A2 - Chapter 67 – And All the King’s Men (Part 2) (Patreon)

USD: Minutes after entering missile range

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

PF-131 burned hard in a breaking 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 to that accuracy to the high-tech corvette that had helped wipe out the picket force. He was sure it was the centerpiece of the colonist’s defense, using its illegal technology to give them a crystal clear view of the battle space better than what he even had on the Tremissis.

The tactical officer relayed a warning to the captain.

“Sir, incoming rail rounds from the orbitals.”

“Helm, evasive pattern.”

“Aye, aye, sir.”

Brigit frowned; the orbital didn’t have any hope of hitting the ships in the fleet with railguns at this distance. The move was truly one of desperation, but it showed that they planned to put up a fight. He pulled up his flag command control console and played with the fleet’s 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 enemy’s formation huddled around the elevator’s tether end over the city. He did not plan on making the mistake of a single cold launch like the detachment. It was likely that such a heavy salvo had saturated the picket force’s 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 would not 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 shouldn’t 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.

“It’s 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 a few guards spread through the Solarian occupied section, but they did have cameras. The sailors were forced to avoid forming large groups, so they dispersed 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 glass, 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 couldn’t 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 Lavigne’s ear. They would only get one chance, and he was the very front tip of the spear.

“Captain’s 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 kept 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 a 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 minor damage to the armored marines at first.

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

One sailor stabbed one guard in the eye, sending the screaming Corpo swinging a power gauntleted fist wildly, which crushed into one sailor’s 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 guard’s side while another stood up to continue stabbing the wounded soldier.

The officer had already drawn his sidearm 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 second armored guard lowered his rifle, but the determined Solarians didn’t falter. He opened fire with rapid bursts into the nearest men, sending rivers of blood spewing out of them to paint his power armor and hallway with blood.

The sailor who had grabbed the dead officer’s pistol returned fire, the hollow point bullets squashing themselves on the Corpo’s heavy armor uselessly. The marine raised his rifle and blasted the sailor’s head off.

Just as the last guard was about to bring his gun back to the remaining men, a loud roar of men charged from the makeshift prison. Hundreds of them waving axes and whatever they could caught the marine’s attention.

The Corpo turned his heavy assault rifle toward the massive crowd just as the Solarians who had mobbed the other one raised the other guard’s assault rifle and triggered it to fire.

A full burst of high-powered shells plunked into the remaining guard’s center of mass. The power-armor suit did its best and sent two of the bullets ricocheting into the hallway, one clipping an already dead man in the leg.

But the rest punched through, carving a traumatic and deadly path through the man’s body.

Lavigne realized he had stood there and done nothing. He was still coated in sprays of blood.

Several men began to pry the power armor off the dead guards, while others freed the rifles and Morrison, who had somehow survived, picked up the officer’s sidearm.

He approached Lavigne and offered the weapon.

“But… I didn’t do anything.”

Lavigne swallowed. Of the group he had led, over half of them were laying in the hall in pools of blood. A few men tended to the few had only been wounded and moans of pain were mixed with the racket of distant gunfire echoing through the corridor. The other teams were still fighting.

Morrison slapped the gun into his hands and took a rifle from a sailor.

“You led from the front, sir. Probably provided the best cover for the whole thing. Besides it’s not over yet.”

Lavigne nodded, “The armory.”

Morrison nodded, and the three armed men took point as they hurried through the ship to where the weapons would be guarded and stored.

***

USD: 90 seconds before missile barrage arrival

Location: Nu Crateris, Dedia IV Elevator Tether End, SRS Tears of Fire

[Notice: Incoming missile barrage 90 seconds from contact line. 412 missiles detected; target allocation appears to be distributed evenly between all allied assets.]

Alex nodded and reached out to highlight her first division of EWAR drones that had already been pre-deployed. Dragging her finger through the holographic display, she brought them to the enemy’s missile wave icon.

The drones leaped to obey the command, beginning their work of dazzling and misdirecting the barrage, two dozen drones spitting out thousands of fake signatures and decoys.

Alex frowned as she watched the number of spoofed missiles slowly tick up at half the rate she had expected and bit her lip in annoyance. Maybe it was because there were more enemy ships and they had a better sensor net, or because they hadn’t over-saturated their volley.

