Armageddon's Pall
Page 9
Nodio took a deep breath as they entered into range of their light torpedoes. “As one, fire!” Nodio ordered before each of the assault bombers released two of their six torpedoes and broke off.
Now it was up to the WSOs. He tracked the progress of the torpedoes as best he could and took a vector around the cruiser, hoping to draw its defensive fire away from the stealthy projectiles. He couldn’t believe when clouds of dust and fine rocks began spewing out of the asteroid ahead of the torpedoes. He’d never seen anything like it, but as the torpedoes streaked into the dust he glimpsed the empty trails they left in their wake. “Rashe…”
“I see it,” his WSO hissed as the ship’s point defenses turned their fire on the torpedoes. There was nothing they could do and the hail of defensive fire destroyed half of the warheads before they could reach the monster’s shields. Their presence revealed, the WSOs clustered the torpedoes together. After the first pair impacted the shields, and detonated, disrupting the ionized field that protected the ship, the rest dove through.
The proximity of the shields didn’t give the torpedoes much room to maneuver, and the nine remaining weapons slammed into the rocky surface. The photon detonator crystals at the core of the weapons shattered, releasing the energy stored within. The force of the blasts cleaved open the rocky surface, fracturing it along natural faults in the surface. Much to Nodio’s surprise, fissures ripped across the hull and atmosphere vented into space, confirming the hollowed-out nature of the asteroids.
The atmosphere blasting free tore the fissures open even wider and whole thing looked ready to shatter like a grenade. Secondary explosions lit the dark surface and several turrets blasted free, plasma fires engulfing what atmosphere remained. Nodio couldn’t help but smile at the scene as more explosions lit up the ship and then the power core at its heart ruptured. The resulting explosion shattered what remained of the cruiser, casting chunks of it in all directions.
“Suck on that,” Nodio called out, elated by their lucky strike. Smiling he turned to Rashe before his alert console lit up. Nodio turned back in time to see what he’d thought was a just another asteroid tossed up from the As’Tril’s death throes come to life. Plaser fire erupted from the asteroid cruiser as its shields sprang to life. Nodio had never seen a ship come to life so fast, not even his own fighter. Nip Tail 02 took the brunt of the initial volley and as the blinding light of a plasma beam faded, Nodio could see nothing more of his wingman. “Besh, Camb!” he screamed and twisted his stick about. “All units, Kill that shitfucker!!!”
Bridge, Planet Slicer
Gondral couldn’t help but relish in all the destruction. Dondicks die by the thousands with each passing beat of my hearts, and my warriors gain glory with each beat of their own. The impact of the Planet Slicer on As’Tril had felt like only a bump as the anti-matter jet along the bow cleared the path for the monstrous ship. Looking up fae saw the shattered crust of As’Tril awash with great torrents of magma. It must have looked much like this when it first formed, Gondral mused.
A look at the main display confirmed their position and course. They’d penetrated the shattered crust of the world and would soon meet the mantle, or at least what mantle remained at those depths. Gondral reveled in the annihilation, feeling the perverse joy of every Gorvian aboard and letting it wash over fam.
“Heat shields are holding, and antimatter jets are operating at peak efficiency Lord Gondral. At this rate, we'll be through the planet in a few cycles,” Gondral’s aide informed fam from the shadows, the bridge crew too busy with their own work to relay such data.
“Excellent, and the fleet?” Gondral asked; watching through the eyes of a Gorvian soldier as a civilian craft attempted to flee the planet. A geyser of molten rock slammed into the hapless craft, but it didn’t fall. Instead it hung in space for a moment, trapped between the gravitational pulls of As’Tril and the Planet Slicer, before it began its meteoric descent.
“Lord Gondish reports heavy losses to the Dondick forces. We have however lost four cruisers and some thirty fighters.”
“It is to be expected. The Dondick will likely keep their larger craft back to avoid the debris of the planet. Order Gondish to destroy any support ship that attempts to rescue survivors. Let the Dondick get a good look at us. Then remove them from this system. I can smell their foul stench even from here.”
“Let their destruction be visible to all. Then let their sentiment gut them as sure as any blade we brought to their bellies,” Gondral growled, and the bridge crew echoed their agreement.
UCSB Date 1003.141
Monstero Nach 03, As’Tril System
Blazer jerked hard over as a torpedo-sized missile sailed past his fighter only to explode a cent later. The blast threw his fighter aside, his shields sparking with the ferocity of an epic lightning storm as he fought to regain control. Alerts shone across his cockpit as he whipped the fighter back around to face his attacker; low fuel, low power, low shields, structural integrity alarms, ionization alerts, missile launcher jam, armor damage. There was too much to keep a good track of. He pulled the impossibly nimble Gorvian 6-DF into his sight, the full G-Load of the maneuver crushing him into his seat; his acceleration compensators failing.
Blazer gasped as his vision began to fade and squeezed the trigger. A flash marred his vision and he let up on the stick, groaning as he did so. His vision clearing, he spotted a fresh cloud of metallic debris and a loose trail following the disabled Gorvian fighter away. “Can you get those acceleration comps back online?”
