Chapter 15

My parents had extended their apartment to fit in Hilli, Truna and Galh, or rather got the AIs to do it for them. How the AIs did this I hadn’t a clue, though suspected that in a lot of levels of a block, there was a great deal of unused space, particularly the higher you went, most people only being allowed two kids anyway. Hence we all settled down in the extended lounge and chatted, even Grandad Tivey who turned up to see me and get a few hugs off me as well.

“How are they doing, Mum?” I finally asked after things had settled somewhat and the girls had a chance to chat to Torun.

“Good days, bad days, particularly Hilli who isn’t great at expressing his feelings,” she replied. “The two girls occasionally get tearful when something reminds them of their old life, but getting better slowly.”

“I’m glad. I did worry about how they’d manage.”

“They’ll be fine. They like it here and they are all enjoying school.”

“Neural learning at Ala Imperial Upper Level Academy?” I asked.

“In their remedial group for now, yes.”

“Ah, catching them up to the rest,” I nodded.

“Yes, won’t be that much longer. Hilli has the most to learn, but not too much.”

“He seems to like Grandad Tivey,” I grinned, glancing over to see them chatting together.

“He does. He opens up to him much more than he does for me or your Dad yet, though he does hero worship your brother a bit too.”

“I expect Dayyev takes it in his stride,” I chuckled. “He kind of got used to it with Amanda and Vicki.”

“He does. He occasionally takes all three along with him when he meets up with the girls and Plenna,” Mum smiled.

“They weren’t overawed?”

“No, they sort of knew who Amanda and Vicki were anyway as the girls came over to say hi on the day we got back.”

“I suspect Amanda just wanted to see Dayyev as well,” I grinned.

“That too. She’s getting a little busier with certain events that need a Royal presence and doesn’t see him as often as she’d like, except at school.”

“Yeah, not quite the same thing.”

“So, Kiria, Ground Force what you thought it was?” Grandad Tivey asked as he came over and Hilli started to chat with Dayyev.

“Tougher training, but it’s pretty much like you described, Gramps,” I replied and gave him another hug.

“I knew you had the ability and didn’t want to sugar coat it,” he nodded. “I’ll be re-joining myself soon.”

“Getting rejuve?” I asked.

“Yep, that’s the bonus, but I missed it anyway.”

“This is a dangerous enemy, Gramps.”

“It’s never been that safe a profession, my girl.”

“You got me there,” I grinned. “GF are doing most of the fighting with this one as Fleet can’t do enough damage to the alien fleets yet. Plus, it gets bad if they land.”

“So I heard,” he replied, glancing at my new brother and sisters.

“You’ll also need to learn to use a polearm or a sword,” I added.

“So your Dad said. He showed me the tri-dee of your squad in action on that ship.”

“Easier on a ship. They usually only come at you from one direction, unless you’re in or crossing a chamber.”

“I expect I’ll manage; though I’m not looking forward to basic and the building up of my muscles and stamina to wear armour again, though the drugs they gave us to toughen up our sinews and ability to run at double speed are still in me.”

“You’ll be fine, Gramps. Just don’t get killed and break all our hearts,” I replied and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“I won’t,” he chuckled as Truna and Galh came over with Torun.

“Will you be coming out shopping with us?” Truna asked me.

“Of course. Looking forward to it,” I replied with a smile.

“Be nice to wear civvies again, even if it’s only for a short while,” Torun enthused.

“Tell me about it! I used to think it was a joke, ‘living in your armour’, but it isn’t.”

“Yeah, but we have four days to have fun!”

“We earned it,” I laughed. “Now, where do you want to go shopping?” I asked the girls.

The Imperial 2^nd Fleet was patrolling the Pelton system in the midst of the potential danger zone of alien invasion when the call came that an alien Fleet had dropped in on the nearby Ranguus system and was slowly moving in on the planet.

“Just one reported fleet?” Admiral Gallac asked the Com Officer.

“Yes, sir. No other reports of invasions.”

“Take us there, Orinz. Scan for any traps. I rather expect they must have a surprise for us.”

“Sir. Course set. Fleet is forming on us,” Flag Captain Orinz replied after giving out orders.

2^nd Fleet swiftly reached the Ranguus system and positioned itself between the planet and the slowly approaching alien fleet and began to scan them, looking for anything new.

“We have a new class of ship detected, sir,” the Scanning Officer reported to Orinz. “It’s big, about halfway between a Dreadnought and a Superdreadnought.”

“Continue to scan,” Orinz ordered. “Thoughts sir?” to Gallac.

“Not sure, but my initial impressions are it’s an Assault Carrier, but that’s only a gut feeling and more to do with what GF did to their landing vessels the last time.”

“We’ll keep our distance though. I’ll get a Heavy Fighter squadron to take a closer look,” Orinz nodded.

“Do so. Also deploy the missile ships forward. Launch one salvo at any landing craft then retreat.”

“Orders sent!”

