Star Force: Zealot (SF87) (Star Force Origin Series) (8 page)

“If you will allow it, I will send a courier back to my territory to instruct them to send representatives to your homeworld so that we can establish formal diplomatic relations.”

“Our homeworld is more or less off limits, but there is another major system nearby that we use for diplomatic contacts. You may send your representatives there.”

“I will do likewise,” the cyborg said. “If our ultimate destination is far from here, I will also call for reinforcements. Our territory is far away, but if they can arrive in time I want them here.”

“400 lightyears, give or take.”

“That will take the Hamoriti more than a year,” the Dati said.

“Far more,” the Sety corrected. “Unless it can move faster than we estimate?”

“It can’t move much faster than you’ve already seen it go,” Paul confirmed. “And we have reinforcements heading towards us. The more time goes by, the less opportunity the Trinx will have to strike.”

“How many more ships?” the Bpret asked.

“I don’t know. We sent word, how much is sent will be determined by factors that I am not aware of. But a lot are coming, I can guarantee you that.”

“Do the Trinx know this?” the Breti wondered.

“Have you been feeding them information?” Paul lightly accused, looking at the Sety.

“We have been with you the entire time.”

“A simple, honest ‘no’ will suffice.”

“No,” the Sety answered. “We are not feeding them information.”

“They may suspect it regardless,” the cyborg said before the Sety could say something antagonistic. “We are heading in the direction of your border. The only question is, how fast can they get their own reinforcements here?”

“Their systems are not that far away,” the Jonstar commented. “And given the speed we cannot muster, they will surely get to us before we reach the Star Force border.”

“Agreed,” the cyborg said, running mental calculations. “There is no time to send for reinforcements. If they are going to strike hard, it will be soon. And we will need every ship we can muster,” he said, looking at the Sety.

“If they force the issue, we will defend the controller.”

“But?” the Dati pressed.

“We will only defend the controller.”

“Fair enough,” Paul said before anyone else could speak. “But do so from range, and that goes for the rest of you as well. Leave point defense to my own ships.”

“So ours are destroyed first?” the Sety challenged.

Paul’s lip showed a touch of a snarl. “If I want your ships destroyed, I don’t need the Trinx to do it.”

“That is debatable.”

“Your allegiance is in question, and yet you continue to antagonize,” the cyborg said with evident frustration. “Do you not understand the stakes? Make it clear where you stand. If you will not fight against the Trinx then say so and leave this convoy. We cannot have any hesitation, and I do not blame them for not wanting us in close to the controller. It would be much easier for the Trinx to accomplish their goal if a hole in the formation formed via betrayal than if they have to fight their way in.”

“We know the stakes, Chamra. Do not assume we do not.”

“The Trinx know them as well, yet they continue with this madness.”

“I cannot say why they have done what they have. I understand some of their reasoning. Entrusting a Hamoriti to Star Force is a mistake, but their actions do not provide a solution. Even if there is a way for us to use what they know to find a way to control the Hamoriti for ourselves, destroying the ship that such knowledge is on is against our interests. The Trinx should know this, and while I did not fault them for attacking the first time when Star Force was waking up the second Hamoriti, I
do
fault them for trying to destroy the control that is now assumed over this one.”

“We have struggled for so long,” he continued, “that we should not be pushed aside so blithely, but there is no excuse for destroying the only known means to control this menace. The Sety will not attack the control ship, nor will we let the Trinx do so. That is necessity. Star Force remaining in control is not. We will continue to negotiate for shared control and exert what leverage is necessary, but we will not endanger the solution. On that you can trust us without question, and I do not believe anything in our past actions would suggest otherwise.”

“And what of the past actions of the Trinx?” the cyborg pointed out. “Was there anything there to precipitate this betrayal?”

“Their actions are their own, and they were not totally unprovoked. Judge us by our own. We will not allow any Hamoriti to run free, no matter what the cost.”

8

June 8, 3255

Mesnqua System (lizard territory)

Stellar Orbit

Riley’s command ship came out of its jump along with a few dozen other Star Force jumpships at the tail end of the convoy line. The bulk of the combined fleet had traveled to this system first, getting there ahead of the Uriti, but Nefron had to leave last in order to make sure that Nami actually jumped out.

They arrived back into range of sensor signal stability and the Uriti and the fleet popped up on the battlemap, with the ships already transitioning around the star to their next jumppoint. The
Zeus
and its escorts followed while Nefron signaled to the Uriti as to which jumpline to take out. As soon as it got moving from its holding position the battlemap lit up with signals popping out from the upper atmosphere of the star as they skimmed it in a very tight and fast orbit.

The stellar interference let them get far closer than they normally would have been able to without being detected, but they weren’t exactly on their doorstep as of yet. The
Zeus
was within communications range of Paul’s fleet so he opened up a holographic transmission that suffered from just a touch of lag.

“There they are,” he said to Paul’s image as the sensor silhouettes on the ships racing towards them were identified as Trinx. “Run or fight?”

