Traveler’s voice bellowed from behind and filled the bridge. “Different rhinos,” he said, striding over to Orion and looking at her display. “Those are Reds.”
“Reds?” Both Orion and Jason repeated simultaneously.
Traveler huffed.
“How many, Gunny?”
“Between the two groups, close to one thousand.”
“Who are Reds, Traveler?” Jason asked.
“An inferior breed of rhino from our sister planet, Mangus. Less intelligent. Physically larger than Greys.”
“Greys?”
“Our kind—we are Greys.”
“I’m picking up weapons fire, sir,” Orion said.
Jason knew that Traveler, once he became agitated, was a force to be reckoned with and right now he was on the verge of wrecking the bridge. He stood up tall, fists clenched on hips. “Why have you not landed your ship? Our kind are dying.”
“We can do a lot more damage from the air, Traveler. Our fighters can—”
“No, we fight with honor. You must land now, Captain.” Traveler stormed off the bridge.
At the helm, McBride looked back over his shoulder with his brows raised.
“Get us in position to phase-shift, Ensign. Put us right in between them,” Jason said and then hailed Billy.
“Go for Billy, Cap.”
“Be ready to deploy in two minutes.”
“We’re ready now. Rhinos and SEALs are lining up at the airlocks. Overflows assembling in the mess hall.”
“How many SEALs have you left us?” Jason asked.
“Twenty, including Rizzo.”
The bridge flashed white and they were on the ground. Jason took in the scene and was surprised by what he saw. Hundreds of dark red-colored rhino-warriors were rushing down the gangways off both Craing ships. It seemed Traveler had somewhat trivialized the Reds’ size. They were easily ten feet tall. Dressed almost identically to the Greys, they carried similar heavy hammers. Energy weapons were holstered on their hips.
“Deploy both gangways, Gunny; show those cruisers what you can do with our rail-guns.”
“Gladly, sir.”
Jason watched the display screen as The Lilly’s rail ordnances blasted the Craing cruisers on both sides.
“That was quick. Their shields have already failed, sir.”
Remembering his father’s last command to not engage the enemy fleet, Jason realized it had been a promise he shouldn’t have made. The truth was the bulk of the Craing fleet was still light years away. But certainly engaging these enemy warships here was not something that could be avoided. Hostile aggression from the Craing was not something he was willing to simply observe from the sidelines.
The upgrade to their guns seemed to provide a bit more kick, Jason thought, and he noticed more vibration coming up through the soles of his boots. Both cruisers began to return plasma fire.
Hundreds of Red rhinos, now fully deployed, continued on toward a city of mud domes several miles away in the distance.
First one, then the second Craing cruiser stopped firing altogether. Their outer hulls almost simultaneously disintegrated under the continual hail of explosive rail munitions. In seconds, little of the mammoth-sized vessels remained.
Jason answered another hail. “Go ahead, Billy.”
“Cap, seems our rhino friends … actually Traveler … don’t want our help. Something about it’s not our place to protect the virtue of their mates. The problem is, though, without our help they look to be outnumbered three to one.”
“Captain, the three Craing cruisers are entering orbit,” Orion said.
Jason went back to Billy. “Follow them. Get in as close as you can and set up a perimeter. But hold fire and keep me apprised of the situation.”
“Aye, Cap.”
Jason watched the display as Traveler led two hundred-plus rhino-warriors and headed after the Reds. Several moments later Billy and his SEALs assembled at the base of the forward gangway. Within a minute they’d broken into multiple ten-man teams, spread out, and followed behind their Grey compatriots.
“Incoming!” Orion yelled. “Twenty-seven high-yield nukes. Enough to level half the continent.”
“ETA?”
“Less than a minute, Captain.”
“Seems they’ve cut their losses here. Better to just level the planet. Do we have a lock on those nukes?”
“Aye, Captain.”
“Ready fusion-tip missiles; fire at will, Gunny.”
“Twenty-eight missiles away, sir. I threw in one extra just in case,” Orion said.
Perkins leaned over from the tactical station next to Orion, then stood. “Captain, the fleet, their entire fleet, has changed direction.”
“Good! That’s what we’re supposed to do here. Hold up their progress. Keep their attention.”
Jason heard McBride snicker from the helm station.
“You have something to add to that, Ensign?”
“Well, aye, sir. We’re like rodeo clowns, Captain.”
“Come again?”
“Back home. Any good rodeo has clowns. You know, to keep the bulls at bay and off the cowboys until they’re safe.”
“Captain, now all seven of the remaining Craing cruisers are either in, or entering into, Trumach orbit,” Orion said. “They carry Craing signatures, but three of them are nothing we’ve come across before. Actually, they’re similar to the three Caldurian ships—the Emperor’s Guard.”
