Ep.#14 - The Weak and the Innocent (The Frontiers Saga)

by Ryk Brown

  “Detonation in five seconds,” Jessica reported. “Three……two……one……detonation.”

  Nothing happened on the bridge, not even an electronic beep. The scheduled detonations were occurring more than one billion kilometers ahead of them. If their calculations were correct, it occurred right in the path of the approaching battle group, only a hundred kilometers ahead of them.

  The seconds continued to tick by as they waited. Five, then ten, then twenty seconds passed.

  “Contact!” Mister Navashee reported. “Jump flash! It’s Falcon One!”

  “Incoming transmission from Falcon One,” Ensign Waara announced. “Detonation confirmed. Battle group is out of FTL.”

  “Transmit the launch codes,” Nathan ordered.

  “Transmitting launch codes, aye,” Lieutenant Tillardi replied.

  “Mister Riley, stand by to execute first attack jump,” he added.

  “Ready for jump one,” Mister Riley replied.

  “Current speed?” Nathan asked, realizing he forgot to inquire when he had first returned to the bridge.

  “We’re at standard combat maneuvering speed, sir,” Mister Chiles replied.

  “Eight good jump flashes,” Mister Navashee reported.

  “Execute jump one in ten seconds,” Nathan ordered.

  “Jump one, coming up in…five…”

  Nathan glanced up at the mission clock. They were right on the money.

  “…four…”

  “All weapons show ready for action,” Jessica reported.

  “…three…”

  Lieutenant Tillardi was facing forward, but his eyes were closed. Nathan wondered if his friend was praying. He had always worn a cross around his neck, but Nathan had never asked him about it.

  “…two…”

  An odd thought suddenly crossed Nathan’s mind…

  “…one…”

  Who do the Jung pray to?

  “…jumping…”

  Nathan closed his eyes momentarily as the jump flash washed over the Aurora’s bridge.

  “Jump complete,” Mister Riley reported.

  Nathan opened his eyes. The main view screen was littered with secondary explosions across its right side…

  “Multiple contacts!” Mister Navashee reported with earnest.

  Sections of the Jung battle platform, many of them larger than the Aurora herself, were spiraling away from the main cluster of explosions…

  “Eight contacts, varying class and size!” Mister Navashee continued.

  …Nathan could make out the two Jung cruisers on the far side of the battle platform as it came apart. Both were maneuvering to…

  Did he say eight? Nathan thought.

  “Is that including the Celestia and the Falcon?” Nathan asked urgently.

  “Yes and no,” Mister Navashee replied. “One of the eight is the Celestia. She jumped in on the opposite side of the platform, but the Falcon is not on my sensors!”

  “ID those seven contacts!” Nathan barked.

  “The battleship is undamaged!” Jessica warned. “I’ve got her dead ahead and turning into us! Helm! Two to port and four down! Fast!”

  “Two to port and four down!” Mister Chiles replied as he pushed the Aurora’s nose down and left as instructed.

  “That can’t be?” Lieutenant Tillardi declared in disbelief.

  “Tillardi! Transmit the self-destruct orders to all surviving jump KKVs!” Nathan ordered.

  “She’s firing!” Mister Navashee warned.

  “Firing all forward torpedoes!” Jessica announced. “Triplets across the board!”

  Nathan spun around to look at the lieutenant, having not heard an acknowledgment from him. “Tilly!” he yelled as the red-orange light of the Aurora’s plasma torpedoes streaking away from her lit up the inside of the bridge. “The self-destruct!”

  “Yes, sir,” the lieutenant finally acknowledged, coming out of his stupor and returning his attention to his console.

  “She’s taking us head-on!” Jessica declared. “All eighteen guns!”

  “Helm! Up ten and go to full power!”

  The bridge shook as rail gun fire slammed into their bow. Nathan watched the main view screen as chunks of their forward section were blown in all directions as the massive rail gun slugs from the Jung battleship tore into the Aurora’s hull.

