Solbidyum Wars Saga 6: Defeat of the Tottalax (39 page)

“It is precisely as I said,” Roritat said smoothly, “we wish for you to be a part of our empire.”

“We do not wish to be a part of any empire.” Arjuk said, “We are a neutral world and want no affiliation with any outside group. We wish to live peace with all.”

“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Roritat said.  “One way or the other, you will join us, either voluntarily, or we will conquer you and you will become part of our empire by force.”

“And what if we join you, will you then leave us in peace?”  Arjuk asked.

“Certainly, after you have paid us a tribute and agree to pay taxes to us, we will leave you in peace to conduct your businesses as before.”

“A tribute,” Arjuk stammered.  “You want us to pay you a tribute?”

“Yes, one-quarter of all the deposits in your treasury,” Roritat said, “and a 40% tax on all your future revenues.”

“That’s preposterous!”  Arjuk screamed, red faced.  “We can’t do that with our depositors’ money!”

Roritat grinned evilly, “Then we will just have to come and take it all.”

“I think now is the time for us to offer our assistance,” I said.  “Marranalis, open a broadband channel so everyone can hear and see.”

Marranalis nodded and made some adjustments on a console nearby.

“Chief Banker Arjuk Norcar, please excuse my interruption at this time.  I’m Admiral Thibodaux James Renwalt, of the Federation; we just happened to be in the area and noted you were having a small problem with some lowlife space scum.  And we would like to offer our assistance in removing them from your area, with your permission, of course.”

On the split screen, I could see both the images of Roritat and Arjuk and the startled look on both their faces.

“Yes!  Yes!  We need your help immediately!” Arjuk yelled.  I could see Roritat half rise up out of his chair and then settle back down slowly as a sneer appeared upon his lips.

“What do you think you will be able to do against us, Tibby?  You have no idea what you will be going up against.  Bring your puny ships on; now is as good a time as any to show you the new and improved might of the Brotherhood.”

While he was speaking, I motioned for Marranalis to send a message out to our ships to uncloak.

“The same could be said for us as well,” I said, we have a few new toys to play with, also.”  Then I turned to Marranalis, “Give the order for the starships to move in and tell Captain Mareoparen to take us to the inner orbit where Tottalax ship is.  Oh yes, and have Tot brought over from the
NEW ORLEANS
and up here to the War Room.”

As we began moving in toward the planet, the asteroid-ship of the Brotherhood began to turn toward us, and hundreds of fighters began to pour out of tunnels bored in the asteroid.  The fighters took up positions just inside the inner orbiting mine field where they were safe, and then they cloaked, becoming invisible to the naked eye.

“Tell our ships to hold fire until we reach the inner ring, then have them use our gravity detecting scanners to locate the enemy fighters, and on my command to begin taking out as many as they can.  Once we are inside inner orbit of the mine field, launch our fighters.  Tell them to cloak immediately on exiting the ship.  Have them also attack the fighters.  As soon as we are near enough, send out the
KNOCKOUT PUNCH. 
Make sure the crew knows to stay cloaked and have them get as near to the Tottalax ship as possible; by then Tot should be here, and I want to give the Tottalax a chance to surrender.  If they don’t, it will be instant death for them all.”

“Tibby,” Admiral Regeny began nervously, “Just how long range is this microwave weapon?  It's not going to harm us, is it?”

“A’Lappe says the max range is about two kilometers; we’re outside that range. The
KNOCKOUT PUNCH
is going to be right up next to the ship when it discharges its energy.”

“Is the crew in the
KNOCKOUT PUNCH
going to be safe?”

“They should be fine.  A’Lappe shielded the ship inside and out against the microwave burst, and the crew will be wearing special suits for added protection.”

“Admiral, we’re approaching the inner orbit now.  We’re taking fire from the asteroid.  Our shields are deflecting them.  Do you want us to return fire?”

