Valkyrie Burning (Warrior's Wings Book Three) (20 page)

I just hope everyone’s all right.

*****

Hayden Jungles

“Unbelievable.”

Kris didn’t bother to say anything in response to his Third, though he too was more than a little shocked by the display. A Lucian would have minimal odds of surviving a fall of that nature, but the sheer friction heat involved in stopping one’s descent in that manner would burn clear through even a Lucian’s silicate flesh.

He knew for a fact that this species couldn’t take near so much damage or heat as a Lucian, so he chalked it up to the armor, but in many ways that just showed how very dangerous this species was. Overcoming natural disadvantages was a key trait in any successful species, of course, but it was actually dangerous to be so successful at it.

More than one species in the history of the Alliance had leaned so hard on technological crutches that they eventually bred every erg of strong genetics from their bodies, becoming jokes of their former selves. Currently, many in the Alliance believed that the Ros’El were well on their way to doing just that as well, though it was an unsubstantiated theory at this point in time since no one had any reliable data on what they used to look like.

One thing such species had in common, however, was that they all became very dangerous as their control over technology increased and their physical competence decreased. More and more arrogant, willing to destroy just for the sake of destruction…warlike for the sake of war.

Kris hoped that he wasn’t witnessing the appearance of another race of that type, they were always far more trouble than their worth to the galaxy.

“Pack up our gear,” he ordered. “We’ll scout out the others, pick up survivors, and fall back to the regroup point.”

“Prime? We haven’t accomplished our mission…”

“They hold high ground, have mass movers, and would be more than willing to flatten this entire region if they knew we were here,” Kris growled. “We’ll fall back to the regroup point and wait for the fleet to engage from orbit. After that we’ll chance another strike.”

His tone, more than his words, ended the conversation. They packed up the observation and comm gear before fading into the jungle.

****

Tether Anchor Point, Hayden Colony Site

When Sorilla’s foot touched down on the ceramic concrete anchor, she let go of the tether and hopped lightly to the ground, ignoring the stares from those who had witnessed the last part of her descent.

She climbed out of the shallow pit that housed some of the maintenance sections of the tether and pushed open the security bars that would let her into the reception facility. Two guards were staring, open mouthed at her as she walked past them. Sorilla couldn’t help it, she grinned under her helm and keyed open the external speaker.

“I was in a rush, the car was too damn slow,” she told them. “Where do I find the OIC?”

Only one of the two had the presence of mind to point off in the appropriate direction, even as he stammered a response.

“H…he’ll be in the c-command center. It’s right down that r-road.”

“Thanks. When the car gets down, you want to tell them I’m in a briefing?” she asked, jerking her thumb skyward. “Oh, and get medical personnel here just in case. It was a rough trip.”

They didn’t answer, so she grabbed the more coherent of the pair by the ear with her armored grip. He yelped instantly as his earlobe sizzled slightly, causing her to let him go.

“Oops, sorry about that,” she said, not feeling particularly sorry at all, though she really should have remembered to check the external temperature of her armor. “But if you don’t want worse, you’ll acknowledge that you heard me, private.”

“Owww!” he whined, holding his ear. “I heard you! I heard you, damn it. Medical personnel, rough ride. I got it, they’ll be here.”

“Good,” Sorilla said, walking away from him even as she had her armor project her voice behind her. “Don’t forget. I’ll be talking with the brass. Tell them I’ll check in with them ASAP afterward.”

“Got it. Jesus,” the private ground out, watching until she was gone. “What a fucking bitch.”

His partner was still staring up the tether line, shaking his head in total disbelief. “The car is still over forty thousand feet up. Who the hell is in that kind of a hurry?”

The private scowled, took two steps over, and smacked his partner on the back of the head.

“Ow! What the fuck, man!?”

“Snap out of it. You call for the medics, I’m going to call command.”

“What? Why?”

“Because if the lieutenant commander doesn’t get a heads up that she’s coming his way, a burnt ear is the least of my worries. Go on, call the medics!” he growled as he keyed into the command channel himself.

He didn’t have the faintest clue how he was going to explain this one to the brass.

*****

Once she was out of sight of the two men, Sorilla looked around and leaned tiredly into a wall. It was mostly hidden under her armor, but she could feel her hand shaking as she lifted it up and twisted her forearm about.

Finally, she clenched her fist tightly and pushed off the wall.

There was work to be done, she didn’t have time to go to pot now.

*****

Tether Counterweight Station Liberty, Hayden Orbit

“General,” a young ensign spoke softly as she appeared near the brigadier’s side.

“Yes, Marlee, what is it?” Kane asked, not looking up.

“Sergeant Aida has reported in from the surface.”

Kane frowned, confused. “I didn’t think the car would be down there for another half hour?”

“Forty minutes, sir. It’s a little confused right now, but one of the guards on the tether car facility said something about her telling him that she was in a rush and didn’t feel like waiting?” the ensign said, sounding more than a little confused, not that he blamed her. “He also recommended that we send a maintenance crawler down the line?”

Kane rubbed his temples. He could feel an ‘Operator migraine’ coming on.

“I see. Find out what the hell happened, Marlee,” he said, sighing deeply. “As much of a smartass as that lady is, she isn’t stupid enough to jump out of a tether car without good reason.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Oh, and send down a crawler.” Kane shook his head.

“Had one on queue anyway, General. We can’t be sure what kind of damage may have been done by the enemy assault.”

“Good. I’m a little busy at the moment, but could you send a message to Lieutenant Commander Grange for me?”

“Of course, sir.”

“Just tell him that she is all his now,” Kane said, “and all the luck in the system to him. He’s likely to need it.”

“Sir?” Ensign Marlee Devon asked uncertainly.

“He’ll understand.”

