“Workings! Make hot our swim pushers,” he color-signed to the elderly male. “Sky Watcher, set our swim current toward that land eater floater! Surely it will be the first to die under our teeth!”
Color signs filled his Swim Cove.
All agreed with this attack. All were equally upset at the danger to a captive pod-mate. And all were determined to remove the land eater threat no matter the cost!
He spread his body field outward, linking up with the fields of all pod-mates in the chamber. Then his glow spread out to the other floaters of the Pod. Eleven they were. Eleven were united. And all eleven would swim to kill the hidden floaters of the land eaters!
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Jacob saw the shark mouth of the alien open wide as it launched out of the tank, aiming for him. He fired his taser at its rainbow belly. The two silver wires passed over the head of Daisy. Sparks showed on its belly. His peripheral vision showed taser nodules hitting its tail and belly as Diego and Harrison fired their rifles. Silver taser wires from Richard’s hand taser touched the far side of the creature.
It convulsed in mid-air as powerful currents filled its massive body. The two front eyes looked blackly at him. It reached out with its four flipper feet, black claws curling toward him. Its jump through the air carried it toward Jacob. But covering six meters in one gee was not possible when it did not have a solid surface to push against. Gravity took hold. The creature began falling down. Its mouth opened wide, white shark teeth flashing in the light as it looked down. It aimed its head at Daisy. Who sat below.
“Nooo!” he yelled, slapping his armrest control patch to release his straps. He pushed upward, then jumped toward the monster.
The creature landed on the left side of Daisy. Its shark-mouth closed over her left arm. She screamed.
♦ ♦ ♦
Daisy saw the giant shark-seal launch itself out of its tank. Water came with it, raining down toward her. Silver wires passed over her head, striking its colorful belly. Other wires came from Richard, hitting its far side. The creature twisted in mid-air. Then it began to fall toward her. Its wide shark mouth opened wide. Time slowed.
No.
The creature slammed against her left side. Its mouth covered her left arm. It closed. Pain filled her as she felt bones being broken. Her fingers spasmed in shock.
“Ooooh!” she screamed.
She hit the bony head with her right fist, trying to push it off her arm. Which felt like a load of iron was pulling it off.
The shark mouth stayed closed.
Her fingers moved to her control. That meant her lower arm was still attached. Thank the Goddess!
“Get it off! Get it off! Help!”
♦ ♦ ♦
Jacob hit the top of the creature, smashing down several eye pods. He rolled to one side. Got his feet braced on the deck. Then he saw Daisy’s face.
Pain filled her dark brown face. Her right hand was pushing at the shark snout of the alien. Her shoulders were pulling back from the creature. But her seat accel straps prevented her from getting away.
“Get it off! Get it off! Help!”
He reached down, grabbed the creature’s head and pulled back. It barely moved. Moving to one side, Jacob stuck his magboot into the side of the creature’s mouth, then grabbed the top of its shark-mouth. He pushed down with his foot and pulled up with his hands.
“I’m free!” Daisy cried.
Jacob fell back as the creature’s mouth opened and let loose of Daisy’s left arm. Which was still attached to her. But her forearm looked flattened, not round normal. The unique fiber of the vacsuit had prevented tooth penetration and a biting off of her arm. But it could not resist outside clamp pressure that was surely the equal of a croc biting down.
Hands grabbed his back.
“Got you captain!” came Richard’s voice in his helmet earbuds. “Diego, you can stop lasering the bastard. He’s dead and gone from the tasers. But you did right. Harrison, help her move this shark-head and his tank the hell out of here!”
Jacob stood up. He moved to Daisy. Whose eyes were squeezed shut as the pain of her arm injury filled her body.
“Can you move your fingers?”
Her beautiful face eased its pain grimace, a little. She opened her brown eyes. Wetness filled them.
“Yeah. But oh, it hurts so!” She reached out with her right hand and took hold of her left elbow, which lay above the squashed part. She tried to move the arm to her lap. “Damn! Hurts too much to move it.”
