Ep.#6 - Head of the Dragon (The Frontiers Saga)

by Brown, Ryk

  “And therefore the most heavily defended.”

  “We give them just enough time to move most of their men toward the front, then we jump in above the back half of the garrison and drop the men in the rear yard. If we jump in low enough, only the back two turrets will be able to fire on us. The shuttle can take a few hits.”

  “The men cannot,” Lieutenant Waddell said.

  “We’ll lose some, I admit, but most will make it down in one piece. It would help if we had some air support to keep those turrets occupied.”

  “It would take air cover at least ten minutes to make it down from orbit,” Waddell told him.

  “It will be over by then,” the lieutenant commander stated, “one way or another.”

  * * *

  Nathan was awakened by the door buzzer. For a moment, he wasn’t sure what was going on. He had only leaned back on the couch in his quarters for what seemed like a moment. The buzzer sounded again, and he quickly rose and headed for the door, finding himself somewhat surprised that he had actually been asleep. He had been unable to fall asleep quickly for several weeks now. He opened the door still rubbing his eyes. “Come in, Cam.”

  Cameron seemed surprised as well when he opened the door. “How did you know it was me?”

  “It had to be either you, Jessica, or Vlad,” he explained, walking back to his couch. “Jessica would’ve rung the buzzer twice, and Vlad would have just walked in.”

  “Then I’m the only one of us with any manners.”

  “Pretty much,” he answered as he plopped back down on the couch. “What time is it?”

  “Twenty-one thirty hours, ship time.”

  “Holy crap. You mean I’ve been asleep for…”

  “About seven hours, sir,” she finished for him, “assuming you went to sleep as soon as you sat down.”

  “I think I might have,” he admitted. “Why’d you let me sleep so long? We have a mission…”

  “Relax, Nathan. I pushed the mission clock back ten hours at the request of Lieutenant Commander Toral.”

  “Who?”

  “He’s the ranking ground pounder for the Corinari right now. Apparently he was stationed at the Ancot garrison during his forced service to the empire. He has been sharing everything he knows with Jessica and Dumar. Anyway, he wanted the attack on the garrison to happen when the sun is rising behind the garrison. He says it will put the sun in the eyes of the turret gunners when they will be dropping troops inside the walls. He also said that it will be an hour or so before the morning shift change, so the guards will be tired, and staffing will be at a minimum. I also thought the jumper pilots could use the extra practice, as well as a little stand-down time, before we go. Besides, you needed the sleep as well.”

  “How could you tell?”

  “It’s my job.”

  “It’s your job to take care of the ship, Cam, not me.”

  “You are the ship, Nathan.” She got a blank look from him in return. “You still don’t get it, do you? Why do you think we announce you coming and going as ‘Aurora arriving’ or ‘Aurora departing’? It’s because you are the ship. You are the Aurora. The ship serves as the captain’s instrument to do his will. If you say attack, we attack. If you say retreat, we retreat. If you say roll over and play dead…”

  “I get it.”

  “My job is to make sure the ship and her crew are able to do what you ask when you ask it. That includes making sure the captain is able to make coherent decisions.”

  “That must be the hard part,” he joked.

  “You can say that again,” she responded.

  “So where’s Vlad?” he asked. “Shouldn’t he and Jessica be showing up about now?”

  “Vladimir is busy trying to fix as many things as possible before we go on the attack,” Cameron explained. “Jessica is going over the battle plans with the platoon commanders along with Tug, Dumar, and Major Prechitt.”

  “What do you think of Dumar?” Nathan asked.

  “I don’t know what to think of him, to be honest. It’s pretty obvious that he is loyal to Tug and that Tug trusts him completely.”

  “Yeah, I noticed.”

  “He’s also been giving us some pretty good intel, as well as some great insight into the ways of the Ta’Akar.” Cameron paused a moment and took a breath. “I’m pretty sure Jessica trusts him as well.”

  “Jessica doesn’t trust anyone.”

  “She trusts Dumar enough to take his advice repeatedly.”

  “Yeah. You know, something happened the first time we went to Savoy, something between the three of them. She never told me the whole story.”

  “Well, whoever he is, she’s keeping pretty close tabs on him. He’s become the right-hand man for both her and Tug.”

  “I wonder how Jalea will feel about that when she returns.”

  “Is she returning?” Cameron wondered.

  “I would assume so. Probably after the attack on Savoy.”

  “Tug is out in a jumper now, communicating the attack timing to her. He should be back within the hour.”

  “Well,” Nathan said as he stretched, “since it appears we’re not going to have our customary pre-mission party in the captain’s quarters this time around, I think I’ll wash up and get some chow before we go on the offensive. We wouldn’t want to let the Aurora’s blood sugar get too low,” he added with a smile.

  * * *

  “Jump complete,” the navigator, Mister Riley, reported. “We are now just outside the Savoy system.”

  “Very well,” Nathan answered. “Comms, signal flight ops, green deck.”

  “Yes, sir,” Naralena answered.

