Shadows Bear No Names (The Blackened Prophecy Book 1) (32 page)

“So that’s what it does.” He looked down at the redly glowing Serhmana.

Agent Caius grunted and gasped for air when he pushed himself back up, coming back into the room. His face was covered in blood, his left cheekbone bright red and darkening fast. Ray didn’t know much about the technology; Caius’s medical augmentations would probably heal the fractures, but the killer would need surgical treatment to reshape the nose. Of that, Ray was sure.

“Your nose looks funny.”

“I commend your efforts, Mr. Harris,” Caius said, touching his face and catching his breath. “But they are in vain!”

The assassin jumped with inhuman speed on Ray and landed several punches. Ray dropped the Arinar to cover his face but Agent Caius was simply too strong for him. He felt his left shoulder dislocating with a fierce hit and a spike of pain passed through his body, cutting off his air.

Agent Caius raised Ray’s head and smashed it to the floor. Ray heard birds singing; something happening all too frequently nowadays. And why didn’t anyone answer that telephone? The dark man took Ray’s head into his hands again to finish the job but Private Meadows was there once again. She was on her feet, but shaking, and her left eye was twitching. She raised her rifle and hit Caius with the back of her weapon.

Agent Caius howled in pain and reflexively turned, smacking Meadows hard in the chest. Ray heard the cracking sound of the private’s ribs and watched her thrown away again, her struggle to scream away her pain turning into guttural sounds as she clung to life, choking.

“Now—” the dark man hovered over Ray, slowly rising from the floor “—we end this—”

“Die, you son-of-a-whore!” Private Meadows yelled, spouting blood from her mouth and firing her rifle. She could barely hold the weapon and the recoil made her drop the rifle after a few shots but not before shredding the appalled Agent Caius’ right knee.

The killer screamed in anguish and fell. He tried to pull himself up but his leg barely held together. Ray heard soldiers’ footsteps in the stairway.
Finally.
Agent Caius heard them too. The agent pulled himself up, groaning in agony and fled the room away from the stairs, dragging his right leg.

Ray crawled toward Private Meadows. She was injured pretty badly but would live if taken care of fast. “Someone should give you a medal, young lady,” he whispered.

“You…think so?” Meadows eyes rolled out.

Two guards appeared in the doorway, looking into the room in disbelief. “Meadows!” one of the soldiers said, rushing to his friend.

“You, stay here,” Ray waved at the man, finally managing to stand. “Protect those stones with your life!” He grabbed the young private by his collar, “With your life!” He let go of the shocked soldier and turned to look at Brother Cavil, who lay still. “And get a medic here!”

“I’m sorry, old man,” he murmured, tears rolling down his cheeks, and rushed out of the room. The agent was bleeding badly, leaving trails.

“You were right, Mr. Caius. This ends now,” Ray growled, opening the bloodied hatch to the engineering section.

Chapter FORTY-FIVE

HOME

The
Deviator
came out of hyperspace fifty thousand kilometers from Mars, completing its jump from Pendar’s Star. To the crew’s dismay, they’d appeared right in the middle of a warzone, sudden flashes of beam weapons and flak cannons filling the darkness of space, creating a light show equally mesmerizing and terrifying.

“What the—” Rebecca’s words were cut off by a powerful shockwave that hurled the bridge personnel around the room. Those who were fortunate enough to grab a rail or a station could shake off the blast but a good third of the crew stayed down, wounded. Rebecca saw two ensigns trapped under a beam, probably with fatal concussions.

“Shields up!” she yelled, accepting the help of a young airman to get back on her feet. “Battle stations! Damage report, on the double!”

Red and green dots almost covered the grid on the radar screen. Over three hundred dreadnought signals on the IFF transponder, escorted by hundreds of smaller craft.

“How did the Baeal pass the defense grid?” Rebecca asked. “There was no warning!”

She ignored the blood dripping from her right temple. On the tactical screen, the Consortium fleet was positioned near the planet in close formation like a sphere, like needles on a magnet and the Baeal forces were standing in a straight line.
Not a straight line!

“What the hell are those dreadnoughts doing?” Rebecca pushed herself toward the tactical console, trying to hold on to a nearby chair. “Mr. Jong, patch me to fleet command!” she yanked herself to the station, “And someone take us out of the blast zone!” They had jumped right into the middle of a fire exchange and the ship was taking hits from both Baeal and Consortium ships.

She reached for the main holographic display and Rebecca’s eyes grew wide when she changed the perspective of the map, confirming her fears. “No, no, no!” The enemy was forming a crescent formation in vertical axis and whoever was commanding the Consortium fleet hadn’t noticed the maneuver. Perception of space in two dimensions was a common mistake among the inexperienced commanders and in this case it would mean their doom. The Baeal surrounded the spherical formation of the dreadnoughts in a pincer, like armies in historic battles. Only this time, it was from
up
and
down
rather than from the sides.
That is fleet maneuvers one-oh-one for God’s sake!

“Ma’am, Admiral Santiago’s online,” Lieutenant Jong informed Rebecca.

