Chapter 52

‘The prey move to block us,’ the intelligence in charge of detection announced.

‘It matters not. Even if they exterminate all but one of our ships, that one will make planetfall and we shall slaughter as many as we can until they pull us down!’ the senior Master intoned.

‘Indeed! Let us take as many of the prey as we can as servitors in the next life!’ other Master added.

‘As a never-ending source of the elixir of life, you mean. Our Reelc will continue to serve,’ the senior Master corrected.

‘As you said.’

‘Our race is doomed; we cannot produce more nor would we want to. Little else remains but revenge upon this prey who cast us down!’

‘Then let us make such an end that will be spoken of in hushed tones for a thousand generations of prey to come,’ a Master hissed mentally.

‘Indeed. Let us feast upon them until our strength gives out,’ the senior agreed.

“They are not varying in their course or even appear to be taking note of us, though they do seem to have detected us,” the Detection Officer informed Vego.

“I do believe they think we cannot stop them,” Limun frowned.

“Their formation is compact as well. Looks like they may be protecting an inner core of ships,” Vego noted.

“We’ll press our attack from the sides. A frontal attack would be suicide against their antimatter beam,” Limun ordered.

“Yes, sir.”

“Send in the Heavy Fighters. Let them know they are in a fight. Also see if they’ve sealed that hatch Ground Force used.”

“We won’t have time to deploy our own antimatter, sir.”

“Not immediately, no. But if we can stop them, it might be a factor,” Limun answered thoughtfully.

“Ah, yes, sir. Good point.”

“Let us hope that we can. From the reports I have, those things have a crew in the tens of thousands and if they get down to the planet, we’ll have a hell of a fight on our hands, extra Ground Force regiments or not,” Limun added with a frown.

A slightly tousled looking Amantil chaired the Security Group meeting, all of whom looked tired with the exception of Admiral Arconti of Fleet Command, who appeared as fresh as a daisy.

“So, they are coming directly here, ignoring our outer works?” Amantil asked Grand Admiral Vuspic of FleetInt.

“Yes, Serenissima. Civilian vessels are scattering out of their path, but they are ignoring them,” Vuspic replied in his normal, urbane tones.

“Their current speed and trajectory indicates they will reach an orbital spot above the continent of Vreekoos, though over our western seaboard,” Arconti added. “This is of course assuming some at least will break through.”

“Implications for our planet if one of those ships rams?” Amantil asked.

“Whilst not as devastating as a meteorite of similar mass, they do contain antimatter and could potentially devastate Vreekoos continent,” Marshall Tuvic of Ground Force replied. “I suspect, and this is only a hunch, that they will land their forces and attempt to wreak havoc upon us.”

“Care to give your reasoning, Marshall?” Amantil asked.

“Previous encounters in the last battles, Serenissima. The aliens always chose to fight to the last, never to ram and only once did they launch their ships in a suicide attack, but only after the leadership evacuated.”

“A good point, Marshall. Thank you.”

“How are your troop dispositions, Marshall?” Justicia Bonsarr asked.

“The extra regiments here for the parade are a big help, though we may be pressed to the limit.”

“The Guardians are mobilised and ready to support. Evacuations of key personnel along with mothers and young children to Lassos are ongoing,” Senior Imperial Troubleshooter Vilgra added. “I would suggest an Imperial message to the people giving them the details and access to the tactical tank on a ship.”

“In short be as honest as you can, Serenissima,” Cure David added. “It’s not as if the aliens have ever studied our tactics during a battle.”

“Admiral Arconti?” Amantil asked.

“This we can do. Cure David is correct in his assertion that the aliens apparently do not monitor our transmissions for data on our intentions ... or if they do, they certainly don’t act on it, merely react.”

“Very well, I shall address the Empire after this meeting,” Amantil nodded.

“Put the Citizen Militia on alert and issue them with the stored weapons. They can assist the Guardians,” Senior Investigator Kirim advised.

“We could lose a lot of them,” Herrick noted.

“We could, but better we give them some chance than none at all. Plus, some of the gang members are not bad individual fighters,” Kirim replied.

“I’m not sure about passing on so many weapons into the lower levels...” Justiciar Bonsarr frowned.

“They have a good few anyway and it will show the Empire trusts them,” David shrugged.

