Omega Force 6: Secret of the Phoenix

by Joshua Dalzelle

  “Oh, I guess I should have told you that I’ve made some improvements since I took possession,” Jason said. “Any embedded coding you had in the main computer to reassert authority over the ship won’t do you any good. That computer core is sitting in a trash heap somewhere.” The smile slid from Klegsh’s face as he seemed to realize his dream of marching back up onto the bridge of the DL7 was dashed. Jason was about to open his mouth to provide another taunt when he felt a metallic clang against his armor.

  Naleem walked from behind him, a remote with a flashing red light in her hand. “There is now a powerful explosive attached to your armor, Captain Burke,” she said, smiling. “I had actually brought it out for your battlesynth but you obligingly put on your ridiculous metal suit. Thank you for that.” She walked across the tarmac and stood next to Klegsh.

  “Now, Captain Burke,” Klegsh said. “You will disable the rear guns on the Katan and allow my men to retrieve some items from the cargo bay. I’m not so foolish to think you’ll allow me to board without your remaining crew attacking me.”

  “A fair assumption,” Jason ground out, furious at having been so easily outmaneuvered. “But why should I bother? You’re going to detonate this charge regardless.”

  “Probably,” Klegsh admitted. “But wouldn’t you rather have the time it will take for us to board our ship and leave so that you can go through the futile motions of trying to disable the device?”

  “Fair enough,” Jason said, forcing his voice to remain calm. He reached out with his implants and told the ship to retract the rear cannons.

  “Impressive,” Klegsh said. “I see you’ve been busy since that back-stabbing synth left us to die on Oltrest.”

  “Just get your gear and get out,” Jason said.

  As Klegsh’s two crewmen scampered up into the cargo bay and grabbed a crate each, one of them the case holding the antenna, Nul procured a weapon and was now covering Crusher and Lucky, both of whom looked eager to kill him.

  “Given the shared name, I’m guessing Naleem is your what? Daughter?” Jason asked.

  “Yes,” Klegsh answered. “She was the one who began the quest for the key. When Deetz stole the Katan we assumed he and Bondrass had made a deal behind my back. But it seems he had his own plan at work. I assume you’ve never met Bondrass?”

  “Oh yes, I’ve had the pleasure,” Jason said. He was trying not to appear distracted while he watched his armor run through a series of exploratory probes of the device affixed to his back. “He tried to have me sold at The Vault.”

  “And yet here you are. I see he must have had a change of heart.”

  “No,” Jason said. “Instead I stole this ship, his cargo ship full of treasure, and then had him killed.” The offhand manner in which Jason discussed dispatching such a feared figure from the underworld had the desired effect. Klegsh looked genuinely startled and a lot more cautious.

  “This is everything,” Naleem announced as she led the crewman away after verifying the crate contents. “We’ll just be on our way. No hard feelings, Captain,”

  “None at all,” Jason said with a cold smile. She waved the detonator at him as she walked away.

  “Don’t try anything stupid,” she said over her shoulder. Klegsh followed the rest of them, walking backwards and keeping his weapon trained on the trio before he felt he was at a safe range. Nul, however, stood close by with his weapon loosely held in his hands.

  “You’re gonna miss your ride,” Jason said to him.

  “I am here to ensure their safe departure,” Nul said. “I will find my own way after they have left.” Jason redeployed his helmet so he could open a secure com channel to his crewmates.

  “Lucky, I don’t think I can pop this bomb off without it detonating,” he said. “I can create a reverse polarity field to detach it, but it’ll probably just blow and kill me along with damaging the ship.”

  “What do you plan to do?” Lucky asked over the com channel.

  “I’m going to eject out of this thing,” Jason said. “The bomb will still be attached to the back plate when it jettisons. I need you to grab that piece of armor and throw it towards that other gun ship as hard as you can. Crusher, I need you to take out Nul.” Crusher just nodded his head to signal he understood. “Okay … on my signal.”

