“It keeps getting better” said Dave. “How much oxy have your guys in the hangar got?”
“Probably another six hours or so.”
“So we can’t wait for the Rio?”
Mick shook his head. “I was thinking that if we send your warthog down with another pilot, we can have all three transports plus a warthog. That means we can hit them with another 60 troops. If the Rio arrives during the operation we use her warthogs and marines as a reserve.”
“What do you think Chase?”
“Makes sense Sir” said Chase. “But we’re going to need another breach. Your Chief…?”
“Faruk. Emil Faruk.”
“Yeah well he said they were sealed in tight and they have no charges with them to blow an entrance. That’s right isn’t it.”
“Yep they all went down with the first two craft.”
Chase rolled his eyes. He couldn’t believe they had not dispersed them amongst all the craft. “So they are pretty useless unless we can either transfer them to another breach or supply them with charges.”
Mick nodded and added “We’ll need to get charges down to the transports below too.”
“Let’s assume we have all three transports plus the warthog” said Dave. “We use three of the craft to breach elsewhere and the fourth one to reinforce the hangar troops. I don’t suppose we have a schematic of this rogan ship?”
“No” said Mick “but Evie might.”
“Good thinking. Chase I want you to go down with Whisky 1 chock full of charges, oxy and another two pilots, consult with this Evie and get as much info as you can on that ship. I’ll let you call the shots on where to breach and you will lead the assault. I’ll stay put here. We’ve lost enough senior officers already.”
Mick nodded his approval. “I’ll get a team of marines and the gear ready asap.”
Chapter 34. Whisky 1 over Fulmar 1100, 5 February
Chase busied himself checking the pulse rifle he was handed as he entered the craft. The webbing he picked up needed adjustment. He’d do that once on the ground. He could hear Parinya talking to the guy on the comms station down below.
The marines now sitting with him in the back looked the goods. ‘Let’s just hope they know their stuff’ he said to himself. The pilot was Cpl Jane Weston. She looked nervous. She was obviously a backup one. ‘She will have to earn her wages today’ he thought.
“Ten minutes” hailed Parinya.
Chase took a deep breath and tuned out of his surroundings. This would be his first boarding operation. He forced his mind to focus on his training, the need to secure a clean breach, fight compartment by compartment, deck by deck. Don’t leave any space unchecked, use the probes before entering a space and above all don’t take unnecessary risks. With such a big ship it was going to take a long time. It would be stressful work, so rotate the teams.
“Two minutes. Suit up” came the instructions from Parinya.
As the craft slowed he recalled Dave’s advice to him about leaning on Parinya for the docking and breaching phase and on the need to get this operation underway quickly.
Chapter 35. Chicago over Fulmar 1105, 5 February
“Aubrey” hailed Dave “I’m going to stay here and coordinate operations. Chase is taking Whisky 1 down to Soln. He’ll be linking up with three rogan transport craft and will lead a boarding op against that rogan cap.”
“Right Sir.”
“Advise Emilio to have his marines ready to backup if needed.”
“Got it.”
Chapter 36. Soln 1140, 5 February
The meeting was over. It had been of necessity short. Now Chase was sitting inside one of the rogan transports. Jelka was loading gear with his troopers in the back. Chase was with Art, Val, Parinya, Jane and Evie in the front of the craft.
Chase was struck by Evie’s appearance. It was not what he had expected. He could only see her face in her helmet but it was ‘so human’. She was pulling up a schema on a portable console now laid out on a small flat space between the two pilot positions. It was cramped.
“Here” said Evie.
“What about defensive weapons?” asked Chase.
“Beam weapons here, here and here. But most likely destroyed.”
“Most likely does not mean definitely. If any one of those is working we’ll be toast. If they have been destroyed, then there might not be any structure to breach. Do we have an alternative?”
“Yes but there are even more beam weapon systems covering other locations.”
“Just give us two alternatives and we’ll have to wing it once we are close enough to assess.”
