by David Bruns
Sam eyed Addison. “What makes you so sure you can get onto the Invincible’s flight deck?”
“I told you, Sam. I blasted the hell out of that place as we left. There’s no way Baltasar could have repaired it by now.”
“That’s your theory.”
“That’s my theory,” Addison agreed.
“And what happens if the Renegade shows up and the blast doors are closed?”
“Then I blow them open.”
“How are you—” Sam’s jaw dropped. “You’re flying ahead of them? Addison, that’s crazy. The Renegade is cloaked, but you’ll be a sitting duck. Girl, you’ve got a death wish.”
Addison shook her head. “I’ve got it all worked out. One shape-charged missile right on the door seam will blow them right open.”
“And what are you going to use for targeting? You’ve got no missile lock, no fire control. If you don’t hit it exactly right, you’ll end up like a bug on a windshield.”
Addison forced a smile. “Then I’ll just have to hit it right, won’t I?”
***
“Ten minutes to Swarm contact,” the intercom blared out on the flight deck. Laz stood on the Renegade loading ramp, his eyes searching the crowd of people in the hangar.
He finally spotted Addison near a trio of X-23 fighters. She seemed to be looking for someone in the crowd, too. Their eyes met; she raised her hand.
Laz fought through the scrum. Addison had redonned her flight suit, and her helmet dangled from her hand. She smiled at him—a real smile—and Laz felt his stomach drop through the floor. How many times had he dreamed about seeing that smile again? Gone was the disappointment, the hate, the mistrust, and all that was left was . . . Addie.
“I guess this is goodbye,” she said.
“Listen, Commander, I need to—”
“Call me Addie, Laz.”
“Really?”
She blinked and looked away. “Whatever happens today, I want you to know that I forgive you. I don’t pretend to understand what happened, but I don’t care anymore. It was a long time ago and I got over it—over you.” She swiped at her cheeks. “That’s not true, either. The truth is I never got over you. I know that makes me weak, but I don’t care—”
“I love you, Addie,” Laz said. “Always have, always will. I did a stupid thing, then I made it worse. Look, I cheated on a test, then lied about it, and it got all out of hand . . . I was so ashamed, Addie. I couldn’t face you. I—I just ran away.”
“I don’t care, Laz.”
“But I do. I need you to know that I never forgot about—”
Addison smirked at him. “I saw your sock drawer. I saw the picture.”
He blushed, eyes locked on a welded seam in the deck.
“Pilots, to your fighters,” the intercom blared. A running crewman cut between them.
“I’m going now,” Addison called. More people milled around them. He reached out to her, but it was too late. He watched as she climbed into her fighter and a technician closed the canopy.
Laz’s eyes were still burning as he strode onto the bridge of the Renegade. He slid into the pilot’s seat in time to see Addison’s fighter taxi onto the runway. There was a long missile strapped underneath the body of her X-23. Mimi was watching him from the copilot’s chair. “You sure about this, Laz?”
“Get off if you want to, Mimi,” he snarled. “I’m sure.”
Mimi focused on her panel. “Aye-aye, sir.”
Laz hid his annoyance by tuning into the control tower frequency. They were just clearing Addison’s fighter. “Cannonball, you are released for takeoff.”
Laz punched the radio. “Control, this is Renegade. Commander Halsey’s call sign is Cannonballs. Plural, with an s on the end.”
“Roger that, Renegade. Cannonball-zzzz. You are cleared for takeoff.”
Addison’s voice came over the net. “Cannonballs, away.”
And she was gone.
“Cannonballs, huh?” Mimi said with a wry chuckle. “Wonder how she got that nickname.”
Laz nudged the throttles, feeling the Renegade lift off the deck.
“Just watch her fly, Mimi. Just watch her fly.”
Chapter 29
SS Renegade – Cargo Deck
Marine Second Lieutenant Okube Ojambe waited until his platoon had quieted down, then energized the portable hologram. A 3-D representation of the Invincible’s flight deck hovered over the assembled men.
