Virago One: A Hard Science Fiction Technothriller (Ace of Space Book 2)

by John Triptych

  Lieutenant Shaker turned around and led her men towards a fallback position, just as CAIN began to adjust its power modes to compensate for the cover that its opponents were now hiding behind. A number of the troopers moved in a daze, since they had inadvertently stared at the laser attacks against the lead squad, and their optic nerves were permanently damaged, rendering them blind. CAIN targeted the ones not in cover first, and they easily went down. The Virago’s AI then increased the power intensity of its lasers to 300 kilowatts before unleashing another burst of concentrated heat energy to the ones hiding behind the support struts of the adjoining tower.

  The heat and radiation of the lasers made short work of the remaining troopers. The intense energies caused a number of metal support beams to melt and explode at the same time, generating a lethal bursting of molten steel and heat to the hapless soldiers cowering behind it. In less than a minute, Lieutenant Shaker and most of her men had died, leaving only a small handful of permanently blind soldiers with extensive burn damage across their bodies, screaming and begging for help of any kind as they writhed painfully on the ground. The adjoining tower made an audible, metallic groan as parts of its upper structure caved in from the loss of its support struts.

  Almost everyone sitting inside the ship’s battlesphere stared at their video monitors in silent awe at the power of the Virago’s weaponry. Only Lawson had turned away from watching the carnage. He knew from both the briefings and his experience just what would happen; he even had the burn scars to prove that he had once endured a similar effect. It bothered him somewhat that the people dying out there were his fellow soldiers, and he made sure that the outside audio sensors were muted. He did not want to hear their screams.

  Darian limped her way through the narrow corridor before emerging into a white-painted passageway. She had downloaded all of Kate’s files into the smartglass of her helmet, and what it revealed astounded her. The operation to steal the Virago had taken years of planning and preparation, and it involved a conspiracy within the highest levels of the military. There were numerous personal files that she was unable to access, and so the full picture wasn’t quite clear yet. Kate had evidently memorized her own passwords, so her deepest secrets remained inaccessible to Darian.

  Using the dead airman’s key card, Darian was able to open the double doors up ahead of her. Her left knee had apparently been injured as well, and she could barely put any weight on it. Just as she hobbled forward, she realized that there was somebody else in the room. Turning to her left, she noticed another man wearing a skinsuit beside the elevator door, aiming a pistol at her. Darian put her hands up.

  Colonel Ruthven narrowed his eyes while holstering the pistol. “You’re Kate, right?”

  Darian’s visor was partially up, and he could only glimpse a part of her features. Even then she was surprised he mistook her for the redhead since she looked very different. It quickly became apparent that members of his team had not really met each other before. Using her initiative, Darian nodded. “Yes, it’s me.”

  The silver-haired man smirked at her. “Sorry, I forgot the damned password we were supposed to use. I’m Colonel Ruthven, the spacecraft commander. It seems that the rest of the team is already onboard—we need to join them right now.”

  “Okay,” Darian said while limping forward.

  Ruthven noticed the blood on the side of her helmet and the awkward movements. “Are you hurt?”

  “Yeah,” Darian said. “I ran into some opposition. I think my right arm is broken.”

  He guided Darian by her left elbow as they both strode into the elevator. “It’s okay, I got you.”

  Ganz continued to monitor the external cameras from his station inside the battlesphere. It seemed that most of the USAF security forces were outside the Launch Building, and they were either unable to access the entrance, or were delaying their operation in order to wait for reinforcements. It had been thirty minutes since they had gotten into the spacecraft, and he was thinking about telling Lawson to forget Kate and the colonel. Their original plan was to enter the ship and take off right away, but the need to top up the Virago’s fuel tanks and the sending of the malware to the Control Room took more time than they had ever realized.

  “Look,” Herbert said. “Check out camera twenty.”

