POD (The Pattern Universe) (29 page)

“Because, ‘Sister’, that way lies folly and annihilation at our own hands,” said the Crystal Queen, her temper ebbing away as she fought to bring it under control.

“You and I have a new path to travel. I will lead and you WILL follow. You will submit to me and I will spare you and your hive. You will be free to go and we will forge a new hive that will be the beginning of the recovery of our race.”

The Avien Queen was taken aback. “What madness is this?” she muttered. “How?... why? What benefit is my hive to you with me still as its queen?"

“Hah! I didn’t say you would be Queen, you common harlot!" the Queen spat at her. "I will be Queen, you will submit to my rule and keep your hive, that is all.”

“Your choice is simple, submit to me here, now, and you walk out of here to your ship, or don’t and I will hunt down you and your clones as Nonnies and you will live a short life of regret.”

“I cannot submit to something I know nothing of. Why do you break with our tradition. We have rules to follow. You cannot allow me to survive. There are no precedents for such compassion in our race.” The Avien Queen pleaded for her execution.

“Compassion? COMPASSION? You think I do this out of compassion? I do this to build a super hive with me as its queen and you shall be under me. I will take over every hive in the empire and we will once again flourish and expand our territories. The Nubl will be greatly feared once more.”

“SUBMIT!” The Queen ordered.

Out of patience with this spindly creature, she wanted it out of her sight before she undid her promise to herself and her race. She would save it, the whole of the Nubl, or what remained. This cretinous creature was the first. It wouldn’t be the last.

Finally, the Avien Queen submitted and kneeled in front of the Crystal Queen. A clone came forward to place a locking metal brace around her neck.

“What is this?” she asked leaning away from it in horror.

“This will convert your frequency to mine. I will know your every thought, should I choose to read such matherings from your incompetent skull.”

The clone placed the metal ring around her neck and closed it whereby the ends sealed and the Avien Queen mewled in pain as the programming in the ring’s circuits took over her memory core and overwrote the command structure with that of the Celnista’s. Once completed it would provide a two-way comms link that would allow the Queen to talk to her new underling who would then pass on her orders to her hive.

“Now you are mine and so is your hive.” The Crystal Queen crowed.

As an example of her might, she mentally pressed her determined will on the Avien Queen who, as she collapsed under the pressure, passed her thoughts onto every single Avien clone and worker who also collapsed wherever they stood.

As the Crystal Queen imprinted her demand for subservience on every single mind in the Avien network, it moulded them to her and they became her subjects. Within a few periods it was done. There would be no further demands necessary, the Avien hive was now hers.

She turned back to the now Avien underling and beckoned her arrogantly "You can rise and follow me, we have work to do to restore order to both of our hives. Thanks to you, I have lost my ‘Ta and I must recall my g'Nar from the world of pestilence they are, at this moment, trying to extinguish. We have much to do now."

The Avien Queen followed, bemused by events and not a little fearful, for what the Crystal Queen had planned. It would not be an experience she would enjoy, of that she was sure. Her hive was lost and this ring around her neck turned her into a subjugated lackey of another hive. She should have forced her execution on the Queen. It would have been more honourable.

The Queen turned and looked at her, smiling evilly. “Your new position suits you, harlot. Beware what you think in my presence.”She turned to resume her walk to her Throne room.

The two hundred ships approached the fifth planet following the route of the Celnista’Ta. They detected the remnants of a space battle, the anti-matter radiation indicated there had been an attack so their guard was up. Shields were on full and weapons primed.

They detected small weapons platforms in their path along the way. They paid attention to the initial forays of this inferior technology before ignoring them altogether after the harmless nature of misfiring missiles indicated that they were unreliable and not a viable threat to the battle fleet.

The sight of the incoming ships on Zeke’s view-screen was morbidly fascinating. The screen slowly filled with red dots, spread out in a big head of leading ships and tapering into a tail at the back. All of them intent on destroying Earth.

