Strand_Delarus

by Don Chase

  “Copy that command. Okay boys, you heard the boss, let’s get ID on this ship and make sure they’re okay. It’s probably just a comm. glitch, but let’s go weapons free in case we’re wrong.” He paused long enough for the squad to confirm the weapons free order. “Three and five, form up on me and the rest form up on Cutty. We’ll make the main contact to try and get a visual while two and the rest come in on the back side to grab the ID tags.”

  Jax tapped the yoke of his ship and the small fighter broke slightly to the left. He watched as the other group drifted off to the right and his two wingmen slid up beside him. He noticed that alpha three’s ship was looking a bit beat up and made a mental note to check it out for himself when they got back to the station. His fighter was the newest in the Delarus’ fleet. It was a design that the GF had just phased out relatively recently. It was faster and had better maneuverability than the older fighters in the small fleet as well as much stronger armor. It seemed that the Federation had switched from the weaker polysteel construction to a new fully synthetic blend that decreased weight but was twice as strong.

  “Sir, I have a visual on the unknown,” Jaxs’ wingman Karn announced.

  “Copy that, I have visual as well. Man they are moving,” Jax said.

  “At that speed they’ll be at the station in no time,” Perkins, his other wingman said.

  “Unknown vessel if you can hear us please slow your speed until we can verify your ID,” Jax said.

  “Doesn’t look like they can hear you sir,” Perkins said.

  “No it doesn’t seem like it does it. Anyone see any windows?” Jax asked.

  “No sir nothing at all. What kind of ship is it anyway?” Karn asked.

  “No idea, let’s get a bit closer to get a better look.”

  “Sir this is Cutty, I need to get a bit closer but we didn’t see any ID tags on our way by.”

  “Any markings at all?”

  “No sir there doesn’t seem to be, we’re closing in a bit to see if we just missed them.”

  “Stay sharp, we’re not getting any responses from them at all.”

  There was a beeping sound in Jax’s cockpit and he flipped a switch on his left. “We’re within range for weapons and scanners. You two get a lock on and I’ll do a quick scan.”

  “Target acquired,” Karn said.

  “I have one as well,” Perkins echoed.

  “I’m starting a life sign scan now,” Jax said. There was a flash and Jax looked up from his display in time to see Perkins’ ship explode into a million tiny pieces off to his left.

  “BREAK RIGHT, BREAK RIGHT!” he yelled as he shoved the stick to the right sending his fighter into a hard bank, swerving away from the incoming ship.

  “What in the seven hells was that?” Karn asked, the sound of panic rising in his voice.

  “No idea but they got Perkins. Forget about getting an ID. You have the all clear to engage.”

  “Copy that, engaging,” Karn said as he hit his front right thruster and spun his ship a full one hundred and eighty degrees. He hit the trigger on the control yoke and his nose cannon came to life, riddling the top of the unknown aggressor.

  “Report,” Jax said.

  “Um I think I may have scratched the paint,” Karn said as he swung around to make another pass.

  “Seriously?” someone asked.

  “Cutty, you guys come in from the back and tear this thing up. Karn you get over here and give them some room to work for a minute.”

  “Copy that,” Karn said. He looked up to see the second group on their approach just as the larger ship fired. The bright flash made Karn yelp and he jammed his yoke forward. He felt his ship lurch and heard multiple alarms screaming in his cockpit. Jax yelling in his ear sounded tinny and far away, almost lost in the din of the alarms. He looked desperately over each shoulder trying to assess the damage to his fighter while his fingers snapped toggles and switches to shut down systems, turn on safety measure to fight against internal systems burning and reroute power to life support. “I’m still here, I’m still here, I don’t know how, but I am.” He saw that half of his back end was gone. Sparks crackled from the exposed wiring and engine parts.

  The larger ship had flown straight through the wreckage that had been part of Karns’ ship and paid no attention to the rest of it as it floated nearby, all power shut down except life support. The three fighters behind it fired their guns and a salvo of missiles, none of which had any noticeable effect on the unknown raider. They swooped in below it, firing their cannons up at the hopefully softer underbelly of the ship. Jax let out a heavy sigh as he watched and saw, once again, that there seemed to be no damage. “Come around again for another run, we need to stop this thing before it gets any closer.”

  The three fighters came out from under the ship in a triangular formation and broke to their left to circle around for a second pass. As the two ships at the back of the formation got level with the nose of the unknown ship, it again fired a searing flash that slammed into both ships, shattering them almost instantly. Cutty yelled as he saw the flash. He felt something heavy hit his ship causing it to kick out to the side and heard the patter of debris skitter across the outer hull. Cutty cursed as he tried to turn and realized he had lost most of his steering controls. “Cutty you need to get out of there,” Jax said in his ear.

  “Can’t really move boss, steering is almost totally gone.”

  “Hold on,” Jax said. He shoved the stick forward and dove toward the raider. He waited until his targeting computer locked onto its target before pulling the trigger and hitting the small red button on top of the control stick to fire his missiles. He held it until all eight were streaking toward the larger ship. “At least try to use your thrusters to get out of its way.”

