The Last Praetorian (The Redemption Trilogy)

by Mike Smith

  *****

  Approximately ten kilometres away from the Syndicate station, and still accelerating hard towards the incoming enemy ships, Jon noted on the scanner as the freighter slowly started to pull away from the station. However, according to the ship’s tactical computer the enemy ships were still going to overtake the fleeing freighter several minutes before it could make its escape into FTL.

  “Looks like I need to buy Miranda and Paul some time,” Jon said to himself in the Eternal Light, instructing the ship’s on-board computer to deploy the internal missile pods. Having expected trouble on this expedition the Eternal Light had additional weapon systems installed, as it was the closest the company had to a dedicated assault shuttle.

  Arming missiles and targeting the nearest ship, the tactical computer bleeped to inform him that the missile pods were now deployed and on-line. Confirming that the missiles had a strong lock on the lead fighter Jon launched the first salvo of missiles at maximum range.

  The missiles sped out of their launch tubes and, with a glaring light as their main engines fired, accelerated rapidly towards the on-coming ships. Jon continued to fire the remaining dozen missiles, alternating between the oncoming ships, until the launchers were empty. For a few brief seconds, the Eternal Light was true to its name as deadly missiles, one after the other sped away from the ship in a brilliant pyrotechnic display. Watching the missiles on his tactical computer he remembered the words of his earliest flight instructor.

  “When you have missiles, use them! Keep using them until you have no more! You cannot take them with you into the next life.”

  Watching the approaching ships carefully, Jon noted as soon as they detected the incoming missiles. Obviously treating the Eternal Light with contempt the approaching ships had remained in their close formation, but as soon as they detected the missiles, every ship broke formation and began a desperate series of violent manoeuvres to avoid the incoming missiles. In addition it quickly became obvious that the approaching shuttles had some sort of point defence weaponry, as the missiles targeting these ships disintegrated half a kilometre from the target. The remaining fighters fared less well, with over half being destroyed by the incoming missiles. With the formation of the enemy ships now completely disintegrated, the Eternal Light sped through the gap left by the destroyed ships and slid onto the tail of one of the approaching shuttles. Carefully targeting the engines and flight control surfaces, which Jon knew to be the weak point on these shuttles, he opened fire with the ship’s forward guns. The battle was well and truly joined.

  *****

  Miranda watched open mouthed in amazement as the ship’s sensors tracked the battle, now less than ten kilometres from their fleeing freighter. What had initially started off as a totally one-sided fight with eight enemy ships facing-off against the Eternal Light had now disintegrated into a free-for-all with three enemy fighters being destroyed in the first missile salvo and what appeared to be a now heavily damaged Syndicate assault shuttle. The enemy ships had been thrown into complete disarray by the ferocity of the attack and while Jon in the ‘Light had the freedom to manoeuvre and fire at will the remaining ships had to show restraint to ensure that they did not collide or accidently fire on their own ships.

  “I’ve never seen anything like that!” Miranda whispered in wonder. Paul spared a look from the engine controls where he had been trying to nurse every spare ounce of thrust out of them and glanced at the unfolding battle on the tactical computer.

  “He was the Commander of the 58th Squadron, the Praetorian Guards,” Paul explained tenderly. “They were an elite fighter squadron in the Imperial Navy. Personal bodyguards to the Emperor himself… and he was the best. His squadron were all destroyed escaping with the Emperors’ daughter, Sofia, right under the nose of a rogue Navy Commodore. The rest of his squadron gave their lives to buy enough time for the two of them to escape. I think Jon lost more than his squadron that day; he lost the closest thing he had to a family. He has been looking for a purpose in life ever-since then.”

  Miranda was shocked by the story that Paul unfurled, realising that she had misjudged Jon badly. She had always assumed that he was some cocky, golden boy that had everything in life handed to him. She was about to respond when she glanced at the scanner again. “Uh oh,” she said. “We seem to have company.”

