The gunman motioned at Phillip with his sidearm. “No, the deal was you get to live as long as you're useful. That time has passed.”
Phillip swallowed, eyes nervously darting toward the “Execute” key. Almost. Steady.
“Can I have a last request?”
The gunman shrugged. “Sure, I don't mind. What?”
Phillip turned his head inside his helmet and smiled, uneasily. “Could you look at this?”
The gunman didn't move. Phillip cleared his throat. “You're, ah, gonna need to get closer.”
The traitor in the space suit sighed over the radio. “Would you like me to roll over and play dead, too?”
Phillip shrugged. “If you wouldn't mind.”
“Get close enough to let you get your hands on me? I'm not that stupid.”
The traitor activated his maneuvering pack and jetted back several feet to the next handhold.
The elite smiled. “Sucker.”
Phillip slashed his finger down and hit the execute button. The traitor hadn't noticed he'd backed up right next to a pressure release valve. Just as he’d hoped, a gas valve next to his captor’s head opened and blasted him with highly pressurized air.
“Augh!” the man gasped as the blast of air sent him tumbling away from the core computers. Quickly, Phillip shut off the gas valve and started undoing his own tether. He risked a glance behind him and saw that the gunman was already leveling out with the help of his maneuvering pack. The safety tether snapped free. Phillip grabbed a handhold and pulled himself away from the computer, aiming to make his attacker’s shot as difficult as possible. Somewhere behind him and to his left, Phillip envisioned a very angry gun hand closing in on him. The radio snapped in his ear.
“You think that’s funny, smart ass? Eat lead!”
Phillip never heard the shot because of the zero atmosphere, but knew how close it had come as the bullet pinged off a steel plate a foot from his head. Phillip turned to enjoy what came next. The traitor had, in his rage, forgotten about the law of physics and was now hurdling and tumbling in the other direction from the recoil of his shot.
His opponent was at a disadvantage. Phillip wouldn't get another chance.
Phillip quickly pulled himself back, getting as close to his opponent as he could. No time to be sure. He sprang away from the core’s surface, hurtling himself at his attacker. The traitor barely had time to adjust his tumble before Phillip slammed into his back. The satchel of plasmatic explosives shrugged off and floated nearby, hanging in space as Phillip and the traitor began struggling for control of the gun. While they struggled, the maneuvering pack controls floated around loose, ignored for the moment, causing the two combatants to spin recklessly.
Phillip wrapped his left arm under his attacker’s left shoulder as best he could, putting him in a sort of half nelson while at the same time trying to either wrest the gun from his opponent or at least hold him in place. He knew his best bet for survival would be to immobilize his opponent rather than trying to achieve victory through a sheer show of strength. Strength was something that Phillip did not have a lot of in his sleep and food deprived state. The traitor wasn’t going down easily and struggled to keep the pistol out of his opponent’s reach. Phillip took his opportunity and wrapped his right arm around his attacker, pinning his gun arm in place. He did his best to keep a strong hold on his opponent, despite the fact that the bulky EV suits were making things difficult for both of them. After a few seconds second of struggling, the gunman uttered a furious cry, pointed his arm straight down and pulled the trigger, sending another unheard shot ricocheting off into the vast chamber.
The blast sent both of them hurtling back toward the core at speed. Phillip instantly knew what his opponent was trying to do and braced himself for a collision. After mere seconds, the impact of the two men hitting the outer casing shook Phillip’s hold loose of his attacker. The tech expert uttered a scream as pain shot through the side where he'd hit. The man took that chance to worm free and spin himself around. The technician, resisting the urge to cringe around his broken ribs, reached up and grabbed the gun, throwing the aim away from his face. Another struggle for the firearm commenced.
Phillip could easily see the angry look on his opponent’s face behind the helmet as he strained for control. The alpha felt his limbs start to shake from exhaustion as he broke out into a cold sweat inside his EV suit. Phillip knew he couldn’t last much longer in his condition. Exhaustion after the untold hours had taken a toll on his mind and body. He needed rest, badly. Desperately, Phillip released his attacker and grabbed the gun with both hands. The traitor, still hanging on, kicked Phillip in his broken ribs. With one last pull, the attacker managed to wrestle the gun out of Phillip’s grip.
