“Going vertical.” I announced to my wingmen. I pulled back on my controls and red lined my speed in a second. My display showcased the spreading fire on the ground below, culminating in a raging fireball which consumed all the structures and burst high into the sky, feeding on the escaping oxygen.
By the time we got to orbit the rest of the squadrons were finishing their runs as well. “Assemble in standard formation.” I ordered the commanders. “Stay in high orbit with me.” From the darkness of space, a blip appeared on my radar. Our gunboat had finally arrived and not a moment too soon. I changed my course to intersect and announced my intentions. What began as a microscopic speck of dust in space grew into our home. We docked and again reloaded for our next mission.
I pulled off my helmet and gloves as the canopy opened, feeling the fresh air swirl around my head. Disconnecting my restraints and climbing out, I could see Alpha and Charlie’s commanders waiting for me on the ground. “What do you need?” I asked them while climbing down my ship’s ladder.
“Don’t ever do that again.” Charlie stated.
“Excuse you?”
“You sent us into battle low on fuel and ammo. We’re lucky to have made it back alive.”
“I believe I made it quite clear as to my intentions when you asked to join my wing.” I responded. “If you question me again, you will be out of luck,” he didn’t respond right away but I could see his fists clench in anger. “Don’t think I wouldn’t kill a man under my command. For victory I’d gladly cause you pain that defies definition.”
“You’re mad.”
“More than likely, or maybe you have something left to live for. Tell you what, survive this war, prove to me that you’re worth taking seriously, and I’ll give you a fair fight if we are still in disagreement. In the meantime, stand down, see to your men and be ready to launch when your ships are reloaded.”
We had drawn a crowd of a few pilots, as well as my ground crew. I looked across their faces, fear gripping no one. “You know your orders, let’s move.”
There was only enough time for the rest of the pilots to get out of their ships and stretch before I wanted to leave again.
I sprinted back up to the bridge to check with the staff. The fleet was holding their own against the aliens, but they were still far from victory. We were now close enough to the battle for our scanners to pick up their signals and positions which were both a blessing and a curse. The good news was that we knew what we were facing. The bad news was identical to the good.
My communications officer was monitoring the radio broadcast from command and forwarded the statements he could make out from the noise. “Sir, they are fighting one to one out there. It’s only a matter of minutes before the command ship comes under attack.”
“Jesus. If we lose that ship, it’s over for us! Why would they bring that into battle?” The pilot responded to the development.
I watched the screens intently, wishing the situation would change. “Our commanders knew we would be attacked by every ship remaining in their fleet in this push. One way or another, this is the last battle in the war, and everyone knows it.”
“You can’t possibly expect us to fly into that mess.” Delta’s Commander had followed me in and joined the conversation. “There’s got to be a hundred battleships out there. We wouldn’t stand a chance against them and certainly wouldn’t make a difference in the outcome.”
Again all of the men on the bridge were looking at me for guidance. I took a moment to look at the map of the current orbits. “You’re right. We can’t support them directly but we need to do something.” I thought for a moment more. “I’ve got it. Call the ground crews. Have them replace every ship’s loadout. Take off all of our current shells; concussion, high explosive, everything. Load them all with nukes. We’re going after Planet Shezmu. If they do not split their forces, they will lose over half of their civilization.”
“Are you sure that’s best?” Delta’s commander inquired again.
“Without a doubt.” I responded. “We came here to kill them all, regardless of the cost. That’s exactly what I’m going to do. If they ignore us they’ll sentence their civilization to extinction.”
Behind Delta, the other flight commanders had formed up. They nodded their approval as well. “Then get your men ready. I’ll be down as soon as we get a course set. Dismissed.”
Before I even returned to the landing bay, the ships were loaded and waiting. All of the pilots were charged up and ready to go. I met them at the entrance to the landing bay. All 55 of the remaining men were there. “We’ve already made mankind a force to be reckoned with in the galaxy. Are you ready to erase them from existence?” They cheered out as one. “Then let’s go. Today we make them corpses. Tomorrow we’re going the hell home!”
40
We launched and formed up, making a straight dive to Three. The planet shone like a blue marble in the distance, beyond which I could begin to see flashes of light from the raging battle between our races. It only took a few minutes before my systems picked up the alien ships bombarding our fleet. I made sure to have every one of my pilots broadcasting their long range scanners to draw attention. It worked as I predicted. As we closed in, a number of the alien battleships turned away from the fight and moved to block us from attacking their home world.
“Delta Commander, keep an eye on the incoming ships. Charlie, watch for orbital defenses. Bravo, you and I will be hitting the surface. Ping the surface, find population centers. I’m looking for energy output right now.” I issued my instructions out to the crew. “When target lists are compiled, plot courses for maximum devastation.”
“Sir, my target list is in the thousands. There’s no way we can drop a nuke for every one of them.”
