“You’ve got it on your main display,” Kage told him. “He’s currently over Asia, China specifically, according to your news reports.” At the last possible moment Jason reversed the drive while reducing the power and slowed the ship dramatically before it slammed into the mesosphere. Their entry could be heard across the continental United States as Jason continued the dive and streaked over the Pacific Ocean at nearly twenty-five times the speed of sound.
“We’ll be coming into weapons range within forty seconds,” Doc said tensely. Jason tried to relax and clear his mind a bit as he interfaced his neural implant with the Phoenix’s computer. There was a moment of vertigo as the sensor feed was linked into his visual cortex, allowing him to have a full sphere of visual range around him. This little trick was useless in space combat, as there wasn’t anything to see, but in a planet’s atmosphere the interface allowed him to become a part of the gunship in a way he would have thought impossible before he upgraded his wetware.
The computer superimposed a floating reticle in his field of view that let him know where Deetz was currently located. It looked like he was circling an area over mainland China, and so far seemed unaware that they’d entered the atmosphere on the far side of the planet. Hopefully he hasn’t thought to monitor news reports too. I’m sure our entry didn’t go unreported.
“Stand by,” Jason told his crew. “I’m going to try to get in underneath him and light him up with the main guns.” He nosed over and let the computer know he wanted to maintain three hundred feet of altitude as they streaked over the continent. The gunship had slowed considerably during the descent and was now flying at a paltry twenty-five hundred feet per second, the speed of a bullet leaving a rifle barrel. The reticle the computer provided began to blink red, indicating they were nearly within range. He could see huge plumes of smoke rising in the distance and could only imagine the devastation being wreaked by the small ship and its advanced weaponry.
As soon as the reticle turned green he commanded the ship to put the main guns on target and squeezed the trigger. The salvo of ten plasma bolts left the leading edges of both wings in a crimson blaze as they streaked towards the target. At this extreme range, Jason had little hope of destroying Deetz’s ship; he only wanted to get him off the civilian targets.
“Two impacts on his shields, both shots diffused to the point there was little damage,” Kage reported. “All other shots missed. He is turning away and heading north.”
“I can see that,” Jason said as he climbed and turned in on Deetz to try and shorten the distance. He didn’t want to run in too close since he wasn’t completely sure the synth still didn’t have his disruptor available. “It looks like he’s heading for Russia.”
The Phoenix roared over China as Deetz fled north at a much higher altitude. Jason kept a close watch for any course corrections that would indicate the enemy ship was trying to come around and bring his weapons to bear on them. Once they crossed into Kazakhstan, Deetz began opening fire again. Powerful plasma bolts began impacting settlements all along the flight path of the smaller ship. Jason growled in frustration and goosed the drive to put them into effective weapons range again. He let loose with two high-power laser beams that lanced brilliant green through the atmosphere and impacted the other ship’s drive section. The sustained beams overwhelmed the aft shields and turned the outer hull to slag near the drive exhaust.
“Nice shot!” Kage exclaimed. Battle damage assessments began to come in as the computer scanned the impact zones. Deetz corkscrewed away from the beams and dove for the ground, forcing Jason to break contact and bank hard to starboard to keep from overrunning him.
Deetz fired a few more shots into the countryside before rolling over and letting loose a missile from an internal weapons bay in the ship’s belly. The piece of ordnance arced high and away from the ship, continuing north while Deetz pulled hard over to the east.
“Track that missile!” Jason shouted as he pulled the Phoenix up into a high climb to get some perspective on both Deetz and the missile he’d just fired.
“It’s tracking for another nuclear reactor. The unit appears to be shut down but breaching the case will still release radioactive material,” Doc said.
“Lock onto it,” Jason said as he wrapped the Phoenix into a tight turn to follow the missile. He had to down it quickly and get back onto Deetz before he could resume hitting civilian targets.
