Federation chronicles th.., p.83
Federation Chronicles: The Complete Series, page 83
“You can run, but you can’t hide,” Quinton said.
“My God,” Brandt muttered.
“Helm, all ahead full. Let’s close the gap,” Quinton ordered.
“All ahead full, aye, Admiral,” Lieutenant Stasya Orlova said.
Twenty percent of the energy drawn from the Salvation’s power taps diverted to the ship’s reactionless drive, and the planetoid ship accelerated at a rate that would impress starship captains of any generation.
Completely integrated into the Salvation’s computing core, Quinton took in the data from the sensor arrays feeding the ship’s tactical computers. Unable to repel or even do much damage to the Salvation’s hull, the surviving Sentinel warships attempted to flee the system.
They didn’t let them, and Sentinel warships were destroyed by the hundreds. The Sentinels equipped with jump drives capable of micro-jumps were pursued by either hyper-capable missiles that were fired from the Salvation or a ship from the three Alliance fleets still in the star system.
There was no escape, and the destruction of the Sentinel ambush was absolute.
“My God,” Brandt said. “The firepower from this ship is without equal.”
Integrating with the ship’s system always gave Quinton an odd sense of detachment and expansion of his awareness. He withdrew from the Salvation’s systems.
Looking at the holoscreen with Brandt’s video commlink, Quinton smiled. “We kept it a secret as much as we could, but it’s time they knew what they’re up against.”
Over the next six hours, they resupplied the ships in the star systems. An extensive scan of the wrecked Sentinel warships revealed no power core signals. The Salvation’s attacks had been so devastating that there wasn’t much left inside the hulks they were able to find.
Simon walked to Quinton and stood by his side. “I can’t believe how destructive those lances were. The energy requirements are beyond anything I’ve seen before, but the power taps all remained within stable ranges of operation.”
Quinton nodded. “You can learn the specifications of the weapons systems and test fire them, but it’s different when they’re used in actual combat.”
Simon looked at him, lips pursed a little in thought. “I see the shock has already worn off.”
“I’m sure you can make an accurate guess as to why that is,” Quinton replied.
Simon chuckled. “Yeah, I think I can.” He paused for a few seconds. “There have been other ambush sites, but none with an attack force this big.”
Quinton nodded. “You’re right. It’s not a coincidence.”
Simon frowned. “I hadn’t said that.”
“But you were.”
Simon shrugged and shook his head a little. “You’re right, I was. Anyway, I went over the sensor data and there’s no way for us to determine whether any of the Sentinels escaped.”
“It’s probably safe to assume that at least one of them did, or at least got off a hyper-capable comms drone to report on the tactical data they collected.”
“I thought you didn’t like to assume. You do realize what the root word of that is, right?”
Quinton smiled with half his mouth. “Sometimes it can’t be avoided.”
“Admiral,” Lieutenant Traver said, “we’ve received an alpha priority message. It’s from Trenton Draven.”
Quinton opened his personal holoscreen and gestured for Simon to stay while accessing the message.
“Admiral Aldren, Omicron Prioxis is under attack. The Sentinels are overwhelming our defenses. I’ve attached the tactical data from our sensors. I… We need the Alliance’s help if we’re to survive. I know there’s been friction between us, and that you view the Collective’s reticence—my reticence—to openly help the Alliance as detrimental to the Alliance’s objectives. But Omicron Prioxis is one of our core systems, with ships and resources capable of helping you against the Sentinels. I assure you that if you help us defend the system and prevent the Sentinels from obliterating it, I will commit the Collective’s extensive resources to the Alliance without delay. You must hurry. All of our lives are depending on the Alliance. On you.”
The video message finished and then the tactical data and information about the star system became available.
Simon’s mouth hung open a little and then he looked at Quinton. “You just had the leader of the Collective ask for your help. The leader of the whole damn Collective.”
