The Lost Fleet: Genesis: A Slaver Wars Novel (11 page)

“Then they are
our enemies as well as the Humans,” stated Samarth.

Aktill looked
over at Samarth. “The Humans claim the Simulins are also seeking the Dyson
Sphere. They wish to harness its power to bring many more of their warships to
our galaxy.”

Samarth
shifted his eyes to one of the viewscreens on the front wall, which showed the megastructure.
“These Simulins possess very powerful ships. If they were to gain control of
the Dyson Sphere and learn how to use it to bring more of their fleets to the
Rylus Cluster, our empire could be in danger.”

Aktill didn’t
reply. There was a Human saying he had learned about recently which went something
like “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” If these Simulins did become a major
threat to the empire, it was something to consider.

-

 The next day,
the battle dreadnought
WarHawk
and the dreadnoughts
Corvus
and
Trieste
left the safety of the defensive grid. They had an escort of twenty Alton battleships, four Federation battleships, and forty strikecruisers. Race intended to
do everything in his power to avoid a major fleet battle with the Shari. His plan was to jump far out into the system, reorientate the fleet and then jump to
the other side of the Dyson Sphere where they could take some detailed scans of
what the Shari were doing.

“All ships are
accelerating outward,” Commander Arnett reported. “The fleet has moved into
standard defensive formation D-A3 around the
WarHawk
.”

“We need to
accelerate for ten minutes and then it should be safe to activate our
hyperdrives,” added Colonel Cowel. There had been some stress on them when they’d
jumped away from the Dyson Sphere the last time. The extra distance should
greatly decrease that.

Race looked
over at Captain Davis. “Any response from the Shari?”

“Not yet,” Davis answered as he watched his screens. “By now they’ve detected our movement on their
sensors.”

“If there’s
going to be a response, we should detect it shortly,” commented Colonel Cowel.

“Communications
between the ships of the nearer Shari fleet, which we determined to be their
quick response fleet, has drastically increased,” reported Captain Denise
Travers from Communications. “They’ve definitely detected us.”

“Keep an eye
on them,” ordered Race, settling back in his command chair. “If there’s any indication
of an energy buildup I want to know about it immediately.” An energy buildup
would indicate the Shari ships were preparing to enter hyperspace.

The minutes
passed rapidly by, but the Shari fleet remained stationary. Communications
traffic had increased and there were indications they had raised their energy
shields, but no hyperspace vortexes were being detected.

“Fleet is
ready to enter hyperspace,” reported Commander Arnett. “Hyperdrives are charged
and the first set of coordinates have been entered into the navigation
computers.”

Race nodded.
“Take the fleet into hyperspace, Commander.”

-

Moments later,
a swirling blue-white spatial vortex formed in front of the
WarHawk
. Similar
vortexes formed in front of the other vessels of the fleet as well. The ships quickly
entered the vortexes, which collapsed in upon themselves leaving no sign of
their presence or of the warships that had gone into them.

Far out in the
Dyson Sphere’s star system, the blue-white vortexes formed again and the fleet
made its reappearance. New coordinates were sent to the fleet’s navigation
computers and after a few more minutes, new vortexes formed. Once more the
fleet ships vanished into them.

-

High Lord
Aktill watched without surprise as the Human fleet reappeared on the far side
of the megastructure.

“They’re going
to scan the region of the Dyson Sphere where our scientists have planted the
explosive charges,” Lower Lord Samarth said as he turned toward Aktill. “What
should we do?”

“The ready
fleet is powering up their hyperdrives,” commented Aktill, seeing an
opportunity. “Send word to Lower Lord Dalold he’s to jump his fleet to the
enemies coordinates and destroy them.”

Aktill stood
up and gazed at the ship’s tactical screen. Dalold had four hundred ships in
his fleet, more than enough to annihilate the sixty or so ships the Humans had.
It would no doubt be a costly victory, but it would remind the Humans whose
space they were in and that the only way they would leave would be in death.

-

“This isn’t
good,” commented Captain Brent Davis from his sensor console. “I’m detecting
what appear to be explosive charges in one location on the Dyson Sphere.”