“Listen up, marines. We are on special tasking today. This is the ISS Invincible, Constitution-class carrier—and she’s been taken hostage by the Swarm. It’s our job to get her back.”
The men looked at one another. Ojambe noted that the brass’s effort to keep a lid on the Invincible’s defection had worked.
“The Swarm has agents within the Fleet—one of the reasons why there has been such op-sec around this maneuver. I’ll be honest with you: we have no idea what we’re getting into. We could be fighting a handful of Swarm agents . . . or we could be up against the whole crew of the Invincible. We will work it out on the ground, so let’s talk through the plan.
“Commander Halsey and Captain Scollard will land us on the flight deck. We will deploy by squad. Battle armor, full pressure suits, no gravity, and coming in hot.” He highlighted the doors connecting the flight hangar to the larger ship. “We will secure access here, here, and here.” The view expanded inside the ship and he assigned sectors to each squad.
“Listen up, marines. You will stay on bottled air until directed by me. All crew from the Invincible are considered hostile until proven otherwise. The Swarm may have the ability to infect healthy individuals and we’re taking no chances.”
The Renegade’s deck rolled under his feet. “That’s our cue to lock it down. It’s going to be a bumpy ride on the way in, people, so keep your shit together.” The ship bucked again, forcing him to grab onto the table for support. “Listen up. The Swarm took one of our ships and it’s our job to take it back. Are you with me, marines?”
“Oo-rah, sir!” Their shouts echoed in the cargo bay.
“That’s all,” Ojambe said. “Hang on to your asses. We’re in for a wild ride. Dismissed.”
The men dispersed into their squads, some of them laughing, some praying, and a few just staring into the distance. There’d been no time to install jump seats for the men. They clipped their belts and their gear to the cargo netting that blanketed the floor of the bay.
Ojambe took his place nearest the exit ramp and checked his weapons: pulse rifle with full charge, a brace of stun grenades, a standard-issue Ka-Bar knife, and his grandfather’s Colt .45 service pistol. He slipped the ancient projectile weapon out of its holster. It gleamed deadly black in the dimness of the bay and he could smell the faint scent of gun oil.
The ship bucked so hard that his ass lifted off the deck, then slammed back down. Overhead, the yellow strobe pulsed. All around them a droning noise permeated the air.
Ojambe gripped his helmet and punched his hand in the air. “Helmets on, marines.”
“Oo-rah, sir!”
The helmet muffled the droning noise of the Swarm, but the sound had morphed into a vibration that he felt all over his body. His breathing came fast and he closed his eyes to calm his nerves.
I shall not fear, fear is the mind-killer . . .
The ship heeled over sharply. “Lieutenant Ojambe, are you there?” Scollard’s voice in his ear.
“Here, Captain.” His voice sounded distant over the comms circuit.
“Tell your men to strap in. It’s going to get ugly from here on out.”
Going to get ugly? “Aye-aye, sir.”
“When the strobe turns red, that’s your cue, Lieutenant.”
“Yes, sir.”
If we live that long, Ojambe thought.
***
ISS Victory – Bridge
“Comms, open a channel to the Fleet,” said Captain Sean Rimaud. He steepled his fingers, mentally ticking off the ships in his h
ead: Constitution and Independence along with their Russian counterparts the Vladivostok, Brezhnev, and Murmansk. A host of frigates and light cruisers were mixed in with the big boys.
He studied the main viewscreen. Christ, the Swarm ships were huge—twice the size of the Invincible that now headed the alien column of ships. Rimaud was painfully aware that Captain Baltasar could hear everything he was saying to the Fleet.
The comms officer started in his chair. “Captain, we’re being hailed by the Invincible.”
“On screen.”
He hadn’t seen Jason Baltasar in years, but the man looked as if he hadn’t aged a day. Apart from the strange light in his old friend’s eyes—which could very well be Rimaud’s imagination playing tricks—Baltasar looked normal.
“Sean,” he said with a wolfish smile. “Of course they sent you.”
