Sentinels: Children of Valhalla (Sentinels Saga Book 1)

by Linn Schwab

  Finally, Delia looked up at ECHO 7, seemingly a little confused by their presence. Christy then raised her right fist to her heart and said, “Powder monkeys, reporting for duty!”

  Surprised and inspired by the display of courage, Delia quickly rose to her feet and wiped some of the tears away from her eyes. “Are you girls sure about this?” she asked. “My ship’s in pretty bad shape right now.”

  Christy hesitated for a moment, casting a quick glance at the two dead Sentinels. “Just pr—” she started, then choked with emotion. “Just promise me we’re going to kill some of them.”

  Delia looked into her eyes and nodded. “It’s a promise!”

  She motioned for her crew to re–‌board the Calypso and quickly followed them back in through the airlock. Most of Christy’s squad ran onto the ship behind her. Only one of them remained behind, frozen in terror.

  Christy stopped just inside the airlock and looked back to see who was still on the spur. She could see that the girl was crying intensely, and visibly torn by indecision.

  “It’s alright, Patricia,” Christy consoled her. “You don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”

  Patricia glanced down at the two dead bodies, then looked up at her captain again. As the airlock doors began to slide shut, the emotional distress of being separated from her squad overwhelmed her fear of being killed. She quickly scampered onto the Calypso and followed the rest of her squad toward the magazine.

  Within a span of only a few seconds, the Calypso’s engines fired up and the ship was pulling away from Volaris. Christy was both surprised and amazed by how swiftly Delia’s crew had the ship up and running.

  “Wow!” she softly exclaimed to her squad. “They sure don’t waste any time, do they!” She performed a hasty survey of the magazine and determined that tube numbers one through five were empty. “Let’s hurry up and get these tubes loaded,” she said. “We can’t let those ships have a chance to get past us.”

  With the Wallaby concealed behind a large asteroid, Robin studied the surveillance scope’s image, searching for a way to bypass the battle. The enemy ships were so widely dispersed that they were blocking her path in every direction. She considered trying to stay put for a while, but an enemy carrier soon arrived in the distance, which meant fighters were likely to appear before long, and the Wallaby’s hiding place would be compromised.

  Robin took a deep breath and remorsefully looked around at her squad. It seemed that they had finally run out of options. They were going to have to try to fly through the battle and just hope they could somehow remain unnoticed.

  “This is it,” Robin said, trembling as she got to her feet. She walked around the bridge to every member of her squad and shared an emotional embrace with each of them. It was clear to her that they realized the end for them was near. “I’m proud of all of you,” she tearfully told them. “You’re just like what every Sentinel should be.” Sheri had slipped into unconsciousness again, so Robin simply knelt and touched her on the cheek. “I hope you can stay asleep through this, Sheri. You’ve suffered through enough already.”

  Returning now to the captain’s station, Robin readied herself to die, just hoping it would be relatively swift and painless. “Caroline,” she said, “when we pull away from this rock, make sure our port side is facing Valhalla. As soon as we’ve fired off the distress beacons, just head in that direction as fast as you can.”

  Caroline nodded and grabbed the controls, then waited for Robin to give the order.

  “Retract the surveillance scope!” Robin ordered. “Take us out of here, Caroline!”

  Caroline pushed forward on the throttle and the Wallaby moved out away from the debris field.

  “Stand by on the rocket batteries!” Robin ordered. “Set the spread for maximum dispersal!”

  “Maximum dispersal, ready!” Phoebe answered.

  “Ready…” Robin prompted her. “FIRE!”

  Phoebe pulled down on the rocket launch handles. A powerful vibration rattled the Wallaby. The rockets streaked outward away from the ship, leaving briefly glowing trails of propellant behind them. Caroline swung the Wallaby around and headed directly into the battle. She pushed the throttle all the way forward, but it once again reminded her that she was “UNAUTHORIZED” to utilize the engines at their full potential.

  Coming up on the edge of Pangea, Jenny spotted signs of combat in the distance. It wasn’t like any battle she’d ever witnessed. There were ships spread out over a vast amount of area, resulting in widely scattered pockets of fighting.