Regardless, she wished the Iron Horse was with them still.

The orbitals’ point defense armaments were limited to PDC-Ks, which would only provide final defensive fire support.

That left a lot of missiles for the ground-based lasers and the Tears to take care of. The ground lasers were much larger than the ship mounted weapons, but they also had to deal with the diffusion created by the atmosphere.

Real-time telemetry shared by laser-comm from the tears managed to cut down the time-lag for the sensors enough to make the system work, however.

Alex opened her voice comm to the rest of the ship. “Things might get dicey, first missile wave incoming, preparing PD fire.”

“Give’m hell.” Elis replied.

As the missiles passed the 40 second mark, the ground-based lasers did just that. Massive lances from the surface scoured the atmospheric particles between them and the target as their massive energy dumps pumped the deadly light outwards from the planet.

The beams lost focus, but the massive amount of energy being pumped through them allowed near misses to slag the incoming projectiles in the short spans as the beams crossed paths with them.

Alex watched the incoming missile counter drop rapidly as the salvo continued to dart toward their targets, and then the Tear’s own lasers lashed out.

The rate of missiles dying accelerated and then they passed the invisible line where she had positioned her EWAR drones and they spat out their own chaff canisters, breaking up the lasers feeding the missiles advanced targeting data from their ships.

Targeting suites suddenly bereft of wiser guidance suddenly began to lock onto ghosts and fly erratically as they searched for lost targets in the maze of noise and decoys.

Others continued onward, intent on striking their targets in space and on the ground.

Final defensive fire from the PDC-Ks spat hot metal out in a rapid crescendo of fury, the hull buzzing as the small swarms of metal lashed out in streams to intercept the few remaining missiles.

Several missiles that had been targeting the planet below flashed by the ship, defense software having realized they would take longer to reach their targets. The last missile targeting the space assets ruptured, and then another volley by the ground-based lasers finished the wave.

Alex wanted to let out a sigh of relief, but a second missile wave was already only a minute away.

[Notice: Laser heat absorption systems on the ground are at 75% capacity, insufficient cooling available.]

Alex gritted her teeth. That was a problem. The second and third waves on the way were just as large as the first.

“Cut ground laser power output 50% and try to expedite cooling.”

[Warning: Second wave has been determined to be targeting orbital targets only.]

“Shit. Send the second wave, pull the Tears back behind the orbitals.”

The ship’s reverse maneuvering thrusters flared, sending the ship flying backwards as the missiles crossed the max laser range mark. The second crescent of EWAR drones launched their drives and did their best to dazzle the enemy.

The ground-based lasers fired as well, but with the lower power setting, they were considerably less effective. Still, missiles died by the hundreds and the Tear’s own lasers added to the rapidly diminishing salvo.

Alex’s heart pounded as the wave came closer and closer to their position, the number still terrifyingly high even as the 22mm and 32mm defense cannons joined the chorus of war.

The missile wave distance reached zero.

Fusion warheads detonated around the ship; the ship’s 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 wave’s missile tracks and had a sudden realization.

“You specifically targeting 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 weren’t nearly as important as the Tears as military units. Sacrificing them had allowed the Tears to avoid the missiles, but she still didn’t like it.

“Hard burn toward the planet. Place us at the midpoint of the elevator. We can’t 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 that was 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 wasn’t meant to, but its incredible durability shrugged off the blows.

The Shrike corkscrewed 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, you’re 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 before 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 heat sinks. 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. Crashing erupted through the ship as loose items banged against bulkheads as they turned 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 Tear’s 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 ship’s rear, but the thick armor, low-yield, and long distance meant the effect was only damaging to the more fragile components on the ship’s 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, “I’m fine if you’re done trying to kill us.”

“Not yet.”

Alex looked back at 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 for the others the same, 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 from the front, and you would have me cower inside a cave? I think not.”

Heeler’s ramp was the last to close, and then eight-hundred rockets blasted at once at full power. Their noses turned red as heat built, 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 cockpit’s main screen, he took in the shape of the battle, noting that Mother was already rushing toward the battle by herself. Her defense of the nest was fierce, and he longed to follow her example.

He noted that the enemy’s 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.