The Forsaken Empire (The Endervar War Book 2) (12 page)

Red watched as the Endervar fleet pressed on, undaunted. The moving force had been quick to separate into smaller groups, making them harder to stop. The ships were rapidly circling and soaring past any obstacle. For them, the goal was to burn. To push through into the inner system and raze the world orbiting inside.

They’re heading to Vellanar, the ensign exclaimed. Arcenian drones are out in pursuit.

Already, the local machine army was starting to amass around several Endervar ships. It would only be a matter of a time before the capsule like drones ate away at the enemy’s shields or died trying.

Red joined the ensign and nervously examined the scans. The remaining enemy ships sped on, with at least a dozen accelerating forward, nearly unopposed. At this speed, it would be only a half hour or less before the enemy came upon its ultimate target.

Arendi wouldn’t let that happen.

Advise the Arcenian military to deploy orbital shields around the planet, she said.

Understood, the ensign replied, interfacing with the comm. Arcenian Command concurs. Deployment is imminent.

Good, Arendi said. Accessing the real-time data, she approached the main screen. Before her was the enemy light. It glared back, the ships in the distance but approaching.

This was same light that was now rampaging across the region. Unless something was done, the chaos would only grow. Arendi placed her fist in her other hand. Somehow she needed to stop this.

Moving to intercept, she said. Weapons charging.

***

To fight them she would have to come in close. So close that her ship was taking fire.

Shield’s down to eighty-one percent, the ensign shouted as the clamor of the attack hit the vessel.

They could feel the entire bridge stagger. The particle beams were hammering into the fore. As the bulkhead rattled with the impacts, Arendi navigated the ship with her mind. She concentrated with every ounce of her focus. One wrong move, and they would be dead.

The enemy was coming. Five vessels were in sight. And in another few seconds, a clash would ensue. Arendi sought to fly right across them and take them down in one swoop. It wouldn’t be easy. The enemy was moving fast, daggering into the space with each energy blast. Now her own vessel had become their next target; the particle beams were intensifying.

Shields at seventy-four percent, the ensign said as the weapons fire continued to hit.

Truth be told, Arendi wasn’t the best pilot. Her career as a Sentinel had begun after the Endervar War. And even then, her missions had rarely involved space combat like this. Regardless, her experience would have to do. She still remembered the lessons from the past.

Targeting, Arendi said, as the unique weapon in her control charged. Locking on.

Standing steady, she was ready to release the attack. At her beck and call was the Kinnison, an interceptor designed to counter any conceivable threat. This included the Endervars, whose vessels were infamous for their high speed and maneuverability.

The Kinnison was in overdrive, primed to strike back. Seeing the targets, Arendi sent her vessel careening and activated the weapon. The ammunition arrived as an extension of her own technology the ability to manipulate the fabric of space took hold. The spatial shielding emerged from the rear of the Kinnison, dragging across the battlefield. The result was a trail of dead void, an area of space that had been warped and temporarily weaponized. It was a region very little physical matter could survive; the forces binding the molecules had been suppressed. The atomic bonds shook, rupturing loose.

The Endervar ships targeting the Kinnison flew into the void, only to crash into the weapon. Three vessels shattered like glass, the mass of an entire city breaking apart.

Targets down, the ensign said, shocked at their quick demise. She rose in her seat and breathed a sigh of relief. The surrounding particle beams abruptly abated, while the other two enemy contacts moved out of range.

Shall we pursue?

Arendi curled her lips. Her compulsion was to say yes. But even if they did, this battle was far from over. Arendi was already analyzing the situation Although dozens of enemy ships had started to fall, so had the Arcenian drone army. Over 40 percent of the defending machines had been annihilated, either through particle-beam fire or in collisions with Endervar ships. They wouldn’t hold out much longer. Not when the enemy’s forces continued to grow and to overwhelm them.

Three hundred Endervar ships, Red said, watching the scans. How will we stop them?

