by Ryk Brown
“Jumpers have breached the upper atmosphere,” Mister Navashee reported from the sensor station on the bridge. “They’re starting to heat up.”
“How long until the jump shuttles arrive?”
“Ten seconds,” Mister Randeen reported from the tactical station directly behind Nathan’s command chair.
“Green deck,” Nathan announced. “Stand by to launch all fighters.”
* * *
The Jung guard sat in his watch tower overlooking the airfield outside. Two hundred Jung fighters were arranged in perfect rows along all four sides of the open tarmac, leaving a large open area in the center of the airfield for launches and touchdowns. From his position in the small, glass-enclosed booth, he could see along the back sides of the support buildings around the outside edge of the tarmac, as well as the other three guard towers on the other corners of the base.
His gaze alternated between the view outside, the many camera views displayed on his console, and the book he was reading on his data pad. It was only an hour before dawn, and soon, his relief would arrive and another long watch would end. It was a boring job for a soldier but a safe one at least.
A bright flash of blue-white light lit up the entire base for an instant, followed by a shock wave of suddenly displaced air that blew out the windows of the guard tower. The soldier was knocked backward onto the floor of the small room that was now open to the cold, morning air. He shook his head, sending drops of his own blood flinging about as he tried to regain his senses. He climbed to his feet again, feeling blood streaming down his face from multiple facial lacerations. He could hear the sounds of jet turbines coming from the middle of the airfield and warning sirens as they began to alert the base of danger.
The guard managed to stand, wiping the blood from his eyes. He looked out onto the airfield and saw a shuttle of some sort hovering seven meters above the tarmac. There were large, robotic-looking bodies jumping out of the rear cargo hatch of the shuttle as it hovered. One by one, they each landed with a thud, apparently not bothered by their hard landings. As they hit the ground, small mechanized cannons deployed from their backs, peered over their shoulders, and began firing bolts of red plasma energy into the nearby fighters, tearing them to pieces. As the robotic-looking bodies advanced, they pulled bulky, handheld weapons from attachment points on their thighs and started firing with them as well, sending orange streaks of energy toward any target they could find.
The guard struggled to reboot his weapons control console, which had been knocked offline by the shock wave, to fire the tower’s main guns. As he worked, he glanced back toward the tarmac and saw bolts of energy spewing out of the back of the shuttle as the ship rotated slowly. The bolts of energy struck one of the guard towers on the opposite side of the field first, then began tearing through the buildings along the edge of the base. The shuttle continued to rotate, its weapons fire finding the next guard tower as it turned.
Jung soldiers began pouring out of the back sides of buildings, pulling on body armor as they ran around to move into position to attack the intruders.
The guard watched in frustration as his console failed to restart and automatically started the process over again. He looked out at the shuttle as it continued to rotate, now rising slowly while it continued tearing apart buildings and guard towers.
The guard screamed something in Jung at his malfunctioning weapons console as soldiers on the ground opened fire on the rising shuttle. The guard glanced to his left and saw the path of destruction being dealt by the weapon in the rear of the shuttle move toward him. He looked to his right and saw that his access ladder—his only means of escape—had also been damaged by the shock wave and hung precariously off the side of the tower. He grabbed his rifle from the floor next to him and took aim, sending his own bolts of energy at the attacking ship.
It was too late. The energy bolts from the shuttle’s weapon struck his guard tower, blowing it apart. The guard felt himself being picked up and thrown backward into the air, tumbling as he flew. First the sky, then the ground, then his burning tower, then the sky again. Then he felt intense pain as he hit something and blacked out.
* * *
The inside of the Aurora’s newest jump shuttle—the one they referred to as the ‘super-jump shuttle’—momentarily filled with the blue-white light of their jump flash. The shuttle shook violently, and the thunderous clap of sudden air displacement sounded. The shuttle bounced for a moment as the pilot struggled to regain control after suddenly finding himself in atmospheric flight instead of coasting through the vacuum of space.
“Fuck!” the copilot screamed over the comm-set.
“Scares the shit out of you, doesn’t it?” the pilot said.
“I think I bit my lip,” the crew chief announced.
“Are we there? Did we hit the mark?” the pilot asked.
“We’re there! We’re there! Slide her forward!” the copilot instructed.
The leader of the ten-man Ghatazhak squad in the shuttle’s cargo bay smiled at the comm-chatter.
“Jump! Jump! Jump!” the crew chief called with a slight lisp as he nursed his injured lip.
The Ghatazhak ran out the back of the shuttle, jumping off its cargo ramp in pairs as the shuttle slid forward slightly to keep them from landing on top of one another.
The leader was the first off the cargo ramp of the shuttle. He leapt off the end of the ramp, his arms outward for balance as he fell the eight meters to the ground. His exoskeleton whined as it took the force of the impact for him when his boots hit the tarmac below. He immediately began barking instructions in Takaran to his combat suit’s weapons systems, causing his small mechanized cannons to deploy from either side of the top of his backpack. The cannons tipped over to face forward, pivoting in accordance with the suit’s targeting computer’s commands. As the shoulder cannons began firing, he reached down with both hands, grabbing the handheld energy weapons from each of his thighs and raising them to open fire.