“Santiago, this is Conway,” Rebecca hissed through her communicator. “What the
hell
are you doing!”

“Excuse me?” asked the man on the other end, startled by Rebecca’s rage.

Rebecca felt the frustration building up, “Marcel, you are letting them surround you, check the vertical axis!” she yelled. “At least look out the goddamn window!”

“I—”

“Check your radar’s Z-axis!” Rebecca cut the signal, focusing on the theatre before her.

The Baeal fleet slowly closed the arms of the snare. Keeping the huge, spider-like ships in the middle—there were at least five—surrounded by weaker ships was a useful, if standard tactic. The titans in the center would be their tanks, taking the bulk of the damage from enemy volleys, but the knot would be tied by the
weaker
ships to which no one paid attention.

The three super-dreadnoughts
Garrett
,
King
and
Seth
countered the enemy capitals—
Destroyers maybe, not capitals as in our understanding,
Rebecca thought bitterly, remembering the planet-killer back at Pendar—with mortar fire while the surrounding ships provided a flak barrage against the buzzing enemy fighters. Rebecca understood where Admiral Santiago was going with this tactic. He was planning to keep the fleet together and act as one big gun battery, focusing on the enemy’s big ships, but it was useless against the Baeal firepower and he would soon lose the super-dreadnoughts, the backbone of his force. Destroyers, which were basically support craft, and dreadnoughts wouldn’t be anywhere near enough to counter such a force. Rebecca only knew too well how destructive the Baeal could be.
Marcel, you traditional fool.

“Admiral!” a female officer called, “the damage assessment team reports minor damage to the secondary turbine. Rest is superficial.”

Rebecca nodded, “Keep me posted, lieu—”

Another blast hit the
Deviator
from starboard, freezing all the screens and consoles on the bridge. The main tactical map flickered as if trying to resist the force of the explosion, then died.

“Report!”

“Ma’am, it was the
King!”
Lieutenant Jong barked over the chaos, “It’s gone.”

“What!”

The
King,
flagship of the second banner under the command of Fleet Admiral Santiago, had gone down. Marcel Santiago hadn’t known about the Baeal and tried to take the enemy head on, relying on standard academy tactics. What he got in return was focused artillery of the five enemy super-capitals, ripping through the thick armor and hitting the reactor core. Rebecca could almost hear her father speaking, “
Naming your ship King doesn’t crown you as the ruler.”

Rebecca cursed out loud when the emergency generator kicked in and the screens came back online. The collateral damage from the explosion had been a serious blow to
Garrett
and
Seth
.
Seth
glowed with fire on various decks and
Garrett
careened to one side with its primary right thruster dead. The huge ship drifted toward the CTC
Bremen
and shredded her into pieces, hitting the dreadnought right in the middle. The kilometer-long warship had no hope of resisting the huge super-dreadnought ramming her in the belly.

Rebecca grimaced, “Mr. Jong, open a fleet-wide channel.”

“Channel open, ma’am.”

She pressed the beeping button. “This is Fleet Admiral Conway of the First Banner. I am assuming command of the fleet.” She looked at Ga’an, who had silently observed the battle through the main screen and the tactical map since coming onto the bridge. “Mr. Ga’an, you were a fleet admiral yourself. I would really welcome your input.”

Ga’an looked at her with his usual expressionless eyes, and then glanced again at the holographic map. “Divide the fleet into four task forces. Open them up vertically like the legs of a square.” He pointed to mark the exact spots on the tactical map. “Then with any capable ship, make a jump here.” He indicated a spot behind the enemy ships.

Rebecca narrowed her eyes at Ga’an’s marks on the map. His plan was sound; the square would counter the crescent maneuver of the
Baeal,
surrounding their two-legged approach from the sides, and she had firsthand experience of enemy ships’ weak spots at their backs when they’d first encountered the Baeal in Samara’s Star. The smaller ships needed gates and relay stations for precision jumps but the super-dreadnoughts had enough power output to carry hyperspace drives of their own. With a talented cartographer, it would be possible to calculate the maneuver.

She nodded, cursing Admiral Santiago under her breath for being a complete idiot. The destruction of a super-dreadnought might very well be the defining moment of the battle.
Perhaps I should send Ga’an to one of those ships as an acting admiral.

“Mr. Jong, patch me to
Garrett
and
Seth
actual,” she ordered, picking up the radio again. “Admiral Yun, Admiral David,” she addressed the commanding officers, “Are you still jump capable?”

Both replied affirmatively. The
Garrett
had stabilizer issues, but with some good plotting and a bit of luck, they would be safe enough to complete the maneuver.

Rebecca told them of the plan and passed the orders for their task forces. “Navigation, I want you to make two consecutive jumps, here and here.” She pointed out two spots on the holographic map. “By the time we complete the second jump, I want this ship to be facing the bottom of that ugly
thing
.”

“Yes, ma’am!” The cartographers saluted from their navigation terminals and began their calculations.

Rebecca continued her orders, circling the holographic map as she always did, observing the map. “Tactical, after the jump, divert all power to forward banks except life support and shields and fire like there is no tomorrow.”