Arendi said nothing at first. She had no answer. With each passing moment, the enemy was plunging deeper into the system. And inevitably the fighting would move to the doorsteps of Vellanar, putting eleven billion lives at risk. Even with her own technologies, Arendi was struggling to fight back effectively. There were simply too many enemy ships, moving in a wide-ranging free-for-all. At this point, containing them would be impossible. She’d have to destroy them ship by ship, hoping her shields could hold.

Reinforcements? she asked. Status?

Alliance ships won’t be here for another two hours, the ensign said. As for the Arcenian forces, it’ll be even longer.

It was a bleak scenario; at this rate, they might not survive that long. Pulling up the combat computer, Arendi was ready to acquire more targets. Perhaps it was a losing battle, but she would fight until the end.

Endervar ships, the ensign interrupted. They’ve begun attacking the planet.

Arendi went to her internal alerts and saw it as well. Although the scans registered only a few enemy vessels, very soon it would be many more.

So be it, Arendi said. We’ll give them everything we have.

She plotted the course as the Kinnison charged its engines.

***

Outside of Vellanar it was pure bedlam. The surrounding area rocked with torrents of energy, as the enemy’s weapon came strafing down. The explosions were building. The planet’s orbital shielding was shaking under the scorching fire. Lunging forward and then pulling back were the invading Endervar ships. They arrived in one pass after another, the particle beams swiping at the planet’s protective fields in rapid succession.

Over forty enemy vessels were bombarding the home world, seeking to break through its defenses. But as the Endervars attacked, so would the Arcenian people. The strike came from the space ring, a dense strip of metal that wrapped around the planet. The belt of machinery had originally been created for commerce and travel. But the massive structure that orbited Vellanar was also a weapon, or a base of operations from which they could strike. The exact specifications of the ring remained classified. But even as it was still under construction, the circular fortress was fully armed and ready to engage.

It did this now, emitting an orbital force field that surrounded the entire planet. Layered with energized barriers, the near-invisible shield was thick and beyond what any typical military craft could muster. Now, with the targets in range, the fortress initiated the counterattack. Across the belt, dozens of bay doors opened. Emerging was a wall of cannons; the barrels protruded from the structure. Each one was over twenty meters long, and together they contained the power of several Alliance battleships.

The automated gears cranked the weapons into position. The cannons fired, the mixture of energy venting violently. What erupted was a surge of hot plasma, splashing out of the ring. The individual blasts streaked through the cold, fixated on their targets. The barrage was near constant, the impacts colliding with enemy ships.

As the ammunition shot off, the Endervar forces began to reel. Entire vessels fractured, blowing apart in fountains of glassy matter. The space ring fired again and again, following up the attack with a launch of additional drones and even manned fighter craft. It was a sudden fury that sought to suppress and vanquish the foe. As all could see, the Arcenian people would not go down without a fight.

In return, the enemy roared back. As more of their kin arrived, the Endervar fleet struck hard and fast. Like machines, they possessed no fear. If necessary, they would die to accomplish their aim. It was the same maneuver, only deadlier. In one pass, a lone Endervar ship dove into the fray. As the surrounding plasma fire sank into the vessel, it jerked and raged, accelerating to maximum speed. The resulting force then turned and slammed into the planet itself.

Red sat speechless, watching as the enemy ship crashed into the orbital shield. The explosion was monstrous. The white matter blazed across the battered invisible field. Other enemy vessels were now preparing to do the same. Four contacts at zero point five eight, the ensign said. On a collision course.

Arendi heard the coordinates and moved again to intercept. The Kinnison spun, flaring its engines. Behind her was the ensign, who stood at the vessel’s primary weapons control. Targeting, she said. Phase cannons and disrupter online.

The Endervar ships were distant, but they were moving in for the next pass. They blasted away, ignoring the opposition and focusing their attack on the orbital shield.

As both particle beam and plasma tore through space, the Kinnison responded with its own arsenal. Firing, the ensign said, activating the forward weapons battery. The energized bolts boomed out from the Kinnison, pummeling away at enemy defenses. But Arendi wasn’t done. She ignited another trail of dead void as her vessel attempted to whip past the Endervar craft.

