Star Man 2: Star Rise

by I. G. Roberts

  During the next pass, Sonya’s force did somewhat better than previously, damaging four more Alliance ships and destroying one. The Taipans were having marginally more success with their targets, managing to slow the incoming fleet down quite a bit because of engine damage they had been able to inflict. Of course, all this action was using an enormous amount of ordnance. Then the nightmare began when a storm of weapons battered the Shields down on FNS Hiln and left her tumbling lifelessly through space. No escape pods were being ejected, so Sonya hoped the crew were okay and trying to bring the ship back online. Not long after, Cambridge lost FNS Anaconda and FNS King in similar circumstances. Right then Sonya couldn’t do much about it as she tried one last attack before the Pirates could stabilize their orbits. Large volleys of missiles were exchanged between the two fleets, and another two Pirate ships were severely damaged. Unfortunately, so was FNS Samurai with both Sonya, and Captain Lister critically injured. All the crew could do for them was to put them in Stasis Pods till they could be helped by more experienced doctors. In the meantime, Samurai’s XO took command and ran from the scene of the action with two Pirate ships in pursuit. The four remaining Cobras quickly intervened, destroying both the Pirate ships.

  On board Duplinda, Suhmarlin Hazilsor was furious at the Captains of the two ships that pursued the damaged Federation Cruiser. The big positive was that while the Federation ships were protecting the Cruiser, the ships that he had in orbit, managed to drop over two thousand troops onto the planet below. He’d been in Cambridge for three days now, but he had the planet by the throat. Soon, he would have to mine the Jump-Points to stop reinforcements from coming to aid Cambridge.

  FNS Theseus

  Colin sat on his bridge as the time approached for Theseus to exit Jump into the FR2-955E System. Captain Riley on board FNS Loki was briefed on what she had to do on exit, and the two Cobras were in formation as they transited the Jump Tunnel. They didn’t know what would be waiting when they exited so the AI would bring the Shields up as quickly as possible when they exited Jump. The Point Defence was also ready to spring into action as soon as they exited if it was needed. The Cobras needed to clear the Jump Exit Lane as quickly as possible because the rest of the convoy would be following them through in about two hours.

  The two Cobras exited Jump, but no surprises were waiting, at least, there were no particularly unpleasant surprises waiting. As soon as they knew what was going on around them, the Shields were stepped down, and the two ships went dark as they accelerated away from the Jump-Point from Conomar toward the one into Cambridge. Soon they could see a congregation of large ships seeming, to sit near the other Jump-Point. They counted ten large Freighters. Clearly, these were the fleet train, and they didn’t appear to have any protection. A predatory grin broke across Colin’s face as he realized the implications. He could cut the Pirates legs out from under them simply by capturing or destroying these ten Freighters. By the time the Cobra’s had completed that little task, the rest of the Convoy should be in the System which would open all sorts of possibilities. The Cobras had almost reached the congregation of Freighters when two large Pirate ships exited Jump and headed toward one of the Freighters. When the Pirates reached the Freighter, they proceeded to dock with it.

  Colin opened a channel to Loki and said, “You know Suzanne, this is too good an opportunity for us to miss. You go high and take the ship docked to this side of the Freighter, I’ll go low and take the one on the other side. On my mark … go.”

  The Cobras split apart, Loki traveling above the plane of the elliptic, Theseus below it. The two Federation Warships arced around and hit their targets at the same time. Both Pirate Warships exploded, cutting the Freighter neatly in two. Colin opened a broadcast channel and called for the other Freighter crews to surrender, giving them a very short window to do so because he did not want them to have a chance to sabotage their ships. Six began ejecting escape pods almost immediately, the remainder did not. When his deadline was up, he began firing his weapons at the three recalcitrant Freighters, not stopping till they were all destroyed, even when they started ejecting escape pods after the first rounds hit home on their hulls.

  Colin had barely finished his destruction of the three Freighters when the remainder of his Convoy arrived in the System. Colin sent Troopers to board two of the Freighters but kept Theseus and Loki moving so they didn’t become a target for anyone. For now, there wouldn’t be enough capacity to pick up any of the escape pods till after the other ships arrived on site.

  Chapter 20

  FR2-955E

  Colin sat on his bridge, impatiently waiting while his little Convoy made its way across the System to his location. The tardiness wasn’t anyone's fault, it was simply a case of the speed the Freighter could safely achieve. A ship that size took a lot of power to get it moving and just as much to slow it down, so they weren’t speed demons like his Cobra. The Destroyers were large ships as well but the Freighter was a snail in comparison. The main difference was one of economics. A Freighter’s mission was to move significant amounts of freight from one place to another as economically as possible. A Destroyer had to be fast and powerful. It was seen as much cheaper to expend more fuel and reaction mass than to replace Destroyers when they were not able to maneuver quickly enough to be effective in their mission. Worse would be the case where the Destroyer was unable to catch someone because they were too slow to be able to catch up. The new drive systems that the Cobras and Taipans were fitted with would change the economics completely.

  Finally, the Destroyers were close enough for Colin to be able to run a real-time conversation with them. Colin asked Theseus to establish secure Comms links with the Destroyers and FNS Fortitude.

