by John Walker
“Captain, this is Durant. I hope you’re not planning on pulling another jump in the very near future?”
“We’ll see,” Gray said. “There are four Devaran ships out there and we found The Crystal Font. Dedicate power to the weapons and hope. Atwell out.”
“I’ve got the Font,” Agatha said. “Putting on screen.”
Kale Ru’Xin’s face appeared, looking a little more exhausted than the last time they spoke but otherwise the same. “Captain Atwell,” he said. “You have impeccable timing. We’re in a bit of a mess here.”
“We can see that.” Gray nodded to Redding, gesturing for her to accelerate. “We’re closing for battle. What’s your situation?”
“We’ve already taken down one enemy vessel,” Kale replied. “Then these four showed up and when I say that, I don’t mean they jumped in. They literally appeared. Have you heard of some new technology where they can create energy projections of their forces?”
Gray shook his head. “No. Er…what do you mean?”
“We have a team on the planet and they encountered troops which disappeared when they died. Same with enemy fighters. If your tech officer scans the planet, he’ll find a strange energy reading we’ve never seen before. It’s off the charts. Unfortunately, we need it to spark our extra crystal so we can get out of here.”
“I wondered. Have you been here all this time? Months?”
“No…a jump anomaly…” Kale paused. “I think we’ll need to discuss this part after we survive.”
“Agreed.” Gray nodded. “We’re launching fighters and are in position to open fire. Let’s keep communication open for coordination.”
“Agreed.” Kale finally smiled. “Thank you for coming, Captain. We appreciate the help.”
“Any time, Anthar.” Gray motioned for Agatha to cut the screen. “Open fire when ready, Redding. Adam, ETA on fighter deployment?”
“Less than five minutes,” Adam said. “Bombers are also ready. We’ll have them deployed momentarily.”
“Fantastic.” Alright, you bastards. Let’s see how you like throwing down with a ship that isn’t practically crippled.
***
Wing Commander Meagan Pointer and her Panther wing launched from the Behemoth, preparing to escort a group of bombers. Once they cleared the ship, her eyes took in the objective and an involuntary gasp took her. Four battleships, grouped up and on rapid approach to The Crystal Font, powered up weapons for an assault.
What is so important out here in the middle of nowhere to warrant that kind of action?
“My God.” Squadron Leader Mick Tauran muttered. “Where are their fighter screens? I’m not picking anything up on scans. Shouldn’t they be trying to defend against what we’re about to do?”
“I would’ve thought,” Meagan replied. She clicked over to Wing Commander Rudy Hale’s com. “Where are you? We’re ready for an attack run.”
“I’m out, waiting for the rest of the wing,” Rudy replied. “We’re going to have to be conservative with that many ships…hope for a chain reaction. I don’t think we’re going to have time for a reload in this fight.”
“Probably not,” Mick added. “And if they all launch their fighters, we don’t have enough people to go toe to toe with them.”
“Then let’s make sure they don’t have time to launch any,” Meagan said. She accelerated to full speed, moving forward to scout ahead. They must be jamming our scans somehow. There has to be fighters out there. Mick’s right. Not even these animals would risk a bombing run unprotected.
Even a little closer, she still didn’t pick up anything on sensors. The ships were definitely powering up weapons, she could see their barrels burning red but they held their fire, allowing the Crystal Font to hammer them with cannon fire. The Behemoth let their weapons fly a moment later, pummeling the lead vessel.
Shields flared and she flinched as the forward defenses fell. Another barrage might cause some serious damage but if they could get their bombers in place, that might take one down completely. Even if the entire wing wasn’t ready, the opportunity seemed like something they shouldn’t waste.
“Rudy,” Meagan said, “can you get someone over there to launch a couple bombs at that thing?”
“Yeah, I saw it too.” Rudy sighed. “Get on my wing, Broussard. Let’s take that thing down while the others assemble. We’re going in!”
