Resolute Strike (The War for Terra Book 7)

by James Prosser

  “More incoming,” Jackal called. “I’ve got multiple incoming vortices from all over. Big Momma, do you know who they are?”

  “Alliance signatures,” Kama yelled. “The cavalry has arrived!”

  Alice watched her display as the new arrivals began to be recognized. As the burning energy coronas peeled away into the cleared space of battle, Alice saw the call sign for the carrier Zeus. She hated Franklin Dalton on principle, but right now that ship was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. Along with the aging carrier, two more of the antique fleet carriers arrived and began launching fighters. Assault cruisers and frigates joined newer classes of destroyers on the field of battle. Soon her scanner was filled with dots flashing and glowing and then winking out. It was the battle they had been denied with the Ch’Tauk over Earth, and she desperately sought one target to lock on to, but the enemy fighter had already moved on. Instead she searched the scanner for signs of Chang.

  She found his signal almost all the way to the interdimensional bridge, surrounded by nearly a dozen Gizzeen ships. She let out an involuntary gasp as one of the enemy ships disappeared from the scanner, but the admiral’s ship was hit hard. She pushed her throttle hard and turned to attack. It took her ten seconds to reach the battle area and begin firing. Two enemy vessels turned to face her and were disabled almost immediately. The admiral brought his weapons to bear and fired with her simultaneously. The twin beams caught the two ships between them and burst the living tissue underneath. Alice flew past the remaining ships fast and turned. At full power, she flipped upside down and continued to fire, blasting into one of the Gizzeen at point blank range. The plasma melted the plating on the back of the ship but didn’t burn through. A blast from Chang’s cannon finished the job.

  Alice had the strangest feeling as she targeted another ship. Although she had never flown with the admiral, it felt like he knew her maneuvers as well as she did. The man was a great pilot and responded to her acrobatics with precision, but it was more than that. It was as if he had been her wingman for years. They finished off another ship and turned their attention to the remaining six. She twisted right and left as the Gizzeen tried to target them. Chang kept up fire as she swept around towards the bridge. From this distance, it was a magnificent sight. She let her eyes linger for only a moment, as two blue beams slammed into her underside.

  “Princess, get out of here,” Lee’s voice cried. “Pull back. It’s too much!”

  “No,” Alice called back. “I’ve got this. I’ll keep an eye on the package for you.”

  Something about Lee’s voice had sounded odd, a crackle of static on the comm, but not one she hadn’t expected. This close to the bridge, the solar and interdimensional energies were strong enough to disrupt anything, let alone communications. It was something else.

  She didn’t spare another moment on it as the ships moved around for another pass. Chang’s ship flipped over, imitating her maneuver from before, and opened fire. Again, the two Eagles destroyed the targets. They were down to only two ships, and she felt the stabilizers wobble on her ship.

  “I’m hit,” Alice called. “I can still cover you. Get a move on and I’ll watch your back.”

  Chang’s ship flipped back over and moved off towards the bridge. She aimed her Eagle at the incoming ships and fired. Energy met in between as both sets of beams intersected. The impact created a plasma-energy fireball between the combatants, temporarily blinding Alice’s scanners. As the image cleared, she saw one of the ships had been disabled by the blast but the other was still coming. She tried to fire and found her weapons were cycling back from protected mode. Feeling impotent , Alice screamed at the incoming ship. As she saw the blasts forming on the wings of the Gizzeen, the ship exploded in a flash of red-orange light. She swiveled her head, trying to find her rescuer, and saw the silver flash of Lee’s ship.

  “What are you doing?” Alice called. “Get back on your run.”

  “I could say the same to you,” Chang’s voice replied. “Get moving!”

  The terseness of the reply startled Alice but she fell into formation with the Silver Eagle. They raced forward towards the bridge, dodging debris and stray energy bolts. Once again, Alice felt nagging thoughts about her partner. Chang flew like someone who was experienced, not like someone who had been seated at a desk for the last few years. He swerved and weaved in and out of the obstacles as if he had practice. Without notice, the ship suddenly fell behind. She reduced her own throttle and opened up a channel to the fighter.

  “What’s the problem?” she asked. “Why are you slowing?”

  Instead of a reply, the Silver Eagle shot forward past her. Lee’s ship was vastly more powerful than hers, and quicker, but he had been the only person she had ever seen use it that way. In a flash, the ship flipped over and reversed course back to her. Instead of swerving, the fighter turned slightly to one side. As it passed, the fighter dipped a wing, tapping his own wing into hers. She spun around, dropping her throttle and trying to stabilize. By the time she gained control, Chang’s ship was back on course, faster than she could catch.

  “What the hell?” Alice called to the other pilot. “I can escort you further.”

  “Alice, pull back,” Lee’s voice came back. “It’s too dangerous. When this thing blows it’ll take you with it if you go further.”

  “Lee?” Alice replied. “Did you see what he did? He almost—”

  “I wanted you to back off,” Lee replied. “Don’t make this any harder than it has to be.”

  “Lee?” Alice said, not understanding. “You thought … what are you saying?”

  “I’m sorry, Alice,” Lee replied. “It’s the only way. I’ve got to see this through.”

  “Lee?” Alice said, realization dawning on her. “Lee, where are you? Please tell me you’re on Resolute. Please tell me you aren’t in that fighter.”

  “I’m sorry, Alice. There was no other way. You know no one else can handle this thing. I knew Chang would never make it. You have to go back, Alice. You have to go back now.”