“Aha!” shouted the man in a victory cry. He used his maneuvering pack to boost out of reach and aimed the gun right at the tech’s face. Phillip breathed heavily, feeling the fatigue in his limbs and the tightness in his chest from broken ribs. The EV suit was working double time to recycle air to fuel his exertions. The two combatants stared at each other for a moment, then the gunman smiled darkly and pulled the trigger.
Click.
The look on the man’s face was priceless as Phillip held up the slide which he’d removed when the two of them had been grappling. The gunman moved in and snatched at the part, but Phillip twisted about, keeping it out of reach. With an angry cry, the attacker hurled the incomplete gun at his opponent. Phillip snapped his hand up before the gun could smack him in the faceplate and clumsily caught the gun in his gloved hand. The blow sent him cruising slowly backwards at a slight spin, barely enough to disorient him.
Phillip pulled his aching knees up to his chest and flipped himself over so he was facing his opponent again, hands working quickly. He fumbled to turn the gun over as, several meters away, the traitor boosted over to retrieve the satchel of explosives. Throwing the gun had only been an attempt to buy time. If the traitor got ahold of the explosive, this time he wouldn't hesitate to use them.
Phillip re-assembled the handgun and racked the slide, charging the bullet in the chamber. The traitor grabbed hold of the satchel and used his maneuver pack to spin around, clutching the detonator. When he saw the gun in Phillip's hands, his face flashed with realization. The ESC tech was still spinning softly as he started taking aim at shoulder level. Then he remembered when the traitor had fired like that. He curled his knees up and put the sights between his feet, locking his entire body to absorb the recoil. He didn't think about what would happen next. He just fired.
Phillip went flying backwards as the gun discharged, and the traitor took the round right in the chest. His thumb twitched over the deadman's switch.
The next second was a total blur. A blinding explosion lit up the traitor's spacesuit, now fifty feet from where Phillip hung suspended. The explosion raced after the flying Phillip at mind-boggling speed, barely giving the tech the time he needed to raise his arms to shield himself. Phillip uttered a cry of distress, for all the good it did him, and flinched against the explosion. The shockwave hit him like a ton of bricks, followed by a wave of intense heat, and then Phillip saw no more.
***
“~Full power to mark five cannons, blaze away!~”
“~Double contact, reports Stormbolts two-five-seven dash three-three-one.~”
“~Scramble order, bearing seven-seven south of the station. Just in time.~”
“~Damage report, systems failure, signaling destroyer Titanic. Armor breached, hull holding.~”
“~Volley fire, Stormbolt formation Rockfist, focus fire on that Yew Pyramid constellation, kilometer bearing sector nine over starshield.~”
“~Enemy contact formed up around tug bay. Foxbat corvettes, engage at your discretion and pull them back into the kill zone.~”
“~Where'd that Hex craft go? Wait, I got a shadow on the sensors... Confirmed hit, its leaking atmosphere.~”
“~Raptor Squadron here, we've engaged enemy Xylas Interceptors hou
nding the destroyer White Dash, requesting uplink to point defense.~”
“~Mayday, calling Mayday! Assault frigate Velvet Dragoon reporting code red on decks-**********~”
“~Velvet Dragoon? Velvet-... Contact lost, request visual confirmation, assault frigate destroyed.~”
“~Spit! Where'd that come from?~”
“~Contact, target acquired... Heavy torp concentration coming from that-spit INCOMI-***********~”
“~Damn, we lost Captain Cobalt! Magnum Opus, this is Red King, left flank is threatening to collapse, we need relief from that Diamondback!”
Glowing red ashes tumbled from the tip of Denver's third cigarette.
“Captain,” the admiral spoke. “Reroute power to bombardment cannons and spin up a barrage on that Diamondback.”
“Admiral at this distance, its defensive countermeasures will be at maximum effectiveness.”
“I know,” Denver said, taking a drag from his cigarette. The admiral pressed the fleet comm on his chair. “Red King, reverse thrust and pull your escorts back while we cover you. Let the BlueJay squadrons buy you time.”
