Sword of Axia (The Arcadian Jihad) (21 page)

The bridge was silent as they watched the tactical screen. The vast mass of warships came nearer and nearer, then space erupted as both sides opened fire at extreme range. The Rex Vitas staggered as a salvo of plasma fire scored a direct hit, alarm sirens started their discordant wail through the ship but a glance at the instruments showed that the damage was minor, the shields had held. Ships on both sides started to explode as they took more hits than their shields were capable of withstanding, the bridge speaker was alive with shouted reports.

“Flagship, we’ve been hit, we’re pulling out, unable to continue the fight, we’ll make temporary repairs.”

“Admiral, they knocked out our main engines, we’re….aarrggghh,” the long scream of agony seared out of the speaker and seemed to chill the temperature on the bridge by several degrees.

“It’s bad, but we’re hitting them back hard, Sir,” Gehlen said to the Admiral.

Rusal grimaced. They were indeed hitting them hard, but they were being hit just as heavily, the Axian ships were attacking just as ferociously as they were. As they drew nearer, the toll grew heavier, more of their Fleet dropped back or exploded in space. The heavy fire repeatedly jolted the ship, one huge explosion seemed particularly near, the sirens went off again. The damage control computer spoke its neutral tones.

“Warning, reserve air supply has been breached, artificial atmosphere cannot be replaced, repair is essential within twelve hours to maintain crew health!”

Rusal could sense their nervousness at the possibility of them gasping their last breaths in the dark vacuum of space. But it wasn’t a concern, the battle would be over long before twelve hours have gone by. The ship staggered again as it took another hit. Rusal looked at the screens, the enormous bulk of the Heavy Battlecruiser could now be seen in plain sight, it was shuddering as each of their enormous salvos struck the hull of the enemy flagship. Rusal was almost willing their batteries to score a mortal wound on the enemy vessel, but as they got nearer there was no sign that the Axian Jericho Class ‘Sword of Axia’ was any more badly hurt than they were.

They had almost reached the line of enemy ships, almost head to head, the danger now was that the fanatical Axians might ram, he remembered that previous suicide attack, but so far there’d been no sign of a repeat. He saw more and more of his ships hit and destroyed as each Fleet kept firing at point blank range, wiping out their opposite numbers with the sheer, raw power of the point-blank salvos. Then they were passing through the Axians, one moment there was a long line of ships stretching away either side of him, then all there was in front was blank space. He nodded at Gehlen.

“All vessels, one hundred and eighty degree turn and continue the attack.”

They held on as the Battlecruiser swung around in a turn that was so tight that the G-forces threatened to cause black outs to the crew, despite the Plastograv undersuits they all wore that were designed to prevent it.

“Enemy bearing directly ahead,” the combat information officer called out, trying to hide the excitement in his voice.

“All batteries engage,” Gehlen replied.

“Yes, Sir, wait, they’re breaking off.”

Surely not. Every crewman watched the screen intently, urging the Axians to keep turning. It wasn’t to be.

“They’re flanking us, Sir, there’s just too many of them, they’re flowing around our flanks, they’re going for an encirclement.”

They looked at Rusal. His gamble had failed, his ships were now at their most vulnerable, almost the entire Rescom Fleet was about to be caught in a gigantic trap occupying thousands of square miles of space. They waited for the Admiral to give the order to split into smaller formations to try to escape. It would inevitably mean heavy casualties, the Axians would pick them off ship by ship and they would be unable to deliver the devastating salvos that could smash holes through the enemy armada. They weren’t defeated, it was true, not yet, but every crewman on the bridge could taste something very like defeat at that moment. They waited.

“Admiral, I need to give the word. Do we split up the Fleet, Sir?”

