Wilson went to work trying to reestablish a connection with the marine in the fighter bay. After a minute without a response he looked back at Wellard and shook his head. "Nothing."
Wellard sighed. He assumed the man was killed when the drones left the bay. Probably had a fighter slam into him as it left, or perhaps he got caught in the ship's contrails. "Guess Jason will have to do things blind." It was a good thing the kid was good at thinking on his toes, otherwise the situation would be far more dire. He'd figure things out on his own, like he'd been doing for nearly an hour. His last report put him a few levels below the auxiliary bridge, which meant he was a few levels away from possibly taking control of the ship.
But as he'd learned himself years ago, two levels might as well have been two miles if the ship was under enemy control. If the enemy was as intent on protecting their control as Bremerton was on taking it, the remaining distance would have to be earned with blood.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Atroxxin Sector
Cockpit, X-71 Fighter
Switch swung his craft around carefully, flinging his tow cable at Bobcat's fighter. The electromagnet latched onto her front hull. His momentum pulled her craft with a slight tug that jarred her back in her seat.
"Cable attached," Bobcat said. "Take me home."
"Roger, boss. Bringing you back in now."
"And Switch. Take the easy way please."
Switch laughed though the comm. "Copy that. Scenic route it is."
Ever since the Achilles' fighters had demolished the fighters trying to take her out, none of the other drones had even bothered to move in her direction. A fact she was thankful for as her thrusters still couldn't fire.
From what she could see on her HUD, the battle was going well. The combined might of the Achilles' fighters and those from the Endeavor were making quick work of the drones. Without a pilot to adjust to the fight, they were easily outclassed by even the greenest pilots.
The only downside was the anomaly was still in place, doing whatever it was doing to the Providence. Their weapons, while normally potent, weren't able to so much as scratch the damned thing. The situation grated on her. She'd failed missions before, sure, but nothing like this. Those missions at least had some semblance of success. This wasn't even close.
Now the captain was forced to put a few platoons on the Providence to take care of the problem the hard and slow way. The mission would take precious time they couldn't spare.
She'd heard the rumors floating around the ship that a trio of unknown contacts were making their way across the sector. The ships ran into the York and let it pass while destroying the Concord. While it may mean nothing, it could also mean the people in those ships were allied to the people inside the York.
At least, she assumed they were people. They hadn't had confirmation one way or the other.
Switch did his best to skirt around the battle, not risking to bring their fighters anywhere close to the flight vectors of any of the drones. He also kept his speed low and steady which kept her from being tossed around too much.
A button on her console lit up, signifying an incoming transmission on the squadron channel. She toggled the channel open and listened.
"Switch, Lancer, and Fireball, you are to head back to the Endeavor immediately to rendezvous with shuttle Two Mark Alpha. From there you will lead the shuttle and her payload to the lower fighter bay on the Providence. Do you copy?"
"We copy, Commander," Switch replied. "Thing is, I'm toting around some extra weight these days. Might want to get one of the other squadrons to handle this one."
"We are aware of the situation with Bobcat. When you get close, release the magnet and we'll have one of the other boys tow her in."
"You telling me I need to dump my date, Commander? Not sure the boss is going to like that," Switch said. "I'll drop her off on my way around. Can't let the party leave without me."
Fireball and Lancer both replied in the affirmative and broke off from the fight and made their way to join Switch in battle formation.
Tegan waited until the CAG closed the squad channel before opening a connection to Switch.
"Bring me along," she said, her voice smooth and even.
"Did I hear you right? You want me to haul your crippled ass piece of a fighter into the bucket of nastiness happening around the Providence as we speak?"
"Something like that."
"Now why would I want to do that? Not only will your fighter severely hinder my ability to maneuver this beast, it seems to me you aren't going to be able to target anything worth a shit. In fact, if you so much as look at your firing trigger you will send your fire straight up my ass. Don't take it personally, boss, but I'm not about to lose that part of my innocence to you."
"Come on now, I thought we were getting serious," she joked.
"Not that serious, I hope."
"Seriously, my busted ship may have something you may be interested in. Looks to me like you fired off all your thermal torpedoes saving my sorry ass. Just so happens I'm still packing two, and all things considered I'd like to have them off my belly when they drag me back into the bay."
"You know if I bring you along the trip won't be nice and easy."
"And you know I expect you to release the cable if you think my sorry ass is going to cost you your life."
"Thought you said I was the one with a death wish," Switch said, chuckling. "Fine, if you want to come along and play, I'm game. Just don't go telling the CAG I tricked you into going."
"Wouldn't dream of it," Bobcat replied.
"Alright, you best hold on." That was the only warning she had before being yanked against her seat as he pulled off towards the Endeavor. Her ship jerked wildly against the cable, every movement Switch made intensified by a magnitude of one hundred tossing her about the cockpit like a loose wrench. Thankfully she was strapped in or the ride would've been extremely rough.
The shuttle exited the bay as they reached the Endeavor. Lancer took Bobcat's normal position at the front of the convoy while Fireball and Switch took up a spot on either side. They followed the shuttle as it glided towards its target.
