by Ryk Brown
“Multiple jump flashes,” Loki reported as he stared at the Seiiki’s tactical display. “Reapers, Super Eagles, and…octos!” Loki’s voice changed. “Six Dusahn octo-fighters, starboard side, ten clicks, opposite direction, just below us. They’re headed for the Reapers.”
“Turning into them,” Josh announced as he started a turn to starboard.
“Plotting an intercept jump,” Loki replied. “Gunners! Be ready!”
“No shit,” Marcus grumbled over comms.
“Reapers, Seiiki!” Loki continued over comms. “Six octos headed your way. Ten clicks, to your star… They jumped! They’re on your six! Reapers! Evasive!”
“Jumping,” Josh announced as his windows turned opaque. Josh looked out the windows as they cleared, immediately spotting the Dusahn octo-fighters as they opened fire on the flight of eight Reapers. Two of the Reapers took hits on their shields, but all eight of them successfully jumped away. “Let’em have it!” Josh instructed as both Marcus and Dalen opened up on the enemy fighters with the Seiiki’s topside plasma cannon turrets. Josh tapped his firing button, as well, sending wave after wave of plasma torpedoes into the group of octo-fighters as they, too, jumped away. “Fuck!”
“I got a piece of one of them,” Dalen insisted.
“No, you didn’t,” Marcus corrected.
“Where’d the Reapers go?” Josh wondered.
“They jumped to the surface,” Loki replied.
“So quickly?” Josh wondered. “Damn, those boys are better on the stick than I gave them credit.”
“Turn us in and down toward the deck, Josh,” Loki instructed. “We have to provide cover for them until they get their shields up.”
“Can’t the Super Eagles do that?”
“Not yet,” Loki explained. “They’re busy chasing down those octos, remember?”
“Tell me you wouldn’t rather be in a Super Falcon right now,” Josh challenged his friend.
“Not the way you fly it.”
Falcon One’s cockpit windows cleared, revealing two frigates, one of which was heavily damaged by missile impacts.
“Two targets,” Ensign Lassen announced. “Port target is about to come apart. Starboard target has no starboard or aft shields.”
“I’m taking the starboard target,” Lieutenant Teison replied. “Take the port one with seekers.”
“Seekers coming up,” Sergeant Nama replied from just behind them.
Lieutenant Teison rolled the Falcon slightly to starboard and pitched its nose down, bringing his plasma cannons onto the target and firing a split second later. His plasma bolts walked across the aft end of the Dusahn frigate as it attempted to return fire with its meager point defenses. Frigates were designed to fire missiles and then jump out of harm’s way, not battle it out with an attacker. But the surprise attack by the Aurora had caught them off guard, and now they were paying the price.
Multiple secondary explosions went off all across the aft end of the frigate, separating its drive section from the ship.
“Seekers away,” Sergeant Nama announced.
“You tore her up, but she ain’t out,” Ensign Lassen advised. “You want to go back and finish her?”
“Oh, yeah!” the sergeant exclaimed. “Four seekers! Direct impacts! Target destroyed.”
“Negative,” the lieutenant told his copilot. “We’ve got a schedule to keep. Riko!” he called back to his weapons and systems officer. “Drop a comm-buoy with a message for the Gunyoki. The second frigate is all theirs.”
“You got it, L.T.,” the sergeant replied.
“Next stop, Savoy,” the lieutenant stated as he glanced at the mission clock. The time was zero plus twenty-three seconds.
Eight jump flashes appeared in the breaking dawn around the perimeter of the old Corinari base outside of Aitkenna, the capital of Corinair. Behind those flashes, the Aurora’s Reapers, their sweep-wings already deployed, dropped nearly straight down from their jump arrival points only a hundred meters above the surface.
The Reapers set down in near unison, their landing gear becoming fully deployed only a fraction of a second before touchdown. Dust swirled from the ground beneath them as their downward-deflected thruster ducts blasted the surface.
