Warlord's Invasion (Starfight Book 1) (24 page)

He did not predict that enough of the humans' infantry attack boats could successfully take over that many ships within his fleet. He had relied on the belief that he could kill his own ships even if it became incapacitated by shooting it with another one of his ships nearby.

So, how did the humans succeed? How had the enemy commander managed to keep some of his infantry boats and their prizes alive after all the attempts Hal-Dorat had tried to sink their prizes to prevent that eventuality?

The truth was—Hal-Dorat had underestimated how persistent the enemy admiral would be to retain his prizes. The enemy admiral had attempted numerous strategies to that affect.

So, what should Hal-Dorat do, now?

There were two of his Ga ships remaining that were currently being boarded by the enemy infantry boats. But these two ships were surrounded by the enemy admiral's large warships. It would extremely difficult to destroy these two ships, to prevent the enemy from taking them back to their worlds, where they could be disected and learned from for the duration of the war.

Moreover, the truth was—if Hal-Dorat did not sink them right now—the enemy would be able to do just that.

His fleet battle was losing. Somehow, the enemy admiral had managed to turn the tide of battle against him. Once Hal-Dorat's warship presence waned to a certain level, the enemy would be able to push out with their prizes while being surrounded by their lighter, faster ships. Since the speed of the enemy's infantry boats were fast, they could move with their prizes in tow at that same speed. Currently, they couldn't do that, because Hal-Dorat had enough small and fast vessels to take the prizes down even if it was surrounded by the enemies lighter ships. But if Hal-Dorat lost enough ships...the enemy would be able to run them away at the fastest speed, and not even his 2nd, 3rd, or 4th fleet and
their
small and fast ships would be able to chase them down.

That, Hal-Dorat thought, must not be allowed to happen.

So, he had to make sure those prizes were sunk. Right now.

He was losing. If he were winning, he wouldn't even bother, because if he won the battle, he’d be able to do that eventually anyway.

As Hal-Dorat stared at his hologlobe, and as much as he hated it, the right choice, the only choice, dawned upon him. He had to send everything to make sure the enemy's prizes would never be theirs for long...

Betelgeuse Combined Fleet

Flagship,
Beginner’s Luck

Flag Bridge…

Vier Kleingelt stood up, splashing her body against the holoimages that scattered around her. A myraid of colors and hues painted her admiral's uniform and she stammered. “No—they wouldn't...”

That was their whole fleet, she thought. Every single feline light attack unit – every single feline hunter-killer – Vier surmised as she gazed at the main holomap, was now being sent to take out her last two remaining MABs and their trophies.

When she sat down, she was in a world of headache and thought. Her mind raced. The enemy was sacrificing their fleet and everything they had to make sure she would not be able to take home her trophies. It made sense, and surely she was actually happy in a way that they were no longer even concerned about winning the overall battle, but the fact that now, she had no chance of taking home her trophies, gave her great regret.

So, what must she do?

Sitting in that admiral's chair, surrounded by holograms of various hues and colors...her mind raced and raced.

There was absolutely no way — no way — she could save her MABs and the enemy ships they had incapacitated and boarded. There were just too many feline light attack craft that at least a dozen of them would get through her sphere of protection and be able to h-wave her MABs.

And if she couldn't save them...

Then the only option would be to lessen the damage, and take advantage of the fact that the enemy was no longer even trying to win the battle.

Suddenly, a curious idea came about into her head. It took a little longer, but soon she was able to formulate a plan. Using her combat control interface, she sent out orders to
allow
the incoming enemy ships to enter her defensive perimeter — the same defensive perimeter that protected her MABs. Once they were in, she would order her warships in that same defensive perimeter to shoot at the sides and rears of the enemy ships that hunted her MABs. There would be no way the enemy ships could protect themselves from all those h-beams coming from all those directions. They simply didn't have the h-deflectors to block it.

Yes...she concluded. That was the best plan. Instead of facing the incoming enemy ships head on, and suffering the damage of their H-waves from the front, therefore not being able to cause much damage to the enemy. Because she couldn't shoot her h-beams at their fronts which were well protected by their h-deflectors—she would instead, spread out her inner defensive perimeter ships and let the enemy seep through.

As for the crews of the MABs themselves, she had other plans.

Using her control interface, she pressed buttons that enabled her to communicate with the COs of the MABs.

A marine officer spoke, audio only, “Hello? This is Captain Huang of the Marine Attack Ship
Delta Star
. Who is this? I'm very busy.”

Vier cleared her throat. “This is Rear Admiral Kleingelt from the flagship
Beginner's Luck
. I need to know your status.”

“Uh, sir, yes, sir. My status! Uh...that's sorta complicated, sir.”

Vier was a little irritated. “How far are you in taking control of the ship, captain?”

“Not far at all, sir.”

“How long would you estimate it will take you to take control of the alien vessel's propulsion and defensive systems?”

“Propulsion and defense? Sir, I can't even estimate that we'll be able to take control of any systems within the day. The Cats blew everything up when they realized the battle for this ship was lost. They blew it all up, sir. The central computer is in pieces. We have guys trying to repair the central computer, but I have to tell you, sir, that it is very unlikely we can do that
even if
the central computer was intact. Their command pathways and the wiring of their ship is completely alien to us. We marines are trained to able to decrypt databases that are known, such as human or Orion circuitry. We have no idea how to rewire circuitry that is completely alien. At the moment, my best suggestion is that you keep us safe, so the assault boats can keep its jammer field and its warp bubble around this Cat ship, so we can be towed to safety.”

