Mission to Sector ZZ1219

by Jerry D. Young

  “Royal Barge?” Sydney squeaked out.

  “In name only,” Johnny replied. “She is a sister to the Fleet Command Ship, and unless I miss my guess, even better armored, and armed. Probably not faster. Might not even be quite as fast, but still fast enough.

  “Our advantage is they do not know we are here, nor who we are, nor what our capabilities are. I was able to jam everything being sent when we hit the rest of the convoy. At least I believe so. And I have good reason to believe so. So they only know something happened to the rest of the convoy they were shadowing.

  “My original plan…” Johnny stopped and scrubbed his hands over his face before letting them down to his waist. “My original plan really does not matter. What matters is this one. It will work, I am sure. But execution has to be both precise and exactly timed.

  “You will all have time to read through the files before we reach the critical point. But the basic plan is that we go in on a tangent, and begin firing with everything the Lady Paladin has, except the nukes. Those only on my order.

  “We want to do as much damage as possible on the first pass. As best as I can tell, we are aligned properly to hit them on the starboard side.”

  Isis gave him a look, obviously asking how he could possibly know that. He ignored it.

  “As soon as we start firing, Pilot, you will do a hard reverse thrust, to slow us so we do not go too far past those ships. Spin, and return. Lieutenant Quintain, you will be dumping everything we have into their propulsion units that you can. Including up to two nukes each, if you can use them without damaging the rest of the ships, only the propulsion units.”

  Clyde nodded.

  “Then, Pilot, bring Lady Paladin along their port side, at half a klick, and match their velocity and course.”

  Johnny looked at Syd. “You will be using every sensor Lady Paladin has, plus your own, to watch for anything else out there.”

  Looking forward, through the bridge view port, Johnny seemed to be looking far, far in front of them. But then he turned again, to face the others. “I can feel something else out there,” he said, almost too low to be heard.

  “If something shows up, Lieutenant, anything at all, sound the alarms and feed Isis everything you can make out until this is over.

  “Isis, you will be making sure all this happens. Then, once you are sure the ships have been disabled, the EVA team will open up one of the ships to give us a means to enter in the assault suits. Not sure which ship it will be yet. I will have to make that determination at the time.

  “Once we have accomplished that, and as soon as we are back aboard Lady Paladin, Pilot, stand us off to a full klick and maintain station while we switch out the EVA suits to the Assault Suits.

  “As soon as we are ready, Shuttle 5 will take us the klick to the ship we have opened up, whereupon we will enter.”

  Again, looking at Syd, and then at Clyde, Johnny dropped his voice a bit lower. Everyone could tell how important his words would be, by his stance, his eyes, and then his delivery.

  “Lieutenant McKindrick, you will be using everything you have to monitor every movement in the ship we enter. We will have identifiers. Know where we are at all times. Inform Lieutenant Quintain in whatever manner works best between you two if anyone or anything is about to make contact with us in there, of which we might not be aware.

  “One of us will be giving you a detailed running account of what we are doing, and where we are in the ship, if we can tell. And our cameras will be feeding the monitors here. Best if Isis or Pilot watch them. I want the two of you concentrating on us in that ship.

  “However, Lieutenant McKindrick, if your sensors signal anything else, you will immediately inform Isis, Lieutenant Quintain, and Pilot, and then us.

  “Isis, you will take Lady Paladin away from the area until you can determine whatever it might be out there is. And then act accordingly.

  “Does everyone understand?”

  All four started to talk at once. Johnny held up his hand. And smiled that sardonic smile.

  “Good thing Willi can’t see him now,” Syd sort of whispered to Clyde. “She hates that smile.”

  “Be that as it may,” Johnny replied, “I do believe it is justified at this point, pointed at me, because I honestly almost forgot one last item. All of your concerns, I hope, will be alleviated, when I activate Lady Paladin’s cloaking.”

  “She doesn’t have cloaking!” Evie protested loudly.

  And Godiva protested even more loudly.

  Godiva/Lady Paladin: I most certainly do not have cloaking ability. I would most certainly know that, if I did. You could not possibly have…”

  Johnny held up his hand again. And even Godiva stopped talking. He turned to Isis. “Isis, if you please. Call up file GRS-17, slash 19, ampersand 21. Go to sub-file Echo. Go to sub-file Bravo. You should see a small icon in the lower right part of your screen.”

  “I see it,” Isis replied.

  “Touch it. With your left forefinger.”

  Isis looked over at him, hesitating, but then touched the icon. Absolutely nothing happened. Not that they could see.

  “You were joking!” Isis said.

  Johnny shook his head.

  Godiva/Lady Paladin: He is not joking. I felt the program activate. And felt myself… Lady Paladin … changing.”

  Evie spun and touched an icon on her console. It brought up a view from one of the external cameras located near the rear propulsion drives, facing forward.

  There were some gasps. For all that any of them could see was a bit of a shimmer, and the distant stars on the far side of the ship from the camera’s position.

  “That’s… That’s…” Sydney could not come up with the words.

  Not even Godiva could, apparently, for the AI vocalized not a word.