  “What is going on here?” Nancy said, confused and bewildered by what she was seeing.

  “I don’t know,” Jenny responded. “The way they’re all spread out, it’s almost like they’re searching for something.”

  “Maybe they’re trying to locate Volaris,” Zoe suggested.

  Jenny considered the possibility. “Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen!”

  “Where do we even start?” Nancy asked, looking around at the mess on the battlefield.

  “Enemy fighters, eleven o’clock high!” Kelli yelled. “It looks like they’re going after one of our destroyers!”

  “Let’s get ‘em,” Jenny said, shifting her course to intercept them. “Guns only on this pass girls! Save your rockets for bigger targets!”

  The enemy fighters were flying in a loose formation as they attempted to target a destroyer with their rockets. They didn’t seem to notice Jenny’s squadron approaching until it was too late for them to react. The Hornets flashed right through the formation, drowning all four planes in a hailstorm of bullets.

  “Did we miss any?” Jenny asked, glancing back over her shoulder toward the fighters.

  “No,” Lisa answered her, “they’re all space junk now.” She briefly glanced at the Sentinel destroyer as it headed for an isolated enemy cruiser. Now that it was safe from those enemy fighters, the CVS Pollywog could focus on attacking.

  Suzanne noticed movement as she looked around for threats. “More fighters at four o’clock low!” she yelled.

  On one of the racks in the Calypso’s magazine, chain links clattered furiously around the teeth of a gear crank as Rachel started spinning it to lower a torpedo. When the powerful weapon was resting freely on its rollers, Christy and the other girls strained to pull it forward and push it along its track until it slid into a firing tube.

  “That’s one,” Christy breathlessly announced as she struggled to recover from the heavy exertion. There were four more tubes still remaining to be loaded with projectiles so heavy her whole squad could barely move them. Her muscles were intent on punishing her, and the gear crank was already spinning again as Rachel worked on lowering a second torpedo.

  Major Richards was feeling completely overwhelmed. She had no link to the battlefield whatsoever — no way of knowing if there was a threat to Volaris, or what was happening to the forces involved in the engagement. Even with her training in combat operations, she lacked the expertise of Commander Jeffries, and the confidence she would have gained from prior experience. As requests for information poured in from other stations, the controllers were constantly trying to get her attention, adding to the confusion and chaos in the room. A feeling of helplessness began to sink into her, leaving her feeling powerless to accomplish anything. She was on the verge of slipping into mental isolation when Lieutenant Marlowe suddenly snapped her back to reality by confronting her with something that seemed pointless to even mention.

  “Major,” Veronica said, “I’m picking up a signal from a distress beacon!”

  “Veronica,” the major said in despair, “we’re not in a position to help anyone.”

  Veronica continued to analyze the signal, determined to find out exactly who was in trouble. “It’s from the Wallaby!” she yelled in surprise.

  “What?” Major Richards said, looking down at Veronica’s monitor. “How can that be?”

  Veronica shook her head. “They must have gotten it off before they w
ere destroyed.”

  As the two of them looked at the monitor together, an image from the beacon flashed up on the screen. Both of their mouths gaped open in awe when they realized what they were looking at.

  “Can that be real?” Veronica asked, staring at the battleships in disbelief.

  “Real enough to be a threat to us,” the major said. “Relay that image to the Sunbright, now!”

  Lieutenant Chambers ran to her console on the Sunbright when the MESSAGE light started blinking again. “Commander,” she said, yelling over her shoulder, “we’re getting another targetting request from Volaris!”

  Commander Jenkins hurried over to her side, anxious to see the incoming message for herself. “What have they got for us this time?” she asked. “Did they manage to locate another patrol ship?”

  When the image of the shipyard popped up on the screen, the commander was stunned into silence for a moment. She blinked a couple times and checked the focus of her eyes, then quickly began issuing orders to her crew.

  “Start plotting an arc to that target! We’re going to pepper that entire area! I don’t want any of those ships to get away! Helm, bring us around eighty degrees to starboard! Prepare for full missile launch!”

