Ep.#9 - I am Justice (The Frontiers Saga - Part 2: Rogue Castes)
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“How many emitters do we need to kill to take down their forward shields?” Josh wondered as he adjusted his fighter’s angle and fired at the next emitter.
“At least ten, I would think,” Loki replied, still watching his sensor display. “Man, they’re really taking a pounding out there,” he commented as he watched the Strikers and Gunyoki attack the port midship area of the enemy warship.
“That’s six!” Josh exclaimed, sounding like he was having the time of his life.
“Uh-oh,” Loki declared as the threat alert on his console lit up.
“No uh-ohs!” Josh barked as he shot another emitter.
“We’re being targeted!” Loki warned. “From the right! Translate left! NOW, NOW, NOW!”
Josh immediately shifted the base of his flight control stick hard to the left, causing the translation thrusters on the Sugali fighter’s starboard side to fire at maximum power. The fighter jerked hard to port, causing both of them to jerk to the right. Another red square turned green, and he fired, blowing it apart. “That’s nine!”
“Another turret is painting us!” Loki exclaimed. “We gotta go!”
“Where?” Josh demanded as he fired at another emitter.
He never saw the tenth emitter explode.
“I’ve got the threat board back up!” Jessica exclaimed. “They’re still out there!”
“The battleship?” Nathan asked.
“Who the fuck else?” she replied. “Oh, my God! The Sugali fighter!”
“Josh and Loki?”
“They just took a direct hit, from only thirty meters away!”
“How the hell did they get inside their shields?”
“What shields?” Jessica exclaimed gleefully. “Their forward shields are down!”
“Then fire!” Nathan ordered.
“We’re no longer pointed at them!” she replied.
“How far off are we?”
“At least ten degrees.”
“Vlad! I need maneuvering now!”
“They’re targeting us,” Jessica warned. “Big guns! Coming around!”
“Fuck!” Josh cursed. “I’ve got nothing!”
“Reactor has scrammed!” Loki reported. “The core has ejected!”
“We’re going down!” Josh announced. “Jesus! Twice in two days! What are the chances?”
“They blew off our entire port side!” Loki realized. “Do you have flight dynamics?”
“Yeah, but I don’t know how accurate they are!” Josh replied as the window screens went black all at once. “Oh, great, and we can’t even punch out!”
“I TOLD YOU WE NEEDED FLIGHT SUITS!” Loki yelled.
“Really, Lok? You enjoying being right?”
“How fast?” Loki asked.
“How fast what?” Josh replied. “How fast are we going to die? Pretty damned fast, I’d say.”
“No! How fast are we losing altitude!”
Josh glanced at his flickering flight dynamics display. “Five hundred meters per second!”
“That’s good!” Loki exclaimed.
“In what universe is that good?” Josh asked.
“This ship can handle that, and probably much more!”
“How would you know?” Josh demanded. “You read the fucking manual, or something?”
“Shut the fuck up, Josh!” Loki barked. “As soon as we get into thicker atmosphere, you can get us under control!”
“Nothing is working!” Josh reminded him as he moved the flight control stick around, getting no response as expected.
“This ship has direct cable backup to the aerodynamic control surfaces!” Loki explained.
“This thing has aerodynamic control surfaces?”
“No! I just made that shit up!”
“So, I can fly it then!”
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you!”
“But what good is that going to do?” Josh wondered as they continued to plummet toward Rakuen. “I’m not going to be able to land it!”
“We can eject once we get low enough, dumb ass!”
“Oh, yeah!”
“That’s assuming we don’t burn up on the way down,” Loki added.
“You had to go and ruin it for me, didn’t you!” Josh exclaimed.
The ship began to shake violently.
“We’ve hit the atmosphere!” Loki announced.
“No shit!”
“We’re heating up,” Loki warned. “Eight hundred Kelvin and rising fast.”
“I’m really starting to feel like I need to find a new line of work,” Josh declared.
“Now, you come to that realization,” Loki laughed. “Twenty-five hundred Kelvin. Three thousand. Thirty-five hundred. Four thou…”
Josh was already dripping with sweat and was having a hard time breathing. “Thanks……for always……being there……Loki.”
“It’s been……a wild……ride……Josh.”
“They did it!” Ensign Weston reported urgently. “The battleship’s forward shields are down!”
“TAC COM to all Alliance forces! The target’s forward shields are down! Pound them!”
“The battleship is targeting the Aurora!” the ensign added.
“Oh, my God,” Cameron gasped.
“The battleship is targeting the Aurora!” the Morsiko-Tavi’s sensor operator exclaimed. “They’re bringing one of their big forward guns around!”
“Which one!” Captain Tobas demanded.
“The starboard gun!”
“Geo! Can you put us between the Aurora and that gun?”
“What?”
“Can you do it?” the captain demanded.
“Yes, but…”
“Do it!”
“Yes, sir,” the pilot replied, still in disbelief.
