Ghost Wing (The Ragnarok Saga Book 4)

by Kevin McLaughlin

  “Xiang, we need to engage the enemy as soon as we have some fighters operational. This is the big fight. We lose this one, we lose the Earth,” Sam said.

  “I have only nominal main drive control. My computer systems took a beating from the Intrepid’s exit. I’m not sure how long it will be before they’ll be up enough to fight,” Xiang said.

  “Do what you can,” Sam replied. “I’m having main drive trouble here myself.”

  She worked on sorting out the drive. If it was some sort of computer problem, there ought to be a way to bypass whatever damaged CPU or circuit was preventing her from firing the engines. But that wasn’t working. No matter where she shunted control, it wasn’t giving her back any power. If it wasn’t a computer issue, what was wrong? Sam activated her external cameras, flicking through them. The rear-facing camera gave her a good look at the problem.

  A chunk of the ring about four feet long had embedded itself in her thruster section. Miraculously the thing hadn’t punctured her reactor and blown her to bits, but the damage was extensive. The ship was toast. Those engines were going to need a complete rebuild. Even that might not be enough. She wanted to scream her frustration. There was no way she was getting back in the fight, not in this ship.

  Sam checked her course. Without main engine power, that was suddenly a lot more relevant, and Neptune looked like it was getting bigger in her forward camera. The computer obligingly ran calculations and spat out the cold answer. She was in a rapidly decaying orbit around Neptune. In a short while she’d be dropping through the atmosphere, where she’d either burn up or be torn apart by the winds.

  “Not if I can get myself out of this,” Sam said to herself.

  She used her steering thrusters to rotate the wasp so that one of the thrusters was facing toward Neptune. No - not directly at the planet. The thrusters didn’t have enough power to slow her to a complete stop. But maybe she could change her approach enough that she skipped off the atmosphere instead of sinking into it? Sam had the computer run calculations on the angle she would need. It was taking too damned long, with so little processing power available. She made her best guess and fired the thruster. It was moving her angle of approach a little bit, but she didn’t need the computer to tell her it wasn’t going to be nearly enough.

  “Time to impact upper atmosphere: five minutes.” The computer read her death sentence to her. Damn it all. What a stupid way to die.

  She didn’t want to die. But then again, at least she had the chance to now. Valhalla hadn’t been living, not really. It was a pseudo-life, not the real thing. There were so many things Sam had wanted to do now that she was out. She wanted to meet her family again so they could know she existed if nothing else. She wanted to see where this Ghost Squadron she’d led would go in the future. Her hunch was it was going to be a hell of a ride for those who survived this mess. Assuming anyone did.

  But even without getting to do those things, she wouldn’t have traded all the experiences she had managed to have for another decade in Valhalla Online. Life - however brief it had been, the real life she experienced since leaving the game - was a damned good thing.

  She kept firing the thruster because it wasn’t in her nature to give up. You never knew what might happen, and delaying her end even a minute or two had made the difference in the past. But she was out of ideas, and there were no ships big enough to pull her out of Neptune’s gravity that were anywhere nearby.

  “I’m a dead stick headed for a burn up in Neptune, Xiang. Do what you can for the others. I’ve only got about five minutes left. Best of luck - I hope you crush those bugs,” Sam said over the radio.

  25

  The first thing Xiang saw as his computer came back online, waking him up, was the Intrepid and a Jaernyth dreadnought hammering away at each other. That was more than enough for him. It was time to make his exit. Regardless of who won the fight, it would end badly for him. He knew who had to be commanding the human flagship. That would be one Admiral Thomas Stein, who had more than enough reasons to kill him and had almost certainly somehow seen through the ruses he’d used to hide his identity. Keeping his given name had been a damned mistake, and he knew it. But the name was common enough. It had felt safe at the time. Now it smacked of hubris.

  “A luxury I can ill afford at this point,” Xiang said to himself.

