Lacuna: The Ashes of Humanity (23 page)

"Bah." Rowe shrugged. "Whatever. Did you at least learn anything interesting?"

"I learnt that they're full of computer bits."

"Thanks." Rowe rolled her eyes. "That's real fucking useful. I'll note that in my report."

"Don't worry about it," Liao said. "They can self-replicate. You should have the new one by now."

"That explains the new construct that showed up. I had our team incinerate it; I figured the Telvan left it behind."

Liao sighed. "Well, have the constructs build another one then, and feel free to cut
that
one up and see what makes it tick."

That seemed to mollify her somewhat. "Well, thanks. I'll do that." Her eyes widened as though remembering something. "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. I did you a favour."

Liao raised an eyebrow. "I'm already frightened."

"Well, you should be." Rowe jumped out of her chair, her hair bouncing as she skipped over to Liao, thrusting a tablet in her face. "Just take a look, will you?"

Liao took the tablet, inspecting the chaotic blueprint. "What is this?"

"Something you might like. I've been stuck looking for something for the Lucifer's Gas, but then it hit me. I had this other side project that I couldn't get working, either. I wanted to emulate the Toralii breaching charge we recovered from Saara's ship, but I couldn't get it to deliver enough punch. It relies on directed plasma, and we can't generate enough of it without some serious, high-grade explosives—and at that point what do we need the plasma for?

"Then it hit me. We're going the wrong way—the Toralii hulls are specifically designed to harden against thermal attacks. It's a common attack vector and weakness of our own. Heat is your enemy in space. Nobody would deliberately chill their enemies, so they're not defended against this kind of thing. I did some calculations based on the thermal profile of the wreckage of Saara's ship and found that sufficient amounts of extremely cold substances can cause micro-fractures in the hull, due to the rapidly and unevenly contracting metal. So cold can crack the hull, but what then? They have a breach, they fix it, no biggie. But what if we combined the breaching charge with the gas?"

Rowe jabbed a finger at the tablet, pointing to a large cylindrical object. "The Lucifer's Gas needs to be kept at ludicrously cold temperatures anyway, so we already have a large stockpile of coolant available. It's beautiful." She gave a flourish of her hand. "The shell is thin and contains a layer of liquid nitrogen mixed with a ferrous compound. On impact, the nitrogen attaches to the hull and freezes a section of the hull, then the rest of the charge blows into the frozen and brittle bits, then the third stage flushes in the gas. Once this shit gets into their atmosphere... boom."

"Boom."

"Yep," said Summer. "I present, the Cracker." She held out her arms, waving them in a circular pattern that Liao thought patently ludicrous. "And when I say 'boom', I mean… technically all the organic matter ignites along with their atmosphere, spreading the flame further into the ship, but yeah. Boom."

"Summer, whenever you do me a favour I get chills down my spine." Liao smiled. "I like it. When can you have one ready?"

"Already got a prototype. Should work. Should."

"Move it to a Broadsword, just in case."

"Will do."

Rowe moved back to the Engineer's console and started tapping out a message at a frantic pace. Liao left her to it; she had other things to worry about.

Saeed's advice had been good. Three days' sleep had done wonders. Her mind was so much sharper than it had before, and the world was in focus.

"Very good, then." She stood in front of her command console, leaning over and inspecting the long-range radar.

A contact flickered, briefly and faintly, relayed to them from another vessel and overlaid over their own radar screen in a blind spot. Before Liao could ask about it, Hsin at Communications spoke up.

"Captain, we're receiving a transmission from the Broadsword
Valhalla
. A contact has appeared in the L2 Lagrange planet, behind Velsharn's moon."

Rowe snorted. "We need to find a better name for the moon than that."

Liao ignored her. "Mr. Ling, what's the nature of the contact?"

"Unknown at this time." Hsin frowned, pressing his finger to his headset. "There's an awful amount of static." He touched the talk key. "Broadsword
Valhalla
, say again."

No contact was bad news. The static was new; solar activity in the Velsharn system was nominal. The Broadsword's communication should have been coming through loud and clear.

