She could almost feel their ears perk up at that. All their attention was focused on her again, and on getting out of this mess. Better that than sitting around afraid. Better to take action than to just accept doom.
“I’ve been watching our scan footage of the system while we’ve run. It looks like their entire combat fleet has split, except for this one big ship,” Charline said. “Now, this one is a whopper. It’s enormous. Makes an aircraft carrier look like a damned bath toy.”
“What about the other ones, the ones making that net you were talking about?” Juanita asked.
Charline flashed her a smile. The woman was quick! Good; they were going to need smart people for this to work, not just fighters.
“Glad you asked. They’re both our biggest problem, and the potential solution. I’ve been watching them, you see. Every so often, some of them dock with the big-ass ship-of-doom down there,” Charline said. “Then they fly back out again.”
“That’s how they’re managing to jump over and over. We’re running out of power. They’re not. They’re using that big ship like a refueling tanker,” Sing said.
“Bingo. In fact, I think that’s precisely what it is. It’s designed for smaller ships to recharge rapidly so that they can make multiple jumps more quickly. Think about it,” Charline said. “That thing could charge up an entire fleet in no time. They can travel faster, hit and run, do a lot of things.”
“It’s not a warship. It’s a logistics platform,” Charline finished.
She’d gone over the scan data over and again. The big ship had some teeth, no doubt about that. It had blasted them with its main guns. Even then, she’d been surprised that a small ship like the one they’d captured could so easily withstand the weapons of a massive ship like that. It should have had the weaponry to blow them to shards.
But it hadn’t. Also, it had only fired a pair of weapons. Why not more?
Charline was gambling it was because that was all the guns they had available in that firing arc. It was a behemoth, sure. But most of its surface was covered with docking ports for ships to attach themselves and recharge. Most of the interior had to be some sort of power generation.
“So what’s the plan, then?” Isabella asked. She was beaming. She was confident Charline would find a solution, and there she was, about to present one.
“There are at least a few of those little ships attached to the big one at any given time. We’re going to make a big distraction happen, and then we’re going to board the big ship and capture one of those fully-charged little ones,” Charline said.
“Oh. Is that all?” Tessa asked. She won a few chuckles from the others. Good. If they were laughing, that was a positive sign. “Then what?”
“Then we get the hell out of this system and go home,” Charline said. Her face was a mask of determination. “You saw that fleet. With their tech? And all those ships? They’re hostile. If they ever find out where Earth is, we’re all toast. We need to bring a warning back home. Not just for our sakes, but for everyone we left back there, too.”
No chuckles this time, just grim nods. Everyone was on board. They were good. They’d be ready to fight and knew what was on the line.
“Halcomb is printing new armor parts. I need everyone to help him assemble armor units,” Charline said. “I’ll give him as long as I can, keep running the little ships around. When it looks like they’re about to trap us, that’s when we will turn around and trap them instead. I don’t have to tell you that the more armor we have by then, the more likely we are to survive. Dismissed. Let’s get this done.”
THIRTY-FOUR
“What’ve you got for me, Halcomb?” Charline asked.
The words came out a little more clipped than she had intended, and Halcomb shot up an eyebrow. Charline shook her head to clear it out. They were all exhausted, not just her. She’d managed to keep one step ahead of the enemy ships for six damned hours. If Halcomb had managed to pull off some sort of miracle in that time, they might actually have a chance.
If not? Well, they’d have to do what they could with what they had. That last jump had barely been in time to escape the alien ships. The net was about shut on them. They either stood their ground to fight or died when the enemy ships all came at them together.
“I think you mean to say ‘thank you, Halcomb,’ right?” he replied.
Charline laughed. The man had to be at least as exhausted as she, but he kept that same easy manner. How, she had no idea. It was infectious and good for her, though, so she’d take it.
“Let me thank you after I see what you’ve got,” Charline said.
