The lost fleet box set, p.52
The Lost Fleet Box Set, page 52
part #1 of The Lost Fleet Series
“Let’s get to the firing walls and make sure no more come through the tree line,” ordered Barkley, as he took a deep breath.
Between the two squads he’d lost two Marines with another three injured. Medics were already treating the wounded. In the distance, he could hear rifle fire and explosions from others under attack. He could also see large numbers of Anlons in the air dropping munitions. He just hoped none of the Conqueror drones had made it into the cities.
-
General McGown was in the underground Command Center, monitoring the battle against the Conqueror drones. There had been more drones in the drop pods than he’d imagined possible. They must’ve been stacked on top of one another inside.
“What’s the status around New Eden?” McGown asked, as he gazed at the numerous viewscreens.
On one, a ruined laser turret tower lay on the ground with Marines engaged in hand-to-hand combat against a dozen Conqueror drones. He grimaced as the last Marine was torn in two, then the screen seemed to shudder and the area around the downed tower erupted in violent explosions.
“Anlon bomber strike,” Colonel Jarrins reported. “We couldn’t hit the drones while they were engaged with our Marines. The other towers held, and our Marine squads are reporting the destruction of all Conqueror drones in their respective areas. Around Clements the fighting was much lighter, and most of the drones were eliminated by Anlon strikes.”
“Any word on casualties?” McGown knew from watching the viewscreens that a number of his Marines had lost their lives in the brief battle.
“Not yet,” Jarrins replied. “These Conqueror drones moved much faster than we expected. They overran a few of our positions before the Anlons could react.”
General McGown let out a deep sigh. It had been difficult to watch the screens and see his Marines being torn apart by the drones. “We’ll adjust our future strategy to take into account this increased speed of theirs.”
“The armor on these drones seems different than the one the Distant Horizon has in its lab,” Jarrins continued with a frown on his face. “Our armor-piercing rounds had little effect unless fired at nearly point-blank range. Most of our Marines had to resort to explosive rounds to stop the drones.”
McGown watched the screen, as Marines moved across the battlefield, making sure the Conqueror drones were all inactive. Occasionally a Marine would fire several rounds from point-blank range at a drone and then continue on.
“I want those drop pods located and secured,” he ordered. “I need to know how many of those damn drones one of them contains. I also want to know why we were having such a hard time shooting them down. None of them should have made it to the surface of Gaia.”
“Yes, General,” Colonel Jarrins replied. “I’ll have teams on the way to the drop pods momentarily.”
General McGown stared at the viewscreens for another few moments. The city streets were empty, with all the civilians safely in the underground shelters. The only movement were Marine squads patrolling the streets.
“I want the surrounding area searched between the pods and the two cities. Make sure we’ve destroyed every one of those damn things.”
Colonel Jarrins nodded. “I’ll contact the commanders of all three bases and have them send out Marines for a thorough sweep.”
McGown turned away, knowing, for today, the battle had been won. His biggest concern was what would happen next. If today was any indication, the next wave of Conqueror drones would be much larger, particularly if the defense grid had suffered major damage.
-
Fourth Fleet and the Alton fleet jumped back into orbit around Gaia. Several ships were sent immediately to the Clan Protector for damage repair, and the four fleet repair ships were ordered to work on the other damaged ships.
“How many did we lose?” Jeremy asked, as he leaned back in his command chair. They’d won this first round, but how many others were waiting in their future? He was also greatly concerned about the cost in lives.
“It’s not as bad as it could have been,” Commander Malen said, as she looked at the latest data on the ships and crewmembers lost, as well as the damage the fleets sustained. “We lost the battleship Canus, battlecruiser Cheyenne, strikecruiser Alpine, and two light cruisers. The Altons lost the battlecruisers SwiftStar and StarReach. We also have about a dozen ships which will need major yard time to bring them back up to full combat readiness.”
“What about our forces here at Gaia?”
“They were hit pretty hard,” Commander Malen replied. “The AIs lost six of their ships, and Rear Admiral Marks lost two Monarch cruisers and three light cruisers. She also lost 42 percent of her Anlon bombers and 12 percent of her fighters. From the defense grid we lost six of the Type Two battlestations and 24 percent of the particle beam satellites.”
Jeremy winced, hearing those numbers. “What about Grayseth and the Clan Protector?”
“For some reason the Simulins avoided that area,” Malen answered. “Grayseth is highly aggravated that he didn’t get to take part in the battle.”
“They might have detected the ion cannons the shipyard has,” suggested Ariel from Jeremy’s side. “Or they could have been saving the shipyard for the mopping up process, if they won the battle.”
“What now, Jeremy?” asked Kevin, getting up from his Sensor console and coming to stand by his friend. “The Simulins will be back, and they know what our defenses are like now.”
Jeremy looked at Angela and saw she had the same questioning look upon her face. He let out a deep sigh. “We mourn our dead, repair the damaged ships, and get ready for the next attack. We’ll redistribute the remaining particle beam satellites and adjust the orbits of the battlestations to fill in the gaps. Next time Fourth Fleet and the Alton fleet will move down into the grid, and we’ll add our firepower to it when the Simulins return.”
