8. A change of seasons

8. A change of seasons


Hasdrubal moving his considerable bulk onto the chair that was provided inside the "Pearls for Sus", his favourite eating place in Dau Senate. The cuisine was a blend of Serco sizes, Itani sophistication and UIT prices. The perfect place when someone else was paying, as in this case the UIT state in the form of Commander Fletholm. Hasdrubal went through the menu with a trained eye and decided on the three most expensive dishes and a bottle of very expensive red wine before settling in to wait for the Commander. He didn't really know what the Commander wanted; he had after all delivered all his data except for the part about being intercepted by the Serco patrol. Maybe they had a hunch that he had been involved in that incident, maybe they suspected something. He had initially thought about declining this meeting, but in the end had realised that if they wanted him, they could have sent someone nasty instead. So he settled for getting the most out of it, maybe they just wanted to congratulate him on a job well done. He licked his full lips and carefully studied the other guests, trying to guess what they did for a living. At least three of the women were easy to guess, he had purchased the services of two of them on other occasions, and that one over there looked a bit like senator Rosebund. The waiter arrived with the wine and he smacked his lips in anticipation of tasting it. He let a few drops roll over his tongue and let the taste fill his mouth with its potency. Very good indeed, maybe even worth the 6000 UIT Credits that it was listed to. He nodded and let the waiter fill his glass before leaving him again. He quickly drank some more of it, the notes of cherry and sweet blackberries completed the experience. He nibbled on one of the delicious almond cookies that were a perfect companion to the red wine. Although it did make him thirstier, much thirstier. He started sweating and his pulse picked up quite a lot. He looked around for a waiter but had difficulty seeing details, everything was blurry and it was hard for him to focus on anything. He wondered what was happening as he started to get nauseous. Fortunately his awareness centre in his brain decided that this would be a good time to shut down, and Hasdrubal fainted into his wine and cookies headfirst. When Fletholm arrived five minutes after, Hasdrubal had been declared dead.


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The wormhole to Geira Rutilus, the key to controlling he border between Serco and Itani space was the most contested piece of space in all of the known systems. The Serco military had tried to build a base on the Deneb side of the wormhole, but this had been thwarted by repeated Itani attacks. The wormhole was right now glowing with exotic particles that burst into space with each passing of a ship, the radiation more energised and plentiful in response to the mass the ship was forcing through the rift in space. The particular heavy shower of muons and tachyons that quickly self annihilated with their anti parts releasing a shower of hard radiation, predated the arrival of the Nemesis, the flag ship of the Serco fleet. The set of Tridents arriving shortly thereafter formed up on the dorsal and ventral sides of the ship with a squadron of Prometheus's protecting the rear. Two sets of six bombers were ready to attack in heavy Ragnaroks with a set of six SVG's and one Atlas X flying security for the attack team. It was just in time too; six kilometres away from the roid field that had gathered around the wormhole, a group of expanding rings indicated incoming ships. It was just the advance force, a set of tridents with fighters and with the Nemesis battle group around the wormhole they kept their distance. The Serco commander signalled for the attack squadrons to engage and the heavily laden Ragnaroks surged forward to attack speed with the escort flying around them like wasps. Halfway across the distance, space once more filled with rings of particles, with an Itani Heavy Assault Cruiser arriving along with several fighters. The Serco commander decided that the bombers should attack the frigates anyway and did not intervene. The blue strings of heavy swarm missiles drew lines of death across space from the Ragnaroks towards one Frigate and at the same time it crackled dryly over the radio from the bomber squad commander.


"Stores."


He had fired all his ordnance and turned the cumbersome ships to escape the heavy gauss canons on the frigates. The six bombers of the other unit likewise emptied their heavy missile tubes five seconds later and switched to evasive tactics. Their secondary load of flares was essential for taking the frigate down if the missiles didn't do the job. The swarm missiles impacted on the sheer nothingness of the capitol ship's shields, overloading them and burning the shield generator out in the process. The second set of missiles impacted all over the top of the frigate, converting long streaks of armour into strings of plasma that tore through the insides of the ship, effectively destroying it. Fires appeared where pockets of oxygen was found and giant fighter sized sparks flew at random from the incapacitated jump engine. Team leader two emptied his flare launchers into the wreck and applied full boosters to get away from the explosion, his now empty ship lighter by 50%. Which was a good thing, a set of Centurion IBG tore into the squadron like ill-tempered gnats, but gnats that were so very deadly. Their neutron guns managed to destroy one heavy bomber before their own escorts were entering the fray. Framed by the very large explosion from the flares impacting on the frigate and the following detonating of its onboard stores of munitions, the two IBG were destroyed by the SVG's. The bombers returned to the Nemesis for reloading, their number having been reduced by four. One had died to the IBG and three to the heavy gauss canons from the other frigate. The ejection system had worked on two of the Ragnaroks, and the pilots would be joining the force again within a day. The other two had to be restored from their last memory plant and inserted into a cloned body, thus effectively taking them out of the conflict for a month or more. At least the Itani had no survivors on the frigate, with at least the usual crew of fourteen dead. 