“All right, we need to get out of here for a while. XO, in our absence, let’s get our fighters out there to protect our ground forces.”
“Aye, Captain,” Perkins replied.
Jason mulled over Orion’s comment. Any Caldurian vessel, even one hundreds of years old, could have advanced technology they’d be unprepared for.
“Can you get me visuals of those three vessels?”
“Yes, on one of them. The closest one.”
A segment on the overhead display changed to a different feed. Sure enough, it wasn’t anything like the typical Craing cruiser. But then again, it didn’t look like a Caldurian ship, either.
“Lilly, can you decipher the writing on the side of the hull on that vessel?” Jason asked.
“Yes, Captain,” the new Lilly AI replied. “The writing originates from Carz-Mau, a planet some ninety light years from this location. Its people, known as the Mau, are rich with scientific and progressive technological advances; their society is not unlike that of the Caldurians, prior to their disappearance.”
“Are those additional five hundred ships in the Craing fleet of that same origin?”
“Four hundred-six vessels are from Carz-Mau. The other one hundred ten are from different locations, in different sectors, in this part of the universe.”
Jason was quiet for several moments. That intel definitely complicated things. A nearly impossible situation had just become a lot worse.
“AI, can you scan that vessel’s life forms, the crew?”
“Yes, Captain. Ninety-three percent of the crew are a derivative of Mau. The rest are of Craing physiology.”
Jason let himself smile. “It’s my guess the Craing, probably with brute-force strength in sheer numbers alone, have brought the Mau along as unwilling combatants.” He shook his head. “God forbid the Craing ever fight their own battles.”
“Orders, sir?” Perkins asked.
“AI, what’s the comparative size of that vessel to a Craing heavy cruiser?”
“Both have an approximate beam of three hundred yards. The Carz-Mau vessel, considered a destroyer-class ship, is rated at 48,000 tons, and the Craing heavy battle cruiser is just under 45,000 tons.”
“I think I know where you’re going with this, Captain,” Perkins said. A new display segment was added, revealing a wireframe view of the vessel’s insides. The ship was horseshoe-shaped and there were indeed two large hold areas.
“Captain, the rhinos have engaged each other,” Orion reported.
“Put up the feed f
rom Billy’s helmet cam,” Jason ordered.
Chapter 22
Chapter 22
Traveler knew they were at a disadvantage; too few in number and they were smaller in size. The Reds had always depended on their brawn in confrontations such as this one. Unfortunately, Traveler was given little time to formulate a plan. His rhino-warriors reached the flanks of the Reds’ position just as the Reds neared the outskirts of the city. With luck, only a few of the females had been beaten, or worse, raped. They came across a makeshift corral, with fifteen-foot-high fencing; he knew it was erected to hold captured young male rhinos. The terrain was open with little in the way of cover. The Red sentries saw Traveler’s rhinos approaching and spread out in a circle around the football field-sized corral. Traveler counted fifty Reds. In the distance, coming from the dome city, frantic shrieks carried across the open plains. Their pillage spree had begun. Frustrated, Traveler knew that battling fifty Red rhino-warriors alone, with his limited army, could take hours. How many of their mates will … His thoughts were interrupted.
Traveler was well aware Billy and his team had moved into position around them. Billy rushed forward and joined Traveler at his side.
“Hey, the Reds here are mere sentry guards, right? Not worth your time. Hell, they don’t even have prisoners to guard. These are ass clowns. Why don’t you let us handle these guys? That way you can continue the real fight, there at the edge of the city?”
Traveler snorted his disapproval, then started to pace. He looked toward the city one more time. With barely a glance, he nodded. Hammer held high in the air, he was off and running toward the distant domes. The ground shook as two hundred-fifty or so Grey rhino-warriors followed after him.
* * *
Billy finished updating the captain and closed the channel. He passed the information on to his men, via their comms, and they all moved back from the high fencing around the corral. Inside, looking triumphant, the Red rhinos snorted and shook their hammers in the direction of the retreating SEALs. Their celebration was short-lived as five sleek fighters suddenly dropped from the sky, encircling them. The fighters held their position, ten feet off the ground, with their forward rail-guns deployed. An eerily quiet standoff.
Billy gestured into the air with a quick twirling motion of his hand. The rail-guns erupted in a blaze. The corral fencing flew into pieces, then the ground below it was pummeled—sending dirt and small rocks high up into the air. The five fighters continued the barrage. The Red rhinos retreated, moving back toward center ground, until they were huddled back-to-back in a group. The guns stopped all at once.
