His harness tightened around him as the threat receiver went off. Jhon had just enough time to get himself straight in the seat before the harness locked all the way down so he couldn't move at all.
Husk slapped the switch that cancelled the alarm. "That's it, they've spotted us."
Jhon didn't reply; Husk's immediate reaction had included red-lining the drive and the sudden acceleration had driven all the air from his lungs. About the only thing he could do was use his implant, and he pulsed a command to put a tactical display where he could see it.
One of the Enemy destroyers was coming right for them. The data codes beside it showed that it had already acquired a target. Even with the drive redlined a shuttle couldn't outrun a starship for long. They were outside effective laser or hammerbeam range, and Jhon didn't think anyone would waste a missile on a shuttle.
This one was probably just a sweeper, ahead of the main force looking for mines and other hazards before the rest arrived. If that was the case, most of its weapons were probably good for close-in work, against sitting targets that couldn't shoot back. Unfortunately, while they weren't sitting, as far as having anything that could hurt a destroyer was concerned, they were a target that couldn't shoot back.
The rest of the crew had reacted just as quickly as Husk. Lieutenant Deggon was at the flight engineer's console, watching and managing the drive. Fahad Vidall at tactical was throwing out chaff while managing his decoys like a virtuoso. No shuttle could carry more than one or two decoys, and they were slow stupid things compared to those aboard a capital ship. Still, with a low observable shuttle like this one, they didn't need a lot.
Vidall keyed in a set of commands, then turned towards Husk. "Get ready to kill the drive on my command."
"Aye, sir."
Jhon flipped back to his tactical display just in time to see the screen go fuzzy as a full pattern of flares went off.
Vidall drew his hand across his throat. "Now, kill it."
The acceleration vanished, and Jhon found himself back in free fall. The lights dimmed and the flight deck went silent. Jhon's heartbeat was the loudest thing he could hear. He sat there, waiting, held from floating by the harness that still kept him tight against the chair. They were a ghost in the darkness, sliding through the skies on a mission of death. Jhon's display showed barely more than the two planets, the computers were running powered down, and even the passive sensors had retracted into the hull.
Jhon broke the silence. "How's it looking?"
"I think we've shaken them," Lieutenant Commander Kharan pursed her lips. "We used up almost all our countermeasures, but they seem to have done the job. The only catch I can see is that we're going to have to come in hard when we hit the spacedock."
"How hard?"
"Too hard, sir." She grimaced. "With all the time at full power we won't be able to shed enough velocity for a soft docking without breaking stealth. Either we hit hard, or they're going to know that we got there."
Jhon matched her expression with one of his own. "It can't be helped. We won't accomplish the mission if we don't survive docking."
They coasted on ballistic for another few minutes, trying to get out of the Enemy sweeper's sensor range. Jhon kept his eye on the plot, watching as the computers slowly updated it. There wasn't much showing, and he didn't think there would be much he could do, but at least he would have a clue. He could not think of much worse than being blind-sided. The little information he could see showed the Enemy was quartering away from them, probably following an assigned area.
Kharan touched a control and the lights came back up. "We should be good for the moment; I'm deploying a few more sensors."
"Good," Jhon turned back towards the others. "Does anyone have any questions before we go in?"
None of them said anything, they just looked at him. He met their eyes and none of them flinched. He was the lowest rank except for Husk; but he was in charge. It hadn't mattered yet; that would change when they got through the airlock.
"I'll take that as a negative." He flipped back towards his displays for a moment. "I've uploaded our planned route to your implants, so we should be ready to go."
The others nodded. Jhon wished he knew them better. Were they being quiet because they didn't have any questions, or because they didn't think it would do any good to raise them with him? He wanted to shrug, but settled for tapping a finger on the armrest. "Speed is going to be what matters. I don't know how long it will take to get the weapons array up and running and the Enemy is getting closer all the time. Anyone who wants can stay with Husk in the shuttle. I won't think any less of you. But I have to know now."
