by Ryk Brown
“Nagoya is jumping,” Kaylah announced from the sensor station. “Tanna is veering to port, away from us. She is also targeting us with missiles.”
“I guess the Tanna’s captain doesn’t scare as easily,” Cameron stated.
“Tanna has a missile lock,” Kaylah warned.
“Comms, prepare a new strike order for the Orochi, using the Tanna’s current position and track. Wide spread, full area saturation. Launch the comm-drone as soon as we come out of the next jump.”
“Missile launch!” Kaylah alerted. “Ten seconds!”
“Escape jump, five light minutes,” Cameron instructed. “Execute!”
“Jumping five light minutes,” her navigator replied, executing the escape jump.
“An odd move,” Lieutenant Yuati remarked as the jump flash washed over them. “It would have been more effective to put all of his guns on us and pound our aft shields once we’d passed him by.”
“Launch comm-drone,” Cameron instructed.
“Comm-drone away.”
“He knew damn well that we wouldn’t have enough time for our point-defenses to intercept them,” Cameron continued. “He wanted us to jump.”
The lieutenant’s brow furrowed. “Then his intention was to test our response?”
“No, he was just trying to appear to be attacking us, but doing so in a way that he knew we could escape. He doesn’t want this fight any more than we do.”
Talisha glanced at her tactical display as she brought her fighter around hard to engage a pair of EDF Super Eagles that had just jumped in nearby. Just as she did, two green icons representing Broc and Chaim appeared near the capitol complex.
Talisha locked her missiles on the approaching Super Eagles and launched, but both targets jumped away before her weapons reached them. “Damn it!” she exclaimed.
“They are trying to cause you to deplete your supply of air-to-air missiles,” Leta warned. “Their shields hold up to our plasma cannons much better than our missiles.”
“I know!” Talisha exclaimed. “That’s why I’m pissed! I should have known better!”
“Broc is hit!” Chaim reported over comms. “I’m taking heavy…”
Talisha glanced at her tactical display again as the second green icon near the capitol complex disappeared. “Damn it!” she repeated. “Glen! Form up on me! We’re next!”
“I’ll be on your starboard side in ten seconds,” Glen replied.
“Negative,” Coburn called over comms. “I’m already on the right vector. I just need to shave off some altitude.”
“I can take your wing, Cobby!”
“Copy that, Davs,” Coburn replied. “Meet me over One Five Alpha at two hundred meters.”
“I’ll be there in eight seconds,” Davy replied.
“Give ’em hell, Cobby,” Talisha encouraged.
“Erv and I can follow,” Clivon suggested over comms.
“Copy that,” Talisha replied. “Glen and I will hit them after you.”
“You’re assuming we’ll leave anything for you to hit!” Coburn bragged.
“One-eighty, complete,” Ensign Tala announced from the Aurora’s helm.
“Put us behind those destroyers,” Cameron ordered. “Five clicks, slightly below.”
“Calculating jump,” Ensign Dorsay reported.
“Gunyoki engaged with EDF fighters at grid Four Five One report EDF are no longer firing on them but are continuing intercept and tracking,” the comms officer reported.
“Sounds like some of them are having second thoughts,” Lieutenant Yuati commented. “Perhaps your plea was effective after all.”
“It won’t last,” Cameron insisted. “Not unless fleet command changes their mind as well.”
“Jump loaded and ready,” the navigator reported.
“Execute.”
“Jumping in three…”
“Tactical, be ready,” Cameron stated.
“Two…”
“But do not fire without my orders.”
“One…”
“Understood,” Lieutenant Yuati assured her.
“Jumping.”
“We at least have to give them a chance to stand down,” Cameron explained as the jump flash washed over them.
“Single destroyer,” Kaylah reported. “It’s the Tanna. The Nagoya is not in the area.”
“The Tanna may be the bait,” Lieutenant Yuati warned.
“Negative,” Kaylah insisted. “Tanna has lost all shields.”
“Is she targeting us?” Cameron asked.