More Takaran instructions directed his cannons to concentrate on nearby fighters. He continued walking casually forward as his cannons fired away, destroying everything their balls of plasma energy impacted. He could see the guard towers at the corners of the base, each of them with their windows blown out.
“Jumpers away!” the crew chief’s voice declared over the comms.
“Let them have it, Chief!” the copilot called out.
“Rotating,” the pilot announced.
The Ghatazhak leader could hear the sound of the energy cannon that had been temporarily liberated from the Falcon and installed in the super-jump shuttle. He looked up as the energy bolts from the shuttle’s weapon streaked overhead. The first bolt of energy struck the nearest tower. It continued to fire in rapid succession, plowing through the distant buildings as the shuttle slowly rotated in its hover directly over them.
The leader continued his advance, his shoulder cannons blazing as he fired his handheld weapon at anything that looked like it needed to be destroyed. He could see men running out of the buildings in the distance. He barked out more instructions, this time to his men, causing the lead teams to advance more quickly through the lines of undamaged fighters, while the rear teams continued destroying the small spacecraft with their shoulder cannons.
“Let’s start climbing,” the pilot ordered.
“Increasing power,” the copilot answered.
“Damn! This is better than target practice back on Corinair!” the crew chief declared with glee as he continued firing the energy cannon out the cargo hatch at the rear of the super-jump shuttle.
The Ghatazhak leader and his forward teams advanced toward the buildings, opening fire once again as they passed the outermost line of fighters. The soldiers rushing toward them dropped to the ground and returned fire, only to find that their energy weapons bounced off the G
hatazhak’s external shielding.
The whine of the hovering super-jump shuttle’s turbine increased as she climbed. The Ghatazhak leader sprayed the buildings with his shoulder cannons. He expertly placed single shots into the heads of every Jung soldier for which he had line of sight.
“Three-sixty complete.” the pilot announced over the comms. “Thrusting forward and pitching up.”
“Ten seconds to jump,” the copilot announced. “Close her up, Chief.”
“Copy that,” the chief answered as he stopped firing his energy cannon. He swung the weapon inward to get it clear of the hatchway and hit the button to cycle the ramp up against the aft end of the shuttle and seal the bay closed.
“Five seconds,” the copilot announced as the shuttle began to climb out at an increasing rate.
“Good luck, gentlemen,” the pilot called over the comms.
The Ghatazhak squad leader smiled. The base again lit up with the blue-white flash as the super-jump shuttle jumped away. To him, luck was not a factor.
* * *
Major Prechitt’s fighter lifted a few centimeters off the deck as the artificial gravity in the launch airlock dialed down to zero. The launch rail shuttles pulled tightly on the wingtips of his fighter, lifting his spacecraft just high enough for him to retract his gear.
“Gear up. Doors closed,” the major reported over his helmet comms. “Mains and maneuvering hot. Talon One, ready for launch.”
“Copy, Talon One,” the launch controller replied. “Bay depressed. Rails hot. Launching in three……”
The launch bay’s outer door directly in front of the major’s fighter split in half where they met the launch rails on either side.
“Two……”
The two halves of the door quickly parted, sliding up into the ceiling and down into the deck in only two seconds. With his finger on the abort button, the major looked down the dimly lit launch tube, seeing that it was open to space at the far end.
“One……”
The major removed his finger from the abort button, grabbing the handrails on either side of the cockpit in preparation for launch.
“Launch.”
The launch rails on either side of the launch tube became charged, pulling the rail shuttles clamped onto Talon One’s wingtips down the rail, and pulling the fighter along with them. Blue energy glowed and sparked from the rails as the rail shuttles accelerated the fighter down the tube. Major Prechitt felt himself being pushed back hard into his flight seat as his fighter accelerated down the tunnel. Four seconds later, his fighter shot out the end of the launch tunnel and beyond the Aurora’s bow. His speed indicator jumped drastically as it switched from measuring his speed in relation to the Aurora’s launch tube and added the Aurora’s speed to that of its own.
The force of acceleration gone, the major released his hold on the handrails and took hold of his flight controls. His attention quickly danced over his displays as he checked all his systems. Satisfied that everything was in order, he keyed his comms. “Talon One away.”
“Talon Two away,” his wingman announced as he cleared his launch tube. “Forming on leader.”
“Talon Three away. Forming on leader.”
“Talon Four away. Forming on leader.”
“Talon One has the lead. Activating tactical uplink with combat control.”
Major Prechitt monitored the tactical data streaming from his uplink with the Aurora’s combat information center. He listened to each of his Talon fighters report in as they launched. It would take six minutes for all forty-eight fighters to launch, which meant he would be about to reach line of sight with Tanna’s fifth moon by the time his attack group was fully formed. Under normal circumstances, he would have gone to full power once he had a full eight-ship element launched in order to deny the enemy time to launch their fighters. This time was different. The entire purpose of his flight was to get them to launch in the first place. He doubted many of them would get clear of the fighter base before it was too late.
