by Ryk Brown
“One, disengaging!” Josh replied, pulling the Super Falcon’s nose hard right and upward as he slammed his throttles forward.
“Falcon Six! Two chasers away!”
Loki watched as the four bandits to the north disappeared from his screen, as did the two below them. Before he could report the destruction of the last six enemy fighters, more targets appeared on his screen. “Shit! Multiple targets! Fighters and nukes! Who besides us is empty?” Loki asked over the comms.
“Six is empty!”
“Five is empty!”
“Six, One, take the nuke to our north!” Loki instructed. “Five, take the one to our south! We’ll take the ones directly ahead of us. Everyone else go after the fighters and keep them off of us!”
“Fuck, this is fun,” Josh exclaimed.
“No kidding,” Loki replied. “Command, Falcon One. It’s getting a bit sporty down here!”
“Debris! Dead ahead!” Lieutenant Borru exclaimed as they came out of the jump.
Commander Rano glanced at the display in the center console, noting the debris field almost upon them. He pushed the base of his flight control stick to the left, causing the gunship to fire its starboard translation thrusters. He pulled their nose to starboard and pitched down to bring the gunship’s nose onto the Jung cruiser passing below them.
“It’s Cobra Eight!” the tactical officer reported. “I’m picking up their emergency beacon!”
“That’s four ships lost!” the copilot exclaimed. “On one cruiser!”
Commander Rano paid no attention, his concentration focused on the enemy cruiser just beyond the debris field passing between them.
“Her shields are down!” the tactical officer reported.
“Open up!” the lieutenant ordered.
Commander Rano pressed his trigger, sending four balls of plasma into the unprotected hull of the cruiser. The hull tore open, exposing her secondary hull underneath. The commander fired again, and again. Each wave of torpedoes plowed deeper into the enemy ship, setting off additional explosions.
The commander kept firing as his ship passed over and cleared the target. His nose still pitching to stay on the cruiser, he continued firing until a jump flash announced Cobra Two’s arrival. The commander ceased firing and pushed his selector switch upward into the jump position, but did not press the trigger to execute the jump. Instead, he stared at the cruiser as they drifted away from it. He watched as Cobra One’s shields shimmered from rail gun impacts. Cobra Two fired every weapon she had at the damaged area of the cruiser’s hull.
“What are you waiting for?” the copilot wondered. “Jump!”
The commander just kept staring. “Wait for it…”
The Jung cruiser split in half just forward of her main propulsion section. More secondary explosions rocked both halves of the crippled ship, setting off an unstoppable chain of events leading to her complete destruction.
It was an awe-inspiring sight to behold. A handful of tiny gunships had brought down a Jung warship more than two kilometers in length. A day ago, he never would have believed it possible, but now, it gave him hope. He knew they could not destroy the battleship, not even with fifty gunships, let alone the twenty-six they had left. However, if they could destroy everything else, it would take hours for the battleship to fully destroy the surface of his world. And the Aurora was less than an hour away.
“Got it!” Josh exclaimed as the weapon exploded a few hundred meters in front of them.
“Break right and dive!” Loki ordered. “Two bandits on our six!”
Josh rolled the Super Falcon to the right and pulled the nose up, forcing the ship into a tight right turn, as energy weapons fire streaked past them to starboard.
“One, Three! I’m on them!”
“Make it quick!” Loki exclaimed. “One of the nukes got past us and is heading for the surface!”
“No fucking way,” Josh said as he twisted the interceptor back around to chase the Jung weapon below them.
Energy weapons fire slammed into the port shields, shaking the ship and causing her shields to flash bright yellow. A nearby explosion lit up the cockpit.
“Splash one!” the pilot of Falcon Three cried out over the comms.
“Where is it?” Josh wondered.
“Five more to port! Three thousand meters below us!” Loki replied. “Impact in ten seconds! It’s too late, Josh! You gotta break off and jump clear, or we’ll…”
Josh knew what Loki was going to say, and had already begun to pull out of his dive. Just as he leveled off, there was a brilliant white flash below them. Josh pushed the selector switch on his flight control stick up and pressed the button, jumping clear of the blast a split second before it reached them.
There was a moment of silence after the jump.
“FUCK!” Josh shouted.
“I’ve got eight bandits to the west, twelve to the north, and six more to the east,” Loki announced. “Anyone got any chasers left?” he asked the other Super Falcons.
“We can still go after them with guns and plasma torpedoes,” the pilot of Falcon Three suggested.
“How many cruisers are left?” Loki wondered.
“Last I heard, two were left.”
Loki looked at the tactical display. Among the numerous icons representing Jung fighters coming after the Super Falcons were six more nukes descending rapidly toward the surface of Tanna. “This is never going to work,” he realized.
“Cobra command to all Falcons,” the controller called over the comms. “The last evac ship has departed. Falcons One and Two, provide cover for the Cobra plant until the Ghatazhak get clear. Falcons Three through Eight, climb to orbit and try to draw the fighters away from the gunships.”
“But they’ll glass the whole fucking planet!” Josh exclaimed.
Loki looked at his friend sadly. “They know, Josh. They know.”
“How many ships do we have left?” Captain Nash asked.
