Ep.#15 - That Which Other Men Cannot Do (The Frontiers Saga)

by Ryk Brown

“Are you secure back there?” the copilot of the cargo jump shuttle called over the helmet comms.

  “Almost,” the crew chief replied from the back of the cargo shuttle. He reached over and removed the cover from the last pallet of leaflets, and stowed it inside the forward gear locker, along with the rest of the covers. He looked back at the twenty large stacks of leaflets, all standing neatly, uncovered and ready for distribution.

  “Come on, Chief, we jump in thirty seconds,” the copilot warned.

  The crew chief squeezed between the most forward stack of leaflets, knocking several of them off, and took his seat in the forward port corner of the shuttle’s cargo bay. He fastened his restraints, then gave them a tug to be sure he was secure. “I’m good,” he announced as he plugged the life-support umbilical back into his pressure suit, going back on the ship’s oxygen. “Suit pressure looks good. Let’s do this.”

  “Jumping in five seconds,” the copilot announced from the cockpit above the cargo bay.

  The crew chief placed his hand on the door control panel to his right, putting his finger on the open button as the copilot counted down.

  “Jumping.”

  A small amount of blue-white light passing through the few small windows of the shuttle’s cargo bay illuminated the compartment for a brief moment.

  “Jump complete,” the copilot reported. “Open her up!”

  The crew chief pressed the open button, causing the back door to slowly drop open. At twelve thousand meters above the surface of Nor-Patri, the decompression of the cargo bay was enough to suck most of the leaflets right out the back of the shuttle. Within twenty seconds, ninety percent of the pamphlets were gone, slowly falling to the surface as the high altitude winds spread them out over the endless cityscape below.

  The crew chief pressed the open button for the front door, opening it just enough to create a wind tunnel effect that pushed the remaining leaflets out of the cargo bay. With only a few leaflets still swirling about, refusing to exit, the crew chief pressed the close buttons for both doors. As soon as the status lights for both doors turned green, he called out over his helmet comms. “We’re closed up! Let’s get the hell out of here!”

  “Falcon One, Heavy Three is empty, jumping out.”

  “Roger Heavy Three, see you back at the rally point.” Loki watched the sensor display on his console as the icon representing the cargo shuttle disappeared.

  “How far out are they now?” Josh asked.

  “The first group is gone,” Loki said. “So is the second. Super Eagles took care of them. But there are four more groups still climbing up from the surface. The closest ones are still three minutes out.”

  “Falcon One, Heavy Two is empty. Jumping out.”

  “Roger, Heavy Two,” Loki replied.

  “Heavy One is also empty. Jumping out.”

  “Roger, Heavy One,” Loki replied. “That’s all the heavies in our coverage zone. New course, two four seven, down five.”

  “Two four seven, down five,” Josh replied as he changed course and pitched their nose down slightly.

  “Jumping to next target area.”

  The Super Falcon’s windows turned opaque for a brief moment, and Josh and Loki found themselves fifteen hundred kilometers downrange and two thousand meters above the city.

  Loki quickly selected their next four targets, locking the tracking systems of their last four missiles onto the targets. “Opening bay doors.” He pressed the launch button. “Four boomers, away.”

  Josh waited until he could see all four missile contrails stretching out in front of them, then pitched up as he brought his throttles to full power. He quickly dialed up a new jump range to get them to orbit. He then looked at Loki and smiled. “Let’s go shuttle hunting.”

  “Out of FTL,” the Jar-Benakh’s navigator reported.

  “Multiple contacts!” Ensign Marka reported from the sensor station. “Two battleships, five cruisers, fifteen frigates…”

  “Jump missiles,” Captain Roselle ordered.

  “Assigning targets,” the tactical officer replied.

  “Captain!” the sensor officer called out urgently. “The ring base is still intact! She’s still got full shields!”

  “What?” Captain Roselle exclaimed, instantly rising to his feet. “Are you sure?”

  “Damned sure, sir,” Ensign Marka replied. “She’s bringing her guns and missile launchers on us now.”