  “That only represents the visual light spectrum. The other electromagnetic spectrums are also cloaked to one degree or another. Mostly a very high degree.

  “Now. Weapons can activate and fire without disengaging the cloak. It will show signs of the firing, but they are minor, and unless sensors are programmed specifically to look for them, are almost undetectable. And even with sensors programmed, the anomaly is only a few nanoseconds, and therefore the sensors might not even pick it up most of the time, anyway.”

  Johnny drifted toward the airlock.

  “Carry on, Major. You have the con.”

  Johnny had to stop once, to rest. Even with the zero-gee conditions at the moment, he had been under high acceleration many times during the battle, and he was far from healed yet. Still, he made it to the ready room where the others were waiting.

  Cherokee helped him into the EVA suit, and then helped Johnny add his tools and weapons. The others looked on in amazement. All were veterans, though with limited service time. And all had drilled extensively with the ship’s crews on which they served.

  Having seen Cherokee equip himself, they were even more amazed when Johnny added a few additional items to the combat harness of his space suit, than even what Cherokee was carrying.

  Johnny, once suited, touched helmets with each of the others, to carry on a private conversation, the sound vibrations passing from one helmet to the other where they touched.

  Words of encouragement mostly. Thanks for their help. Reassurance. Moments before they received the signal and braced themselves, Johnny simply bumped Cherokee slightly. It was enough for the two of them. They did not need to exchange any words.

  As with every battle fought in space, the lack of sound was eerie. No atmosphere to carry the impacts of the railgun projectiles, or the explosions when something was hit that had enough flammable material and oxygen to create one.

  The only sound was more a vibration, as the occasional shock wave strong enough to reach one ship from another, vibrated a hull, which would generate a tiny amount of sound. All very low frequency. Frequencies that could be felt, faintly.

  They did all feel the vibration of one strong impact on t
he hull of Lady Paladin, somewhere in the ventral fin. When Lady Paladin again became still, with no perceptible motion, Johnny was already moving toward a hatch in the unpressurized section where they waited when Major Echart’s voice sounded in their radios.

  “Both ships’ power seems to be down. We are at one-half klick distance. We are ready for your EVA.”

  A signal from Johnny, and one of the crew released the dogs, spun the locking wheel, and let the hatch swing open. Johnny shot through the hatch, already powering the suit drives at maximum.

  As soon as he cleared the hull, he vectored to the left, and a relative down direction. Each of the others exited the Lady Paladin in the same manner, taking a different vector to spread themselves out to make more difficult targets.

  It was well they did, for an Ecronian gunner responded relatively quickly, barely missing the last one out of the hatch. But Sydney and Clyde were in top form, and had destroyed the weapons installation only a fraction of a second later.

  As the other five powered toward the Ecronian ship that Johnny was headed for, there were no more attacks. They did continue to maintain some distance between themselves.

  When Johnny indicated a damaged area in the hull of the huge ship, which dwarfed the Lady Paladin, and could have swallowed five of the Scanlon Ball Ships completely, they converged on the spot.

  Cherokee took station a few feet away from the hull, but where he could see inside. With his weapons ready, he nodded. Johnny, with the other four, advanced and began to cut away sections of the hull and interior framework.

  Trying to enter a ship through a hatch, portal, or air lock was simply too dangerous to ever try to attempt. Boarding was always through an opening the boarders created themselves. Though often it was as this one was. A damaged area of the hull, expanded to allow safe entry. Then a foothold was established, and the boarding went from there.

  The very size of the Ecronian ship worked to the humans’ advantage, since it was unlikely this section would be occupied, as it was known to be a cargo hold.

  How Johnny knew that, the others did not know, but they did not question it. He had chosen well, because it took only a few minutes of work to open things up enough so they would be able to gain entry wearing the Assault Suits, which were bulkier than the EVA suits, even though designed to be used in a breathable atmosphere.

  Even with being able to breathe in a closed hull, the Assault Suits had to include breathing atmosphere for transfers to and from pressurized areas, and in case a compartment was decompressed to attempt to stop them.

  With that need, plus the armor, weapons, and breaching tools they would carry, they needed some space. And now they had it. Johnny motioned the others back, backed up himself a bit, and then tossed in one of the objects he detached from his harness.

  Not only would the device transmit signals back to the Lady Paladin from the sensors it contained, but if triggered, it would cause immense additional damage to the hull if anyone inside entered that compartment.

  Sending the other four on to Lady Paladin, Johnny and Cherokee maintained a rear guard, facing the Ecronian ship, backing toward Lady Paladin.

  There had been no additional action from either of the Ecronian craft. No communications attempts. No attempted use of weapons. Ecronians were none too fond of space, so their ships had very few actual view ports. There were no changes visible through any of them, not even a flicker of light.

  All knew the multitude of cameras, however, were most likely giving the Ecronians a full view of everything outside the ships.

  The others were already inside Shuttle Five when Johnny and Cherokee dumped their EVA suits after reentering Lady Paladin and headed for the Flight Deck Bay.

  Instead of entering the shuttle, Johnny hurried toward a crewman standing by near an airlock that accessed the extended hull from the Flight Deck Bay.

