Redemption: Book 2 of Warner's World

by Dave O'Connor

  Art took manual control but it was all happening so fast. He could see the hanger up ahead. Its doors were open. The craft was now veering to the right. If he did nothing they would surely hit the cap to the right of the hangar. He turned off the forward thrusters. The craft was slowing but there was still a noticeable oversteer to the right.

  “Brace for impact” hailed Art. He pushed the reverse thrusters to full capacity. The craft slowed dramatically. Seconds out from impact, Art saw figures scurrying inside the hangar. The transport was coming in at almost 45 degree angle. In a last desperate bid to correct the angle he hit the right and top retroes. It helped. But there was no avoiding the impact.

  The craft angled down and about 15 degrees off the centre line. The nose made a grazing impact on the floor of the right side of the hangar. The jolt threw Art’s head back into his seat. It was too small for him anyway and his head whiplashed. He felt an aching pain and searing headache, before blacking out.

  The craft skidded along the hangar floor. The pile of dead bodies on the hangar floor was not enough to arrest its momentum. The craft was travelling forward into the far wall of the hanger almost sideways. It hit the wall with tremendous force. Reinforced it might be but the inside wall was no match for the force impacting on it. The metal bulged and finally tore apart.

  There was an immediate decompression in the space on the other side. The twenty rogan warriors on the other side, were prepared for a breach but not one of this force or size. The group on the immediate other side of the wall were crushed. They didn’t stand a chance.

  The human marines were not ready for a breach of any type or size. The two marines closest to the breach bore the brunt of the decompressed air. Without their gravity grip engaged they were blown away, literally. One went straight out of the hangar spiralling initially and then tumbling. The lucky one rammed into the outer wall side on. He was lucky because his suit never perforated from the impact with either the wall or the floor. He was also lucky that the ships gravity well still had a significant effect in the hangar despite its open doors.

  The transport came to a stop wedged between the torn inner wall. There was a huge gap in the inner wall on the left side of the transport. Chief Emil Faruk was one of the first to recover from the shock. He saw the gap and began to move as fast as he could to it. He grabbed his dazed troops as he went, pushing them forward. Without the ability to hail, he knew he had to use brute force. Once he had three of them up and moving forward he pushed ahead, pointed his rifle at the gap, half turned and waved his marines to follow.

  Inside the transport Val recovered quickly. All her training cut in. She unbuckled her harness, looked back down the craft and saw two marines on the left hand side, which took the brunt of the impact. They were out cold. She could see the green vital light still on in their helmets. Cpl Heather Baines was on her feet. Val pointed to the two unconscious marines and then to the right hand hatch. Heather nodded and made her way to them. She got some others to assist.

  Val looked forward and saw Art in trouble. She went into the cockpit, turned the engines off and once she heard the hatch open she switched to auxiliary power.

  She grabbed a nearby marine and with his help they carried Art’s unconscious body down to the hatch. Hands were taking hold of Art’s body and she surrendered her hold on him. She exited the hatch and stood on the hangar floor with aid of her gravity grip. The light of pulse rounds impacting on the roof of the hangar caught her eye. With no air to carry sound and with the comms down due to the jamming, she found it surreal.

  She looked to where the pulse fire was emanating from and gazed in awe at the ten metre tear in the wall. ‘This is no time to stare and gawk’ she chastised herself. She turned back and saw that they had Art and the two knocked out marines on the ground and out of the way. She made her way to Heather and grabbed her left arm. Heather turned in shock bringing her pulse rifle up with her right. Val let go and waved her open palm in front of Heather’s visor. Heather lowered her rifle. Heather mouthed ‘sorry’ and Val nodded.

  Val pointed to the gap, clenched her hand and then pointed to the gap. Heather nodded and began grabbing her team mates. Val made her way to the gap. She was now facing into the craft. On her left was the front of the craft and on her right the rear. The central wall was torn with the biggest gap in the centre where the transport had impacted and then the tear taped off to the left. Val went to the wall on the left hand side of the gap. She was crouched. A fire fight was in progress on the other side. Every now and then a shot would fly high and through the gap.