  “No!” Alice shouted over the comm. You can’t do this!”

  “For once in your life, Princess, follow orders,” Lee said across the widening gulf. “If you’re not out of range when I blow this thing—”

  “Like hell,” Alice said, slamming her throttle forward and aiming her ship at his. “If you go, I go.”

  “Princess, stand down,” Lee called. “Alice, don’t make me do this.”

  “Lee, you can’t go like this. I’m coming with you.”

  “Negative,” Lee replied.

  Alice’s controls suddenly went dark. She tried sliding her throttle forward and back, but nothing happened. The ship was no longer under her control and she saw she was turning back to face Resolute. She tried flipping the power on and off but nothing happened.

  “Lee, don’t do this to me,” Alice said. “Don’t you dare go be a hero without me. Don’t you dare!”

  “Princess, listen to me,” Lee replied through the increasing static. “I need to tell you this before I can’t.”

  “No, don’t … don’t you dare. You’ll tell me yourself when you get back to the ship and—”

  “No, not this time,” Lee replied, his voice breaking up. “Alice, I love you. I want to live with you forever, but—and I don’t think I … my reputation. Those damn books made me … I can’t be…”

  “Lee, No!” Alice shouted, watching the image of his ship enter the bridge. She heard the comm click off and silence descend. She felt hot tears on her cheeks. Since she wasn’t controlling her fighter, she reached up and wiped them away. She wanted to scream but she was afraid she might miss one last message from Lee.

  Her comm crackled again. “I love you, Alice, in this galaxy or the next. I’m so sorr—”

  A loud crackle and her ship was suddenly adrift. She had no power. Numb and not understanding what had happened, she tried the power reset again. The ship responded right away. Lights blinked on and
her heads-up cycled back up. Sudden brightness forced her eyes closed. The water in her eyes burned from the light that seemed to leak past her eyelids. After a few seconds, she blinked away the pain and opened her eyes. What she saw made her cry again. It was a sight she didn’t think she would ever see again, and it filled her both with hope and sadness. The light of Sol flooded her cockpit and filled her heart with such pain she wished she would burn with it.

  “You did it,” Alice said to her empty cockpit. “You did it and I love you too, Flyboy. You lived up to your reputation, you silly son of a bitch. You really are the best man I have ever known, and you made the whole galaxy know it.”

  She lowered the glare shield on her heads-up and stared at the sun for a long time. Finally, she saw the target locks on her screen and moved away. There was still a war to be fought and she was a fighter pilot.

  Author’s Afterward

  I am a writer of stories and not a reporter. I never meant to write a true account of anything. In fact, if you go back and re-read the introduction you’ll find out the book was meant to be called Resolute Assault. Lee Pearce said I wrote about his exploits before he even experienced them and he was right. I did have a story in mind to tell you about a grand attack on a Gizzeen base by the combined Alliance and Ch’Tauk fleets. I had even designed the cover. It wasn’t long after he had written the introduction for me that Lee stepped back aboard the battleship for the last time. I had almost submitted the book to my editor for correction (I have a real problem with spelling and I need an editor for things like into the) when the reports of a Ch’Tauk betrayal made the news nets. At my earliest convenience I tried to contact the battleship for information. I am indebted to Ms. Kama Yu for her assistance in getting this book written. She fed me real-time information throughout the story. When I heard about Lee Pearce’s death delivering the implosion device, I nearly collapsed.

  Lee Pearce did not like me. He thought I was a hack and maybe he was right. I am still saddened by his loss, and this account tries to put the whole story in some perspective. I do use the flowery language Lee mentions and I do exaggerate some things, but I have given you this account so you will know what I know. Lee Benjamin Pearce was a hero in the tragic sense of the word. I will miss him as I set about writing the next chapter in the Resolute saga. I have hope, just as the rest of the galaxy was given hope by that man, that the saga of the battleship Resolute will continue…

  Acknowledgements

  January is a cruel month. In one month, I lost my grandmother and a good friend lost her husband. My grandmother was a victim of Alzheimer’s disease. She died having never known I was an author despite having published six previous books. She died not having known the man I had become. My friend Becky was thanked in the last book. She told me in the last few months of her husband’s life that he had been robbed of so much from the growth of tumors in his brain. She told me she’d read my books to him and she knew he enjoyed them. If that is the highest praise I ever get for these books, then I accept. I also remember my father, mother and father-in-law, and everyone else I have lost in January and every other month. Our lives are like threads, and when one is cut the whole structure begins to collapse.

  I would like to thank my editor and (yeah, I’ll call it) friend, Lee. He didn’t know me when I wrote the first book, nor did I know him, but it must be weird to open a book and see your own name as a hero. I also want to thank Dave, a fellow author, who has been beta-reading this book and offered some great advice.

  Of course my wife has been the first reader of every word and has been waiting patiently for my writer’s block to evaporate so she could find out what happened. Stephen King says you should always write with a particular and specific reader in mind, and she is always on mine. She hates me for this ending, by the way.

  Finally, to the students who have been supportive and listened as I complained about this plot or the other and helped me find my way again after I was lost, thank you all.

  James

  The War for Terra Series

  Resolute Command

  Resolute Stand

  Resolute Uprising

  Resolute Victory

  The Adventures of Connor Jakes

  Resolute Alliance

  Resolute Strike

  And coming soon…

  Resolute Glory

  You can follow me on Twitter @ProsserAuthor1

  Or

  Check out my blog

  http://resolutebooks.blogspot.com/2015/03/resolute-strike-is-here.html