“You sound nervous Chase.”
“I am nervous. Only a fool wouldn’t be” said a defensive Chase. He deflected the attention with a question. “So none of these transports have cloaking?”
“I am aware of how your craft can remain undetected for periods of time. A very useful capability. Rogan craft do not have this.”
“OK we’ll form up in an assembly area here, escorted by the Hermes. The Hermes will launch a probe to make a scanning pass of the rogan cap. Hopefully by the time we get to the assembly area we’ll have the results. I’ll decide on the point of entry and Whisky 1 plus… let’s call these rogan transports Romeo 1, 2 and 3. Anyway Whisky 1, and Romeo 1 and 2 will make the breach. Romeo 3 will reinforce the hangar.”
“Parinya you’ll make the breach in Whisky 1. Jane and Evie you will be in Romeo 1 and 2 and support the breach. Art you will be in Romeo 3 reinforcing the hangar. I will be on Whisky 1 and lead the boarding group, call sign Bravo 1. Val you will be in Romeo 3 and take charge in the hangar. Your group will then become call sign Bravo 2.”
Chase looked at the time on his visor. It was 1150. “We have to go. Any critical questions?”
“What if they jam us like they did this morning?” asked Val.
“Just keep working your way forward and up and we’ll work back and up. We should make contact here or here.”
Chase looked impatiently at the others. No one asked anything more. “OK Evie you have 20 minutes to brief Jane on the controls? We leave at 1230.”
Chase went outside with Val where he briefed his marine team leaders, people he had not even met let alone worked with before. Seasoned marines eyed the new subaltern with a degree of wariness. All sergeants knew to be wary of one pippers.
After what was a very brief orders group he asked for questions. Sgt Kent Lavash, looked him in the eye and asked “With all due respect Sir, is this your first boarding op?”
Chase scanned slowly the other wary eyes all focussed on him. “Yes it is Sergeant” he said and paused noting the expressions on the faces of the marines who had just heard what they didn’t want to hear. Chase then added with all the surety he could muster “but I led the first wave of marines on Alpha Phi.”
Lavash looked genuinely surprised, recovered and then said, in a strong voice that would brook no dispute, “Good enough for me Sir.”
Chase let his team leaders give their orders to their troops. He checked up on the gear. Everything was in hand. He stood next to Whisky 1 and adjusted his webbing. He saw Art and Sue hugging each other. A pang of loneliness came over him. He envied Art, having someone he loved with him at this time.
He checked the time. It was 1220. “OK folks mount up.”
Chapter 37. Whisky 1 over Fulmar 1250, 5 February
Whisky 1 was with the other three transports in the assembly area, escorted by the Hermes. Chase was strumming his fingers on his console waiting impatiently for the scan results.
“Finally” he called out. Jelka and Parinya were looking at the same scans on their consoles. “Ooh boy did they get hit or what.”
“Scratch breach site2” said Parinya. “The entire structure around it has been blown away.”
“Same for site 3” said Jelka.
“It’s amazing it hasn’t broken up” said Chase. “Oh look there’s site 1 untouched. That’s it then. We breach there.”
<
br /> Jelka was trying to line up the vid with the schematics. He leaned over and pointed to a spot on the image in front of Chase. “Beam pod. Looks undamaged. Same here. Can’t see other one.”
“Parinya you’ll go in first, uncloak here just within range of your cannon. Rake these beam pods and then close with the hull and breach.”
“OK sounds good to me Sir.”
Jelka nodded.
Chase entered planning mode on his console. He entered his commander’s intention – board and secure the enemy. He selected his four transports and issued a Move task to what would be the forming up place (FUP) for their boarding op. It was outside the known range of the enemy beam weapons. From here the force would split into two groups.