“What about the project Andram and the others are working on?” asked Kevin. “I don’t think the Simulins will return until they feel confident they can take us.”
“Should we consider evacuating?” asked Commander Malen.
The Command Center became very quiet, as the crew waited to hear Jeremy’s answer.
“No,” Jeremy replied firmly. “It’ll take the Simulins several days at least, or maybe longer, before they can launch another attack. I’m going to the Distant Horizon and see how close Andram is to completing his research.” Jeremy paused for a moment and then added, “Angela, Kevin, I want you to come with me.”
The crew didn’t seem surprised at their admiral taking Kevin and Angela along. After all, they were part of the Special Five.
-
Rear Admiral Kathryn Barnes gazed at the massive viewscreen, which dominated the front wall of the Command Center, focused on Gaia. She was relieved damage on the surface had been minimal, considering.
“We only have some minor damage to the hull,” reported Colonel Leon. She’d been going over the damage reports submitted from each department.
“I wish we had the new energy shield ready to go,” Commander Grissim said. “It could make a big difference.”
“It’s installed on the Gaia,” Kathryn responded. “She was in orbit along with the rest of our ships. Check with Commander Newman to see how the shield reacted during the battle.”
“Admiral Barnes,” interrupted Captain Travers from Communications. “Admiral Strong is coming over, and he wants to meet with Andram.”
Kathryn nodded. She’d been concerned about going into battle with the research group on board, but Clarissa had been quite vocal about being able to keep the ship and crew safe.
“He’s also bringing the other two of the Special Five with him.”
Kathryn noted Kelsey’s frown. Kathryn knew none of the Special Five cared for that name.
“Very well,” she answered. “Inform Andram the admiral is on his way over.” She would speak to Travers later and remind him to use the ranks of the five and not their nickname.
-
Jeremy entered the large research lab where the Altons and Zed were working amid the hectic activities of over a dozen Alton scientists plus a number of Alton and Human technicians in the room. A large rocket-shaped device on a big metal table near Zed drew Jeremy’s attention. Zed was busily attaching a complicated-looking electronic device.
Kevin and Angela tentatively followed Jeremy inside, not quite sure why they were here. With surprise, they saw Katie and Kelsey were already in the lab, along with Rear Admiral Barnes.
“Admiral Strong,” spoke Andram, seeing the admiral had entered the lab. “I’m glad you could come over. We’re just about to run our first test.”
“I need to finish installing this final hyperspace frequency wave emitter,” Zed commented, as the AI used two of its tentacles to carefully attach the device to the missile like object on the table. “It’ll only take another minute.”
Shilum was standing near Zed, observing the AI. “Will the power be sufficient?”
“It should be for this test,” Zed replied, as the AI completed the installation and then attached a cover piece, making the small missile look whole. “We’re only using an infinitesimal amount of dark matter.”
“Everything looks good,” Mikow informed everyone from her computer console. “Power is flowing, and the emitter is ready to activate.”
“What exactly are you doing?” asked Jeremy.
“When we travel in hyperspace, we actually enter another dimension of space and time,” explained Shilum, as she stepped to Mikow’s console and studied several readings. “The jump drives in our ships generate a hyperwave that opens up a spatial vortex. The more power we can use to generate the hyperwave, the faster our ships can travel. The governing laws in our universe prevent vessels from exceeding the speed of light because of the increase in inertial mass as a ship nears the speed of light. It would require nearly infinite energy to accomplish speeds faster than the speed of light. However, in the hyperdimension, the laws of our universe no longer hold true. We have also discovered the hyperdimension has a number of different levels, perhaps an infinite number, which can be influenced by dark energy and dark matter. What this device does is make the levels we normally use too unstable to allow hypertravel.”
“What if the Simulins use different levels than we do?” asked Kelsey.
“From our observations, they travel in what we would call the midrange-upper levels, the same as we do. Those are the ones we’ll destabilize.”
Jeremy stepped closer to Zed to examine the jamming missile. “How many of these would we need to keep the Simulins out of the nebula?”
“Hundreds,” admitted Andram with a deep sigh. “However, if we were to deploy just a few dozen around Gaia’s star system, we could make the Simulins’ dropout of hyperspace considerably short of the system. From what we’ve seen of their subspace drives, it would take them over a year to reach us from where we can force them to drop out. That’ll give us time to deploy even more hyperspace emitters, eventually sealing off the entire nebula.”
“And us too,” commented Kevin with a frown. “It would tie us permanently to Gaia with no way to see what’s going on in the rest of the galaxy, particularly the Sigma System.”
“We would never know if any more ships come through from our galaxy,” Angela said, her worry evident in her expression. “Another rescue mission could come in the future, and we would never know about it.”
“Can we make our ships immune to the jamming signal?” asked Jeremy. He would like to continue to monitor the Sigma System, as well as keep an eye on the Simulins.
“No,” answered Shilum, shaking her head. “It’s not the ship’s hyperdrive we’re influencing with the emitters. It’s hyperspace itself.”
“Perhaps we should leave several tunnels open through the nebula,” mused Andram, as he thought over what would be necessary. “We could set up a number of the emitter satellites to shut down when signaled.”
