by Ryk Brown
“Understood,” her AI replied.
“You still with me, Glen?” she asked her wingman.
“Pulling up onto your port side now,” her wingman replied.
She glanced to her left, spotting him as he pulled his fighter in alongside her, about fifteen meters off her wing. “I’ll target all the emitters to the right; you take the left. And don’t forget to restrict your AI’s auto-eject mode, or she’ll punch you out the moment you pass through their shields.”
“Understood,” Glen replied.
“Leta, disable auto-eject,” Talisha instructed her AI.
“Confirm auto-eject disable,” Leta replied.
“Auto-eject disable, confirmed,” Talisha replied.
“Auto-eject disabled,” Leta acknowledged.
“You are cleared to engage all targets to starboard. Prioritize their shield emitters.”
“Understood,” Leta replied.
“Slowing to near-hover.”
“Slowing,” Glen replied.
“Setting grav-lift descent profile,” Talisha added. After dialing in a descent rate that would put her on the perfect approach angle, she took a deep breath. “Drop shields, Leta. Jumping in three……two……one……jump!”
Talisha pressed her jump button, instantly transitioning to only fifty meters from the north side of the capitol complex shield dome, flying toward it at a slight downward angle at what seemed like a near-dead stop. Thankfully, the diversion tactic had worked, and all four air defense turrets inside the shield were currently targeting the Voss on the south side.
“Shield penetration in five seconds,” Leta reported.
“Here we go!” Talisha called out over comms.
“Three……two……one…”
The shield wall glowed brightly as the two Nighthawk fighters impacted it at slow speed. Talisha’s fighter bucked sharply as it passed through the shield, settling down a second later after the penetration was complete. “Raise shields and fire!” she barked at her AI.
“Shields up,” Leta replied. “Firing all turrets.”
The two Sugali fighters coasted along at slow speed a mere ten meters above the surface, firing in all directions as they slowly moved over the complex grounds. Shield emitters began exploding, spraying sparks all around them as both ships’ AIs fired their respective fighters’ point-defense turrets more precisely than any pilot could, especially while trying to avoid incoming fire at such a slow speed.
Talisha’s eyes widened as she spotted the nearest anti-aircraft battery to her right rotating around toward her. “Watch for fire, Glen!” she warned over comms. She quickly increased her grav-lift power, causing her ship to jump upward as the battery to her right opened fire. The first salvo passed under her, striking her wingman’s port shields and causing his fighter to roll slightly from the kinetic energy. “Yawing to starboard!” Talisha barked, as she swung her nose around to bring her main cannons onto the nearby battery. A bright flash appeared to her left, causing her to turn her head instinctively just as her wingman’s fighter blew apart. “Glen!”
Talisha turned back, determined to seek retribution on the battery before her, but she was too late. The battery opened fire. The first two salvos struck her forward shields dead on, lighting them up so brightly that she was temporarily blinded.
“Forward shields have failed,” Leta warned.
Regaining her senses, Talisha pressed and held the firing button on her flight control stick, sending repetitive bolts of plasma energy from her own cannons into the air defense battery assaulting her. The energy charges from the two opposing weapons met in the middle, creating explosions of energy in mid-air between them, but not for long.
Talisha jinked to starboard, hoping to avoid the incoming fire, but was too late. One bolt of energy seared her port side, the other struck her starboard nose, blowing it apart. Her ship lurched, starting to roll to starboard, the result of losing the grav-lift emitters in that part of her ship.
“Increasing inertial dampeners to full,” Leta announced as the ship rolled over and fell toward the ground.
“Eject!” Talisha barked.
“Unable to comply,” Leta replied, the ship now upside down and falling to the surface.
“Both fighters are down!” Jessica reported urgently from the Voss’s starboard auxiliary station. “The shield is damaged, but not down! It’s at maybe twenty percent integrity!”
“Did the pilots eject?” Nathan asked.
“Negative,” Jessica replied. “But one did crash inverted in the middle of the complex grounds. It’s Talisha’s fighter! UEA security is heading toward her position.”
Josh instinctively adjusted his flight controls, causing the Voss to continue moving toward the capitol’s weakened shield.
“What are you doing?” Loki asked, fearing he already knew the answer.
“We’ve got the same grav-lift systems, right?” Josh explained. “Maybe we can make it through?”
“It’s more complicated than that,” Loki insisted.
“No!” Dylan barked. “He’s right! But you have to go nose first! The spacing on our bow emitters is almost the same as on the Sugali fighters,” he added as he rapidly began entering commands into his console.
“What are you doing?” Loki wondered, noticing changes in the grav-lift fields on their bow developing.
“I’m adjusting our grav-lift fields to better match those of the Nighthawks!” Dylan explained.
“Captain?” Loki asked, unsure if they should proceed.
“What the hell,” Nathan replied. “Do it! Gunners, be ready!”
“You’ll have to drop our shields,” Dylan warned.
“Great!” Nathan exclaimed, turning and nodding to Jessica.
“Hang on, everyone!” Jessica exclaimed. “Dropping all shields!”
“Here goes nothing!” Josh exclaimed as he brought the nose of the ship back around to face forward again.