  “Do not do anything foolish, Captain,” Nul warned, turning his weapon toward him. Jason held his railgun out and let it fall to the tarmac. He could see Naleem and her father were just then boarding the other ship so he’d have to move fast. Nul visibly relaxed when Jason disarmed himself, obviously feeling safe in the assumption that the others wouldn’t act with him still in such a compromising position.

  Jason quickly initiated the ejection sequence for his armor. It beeped twice and then explosive charges sent the pieces of the unit flying away in all directions. Nul flinched and it was all the distraction Crusher needed to be on top of him. Jason had assumed Crusher would just shoot him, but he couldn’t worry about that as he spun about to see where the piece of armor with the bomb attached had landed.

  Lucky had sprung into action a millisecond after Jason had jettisoned his armor. The battlesynth fired his repulsors and sailed across the tarmac to where Jason stood, grabbing the back plate as it fell back to the ground. He spun and flung it towards the other DL7 like a misshapen discus. It landed with a clatter and slid all the way up under the starboard wing of the other ship.

  Jason nodded to Lucky and turned in time to see Crusher and Nul squared off, the latter cradling his left arm to his chest. The big warrior wasn’t going to make the same mistakes he had in their first encounter and kept the smaller, nimbler alien in front of him and only committed to strikes he knew he could land. After a few feints Crusher moved in and, with a roar, raked his claws down the front of Nul, ripping deep into the flesh. As Nul staggered back, Crusher finished him with an overhead blow that drove his head down, shattering his spine.

  “Let’s get inside,” Jason said, kicking his sabatons off his feet, the only part of the armor he’d still been wearing, and ran up to the ramp. They turned and watched as the other DL7 rose into the air. It was probably fifty feet off the deck before Naleem grew impatient and pressed the button on the detonator. The bomb exploded with tremendous force and Jason knew if he’d still been wearing it the concussion would have at least seriously injured him, probably even killed him. But with the back plate resting freely on top of it all the bomb’s energy sent the piece of armor flying upward with enough velocity that it struck the DL7’s starboard engine emitter.

  The ship began to list hard to starboard before the repulsors could cut in and level it back out. Jason watched as the grav-drive emitters along the trailing edges of the wing dimmed as the impact forced the drive into a safe mode. Klegsh was able to keep the ship airborne and started the Jepsen main engines in order to get them out of the area.

  “Go! Get into the ship!” Jason yelled at his crewmates. “Kage, get the shields up!” He hoped his friend was able to respond in time as he was certain about what was going to happen next.

  Sure enough, he heard the other DL7 throttle up and approach. A second later the Phoenix was rocked as Klegsh hit them with a particle cannon before racing out of the area. “At least he didn’t just camp overhead and blow the shit out of us,” Jason said.

  “I think getting hit with their own bomb flustered them,” Crusher said as the three of them raced through the ship on the way to the bridge.

  “Repulsors are coming online and the mains should be running in a second,” Kage said, already in the co-pilot seat when Jason rushed onto the bridge. “He depolarized the port grav emitter with that shot so we won’t have grav-drive or slip-drive for at least ten minutes. Why are you in your underwear?”

  “Get all the tactical systems online,” Jason said, ignoring him. “Full combat mode. Doc, keep track of that ship.” He fed power to the ventral repulsors and lifted the Phoenix off the ramp. By the time he’d gotten one hundred feet of altitude t
he mains came online with their reassuring boom that could be felt through the hull.

  “Give me a plot to the other gunship on my tactical display,” Jason ordered as he powered up and began integrating himself into the ship. He saw a highlighted reticle appear that indicated the fleeing ship was already over the horizon and running fast along the deck. He slammed the throttle down and the Phoenix thundered away from the spaceport, her Eshquarian engines giving them a much needed advantage in speed and acceleration.

  “They’ve got a big lead on us,” Kage said. “Even with the new engines we probably can’t catch them before they break for orbit.”

  “It doesn’t look like they’re trying to run for space though,” Jason said as he let the Phoenix climb up to twenty-five thousand feet. “They’re still hugging the ground.”