  Everyone adjusted their personal consoles to the designated video feed. It showed the elevator doors near the main support tower opening up and two people in spacesuits making their way towards the Virago. The taller of the pair was clearly Ruthven since he didn’t have a helmet on. The colonel was helping the shorter female who was already wearing her headgear, but who was clearly injured.

  Ganz was pleasantly surprised. “Super! They both made it.”

  “Kate looks hurt though,” Herbert said.

  Lawson turned to look at Ganz. “You, get over to the airlock and meet up with them. I’m initiating the launch once they’re inside.”

  Ganz nodded as he unstrapped his crash webbing and dashed over to the inner airlock.

  The lead Crow helicopter had now made it to the outskirts of Argus Base before banking to its right and headed directly towards the Launch Building by the side of the mountain. The pilot turned to look at the three men in the cabin behind him. “It looks like the roof canopy has been retracted already.”

  Trevor Ledwidge’s eyes grew wide. “What? Send in a drone over the building.”

  The three passengers activated their smartglasses and quickly got the video feed of the scout drone. It showed that the lights within the launchpad were at full brightness. When the drone hovered inside for a closer look, they all could see that the umbilical cables to the spacecraft were already detached, and a fine mist had appeared at the bottom of the structure.

  “We’re too close,” Emerson said. “It’s going to take off.”

  Stilicho couldn’t help but shake his head. “That’s the Virago? It looks like a metallic bar of soap standing on its end.”

  A flash of bright light suddenly appeared from somewhere underneath the spaceship they were observing.

  Ledwidge turned his head and started barking orders to the helicopter pilots. “Wave off, wave off!”

  Colonel Ruthven pushed himself into the battlesphere before sitting down on the command chair. His helmet and gloves had already been placed on the seat cushion, and he started putting them on while glancing at his executive officer. “I have the com.”

  Lawson turned and made eye contact with him. The executive officer had a smile on his face. “Welcome aboard, Spacecraft Commander. The Virago is now yours. All systems fully operational, sir.”

  Ganz helped Darian into one of the chairs. “Are you okay, Kate?”

  Darian shook her head. Her faceplate was at full tint and already closed, and she had not yet engaged her com-links, so her reply was somewhat muffled due to the helmet she wore. “My arm’s broken.”

  Ganz adjusted her crash webbing before sitting down on his own chair. “It’s okay, we’ll fix you up after the launch, just hang in there.”

  Darian nodded meekly. Best to play the part until I can get a good opportunity to do some damage, she thought. Pity I lost my gun.

  Vlad gave her a mock salute. “Welcome onboard most powerful warship in history, Kate.”

  “Quiet, all of you,” Ruthven said to them before turning to look at his executive officer. “Vince, release the rail brakes.”

  “Rail brakes released,” Lawson said. “All systems go.”

  “Stand by for high-g acceleration,” Ruthven said tersely as he pulled at the manual throttle. The fusion drive went into full power almost immediately.

  Somewhere underneath them, a force of energy with the brightness of the sun erupted from the lone thruster nozzle of the Virago. The succeeding gravitational force was four times Earth’s own, and they were all pressed down into their accelerator chairs as the rest of the world began to shift around them.

  The Crow helicopter was able to veer away from the roof of
the Launch Building as a huge blur suddenly emerged from its top. The Virago ripped through the sky, its wake a gigantic torch of white hot plasma radiating the incoming dawn with an array of intense, scintillating colors. The huge, flattened hull of the spacecraft seemed to disappear within the blink of an eye as it made it into orbit in a matter of minutes.

  Stilicho grimaced while a series of alarms went through the helicopter. The aircraft was buffeted by the intense shockwaves of the launch blast, and suddenly everything went dead. Cabin lights and instrument panels ceased to function as the aircraft rotors were shut down. The Crow had been designed to be inherently unstable, relying on its fly-by-wire computer systems to help it stay airborne. Only now the helicopter was crashing towards the ground, its engines and controls rendered completely inoperative by the wake of the Virago.

