The Far Field: A Military Science Fiction Epic (Seedlings Book 1)

by Richard Sosa

  Hundreds of Flyers were burning, being peppered with lasers and destroyed or changing course to fall out of formation retreating to save themselves. Reserves entered the grid disadvantaged in their orbit and were added to the Flyers already being destroyed in the fray. Rik saw his Raptors, with their wings and canopy shot off, tumbling in space and occasionally a frozen corpse would be spinning rapidly in open space. Flyers, out of control, crashed into other square formations and disrupted the escape pattern. Strikers kamikazed the squares that newly formed causing massive destruction to the Flyers. Rik heard the confusion, screaming and turn of the battle as his pilots burned to death in their ships. Rik's Flyer was on full automated system protection navigation and it accelerated, stalled, then powered up to avoid multiple clusters of debris that was filling space. Parts of destroyed ships bounced off his ship, ‘banging’ and ‘dinging’ as the debris twirled in space or zipped past him as explosive projectiles. “Those with neutrons follow me to 4589 by 56 right now. We’re going to end this,” Rik said and tapped his computer, looking back at his co-pilot, “Robec-3 we might not come out of this one.” Silence and Rik thought, let's just get this over with.

  “Sir,” Robec-3 said, “Let's change up the fire spread and keep the Gatling weapon trained on the pores. If I am going down, I want to make sure they get some pain.”

  “Soldier I needed those words,” Rik said as he calculated the attack approach. Rik's Flyer sped toward another Orb as he was joined by a fleet of Raptors. The group banked around one CS and headed for another using the cover of the first Orb. “Right- and left-wing Raptors break and defend us,” Rik ordered. The ships reversed in flight and while still moving in the same direction the pilots had eyes on Pills attacking from behind. The shadow of the Orb hid them but as they cleared and increase their speed to bank around it suddenly lasers came at Rik’s group from multiple directions. A large fleet of SS’s chased them and began to pick off the rear defending Raptors. The carnage behind Rik’s team was extensive as the Flyers in rearguard fought for their lives using their back cannons and lasers to fend off the large force. Rik guided his Flyer close to the surface and lasers intensified from behind and in front of him. He felt the pings and jerking motion of his ship as lasers missed them but burned his ship’s underside. The rear guard was eliminated, and Flyers in Rik’s group were losing the fight. The formation was disintegrating. “Come on people stay with me.”

  “We’re out of time,” Robec-3 reversed her seat and Rik heard the back cannons firing frantically at a wave of SS’s descended on them, “I can’t hold them. Orders Sir.”

  A wave of Chariots passed in front of them and began shooting the Strikers bunched in attack squares trailing Rik’s Flyer. The nanoseconds in time gave Rik an opportunity, he shouted. “Thank gods.” He adjusted his flight navigation and on COM informed, “largest pore is 487 by 56. I can see it.” Rik’s monitor pinged from the target and he set his rail guns on automatic. “We can’t divert from this path, so let’s open it up.” All the Flyers in the attack group fired front rail Gatling lasers and stayed on course as a wedge of Flyers moved forward with blinding white continuous laser that flashed in front of them. Explosions erupted all around Rik’s Flyer. He focused. “Stay on course. Just stay on course this one time.” His monitor indicated the distance needed to the target while SS’s attempting to disrupt their attack were burst apart as the barrage of lasers cut into their hauls. The SS’s banked away and were targeted by the heavy cannons on the Chariots flanking behind Rik’s group. The dog fight that ensued behind Rik’s attack group intensified and the SS’s broke off to re-group. Rik on COM shouted, “Ready on my mark. Now,” he tapped on his computer pad fast.

  The Flyers banked ninety degrees and spun upside down and then spiraled down into the primary Orb pore. Debris hit their ship, clanged and echoed inside the cockpit. Raptors crashed with explosions in the tunnel, but Rik focused on the blinking light on his monitor indicating the target terminus. Robec-3 said between ragged breaths on COM. “I have the data to your Flyers. On my mark. Just God damn dive, we’ll let the computer’s automatic hyper reverse get us out. Hang on.” The Flyers dipped down into the pore opening for only an instant and then they almost tore themselves in two as they changed direction backward instantly. Rik and Robec-3 threw up violently.