Zeke and Pod stood between them and the planet. The Fighters had regrouped and were amassed around them, ready to do their bit in defending their home. They waited, the fleet coming at the same pace as the single ship so several hours had elapsed.

As the Nubl approached, their speed slowed until almost like a blur they came into focus and halted. Immediately they spread out and began to dance around the defensive ships. Half of them moved off and made for Earth which was already close enough for them to open fire upon.

Zeke could see from the left view-screen that bombardment of Earth had begun. The others continued to group themselves tighter and tighter around Zeke and the Fighters. A target of easy means according to the Nubl history.

Arty came on line and advised ten seconds, and Pod synchronised with the chronometer they shared. The lead Nubl opened fire on Zeke’s ship, the shields deflecting the beam. A second ship targeted them and added its beam, then a third. His ship’s shield was holding, but Zeke saw the power output rising alarmingly.

“Pod, are you sure you can handle this many ships?" asked Zeke, who was worried about the loading.

“Affirmative,” was all Pod would say in reply, it was quite busy.

Further beams dashed out from the Nubl and concentrated fire on the Fighters. All stood their ground. This was the first time the shields had been exposed to enemy fire. Nobody knew what the outcome would be.

“Pod, how are all the shields holding up?” Zeke asked.

“I’m instructing those in front to withdraw to the rear,” was all the answer Zeke received.

Zeke gave the command. Pod and all the fighters opened fire on the enemy. The enemy shields also took the hits with zero damage, but it gave them pause. Now the ships started to move independently closer, and as Zeke began to panic they were going to be overcome, the alarm came from Arty and suddenly the view-screen was clear.

Zeke checked the side-screens and then looked out the windows. All the fighters were with them.

They were now outside the ring of Nubl ships and behind them awaiting an opportunity to enter into the fray.

Arty came on-line. “All sentinels deployed and the Nubl are under concentrated attack from all directions. Hold back until I advise entry is clear.”

The sentinels would now be deploying around both groups of the Nubl fleet and would already be dispensing their lethal vials of nanites. Only ten percent of them needed to get through the shields to inflict total carnage on the enemy ships. It required the Nubl to remain in the vicinity for the length of time it took the vials to drill through their shields and reach the hull where they would break on contact.

As they watched the Nubl began firing all around them. Their lasers attempting to take out the thrusters that powered the vials of nanites. They wouldn't know, of course, that the nanites had already been deployed and the thrusters had been modified to behave like Nubl missiles to confound the enemy and distract them from the real danger.

The nanites had been reprogrammed by Goeth and Lang to concentrate on critical hull points, weapons, sensors, control conduits and engines. They were also instructed to leave as much intact as possible. It had been decided that loss of power was sufficient to disable a ship and then concentrate on the occupants. Earth wanted to retain as many enemy ships as possible. If they survived this invasion attack they wanted to meet the Nubl on equal terms next time around.

Zeke had just begun to think the tide was turning when the Nubl ships suddenly spread out and began bombarding Earth from multiple points. The fighters had already engaged under the orders of Pennington, and Pod was trying hard to concentrate fire on one ship and search out weaknesses from the nanites. There wasn’t much luck as the nanites hadn’t had sufficient time to work their magic.

Earth was getting hammered. The shields were holding up, but the infrastructure around the cities, roads, utilities and villages with farming communities, were all taking hits and being scorched by refracted beams. The Nubl were operating a scorched Earth approach, leaving nothing standing.

A city in Europe was being hammered by about ten Nubl ships and was turning a crimson red under the mirror.

“Pod, go there,” he pointed at the touch-screen indicating the focal point of their attention. “Let's try and distract them before that shield collapses.”

Pod complied and they shot off to see what they could do with their lasers and anti-matter missiles. They picked a point off-centre to the ten ships and lined up the nearest.

“Fire both tubes,” Zeke ordered.

“Concentrate all lasers directly at the anticipated point of contact of the missiles. Let’s try and create a weak point.”

The missiles hit the shield exploding harmlessly.

