Fire Ant

by Jonathan P. Brazee

  For the next hour, the eight ships hurtled towards the two stars at max Gs, building up more speed. Tala’s scanners weren’t showing anything out of the ordinary, and she kept glancing at Ranger’s blip on her helmet display, wondering what he was getting. When Delta went under 20 minutes before beginning their gravity assist slingshot (and Fox was at 32 minutes), Beth decided that Ranger’s reading was just a hiccup, an anomaly.

  And then all hell broke loose.

  As if coming out from behind a curtain, first five bogeys appeared on her display, identified by most of Tala’s scanners.

  “Tally five,” Tuna said in a calm voice. A moment later, seven more popped up, and Tuna said, “Correction, tally twelve.” All 12 were on the other side of Delta and heading for an intercept.

  Purple Flight’s orders were to avoid engagement. This was a recon mission, not an assault mission. Already, there was data streaming in that would give the analysts a huge boost in figuring out just what the aliens were.

  “Break, break . . . hold that,” the lieutenant started.

  The orders had been that if there were aliens in the system, the flight would break contact. However, this close to the stars, breaking contact immediately might not be the quickest way to get back to the gate. Breaking before reaching the stars would mean fighting the stars’ gravity, much like Beth in the Lily had planned to do before the situation got away from her. It might be the case that continuing forward, then using the stars’ gravity well to sling around would be quicker—if the alien ships were far enough away to allow for that.

  “Rose, what is the intercept to Delta Flight given the alien ships and keeping the current course?”

  The lieutenant would be running the numbers, too, and he wouldn’t be asking her, but she wanted to know the answer.

  “Thirty-two minutes, fourteen seconds.”

  What about any weapons they have? I know they’ve got torpedoes. How far can they reach?

  “OK, Purples, continue on present course with the gravity assist. Weapons free, but I don’t have to remind, you, we fire only if fired upon.”

  “Fuck that. If they look at me funny, I’m lighting them up,” Mercy passed on the S2S. “Don’t like running,” she added quietly.

  “Neither do I, but you heard Swordfish.”

  This was a historic moment, what could be the first-ever clash between the Navy of Humankind and an alien force, and the Navy was running. It made strategic sense, but that didn’t mean it didn’t sting.

  Beth rearranged her display to show the two stars, the eight friendlies, and the twelve aliens, all with timers to various points. It looked like Fox Flight would reach their star with a good time cushion, but Delta’s window would be much tighter. They might have to take a G-Shot and speed up.

  No pilot wanted a G-Shot. It did allow for the human body to survive a fighter’s maximum Gs, but it was good for only a limited amount of time before it became fatal, and once initiated, it tore the body up, requiring several weeks of convalescence and creating complications that surfaced later in life.

  Plus, it evidently hurt like hell.

  “Don’t focus on Delta,” the lieutenant passed to Fox Flight. “We don’t need any surprises on our side.”

  Beth grimaced. She’d been doing exactly that. She split her helmet display so she could monitor all of the scanning being done. Still, she couldn’t help but watch the numbers as the forces closed.

  “Warthog, you got anything at all?” the lieutenant asked.

  LTJG Bendick had a broadcast pod on his Wasp that was continually ranging different types of spectrums, broadcasting in verbal and binary languages. The forces were close enough for some of those signals to reach the aliens.

  “Nothing that my AI can interpret, but there might be something.”

  There was a long pause, then the lieutenant passed, “You’ve got the priority on the gate. Make sure your comms pod is recovered. Red Devil and Ant, make sure Warthog gets through, no matter what.”

  “Aye, aye,” Mercy and Beth chimed, then Mercy added on the S2S, “What’s that about? What’s he going to be doing?”

  It did seem to be an odd order, but Beth quickly forgot about it as Delta started slinging around their star. The aliens were still closing, but it looked like with the extra speed in the gravity assist, the flight would be able to outrun the bad guys back to the gate.

  That was assuming the aliens didn’t change their course or speed, which, of course, they did.