  As he listened to Naralena convey his orders to the flight operations center above the Aurora’s main hangar deck, he contemplated his first officer’s words to him an hour earlier. You are the Aurora. He knew that to be true, as he had learned this in the academy as well. It had just never really hit him until this moment. He was about to launch an unprovoked attack on an enemy position, thus declaring war on an entire empire. He had fired without first being fired on once before, but that had been in the defense of the Darvano system. In addition, it had been at the request of the leaders of that system, who had transmitted their declaration of independence from the empire only moments before. There had been no doubt in anyone’s mind at the time; had he not taken action, the entire surface of Corinair would have been destroyed and her population all but exterminated.

  Savoy, however, was a different story. They posed no threat to the Darvano system nor the Alliance itself. They just happened to be nearby and have resources that the Alliance desperately needed. It could be argued that, because of its close proximity, the Savoy system was a strategic threat, but they had no way to know for sure that the empire would even come after the Darvano system once they learned of their secession from the empire. For all he knew, once the Ta’Akar learned of the true nature of the threat posed by the Aurora and her jump drive technology, they could very well choose to accept the Darvano system’s departure from their realm.

  Nathan thought about his mission. His responsibility, and indeed his last orders from his captain before command was handed to him, were to get the ship and the crew back to Earth. Captain Roberts firmly believed that the Aurora and her jump drive were the key to the Earth’s defense against the Jung. After several opportunities to test the jump drive in the course of battle, Nathan too had no doubts. Everything else aside, his primary responsibility was to get the Aurora home.

  Unfortunately, it had all gone too far. Nathan knew that history was likely to judge his decisions harshly. In fact, he would not be surprised if he was stripped of his commission upon his return to Earth. In his desire to get home as quickly as possible, he had inadvertently instigated an interstellar war to which he had committed not only the resources of his ship and crew, but also the resources of his homeworld over a thousand light years away.

  “Captain, jumpers one through five have all cleared the flight a
pron and are moving into position to jump,” Jessica reported from the tactical station directly behind Nathan. “Falcon one is also in position.”

  “Sound general quarters, Lieutenant Commander,” Nathan ordered. “We jump in five minutes.”

  Tug dropped his helmet visor and activated the seal, locking himself within his suit. A quick glance at his visor’s data display in the upper, right-hand corner told him that his EVA suit was properly sealed and ready to go. He turned to Dumar who was similarly suited, giving him a thumbs up signal, which Dumar promptly returned. “Comm check,” he announced.

  “Loud and clear,” Dumar responded.

  “Are you ready for this, my friend?” Tug asked.

  “I’ve been ready for this for more than thirty years,” Dumar answered, smiling uncharacteristically.

  “You may depressurize the ship,” Tug instructed the shuttle’s flight crew. “We are ready to go back here.”

  “Understood,” the shuttle’s copilot responded, turning to look back from the cockpit at the front of the shuttle. “Good luck, gentlemen,” he added as he closed the cockpit hatch, sealing them off from the cargo compartment where Tug and Dumar were suited up and ready to begin their EVA. “Depressurizing cargo bay,” the copilot reported.

  Tug picked up the tool pack and attached it to the front abdominal plate on his suit. He and Dumar would each carry such a pack, which contained all the tools necessary for their part of the mission against the Ta’Akar forces in the Savoy system. As soon as they were satisfied that their tool packs were secure, they made their way to the rear cargo hatch and waited.

  “Time to jump: four minutes,” the copilot reported.

  Josh noticed that Loki was quieter than usual. Loki was not exactly the talkative type under normal circumstances, but when stressed, he usually became quite chatty. Josh knew that it was Loki’s way of relieving stress. Josh’s way was to simply curse or scream and yell like a madman. “You’re kind of quiet back there, Loki. You nervous or something?”

  “No, actually, I’m surprisingly calm, considering,” Loki admitted.

  “Considering we’re about to jump into enemy territory only a few meters off the deck at near supersonic speeds?”

  “I’m not too worried about that,” Loki said. “I’ve got the jump thing all worked out, thanks to all those practice jumps to Corinair.”

  “Maybe it’s the fact that we’re going to fire a couple of missiles along the way?” Josh wondered.

  “Actually, now that you mention it, it does seem a little crazy that someone gave you the ability to fire missiles at something.”

  “Yeah, it’s pretty slick, huh?”

  “Not the word I would have chosen,” Loki answered as he scanned his instruments. “Jump drive is ready. Reactors are at full power. Course and speed for the first jump are good. Three minutes to the first jump point.”

  Lieutenant Commander Toral stood calmly at the front of the cargo compartment of the small jump-enabled shuttle. It was not designed to be a combat troop carrier. It was a civilian general purpose utility shuttle that had been outfitted with a jump drive. Along with four other shuttles, It had been given the first mini-jump drives produced by Corinairan scientists using data provided by the Aurora in order to create an early warning network. At the time that it had been implemented, most of the Corinari command felt it was a waste of time. However, at this particular moment, the Lieutenant Commander was sure it had been quite the opposite.