  Cherokee diverted over to them when Johnny motioned for him to join them. “Help get this situated on nose of the shuttle,” Johnny said when Cherokee joined them.

  He thought that they were going to go through the airlock for some reason, but Cherokee saw Johnny trigger a mechanism that allowed a panel to swing open.

  The other crewman, who would be piloting Shuttle Five, looked at Cherokee and shrugged when Cherokee lifted an eyebrow in question.

  Both grabbed the handles on the circular assembly, as Johnny was doing, and maneuvered it under Johnny’s instruction to the front of the shuttle.

  Once there with it, the attachment points were obvious, though not knowing what they were, it had not occurred to anyone what they might be. All six clamps were thrown in a matter of a couple of seconds, and the ring was attached.

  Johnny headed around to the side of the shuttle and entered, followed by Cherokee and the pilot. The rear access was being closed by the other four. As the pilot took the helm, Cherokee and Johnny began to suit up, with the help of the other four when the rear access was secured.

  “Get us in the lower flight deck,” Johnny told the pilot.

  The Flight Deck Bay that serviced the upper and lower flight decks of that set was arranged to make quick transfers of craft from the pressurized Bay, to the unpressurized Flight deck.

  Though the Flight Deck Bay could be opened up into one large compartment, there were panels that could close off any given area. Such as the one Shuttle Five was in.

  Which meant that it took only seconds for the massive atmosphere pumps to empty that space of air, to allow the shuttle to be lowered through the deck hatch into the open space of the Flight Deck.

  A few seconds later, with the shuttle released from the gantry, floating under its own power, Johnny looked around at the others. “A few instructions,” he said.

  “You all have boarding experience, I know. And we just made a boarding entry point in the hull of the second ship. However, this shuttle has a couple of extra features not found on most other shuttles.

  “That ring that was just mounted on the bow of the shuttle is a boarding airlock.” He looked forward to the pilot. “When we leave the Lady Paladin, which, by the way, will be at high speed, in reverse, you will spin us, and accelerate toward the second ship. Not the one we were just working on.

  “You need to impact the hull of that ship square on, at no more than ten kph, and no less than six kph. Right under the left most of that string of symbols that go down the side.

  “Upon correct impact, the outer ring will blow a hole in the hull of the other ship, secure an airlock ring and hatch, which will be open. As soon as pressure equalizes between the airlock and the other ship, the inner airlock hatch will open, and we will enter the other ship at speed, and fan into standard Assault formation.

  “If my information is correct, we will be entering a cargo bay, much like the one we were to enter in the other ship. Also, if the information is correct, there will be no humans aboard.”

  Johnny sighed slightly. “At least not any living ones. If you do see any human forms, they will be a shock, so try to steel yourselves and be prepared to take on any and all attacks that might come from any direction inside the ship.

  “Once we have stabilized the entry point, you four will set up a holding position. The Ensign and I will head further into the ship to do what I need to do.

  “We will be blasting our way through decks and bulkheads, not using passageways. If we have not returned in eight minutes, we will not be coming back.

  “Return to the shuttle, disengage, and return to Lady Paladin. Major Butler will be in command, and if not him, Major Echart. They have their orders for the situation if it occurs.

  “Ready?”

  Only Cherokee did not pause before he answered. But all did reply in the affirmative. Johnny nodded to the pilot. “Go.”

  They all grabbed on. The pilot might not be up to the level of Willi, the Majors, Evie, or Sydney, but he was more than adequate for the task. And seemed quite willing to ram the Ecronian ship. Because there was no hesitation. When Shuttle Five cleared
the Flight Deck, he spun it, accelerated, and lined up to the target ship square on. And though only he could tell, hit the Ecronian ship at exactly ten kph.

  The device ring triggered, opening the hull, and the airlock ring sealed into place. The pressures were closer than Johnny had even hoped, for the inner airlock hatch popped open into the area between the Shuttle’s pilot and co-pilot seats.

  Johnny was ready, laying parallel to the deck of the shuttle. He shot through, bringing himself upright immediately after clearing the airlock, and shifting to his left. He was scanning the area, with eyes and all the sensors that the suits contained.

  The compartment was smaller than he expected, and it was not empty. But only a few innocuous items lined the right-side wall. He kept his eyes on them, however, as well as watching everything else until the others joined him and began covering their assigned areas.

  So far, they had received no communication from Lady Paladin. Johnny looked over at Cherokee and got the signal he expected. The two headed toward the nearest bulkhead, ignoring the hatchway opposite. A few meters from the bulkhead Cherokee tossed a hatch maker device toward it.

  The device deployed, and two seconds later Johnny and Cherokee shot through. Right into a group of heavily armed Ecronians. Fortunately, they were all concentrating on a large hatch that opened into a passageway. A passageway which Johnny and Cherokee would have been in had they used the hatch out of the compartment they had entered from outside the ship.

  Neither man hesitated. Johnny headed for the opposite bulkhead, behind the Ecronians, which were only now beginning to realize the humans were in the compartment. With the hatch maker in his left glove, he began to fire with his right.

  Cherokee was giving a good account of himself, protecting Johnny, while taking out as many of the Ecronians as possible until they could get into the next compartment.