The Ghost Fleet

by Trevor Wyatt

  Three Bats and a shuttle disappeared in brilliant flashes of light as Jeryl fired off a few more shots. Flipping her screen back to what was in front of her, Ashley banked hard left as she fired off two of her missiles.

  She couldn’t help but let out a loud Whoo! as her missiles hit their targets. Powers kept her up to date on targets, aggressors, and how the others were doing. Francois was gone, his Hunter hit by four Bats.

  Cursing, Ashley threw caution to the wind and flew directly toward the heaviest concentration of Bats. Her finger rarely left the trigger as she weaved, zagged, bobbed and spun her way through them.

  “Jesus, I think I’m gonna throw up!” Powers said through clenched teeth. Ashley laughed as she flung the Hunter to the right, avoiding a missile and enjoying how it destroyed one of the Bats chasing her.

  “Ashley! Get out of there, the cruisers are bearing down on you!” Jeryl’s voice suddenly blasted in her ear.

  Ashley looked up and saw two of the three cruisers beginning to engage The Seeker while the third coming towards them. She could see two of their rail guns move, repositioning themselves.

  “Hunters, SCATTER!” She hit the brakes, flipped her Hunter over, and engaged her thrusters at full power. Somehow, the three Bats that were chasing her flew right past without touching her. She flew her Hunter with ease through the mess, seeing Jasper come up on her left. Ashley flashed him a thumbs-up—then his Hunter vanished in an explosion that temporarily blinded her.

  “JASPER!” Her scream echoed through her cockpit, along with the screams and shouts of her nine remaining Hunters. “God fucking dammit! Hunters, get back to The Seeker to regroup. We’re killing every last one of these fucking fuckers!”

  “Ma’am…we got a problem!”

  “What is it, Vizzenzi?”

  “More ships just came out of FTL, ma’am. A shit load more ships. Not counting the dozen raiders that are left, there’s fifty ships out here ma’am.”

  “Fuck! Jeryl?”

  “We see them. Get your asses back here, there’s nothing else you can do out there.”

  “Bullshit. We can still hurt those bastards. What showed up?”

  “At least another dozen raiders and a bunch of Udenar ships…actual Udenar ships this time, not Tyreesian cast-offs.” Ashley flipped her screen to look behind her, then zoomed in.

  Thirty-some-odd ships of various designs and sizes were popping into space, but none of them were the size of the three cruisers. As a matter of fact, the biggest of the newcomers was about the size of a mid-level drop ship—no more than a ten-person crew with maybe double the ordinance of the Hunters.

  “Screw it, we can hit them. Hunters, anyone not able to fight, go back to The Seeker and help out there. The rest of you, let’s tear these ugly-ass bitches up.”

  Ashley flipped off her communicator when Jeryl tried to say something, brought her Hunter back around, and flew right into the teeth of the Udenar fleet. Out of the ten remaining Hunters, six flew with her. On her screen, she saw that Vizzenzi, Thompson, and Corrins were docking.

  “Keep track of The Seeker, Powers. I want to know how she’s holding up.”

  “Will do. They want to be out here, you know that?”

  “I know. How bad were they?” Ashley replied, hiding the disappointment that she felt.

  “Vizzenzi is done, her Hunter was barely holding together. Corrins lost weapon systems, and Thompson has a broken leg. His backup might come back out.”

  “We’ll figure it out.”

  Using her HUD to flip to all of her Hunters, Ashley ordered them all to keep an eye on their payloads and to return to The Seeker for reload if they needed to.

  The seven of them were like wolves in a field of sheep. They cut through the raiders, utilizing their superior speed to avoid laser fire. Ashley and Powers seemed to be everywhere, bailing out a team member here, shredding a Bat or four there, playing chicken with Udenar shuttles trying to bear down on a Hunter.

  From a distance, it looked as though seven wasps were doing what they wanted against a myriad of very slow birds.

  It was an amazing thing to watch…but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough.

  The Seeker was taking a beating, unable to get themselves away from the nearly fifty ships attacking her from almost every direction. The Hunters were streaming in and out of The Seeker’s hangar, getting missiles reloaded and switching pilots in a steady flow.

