"You'll explain what that means sometime," Ronin laughed.
As her fighter compensated for the lost thruster, Dame turned the nose of her ship to blast two more drones that fortuitously lined up, one behind the other. Her trigger finger didn't click for a burst, but held down, defeating the first enemy drone's shields, cutting through its side, then ripping into the one behind. As the kill was nearly complete, her right gun started clicking, making a sick metal-on-metal pinging that told her it was empty. Not just empty, but empty at least three hundred rounds early! A growl bubbled up in her throat loud enough for her wingmates to hear before she shook the frustration off.
With a flick and a button press, she forced her starboard gun to recount her ammo. As she lined up her next target, saw that the recalibration of her flight systems failed, the recount completed, reporting; 333 ROUNDS. It had to be enough. "One gun out, I have two drillers and a heavy guided missile left." Out of frustration and necessity, she blasted another drone from behind.
The Uriel fighter's thrusters were still balanced enough for her to fly without having to make much of an adjustment, but that missing thruster was slowing her down. "New signals coming in," Dame announced as she saw unidentified fighters approaching from behind Order of Eden lines.
"This is Neptune, Void Eagle Squadron leader. We are enroute to the Ascent One, coming to assist," her old Wing Commander said. Regardless of how she felt about him, or how he sentenced her to simulations instead of real flight, she was relieved to hear his voice. Even more relieved to see the hundreds of signals reporting in behind him.
They were at the head of a fleet of Uriel and Ramiel fighters with over a dozen Clever Class corvettes and Haven destroyers behind. "Good to see you, we're just clearing up a drone problem," Ronin replied. "We could use some support. Check the mission status update I'm sending you."
That update would probably inform the newly arrived Haven ships that there were boarding parties on their way to the Ascent One, and other missions in the area were already on their way. The status of every ship trapped in Tamber orbit was probably in there too, all in a format that was easy to understand and quick to read. A drone spun then thrust directly into Dame's path. She managed to strike it with a few rounds, try to thrust out of its way, but it clashed with a forward thruster pod, ripping it off its mount. It took her a moment to adjust to its absence and stop her ship from spinning. Ronin swept in, blasting another drone that was turning towards her while her vessel was wrestled back under control. "Think you can still fly that thing?"
"I'm fine, just slow," Dame replied.
"Good, we're landing," Ronin said.
A flashing, fountain of light strobed to her left. Her HUD informed her that a barrage of torpedoes and turret rounds just finished off the shields she'd weakened earlier. Dame turned in time to see the Jester leading two more Clever Class corvettes into the landing bay Ronin and Easy assaulted earlier. "Maybe I can find a better ship to fly home," Dame said. The comment was meant for her own ears only, but Easy heard it and chuckled.
"You and me both, sister," he replied.
Thirty-One
Scramble
* * *
The fighters on their way back to the Ascent One were overtaken and destroyed by three Clever Class corvettes, the new staple vessel of the Haven Fleet. Those ships were returning to destroy three enemy Uriels that were causing peripheral damage to the Ascent One while they defeated a hangar full of drones. Watching the enemy pilots fight along the hull of the ship, surviving regardless of the odds, was infuriating. It was like having an itch you couldn't scratch.
The perimeter guns were so much target dummies to the trio of pilots who harassed the large capitol ship. Watching one emplacement after another fail to hit the fighters because the pilots were hiding in a blind spot, or flying too close to the hull was an invitation to rage that would have been utterly impotent, a useless distraction for Rear Admiral West Kenly.
Senior Commander Valerie Fetra was doing her best with what she had. The defensive fighter screen that was normally under her command was gone, and their systems were being hacked, starting with their sensors. While squads of soldiers and technicians were on their way to different parts of the ship to find out how Haven Fleet found a way into their systems, other officers worked their people hard to counter it. "Get several of your people working on hacking them in return. If they're directly connected to our systems, then we should be able to use that to our advantage unless you fail and they get complete control," Senior Commander Fetra told them in a clear, certain tone.
"Right away," replied one. "At a glance, we've determined that the connection is two-way, and that they're using an operating system that's somewhat compatible to ours."
"Stop telling me the obvious and get to work earning your section a bonus for stopping their progression through our systems and turning this around on them," she told him, on the verge of exasperation.
Her underling, Cameron was the name of the new head of Communications for that shift, nodded curtly, his eyes lighting up a little at the promise of a bonus. He nearly ran from the command seat to his busy group of officers and technicians. "No, no! You five; try to find any way into Haven Fleet's system using their connection. The rest of you; stop them from accessing more than our sensors," he told them hurriedly.
"That's a good idea, hacking them back," West said as he watched the three Clever Class corvettes break through a severely weakened section of their shields with a barrage of missile and kinetic round fire. The ships didn't even slow down to make sure they'd knocked the shields down but continued into a bay that had been blasted clean of defences, manpower, and most other useful features. "That's it, the battle has turned, it's too late," West said under his breath.
