Spinward Fringe Broadcast 5: Fracture

by Randolph Lalonde

  Minh's fighter spun out of the barrier, dodging a few small plasma shells before he accelerated back down towards the asteroid field. “Breakfast staying down?”

  “Barely. Where did you learn to fly anyway?” Asked Slick.

  “Long story, maybe another time.”

  “Heads up, mission profile just changed. We have fourteen fighters, the Clever Dream and Cold Reaver incoming. Triton is taking position to box the raiders in. No one leaves. Our new orders are to seek and destroy unless we see a white flag or no power readings.”

  “All right, we'll hold for reinforcements out here, tell Finger to stop weaving before he gets slagged. When the Clever Dream and Cold Reaver arrive we'll cover them then break off to harry the raiders into shutting their engines down and surrendering or fleeing the station's orbit so Triton can cut them up.”

  “Passing that on to all fighters,”

  “What? Why not just fly in and soften them up before the reinforcements arrive. They can't be very good shots if they can't hit Finger.” Joyboy exclaimed a few moments later.

  “We go in firing as a group. We're looking to cause as much terror and trauma as we can manage in the first few seconds so they turn and run into Triton’s field of fire.”

  “They'll have a greater chance of hitting something if they're firing into a group,” Finger retorted.

  “Didn't you hear me the first time? If they think we're doing too much damage in the first few seconds they'll bolt and we can rip them up from behind. Man up, buttercup, this is how we're doing it,” Minh ordered with a finality that surprised several pilots.

  Slick burst into laughter the moment the communication line closed. “That's it, I'm calling Finger 'Buttercup' from now on, that's too rich. We have incoming. Marking targets; two small ships and three fighters.”

  Minh selected one of the larger, eighty meter long ships as his target and directed his fighter to intercept. “Mark your targets and break. Don't give them an easy target, hit them as hard as you can and watch your spacing.”

  He watched the combat display as the six fighters with him selected their targets and broke to attack. His missile systems locked on to the vessel and he rapid fired a volley of a dozen of the small, high speed projectiles as he side slipped. They scattered and interwove, accelerating at an incredible rate. Before they struck he released the safety on his guns and opened fire, strafing the length of the jaggedly designed, pointed ship from stem to stern. As he slid behind the enemy he focused his fire on the engines.

  His target's three turrets returned fire, unleashing blurring yellow blasts of energy. Several shots struck the shields and Minh whirled and zagged into the energy barrier for a few seconds before punching back out again on an altered course. It took several moments for the gunners aboard the enemy ship to correct their aim and he took advantage of the time.

  Most of the missiles struck the port side of the vessel, reducing its shields to only a few megajoules and Minh opened fire on its engines. Great chunks of the vessel's armour flew off as his rounds burst through. Half the ion engines began to cool down and vent fuel, no longer operable. He could see the hull emitters running down the length of the vessel begin to power up, shading the rough armoured plates in red.

  “They're about to head into hyperspace,” Slick warned.

  “No, they're not,” Minh opened fire with all his active guns and brought the engine power up to full as he slipped behind the larger, less manoeuvrable ship. The rounds dug at their propulsion systems, sending bursts of fuel and shards of shrapnel spouting and spinning off in all directions. At the last instant he launched half a dozen high yield dumb fire missiles. Three of them struck, enough to cause a mass decompression at the rear of the ship and completely destroy their main thrusters. Its turrets stopped rotating, guns stopped firing and lights flickered out as the hulk drifted lopsidedly.

  Minh didn't take the time to comment on his first victim of the day but switched his target to the nearest fighter and took note of Joyboy's position. He was firing at a thin, fixed wing fighter with his pulse cannons, cutting across its rear and turning the main body of his vessel to keep making sweeping attempts at hitting the enemy ship. Minh activated his particle acceleration cannons and took careful aim with his 21mm guns. “What's that fighter tracking? Anything?”

  “He's trying to lock on to Sprocket,” Slick replied.

