Merkiaari Wars: 01 - Hard Duty (36 page)

Two heavily damaged heavy fangs entered the Merki formation at preselected points knowing they would not emerge from the other side. They went in with every weapon reaching out to rend the Murderers of their people. Heavy fangs were awesome weapons. Torpedoes spat from every surviving tube as the ships absorbed hit after hit from the Merki ships. The torpedoes were set to lock onto any Merki target, and hundreds did that. Two Merkiaari battleships blew apart as two hundred torpedoes, each having a two megatonne nominal yield, detonated as one. Space went mad as ship after ship was rent and spat out of the nuclear fire smashed beyond recognition.
Hoth
blew apart from the results of her own fire.
Hekja
reeled, bent and broken but still under control. He trimmed course and rammed a Merkiaari heavy fang. Both ships disappeared in the flash of ruptured fusion cores. With them went a light fang.

They had failed.

“Three heavy fangs and two lighter units remain,” Tarjei reported.

“Which are the most severely damaged?”

“Both light fangs appear unable to keep pace with the heavies, but all are still combat capable.”

“It doesn’t matter then. We kill the ships with the most Murderers aboard.”

“I hear, Tei,” Kajika said. “Targeting heavy fang… target locked.”

“I hear,” Tei’Varyk said and waited in silence. “
Open fire!
”

Naktlon
erupted in fury. His torpedo launchers went to rapid continuous fire attempting to saturate the defences of his chosen target. As the range closed, his beamers and particle cannons spoke. The Merki heavy cruiser blew apart, but even as she did, missiles infinitely more powerful than any Shan torpedo hammered
Naktlon
closer to destruction. Closer and closer, but finally the fire ended and he was still there. Though battered and bleeding atmosphere, he continued to pour fire into the remaining Merki ships.

“Magazines destroyed or depleted,” Kajika reported.

“I hear. Continue with all remaining weapons. Kill them all,” Tei’Varyk ordered, as his ship slowly died around him.

Naktlon
bucked and reared at the centre of nuclear fury sent by the Merki. He was blinded to starboard, and nearly so on his portside. His great engines propelled him into the heart of the storm to kill his enemies even as he was hammered into uselessness.

“Take out those honourless light fangs,” Tei’Varyk said, as they pecked away at
Naktlon’s
armoured hide.

Kajika did not respond, but
Naktlon’s
particle cannons swivelled and targeted first one, and then a second light unit. Both blew apart as energy beams designed to strip the hide from a Merkiaari dreadnaught ripped through them.

“Target the next—” Tei’Varyk began, but that was as far as he got.

Naktlon
, broken and barely making way with a single drive, was hit amidships. The beam sliced through deck after deck, killing his crew and severing control runs. His particle cannons locked and fell silent, as power cables were turned to slag. His remaining torpedo launchers, had they ammunition, would have been useless as power runs to the launch rails were cut, but by far the worst damage was to his fusion room. The beam reached the core of his reactor, and
Naktlon
erupted with super hot plasma eating everything in sight. Blast doors slammed and alarms screamed, but it was all for nothing.

Naktlon
broke in two.

* * *

Aboard ASN Canada, Shan System

“He did it,” Colgan whispered as
Naktlon
broke apart. His aft section blew up in a flare of plasma, and his forward section tumbled wildly away.

“Not quite. Two heavies remain operational, Skipper,” Groves said. “One is critically damaged. The second has moderate damage.”

What do I do?

Colgan stared at tactical trying to make a decision. “Time to pickup?”

“ETA is one three minutes, sir.”

Colgan clenched a fist and pounded his thigh in frustration. Thirteen minutes. If he picked up Wilder, the enemy would be thirteen minutes closer to the Shan homeworld, leaving him even less room to manoeuvre.

“Set an intercept course,” Colgan said finally, and a sigh swept the bridge. “Weps, I want that piece of scrap out of my sky.” He highlighted the critically damaged Merki ship with his wand. “Do that first. Then pump everything we have into the other one.”

