Void Recon: A Military Sci-Fi Series (Omega Taskforce Book 2)

by G J Ogden

  “Your timing is impeccable, lieutenant,” said Sterling, feeling a weight lift from his shoulders. “Another millisecond and I would have had to take Commander Banks out myself.”

  “I’m surprised I’m not already burned to a crisp,” replied Banks, raising an eyebrow at Sterling. “Not that I’m complaining, of course.”

  Sterling considered a lie, perhaps explaining that the trigger had stuck or the weapon had jammed. However, while he had no issue lying to people, he cared nothing for, lying to Banks was different. The truth was he shouldn’t have hesitated and it bothered him that he had.

  “Is that Sa’Nerran Heavy Cruiser still out there?” Sterling called out to Shade, deciding to swiftly move the conversation on.

  “Aye, Commander,” Shade replied, coolly.

  Banks picked up her plasma pistol from the deck then walked over to Sterling. She appeared strangely composed considering she had almost died seconds earlier, but Sterling could see in her eyes that she was raging.

  “I don’t care how big that ship is, I want to blow it back to the shit-hole planet it came from,” Banks said. The veins in her neck and temple were throbbing.

  Sterling rested a hand on his first officer’s shoulder and met her eyes. “I think that can be arranged,” he said.

  Chapter 19

  Slaying a goliath

  Sterling stormed onto the bridge of the Invictus with such purpose that Ensign Keller almost fell off the command platform. Sterling tore open the straps of his body armor and tossed it to the deck, revealing the circular burns to his uniform where the Sa’Nerran plasma blasts had penetrated. With the pressure from the body armor gone, the wound stung like hell, but he shut out the pain. His mind was focused on only one thing – the Sa’Nerran Heavy Cruiser. The alien vessel was approaching from across the far side of the planetary fragment. It only had to orbit the fragment to get a clean shot, but Sterling had no intention of allowing the alien ship to fire first.

  Commander Banks reached her station next with Lieutenant Shade close behind. Separated from her body armor, Banks’ wounds were also clear. And it was also apparent that they were more severe than his own. Banks had taken several hits and the burned flesh on her ribs, stomach and back told the story of her encounter with the warriors on the station. However, he also knew the wounds could be treated, and that they would heal. The aliens on the heavy cruiser would not be so fortunate.

  “Ensign, keep the planetary fragment between us and that heavy cruiser,” Sterling ordered, grabbing the sides of his console. His fingers slid into the polished grooves in the metal that he’d worn down over the last year as commander of the Invictus. “Then be ready to brake hard and make an attack run directly through the research station. I want you to practically skim the rooftops of those structures”

  “Aye, Captain,” replied Keller. The ensign had now recovered from the shock of seeing Sterling charge onto the bridge like a Scottish clan warrior.

  Sterling could feel the thud of the plasma turrets through the deck plating, beating like war drums. On the viewscreen, a dozen Wasps circled around the ship and the station, stinging the Invictus with their low-yield weapons. The combined effect of the swarm’s attacks whittled down the ship’s regenerative armor and in places it was already wearing thin. However, if Sterling’s plan worked it wouldn’t matter. He had no intention of slugging it out with a heavy cruiser. That was a battle he couldn’t win. But while the modified cruiser was powerful, it was also slow. More importantly, its hollowed-out structure had been converted for hauling ore and was weak. So long as they timed their maneuver correctly, one full attack should be all they needed to take it down.

  Sterling tapped his neural interface and connected to Lieutenant Razor. On Sterling’s instructions, she had diverted to engineering, rather than return to the bridge.

  “Lieutenant, are you ready to give us the kick we need?” Sterling asked, as a wasp took a direct hit from their plasma turrets and exploded on the viewscreen.

  “Aye, Captain, I can give you a boost, but it will blow out a dozen relays in the process,” Razor replied. “The blast will also fry the main rail guns, so we might want to avoid any more unwanted attention on the way home.”

  Sterling huffed a laugh. Trouble always seemed to have a way of finding them, no matter what they did.

  “Noted, Lieutenant,” Sterling replied. “Transfer the power and stand ready to fight some fires,” he added, tapping his interface to close the link.

