by gerald hall
“I guess that you already know what we need to do, don’t you, Major?”
“Yes, I’m afraid so. Let’s get the Golden Phoenix out and ready to fight. I guess that I am going to have to learn to command a ship in battle on the fly. We don’t have any other experienced ship commanders here unfortunately.
Put everyone aboard her that is even remotely qualified to operate her systems. Alec has a listing on his database of everyone qualified on her. He wanted to be prepared in case of just such an emergency while he and Alacrity were away.” Major Compton ordered.
“We’ll make it happen then, Major.” Colin promised.
“Jill, how long before the Lu’non get into range of the station?” The Major asked.
“As her current velocity, she will arrive in less than four hours.” The combat tender’s AI replied.
“Then we better be ready in less than three.”
Two and a half hours later, Major Compton stepped aboard the newly refitted and crewed combat tender. A young woman wearing a skinsuit overlaid with an armored clamshell greeted him. The woman wore the insignia of a lieutenant and looked barely over twenty years old. A young man, who appeared to be perhaps in his late teens, was working at another bridge station.
“Hello, Sir. Welcome aboard the Golden Phoenix. I’m Lieutenant Lily Harper. Lieutenant Anton Sanchez and I are going to be your tactical officers here. Captain Sampson wanted me to brief you on the status of this ship since he was busy preparing Orca for battle as well.”
“Please go ahead, Lieutenant.”
“The good news is that we are fully fueled and our ammunition bays are completely full. Unfortunately, we have a lot more news for you that aren’t nearly as good.
We barely have a skeleton crew in Engineering to operate our drives and handle any damage control. We have only just enough personnel to operate our weapons as well, even with Jill’s help. Our spinal mount mass driver is stuck with using our locally forged Nickel-Iron projectiles since we haven’t procured any Tungsten-Depleted Uranium core projectiles for our main weapon. We’ve got only one trained Marine aboard Phoenix at all. He’s only here because his new armor wasn’t ready when Alacrity left. But at least he has his armor with him now and is ready to lead any resistance to boarders.
If Phoenix gets boarded, we will be relying primarily on regular crew drawn from other vital duties and armed with small arms to repel boarders. That will include every able-bodied man or woman with any weapons training at all. The only protection that these personnel will have from enemy fire will be armored vests and clamshells over their vacuum suits though.
All of this means also that the defense of the station has been left behind essentially to our dependents in the case that we fail out here. We have to employ everyone else onboard Phoenix just to run her.”
“What about our fighters?”
“We will be able to field sixteen fighters of various types. They will all be launched from the station’s fighter bays, but we will be able to rearm and refuel them from our own bays if necessary. That will help extend their endurance significantly. Some of them are a little old, but they are a hell of a lot better than nothing.
“Well, then. So the situation is that good, huh? We better make damned sure that we win the battle out there before the Lu’non can make a landing at our base where our families are. I do not even want to think about our families becoming meals for those monsters or worse, our women like you being forced to be hosts for Lu’non larva.”
“Sir, you can be sure that, one way or another, the Lu’non will never get the chance to use my body as a host.” Lily grimly replied. It was obvious that she meant to take her own life first rather than be captured by the Lu’non.
“Well, let’s make sure that none of our people have to make that choice, Lieutenant.”
“Aye, aye, Sir.” The young woman replied with a nod.
“I’ve got a bunch of kids on this ship, I swear.” Major Compton growled to himself with a shake of his head as he saw the combat tender’s crew through the various video monitors on Phoenix’s bridge. He and Lieutenant Harper had been joined on the bridge by several additional crew including the ship’s other tactical officer.
“They all volunteered, Sir. Besides, these kids have been spending a lot of time on our simulators and helping out with the refits too. These kids feel that they have just as much at stake here as anyone else. So they are a hell of a lot better than having no one at all manning a lot of our systems.” Lieutenant John Parker explained. He was Phoenix’s assistant tactical officer when he wasn’t teaching school for the kids on the station. He also didn’t look any older than Lily Harper.
