“Jason,” Twingo whispered, “the secret of Earth’s location is out. We may need them before this is all over.” Jason nodded before addressing Crisstof again.
“That sounds good. I’ll have Kage forward the coordinates to you,” he said. “It’s pretty far out of the way, further down the spiral arm than even Breaker’s World.” Crisstof looked surprised at this.
“We’d better get underway then,” he said. “We’ll move the instant we have the coordinates.” He nodded to them once more before signing off. Jason looked at Doc and Twingo after the screen went blank.
“I hope I didn’t just make a mistake,” he said. “If these ships are really so antiquated, the Phoenix should be able to make short work of them.”
“I said they looked like antiques,” Twingo corrected. “That doesn’t guarantee what we’ll face when we get there. Look at the Phoenix … the Eshquarians have rebuilt her far past the specs of the original Jepsen build. We’ll need an active scan before we can be certain.”
“So Earth has no weapons that they could use to defend themselves?” Doc asked.
“Just one,” Jason said, “and I hope they haven’t used it. Otherwise the aliens won’t need to fire a shot to kill a ton of humans. All we have that could possible bust through an energy shield are nuclear fusion missiles that aren’t made to target something as small as a ship. The collateral damage would be unimaginable.”
*****
The Phoenix was less than an hour from meshing into Earth’s Solar System. They were approaching from above the ecliptic to try and avoid most of the navigational hazards and pop into real-space as close as possible to minimize their detection time. The mood on the bridge was tense as everyone was preparing for an inevitable confrontation. Jason was in full armor, but not the off-the-shelf unit he had worn during the fight on Shorret-3. This unit was custom fitted, tied directly into his neural implant, and shockingly expensive.
Crusher was also dressed for the occasion, and Lucky was his usual impassive self as he watched the action on the bridge. The others were still wearing their standard shipboard garb as they wouldn’t be disembarking for any reason on this trip. While Jason watched the timer, he thought back to the four emails that were in his inbox from Taryn. One was simply an inquiry into how he was doing and if he would be coming to Earth anytime soon. She hadn’t fully believed him when he’d explained what had happened to him, but she played along anyway. He assumed she thought he was making a joke out of having to deploy overseas again.
The last three, however, were full of terror and pleading as the three ships arrived over America. She had seen his picture broadcast everywhere, but more importantly she knew that there would certainly be someone who would recognize him and an equally likely chance they would know he had been connected to her. The knot of fear in his stomach as he thought of someone using her to get to him felt like a burning coal. He forced himself to stay calm as the clock counted down the last few minutes.
“OK, boys … Get me a scan first thing, full active, and put us in full tactical mode,” Jason said as the crew began buckling into their seats. “Twingo, give me as much forward bias on the shields as you can until we make our first pass. Kage, when I tell you, have the computer do a search for this cell phone number.”
“You got it, Captain,” Twingo said as he prepared to reconfigure the ship after it emerged from slip-space.
“Cell phone number? What the hell is that?” Kage asked, bewildered, as the digits appeared on his display.
“It’ll make sense when the computer begins to access Earth’s communication grid. Just get me a location on it as soon as you can.” Kage just shrugged and moved the number to an out-of-the-way location on his touch panel.
“Ten seconds, everybody!” Kage called out a minute later as his hands flew over his control panels. Ten seconds later the ship shuddered as it popped into real-space and began to coast in-system towards Earth. Within a few more seconds the main drive was online and the shields and weapons were up as well, as the tactical displays began populating detected threats.
The three alien ships were still there, and from the scans it appeared that the damage to the surrounding areas was minimal. Jason jammed the throttle down hard and pointed the ship at his home. Soon the computer began squawking alerts about his speed and entry vector as they neared the planet.