Captain Tobas tapped his comm-set. “Tavi to all flatbeds! We’re the biggest ships available right now! We need to jump in and block their line of fire on the Aurora!”
“That’s suicide!” the Morsiko-Tavi’s XO argued.
“If the Aurora dies, we all die!” the captain barked. “It’s only a matter of when!” He turned to face the forward windows. “If we are to die, better to die heroes.”
“Better not to die at all!” the XO argued, stepping forward to challenge his captain.
Captain Tobas swung his right arm out, backhanding the younger man with all his might, knocking him to the deck. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that, Quarren!” he barked, shaking a finger at the man.
“Jump plotted,” the pilot reported somberly.
“Execute,” Captain Tobas ordered without hesitation.
A second later, the forward windows were filled with the Dusahn battleship. Captain Tobas could see the battleship’s massive starboard main cannon as it came around to point directly at them.
“Fire all guns,” the captain instructed quietly.
“Firing all turrets,” the weapons officer replied.
“All flatbeds have jumped in, as well,” the sensor operator reported in somber tone.
“Who would ever believe that four flatbed pod haulers would save the mighty Aurora,” Captain Tobas declared proudly as the battleship’s massive cannon fired its first shot.
“Holy shit!” Jessica exclaimed. “Four flatbed gunships just jumped in between us and that battleship! They just blew the Tavi away!”
“VLAD!” Nathan yelled into his comm-set.
“YOU HAVE DOCKING THRUSTERS!” Vladimir yelled over comm-sets.
“I need more than that!” Nathan replied, jumping back into the helmsman’s chair and grabbing the flight control stick.
“The just blew the Baltus away!”
“Port or starboard?” he asked Jessica.
“To starboard! To starboard!”
Nathan switched the flight control stick to docking mode, twisting to the right as hard as he could, and holding it there. “COME ON!”
Sergeant Rossi came back onto the bridge, stepping up to the right of the tactical station.
“They’re firing again!” Jessica announced. “The Lorino is destroyed! The Gannimay is the only one left!”
“How much further!” Nathan barked.
“Six more degrees until I can fire!” Jessica replied.
“MANEUVERING IS UP!” Vladimir reported over comm-sets. “BUT ONLY AT TEN PERCENT!”
“That’ll work!” Nathan replied, hope suddenly returning to his voice.
Nathan released his hold on the flight control stick and switched it back to maneuvering mode. He gave it another twist to the right, but released it immediately, knowing that even at only ten percent power, it would be enough. “FIRE AT WILL!”
“Nathan,” Vladimir called in far more subdued tones. “I can blow the ship on your command.”
“Stand by,” Nathan replied as he pushed the base of the flight control stick forward and held it. The ship’s aft thrusters began to burn, also at ten percent power, and the Aurora began to accelerate slowly toward the enemy warship that was about to destroy them with a single shot.
Jessica kept her eyes on her tactical display. “We’re closing on them,” she reported. “Four more degrees. They’re charging their main starboard gun again. Two degrees……one…”
The Aurora slid slowly toward the backwards-flying Dusahn battleship, closing the gap between them. Suddenly, four plasma torpedoes leapt from the Aurora’s ventral forward tubes and streaked toward the approaching battleship. The base of the great battleship’s forward starboard cannon began to glow red as its plasma cell neared firing charge, but it would never complete its task. Only two seconds after they were launched, all four red-orange plasma torpedoes slammed into the black and crimson battleship’s unprotected bow, tearing deep into her hull, setting off numerous secondary explosions that tore the ship apart. A brilliant, blinding flash followed as the pride of the Dusahn fleet blew completely apart, sending debris in all directions, clearing a path through which the Aurora could safely pass.
“YES!” Jessica yelled at her tactical display as the icon representing the Dusahn battleship turned into a collection of red dots spreading apart. “FUCK YOU!”
Nathan slumped back in his chair. “I need a few days off.”
* * *
Two men stared out the side windows of the Rakuen hovercraft as it raced along less than twenty meters above the ocean’s surface, while the third man kept his eyes glued to the sensor screen before him.
“I’ve got something,” the man staring at the sensor screen reported. “Fifteen degrees to starboard, half a kilometer.”
“I see it,” the man staring out the right window announced.
“Damn, this water is warmer than you would think,” Josh said as he bounced up and down, riding the rolling ocean on his seat cushion.
The sound of turbines became audible in the distance, and Loki turned his head so quickly, he almost fell off his own cushion-float. “There!” he shouted, pointing in the direction of the approaching airship.
“See, I told you they’d find us before anything big and scary ate us,” Josh said, smiling.
“Yes, you did,” Loki agreed. “But, can I ask you a favor?”
“You name it, buddy,” Josh replied.
“When we get back, please don’t tell my wife what we did.”