The bridge trembled as the weapon hit. In one blow, the Endervar ship crossed behind the Kinnison and into its path. The trap split the enemy vessel in two. Flying apart, the craft burst into a shower of debris.

Arendi piloted on, sending her vessel to destroy the remaining three ships. As she did so, the ensign fired off the ship’s long-range cannons. Red could hear the weapons pound through the bridge, each shot striving to reach its target. The energized bolts cut through the cold, striking at the enemy ships.

It wasn’t enough. The Endervar vessels were already in position near their target. Slipping past the ensign’s attack, the ships accelerated, only to collide. Red covered his eyes as the blinding glow flashed across the screen.

Direct hit, the ensign said. Orbital shields are buckling.

Although the invisible barrier remained intact, the space ring was scrambling to maintain the force field. Energy across the shielding was becoming uneven, to the point that small pockets were on the verge of collapsing. Clearly, it was only a matter of time before the defense would fail. Arendi looked on at the view screen, enraged.

Justice, she said, keep giving me new targets. This isn’t over.

Understood, the ensign replied. Arcenian Command is requesting assistance at coordinates zero point nine nine.

Plotting the course, Arendi commanded the Kinnison to speed forth. No matter the odds, she would not stop. Red could only stand by and watch. He had never fought in the Endervar Wars. He was neither a pilot nor any kind of trained tactician. He was simply a bystander in the midst of a colossal battle.

Orbital shields breaking!

The particle beams remained relentless. They blazed toward the space ring as the Kinnison sought to turn the tide. If only Arendi knew how. So far, her tactics had failed to stop the Endervar’s advance. At every chance she was destroying their invading ships. But still, they came. At times, they even evaded her vessel, seeking out other targets. She didn’t know why.

This time, however, they were in her sights. The Kinnison flew into the blaze. The force fields around the vessel were draining, but Arendi could see the targets through the fiery embers. Radiating light were four Endervar ships. They roamed the other side of the planet, firing down at the orbital shield, but Arendi was quick to end it there. She sent all remaining power into the spatial technology. The dead void behind the Kinnison grew exponentially. Flying past the targets, the vessel then let the weaponized space consume. In a swift strike, the four Endervar craft exploded.

Arendi shivered at the impact. The Kinnison had taken some damage. A particle-beam blast had nearly ripped into the hull. But that wasn’t all.

Status? she asked as the emergency alarm shrieked through the ship.

Shields are regenerating, the ensign said. But Vellanar their barriers are gone.

In spite of their efforts, the Endervars continued to advance. The brute force of the ongoing bombardment had unraveled the barriers around the planet’s orbit. The collapse to the protective shielding was now complete. The Arcenian home world was exposed, along with the space ring protecting it.

It’s taking damage, the ensign reported. Overload is imminent!

The chain reaction ruptured from the ring’s weapons batteries. Across a quarter of the structure, several segments imploded. The plasma cannons were becoming unstable and detonating. Soon, a cloud of debris and energy was jettisoned out into space.

Arendi went to her comm feed and heard the garbled screams.

Tell all personnel onboard to abandon the station, she ordered. We’ll do whatever we can to cover them.

She angrily clenched her hand. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, were on board the station. This was a losing battle. The Endervars’ ships, while dwindling in number, were succeeding in their attack. Meanwhile, reinforcements were still over an hour away. For her, all that remained was to continue fighting.

Give me more targets, she said. We have to stop this now.

Through her artificial mind, Arendi interfaced with the targeting computer. She looked over the scans and saw the enemy ships’ fire from a distance. The particle beams expelled, melting the ring’s hull, setting the interiors on fire.

But before she could act, the scans also detected the new contact. It emerged, not far off. In fact, dozens of Endervar ships had begun pulling back from Vellanar to surround it.

Spatial distortion, the ensign said. Are you seeing this?

She projected it onto the main screen. The black region dotted with the swirling light of the enemy. Then it burned. Sparking in the cold was the mysterious power; the boundaries of space and time gave way. The result was a ring of fire that settled like an eclipse against the sun. The vagrant energies were sustaining the breach.