“Aye, sir,” Ivanova said eagerly. “Targeting solution locked in. Time to target… two niner minutes…
mark.
”

“Run a plot on
Naktlon
. There may be survivors.”

“I didn’t see any pods jettison, Skipper,” Groves warned.

“Just do it.”

“Aye, sir. I have him.”

“As soon as we hit the range, I want maximum rate of fire. Don’t stop until they’re dead or we are.”

“Aye, aye, Skipper,” Ivanova said.

Canada
raced into battle, and the moment arrived. Missiles flew from her, adding more acceleration to that imparted by her launch system. Merki point defence missiles and laser clusters attempted to intercept them, and
Canada’s
tactical display was suddenly populated with detonations. Only a third of Ivanova’s missiles made it through. Merki decoys deployed attempting to suck the missiles off target, but they could not save the first cruiser, which blew apart after only two hits by the megatonne range missiles. The second Merkiaari ship however, was almost untouched.

Canada
deployed her own decoys, and ECM hashed targeting sensors trying to blind the Merki sensors, but for all of that she wasn’t a true warship. Her counter measures and weapons were designed to hold off an attack for the minutes she needed to jump, not defeat a heavy cruiser with more than three times her firepower.
Canada
bucked as lasers and grazers slashed at her. Her shields held, but still she was shaken and slammed by incoming missiles. Point defence frantically beat them back, killing dozens and then hundreds, but then the inevitable happened. A missile got through and detonated.

Canada
lurched and damage alarms screamed; yet her section seals held and she continued to fight. Crewman fought to save friends trapped in the debris, but all too many died from the sudden decompression when razor sharp shrapnel careened through compartments breaching their uniform’s integrity. On the bridge, Colgan was white faced at the catalogue of damage being reported. His ship was being destroyed before his eyes, and it was his fault. He could have jumped outsystem, he still could if his displays were correct, but no, he had to be a hero and his people were paying for it with their lives. The lights dimmed, and flickered back to half intensity as something failed. He looked up wondering if this was the end, but as the lights failed completely, emergency lighting took over.

“Report,” Colgan barked.

“Merki cruiser badly damaged, but still combat capable,” Ivanova said. “We’re down to one more salvo of missiles and our lasers.”

The lights suddenly flared bright again as damage control repaired the power feeds to the bridge, but Colgan hardly noticed.

“Save the missiles until I give the word. Continue action with energy mounts.”

“Aye, sir.”

“Helm, take us in to point blank range at max. I want you to scrape the fucking paint off her!”

“Aye, sir,” Wesley said and rolled ship.

“Weps, give them every missile we have at point blank.”

“Aye, Skipper.”

“Are you sure, Captain? We’ll not escape the blast wave,” Commander Groves said.

“We will.” Colgan prayed he wasn’t lying. “We’re going in at max. With luck we should be clear.”

Canada
bore in taking hit after hit. Her shields began to fail even as she reached the cruiser. Ivanova smashed a button flat, and
Canada’s
missile tubes spoke. The Merki ship shuddered and spewed atmosphere, as the missiles slammed home before any defence knew they were there. Hit after hit went home as the ship tried futilely to track
Canada
as she raced on by.

One of
Canada’s
missiles did not launch; the power runs to the accelerator rings in the tube were down. Chief Williams, trying vainly to resurrect the shield generator for the aft quarter, was up to his elbows in circuitry when he knocked a severed cable. He jerked and bit his tongue with a yelp as the current arced through him. He survived with his hair smoking and standing straight up, his team barely survived his cursing, but the Merki cruiser had no chance. The missile spat forth and slammed into the enemy ship. So close was
Canada
, that the missile actually penetrated the Merki’s hull before it detonated within the ship.

The enemy ship erupted in nuclear fire.

Canada
was racing away, but she did not escape unscathed. Pieces of wreckage impacted her unprotected aft quarter. Blast doors slammed, but many closed upon compartments already open to space. In all too many cases, those compartments were crewed by dead men and women now.
Canada
rolled presenting her port shields to the wave front, and that saved her. The fury of exploding magazines and fusion reactors washed over her, but as it receded, she limped onward with two drives down, and one fluctuating so badly that it was cut from the circuit a moment later.

