Frozen Soul, and other works: April 2019

Thursday, April 25, 2019

Chapter 195 - Coldana Besieged

(BSS Heartseeker, Coldana System)

“Captain, we have just received word from Admiral Mollen. Operation Starburst has been successful, and the Confederate Twelfth Fleet has opened a path for the rest to follow through.”

Drah Sross nodded to the image of the Heartseeker’s Nomad AI, Adam. “Understood. Patch me through to all Starhunters.”

“Done.”

“Starhunters, this is Heartseeker. Signal Flare is a go. Remember, keep the bugs as far from you as you can. Ready Anchor Drives for double jump, Amazon to Star’s Reach. We still have scouting missions to go on, now that we have a new infiltration strategy, so no one is allowed to die today. Flux Capacitor, send a burst transmission on friendly frequencies when you light up your drives, warning incoming friendlies. The Marines will need targets for their attack, best have the people on the ground get some warning so they know to have coordinates ready.”

“Copy that, Heartseeker.”

“Captain, multiple warp signatures entering the system. Many warp signatures! It is the combined fleet!”

“All Starhunters, Signal Flare on my mark. Three… two… one… GO!”

As one, the five Starhunter scout ships began charging their X’thari anchor drives, lighting off their sublight drives as well, accelerating as quickly as the could in different directions. The X’thari acted as they always did, with the escort ships quickly moving to take up the chase, breaking off into five groups to try and follow the Starhunters. Predictable, as always. At the same time, the combined fleet of the task force entered into the system, all except Twelfth Fleet, which was holding the door open. Tarpits slammed down across the system, locking everyone into realspace maneuvering unless they were suddenly suicidal.

(BSN Thunderfury, in orbit of Coldana Prime)

Twelfth Fleet had kicked open the door, and everyone else ran through it. Slave-Captain Am’rica didn’t know how bad their casualties were, but she knew they had to have taken casualties from intentionally disabling the safety systems that kept a warp-capable ship’s shields from becoming a portable supernova. There was no way that there couldn’t have been casualties, with that much energy running around uncontrolled.

That wasn’t her problem. The Imperium’s Second Great Armada and the Kul’tiran’s First Fleet slammed into orbit of Coldana Prime just as the Starhunters began drawing off the escort ships, trying to give the assembled fleets a chance to take out the heavier enemy ships. The ships serving the Black Star Marines followed in their wake, along with six Consortium Army troop ships.

“Comms! Patch us in on Consortium frequencies. Hail any survivors, and get us drop coordinates! Vicious Return and Acherus are to launch fighters as soon as we have coordinates on enemy ground-to-air weapons, and take them out. Leave the ships to the Fleets, that’s their job. Don’t bother with them unless they start trying to attack our forces.”

“Captain! General Meadbeard sends his complements, and intends to land his forces at the primary spaceport in Coldana City to form a beachhead and attempt to draw off X’thari drones that might be attacking survivors nearby. We are free to engage at will.”

“Understood. Do we have communications from the surface?”

“Confirmed reports from ten survivor enclaves on the northern continent. The intel about the X’thari not wanting to ‘spoil the meat’ must be correct, since all but two of the enclaves are walled areas without underground fortifications. They wouldn’t have lasted two hours against sustained orbital bombardment.”

“Small favors, Lieutenant. Status on the enclaves?”

“All enclaves are under constant attack… Captain, we have word from Darboldor that their defenses are under heavy assault. The Dharram bunker is reporting X’thari inside the defensive perimeter, they are being overrun!”

Am’rica kept a look of calm on her face. Turning to a nearby screen, she said, “Major, I presume you were listening?”

“Yes, Ma’am. First Company will drop directly on Dharram. Second Company will help hold the line at Darboldor.”

“Very well. Drop ships will deploy your companies directly, and provide close air support. Once an LZ is clear, the Assault Ships and pocket carriers will land. We risk losing the ships otherwise. The Crows have the speed and shields to fill that role, and will orbit the drop zones to provide air support.”

“Understood, Captain. Will the ships be safe from X’thari raiders on the ground, though?”

Am’rica smiled viciously, “Major, without having to worry about fighting gravity to keep aloft, even the Vicious Return’s point defense should be plenty to keep the bugs from doing more than splatting against her shields. They’ll certainly last long enough for one of the Crows to come and assist.”

“Understood. Marines will be ready for a hot drop in five.”

(Fleet Command Cluster, IAS Aclotloxl’s Claw, in orbit of Coldana Prime)

“Warleader! The Black Star Marines and Consortium Army are breaking for the planet’s surface!”

Warleader Keh Dhaka nodded once as the communications savant reported to her. The plan was audacious. There were so many moving parts, so many places where things could fail at any moment, but this was a situation where no one could afford to sit back and stand on old, conservative tactics. Everyone knew that the combined fleet would likely be destroyed in its entirety, and, even if they were successful in driving off or destroying the Harvester, their forces would be severely understrength, if any of them survived this day. And yet, so far, they had made it through with no confirmed ship kills to enemy action. That would change soon, as the battle turned into high gear, but that was why deploying what troops they could to the surface of Coldana was to be one of the first things they did once they reached orbit. The troops would do no one any good if their ships were destroyed in orbit, after all.

“Then may the Ancestors guide their path. The ground fighting is not for us to engage in. We have our own battles to find. All ships, come about to three eight, mark two! Full power to the weapons and shields! Point defense and secondary weapons to fire at will!”

Scanning the tactical plot, she hissed slightly as she saw the X’thari begin to maneuver. The insects were trying to create a pincer movement, and envelop the Ihm and Kul’tiran ships. The escorts had been drawn away, which was a blessing all its own. If – when – she returned to the Imperium, she would make a recommendation to include the X’thari anchor drives in new scout units. These tactics would be invaluable the next time the X’thari approached Ihm space.

Of course, she couldn’t lose herself in thoughts of future plans. For now, she had a battle to fight. The pincer force was mostly cruisers, with the enemy dreadnoughts focusing on the headlong approach. The Armada could not turn and face the cruisers without opening itself up to the dreadnoughts, but taking the cruisers’ fire from the side or rear would still be courting disaster. But the lighter ships on the wing gave her an opportunity.

“Contact Lord Admiral Proudmoore. First Fleet is to turn and advance on the pincer forces. Second Armada will charge on to keep the dreadnoughts at bay. Get in close, and keep them from using their superior maneuverability or numbers to overwhelm us!”

“Enemy fighters have launched!”

“Scramble fighters! All wings, scramble! Interceptors to focus on enemy fighters. Bombers to focus on tail shots, if possible. X’thari shields are weaker at the rear. Focus fire on their engines. A disabled ship is as good as dead, and can be wiped out from a distance.”

“Entering primary weapons range.”

“Concentrate fire, focus on the ships at the center of the formation. The X’thari like to keep their leaders in the center of the swarm. Blast us a hole to take the fight to their leaders!”

If they could throw the Swarm into chaos, then so many things would become easier. Chaotic enemies did not fight with the unity of those led by a single overriding purpose. Robbing the X’thari of their order would cripple their formations and fleet structure, allowing them to defeat individual units instead of formations or fleets.

