The Short End: Broken Galaxy Book Four
Page 25
“A willing foe, and sea-room to fight!” Westerly roared at the top of his lungs.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Dekanna System
Merlin Fighter “Angel One”
“Now!” called Jim. “The Victory has them distracted. All the battlecruisers in the rear cube have turned and are fighting the Victory. Let’s go!”
In front of them, their fighter cover accelerated, their AI slaved to his. Slamming his throttle forward, Jim shot forward. The distant Tornado was six thousand klicks away, her attention turned toward the Victory. The Merlin kicked him in the ass as it began a combat accel to 308g true, 8g internal. The familiar elephant sat on his chest again. Paco’s Merlin - slaved to his by the consciousness of Tika in both fighters - accelerated at the same rate. Side by side, they headed toward the Tornado.
Grunting under the pressure, Jim managed to make a call to Paco.
“I’ll take first attack, you drop back and come in behind me by about ten klicks!”
“Roger.”
Jim did a quick calculation in his head. They had started at 6,000 klicks. They would accel for half the distance, then decel for most of the remainder, coming out of combat decel one hundred klicks from the target traveling at about 8,000 kph. Then he would decel at a milder 2g to the target.
So…I’ll be moving about 4,500 kph during the attack pass.
That’s too slow. I make too sweet a target at that speed.
“Tika. I need to be moving faster during the attack run.”
“Damn, Tika. You’re making us sitting ducks.”
Jim felt an almost imperceptible shudder as the Merlin’s engine changed from accel to decel. The g-force on his body didn’t change; the compensator reversed the incredible forces of a 308g deceleration to maintain a positive 8g on his body. The elephant was still sitting on his chest. But now the fighter was decelerating madly, placing him in attack position.
“Paco,” Jim called.
“Yes, Commander?”
Jim paused for a second. He knew he shouldn’t. He knew it was too melodramatic, too asinine a thing to say for professional warriors.
But he was going to do it anyway. This looked to him like suicide. He didn’t see any way they could survive this slow attack pass against a battlecruiser.
“It’s been a pleasure serving with you, Lieutenant.”
There was a silence on the other end.
“And you, sir,” came the response from Paco. “See you on the other side.”
Jim smiled.
See you on the other side.
Either way - live or die - it was the perfect response.
The space around them became a maelstrom of exploding shrapnel as the Tornado unleashed everything she had at the charging fighters. Suddenly twenty enemy missiles appeared in the holo, all coming directly at them.
See you on the other side, thought Jim as he wrenched the sidestick hard, trying to find a hole through the array of deadly missiles filling the front screen of his VR.
Dekanna System
Battlecruiser Merkkessa
Bonnie squinted at the holo in the front of the bridge, trying to see every detail of the complex battle playing out there.
Part of her plan was working. The enemy had charged directly at the Dariama, forcing them to give ground. They had moved back slowly, retreating toward Dekanna, leaving an inviting hole in her center. Zukra had charged into the hole, assuming the Dariama and their allies would keep falling back, running from his superior firepower.
Now the Dariama cubes were firming up, just as planned. Sobong was almost stopped now, holding a line in the sand, fighting for her life.
Now was the time.
“Execute Cannae-One,” called Bonnie.
The two wings of ships on the left and right of Bonnie’s fleet began to move. As the enemy fleet continued to press Sobong and the Allied center hard, Bonnie’s cruiser and destroyer cubes on the left and right folded around, enveloping Zukra’s fleet. A cloud of gamma lance and missiles began to dig into the flanks of his ships.
Suddenly Zukra found himself in a new situation. A few minutes before, he had been charging into a retreating enemy, hoping to drive them off the battlefield. Now he was under attack from all sides. The EDF fleet blasted him from every direction as they completely encircled him.
“Surprise, you son of a bitch,” Bonnie whispered loudly on the bridge of the Merkkessa.
Dekanna System
Ashkelon Battlecruiser Revenge
“Damra, you were right,” Zukra admitted grudgingly. “It was a ploy. But we still have a greater weight of firepower. We’ll punch out of this encirclement and charge for Dekanna. They’ll have no choice but to try and intercept us to protect the planet. They know if we get there first, we’ll nuke it out of existence.”
“Aye, m’lord,” Damra assented.
Zukra studied the holo. “We’ve identified the Human flagship, correct?”
“Yes, m’lord. The Merkkessa is…here…” Damra highlighted a ship in the holo, in the lower rear corner of the battlecruiser cube to their relative left.
“Rotate our battlecruiser cube and charge directly at that ship,” ordered Zukra.
“Aye, m’lord. Do you wish to move a cube of destroyers and cruisers in front of us first for protection?”
“No!” yelled Zukra. “I want that bitch admiral to die now! Charge them now!”
