by Ryk Brown
He rolled as he hit the ground, coming up to see the plasma shots flying past the exploding shuttle, slamming into the line of wounded evacuees and those helping them, and across the medical facility itself, before continuing to tear through the buildings on the other side.
The medical building came apart in a series of internal explosions caused by the immense heat of the plasma charge. The windows blew out, and the roof came crashing down, followed by the walls. Two more explosions from within the pile of debris sent shards of glass, metal, and bodies flying across the spaceport.
“NO!” Connor screamed. He jumped to his feet. There were only a few people moving. Those who could, were stumbling away from the burning building, dazed by the explosions. As he ran toward the destruction, he could see movement. People trying to get up. Broken bodies, burnt beyond recognition, summoning every ounce of strength within them in a vain attempt to find safety. But he couldn’t see anyone who had escaped intact.
“Hurry the fuck up!” Josh demanded over his comm-set. “There are people dying down there!”
“We’re getting them off as fast as we can, Josh,” Neli protested.
“Their cruisers are moving into position, Josh,” Loki warned as he watched the Seiiki’s sensor display. “They’re going to start glassing the surface any minute.”
“They’ll wait until they settle into stable orbits!” Josh argued. “The fucking Jung are nothing, if not methodical! We can get one more load!”
“Josh.”
“Either way, we gotta disconnect, right? The Glendanon can’t jump with us attached.”
“Yes, but…”
“If you wanna go be with your family, that’s fine. I’ll make the last run myself.”
“Telles will get them off in one of the shuttles, Josh,” Loki tried to assure him.
“You don’t know that, Loki,” Josh retorted.
“Last group is heading off now,” Neli reported. “We’ll be closed up in less than a minute!”
Josh glared at Loki. “Are you staying or going?”
Loki did not respond at first. After a moment, he keyed his comm-set. “Glendanon, Seiiki. Stand by to cut us loose.”
“Copy that. Standing by.”
“You’re going to get us killed, you know,” Loki said, as he started checking the Seiiki’s systems in preparation to jump back down into the atmosphere over Lawrence.
“I haven’t yet, have I? Josh replied as he checked his flight control systems.
“Seiiki is away,” Loki’s voice announced over the commander’s helmet comms.
Two jump flashes appeared on the commander’s tactical display as two boxcars jumped from the Lawrence Spaceport below, to nearby the Glendanon in orbit above Burgess.
“Looks like they’re settling into orbit to begin their attack,” the commander announced, watching the two Dusahn cruisers on his display screen.
A swarm of jump flashes appeared all around him, their light nearly blinding him. Threat alarms began to sound, and red icons appeared all over his tactical display. “Bandits all around! Odds and evens! Break and jump!”
The commander rolled his ship to port and brought his engine to full power. A split second later, he pressed his jump button just as two energy blasts came hurtling toward him.
One second later, his canopy cleared, and he was several kilometers away from his original position. Three more flashes of light appeared from behind him. A quick glance at his tactical display showed that three of his fighters had turned to port and jumped, just as he had instructed. “Break right and jump again!” he ordered without hesitation.
Another press of his jump button, and his canopy turned opaque, then cleared a second later. Again, three more flashes appeared behind him. He checked his tactical display, noting that half of the enemy targets had turned to follow their first jump, and were now at the location they had just jumped from. “Hard about and prepare to engage targets as they jump in,” he ordered as he rolled into a tight left turn.
“I’m with ya,” one of his pilots replied.
“Turning.”
“Let’s go get’em!”
As he came about, six flashes of light appeared in front of him. Oddly shaped, black and crimson ships appeared, headed directly for him. He opened fire, sending bolts of energy from both his wing cannons and his belly turret. Two enemy fighters disappeared behind orange-red explosions, their icons disappearing from his tactical display.
“Jump!” he ordered, as he pitched up slightly to get a clear jump line and pressed the jump button on his flight control stick again. A moment later, his canopy had cleared, and the threat was behind him. But only two friendly icons were near him. He looked back and to his right, just as another jump flash appeared. It was an abnormal flash, uneven and with odd secondary flashes. Only the back half of a Takaran fighter, and several large pieces of a Dusahn fighter, appeared from behind the abnormal jump flash.
Damn.
Another glance at his tactical display offered little solace. Only a few kilometers away, the Glendanon now had nearly a dozen Dusahn fighters bearing down on her. “Glendanon, Raker Leader! There are too many of them!”
Six jump flashes appeared behind him, followed by streaks of plasma, two of which struck his rear shields, causing the back end to pitch up. “Rakers break and jump!” he ordered as he rotated his jump distance selection wheel two clicks and pressed his jump button again.
His canopy cleared. He looked around for jump flashes, but saw none. He checked his tactical display, and saw that the Glendanon was under attack. “Glendanon, Raker Leader! You’ve got to jump!”
“Rakers, Glendanon! We’ll be back!”
