Inherited War 3: Retaliation (37 page)

CHAPTER 19

Cole was ensconced in the command chair of the transport he was piloting. His eyes were glued to the clock counting down. Waiting, always waiting. Waiting, it seemed, was his life, interrupted every so often with intense bouts of action but then back to the waiting. The clock hit zero and his attack fleet warped. Cole felt slightly vulnerable floating in this sector of space with nothing but transports all around. The hundreds of alien ships had left about an hour ago. His had just left but would still beat the aliens to the Nixa system. His ships were just plain faster.

Now he waited for the attack to begin. For data to start streaming over the point-to-point system. The fleet would warp in behind the second sun of the Nixa system and use it as a shield to hide their arrival, though Cole was certain there would be a scout ship or two keeping their eyes on the back side. Cole’s ships would arrive first by more than five minutes, if his and the AI’s calculations were correct.

His ships would from up into their shield wall and begin the movement around the sun. Once the ally ships arrived, they would follow instructions from the human ships and move to assigned positions behind the wall, depending on their strengths and weaknesses.
The Resurrection
was already in system gathering as much data as possible, and since she hadn’t called off the attack yet, Cole had assumed things were the same. His decoys had managed to pull the fleet closer to the second star and away from Nixa herself. The sudden appearance of his fleet should finish the job and pull the remaining ships away, minus a few tasked to hang back. His fleet would move to maximum range and begin pounding the Roche, drawing further attention away from the planet and hopefully away from the two ships that stayed on the far side of the sun. Those two should be deploying the anti-gravity net by this time.

They had to hold for one hour, for the slowest ship to recharge for a warp away to safety. It would only take thirty minutes for the net to deploy around the sun, and his captains had the lists of the slower recharging ships. If those few ships didn’t make it, the rest could warp early. Those were their orders.

Cole would watch the whole thing broadcast in real time over his P2P and would determine the exact time his large flotilla of transports would launch. He was forced to use the Worlder transports since Hal and Split had never returned from their mission, so all the transports could leave and arrive together. A surprise arrival of extra Worlders and their ships had ballooned his ground forces to nearly a million souls. The addition of the other ally races had pushed them over that million mark. A drop in the bucket compared to what the Roche had on the ground, but his plan didn’t call for victory right away. He had to do what the Nixa in the capitol were doing, except on a larger scale.

He needed to land in twelve exact spots on the planet and get the shield generators up and running before the sun went nova. He had to defend those until the danger of heat and radiation had passed. He had to hold them off long enough for his ships to come back and pound the Roche into nothing. The AI’s projections on the stability of the system after its secondary sun went nova was pure conjecture mixed with educated guesses. The explosion could be so massive that it clears out relatively fast, leaving the local space open for his ships to return, or it could even collapse in on itself and create a black hole. Hell, it could ruin the system forever and his ships might not be able to warp back in. The possibilities were limitless it seemed.

Cole also didn’t like the fact that Sky was onboard his ship though he didn’t begrudge her wanting to fight with her people. He still worried about her and had told her so. He made her promise to join the medical teams working underground in the shelters. She had agreed, but Cole got the sense it was more to ease his mind than any real promise to stay away from the fighting.

Suddenly the tactical readout bloomed to life.
The Resurrection
was finally broadcasting on the P2P. The fleet had arrived. They were just coming out from around the sun, and the Roche fleet was shifting to intercept. Cole watched as the red dots of the enemy pulled further away from the planet and closer to the green dots that represented his fleet. Two new countdowns had turned on. One had started at thirty minutes, and the other, an hour. Cole watched the battle intently.

A giant red circle surrounded the enemy ships, their suspected maximum firing range. Cole’s ships were circled in green and theirs were twice the range of the Roche. The Roche broke the imaginary line that represented his ships maximum firing range. It wasn’t imaginary for the Roche for long. A large blob of green exploded from his ships as they massed fired as one.

Along an edge, a large group of swarming drone fighters swept out and raced around the flank of the Roche. They were attempting to do an end around and engage any remaining ships that could threaten his landing. Cole watched as the battle intensified. The Roche didn’t back down from the distances his ships were firing from. They pushed harder to close the gap. Cole made the call.

“All ships warp now.” This was the tricky part. It would take nearly twenty minutes for their warped flight. A lot could happen in twenty minutes. Cole closed his eyes as the ship warped space and time. Warp travel was different on non-human ships, slower and slightly more discombobulating. The sense of time passing went away, but he could almost feel that they were moving slower. Twenty minutes seemed to pass in an instant at the same time as it took an eternity.