I looked at my screen. He was unfortunately right. I thought through it. My data fields combined information from Command with the intel we were gathering real time. We had no chance to take them all by ourselves. “We’ll have to start from the top and work down” I began, “Hit their infrastructure, military units, spaceports, centers of highest population. We may not kill them off but we’ll set them back a hundred years.” My computer compiled the targets into flight paths. “Descend in two man flights on each run.” I send the coordinates to Bravo. “Max speed through the atmosphere. Deliver one shot per target. Don’t stop for anything. Charlie, what’s in orbit?”
“Checking, sir,” he began, and forwarded me some of his intelligence. “Civil stations and nothing much of merit. There are no local orbiting military posts.”
“Make one orbit, clear them all out. Save your nukes, hit them with your guns. When we’re clear on the surface, head back up and reinforce Delta.”
“Roger.”
Turning my attention back to my own flight, I switched our formation to the double ship flights. “All men break for the ground! Follow your flight paths, return here to engage the fleet.” I changed my radio frequency so it would only broadcast to Capt. Ekhart, the victim chosen to join me.
“Captain, you ready to go?” I asked somewhat rhetorically.
“Ready as ever, sir. I’ve got the coordinates locked and loaded up.”
“Good. I’ll fire first. Defend as needed until I’m out, then we’ll switch.”
We dived down into the strangely earthen atmosphere, catching a glimpse of a blue ocean far below. We were cruising at 50km when the first target, a massive coastal city appeared on the horizon. “Arming warhead.” I announced. “Distance, 100k, I’m letting it loose.” I hit the trigger for the cannon, launching the small metallic capsule out the main barrel, and watched the ion trail of its engine as it flew in. Even though I knew the devastation I was about to unleash, I felt a tinge of accomplishment in what remained of my soul.
When the nuke was mere seconds from impact it disappeared from my scope. There was no flash, no fire. Nothing. “What the eff? Where is it?!” I asked, panic growing.
“It’s gone sir! Total communication lost 10k fr
om the target.”
“We don’t have info on defenses; they’re supposed to be clear!”
“They’ve got something down there! I’m picking up some smoke trails from the surface. They intercepted it!”
“Dammit, it’s always got to be something!” I pushed my ship down straight at the city. “Ekhart, stay on course! Broadcast whatever you can to the other ships. I’m going in to deliver the shot from closer in.”
I was dropping at over a sixty degree angle and was only a few dozen kilometers from ground zero before I detected incoming fire. From every corner of the city, my ship detected missile plumes. “Ekhart, I’ve got multiple defensive sites down here! Beginning evasive maneuvers, engaging sub-light engines.”
Of all the statistics that impressed me about the SR-X, its agility was near the top of the list. With the massive power conjured by the twin sub-light engines, it could turn on a dime against any vector you could find. With only four to five percent of the power in use, the ship dipped and dodged through the storm of rockets coming for me. The only downside was the trail. When the jets were fired in the air, they were deafening loud and their exhaust would glow hot and bright for hours.
For the first time since my initial flight, I could hear their roar underneath my feet. A slight vibration ran through the frame as well, but I kept my concentration on surviving. At less than a kilo from the center of the city, I switched a nuke to a delayed fuse and shot it off. I pulled back as hard as I could and kicked the sub-lights up to twenty percent, plus another ninety percent on the standard ones. My entire cockpit glowed from the exhaust along with all the air outside as I zipped back into the air. I eased back on the throttle as the trailing munitions were not even coming close.
The warhead plowed clear through a skyscraper, punched out the far side and slammed into the ground. I was clear of the blast with three seconds left to go. “Payload delivered.” I shot Ekhart a heads-up. “Standby for flash.” I barely spoke before the charge ignited in a brilliant flash of pure white light and expanded out in a wave of fire and debris. Even the city’s sprawling edges were not spared from the blast. “One down!” I announced and found Ekhart halfway to our next checkpoint.
“Good to go?” he asked
“They didn’t stand a chance. How are the others?”
“So far they’ve had similar results. One lost ship, no missed targets.”
We did better than I expected. “I can live with that. Let’s move on.”
“How the hell did you make it through all that? I damn near got clipped by a shot at four times the altitude!”
“Skill.” I stated. “Skill and luck.” I checked my map. “We’ve got another minute before I’ve got to dive again.” I paused, considering their tactics. “They’re going to know we’re coming this time. Stand by to eliminate any ships near the ground. They’ve had enough time to get some off the ground.”
The attacks proceeded as I had envisioned. There were more defending ships as time wore on, but we held our ground and kept our wits together. One by one, we turned a hundred of their greatest cities into wastelands. I don’t know whether it fulfilled my desires or stoked the fires of my nightmares, but I felt more alive that day than in the whole two years prior.
Ekhart dropped his last nuke a few hours later on the final target and I led the way back into space. For a moment I wished we had remained near the surface. More alien ships had returned to defend the planet and my entire wing was now in the fight of their lives.
Delta’s commander was now an expert in ship-to-ship combat. He had been directing 4-5 man teams against individual battleships, where they could sneak under the minimum range of the alien’s defenses and deploy their own munitions. By the time I returned from the surface, he had directed the destruction of a carrier, five battleships and dozens of smaller vessels and fighters. He relayed his statistics over to me when I got within range.