  Rik gained his composure. “Front thrusters at full,” but the automated system had already executed the maneuver.

  Robec-3 shouted, “Wait for the mark. Wait. Wait. Now.” The Flyers were racing out of the pore crater. A red indicator light flashed, and Robec-3 ordered. “Neutrons away. Dump everything you have.”

  Rockets raced past Rik’s Flyer as flashes of blinding light. “Getaway fast, full throttle. Get the hell away,” Rik shouted as his navigation system worked faster than his mind and surviving Flyers flew blindly away from the CS. They encountered another CS, badly damaged, powering down and crossing directly in front of them. A Flyer exploded above Rik and tumbled directly into his path. Rik's eyes were wide open as he wildly steered his ship in a reflex to avoid a collision. An explosion within the CS belched debris out through every pore creating a force that pushed the Flyer forward out of control. Rik’s aft lifted ready to tumble forward. In front of him, the surface of the crossing Capital Ship appeared with intricate channels, thousands of circular eardrum structures and pores dimpling the surface, speeding closer and closer on a collision course.

  Before Rik could think of his next action, a heavy object hit the Flyer sending it into a tailspin. Rik shouted. “What was that? It’s playing hell on our control attitude.” The Flyer’s evacuation alarm screamed at him. “Ro shut that damn noise down.” The Klaxon stopped but the emergency was real. The Flyer shuttered losing its forward momentum then its engines started and stopped in spits.

  “Lost right latitude and forward gmamatic thrusters,” Robec-3 worked her controls and scanned the monitors, “we don’t have any laser generators on the port side and that’s the good news.”

  Rik noticed his control over the Flyer becoming more difficult. Smoke filled the cockpit. “Mask up. We’re going down.”

  “Already done.”

  They were breathing from a secured redundant oxygen supply system. Rik tried to maneuver his ship to the port side but there was no control over the Flyer. He managed to bank just in time to avoid a downed Flyer's large debris speeding like a bullet toward him and another Flyer hit the surface of the Orb in front of him. Exploding in an instant flash.

  “We've lost. I lost god damn it.” Rik scouted to nobody.

  An explosion in Rik’s earbud made him winch and he shook his head side to side as the Raptor in front of him slammed into the Capital Ship’s surface and then another and another like Gannets diving into the ocean for fish. Others managed sharp turns and banked away from the CS just to meet on-coming Strikers in attack squares. In the corner of his eye, Rik saw the last of his fighter group die in flashes of lasers and he banged his head on the cockpit side as his ship violently slide sideward when one rocket thruster failed. His COM to everyone was on. He shouted. “Shit. This isn’t going to work. I can’t get attitude control. Robec-3 see if our backup systems can compensate. Anything. Damn it.” The ship descended toward the Capital Ship surface. Rik watched the surface rush at him, his eyes were wide he thought, Iris I love you, and the words came out of his mouth, “Iris, I love you.”

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  At Fortress Seven, Iris was standing by herself. The suns were beginning to fall into the horizon and a breeze blew across her face. Dust swirled around her feet. The ground was well trampled by activity into a fine powder. She tapped her wrist unit for messages and then scanned the sky frowning with worry. At the same moment, in the Aoife exosphere, hundreds of Striker invaders were racing the Chariot Flyers toward planet Aoife. Raptor Flyers flew to intercept the breach and prepared for the battle to control Aoife’s heavens.

  Iris could see the war above. The entire evening sky was lighting
up like a distant thunderstorm and within the clouds, there were white flashes of light instantly peeking out and disappearing. A flash and streaks of fire darted across the sky. Thousands of burning ships were falling to Aoife and each one highlighted that nightfall was coming. They burned through the atmosphere and exploded silently into trailing roman candles. Flyers in pieces were falling to the surface with small flashes of fire then glowing smoke as they came closer to the ground spinning and dangling as if suspended by invisible strings. She knew they would burn up long before hitting the surface and winched as falling debris in the distance imploded silently into smaller parts. She said silently to herself. “Come back. Come back to me. Damn you.”