“You…run. Now.”

“Coming to you,” Riley said as he ordered the ship and crew to get them to the others with a simple waypoint that he knew the Admiral would coordinate the navigation to, leaving him free to deal with other matters. “Those leading ships are going to be here before we see their full numbers, I’ll bet you anything.”

“Bluff or bait?” Paul wondered.

“We’re all here together. They’re not going to be able to isolate some of us, not with that closure rate. I think they’re here to slug it out.”

“Or make a pinpoint attack run on you then beat it before we pound them.”

“Fight,” Riley decided. “They want an ass kicking, so let’s deliver it.”

“You read my mind. Too bad you can’t ask the Uriti to help.”

“It’d probably kill us all in the process. I’ll have Nefron tell it to park in a holding orbit. Pick your battlefield and we’ll come to you.”

“Already have,” Paul said, sending him a waypoint. “You’re middle of the formation in turtle mode. Watch for kamikaze runs, and I’ll have four shield ships tasked directly on you. We…heads up.”

Riley was about to ask what for, but Paul send the information mentally and Riley spotted the wrinkle in the star pattern on the sensors. It wasn’t a black silhouette like the Ma’kri made, for it was showing stars, but they weren’t pinpoint perfect…though they were on the opposite side of his taskforce and coming in at them like a pincher only seconds away.

The jumpships with the
Zeus
, accelerating hard as they were, cut their engines and began to coast as the command ship zoomed on ahead. As soon as the break happened the elongated jumpships began throwing out a shower of drones that individually accelerated on ahead when they got clear and angled to intercept the cloaked ships.

They didn’t make it in time, with the leading Trinx ships popping onto the sensors as they fired massive energy beams that defied the color spectrum, looking as if they were bending the starlight behind them as they traveled into a kaleidoscope of distortion. As soon as they were fired the cloaking mechanism disengaged, with the ships popping up in clusters as the beams leapt out towards the command ship and hit its shields, some of which missed entirely as the
Zeus
wobbled back and forth as it ran towards the still distant allied fleet.

The first few strikes did nothing to it, barely draining any power, but there was a residue on the shields that didn’t dissipate and instead built up with each subsequent hit. After 30 or so strikes the
Zeus
’ acceleration diminished and the Trinx ships came up within range where their shots would no longer miss.

Two of them exploded under return fire from the command ship, but the more strikes that hit and coated the shields with residue the slower it got…up until it dropped its shields entirely and got another boost of speed as it shed its shackles.

The hull got coated with a few hits, but then weaker shields reformed and began catching the incoming fire again that gradually built up and slowed it down a second time as the drones from the trailing jumpships finally rejoined Riley and dove into the 293 Trinx ships that had snuck up on them.

A myriad of weaponsfire broke out between them, but the big beams kept firing on the command ship until the dampening effect was so great that the
Zeus
lost all maneuvering ability as its gravity drives were denied their grip on the distant gravity wells. It coasted onward, gaining ground on Paul’s fleet that was still racing towards it, but the much larger Trinx fleet coming up from the star was going to get to them first.

“I got ganked,” he told Paul unnecessarily. “These beams are laden with IDF. I’m dead in the water.”

“Looks like they’re going to have 3 minutes of alone time with you. Stall as much as you can…” Paul said direly as something else happened on the battlemap. Suddenly several ships within the allied fleet were showing activity beyond the chase they’d all instituted immediately upon seeing the Trinx heading for the
Zeus
. It took him a moment to realize what was happening, and even then he didn’t fully understand.

“Looks like the Dati are going to get to you first,” Paul commented as Riley was now engaged in a fierce battle with the ambushing Trinx fleet that was going to end up very one sided if allowed to persist on its own as half his drones caught up and surrounded the command ship while the others hammered the Trinx ships in a melee that was about to cost the enemy every ship they’d sent out to delay them.

Riley split his attention, focusing on the contacts that had somehow shot out ahead of the rest of the fleet. He saw the last few spurt ahead as several of the Dati ships were clustered together along with the rest of the fleet, with the gaggle of ships all accelerating at their best speeds and not staying in formation. It was chaotic, but they all knew that every second counted and it looked like the Chamra were the fastest of the bunch.

Save for the Dati when that clump of ships suddenly broke apart with half flying forward in a surge of speed and the other half moving backways and almost colliding with other ships. Somehow they had a system rigged where they could throw each other, and for the force that sent them forward there was an equal and opposite reaction that sent the others backward. Add in their continual acceleration and the Dati ships, in considerably reduced number, were going to get to Riley before the rest of the Trinx did…but at far too great a speed.

“They’re going to overshoot unless they can spurt in reverse,” Riley commented as he personally sighted a Trinx ship with a Keema battery and saw the beam go in one side of its red hull and out the other.

“I think that’s exactly what they’re going to do,” Paul said, his voice tight. “Use the Trinx debris to buy you some time.”

