Star Force: Death Knell (SF26) Read online

  Only patches of shield remained covering the ship, under which intact weapons batteries continued to fire. The rest had already been picked to death by the Nestafar along with the ample number of Kvash shield emitters. With those damaged there were certain segments of the ship that could no longer regenerate shields, while others could be covered if the existing shields were realigned. Those currently were exposed because those matrixes had either been disrupted or refocused to cover existing hull structures with an extra layer of protection.

  The battleship was in a world of hurt, but the Kvash were wisely keeping select parts of its offense active and they continued to burn down ship after ship from the considerably shrinking fleet surrounding them, knowing well how their massive ship could soak up damage and still remain in the fight.

  Most of the incoming missiles didn’t target one of the shielded sections of the ship…rather they hammered an area of the hull on the forward starboard sphere that already had was already showing an armor breach. The little glowy fireflies zipped down into the hull wound and expanded it, swarming into the growing explosion until they blasted out a huge chunk of the ship that twisted around with considerable list as it drifted away towards a nearby destroyer that had to reposition quickly to avoid a collision.

  With the now obvious opening on the Kvash battleship, dozens of ships began redeploying to target that area, throwing a mass of red plasma orbs into the unprotected inner portions of the ship, exploding sensitive components and eventually cutting power for the entire sphere…which subsequently dropped what remaining shield segments it had left operation and exposed the weaponry beneath them as the batteries fell silent, making them easy pickings.

  As bad as the damage looked the ship wasn’t out of the fight…only a third of it was. The other two spheres had their own independent power sources, so they fought on while the Nestafar swung around and decided to pound the already dead section, ironically giving shield generators on the other two spheres time to partially regenerate new matrixes over portions of the hull that had already been exposed.

  One of the Kvash plasma streamers on the port sphere was still functional and protected beneath a shield segment that had to strategically lower around the battery every time it fired, else the plasma would catch on the ship’s own shield. Due to the genius of the Kvash shield design the hole in the matrix was extremely tiny and didn’t offer much of a vulnerability, but at the moment six Nestafar warships were pouring plasma down on that exact location. As the battleship’s maroon streamer leapt up and dug into one of the cruisers a bit of the enemy’s plasma snuck back through the hole and splashed the emitter, as had been occurring for several rounds now.

  Most of the plasma was pushed back out along with the Kvash stream, but the little tidbits that crept around the sides finally added up and with one last salvo it burned through and knocked a hole in the battery’s aperture, causing the Kvash plasma stream to fan out laterally, losing cohesion and taking the bite out of the weapon, though the shieldless cruiser was still taking a hit strong enough to cut deep into its hull.

  Worse though, was the fact that the spraying effect was hitting the underside of the battleship’s shields, draining their energy away at an alarming rate…enough to make the gunners cease fire for fear of breaching the shield entirely. That took the only remaining heavy weapon on the port sphere out of commission, leaving the rear and mostly untouched sphere as the ship’s primary offensive option.

  Knowing this, the Kvash began using what engine power they still had to rotate the ship around on its central axis, bringing the rear sphere slowly into firing position on the remaining Nestafar ships. Before that could happen, though, some of the closer ones began moving around the perimeter of the ship to stay in the dead zone…then the rest wisely broke off, zigzagging their way out of the debris field and making micro-jumps away from the battlefield, with the rest of the ships that had been incoming veering off course as well.

  A few minutes later the first of Morgan’s ships decelerated into weapons range on the Kvash battleship that had been left for dead amidst the results of the conflict…literally hundreds of Nestafar hulks were floating about, some of which were still partially active, having played possum during the fighting to keep from getting completely obliterated. The Kvash apparently saw them on sensors as well, because as the block-like Star Force warships arrived the intact sphere on the battleship was targeting the debris and burning up the damaged Nestafar ships left behind.

  The trailblazer watched from the command nexus as she took stock of the damage to her fleet, displayed on a side hologram with rows of ships marked in various colors. Out of 293 in total, 9 were totally missing, with another 5 showing no data at all but with a blue sparkly icon in the center that indicated their telemetry system was down but their location had been tagged through other means. Pulling up visual feeds on those locations she confirmed heavy damage to all five, but the hulls were largely intact and therefore salvageable.

  Then there were 56 ships, ranging from corvettes up to cruisers, that were showing total red, meaning weapon systems, propulsion, life support, etc were all non-operational. The telemetry system had an independent power supply that allowed at least limited control over the ships even if they suffered extreme damage and these had, though Morgan knew from experience that part of the damage was probably due to power loss rather than destruction. Either way they weren’t combat or flight capable, meaning they’d also have to be retrieved.

  Another 23 ships showed partial damage, but were still flight worthy. Most of those had headed off with the remainder of the fleet towards the Kvash, but a few were already limping their way back to the warships. The rest of the fleet, including all the heavy cruisers, were mostly untouched, with a few showing tiny bits of hull damaged or depleted shields leaving her with a significant fighting force, part of which was already corralling the 3 Nestafar jumpships…but staring them down would only work for so long.