Billy moved forward until he reached the edge of the newly-dug culvert: it was twenty feet across, twenty to thirty feet deep, and completely encircled the Red rhinos. The rhinos looked scared. He almost felt sorry for them. Billy held up a hand, hoping they’d recognize it as a gesture of peace and that the firing had ceased for now. One of the large Reds moved forward, away from the others, and snorted.
Each of the SEALs’ battle suits had been equipped with the latest phase-shift belts. Billy quickly configured a jump distance through HUD settings, and phase-shifted to within three feet of the rhino. Startled, the Red rhino-warrior took a quick step back.
Billy put his hands up again, gesturing he was there to talk. He kept his voice even, non-threatening, and hoped his words would translate correctly.
“You’ve been brought here by the Craing, correct?”
The huge rhino looked down at Billy but didn’t answer.
“It’s what they do. They use their technology, their many warships, to conquer others. Your mates and offspring have been taken hostage; the Craing have threatened to kill them if you do not fight their battles for them,” Billy said.
“How do you know that?” the rhino replied.
“The Greys. Same thing happened to them. We’re helping them get their planet back.”
“Yes, the Craing have killed many of our kind, taken our mates and offspring. But they have also given us powerful weapons to fight our enemies,” he said, patting the energy weapon holstered at his side. “Soon, they will provide us with our own space vehicles so we can fight the Greys, destroy them once and for all.”
“You will never be free of the Craing. Once you are no longer needed to serve the Craing Empire, you and your kind will be slaughtered.”
The rhino looked to the others; they were all getting agitated and starting to pace.
“It seems to me you have three options. One, you make a stand here and fight. Unfortunately, it won’t be much of a fight since those five fighters will cut you down in less than a second, and you’ll all die. Second option, you’ll surrender and we hand you over to the Greys, at which point you’ll most likely be killed.”
“What is the third option?”
“You join in our fight against the Craing. We will drive the Craing from this part of space and you can return to your mates and offspring, return to a free and independent home world.”
“We cannot speak for the others. We are only a few; there are thousands more of us here and on the Craing vessels.”
“Often a revolt starts with only a few. Do you have a way to contact the others? Those attacking the dome city?”
“Yes.”
“Do it. Stop the killing before we use our fighters and vaporize every last one of you.”
The rhinos spoke between themselves in low voices. Finally, one of them stepped to the far side of the corral, closer toward the dome city, and trumpeted a sound so loud that Billy felt it vibrate through his helmet.
A moment passed and a similar sound echoed back from miles away. The exchange continued back and forth for some time. Eventually, it ceased and the rhino returned to the pack.
“Well?” Billy asked.
“It took some convincing. A temporary truce has been declared between Reds and Greys. The Reds are on their way back.”
* * *
“There’s simply no way both Reds and Greys will agree to cohabit the same vessel, Cap,” Billy said. “Where are you, anyway?”
Jason stood on the bridge looking at Billy’s helmet cam feed of the planet below. “For now, we’re playing hide-and-seek with the other warships. Phase-shifting from one location to another so they can’t get a lock on us.”
“How long can you do that?”
“Since the Craing fleet has made an about-face and are headed back here, not too much longer. Maybe a day. What we need is a second ship. A big one. Secure the area. If things go right, we’ll be back to pick you all up in a few hours.”
“Aye, Cap.”
Jason brought his attention back to the bridge. Turning around, Jason looked for Ricket. “Where the hell’s Ricket?”
“I think he’s up on 4B, sir,” Orion answered, not taking her eyes from Billy’s helmet video feed.
“Gunny, is this going to be a problem?”
“Sir?” She pulled her eyes back toward Jason, then seemed to catch his meaning. “Sorry, sir.”
Jason brought two fingers up to his ear and hailed Ricket.
“Go for Ricket.”
“I need you on the bridge.”
“Yes, I was already on my way, sir.”
Jason wondered if something was up. He couldn’t remember the last time Ricket hadn’t shown up even before Jason realized he needed him.
Ricket arrived a moment later and headed directly for Jason in the command chair.
“Sorry, Captain, I was making some last-minute alterations to the PTCC software.”
“You’ll need to play with that on your free time, Ricket. Right now I need you to collect what’s necessary for one of your remote piloting kits.”
“Yes, Captain. For a Craing battle cruiser?”
“Not necessarily.”
Chapter 23
Chapter 23
It seemed modular housing was much more prevalent than Nan had first thought. Surfing the web, she discovered a manufacturing and distribution center right there in San Ber
nardino. She spent the morning taking her refitted Jeep in for a required smog-emission test, and then registered the vehicle at the local DMV. After that, she picked Mollie up at school and headed for Gillgood Modular Home Builders.
“How was our first day of school?”
“Hated it,” Mollie said, looking out the side window.
“Care to elaborate on that?”
Scrapyard Ship 3 Space Vengeance Page 12
