Shadows of the Gods: Crimson Worlds Refugees II (25 page)

“Do you have any idea what that was?”

Cutter shook his head. “None whatsoever…but it seems like the enemy is gone. Could it have been something from the camp?” He knew even as he said it that wasn’t the case. The Marines didn’t have any secret weapons…and if they’d had any, he would have known about them. Hell, he’d probably have built them.

“No…that was no Marine gear. And it wasn’t like anything we’ve ever run into with First Imperium forces before. It looks like it took them all out, and left us alone.”

Another series of sounds blasted through the com channels. It was like loud feedback, rapidly switching frequencies, the sounds changing constantly. Suddenly, Bruce popped his helmet and yelled over to Cutter. “Doc, it’s my AI…it’s running wild!”

Cutter took a step toward Bruce, straining to listen. His ears were improving, but everything still sounded muffled. The Marine’s AI speakers were spewing out a series of random-sounding noises. It was fast, so fast he could barely make out that they were words. It was speech, standard Alliance English, but it was so quick it sounded mostly like gibberish. Then, it stopped.

“Come,” a voice boomed through the air. “Follow.”

There was a light on the floor, a projection of some kind from above. It was an arrow, and it led back, deeper in the direction the party had been heading when they were attacked.

Cutter just stood there looking off into the distance. His heart was pounding, his neck slick with sweat. He turned and faced Bruce, each looking at the other for a suggestion about what to do.

“Follow,” the voice repeated. “You must hurry.”

Bruce looked up at Cutter, his eyes wide with shock. “What should we do?” He gripped his rifle firmly, staring off cautiously in the direction of the arrow.

Cutter looked back toward the camp. The sounds of fighting there had ceased as well.
Hopefully, Ana is okay
. He wanted to go back, to make sure…and let her know he was alive too. But something told him he had to see this through.

He took a step forward…then another. “I think we better see what is down here. Whatever it is, it just took out at least a hundred battle bots for us.” Cutter felt nauseous, terrified to his very core. But he was exhilarated too. He had no idea what they had just encountered, but he knew in his gut it was something new…a game changer. Whether that was good or bad was another question. But there was only one way to find out.

He looked at Bruce for a few seconds. Then he took a deep breath and turned back, continuing off into the semi-darkness of the corridor.

Bruce stood still for a moment, looking back at McCloud and his survivors, all standing around watching in stunned awe as Hieronymus Cutter walked off into the gloom alone. They exchanged a quick series of glances…and then they followed the scientist.

Chapter Sixteen

From the Personal Log of Terrance Compton

Something is wrong, terribly wrong…I am sure of it. Skepticism has always been my friend, a guardian that has watched my back for me, warned me when danger prowled in the darkness. It has saved my life many times, and helped me save those of friends and comrades. And now it is screaming to me.

The emergence of enemy forces into X56 from the X58 system was upsetting to be sure, but it was not a shock to me. I know many of the crews had dared to hope we had evaded our enemies, but I didn’t believe that, not for an instant. I wouldn’t have allowed myself such hopes, even if there had been reason for optimism. But there wasn’t. The planets we passed have grown larger…we have clearly been moving deeper into the Imperium and not out the other side. Indeed, the very fact that we went so long without contact has been of deep concern to me.

The emergence of First Imperium ships from the X57 gate, erased any doubt. The enemy knew we were here. Had we fallen prey to some detection device or hidden ship in X56? Or did they know where we’d come from as well? Had they followed us? Do they know about the landing parties?

The questions are myriad, and they defy answers. I must decide what to do now that the fleet has pulled back to X54. We cannot stay…that would throw away every advantage the rearguards had sacrificed so much to gain. We will wait as long as we can to give the survivors the chance to transit and rejoin us, but then I must decide. Do I lead the fleet through the X53 warp gate, and into unexplored space? Or do we retreat back the way we came, to X51?

I don’t know what to do, but the choice is mine and mine alone. In many ways it feels like a coin toss, a decision where logic and thought may do little to recommend one course over another. In the end, I must decide, do I take the fleet into the unknown…and risk being cut off from the expedition in X48? Or do I risk leading the enemy back with us, leaving the ground forces undefended and exposed to attack and destruction?

