Corvus Prime: Escalation

by C. Cougar Sanborn

  Straus quietly gulped and said, 'Bell, put me on fleet intercom.'

  Bell nodded and he said, 'Ladies and Gentlemen, we'll be arriving in less than twenty minutes. Please fasten your safety belts and return your seats and tray-tables to their full upright positions. It looks as if we're in for a bit of heavy turbulence on our approach so sit tight. This is where all of our training and experience pays off. Stick to procedures but be ready for anything. Godspeed.'

  Less than a minute later there was a loud deep thud and a sharp jolt as the ship slammed into a gravity wave. It reminded Straus of the time he slid off an icy road and plowed through a snow bank and down an embankment. It caught Bell by surprise and she let out a short yelp.

  She blushed and said, 'Sorry Sir.'

  'No worries, Bell. That caught us all by...'

  Straus was cut off by three more gravity waves slamming into the ship. A couple electronics slates skittered off from where they were sitting and hit the floor. Straus regained his footing against the railing.

  '… surprise,' finished Straus.

  The next fifteen minutes was punctuated with randomly spaced gravity waves which continued to buffet the fleet. As they grew closer to their destination the buffeting effect became even more severe, but no damage was reported.

  'One minute,' said Burke.

  'Full power to weapons. Fighters, remember to target the Starfish and Beetles first with your EM Plasma devices. Hackers hang back with the carriers for now.'

  They warped into high orbit around Planet X at an altitude of nearly ten thousand miles. Straus hovered over Kyson's shoulder to watch the sensor terminal and saw that the immediate area was clear, both in space and on the surface.

  'Ninja squadron making contact, Sir,' said Bell.

  'Put them on.'

  'Glad to see that you survived the shockwaves. I'd hate to be stranded out here. We have that tactical data. Sending it over now,' said Tómas.

  'How did it go?' asked Straus.

  'Not bad. We took out a Goliath, four Death Blossoms, and a dozen Super Drones, before they figured out that we must be out here. That's when the remaining Goliaths cloaked and we lost track of them. There's at least three of them out here somewhere.'

  'Very good. Head in for refueling and resupply, while I look over the data you sent.'

  The six Ninjas utilized both landing tubes and were all onboard inside of sixty seconds. It was less than a minute after that when two Goliaths decloaked directly in front of them and opened fire on the carriers. The lights flickered and a tremor ran through the ship as a result.

  'Shields down to 75% but firming up,' said Kyson.

  'Black Hats, get out there and lay down some EM Plasma. Mr. Kyson, lock onto the Goliath on the right, Suzaku lock onto the other one,' ordered Straus.

  The Black Hats broke into their attack groups and moved in. The Goliaths tried firing on them, but they were too small and fast to target. As soon as they were within range they sent in a half dozen EM devices that detonated and enveloped both Goliaths in a cloud of green plasma temporarily knocking out their power.

  'Fire forward batteries!' ordered Straus.

  Both carriers began blasting away with their new and improved weapons, which were unofficially designated as Turbo Blasters. Pieces started flying off of the enemy ships and finally they broke apart, giving up their load of DEP. Straus ordered both carriers ahead to capture the energy spheres. Before the Adamant reached the spilled DEP, the ship was rocked by an explosion and the ventral shields collapsed.

  'Death Blossom and fighters coming up from the surface!' said Kyson.

  Straus checked the sensor console and saw that the Death Blossom's petals were fully deployed and it was charging for another shot. This was the same sort of capital ship that devastated earth's major cities from orbit during First Strike, and he was well aware of the destructive firepower that thing could unleash.

  'Captain Burke, roll 90 degrees to port. Keep our ventral side protected. All fighters engage. Suzaku target that capital ship and let them have it.'

  The fighters moved out and the Suzaku opened fire. The shields on the Death Blossom held but began to weaken. Just then Tómas launched from the Adamant after being re-armed, and headed for the capital ship.

  'Brace yourselves,' said Tómas as he locked onto the capital ship, fired a quantum torpedo, and banked away.

  The torpedo hit and there was a momentary bright flash, and the Death Blossom simply vanished into the dimensional collapse. The gravity wave hit the Adamant, the lights flickered off for a few seconds, and warning alarms sounded.

  Lt. McMasters at the engineering station said, 'Some of the ventral plating buckled. Teams are on their way to seal off the inner hull ruptures. Emergency bulkheads are holding.'

  'No reports of injuries,' said Bell.

  'Very well,' said Straus who turned to the sensor screen to see what was happening with the approaching drones.

  The Starfish and Beetles had been eliminated and the fighters were now busy knocking down the remaining drones.

  'More ships coming up from the surface. Looks like a couple of super-drones are with them.'

  'Hackers move out and join your attack groups. See what you can do with those super-drones.'

  Bell said, 'Message from the Suzaku, their taking fire from the other Goliath.'