“If you like it, you’re gonna owe me,” Halcomb said, giving her a wink.
She shook her head in mock exasperation. “You impress me, you can have damned near whatever you want.”
He laughed and cracked his palms together in a manner that made Charline wonder what she’d just agreed to. Well, no worries – they had to survive the next few hours. She could handle anything else after that.
“All right. First, we’ve got the six armor we built from scratch. They’re all fixed up, with new arm swords,” Halcomb said. “Ready to roll. Your suit, too - I replaced the arm cannons with alien-built plasma guns, but otherwise she’s just as you left her. Just less dinged up.”
That was something, all right. Seven suits of armor was going to give them a lot of firepower. But Halcomb had a couple of large objects hidden under tarps down on one side of the hangar. Charline suspected there was more to the show yet to come.
“What else have you got over there?” Charline asked.
“That’s not enough for you? Fine, then.” He yanked one tarp, revealing two more suits of armor hidden beneath. “That’s all we could do, with the time constraints. I wish I coulda done more for you, but…”
“Halcomb, it’s awesome. It’s more than anyone should have been able to do. I don’t know how you’ve managed all the things you have, anyway,” Charline said.
“Impressed, then?”
“Yes, definitely,” she agreed.
“Oh, good. Remember your promise, then,” he said with an ear-to-ear grin.
Charline was tired enough that she didn’t recall what he was talking about for a moment. Then she did, and the worry started creeping in. She’d written him something of a blank check, hadn’t she? What did he have in mind, the damned rascal?
She couldn’t read much from his face except delight at having won. Charline shook her head and sighed.
“Yeah, I remember. What did you want?” she asked.
“Well. You remember some of our conversations before, about key personnel?” Halcomb asked.
Sure, she did. She’d told him he was too vital to be out on the front lines. After which she’d promptly gone out herself, even though she was arguably more mission-critical than he was. It was a bit of hypocrisy which had bothered her ever since. It had even crossed her mind to offer him one of the new sets of armor. Maybe that was what he was after? She nodded.
“Well,” he said again. “I’ve decided you’re right. I’m too important to be out in one of those walking hunks of junk as target practice for the bad guys.”
“Really?” That surprised Charline. She’d thought he was dead set on going into battle alongside the others. What did he want?
“Which is why I made this baby,” Halcomb went on, yanking back the second tarp to reveal what lay beneath.
It was another suit of armor, but as different from the others as night and day. Where the original sets had straight legs and body structures built for lifting and load bearing – the original purpose of the suits, after all – this armor had legs which bent backward like those of a bird. Charline could immediately see how valuable that would be for absorbing impacts and improving balance.
It was bigger and bulkier than the other armor. The thing was covered with thick plates, attached at sharp angles that were designed to deflect incoming shots as much as absorb them. The old armor could take s
ome serious hits, but this thing was a tank compared to them.
Then there were the armaments. Each arm had dual plasma guns mounted, with a massive bayonet beneath. Another pair of plasma cannons was mounted on each shoulder. That shouldn’t have been possible! They’d discovered early on that the reason the bugs only had two plasma guns on each of their sets of combat armor was because that was all that one power cube could run.
“Wow,” Charline said, stepping closer to observe the design more carefully. It was crude construction, like all their armor. She could see the rough lines of the 3D printing that had created it, but it looked like a damned good design. “How long have you been working on this?”
“Since I first saw you take yours into a fight. I’ve been tinkering with the concept, but we didn’t have the parts. After we took this ship, spare parts became the least of our worries, so I started in on the actual work,” Halcomb said. “My guess was we were gonna need all the firepower we could get. Looks like I was right on the money.”
“You were. How did you get so many guns working? I thought two was a hard limit?” she asked.
“It is – for one power cube. This thing has four working in tandem,” Halcomb said.
