StarFight 3: Battlecry Read online

  Everyone shouted “Understood.” But Jane raised a gloved fist. “Sir?”

  “Speak,” he said, wondering what the deadly gunnery sergeant might have in mind.

  Her brown eyes fixed on him. “What about tech stuff? Do we grab anything, beyond alien bods?”

  Good point. He should have made that clear when he’d ordered the simulation work and combat VR training. “Yes, grab anything that looks portable. Let’s see what kind of vidscreens they have. Anything that looks like a hand weapon, bring it along. But if it is mobile and operating when you enter, kill it with something. Can’t let mobile bombs into the Lepanto. Pieces, yes. If in doubt, check with your team leader, or with me.”

  “Sir?” called Auggie. “Are you going with one of us?”

  He smiled his DI smile. “Nope. I’ll be on the fifth vehicle that leaves this ship. That will be the LCA of Executive Officer Stewart. She obtained the captain’s okay for her to ship out in the Berlin and help with frag boarding. Which means I need some Marines with me.” He looked away from Auggie. “Diego, you’re with me. Grab two Marines from any of these teams and move yourselves to the LCA hangar up front. Put José in charge of your team. Got it?”

  “Got it, sir.” The deadly Marine looked around. “Simmons, Hideyoshi, you’re with me!”

  The two Marines left their teams and clumped over to stand close to Diego, who had moved forward to stand at parade rest beside Richard. He scanned the remaining Marines.

  “People, that leaves you with a pilot, a team leader and two Marines for each Dart. One Dart gets a third Marine. Sort it out. That’s more than enough to handle wounded or dead aliens. For now, take a food and rest break. In thirty minutes this ship crosses the vector track of the aliens. Afterwards it will take an hour to loop back onto the outgoing ship frags.” Richard looked to his left. “Gunny, follow me to the LCA deck. Get your people onto Berlin. I will be on the Bridge until we kill these bastards!”

  “Sir, yes sir!” she said, gesturing with a hand to the two Marine corporals to follow him.

  Richard turned away from the gathered Marines and headed for the slidedoor to the hallway leading to Armory Six and then into Supplies Deck. There were some nasty gadgets he wanted to grab from the armory, based on his memory of issues they had encountered in the wasp ship boarding. Best to carry too much ammo rather than too little.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Seven looked away from the time counter that glowed above the front perception imager. It was time. He winged up from his bench, tilted and swung around to face the rear of the Flight Chamber. The bench that held the most important Swarmer on any flying nest was occupied. The Matron’s well-formed head looked up. Her two large and three small eyes met his.

  “Support Hunter Seven, you seem agitated and your scent has an overlay of . . . somberness. How can this one assist you?”

  He emitted a sharp flow of aggregation pheromones, followed by signal, territorial and trail scents.

  “Matron, please me by removing yourself to the propulsive devices chamber. It is not crowded and there should be plenty of room there for you to be safe and secure. Take a Servant and some Workers with you if you wish.”

  Her large brown wings beat fast. She rose off her bench. Her mass hovered before him, outsizing him by twice his span. Seven was larger than any other Swarmer on his nest, which befit his rank as a Hunter. But all Matrons were larger than any other Swarmer. It was the nature of the larvae birthers of the Swarm to be large, energetic, well-shaped and determined. It was that last characteristic that he counted on, against all the odds.

  “Your scent command I will obey. But this nest approaches the moment of battle against the killers of our larvae. Why do you remove me from this Flight Chamber?” she said, the earthiness of her scents filling the room.

  “I remove you so that you may survive to birth new larvae,” he said in a flow of calming, inhibitory and releaser pheromones. “Within a hundred beats of our wings I will demand release from the human nest that flies us toward our enemies. Once free, this nest will attack both of the invader nests with our middle and rear weapons rings.”

  Her two black antennae leaned forward as her wing beating increased, rising her higher than his hover level. “All Matrons live to birth new larvae,” she said in a brief flow of sex pheromones, followed by a strong aggregation scent to let the other Swarmers in the chamber know of her loyalty to him. “But this chamber is deep within our flying nest. It cannot be harmed by the orange beams of the invaders. And if a black ball strikes us, no place on this nest is safe.”