  When the connections were made, Colin said, “I need to ask you gentlemen for some favours. As you can see we have some big Freighters here that we’ve been able to capture. I need some Troopers to secure five of them, and we need to recover all these escape pods then secure the prisoners. These make up the fleet train for the Pirates in Cambridge, or at least some of it. While you’re doing that, we’ll dock with Fortitude and top off our munitions, then we’ll depart for Cambridge. I want you all to leave here for Cambridge four hours from now. That should put you a couple of hours behind Loki and Theseus. By then we will have cleared the immediate vicinity of the Jump-Point, or we will have been put out of action. If we are put out of action, it will fall to the Destroyers to escort the Freighter and FNS Fortitude out of harm's way and out of Scanner range of any Pirates in the System. Once you have those ships in a safe place, you may engage the enemy.”

  The other Captains all acknowledged their orders then set to carrying them out. Most of the Troopers required to secure the Freighters could come from FNS Fortitude as she didn’t have much room to put prisoners, having all those spaces loaded with supplies. The Destroyers, on the other hand, had plenty of Troopers and plenty of brig space because their usual mission was to interdict Pirate activity and take prisoners if there were any to be had.

  Two hours later, Theseus and Loki entered Jump for the final leg into Cambridge System, trusting the others to follow him to Cambridge.

  FNS Sundara

  Admiral Dalkasan sat in his Flag Bridge as most of his Reserve Fleet fell into formation. Messages had been sent back to Sankarah requesting assistance for the raided Colonies, and he left two Destroyers at Cotoni to bolster the defenses there. Hidacki would be back online within the next two or three days, and Vasta a week after that. This would give Cotoni six Destroyers and their remaining Patrol Boats to defend the System. In the meantime, the balance of the Reserve Fleet, eight Destroyers, and twenty Jump-Capable Patrol Boats, fortified by the three Cobras that had appeared in Cotoni, was needed to relieve Cambridge. When FNS Forseti Jumped into Cotoni only hours before, screaming for help, Dalkasan knew the decision had been made for him. They just could not allow Cambridge to fall into Pirate hands and remain that way for long.

  The Reserve Fleet was form
ing up on the run, they would be transiting to Cambridge as fast as they could, Micro-Jumping across Systems and maxing the drives between times. This would cut the transit time quite a lot, so Dalkasan was hoping to arrive in Cambridge while the System still had assets worth protecting.

  As the Fleet approached the Jump-Point, the three Cobras raced ahead and Jumped through intending to clear the other end if there were any threats there. Dalkasan had approved the plan when he read the stats, realizing these little ships were ideal for this role. Of course, this meant the Cobras would be on their own for three hours at the other end before the first Destroyer followed them through, but they had proved they were up to the task. As a worst case, they could just run away till his Fleet entered the System.

  Cambridge

  Dave and Keg sat in the cockpit of the little ship they were intended to use to take the President to safety while Dave learned all he could, about its systems. He concluded it wasn’t impossibly different from his old ship and when he saw the specs he smiled. This little ship was capable of 0.8c, could Micro-Jump and had very strong Shields. Dave concluded that while the ride might be a little rough at first, he would be able to fly the President to safety. For the tenth time, he went through the launch sequence, stopping short of actually launching, or opening the launch doors.

  Suddenly, Keg said, trouble Dave, I just heard gunfire from near where the President is quartered. Dave was bemused by the fact that Keg heard it and he didn’t. Still, Dave didn’t hesitate and quickly followed Keg out of the craft. He sealed and locked the hatch as he exited, changing the code to one that he’d earlier shared with Keg. The two young men moved down toward the sounds as quietly as they could manage. When Dave and Keg arrived, they found two of the Troopers they had come here with were down, and two more were behind cover as someone shot in their direction. Dave and Keg were out of the direct line of sight of whoever was in the room, but every now and then, they could see the end of a weapon pointing through the door as he fired another shot toward the Troopers.

  Keg pulled Dave back around the corner and said, “I’m going around the other side. When you see me, we’ll hit him from both sides at once. I’ll use the stunner. Dave, you’re a better shot than me, so you use the lethal weapon in case he’s wearing armour and the stunner doesn’t work. We move when you see me, okay.”

  Dave nodded then replied, “We need to be careful we don’t shoot each other as well so only fire if you have a clear shot.”

  Keg agreed and ran off to work his way to the other side. Dave wasn’t sure, but he thought this was the Presidents apartment. He knew if it was, the imperative was to rescue the President if he was in there. That meant Dave had to be careful not to shoot the President, so the shot needed to be aimed upwards at the target, so he didn’t risk the hitting President or First Lady by accident. Collateral damage was something Dave couldn’t afford here.

