“That’s five, ma’am,” he said through his radio. “Guess that makes me—”
“Don’t you say it!” Jasmine cut him off. “The Phantom support is what giving us an advantage. If they were not here we would have been toast awhile ago. Stow that feeling until we are back on the Hornet in one piece. Got it?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he responded, feeling a bit deflated. In his mind he knew she was right, but he needed a victory to keep his spirit up. He could hear the chatter; the only thing going well in this battle was the fight between the fighters. Yes, they had lost a significant number of Avengers, they were never designed for fighter to fighter combat anyways.
The sound of static crackled in his ear. All he could make out was “The Ranger.” He looked to his right to find where the Battle Carrier was supposed to be. Before he could get a bead on it, a Phantom streaked across his field of vision tumbling out of control. It caught the wing of another Phantom that was floating by.
“Watch out!” Jasmine yelled.
David looked in fear as another Phantom was headed straight at him. He banked up and out of the way, missing the other fighter by inches. Then he was pressed to bring his fighter back down to avoid another out-of-control Phantom. “What the hell?” he asked pushing hard on the controls.
“Looks like the Ranger is out of commission,” Jasmine responded solemnly. “That means the Phantoms are just expensive FOD hazards now.” He heard a click in his earpiece that signified she now opened the channel to multiple people. “Diamond group, this is Diamond lead. Get clear of the Phantoms and then form up on me. Looks like the odds just switched in the enemy’s favor again.”
42
EDS Oppenheimer
Grand Isle System
“Cannon power at 75 percent and holding,” the tactical officer said, eyes focused on his terminal.
Eric nodded. “Good. Are we aligned for a shot?”
“In 3,2,1. Target is locked, and we are at the optimum firing angle,” he replied. They had moved in behind the Hornet, then maneuvered above positioning the Oppenheimer in line with the primary Invader ship.
“Fire!” Eric commanded, his voice echoing throughout the bridge. The ship shuddered as the muzzle released its full fury of energy on the target. He noticed a ripple of energy appear to radiate away from the impact point, then the invisible beam cored through the enemy ship between the two forward weapon spheres. The heavy anti-proton beam lanced all the way to the enemy ship’s power core. The resulting chain reaction caused bulges to flare up all over the fuselage. The Invader ship exploded in a white light, overpowering the view screen’s filters. Cheers flowed out all over the bridge. Then they were silenced by warning klaxons ringing out all over the bridge.
“Collision warning, Captain!” the helmsman yelled out. The screen resolved back to normal and a chill ran down Eric’s spine as he could see a large chunk of alien debris, one of the spheres, speeding straight at them.
“Z minus 250 meters. Full now!” He ordered. Without an acknowledgment from the helmsman Eric could feel the Oppenheimer drop suddenly. His restraints were fighting to keep him in his seat, and pain shot into his shoulders. He witnessed on the view screen as the large piece of Invader ship rose out of view. The ship shuttered and a loud long screeching noise pierced everyone’s hearing. Then it went silent for a moment. More alarms started coming from the Operations station and Tactical.
“Operations report,” Eric said firmly.
“We have damage along the dorsal side of the ship. We have lost three PDS turrets and one of the stabilization thrusters,” the operations officer reported.
“Tactical, can you confirm?” he said.
The young officer scanned over his terminal and then turned to the Captain, “Yes, sir, three turrets lost.”
“Ops, can we fire the cannon with the missing thruster?” Eric asked.
“Yes, sir, but barely. It’s going to be hard to maintain vertical stability,” he replied.
“Understood,” Eric started. “Tactical, how long until we can charge the cannon?”
“Seven minutes, sir,” he replied.
“That’s a long time,” he thought to himself. He looked over his terminal to get a status of the fleet. He didn’t like what he saw. More ships were displaying damage on the link. Mostly the ones closest to the enemy ship when it exploded. The Levchenko was now displayed as disabled, and the Grafton and Fort Worth were showing heavy damage.
“Captain!” yelled the Ops officer.
Eric looked up to see to balls of blue energy heading their way. Without hesitation he ordered, “Helm, all ahead full.” The ship lurched forward gaining speed. His hope was that these weapons were not guided and that the shots pass by harmlessly. He watched on the view screen in horror as the spheres of blue energy turned to intercept them. All he could do was yell out, “Brace for impact!”
43
EDS Little Rock
Grand Isle System
The bridge was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. There was a wave of hope and cheering as they watched the Oppenheimer destroy the primary Invader ship, only to have the rug ripped out from under them as they watched the Invader carrier use its weapons to disable the ship.
“What now, Captain?” Sinclair asked solemnly.
Jessica sat in her chair. She held up a hand to signal to the XO to give her a moment to think. She took a breath and was thinking about what had transpired the past few days. Her mind was racing. The tactics these aliens were using were not making sense. Why destroy some ships and disable others? Why? If you are taking individuals to use as slaves, why not disable all the ships? Where they just taking the most advanced ships? She looked at her terminal; more icons of ships turned yellow then red.
“Captain?” McKnight asked in a low voice.