  “I am, it’s just taking a bit. If that thing fires again I’m done,” Cutty said. He was sweating as he stared over his shoulder at the large ship coming toward him.

  “Working on it,” Jax said tersely as his ship dove. He could see Cutty off to his right as he went by, still firing at the larger ship. The missiles had struck and just as he had suspected there was once again no damage. His finger still held the trigger for his cannons though and he peppered the top of the ship.

  He pulled back on the yoke and killed his aft thruster as his canopy passed the front of the raider. He looked through the clear roof of his cockpit and saw the ship head straight at him. He paused for a moment until he was sure that he should be in their targeting solution before he kicked on his afterburner and jammed the control stick forward. He saw the flash as he felt the huge engine kick in and closed his eyes. The newer fighter reacted instantly, and darted straight down and under the larger raider. Jax let out a howl as he opened his eyes and realized he was still alive.

  “Cutty, how’re we doin?”

  “Jax I’m sorry,” he heard Karn say.

  “Cutty?”

  “They got him, they got you both actually.”

  “What, how?” Jax asked as he looked over his shoulder to see if he had any damage.

  “No idea, I saw the flash, he was gone and part of your ass end went bye-bye,” Karn said.

  Jax listened to his wingman as he checked his gauges and ran a diagnostic. He looked up to see that the unknown ship was now far off in the distance, still travelling along the same straight line it had been when they had tried to intercept it. He swore as he read the results on the small screen on the dashboard. “It looks like they took out my guidance, long range communications array and part of my fuel line. Gonna have to reroute that.”

  “You can reroute your fuel line from inside?” Karn asked.

  “If you know what you’re doing you can,” Jax answered as he worked on the fuel line issue.

  “Well I’m glad one of us knows what he’s doing then.”

  “Karn do you have long range comms?”

  Jax’s wingman barked out a laugh at the question. “Man I am lucky I’m still breathing at this point. I have li
fe support and front thrusters.”

  “Ok I’ll pop my distress beacon then. It won’t tell them much, but at least they’ll send help once they see it, if it isn’t too late by then.” Jax said as he reached down to pull a small lever that manually released the distress beacon. He watched as it floated up above his ship attached by a thin tether of cable, it blinked with a slow strobe effect.

  “Now what?” Karn asked.

  “Now we wait.”

  Chapter 4

  “Hey Marcus,” he heard Olivia say in his earpiece.

  “Hey Olivia,” he said as he stood in the second small junction room of the day.

  “I thought you said the fighters went out when you first got to work.”

  “They did.”

  “Well I was just up at the caf grabbing a snack and almost got run over by some fly boys who seemed to be in a hurry to get to the hangar deck.”

  “Wow, I wonder what’s up. I’m almost done here at this terminal so I think I’ll stop by the hangar bay on my way back to you,” Marcus said as he shoved the circuit board into its slot and closed the panel and locked it.

  “I’m sure it’s nothing, probably just a routine drill. You still have more work to get done,” Olivia said. She wondered if he could tell she was smirking through his earpiece.

  “I won’t be too long, I promise. It’s not like I’m going to try and tag along.”

  “You know you would if they let you.”

  “You’re right, I so would,” he said as he slid back into the maintenance tunnel and worked his way down the one hundred meters or so back to the hatch in the hallway. He was all the way on the other side of the station, so he knew Olivia wouldn’t notice if he took a few extra minutes to get back to her desk. He also knew she wouldn’t be mad even if she did notice.

  Popping up into the hallway, he pulled himself up out of the tunnel and replaced the grating. He jogged down the hall his pack bouncing against his shoulder. The station wasn’t a major port but it still took a bit to get from one side to the other. As he ran, his mind wandered at all the possibilities of what was going on, the least entertaining was that it was a normal training mission.

  He was slightly winded by the time he got to the hangar deck. He jogged straight into the comptroller’s office and bent to put his hands on his knees once the door slid closed. He looked up to find the gaunt slightly shocked face of the comptroller who was staring at him. “Copy that Beta leader, those are the coordinates,” she said into her headset microphone.

  “Sorry, one second,” he said as he put a finger up to emphasize that as he caught his breath.

  “Can I help you?” she asked. Her hair was put up in a tight bun and the collar of her blouse was buttoned to the very top. She looked as if she needed a good long vacation or a few stiff drinks at least.

  “Umm yeah, my boss sent me up here to see if I could find out what was going on,” he said standing straight and smiling.

  “Going on with what?” she asked sounding terse.

  “Well he knew that Jax went out earlier and he heard that there’s another squad that got sent out too and he was just curious what was going on is all.”

  “Who is your boss again?” She asked.

  “Lenny over in janitorial.”

  She looked at him quizzically for a moment. “I don’t know him.”

  “He’s kind of new,” Marcus lied giving her a shrug.

  “Well you tell Lenny over in janitorial, that nothing is going on,” the angry looking woman said.

  Marcus chewed it over in his head for a moment and started to turn around before stopping and turning back. “I’d really like to, but if I do he’s gonna be really annoyed with me and I’d rather not have to work late forever because of it,” he said, watching her face for any sign of sympathy.

  “Sorry, there’s nothing going on,” she said flatly.