“Aye, m’lord,” Damra replied. He issued the orders at his console. Zukra’s cube of battlecruisers pivoted in place and began accelerating at the Human battlecruiser cube containing the Merkkessa.
Damra stole a glance at Flag Captain Rizdo, sitting at his command chair on the main bridge. Rizdo sat quietly; but he returned Damra’s glance knowingly. The same thought went through both their minds.
He’s out of control.
Dekanna System
Merlin Fighter “Angel One”
The battlecruiser Tornado was living up to its name. A tornado of missiles and pulse cannon fire filled the space around Jim.
He remembered the stories told by World War II veterans about “flak so thick you could walk on it”. He had always thought it was a bit of an exaggeration.
Now he wasn’t so sure. The holes between the exploding flak coming from the Tornado were few and far between. He was no longer flying the Merlin - Tika had taken over. She jerked the fighter back and forth like a carnival ride. The uncompensated g-forces slammed him back, forward, left, right, up, down, until he was black and blue all over his body.
Jim felt the g-forces lessen as he shot past the battlecruiser. The bulk of the point defense flak was behind him now, aimed at Paco.
I made it.
Then a tremendous crash knocked the fighter to one side. One engine quit cold. The Merlin began spinning wildly. Alarms blared all over the instrument panel.
Crap.
Dekanna System
Merlin Fighter “Angel Two”
Paco watched Jim’s fighter in front of him take a tremendous hit in the engine nacelle. Debris flashed
out into space, along with flame and smoke. Jim’s fighter spun wildly, out of control.
Paco closed his eyes. Tika had taken over the fighter. He had nothing to do except grunt and feel the harness bite into his body as Tika threw the fighter around.
Paco felt the missiles come off the fighter. He could just make out the missile status lights in his diminished vision.
Seven lights were out. One was red.
He had a hang fire.
One missile didn’t launch.
Damn.
Paco heard the unique clatter of shrapnel hitting the side of his fighter. It was a sound no Human except a combat pilot could ever appreciate. Red lights appeared on his instrument panel, warning that systems were damaged. He did a quick scan.
Ejection system - disabled.
Engine - leaking fuel.
Life support - disabled.
Paco realized he had only the oxygen in his suit to make it back to the fleet. And he couldn’t eject; the ejection seat was damaged.
“Tika - did we get any hits?”
Dammit. Their point defense is just too good…
“Paco! What’s your status?” he heard Jim ask over the comm.
“I’m shot to hell,” responded Paco. “Just barely flying. I’ve got one missile left in my rack, but it won’t release. How about you?”
“Spinning like a fucking top,” Jim replied. “But I’m getting it under control.”
“Roger that.”
Paco thought for a moment. Bonnie had said this mission was make-or-break. He knew what that meant. Either they succeeded in delivering at least one good missile to the Tornado, or they would probably lose the battle.
And we’ve got one missile left, and it won’t fire.
And in that moment, Paco knew what he had to do.
Paco looked in his VR at Jim’s position, now about fifteen klicks in front of him. It appeared Jim had got his fighter stabilized - at least, it wasn’t spinning anymore.
“Jim! Do you have enough control left to run interference for me on one more pass?”
There was a long silence. At last Jim replied. “Go back into that? Are you crazy?”
“Jim. I’ve got one more missile. Let me see if I can get it to release. I’ll overload the bird right at closest approach - I can take it up to 12 or 13 g’s. Maybe that’ll shake the missile loose…”
Another long silence as they coasted through space. The Tornado had stopped shooting at them. The two flights of fighters that had made the attack with them were standing off, awaiting orders.
Paco wasn’t sure Jim was going to go for it. Personally, the last thing in the world Paco wanted to do was go back into that hell of exploding missiles and cannon fire.
But he knew it had to be done.
Finally, after a silence that Paco thought had been nearly a minute, he heard Jim’s reply.
“Roger that. I’m coming about. I’ll call our fighter cover for one more pass. I’ll lead us in, you follow.”
Paco closed his eyes. He had been hoping that Jim would refuse.
But…
He came about and waited as Jim nursed his battered fighter up beside him. As Paco saw the damage to Jim’s fighter, he shuddered. Jim had only one engine operating - so he had to be standing on the rudder to keep his fighter straight. Liquids and gases were streaming out of a dozen holes in the rear of the fighter. One of the stub wings was completely shot away.
But I’m not much better off, Paco thought. I probably look the same.
“OK, I’ve notified our fighter cover. They’re coming about for another attack run. Get ready.”
“Roger.”
Paco watched as their fighter cover turned in the distance, formed up into their echelons, and charged at the Tornado once again.
“Here we go!” yelled Jim over the comm. “I’ll stay about two klicks behind that last flight of fighters. Tuck it in close, stay about two klicks behind me!”
“Roger.”
And with that, Jim accelerated.