“Well, I hope that they can handle themselves behind a rifle in Zero-G when they find a damned Lu’non shooting at them in the corridors. Otherwise, I will have to telling a lot of mothers about their dead teenage sons and daughters. I really don’t want to have to do that, John.”
“Neither would I, Sir.” Lieutenant Harper replied.
“Well, signal Orca and let her know that we are ready to move out now.” Major Compton told the young technician at the communications console.
Less than ten minutes later, Orca followed by Golden Phoenix exited out of the main chamber’s entrance passage and headed towards the incoming Lu’non force. Immediately after those two large ships exited, the station’s entire complement of fighters also launched from their concealed launch bays and took up positions around the combat tender.
Just as soon as Orca cleared the station and the refitted combat tender, Major Compton received a radio message from the ancient battler.
“Major, I’m going straight for that Lu’non combat tender. That should draw away several of their battlers from you as they try to protect their ride home. You take the fighters and try to keep yourselves between the Lu’non and our station while killing as many of the remaining battlers as possible. Once I kill the enemy combat tender, then we can pick off their battlers at our leisure or simply wait for them to run out of fuel. If you can manage to get the Lu’non into range of the station’s rail guns, our gunners might be able to ‘scratch your back’ some along the way.”
“Good luck and good hunting, Captain Sampson.” Major Compton messaged the ancient heavy battler as Orca prepared to take the lead.
“Sir, the Lu’non have apparently seen us now. They are deploying their battlers as a screen in front of their combat tender.”
“Well, let’s have at them. Fighters, I need you to engage any enemy battlers that are trying to flank us to get to our base. Otherwise, you will be acting as a screen for us.”
“Look, Sir. Orca is beginning to make her run at the enemy combat tender.” The young woman manning the main sensor controls reported.
“Get ‘em, Colin.” The major heard Lieutenant Harper quietly say with an intense expression on her face.
“Three enemy battlers have peeled off and turned to engage Orca, Sir.”
“That still leaves six of them for us to deal with though. Let’s get our mass driver lined to for a shot on one of them, shall we?”
Phoenix altered her vector to point her bow directly towards the incoming Lu’non battlers.
“I guess that the Lu’non are not expecting an old ship like this to want to close with them. I think that, first, we should try to shove a ‘crowbar’ down their throats. Ready the spinal mount for its first shot.”
Major Compton felt the combat tender alter its vector slightly as it adjusted to point its main weapon at a target.
“We have a Lu’non within the aiming basket now, Sir.” The gunnery officer for Phoenix quickly reported.
“You may fire when ready, Mister Gridley.”
The shipboard lights dimmed for an instant as the spinal mount mass driver fired at an enemy battler. The spinal mass driver basically threw a heavy long-rod projectile at a target using a series of electromagnets. The trajectory was fine-tuned as the projectile reached the last few segments of the mass-driver. The
re, slight manipulations of the magnetic fields at the ‘muzzle’ allowed the projectile to be magnetically ‘bumped’ a slight degree to adjust for target maneuvering.
A few seconds after the first ‘crowbar’ was fired, one of the Lu’non battlers suddenly began to tumble end over end, shedding hundreds of shattered fragments behind her. The entire bridge crew onboard Phoenix cheered at the first kill of the battle.
“Hitting those ships just got a lot harder. They have all started doing some pretty serious evasive maneuvering now.” Major Compton noted.
“We’ll do the best that we can, Sir. If they are flying defensively, then it will be a lot harder for the enemy to fire effectively at us too. We are firing missiles and lasers now.” Ship’s Gunnery reported.
“Keep hammering them, Mister Gridley.” The Major ordered before turning to his communications and sensors technicians.
“How’s Orca doing?”
“She’s hammered the hell out of one of those battlers already. It appears to be drifting and completely out of the fight. Orca punched right past those other two enemy battlers and is now pursuing the enemy combat tender. But Orca has already taken a bunch of hits from the other Lu’non ships. One of the other enemy battlers that had been engaging us has now turned around and is now pursuing Orca. Captain Sampson and the rest of his crew have to be getting the crap beaten out of them.”
