Multiple ships were waiting for us as we left hyperspace. As my eyes came into focus I could see an entire line of alien ships emerge from the darkness. The bridge erupted into a flurry of confusion. Shots from all over slammed into the leading gunboat, blowing it apart in moments. All of our surviving ships took evasive action to avoid slamming into the wreck or hitting the transports. We got closer and our scanners began to pick up the other vessels.
A blast hit our ship and our shields failed. Our radar identified landing crafts approaching our bay.
I turned to the captain, who was shouting out orders to the rest of the deck.
“Sir we’re about to be boarded!” I announced.
Without looking back he replied. “Take care of it.” The order took me by surprise. New pointed back again and clarified his exclamation. “Get to the armory, grab the security team, arm up and defend the landing bay. That’s where they’ll head. GO!”
I didn’t like the odds either way but I took my chances and assembled the team in the armory.
Our flight suits contained integrated armor panels that gave some protection. Together with a matching helmet it could be pressurized for short term vacuum exposure. This wasn’t much use for sustained combat outside, but would protect the wearer from a ruptured shield or moderate hull breach.
For a weapon I chose a standard assault rifle with more than enough ammunition for the task. I supplemented that with a silenced pistol, field knife and of course my two battle axes, which had yet to leave my back.
We made it to the door of the bay within five minutes of me leaving the bridge and the landing craft had just made a hot landing. Smoke was pouring from all over and it was riddled with bullet holes, showing the skill of our gunners and sadly the superiority of the ship and its pilot.
Aliens were pouring from the ship and my team engaged. We took cover behind various boxes and fighters that were close to the door and they did the same. We traded shots back and forth for a few minutes as I organized my team for the defense.
We kept them pinned down a bit longer and my team was able to give me enough cover to sneak around to the side to attempt a flanking maneuver. I stayed low behind the crates, timing my movements with the rounds of fire and explosions behind me. When I got far enough away, I began to cross the deck behind another fighter. A grenade exploded between me and the fighting so I used the smoke to get across the open area in the middle of the hangar.
I was now near the far wall behind the last fighter in the row. I climbed up onto the wing of the ship, went prone, and took aim at the aliens firing from below. They still had no idea I was over there. I switched my weapon to full auto and proceeded to blast the entire area. The attack caught them completely by surprise.
My flanking maneuver disoriented them enough for my team to move in and finish the last of them off.
Just as I was getting off the wing I heard Captain New’s voice loud and clear the intercom. “Nuclear munition incoming! Brace for impact!” he shouted frantically before being quickly cut off. In the background of the transmission I heard additional shouting as if there were far more discord on the bridge than what he had let on.
I looked out both shielded entrances to the hangar and saw we were flanked on either side by enemy battleships. There was a small glimmer of the bomb on its way over, a faint smoke trail tracing its path and an orange glow from the engine as it maneuvered its way over to send us into oblivion. Shots flew by it in a feeble attempt to knock it out. The alien ship on the opposite side was relatively clear. I keyed up my mike.
“Sir, cut to port as hard as you can!” The captain almost protested, but I felt the ship lurch to the side as he gave the order to turn. I took off running as hard as I could to the side away from the incoming nuke. I couldn’t tell if the other members of my team were following.
As I hit the edge of the bay, I jumped clean into space. The floor disappeared behind me and it impacted the other ship’s shield array. The shields flickered and bent under the strain then ignited into a blazing fireball right in front of me. The inferno burned hotter as I flew straight at it. I kicked my feet trying to slow down but to no avail. I came within only a few dozen meters before it began to dissipate. It expanded outwards in a massive ring of fire, barely missing me as I slammed into the hull of the alien ship.
I landed hard on my feet and fell into a roll to dissipate the force. I attempted to stand but was knocked down by the shock wave of the gunboat blowing apart in the nuclear fire above.
I could barely watch it through the heat and pain, but snapped back into reality as parts of the ship began raining down all around me. The guns left significant dents in the surface and some even punched through. One of the main cannons speared straight into the alien ship and erupted into a tower of fire. I dodged shards of burning metal as I ran towards the smoldering wreckage.
Just as I’d hoped, the cannon had blown a hole all the way through the heavy skin of the ship. If they lost their air pressure inside, I thought, I might have enough of a chance to make a stand. I dove through the broken side of the cannon and fell into the ship below. I hit the ground hard as the pressure equalized inside the restoring shield.
There were no signs of life, only flames shooting from every wall around me. I scanned about and saw the only way to go was down the passage deeper into the ship. I started on my way, looking for survivors, munitions or any area that could be used to hide in.
I doubted that I could survive a direct assault on the ship. They numbered in the hundreds, if not thousands and I didn’t have nearly enough ammunition to take them all on. After careful consideration over several seconds, I decided to lay low and try and gather some more intel on the opposition before I dedicated myself to a fight. At this point they probably didn’t even realize I was on board and would hopefully continue their mission, wherever it was taking them.