The first salvoes were away. Because of the scale of warfare in space, the time for their attacks to reach the enemy had some measure of lag to it, but that was unavoidable. It wasn’t until they got much closer that things really got into nail-biting action. But the ranges were closing fast. All too soon, they would be in ‘knife range’, where the lag between their shots firing and the light reaching their enemies was less than a second. Fighting at such close range would hamper her ships’ ability to defend themselves against so many foes, but the Swarm would be limited in how many of their ships could fire at any one time, lest they risk shooting their own people.

Hopefully, it would be enough.

(Flag Bridge, KNS Ashvane’s Pride, in orbit of Coldana Prime)

Lord Admiral Tandred Proudmoore was a professional. He would have preferred to have his First Fleet be one of the ones that were set to take on the Harvester and its guardians, but everyone knew the history between Black Star and Kul’tiras. It was not a slight, or a sign of favoritism either way, he knew this, but that history was why First Fleet was assigned to the forces pinning down the X’thari ships around Coldana, and preventing them from reinforcing the Harvester’s guards. Having his people so close to the main Black Star force would have been… ill advised. It added an unnecessary complication into a situation that had already been hopeless enough that everything would have to go perfectly for them to have a chance of living through this.

Yes, he was a professional, and he understood the reasons. That didn’t mean he had to like them, or that he wasn’t scowling at the sight of the Black Star Marines’ ships making landfall along with the Consortium’s troop ships. There wasn’t anything for it. He didn’t have troop ships of marines to help out with that effort. They barely had enough marines to cover for potential boarding and counter-boarding actions. He was a professional, though, and that meant he would do his duty, and damn his feelings until the job was done. The Black Star Marines were going to be going onto a planet full of X’thari, and fighting them at close range. They were welcome to it. He had ships to kill.

He noticed the envelopment coming, and was just about to hail the Warleader to propose the change in tactics when she sent orders detailing what he had just been about to suggest. No one ever said the scaly bastards were dumb. Well, not the women, at any rate. Their men were hulking brutes who were all less than intellectual titans, while their women were slighter of build and far more intelligent. The Warleader could read a plot as well as he, and knew the relative strengths of their forces. Ihm ships were larger and stronger, while Kul’tirans favored speed and maneuverability. It was the right call.

“All ships, come about to new heading! The X’thari are attempting to envelope the fleet! All fighters and bombers launch! Starbane cannons to full power! Aim for the lead ships. Torpedoes ready to fire on my command!”

He looked at the plot again, striving to see what the bugs might be planning for their next maneuver. “Bombers are to focus their attack runs on marked potential command ships, and then return and rearm. Secondary targets are the enemy carriers, hiding behind the fleet. All ships, take out the enemy cruisers, don’t let them get behind us. The Second Armada is counting on us to watch their backs as they punch it out.”

Wait, one of those carriers was out of position. No, wait, it was falling out of position. Scanners showed it already had battle damage. Probably from the last battle. The bugs hadn’t had a chance to repair all their ships, especially not when the only mobile dockyard anywhere near here that would take a X’thari ship was, itself, damaged. Looking to one of his lieutenants, he said, “Have Commander Shaw ready his men. There is a X’thari carrier that may have intelligence on it, and the technological upgrades it might give us are impossible to predict.”

“Aye, Admiral!”

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Frozen Soul series (Sci-Fi Supervillain story):
Frozen Soul https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071R125QT
Tales of the Void Traveler https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37

Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy GameLit):
Volume 1 - Tutorial
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Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X

Into the Black (Sci-Fi GameLit):
Book I - Game Start https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LT5WGL
Omnibus I - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077X2KR7Y

City of Champions Online (Superhero GameLit):
Issue I - Origin Stories https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075SHXQS1

Lewd Dungeon (Dungeon Core GameLit):
Book 1 - Welcome to the Apocalypse https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BB34DHF
Omnibus 1 - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FBPF6HR

The Kalipshae Affair (A First Contact Short Story): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0739V6R6T

Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Chapter 194 - Into Their Teeth

(Flag Bridge, CNS Wrath of Gadran, Interstellar space near Coldana)

Admiral Kasyx Rizazzi shook his head. This was the kind of battle that any Navy man wanted to be a part of. No uncertainty about who was right and who was wrong. No wondering about the motivations of the other side. Just a simple, black and white battle between a terrifying foe and entire worlds of civilians. If there was ever a righteous fight for someone who wore the uniform to be involved in, it was this one.

From the moment that the Treaty of Helbizore had been put into effect with the news of a Harvester appearing, everyone knew that Coldana was dead. The Swarm that accompanied it was simply too large to defeat normally. There was no way that the forces in place would be able to fight their way through and defeat the Harvester. The planet was doomed along with all the civilians living on it. The best they could do was to avenge them.

But, through some conjunction of desperation and insanity, the Consortium Navy had managed to hold longer and deal more damage to the swarm than anyone had believed possible, in part thanks to those Black Stars with their Starhunter scout ships playing the X’thari’s habits against them to draw off the swarm. The tenacity with which the Consortium fought off the X’thari in space was worthy of all of his respect. They had even managed to wound the Harvester enough that the thing had not yet moved to consume Coldana. However, that didn’t mean he had to like the implications of what they had done. Turning Navy personnel into what amounted to suicide bombers stuck in his throat. But it had allowed the Firebringer pilots to give Coldana a fighting chance.

Now, the combined fleet had a plan, and a chance to not only save the people still on Coldana, but to destroy the Harvester altogether. The problem was getting the ships into place so that they could strike. The Swarm still encircled the Coldana system, and they would need to punch through if they hoped to attack the Harvester directly. Punching a hole would fall to him and the Confederate Navy’s Twelfth Fleet.

Looking to his aide, he took a deep breath, and said, “Give me fleet wide. Copy to the combined fleet.” There was a nod, and he looked into the camera that would send his image to the fleet. A battle like this was something a Naval Officer always wanted to be a part of, and yet hoped would never come. Such a battle needed words beforehand to rally the troops, and to be remembered by those who came after.

“Men and women of the Twelfth Fleet! This is Admiral Rizazzi. As you know, we are fighting here, as one part of a fleet of over a thousand ships, from six different star nations. We are far from home, in space that belongs to a people that are sometimes our rivals, and sometimes foes. We have fought each other, bled each other, lost good people, military and civilian, to each other. Now, we fight side by side in common cause!”

“I will not lie to you and say such foolish things like how this is the dawn of a new era of peace and understanding between all peoples, or that we will all return home after this battle to join together as a single people, no longer needing to fear the specter of war between us. You are not kittens, who have yet to know the way of the world! You are warriors, defenders of your people! You know that such a future, despite what we may desire, is not something a single battle can bring about.”

“But here, today, we face a foe that is beyond any one nation’s power to defeat. We face an enemy that threatens all life in this galaxy, an enemy that consumes entire worlds along with their peoples, to create more of these vile creatures! Once before, the peoples of the galaxy joined together, as soldiers against a common enemy, and they bled and died together to push back the threat, delaying the death of all things for a day.”

“The Consortium’s Tenth and Fifteenth Fleets refused to lie down and let the people under their protection be destroyed, and they gave everything they had to push back death another day, another hour. The people of Coldana, the men and women who live upon that world and call it home, have stood against the swarm! Even now, they fight to keep back the hordes unnumbered that wish to kill and consume them! They looked at Death itself, coming for their friends, their families, their children, and they came together and answered, ‘Not today!’”

