Exodus: Empires at War: Book 11: Day of Infamy (Exodus: Empires at War.) (18 page)

“Did anyone get out?”
asked the wide eyed Chief of Detail.

“It looks like five of
the Marines are levitating down, sir,” answered the Pilot.  The car banked
furiously and shivered as it released some of its own countermeasures, small
drones that would mimic the heat and electronic signature of the car for
several minutes.  One of the drones lured in the missile that had been tracking
the car, blowing up on the closest approach of the weapon and taking it out as
well.

Jennifer stared at the
explosion that was a hundred meters from the window she was looking out of. 
She was thinking that if the Marines could survive a hit like that, she and her
babies all had a good chance of surviving as well.  Not anything approaching
certainty, but enough to give hope.

“We just lost the
Prince’s car,” came the stricken voice of the Pilot over the com.  “It ate a
missile.”

“Anything come out?”
yelled the Chief of Detail, while Jennifer opened her mouth in a silent scream.

“I think we got a camera
shot of some bodies.”

“And the carrier?”

“I didn’t see the
carrier, sir,” chimed in the Copilot.  “And we’ve got another enemy fighter
locking us up.”

Jennifer leaned her
helmeted head against the carrier that contained the only baby she was sure was
still alive, wondering how long he would still be among the living.

*     *     *

“No you don’t, you sons
of bitches,” growled Chief Warrant Visserman as she got a lock on one of the
two Caca fighters boring in on the attack.  She didn’t know what that group of
aircars was carrying, but from the look of that many official vehicles it must
have been something important.  She pulled the trigger on her joystick and
released one of her missiles, watching what looked like a streak of light jump
from her fighter to the rear of the enemy craft ten kilometers ahead.  The
enemy ship went up in a flash as the kinetic force of the missile drove the
warhead deep into the craft before detonation.

Visserman locked onto the
other fighter as it started to veer away.  She checked her six for an instant,
the fear that something might creep up on her rear sending a shiver down her
spine.  She had already seen a score of her own people go down to Cacas coming
in from the rear.  With a pull of her trigger she sent a missile at the other
Caca ship, which released its countermeasure drones just before her own weapon
left its bay.  The missile only had a flight time measured in microseconds, but
was curving in the wrong direction as soon as it was out, striking the decoy.

“Shit,” yelled Visserman
as she pulled her fighter back onto the tail of the enemy, switching over to
beam weapons.  As her nose swept past the enemy fighter she engaged, sweeping
twin particle beams and her nose laser through the enemy fighter, slicing off a
wing and sending the Caca into the ground.  The Caca was able to cut in enough
thrust to make a soft landing, but his ship wouldn’t be flying anywhere else
this day.

“I’ll let the Marines
handle you,” hissed Visserman as she pulled back up and looped her plane over. 
That had been her sixth kill of the day, one past ace.  But she was thinking of
how great it would be to make double ace in one day, since this could be her
only day of combat.

*     *     *

“That hotshot took both
of them off our tail,” shouted the Pilot.  “We’re clear, for the moment.”

“Are we going back to
look for Augustine?” asked Jennifer, raising her faceplate to wipe away the
tears.

“We’ll drop back one
Marine vehicle to search,” said the Chief of Detail, shaking his head. 
“They’ll call in help.”

If they can get it
, thought the Empress,
about to protest, then thinking better of it.  She knew the focus now would be
on getting the only remaining heir out of the danger zone.  She was just an
afterthought, important enough, but nowhere near as vital as the next Emperor.

“Just get Glen to
safety,” she replied, not even sure that her other child still even existed. 
There was a hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach, as if her whole life had
gone.

*     *     *

“Should we tell the
Emperor about his heir” asked Captain Xiun, looking into the eyes of Admiral
McCullom.

The War Room aboard the
Donut
was just as spacious as that in the Hexagon.  The building had taken some hits,
and a lot of damage, but so far it was still standing.  How long that would be
true no one knew, since the enemy was still attacking Jewel.  Their attack on
Central Docks was still going strong as well, and there was no telling how many
ships they would lose before this day was over.  The first wave to hit New
Terra had gone in, and so far the preliminary reports were that the Cacas had
run into a buzz saw.  New Terra was a complex of military bases and training
facilities, and there were plenty of weapons to be used by enthusiastic if not
totally trained recruits.

“Let’s leave the Emperor
in peace for now, said McCullom, shaking her head.  “How soon until the first
enemy missiles are in striking range?”