  She could not see over the bottom lip of the tear. She thought about moving to the right but there was too much fire. It was at times like this she hated being short. She slung her rifle over her shoulder, placed both of her gloved hands on top of the metal and heaved herself up till she could see over it. In the few seconds she had before dropping back down she could see that there were two groups of marines. One to her left was firing forward and the one to her right was firing to the rear.

  Heather tapped her on the shoulder. Val took out her console and began typing. It was difficult with the gloves. So it was going to be brief. “Over and left.”

  Heather nodded. It was impossible to brief her team members so Heather simply moved a little to the right to a spot where the wall wasn’t as high and hurdled it. She went straight to ground and began crawling to the left. Her five team mates, for that were all that were left now, followed suit. Val had to go a bit further to the right before she could clear the half wall.

  Being last was not good. The enemy was alert and pulse fire impacted very close by. She pushed off into a crouch and the dove down and to the left a good two metres. She hit the floor hard. It hurt but she had no time for it. She crawled further to the left behind some suited figure that was returning fire.

  She couldn’t see a thing from there, so she crawled further to the left. There was a gap between the figure in front and another to its left. She started to crawl between them, when the firing stopped. She did not know why. She pushed up with her hands on the floor and poked her head up.

  It was almost pitch black, an ineffective light somewhere down a way flickered on every second or so. She could see they were in a wide corridor. The light went out. She waited. It came on again. She saw two collapsed figures ahead about thirty metres. The light went off. She waited. It came back on.

  ‘Oh fuck this’ she said to herself. She grabbed a light stick from her belt pouch. Broke it and tossed it ahead. ‘Let there be light’ she said to herself as the space was lit.

  Two figures jumped up from a few metres to her right. One raced forward on the left - the other on the right. They went as far as the bodies. The one on the left turned and gave the thumbs up.

  Val stood and moved to the figure on the left. According to the patch on his suit he was trooper Smiles. He saw her patch, didn’t recognise the name but he did recognise the rank. Val typed “Faruk?” into her console. He looked at it for a bit, then pointed back down the corridor. The figure he pointed to wasn’t moving. Val went to the figure and checked his vitals. They were red. ‘Shit!’

  Other figures began standing but many did not rise. Val counted. There were six friendly bodies and four dead rogan. She had 14 marines including herself and Heather’s team. There were another 5 back in the hangar plus three knocked out. ‘Shit!’

  Heather came up to her. Her helmet face light was on. Val could see the strain. She turned on her face light and hoped she didn’t look as bad. But the reaction she could see in Heather’s eyes told otherwise.

  Val typed on her console “NCOs?” and then showed it to the others near her. One marine came forward. He was Cpl Jamie Tanaka. Val went to her console “You Team Alpha – on left.” She went to Heather. “You team Bravo – on right.”

  The two team leaders physically grabbed their members and moved them to the appropriate side of the corridor. Heather instinctively handed some charges to Jamie. He nodded with a
smile and passed them onto one of his team.

  “You lead” she typed and showed it to Heather.

  Chapter 39. Chicago over Fulmar 1430, 5 February

  Dave Warner was starting to get worried. It had been over an hour now without any news from his boarding parties. He knew they would be having problems with enemy jamming but he just hated not knowing.

  “Aubrey’s still waiting Sir” said Mick Riley.

  “She’ll have to wait. I’m not committing any more troops to this fight until I get a report back one way or another.”

  “Yes Sir, I’ll let her know.”

  “Mick, you understand don’t you. The Hermes marines are all we have left and we have to have a reserve. We may need them here to defend this ship if more enemy come.”

  “Understood Sir.” Mick knew Warner was right but he still didn’t like it. It felt like he was abandoning all these comrades he had served with for the last two years. They had paid a fearful price so far in just this one day. They were staring down the possibility that the ships entire Marine Detachment would be wiped out. That was over 100 people.