  “As soon as you get a clear jump line, get us out of here!” Nathan added.

  “Ten seconds!” Mister Riley replied.

  “Damage control reports multiple hull breaches in the forward section!” Ensign Waara reported.

  Nathan felt the shaking lessen slightly as the Aurora’s nose came up and the enemy battleship’s incoming fire began to strike their heavily armored undersides.

  “They’re firing missiles!” Mister Navashee added. “Four inbound! Twenty seconds to impact!”

  “Tilly! Did they detonate?” Nathan demanded.

  “Unknown…”

  “Five seconds,” Mister Riley reported.

  Nathan glanced out the main view screen as the looming image of the approaching battleship fell down below the Aurora’s bow.

  “Executing escape jump!” Mister Riley reported as the blue-white light of the building jump fields began to spill out rapidly across the hull.

  But the jump flash didn’t occur.

  “Jung frigate! Directly to port and twelve degrees down,” Loki reported as the Super Falcon’s jump flash subsided. “She’s eight kilometers out and turning away.”

  “Turning into her to pursue,” Josh replied as he rolled the Super Falcon onto her left side and pulled his nose back to initiate the turn. “We can still out accelerate her in this thing, right?”

  “Hell yes,” Loki replied.

  “Just checking,” Josh said as he pushed his throttle to maximum.

  “Seven kilometers,” Loki reported. “She’s painting us. Attempting to jam.”

  Josh kept his eye on the target reticle on his flight data display, adjusting his turn to keep it just in front of the fleeing frigate.

  “Six kilometers. She’s firing missiles! Four inbound. Impact in ten!”

  “Take them out!” Josh declared.

  “I’m working on it,” Loki replied as he tapped the icons representing the incoming missile on his targeting screen. “Firing nose turret.”

  Josh glanced up over his forward console as thin bolts of red plasma energy leapt from beneath his nose in four, short blasts, walking from left to right with each volley. Four small explosions went off a few kilometers ahead of them as the bursts of plasma energy found their targets.

  “Incoming missiles destroyed,” Loki reported. “Range to target is three kilometers! Torpedo cannons are at full yield, single shots. Fire when ready!”

  Josh checked his targeting reticle again and then pressed the firing trigger on his flight control stick. Four bright, red-orange balls of plasma, each of them the size of the Super Falcon’s entire cockpit, streaked forward, slamming into the Jung Frigate now only two kilometers away.

  “Direct hit!” Loki exclaimed. “Multiple secondaries! Hit her again!”

  Josh pressed the trigger again, figuring enough time had elapsed to allow the plasma generators to dissipate their heat from the last firing. Four more red-orange balls of plasma energy leapt forth from beneath either wing, immediately slamming into the frigate and breaking her apart.

  “DAMN!” Josh exclaimed with glee. “You wanna talk about SUPER!” he added as he rolled to starboard and turned away from the doomed frigate as she was consumed by multiple explosions from within her own hull. “Find me another fucking target, Lok!”

  “Negative jump!” Mister Riley announced.

 
“Missile impact in five seconds!” Mister Navashee warned.

  “All hands! Brace for impact!” Nathan ordered as he grabbed the arms of his command chair and held on tight.

  The bridge rocked, its aft end heaving upward. Nathan felt three distinct thuds reverberate through the structure of the ship. Alarms began to sound from any number of consoles around him.

  “Hull breaches!” Ensign Waara declared as the calls from damage control began to flow into the communications center at the back of the bridge. “Multiple breaches along our bottom side.”

  “We took three direct hits!” Mister Navashee reported.

  “What about the fourth missile?” Nathan demanded.

  “I got one of them at the last second!” Jessica announced.

  “Helm! You still have maneuvering?”

  “Aye, sir,” Mister Chiles replied.

