Scrapyard Ship 3 Space Vengeance

by Mark Wayne McGinnis

  “Then that’s the first ship to come over.”

  “That’s not what the admiral specified, Captain. He wanted—”

  Jason cut her off with, “Well, things change, Gunny. We need those ground forces and we need them now.”

  Perkins shook his head. “How will you get them in here, on board the Meganaught, sir? It would take hours shuttling them in from open space.”

  Jason thought for a second. “There’s room for one more Dreadnaught to cluster, right?”

  Perkins looked unsure, but Orion nodded.

  Ricket said, “Yes, but you’ll need executive command access for that. You’ll need to take back Han Di’s bridge.”

  “That’s right. We need to move fast, everyone. Orion, contact the admiral—let him know what I’m proposing. He won’t disagree, I promise. Have him get his ground forces ready for an assault. XO, I need a special team assembled ASAP in order to take back Han’s bridge. Unfortunately, they’ll be even more ready for us this time.”

  “What team, sir?” Perkins asked.

  “I’ll need Billy, Rizzo, Traveler, and you too, Orion.”

  Perkins was flabbergasted. “You’re taking team leaders out of action, sir?”

  “No, I’m not, if you’ll let me finish. Give the order for all teams to fall back. Get as many of them into The Lilly’s—into her holds, whatever. Do it as soon as possible. Shuttle all others into the Mau ships if necessary. Any place safe.”

  “Sir, I don’t see how retreating—”

  “We’ll live to fight another time, XO. And question orders again on my bridge and you’ll be confined to quarters until you’re later brought up on charges. Am I making myself clear?”

  “Aye, Captain,” Perkins replied.

  * * *

  Traveler, Billy, and Rizzo phase-shifted directly into The Lilly’s mess and joined Orion and Jason. With two fingers to his ear, Jason was on comms to Dira.

  Dira said, “Jason, dead bodies are stacked up outside along the hallway. The injured, far more than we can handle, are close to a hundred rhinos and twenty SEALs. What happened out there?”

  “We’ve been outsmarted at every turn. Simply put, they were expecting us.”

  “Jason,” Dira said, hesitating, “is everything okay? The crew, all of us, are scared. Stupid to ask with the world obviously falling in around us, but—”

  “Yes, we’ve had some setbacks, but we’re getting back on track.” There was another pregnant pause. “I have to go—”

  “Yes, of course—me too. Take care of yourself, Jason.”

  They clicked off and Jason turned his attention back to his team. Billy and Traveler looked tired and both had multiple bandages covering an assortment of minor injuries over their bodies. Rizzo looked a little better, but he too had a bandage on his left ear.

  Orion was passing out fresh multi-guns when Ricket entered the bridge, wearing a battle suit.

  Jason said, “You weren’t specified to be on this team, Ricket.”

  “Yes, Captain. But if Han Di refuses to relinquish command-level control, you’ll need me to hack into the Dreadnaught’s systems.”

  “I thought of that, Ricket, but it would only take a second to phase-shift you in once we’ve cleared the area.”

  “Yes, Captain. The strange thing is now that I’m mortal I want to be in the fight. To personally do everything I can to stop the Craing.”

  Jason didn’t respond, trying to weigh Ricket’s request with what was best for the fleet. The truth was Ricket was too valuable to put in harm’s way. But hadn’t he chastised him in HAB 12 about the same issue—that time for not fighting?

  “Do your best to stay in one piece. Keep low, and toward the middle of the team. We can’t afford to lose you. Understood?”

  “He can’t get much lower profile than he is, Cap,” Billy said with a smirk.

  “Yes, Captain,” Ricket replied.

  Jason saw relief and something else on Ricket’s newly expressive face. Appreciation.

  “All right, everyone, we’ve done this before. I want zero casualties. Stay aware and be prepared to phase-shift at a moment’s notice. They are expecting us, so safeties off.”

  All helmet HUDs began counting down for a synchronized phase-shift into the Dreadnaught’s bridge. Jason watched as his team readied their weapons before everything flashed white.

  They phase-shifted onto the Dreadnaught’s bridge, only to find it totally deserted. Overhead lighting was dimmed and row after row of console displays were dark. Offline.

  “Captain Reynolds,” came the familiar voice of Commander Han Di.

  Jason turned to see the Craing fleet commander’s face on the central bridge display.

  “Did you really think we would make things easy for you?”

  Jason had less interest in what the Craing commander had to say than where he might be physically located. Ricket, now seated at a nearby station, moved his fingers quickly over the input device.

  “Captain, this Dreadnaught has been slaved to one of the other Dreadnaughts. Actually, the third one.” Looking up at the console display, Ricket saw Han Di. “He’s on that bridge right now.”

  “How can you tell?”

  “There’s no activity coming from Dreadnaught Two, Captain. Both one and two are slaved.”

  Jason turned toward the display again. “I’m coming for you. I’d suggest you hide, Han Di, but you won’t have time.”