The Serco commander, with an advantage in capitol ships moved in towards the Itani forces with the mass of his ships. He was going to take them on and teach them to stay away from the wormhole. As soon as the bombers had reloaded, they were launched and ready to strike a crippling blow as soon as the capitol ships were engaged. It was a matter of timing really, but the commander was sure that his bomber squadrons were up to the task. The escorts were sent forward to clear the route for opposing light fighters.


###


The Itani group of space superiority fighters in the form of six Valkyrie Vengeance ships received the order to go and disengaged from the main force, striking out on their own to engage the Serco bombers before they could launch their deadly cargo. Moving to a particularly empty part of space, the fighters initialised their jump engines and left the battle. Immediately after they had recharged their batteries to the required 25%, they jumped again, this time to an empty sector. They waited for thirty seconds and then jumped into the sector where the battle was taking place, but this time from another angle and only around a thousand metres away from the bombers that were hanging back behind the capitol ships. Deprived of the fighter escort, the bombers had no chance at all against the six heavy fighters and tried in vain to scramble in different directions. Within eight seconds, the first ship exploded followed by two more in quick succession. One of the bombers tried to launch its swarm missiles against a fighter, but the missiles were too slow to actually hit the ship. It was in turn rewarded by a string of neutrons and flights of flares, destroying it and producing a large fireball. The Serco commander, realising that his bomber force was about to be destroyed, and that the Itani now had six fighters on top of the wormhole, dispatched his seven light fighters and the three of his six Prometheus's to engage the Valkyries. This was anticipated by the Itani commander, and the real reason that he had sent them there. The Valkyries killed off the remaining bombers before the Serco fighters smashed into the formation like a battleship through a wave. Quickly the Serco overwhelmed the Itani, with four of the Valkyries exploding in fireballs to the loss of only three SVG's. The battle was not over yet. The Prometheus's moved in for the kill, with the three SVG's circling like barracuda surrounding a school of fish. 


###


Keria kept back a bit, this looked to be a long fight and she saw no reason to destroy the armour of her Atlas X when the Prometheus's were going to close with the two Itani ships anyway. A set of twin flares and a string of gauss fire smashed one Valkyrie to bits, but not before it in return had critically damaged one Prometheus. A string of neutrons from a circling SVG finished the Itani fighter, leaving one to go. However, that pilot was immensely lucky and extremely good. He danced his ship around, not taking damage from neither the flare explosions that almost engulfed his ship, or from the neutrons that criss-crossed space around his ship. It was inconceivable that he would be able to keep it up but he still managed to send a string of death into the damaged Prometheus exploding it. Still not damaged the Valkyrie turned on its axis and unleashed everything into the belly of a SVG, destroying one more. Not believing what she saw, Keria moved her ship closer to assist in killing this über pilot. Oblivious to her presence, she managed to manoeuvre behind the Valkyrie and unleashed a long string of Gatling shots into the rear of the ship, followed up with a string of neutrons. She frowned as the Valkyrie continued to destroy the Prometheus it was engaging and move to the next target, the last of the heavy Serco fighters. She knew she had hit the ship dead-on; she could follow the ionisation paths to the ship all the way, but there were no indications of damage. She fired a long burst again, no effect. The Valkyrie had now stopped dodging altogether and merely focused on laying precise fire onto the Serco ships. The incoming fire had no effect at all as the Valkyrie finished killing the remaining Prometheus and the two SVG's before turning for Keria's Atlas. Keria realised that she was seriously outmatched by something she couldn’t quite understand and hit the overdrive function on her ship, effectively turning it into a six ton rocket. Avoiding the fire by mere milliseconds, she boosted directly towards the capitol ships.


"Delta 4 Alfa this is SCAR rep Willenium. Am inbound dorsal side Nemesis with bogey on six. Requesting full broadside heavy plasma and seekers on bogey, my posit long 324, targeting data inbound, respond."


She hit the send button and sent the data packets towards the frigate immediately in front of her knowing that the ships would share the data instantly as part of their integrated neural network. 


"SCAR rep Willenium, Delta 4 Alfa, full broadside firing in six, five, four, three, two, one, firing, firing, firing, stand by, waiting for damage assessment."


Keria ducked in her seat even though the heavy plasma bolts was moving towards the Valkyrie several meters above her ship. A trio of seeker missiles streaked by her cockpit at 225 m/s inbound for collision with the enemy. The 1900 kilo missiles consisted of three 70 kilo solid slugs and a very large explosive charge that exploded when the proximity sensor was triggered, accelerating the three penetrators to 8.000 m/s before impacting on the target. Most fighters died from a single penetrator, a heavy fighter like the Prometheus might take two before exploding. The combined effect of the weapons that had been fired on the fighter was enough to turn anything but a capitol ship into instant vapour. Keria kept checking her radar and saw the bogey coming on hard, shrugging the plasma bolts off like water on a duck, ignoring the penetrators taking them head on without doing any evasive moves at all. 


"Delta 4 Alfa this is SCAR rep Willenium, good hits, no effect, say again no effect."


"SCAR rep Willenium, Delta 4 Alfa, roger. Dispatching cover to engage, assist and report."


Keria's heart sank, they were going to send the last Prometheus's to engage the phantom Valkyrie and in that way strip the capitol ships of their cover. She continued on course for the frigates in anticipation of the wave of Itani heavy bombers that were bound to attack when the Serco fighter screen had left.