Blazer’s eyes grew in horror as beam turrets on the other frigates lit up after they shot clear of the one that had crippled them.
“Acknit, I want to be able to slipstream out of here as soon as we’re in the clear!” Blazer hollered.
“No shreg, really?” Acknit muttered. The hum of the slipstream drive met Blazer’s feet as Acknit poured power into it and readjusted the alignment. “Slipstream is coming up now, everybody hold on.”
Mikle looked around the ship as it shuddered. “That does not sound good.”
Gavit stroked the throttle to mask his own apprehension. “It’ll be fine. She’ll hold together.” Another groan from the ship’s frame shook even his bones, and he did his best to keep his eyes on his heading. “Come on, you hunk of scrap, hold together,” he muttered.
“We’re almost on it. Damn, energy spike, third frigate,” Acknit called out and a beam cannon blast pierced the darkness.
The beam went wide as Gavit forced the ship down at Acknit’s call. Nevertheless, the beam seared through what remained of the upper graviton deflectors and collapsed them. Even at a distance, the intensity of the energy lance proved enough to melt the now unprotected upper turret.
“We’re close enough, going to slipstream,” Acknit announced as the slipstream drive activated. The dropship’s effective mass shrank to less than any one of them and the drive attuned itself to the distant moon’s gravitational signature, forcing it to ‘fall’ through space towards it, ignoring inertia and every other world.
Blazer stared out the canopy for a moment, breathing a sigh of relief as he watched the universe race past the forward window.
A moment later, Gavit adjusted the attitude of the ship to face their direction of travel. “I hate slipstreaming sideways. We better check how bad things are down below.”
“Don’t bother,” Blazer replied as he undid his harness and floated free of his seat. “This mission is scrubbed. We have injured and the damage to the dropship is too severe, making hyperspace safely will be a challenge in and of itself,” Blazer reported, grabbing the handhold over his head. “Acknit get on the link and find us a ride out of here. We need to vacate the system ASAP.”
“Already working on it,” Acknit reported, frustration evident in his voice.
“And see about plotting us a safe course, too. We’re in no shape for a fight.”
Gokhead stole a look back through the hatch. “How bad are the injuries?”
Blazer checked everyone’s status over his command link. Other than elevated heart rates, most were fine, but a handful of problems were highlighted on several of them. “Rudjick is still out, and it looks like Marda broke her arm when we went to slipstream,” Blazer reported in an almost mechanical tone as he held onto Gokhead’s seat. “It could have been a lot worse.”
“I’ve gotten through,” Acknit reported before Gokhead could ask more. “Damn!” Acknit swore, accessing the local military intraweave, their high sublight making the data seem to trickle in. “The system is under a full blockade. The GF has captured all the jump points. There’s no word on when another taskforce will arrive. Frag me, if that’s not bad enough…”
Blazer shook his head, unsure how much worse the situation could get. “What?”
“The prisoners we were sent to rescue are on the move. Geffers are transporting them out of the system. There’s no way we can get to them now.”
“There is one,” Mikle announced, looking at his display. Everyone turned to look at him. “Are they heading towards the jump point we just came through?”
“The report wasn’t conclusive on that, why?”
Mikle pointed to an indicator on his console, a tiny gravitational anomaly racing towards them from the moon that was their original destination. “I think they’re heading towards us. If we can collapse their slipstream drive here,” he said, pointing to a point on their course where radiation from a local gas giant should mask any communications, “we might be able to board their ship and get them. The timing just works, but it means going to manual control in slipstream.”
Blazer read Gavit’s eyes as he considered the option. It was an unenviable decision. Their craft was crippled and could fail at any point. Their mission looked hopeless now, Mikle’s idea notwithstanding.
“It looks like the slipstream signature of a GalaxyMaster class dropship,” Acknit reported. “Intel said one of those was their transport out.”
“GMs are heavily armed. If they can fight back, we’re done for. No kidding. Now, can we actually do this?” Blazer asked.
Gokhead studied damage reports before replying. “In the shape we’re in, we run the risk of complete structural collapse should we attempt it. Plus, we have no idea what kind of enemy forces we’ll be dealing with onboard.”
Acknit shifted in his seat, the acceleration compensators whining more than usual in response. “I think we can still hold together. I’m pumping all the power we can spare into the acceleration compensators. That should reinforce the superstructure enough to keep us from complete structural collapse. It’ll still be a risk though, especially with our injured.”
Blazer stared at the screens, a wry smile working its way onto his face. “It’s a long shot, but we probably can’t get away in this wreck. If we try this and it works, we might be able to get out the way we came in using their ship, not ours. I’m going to get everyone below ready, we’re going for it,” Blazer announced pushing off toward the descent line at the end of the passageway.
“He’s not serious, is he? Does he think we’re the Explosions?” Gavit asked, none of them having set foot on a GF craft since they’d assisted the Explosions in capturing the GFS Nosferat, an annura earlier.
Moments later, the Blade Force began to pile into the flight deck of the dropship. Blazer assisted Marda up and into one of the emergency shock seats. “Here’s the plan, priority seating. Gavit, I need your most precision piloting here, do you need a copilot?”
