So it was never boring. I'd also work on shuttle training sims an additional hour most shifts. I was qualified as a backup pilot for both the assault shuttles and the drop ships after all and wanted to be sure I didn't get out of practice.
The next two days were fairly quiet, and I didn't see Antara even once. No easy feat on a ship this small. But on the third day, which was the day before we were to breakout on our first strike, he came onto the bridge as I was waiting for Clare to return with lunch.
"Major," I said nodding from my station. One didn't salute when working their duty station.
"Dialene," he nodded back. "I just stopped up to let you know that I'm not going to say or do anything about your remarks in my office. I did do some checking, like you said, and like I should have before insulting you like that. I'm sorry."
"Apology accepted Sir," I replied, "however I would appreciate it if you wouldn't jump to conclusions where I am concerned again Major."
"Obviously Warrant, I do not make the same mistake twice. Carry on." And he walked back off the bridge.
It might not have been much of an apology, but it was enough for me, I was happy.
11
We made breakout the next day. The depot we were going to hit was a small one, and the defenses weren't believed to be that great. A handful of assault shuttles, and a bunch of fixed emplacements. It was on a small moon orbiting an uninhabital planet. All and all not much of a piece of real estate.
We came in quiet of course. No need to let them see us coming after all. It took us almost a week to sneak up on them, but the planet helped a lot, we approached from the far side of it. Also we had a lot of stealth gear going, and from the looks of it they weren't that worried about this place getting hit. Probably why we were hitting it.
So it was a full crew on the bridge as we made our approach. The drop ships and shuttles had been dropped a few hours earlier to come in on a different vector, while we came in one a more direct approach. The plan for us was simple, let their shuttles 'drive' us off, the others would take out the ground emplacements and attack the facility while we had the shuttles chasing us. At which point we'd open up on their shuttles with our own weapons.
The key point was making them think we were a survey vessel, which all things considered wasn't that hard.
It all came off like it was supposed to. When we were first challenged we gave our name as the survey vessel Trinidad for Tri-Star. They didn't even try to sweet talk us in closer, they just launched their shuttles and attacked. We made sure we didn't run too fast as they chased us. Once we were about an hour out we turned the tables and showed them what a nice set of missile launchers and particle beam weapons we had.
It did take us a while to take them all out, we had a bit of a chase. Roeson turned out to be quite a pilot and I was impressed by how well he handled the ship. I was better with the shuttles and airships, so I didn't feel too bad about admitting to myself that he flew the Hawk better then I could have.
The ground battle went well too. The assault shuttles took out the ground defenses quickly, and the drop ships landed shortly afterwards and disgorged their troops. As it was an airless moon, the troopers all had to wear skinsuits under their armor. Skinsuits are basically a skin tight rubber suit that kept the pressure in, with a special fitting that connected to the standard combat helmet. They weren't as nice as the flight suits we wore on the bridge or in the shuttles, but you could wear armor over them and they weighed less.
So by the time we got back there, the troops had wiped out all of the defense forces and were gathering intell. We spent about a day raiding computer systems and gathering whatever papers the ground forces could find, before mining the place and blowing it all up.
Once we'd gotten back into drive space there was a little bit of celebrating Hawk Block's first successful strike. All of the crew was invited of course, and those off duty did show, but I was one of the few to stay until my next shift. Of course some of my celebration was done in relative private, with one of the troops. The next several days I didn't get much sleep while off duty, I guess I let myself get caught up in the mood, and a couple of beds as well. I mean, I liked these guys, and they sure liked me. I wasn't sleeping with that many of them, heck compared to my days back in the club I was positively chaste. But I was flirting and joking around with quite a few of them, and probably let myself get talked into a few things I maybe shouldn't have.
Of course I'd be lying if I didn't say I enjoyed it at least as much as they did. I'm something of an attention whore I admit, and they were pretty talented and vigorous. What more could a girl ask for? It wasn't that long till things went back to their normal routines anyway. There was always more work to do, so we couldn't play around in the sack all the time.
Our next stop was a rendezvous with a larger ship to replace supplies, drop off our intell, and get orders for the next strike. So two weeks in drive space, two days out and then back in for ten days as we prepared for our next attack.
This target was a fuel processing plant, on the surface of a habital, though barely, planet. They also had a mine there as well. Information wise this was a pretty big plum. Our goal was to destroy as much as possible, and grab any information we could find.
Defenses were a bit more indepth at this facility though. They had two ships on station, destroyers each. Now both were apparently fairly old from the data we had, but either one would be more then a match for the Hawk. So the plan was that the ship we had rendezvoused with would come out of jump on the edge of the system and start to drive in at full power. This would lure off the two destroyers and we'd sneak in from another vector. Timing in this mission was crucial, we'd have anywhere from eight to twelve hours to get in and get out, depending on how they reacted.