"Not me." Vidall was the one to break the silence.
Jeni Deggon just pointed to the outside display, her face pale. "That's my home planet out there. My parents are there, so's my sister and my nephew. I saw the footage from the kendradi homeworld. I'm not going to sit here and wait for that to happen to my family. Not when I can do something about it." She looked around the compartment, her expression daring anyone to tell her otherwise. "Count me in."
Lenys Kharan looked him in the eye, and Jhon was sure he saw a bit of a twinkle in them. "Commander Holron said I was up for command. You're not qualified so you'll have to settle for being admiral. That leaves me as captain. A mauler's a pretty good first command don't you think?"
Jhon couldn't help grinning. "Good point."
"I'll just stay here and keep your escape handy."
Privately, Jhon thought that was a more optimistic view than was really appropriate. If they couldn't survive aboard the mauler, he doubted any shuttle would be able to get them far enough away in time.
"It doesn't look good," Husk turned towards them. "Take a look at our plot."
Jhon flipped the display back to the course plot, then took a deep breath. The sweeper had stopped following them, but it didn't look to be quartering an assigned area anymore. Instead the projected course showed it was heading straight towards the spacedock, and if the numbers were right, it would get there first.
Jhon wasn't worried about Imperial Fury, even without her shields, the maulers two hundred gigaton bulk was just too much for the sweeper to really hurt. Once they were aboard they'd be protected by the same sheer mass as the rest of the mauler. The problem would be getting there. Weapons that a mauler could ignore would still vaporize a stealth shuttle.
"Ideas anyone?" something was at the back of his mind, but he couldn't quite articulate it. Meanwhile he stared at the display, willing it to show him what was driving at the back of his mind.
Lieutenant Commander Kharan shook her head. "Not much of one, anyway, all I can think of is go through it as quickly as we can and hope they don't kill us when we decelerate."
"Not likely," Vidall's voice carried a mixture of anger and despair. "As soon as we light off the drive they'll have us targeted. No way to miss at that range."
"Can we baffle the drive?"
"With what, Commander?" Lieutenant Deggon looked around the flight deck. "The drive's already as well shielded as it can be. We don't have anything else we can put between it and the Enemy."
Jhon pulled up the hull schematic for Imperial Fury then superimposed the spacedock on it. "Actually," he said, drawing out his words. "I think there is." He put the image where the others could see it. "Take a look at that gash in the hull there. It's almost a kilometer deep. If we can come through this gap here..." He highlighted an opening in the spacedock. "We should be able to do most of our deceleration actually inside the spacedock, shielded from most of their sensors."
Petty Officer Husk reached out and traced the line on the image. "That will be some tricky piloting to pull that off, sir." Her brow furrowed. "I can try and lower our closing velocity a bit first. As it is, we're going to have to go to full power once we're through the opening, and we won't have enough time to recover if anything goes wrong. It's program the course and hang on tight. We are definitely going to feel this one."
"Bu
t you can do it." Jhon leaned forwards.
"I can do it, you can do it." PO Husk turned all the way round to face inside the flight deck. "This is a matter of a pre-programmed flight profile. Anyone can program it. You've been spending too much time planet-side if you call a kilometer any sort of distance. We'll cross that distance in less than a tenth of a second, and I'm not that fast."
Jhon shook his head. "Sorry PO, but is the idea workable?"
"I said you could do it sir, and I meant it." She put up her own image overlaying his. "I can use low power deceleration out here and bring our rate of closure down before we hit the the range they detected us at last time. Then we coast in through here." She demonstrated the line on the image, "and hold on for dear life. I figure we'll be pulling at least fifteen gs, after compensation."
Jhon groaned a little to himself at that, it had been a long time since he'd had to worry about high accelerations. "All right, go to it."
"Yes sir," Husk turned back to her controls. "Everyone, strap in, this is going to be a bumpy ride."
