Warpath (Rise of the Empire Book 4) (24 page)

Hundreds of explosive shells struck the cruisers, followed by the bigger grav-shells. Once a grav-shell hit the enemy ship, the small but powerful gravity generator inside activated creating a powerful gravity event. The result destroyed the generator, but also created a small implosion at the impact point, shattering the ships armor. Then the lasers and particle beams from the battleships finished the job.

Three Vanguard ships and twenty battleships punched through the cruisers, destroying more than half of them. The rest of the cruisers were then easy targets for the main Empire’s fleet.

***

Adrian watched as his ships punched through the Sowir cruiser formation, immediately he had the battleships in his main formation focus fire and take out the disorganized remains of the Sowir cruisers. The Sowir remaining battleships were moving to support their dreadnoughts, but Adrian had other plans. He sent orders for ships to intercept them. And then he sent orders for the Specter to move out of its position back into the field of battle and engage the Sowir dreadnoughts from the rear, creating a distraction for his other ships.

Suddenly Iris flew to stand in front of him, “Adrian something is wrong. Your implant’s connections to your brain are failing. You need to stop this now.”

“Just a little bit more Iris.” He said, but it felt harder and harder to think and act. He needed more time.

“But-”

“A few more minutes!”

***

Harbinger, Valhalla, Twilight, and Invictus started boosting out of their formation to intercept the two hundred and eight Sowir battleships. The laser and particle fire from the battleships hitting their fields and doing no damage. The four ships fired with all of their main weapons. Harbinger, Twilight and Invictus firing their rail guns and turrets sending a hail of metal slugs towards the battleships. The closer the four ships got to the Sowir battleships the less chance they had to evade the fire. Valhalla’s lasers constantly kept their fire on the battleships, cutting through them in seconds just as its particle cannons punched hole in their ships.

From the rest of the Empire’s formation, the remaining battleships provided suppressing fire with their own lasers and particle cannons. Their weapons were much less effective, but still powerful enough to damage and destroy the Sowir ships.

In a matter of minutes the Sowir battleship group was devastated, most of their ships destroyed and those that managed to escape damaged and limping. The four Vanguard ships moved to join the three ships that were about to engage the Sowir new ships.

***

The Sowir dreadnoughts were the first to open fire. Their lasers and particle cannon were more powerful than those of their smaller ships, but still they were not enough to damage the Vanguard ships. Tiamat and Titan targeted the closest enemy ships and fired with all of their forward weaponry. Dozens of particle cannons and lasers exploded out of the advancing ship striking at the Sowir dreadnoughts, punching holes and scorching their hulls. The dreadnoughts managed to survive the fire longer than the other Sowir ships, but in the end they too succumbed. The Sowir ships started amassing damage at a faster rate as the Retribution added its own fire, followed by the twenty battleships following behind it.

The Empire’s group moved even closer, to allow Retribution to use its most powerful turrets. As soon as Retribution entered in the range of its main weapon it opened fire. It fired dozens of 900mm shells, followed by an increased rate of fire with its smaller caliber rail guns. Every ship that got hit by the massive shell crumbled as its hull was blown inward. The Sowir dreadnoughts started exploding at an increased rate. And then they opened fire.

Sowir ships weapons swiveled, targeted the Vanguard ships and fired their own kinetic weapons. Hundreds of metal slugs started impacting the Vanguard ships, ignoring their field defenses. The shells were smaller and slower than their Empire counterparts, but they still started inflicting damage on the three massive ships reducing their field integrity that in turn allowed Sowir other weapons to inflict damage. The twenty battleships following behind also came upon the fire, as the Vanguard ships were too occupied to screen them. The Sowir dreadnoughts destroyed them in minutes. They were still losing ships to the Vanguard ships, but they were now inflicting damage to the previously invulnerable ships.

Sixty remaining Sowir dreadnoughts kept the pressure on the Vanguard ships, when suddenly two of their ships were blown to bits from their rear. The stealth ship Specter had arrived firing its limited weapons with deadly accuracy. Its firing had exposed its position, but using the gravity drives it quickly moved to another position. The distraction and confusion among the Sowir allowed the three ships a moment of respite.

