Frontiers Saga 12: Rise of the Alliance

by Ryk Brown

  “We would still have collided,” Dumar assured him. “We were on a head-on course as we came around the planet. I had only seconds to act.”

  “But where did you…”

  “The Aurora was preparing to do the same thing,” the commander told him. “Only, their mass would not be enough. Only something of equal or greater mass would…”

  “We have enemy ships in the main access tunnels!” one of the technicians reported. “They’re blowing open the airlock doors!”

  Dumar stood, turning to look toward the main view screens. “Show me!” he ordered.

  The center screen came to life, revealing two gunships coming through a massive hole blown through the inner airlock door that lead into the main central bay. Immediately behind it came a Jung troop shuttle. The camera swung to follow the ships as they descended on the main docking platform. Karuzara security forces were running out onto the platform wearing pressurized Corinari combat gear, firing at the descending enemy ships. They were no match for the gunships and were cut down easily.

  “They mean to board us,” Mister Bryant said with surprise. “But why? They could just destroy us from outside…”

  “They mean to capture a jump drive,” Commander Dumar told him.

  “Weapons are coming online,” another technician announced.

  “Sensors are operational!”

  “Where is the platform?” Commander Dumar demanded.

  “Target is only ten kilometers away, heavily damaged and drifting away from us, toward Earth. I’ve also got multiple incoming gunships and troop shuttles coming our way from the platform.”

  “Target the smaller ships with our laser turrets,” Dumar ordered. “Target the platform with our plasma cannons.” He grabbed the edge of a nearby console to steady himself. “Fire at will.”

  “Anything?” Nathan asked.

  “No, sir,” Naralena answered. “I’ve been hailing them on all channels, even data links. They are not responding.”

  “Keep trying.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  “How long until they are far enough apart?”

  “Assuming they have an array of antimatter reactors, all of which will breach when the first one does… Best guess is ten minutes, sir.”

  “How many troop ships have entered?” Nathan asked Jessica.

  “Twelve so far,” Jessica answered. “They’re about the same size as our utility shuttles, so say, twenty men in each?”

  “That’s two hundred and forty men,” Nathan exclaimed.

  “The Karuzara’s got at least a thousand people on board,” Jessica reminded him.

  “Technicians and engineers, yes,” Nathan argued. “But how many trained combatants?”

  “At least a hundred, I think.”

  “Comms, contact Telles. Tell him to send everything he can to the Karuzara.”

  “What about the Jung forces on Earth?” Jessica reminded Nathan.

  “Let them run around and blow shit up,” Nathan said. “Our people went into shelter hours ago. They can survive another hour until this is over.”

  “Weapons fire!” Mister Navashee announced with excitement. “From the Karuzara! They’re firing on the platform with their main plasma cannons!”

  “Yes!” Nathan exclaimed as he spun around to see red-orange bolts of plasma energy slamming into the damaged battle platform as it continued to slowly drift away from the Karuzara asteroid. “They’re still alive!”

  “Laser turrets as well,” Mister Navashee added. “They’re targeting the Jung shuttles.”

  “Let’s help them out,” Nathan said. “Mister Chiles, move us closer.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  “Tactical, target our lasers on those ships. Target our quads on the platform’s big guns. She may not be shooting at the Karuzara, but she’ll damn well be shooting us.”

  “Yes, sir,” Jessica responded with enthusiasm.

  “Comms, tell the Celestia to move in as well,” Nathan added. “Same targeting instructions.”

  “Jump complete,” Mister Jakoby reported as the Celestia’s jump flash subsided.

  “Target, ten kilometers, port quarter, four down,” Ensign Kono reported.

  “Lieutenant,” Cameron began. “Target the platform’s big guns with our quads. Target her shuttles and gunboats with lasers.”

  “Guns with quads, ships with lasers,” Luis acknowledged.

  “Jump flashes,” Ensign Kono said. “Four, five… make that eight jump flashes. Eight combat jumpers.” Ensign Kono turned to look over her shoulder at Captain Taylor. “It’s the Ghatazhak, sir.”