“We can’t…oh, right. My bad,” Riley said, ordering his drones and jumpship crews to grab and haul whatever bits they could when they were done shooting and nudge it into the shrinking gap between the approaching Trinx fleet and the
Zeus
if only to reduce some of the soon to be incoming weaponsfire.

When the Dati ships got right up to them and ready to overshoot their little clusters broke again, sending half of them on past even faster than before while braking the other half into range where they could slow down enough on their own and drop into a position between the Star Force ships and the Trinx…but they didn’t sit there and wait to be attacked. Instead they turned and suicidally headed towards the approaching Trinx fleet that, while stretched out in a long line, was numbering over 6,000 vessels already with that count increasing as they continued rounding the edge of the star.

Meanwhile Riley finished off the last of the Trinx ambush force as he cycled his shields again, getting rid of most of the IDF inhibitor save for what was on his hull and finding that most of his gravity drives were restored. He used them to reposition slightly, with the Trinx only 24 seconds away now and him wanting to make use of the few pieces of debris that had been flung out ahead of them.

As he watched, the Dati opened fire on the Trinx but didn’t hold to their head on attack. They swerved wide while firing, lacing the passing ships and daring them to break and chase them. The Trinx returned fire but did not alter course.

In response the Dati slowed and reversed momentum, gradually accelerating to speed to match the breaking Trinx wave and pulling even, at which point they turned hard and cut across the Trinx lines, firing small projectiles into the gaps between the ships that detonated into giant energy nets that draped over several ships at once and held firm for a few seconds until they passed through the Trinx shields and disintegrated when they hit the hull. That disruption flowed in a slow chain reaction throughout the net, resulting in its disappearance a few seconds later.

But the Trinx ships that had been hit no longer were protected by energy shields.

The smaller Dati ships swarmed them, pummeling their hulls relentlessly with as much disdain for the others attacking them as the Trinx were showing for all other ships aside from their primary target. By the time that section of Trinx ships hit the main battle that was growing quickly, the Dati had eliminated 6 vessels with another 4 nearly ready to fall. It wasn’t much compared to the vast numbers in play, but it did extend the survivability of the
Zeus
for a few more seconds as the leading Chamra vessels finally caught up and decelerated hard to land their high volume, low surface area technological dirt clods of vessels into the Trinx fleet as they tore through the Star Force drones trying to get to the command ship.

The Trinx vessels were of three designs….basic warships, vassal warships, and heavy warships…though some of them had been reconstructed into troop transports without giving any exterior clues as to their purpose. One of those basic warships flew along with the flow of Trinx ships and dove around a massive Chamra interdictor as a few others stopped to engage it for the simple reason that there was nowhere else to go with so many other Trinx vessels blocking their maneuvering possibilities.

The troop transport continued to fly forward, firing at targets when able but not deterring from its course. Other Trinx warships plowed the road for it without being obvious about their intentions, fighting their way through Star Force drones and into the short gap around the command ship that was a free fire area. There the troop transport hit a wall and all but stopped until its engines increased power to push through the energy field that was all but pinning it in place along with several other ships as the Star Force vessel fired on them.

More Trinx vessels made their way in, stressing the field, and suddenly half of them darted forward, completely passing the command ship and flying out of weapons range behind it. The troop ship was still stuck and motoring closer as a warship dipped in front of it and physically rammed a drone that was coming in to block it.

A few meters more and the troop ship was past the energy field and only a kilometer away from the hull as blast of energy hit it and tore a chunk of the ship apart even after the shields absorbed most of the blast. A few seconds later and the prow of the ship hit the Star Force shields that were getting weaker by the second as more and more Trinx ships got through the defense lines while the bulk of the allied fleet was only just now arriving to try and peel them off.

For whatever reason this troop ship survived while many others were blown to bits at pointblank range, lasting long enough for its forward armor plates to blow off and reveal the shield penetrators beneath them. They pressed into the invisible energy barrier and gradually forced a hole to form, barely two meters wide, then slowly they peeled it apart wide enough for the entire ship to slip through.

It never made it to the hull through. A seldom used rail gun battery tipped over as much as it could and fired a slug into the side of the ship, punching a hole through one of the power generators and cutting the power to a third of the ship. Subsequent slugs did additional damage and took the ship out of commission.

A few tractor beams held onto it, latching it in place to be used as a physical block while the shields reformed around all the little gaps it had created, but two Trinx ships behind it fired on their own wrecked vessel and blew it apart enough that another troop ship was able to dive into the gaping hole, bypassing the command ship’s shields surrounding it, and pushing through the wreckage down to the pristine grey hull beneath with the wreckage actually acting as an additional layer of protection for it.

When the forward section of the troop ship got within range it tore through both the remains of the Trinx vessel and the Star Force plates with cutters designed for such a task. Likewise there were other breach points across the giant donut as Trinx ships made their way through and attached like ticks that were slowly burning access points inside. But just as many that got through were pulled off by the ship’s weaponry or the nearby drones that were sometimes making suicide runs to sheer them off when weaponsfire alone wasn’t sufficient.