Ep.#5 - Balance (The Frontiers Saga - Part 2: Rogue Castes)

by Ryk Brown

  But Commander Jarso had other plans. He pulled his stick back hard, then manually tied in the thrusters normally used during spaceflight. The thrusters forced his tail to slide out from under him, causing him to flip over and bring his nose back down toward the antiaircraft batteries now two kilometers below him and four kilometers downrange.

  His ship rocked from nearby explosions as it finished flipping over. His targeting systems lit up and he opened fire, holding the trigger for his plasma cannons down as he angled his ship ever so slightly to walk the plasma bolts onto his first target.

  It was a bold and dangerous maneuver, but it was the only way to take out these two particular jump missile launchers. They had been placed at that location for precisely that reason. But it hadn’t been good enough.

  The first icon on his targeting screen disappeared. As antiaircraft rounds exploded all around him, the commander eased his nose off to the right, and pulled it up a bit more, bringing his ship to a forty-five-degree angle to the surface, now twenty-five hundred meters below, inverted. He pressed his trigger again, sending a stream of red-orange plasma bolts raining down on the second emplacement. The second icon disappeared.

  “Raker One, strike two,” Commander Jarso stated proudly. He rolled his ship over and eased his throttles forward again, adding just enough thrust to get sufficient air flowing over his wings and restore lift.

  Once stable flight had been reestablished, Commander Jarso turned toward the gunship plant and jumped ahead a few kilometers to escape the antiaircraft fire, confident that his pilots would destroy the other four launchers in similar fashion.

  As soon as Nathan and Vladimir had left Cobra Three Eight Three, Kenji said what was really on his mind. “Aiden, are you insane? You’re talking about treason, here!”

  “Let me explain…” Aiden begged.

  “You know what they do to traitors?”

  “You’re not seeing the big picture here, Kenji…”

  “…And as usual, you’re not seeing the risks. And now you’re dragging Char and Sari into this too? And our crew?”

  “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity…” Aiden tried to explain, but Kenji wasn’t hearing any of it.

  “You’re not thinking this through. Is this the sort of captain you’re going to be, Aiden?”

  “No, you’re the one who’s not thinking this through,” Charnelle interrupted, coming to Aiden’s defense. “Aiden’s right. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

  Kenji looked at Charnelle, dumbfounded. “Come again?”

  “Yeah, come again?” Sari agreed.

  “Don’t you see? These people must have already taken out all the local defenses, otherwise they’d never get away. And if Roselle is in on this, then the Benakh is likely unable to stop them, as well.”

  “I’m not following you, Char,” Sari said.

  “We’re the only ones who can stop them.” She looked at Aiden. “Isn’t that right, Aiden?”

  “Uh, exactly,” Aiden agreed.

  Kenji looked at Charnelle then Aiden, then back at Charnelle. “Are you proposing we shoot them down?”

  “Our ships are the first in line for the launch ramp,” Charnelle explained. “Maybe we can shoot them down one by one, as they jump.”

  “You heard Captain Scott,” Sergeant Dagata warned. “He said if we try anything, he’ll shoot us down himself.”

  “Maybe we can blow up the tracks behind us as we launch,” Ledge chimed in, “that way they can’t even get off the ground.”

  “What if they have more ships waiting in orbit?” Kenji argued. “They’d mow us down.”

  “Captain Scott said all they had was the Aurora, and that she was in the Pentaurus sector,” Sergeant Dagata said.

  “Actually, he didn’t say where the Aurora was,” Kenji corrected. “She could be in orbit right now.”

  “He’s right,” Charnelle realized.

  “Would you be crazy enough to try and steal a bunch of gunships without a ship like the Aurora to back you up?” Kenji asked, looking at Aiden. “Jesus. Look who I’m asking.”

  “Then we play it by ear,” Aiden decided. “We play along and launch. If the Aurora isn’t here and the opportunity presents itself, we take them out one by one as they jump out.”

  “And if we can’t?” Kenji wondered.

  “Then we follow them back to the Pentaurus Sector.”

  “And do what?” Kenji asked. “Fight for the Karuzari?”

  “If we have to,” Aiden insisted. “At least until we figure out a way to steal the Aurora back and return her to Earth, or let Fleet Command know where she’s at so they can come and get her.”

  “Any way you slice it, we’ll be heroes,” Charnelle said, trying to convince Kenji.

  “Or, we’ll end up fighting alongside the Karuzari, and be traitors,” Kenji countered.

  “Would you rather die as passengers in an automated pack fight?” Aiden wondered.

  “There is a third option,” Sari pointed out. “We could just leave. Run the opposite way from the fight.”

  “And where will that leave us?” Aiden asked. “What do you think Fleet Command will say? If we can figure out how to turn this into a win, they can, as well. We’ll be crucified for not trying to stop them.”

  “I say we go!” Ledge exclaimed.

  “Nobody asked you, Specialist,” Sergeant Dagata chided.

  “I’m with Ledge,” Ali added.

  Charnelle looked at Sari, who nodded his approval. She then looked at Aiden, who was smiling. Finally, all three of them looked at Kenji.

