As much of a long shot as it was, there wasn't a better option. Flying out into open space would leave them open to attack from every conceivable direction. At least by staying close to the Providence they stood a fighting chance.
That was, as long as the Providence's guns remained quiet. If they suddenly came online, they were in for a world of trouble.
Staying in formation, the four pilots zoomed across the belly of the ship dodging the occasional burst of fire. They were close enough to the Providence that a simple sneeze could be disastrous which made the maneuver even more amazing. But it also made it more difficult for the enemy fighters to fire on them without a lock, which they were making difficult with a combination of speed and quick maneuvers.
"Ninety seconds until friendlies arrive," the CAG said over the comm. "Just a little while longer."
Ninety seconds might as well have been an eternity. In a balanced fight, a lot could happen in the same amount of time. During what amounted to a galactic game of cat and mouse, it would feel even longer.
"Two bogeys approaching at one o'clock," Lancer chirped.
"I see them," Switch replied. "Swinging right to divide their fire."
"Negative, stay close to the squad," Bobcat said.
"You rather have the bastards take all four of us out with one lucky shot? I'll be fine boss man. Just hold formation and cover my six."
"Head on a swivel boys. Switch has a death wish today," Fireball said, laughing. "Just be warned that if you bite it out here, I'm so moving in on your girlfriend."
"More reason to stay alive. Can't let a freak like you touch such fine real estate."
Switch jammed his controls to the side, pulling away from the rest of the formation. With his absence the other pilots changed formation, opting for a v-formation instead of their usual diamond. They also spread out, putting one hundred meters between each of the ships to reduce the chance that one lucky shot killed them all.
One of the incoming fighters veered off towards Switch, peppering the Providence with laser fire as it struggled to adjust to Switch's erratic movements. The other fighter came at the rest of the squad while maintaining its course, which kept it in line to smash into Bobcat in under ten seconds.
Bobcat pressed the firing trigger, unleashing a spray of laser fire towards the ship while twisting to avoid his return volley. Lancer and Fireball, swung wide to either side before making a quick turn towards the ship, putting the single fighter between all three of their guns. Once the ship was in their sights, the two pilots added their fire to Bobcat's. The combined fire ripped through the enemy fighter, splitting it in dozens of pieces the team had to fly through as they passed.
As Bobcat flew through the debris, one of the larger chunks slammed into her ship, causing it to list to the left. She spared a glance over her shoulder to see her upper port thruster belching flame. Furiously, she pressed buttons on her console to disable the errant engine. The damaged thruster threw one last bout of flame into space before it went dark.
Flying without one engine was dangerous, even more so considering her situation. While she wouldn't be able to perform many of her advance maneuvers, she'd have more than enough maneuverability to handle herself in a firefight.
What she wasn't counting on was her other port thruster being out. Without the counterbalance on her left side, her right thrusters sent her banking hard left right into the path of Lancer. Her wing collided with the rear of his ship in a spray of sparks that ripped off a large chunk of her starboard wing, sending it into her upper starboard thruster causing it to explode violently, damaging the rest of the wing and her one remaining thruster.
Without the ability to maneuver her fighter, she was a sitting duck that floated aimlessly away from both the Providence and the Endeavor. She watched in horror as a half-dozen bogeys pulled away from the pack, all moving as a single unit towards her. Without the ability to turn her ship, there was nothing left for her to do but die.
Her final thoughts turned to Lancer, who struggled to bring his fighter under control after their hit.
"Lancer, you good?" she asked, choking back the tears.
"Better than you," he replied. "Lost two thrusters. One on each side. Turning is a bitch, but I'll manage."
"Good. Kill a few of the bastards for me," she said, struggling to keep her emotions in check. The last thing she wanted to do was break down in front of the guys.
"Negative, Bobcat. You aren't allowed to die today." Switch's voice came out strong over the comm. "Not going to let some punk ass drones kill you like that."
She scanned her HUD for the position of Switch's fighter and found him close to the Providence with the rest of the squad, all except Lancer who was moving back to the cover of the capital ship. With his reduced speed and maneuverability, he was also in dire need of protection. He wouldn't last too long on his own against the barrage.
"Stick with Lancer. He's closer and can at least fly. There's nothing you can do for me."
"Like hell there's not. I'll kill all the drone bastards myself and tow your ass back to the bay if I have to."
"You won't make it in time. I've got six bogeys bearing down on me now. If you pull away from Lancer, we both die. Save him." Refusing to hear his protest, she flipped off her comm, not that it would do any good. Switch had a mind of his own. If he was hell bent on doing something, you best believe he'd find a way to do it.
In a way, she hoped his bravado would work, but she couldn't see any way it would. Even if he were to peel away now, he would be lucky to pick off one of the fighters before they got in firing range. No matter how dumb the drones seemed to be, she doubted all five would miss an otherwise stationary target.
Switch's blip pulled away from the Providence, followed by Fireball's and eventually Lancer's. Switch took the lead while Fireball hovered close to Lancer to protect him.