The Voss rocked violently as incoming weapons fire slammed into her unprotected hull. The crew flinched as bolts of energy streaked past their nose on either side, slamming into their port and starboard forward-facing cargo bays, ripping them open.
The ship lurched, suddenly slowing and bucking as its bow penetrated the UEA capitol’s shield dome.
“I’m through!” the Ghatazhak soldier in their nose gun reported. “Firing!”
The Voss’s nose gun, now peering through the shield dome, opened fire, spraying the area with energy bolts which blew apart everything they touched. The rain of energy found several emitters, exploding them in showers of sparks. Finally, it found the nearest anti-aircraft battery that had been pounding the Voss. The nose gun’s bolts of energy tore the battery open, sending parts flying in all directions.
With the nearest battery down, the Voss’s nose gun shifted to the battery on the opposite side, tearing it apart as easily as the first. The explosion of the battery also caused several nearby shield emitters to explode, collapsing the southern portion of the shield dome.
“It’s partly down!” Jessica barked. “We’ve got a clear path in!”
“Raise shields!” Nathan ordered.
“Already on it!” Jessica assured him.
Josh struggled with the controls, barely able to keep the Voss level with the bow grav-lift emitters out of their normal synchronization with the rest of the ship’s grav-lift systems. “How about you restore normal function to the bow emitters!” he barked over his shoulder at Dylan.
“I’m trying!” Dylan assured him.
“Firing!” the dorsal gunner reported.
“Shields are up, but our forward shields are fried!” Jessica reported.
“Firing!” the ventral gunner reported.
“Josh, swing us around so that our bow is pointed away from the main complex, and those last two fuc
king batteries!”
Josh said nothing as he struggled to keep their nose from dipping and plowing into the surface, initiating a slow yaw to port.
“You might want to move more quickly, Josh!” Nathan urged as the ship rocked from incoming fire.
“I’m trying!” Josh insisted. “I can barely keep our fucking nose up!”
“Bow grav-lift emitters are screwy!” Dylan reported. “I can’t get them to normalize!”
“Got that fucker!” the ventral gunner exclaimed over the intercom.
“Firing,” the starboard gunner reported.
Nathan glanced out the forward windows as the ship passed over Talisha’s inverted fighter.
“I gotta set her down, Cap’n!” Josh exclaimed.
“Not yet!” Nathan barked. “Get us closer to the main complex!”
“I don’t know that I can!”
The ship suddenly stopped shaking, the incoming fire ceasing.
“What happened?” Nathan wondered. “Did they stop firing!”
“Negative, sir!” the Ghatazhak in the starboard gun turret reported over the intercom. “I stopped it!”
“Picking up ground fire,” Jessica reported. “Those idiots.”
“Ventral, drive them back!” Nathan instructed.
“Understood!” the ventral gunner replied.
“All guns, target the remaining shield emitters!” Nathan ordered. “I want that fucking shield gone!”
The jump flash washed over the Aurora’s bridge, momentarily filling it with blue-white light. The starry blackness of space was partially replaced by the Earth rotating below them.
“Cape Town directly ahead, twenty clicks and one kilometer lower in altitude,” Kaylah reported.
“First two missiles are locked onto the Cape Town,” Lieutenant Yuati reported from the tactical station.
“Launch two,” Cameron ordered.
“Launching two,” the lieutenant replied, pressing the launch button. “Missiles away, loading second round. First missiles jumping.”
“Missiles have transited,” Kaylah reported. “Cape Town is engaging missile defenses.”
“Second two missiles are ready.”
“Launch second round,” Cameron ordered.
“Launching two more,” the lieutenant acknowledged.
Two flashes of light appeared in the lower right and left corners of the main view screen as the two missiles jumped away just after clearing the tubes. “Second round of missiles have jumped.
“Helm, jump us forward, ten clicks past the Cape Town,” Cameron instructed. “As soon as we transition, yaw us ninety to port.”
“Jumping forward twenty and yawing ninety to port,” the helmsman acknowledged.
“Lieutenant Yuati, port broadsides on the Cape Town, starboard on the Nagoya. But keep the port cannons at half power. I want to bloody their nose, not blow off their face.”
“Jumping in three…” Ensign Dorsay began.
“Understood,” the lieutenant replied.
“Two…”
“Comms, order both ships to stand down all weapons or be destroyed,” Cameron instructed.
“One…”
“Aye, sir.”
“Jumping.”
The blue-white flash washed over the bridge again, although nothing appeared to change on the main view screen.
“Cape Town is behind us, Nagoya ahead of us,” Kaylah reported.
“Yawing,”
“Assigning targets to broadsides,” Lieutenant Yuati reported. “Port broadsides at half intensity.”
“Fire when ready,” Cameron instructed.
“New contacts,” Kaylah reported. “Nagoya is attempting to intercept. One down… HIT! Direct hit on her bow!”
“I have firing solutions on both vessels,” Lieutenant Yuati reported. “Firing port and starboard broadsides.”
“I’m detecting multiple hull breaches on the Nagoya,” Kaylah warned. “Her power levels are fluctuating wildly.”
“What the hell?” Cameron started.
