Sword of Axia (The Arcadian Jihad) (8 page)

Not a single man answered. The problem was that Rafe’s advance party was heavily outnumbered. Even when the rest of the men were on the surface they’d still be outnumbered five to one. Assuming they managed to get to the surface.

“Do those troops have plasma rifles, heavy armor?”

“Well, yes, of course, it’s part of their standard equipment.”

He was interrupted by the shattering sound of the alarm klaxon, one of the guards had managed to hit the emergency button on the wall. A shot from one of Rafe’s troopers smashed into him but it was too late, the security doors were already starting to lower in the tunnel. They were trapped. When the nearest door was halfway down they heard the sound of booted feet running towards them, shouted commands rang out. The Axian heavy division had arrived.

System Standard 2728.1258 Above Dafne

Blas looked at the screens, trying to work out his next move. The battle was going badly, it could hardly be worse. They’d smashed their way through four of the outer defensive screens, but the losses were staggering. Out of a total of twenty cruisers in the Fleet, he’d lost seventeen, now he had three left with which to fight through to the ground troops. The huge loss of life and ships was staggering and yet he still had to get through the last ring, the main planetary defenses before he could give support to the men on the surface. If they still lived.

“What’s the latest word from Rafe Glen? Has the second wave gone in yet?”

“That’s an affirmative, Sir. The freighter just left the surface to go back out to ferry the third wave down to the surface.”

“How is the attack proceeding, do we have any information?”

There was silence on the bridge, he noticed they seemed to be avoiding his eyes.

“Well, does anyone have an answer? Dirk, what was the last signal we received?”

“They’re under attack from an Axian heavy division, Sir. It was down there to refit with new weapons and armor, it took them by surprise.”

“A division? How many troops?”

“Five thousand.”

The attack alarms sounded, the synthetic voice loud on the bridge.

“Warning, incoming interceptors, ten have lifted off from the surface, estimated contact in one minute and twenty seconds!”

Blas was out of time, they were waiting for him to give the Fleet their orders, yet he was outgunned, outnumbered, almost out of ships and men. Could they take on the interceptors? Yes, probably, but they’d take even more losses, afterwards they’d have precious little to fight with, they’d be finished off by the remaining defensive ring. He made his decision, right or wrong, it was the best he could do.

“Mr. Gehlen, recall that last freighter and send it back down to collect Rafe Glen’s survivors, we’re pulling out. Helmsman, reverse course and take us out of the area. Navigator, plot hyperspatial coordinates to take us to the fallback rendezvous in the Rigel System, we’ll meet up there with Rafe’s ship and give them what assistance we can.”

No one moved, they were shocked at the sudden reversal.

“Move, all of you, I’ve given the orders! Do you want to die here, before we’ve even begun? If the Axians don’t kill you I’ll shoot you myself. The attack has failed, we’ve got to live with it and learn from it.”

They jumped to obey, shocked by the violence in his voice. Crewmen held on as the ship began a sharp turn through one hundred and eighty degrees to leave the Dafne orbit. A rustle of fabric announced Sister Serena who’d just arrived on the bridge. Blas had ordered that she should remain somewhere safe, preferably close to the lifeboats in case they were hit.

“Don’t worry, you had no choice, Captain.”

“I wasn’t worrying, it had to be done,” he said irritably.

“Of course, you’re quite correct,” she said smoothly. “Captain, there is something important I need to discuss with you, when we’re clear of the danger zone. I’ll be in my cabin.” She turned away from him and walked regally off the bridge. Only the lingering fragrance of her perfume was left to remind him of the dramatic effect she had on him. He shook his head to clear it.

“They’re still following, Captain. The lead ship has started firing.”

“Are the aft shields still functional?”

“Forty percent, Sir, we’ve taken a lot of hits. The forward shields are still undamaged.”

“Very well, as soon as we’re out of range of their platforms, make another one hundred and eighty degree turn and engage them head on, if we don’t wipe them out before we enter hyperspace we’ll never get away.”

He felt lighter on his feet. “Dirk, the gravity compensators, we’re losing them.”

The first officer ran his fingers over the keyboard of his terminal. “Hull damage has been pretty bad, one of the hits damaged the inner hull. It’s not running smoothly, I guess the gravity compensator has been knocked out of true.”

“As long as it doesn’t get any worse we’ll manage. How long until we’re out of range of the planetary defenses?”

“We’re out of range now, Sir.”

“Good. Kill those ships, Dirk and let’s go home. Hold tight, everyone.”

The ship swerved around as only a light cruiser could, their warship was new, the fastest and most agile in the Fleet. They gripped the handholds as the vessel came about, immediately the guns targeted the Axian interceptors.

“Enemy ships in range and locked on,” Gehlen announced. “The lead ships have fired.”

“Defensive power to front shields, fire main armament.”

The particle beams hammered out towards the pursuing enemy, some mixed briefly with the salvo fired by the enemy ships. Two beams exploded as they met each other head on, the rest hit their targets. The Axian salvo struck first, the Capella rocked as three plasma bursts smashed into her frontal defenses. Blas ignored them, they did not have enough power to destroy the reinforced shields. Their own salvo hit the onrushing Axian interceptors, ships exploded and space lit up with a series of giant fireworks as the attackers were destroyed, some vaporized to dust, others blasted into drifting, helpless hulks. Only one Axian survived, it made a violent turn to starboard and almost immediately collided with another of their ships that had already by reduced to a burnt out ruin. There was another explosion, then nothing. Someone cheered on the bridge.

“Quiet there, we’re not out of it yet. Mr. Gehlen, let’s try and meet up with Rafe and see what help we can give him.”

The ship went about again and headed out into deep space. They were damaged, but not mortally, as long as they could travel at hyperspatial speed they could get home. He listened for a while for any noise from the malfunctioning gravity compensator, but it didn’t seem to be getting any worse.

