Predator (Old Ironsides Book 3)

by Dean Crawford

  The Marines set the controls and then leaped up, the Ayleeans firing plasma rifles at the communications panels.

  Tyrone checked one last time that they were locked into the enemy spacecraft, and then he turned and ran with the Marines and Ayleeans as they fled for the boarding hatches.

  ***

  XLV

  CSS Defiance

  Captain Lucas watched as the frigate cruised beneath the huge Marauder and straight into the frenzy of plasma fire streaming from the enemy Marauders as they realized what was happening and tried to prevent the collision of the two enormous spacecraft.

  ‘Keep us steady, full power to all shields!’

  The frigate shuddered as a salvo of plasma shots pounded the shields, the Marauder above them taking several direct hits on its starboard plasma rail. Defiance shook and gyrated as its shields struggled to cope with the blows and a couple of panels sprayed sparks in fiery rain to scatter across the decks.

  ‘They’re almost here!’ the tactical officer called. ‘I’ve got multiple ID chips heading for the boarding tubes!’

  Captain Lucas stood up out of her command chair, unable to continue while seated.

  ‘Take us in close, get the hatches ready to open as soon as we dock!’

  Before the reply could come a sudden terrific blast hit Defiance square on her starboard flank and the frigate’s lights flickered out as explosive showers of sparks and electrical energy burst from her panelling. Captain Lucas shielded her eyes as she was hurled to one side by the impact and smashed into a control panel.

  The frigate heeled over beneath the blows, and Sula knew in an instant that they were being directly targeted. She grabbed hold of the command rail and staggered across to Captain Lucas, and as she did so she saw CSS Victory charging toward them.

  ‘They’re trying to hit us to take the Marauder out!’ she yelled above the din of explosions bursting all around them. ‘We can’t stay here!’

  Captain Lucas struggled to her feet, blood oozing from a cut on her temple as she tried to assess the information flooding in to her on the remaining tactical displays.

  ‘Shields are almost out!’ Walker yelled. ‘Hull breaches on two decks and we’ve lost atmosphere in one of the engine bays! Another direct hit and we’re history!’

  Lucas clenched her fist and slammed it down onto the control panel.

  ‘Damn it! Pull us out, maximum pulse power and evasive manoeuvers! Target Victory!’

  Lieutenant Goldberg stormed up to Lucas.

  ‘We can’t leave Tyrone and the others behind!’

  ‘We can’t reach them either!’ Lucas yelled as she hauled herself to her feet. ‘What good are we to them if we get them out but are then blown to hell before we can escape? We need to hit Victory first, hard!’

  Ellen Goldberg looked at the captain for a brief moment and Sula saw the anguish on her face. There was no way the frigate could remain in place, her hull too easy a target for the nimble frigate Victory and…

  Sula grabbed Ellen by her arm. ‘Can you fly a shuttle?’

  Ellen seemed momentarily hurt. ‘Of course I can fly a damned shuttle but why would I want to get into one of those damned things and…’

  Ellen’s eyes lit up as she realized what Sula was getting at. Captain Lucas pushed the pilot away from her.

  ‘What are you waiting for, get out there!’

  Ellen turned and dashed for the bridge exit, and on impulse Sula dashed after her and they ran together down a corridor bound for the launch bays.

  ‘What the hell are you doing coming with me?’ Ellen yelled as she ran.

  ‘My job! I’m here as your assistant, right?’

  ‘This is a combat mission and you’re not qualified to be…’

  ‘You gonna fly out there, dock, open the hatches, get everyone inside and then get out of there all on your own?’

  Ellen cussed under her breath but didn’t reply as they dashed onto the flight deck and Ellen headed toward the nearest flight–ready shuttle. Sula leaped into the craft behind Ellen and hit the hatch closing mechanism as Ellen jumped into the captain’s seat and flipped a series of emergency start switches.

  Sula strapped into the co–pilot’s seat as she saw an array of instruments glow in multi color confusion before her and heard the shuttle’s engines whine into life. Ellen applied power and the shuttle lifted off the deck, turning toward a set of bay doors that were already opening.