In the back of her head, Charline wondered why the bugs hadn’t done that, if it was so simple. There was probably something about the tech they were missing. Did the cubes become unstable if you stacked them? There was no way to know. This tech was all black box. Maybe the things were just expensive to build, or perhaps they thought more than two guns was overkill. Looking up at Halcomb’s monstrosity, that seemed like a fitting description for the thing.
“Overkill,” Charline said.
“Hmm? Well, I suppose it is, but I figured go big or go home. Or in this case, go big so we can go home,” Halcomb said.
“No, I mean I think that’s what we’ll call it. The Overkill Mark 2 armor. It’s good work, Halcomb. You and your monster are on the team. Just try not to shoot any of us, OK?” she said, giving him a poke in the ribs.
“Will do.” The face-splitting grin was back, but there was a note of the predator in it that hadn’t been there before. “We’ll make them regret giving us so much shit. They should have just let us go home.”
Charline wished she had his confidence. They were about to assault a massive ship with a handful of people. No matter what she did, some of them probably weren’t going to make it home. The whole mission was complicated by the two unconscious, wounded team members. One of whom was Andy. She wasn’t going to leave either of them behind, but carrying them into a firefight in their condition was out of the question, too.
But she couldn’t let Halcomb in on how unsure she felt about their odds. He knew the risks as well as the rest of them. If he chose to approach the coming fight with confidence, who was she to tell him no?
“That we will,” she said at last. “This will be a fight they won’t forget anytime soon.”
That much, at least, she felt sure she could promise.
THIRTY-FIVE
The power reading on her tablet screen was stark and unforgiving. They had enough juice left for one more short-range jump, and the aliens were finding them too soon to recharge. This was the end of the chase, one way or another. As soon as the enemy ships found them, they’d be able to make one last hop, and then they’d have to stand their ground.
“All right, hang on, everyone. I’m pushing the drives to maximum,” Charline said. They’d already been pushing the ship hard. Now she red-lined the engines, and the ship sprinted forward at even greater acceleration. It wasn’t going to be enough. No speed they could attain would allow them to evade wormhole-capable ships forever.
They’d retreated into the shuttle. Everyone who could be in armor was. Only Juanita, Karl, Andy, and Ian – the other wounded man that Karl hadn’t been able to clear for duty – were without steel second skins. They’d have to rely on the shuttle’s hull for protection and hope for the best. It wasn’t enough, but it was all she could do. Karl needed to stay behind to care for the wounded, and Juanita was the second-best pick for running the shuttle’s computer systems. Charline was the best, but she wasn’t sitting this one out on the bench.
She tapped a button on her tablet and the drives of the bigger ship they were still docked inside pushed their output to the limit. Next to the tablet sat a hacked command cube – the device which allowed her to transmit commands from her tablet to the ship. They were accelerating away from the star at the center of this solar system as fast as their ship could manage. It felt weird to be piloting a ship from inside her armor, but the remote control was still functional. She couldn’t do any fancy maneuvers, but if all went well she wouldn’t need to.
“Got incoming, five thousand kilometers to the stern,” Juanita said.
“Damn, that close already?” Charline said.
“That close?” Halcomb asked. “That’s far enough, isn’t it?”
“We’re in space. That’s practically point-blank range. Adjusting course,” Charline said.
“They’re falling behind. Looks like they exited on the wrong vector,” Juanita said. “Nope, they just jumped. Now they’re on the correct vector and closing.”
“Wonder if they’ll try to take us on themselves, or bring friends?” Charline said. She could see the chase projected on her tablet from the ship’s scans. The single ship was cruising in behind them, slowly gaining distance. Either it was out of charge for jumps, or it wasn’t too keen on trying a one on one fight. Either way, it wasn’t rushing them, which was perfect. They didn’t have the guns tied into her tablet. Charline still hadn’t figured out a way to make that work, and she didn’t need them for her plan.
“More bogeys. Multiple contacts,” Juanita warned.
“How many?” Charline asked. Her scan was lagging just a little bit behind the more advanced shuttle console Juanita was using.