He didn’t know anything about Omicron Prioxis, but one of the things he’d accepted since taking command of the Salvation was that he didn’t need to do everything on his own. He sent out an alert to his senior officers and uploaded the data to the Salvation’s computing core.
His senior officers joined a virtual meeting session.
“Brandt, what do you know about Omicron Prioxis? Is it really part of the Collective? What’s so valuable there?” Quinton asked.
Brandt’s gaze was away from the camera, looking at the tactical data. “Omicron,” he said with a frown. “Yes, that system is known to be part of the Collective. The DUC archives show it tagged as a mining outpost, but the data on that is probably outdated. According to the data Draven included, it’s a system rich in rare minerals, as well as materials critical to enhancing the capabilities of weapons yield and jump-drive range. The system has extensive defensive capabilities. It doesn’t appear that the Sentinels attacked all at once. They sent a scout force and then called in reinforcements.”
Quinton increased his frame rate, and Radek retrieved the data they had about Omicron Prioxis. It was a massive star system that was home to a red dwarf star. There were multiple asteroid belts from planetary collisions when the system was formed. It was home to a dozen ice planets, four Jovian planets, and eight Neptunian planets. The Collective had built multiple space stations and starbases. They had more defenses there than Quinton had seen anywhere else, which could only mean one thing. Draven was telling the truth and this star system was crucial to the Collective.
Quinton updated the data on the star map.
Simon exhaled explosively. “Are those numbers correct?”
“It’s what they reported,” Quinton replied.
“That’s nearly a hundred thousand ships!” Simon said.
“More than enough to overwhelm even the defenses the Collective has deployed in that star system,” Brandt said.
Quinton peered at the data. “We have to help them. I don’t think we can win this war without help from the Collective.”
Quinton studied the tactical data provided by Trenton Draven. The Sentinels had sent a scout force, and when they were met with resistance, they brought in more ships. The conflict had escalated from there as the Sentinels probed different areas of the star system. Each time the Sentinels were beaten back, more of their warships entered. Their behavior matched what Alliance forces had observed. If the Sentinels didn’t have enough firepower to achieve their objective, they brought back enough ships until the objective—whatever that may be—was achieved.
Standing on the extended platform of the bridge, Quinton ordered Alliance reserve forces to the high-priority system and redirected other fleets as well. A countdown time appeared on one of his status windows. Alliance fleets would converge on Omicron Prioxis when the timer expired.
Battle assessments from previous encounters with the Sentinels provided statistical probabilities of the chances that the Alliance fleets could defeat the enemy force, and this was going to cost them. He couldn’t account for the star systems defenses, and he didn’t know how many warships the Collective had defending it. None of the statistical probabilities meant anything without that intel.
The Salvation emerged from hyperspace into the Oort of the Omicron Prioxis’s outer system. Subspace comms confirmed the arrival of the other Alliance fleets with a vector to their defense priorities.
The star system was home to four space stations, twelve different mining stations, and six starbases. Scans revealed that the starbases were of a modified Jordani Federation design. Quinton remembered that the Jordanis were mostly reliant upon kinetic weaponry for their starbases. There was evidence of that in the scans, but there were also hangar bays, which meant that they had small combat ships to help with the defense. Squadrons of attack craft could evade heavy weapons and wreak havoc on larger ships. Quinton approved of the strategy.
Quinton glanced around the bridge and noticed that the bridge officers watched the tactical plot shown in the massive holotank with wide-eyed amazement—both his human and PMC crew.
“Stay focused,” Quinton said, snatching their attention. “Concentration on the objectives. We need to relieve pressure on Collective forces and maximize the impact our fleets can project onto the enemy.”
The moment of frozen awe was dissipated, and the bridge officers went back to work.
The Sentinels had divided their considerable forces, attacking multiple targets at once. Essentially, wherever they encountered resistance, they concentrated their efforts. It wasn’t the most well-thought-out strategy and was predictive.