Jessica stood to address the crew, “Alright everyone, I need options, no matter how crazy. Give them to me.” She pointed to the screen. “What can we do to help?” She looked around the bridge and everyone was staring at her. Their faces blank not knowing how to respond.
“Run?” Ray chimed in from his station breaking the silence.
“Not an option,” she replied sternly.
“Why not?” Sinclair began, “I mean there would be no shame in it. What would command expect a light combat vessel to do in this situation, run in guns blazing?”
Jessica turned to him, annoyed at her XO’s answer. “You know what they are going to do to the crew of those ships that they didn’t destroy. Can you live with yourself knowing that you ran and left them to that fate?” She heard the crew make noise in the background trying to figure out what she was talking about.
Sinclair stood up to face her. Even with her station raised he still stood over her. “No, Captain, I can’t, but what other options do we have? Unless you can magically teleport a nuke in the middle of that ship, we have no other option.”
Her mind focused on the word teleport for a moment. Something about it gave her an idea. She snapped her fingers. “That’s it! You’re a genius.”
Dumbfounded, Sinclair responded, “I am? Would you mind letting me in on the secret because unless we got a new weapon that I don’t know about I am lost.”
“The Allure,” she stated as she started to type commands into her terminal, and the main view screen’s image changed to a layout of the Little Rock. She turned to face the screen. “After the incident with the Allure, all ships were modified to include a safety system that would eject the Displacement drive and push the ship away before the jump.” The image displayed an animation of the Displacement drive being jettisoned. “If we could drop all the safeties and recreate the same malfunction with a micro-jump.”
“We could turn the Displacement drive into a weapon,” McKnight said, completing Jessica’s sentence.
Jessica turned to the senior NCO with a smile, “Yes, it would for all intents and purposes magically appear inside the target.”
“Uh, there are a few problems with that
plan I need to point out, Captain,” Sinclair objected.
“Yes, XO, go ahead,” she said.
“Well, first is the fact that disposing the Displacement drive like this would leave us stranded in this system, and if your plan didn’t work, we would be at mercy of the Invaders,” he started. “Second, we can’t aim the drive like a weapon, and third, the ejection system could fail, and we could destroy the ship!”
“Those are good points. I understand it is a gamble, but we really don’t have a choice at this point if we want to save the people in those ships,” she replied.
“Understood, ma’am, but I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t inform you of the risks,” he stated.
She nodded in acknowledgment. “Thanks for keeping me on my toes, XO. Now let’s get the ball rolling while there is still a fleet out there to save.” She pressed the intercom button on her terminal to open a line to main engineering. “Engineering, this is the captain.”
“Yes, Captain?” Magnuson’s voice answered over the speaker.
“Commander? I thought Doc had you confined to rest?” she asked, puzzled why he was at his post.
“I was not going to let you take this ship into battle with me laying on my back. No way, especially with these bastards!” he replied.
She let the language slip by, but she noted it for a later discussion. “I don’t expect the Doc was too happy with that?”
“Nope.”
“Well, I have something I need you to do, Commander. I need you to pull all the safeties on the Displacement drive. We are going to recreate a field size error,” she ordered.
There was a moment of silence before Magnuson replied, “Are you serious, Captain?”
“Very,” she replied stoically as another ship on her terminal went red. “And we only have minutes to get it done.”
44
Grand Isle System
David glanced at his weapons store list on his instrument panel. It displayed what he feared. He only had two missiles left and about 200 rounds for each cannon. The radar display wasn’t any better; most of the ships in the battle group were destroyed or disabled. The fighters they had left were slowly disappearing from his screen. The enemy fighters now had a three-to-one advantage. He knew that they couldn’t last much longer engaged with the enemy like this. “How do we even the odds?” he thought to himself looking out of the of the cockpit. Then he spotted it, and he didn’t like it. Keying into his comms, he called out, “Diamond Lead, this is Rockhound. I have an idea on how to even the odds.”
“I am open to suggestions,” Jasmine replied.
“Get the group to lead these guys into the lunar debris field. It can give us some cover and we won’t be sitting ducks in open space.”
“It’s not the craziest idea, and it might keep us alive a little longer.” A beep came through his speaker signaling Jasmine had switched to an open line. “All fighter groups, this is Diamond Lead. Form up on my group--we are going to take the fight into the debris field.”
David pitched his fighter to the left and faced the large floating rocks ahead of him. He pushed the throttle forward to full. It felt like a gorilla slammed against him as the sudden acceleration caused a rapid increase in g-force. "Hope this works," he thought.
“Ship answering all stop, Captain,” Ensign Hunter called out.
“Very good, Ensign,” Jessica replied.
“Captain, how are we going to target a moving ship with a Displacement drive? The target is moving, and we need a fixed point to navigate to,” Sinclair asked.
“Good question,” Jessica thought. She didn’t want to say it out loud because she could tell that the crew, especially her XO, were not one hundred percent sold on the idea. She thought for a moment before answering, “We will have to use some good teamwork between Tactical and the Helm. Tactical, can you give me a targeting solution on a ship, estimating speed of the Invader ship, and give a relative position in space?”
