by Ryk Brown
“We can run point-defenses off the backup fusion reactors,” Jessica suggested. “Their range will be decreased, but it’s better than just sitting around getting pounded while we wait for our shields to fail.”
“How accurately can we control and track those cores once ejected?” Nathan wondered.
“The cores have their own propulsion and navigation system,” Cameron explained. “We can send them into an orbit around Rogen that is far enough out that nothing would be harmed should they fail.”
“Then we can retrieve them anytime we wish,” Nathan surmised.
“Correct,” Cameron confirmed.
“Vlad, if we eject all three cores, how sure are you that you can get at least one more reactor working?”
“Let’s just say that I wouldn’t bet on our chances,” Vladimir admitted. “However, I also would not bet on our chances if we keep the cores where they are.”
“You could’ve just said fifty-fifty,” Nathan remarked.
“I thought I did.”
“Very well, eject the cores on reactors one, two, and four, and push the backup fusion reactors to one hundred and ten percent.”
“Understood.”
“As long as we’re stuck in orbit, we won’t even need main propulsion, so that will help,” Cameron commented.
“We can run life support, maneuvering, and short-range comms and sensors using just the fusion reactors. That leaves reactor three running just weapons and shields,” Nathan added. He looked at Jessica. “Can you shift power between shield sections, so we aren’t running them all at full power at the same time? That might give us the ability to fire our plasma cannons while still being somewhat shielded.”
“I’m pretty sure I can,” Jessica replied.
“I’ll contact Deliza,” Cameron said. “She might be able to write an algorithm to help with that.”
“Just don’t tell Vlad,” Jessica joked, “he might take offense.”
“I think he’ll be happy for the extra help,” Nathan commented.
“Incoming flash traffic,” the Ghatazhak corporal at the comms station reported. “Looks like it’s from the Falcon.” The corporal looked up. “They’ve found four ships, three light years outside the Rogen system. The two frigates that escaped and two warships of unknown type, possibly heavy cruisers.”
“That’s single jump distance,” Cameron warned.
“We have to attack,” Nathan decided.
“With what?” Jessica exclaimed, a bit surprised by his decision.
“Strikers and Gunyoki,” Nathan replied.
“They can handle the frigates, but the heavy cruisers are a stretch,” Cameron insisted. “Besides, that will leave us a sitting duck.”
“What if that’s not the only battle group around?” Jessica pointed out.
“Then they can jump back and protect us,” Nathan argued.
“I agree with Jessica,” Cameron said.
Nathan thought for a moment. “How many jump missiles do we have left?”
Jessica looked down at her console. “Fifteen.”
“Gunyoki can’t carry jump missiles,” Cameron reminded him, “and we haven’t fitted out the Cobras to do so either.”
“We can launch them from here,” Nathan explained. “Those ships are only three light years away, and the jump missiles have a five-light-year jump range.”
“Maybe, but we normally launch them from no more than a few light minutes out,” Cameron argued. “How are we going to get accurate targeting from here?”
“The jump missiles can be programmed to jump to an intermediate point, adjust course, and then execute their attack jump, right?”
“Right,” Cameron replied, realizing what he was planning.
“We wait until we come around to a position reasonably along the jump line, jump them to a few light minutes out, and have the Falcon provide their attack course. Then, a few seconds after impact, our Cobras and Gunyoki hit them hard. With any luck, their shields will be down.”
“And if another battle group jumps in?” Jessica wondered.
“Then our forces jump back to protect us, and we leave the first group bloodied.” Nathan looked at them both. “You said so yourself, Jess, it’s better than sitting here getting pounded while we wait for our shields to fail.”
“Yeah, I did say that,” Jessica admitted, wishing now that she hadn’t.
* * *
“Shenza Leader, Rogen Command,” the controller called over comms.
“Go for Shenza Leader,” Vol replied.
“Shenza Leader, relief ships are departing now. They will be joining you in two minutes. You are to return to base once they have arrived.”
“Finally!” Tham exclaimed.
“Thank you, Command,” Vol replied. “We could use a break.”
“Sorry, Shenza Leader,” the controller replied. “New orders. You are to refuel, rearm, and immediately relaunch.”
“Might I inquire as to our mission?” Vol asked, fighting to hide his frustration.
“New targets, three light years outside the system. Coordinated attack with Cobras and Reapers.”
“And the fun never stops,” Tariq laughed.
“Just think,” Alayna added, “we’re all going to be unbeatable at the races, once this is all over.”
“You mean I’m going to be unbeatable,” Tham joked.
* * *
Reaper Six rolled out of the starboard transfer airlock, alongside Reaper Three. Once inside, both ships rotated their landing gear and pivoted in place, turning one hundred and eighty degrees to face the same airlock again. As they rotated, their gull-wing hatches on the sides of their cockpits cracked open and swung upward.
As soon as both ships came to a stop, deck crews ran forward, moving into position to begin the process of refitting the multipurpose combat craft for their next mission.
