by T J Mott
Shaking her head, she returned her attention to her objective and briefly brought the main thrusters to full-throttle. Ghost 1 blasted forward towards the railgun as the thrusters’ power level climbed, then, switching to braking thrusters, she brought it to a relative stop only a few hundred meters away from the gun. Fortunately, it was not even close to pointing in her direction. “Open fire!” she commanded intensely, burning with rage at the loss of another gunship. “I want that gun destroyed right fucking now!”
“Ghost 1, Lynx. Commander, we’ve identified the newcomers. It’s the rest of the Avennian fleet. They brought in one more destroyer-class vessel, two frigates, and the rest are patrol boats. They’re grouping up with the Avennian starships that were already here.” Laraby paused, and Poulsen looked again at Ghost 4’s crash site, tearing her eyes away from the scene with great difficulty. “Poulsen, we’re outgunned. Orders?”
“Laraby, you deal with it!” she barked. “I’m too busy down here!”
Her gunners opened up again, spitting streams of laser fire into the railgun’s barrel assembly. It began to swivel around towards Ghost 1 as its operators realized the new threat, but Poulsen merely fired her maneuvering thrusters and rotated around the gun faster than it could swivel. She was too close and too fast for it to track her. “Extend radiators!” she ordered. “I want lasers firing at max duty cycle until that gun is gone!”
And then Ghost 2 appeared next to her, having also closed the remaining distance while the gun was occupied with Ghost 4. The two gunships concentrated their fire, stabbing laser beam after laser beam into the side of the barrel assembly.
“Ghost 1, the enemy fleet is moving to engage us. The patrol boats are vectoring towards a planetary re-entry, you’re going to have company soon!”
Gritting her teeth, she ignored the update. In front of her, the railgun operators realized they couldn’t track the two gunships and the gun swiveled to find Ghost 5, which was still a kilometer out and advancing slowly for some reason. She watched the railgun make a number of minor movements, no doubt manual adjustments as the gunners aimed the system visually through whatever boresight camera it had. Her three remaining gunships were still blasting broad-spectrum jamming signals at it, keeping its computers from using sensor data to maintain an automatic lock.
The railgun fired, and it happened so quickly Poulsen almost missed it. The barrel assembly, its metal rails weakened by the intense heat from Ghost Squadron’s laser barrage, failed. The two hardened metal rails that guided the both the slug and the weapon’s electric currents had softened and could no longer hold up to the intense magnetic fields they had to contain. The top rail instantly bent into a U-shape as it briefly fought against its mounts, which then failed catastrophically, freeing the rail to launch straight into the sky at a terrifying velocity. It climbed several kilometers into the air in just the blink of an eye and then it was out of sight.
The bottom rail did likewise, except it was propelled directly into the building that contained the emplacement. The building exploded in a cloud of dust and fire and lightning.
But the slug still fired, soon emerging from the fireball that engulfed the weapon emplacement, but it was nowhere near full power, taking almost a full second to cross the distance and strike Ghost 5. But it did strike, and in the distance Poulsen saw the gunship suddenly go into a flatspin as the slug stuck into its armor off-axis. Its maneuvering thrusters lit up to compensate, and it remained airborne as it counteracted the flatspin and stabilized itself.
“Railgun’s gone, launch the Marines!” she ordered.
***
On the ground, Thaddeus was marching at the front of a Rebel formation. Behind him were three full platoons of fighters he’d scrounged up at the Foundation Headquarters. But the chain of command was a mess. He had no idea where Chet Savoy was, and the news of his true identity spread so quickly that his subordinates in the new formation seemed quite hesitant to cooperate with him. He’d alleviated that somewhat by leading from the front and putting himself in danger as the group fought their way through the streets of Orent, approaching the planet’s main administrative centers in hopes of ending the war.
At least he had two hands for this battle, he thought as he leaned around an apartment corner and fired his laser carbine at the Avennian Army soldiers who were trying to slow down his advance. More Rebel lasers joined his as his men followed his lead, shooting at whatever Thad shot at. Several enemy soldiers fell, and the remainder of the patrol began a hasty retreat.