  Kenji felt the full weight of their stares. “Surprisingly, it’s not as crazy an idea as I’d first thought,” Kenji admitted.

  “Then you’re in?” Aiden asked.

  Kenji sighed. “It doesn’t appear that I have much choice. Yeah, I’m in.”

  “Dags?” Aiden asked.

  “What the hell,” the sergeant replied. “But what about Ash? She can’t vote.”

  “Ah, she’ll be fine with it,” Aiden insisted.

  “Or, she’ll kick all our asses when she wakes up,” Kenji said, climbing into the copilot’s seat.

  “We’d better get to our ship,” Charnelle said. She looked at Aiden. “Keep the channel four active, and scrambled, so we have secure comms between us,” she suggested.

  “Good idea,” Aiden agreed. “And, thanks Char.”

  Charnelle smiled at Aiden and then turned to depart, Sari following behind her.

  Josh and Yanni reached the cockpit of their gunship, quickly climbing into their seats.

  Josh looked at the console, confused.

  “What’s wrong?” Yanni asked.

  “Uh…” Josh tapped his comm-set. “Hey guys? Is it just me, or is there something different about these consoles?”

  “Reactors are spinning up,” Kenji reported.

  “Hey, Captain,” Sergeant Dagata said. “Maybe we should strap the chief into her seat, so she doesn’t float around after we jump.”

  “Good idea…” Aiden looked out the front windows. “Three Eight Two’s dolly lights just came on.”

  “What?” Kenji also sat up straighter to see. “Oh shit, they’re already moving. Are they even on board yet?”

  Jessica crouched low, weapon held high and ready, walking alongside the dolly for the first gunship as it rolled slowly forward.

  Robert tapped her on the shoulder. “Here come the volunteers,” he said.

  Jessica spun around and spotted a young man and woman, both in Alliance uniforms, both sporting the rank of ensign.

  The two volunteers slowed their pace as Jessica turned to watch them, likely afraid of the plasma rifle she was holding at the ready. There was a sudden jump flash to
their left that lit up the area momentarily. An armed shuttle slid sideways to their right, pounding the marine barracks with weapons fire from above.

  “Move your ass!” Jessica yelled at the two volunteers.

  “Cobra Seven is in,” Lieutenant Jessup reported over Jessica’s comm-set.

  “Are you the volunteers?” Robert asked as Charnelle and Sari approached.

  “Yes, sir,” Charnelle replied, noticing the captain’s insignia on the man’s Alliance uniform. She also noticed the ship patch on his shoulder, and the name plate on his chest. “Captain Nash, sir?”

  “That would be me, yes. You two are doing the right thing here.”

  “Yes, sir,” Charnelle replied. “We’re trying, sir.”

  “We’ve got to go!” Jessica insisted, pushing her older brother along. She looked at Charnelle and Sari. “You try to pull any shit, and I will end you both!” she warned in no uncertain terms. “You got that?”

  “Yes, sir!” both of them replied. They watched Jessica leave, looked at each other, and then headed up the ladder into their ship.

  “What the hell are we getting ourselves into?” Sari wondered as they ascended.

  The closet door in the security control room suddenly burst open, pieces of the door frame flying about as the door itself fell forward, the man who had knocked it open falling clumsily on top of the door.

  Lieutenant Commander Kessler came charging out of the closet, followed by one of his guards and two technicians. “Get the system back on line! NOW!” he ordered.

  One of the technicians looked at the console, shaking his head. “No way, sir. The entire console is dead.”

  “The servers are fried,” the other technician reported from the other side of the room. “They must have set off some type of charge in the racks.”

  “Can you fix it?” the lieutenant commander demanded.

  “Sure, but it will take a few weeks.”

  Lieutenant Commander Kessler looked out the windows at the firefight going on in the gunship yard. He also noticed that gunship Three Eight Three was moving. “They’re trying to steal the gunships!” He looked at the two technicians. “We’ve got to do something!”

  “We might be able to send signals to the weapons towers,” one of the technicians suggested. “Maybe trigger them to go into independent mode?”

  “What will that do?” the lieutenant commander asked.

  “If they’re running independently, we can transmit targeting commands.”

  “Can you have them target the gunships?”

  “Yeah, but…”

  “Do it!” the lieutenant commander ordered.

  “I cannot believe this is happening,” Sari said as he climbed into the copilot’s seat of Cobra Three Eight Two.

  “How quickly can you spin up the reactors?” Charnelle asked.

  Sari looked at his console. “They’re already spinning up,” he said, surprised.

  “They must have already started prepping for launch,” Charnelle realized.

  The ship lurched suddenly, its motion apparently stopping. Just as suddenly, it started moving again but to the side instead.

  Charnelle looked at Sari. “We’re headed for the launch deck.” She immediately started working furiously. “We really need to get ready.”

  Nathan crouched next to gunship eleven’s dolly, looking left and right as Vladimir entered the access codes into the ventral hatch control pad. Straight ahead and on the other side of the first row of gunships, the ones they were not planning on stealing, the Ghatazhak strike teams were holding the marines at bay, buying them time to get the gunships away. To his left, he could see Robert and Jessica opening the ventral hatch to gunship ten, and to his right he could see General Telles and Master Sergeant Anwar entering gunship twelve.

