"So why spend even more money to buy a second ship to use in your new cargo delivery business?" Twingo asked. "The hold in that ship isn't a whole lot bigger than what you have here on the Phoenix."
"The Phoenix is incredibly expensive to operate and without the full crew she's difficult to keep maintained," Jason said, deciding not to mention he thought that Kage and Twingo would have started a fight over who actually owned the vessel. "It's also a tad unsubtle when we're dropping off light cargo to underdeveloped planets. A fully armed gunship dropping out of the sky to hand over a load of Torvellian blue lettuce for some high-end restaurant would raise more than a few eyebrows."
"Let's agree to disagree," Twingo shrugged.
They were soon interrupted by a stream of cursing from the com room that went on for the better part of a minute followed by Kage appearing at the top of the stairs that led to the command deck.
"Captain, this damn ship won't let me do anything! What's wrong with the computer?"
"Oh, shit! I completely forgot," Jason said, hopping out of his seat. "Stand by, Kage!" He jogged down to the port engineering bay where one of three command level terminals was located. The other two were on the bridge and in his quarters, respectively.
"Computer, command level interface," he said, holding his palm against the screen. "Authorization: Burke seven-seven-one-one-eight."
"Confirmed," the computer said. "Proceed with request."
"Restore all Omega Force permissions and command codes, effective immediately," Jason said.
"Omega Force command codes reactivated," the computer said. "Crew manifest updated."
"Exit command interface," Jason said, waiting for the double-beep confirmation and a blank screen before leaving. "Try again!" he shouted up to Kage as he walked back to finish his meal.
"You forget to reset all the command codes?" Twingo asked.
"Yeah," Jason said. "How have you not run into any problems?"
"I did at first," Twingo said. "My personal authorization was locked out so I went in under the generic maintenance codes. It let me do everything I needed but the computer kept strict control over everything."
"Why didn't you say something?"
"I didn't know if you were deliberately keeping us off the crew roster," Twingo said, pushing his tray back. "We all didn't part on the best of terms."
"I'd hope that's all in the past," Jason said. "Honestly, I can't even remember what everyone got so bent out of shape about."
"A lot of little things can add up to one big thing," Twingo said. "When Crusher left I knew it was only a matter of time before the crew fell apart."
"I wonder how he's doing," Jason mused.
"I talked to him about a year ago," Twingo said. "He's fully immersed in Galvetor's politics right now. I'll be honest, if it wasn't for the scars he still has from the time in Duat I wouldn't have believed I was even talking to the same person."
"Hope he's doing alright," Jason said, getting up to head back to the bridge and finish up his work.
"It wasn't your fault, Jason," Twingo said. "You not only argued against that De'Moltia mission, but you sacrificed more than anyone to get him back."
"He doesn't see it that way," Jason said. "Let's get the rest of the primary flight systems online and then we can worry about the tactical systems once we make orbit. This planet isn't so nice that I want to stay another night."
****
Jason sat in the pilot's seat going over individual subsystems and making adjustments as Twingo made them available. Even though he hadn't stepped foot onto the DL7 in over two years it felt as comfortable as the day he'd last disembarked and sunk her into a pit to be stored.
He wasn't sure what his plan had been; all he knew was that he couldn't bear the thought of giving the ship up and he'd rather it sit on some desolate planet than permanently part ways with it. Maybe deep down he always knew this day would come and he and his friends would come back together for one more mission and the Phoenix would be needed once more.
As he was fiddling with the attenuation to his neural implant he saw the light inside the hangar change through the canopy. Mildly curious, he looked up. At the far end of the cavernous building a door slid up and four squat, armored vehicles rolled in.
"This can't be good," he muttered, keying the intercom. "Is everyone aboard?"
"Yes, Captain," Kage responded a moment later. "Why?"
"Get up here, I need you," Jason said without explaining. "Twingo, how long for the main drive?"
"Another hour, give or take," Twingo replied, the sounds of the engineering present in the background.
