by Ryk Brown
Alarm klaxons sounded throughout the alert crews’ ready room on the Gunyoki platform. Twenty-four men and women dropped what they were doing, running for the transfer tubes along the inboard bulkhead. The first few of them to reach the tubes slapped the buttons to open their doors and grabbed the overhead rail, picking up their feet and swinging into the tubes to slide down two decks, to their waiting Gunyoki fighters.
At the other end of the tubes, the flight crews came sliding out, landing on the padded surface. As each one landed, they scrambled to their feet and headed out across the wide-open compartment. The deck of the compartment was punctuated by perfectly spaced bulges at the front of each open cockpit of a Gunyoki fighter.
The crews ran across the deck, dropping down into their respective fighter cockpits; the second man to enter, activating the canopy controls to seal them in. Once inside, covers slid forward over their canopies, allowing each fighter to drop free of their moorings and head out the launch tunnel.
“I’ve lost lateral servos!” one of Vladimir’s crawler operators cried out over comms. “I have no directional control!”
“Try to override the computer-assist and steer manually!” Vladimir suggested.
“Everything is dead!” another crawler operator reported.
“Bozhe moi,” Vladimir exclaimed.
“Commander?” Aurora called over the console speakers.
“Aurora?”
“Yes, Commander.”
“How is it possible?”
“You gave me access to the engineering intercom system, in order to assist you with repairs. I cannot help but notice the stress in your voice. Can I be of assistance?”
“My crawler operators are trapped. Their systems are being affected by…”
“Energy surges from the shields, created by the plasma charges when they made contact. I am aware. May I make a suggestion?”
“Please,” Vladimir begged, the cries of his four trapped operators echoing in his brain.
“The maintenance crawlers can be piloted remotely,” Aurora told him.
“But their motion systems are not working,” Vladimir replied.
“Their motion systems are still functional,” Aurora explained. “It is only their control systems that are being affected by the electromagnetic field fluctuations. Those fluctuations can be compensated for, but not by human operators. Your reaction times are too slow.”
“Are you saying that you can compensate for the fluctuations and bring them inside?”
“I believe so, yes,” Aurora replied.
“Are you sure?”
“I estimate the probability of success at ninety-two percent; however, the probability declines with each passing second, since the crawlers’ shielding provides insufficient protection against such levels of energy. The operators will be dead in five minutes.”
“But you don’t have access to the external comms systems,” Vladimir told her.
“That is true,” Aurora replied. “However, you can give me access.”
“Not without the captain’s permission,” Vladimir told her.
“Then I suggest you speak to him, immediately,” Aurora urged.
“Jumping into attack position in five seconds,” the Weatherly’s helmsman announced.
“All weapons are charged and ready,” Bonnie reported.
“Three…”
“Weapons free,” Captain Hunt instructed.
“Two…”
“Fire as soon as you acquire,” the captain continued.
“One…”
“Weapons free, aye,” Bonnie acknowledged.
“Jumping.”
The Weatherly’s bridge flashed blue-white momentarily as the ship transitioned, from its position in orbit around the Rogen star, to an orbit above Rakuen ten kilometers behind the Dusahn frigates.
“Jump complete.”
“Targets acquired,” Bonnie reported. “Opening fire.”
“We have valid launch orders,” the senior officer announced. “Arm the launcher.”
The weapons technician swallowed hard, turning the arming key in the control panel deep within the missile launchers control bunker. “Launcher is armed,” he reported. “Control link is established. Defense Command now has control.”
The reinforced cover on the floating missile launcher platform quickly slid open, and the launcher popped up. Its rack of four jump missiles tipped downward twenty degrees as the launcher rotated to its assigned firing position. Within a few seconds of the cover’s opening, the first of the four missiles launched, followed in rapid succession by the other three. No more than two seconds after each missile left its launch rail, they disappeared behind brilliant blue-white flashes of light as they jumped from low altitude to their intercept tracks in high orbit above the world they protected.
As each missile came out of its jump, its targeting systems acquired the enemy frigates, adjusted course, and fired their boosters, accelerating across the last few kilometers between themselves and their targets.
Four more flashes of light appeared to the enemies’ starboard side, revealing yet another group of jump missiles. As they, too, accelerated toward their targets, they were joined by four more jump missiles, only a kilometer behind them.
The Dusahn frigates had almost no time to react, the incoming missiles impacting their shields as they brought their point-defenses around in failed attempts to destroy the inbound weapons.
The second frigate took the brunt of the attack; its aft shields failing within the first two impacts. The next two missiles slammed into the frigate’s hull, tearing it open with their warheads.
The first frigate took several impacts, as well, but managed to jump clear before her shields failed. With no targets nearby, the remaining missiles automatically disarmed themselves and adjusted their speed and course to reenter the Rakuen atmosphere. Their warheads now disarmed, they would ride parachutes to the surface to be recovered later.
“You want to what?” Nathan exclaimed to Vladimir over his comm-set.
“Target two is destroyed,” Kaylah reported. “Target one has jumped away.”
“It’s the only way to save them!” Vladimir argued.