  “Bring our nose up and over and bring all tubes onto that battleship,” Nathan ordered. “Jess! Pound her as soon as you can get guns on her, then hit her with another round of triplets!”

  “Contact!” Mister Navashee reported. “Jump flash! The Celestia is engaging the battleship!”

  “Keep firing as long as you have the angle, Lieutenant,” Cameron ordered. “Mister Lange, how are our shields holding?”

  “Forward shields at ninety percent and falling,” Mister Lange reported from the Celestia’s systems console. “All other shields at full power.”

  “Keep a close eye on all of them,” Cameron ordered. “Let me know if any of them drop below fifty percent.”

  “Firing another round with the mark fives,” Luis reported from the tactical station.

  The Celestia’s main view screen dimmed slightly to attenuate the brilliant light from the massive balls of red-orange plasma that shot forth from their four, new, mark five plasma cannons under her bow. The four triplets of energy streaked out, one after the other, slamming into the Jung battleship’s shields, causing them to turn an opaque yellow in the area of each impact.

  “More direct hits,” Ensign Kono reported from the sensor station. “Ten percent drop in their number four port shields.”

  “That’s a hell of a lot better than the one percent we used to get with the mark fours,” Cameron said. “Comms, raise the Aurora. Find out why she hasn’t jumped clear.”

  “Aye, sir,” Ensign Souza replied.

  “Keep firing, Mister Delaveaga. Throw in our mark threes as well.”

  “Aye, sir,” Luis replied. “Firing mark fours and fives.”

  “Captain, Aurora reports she’s lost half of her forward emitter array!” Ensign Souza reported. “She can’t jump!”

  “She took eighteen rail guns in her nose and several missiles in her belly,” Cameron commented, “she’s lucky she can still maneuver, let alone jump.”

  “Falcon One has just taken out another frigate!”

  “Score another kill for Deliza Ta’Akar,” Cameron muttered. “Kono, is the Aurora still in the fight?”

  “Yes, sir,” the ensign replied. “She’s firing her quads at the battleship now, as she pitches over. I believe she’s trying to bring her mark fours to bear.”

  “Which shields?” Cameron asked.

  “Looks like their dorsal side, aft.”

  “Helm, slip us under and bring our nose to bear on the same shield panels,” Cameron ordered.

  “Aye, sir,” Ensign Hunt replied.

  “Ensign Kono, where’s that last cruiser?”

  “Fourteen kilometers to the battleship’s starboard side, sir,” the ensign replied as she double-checked her readings. “It looks like they’re turning toward an intercept course for the Aurora, Captain.”

  “As soon as we take the next shot along with the Aurora, swing our nose around and turn us into that cruiser,” Cameron ordered her helmsman. “Prepare a ten kilometer jump to execute on my call.”

  “Aurora is firing!” Ensign Kono announced.

  “Firing all forward torpedo cannons, fours and fives,” Luis added.

  Falcon One slid over the top of the third Jung frigate at a range of only three hundred kilometers, passing from her port to starboard. The Super Falcon’s nose continued to alter its pitch as it passed, firing its four, under-wing mounted, mark two plasma cannons in rapid succession as it passed. Its round slammed into the enemy frigate’s unshielded hull, cutting it in half and setting off numerous secondary explosions. No more than twenty seconds after the Super Falcon had appeared from behind a blue-white flash of light, it disappeared behind another.

  “I’m telling ya, Lok, these frigates are nothing!” Josh declared as he brought the Falcon’s nose back in line with her flight path.

  “Don’t get cocky,” Loki replied.

  “Where’d that other cruiser go?” Josh wondered. “I wanna take a crack at her as well!”

  “Sorry, the Celestia just finished her off. Maybe you want to attack the battleship instead?”

  “Why not?”

  “I was kidding, Josh,” Loki replied. “Besides, there’s still one more frigate left.”

  “Bring it on!”

  “We’ll take her from her stern, translating down her length toward her bow.”