Cole’s ship popped back into normal space and his head whirled as he tried to focus. It took only seconds, but to Cole it seemed forever. He looked over the readings still pouring in from
The Resurrection
. The fleet was still engaged, and the Roche had all but abandoned their blockade of the planet. There were fewer red dots on the screen but also fewer green ones. The ships had closed so that everyone was in range and pounding on each other.

The transports had all arrived at their correct locations and were turning to make their descents to the planet. Cole watched as the remaining drones raced around the planet, hitting the Roche left behind. Their way was clear and they were heading down at best possible speed.

They slammed into the atmosphere at full speed and got the ride of their lives. With shielding on max and the throttle opened wide, they streaked down like a meteor. The ship rocked and bucked like a prize bull. He had heard this described in science fiction series as “a fast trip on a bumpy road.” That was an understatement. It reminded Cole of a can of paint in a shaker mixer. He never wanted to do this again. Then it got worse as the sharp descent was countered by the sudden thrust of the braking drives, and the falling feeling was replaced by the getting squashed flat feeling. The transports were not designed for comfort and had the bare minimum when it came to everything except shielding. These things could take a beating and land on a dime, though you would feel every blow in your spine. The nets timer hit zero before they touched down. The sun should be surrounded by the net, now all that was left was to hold out for the ships to charge enough to make the jump out system. Cole saw fifteen minutes disappear from the jump countdown. The two ships that needed an hour to recharge had died. Bad for them, good for the rest. That fifteen minutes could save thousands of lives and hundreds of ships.

The rough ride came to an end as badly as the ride down had been. They slammed into the ground. The ships landing struts flexed and bent with the hard landing, but didn’t buckle or break. The rear hatch exploded outward as the charges in the hinge detonated. It was a safety feature that almost guaranteed an exit, even if the ship landed badly. Since these ships were not headed back out into space, they didn’t need to be resealed any time soon.

Worlders were on their feet and pounding out the exit before the door had even hit the ground. Cole was up and following them. He hit the ground running and stayed low. He had his visual turned up so that he could have a 360
view in his helmet. It had taken him some time to get used to moving and seeing everything in front, both sides, and behind, but it had paid off more than once.

Five ships had landed with him and all were disgorging soldiers. Ten thousand from each, onto the blasted landing field. He had forgotten that the ships had powerful plasma cannons on their underbellies and they had been firing on the area since they had been in range. Anything on the ground had been brutally cooked alive by the intense heat from those cannons and their rounds. Cole got up and moved with the Worlders. They were on the outskirts of the capitol and needed to make the safety of the shield soon. Cole got the report he was waiting for. The shield and its generator were off the ships and ready for transport. Cole scanned his surroundings and found what he was looking for.

Two massive boxes were floating on sleds being driven by Worlders. He looked at his timer. Twenty minutes until the fleet bugged out, thirty until the net did its work, and maybe five minutes more until the shield absolutely had to be up. He gave the order to move out.

As one, they started a fast trot towards the city. The sleds with the cargo stayed in the middle. They hit the rubble of the outer layer of the city and met with the first resistance. The shield had dropped upon their arrival and the Nixa had pinned the Roche attacking force in place with massed fire. The transports had cleared a large area of enemies but it wouldn’t be long before that void was filled. They had to get to the city proper and get the planetary shield up and going.

“We can’t stop,” Cole yelled over the coms “Push through them.” He led by example. He ran to the van and began to assault the pinned down Roche. His battle sense kicked in and time slowed for him. Everywhere his eyes looked, death followed. He made impossible shots, rapid-fire shots, and dodged around incoming fire like it was poorly thrown rocks. The edges of the formation may have bogged down now and then, but the center blasted through the Roche.

Forced from their hiding spots, the Roche were easy targets for the Nixa in the city. Five minutes after setting his boots on the ground, Cole and his unit were in amongst the buildings of the Nixa capitol. He stopped his fifty thousand and turned them to bolster the line of Nixa defenders. He summoned the Nixa commander to his position.

Cole turned the troops over to their local commanders and hunkered down to watch the reports coming in from the twelve other sites his forces had landed. Twelve sites with eighty thousand or so troopers hitting the ground. Cole had taken less men because he was going to be landing in a heavily fortified city, the rest would be on their own. Some might link up with local guerrillas but not very likely. He needed eight of those landings to succeed. All twelve would be perfect, and the shield would be more than enough to protect the planet, eight was the minimum.

If there were less than eight, than the mission would change. They would no longer try to protect the planet. They would turn the remaining shield on and protect themselves. The majority of Nixa were safe in the underground, but still thousands would perish, along with the planet and all the invaders. He received his first report. The capitol was up and ready. He kept his attention divided between the com chatter and the countdown clock. Three more sites reported success and were standing by. Four were fighting for their lives and attempting to get the shield up and ready. Two more reported they were ready but had drawn the attention of local Roche armies.