“Tika, you heard the man. Stay two klicks behind him, and we’ll make one more pass. We’ll pull twelve g’s at release to try and get this missile to let go.”
Paco felt the Merlin accelerate. He knew that his copy of Tika would be talking to Jim’s copy of Tika to maintain the two fighters in formation. Once again, there would be little for him to do.
Except die.
For some reason, as they followed their fighter cover in to the battlecruiser, and the point defense started up again, and flak started bursting around him, Paco thought about Rachel.
It was a good trip with her. I wish we could have gotten together.
Another crash against the side of the fighter. More shrapnel slagged through the cockpit right behind him, like a scythe slashing right behind his head.
Rachel and I were a good team. I wish I had said goodbye to her properly.
Tika pulled the Merlin back hard, shaking it back and forth like a rat caught in the mouth of a terrier. 12g came in so quickly that Paco was slammed back into the seat like a ton of bricks had fallen on him. The black ring of fading consciousness began building in his vision, coming in quickly. But he kept his center of vision focused on the one red light on the instrument panel that showed the status of the missile. That was the objective - turn that red light off.
It didn’t work. The light stayed on. The Merlin stopped shaking. The g-force suddenly relaxed back to a relatively normal 4g.
“Tika! Is that missile armed?”
“Manual control!” snapped Paco. “My bird!”
He wondered what he was doing. He reached for the sidestick, and there was a part of his brain that didn’t understand. He half-rolled the Merlin and pulled back on the sidestick as hard as he could, until the g-force was back to 12g and the blackness was coming back, the camera shutter stopping down. And still that other part of his brain was curious.
“What are you doing?” it asked him silently.
Ignoring his brain’s query, he relaxed as the vector of the Merlin aligned with his desired trajectory. He was now pointed directly at the Tornado, just a few klicks away. He slammed the throttle forward, and once again his brain tried to intervene.
“What are you doing?” it asked him again.
The huge mass of the Tornado approached rapidly. Screaming at the top of his lungs, Paco smashed into the side of the huge ship.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Dekanna System
Merlin Fighter “Angel One”
Jim was in shock. He couldn’t believe what he had just witnessed.
Paco. What did you do?
Jim grabbed the throttle and pulled the good engine back to idle. He had to relax his foot on the rudder for a moment. His leg was shaking from the load.
“Tika! You mean it worked?”
“So…we’ll have to make one more pass…”
“Yes. It’ll take about three minutes for them to get all the way through the hull and form an antenna. You need to come about and start a pass that will put us within fifty klicks of that ship in exactly three minutes.”
After a bit of silence, Jim responded. “OK. Contact the fighter screen. Tell them we’re gonna do it once more, with feeling.”
In his VR, Jim watched his fighter screen start coming about. He could only imagine what was going through their minds.
Not again. What’s up with this crazy bastard?
But like the consummate professionals they were, they did it. They turned, initiated a vector back toward the Tornado. Jim fell in behind them. They formed up their flights and bored in, coming in right behind the battlecruiser, right up the engines. The flak started up again, then the missiles. The black lit up with high explosive.
There was so much fire coming at them, it seemed to Jim as if he were in a circus fun house, one that was filled with crazy lights and sparklers in every direction. The Merlin jerked first to one side, then the other, as Tika tried to avoid the incoming.
Directly in front of him, the fighter he was following disappeared in a crash of light, debris flying in all directions as it exploded. The sound of debris crashing against his fighter sounded like the rubble of a landslide falling on him.
A solid wall of flak appeared to be blocking his way to the enemy battlecruiser. The sound of shrapnel hitting the fighter had that strange, unique sound - like hail hitting a roof - that only a pilot in war can ever know. More red lights lit up his panel. His one remaining engine coughed, stuttered, throwing him forward into the harness. Then it caught, resumed a steady beat, stabilized.
“Roger,” Jim managed to grunt out. He turned the Merlin, trying to put distance between himself and the Tornado.
He didn’t know if the half-wrecked remains of his fighter could hang together much longer.
Only one way to find out.
Dekanna System
Ashkelon Battlecruiser Tornado
To Tika, in her virtual world, it was like a door. That was how she perceived the antenna. A door. It stood right in front of her. All she had to do was reach out and open it.
And behind that door was the enemy. He would be waiting.
She reached out and opened the door.
She was right. In front of her stood a huge figure, glaring at her. A huge, leonine figure, ten feet tall. His predator ears stood up on top of his head. His fangs extruded over the lips of his muzzle. His body was covered in golden fur.
The AI of the Tornado. Ready to do battle.
He had chosen the VR – after all, it was his turf. The VR was a vast plain, like the African Serengeti Tika had been reading about during the long trip back from Stalingrad. In the near distance, a herd of gazelle-like creatures grazed. Beyond them, a group of elephant-size herbivores gathered at a waterhole.