Wings of Steele - Flight of Freedom (Book2)

by Burger, Jeffrey

  They looked around but could not see the owner of the disembodied voice anywhere. “Where do we go?” yelled Lisa.

  “Go into the terminal! The gold building in front of you!”

  ■ ■ ■

  The driver dropped them off under the nose of the Revenge in front of Hangar Two, the building's massive main door, yawning widely. He zipped away as soon as they were clear of his vehicle.

  “Where are we supposed to go from here?” asked Nina, looking over her shoulder, watching the hover car head back to the main terminal.

  “No fucking idea,” replied Lisa, hefting her duffel bag on her right shoulder. “Let's go look around.” The walk to the door was curiously deceptive in its length, both of the girls tiring under the weight of their hefty duffles. “I feel like we're walking under a city block on stilts. This thing is huge,” she said, looking up at the underside of the hull.

  “That whole no tires thing on their cars is kinda weird, doncha think?”

  Lisa adjusted the bag on her shoulder as she walked, “We've traveled in a spaceship, to a different galaxy, looking for my brother on an alien world, and you think no tires is weird?” She couldn't help laughing, “Holy shit, woman, you're weird.”

  “HEY! Where you going?”

  They stopped in their tracks looking around. “Who said that?” whispered Nina.

  “I don't know,” replied Lisa, “but this bodiless voice thing is annoying...” Gus broke to the right, crossing in front of her and disappeared, her duffel blocking her view. She unshouldered it and watched Gus sprint toward Jack coming down the ramp of the missile frigate, Alité behind him. They were both dressed in camouflaged tactical pants and a white 2ndSkyn, their armor left on racks in the ships' small armory.

  A wave of relief washed over Lisa, she didn't feel so completely lost now.

  ■ ■ ■

  The Marines stationed at Boney's farm were back on base by the crack of dawn, replaced by a smaller contingency of Army Engineers that would install some new defensive systems around the farm to protect the new Prime Minister of Veloria. A formal meeting with the Major assured Jack and Alité that the security and progress of her planet would be ensured in the manner her new government outlined. Confident the Major was a better officer than a diplomat, it was clear there would be no more misunderstandings.

  With the temporary crew of the Revenge aboard, including a few of the Freedom's Marines, the only ones left on the ground were Ensign Tusker who would fly the ship's shuttle up and Jack, with Lisa in the rear seat of the Remora fighter. Once in orbit, they would recover to the missile frigate.

  Jack made sure Lisa's gloves and helmet were on and properly sealed to her flight suit. “OK, now when you get up there, the lineman will connect all your leads and strap you in.”

  “Then what do I do?”

  “Enjoy the ride,” he grinned, tapping her helmet. He pulled his own helmet on and secured it, watching his sister climb the long ladder to the cockpit. Being a Remora that nestled to the belly of the frigate, the vertical stabilizers for atmospheric flight were on the bottom of the craft instead of the top. The landing legs were longer than all the other fighters he'd been in; they looked so fragile in comparison.

  He hefted himself up the ladder and dropped into the cockpit, scanning the controls. Fairly standard except for the specialized docking controls over on the left console. A wash of cool air filled his suit as the lineman connected his umbilicals. Strapped in, he waited for the ladders to disappear. “How you doing back there, all tucked in?”

  “Snug as a bug in a rug.”

  “Can you hear me OK?”

  “Yep, just fine.” She wiped a bead of sweat off her eyebrow through her open visor.

  “OK, cool. Now you'll feel some G forces in the atmosphere, but almost nothing once we get out above it...”

  “You're not going to go crazy are you?”

  “No... and the gravity balancing system inside helps reduce felt Gs. So even if I did, you wouldn't feel much. It's much more responsive but less strenuous than a jet aircraft at home on earth.” He began flipping switches, the screens and systems winking on.

  “Just don't make me sick.”

  “I won't. If you feel funny for any reason, there's a green knob all the way on the right in the low corner, see it?”

  “Yes...”