  “We’re down to the last six wasps,” said Lieutenant Shade from the weapons console. “Armor integrity is failing in multiple sections and there are reports of minor hull breaches. Everything is contained.”

  “Are there any casualties?” asked Commander Banks.

  “If there aren’t yet, there soon will be,” said Sterling, quick to cut off any answer from Shade. “Let’s save counting the butcher’s bill until after we’ve shut up shop.”

  An alert rang out on the bridge and Sterling glanced down at his console.

  “Another hull breach…” Banks said, as always quick to assess the situation. “Emergency seals in place.”

  “Ensign Keller, are you ready to impress me with your piloting skills?” Sterling called out to his helmsman.

  “Aye, sir. Always,” Keller replied.

  The helmsman had been growing in confidence more strongly over the last few months, Sterling realized. Now, in addition to possessing the ability, he had the belief too. Sterling then glanced across to Lieutenant Shade. His grip on the side of his console had become so tight that his fingers were going numb.

  “Lieutenant, when that cruiser comes into view, fire everything we have at its secondary reactor core,” Sterling said. “We only get one shot at this.”

  “Aye, Captain,” Shade replied. She then locked her eyes onto the viewscreen and hovered her hand over the top of her console, ready to fire.

  Sterling checked their position. They’d been running rings around the heavy cruiser for the last few minutes, using the planetary fragment as a shield. However, their flight pattern had not been random. The sprawling arrangement of structures built onto the surface of the fragment were all interconnected. It was like a patchwork quilt of different designs that had been added to over many years. A ship the size of a heavy cruiser couldn’t navigate through them, but the Invictus could. That was, so long as you had a pilot that was up to the task.

  “Time to earn your paycheck, Ensign,” said Sterling, waiting for the ship to reach the perfect position. “Start your run… now!”

  Keller sprang into action, fingers flashing across his console. Sterling felt the kick of the thrusters and the punch of their main engines. Reduced from full power, the inertial negation systems struggled to counteract the sudden, ferocious acceleration. Keller skimmed the Invictus barely meters above the surface of the planetary fragment, weaving through jagged outcroppings toward the research station. Buildings and towers and long connecting tunnels flashed past with dizzying speed, and Sterling found himself needing to widen his stance in order to stay balanced. Lieutenant Razor had shunted so much power into the engines and weapons that secondary – yet still vital – systems were being starved. Sterling hoped that his engineer hadn’t been too liberal when stealing power from the inertial negation system, otherwise they’d all end up as pulpy splats on the rear of the bridge.

  Suddenly the wail of alarms gripped Sterling like a knife to the throat, but Keller continued to push the Invictus on. Making an adjustment a fraction of a second too late, Keller clipped a support scaffold with their port wing, slicing through the base like an axe. The jolt almost sent Sterling to the deck, but he just managed to hang on.

  “Sorry!” Keller called out, compensating and improvising to get back on course.

  “We’ll knock it out back at the COP, Ensign,” replied Sterling, focusing on his console. The damage control panel was flashing like a pinball table, but the only reading he cared about was the position marker for the he
avy cruiser.

  “Ten seconds…” Commander Banks called out. “Prepare to fire.”

  The Invictus surged out from beneath the last of the structures then cut through a fissure in the planetary fragment. The modified alien heavy cruiser was now directly ahead. Sterling had intended to catch the behemoth unawares and with its belly exposed, but as the ship came into clearer view, he realized the Sa’Nerra had not been fooled. Instead of the Invictus pointing at the cruiser’s guts, they emerged from the planetary fragment almost nose-to-nose with the massive ship.

  “Ensign, take evasive maneuvers!” Sterling called out as the barrel of the cruiser’s enormous mining laser began to glow.

  Keller pushed the ship in a hard turn and this time Sterling was thrown off his platform. Smashing into the side of Banks’ console, he felt his ribs crack. He hugged the metal control station tightly to bear down against the pain. The mining laser then fired, sending an intense column of energy across the Invictus’ bow. The beam missed and slammed into the planetary fragment, slicing through the rock like it was cake.

