by Kyle Mata
“It’s nice having the Shadowri on our side,” One Nightfang said to another. The marines and Daena ran after Karr.
“Aim the next cannon volley here and here,” Thomas said, pointing to a holographic display of the enemy vessel they were dueling with.
The weapons officer nodded and sent the orders to the gunners, who were stationed two decks above them. The cannons fired, striking what Thomas assessed to be a ‘linchpin.’ In the Navy, a linchpin was any exploitable weakness on a ship. The massive slugs punched through the hull. Then, a squadron of bombers hit the open wound, and the Rae vessel went dark and began to vent gasses. The Tiger Lily loosed a barrage of Hammerhead missiles for good measure and punched massive holes in the Rae ship.
When the Tiger Lily loosed the barrage of missiles, it became vulnerable to a broadside attack from an adjacent Rae battlecruiser. The enemy weapons charged and fired but were knocked off course just before they had the chance devastate the Lily as mass-driver rounds and inertial missiles slammed into the Rae vessel. The Rae’s weapons fire sailed harmlessly off toward Xe. Majex had noticed the risky maneuver by the Tiger Lily and knew Cait would only attempt such a move knowing that Majex and the Dawn’s Grip would be there to support her flank—which he, of course, was. When the Rae Vessel was knocked off its heading by the sudden attack, the Rapier of Soloman opened fire with its central Tug-gun—a smaller version of the mass-driver cannon, adapted for frigates and corvettes. The massive tungsten slug pierced directly through the bridge. The alien ship floated lifelessly as if its brain had been lobotomized.
There had only been five Rae vessels accompanying the Nomen. The first fleet had just finished crippling four of them, and the last ship that remained was the large capital ship, which, judging by the friendly transponder pings, was crawling with Nightfang. The first fleet had operated as a well-oiled machine.
Admiral Majex came on the fleet-wide channel. “All ships, we’re going to allow the Nightfang to do their jobs and seize the ship. I’m sure it will provide us with invaluable data on our enemy. Fall back to a safe distance. The twentieth fleet is en route to reinforce our position before they hop on toward the next Nomen.”
Thomas rolled his eyes at the mention of Admiral Moody’s twentieth fleet, as did many of the officers on the bridge. “Recall all squadrons; I want them refueled and rearmed,” Thomas commanded. He then privately commed Roux, while attempting the same with Karr and Daena on a separate channel, to no avail.
“Roux, would you like to head back to the Atlas? Also, have you heard from Karr or Daena?”
“No, I haven’t. But the Rae ship is dead in the water; I’m going to stay close in case anyone needs a quick exfil,” Roux said. She checked her weapons and ammo statuses and was satisfied they were sufficient.
“Okay, I’ll leave you with a fighter combat patrol.”
The twentieth fleet began to warp in. The twentieth was often the butt of jokes in the Nyrotsi fleet. While it had a robust history and exemplary war record, the twentieth tended to attract the most unusual Spacers in the Nyrotsi fleet. It was currently led by Fleet Admiral Dale Moody. Most people are still unsure as to how he made it all the way to the rank of fleet admiral and wasn’t removed from the navy in his early years. The flagship was a heavily retrofitted and refurbished Leviathan-class Mega-Cruiser called the NRS Theseus Paradox. It was accompanied by two Battlecruisers the NRS She’s One of Ours Sir and the NRS Cattle Bruiser, two carriers; the NRS Spaceship and the NRS Rubber Duck. The rest of the ships in the fleet had just as equally ridiculous names. Had Thomas not seen the twentieth function in combat with his own eyes, he would have never taken Admiral Moody and his fleet seriously.
Just as the twentieth formation began to take shape, another Nyrotsi Leviathan-class Mega-Cruiser warped into the middle of the two Nyrotsi fleets. The warp pocket was merely thousands of meters away from the Rae capital ship. Thomas’s eyes widened as he recognized the ship.
“The Osiris? Admiral Tavington’s ship?” The radar officer said aloud upon identifying it.
“All engines full power away from the Cruiser! Target its maneuvering thrusters with everything we’ve got.”