Meagan fell back to allow them to catch up. Even on afterburners they weren’t as fast as the fighters. The massive ships lumbered up to her and continued on as two more Panther fighters fell in beside. The Behemoth fired another volley, this one tearing through the armor on the hull and ripping through key systems.
Orange-blue flames leaked out for a moment before some emergency system must’ve cut off the breach. Scans didn’t indicate if the shields were up or not but they appeared to be. Even if they weren’t, providing Rudy and his wing staggered their attacks, they should be able to cut through the defenses and tear them down, eliminating the threat.
“Twenty seconds to launch,” Rudy said. “Are we sure there aren’t any fighters out there?”
“Giant control,” Meagan called out. “Do you have anything on scans? Fighters? Shields? My screens are practically coming back with nothing.”
“I’ll patch you through to the bridge,” Revente sounded confused. “I don’t trust what I’m seeing either.”
Great, that’s not a good sign. Meagan checked her chronometer and noted that Rudy and his partner would be firing any second. It might not matter if you don’t hurry, folks.
“Uh…Panther One, this is the Behemoth,” Olly’s voice filled her cockpit. “I’ve got scans of their shields but no fighters. We have taken down their primary defenses. Another pass should disable the vessel. However, I do see you’re with a couple bombers. We will redirect our attention to one of the other ships and let you finish that one off. Over.”
“Thank you,” Meagan said. “You heard him, Rudy. It’s all yours.”
Rudy fired first, three bombs that rocketed away from his ship and headed straight for the damaged cruiser. A count of ten saw the next volley off and all of their ships pulled away, hurrying back to their rally point from launching. The computer suggested the estimated time to impact was less than thirty seconds.
We’ll still be flying back to the others when they detonate. Meagan glanced over her shoulder just as the first three bombs struck the hull and exploded. The impact caused the battleship to list then various explosions pock marked the surface. Another three hit it on the belly, tearing through and creating a massive chain reaction.
The entire ship went up a second later, a bright flash filling space then going dark just as fast. Meagan checked her computer for the shockwave impact but nothing showed up. Frowning, she patched back over to Olly and asked him what happened. “What’s the safe minimum distance? And did that explosion bother his buddies?”
“Um…” Olly sighed. “I have no idea what to tell you. There’s no shockwave…no detonation to worry about…and the other ships seem completely unaffected despite their proximity. This makes absolutely no sense. Let me do some research but…well, it’s not for me to say. I’m turning over any other orders to Commander Everly.”
“Okay…” Meagan switched over to private com with Rudy. “You ever see anything like that?”
“Negative,” Rudy replied. “Definitely new to me. Especially since we hit it with six bombs! Those alone should’ve caused some trouble. If not for them, then for us! I mean, they weren’t all that far from the Behemoth but even our vessel didn’t seem too troubled by that explosion.”
“Olly said they’re doing some research,” Meagan said. “I think we’re standing down for a moment.”
“Sounds…good?” Rudy found a way to audibly shrug. “I don’t know what to tell you. The rest of my wing’s here. We’re ready to attack.”
“I’ve got something on scan,” Mick interrupted. “Looks like they finally decided they need some fighter
s.”
Of course they did. Meagan sighed. “Alright, get ready for intercept. I’ll tell Giant Control and we’ll do what needs doing. Rudy, you’d better hang back with the others and wait for us to cut you a decent path. Otherwise, this’ll be a quick trip.”
“Happy to let you lead the way,” Rudy said. “Never much minded watching your behind.”
“Cute.” Meagan shook her head. “Panther wing, form up on me. Tiger, stay and protect the bombers. Giant Control, we’re ready for intercept. Give the go word and we’ll engage.”
“Hang tight,” Revente said. “We’re not there yet but I’ll give you the news momentarily. There’s a lot of strangeness going on with these readings and I don’t want to send you in without a better understanding of what’s going on. Especially if we’ve just encountered a new kind of technology. Lord knows this won’t be for the best.”