  'Dragon squadron, break off and engage that Goliath. Suzaku come about and lock on, and prepare to fire. Captain Burke bring us about. Mr Kyson open fire as soon as you have a shot.'

  Straus turned to McMasters and asked, 'Status of the Suzaku?'

  'Shields holding. No reported damage.'

  The Adamant began firing on the Goliath. It responded by turning one of it's two main batteries toward them and opened fire. The Adamant was rocked by the barrage.

  Kyson said, 'Shields at 85% and holding.'

  Just then Yuri in Dragon 1 radioed and said, 'Locked on with torpedo. Ready to fire.'

  'Suzaku, turn to one-two-zero relative and get out of there. Yuri fire,' ordered Straus.

  The Suzaku made it to minimum safe distance just as the Goliath vanished and the gravity wave buffeted the ships.

  Meanwhile the Hacker that was assigned to Phoenix squadron had gotten close enough to a super-Boxer to take control. It had the Super-drone lock on to the other drones and start blasting them to pieces with it's six large forward-facing weapons emitters. In thirty seconds it had eliminated the last dozen drone ships. The Hacker then activated the super-drone's self-destruct and moved away. After it exploded the Hacker recovered the spilled DEP.

  Just as Straus thought he could relax, Kyson spoke up and said, 'Detecting multiple contacts coming over the horizon. Looks like two Death Blossom and at least a hundred drones. They'll be in firing range in about three minutes.'

  'Suzaku, time to fire up your railgun. Target the lead capital ship,' said Straus.

  Being a Navy man, Straus was aware of the Navy's efforts in developing a railgun system for use on ships. A railgun being a sort of cannon, but rather than using a chemical explosion to propel the projectile, it used an electric linear force motor, much the way some roller coaster rides are accelerated. However, unlike the case of a roller coaster being accelerated to 100 MPH, this railgun accelerates projectiles to nearly 100,000 MPH.

  Lt. Jenkins, the weapons officer aboard the Suzaku said, 'The system is charging. Sixty seconds to fire.'

  'Somethings happening,' said Kyson.

  Straus looked up and saw that the four petals of the lead Death Blossom were beginning to open, which meant it was preparing to fire.

  'Its targeting the Suzaku. It may be detecting the energy build-up,' said Kyson.

  'Target that thing with our forward blasters and open fire.'

  'Its out of range. I can't get...' started Kyson.

  'Just do it!'

  Kyson went to work on the controls and opened fire. Even though they were too far away to get an accurate lock, the incoming fire was enough to
get the Death Blossom's attention. It changed it's course and locked onto the Adamant.

  'Mr. Burke, present a minimum profile to that thing. Emergency power to the forward shields.'

  The Adamant adjusted it's course head-on so that it became the smallest target possible. The main emitter on the Death Blossom began to sparkle and it fired a blue-white beam that lasted for a full second. It slammed into the forward shields and impacted the hull, throwing everyone forward. The lights on the bridge went out for several seconds, and flickered back on.

  'Shields are down and forward batteries are off-line,' said Kyson.

  'Ready to fire in... 30 seconds,' said Jenkins.

  'The Death Blossom is re-targeting the Suzaku,' said Kyson.

  'Mr. Burke, hard to starboard. Mr. Kyson lock on with our port batteries and fire.'

  The Adamant came about and the port batteries began to pepper the approaching enemy ships. Again, that was enough to get the Death Blossom's attention and it locked onto the Adamant.

  'All remaining power to the port shields. Mr. Burke full ahead.'

  The Death Blossom fired and the blue-white energy beam ripped across the port launch bay. The lights flickered and the ship shuddered under the enemy fire.

  'Port shields are down. Port launch tube is off-line,' said Kyson.

  The Death Blossom turned it's attention back to the Suzaku and locked on.

  'Jenkins, fire when ready!' ordered Straus.

  Jenkins counted down, '3... 2... 1... Firing!'

  There was a small flash from the front of the Suzaku when the fifty pound projectile was fired. It would take less than ten seconds for the projectile to cover the two hundred and fifty miles. The weapon emitter began to sparkle, but then there was a blinding flash as the projectile punched straight through the emitter, and into the capital ship.

  A doughnut-shaped blast wave of pure blue-white energy began to expand from where the capital ship used to be. It enveloped the other Death Blossom and the drones, and continued to expand in their direction.

  'Oh crap! Evasive action! All ships get clear of that!' barked Straus.

  The Adamant and Suzaku pivoted and began to warp away just as the tidal wave of energy hit. The lights went out and everyone was violently thrown back into their seats by the impact.

  _ _ _

  Straus slowly became aware that he was awake, but it was pitch black and he couldn't see or feel anything. He reached out with his arms and groped the darkness, but other than the pounding in his head, all that he could feel was thin air.

  The red emergency lights flickered on and now he could see that he was floating above the deck in front of the lift doors. He looked around and saw that the others were coming around. He managed to push off the ceiling and caught the railing below.