Commander Jarso watched his tactical display as the Glendanon’s icon disappeared. He and his men now had no ship to land on, and the only habitable planet within range was about to be glassed.
Connor ran up to the pile of bodies and debris that was once the Ghatazhak medical facility. The bulk of the now-demolished building was on fire. He looked at the rubble. Bodies were strewn about, mixed in with the debris. A few of them were still moving. A woman reached out toward him, begging incomprehensibly for help.
Connor scanned right and left desperately searching…hoping… “JESSICA!” he cried out at the top of his lungs. “JESSICA!”
“Tuplo, Telles!” the general called over Connor’s comm-set. He didn’t hear him at first, over the sound of another string of plasma shots that walked across a row of buildings nearby.
“Tuplo! Are you there?” the general called again.
“Yeah! I’m here!” Connor replied. “I can’t find her!”
“I’m coming to pick you up,” the general told him.
“I have to find her!” Connor exclaimed, as he started pulling up pieces of rubble, hoping to uncover her, and praying for a miracle.
“She’s gone, Connor,” the general said. “We have to get out of here. Be ready.”
“I can’t go without her!” Connor shouted desperately. “I can’t!”
“Connor!” a voice cried from nearby.
Connor turned to his right, spotting Doctor Sato, crouching down beside a cargo vehicle, its top half ripped off by the force of the explosions. The sheared-off roof of the vehicle was half covering both her and Doctor Megel, and…
“Jessica!” Connor ran toward them, grabbing the damaged truck roof and pushing it to one side. “Are you all right?” he asked as he dropped to his knees next to her.
“I think so,” she replied rather unconvincingly.
“I found them!” Connor cried over his comm-set. “All three of them! They’re alive!”
General Telles stood fast as the thrust blast from the descending combat jump shuttle threatened to knock him over.
“All three of them! They
’re alive!”
“Breach! Fifteen Alpha! Civilians are pouring in!”
“How many?” the general asked as the shuttle touched down nearby.
“Hundreds!” the sergeant replied. “Hundreds more behind them!”
“How many men do we have left on the ground?” Telles asked as he climbed aboard the shuttle, and closed the door behind him.
“Twenty-four! There’s no way we can hold them!”
“Connor,” the general called over his comm-set. “Move them into the open for extraction, away from any obvious targets.”
“Understood.”
“We’ll be there in two minutes.”
General Telles leaned forward between the engine bulkheads that separated the combat jump shuttle’s cockpit from its main cabin. “Fire mission! Fifteen Alpha! Zeta Protocol!” he ordered the flight crew.
The two pilots glanced at one another as the shuttle lifted off the ground and accelerated forward.
“Be ready topside, Sergeant,” Commander Kainan instructed.
For once, Sergeant Torwell had no clever retort as he climbed back into his gunner’s chair. “This sucks,” was all he had to say as he swung his turret forward.
“You sweep left to right, we’ll sweep right to left,” the commander said. “Ten seconds, General.”
“Telles to all Ghatazhak! Orderly withdrawal! Heads down! Evac, evac, evac!”
The combat jump shuttle swung into position behind the line of Ghatazhak soldiers who were attempting to slow down the advance of the desperate crowds. As they settled in low behind them, the soldiers stopped firing and ran in a low crouch to their right.
Sergeant Torwell swung his turret to the far left. “This sucks!” he repeated as he opened fire on the advancing crowds.
The shuttle pivoted slightly right, then opened fire. As they fired, they brought their nose slowly from right to left, sweeping their torrent of fire across the front of the crowd.
All three men tried not to look at the faces of the innocent people they were slaughtering. But those faces somehow found their way into their memories, and would be with them forever.
As they fired, the last of the Ghatazhak forces on the ground ran up the loading ramp into the boxcar’s under-hung cargo pod.
As the boxcar’s engines began spinning up again, more fences began to cave against the sheer weight of the crowds. Within seconds, thousands of people were rushing toward the boxcar.
“More to the right!” Sergeant Torwell warned, noticing the new influx of those wishing to escape. He swung his turret toward them and opened fire again.
Lieutenant Latfee watched as the last boxcar rose slowly off the ground, desperate civilians clinging to her gear. A second later, she jumped away, leaving several dozen dead bodies, and numerous body parts, on the surface below.
Another string of plasma blasts made its way across the spaceport, blowing apart everything it touched, sending chunks of red-hot concrete and melted rock flying into the air in all directions.
There was a sudden thud, and the shuttle rocked violently, as if it were going to tip over to its port side.
“We’re hit!” the lieutenant called out. “I’m losing reactor two! Hydraulics are dropping!”
“Climbing!” the commander reported, pushing his throttles to full power as he struggled to keep the shuttle aloft.
“Energy banks one and three are offline!” the lieutenant reported, continuing with his damage assessment. “I’m losing jump power! We gotta jump!”
“We must pick up the others!” the general insisted.
“We can’t!” the commander warned.