  Ricket nodded, confirming he had loaded the team’s HUDs with the third Dreadnaught’s bridge coordinates. With that, the assault team phase-shifted together.

  * * *

  Fifty mutants. It had been a while since Jason had come up against the human-looking Craing soldiers. Encircled by two rows of twenty-five, the inside row were down on one knee, while the outside row stood behind them. They fired as soon as Jason’s assault team arrived.

  Jason felt plasma fire hitting his battle suit with such force that staying on his feet was nearly impossible. Immediately, HUD warnings indicated suit integrity failure was imminent. Firing back was not an option, so a quick phase-shift to an alternate location was imperative.

  Jason phase-shifted right into the fray, displacing the space of two mutants—turning them to soupy, disconnected body parts—the bloody mess falling to the deck around him.

  Traveler was the last to phase-shift, his body already blackened with scorch marks. But he, too, phase-shifted and, like Jason, displaced a number of the encircling mutants. The firefight lasted less than a minute. Confused, and not wearing comparable battle suits, the mutants went down in a dramatic barrage of plasma fire.

  Han Di, his red medallion setting him apart from the other officers, stood on the raised officer’s platform at the far end of the bridge. Before Jason could start in his direction, more combatants filed in from several perimeter entrances.

  “Ricket, get on one of those stations.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Billy was at Jason’s side. “Cap, have I mentioned I really hate these little fuckers?”

  “Once or twice,” Jason replied, watching a hundred-plus armed Craing soldiers pile in.

  “I can’t believe it—Craing actually coming to fight their own battle,” Orion said.

  Dressed in dark-green battle suits, the small warriors didn’t hesitate to fire. Within moments the bridge was nothing less than chaos.

  “Damn, their suits are pretty good,” Rizzo said, not having much luck taking down a grouping of twenty Craing in front of him. As the Craing steadily moved forward, Rizzo was pushed back. He phase-shifted to a position behind them and fired into their backs. Soon enough, they’d turned and were pushing him back again.

  “Suit’s about had it, Cap,” he said, “and I’m all out of phase-shifts.”

  To everyone’s surprise, Traveler phase-shifted into the middle of the Craing fighters. Displaced by Traveler’s bulk, eight Craing ceased to exist.

  “Thanks, Traveler,” Rizzo said, now taking cover behind a console. />
  Billy and Jason had better results phase-shifting into a bunch of Craing than they did trying to pick them off one by one. But, eventually, they too ran out of phase-shift options.

  Orion, finding something wrong with her multi-gun, flipped it around and swung it like a bat at the head of an attacking Craing. Jason put a couple of plasma bolts into the Craing’s helmet, dropping him at her feet. By the time Jason and his team had wiped out the majority of Craing, the rest were running from the bridge.

  “Now that’s the Craing I remember,” Billy said.

  “Captain, this bridge has taken too much damage,” Ricket said, getting up from his station.

  Jason, just now able to assess the situation, was speechless for several seconds.

  “Holy shit,” Billy interjected.

  The bridge was a shambles: any remaining consoles were nothing more than scorched scrap.

  “Were you able to get us back in command?” Jason asked Ricket.

  “The only thing I was able to do before my station was destroyed was to slave this Dreadnaught back to Dreadnaught One. From there, I should be able to finish what I started.”

  The bridge was empty; no sign of Han Di or anyone else. Moving slowly, Traveler was a mess. Jason thought he’d be hard-pressed to find even one inch of unscorched hide anywhere on his body.

  “Hang in there, big guy; you’re definitely due for some time in a MediPod,” Jason said.

  “I am fine, Captain.”

  Once again, they phase-shifted onto Dreadnaught One’s deserted bridge. Ricket went right to work, hacking the Craing security firewalls and then accessing the Meganaught’s executive-level systems.

  “Done, Captain,” Ricket said, taking a deep breath.

  “And we can bring on, or cluster, the Independence when she arrives?”

  “Yes, sir. But we’ll need to maintain control of this bridge. That is essential from this point on.”

  “Traveler, get yourself to Medical. Return in an hour with your best team of rhinos. As Ricket says, we can’t lose this bridge again.”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  Traveler flipped-open his wristband, but Ricket stopped him, reaching a hand up to his.

  “The coordinates have already been uploaded to your device; just press the activate button.”

  Traveler stood up tall and shifted away.

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 45

  With the flight deck doors fully retracted, Jason and Billy stood on the deck’s platform looking out at the carnage. Jason brought up his virtual notepad and a multi-feed segmented view of the three Dreadnaughts’ bridges. Traveler and six other Greys and, surprisingly, two goliath Reds, were keeping sentry on the first Dreadnaught’s bridge. Similarly, the other two bridges had their own complement of rhino sentries. Additional sentries were set to cover revolving shifts outside the entrances of each bridge.

