by Brown, Ryk
“I don’t suppose your interceptor has auto-flight and terrain following sensors,” Nathan stated.
Tug shook his head. “It is designed for deep space patrol and intercepts, not for skimming along the surface of a planet.” Tug’s expression changed as an idea hit him. “There is one person who might be able to do it.”
Nathan looked at Tug. “I know just who you mean. Start working up a mission plan. I’ll break the news to him.”
“The flight will require a crew of two,” Tug reminded him.
“Then I’ll talk to both of them,” Nathan corrected himself. “Meanwhile, you guys get busy. We need to make this happen as soon as possible.”
* * *
“You want us to what?” Loki asked.
Nathan was a bit surprised by Loki’s response. He had expected some reluctance, but not this much. “It sounds a lot more dangerous than it really is,” Nathan assured him, leaning forward on his desk.
“You have ridden with Josh before, right?” Loki asked. “That alone is dangerous enough.”
“Tug believes Josh can handle it,” Nathan stated.
“It’s not like we haven’t flown that low before, Loki,” Josh insisted.
“That was in a harvester, Josh. It’s a bit slower than an interceptor.”
“No worries,” Josh assured him. “I’ve got that bird dialed in.”
“Don’t forget; they’ll be shooting at us this time,” Loki reminded him.
“They were shooting at us last time.”
“Those were snipers, Josh, not anti-aircraft plasma cannons. The slightest updraft could cause us to pop up into their line of fire. They’d smoke us with a single shot.”
“Not gonna happen, Loki,” Josh insisted. “That ship may not have auto-flight like the newer ships, but it can hold a course true as can be with no effort at all. We’ll be fine.”
“Look,” Nathan interrupted, “I’m not going to order you to do this. I can get someone else to ride second seat.”
“I’d really rather have Loki sitting behind me, sir,” Josh insisted. “Can’t you just order him to go?”
“No, I can’t, Josh. Not this time. Not for something like this.”
“I thought you said it wasn’t as dangerous as it sounds,” Loki said.
“I may have understated the risk a bit,” Nathan admitted.
“Come on, Loki,” Josh cajoled. “It’ll be fun.”
“You’ve always had a really strange idea of what fun is,” Loki commented.
“Jumping in only eight meters off the deck, skimming the weeds at half the speed of sound and then launching a weapon before jumping out again… how is that not fun?”
Nathan smiled, laughing to himself. Josh did tend to have a twisted sense of adventure at times. He often wondered how the little guy had survived to reach adulthood. “I’ll get someone else to ride shotgun,” Nathan decided.
“Oh, come on, Loki,” Josh pleaded.
“I never said I wouldn’t do it,” Loki reminded them both. “I don’t like it, but I will do it.”
“Thattaboy, Loki!” Josh exclaimed, slapping him on the back so hard it caused Loki to take a step forward.
“What choice did I have?” Loki said. “Without me there, you’d probably jump into the middle of a tavern or something.”
“Thank you, Loki,” Nathan stated. “Now I suggest the two of you get some chow and then head for flight ops. You’re going to need to fly some practice runs across the surface of Corinair to prepare for your mission.”
“How soon is this mission taking place?” Loki wondered.
“I suggest you eat fast,” Nathan told him.
“All right then,” Josh stated, “let’s go get something to eat.” The two of them began to exit the ready room. “Hey, do we get to order something special, like our last meal or something?”
Loki did not look amused. “Very funny, Josh. Very funny.”
Nathan tapped his comm-panel on his desk. “CAG, Captain.”
A moment later Major Prechitt answered. “This is the CAG. Go ahead, sir.”
“Get Tug’s interceptor ready for launch. And pick out some terrain on Corinair that resembles that around the airfield on Ancot to use as a warm up. Your flight crew will be there in about thirty minutes.”
“Yes, sir.”