Jhon pulsed a command and his harness retracted all the way, pulling him tightly into the command chair. His controls came up beneath his hands. Jhon took a deep breath, feeling the straps across his chest, and tasting the recycled air. He put their course on his main display, and a threat receiver on the secondary. "It's showtime," he muttered.
"What was that?" Commander Kharan turned towards him.
"Just an Earth expression, it means that it's time for something to start." He meant to say more, but he felt like they dropped a bus on his chest and all he could do was breathe. This was where they were supposed to be coasting, not accelerating.
The threat receiver wailed and he overrode the alarm. A missile had come up from behind them out of nowhere and Husk must have nailed the acceleration.
They ran a crazy skewed curve, Husk varying both acceleration and direction, trying to throw the missile off. Jhon could see their countermeasures stocks vanishing as Vidall fired off the last of the flares, and dropped chaff, trying to spoof it.
Husk's maneuvers kept kicking Jhon in the gut, slamming him sideways in the chair, at least once hanging him on the straps at what felt like ten gees but was probably only three. His chest felt like a mass of bruises that perfectly matched the harness lines. It was taking all his effort just to breathe shallowly.
He could see that they were approaching the spacedock much more rapidly than projected. Their actual course was like a ball of yarn wrapped around the original line of approach. They were coming in from the right angle, the only one that lined up with one of the holes in Imperial Fury's armor, but a lot faster than expected. Jhon started as their new projected course flashed red. They were going to miss the gap.
He tried to force words out. "Husk, the gap, missing opening."
"Yessir," Husk replied. "Slow us more."
She flipped the shuttle end for end and then ran the drive back up to full. Jhon could barely stay conscious under the thrust. The hull shrieked as they slammed into the spacedock, splitting and bending the outer panels to force a way in. Jhon had just enough time to realize they were still lined up on the gaping wound in the mauler's hull when they came to a crashing roaring screeching stop.
Jhon reached for the quick release on his harness, wincing at the movement. The interior of the shuttle had gone mostly dark, and he could hear the whistle of escaping air. Pulling himself to his feet, it appeared the emergency gravity was still on, he looked to the others. "Everyone awake? Sound off."
He heard a ragged chorus of "ayes" and his implant queried the others as well. Everyone responded, so he took that to mean they were conscious. He reached for his emergency suit release, pulling the hood out of his collar and up over his head. "Let's unsnap and get aboard."
Jhon was the first one out of the shuttle, and the darkness was palpable. They were at the bottom of what looked like a huge canyon, with girders and other supports sticking out the sides above them. His implant triggered a safety warning. Radiation level exceeds safe margins, recommend you seek shelter.
Jhon ignored it and looked around. The shuttle's lights illuminated parts of the area, and his implant provided a rough overlay that gave him some idea of the area around him. Standing here, deep inside the wound made him realize just how tough a mauler really was.
"Are we ready to go?" Husk interrupted his musings.
He turned back and saw the others, one man and three women, easily recognizable in the inflatable helmets that made up part of every fleet uniform's emergency kit. "Yes PO, we are." He turned to where his overlay indicated the outline of a hatch. "It looks like we can get in over there. Follow me and watch for sharp edges, we don't need to burst the bubbles."
*
Commodore Makar strode the command deck aboard Victory, hands clasped behind his back. "Status report, Mr. Haiston." He looked back over his shoulder to his first officer, not pausing in his pacing.
"It doesn't look good, sir." Commander Haiston's hair was uncombed, but at least he appeared to have shaved. "We don't have that good a resolution, but it looks like at best a fifty percent chance they made it."
Makar stopped, turning towards the taller man. "Go on."
Haiston swallowed, Makar could see his adam's apple move up and down. "Without the main arrays I couldn't get everything, but it looks like they missed the opening and crashed into the spacedock."
Makar took a deep breath. "Right, get all the other ships ready, we're going to need to get back to Altiar fast." Haiston was still standing there, looking like he was waiting to say something. "What is it? Have they spotted us?"