“Fighters are away,” Mister Randeen reported from the Aurora’s tactical station.
“How long until they get line of sight on the fifth moon?”
“One minute,” Mister Randeen answered.
“Contacts!” Mister Navashee reported. “Jump shuttles One and Two just jumped in behind us.”
“Flight ops reports jump shuttles are on fast approach,” Naralena reported from the comm station. “The last Ghatazhak team is standing by to load.”
“Very well,” Nathan said. “Any word on the strike teams?”
“No contact yet,” Naralena answered.
“I don’t have line of sight on the second base yet,” Mister Navashee said, “but the first base is getting blown to hell.”
“Any fighters get off the ground there?” Nathan asked.
“No, sir,” Mister Navashee answered with confidence.
“Fifteen seconds until our fighters have line of sight with the fighter base,” Mister Randeen reported from the tactical station.
* * *
Lieutenant Telles finished climbing down the side of the crater on the surface of Tanna’s fifth moon. He looked out across the crater floor. It was smooth and clean with four raised portions in a line down the center.
He checked the time on his visor display. The Aurora’s fighters would be picked up by the Jung fighter base below them at any moment, which left his team less than a minute to get where they were going. He raised his right hand and signaled for his men to move into position.
All ten Ghatazhak moved swiftly across the smooth crater floor, being careful not to bounce as they walked for fear of launching themselves into space. This close to the base, they couldn’t risk using their cold jets to hold them down for fear of detection.
The men spread out, taking positions along the edge of the four raised sections. Two groups of two Ghatazhak positioned themselves at the two outermost sections, while the other two groups of three positioned themselves near the two innermost sections.
As he reached his position, the massive doors in the middle of each raised section slid open, revealing the launch tunnels underneath them. Lieutenant Telles peered down into the tunnel. It was at least fifty meters deep and about twelve meters in diameter. As he peered over the edge into the tunnel, the inner doors at the bottom of the tunnel began to slide open quickly. He leaned back, ducking down. The rest of his team saw the lieutenant’s actions and followed suit. Moments after they got into position, four fighters shot out of the tubes, their main engines firing a split second after they cleared the exits.
As the departing fighter’s thrust-wash blasted the lieutenant, he checked the time readout on his visor display. He waited patiently, not moving from his position. As he waited, he dipped his chin and drank some cold water from a small tube sticking out from the base of his helmet. He continued to wait. He glanced at the man facing him who had a smile on his face. His men were happy. They were doing what they had trained their entire adult lives to do.
Another fighter shot out of the tube, its thrust-wash again pounding against his back. He glanced at his time display. Forty seconds had passed. He waited five seconds to allow the thrust-wash to lessen. Then he stood upright, climbed onto the side of the raised section, stepped off the edge, and began to fall slowly down the tube in the slight gravity of Tanna’s fifth moon. With only twenty-five seconds remaining until the next fighter would pass through the launch tube, the lieutenant and his men fired their thrusters, the risk of detection aside, in order to accelerate their descent.
The lieutenant looked at his time readout. He had fifteen seconds before the next fighter launch, and his display said he was only halfway down the tube. A quick calculation in his head told him he would not get clear of the next fighter’s launch in time. He fired his thrusters once
more, burning them even longer than before.
He now had five seconds to touchdown… ten seconds until the next fighter launch. He looked down as the inner doors rushed up toward him. He bent his knees in preparation for the impact, which came two seconds later. He hit hard and immediately ran toward the sides of the massive doors, knowing full well that the airlock on the other side of the door was nearly depressurized by now and would open at any moment. Just as he reached the edge of the massive door and stepped out beyond the door’s thick collar, it began to quickly slide open.
The lieutenant pulled himself as close to the irregular rock wall as possible as the next fighter rushed past him, up and out of the launch tunnel. He held on tightly as the thrust-wash found its way down the tunnel to beat down on him again, albeit far less forcefully than when he was on the surface. He looked at his time readout once more. Five seconds after the fighter had launched, the inner doors started to close. It was going to be close.
* * *
“Flight, Talon One. All ships on station. Eight hostiles departing from fifth moon, inbound on us. Going to full burn.”
“Flight copies,” the flight controller on the Aurora answered over the major’s helmet comms. “Good hunting, sir.”
“Talon Flight, leader. Tracking eight hostiles. One through Eight, full burn with me. Target respective hostiles. Nine through Sixteen, hold back and power up as needed to pick up anything that gets through. All other Talons, weapons cold, power nominal.”
Major Prechitt watched his instruments as his squad leaders acknowledged their orders. A minute ago, his scope had showed only four fighters on their way toward him from the fifth moon. Now there were four more, for a total of eight. He hoped no more fighters would be able to launch, as he hoped to save as much fuel and ordnance as possible to support ground operations on Tanna.