He selected Whisky1, Romeo 1 and Romeo 2 as his first group and created a Move task for them by dragging to the specific location at site 1 on the rogan cap. He specified an avoidance route with a high caution factor. The AI calculated the best route. It showed a cone of safety around the path. He noted how narrow it became the closer they got to the objective location. There would be precious little room to manoeuvre without risking destruction from the enemy beam weapons even assuming that Whisky 1 takes out the nearest pods. He thought about manually adjusting it but time was of the essence. It was good enough. He created sequential breach and board tasks for the force.
He then selected Romeo 3 and issued it a Move task to the enemy hangar. He then added to this force the marine detachment in the hangar and issued breach and board tasks for the combined force. He checked the timings that had been automatically scheduled by the AI. They looked fine. He added some commander notes to the Move tasks warning all pilots to stay within the safety cone of the designated paths.
Ideally he would have then wargamed this out but there was no time for that. He hit commit and the draft plan became an order and was transmitted to each of the craft in the force group and the Marine detachment in the hangar. There would be a bit of a delay before the Marines in the hangar got theirs but that shouldn’t matter.
HHour was 1315. It ticked over and Art hailed his fellow pilots to commence. They headed off in a column formation to the FUP. The three uncloaked rogan transports were followed by a cloaked Whisky 1.
Chase looked at the troops around him. Jelka and the two sleth troopers looked fine but Chase wasn’t that familiar with the sleth. Cpl Jim Teller and his seven marines looked tired but focussed. This would be their second assault in 12 hours. It was a bit of an ask but the adrenalin was starting to cut in.
They arrived at the FUP earlier than scheduled and without incident.
Parinya turned to Chase. He nodded and selected the control to crib all the plan timings.
“Suit up folks” said Parinya “we’re going in. ETA in 5. Jim, have the charges ready.” She checked to ensure that active cloaking was still functioning. “Alain, be ready to let loose on my command.”
“I love it when you talk dirty boss” said Alain. That bought a chuckle from the troops but it was soon forgot as they each focussed on putting their helmets on, ensuring their webbing was tight and performing their last minute check of their weapons.
Jim was up now inspecting each of his team. Once he confirmed all helmets were locked on, he made his way to the hatch where Tpr Ross Mullins was already getting the charges ready.
Jelka craned his big neck to see the charges being prepared. He would have intervened if needed, but it wasn’t. He glanced forward to Chase and nodded.
Chase craned his head forward over Parinya’s shoulder. He could see the black space ahead. A light, a small light in the distance was growing bigger. It wasn’t an active light. It was passively reflecting the sunlight that bathed all objects in this space at this time.
Parinya, whose natural tendency was to fly manually was slavishly refraining from doing so. But she was tracking with intense focus the path the Autopilot was following.
“Two minutes” she hailed.
The light grew bigger. At one minute out they were about 300 kms from their destination. She watched the counter ticking down on her display, glancing up to get a view out her cockpit window. The craft was now slowing rapidly. But even so, in the last ten seconds the image in front made itself manifest like a flower but blossoming in accelerated time – voila! - the enemy cap was there.
They were five kms out, no response. Parinya checked the display and zoomed in using the camera. She identified the breach site and the first of the beam pods. She overlaid the schematics and synced them to the view with these two reference points. She searched for the second and third pods. She found the second one but where the third on was supposed to be there was a dark hole.
“We’ve got two only Alain. See them?”
The two targets were synced to his heads up display. His turret had not been raised yet but he was able to set the two aim points into his gun control. He did so. “Got ‘em locked.”
She turned to Chase for the go ahead. He nodded and cribbed the plan timings on his console.
“De-cloaking. Let her rip Alain” ordered Parinya.
His turret was up in less than 5 seconds. With two bursts of 30mm pulse cannon fire both pods were destroyed. But the enemy ship came to life. A searchlight lit them up almost immediately. A beam weapon fired from a pod further back and with no angle to intercept. It was shut down as soon as it proved ineffective.
Parinya was already closing with the hull. “Brace for docking.” She lined up the nose and hit the lateral thruster on the left rear of the craft. This swung the tail into the hull and now the warthog was all but parallel to the enemy cap. She nudged both the front and tail thrusters. The craft banged into the hull of the cap. There were a few more bumps, then some scraping and now she brought the craft to a halt.
