Star Clusters: New Arrivals (14 page)

Zeshaira looked at Lanis. “I thought you said Aphis was not irreplaceable,” she noted.

“It isn’t, but several other facilities were hit pretty badly, and as a result, what was once expendable is now somewhat less expendable,” Lossuh explained.

“Either way, we must maintain a defensive stance. Every minute we delay the Xargan victory is a minute that my people can use to reach us,” Hatos said.

“I thought we’re supposed to act as if they’re not coming…?” Lanis commented.

“Should I prepare for my funeral, then? Based on what I know, the odds of our defeating the Xargans without them are currently non-existent. We
must
consider alternative options.”

“Since when are you so pessimistic?”

“I am still the realist I was when you first met me. It is you who are overly optimistic.”

After Hatos said that, the discussion degenerated into one of those loud arguments where nobody should be capable of understanding what the others are saying; the kind of argument you would expect from a group where everyone (or just about everyone) had their own opinion and wasn’t going to be persuaded otherwise. To put it simply, it degenerated into a shouting match.

For about thirty seconds, Lossuh stared wearily into his screen before he decided he had had enough. “QUIET!” he yelled. After a short while, everybody turned towards the holoviewer. “Thank you. Anyway, Hatos is right. Everything suggests that this is just the tip of the iceberg, and we’re already being pushed back on every front. We clearly cannot fight the Xargans through conventional methods anymore.”

“So we should just lie down and die instead? Are you listening to yourself?!”

“I didn’t say that. However, the fact is that we are stretched too thin. We need to consolidate our forces.”

“What are you thinking?” Barnes asked.

“Operation Nucleus.”

“We’ve been over this before; it won’t work!”

“Uhhh… what’s ‘Operation Nucleus’?” Fanra asked.

“‘Nucleus’ was the codename for an emergency plan we devised for situations like this; leaving the outer systems to fend for themselves and focusing defensive operations on preserving a small, strategically viable location - a star system, probably several of them,” Barnes explained. “Unfortunately, not only does that drastically limit our resources, but it would cause immeasurable chaos in all of the abandoned systems, possibly preventing part of the consolidation process. What’s worse, it would probably cripple the morale of those that weren’t left behind.”

“If you have a better idea, I’m willing to listen; but as of right now, the Arcamil is officially recommending the execution of the plan to the Terran government, as well as any Petran forces we can contact.”

“‘Officially’?” Lanis commented.

“We have exposed ourselves. For now, your admirals mostly agree with the plan, though politics is slowing the process down.”

“So… business as usual?”

“Quite,” Barnes confirmed.

“Well, isn’t that great…”

“What should we do?” Hatos asked.

“Even without its transporter technology, the Tarhedia is a powerful weapon, as are the fighters it carries. You will rendezvous with the Orion at these coordinates; there is a military space station there waiting to provide you with pilots and whatever resources you need to maintain performance.”

“Pilots? You’re just going to dump a bunch of people on the Tarhedia and hope they can handle it, aren’t you?”

“Mister Baltor, we need every ship we can use. I am told they are nothing but the best the US can give us; it should be a simple matter of acclimatizing to the new craft. Even if it isn’t, that is why you and the Tarhedians are there; to help them adjust.”

Lanis sighed. “What kind of training grounds should we expect?”

“The usual. A holographic obstacle course, training drones for a dogfighting exercise, plenty of open space… Unfortunately, atmospheric training will be impossible as the station isn’t in a star system, let alone one with planets in it. You should arrive within two hours. In the meantime, I suggest you get some rest. Lossuh out.”

Two hours later, the Tarhedia dropped out of hyperspace in a seemingly arbitrary spot near a seemingly arbitrarily placed space station. As its crew expected, the Orion was there, docked with the large, heavily armed station.

“Tarhedia, this is RS-7. Your pilots are ready for transport and we are finishing deployment of the holoemitters for the obstacle course. Transmit your supply requests and lower your shields,” the station commander said once they established communications.

“RS-7, we are transmitting the data now. It will not be necessary for us to deactivate our shields; we can create gaps for your ships to go through. However, if you provide us with your shield data, we can transport some of the supplies and personnel aboard.”

“Understood. Transmitting data.”

A little while later, Lanis was in a repurposed briefing room aboard RS-7 in front of some thirty pilots of various ranks. After some introductions, he started his lecture: “Alright, let’s start from the beginning. The Tarhedian...” he paused for a moment, glancing at his datapad, “‘Sopreth’ is a one-man interceptor - though it does have the firepower of a bomber - built using the same kind of technology the Tarhedia was made with. In other words, it’s cutting-edge technology, quite a bit beyond ours. The control system consists of the following components: rudimentary physical controls for maneuvering, shooting and the like - sort of like the fighters you’ve flown before, just less sophisticated, with less functionality - and a neural interface used to access just about every major function in the ship. Technically, you don’t
need
the neural interface to fly around and shoot stuff, but you’d be an idiot not to use it. Anyway, the system ties into the onboard computer, which then uses holograms to display whatever data it thinks you want to see using the language you’re most comfortable with. It will also transmit data into the tacnet - if the fighter’s connected to one - and perform various other functions. In other words, don’t try to fight without it or it could end badly. Any questions?”