“Colin and his people are still doing a hell of a job. The Lu’non now know that their ride home is in danger. Because of his efforts, we are only facing four of the Lu’non battlers.”
“I just hope that they don’t die as a result of their success.” The Phoenix’s sensor tech commented.
“I hope that they don’t die either. Let’s see if we can kill some more of those bastards so that we can help Colin out.”
Only two minutes later, a barrage of missiles from the base’s fighters cut another enemy battler to ribbons, with a final launch of missiles from the surviving fighters apparently reaching the Lu’non warship’s fusion power plant. The small battler suddenly erupted into a miniature sun for a few moments then disappeared.
But the willingness of the Lu’non ships to close the range with their human adversaries did not weaken in any way, in spite of the former’s losses.
“We’ve got three of their battlers coming directly at us from different vectors, Sir.” The Phoenix’s sensor tech quickly reported.
“Do what you can to avoid colliding with any of them, please. A direct collision at these speeds could be catastrophic for us.” Major Compton replied.
Everyone aboard the bridge felt themselves being flung from one side to the other as the combat tender maneuvered. Sometimes they were even floating briefly in mid air if they were not securely strapped to acceleration couches at their consoles as the ship frantically vectored to avoid smashing into an enemy battler or a volley of missiles.
One of the Lu’non flashed by the side of the Phoenix so closely that everyone flinched in expectation of a horrific collision. Instead, a massive ‘clang’ rang throughout the combat tender as news of something possibly even worse was reported.
“One of those damned Lu’non battlers has managed to grapple onto the side of our hull. I’m afraid that we are about to be boarded, Sir.” One of the starboard rear gunners reported a few seconds later.
Major Compton slapped a large button on the side of his command chair. Immediately, he was connected to the shipwide communications system.
“All ship’s personnel not currently engaged in priority tasks will immediately draw small arms and move to the starboard rear quadrant to repel boarders. This includes all personnel with Zero-G combat training.”
Among the people rushing to assist in the defense of the Phoenix were the newlyweds Angela and Jonathan who had both been working in Engineering. They had both put on armored clamshells over their skinsuits as they took up defensive positions near where the Lu’non battler had attached itself. Angela had armed herself with a 15mm gyrojet carbine firing armor-piercing explosive rounds while Jonathan held a 6mm machine pistol.
“I had heard that you were pretty skillful with the martial arts from the few stories that I overheard while on the pirate ship. Does that include using small arms in Zero-G, Angela?”
“Everyone in The True Way who served on shipboard was trained in a full range of combat skills. But that just added to the skills that I already had from my training in Earth Fleet earlier, Jonathan.”
“Well, then. I better get behind you. Everyone on Libertad basically grew up learning to shoot. That was sort of a cultural thing. You know, the whole ‘an armed society is a polite society’ philosophy. But I haven’t had a chance to do much shooting practice since I joined Galactic Expeditions, I’m afraid.”
“Don’t worry, Jonathan. You’ll do just fine. I heard about things on Libertad too. You don’t mess with anyone from there who has a gun.”
“This is very true. On Libertad, they truly believe that an armed society is a polite society. Everyone acts upon that belief as well with most of us walking around with some sort of weapon, even in public. I suppose that is why we don’t have a lot of prisons there.” Jonathan said with a wry smile.
Already there was a marine wearing a powered armor suit and waiting at the end of a corridor. Corporal Julian Kendall had been feeling left out because he could not make the trip with Alacrity due to problems with his armor. So, the possibility of action aboard Phoenix against the Lu’non filled him with excitement and a sense of vindication.
Julian had managed to pile a rather impressive number of weapons by his position as he waited for the first of the Lu’non boarders to appear. This included a quartet of man-portable anti-tank rockets in addition to the usual assortment of rifles, grenades and other implements of destruction.