  They had to be disabled, either from outside or within, and Morgan didn’t have the troops onboard her warships to handle a boarding action. Nor did she have the capability to handle prisoners. The 4 warships were naval vessels, optimized for space combat and little else. The bulk of her infantry and mechs were sitting on cargo jumpships in a system far from here, so she was going to have to rely on the Alliance for help dealing with the Nestafar jumpships…and the sooner the better.

  Before that, though, she needed to assist the Kvash in any way she could. Their plan hadn’t gone as expected, though they had come out of it with a major victory…but at a cost, to both her fleet and the battleship, of which the Kvash only had 3 in system. She was about to open a channel to the ship when a comm prompt pulsed in front of her like a tiny glowing star. Morgan accepted the transmission and an image of a Calavari General appeared over her podium in the command nexus.

  “My data indicates you’ve retaken control of orbit. Can you confirm?”

  “The battle is over and their ships are fleeing, if you want to call that control. We’ve taken significant losses and the Kvash warship is badly damaged…we also lost the Nestafar command ship, though most of its weaponry is slag now.”

  The Calavari’s large head nodded respectfully. “Our sensors show three enemy jumpships still in orbit. What’s their status?”

  “Semi-contained. The command ship blew through several of my ships to make their escape and I wouldn’t put it past these either.”

  “What are your plans for them?”

  “Other than shooting them up there’s not much we can do on our own, and there’s no way I’m wasting the ordinance it would take to completely destroy them. Not to mention the people onboard.”

  “You wish them captured and repurposed for the Alliance?”

  “I don’t see why not. If you can spare the troops?”

  “I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but would you consider a trade?”

  Morgan frowned ever so slightly. “What?”

  “Some of
your smaller ships are capable of in-atmosphere maneuvers, I believe, if our intelligence is correct. There are a number of surface targets that could use a naval touch. If you can take them out I can repurpose 10,600 soldiers to pacifying the jumpships, now that you’ve cleared the air for our transports.”

  “What kind of targets? Most of my ships have orbital bombardment capability.”

  “That we know, but these targets require precision attacks within a few kilometers. Our fighters can handle most of their ground troops, but some of their larger assets require more numbers than we have available.”

  “Get me a target list and I’ll probably say yes.”

  The hologram’s full body image clapped both sets of arms together, fists into palms. “I shall prepare the list and begin readying our transports. I will also confer with the Kvash to see what infantry they can spare.”

  “I can give you a few skirmisher teams for the hot spots. Do you have any people that have ever been onboard one of their jumpships?”

  “I doubt it, but I will inquire. I assume your people haven’t either?”

  “No, the Nestafar are new to us. They could have all kinds of surprises waiting for us, especially if they’re taking cues from their new best friends. We’ve taken down a Cajdital jumpship before and it took a lot of manpower…I have no idea how they compare to the Nestafar.”

  The Calavari’s hairless facial ridges raised slightly. “You’ve taken one of their jumpships?”

  “With help from the Hycre, yes. We were forced to kill the crew because they wouldn’t surrender. I’m guessing that the Nestafar will, or some of them anyway, if we put enough pressure on them. We need a relocation program set up prior to the assault to shuttle the prisoners down to a secure facility on the surface. Have anything we can use?”

  The Calavari nodded. “We have several sites we’re already using to contain prisoners well away from the front lines. We don’t want the troops battling there to be bogged down with security duties. We can send the captives from the jumpships there, though I doubt there will be many. The Nestafar are out for blood.”

  “We sometimes employ stun weapons, and it’s best to always have an option in play for capture.”

  “We don’t equip non-lethal weaponry…we just aim in non-lethal areas.”

  “To each his own,” Morgan quipped. “We just don’t have room on our ships to accommodate prisoners.”

  “We will provide it then. The enemy has been making gains on Sri’ka, but not so much as to threaten our major facilities. Our prisons are well secured, and you can be reasonably assured they won’t find their way back into the ranks, so long as the surface war doesn’t turn into a rout.”

  “We’ll see what we can do to help in that department,” Morgan promised.

  “The target list will be forthcoming shortly. Thank you again for your assistance. You may have just turned the tide in the battle for this world…perhaps even the star system.”

  “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Morgan cautioned gratefully.

  The Calavari bowed slightly, then his image disappeared.

  Morgan proceeded to contact the Kvash battleship, but couldn’t get through on the first attempt. It was several minutes later before an image of an ever beefier creature appeared, though much shorter than the Calavari. It actually stood shoulder height to Morgan, though it wasn’t visible on the hologram that adjusted to fit the size of the individual, so from her point of view Morgan had the bulky Calavari replaced by an equally tall living rock monster.

  “The battle did not go as planned,” it said with a low, rumbling voice as it flexed its rock-like joints with an annoying scraping sound.

  “No it didn’t,” Morgan agreed, ignoring the mild rebuke in its tone. “Where is Sassval?”

  “Dead.”

  The Archon swallowed slightly. “Can we be of assistance in your repair efforts?”