There was no way to raise a member of the fleet from my comm. unit. All I got was static. Same with the locator which would, in a perfect world, give me a rough approximation of my location in the system. Realizing that I was all alone I found a dimly lit storage area and did a search for equipment. I barely got through a few crates before I felt a sickening twist on my stomach. The ship was accelerating into a leap across the system.
The feeling only lasted a few minutes before we were at full speed. It was steadily maintained for another hour or so until we began to decelerate near our destination. For the duration of the trip, I had barricaded myself in the corner of the supply room, surrounded by crates and boxes with my rifle trained on the door. I dared not try to raise a communication signal, nor attempt a sensor sweep of the ship. When the ship slowed down I stayed in place, until I felt a far off shudder as the ship docked with a station. I no longer felt the random fluctuations of artificial gravity like I did in space. There was a good chance we had landed on a solid surface.
I decided it was time to move and crept out of the room, chanced a sweep, and got a rough outline of the ship on my communicator. It looked as if there were a number of ducts that ran from the station to the ship, and I made my way to one as best I could without being spotted.
After crawling through ducts for a while I was able to find a hatch, opened it and got outside again. We were now planetside, and from my vantage point above the ship a massive space port sprawled out in all directions. There was little direct sunlight; instead the sky was filled with thick clouds which bathed the ground in diffuse red-orange light. The clouds swirled and crackled with lightning and I doubted any of our ships could survive a flight from orbit. I looked straight up to space only to find a circular path leading into the storm and all the way to outer space beyond. The edges of the hole shimmered in the alien light as if the storm was held back by an unseen force field. From my vantage point I could only see a single point of black and I estimated that the distance through the storm measured in the dozens of kilos.
The atmosphere couldn’t be identified and the temperature was nearly
-20 degrees. I could feel the cold through my suit and I knew that I needed to find some better shelter than the duct. At that point I really wasn’t concerned with an escape route, I just didn’t want to freeze or get shot off the roof.
Below me, out towards the side, the building gave way to a runway, lined with battleships. The one I rode in aboard was still smoking from the damage it took in the battle. In the dim light I could barely make out the outlines of scaffolding arrays along the sides, indicating they were already repairing it. To the rear a massive pyramid extended towards the sky. The building I was standing on extended all the way back to its base, as did a huge number of others. I realized this could be some kind of nexus for the yard, and could possibly yield a method of survival. I took off running towards the structure.
There were no guards outside; A testament to the enemy’s security on the planet. There would have been no way our fleet could have mounted a frontal assault on the planet and had a single ship survive, if what I saw on the ground was any indication. Getting inside was a different matter. The place was well protected from the cold, but I was able to work my way from a vent in the spoke back to the center. That was, of course, only my estimate of where I was. I had no idea where I would end up or what I would find. After working my way through a series of passages and heaters, I finally found a duct that dropped down towards floor of the main complex.
All the walls and floors were flat gray. I was in a massive room filled with alien equipment, materials and the like. It appeared to be a lab for prototyping weapons, since there was an assortment of larger lifts and cranes along with smaller and apparently more delicate apparatus’. In addition my passive scanner detected faint radioactive energy and multiple source explosive compounds. Thankfully there were not many aliens around. A few were working at the lab stations and several more were congregating in the center of the room. I made my way to them, eager to see what they were working on.
I had been wrong about the facility, to an extent. The aliens did not have a single prototype anything that they were working on. Instead I saw, spread out before me, an endless line of exotic ships I had never seen before. Each one was identical, and about the size of a large fighter. I got my distance and began considering my options. I knew I needed to find a way to neutralize as much of the facility as I could. I wasn’t armed nearly well enough, so I began searching for munitions.
Using the scanner on my suit, I moved about testing the various crates and boxes, looking for the source of any familiar chemical traces. I was hoping for something nuclear, but I wouldn’t have turned down anything short of TNT. Most of the substances were un-definable, but there were a few hot spots and traces of atomic radiation. As I went along, I found that there was an abundance of atomic weaponry confined in a single area off to the corner of the room. They looked nothing like any weapons I had ever seen, but they were undoubtedly reactors. I kept searching and kept up my guard.
There were multiple devices and alien prototypes spread about the lab that I had not yet seen in briefings or on the battlefield. I made a note of where each object was located and decided that if I would get the chance I would steal all that I could hold.
After a few hours, the workers thinned out and I put my plan into action. I went back to the nukes and dug around on them until I was able to identify some control mechanisms. I was in luck. My scanner was able to identify the type of trigger that was used, as well as proposed methods of detonating them. The triggering mechanism was a dead man’s switch, which would detonate the bomb only when the link was severed. I figured I could use the controller as a proximity trigger which would blow when I got a certain distance away. I set five of the reactors the same way and packed the triggers with me. I next started on the fighters.
Many of them were in some state of disassembly but I found several that were completely intact. The cockpits were pretty intuitive and I had no trouble figuring out which controls did what. Confident in my piloting skills, I dumped the nuke triggers and a pile of loose parts into the rear seat and powered it up. It felt familiar in an odd way, but the ship was far more advanced than anything our forces had to offer.