  The shuttle was barely able to accommodate twenty men. In fact, in order to fit them all in, they had been forced to remove both of the bench seats along the sides of the compartment. It had taken two such shuttles to transport his platoon. In addition, the environmental systems of the small shuttles had not been designed to support so many humans. They had calculated that the shuttles were only good for about an hour of flight time before their life support systems would become overwhelmed and the carbon dioxide within the ships would begin to rise to dangerous levels. Fortunately for them, they would not be inside the shuttles for that long.

  Lieutenant Commander Toral watched his men with fascination. They were an odd lot, a mixture of young and old, of those that had served the empire and those that had not. They had been scavenged from the survivors found on Corinair, and most of them were from different units. Few of them had ever trained together, and most had never seen actual combat.

  Neither had the lieutenant commander. He had trained as hard as any Corinari. It was their way. However, he too lacked any actual combat experience. His service in the empire had been in the very garrison they were about to attack. However, the people of Ancot had been of no threat to the forces stationed there, and his entire imperial career had been considerably less eventful than most.

  He was bound and determined to prove himself on this day. By some twist of fate, he found himself in command of two companies of Corinari. They were about to strike the first blows in the defense of their homeworld, and the fact that some of the men they would be fighting had been born and raised on the same soil as them did not matter. He and his men were fighting for the very freedom of their world, for its very survival. He was determined not to disappoint his men. One thing he was sure of; soon, they would all be combat veterans.

  “Time to jump: two minutes,” the copilot reported over the comms.

  Lieutenant Waddell stood at the front of his jump enabled shuttle, the same as Lieutenant Commander Toral did two shuttles over. The two shuttles containing the first of the two platoons that formed his company were tasked with capturing the airfield after the jump interceptor destroyed the primary reactor that powered the base’s plasma cannons. He knew the base was not heavily guarded, especially against such and assault, as it expected to be able to repel any incoming aircraft using its gun emplacements. The lack of power, combined with their element of surprise, would undoubtedly give them enough of an advantage to result in a successful capture. However, he could not help but wonder exactly how many of them would die this night. The imperial soldiers guarding the airbase would fight, if not out of loyalty to their empire then for fear of death at the hands of an enemy. He wondered how many of the soldiers they were about to face were from his homeworld. He was certain that, if given the chance, each of them would gladly lay down his arms.

  Unfortunately, there would be no time to offer such surrender. In order to ensure their victory, they had to move swiftly and assuredly, just as they had always trained to do. He only prayed that he would not find his only son, who had been drafted by the empire only a year ago, at the opposing end of his weapon.

  “One minute to first jump point,” the copilot’s voice announced.

  * * *

  “You are certain the targeting data is correct?” Jalea asked Tomon.

  Her fellow Karuzari gave her a stern look. “You saw the plans yourself.”

  “But you are certain they are up to date?” she clarified. “Many lives depend on our success in the next few minutes.”

  “The source of the information is a member of the facility maintenance staff. He has access to all such information. He was more than willing to share the information with Rena.”

  “I’m sure he was,” Jalea observed.

  “You believe he could be feeding her false information?”

  “We will soon see.” Jalea looked at her watch. “Tell all teams to stand by to fire.”

  “How will you know when it is time?” Tomon wondered.

  Jalea looked up at the morning sky. The morning sun was just beginning to peek out from behind the horizon, painting the sky a subtle amber and pink. The sky above was still a deep blue with a few of the brightest stars still shining, including that of the nearby Darvano system only a light year away. In minutes, the sun would begin to ascend rapidly into the sky, illuminating the landscape and Ancot city beyond in brilliant daylight.

  “We will know,” she assured him as she scanned the sky. A brilliant blue-white flash appeared high above them, moving al
ong an apparent orbital path. The flash disappeared only a moment later. Jalea immediately turned her attention to the opposite horizon from the morning sun. So low to the ground was the next flash that, if she had not known where to look, it would have gone unnoticed. “Now,” she ordered through her comm-unit. “All teams, fire.”

  Tomon quickly stood from behind his cover, revealing himself in the morning sun to the workers inside the fence line as they reported for duty. He raised his missile launcher up onto his shoulder, placing the rubber hood around the display screen up against his face. A moment later, the display indicated that the missile had received its targeting instructions and was ready to fire.

  Tomon depressed the firing trigger, holding it down firmly until the missile left the launcher balanced on his shoulder and streaked up into the sky on a trail of fire and smoke. Only a few seconds later, he felt a sudden pain, almost a burning sensation, pierce his chest. He found he could no longer breath and fell backward, the missile launcher tumbling forward away from him as he fell.

  Jalea stayed down, hidden from the view of the guards inside the facility as she watched Tomon’s missile reach the apex of its flight. Its nose pitched over and downward, as it and three other missiles fired from three other locations around the facility dove into their targets below. It took only a few seconds for them to reach the main reactor plant cluster at the center of the facility. The resulting explosion knocked Jalea backward, falling down beside Tomon.

  Jalea turned to look at her second in command. He was still alive, but his breathing was severely labored, and his still smoldering chest wound was oozing a considerable amount of blood. “Tomon, we must go,” she urged. She could hear the sound of guards scrambling to react. There were several already running toward them; of that, she was sure.