“Captain Baltasar,” Rimaud replied, “on behalf of the United Earth Federation and our Russian allies, I demand that you—”
“Blah, blah, blah.” Baltasar waved his hands in lazy circles. “You have no idea what you’re dealing with, Sean. The power . . . the beauty. You can’t win, so why waste all those lives? Lives that are needed for our new masters—”
“Goodbye, Jason.”
Baltasar looked puzzled and sad at the same time. “Sean, make them see the light. If need be, they will destroy—”
Rimaud made a cut-off motion to his comms officer and the screen went blank. “Open a channel to the Fleet, Comms.”
He sat up straighter in his chair. “Gentlemen, you undoubtedly heard my exchange with our former colleague, Jason Baltasar. Our mission is clear: total destruction of the enemy at any cost. It’s us or them. As a reminder, this net is not secure. All battle comms will be done by secure text using quantum crypto. Victory, out.”
Rimaud focused on his breathing. The interaction with Baltasar had him rattled, which was undoubtedly his old friend’s intention.
“XO, to the Fleet: ‘All ships engage.’” They all had their battle assignments already. All he had to do was release them. His eyes tracked back to the alien ships that filled the viewscreen. Release them to what?
Sam Avery’s voice sounded loud in the quiet of the bridge. “Message sent, sir.”
Rimaud gritted his teeth. “Helm, intercept course to the Invincible. Full power to forward shields. Keep the nose ten degrees down, helm.”
“Intercept course laid in, sir,” helm replied. “Nose at ten down.” He let his last response lilt up at the end like a question.
“XO, let the high jinks commence.”
The rest of the bridge crew exchanged puzzled looks. Commander Avery tapped a short message into the secure text circuit.
“High jinks away, sir.”
Chapter 30
Fighter X-B99 cockpit – Ahead of ISS Victory
The secure text scrolled across Addison’s heads-up display. HIGH JINKS AWAY. She threw glances out either window to her two wingmen, Howler and Wolfman.
“We’re a go, gentlemen. Form on me.” She pulled away, letting her two companions take up stations on either side of her craft.
“Renegade, Renegade, this is Cannonballs. I have point, stay on my six.”
In his cloaked state, Laz wouldn’t respond, but she knew he was there.
The bulk of the Victory loomed overhead. She matched speed and tucked their little band of ships close into the hull of the huge warship. With any luck, they’d ride Victory all the way in.
“The Fleet’s engaging,” Howler called out. Addison watched the Constitution unleash her rail guns on the farthest Swarm ship, raising a prickle of minor explosions along the hull of the alien vessel.
In response, all of the Swarm ship deployed fighters.
“Oh my God,” said Meatball. “Look at them all.” Hundreds, maybe thousands of curved fighters disgorged from the Swarm ships, blacking out the stars around them.
“Eyes on the prize, people,” Addison snapped. “All we care about is the Invincible.” The hordes of enemy fighters were unnerving to say the least.
The Constitution was pressing her advantage on the Swarm ship. She approached at flank speed, cutting a swath through the fighters and raking the alien ship with her rail guns. A brilliant green laser shot out of the Swarm ship, leaving a line of fire across the Constitution’s hull. But she held together.
As the Constitution tried to turn for another pass, a UEF frigate took a run at the Swarm ship. The brilliant green alien laser punched through the hull of the smaller ship like it was lancing a boil, leaving a puff of fiery debris where the warship had once been.
“Holy shit! They just blew up the Tighe!”
“Howler, focus,” Addison replied, her tone edged with authority.
The Russians were playing a different game, using two heavily armored battle cruisers to team up on one Swarm vessel. She saw a string of secondary explosions start across the alien ship. A good first strike, but the big ship was far from disabled.
The bulk of the Invincible drew closer. “Fighters away!” Wolfman called out as the Victory deployed their fleet of eighty X-23s. Next to the clouds of alien fighters, they looked horribly outnumbered. The fighters broke into four-man diamond formations, angling toward the enemy fighters. Pips of light flashed like a cloud of lightning bugs. Addison saw three Swarm fighters explode almost immediately.
