Sacrifice:The Shenkar War (32 page)

             
“
GET ME THAT BATTECRUISER! ALL BATTLECRUISERS FORWARD! HAVE OVERLORD TRIKRECA LEAD THEM PERSONALLY!” he screamed.

Necro Squadron

             
Evan gave a yell of triumph as he watched the Shenkar warships explode, one after another. Clicking his comm unit, he spoke.
“
Ghost, this is Zombie. You reading me?”

             
“
We are supposed to be under radio silence, Zombie--what is it?” asked Liam.

             
“
Sorry. It’s just that we have been sitting here in silence for so long, and I am getting edgy. Do you think this is going to work?”

             
“
I sure hope so, because we need to find a way to slow them down if Earth is going to stand a chance. By my estimates, we still have another two months before the Earth will be ready. Those estimates, however, were under the assumption we wouldn’t be able to destroy any of their battlecruisers, and here we have destroyed two so far, along with a Dreadnought, not to mention the cruisers we have also destroyed. If we can pull this off, the Shenkar will be down five battlecruisers.”

             
“
Hey, Liam, can I ask you a personal question?” Evan asked quietly.

             
“
Sure.”

             
“
Do you think you will still be able to go through with it?”

             
“
Go through what?” asked Liam

             
“
Well, you know, in the beginning when we all signed up for this, we were all in a different frame of mind. We all had lost people we cared about and had pretty much given up on life. Consequently, we all volunteered for this suicide mission . . . only some things have changed for me now.” The last part he said in a quiet voice.

             
“
When you say some things have changed, you mean Crystal, right?” asked Liam.

             
“
Yeah . . . I just didn’t expect to find someone like her. I think I love her, and I believe she feels the same. Now with her in my life, I question whether I would still be able to just sacrifice my life. Whatshould I do?”

             
“
Well, as your commanding officer, I have to remind you that you gave an oath to do your duty. But as your friend, I have to say, I know your pain. Granted, my situation is different--”

             
“
You mean your love for Leah, don’t you?” Evan interrupted.

             
Evan’s question was met by a short silence for a few moments before Liam spoke.
“
Yeah, I tried to deny it to myself, but I finally had to admit my love for her. Let me ask you something now. When you and Crystal hooked up, did you feel as if you were betraying your wife?”

             
Now it was Evan’s turn to be silent for several moments, but finally he sighed and spoke.
“
At first I did, as did Crystal, but we realized that the people we lost would have wanted us to be happy. It has been a year since I lost her, and that is enough time to mourn, in my opinion. I will always love her and she will always have a special place in my heart. But as Crystal and I discovered, you can find love again and life can go on--which brings us to my situation now.”

             
“
Evan, I think that in the end, you will do your duty. You have always had a tremendous sense of honor, and you never break your word. Also, you need to remember that we are not just fighting for ourselves but for the entire human race. I guess we can just wait and see what life brings us. Hell, so far we should have died several times over with what we have gone through. The Meshtrell sure dropped the ball on accurate intel on this mission. All we can do is . . . hold that thought, it looks like we are almost up.”

             
An indicator light lit up on Liam’s flight board that signaled for the squadrons to be ready. Studying the situation, he saw that the
Sacrifice
had turned and was making its way out of system, seemingly retreating from battle, with the Shenkar warships closing at full speed. The Shenkar warships consisted of three battlecruisers and eight various types of cruisers. At the rate they were closing, they would be within firing range in five minutes, just as they passed below the asteroid field. Liam knew they would never get that close, but the Shenkar didn’t. Switching to an open frequency, he spoke.

             
“
This is Necro leader to all Omega shuttles. Go to full power; it is time to go.”

             
A couple dozen affirmatives signaled back their readiness, and Liam’s scanner showed the shuttles going to full power.

             
“
Okay, let’s move out. Arm all torpedoes.”

             
At those words, Liam armed his own torpedo and then eased his throttle forward. Slowly, his fighter moved down toward the Shenkar warships. With a sudden jerk, his fighter stopped. Looking over his shoulder, he saw that his tow cable had gone taut. Slowly, he increased his throttle until his engines thrummed under the strain. Then as all the fighters and shuttles around him reached full power, his fighter started to move slowly forward. Every centimeter forward increased the speed. An asteroid slowly moved behind them, long cables reaching out to the fighters and shuttles in front of it. Momentum built faster now, and soon they were moving at a deadly speed. Within moments, they broke the edge of the asteroid field, hauling their large payload behind them.

Shenkar Command Base,
above N-3

              Krailsha watched the pursuit with anger seething through him. These humans had already cost him more than any previous battle in his career. Overlord Trikreca was under orders to disable the battlecruiser if possible. Krailsha wanted to capture some of these humans so he could take pleasure in tearing appendages from their bodies. The Shenkar warships were now passing below the asteroid field, closing within firing range.

             
As they passed below, small blips emerged from the asteroid field. Energy lanced out from the Shenkar warships toward the small blips. Indicators showed them to be the light fighters of the enemy and shuttles. Why would they have shuttles? Surely they didn’t believe they could board and kill the crews? But Krailsha’s answer to these questions came soon enough. Several massive objects followed the small ships out of the field. The enemy ships were towing asteroids--directly at the Shenkar warships. Whirling, he knocked the comm officer aside and grabbed the comm unit.