“Yes, sir.”

As the ensign walked away, Kane returned his attention to the plot maps that filled the station’s operations room. The enemy taskforce was now decelerating, likely to bring themselves to an engagement velocity since it was clear that they weren’t aiming for a zero relative velocity with the planet. They had spread out, keeping almost a light-second between each ship as they closed, which was going to make targeting a little trickier, but only marginally.

It was his opinion, and that of Admiral Brookes, that it was most likely a tactical SOP on the aliens’ part. When they had to consider weapons like the gravity valves as a possibility, it was best not to group up too much. That was a lesson human forces learned the hard way during the first and second battles of Hayden.

A glance at the plots told him that they had another ten minutes before the enemy reached maximum estimated engagement range.

Likely the battle wouldn’t begin then. Few commanders worth their salt would open up at the maximum range in the situation they were looking at. No, they’d close a little more, firm up their target locks, and loose the dogs when they had a better chance of critical strikes. The problem was that, against immobile targets like a tether station and a satellite network, that range wasn’t going to be as close as he’d prefer them to be.

He wanted to move his units into position, but they were immobile. He wanted to shout orders, prepare his soldiers for battle, but they were already prepared. In the end, there wasn’t a damned thing he could do but sit here in a sitting duck the size of a small city and wait for the enemy to come to him.

I miss battle tanks and field warfare.

*****

Shadow of Hayden’s second moon

Nadine sucked a drink of coffee from the thermal sippy cup, refusing to submit to the urge to throw the damned undignified thing across the room in a childish pique of frustration. There were times she despised the space service, and sitting in zero gravity with catheter chafing at her urethra while she tried to look calm and commanding with an infant’s drinking vessel in her hand was one of those times.

There were many things about microgravity that she loved, but unfortunately every single one of them had worn off the shine years earlier and all that was left was a powerful urge to never travel anywhere at less than two-thirds gravity acceleration. Sitting still, be it in orbit or in deep space, was a trial to be endured, not something to be enjoyed.

If she must endure, however, at least she had a reason worth enduring all those minor indignities for.

The alien taskforce was closing on Hayden, their plots beaming nice and clear across her board. She was surprised at how clearly, in fact. They were showing more and more radiated heat, well beyond what she’d expected, even given their previous encounters.

It must have to do with these ships being from the other class of design.

Unlike the first ships encountered, these were sleeker and had a silhouette that made her wonder if they were intended to be capable of atmospheric entry. The delta shape of the vessels seemed to indicate that was a possibility, at least. The ghoulie vessels were bulbous, horrifically un-aerodynamic, structures that would likely tear themselves apart on reentry, barring a technological marvel in their design that she was unaware of. Even so, both designs clearly used the same drive mechanism as her sensor techs could testify.

The best guess anyone had was that the enemy used a variant of the Alcubierre warp drive. That accounted for their acceleration and the excess heat they pumped out, and would certainly be feasible within the limits of the enemy technology as near as anyone could tell. The only reason no one was certain it was, in fact, an Alcubierre drive was because in theory they should be far,
far,
faster than they actually were.

Thank God for small miracles.

Of course, that ignored all the other problems with the Alcubierre design, including the potential buildup of gamma ray particles to be released when the drive was disengaged. If that had happened, the enemy wouldn’t need a singularity valve to destroy human targets. Their own engines would have done the job for them.

Whatever the enemy was using as a drive, however, did provide a very specific metric to use in identifying them. Higher than expected heat radiation was just the first of many signatures, and for that she supposed she should be at least somewhat grateful. There could be no mistaking an arriving ship for anything other than the enemy. What was coming there was decidedly hostile, of that Nadine was confident, and so her job was set.

All they had to do now was accomplish the job and live to tell about it.

The second part alone will be a trick and a half,
She thought cynically as she looked at the telemetry tracks.
The first part may just require a miracle.

Task Force Valkyrie was floating in a decidedly unstable lunar orbit, their engines on standby as they waited for the enemy to make their move. Nadine wouldn’t give the order to break from their positions until the enemy was committed, but with every passing moment it was harder to keep from giving those orders.

If they were human ships, they’d already been within the no-escape envelope, but they weren’t human-designed ships. She only had estimates of their acceleration potential, but she knew enough to be quite certain that there was every chance that if she jumped the gun on this trap, they’d not only be able to escape it, they may well be able to tear her fleet out from under her in the process.

Given that, Nadine wanted to ensure that at least one of those two scenarios didn’t happen. If they could take
TFV
in a straight fight, so be it, the battle was already lost. If they couldn’t, however, she wasn’t going to let them get away to try again later.

Just another five minutes, and then we see just how tough you are.

*****

Parithalian Alliance Ship,
Noble Venture

“We’ve scouted motion in the lower orbits, Master.”

Reethan nodded, eyes on the displays. He could see them as well as his apprentice, but there was no point in saying that.

“Weaponized platforms, I presume,” he said after a moment. “Is the station in range yet?”

“Yes, Master.”

“Bracket it,” he ordered. “All ships, fire to show our intentions. Do not strike the station until I give the orders.”

“Yes, Master, orders dispatched. Firing in two marks.”

The moments passed before the ships of the flotilla all opened fire as one being, blazing charges erupting into space and tearing through local space-time at near light speed.

Reethan settled back at his station, eyes on the display, as he wondered just what the response would be.

*****

The energy of the weapons was tracked the instant it entered into the range of the planetary defense satellites. As fast as the weapon pulses were, they weren’t quite light speed, but the defensive installations
did
communicate at the speed of light.

With no time to consult people, the weapon emplacements made the decisions themselves without even wasting the time it would have taken to request instructions from the station computers. They made micro adjustments to their orbit, calculated intercept velocities, and opened fire.