“We’re locked,” Kage said calmly. “Just get me a little closer, it’s already apexed and is starting to dive.” Jason shoved the throttle up again and urged the gunship into the high supersonic range as it screamed over southern Russia. He could only imagine the terror the humans on the ground were feeling as the two spaceships slugged it out in their skies.
When they were close enough Jason squeezed his trigger and held it to give Kage the command authorization to fire the ship’s weapons. A high-intensity laser lanced out from an articulated turret under the nose and hit the missile on the warhead. The super-hard casing of the weapon held for a moment as the laser poured gigawatts of power into it. Finally, with a blinding explosion, the warhead casing failed and the anti-matter explosive created a shockwave that flattened trees for five miles in every direction. The Phoenix barely bucked as Jason yanked the nose up and to port to reacquire Deetz.
“Where’s he at?” Jason barked.
“He’s over the Gulf of … Bothnia,” Doc struggled with the unfamiliar names. “He just ran through Finland. But it looks like he attacked Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Helsinki while we were chasing that missile.” Jason was fairly knowledgeable about Earth’s geography and he knew that Stockholm and Oslo were along that flight path. He climbed up to twenty thousand feet and poured on the power, trying to set a course that cut him off. The Phoenix thundered over Eastern Europe as she chased down the weaker, but still speedy, runabout.
“He sees us,” Doc reported. “He’s changed course and is accelerating over the North Sea. He’s causing a lot of damage, Jason … you’re going to have to end this now.”
“I’m trying to but I can’t shoot down a ship loaded with munitions over a populated area,” Jason said as he nudged his speed up a little further. Deetz was now only taking pot shots at cities as be overflew them with the gunship so close on his tail. He would be over the Atlantic in a few seconds and Jason would be able to finish him off.
As they passed over Leeds, England, however, he was forced to sharply alter his course. The British had decided they weren’t going to take this lying down and were fighting back. The RAF had thrown two squadrons worth of Eurofighters right in his way. The only place to go was straight up to avoid plowing into the formations, which were now firing missiles at him. Cursing loudly, he yanked the stick back and sent the Phoenix rocketing up out of the fighters’ range as three missiles got through and impacted the shields harmlessly.
He admired the RAF pilots’ courage, and they had no idea he was on their side, but the delay had let Deetz slip out of range again and he was now closing in on the northeastern coast of the United States. Leveling out his flight, he turned onto a direct intercept course and ramped the engines up to full power. The Phoenix shuddered as she went hypersonic in the heavy lower atmosphere and Jason could see the hull temperature start to climb despite the shields deflecting the majority of the airflow. Plasma stringers began to form as the air burned from the ship’s passing and he could only imagine what it sounded like from the ground. He had only run his ship so hard on two other occasions, and he knew the abuse would take its toll eventually.
“Here we go,” Twingo said as the first warning indicators popped up. “We’re still good, Captain. Keep after him.” The ship crossed over the eastern coast at Mach 25 plus so they were unable to clearly assess the damage to New York City and Pittsburgh as they chased Deetz. The sonic footprint of the gunship was devastating. A near-delta winged craft the size of an office building at those speeds was almost as damaging as the other ship’s weapons fire. But Jason h
ad no time to try and climb to a safer altitude and then dive down onto his target. He had to end this as soon as he could.
They traversed the continental United States in just under three minutes. Jason pulled the power back and allowed the ship to aero brake as they approached the west coast. The sensors showed that Deetz was over San Francisco and looping over the city, striking random targets. Jason had no idea why he’d decided to stop running, but he took the opportunity to close the gap again.
“Full countermeasures,” Jason said as he nosed over to bring the ship down to hug the terrain. He set his altitude hold at two hundred and fifty feet and continued his approach, trying to gain some element of surprise on the synth.
“He’s over the bay now,” Doc said as the gunship streaked over Berkeley and out over the water.
