by Rob Dearsley
“We’re down,” Arland’s friend said from the pilot’s chair.
Without acknowledging him, Dannage pushed off into the aft compartment. Hale already had the ramp down and was helping Luc to stand. He joined them, shoving his shoulder under Luc’s other arm.
“Sir.” Arland’s voice stopped him at the bottom of the ramp.
He twisted out from under Luc.
“What?” Damn, his voice came out harsher than he’d meant it to. “What’s up?”
She turned back to the shuttle where brush-cut watched them. “What about Simon?”
Simon? She was on a first name basis with this guy already, and he was still ‘sir’, or captain on a good day. Stars damn it, he didn’t have time for this crap.
“Brush-cut’s back on an SDF ship with his mates. Now, are you coming?”
“What have you got against them?” She waved toward the flight deck in general.
By all the Stars in all the heavens, why this? Why now? Of all times, why now? He raked his hands through his hair in frustration. Damn it, they didn’t have time for this.
“They’ve harassed and hunted me half my life. What should I think of them?”
“They’re just people. Doing jobs! How many times have the SDF saved us? Saved you? And you still think less of them.”
The unsaid, “of me” hung between them.
“That’s not— I mean.” He kept his head down, not wanting to look at her, or Simon. Dannage turned and started toward where the Folly skewed across two bays.
“Damn it, Michael.”
He froze mid-step.
She’d used his first name. She’d never done that before. Heck, he’d been half sure she didn’t even know it.
Her hand touched his arm, so gently he thought he’d imagined it. She pulled him around. Again, the move was gentle as a feather’s touch.
He faced her from inches away. She filled his senses, her touch on his arm, her scent. Beneath the grime of her adventures, there were tones of apple.
“Do you want me?” she asked, her voice low and unusually timid.
Stars. That was a loaded question.
They moved closer, almost touching.
“Yes.” He looked down into her honey coloured eyes, his voice little more than a whisper.
“Cap’n, you coming or what?” Luc called from the loading ramp that the flight techs had erected beneath the Folly.
Dannage bit back a few choice epithets and closed his eyes, turning to Luc. “Give me a minute.”
He turned back to Arland, but the tender, more open Arland of a couple of seconds ago was gone, replaced with the one he’d worked with for the last two years.
“Captain? It’s good to see you again. Vaughn rushed over to them, pushing his glasses up his nose.
“You too, man. You too.” He pulled Vaughn into an unexpected embrace.
“Captain Dannage.” He recognised Captain Arland’s voice and turned to see her marching toward them.
“Mum…” Arland looked away, her cheeks flushing.
“Thank you for saving her.” The captain smiled at Dannage. Stars, she looked so much like his Arland. “Now do this for me. Run. I’ve spoken to Niels, the fleet will be here soon. Take my daughter and get out.”
Dannage nodded. Arland pushed past him, rushing to her mother.
“Mum, please, I can help.”
“Shauna, I want you safe.” Captain Arland turned to Dannage. “You’ll keep her safe, won’t you?”
“On my life,” Dannage replied.
“Then go.”
Dannage gently turned Arland to the Folly and they started walking. She looked back at her mother. And Simon.
Dannage clenched his teeth. “Come on then, brush-cut.”
Arland smiled at him.
◊◊
They’d all taken their usual spots on the Folly’s bridge. The captain and Luc manned the main flight controls, while Arland sat at the aft station. Simon shifted uneasily, not sure where to place himself.
“Station on the right,” the captain said, without looking around. “Should be set for scanners, or coms, or something.”
Simon dropped into the chair just before Dannage punched the engines, sending the Folly shooting out of the flight bay faster than was necessary. Once again, they were surrounded by stars.
The captain levelled out and held station above the trio of SDF ships. Part of her wondered if he knew that they’d taken up the position of the formation command ship.
“Arland, what’s happening out there?” The captain squinted through the cupola.
Arland turned to her console and brought up the scanner feeds. The Terran ships had finally stopped jumping in. Sensors estimated there were over ninety thousand units.
Stars, their whole fleet in one place. She couldn’t even comprehend that many ships. Neither could her display. At the current resolution, it was little more than a red smudge moving in-system.
“They’ve passed Pyrite IV and will be within weapons range of the Jean-Luke and the scouts in three minutes,” she relayed.
“Cap’n, we need to bug out.”
In reply, Dannage swung the ship around and headed for the nearest slipway.
Proximity Alarms buzzed. The captain swore, pivoting the Folly up and lit off the main engines to push them into a steep climb. Seconds later a pair of Terran gunships appeared through the rippling hyperspace vortex.
Arland gritted her teeth against the scraping as the Folly skimmed over the Terran ship’s hull. Behind and below them, The Jean-Luke and one of the scout ships pulled clear. The second scout wasn’t so lucky. The blunt nose of the Terran ship slammed into the scout side on, splitting the SDF ship apart in a wash of frozen oxygen and debris.
The captain already had the Folly turned about and heading away from the new danger. “Someone, find me another slipway!”