Not being a seasoned space fighter, Zeke had to admit he was clutching at straws trying to use his previous military experience in a role best suited for an air-force maverick, but he was here and they had to try and make some impact on the numbers. They were seriously having a problem down on Earth.

Suddenly, Zeke had an idea. “Pod what would happen if you picked up one of those robot ships and planted it inside an asteroid. Could you do it, shield and all?”

Pod aimed the Dematz field at the nearest ship. He was still firing keeping it under pressure, when the strangest thing happened. The enemy ship’s shield popped and Pod’s lasers fired straight into its hull disabling it in one sweep.

“Did you just do that, Pod?” asked Zeke curiously.

“Yes, it appears using the Dematz field on a shielded ship cripples their shield immediately.”

The other ships had suddenly become aware of Pod and instead of firing at the city below, were aiming at Pod and Zeke with a vengeance.

Pod popped another shield and zapped the ship with a pair of AM Missiles and while they were streaming to the target, it did the same to the next ship in line using the lasers to take out their weapons on the front of their Shadow-ship.

Pod had updated Arty and suddenly whole groups of Shadow-ships had their shields dropped. The fighters, that had been waiting for the nanites to take effect, took advantage of the situation and disabled, or took out, ship after ship, working in teams of two.

Two fighters came in alongside Zeke’s ship and both victory rolled as they headed back in. Both the pilots were trainees of Zeke’s and were giving him the thumbs up. He knew which ones they were, PaPa-John and Ketchup-Sam, who had given him a hard time when he was trying to pass on what he had learned about manoeuvring in space.

They still knew a ton of stuff he didn’t and they had taught him more than he'd taught them. He learned quickly and earned their respect. They had become friends so he was glad they were still alive and in the game. He had seen many disintegrate under the powerful lasers being used by the Nubl.

With the number of enemy ships still around one hundred and twenty plus, the field was by no means level and there was considerable damage being meted out to Earth’s infrastructure, but as far as Zeke could tell the mirror shields were holding out as long as the concentration of enemy ships was kept down.

Pod followed the battle and wherever there was a build up, it and Arty worked together to disable chunks of ship shields so that Pod could direct the fighter A.I.s to aim for those that they could now damage. The Nubl were losing, but desperately trying to burn the planet below and make them pay a heavy price.

As the battle raged, the Nubl finally turned towards the Earth defence forces that were having such a devastating effect on their ships. Not knowing how or why their shields were failing, they went on the attack, concentrating on forcing the Marauder fighters into new levels of danger by ganging up on them and attacking from both sides.

Zeke watched another fighter winked out of existence, taken out by wide red and white combined laser beams that left very little in the way of wreckage.

Pod and Arty worked frantically trying to keep on top of the mounting pressure of ships. They were beginning to think that, even they, couldn’t cope with the mass of fire they were drawing.

Dodging the combined beams meant Pod was D-Jumping every thirty to forty seconds, just long enough to get a pair of missiles off, or hit a ship in the rear with its lasers. It was all Zeke could do to hang on and direct secondary fire wherever he could.

He managed to provide backup for fighters that were close by, but he really needed a separate weapons console that he could fire independently. As it was, Zeke had to nudge Pod through his implant to let him fire on something when Pod actually wanted to hit something else. Pod had no time to organise a separate weapons console and they had to make do with the implant acting as a comms switch.

Then suddenly it was all over. On Zeke's view-screens, ships were turning mid fight and heading off in the direction they came from. Ships were disappearing into hyper-drive and winking out of view as their speeds increased beyond human visibility. The remaining fighters and Pod were left in a sea of wrecked Nubl craft and a big question mark.

Why had they left?

The Nubl Talon had been in constant touch with his Queen. Neither the ‘Ta or his ship were anywhere to be found and the enemy had a secret weapon that could disarm their shields. He reported to his Queen that they were being systematically destroyed.

That was not all, the ships had started to develop faults and were breaking up. Some of the Nubl crews were being killed by some unknown virus. They had lost contact with a few that seemed to fly off into space without any control or direction.