“One hours and
thirty-five minutes,” said Xiun, who had gotten on top of the local situation
soon after they had arrived.  “They will be coming in at point nine one light.”

“And the fighters behind
them”

“They are three and a
half hours away, ma’am,” said Xiun, closing her eyes for a moment to read the
link.  She opened her eyes and looked at her superior.  “They can’t expect to
actually destroy us with those missiles, can they?  I wouldn’t count on them
getting that many hits, if any.”

“They wouldn’t have
launched the attack if they didn’t think they could do something,” said
McCullom, holding up a finger.  “They’ve been known to make mistakes due to
their arrogance, and this might be another one of them.  But it wouldn’t do for
us to become so arrogant that we make the same mistakes, now would it.  So we
spend this time trying to analyze just what they are trying to do.”

“Yes, ma’am,” agreed the
Aide.  “I’ll get the staff working on it immediately.”

“Put everyone on it,
Captain.”

“What about the front?”

“They will take care of
themselves.  Lenkowski and Mgonda have full staffs.  We were just there as a
backup, to catch anything they might miss.  Now we have to let them assume all
responsibility for their commands, while we take care of this battle.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’ll get
everyone right on it.”

*     *     *

“We’ll start bringing
through fighters again,” said the Captain of
Fool’s Bane
, looking at his
Ca’cadasan supervisor.  He looked back at the plot that was monitoring the
system, and the one next to it that was showing the activity of the wormhole.  
A hundred thousand missiles had come through in five minutes, accelerated on
the other side according to a timetable, entering the hole and translating
through while it was aimed at the
Donut
.  It was a maneuver demanding
pinpoint accuracy, and nothing the Ca’cadasans had ever tried before. 
Amazingly, the first part of the launch had gone perfectly, nothing getting in
the way, every missile coming through without incident.

The problems had come
when the ship had turned to take each of the series of wormhole gate rings
under fire.  Someone had miscalculated, and the ship had not been able to move
in time, sending several thousand missiles flying out into empty space.  There
was no way they could change their course at this time without giving away the
game.  Almost eight thousand had gone out on the proper course, and the ship
had been able to line up on all the others on the proper timetable.

And in a little over an
hour they should be approaching their targets, coming out of nowhere,
thought the human with
satisfaction, never for an instant thinking that what he was doing might doom
his species once and for all.

Chapter Thirteen

A military man can scarcely pride himself on
having smitten a sleeping enemy; it is more a matter of shame, simply, for the
one smitten. Isoroku Yamamoto

H-1.

“There it is,” said the
woman, stepping out of the wormhole that connected her not just to another
place, but another time.  The space around them rippled just a bit, a tremor
that went through their bones, causing both to grunt at the slight pain. 
“Right where it was supposed to be.”

“It’s just a little
thing,” said the man, gritting his teeth for a moment until the spasm passed. 
“One small life.  But it can change so much.”

“Let’s do this,” said the
woman, stepping away from the shimmering mirror that hung in the air behind
them.  In front of them was the round object they had seen through another
wormhole several days prior. 
Or is that several weeks in the future
,
thought the woman.  The temporal concepts still confused all of them.  It was
enough to know that they had gotten to where they were supposed to be at the
proper moment, well before the search and rescue people would find the object.

“It looks pretty badly
beaten up,” she said as she opened the access port and plugged the small device
into the dock.  She read the data coming through for a moment.  “It took a lot
of damage, but the interior is still intact.”

“We knew he survived,”
said the man, looking around.  “Get the damned thing open so we can get this
over with.”  He tossed the small bag he was carrying to the ground and readied
his heavy particle beam rifle.

The woman nodded and
accessed the locking mechanism.  With a hiss the sphere opened at the top,
revealing the occupant, who started screaming bloody murder as soon as he was
exposed to the air.

The woman picked the baby
up, looking him over, not worrying about the emotional state of the infant. 
“He appears to be healthy, though I wish he would shut up.”

“Just make sure you don’t
drop him,” said the man, opening the bag and taking out the body of a like
sized baby.

He tossed the body into
the compartment from which the heir had come, then motioned for the woman to
step back.  She pulled the override device from the port and complied, pulling
a covering over the child that blocked out all signals from his implant.  The
man aimed and fired his particle beam rifle, vaporizing the small body until
there was nothing left but generalized protein residue.  He continued to lay
the beam over the carrier until much of it had melted, then fired a couple of
more shots for good measure, putting a couple of representative holes through
the side.

