Corvus Prime: Escalation

by C. Cougar Sanborn

  'Roger that.'

  Straus watched as the Adamant streaked out of sight. Shortly after that the Ninjas began to launch. Once all six of them were ready, Straus contacted Tómas.

  'Same as before, go in cloaked and take out the primary targets including what you can on the surface.'

  'Will do. Get ready for a bumpy ride.'

  'Try not to break a leg.'

  Tómas laughed and broke the connection.

  'Sir?' said Jenkins. 'I... I'm picking up an intermittent signal... from the surface. Its coming over the emergency locator beacon frequency.'

  'Show me,' said Straus.

  Jenkins zoomed in on the area with the main view screen but there wasn't anything visible but impact craters. Then he turned on the audio and instead of a steady beep, it was broken up with short and long gaps between beeps.

  'Don't you remember your first year training Lieutenant? That's Morse code... it's an S.O.S. Somebody has to be alive down there. Send a probe down to scout it out.'

  'Aye Sir.'

  'How far away is the Colorado?' asked Straus.

  'Uhh... about a light hour Sir.'

  'Ray, contact the Adamant, and have them relay a message to the Colorado. Have it transfer all of it's supplies to the Adamant and head this way.'

  A gravity wave came in and buffeted the ship. Lt. Ray looked around briefly and then replied, 'Yes Sir.'

  Over the next twenty minutes there was a random series of gravity waves. With each one Straus breathed a little easier, knowing that it meant there was one less headache he had to deal with. Thinking that through, reminded him of his headache.

  'Ray, contact Medical.'

  'Medical, Dr. Wright.'

  'Doc, this is Strausser on the bridge. I've got a killer headache. Can you send somebody up with something?'

  'On my way.'

  Straus turned back to face the screen and realized he was feeling a little dizzy. He recalled that he met Wright once when she came onboard. He had asked Dr. Wadell to select a good all around surgeon for the Suzaku and she was his first pick. The lift doors opened and she walked in. She was tall, and had long black hair and looked to be at least partly Native American.

  She took a small flashlight and quickly flicked it across his eyes and asked, 'When did this headache come on?'

  She then took the flashlight and looked into each of his ears, pulled out a cotton swab and gently poked it into one ear, as Straus explained, 'Aboard the Adamant when we were hit by that last big blast.'

  Wright held up the bloody cotton swab and said, 'Commodore, you have a moderate concussion. You need to get down to medical so we can treat it properly.'

  'Doctor. We're in the middle of a life and death situation here. Just give me something to make it through the next few hours, then I'll go to medical. I promise.'

  It was obvious by her expression that she was not happy with that, but she reached into her bag and prepared a syringe. She injected it into his arm, then handed him a couple of pills.

  'Take these, and don't tarry. This is one case where playing the macho card might kill you.'

  'Thanks Doc.'

  Chapter 14

  LONG ODDS

  'Sir, the probe has reached the source of the signal,' reported Jenkins.

  Straus turned his attention to the video feed and sensor data. The screen showed a trough plowed into the surface and at the end was a build-up of material that had covered over most of the ship. Pieces of it were scattered all over, but all of the identifying markings had been flash-burned away by the blast.

  'Can you make out whose ship that is?' asked Straus.

  'Its pretty torn up Sir. I'm pretty sure it's a Samurai though.'

  A warning alert went off and Jenkins turned his attention back to the sensors and said, 'Sir! There's a swarm of ships coming up from the surface, up near the horizon.'

  'Switch to active scan.'

  Jenkins went to work on his console and said, 'A Goliath just cloaked, and there are two Death Blossoms... a dozen super-drones, and... fifty or sixty regular drones. They'll be in range in about two minutes.'

  'Only fifty or sixty? Good... we're wearing them down. Fire up the railgun. Ray signal alert status red and tell Kitteridge to get all of the fighters out there ASAP.'

  '45 seconds on the railgun,' reported Jenkins.

  'Target that lead Death Blossom.'

  The last of the fighters were hastily refueled and rearmed and sent on their way. They were now down to two and a half full squadrons and one carrier with no idea of the number of enemy forces remaining.

  'Message from the Adamant, Sir. They report that those six damaged fighters are repaired and on their way back escorting the Colorado. They'll be here in twenty minutes.'

  'Excellent. Thank you, Lieutenant.'

  'Ready to fire, Sir,' reported Jenkins.

  'Fire.'

  The lights flickered and the ship lurched slightly as the projectile left the ship. Less than ten seconds later it ripped into the Death Blossom. The friction of the impact vaporized the projectile and the capital ship blew to pieces, sending shrapnel and DEP in all directions. There was no fusion explosion this time, but the rain of shrapnel took out a dozen or more of the smaller drones and a couple of the super-drones.

  'Reload,' said Straus.

  He turned to the comm screen and asked Darla, 'Where was the boom? I was expecting an earth-shattering kaboom.'

