by Will Crudge
Darius knew the plan was to link up with a UAHC vessel that had its own HAL launcher system for the final push to Tangine, but he never expected the Star Fury to be the one. The Star Fury was a fighter carrier for the UAHC Air Force and was used for expeditionary purposes or for the redistribution of atmospheric fighter platforms between terrestrial planets.
“The Star Fury? I had no idea that old relic even had a HAL system, let alone was even flight worthy. Had I known the Air Force had any ships in this system, I would have had them en route to Tangine already!” Darius’ tone was a mix of frustration and confusion. He was the Fleet Marshal over all UAHC Fleet Forces, and yet had not been briefed.
Kindle replied, “You haven’t been briefed, because it wasn’t something anyone had expected. She’d been in dry dock for three months, according to their ship’s AI. Apparently, the Air Force’s AI’s weren’t targeted for subversion by the Crimson Alliance. Brigadier General Cooper decided to take action and take to the skies regardless.”
“Remind me to consider him for a commendation. Flight worthy or not, that ship may be just what we need!” Darius said with a smile. “What is her current level of readiness?”
Doom answered for Kindle this time. “That heap of trash is defying known physics just by moving under its own power! FTL upgrades were never completed, so it only has conventional propulsion. It does have half a dozen five-inch rail cannons, but only had enough ammo for five minutes of sustained fire. There’s nothing reported as far as fighter compliment or crew strength.”
“Well, that’s still more than we have now,” Darius said as a matter of fact.
“Shall I hail them for a more detailed report?” Kindle asked.
“Negative. They’re not broadcasting it for good reason, I suppose. General Cooper must not be confident that we’d be the only ones listening.”
“Very well,” she said.
Darius considered what the battle carrier could bring to the table, but then decided it wasn’t worth burning up precious brain space when there were too many missing variables. He decided that they’d have to wait until they linked up for the HAL launch before coming up with a detailed course of action. Besides, the ship had no FTL and couldn’t very well launch itself with the HAL. The shipboard HAL was intended to launch fighters and small support ships but couldn’t propel the carrier itself.
But now a new train of thought entered his mind. The Air Force. The UAHC Air Force was not considered a major military force, but more of a terrestrial defense network. They operated mainly as a last line of defense against atmospheric incursions on key planetary systems that had some sort of terraformed atmosphere. Air Force personnel were well trained but were not Soldiers. They were allowed to retain the traditional military model of enlisted personnel and an officer corp. They had their own academies, and boot camps. Many of their officers consisted of people that didn’t make the final cut to be trained as Soldiers but were offered appointments at one of the several Air Force academies. Their enlisted corps were recruited from a large pool of quality candidates as well. The Air Force may not have been comprised of elite UAHC Soldiers, but they were certainly highly capable.
Darius then turned his attention to the battle carrier known as the Star Fury. The ancient ship was built more like a flying battle tank, and less of an actual aircraft transport. It was at least half a millennium old and hailed from an era when energy shielding was less advanced. The heavily armored plating it boasted was standard for its era. It was also one of the few remaining expeditionary carriers the Air Force had. It was designed for desperate situations where the Air Force was forced to join battle in open space and was capable of launching fighters as such.
The UAHC Air Force had an impressive compliment of atmospheric fighters, both manned and remote-piloted alike. In atmosphere, they could easily match the skill sets of even the most highly trained Soldier with a fighter rating. The problem was space. The Air Force has always been mandated to train and maintain fighter squadrons that were capable of fighting in open space, but they often considered it as an annoying bruise to their meager budget. Darius had no clue what kind of combat power they could bring to bear in this instance, but he was confident it would be limited. Since their mothership had been in dry dock for months, then their fighter compliment may not be at full strength or even up to date on their training. Soldiers had advanced neural interfaces that keep their skills sharp throughout their peak years of life, but the Air Force still had to constantly train and retrain their personnel to maintain their skills.
“Having deep thoughts, big guy?” Doom broke the silence.
“Yeah. Trying to strategize with minimal knowledge,” Darius said.
“Yeah, I bet. No point in getting too wrapped around the axles. Most plans go to shit once the first shots are fired, and then it just comes down to reverting to pre-planned contingencies,” Doom huffed.
“You sound like it’s not a desperate situation.” Darius scowled.
“I’ve survived dozens of so-called ‘desperate situations’ and I’m here talking to you,” Doom responded but remained just as dismissive.
“So what would you do?”
“I’m not the prophetic super-genius of legend, dude!” Doom laughed.
“Not helping,” Darius grumbled.
***
Kara’s HUD flashed green, and her armor’s power was back up to combat-ready status. She barely noticed the indicator as she remained focused on Jimma’s absurd plan of action. However, it was the only one that made sense. The lack of energy signatures from the route they’d taken to get to their current location, was a clear sign that they were being driven back to an obvious ambush. The Crimson spec ops units had suffered heavy losses, and their use of humanoid battle robots was increasing. They could easily power down to standby mode until their sensors were tripped, and thus hide their signature. Powered armor wearing troops, on the other hand, couldn’t hide their energy signatures without a full power down.