  It was all right. The Wasp he piloted was damaged but mostly intact. He didn’t need food or air, just energy. The fighter had a reactor to supply that. With enough time he could fly virtually anywhere in the little craft. Back to Earth, most likely. He had boltholes on the planet and the moon above it. Some of those would likely still be intact. Perhaps there were still some people loyal to him back there as well. It would take time and caution, but he could eventually rebuild his power.

  Xiang checked the battle again. It seemed to be going badly for the Intrepid, but he didn’t trust that. Stein had more luck than any one person deserved. He’d undoubtedly figure out a way to come out on top of this situation like he had every other. The alien ships would be defeated, leaving Earth safe - and ready for him to help his homeworld rise to become strong enough to resist any future attacks!

  He was about to engage his main drive to get out of the area when Samantha’s transmission came through on his radio.

  “I’m a dead stick headed for a burn up in Neptune, Xiang. Do what you can for the others. I’ve only got about five minutes left. Best of luck - I hope you crush those bugs.”

  He checked her course, running it through his computer system, and was able to immediately confirm her findings. The Wasp she flew would hit Neptune’s upper atmosphere in a little over four minutes. If her drive really was out, then she was as good as dead. A pity - she was a good sort, one he’d been surprisingly glad to serve with. But people died in combat. It was part of battle. His goal was always to make sure he was never one of the ones who fell.

  Xiang prepped his Wasp for an interplanetary flight. It would be a long trip, far more kilometers than these ships were designed to manage. He was confident it would handle the trip, though. Another minute and the course would be laid in - curse the computer for being so slow! Then he’d be on his way.

  A flicker of light on his forward camera caught his attention. That had to be Sam’s fighter. She was firing her steering thrusters, trying to change her course. He could easily see that it wasn’t going to be nearly enough to save her. But she was fighting to the very end. Xiang found himself admiring the woman. She was the sort of person humanity needed alive.

  “Bèn dàn, you’re really going to do this, aren’t you?” Xiang cursed to himself. “Yes, I suppose I am.”

  He activated his radio. “Samantha, stand by. I am coming to assist.”

  Then Xiang fired his main engines, cruising forward to catch up with her. He matched velocity and glided alongside her, then shot just a little past her and flipped his ship over so that his main engines were facing toward Neptune.

  “What are you doing? You’ll get yourself killed too, Xiang,” Sam protested.

  “I have no intention of either of us dying this day. But I need quiet, please. This is difficult work,” Xiang said.

  He fired his engines - just a tap. Her ship came closer to his. A few more taps and he closed the distance still more. They were both falling toward Neptune at almost precisely the same rate. It was no different than a satellite docking procedure when both satellites were flying at hundreds of miles an hour - or that’s what he told himself to calm nerves that shouldn’t even exist. The Wasps were in no way built for what he was trying to accomplish. Would they survive the strain? He had no way to know. Again he berated himself for the folly of this mission, when he could easily escape. He shook it off and focused back on the task at hand.

  “Shut off your thruster,” Xiang said.

  Sam complied. Now she was slowly moving toward him, his engines on the lowest power setting giving him a little speed relative to her. They were flying at a few meters per secon
d, then slower still as he gradually brought the engines to zero. The two ships continued a slow glide toward each other.

  Then they met with a silent crash. Stress meters built into Xiang’s ship showed the impact. Internal stresses went wild for a second as the structure of his fighter absorbed the blow, then went back to safe levels again.

  “Damned tough little things, these ships,” Xiang said.

  Sam gave a nervous chuckle. “You’re telling me!”

  “Hold on. I’m going to hit my main engine now, slowly ramping up power. I’m getting us both out of here,” Xiang said.

  He fired the engines. They struggled at first, the extra weight of a second fighter too much for the low power setting. But as he gradually throttled up the engine their descent toward Neptune halted and then reversed.