  “Tactical!” the captain called. “New target! Put everything you have on that ring base! Jump missiles, big guns, the works! All point-defenses on those missiles! Helm, turn into the Zhu-Anok. I want to put our plasma torpedoes on her.”

  “Turning into the ring base,” the helmsman replied.

  “Forward guns are firing!” Lieutenant Commander Kessel reported from the tactical station. “Locking jump missiles on the ring base!”

  “Captain, I’m picking up a large energy spike on the asteroid base. I believe their shield is even more powerful than a battle platform’s.” The ensign turned toward his captain. “If that’s the case, it’s going to take every gun we have to even make a dent.”

  “You heard the man,” Captain Roselle said. “Get every damned gun you can on that thing. That’s their main base, where they make the majority of their ships. We take that out, and we buy the Alliance decades of time to build up our fleet!”

  “Taking rail gun fire!” the tactical officer reported. “The big stuff!”

  “Forward shields are taking a pounding,” the systems officer warned. “They’re already down to ninety percent.”

  “New contact!” Ensign Marka reported. “Coming around the back side of Nor-Patri. It’s the Kent, sir!”

  “Mas! Call the Kent. Tell them to dump everything they’ve got into that ring base. Target the center of it.”

  “Aye, sir!”

  “If we can put everything into one shield section, we might get it to drop so we can get some nukes inside of that shield!”

  “First wave of missiles away!”

  “Captain, their shields are already showing some strain from just our cannons,” the sensor operator reported, perplexed.

  “That’s a good thing, Weedge,” Captain Roselle commented.

  “You don’t understand,” Ensign Marka replied. “That power surge is still there, and it’s building! If it isn’t going into their shields… Oh, my God! I’ve got movement on the asteroid’s upper pole! It’s a gun of some sort! A big one! It’s charging! Captain! You gotta jump!”

  “Snap jump!” Captain Roselle ordered. “NOW!”

  “Missiles away!” the Kent’s tactical officer reported. “Sixteen clean launches. Impact in thirty seconds.”

  “The Jar-Benakh just jumped away!” Lieutenant Todson reported from the sensor station.

  “What?” Captain Poc replied. “Why would they…”

  “Huge power spike on the… INCOMING!”

  A thick red beam of laser light, made visible only by the dust and wreckage debris drifting across the beam’s path, reached out from the top of the distant asteroid, slamming into the Kent’s forward starboard shields. Her shields glowed for a moment, then failed as emitters overloaded and exploded on the side of her hull. With her shields down, the laser blast sliced into the Kent’s bow, finding her forward missile bay. The intense energy of the laser detonated several of the missiles, causing a chain reaction of detonations that tore the Kent apart from stem to stern as it came over the horizon of Nor-Patri.

  “Captain, the Jar-Benakh just jumped!” Mister Navashee reported from the Aurora’s sensor station. “And I’ve got a massive power surge coming from the asteroid base.”

  “Flight reports all fighters away,” Naralena reported.

  “Then it’s still intact?” Nathan asked his sensor operator.

  “Yes, sir! Something is firing from her upper pole. It’s a laser! It just fired!”

  “Did it hit anything?” Nathan asked urgently.

  “No, sir. Not that I c
an see. I think they were shooting at the Jar-Benakh. That must be why they jumped. The angle on the weapon indicates the laser probably passed by the other side of Nor-Patri.”

  “Message from the Jar-Benakh,” Naralena announced. “Transmitted just before she jumped. They’re calling on all ships to attack the center point of the ring base, directly in line with Nor-Patri. They mean to overload at least one section of shields.”

  “Where are those two cruisers?” Nathan asked.

  “Off our port side, and closing fast,” Mister Navashee replied.

  “Helm, turn into those cruisers. Put on an overhead pass, five hundred meters, and prepare to jump us in close. Angle down on the bow to fire,” Nathan instructed. “Jess, be ready on all forward tubes. I want to take both those ships out in a single pass, then we’ll have a few minutes to pound that ring station before those battleships get within firing range of us.”

  “On course for attack run,” Mister Chiles reported. “Bringing the bow down now.”