“Vlad, are you sure about this?”
“Just give her access to the short-range comms,” Vladimir insisted. “That’s all she needs!”
“I can shut her down if she tries to access any other comm-array,” Naralena assured the captain.
“Target reacquired,” Kaylah announced. “Five kilometers, directly on our path.”
“Do it,” Nathan told Vladimir. “Jess, make the helm’s trigger hot.”
“Helm torpedo trigger is hot,” Jessica replied with a hint of trepidation.
“Now’s your chance, Josh.”
Josh glanced at Loki to his left, a wry smile on his face.
Terris opened her eyes slowly, unable to focus. Her head rang with pain. She tried to get to her hands and knees but cut both of her palms on the broken glass scattered about.
“Mom!” her daughter yelled from the corridor.
“In here!” Terris replied, her voice weak.
“Oh, my God!” Nora exclaimed as she entered the battered apartment. “Dunner! She’s in here!” she yelled as she rushed to her mother’s aid.
Terris felt her daughter’s hands on her shoulders, helping her to her feet.
“Your hands,” Nora said, noticing the wounds.
“Lael,” Terris said, “she was…” That’s when she saw Lael’s feet in the bedroom doorway.
Dunner rushed in, immediately joining his sister and mother.
“Help her,” Terris directed her son.
Another explosion sounded in the distance, rocking the building as Dunner made his way across the destruction to reach Lael.
“We have to
get out of here,” Nora insisted.
“She’s alive!” Dunner yelled, “but she’s badly injured!”
“The baby,” Terris whispered to her daughter, struggling to maintain consciousness.
Dunner quickly moved past Lael and into the adjoining room, forcing the door to open against the furniture that had fallen in its path. The nursery was in complete disarray, and the crib was on its side with a fallen dresser half-covering it. “Oh, no,” Dunner gasped, climbing over the fallen furniture. He quickly pulled the dresser off the fallen crib and yanked on the mattress that was folded back on top of baby Ailsa.
Dunner’s eyes widened with fear when he saw the baby’s blue face. “No, no, no,” he said as his mind raced for an answer. He picked the baby up, held her to his face, and placed his lips around Ailsa’s mouth and nose, blowing gently again and again. After a few breaths, the baby coughed several times and then began to cry, her eyes squinted tightly closed as she wailed. “Oh, thank God,” Dunner cried.
“Dunner!” his sister yelled from the living room.
“She’s alive!” Dunner hollered over the infant’s wail. “Ailsa’s alive!”
The Aurora rocked violently as incoming energy weapons fire slammed into her forward shields.
“I thought frigates only launched missiles!” Josh exclaimed as he adjusted course to aim the Aurora’s forward torpedo tubes onto the enemy ship.
“Looks like someone got an upgrade,” Nathan commented, holding the arms of his command chair tightly.
“Target is releasing more orbit-to-surface weapons,” Kaylah warned.
“Any time, Josh,” Nathan urged.
“Eight new contacts,” Kaylah added. “Octos directly astern.”
“I’ve got the frigate,” Josh declared. “Firing!”
Four groups of three plasma torpedoes streaked out from under the Aurora’s nose on the main view screen, headed toward the enemy frigate. Two seconds later, four flashes of red-orange announced their impact with the enemy frigate’s shields.
“Target’s aft shields are down to ten percent,” Kaylah announced.
“Keep firing, Josh!” Nathan barked.
Josh followed orders, this time holding the trigger down to fire repeatedly. As the torpedoes closed on the target, the enemy frigate disappeared behind a blue-white flash of light.
“Target has jumped,” Kaylah announced.
“No shit,” Josh grumbled.
“Never fire and wait to see what happens,” Nathan scolded. “You fire, and you keep firing until you lose acquisition or the target is destroyed.”
“Yes, sir,” Josh replied. “Sorry, sir. I should know better.”
“Another contact,” Kaylah reported. “Dusahn cruiser off our starboard side. They’ve launched missiles!”
The brief respite for the Aurora’s shields, which began when the Dusahn frigate jumped away, came to an end with the arrival of the Dusahn cruiser. The ship rocked, nearly knocking Nathan and his bridge staff from their seats.
“Shields!” Nathan yelled.
“Starboard shields are holding at forty-five percent!” Jessica replied, shocked. “I guess that ZPED was worth it, after all!”
“Accessing motion control systems for all four crawlers,” Aurora announced.
Vladimir watched the screens, feeling helpless as the artificial intelligence remotely accessed the crawlers.
“Crawler one is moving,” Aurora confirmed.
“Yes!”
“Crawlers two and three are also moving. I suggest you send personnel to assist them to maintenance airlocks five, eleven, and fifteen.”
“What about Crawler four?” Vladimir wondered.
“I plan to send it to the flight apron,” Aurora replied. “However, I am having difficulty getting it to move properly.”
“Jump complete,” the Glendanon’s helmsman reported.
“Target both ships, and fire at will,” Captain Gullen ordered.
“Acquiring,” the weapons officer acknowledged. “Damn! The frigate has jumped.”