The entire passageway shook and rumbled as a breaching charge tore open the nearby airlock inner door.
A few moments later, the first of the Lu’non boarders appeared.
For many of the crew who had never seen a Lu’non in armor before, the sight was shocking. They saw a dark, mottled black and grey metallic figure crawl out of the airlock and land on the deck of the passageway. The intruder was roughly insectoid in appearance though with six articulated limbs and three articulated segments. Above and below each of the middle segments was a small turret with a pair of weapons in each.
Shots quickly rang out within the narrow corridors of the human jump tender. At first, the shots from gyrojet rifles and concussion grenades failed to have any effect on the hideous armored form that began to advance.
Phoenix’s defenders would fire and retreat a short distance, trading space for time within the large combat tender. The internal surveillance cameras on the bridge were picking up all of the activity as three more of the Lu’non boarders entered and began to advance.
Even though the Lu’non were firing their weapons at any humans that appeared, the quick movements to avoid being hit kept human casualties to a minimum.
“It looks like those buggers are all heading towards the bridge.” Major Compton noted.
“Well, I guess that they are going to be in for a big surprise in a few moments.” Alan Gridley quickly replied between targeting the remaining Lu’non battlers.
Corporal Kendall saw nearly ten crewmen come around the corner, quickly fire their weapons and then dash back past him to take defensive positions. Julian had been monitoring the video feeds from the surveillance cameras through his armored suit’s heads-up display. He knew exactly what he was facing when the first Lu’non crawled around the corner of the passageway.
The Lu’non, on the other hand, had no idea what was waiting on it when it saw Corporal Kendall holding an anti-tank rocket over his shoulder, ready to fire. Before the Lu’non could turn its weapons turrets around to fire, Julian instantly fired the anti-tank rocket that many Marines referred to as a ‘door-knocker’. The powerful shaped charge warhead of the rocket detonated on impact and burned a white-hot
jet of molten metal diagonally through both sides of the Lu’non’s powered armor.
The six legs of the Lu’non’s armor suit immediately collapsed as the alien dropped dead. The next Lu’non began to make its advance to get past its dead compatriot. It too, felt the deadly impact of a rocket burning through its armored body.
The other Lu’non boarders started to retreat slowly, looking for another path to take. But Julian was quick to grab another rocket and dash forward. When the armored Marine came back around the corner, the two remaining Lu’non fired their heavy weapons at him. Two of the energy bolts struck glancing blows on Julian’s armor, knocking him back slightly but not inflicting any serious injuries.
Julian then dispatched a third Lu’non with another rocket. Rather than going back to get his last rocket, the armored Marine decided to use another weapon at his disposal to stop the Lu’non before it could retreat back into its ship.
Julian reached out his right arm and fired the 6.5mm automatic rifle that was incorporated into the vambrace of the suit’s lower arm. A high-velocity stream of armor-piercing, incendiary projectiles hammered into the Lu’non’s armored suit. Fiery ricochets bounced all around the passageway as Julian continued to fire at point-blank range, focusing first on the Lu’non boarder’s weapons turrets. They soon shattered under the sledgehammer blows. There were so many ricochets from Julian’s barrage that the rest of the Phoenix’s defenders stayed well back to avoid being hit by friendly fire.
With so many shots being fired by Julian, it was inevitable that some of them would penetrate the joints of the Lu’non’s armor. The alien boarder stiffened as his body was pierced repeatedly by Julian’s shots. First, the rear-most segment collapsed, then both of the others as the Lu’non died. Finally, Julian stopped firing and looked around towards the airlock.
Hearing the shots stop, several of Phoenix’s crew peeked around the corner to see what was happening. Seeing the four dead boarders, they rushed up en mass.
“Hey, Marine. You did good.” One of them told Julian. “But, maybe you should pick another weapon for your suit the next time that you have to deal with Lu’non boarders? Those damned ricochets are just too dangerous for the rest of us around here.”