  “Ready on all forward tubes.”

  “Triplets on all of them,” Nathan ordered. “Full power.”

  “Full-power triplets, aye,” Jessica replied.

  “Ready on the jump,” Mister Riley announced.

  “Snap jump us in,” Nathan ordered.

  “Snap jumping,” the navigator acknowledged.

  The jump flash washed over the Aurora’s bridge as the ship transitioned from their orbit over Nor-Patri to a position less than a kilometer away from the two approaching Jung cruisers, and only five hundred meters above their flight path.

  “Jump complete.”

  “Firing all forward tubes!” Jessica reported. “Torpedoes away!”

  The Aurora’s bridge flashed red-orange several times as the first round of torpedoes slammed into the nearest enemy cruiser. The mark three plasma torpedoes overwhelmed the cruiser’s shields and caused them to buckle. The shots from their mark five torpedoes brought the shields down, and allowed the third group of triplet shots to tear into the target’s hull, breaking her wide open.

  “One down,” Jessica reported. “Second target in five…”

  “The Jar-Benakh is back,” Mister Navashee reported.

  “Firing on target two,” Jessica reported.

  “Incoming message from the Jar-Benakh,” Naralena announced as the bridge flashed red-orange again. “They’re warning us about the laser weapon.”

  “Target two is destroyed,” Jessica reported as the second cruiser on the main view screen exploded.

  “Captain!” Naralena continued. “The Kent is down! Jar-Benakh reports the Kent is completely destroyed. She was hit by that laser.”

  “Where are the Celestia and the Tanna?” Nathan demanded.

  “The Celestia jumped away four minutes ago after deploying her fighters,” Mister Navashee reported. “She just attacked several cruisers and frigates at Nor-Patri’s opposite gravity point.”

  “And the Tanna?”

  “Unknown, sir,” Mister Navashee replied. “She’s not on my sensors.”

  Nathan glanced at the tactical display to the right of his helmsman, taking note of the Celestia’s position.

  “She should have seen that laser shot,” Nathan surmised.

  “Celestia just jumped, Captain. Given the time delay, she might not have seen it before she jumped.”

  “Comms, as soon as you see either ship, broadcast a warning about that damned laser,” Nathan directed.

  “Aye, sir.”

  “How much time before those three battleships get within attack range?”

  “Ten minutes at maximum FTL, sir,” Mister Navashee replied. “And they went to FTL one minute ago.”

  “Helm, turn into that ring base,” Nathan directed. “Put our nose on that center point the Jar-Benakh was referring to, but keep an open jump line in case they try to target us with that laser.”

  “Aye, sir,” the helmsman reported.

  “Comms, warn the Jar-Benakh that we’re starting our attack run from their port side and astern of them. Transmit our attack plot as soon as you get it from Mister Riley.”

  “Four Jung gunships just came out of FTL directly to our starboard, five kilometers out,” the Tanna’s sensor operator reported. “They’re firing rail guns!”

  “Escape jump, Mister Poschay!” Captain Nash ordered.

  “Escape jump, aye!” the navigator replied as he initiated the jump.

  “Tactical, feed the coordinates and profiles of those gunships into four jump missiles and fire when ready. Calculate for last known…”

  “Course and speed, yes, sir,” Lieutenant Monath finished for him.

  “Helm, hold your course until she fires,” Captain Nash added.

  “Holding her steady,” the helmsman replied.

  “Message from the Aurora,” the comm officer announced. “They need all ships to attack the ring base. They’re sending targeting data. They’re also warning of a laser weapon on Zhu-Anok. It got the Kent, sir.”

  “The Kent?” Captain Nash repeated reflexively. “Are there any survivors?”

  “Firing missiles,” Lieutenant Monath announced.

  “No, sir,” the comm officer replied.

  “Missiles away.”

  Captain Nash sighed. “Turn us toward Zhu-Anok and prepare to jump to a point ten million kilometers above that asteroid. I want to launch everything we’ve got and be long gone by the time they can fire on us.”

  “Breaking orbit,” Ensign Hunt reported from the Celestia’s helm.