  Keller banked hard to reacquire the cruiser and Sterling felt himself sliding off the console. The crushing impact to his ribs, combined with his other injuries, had caused his strength to fail him. Barely inches away from losing his grip, Banks grabbed the back of his tunic to steady him. Peering out through the screen, Sterling saw that Keller’s maneuver had positioned them above the cruiser. It wasn’t where he’d intended to be, but it would have to do.

  “Fire!” Sterling yelled, barely able to get the words out. “Fire, now!”

  Shade practically punched her console and the viewscreen momentarily went white as every weapon on the Invictus unleashed concentrated bursts of plasma at the cruiser. The plasma blasts ripped through the Sa’Nerran vessel’s hull like it had been perforated by an invisible spear. Sparks arced out from the hull and fires erupted inside and outside the vessel. Then the Invictus was rocked by the shockwave of the cruiser exploding like an atom bomb. More alarms rang out, but quickly silenced again as the fireball from the ship gave way to the blackness of space.

  “Woohoo!” yelled Ensign Keller, punching the air. “Great shot!”

  Sterling would have also congratulated his crew, though with his ribs broken and his breath gone, he was scarcely able to utter a whisper.

  “Enemy cruiser destroyed, Captain,” said Lieutenant Shade, though her confirmation of the kill was hardly needed. Sterling staggered back to his own console unaided. Banks knew better than to offer him any more help, and he would have refused it even if she had.

  “That’s an understatement,” said Banks, peering down at her scanner. “I think we could have destroyed a small moon with that blast.”

  “Plasma rail guns offline, Captain,” Shade continued, showing no emotion. “Regenerative armor at twenty-six percent, and climbing. Half of our plasma turrets are also destroyed. Point defenses are still active.”

  Sterling nodded while cradling his aching ribs. “Casualty report,” he asked, directing the order to Banks.

  “We lost three commandoes on the station and two crew in the attack, Captain,” replied Commander Banks. “I’d estimate Sa’Nerran casualties at one hundred and forty-six.”

  “Not a bad butcher’s bill,” said Sterling, forcing himself to stand tall, despite the effort causing him intense pain.

  “We’ve had worse, that’s for sure,” replied Banks, with a fatalistic air.

  “Set a course for the aperture and surge when ready,” Sterling called out to his ensign.

  “Aye, sir, but shouldn’t you get to the med bay?” Keller answered, adjusting course with one hand while glancing at Sterling over his shoulder.

  “I’ll go to med bay when I’m sure we’re in the clear, Ensign,” Sterling hit back. His response was crabbier than he’d intended on account of the pain. “The same goes for you two,” Sterling added, glancing at Banks then Shade. Both returned disgruntled expressions, like toddlers who had just been told to go to bed. Sterling then met Keller’s eyes again. “When we’re in the med bay, you’ll have the bridge, Ensign,” Sterling added, causing the flicker of a smile to appear on Keller’s lips. “You’ve shown that you can handle it.”

  “Aye, sir,” replied Keller. “Thank you, sir.”

  The helmsman then spun his chair back to his controls and continued piloting the battle-scarred Marauder toward to the aperture. Sterling felt a familiar neural link forming in his mind.

  “Are you going soft on me?” said Banks, through the neural link to Sterling. “That almost sounded like encouragement.”

  Sterling glanced across to Banks, who was grinning at him. “Truth is, if I don’t get off this damn platform in the next few minutes, you’re going to have to carry me off the bridge,” he said over the link.

  Banks smile fell away. She would have been able to feel the mental stress of his pain through their neural link.

  “Well, don’t die on me just yet, Lucas,” replied Banks. The statement sounded distinctly like an order.

  “I’ll do my best, Mercedes,” Sterling replied, making a concerted effort to smile, though it ended up as more of a grimace. Then he became serious again. “Hey, I’m glad I didn’t have to shoot you today,” he said. “It was close though. Too close.”

  Banks returned a weak smile of her own. “Me too,” she said. Then her smile broadened. “After all, who else would wake your sorry ass up in the morning if I were dead?”