“The people on the ground have not driven off the invaders, for they do not have the strength to compete with such numbers. And yet, they fight on, unconquered still! Their fleets above did not bring down the great enemy, for they were too few to do that, but they made it bleed, and showed that, yes, we could hurt these abominations! And if we can hurt it, then we can kill it! They pushed back the death of all things for a day, and now it falls to us to push it back another day! But I am not satisfied with a single day! I say we ensure that this threat is destroyed, now and forever, so that this Harvester will never again be a threat to the civilized species of the world! Never again will a planet die, consumed by this abomination!”

“Know this, not all of us will survive this battle, but that does not make it hopeless! The X’thari have only numbers on their side! We have the collective will of six peoples on our side, with the cleverest minds of the entire galaxy coordinating our strategy, aided by the Nomad communications networks, so that we know where the enemy is, and how they are situated. They think mere numbers can defeat us! Twelfth Fleet, you are hereby ordered to prove to these damned bugs why numbers alone will never overcome the fighting spirit of the Confederate Navy! Third Group and Second Group, to the front! First Group, when the tarpits hit us, pave the road for our allies that follow! Drive it directly into their teeth!”

He cut the feed, and took a deep breath. With a deliberate air of confidence that he only half-felt, he watched, and waited. Thanks to the Nomad who was part of the Consortium Navy, they had an idea of when they would hit the tarpits that the X’thari had set up to interdict relief forces trying to enter Coldana. In fact, Third and Second Groups should be running into them in three… two… one… now!

Two thirds of Twelfth Fleet hit the tarpits right on time. Half a second later, First Group followed them, slamming back into realspace as the warp bubble collapsed. This was the critical moment. This was where the Consortium’s Tenth Fleet had met the X’thari, and had most of their forces wiped out as they valiantly tried to press on, despite all odds, to reinforce Coldana. Rizazzi held his breath as he watched the sensor readings.

“All ships, report in!”

“First group reporting in, ready to fight. Second and Third groups… we’re starting to get status reports on a ship by ship basis. The Kil’jaeden, Archimonde, Sargeras, and Stormrage are all drifting in space, no power! All ships in Second and Third groups reporting massive damage from the energy spike! Computer estimates we’re down to 45% combat effectiveness!”

Forty-five percent? That meant that over half of his ships were out of the fight, or compromised in some fashion. He knew it was going to be bad, but this bad? This was beyond anything he had ever faced before. With bated breath he asked the question that he had to know the answer to, but wasn’t sure he wanted to hear. “And the enemy?”

There was a pause as the Gadran’s tactical department analyzed the sensor data, trying to make sense of everything. “Accurate readings are difficult to attain, given the levels of high energy particles in the area, but we are looking at over five hundred enemy ships crippled or destroyed by the strike, Admiral! That’s the low estimate! Confirmed numbers climbing higher! Tarpits have fallen in Sections 7 through 15!”

Rizazzi let out his breath, and said, with a calmness he truly felt, now that he was committed, “First Group is to move forward and cover Second and Third Groups while they initiate repairs and reform their sections. All ships, fire at will. Take out any X’thari ships you can, and see if we can’t open that door a little wider! Send word to the combined fleet. Tell them that Twelfth Fleet has kicked open the door. Sprained our ankle doing it, but we’ve got it open for them!”

It had been an inspired bit of insanity, to be honest, built off the success of Fifteenth Fleet’s Operation Firebringer and the Black Stars’ Starbolt torpedoes. There were two main points of failure in the safety systems built into anything with a warp engine. Firebringer focused on removing the hardware interlocks that prevent a warp engine from accelerating into the surface of a planet. The problem was that, unless ships were designed with the ability to become the most massive missile in history in mind, those interlocks were buried in the middle of the hyperdrives for a reason! Starbolt, while a purpose-built platform now, was apparently originally just a civilian engine on the back of a solid mass. Instead of removing the hardware interlocks, the original Starbolts removed the software that interfaced between the sensors and the safeties, so that, if they were headed towards something solid, the Starbolt’s sensors wouldn’t relay that information to the interlocks, and the hardware never got the alert signal to shut down. It was a frighteningly simple solution to the problem.

That kind of suicidal maneuver was fine for attacking single point targets with maximum force, but Firebringer had shown that, in the cold of space, those methods wouldn’t work against groups of ships, like the Swarm. To deal with them, Rizazzi needed something that could strike in a wide area. He needed to compromise not the safeties on the hyperdrive, but the safeties on his shields.

A ship traveling through space using a warp drive is essentially moving in a little bubble of spacetime moving through the rest of the universe. Problem is, space, empty as it is, still has particles all over the place, and the shields of a ship at warp pick up those particles and carry them along for the ride. The longer the jump, the more particles you acquire.

This is normally not a problem, since the ship’s shields are designed to reroute the energy from the particles from the shield to rechargeable batteries that help provide emergency power, or supplement main power temporarily when it comes time to fight. Rizazzi had ordered the engineers of Second and Third groups to disable the pathways that siphoned off the energy, causing everything to be stored in the shields, building up more and more of a charge as the fleet flew for Coldana.

The result was… energetic, to say the least. The ships of Second and Third group came out of warp right in the middle of the X’thari tar pits, with the X’thari lying in wait, ready to strike the moment they entered the area. The clouds of high-energy particles that had stuck to their ships during the travel were suddenly unleashed with all the (localized) power and fury of a supernova. When the ships exited warp, the particles exited with them, and were shot out in front of each ship like a shotgun.

The shotgun blast from hell may as well have been an actual supernova, judging by the results of the event. One hundred ships, spread to form as large a ‘splash’ as they could, and, suddenly, things weren’t looking quite so bad for Twelfth Fleet from a strategic POV. For the first time anyone had ever intentionally attacked with ‘damaged’ shields, it had certainly proved why doing such against anyone but the X’thari would be considered a war crime of the highest order.

Rizazzi shook his head, clearing those thoughts from his mind. This was the time for desperation plays and leaving everything on the field of battle. He just hoped that the rest of the combined fleet would be able to make the most of it.

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X

Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Chapter 193 - Planning the Attack

(Conference Room, CNV Tribute of Gold, Grimshield’s Bane System)

Admiral Ironbelt looked around the conference room at the assembled Admirals, their top aides, and flag captains. This was the moment she had been both waiting on and dreading, the first planning meeting for how to deal with the X’thari Harvester that was in Consortium space. There were eight fleets from five nations and one corporation here. She would be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy the thought of being in command of such a force, but the circumstances made any enjoyment turn to ashes in her mouth. There was a very good chance that the only people here who would still be alive after the battle were the Nomads.

When everyone was settled, she touched a button on the conference table in front of her, and a chime sounded. Everyone stopped their conversations, and turned to look at her. “Thank you all for coming. I know our nations have not always been allies, or even friends. Some of us have come to blows with each other in our own lifetimes. Remember that the threat we face is one that threatens all life in this galaxy. Any differences we have must be set aside until the crisis is resolved. This may mean working alongside people you have good reason to hate. I will not try to cheapen your feelings, or the reasons for them. But we all know the stakes here. And we all know that, in the end, there is a very real chance that none of us, or our fleets, will make it out of the coming battle alive. It falls on us, then, to shelve our ill will with our fellow commanders, and work together, so that we might spend those lives that are lost as dearly as possible, and work on destroying the Harvester once and for all.”