The three ships regrouped, recovered from the shock of the Sowir counterattack and then executed a counter attack of their own. Just as they resumed their attack, their reinforcements arrived. Valhalla, Invictus, Twilight, and Harbinger opened fire from the Sowir flank.

***

Adrian watched as his ships took care of the last of the Sowir dreadnoughts. He had almost lost the Retribution to the Sowir fire. They had tricked him, in the same way that he had tricked them thirty years ago. But it didn’t matter, the battle was still going as his remaining one hundred and tree battleships took care of the remaining Sowir battle groups. But the victor was decided, his fleet had won.

As soon as he let himself relax the pain broke through his blocks and flooded him. He couldn’t think, he couldn’t see, the image of space disappeared. Frantically he tried to remember the mental command to shut down the Watchtower, but he couldn’t form the thoughts.

He heard a voice speaking from the distance. “Adrian! What is wrong? I am can’t make a connection with yo-” The voice cut off as Adrian managed to remember the command.

Suddenly he opened his eyes to see Sora with her front paws on his knees. Seeing his eyes open, she grabbed Adrian’s coat with her teeth and dragged him to the floor. His head hit the cold metal and turned to the side. He didn’t see Akash anywhere. He noticed that the doors of the room were smashed outward, but his mind couldn’t process what that meant. Sora was standing above him and he could feel her using her empathic powers on him. He felt her loyalty and love. And that helped a bit, as his body turned on him.

He felt as if every nerve in his body was on fire. His eyes hurt so much that his vision was fading to nothingness and then back. His mind was filling up with nonsense, voices speaking so loudly that he couldn’t even understand them. He tried to move and immediately regretted it. A shock of pain ran through his entire body and then he felt an unbearable pressure starting to build in his head. He felt as if his head was going to explode. Slowly he felt his consciousness slip away from him, just as Akash appeared from the broken doors followed by people in white coats.

***

Invictus – Command Center

Isani saw his c-board disengage from the Watchtower and knew that Adrian was no longer in the interface. He quickly took control of the fleet, hoping that his friend was alright. He had ninety three battleships and ten Vanguard ships remaining. Most of his battleships were damaged, but the remaining Sowir ships were in worse condition. The remaining eighty nine Sowir ships were running for the hyperspace barrier.

Isani sent out orders for the fleet to chase and destroy the remaining ships.

Chapter Twenty Three

Six days after the battle for Nelus – Sowir border system Rasaka

Nair Hakeem Fleet Commander of the Third Fleet watched as his ships destroyed the last of the Sowir defense platforms in the orbit of a small moon. The Sowir had no presence on any of the planets in this system, they used it only as a supply point for their patrols of the border. But still they had seven platforms protecting the supply depot.

The third fleet arrived in the system two days after the event in Nelus system and the Sowir were forewarned that they were in the state of war with the Empire. As his ships entered the system he broadcasted the call for their surrender on a loop, but the Sowir never responded.

His ships had already dealt with the token defending force of thirty heavy cruisers, and with the destruction of the defense platforms they were now free to assault the depot. He sent word to the army ships that they were clear to assault the small station.

***

Squad Leader Zhu “Pyro” Zhang Wei sat in the Empire assault ship as it drew closer to the Sowir station. His six teammates were sitting strapped in around him. The first part of their mission was to take control of the station. They had the information from Nel databases on Sowir tech and even a few of the old devices from Consortium that should be compatible. But the truth was that they weren’t sure if it would work, a lot of Sowir tech was based on that of the Consortium, but they had also kept a lot things to themselves.

The second part of their mission was to find and take prisoner the Sowir, those who moved in the shadows. They knew that there must be some on the station, the agents they were using might be able to give an illusion of being intelligent but they can’t function without input from the Sowir.

