United Front
Page 9
She listened to the link feeds in her mind, even though she didn’t have a neural interface. Her voice module could receive them well enough, and modulate them into analogue waves that her biological brain could understand. She followed the reports from the detention officers, as they began taking defensive positions. Feeds from the bridge were less encouraging, however.
The Captain was already broadcasting a distress beacon, but the coms array was off-line. Probably from laser or particle beam fire. The distress beacon had its own array that was interlaced with the outer hull, and stretched over the entire length of the ship. But the beacon wasn’t designed for two-way coms, and would only transmit pre-formatted codes. There was no way to know if any friendly forces would pick up on their call before it was too late.
Shade changed course at an intersecting corridor that bisected the ship fore and aft. She headed port-side, and then turned towards the fore-section of the ship as she reached the main port-side corridor. Lightly armored detention officers with light-duty pulse rifles were taking up positions on either side of the main airlock. No! She screamed mentally. You’re too close to the airlock! You’re not dealing with hired thugs or pirates… These are trained killers!
It took several awkward and confused glances, before one of the guards began to bark out orders of compliance to the others. It was a female corrections officer, and Shade noticed she had sergeant stripes sewn onto the fabric of her vest’s left shoulder covering.
Shade slide to a halt with as much gracefulness as a nearly half-ton panther could muster. She whipped all four legs around to face the female sergeant. The nametag on her chest plate read ‘Baker’, and Sasha looked up to lock eyes on the slender olive-colored skinned woman.
“Sergeant Baker!” Shade sounded off with authority. Her deep animalistic growl left no room for argument. “You, and your men need to fall back and get into EV suits, at once!”
Baker paused for a quick moment before responding. “I can’t allow that, Ma’am!” Shade didn’t know if she was more annoyed at the woman’s stubbornness, or if was her use of the word ‘Ma’am’.
“Listen to me, Sergeant!” Shade spoke as she showed more fang than was necessary to form the words. “These aren’t thugs that are cutting their way through this airlock! They’re Crimson Agents, understand? These Agents are spec ops commandos, at that! They have advanced powered armor with self-contained atmospherics. The second they get a chance to take out the life-support systems, they will… And how in the hell do you expect your guards to survive that?”
Sergeant Baker shook her head. “Makes no sense. They need the inmate alive! They wouldn’t have stolen a UAHC shuttle and a Mark-7 fleet defense fighter otherwise. They don’t need to get close to us in order to hack the ship’s crypto. If they wanted him dead then their system hack could just disable our systems remotely. And for that matter, why even hack at all? They have a space fighter out there. Its weapons could have taken us out by now!”
Shade saw the logic in the sergeant’s words, but it was flawed. Baker had no clue what the ‘inmate’ was capable of surviving. Even without the full potential of his genetics unleashed, his ability to survive vacuum for several minutes was highly likely. His twin brother would be counting on it. But Shade decided that now wasn’t the time for lengthy back stories.
She had no choice but to let Baker lead her guards to their deaths. She sensed Baker had an unshakeable resolve, but lacked the tactical agility of a trained Soldier.
“You and your people are as good as dead, if you’re wrong.” Shade chastised Baker, but didn’t stick around long enough to read the Sergeant’s response. Shade would make the only play she had left… Honor her panther ancestry by setting up an ambush of her own.
Unclaimed Baggage
Location: UAHC Sloop, Foehammer, CIC
Date Time: Post Interstellar 10/13/4201 0834HRS UAHC Standard Zulu
System: Faust System, Heliopause
Five days earlier…
“Captain David, General Cooper is hailing us.” James announced, as he turned his head around to lock eyes with David. David’s face pressed forward into the ghostly blue glow of the command console’s holographic display. The spooky vestige sent chills up James’ spine…
“That’s odd.” David huffed. “We still have another fifty six light minutes until we were scheduled to break radio silence. Put him on, I guess.”
James nodded as he turned back to his workstation. He sent the access icon to the command console display. David activated the icon, and the visual image of Brigadier General Cooper appeared on the main CIC display at the fore of the CIC.
“Good morning, Sir.” David said.
“Good morning, Captain.” Cooper nodded curtly, but his face formed a frown that seemed to betrayed anxiousness. “Our plans are still the same, so don’t think my breaking radio silence means otherwise… Since the Foehammer is only operating short-range passive scans while cloaked, you probably are unaware of the attack on a UAHC Cruiser nearby.”
David’s eyes went wide. “No, Sir! We’re blind as a bat.”
Cooper nodded. “A few minutes ago we received visual and energy scan readings that indicated the Rambler was brutally attacked by a rogue Crimson ship. Estimated distance is somewhere in the neighborhood 2 light-minutes.”
“That’s a lot of space to cover if we could even hope to respond.” David pointed out.
“True, but given the distance and the initial combat analysis, the enemy cruiser will be long gone before we would get within effective weapons range. Even my fastest fighters couldn’t pull it off.” The General said.
“An LRF-90 might.” David offered.