  The Wallaby’s engines roared in protest, straining to push the ship closer to its goal. But without the benefit of her star drive apertures, her maximum velocity remained painfully inadequate. Robin could feel her heart pounding wildly as she watched for signs that enemy ships might have found her. She had a feeling it wasn’t going to take them very long, and Phoebe soon confirmed her suspicion.

  “There’s an enemy ship closing in behind us!” Phoebe said, pointing up at the rear view monitor.

  Robin briefly looked up at the screen. The ship was still a good distance back, but it wouldn’t be long before it caught up to them. “Smoke screen?” she asked, casting a hopeful look at Katrina.

  Katrina somberly shook her head. “We used it all,” she replied.

  Robin looked back at the enemy ship and let out a quiet sigh of acceptance. There was nothing more she could do to escape it. The Wallaby’s journey was coming to an end.

  Having already disposed of two enemy squadrons, Jenny and her pilots were now closing in on a third. The enemy planes were racing toward a Sentinel destroyer, preparing to fire rockets at its starboard side. Once again, the Hornets plowed through the formation, leaving only fragments of shredded fighters behind them. As they flew past the destroyer they’d just defended, all of them had their attention focused elsewhere. But when she casually glanced back over her shoulder, Lisa’s eyes happened to catch a glimpse of the name.

  “That was Robin’s ship!” she screamed.

  “It can’t be!” Nancy insisted.

  Zoe immediately looked back toward the ship and managed to get a good look at it. “It is! It is!” she yelled, “It’s the Wallaby! Jenny, we have to stay here and help them!”

  The squadron reversed course and headed back toward the Wallaby. They stared at the ship in disbelief and amazement, as if it was something right out of a dream. Jenny’s eyes scanned the area around it for threats and caught sight of a light cruiser closing in from behind. She was just about to say something to the others when an unfamiliar voice broke in over the intercom — a pilot from another squadron nearby, issuing a warning to a Sentinel destroyer.

  “Look out, Terrapin!” the voice frantically insisted. “Tiger Sharks are coming after you!”

  Virginia gasped and looked over her shoulder, and quickly located the fleeing destroyer. In the blink of eye, she had broken formation and was streaking off alone in the Terrapin’s direction.

  “Virginia!” Suzanne yelled, tentatively turning to follow after her.

  “Let her go!” Jenny ordered. “Suzanne, stay with me! I need you to do something for me! The rest of you go with Nancy, and keep that cruiser away from Robin’s ship!”

  “Let’s go!” Nancy said, veering off to intercept the enemy cruiser.

  Virginia spotted the Tiger Sharks as they circled in on the Terrapin. They were all lined up in perfect formation, preparing to pounce on the helpless destroyer. As she closed in on the unsuspecting quartet, she recalled how they had scattered squadron Fifty–‌Seven by obliterating Patti’s fighter with a rocket. Zeroing in now on the second plane in the formation, she pressed her ROCKET button, and promptly returned the favor.

  A rocket streaked forward from Virginia’s left wing and slammed directly into the side of its target. The fighter ballooned in a cloud of flaming vapors, casting out twisted and fragmented pieces, and sending the other planes spinning and tumbling. Before the other pilots had a chance to recover, Virginia finished off the third one in line, leaving only plane number four and the squadron leader for her to deal with. She considered taking out the trailing plane first, since he was likely to be the least experienced of the group; but the explosion had pushed his plane out of her path, making it more expedient to target the leader.

  Virginia tried desperately to get the lead fighter in her sights, hoping to destroy it before the pilot regained control. But she couldn’t quite swing her plane back around fast enough, and her bullets missed it by just a fraction of a second.

  The Calypso stormed back into the battle with all six torpedo tubes loaded and ready. Delia quickly identified a target — a light cruiser pursuing a damaged Sentinel destroyer. She didn’t have a good angle on the ship, approaching it almost directly head on. But her first concern wasn’t necessarily to destroy it. She was just hoping to rescue her imperiled comrades who were fleeing from the enemy cruiser’s guns.

  “FIRE SIX!” Delia ordered, with the enemy cruiser square in her sights.