Nathan leaned back in his chair. Every shot he had fired until now had been in defense of his ship or his allies. Even though he had fired first in the previous battle, it had still been in the defense of the Darvano system that had just declared its freedom from the Ta’Akar Empire. Now, he would not be acting defensively. He was going on the offensive. He was going to start a war. What surprised him most was that it seemed too easy a thing for him to do.
* * *
“Commander,” Nathan said.
Cameron nodded and pulled out a small drawer in the table to access controls for the command briefing room’s tabletop holographic display system. The room darkened slightly as a holographic representation of a binary star system appeared in the air above the table. Commander Taylor began describing the details of the image, pointing to its components as she discussed them. “This is Mellabore, a binary star system that is analogous to the Alpha Centauri system back in the core. Its two stars are Savoy, a G-type primary similar to Sol, and Darvano which, while also a G-type star, is a bit smaller.” Cameron manipulated the controls for the display, causing the image to zoom in on the primary star and forcing its secondary, Darvano, to slide out of the image. “Savoy has four rocky inner worlds and one massive gas-giant, Deikon. The fourth world, Ancot, is its only inhabited world.”
“As most of you know,” Nathan began, “the Karuzari intelligence cell on Savoy has informed us that the garrison and the nearby airfield are understaffed and not well defended.”
“Why is that?” Lieutenant Waddell asked.
“The successes achieved by the Karuzari over the last decade have caused a significant strain on the empire’s resources,” Tug explained with obvious pride. “Savoy has always been the most willing member of the empire, as the Takarans purchase the majority of their food from Savoy farms. It is one of the few worlds that has flourished under imperial rule.”
“Intelligence also reports that there are large caches of energy weapons, power packs, and other munitions stored at the garrison,” Nathan continued. “In addition, the airfield has approximately fifty interceptors, most configured for space intercepts and half of which are in storage and are not capable of immediate response.”
“Sir,” Lieutenant Waddell interrupted, “while I’m sure that those additional fighters would be most helpful, we have more than enough weapons to arm our own forces.”
“Perhaps,” Nathan agreed, “but doesn’t the empire restrict the effectiveness of your weaponry to some extent in order to ensure their own superiority?”
“That is correct,” Lieutenant Waddell admitted. “However, that is exactly why the Corinari train so hard. We believe that a well trained, well practiced soldier, even when armed with inferior weaponry, can still prevail. A point which I believe we demonstrated during the boarding of the Loranoi.”
The statement, although logical, struck Nathan as somewhat ironic, as his ship and her small crew were the exact opposite of the Corinari. Their ability to survive so far had been largely due to their jump drive. On the other hand, the rest of their weaponry was inferior to that of the Ta’Akar—perhaps even more so than that of the Corinari.
“Just imagine what your men could do with weapons of equal strength,” Jessica pointed out.
“The thought has crossed my mind,” the lieutenant assured her. “I’m just not sure the capture of such weapons is worth the risk at this time.”
“I would be inclined to agree with you, Lieutenant,” Nathan said, “if this were to be solely a surface engagement. However, those fighters, as well as whatever ordnance that goes along with them, will be of considerable use in either a space battle or in support of a surface e
ngagement. Therefore, I consider it to be worth the risk. And that requires going after both targets.”
“Assuming we are successful, do we even have the pilots?” the lieutenant asked.
“Of our original twenty-four deep space interceptors, sixteen of them are currently operational,” Major Prechitt explained. “Four were lost in battle, and four more are down for repairs. We also have at least thirty interceptors configured for orbital and atmospheric missions coming up from the surface as pilots report in. So far, we only have four pilots without spacecraft to fly, but we are hoping that more pilots will check in over the next few hours as the call to report continues to spread.”
“So we may end up with ships without pilots?” Lieutenant Waddell said.
“Maybe,” Nathan admitted, “but it’s better to have the extra ships, especially ones that are configured for deep space combat missions.”
“Indeed, sir,” Major Prechitt agreed.