Lieutenant Wei looked over his console typing in a few commands before answering, “Yes, Captain, it looks like I can.”
“Good, I will need to send that information to the Helm. Ensign Hunter, you will need to use that information to plot a jump to those coordinates.”
“Aye, Captain, I will do my best,” Kai responded.
“That is all I am asking for,” Jessica replied then opened a channel to Engineering, “Commander Magnuson, how are we looking like down there?”
“We need a few more minutes, Captain,” he responded.
“You said that a few minutes ago!” Jessica replied, her frustration coming out. “We don’t have a lot of time to play around here.”
“I understand, Captain, but if we don’t do this right, we will lose containment on the capacitors too soon and warp the ship to pieces!”
Jessica took a breath to steady her voice. “Understood, Commander, can you give me an exact time?”
“Five minutes.”
“The fleet doesn’t have five minutes. I need it done now!”
“Yes, Captain, I will try to get it done faster.”
“Get it done,” Jessica ordered, then cut off the line. She took a moment to regain her composure. “Tactical, keep feeding targeting info to the Ensign Hunter. Helm be ready once Engineering is done with what they have to do, we are going to need to act quickly. How much charge is in the capacitor?”
“Enough for a one-light-year jump,” Ensign Hunter replied.
“Good,” Jessica said. She sat back in her chair and looked over at the tactical readout on her screen and glanced at the fighter data. She noticed that all the Ranger’s fighters were disabled and a large contingent of the Hornet’s was destroyed. She noticed David’s fighter was still there. She hoped he could last long enough for her plan to work.
David angled the nose of his fighter down to avoid the small chunk of rock ahead of him. His fighter rocked as a missile meant for him impacted the piece of rock and exploded, sending shards of debris raining over his already damaged armor. "Shit, Mouse, where are you?" he called out over the radio.
"Got my own problems right now, buddy, " Mouse replied. David could hear warning klaxons ring out in the background of the transmission.
"Don't worry, I got you, Mouse," Jasmine chimed in, and David heard the familiar sound of a target lock come across the radio.
He didn't have time to respond as a large boulder was now on his flight path. He pulled back on the throttle, flipping the fighter to have the ass end face the floating rock. As he did, he caught a glimpse of the enemy fighter that took a shot at him; it was bearing down on him. He pushed the throttle controls forward for more thrust causing his fighter to leap forward. As he did, he depressed the trigger on the flight controls. A stream of 20mm projectiles leapt out of the barrels of his Tigershark and struck dead center on the incoming fighter. The rounds tore through the triangle-shaped vehicle causing the pilot to lose control and sending it spinning off deeper into the debris field.
A flash lit up his field of vision and he heard, “Thanks, Diamond Lead," from Mouse come across the radio. He assumed that the explosion came from there. David took a quick glance at his radar. The enemy fighters were closing, fast. “Diamond Lead, this is Rock Hound, we need to get deeper in the field. Then we can Pirate Run them,” he said, referring to the first sim he did--the one in which he unceremoniously earned his call-sign.
“Right, it’s going to get a little tight in there, but it couldn’t get any worse than it is now,” she replied.
David banked his fighter back around heading deeper into the debris field. The floating rocks were getting larger, and the space to maneuver was getting tight. The remaining EDF fighters were sticking close to the rocks in a hope to confuse the enemy’s targeting systems, but at this speed the chance of slamming into a rock was increasing. To push home his point, he witnessed a SF-19, one that belonged to the Viper group, clip a boulder, spin off, and explode into tiny pieces.
An alarm rang out warning David of an
other incoming missile. “Damn it!” he exclaimed. He was paying so much attention to the downed EDF fighter he didn’t notice the enemy fighter that dropped in behind him. He pitched down close to one of the boulders in hopes of confusing it. He cleared the other side and it was still on him and closing. He toggled his last defense pod. As the incoming missile closed within range, David’s fighter shook as it deployed the tiny defense projectile. The pod detonated as the missile closed, sending shards of metal out in all directions that collided with the incoming weapon, causing it to explode harmlessly away from his fighter. “Okay, you sneaky little bastard, it is my turn,” he said to himself. Then he dropped the fighter to hug the large rock. He increased his throttle and used the small amount of gravity given off by the chunk of moon to sling shot around and get behind the enemy fighter.
He emerged from the other side of the rock behind the squat enemy fighter. He selected one of his last missiles on his controls and got an immediate lock. David pulled the trigger on the control stick. The Lancer dropped from his fighter and shot out towards the target. “Eat it,” David said confidently. That confidence quickly went away as his missile exploded before reaching its target.
Confused, he said, “What the hell?” Then he realized that this one must have a defense system like his fighter. He poured on more speed to close the distance, and selected guns. The enemy fighter pitched up to get away. David looked at his speed indicator; with the gravity assist he was closing fast enough to pull one maneuver before he would need to adjust. He cut the engines off and used the maneuvering thrusters to bring his nose up. He led the target and pulled hard on the trigger control. Streams of projectiles from both cannons traced a line up towards his target,raking holes through the fighter until they reached the power plant. The resulting flash from the explosion caused him to close his eyes.
Stollar's Gambit Page 22