The countdown reached zero. Cole turned on one more display in his HUD. He could see the fleet still around the sun. The countdown had turned to count up, as the fleet hadn’t left yet. Five minutes passed, the fighting around Cole intensified. Then finally the green dots winked out and his fleet was clear. They had eight sites ready. Cole ordered the shield up and told the remaining units to come online as they could.

A moment later, the planet was bathed in a blue glow as the shield stretched around the planet. Two more shields came online and the glow intensified. Two sites were wiped out by overwhelming forces. One hundred and sixty thousand Worlders died in those attacks, and Cole felt the weight of the battle settle on his shoulders. Cole looked around. Where the hell was that Nixa commander? He got a quick message from Sky. She was in the city center at a triage site and was safe. Cole glanced around, looking for the Nixa envoy. He got something else entirely.

West and his team came running down the street from his right side. He breathed a small sigh of relief at seeing his friend. He had known someone had made it safe or the Nixa would not have reacted they way they had to his arrival, but he couldn’t have been sure it had been West that made it.

“Hey boss, glad you came back for us,” West said as he skidded to a halt and took a knee next to his friend.

“Yeah, wouldn’t miss this for the world. Oh and where the hell is the Nixa commander? I need to speak to him,” Cole asked.

“He bailed,” Drew said.

“What do you mean ‘he bailed’?”

“He wasn’t ready for combat command, I think,” West replied. “So I took over.”

Cole turned and gave West his full attention.

“Say that again,” he said calmly.

“Well here’s the thing. The Nixa wasn’t in command at first until their first commander was killed. The new one wasn’t ready for it, and he died badly in the command center when the shield failed us unexpectedly. I just kind of took over and they listened to me.” West really didn’t want to tell Cole about his friends Thalo and Jeth if he could avoid it, at least for a while. He needed Cole focused on their defense.

“Shit,” Cole muttered. “Why the hell didn’t Thalo take over then? I guessed that he was behind this defense?”

“Damn,” West muttered.

“What was that?” Cole asked.

“Thalo was the first leader,” West replied.

Cole’s heart skipped a beat. Had he just heard West right? Thalo was dead. No, he thought to himself, that couldn’t be right.

“Don’t mess around Eric, where is Thalo?” Cole asked.

“I wouldn’t mess with you on this Cole. Thalo is dead and Jeth is out of the fight,” West said. Cole rocked back on his heels and his breath came in rapid gulps as he came to terms with what he had just learned. Suddenly his helmet was suffocating him and he was getting dizzy. He deactivated it and collapsed to the ground, panting. West turned his helmet off as well and knelt next to his friend.

“Cole, man, I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you this but here it goes. You are in charge now. You know me and you know I hate leading. Pull yourself together and take over, or we are all going to die. If you mourn now, you may as well mourn us all. So get on your feet,” West reached out and grabbed Cole by his forearm, “and lead us.” Cole turned a blank face towards his friend. “Ahh hell,” West said and balled up his fist. He connected with Cole’s chin and sent him sprawling backwards into the side of the building. Time seemed to stop around the small group of humans as they watched to see what Cole would do in response.

Cole levered himself off the ground and walked back towards West. He was rubbing his jaw. Cole spat blood and a tooth as he walked onto the ground.

“You hit like a girl,” Cole said.

“Yeah right. If you weren’t all supped up with nanites and shit you would be out cold,” West replied.

It was at that moment the sun went nova. It was the most spectacular thing ever seen in the sky. A massive explosion that no Hollywood special effects crew could have ever duplicated with a computer. Everybody fighting on the side of the planet facing the sun when it went, stopped and looked towards the heavens. Every Roche ship in the sky was pulverized by the shock wave that leapt out from the star. The shield actually buckled in a bit when it took the full brunt of the impact, but by that time ten of the twelve shields was up and pouring juice into the life protecting shield around the planet. Then the wave of expanding molten star swept through the system. Everything that was in local space was disintegrated in an instant.

The wave of heat streaked out and slammed into the shield. It burned so bright that the Roche could not look at it, and the defenders helmets had to use max filter to tone it down so they were not blinded. The heat wave washed over the planet and the shield held. Radiation, heat, and anything the dying sun threw at the planet was kept at bay by the shield. It did however, warm significantly all over the planet. Most of the heat was deflected but some bled off into the upper atmosphere. It was inevitable and had been deemed a marginal risk. Then the city shield snapped back into place and the defenders were once again safe.