  Ashley went in too, hating how slow she was being reloaded, even though she knew it was being done as fast as possible.

  “Ashley, we need to find a way out of here. We need at least a small hole to fly through, we’re not going to last much longer,” Jeryl said through comm.

  “We’ll figure it out.” Then she saw several of the flight crew running for one of the windows. “What the hell is going on?”

  “Holy shit…I never thought I’d see this. Confederation ships just showed up and they’re hitting the Udenar.”

  “About fucking time!” Pointing at one of the flight crew, Ashley yelled, “Get me back out there!”

  Jeryl

  The damn AI was wrong. Forty-one percent chances against this? Jeryl’s real worry was whether or not any of the Hunters were going to be destroyed. He was worried about his ship and crew, but there was no way that those cruisers and shuttles could destroy them. His crew was too damn good at what they did to lose to crappy looking ships like that.

  “Ferriero, give the Hunters some cover fire. Docherty, get the cruisers’ attention. I don’t want them looking at our people out there.”

  “Yes, sir,” the two navigation officers replied.

  Jeryl nodded and went back to his chair. He watched Ashley and her team put themselves into a diamond formation through his little screen. If they did what he thought they were going to, they would stay in tight formation until the enemy fired, then they would break off, creating chaos wherever they went, then coming back together a few seconds later.

  He saw the seven raiders break off from the rest, going down. It looked like they were going to try to fly up on the Hunters.

  “Ferriero, can we fire yet?”

  “Not yet, sir. Twenty more seconds.”

  “Damn.”

  The seven raiders flew into the formation, hitting two of the Hunters and breaking the formation up.

  Damn, she didn’t see them. Maybe I should’ve given her a warning, Jeryl thought, shaking his head.

  Then, the chaos started.

  The Hunters broke off, flying everywhere, hitting everything. Two of them were damaged but are still going strong. Jeryl watched, keeping an eye on the cruisers that were coming for The Seeker, but just watching his wife and her team wreak havoc on the Udenar.

  Then one of the Hunters was attacked by four Udenar at once. Ferriero fired in the direction, but the Hunter was destroyed before The Seeker’s lasers impacted. Looking at his screen, Jeryl saw that it was Francois Peirot, one of his Petty Officers from the original crew. The co-pilot was someone that Jeryl didn’t recognize, a Petty Officer Kamil Stacic. He felt terrible that he couldn’t place a face to the name.

  Docherty’s voice broke his momentary self-loathing. “Sir, cruisers engaging.”

  Snapping his head up, Jeryl saw two of the three cruisers in front of them, coming in line to fire. “Take evasive action. Rail guns and lasers, save the particle beam for when we need it.”

  “Aye, sir.” Docherty banked The Seeker to its left, Ferriero fired on the nearest of the two, and Jeryl watched as shields deflected their shots. “Tira, keep an eye on the Hunters and let me know what’s happening with them.”

  “Yes, sir!”

  While he could keep an eye on them while dealing with the cruisers, he wanted his full concentration on what was happening right now. The Seeker shook with each laser blast the shields absorbed, and Docherty and Ferriero moved and fired in return.

  The cruisers weren’t a match for The Seeker, but they weren’t stupid. After the first few seconds of fight
ing, one of the cruisers went up high while the other went left, trying to put The Seeker in between them from different angles. It worked.

  Shields were dropping at a steady clip while they tried to get out from between them. Jeryl looked at Mary. “Are you sure those are Udenar cruisers?”

  “Yes, sir,” she answered as the ship was rocked by a shot across the top. “They match computer databases.”

  “What about their weapons? Those seem stronger than they should be.”

  “Running a quick scan.” As the ship shook again, Mary’s screen flashed through dozens of pictures before settling on one. “Sir, they’re not typical armaments for Udenar forces. These are CTS-60, weapons made by the Aido Corporation back during the war.”

  “How the hell did they get their hands on that kind of weaponry?”

  “The Aido Corp lost almost a dozen ships the first two years sir. Probably salvaged.”