  Ellen opened the main throttles and the shuttle surged out of the bay and into the blackness of space just in time for Sula to see immense plasma charges rocketing toward them from the huge harvester craft, and more coming in from either side from the surrounding Marauders and CSS Victory.

  ‘Hang on!’

  The shuttle rocked and bucked as plasma blasts rushed by, Defiance diving downward steeply to avoid the salvo that smashed into the Marauder’s plasma strakes amid vivid explosions that illuminated the shuttle’s cockpit as Ellen pulled up again and aimed for the Marauder’s steel belly.

  Ahead, the harvester was looming large enough to fill the entire screen and would have been a tremendous sight were it not so utterly terrifying. The Marauder above them was accelerating every second, and already Sula could see that the harvester was turning away in an attempt to avoid the collision.

  ‘Hurry!’

  Sula leaned forward and looked up out of the shuttle’s screen to see two ragged metallic protrusions poking out from beneath the huge capital ship.

  ‘They’re right above us!’ she said.

  ‘I’ve got them,’ Ellen replied. ‘Get in back and stand by the main hatches. This needs to be real quick!’

  Sula unstrapped herself from her seat and dashed out of the cockpit and into the rear of the shuttle, which was large enough to hold fifty fully armed Marines. She moved to the center of the craft and looked at the side hatch, which was a universal fit for all CSS docking hatches and boarding tubes.

  Sula moved to stand by the emergency release claws and hoped that Ellen Goldberg was half the pilot everybody said she was as a shower of plasma blasts hammered the ship above them.

  *

  Tyrone dashed down to the lower decks, Ayleeans running all around him in the same direction with the Marines struggling to keep up.

  The huge Marauder was accelerating constantly and he knew that they could have only a minute or so before the ship slammed into the harvester capital ship and was torn apart by titanic forces. He staggered over the first of the inert corpses of the octopeds blocking the corridor, the Ayleeans vaulting lithely over the top and crashing down on the deck the other side like a stampede of antelope across the African veld.

  Tyrone hauled his fatigued body over the gruesome mound and saw the Ayleeans all waiting on the other side around the boarding hatches.

  ‘What are you waiting for?!’ he demanded as he slid to the deck.

  Then he saw Shylo pointing at the closed hatches.

  ‘They have gone!’

  Tyrone saw the bitter chill of the vacuum of space on the other side of the now sealed hatch windows, saw below him nothing but the hatch interior and then stars and occasional flashes of light as plasma blasts hammered the hull outside.

  ‘Damn it, what the hell happened?!’

  Sergeant Agry moved alongside them and shrugged.

  ‘Welcome to the world of the soldier, fly boy. We’re expendable, and Defiance probably couldn’t take much more of that attack.’

  ‘I knew it!’ Tyrone cursed and threw his plasma pistol at the wall. ‘I knew they couldn’t be trusted. Damn it, they could’ve hung on for just a couple more minutes but oh no! They had to leave us stuck here in this floating coffin!’

  ‘Somebody might make it back for us,’ Corporal Hodgkins pointed out.

  The ship shook as another massive salvo plowed into it and Tyrone struggled to stay on his feet.

  ‘Nobody’s coming for us! What kind of suicidal, half witted lunatic would show up here now?

  Shylo
pointed out of the window. ‘Somebody’s here.’

  Tyrone peered out of the windows and saw a CSS shuttle appear and turn sideways before moving in close to the docking hatch. He grinned as he looked at Sergeant Agry.

  ‘I knew they wouldn’t let us down.’

  The corridor shook again and this time large metal panels burst from the walls and Tyrone heard the hiss of escaping vapor and atmosphere as the hull began to fail all around them. He hugged the wall of the boarding hatch and hoped to hell that they would all make it out in time and…

  Tyrone looked at the hundred fifty or so remaining Ayleean warriors and the twenty Marines around him, and he realized that even now they could not all make it out.

  ‘A shuttle that size only holds fifty,’ Corporal Hodgkins said above the din around them.

  Tyrone looked at the docking shuttle and then at Shylo. The towering Ayleeans all exchanged glances, and then without a word they all stepped back from the hatch. Tyrone pushed off and shook his head.

  ‘No, no way! We go together, all of us!’