"Incoming bogeys moving on the shuttle," Fireball said.
"I've got a positive lock," Bobcat replied. "Preparing to fire."
"Preparing to fire? What the hell, boss. Not going to give us a chance to take 'em down."
Before she answered she pressed the button and released one of her torpedoes. The missile dropped off her bird a few meters before the engines kicked in, sending it towards the far-side bogey. The lead fighter attempted to shoot it down before reaching its target, but the fire failed to penetrate with its lasers. The torpedo slammed into its target destroying the fighter in a rapidly expanding debris field.
"Nice shooting, Bobcat," Lancer said. "Fireball, let's take the other two."
"Roger."
The two fighters broke off from the convoy, heading in a straight line towards the enemy birds. Tegan watched as the fighters approached, both sides belching fire at the other as they closed the gap. Lancer caught the lead fighter with a direct shot to the cockpit, a hit that would've been deadly if the bogey hadn't been remotely controlled. As it was, the blast penetrated the ship, knocking out the main thruster as it exited the shuttle.
Unabated by the loss of its comrade, the rear fighter twisted through the incoming fire as it sped past it's crippled counterpart.
"Don't think this one is a drone," Fireball noted.
"Agreed," Lancer replied. "Swing around to your right. Let's catch the bastard between us."
"Copy." Fireball pulled on the stick, sending his bird into a wide loop to the right while Lancer did the opposite. The enemy bogey ignored their maneuver and pushed hard towards the shuttle. Bobcat watched the scene play out through her canopy, opting for a live view instead of watching the scene play out on her HUD.
"Boys, I may be mistaken, but I don't think he gives two shits about you." Bobcat turned back to her consol
e and engaged the targeting module on the last torpedo. "Switch, bring me in line with that bastard. I have a nice present for him."
"Can't promise a turn at this speed will be the most pleasant thing," he said.
"Just do it. I'll deal with the consequences later."
"Your call. Just don't come bitching about whiplash later tonight."
Tegan grinned, but kept her hands on her controls. She needed to focus if she wanted to pull this off. By her best guess she had less than ten seconds to get into position, acquire a positive lock, and fire the damned thing before it got close enough to do some serious damage to the shuttle.
Switch pulled his controls hard, sending her shuttle into a tailspin. She swore as her head slammed into the cockpit and threw her hands from the controls. He leveled out his craft, causing hers to do the same.
She regained her composure in time to see the bogey firing on the shuttle. The shots were missing wide, but he was correcting fast.
Forcing her reticle towards the bogey, she pressed a button to engage a lock. The computer beeped a few times before giving her the telltale alarm of a positive lock.
"Torpedo away," she said, pressing the trigger. The torpedo sped away from her craft and slammed into the bogey moments later, erupting in a fireball that was quickly muted by the vacuum of space. One of the larger pieces was propelled forward by the blast. It slammed into the shuttle with enough force to rip a 5 meter section of the hull. She sighed when the pilot's distress signal came through.
"This is shuttle Two Mark Alpha. Last hit is causing us to lose atmosphere at an alarming rate. Requesting permission to land at one of the topmost shuttle bays instead."
"Request granted shuttle Two Mark Alpha. Be warned your team will be separated from the others. Advise setting up a perimeter while the others come to you."
"Acknowledged. Setting course for upper shuttle bay."
Tegan slumped back in her chair. She should've been elated to know she took out the fighter, but the collateral damage had done a number to the shuttle. She couldn't help thinking she'd just saved the men from a quick death and possibly doomed them to a much slower and more painful one away from the rest of the teams.
"Nice shooting, Bobcat," Lancer said, breaking the silence. "Though as you can image the CAG is not pleased. We are being ordered to bring you back to the Endeavor pronto."
Out of the frying pan and into the fire. "You heard the man, Switch. Bring me home."
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Atroxxin Sector
Middle Decks, NECS Providence
"Holy shit. Do you think all the locked rooms were like this?" Richards asked as he helped Bremerton to his feet.
"Would be my guess." Bremerton picked up his blaster and inspected it for damage. Other than being covered with a fine layer of blood, it was in working shape.
The remaining marines backed into the room, spraying laser fire to either side of the hallway as they did. Richards moved swiftly to the doorway, careful to not jump in the way of the marines. Stopping off to the side, he attached the cord of his tablet into the wall terminal and began the process of shutting the door. Without the advanced encryption it took him a few seconds to pull off. No sooner than the last marine backed into the room, the door slid shut with an audible click.
Once the door shut, Richards then entered a few commands onto his tablet. The first command uploaded a new set of encryption codes that should buy them a few minutes while the aliens broke the encryption. The second was a program that would make the simple act of opening the doors much more difficult by requiring a secondary password to open.
"What do we do now?" Adams asked as he leaned against the wall. "Just a matter of time until they figure out what room we went into."
Bremerton nodded. "I hope you have a plan on getting us out?"
"Getting out will be easy. Question is whether or not you want us to."
"What do you mean?" Jacobs asked. "There isn't another way out of here?"
"Not unless we got lucky and ended up in either the CO's or XO's room. Most rooms aren't equipped with emergency escape hatches," Richards said as he worked his terminal.