“Affirmative,” Lieutenant Yuati replied. “Missiles and guns.”
“Comms, get me Captain Nash on the Ancot.”
“Tanna Actual, Ancot Actual, Nash,” Robert called over comms as his XK circled the Moscow net-hub, dodging EDF Super Eagles and surface-based anti-aircraft batteries. “Come on, Jas, I know you can hear me.”
“I suppose this was your classified mission?” Commander Boynton replied over comms.
“Trust me, Jas, if I had time to explain, you’d agree with what we are doing,” Robert insisted as his ship rocked from incoming weapons fire.
“You’re asking me to bet my career on it.”
“I’m betting my life on it,” Robert replied. “Besides, it’s the right thing to do.”
“And if you fail?” the commander asked.
“Then you’re fucked anyway,” Robert told him. “In fact, we are your only hope.”
After a pause, the commander spoke again. “I don’t know, Robert.”
“Well, you’d better decide fast, Jasper. The next volley will take out your jump drive.”
The Voss’s command deck lit up momentarily as they jumped to a new position. For the first time in the last ten minutes, their ship was not being rocked by incoming fire.
“Ten clicks from the capitol complex,” Loki reported.
“What’s the status of that shield?” Nathan asked Jessica.
“It’s still up,” Jessica replied. “The second pair of Nighthawks weren’t able to reach it. The anti-aircraft batteries inside the shield are picking them off the moment they jump in.”
“The Tanna’s missiles and guns are locked onto us,” Lieutenant Yuati reported from the Aurora’s tactical station. “If they unload with everything, we’ll lose our forward shields.”
“Be ready on that jump button, Mister Dorsay,” Cameron urged.
“Always,” the navigator assured her.
“Tanna is powering her jump drive,” Kaylah announced.
“Incoming message,” Ensign Keller reported from the comm-station. “It’s the Tanna.”
“Message?” Cameron asked.
“Good luck.”
“Tanna is jumping,” Kaylah reported.
“Well, that’s a start,” Cameron stated.
“Talisha,” Nathan called over comms from the Voss’s command deck. “We’ll jump in one click south of the complex about thirty meters above the surface.”
“Thirty meters?” Dylan exclaimed in disbelief.
“Sweet!” Josh exclaimed.
Loki just rolled his eyes.
“We’ll approach and come to a hover just outside the shield and draw their fire for you.”
“They’ll light you up, Captain,” Talisha warned.
“Our shields are stronger than yours,” Nathan insisted. “We can take a few hits.”
“I think you’re being overly optimistic,” Dylan insisted.
“Is he?” Miri asked Jessica.
“Always,” Jessica replied.
“Get ready,” Nathan instructed.
“Give me twenty seconds to get into position,” Talisha requested.
“Captain,” Dylan objected.
“Josh?” Nathan asked.
“Piece of cake,” Josh replied confidently.
“New contacts,” Kaylah reported from the Aurora’s sensor station. “Four more destroyers coming out from behind the moon.”
“They’re trying to ambush us,” Cameron realized.
“Perhaps Captain Boynton was not being entirely honest in his actions,” Lieutenant Yuati suggested.
“Missiles!” Kaylah added. “Four from each destroyer. Sixteen inbound. First will reach jump trajectory in ten seconds!”
“Point-defenses have activated,” the lieutenant announced from the tactical station.
“Get us out of here, Mister Dorsay,” Cameron ordered.
“New contact!” Kaylah interrupted. “Dead ahead! It’s the Nagoya!”
“Belay last,” Cameron instructed. “Helm, keep our nose on the Nagoya. Tactical, two busters, jump them as they exit the tubes.”
“First wave!” Kaylah warned, bracing herself.
Four flashes of blue-white light appeared only a few hundred meters to the Aurora’s starboard, impacting her shields seconds after they came out of their jumps.
The Aurora’s bridge rocked as the incoming jump missiles detonated against her starboard shields.
