“Drone,” Saint growled, and Key launched a tiny device from the holder on the back of his armor. It automatically fed a visual into each Marine’s helmet and showed the main advance gaining distance. It also revealed the rear team had several more pre-planned fallback positions. “Recall the drone,” he said in disgust. He activated the all-Marine comm connection. “Sinner, the bastards seem to have learned a thing or two about proper ground combat.”
“We were coming to the same conclusion, after taking a look up high.”
“What do you think?”
“Retreat to the shuttles, fly into the colony, and face them from behind the walls. Assuming, of course, Kate got rid of the heavy weapons, and they aren’t already assaulting the place.”
“I concur. Once we get to the shuttles, let’s plan to approach on different vectors, just in case.”
“Saint?”
“Yes, Sinner?”
“I’m officially done enjoying this war against the birds. We need to finish this thing up.”
A chorus of laughs followed her words, and Saint responded with, “Concur. There are bars to be opened.”
“I hope you’ll reserve a seat for me,” Sinner said.
“Seat, hell. You’re going to be the bartender, while I—”
“Sit in the back with a beer, Gunnery Sergeant?” Hugo Galano finished his sentence.
“Exactly. So, let’s get to the shuttles and get rid of these avian bastards.”
Chapter Seven
“Negative,” Kate responded over the comm system that linked the Washington, the Pandora, and the Marines on the ground. “I can’t provide air support, I’m too busy heading back to save Cross’s ass.”
Sinner laughed and said, “Acknowledged, Commander. We understand. You like him more than us.”
“Not really,” Kate replied. “You all are just better at taking care of yourselves.”
“Stow that nonsense,” Cross growled in what he considered an appropriately ferocious manner. He adjusted the channel to exclude the Marines and said, “Kate, our sensors show you’re bringing a friend along.”
“Well, I figured if you brought new friends to the party, it was all right if I did too. Besides, so far, he’s mostly harmless.”
On the main display, the trap that had been sprung on them was clear. Four additional ships had joined the two in orbit, and the seventh enemy vessel trailed the Pandora and traded shots with her as they rose through the atmosphere.
“The Washington will chart a course toward you. We’ll try to scrape him off as you come up, and then you can go after any that are trailing us.”
“Got it,” Kate replied.
“Figure out the vectors and make it happen, Lee,” he said. “Walsh, let’s use standard torpedoes and energy against this guy. The ship should be a little stressed coming out of the atmosphere anyway, and I’m sure Kate has knocked down its shields some. We’ll save the surprises for the other ships.”
“Aye, Captain,” replied his weapons officer.
“The computer has catalogued each of the ships, finally. This sensor block sucks.” Matthews shook his head in frustration at his controls. “The two ahead are cruisers. One of the four that just arrived is a rammer. The other three are a configuration we haven’t seen yet. Oh, and the one coming up from the planet is also a cruiser.”
Before Cross could reply, the vectors intersected, and the Pandora flashed by before the Washington. Walsh opened up with the port broadside as they cut in front of the trailing ship, and its shields buckled. Blasts from the aft weapons as they curved away stabbed deep into it, sparking a series of explosions that consumed the alien vessel.
“One for the good guys,” said Walsh with a grin.
“Good shooting, weps,” Cross answered. The icons for the enemy ships altered positions on the display, and the ones on Cross’s tail broke off. The six enemies converged and fell into formation in a shallow inverted V shape. The cruisers took the lead on the ends, and the trio of ships arranged themselves in a staggered line the middle. The rammer pushed out ahead, cutting down the angles from which they could engage the others.
“Time?” Cross asked.
“Seventy-eight seconds to engagement, Captain Cross,” answered Pandora’s lovely tones.
“What do you think, Kate?”
“Those three ships probably work in tandem, and the rammer is there to protect them.”
“Agreed. The Washington can’t stand up to a direct hit from the rammer, and I’m not sure your ship can either.”
“Perhaps one, but it would be quite debilitating,” replied the Pandora.
“Okay, then,” Cross said. “You have the best chance of surviving against the unknown ships until we discover what they are, so I’ll go high and introduce the cruisers and the rammers to some of our new weaponry. You can go low and try to take out one of the trio.”
“Sounds good,” she replied. Cross was sure he heard a hint of uncertainty in her tone, or maybe it was just exhaustion. His blood rose into his face as he considered all the Xroeshyn had cost him, all they’d cost humanity, and the murmured voices of his crew faded into the distance. He summoned his resolve and said, “Lee, execute.”
The Washington arced upward. “Walsh, on my command, energy and new torpedoes at the cruisers. Don’t feel the need to save any. Fire our bow weapons at the rammer. Let’s try to get his attention. Send a couple of the new toys his way, too.”
“Yes,” Walsh replied. “I’ve been waiting to see with these can do in a real fight.”
“Standby,” Cross said. When he judged the trajectories correct to prohibit the enemy rammer from getting in the way, he gave the order. “Fire.”