“Captain!” Twingo cautioned. “Captain! DAMNIT JASON!!” Jason ignored him as the ship traversed the thermosphere and slammed into the mesosphere while still under full power, the coronal discharge of plasma breaking around the shields almost blinding them. The Phoenix shrieked and bucked in protest, but Jason didn’t let up as the gunship fought its way toward the surface. The heat and buffeting let up as the shields did their job, and the ship tore through the stratosphere at hypersonic speed.
“Ah … Jason, there you are,” Deetz’s voice came over the emergency channel on the short-range coms. “I had feared maybe you had lost your nerve, but as it turns out you never even came back, did you? So what do you plan to do with that single tiny ship—” His voice was cut off as Kage killed the internal com feed.
“Thanks,” Jason said simply. They had made entry over the Pacific Ocean, but Jason knew that Deetz was most likely on the ship that was currently over Washington, D.C. and he intended to hit that one before it could try and break for orbit. “Tactical analysis of the ship we just overflew,” he demanded.
“I’m getting low power readings and no indication of any advanced weaponry, Jason,” Doc said from one of the sensor stations. “It appears Twingo’s assessment may have been correct; they look to be seriously outdated.”
“Stay sharp anyway,” Jason said. “We’ll be coming up on the D.C. target in a second.” At the speed they were streaking over North America, they would be within targeting range of the other ship in less than a minute. Jason angled the nose down further and dropped them into the lower atmosphere. The sonic boom of the hypersonic ship was exacerbating the problem of an already terrified citizenry as they descended through thirty thousand feet, but it was an unavoidable consequence.
Flying over his home planet should have been a joyous occasion for Jason, but he was entirely focused on the targeting reticle that had just appeared in his field of view indicating where the enemy ship was. He angled the nose down further and reduced their power a bit. He wanted his first pass to be at high speed, but not so high that he couldn’t bring his weapons to bear while within the atmosphere.
“We’re being pinged by the target,” Kage reported. “Some sort of laser ranging device.”
When the indicator in his ocular implant told him he was ten kilometers away from the target, Jason slammed the throttle back against the stop and flipped the thumb switch up for the field-reverse control. The Phoenix’s gravimetric drive reversed its fields to slow the ship dramatically, so much so that if the deck plating and inertial compensators had failed they’d have been splattered against the canopy.
“Visual range in three seconds,” Jason said as he angled around to approach the enemy ship head-on. They crested a small rise and he got his first look at the ship that had invaded Earth. It had certainly seen better days, and had a bulbous, almost organic quality to it. At over three hundred and fifty meters in length, it dwarfed the gunship that was bearing down on it.
“Their shielding is minimal, no sign of—,” Kage started. “They’re firing! Particle beams tracking along our forward edges … no damage.”
“My turn,” Jason whispered as the Phoenix thundered into range over the city. The ship was floating over the river, so he spared nothing. When he squeezed the trigger the powerful plasma cannons that were housed in the leading edges of the wings blasted out a torrent of high-energy death. The first bolt punched clean through the shield and impacted the nose, causing a chain reaction of secondary explosions within the hull. Those were partially contained by the ship’s own limited combat shields. The remainder of the bolts blasted down the length of the hu
ll, creating a devastating amount of damage as the Phoenix shot by and was soon out over the Atlantic. “Report!”
“All shots were hits and caused significant damage,” Doc said. “She’s listing badly and losing altitude. Sensors are showing the reactor is failing and there are secondary explosions throughout.”
“Is the city in any danger?” Jason asked as he wrapped the Phoenix into a tight, knife-edge turn to attempt a second pass.
“No, they appear to have a limited amount of fissionable material stored outside of the—”
“Captain, I have a fix on that … cell phone number? ... the computer is tracking the location now,” Kage interrupted.
“Call it,” Jason ordered. “Put it through here on the bridge.” He angled them back around and saw that the target was burning brightly and slowly sinking towards the water. He brought them to a hover over the Annandale area of D.C. and watched the ship crash into the river as Kage tried to make his very first phone call. “What are the other ships doing?”