"Senior Commander!" shouted the lead Communications officer excitedly as he rapidly tapped an input pad. The thing had a transparent screen that showed half a dozen windows with scrolling code. The keyboard appeared under his fingers as he tapped it so quickly they was a blur. "We've already found a vulnerability."
His explanation was drowned out by shock as the tactical screen in front of Rear Admiral West came alive with hundreds of new contacts. They were Haven Ships: heavy destroyers, more fighters than he could count at a glance, a squad of corvettes, and more signals were appearing every second. He nearly dropped out of his seat when he saw the gargantuan silhouette of the War Forge. It was keeping its distance, well out of range of his fleet's energy weapons. Some kind of new ship was spilling out of every launch bay as the behemoth mobile station. Its main guns were acquiring targets, about to start firing. No kinetic weapon in the Order of Eden fleet could match the heavy railguns aboard that ship. The largest of them fired guided missiles with several metres of hull piercing material on the front, along with a beam system that drilled at the shields of its target. They were the size of small shuttles, and the War Forge could fire thirty per minute from each of its twenty-eight turrets. Well, theoretically. No one had actually seen them firing at full intensity, most likely because the ammunition was so expensive to produce. Half its guns started firing at the largest of the Order Fleet ships. They were long range shots, there was a slim chance of minimising the damage if he ordered the fleet to evade, so he did. When he looked back at the tactical map, West could swear there were shapes of old, lumbering Nafalli ships emerging into normal space around the War Forge. "This is about to become a rout."
"Thank you, Junior Commander," Senior Commander Fetra said, finishing her short conversation with her Communications Lead, sending him back to his section. She turned to West; "The ships launching from the War Forge are actually defence cannons. Thanks to a vulnerability we were able to find, we've tapped into their control network. As far as we can tell, the software they're running was rapidly implemented."
"We can take control of them?" West asked, more desperation in his tone than he would have liked.
"All of them," she replied, very pleased with herself. "They use a m
ulti-mode mesh network. If we take control of one, we can control them all, but we can't be sure of how long it'll last."
"Then do it! Target the wave of ships coming towards us and begin firing immediately. Use everything they have, all their power, every missile. We don't want them to have anything left when Haven gets control back."
"Yes, Sir," Senior Commander Fetra replied, turning to her tactical team. "Begin firing; destroy the incoming fighters first then continue up to the next size class."
Seconds later, the mobile turrets launching from the War Forge began turning on their makers, firing at fighters and corvettes from behind. West only had a moment to enjoy the turnabout before an alarm went off on his console. He tapped it, summoning a video window that replayed a scene that had taken place only a moment ago in the damaged landing bay.
The view was from the end of a nearby hallway. The sensor there was watching an armoured airlock that looked largely undamaged until an explosion ripped through it. The instant the air finished rushing out of the hall, a man in heavy Haven Fleet combat armour, its horizontal slats dark and formed around his large body, charged in with Nafalli and human soldiers behind him. From his movements, shape and the skull hologram in his helmet, the computer determined that it was Jacob Valent with a ninety-eight-point-three percent certainty.
Before he could think, before he could control his reaction, West flung the command panel in front of him aside so it swayed on its arm and stood, his heart pounding, sweat on his palms, under his nose. He could feel his heart hammering against the inside of his ribcage, and his mouth was inexplicably dry.
"Valent is here," Senior Commander Fetra said in a matter-of-fact tone that didn't match the urgency of that statement. She was whispering, in fact. Whispering! Most of the soldiers aboard had climbed into fighters, boarding shuttles, and anything else with a thruster and gun to ensure their victory and they were long gone! Even their Order Knights were somewhere in the dogfight between the two fleets, not that the Ascent One had many in the first place. It would be up to every man and woman aboard to kill Valent and his team of heavily armoured humans and Nafalli! It would be like throwing sticks and rocks at bulldozers and tanks! She should have been screaming; "Valent is here!" Not whispering!
Then he realized Senior Commander Fetra was staring at him, observing him. It was only a moment, but it was enough for him to try to come to his senses. With a few taps he opened a channel to the entire ship; "This is Rear Admiral West Kenly. I will reward whoever kills Jacob Valent with a quarter billion credits. I am sending his location to all of you now."
Half the bridge emptied as Senior Commander Fetra shouted; "Stay at your posts! Get back to your stations!"
"They've gotten control of our shields, navigation and deactivated interdiction systems across the fleet," Cameron said as he passed, running for the door. "Good luck."
"Well, that's the end of discipline on this ship," Fetra said with a sneer as she grabbed West's arm. "We have to go. There's an escape ship under the bridge."
Rear Admiral West straightened his tunic and stood. Then, yanking his control panel back from where it awkwardly hung on its arm, he ordered the entire fleet to retreat. With the interdiction signals down, they would be able to generate emergency wormholes. His orders barred him from retreat but he didn't see the logic behind allowing his people to be captured or killed. So many of their most stalwart fighters and most dedicated officers were dead. The leaders they lost when the Shard was attacked, the soldiers they spilled out through their launch bays in anything that could fly, and the rest who were killed on Tamber represented their best. Perhaps there were a few left, but not enough to bolster the thousands who were just trying to work debt off, or rise in the ranks to power. He knew many of them would turn coward. So running was the best option.