"You've got a few minutes to get me something," Jason said. "I have a feeling things are about to go to shit."
"Of course," Twingo sighed into the audio pickup. "I'm surprised they waited this long. I'll try to have repulsors and main engines in a few minutes."
"What's going on?" Kage asked as he jogged onto the bridge followed by everyone else except Twingo. Jason just nodded in the direction of the vehicles that were now deploying themselves into a shallow wedge and rolling slowly towards the ship.
"I can make out some sort of armament turret on the tops of those vehicles," Doc said as he slid into his normal spot at one of the sensor stations. "Can't tell much more than that since the sensors aren't fully online."
"Almost nothing is fully online yet," Jason said. "Let's not panic until we see what they want."
The message came through a moment later demanding that they shut down power and exit the ship.
"That's it?" Jason asked. "No mention of the netjere or the First Attendant?"
"No mention of either, Captain," Kage said. "It looks like they just want the ship."
"That's sort of a relief that they don't actually know who we are or who we have with us," Jason said.
"What about the part where they have four armored vehicles and we have a ship that has no tactical systems or flight systems available?" Doc asked.
"I'm less relieved about that," Jason admitted. "Twingo?"
"In a MINUTE!" came the angry reply before the intercom channel was switched off abruptly. Jason looked down at his status panel and was greeted with many blinking red indicators and only a few green ones to let him know the few systems that were actually operational.
"Doc, send me over a top-down view of this spaceport," he said. "It'll be in the most recent navigation sensor data file from when I landed here the last time."
"Looking for it now," Doc said, still a little rusty at operating his station. "Got it, sending it to your station."
"Captain, I'm not sure how much longer I can stall them," Kage said, still keeping up a text-only conversation with the would-be shipjackers. Jason ignored him for a moment as he studied the layout of the spaceport, confirming that he remembered it like he thought he did. Sure enough, he found what he was looking for: an enormous runway that was nearly twenty kilometers long that extended out to the west. It was in serious disrepair since the old ground-effect cargo haulers that used to cross the western desert hadn't been used in over fifty years, but their runway still existed mostly intact.
"Ignore them," Jason said. "We're leaving. Close the ramp and prep for atmospheric flight."
Kage gave him a strange look, but went about the task without any argument.
"Here they come," Doc warned.
Jason looked up and saw the four vehicles begin to accelerate across the hangar floor towards them. He didn't hesitate, grabbing the taxi control and pulling it back sharply. The Phoenix lurched before the drive actuators on the landing gear struts caught up and the spherical wheels spun, struggling to gain purchase on the slick floor.
The Phoenix burst out of the hangar and into the fading daylight, rolling backwards at thirty kilometers per hour and accelerating. Jason angled them over so that they would roll down the taxiway and from there they would have direct access to the abandoned runway. He knew from talking to people at the spaceport when he’d brought the gunship
in that the old aircraft that used it were extremely heavy, so he had to assume that the tarmac would be thick enough to support the Phoenix's bulk.
A sharp crack reverberated through the hull and Jason looked up in time to see vapor streaming out of one of the turret cannons. "Warning shot," Kage said. "No damage. You mind filling me in on the plan?"
"Just be ready to give me anything I ask for," Jason said tensely. He was having to steer looking at the video feed on one of his monitors since his neural implant still wouldn't fully integrate with the ship's computer. His original plan had been to stop and get his nose pointed down the runway, but now he was afraid if he stopped he'd get boxed in by the pursuing vehicles and he wasn't all that wild about giving them an unfettered shot at his engines.
The ship was traveling backwards along the taxiway at nearly fifty kilometers per hour when Jason angled the jog stick over and made the thirty-degree turn to the left that put them on the main runway. Ignoring the screams of his passengers, he reached over and flipped the four main engines to START and watched as they began to flash red while the mains went into their pre-start sequence. After a moment a message flashed on another display that diverted his attention from the high speed reverse taxi.