“Dirk, I’m going to see the Vice-President, Sister Serena. Take us out of here fast, engage the fission thrusters, as soon as we’re clear get the fusion drive accelerators spooled up and take us into hyperspace. Set course for the rendezvous point, you have the con.”

“Aye, Sir, I have the con.”

The ship surged away from the Planet Dafne, Blas watched and waited at the back of the bridge as Gehlen expertly took the ship out and into hyperspace. Only when they were safe did he go and knock on her door, a voice said ‘Come’. When he walked in the smell of her perfume almost overpowered him once more. Why did it always surprise him, it always seemed different, there was something about it that he guessed could drive some men crazy with desire. He reminded himself to keep control, he was the Captain of a warship, there were more important things to think about now than, well, sex. But my God, she was beautiful. Could she...”

“I’m not reading your mind, Captain.”

“But I was just thinking....”

“All men do, I told you, I don’t need to be a mind reader to know what you’re thinking,” she smiled. “Please believe me, I’ve closed my mind to yours, you’re quite safe.”

That tiny smile was, well, alluring. Damn the woman, he didn’t want to be quite safe with her, quite the opposite. Well, yes, he did, he had responsibilities. But no, right now he wanted to be unsafe. Very unsafe.

“Vice-President, why did you want to see me?”

“Please, call me Serena. I want to discuss the next stage of our strategy with you. Firstly, tell me what went wrong with out attack on Dafne? I’m not a military person, explain it to me.”

He nodded. “You recall on Isolde, er, Serena, when Guide Tell made it clear that we needed to mount a major mission to keep up morale until our forces were strong enough to make a final assault?”

Her smile was still warm, even more inviting. “Mm, yes, I do. May I call you Constantine?”

“Yes. The problem, Serena, was that this operation was too hotheaded and impulsive, there not enough planning, not enough troops, not enough ships. And worst of all, insufficient intelligence. We should have been warned about that Axian division refitting on the surface, we need to know what the enemy is doing before we attack.”

“So what do we do next, Constantine? Please, sit here, let me get you a drink.”

“Thank you, Serena.” What was he saying? That perfume, it was so overpowering it was hard to think straight. “What we should do is hold back our forces until we’re fully ready and make sure we have the kind of intelligence in place that can give us the information we need. We’ll need to replace the ships we lost today and to train new men and crews. It’ll take time, but when we do hit them next we need to make it an iron-hard punch where they’re weakest, that way we’ll win. We need certain victories, Serena, that’s the way to recruit people to our cause. Victories.”

“You make it sound so wonderful, Constantine. May I just sit a little closer to you, yes, like that? Oh, yes.”

They were kissing, pulling at each other’s clothes, he looked towards the door, but she touched him gently. “It’s alright, Constantine, we’re totally private here. No one would dare to enter.”

Then they were naked, stroking each other’s bodies, touching, caressing, kissing, finally he entered her and they made love, a long, sensuous, passionate and exquisite experience. It left him almost gasping afterwards with a wondrous feeling of ecstasy that seemed to linger long after the event. Serena had the firm body of a teenage girl with smooth, creamy skin, he’d never known himself to become so aroused, so carried away by a woman’s touch. Yet he had surprised himself even more, at the point of climax he’d been thinking of another woman, one whose face he hadn’t even seen. Evelyn Gluck. Finally, he broke away.

“I’d better get dressed, I may be needed on the bridge.”

“No, wait, let me help you.”

She held him tightly until he relented, then slowly she helped him back into his clothes, garment by garment, button by button, lace by lace, zip by zip, it was the most erotic experience he’d ever known, almost better than the sex itself. Almost, but not quite. She put her own clothes back on and they sat again on her couch.

“Will it work next time, Constantine, if we do those things you have suggested?”

“Yes it will. It’s a basic military precept, to bring overwhelming force to bear on one single point of weakness. It almost never fails.”

“In that case, please start preparing for our next attack, Constantine.”

He blinked. “You’re not serious? We haven’t even returned from this disaster yet.”

“But we will. What is the most heavily defended target in the entire Nine Systems, the most strategically important to the Axians?”

He laughed. “That’s no secret, the hydroponic factories on Corazon are the most critical resource in the known universe, whoever rules Corazon rules the Nine Systems. They will control almost the entire food supply for billions of people. Its defenses are massive, they’re totally impregnable, they are impossible to breach. We need to look for a more lightly defended option. There are plenty of places we can strike next, but not Corazon. Besides, what about Dafne, we still have to go back and finish the job there.”

“I understand that, yes. I will make arrangements to secure Dafne. I intend to speak with Guide Tell and we will begin infiltrating our people onto the planet. What we can’t win with military force we will achieve with subtler methods, persuasion, promises, alliances, even bribes where necessary. Given time we’ll bring the entire planet to a standstill, then we can take control. It’ll cut off the Axian’s munitions and leave you free to continue with the attack on Corazon.”

He couldn’t prevent his jaw dropping. “Didn’t you hear me? It can’t be done, attacking Corazon is impossible.”

That enigmatic smile again, how did she do it?

“I heard you, Constantine. Please start making plans for the attack. By the way, I didn’t say I wanted to attack Corazon, I said I wanted to take it.” Her voice was steel now, the softness had left it. She came near to him and again he felt himself overwhelmed by her power.

“Please don’t let me down, Constantine. Anything you need, let me know and I will make sure you have it.” She stared into his eyes. “Anything.”

He had to shake his head to clear his head of the overwhelming aura of her power.

“What about Guide Tell? He may not agree.”

She smiled again. “I will deal with Guide Tell. You deal with Corazon. Take it for me, Constantine.”