  The lead five immediately sped up, pulling some remarkably high G’s, and five smaller blips appeared, shooting out ahead.

  “Torpedoes!” Beth passed instinctively, but needlessly.

  “Brilliant powers of observation, Ant,” Nicolescu said on the S2S. “Now how about getting off the fucking net so we can fight?”

  Chagrined, Beth shut up, listening as Tuna ordered seeker mines and torpedoes of their own.

  “Fox, engage with lasers as I designate, but keep on present course,” Lieutenant Hadley passed.

  The distance between Fox and the aliens was at the limit of the torpedo’s range. The torps would keep flying forever, but they could only maneuver for a limited amount of time. The lasers, however, had almost unlimited range.

  One of the alien ships lit up in flashing yellow—this was her target. Beth locked on and fired.

  What the holovids never got right was the wait between firing and hitting the target, even with lasers and particle beams. Rose continued to track the target’s path, taking into account that the position of the image on Beth’s display lagged the actual position, then created a probability cone on where it should be by the time the laser reached it. It was a constant game of very high-level math, math that didn’t even exist until a few hundred years ago. Any military-grade laser could take out a fly’s nuts at a million klicks—the problem was figuring out where the fly would be when the beam got there.

  Beth held her breath, expecting to see some sort of reaction when she was on target, then let it out with a “Whoop!” when her target jinked. She’d either hit or at least put the fear of God into it. Either way, that should help out Delta, which slung around their star, soon to be out of sight of Fox until both emerged on the other side of their respective stars and were heading back to the gate.

  LTJG Bendix’s target also jinked, but the remaining three kept to their courses. From behind and below the system’s orbital plane, the other seven continued to close the distance.

  “Ready torps,” the lieutenant passed. “Second group of aliens.”

  As Fox started into its gravity assist, the star would block their fire, so the self-guiding torpedoes were their only option. The range was still on the outer edge, but it was better than nothing.

  Beth acknowledged her two targets, armed the trigger, then poised, finger over the firing button, waiting for the order. Each second brought the forces closer together, but they didn’t want to get too far into the star’s gravity well before firing.

  She wished she could hear what was going on with Delta, but she was not on their flight net. As the Purple Flight commander, the lieutenant could listen in, but if he was, he wasn’t passing anything to the other three in Fox.

  “Stand by for torpedoes . . . fire!”

  Beth pushed the button, one of the few mechanical controls in her Wasp. Two of her three torpedoes shot out, then adjusted their courses for the aliens. She craned her head around, but they were already out of sight as they flew across the void.

  Just as Delta passed behind their star, her display lit up with pink lines, emanating from the group of seven bogeys.

  Pink?

  “Rose, what are the pink lines?”

  “Unknown source. The probability is that they represent a yet-unknown energy weapon.”

  “Just fucking great,” Mercy broke in on the S2S. “You getting this, Beth?”

  “Sure am. What are they?”

  “No freaking clue. That’s why they’re ‘unknown.’ Can’t be good
, though.”

  One of Delta ships’ blip winked out. It was Nicolescu’s.

  “Shit!” Mercy said, before being cut off by the lieutenant saying, “Keep on course.”

  Beth felt a sudden surge of nausea. She’d known being a Wasp pilot was a dangerous job, but that was an abstract—until now. Bull was gone, just like that.

  And then they were whipping around their star, building up frightening speed. Beth’s mind was in a daze while she fought to keep from throwing up.

  They reached the point when they started to pull out of the orbit, and Beth forced herself to focus. She had to be in the here and now.

  “Remember, Kevin, you’ve got to get the comms pod back. Nothing gets in your way. Red Devil and Ant, protect his ass!” the lieutenant passed.

  Something was up, and Beth didn’t know what. She pulled up the lieutenant on her display, wondering if there was something wrong with his Wasp. But no, the readings were fine. She was just about to cut away from the fighter when she realized the Wasp wasn’t heading out. It was still in the grav assist orbit.

