by Ryk Brown
“Riskier than getting ambushed by Alliance gunships as we come out of the launch jump?” Jessica shook her head. “We really didn’t think this through well enough.”
“It’s the best we could come up with on short notice,” Robert defended.
“Cobra Eight is in orbit!” Commander Kellen reported.
“Four more to go and we can all head home,” Robert added, trying ease the tension.
“How the hell are we supposed to take on six gunships?” Kenji asked over comms. “We’ve barely finished basic flight!”
“Those gunships will be using auto-swarm!” Gil told him. “You studied the auto-swarm patterns, didn’t you?”
“Only how to initiate them,” Aiden argued as he pulled his gunship into another tight turn and rolled it to port, avoiding incoming fire from the last of the Super Eagles flying cover, while the rest of the fighters departed.
“But you know the patterns, right?” Gil said.
“Well, yeah, but…”
“Then just anticipate! When you recognize one of their swarm patterns, get yourself one step ahead and ambush them as they come out of post-attack escape jumps to make their turn!”
Aiden looked at Kenji. “I can do that,” he realized. He keyed his comm-set. “I can do that!” he assured Gil.
Gil looked at Sergeant Ayers. “Jesus, I’d fucking hope so.” He looked at the threat display. “Okay kid, your last fighter just jumped away. Your six is clear. Join up on me so those gunships will make a run at us. When they do, be quick on the jump and get the hell out. You won’t be able to survive more than two, maybe three, rounds from their plasma torpedo cannons before your shields collapse, so you’ve only got maybe five seconds to recognize their attack pattern and jump out. As soon as you do, change course and jump to their turning point. Each ship will be alone at that point, so they’ll be more vulnerable. And screw that rapid-fire stuff. One shot from each cannon, full power, simultaneously. Wait to see if their shields fail and if they do, make the kill shot. If not, jump the hell out and join up back at the rally point for another try. We can probably sucker them through this three, maybe four, times if we’re lucky. After that, they’re going to be on to us. But with any luck, everyone will be in orbit by then, and we can hightail it out of this fucking system! Understood?”
There was a pause.
“Uh, yeah,” Aiden replied. “Just one thing though. Where’s the rally point?”
“Right fucking here, kid,” Gil replied.
“I’ve got six more jump flashes to the north!” Lieutenant Latfee reported. “Two clicks! Moving fast!”
“Come on, come on,” Robert pleaded as their gunship moved slowly into launch position at the head of the launch track.
“Raker Six, take them from the south!” Commander Jarso instructed. “I’ll come in from the west, a little high!”
“Got it, One,” Ensign Dakus replied.
Jessica glanced out her window, noticing something. In the distance, she could see a squad of Alliance Marines running down the hill from the landing pad near the security building, toward the launch track…and they were carrying something. “Strike Actual, Cobra One Bravo. Marines moving down the hill from the security building, toward the launch tracks. I think they mean to blow the tracks!”
“I thought these tracks were designed to be indestructible?” Nathan said over comms.
“They’re shielded against plasma blasts, but not against demolitions,” Robert replied. “If they’re carrying compound one five seven, or HV twenty-eight, we’re fucked!”
“Combat One, Strike Actual,” General Telles called. “Engage the marines on the hill, moving from point sierra one toward the launch track. Do not let them reach the launch tracks.”
“Combat One, moving in,” Lieutenant Latfee replied.
The tracks came into position at the center of their windows, just as the combat jump shuttle jumped in low to their left and began strafing the marines on the hill to their right. Their gunship stopped moving and, a second later, Robert pressed the auto-launch button.
Jessica looked out her window again as Combat One’s side-mounted plasma cannons tore the marines apart as the shuttle passed in front of them.
“Cobra One is rolling,” Robert announced. He turned to Jessica. “Finally.”
“Jump flashes, high left,” Aiden said, noticing them out his window.
“Two high right,” Kenji added. “Delta Seven or Delta Seven Bravo.”
Aiden’s mind raced. If they were using swarm-pattern Delta Seven, then the next two would jump in from directly ahead and slightly below their flight path, expecting him to pass over them and get a clear shot at his ventral side. But if they were using Delta Seven Bravo, the next two would jump in directly ahead of him, forcing him to either pitch up or pitch down. Either way, they’d be shooting at his weaker ventral or dorsal shields, instead of his stronger forward shields.
“Torpedo cannons from either side, high,” Sergeant Dagata warned.
Seconds later, their shields flashed red-orange as the Alliance gunships’ plasma torpedoes struck their shields.
“Port and starboard shields at fifty percent!” Corporal Chesen reported, having assumed the engineer’s station in lieu of the still unconscious Chief Benetti.
Aiden was betting on Bravo.
He pushed the translation thrusters, firing the ones on top of his ship, pushing the gunship downward. The thrusters fired for several seconds, pushing them down enough that the next round of plasma torpedoes passed over them from both right and left.
Two more jump flashes appeared directly in front of them as the last two gunships jumped in to complete the swarm maneuver.
“Another contact!” Sergeant Dagata reported excitedly. “Directly overhead! It’s Cobra Six!”