  McMasters went to work on her console and when the lights came back on, she said, 'Resetting surge protectors and restoring power a section at a time. There are a lot of overloads, but no reports of major damage. Gravity plating coming back online.'

  The gravity was slowly restored, easing things to the floor and then ramping up to normal over the next ninety seconds.

  'Mr Kyson, battle status.'

  'Enemy ships destroyed. The Suzaku is drifting, but doesn't appear damaged.'

  'Bell, get me Caplan in Flight Ops.'

  She nodded and Straus said, 'Cappy, what's the status of our fighters?'

  'Give me a moment, Sir. We're still picking up the pieces down here.'

  Straus rubbed his eyes and neck and willed himself to ignore the pounding headache he got from whatever he was thrown into.

  'Alright Sir, systems are coming back up. Lets see... Tiger squadron... it's gone. It was the closest to the blast wave. It looks like none of them made it out. Black Hats flight 3 lost two ships, as did Phoenix flight 3. Dragon squadron was near the Suzaku and came through more or less intact. Six ships report damage.'

  The news hit Straus like he was just thrown to the ground again. A dozen of his friends had just been killed. That meant the only remaining members of Tiger squadron were the three flight leaders taking part in the Ninja squadron.

  He took at deep breath and said, 'Very well, order the damaged fighters aboard the Adamant and reform the squadrons.'

  'Aye Sir. And there's one more thing. We lost three maintenance techs when the flight bay depressurized.'

  'Understood. Straus out.'

  Turning to the Flight Engineer, Straus asked, 'Damage report.'

  'Shields are down and will require spacedock to replace the shorted emitters. The forward batteries were destroyed and will most likely also require spacedock. The port side landing/launch tube is too badly damage to use and emergency bulkheads have it sealed off from the main bay. The main drives sustained damage, but we should be able to make half speed.'

  Straus consider his options for a moment and said, 'Well, I have no choice but to transfer the flag over to the Suzaku. Mr. Burke maneuver us over for ship-to-ship docking.'

  As he headed for the lift he caught sight of Lt. Bell's nervous expression and stopped short. He put his hand on her shoulder but addressed everyone by saying, 'I know things look a little bleak at the moment, but we'll get through this. Hang in there. I'm not abandoning you, I just can't effectively command the fleet from here. Captain Burke, you have the conn.'

  'Aye, Sir.'

  'Good luck, Sir,' said Bell.

  He took the lift down to the main deck and made his way to the lab. Darla came over to him and wrapped her arms around him giving him a hug and kiss.

  Straus returned the hug and asked, 'What was that, that hit us?'

  She walked over to the wall screen and replayed the footage in slow motion, and said, 'The sensor readings are confusing and it will take some time to do a proper analysis, but I know you want a guess anyway.'

  Straus smiled and said, 'Call it an initial hypothesis.'

  'I have a hunch that what we witnessed was the opposite of a dimensional collapse. All the mass and energy that normally vanishes from our dimension, was blown out instead of in. All the energy from their DEP was released at once. Its possible that all of that matter was converted to energy as well.'

  Straus shook his head slightly and whistled, then said, 'Wow... if we could weaponize that, it would be more effective than... what we're using now. Send everything you can to Alan and see what he can do with it.'

  'Will do. What's our status?'

  'We've been able to destroy everything they've thrown at us so far, but we've sustain casualties. The Adamant is too badly damage to act as the flagship so we're moving to the Suzaku. Coop get your people and things together and head for the docking port.'

  'Ok,' he said as he motioned to his crew.

  As soon as they left, he said, 'Get your people together too, sweetheart. And it's time to activate the transceiver.'

  She nodded and walked over to the equipment and pressed a single button, then said, 'Hopefully that should do it.'

  After sending the explosion data back to Corvus, and gathering up a few things Straus and Darla headed for the docking ring. They made their way onto the Suzaku and once he dropped off Darla and the Nat Geo crew, Straus made his way to the bridge.

  'Welcome aboard Commodore,' said the Pilot-Commander.

  'Thank you, Captain Keitel. Lt. Ray contact Captain Burke on the Adamant.'

  'Yes Sir,' she said.

  'Burke here.'

  'Captain, Once the damaged fighters are on board, I want you to withdraw to the rallying point and effect what repairs you can.'

  'Aye Sir. Keep in touch. We still have some fight left in us.'

  'I know you do Captain, which is why I'm not sending you home.'

  'Mr. Jenkins, any enemy activity?'

  'No Sir, but our orbit is taking us to the other side of the planet. I'll begin scanning as...'

  'Passive scans only, Mr. Jenkins. We don't need to advertise our position just yet.'

  'Yes, Sir.'

  Straus turn
ed to the ship's engineer and said, 'Ship status?'

  'Only minor damage. All systems at 100%' said Lt. Lassiter.

  'Give me Flight Ops.'

  'Kitteredge here.'

  'Bring the Ninjas onboard and load them up with the last of the torpedoes. After they're away, cycle the rest of the squadron's through for refueling and rearming.'