There was only one reason it wouldn't be.

Liao didn't want to waste any time. "Mr. Iraj, sound general quarters. Inform the
Madrid
, the
Tehran
, and the
Washington
. Recall our CAP, launch everything we have."

She took a breath, looking at the radar screen relayed from the
Valhalla
and gripping her command console tightly. The contact returned, bright green and solid.

"Captain," said Hsin, his voice softer than before. "
Valhalla
confirms it as the Toralii Cruiser
Seth'arak
."

Warbringer Avaran's personal cruiser, the same one the
Tehran
,
Sydney
, and
Beijing
had battled together in space. The same one that had led the scouring of Earth and killed billions of Humans. If there was a Firaun in this real world, it was undoubtedly him.

The
zalim
of all
zalims
. The biggest tyrant.

The Humans had nowhere to go now. Nowhere to run. This was it.

"Well," said James. "It's nice to see our old friend again."

A
CT
III

C
HAPTER
IX

… Para Bellum

*****

Command and Control Core

Toralii Cruiser
Seth'arak

L2 Lagrange Point

Velsharn System

W
ARBRINGER
A
VARAN
STRODE
ABOUT
THE
deck of his ship, a caged beast waiting to strike. Of all his many talents, patience was not one. The scouts had told them everything he needed to know; all had returned without sign of the Humans, but one had not returned at all.

It did not take a tactical genius to realise where they were hiding. Insolent whelps, cowering behind their ineffectual allies. All that would end today.

["Voidwarp translation complete, Warbringer Avaran,"] said Adjutant Vican, his second in command. ["We are in the Velsharn system."]

["Good."] Avaran gritted his teeth, his long canines scraping across his lower lip. ["Did the Humans detect our approach?"]

["It is likely,"] Vican said, pointing to a bright purple dot floating in the holographic projection in the ceiling. ["Look. A gunship. It will have detected us by now."]

["Warbringer,"] said his foregunner, an Airmaiden named Baelica with distinctive dark ginger fur. ["The gunship appears to be relaying communications and tactical information to the Humans. We are detecting an active communications signal."]

["Destroy the vessel,"] Avaran ordered without a second thought. ["Deploy the worldshatter device."]

Vican regarded him curiously. ["Are you certain, Warbringer? It is just a small ship—"]

["We are the
Herald of Woe
, Vican. It is time we lived up to our name."]

The
Seth'arak
hummed with energy. The bright white pulse of the worldshatter device leapt across space, snuffing out the tiny ship and its insolent crew of voidwarp criminals. The holographic display showed that nothing was left—barely even a few particles of superheated dust.

Dispensing justice was righteous.

A construct, one of their many, scuttled up to him. This particular one was a tactical construct, knee high and designed to interface with their command and control systems. ["Warbringer Avaran, the fleet will be appearing momentarily. We should clear the voidwarp location."]

Other vessels in the fleet had come to steal their glory. The thought left a bitter taste in his mouth. The Humans were more resourceful than he—and others—had previously given them credit for.

The Toralii were arrogant. Each of them knew that. This was a trait encouraged, bred into their very being, but it did not define them. Toralii controlled their emotions. They were not Kel-Voran savages seeking death in glorious combat, or whatever nonsense they believed.

The Kel-Voran always fought. The Toralii always won.

["Engage sublight engines. Make clear the path for the rest of the fleet."]

His order obeyed, the ship began to move, the dark orb of this system's moon hovering before him. They had chosen the far point to hide behind the moon's mass, but the Humans were ready for that ruse.

No matter. A single cruiser could easily annihilate them. They had brought fifty-three, a standard battle fleet. This would be no contest.

["How long until the worldshatter device is ready?"]

Vican consulted his systems. ["The heat batteries are a third full, Warbringer. They are cooling, but until the process is complete, we only have two more shots before they must be ejected."]

["How long?"]

["Twelve cycles, Warbringer."]

Twelve cycles was far too long. They would only have two uses remaining for the battle.

