Scorpion - The Rae Wars

by Kyle Mata

  A messenger? A bomb-drone?

  “Have all ships maintain a safe class-four distance from the AEP and bring the Son of Caine and the Gunbuddy forward to engage,” Majex said firmly. AEP was an acronym unique aboard the Dawn’s Grip meaning ‘approximate exit point.’ The officers sent the orders and the fleet moved accordingly.

  A ship exited warp, Majex judged it was small based upon the size of the warp bubble.

  “Sir, we’re being hailed by the freighter. It is registered as a Mason’s Guild priority cargo transport, named Athena’s Owl,” The comm officer reported quickly.

  “Put it on the screen, please,” Majex said, as he returned to his seat. He didn’t remember standing, but the unusual situation he found himself in was affecting his nerves.

  The forward viewscreen filled with the face of Lieutenant Commander Thomas Winchester. Majex had not seen Winchester since the boy was a young ensign on fast track for the big leagues.

  “Admiral Majex, it’s an honor. I have news you need to hear in person.”

  “Lieutenant Commander Thomas Winchester, I haven’t seen you in years. Is that gray hair I see?” Majex said, noting how much older the boy looked now; command will do that to a person. He realized how different he must have looked when he was an ensign.

  “Sir, Lieutenant Commander Thomas J. Winchester is marked as KIA, lost with the second fleet, but he has also been marked as a fugitive, wanted for high treason. The charges, though, are dated after his death,” The intelligence officer said, pulling up Thomas’s file at his workstation.

  “It seems you’ve been busy, Thomas,” Majex said.

  “Sir, would you like me to dispatch fighters?” The first officer asked. “We can hold him in the brig until after the battle.”

  “Rear Admiral Kroper, are you suggesting we arrest a Lieutenant Commander? A brother in arms?”

  “He’s a fugitive of the law…”

  “On Fortshione perhaps, but this is my fleet! Here, the law is my word—no one is apprehended unless I say so. Do I make myself clear?” Majex said.

  “Crystal clear, Admiral.” Kroper sat back in his seat.

  “What have you got for me, Thomas? I assume it’s important for you to show up in a Mason ship as a wanted man.”

  “Sir, it’s bad. Babylon bad,” Thomas said. There were whispers and even a few gasps among the crew aboard the bridge. There are a few code words among the Nyrotsi fleet that can be used to communicate certain things, such as duress or hijacking. Babylon means something catastrophic; nobody ever joked about the code word Babylon. Simply saying the word without proper meaning can cause for immediate dismissal from service or, worse, execution. Majex had only heard Babylon used once before, and it was seconds before the Outer Belt War had begun.

  “Come aboard the Dawn immediately, Commander Winchester,” Majex ordered. Once again, he found himself standing. Thomas nodded and closed the channel. “Admiral Kroper, clear them for landing at docking bay A2. I’m going to meet him personally,” Majex said and briskly strode toward the onboard tram system. Two Nightfang marines, assigned as his personal guard, walked on either side of him.

  “I told you he’d remember me,” Thomas said. Roux ignored him as she piloted the ship toward the designated docking bay. The NRS Dawn’s Grip was the largest ship she had ever seen in her entire life, and every gun and weapon system she passed by automatically tracked her ship, making it very clear that she should not stray from the projected course.

  They landed and quickly lowered the ramp. Thomas exited first, followed closely by the others. The team was met by Admiral Aidmen Majex himself and behind him was a platoon of Nightfang, which was standard procedure for the docking of non-fleet vessels. Majex was of average height and a sturdy build, but his hair was a light gray, betraying his age. He was very clean cut and looked like he was born holding himself in a naturally professional manner. He had an aura of command about him that was rivaled only by the Dominar himself.

  “Hello, Admiral, it’s good to see you again,” Thomas said. Majex offered a hand and they exchanged a firm handshake while Majex looked over the team accompanying his former pupil.

  “It’s good to see you too, Thomas, a shame it isn’t under better circumstances. Now, won’t you tell me what this is all about?” Majex asked firmly.

  “Do you have a room with a projection table?” Thomas asked.