Quinton had his fleets jump to the Oort so they could assess the situation and then execute micro-jumps to strategic locations.
“Quinton, once we attack, they’ll redirect their forces,” Brandt said.
He nodded. “We need to use that, and time is running out. They’ll detect us soon enough.”
“We need to prioritize civilian targets. That means we should focus our efforts on the space stations first and then work our way out from there.”
Quinton had considered that and said so. “Getting in that mess isn’t the problem. It’s getting back out again. Once we show our teeth, then…” he paused for a moment. “Let’s coordinate with Draven on this and leverage his forces in our plan.”
Trenton Draven was aboard a battleship carrier that was part of the main battlegroup defending Aurora Station. The leader of the Collective looked a little haggard, with worry lines creasing his forehead.
“I hope you’ve got a good plan,” Draven said.
Quinton and Brandt explained what they intended.
“I should have seen their attack pattern sooner. Their reactionary and escalation methodology is so obvious now that you’ve pointed it out,” Draven said.
“You’re doing the best you can,” Quinton replied.
“Okay, we can update our tactical response after. Where do you want our forces?”
Quinton smiled. “Sending you a data burst now. Countdown will begin upon receipt.”
Draven looked away from the camera for a few seconds. “All right, we’ve got it.”
“Good. Now let’s give the Sentinels something their tactical VIs won’t expect.”
The comlink to Draven shifted to a secondary priority and passed to a comms officer under Brandt’s command.
“I know we’re both on the same ship, but it feels like we’re not,” Brandt said.
Quinton chuckled a little. “I know what you mean. Time to kick a hornet’s nest.”
Brandt smiled. “Another pre-diaspora saying. You’re just full of surprises.”
“I like to keep you on your toes. You never know what’s going to come out of my mouth.”
“Let’s hope we can keep the Sentinels off-balance. I can’t imagine they have more warships in reserve in this sector,” Brandt said.
Quinton closed the comlink. He integrated into the Salvation’s computer systems but allowed enough of his attention to maintain awareness of his avatar’s location on the bridge. He engaged the SCS system and began collecting data from a multitude of sources as they were prioritized from Radek, PMCs serving on the Salvation, and PMCs that served aboard Alliance ships in the star system. He could never analyze the raw data feeds. The sheer amount of data processing required was way beyond even his cybernetic avatar, but the Salvation’s computer core processing strength was beyond that of the entire fleet, even if they functioned as a distributed computer system. The Salvation was meant for this fight, and Quinton was starting to believe that he was up to the task of defeating the Sentinels and Harding Prime.
Alliance fleet warships micro-jumped out of the Oort of the outer star system, bringing them within firing range of the Sentinels that converged on the four space stations. As soon as Alliance ships emerged, they used the tactical data provided by Collective ships and targeted Sentinel warships.
Trenton Draven provided them with the ships’ identifications, which were then broadcast through secure comlink channels. Hyper-capable missiles with fusion warheads raced from Alliance heavy cruisers while Challenger class destroyers used their tachyon lances to devastating effect on their targets. The Sentinels’ rear ranks were taken completely by surprise. Sentinels began to engage their engines using emergency boosters to execute evasive maneuvers as if they’d been moving in slow motion and had suddenly sprung to life.
There were tens of thousands of Sentinel warships, from the smallest destroyer class to the behemoth super-Dreadnoughts. Quinton monitored the tactical data as it reached the Salvation. The speeds at which the Sentinels were moving in a concerted coordination was sure to stress even the most powerful of the inertia dampeners. If any of those ships had human crew aboard them, they would be dead. A human crew was always the limiting factor when it came to fleet engagements. CDAs could withstand the powerful forces, but Sentinels were in danger of breaking the superstructure of their warships. And still, they realigned their ships to face the new threat.
The Salvation emerged from its micro-jump near Aurora Station, home to over forty million spacers and station defensive systems that fired their weapons at the Sentinels. The station commanders must have coordinated their attacks with the Collective fleets, trying to push back the Sentinel warships.