Josh didn’t reply, he just laughed.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Lord Mahtize climbed the winding staircase, his third drink of the evening in hand. The hour was late, and his family was at their country estate by the lake, for security reasons. They had begged him to join them, but he had refused. With all the recent changes in the structure of the noble houses of Takara, his attention was required here, monitoring the markets and taking advantage of every new opportunity to increase his house’s wealth and status, while others fell.
The disappearance of Terig Espan and his wife more than a week ago, and the sudden decrease in the number of Dusahn ships in the Takar system, had raised more questions in his mind than he could find answers. It was those unanswered questions that made sleep difficult for him these nights.
Mahtize reached the top of the stairs and headed down the lavishly decorated hallway toward the master suite. As he approached the massive double doors, he took one last sip to finish his drink, and then left it on the hallway table for one of the servants to collect. Once he passed through those doors, he expected not to be bothered. He only wished to fall into his bed and become unconscious, even if only for a few hours.
Lord Mahtize stepped into his suite, closing the door behind him, and headed for the bathroom, tossing his suit jacket on a nearby sitting chair.
“You really should hang that up,” a man’s voice sounded from behind.
The voice was familiar, and it sent a chill down Mahtize’s spin.
“Out of respect for the fabric. Garamond wrinkles quite easily.”
Lord Mahtize turned around slowly, trying his best not to appear startled or intimidated in any way. As he turned, his unannounced visitor turned on the light beside him. It was the man he had suspected, sitting there in stylish Takaran business attire, looking every bit as noble as Mahtize himself, if not more so. “I suppose you’ve come to kill me, as well.”
“If I had, I would have already done so. Besides, I have killed no one,” General Telles corrected. “At least not directly.”
“Is that supposed to comfort me, General?”
“Please, Yassey, call me Lucius.”
Again, Lord Mahtize had to fight to control his reaction. The last thing he wanted was for his enemy to sense his fear.
“Do you ever make appointments?” Lord Mahtize wondered as he picked up his suit jacket and walked over to the closet.
“As I said at our last meeting, I prefer no record of my visits,” the general replied. “Besides, I think this method has more impact, wouldn’t you agree?”
Lord Mahtize opened his closet door and stepped inside to hang up his jacket.
“Do not bother looking for your weapon,” General Telles said. “I have it.”
“You are thorough.”
“It is the nature of my training,” the general replied. “We need to talk, Yassey.”
“You framed them all, did you not?” Mahtize accused as he came back into the bedroom and walked over to the chair next to General Telles.
“I did what was necessary for the protection of Takara,” the general explained. “I told no lies, I breached no laws. I simply made the Dusahn aware of all the dealings of certain nobles. Distasteful though it was, it was necessary for the protection of Takara.”
“The protection of Takara? Takara is better off now than it was before the Dusahn arrived.”
“Is it better off than it was under the leadership of Casimir?” General Telles wondered.
“So that is what this is about. You seek vengeance.”
“Vengeance is for the weak. I seek justice. Nothing more; nothing less.”
“Justice is subjective, my friend,” Mahtize said, taking his seat.
“Not if you follow the letter of Takaran law,” General Telles corrected.
Lord Mahtize smiled. “Many would consider that to be open to interpretation, as well.”
“I am not one of them.”
Lord Mahtize sighed. “What is it you wish to speak with me about, Lucius?”
“The time has come for you to make a choice, Yassey.
Or do you prefer Mikal?”
“If you insist on familiarity, my name is Alejandro.”
“Very well, Alejandro,” the general agreed.
“What is this choice that I must make?” Alejandro wondered.
General Telles took a deep breath. “As I see it, you have two options.”
“And they are?”
“Option number one, you serve the Karuzari as an intelligence asset on Takara. Not only will this help the people of Takara, but it will allow your house to become wealthy beyond imagination.”
“I have a pretty big imagination,” Alejandro chuckled. “And my second option?”
“I turn over everything I have on you. Your personal files, your association with Suvan Navarro and his attempt to steal the Teyentah, Aronis Burklund, the hotel Entorio in Siskeena…everything. I am certain the Dusahn will find it all quite interesting.”
“I understand that you despise me for my support of the assassination of Casimir Ta’Akar, but are you willing to condemn my wife, my children, my grandchildren…”
“It is not I who placed them in jeopardy,” General Telles stated.
“Yet, you would throw them to the wolves?”
“If you mean, would I condemn them to a life of having to work like everyone else in order to survive, then yes, and without compunction.”
Lord Dusahn leaned back in his chair, deep in thought. “Why me?”
“Of all the nobles who supported Casimir’s assassination, you are the one best suited for the task,” General Telles explained. “Your corporate holdings are the most diversified, and therefore offer the greatest number of intelligence sources. Also, due to recent executions, your house has become considerably wealthier and more powerful.”
“So, I have more to lose.”
“Precisely.”
“Then, should that not be a reason to refuse your offer and tell the Dusahn of your visit? Who knows, I might even be able to convince them that I was attempting to use young mister Espan as a source of intelligence to help them.”