Jacob gripped her left shoulder, moving to stand beside her as people did many things on the Bridge. He tongued his helmet comlink. “Med Hall! Doctor Starkey! Emergency on the Bridge. Bring a gurney. And bring some pain killer. Wounded up here.”
“Coming,” came the voice of Lois Starkey, the surgeon who ran Med Hall. “We’ve been watching on the All Ship vidcom. We’ll take care of the XO.”
Jacob looked to the side as Richard touched him. The scar on the man’s left cheek was pale sharp against his sunburn. “Captain? She’ll be alright. The healing waters are a miracle. And Chief Starkey will do whatever surgery is needed to fix her bones.”
The man meant well. But reassurance was not what he needed. He turned away and climbed up the steps to his captain’s seat. He sat in it, tapped the patch for the accel straps and looked ahead. The shocked faces of his Bridge crew were watching, with a few looking at Daisy. Lori moved over to stand beside Alicia. Both women looked very upset at the disaster that had come from their negotiation efforts. Well, they were not to blame. Duplicitous shark-heads were. Carlos came forward from where he had been sitting.
“Captain, do you need help?”
Jacob appreciated the intent of his friend. “Not yet. Maybe later, when we try to figure out the star from which these bastards came. But that’s in the future.” He looked ahead, catching the attention of the watching captains. “Melody, change our ship status to Alert Combat Ready.” On the wallscreen, the inward rush of the manta ray ships in a crescent moon line told him to forget about englobing. “All ships, go to Alpha Anvil formation. Move out on thrusters. Follow us over the north pole of the asteroid.” He looked to one of the wasp images above the wallscreen. “Hunter One move ahead of us. Go faster than we fly. Go kill some of those damn wet ones!”
♦ ♦ ♦
Rebecca felt shock at the walking seal’s attack on Stewart. But the vidcom feed showed her getting help. And Jacob’s orders had finally changed their ‘sit and wait and guess’ status.
“Lorelei, move our ship status to Alert Combat Ready,” she called over her helmet comlink. “All Ship, prepare for combat. We’re moving out. Chief Yang, align our vector track with the Lepanto. Put us up alongside her.”
“Setting new vector track,” the petite woman said.
“Captain, engines are moving us out,” reported Grayson.
“All ship weapons are energized and ready to fire,” said Astrid. “Missiliers are loading missiles into the silos.”
“Situational imagery updating,” called Howard, his gloved fingers moving over his control pillar touchscreen.
“Captain, our vidcom and neutrino comlinks with the other ships are both Green Operational,” murmured Meredith.
Rebecca noted how quiet Andrei was. Well, that was his nature during any kind of combat. He said little but performed every action needed to keep the ship operational and her people safe, secure and functioning. She glanced at the ship cross-section holo in front of her. The two carbon dioxide laser mounts at the front had activated their combat sensors. So had the proton lasers on the left and right flanks of the cruiser. The tail laser mounts were at full megajoule level. Her ship’s nose railgun and four rear silos were already loaded, one with a load of twenty Smart Rocks, the other with missiles that lacked warheads. Thermonuke warheads rested near to the backup missiles, ready for attaching if her ship came within range of a manta ray ship that could be killed with a slow missile launch.
“The wasp ship
is ahead of us and making vector for an intercept,” called Howard.
She liked her Tactical’s sharp attention to what was vital. Like her the man wore dreadlocks. He did not care that it was an antique hair style. The younger ones, like Stewart, wore the ‘natural’ tight curl look that was preferred by young Blacks. As the front wallscreen showed the crater-strewn surface of the asteroid passing below them as they topped its north pole, she let go of thoughts about anything other than fighting her ship to its most deadly effectiveness. Briefly she noted the silver shape of Joan’s Aldertag move in behind Joy’s Philippine Sea. Well, that was in keeping with the Alpha Anvil formation ordered by Jacob. The point was to lead with the two most powerful ships, followed by smaller ships. Course Joy would be glad to fight her entire Mess Hall over whether her destroyer was ‘smaller’ than the cruiser Rebecca loved like a second home.