“I’ve got his ass,” Jason hissed as the Phoenix highlighted the runabout with a flashing green reticle through his neural implant. Time seemed to slow down as the other shipped arced over and showed its belly, pulling to the left to make another attack run. Jason brought the nose of the gunship up and rolled over to the right in order to put the left wing right onto the drive section and aerodynamic stabilizers of the enemy. The fraction of a second it took for the two ships to close seem to take minutes as the runabout grew larger in the canopy. The crew of the gunship gasped as they realized what he intended to do.
The impact was horrific as the Phoenix’s left wing slammed into the runabout. Jason was slammed against his harness as the ship yawed violently, and the air was filled with shrill warnings and alarms. He was barely able to keep his bearings as he let the computers stabilize their flight. Through the alarms he could see that even though some systems were squawking in protest to his actions, the ship seemed to be more or less intact.
“What the hell was that?!” Twingo yelled as he shook his head to clear the cobwebs. “This thing has guns, you know.”
“Couldn’t risk shooting the main guns across the bay,” Jason said, not wanting to admit he had been surprised by the closure rate and hadn’t had time to select the plasma cannons. “Where is he?”
“He’s crashed near a small island,” Doc said in a shaky voice. “It looks like … Alcatraz Island? Is that how you say that?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jason muttered as he swung around and back-tracked his flight path to the infamous lump of rock that jutted up out of the bay. “Start feeding me system statuses, Twingo.”
“The shields held, amazingly,” the engineer said as he started prioritizing damage control systems. “There’s almost no structural damage. Engines and powerplant are one hundred percent. Port shielding power couplers were overloaded but are resetting. Primary weapons are offline, all we have are point defense and expendables.”
“Target the ship with a thermobaric warhead,” Jason said as he halted to a hover one mile out and five hundred feet over the water. “Fire when ready.”
“It looks like Deetz is already out of the ship, Captain,” Doc said. “Optical sensors caught a biped running from the crash and into a building on the island.”
“He’s like a damn cockroach! Fire anyway,” Jason ordered, “we can’t leave that ship just lying there intact.” Kage configured the appropriate missile in the weapons bay and fired it at the ship that was partially submerged and crunched up against a boat dock. The resulting explosion flung pieces of wreckage far into the bay and over the island into the Pacific Ocean. Jason knew that humans would recover a lot of the wreckage, but he was determined to leave them little more than some new material technology that they probably were decades from being able to replicate anyway. He admitted to himself that it might be a bit hypocritical considering what he’d been doing in recent years, but he felt humanity wasn’t ready for the galactic stage.
“Whoa! That got it,” Kage said with a huge smile.
“OK, listen up,” Jason said, making sure to keep them all focused. “The Phoenix is now the only ship capable of leaving this planet. Deetz will be desperate to get on board, so we’re going to deny him that opportunity.”
“Are we just going to blow up the entire island?” Twingo asked.
“Honestly, I considered it,” Jason admitted. “But then we’d never know if we actually got him. Nope … we’re going to have to go down and do this the hard way. Crusher, Lucky ... get ready, we’re going to go in and dig this rat out. Doc, I want you to take the Phoenix and stand-off at least ten miles out and fly a combat air patrol. I don’t want the military or law enforcement approaching the island until we’re done.”
Jason swung the Phoenix around into a low hover over the parade ground, the only open area large enough to get the ship close enough to disembark. After he let Doc jump into the pilot’s seat and made sure everyone understood their orders, he grabbed his railgun and followed Crusher and Lucky off the bridge, both seeming eager to start ground operations. He almost didn’t notice Taryn following him out.
“Jason!” she called. He stopped and turned to face her.
“Yes?” She stepped up to him and reached out, but paused before touching his bulky armor. She instead reached both hands up to hold his face in her hands.
“Please be careful,” she said with tears in her eyes. He squatted down so his face was level with hers.
“I’ll be back in a little bit,” he said, not able to think of anything else to say. She nodded and leaned in, kissing him aggressively before turning her back on him and walking quickly back to the bridge. Jason refused to dwell on her as he had a job to do. He walked to the cargo bay, knowing that Deetz wasn’t going to be an easy target and the bastard probably had more than one surprise up his sleeve.