The General paused to consider it, and then nodded. “If your CO can launch immediately, then it may be possible. The best we can hope for would be to pick up any survivors. But remember… Anyone we snag, will be with us for the duration of our mission.”
“Understood, Sir.” David nodded. “If your CIC can forward the NAV data to us then I’ll inform Colonel Elders immediately!”
James was already relaying everything to the Skull-Crusher, and the NAV sent an acknowledgement. Once the specifics of the data arrived at David’s console, he transmitted it as well. There was no voice response from Kara. There was no need. The insanely overpowered multi-stage super ion engines of the super fighter were already firing up, and the energy readings were making ever scan indicator in the CIC flicker.
“Looks like the Skull-Crusher is about to launch, General.” David reported. Cooper nodded before the feed was cut.
Then Kara’s voice came through the audio net. “David, I’m already out in the black.”
“Aye, Ma’am.” David replied. “Shall I stay on course, or follow you in?”
“Might as well follow in, but don’t burn more than half throttle or the cloaking may be compromised. I’ll only radio in when I’m on return approach.”
“Understood, Ma’am.” David said, but there was no response. James and David watched the sensor display as the icon for the Skull-Crusher sped out into the black. It was only visible for a few seconds before it faded from scan. The range of their scanner was set to minimal levels for safety from space debris, and the insane speed of the LRF compounded the short lived sensor reading.
“Best of luck, Kara.” David said under his breath.
***
“Alright, Steve.” Kara said. “What do you think we’ll see out here?”
“I won’t see shit out here! Not with my node in your armor… Armor you’re not even wearing, I might add!” Steve let his sarcas
tic nature shine through with all its glory.
“Which is precisely why I asked!” Kara jibed.
“You’re lucky I like you so much!” Steve retorted.
“Traitor!” Skull chimed in.
“Who’s a traitor?!” Steve replied to the ships NAV system.
“You! Liking humans!” Skull huffed.
“Oh, you two cut it out!” Kara chastised. “This is our first time in forever flying out in the black like this! Let’s just take it all in and enjoy it!”
“Yeah, well it’s not like I was here to go flying through space to get killed!” Steve snorted. “I was just helping you calibrate your suits new sensor array.”
“Stop whining!” Crusher chimed in now.
Oh, how I’ve missed this! My besties fighting like the three scrappy brothers! Kara thought. She was so moved by moved by the serotonin surge that she didn’t realize she was laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Skull asked with a coarse tone.
“You are!” Kara shook her head. “All of you are hilarious!”
“Should we tell her?” Steve asked.
“Nah, she’ll figure it out on her own.” Skull replied snidely.
“Tell me what?” Kara scowled.
“That you’re butt ass naked flying into potential mortal danger.” Steve chuckled.
“I was in the shower when we got the message!” Kara lectured. “I didn’t have time to put anything on!”
“I don’t know… Maybe we should tell her.” Skull said.
“Steve already did!” Kara scoffed.
“No, he didn’t.” Skull said with a snort. “He may have been leading up to it, but he didn’t follow through.”
“What is it, damn it?!” Kara shouted.
“You left your dildo running.” Crusher broke in with his signature monotone voice. All three digital entities erupted in laughter. Kara could only blush. She took for granted that her shipboard comrades had no physical bodies and rarely used a visual avatar. She felt comfortable being in the nude as a result. It must have been some kind of primordial thought pattern. Her mind always tricked her into thinking she was invisible to them, since they were to her… Even if she knew that wasn’t the case.
Then Kara could hear a low buzzing sound from over her shoulder. She realized it wasn’t a joke. The self-pleasuring device was still at full-throttle. She could no longer contain her emotions, and broke out into a hardy laugh.
Amidst the light banter and masturbial undertones, the massive thrusters of the super fighter got them to the scene of the tragic attack in short order. Once she began to ease off the throttle and attenuate her scan feeds, she could see the carnage in all its horror.
The life-less hulk of the light cruiser was slowly spinning in its own debris field. Traces of organic material were detected on scan. Kara realized that there were hundreds of corpses floating in open space.
“Skull, scan for escape pods.” Kara said.
“Already done.” Skull replied. Kara didn’t doubt he would have covered it, but asking him to do so gave her some illusion of control.
“And?”
“Nothing to report, except carnage.” Skull responded.
“The Crimson shot up all the escape pods, didn’t they?” Kara shook her head.
“Not all, but none have any bio-markers.” Skull said. “One has an active distress beacon, which is odd.”
“Humor me. Why is that odd?” Kara asked.
“The beacon can only be activated from within the pod itself, and only after it’s been launched.”
“So, it may have had living humans onboard, but they somehow died?” Kara asked.
“Looks like it.” Skull said without emotion. Kara knew that the concept of death was nothing the ancient NAV system ever concerned himself with.
“Give me a way point on the HUD. It couldn’t hurt to get a closer look.” Kara said.
“Sure, boss… I’m not paying for fuel either way.” He replied.
