Book 2: Chapter 67: And All the King’s Men (2)

Book 2: Chapter 67: And All the King’s Men (2)

USD: Minutes after entering missile range

Location: Nu Crateris, PF-131, CBC CSS Tremissis, breaking maneuver

PF-131 burned hard in a braking maneuver in order to ensure orbital capture above the colony. Once they had reduced the few defenses, they would be free to take a geostationary orbit and enact a thorough surface bombardment.

Those small defenses had turned out to be annoyingly persistent in their capability to destroy the incoming kinetic bombardment projectiles the fleet had been launching on their way in.

Commodore Brigit gave credit for that accuracy to the high-tech corvette that had helped wipe out the picket force. He was sure it was the centerpiece of the colonists defense, using its illegal technology to give them a crystal clear view of the battle space, better than what even he had on the Tremissis.

The tactical officer relayed to the captain a warning.

Sir, incoming rail rounds from the orbitals.

Helm, evasive pattern.

Aye, aye, sir.

Brigit frowned; the orbital didnt have any hope of hitting the ships in the fleet with railguns at this distance. The move was truly one of desperation, but it did show that they planned to put up a fight. He pulled up his flag command control console and began to play with the fleets formation.

The armored cruisers moved obediently into a wedge at the front of the fleet, the Tremissis following behind the lead cruiser. Along the flanks the lighter elements were split into two groups, while the lumbering Grazhdanin brought up the rear.

They were coming into missile range, and Brigit studied the enemys formation huddled around the elevators tether end over the city. He did not plan on making the mistake of a single cold launch like the detachment. It was very likely that such a heavy salvo had saturated the picket forces computational capabilities for missile control and targeting well beyond the point of usefulness.

At least that was what Brigit suspected, he could not think of any other way the old ailing ship and FedTech corvette could have stopped such a large salvo.

Still, he was not going to hold back. Each salvo by the fleet would be much larger than the one cold launch by the picket force.

And there would be three of them.

He turned to his aide, Fleetwide Salvo Order, first launch: distributed strike. Second launch: defense unit focus. Third launch: colony focus.

A full set of barrages was perhaps overkill, but what he had seen so far had made him wary. There shouldnt have been any orbitals or ground laser defenses at all.

USD: One hour from Dedia Arrival

Location: Nu Crateris, PF-131, SMS Grazhdanin, Passenger Berthing

Lavigne nodded to Morrison who had gathered two dozen sailors behind him.

Its time.

Morrison nodded.

Turning toward the primary check point, the men fell in behind the lieutenant.

Altogether there were four major choke points that separated the berthing section where they were currently being held and the rest of the ship. Similar groups were in action moving toward the other three.

There were few guards spread through the Solarian occupied section, but they did have cameras. The sailors avoided forming larger groups and began to disperse throughout the section, taking up improvised weapons. They had no rifles or pistols or other weapons, so men took up knives, shards of glass or plastic wrapped in cloth, or metal objects that would work as a blunt weapon.

Anything that could be concealed and hidden, really.

There was no set time for things to begin, there couldnt be with so many disorganized groups. But all of them knew what they needed to do. Very few had balked at joining them, what sailor would stand by while his brothers and sisters bled for him?

One of the Corpo officers raised a hand and Lavigne and his group halted while the armored guards with rifles watched, bored from a relatively quiet posting that had lasted most of the day.

The Officer frowned. What are you lot doing?

A line of sweat trailed down behind Lavignes ear. They would only get one chance, and he was the very front tip of the spear.

Captains orders, he needs a repair detail right away.

The officer recognized Lavigne and weighed angering the Captain with delay against angering him by lax protocols.

Get on with it then. The officer decided.

Lavigne started forward, but immediately recognized the man clicking on his earpiece to make an audio call. His heart pounded in his chest as he barely managed to keep his pace to a normal speed.

As he passed through the checkpoint he got a close look at the Corpo guard in power armor, his helmet visor still raised. He was chewing gum. It was an odd detail to make note of as he and his group passed through the cage.

Half the group was through when Lavigne heard the officer raise his voice.

You lot, wai

Lavigne gave the order, Now!

Almost as one the Solarians turned on the guards and attacked. Makeshift knives and pipes did little damage to the armored marines at first.

Being on the edge of it, Lavigne had a view of the entire scene.

One sailor managed to stab one of the guards in the eye, sending the screaming Corpo swinging a power gauntleted fist wildly which happened to crush into a sailors face pulping it and sending the man to the ground, dead.

Three other men jumped on the lowered arm and held onto it, doing their best to throw their weight into pinning it to the guards side while another stood up to continue stabbing the wounded soldier.

The officer had already drawn his side arm and fired into the crowd haphazardly, blood and gore exploding out of the men closest to him, but a thrown chunk of metal clipped his hat and sent him sprawling. Two men jumped on top of him and one slit his throat while the other grabbed the firearm.

The third marine managed to lower his rifle, but the determined Solarians didnt falter. He opened fire with rapid bursts into the nearest men, sending rivers of blood spewing out of them to paint the power armor and hallway with blood.

Fusion warheads detonated around the ship; the ships D-Field glowing red as it absorbed the radiation pulses flaring up around it. The ship shook minutely but the inertial dampeners quickly brought the movement under control as the A-Field adjusted strength.