  A few minutes later, Keg appeared on the other side of the doorway. Dave watched his hand signals then when they were both ready, they began silently moving in toward the door from either end of the passageway. They were almost in position when a couple more people came around the corner, making far too much noise as they did so. One of the new arrivals saw an armed Dave and Keg approaching the Presidents apartment but didn’t see the two Troopers hiding behind cover and loudly challenged the two would be rescuers. The shout alerted the man in the apartment that there was someone he couldn’t see. As it happened, he quickly exposed his head and one shoulder to look down the passageway toward Dave. Dave started to bring his weapon to bear but couldn’t fire because if the shot exited the target's body, Keg was likely to end up a casualty himself.

  Suddenly, the man in the apartment came crashing out of the apartment, letting off a flurry of shots in Dave’s direction. Dave dropped to the ground, trying to bring his weapon to bear but was quite badly hit by several shots as he went down. He heard screams of pain behind him as at least one the new arrivals was also hit by some of the shots that missed Dave. As Dave dropped he lifted the muzzle, aiming for the point just below where the neck meets the torso. He squeezed off a shot, but his aim was a little higher than intended. The round entered the neck just under the chin, traveled through and disconnected his brain from his body when it demolished the man's spinal cord just below the brain stem. Dave hit the floor and was soon lying in an expanding pool of blood. The man they were hunting was thrown backward by the impact of the round and dropped his weapon from the suddenly nerveless fingers.

  There was silence for a few minutes before the two Troopers burst from cover and made a tactical entry into the Presidents suite where they found Edward and Teri Constantin sitting white faced on a settee. As Dave lay there, he could feel no pain. Keg rushed over to him to see if he was still alive. The Troopers must’ve called for help because Medics and new Troopers soon arrived. A doctor came over to Dave and did what he could to stem the bleeding before calling for a stasis pod. Keg was very upset and told the Medic to look after Dave.

  A Trooper who knew the two young men came over and said, “Take care of Dave here, he just saved the Presidents life. I’m sure the President will want to thank him when he’s well enough.”

  That comment, was sufficient to make sure Dave received the best treatment available in the facility. Given that this facility was intended to house the President of Cambridge during times of crisis, the medical capabilities were among the best available on Cambridge.

  Cambridge System

  Theseus and Loki exited the Jump into Cambridge System to find everything eerily quiet. There was no battle underway as far as they could see, but equally, nobody was waiting here to challenge them. Because they were intentionally running dark, but with the Shields and Point Defence on a hair trigger, nobody would know they were there unless they were close by.

  Colin said, “Tactical, what are we seeing?”

  “Looks like a lot of debris around the System, including some very large pieces, possibly ships drifting. The Pirates are mostly orbiting Cambridge, but they don’t appear to have taken out the Station or the Shipyard yet.”

  While Colin was considering this information, Theseus and Loki were moving steadily away from the Jump-Point. Colin didn’t think all the System Defences would be destroyed yet, not without a monumental level of incompetence which he couldn’t believe possible. While they may have lost some ships, the others would be out there somewhere, hiding, perhaps out of bullets. The two new Cobras needed to stay relatively close to the Jump-Point for now, but once the others arrived, Colin would go looking for the missing System Defence ships. A few minutes past the two-hour limit that Colin set, Dolarsu arrived in the System. The Destroyer was not a stealthy ship, so she made no attempt to hide. In about ten minutes, the Pirates would know she was here, but by then one of the Freighters would have arrived. Once all the ships in the Convoy arrived, they would head out into the Kuiper Belt where they had a reasonable chance of being lost among the millions of objects that were drifting about out there. When the Freighters were safe, Colin planned to go looking for the System Defence ships. It was likely they were low on ammunition, in which case, he could help them. Over the next thirty minutes, all of Colin’s little convoy arrived in System. Colin decided to put an encrypted message together and do an FTL transmission telling the remaining System Defence assets to meet him. If the Pirates had FTL Comms capability, they would pick up the transmission, but that would only tell them someone else was in the System and they would already know that.

  The encryption Colin chose to use was one that was unique to the Sixth-Generation AI’s so even if the Pirates had the capability of decrypting standard Federation transmissions, it would take at least a few hours to decrypt this one. Colin limited his message to identifying his ships name, and a rendezvous point that would not mean anything to anyone who didn’t have the coordinates to match it. Ten minutes after sending the transmission, Theseus received a reply with an alternative rendezvous location. He acknowledged
and then prepared to Micro-Jump to meet up with the others, leaving Loki, the Destroyers, and FNS Fortitude to defend their Super Freighter.

  Cambridge

  When the Pirate Troops landed on the planetary surface, they found everything quiet. The population had fled from the towns and cities to parts unknown. The troops knew that sooner or later, they’d need to go and round the civilians up so they could pick some out to be slaves. In the meantime, they went about looting anything that they could move. Even if something was firmly attached to a structure, they didn’t care about the damage they did to the structure to remove it, if the Pirates acquired what they wanted.

  One group of about fifty landed in the village near Colin’s home. They worked their way through the town, looting as they went and carrying their loot back to the shuttle. When it was full, it left to transport the loot to one of the ships in orbit. Eventually, a party came to Colin’s home. They walked up to the front door, but it was locked, so they simply smashed it to gain entry. They moved from room to room, removing anything they wanted. They could see a woman lived here so they started looking for her, hoping they could have a little fun, but of course, whoever she was couldn’t be found.