***
Olly felt confounded. The readings and scans made no sense. How could they have absorbed the shockwave from the bombs and prevented the ships around them from experiencing the attack? Was it a new kind of containment to avoid blowing away a fleet when one ship went up?
Even so, he couldn’t even imagine how such a technology would work. A safety protocol for total break down of the core? Not from the type of trauma they were put through. But he had no good explanation for what he’d seen. The readings he received didn’t help. Nothing really explained the event and no matter what program he put the data through, it all came back the same.
Unexplainable.
Olly patched into The Crystal Font and got their secondary tech officer, Varez on the line. He posed the problem to him, hoping the kielans may have already determined their enemy’s advantages. Unfortunately, they were just as confounded. Whatever strange power came from the planet must have something to do with the enemy’s newfound abilities.
And that might mean they’ve designed some kind of new power unit to do God knows what. Apparently, anything. But I don’t buy it. They would’ve employed all this by now. We would’ve heard about it, encountered it during a fight. Not found it in some remote place that The Crystal Font just happened upon.
“Captain, I don’t know what we’re seeing,” Olly reported, “but it’s beyond unnatural. Even the Font doesn’t quite understand and they’ve been here a while. Apparently, the fighters on the surface did the same and bodies are disappearing. If that battleship somehow did the same thing…and more importantly, where did our bombs go? If they detonated, there should’ve been some kind of feedback but they just winked out too.”
“Any theories at all?” Gray asked. “Clea? Olly?”
“They have created a projection device,” Clea said, “capable of creating carbon copies of themselves and their vehicles which in turn can fight and cause real damage.”
“That’s a theory?” Adam smirked. “Sounds like fact the way you put it.”
Clea shrugged. “It’s one possibility but certainly not the only one. Olly, do you have any thoughts?”
Olly’s mouth dropped open and he shook his head helplessly for a moment. “I…don’t really know. I…I mean, the project ideas sound…it might explain the latency in their attacks. They’re not nearly as quick as we’re used to. They didn’t even have fighters out there a few minutes ago and now, they do. After we took out their first battleship.”
“And four more showed up,” Gray said, “after The Crystal Font dealt with one of their cruisers.”
“Interesting how that’s working out,” Redding said. “Like they’re not sure how much power to use to take us out?”
“If it’s even them,” Agatha said. All eyes fell on the communications officer and she blushed. “What I mean is, maybe the enemy isn’t responsible for all this? It could be something to do with the planet instead.”
“How?” Olly asked.
“I don’t know that,” Agatha replied. “I was just offering a theory.”
“A good one,” Gray added. “After all, we can’t assume the enemy’s involved in this. They might be but if they’re not, we need to be looking elsewhere. What made you think of that, Agatha?”
“I tried to pick up their communications,” Agatha answered, “but there’s no radio communication between the vessels at all. Not even coded. In fact, I read only one mappable frequency and that seems to be an energy source. No shields, no chatter and no interference from their mass. Nothing.”
“Wait, energy source?” Olly turned back to his console and tapped away. “Can you feed it over?”
“It’s sent.”
Olly really focused for a moment as the cannons fired again. They were struck by a blast but he ignored the rattling and shaking, drawing more data from the surrounding area. He had an exact duplicate of what Agatha found and it was from the energy source on the planet. As he put them on top of one another, he confirmed that they were, indeed, the same.
Either the enemy is on the planet or the planet is the enemy. Olly relayed his opinion to the bridge crew and none of them spoke for a moment. Clea joined him, checking his findings and scrutinizing the data. She nodded once and confirmed what he suggested. “I agree. These ships are directly related to the planet somehow.”
“We need to establish some facts,” Gray said. “Right away. Clea, I want you on that. Olly, focus on the battle. We need scans of the ships during the fight. How’s the Font doing?”
“They’ve taken a bit of a beating,” Olly said. “But they’re doing okay. Shields holding but hull took a licking in the last barrage. Enemy fighters are ready to engage our people. I’m recommending we take them down so the bombers can work some magic. Can we send them in?”