Everyone raised their hands. “Other than how the engines work, why they like neural interfaces so much, and why they’re not
complete
neural interfaces?” Everyone lowered their hands again. “Right. Let’s move on to the engines. I don’t really have a lot to say about them - the inertial dampeners are a bit weak during high-speed maneuvers or when the ship’s being hit, but that’s nothing new. It can easily hit half-
c
and should be just about as maneuverable as US fighters. Its weapons consist of two nose-mounted neutron guns. Basically, they condense neutrons into small blobs, form an unstable ball of energy around it, and fire the whole thing into space. The resulting projectile has enough mass and speed to tear the wings off of your fighters and explodes violently enough to… well, let’s just say a squadron of fighters firing these things at a Xargan interdictor will disable its disruptor with just a few attack runs. As for its defenses, its armor isn’t really worth mentioning; if its shields run out of power, one well-aimed shot from a blaster might knock it out. Still, the fact that it
has
shields is pretty impressive, and - like the neutron guns - is a testament to the advanced nature of the technology that spawned it. For all reasonable intents and purposes, the Sopreth’s shields are impenetrable to small arms fire, and other fighters may need to shoot it for a while to get a kill. You’re not invincible, but you’re as tough as a gunship and as maneuverable as an interceptor at the same time.
Now
do you have any questions that aren’t about the background science of the stuff I just described?”

“It wouldn’t happen to have a hyperdrive, would it?”

Everyone laughed at that. “No. I think it could probably power one for a short while, but it’d be pointless. Besides, Tarhedian hyperdrives are a bit too bulky for that.”

“How can it hold enough ammo for continued combat and still move?”

“Well, it doesn’t really have that much ammo - instead, the Tarhedians decided to put together a system that collected particles from the surrounding environment and tried to feed them into the gun. The faster you move, and the denser the gas or liquid you’re located in, the more you’ll collect. In space, all you’ll be getting is background radiation and hydrogen with the odd helium atom and stuff, but the only thing you should notice in most environments - including space, if you move fast enough - is a small drop in performance and firing rate, and the latter can be mitigated by conservative ammo usage.”

“How many of these fighters do you have?”

“Based on what I know, the Tarhedia started out with sixty fighters and only around twenty-four officers actually capable of flying them. We’ve since lost twelve fighters and six pilots, leaving us with forty-eight fighters and eighteen pilots. And myself, but I’ve already got the Eagle. Basically, each one of you has to figure out how to fly these things - something Lossuh thinks shouldn’t be a problem, and I guess he has a point - or we’ll have some useless fighters. We should start with the obstacle course.”

After he said that, Lanis led the pilots to the station’s main hangar, where they each boarded a fighter - he and Zeshaira did the same. The fighters powered up at various times as the different pilots figured out the controls at different rates, darting out of the hangar at high speeds.

“Right, for the purposes of this training, I’m assigning you to ‘Green Squadron’ and providing you with ID numbers. Greens One through Fifteen, form up on me. Sixteen through Thirty, go with Zeshaira. Station control, activate the obstacle course, mode three.” A dense and chaotic asteroid field seemed to appear out of thin air in front of the fighters. “This asteroid field is the only thing between us and our destination. You are to try to maintain formation as effectively as possible without getting removed from the simulation. Needless to say, hitting too many asteroids or hitting them too hard will have that effect.”

“Acknowledged.” Zeshaira took command of the rest of the training squadron, and the two groups flew independently into the asteroids. To Lanis’ surprise, none of the trainees got ‘killed’, and very few of them experienced any difficulty. In the meantime, the Orion undocked from the station and jumped into hyperspace towards its next mission.

“Nice work. I’m actually impressed. Okay, I guess we can move on to the dogfighting exercise. The station will release about a hundred drone fighters the size of the average swarmer; your task is to take them all down with minimal casualties. Unfortunately, we couldn’t refit your ships with training weapons, so friendly fire will hurt. And the drones will blow up. Go for it.”

After the drones were released, the battle quickly began. Once again, the pilots proved their skill, destroying their opponents with ease. However, as if to up the ante, a medium-sized group of Xargans dropped out of hyperspace.

“RS-7 to all ships - the Xargans are here. Green Squadron, prepare to engage the enemy.”

“The Tarhedia will move closer to the station; together, we should be more than a match for the larger ships. Lanis, Zeshaira, I am scrambling all remaining fighters to assist you.”

“Alright. Zeshaira, you take the Tarhedia’s squadron, I’ll take Green Squadron.”

“Very well.”

“RS-7 here; we’ll have Alpha, Bravo and Charlie squadrons out soon - cover them as they exit the hangars, the Xargans might try to hit them before they can properly enter the fight.”

“Copy that, Green Leader moving in. Greens Two through Six, you’re with me. Everyone else, just fight the Xargans unless ordered otherwise,” Lanis ordered, having assigned himself as leader of Green Squadron.

“Swarmers, ten o’clock!”

“Eight, you’ve got one on you!”

“I know, I can’t shake him!”

“Not a problem,” Green Twelve noted, coming at the swarmer from behind and bringing him down. “There’s more where that came from - new wing at one o’clock.”

“Alpha Squadron has deployed, engaging hostiles. Thanks for the assist, Green Squadron.”

“Alpha, cover Bravo and Charlie as they launch. Green Leader, you’ll be more useful fighting the main group.”

“Actually… Squadron, disperse - engage targets at will. Focus on keeping everyone alive.”

“More hostiles are coming out of hyperspace!”

“Their numbers appear to be growing. RS-7, I recommend that you start evacuating your cargo and crew to the Tarhedia; it is only a matter of time before their reinforcements prove too numerous to defeat.”

“Agreed. We’ll start with the supplies and move on to the crew; I’ll configure the computer to keep fighting once we’re gone.”

“How long will it take?”

“I think we can remove anything worth removing within half an hour - just give us that much. With Bravo out of the hangar, it should be a little bit easier for you.”

“Understood. Helm, align for primary weapon activation. Divert power from sublight propulsion to main shields.”

“Green Leader to RS-7: You wouldn’t happen to have anything we could use to even the odds in this dogfight, would you?”

“Well, we do have a lot of spare training drones, but they’re useless without proper weapons.”