  “Follow me.” Majex turned, his white cape flowing behind him. They traveled down a nearby corridor to a tram pick-up. The tram cars took them from the hangar deep into the heart of the vessel, passing through massive bays full of spacers hard at work. It took a lot of maintenance, both autonomous and manual, to keep a ship of such a size up and running smoothly. Majex’s personal guard never took their eyes off Thomas’s companions. The cars stopped, and they disembarked just outside the bridge. As they entered the crew was rather startled by the curious new characters aboard but remained silent. Majex pointed Thomas toward a holographic projector on the ceiling that could be used.

  “Karr, go ahead and plug in.” Karr extended a thin cable from his vambrace and connected to the port. With the push of a few buttons he began to project his HUD images of the Rae for the Admiral and the crew to see, while Thomas explained it all. It took about an hour to describe the situation. Majex had to take a seat but did so in an incredibly dignified manner.

  “Tavington… damn that man,” Majex whispered to himself. “And you think the Rae fleet will meet us here, now?” Majex asked Thomas, for all to hear.

  “Sir, multiple warp distortions on scope, near X two zero zero zero two one, Y three two—”

  “I’m not getting any younger, lad, just plot the points on the display” Majex interrupted. The radar officer plotted the points on the three-dimensional strategic display map as told. In the distance, a massive Coalition fleet exited warp. “Sir, their weapons are all hot!” The radar officer said quickly.

  “Hail them, immediately!” Majex called to the communications officer. The ship suddenly shook violently. Majex had taken weapon impacts too many times in his life to mistake them for something else.

  “Damage report!” He commanded.

  “Sir! Shields have fallen to eighty-eight percent, the rest of the fleet reports at most minor damage to… wait—the Cloak of Atlas, sir, she’s taken a direct hit and her shields are down. The report is coming in now…”

  “ENEMY FLEETS INCOMING! Sir, we’ve been flanked on all sides!” The radar officer announced in a panic. The strategic display showed dozens of ships popping up on three sides of the first fleet.

  “Why didn’t we detect the Coalition dropping out of warp?!” Render demanded.

  “Because it’s the Rae,” Majex said. “Bring the fleet about. I want a Phalanx formation. Tell the commanders all weapons are free, focus fire on the Rae fleet, ignore the Coalition ships. Ensign Hevey, continue to hail the Coalition fleet commander; if it’s who I think it is, she needs to be brought up to speed.” Majex spat orders. Rockets, missiles, lasers and massive tungsten slugs shot out in all directions from the first fleet’s weapons. Fighters and bombers began to pour out of hangar bays like angry dread wasps ready to engage the enemy. “Thomas, get to the Cloak of Atlas. You are now reinstated with the rank of Captain, and you are her commanding officer. Relieve Lieutenant Commander Portland by any means necessary. I need a strong commander in that carrier.”

  “Yes, sir, I—”

  “Go! You two, get them to their ship with haste.”

  Thomas and the others followed the Nightfang honor guard to the docking bay. They got into the Athena’s Owl and zipped out into the fray.

  Roux zigged and zagged her rocket through the battle, dodging Rae fighters and luring them into the Dreadnaught’s point-defense systems.

  “I’ll drop you off, but I’m far more useful in the sky,” Roux said, inverting the ship in a rapid evasive maneuver.

  “I can board the Rae capital ship,” Karr said. “Can you get me on that?” He
pointed toward the massive enemy vessel.

  “You better believe I can,” Roux answered. She lined up two Rae bombers and gunned them down with penetrator rounds. Their explosions quickly extinguished in the vacuum of space.

  “Once I’ve taken control of the Atlas I’ll get you a full boarding team and fighter escort to it.” The massive carrier appeared in the forward viewport. “But let’s get there first,” Thomas said.

  Roux shot into the first docking bay she could find through the atmospheric shield. She landed and hastily lowered the ramp. The Nightfang marines on guard in the bay were confused as the team approached them in a full sprint.

  “Get us to the bridge, now!” Thomas called, not giving them time to think about who they were. As they ran, change of command orders were sent to every individual aboard the carrier, stating that Captain Winchester was now in command.