Unlike standard torpedoes, which left the Washington in a trail of fire, these were ejected by a forcible puff of air that came from their back stage. Once free of the ship, they locked onto their target and discarded the spent ejection stage to expose the engines. The missiles rocketed away toward their targets at half again the speed of traditional torpedoes. A beam reached out from the nose of the torpedo, invisible to human sight and probably somewhere at the top of the range the enemies could see. A tiny but powerful computer modulated the beam, testing the target’s response to varying frequencies. Before the missile had covered half the distance, it had identified the frequency algorithm that powered the enemy’s shields.
Four tiny ports on the torpedo emitted laser blasts, low-powered enough to sustain through the rest of the flight, but high-powered enough to drain the enemy’s shields. By the time the torpedoes reached the targets, the shields were down below quarter-strength, and the first missile strike eliminated them. The many that followed pulverized the ships, the explosions rendering them into pieces so small, the sensors couldn’t detect them.
Cross whistled. “I take back what I said earlier, Walsh. That, right there, was nice shooting.” His weapons officer gave a cackling laugh in response.
The weapons targeted at the rammer arrived a little later and knocked the big ship around but failed to penetrate. “Guess that would’ve been too much luck for one day,” Cross said. “Lee, evasive Theta, let’s try to draw the rammer out of Kate’s way. If he fails to follow, abort, and Walsh can take some more shots at him.”
While they’d been engaging their targets, Kate had been maneuvering to find the perfect angle for her attack run. She came in on one side, trying to position the Pandora so one of the three ships interfered with the attack vectors of the other two. Cross watched, approving of the strategy, until the mystery of the new ships was revealed.
The ship closest to the Pandora rotated to face her and engaged thrusters to push itself backward. The other two ships took opposite angles and emitted a thin green beam that reached out and intersected with the forward vessel.
Moments passed, during which Kate launched torpedoes and energy blasts against the front most ship. The rammer, already reorienting to pursue the Washington, fired countermeasures to protect the forward ship, as di
d the other two vessels. Between them they eliminated the torpedoes, and the enemy ship weathered the energy blasts without apparent harm.
The green beams had been intensifying with each passing second and finally stabilized. A wide green beam erupted from the front ship.
Cross watched, concern racing through him, as the emerald line reached out to intercept the Pandora. “What is that thing—” was all he had time to say before the beam washed over her.
The Pandora’s running lights vanished, and she lurched into an uncontrolled tumble along her previous vector.
The silence of the dead comm channel that connected him to Kate filled his ears.
Chapter Eight
Silence. Darkness.
Kate had never experienced the panicked fear currently clawing its way up her throat in the darkened shell of her ship. Every instinct screamed at her, warned her of predators coming in the night. Stark terror locked down her ability to speak, threatened her ability to think.
Then, like deliverance from above, the ship around her began to come back to life. It started with a soft glow on her display that grew into a blaze in the dark. The whispered “Thank heaven,” from Lynda Peterson broke the silence, and Kate exhaled the breath she was holding in fear it would be her last.
The bridge continued to illuminate, and the soft thrum of the ship’s engines, truly more felt than heard, reasserted itself in the part of her mind that cataloged such things.
The main display flickered to life and revealed the ship was tumbling on multiple axes, and the trio of enemies that had put her in this state was reorienting themselves for another blast. “Pandora?” Kate asked. She hit commands on her display, but it failed to respond to her instructions.
She cataloged her options, wondering if the small escape pods would function on reserve power, when that wonderful voice spoke. It sounded like it was coming from down a deep tunnel. “Primary systems restored. Engines at fifty percent and climbing. Controls will be available in twenty-three seconds. Weapons will be available in seventy-six seconds.”
It lacked the normal personal touch Pandora gave her communications, sounding somehow robotic rather than melodic. Nonetheless, it was one of the best things she’d ever heard.
“We might not have that long, Commander,” Diaz said. Kate swiveled to the main display where the lead ship in the triangle stopped moving, and the two green beams again emerged from its support ships. Kate watched the clock, and as it clicked down, she was sure the Pandora would lose the race.
She only realized the Washington was coming to her rescue when it slashed into her real-time view and fired a broadside at one of the support ships. It was forced to evade, trailing the Washington’s missiles as it ran, and the deadly blast from the front ship failed to materialize.
Seconds later her controls went active, and she rammed the throttles to full speed, steering on a vector toward the Washington.
At that same moment, the bill for the Washington’s rescue came due. She’d been forced to abandon subtlety to intervene and save the Pandora, and that allowed the rammer to get into position. The scene shifted into slow motion as it drove into the Washington’s port side at full speed. Kate thought thrusters fired at the last second to push the ship away from the Xroeshyn vessel, but it was too little, and far too late. She imagined the sound of the armored bulkheads folding inward. The ship rebounded crazily, her own engines cutting out for an instant before sputtering back to life. The rammer fired its weapons array into the Washington’s damaged side, but someone on the ship was still paying attention and it rolled. The enemy blasts carved a deep groove into the Washington’s skin as it rotated until unbroken shields and armor countered the enemy’s weapons.
She noted the comm systems were back and didn’t quite yell, “Cross?”