She looked around the table, and was pleased to see that while there were definitely tensions (one could not help but notice the glare that the Kul’tiran Lord Proudmoore gave Admiral Mollen, unless you were blinder than a Tygelian rock slug), but there were grim nods and even the Kul’tirans did their best to hide their displeasure at sharing a table with the mercenary leader. It wasn’t much, but she would take what victories she could get at this point. The stakes were far too high to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

“Right. In that case, let us go around the table quickly and introduce the key players. As you all know, I am Admrial Dhurdroda Ironbelt, commander of the Consortium Navy’s Seventh Fleet, and overall commander of this task force.”

She nodded to the Ihm female sitting to her right, indicating she should speak. She was lean and slender, like most Ihm females, and her eyes betrayed a deadly cunning. “I am Keh Dhaka, Warleader of the Second Great Armada of the Ihm Imperium. By the words of the Treaty, I will carry the command if Admiral Ironbelt falls.” The Treaty of Helbizore was rather clear that the entire chain of command could not be one country’s commanders before all others, for fear of recklessly wasting lives like cannon fodder. Because of that, the second in command of the combined fleet was chosen by lottery among the remaining commanders as the fleet was gathering, and so on, with each country being kept out of the next round after their commander was chosen. This resulted in Warleader Dhaka being the combined fleet’s second in command.

Dhaka nodded to the Gauz male to her right, passing the floor. He was short, stocky, and bald on the top of his head, with the close-cropped beard common to spacefaring Gauz (whiskers caught in spacesuit seals were a bad thing). With a nod to Admiral Ironbelt, he turned to look at the rest of the group. “I’m Admiral Bradmig Jadegut, commander of the Consortium Navy’s Fifth Fleet, and third in command of the task force.”

A Knelfi female was next in line. She looked quite prim and proper in her dress uniform, but then the Knelfi were always prim and proper looking. “I am High Admiral Leena Aejor, commander of the Confederate Navy’s Sixth Fleet, fourth in command of the task force.”

The human Kul’tiran was next. He was a broad, hearty man. Scion of the aristocracy or not, he had worked his way up through the Kul’tiran Navy like everyone else. “Lord Admiral Tandred Proudmoore, of Kul’tiras, commander of the First Fleet. I guess that makes me fifth in line.”

Another human smiled. She was slim, and had skin that was a slightly darker shade than the Kul’tiran’s. “I am Admiral Han Moon-Hee, of Her Imperial Majesty’s Ninth Fleet. The Vindictus and I are here to see this threat ended, once and for all. Should things go bad, I will be sixth to take up the mantle of command.”

A Felisan Male bobbed his head next to her, and said in an almost purr, “I am Admiral Kasyx Rizazzi of the Confederate Navy’s Twelfth Fleet. Should things get to that point, I would be the seventh fleet commander to take overall command.”

Finally, the last human in the room spoke, from his seat at Ironbelt’s left. He was the only Nomad in the room, and the only commander who was not a part of a star nation that had signed the Treaty of Helbizore. “Some of you know me already, by reputation if not in person, but I am Admiral Mirikon Mollen, of the Black Star Navy. And should things well and truly go to shit, command will fall to me. I hope for all our sakes that such a thing does not happen.”

Ironbelt nodded, and said, “I, too, would very much hope that the command of the combined fleet never falls on you, Admiral Mollen, not least because of the fact that I am extremely allergic to being dead!” That got a laugh out of the group, none of them strangers to gallows humor. Such things were common amongst all militaries, it seemed. “Now, before we begin planning specifics of our attack, we have new data from Coldana, that must be considered.” That got a stir out of everyone. She turned to look at the Nomad. “Admiral Mollen, if you will?”

Admiral Mollen stood to his full height, and looked around the table. “At the request of Admiral Ironbelt, five Starhunter deep space scout ships attempted to sneak into the Coldana system. Because of their stealth features, tactics, and small size, they were able to enter the system undetected. The FTL comm array in Coldana has been destroyed, as expected, but the Starhunters have Nomads on board, and, as such, have been able to provide data on the conditions in the system.”

Ironbelt had heard this report before, but it was a good sign to see everyone straighten up a bit more as they paid attention to the Nomad’s words. The Nomad communication networks had proven far too useful for them to be discounted now. “The first thing to report is that Coldana still lives, and her people are still fighting the X’thari forces on the ground. We have not been able to get confirmed numbers from the resistance forces as the Black Star ships were ordered to maintain strict radio silence except for tightbeam intership links to avoid detection. But we are able to confirm from intercepted transmissions that the battle is ongoing.”

He paused, and then continued. “As good news as that is, the more important information is that the X’thari Harvester was apparently damaged more thoroughly by the Consortium Fifteenth Fleet’s Operation Firebringer than the initial reports suggested. The Harvester is slowly making its way through the remains of the Consortium fleets, consuming the materials. However, we have not seen an appreciable increase in the number of X’thari vessels compared to the post-battle data. This, combined with the fact that the Harvester looks to be consuming and processing the debris at a far slower rate than past data would suggest, leads our analysts to conclude that there was internal damage to the Harvester that did not show up on the outside, much like having a broken bone or punctured lung might not be immediately obvious from the outside in one of us.”

Admiral Jadegut frowned. “Will we be able to go over the data as well, so our analysts can corroborate? If this is true, then it gives us a window where the Harvester is more vulnerable than we can ever hope to find it, save while it is actively consuming Coldana.”

Admiral Mollen nodded. “The data, such as it is, is being compiled and sent to each of your commands’ analysts. Unfortunately, there is little in the way of hard data at this time, as we are dealing with oral reports, which don’t support massive data files.” When Jadegut nodded, he continued as he was before. “According to the Starhunters, the X’thari in the system are split between guarding the planet and the Harvester. If tarpits could be deployed, then this would allow the two groups to be kept separate, keeping reinforcements from helping defend the Harvester.”

Admiral Rizazzi cleared his throat as the Nomad sat down. “Could we use the method these Starhunters used to enter the system without fighting our way through the X’thari blockade?”

“Unlikely. The Starhunters used their X’thari drives to warp to a point well outside the system and engaged a ballistic course to enter the system well above the ecliptic, avoiding most of the X’thari patrols. In addition, five small ships designed for stealth are an entirely different matter from a combined fleet numbering over fifteen hundred ships. The Black Star Navy might, might be able to sneak in the same way, but without the support of the combined fleet, it is unlikely that we would be able to get close enough undetected to get a clear shot on the Harvester, and against that many ships it is unlikely we would be able to make a decisive attack before we were destroyed.”

Warleader Dhaka nodded her head. “It is good to know one’s shortcomings, and have a clear head, instead of becoming filled with the battlefire and losing sight of reality. If we cannot sneak in, then we must have a wedge to force a hole for the rest of our ships to get through.”