  The slow trip up into a stable orbit gave Xiang more time to watch the battle unfolding. Perhaps he’d been in error in his earlier estimation. The Intrepid was venting atmosphere from a dozen holes. The ship had taken an incredible pounding. It was giving as good as it got, but the alien ship was simply so much larger that it could shrug off more blows. Stein was going to lose this one.

  Xiang felt more than a little glee at watching his killer suffer defeat. He recognized it as a shallow emotion but allowed himself to revel in it for a moment before letting it go. Stein’s failure might feel good, but if the alien ships were allowed to win this day, there might be no stopping them. He hated Thomas Stein, but even that hate wasn’t enough to make Xiang sacrifice the Earth just to hurt the man.

  “You should be safe now, Samantha,” Xiang said. “You’ll have to excuse me, though.”

  “Where are you going?” she asked as he backed away from her ship and fired his mains again.

  “You’re not the only person who needs saving today, it seems,” Xiang said. The irony was incredible. He only hoped that Stein would be able to learn who had rescued him in his hour of need. That, more than anything else, would make this sweeter.

  Xiang studied the situation. Militarily it was untenable. There were two human ships, one of which was out of weapons and halfway around Triton. The other would be destroyed within a few minutes. The fighters of both sides seemed evenly matched, but if the second dreadnought managed to launch fighters that too would change. This wasn’t a moment when military heroism would save the day. It was time instead for a little diplomacy, some subterfuge - and ideally a knife in the back.

  Luckily, Xiang excelled at all three.

  He reached out via the radio to the Hermes. “Commander, we have a situation here that I think you might be the only solution for.”

  “I’m watching,” Knauf replied, sounding grim. “I wish I could help, but I’m out of weapons. Not much use in the fight.”

  “It’s not your missiles I need out here. It’s your ship. Can you swing around Triton and pick up as much velocity as possible?”

  “I can. But what do you want me to do once I’m there? I can probably take a few hits from their big gun, maybe take the heat off the Intrepid for a minute, but then the Hermes will be destroyed. I don’t think that’s enough to turn the tide,” Knauf said.

  “You’re correct - it’s not. I have something else in mind. Feeding you precise course instructions now. Please follow them,” Xiang said. “I’m asking you a lot - but trust me. Please. More than anything else, I have Earth’s best interests at heart. Together we can save our world.”

  There was a pause before Knauf replied. “You’ve never given me a reason not to trust you. I’ve got the course. On my way at best possible speed.”

  “Thank you. You’ll know what to do when the moment arrives,” Xiang said and cut the connection. He appreciated Commander Knauf’s trust more than the man could know. There were too few people in the world who were genuinely reliable, worthy of absolute trust. Knauf had seen the course. He recognized what Xiang was asking him to do, and he was doing it anyway. That…meant something.

  Now for the more difficult part. Xiang tuned his radio to another set of frequencies and shot forward toward the enemy dreadnought.

  26

  The battle wasn’t going nearly as well as Thomas had hoped. Not that he’d been expecting much of a fight! The plan was to drop in on top of the ring, hopefully blowing it to bits, and then work together with the Hermes and her fighter wing to take out the alien ship. The single enemy would have been a threat they’d have easily neutralized by working together.

  “No plan survives contact,” Thomas murmured as he watched the damage reports rolling in from around the ship. While the first part of the plan had gone off perfectly - the ring was in pieces - he hadn’t counted on the enemy already getting ships through an active portal. Especially not vessels of such size and power.

  The enemy main gun blazed again, smashing through hull plates and digging deep into the Intrepid’s bow. His ship had heavy armor there, which was the reason any of them were still breathing. But there was a limit to how much damage she could take, and she was fast approaching the end of her rope.

  There was nothing else to be done. He had to keep hammering away with every weapon he had until either the alien ship was defeated, or the Intrepid was lost. With his drives badly damaged there was no way Thomas could order a retreat even if he wanted to. The enemy would easily catch and destroy the Intrepid if she withdrew.