  “He’s probably flogging his engineer to get their grav-drive back online,” Twingo said. “In open space without it they wouldn’t stand a chance against a long-range missile, not to mention they have no idea how long our grav-drive will take to reset. They may be trying to disappear into the ground clutter.”

  “I guess he doesn’t know our new sensor suite isn’t so easily fooled,” Jason said.

  “Maybe he does,” Kage said. “Incoming com channel request from that ship.”

  “Put it through but keep a sharp eye on your sensors,” Jason said. “They’re probably trying for a distraction.”

  “Captain,” Klegsh said with a wide smile, apparently sitting in the command seat of the DL7’s bridge. Jason had long ago removed that seat and opted to pilot the Phoenix himself. “This is a pointless pursuit. Your grav-drive is also out and I would think even someone as inexperienced as you knows that a ship cannot catch an identical ship, especially when we have such a large lead.”

  “I can see you’re a little detached sitting on your little throne there,” Jason said. “Might want to check with your sensor operator.” Klegsh looked off-screen with a look of annoyance on his face. The look morphed into one of shock and concern as he received his answer.

  “I guess the Katan has been modified beyond the computer,” Klegsh said.

  “So what is your master plan?” Jason asked. “It seems a little short-sighted of you to run considering you left the parts to the key here on my ship.”

  “You still only have the piece you’ve always had, Captain,” Naleem said, stepping into the frame. “We have the antenna and you will follow your predictable pattern and give chase.”

  “Are you sure you have the antenna?” Jason asked. He was keeping them talking as long as he could as the Phoenix chewed up their lead. The only trick was that he had to also fly the ship while talking to Klegsh and the other gunship’s pilot could concentrate only on flying. The Phoenix did have one other advantage in that Jason had put her up in the smooth, fast air and was flying a direct line while the other ship wasted speed and momentum hugging the terrain.

  “You mean this one?” Naleem said, holding up the case that had been inside the black transit crate they’d taken from the cargo hold. Jason gestured to Twingo to come forward.

  “No, I mean this one,” he said as Twingo held up the golden, flattened ring of the antenna for her to see. The engineer smiled hugely and waved before walking back out of the frame. Naleem tore open the case and saw the small device inside that Twingo had rigged that mimicked the radiated emissions the ancient device had been putting out. There was even a mocked-up golden ring in there but it wouldn’t have passed a very close inspection. She let out a feral scream and threw the case across the bridge, apparently striking a crew member judging by the yelp of pain.

  “You think you’re so clever, don’t you?” she snarled, her urbane, polished mannerisms gone. “We originally just wanted the device. Now we will make you suffer.”

  “Well, since we’re not going to be friends anymore I guess I should be completely honest with you,” Jason said. “If your pilot is drifting onto a northeast course because you think you can circle around behind us and pick up Nul we have some bad news. Crusher sort of accidentally bashed his skull in.”

  “Sorry!” Crusher called loudly from off-camera.

  If she was angry before, Naleem went into an absolute frenzy when she heard of Nul’s death. She was howling something unintelligible when Klegsh had her collected and taken off the bridge.

  “I can see you’re very pleased with yourself, Captain,” Klegsh said quietly. “But you have just made an enemy today that you may regret. I will never rest until I see you dead and the Katan in flames.” Jason looked down and saw Kage had sent him a countdown to when they would be in range. Fifteen seconds at the current speed differential.

  “I don’t think you’re going to be around long enough to worry about it to be honest, Klegsh,” Jason said. “You’re welcome for killing Deetz. It’s too bad you couldn’t just leave well enough alone.” He made a chopping motion for Kage to kill the channel and concentrated on finding the optimum intercept angle as he nosed the Phoenix over to begin their initial run on the fleeing DL7.

  “Kage, lock the main guns onto their starboard nacelle,” Jason said, pushing the engines to full power to cover the last bit of distance as quickly as possible.