His helmet already off and resting on the glare screen in front of him, Lieutenant Haddix disconnected his restraints, grabbed the overhead rail, and lifted himself up out of his seat and through the open hatch. “Let’s get moving,” he said to his copilot. “We’ve got less than ten minutes to piss and throw some groceries down our necks.” He pulled his legs up and over the threshold, then pushed forward and slid down the side of his Reaper’s nose, landing on the deck below.
The lieutenant stood there, eyes wide and his mouth slightly agape as he took in the view. What was once a familiar view was no more. Catwalks dangled precariously along the sides of the main hangar bay. There were debris piles everywhere, especially along the sides where damage control teams and deck crews had hastily cleared the deck to enable flight operations. On the far wall, along the port side of the bay, an entire section of the bulkhead had blown open into the hangar bay, revealing the blackened destruction on the other side.
“Jesus,” Ensign Weston declared as he came around the front of their Reaper to stand next to his pilot. “Is that a hull breach?”
“Probably why they have everyone landing to starboard,” the lieutenant replied. “Port aft landing deck is on the other side of that compartment. Emergency outer doors probably came down when it breached.”
“How many of our people do you think survived?” the ensign wondered.
“I’d like to think they all did, but…” He looked at his copilot. “No time to think about that now. We’ve got to get back out there,” he added, heading forward.
* * *
“You’re serious, aren’t you,” Robert realized.
“I wish I wasn’t,” Cameron replied over comms.
“It’s not the frigates I’m worried about,” Captain Roselle commented. “It’s those two heavies of unknown origin. We’ve got no idea what they’re packing. We could be jumping into an absolute disaster.”
“That’s why we’re going to soften them up with missiles, first,” Cameron reminded them.
“How are the missiles going to get targeting data?” Aiden asked from Striker Three.
�
�The Falcon will use her last stealth comm-drone to relay updated targeting data to the missile rally point, a minute before they execute their final attack jump,” Cameron explained. “That should give them enough time to adjust their course, as needed.”
“Barely,” Robert commented.
“It’s the best we’ve got,” Cameron reminded him.
“How’s Jess?” Robert asked.
“She and the captain are fine,” Cameron replied. “They were still wearing their Ghatazhak armor, which probably helped. They’re getting a quick med-check now.”
“Anyone else from the bridge make it?”
“deBanco, but he died a few minutes ago. Medical is completely buried, and the flight deck is barely operational. We can’t transfer the wounded to the surface until we finish rearming and launch the Reapers.”
“What are you fitting them with?” Gil asked.
“The last of our antimatter mines,” Cameron replied.
“Mines?” Robert looked at his copilot in dismay.
“In case our missiles fail to bring down the shields on the heavies,” Cameron explained. “The antimatter warheads pack the biggest punch. I’d rather put them on the jump missiles, but there isn’t time to swap out the warheads.”
“What if another battle group is out there?” Gil wondered. “And what if they attack the Aurora while we’re away?”
“We’ve got limited shields and weapons, and basic maneuvering. We can hold out for a few minutes until you can jump back,” Cameron told them.
“What about the Glendanon?” Robert wondered.
“We sent a comm-drone to her staging point, but they weren’t there yet. Probably still completing their evasive algorithm. We left a comm-buoy ordering them directly back, no evasive.”
“This is one hell of a gamble, Cam, you know that,” Gil said.
“Better odds than sitting on our collective asses and praying,” she replied, a touch of sarcasm in her voice.
“I always did like you,” Gil laughed.
“The mission clock starts in twelve minutes and thirty seconds……hack,” Cameron told them. “Good hunting, people.”
Robert sighed. “We’re going to need it.”
CHAPTER TWO
“You’re not fine, sir,” the med-tech corrected the captain. “You’ve got multiple contusions, a dislocated shoulder that your suit relocated for you, and a fairly deep laceration on the left side of your head. Fortunately, your nanites should take care of all of it in a few hours.”
“Then, I’m fine,” Nathan repeated, smiling.
“Yes, sir,” the med-tech acquiesced.
“What about Lieutenant Commander Nash?”
“She’s fine, same as you.”
“Thank you,” Nathan said as he rose from the couch in his ready room. “I’m sure there are others in far greater need of your services.”
“That’s what I told Captain Taylor, sir.”
“Yeah, she’s a bit overprotective at times.”
“That’s why the crew calls her ‘mom’,” the med-tech smiled.
“Carry on, Specialist.”
“Yes, sir.”
Nathan donned his uniform shirt and headed back out onto the Aurora’s bridge, such as it was. Multiple systems techs were busy working to get the primary stations back to some level of functionality, and debris was being dragged off the bridge by others, including the Ghatazhak guards.
“How’s tactical?” Nathan asked Jessica as he stepped up beside her and Cameron.
“We’ve got most of the console working,” Cameron reported, “but the majority of the auto-links with combat command are down. Damage control reports it’s pretty fried down there. Apparently, a huge power spike made it past the buffers. Combat is going to be down for a while.”
“Can we run everything from here?” Nathan wondered.
“That’s what we’re trying to set up,” Jessica replied. “It will take two of us to manage it, though.”
“Looks like you have a new combat station, Captain,” Nathan said to Cameron.