  “Why her stern?” Josh wondered. “Why not just cut her in half like we did the last one?”

  “She’s got fewer guns near her stern,” Loki explained. “The last one didn’t know we were coming because she was on the far side of that battle platform coming apart when we attacked the first two frigates. She no doubt saw us take out that last one, so she’s going to be expecting us.”

  “Right,” Josh agreed as he brought the Super Falcon on to its new jump course. “How’s the Aurora doing?”

  “Not good,” Loki replied solemnly.

  “What the hell are they doing?” Jessica wondered aloud. “They’re moving into my firing line.”

  “They’re moving in to protect us,” Nathan realized.

  “Captain! Incoming from Celestia Actual,” Ensign Waara reported. “They’re requesting we move off to a safe distance while they cover our retreat with their shields.”

  “But we just started fighting,” Jessica declared.

  “And we already got our asses kicked,” Nathan reminded her. “Mister Chiles. Move us away, best speed.”

  “It’s not going to be much, sir,” the helmsman warned. “We lost eighty percent of our propellant in that last round of missiles. If I fire up the mains at anything over one percent, we’ll suck through what’s left in minutes.”

  “Then start with best speed with maneuvering thrusters only,” Nathan decided. “We’ll hold off on the mains until we have no choice.” Nathan turned to his sensor operator. “How about the other ships in the battle group?”

  “The battleship is the only one left, sir,” Mister Navashee replied. “The Celestia took out both cruisers and the Falcon took care of all four frigates.”

  “The Falcon took out four frigates?” Jessica said in disbelief. “Way to go, Deliza.”

  “Our dorsal shields are down to sixty percent,” Mister Lange reported from the Celestia’s systems console.

  “Which ones?” Cameron asked.

  “All of them, sir!”

  “What about the target’s shields?” the captain asked her sensor officer.

  “They’ve climbed back up to ninety-five percent, sir,” Ensign Kono reported. “We just can’t make a dent without the mark fives.”

  “Damn it,” Cameron cursed. “We can’t bring our nose to bear until the Aurora gets farther away, or they’ll fire past us and hit them.”

  “Captain, Falcon One is requesting permission to attempt to jump between the battleship’s shield layers and collapse a portion of her shields from close range.”

  “Negative,”
Cameron ordered firmly. “Tell them to hold a safe distance and stand by.”

  “Captain, the target is accelerating toward us.”

  “Match speed and maintain distance,” Cameron ordered.

  “Aye, sir,” Ensign Hunt acknowledged.

  “Captain, if they continue accelerating, in a few minutes they will be traveling faster than the Aurora is capable of, in her current condition,” Ensign Kono warned.

  “How long?”

  “Five minutes, maximum.”

  Cameron thought for a moment. The situation was surreal, as if in a simulation. Before, the entire ship would be shaking violently as rail gun rounds slammed into them. Now, with fully operational shields, even when down to sixty percent strength, they felt nothing.

  But such would not be the case on the Aurora’s bridge, and Cameron knew it. “Comms, warn the Aurora about the target’s speed increase, and tell them to keep tight within our shadow…which is about to get a lot more narrow. Mister Hunt, bring our tubes to bear, and do your best to keep us between the Aurora and the damned battleship.”

  “Yes, sir,” the helmsman replied.

  “Be ready to blast away with all forward cannons as soon as you have a firing line, Lieutenant,” Cameron instructed Lieutenant Delaveaga. “Pick one shield section, and keep pounding it. Our only chance is if we can collapse one of their shields before they collapse one of ours.”

  “Got it,” Luis replied. “A good old-fashioned, slug-fest.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Sir, the target is accelerating,” Mister Navashee reported. “The Celestia is matching her speed. They’ll overtake us in four minutes…maybe five.”

  “Captain,” Ensign Waara interrupted, “the Celestia is warning us that they have to pitch over to get their forward tubes on the target. We might take some fire that gets around them.”