“Working on it,” Arion replied. “Bypassing the main power feed through life-support. Pull any hard maneuvers or go full burn and we’ll both switch over to suit supplies.”
Blazer brought the fighter through a wide turn back towards the objective. The Planet Slicer extended clear across his vision, the corpse of As’Tril surrounding it. The sight seemed to get worse every time he looked upon it. The monstrous ship had cut over halfway through the dying world. “Give me a target, or show me someone who needs help,” Blazer ordered.
“On it.”
A marker lit up Blazer’s HUD and he pulled about to find what remained of the squadron in an intense furball. Their mission had been to escort in a trio of recon craft, then hold this position until they could finish their runs. They’d even had a resupply transport with them that should have allowed them to stay in place for the duration of the mission. They’d lost the transport during their third engagement.
Blazer looked down at his display. There wasn’t enough free hydrogen in the area for his open hydrogen scoops to gather any meaningful amount of fuel. If the recon ships didn’t arrive soon, they’d end up as more debris in the ever-expanding cloud of shattered rock around them. “No choice,” he muttered and eased his throttle open to head into the fray. He looked again at his displays and cut his throttle, allowing his fighter to drift. “Any chance we can get that jammed missile free?”
“Negative. Even if we could eject it, the other missile in the magazine wouldn’t be able to fire.”
Blazer angled the fighter as they neared the battle; sweat seeping onto his brow. He lined up a Gorvian fighter in his crosshairs. At the limit of his plaser’s effective range the reticle lit up. He squeezed the trigger and poured fire into the Gorvian fighter as it pursued the damaged Nach 06. The blasts stripped the fighter’s shields but before Blazer could deal the deathblow, Gavit’s fight
er flipped over. Skidding backwards, he pounded the craft with a torrent of plaser fire. The fighter exploded and Gavit’s fighter flipped back around before racing towards Blazer and Arion’s.
“Three, Six. Thanks for the assist. What’s your status?”
“Trying to save fuel. You?”
“If I said we were flying on fumes that would be generous,” Matt replied.
Before Blazer could reply two new contacts appeared on his scanner; friendly contacts, coming up fast from the Planet Slicer. “Arion, are those who I hope they are?”
“Sure are,” he replied.
“All units, Nach Three. We have two recon craft on a return trajectory now,” Blazer called. “Moving to cover,” he continued and looked back at the furball the rest of the squadron was engaged in. Things didn’t look good. Only half the squadron remained, the rest having retreated to the safety of the fleet due to damage. Mikle and Acknit had even ejected, their cockpit pod being towed back by Trevis and Telsh’s fighter.
“Ghost Dancer Flight, Nach Zero Three,” Arion called aloud for Blazer’s benefit. “Rendezvous point is hot. Repeat rendezvous point is hot and resupply is lost. Make immediately for fleet. We’ll keep them off you.”
“Nach Three, Ghost Dancer Two. We copy. Will engage slipstream once clear of the debris field.”
Before Blazer could reply, a plaser blast slammed into the right side of his fighter; scattering the shields. He searched for the source but before he could find it a second blast tore through the gap in the shields and into his wing. Fuel or life! He pounded down on his throttle hard enough that the thrusters threw him into his restraints and rolled about to expose his undamaged left side. As he did so he spied his attacker. A massive Gorvian heavy fighter bore down not on him, but the recon craft; he was just in the way. He hissed out a curse and tried to maneuver to match and engage the craft, but spotted Chris and Bichard’s fighter behind it.
To his amazement they fired one of their shark light torpedoes at the oncoming fighter. Blazer threw up his hand to shield his eyes out of instinct and just caught the blinding flash of the impact before his canopy and helmet masked the intensity of the blast. When it dissipated nothing remained of the Gorvian fighter but a hail of disassociated particles. Blazer had never seen someone engage anything smaller than a light transport with one of the torpedoes before, but it worked.
He looked at his wing. It was a grim sight. The armor skinning the wing was gone, leaving only the skeletal superstructure behind. Even that was twisted and burnt, the splintered remains of the fuel bladder exposed within. That image burned itself into Blazer’s mind and for once he counted himself lucky for being so low on fuel. Had the bladder been full, the resulting explosion would have been a death sentence.
“Nach Three, Ghost Dancer Two. We’ve got bogeys bearing down on us.”
Blazer checked his sensors. Sure enough, two Gorvian fighters had broken from their engagements with the squadron and were on intercept vectors with the recon craft. Blazer twisted his stick about, but the roll was sluggish; almost half of their maneuvering thrusters had gone. “All units. Objectives in danger, engage!” he ordered and with frustrating slowness turned towards the fighters. “Arion, can you pull the same trick with our sharks as Bichard?”
“Just get me in behind those bastards. But B, we’re past Joker fuel. We’ll be lucky to even have enough to slipstream home.”