“Crap,”
muttered Colonel Cowel, looking at the admiral with concern in his eyes. “They
mean to attempt to blast their way inside.”

Studying the
tactical screen, Race saw the Shari had over one hundred warships in orbit
above the site where the explosive charges had been detected. “Captain Davis,
can you estimate the yield of the explosive charges the Shari plan on using?”

“One to two
megatons,” he replied with narrowed eyes as he studied the sensor data.
“They’ve set up a series of six charges at the location we’re scanning. I would
guess they’re going to detonate them with a delay of several microseconds
between explosions.”

“Will it
penetrate the sphere?” asked Commander Arnett.

“Unknown,” answered
Race, wondering if the Shari had found a weak area on the hull of the Dyson
Sphere. “It’s something we’ll need to ask Alshan about.”

“They’re
probably shaped charges and the explosive force will be aimed downward,” said
Major Daniels from Tactical.

Captain Davis
looked over at the admiral in alarm. “Detecting the activation of spatial
vortexes at the location of the nearer Shari fleet.”

“Their quick response
fleet?” asked Colonel Cowel, with his eyes narrowing sharply.

“Yes,” Davis answered. “As brief as the jump will be they’ll be here shortly.”

Tapping his
minicomm and adjusting it to ship-to-ship, Admiral Tolsen quickly warned the
rest of the fleet to be prepared for imminent combat.

The fleet tightened
up its defensive formation as it continued to scan the Dyson Sphere for any
other evidence of Shari activity. Race knew this might be his only opportunity
to take such detailed scans. He was certain from now on the Shari would keep
this particular area of the Dyson Sphere under heavier guard.

“Vortexes
detected,” warned Captain Davis.

“Shari warships emerging,” added Colonel Cowel. “How much longer are we going to stay, Admiral?”

“Captain Davis,
how soon before your scans are complete?”

“Five
minutes.”

Race gazed at the
nearby tactical display filling with red threat icons. “Let them fire first and
then hit them with everything we have.”

“Yes, sir,” Commander
Arnett replied. “Tactical, I want a full spread of one-hundred-megaton
antimatter missiles. Target two of their battlecruisers and I want to see them vanish
from the tactical display.”

“Missiles are
targeted,” Major Jonathan Daniels replied. “Power beams and particle beams are
charged for follow up.”

The
WarHawk
suddenly vibrated and several of the viewscreens flashed white.

“We’re under
attack,” reported Colonel Cowel. “Those were twenty-megaton nuclear blasts!”

“Launch
missiles!” ordered Commander Arnett, gripping her command console. “Take those
battlecruisers out!” No one was going to fire on the
WarHawk
and get
away with it.

-

From the
WarHawk
and the other ships of the fleet one-hundred-megaton sublight antimatter
missiles flashed from their tubes to impact almost instantly on the energy
shields of the Shari warships.

Multiple
antimatter missiles slammed into the energy shield of a Shari eleven-hundred-meter
battlecruiser causing the shield to flare up brightly. Then a single missile
penetrated and slammed into the center of the vessel, causing the ship to
vanish in a fiery explosion. When the light faded away, only a few pieces of glowing
wreckage were visible.

Other Shari vessels were being targeted. Violet colored power beams and bright blue particle
beams penetrated the energy shield of a nine-hundred-meter support cruiser,
opening up countless compartments to space. Supplies, hull material, and even a
few Shari crewmembers were hurled away from the ship. A power beam penetrated
into the engine compartment, destroying the vessel’s fusion generator.
Instantly, the ship lost all power and its struggling energy shield faded
completely away. Moments later, the ship exploded as too many vital systems
became compromised.

-

Lower Lord
Dalold groaned as he watched the battlecruiser
Veblen
blow apart as a
Human antimatter missile detonated in the heart of the vessel. The viewscreen
faded to darkness as it was overloaded from the sudden light.

“Report!” he
demanded as he felt his flagship shudder violently. The repair work from the
last battle had only been completed a few days back.

“Energy beam
strike to the bow,” the damage control officer reported. “Repair teams are en
route.”

“All ships,
focus your weapons fire on the vessel in sector twelve, down fifteen at ninety
degrees. Continuous fire until the ship is destroyed.”