“We are doing this, people,” Nathan reminded everyone, although his statement was aimed at Lieutenant Waddell more than any of the others in the briefing room. Had he been one of his original crew, he might have dressed the lieutenant down a bit. However, as he was a member of the Corinari, he would leave that decision to Major Prechitt, who was currently in command of all Corinari forces both on the Aurora and on the surface of Corinair. Nathan gestured to Commander Taylor to continue her presentation.
“The plan is to launch a simultaneous assault on five separate targets,” Cameron explained. “The first target is the comm-drone platform out here, just beyond the orbit of Deikon. Mister Tugwell and Mister Dumar will perform an EVA and sabotage the platform to prevent any outgoing communications to Ta’Akar command.
“Meanwhile, the Aurora will jump into high orbit over Ancot and take out her network of comm-sats. This will not only help prevent outgoing communications, but will also greatly hamper their communications on and above Ancot itself.” Cameron again played with the holographic display controls, causing the display to zoom in on the planet Ancot. The effect was much like falling rapidly from space, stopping only three hundred meters above the surface. In front of them now was an aerial view of the Ancot garrison, the airfield, and the power station situated between them.
“The second target is the primary power station that serves both the airfield and the garrison. Josh and Loki will jump into the atmosphere of Ancot as close to the surface as possible, dropping down to only a few meters above the surface in order to stay under the firing lines of the anti-aircraft plasma cannons that defend the power station and the airfield. They will launch a pair of cruise missiles at the power station, then turn toward the airfield and launch their remaining missiles at the airfield itself, targeting the roll-out tarmac in front of the ready hangars. If we are lucky, this may prevent some, if not all, of their fighters from launching while keeping them intact for our use once the airfield is under our control.”
“The Ta’Akar are not known for allowing equipment to fall into the hands of an attacking force,” Lieutenant Waddell pointed out.
“True,” Tug agreed, “but if we are aggressive enough and swift enough, we may catch them off guard.”
“The third target is the civilian power plant that serves as the backup for both facilities,” Cameron continued. “This will be the responsibility of the Karuzari operatives on Ancot. Word has it that this facility is also poorly guarded, as it is a civilian facility. The fourth and fifth targets are, of course, the airfield and the garrison themselves. Moments after the power has been taken out for both facilities, pairs of jump shuttles will jump into the atmosphere above, dropping assault teams to charge the targets.”
“You can only cram about twenty or so troops into a shuttle,” Lieutenant Waddell said with a frown. “Forty or fifty guys is a rather small force with which to attack an installation.”
“Once the first wave has been delivered, the shuttles will jump back to a nearby rendezvous point to meet with the Aurora and reload a second wave of troops,” Cameron stated.
“How long will that take?”
“Approximately twenty minutes,” Cameron told the lieutenant. “The shuttles will continue to ferry troops as needed until the mission is complete.”
“That’s a long time to wait for reinforcements when you’re in a firefight,” Lieutenant Waddell commented.
“We could cut that time in half if we ran the op with a closed bay,” Cameron told Nathan.
“Close it up then,” Nathan agreed.
“Captain, we just started getting used to running flight ops with the deck open,” Major Prechitt objected.
“Can’t be helped, Major,” Nathan told him. “As I see it, this operation is primarily a ground operation. We need to configure ourselves to best support the ground assault. If they fail to succeed, the mission itself fails.”
“Yes, sir,” Major Prechitt said.
“Thank you, Captain,” Lieutenant Waddell said.
“We should be able to jump the shuttles down and up,” Nathan suggested. “With a little practice, we might be able to cut that time down even further.”
“My men would appreciate that, sir,” the lieutenant stated.
“Some fighters will undoubtedly get off the ground,” Major Prechitt warned.
“Of course,” Cameron agreed. “This is one of the reasons that the comm-sats were included in the target list. With their monitoring systems down, we will be able to surprise them with a wave of our own fighters. After delivering their payloads, Josh and Loki will make a run for orbit, drawing the Takaran interceptors away from the surface.”