Jimma had explained that the Crimson troops were intentionally allowing their energy signatures to be conspicuous. The only door that led them to the STC tower, if it still stood, was teaming with EM signals. At least an entire company of troops, and an unknown number of drones and battle-mechs laid beyond.
Conventional tactics would tell them to avoid the enemy’s strengths and attack their weaknesses. But they were not facing conventional troops. Even the mighty UAHC Soldiers were held to a stalemate by the time the trio of friends had been isolated. These spec ops troops were zealots and would not be broken easily. It was as if holding control of the station was their only reason for breathing… which made them dangerous… but predictable.
“STC is through here,” Kara said, as she watched Jimma hanging newly acquired fragmentation grenades to hooks on either side of her chest.
“That much is certain.” Jimma just nodded but kept her eyes on task.
“Well, what if that explosion we heard a while back means that it’s not there anymore?”
“You’re not losing your resolve and talking yourself out of this breach, are you?” Jimma turned to Kara and scrunched her eyebrows as if to interrogate her.
“No! This is going to happen either way but what if we need to choose a new objective? If the STC tower is no longer in play, then why else would they be hindering our progress so aggressively?”
Jimma nodded, and then rubbed her chin. “Excellent point, Kara. Perhaps you already know the answer but can’t bring it to your field of awareness.” Jimma winked.
Great! More spiritual mumbo-jumbo, Kara thought, and then shook her head. “I’m just saying, why wouldn’t they already be initiating an attack? They’ve been staging for hours and haven’t made a single probing effort.”
“That’s because the heavy weapons they’d need to kill a War Master and her sexy Zodiac Mount would likely cause a hull breach!” Sasha winked. “This room, is rather close to vacuum.”
“Granted, you’re right. But the
y’ve a powered armor that can allow them to survive in a vacuum for at least twenty-four hours. So, what else could they be worried about not destroying?” Kara replied with a lecturing tone.
“You already know the answer, my friend!” Jimma smiled, and then looked to Kara as if she were waiting for it to dawn on her.
“Gate generators!” Kara shouted, and then put a palm on her forehead.
Jimma laughed, and then nodded. “Not exactly, but you’re close!”
“What else could it be?” Kara asked, and then shot an inquisitive glance at both Jimma and Sasha. The War Master and the Zodiac shared a glance and a smile, and then turned their gaze back to Kara in tandem.
“HAL generators,” the pair said in unison.
“But they have FTL. Why would they need the HAL’s?” Kara asked.
“The HAL Launchers are already pre-set to the vectors to every strategic target in the Sol System. Plus, slip-space velocities are vastly multiplied by the ship’s velocity at the point of transition,” Jimma explained.
“Ah! So, the Crimson could potentially spread out to every vulnerable point in Sol space in a matter of hours!” Kara nodded.
“More like minutes. If they pre-plan their timing, they can transition out of slip-space and hit their targets simultaneously. The UAHC would be helpless to stop it,” Sasha added.
“So, taking out the hyper gates is the wrong play? Wouldn’t it prevent the fleets from arriving in Sol to begin with?”
“Yes, it would. But it would also prevent any hope of reinforcing the UAHC base of power. The Crimson Fleets are consolidated into battle formations already. The UAHC Fleets are still scattered. If both sides have to rely on only FTL, then the Crimson forces will still have an insurmountable advantage,” Jimma noted.
“Unum won’t be able to turn the tide alone, in that case.” Kara pondered the implications. “Well, we’re wasting precious oxygen by talking about it!”
“True. Ready to breach?” Jimma asked with a casual glance. Kara felt nothing but butterflies in her stomach, but knew she had to commit. She gave a nod and then shouldered her rifle.
Jimma took a position about five meters directly in front of the bulkhead door, and Kara side-stepped behind her, keeping her rifle trained over Jimma’s right shoulder. Sasha took position to the left of the door and leaned her muscular feline body against the alloy wall.
Jimma turned her head slightly to speak over her shoulder. “If you see my eyes glow, or any energy rushing off my body, then you need to turn back and find cover. Understood?”
Kara hesitated in responding, and a new feeling of fear coursed through her veins. All she could do was muster a compliant nod.
“Good. Fear death, and you shall surely perish. Embrace death, and you shall be victorious!” The proverb rolled off of Jimma’s tongue with a steeled tone, but Kara didn’t find any comfort in the words.
A moment later the breach charges detonated, and the bulkhead door slumped to the deck and fell outward. There was nothing to see but smoke from the charges, but Kara could see energy signatures on her HUD. She followed Jimma’s lead and rushed into the corridor beyond.