The 107^th Heavy Fighter Squadron raced forward to attempt to get a closer look at the new enemy vessel, in the expectation of gaining some clue as to what it was. The other Squadrons went for the landing craft, hoping to get in a telling shot before the Assault Carriers launched their boarding pods to try and emulate the tactics that had prevented a landing the last time.

“Damned big!” came a comment from Pilot Wees to Commander Vislow.

“Yeah, but what’s it for?” Vislow asked out loud.

“No clues on the scanners, not even weapons.”

“They don’t show up anyway. The ones they use are semi-organic, they seem to grow and mix them with nanites,” Senior Pilot Jicclo replied.

“Where the hell did you learn that?” Wees asked.

“It’s in the briefing notes. Don’t you ever read them?”

“No, except the bit on where we go and what we do.”

“Calm down, girls,” Vislow chuckled. “I’m just glad someone other than me reads them.”

“Tracking energy signatures on the thing ... lots of them,” Jicclo reported.

“Launch ordnance, then do a flyby to see what else we can pick up,” Vislow ordered.

All the fighters launched their missiles, far more than the original versions of the fighters as the auxiliary hyperbeam mounts had all been replaced with a combination of railgun and missile launchers.

“Craft is launching vessels, lots of vessels!” Jicclo reported.

“Fighter, bomber or boarding craft?” Vislow asked.

“Suspect boarding. There’s a hell of a lot of them, all going towards the Fleet.”

“Swing us around. Let’s try a few pot shots at them,” he ordered.

The squadron changed its heading to intercept the alien vessels moving at speed towards the 2^nd Fleet, rapidly gaining on them until they could clearly see them on the internal visual aiming scanners.

“Fire!”

The rapid firing railguns spewed out a stream of dense conductive particulates directly at the alien vessels as Vislow waited to see what would happen.

“Several are dropping out of formation. Looks like we damaged them,” Wees reported.

“Just make sure they aren’t swinging around to attack us,” he warned.

“Oh hell!”

“Evasive manoeuvres!” he ordered. “Squadron is to keep firing at the aliens if possible!”

The 107^th began the Imperial weave in which the fighters manoeuvred in and around each other, making them a difficult target to hit for either beam or missile weaponry. This at least appeared to confuse the aliens who broke away slightly to try and come in behind the fighters.

“Odd, they aren’t firing anything at us,” Jicclo reported.

“Suiciders?” Wees queried.

“Possibly, though we’re too small a target, surely?” Vislow mused out loud. “Railguns don’t appear to be having that much of an effect, trying a missile.”

The missile rapidly tracked one of the alien vessels and hit it, though did not apparently explode.

“Commander, the alien vessel absorbed it!” Jicclo announced. “Same I think with the railgun rounds.”

“Launching my last one, setting it to explode in proximity!” Vislow announced.

Vislow’s last missile boosted away and tracked onto the same alien vessel, though this time it exploded before penetrating the craft, something that rarely happened in battle as space itself absorbed the bulk of the explosion. Still, this time the alien vessel slewed sideways due to the explosion before tumbling away clearly not under power.

“That worked, informing Fleet,” he announced. “Launch proximity missiles at these vessels, then let’s get out of here to the replenishment vessels.”

“Sir!” came the expected reply as the Heavy Fighters launched their remaining missiles at the aliens before boosting away to easily outdistance their pursuers.

“So, what do we think they are?” Admiral Gallac asked Orinz.

“I suspect they’re some kind of missile, only designed to hit a ship and then eat away at it. Might have boarders on as well.”

“So we daren’t let them get too close?”

“Yes, sir. The 107^th readings are being examined by Tactical now, but it might take a while.”

“Order the missile ships to open fire on them. Keep them away from our capital ships at least. Send in a couple of Frigates to see if hyperbeams might have an effect, though I doubt it.”

“Orders sent, sir,” Orinz replied after a couple of rotations as Gallac studied the tri-dee tank showing the enemy’s movements.

“Have we detected any landing vessels yet?”

“No sir, they appear to be after us, not the planet.”

“Let’s keep out of their way then. Order the Assault Carriers to begin boarding operations on the larger ships.”

“Yes, sir.”

The missile ships opened up on the fast-approaching small alien vessels and caused massive losses for them, but did not get them all. Nor, as expected, did the hyperbeams of the Frigates do any damage either. What did happen though was that one of the alien vessels turned towards the nearer Frigate and rammed it. Rather than the massive explosion expected though, the alien vessel just seemed to spread out and flatten against the Frigate.

“Frigate Dellos is in trouble,” Orinz reported. “The alien is apparently eating its armour and destroying anything it touches.”

“No boarders?”

“None yet.”

“Weird. Order all ships to stay out of their way and get the missile ships to give them another salvo.”

“Yes, sir.”

The Assault Carrier Wittur was approaching one of the larger alien vessels, though remaining out of range of the various beam weapons they were known to carry. Finally it was able to launch the boarding pods and its complement of landing craft. What the Wittur didn’t detect were several small cloaked craft launched from the alien ship that fast approached and latched onto the hull of the Wittur like blisters and began their own boarding operation.