Star Clusters: New Arrivals (12 page)

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“All remaining ships, prepare to jump into hyperspace!” Poteran ordered. The space battle wasn’t going any better than the ground one, and the fleet was falling apart at the seams.

“What about our ground forces?” Boller asked as a damaged fighter slammed into the Piluams’ right flank, exploding against its shield bubble.

“There’s no--”

“Kellas, look! The orbital platforms!” Rotgen suddenly said, drawing their attention to Petra. Indeed, something was wrong; the weapons platforms above Melraas were turning their cannons on the city. Once they had locked on to their targets, the turrets fired - raining death and destruction onto the planet’s surface. The orbital strike brought down a large portion of the streets the battle was currently taking place in, obliterating most - if not all - of the troops on both sides.

Multiple loyalist ships started broadcasting their defection as their guns turned on the rest of the fleet. However, even with this new reinforcement, Poteran’s forces were losing. “Transmit rendezvous coordinates to the defectors! Break off on my mark!” Poteran commanded.

“We won’t have another shot at this!” Rotgen protested as the bombardment continued. “Keep pressing the attack - we
have
to get rid of this fleet and take down the weapons platforms!”

“Our fleet simply isn’t strong enough, Jalno - we don’t have a choice.”

“They’re about to destroy the capital!”

“I know!” Poteran yelled back. “At least we’ll be alive to keep fighting if we pull back.”

“Kellas, I’ve respected you for a long time. You’re an excellent tactician. But when you make mistakes,” Rotgen said, “you make them big. The Soscut makes its stand here.”

A substantial portion of the fleet acknowledged and joined the Soscut’s formation; only the Hippasrus and a few smaller pickets kept preparing to retreat. As the battle raged on, the Hippasrus’ powerful weapons kept bombarding the loyalists as the ship turned around. “Helm,” Poteran reluctantly started.

“Sir, we’re picking up more hyperspace windows opening,” the sensor officer interrupted. “It’s the Manev!”

The Petran captain couldn’t believe his ears. “What?!” he asked surprisedly. The Meerte Manev and the four missing ships from its group emerged from hyperspace at the edge of the system, quickly jumping to the edge of the loyalists’ firing range, all weapons tearing into the nearest enemy ship.

“Loyalist forces are withdrawing!”

“We’re being hailed.”

“On screen. Form up on the Soscut.”

“Captain, I trust we’re not
too
late?” the Manev’s captain asked.

“On the contrary, your timing couldn’t have been better. We’re heading to engage the weapons platforms firing on Melraas - fall into formation under the Soscut.”

“Actually, Kellas, seeing as you’re still with us, you can take control of the fleet again. All craft, reform under the Hippasrus.”

The fleet formed up around the Hippasrus, then jumped towards Petra. The satellites bombarding Petra turned around to face the new arrivals; squadrons of fighters weaved past the enemy weapons fire, shooting their small guns into the shield bubbles encircling the turrets. After a short while, the shield around the first satellite failed; the sustained fire from Poteran’s forces tore it apart in a fiery explosion, and they moved on to the next.

Finally, after twenty minutes, the battle was over. Several districts of the city below had been reduced to rubble, most notably the broadcasting towers the entire operation was intended to seize. However, very few loyalists remained to protect the palace. The High Council had made its final move, proving its Xargan-controlled nature in the process. Multiple shuttles from the orbiting fleet landed throughout the city. One headed into the palace courtyard, where Lurvat, Woren and a small group of soldiers waited to welcome them back home.

The ramp emerged from the seamless lower hull of the shuttle, revealing Poteran, Rotgen, Boller, two more captains - one being from the Meerte Manev - and their guards. “Major Lurvat,” Poteran started once everyone had disembarked, “I hear we have you and your men to thank for our survival.”

“I would not thank myself if I were you, Captain,” Lurvat said, revealing a small remote switch and activating it. “Goodbye,” he added smugly; a massive hyperspace window opened, engulfing Petra and the orbiting fleet. Before anyone could react, the rift destabilized, scattering its contents within a two light year area. Nobody survived.