We coasted in again, same as the last time, engines shut down and our stealth systems active, and watched. Ship's breaking out of drive space usually dumped a lot of kinetic energy depending on their exit speed and vector, the effect was like a flash bulb going off all over the spectrum. We avoided it by coming out very energy weak, and on the far side of the star. That of course added to our insystem transit time, but the stealth systems hid our normal space drives at those distances. So we waited and watched as we drew closer. It didn't take us long to pinpoint the destroyers in orbit. When the Rio broke out they didn't make much of a flash, but enough for anyone who might have been watching, and our friends in orbit certainly were.
About twenty minutes after they observed flash, which was almost an hour old when we saw it, they broke orbit and went after the Rio. We were still quite a ways out, and had a while to wait. The Rio would signal us about an hour before they planned to turn and break off, our attack would start shortly after. The goal was for the two destroyers to get recalled, which would help the Rio in its escape, and for us to be gone before they got here. How long they took to get back was dependent on how far out they were, and what kind of vector they took back. If they came back fast, they'd be here quick, but would have to make a single pass and loop back for another shot. If they came in slow, they wouldn't have to loop, but it would take hours longer.
So we waited and listened, we had a general idea of when they would signal, so everyone got ready to go as soon as the signal came.
The signal came about when expected. We started our mission clock, and brought the engines on line. By this time we were only a few minutes out and the Hawk came into the upper atmosphere before kicking the assault shuttles and two of the drop ships clear. The battle order was that each shuttle would drop two squads, the drop ships would drop three each. Then the shuttles would provide close air support, and at the end the two drop ships would go back down and pick up everyone. The other two drop ships were usually held in reserve, in case of emergency, or if one got so damaged from a drop that it couldn't safely make a recovery run.
The drop went off without a hitch, we had fired a few long range torpedos before the drop ships and shuttles went in, to help soften thin
gs up. Only two of the torps made it through the defenses, but the shuttles all made it in unscathed. I watched the long range scanners and the feeds from the ships as the troops deployed and took up their positions.
That was the last part that went off without a hitch. Immediately reports started coming in that there were more ground troops then we had expected, and that they were better fortified as well. The shuttles also reported heavier air defenses then expected. The drop ships made it back up to the Hawk to refuel and await pickup as the battle raged below. We could tell it wasn't going well from the signals we were picking up, casualties were much higher then expected, the bridge was quiet as we listened too far away to help.
"Message from the Rio Captain," Clare reported.
"What do they have to say?"
"Both destroyers broke off and have turned for home," She checked the chronometer, "Fifty Seven minutes ago. I'm feeding the course and speed information into Dialene's console now."
I looked at the data on my screen, I could see right off it wasn't good and I plugged it into the model of the system and crunched a few numbers.
"How's it look?" The Captain asked.
"Not good sir, the ships have taken different vectors. One is coming in hot, the other at a slower pace. The first one should reach here in six hours and forty three minutes, it's obvious that they're not planning on trying to catch us by looping back, so I expect they'll hit us with everything they have if we're still here."
"The second ship?"
"He'll be here in eight hours and twenty minutes."
"Not good."
"No sir, it's not, the first one cuts off any vector for us in the inbound region, the second one may have the ability to come about to any outbound vector we may chose."
"Analysis Roeson?"
"If we leave in four hours we'll have no problems. Five hours and forty minutes and we'll be on the edge of his missile range for thirty minutes, if we leave earlier or later we'll be in the envelope longer."
"What if we hide on the planet somewhere in atmosphere?"
"Well, assuming we can survive it, and they don't have any of the really good nukes, then we'd have to leave at seven hours and fifteen minutes and we'd probably be in extreme range for a stern chase for about ninety minutes."
"Okay, Clare, notify the commander that he has three hours to complete his mission before we need to extract."
"Aye aye Sir," she replied.
"Captain Hess has acknowledged Sir." She said a moment later.
After that we all just sat there and waited.
At two hours and thirty minutes we launched the drop ships to give them time to make a safer approach. By this time they had managed to destroy a good deal of the processing facility, but they weren't making any real progress with the mine.
As the drop ships came in was when things started to go really bad. One of the drop ships took a hit as it came around and crashed on landing. They were able to get the pilot out but he was in pretty bad shape. They loaded him the wounded, the dead and everyone else they could on the other drop ship. That left nine troops on the ground, but either of the assault shuttles could deal with that.
The first shuttle flew cover for the drop ship, as they made for the Hawk, but as the second one turned to pick up the remaining troops it got tagged as a sudden resurgence from the mines started in.
"Damn," Someone swore softly on the bridge. I looked over the situation and threat map on my console and triggered the programs to start warming up and fueling drop ship three.
"Captain," I said, "We have a twenty minute window to launch number three and recover."
"What's the status on Assault one?" He asked.
"They're past bingo fuel and need to return to the ship. They can't turn around."
"Captain," Clare put in, "The remaining troops have a visual on the weapons officer from Assault two. It appears he was able to eject before the shuttle disintegrated."