She activated the X-ray scanner, confirmed what they thought they knew. Yes there was a hollow space on the other side of this section of hull sufficient to take her cargo. She activated the clamps, sealed the cockpit and turret space and hailed. “Opening hatch.”
Jim watched as Ross went straight to work. He placed the explosive putty in a ring around the hull section, inlaid the daisy cutter detonation chain into the putty. Checked his controller. He had a green light. “Good to go!” he hailed.
He stepped back and Jim hit the manual hatch control. The hatch closed. “Fire in the hole” hailed Ross and he hit his controller. It made a ‘thud, thud, thud, thud’ sound.
Jim looked to his gunner. She nodded but her real focus was on the space ahead as she pointed her quanto gun directly at the hatch. Jim was to the right of the hatch with a probe in his left hand and his right on the hatch control. “Ready” hailed Jim. “Opening hatch.” He hit the hatch control with his right hand and released the probe with his left hand.
But the enemy was waiting. A burst of pulse fire caught his gunner before she had a chance to react. The probe survived and flew straight past the three rogan warriors. Jim hit the control again and the hatch closed but not before the gunner was hit a second time, this time through her helmet. She was dead before her body collapsed to the floor.
“Fuck!” yelled Jim inside his helmet.
Jelka couldn’t hear it. But he did push his way forward. While one of the troopers dragged the gunner’s body to the front of the craft, he ordered the troops to get away from the hatch. Everyone was glad to oblige. He went to the right of the hatch and replaced Jim at the control. Jim shouldered his rifle and picked up the quanto. Jelka physically grabbed him and positioned Jim behind himself to the right of the hatch. He grabbed the barrel and placed it right next to the right jam of the hatch so that Jim could angle his fire through the hatch as it opened. Jim nodded that he was ready.
Jelka withdrew a stun grenade, armed it and held it in his big left hand 30cm above the barrel of Jim’s gun. “Ready?” he hailed.
Ready” hailed Jim.
Jelka hit the control. The door hydraulics forced the hatch open with its usual force and speed. Jim let loose with a bur
st as Jelka pushed the grenade forward and hit the control again. The return fire impacted onto the far wall of the craft but no one was hit and the door closed shut about two seconds before the grenade went off. Jelka hit the control again and this time Jim stepped forward his finger down hard on the trigger as he gunned down the defenders before they could recover from their stunned state. He kicked the body of the one nearest to him to clear the path and then stepped over the two further back to take a position on the right of the compartment facing to the rear of the ship. Another team member went left.
Jelka bent over to clear the hatch and his two troopers followed him. “We’re in” he hailed Chase.
Chase activated the Move task for the rogan transports. “Company’s coming” he hailed back to Jelka.
Jim handed the quanto to one of his riflemen and checked the probe controller. It had already scanned left towards the front of the craft but had found the section forward blocked due to damage. It was returning to the compartment.
Jelka went to the hatch heading to the rear. He attached a listening device to it, detected nothing. From here on it was rinse and repeat till they cleared their way rearwards on this deck.
Chapter 38. Romeo 3 over Fulmar 1335, 5 February
The auto pilot engaged thrusters banked right and powered along on its path to the hangar of the enemy cap. Like Parinya before him, Art’s focus was split between the display and the view out of his cockpit window.
Val on the other hand was focussed on what would happen when they got there. She tried hailing Chief Faruk, but soon concluded that they were being jammed. She wasn’t sure whether this was in response to the breach by Whisky 1 or was part of a rogan attack to clear the hangar.
The craft slowed in the last minute before arrival. Just as Art could make out the details of the enemy cap two pods emitted green laser beams. The first one missed but the second caught the rear of the craft, disabling the right rear thruster. The craft’s trajectory skewed.
Redemption: Book 2 of Warner's World Page 32