  Minh's particle cannons finished charging. He rechecked his aim, making sure that he wouldn't overshoot the fixed wing fighter and opened up with everything but his missiles. He directed his fighter into an upward skid as the enemy spun and tried to turn back towards the barrier. After only three seconds of firing the fighter disintegrated. “Watch for an ejection and mark it for rescue,” Minh instructed as he double checked the combat screen.

  There was one fighter left and he looked just in time to see Sprocket fire a volley of seeker missiles at it at minimum safe distance. The projectiles crossed the distance between in an instant and the enemy fighter was destroyed in a violent burst of colliding metal and expanding gasses. Sprocket's fighter careened through the better part of the wreckage at high speed, coming out the other side spinning.

  “This is Dent! Declaring an emergency and ejecting!” Sprocket's Sensor Interception Officer announced. An explosive plume erupted from the Uriel fighter and a flashing red marker designated Dent's ejection seat for immediate rescue.

  “You have him Oz?” Minh asked.

  “I'm sending a rescue equipped Uriel now. What about Sprocket?”

  Minh verified her status. Her vacsuit had logged devastating crush damage to her head before losing all function. “There's nothing to rescue,” he replied as he forwarded the information and returned his focus to the combat display. There were no targets to monitor but it was better than looking at the cold verification of Sproket's death.

  “Roger,” replied Oz stiffly.

  “The boarding crews and their escorts are almost here,” Slick reminded.

  “All right,” Ronin addressed the rest of his fighter group, “start accelerating in a parallel trajectory and keep up with me. Change of plans, we're checking the field before they arrive. As soon as you hit the obscuring barrier split up.”

  Ronin didn't hesitate at the controls, whipping the engine pods and fuselage towards the barrier and firing his thrusters so hard that his starfighter could be seen for thousands of kilometres as a bright flare. As he approached a shadow drifted across their path on the other side of the barrier.

  “Obstacle spotted! Reverse thrust!” Slick shouted over his shoulder.

  “Too late,” Minh gritted his teeth as he tried to redirect the Uriel fighter into a turn. They careened through the field and saw that a line of old cargo containers had been sent to drift along the inner edge of the barrier and straight into their path. Their fighter collided hard enough to overwhelm the inertial compensator systems and both Ronin and Slick were jostled hard in their seats. Weapons' fire streaked across the cockpit as the small gunship spun wildly, hurtling through a field of darkened, damaged vessels.

  “We lost engine three, trying to realign the controls!” Slick announced, near panic.

  “Stop! You'll only screw up my interface with the ship! I'll get us out of this,” Minh retorted as he struggled with his hands and feet to compensate for their wild spin and regain control of the fighter. Old reflexes had returned, and he looked into the direction of the spin, watched the orientation of his pod engines and shut down the stationary thrusters built into the fuselage.

  A missile warning sounded.

  “God dammit!”

  “Countermeasures launched!” Slick announced as several high heat, signal emitting decoys were launched from the rear of the vessel.

  Minh reduced all the thrust generated by his engine pods to zero, rotated them manually and reactivated them at half power at counter angles to the spin and in under five seconds the fighter was stable.

  A missile struck sounding a muffled thud against
the craft. “Shields are down!”

  Minh nodded and opened the throttle up to full, directing the craft towards the wreck of a massive barge.

  The fighter rattled and alarms sounded as impacts pinged and hammered against the hull. “Get our shields back up!” Minh ordered.

  “It'll take a few seconds, get us under cover. Joyboy and his SIO are out of the fight, marked for rescue.”

  The fighter accelerated towards the drifting barge ahead under the power of their three remaining engine pods. Minh rotated the fuselage and marked the enemy fighter who was flying parallel above them, skidding sideways as he burst at them with his guns. Several more impacts struck their hull, one of the main engines flashed a damage warning.

  In one breath Minh verified his target and ensured that his line of fire was clear of allies. In the next he opened fire. The enemy fighter was flying in the open, too eager to take shots at Minh and his copilot. At the last second he tried to thrust for cover. It was too late. The particle weapon and 21mm guns erupted with deadly force, ripping through the simpler, more lightly armoured fixed wing starfighter and tearing it to shreds. As he spun the fuselage back in line with their course he checked the tactical display. They were down to five fighters and the reinforcements were on their way in. “Send a transmission buoy outside the field with a warning, the raiders have stirred up a bunch of wrecks and a few larger meteors.”