“That should do it,” said
the man, motioning back to the wormhole.

The pair headed for the
portal to the future, while spacetime rippled around them once again, then they
were through.  The portal closed behind them, its purpose served.

Minutes later the first
of the search and rescue vehicles came in, settling down next to the ruined
carrier.  Moments later the signal went out that the heir’s carrier had been
found, and that the baby was dead.

*     *     *

It had been an arduous
journey through the wreck of the station to get to a part where everything was
still functioning.  At one point the station had shook from another hit, but
that had been it.  Crenshaw wasn’t sure if the enemy had been beaten back, or
had just decided that the priority was now the shipping and building slips that
comprised the majority of Central Docks.

“Captain Crenshaw,” said
the young Commander of Engineering when she had made it back into the powered
part of the station.  “We’ve lost all contact with Command and Control.”

“I just came from there,
Commander.   We need for you to get together a team to restore power and communications. 
And I need to get word out to our forces.  We think we know where the enemy
fighters are coming from.”

*     *     *

The battle cruiser shook
from another hit, from the intensity not much of a weapon for attacking
warships.  The launching fighter sped away, trying to change its vector and
actually flying into a close in weapons stream that scattered its pieces
through space.

“Those fighter missiles
are not doing much damage, ma’am,” called back the Tactical Officer.  “But if
they put enough of them into us..”

Mei Lei nodded, looking
at the damage schematic.  A ten megaton missile barely penetrated the armor and
through to the hull underneath.  Unfortunately, that missile had taken out two
eletromag field projectors and a cold plasma injector, as well as damaging two
barrels of a close in weapons system.  They could die the death of a thousand
cuts from those kind of weapons.

A brilliant flare lit the
near space, a much larger warhead going up from the hit of a close in weapon.

“Captain Matthers is reporting
damage to his forward most laser ring, ma’am.”

Mei was about to reply to
the Com Tech when that rating’s eyes went wide.  “We’re receiving an all units
broadcast from Central Dock.  Targeting information coming through.”

Mei looked at the information
that was populating the plot, wondering what Central Dock could tell them about
the environment that they didn’t already know.

“What the hell is that?”
she asked, watching as a blinking red circle appeared about twenty thousand
kilometers from their location.  At first it was unrecognizable, until the
sensors zoomed in to show what looked like a tramp freighter.  “They want us to
open fire on a tramp?”

“That’s the order,
ma’am.  They think that’s where the wormhole is located.”

“The wormhole?  They think
these fighters are coming in through wormholes?”

“That what they seem to
be saying, ma’am,” said the Tactical Officer.

“Any way to verify their
conjecture?” asked the Admiral, horrified at the thought of firing on a
freighter that belonged to Imperial citizens.

“What in the hell would
they be doing sitting there without being touched?” asked the Tactical Officer,
looking back at her, an eager expression on his face.

What indeed?
thought the Admiral,
making up her mind.  The enemy had made a major mistake stationing their gate
so close to the system.  It probably would have served them better if they had
stationed it fifteen light minutes away.  But then again, they wouldn’t have gotten
the advantage of surprise they had achieved.

“Target that ship with
all laser rings,” ordered the Admiral.  “Let’s make sure we take it out.”

“What the hell is that?”
exclaimed the Tactical Officer as another object appeared on the plot, followed
in less than four seconds by another, then a third.  “My God.  Those are
supercruisers.”

The four million ton
ships that served the Cacas as their intermediate sized warships started to
move as soon as they were through the gate, arraying themselves between the
freighter and the Admiral’s force.  Ships kept coming through the gate, until
there were ten of the vessels, arrayed in a protective sphere around their
gate.  The lasers from the task group now had the electromag fields and armor
of the Caca ships to deal with.  Those ships were firing back with every beam
weapon they had, a knife fight that was almost even.  And meanwhile more
fighters were coming through.

*     *     *

“What’s that?” cried
Margo as the trumpeting sounded over the rumble of explosions in the distance
and sirens close by.

“I don’t know,” said
Tomas, grabbing her arm and pulling her close to the building.

The climb down the stairs
had been long and arduous, but they were both young and in good shape, and it
had been down, after all.  The entrance to the basement and the subbasements
below it had been sealed off by what looked like an armored blast door, and if
there was anyone on the other side, they weren’t paying attention to the pair
yelling and pounding on the closure with a piece of metal.  So they had vacated
the building and gotten out on the street, worried that a kinetic might come
down on the structure and collapse it on top of them.