“About time,” Crusher said in exasperation when he entered the hold. “You know we’re in the middle of a damn op, right?”
“Just open the ramp and let’s get to it,” Jason said brusquely. Crusher reached over and opened the pressure doors to the cargo bay as the ramp was lowering. Lucky had advised against using the transit beam because it worked both ways. It was possible, however unlikely, that Deetz could use it to infiltrate the ship as they were transiting to the surface. Instead, the Phoenix hovered thirty feet above the parade ground and Crusher and Lucky would jump to the surface while Jason and the Phoenix’s rear guns guarded the ramp. Then Jason would jump down as they covered the LZ. Once they were all on the ground, the Phoenix would pull away and stay clear of any attempt Deetz could likely make to board or damage the vessel.
“We’re clear, Doc. Closer her up and get out of here,” Jason called over the com as he landed on the pavement with a heavy thud, his armor easily absorbing the impact. He didn’t look up as he heard his ship power up and climb away from Alcatraz Island. The three of them scanned in every direction, waiting for an attack that didn’t come.
“Do you know your way around this place?” Crusher asked Jason.
“Um … not really. I took a tour when I was ten and I’ve seen a couple of movies about it,” Jason admitted.
“We’re screwed,” Crusher grunted as he hefted his plasma rifle. Soon an eerie silence descended over the island as the Phoenix flew out of hearing distance. Jason could just make out the dull rumble of jet engines from what he assumed would be U.S. Air Force fighter aircraft.
“Let’s head towards the boat dock and see if we can pick up his trail from there,” Jason suggested, pointing off towards his right at the column of smoke still rising from the shoreline. The trio began a cautious walk towards the dock, Jason on point while Crusher and Lucky flanked him and covered to the left and right. Lucky’s sensors would let them know if something was sneaking up on them.
“Holy shit,” Jason said when they were halfway across the parade grounds. “What the hell is that smell?” Crusher was already drawing in deep breaths of air through his nose and huffing them out through his mouth. He seemed to be fixated on something to their left. Jason halted and waited while his friend tensed up, still staring hard to where there was a rubble pile of
a long gone building.
Before long, a scrabbling sound could be heard on the rocks coming from the shoreline to the left. A moment after that a green head appeared, then another. Crusher sucked in a deep breath and let out a bellowing roar that made Jason nearly jump out of his armor. He’d never heard anything like it before, and suddenly he felt like a spectator as the Galvetic warrior stomped towards the newcomers.
The pair quickly emerged. Jason could see they were quite large and looked reptilian. The Korkaran mercenaries had finally made an appearance. Their skin looked like a crocodiles, but smoother and with a glossy sheen. Heavily muscled and agile, the pair of biped crocs approached Crusher, tails swishing. Still thoroughly confused as to why his friend didn’t just shoot them, Jason followed behind with his railgun raised halfway while Lucky scanned in all directions behind them. The mercs also had weapons, but carried them in a manner that indicated they had no intention of using them.
Once the two groups were within ten yards of each other, Crusher and the Korkarans stopped. One of the mercs said something to Crusher in a language Jason’s implant couldn’t translate, and then they both bowed low. When they straightened, Crusher simply nodded once. Lucky managed to look surprised (no mean feat) and Jason was only more confused, but he got the distinct impression the two new arrivals knew Crusher personally. Or at least knew of him.
“Captain,” Crusher said, “you and Lucky go find Deetz. I will deal with this.”
“You can’t be—”
“I was not asking!” he roared back. Jason rocked back on his heals a bit at that.
“Okay,” he said without further argument. “Let’s go, Lucky.” The battlesynth didn’t argue, further confirming in Jason’s mind that something significant had just happened on the parade ground that he wasn’t privy to. I’ll deal with it later. Assuming Crusher survives.
*****
Omega Force: Savage Homecoming Page 22