“It looks like they’re breaking for orbit,” Doc said in confusion. “All tracks are leading away from us as well, it looks like there’s been a general withdrawal ordered.”
“Shit! Track both of them and we’ll try to—”
“Jason?! Is that you?”
“Taryn?” Jason breathed a sigh of relief while simultaneously glaring at Kage. The Veran shrugged helplessly.
“Jason what is going on? That … alien … was putting your picture up on the television and saying we had to hand you over. It even had a picture of me, but it didn’t know my name.” Taryn sounded to be near panic. Jason could hardly blame her.
“Where are you? Are you safe?”
“Look!” Kage yelled, pointing out the canopy as a small craft shot out of the wreckage of the downed ship; this one was quite modern and pushing hard for orbit. It was already out of range and Jason had no doubt who was on it. He grabbed the controls to pursue when he was yanked up short.
“Jason, some of the people in town have figured out we’re here! A neighbor just called and said a group of armed men are coming!”
“Where are you?” he asked again.
“Your old cabin! They can’t be far away by now.” She choked out a sob, and he could hear her parents in the background. He was unconsciously pushing and pulling slightly on the stick, causing the nose to dip and rise while the engines whined and surged.
“Captain, that ship is nearly out of range,” Doc said softly. “We’d be able to catch it, but just.” Jason growled in frustration as he yanked the stick over and kicked the left pedal, causing the nose to snap over sharply to the west. He crammed the throttle down and sent them streaking out of the area towards the Rocky Mountains.
“Give me a plot to that signal,” he said in a deceptively calm voice. “I’ve never tried to navigate to my house from the air.” Kage complied quickly even as he began to look more and more agitated. “What?” Jason snapped.
“Uh, Captain,” Twingo said, answering for them all, “this is a populated area.”
“Shit,” Jason swore again as he brought the nose up and put them into a climb. He had been skimming the terrain while pushing into high-supersonic speeds. God knows how much damage I just did back there. He set the ship onto a parabolic arc that would allow them to gain some speed and put them at his old cabin in just a few minutes.
“There’s nowhere to land by the cabin itself,” Jason explained to his team. “Doc, you’ll take the controls when I put us in a hover above the main street. Lucky and I will drop down through the belly hatch and go collect the three people in the cabin. I want you to take the ship and go distract the group of people coming up the road, make all the noise you want, scare the shit out of them … but do NOT fire on them.”
“I’m not a fool, Captain,” Doc said indignantly.
“Captain—” Crusher began.
“I need you up here in the cargo bay,” he explained to the big warrior. “Grab one of your big guns and stand by.”
“Very well,” Crusher said, clearly not happy with the assignment.
Jason pulled the ship down and around into a low hover just above the main road that was the last bit of pavement before the dirt/gravel lane that led up to his old cabin. He hopped out of the seat, motioning for Lucky to follow him as he grabbed his trusty railgun out of the rack near the entrance to the bridge. He was already on the steps leading to the main deck by the time Doc had climbed into the pilot’s seat.
The pair quickly traversed the ship and stopped as they entered the cargo bay. “Go ahead and open us up and activate the transit beam,” Jason called over the intercom before activating the helmet to his armor. The segmented pieces all aligned themselves to form the helm, while active nanobots sealed the edges into one continuous piece.
A circular section of floor in the cargo bay dropped away and quickly irised open to let in the cool afternoon air. Seconds later, a bluish haze covered the opening and extended in a column all the way to the ground. Jason stepped out over the opening and was gently deposited on the street, where he stepped from the haze and waited for Lucky. He absolutely hated the transit beam, but it was a quick way in and out of the ship during ground ops when landing wasn’t an option. If he wasn’t wearing armor it reminded him of thousands of fingers tickling him as they moved him up or down. For some reason it always made him feel like he was being digested.