  “Cobra One is in…again,” Jessica announced over their comm-sets.

  “Twelve gunships,” Nathan said. “Twelve. You know what we can do with a dozen gunships?”

  “Cobra Nine is in,” Master Sergeant Todd reported.

  “We don’t have them yet, my friend,” Vladimir said as the hatch opened.

  “But we will shortly,” Nathan muttered. He tapped his comm-set as he headed up the ladder after Vladimir. “Cobra Two is in.”

  Four Ghatazhak charged across the gunship yard as the firefight raged behind them. A flash of blue-white light illuminated the area, as another ship jumped in overhead, followed a split-second later by a clap of thunder.

  “Bulldog One is on the attack,” the copilot’s voice reported calmly.

  Heavy weapons fire erupted from the cargo jump shuttle’s starboard door gun and the aft gun on her open cargo ramp. She drifted across the yard slowly, pummeling the marine line and sending them back for cover, allowing the Ghatazhak still on the firing line to maintain their positions until the gunships could get moving.

  Lieutenant Commander Lazo was the first of the two pairs of Ghatazhak to reach their assigned gunship, quickly entering the access code, provided to everyone by Captain Roselle, and getting the hatch open.

  To his right, between Lazo’s and Roselle’s gunships, General Telles’s new executive officer, Commander Kellen, was just getting to his gunship, crouching low while Master Sergeant Willem entered the access codes.

  Lazo didn’t wait to see if they gained access. Master Sergeant Todd already had their hatch open and was headed up into the gunship, and Lazo followed.

  “We’re moving,” Aiden said as the ship lurched forward slightly.

  “Is Three Eight Two even out of the way yet?” Kenji wondered.

  “It doesn’t look like it, does it,” Aiden said. “Dags, can you tell if we’re going to clear Three Eight Two?”

  “Sensors don’t work very well on the ground, sir,” the sergeant replied, coming forward to look out the window. “That isn’t standard speed.”

  “What are you talking about?” Aiden wondered.

  “These things are supposed to crawl their way to the launch ramp. They’re moving a lot faster than a crawl.”

  “He’s right.” Kenji agreed.

  “Hey, the ship next to us is moving,” Ledge reported over comm-sets. “Aren’t they supposed to wait until we’re already on the main track before they pull out?”

  “Apparently not,” Aiden said. “These guys aren’t messing around, are they?”

  The interior of the cockpit suddenly flashed repeatedly with blue-white light, in a staccato, non-rhythmic fashion as muffled claps of thunder were heard in the distance.

  “What the…” Aiden started as he looked outside and saw eight Super Eagles streak overhead, firing at the area of the gunship yard between the first row of gunships and the buildings. Explosions ensued, spreading reddish-yellow flashes of light across the yard and into their cockpit.

  “Shit,” Aiden exclaimed.

  “They’re going to shoot at us, too, Aiden!” Kenji exclaimed.

  “We’ll try to hail them and tell them we’re friendlies!” Aiden insisted.

  “You really think they’re going to believe us?”

  “At least try!” Aiden insisted. The ship suddenly stopped moving with a jolt, then started moving to the left. Aiden looked out the left window, his eyes widening as he saw Cobra Three Eight Two no more than a few meters away from them. “Jesus!” he exclaimed, nearly climbing out of his seat. “We really shouldn’t be this close!”

  “Aiden! Do you copy?” Charnelle called over comms.

  “Yeah! I copy! Jesus, Char! We’re really close together!”

  “Go secure!”

  “Oh yeah.” Aiden activated the comm scrambler. “We’re secure!”

  “Aiden, one of those Ghatazhak just boarded us! We tried locking him out, but it didn’t do any good. He’s com
ing up the ladder now. I’m not going to be able to help you!” After a pause, she added. “I’m sorry. Good luck.”

  Aiden just stared straight ahead, dumbfounded.

  “What are we going to do?” Kenji wondered.

  “There’s a couple of those Ghatazhak headed for us, Captain,” Ledge warned.

  “I can change the access codes on the outer hatch,” Sergeant Dagata said, moving to the systems console where the unconscious Chief Benetti was strapped in.

  “No,” Aiden ordered.

  “Aiden…” Kenji started to object.

  “If they think we’re trying to double-cross them, they might do something to Char and Sari.”

  “They’re moving under us,” Ledge warned.

  “We play along,” Aiden insisted, “for now.”

  Sergeant Torwell swung his turret around as he continued firing at the Super Eagle fighters who had just jumped in behind them. “What the fuck, guys? Are we gonna jump out of here or what?”

  “I’m trying to lead them away from the gunships,” Commander Kainan replied over comm-sets. “Just keep firing!”

  “No problem there, Skipper!” the sergeant replied. “No fucking problem at all.”

  The combat jump shuttle jinked hard right, then back left, changing its altitude just as drastically as bolts of plasma and rail gun fire from the attacking Super Eagles streaked past them on all sides.

  The ship shuddered as rail gun fire slammed into it, walking across the top just in front of Sergeant Torwell’s gun turret, piercing the hull and passing out the bottom.