“~Admiral, if we abandon this flank you'll be at risk to-~”
“I don't care,” Denver insisted through clenched teeth. “Take everything you got, link up with right flank, and pour all your fire into their targets. Turn up the heat and let me worry about that Diamondback.”
“~Aye, Admiral. Red King, re-deploying with escorts under fire!~”
Captain Wesler shouted over his shoulder. “Target locked, bombardment cannons calibrated.”
Denver pulled the cigarette out of his mouth. “Open fire.”
The Magnum Opus' main battery thundered at the nose of the super carrier, sending a small fleet of shooting stars wailing silently across space toward the sleek Diamondback destroyer. The Yew craft, currently harassing the Grade-B Red King destroyer, saw the incoming barrage and threw full power to its point defense grid, juking itself into evasive maneuvers. Most of the punishing shots missed, or were intercepted by beams, but two clean hits struck the Diamondback in the flank, tearing back the advanced armor plating.
Several cheers went up around the bridge as the direct hits registered on their consoles. The destroyer-sized craft was still up, but it had effectively lost contact with its opponents, who were now well out of the engagement bubble.
“Alright,” Denver said, dropping his cigarette stub on the deck and shuffling out a new one. “Let's see what they do now that we've completely unbalanced the playing field.”
Denver had just moved the majority of his battle group onto one, single flank. The Yew, though outnumbered, were still putting up a dastardly fight with their Grade-A starcraft. Denver was frustrating them by breaking the rules, burning the playbook and making up everything as he went. It was considered suicide to just open up a flank like that, leaving the command craft open to attack. But if that Diamondback came in for a little payback, it would break the Yew constellation. Denver clicked his thermal lighter on as missiles streamed through space, slamming into the sides of Yew Pyramid craft. His “all-in” flank tactic was inflicting tremendous damage. Any minute now, the Yew commanding the fleet was going to have to change his tactics. Currently, the giant, eye-shaped Dreadcraft was content to sit miles away, parked over the captive Human starshield like an eagle on a nest of eggs. But when that thing entered combat—as it was going to have to—things were going to get... interesting.
The Magnum Opus rumbled with hull detonations.
“Torpedo strikes, left side!” someone shouted.
Alright, Denver thought. Here we go.
“Fold out the armor and load the guns with armor piercing rounds,” Denver ordered. “We're gonna make this difficult for them.”
The crew complied, guiding the bulky super carrier into motion. Sensors indicated several fighters in the nearby vicinity, but the torpedoes were coming from the Diamondback destroyer and a pair of Hex-class frigate craft. While the Magnum Opus was bigger than all three of them put together, it was a carrier first, and a brawler second. The extra tonnage was just making it a bigger target. Suddenly, one of the many operators let out a cry.
“Sir! Scanners read the Orbit Angel just went completely dark!”
Both Captain Wesler and Admiral Denver checked their screens. The image of the Guardian station should have been lit up, shining with beacons and windows and guide lights. But the entire space station had gone entirely black. Complete and total power failure. Denver was picking up no gravity, no life support, nothing.
“What hit it?” Captain Wesler asked.
“Nothing! Nothing I can read, anyway.”
“It doesn't matter,” Denver snapped as the Magnum Opus vaporized an incoming torp with its defense lasers. “Right now that station is completely defenseless. If one stray shot gets through, it could spell disaster.”
Denver pointed down at Captain Wesler.
“Launch Lancer Squadron for cover and throttle us up,” Denver ordered, a cloud of smoke emitting from between his teeth like a dragon. “Boost us in close to the station and give me a G-Pipe maneuver.”
“Aye, Admiral.”
The next few minutes, the Magnum Opus traded fire with the Diamondback and its escort of two Hex-class frigates. They drew closer to the station as Human Falcons danced around dogfighting Yew Xylas Interceptors. The Castle-class super destroyer cast a long shadow over the Orbit Angel as it crossed behind it and circled around in a G-Pipe maneuver, bringing its nose around to face the opponents that hounded it. The Magnum Opus was still spinning up its bombardment battery when the Diamondback dropped its death charges right into the carrier's path. The singularity bombs powered on their weak gravjets and started toward the nearest, largest mass they could detect that didn't have a Yew signal. Some went after the Magnum Opus. Most went for the Orbit Angel.