As each ship touched down, three Ghatazhak soldiers jumped out on each side and ran away from their Reapers. They were immediately met with incoming energy weapons fire from nearby guard towers, until several Super Eagles jumped in and silenced them.
As the Reapers throttled their engines back up and climbed skyward once more, one man on either side of each ascending Reaper jammed a tall stake, with an emitter node on its tip, into the ground in a vertical position. Each stake was equally spaced around the insertion area, resulting in a three-hundred-meter-diameter circle of sixteen stakes.
Vol Kaguchi still wasn’t quite used to suddenly being someplace he wasn’t a moment ago. Nevertheless, he did like it, especially the multitude of combat tactics it opened up for him. Unfortunately, it also opened a host of combat tactics against which he would have to defend, and his opponents would have far more training with those tactics than he.
“Shenza One, attacking,” Vol announced as he came out of his jump and found himself closing rapidly on a pair of Dusahn octo-fighters that were chasing one of the Aurora’s Super Eagles. He pressed his firing trigger, unleashing his turrets and sending a barrage of energy bolts spewing toward the enemy targets.
“Shenza Two, I have your six, One.”
“Just make sure you stick close,” Vol replied as he maneuvered to get a clean shot. The Super Eagle jumped, and the pair of Dusahn octo-fighters turned in opposite directions, also jumping two seconds later. “Damn!” Vol cursed. “Tariq! One one five by two seven five; plus ten. Jumping.”
“Got it, Vol. Right beh…”
Vol’s wingman’s transmission was cut short as Vol jumped before it had been completely received. When his canopy cleared, a Dusahn gunship was coming straight for him, firing away. Vol’s shields lit up, flashing the octagonal patterns formed by its emitter matrix with each impact of the enemy’s weapons.
“Shields down twenty percent, Vol,” his weapons officer warned.
“Shenza Two, Shenza One; Are you there Tariq?”
“I’m here! Break left twenty, and jump one light minute. I’ll put a spread of shield busters in this guy’s face and follow.”
Vol didn’t reply, instead just following his wingman’s recommendations, rolling his ship into a twenty-degree turn to port and jumping ahead a single light minute.
Tariq glanced out the front of his canopy as Vol’s Gunyoki fighter rolled out to the left, and was enveloped by a subtle glow of blue-white light before vanishing without the usual jump flash. Now with a clear line of fire, Tariq launched a spread of twelve shield-busting missiles. The stubby, little missiles streaked ahead of him, slamming into the incoming gunship.
“That did it!” Jova declared from the backseat. “His shields are down.”
“Hey, somebody take this guy out for me, will you?” Tariq called as he turned to follow Vol to the post escape-jump rally point.
“Shenza Three and Four are on it,” Tham Kors called over comms from somewhere behind them.
Tariq could hear Alayna Imai in Shenza Four letting out a Rakuen battle cry as he jumped away to find Vol in Shenza One.
“I’m coming back around now,” Josh declared.
“Keep that as……ole off of …… until …… get this damned sh…… up!” Sergeant Eliason ordered over comms from the surface of Corinair.
Josh twisted his flight control stick, snap rolling the Seiiki as his gunners fired away at the pursuing octo-fighters directly behind them.
“Eagles Five and Six, Seiiki,” Loki called over comms. “We could use some help here.”<
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“Ten seconds, Seiiki.”
The gunship Josh was trying to get a firing angle on suddenly jumped away, just as he was about to get a target lock. “Son of a bitch! These guys fly their gunships like you guys fly your Super Eagles!”
Energy bolts streamed past the Seiiki’s cockpit on either side, narrowly missing them. Then, the barrage suddenly ended, and the ship was rocked by an explosion, then two seconds later, another.
“That good, huh?” the Super Eagle pilot joked. “Your six is clear, Josh.”
“Thanks, Jonesy,” Josh replied. “Gimme another target, Loki.”