“Sir, the Osiris is a friendly.” His first officer, Lieutenant Joanna Nova, said.
“No, it’s a trap!”
As though on cue, the NRS Osiris opened fire with all weapons in every direction. Its mass-driver cannons splintered one of the twentieth’s frigates and punched a large dent into the NRS Theseus Paradox. The Osiris’s missiles and various other weapons wreaked havoc upon the shields and hulls of nearly every other ship in the fleet, and the point defense weapons zapped dozens of Nyrotsi fighters out of space. While the off-guard fleet turned to engage the deceitful enemy, the Cloak of Atlas struck back with two mass-driver slugs.
“Sir! Dozens of ships on scope, it’s the Rae! They’ve got us flanked on three sides!”
Majex cursed at the same time as Thomas. Once again, they were outmaneuvered by the Rae, but this time the Rae fleet was not overwhelmingly large; they were of about equal strength now.
Majex was immediately on screen and barking orders, while staring intently at the strategic display as though it were a chess board. “All ships, Ranger formation, with two Lance flanks. Admiral Moody, you are responsible for the Rae ships moving to outflank us at X-twenty -two on, Y-thirty-four on, Z-thirty-five on. Rear Admiral Mandayya, Captain Winchester: I expect you two to make short work of the Osiris then join the aft lance flank. It’s time we gave the Rae an honest fight. Good luck and godspeed to all of you.” Majex spoke in prose. Rather than saying the entire 8-digit coordinate for each axis, veteran spacers will often say the first two numbers followed by ‘on’ in order to give the general area of discussion, while saving precious time.
“You heard the man, all weapons target the Osiris, I want all fighters and bombers space-side two minutes ago, let’s move!” Thomas called. The Cloak of Atlas shuddered as the mass-drivers continued shelling the traitorous vessel.
Roux brought the Owl in close to the Osiris main hangar and strafed it with her heavy forward guns. As a horde of Rae fighters began to rush out to enter the battle, Roux hit the target she had been aiming for—the hangar field power capacitor. The hangar field flickered before it failed. Its failure triggered a mechanical failsafe meant to prevent the entire ship from losing atmosphere; the massive hangar doors slid closed with incredible speed. The doors caught and smashed several of the outgoing fighters, sending pieces of them spinning off into space. Those caught inside the hangar were too close to stop and slammed into the door at full take-off speed. She rolled her ship underneath the Osiris and carefully danced around the ship’s point-defense turrets. She locked on and loosed two guided smart bombs toward the underside mass-driver cannon. One bomb was plucked out of the sky by an automated railgun turret, but the second found its mark and the fortified shielding around the cannon flickered. A pair of Nyrotsi bombers took advantage of Roux’s handiwork and dropped an even larger set of laser guided bombs on the cannon. The cannon was destroyed, but just as the bomber pilots cheered in celebration, a squadron of Rae fighters rolled in unison in their direction.
“Cavalier one, cavalier two, you have four bogeys on your tail. Roll three o’clock high and I’ll try to get them off you,” Roux called as she yanked the Owl to pursue. She was still getting used to the improved flight controls on her ship and ended up much closer behind the Rae fighters than she intended—too close for missiles. She depressed both triggers on her control levers and the forward guns barked. The penetrator rounds impacted the Rae fighters, turning them into bright explosions, and then debris. The Nyrotsi bombers continued to unleash their payload upon the underside of the Osiris.
“Thanks for the save, Athena.”
Roux pressed her throttles forward and began scanning the chaotic battle for targets. It was very apparent to Roux that two different Nyrotsi fleets were at work here. Majex and the first fleet were disciplined and well versed in
Nyrotsi battle doctrine, judging by their tight formations and utilization of any and all force multipliers. Moody and the twentieth fleet, on the other hand, appeared unorganized and panicked to an untrained eye. If you peeled back the alleged madness, though, one could see the guerrilla tactics they employed proved rather effective. Moody had a firm grasp of the ‘there is no up’ theory, as nearly every ship in the fleet was positioned in a bizarre direction and orientation—some were up, others were down, some sideways, others diagonal and upside down. This was an unorthodox play, as it would take years for the spacers aboard each ship to adjust to such tactics. But in space, it certainly made no difference to the ships!