  She examined her wrist unit, a flashing red light, and suddenly Rik's voice came over her Com Unit, breathless, panicked, ‘Shit. (breaking up) I can't get, (breaking up) I ... this... (breaking up). She waited and put the unit closer to her ear. “I love—”

  The COM unit crackled and was silent. Iris listened but no other message came through. Her proximity reader was signally an entry point. She ran, stumbling slightly, leaped into the trench, laughed to herself in relief and flipped on her COM Unit to all. “Ground forces come online, invaders at 485 by 685 from the north just where we expect them.”

  In the trench Iris was not alone there were hundreds of pulse Gatling cannons that began to arm themselves. They stretched along the defensive line in rows secured behind their futuristic glass-like shields invisible to the enemy. The cannons activated with a servo ‘whirling’ sound and their barrels turned toward the sky moving up and down to align the computers with the tracking and targeting system, while the entire turret rotated in multiple directions. Iris clicked her seat belt on and entered control commands on the canon’s computer then put on her ear protectors. Once activated the cannon signaled it was ready with a rapid ‘chirping’ sound. Speaking on her COM Unit to all, Iris said. “Put your systems on automatic so they continue to fire even if we can’t babysit. Ready your targeting now.” She re-checked her monitor. “Re-check those entry trajectories. Get ready people I want every shot to count. Beacons first then lasers,” she tapped the command for auto operation, “O.K. Let's kick some ass up there. They are not expecting this. On my order in three. Three, two, now one. Hit them. all Fire.” The cannons auto-fired large shells that contained clustered beacons. The noise was deafening. The ordinance streaked across the sky and disappeared and then the bombs exploded in the heavens like fireworks. The alternating barrel on the same weapon was a rapid-fire stream of pulsed lasers that discharged at 300 rounds per gaml-second like a Gatling gun. The cannons smoked and the rounds traveled into the sky in colorful ribbons of light. The ground lit up with the glare of pulse cannon fire. Dust swirled around each gun as thousands of beacons were fired and millions of lasers followed them to stop the invasion. Tens of thousands of tracers flew toward the heavens creating a lattice of layered colors, black exhaust smoke, and roman candle-like warheads climbing into the evening sky.

  Watching her guidance system locking on multiple targets and surveying the lines of cannons in front and behind her, she heard a rapid beeping sound indicating targeting had locked on beacons and she thought, this might work after all.

  In the exosphere of planet Aoife, Raptor fighters chased the invasion ships as they entered the atmosphere. A sea of white flames erupted around the ships dancing around them as they descended to the surface.

  Flyers in the atmosphere joined the chase and their hydrogen engines expelled a long trail of exhaust. A reinforcement of Flyers was aligned and battle-ready. Raptor Pilot Onell-rec ordered on COM. “We’re up. Follow me on grid seven by three and stay in close.”

  The upper atmosphere was instantly filled with tracers and bursting explosions from pulse cannon fire from the surface. Tracers passed the attacking Flyers and corkscrewed then swooped toward the invading ships. Clouds of smoke remained where the lasers hit a target and the rumble of explosives was louder as Onell-rec’s battle group raced closer to the invaders. The sky was filled with lasers jutting out in all directions like a rave show.

  Onell-rec’s ship rocked and pitched as the intensity of the tracers exploding around him increased, he ordered, “Head into this at 457 by 56. Defenders let’s take them down. I need the sidewall to hold.” Immediately lasers began to chirr, and zip then bounced off his ship. His ship bounced as if he was riding on a wash boarded dirt road in a country lane. He stayed on his controls. “I need squares nine through twenty to close us in and provide cover fire. The rest of you follow me.” The Flyers moved across the path of the cannon fire and a unified blast of their lasers met the invading fleet head-on. The Flyer square held together amidst intense return fire. The Pills broke ranks and scattered. Destroyed Pills spun in the air making circles of debris and expelled oxygen and hydrogen, but most were still in the fight. Onell-rec frowned. “All ships increase the length of time targeting. Too many are getting away.”

  Chapter Forty

  In a glancing second, Rik saw planet Aoife, a purple half-moon that swirled around and around as he and Robec-3 tried to correct their crashing ship. Spital and vomit ran across his face. His hands typed frantically as he focused on his navigation, “Come one, power up,” he shouted at the damaged Flyer, “back in the fight.” The Flyer gained altitude, leveled then fell back toward the Orb, like a roller coaster. There was a loud ping and smoke filled the cockpit. “We’re hit hard. Lasers?” Rik shouted.