  “Your scents are true,” Seven replied, ignoring the scents of puzzlement and concern coming from the Servants elsewhere in the chamber. “However, the propulsive chamber is the strongest of this nest. It must be to hold the dead propulsive devices. It also has the best invisible particle shielding of any place on our nest. And the motion buffer field that fills that chamber is powered by a separate power block unlinked to the rest of this nest. I wish you to survive even if the front part of this nest dies under invader attack.”

  “Your scent is my command,” she replied, turning in the air and flying toward the slide panels that would give her access to the central tubeway.

  Seven increased his wing beats, tilted again and faced forward. “Speaker To All, connect me to the human leader on the nest that holds us. Stinger Servant, prepare to fire your weapons at the two invader nests! Flight Servant, once we are released move us away from the human nest by use of the gas maneuvering devices. I wish us to be free of any contact with the nest whose claws now hold us tight,” he said, his scent-casting a strong mix of releaser, trail, signal and territorial pheromones.

  “Preparing to move our nest,” replied the Flight Servant.

  “Our weapons are eager to touch the hard shell of the invaders!” scent-cast the Stinger Servant.

  “Connecting to the alternate dimension scent-caster on the human flying nest,” responded the older male who was Speaker To All.

  Seven had not told the full truth of his plans to the Matron. It was best that she not worry, or attempt to dissuade him. The other Swarmers in the Flight Chamber would learn soon enough the fullness of his scent-casting. As would every Swarmer still living on his wounded flying nest. Those numbers were half what he had when they left Food Enough. But they would be enough for this final sky battle.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Daisy checked out the holos in front of her. At her left was the system graphic with the two purple dots chasing the red dot of Thirteen’s ship. Those ships were at 38 AU out from the local star, just shy of the Kuiper cometary belt. Pursuing them were the twenty-five invader ships that had left the fourth planet almost five hours ago. Those ships had not yet reached the system’s asteroid belt at 10 AU. It would be a day and a half before the large enemy force could reach the Lepanto. At left front was the Battlestar’s cross-section with all decks and weapons stations showing Green Operational. At right front was a true space view of black space, with the system’s star a bright yellow dot in the middle. That holo would switch to a sensor display of moving neutrino emitters and surrounding radiation when the fight began. At right was her overhead Bridge view. Everyone from the first shift was still there. Including Jacob, who at least had taken an hour’s break to eat a meal prepared by Kenji in his captain’s quarters. She told herself to be calm and patient. The fighting would not begin for a half hour.

  “Captain,” called Andrew from his Communications post. “I have an incoming neutrino comlink from Hunter Seven. Do you accept?”

  “Yes,” Jacob called from above her, sounding strong and confident. “Put that signal over the All Ship and share it with the other fleet ships.”

  “Going up,” the Japanese-American said. “It’s now on All Ship vidcast and going out to the fleet.”

  She looked at the top of the front wallscreen. A color image of the red and black-striped wasp now joined the images of Joy, Joan and Rebecca as those women spoke to people on the
ir bridges.

  “Human leader, release our flying nest,” the wasp said, his translated pheromones coming out as words spoken by the pheromone signaler block in front of Hunter One. “We prepare to fight these invaders and killers of our larvae!”

  “Support Hunter Seven, can your release wait a few moments?” Jacob said. “I will be slowing our ship to one-tenth lightspeed now that we are close to the nest of Support Hunter Thirteen. If you stay attached you will have the protection of my four flying nests in the coming battle.”

  “No!” came a shrieking cry from the signaler block. “Release us now! We Swarmers will fly ahead of you on unpowered motion. That will make us the first to attack these invaders. Release us!”

  “As you wish. Chief Petty Officer Pilotti, release the gravplate clamps that are holding the wasp ship to our top hull.”

  The Italian-American woman tapped her control pillar. “Gravplate anchorages are shut down, sir. The wasp ship is free to depart.”