“Keep pushing!” Thad shouted, blinking reflexively as the massive railgun fired again. He was two klicks away from it, generally moving towards the Capitol building and hoping his Marine reinforcements would arrive before he got there, and at this range the railgun’s blast threatened to concuss him every time it fired.
Something huge flew overhead and he reflexively ducked before he even knew what was happening. Looking up, he saw a Lancer-class gunship, out-of-control at low altitude and showering dust and sparks and flames and large chunks of debris everywhere. It flew in at a low angle and plowed into the side of a three-story apartment complex about a hundred yards away, obliterating the lightweight concrete-polymer structure and continuing onwards, barely slowing down, kicking up an incredible cloud of dust as it crashed through building after building. He heard the cacophony as it continued to plow through the cityscape, and right as the sounds died down, a massive wave of dust billowed out from the wreck and overtook Thad and his fighters.
He dropped his carbine, letting it hang from its sling, and held up a hand to shield his eyes from the dust. Grabbing his collar and holding it over his mouth as a filter, he still went into a coughing fit as the thick dust overwhelmed him.
Recovering somewhat, he stood to his feet and looked around. He was surrounded by coughing Rebels, and visibility was reduced to only twenty meters or so. The air tasted like concrete powder and molten plastic.
Then he heard another explosion, but he had no idea where. He blinked his eyes rapidly, trying to clear out some dust, when he heard Commander Poulsen’s voice in his comm earpiece which he’d mostly been ignoring while marching through the city. “Railgun’s gone, launch the Marines!”
“We can’t do that!” someone replied. “The Avennian fleet is bearing down on us, the Marine transports won’t survive!”
“Ghost 1, this is Ghost 4.”
“Ghost 4, status!” Poulsen cut in excitedly.
“We’re down,” said a confused-sounding voice. A pause. “Upside down.”
A light breeze blew and the dust seemed to clear up just a little bit. Thad looked down the street and could just barely make out the furrow where the gunship had begun its crash landing. He tapped his headset and unmuted his transmitter. “This is Marcell, we’ll check the survivors. They crashed almost on top of us.”
“Copy, thanks Admiral.”
He muted his transmitter and gestured at the nearby Rebels before pointing towards the destroyed buildings. “Starship down, it’s one of mine and it has survivors. Move!”
He picked up the pace and began to jog. The dust gave them plenty of cover and any nearby Avennians were certainly as disoriented by the crash as he was. Behind him, the Rebels hesitated and he instantly knew what they were thinking: could they really offer assistance to one of Thaddeus Marcell’s starships? But after a few seconds, they made up their minds and followed him into the wreckage.
The first building—a three-story apartment unit which had likely housed Avennians, given its proximity to the government centers—was completely demolished, and as they moved around it, Thad smelled blood and death drifting out of the rubble. He gulped. When starships engaged each other in atmosphere near population centers, the collateral damage could be devastating. And as they moved through the dust cloud, following the deep furrow plowed up by the crashed starship, they jogged past building after building that was completely reduced to dusty piles of debris, and he wondered how many civilians had just d
ied here.
Advancing, Thad saw more and more starship wreckage among the rubble. A thruster coil here, an armor plate there, a few sections of coolant piping or conduits, and he even saw what was once the reaction chamber from the gunship’s fusion reactor. The spherical assembly was about three meters wide, but no longer spherical, instead smashed and deformed and even torn in places. It had rolled sideways out of the furrow and buried itself into the walls of another building which otherwise seemed intact.
Multiple times, he saw bodies, and body parts. And twice, he saw body parts clad in scraps of the Blue Fleet uniform.
After three hundred meters, they reached the wreck’s final resting place. It consisted of the gunship’s entire front half, scorched, smashed, and twisted, but it was still in one piece, resting upside-down with its bow pressed a dozen meters into another building which now seemed moments away from collapse.