“Weapons, launch a spread of missiles,” she said over her comlink. “Pattern Delta Two Niner.”
That would put missiles at her ship’s nose, tail, top, bottom and both sides. It was the best initial arrangement for interceptor missiles, until the manta rays began launching their mobile antimatter balls. She feared those balls. So did everyone on her ship. At least with a Battlestar’s antimatter cannon you knew you were safe so long as you were not directly ahead of it. With these balls, they could hit your ship’s butt, belly, anywhere.
“Launching,” called Astrid.
Rebecca took a deep breath, sought inner centering and prepared to risk her life. Once again. At least this time she and every Star Navy person in the fleet knew they risked their lives to protect a new colony world for humanity. The words of the boss wasp had surprised her when she had seen and heard the wasp over the All Ships vidcom. But the news had been welcome. As had Jacob’s decision to put the big ship out ahead of the fleet. It made sense. And she looked forward to the destruction the ship’s black hole weapon would wreak on the nasty amphibians who had followed them here.
♦ ♦ ♦
Jacob watched the scope-enlarged image of Hunter One’s ship as it neared the eleven manta ray ships. The wasp ship was four times the size of a manta ray. And it was moving fast. Already it was up to one-twentieth lightspeed. Which meant its encounter with the enemy would be short.
“Hunter One ship is within 19,000 kilometers of enemy,” called Rosemary. “Closing.”
He glanced at the distance counter in a corner of his situational holo. It showed 17,923 klicks as the separation of the two ships, which reduced even as he watched. That ship was closing fast. As were his other fleet ships, though his fleet was still 200,000 klicks out from the enemy. Behind the Lepanto came Chesapeake, followed by Philippine Sea, Aldertag, and the three ships of Support Hunters Twelve, Fifteen and Seventeen. But now the cruiser moved up to the right of his ship, forming the anvil part of the formation. Her arrival brought to bear two front laser mounts, plus her nose railgun and belly plasma battery. Added to the laser nodes of his left and right outrigger pontoons, it made for a deadly combo. The Lepanto’s railguns and flank proton lasers would not play their part until the fleet plunged into whatever ships survived the wasp’s black hole weapon.
“Weapons, cross-link your targeting with the Chesapeake Weapons station.”
“Captain, cross-linking,” responded Oliver.
He knew the other fleet ships would be cross-linking their Weapons stations. The wasp ships would all combine lightning bolt and laser fire on a single ship. As would the destroyer and frigate. And every ship in his fleet had put out a first round of interceptor missiles to handle incoming antimatter balls.
“Our spine and belly railguns launching Smart Rock clusters to the left,” called Oliver. “Right flank railguns doing the same, angled to pass above and below the Chesapeake. Sir.”
Jacob liked the man’s initiative. He had worried about the cruiser’s lack of a side-shooting railgun. Course Rebecca’s ship had proton lasers on both flanks. But no directed energy weapon could collapse the containment field of a mobile black ball. That took solid matter, the more the better.
Green laser beams and yellow lightning bolts shot out from the front weapons ring of Hunter’s ship. His counter showed 11,000 klicks distance between it and the enemy. The beams and bolts concentrated on three manta ray ships. Black spots showed on the front ends of those ships. Clearly Hunter’s Stinger crews were trying to kill the antimatter emitter nodes that lay at the center of the nose of every manta ray ship.
The three ships stayed on course. As did the other eight ships.
“Hunter ship at 7,000 klicks out,” called Rosemary.
Twenty-two orange beams shot out from the crescent arc of manta ray ships, all converging on the front of Hunter One’s giant ship. The front ring of weapons tubes stopped emitting beams and bolts. Clearly the gamma ray graser beams had killed the electronics of the ship’s front weapons ring.
“It’s changing its hull plates!” yelled Cassandra.