AS Midway

X54 System – Approaching the X53 warp gate

The Fleet: 127 ships, 29411 crew

“We’re thirty light seconds from the gate, Admiral.” Cortez turned and stared over toward Compton. “Admiral West’s forces have completed transit from X56, sir. Along with Captain Kato…and Captain Duke’s survivors. They should link up with us in just over six hours, sir. The admiral reports they had no new enemy contacts in X56 prior to entering the warp gate.”

Compton paused for a few seconds, and he felt a knot in his chest, the pain that had become so familiar and yet which burned with its own unique fire each time. And this time it was for John Duke.

Compton knew, perhaps better than anyone on the fleet, that the pain and struggle never truly ended, that each new fight held its own challenges…and carried its own costs. Captain Duke wasn’t the first loyal officer—or friend—Terrance Compton had lost…nor did the admiral dare to imagine he would be the last. But the pain was as keen as any he remembered. Duke had been utterly loyal, a man he’d been able to count on without question, no matter what the situation or how dire the need. Indeed, there were few officers in the fleet as universally loved and respected as John Duke had been…or whose death would be so widely and deeply mourned. There were worse epitaphs for a man to leave behind, certainly. But Compton was tired of losing friends, however nobly they might have died.

A man could die with honor, he could save his comrades in the process, even win a battle with his sacrifice. But in the end it was the same…he was gone, dead, lost, never again to stand alongside those who had called him friend. Compton had once believed in glorious sacrifice, in the honor of those who died selflessly, heroically. Now that was mostly gone, and he’d come to see dead as just that. Dead.

He took a breath and said, “Very well. Get Captain Schwerin on my line.” He longed to mourn his friend, but there was work to do, duty. As usual.
And John Duke would be the first to understand that…

“Yes sir.” A moment later: “Captain Schwerin, sir.”

“Dolph, is
Tyr
ready?”

“Yes, sir. On your command.”

Compton stared down at the display, his eyes settling on the single tiny icon sitting several light seconds from the main fleet.
Tyr
.

“Very well, Captain. You may proceed…and remember, I want you to do a quick scout and then come back immediately. Just because you’re going alone doesn’t mean I’m sending you on a suicide mission. Far from it.” A pause. “Do you understand?”

“Yes, Admiral.”

Compton couldn’t tell if Schwerin was convinced.
Probably not
. He meant every word he said, but he wasn’t sure he would have believed it either in the CEL captain’s shoes.

“Then I will expect you back in system within ten minutes, Captain. No more.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good luck, Captain.”

“Thank you, sir. Schwerin out.”

Compton’s thoughts drifted back to Duke for a moment.
Jaguar
had been the final ship to die in X56, destroyed by the last Gargoyle just before
Saratoga’s
laser batteries had torn it apart. John Duke had served brilliantly, and his fast attack ships had expended themselves without hesitation to save their comrades. He had been a true hero of the fleet, one Compton had intended to reward with a long overdue pair of admiral’s stars. He’d only held back as long as he had because he was reluctant to promote yet another Alliance spacer over the other nationalities of the fleet.

And now he will never receive the recognition he was due. Did he know? Did he understand? Or did he imagine I was somehow disappointed in him? That he had failed me in some way? That he lacked my whole-hearted trust and gratitude?

I will give him his star posthumously, of course…and we will all stand around and say solemn things. Has there ever been a more useless display? And yet it is all we can do, and so we shall.

John, you were an officer beyond compare…and a man I was proud to call one of my key commanders. One of my friends…

“
Tyr
is accelerating, sir,” Cortez reported, pulling Compton from his introspection. “Estimate transit in twenty-eight minutes.”

“Very well, Commander.” His eyes stared at the icon representing the attack ship. With any luck, Schwerin and his crew would come back with word that X53 was clear. That wouldn’t be definitive…there wasn’t time for a thorough scan, and even if there had been, one ship was a woefully inadequate force to complete it. But Compton wasn’t willing to risk more than a single vessel, not now. He felt as if his fleet was melting around him, like a block of ice on a hot day. Thousands of his people had died in the last year…and dozens of ships. He couldn’t afford to lose any more.