“Find it!” Captain Gulled barked.
“Helm, move alongside the Aurora’s starboard side, two-kilometer standoff. Weapons, all weapons on that cruiser, but remain ready to protect the Aurora against incoming missiles.”
A dozen new contacts appeared on Alayna’s tactical display.
“Anyone see a Dusahn frigate around here?” Tariq called over comms.
“Forget the frigate, it just jumped,” Isanu replied from behind Alayna.
“Tariq,” Alayna called over comms, “you’ve got eight octo party crashers at two five seven relative.”
“We’ve got them,” Tariq replied. “Head back and recycle, Alayna. We’ll take over.”
“We’ll be back before you know it,” Alayna promised as she yanked her flight control stick and turned toward the Gunyoki platform, further out in the Rogen system.
“Feel free to bring friends,” Tariq told her. “Dota Squadron, let’s see if those octos want to dance!”
“Swinging around,” Josh announced as he twisted the Aurora’s flight control stick to the right and pitched back a bit.
The view on the main view screen quickly shifted, everything sliding from right to left in a blur. The sliding motion stopped a second later with a Dusahn heavy cruiser filling the screen.
“Hello!” Josh exclaimed, pressing the firing trigger on his flight control stick.
The ship rocked as incoming weapons fire slammed into their forward shields. Three quick waves of four red-orange plasma torpedoes streaked out from under the Aurora’s nose, slamming into the enemy cruiser directly in front of them, causing the target’s own shields to flash as they attempted to absorb the energy.
“They’re hitting us with everything they’ve got!” Jessica warned. “Forward shields are down to eighty percent.”
“Keep firing, Josh,” Nathan reminded him calmly.
“Trust me, I am,” Josh assured him as he held the trigger down, sending additional waves of torpedoes toward the cruiser.
Blue-white light suddenly filled the Aurora’s bridge. When it was gone, so was the cruiser.
“Pussy!” Josh yelled at the main view screen.
“Jesus, this is frustrating!” Aiden exclaimed from the pilot’s seat of Orochi Three.
“We can’t engage if the targets are constantly jumping, Aiden,” Ali reminded him.
“I know! I know!” Aiden replied. “What I wouldn’t give to have our gunship back!”
“Jump complete,” Sasha reported from Striker One’s copilot seat.
“Talk about a target-rich environment!” the sensor officer exclaimed. “A cruiser, a frigate, and a bunch of octos!”
“Give me a vector, Kas,” Robert said. “Which one is giving the Aurora the most trouble?”
“That would be the cruiser, sir,” Kasma replied. “They’re pounding the shit out of her.”
“That’s our target, then,” Robert decided. “Gunners, weapons free. Fire at whatever you can, but attacking octos get priority.”
“Bobby, I’ll jump past and come back at the cruiser’s stern,” Gil said from Striker Two. “Their aft shields are down to fifty percent.”
“I’ll give you a five-second head start, then I’ll jump in above her, pound her dorsal shields, and then her aft shields as we pass.”
“Make ‘em count, Bobby!”
“Damn, these bastards have tough shields!” Tariq exclaimed as he broke off his attack and jumped away. “Jova, did we even make a dent?”
“About a twenty percent drop in his starboard shields,” his weapons officer replied, “but he’ll just channel power from unengaged shields to reinforce them every time we attack.”
“We need to multi-prong them so they don’t have that option.”
“Th
at’s impossible,” Jova argued. “They don’t stay put long enough to get a multi-pronged attack set up.”
“I really don’t like the way these guys dance,” Tariq decided. “No fun at all.”
Another wave of missiles appeared behind blue-white flashes between Rakuen and the Dusahn cruiser that was currently bombarding the planet below. Eight jump missiles quickly adjusted their course to intercept the enemy vessel, but they had come out of their jump a few seconds too far from the cruiser, which jumped away at the last second.
“Second wave missed,” Kaylah reported from the Aurora’s sensor station. “Cruiser has jumped forward two kilometers.”
“Just enough to escape the threat, but still continue their attack,” Nathan surmised. “The Dusahn aren’t stupid.”
“Just arrogant,” Jessica grumbled.
“New contacts!” Kaylah reported urgently. “Eight jump missiles to starboard! Five seconds!”
Nathan punched the all-call button on the intercom panel, on the arm of his command chair. “All hands! Brace for impact!”
“Channeling all available power to star…”
Jessica’s words were interrupted by the missiles impacting the ship’s starboard shields. The lights on the Aurora’s bridge went dim as the ship lurched violently to the left, rolling right at the same time.
Nathan found himself nearly hanging over the right side of his command chair. As he pushed himself upright, the spherical main view screen flickered several times, threatening to go out completely.
“Inertial dampeners are offline!” the systems officer reported.
“Belt up!” Nathan barked, reaching for his own restraints. “How are our starboard shields doing?”
Jessica checked the shields status display, leaning closer to the tactical console as her seat came up out of the deck behind her. “Starboard shields are down to five percent! If they hit us there again, we’re done for!” she replied as she took her seat and strapped in.