“Missiles away!” Lieutenant Yuati reported.
“Helm, hard to starboard! Full power!” Cameron instructed. “Jump as soon as you get a clear line!”
“Second wave!” Kaylah warned.
Four more missiles came out of their jumps, again to the Aurora’s starboard side. Luckily, the ship’s sudden acceleration caused the two missiles on the right to pass aft of them.
The Aurora’s bridge rocked as two more missiles impacted their starboard shields and detonated.
“Clear jump line!” Ensign Dorsay reported. “Jumping!”
“Starboard shields down to twenty percent,” Lieutenant Yuati reported as the blue-white flash from their escape jump washed over the bridge.
“Status of the Nagoya?” Cameron asked Kaylah.
“Both busters got through her forward shields,” Kaylah reported, “but we jumped as they detonated.”
“Launch a recon drone,” Cameron instructed. “In and out, quickly. Recover at grid Three Two Seven.”
“Launching recon drone,” Kaylah acknowledged.
“Helm, take us to grid Three Two Seven.”
“Grid Three Two Seven, aye,” the helmsman acknowledged as he started his turn.
“Recon drone away,” Kaylah reported.
“We will need to protect our starboard shields,” Lieutenant Yuati suggested. “Six missiles brought them from full power down to twenty percent. It will only take two more impacts to bring them down.”
“If those idiots would stop blindly following a criminal, this would be over,” Cameron commented.
“Jumping to grid Three Two Seven,” the navigator announced.
“Technically, Captain, until properly adjudicated, you would be considered just as much a criminal as Admiral Galiardi.”
“Perhaps,” Cameron agreed as the jump flash washed over them. “But my crimes are against EDF regs, not the Earth’s constitution.”
“Point taken.”
“Recon drone has returned,” Kaylah announced. “It has taken fire. Its shields are down to forty percent. Receiving telemetry now.”
“Show me what we’ve got,” Cameron stated.
A display window appeared in the middle of the Aurora’s semi-spherical view screen, showing a tactical map of the Earth-Moon system. Red icons were all over the place, all of them moving toward the Earth.
“Christ,” Cameron exclaimed. “I guess he called in everyone within jump range.”
“Eight destroyers, seventy-eight gunships, and of course, the Cape Town,” Lieutenant Yuati detailed. “They appear to be setting up a blockade of the planet.”
“They’re going to need more ships,” Cameron stated.
“The Nagoya has lost all forward shields and the forward section of her port shields,” Kaylah reported. “She appears to be moving into position to protect the Cape Town.”
“They appear to be ignoring all the other ships in our fleet,” Lieutenant Yuati surmised, studying the display on the main view screen more closely.
“More ships will arrive soon,” Cameron stated. “When they do, that’s when they’ll start attacking our fleet.”
“Any idea how long we have until that happens?” Lieutenant Yuati wondered.
“Minutes at the most.” Cameron replied. “But most of them will be Cobras. There are only twelve destroyers total, and last time I checked, they were patrolling the Jung-Sol border. I doubt Galiardi will pull them in, and even if he did, it would take them a few hours to get here.”
“What do we do next?” the lieutenant wondered.
Cameron took a deep breath, letting it out in a long sigh. “We’re going to have to make a show of force,” she decided. “The captains of those ships need to realize that we’ll take them out if we have to.” Cameron touched the control pad on the side of her command chair, zooming the tactical display on the main view screen in on the icon representing the Nagoya. “We’ll go in twenty clicks behind the Cape Town, slightly above her. Her mass will hide us from the Nagoya. We’ll launch four missiles. Two standard jump missiles at the Cape Town, and the other two at the Nagoya. The second two will be standard multi-point jump missiles on a trajectory over the Cape Town, and set them to do a one-eighty and jump back to engage the Nagoya head on.”
“They don’t even know we have multi-jump missiles,” Kaylah stated. “They’ll never see it coming.”
“They’ll think all four were targeting the Cape Town,” Cameron explained.