Gavit looked over the team as they floated about, Zithe strapping Rudjick into Blazer’s command seat. He looked first at Mikle, then to Chris. “Much as I hate to admit it, Chris, I need you.”
Chris grinned. “You and me teaming up? This should be interesting.”
“Just do what you need to do,” Blazer ordered before turning to Acknit. “I need you to focus all the acceleration compensators onto this compartment, let the rest of the ship go if you have to.”
Acknit nodded and turned to Gokhead. “Can you help me out with that?”
“Already on it,” Gokhead replied, still in the spare crew seat. “Let’s seal up the hatch and make sure we have our mission equipment. Bichard, can you pull out the comm unit for me?”
Bichard nodded and set to work on the panel above Gokhead’s seat.
Blazer turned to the others. “Find a good spot on the floor. Injured only in the shock seats or crew seats.”
Soon everything was as ready as it would get. Along with the rest of the team, Blazer strapped himself down to the deck between crew seats as Gokhead and Acknit pumped as much energy into the acceleration compensators as they could, focusing their energy fields on the cockpit. When the collision alarm sounded, Blazer looked up. The GM was less than a light pulse away and invisible to him. What was visible was the tension in his two pilots. Both Gavit and Chris sat with their eyes caged on their HUDs, controls locked so that Gavit had vertical control and Chris lateral. Neither touched their throttles, leaving that to the computer. If we’re too fast there’s nothing the acceleration comps can do. Too slow and we miss the target.
It all happened so fast, Blazer could hardly believe it. He only sighted the other dropship for an instant, in the distance, before everything just seemed to stop. The sudden deceleration threw Blazer against his straps and his vision began to blur and gray out. Even the acceleration compensators couldn’t completely negate the effects of their sudden stop. Without air, he didn’t hear the shattering of the craft around them, but when he turned around, he sp
otted the telltale collapse of several structural members at the rear of the compartment. “What’s our status?”
“Dead in space,” Acknit replied. “But the contact is right there,” he continued, pointing out the forward viewport, before all onboard power cut out.
Blazer looked forward again and sure enough, there was a GalaxyMaster-IV dropship. The lights on the craft remained on, and from what he could see, the craft was intact. “Gotta hand it to them, they build a tough ship,” Blazer commented, noting that only one of the craft’s four defense turrets had broken loose in the collision. There appeared to be no activity aboard the craft, though, and zooming in with his enhanced optics he spotted a red smear on the bulbous canopy. “Looks like someone wasn’t strapped in.”
Blazer undid his improvised harness and turned towards the team. Marda cradled her injured arm, and Rudjick was beginning to wake up after passing out when their dark energy field burst with the GM’s and they came to a stop. “Let’s move, we have no idea the condition of the enemy.”
“We have to move fast,” Gokhead reported, tapping the side of his helmet. “According to the radio fix I have on the jump buoy, we’re still moving at .1C towards it, that GalaxyMaster was moving a lot faster than us. We almost didn’t make it.”
Blazer didn’t want to think about that. When he opened the hatch back into the main hold, he saw evidence of just how close they’d come to complete destruction. The main hold had crumpled like a crushed can, with many of the lateral structural members now smashed up against one another. Blazer felt a pit in his stomach at the sight, but spotting the breach in the rear fuselage, he pushed off towards it. Reaching the hole, he pulled himself through and looked out. The outrigger pods were gone, not crumpled or messed up, just gone, torn free during the sudden, suicidal deceleration.
Pulling himself out of that hole, Blazer found their remaining armor clinging in a fashion that reminded him of fish scales, each set lying partially atop the next. But he couldn’t allow himself to focus on that. Bringing up his magnetic grapple, he fired it at the enemy ship as it hung there, lifeless. The line struck home, clinging to the dorsal surface of the circular-faced rectangular craft, its sides tapering towards the midline. After affixing his end of the line to the buckled armored skin of their craft, Blazer snapped his ascent crawler to the line and allowed it to haul him across while Gokhead and Zithe followed suit behind him.
Blazer’s boots thumped through his suit as he landed against the surface of the GF dropship and motioned Gokhead ahead to the circular hatch. Hacking module in hand, Gokhead leapt clear of the line and jacked into the simple controls. He cracked the six-digit pin code locking it. The hatch irised open and the outward rush of air proved enough to push the ships apart and remove the limited slack in the line linking the two craft.
Gokhead slid into the cylindrical airlock, Blazer and Zithe hot on his heels. As they entered the small airlock, made even more cramped by the bulk of their ACHES, Gokhead sealed the outer hatch and set to work on the interior panel. Blazer signaled their readiness, and Gokhead cycled the inner airlock.
Zithe pushed off the outer hatch to propel himself into the bay. Rifle at the ready, Zithe swept the bay to find only dead or unconscious guards floating about in null gravity. Twisting about, Zithe landed against the main deck with a soft thud. After scanning all around once more, he signaled for Blazer and Gokhead to follow him.
Trusting in his point man, Blazer pushed off towards the deck, Gokhead right behind him. The iris hatch snapped shut behind them with a metallic hiss. They landed on either side of the young Lycan and took up position, their weapons facing outwards as they circled the lower airlock hatch.