His reply was suffused with the sounds of a wounded ship. Alerts blared, and the cacophony of the many conversations required to stabilize the vessel. “That hurt, but we’re still functional. At least, for once, it wasn’t the starboard side.”
Lee’s shout from across the bridge sounded over the channel. “You’re welcome!” Despite the dire situation, she had to laugh.
Cross said, “Okay, it’s four on two, but I think those triple ships are less powerful than we are, if we can keep them from combining. If we’re fast enough, we ought to be able to take them out while avoiding the rammer. I’ll go after—”
“Captain, Commander,” interrupted Pandora, returned to her normal warm tones. “The situation has changed.”
Kate looked up the screen and saw all four ships had adopted a new heading. They were diving for the planet’s surface.
“Kate, this is a bad idea,” Cross said in a voice filled with concern.
“Yeah,” Kate said, tapping at her displays, “but it’s the only one we’ve got.” She wrenched the ship to vertical and blasted in pursuit.
She caught up with the rear element of the enemy formation in the outer atmosphere. Missiles from the Washington had streaked ahead but had been removed from the board by countermeasures from the four ships. Pandora had plotted the possibilities, and there was no chance, unless the enemy made a grievous mistake, to intercept the three lead ships before they reached the colony’s location. However, Kate imagined they’d make strafing runs at the colony. The base’s shield should be sufficient to defend against that attack from above. She could only hope they didn’t get clever and try to shoot at or sacrifice themselves against the lower walls, which were less well-protected.
Hopefully they wouldn’t know that. The humans needed at least one break, or things were going to get ugly in a hurry.
That left the rammer ship. As it danced in front of her, avoiding the torrent of energy blasts she was sending its way, Kate could picture it ramming into the colony at full speed. She doubted the ship would survive, but she also doubted the colony would survive. So, the rammer had become task one on her list of priorities.
“Pandora, plot the rammer’s trajectory for an optimal impact on the colony.” After a moment’s delay, the lines drew themselves in a portion of the screen, and Kate’s brain calculated the angles and presented her with an answer. She shifted onto a slightly angled vector that would keep her in range of the rammer during its descent. “Do we have any toys we haven’t tried on this thing?
Pandora’s voice came back sounding amused. “No, Commander. You’ve used all the available weapon types I possess.”
The sentence construction tickled something in the recesses of her mind. “Pandora, are you saying there are ship armament varieties that we do not currently have on board?”
“Yes, Commander.”
Kate grinned. She couldn’t help herself. “Please make a note that we need to have a conversation about that when this adventure is over, Pandora.”
“Yes, Commander.”
Kate ran her thumbs down the weapon selection options, familiar enough with them by now that she no longer needed to look down. She selected drill torpedoes and launched them at the rammer, a full flight of sixteen taking different routes toward the enemy vessel. The rammer’s countermeasures eliminated several, but the rest evaded the defense and engaged their lasers to create divots for the drills to exploit.
Kate noted the divots were unappealingly small and sent another flight after the first. All the weapons were targeted at the same radial point, about one third of the way back from the front of the ship, and torpedoes attacked that ring on all the ship’s surfaces. Meanwhile, she continued to pour max power blasts of laser and plasma into the tail of the ship, forcing the rammer’s crew to defend in multiple locations at once.
“What I wouldn’t give for some fighters right now. I bet a large number of smaller ships would be effective against these things.”
“It’s not a tactic that has been tried, as far as I know, Commander. Certainly, some were used in the battle around your home world, but not in a deliberate and organized fashion.”
“Make a note about that, too.”
“Noted, Commander.” Kate give small frown and glared at the spot where Pandora’s avatar often stood. She was pretty sure the ship was making fun of her.
“The enemy has changed course, Commander,” said Diaz. “It’s headed for the colony.”
“I hate it when I’m right,” Kate said. She launched another flight of drill torpedoes and followed it with some standard explosive torpedoes aimed at the nose of the ship to try to force it to break off.
On the main display, the rammer grew in size as it curved toward the colony and Kate’s ship drew closer.
“Collision in twenty-three seconds,” Pandora said.
“Armor at five seconds to impact, Pandora.”
“Acknowledged, Commander. We’re not yet at full charge. The armor will last for only seconds.”
“Belay that order, then. Armor at one second before impact, assuming that’ll give it time to fully engage.”
“Acknowledged, Commander.”
The rammer increased the intensity of its barrage against the Pandora. She destroyed the incoming projectiles and weathered the energy blasts with ease.
Then all Kate could do was wait and watch as Pandora counted down the time to collision. On the screen, she watched the torpedoes finish their work, hopefully weakening the impact point enough the Pandora and the colony would survive this test. Her energy barrages cut off at two seconds, so the blowback wouldn’t damage her. Then the armor cascaded onto the hull, and the ship took a huge jolt as it speared the rammer.
Kate was thrown against her restraints and bit her tongue. Her mouth filled with the salty tang of blood as they blasted through the rammer. The main display skewed wildly as the ship spun along its length, and she fought hard with the thrusters to adjust it, gaining control just in time to screech over the heads of one of the advancing columns. Any lower, and she would’ve been breaking the Domeki code of honor.
Victors Page 4