Blazer considered that and hatched a plan. “Six, Three. Break off and engage those interceptors. We’ll take care of your bogey.”
“I get the idea,” Arion commented and Blazer watched lock diamonds spring to life on his canopy.
There was a pause on the link before Blazer caught Gavit breaking from the Gorvian he’d engaged. “Copy that lead. Don’t make us regret it. Eight are you with me?” It was at times like this that Blazer envied Arion and the other WSOs in the brainlinked network. It made tactics flow so much more smoothly, and he’d often faced temptation to try and link in using his micomm. While it would not give him the same level of immersion it might enhance communications.
“Already headed that way, Six.”
As much as Blazer hated to do it, he removed his hands from his controls. “The ship is yours Arion.” Arion didn’t even respond before the fighter turned to bring Gavit and Chris’ fighter into his forward view. The two Gorvians Gavit and Zithe had been engaging turned to give chase.
“One One, keep back,” Blazer ordered. Zithe’s fighter left a trail of sparks in its wake from a damaged engine and his sparking shields. Despite his damage, he took an evasive course away. The Gorvians couldn’t pass up the opportunity to kill the two fighters on a direct course towards the scout craft.
“Swimmers away!” Arion called a moment later and both of their shark light torpedoes lunged from their launch tubes. Blazer felt helpless as he watched the twin torpedoes disappear against the dark of space. He pulled up a tactical plot of the engagement to try and get a feel for it. The wireframes told him the story just in time to look up and watch the first torpedo connect. A brilliant flash of light shattered the darkness for a moment and just as it died the second torpedo exploded; obliterating the atomic bonds of the fighters.
Blazer returned his attention to the two Gorvians on a direct vector towards the recon craft. Gavit and Chris had closed on the rearmost, but just then the 6DF fighter gave a grim demonstration of reason behind its name. Without alerting its acceleration vector, the fighter spun about. Its thrusters kept it on course, and brought its cannons to bear on the pair. The first burst from the cannons stripped Gavit’s shields, tore the fighter’s left wing off, and pierced the armor around the engine.
Gavit’s fighter careened off to the side, thrusters firing wildly as Gavit fought to maintain control. Chris unleashed hell on the fighter in response; unleashing all six of her cannons. The shields of the massive craft buckled under the assault and round after round crashed into its hull. Lightning arced across its surface as her Narfic cannons overloaded the fighter’s electronics.
“We can’t wait. Slipstreaming now,” Ghost Dancer Two called, panic choking his voice.
Blazer looked at the display. The Gorvian was still in their path. “Ghost Dancer Two. Do not…” But it was too late. The almost invisible craft surged ahead and while not at top slipstream speed slammed into the Gorvian fighter. The resulting explosion burned like a miniature sun as it shot away. Its momentum made it look like a meteor burning up in atmosphere. Disheartened, Blazer keyed the link. “Ghost Dancer Three. What’s your status?”
“We’re intact. Maneuvering to avoid the debris field before engaging slipstream.”
“Copy that. Six. What’s your status?”
There was a pause on the link before Matt replied. “We’re in rough shape. Canopy was hulled and we’re on suits. Gavit’s link is dead so we’re on micomms in here.”
Blazer felt his stomach clench at that. “Can you make slipstream back to the Mercy?”
There was an even longer pause; Blazer turned around as best he could to look at Arion. “Well?”
“We’re running the numbers. But with Gokhead and Acknit RTB, none of us are slipstream experts.”
Blazer pulled himself back into his seat. He’d sent those two fighters back after their first engagement. One of Mikle and Acknit’s missiles had exploded just outside their launcher, gutting the fighter, and mandated that they ditch their craft. Marda and Gokhead were in better shape but had taken a hit to their main fuel tank that the microbots couldn’t patch. They should be aboard the Mercy by now, but that was little consolation. That left he and Chris as the most knowledgeable on slipstream drives and physics in general. “Link me in over the micomm.”
“That’s dangerous B.”
“We have two men out there that might die if we can’t figure this out.”
Arion didn’t even respond before Blazer found himself floating in a virtual world. All sensation beyond sight and sound disappeared, leaving him an impartial observer.
Is this what spirits feel?
The data flooded Blazer’s mind. He struggled to keep up with it all, but he could tell right away from the damaged fighter’s telemetry that they were in dire straits. Despite the wing taking the brunt of the damage, a power feedback had blown out their primary slipstream bulb. The hyperspace bubble within had already dissipated as a result. Blazer did his best to check the secondary bulb, but received no information.
Blazer couldn’t recognize Bichard’s voice at first, his customary hum-click absent.
Blazer would have scoffed at himself if he could have.
Bridge, UCSBS Nosh'Tak
Madness engulfed the bridge more with each passing moment. Gorvian ships pounded the fleet relentlessly. No ship in the fleet was untouched, and Admiral Quin Tosh felt convinced that she could count her number of remaining support ships on one hand. As if to prove that point a corvette took a hit from a torpedo off their port bow. The hit obliterated the craft and crew but saved her ship and thousands more lives.