Star Crusades Nexus: The Second Trilogy Read online

  “We move to the target and scout for the enemy.”

  He then turned and walked back to his comrades. Campbell watched him go and shook his head as he was once more left alone.

  This assignment is a waste of time.

  He looked down at his secpad for what must have been the hundredth time and relooked at the article assembled by the Alliance intelligence agencies on the Anicinàbe. He had so far managed to avoid meeting a single one of this illusive race, even though they occupied a vast region of space. According to the article they controlled large numbers of planets, yet refused to be governed by a single central authority. There were factions made up of people from all the races through the Anicinàbe system, each of them in a state of permanent competition with the other. It reminded him of the stories of the ancient indigenous tribes back on Earth in its glory days. People like the North American Indians who had never been one nation.

  Is that a good thing, or not? he thought, now even more confused.

  They were positioned near the front of the ship and in a room able to take twenty or thirty people. Tiny computer screens ran around a circular central area where the commander of the ship stood. On the outside of the room on three sides were massive windows, each almost the exact size of the outer wall itself. Campbell found himself wondering quite how strong they might be, especially as they were in such an obvious and vulnerable position. He could see the shapes of the nearest vessels, as well as the tiny squadron of three Alliance frigates that had been sent to assist. They were nowhere near powerful enough to do anything of note, but they did fly the flag of the Alliance and guaranteed them a place amongst this diverse group of people.

  The commander now spoke, but his crew seemed to spare him no attention. He walked about the center of the bridge, taking special note of the work conducted by each and every one of them, especially one of the taller Khreenk who was trying to show him something on a display screen. The translator seemed to take an age before it altered his voice.

  “All ships, destination approaches. Check weapons, Raiders forward.”

  It was a strange message, especially once the translator had torn it apart into English. They were a long distance from their final destination, yet the Khreenk commanding officer appeared apprehensive, perhaps even nervous at their mission.

  What the hell are Raiders? he wondered.

  He grabbed his secpad and put in the details, but the closest match was a vague reference to Khreenk Special Forces and something about piracy. It meant nothing to him other than that it implied asymmetric warfare.

  Scouts perhaps? Or skirmishers.

  He wanted to ask the Khreenk officer about the destination, but his eyes were drawn to a line of light yellow dots off in the distance. He lifted his hand to point, but two of the navigators had already spotted it and drawn it to the attention of the commander. His expression changed, and he looked about at each of them. Campbell couldn’t tell if he was excited, angry, or both.

  “It’s a trick! All ships separate!”

  There were no internal alarms or emergency lighting inside this alien vessel. Instead, the commander and then the senior officers below him walked about and shouted at the crew. It seemed a slow method, but the results were surprisingly fast. Campbell watched from his position a short distance from the commander, as the formation of ships used their maneuvering thrusters to slightly alter their trajectories.

  So, we have twelve more hours to go with our engines on full reverse before we reach the target. If we change our angle of attack, the fleet will be separated when we get there.

  It was a serious problem, and the more he considered it, he realized they could end up hours apart and right in the middle of a potential deadly enemy. Even more worrying was he still had no idea who the enemy was, or what they would do when they reached their destination. His secpad vibrated, and he pulled it out to look at the screen, the face was a young man in a naval officer’s uniform.

  “Captain Campbell, we’re detecting a shift in the Anicinàbe Rift. The Narau commander is ignoring our hails.”

  It was the commander of ANS Spearfish, the lead ship in the frigate squadron. Though small compared to most of the Alliance fleet, there were still hundreds of men and women on board, and they were capable of taking on anything up to a cruiser when working together.

  “What kind of shift?”

  The commander of the ship looked surprisingly concerned.

  “A serious one. My chief engineer says it could be a prelude to closing down the Rift. You know what that will mean.”

  That caught his attention immediately. If the Rift shut, they would be trapped in Anicinàbe space for who knew how long. There was always the fear the Rift might never be opened again, and that would leave them stuck in another part of the galaxy, perhaps forever. He nodded to the commander.

  “Understood, I will speak with him.”

  Captain Campbell marched over to the Khreenk leader of the fleet, but two of his officers spotted his approach and blocked his path. He tried to move past them, but they sidestepped and then physically halted his progress.

  “I need to speak with the Admiral.”

  The two muttered and growled in such a way that his translator device was completely incapable of doing its job.

  “Captain,” said a quiet voice from his secpad, “we don’t have much time!”

  Captain Campbell could sense the concern in the ship commander’s voice, and he knew too well the risks they faced if they were trapped out there. He reached out to step forward, and as the Khreenk officer grabbed his arm, he took his chance. With a quick movement, he grabbed the alien’s forearm and yanked him forward. Taken by surprise he stumbled, and Campbell chopped him in the middle of the back with his right fist. The Khreenk fell down, and he was past him and in front of the Admiral. More Khreenk rushed to assist, but not before he was able to speak.

  “Admiral, my Alliance frigates are reporting trouble with the Rift.”