“Stop those bombs!” Denver roared.
The bridge scrambled, redirecting its attention from bracketing the enemy destroyer to rapidly picking off the dozen death charges that floated toward the defenseless station. Lasers seared across space and cut apart the singularity charges, which burst or went off. With each flash, the lasers prismed into a dazzling light show. Flak cannons erupted, throwing up a wall of chaff between the death charges and the station. Shrapnel finished off the last of the death charges heading for the station. The ones heading for the Magnum Opus, however, were undeterred.
“Full power to concussion buffers!” Captain Wesler shouted as the defensive lasers tried to ward off the quickly approaching singularity bombs. Denver flinched, embers flicking from his cigarette as he hissed his breath in through his teeth. The first death charge hit, and everyone on the bridge jolted in their seat. Even from several decks away, the heavy gravitational explosive rocked everyone to the teeth. They recovered quickly. The defense lasers vaporized the next death charge, only to let the third one through. The second jolt was worse, much closer to the bridge. Several crewmembers were nearly knocked out of their seat, and would have been if it hadn't been for their safety restraints. That was the last of the death charges. Captain Wesler pulled himself upright and shook off the shock.
“Set heading nine-nine-two!” he shouted. “Take us out of the danger zone and get me a damage report!”
Denver picked his half-finished cigarette off the floor and stuck it back in his teeth. When he looked out the front viewport, he saw the Diamondback destroyer with its keel turned to them, likely setting up for another death charge dump. Denver saw his opening.
“Belay that,” he shouted. “Throw full power to boosters and accelerate to ramming speed.”
The crew froze. Captain Wesler, despite casting a doubtful look in Denver's direction, did not.
“You heard the Admiral!” he shouted, snapping his crew out of their stupor. “Full power to engines! Plot intercept course and bolt down the prow armor. Run them down!”
At the fire in their captain's voice, the crew dove headfirst into the task of turnin
g their massive flagship into an orbital battering ram. Suddenly the Diamondback destroyer was getting a lot closer, a lot faster. The Hex craft scrambled to get out of the way, but the destroyer in the Magnum Opus' path was barely able to even turn. It banked to the left, trying to bring its guns to bear while angling out of the way. The captain of the Diamondback got a few second's glimpse at the super carrier bearing down on it like an Orca hunting a seal before the much larger ship struck.
“Brace for impact!” Captain Wesler shouted over the shipwide comm.
There was a flash as hulls connected and everyone was thrown forward against their crash harnesses. The gravitational cushion helped insulate the impact inside the ship, but as pieces from both ship's hulls chipped off, the force of the damage was clear. The Magnum Opus continued to throttle forward, pushing the Diamondback in front of it like a piece of prize meat in the jaws of a lion. The destroyer panicked, firing point blank into the carrier's hull, but all that did was invoke return fire until clouds of flotsam pocked each ship's hull. It must have been quite a thrilling spectacle viewed from afar. Amid the scream of collision alarms, Denver heard the comm whoop with excitement from other ships that were watching.
“~Hell yeah! Sock it to 'em, Magnum!~”
Denver clenched his armrest as the bridge began to rattle. His cigarette smoldered down to its end, embers stinging against his lips.
“Reverse engines!” Denver ordered.
The carrier's boosters cut out, and the Magnum Opus slammed on its reverse thrusters, breaking off from the indentation in the Diamondback's side. The two ships powered apart, the distance between them quickly increasing. The destroyer was still intact; a testament to Yew efficiency and design. It wouldn't be intact for long. Several scan reports showed that the collision had knocked out its defense grid.
“Give it the full battery!” Captain Wesler commanded, sensing the weakness in the enemy's armor. Engines still recovering, the Diamondback couldn't move away fast enough. The Magnum Opus retracted its prow armor, spun up its bombardment battery, and unloaded everything it had right into the breech caused by the deliberate collision.
Prime Alpha (Planetary Powers Book 1) Page 55