“We’re down to eighteen gunships!” the tactical officer replied.
Captain Nash studied the tactical display on the console in front of him, quickly flipping through the tracks of the previous attack runs on the first two cruisers. “There’s not enough variation,” he concluded. “Those damned cruisers have so many point-defense turrets they can cover at least three different engagement areas at once.” He turned to the communications officer. “Order all gunships to combine into a single attack group and concentrate on the third cruiser…the one closest to the Cobra plant. Split into three groups of four, and one group of six. Attack from six different angles, and make all turns so that they stay clear of each other’s engagement areas. Stagger the attacks of each group a full thirty seconds apart, so the cruisers have time to swing their guns away from the next attack group. That may reduce the rate at which we’re losing ships.”
“Attack jump in three…” Lieutenant Commander Jahansir’s voice announced over Specialist Sennott’s helmet comms.
Taji flipped the safety off on his quad-barreled plasma turret.
“Two…”
He looked out the side of his turret canopy at his world below him. He could see at least six massive mushroom clouds rising from the surface, marking the locations where nuclear weapons had detonated on the surface of Tanna. Weapons that had been dropped from orbit by the very ship they were about to attack.
“One…”
Two more flashes of light on the surface announced another pair of nuclear detonations.
“Jump.”
Taji turned his attention forward as his turret canopy turned opaque. A second later, the canopy cleared, and the Jung cruiser was directly in front of him again. The sight used to scare the hell out of him, though he was used to sitting at the end of the long protrusion out of the middle of the gunship. But he had gotten over it.
“Fire away!” the lieutenant commander ordered, as if they needed to be told.
Taji pressed his trigger and held it, moving his gun control yoke to rotate
his turret and keep his stream of plasma bolts trained on the same spot on the Jung cruiser’s midship port-side shield.
The ventral shield protecting Cobra Two’s underside suddenly failed, and several rail gun slugs tore into the gunship’s port side. Taji flinched as pieces of the ship’s hull flew upward, passing between his turret and the ship itself.
“Ventral shield is down!” Ensign Saari reported from Cobra Two’s tactical console.
“We’re taking fire!” Lieutenant Crist reported, his voice sounding panicked. “Hull breaches! Port side! We’re losing…”
The lieutenant’s voice was overpowered by the sound of explosions aft of Taji’s turret. He was suddenly jerked in his seat, his restraints digging deep into his shoulders and his head snapping to the left. He twisted his head around to look aft, and caught a glimpse of their port side. “Holy shit! A big section of our port drive is gone!”
Taji looked forward again, noticing that the gunship was in a flat spin. I’ve got to get out of this thing and back inside the ship, he realized.
“Port engine is dead!” the lieutenant continued. “Jump drive is off line!”
A blue-white flash of light appeared out of Taji’s line of sight.
“Cobra Three just jumped in behind us!” the copilot reported.
Taji saw flashes of red-orange as Cobra Three fired at the Jung cruiser, unaware of Cobra Two’s plight. The flashes repeated three more times as Taji’s ship continued to spin.
“Target’s shields are down!” the tactical officer cried out.
Taji held on tight as the ship spun. The power inside his turret went dead. More flashes of red-orange light cast eerie shadows within his turret. He pressed the release button on his restraints, and was thrown against the canopy to his left. More flashes of red-orange light.
“Direct hits!” the tactical officer reported. “Three scored direct hits!”
All Taji could hear was the sound of his own breathing as he struggled to pull himself across the turret toward the tunnel that would take him back into the heart of the gunship and to safety.
Another flash of blue-white light.
“Taji!” Specialist Turchin called from the starboard gun turret. “Get back out of your turret! Quickly!”
Taji pulled himself across the turret and pressed the hatch control mechanism. Nothing happened. “The hatch control doesn’t work!” he cried out.
“Use the manual override on the hatch!” Turchin yelled over the comms.
Another flash of blue-white light.
“That’s Cobra Four!” Captain Annatah said.
“Oh, fuck!” the copilot exclaimed.
“Four! Two! Break right! We’re right in front of you! Dead stick!”
Taji swung the hatch open, but it was too late. He was suddenly flung back across the turret, slamming into the canopy and then bouncing back across toward the open hatch.
But the tunnel on the other side didn’t lead back to the safety of the gunship.
His comm-set crackled. He thought he heard screams, but then it went dead. He fumbled to get control as he bounced around inside his turret. Then he saw it. Outside his canopy. His ship, broken in half, the pieces drifting away from him. He also saw Cobra Four, its entire front section, crumpled and torn, its cabin open to space.
Oh, God!
Another jump flash, followed by red-orange flashes. A few seconds later, brilliant yellow flashes. Then something slammed into his turret, breaking it apart.
Taji gasped for air, but found none. A bitter cold washed over him. Then blackness.
“You’ve got about three minutes before you take a nuke!” Captain Nash warned the commander over the comms.
“Understood,” Commander Telles replied. “Telles to all ground forces! Fall back to the troop jumpers! It’s time to leave!”
“Telles, Lazo! These people are advancing on us! Are we clear to fire?”
“Mow them down, Sergeant!”