  “On course and speed for Patoray gravity point one,” Ensign Sperry added. “Jump plotted and ready.”

  “Execute your jump,” Cameron ordered.

  “Jumping in three…”

  “All forward tubes are charged and ready,” Lieutenant Delaveaga reported from the tactical station.

  “Two…”

  “Triplets on the mark threes, singles on the mark fives, if you please,” Cameron instructed.

  “One…”

  “Triplets and singles, aye.”

  “Jumping.”

  The jump flash washed over the Celestia’s bridge. When it cleared a moment later, a damaged but still operational Jung battleship nearly filled their main view screen, as it slid from top to bottom.

  “Jump complete.”

  “Firing all forward tubes,” Luis reported.

  Cameron watched as twelve mark three, and four mark five plasma torpedoes raced away from her ship and slammed into the hull of the battleship. The enemy vessel broke apart, explosions from within triggered by the massive amounts of thermal energy imparted by the impact of highly concentrated plasma against her hull. Her helmsman kept the Celestia’s nose on the target by continually pitching down as they passed over the target at a distance of only a single kilometer. Because of this, her tactical officer was able to continue pummeling the Jung battleship with plasma torpedoes.

  The battleship was now upside down on the Celestia’s view screen, and getting smaller as they coasted away from the target, flying stern-first. Two more rounds of plasma torpedoes served as the enemy vessel’s final executioner, and the five-kilometer-long battleship broke in two. The sections drifted apart as more explosions rocked her insides. The forward half split yet again, and the stern section exploded.

  “Target destroyed,” Ensign Kono reported from the sensor station.

  “Next target?” Cameron asked.

  “Two frigates and a heavy cruiser at Nor-Patri’s fourth gravity point,” Luis suggested. “Frigates are nearer, and the cruiser is about ten clicks beyond them.”

  “The cruiser’s power readings are fluctuating, Captain,” Ensign Kono added. “They may be having shield problems.”

  “Very well,” Cameron replied. “Mister Sperry, plot an intercept jump to those targets.”

  “Aye, sir,” the navigator replied.

  “Comms, any updates from our other ships?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Ensign Kono?”

/>   “The Aurora and the Jar-Benakh should be on the far side of Nor-Patri. I have no fixes on either the Kent or the Tanna. We should get a better picture as soon as we jump to Nor-Patri’s fourth gravity point.”

  “Very, well,” Cameron replied as she studied the new targets on the tactical display. “Lieutenant, we’ll jump in between the frigates and hit them with our broadside cannons as we pass. That should also give us a good firing line on the cruiser with our forward tubes.”

  “Aye, sir,” Luis replied.

  “On course and speed, ready to jump,” Ensign Sperry reported.

  “Take us in,” Cameron instructed.

  “Jumping in three…”

  Cameron glanced at the tactical map again. The Jung homeworld was directly between them and the asteroid ring base. She had been on the opposite side of that planet from the rest of the Alliance forces for the entire ten minutes that the Celestia had been in the system, and she really wanted to know the status of that ring base.

  She would have to wait.

  The jump flash washed over the Celestia’s bridge.

  The Celestia passed directly between the two Jung frigates, about two kilometers away from each. She fired her broadside cannons repeatedly, sending groups of eight balls of plasma toward the targets. As she did so, she also fired all eight of her forward torpedo tubes, sending waves of sixteen plasma torpedoes each, racing toward the Jung heavy cruiser still ten kilometers ahead of them.

  The two frigates came apart as the first round of plasma shots, fired from the Celestia’s broadside cannons, overwhelmed their shields and caused them to collapse. The second round tore the ships apart, leaving only debris behind.

  “Both frigates are destroyed,” Ensign Kono reported.

  “Cease fire on all forward tubes,” Cameron directed. “Helm, change course to pass over the cruiser, then pitch us down. I want to be ready to jump the remaining distance and finish her off if the first two rounds of mark fives…”

  “Impacts!” Ensign Kono reported. “I was right! Her shields had to be damaged already. She’s coming apart!”