“It would still take a few hours for hyperspace in those areas to return to normal,” Shilum said, as she ran some quick calculations on Mikow’s computer console. “It’d take a powerful hyperspace transmitter and several booster satellites placed strategically in the nebula to order the emitters to shut down in the designated tunnel areas.”
“A hyperspace transmitter will still work?” asked Kathryn, showing surprise. “Wouldn’t the emitters affect hyperspace communication as well?”
“No,” Andram replied. “Hyperspace communications use the lower levels or bands for messages. If we had the power and could access the really high levels of hyperspace, communications across light-years would be almost instantaneous.”
“That’s one of the reasons we’ve made the advances in FTL communication over recent years,” Angela added. “When we started using Alton power systems to operate our communication systems, we nearly cut in half the time it took to send a message across Federation space. I ran some simulations with the aid of Ariel, and, with the Fusion Five reactors and a big enough transmitter, we could cut that time in half again.”
“Everything seems to be functioning within the set parameters for the test,” reported Mikow, as she checked her console one more time. She turned around and looked expectantly at Andram.
“Very well, let’s turn it on,” he responded.
“Activating the emitters,” reported one of the Human technicians, as he touched several icons on a computer display.
From the small device, a low-pitched humming could be heard. Everyone except Zed moved back from it.
“There is no danger,” Zed said in a nearly Human voice.
“Twenty percent power,” Mikow reported. “Disrupting wave is forming.”
The emitter seemed to hum even louder, and the level of pitch increased.
“Forty percent power,” Mikow reported, her eyes focused on her computer display. “Disrupting wave has formed into a sphere ten meters in diameter.”
“Confirm minor disruption of midrange hyperspace bands,” added Shilum, while she studied the data flowing across one of Mikow’s displays.
“Sixty percent power,” Mikow reported, as the device vibrated slightly, and the humming increased in pitch.
“Confirming major disruption in all normal hyperspace travel bands,” Shilum reported excitedly. “It’s working!”
“Eighty percent power,” reported Mikow, as the device vibrated more violently.
Suddenly sparks shot from the emitter, and one of the panels blew off, striking Zed’s metal cube. The AI moved back a few meters and continued observing. Then the humming faded away, and, moments later, the lab was left in silence.
“What happened?” asked Jeremy, fearing the test had failed.
Zed and several Alton and Human technicians approached the missile-shaped object and removed a number of panels, so they could peer inside. Zed used several tentacles to remove one of the emitters, which looked shorted out, as it had obvious burn marks on it.
“We need to better ground the emitters,” the AI reported after a moment. “The emitter couldn’t handle the power we were feeding into it, and the dark matter at its core burned it out.”
“What does that mean?” asked Kevin. “If it’s grounded better, will it work?”
“Yes, I assume so,” Andram replied, as he examined the damaged emitter. “A full-scale model properly powered and grounded should work fine.”
“Then we can deploy these things?” Kathryn asked, her eyes showing excitement.
“Yes,” answered Andram, smiling. “The test exceeded my expectations. It will require adjusting some of the hyperspace equations we set up to predict how the emitters would work, but I don’t see any reason not to go ahead and construct some to deploy.”
“How many would we need to protect just the immediate area around Gaia?” asked Jeremy. The danger remained that the Simulins could attack before the emitters were ready to deploy.
Andram stepped over next to Shilum, and the two spent a few minutes checking equations on one of the computer consoles with the help of Mikow. Finally the two seemed to agree, and Andram turned back around.
“Fourteen will adequately protect Gaia from attack,” he reported.
“How long will it take to build them?”
Andram gazed at Zed with a questioning look in his eyes.
“With the aid of Human, Alton, and AI technicians, as well as unlimited access to the construction facilities on the Clan Protector, we can have the needed fourteen ready to deploy in three days,” Zed answered.
“Can we get by with fewer?” asked Jeremy, wanting to keep the Simulins away from the system.
They knew which way the Simulins had come from when they jumped into the Gaia System. If these emitters would work, he’d deploy six of them just outside the system to block the Simulins’ return.
“No,” Andram answered. “It would only deflect the Simulins’ emergence point to a clear area, possibly even in another part of the Gaia System.”
“Understand also that the disrupting wave the emitters generate only travels at the speed of light in our dimension. Once an emitter is deployed, it will take nearly forty hours for it to reach maximum coverage,” added Shilum.
“Then let’s build these emitters,” Jeremy ordered. “I want them deployed as soon as possible.”
“Ariel and I will have tentative blueprints for a full-size model within the hour,” Clarissa said, as she suddenly appeared next to Katie. “I’ve already downloaded all the necessary information.”
“Zed and I will go to the Clan Protector and set up an assembly line,” added Kurene, who had been observing everything, because Zed was in the lab.
“I’ll speak to Daelthon to make sure he understands the importance of this,” added Jeremy. He wanted everyone to realize construction of the emitters had first priority over everything else, even repairing the damaged warships.
As everyone filed out of the lab, Jeremy just hoped they had the time. He was deeply worried the Simulins would attack again before the emitters were ready to deploy.
