Chapter 49:
Donovan’s Counter-Attack
Legacy’s bridge was oddly quiet. The three tiered ivory-white room had been redecorated, now sporting a combination of human and Eireki technology, as did much of the rest of the ship. Dozens of computer workstations lined the room, each manned by a crew member busily making final preparations for the return.
Marcus Donovan was floating in place at the command station, the exact spot where he was bonded to Legacy more than a year before. He’d become so adept at manipulating the gravity systems that his feet never touched the floor anymore. He was content instead to fly from one position to the next, like a proper creature of the void.
“This is taking too damn long,” he said. “Mason, give me some good news.”
“Loading procedures are nearly complete, sir. We’re waiting on the last cargo shipment right now.”
Much to Marcus’ surprise, things had gone largely according to plan during the previous nine months. The two factories, one inside Legacy and the other on the surface of Mars, had worked non-stop, fed by materials reclaimed from the two small moons. The fleet of tugs completely dismantled Deimos, and Phobos was nearly hollow now.
The three habitation domes of Ares Colony were transformed into a sprawling metropolis that far outpaced its population, while a half-dozen destroyers and an assortment of smaller warships joined Legacy in orbit. They also surrounded Mars with a network of defense satellites, capable of putting a serious hurt on anyone reckless enough to arrive unannounced.
Mason said, “The last carrier is docked, sir. We’re ready to go.”
Marcus nodded. “About time. Open a priority channel to Administrator Saladin.”
Mason tapped at his console, and a holographic image of the administrator appeared at the front of the bridge.
“You’re ready to depart, Dr. Donovan?”
“As ready as we’ll ever be. Does my fleet meet with your approval, Administrator?”
“Of course,” Saladin said. “And we both know I couldn’t stop you anyway. Take care of my people, Marcus.”
“I’ll bring them back to you, sir.”
“Good luck and God speed.”
The administrator ducked his head and the hologram vanished. An instant later, the walls of the bridge went into crystal mode, revealing the endless sea of stars and a particularly bird-like cruiser doing barrel roles in space.
“Should I inform Phoenix we’re ready to get under way?” Mason asked.
“No,” Marcus said with a grin. “Faulkland’s a big boy. He’ll figure it out.”
He told Legacy it was time, and she did the rest. The starscape lurched out of position as the ship came about, then she launched toward Earth, accompanied by the feeling falling.
Sarah Park checked her instruments and reported, “Reading zero obstructions between here and our destination. Hollow-drive at ninety percent output. Linear gravitational accelerators running at maximum efficiency. Current speed is .108 C, Earth relative. ETA in forty-three minutes.”
“Good,” Marcus said, but he didn’t mean it. Forty-three minutes was too long. A minute would be too long, but Legacy was still running on a single hollow-drive, which limited her to less than a fifth of her maximum speed and prevented the use of her instantaneous traversal system altogether. That also meant they were confined to a single star-system until they could somehow crack the hollow-drive’s secrets.
With only one drive, the ship was always riding on the razor’s edge of failure. Legacy was a mind-bogglingly powerful ship, but she was crippled compared to her former glory. And worse, overdrawing could destroy the one remaining drive, and Legacy would simply die.
Without access to new hollow-drives, she also couldn’t construct sentient vessels like herself. The fleet was instead composed of hybrid vessels, which bent Eireki technology to human designs. They were human ships with alien aftermarket parts.
Rao had made some headway in his study of hollow-drive technology, but it was slow going. He theorized that the device used a gravitational lens to distort the fabric of space, warping probability and producing a fountain of exotic particles at its center. It basically generated a near-infinite supply of energy out of thin air. Or maybe it sucked power out of another dimension, or out of magical pixy farts for all he knew.
That power came at the price of durability. The slightest crack in the hollow-drive’s casing would cause it to self-destruct and collapse in on itself, rendering it permanently useless. There was no repairing it or salvaging its remains. There was no way to take it apart and study its insides. A hollow-drive was either whole and functioning, or destroyed beyond all recognition.
They were designed that way to prevent the Nefrem from replicating the technology, but it had drawbacks the designers hadn’t foreseen.
The forty-three minute trip passed in tense silence, and then the bright blue Earth appeared and filled the bridge crew’s view. The Phoenix had already arrived ahead of them.
Legacy briefly flashed a memory through Marcus’ head of the Earth—Garden, as she still called it—eons ago when she first arrived. The planet’s beauty hadn’t dimmed at all with age, and it was a precious, shining gem among a cold and distant universe.
The silence was filled with prayers. The crew were in the presence of something divine, something that still had the power to take their breath away and inspire their imaginations. In a few moments, they were going to stain it with blood.
Marcus floated higher into the air, took a deep breath and spoke. As he did, his voice echoed through every inch of Legacy, as well as the many smaller ships contained within her. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome home.”
The glowing Earth filled his eyes. “We stand on a precipice; victory is finally within our grasp, yet the possibility of failure still haunts us. Let this be a moment of quiet reflection before the storm. We look into our hearts for the strength to steel our resolve, and make our will unassailable. Our fury unstoppable. In just a few minutes, we will descend through the heavens and bring fire down upon the enemy. We will crush him where he stands and strike a blow for freedom, and through this conflict forge a new destiny from our blood, sweat and tears. Here above the clouds, I can finally see one thing clearly, and you should see it too. We are the future, a new humanity, and the time has come for us to take back our world. So I ask you, are you ready?”
The rally cry of fifteen-hundred eager soldiers echoed back, and Marcus smiled.