**WARNING**
**WARNING**
MAIN ENGINE START FAILURE
MAIN ENGINE FUEL FEED FAILURE
The lights on the switches went out, so he reached over and flicked them up to the start position again, waiting to see if the fault would clear out on its own.
"Stop flipping switches!" came the scream over the intercom from an irate Twingo. "I will let you know when the engines are available!!"
"Attackers are keeping pace," Doc said. "The two outer vehicles are moving up closer."
"They may take a shot at the landing gear," Jason said, pushing the taxi control back as far as it would go. The sound from the landing gear trying to absorb the bumps at the speed they were traveling at was horrendous. It wasn't long before the Phoenix let him know the abuse wasn't appreciated.
**WARNING**
**WARNING**
LANDING GEAR MAX VELOCITY EXCEEDED
REDUCE GROUND SPEED IMMEDIATLY
LANDING GEAR FAILURE IMMINENT
Before he could call down to let Twingo know he was about to burn up their taxi motors he could feel a new, different rumble begin to vibrate up through his seat. The lights on the switches that controlled the main engines lit up again, this time flashing amber.
MAIN ENGINE PRE-START INITIATED
"Thank you, Twingo," he muttered even as vapor from the exhaust nozzles began blowing past the canopy. He carefully twisted the taxi control while simultaneously rolling it up from the six o'clock to the nine o'clock position. The ship pivoted around until they were now rolling sideways down the runway, still traveling far above the accepted safe speed for taxiing. He continued this carefully choreographed move with his hand until the Phoenix had her nose pointed down the runway as the rumbling from the aft became more pronounced. The engine switches began to flash green to let him know that they were close to operational.
"I cannot believe you're doing this," Twingo said as he came up onto the bridge and strapped himself into the engineering station to continue monitoring the engine start. "This ship was never designed to do this."
"That makes it all the more exciting," Jason said, looking at the rear video feed again as the ground vehicles easily kept pace with them, still firing the occasional warning shot.
BOOM ... BOOM-BOOM
The mains ignited, but not simultaneously and the asymmetric thrust pushed the ship around wildly on the runway for a moment before Jason could reassert control. He let go of the taxi handle and grabbed the flight controls, smoothly advancing the throttle to about fifty percent. The engines roared and the ship squatted, the main landing gear struts completely collapsing. The ground speed indicator quickly went into the hundreds and the two remaining vehicles that hadn't been blown end over end from the engine thrust were quickly left behind.
"You'll need to get eight-hundred and twenty KPH before the wings will get enough bite to haul us into the air," Twingo said in a tight voice.
"Shit," Jason muttered, pushing the throttle up even more and ignoring the tortured scream that seemed to be coming from the nose gear. The Phoenix had a sleek, lifting body design, but the wings were short and raked back at a steep angle so he had to get a lot of speed before even attempting to bring the nose up. He hoped the wheels stayed on the landing gear trucks, and if they did he hoped they didn't seize up and send them careening across the desert out of control.
Despite the ear splitting shriek from the landing gear Jason watched his indicated ground speed nudge up just past his target speed and pulled back on the stick experimentally. The nose bounced a bit before lifting enough to change the wings' angle of attack and letting the air compress under the hull. It was a tense millisecond before he could feel the weight of the Phoenix settle onto the wings and the landing gear noise ceased. Now airborne, he shoved the throttle all the way forward and let the ship race along the ground, nearing supersonic before he angled up a few more degrees and climbed up and away from the spaceport.
"Holy shit!" he said, letting out an explosive breath.
"We're not in the clear yet, you lunatic," Twingo said. "Get us up into some cooler air and keep the landing gear deployed for a bit longer. I want to cool down the drive motors so we don't have a fire in the gear bays."
"How long for repulsors?" Jason asked, concentrating on his flight profile since he was fully dependent on the ship's aerodynamics to keep them in the air.
"They'll be up soon along with the grav-drive," Twingo said.