Everyone's eyes shot to Bremerton, who shrugged in response. That was a classified piece of information they never told anyone outside of the command staff back at fleet. The rooms were designed that way as to give the command staff an alternate escape in case of catastrophic damage to their floor. It never crossed his mind that the rest of the crew might not feel the same way he did. But unless they talked the admiralty into designing every room this way, there wasn't much more he could do.
"I think it's safe to assume we didn't," Bremerton said. "Doubt they'd want to drag this many people here otherwise." Back on the Endeavor, the command staff quarters were located closer to the bridge and away from the general populace. The hallway was also protected by terminal that could only be accessed by a fingerprint scan, to keep unwanted visitors away from those rooms. Considering they hadn't passed any doorways like that, this couldn't be it.
Richards stepped around the piled up bodies, careful to not step on an outstretched limb as he passed. He worked his way back to the room's primary terminal off to the side and pressed some buttons. Adams shoot him a confused glance as he did.
"Thought you couldn't access anything," Adams said.
"Earlier, yes. But now that I know the encryption, I might be able to get into the system to find Vice President Landry's room."
"You sure that'll do any good now?" Bremerton asked. "Considering the situation?"
"No," Richards admitted. "But it will at least give us a better idea where to look, saying we get out of this mess."
"Well, it's better than nothing I suppose." Bremerton took a knee behind the piles of bodies and leveled his blaster at the door. The two remaining marines did the same.
"What the hell were those things out there anyways?" one marine said.
"Mythrar if I had to guess. What else could be out here that wants us dead?"
"Those weren't the Mythrar. The fact that none of us were mind controlled told us that." He didn't have to mention how most of the bodies wouldn't have been here if that were the case. They would've been systematically taken to the various food coolers to help preserve the flesh for later consumption by the members of the staff they were able to control. At least, that is what he'd read from the nearly two-dozen reports from ships that survived the conflict on Earth.
Those parts of the reports, however, he'd been less likely to believe considering all the reports came in second-hand as none of the ships that had actually happened to ever left the system.
"How's the terminal coming along?" Bremerton asked, changing the subject. "Better than the last, I hope."
"Marginally. While the encryption has given me base level access to the system, I still don't have access to confidential information or shipboard systems."
"Meaning?" a marine asked, sounding angry.
"Meaning I'm no further than I was before."
"Great." The marine slammed his fist against the wall. "Guess we get to join these poor bastards once they figure out where we are."
"Relax. Give him time. He'll figure it out," Bremerton said.
"What good will it do if he does? We'll still be stuck in this goddamn room while those things search us out. Not like there are a ton of rooms for them to search."
"We have a defensive posture. In order for them to take us, they have to come inside. So I advise you to keep your damn weapon trained on the door and shoot whatever the hell opens it. Do I make myself clear?"
"Crystal," he said with a glare, before returning his gaze back to the door.
"Think I got something," Richards interrupted. "The door encryption was slightly different, so I tweaked the code little by little. While I still don't have access to critical systems, I did come across the passenger manifest. Looks like our target is on the fifth floor."
"Let me guess. In the command crew hallway."
"Precisely," Richards said, grinning. "And I've got the access codes to the hallway. All we have to do is reach the floor and we're game."
"What makes you think he is still in his room?" Jacobs said skeptically.
"Where else would he be?" Richards countered. "If I was in his position, I wouldn't leave my room."
"Jacobs has a point," Bremerton said. "If the aliens knew he was on the ship there is a good chance they tried to reach them first. Considering they put a high-level encryption on the ship's systems, it's safe to assume they cracked the ship's codes. That means it is just as likely they already got to him."
"So you're saying we wasted our time, and the lives of four good men." Richards sighed, allowing his shoulders to sag as he took in the news.
"Not at all. I'm saying we no longer need to worry about where he is. I'd be willing to bet we can find him on the auxiliary bridge," Bremerton said, smiling. "Can you tell us where it is located on this ship?"
"Sixth floor," Richards said, beaming. "Looks like the command quarters access codes should also work to get inside."
"Sounds like a plan. Now all we need to do is get out of here alive."
"Easier said than done," the marine countered.
Before Bremerton say another word, the doors to the room slid open, revealing two of the ugliest things Bremerton had ever seen in his life. Both of the aliens were holding things that looked similar to the blaster he had in his hand. He decided he didn't want to find out what they could do, so he pulled the trigger of his weapon sending a burst of energy into the things.
Chapter Forty
Atroxxin Sector
Bridge, NECS Endeavor
"Shuttles two and three landed on the lower fighter deck as planned. Shuttle one diverted to one of the upper decks," Ritter said, letting out the breath she didn't know she was holding in.
"Good work, Midshipman. Patch me through to Walker," Wellard said watching the fighter battle play out on the viewscreen. The battle was going rather well. Without the advantage of having a live pilot to adjust to the battle, the drones were going down in droves. By his estimation it would only be another five or ten minutes until there wasn't a single X-82 fighter left to fight.
Endeavor (The Mythrar War Book 1) Page 13