“I’ve got a bead on the two headed to your three!” Captain Roselle announced. “Take the ones in front of you!”
Fly it like a jump fighter.
The words echoed in Aiden’s mind. He glanced at the threat display, noting the range to the two gunships directly in front of him and selected the same as his jump distance. He tapped the escape jump button as he pulled his flight control stick back, bringing his gunship’s nose up and over past vertical as they jumped. He released the stick as they came out of the jump, looking out the forward windows as the two ships passed over him. As his gunship’s nose came over onto the fleeing targets, he pushed his stick in the opposite direction to stop his pitching motion and fired his plasma torpedo cannons at full power.
“Left target has lost aft shields!” Sergeant Dagata reported. “Right target’s aft shields are down to twenty percent.”
Aiden’s next shot was at the left target; four plasma torpedoes in his unshielded stern, taking him apart.
“The right target can’t jump!” the sergeant reported. “Cobra Six is in his way!”
Aiden adjusted his ship’s attitude as he coasted away from the fleeing gunship to track it while it tried to turn to a clear jump line. He fired again; four torpedoes at full power. Two of them destroyed the target’s aft shields, the other two blew the target apart. A split-second later, he tapped his escape jump button for a standard escape jump.
Kenji looked at Aiden. “How the hell did you know?”
“They were doing a frontal attack,” Aiden replied. “Procedure dictates that forward shields receive most of the power, aft shields receive the least. So I hit them where they were least protected.”
“You’re quoting procedure?” Kenji said, dumbfounded.
Eight Super Eagles jumped in directly in front of Cobra Nine, only half a kilometer away. They opened fire immediately after jumping in, striking the rolling gunship repeatedly as it reached the bottom of the hill. Within seconds, the gunship’s shields were overwhelmed
and failed, and the front of the ship came apart.
With half its front gone, the gunship’s center of gravity was well aft of the dolly, causing it to tip over. The mortally wounded gunship, and its dolly, continued along the level transition portion of the launch run and up the ramp, the aft end of the gunship dragging on the tracks sending up a wave of sparks as metal ground against metal.
Ensign Dakus jumped in behind the last two gunships, less than a kilometer away.
“Combat One is hit!” Lieutenant Latfee cried out. “We’re going down!”
The ensign’s targeting display lit up with eight targets directly ahead of him, closing extremely fast. He pressed his cannon trigger, holding it down as he yawed slightly left and right. Immediately, two icons disappeared and another two jumped…but the rest kept coming.
He glanced up just in time to see four Super Eagles directly in front of him. He rolled his fighter onto its side, hoping to pass between two of the ships but clipped one of them instead. His ship began to tumble wildly, alarms going off all over his console. “Six is hit!” he called out as he reached for his ejection handles. “I’m going…”
He never got to punch out.
“Get out of the bubble, Sarge!” Lieutenant Latfee ordered as the combat shuttle spun out of control on its way down.
Sergeant Torwell quickly unbuckled himself and hit the release on his seat, allowing himself to slide back down into the main cabin of the combat shuttle. “Hold it together, sir!” he said as he fell onto the cabin floor.
“I’m trying!” Commander Kainan assured them.
Nathan looked out the windows as the spinning combat jump shuttle passed overhead, nearly hitting them, crashing onto the downhill slop on the other side of the launch deck, just as Cobra Two lined up to the launch rails and pulled to a stop. “Oh my God,” he exclaimed. A huge explosion from the right rocked their ship. Both Nathan and Vlad looked to starboard and saw pieces of General Telles’s gunship, spewing in all directions, and smoke and fire spewing from his opposite side.
“Bozhe Moi!” Vladimir exclaimed.
Nathan pressed the auto-launch button and their gunship started rolling forward. “Cobra Two is rolling!”
“Cobra Ten! Cobra Two! Are you okay?” Vladimir called over comms.
“Nine is hit!” Jessica reported from further down the launch tracks. “She’s dragging! I don’t know if they’re going to make it off the ramp!”
“Take the shot!” Nathan insisted.
“Cobra Ten is still alive!” General Telles reported.
“Can you still jump?” Vladimir asked. “How are propulsion and maneuvering?”
“Yes!” the general replied. “But our starboard turret is gone! We won’t be able to take out the last two gunships to cover our escape!”
“Raker One is hit!” Commander Jarso reported. “I’m sorry, General. There’s just too many of them! I’ll try to put it into gunships to…”
“Jesus!” Nathan exclaimed as Raker One plowed into the hillside only fifty meters to their right, just short of gunships thirteen and fourteen.
Alarms sounded inside the battered cockpit of Combat One as it lay on its right side, slightly downhill.
Commander Kainan shook his head several times, trying to get his wits about him. Finally, he came to his senses. “Everyone alright!” he barked. He released his restraints, bracing himself so he wouldn’t fall onto his copilot below him, who was just starting to move. “Latfee! You still with me?”
“Yeah, I’m with you.”
“Can you move?” the commander asked as he pulled the window eject lever in the overhead console.
The front windows of the combat shuttle popped out, landing a few meters away.