  The scanner clearly demonstrated that the one remaining syndicate shuttle had broken from the battle and was now racing at full speed towards the station. Two fighters had broken off the engagement with the shuttle and, once clear, had changed their heading towards the escaping freighter and were now approaching at full speed. Jon was still busy with the remaining fighter and damaged syndicate shuttle and was unable to give chase.

  “Yes, we definitely have company,” she said with a newfound confidence in herself. She was determined that they all were going to survive this, and she promised herself that Jon and she were going to have a long talk when they got back home. “Those two fighters are going to be on us in less than thirty seconds, have you got any ideas?” Miranda directed the question to Paul.

  “Yeah, as a matter of fact I do,” Paul replied cryptically reaching above the flight controls for a concealed panel. Miranda had noticed the unusual panel during her pre-flight inspection prior to leaving Terra Nova, her curiosity having been piqued by a yellow flag attached to the panel where somebody had scribbled

  Use only in the case of extreme emergency!

  At the time she had just disregarded it as part of the ship’s emergency systems, probably a fire suppressant system, she had assumed. Paul discarded the yellow flag with a shake of his head and a quick smile of amusement, before flicking open the panel. A small row of switches resided within the panel and Paul started flipping these one by one.

  Slowly, but quickly building in momentum, Miranda noticed vibrations starting to run through the length of the freighter starting near the stern of the ship and moving towards the bow. As the vibrations moved towards the command deck Miranda started to feel the shudder as explosive charges detonated along the length of the hull. In-conjunction with the detonation of the charges, Miranda started to notice new systems coming on-line as part of the flight control system…

  Throughout the length of the ship, explosive charges detonated, separating superfluous hull plating from the ship to reveal dozens of weapon ports along the length of the ship. As previously hidden weapon systems started to power up, heavy rail guns and multiple missile batteries slid smoothly out from the hull into their deployed positions.

  “You didn’t think this was just any freighter did you?” Paul asked rhetorically with a smirk as the tactical computer reported dozens of weapon systems and point defence systems along the length of the ship were now in their fully deployed and active positions.

  “With the dramatic increase in attacks over the past few weeks on our ships, we decided that it was time to refit a number of our ships to better protect them. I present to you the first fully refitted ship, the Eagle One!” Paul waved his hands in a dramatic impression of a magician who had just pulled off his greatest trick. “The Eagle One is equipped with half a dozen heavy rail guns, bow and stern missile batteries and overlapping point defence weapons. She can go toe-to-toe with any ship in the system up to a Confederation Destroyer, and we could give one of those a run for its money,” Paul winked at Miranda.

  “Now let’s give these guys an object lesson in why not to mess with us.” Paul activated the weapons systems, targeting the approaching two fighters before passing total control of the now fully active weapons systems over to the ship’s computer…

  *****

  Having seen the destruction of three of their fellow ships and the heavy damage inflicted to one of their assault shuttles, the Syndicate pilots were in no mood to leave any survivors alive on the fleeing freighter. Anticipating no resistance they approached at almost full speed, the pilots waiting until they were within point blank range before opening fire. Hence it was already
far too late when they recognised the multiple weapons ports on the ship. The lead fighter, already well into his attack run continued, strafing the port side of the ship.

  The computer on the Eagle One prioritised the lead fighter and within milliseconds had calculated the approach vector and speed. Determining that the ship was too close for an accurate missile lock the computer activated the port side rail guns. Sighting the approaching fighter, all three portside weapons opened fire with massively dense, depleted uranium rounds. These super-dense shells had no explosive component, instead relying upon the kinetic energy of the shell impacting the target at a fraction of the speed of light. With all three-rail guns firing at over a hundred rounds per second, the approaching fighter disappeared in the barrage of gunfire.

  The second fighter, on seeing his lead wingman disappear in a flash of energy, frantically let loose a missile before he peeled away from the deadly warship.