All the capitol ships, even the ones that were suffering a pummelling from the new Haven Fleet ships acknowledged the order. "I'm ready, let's go."
"This way, Rear Admiral," she started towards the main entrance to the bridge hurriedly. When he caught up to her, she asked him. "Do you even have enough money to cover that kind of reward?"
"Of course I do," West said, looking the blank wall beside the bridge entrance over. She had pressed something there and was waiting. A door opened, and they set off running down a narrow hall. In truth, it would have been a little less than half his fortune, and if someone managed to kill Valent, he'd pay up because the fact that they'd done it on his order would win him laurels beyond his imagining. "I wouldn't put a bounty out if I didn't intend to pay up."
"You're a man of honour," Fetra said as she took a right turn into a lift. He was right on her heels, so when she turned to look him in the eye, they were close. "That's why I'm saving you. You're going to promote me and give me command of a ship once we're out of this."
As much as West wanted to bristle at the way she told him what her reward would be, he mentally acknowledged that it was a trade he could live with. "If I'm still a Rear Admiral, then, yes, I will."
Thirty-Two
Veritas
* * *
The rush onto the Ascent One was a blur. Dame, Easy, and Ronin touched down in their fighters alongside the Jester. The next instant they were out of them, taking their rifles and infantry kits out, locking the systems down - especially the small quad drives that had survived the fighting - and then they were grouped as three soldiers with Ronin in the lead.
The Jester and the other two Clever Class corvettes took off the instant the boarding parties were out of their holds, rushing towards another objective, Dame assumed. There was little time to get a good look at the three heavy armour squads, the heavily damaged landing bay or her fellow pilots before everyone was on the run.
The Nafalli's armour looked like a liquid metal had been poured on their fur. Their hackles were raised, giving them sharp points on their backs and necks. Red and black eyepieces helped give them a savage look. The humans had skull holograms that made it look like some kind of evil death's head was inside their helmets. Most likely to hide their identities and to intimidate. I should choose one. With a few gestures, she selected a sun-bleached lion skull with a few eye gestures and left it like that.
The charge was on, then, and Dame had no trouble keeping up as she followed behind Ronin. Her rifle at the ready, carried across her chest, she felt out of place, but she'd done the infantry qualifiers, was in good physical shape and kept her eyes open, looking through the transparent tactical overlay in her helmet at the burned and bashed hangar. Edda Paley had never seen the damage the weapons on her fighter could do. While the broad holes, warped plating and blackened pierce marks around her weren't actually from her fighter, they were caused by the same weapons.
There were crewmen and women in the large hangar when it was hit, people in a couple shuttles that were torn to bits while they were getting ready to take off, and some of the inner doors were open at the time. She could see the evidence of equipment that had been drawn out, scraping along the hall floors, as violent, sudden decompressions had taken place. The control booth's transparent metal windows were shot through. It was once busy with crewmembers who directed traffic and work was dark. That was necessary, she thought to herself. Those were Order of Eden people who would cheer if I was killed. They'd celebrate if the broken hull of my ship were dragged onto this deck, revive me if they could. Then I'd be tortured and probed for information. The same would happen to any person who doesn't agree with them. This destruction is necessary. Her belief in the justifications that went through her head were strong enough for her to pull the trigger, that was the important part. There was always a little part of her that was willing to reconsider after the fact, though. Dame would keep that to herself until she didn't feel justified in acting. There was no good reason to sow doubt in others until then.
The main hatchway leading deeper into the ship was blown through by Admiral Valent along with two Nafalli. As soon as they were through, Ronin's voice was in he
r ear. "Dame, Easy, we're not following the rest of the group. We're sneaking off to a utility tunnel. Follow me."
The stealth systems on their suits activated as Ronin popped a simple hatch open. It was made to blend in with the hallway bulkhead. There was an alert on her tactical map, showing where Admiral Valent's squads were running into resistance from lightly armoured Order of Eden crew and two squads of combat androids. It wasn't their fight. Instead, they slipped into a service corridor, quietly closing the door behind them.
"What's our objective back here?"
There were a few simple robots ahead, they were transporting armour plating and support beams from somewhere further inside the ship, leaving them in neat piles along the side of the hall. They couldn't see the trio of invaders making a quick march past them. Dame felt like she was playing a sneaking game, like she and her friends in the care centre would sneak out of bed to steal a cookie or piece of fruit from the kitchen as children. There were much higher stakes, but the feeling of being unseen was strangely delicious. "We're here to sneak aboard another ship and hijack its navigation system, stop it from getting away."
"We're headed to another launch bay?" Easy asked.
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 14 Page 26