  “Already programmed, launching.” Slick said as the rear utility launcher, used for countermeasures, mini-probes and small buoys clicked and popped.

  “All right, convey orders to our group; take shots at the larger ships whenever they don't have a clear shot at an enemy fighter. They are to use this cover against the enemy as they hunt down fighters and smaller vessels. I'm taking the lead, we're hunting in a pack. Relay those orders to the second fighter group as they make it through the field, the third fighter group is to stay with and cover the Clever Dream and Cold Reaver.”

  “Got it, transmitting.”

  Minh marked one of the larger, seventy meter ships with several active turrets and entered a formation for the four other fighters in his group to follow. “How is our ship?”

  “I'm shutting down main engine two and we've lost a dorsal armour panel completely. Shields are recharged.”

  “Better than expected. Get ready to control the belly turret, targets of opportunity. Have fun Slick,” Minh chuckled.

  “I was wondering when I'd get a chance,” Slick took aim at a distant corvette class ship and fired as they broke cover momentarily.

  Minh's fighter group fell in line behind him and they swerved between several dozen battered cargo containers before breaking into the open, approaching the port side of the seventy meter long ship ahead. The five fighters opened fire as their prey tried to fend them off with four double turrets. One of the weapon emplacements burst apart while a rear compartment decompressed in a rush of gasses, expelling several crew members.

  As Minh's group of five fighters crossed above the medium sized ship their fuselages rotated so they could keep the damaged vessel in their sights and continue their relentless attack. Lights flickered through the portholes. “Maintain fire, have your SIO's use the belly turrets to open fire on those approaching fighters. Let's bloody their noses.”

  Their reinforcements arrived, emerging through the barrier like a fire storm as they narrowly avoided drifting wreckage and opened fire on any targets of opportunity. “Buster here with 2nd squad. Orders are to pack hunt on smaller vessels and to take shots on larger targets of opportunity,” reported Sonya, one of Minh's squad leaders.

  “Welcome to the show Buster! I'm marking a nice, juicy target for you,” Minh said as he marked a one hundred nine meter long, half octagon shaped vessel closing on his fighter group. There were four fighters flying in formation with it.

  “Got it, the Merry Cooper and fighter escort. Thanks Ronin, you know how I love cracking ships with bad names.”

  Minh watched as his target suffered multiple decompressions and its cannons ceased to function. Energy readings from the ship dipped suddenly and he marked the pair of fighters that had come to its aid as his squad's next target. His squadron followed his lead as he swung around a small group of meteors. Minh's cockpit lit up as they all opened fire on the older pair of fighters. They flew to pieces in seconds.

  Minh looked at the tactical screen as he directed his wing behind a broad, detached solar arm that had been blown off the station in a previous firefight. “I see a fighter recall underway, what do you see?”

  “All the remaining fighters are turning towards that ship,” Slick highlighted a large three hundred meter carrier, the Viscount's Pride.

  “Oz says no one escapes, so no one escapes,” Minh said with a smile. “All right, this is the one that got Joyboy and his SIO. We're going to use all our dumb fire missiles in the first volley towards their aft dorsal section. Make sure you don't fire them right into their engines or they'll burn up before they hit. Strafe behind cover and focus fire guns on their port side until the missiles strike then widen the hole.”

  “This is the Clever Dream. We'll have a clear line of sight in a few seconds to support your strike. Expect a few extra missiles,” reported Lieutenant Garrison, a senior security officer assigned to command the Clever Dream for that boarding action.

  As soon as Minh's fighter group broke cover dozens of missiles burst out of their pods. The group slipped sideways after emptying their launchers and took several hits themselves before reaching cover.

  “I'm done, three engines down and I'm on backup power,” reported Tempest.

  “Can you make it back to the Triton?” Slick asked.

  “I can.”

  “Good, stay under cover while heading for the nearest barrier edge. Launch a buoy ahead of you to tell them that you're coming in damaged.”