  As the torpedo shot out of tube number six, Tammy started a timer on Christy’s squad to measure how long it took them to reload it. The CVS Angelfish flashed past the Calypso, retreating from the battle with smoke pouring from her engines. The Calypso’s torpedo struck the light cruiser head on, forcing the ship to abandon its pursuit and allowing the Angelfish to escape. When tube number six had been replenished, Tammy stopped the timer and called out the results.

  “Thirty–one seconds on the reload, Captain!”

  Delia smiled in satisfaction. “Not bad, little sisters!” she whispered. “Let’s see if you can keep that up!”

  Robin was still staring at the rear view monitor when Jenny’s voice rang out over the intercom.

  “Wallaby, this is Captain McNeil! Can you hear me?”

  The girls all let out gasps of excitement and looked around feverishly trying to locate Jenny’s plane.

  “Jenny, is that you?” Robin pleaded, hoping it wasn’t just a hallucination.

  “It’s me, Robin. Is everyone okay?”

  “Sheri’s hurt pretty badly!”

  “Are you all on the bridge right now?”

  “Yes.”

  “Listen to me, Robin. Do exactly what I tell you. Hold your current heading. Make sure all of your inner hatches are sealed, and then open your cargo bay doors.”

  Jenny positioned her fighter behind the Wallaby and waited for the cargo bay doors to slide open. Suzanne pulled up directly beside her and looked over at her in shock and confusion.

  “What are you doing, Jenny!” she cried. “You can’t fit a fighter in the back of a destroyer!”

  “That’s what I need you for,” Jenny told her. “Get behind me and wait for my order!”

  Nancy and the rest of Jenny’s squadron were doing their best to deter the light cruiser. They circled the ship in extremely tight patterns and proceeded to punish it with their rockets. Before long, it was having trouble holding its course, and smoke started billowing out of its engines. Spontaneous explosions inside the cruiser’s hull confirmed it no longer posed a serious threat. But the Hornets’ victory was very short–‌lived. Another enemy ship was closing in on them, now — a class of vessel they were powerless to stop.

  “Dreadnaught coming in!” Trixie yelled, the instant she laid eyes
on the Alabama.

  Nancy looked at the ship with concern and ordered the girls to fall back toward the Wallaby.

  As soon as the Wallaby’s bay doors opened, Jenny and Suzanne dropped below it a short distance. Suzanne’s eyes were filling with tears in response to what Jenny had asked her to do.

  “Why me?” she sobbed in protest.

  “Because Virginia isn’t here!” Jenny firmly explained to her.

  Suzanne felt her trigger finger twitching as she nervously moved it into position.

  “Ready…” Jenny prompted her.

  Nancy’s voice suddenly interrupted them. “Jenny, you’ve gotta hurry up!” she insisted. “Our little sisters smoked out a battleship!”

  “Now, Suzanne!” Jenny ordered.

  Suzanne winced and pulled back on the trigger. Her guns immediately flared to life, spewing streams of projectiles at her captain’s fighter. The bullets tore both of Jenny’s wings away, leaving her with only a fuselage to pilot. When Suzanne finally let up on the trigger, she breathed a heavy sigh of relief. She’d managed to accomplish what Jenny had requested without also killing her in the process.

  “Caroline,” Jenny instructed, “angle the ship down five degrees!” When the Wallaby dropped down in front of her fighter, she pushed her throttle forward and flew into the cargo bay, with precious little clearance as she passed through the opening.

  Suzanne waited until Jenny’s plane was on board, then instructed Robin to close the bay doors. With the Alabama closing in rapidly now, she offered a parting wish of good luck to ECHO 5, then joined Nancy and the others a short distance away.

  Unlike the interior of a carrier’s airlocks, the cargo bay was frustratingly slow to repressurize. The Wallaby’s depleted air canisters were taking forever to complete the task. Jenny watched her gages impatiently, pleading with the system to hurry its progress while waiting for the destroyer’s internal atmosphere to match the reading inside her cockpit. The instant the difference between the two was in range, she popped her canopy open, grabbed her card key out of the ignition slot, and raced toward the bridge as fast as her legs would carry her.