  “Focus fire on their main gun,” Thomas said. He kept his voice cool with an effort. It was hard not to shout, to yell, to scream even. But his crew needed to see him calm, even if he was nothing close to that inside. The facade was all about morale. A crew counted on their ship’s captain knowing what to do next, even if there wasn’t much else he could do.

  “Aye, sir. We’ll hit it with everything we have left,” Javis replied.

  Which might not be much. The dreadnought was trying to hit his main railguns, same as he was trying to take down their particle beam. They’d managed to take one of the two main batteries out. Parts of the railgun’s barrel had to be scattered between there and Triton, based on the size of the secondary explosions when it blew. Thomas didn’t want to see the estimated casualty count for the Intrepid. All of those men and women volunteered to be aboard, but none of them had signed up for a battle like this. There hadn’t been a battle like this anywhere in the solar system in a generation.

  “We nailed the gun!”

  Thomas snapped his attention back up to the screen. He saw a huge hole where the particle beam’s emitter used to be. “Well done! Keep hitting them. Engines next.”

  With the beam out of commission, maybe they had a chance after all. The dreadnought still had a lot of secondary guns, but without the main beam pounding away at them they might pull off a win yet. Thomas watched the enemy, sure they would react with some new strategy now. He wasn’t disappointed.

  “Sir, there’s a cluster of fighters forming up just off the port bow,” Xiva said. “Coming at us fast.”

  “Patch me through to the CAG,” Thomas said.

  “You’re on, sir.”

  “Kel, we’ve got trouble coming our way,” he said. The fighters were picking up speed. They weren’t firing, except at any Wasps which got in their way. They were making a beeline for the front of the Intrepid. He had a bad feeling he knew precisely what they were doing. He’d seen all of the reports Knauf sent back about their engagements with the enemy.

  “I see them. We’re engaging,” she replied.

  Five Wasps swooped in toward the enemy fighters, blazing away with railguns. They took out a couple of the small ships, but then several of the enemy fighters broke from their formation and veered at the Wasps. Before Thomas could shout a warning three of the alien vessels collided with a trio of Wasps. All six were obliterated. The remaining two Wasps darted sideways to avoid the explosions.

  “Kel?” he asked, heart in his throat. Had she been in one of those fighters?

  “I’m here,” she replied. “I’ve never seen anything like that! They just suicided against us,
trading fighters. What the hell?”

  It was starting to seem like a pattern for this race. They would fight straight up, but when defending one of their bigger ships or trying to achieve an important objective, loss of smaller vessels was acceptable.

  “Thanks for taking some of them out,” Thomas said.

  “We’re coming around to try for some of the rest. Watch yourself. What they did to us, they may try to do to you,” Kel replied.

  That’s precisely what he figured they were doing. Without secondary guns, the Intrepid had little defense against fighters in general and no way to stop a suicide run. Kel’s pair of Wasps took out another three enemy fighters, sniping them from behind. But the remaining three were going to succeed in reaching the ship. Thomas toggled the intercom, switching it to broadcast over the entire ship.

  “All hands, brace for heavy impact!” was all he had time to say before the fighters struck his ship.

  It was like nothing he’d ever felt before. The collision sounded like a tearing, grinding, and smashing sound all at the same time. Explosions lit up the main screen. Thomas was thrown back against his seat, where he clung with everything he had as the Intrepid listed heavily to one side. They were venting atmosphere and more, based on the loss of control. Creaking sounded through the structure of the ship. Was this the end? Had those little fighters finished off his flagship?

  “Status on the main gun,” he called out, fearing he already knew the answer. That had to have been their primary target.

  “It’s gone, sir,” Javis replied. “We’ve got major breaches on all forward decks. I…I’m having a hard time reaching anyone there.”

  They were officially defenseless, except for Kel’s fighters. The fight was all but over. Once the Intrepid was destroyed, the enemy vessels could pick off the rest of the Wasps at their leisure.

  “Sir, I’m picking up a Wasp heading toward the dreadnought. Moving fast, sir,” Xiva said.