Beyond Death (Perimeter Defense Book #2) (17 page)

"Crown Prince, imagine just for a second the worst possible outcome: the fleet loses, and you die. Who will want me around on Tesse after that? Verena is very suspicious and jealous; she will not let me stay there with her husband. Your brother may allow me to live in his palace for some time, but he could just as well throw me right out the door. After all, I am not even your Highness's lover but no one at all. The only reason people keep calling me Princess is because they're confused. Without a title or money, or friends or protectors, I won't be able to live. I'll just disappear. Now, on the other hand, if your fleet does win, there will have been no reason for me to leave. And I want to remind you of one favor you owe me. Your Highness promised me a romantic evening, which you have yet to make good on. So, I won't be going anywhere until that is taken care of. And basically, Princess Likanna asked me to look after her father before she left, and I promised her I would."

The last two arguments she put forward looked strange, but I didn't point it out, instead allowing Astra to stay. She squealed in joy and unexpectedly took a seat on my knee. The Princess kissed me quickly, and said, looking right into my eyes:

"This is an advance on the romantic evening. And to make that evening happen, you just need to beat these Aliens. Easy as that."

* * *

As it turned out, it wasn't "easy as that," a fact I realized shortly after the fleet started the jump to the Kej system. The Alien ships, which were supposed to have been near the planet Kej-V, were next to the Kej station itself at full battle readiness. They were clearly waiting for my fleet.

"There is a group of targets. They're four hundred miles out," Nicole said.

Today, the girl seemed surprisingly calm. I had somehow become used to her always being anxious before a battle.

"Attention, all ships! Do not charge them head on. Remember the training sessions in Sss. Head toward the first planet. Imitate a retreat! Heavies and battleships, full speed ahead. Don't let the
Sledgehammers
get any closer to us. Faster ships, slightly in front, but still make a sudden retreat, and no enthusiasm; you will soon be needed.
Surprises
from one to five, disperse. Head for the enemy, choose someone to sneak up on, and get ready to release the megatons if the Aliens try to come after the rest of us.
Tria
, don't lag behind!"

"The enemy has begun maneuvers! They are giving chase!"

I laughed. That was exactly what I was expecting them to do. Now we could test how effective the strategy of bombing the small ships would be.

"Destroyers and frigates, step on your thrusters and move out like your lives depended on it! Your mission is to get away from the epicenter of the explosion! Bombers, attention! Your goal is to reduce all the
Meteors
to shit! Set your timers to three seconds. Check projectile synchronization."

The Aliens' nimble frigates closed the distance quickly, trying to catch up to and capture my heavy ships so the
Sledgehammers
could get to work.

"Stand by in thirty seconds! Nicole, timer! Light cruisers, turn toward the enemy so you'll take the hit with your frontal shields. All ships, cover light-sensitive equipment!"

"Ten seconds to detonation! Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, launch!!!"

I was able to see the squad of
Surprises
appear simultaneously on the screen and launch their thermonuclear payload. But I was not able to tell whether my stealth bombers had warped back out or not. All the delicate external equipment on
Joan the Fatty
was covered with protective shields, including the cameras and radars.

Son of a bitch! Though
Joan the Fatty
had been two hundred miles from the blast, it gave a noticeable shake, and the electronic devices inside began flashing on and off, then switched to reserve power.

"Our thrusters have desynchronized. The electronics that control them have failed, but the automatic emergency system smoothed everything over," explained the captain.

"All ships report back on damage taken! Oorast Pohl, what are our shields like? I need a tactical map immediately!"

"This is
Bride of Chaos
. Our rear shield has fallen by fifteen percent – nothing critical."

"
Master of Tesse
here. The situation is similar. Our shields are down by fifteen percent."

"
Emperor August
here. Our stern shield is at thirty percent."

"
Legash-1
here. We have half of our shields."

"
One-Eyed Python
here. Rear shields at forty percent."

It remained unclear what had become of our stealth bombers, but I had already figured out that the rest of the fleet survived the five-megaton bombs with no losses. The heavies had already linked up with the smaller ships and were recharging their shields.

Finally, a tactical map showed up. Bingo! All that was left of the herd of
Meteors
was a scattering of debris! The Alien destroyers also painted quite the pretty picture: two of the
Ascetics
had been destroyed. The others were only still moving by inertia and had no shield remaining. Only a couple of
Hermits
were showing any signs of life, trying to make it back to their heavy ships.

"All ships, turn toward the enemy! Realign into battle formation! Do not advance yet!
Pyros -1
and
-2
, you're our receivers!
Surprises
six through ten, attention.
Tria
, attention! Right after the explosion, move out to capture the station! Turn off the warp beacon at any cost!
Warhawks
, attention. Right after the second explosion, capture anything that moves."

It seemed the enemy cruisers had started to suspect that this might not go their way and stopped advancing.

"Receivers, you're too close. You might get hit by the explosion. Go another two hundred miles out. Fifty
Pyros
for every receiver. Be prepared to capture everything still moving after the explosion!"

"My Prince, the enemy is preparing to retreat!" Nicole said, panicking as she watched the
Sledgehammers
' maneuvers.

"
Surprises
, cease attack! I repeat: cease attack!!!
Pyros
, attention! If they really do start to jump out, catch as many of them as you can in a warp disruptor. They're retreating! Advance! Capture them!!!"