“Right twelve and down five. Then jump twenty clicks. Another gunship is about to open up on the Ghatazhak down below.”
“Not if I can help it,” Josh declared as he turned the ship slightly right, pitched down a touch, and tapped his jump button.
A brilliant blue-white flash filled the sky above the battle at the Corinari base—turned prison camp—just outside of Aitkenna. From behind the flash, one of the ungainly-looking cargo haulers, commonly referred to as a ‘boxcar’, came riding down on four fiery tails of thrust. The boxcar descended rapidly, slowing at the last minute and coming to a hover less than a meter above the surface, directly in the middle of the ring of emitter poles the Ghatazhak had planted less than a minute and a half ago.
The boxcar released its cargo pod, allowing it to drop the last half meter to the ground, landing with a ground shaking thud. The abrupt lightening of its load caused the hauler to suddenly surge upward, giving it just enough forward momentum to jump away, disappearing behind another brilliant flash of blue-white light.
Once on the ground, sixteen emitters popped up along the edges of the cargo pod. A few seconds later, they began to glow, growing in intensity over several seconds, until a wave of energy spewed outward in all directions. The energy reached the emitter poles the Ghatazhak had placed around a three-hundred-meter-diameter circle two minutes ago, and suddenly the entire area—the prison entrance, and the Ghatazhak themselves—was covered with an invisible shield that flashed yellow and red every time Dusahn weapons fire struck its surface.
Sergeant Eliason flinched with each incoming heavy plasma fire that rained down from orbit. But to his relief, the shield proved its worth, and the sergeant flinched less and less. He turned to look at his men, yelling, “We’re in business, boys!”
* * *
Lord Dusahn lay naked on the table as two sturdy, yet attractive, young Takaran women vigorously rubbed his body with healing herbs and oils native to the area. Such a treatment had become a regular part of his daily routine soon after conquering the Pentaurus cluster. It was one of the many perks of his position, one which he enjoyed immensely.
The doors to the private chamber, connected to his office, burst open, and General Hesson came charging in, causing the young women to shy away from their duties and cover up their scantily covered bodies.
“What is the meaning of this?” Lord Dusahn barked, enraged at the intrusion. “How dare you…”
“A million pardons, my lord. We are under attack.”
“What?” Lord Dusahn jumped from the table, grabbing his robe. “Where?”
“Corinair, my lord,” the general explained with urgency. “By the Aurora, four gunships, and various other ships, including a handful of Gunyoki fighters from Rakuen, equipped with a jump drive that does not reveal their position upon entry.”
“What is their objective?” Lord Dusahn demanded to know as he pulled his trousers on.
“They have landed nearly one hundred soldiers at the prison facility where the Corinari are being held, pending transfer to their work assignments. They have somehow erected a shield over their point of insertion, which also encompasses the entrance to the underground holding facility. This shield protects them from attack, even from bombardment by our gunships in orbit.”
“What about the Jar-Jeffon. How many frigates are in the system?” Lord Dusahn inquired as he continued dressing. He glanced at the two girls cowering to the side. “Be gone!” he barked, sending them scurrying toward the exit.
“The Jeffon is damaged and is having trouble maneuvering; however, she can still defend herself. She is moving away from the planet to avoid being pulled in by its gravity, should its propulsion systems degrade further.”
“And the frigates? What about the frigates?” Lord Dusahn demanded as he pulled on his boots.
“They have both been destroyed, my lord,” General Hesson replied. “I believe they intend to attempt a rescue of the Corinari.”
Lord Dusahn smiled as he donned his uniform jacket. “I knew it. I knew that idiot child would try to rescue his friends. They must be desperate for manpower, which means that Rakuen has not yet pledged their support.”
“But the Gunyoki are attacking, as well,” General Hesson reminded his lord.
