by Ryk Brown
“Comm-drone has jumped!” Ensign Weston reported earnestly. A warning beep sounded, and the ensign glanced at the tactical display. “They’re back on us! Time to do some of that pilot shit!”
“Hang on!” the lieutenant replied, rolling into his next wild maneuver.
“One minute to Buster!” Jenna called over comms. “Don’t break until the last second!”
“If those missiles come early…” Delan started to say.
“They won’t,” Jenna interrupted as she rolled into a turn and pressed her jump button.
A pair of octos appeared, turning toward her to attack. Jenna pitched her fighter down slightly, dialed in a new jump distance, and then jumped again, coming out behind and slightly below the Dusahn fighters. She killed her throttles and pulled her flight control stick back hard, flipping her ship over and putting her nose toward the pair of octos which were now peeling off in opposite directions. “Light them up, Delan,” she instructed.
“Firing rockets,” Delan replied from the back seat.
A flurry of yellow flashes appeared on the right side of the Gunyoki fighter as the engines of multiple rockets fired, sending the weapons streaking out of their pod. The rockets’ own guidance systems immediately kicked in, and they steered toward the fleeing octos; half of them to the left, and half to the right. Two seconds later, as the rockets closed in on their targets, the Dusahn fighters jumped away, escaping destruction at the last moment.
“Damn it!” Delan exclaimed, realizing the octos had escaped unharmed.
Jenna adjusted her flight control stick, applying counterthrust to end her reverse-pitch maneuver, settling her nose forward again as she continued to advance toward the now unprotected Dusahn destroyer in orbit above Takara. A flip of her weapons select switch, and Jenna pressed her firing trigger, sending bolts of plasma from the massive cannons on the front of her port and starboard engine nacelles.
“What are you doing, Jenna?” Delan asked, both surprised and concerned.
Red-orange bolts of plasma energy leapt out at them from the destroyer’s point-defenses, slamming into the Gunyoki fighter’s shields, lighting them up and rocking the heavily armored vessel.
“If we don’t attack, they might realize they’re about to be hit with a missile strike and jump away!”
“We don’t even know if they can jump!” Delan reminded her.
“We don’t know they can’t!” Jenna argued. “It’s our job to sell this!” she added as she rolled her fighter with wild abandon, cannons blazing.
“We can’t make a dent in that destroyer’s armor by ourselves!” Delan insisted, hoping to convince his headstrong pilot of the folly of her plan.
“You’re right!” Jenna agreed, pressing the transmit button. “All Tekkas! Attack until Buster! Attack until Buster!”
“One minute to max delay,” Ledge warned from the Orochi’s tactical station.
Aiden glanced at the mission clock, growing impatient with each passing second. The longer they went without a targeting data update, the lower the chance their missiles would find their target. “Anything?” he asked, looking at his sensor officer.
“Nothing,” Ali replied.
“I’ll need ten seconds to update the missile targeting data based on the original target track,” Ledge reminded her.
“Update at the twenty second…”
“Contact!” Ali interrupted. “Jump comm-drone!”
“Incoming transmission,” the communications officer added. “Signal Buster. Transferring track updates to tactical.”
“Recalculating,” Ledge followed.
Aiden glanced at the mission clock. They were fifteen seconds from the point that their missiles would jump automatically, using the original targeting data if not updated.
“Transmitting updates,” Ledge added.
“Jump the missiles when ready, Ledge,” Aiden instructed.
“Missiles have received the updates and have confirmed,” his tactical officer replied. “Jumping all missiles!”
Aiden glanced at the mission clock again. The missiles had jumped four seconds prior to their maximum jump delay point.
Jenna swung her Gunyoki fighter into a spiraling turn to port, choosing to stay in the engagement area in the hopes of drawing in as many Dusahn octo-fighters as possible. “How much time?”
“Fifteen seconds,” Delan replied before the last word came out of his pilot’s mouth.
Jenna rolled out of her turn, pitching down just enough to ensure she had a clear jump line under the destroyer, then fired her main plasma cannons one last time for good measure. As she fired, four Dusahn octos jumped in just ahead, diving down next to the destroyer and paralleling its course in an obvious attempt to intercept Jenna. The first two octos turned outward from the crippled destroyer, opening fire on the Gunyoki and lighting up her shields.
“Six more just jumped in on the destroyer’s port side!” another Gunyoki pilot announced over comms.
“Five seconds!” Delan warned, practically pleading.
“Buster, Buster, Buster!” Jenna instructed over comms as she moved her finger off the firing trigger and over to the jump button on her flight control stick. “Suckers,” she snickered.
“Multiple jump flashes!” Delan yelled from behind her. “Fourteen of them!”
“We’re outta here!” Jenna exclaimed as she pressed her jump button. A moment later, the destroyer, the octos, and the planet below were nowhere to be seen. Before her were only the distant stars.
Delan’s head fell back against his headrest, his emotions spent. “You like this shit, don’t you?”
Jenna chuckled. “Beats the hell out of the races.”
