"Where else are they?"
Jane popped up a tactical map. It showed hundreds of dots all around the area, and further away, where the terrain was rugged, and apparently riddled with caves, a solid mass of the things.
Off to one side, movement caught my eye. Large dots swept in on small dots, and one by one the small dots vanished. I thought about what I knew about dragons. It wasn’t much.
"Suit up. BA, will the meson streamers be effective against a creature used to fire?"
"Should be boss. Only way to find out is to try."
The girls started moving, and I rose and followed them, still trying to work out where was best for me to be.
"Better use the belt suits for disguise," said Jane. "Big people will look better than combat suits. I don’t think there's much technology here. And if anyone sees us, we might freak them out more than the dragons do."
In the barracks common room, we found the rest of the team, and BA filled them in what was happening.
"How do we do this?" asked George.
I was surprised he was here, since he hadn’t done a ground action since being promoted to command his own capital ship. Agatha, Alana, and Abigail I'd been wondering why they hadn’t been with us before. But I guess whoever was dumping us into these situations thought we needed the extra numbers for this one. Anabelle wasn’t with us though, and I could have used her on Gunbus for high guard direction. But Jane could direct us from here if we needed it. One advantage of having a ship AI with its own avatar was she could be in more than one place at a time. And we'd need her combat suit, since she was the only one who could use two mesons at the same time.
"We need a line protecting the road, keeping the dragon things from getting to the people. BA, assign people where you think best. I'm going to drop out in Excalibur, and see if I can get a few of them out of the air."
It may seem odd giving ground command to the senior non-com, but BA was the best of us at actual combat. Annabelle used to be the team's Colonel, but was now a two star General, reporting to me. The twins were now the Colonels, and led when tactics were involved, but this didn’t feel tactical. It was a straight up defend a position mission. The team actually didn't stand on rank much. We didn’t even wear rank when we didn’t have to. Whoever had the required skill of the moment, led. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
In the armoury, our combat suits were lined up against one wall, each one in a recharge position, backs open. We stepped inside, backs closed, and one by one, we collected weapons from the wall racks, and stepped out into the cargo bay. Jane's was last, and she shifted the first belt suit on her left arm into a much larger version of her, dressed in fatigue pants and white singlet. The others followed suit. Except George.
George's suit turned into his favourite gorilla look. As the girls started giggling, he roared a challenge at them.
"Seriously George?" said BA, who wasn’t giggling. "You don’t think that is going to look more like food to them than we do?"
I’d never seen a gorilla sigh before, but it did, and shifted into George, wearing the same as the girls, except around his forehead was some sort of white rag, hanging down the left side of his face.
"Team coms is on," said Jane.
Now we were communicating using our PC's instead of combat suit speakers. The rest of the team headed for the droid airlock, where a salvage droid was already in the process of stuffing itself and its grav sled into the airlock. Gunbus wasn’t going down, yet. It would stay high, and feed us the tactical situation as seen from above. We'd used salvage droids and their sleds for transport before, so the team were used to it.
I headed down to the hanger, and clomped my way to Excalibur. After cycling through, I parked the combat suit just inside, stepped back out, and made my way to the cockpit. It had been a while since I’d flown a heavy long range fighter, but the systems were up to date with my preferences, and Jane had already done the pre-flight.
"Hanger doors, please Jane."
"Confirmed."
It was good to hear Jane back in the old familiar ship AI role. I loved her like a sister, as an avatar, but as a ship AI, her character was more, I don’t know, familiar? Military? Matter of fact? Hard to know. It felt for a moment like going back to the beginning again, when all she was, was a ship AI. We'd both come a long way since then.
The hanger doors were finally open, and I dropped Excalibur out. The difference in size of ships immediately became apparent. Gunbus was a Heavy Corvette, the smallest of capital ships. Excalibur was a heavy privateer, the largest of the largest fighter class, built for long distance, and not needing a carrier. But Excalibur was dwarfed by the size of Gunbus.
I goosed the controls to take me around to where the salvage droid was now on the outside of the droid airlock. It was a larger than normal airlock compared to what people normally used, but much smaller than the main airlock on the front of the cargo bay. It was designed to let droids come and go, without affecting the operation of the ship. Both the salvage droids and search and rescue droids used it. Hence it was large enough for the team in their combat suits to go through together.
Jane had taken over control of the droid, and she started to drop the sled towards the ground. I followed, taking up wingman position, in case we were attacked. Gunbus started going up rapidly, making it appear we were dropping very fast. Monitors can be illusory at times, and I turned that one off.
The sled touched down gently, and the team sprinted off to their positions.
Above them, I hovered, getting a feel for what was coming.
We'd never faced anything this big before, and I wondered if we were in fact outmatched.
"They've seen us," said Jane.
Eight
"You mean they've seen me," I responded.
"Us. Oh and Jon?"
"Yes?"
"Try not to kill too many of them."
"Why not?" asked BA.
"I know where we are now."
"Where?" asked Amanda.
"Desert Runner, by Dawn Chapman."