  “That's your oxygen. The little dial next to it shows the flow. Turn it up if you feel funny and it will make it go away. Don't wait though; ralphing breakfast in your helmet would be really sucky.”

  “Thank you, Captain Obvious.”

  “A couple more things, if for any reason the ship loses cockpit atmosphere, your helmet's visor will come down automatically and seal your suit.”

  “OK.”

  “If we need to eject...”

  “Eject?”

  “Yes eject. If we need to do that, there is a loop under your seat between your legs. It's red and yellow striped, you put both hands on it and pull. Hard.”

  “Swell. Looking forward to that. That's sarcasm in case you're wondering.”

  “Yeah, I think I got that,” he smirked to himself.

  “Have you ever ejected?”

  “Nope.”

  “Let's not start, OK?”

  “Promise. OK, sealing cockpit...” he pulled the canopy lever and it motored forward on its track, locking down automatically with a hiss. “You're going to be able to hear all our communications, but I'm the only one who hears you.”

  The lineman saluted sharply and waved them out, Jack returning the salute. The dark form of the Revenge had already disappeared, and its shuttle was just taxiing out into the daylight ahead of the Remora. “Rem One to Tower, taxiing.”

  “Clear to taxi Rem One.”

  Jack rotated the anti-grav grip on the throttle and it bounced gently off the concrete. He barely nudged the throttle and the fighter began to slide forward, heading for the open rectangle of daylight at the end of the hangar.

  He angled his visor to cut the sun's morning glare off the gold terminal as they taxied around the end of it. The Engineer's transport ship sat on the parking pad north of the Tower, a swarm of men offloading and distributing equipment and gear, trucks moving about.

  He didn't need the full runway, hell he could just about launch anywhere, so the tower directed him to the first clear area and turned him north towards the highway that lead into the capital city.

  “Clear to launch, Rem One. Clear skies...”

  “Thank you, Tower. Launching.” He flipped the igniters for the burners and heard the throaty bump. Easing the throttle forward and twisting the anti-grav grip simultaneously launched him off the runway in less than fifty feet. Standard forward flight achieved in a matter of a couple seconds, he released the twist and switched off the toggles for the anti-grav, retracting the landing gear. “Anti-grav off, gear up and locked.”

  “Wow it's beautiful. So green...” Lisa looked to the left, her eyes following the cluttered ribbon of highway to the capital city. “What's that gray stuff over there?” She squinted. “Are those buildings?”

  “That used to be their capital,” he shook his head inside his helmet, “not any more. You'd think if you're going to have a revolution, you'd want to take something over, not just destroy everything. What's the point of that?”

  After a circuit over Boney's farm, the city and back over the Air and Space Port, Jack pointed the Remora up the valley toward the crystal blue ocean. The planet was feeling a little familiar and he was getting attached to his little corner of it. When they passed over the downed space station, azure blue waves lapping against its shining steel hull, he explained to Lisa what they surmised had happened, sad as it was.

  “Ready?”

  She took a deep breath, bracing herself. “Go for it.”

  He added a little power before pulling the nose up and bumping the throttle hard, sucking them both back into their seats. “That's not too bad,” she grunted, “how fast are we goin
g?”

  “About twenty-thousand.”

  “Oh, is that all,” she replied, attempting nonchalance.

  ■ ■ ■

  Heken Noer spent several hours in engineering inspecting the Revenge's GOD drive, engines, and power cells before returning to the Freedom with an impressive spread of notes, readings and observations. But not before sharing his wisdom with Toncaresh and the Marines' best engineer, Draza Mac.

  Sitting in the ship's command station, Lieutenant Brian Carter was busy studying and learning on-the-job. It was a good feeling being in command - even if it was temporary. He keyed his mic, “Go ahead, Shuttle One.”

  “On final approach,” said Tusker's voice in his earpiece.

  On a frigate, there was no tower or flight control, the bridge handled it all. “Copy Shuttle One. Get it done, as soon as we have you and the Skipper aboard we're going to test the jump system.” He looked over at Raulya, “Tactical, location of our Remora?”