He looked back up at the main display, watching the remnants of West’s and Duke’s task forces make their way back to the fleet. He knew West’s people were buttoned up, their vessels now decelerating at 30g, preparing to link up with the main fleet. He didn’t doubt for a second they would be pursued by the enemy, but for whatever reason, the First Imperium forces had held back, given Erica West a chance to extract the remaining ships from X56…and allowed Compton to hold back a few hours, to give her people a chance to link up with the fleet.

Then all his people would be together again—except, of course, the expedition in X48…and Sophie. And, of course, the dead, those left behind in the frigid wastes of X56 as in so many other places.

*    *    *

“I want those scanners up immediately, Lieutenant.” Captain Schwerin stared down from his chair, looking over his small bridge crew. “We need to know if there’s anything in this system. Now.” He knew riding his officers wasn’t really fair. The disruption a warp jump caused to a ship’s systems was well known, and it was highly random in its effects too. The same ship could make similar jumps, and recover its systems in a few seconds one time, and go through several minutes of extreme disruption the next. And there was exactly nothing even the best crew could do to alter that.

Except stay sharp. A razor sharp team could restore normal operations a bit quicker once the natural effect had passed. It wasn’t much, maybe ten seconds, perhaps fifteen. But when you were blasting into the teeth of an enemy fleet, even an instant could be the difference between life and death.

“Yes, sir.” The officer sounded sharp. “I think it’s coming back up now…”

Schwerin knew he was lucky to have Lieutenant Wagner. If the fleet hadn’t been stranded a year earlier, Schwerin had no doubt Wagner would have his own command by now. He’d even recommended his tactical officer to Admiral Compton for a promotion, one Compton agreed to approve…as soon as he had a command available to assign him. But ships had been dying as quickly as officers and crews, and Schwerin understood the constraints of diplomacy that forced the admiral’s hands.

“I want engineering ready to blast the engines and get us back to the warp gate on my order.” Right now,
Tyr
was still moving deeper into the system. She’d made the transit at about 40kps, practically a crawl in space travel…but she’d have to fire her thrusters to counteract that velocity, and then accelerate back toward the warp gate. And her engines were as inoperable as her scanning suite.

“Yes, Captain.” Then, an instant later: “Sir, scanners are rebooting. We’re starting to get data coming in. Looks like seven planets…fairly normal…” Wagner spun around, his gaze locking on Schwerin’s. “Enemy ships, Captain. Dozens of contacts…no, over a hundred.” He looked back at his instruments and then turned back, his face white as a sheet. “Over two hundred ships detected, sir…including at least ten Colossuses.”

Schwerin hadn’t know what to expect in X53, but this hadn’t been it. His tactical officer was describing a full scale battlefleet, one of enormous scale, more powerful than any they had faced save in X2. One that could destroy the entire fleet with ease. He hesitated, just for a few seconds, as he fought off the wave of numb shock. Then he jumped into activity.

“Engine room, I want 8g thrust…and I want it five minutes ago! Vector directly back toward the warp gate!”

“Working on it, sir,” came the harried response. The scanners had apparently come back online before the engines.

“Work harder,” Schwerin snapped. “We have to report back to Admiral Compton. Now!”

“Captain, the enemy fleet appears to be stationary, in a range from 5.5 to 7 million kilometers from the X54 gate.”

Schwerin felt a small rush of relief amid the wave of hopelessness.
At least we’ll have time to get out of here…but what can we do with that out there after us? And why are they just sitting there?

It didn’t make sense. “Engine room, I need that thrust!”

“Coming, sir. Just a few more seconds…”

Schwerin snapped his head back toward Wagner’s station. “Any signs of enemy acceleration yet?”

“Negative, sir. They’re still just sitting there.”

Schwerin shook his head. He didn’t understand.
Tyr
had been disrupted by the warp transit…she couldn’t do anything but coast forward until her engines came back online. But the First Imperium ships had just been sitting there. They could have begun accelerating the instant they detected
Tyr
coming through. Why weren’t they?