The Dusahn destroyer swung its point-defense turrets away from the vanishing Gunyoki fighters, which had been swarming about them like flies only seconds ago, toward the fourteen incoming jump missiles. The guns on the near side, which had already been somewhat pointed in that direction, immediately opened fire, taking out more than half of the inbound weapons in the first eight seconds. But it would not be enough, for the missiles had jumped in only ten seconds from impact.
Eight jump missiles made it past the destroyer’s defense perimeter. One by one, they struck the hull of the doomed vessel. The first missile struck the bow of the ship, detonating on contact in a brilliant, yellow-white flash of light.
Before the first flash could fade, the second and third missiles plowed into the already damaged midship areas of the destroyer, driving into her several meters before they too detonated. The detonations where far more subdued in appearance, but having exploded from inside, outer portions of the destroyer’s hull went flying outward with the force of the explosion.
The next two missiles missed, passing just above the dying warship’s topside superstructure. The remaining missiles found the aft section, breaking it wide open with a series of secondary explosions.
The destroyer broke apart in spectacular fashion, sending debris in all directions with great fury, while the octo-fighters in the vicinity began jumping away to escape the blast. At least six octos never made it out, being struck by the debris or consumed by the escaping gases that flashed over them.
A series of secondary explosions deep within the various sections of the destroyer continued to break her apart as the two missiles that had missed the warship found the Takaran atmosphere and auto-destructed in yellow-white flashes.
“Jump flash,” Kaylah reported from the Aurora’s sensor station. “Comm-drone.”
“Incoming message,” Naralena added. “From Bird Dog. Message reads: Target destroyed. No friendly losses.”
“Outstanding,” Jessica exclaimed.
“Too bad the other destroyer wasn’t there,” Cameron added.
“Hopefully, one will be enough to make our point,” Nathan replied. “Naralena, prepare a message for the
Dusahn. Message reads: Attack us or any of our allies, and we will rain down hell upon you, regardless of the consequences to Takara.”
Naralena looked up from her console at Nathan. “Is that it?”
“That’s it.”
“Loading message into a comm-drone,” Naralena replied.
“I would’ve called him a few names just for good measure,” Jessica decided.
“That’s why we let you shoot the guns and not do the talking,” Nathan joked.
CHAPTER FIVE
Dylan’s eyes widened as the XK tilted about as if it were precariously balanced on the tip of a spear. The view of the shipyard outside the windows of the ship’s cockpit swayed to and fro, rising and falling at the same time. “What the hell are you doing?” he exclaimed from the copilot’s seat.
“Just trying to get a feel for her,” Josh assured him, wrestling with the flight controls. “She really fights you, doesn’t she?”
“She’s not fighting you! She’s trying to keep you from crashing!”
“I don’t crash,” Josh insisted as the ship continued to rock. “I might occasionally execute a less than ideal landing, but I never crash.”
“Well there’s a first time for everything,” Dylan exclaimed, reaching for the controls as the ship was about to slide into a nearby crane.
“Don’t even think about it!” Josh barked as he adjusted his controls and leveled the ship into a stable hover.
Dylan turned his head slowly to the right, noting that the crane was less than a meter from his side cockpit window. He turned back to look at Josh but said nothing.
“Relax,” Josh told him. “We didn’t hit anything.”
“Please tell me you meant to do all of that.”
“All of what?” Josh asked, feigning ignorance.
“All of that,” Dylan replied, moving his left hand about in the air to simulate the way Josh had been flying.
“I told you I was getting a feel for her.”
“Couldn’t you just fly her out normally? Maybe get some altitude before using extreme control inputs?”
“Trust me, those were not extreme control inputs.”
“Maybe you should learn how to fly her normally before you try anything out of the ordinary,” Dylan suggested, almost pleading.
“If I wanted to fly her normally, I’d just punch in the destination and let the auto-flight handle her. But that ain’t flyin’, that’s piloting, and that’s boring.”
“And safe.”
Josh looked at him. “You do know this is VR, right?”
“Of course I do,” Dylan assured him. “But to get the most out of VR training, you have to act as if it’s real. And trust me, it’ll hurt like it’s real if you crash.”
“Yes, but only for a moment,” Josh replied, an odd look on his face.
“Loki was right,” Dylan decided. “You’re twisted.”
Josh smiled. “How do we scoop this thing?”
“Scoop?”
“You know, drop the tail down low and jam the throttles to the wall,” Josh explained.
“Why would you want to do that?” Dylan wondered.
“For a rapid departure, what else?”
“But that would probably cause damage to the spaceport.”
“If you have to leave in a hurry, then you probably don’t give a damn if you damage the spaceport,” Josh replied as if it were obvious. “Plus, it will take out anyone at the LZ who might be shooting at you.”
Dylan stared at Josh.
“What?”
“I take it you often have people shooting at you during departure?”
“On occasion,” Josh replied. “Not so much lately, but you never know.” Josh looked at his controls again. “Why won’t the tail drop?”
“The flight-assist system is designed to keep the ship level during its initial climb. It won’t allow you to alter the pitch attitude until you reach safe altitude.”