Finally, Roux found her prey. Several Rae vessels were being escorted by fighters toward the central Rae ship that the Nightfang were occupying, and unknown to her, Karr and Daena were aboard as well. She assessed that incoming hostile vessels were probably Rae reinforcements sent to dispel the marines. She turned toward the inbound Rae boarding party and armed all remaining missiles. Her targeting computer locked on to two dozen enemy ships with red bullseyes showing up on each.
What am I saving them for?
She flipped up the arming switch and depressed the little red button. Twenty-four missiles—the entirety of her magazine—streaked away from the Athena’s Owl with incredible speed. Her forward viewport lit up brightly as the missiles found their targets. A few boarding craft survived the salvo and zipped past her, to continue on toward the Rae ship. With her missile magazines empty, she switched back to her guns, which were running low. She turned her ship with a skillful half-loop and tucked in behind the craft.
She locked onto the nearest boarding craft, which was venting gases vehemently, when the klaxon of an incoming missile began to sound. Rather than cut her loop off halfway, she continued to follow it through and forced the missile to shoot past her. She found she was pointed directly at a Rae fighter. The two ships approached one another at breakneck speed in a deadly game of chicken.
She switched off her point-defense rail gun and allowed the missile trailing her to get dangerously close. She jinked up and a vertical stabilizer of the Rae fighter barely scraped the paint off the Athena’s Owl. She pulled up hard as the missile chasing her slammed into the fighter she had just evaded.
Roux couldn’t help but let out a little shout of celebration.
CHAPTER 26
CRASH
Karr reached a section of corridor covered in trap-circles. He slowed to a stop and Daena and the eight Nightfang behind him followed suit and stopped too.
“See the circles? Avoid them and their triggers,” Daena explained with meaningful points. “You touch a trigger and the circle sucks you into space.” The Nightfang nodded in understanding.
Suddenly a section of wall slid into the corridor between the Nightfang, leaving two stranded on the opposite side. Karr turned and punched the new wall repeatedly, with blows that usually tore right through steel. The wall, which looked as though it was made of some translucent foreign plastic, did not so much as budge.
Another door slid closed behind the two separated Nightfang, and then there were screams as their shadowy figures were seen being sucked into the floor.
“Move!” Karr called as he took off running down the corridor. “The ship is trying to section us off.”
Daena was right behind him. She knew better than to second guess Karr; he had some sort of heightened awareness during combat situations that took over. Some of the Nightfang ran too, but one hesitated. Another door closed and sectioned her off. She banged both her fists on the door, screaming and yelling for help. She screamed even louder for a moment and then there was eerie silence as she, too, was sucked down the trap-circle.
The team continued to run for their lives, as doors closed behind them, increasing in frequency. One more Nightfang marine was lost. They finally reached the end, and it split into a fork, which did not match the map Karr had made on the last ship. Further down one of the corridors was the bridge.
“You go left—we will go right,” Karr said to the remaining marines. Knowing better than to question him, they took off running down the left corridor.
“Why’d you choose the right?” Daena asked, following Karr. Karr was about to reply but she continued. “I know it wasn’t random. You don’t do random.”
“I think this one leads to the bridge,” Karr said. He shot a drone out of the air and ducked, allowing Daena to shoot down the next two while he reloaded.
“Where did you send the Nyrotsi?”
“I think that passage loops back around underneath the hangar we came in. It might lead to a reactor or the engines.”
A team of pink aliens stood guard at a door that Karr deduced was the bridge. He charged across the open corridor entranceway and a spray of laser fire chased him. He dashed back toward Daena. The fire followed him again. Daena caught onto his scheme. Karr backed up and sprinted across at full speed; the lasers followed his path but were too slow to hit him. Daena turned the corner quickly and opened fire, dropping two of the four aliens. The bridge door opened as the last two aliens tried to fall back inside, but Karr had changed direction with help from his armor’s nano-motors and charged in after the retreating pair. The bridge had a similar dome shape but there were several seats and screens, filled by busy pink aliens. At the center of it all was a Rae with the head of a cheetah, plugged into its station via cerebral-plug. Karr and Daena worked their way around the bridge, quickly assessing threats and eliminating them. If any of the pink aliens reached for a weapon, they were quickly shot. But after three were shot, the rest cried out and hid under their consoles.