“No, wait a few minutes, see if we can locate any vital spots on the asteroid before we start firing.”

Captain Slater was present within the War Room with us; his knowledge of warfare and techniques invaluable to us in situations like these, so I was not surprised when he spoke up.  “I would suggest you look for the largest hangar area they have, much like you did with the
HAPRIN
when we attacked it.  If you can get a few of your new torpedoes through their shields and into those hangars, it should cause quite a bit of damage.”

“Yes, I concur with your assessment.  It might be sufficient to break that asteroid up,” I said.  “Marranalis, instruct several of our fighters to make some cloaked flybys on the asteroid and send the vids back here.  Maybe we can see a good attack point.”

“Sir, Tot is here, “one of my guard details announced.

“Good.  Tot, we’re about to try to contact the ship from your planet.  I would like if you talked to them and to explain to them that if they withdraw from this battle and stop providing support to the Brotherhood, we will let them live and depart.  Otherwise, we have no choice but to kill them.”  Tot stood staring blankly at me and flashed some strange patterns on his skin, and I realized I didn’t have my translating shirt on.

“By the stars, I forgot my translating shirt.  Do we have one here?”  I asked.

“I’m afraid not, sir,” Marranalis said.

“Someone, get in touch with Truath on the
NEW ORLEANS
and have her get over here quickly with a translating shirt.”

By now, our ships had reached the inner orbit inside the mine field, and our fighters were ready to disembark only we were under heavy fire from the asteroid-ship and couldn’t send them out.

“Marranalis, notify the
KNOCKOUT PUNCH
to stand by to launch on my command,” I said, “It looks like we are going to need to test A’Lappe’s RMFF screen field synchronizer.  Tell the
SOKAIA
to fly over here and block shots from the asteroid while we launch our fighters.  In the meantime, let’s see if we can’t get the
KNOCKOUT PUNCH
over to the Tottalax ship.” 

Moments later, an out of breath Truath showed up, accompanied by a trooper.  I was glad to see she was wearing her translation shirt.

“You need me, Admiral?”  She asked.

“Yes, could you please ask Tot if he would try to talk with his people in the Tottalax ship and to tell them that if they withdraw from this battle and stop providing support to the Brotherhood, we will let them live and depart.  If they do not, we’ll have no choice but to kill them.”

Truath was about to speak when a voice came through the translation device, “I understand you.  I can try, but they will not see me.”

After we positioned Tot so he was facing the camera for the vid system, Marranalis opened a channel with the Tottalax ship and Tot began broadcasting our message.  At first, nothing happened, then the vid screen lit up and an image of a Tottalax similar in appearance to Tot appeared.  It was quickly apparent that he was swimming in a compartment filled with water, as were other crew members around him.  A built in translating device in the vid system began to translate as bright patterns flashed across the Tottalax’s skin.

“You dare to (static screeching indicating the translator had no word equivalent to translate) to us?  We do not see you.  You are no longer (another static screeching) to us.  We no longer follow your (another static screeching)”.

Tot flashed something back, but because Truath was standing at his side facing in the same direction, the camera on her translator didn’t pick it up for us to hear.

More screeching came from the speaker as erratic skin patterns flashed and writhed across the commanding Tottalax’s skin.  “We cannot be hurt by the weapons of these air breathers.  Our ship is too strong.  We have nothing to fear.”

Tot flashed back a response, but this time Truath had moved so the translating camera she wore could translate his reply.

“The air breathers have a new weapon, one that can destroy you, and they will use it if you do not stop and leave.”

Again the Tottalax commanding officer flashed colors with the same screech coming from the speakers then, “...we have no further time to waste seeing your messages.  Be gone.”  And with that he severed the communications.

“Marranalis, is the
KNOCKOUT PUNCH
underway?”  I asked.

“Yes sir, it’s approaching the Tottalax ship now.”

“Tot,” I said, “we are sorry.  It is necessary for us to kill your people in that ship.  You do not need to stay and watch this.”