“Um. Oh, shit. Looks like all of them,” Juanita replied. “Jumping in from all angles. They’re trying to englobe us. At least two dozen of them.”
Two dozen ships. Was that all the smaller vessels the enemy had access to at the moment? Their main fleet was much larger, but she’d seen it warp out. By Charline’s rough estimate, most of those ships had to be very low on power reserves at the moment. They’d been jumping around chasing her long enough to deplete their reserves. Some of them would be fresh from recharging, but more than half should be low.
Which meant those ones wouldn’t be able to follow her when she jumped. Not right away, anyway. That would give them the little time they needed.
If everything worked perfectly. If nothing went wrong.
She sighed. If things went sideways, she’d figure out a way to adjust to circumstances and try something different. If they had to take out every bug in this solar system to get her people home, she would find a damn way to do it!
The ship shuddered, and then shook a second time.
“Taking fire,” Juanita said. “Armor is holding. So far.”
They’d shut off the shields. Every bit of the power they had was needed for this next jump. No shields meant only the hull armor was keeping enemy plasma cannons from burning them to a crisp. It didn’t have to hold together long. Just a little bit longer…
“More ships arriving. My god, there are a lot of them out there!” Juanita said.
“Engaging wormhole drive,” Charline said. That was the signal she was waiting for. That must be their entire force, all gathered in one spot. It was time to go.
“Roger. Opening shuttle bay doors and taking manual control of the shuttle,” Juanita said.
Charline felt the bump as the bay doors beneath the shuttle slid apart. There was a heavy thrum as the smaller ship’s engines engaged to push them out of the bay. They were slipping free, just under the ship. It would serve as cover against most of the weapon fire coming their way.
Ahead of them the wormhole flared, a bright light against the dark backdrop of space. Ship and shuttle alike shot thr
ough the wormhole at an incredible speed, driven past the event horizon in the blink of an eye. There was a brief flash of light across her eyes and then they were out again.
“Full thrust, Juanita! Get us clear!” Charline shouted.
There was no reply, but Charline could feel the shuttle as it rolled so that Juanita could apply all the thrust she had available to changing their direction of travel. The math said it should be enough, but it would be touch and go. If they were off by even a few seconds or a handful of degrees, they were going to be way closer to the enemy ship than they wanted to be.
Charline’s tablet finally gave them a solid image of local space. The ship she’d been controlling was already out of range for her remote, but that didn’t matter anymore. It was still firing its thrusters as hard as it could, building even more velocity. The shuttle was veering off on a new vector that would carry it away from the ship it had left behind.
Directly ahead of the ship they’d captured was the enemy tanker vessel. The calculations had been perfect, bringing their ship out of the wormhole on a high-speed collision course directly toward the massive enemy ship.
It saw her ship-turned-torpedo and knew what she was trying to accomplish. The tanker ship began firing its own wormhole drive. But it was too late – there simply weren’t enough seconds between their arrival and the impact that followed. The tanker’s wormhole was only half-formed when her ship smashed directly into its nose.
The image on her tablet fuzzed out as the scanners struggled to register what had occurred. The tanker wasn’t destroyed. There wasn’t enough kinetic energy in the impact to blast through the tanker’s shields and still tear the ship itself apart. Her ship was gone, but she’d expected that, too. It was scattered dust and debris now.
“Can we get an image on the tanker?” Charline asked.
“On it,” Karl said.
“Bringing us around and heading their way,” Juanita added.
The camera image popped up on Charline’s tablet a few seconds later. The front third of the tanker vessel was a wreck. Shattered hull plates floated in space. Support struts twisted in crazy lines every which way. Air and liquid drifted into space, floating in freezing clouds as they left the ship behind. It had to be chaos in the rest of the ship, but for those at the front the end had come instantly.
Dust & Iron (Adventures of the Starship Satori Book 9) Page 15