“What kind of a fucked up landing was that?” Sergeant Torwell asked from the back.
“Sarge! Can you move?” the commander asked.
“Yeah, I can move. It hurts like hell, but I can move.”
“Then move your ass out of here. Ten is rolling up to the launch deck right now, and that’s the last ride off this rock!”
“Right behind you, sir,” the sergeant replied.
“I’ve got nothing!” Jessica insisted as she studied her displays. “It must have been damaged by one of about a hundred hits we’ve taken in the last five minutes!” She looked at her brother as they headed up the ramp. “The plasma cannons are dead.” She turned and looked forward. Ahead of them, what was left of Cobra Nine was reaching the top of the ramp, barely moving, sparks still flying from its dragging tail. As they grew closer, the ship came to a stop, teetering on the top edge of the ramp. As they approached, it fell flat, its dolly going over the end of the ramp. The weight of the dolly pulled on the wreckage, pulling its stern upward, blocking their view of the sky. Finally, what was left of Cobra Nine went over the end of the ramp, clearing the way for them.
Then it exploded.
Both Robert and Jessica threw up their hands to protect themselves as their doomed ship plowed into the massive fireball erupting before them.
“Oh no,” Nathan said as they rolled down the ramp, headed for the transition section at the bottom of the hill. “They didn’t make it.”
“Maybe they…” Vladimir started, but then stopped, not wanting to give his friend false hopes.
“I didn’t see a jump flash,” Nathan said. “Did you?”
“Nyet,” Vladimir admitted. His head and eyes dropped. “Nyet.”
“Cobra Two, did you see Cobra One jump?” General Telles asked anxiously.
“Negative, sir,” Nathan replied.
“Gunners,” Vladimir called, noticing new contacts on the threat display. “Bandits! Bozhe Moi! They are everywhere!”
“We’re not going to make it, Vlad,” Nathan admitted.
“You do not know that, Nathan!”
Nathan just looked at him as the six Super Eagles directly ahead of them opened fire.
“Cobra Two, did you see Cobra One jump?” the general asked anxiously.
“Negative, sir,” Captain Scott replied.
Aiden looked at Kenji. “Did they make it?”
“It’s hard to tell, Aiden. There’s so many damned gunships flying around, and not all of them are squawking transponders.”
“How bad is it down there, Dags?” Aiden asked his sensor operator behind him.
“They’ve got Super Eagles everywhere, Aiden, and it looks like another QRT shuttle just landed. They’ll get picked off on their launch rolls, just like the others.”
Aiden looked at his navigational display. He had just come about to jump back to the rally point, to sucker more gunships into Captain Roselle’s trap. Kohara was directly ahead, and Geraleise was just passing over the planet’s horizon.
Aiden looked at Kenji and smiled. “I have an idea.”
General Telles looked out the forward window as his gunship came to a stop, directly in line with the launch tracks. Ahead of him, Nathan’s gunship was taking a beating from Super Eagles coming in from all directions. From the looks of things, he doubted very much that Cobra Two’s shields would hold out long enough for them to get away, and their own shields were weak at best. He looked at his copilot. “It’s been an honor, Deno.”
“The honor has been mine, Lucius.”
“Shall we get this over with?” the general said, reaching for the auto-launch button.
“Cobra on the launch deck!” Commander Kainan called over the comms, his voice scratchy and broken. “This is Kainan! We’re coming up the hill to your left. Don’t leave just yet!”
General Telles leaned forward, straining to see to his left, spotting three men in flight suits running up the hill toward them. “Move your ass, gentlemen!” the general replied.
“Our shields are down to twenty per
cent!” Vladimir warned as plasma bolts from the attacking Super Eagles continued to pound their front and dorsal shields as they headed up the launch ramp. “Fifteen percent!” Vladimir looked at the forward camera display. “Bozhe Moi! The end of the ramp is damaged! We’ll derail!”
More plasma bolts slammed into their shields.
“Five percent!”
A blue-white flash appeared behind the Super Eagles bearing down on them. “What, more fighters?” Nathan exclaimed as he brought up the mains.
“Shields are gone!” Vladimir exclaimed. He looked at the threat display as Nathan brought the main engines up. “That is not a fighter…” He looked at Nathan. “It’s a gunship!”
Cobra Three Eight Three passed over the recovery lake, just as Cobra Two fired their main engines, blasted through the broken end of the ramp tracks, and disappeared in a blue-white flash. The Super Eagles that had been bearing down on the launch complex were forced to break off their attack, turning away to the left and right and jumping to safety.
Four plasma torpedoes leapt from the barrels under the nose of the gunship as it fell toward the surface. They sped ahead of the gunship at incredible speed, slamming into gunships thirteen and fourteen, still sitting on the transfer rails about one hundred meters from the launch deck.
Both gunships exploded, their full propellant tanks igniting into a massive fireball that rose triumphantly skyward, spreading out in all directions.
Tossed about by the shock wave of the explosion, Super Eagles still on their attack runs were forced to either pitch up or turn away, all of them eventually jumping out of the area in order to survive.