The ship’s aft sections were completely gone, scattered across the destroyed cityscape behind Thad. He gritted his teeth. A crash like this would be quite survivable if the crew had artificial gravity to stabilize them, but the gravity generator and fusion reactor would have been in the now-missing engineering compartments. What would he find inside?
The air stank of dust, concrete, melted plastic, and starship coolant, and Thaddeus wished he had a filter mask. But he didn’t. Reaching the back of the ship wreckage, he climbed up into it, finding himself standing on the ceiling of the gunship’s central corridor. It was narrow and short, the walls lined with hatches into its crew cabins and galley and head, and straight ahead was the entryway into the bridge.
He turned around, facing out from the wreckage, and shouted to the Rebel troops who followed him. “Medics!” he called out. Six people carrying medic backpacks left the crowd and climbed up with him.
He swiftly moved towards the bridge. Inside were five dazed and injured Blue Fleet officers, and above, the majority of the bridge consoles were either completely dark or flashing a million warning lights. The room was eerily quiet.
One of the officers knelt near the bulkhead, wielding a pocket comm. He had a gash somewhere on his scalp, hidden by his hair, but his head was covered in drying blood. He slowly and painfully stood to his feet. “Lieutenant Sinder, captain of Ghost 4,” he introduced himself as he tried to straighten to attention.
“Whoa, take it easy, Lieutenant,” Thad replied. “Sit down and let the medics look at you.”
Sinder was clearly dazed. After a second, he nodded slowly and then shakily lowered himself back to the deck—actually, the ceiling, since the wreckage was upside-down. “Lost all power and maneuvering,” Sinder said hoarsely. “And gravity. Really got tossed around.”
The Rebel medics began checking on everyone and Thad took a moment to key in his comm. “Poulsen, Marcell. We’ve found the gunship survivors.” Then he snatched the comm unit from Sinder’s hand, passing it to one of the medics. “You’re in charge here. Coordinate with Headquarters to get the injured moved out as necessary. I’ll leave a squad here to support you, the rest of us are moving on.”
The medic nodded and Thad left the wreckage in short order, leading his group of Rebel fighters generally towards the Capitol building. Once his starships achieved air superiority and he got his Marine reinforcements, all he had to do was storm Ailon’s government centers and force the Avennians to surrender.
***
Poulsen checked her displays and saw that a formation of Avennian patrol boats were well into re-entry above Orent now. They’d be upon her flight within minutes, and she was down to three gunships now.
“Flight 1, move to engage!” she ordered. “Try to lead them away from the city, I don’t want any more destruction from crashed starships!” She pulled back on the sidestick and gently pushed the throttle forward, putting Ghost 1 into a climb for altitude while speeding towards the city’s edges. Ghost 2 and 5 soon formed up on her, and she looked ahead to see four small patrol boats cruising towards her at several times the speed of sound. Then she tapped a button on her controls, and outside, motorized armor panels moved into place to cover the bridge windows. The armored shutters would have been useless against the railgun, but now that she was about to engage starships, they were needed to protect the crew from any laser strikes. Now she was flying solely on instruments.
Her gunships and the enemy patrol boats were lined up to pass at each other. It would be a fair match, she realized. The patrol boats were similar in size to her gunships, but far cheaper, with less weapons and less armor. And her gunships had all sustained damage.
Both sides began firing off some long-range laser attacks. The beams were attenuated by the air, scorching some armor on both sides but not doing much real damage. She tapped her throttle forward a bit more, eager to close the distance and end this engagement as quickly as possible.
“Poulsen, Marcell. We’ve found the gunship survivors.”
She smiled momentarily. Unlike Ghost 3, at least 4 hadn’t lost all hands.
Their range was down to fifty klicks and the exchange of laser fire was burning off more and more armor. “Dammit, Poulsen!” Laraby barked over the comm. “Either give us orders or I need to retreat!”
She checked her displays and instruments, and then growled. The Lynx and Ghost Squadron’s Flight 2 were burning away from the Avennian fleet, and away from Ailon.
