by Ryan Kirk
There wasn’t long to wait. Tev had hoped they might have more time, but the dropship didn’t want to be on the planet any longer than was necessary. Derreck told Tev he was returning, and Tev assembled all the hunters who had arrived. They weren’t at full strength, but Derreck wouldn’t summon them if he didn’t need to.
Derreck was back in the makeshift camp within the hour. He donned his suit with practiced ease and displayed the site they were going to be attacking. Unfortunately, the position seemed easily defensible. The dropship was in a U-shaped valley, the walls rising a good thirty meters in the air. If they didn’t want to destroy the dropship, there was only one reasonable approach, and Derreck reported that direction held traps and enemy soldiers. Even if their enemies weren’t expecting an attack, they were prepared for one.
Tev looked at the pictures Derreck had taken. A plan was forming in his mind. He opened a private channel to Derreck.
“We could attack from the top of the valley.”
“Tev, there’s no way. First you have to get up there, and then you have to jump off. Exosuits don’t make jumps like that.”
“Our best pilots can. The suits can take the impact, Derreck. I’m sure of it.”
Tev knew the only reason Derreck was even considering the option was because a frontal assault had so little chance of succeeding. “What do you propose?”
“Split the forces. I’ll take the best pilots, you take the rest. You attack first, make them think you’re the thrust, then we attack from behind. Not too complicated.”
“I hate that plan.”
“Do you have a better one?”
“No.”
Tev opened the channel up to the public and called for volunteers. He explained how difficult the maneuvering was going to be, and he was excited to see that only the best pilots volunteered. The hunters were brave, but they knew their limits.
There was little else that needed to be said. Derreck led the diversion force, while Tev led their best around the opening of the valley. They started their climb, and the route quickly became difficult.
Behind him, pilots slipped as the steep terrain gave way under their armored feet. Tev tested the way, leaping up the side of the mountain, always ready to leap away should the landing start to give way. Each step was nerve-wracking, each one an opportunity for the entire attempt to fail. Twice Tev jumped to a position he didn’t trust, each time managing to jump back before the entire spot collapsed. Their advance was slow, and every jump, from every person, had to be perfect. Tev began to worry they wouldn’t get in position in time.
Fortunately, he didn’t need to fear. The dropship was still in place as they reached the top of the valley. Tev risked a short glance over the lip. From up here, the drop seemed so much farther than it had seemed from Derreck’s pictures. A moment of doubt crossed his mind. Perhaps they wouldn’t be able to take that fall. But again, they had no choice. They had come too far to do anything different.
Tev let Derreck know they were in position. Moments later, the valley below him exploded in fire. He resisted the urge to look again. He ran the risk of being detected. Instead, he waited, trusting Derreck to tell him when to jump. The command came a few moments later. Tev relayed it to his hunters, and without giving himself time to think, he sprinted towards the edge and leaped.
For the first few moments, the jump was thrilling. He basked in the power of the suit, the feeling of flying through the air. But that feeling soon became one of falling, and fear gripped his heart. The ground was so far away.
And getting closer so fast.
Tev barely had time to remind himself the technique was the same as any other jump. He landed and pushed forward, his suit screaming at the stresses it was being put under. Tev felt the impact in every bone of his body, as though he had been punched by a giant. Then the pressure was gone and he was flying forward, diving into a roll he could barely control.
He didn’t have time to see if the others made it. They had to. He was too disoriented to roll to his feet, so he finished the roll sitting up. In front of him, he saw the back of an enemy exosuit. Acting on instinct, he raised his rifle and pulled the trigger, sending a single round punching through the armor.
His world was one of gut reactions and brief visions. Every time he saw an enemy suit, he brought his weapon up, firing.
When the first rounds knocked him onto his back, he remembered he needed to move.
He rolled to the side as an enemy pilot tried to stomp his helmet in, pushing himself back to his feet.
His awareness widened, just a little, and he saw he wasn’t the only one who had made the landing. There were others fighting by his side.
He also saw several exosuits motionless on the ground. Some hadn’t made the jump.
Tev spun underneath the arm of an enemy, raising his arm and firing a round that traveled from the enemy’s torso through his head, exiting out the top. He continued his spin, finding another enemy in front of him. He was behind the enemy suit, and a single shot killed that pilot as well.
His awareness widened again, and he realized there weren’t many enemies left.
Derreck’s shout cut through the fog of his mind.
“Tev! They dropped a bomb!”
Tev didn’t have the time to process the thought. The enemies that remained were clustering into a hole in the side of the valley. It wasn’t a cave, the edges were too perfect for that. Pieces clicked in place, and he understood that hole was why they came. Why they had risked everything.
One of his hunters followed the exosuits in, and was immediately torn apart by concentrated fire. Attacking the few suits that were left would be a nightmare.
An unnatural calm fell over the battlefield as active combat died away. Tev and his hunters didn’t dare to attack the hole, but the enemy pilots couldn’t come out without losing their lives, either. Too late, Tev thought about the dropship. With all the enemy suits safely in the hole, the dropship could open up and tear them apart.