  “Shit. No wonder they’re doing as much damage as they are.”

  “SIR!” Ferriero yelled. He was pointing at the screen where the third cruiser was lining up to fire at the Hunters.

  Jeryl reached past Mary, pushing the comm button for the Hunters. “Ashley! Get out of there, the cruisers are bearing down on you!”

  He could see the Hunters turn and run as the cruiser fired its rail guns. One of the shots missed, but one hit.

  Ashley yelled Jasper’s name, and Mary let out a gasp. She and Jasper had been close, as they had trained together and were roommates for years. Squeezing her shoulder, Jeryl tried to dial up an apologetic nod.

  “Holy shit! Sir, at least forty more ships just came out of FTL!” Docherty suddenly blurted out, bringing them back to the current situation.

  “What the fuck? God damn it! Get me a count, now!” Jeryl rushed back to his seat, getting his screen up.

  “Sir!” Mary punched some buttons and swiped the info to his screen.

  “Jeryl?” Ashley’s voice came in over the comm.

  “We see them. Get your asses back here, there’s nothing else you can do out there.”

  “Bullshit. We can still hurt those bastards. What showed up?”

  Jeryl studied his screen for a second. The ships were oddly different from the first ones that came in. “At least another dozen raiders and a bunch of Udenar ships…actual Udenar ships this time, not Tyreesian cast-offs.”

  “Screw it, we can hit them. Hunters, anyone not able to fight, go back to The Seeker and help out there. The rest of you, let’s tear these ugly-ass bitches up.”

  Jeryl tried to order her back, but she cut off connection. “Dammit.”

  “She’s tenacious,” Tira said from behind him.

  “That, she is.” Hitting a switch on his screen, Jeryl called up the hangar. “Templeton! You got Hunters coming in for repairs and reload, work on them faster than you’ve ever done before.”

  Without even waiting for an answer, he cut off the comm and focused on the fight at hand. One of the cruisers was badly damaged and was trying to limp away, but the other one was still firing away at them. The Seeker was down to fifty percent shields, and they were going to drop fast.

  They were getting surrounded in a hurry. Fifty ships surrounded them, pelting them from all sides.

  “Tira, keep those shields up! Docherty, pay attention to the left. Ferriero, up top!” Jeryl’s adrenaline reflected on the way he handled everything at one time; he was shouting orders, talking to engineering, keeping up with Templeton, studying the Udenar, and trying to find a way out of the choke hold they were in.

  Then The Seeker was hit hard—so hard that the entire CNC was rocked, knocking people from their seats and off their feet. Jeryl was flung from his seat, rolling into the back of Ferriero’s chair, and Ferriero almost falling on top of him.

  Jeryl pushed him back into his seat, then tried to rise to his feet. He could see Docherty a few feet away from him, trying to help one of the crew up—when another blast hit, causing a small explosion on the bridge and sending everyone flying again.

  Jeryl was momentarily dazed. Shouts and screams echoed around him and things were a blur, then everything came back in sharp recognition. Automated systems had put out a small fire, Tira was helping him to his feet, Mary was yelling out orders, and Ferriero was calling for help.

  Jeryl looked around and saw Docherty, his body lying at an awkward angle at the captain’s chair. His eyes were open, but they saw nothing.

  “He must have hit his head and snapped his neck, sir. There’s nothing we can do,” Tira said as she helped him to his feet. Jeryl only nodded. “I’ll help Ferriero, sir.” Tira jumped into Docherty’s seat and took over flight of the ship.

  “Shields down to twenty-seven percent. Hunters are in and out sir. Rail guns are empty.” The calm that Tira displayed as she called out the information was almost mind-numbing. Jeryl couldn’t comprehend it, how the hell was this kid so damn calm? What the hell was in her head that kept her this damn calm?

  “Mary, take over shields…move every ounce of power we can afford to shields. Docherty—”

  Fuck, Jeryl thought as he closed his eyes.

  “Sorry. Tira, if you have to, take us through the raiders, but find us a way out of here!”