             
“
Overlord Trikreca, halt pursuit. Ignore those ships and get your ships out of there! They plan to ram those asteroids into your ships!”

Krailsha turned toward the holographic table to see Overlord Trikreca’s warships all breaking in evasive maneuvers in attempts to flee from the oncoming asteroids. However, it was already too late for some
. The closest asteroid slammed into the side of a turning battlecruiser, cracking the ship in half. The resulting explosion cracked the asteroid in half, hurling the two pieces in different directions. The first half collided with the bridge of the nearest cruiser, forcing the cruiser to enter a wild spin-off into the depths of space. The second half slammed into the engines of the second battlecruiser. That battlecruiser immediately died in space, floating before one of the reactors overloaded and it exploded.

             
The resulting explosion engulfed a fleeing cruiser, burning the cruiser’s shields away. With no shields, several nearby enemy fighters launched torpedoes into its side, and the resulting explosions cracked the ship into flaming pieces. A second asteroid hurled into the mix as Overlord Trikreca attempted to salvage his remaining warships. The Overlord’s battlecruiser turned expertly, narrowly avoiding the asteroid as a third asteroid emerged from the field and slammed head-on into the bow of Trikreca’s battlecruiser. The asteroid ripped through shields and metal, tearing off the first third of the warship before it exploded.

Necro Squadron

             
Evan targeted a nearby cruiser as it attempted to turn and retreat. A lock signaled, and he depressed the button his thumb had been hovering above. A torpedo streaked away and slammed into the aft section of the cruiser, collapsing the cruiser’s shields. A second torpedo followed and exploded against the hull of the cruiser. Great chunks of metal tore free of the side of the warship as a third torpedo flew into the opening and exploded within. Fire burned through the decks, leaving a burned-out dead husk of a ship.

             
“
Yeah! Die, bastard, die!” yelled Evan to himself.

             
Turning his fighter, he engaged his afterburners and streaked free of the field of death. Once free, he surveyed the battle. Then after a moment, he keyed his comm unit and spoke.
“
Ghost, this is Zombie. We have a Shizrec-class cruiser making a break for it near you.”

             
“
I see it, and we are on it” came back Liam’s voice.

             
Evan watched as Liam, Tim, April, and Michael launched one torpedo after another into the fleeing cruiser. The shields failed after the second torpedo, and the aft section of the cruiser exploded when the two remaining torpedoes struck home. Another cruiser down--and who knew how many left. Liam’s voice spoke through his comm unit.

             
“
Necro Squadron, form up. We are done here. All enemy warships are burning dead in space or have fled the battle.”

             
“
Sir, we can still catch those three remaining cruisers that are running,” came the voice of Dimitri.

             
“
That’s a negative, Demonknight. We need to get out while we can. They still have a ton of ships out there, and we need time to get away while we have the chance. Make no mistake about this . . . we hurt them bad today.”

             
Necro Squadron formed up and broke for open space, giving the illusion they were returning to the
Sacrifice
. Once beyond the asteroid field, they used the field interference to swing around and reenter the field, making their way to the secret base.

Shenkar Command Base,
above N-3

              Screaming in fury, Krailsha gripped the side of the holographic table and heaved. The holo-image died as the table ripped free of the deck and was flipped over. Grabbing a nearby Shenkar warrior, he crushed his throat, then threw the body against a nearby bulkhead. Shenkar bridge crew fled before the Supreme Overlord’s fantastic fury. When he finally calmed his rage, he surveyed his surroundings. Five Shenkar bridge crew lay in crumpled heaps, dead. The holographic table lay turned upside down, sparks spitting from where it once sat. Finally, Krailsha spotted an officer ducking down behind a console and he spoke in a low voice.
“
Get me a status report now.”

             
The Shenkar officer stood and quickly walked to a nearby console. With furtive glances over his shoulder, the officer brought up the section of space where the battle had unfolded. After a quick assessment of the situation, the officer turned and spoke.
“
It appears that Overlord Trikreca is dead, along with the entire crew of the
Dryan
. We also lost the Battlecruiser
Shytec,
along with five of the cruisers. The Battlecruiser
Dricon
seems to be intact yet is floating dead in space, engines completely destroyed. The remaining three cruisers are returning now--all suffered some damage, but nothing too extensive. The enemy battlecruiser isn’t showing anywhere on the scanners--probably recovered her fighters and folded away.”

Krailsha stared out the nearest port in silence, making great efforts to hold his temper. These humans truly were a race worthy of combat. In his career, he had never met a race like this. The races he had subjugated or destroyed collectively hadn’t done the damage these humans had dealt out. After he finished this current campaign, he would make every effort to find the home world of these humans and he would show them what it
was like to feel pain. He would seek out every human colony, destroy them, and then set their home world on fire. The planet would be purged of life, with every tree or bush burned, every lake or ocean vaporized. The world would be burned to cinders, with all life destroyed.

             
“
We need to deal a deadly blow to these humans, something to demoralize them,” muttered Krailsha to himself.