“Secondaries!” Kaylah added. “The Nagoya’s ZPEDs are becoming unstable! They’ll go critical in less than a minute!”
“Cease fire to starboard!” Cameron ordered.
“Cape Town is launching missiles,” Kaylah warned.
“They’re firing the big guns at us as well,” the lieutenant added.
“Twelve jump flashes!”
“Ten-light-second escape jump!” Cameron ordered. “Execute!”
The ship rocked hard as two missiles impacted their port shields, multiple explosive rail gun rounds joining them.
“Failure in primary jump array,” Ensign Dorsay reported urgently. “Switching to secondary array!”
“Get us out of here, Ensign!” Cameron barked as two more missiles rocked the ship.
“Port shields down to twenty percent!” Lieutenant Yuati reported.
“Jumping!” the navigator announced as the jump flash washed over them.
“Hard to port, twenty degrees!” Cameron barked. “Jump us another five light seconds as soon as you complete your turn!
“Twenty to port, aye!”
“Five light seconds, aye!”
“Engineering, Captain!” she called over her comm-set. “Get the primary array back online!”
“I’m working on it,” Vladimir assured her.
“New contacts!” Kaylah reported. “Four Cobra gunships to starboard, two clicks and closing fast. They’re firing!”
“Plasma turrets, Lieutenant!” Cameron instructed.
“More contacts!” Kaylah added. “Eight Gunyoki! They’re attacking the gunships. The gunships are breaking off.”
“Turn complete,” the helmsman reported.
“Hold jump,” Cameron ordered. “Wait for my call.”
“Holding jump,” the navigator confirmed.
“Cobras are jumping clear!” Kaylah reported. “Gunyoki are jumping after them!”
“Now, Mister Dorsay!” Cameron ordered.
“Jumping!”
“Kaylah, get me a status update on the Nagoya!” Cameron instructed as the jump flash washed over the bridge.
“I’m getting a mayday call from the Nagoya!” Ensign Keller reported from the comm-station. “They’re abandoning ship!”
“They’re going to want our blood, now,” Cameron surmised.
“I’m detecting eight escape pods from the Nagoya.”
“She has twelve,” Cameron commented.
“They’ve managed to eject one of their ZPEDs,” Kaylah added. “The other one is still unstable.”
“How long do they have?” Cameron asked.
“I’m surprised it hasn’t gone yet.”
“Shouldn’t they eject it as well?” Lieutenant Yuati wondered.
“The ejection system must have failed,” Cameron commented. “That’s why they’re abandoning ship.”
“Two more escape pods have ejected,” Kaylah reported. “Last ZPED is going critical…she’s coming apart!” Kaylah turned and looked at Cameron. “We just killed the Nagoya, sir.”
“How many made it out?” Cameron asked.
“No idea, sir,” Kaylah admitted. “The ZPED blast is screwing up my sensors.
“If ten pods made it out, and each of them was full, that’s eighty survivors,” the helmsman commented.
“Out of one hundred and twelve,” Cameron stated, staring straight ahead.
This is not what I signed up for, she thought.
Two Reapers appeared behind blue-white flashes of light, settling into a hover ten meters above the Voss as she settled down onto the UEA capitol complex grounds. The Reapers shifted slightly, moving to the forward end of the Voss, to either side of Talisha’s inverted crashed fighter. The Reapers
descended a few more meters as their side doors opened, and six Ghatazhak jumped to the surface.
As they hit the ground, the Ghatazhak opened fire, sending a barrage of stunner blasts at the advancing UEA security forces, dropping them with ease. The UEA security forces, however, were not firing stunners, and their heavy fire was quickly draining the Ghatazhak’s shields.
While eight of the Ghatazhak formed a barrier wall and continued firing, four others fell back to Talisha’s inverted fighter. One of them dropped to his knees at the front of the ship, between the damaged and undamaged nose cones, accessing the emergency cockpit access panel. Within seconds, he had the panel open and had managed to disengage the canopy locks. The upper and lower halves of the Sugali fighter’s clamshell canopy were no longer geared to move together, but two of the Ghatazhak were able to pry the upper ventral canopy shell open.
“Finally!” Talisha exclaimed as she slid out of the inverted fighter. She looked at the stunned Ghatazhak. “What?”
“We didn’t think you’d still be alive,” one of the Ghatazhak admitted, gesturing toward the heavily damaged fighter.
“The kill shot flipped me over and I couldn’t eject, so my AI cranked up the inertial dampeners to…” Several energy bolts zipped over their heads, cutting her off mid-sentence. “We’ll talk later,” she said, ducking.
“Good idea. Voss! We’ve got her! She’s alive and well! Drop your forward shields so we can get inside your defense perimeter!”
“We don’t have any forward shields,” Jessica replied. “Come on in, but watch your six and our twelve!”
“Let’s move!” the soldier barked, leading Talisha along as he advanced behind his line of comrades.
The Voss’s aft cargo ramp deployed, and twenty Ghatazhak charged out, jumping off the sides of the ramp and spreading out, all of them in their mark two combat armor. As they deployed, they fired with both wrist cannons, stunning UEA security forces with ease from inside the Voss’s shields.