  He advised Aubrey and took the opportunity to go to the heads. He was sitting on the toilet when the siren went off. He cursed for being interrupted, finished off and raced back up the corridor to the control centre. He could see from the holo display that an enemy cap had just warped in. Missiles had been fired. He took his seat at the ops station and started to get across what was committed.

  The Chicago had committed 30 of its remaining 70 missiles to an attack on Bogey 2, the new enemy cap. The Hermes was firing 30 of its missiles to intercept those coming from Bogey 2. Shit, there were 50 missiles from Bogey 2. He was about to say something when Warner ordered another salvo of 20 missiles from the Chicago at the incoming enemy missiles.

  He observed Warner. He was amazingly composed.

  “Offensive specialist, prepare a salvo of 16 missiles to intercept enemy fighters. Quarantine that off now.”

  “WILCO”

  “Mick, how many crew still on board?” asked Dave.

  Mick moved his hands to his station control and brought up the data he needed. “There are just 25 of us left Sir.”

  “How many escape pods still functioning?”

  “Over 25 Sir.”

  “Good. Prepare to abandon ship.”

  “Sir?”

  “You heard me.”

  “Enemy fighters launching” called out the offensive specialist. “Four, no eight. I think that’s all they have Sir.”

  “Fire that mission.”

  “Missiles away.”

  “Mick, prepare to abandon ship now.”

  “Right Sir” said a reluctant Mick. He activated the warning order to alert all crew to abandon ship. This was the first stage of an evacuation process. All crew not engaged in critical activity would now suit up and conduct any pre-evacuation tasking.

  “Aubrey” hailed Dave.

  “Sir”

  “We are going to abandon ship in a few minutes. We will commit all our remaining missiles to attack the enemy cap. I want you to commit all of yours too except 8. Use those to deal with any fighters that leak through or any enemy transports that they launch.”

  “Right Sir. You don’t want us to come and get you?”

  “No, too dangerous for any transports at this stage. Remember the aim here is to take out the enemy cap or damage it enough so that it warps away. Subject to the outcome of the attacks, you will have to make the call as to whether you warp away or not. The Rio is due any time now.”

  “More enemy missiles launched “ advised the defensive specialist. “Oh shit, 90 missiles Sir targeting us Sir.”

  “Fire all remaining missiles at Bogey 2.”

  “Missiles away.”

  “Abandon ship” hailed Warner to all crew.

  There was a scurry as everyone not suited up went for their suits. Warner waited till the last person left the centre, then activated the self-destruct command on the data systems. He walked off at a quick pace. By the time he reached the escape capsules everyone else was in theirs. Most had launched already. As he climbed in he could hear several pods launching. He secured the canopy, activated the controls, hit the option for closest planet and then hit the launch button.

  His pod was now hurtling away from the Chicago. This was the first time he had been in one for real. Those training missions never captured the dread you had of being too close to the exploding ship or of being picked off by enemy fighters as you tried to make your escape.

  Dave had no way of knowing that only two fighters survived the missiles fired at them by the Chicago nor that the remaining two were destroyed by those from the Hermes.

  He saw the huge blinding flash and braced himself instinctively for the impending impact. It took him a good minute to realise he had been spared.

  He felt resistance to the pods momentum. He was entering the atmosphere. The small window on the canopy was automatically covered with a heat shield. He hated that too. It was as though he was in his own coffin, albeit a mobile one. He was being buffeted intensely and the air conditioning was not coping with the heat being generated. He knew at this stage that the outside of the craft would look like it was on fire to any observer.

  The effects of gravity bit hard and fast now. His chest felt like it would cave in. The display showing his re-entry path now updated with the altitude relative to the planet’s surface. It would not be long now before the retroes cut in. They could not come fast enough. Every muscle in his face was straining. His heart was pounding. “Come on” he yelled.