Just as Tev had the thought, Derreck came crashing past him. Tev followed, seeing the destination was the dropship. The doors were closing, but Tev and Derreck leapt inside. Derreck crashed through the narrow halls, too narrow for exosuits, before coming to the bridge. He leveled his rifle at the pilots. “Do anything and you’re dead.”
Derreck’s argument was convincing. With his free arm, he inserted a connection between his exosuit and the dropship.
Eleta’s voice came through Tev’s helmet. “All communication from and relayed by the dropship has been paused. Give me two more minutes and I’ll have control over everything.”
Derreck glanced at Tev. “We’ve got five minutes until that bomb lands. It’s going to be close.”
“What should we do about the remaining enemy?”
Derreck’s response was cold. “As soon as we have weapons control over the dropship, we’ll seal the tunnel. We’ll leave a few of your hunters behind to watch for them, but really, we just need them out of the picture until our assault on the jumpship is complete.”
One of the pilots moved suddenly, drawing a weapon from a shoulder holster. Before the weapon could even finish clearing the holster, Derreck’s rifle unleashed several shells into the man, the noise deafeningly loud in such a confined space.
Derreck focused on the other pilot and turned his speaker back on. “I don’t need you. I can fly this ship myself, so don’t push me.”
The other pilot nodded, then hesitated, worried that even that much might get him killed. Tev was certain the man wouldn’t try anything.
“I’ve got control of the ship,” Eleta said on the radio.
Derreck turned to Tev. “Get everyone on board, right away. We don’t have much time.”
Tev went back the way they came as Derreck opened up the ship from the bridge. Tev stepped down and called the hunters to him. The first part of the mission was done. Now only the hard part remained. The remaining hunters answered his call, and Eleta emerged from her hiding place as well, her slim
figure out of place among all the armored hunters.
There were so few of them left. Together, they took a moment to look over the battlefield at their fallen friends. All told, eight of them survived, and none of them were unscathed. They were too few to attack a jumper, but they were all that was left.
Suddenly, a second sun appeared on the horizon. Tev was frozen in place as the afterimages echoed in his vision. He had thought he was familiar with the power the weapons. Of Derrick’s, but he was reminded yet again of just how little he actually knew. The destructive ability of this weapon was beyond anything he could comprehend, anything he could have imagined. The shock wave was nothing but a gentle breeze at the distance he maintained, but kilometers of land had just been leveled in a moment.
Derreck spoke. “At least it wasn’t nuclear.”
Tev didn’t even understand how much power had been unleashed. He was still staring at the land that had been destroyed when he heard a new voice in his helmet, coming on over emergency channels.
“Tev. I imagine you are part of the assault happening on my dropship. You have now seen the power I possess, and that bomb was just one of dozens I have. End your assault on the dropship immediately, or I will continue.” The voice had to be that of Nicks.
Tev didn’t know what to do. If continuing the assault meant that level of destruction, maybe their attack wasn’t worth the price.
“Tev, Eleta thinks she can simulate an all-clear from the ship. We’re going to give it a try and see if they buy it. If they don’t, we’re not going to be able to sneak on Hellbringer anyway,” Derreck said.
There were a few seconds of almost unbearable tension. Nicks himself came back on the channel to thank them. “I am grateful for your wisdom. I never wanted war with your people, Tev.”
There was nothing else, and Tev waited to hear what they should do next. Derreck asked the question. “I think we should continue. Tev?”
He never thought the decision would come down to him. The risk was tremendous, and he couldn’t shake the feeling his foretold death was closer than ever. Letting Nicks escape was easy, safe, and tempting. He could live on in peace on his home planet, the only future he wanted for himself. The future seemed so abstract. Why risk everything?
Then he thought to his visions, the commands to hunt farther than he thought possible. He saw his people spreading into space, and deep inside of him, he knew this moment was the crux on which the future hinged. They needed the Hellbringer, and as he looked at the fires off in the distance, he knew he needed to continue the hunt, even though he didn’t want to. Nicks was his prey, and Tev wouldn’t stop until the hunt was successful.
Tev turned back into the dropship, the last of the hunters to board. A stunned silence had fallen over most of them as they were confronted with the full power of their enemy for the first time. They watched the aftermath of the explosion with awe and terror.
“Let’s go.”
Ten
To say that Mala was unhappy would be an understatement. In fact, understatement didn’t go far enough. Mala was furious and depressed, barely holding herself together. Kindra supposed she could understand. Dropship captains tended to develop an attachment to their ships, anthropomorphizing them and making them more than what they were.
Mala had been captain of Explorer for longer than Derreck had been captain of the Vigilance. But they had to be rational, and they knew there was no way they’d get both dropships to Hellbringer. With Vigilance’s upgrades, it was the stronger fighting ship, and so Mala’s ship became their shield.
There had been a tremendous argument when Derreck had made the suggestion. Technically, he and Mala held the same rank, so he couldn’t give her any commands, even though Derreck had clearly been in charge of the expedition. Derreck had laid out his points calmly. Hellbringer was the only way out of this system, and it currently possessed technology which would change the structure of power in the galaxy. On both counts, they needed to board the enemy jumpship. The odds of both Fleet dropships being able to get past Hellbringer’s defenses was almost zero. Even getting one close enough to matter would be difficult. The best use for Mala’s ship was as a shield.