  “Tactical, give them cover fire as best you can. Concentrate on the gunboats first.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  Cameron stared at the image of the wounded Jung battle platform as it drifted helplessly away from the Karuzara asteroid. Pieces were flying off of her hull as the Aurora’s guns pounded the platform’s gun emplacements located on the side of the platform facing the Karuzara asteroid. “God, we could take that thing out so easily right now.”

  “New contacts,” Ensign Kono reported. “More gunships and fighters coming from the platform.”

  “Jesus,” Luis exclaimed, “Is that thing hollow?”

  “New contacts are headed our way,” the sensor operator added.

  “Tactical, change your targets. Lasers on the fighters, quads on the gunships.”

  “Changing targets, aye,” Luis answered.

  Cameron continued to watch as the approaching ships began to blow apart as the Celestia’s weapons tore into them. “Damn,” she exclaimed under her breath as she noticed that there seemed to be no end to the number of ships pouring out of the platform’s last remaining hangar arm. “They just don’t stop coming.”

  “Gunships are accelerating,” Ensign Kono reported. “They’re on a collision course, Captain.”

  “Helm, prepare for evasive…”

  “Gunships are going FTL!” Ensign Kono exclaimed, cutting Cameron off in mid-sentence.

  “Escape jump!” Cameron ordered. “Brace for impact!”

  “Escape jump, aye!” Mister Jakoby answered as the collision alarms sounded throughout the ship.

  Cameron’s eyes were fixed on the main view screen. In that instant, she could see the gunships disappear from view, just as the pale-blue light poured out of the Celestia’s jump field emitters and across her hull. At such close range, they had no more than one or two seconds before the FTL gunships would traverse the short distance between them and the Celestia and slam into her hull. At the same moment, she instinctively grabbed the arms of her command chair and braced herself, holding her breath, and waited for the jump flash that would save them from destruction.

  It never came.

  “The Jung have made it past the defenses in our main bay,” Dumar told Nathan over the comms. “They are trying to get to the mini-jump drives. I suspect they will load them on their shuttles and try to escape…”

  “Captain!” Mister Navashee interrupted. “Four gunships! On a collision course and accelerating!”

  “Snap jump, Mister Riley,” Nathan ordered.

  “Gunships are going to FTL!” Mister Navashee added in a tone of well-controlled panic.

  “Snap jump, aye,” Mister Riley answered.

  “Sound collision alarm,” Nathan ordered as he grabbed the arms of his command chair and braced himself.

  The blue-white jump flash washed over them, fading away as quickly as it had come. Nathan realized he was holding his breath, and let it out slowly. “Position?”

  “Two light seconds out from the target,” Mister Riley reported. “Course of one one eight, fifteen up relative.”

  “That was too close,” Jessica commented.

  “Automated distress signal from the Celestia,” Naralena announced.

  Nathan felt a cold chill run down his spine. “Helm, come about and bring us back onto the target,” he ordered. “Mister Navashee, scan the position reported by the Celestia’s AD
B.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Mister Riley, prepare to jump us back to the engagement area.”

  “Aye, sir,” Mister Riley acknowledged.

  “Oh, and Mister Riley? Continue keeping an escape jump entered and ready at all times,” he encouraged.

  “I always do, Captain.”

  “Flight, Captain,” Nathan called over his comm-set.

  “Captain, Flight. Go for CAG,” Major Prechitt answered.

  “Major, Jung forces have boarded the Karuzara and are trying to capture and escape with a mini-jump drive. Ghatazhak forces are trying to stop them as well, but we need the last of our Falcons to guard the exits and prevent their escape.”

  “Understood, sir.”

  “Warn the Falcons that there are plenty of hostiles in the area,” Nathan added. “I cannot emphasize how important it is that NO Jung ships make it back out of the Karuzara asteroid alive. Is that clear, Major?”

  “Crystal clear, sir,” the major answered.

  Nathan tapped his comm-set to end the conversation. “Comms, reestablish contact with the Karuzara as soon as we jump back in. And try to raise the Celestia.”