High Admiral Aejaor nodded slowly. “Before we decide which forces will force the hole open and which ones will make the attack, what plans do we have for destroying the Harvester? Given the data on its shields, we would have to use a sustained bombardment of the entire combined fleet to have a hope of destroying the shields by conventional means. Unless we are going to try and have a dreadnought sacrifice itself as in the last battle?”

Admiral Mollen raised his hand. “The data suggests that the layered shields of the Harvester can be defeated if we have a high enough concentration of firepower, striking in conjunction. Unfortunately, the amount of firepower required is unobtainable, unless one uses superluminal weaponry.”

Ironbelt shook her head. “It took an entire fleet base’s worth of engineers working in dry dock over a week to remove the governors of twelve shuttles. The time it would take to remove them on enough craft to be useful to the attack…”

Lord Proudmoore cut in. “What about the Black Stars and their FTL torpedoes? Are there enough of them to make the difference?”

Admiral Mollen looked over his shoulder to the synthetic female sitting behind him as his aide. “Raven?”

“Currently, between the various ships in the combined Black Star forces here, and the Starhunters currently in Coldana, the Black Star Navy could field well over four hundred Starbolt torpedoes without resupplying from supply ships. This includes torpedoes launched from the Dragon bombers, Assassin corvettes, Reaper cruisers, Knight destroyers, Wrath battleships, Starhunter scout ships, and the Starlight Raven. Simultaneous launch numbers are significantly below that number, however.”

Lord Proudmoore looked at the aide blankly for a moment. “Well, that was certainly more than I expected.”

Admiral Han chuckled. “I have found that the Black Stars are always more than one might expect. However, hearing this makes it clear what we need to do. If we can get the Black Stars a clear shot on the Harvester, they are the only force with enough burst firepower to have a hope of destroying it, certainly before Coldana is consumed.”

Ironbelt smiled. “Then, in that case, lets start talking specifics.”

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X

Saturday, April 13, 2019

Chapter 192 - Reconnaissance

(BSS Heartseeker, Coldana System)

The last time they were here, the Coldana system had been the site of a desperate last stand by the Consortium Navy, trying to bloody the X’thari as much as they possibly could before they were overwhelmed by the impossible numbers of the Swarm. The five Starhunter ships had played their own role in that battle, even though they had far fewer kills to their names than the Consortium ships did. Because of the way X’thari always attempted to destroy non-X’thari ships with the X’thari Anchor Drives on them, the call had been made for all five of the Starhunters to enter the system and draw off as many ships from the main fleet as they could.

With their escorts drawn away, chasing the lightning quick Starhunters, the Consortium Navy was able to get in several devastating blows, including two major hits on the massive Harvester itself. That hadn’t stopped the X’thari advance, of course, but it had been a major morale victory when it had been reported back to the ships and fleets that were gathering to try and destroy the menace once and for all.

For the Starhunters, though, that battle had been an exercise in quick reactions and seat of your pants flying. Thousands of ships had broken off from the swarm to hunt down five little ships that weren’t any larger than a light freighter each. If there were graver mismatches in the history of the universe, there couldn’t have been many of them. Fortunately, all five Starhunters had enough of a lead, that their overpowered engines were able to keep them out of weapons range, even as they kept drawing the X’thari away from the Consortium ships. And they had gotten their licks in, too! They may not have had many weapons, and certainly nothing for the numbers they faced, but every one of them launched their weapons bays dry, the sudden assault taking out some three dozen escort ships in total. It wasn’t much, but they could proudly say that they hadn’t simply run from the battle without doing anything.

Now, rested and rearmed, Heartseeker and her sisters were back in the game, this time to provide much-needed intelligence on what the X’thari were doing. It had been almost two weeks since the first battle of Coldana, and people were anxious to see what the X’thari had been doing in that time. So, the Boss had ordered them in. It wasn’t a heartless act on his part, though it was certainly cold and calculating enough. The Starhunters were designed for stealth insertions and reconnaissance, and they were designed with finding and mapping X’thari strongholds in particular. This was simply a dress rehearsal for when they did this for real. That’s what they told themselves, anyways.

Using the Anchor Drives, they came out far outside the system, where they could avoid detection by the X’thari ships blockading the system. Then, they got up to speed, before coasting on a ballistic trajectory into the system, sixty degrees above the ecliptic. With stealth systems fully engaged the five ships may as well have been holes in space as they spent three days on their approach. It was far too early to announce their presence, after all.

Finally, they began getting readings on the passive sensors. The readings were all limited by the speed of light, since they did not dare light off their active sensors, but what they could see was both impressive and disheartening at the same time. There were over one hundred and fifty-five THOUSAND X’thari vessels in the system! That number was enough to darken the heart of the most stalwart warrior, but it meant that the Consortium had managed to take down almost ten percent of the Swarm in their fanatical last stand! That number was up from the initial combat reports the Starhunters and the Fucking Bitch had brought back, evidently reflecting that some of the X’thari ships had been too badly damaged to continue functioning, or had been sent to replace losses in the groups blockading the system.

Slave-Captain Drah Sross had enjoyed their brief stay in Star’s Reach, where all the Starhunter crews had been able to get quite drunk without having to spend a single credit, thanks to the people who kept plying them with drinks in exchange for their story of the Battle. Even the Nomads, who had gotten the information on the battle through their communication networks, were impressed by the stories of those who were actually there. Still, there was only so much alcohol an Ihm could drink, and she was glad that they were back here in Coldana, doing something important. The Master had promised her excitement when he first ‘recruited’ her, and he had certainly delivered so far!

She took a breath, and then said, “Adam, tightbeam transmission to the group. All ships spread out, maximum stealth, into Stellar Halo formation. We want to map as much of the system as possible, and get any and all data on the X’thari movements. We don’t have the Consortium Navy or their tarpits to help us out this time, so getting spotted is going to be severely hazardous to our health.”

“Understood, Captain. All other ships acknowledge.”

Stellar Halo was just what it sounded. All five Starhunter ships would move on ballistic trajectories, with as minimal maneuvering as possible, to a distance 0.75 AU from the system primary along the ecliptic and 0.75 AU above the ecliptic, spreading out so that their path described a perfect circle circling the sun. The formation allowed all ships to keep in tightbeam communication, and being so far above the ecliptic made the chance of running into X’thari ships remote, to say the least.

“Adam, have we located the Harvester yet?”

“Yes, Captain. The Harvester is approximately two hundred thousand kilometers from its last known location.”

Drah frowned at that. “The thing has been here for two weeks! What has it been doing all this time? Has it finished off Coldana yet? What is the system’s status, Adam?”

“Negative on destruction of Coldana. The biosphere of the planet is still intact. However, I am detecting an extremely high number of X’thari ships in orbit of the planet. All orbital infrastructure has been destroyed.”

Chakizo purred slightly as he made his way to the cockpit from the engineering spaces. “Perhaps the Harvester was hurt badly enough that it couldn’t just rush and consume the planet. There might still be survivors!”

“We are detecting wideband transmissions from several parts of the planetary surface, but there is significant interference. The transmissions are not on frequencies known to be used by the X’thari. The chances of there being living resistance forces on the planet’s surface is 32%.”

Drah considered that. “What sources would the transmissions be coming from if not survivors fighting against the X’thari?”

“Several possible sources, with recordings of fallen resistance groups set to replay at intervals being the most likely. Given the extreme numbers of X’thari ships in orbit, it is unlikely that any forces still remain alive on the surface.”