A barrage of weapons fire from the Terran ship whipped past below them. At least the Terrans didn’t seem to be aiming at them. Off to their right, the Reclaimer swung about, nimbler than Arland would have expected given her enormous size. Her close-in guns ripped into the second gunship, gouging chunks from its flanks. Atmosphere bled from rents on the front of the Terran ship.
Arland’s console chirped, drawing her attention. “More contacts on the edge of the system, coming in behind the Terran fleet.”
“More Terrans?” The captain deflated.
“Wait. They’re SDF signals, look.” She pointed through the copula, to where the Terran fleet was suddenly backlit by the blue wash of a dozen slipways opening, another flash as more new slipways bloomed open. Arland had never seen so many open all at once. More than she thought possible. The wash of blue filling the sky was beautiful.
“Picking up a message broadcast across the system,” Simon announced.
“Let’s hear it, then,” the captain said.
Simon hit a few switches and the overhead speakers sprang to life.
“This is Admiral Niels, commanding the United Systems’ Defence Fleet, aboard the SDF Montgomery. All in-system assets engage the Terrans. Flank units begin long-range salvos. The Terran fleet must not leave this system. Happy hunting. Niels out.”
Help was here.
Weapons fire flashed beneath them. Arland zoomed her display on where the Jean-Luke, Reclaimer and the remaining scout ship were caught between the twin fronts of the Terran attack.
Both the Jean-Luke and the scout ship had twisted bow on to the Terran gunship, firing their high-powered rail guns point blank into the Terran gunship. It wasn’t that they weren’t damaging their larger opponent. Without crews to worry about, breached compartments didn’t bother the larger ship.
Arland flipped open a com-link to the Jean-Luke. “Focus fire on the weapons and engines.”
It was too late.
“Didn’t think the Turned would be able to fly fighters.” Dannage’s voice made Arland look up from her console.
A second Terran ship, of similar design t
o the Heimdall, came into view. Fighters rushed from its hanger bays to streak toward them.
“They can’t.” No one had seen Hale come onto the bridge. “They’re drone ships, remote piloted by the ship’s Core Mind.”
The drone ships were coming right for them. Both the scout and the Jean-Luke opened fire, their CQC cannons spilling flack into the space around them. It barely slowed the drones down as they ducked and wove through the weapons fire.
“Dannage, get us out of here.” Arland snapped, before returning her attention to her console and the beleaguered Jean-Luke.
◊◊
Dannage pulled the Folly into a dive that took her down between the two SDF ships. They were giving it everything they had. Their tracer fire and flack shells might not be doing much against the drones, but he could at least use the bigger ships for cover.
He let out a breath as the impassive bulk of the ships surrounded them.
A flight of three drones swung down into the gap they were hiding in, tracer fire chewing up the larger ships. The SDF ships replied in kind, the scout’s turrets spitting out a near constant stream of glowing rounds. They clipped one of the drones, sending it spinning off to rip through the Jean-Luke’s flight deck. He thanked the Stars that they hadn’t still been in there as secondary explosions rippled down the Jean-Luke’s flank.
Cursing, Dannage pulled the flight stick will all his strength and gunned the engines. Please, let her hold together. The Folly shot into a steep climb away from the fighters, who, thankfully, seemed more interested in taking vengeance for their wrecked companion.
The scout ship was holding together under the barrage, but that was about it. Over half her close-in guns were silent and he could see streamers of frozen oxygen where several of her compartments had been breached.
Another flight of drones dove toward them. Stars, he should have paid more attention. Now they were for it. He could pull evasive, but at this range it was pointless. The drones were right on top of them, so close he could read the serial number stencilled onto the lead drone’s hull.
Then they were gone, past the Folly and into an attack run on the scout.
Dannage didn’t spare a glance to see the results of the attack this time. Instead, he brought the Folly around and away from the battle, putting the scout between them and the two Terran ships.
“This is scout zero-five-six.”
Dannage flinched at the sound coming through the speakers, jerking the ship through a tight turn. Damn, that brush-cut must have patched it through without saying anything.
“If you’re receiving, our core is critical, evacuate the area. Repeat, evacuate the area.”
Okay, good call on that one, brush-cut. Dannage steadied his ship and jammed the engines to full. Behind him, Hale stumbled under the sudden acceleration.
“Arland, how far?” He couldn’t spare her a glance.
“Thirty clicks,” she replied, and then, “Incoming!”
What? Where? A second later, collision alarms went off across the bottom of the HUD as four Terran drones screamed past.
When he could breathe again, he checked the distance on the display. They were just past twenty kilometres out from the scout, nowhere near far enough yet.
“Sir, more drones and the scout reports ten seconds to core breach.”
Terran drones screamed past them.
Twenty-five kilometres.
“Brace!” Arland yelled over the collision alarms.
Stars damn it, they weren’t going to make it.
He imagined he could hear it when the scout blew. A heartbeat later the shockwave hit. The blast whited out the screen, for an instant brighter than the sun. He didn’t remember turning the Folly to face the explosion. The flight stick ripped from his numbed fingers. Behind him, the crew tumbled through the Folly’s small bridge.
Then everything went dark.