  “You’re drifting, Swordfish,” she passed on the S2S.

  Cutting a course too tight, especially at these speeds when mistakes were more difficult to correct, could have deadly consequences. Plummeting into the star was more than a real possibility.

  “Lieutenant, you’re deviating.”

  “Just keep your course, Ant.”

  “But . . .” she started before she understood.

  He’s going to support Delta.

  At the moment, Delta and Fox were whipping around to head to the gate. If the lieutenant kept the gravity assist and headed for the other star, he’d be heading in the wrong direction. His only options would be to make a huge loop and try and make it back to the gate or whip around Delta’s star. Neither option was optimal. Looping around would take time, time he might not have. Using Delta’s star for a gravity assist would entail him heading right at the alien ships first.

  Her hands were moving before her brain had actually made the decision. She pulled in her course as well. She was too late to be on the lieutenant’s tail, but she should be keeping within range of where she could support him.

  Bendix had already started to pull out of the orbit to head to the gate, followed a moment later by Mercy.

  “Beth, what the hell are you and Swordfish doing?”

  “Delta needs support.”

  “Fuck! Ok, I’m coming, too.”

  “Too late. You’re too far out now. And you heard the Swordfish. You gotta get Warthog through the gate.”

  “Ant! What are you doing?” the lieutenant passed, his voice breaking in anger.

  “I’m coming with you, sir.”

  “I gave you a direct order.”

  “Sorry about that, but you know I’m really a civilian at heart, not much for discipline and such.”

  “Damn it! Take another orbit and follow the other two.”

  “Not going to happen, sir,” she said.

  She switched to the S2S and asked, “Mercy?”

  “I’m heading to the gate,” her friend said in a subdued voice. “Satan’s nuts, just fucking make it back, OK?”

  “You’ve got it.”

  And then Tala was emerging from the star. To her left, the second star shone brightly. Beth had to bring the fighter around with a long way to catch up to the lieutenant.

  “Maybe you really aren’t Navy material, Ant,” the lieutenant passed on the S2S, making Beth’s heart fall. “But I’m glad you’re here. Let’s kick some ass, OK?”

  “Roger that.”

  “Kicking the G-Shot,” Ranger passed. “Don’t know how much good it’s going to do.”

  The lieutenant must have tied me into the Delta net.

  She wasn’t sure why, if Ranger and . . .

  Hell, it’s only Ranger and Uncle left.

  . . . if those two were going to kick the G-Shot, why wasn’t it going to do any good?

  “Understood. Godspeed,” Swordfish said.

  “Ant, Tuna and Bull are gone. Ranger and Uncle have both been hit, their fighters damaged. They don’t know if the ships will reach max Gs. One bogey was destroyed by a mine, but four are closing fast. I’m going to try and give them a little breathing room. I want you to fire your last torp, then use your hadron before you break contact. Understood?”

  “Roger that. Understood.”

  “And no hero stuff, hear me?”

  “No hero stuff, roger.”

  Like you aren’t doing that?

  Beth was pulling her Wasp around, trying to get into position to support the lieutenant. The four enemy bogies were approaching the star, and it wouldn’t be long before they reached it and had a clear line-of-sight to the two Delta Wasps.

  The seven—no, six other bogies were lagging behind. One of them was gone, she hoped to a Navy torpedo. Pink lines of whatever weapons they had were still lighting up Beth’s display, but not with as heavy a salvo as before.

  Both Ranger and Uncle kicked their G-Shots, but their Wasps didn’t accelerate. With the shots invading their systems, they quit speaking, and the net became quiet. Beth tried not to imagine what they were going through—and evidently needlessly. Their ships were damaged and couldn’t accelerate, with four bogies bearing down on them.

  “Kevin, get two tugs. I’m not sure Uncle or Ranger are going to be able to line up for the gate.”

  “What about you?” Bendick asked. “You and Ant.”