“What about defense bunkers?”

“Calculating… If defensive bunkers were secure enough, and not destroyed by orbital bombardment, there is a chance that some of them could still survive.”

“Which ship is closest to Coldana Prime?”

“The Flux Capacitor is closest.”

“Tightbeam to the Flux Capacitor. Standard Black Star encryption.”

“Ready.”

“Flux Capacitor, this is Heartseeker. We have what looks like corrupted signals coming from Coldana Prime. Do you think you can get a better read on them, maybe clean them up and see what they have to say?”

“Heartseeker, we’re reading the same thing here. Sarah, our AI, is saying that it doesn’t look good for any survivors to be still alive, given the number of ships. However, we’re not picking up the atmospheric ionization you’d expect if the X’thari had been doing large-scale orbital bombardments. If there are defense bunkers that haven’t been overrun, we could have survivors still alive on the planet’s surface!”

“Flux Capacitor, do you think you can get a better read on the situation if you moved closer?”

“Probably. I would like to know what the X’thari are doing if they haven’t been conducting large-scale bombardments, though.”

“Captain, I calculate a 74.9% probability that the X’thari intend for the Harvester to consume the biosphere intact, and that orbital bombardment would taint large parts of it making it suboptimal for their use.”

“Flux, Adam’s just had a brainwave. The X’thari want their big Harvester to eat the planet, so they don’t want to poison it with their big guns. I want you to break formation, and see if you can coast close enough to pick up the transmissions from Coldana, and clean them up. Do not transmit anything or respond. There’s nothing we can do for them, except letting the combined fleets know that there are survivors still fighting, if we can confirm that.”

“Understood. We’ll be quiet as a ghost.”

“Just don’t become ghosts yourselves!”

“Hah! Copy that. Flux Capacitor, out.”

Drah nodded to herself as the Flux Capacitor closed the line. “Adam, work with the other ships, to alter formation so we cover for the Flux dropping out to cover the planet. How soon until we can get more data on what the Harvester is doing?”

“Other ships are adjusting positions. Estimate twelve hours until all ships are in new final positions. Data analysis on the Harvester is ongoing. Prioritizing analysis of damage received and other factors.”

“What is the Harvester currently doing.”

“Analysis ongoing. Cross-referencing the current position of the Harvester with data from the Battle of Coldana. Discrepancy noted. Mass of debris from the destroyed remnant of Tenth Fleet is no longer present. Mass of debris from destroyed Fifteenth Fleet is 25% less than the predicted base on mass of the fleet and observed pattern of destruction. Preliminary conclusion: Harvester is consuming remains of the Consortium Navy vessels before advancing on Coldana.”

Chakizo frowned. “I mean, there’s a lot of reason to consume the fleets. That’s a lot of resources that they could get from it. But why would they focus on those fleets before going and snapping up a whole world’s worth of resources on Coldana?”

Drah shook her head. “Maybe it is just going with the closest source of resources, and will consume them all in time? But something the size of the Harvester should have been able to consume the fleets by now. The last time the Harvester showed up, and it would eat an entire planet down to the bedrock in two weeks. There’s no reason they couldn’t have moved past the fleet by now!”

“Captain, visual analysis of the Harvester shows scar tissue at the site of earlier wounds. This suggests that the Harvester has not yet fully recovered external wounds from the Firebringer attack. Additionally, there may be internal damage to the Harvester’s systems that is not immediately visible. This would mean that the Harvester is using the resources of the Consortium Navy fleets to fuel its regenerative processes, and also why new X’thari ships have not launched to replace the losses already incurred.”

Drah blinked, and turned to look at Chakizo. The Felisan also looked surprised at that revelation. “Could it really be that simple? The attacks hurt the Harvester enough that it was able to slow the speed at which they were able to process materials, even if there wasn’t noticeable external damage?”

“Damn. Yeah, it could be possible. Those hits from Firebringer had to have been one hell of an impact. Before I was ‘recruited’ to Black Star, I was a mercenary. You had plenty of people that would get hit, and they might not have big gushing wounds like you see when someone gets shot full of holes, but they get internal bleeding, and die out a while later if they don’t get it fixed up. And hell, you get your head smacked hard enough, you can get a nasty concussion, even if you aren’t killed, and that’ll throw you off your game for sure until it heals. And if a shuttle going at FTL hitting you upside the head doesn’t give you a concussion, I don’t know what will!”

“Adam, emergency message to the Master. Use the Nomad networks. We don’t want the X’thari discovering us. Tell him that there may still be survivors on Coldana, and that the Harvester has not yet made it in system to strike at the planet itself! They’re planning how to attack this beastie, and this might give them the opening they need!”

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X

Tuesday, April 9, 2019

Chapter 191 - Gathering the Fleet

(Flag Bridge, CNV Tribute of Gold, Grimshield’s Bane System)

Admiral Dhurdroda Ironbelt was anxious. As commander of the Consortium Navy’s Seventh Fleet, and senior commander of the Consortium Navy on the scene, she was nominally the commander of the entire task force that was gathering, because of how the Treaty of Helbizore was worded. The Treaty was designed to end a threat to all life in the galaxy. As such, someone had the great idea to write into the treaty that the senior commander from the nation currently threatened by the Harvester was in overall command. All well and good. However, there were five different star nations and one mercenary company represented in the task force, and she knew quite well that, while she was the senior in terms of length of service, all that service had been against pirates or the occasional skirmish with the Terran Empire. Against the X’thari, even the Nomad mercenary leader had more battle experience than her.

Nomads. They were changing the very fabric of the universe everywhere they went, or so it seemed. It wasn’t a change she was entirely comfortable with, because these Nomads would sometimes disappear for hours or days at a time, and yet they were able to get information from across the galaxy, even across factions. Anywhere a Nomad was, there was a potential leak in information, and a potential intelligence source, and they were spread across all factions, and all walks of life. The ramifications were mind-boggling!

“Admiral, we have incoming warp signatures, multiple vectors.”

Ironbelt forced her voice to remain calm. They were expecting ships, after all. It might not be the worst-case scenario. “Coldana?”

“Negative. The tracks look to be from the Malvenad Sector and Dagon Gateway! Getting IFF signals from Fifth Fleet now, coming from Malvenad. The ships from Dagon are identifying… it is the Ihm Imperium! Their Second Great Armada has arrived!”

Admiral Ironbelt let out a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding. Reinforcements, not the X’thari making an early run on Grimshield’s Bane. That was fortunate. The addition of Fifth Fleet and the Second Great Armada, along with the Imperial Navy’s Ninth Fleet meant that the only forces that hadn’t arrived were the Kul’tiran First Fleet, and the Fourth Group of the Black Star Navy. It still wouldn’t be enough, if the X’thari came unexpectedly.

Fortunately, everyone had already been given the tactical data that the civilian ships which escaped Coldana were able to bring out. With this, they were able to start making preliminary guesses about the Harvester’s defenses. So far, the analysts had confirmed the judgement of Admiral Fullstout, indicating that the Harvester possessed layered shields, allowing for it to take an extreme amount of punishment before being wounded. A conventional attack would almost certainly fail, even if they had ten times the number of ships promised for the fight. The fate of the Harvester seen in the last X’thari war must have been due to the fact that Captain Pyrrhus of the INS Heraclea was able to blow his ship’s reactor inside the Harvester’s maw, so it did not have to deal with the shields or whatever armor made up that thing’s hide.