The cheetah Rae began to laugh a deep laugh, although it did not move from its console. The pink aliens quivered in fear more when the Rae laughed than when the two humans gunned down three of their brethren.
“You pathetic humans think you can take this ship from me?” The Rae’s lips opened, but its black eyes never moved. The ship began to accelerate with amazing speed for a ship of such large size. Several of the aliens were tossed about the bridge and Karr and Daena struggled to remain on their feet. They could tell from the forward viewscreen that the ship was pointed straight toward the Nomen.
“You’ll kill us all!” Daena cried.
“No! Only all of you.” The ship accelerated even faster. “I will survive with ease.” Karr drew his sword and pointed it at the Rae. “Kill me and there is no way to stop the ship.”
Karr killed the Rae with a strong jab.
“KARR?!” Daena cried in dismay.
The ship shuttered as it began to enter the atmosphere of the Nomen. Karr began to run option scenarios through his head. He knew the Rae wasn’t going to pull the ship back into orbit. The first two options he considered were getting the marines to call for evacuation, or calling Roux, as she was most likely out and about in the Owl. He opened a channel to the marines and received no response. Then he tried to contact Roux and got static—static that seemed a little too familiar. He raked his brain for a plan C.
“You, all of you, can anyone here pilot the ship?” Daena asked the petrified pink aliens. She pointed toward the viewscreen. The aliens all looked at the quickly approaching planet and went from an immobile and frozen state of fear to hopeless and scattered. They all ran about the bridge in a panicked frenzy. The aliens either did not understand Daena, or they were too afraid to listen.
Karr grabbed Daena’s wrist and, without a word of explanation, pulled her out into the corridor. He had his plan C.
A Rae frigate exploded and the crew on the bridge actually cheered. Thanks to the first and the twentieth fleet’s tactics working so well in tandem, the humans were fending off the Rae ambush. The battle was going in their favor.
“Sir, it appears the Rae fleet is actually in retreat.” The radar officer alerted Admiral Majex.
“It could be a ruse. Maintain a maximum effective range for the gun batteries and shell them as they go. I will not press our luck,” Ma
jex said.
“Sir, the boarded Rae craft… it’s accelerating at an alarming speed toward the Nomen! It has nearly breached the atmosphere.”
“Send recovery transports to get the Nightfang off, now!” Mere seconds after Majex gave the order, a dozen Nyrotsi recovery vessels shot out from the hangars of the Dawn’s Grip toward the vessel. As they latched onto the hull, the capital ship began to slink through the atmosphere. In the background, the twentieth continued to plug away at the retreating enemy fleet a few thousand meters away from the Nomen. As the Rae vessel made it deeper into the atmosphere, the recovery craft detached and headed back toward the Dreadnaught. Shortly after, the Rae ship was completely out of view.
“How many did we recover?” Majex asked quickly.
“Only three marines made it, sir. They wish to speak with you.”
“Well put them through.” Only three?! Majex took the news like a blow to the stomach.
“Admiral Majex, sir. This is Sergeant Rijikaya. We still have friendlies on board— Corporal Oryol, a Shadowri, and a Coalition woman.” Admiral Majex found the sergeant’s words hard to believe, but he had known Akari Rijikaya since she was a fresh recruit, straight out of ‘sharpening’ and he trusted her.
“Thank you, Sergeant Rijikaya. You’ve done well; we’ll do everything we can to recover the others.” The link closed and Admiral Majex turned toward his first officer. “Get Captain Winchester on screen immediately.”
“So, you’re telling me Karr and Daena escaped Vurumon, and they somehow ended up on that ship?” Roux asked Thomas as she zipped toward the Nomen, chasing the ship that had just disappeared into the thick clouds in the atmosphere.
