of the formation.

  “Weapon’s free!” Holder said.

  The Avengers spun about while continuing forward on their previous course. Twenty-four sets of quadruple railguns tore into the fighters as they streamed past in confusion. Gunfire ripped them to pieces, sending the wreckage out into the void. It was a brutal massacre, made worse by the bursts of fire from the carrier at pre-set intervals.

  “Excellent work,” said Commander Higgins from the bridge and CIC of Relentless, “Seventeen fighters down for no losses. You’re clear to attack the fleet.”

  A smile spread across Nate’s face as they covered the distance between the two forces. Directly ahead was a trio of armoured transports, the kind of thing normally used for shipping ore and materials between colonies. It had been upgraded with plate armour, as well as numerous manually operated turrets.

  “B Flight, take the armoured transports. C Flight, break and pursue their defending fighters. I will take the escorts.”

  Nate gulped at the statement. Until now he’d been part of the combined formation, but now he would be taking in eight drones as a single unit against multiple ships. And these were not the large, heavily armed and armoured F26 Firehawks, but small drones whose primary strengths were agility and firepower.

  “Affirmative,” said Nate, “We’re going in.”

  Nate tagged multiple locations directly ahead and then boosted his engines.

  “You know the drill. It’s time for Apex formation, on my command.”

  The group of drones continued in a wide-open unit with the eight far enough apart to not draw unnecessary fire. The capital ships were much more concerned with facing off against their opposite numbers. No matter the weapons carried by fighters and drones; that would never be much of a match for the weapons carried by cruisers and destroyers.

  One heavy volley of fire struck an Alliance destroyer, and through either luck or judgement, it vaporised one of its three mission bays, showering the hull in sparks and flames. Then came a massed barrage from the Separatist Behemoth. Its gigantic turrets took aim and unleashed a terrifying volley of heavy shells. These showered the first of the escorting Crusader Class cruisers. The first volley tore apart the outer armour of the powerful ship’s bow, followed by another tearing a large section completely away. Sparks erupted around the hull from the terrible damage.

  Nate looked at the transports carefully, and then saw the notifications as Wing Commander Holder led her drone in against the enemy Behemoth. Two were destroyed instantly, causing the group of circling reserve drones near Relentless to rush ahead to join her.

  “Nate!” Billy said.

  He blinked twice and then focussed on his own targets. The first transport was directly ahead, busily firing its manual guns at the Alliance destroyers. It was an ugly looking ship, more like a spacefaring slug than the cruisers of the fleet. The front of the ship was the most heavily armoured part, and the computer calculated two layers of spaced armour pushed out almost ten metres ahead of its hull.

  “Now!”

  The formation split apart into two groups of four. All of them activated their burners for five seconds, increasing their forward velocity as they screamed towards their target. In sequence they rotated so they were facing inwards towards the transport.

  “Fire!”

  The combined fire from eight drones was far more impressive than any might have thought possible. The upgraded quadruple railgun was capable of shredding metal armour and bulkheads with ease. And against the lightly armoured flank of the transports they had little problem. The formation streamed along the entire length of the transport, leaving a line of metre-wide holes in its hull on both sides.

  “Rotate and to the next one!” Nate ordered.

  The formation morphed like a snake moving around its prey with perfect speed and timing. The distance between each drone was exactly fifty metres, and could easily have been confused as a swarm of missiles.

  “Boost!”

  The eight made it to the next ship just as a volley of fire from two escorting vessels ripped into them. They jinked short distances to avoid the fire, but that didn’t stop Harry’s drone from taking the full brunt of railgun fire. The drone spun out of control, exploding as it struck the second transport.

  “Reform formation,” said Nate, “Vertical Apex formation!”

  The remaining drones adjusted their course so half of them were above and half below the ship, and with their fronts pointing at the transport.

  “Fire!”

  The railguns performed their brutal work as they cut open the ship like a can of tuna. The rounds bit through plate and bulkheads, triggering multiple small explosions and fires throughout the vessel’s hull. They then burst away and made directly for the third ship. Before they could even consider opening fire the ship exploded. Streaks of energy from a Crusader Class cruiser utterly obliterated its stern, while pulverising the rest of the intact areas with particle blaster fire.

  “Knighthawks, we’ve kicked over a hornets’ nest. Five ships severely damaged, and half of their fighters are coming for us.”

  “Break and engage them?” Nate asked.

  “Negative,” said Wing Commander Holder, “All drones converge on the Behemoth.”

  Nate gulped at hearing that. The ship was the largest vessel in the enemy fleet, and now the centre of attention in the battle. He glanced in its direction and found a sight seen often in his nightmares. A ship bathed in fire as its numerous turrets blasted continually into space. The rest of the battle seemed to fade away, as all attention shifted to the enemy flagship and its escort fighters.

  “All flights move in. Let’s give them something to think about. Swarm attack, Pattern Alpha.”

  A smile formed across Nate’s face. The Wing Commander was using the patterns they’d practiced over the last weeks, patterns that were all but impossible to follow without using the drones.

  “I’m here,” said Harry.

  Nate looked to his right and found the replacement drone dropping into its allocated position in the formation.

 

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