  Shylo said nothing but he raised one hand and placed it over his chest, wherein beat his massive heart.

  ‘You have done enough,’ he said, his customary low growl somewhat tempered by something that sounded dangerously close to emotion. ‘You must go.’

  Something clanged against the Marauder’s hull below them with a dull boom and he saw the boarding hatch windows mist briefly as atmosphere returned to the interior from the docking shuttle. The boarding hatch hissed open once more as Tyrone saw the Ayleeans all take a further pace back from their only means of escape.

  ‘We’ll fit!’ Tyrone shouted above the noise of battle. ‘We’ll fit somehow!’

  Shylo didn’t bother responding to Tyrone, knowing full well that they could never fit a hundred seventy into one shuttle. As one, all of the Ayleeans raised their hands and placed them over their chests, watching silently as the hatches opened and a young girl with blonde hair burst out.

  ‘We’ve got thirty seconds!’ she yelled.

  Tyrone turned and stared at her in amazement. ‘Sula?’

  ‘All of you, get your asses in here now!’ Sula yelled, and then she saw the ranks of Ayleeans. ‘Oh.’

  Sergeant Agry wasted no time and grabbed two of his men and shoved them by their collars into the hatch.

  ‘Go, now, move!’

  Sula saw the Marines tumble into the hatch until they were all gone, and then she whirled to the Ayleeans.

  ‘Thirty in, now! That’s our limit!’

  None of the warriors moved, and Tyrone looked at them for one more moment and then placed his hand over his chest. Shylo nodded, and then Tyrone turned for the hatch with Sula.

  ‘Anybody want a lift?!’

  The voice came from behind Sula on the far side of the hatch, and they whirled to see a rangy man with shaggy hair and a detective’s shield staggering toward them through the smoke and debris.

  ‘Nathan?!’

  Sula’s eyes flew wide and she dashed toward the man and threw herself into his arms as Tyrone stared in bewilderment.

  ‘Who the hell is this?!’

  Nathan Ironside pointed at the Ayleeans and then jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. ‘Second shuttle, room for all, move now!’

  In an instant the Ayleeans blasted past Tyrone and Shylo knocked him physically into the boarding hatch with one shoulder as he passed by, twenty more warriors piling in behind him and hauling the hatch shut behind them as they plunged down into the shuttle waiting for them.

  *

  ‘What the hell are you doing here?!’ Sula yelled as she ran and jumped into the second boarding hatch.

  Nathan plunged in after her as ranks of Ayleeans poured in behind him.

  ‘We saw Defiance return so we came looking for you!’

  They landed hard inside the shuttle and then scrambled out of the way as Ayleeans thumped down all around them. Nathan staggered into the cockpit alongside Betty and strapped in as he yelled into the back.

  ‘Grab a seat and hang on!’

  The Ayleeans crammed into the shuttle as Sula crawled into the cockpit and sat on a seat behind Nathan. A rough, deep Ayleean growl from the shuttle’s interior reached his ears.

  ‘The hatch is closed, go, now!’

  Betty Buzz Luther punched the release mechanism switches and the shuttle disengaged once more as the Marauder’s bow smashed into the huge harvester with a brilliant flare of light that burst like a new born star before them and illuminated the cockpit. A rippling series of explosions tore down the length of the Marauder’s hull as Betty hauled the shuttle around and slammed the throttles wide open.

  The little spacecraft shook as it flew away from the impact, explosions rippling across the vast hull above them and hurling flaming debris across their flight path as Betty fought for control and turned away from the onslaught.

  ‘Incoming, starboard!’

  The warning from an Ayleean in the rear of the shuttle alerted Betty to the plasma bolts rushing toward them from starboard. She pushed forward on the control column and the shuttle plunged into a steep dive. The huge plasma bolts thundered past behind and above them and smashed into the Marauder as tremendous blasts tore her hull open.

  The shuttle whirled away from the blasts and turned for open space as Nathan craned his neck around and looked behind them to see the Marauder’s million ton hull tearing down through the harvester’s immense bulk amid countless explosions and clouds of twisted metal plates spinning and spiraling into space. All around them the ships of the CSS fleet and the other Marauders banked hard and turned away away from the carnage.