The Invincible still had not deployed fighters. Was that a good sign? Maybe Baltasar didn’t have control of the crew after all. That hope died a few seconds later when the Invincible’s rail guns started firing, projectiles streaking past them like little meteors. Even a minor hit from one of those and it was game over. The nose of the Victory dropped another few degrees to give the Renegade more cover from the incoming fire.
The Victory’s rail guns replied in kind, filling the empty space between the ships with deadly fire, any one of which could shred Addison’s fighter in the blink of an eye. She guided them tighter against the protective shield of the Victory’s hull.
The drone of the Swarm fleet filled her headphones, making it hard to think. She checked the distance to the Invincible. Twelve thousand meters.
“Victory, Victory, this is High Jinks, stand by to break on my mark,” Addison said. The two warships were closing at a rapid rate. “Three . . . two . . . one . . . mark!”
Addison punched the throttle, driving her fighter forward. Above her, the Victory ceased her rail gun fire and banked away, exposing her less-armored underside to the Invincible. Addison winced as explosions behind her reflected in her canopy. No matter, she had a job to do.
The Swarm fighters descended on them, heedless of the fact that they were flying through Invincible’s rail gun fire. She laid on her cannon, trying to cut a path through the alien fighters.
“Got two!” Wolfman called out.
“Good,” she shot back, “but make sure you protect your cargo, boys.” They were all carrying shaped charges called “bunker busters,” designed to break through the blast doors that protected the Invincible’s flight deck.
On her starboard side, Howler’s fighter disappeared. No fire, no debris, just snuffed out by an incoming rail gun slug from the Invincible.
Addison cursed. “Wolfman, take your run now!”
Her remaining wingman flashed by her toward the Invincible. She could see now that the huge blast doors were sealed shut, making Addison curse in a long, low, continuous stream. Her wingman streaked straight at the doors, releasing his missile at the last minute before banking away. When the explosion cleared, the blast doors were still there.
Laz’s voice in her ear. “Cannonballs, this is Renegade. I’m hit; my cloak is down.”
Addison chanced a glance over her shoulder. The Renegade was in full view and trailing a stream of plasma from the right side. Enemy fighters swooped in and she responded with continuous fire from her turrets.
Invincible loomed large before her. It was now or never.
“Listen, Laz. Stay tight on my six, I�
�m switching the missile from targeting to contact. I’m going to drive it straight in.”
In her peripheral vision, she saw one of the Russian heavies explode in a massive ball of fire that was immediately snuffed out in the vacuum of space.
“Addie, pull back. We’ll find another way,” Laz pleaded with her.
“Nope. We’re going big or going home, Laz. Stay on my six and you’ll be fine.”
“Addie—”
“No time,” she cut him off. “Just remember what I said back there.”
She switched the radio off. It was hard not to feel small next to the bulk of the Invincible. The blackened blast doors filled her viewscreen. She pushed the throttle all the way forward and held the trigger down in continuous cannon fire as she sped at the doors.
Addison released the missile, watching it streak ahead of her ship. She had maybe five seconds to impact.
The fiery explosion filled her viewscreen, licking out toward her.
All she could hear was her own screaming.
***
SS Renegade – Bridge
“Laz, it’s suicide!” Mimi screamed. “Slow down. Let’s hold off until we know if she gets through.”
“She’ll get through.” What are you doing, Addie? Do you have a death wish?
Mimi stared at the hull of the Invincible that was getting closer and closer at a rapid rate. “How do you know?”
“She’ll get through,” Laz repeated. He punched the channel that patched him to the marine lieutenant in the cargo bay.
“Ojambe, this is the captain. We’re on final approach to the Invincible. Either we’re going to be a bug on a windshield in the next thirty seconds or you’re going to be shooting some bad guys. Right now, it’s a toss-up.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Don’t call me sir, Ojambe. I work for a living.”
The marine didn’t reply.
Mimi, her face white, sat back in her seat and tugged on the straps of her harness. “Was that necessary?”