by Ryk Brown
As he returned fire, Telles heard three distinct claps of thunder to the east. He rolled to his right and fired, then leapt back up to his feet and ran to the edge of the building a few meters further down the street in the direction of the incoming enemy attack.
“Bulldog Three, inbound to Jojo Seven from the east. Touchdown in two.”
“Bulldog Six,” a second pilot called in. “Inbound to Jojo Seven from the southeast. One out.”
“Bulldog Five,” the third pilot followed. “Inbound to Jo… We’re taking fire! We’re hit! Bulldog Five is going down! We’re going…”
The building shook after another combat jump shuttle appeared in a blue-white flash directly over Commander Telles, its shockwave kicking up dust and debris around him. The combat shuttle immediately opened fire on the Jung squads at the far end of the street as they sped over the tops of the buildings, then banked hard left and climbed away.
“Combat Seven! I’ve got a downed troop shuttle to the east!”
“Combat Seven, Command. Bulldog five just went down. Vector to the crash site and check for survivors. Provide cover if possible,” the flight controller in the command bunker ordered.
Telles continued charging down the street, the master sergeant and the rest of his men following. They all opened fire, taking advantage of the chaos that had just been caused by the sudden attack by Combat Seven.
Two chasers launched from the rooftop to the commander’s left. The climbing combat shuttle dropped countermeasures and increased their bank rate, dropping down between the buildings to try and evade the pursuing missiles.
“Combat Seven’s got two chasers, taking evasive,” the pilot announced calmly.
Telles and his men arrived at the next intersection, finding only the mangled bodies of what had been at least a dozen Jung soldiers. “Intersection Kato Two is secure,” he announced over the comms. “We’ll take up defensive positions on either side,” he told his men. “We must hold this intersection, or none of us are getting off this rock alive!”
“Combat Seven is hit!”
“Bulldog Six is setting down at Jojo Seven!” the pilot of the troop shuttle announced, as the sound of energy weapons fire echoed in the background. “Haul ass, boys! This LZ is hot!”
“Combat Seven is good! We took a hit, but we’re still flying. We’re not jumping anywhere anytime soon, though!”
“Combat Seven, Telles,” the commander called over his helmet comms. “You’re a sitting duck without a jump drive. Climb to orbit and land on the Aurora.”
“Bulldog Three is setting down at Jojo Seven!” the pilot of the second troop shuttle announced. “You’re right, Six, this LZ sucks!”
“Telles, Combat Seven, negative. We don’t have the fuel, sir. We can stay on station, circle high and maybe provide some cover fire.”
“You’ll get tagged by another chaser sooner or later, Lieutenant,” the commander said. “Get clear, set down, and hole-up. We’ll send someone to get you as soon as we can. And don’t forget to burn your ship!”
“Aye, sir.”
Two more claps of thunder were heard, this time from the west of their position, then another explosion erupted in the distance.
“Seven! You still there?” the commander asked.
“Affirmative! Combat Seven is still flying! That was Bulldog Five! They must have set off their jump drive’s self-destruct!”
“Can you see any survivors?”
“Bulldog Two, inbound for Tongo Four from the west, two out.”
“Negative, sir! That explosion took out half the fucking block!”
“Get clear, Seven. Hole-up good. It may be a while.”
“Understood. Good luck, Commander.”
“Bulldog Four, inbound to Tongo Four from the northwest, three out.”
An energy bolt struck the commander’s chest, knocking him backward. He stumbled, raised his weapon and returned fire in an instant, letting go three shots, two of which found their target. “Incoming fire!” he alerted his men so they could open fire as well.
The commander heard three more claps of thunder, announcing the arrival of another troop shuttle and two more combat shuttles.
Commander Telles glanced at the tactical display inside of his helmet visor. He noticed two groups of four red dots about thirty meters down the street. Although they were the ones firing at them, that wasn’t what concerned him. Four blocks away to the south, and five blocks to the east, ten times as many men were headed their way. He looked at Master Sergeant Jahal.
“The odds are finally evening up!” the master sergeant joked, seeing the same thing on his visor display.
“Bulldog Six is airborne!” the troop shuttle’s pilot announced over the comms. “Climbing out!”
“Six! Chasers to the north! Chasers to the north! Jump, jump, jump!”
“Way ahead of you!”
“Everyone at Jojo Seven, keep your heads down!” another pilot called. “Combats Thirteen and Fourteen are about to light up the rooftops!”
“Take out the buildings over them!” Telles ordered his men. “The more shit we put in the street, the more difficult it is for them to advance on us!”
“It also gives them more cover!” Master Sergeant Jahal reminded him as he began firing on the walls above the attackers.
“We just need to put down a lot of it! Like maybe the entire building!”
“Combat Thirteen, starting our run!”
“Combat Fourteen, coming in hot!”
They heard more explosions in the distance, along with the screeching blasts of plasma cannons as the two combat jumpers strafed the rooftops on either side of the Jojo Seven intersection.
“Bulldog Three, lifting off!”