Hopefully, all the ships would arrive in time so that they could have a true planning session, and figure out how to drive off this threat without sacrificing all these fleets to allow a dreadnought to fly down the Harvester’s throat like last time. But before they could get a plan, they needed to get a read on how much time they had. They needed eyes on Coldana so that they could know when the Swarm set off. Problem was, only six ships had been able to escape Coldana the first time, and none of them had tried using conventional drives to do so. Any ships she sent would almost certainly be destroyed long before they got to Coldana, much less sighted the Harvester.

She looked at her tactical plot, her eyes coming to rest on the area where the Black Star Navy was resting in orbit, visible only because they had active IFF signatures. Black Star ships were some of the ones that were used in bringing back combat data. It was possible…

“Comms, put me through to the Ama-no-Murakumo, and see if Admiral Mollen has time to talk.”

(Flag Bridge, BSN Gugnir, Grimshield’s Bane System)

Slave-Commodore Hirata Konomi was well aware of the ‘tensions’ that existed between the Black Star Company and the Kul’tiran Navy. After all, the Admiral had wrecked three of their warships with a light freighter, and hadn’t taken a scratch doing so. He had then taken the survivors prisoner, and ransomed them back to Kul’tiras for an obscene amount of money, doing so in so public a manner that they couldn’t help but lose face, which had caused them to lose several security contracts, and had given rise to piracy in the area, which was how Fourth Group’s home port of Madrigal Base became part of Black Star’s growing portfolio. Given that history, it was impossible for her to not know the history between their factions.

So, it was something of an awkward situation when the Fourth Group of the Black Star Navy exited the Dagon Gateway, so they could rendezvous with the gathering fleet, only for the Gateway to open again just behind them, forcing them to expedite their fleet maneuvers to clear the lane. That the newcomers were the Kul’tiran Navy’s First Fleet only made things more ‘interesting’, as the Admiral would put it. Thankfully, the Admiral was not actually on board her Gugnir, or things would have been beyond awkward, with the First Fleet being commanded by the Kul’tiran’s Lord Tandred Proudmoore, the brother of the commander that the Admiral had humiliated. She hoped to be very far away if those two ever met face to face.

Fortunately, the Kul’tirans were at least professional enough to allow the past to stay the past while the larger picture was at stake, and agreed to travel in concert with Fourth Group. They even did it with the bare minimum of posturing, as well, despite having a three to one advantage in the number of ships. Of course, the Black Star Navy had made its name by punching above its weight class, so those numbers meant that it was almost a fair fight. Almost. And if Fourth Group used Starbolts, then the fight was just downright unfair.

Hirata banished those thoughts from her head. Killing Kul’tirans wasn’t on the menu at the moment, which was probably for the best. They were coming up on Grimshield’s Bane, now, and she needed to finish up her calculations based on the combat data that had been sent out about the Swarm and the Harvester. The Admiral had asked for both her and Fifth Group’s Slave-Commodore Icebrand to come up with an initial battle plan, given the estimated fleet strength they figured the joint fleet would have. There would be precious little time for simulations and wargaming once the fleet joined up, so it was best to already have potential plans worked up so that the planning meeting could work on melding them into a coherent operational guide.

From what she saw, the sensors said that the Harvester had multiple layers of shields, each of which was at least at superdreadnought strength. This was actually more formidable than a simple planetary fortress shield, as any conventional attack would be doomed to fail. By the time you beat down the third or fourth shield layer, the first would be working on regenerating, while the lower shield layers would still be untouched! The only reason Firebringer did any damage was because it massively overpowered multiple shield layers at once. Unfortunately, they were limited by the number of shuttles they could modify in time for the battle.

Hmm. Disabling the safeties would require a lot of work. The things were buried damn near in the middle of the hyperdrive engines, after all, and for good reason. Any accidental failure on the part of the safety would likely disable the engine entirely, and the position made it impossible to sabotage without significant maintenance time. There was a potential work-around, but it involved sabotaging your sensors by deliberately feeding false data to them, almost the reverse of how the Tarpits worked. That was an even worse idea than sabotaging the safeties on the hyperdrive, since those sensors were the only things that let you aim a kamikaze run at distances where the light bouncing off the enemy’s hull was already ten or twenty minutes old by the time it reached you, if not more!

Of course, if they could get enough Starbolts to bear… Slave-Commodore Hirata nodded to herself as she reviewed her plan. It was bare bones, but it was a start. Hopefully the rest of the combined fleet would either have something better, or would be able to refine her plan somehow. There was, after all, the little problem of getting past the thousands of ships protecting the Harvester to make their attack run.

(Flag Bridge, BSN Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, Grimshield’s Bane System)

“Master, Fourth Group just arrived in system along with the Kul’tirans.”

I nodded to Slave-Captain Virstina. Fourth Group was right on time. They had had the longest transit time of any of my ships, having had to reach a Gateway before they could transit to this sector, they had made it in two and a half weeks after I had given the call.

“Contact the Gugnir, and welcome them to the fight. Have their group form up with First and Fifth groups, and try to make it look good. We have five professional navies out there, watching us.”

“Orders received and acknowledged, Master. Fourth group is joining the fleet formation. Slave-Commodore Hirata is transmitting her proposed action plan to the flag.”

I smiled. It had taken some work, but all of the Black Star Navy was acting like as professional a navy as anyone could ask for without a couple centuries of history and tradition to guide and inspire them. I looked at the high points of Hirata’s planned attack. It was a working idea, but needed polish. She was, after all, running off the public data of the assigned fleets, not any bonuses they might have picked up here and there.

Still, the majority of her plan matched my own, and that of Fifth Group’s Slave-Commodore Balmit Icebrand, one of the few Gauz in the Navy. Essentially, the plan boiled down to finding a way for the Black Star ships to get past the X’thari vessels, and unleash as many Starbolts as we possibly could before we got wiped from the face of the galaxy. The scale of the X’thari forces made the whole thing a likely suicide mission if we just charged in. We would need some kind of diversion. Not just in the system itself, but something to force a hole in the patrols no doubt lying in stealth on the system approaches, waiting for relief forces, like they had been for Tenth Fleet. Given the data, Raven concluded that the reason systems went dark when the Harvester was coming was because the X’thari were trying to keep someone from doing what we planned to do, coming in while the Harvester was weak and perhaps even helpless, eating a planet and unable to defend itself. We needed a way to get in without being reduced to scrap.

Hmm. I checked the ‘guild chat’ for the Black Star Company. Both the Company and the Navy had their own ‘guild chat’ channel, with every Nomad in the company assigned to one or both of them, allowing for quick transfer of information, internally, so long as Nomads were involved. The newly designated Starhunter-class Scout Ships that made up the Heartseeker and her sisters had left Nuevo Edo after a conversation with Admiral Ironbelt. They needed real-time information on Coldana, if they could get it, and that meant the Starhunters. Currently, they were coasting into the Coldana system on ballistic trajectories, well, well above the ecliptic. It was possible for fleets to maneuver to come in on ballistic as well, but without the X’thari drives, it would be a matter of a week or more to get to a place where they could set up the ballistic run, and another week to cruise in. All the while, they would have no way of escape if noticed too soon. Not to mention the lingering fact that, the longer they took to launch the attack proper, the more likely it was that the Harvester would finish with Coldana, and move on, spoiling the maneuver entirely. It was what some might call an untenable situation.