◊◊
Arland pulled herself upright, pushing stray hairs behind her ear. Her console was dark. Looking around the small bridge, all the consoles and most of the lights were offline. After a moment, the systems started rebooting. Her console was one of the last ones to come up. She started frantically scanning for the Jean-Luke. Please, Stars, let them have made it.
“Finally got it all back up,” Jax’s voice came over the speakers. “What are you doing? Flying through a war zone?”
“Pretty much,” the captain replied.
“Score one for us,” Luc cheered, pointing through the windows. The dying scout looked to have rammed the Terran gunship. A huge chunk of the Terran’s amidships was just gone, its two, now divorced, halves tumbling apart.
And there was the Jean-Luke, a huge rent open down her side. She listed heavily, but her guns still spat at the swarm of drones.
Hale grabbed the back of Arland’s chair, struggling to her feet. The big Terran didn’t look like she was physically hurt, but her face was drawn and taut, her eyes just a bit too wide, and her hands trembled.
“What is it?” Arland asked.
“The X-ships,” she said between ragged breaths. “They’re here, both of them.”
That couldn’t be good. Arland scanned her console, trying to pick the X-ships from the mass of the Terran fleet.
There was one of them, part of a battle group that had peeled off to surround the Montgomery. The SDF command ship and her companions were trading fire with the Terrans, and by the looks of it, losing badly. As she watched, a battleship swung around, taking a missile hit meant for the Montgomery. The tower-block sized missile shattered the battleship.
How could they win this? Maybe the Binaries were right and this was the end of humanity, and she’d doomed them all.
Alarms sounded again. One of the Terran missiles was heading toward them. The captain put them in a steep dive. Too little, too late.
The Jean-Luke swung around to fill their view, her spine buckling under the strain of the manoeuvre.
“Sorry, Shauna.” Her mother’s voice came over the com. “We only had one good turn left. I’m sorry I left, didn’t fight harder. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, Mum.” Tears sprang to Arland’s eyes. “I love you.”
“I love you—“
The Terran missile hit and the com went dead.
◊◊
Dannage turned to face Arland. Her tear-streaked eyes found his.
“Stars, I am so sorry.” He started from his chair to go to her.
“Cap’n?” Luck’s voice was almost too soft to be heard, even in the eerily quiet bridge.
Arland let out a choking sob, collapsing over her console. It broke his heart. He knew what she was feeling. Memories of Sam’s death flashed through his mind, but their images were pale and powerless now. All he could see now was the grief and loss etched into Arland’s face.
A chirp from his console drew Dannage’s attention to the outer system, where another slipway was opening.
More slipways opened up and Recoup ships poured through, immediately spilling fire into the Terran ships surrounding the Montgomery. The sudden violence was enough to turn the tide, clearing the space around the Montgomery. While the bulk of the Recoup fleet advanced on the Terrans, several ships took up station around the slipway as an enormous ship came through. A second later its scanner beacon identified it as the Manhattan.
As soon as the new battle group was in range of the Terrans, the escort battle cruisers spilt off, using their superior acceleration to leap ahead into the waiting Terrans. It seemed to take the Terrans somewhat by surprise, and there was a moment of confusion as the large ships reorganised to fight on two fronts.
The Manhattan used that confusion to devastating advantage.
A brilliant lace of fire shot from the Manhattan, wide enough to engulf the Folly three times over. The beam slammed into the side of a Terran gunship, burning its way through and practically cutting the massive ship in half.
Another shot almost blinded Dannage. This one hit the X-ship amidships, about where t
he Core Mind would be.
“Oh, Angels.” Hale crumpled to the deck clutching her head.
Everything stopped.
Dannage held his breath as the battle in front of him came to an abrupt halt. The HUD enhancements just about allowed him to make out the far side of the battle. The units nearest that SDF super-ship sprang back into action, throwing fighters and those massive missiles at the newcomer.
“Go on, shoot them again,” he urged, as the drones closed on the SDF battle group in a hail of weapons fire that could only end one way. Heavy weapons fire from larger Terran ships already ripped into the Manhattan’s superstructure.
The collision alarm shrilled. He dodged the Folly first one way, then the other, barely keeping her clear of Terran drones as they swarmed.
“It looks like they’re regrouping,” Luc said. “Must have shaken them with that hit.”
Maybe, but he doubted that the super-weapon would be scoring any more hits. With a yip of surprise, he pulled the Folly from the path of a fairly small Terran ship that looked similar to the Hlin. Thank the Stars they were too busy regrouping to swat him from the sky.
Off to the right, an SDF battleship got too cocky, sending fire after the retreating Terrans and a particularly big Terran ship vaporised its front end with a plasma blast.
Okay, so why weren’t they being swatted? – Not that he minded. A crazy idea flashed through his head.
Well, here goes nothing. Dannage pulled the Folly up into the path of a drone ship. The Terran drone pulled a hard left turn, avoiding them by inches. In a manned craft, that turn would have killed everyone on board.
“Hey,” Simon said. “If you’re done playing chicken, Admiral Niels is ordering all in-system assets to regroup at his coordinates.”
“In case it’s escaped your notice we’re not an ‘asset’,” he replied.