“I order you to…”
“If we don’t jump now, we never will!” Lieutenant Latfee said, cutting the general off.
“We’re losing propellant as well!” the commander exclaimed. “We’ve got to jump to orbit, now!”
“Do it!” the general ordered without hesitation.
The combat jump shuttle’s windows turned opaque before the words left the general’s mouth.
“Raker Leader to all Rakers,” Commander Jarso called as he twisted his fighter to the right, rolling repeatedly to avoid the plasma bolts coming at him from behind. “Shake your tails, then jump to your designated recovery points and go cold.”
“See you soon, Rubber,” Ensign Baylor replied.
“It’s been an honor flying with you, Commander,” Ensign Sanko added.
“The honor’s all mine,” the commander replied. He spun his jump distance selector wheel on the side of his flight control stick several clicks, then pressed the jump button. Before his canopy even cleared again, he pulled a tight turn to the left and pitched down slightly. He rolled the wheel a few more clicks and jumped again. Another maneuver, another change in jump distance, and another jump, repeating it several more times.
Finally, after eight jumps and maneuvers to shake any pursuers from his tail, he jumped to his designated recovery point, on the outskirts of the Sherma system. There, he would shut down all his systems to avoid detection, and wait for rescue. He had enough life support, food, and water to last several days. If no help came by then, he would use his emergency stasis gear to put himself into the same cold sleep that been used in ancient sleeper ships to cross the galaxy. That would buy him years of hope. And if rescue never came, he would be none the wiser.
“Find cover. Do what you can to survive. We will come back for you,” General Telles told them.
Connor looked at Jessica. “What are we going to do?” Jessica was still shaken by her ordeal. “I don’t know!” she cried.
“What about that bunker?” Connor asked, getting an idea. “The one on your parents’ farm?”
“It’s too far away,” Jessica said, shaking her head as the plasma shots continued to pound the area nearby. “We’ll never make it in time.”
“There’s got to be something we can do!” Connor insisted, refusing to give up.
“There’s nothing,” Jessica told him, sorrow in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Connor. I shouldn’t have dragged you into this.” She put her hand on his cheek, looking into his eyes. “I had no right.”
“You saved me,” Connor told her, putting both his hands on her face. “Seven years ago, and today! I was just going through the motions!” Several plasma bolts struck the ground nearby, a few hundred meters away. Debris sprayed over them, and he used his body to protect her. “I’d rather die, here and now, for something…for someone, than live decades for nothing.”
A blue-white flash of light washed over them, accompanied by a screeching thunder and a wash of displaced air. The sound of explosions was suddenly covered by the scream of engines, as the Seiiki set down no more than fifty meters away from them, its thrust wash throwing dust and bits of debris against them as they huddled next to the crippled cargo vehicle.
Marcus and Dalen jumped from the Seiiki’s cargo ramp as it came down, dropping the last meter to the surface and running over to them.
“Need a ride, Cap’n?” Dalen yelled, reaching down to help Jessica up.
“You bucking for a raise, Voss?” Connor said, grinning from ear to ear as he rose.
“Let’s get a move on, people,” Marcus shouted as he helped Doctor Sato and Doctor Megel to their feet as well. “Those cruisers are getting ready to glass this rock!”
As Connor headed toward his ship, the distant night horizon lit up with several blinding flashes of light.
“Nukes!” Loki warned over their comm-sets. “We gotta go, now!”
“Takeoff!” Marcus replied as they ran up the cargo ramp.
Connor came to a stop just inside the Seiiki’s cargo bay, holding Jessica. They turned and looked out the back of the cargo bay as the ramp came level and continued upward. They could see more flashes
on the horizon as the ship turned away from the direction of the nuclear bombardment, climbing as fast as it could, until its cargo ramp clanged shut, and she jumped away.
* * *
President Scott sat in his office, looking out the window at the city of Winnipeg.
“Are you even watching this?” his daughter asked as she entered from the door of the adjoining office. She walked over to his desk and picked up the remote. “Why is he still campaigning?” she wondered, turning down the volume.
“Galiardi is always campaigning,” President Scott said wearily, still gazing out the window.
“I know, but the decision has been made, and he got his way. No ships to the Pentaurus cluster. Why doesn’t he move on to more important topics?”
“In his mind, there is nothing more important than protecting us against the Jung. That’s what built his political base.”
“He shouldn’t need a political base,” Miri argued. “He’s an admiral, not a politician.”
“Once you get to a certain level, everyone is a politician, Miri,” the president said. “You should know that by now.”
“Knowing and accepting are not the same thing,” she commented. She looked at her father. “You’re not happy with the decision, are you?”
“The Corinairans saved our lives eight years ago,” he said. “We owe them.”
“I know,” Miri admitted with a sigh. “But as much as I hate to admit it, the admiral has a point. Can we really afford to send ships to the Pentaurus cluster when Jung ships are showing up unannounced, right here in our own part of the galaxy?”