It took everything Tegan had to keep from bursting into tears. Those fools were rushing out in the open to save her, a single pilot while they risked their lives to do so. And they were doing it knowing there was no way in hell they could pull it off, but they had to try. Shit, she would lead the charge if any of them were in the same situation without second thought.
As Switch closed in, she turned her head to watch the fight play out with her own eyes. If he pulled it off, she wanted to see it with her own eyes. If they didn't... Well, she wanted to see the shot that would kill her.
Switch closed in in record time, likely pushing his fighter to the extremes to close the gap. He unleashed a volley of laser fire into the lead ship while simultaneously launching two of his thermal torpedoes. The lead ship crumbled under the barrage of sustained fire while the two torpedoes split, tracking down the drones on either side of it. Without a live pilot to adjust their heading, the torpedoes slammed into the back portions of both fighters. Explosions ripped both of the drones apart in a pair of amazing explosions.
Ho. Lee. Shit. The crazy bastard is doing it. For a fleeting moment she thought she might get out of this with her life. That was until the new lead drone opened fire.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Atroxxin Sector
Middle Decks, NECS Providence
Streaks of light whizzed past Bremerton's head, forcing him to drop to his knees to avoid yet another round of fire. The rest of his team was in a defensive posture, using what little they could for cover. They didn't have much to work with. A stray crate here. The threshold of a doorway there. All far from ideal.
Once the wave of fire stopped, Bremerton and his remaining marines poked their weapons out from cover and returned fire. Without a solid target, they were aiming their bursts towards the far side stairwell. Hoping to catch whoever was firing at them with a lucky shot, which is precisely what would take to even graze their attackers. They continued their assault for nearly a minute, until their weapons shut down to avoid overheating, at which time they found themselves facing another barrage.
"We have to get out of here," Bremert
on said, ducking. "Any luck getting that door open?"
"Nothing yet," Richards replied as he furiously tapped on his tablet which he had attached to a device the wall by a thin wire. "Whatever they've done to the computer systems has done a number on the doors too. I've never seen this level of encryption in my life. It's like they didn't want these doors to open again."
"I wonder why. This level should be primarily crew quarters. I understand maintaining the privacy of the crew, but the locks should be easy to bypass." This was another point where the captain overrides might have come in handy though he doubted it. Whatever had taken over the ship had made sure it wasn't taken over from the inside. He suspected it was going to be like this until they reached either the primary or auxiliary bridge though he wasn't even sure it would change there.
"Maybe they locked the crew in their rooms to keep them out of the way," a marine added from the other side of the hallway. "We've been trained to do what is necessary to minimize civilian casualties. Locking them in their rooms seems like the best way to do that."
"Perhaps. But the ship was under a war footing. Most of these people should've been working in some capacity to support the ship. Damage control, reloading ordinance, medical support, something. I doubt they had time to lock anyone away."
Bremerton's weapon cooled sufficiently to fire another burst of fire. He waited until the next break of enemy rounds before sending another volley back down the hall. The rest of his away team followed suit, sending another round of laser fire into the stairwell threshold further scorching the paint. Then, as if it were a practiced maneuver, they ducked back into cover while the enemy did the same. Other than their weapons, an enemy he hadn't so much as seen.
Whatever they were facing had the ability to use conventional weaponry. That much was clear. Other than the marine, they were in the dark. He assumed they were bipedal, or otherwise had the ability to maneuver through the ship. Given the size of the hallways, they couldn't be too large but even that could be worked around with some creativity.
Holding his weapon in front of him to cool, he rested his back against the wall while using the large crate for cover. He glanced around the area, making sure his team was still alive and they were. Other than Richards, each of men were doing the same while simultaneously keeping their bodies behind cover. Even still, the stress was wearing on them. Without the means to escape it was only a matter of time until they were gunned down, either from the stairwell in the front where their attention was currently focused, or the rear where the other stairwell was. In short, they needed to find an escape within the few hundred meter gap between.
"Everyone holding up?" Bremerton asked while catching his breath.
"For now. We'd be a lot better of Richards could hurry the hell up. I'd like to be back on the Endeavor by dinner. It's meatloaf night." The remaining marines broke into a chuckle while Bremerton shot them a sideways glance as the intricacies of the joke were lost on him. Must have been a grunt thing, he thought.
Sparing a glance at Richards, he caught a glance of something standing just inside the far stairwell. Whatever it was, it definitely wasn't human. Not with its sickly yellow skin and tentacle-like appendages on what had to be its head. Its hands and legs looked vaguely human, but were far more muscular than any man he'd ever met. It was like they were built to survive a rough environment, or perhaps trained for an assault on enemy ships.
"Contact, far side," Bremerton said, bringing his weapon to bear. The two marines with a clear shot to the far stairwell turned their attention that way while the other two held their guns trained on their original attackers. "Hope you're done playing games. Things are about to get really messy here."