  Jeryl sat, then clicked to Ashley’s HUD display and turned on her comm. “Ashley, we need to find a way out of here. We need at least a small hole to fly through, we’re not going to last much longer.” He said it quietly—it was only meant for her. No one else needed to know that he was scared shitless right now.

  “We’ll figure it out…What the hell is going on?”

  Jeryl looked at the screen as some on the bridge began cheering.

  “Holy shit…” He whispered as he saw what was happening. “I never thought I’d see this. Confederation ships just showed up and they’re hitting the Udenar.”

  “About fucking time!”

  “Yeah.”

  It was a miracle. The Confederation fleet flew in, a few dozen cruisers with their own fighters pouring out of them like water. They broke off into three groups and engaged the Udenar. Jeryl’s screen showed 270 Confederation ships in total.

  Two minutes later, and all hostiles had been turned into a floating junkyard.

  The Udenar never stood a chance.

  Jeryl

  That was close, Jeryl thought to himself, gripping his chair so tight his knuckles had turned white.

  If the Confederation fleet hadn’t shown up when it did, The Seeker would have been looking at a battle it’d have a hard time winning. Maybe they could have handled fifty Udenar ships, but Jeryl really wasn’t looking forward to have the Armada foot a bill of a few million credits in repairs. He wasn’t exactly in good terms with his superiors, and he figured that even Flynn would have a hard time defending Jeryl after he went against his orders and marched straight into Confederation space.

  Still, the Udenar had cost him one of his more experienced officers – Docherty.

  “They’re hailing us, sir,” Mary announced, looking over her shoulder at Jeryl. He took one deep breath and then nodded at her, mentally running through a large list of explanations he could present to his counterpart in the Confederation fleet.

  “Put them up on the viewscreen,” he commanded.

  A few seconds later, The Seeker established a comm link to HCS Crimson, the flagship on the Human Confederation fleet. The image of a balding man in his sixties took over the viewscreen; he was sitting on a chair similar to Jeryl’s, and he was wearing a grey uniform. There was a serious expression on his face, and the lines on his forehead seemed so deep it was as if they had been carved with an axe.

  “I’m Captain Jeryl Montgomery of The Seeker,” Jeryl introduced himself, maintaining an expression as serious as the one his counterpart had. “We’d like to thank you for your assistance, Captain.”

  “I know exactly who you are. Who doesn’t? My name’s Harlan West,” the man on the viewscreen responded, a slight accent to his words. “I’m the Captain. And no
need to thank us, Captain Montgomery. These Udenar are trespassers on Confederation territory, and we were to deal with them one way or the other.”

  “Either way, your assistance was most welcome,” Jeryl insisted, feeling as if he was walking over shifting sands. Captain West had specifically used trespassers when talking about the Udenar, and that was a term that could also be applied to The Seeker and its crew.

  “Now, enlighten me, Captain,” Captain West continued, leaning back on his chair and keeping his steely gaze on Jeryl. “The Udenar are known raiders, so it’s not that surprising to find them pilfering inside Confederation territory, but I can’t help but wonder...why is a Union ship—and The Seeker, especially—doing in our little corner of the galaxy?”

  Thread carefully, Jeryl thought. The last thing he wanted was to start a dispute with the Confederation over nonsense. If the conversation soured, Jeryl would either have to surrender his ship or trade blows with a superior fleet. None of which were valid options from where he was standing.

  “We were just pursuing a lead,” Jeryl started, his hands growing sleek with sweat. “These Udenar have crossed the border into Union space, and we were just investigating matters. We entered Confederation territory unwittingly, and for that you have my apologies. I can assure you that the Union has absolutely no interest in meddling with your affairs. We are more than willing, of course, to extend a helping hand.”

  “How so, Captain Montgomery?” Captain West questioned, cocking one eyebrow as he kept his unblinking eyes on Jeryl.

  “We know that this star system has been overrun by Udenar forces, and we could help you look into it. The Union, or the Council for that matter, has no ties to the Udenar, and we would welcome the chance to prove our good will to the Confederation by helping resolve this particular situation.”