Mala had raged at Derreck, but it was the rage of one who knew they were wrong. Derreck let her have her tirade, but eventually, she gave up her ship. The two dropships docked together for a few hours as the crew transferred everything useful over to Vigilance. As Kindra walked the halls, every corner was stuffed with clearly labeled crates. If this attack didn’t work, at least they could still say that Vigilance was the best-equipped dropship in the history of Fleet exploration.
While they were transferring the materials, Kindra worked to prepare the medical bay once again. The room had been worked over well by the number of people using medical supplies while they were on the planet. Kindra organized what she could and cleaned as best as she was able. They were heading into the jaws of danger once again, and she supposed she had best be ready to perform what medical services she could.
The constant stress and danger were threatening to make her numb. Back on Haven, she had made a promise to herself that she would see this mission to Tev’s planet through, but at times she worried that promise would destroy her. The cadet she had been in the Academy would barely recognize her today, and she always wondered if that was a good thing or bad.
Fortunately, she didn’t have long to dwell on her life. Word came from Derreck that they’d be launching the attack soon. Mala’s crew rushed to get the last material off her ship, leaving it a husk of what it had once been. Then they all transferred to Vigilance and broke dock. The deed was done.
Derreck’s plan was simple. If they could take control of the enemy dropship, they would try to sneak back aboard the Hellbringer, a modern-day equivalent of the Old Earth legend of the Trojan Horse. At the same time, the remaining Fleet personnel would launch at the enemy jumpship, with Explorer providing cover from the worst of Hellbringer’s weaponry. Derreck hoped that they could create the illusion that Fleet was making one last-ditch effort to stop Hellbringer from gaining important technology. Vigilance would attack the enemy jumpship, fighting with whatever they had available. That was very little, unfortunately, but Nicks didn’t know how their forces were distributed. He’d be forced to divide his own troops.
Kindra didn’t like their role. They were essentially a decoy, but a decoy that had no way to defend themselves. Still, they were something, and they needed every advantage they could get their hands on.
When Derreck let them know they had captured the dropship and were beginning their ascent, Alston ordered everyone to red alert stations, then laughed. Their normal stations were all chaotic. Kindra and the exobiologist from Mala’s crew bumped into one another as they attempted to sit in the same chair. After a few seconds of discussion, they got all sorted and ready for their burn. Kindra thought it was an inauspicious way to begin their final trip.
Mala had given her ship’s AI its final commands, and Alston slaved the Vigilance to it. On their approach, the two ships would move as one. Their biggest concern was Hellbringer’s main laser. Their point defense system would do a decent job against missiles, but Mala’s ship was their only shield against the laser. They weren’t sure what level of protection it would provide, but it was better than nothing.
When the burn kicked in, Kindra was surprised. She had never experienced such strong g-forces in space. Granted, she had never tried a combat approach on a jumper either, so she supposed it made sense. She was pressed back, the chair doing everything it could to ease the pressure on her body. The chairs weren’t as good as the beds they used when landing on planets, but they needed to be at their stations. The dropship’s acceleration was limited more by their own bodies than by physics.
The force wasn’t straight, either. At times, the AI would jerk them down, then to the side, or back up again. Behind her, Kindra heard someone struggle to hold down their food. She was suddenly grateful she hadn’t had the time to eat
before they began. On the screen in front of her, she could see the relative positions of all the players in this small war. The enemy dropship, currently commanded by Derreck and Tev, was slightly closer to the jumpship than they were. Just as they wanted it to be.
Combat began without a word. On her display, Kindra watched as Hellbringer launched waves of missiles at them, her vision filled with small dots. Some dots were racing towards them, and some were racing towards the jumpship. The bridge was strangely silent, everyone’s eyes glued to the screens in front of them.
Mala’s ship launched missiles of its own. Kindra watched their progress on the screen, confused as to why they weren’t heading for the Hellbringer.
She turned to Alston. Suddenly, the ship kicked her further into her chair, and she grunted out her question against the tremendous hand trying to crush her body. “What are you doing?”
“Selling the deception,” was his reply.
The missiles raced towards Derreck and Tev. She could imagine the other ship trying to defend itself, and one by one the green dots representing their missiles disappeared, as though her imagination was affecting reality. One of the green dots collided, and Kindra’s first thought was that their deception had been too successful.
But Tev’s ride wasn’t over yet, and Mala’s ship launched wave after wave of missiles, emptying its magazines as quickly as it could. It was as though the ship knew it didn’t have long.
Mala’s voice penetrated Kindra’s thoughts. “Hellbringer is turning!”
Alston replied, his voice cold. “I see. Time to test this idea.”
Kindra realized, a few moments later, they were talking about the jumpship bringing its main laser to bear.
Every second that passed brought them closer. Vigilance was burning at the limits of human endurance, and the gap was closing quickly. Kindra wondered if Tev was having as difficult of a ride.
“Brace for impact!” Alston yelled.
Kindra didn’t know what else she could do. She was pressed deep into her seat already, and she wasn’t sure she could even move if she wanted. But she appreciated the warning all the same.