This angered him, but Adjutant Vican was his first in command for this exact reason. He was prepared to give bad news, irrespective of any consideration for his feelings. The truth was preferable to a comforting lie.

It mattered not. They would not need such power.

Another vessel appeared in the jump point behind them. Vican confirmed it as the
Ash'uk
, the
Fleshreaver
. The
Seth'arak
sailed around the moon of Velsharn, a long line of Toralii Alliance vessels behind it.

This ship had engaged three of the Human vessels singlehandedly and nearly triumphed. The repairs had been extensive and prolonged, and there had been discussion of scrapping the cruiser entirely. Some part of him suspected that his ship would never be quite the same. This was the first time it had seen true combat since then; the
Ash'uk
had the honour of engaging the Humans defences at their lone open jump point. He had requested it but been denied.

Avaran would not be denied any further.

He touched the scar on his face, a physical reminder of the memory of his first engagement with them. The Humans had marked him, made him ugly, scarred him. Torching their world only sated his thirst for revenge temporarily. He had drunk in the sight of their oceans boiling and their atmosphere igniting, but slaying at such a distance did not have as much appeal as the visceral thrill of combat.

Destroying insects from orbit was boring. He had seen too much victory, he knew that, and hungered for something more. The only thing that would quench this desire was the defeat of a worthy foe, and only one Human, above all the others, would suffice.

Commander Liao would die this day.

["How long until we clear the moon?"]

["Half a cycle, Warbringer."]

And so they waited. The line of Toralii ships grew longer, snaking out from the jump point, until the entire fleet arrived. A long column of metal and fury, the fleet used the gravity of the moon to propel themselves.

Soon, the blue edge of Velsharn's vast oceans became visible at the edge of the moon's horizon. Their sensor system showed a field of contacts, exactly as he had predicted. The Humans were out in force to resist him. It was adorable, in a way.

A Human's voice came through the windwhisper device. It took a moment for the translator in his ear to repeat the words back in an understandable language.

"This is Captain Anderson of the TFR
Washington
to the
Seth'arak
. This colony is a protectorate of the Telvan government. You are violating interstellar non-aggression treaties and risking war with your cousins. Turn back immediately."

Disgusting to the ear. The Human languages were like rocks in a steel barrel turned over and over. Grating and whiny.

["Send no reply,"] said Avaran. ["Our guns will speak for us soon enough."]

["Warbringer,"] said Baelica, ["there are three vessels moving towards us, along with nearly one hundred smaller craft. Based on our projections of their military power, this is all that remains of their species."]

The queens and their insects. They could not hope to last against the storm.

["Which one is the
Beijing
? The vessel of Commander Liao?"]

The foregunner consulted her instruments. ["It is difficult to identify them at this range, but so far none appear to match the voidwarp signature of the
Beijing
."]

That did not sit well with him. Liao was a warrior who led from the front; never had she shied away from combat before. To send her soldiers into the fray before herself struck him either as a deception or profoundly out of character.

No matter.

["Launch our assault craft as soon as we are clear of the moon's gravitational influence. Tear them to pieces."]

Their attack ships flew from the
Seth'arak
's belly, a swarm that leapt towards their enemies with eager speed. It reminded him of the ancient Toralii ancestors, fighting in the plains, long spears in their arms as they charged towards their enemies.

War changed little, despite technology's progression.

Vican studied the holographic display above them. ["The
Ash'uk
is launching assault craft, Warbringer. They will be able to assist our own shortly."]

["Good. Have the second wave of our craft engage the Humans then move our ship into the thick of it. Slay as many of them as we can, but do not stop. Our goal lies elsewhere."] Avaran stroked a finger down the purple gash on his face, tracing along it with a sharp claw. ["Where is the
Beijing
?"]

Nobody answered him. His anger towards the Humans was well known, and whispers in the
Seth'arak
's corridors said that he was not managing his rage as well as he should have. A commanding officer should be cold and calculating, but as the swarm of Human ships raced towards his own, he could only feel mounting anger.