  Sterling laughed, but then regretted it as pain spasmed throughout his body.

  “Go to the med bay, already, before you die at your post, like some ancient mariner,” Banks said in a scolding tone.

  However, Sterling merely shook his head. “No. My place is here, on the bridge,” he said, defiantly. “And this is where I’ll be until we’ve beaten those alien bastards back to their own world and crushed them for good.”

  Chapter 20

  Upper body strength

  Captain Lucas Sterling stood tall and aimed his plasma pistol at Commander Ariel Gunn. A Sa’Nerran warrior stood behind her, its long fingers wrapped around Gunn’s slender neck. The alien glared at Sterling with its yellow eyes, while the neural control weapon it had attached to Gunn’s implant blinked furiously. The warrior let out a hiss at Sterling, no doubt cursing him in the incomprehensible language of the Sa’Nerra. Then its alien vocalizations warped and twisted and suddenly Sterling realized he could understand them.

  “You don’t care about anyone…” the alien hissed at Sterling. “Go on, kill her again. Blow her head off her shoulders and prove that you are no better than the Sa’Nerra.”

  Sterling gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on his pistol. “You force me to do this!” Sterling snarled at the alien. “You invaded our space. You murder my people without reason and without mercy. You’re why I have to do this!”

  The alien’s thin, slug-like lips twisted into a smile. It was an expression that no Sa’Nerran warrior had ever made before. The faces of the alien race were as plastic and as inexpressive as a mannequin. That this warrior dared to mock him with such a twisted sneer only made Sterling loath the creature more.

  “Do it then…” the Sa’Nerran hit back, tightening its stranglehold around Ariel Gunn’s neck. “Prove that you have the stomach to see this through. Prove you are worthy of the uniform and the silver stripe…”

  Sterling felt his pulse pounding in his neck and temples. He averted his gaze from the gloating face of the alien and met Gunn’s eyes. They were fearful, pleading.

  “Lucas, no!” Gunn cried. “Don’t you care about me at all? How can you kill me so easily? You could save me, Lucas! Why won’t you try?”

  Sterling tightened his grip on the pistol. Gunn’s pleading would not change what he had to do. What he had already done. Suddenly Gunn’s expression hardened and her voice became bitter and toxic.

  “But you won’t, will you?” Gunn spat. “The truth is that you’re the monster, Lucas, not the Sa’Nerra!
”

  Sterling had heard enough. He squeezed the trigger and sent a blast of pure energy directly into Ariel’s Gunn’s face. Her head exploded and her lifeless body fell to the deck. Sterling turned back to the Sa’Nerran warrior. It’s plastic face and yellow eyes were still smiling at him.

  “You’ll never win,” the warrior hissed. Then the alien began to morph before Sterling’s eyes. Seconds later Captain Lana McQueen was standing before him, wearing her unique Sa’Nerran warrior’s armor. “The Sa’Nerra are stronger, smarter and there are more of us,” McQueen said. She was calm, logical and cold. “You can’t win, Lucas. You will be forced to kill all those you care about, and still you will end up with nothing, begging for your life.” Then McQueen’s features softened and she held out her hand to Sterling. “Join me, Lucas. Become an emissary with me. I will show you the way.”

  Sterling adjusted the aim of his pistol and pointed it at McQueen. The former Omega officer just smiled back at him.

  “I don’t care how many I have to kill to get to you,” Sterling hit back, angrier than he’d ever felt in his life. “You can test me. Mock me. Threaten me. But you’ll never beat me. And I’ll never join you.”

  Sterling squeezed the trigger and fired, but McQueen melted into nothingness as if she was merely a mirage. Then his eyes went dark and he felt himself floating out of his body. All that remained was the voice of the Sa’Nerran warrior hissing in his mind.

  “You will lose…”

  Sterling shot up in bed, sheets soaking wet with sweat. His heart was thumping so hard in his chest that it physically hurt. The lights in his quarters on the Invictus were already switched on, though the light level was low, like a sunrise. Sterling cursed then drew in a series of long, slow breaths while gathering his senses and regaining control of his body. At the same time the lights grew steadily brighter.