As soon as Lucky emerged from the beam, the ship closed back up and accelerated down the road. The mob was probably less than a few miles away, so Jason turned and led the way quickly up the lane. His cabin was much as he remembered it, save for the shotgun barrel pointed at him through the upstairs window. “That’s close enough … whatever you are!”
Jason recognized the voice as Taryn’s father, Ed. The fact that he was still there and attempting to protect his family sent a wave of relief washing over him.
“Ed! It’s me, Jason! I’m going to take my helmet off … don’t shoot,” he called out.
“Captain, I do not think it is wise—” Jason waved Lucky silent as he commanded his helmet to retract. No sooner had the helmet segmented itself and pulled away than a blond woman shot out of the house and came towards him at a full sprint. She flung herself onto him and began crying against his neck.
“Jason, I’m so scared!” Taryn sobbed. “What is happening?”
“It’s a long story,” Jason said softly, resisting the urge to stroke her hair while he was still wearing a powered gauntlet. As he put her down gently, both Ed and her mother, Jess, walked out of the cabin and up to him. “I’m sorry, but I’ve got to get you out of here for a while. Earth won’t be safe for you right now, if ever.”
“You aren’t with … them? Are you?” Jess looked like she was holding up a bit better than her daughter, but the fear was evident in her voice.
“No,” Jason assured her, “I’m with someone else. But thanks to them the people around here won’t leave you be.” As if to accentuate his point a thunderous roar shook the mountain.
“Those were the main engines of the Phoenix engaging,” Lucky said to Jason in perfect English for the benefit of the other humans. “Doc is getting desperate to ward off the potential attackers.” Taryn looked at Lucky in horror as he spoke.
“Guys, this is Lucky, he’s a friend of mine,” Jason said. “I’ll explain all this later, but we need to get down to the street so we can be picked up and on our way.”
“Captain, I couldn’t turn them. I think they figured out I wouldn’t fire on them and they kept pushing. They’re at the turn off to your home now,” Doc said over the com. “We’re going to create an opening forty meters in front of the cabin and deploy the transit beam. Stand by.”
“We all need to get into the house for a moment,” Jason said, reaching out to urge them up the steps even as the ground began to shake as the Phoenix settled in over them, obscured by the trees. They had just gotten inside the door when three brilliant flashes of plasma fire from
one of the gunship’s belly turrets vaporized three trees with the sound of a thunderclap. Shortly after, the haze of the transit beam descended into the still-smoking crater. “Let’s go. Quickly,” Jason urged the now catatonic family towards the beam.
Jason turned in time to see a few locals armed with hunting rifles and shotguns coming up the lane at a run. Wasting no time, he grabbed Taryn and set her forcefully into the transit beam, not waiting for her to get all the way into the ship before repeating the process with her parents. He activated his helmet in time for the first shots to ring out and kick up a spray by his feet.
“Hey! YOU!”
“All of you listen,” Jason’s amplified voice boomed out of the armor’s speakers. “Take your well-intentioned but misguided asses and go back down the hill.”
His words seemed to only intensify their aggression, and they were soon pointing their guns at him and Lucky. He rolled his eyes in his helmet and turned to tell Lucky to transit up when a shot rang out; he saw the flash of sparks come from the battlesynth’s face. Lucky simply turned and looked at the culprit and wagged his finger in a ‘no-no’ gesture before stepping into the beam. The man who fired the shot looked beyond terrified, so Jason let him be and took his turn riding up the beam. He ascended straight into utter chaos.
The first thing he noticed was the blood-curdling screams coming from Taryn as Crusher towered over her, attempting to make placating gestures and waving his clawed hands in her face.
[Please! Calm yourself, I’m just trying to help you out of the cargo bay to safety.] Crusher’s barking, guttural language, along with his appearance, was terrifying her beyond measure. “Captain,” he appealed to Jason, “what is wrong with her?”
“Crusher, you’re scaring the shit out of her!” Jason yelled as his helmet retracted. “She can’t understand you.”
Omega Force: Savage Homecoming Page 3