“Three! Suggest you stay low and jump from between the buildings to avoid chasers!”
“That was the plan. Three is accelerating and pitching up.”
“Thirteen! Three chasers to the west! Coming up fast! Bank right and jump!”
“Thirteen is jumping!”
“Bulldog Three is jumping.”
Telles and his men continued to fire on the walls above the Jung soldiers at the opposite end of the street. A large section of the wall came crashing down, sending the enemy troops scrambling in all directions to avoid the falling debris. Another thunderous boom shook the streets, followed by the roar of plasma cannons and jet engines.
“Keep your heads down,” Loki called over the comms as Falcon Four streaked over their heads and down the center of the street.
The Falcon’s plasma turret swept from side to side with rapid and precise movements, as the interceptor’s targeting system attempted to detect and hit every enemy target within its field of fire. Seconds later, the ship pitched up, going to full power and rolling several times as it climbed. With each rotation, its spiral increased in diameter, spitting brilliant countermeasures out of its tail and flinging them in all directions as it rocketed skyward.
Four chaser missiles, launched from Jung soldiers on nearby rooftops, raced upward in pursuit of the spiraling interceptor. Two of them immediately locked onto countermeasures and exploded seconds later. The other two continued into the sky above Cetia, doomed to run out of propellant long before they could catch the fleeing interceptor.
“Falcon Four, Telles. You have anything on board that can take out a building or two?”
“Telles, Falcon Four. Bunker busters. They can take out a whole block. We’re carrying four of them, sir.”
“I need you to make the corridors to the east, south, and west of intersection Kato Two impassable.”
“It’ll be messy,” Loki warned.
“Messy is what I’m looking for. Give us a minute to get clear of the intersection, then have at it.”
“That’s going to be dangerously close, Commander.”
“You have your orders, Ensign.”
“Understood. Dropping three B7Bs in the corridors to the east, south, and west of Kato Two…in one.”
Telles turned to face his men. “Everyone, haul ass back toward the command bunker!” he ordered as he started running.
“Telles, Command. Everyone to the east and west has been evac’d. We’ve got two more troop jumpers and three combat jumpers that should be inbound from Porto Santo now. ETA five.”
“Copy that!” Telles replied over the comms as he continued running. “Brakar One One, fall back and hold the east side of the command bunker! Brakar One Seven, fall back and hold the west side! The south approach is about to be closed for good! We’ve just gotta hold this LZ for five minutes and then we’re outta here!”
“Falcon Four, Brakar Seven! Four away! Impact in twenty seconds!”
“Brakar One One, falling back to command east!”
“Brakar One Seven, falling back to command west!”
“Ten seconds to impact,” Loki warned.
Commander Telles and his men continued down the rubble-strewn boulevard, jumping over larger pieces of collapsed buildings as they raced to get around the corner before the incoming missiles found their targets a few hundred meters behind them. The initial chaos of Falcon Four’s strafing run on the enemy position had begun to wear off and the incoming energy weapons fire had resumed. Bolts of red energy slammed into the ground on all sides. Telles could see at least six red dots moving toward them from behind. The Jung were giving chase.
Commander Telles ran around the corner to his right, followed by Master Sergeant Jahal and the others. Brakar One One was running toward them from the east, seven men in total. “Get behind the barriers!” Telles ordered, as he ran behind the armored barrier protecting the command bunker’s south entrance.
Falcon Four may have launched four bunker busters, but there was only one explosion. One massive explosion. The entire command bunker seemed to lift up off the ground, hover in mid air for a split second, then slammed back down. Dust and fire shot over their heads, bouncing off the walls of the bunker and deflecting upward. There was a tremendous rumble, mild at first, that quickly grew in intensity until it was deafening.
Telles peeked out around the edge of the barrier just in time to see buildings on either side of the street beyond intersection Kato Two fall over. A wave of dust and misplaced air billowed down the street toward them. Telles ducked back behind the barrier again. “Shockwave!” he warned the others. The barrier reverberated as the wave of displaced air, and the tons of debris that came with it, slammed into the barrier and the bunker walls on either side of it. He and his men remained hunkered down, waiting out the seemingly endless shockwave while curled up as small as they could make themselves behind the massive armored wall. They waited, and waited, and eventually the rumble died down. As the cacophony subsided, the weapons fire resumed…only this time, it wasn’t coming from the south.
“East, west, and south corridors to intersection Kato Two are closed,” Loki announced.
“Nicely done, Four,” Telles congratulated them as he got back to his feet. “Now, if you’d be so kind as to sterilize the rooftops around the command center, especially those along the corridor to the south, it would be greatly appreciated.”
“We’ll see what we can do,” Loki replied.
* * *
“Jump flash,” Mister Navashee reported from the Aurora’s sensor station. “New contact. A comm-drone.”
“Incoming comm traffic,” Ensign Souza announced. “From command. New orders from Admiral Dumar. We are to remain on station until the last of our forces have safely withdrawn from Kohara. Meanwhile, use all available assets to destroy Scout Three, and if possible, the Jung battleship holding her… Without delay, sir.”