  She flicked her display and brought up a 3D view on her screen. “He's coming up through the atmosphere as we speak. ETA less than ten minutes.”

  “Good.” Weapons all charged?”

  “Aye, sir. All power cells at full charge.”

  Brian rubbed his forehead. “Did we figure out who handles the jump system?”

  “That would be me,” Ragnaar raised his hand. “Navigation or helm could do it, but navigation is probably best choice.”

  ■ ■ ■

  Just sitting still and holding station above Veloria, the Freedom was the busiest ship in the task force. Pappy keyed his mic, “Bridge to tower, did we get all our shuttles and Cyclones back from the surface?”

  “Yes, sir. All personnel from the surface, back aboard. Currently we have four Lancias on patrol and the Zulu is launching momentarily to do some surveys and surface mapping.”

  They still needed to find that mine... or mines as the case might be, because they needed to pay a little visit and serve an eviction notice to the current tenants. Tenants that seemed to have some questionable ties and business practices.

  Paul Smiley shifted in his seat. “The Revenge will be testing her GOD drive, out and back, folks. So since we expect her departure and return, let's see if there any telltales that the sensors pick up that might be used to predict a GOD event. It might help us combat these things in the future.”

  “Incoming message from the Archer, sir.”

  “On screen.”

  The Admiral appeared as an inset video on the big screen. “Commander,” he acknowledged, nodding. “It seems UFW Directorate has seen fit to assign the UFW77 to our little task force. We are now five,” he smiled. Something he didn't do much.

  “I guess they like the job we're doing?” asked Paul.

  Kelarez's smile screwed to something resembling distaste. “Or we're not doing enough and they want us to do more. Never can tell with them.”

  “Wonderful,” snickered Paul.

  ■ ■ ■

  The Remora was nearing the edge of the atmosphere, streaking straight upward, leaving the blue and green marble behind, swirls of white scattered clouds obscuring some portions of the marble. Steele looked back over his shoulder, “Almost looks like home.”

  Lisa took a deep breath, her eyes watering. It was both beautiful and amazing. She could actually see the upper layer of atmosphere as they left it, a soft blue transparent bubble surrounding the planet. And then the stars, it was like you could reach right out and touch them. Touch the face of God. The enormity of it gripped her and took her breath away, seeing it unhindered for the first time. Seeing it through portals or on view screens just didn't do it justice. “Oh my God,” she whispered, tears rolling down her cheeks.

  “You OK?”

  “Yeah,” she shivered. “It's beyond description... It's like my heart wants to jump out of my chest... In a good way,” she added.

  Jack angled toward the Revenge in the distance, only visible on his sensors. “Yeah, it's something... never ceases to thrill me. The New Vanus system was my favorite so far. It has these amazing streaks of iridescent blue dust that stretch across the entire system... like something out of a video game. But wait till you see an ether storm...”

  “A storm in space?”

  “Yeah,” he laughed, “it looks like living tie-dye in the sky, spread like a wall across a system...”

  “Revenge to Rem One.”

  “Rem One, go...”

  “Sir, we have a GOD event on sensors.”

  “What?! Where?”

  “Our GOD system picked it up before occurrence. It's an incoming jump, starting now, about four thousand feet off the surface of the planet.”

  “Quick, feed me the coordinates. Inform the task force, I want fighter backup, NOW!” He snap-rolled the Remora over so he could look up at the planet. “Contact the surface; inform the base and the Prime Minister they may have some weather heading their way.” Steele pulled up his tactical systems, arming weapons and powering shields.

  The screens in front of Lisa lit up, her controls suddenly active. “Uhhh, stuff is coming on back here...”

  “Your controls and screen operate a rear turret.” The coordinates locked into his navigation system and he hammered the throttle hard, pointing the nose of the fighter back at the planet. “Hold on, kiddo, re-entry might get a little rough.”

  “Turret..? Wait, re-entry?”

  “Yeah, listen closely; I'll explain how it works - just think of it like a video game...”