  She was reviewing the video and sensor data, and said, 'It wasn't ready to fire it's weapon this time. That must play into it somehow.'

  'Great. That means having to time our shot within a five second window.'

  'Sir, they'll be in range in thirty seconds,' said Jenkins.

  'All squadrons, break into your attack groups and engage. Beetles and Starfish first. Mr Jenkins, target those super-drones with the forward batteries and let them have it.'

  The forward turbo-blasters locked on and started pounding away at the super-drones. It took ten to fifteen seconds of concentrated firepower to blast through their shields and tear them apart. As soon as the first one was destroyed, the system automatically targeted the next one and went to work on it.

  'Sir! New contacts warping in behind us!'

  'On screen.'

  'The view switched from the battle to the three capital ships approaching from the rear.'

  'Those are Corvan ships!' exclaimed Darla monitoring the feed. 'Its their Dreadnaught battleship and two cruisers.'

  'Thank God,' said Straus. 'Darla establish ship-to-ship communications with them, and try to get them to understand the situation and to join in.'

  'Will do.'

  'Sir, the approaching Death Blossoms are targeting the new ships and preparing to fire,' said Jenkins.

  'Lock on to that lead ship and fire.'

  'Sir... I'm showing a fault on the railgun. I can't fire.'

  The engineer, Lt. Lassiter, said, 'Overload. Some of the high tension lines melted. I've got my best engineering crew heading down to fix it.'

  'Not the time to run out of quantum torpedoes, either. Ray, contact the Ninja squadron and have anyone left with any torpedoes to high-tail it back here. Have the rest hustle out to the Adamant and pick up whatever they have left.'

  'Aye Sir.'

  Just then both Death Blossoms fired. One hit the battleship but it's shields held. The other hit one of the cruisers. Its shields and hull were breached. It lost power and began to drift.

  'Lock on to that closest Death Blossom with the forward batteries and open fire,' ordered Straus.

  'Firing,' said Jenkins.

  The Corvan battleship joined in and the concentrated firepower was enough to knock down it's shields and destroy it's emitter. The resulting explosion knocked out it's power and set the Death Blossom adrift. The squadrons were chipping away at the smaller drones and had eliminated all of the Beetles and Starfish. The remaining Death Blossom locked onto the other Corvan cruiser.

  'Jenkins target that other Death Bl
ossom.'

  The forward batteries started firing on the enemy capital ship, but it was farther away and it's shields were holding. They weren't able to make any headway and this time they couldn't get it's attention.

  'If anyone has any EM devices left, now would be a good time to use them on this Death Blossom,' said Straus. 'Railgun?'

  'Five minutes, at least.'

  The emitter on the Death Blossom started to sparkle and Straus said, 'This'll be over in five seconds!'

  Just then the Death Blossom disappeared into a dimensional collapse and all the ships in the area were buffeted by the gravity wave. A single Ninja decloaked.

  'Sorry, I late. I had one torpedo left. Now I go to Adamant to rearm,' said Roka of Black Hat flight 3.

  'Nice job, Roka. Hurry back,' said Straus.

  'Death Blossom emerging from an access shaft on the surface,' said Jenkins.

  'Lassiter, who's in charge down there?'

  'That would be Chief Engineer Wright.'

  'Another Wright?'

  'I believe they're married, Sir.'

  'Well, lets just hope that two Wrights don't make a wrong,' said Straus with a smug smile.

  Lassiter rolled her eyes and said, 'Yes... Sir.'

  'Ray, try to get a hold of him via the intercom.'

  Ray went to work on the console and after thirty seconds they heard, 'WD40'.

  Lassiter spoke up and said, 'That's his handle, Sir. Everyone calls him WD40. I think it's his initials.'

  Straus nodded and said, 'Wright, this is Commodore Strausser. We've got to have that railgun operational now.'

  'My team and I are working on it as we speak, Sir. We're working with live circuits and one wrong move and we'll be crispy-fried. I need another three minutes.'

  'Get it done in one and I'll double your salary.'

  'Aye, aye, Sir!'

  'Mr. Keitel, set course for that Death Blossom, full ahead. Mr. Jenkins lock on with the railgun.'

  The ship pivoted and was now pointed directly down and descending rapidly. The Death Blossom had just cleared it's access shaft and the petals were now fully extended.

  'We're down to eight thousand miles,' said Jenkins.

  'Nothing yet,' said Lassiter.

  'Fifty-five hundred.'

  'Not yet.'

  'Twenty-five hundred. Its getting ready to fire.'

  'System coming back up!'

  'Seven hundred and fifty miles!'

  'Ready!' said Lassiter.

  'Fire! Mr. Keitel get us out of here! Full power. Emergency power to the shields.'