Zhu felt the assault ship come to a stop and attach itself to the station’s hatch. The assault ship had an adaptable docking mechanism, and it was designed to be able to dock with both the Consortium and Empire’s hatches, and luckily the Sowir hadn’t changed theirs. A few moments later the light turned yellow, and Zhu’s comms sprang to life.

“Alright people, that’s your get ready signal. We are reading a lot of activity from inside the station, expect heavy resistance. And your squad is the first in position, good luck.” The voice of Company Leader Dayo Okoro
said. Company Leader was on the army ship safely away from the station, guiding the other Platoons and their squads.

“Great we get to die first.” Anton “Killgrave” Maksimov said.

“Oh no, no, no. Don’t you dare start with this pessimism of yours again!” Leah “Red Fury” Smith said.

“We are entering an alien station about to fight mindless killer octopus drones that are controlled by an alien race we have never laid eyes on but have basically been at war with for thirty years. Not to mention that our friends Nel here have been at war with them for about a century, and lived alongside them for about another century. And they too didn’t know anything about them.” Anton retorted.

“Well, at least if they are mindlessly charging in your direction you won’t have any trouble aiming at them.” Dson “Rock” said in his usual calm Nel tone.

“Ha, ha. That stopped being funny after the first ten times you brought it up.” Anton said humorlessly.

“Perhaps to you, for us it is a source of endless amusement. And if my knowledge of Earth animals is correct, octopuses have eight limbs. These mindless drones only have seven.” Dson added.

Anton grumbled some choice words too low for the rest of the squad to hear.

“Don’t worry Anton, I’ll guard your back.” Toferami “Laas’tra” said, and then she slapped Anton on the back.

“Yeah because that will make him feel better. You can’t keep yourself out of trouble for more than fifteen minutes “blade chick”.” Adam “Lazy” Freeman said, using the standard version of Toferami’s Nel nickname, which he knew she hated.

“Ha, ha.” Toferami responded in the same exact tone as Anton.

“Alright guys, let’s just focus on the Sowir, the hatch will open any minute now.” Rasofari “Fig” said.

Just then the light above their heads turned green.

“That’s our go signal. Everybody move!” Zhu announced over the comms.

The seven soldiers stood and got in line with Zhu taking the rear. The hatch opened and they rushed into the station, prepared to fire. As soon as Zhu entered the station he noticed something strange.

“Uh… They must know that we are coming through here right?” Anton asked as they looked around the empty hallway. “I mean they still have sensors on the hull.”

“Be alert, they must be planning something. Keep moving towards checkpoint A.” Zhu ordered.

His squad got in formation and moved slowly. The inside of the Sowir ship was dimly lit, and the walls were rounded which made it seem like they were walking through a tunnel. As they didn’t encounter any sign of the Sowir they started moving faster, keeping watch on their HUD for any early warnings from their suits sensors.

The Sowir must have known that they were here, but they chose to let them come inside unopposed, and that made Zhu feel uneasy. If there was one word that described Sowir perfectly it was sneaky.

Then as they reached a three way branch in the hallway Zhu signaled his squad to stop. His HUD was showing strange reading from their rear.

“Fig, Fury move back a bit and check our rear. The rest take up positions here until they get back.”

They remained there waiting until the comm came back from Fig.

“
There is nothing here SL.
” Fig said.

“
Okay, come back.
” Just as Zhu finished speaking the sensors on his suit went off, and then Fig yelled out over the comm.

“
Oh fuck me! We got hostiles incoming!
”

“SL!” Killgrave yelled out at the same moment, “Hostiles from the front.”

“Get ready!” Zhu said as he watched Sowir mindlessly charging their positions from three hallways. “
The two of you pull back right now.
” Zhu told Fig over the comm.

His squad got into position, and waited for the hostiles to get into range. The weapon kits they were using now were specially made for fighting on ships or stations. They couldn’t use their weapons on their most powerful settings for fear of puncturing the hulls or damaging something they weren’t supposed to. Zhu carried a CF-13 light assault rifle, which was a smaller and less powerful version of the CFG-02 heavy assault rifle that fired bullets using a centrifugal force.