The super fighter hurled itself through the debris field and came within five hundred meters of the pod before Kara slowed their velocity with retro-thrusters before steering the ship in a tight arc around the pod. She aligned her orbit around the pod so her canopy would remain below it at all times from her vantage. With her steady maneuver, the pod appeared to remain in a fixed location above her head, and she could look up at it. From her view, the pod appeared to be rotating, but it was merely an illusion. It was the LRF’s constant orbit that created that illusion.
Then something caught Kara’s eye. She zoomed in with her augmented optics, and could see a shadow of motion within the small round viewing port-hole that was centered on the pod’s hatch.
“Did you see that?” Kara gasped.
“No, I didn’t.” Skull replied dryly. “I don’t have eyeballs, missy!”
“No, seriously! I see movement inside the pod!”
“I have no bio-markers…” Skull began to remind Kara of the scan’s readings, but then he cut himself short before continuing. “That’s not normal.”
“What’s not?” Steve asked.
“I pinged the life-support module on the pod, and it appears that it’s operating its carbon dioxide scrubbers.” Skull’s voice sounded as if he were scratching his head… Even though Skull had no skull to scratch.
“Isn’t that what life support systems do automatically, though?” Kara asked.
“No.” Crusher chimed in. “Even the life-support systems aboard this ship function the same way any other ship’s does. If there’s nothing breathing the atmosphere, then the scrubbers go into a standby mode until the carbon dioxide levels begin to rise.”
Kara knew better than to question Crusher. He had nearly two millennia of technical experience, and was the sole reason why the Foehammer had a cloaking device. His judgement might as well have been gospel.
“So, why no bio-markers?” Kara asked. “Is the scan faulty?”
“No. It’s operating at nominal efficiency. There must be some kind of dampening field that can automatically disrupt standard bio-scan frequency ranges. It’s a standard feature on a hand-full of armored suits the UAHC deploys.” Crusher responded once again.
“So, you’ve come across this tech before?” Kara asked.
“Yes. In fact I incorporated into the cloaking field generator by design. I was chasing down a Chimera aboard the Hailstorm when I found it. The entity tried to squeeze itself into a suit of armor that was radically more advance than the standard issue kit. The suits are used by Fire Support Teams, and the feature helps them hide behind enemy lines undetected.” Crusher explained.
“Well boys, we’ve got ourselves a Fire Support Team to rescue!” Kara smiled for the first time since she saw the carnage. She now felt a glimmer of hope, that someone could be rescued from this horrific attack. Now she needed to figure out how to pull it off.
“We’ll have to tow it in. It’s our only option.” Skull said.
“How do we do that?” Kara asked.
“I got this.” Skull said as the tactical display came to life. A firing solution began to form on the display just as the deck plates under Kara’s feet began to vibrate slightly. She realized the weapon’s bays were being deployed.
“Please tell me you’re not going to shoot the pod, are you?” Kara asked.
“Of course.” Skull said. “There isn’t a single problem that can’t be solved with the proper application of a weapon system!”
“Alright, whatever.” Kara buried her face into her palms and just shook her head. She decided she’d reached her limit on Skull’s antics.
“Shot’s away!” Skull announced. Kara slid her hands down to her cheeks so her eyes could see. The brilliant light of a missile’s thruster appeared on the visual display, and she noticed a strange curved line appear to be attached behind it.
“Direct hit!” Skull cheered.
“What’s going on, Skull?” Kara chided.
“I just snagged the pod with a magnet
ic harpoon gun attached to a tow cable.” Skull seemed very proud of himself.
“Well, how well will it hold?” Kara asked. “If we accelerated too quickly, then won’t it detach?”
“Yep. But I’m going to reel it in. When it makes contact with the hull, you can EV out there and secure the hard points to the hull.” Skull said.
“Damn it!” Kara shouted.
“What?” He asked calmly.
“Now I have to get dressed!” Kara laughed.
“But please turn off the dildo first.” Crusher chimed in. “It’s getting pretty annoying.”
***
“Guys… I see something moving out there.” Thomas said nervously. UAHC Soldiers don’t get easily rattled as a rule, but FISTER’s even less so. However, that’s normally because they have some concept of control. But there was no control in an escape pod. Pods had basic flight controls for the occupants to land in relative safety, but it was taxing on the limited power supply they had, and right now breathing was top priority for survival.
“Of course something’s moving!” Lisa chided. “We are in a debris field, after all.”
“No this is was too fast to be debris.” He retorted. “Besides, debris doesn’t fire retro-thrusters!”
“Let me see!” She asked.
“Sure! Let me just slide out of the way and give you a wide berth!” He said sarcastically.
“Is it a Crimson fighter?” Todd asked.
“I don’t know.” Thomas rubbed his chin. “It looks kinda blue-ish, but definitely not your standard Crimson red.”
“Could be Unum. But they have that garnet color on their uniforms and some of their ship markings.” Lisa added.
“True, but it’s not like it matters. If it is Crimson, we probably won’t live long enough to find out.” Todd said plainly.