Dalold was determined
to destroy the Human ships even if he had to do it one by one.

-

On the Alton battleship,
Nebula’s Fury
, the energy shield suddenly radiated into the ultraviolet.
On board, Commander Waylon gripped his command chair as the ship was severely
hammered. “Status?”

“Shield is at
68 percent and falling,” reported Tactical.

“Heavy energy
beam fire and nuclear ordinance are impacting the screen,” added Vishane, who
was an Alton and executive officer. “I’ve directed all energy reserves to the
screen.”

“All weapons continuous
fire,” ordered Waylon as he glanced over at the damage control board, seeing
several red lights suddenly flare into being.

-

In Secondary Engineering,
Second Engineer Branson was watching as the power meters indicating the energy
output from the fusion reactor continued to climb.

“It’s nearly in
the red,” one of the other engineers warned. “We’ll begin losing power couplings
shortly.”

“We need the
power for the energy screen,” Branson said as his fingers flew over the
engineering console as he made minor adjustments trying to keep the reactor online.

A sudden explosion
suddenly shook the compartment and a bright flash of light momentarily blinded Branson
as several consoles erupted in bright sparks.

“The compartment
next to us is open to space!” screamed a technician, who was standing near the
sealed metal hatch. “This hatch won’t hold long.”

“Put on your
emergency gear!” yelled Branson as he reached for the Alton environmental suit
that was hanging on a nearby wall.

The fifteen crew
personnel in the engineering compartment rushed to comply when another explosion
shook the vessel, causing the hatch to buckle and then blow out. Everyone in
the compartment was sucked out into space. They died instantly.

-

“Secondary Engineering
is down,” called out the damage control officer. “Fusion reactor two is going
offline.”

“Hyperdrive?”
asked Commander Waylon with a sinking feeling, knowing the only way to save his
ship was to flee.

“Nonfunctional,”
Vishane answered evenly.

“Energy shield
is down to 6 percent,” reported Tactical. “It will fail momentarily.”

Commander Waylon
released his safety harness and stood. “It’s been an honor,” he said, gazing
steadfastly at his crew.

A few seconds
later, a Shari twenty-megaton nuclear warhead detonated and the
Nebula’s
Fury
succumbed to the deadly nuclear energy consuming her.

-

“
Nebula’s
Fury
is down,” reported Captain Davis grim-faced. “The Shari are focusing nearly
their entire fleet’s weapons fire on just one of our ships at a time.”

“No ship can survive
that type of attack,” spoke Commander Arnett.

“How long
until the scans are complete?”

“They’re
finished,” answered Davis, glancing over at the admiral.

Race felt the
WarHawk
shudder slightly. However, that wasn’t his biggest concern. On one of the viewscreens,
the Federation battleship
Barbarossa
was now the focus of the Shari attack.

“All ships,
immediate withdrawal,” Race ordered over his minicomm. “
Corvus
and
Trieste
will remain behind with the
WarHawk
to give the
Barbarossa
covering
fire.”

“Ships are
leaving,” confirmed Captain Davis.

“Commander
Arnett, move us closer to the
Barbarossa
.”

Race looked at
the large viewscreen now showing the heavily besieged battleship. Even as he watched,
he saw a Shari energy beam penetrate the ship’s screen and blast out a huge glowing
pit on the bow of the vessel. Race grimaced. He felt like he had a front row
seat to a disaster he couldn’t prevent.

“
Barbarossa
is attempting to activate their hyperdrive,” Colonel Cowel reported. “However,
they have too much of the ship’s energy dedicated to the energy screen trying
to keep it up. They don’t have enough power for the hyperdrive.”

On a secondary
viewscreen, Race saw a Shari support cruiser explode under the punishing fire
of the
Corvus
. Moments later, a Shari battlecruiser died when an
antimatter missile from the
Trieste
penetrated its energy shield.

Suddenly the
Barbarossa
seemed to shake uncontrollably and then it exploded as four Shari twenty-megaton
sublight nuclear missiles detonated against her hull. When the light faded
away, the proud Human battleship was gone.