  “Firing solution locked and loaded,” Kage said. Jason could see the fine correction arrows appear in his field of view. He allowed the ship to close the range a bit more, just before he would have to pull out of his dive, and squeezed the trigger on the stick. He held it down to give the computer fire control command. He would try and get the reticle onto the target, but the ship would fire the plasma cannons when it felt they were in the best position to land a hit. The cannons were far and away the most powerful energy weapon in the Phoenix’s arsenal, but they couldn’t be aimed by any other means than actually pointing the ship at the target.

  He’d been holding the trigger down a full second while he concentrated on putting the nose onto the tail of the other ship when the plasma cannons opened fire, actually startling him. The first two bolts missed and ripped up a massive section of rainforest, but the subsequent four smashed into engines three and four as the starboard nacelle was shredded. He released the trigger and yanked the Phoenix into a climbing turn to the right, chopping the throttle as he did.

  With his full neural integration active he was able to look down through the hull and see the older DL7 yaw hard to the right. The pilot was able to compensate, but they’d been flying too low. The starboard wing clipped the tops of the trees and put the ship into a tumble. Soon it was completely obscured by the foliage, dirt, and smoke that was kicked up as it fell through the trees. Jason pulled around and settled into a hover a kilometer away, watching the smoke and dust continue to rise. Panicked avian creatures were also fleeing and Jason absently noted that they didn’t have feathers like birds from Earth. They looked more like miniature dragons.

  “Full power is available on the grav-drive,” Twingo said. “You can change over on your engine management panel.”

  While Jason engaged the grav-drive and disabled the repulsors, an enormous gout of fire erupted from the forest. It was a pillar of white hot flame that reached up into the sky and showed no sign of diminishing.

  “They just lost fuel containment,” Twingo remarked. “Something must have ignited it.”

  “I guess they’re completely powerless,” Jason said. “No backup or emergency power either unless all the compressors failed simultaneously.”

  “Do we just lob a missile down there or do you want to go check it out?” Crusher asked, yawning in his seat.

  “We’ll go down there once the fuel burns off,” Jason said. “If someone happened to get out of the wreck and escape the flames I’d rather not leave them behind to make trouble for us later.”

  “Good thinking,” Crusher grunted. “I’ll go get our stuff ready.”

  It was another forty seconds before the fuel supply was exhausted and the flames died down. Jason nudged the Phoenix closer and settled down just behind the wreck
age and hovered about ten meters above the treetops. He stood and walked over to the edge of the canopy to look down at what was left of the DL7.

  Shockingly, the ship didn’t look to be in that bad of shape other than the obvious crumpled areas from where it had sheared off tree trunks that were a few feet in diameter. He was about to say so, but he didn’t want to leave himself open to Twingo and Kage mentioning that he’d crashed their own ship through a factory and it was still in one piece.

  “Doc, take over,” Jason said. “Lucky, let’s go with Crusher and check this out.”

  The transit beam couldn’t find a clear way down to the forest floor because of all the branches and other obstructions so Jason and Crusher had to harness up and ride cables the few hundred feet down. Lucky just stepped off the edge through the belly hatch and fired his repulsors to arrest his decent, landing in the soft loam with a heavy thud.

  The ship had flipped over when it tumbled and was sitting on its back. The starboard nacelle was still sparking and smoldering, but the rest of it simply looked lifeless. The trio made their way around to the nose, intent on trying to gain entry through the port airlock, but instead saw that the main canopy hadn’t survived the impact. The older model ship must not have had as tough a transparent material as the Phoenix.

  They cautiously moved around and peered into the smoke-filled bridge. Lucky stepped in first and Jason followed, motioning for Crusher to patrol the outside and try and see if anyone had gotten out. Even though the crew looked to be wearing their restraints, the impact and imploding canopy had killed most of them.

  Jason found Naleem crushed under a large section of tree trunk that had come inside the right side of the canopy when the ship was crashing through the forest. He stopped over her broken body, looking down with a feeling of sadness that surprised him. She may have been playing them and was absolutely ruthless in her quest to get what she wanted, but he didn’t necessarily think she was evil. He understood what happened when one was consumed with a desire and passion for something. No action was too extreme and there were no lengths he wouldn’t go to in order to achieve his goals.