“Yes, morale,” Orliantomina Honack nodded. “Plus, a lot of the weapons will end up in the median and upper levels too.”

“The AIs can advise them on making strongpoints, as well as keeping them from exposing themselves to an alien attack,” Tuvic noted. “I’m also requesting the personal protection teams, except for a single individual, assigned to the Royal family be moved back to the mainland.”

“You can have my palace guard too,” Amantil offered. “I can rely on my own bodyguards for now.”

“Thank you, Serenissima. I’d also advise you to remove yourself to Lassos and wait out the results of any landing.”

“No, I will remain in Vreekoos and stand with my people,” Amantil replied in chilly tones.

“Serenissima!” several objections came from around the table.

“Amanda and Victoria will remain at the palace on Lassos, together with you and your family, Bonsarr. I will protect the succession, but I will also stand with my people. Any here who wish to place themselves or their family under my protection on Lassos are welcome to do so.”

“Manny, please,” Herrick begged.

“My mind is made up! Here I stand with my people,” Amantil replied with tones that would brook no argument. “I will not abandon them and let them face something I myself will not face.”

“Manny,” Herrick acknowledged, standing and giving her a full bow.

“I will arrange for Dayyev, Hilli, Truna and Galh to be sent to Lassos,” David acknowledged Amantil’s offer. “I will stand beside you to cure the injured.”

“I will also stand at your side, Serenissima,” Royal Healer Cassire stated. “My son, Girol, will go to Lassos with my retainer, Hiqua, and her son, Plenna.”

Various others asked to stand with Amantil, though most were refused as their use in a fight would be marginal. All were promised sanctuary in the Royal Palace on Lassos.

“Heavy fighters going in,” the Detection Officed announced. “Aliens are basically ignoring them.”

“Keep the pressure on. They’ll be in range of the Fleet soon,” Vega acknowledged, speaking to the Bridge staff.

“Missile Carriers launching first strike. Fleet carriers launching bomber waves.”

“Place the second flotilla against the planet, behind the battlestar grid. The rest of us will envelop the alien formation and try to do some damage,” Limun ordered.

“Yes, sir,” from Vega.

“I’m not one for death or glory charges, but those are our people on that planet. We stop the aliens here by holding the line.” Limun sent out in a Fleet-wide broadcast.

“The Empress commands!” Vega roared out.

“And we obey!” came the thundering reply from the crew of every ship.

Home Fleet moved to its assigned positions, firing as soon as it was in range. Explosions erupted on the surfaces of the alien fleet, but other than return fire, the aliens just blithely ignored the Imperial assault and carried on towards the planet. This, however, brought them into the range of the battlestar array. Unlike previous battles, the array had been upgraded to take into account the peculiarities of the alien ships with regards to their ability to shrug off hyperbeam strikes. In this they were backed up by a distant Orbital Station firing missiles and the second flotilla of Home Fleet which had a preponderance of Missile Carriers. Soon enough the concentrated fire to their front began to have an effect as one of the alien ships yawed out of line, clearly on fire internally and wracked with massive internal explosions.

Despite the battle taking place in space as the aliens approached Vreekoos, there was a surreal sense of calm on the ground as people who had been allotted a space on a shuttle to Lassos and the temporary camps there moved to the various shuttle ports as well as the starport. Here and there Guardians were setting up strongpoints as well as placing explosives to bring down some of the higher walkways to force any potential invaders to fight in the lower levels and the warren of passageways and limited spaces down there. Various gangs had also moved out into the open and were barricading their territories with various construction blocks and festooning them with homemade anti-personnel devices, as well as collecting, as supplied by the AIs, polearms, axes and swords along with basic unpowered armour as well as shields. Tri-dee cubes everywhere were directing people to assigned places where safety might be found as long as the lift system kept working.

In the park where we were assembled, my regiment waited with stoic patience as we were as yet unsure where the aliens might land ... assuming they even made it to orbit.

“Nerve wracking,” Torun sighed.

“The not knowing bit?” I asked, checking the battlenet for unit preparedness.

“Yep, I suspect we’re in for the fight of our lives.”

“They might not make it down. We’ve taken one out already,” I replied.

“Still over a hundred of them.”

“They’ll take down others. We have time,” I said in calm tones.

“How can you be so calm?”

“I’m not, I just don’t fret over things outside my control,” I chuckled. “If they get here, then I’ll worry.”