The culmination of the Xargan infiltration of Petra had now obliterated billions and dealt a considerable blow to the Petran Empire. Even if the Xargans were stopped, this strike had the potential to vastly change the political situation in the galaxy; whether the change would be good or not had yet to be seen.

For the moment, though, the ships docked above Hemreus departed, their crews - and their former loyalist boarders - united by a thirst for revenge.

Several hours later, as the Tarhedia departed towards the Vaanle system, it finally received a transmission from the Arcamil. Lossuh had only heard the news himself at that point, and it was his disturbed face that Lanis, Hatos, Zeshaira, Barnes and the others saw on the holoviewer in the ship’s briefing room.

“I have… bad news,” the Arcamil leader said. “Those foul creatures… They destroyed Petra with some sort of hyperspace ‘bomb’. Poteran’s entire fleet was destroyed along with all of its personnel.”

Something in Fanra just snapped - the sheer emotional impact overwhelmed the already sensitive Petran scientist. She simply got out of her chair and ran out of the room in tears. Herrun, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be doing anything.

Hatos and Zeshaira remained silent, remembering the end of Tarhedia while Barnes quietly tried to calculate how many people were killed. Lanis was the first one to break the silence. “How did they manage to build something like that?”

“We don’t know yet. We suspect the Lurvat impersonator blinded us to the plan; it would have taken them some time to assemble the device, let alone power it, suggesting that the major has been compromised for quite a while. It makes me wonder what other surprises the Xargans have in store for us.”

“As tragic as this is,” Hatos observed, “I do not believe it has any negative effect on our immediate plan. Now more than ever, Vaanle will need us - and with their homeworld destroyed, the Petrans may be more receptive to outside assistance.”

“Let’s hope you’re right, or this will have been the last nail in our coffin,” Barnes said.

“Either way, the Xargans’ll need a lot of coffins when I’m done,” Herrun coldly added, his fury just barely visible in his voice.

“And I think Fanra’s going to need a lot of tissues,” Lanis said. “One of us should go check on her once we’re done.”

“Yes, I’ll be brief,” Lossuh answered. “Some of our scouts have found debris near the Petran border corresponding to the Unieais. There’s not enough of it for the whole ship, but it is entirely possible that the rest was taken by the Xargans or destroyed at another location. As of right now, we should act as if the Tarhedians weren’t coming, even if the ship really did get through.”

“Can’t we just send another ship?” Herrun asked.

“Even if we got a second ship through the blockade right now, it’s extremely unlikely that the reinforcements would arrive in time to make a difference. Either we break the Xargan offensive before the Tarhedians could be summoned, or we get broken ourselves.”

“That doesn’t sound promising…” Lanis said.

“No. It doesn’t. Needless to say, your performance here will be vital. Lossuh out.” The holoviewer shut off.

“So, who’s going to see how Fanra’s doing?”

“A very good question,” Hatos answered. “Tarhedians may have experience with such annihilation, but she seems to react quite well to you for some reason.”

“Right. I’ll go, then.” Having said that, he walked out of the room - a few minutes later, he was outside Fanra’s quarters.

The door opened; she was sitting on her bed, crying. “Leave me alone,” she weakly told him. “I just need some time...”

“We might not have that time,” Lanis answered. “Just…” he paused, trying to find something helpful to say, “don’t let it break you, okay? Don’t let them get to you.” After saying that, he turned to leave the room.

Several hours later, the Tarhedia dropped out of hyperspace in the Vaanle system. The battle wasn’t going well - Xargan and Petran forces were fighting each other throughout the system, with the latter hopelessly outnumbered at each location. A portion of the attacking fleet broke off and headed towards the Tarhedia.

“Divert power from non-critical systems to shields and launch all available fighters,” Hatos ordered. “Transporter control, stand by to transport explosives into the approaching formation.” The Xargans continued their approach, the larger creatures lagging behind the swarm of fighters. Meanwhile, the Ivory Eagle and several squadrons of fighters darted out of the hangars, forming up into a formation resembling an arrowhead. “Transport when ready.”