  “That’s not a laser. Debris,” Robec-3 shouted as a Flyer stopped spinning but continued to fall into their orbit. A Flayer banged off their ship and they moved sideways continuing to fall toward the Orb. Rik looked all around him; his force field shields were wavering.

  “I don’t have any power,” Rik tapped his controls rapidly, he shouted, “No damn power.”

  “Incoming.” Robec-3 instinctively put her hands in front of her face. A laser blast struck the Flyer's port side and cut through the cockpit wall like a sharp knife but stopped at the force field. Sparks flew into the cockpit. Rik fired the reverse engines to gain control and then turned them on full throttle. The whine of the compromised engines filled the cockpit and the Flyer rattled as it made a steep pull up maneuver. Antennas, towers, and tangles of tentacles on the Capital Ship surface passed close under them.

  “I am giving it all the power we have,” Rik shouted. He fought the controls, “we're going down. We’re going down. Gods. Ro I am setting this ride to detonate on impact. I am arming the neutrons, all of them. Get us ready to eject.”

  “Roger that.” Robec-3 saw the waves of a gravitonic thruster. “That CS is making a turnaround maneuver. They want to retreat.”

  “Never mind. Get us ejected out of here. Now.”

  Robec-3 shouted back, “I can’t activate the eject sequence,” she’s furiously tapped on a blinking out virtual control screen it was dying, “Oh shit. Captain, I can’t get us out.”

  Rik banked the Flyer. He struggled to make his ninety-degree turn then finally pointed the disabled Flyer back toward the blackened gaping blast hole on the escaping CS. Quickly tapping commands in his computer as his last navigational controls failed. The fire erupted beneath the front control panel and more smoke filled the cockpit. A proximity alarm rang out. “I am manually aligning this ship toward the Orb,” Rik continued to struggle with the manual control stick, “Come on. come on,” he shouted at the machine as he feverously worked his virtual screen with one hand while holding on to the vibrating control bar and finally it responded. The Flyer jerked as if suddenly awake. “Armed and locked, Robec-3 getting the hell out of this ride now or we’re going to have a very short ride,” he shouted.

  “Shut the hell up. I am working through this, two seconds, two seconds O.K?”

  “We don’t have two seconds.”

  Rik watched the CS powering up and initiating its large engines. He could see the waves of energy leaving the ship making the debris in space spin and tumble away as it began to move awa
y from the battle. “That thing will jump at high velocity to a juncture in space and then morph through to light speed somewhere near a gas giant, shit,” he said and thought, and will live to bring others.

  With a quick pad touch, Robec-3 unlocked the cockpit unit, “Got it. May Day, May Day. May Day.” She activated a rescue beacon and instantly a hatch closed at the bottom of the cockpit with two sliding panels that clipped their heels and slammed together with a vacuum lock. Robec-3 said. “My damn stuff.”

  Rik lifted his feet just at the right second. “No time.”

  An explosive jerk propelled them into the silence of space and moved them away from the falling Flyer. The Flyer quickly turned into a pinpoint of light, smaller and smaller, then hit the Orb surface. It imploded with an instant flash in the damaged pore. The neutron bombs detonated, and a second larger explosion ripped a larger hole in the CS and fire tunneled into the Orb mass structure, instantly burning out in space but pushing a concussive shock wave through it. A massive fire erupted internally. A small blue ball of fire burned out any remaining oxygen inside what remained of the Flyer’s force field

  Rik watched, “Shit. My stuff.” The badly crippled CS succeeded in its turnaround maneuver and its internal thrusters burned for a moment and then the ship instantly vanished.

  “They're not getting far damaged like that,” Rik said, “They can’t transverse a large gas star for hydrogen fuel and hold together in its gravity. They're heading off to die somewhere else.”

  “We're sure as hell are not in any shape to chase them. Shit, all my stuff went down with that Flyer chassis.”

  “Mine too.”

  The eject pod, the cockpit with limited controls, was rapidly losing oxygen as they rotated in space like all the other space junk floating around from the battle.