  The Admiral looked at him impassively, even as a trio of Khreenk moved around the Alliance officer and held on tightly, preventing him from drawing any closer to the Admiral. It seemed he was ignoring him, but then his eyes drifted to the right so that he could check the computer displays. Finally, he looked back.

  “I will speak with your commanders.”

  He then turned his attention to his officers and barked an order. They released him before Campbell’s translator even uttered a sound. The Admiral engaged in a short discussion with the Alliance officers then turned and shouted at his own crew. It must have been in code of some type because the translator once again did nothing. Eventually, the Admiral looked back at him. He lowered his head slightly in a passive gesture.

  “On behalf of the Khreenk, I apologize.”

  Campbell nodded politely and answered.

  “What now?”

  The Admiral shrugged, using both his chest and his shoulders. It was almost comical, and he might have laughed if it hadn’t been for their particular predicament.

  “Perhaps if I had listened to your officer’s counsel, I might have left scouts at the Rift. Instead...I fear we are soon to be trapped here...”

  He looked at the massive glass display at the front of the ship and took a step closer, as if this would somehow allow him a better view of whatever it was that waited out there for the fleet. A clicking sound came from somewhere in his body, perhaps his throat but sounded more like it was coming from the center of his chest.

  “We are not experienced in war. The Narau fleet is for show, for politics. We cannot turn back, not until we have finished our deceleration...”

  The Admiral turned and looked at Campbell.

  “...and we are on our way to destruction in this place, look.”

  He indicated to a dot in the distance. With a simple gesture, the window image transformed and enlarged as if a massive telescope. Captain Campbell was fascinated by the technology but forced himself from asking the obvious and looked at the sha
pe. It was a ship, but of a form he was unfamiliar with. It was impossible to gauge the size, but the design was like two long cylinders fitted around a wide central box structure. Thick ribs ran down its length between which were scores of openings.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  The Admiral let out a long sigh; it was almost like the hiss of a snake. He reached up and scratched at the metal plates fitted to his cheek and forehead.

  “Yes, I’ve seen this type of ship before. It is a ship of the Enemy. One we have not seen for hundreds of years. Have you been to Helios before?”

  Captain Campbell nodded.

  “Yes, only for a few days. I didn’t get to see much. Why?”

  The alien Admiral considered his reply before finally speaking.

  “There is a famous painting in the capital. It shows one of the great space battles between the Helions and the machines.”

  He pointed at the ship ahead of them.

  “Those ships were the heart of the enemy fleet. There must have been dozens of them in the painting. I think the Helions named them Ravagers. Yes, that’s it. They are large warships that carry troops and fighters and attack moons and small colonies.”

  He sighed, a sound and gesture that was surpassingly human.

  “I never believed it until now, perhaps the prophecy that the Enemy would return is true. When the comet rises, Helios will burn. Soon my friend, soon…we shall face them.”

  Captain Campbell was shocked at the news of the ship. Yes, there had been rumors that there were small numbers of Biomechs still remaining throughout the galaxy, but not like this. From the assessments already coming in from the Alliance escorts, this ship was big. He checked back to the vessel that had tried to break through to Helios when the Alliance had first made contact with the Helions, and it showed up as bigger in every way.

  “How powerful are these things?” he asked, dreading the answer.

  The Admiral looked at him with slightly glazed eyes.

  “If this is a Ravager, then many of my ships’ captains will want to flee. The Helions lost an entire task force to one of these ships in the war. It is a famous story. The Helions were sending a small force to reinforce one of their colony moons. There were two famous battleships, the pride of the Helion fleet and four escorts. The Ravager caught them and destroyed them all with fighter attacks.”

  Now Captain Campbell was starting to understand. The description and design matched his assessment of the powerful warship.

  “So, the Ravager is a hybrid aircraft carrier. Do you have any idea how many craft it can carry?”

  The Admiral shook his head.

  “No, we have never captured one. I would estimate over a hundred though, a mixture of fighters and bombers.”

  Captain Campbell could see the difficulty they were in, both as a fleet and as individual ships. The Narau fleet was substantial in number but lacked carriers and fighter cover. For fighting fleets of warships they should be just fine, against a major carrier they would be vulnerable. But what really concerned the Captain was the suggestion that discipline was poor in the fleet. He suspected this might be because it was only a polyglot force that held a fragile allegiance to its elected Admiral. The mission had been a simple one of a reconnaissance in force in the Anicinàbe sector, due to distress signals emanating from a number of their colonies, not a call to war.

  “What about the Rift?”

  The Admiral nodded at the glass once more. Campbell looked at it and spotted the silhouette of a ship he didn’t recognize. It was the long, sleek shape of a large class of warship. The design was long, smooth, and it bristled with antenna.

  “Anicinàbe cruisers?”

  “Yes, they must have been forced to help the Enemy.”

  Campbell shook his head.

  “Or they have sided with them. I wonder what they were promised.”

  The Khreenk Admiral pressed several buttons on his console and then shouted orders to his officers. Every one of them pulled at strapped and harnesses.