“Ensign, contact Scout Two and verify the target’s last known position, then relay to Scout One with orders to launch the KKV when ready.”
“What the hell?” Jessica exclaimed.
“Aye, sir,” Ensign Souza acknowledged.
“What if he’s still on board?” Jessica protested.
“Mister Navashee, how many pods ejected before they went FTL?” Nathan inquired.
“Five pods, sir. All of them were destroyed by the Jung before they could get clear.”
“That means three people are still on board,” Jessica reminded Nathan.
“I have my orders,” Nathan replied, his tone cold and determined.
“Those three men could still be alive!” Jessica exclaimed desperately as she moved forward toward Nathan. “Robert could still be alive!”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Nathan replied, casting a menacing gaze her direction as she approached.
“Then hold the launch order,” she insisted. “Give them a chance to…”
“No!” Nathan replied sternly. “I’m not going to make the same mistake twice!”
“What mistake? Just give them a chance, damn it!”
“Stand down, Lieutenant Commander!” Nathan ordered.
Jessica looked at him with wide eyes pleading for him to change his mind.
“Jess, please,” Nathan begged, his voice barely audible as his eyes met hers. “I don’t have any choice…and you know it.”
Jessica said nothing, matching his gaze without backing down. Nathan knew she understood, despite the fact that her pleading look turned to anger and frustration, most of which was undoubtedly focused on him at the moment.
“Comm-drone has jumped away,” Mister Navashee reported.
“Estimated time to KKV launch?”
“All things considered, three to five minutes,” Luis replied from the tactical console behind Nathan.
Nathan looked away, unable to bear the look in Jessica’s eyes any longer. “Very well.”
* * *
“Both field generators are intact,” Commander Eckert reported.
“And their energy buffers?”
Commander Eckert tapped buttons on his data pad as he searched for the answer. “Maybe ten percent, but they’re falling… Something is draining them. It just dropped to nine percent.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I’m kind of limited with what I can do here.”
“How long until they’re dead?”
“Hard to say,” the commander replied. “Five minutes, ten minutes. I’m just guessing, really.”
“Why did they go offline to begin with?” Captain Nash wondered.
“Maybe a bad connection? We were taking damage at the time.”
“Or too many failed emitters,” Nash said, concerned. He looked at Eckert. “I don’t suppose you can check the emitters with that thing?”
“No way.”
“Attention to the Earth vessel,” a heavily accented voice called over both their comm-sets. “I am Major Goya of the Jar-Benakh. Those alive must respond.”
“The Jar what?” Captain Nash said.
“Jar means battleship in Jung,” Commander Eckert clarified.
“How the hell did they tap into our internal comms?” the captain wondered.
“We are aware of you…”
“Damn right he is,” Nash muttered as he listened.
“…and we offer you to surrender to us now.”
“I’m pretty sure this clown didn’t score too high in his English classes,” Captain Nash said as he tapped his comm-set. “This is Captain Robert Nash, of the gunship…uh…Pequod. I can’t understand what you are saying.”
“Pequod?” Commander Eckert wondered.
Nash turned in surprise. “You never read Moby Dick?”
“Moby what?”
“You to sur-rend-dur to me
, on now, to here… Or to you is death of pain.”
“Not to be rude, Major, but your English sucks,” Nash replied over his comm-set. “If you want to discuss the terms of your surrender, you’re going to have to find someone that can speak English a whole lot better than you. No disrespect intended, of course.” Nash addressed Eckert. “How long until we can jump?”
Eckert stared blankly, unable to respond.
“How long?” Nash repeated, smacking the commander on the shoulder so he’d snap back into focus.
“I don’t know, a few minutes, I guess. I just have to find the commands in the database, load them, and then send an execute command, but…”
“Sur-rend-doer on this moment, or pain will be coming to you into the best… Ack! Worst of places… Ja! Pain to the worst!”
“Please, get someone who can speak English properly, or I’m gonna open fire and blow your dumb ass to pieces just to shut you up! You’re getting on my nerves!”
Commander Eckert stared at his captain. “Sir, is it really necessary to antagonize them like that? I mean…”
“Fuck’em,” Nash scoffed. “Get that thing ready to jump us out of here.”
“Sir, if all the emitters fire…”
“I know, we’ll tear the ship apart and we’ll be dead. We’re pretty much dead no matter what we do here, Skeech. With any luck, the breakup will ignite our propellant tanks and blow us to hell, maybe even set off the charges on the field generators.”
Commander Eckert turned his attention back to his data pad as he began preparing the starboard jump field generator for the jump. “And if by some miracle, we happen to survive the jump, then what? All the EVA gear is forward, in the unpressurized areas.”
“There’s a maintenance crawler aft, remember?” Nash reminded him. “We can use that.”
“What’s to stop the Jung from following us?” Eckert wondered. “We’re likely only going to jump a few light minutes, an hour at the most.”
“We’re hull to hull right now,” Nash said. “We’ll probably take a hunk out of their hull when we jump. That might slow them down a bit.”