Frantically he explored every option, looking for any kind of a hole in the Axis formations. An option would be to mount a massed attack on one side of the pincer, but it would be an act of desperation. The moment he turned to face one half of the enemy ships the other half would fall on their rear like a pack of starving wolves and chew them into pieces. If he split his Fleet into two to attack both pincers at once they’d still be horribly outnumbered and at risk of attacks from all sides.

“Admiral,” the comms officer called. “The Sword of Axia is signaling, they’re calling for our surrender. Do you want me to reply?”

There had to be something he could do. The guns had stopped firing on both sides, the Axians clearly believed that they’d won the battle. All that was left was for the Fleet to surrender and the crews could be transported to the prison planets and forced to spend the rest of their shortened lives in slave labor. What would his choice be, he had to decide now? Split up and become little more than renegade bands of mercenaries, leaving many of their ships destroyed in the process? Surrender and go like dumb animals into slavery?

“Comms officer, this is my reply. Nuts! Captain Gehlen, in ten seconds I want every ship in the Fleet to attack the flagship. We’ll go for the head and try to cut it off.”

“Yes, Sir.”

There was a buzz amongst the crew as orders flew around the ship and the Fleet. The bridge speaker was counting down, “Main batteries fire in five, four, three, two, one…”

You must pile all the plunder in the middle of the principal city and burn it. Put the entire city to the torch as a burnt offering to your God Ahura. That city must remain a ruin forever; it may never be rebuilt. Keep none of the plunder that has been set apart for destruction. Then the God Ahura will turn from his fierce anger and be merciful to you. He will have compassion on you and make you a great nation, just as he solemnly promised your ancestors. "The God Ahura will be merciful only if you obey him and keep all the commands I am giving you today, doing what is pleasing to him."

Excerpt from the Scrolls of Axia – Part XXIII Instructions for True Believers

System Standard 2728.1312 Surface of Corazon

“Enemy in sight, increase to maximum speed and choose your targets, fire on my command.”

Berg was watching the oncoming armor carefully. They had to get close, so close and all the time the Axians would be firing the devastating bursts that could smash through the Rescom forces. All they had in their favor was superior speed and mobility. And the fact they were highly experienced, battle-hardened troops that were determined to win. Or die trying. The first salvos came in from the Axian armor and they saw the brilliant plasma bursts flick across the gap between the two forces. The Rescom force was moving fast, swerving to make themselves hard targets to hit. They were also using every natural feature in the landscape to mask their vehicles from the enemy sights. The leaders and military commanders were watching from a command bunker that had been constructed deep under the planet’s surface. Cameras on the surface brought every detail of the battle to them and a row of tactical screens relayed the action as it took place. They watched their forces hurtling towards the enemy, they were within two thousands yards already and still they had not lost any vehicles. Then everything changed, the Axian gunners began to land hits on the N34s with devastating force, knocking out vehicle after vehicle. The commanders watching the battle saw ten, then twenty, then thirty of their armored force take massive hits from the Mk Vs that left them burnt out wrecks on the Corazon plain. They willed them on, they had to get inside the magical one thousand yards. Fifty N34s were knocked out but at last they were within range and they started to score hits, smashing through the Axians and hurting them badly. For every Rescom ASFV that was destroyed they were killing two of the Axians. The civilians were ecstatic.

“Surely this means we’ve got them beat, Mr. Smetana,” Guide Tell said jubilantly.

Smetana shook his head. “Do the math, Mr. President. We closed on them with four hundred and fifty of our vehicles left against a thousand of theirs. They’ll still have a hundred left when all of ours are gone. If we carry on this way, we’ve lost.”