  While the incoming missile was launched only a few hundred meters from the Eagle One with a transit time measured in seconds, for the ship’s computer this was an eternity. Simultaneously directing the ship’s point defence guns, similar to the rail guns but much smaller and with a far higher rate of fire, at the incoming missile the ship armed multiple missiles of its own in the aft launch tubes.

  The incoming missile was shredded by the multiple point defence guns spread across the hull more than a hundred meters away from the fleeing freighter, just as the responding missiles left their launch tubes. Unfortunately the now fleeing fighter did not possess the multitude of defensive guns as on the Eagle One; hence, while the fighter desperately tried to escape, it was hit first by one missile followed a fraction of a second later by another.

  The engagement between the Eagle One and the attacking fighters had only lasted a few seconds but was being monitored closely by Miranda and Paul on the bridge. Both breathed a deep sigh of relief when the second fighter disintegrated after being hit by the missiles.

  “We are thirty seconds to the nearest FTL jump point,” Paul confirmed checking the navigational computer. “We only suffered minor damage to the hull from those fighters,” he exclaimed, relieved.

  “What about Jon and the Marines still left on the station?” Miranda demanded looking back in the direction of the station and still on-going battle. “We cannot just leave them.”

  “We have no choice,” Paul insisted. “We do not know who else might have picked up that distress call and what sort of reinforcements might be on their way. We have used up our element of surprise with this ship; they are not going to fall for the same ruse again. In addition we have almost a dozen crew in the hold that are depending upon us to get them home safely. It’s just too risky for us to remain here,” Paul sighed. “One of the hardest decisions of command is when to leave people behind.”

  With that he started the power-up sequence for the ship’s FTL engine, now that they were finally away from the gravity field of the nearest moon. Paul did not think it constructive to mention that Miranda and Jon were similar in regard to never leaving people behind. It had always been Jon’s belief that nobody got left behind.

  Glancing back at the sensors, which showed the still-ongoing clash around the station with the Eternal Light. Miranda whispered. “Jon, bring them all back home safely,” with that the Eagle One slipped into FTL.

  *****

  Jon was relieved to observe from the corner of his eye that the Eagle One had escaped into FTL.

  “At least they made it out safely,” Jon, thought aloud, darting the ship out of the way of another stream of incoming weapons fire. Having quickly destroyed the initial fighters with the ‘Light’s missile complement and badly damaged one of the shuttles, the fight had quickly degenerated into a free-for-all melee. Unfortunately at this point Jon was at a significant disadvantage; no matter how heavily armed the ‘Light was, she was still a shuttle and not designed for such close-in combat. Previously the only advantage that Jon had, was that the opposing ships had to watch their fire to avoid hitting a friendly, however this advantage disappeared when two of the fighters and the undamaged shuttle peeled away and set a course directly for the station.

  The Eternal Light was still stuck fending off the remaining fighter and the occasional shot from the immobilised shuttle. While the two fighters had been dispatched prior to the Eagle One escaping into hyperspace, the undamaged shuttle had started to dock at the sole remaining undamaged docking port of the station. Jon meanwhile was too far away to render assistance to the Marines still on-board the station. Activating a communication channel to the Marines Jon inquired. “Gunny what is the situation over there?” The response was weak due to the distance from the station but intelligible.

  “We have secured the computer core and are making our way to the backup docking port for extraction.”

  “Heads up that you have incoming unfriendlies.”

  “Any idea of numbers?”

  “Not a clue,” Jon said. “You have one syndicate shuttle docking now. I do not have any information on numbers but safe to assume that they do not want to meet-and-greet.”

  “Understood, looks like we have just been handed our ticket off the station,” Gunny responded.

  Jon did not think it worth-while pointing out that it was unlikely that the Syndicate was just going to hand over the shuttle to the Marines.

  “Acknowledged, I’ll be there shortly,” Jon said, jerking the Eternal Light out of the path of another stream of gunfire. “I hope,” he added.