  The pilot’s voice was a mixture of fear and determination. He needed to get them to the ground alive. “Bravo One-One going down,” he said on his helmet microphone, even though the radio link had already shorted out.

  Stilicho grabbed whatever handhold he could get. Even his smartglasses had suddenly gone blank.

  Trevor Ledwidge screamed as the aircraft dropped like a rock. The pilot attempted to use autorotation for a gentle landing, but the chopper had been buffeted sideways when the spacecraft’s thrust wave washed over them. The Crow helicopter landed on its right side in a bed of sand, just a few hundred meters from the parking lot, its main rotors crumpling when it came into contact with the soil. The soft ground somewhat cushioned the initial impact of the cabin, but the kinetic force was still powerful enough to collapse that side of the fuselage.

  Stilicho had blacked out temporarily, and when he regained consciousness he realized that Emerson had pulled him out from the interior of the wrecked aircraft and had laid him down on the paved concrete of the parking lot. Sitting up, he looked out into the sky. The spacecraft had already disappeared into the heavens. “Jesus Christ that was fast,” he said softly.

  Ledwidge stood nearby. He had a head wound, and was using his handkerchief to staunch the blood. Stilicho walked up to him. Ledwidge gave him a disappointed glance before staring off into the distance.

  “Would you mind telling me what happened?” Stilicho asked.

  Ledwidge just shook his head. “When the fusion drive is engaged, it throws out waves of electromagnetic pulses. Any kind of electronic device will get fried if it’s too close.”

  “So it can wipe out all electronics too? I guess we better not piss them off now.”

  Ledwidge bared his teeth at him. “You will get that spacecraft back for me, or I’ll make sure you spend the rest of your life in a cell.”

  Stilicho frowned. “Oh come on!”

  “I don’t care how you get it back, just do it!” he said before moving away.

  Stilicho placed his hands on his hips while shaking his head. He could see a number of soldiers heading towards them from the opposite end of the parking lot. Over to his left, a drone had crashed, its wreckage resembling the remains of a giant metallic cockroach, splayed out in millions of pieces across the paved asphalt. Emerson was at a fair distance away, still busy helping the numerous crashed helicopter crews to safety.

  “The way I’m being treated, I almost wish those freaks up there would have asked me to join them,” he said to no one in particular.

  Chapter 19

  As the new sun began to rise over the Argus Range, the world had forever changed. It took no more than four minutes for the Virago to reach the Earth’s upper atmosphere. Its fusion drive resembled a solid beam of plasma as it had already gone past escape velocity. The massive pair of foldable radiators situated alongside the spacecraft’s thruster nozzle had now fully extended in order to cool off the tremendous amount of heat being generated by the drive, and it seemed like the lozenge-shaped craft had suddenly sprouted wings. The temperature that was being vented by the heat exchangers was more than half the intensity found on the surface of the sun. By now the radiators were glowing brightly, giving off their own blinding white radiance as the ship continued on into space.

  I’ll be damned, Colonel Ruthven thought. It’s a much smoother ride than I expected compared to an Orion. Even though CAIN was in full control during the launch sequence, he nevertheless had one hand on the control stick and another on the manual throttle lever.

  “Hell, this is one fast ship,” Major Vince Lawson said. “Not even ten minutes and we’re already in low Earth orbit.”

  “We’re not even at full throttle yet,” Ruthven said. The two of them were the only ones who seemed to be in a talkative mood. The others had apparently never been up in space before, and all they could do was to stare in silent awe at the external view screens since the Virago had no windows. The blinding lightshow of the fusion drive’s exhaust had now turned invisible, but they all knew it was still emitting powerful blasts of energy since they could feel it pushing down on them.

  “Chinese space station up ahead at one o’clock,” Lawson said. “We’re closing in on it fast.”

  Ruthven toggled the manual override. “Let’s do a flyby. I have the com.”