  “Aye, sorry.” She seemed genuinely disappointed and regretful as she closed the channel.

  The remainder of Minh's group broke cover in time to see a hail of larger missiles zig and zag rapidly towards the Viscount's Pride. “Those are Screamer Missiles, I love that ship,” Minh whispered as his fighter group opened fire with all their cannons. The enemy returned fire in vein. Their shots were absorbed by his squad's shields or blocked by the nearby meteorites and damaged hulks they used as an intermittent defensive wall.

  “That'll cause some damage,” Slick chuckled. “Oh man! That's about fifty hits!” he exclaimed as he watched the squadron's volley of dumb fire missiles strike the rear shields of the slow enemy vessel. The power levels of the shielding dropped drastically then the screamer missiles impacted squarely against the aft lower hull. The fighter's sensors reported the Viscount's Pride's shields were completely down.

  Minh opened a channel broadcasting on all bands. “You will not be allowed to escape alive. Surrender,” he warned.

  “Should we cease fire Ronin?” asked Finger.

  “If we cease fire they might not take us seriously,” he replied.

  The next time his squadron broke cover, drifting between two collections of larger meteors they dug into the rear of the ship. At first there was little apparent damage, but before they moved behind the next collection of stone and metal a large burst of white and grey erupted from the rear compartments.

  “This is Viscount's Pride, we surrender. Powering down weapons. Request permission to take on damaged fighters.”

  “Are they actually powering down?” Minh asked Slick.

  Slick watched the ship's profile on his sensors for a moment before answering. “I show less then one percent of their former power output. I don't think they had a choice, we hit something important.”

  “All right, tell them they're clear to take on their fighter compliment and watch for any extra power readings. Tell Buster to offer similar terms to her target.”

  “She's chasing them out of the barrier now.”

  “Oh that's a bad day waiting to happen. Triton’s going to cut them to ribbons
. Too bad we'll miss it, I've wanted to see that gunnery deck in action since I took the tour.”

  “You and me both.”

  “This is the Cold Reaver, we're touching down on the station.”

  “Clever Dream touching down in ten seconds.”

  Chapter 6

  Boarding

  The main hold of the Clever Dream was occupied by two squads of heavily armed Triton soldiers. They were all clad in combat vacsuits with the new armour layer added. It was like looking at a muscled version of Captain Valance's combat vacsuit, with horizontal flexible metal slats from head to toe, heavier combat boots up to the knee, and a new face plate that looked more like an ancient Roman centurion's helmet with a crimson Triton skull painted over top. Victor wasn't surprised when the design was added by Captain Valance himself, it was obvious that the value of intimidation wasn't lost on the man.

  The extra layer of the armour contained extra life support, a compensation system for heavy gravity areas, a personal shield, more cloaking circuitry, an equipment module that could be dropped if necessary and a backup computer that linked with their communication and control units. Victor's favourite feature of the suit was the gravity compensation systems which included a synthetic muscle layer that made it possible to move normally while affected by heavy gravitational forces. In normal gravity the suit could stand up while under three tons, and he couldn't wait to find an opportunity to test it under impractical conditions.

  Closest to the debarkation ramp stood Alaka, whose armour required a special touch. Three of the squadron members behind him had fought at his side on Pandem, pressing in the constant tunnel war to maintain the perimeter around Mount Elbrus. Victor Davis was one of those tunnel fighters and he couldn't help but stare at his old comrade.

  The Triton crew had converted the shell of an armoured augmentation suit, much like the loader suits used on the gunnery deck, only the shell they'd adapted for Alaka was like some modernized plate armour. The matte black surface was marked with the grey Triton skull on the right side of his chest and back, there was a mount for his rebuilt beam weapon, built in communications, sensor suite, personnel neutralization system and advanced survival kit for deep space. To look at the black armoured plates interlocking over the massive nafalli you couldn't tell they had fit so much into the suit, in fact no one facing Alaka would care to think what might be inside upon seeing him. He was huge, almost twice the height of some of the boarders and the black suit made him look even more imposing, even menacing.