The main console had a sensory display that looked like it could have been a combination of radar, optical and a half dozen other more exotic sensors. It gave me a picture clear through the walls, and I found a single point that went directly outside. I blew through it easily with the weapons on the fighter and was on my way out just as the alarms lit up. I nudged the craft through the debris field of the first wall and found myself at the end of a long launch ramp leading the entire length of the structure. Far away I spied the exit to the surface and I raced ahead ignoring the multitude of alarms sounding off from all around. The surface doors only took a single shot before crumbling and I made my way out.
I pushed the engines harder as I rose through the atmosphere. Fighters appeared on the screen and buzzed about the compound looking for me. I flew faster and saw the ships begin to form up on my tail. I crossed my fingers hoping that the charges I had salvaged would work. I didn’t have to wait much longer. A blinding flash appeared beneath the facility and engulfed the building, the pursuing fighters and most of the battleships at the dock in a raging nuclear fire. The blast nearly overtook me as well, but I gave the engine all it was worth and stayed ahead of the shock wave as I hurtled into orbit.
The intensity of my escape gave way to an eerie calm once I made it into space. I saw no other ships in pursuit so I pointed the ship straight towards our base planet (as near as I could tell), and didn’t look back.
23
In less than a day I came upon a human frigate. The only radio I had was on my headset and nearly led to my being shot. I barely got a message across before they opened fire.
As can be imagined the humans were a bit wary of letting an alien craft fly straight from enemy territory and land in their bay. I could feel every weapon they had at their disposal trained on me, waiting for one false move to blow me away. Inside the bay I could make out the forms of a hundred or so soldiers, probably the entire security detail, hidden behind every piece of cover they could find.
I brought my ship in for a smooth landing and opened the shield above my head. A blast of fresh air greeted me as I unclasped my restraint harness and held my hands above my head in submission.
In front of my ship I could see the infantry captain. “Pilot, stand up! Keep your hands up or we will kill you!”
I braced myself and struggled to stand. The time spent cramped in the small space had done a number on my muscles. I couldn’t move my legs at all. “I can’t!” I shouted back.
“I don’t care, get up now!”
I began to lose my temper. “Listen freakshow, I’ve been stuck in this gaddamn sardine can for days! Cut me a break and help me out here!”
For some reason the captain didn’t open fire. Instead he pointed at three of his men. They scaled the side of the ship and stood to either side of me. The third stood right in front of me with his rifle trained on my chest. “Pick him up.” The soldier in front ordered.
In an instant the two others each grabbed a shoulder and pulled me clean out of the cockpit. I hung there in midair for a quick moment while they considered their options. The soldier in front lowered his weapon, stepping to his side and I knew this wouldn’t end well. The other two tossed me the five feet or so off the edge of the ship like a potato sack and I slammed into the steel ground face first, hardly having the energy to move my arms and break my fall. All the air escaped my lungs and I groaned in pain.
I felt a rifle grind into the back of my neck and a foot press down between my shoulders. Other footsteps approached and I could tell there were at least thirty more weapons trained on me.
The captain knelt in front of my face and the pressure in my back loosened. I strained to look up at him. His entire head was shrouded by a mirrored face mask over his combat helmet. I could just barely make out the name ‘Brooks’ etched into his armor. “Pilot, w
ho are you?” he asked me.
“Captain Jefferson Grant. I was a vice commander on a gunboat under Captain New. We came under attack and I barely escaped.”
The infantry captain snapped his fingers and an intel officer approached. “His name and post check out,” he said after calling into the bridge.
With that the captain relaxed and pulled off his mask, revealing a face easily as worn as my own. “Stand down men,” he ordered and I felt the pressure on my neck cease. I pulled myself up to a seated position. “Captain I hate to say it but you really gave us a scare here. You flew onto our ship on the wrong day.”
“I just had my entire command die on me again. What else could you possibly pull on me?”
“Don’t be giving me any crap.” Brooks stood back up as he spoke. “You stumbled on a top secret mission here, where your very presence endangers everyone aboard. I’ll have to run this by the commander to see how he would like to proceed. In the meantime I’ll have you checked out by our medical staff. We don’t need you dragging contaminates aboard and I’d rather not have another death under my command.”
“Those last six feet didn’t help much either. Send my compliments to your thugs.”
“Don’t test me” Brooks replied. “It could have just as easily been a gunshot to the head,” he turned and walked away, pausing at a medic. “Take care of Mr. Grant and see that he stays out of trouble.” The medic nodded and complied.
Given that I had just spent the previous 18 hours in the cockpit of an alien fighter and having nothing better to do, I had written down a record of everything I had seen and/or experienced down on the planet, as well as all of the details on the ship’s operation that I could glean from staring at the controls. I handed it off to the intel officer in the landing bay right before they hauled me over to the medical ward. I could barely walk after sitting in the alien fighter for such a long time but that didn’t surprise anyone.
MissionSRX: Confessions of the First War Page 18