The prisoners are in shock seats; good, they should have survived the drop.
The upper hatch opened a moment later to reveal Chris, Marda, and Rudjick. A quick hand signal from Blazer sent them scrambling from the hatch and pushing off towards the prisoners. Blazer looked up for a moment as they drifted overhead, Rudjick still groggy and shaking his head to regain his senses. Marda floated beside him, her armored forearm hanging in a splint. Chris carried Marda’s medical kit as she flew past.
With another hiss of compressed air, the hatch cycled open again. This time Gavit, Mikle, and Acknit launched themselves out, coming to a landing inside the protective circle set up by the first fire team. They took a moment to get their bearings before vaulting towards the cockpit. The airlock cycled one more time, and Bichard skittered in with their communications unit strapped to his back, Arion and Matt trailing him as he crawled across the ceiling.
With the last members of his team aboard, Blazer set them to securing the ship. Gavit made short work of the cockpit and, after releasing the pilot from his restraints, he sent him and the bloodied co-pilot floating back into the bay. “Get those suits sealed up on the prisoners, and put the dead over on one of those big side hatches. Gokhead, what happened here?”
“Different safety system protocols. Their emergency reversion focused on maintaining the ship’s structural integrity but allowed g-loads inside to reach levels where anyone outside of a seat with additional acceleration compensators had to reach blackout levels.”
Blazer nodded and looked at the dead flight crew. One had his skull caved in. He really should have strapped in. The other pilot’s face was a mess, a massive gash running across it. Either his harness had failed, or he didn’t have it on properly, so he’d gone face first into his console.
Blazer turned to Arion and Bichard as they finished cutting cargo netting from between the two side hatches. Good, they have that in hand. Satisfied, he pushed off towards Marda, where prisoners in their shock seats were stirring as her team assisted them into emergency vacuum suits. We can’t waste any time. The longer we delay, the more suspicious the Geffers will get.
Marda placed a helmet on the last officer’s head and stole a look back at the enemy prisoners. “How many dead?”
“Most of them,” Blazer replied, with no more regard than he would about counting bolts. “The others are badly injured, but they should live,” he continued, watching Arion and Bichard gather the last two dead bodies into the nets. “How about our objectives here?”
“Banged up, but alive. It’s a good thing they were in shock seats. Even with that, we still have some injuries and blackouts.”
“Okay, then. Arion, decompress us and take them over to our ship. We’re in no condition to be holding prisoners.”
A look just shy of outrage in her eyes, Marda made to protest, but a twinge in her arm silenced her dispute before she could voice it.
“On it,” Arion replied and sent Gokhead to the door control panel.
Blazer flitted over to the cockpit. Landing at the rear of the two-crewmember space, he grabbed a handhold. For a brief moment the sound of air escaping the ship slithered past his helmet. Steadying himself, he turned to find one of the massive side doors opening, Arion and his team ready to depart with their charges. Nodding, he turned back to the flight crew, Acknit elbow-deep in a wall panel as he sorted through the cables within, the communications set from their dropship sitting on the deck beside him.
Gavit pointed to Arion and the others as they fired their magnetic grapples at their old dropship, the GF crew wrapped up in cargo netting they’d stripped out from between the doors.
A hect later, the captured dropship reverted to its pulse drive only a few kilometra from where t
he Blade Force had escaped into slipstream earlier. Surrounded by the same task force as before, Gavit guided the MG towards the jump point. Sitting in a jump seat behind Gavit, Blazer’s pulse raced. Any cent now, they could realize who we really are and reduce us to floating atoms. The sound of the communications system registering a hail sent him jumping out of his skin as the communications officer of one of the frigates called them. “Attention dropship, identify yourself!”
Gavit nodded to Mikle before activating the link to return their hail.
“This is dropship Delta Sierra One Six Eight Delta, prisoner transport to Sirius,” Mikle called back reading off the script they had prepared en route, his mastery of GF phraseology better than the rest.
“Confirmed, Six Eight Delta. We expected you almost an hour ago, what happened?”
“Some damn Confed dropship played chicken with us,” Mikle replied. “We were forced to make an emergency drop.”
“What happened to the enemy ship?”
“They broke up after the dump. They even called to us for help, looked like someone beat them up pretty good.”
“That was us,” the controller replied, a note of pride in his voice. “You should have seen the rest of the task force that came with them. They did manage to cripple the Dixon.”
Blazer grimaced at the lie but waved a hand at Mikle to continue and keep his cool. “Must have been one hell of a fight, are we cleared to proceed?”
“Affirmative, did you take any injuries during the dump?” the controller asked a moment later.
“Minor, a couple of jarheads got slammed against the bulkhead, but they’ll be fine.”
The officer scoffed. “Jarheads? Jeez, where are you from? I don’t know anyone who says things like that anymore.”
Mikle’s eyes went wide and he looked around the cockpit.
Gavit waved at him to go on.
“Jupiter Six Station, my Grandfather used to call Marines that.”
In Death's Shadow Page 37