“The Gunyoki do what they want, without need for approval by their own government. You read the intelligence reports. Their presence means nothing, and the fact that Scott is trying to rescue trained warriors is quite telling.” Lord Dusahn shook his finger in the air, thinking. “As is that shield. They expect difficulty extracting such numbers.” Lord Dusahn headed for the door to his office, and General Hesson fell in behind him. “Send the Jar-Inta and the Jar-Belaron to Corinair,” he ordered as he passed through his private chamber to his main office. “Send all Zen-Anor on Corinair to the prison. We will squash them; all hundred of them; denying them the additional manpower and weakening them, further still, in the process!” Lord Dusahn turned to the general. “Not a single Ghatazhak gets off the surface alive, understood?”
“Yes, my lord,” General Hesson replied. “And what of the Aurora?”
“What of her? Destroy her, of course!”
“She has proven a formidable opponent in the past, my lord,” General Hesson warned.
“That is why I am sending two battleships,” Lord Dusahn reminded him, annoyed at the general’s inference.
“Might I suggest that we order our older ships that are still in port to begin spooling up their reactors, in case we need them?”
“Nonsense,” Lord Dusahn laughed.
“With all due respect, my lord, we cannot afford to lose three battleships.”
“I think you are giving the boy-who-would-be-captain too much credit, my old friend.” Lord Dusahn thought for a moment. “However, if you must, you may also pull additional ships out of nearby systems, such as Rama or Hayden, for example.”
“A wise decision, my lord,” the general said with a respectful nod.
“I suggest you tell Captain Monton and Captain Joreeza that they had better destroy the Aurora, if they wish to keep their commands.”
* * *
“Jump to Savoy, complete,” the Aurora’s navigator announced.
“Multiple contacts,” Lieutenant Commander Kono reported from the sensor station. “Four gunships, a cruiser, and multiple cargo ships, all in orbit over Ancot.”
“Helm, bear on the cruiser and prepare to jump in close under her,” Nathan ordered. “Tactical, missiles for the gunships, and ready plasma cannons for any survivors when we jump in.”
“Bearing on the cruiser, aye,” Lieutenant Dinev acknowledged.
“Locking missiles on the gunships,” Jessica followed.
“Mister Bickle, we’ll jump in below and half a click aft of the target,” Nathan continued. “Lieutenant, pitch up forty-five degrees as we jump.”
“Missiles away,” Jessica reported.
“Plotting jump,” the navigator replied.
“Forty-five up as we jump, aye.”
“Cruiser is raising shields,” Lieutenant Commander Kono warned. “She knows we’re here, sir.”
Four jump flashes appeared on the main view screen as the
missiles Jessica had just launched jumped toward their targets.
“Gunships are jumping,” the lieutenant commander announced.
“Damn it,” Jessica cursed.
“No problem,” Nathan reminded her. “Safety those birds, and jump them to the recovery zone, so we can pick them up later.”
“Already on it,” Jessica assured him.
“On course, and pitching up,” Lieutenant Dinev reported.
“Cruiser is launching missiles,” Lieutenant Commander Kono warned. “They’re jump missiles!”
“Full power, hard to port and upward,” Nathan ordered.
Lieutenant Dinev didn’t wait to acknowledge or respond, immediately bringing the Aurora’s main engines to full power, and altering her course to port and upward. A split second later, four jump missiles appeared from behind flashes of blue-white light just to their right side, streaking past them harmlessly.
“Return the favor, Jess,” Nathan ordered.
“I’m on it,” she replied.
“Escape jump after the missiles are away,” Nathan continued.
“Escape jump, aye,” Mister Bickle replied. “Jump line is clear.”
“Missiles away.”
“Escape jump!” Nathan ordered, the blue-white jump flash appearing as the words crossed his lips.
Robert flinched as four missiles struck the Dusahn cruiser’s shields, moments after he jumped in near the enemy warship. Without thinking, he pressed and held his firing button. “Gunners! Pound their aft shields!” he ordered as he sent plasma torpedoes streaking toward the cruiser. A moment later, bolts of energy from his port and starboard gun turrets were added to the barrage.