  “You have driven off the enemy. That is enough.”

  “Medical evac?” she offered. “It looks like half your ship is inoperable.”

  The Kvash was silent for a moment. “We have toxic leaks that we are having difficulty locking down. They are advancing through deck after deck despite our automated containment procedures. Our crew is being forced into a progressively smaller area. Removing them from the environment while our repair teams correct the problem is preferable. We have already contacted the Calavari concerning such an evac to the planet, but your ships are closer.”

  “Can you handle a nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere?”

  “It is not to our liking, but adequate. We do not respire.”

  “How many?”

  “Approximately 8,000.”

  Morgan started running the logistics through her head at lightspeed. “We’ll have the first transport there within half an hour, if you can provide docking coordinates. Doesn’t look like you’ve got many landing bays left.”

  “All are inaccessible. Your ships will have to use a gantry way. I do not know how compatible the system will be with your technology.”

  “All the equipment in this fleet is post-Alliance, meaning our docking mechanisms are designed to interface with all member races, so they should match up.”

  “Acceptable. Our primary sensors are disabled. What is the status of the enemy jumpships?”

  “Their command ship escaped, heavily damaged. We have 3 of their jumpships surrounded and are coordinating the Calavari to secure them.”

  “Not a total defeat then,” the Kvash uttered. “Do not lose the jumpships. The resources they contain will resupply the enemy for months.”

  “We don’t intend to.”

  “How much damage was done to the command ship?”

  Morgan didn’t answer with words, but quickly sent a data file along the holo-transmission so the Kvash could see for itself. “Heavy damage.”

  It took a moment to digest the images, then pronounced them satisfactory. “A fair tradeoff then. We will repair our damage faster than theirs, and they have no guardian fleet at the moment. I will inform the others of their vulnerability. Do you have a current position for the enemy vessel?”

  “No, it jumped out.”

  “Your sensors can’t track its position?”

  “Across the system? No.”

  “We will have to extrapolate their course and reacquire their location later.”

  “How far can you scan?”

  “Our long range sensors are currently down.”

  “If they were up, how far?”

  “A significant distance with unstealthed jumpships of their size.”

  “If you find it, I’d like to know.”

  “I will pass along your request,” it said, twitching its head to the left as it looked at something outside of Morgan’s view. “The sooner your transports arrive, the better.”

  “On it,” she said, cutting the commlink and issuing orders to the four jumpships to assemble their shuttles, dropships, tugs, and other recovery craft for immediate use. Then she commed the Captain and got him started on prepping an arrival area for the Kvash while she stayed in the command nexus and began cycling out a few of her smaller ships herding the Nestafar jumpships in exchange for the larger ones, freeing up the corvettes and frigates and sending them down into low orbit while she waited on the target list from the Calavari…though she already had a pretty good idea of what ‘targets’ they had in mind.

  Her blocky ships weren’t built for aerial combat, but Paul had tweaked the designs enough to keep it a possibility for the smaller warships. They had to run their gravity drives continuously at significant fuel consumption in order to pull off the maneuver, but she admitted that bringing in orbital guns to a mech fight was overly tempting…so long as the naval support was on your side.

  When the list did come in there were a few surprises on it, but the primary targets she’d expected were all there, namely the Nestafar’s super dragon walkers. From Mark’s reports they were a bitch to take down from the air and almost impossibl
e to hit from the ground, unless you were willing to sacrifice a slew of your own mechs in the process.

  He’d also indicated that tactical explosives were the way to go, but given that Morgan didn’t have any onboard the warships, nor skeets to deliver them, sending in close naval support was the next best option…or perhaps a better one, because plasma and rail gun rounds were easy to replace compared to the high yield, non-nuke warheads that Star Force had nicknamed ‘ship busters.’

  Either way, with proper supplies and tactics Star Force could get the job done on the Nestafar army…though Morgan guessed Paul would appreciate this play, even if it was akin to squashing metallic bugs.

  4

  Captain Wilkinson was waiting inside the Red Ranger’s primary hangar bay when the first of the transports returned from the Kvash battleship. The doors stood open with an energy field keeping the atmosphere in, a definite no-no as far as previous Star Force protocol had been, given that a little glitch in the energy matrix or an oddly shaped craft passing through could result in a sudden depressurization of the bay, killing all those inside and draining internal atmosphere if the connecting doors weren’t also closed. Procedure had always been to evacuate the deck of personnel before the main doors were open, allow the craft to enter or exit, then reclose the doors and allow the personnel to move freely again.

  This kept the atmosphere contained short of a malfunction, but made for slow traffic patterns. Recently an upgrade had been made to newer ship designs with a tri-layered energy field covering the doors that led into a short tunnel that had a fourth shield covering the entrance just in case a ring-like object came through. With the way Star Force shields operated, the emitters had to be physically connected to all points on the shield perimeter in order to function, meaning that a straw-shaped object, when passing through the shield, would isolate the circular section inside it. That would disconnect from the controlling energy flow and the matrix in the isolated region would dissipate.