Between him and Charlie, we had lost five more ships. I read over his numbers in near disbelief. “This is incredible.”
“I know.” Charlie responded. “We’re pretty much untouchable out here. Their main cannons can’t track us and their fighters are too slow. Once we get inside their shields we can drop a nuke and leave them floating.”
“Outstanding.” I switched my transmit frequency to the entire wing and checked the target list one more time. “Gentlemen, we’ve got six more battleships to go. If you’ve got nukes left, use them. We need to finish this as quickly as we can and go relieve the fleet.”
Minutes later, the last of the alien ships was destroyed. Our total ammo count for the wing was again in the single digits, but we were in luck. Even while we were still in battle, our gunboat had moved in closer to the planet and had begun glassing targets we had missed from orbit. The main weapon on the gunboat was an enhanced quad barreled beam cannon which could cause near-instantaneous damage to ground targets from orbit, but lacked the raw power and penetration of our nuclear warheads.
Another interesting quirk regarding our enemy for life; Even though they had undoubtedly mastered the power of the atom in their long evolution, we had rarely encountered such weapons in combat, nor intercepted any information regarding their existence outside of a few sparse encounters (mine being one of them). It was just as well; we didn’t need radiological hazards heaped on top of our massive list of dangers associated with space travel.
When we finished with number Three I formed the wing back up, docked at the gunboat for a quick combat reload, and we continued on to the battlefield with the rest of the fleet. Things were far more complex and dangerous now than we had encountered before with the inner planets. The aliens were continually throwing their full weight at the human fleet to hold us off. From every corner of the system more ships seemed to appear and move in to fight, but again and again they underestimated our strength and resolve. Dodging both friendly and enemy fire, we emerged from the backfield, engaging every ship we encountered.
Massive wrecks filled the space around us as I led my squadron around and through the various remains to our last target. One heavy carrier was all they had left and it was still launching waves upon waves of fighters to intercept us. We were still in the debris field when they opened fire. I had a death grip on my controls, trying to simultaneously dodge the shots and the dead ships all over.
“Bravo, Charlie, Delta. Engage the fighters!” I ordered, “Alpha, follow me to the carrier. We’re dropping every munition we have!” We lined up for our run and began to pound the heavy armor with all the firepower we could field. The last few aliens proved to be a far greater challenge than the ones we encountered before. The carrier took fire like nothing for multiple runs before finally succumbing to the attack.
Our numbers had dwindled to 48 before we could claim victory, but what a great day it was. I lost count of my kills before the end but I know I cleared a hundred fighters and had completed at least twenty bombing runs on the larger ships. With the last enemy carrier vanquished, I found earth’s capital ship and made the effort to meet the admiral to congratulate him on his victory.
We loaded our fighters back on the gunboat and docked with the carrier. Being in a radio blackout for days, I didn’t have a clue what to expect when I dropped the ramp and exited our ship with my crew at my back.
We were greeted by a chorus of cheers from everyone in the bay. The young crews around me looked like they had been carrying the weight of the world, a byproduct of the days in battle, but still knew as I did: The war was finally over.
I turned to my commanders. “Stay near the gunboat. I’m going to find Heddings and get our orders.” I shook their hands before leaving. “Excellent job today.”
Climbing back up to the long hallway that encircled the ship, I found Heddings’ exec waiting for me at the door. He motioned me over as I approached. “It’s about time you made it back. The admiral wants to speak with you immediately.”
“Alright.” I answered, again regarding the stuffy man with mild c
ontempt. “And you’re welcome.” I didn’t wait for a response and opened the door to the admiral’s suite.
41
I found him hovering at a map of the system, surrounded by other high level officers. He looked up at me and smiled, though I could see he was still sweating. “Commander, we’ve got a real problem,” he announced as soon as I stepped closer.
“Enlighten me. Last I saw humanity owes us a debt for a great victory.”
“That’s the problem,” he responded. “We owe you a great deal. This attack could not have begun without you, however, therein lies the problem.”
I waited for him to explain. “All recent strength estimates of the enemy put their fleet at nearly double the size that we encountered.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “Why would you even order the attack with odds like that? It was nearly the end of us.”
“Not quite. True, it would have been a greater possibility to suffer catastrophic losses, but I believed it was the greater good. Plus, I knew you would never let me down. You’d have fought to the last man.”
I shook my head while staring at the charts spread out around us. “I don’t get it. If there are more out in the system, where did they go? Shouldn’t our assault have drawn in every ship?”
“Every ship in range.” The admiral stopped me. “They might have been planning something all along, or they might have been too far out in space to get a distress call or make a difference,” he took a deep breath. “The best we can figure is that they are moving to attack earth. If they beat us there by even an hour, their full power would crush our defenses and leave humanity in ruin. We cannot let that happen.”
“Does the rest of the crew know about this?” I remembered the seemingly oblivious crew below.
MissionSRX: Confessions of the First War Page 31