More orange beams shot out from the oncoming manta ray ships. Two beams per ship, one on each tip of a wing. They struck again at the wasp front end, perhaps hoping to penetrate its water hull layer to kill wasps inside. He doubted that would happen. Based on what Richard had found when his Darts had nose-dived into the ship of Seven, the standard wasp ship hull was a half meter thick. Below the hull lay a thin layer of water, which served to absorb incoming x-rays and solar rads.
“Range is 4,132 klicks!” Rosemary said sharply.
In the scope image, the eleven manta ray ships at the outer edge of the arc were curving around to come closer to the wasp ship. Clearly they were aiming to englobe it. Black balls now shot out from the noses of ten ships. Two that had been hit by electric bolts and lasers did not fire antimatter. The balls raced toward the six-sided, yellow and black-striped hull of the wasp ship. A hull that now completed its hull plate change.
“Sir! Graviton surge from Hunter’s ship!” called Cassandra.
Jacob gave silent thanks that his fleet was far, far from the reach of that deadly weapon. Being caught once in that black hole field had been enough for him.
“Range is 3,900 klicks!”
The wasp ship vanished from scope view.
That would do it. The range of Hunter’s Pull-Down weapon was exactly 3,912 kilometers. And the closer an enemy ship came, the stronger was the grip of that weapon. It was beyond sticky. It was merciless in its gravity tide grip on any matter that came within range.
“Four ships are caught!” yelled Rosemary.
He saw that. In the scope imagery four silvery manta ray ships now shifted their orientation. Their noses faced the wasp ship. Black balls flew from their noses. Orange beams shot from the wings on either side of each ship. Other shark-head ships did the same.
The orange beams hit the spot where the wasp ship lay, any view of it now vanished thanks to the black hole field’s capture of all incoming light. The only way he knew it still existed, moving toward the middle of the manta ray ship formation, was due to the twinkling of nearby stars as their light was bent by close passage to the outer edge of its field.
The orange beams hit the field. They bent sideways, moving into an accretion ring that swirled around the log shape of the invisible wasp ship.
Black balls by the dozen now hit the accretion ring. They moved sideways. Their containment fields collapsed as their magfield innards sensed contact with a solid object. The field was not solid. But its instant blocking of all forward movement told the internal inertial sensor it had hit something. As a result, black clouds of antimatter spread out along the accretion ring formed by orange gamma rays. When one touched the other, white star light flared. That light stayed close to the invisible ship, only a little escaping the field to be seen by Jacob, his people and his fleet.
The beams and balls were followed by four ships that spiraled down toward the accretion ring. A fifth manta ray ship which had been further out now jerked its nose toward the wasp ship. It moved inward. Then it flipped to
point its fusion pulse jet at the wasp ship. Orange-yellow flame shot out. The flame grew to forty klicks in length. Yet the flame and the ship keep closing on Hunter’s ship. Gravity pulled closer the beams, the black balls, the fusion flame and the fifth ship.
Four manta ray ships came apart in large chunks as gravity tides ripped at them. Then the chunks touched the accretion ring. Yellow-white starlight flared as the fragments became pure energy as their matter combined with the black antimatter clouds in a total matter-to-energy conversion. The fifth ship tore apart. Its pieces became a new flare of starlight.
“Enemy is flying away from Hunter One’s ship!” called Rosemary.
Five down and gone. Six left. And those six were firing orange-yellow flames from their fusion pulse tail thrusters, moving them toward Jacob and his fleet.
“Enemy is now at 21,793 klicks out!” called Rosemary. “Closing on us at orbital escape velocity.”
“All Ships! Launch additional missiles ahead,” Jacob said calmly. “Chesapeake, launch your Smart Rocks. Weapons, do the same again for us.”
The sensor holo on his left became a blizzard of dozens of green dots that shot out from seven larger ship dots. The three wasp fighter ships joined in the missile barrage coming from his fleet. Would the solidity of their missiles and Smart Rocks be enough to protect his people?
“Range to enemy is now 12,124 klicks,” reported Rosemary.
StarFight 3: Battlecry Page 27