“Behind you!” Master Sergeant Jahal warned.
Commander Telles spun around, spotting an armed Tannan charging in his direction, weapon aimed right at him. Telles leaned to his left as the man fired, the energy bolt passing to his right. He drew his sidearm and placed a single shot into the man’s face. The man stumbled, his momentum carrying him forward onto the tarmac. The commander continued firing into the charging crowd.
“Combat One, Telles! Ready for extraction!”
“Telles, Combat One! Thirty seconds!”
“Bulldogs One and Two, depart as soon as you get the last man on board!” the commander instructed as he continued to fire into the crowd, barely holding them at bay.
“Ten bandits, dead ahead!” Loki announced.
“Where the hell are they going?” Josh wondered.
Loki studied his tactical display, examining the course of each group of fighters in the area. “I think they’re heading back to their ships. Command, Falcon One. I think the fighters are returning to their ships.”
“We’re seeing the same thing, Falcon One.”
“Do you still want us to pursue?”
“Pick off any that you can, but stay out of their defense perimeters.”
“Falcon One copies.”
“You don’t think they’re bugging out, do you?” Josh wondered hopefully.
“Not a chance,” Loki replied. “More likely they’re getting them out of harm’s way, before they really start pounding the surface.”
“Command! Two-Four! We’ve lost all power and maneuvering! Our shields are…”
The transmission ended abruptly. Lieutenant Elgar looked as his copilot, Lieutenant Tolamay, sitting on the other side of Cobra Three Zero’s cockpit. “Is that ten, or eleven?” he wondered.
“Nine ships left,” his copilot replied. “Jump point in five seconds.”
Lieutenant Elgar took in a deep breath as he prepared to execute what would be his fifteenth attack run of the day. He hadn’t even finished his simulator training.
Six months ago, he was working as a carpenter in a small shop that made tables, chairs, and benches. Now, he was flying a gunship in defense of his world.
“Jump,” his copilot said, having completed his countdown.
Lieutenant Elgar pushed the selector switch on his flight control stick up and pressed the trigger. The gunship’s windows turned opaque, and a second later, when they cleared, the last Jung cruiser was about to pass over him again.
The lieutenant pushed his selector switch down to the torpedo position and held the trigger in. He stared out the front window as balls of red-orange plasma spitting out of the torpedo cannons under them slammed into the enemy ship’s shields, causing them to flash and shimmer. After two rounds of plasma torpedoes, his ship began to shake violently.
“Incoming fire!” his tactical officer warned.
“Jump us out!” Lieutenant Tolamay urged.
“Forward shields have failed!” the engineer reported.
The ship lurched to starboard as Lieutenant Elgar pushed the selector switch up to the jump position and pressed the trigger.
Nothing happened.
He tried again. The ship lurched.
“Hull breach!”
“Jump!”
“I did!” Lieutenant Elgar replied. “It’s not working!”
“Jump drive is offline!” the engineer reported. “No maneuvering on our entire port side!”
“Target is firing again!”
Lieutenant Elgar scanned his console, looking for a solution. He only found one.
“Cobra Three Zero is hit!” the tactical officer at the Cobra command center reported. “She’s firing her mains!”
“Why aren’t they jumping?” Captain Nash wondered.
“Impact!” the sensor office announced. “Cobra Three Zero has rammed the cruiser. The target’s port forward shields are down!”
“How many ships do we have left?” Captain Nash asked. He already knew the answer, but was hoping that somehow he had lost track
of a few.
“Eight gunships left, sir,” the tactical officer replied. “And six Super Falcons.”
Captain Nash sighed. “Evacuate all remaining personnel.”
The communications officer looked confused. “This facility is not under direct attack, sir.”
“It will be shortly.”
“Firing!” Commander Rano announced as Cobra One came out of its jump only a few hundred meters from the last Jung cruiser in orbit over Tanna. Both he and Lieutenant Borru looked out the forward windows as their plasma torpedoes tore into the hull of the fourth and final Jung cruiser. Four rounds of torpedoes later, the cruiser came apart, her aft section erupting in a brief fireball of propellant before the vacuum of space extinguished it.
“Command, Cobra One,” Commander Rano called over the comms. “Cruiser four is destroyed. Proceeding to engage the battleship.”
“Cobra One, Command, negative. Do not engage the battleship. Jump to rally point hotel four.”
“Command, One, say again?”
“One, Command. Do not engage the battleship. Jump to rally point hotel four. Once all gunships have rejoined, proceed to Sol.”
“Command, One…”
“Cobra One, Command, Nash,” Captain Nash called over the comms. “It’s over, Commander. We can’t win this.”
Commander Rano couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “We cannot run away while our home is destroyed…”
“We’ve already lost more ships than I was authorized to expend,” Captain Nash explained. “You can’t take out that battleship, Izzu. Not with eight ships. Not with eighty ships.”
“I don’t care how many ships you are authorized to expend,” Commander Rano argued. “That’s my world down there, Robert. I’d rather die defending it than run away.”
“I hear you, Izzu, but my orders come directly from Alliance Command…”
“I do not care about your Alliance!” Izzu yelled. “I am a Tannan! And my world is burning!”