  “Who is Captain Winchester?” Lieutenant Commander Portland roared, throwing his infoboard across the bridge. The doors slid open and Thomas stepped in.

  “That would be me.”

  “Captain on deck!” The first officer called. Everyone moved to stand, in respect to their new commander, and in partial spite to their former commander. But Thomas stopped them.

  “Seats, I want all hands to battle stations, if they aren’t already. I want fighter and bomber status by squadron on screen beside the strategic display, and I want hull and shield updates every two minutes.”

  “Oh, no you do NOT. This is mutiny!” Portland pulled his sidearm and attempted to point it at Thomas, but Karr grabbed the pudgy man’s arm before it was even raised, squeezing it until the man cried in pain and the pistol clattered to the ground. Karr was irritated that a battle was raging around him, and he was here, dealing with an incompetent leader.

  “Portland, you can either aid me, or I can throw you in the brig.” Thomas offered a compromise to the fellow Nyrotsi. Commander Portland’s face contorted in anger, displaying his lack of willingness to cooperate.

  “Then you’ll have to throw me—” Portland was quickly thrown over the shoulder of the agitated Shadowri.

  “Pass him off to the guards in the corridor. I’ll have Nightfang marines board with you. Once the Owl leaves we’ll escort you to the Rae capital ship,” Thomas said, as he turned toward his friends. “I expect you all to come back, alive.” He then turned his attention back to the bridge. Quickly reading statuses. “I want Thunderbolt and Sidewinder squadrons to form up portside for escort.”

  Karr, Daena, and Roux ran back toward the hangar bay after leaving the former commander with the guards. The bay was enormous and oddly empty aside from the Athena’s Owl, making the Mason rocket look small. They quickly boarded. Roux was up the ladder and starting the engines before the ramp had even fully sealed. Once Roux took off, she met up with two Nyrotsi fighter squadrons and six Nightfang boarding craft. The team rocketed toward the capital ship, identified by Majex, and the Nyrotsi boarding force followed behind their lead.

  “What’s your plan, Karr?” Roux asked, weaving narrowly around incoming purple laser fire from the Rae cruisers. A Nightfang boarding craft was not as fast to react as Roux and exploded behind them.

  “Get on board, sabotage the ship, and capture the head Rae. You come pick us up.”

  “You make it sound so easy. And thanks for volunteering me,” Roux said with a grin, knowing that she was going to do it anyway.

  “I’m going, too.” Daena said.

  “I know,” Karr replied. “Does that helmet you used to wear have an atmospheric attachment?”

  “Yes, it’s in the passenger bay with the helmet itself. Why?”

  “Could lose atmosphere, do not even know if the Rae breathe.” Karr said.

  “It’s only got fifteen minutes of air…” Daena said, not even considering the atmospheric conditions prior to this moment.

  “I can resupply you.” He was being even more short than usual. He was fully focused on the upcoming battle and conversation wasn’t something he was used to before a boarding action.

  “We’re… ugh—” Roux had to pull the ship through violent maneuvers to evade an incoming torrent of enemy fire. The artificial gravity struggled to keep up in their prior engagement, but it was lagging even more now after the combat upgrades. “We’re losing fighters fast, and there’s only four boarding craft—make that three boarding craft left. The Rae really don’t want us to get aboard that ship.” The Rae capital ship, which Roux deemed a super battlecruiser judging by the size, was fully in sight now. It was sitting in the back of the fleet and had barely engaged any of the human ships. “There she is.” Roux kicked up to full speed as she had a straight shot at the battlecruiser. She lined up with what looked like a hangar door. As they got much closer, the capital ship seemed to glow for a moment. “What the…”

  A wall of energy, like billions of lasers focused into one colossal beam, shot forward at the oncoming boarding party. “Oh, no…” The wall was too large; there was simply no dodging it in any direction. “Hold on! I have an idea!”

  The boarding party slammed into the energy wall, vaporizing the fighters and boarding craft entirely. The wall of energy continued to surge forward and evaporated a fellow Rae frigate caught in the path. It finally collided with the second Nyrotsi carrier, the NRS War Hauler. The shields were immediately overwhelmed, and half of the ship melted as the energy wall dissipated against the carrier’s hull.