Ga’an walked beside her, ignoring the occasional bumps from enemy fire. So far, the Baeal fleet’s main focus was the center of Santiago’s spherical formation. They were ignoring the
Deviator
and everyone on board was thankful for that.

“I hope your plan works, Mr. Ga’an,” Rebecca said, looking at the tactical map, “Or this will be the fastest-resolving battle in recorded history.”

“It will,” Ga’an answered, turning to match eyes with the admiral, “Because this is not the real enemy.”

“What does that mean?”

“They are here to weaken you and cause as much damage as they can before their time expires. No finesse. Just a hard, crude attack to hurt.

“Well,” Rebecca sighed, “one step at a time.” The Ancient spoke the truth; according to the probes’ readings the alien gate near Saturn was still inactive, and Rebecca couldn’t even imagine the horror that would come out of the huge ring. She drew a long breath and ordered the jump.

***

Although seasoned, the admiral disliked the weird feeling of entering into hyperspace, as if her body was being sucked into a sinkhole, but the jump wasn’t the cause of her stomach cramps. Not this time.

“First jump successful,” one of the officers informed. “Beginning the second countdown.”

A few seconds later, the
Deviator
appeared behind the enemy fleet, directly facing the enemy capital ships’ thrusters.

“Fire!” Rebecca barked the order without hesitation and the huge cannons of the super-dreadnought blasted one after another, creating a mesmerizing and deadly light show. The
Garrett
appeared about fifty kilometers under the
Deviator
a moment later and Admiral Yun’s super-dreadnought started its salvo following the jump.

Rebecca cursed when the green dot of
Seth
’s IFF signal appeared right in the middle of the Baeal capitals. “David, you moron!” The flagship of the fifth banner had miscalculated the jump, landing trapped between two of the enemy capitals’ crossfire.

“Ma’am, shall we hold fire?” Lieutenant Jong asked over his console.

“No, keep firing!” Rebecca said, biting her lips in frustration. “They are on their own now.”

Admiral Yun seemed to have made a similar judgment call onboard the
Garrett
, continuing artillery fire. The tactical map didn’t reflect the true scale of chaos; for someone inexperienced, it would simply be red and green dots hovering around one another, but to the informed, the main display was a scene of horror.

Rebecca turned to watch carnage. The
Seth
was turning to port in an attempt to escape the death trap. Flying lasers, plasma beams and flak explosions near the ship hid the maneuvers. It would be an awesome instructional video for cadets back in flight school; huge ships completing maneuver after maneuver to avoid damage. But it wasn’t a video and each explosion meant people dying.
Hopefully more Baeal than human.

As Rebecca feared, the unavoidable fate caught the super-dreadnought as the
Seth
’s deflector shield failed. Moments later, the huge ship’s nose section broke into two with a massive blast, its brightness filling the main display. It was impossible to see them from this distance, but Rebecca tried to put aside images of crewmembers sucked into space or burning alive inside the devastated corridors.

“Focus your fire on
Seth
’s reactor!” Ga’an roared, pulling her back into the moment.

“What!” Rebecca turned to confront Ga’an. “Are you out of your mind!”

“
Seth
is dead, Admiral Conway.” Ga’an’s voice was flat. “Take down the reactor core and make it count for something.”

Rebecca tried to keep herself from trembling. She opened her mouth to counter the tall man’s argument but her words stopped before they were out. Ga’an had a point. The moment they were done with
Seth
, the spidery enemy ships would turn their interest to the
Deviator
and the crippled
Garrett
. Admitting that two against five with damaged ships was a lost cause, Rebecca nodded at Lieutenant Jong to carry out the orders, no matter how much she hated them.

***

“
Seth
command, this is Echo Five, we lost half the wing!” Captain Carter yelled over the crazy radio chatter. “Requesting fire support!”

“Fighter wing coming in! Break and attack!” the voice of a male pilot echoed instead of the super-dreadnought’s mission command.

The communication frequency was in total disarray. Carter was used to seeing order thrown out the window the moment you pulled the trigger but never on this scale. Half the time, she wasn’t even positive what she was firing at. Hundreds of ships flew around, exchanging lasers, plasmas, projectiles and missiles, and Carter was sure most of the casualties were from friendly fire on both sides.

“Leader One, come in!” she barked again, trying to both follow the missile tailing her on the radar and avoid the random plasma blasts. So far, the fighter’s shields kept her from becoming space dust.

“This is Mammoth leader,” a powerful, baritone male voice responded after her second try. “We will provide fire support.”

“Finally!” Carter rolled her Avenger fighter and deployed what little flares were left. “That’s it, no chaff, no flares. I’m dry!” They had very little knowledge of the alien weaponry and she couldn’t tell if her countermeasures were working against Baeal warheads at all. Still, better safe than sorry.

“We got you, Echo Five.” A gunboat five times the size of her fighter passed right over her, shielding the fighter against the tailing missile. The flak turrets on board the Mammoth made quick work of the rocket, saving Carter’s skin.