  They finally came on a minute later, slowing the craft and relieving the pressure. “What blessed relief” he said to himself. He forced himself to relax by taking a deep breath and then repeating his mantra.

  The chutes activated at 3000m. He was a lot calmer now. He just prayed that the pod’s AI had selected a nice soft and clear LZ. It hadn’t. Well it was clear but hard, very hard. Despite the final blast of the retroes, the capsule hit hard. It felt like he had just been kicked by a mule. Not once but twice as the pod bounced on the hard ground before settling proper.

  Chapter 40. Drakush over Fulmar 1450, 5 February

  Chase, Val and Jelka were staring at Chase’s console with the ships schematics. Each was blocking out the areas already cleared. They were on the fourth deck. Only the one above remained but the elevator had been destroyed. They had only one charge left and they were trying to work out where best to place it. All this and reduced to typing or crude gestures to communicate and discuss options.

  Chase typed “Forget this we need to breach from the outside.” Val and Jelka both nodded. “Jelka you stay here. Val with me back to the hangar.” Jelka nodded and gave Chase a pat on the shoulder. Chase smiled. He appreciated his support.

  It took them ten minutes to get to the hangar. It was a big ship.

  Chapter 41. Hermes over Fulmar 1500, 5 February

  “Twenty five pods” called out Ivan. “I hope that’s all of them.”

  “Another 18 hits on Bogey 2” called out Crystal. “That’s a massive 49 hits. We still have 16 more on the way.”

  “How many missiles do we have left?” demanded Aubrey.

  “Five” responded Crystal. “Oh shit, four transports have just launched from Bogey 2. They’re heading for Bogey 1.”

  “The Chicago’s gone” called out James Rao. There was a huge flash of light across his cockpit windows.

  “Has Bogey 2 stopped moving?” asked Aubrey.

  “Definitely slowed. Yes it’s stopped. Eight more hits. She’s been destroyed” cried out a jubilant Crystal.

  “Right fire four missiles - 1 at each transport” ordered Aubrey. “James, get us within cannon range of those transports and don’t spare the horses.”

  “You couldn’t resist could you Maam” responded James.

  “No I could not” said Aubrey with a wry smile on her face.

  “Ivan, try Chase again and warn him that
he has visitors. Then get down to the hangar. I want you to lead the marines and reinforce Chase. Just in Whisky 1. That rogan transport doesn’t have cloaking. ”

  “I’m on it.”

  Aubrey looked up at the display. The Hermes was at max speed. “Are we going to intercept those transports James?”

  “You bet.”

  “Missile Intercept in 1” advised Crystal. “Shit enemy missiles launched. I didn’t know those transports had defensive missiles.”

  They watched the tracks converge. “Two hits, both kills.”

  “Come on James two have survived” called out Aubrey “They will be inside Bogey 1s beam range in 20 seconds.”

  Aubrey watches as the range spheres got closer and closer. “Fire at will” she ordered. The long range pulse cannons fired a volley at each craft.

  “Two hits, one kill.”

  “Bank away James” yelled Aubrey. The Hermes path, however, came within range of the enemy’s beam weapons. Two of them fired.

  “Beam attack” called out Crystal. “Brace!”

  One beam connected just for a second but it ripped into the hull on the port side.

  Aubrey was biting her lip waiting for the damage report. There seemed to be no loss of speed.

  “I think we’re OK” said Crystal “No criticals…if you don’t count the accommodation deck as critical.”

  Aubrey ignored the remark. “Ivan you’re a go.”

  “That was close Aubrey” said Ivan “right above us.”

  “Ivan, get a grip. Launch now. Active cloak and have Parinya get back here pronto for Charlie team.”

  “Roger.”

  Chapter 42. Drakush over Fulmar 1505, 5 February

  Chase, Val and her group just began entering through the breach into the hangar when the Chicago exploded. It may have been ten thousand kilometres away but it made an impression nonetheless.