The enemy ships really were trying to leave, but they didn't all make it. My soldiers captured five
Sledgehammers
in just the one haul. Unfortunately, they didn't get any of the other kind of cruisers. I would have liked to be able to see them in battle."

"Tuki-tuka-de-sa, this is
Surprise-1
. We have successfully jumped out toward the eleventh planet. None of the five bombers were damaged."

"Great work, de-sa. Your squad set a galactic record: fifty-four Alien ships destroyed in one attack. The best Ravaash males will now have to compete in a tournament for the right to mate with you, a great hero of the Alien war."

"It will be done, tuki-tuka-de-sa!" Popori de Cacha entered the mission into his electronic bracelet.

Standing change. Chameleon race opinion of you has improved.

Chameleon race opinion of you: +21 (loyal)

From there on, it went as usual. My fleet approached the captured
Sledgehammers
and turned their electronics off from a safe distance. The battleships moved out in front, and the heavy assault cruisers stayed slightly behind. Three minutes later, all five
Sledgehammers
had been destroyed. I had already figured out that the other Alien ships had retreated to the fifth planet. Of course, it would be important to catch them, so I sent
Warhawks
and
Pyros
off after them. My fleet's other ships covered the landing ships for the assault on the station.

Just then, a message came in from Angel. My scout has reached the Aysar Cluster and was reporting on the situation. He hadn't been able to say a whole sentence yet, but I could tell by his agitated voice that he had seen something important.

"My Prince, the warp jump to Aysar takes three hours and seventeen minutes. It's a complete shitshow out her! I jumped at two hundred out from the beacon and appeared right in the midst of the Alien fleet! I can't leave yet; there's not enough room to accelerate and warp out. So now it's only a matter of time until I'm uncovered. There are thousands of them here! I repeat: there are thousands of them here! Over two hundred battleships. And there are even bigger ones, too! Oh my God! They've intercepted the transmission! They're all accelerating in my direction. It's over. I’ve been revealed... Long live the Empi..."

The transmission cut off, and everyone understood perfectly what that meant. Admiral Kiro Sabuto stood first and removed his hat, after which the other staff officers followed his example. Even Bionica stood and waited out the minute of silence, before actually relaying to us what General Savasss Jach was saying:

"The Kej warp beacon has been captured!" she informed us.

"Turn it off, immediately!" I commanded. "What about the ships that retreated?"

"This is
Warhawk-4
. We were just barely able to get out to the fifth planet. We are over twelve hundred miles from the enemy. They are clearly preparing to warp out again. Figure out where, and we'll intercept them.

Unfortunately, we were not able to catch the enemy. The targeted ships left toward the Aysar Cluster. I ordered one of the cloaked frigate captains to follow the enemy, making sure to set the prewarp point as far from the Aysar station as possible so as not to repeat Angel royl Mauri's mistake.

My ships detected immobile Alien landing ships over Kej-V. There were nine huge disk-shaped starships. They didn't react to our approach at all. I ordered eight of them shot down, and the ninth captured.

Ten minutes later the general informed me that the starship was under our control. The Alpha Iseyek landing ships did not meet any resistance. The ship turned out to have been totally abandoned. All that was left to do was sweep up the remaining Aliens on the planet, but General Savasss Jach was already attending to this issue, having reanimated fifty thousand landing troops.

Everything was leading up to the praying mantises landing on the planet and clearing the surface. Just then, when I was about to officially declare victory over the enemy, a blood-curdling scream rang out from a tactics officer:

"Alien ship on the scanner!"

"A cloaked frigate has appeared one hundred twenty miles from the station!" expanded Colonel Gor ton Vulf, who I had sent off to the warp beacon to keep the technicians under control.

"New beacon in system!" Nicole Savoia told me in an even tone, before turning to me to await my orders.

Everyone understood perfectly what it meant. The Aliens had opened a portal for their fleet to jump through.

"Kill that beast as quickly as possible!" I commanded, though I understood perfectly that it was already too late.

My ships took out the mobile beacon deliverer with no problems in six minutes. Now, everyone was waiting impatiently for messages from the scout we had sent to the Aysar Cluster. And an hour and a half later, he did, in fact, confirm my worst suspicions:

"My Prince, there are only six cruisers and two beat-up destroyers left near the Aysar station. Likely the very same ships that fled from Kej. All the other starships jumped toward the warp beacon in your system."

"They should reach us in one hour and six minutes," said Admiral Kiro Sabuto, laying out his calculations.

Everyone remained silent, waiting for my decision.

"Evacuate the landing troops from the station immediately. We will not be able to manage such a huge amount of Aliens. All ships, report back on energy reserves."

They ran down the roll call. The small ships had all managed to fully recharge, and the heavy cruisers were also just about ready to retreat to Sobj. The two battleships, though, were holding us back. Both
Bride of Chaos
and
Master of Tesse
needed another fifty-seven minutes to prepare for a jump.

"Communications officer, call Triasss Zess. I need a beacon in Sobj in fifty-eight minutes!

A minute later, the Swarm operation coordinator appeared on screen. I explained the situation to Triasss Zess. The enemy fleet in the Kej system was beaten, but the Aliens had sent their main fleet from the Aysar Cluster.

"Crown Prince Georg, will you be able to evacuate any of our extremely valuable experts from the fifth planet?" the praying mantis inquired. "One of the main Gamma Iseyek genetic modification research centers is located on Kej."