"I'm heading out over the desert where we won't be taunting our friends back there by circling over the spaceport," Jason said, dipping the right wing down and accelerating away.
"I think they may have just been sent to slow us down," Doc said. "Sensors just came up and we have three inbound contacts."
"Coming for us?" Jason asked.
"They corrected course to stay on us when you angled away from the port, so I'd have to assume so," Doc said.
"Why can't anything ever be easy?" Jason said through clenched teeth. "Any idea what we're dealing with?"
"No," Doc said, shaking his head. "The sensor processing subsystem is still booting. All I know is a rough course and speed."
"Good enough for now I guess," Jason said. "Retract the gear. Let's try to stay ahead of them until we can break for orbit." He continued his long, sweeping bank until he was heading out into the desert and advanced the throttle a bit more, watching the transonic shockwaves play across the canopy and the Phoenix outran the thundering sound of her main engines.
"Enemy contacts are still closing the distance," Doc said. "Tactical computer is up and running, we should have a positive identification in a few seconds."
"Repulsors are online," Twingo said even as Jason saw the status change on his own display. "Grav emitters are almost charged and it will be another five minutes or so after that for them to self-calibrate and engage."
"Targets are three De'daron Type-4 starfighters," Doc said as the computer completed its analysis. "Engine profile suggests they're no more than five years old."
"They'll be able to keep up with us within this atmosphere until the engines are at full output," Jason said.
"That will be a bit, they've been cold for a couple years. I also wouldn't head for space until the grav-drive is fully operational," Twingo said, "with only the mains you'd be giving them a serious advantage."
"Noted," Jason said, watching his tactical display populate with the new threats. They were small and speedy, but no match for the big gunship under normal circumstances. Unfortunately, getting the ship back up to fully mission capable after such an extended time in storage wasn't as simple as flipping a switch. He was still without most of his tactical systems including weapons and shields.
"Shield emitters are charging as are
the energy weapons," Twingo said as if reading his mind. "You have expendable munitions available now that the tactical computers is running."
"Thanks," Jason said, checking on what missiles were sitting in the weapons bays that were in the belly of the ship. While they were carrying an impressive arsenal, none of it was appropriate for something the size and speed of the small fighters. He made a mental note to address that in the future and looked for a terrain feature to use while his other weapons charged up.
He saw that the desert was giving way to the rocky foothills of an impressive mountain range off to the south. The ground mapping radar showed a few deep ravines with some tight twists and turns that would prevent the pursuing fighters from getting a clean shot on the unprotected gunship. There were problems with the plan that Jason was painfully aware of even as he banked left and dipped the nose to take them back closer to the ground. Without the grav-drive running up a canyon was a tricky proposition at best. There was also the fact that the maneuver would only work if the enemy pilots could be convinced to try and follow. If they didn't take the bait and simply climbed up and over to try and pick the gunship out of the ground clutter they might get a free shot on the dorsal surface.
"That gap off our starboard side looks like it will work," Kage said, highlighting it on the navigation display. Jason just smiled ... they'd all been apart for over two years and already they seemed to be sliding back into old habits and working with a bit of a "group mind."
"Got it," he said. "We'll be hitting the split at speed so I'll need you standing by to manually control the repulsors. Without the grav-drive some of these turns will be a bitch."
"Bringing up the interface now," Kage said.
The Phoenix descended down to a scant three-hundred meters from the desert floor, kicking up an enormous plume of dust and sand as she raced for the mountain range ahead. Jason hoped all the debris they were stirring up, along with the low altitude, would help prevent the enemy fighters from locking on for an easy shot. He rolled the ship to the right and shot through the gap, pulling back almost instantly to follow the natural cut in the landscape. The path they were following wasn't small, spanning several kilometers across at even its narrowest point, but at the speeds they were traveling it seemed to Jason like he was trying to thread the eye of a needle while sitting on a bucking bronco.
Omega Force 7: Redemption Page 10