"And sign of the Pilot?"
"No, they believe he's dead, and are moving to recover the WSO as soon as he touches down. They report that the mines are launching a counter offensive."
I was watching the situation, I saw the location of the WSO's beacon as our computer picked it up. I swallowed, I was the backup pilot.
"Captain," I said, "Request permission to launch in number three to recover."
"Denied." Came the quiet response.
I gasped! And turned around in my chair, releasing my harness. "Captain! I'm the backup pilot, it's my job."
"I said denied. I don't like it anymore then anyone else, but we can't afford to lose any more people."
I looked back at the board, sixteen minutes left to launch a recovery.
"Captain, does this have anything to do with my not being company born?" I asked.
"No," He said fixing his attention on me.
"Then Dammit Sir, let me go! I can get them out of there!"
"I said it's not worth the lives of anymore people Warrant!"
I looked at the board again, and the names of the troops down there. I knew them, heck I had slept with some of them. And I knew what this enemy did to prisoners.
I turned back, "Even one little fox who the company barely trusts because she's a redemption?" I pleaded, "I can do this Captain, I'm the best damn shuttle pilot on this ship."
"Would you care for a return trip to the mines Warrant? I can arrange it!" He positively growled.
"Fine by me sir! Because if you won't let me go down there and save my friends, it's gonna be the only thing I'm good for!" I growled back, "I'm not suicidal, I know as well as you do what's gonna happen if we leave them behind. So let me go damn you, you can send me back to the mines after I get them for all I care!"
"We're going to have a little chat Warrant, I promise you, when you get back."
"Thankyou SIR!" I yelled grabbing my helmet from the rack and running out the door. I was already suited up so I didn't have to stop for anything else. I made it to the shuttle in record time and started my checklist with six minutes to spare.
I kicked the drop ship loose from the mooring and flipped it end for end, then jammed the throttles to full emergency power.
"Hawk, this is drop three. Tell the troops to head for the ridgeline over by the burning fuel tanks. Give me minute by minute updates on their position, and enemy activity."
"Will do drop three," came Clare's voice over the com.
"Also, request supporting fire, two torps, max burn, bracketing now, two more in plus five minutes."
"Roger," replied Trina's voice, "On the way!"
By now the hull had hit atmosphere and was starting to scream and heat up. The hulls were pretty tough in these boats, made to stand up to straight in re-entries. Of course after a few hard ones, they had to be re-skinned. They weren't exactly meant to come in at full power though.
They also didn't have a lot in the way of guidance systems, and of course, no weapons at all. I did have a decent ECM suite, and the usual disposables, but not much else. I checked the radar altimeter, my internal guidance, and speed. I had the ship up at max V, hopefully it was built to spec. Crossing my fingers I checked to see where the missiles were, they accelerated a lot faster then I could and had easily caught up with me. I did what I could to match vectors, killed the engines and let gravity do the rest.
Trina kept feeding me info, they had made it to the ridgeline, but were pretty well pinned down there now from the counter offensive. The fires were still burning out of control nearby, and they only had six effective now, three were wounded, the WSO was unconscious, as far as they could tell there was nothing left of the pilot.
I knew that they had managed to destroy all of the ground tracking system, so the only thing the enemy would have for anti-air would be shoulder launched stuff. But the two downed ships already showed how nasty that could be. The torps slowly outstripped me, but hopefully to anyone down there with the smaller sighting systems on the shoulder launched missiles, I'd look like a t
orp who's engine had burned out early.
The ride down was fast, five minutes later I was passing fifty thousand feet. I could see the ground forces on my own limited console, piped down to me by a laser on the Hawk. I veered my position toward the burning tanks and flipped nose for tail, opening the engines back up to full emergency power once more.
"Hawk Block! Incoming! Heads Down!" I called on the open com unit as the two torps jumped ahead of me and I rode down the second biggest heat source in the area and prayed no one would get a lucky shot.
By the time the ECM told me someone was trying to target me, the torps hit and sowed a fair share of confusion. I was still trying to break, riding down on a pillar of fire my altitude dropping fast. I started to worry that I might have cut it too close when I slipped into the heavy smoke coming up from the burning tanks and buildings below.
I turned on the radar and locked on the beacon. With one eye on the engine temperature and another on the altimeter I slipped down to the edge of the flames, then using the manuvering jets I kicked over sideways and shot out of the smoke and flames like a ball someone just booted hard. I throttled back, flipped the ship again and hit the rockets hard once again to kill my momentum, flipped a quick ninety, caught the ship right over the beacon at hundred feet and dropped in hard.
Hitting the switch to open the hatch, I could hear, "GO GO GO GO!" over the com. Looking over the shuttle's landing cameras I could see four running and carrying body's as two laid down a covering fire and backed up to the ramp. I checked the situation data that the Hawk was feeding me again since I was now clear of the heavy smoke. Thirty seconds until the next two torps hit.
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