  Herbert Eng Wu’s eyes opened wide. If they would just get as close as two kilometers, the neutron radiation from the Virago’s drive would short out all the non-hardened electronic systems in the station. “Wait, you can’t!”

  Ruthven said nothing as he slightly gimbaled the spacecraft’s thruster nozzle, and the Virago streaked past the Tianhe-30 station with less than one hundred meters of space in between them. Herbert was horrified as he watched helplessly at the external camera feeds. The space station’s lights seemed to flicker for an instant before the entire structure suddenly went dark; no illumination was visible from the inside of the Tianhe-30 viewports, nor any of its navigation lights seemed to be operational. In less than a minute, the stricken base quickly receded from their rear video feeds, becoming nothing more than a tiny speck orbiting the bluish-white surface of Earth.

  “We should be past the Van Allen Belt shortly,” Lawson said. The Earth’s inner radiation belt was a zone of charged energy particles that was held in place by the planet’s magnetic field.

  Herbert was visibly shaken. The thought of hundreds of stricken Chinese in the space station they had just flown by and disabled was still in his mind. “Why did you do that?”

  Lawson glanced back at him. “We don’t like Chinese, but you’re the exception.”

  Herbert shook his head from side to side. “This wasn’t part of the agreement! I was told by my other teammates over here that we were supposed to request political asylum once we reached the Chinese base at Lagrange point five. How are we going to do that now?”

  Ganz merely shrugged. “Colonel Ruthven is the spaceflight commander. Whatever he says goes from here on out.”

  Herbert glanced over at the lone female member of the crew, expecting Kate Sturgis to say something to back him up, but she kept quiet. Darian made a slight groan, still pretending to be hurt.

  “Hang in there, Kate,” Ganz said to her before turning to look at the Russian. “Vlad, you okay?”

  Vlad Utkin could barely speak. He was feeling dizzy, and the waves of nausea squeezed its way to the top of his throat. “Nyet, feel … very sick.”

  “Just relax,” Ganz said. It was clear that Vlad was suffering from space adaptation syndrome, a condition similar to motion sickness that continued to affect a select number of humans during spaceflight. Ganz was feeling a little nauseous himself, but his own symptoms were milder than the Russian’s.

  “Vince, I got something on the sensors,” Ruthven said. “It’s moving on its own power- not a satellite or station.”

  Lawson checked the contact with his own console. “Looks like one of our Air Force patrol craft. I think it’s the Freeman. She’s burning up a lot of delta-v, trying to chase us down on an intercept course from geosynchronous orbit.”

  Ruthven bit his lip. USAF patrol craft were all but obsolete, having been rep
laced by the Orion battlecruisers at the Lagrange-4 space station. Powered by tried and true NERVA atomic engines, these patrol rockets were steadily being phased out, though there were still a handful that were operational. The Freeman must have been doing a routine maneuver around cislunar space, and just happened to be in Earth’s geosynchronous orbit when the Virago made its launch. Bad luck, he thought.

  He turned briefly to look at Lawson. His executive officer’s eyes through the helmet visor told him the same thing as to what he was thinking of. They were not out to kill their own if they could help it. “They can’t catch us, can they?”

  “We’re now more than thirty kilometers per second and getting faster by the minute,” Lawson said. “We can outrun them, but they could get a quick pass at us if they use up all their delta-v, and it looks like they’re doing just that.”

  “Those spacecraft have got missiles,” Ruthven said. “About four, with solid-state fuel rocket motors. Our point-defense systems could take them out.”

  “The Freeman has got two point defense guns too,” Lawson said. “If they get close enough, say a few kilometers, they could take a few shots at us. I doubt their slugs will get through the Whipple shielding though.”

  “Can’t take that chance, we may need all the armor intact when we go up against the Chinese,” Ruthven said. “I don’t want to waste delta-v to maneuver for a head-on attack to use our forward guns either, because we need to conserve our fuel. What’s the range of our gauss point defense system? Can we use them to fire and disable the Freeman instead?”