“Target destroyed,” Ivanova reported, her voice heavy with satisfaction.

“Good,” Colgan said. “Very well done, Weps. Francis, pass the coordinates of
Naktlon
to the helm.”

“Aye, sir.”

“Course laid in, sir,” Janice Wesley said a moment or two later.

“Execute at best speed.” Colgan turned to Lieutenant Ricks. “Get me damage control.”

“Aye, aye. On screen, sir.”

Chief Williams appeared on the main viewer. Behind him, he could see space suited figures hurry by.

“Chief, I know we have damage all over the place, but I want you to concentrate on the jump drive. We seem to have won the war here, but I don’t trust that. I want to be able to jump if I have to.”

Chief Williams frowned in puzzlement and looked aside at his boards. “But there’s nothing wrong with the bloody…” his face flamed. “There’s nothing wrong with it, sir.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, sir. My boards show it as operational
and
charged. Have you tried it, sir?”

“No of course not,” Colgan said, his face heating in embarrassment. He had assumed that after the pounding they had taken, it must be offline. “Carry on, Chief.”

“Aye, sir,” Williams said in a puzzled voice. He was replaced on the viewscreen by a tactical overlay of the system.

“What happened to his hair?” Groves said with a grin. “It looked like someone tugged him through a mouse hole backwards.”

Colgan chuckled.

“
Naktlon
dead ahead… what’s left of him,” Janice announced.

“On screen.”

Everyone groaned when they saw what was left of
Naktlon
. The forward half of the cruiser was tumbling away on a course that would see him exit the system eventually. It was so badly battered that Colgan doubted there could be survivors.

“Try to contact him.”

“Aye, sir,” Ricks said doubtfully, but a moment later, a fuzzy picture appeared.

“Tei,” Colgan gasped in relief when his friend appeared. “Hold on, I’m coming to get you out.”

“Tei’Colgan. You should have left when you had the chance,” Tei’Varyk said in a dead voice.

“We destroyed the last one for you.”

“And what of the ships landing troops on Harmony?”

“
What?
” Colgan yelped and turned to Commander Groves at scan. She was punching in commands at her station like a demon.

“Do not
Canada’s
sensors reach so far?
Naktlon’s
are destroyed, but we’re still receiving intermittent transmissions of the landings.”

“Oh my God,” Commander Groves said looking up from her position at scan in horror. “We have Merkiaari in the inner system, Skipper. They must have slipped through when we went after those two cruisers.”

“Class?”

“Troop transports with escort, but they’re too much for us. A kid with a slingshot is too much for us now,” she said bitterly.

* * *

Child of Harmony (third planet, Shan system)

“He left us,” Brenda said with tears of rage in her eyes. “After all we did for him, the bastard left us.”

“He had no choice,” Janice said sadly. “None at all.”

James nodded. He glanced through the open hatch at his friends sitting in the cabin and then back to Janice. “What do we do?”

“What
can
we do?” Brenda spat. “He abandoned us.”

“We hide as the Shan are doing. I want a gun,” Janice said staring at the images coming in on the monitors. “A very big gun.”

James turned back to watch the Merki landings on one of the lander’s monitors. The cities were a chaos of running and fighting people. The Shan military had deployed to slow the Merki troopers down while the cities were evacuated, but the Merki had the advantage of being able to pick and choose their landing sites. The Shan had to remain mobile and not dig in, or else risk annihilation from above. Shan civilians had banded together to fight, and were dying in their millions as untold numbers of Merki gravsleds poured out of the grounded landers. The gravsleds spread out and flew slowly down the streets firing at anything that moved. James was sure they had their reasons for hitting certain buildings while leaving others untouched, but for the life of him he couldn’t understand their tactics. The buildings seemed chosen at random. Some collapsed immediately burying those hiding within, while others burned. Clouds of smoke and ash billowed up and filled the sky.