“I understand.  I will watch so one day I can tell my people that I was here to see the results of their folly and failure to see my words,” the translator played his words.

On the vid screen, Roritat’s image appeared, “What is this, Tibby, some new sort of trickery?  Your efforts are futile against the Tottalax.”

“You think so?  Marranalis, tell the
KNOCKOUT PUNCH
to take out the Tottalax ship.”  All throughout Tot’s communication with his ship, the Brotherhood had been firing on us steadily, to no avail.

There was a brief moment when nothing happened at all and then there was a brief flicker of light that ran around the rods that extended from the Tottalax hull, and afterwards nothing at all.

“It looks to me like the ship is still there, Tibby.  I told you it was undefeatable,” Roritat sneered.  “Just like this asteroid is beyond your ability to harm.  However, you’re welcome to stand by and witness what we can do, if you like.”  Roritat’s laughing was cut short when one of his crew members came up beside him and said something in a low voice.  “What?  Are you sure?  Did you try another channel?”  Roritat fumed.

“Yes sir, and there is no response.  The channel is open, but they’re not responding,” the crewman now said low enough for us all to hear.

Roritat looked at the vid screen with a red face, “You may have beaten the Tottalax somehow, but you can’t harm this asteroid.  Losing the Tottalax means nothing; they were only of minor assistance and not really needed.”

“Marranalis, are the special fighters in position?”  I asked.

“Yes sir, and our scout ships have located some nice target spots for them as well,” he replied.

“Then let’s get this show started.  Tell them to fire the first torpedo.”  I ordered.

On the screen Roritat laughed, “One torpedo?  Tibby, you are a bigger fool than I thought.  You realized by now that we have RMFF shielding around this entire asteroid.  You can’t…” he stopped mid-sentence as the first of our torpedoes flew safely through the RMFF shielding of the asteroid and into one of its hangar areas.  On screen we saw Roritat quickly jump from his chair, and men scrambled about a shaking room, then the screen went blank.

I looked around the room to see most of the staff in the room had been watching the event unfold in the 3D hologram.

“Marranalis, tell our fighters to start picking off all the enemy fighters they find.  Furthermore, tell the rest of our ships carrying those special torpedoes to feed them to that asteroid.  We may only have nine of them, but by the stars, we’ll feed them all to that beast and send Roritat to the deepest black hole in the universe.”

“Sir, it looks like the Brotherhood in the asteroid are trying to flee,” one of the officers monitoring the 3D display said.  I looked over the display and could see that the asteroid was indeed beginning to move away from the planet and back into the mine field.  “Sir, our fighters can’t follow into the mine field.  They don’t have RMFF shielding.”

“Tell the
FARWAR
to pursue them and keep firing on the asteroid.  The
FARWAR
still has most of their fighters aboard their ship.  We’ll pick up the rest of our fighters here and follow.

“Marranalis put me in touch with, whatever his name is on Weccies, and get the
KNOCKOUT PUNCH
back aboard.”

A moment later, the face of Arjuk appeared on the screen. He was quite pale and appeared to be sweating heavily and was obviously rather shaken by the events.

“Forgive me this abrupt communication,” I said.  “We need to pursue the enemy; they still have a lot of fighters in your system that you will need to take care of.  I trust your ships can handle them.  These enemy fighters have no shields, so you can fight them easily.”

“Yes.  Yes... we can handle them with our forces.  Thank you, Thank you… you saved us.  We are forever in your debt.  Ah... would it be too much to ask if you might leave one of your starships here for protection?  Just for a little while longer, you understand, until we can restore our defenses?  “We’ll be most happy to compensate the Federation for the expense.”  Off camera and across the room, I saw Regeny smiling and giving me a nod of approval.

“Ah, I think we can leave one starship here for a few days, but we really must be pursuing the Brotherhood.  The universe isn’t safe until we rid it of them.”