  “Aye, sir,” Naralena answered.

  “Turn complete,” the helmsman reported.

  “Jump plotted and ready,” Mister Riley added.

  “I’ve got the Celestia on sensors, Captain,” Mister Navashee announced. “The entire front third of her bow is gone, sir. Just aft of her launch tube doors, just forward of her secondary bulkhead…It’s all gone.”

  “Power? Life support?”

  “She’s still got power, sir, but minimal. Her antimatter reactors are cold. I’m pretty sure she ejected her cores. It’s hard to tell with so much debris floating around her, but I’m not picking up any antimatter signatures.”

  “They must be running on the backup fusion reactors,” Jessica said. “If they’ve got any power, they’ve got life support.”

  “Can they maneuver?”

  “Doubtful, sir,” Mister Navashee answered. “She’s in a slow tumble, bow up over stern. Probably from the force of the impact.” Mister Navashee looked at Nathan. “She’s basically adrift, Captain.”

  “Those gunships, are they still going after her?”

  Mister Navashee turned back to his sensor displays. “No, sir. They’ve all turned back to the Karuzara.”

  “They no longer see the Celestia as a threat,” Jessica said.

  “Or they finally ran out of gunships, and capturing a jump drive is more important to them,” Nathan speculated. “How much distance between the Celestia and the platform?”

  “Twenty kilometers and increasing slowly,” Jessica replied.

  “Mister Riley, put us between the platform and the Celestia, but as close to the Celestia as possible.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  “Comms, make ready all search and rescue parties, and warn medical to expect incoming casualties.”

  Nathan tapped his comm-set. “Cheng, Captain.”

  “Go ahead, sir,” Vladimir answered over Nathan’s comm-set.

  “The Celestia has been hit. We think she ejected her cores about a minute ago. How far out will they be, and what happens if we accidentally run into them?”

  “Oh, bozhe moi,” Vladimir exclaimed. “The capsule’s propulsion system is designed to carry them rapidly away from the ship when ejected. If they were ejected normally, they will travel at least a few hundred kilometers within the first minute, and they will continue to accelerate until their propellant expires ten minutes later. By that time, they will be several hundred thousand kilometers away.”

  “And if we run into them?”

  “It is a very bad idea, Nathan. Trust me.”

  “Understood,” Nathan acknowledge, switching off his comm-set as he turned to his sensor operator. “Mister Navashee, I need you to locate those cores.”

  Four combat jump shuttles sped through the Karuzara’s main transit tunnel headed for the main hangar at her core, Jung fighters pursuing them closely. Red and orange bolts of energy streaked back and forth as they exchanged fire, the Jung fighters from their wing-mounted cannons and the combat shuttles from the twin-barreled plasma turrets on their topsides. The Jung fighters attempted to get down below the constantly jinking combat jumpers, but the jumpers dipped down to only a meter or two above the floor of the massive tunnel.

  Determined to get out of the jumpers’ firing solutions, the Jung fighters dove down to skim the bottom of the tunnel as well. Just as they did so, two of the jumpers pitched up and rolled over, giving them perfect angles on their six pursuers. The turrets of the two upper jumpers lit up, tearing apart the lead two fighters. The second two Jung fighters, each of which had been following their leaders quite closely, were unable to maneuver quickly enough and plowed straight into the fighters that were coming apart directly in front of them. The last two fighters pitched up quickly, climbing away from the tunnel floor but up into the firing solution of the lower two jumpers, who immediately opened fire, destroying them both.

  With their pursuers now dispatched, the four combat jumpers continued without delay down the tunnel, diving through the massive holes blown into each airlock door along the way.

  Ninety seconds later, the four shuttles were greeted with a barrage of energy weapons fire from two gunships that were waiting for them in the Karuzara’s main central hangar. The lead jumper took a direct hit, spiraling out of control and slamming into the far wall. The other three shuttles immediately split apart, hugging the walls of the massive bay, flying erratically to avoid fire from the gunships hovering over the main docking platform as they circled the cavern, turrets blazing.