From the Eagle’s cockpit, Lanis saw multiple bombs materialize just in front of the incoming swarm. Before the Xargans could react, the bombs exploded, decimating their fighters with a cloud of shrapnel. “See? I told you it’d work!” Lanis exclaimed. “Now that we’ve evened the odds a bit… All fighters, head for the center. Let’s see how these things hold up against Xargan swarmers…”

“I really don’t think this was part of the plan,” Barnes commented from the ventral laser turret; the Arcamil agent had been conscripted into the Eagle’s crew to maximize its efficiency.

“Well,
somebody
has to man that thing, and you wouldn’t have been any good in one of those fighters,” Lanis answered as both the Xargan and Tarhedian formations degenerated into a chaotic, messy dogfight.

Herrun put a series of laser bursts into a few swarmers from the dorsal turret. “Shut up and fight, will you?!” he yelled, delightedly turning his guns on another swarmer and obliterating it. In the background, a small bomb was beamed into space from the Eagle and killed another three swarmers.

“Fire plasma beams when ready,” Hatos ordered. “Align us for primary weapon activation.” The Tarhedia turned on its vertical axis, slowly facing its bottom towards the incoming Xargans and continuing to move at its steady pace towards them. A few seconds later, the ship’s plasma beam emitters powered up, sending streams of superheated plasma towards the larger Xargan craft. Some of them went through the dogfighting fighters; at that range, however, there was more than enough time for both the Xargans and the Tarhedians to adjust their maneuvering to avoid them.

Finally, the beams impacted the hull of one of the largest Xargans in the approaching group. The creature’s thick outer shell gradually dissolved in the extreme heat, allowing the next volley to go through the newly formed hole and kill it; the last of the beams went straight through and emerged on the other side, dissipating harmlessly and leaving behind a useless, battered hulk. This prompted more Xargans to head to engage the Tarhedia.

“I have to admit,” Lanis commented while dodging more weapons fire, “shooting asteroids doesn’t show you just how deadly those beams are.”

“Indeed it does not, but we cannot fight the entire armada by ourselves,” Hatos said. “Finish off the swarmers on your side; we will use our primary weapon on the second group.”

“I don’t know if we can do that - our shields are down to forty percent already, and I think we’ve lost five fighters.”

“Actually, it’s seven,” Fanra noted from the engine room.

“Great,
seven
fighters.”

“And a whole lot of swarmers,” Herrun gleefullyadded. Lanis wasn’t sure if his enthusiasm was normal or caused by the destruction of Petra, but he didn’t quite like it. More plasma swept past the dogfight, destroying another ship and attracting even more attention.

“Beam another batch of shrapnel bombs into the fight, that should even the odds,” Lanis requested as they lost an eighth fighter to the Xargans. With bright flashes of light, the explosives were transported in and detonated, engulfing shielded Tarhedian craft and weak Xargan swarmers alike in another burst of high-speed projectiles. The Eagle shook slightly as the shrapnel slammed into its shields - the effect on the swarmers was precisely what they expected, though, as very few of them survived intact. The dogfight ended shortly after that, but the majority of the Xargans were now headed towards the Tarhedia, perceiving it as a major threat.

As the nearest Xargan cluster approached, the Tarhedia’s primary weapon charged up, ultimately releasing the same orange beam that Lanis had witnessed at Anlara. The beam instantly vaporized any swarmers unfortunate enough to be in its path, proceeding to annihilate two thirds of the massive Xargan directly targeted by it within a few moments, lightly injuring the creatures next to it. After that, powerful explosives were beamed aboard the remaining Xargan ships, killing them from within. What few swarmers remained quickly turned around to regroup with the rest of the fleet; they were intercepted and killed by the Tarhedian fighters.

In the Tarhedia’s control room, Hatos watched as the rest of the Xargans met near Vaanle Five. There wasn’t much they could do to stop it, but he had an idea. “Hold position, wait until the Xargans are all together. Once they’re in position, transport the most potent explosives you can into the midst of the group; that should cause considerable damage.”