  “Seven, you are now released,” Jacob said. “But will you join your sky light and sky bolt beams to our beams as our four ships come within range of the enemy?”

  The large wasp moved back from the imager in his chamber, making him appear smaller. His thorax arms touched a control panel. “We attack first. It is the way of the Swarm. When you attack, we will join our beams with yours to burn holes in those killers of our larvae!”

  She heard Jacob sigh. “As you wish. Be alert to the crossing of your vector track by black antimatter balls. We expect the invaders to fire the balls before we are in weapons range. Those black balls could badly harm your nest.”

  “Your timidity is understood,” Seven replied, his translated tone sounding sharp to Daisy. “The Swarm fears no invader and no weapon. Whatever happens to our nest, our larvae will be avenged! We fly now!”

  The wasp’s image disappeared from above the wallscreen.

  “Sir,” called Louise from Navigation. “The wasp ship is using maneuvering jets to separate from us. They are at five klicks out. Twenty. Thirty. Fifty and still moving out.”

  “Commander Branstead,” Jacob called. “Do you have any idea what this wasp captain is planning?”

  The Science Deck chief looked over at Daisy, then up to Jacob. “Captain, he is going it alone. Clearly he wants his ship to precede us into the conflict zone. And it sounds as if he does not care if his ship survives the battle.”

  “Just what I thought,” Jacob said, sounding worried. “Weapons, launch a load of missiles to fly after that wasp ship. They will have the same twelve psol of the wasp ship. Maybe we can give it some protection from flanking AM balls.”

  Oliver tapped his pillar touchscreen. “Launching seven missiles, sensors set for antimatter detection, sir. The guidance systems in each missile will match the movement speed of the black balls, based on what we saw in the combat videos.”

  “Good. Chief O’Connor, do you have any suggestions for this upcoming battle?” Jacob said.

  The white-haired Marine grimaced. “Do what you, your Weapons and Tactical folks and Commander Swanson have proposed. Move fast through the conflict zone, shoot missiles and Smart Rocks at the AM balls and let’s do our best to kill both invader ships.” The grizzled man frowned thoughtfully. “My Darts could launch just before we come within range of the enemy. They could add their lasers and missiles to the volleys from our fleet.”

  Jacob shook his head, his folded-back helmet swinging loosely. “Keep the Darts here. Their presence in space would complicate the firing computations of our Tactical people. We will use them to board any invader ship fragments that survive this battle.”

  “As you command, sir.”

  Jacob looked down at Daisy. “XO, how many antimatter shots are in the cannon’s reservoir?”

  “A full eight shots sir.”

  He looked pleased. “Good. I want to be able to bracket one of those invader ships with antimatter beams. We’ll be moving very fast. But if Weapons times it right, at least one of our beams will hit an invader ship. We’ll have to rely on the lasers and proton beams to take out the other ship.”

  “Sir, the Philippine Sea can fire the first proton strike with its nose mount,” Daisy said, visually confirming the positions of the other fleet ships. The cruiser and the destroyer were on either side of the Battlestar, while the frigate hovered above the Lepanto, relying on the bulk of the larger ship to protect it from gamma-ray beams. “Then the side proton mounts of Chesapeake and Lepanto can fire as we pass the enemy.”

  “Understood. I’m sure Tactical will coordinate those laser and proton shots with the other fleet ships.” Jacob leaned forward. “Navigation, reverse ship orientation and reduce our speed to one-tenth psol. All ships, do the same. But maintain your combat positions in the Alpha Anvil formation. Everyone, helmets down! Prepare for vacuum exposure.”

  “Flipping the ship,” Louise said as she made the giant Battlestar lift its nose until the three rear thrusters were pointing forward, with the ship’s nose pointing back the way they’d come. “Firing thrusters.”

  Their Navigator joined everyone on the Bridge in locking her helmet into her vacsuit’s neckring.