  “Broken down miner?”

  “No.”

  “GF sending an envoy through and needs an escort?”

  “No.”

  “Pirates from the uninhabited zone?”

  “No, now stop it. There’s nothing going on,” she said as her eyes met his and quickly darted away. “Now go please, I have work to do.”

  “But I thought you said nothing was going on?” Marcus asked, his eyes going wide.

  She gulped a split second before she caught herself and glared at him. “Go. Now!” she said almost yelling.

  “Okay, okay, sorry to bother you,” he said as he turned and darted towards the door.

  “And tell Lenny not to send you back here ever!” he heard her yell through the door.

  There was a large grin on his face as he came out of the elevator and skipped into Olivia’s office. “Hi,” he said as he hopped up onto the edge of her desk.

  “What’d you do trouble?” She asked looking worried.

  “I didn’t do nothing I swear” he said.

  “Uh huh,”

  “There is so something going on.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “The comptroller told me,” he said feeling very proud.

  “What’d she say?” Olivia asked, now curious.

  “Well nothing really,” Marcus said, his shoulders slouching at the anticlimactic declaration.

  “Then how do you know something is going on?”

  “Because she got really annoyed at me and wouldn’t tell me anything. She wouldn’t even say it was just a routine mission.”

  “So wait, let me get this straight. You walked into a stranger’s office, demanded information and then seem to have gleaned some amazing insight when she got annoyed at you?” Olivia asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

  “No really, she wasn’t just annoyed at me walking in,” Marcus said in explanation.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Well she may have been, but that wasn’t what really got her going,” he said.

  “What did it then?”

  “She got really annoyed when I tried to guess what it was and she caught herself almost answering me. That’s what set her off.”

  “And there’s no chance that she just really hated a million questions being fired at her all at once?” Olivia asked.

  “I suppose it could have been, but I’m telling you something is up,” Marcus said as he slid off the corner of her desk.

  “Uh huh I’m sure there is kiddo, but until you figure out something a bit more concrete you have more work to do,” Olivia said giving him a genuine smile.

  “Copy that Delarus control we have those coordinates locked in now. We’ll let you know what we find,” Morris said sounding calm as he flew along the designated course that would bring him to the signal beacon that they had picked up at the station. It had been identified as coming from Jaxs’ fighter but Morris tried to convince himself that somehow had to be wrong. “Weapons free and stay sharp boys. If they’re right and that was Jaxs’ beacon then we may find some very big trouble out here.”

  “Hey Morris. I don’t seem to have any weapons.” The second in command heard in his ear.

  He smiled and replied, “Well Argun, that’s because you’re flying a shuttle today instead of a fighter. Someone has to make sure our guys get home safe.”

  “Oh look at that, I am in a shuttle! I thought the controls felt a bit clunky.”

  “The way you fly I’m surprised you noticed,” Morris said. He heard a bark of laughter from Argun.

  After that they mostly flew in tense silence. For most of his squad, this was their first dangerous mission. Most had only flown routine patrol patterns or escort duty. Morris was the only one that had seen any actual combat while in a fighter.

  The silence made it seem like time had almost stopped and Morris noticed he was grinding his teeth in frustration. His adrenaline was pumping a bit. He had felt the rush of energy from the moment the call had come in that they had picked up a beacon. Back in the day, this was an average feeling for the retired GF pilot but it now gave him an uneasy tw
inge in his gut.

  After what seemed like an interminable amount of time, but was surely no longer than twenty minutes, Morris heard a ringing tone as his fighter signaled to him. “Okay boys I have a lock on the beacon, looks to be another couple minutes,” he announced. “Now is when we need to be cautious. Whoever caused Jax to set off his beacon could be using it as a trap.

  “Sensors are clear for the moment,” his wingman said.

  “Good, let’s split up into two groups. Two, four and six hang back a bit while the rest of us check things out. Follow behind us a few kilicks.” He gave a slight nod as he saw the two fighters and the shuttle break off to his right and fall back behind the others.

  “Sir, I have two very faint signatures showing up near the beacon.”

  “Hmm yeah I see that,” Morris said glancing down at his display. “Alpha one, are you there?”

  After a very long pause he heard, “Morris is that you?” just as he was about to repeat the question.

  “It sure is boss, nice to hear your voice. I was starting to get worried,” Morris replied.

  “Well I wouldn’t stop worrying just yet. Me and my wingman are kinda dead in the water out here.”

  “That’s okay we brought a ride home for you, shouldn’t take too long to get you out.”

  “Oh yeah about home, please tell me that ship changed course or that you have a fix on it at least?”

  “No I didn’t see any sign of it on the short range scanners on the way out to get you?”

  “It blew us all out of the sky in about thirty seconds and kept going,” Jax said.

  “Going where?” Morris asked.

  “It was heading right toward the station. How did you not see it on your way out here?”

  “No idea, maybe it changed course.”

  “I doubt it. It stayed the course right through us. It didn’t veer off at all even when we were firing at it. Listen, my long range comms are down Morris, call Delarus and let them know we’re alive but stranded out here for a bit and that the ship is hostile and on a direct course toward it still.” He listened to the one sided call to the station.