“Won’t that be, how do you say it, tipping our hand?” Lieutenant Yuati wondered.
“Maybe,” Cameron admitted. “But for all they know, the missiles came from somewhere else. We’ve already taken out the Cape Town’s shields and jump drive, all without apparently firing a single missile at them.”
“Jumps to engage the Cape Town are ready, Captain,” Ensign Dorsay reported.
“We’re two light minutes out at the moment,” Ensign Keller reminded his captain.
“Good point,” Cameron admitted. “If you pick up a stand-down order when we jump back in, don’t be shy.”
“Aye, Captain,” her comms officer replied.
“If Keller reports a stand-down, don’t wait for me to give the order to abort the missiles, Lieutenant.”
“Understood,” Lieutenant Yuati acknowledged.
Cameron took another breath, sighing. She was about to launch an attack that could result in the loss of Terran lives; lives she had sworn to protect. She was beginning to understand what it was about command that Nathan had always disliked so much. “Jump us to the come-about waypoint,” she instructed.
The Voss’s command deck lit up as she jumped into position one kilometer south of the UEA capitol complex.
“Holy crap!” Dylan exclaimed, peering out the forward windows from beside Nathan as they skimmed the rooftops. He glanced to his right as the tops of taller trees passed by. “I can’t watch this,” he decided, averting his eyes and heading aft.
“Take the port auxiliary station,” Nathan told Dylan. “We may need you.”
“We’re being targeted,” Jessica warned from the starboard auxiliary station.
“What a surprise,” Dylan commented as he took his seat at the port side station.
“All four anti-aircraft batteries,” Jessica added. “They’re firing.”
A moment later, the ship started shaking as her shields lit up from incoming weapons fire impacts.
“Slow us down,” Nathan instructed. “Let’s give them a good target.”
“We’re barely moving now,” Josh stated, firing up the deceleration drives at the front of the Voss’s na
celles.
“Diverting all power to forward shields,” Jessica reported.
“Super Eagles are jumping in,” Loki announced.
“They followed us,” Nathan decided.
“I’m assuming that’s bad?” Miri said.
“It isn’t good,” Nathan confirmed.
“More contacts,” Loki added. “Gunyoki, about thirty of them. They’re engaging the Super Eagles.”
“That should buy us a few seconds,” Nathan surmised.
“Seconds?” Miri said, not feeling terribly confident.
“I’m trying not to be too optimistic,” Nathan replied, trying to sound calm for her sake.
“Five hundred meters and closing,” Loki reported.
“All four batteries are on us,” Jessica warned. “Forward shields are down to sixty percent and falling fast.”
“Four hundred meters,” Loki updated.
“Josh, yaw forty-five to port and slide in,” Nathan instructed. “Nose gunner, target the near battery to the west. Ventral gunner, the near battery to the east. Be ready to open fire as soon as that shield comes down.”
“Three hundred meters,” Loki updated as the ship shook violently from incoming fire.
“We’ll be far enough out that I can target the far battery to the east,” the Ghatazhak in the dorsal gun turret reported over the intercom.
“Good idea,” Nathan agreed.
Josh’s focus jumped between his flight dynamics display and the starboard windows as he swung the Voss’s nose to port and flew sideways at a forty-five-degree angle to their course track. “I bet the AI can’t do this.”
“Starboard gunner, you get the far battery to the west,” Nathan added.
“Copy that,” the Ghatazhak in the starboard gun turret replied.
“It could,” Dylan insisted. “It just wouldn’t be dumb enough to do it.”
“Two hundred meters,” Loki updated, the ship bouncing and lurching from even more intensive fire than before.
Josh smiled.
“Any time now, Talisha,” Nathan muttered to himself.
Talisha jumped her Nighthawk to a position one hundred kilometers north of Winnipeg, far from the capitol complex, immediately pitching up. She brought her nose all the way up and over and then rolled over, completing a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree course change in seconds. “I’m counting on you to take out that shield, Leta,” she reminded her AI.