  “What’s going on?”

  The Admiral looked at him and smiled.

  “We are preparing for an emergency direction shift; we need to get to the secondary Rift before they can trap us.”

  “What Rift?”

  “It will take us back to the border of the Klithi. We can regroup with their fleet.”

  The ship began to shake as the engines put in massive amounts of additional thrust. Captain Campbell could feel the change in gravity, and he immediately felt heavier.

  “Strap yourself in, Captain, before it is too late.”

  He was already heading for one of the emergency seating areas, and an officer helped strap him in just as another series of bursts from the engines almost caused him to vomit. His secpad flew from his left hand, but he stopped it with the right hand before it could crash into the bulkhead. The face of the Alliance officer still showed.

  “We’re too late!” said the man on the screen.

  Captain Campbell had no idea what he meant and looked up at the glass windows. They had changed again, and this time showed a view of the fleet as it scattered, each trying to slow down and change course. It was a mess because they were all still traveling at great speed to their destination. Each of the factions had set a different course while a small number continued onward. Two vessels must have hit something because they were engulfed in a blue flash that spread through their hulls like burning hot plasma. That was when Campbell spotted it.

  Mother of God!

  It was a ship; identical to the ship they had been looking at near their destination. This one was right in the heart of the fleet and had somehow matched their overall course and heading.

  This can’t be, he thought, even as he tried to calculate the complex trajectories to be able to do that. He gave up after realizing it was irrelevant right then. All he had to worry about was surviving. Ripples of light ran down the hull of the ship, and each one was matched to a series of explosions and flashes on the ships of the fleet. One Khreenk heavy cruiser took a volley of gunfire that tore the top off its superstructure from the rest of the ship. He counted a dozen ships that were already burning before a single vessel returned fire. Unsurprisingly, it looked like the Alliance frigates were the first to respond. His secpad lit up, and he grabbed it and brought it close to his face.

  “Captain, we have to get out of here. I’m sending you and the fleet coordinates. Persuade the Admiral to follow us.”

  The secpad faded to black, but the face of the commander of the ship and the sparks and flashes behind him stayed firmly in Campbell’s thoughts. The secpad flashed for a second, and then a number of schematics and navmaps appeared. He gave it a cursory look and called out to the Admiral. The commander of the fleet twisted his head to look at the young Alliance officer.

  “The coordinates, they are an acceleration vector. You need to move the fleet.”

  It was obvious to Captain Campbell that the Narau commanding officers had no idea how to act in a battle situation. The Alliance had been involved in battle since its early inception back in the Great War, roughly seventy years earlier. Even when not at war, they faced insurrections and pirate raids throughout the scattered colonies. Thankfully, the Admiral seemed to appreciate this and quickly deferred to the man as he checked the incoming signals.

  “Yes, this is good,” he said without even looking at him.

  He gave a series of coarse commands to his crew. Most were surprised at what he said, but not one of them dared to question his orders. In seconds, the ship shuddered once more, and vibrations spread through every part of the mighty vessel’s hull.

  The engines, he’s changing direction!

  The Admiral threw him a quick glance.

  “If we survive this, I will owe your commander a life debt. Now, hold on, we have a small chance of getting through this.”

  The ship shook violently as dozens of kinetic rounds slammed into its hull. The Khreenk warships were well built and very strong
though. After a minute of nearly continuous bombardment, they were away from the ruins of the fleet and accelerating on a vector that would move them slightly from their original destination. More importantly, by accelerating, they were making use of their already substantial momentum, and each second took them further from harm.

  * * *

  It was a large room, easily capable of holding fifty officers, perhaps more. Models of dozens of ships from the Alliance and the Confederacy’s past adorned the walls, and in the center stood an oval table; on it a model of the station that was still under construction. Everything seemed smart and clean, perhaps too clean. It was a measure of the brand new station that every part of it looked as though it had just arrived from an Alliance factory. At one end of the table was a floating video projection showing multiple feeds of violent events on the world of Helios. There were a large number of explosions before all but one of the feeds turned black.

  “This is the most important section,” said the officer on the right-hand side. His face impossible to make out while the unit ran and the lights were dimmed.

  A crowd of people ran down a shattered street, and small ducted fan bikes and vehicles flashed by overhead. A large tower structure crashed to the ground as the camera team ran for cover before being washed with dust and debris. The aircraft slowed down and opened fire at those running, finally striking an area near the camera crew. The last shot was of the camera on its side, facing down the street toward four dead Zathee, the largest ethnic group of Helions that were now in open revolt.

  Captain Hart, a rough looking officer nodded as though the footage had just answered any question they might have. A dozen people sat around the table, including Rear Admiral Lewis, the commander of the 4th Heavy Strike Group. General Daniels, the commander of the 2ndMarine Corps Regiment plus the captains of the largest ships in the fleet.

  “Our tactical reconnaissance drones have avoided detection so far, but without boots on the ground, our information is sketchy at best,” explained Captain Hart.