She heard something thud outside. “Taking damage!” exclaimed Exira. “Poulsen, that was the number two portside maneuvering thruster!”
“Keep returning fire!” she barked. “All units, link your firing systems together. Focus fire, same target, same subsystem. Take them out!”
Captain Laraby cut into the comm again. “Poulsen, we’re outnumbered up here!”
“I know that!” She slammed a fist into her console. “Marcell, are you still on channel?”
“Yeah, go ahead, Poulsen.”
“Give Laraby some guidance or something! I’m too busy!”
“I’m too busy too!” Marcell spat back. “I have no sensors or tac display or anything, I can’t even see what’s happening up there!” A pause, followed by the sounds of small-arms fire. “And we just ran into another Army unit!”
Briefly closing her eyes, Poulsen bit her lip to keep from shouting out in anger again. She was piloting a starship! How the hell did anyone expect her to keep track of her own squadron, and the enemy squadron, and issue orders, all while tracking her location in an atmosphere and keeping the skirmish away from the city? It was too much to do at once.
An alarm on her display began flashing. Glancing down at it, she saw that the number two portside maneuvering thruster had failed completely and gone offline. The computer compensated by altering the firing patterns of the other thrusters to keep her gunship under control, but the loss was a serious blow to the Lancer’s maneuvering capabilities.
She suddenly sighed. Old bastard was right, she realized, remembering her conversations with Commodore Reynolds shortly after acquiring her gunships. I can’t command from the pilot’s seat. She let go of the flight controls and hesitated for a few more seconds, not wanting it to be true. “Clauncy, I’m transferring piloting control to you,” she said quietly before standing and relocating to the captain’s chair in the middle of the bridge.
Its displays were much better suited to viewing the overall tactical situation. In the atmosphere, her three gunships were about to go head-to-head against four Avennian patrol boats. And up above, about half a light-second away, the Lynx and the other five Ghost Squadron gunships were flying away from Ailon, paced exactly by the Avennian fleet.
And now, without the distractions of piloting, she saw exactly what needed to be done. “Flight 1, maintain our vector and concentrate all fire on this patrol boat.” She tapped on the display, targeting one of the enemy ships ahead of them for her gunners. “Once we’re past, throttle up and make for space. Rejoin the rest of the squadron.”
Clauncy swiveled back in his chair for a short moment, flashing
an uncertain face at Poulsen. “If we leave, the Rebels on the ground won’t have any air cover anymore!” he said before turning back to the piloting controls. “Those patrol boats will tear them to pieces!”
She ignored his statement and continued watching her tactical map. The two groups were closing rapidly. Poulsen’s gunships concentrated their fire, and suddenly the Avennian patrol boat began smoking and lost control. Its thrusters went dark, leaving it on a high-speed ballistic course that would soon crash it into Ailon’s surface.
And then her trio of gunships shot past the remaining patrol boats and angled up to the sky. The reactor’s roar increased in pitch as Clauncy pushed the thrusters harder, and Poulsen watched her display expectantly, hoping she’d read the enemy correctly and made the right decision.
***
Thaddeus reached the back door of another apartment in the Avennian government sector and burned it open with his laser carbine. The weapon chirped a warning at him; its power pack was depleted. Cursing, he yanked it out and chucked it to the side, quickly loading his last pack. Almost as an afterthought, he turned the weapon down to its half-power setting. It could still maim, and a well-placed shot would still be lethal, and in theory he’d get more shots out of it.
He and several squads of Rebels burst into the building’s hallways. Inside, many of the apartment doors were open, and a number of frightened Avennian families were scattered about. “Everyone get out!” he bellowed at the top of his lungs. “Evacuate the building! NOW!”
Minutes later, he and his men had taken up defensive positions on the ground floor, exchanging laser fire through the windows with the Avennian Army soldiers outside. His comm chimed and Culper’s voice blasted from his earpiece. “Marcell, Culper. The enemy is withdrawing troops around the city to reinforce the government centers and the garrison. They know you’re there and your sector is going to get really busy!”