  And then Nathan threw his hands up before his face as the entire scene vanished into a brilliant halo of light so bright that his eyes streamed as he turned away.

  ***

  XLVI

  CSS Titan

  ‘Direct hit!’

  A ragged cheer went up across Titan’s bridge as Admiral Marshall lowered his hands from his eyes as the tremendous blast faded enough for him to see the Marauder plunge deep into the harvester’s hull. The entire vessel had smashed down at a forty five degree angle as the larger harvester had attempted to avoid the collision, and the increased velocity in the last few seconds before impact had driven the Marauder straight through the harvester’s hull like a knife through the heart.

  Marshall stood up and saw the Marauder’s massive plasma strakes plowing through the harvester’s bridge deck and a spreading network of brightly burning ruptures expand out from all impact points like a glowing spider’s web. The Marauder’s own engine bay had erupted during the collision as shockwaves reverberated through her hull and shook her cores loose, the cause of the blinding blast that had seared the vision of everyone watching.

  Marshall shook himself from his torpor and yelled an order.

  ‘All vessels, engage the nearest Marauder to Titan! Join forces, get under their guns and drive them back one at a time!’

  Titan began to heel over as the helmsman changed course to charge at the nearest Marauder to their position. As the warship swung around so Marshall saw Pegasus turning toward the same ship, and almost at the same time their respective hulls lit up with devastating barrages of plasma fire. The salvos tore in toward the Marauder between the two CSS capital ships and slammed into her from both sides at once.

  The huge Marauder briefly disappeared amid the blasts that rippled down her flanks, and even from five thousand meters Marshall could see on the display screen clouds of debris and flaming explosions flickering in the darkness as she was hit.

  ‘Hull breaches and escaping gases detected!’ the tactical officer yelled. ‘She’s hit!’

  ‘Keep at her!’ Marshall ordered as he clenched his fists beside his body. ‘Give her everything!’

  As Titan and Pegasus opened up again on the Marauder so Marshall saw Defiance and a stream of other frigates, corvettes and the British carrier Illustrious sweeping in from all directions around the battl
efield. Streams of plasma fire ripped across the glowing cauldron of ionized gases and tumbling debris of the battlefield to smash into the Marauder. Marshall saw the big vessel fire back twice, her massive guns simply not equipped to engage so many targets at once, and the huge blasts sailed between Illustrious and Pegasus to pass harmlessly into deep space.

  ‘Again!’ Olsen yelled, forgetting himself in the heat of the battle. ‘Hit her again!’

  To Marshall’s amazement the crew joined in, chanting again, again, again! Titan shuddered as her starboard batteries opened up in unison with those of Pegasus, the smaller ships circling the Marauder and firing continuously, looking like cruel gray sharks in a black sea circling some gigantic, wounded prey.

  The plasma salvos consumed the Marauder and then suddenly her stern erupted in a savage double blast that caused an expanding shockwave to ripple visibly through the gas cloud. It hit Titan but was barely noticeable as Marshall saw the huge ship’s engines explode with a violent expansion of pressurized gas and burning fuel.

  Another cheer went up from the crew and Marshall slammed his fist jubilantly down on the command rail.

  ‘All ships target the next nearest Marauder! Keep it together and stay close enough that they can’t hit us without fear of hitting their own!’

  Olsen glanced at the captain.

  ‘They might try the same tactic, admiral,’ he warned.

  Marshall shook his head.

  ‘No, Defiance was right, they’re not warships. They don’t have enough weapons for close engagement compared to us, they have to fight from a distance to win.’

  As Marshall watched he could see the fleet turning and accelerating toward a second Marauder but to the starboard flank he could see CSS Victory, plasma salvos streaming from her port guns toward Pegasus.

  ‘Tactical,’ he ordered, ‘turn all guns on CSS Victory.’

  A somber mood enveloped the bridge at the order.

  ‘Aye, captain.’

  Moments later, Marshall watched as Titan unleashed a savage barrage of fire that streamed in toward Victory and slammed into her. The frigate, already damaged and trailing glittering debris in her wake, burst like an eggshell under the blasts and suddenly vanished amid an immense explosion that split her hull in two.