  “I’m going to try and get the bogies off of their asses. Ant’s going to give me some support, then hightail it back to you. Don’t wait if you have to destroy the gate.”

  “Roger that.”

  “Sorry about that, Ant, but . . .”

  “Understand completely.”

  She did understand, but that didn’t stop the wave of fear that washed over her. This could, probably would, be it. She didn’t expect to make it back. She’d been very lucky the first time, and she’d probably used up all the luck she had. Her left hand started trembling.

  She popped the drink tube into the base of her helmet and took a long drink of Coke, the cold fizziness breaking her mood, and getting rid of the sourness in her mouth.

  Thanks, Josh.

  She shook her head once, then leaned forward in the cockpit. It was time to get down to business.

  ***************

  “Get some, Swordfish!” Beth yelled as the lieutenant swooped into battle, scoring his first kill.

  He’d hit the four bogies as soon as they emerged from behind the star with his remaining torpedoes and his Hadron. It was the particle beam that had destroyed one of the bogies, and he was now sweeping it across the other three.

  Beth launched her remaining torpedo—they hadn’t seemed to be overly effective, but it wasn’t doing her any good sitting in its cradle. Now it was time to see what she could do with her hadron.

  She was still pretty far out, her looping correction to join the lieutenant had taken her much longer to travel. Still, she should be putting a lot of energy on her targets. The problem was that particle beams traveled close to C, but never reached them, so the time for the beams to travel was longer. The weapons systems compensated by spreading the beam out for longer shots, which allowed for easier targeting, but less power on the target itself. Beth could tell she was scoring hits, but she was not getting kills.

  Just let me get closer.

  Alarms blared out for a moment, and Beth’s heart jumped. She’d had a near-miss with one of the pink beams of the six ships. She still didn’t know what they were, but with the formation hanging back and seemingly relying on them, she was pretty sure she didn’t want to get hit with one.

  One of the three bogies had dropped below the orbital plane as it started to come back to the lieutenant, so, Beth trained her gun on it. Half way through its arc, it broke off.

  “Thanks, Ant,” the lieutenant said. “And that lets me . . . take that, bastard!”

  Navy communicati
ons were instantaneous with twinned comm sets, but Beth had to wait to see what he was talking about, screaming her warrior cry when she saw. He’d just scored another kill.

  Maybe we’re going to get out of here alive?

  The hope was short-lived. Just seconds later, the lieutenant was hit, most of his readings dropping to zero.

  “Swordfish, are you OK?”

  “Ant, I’m hit. Trying to affect repairs.”

  “How bad is it?”

  “Ant, do you read me?”

  “I read you, Swordfish. How bad is your fighter?”

  “Ant? Ant? Shit, can she even hear me? Ant? If you can read me, I’m in bad shape. I think my core is cracked . . .”

  Which meant his cockpit would be getting flooded with gamma particles.

  “I’m going to try a reboot, but . . . look, stay with Uncle and Ranger. Get them back, OK?”

  “I’m not going to leave you!” she shouted knowing he couldn’t hear.

  Both remaining bogies were coming back to finish him off. Anger surged through her, replacing everything else. To her very core, she wanted to rend and destroy whatever those things were out there.

  She fired her hadron again, but she was still too far out for the cannon to have much effect.

  Fuck it!

  She pulled off the cover next to her head, turned the knob, then pulled. Immediately, molten fire poured into her veins and arteries, burning her up from the inside. She screamed in agony as the G-shot filled her body, giving it support, the screams choking off as oxygenated fluid filled her lungs to keep them from collapsing. Her arms were heavy, and she switched to back to verbal commands, which seemed counter-intuitive, since she could barely speak—but the throat mic was designed to pick up her subvocalizations.

  “Max G,” she managed to form with her voice box and throat muscles, and Tala leaped to obey.

  The compensators screamed in protest, but they couldn’t keep her alive without the G-shot. While her body slowed down, four injections into her brain kept her functioning. It wasn’t enough to be able to sustain 80Gs—she had to be able to fight.