The second Jimma’s left forearm crossed the threshold, her energy shield snapped into full array. Kara had never seen the War Master use it before, but she was glad she did now. The impact of ballistics projectiles, and pulse weapons pounded the pink-ish surface of the shield, but the repulsive nature of the shield deflected it all without incident.
Jimma unleashed a hail of fire from her own multi-function rifle in response. Flawlessly timed bursts of ballistic, pulse energy, and plasma came out in rapid succession. Each shift into different ammunition options allowed for the recharging and cool down cycles of all three platforms to take place, and therefore delay the eventual failure of the weapon from sustained use.
Kara took advantage of the suppressive fire and began to pick out point targets with her rifle. Dozens of robots, commandos, and even a few plain-clothed security personnel littered the large corridor. They were behind hardened crates, portable energy barriers, and support columns. There were at least forty humans, and twice that number of robot drones.
For every body that dropped from Kara’s control shooting, two more heads popped out. The two swiftly moved down the center of the area, which had clearly been designed to funnel them into increased layers of defensive fire, but they advanced none the less.
Shield is almost gone – weapon is about to over-heat. Pivot NOW! Jimma sent the message to Kara’s helmet speakers. The two wheeled around as they’d rehearsed, and now Kara’s shield was their primary means of defense. But now the room was erupting in an ever-increasing volume of fire, and Kara’s shield dropped to fifty percent charge within a few seconds.
Too much for my shield! We need to break for cover! Kara spouted, and the two women dove in either direction. Kara rolled to the right and fumbled across a headless robot that seemed to be convulsing. Jimma rolled to the opposite side, but with far more speed and grace.
Both women righted themselves and shared an acknowledging glance before returning fire. Jimma grasped a smoke grenade, hooked the pin-loop around a hook she’d pre-positioned on her armor, and flung it behind her without even looking at her target. Kara noticed the pin remained dangling from the hook, while the rest of the grenade was hurled towards the bulkhead door from whence they came.
Frag, down in front, Kara reported, and then hurled the grenade blindly over the crate she hid behind. She didn’t wait for the detonation, and rolled further to her right, and grabbed the shoulder of the vanquished robot. With a single motion, she covered herself with its bulk like a blanket, and waited for an enemy to return the favor.
The explosion of her grenade was followed by the metallic clink of a Crimson grenade bouncing onto her only source of cover. Even as she cringed in anticipation, the blast took her by surprise. Her HUD flashed in protest of the shock wave, but then she gave a quick sigh of relief when she noticed her armor didn’t report any serious damage.
She pushed the robot off her and rolled up to a kneeling position once again. She knew if she didn’t make a sound, that the Crimson fuck-sticks would assume she was out of the fight. She was right.
The barrel of a pulse rifle poked its way around the right side of the crate, and she covered the left side with her rifle. The commando stepped to into view and took aim at the woman, whose rifle was pointed in the opposite direction. But the ballistic pistol she had in her left hand wasn’t clearly visible to the faceless enemy, and the slug slammed into the tinted face-shield before he or she could fire. Kara didn’t bother checking her left flank, but instead opened fire with the rifle. Her instinct held, and the soldier on the left flank stepped into a hail of fire.
She had no time to be proud of herself for anticipating the basic clearing procedure, and then checked her surroundings for additional threats. That’s when she noticed Jimma was nowhere to be seen. Shit! Not again!
Without knowing where her friend was, she couldn’t blindly engage the enemy in order to suppress any fire. She could only hope her shield was back up with enough charge to find a better vantage.
She started to check her shield status, but decided she’d have to make due with whatever it could offer either way. She would be dead in the next few seconds if she didn’t reposition.
She snapped the shield into its full array and ran across the center of the corridor and cut an angle to the next line of defenders. She didn’t look back, but just watched in slow motion as her shield slammed into two defending robot drones, and then it flared out in response to the sudden impact. Luckily the robots were smashed into pieces on impact, and she watched the polished metallic debris scatter like leaves in the wind. Then an impact of a pulse blast struck her armor that covered her left shoulder blade.
She cursed in response, as the impact came dangerously close to knocking the wind out of her, but she’d managed to return fire with her pistol without visually aiming. It was just enough to
suppress the three enemy soldiers’ fire, as she turned to take aim with her rifle. She slung the forward hand grip of the rifle over her left forearm, and still clasped the pistol in her left hand. But before she could take a shot, she noticed her three targets were too busy being mauled to death by a gigantic cheetah for them to remain compliant targets.
Kara released her breath that she didn’t notice she was holding, and then smiled at the otherwise gruesome sight. “Where’s Jimma?!” She shouted through her helmets audio speakers.
The big cat gave no visual cue that she’d even heard Kara but responded digitally through her voice module.
Kara took aimed shots at a cluster of troops that were responding to Jimma’s flanking attack. Jimma had her sword in her right hand, and was slashing at a group of enemy combatants, all the while using her shield as a battering ram every time she recovered from each sword attack. Bodies flew everywhere, and blood sprayed in all directions.