  *****

  Having extracted the computer core several minutes earlier, the heavily armed Marines had been making for one of the station’s hanger decks in the hope of finding a functioning ship when they received Jon’s warning. Having decided that a fully powered up and docked shuttle made a far more inviting target the Marines changed direction and hurried towards the secondary docking ring.

  “Ok, fan out and take up defensive positions,” Gunny ordered as they neared the shuttle docking ring. The hastily prepared plan was to ambush the attacking forcing and then capture their shuttle before the crew realised what was happening. The tricky part of the plan was where to stage the ambush; too close to the docking ring could result in damage to the shuttle, which they planned to capture intact. Too far away and the shuttle could depart before they could board it. Finally Gunny settled on the conjunction of the docking ring with the main habitat ring. This was a natural choke point but far enough away from the shuttle to avoid any damage.

  Having ensured that the rest of the team were behind suitable cover; Gunny ducked behind a bulkhead and checked the magazine on his assault rifle: he still had almost a full magazine. Quickly ejecting the magazine he slid in a fresh one and checked that there was a round in the chamber. Gunny had seen enough combat to know that those extra few rounds could mean the difference between life and death. Satisfied that his weapon was ready and that the rest of his team were behind cover, he readied himself for the appearance of the Syndicate troops, he did not have long to wait.

  With a pounding of heavy boots the Syndicate troops rounded the airlock into the line of fire of the Marines. Dressed in the dark tactical armour frequently used by corporate security and police teams throughout the sector and armed with a variety of weaponry they were obviously not expecting a battle hardened and well positioned opposition. While Gunny had not specifically discounted the possibility of surrender it was still an option that was available to the opposing troops. Unfortunately that option quickly vanished when the lead soldier, upon sighting the Marines, raised his pulse rifle and let loose a volley of gunfire. That was enough for Gunny who sighting down his rifle depressed the trigger, sending a salvo of bullets back in response. The rest of the Marines opened fire at the same time.

  Over time armour had evolved to face the different multitudes of weaponry, from ancient times when heavy armour was first introduced to combat the threat from archers and lancers, through to the lighter and more flexible armour designed to combat propel
lant based weaponry. With the advent and wide spread use of energy based weaponry, armour was suitably adapted. Modern combat armour consisted of multiple layers of alloys and synthetic composites all designed to spread and dissipate the focused beam from an energy weapon. Unfortunately this armour was far less resistant to the heavy slugs fired from the Marines’ automatic weapons.

  As a result the lead Syndicate soldier was flung back by several rounds from different directions piercing his tactical armour. This had the result of halting the Syndicate advance as the troopers following close behind all disappeared into a tangle of limbs on the floor. This probably resulted in saving many of their lives, as the subsequent volley of automatic gunfire from the Marines mostly went high. Having overcome their surprise at the sudden onslaught the Syndicate solders started to pull back to the nearest cover; their responding weapons firing sporadically, at best.

  Recognising that the Marines needed to keep the initiative and that they could not afford to allow the Syndicate troops to regroup and take-up their own defensive positions, Gunny motioned for the Marines to advance. The advantage now switched to the attacking force as without the element of surprise and the loss of their cover the Syndicate weapons fire became more frequent and accurate, however the heavy armour and high rate-of-fire from the automatic weaponry of the Marines managed to keep the Syndicate soldiers behind there limited cover.

  Gunny had taken point at the front of the Marines and was almost at the corridor intersection where the Syndicate troops had taken cover when one of the soldiers appeared, grenade in hand! Being only inches apart the soldier was too close for the Marine sergeant to bring his weapon to bear; at any moment the soldier was going to overcome his shock and release the grenade!

  In desperation Gunny did the first thing that came to mind, releasing his own weapon and grasping the enemy soldiers hand in a vice like grip, totally encompassing the grenade. Having overcome the shock of appearing face-to-face with one of the Marines and realising that he could not throw the grenade the soldier brought up his energy pulse pistol and depressed the trigger. At point blank range the weapon couldn’t miss!