“Mason, transmit on all known frequencies.”
“Ready, sir.”
“Attention alien invaders. This is Marcus Donovan, commander of the Eireki starship Legacy. Make peace with your gods. End transmission.”
“Channel closed, sir.”
The rapid assault carriers emerged from the hangar bay and descended toward the planet with Faulkland’s Phoenix trailing behind.
Legacy spun, took aim and spat out the five Hoplite troop transports, which streaked out and became shooting stars as they touched the upper atmosphere.
The dice were cast. There was nothing left but to watch, wait and pray.
***
Hoplite Alpha tore through the stratosphere at several times the speed of sound. The hexagonal pod glowed white-hot, but the chamber inside was comfortable and quiet. A hundred soldiers were packed inside, shoulder to shoulder in rows facing outward, each encased in MASPEC Mk-2 armor. The suits were the color of dried blood, except for the clear half-domes of their helmets.
The Mk-2 was a more elegant and refined design, which stripped away the rough edges and mechanical look of the original, and replaced them with a more biological, rounded appearance. The new model incorporated a host of Eireki technologies that improved on human technology in every conceivable way, making the armor smaller, more agile and nearly three times as strong.
Amira Saladin had literally outdone herself. As her drop pod rapidly approached the ground, she hoped it was enough.
The Hoplite’s gravitic accelerator came to life at the last possible moment, slowing the pod as it met the ground, and giving the soldiers little more than a soft jostle. The vessel’s walls rotated outward and its canopy lifted, transforming it into an instant fort. Guns mounted atop it opened fire, their loud roar filling the air.
The walls finished reconfiguring and revealed the world outside in the dim light of early morning. The ground was scorched and covered in still smoking cinders, and a few hundred meters beyond lay the jagged line of alien outposts.
Her docking clamp released with a clank, and Sal prepared herself.
“You ready?” Kazuo asked beside her.
She grabbed her long Nikola rifle from its storage hook overhead, and said, “Let’s do this.”
The rapid assault carriers above fired fighter jets out like bullets, while armored soldiers streamed out of the Hoplite and into the smoking field. Once outside, the MASPEC troopers split into squads and advanced in leaps and bounds, assisted by small thrusters on armor’s back and legs. Their movements had a strange grace, and combined with their choreographed advances, the rush became a ballet.
Sal and Kazuo led the pack, bracing themselves at each landing before firing their rifles into the alien horde. The weapons ejected heavy metal rounds at nearly five kilometers a second, and hit their targets like tank shells. Soft targets were torn into arcing ribbons and mist, while hard targets buckled and shattered under the impact.
It only took a few moments for the aliens to react to the new threat, and their shining metallic shields slid around to protect them, but by then, the MASPEC troopers were among them and engaged in hand-to-hand.
In her armor, Sal felt unstoppable. She’d become a war machine, an angry titan, faster than the small furry aliens, better armored than the large grey ones, and stronger than anything else in the field. The aliens mobbed her but she plodded on with grim determination, feeling bones crunch beneath her armored fists, while Kazuo battled nearby with considerably more zeal.
Meter by meter, her squad thrashed through the opposition, littering the ground with shredded corpses. It wasn’t long before the enemy building was cleared, and they took the roof, gaining an open line of fire on their entrenched enemy.
Operations were carried out with surgical precision all along the perimeter, and the battle line was broken. Squads of MASPEC troopers stormed the forts, while their protean jets clashed with alien craft overhead. The Phoenix and its coterie of assault carriers hung in the air just above the Ark, raining down beams of burning energy on whatever remained.
With a thought, a tube on Sal’s shoulder launched a bright green flare into the air, signaling an all clear at her position. Then she and her squad hunkered down behind the battlements and opened fire.
***
Jack and his team sat atop a low ridge more than two kilometers out beyond the line. Human and Oikeyan alike watched the battle from relative safety, filled with disappointment, sadness and hopelessness. The one thing Jack was sure of was that he’d failed. The thought turned his stomach.
The arrival of strange warships and armored soldiers left them all baffled.
“You’re even better than I thought,” Kai said. “I really believed you didn’t have a fleet.” He trailed off with his weird laugh.
“We didn’t,” Jack said. “I don’t know who they are. Are those Nefrem forces?”
“No. I mean, there’s a resemblance but it’s superficial. Whoever they are, they’re good, though. Very, very good.”
“So that’s it,” Charlie said. “The cavalry arrives and we win. No offense to your alien buddies, but I’m not exactly heartbroken. We should have a beer and call it a day.”
Kai shook his head. “You think the legion will be routed? You expect them to just pack up and leave? They haven’t even begun to fight yet.”
He pointed out into the distance, where the adolescent city Yuon Kwon was only a thin, hazy silhouette. “This will escalate, I promise you that. Armored Alarhya will come out of the city, and airborne reinforcements are already on their way. Expect carpet bombing if things don’t look up soon.”
“So who’s going to win?” Nikitin asked.
“I honestly can’t say,” Kai said solemnly, “but the one thing I can guarantee is more needless death. Deadlocks are never good for either side. In a war of attrition, there are only losers.”
“So, how do you break a deadlock?” Jack asked of no one in particular.
“Give one side an advantage,” Charlie said.
“Or present both sides with a bigger threat,” Kai added.
Then, right at that moment, Jack was struck by an idea. It was, without doubt, the worst idea he’d ever had. It was perhaps the most terrible idea anyone had ever had in the grand and illustrious history of bad ideas.
That was how he knew it was going to work.