  One of the hovering gunships took direct hits from two of the jumpers, causing it to yaw sharply to port and descend rapidly. The bow of the gunship struck the docking platform, causing the ship to tumble over and swing around out of control. Two more energy shots slammed into the underside of the falling gunship, causing it to rollover. Now completely out of control, the gunship fell to the side, bounced off the wall of the cavern, then broke in two, the aft end exploding in a ball of fire then extinguished due to the vacuum as instantly as it had ignited.

  The second gunship was forced to slide abruptly to its right to avoid its partner as it fell. It swung its nose around, seeking the location of the third combat jumper, only to find the jumper coming right at it.

  The combat jumper fired as it tried to pull up and avoid colliding head-on with the second gunship. Its shots plowed into the front of the gunship, blowing apart sections of its forward hull. The jumper careened off the top of the gunship and went into a flat spin. The stunned gunship dove and yawed to port, barely missing the dock. Fortunately, it was not paying attention to the other two shuttles as its pilot fought for control. Dozens of energy bolts plowed into the side and tail of the yawing gunship, blowing it apart and sending its pieces flying out in all directions.

  The pieces of the disintegrating gunship, propelled out with considerable force that had been imparted by the gunship’s wild flat spin, slammed into one of the shuttles as it attempted to land on the docking platform amid energy weapons fire from Jung troops hiding in the hatchways. Six Ghatazhak soldiers in full, pressurized combat gear leapt from the damaged combat shuttle as it was pulled down by the docking platform’s artificial gravity.

  The Ghatazhak soldiers fired their weapons as they fell, striking Jung troops in three of the four nearest hatchways from which they were firing. They hit the dock and rolled to their sides, still firing, as the falling jumper they had been riding in crash-landed on the dock behind them. The jumper’s topside gun turret still intact, it too fired on the remaining hatchway, blowing it apart and killing the Jung troops just inside.

  The other two jumpers quickly came to a hover two meters above the docking platform on either side of the crashed jumper. Twelve additional Ghatazhak soldiers, six from each combat jumper, leapt from the side doors and hit the deck running. The group
nearest the fallen jumper went to retrieve the flight crew. Four of them took up protective positions as the other two quickly pulled the three injured crewmen from the wreckage and helped them to the safety of the waiting jumper that had landed only a few meters behind them. Two more Ghatazhak, each of them badly wounded in the initial exchange of gunfire with the Jung in the hatchways were also placed in the jumper by their comrades before it lifted off and headed out the other transit tunnel, the one normally used to exit the Karuzara asteroid.

  As the remaining troops advanced on the hatchways and disappeared inside, two more jumpers entered the main central hangar from the entrance tunnel and came down quickly to land on the docking platform. Twelve more Ghatazhak piled out of the two jumpers, including Lieutenant Telles and Sergeant Jahal.

  “Four on the hatches,” Lieutenant Telles ordered as he and Sergeant Jahal made their way quickly toward the hatches at the far end of the docking platform. “No one but Ghatazhak go in or out through here.” Telles stopped at the hatchways and turned to see the last two jumpers as they headed toward the exit tunnel. He tapped his helmet to activate his helmet comms. “All jumpers, Telles. Take up cover positions on both tunnels, and get the boxcars moving. I want this place crawling with Ghatazhak within minutes.”

  “Capture!” Commander Eckert reported.

  “Locking down the retaining clamps,” Lieutenant Scalotti announced. “KKV is secure.”

  “That warhead is safe, right?” Captain Nash asked.

  “Yes, sir,” the lieutenant answered.

  “Just checking,” the captain said. “Makes me nervous, jumping around with an antimatter warhead hanging under our belly.”

  “Plotting return jump to the outer boundary of the engagement area,” Commander Eckert announced.

  “Coming about,” Captain Nash said as he started a quick turn to port. “I didn’t think we were ever going to find the damned thing. They really need to put some sort of locating system on these things. Something that only we can trigger, you know?”