Alex blinked, They missed?

[Notice: Allied Orbitals destroyed. Third wave ETA: 90 seconds. Ground Laser heat absorption capacity saturated at 90%, insufficient cooling available.]

Alex looked at the second waves missile tracks and had a sudden realization.

You specifically targeted only the missiles aimed at the Tears and the elevator! There were two hundred people on each of those orbitals!

[Informative: H32 prioritized the survival of Omega and this unit concurred with its decision. Orbital Platform combat abilities were rated at marginal in best case scenarios.]

Alex swallowed her indignation. They were right, the orbitals werent nearly as important as the Tears as military units. Sacrificing them had allowed the Tears to avoid the missiles, but she still didnt like it.

Hard burn toward the planet, place us at the midpoint of the elevator. We cant let the missiles hit the city.

The Shrike flipped and burned hard, diving behind the asteroid at the end of the massive carbon nanotube tether and cruising along the cable dangerously. The Shrike lost its line of sight on the missiles, but EWAR drones continued to relay the critical data back to it via laser comm.

[Notice: Hostile missile targeting parameters have been recalculated. New target: Tears of Fire.]

All of them!?

[Informative: 398 missiles incoming. 14 have been spoofed by decoys.]

Lasers from the ground flared as they began to cut down the incoming missile cloud intent on its new target. Several missiles slammed into the asteroid attached to the elevator, exploding in massive fireballs and turning the entire rock a glowing red.

Others had their proximity alarms tripped by the tether and exploded early. The thick cord of carbon glowed in the nuclear fire, absorbing heat it wasnt meant to, but its incredible durability shrugged off the blows.

The Shrike began to corkscrew around the tether as it streaked downward toward the elevator station and planet, Nameless delicately controlling the increasing velocity building up as the ship continued its reckless course.

More missiles struck the tether as they tried to follow, but others continued to converge from further away even as lasers continued to thin their numbers.

Nameless, youre going to hit the station, pull up!

The ship flipped its nose up ninety degrees and fire lashed out of its main thrusters lightly torching the stressed elevator tether launching the ship in an arcing course away from the station.

A quarter of the missiles remained as they neared the Tears, curving their own course to come in behind it.

Ground lasers raised their output and continued to fire rapidly, without consideration for their already saturated heatsinks. One laser suddenly exploded when the heat overflowed into a chemical storage device, others simply fell silent; their internals having liquefied as they channeled the extreme energy.

The Tears continued to roll as Nameless flushed the AM reserves into the Bi-Linear drive, a momentous surge of thrust pressing Alex back in her seat. The sound of crashing filled the ship as loose items were thrown around, banging against the bulkheads and turning into temporary missiles.

Gatlings blasted out streams of metal as they swiveled between targets. Incoming drive flares winked out rapidly until the missile wave icon reached the Tears.

One missile reached maximum standoff distance and detonated, radiation flaring out in a rapidly expanding sphere.

The Tears thrust cut out as Nameless redirected all power to the already over-taxed D-Field until the red protective shield flared out. Excess energy poured through, rapidly raising the outer temperature of the ships rear, but the thick armor, low-yield, and long distance meant the effect was only damaging to the more fragile components on the ships aft.

[Notice: Aft sensor clusters have been destroyed. Ship armor integrity uncompromised. D-Field system is rebooting: 5 seconds. I-Field integrity 100%. Internal compartment radiation levels remain nominal.]

Alex let out a haggard breath then turned her comm on. Elis, are you alright?

There was a crackle on the radio, then an answer, Im fine if youre done trying to kill us.

Not yet.

Alex looked back to the tactical map. Nameless, hard burn to Tether asteroid. Load LRPSGSM, target their lead cruisers, one shell per ship!

[Affirmative: Cycling Railgun munitions.]

[Notice: H32 has begun ground launch.]

USD: Seconds later

Location: Nu Crateris, Dedia IV, H-3233-L Fortress Nest Launch Area

Heeler raised his feelers into the air, taking in a deep scent of his birth world. Vertically mounted rockets all around him continued to accept nestlings and hunters. Others had already been filled and raised their ramps, thrusters spewing clouds of smoke as they powered up to idle mode.

He turned and climbed up into his own personal pod. It was slightly larger and much more advanced than the others, a complete shuttle with its own weapon systems and defenses.

He would have provided the same for the others, if there had been time.

A vibration in his chest pulsed through his body as his machine mind spoke.

[Notice: Leading assault personally is an unnecessary risk.]

[Recommendation: Remain on planet and direct attack from position of safety.]

Mother leads the defense on the front, and you would have me cower inside a cave? I think not.

Heelers ramp was the last to close, and then eight-hundred rockets blasted at once at full power. Their noses turned red as heat began to build, but the rapid ascension that would have squashed most other organics instantly was only mild inconvenience as the internal A-Fields reduced the acceleration to something survivable.

Examining his cockpits main screen he took in the shape of the battle, noting that Mother was already rushing toward battle by herself. Her defense of the nest was fierce, and he longed to follow her example.

He noted that the enemys largest ship was not, in fact, their strongest combat vessel and flagship.

His claw tipped tentacle came up and he tapped an icon: CSS Tremissis.