  Thomas saw the events unfold on his strategic display map; no ships from the boarding party appeared to have survived the dreadful attack. He opened a private comm channel from his command station.

  “Athena’s Owl, do you read? Athena’s Owl, do you copy? Can you hear me? Roux?! Karr? Daena? ROUX!”

  CHAPTER 17

  BOARDING ACTION

  The Athena’s Owl shot forward toward its last input destination: the open hangar door on the Rae capital ship. Daena found it very hard to breathe, as though the atmosphere in the ship was equal parts liquid and air. She imagined this is what it felt like to be a fish out of water.

  All of the lights were out; only the glow of the gold ship and the flash of weapons fire outside in the forward viewport provided any light at all. Roux frantically flipped switches and pushed buttons by only feel and memory.

  “How?” Karr asked flatly, happy to find his friends alive and in one piece.

  “I diverted power from everything to the forward shields: directional thrusters, comms, flight controls—even life support, giving the shields literally one hundred percent power. I figured, based upon the surface area of that wave and the shape of the Owl, we just might be able to puncture the field with some extra shielding. Luckily, I was right. I really owe Thomas for these upgrades.”

  “Powa! You’re a genius, Roux!” Daena exclaimed, understanding now why it was so hard to breathe.

  “It’s going to take a few minutes to get everything back up and running. We’ll probably crash into the Rae capital ship before then, though.”

  “What!?” Daena exclaimed

  “It’s okay. I figured that would happen, which is why I pointed us directly at the hangar before rerouting power. Thank you, Newton’s first law.”

  The Athena’s Owl slipped through the hangar field at incredible speed. Power had obviously returned, as an unpowered hulk of metal would have likely been vaporized. Hangar bays were usually equipped with ray fields to maintain atmosphere inside large vessels and space stations; they would keep air in and solid objects out. They were programmed to detect power signatures, allowing ships to enter and exit. Whether this was how the Rae hangar fields worked as well, none of them knew, but they did know that they made it inside relatively unscathed.

  “Roux…” Daena pointed. The capital ship’s bulkhead was quickly approaching in the forward viewport. Suddenly the power returned to the flight controls, and Roux yanked the ship to a halt. Karr was down the ladder and lowering the ramp before Roux had even fully landed the Owl. He figured there had to be
atmosphere in the ship or there would be no need for the field over the bay doors.

  He jumped down into the hangar and powered up his MAGE rifle as his HUD cam began to record. Automated turrets dropped from the ceiling and began tracking him and the ship. With trained precision, he plucked them off one by one with charged rounds from his rifle. Six turrets dropped to the hangar floor before they could get a solid bead on the Shadowri threat.

  The hangar was empty and relatively small as far as capital ship hangars were concerned. This was likely a leadership hangar used to move Rae of high rank back and forth with small shuttles. If it had been a fighter hangar, there probably would have been a lot more defenses. His HUD beeped quietly, alerting him that the atmospheric conditions reading had completed, which he started the moment the ramp atmo-seal cracked. He read the levels of nitrogen, oxygen and traces of other gases—perfect goldilocks conditions, just like on Scorpion. He was glad his gamble paid off. If the Rae could breathe in the void, his lowering of the ramp could have caused an explosive decompression, which would have killed Daena and Roux. But if they had waited much longer, those turrets would have torn the ship to shreds. So, Karr took a calculated risk—a risk that ended up working in his favor.

  Daena came down the ramp with her helmet and breathing apparatus on, ready with her rifle in hand.

  “Air is good,” Karr said, keeping his rifle raised and aimed at the only door into the interior of the ship. Daena removed the apparatus; it was hard to see through. She shoved it into a pouch on her utility belt for easy access if she needed it again later. Karr opened a comm channel with Roux.

  “Status?” He asked as soon as she began receiving from the small communicator on her wrist. She flipped a switch in the cockpit that activated the primary nano-fillers. Nano-fillers are nanobots that are pre-programmed with the schematics of the ship down to the last centimeter. When they are activated, they locate sections of the ship that do not match the schematics, usually due to damage, and repair them.