Quinton made sure his comms officers informed them that the planetoid spaceship that had emerged from hyperspace was there to help defend the station.
“Aurora Station acknowledges our fleet presence, Admiral,” Lieutenant Traver said.
“Good,” Quinton replied. He didn’t want to be concerned with friendly fire from their allies.
“Admiral,” Lieutenant Xander said, “I have multiple firing solutions ready.”
“Let’s show them our teeth, Lieutenant,” Quinton replied.
Powerful Hercules class missiles began pouring out from tubes across the entirety of the Salvation’s surface. Quinton expanded their available warhead arsenal beyond the standard fusion warheads to also include gravitic and antimatter warheads. Tens of thousands of hyper-capable missiles raced toward Sentinel warships. PMCs ensured that the deadly missiles could reach their targets despite any interference from cyber warfare defenses used by Sentinel warships. It was a numbers game. The farther a missile penetrated the defensive screens of the Sentinels, the more intel was distributed to the other ships and weapons systems. PMCs using Sapient Combat Simulations further increased the precision accuracy.
With so many detonations happening, it was impossible for the sensor arrays to detect the amount of destruction being dealt to the Sentinels. However, the Sentinels had thousands of ships to spare, and they pushed toward the Salvation with relentless determination.
Thousands of super-Dreadnought class Sentinel ships fired their own high-powered tachyon lances. Highly energized particles blazed forth with the fury of thousands of exploding stars, and there was nothing Quinton could do as the Salvation took the brunt of the attack.
The Salvation’s internal sensors began reporting damaged sections as the Sentinels’ heavy weapons pierced the battle-steel hull. He checked the tactical plot and frowned.
“Admiral, hyperspace jumps detected. Enemy ships are converging on this location,” Lieutenant Walsh Corvax said.
“Admiral, reports are coming in from Alliance ships of more enemy forces entering the star system,” Lieutenant Traver said.
Quinton increased his frame rate more than what he already had.
“Where are they coming from?” Quinton asked.
“Admiral, it doesn’t make any sense,” Walsh replied. “They’re micro-jumps, but they’re new detections. Maybe the Collective ships missed them, and they were hiding—"
“Waiting for the Alliance to show up,” Quinton finished.
A silver orb materialized in Quinton’s virtual command center. “Quinton, analysis of Sentinel attacks reveal that they are no longer targeting Collective forces.”
Quinton considered this. “We’re the bigger threat, so they just reprioritized.”
“Negative, they’re not targeting any Collective targets at all,” Radek replied.
“Radek is right, Admiral,” Walsh said. “Collective ships are broadcasting new identifications. Something isn’t right with it. It’s almost as if—"
“They’re using Sentinel communication protocols,” Quinton said and gritted his teeth.
He activated a comlink to the secondary bridge. “Brandt, do you still have a tactical comlink session with Collective ships?”
Brandt blinked and checked the status, and his thick eyebrows pushed forward. “Negative, they’re registering an L.O.S. Same with the Aurora Station. What the hell is going on?”
Quinton sent a comlink to Draven’s ship. It was refused. “No, dammit. This can’t be happening.”
Damage alarms began filling the onboard operations monitoring systems. Alliance fleets reported an increase in friendly fire occurrences.
“Comms,” Quinton said, “alpha priority message to the fleet. Zulu. Zulu. Zulu. The Collective has allied with the Sentinels. They’re to execute emergency ACN orders 74JAN.”
“They betrayed us. This whole thing was a ruse to bring us here,” Brandt said and sagged into his chair for a few moments. Then he sat up. “Could the Sentinels be controlling them somehow?”
Quinton considered it for half a millisecond. “No, there’s too much coordination involved. We need to focus on getting our ships away from here.”
He wanted to scream, howl, and rage, but he wouldn’t allow it.
“Walsh, give me the status of the retreat.”