"And why don’t we kill them all?" asked BA.
"Because the people here are co-dependent on them."
"Why?" I asked.
"Something to do with their dung being used for special things."
There was a moment of silence. I mean, how do you follow that statement with something which makes any sense? I took her word for it though. We always did.
The flyers had picked up speed. I lined up on the largest, and pushed the speed slider forward. And pulled it back again half way.
This was going to be interesting. I was flying one of the fastest fighters ever invented, and the dragons were flying at bird speed. True, I was in normal gravity, and space fighters were not really designed for combat in air, but right now, I wasn’t sure my speed and manoeuvring advantage was actually an advantage.
The front guns were grouped up to fire at the same time. The turrets were primed for targets of opportunity, since missile defence wasn’t going to be an issue here.
Until I fired, I’d have no idea what the pulses would do when they hit scales.
A few seconds on a head to head course, about three hundred meters up, and it was crunch time.
I pulled the trigger, and rolled to the left while pulling up, Jane keeping a cam on the pulses.
Fire from the dragon engulfed the pulses, but didn’t seem to do anything to them. They hit dead center under where the neck met the body, and the dragon staggered, dropping about fifty meters, before getting its flap back, and continuing to head for the line of combat suits now spaced out behind me.
"I don’t believe that," said Alison. "A full salvo of heavy guns, and they didn’t get through the scales?"
"Tough son of a bitch," said BA. "Pair up. Jane, give us targets, and a spot to aim at."
"Confirmed."
Fire engulfed the ship, and I changed direction and sped up a little. Never take your eye off the scanner. The next enemy will always take y
ou if you do. But damn it, I was expecting much more from my guns.
I pulled up higher, and noticed one of the rearmost was coming up after me.
I switched to missiles. Jane designated the same spot as the target for the Image Recognitions to aim at, I turned to face the oncoming beast, and pressed the missile launch button five times. Again I pulled up and away, while Jane tracked the missiles.
One after the other, all five hit in the same place. Again, the dragon staggered, lost height, and this time looked to be wounded. Instead of withdrawing, it single-mindedly came on. And it wasn’t alone now. About half the flyers had turned back to come after me.
Figuring this was a good thing, I slowed down to let them catch up, while at the same time, leading them away. But not enough of them were following me. I sent three IR missiles after each one which wasn’t, changed to fire and forget missiles, and launched a dozen. Just to liven things up, and give the dragons something else to think about.
Think. It was a good question actually. Did they think? Were they capable of tactics and strategy? Or were they just animals running on instinct? I wasn’t sure any of those questions were answerable.
Missiles impacted on scales, and now I had all of the flying ones coming after me. If nothing else, they were quick to anger, able to recognise a threat, and quick to respond to one.
I led them away for a little longer, letting the nearer ones jet fire at me, before abruptly flipping the fighter over, rolling, and aiming back at the biggest one.
This time I used torpedoes, and gave the big one six of the best, straight into the fire coming from its mouth. Torpedoes are smaller than missiles, but pack more punch as they are dumb fire, lacking guidance, and making up for it with hitting power. You needed very good aim though, to use them effectively.
All six went straight in the mouth of the dragon, exploding within, and taking out the back of its head. I was pulling up as it died, and was surprised to see a massive tail coming my way as the beast folded over on itself, before falling.
Tail hit shields, sizzled as most of the tail simply vaporized, and suddenly I had no front shields at all. Jane balanced them out almost immediately, but in that vulnerable moment, several other dragons threw something at me which actually hit the hull.
"Some sort of fire ice," said Jane, as I pulled more upwards, and pushed in for a lot more speed.
"Ice?" said BA, before I could.
"How can ice also be fire?" asked George.
"Don't know," said Jane, "but it's solid, and the sensors say it was also sharp."
"Hull damage?" I asked.
"Missing paint."
Nine
"So," said BA. "Fire and some sort of ice, but neither can damage shields or hull. How does that help us?"
"Combat suits should be impervious to both," said Jane.
"On the other hand," continued BA, "their scales may as well be ship hulls, and the mesons may as well be firehoses."
"Not that bad," said Amanda.
"Just need to fire when the mouth is open," added Aleesha.
"And avoid their tails," suggested George.
"We still don’t want to be killing too many of them," said Jane.
"Going to be a bit difficult not to," said Alana. "They don’t look like they scare very easily, and there's only one place to hurt them, and it's likely fatal if we do."
"We need a plan B Jane," I said, now turning to head back at the group still following me, but now well behind.
"On it," she replied, "but it's going to take some doing."
"Going to tell us what?" asked Aline.
"Big surprise. For the moment, we need to give them all pause, and keep them occupied. Targets allocated. Stand ready."
Jane's combat suit hefted both her meson streamers, and pointed them at one of the oncoming walking dragons, which while not actually running, were making a good pace. I had no idea why they were not flying. Although, it possibly had something to do with why they were heading towards where people were going to be. They were hungry. Maybe too hungry to fly? Just guessing.