“And what exactly is ‘safe altitude’?” Josh wondered.
“It depends on the facility,” Dylan explained. “In most cases, it’s at least three hundred meters.”
“Well that sucks,” Josh replied. “What about the throttles? At what altitude can I jam them to the wall?”
“What wall?”
Josh rolled his eyes. “As in ‘all the way to max power’. Jesus, I thought you played some kind of smuggler game?”
“Sorry, I’m just not familiar with all your euphemisms.”
“The throttles?”
“Flight-assist automatically applies forward thrust incrementally as you climb,” Dylan explained. “The higher you climb, the more the thrust, until it reaches max power. Once you get above the facility’s MDMA, it will allow you to adjust the pitch manually, as well as the throttles, but only within reason.”
“MDMA?”
“Minimum departure maneuvering altitude,” Dylan explained.
“You and Loki are going to get along swell,” Josh said. “So you’re saying this thing can’t be scooped?”
“No, it can’t,” Dylan confirmed.
“Well that’s gonna need to be fixed.”
“It’s not broken,” Dylan insisted. “It’s a safety feature.”
“A safety feature that might someday get us killed,” Josh insisted. “We need to make this ship full-manual capable.”
“This is a cargo ship, Josh,” Dylan reminded him.
“Not anymore, she ain’t.”
* * *
The duty officer tried not to appear nervous as he read the message from the Karuzari.
Lord Dusahn sat silently, staring at the duty officer.
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Commander Jexx stated, shooing the officer from the room before their leader’s wrath found an easy target in the young lieutenant.
Once the lieutenant had left the room, Lord Dusahn spoke, his tone clear and concise. “I want the Karuzari eliminated. Every ship, every weapon, every officer, every janitor, every world that supports them—I want them all wiped from existence.”
“We do not have the firepower to do so, my lord,” Commander Jexx reminded him. “Not yet.”
Lord Dusahn’s menacing stare turned to the commander. “We are down to a single destroyer and thirty-two octos. If we do not strike now, we may never be able to.”
“If we destroy so many worlds, the other systems will surely ally against us,” the commander argued.
“Then we will destroy them as well.”
“We cannot destroy everyone,” Commander Jexx pointed out. “There will be no one left to rule.”
“Fear is the ultimate motivator,” Lord Dusahn insisted. “Not security and profit, as you suggested. Destroy a few worlds, and the rest will bow before us and bend to our will.” He looked at the commander. “It is the way of the Dusahn.”
“It is the way that got us banished from the empire we once served,” the commander replied, immediately regretting his choice of words.
“Careful, Commander,” Lord Dusahn warned. “Do not let your sudden favor relax your tongue to the point of losing it.”
“Apologies, my lord,” the commander backpedaled, “I only seek to calm your understandable anger and frustration. These arrogant inferiors must be eliminated. It is simply the method and the timing that we could further discuss.” The commander paused, reading his leader’s change in expression before pressing further. “So far, every world we have contacted has agreed to trade relations, with the exception of one, which we have already punished.”
“A decision that you did not wholly support,” Lord Dusahn pointed out to his advisor.
“Not the act of punishment, just the targets.”
“What would you have us do?” Lord Dusahn wondered. “Return later and beg?”
“It might have been better to
blockade their trade with others, forcing them to do business with us.”
“I prefer a more direct approach,” Lord Dusahn replied, dismissing his advisor’s opinion with a wave of his hand. “The other worlds of the Pentaurus sector will now beg us to conduct trade with them, so as to ensure their safety.”
“I’m sure you are correct, my lord,” the commander replied, sensing that his leader was growing impatient with his differing viewpoints. “In the meantime, may I make a suggestion?”
“As long as it doesn’t involve cowering before our enemy,” Lord Dusahn replied.
“We must protect our remaining warship, as it will be needed to destroy whatever world is providing the Karuzari with its new technologies. I believe we should keep it on the move and never stay in one place long enough to be attacked.”
“We also need it to maintain a military presence throughout the systems we currently control,” Lord Dusahn pointed out, annoyed that the commander did not recognize the fact.
“The two goals are not mutually exclusive, my lord,” the commander insisted. “The Kir-Sala can jump between Dusahn-controlled systems in random fashion, at least three cycles before needing to pause to recharge. This too can be done unpredictably, and at obscure points within Dusahn-controlled space. Furthermore, the Karuzari’s message provides us with an opportunity to negotiate a cease-fire.”
“Out of the question!” Lord Dusahn snapped.
“Please, my lord, I beg you to hear me out,” the commander pleaded. After a pause, he felt it safe to continue. “A cease-fire would allow us some measure of protection while we rebuild our forces. All we ask for is to operate our empire as we see fit, and in exchange, we will no longer attack Karuzari assets or their allied worlds.”
“The Karuzari have the upper hand at the moment,” Lord Dusahn pointed out. “There is no reason for them to agree to such a thing. They will demand that we cease and desist all military expansion.”
“They will agree,” Commander Jexx insisted. “They have no choice. They cannot defeat us without risking the lives of every Takaran.”