  What concerned Jason the most, though, was the obstreperous nature of the situation on the main corridor. A thousand or so Serapins, plus pill bug creatures, and too many other vile species to count, were roaming the Meganaught unhindered. Since Jason had pulled back his troops, and without the Craing providing them their allotted daily meals, the varied creatures were turning on each other. It was utter mayhem out there and Jason felt partially responsible. At least before, as captives, they hadn’t been killing each other.

  The Lilly was moving again, slowly making forward and aft revolutions of the corridor. Each of the sub-temperature energy cannons had been taken out during the ship’s first pass.

  “What do we do with them?” Billy queried.

  Jason shrugged. “Killing combatants in the course of battle is one thing, but I’m not in the extermination business. What we need to do is get them back in their cages.”

  “Sounds like a good exercise for the ground troops aboard the Independence, once she gets here,” Billy added.

  Jason had to smile before turning his attention back to the increasing noise behind them on the flight deck.

  “So what’s the plan, Cap?” Billy asked, taking an extended puff on his freshly lit cigar.

  Jason had to yell over the noise: “Five fighters will resume their patrols of the corridor. Maintain order, and positively ensure any remaining Craing are kept far away from all three bridges. The Lilly will phase-shift to open space and use what Ricket figured out to instigate a wormhole to this location for the outpost fleet.”

  “So what’s the problem?”

  “The problem is finding open space. Even with our extended three thousand mile phase-shift capabilities, the fleet surrounding us is composed of more than two thousand warships. They have encircled the Meganaught. The secret’s out—they know we’re here; they just don’t quite know what to do with us. Eventually, they’ll have to attack. But our imminent problem is getting out to open space. The radius of the Craing fleet extends to fifty thousand miles.”

  “Just make multiple phase-shifts, what’s the problem?”

  “The problem is The Lilly can’t make fifteen or sixteen consecutive phase-shifts without stopping periodically to recharge. We do that, and we’ll be engaging the enemy in open space. Defeats our purpose.”

  “Where’s the Allied fleet in all this? I thought they’d be here by now.”

  “Close. Probably too close, and I’m sure they’ve been detected on the Craing’s long-range sensors. They’ve held up somewhere waiting for the outpost fleet to arrive for a unified attack.”

  Jason looked down at his virtual notepad and the Rhino teams moving about the Dreadnaught bridge.

  “Why do I need open space?”

  “What do you mean?” Billy asked.

  Jason gestured to the video feed. “Remember earlier, when Traveler phase-shifted into that group of Craing combatants?”

  “That was pretty foul. Really disgusting.”

  “One of the unique properties of phase-shifting is that the thing shifting takes space precedence, or ownership, over the space into which it phase-shifts. We’ve seen that time and time again. Whenever The Lilly, or even one of us, phase-shifts, we displace matter when we complete the shift.”

  “Yeah, we know that,” Billy said, making a face that said well, that’s obvious.

  “I’m just saying we can phase-shift into space anywhere. Any Craing warship that happens to be in the way will be destroyed.”

  “So what are we waiting for?”

  * * *

  It was time for battle, the most important battle of his life. Jason wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page. The captain’s ready room was filled to capacity. Traveler, too large for a standard chair, stood off to the side. Ricket, to Jason’s left, looked stronger and more confident in his new body than ever before. He also looked younger, less frail. The others—Orion, Perkins, Billy, Chief Horris, and the rest of the command team—didn’t look quite as sure of themselves. Looking around the table, he missed seeing Nan there, and having Mollie nearby. He wondered what they were doing at that particular moment, back home safe in San Bernardino. His eyes stopped on Dira, who looked tired but, as always, lovely. He wished they had had more time to cultivate their burgeoning relationship. Would it ever be possible to someday do so? How many at the table would still be alive in the hours ahead? He looked across the table again at Dira and gave her a quick wink. He brought his mind back to the present moment.

  “So, in review, let’s go over it one more time,” Jason said. “As agreed to by Admiral Reynolds, the Independence will be the first warship to come over. That will be The Lilly’s first order of business once a viable wormhole has been produced. Soon after that, the Pacesetter and the Epcot shuttle will introduce smaller wormholes and bring back two warships per cycle. Over the past hour we’ve been maneuvering the Meganaught, attempting to reposition her to the outer fringe of the Craing fleet, with the overall intention of surrounding the Craing once the EOUPA and Allied fleets arrive. Any questions?”

  No one spoke up, then Orion nervously cleare
d her throat. “Can we do this? I mean, can we actually win, Cap? It just seems so overwhelmingly lopsided.”

  All eyes were on Jason. He knew they needed him to be a positive voice: assuring them with ultra-conviction, that, yes, they really did have a chance to succeed in the upcoming battle. A battle fought not only to ensure their own survival, but the survival of their home worlds, their loved ones.

  “You give me your all today, each and every one of you, and we’ll hammer a stake in the hearts of the Craing. Today is the day we drive them from Allied space, the day they realize their empire is vulnerable. Yes, Gunny, we can—and we will—win, if you all do your jobs.”