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  TYRILLIUM-VANADIUM MINE : NO HONOR AMONG THIEVES

  Mining was a dangerous and dirty business. There was no glamour, no glitz, no fancy equipment, at least not here on Veloria. Who needed expensive, specialized, hard to transport equipment that needed constant maintenance when you had cheap disposable slave labor?

  Sure there were the standard things like borers, conveyors, rock crushers and continuous miners, but most of the work was done the hard way. Mind numbing, back breaking, lung blackening, bone crushing labor. Mine 01 was the largest and busiest on the planet with five actual mines, a maze of tunnels that stretched for miles into the mountains of the third continent. A continent the miners had nicknamed Hellion. The farmers on the continent had been left alone by the mine consortium; they were useful to provide food for the extensive needs of the facilities' workers. But the cities and most towns were empty, lifeless, hollow shells, bare of inhabitants except for a few that were practiced at hiding from the recruitment patrols.

  Once a beautifully green, forested area, the canyons around the mine were clear cut for their timber and the working space needed for massive transport vehicles and ships to land on the rocky, bare ground. The nearest airport was nearly twenty miles away and while not designed for space ships, was occasionally used for the largest ore ships. It was no matter, abandoned, it served no other purpose.

  Nearly six thousand slave miners lived in an unused portion of Mine 01, in squalid conditions. They were poorly fed, some were in poor health, forced to work in shifts around the clock, then killed or left to die when their usefulness had run out.

  As far as the mining consortium was concerned, it was a race against the clock before the entire project came to a screeching halt when things went south, which seemed inevitable. They had taken a lot of risks with this project and had been pushing the limits for a couple of years, but the last several months had been relentless. It was an extremely large score of both Tyrillium and Vanadium. A rare find indeed, to locate an area with two key metals for shipbuilding, both in their original forms and used in specialized alloys. While gold was a commonly traded commodity and used for monetary purposes, the combination of these two metals and the sheer volume of their presence here, made them significantly more valuable.

  “Mr. Dantos, the grunts are restless... is there anything we can give them to do?”

  Reiger Dantos leaned back in his chair, adjusted his eye patch and scratched his beard, eyeing his aide in the offi
ce doorway. The morning sun pouring through the windows behind him, across the dusty mine office. “No. They do any work and we'll have no place to put the ore, we're overflowing already. Feed them and give them some alcohol. Maybe that will shut them up. If they can't behave, shoot a couple.” He glanced down at the e-Pad on his desk and back up again, “Nobody useful, though.”

  His aide nodded. “So when's the next ship due in? This stoppage has got to be costing us a fortune...”

  Reiger waved his hands lazily above his head, “Not until after those UFW clowns up there bug out.” He folded his arms across the top of his shaved head, then leaned forward and let them drop to the desk. “And yes, it's costing the company a fortune. And me a bonus, so please don't remind me.”

  “Sorry, boss.”

  “Yeah, just remember your bonus comes out of mine.” He wiped the sweat off the top of his head, “So until they leave, no work, no ships, no supplies and no electricity - we can't afford them picking that up. I'm hoping we're invisible enough that they can't locate us from orbit.”

  “The last thing we want is a visit from them,” confirmed his aide.

  “Obviously. We'd want to be gone from here if that happens. Is our shuttle ready if we need it?”

  “Yes. And I personally saw to it that all the mine entrances have been wired.”

  “Good, good.” Reiger Dantos put his elbows on his desk and his face in his hands, “What about what's-his-name at Mine 02? Does he got his shit all prepped?”

  “Setzel?”

  “Yeah, whatever his name is.”

  “He said he's got everything ready.”

  Reiger sat back and put his feet up on the desk. “Because y'know if we get caught, it'll be that asshole's fault. He's such a royal fuckhead.” He folded his arms across his chest. “That moron pulls any more stunts like sending out that ore transport the other day... GOD activation in atmosphere...” he muttered, “goddamn ass, I'll kill him myself. Who does shit that stupid?”