Vier shook her head, fully knowing that the captain could not see her face through the audio only channel. “I'm afraid that's not possible, Captain Huang. The entire enemy fleet is after you.”

“Really? Sir? Really?”

“Yes. Please take all your wounded and any prisoners and any carry any able artifacts you can find, especially anything that looks like valuable alien technology, and return to your MAB immediately. I have a hunch that those coming after your MAB system aren't concerned with keeping the ships we've captured — their ships — alive.”

“Yes, sir. Will do, sir. Is that all?”

“Good luck, Captain. Kleingelt out.”

When the communication closed, she pressed buttons enabling herself to communicate with the other captain from the other MAB that was still alive.

Betelgeuse Fleet

Alpha-nine Wing, Squadron 8 “Night Shadows”

Fighter 1

Lucinda couldn't believe her eyes. She was still alive. That very fact said a lot about her ability to dodge death, even when she wanted it to come. “Thank you, Carl. Thank you for saving me, you silly-headed kind-hearted buffoon.”

“No prob, boss,” Carl Jensen said, snickering over the net, whose actual distance
in the universe
was less than 10 meters away.

“Are you going to tell stories to your grandkids about how you saved your squadron commander's ass even when she explicitly gave you orders not to do so?”

“Yes, ma'am, I'm gonna, ma'am. And I'm gonna be proud of it. And so should you be glad. Means you'll get to live one more day, so you can kick Cat-butt one more time.”

“Buffoon,” Lucinda replied, not sure whether to congratulate him or to continue berating him.

The reality of it all was, if he hadn’t extended his miniature warp bubble around Lucinda's fighter at just the right time, she would’ve never been able to kick Cat-butt again, and she really liked doing that. In fact, after she had killed off that mega-destroyer or heavy cruiser, or whatever it was, she’d been regretting the fact that she may never be able to do so again. It gave her such a thrill, such a feeling of accomplishment, of being able to exact revenge for her husband’s death. Truth be told, although it had begun as something of a desire to revenge her lover, she could easily see that now it’d blossomed to something else entirely, something that was pleasurable in and of itself.

She relished the ability to kill, hunt, and torture one's enemies, to really see them fall before her. It enabled her to feel a satisfaction that was unequal to any type of happiness she had experienced before. This new euphoria...came from being in a position to do something that was pleasurable, not just pleasure from attaining a goal in itself.

As Lucinda sat reconnoitering in her cockpit, she whispered to herself, “This day, a true, unrelenting sadist is born. You — Cats — have no idea what is about to happen to you by keeping me alive.”

And as she watched the battlemap in her cockpit, gazing at how all the feline starships were now moving to an area of the battlefield that wasn't even near her, she thought…
Keep running away, you cowards. Next time you face me, you'll wish you had done exactly that.

Light Cruiser Hukna Sevank

Unknown Corridoor/Walkway
…

It hurt like hell.

His ribs felt like they were on fire, yet he had accomplished the impossible. He was walking.

If it weren't for the powered armor, he would not have been able to do so. Huang had adjusted the motor sensitivity in his exoskeleton suit, so that it required much less pressure to move itself and as a result, his own body within it.

Now, he was glad he was on the path out of this hellhole that had killed off 70 percent of his men. As part of the rear guard, he was surrounded by two of his platoon mates, while the lieutenant led the rest of the men much further away in the distance.

Rear guard be damned, Huang thought. The two men to his left and right were babysitting him, to make sure he wasn't picked off by any feline survivors.

The status of his operation? Huang groaned. It had failed. After all the crucial systems on the ship were blown completely by chemical explosives, there was no way Huang and his men could take control of the ship's propulsion systems or its defensive emitters. The hyperspace suspender device, or what they thought was the feline variant of the hyperspace suspender, was shot. Worse, the antimatter stores had been blown to pieces as well. If they weren't in a mass-energy-conversion jamming field, those stray antimatter particles would have blown the ship to pieces. Thank god for neutralization and hijacking safeguards.

Then again, Huang mused, trying to take control of the ship would probably have been impossible even if the crucial areas hadn't been blown. His men, skilled technicians that they were, had no idea how to hack the computer systems that were totally alien to them.

So, the only objective they had accomplished was that they had neutralized most of the enemy combatants within the target before the enemy could do something even more damaging — like blow the ship up from bow to stern.

The fact that they had lost 70 percent of the group was nothing compared to achieving that objective. Still, the idea that kept rolling around in Huang's head was how all the enemy ships not been after this vessel...the MAB he flew in on would still have been able to take the enemy trophy to safe harbor, then this very outcome would have made him proud of that accomplishment. Too bad, that outcome was an impossibility now.

He had to get off this alien ship before it was destroyed by its own allies.

Huang’s sensors showed that there was no hostile forces anywhere nearby. His map showed there was scattered fighting as groups of his men tried to escape back to their marine shuttles, but none of that happened near. It seemed safe...

A clang sounded to his right.

Before any of his men could respond, a sharp bellow screamed throughout the tunnel. The warcry followed with an impact that smashed into the man to Huang's right. The armored soldier yelled, but his sound soon disappeared into a bloody gurgle.

“Stay back, Captain!” the man to Huang's left yelled, who had pulled out his monomolecular blade.

Huang was able to see in fantasy-like detail the object that had killed one of his men. The Cat wore no armor, nothing but a pale red uniform with heavy blast marks. Apparently, it must have taken it off at some point. It held in its hand a gigantic and thin blue glowing sword, which Huang instantly knew had to be monomolecular as well. Its warcry was like a lion's as it tangled itself at Huang's remaining guard.