"Two minutes," Richards replied.
"You have two seconds. Make it happen." Bremerton raised his rifle at the door and fired, sending wave after wave of energy towards the new alien target. This time, however, instead of sending an uncontrolled burst that would overheat his weapon much more quickly, he opted for its normal three round bursts. It would allow him to maintain the rate of fire for much longer between cooling, an action they no longer had the luxury to wait on.
The downside being the steady staccato was easily countered by an observant and patient opponent, which he believed they were facing down now. Why else hadn't they made a move down the hallway? If they had half the numbers the captain had suggested, they had more than enough bodies to overtake their position without batting an eye. Bremerton was willing to bet his next month's paycheck on his hunch they were stalling long enough to catch them between two groups.
The marines followed Bremerton's lead, staggering their fire as to limit the amount of downtime between bursts. The attack wasn't foolproof. With patience, an intelligent species would find a pattern to fire between, but it was better than all firing at the same time.
"Got it," Richards said, ripping his cord free from the wall. He pressed the button alongside the door to open it.
Bremerton watched the double doors slide open with relief. While not optimal, the room would give them a place to come up with a better plan. At worst, it would force their attackers to come at them from a singular direction giving them a slight advantage.
"In the room, double time." Bremerton switched his fire to full automatic as he got to his feet. He unleashed a torrent of beams down the hall as he shuffled towards the room while the marines did the same. He reached the room in the matter of seconds, his team right behind him.
Stepping into the room, he released the trigger as his foot caught on something on the floor. He didn't have a chance to slow his descent as he tripped over the object and landed on the large pile of bodies stacked in the middle of the room.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Atroxxin Sector
Bridge, NECS Endeavor
Wellard breathed a sigh of relief as the Achilles' fighters crashed into the wave of X-82 fighters right as they reached Bobcat's squadron. He pulled up his active ships on the status display and saw that her fighter was barely operational, which was a miracle considering the damage it had sustained on its run. She was still alive, as she was busy barking commands to the rest of her squadron as she floated listlessly away from the battle.
The might of his fighter wings combined with those from the Achilles were doing a number on the drones, easily downing two or three for every one lost. As good as it was, it was a grim reminder they were still losing in the long run. Sure, the loss of the X-82s was huge financially, but the loss of living, breathing pilots hurt even more. What they needed was a way to disable the drones before they killed too many pilots.
"Midshipman Ritter, I need you to focus your scans on the X-82s. We need to find the frequency they are using to control them and disable it."
"Yes, sir," she said as she got to work on the scan.
"Even if we find the frequency, how will we be able to block it," Wilson said from the XO's station. "We don't even know where it's coming from. As far as we know, they could be using our communications bands to control them. If we shut that down we risk disabling our own birds."
"It's a risk I'm willing to take," Wellard replied. "As for the source of the signal, I'm willing to bet it's coming from the anomaly."
"Agreed, but what are we going to do about it? The damned thing is impervious to our fighters. Unless you've changed your mind about firing our weaponry at it."
"I don't want to risk hurting the people inside. Besides, I still have an ace in the hole for that problem."
"Sir?"
Wellard pressed a button, opening the comm. "Sergeant Walker, are your marines ready for some action?"
"Just waiting on your word."
"You have it," Wellard said. "But we changed plans. I want to focus our assault on the anomaly. We're going to land all three shuttles in the now-cleared lower fighter bay. Your men are to rush, in force, to the anomaly and use whatever you have available to disable it. I don't care if you blow a hole in the side of the ship as long as you get it the h
ell off of there."
"Better give me five more minutes. Going to need to get the boys geared for vacuum."
"Going to take that long to get your escort back to the ship. Have your boys ready to roll when they do. Wellard, out." He pressed a few more buttons opening a line to the CAG. "Val, those shuttles still ready to fly?"
"Yes sir. The pilots were hoping you hadn't forgotten about them."
Wellard laughed. "No, just keeping an eye on the tactical situation. Speaking of which, there's been a change of plans. I want all three shuttles to land in the lower bay as a group."
"No longer splitting up the platoons?"
"I think it's a better idea if we focus on the anomaly. If we can get that damned thing out of the way, we should be able to get our situation over there under control."
"Sounds good. How soon do they leave?"
"As soon as you can get a few squadrons to escort them to the Providence. That and Walker needs a few minutes to outfit his men for possible vacuum."
"I'll pull the squads now. They should be back here in under two minutes."
"Perfect. Keep me apprised of any changes. Wellard, out."
Wellard sat back in his chair and watched the screen, feeling like things were finally turning around. Sure, they still had ways to go before they could leave, but at least now he felt like they were making headway. It would feel even more under his control once he could reestablish communications with the Providence or at least his crews over there.
"Any word from our away teams?" he asked.
"We haven't heard from them in nearly thirty minutes," Wilson replied.
"Try them again. I want to let our XO know what's about to happen."
Endeavor (The Mythrar War Book 1) Page 12