  As soon as the projectile fired, the ship pivoted and shot away, it had climbed back up to five thousand miles when the projectile hit. Once again there was a blinding flash and a torus of pure blue-white energy began expanding in all directions. The blast wave was quickly catching up to them, but by time it expanded out to the fleet and caught them, it was beginning to dissipate. The ship was buffeted by the passing wave and Straus hung onto the railing and managed to stay on his feet.

  'Ship status?'

  'The shields held. No damage.'

  'Fleet status?'

  Jenkins performed a sensor sweep and said, 'All ships accounted for. They look no worse for wear. The Corvan battleship is docking with the damaged cruiser. Nothing left on the surface but a smoking crater.'

  Just then the transport Colorado warped into the area with it's escort and Straus explained the situation and ordered the transport down to the surface to tow that crippled fighter up. Straus had Kitteridge deploy the relief fighters to fill out the ranks.

  'Phoenix flight 2, escort the Colorado down and keep it safe,' ordered Straus.

  'Roger that,' said Bug.

  Straus watched the progress of the transport, and Darla spoke up via the comm screen.

  'I've been working with the Corvan communication specialist over there and we've managed to set up a translation matrix. We now have near live-time language translation set-up. Its not perfect, but the more we use it the better it will become.'

  'Outstanding. Nice work.'

  'I've patched it into the communications station up there... and the Corvan commander would like to speak with you.'

  'Ray, put him through.'

  Straus began to get a little nervous. This was humanity's first verbal communication with an alien race. Up until this point it was limited to charades and diagrams. He was thinking it should probably be handled by diplomats... then again, this was his counterpart.

  The image of the lab on the comm screen was replaced by the Corvan commander. He was a slight built humanoid with delicate features, but his eyes seemed a bit too large and were an iridescent gold. His hair was short cropped and had the color and texture of dry grass. His skin was very pale, to the point of almost being able to see his veins.

  The Corvan's mouth started moving, and a second later an electronically generated voice started, but one that was set to match his vocal qualities as closely as possible.

  'Greetings Commodore Strausser. I'm Admiral Barloot. My compliments, Sir. I've never seen anything so brave... and foolish.'

  'Thank you Admiral. We have a saying, 'Desperate times, call for desperate measures.'

  After a moment's delay, the admiral smiled and nodded, 'Yes, we have a similar saying. What is your status... and intentions Strausser?'

  'We started with two carriers. One was badly damaged and has withdrawn to our rallying point. We've lost a number of fighters, but the enemy has lost considerably more. We mean to end it here and rid our system of them once and for all.'

  'I must admit, I had doubts about leaving our only city-station with your people. I am impressed by how far you've come with our technology. Some of it surpasses even our own. We have abandoned our damaged cruiser and are ready to assist you however we can.'

  'Thank you Admiral. Please stand by.'

  The comm screen image switched back to the view of the lab, and Lt. Ray spoke up.

  'Sir? Message from the Colorado. Their heading back with that damaged fighter. Its Lt. Riley. She's injured, but alive.'

  'Excellent. Pass along my compliments to Captain McCandless.'

  'Commodore Harrison is contacting us.'

  'Put him through. What's your status T-Rex?'

  'We're a few minutes away. We have a total of fifteen torpedoes.'

  'Great. I'm sending you the coordinates of the access shafts that our Trojan drones took out. I want you to use the torpedoes on what's left. We'll follow along with the fleet and mop up. Oh, and the Corvans are here to help as well. So do your best work.'

  'I resent the implication. I always do my best work.'

  'Well, here's your chance to do better,' said Straus with a smile.

  'Ha ha ha... Just wait until we get back to the station.'

  The squadron of Ninja's warped into the area, cloaked, and moved out. Straus turned to Ray.

  'Lieutenant, contact the Corvan Admiral.'

  'Yes, Sir. Establishing the link,' said Ray as the Admirals face appeared.

  'So, how can we be of assistance.'

  'Admiral, we've knocked out about half of their underground facilities. I've just sent that cloaked squadron out to eliminate what's left. We'll follow along and clean up whatever comes our way. Be prepared for a bumpy ride as the gravity waves hit.'

  'Very well. We'll follow your lead.'

  Just then a gravity wave hit, followed by a second and Straus turned to the pilot.

  'Captain Keitel, take us out. Keep up with the Ninjas but keep our distance.'

  'Aye Sir.'

  For the next thirty minutes they made their way around the rest of the planet. That time was marked by fourteen gravity waves and the combined fleet destroyed another Death Blossom, two Goliaths, a dozen super-drones and nearly a hundred regular drones. In the process they lost four fighters, but recovered all four pilots.

  They were now closing on the last target. It was a particularly large opening measuring over a mile and a half across. The n
injas decloaked and returned to their squadrons.

  'Last torpedo on it's way,' reported Tómas.

  Moments later the gravity wave hit and Straus breathed a sigh of relief. Then Jenkins spoke up.