Hopefully, the Starhunters would be able to give them some information they could use.

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X

Thursday, April 4, 2019

Prologue - Trade Chat

(NERV Game Site – Official DAtS Offline Forums)

Number5Alive, Golddigger, BurtBacharach, CrazyCelt, Blaze, DoYouEvenLyft?, MarcoPolo, MightMakesRight, l33tpally, Bennie, SEA-TAC_Sweetie, Requiesce-in-Pace, MacD, HaveGunsWillTravel, TheDespoiler, Guardian, GunKitty, Chummer, Inquisitor, Lizard, RedFox, SemiSolidSnake, ElfMama, Not_the_Face!, Anonymous3, Anonymous4, Anonymous7, Anonymous9, AggregatorOfSorrows, M.Mollen, WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot, DigDug, BigGunn, Dolcett, Starwatcher, Backlog, DarkAvariel, Knocker, Hullu_Kapteeni, GrimDark, BloodForTheBloodGod, Queen’s_Bitch, BackDat@55Up, DoYouEvenDPS?, MajorTom, Parca, and DarkAngel are in the chat.

Chummer: OK, what the hell did you people do?

Inquisitor: What? What are you talking about?

DoYouEvenDPS?: I haven’t done anything lately.

Chummer: Well, SOMEONE had to have done something pretty big, because the Imperial Navy’s Ninth Fleet just passed through Alpha Centauri in a damn hurry!

Anonymous4: Where were they headed?

Chummer: To one of the Consortium Gateways.

Knocker: Can’t be an invasion, then. Invading through a Gateway is damn near impossible if there are defenses in place.

GrimDark: And ALL known Gateways have defenses in place.

Dolcett: Hmm. That’s odd. The Kul’tiran First Fleet just headed for Consortium space as well.

Not_the_Face!: The First Fleet, or the ‘Mercenary’ force?

Dolcett: The actual fleet.

BloodForTheBloodGod: The Confederates are moving, too. Sixth Fleet just left Dimiya.

BackDat@55Up: What? The Confederate Twelfth Fleet just left Ba Sing Se! There was an emergency recall of shore leaves and everything! Scuttlebutt says we’re headed to the Consortium, too!

Number5Alive: That is disturbing. My business partner in the Consortium says that the Fifth and Seventh Fleets are on the move, and the Tenth and Fifteenth are already on mission somewhere.

M.Mollen: Coldana. They were on mission at Coldana.

Starwatcher: Does this have anything to do with the fact that the Black Star ships near Nuevo Edo have left?

M.Mollen: Yes.

Inquisitor: It is the X’thari, isn’t it? There’s been talk, saying that, because of the size of the Swarm, some treaty has been invoked.

M.Mollen: The Treaty of Helbizore, yes. The normal actions of the X’thari can be dangerous enough, but when a Harvester is sighted, all the Major Powers are bound by treaty to put aside their current issues, and work together to drive off the threat.

ElfMama: Harvester? Is that the big ass thing we saw in the cinematic that NERV put out?

M.Mollen: Yes. It is a Planet-Eater. Literally strips a planet down to the bedrock, and uses the biomass and resources to make more X’thari and X’thari ships. It poses a threat to all life in the galaxy.

GrimDark: Like the fucking Tyranids on steroids. Fucking wonderful.

Starwatcher: So, what is Black Star doing in all of this?

M.Mollen: This will be the biggest fleet battle in the game to date, and the stakes are as high as it gets. Of course, Black Star will be in the middle of it!

TheDespoiler: Hmm. This enemy sounds like a foe worthy of our guns.

Inquisitor: What will you be doing in the battle?

M.Mollen: Unclear so far. We have combat data of the Harvester and the Swarm in action, so we’re going over it now, to see if we can formulate a plan of attack.

WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot: You have COMBAT DATA on this thing? How the hell did you do that? From everything I’ve heard about it, nothing fights that thing and lives. Hell, the best anyone has done to one is blow its face off by self-destructing a dreadnought in the thing’s mouth. And unless this is a new one, that means it got better from a hit like that!

M.Mollen: The Consortium Navy’s Fifteenth Fleet, and what remained of Tenth Fleet as they desperately tried to get to Coldana through the blockade, fought the Swarm to the last, buying time for the people of Coldana to prepare defenses on the ground.

GrimDark: What do they expect ground defenses to do against the Swarm, much less the Harvester?

M.Mollen: Nothing, in the end. But they intend to make the Swarm bleed for every inch of ground, hoping to buy time for the rest of the galaxy to implement the Treaty before another world is consumed.

Lizard: You mean, they knew they were dead, all of them, even the civilians, and they lined up to fight to the end, against hopeless odds? And these are NPCs, not Nomads?

M.Mollen: Yes, for the sole purpose of ensuring that whoever comes next has the best chance at ending the threat permanently as they can possibly get.

BurtBacharach: That is a tale worthy of song.

WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot: It is damn impressive, for sure. But that doesn’t explain how you got combat data out.

M.Mollen: Two sources. First, the BSS Heartseeker and her sister ships used their Anchor Drives to jump in, and lead the X’thari on a chase, giving the Consortium a chance to strike at the Swarm’s capitol ships, instead of dealing with the escorts.

Anonymous9: Ah, yes. The X’thari absolutely hate anyone playing with their toys except them. Always trying to blow anyone using that Anchor Drive that isn’t X’thari to particulate matter.

M.Mollen: Quite. Only reason the drives aren’t used more often, honestly. Anyways, there was also a Transition capable freighter in system, containing the only Nomad presence in Coldana. That freighter waited until the last Consortium ship died before transitioning out. They brought with them all the combat data they could, and a copy of Coldana’s complete database, as well as personal messages from everyone they left behind, both the fleet and those on the ground.

Anonymous4: How in the hell did they get so much data in their systems?

HaveGunsWillTravel: They dumped their cargo, and the system government outfitted them with military sensors, and filled their entire cargo bay with servers to hold the data. There are fleet bases with less storage capacity than what they crammed into the Fucking Bitch.

Anonymous3: That has to be a Nomad ship, right?

Guardian: Yeah, it is.

DoYouEvenLyft?: So, just how tough is this Harvester, anyways?

M.Mollen: It got hit twice with a shuttlecraft moving at five hundred times light speed, and survived with what looked like minor injuries. Some bleeding, but nothing that would slow it down for long, if it really is the same Harvester as before.

Requiesce-in-Pace: What the hell? How did it survive something like that? One should have been enough to end it!

M.Mollen: That’s why we’re going over the combat data. We know it can be made to bleed. If it bleeds, we can kill it. But we need to figure out how. If we figure that out? Well, knowing is half the battle.

MightMakesRight: *whistles* The NERV site has video of the battle up now! There’s gotta be over a thousand ships in that fleet! That is going to be one hell of a fight.

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X