“I’m on it,” Adam said. “Keep hammering away at them Redding.”
“They’re moving closer to the Font,” Olly said.
“Intercept,” Gray ordered. “Redding, do not let that ship get up on them. Focus all firepower on them right now. I didn’t come all the way out here to lose our allies now and they certainly didn’t survive so long just to die in a senseless battle in the middle of nowhere. Keep efficient but let’s make things a little faster, folks. For all our sakes.”
***
Meagan had plenty of experience battling enemy fighters. She’d flown countless simulations and then engaged them multiple times in the last several months. Their style and tactics were well known to her. They tended to fly in groups of three, covering each other throughout a fight and maneuvering in unpredictable ways.
This meant taking one of them down could be a serious challenge. Meagan’s people proved highly successful against them before they upgraded their inertial dampeners. Engaging them now meant making full use of their new advantage and she thought it might be necessary since they would be dramatically out numbered.
So when she shot down her seventh fighter in less than five minutes, Meagan knew something was seriously wrong.
Yes, the enemy flew wildly and took shots at them but they didn’t seem to be really trying. They lacked whatever passion drove them on in a serious conflict and though they had several close calls, none of the Behemoth fighters had even been damaged yet. Either we’ve gotten really good or they fielded their C team.
A moment after the thought crossed her mind, one of her opponents attempted to collide with her and as she banked away from him, he slammed into his own wingman. The two enemy vessels exploded and winked out of existence, simply gone. Meagan didn’t have time to really think about it and kept her head in the game, acquiring a firing solution on her next target.
“Anyone wonder why this isn’t a little harder?” Lieutenant Kelly Parson, Panther Seven, asked. “I’ve got nine kills already.”
“Right there with you,” Lieutenant Paris Tullefson flying in Panther Five, replied. “They’re shooting but not nearly as often or heavily as they do in simulation…or back at the research facility.”
Mick responded, “won’t matter if we can’t whittle their numbers down. Scans indicate they brought in reinforcements.
Another twenty!”
“Twenty?” Meagan groaned. “And I thought I was doing well over here. I would’ve sworn they’d have launched everything by now!”
A missile flew by her, nearly connecting with Mick’s ship. He managed to avoid it but the projectile started chasing him. He hit the afterburners and Meagan closed behind him, acquiring a firing solution and letting the computer get tone. As it buzzed, she fired a short burst and ordered him to climb.
Her shots took out the missile and would’ve smacked him in the tail had he not gotten out of the way.
“Thanks,” Mick said. “I would’ve thought he’d have followed that up though.”
“Something’s wrong. This feels like…” Meagan paused. “Like an easy simulation.”
“Those missiles sure seem real enough,” Paris said.
“And I took a shot from one of their pulse cannons,” Kelly added. “Sure didn’t feel like a simulation to me. I’ve got minimal damage by the way.”
Meagan admired her scans for a moment, disengaging from combat. Oddly enough, no enemy fighter pursued her. As she left the fight and climbed out of the general chaos, she pinged the enemy battleships and tried to get an accurate count of the fighters flying around. Her computer showed blips but they faded in and out, some vanishing entirely.
I hope the Behemoth’s on this because I have no clue what that means. Meagan noticed a couple of enemy ships trying to close on one of tiger wing’s tails so she flew down to assist, firing missiles just as she got into range. One of them went down in an instant and the other broke away, fleeing the attack. At least they sometimes seem worried about dying.
Another battleship exploded, the one closest to The Crystal Font. As the light brightened space around them, Meagan winced. I hope the shockwave doesn’t damage them even worse. But when the core finished, the ship was simply gone. No wreckage, no hull, no burning debris. Like everything else, it simply ceased to be.
“Did you see that, Mick?”
“Kinda busy!” Mick yelled back. “In fact, I could really use some help over here!”