  Daisy heard the other captains acknowledge Jacob’s order. Vibration moved from the gray metal of the deck into her seat as the three fusion pulse thrusters fired streams of yellow-orange plasma out their funnels, thanks to the fusing of deuterium and tritium isotopes in the fusion chambers of each thruster. The reverse thrust would slow their forward motion along their vector track. Still, at one-tenth psol, they would be moving at 29,933 kilometers per second. The fleet ships would pass within 4,000 klicks of the enemy ships for way less than a second. But the fighting would begin well before the vectors of the two ship groups crossed. Already her true space holo had changed to a sensor holo. In it now appeared six white dots that represented antimatter balls. Each invader ship had just fired three balls at the projected vector track of the Earth ships.

  Well, those balls would go well off track since the enemy had fired before the fleet had begun decelerating. But soon enough the enemy would fire another salvo of AM balls that accounted for the fleet’s new approach speed of one-tenth psol. She grinned as she mentally envisioned two groups of ships approaching each other at one-tenth lightspeed. The combined crossing speed would be two-tenths psol. It would be a wonder if any ship hit another. Then again, precise targeting at fractions of lightspeed was why every Earth ship had an AI, sensor arrays on the front and rear, and precise control over every energy beam weapon. Even the slow-moving missiles and Smart Rocks could be aimed by estimating where the enemy antimatter balls might be along the fleet’s vector track. And maybe the black balls would not reach any Earth ship. In the wasp battle above planet four their attack reach had been just 3,090 klicks. The fleet would only come within 4,000 klicks since that was the maximum range of the Lepanto’s antimatter cannon. But could the balls maintain coherence further out? That would be another combat fact they would learn all too soon. She put aside her mental musing and focused on the status of the ship’s fusion reactors and fusion pulse thrusters.

  “Speed reduced to one-tenth psol,” Louise called out.

  “Flip us back to facing forward,” Jacob called. “All ships, do the same. Prepare to fire on the enemy.”

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Hunter One rested on the cold bench in the Flight Chamber of the human flying nest, surrounded on all sides by strange, unflying creatures who, despite their physical limitations, were able to fight in a group as well or better than the Swarm. Before he had been on the receiving end of this human behavior. Now, he observed it directly. Clearly these two-legged cripples would be valuable allies in future battles against the killers of his colony’s larvae and adults.

  But it was the Hunter-level flavor of Seven’s scent-casting that occupied his mind. The meanings he had sensed from the pheromone block conveyed far more than the limited acoustic translation that the humans had developed in order to understand Swarm co
mmunications. While their devices were adequate for conveying simple concepts to him, to the Swarmers who formerly resided in the chamber called the Forest Room, and to Thirteen’s flying nest, they could not sense the unique flavor embodied in the scent-casting of a Hunter level Swarmer. He could sense that. And it told him that Seven planned far more than a first attack against the killers of Swarm larvae. He planned something that only a Hunter could conceive. What, he did not know. But One looked forward to learning what Seven chose to do with his nest and the Swarmers on it, who would follow any command he scent-cast. His fellow Swarmers were genetically obliged to follow the scents of any Hunter. Just as he had been obliged to accept the scent-casting of Hunter Prime.

  The next few thousand wing beats would be interesting.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Jacob scanned the holos that floated in front of his seat. On his left was the sensor holo that tracked all incoming radiation and moving neutrino sources. At left front was a cross-section of the Lepanto, showing the status of every deck and each weapons system. At right front was a situational holo that focused on the surrounding 200,000 kilometer sphere. In it were the green dots of the Lepanto, the Chesapeake, the Philippine Sea and the Aldertag, arranged in the Alpha Anvil formation. Shortly they would be joined by the three alien ships heading their way. Lastly, on his right hung a system graphic holo that showed the local star, the system’s four planets, the asteroid and Kuiper belts and the fast approaching wasp ship with two invader ships chasing it. The wasp ship would cross the Lepanto’s inbound vector track, heading outbound. That would happen in four minutes. The two invader ships would cross his vector in six minutes. At least their rush to rescue the wasp ship had allowed them to meet the enemy before it could fire on the fleeing wasps.