My shields were not back up yet, but I had enough for another pass through them, as long as I wasn’t hit again.
I should have paid more attention to my own thoughts.
I came back down into the pack, aiming once again at the largest one, but at the last moment I realized it wasn’t going to give me a mouth shot. I fired a dozen torpedoes anyway, at where the neck joined the body. And pulled up to go over it.
WHAM!
Excalibur spun wildly around, and the joystick started fighting me. Up turned into down, and I pushed in more speed, fighting to bring the nose up.
"Left wing is gone Jon," said Jane.
"What happened?"
"They ambushed you. The biggest offered itself as a target, and the next biggest came in on the left side as you fired."
"Fire or ice couldn’t do that."
"No Jon. It rammed us. Half a dragon is falling to the ground, and the one you shot is losing altitude as it heads away."
I managed to pull the nose up and away from the rest of them, and started heading up towards Gunbus. Jane brought her down, and around ten thousand meters up, I let Jane dock us.
I sat there for a moment.
"Excalibur two, Dragons one," offered Jane.
So much for space fighter verses dragons. I pride myself on being a great space pilot, but I was definitely out of my league when it came to fighting in an atmosphere against something slow and ponderous, but bigger than I was. Mind you, I’d never done it before. I'd fought in an atmosphere, but against smaller fighters with similar manoeuvrability. I was also outnumbered badly, and let's be honest, probably more than a little arrogant.
I rose, and headed back.
"I'll need a salvage droid, unless you're ready for your surprise?"
"Not ready, and confirmed."
I stepped back into my combat suit, cycled through the airlock into the hangar deck, and went to the nearest airlock. Once through, I stepped out onto the sled waiting for me, and the salvage droid dropped down through the still open hanger doors. The doors closed above me as we dropped.
I brought up a hollo showing what was happening below me, and saw the team were already firing on the nearest dragons on the ground. And were not slowing them down at all.
"BA? Report."
"Mesons appear to be tickling them boss."
"Doesn’t surprise me. Have you tried crossing the streams?"
"Huh?"
Amanda of course.
"All fire at the same one at the same time."
"Seriously Jon?" said Jane, who obviously knew the reference, where the others didn’t.
"We're spread out too much for that," added BA.
"Try anyway, I'm on my way down."
Feed came in from Jane, who was the middle of the line. The front dragon was suddenly hit by all the mesons at the same time. The streams continued, but as it shook its head, half of them didn’t move with it, and slammed into the body behind instead. It stopped, reared up, shaking its head, and the mesons died one by one as they all lost the head.
The rest of the dragons stopped as well, one by one as they reached the first one, and together they bunched up into a very close group. The ones in the air were heading back, but still a long way off. At least I’d been able to draw them far enough away so they wouldn't be a distraction now.
"I think we pissed them off," said George.
"You think?" said Aline.
"Now what?" asked Alana. "I really wish we had some mines about now."
Alana was our demolitions expert. It figured she was thinking about how to blow them up. The pity was, Gunbus didn’t carry capital ship missiles, which were what we needed. Her role was anti-fighter, and if she went up against anything bigger, I used torpedoes instead.
But maybe we didn’t need to use explosive mines, or heavy missiles.
"Going to try something," I said. "Covering fire please. Jane, put me ove
r the middle of the group, about fifty meters up."
"Confirmed."
The team began firing on the same dragon again, but I think George was right. They were only pissing it off, as the whole group began moving forward again, all belching fire and ice fire. BA started giving instructions again, and the team began to bunch up, covering just the width of the new group. As they moved, the streams became tighter.
The sled stopped right above the middle dragon.
"How about we salvage some dragon Jane."
There was actually a pause. Jane pausing meant some serious thinking was going on.
"Confirmed. Better hang on, as well as a maglock on the sled."
I quickly turned on the magnetic aspect to the combat suit boots, and grasped the rail behind the actual droid. Normally this wasn’t there when they went out to salvage debris or ships, but when we used them for team movements, Jane always added the rail, just in case. People do like to hold onto something, after all.
From where I was standing, nothing changed. But suddenly all of the dragons were pulled off the ground, as gravity reversed itself towards the sled. Several tried to fly off, but Jane had obviously calculated how many gees were needed to grab the whole group, and within a minute, they were all piled up under the sled.
Heads had managed to turn just enough on the way up, and fire and ice fire washed over me. The suit handled it, and I didn’t bother moving.
"Where to?" asked Jane.
"Back where they came from?"
"Confirmed."
The droid started off towards the badlands in the distance, and while not moving all that fast, we were quickly out of range of the team's guns. It occurred to me we'd never used a gravity sled like this before. Granted, I’d used one to drag dirt away from buried team members once, but that had been a desperate move, and certainly not one to make a habit of doing, given how dangerous it was. Just the memory of it made me shiver still. I’d completely trashed a medium fighter in the process, but had saved everyone. This wasn’t as dangerous, but as stunts go, it was right up there with my best ones.
Crossover: It's a Jon Hunter thing. Page 3