“The view is better up here anyway,” Cameron commented as she and Jessica continued working.
“What’s the word on the forward cats?”
“We have to launch everything from the starboard side. Port side took too much of a beating,” Cameron explained. “I ordered all the missiles from the port locker to the starboard locker. We won’t be able to launch them as quickly, but we’ll get them out the door.”
“How many do you plan to launch?” Jessica wondered.
“All of them,” Nathan replied.
“That will leave us empty,” Jessica warned.
“Not all of them will hit,” Nathan replied. “We can recover the ones that miss. Besides, they’re already starting to crank them out on the surface,” he added, turning to continue forward. After stepping around a large piece of ducting that had yet to be removed, Nathan moved forward to the sensor station on the port side. “How’s it going, Ensign?” he asked the young man at the sensor station.
“I’ve got short-range basics: infrared, radiometric, and visual, but to do so, I had to loop it back to myself from the tactical feeds.”
“What?”
“Tactical gets the same feeds from the sensor arrays as I do, only their system compiles the data into a tactical format, just icons with headings, speeds, weapons…the basics. We get the whole picture here, with all the little details that tactical doesn’t care about.”
“I didn’t realize,” Nathan admitted.
“Captain Taylor implemented it about a year ago, as a backup for just such a situation. It works pretty well, except there’s a one-second delay.”
“At least we’ve got something,” Nathan said. “You mentioned we have visual?”
“Yes, but only the array cameras. External, fixed cameras are still down. I can point the main camera array forward and set it to its widest viewing angle, and then patch it into the main view screen, if you’d like, sir.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Nathan assured him, moving on to the helm. “What’s with all the data pads?” Nathan asked Loki, noticing there were at least a dozen of them at different locations throughout the helm and navigation stations.
“Yolken’s idea,” Loki replied, pointing to the technician crouched down behind the other side of the console. “We’re using them in place of damaged displays and control interfaces wherever we can.”
“Good thinking, Specialist,” Nathan said.
“Thank you, sir,” Specialist Yolken replied, looking up momentarily from his work.
“Are you able to fly this thing?” Nathan asked Josh.
“Yes, sir,” Josh stated confidently. “Just don’t ask me to do anything fancy, like……turning.”
“I’ll try to keep it simple,” Nathan promised. “How long until the launch point?” he asked no one in particular.
“We’re coming up on the window in one minute,” Loki replied.
“I’ve programmed the jump missiles to adjust their jump distances to all arrive at the same rally point, in formation, even though they’ll be launched in thirty-second intervals over seven and a half minutes.”
“How long will they be at the rally point?” Nathan asked.
“The first missile will be there nine and a half minutes,” Cameron replied. “The last one will be there for two minutes. They’ll have about a minute and a half to adjust course before executing their attack jumps.”
“How’s our attitude?” Nathan asked Josh.
“Mine’s great, how’s yours?”
“Josh…”
“Sorry, we’re basically pointed in the right direction, Captain. It’s kind of hard to get her to point exactly where you want.”
“We just need to get them on the green, so the Falcon can putt them in.”
Josh turned to look at Nathan, a puzzled expression on his face. “Huh?”
“Five seconds to launch window,” Loki reported.
Nath
an took a deep breath and sighed. “Let’s hope this works.” He turned to Cameron and Jessica. “Launch all missiles.”
Already on the starboard catapult, the first jump missile suddenly accelerated forward, accompanied by progressively rapid flashes of blue light from the mag-rails, which sped the weapon down the track and out the open end of the starboard flight deck.
Before the first missile had reached the end of the catapult, the next missile had already been raised up through the deck. Once the lift reached the flight deck level, the weapon slid forward, setting its nose hook in the launch track. Only twenty-two seconds after the first missile had launched, the second missile began its eight-second journey down the catapult.
* * *
Lieutenant Teison glanced at the mission clock. “One minute,” he announced. “Any changes, Riko?” he called over his shoulder.
“Negative. Dusahn battle group is still holding position, course, and speed. No new arrivals or departures. Signals emissions remain the same. Best I can tell, they don’t know we’re here.”
“Very well,” the lieutenant replied. “Upload the final targeting data to the comm-drone.”
“Uploading data, now,” the sergeant replied. A moment later, he added, “Targeting data is uploaded.”
“Launch the drone,” the lieutenant ordered.
Sergeant Nama entered the destination into the stealth jump comm-drone’s navigational computer and pressed the launch button. “Last drone away.”
Lieutenant Teison sighed. “We’re now cut off from the Aurora.”
“Let’s hope nothing changes over the next two minutes,” Ensign Lassen commented.
* * *
“This is the part I hate,” Aiden complained as he monitored his console displays. “It’s like……”
When he didn’t continue, Kenji looked at him. “It’s like what?”
“I don’t know what it’s like, but it sucks; I know that.”
“I like it better than the part where they’re shooting at us,” Kenji commented.
“I’m with Kenji,” Chief Benetti agreed over comm-sets.
“The shooting part is the fun part!” Ledge exclaimed. “The rest of the time, I’m basically a passenger.”