"No sir," Haiston frowned. "At least not that I'm aware of they haven't. It's about His Highness; while they did appear to crash into the dock, there doesn't seem to have been enough of an energy release to indicate the shuttle was destroyed."
"You mean they may have survived?"
"Yes sir."
The commodore relaxed, "right, have all ships stand their weapons down. That should stretch our stealth a little longer. If they did make it, stealth is going to do us more good than weaponry."
"Aye sir," Haiston turned away, leaving a very worried commodore behind him.
*
Jhon sealed the airlock behind them, and reached forwards to remove the hood. The air puffed out as pressure equalized with the mauler. They were in an access corridor deep inside the ship, the emergency lights picked out a path inwards, away from the wound.
An alarm sounded, "This ship will self destruct in ninety minutes. All hands abandon ship."
"Shit." Jhon looked around trying to tell who had spoken, then realized it was him.
"At least the reactor's powered." Jeni Deggon broke the silence. Jhon just turned to look at her and she smiled brightly. "Quantum aperture reactors take forever to power up, but they can't run the self-destruct sequence without it. At least now we know we'll have enough power to run the planet-buster."
Commander Kharan turned towards the engineer. "Lieutenant, Jeni, you do know if the ship self-destructs with us aboard we're all going to die." Her expression reminded Jhon of a patient and long-suffering elementary teacher.
"Oh I know that, ma'am." Deggon met her superior's eyes. "The way I figure it, we're all going to die anyway. At least this way we might stand a chance. That's my home planet out there, and knowing the reactor's on is that much more of a chance to save my family."
"I didn't think about it that way."
"It's alright ma'am, it's not your planet. Not the same way it is mine." Deggon turned away, but not before Jhon noticed what looked like a tear in her eye.
He tapped Commander Kharan on the shoulder. "She's right; we have to focus on the mission. The Enemy might kill us in less than ninety minutes anyway. At this point anything that gives us a better chance of completing the mission is good news, regardless of what it may mean for us."
Commander Kharan nodded, then fell in behind Jhon. He looked over his shoulder to make sure t
he others were there. They were all following, even Husk who had been cradling an arm ever since the crash.
Imperial Fury was deserted, and they made good time towards the transport cars. Jhon didn't feel like talking, and the others appeared to feel the same way. The regular announcements of the self-destruct countdown provided enough of a backdrop.
The transport cars were still running, and they crowded aboard one. Jhon used his imperial override to get it heading to the bridge. That compartment was as empty as the others, and Jhon went straight for the pedestal that controlled the weapons release, ripping his glove off without caring if it broke a seal or not.
This time it only took a moment to run the override, and Imperial Fury unit 843 had weapons release. The main screens came to life and once again Jhon could see the planets outlined for destruction. The Enemy world was coming closer, it was moving faster than he had expected, or maybe they'd taken more time to get here. It didn't matter; Jhon moved to the command chair and depressed the main firing key.
Nothing happened. Then he saw a red light on the panel. "Damn it, the main control feed is down to the loading mechanism. We can't get it to chamber a round."
"Husk, you're with me." Vidall broke the silence. "I can probably work a jury rig, but we'll have to do it from down there."
Jhon pulsed an override to the ship's systems.
"You've got access, now move."
"Aye sir," Vidall saluted then left, Husk at his heels.
Jhon turned back to the console, muttering a little. "Now what can I do about that self-destruct." He entered his override and waited for the confirmation message that the self-destruct system had shut down.
Unable to comply. The automated voice echoed through his implant. All systems fused, self-destruct will continue. This ship will cease to exist in forty-two minutes.
"Damn it, damn damn fuck it!" Both women turned to look at him at that outburst.
"I can't stop the self-destruct. They fused the circuits open." He propped up his forehead with a hand. "The only way to stop it is going to be to shut the core before it goes critical. If we close the aperture we stop the self-destruct. I've already sent the override so the backups won't kick in."
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