“Assuming all of this works, how are we going to hold the targets long enough to haul away their resources?” Jessica wondered. “If the people of Ancot have such a lucrative relationship with the empire, they may not like what we’re doing.”
“Give me a few hundred men, and at least four Kalibri gunships, and we’ll hold them for as long as you need, sir,” Lieutenant Waddell stated confidently.
Nathan noticed that it was the first time that the lieutenant had shown any confidence in the mission. “How are we going to get the gunships to the surface?” Lieutenant Waddell asked.
“They are designed to be collapsed to fit inside large cargo shuttles,” Major Prechitt stated. “They fit two to a shuttle.”
“Those shuttles don’t fit in our hangar deck,” Nathan pointed out.
“No, but they do fit on our flight apron,” Cameron told him. “They could be waiting in orbit over Corinair. We could land them on our deck and then jump them to orbit over Ancot in less than an hour.”
“Captain, this entire plan seems to hinge on one thing:” Jessica observed, “the assumption that we can jump into the atmosphere and do so at extremely low altitudes. Can that even be done?”
“We’re working on that right now,” Nathan assured her.
* * *
Loki had checked, double-checked, and triple-checked his jump plot calculations. Every time he ran them, he got the exact same plots. He even had Abby run them just as many times back on the Aurora. Not only was she getting the same plots, she was also getting tired of running the same plot over and over.
“The numbers are perfect, Loki,” Abby’s voice promised over the comms.
“You’re sure you’ve compensated for the planet’s gravity?” Loki asked yet again.
“Gravity, magnetic field variances, wind speed, direction, and weather conditions at the jump target, even temperature and humidity.”
“And there’s no traffic in the arrival zone?”
“There’s no air traffic in the atmosphere of Corinair within one thousand kilometers of the arrival zone,” Abby promised. “Major Prechitt’s fighters are keeping an eye on the area, just to be safe.”
“We’re only jumping a few thousand kilometers, Loki,” Josh teased. “Can we jump already?”
“We’re jumping into the atmosphere of a planet, Josh,” Loki defended. “No one has ever done this before. So
if you don’t mind, I’d like to be sure everything is perfect.”
“Everything is perfect,” Josh insisted. “Except my navigator has the heebie jeebies.”
“The what?”
“The heebie jeebies,” Josh repeated.
“What the hell are the heebie jeebies?” Loki wondered.
“I’m not sure,” Josh admitted. “I heard Lieutenant Commander Nash say it. I think it means you’re nervous, or you feel like something bad is about to happen.”
“In that case, yes, I have the heebie jeebies,” Loki admitted. He took a deep breath, checking his instrumentation once again. Everything seemed to be in order.
“Loki?” Josh pleaded.
“All right, all right,” Loki said, adjusting himself in his seat and tightening his harness. “Let’s do it.”
“Woo-hoo!” Josh cheered.
“Let me guess; Lieutenant Commander Taylor again?”
“Coming to jump course. Reducing speed to plot specifications.”
“Falcon one, Talon two-one,” the chase pilot’s voice reminded him over the comms. “Remember, you will be jumping into the atmosphere, so you will suddenly go from no drag on your airframe to a lot of drag. You are going to get shaken up pretty bad. If the calculations are off even in the slightest, the forces could crack your airframe and split you in half. If that happens, or you lose control of the aircraft and cannot jump back into space, do not wait to eject. Understood?”
“You bet,” Josh answered over the comms. He switched off his transmitter so that no one but Loki could hear him. “No way I’m ejecting.”
“Do what you want,” Loki insisted, “but if this ship breaks in two, I’m punching out with or without you.”
“Just don’t forget to start the turbines as soon as we finish the jump and there’s air for them to breath,” Josh told him.
“I know my job,” Loki protested. “Just don’t crash us into a mountain or something.”
“At twenty thousand meters?”
“Assuming twenty thousand meters is where we end up,” Loki muttered.