A silence descended on the command bunker as the implications of Smetana’s words hit them. On the screens they could see their force being destroyed by the attritional might of the Axians, yet the terrible sacrifice may be for nothing. The battlefield was a fiery nightmare with hundreds, thousands of plasma bursts and laser beams scoured across the landscape as the armored titans clashed. One N34 that was very close to their bunker suddenly took a hit, it stopped immediately and for one moment it looked as if all the crew had to do was make a minor repair to the propulsion system and press on. Then a tongue of flame licked out, the hatch opened and a head popped out, at last they were evacuating. But another plasma blast hit the vehicle, a sitting target now that it was stationary. It exploded instantly and the crewman was blown up into the sky as the armored N34 underneath him disintegrated into thousands of fragments. Some parts of the debris showered over the sensors that fed their screens, there were splotches of red mixed in them, no one wanted to ask what they were. They shifted their gaze, in the distance their forces were still dueling with the Axians and smashed and broken vehicles littered the plain. It seemed that there were more vehicles destroyed than undamaged.

“It’s a slaughter.”

They looked around at Sister Serena, their Vice-President who had been watching from the rear of the bunker.

“It’s just war,” Smetana retorted fiercely. “What did you expect?”

“I need to get out there,” Serena said. “I can make a difference. Mr. Smetana, you must get me a vehicle.”

“What the hell do you think you can do on the battlefield? Get yourself killed?”

“You know what I’m capable of, Mr. Smetana, I can influence them.”

They understood immediately. Mind control, she could perhaps affect the will of the Axians to fight. Berg looked around for Blas.

“Constantine, we need to hurry, do we have an armored vehicle available?”

“Yes, there’s an N34 specially equipped for command and control, I’ll signal the crew and tell them to have it standing by. I’ll go too.”

“There’s no need, Mr. Blas,” Serena said. “What I have to do I can manage quite well by myself.”

“There’s no argument, Ma’am, I need to be out there help Berg to make the best use of our forces. I’ll report back, as soon as I have anything helpful.”

The noise outside was appalling as they made the short dash from the armored door of the command bunker out to the open hatch of the waiting N34. Smoke drifted across from burning vehicles and plasma beams constantly flashed overhead as the enemy armor fired repeatedly at the Rescom force. Then they were inside the cramped vehicle and the hatch clanged shut. The commander looked at Blas for orders. “Where to, Sir?”

Blas looked at Serena. “She’s in charge, you’d better ask her.”

“Drive directly for the center of their line, Commander.”

They both looked at Serena. “Ma’am, they’ll blast us off the face of the planet. I would suggest we stand off at a distance to do whatever you’re planning.”

She shook her head. “They won’t hurt us, Commander. Just do it, I need to be left alone now.”

Blas nodded at him. “You’d better do it.”

The Commander shrugged resignedly and went forward to speak to the driver. The vehicle lurched into motion and they had to grab at the handholds to stop themselves from being flung backwards. Serena disappeared into the rear of the vehicle. Blas went forward to the control cabin and watched the tactical screens. The battlefield was still bracketed with massive columns of vehicles wheeling and maneuvering like the cavalry squadrons of old, yet amazingly, a line seemed to be clearing through which they travelled. It was as if they were surrounded by some kind of a force field inside which none of the enemy dared to venture or even to direct their fire. Could it work, he wondered? This crazy idea that the Orphexian could use her mind control over a vast and bloody battlefield like this one? It was obviously possible, something was happening. Something was allowing them to press forward untouched by the fury of the gunfire that slashed between the two forces. The driver kept them heading for the Axian command vehicle, right in the center of the lines of armor. Then the worst happened, the driver hit an unseen hole in the terrain and the vehicle dropped in and came to a stop. They were flung forward against the armored hull, Blas heard a scream from the rear compartment. He rushed back to find that Serena was slumped in a corner, unconscious. He gathered her in his arms and laid her out gently on a blanket on the floor; thank the stars she was still breathing. The Commander was calling him.

“Captain Blas, we’ve got a problem.”

Blas rushed forward again and looked at the screens where the man was pointing. The mind control had been broken and the Axians were closing in. A Mk V came within ten yards with its gun pointing directly at them. The inference was clear.

“You’d better surrender, Commander, we’re out of options. I’ll stay here with the Vice-President and try and keep her out of sight.”