The outside had been
frightening, and had almost driven them back in.  The air was filled with so
much dust they were constantly coughing, and the ever present haze obscured
their sight to no further than a couple of hundred meters.  In that distance
they could see a couple of buildings that had collapsed.  It was almost
impossible for a modern structure to be taken down by ground shocks, no matter
how powerful, so they had obviously been hit by something coming down from
above with major force.

The trumpeting grew
louder, and the pair tried to press their backs through the wall, wondering
what new horror had been unleashed on the city.  And then the forms had grown
out of the haze, monstrous beasts with heads on the end of long necks, running
as fast as they could plod along.  The first pair were followed by three more,
an adult and two juveniles.  They disappeared once again into the haze, their
trumpeting slowly growing more faint.

“They must have come from
the zoo,” said Tomas, giving the haze one more wide eyed look.

“Those poor creatures,”
said Margo.  “And I thought we were scared.  They don’t have a clue as to what
is going on.”

Tomas nodded.  He agreed
with her assessment.  Something must have hit the zoo, probably more kinetics. 
There was no telling how many of the animals had been killed.  These five must
have been the lucky ones.  If they had been close enough to the hits, even
their great bulk wouldn’t have saved them.

“We need to get under
cover,” said Margo, pulling at Tomas’ arm.

Something grunted, coming
from the same direction the big herbivores had come from.  The grunt was
answered, and then two large bipedal creatures came trotting out of the haze.

Tomas pulled Margo back
to the wall, hoping that they hadn’t been spotted by the two creatures that had
to be carnivores.  Their large heads swung this way and that as their nostrils
distended, picking up the scent of the quarry they were tracking.

The eyes of one looked in
the direction of the two humans, and it grunted, getting the attention of its
partner.  That one looked over with the intense eyes of a killer, and Tomas
wasn’t sure what to do, other than stand still and hope he didn’t soil
himself.   He and Margo had guns, but he doubted they would stop creatures like
these.

The carnivores looked at
each other, and Tomas thought they must be trying to decide if these little
things in front of them were worth the effort.  One started to lean forward,
jaws agape, and Tomas thought he saw the end of his life, sliding down the
throat of the beast.  The hooting of the large herbivores sounded from the
direction they had gone.  The carnivore looked up, grunted, and both were on
their way, trotting down the street.

Tomas let out his breath
as Margo almost collapsed to the street.  Both looked down the street the
direction the beasts had gone, then up the way they had come from.

“We need to get off this
street,” said Margo, and this time Tomas agreed with her.  There was no telling
what else was out there.  If the zoo had been hit there could be a million
creatures not native to this world roaming the streets.

“Let’s see if we can find
an underground station,” he finally said.  It might not be the best shelter,
but it was better than nothing.  And right now it looked a lot better than
being eaten.

*     *     *

A bright flash to the
east was followed by a thunderous boom some moments later, along with a shock
wave that rocked the aircars in their tracks.  Jennifer looked to the east
through the side window of the aircar, which had automatically darkened from
the flash.  A massive fireball rose over the site of the blast, over fifteen
kilometers in diameter according to the HUD display of her suit, making it a
hundred megaton device.  The fireball rose, forming the distinctive mushroom
cloud rising up into the high atmosphere.  Another weapon flashed even further
to the east, and the Empress had to wonder if there were any going off well
behind them.

“What could they be going
after?” she asked her Chief of Detail.  “Those are residential areas.”

“And the working areas
for many of the people living there,” said the Chief.  “A lot of small
factories and businesses there, as well as outlying campuses of Imperial
University.”

“And the people?”

“I expect that most of
them will have gotten to shelters by now, or evacuated.  And those were air
bursts, nothing those underground would have to worry about.”

Jennifer knew speech
meant to calm her nerves when she heard it.  She had learned all she could
about the capital city when it became certain that she was going to become
Empress.  The city was heavily defended, probably more so than most experts
thought necessary, though after today none of them would admit to that
viewpoint.  There were massive ground defense batteries in every direction, in
a circle a hundred kilometers from the built up areas.  There were smaller
batteries meant to take on any smaller craft that might come in.  The one thing
they didn’t have were enough shelters for the population.  They were lucky if
they had enough for half.  Which meant half the population had to make do with
whatever they could find.  The underground, the interiors of stout buildings. 
Many would probably stay in their homes, which might normally be safe enough,
but not with kinetics raining down on them.