Spinward Fringe Broadcast 7: Framework

by Randolph Lalonde

  Her scanners detected an active Navnet called Skyguard. It was based on a standard Freeground signal, and she cheered as the name of the administration in charge came up: Triton Forces.

  “I’ll just register and ask for an approach,” she said to herself as she did so. The Navnet system immediately informed her that she was moving eleven thousand one hundred thirty eight kilometres per hour over the port limit, and advised that she slowed down. “No, really?” she replied.

  “Hi, this is Alice Valent, a little new and shiny, but the one you know. I hope someone there knows me, anyway. I’m on my way down, really fast, trying to slow up, but I think I’m gonna crash a bit,” she transmitted. “Okay, maybe a lot.”

  The roar of the thrusters firing as the ship screamed across the sky on a path she did her best to guide were loud enough to be heard inside her suit. Heat warnings began going off as she slowed down to under four hundred kilometres per hour, but it was slow enough for her to engage emergency systems. Metal flaps built into the hull spread out, and the increased air resistance was enough to shake her in her harness.

  She wouldn’t make the settlement marked by Navnet, but she was passing near it. “Alice?” asked Ayan Rice. “I hate to sound negative, but you died on the Triton.”

  “Yeah, some crazy lady brought me back and sent me to warn you about this invasion. Didn’t quite make it in time though. Oops, sorry. It’s really me though, but with a few differences. I feel younger, I’m missing most of my memories of being an artificial intelligence, and I’m really looking forward to kicking some ass. Maybe it’s just the post-rebirth euphoria or something. Oh, and I seem to talk a lot more.”

  “Are you coming from the Sunspire?” she asked.

  Alice forced the ship into a turn so she would land as close to the Triton settlement as possible, near a crater well outside their shield. “No, why would you- oh! The shuttle transponder, you think I’m from the Sunspire because that’s what this ship was registered to, right. Well, I’d like to explain more, but I’m landing, one sec.”

  She aimed the ship at a gap between two older ships and cut the engines while engaging the antigravity hover systems. She was down to twenty three kilometres per hour. It should have been a good landing, but the antigravity systems didn’t activate. “Why me?” she asked before striking the spot between the two ships and careening past the crater she’d intended to land in front of. The shuttle came to a complete stop and she squealed. “I’m alive! I love being alive! Okay, you’re fourteen klicks from my current position, I’ll be happy to hoof it from here. I’ll see you soon, Ayan.”

  Alice hurriedly locked her pack onto her back and hefted her rifle. “There’s something you need to know, Alice,” Ayan said as Alice opened the main hatch. “You’re right between two combat drop pods filled with framework soldiers.”

  “And they’re pretty agro, I’m guessing?” Alice asked as she surveyed the lopsided, damaged ships in front of her. The sizzle of the ship’s main thrusters filled the air as they cooled.

  “You could say that,” Ayan said. “You should stay put while we figure out the best way to get you and that ship out of there.”

  Alice was about to open the shuttle’s hatch when she stopped and looked at the plate armour. “You know, you can never have too much protection.” She took her pack off, put the plate armour on in a hurry and reattached her newfound belongings.

  “Did you hear me? We’ll work on a plan,” Ayan said.

  Alice performed a detailed scan of the surrounding area, found one of the framework soldiers nearby and did a bio-sweep on him. She smiled to herself, satisfied. “Don’t worry, these are old models. I’ll cut a path,” she said, charging her XO-99 rifle. “Look for a marine in powder blue amour.”

  She dropped out of the shuttle hatch to the ground and ordered the ship to seal all hatchways before starting the trek to the Triton settlement.

  Chapter 49

  The Tumultuous Sky

  “We can’t be that lucky,” Captain Valent said as he walked around the back of the bridge to the scanning console.

  “It’s right there, the Ferryman, under the command of Lucius Wheeler out of Pandem,” Minh-Chu replied.

  “Yup, right there,” Kadri confirmed. “Less than half a million kilometres from our wormhole exit point. Reading the spacial disturbances, I’d say he just came out of a hell of a wormhole himself, real high powered, like it was made by a big space station.”

  Jake stared at the readout in disbelief. “Well, look at that,” Frost said.

  “How many drop ports are open? Did they get them all unsealed?” Jake asked.

  “We got eighteen out of twenty eight. All loaded up and ready,” Frost replied.

  “Loaded with?”

  “C-44Ts, seeker bombs,” Frost said.

  “You’re a bad man,” Jake said with a smile.

  “C-44Ts?” Minh-Chu asked. “That’s not on my fighter’s arms list.”

  “They’re mines that burst into forty two seeking missiles when they see the designated target. Easy to make, nasty to fight.”

  “The ‘T’ stands for thermalitic, doesn’t it?” Minh asked.

  “Aye, burns and burns against a hull,” Frost said. “After exploding pretty good, that is.”

  “Finn,” Jake said. “Get the Big Surprise ready, make sure the guidance system and thruster is ready, too.”

  “Aye,” Finn said, handing his engineering station over to Angela McKinn, a former damage control captain from the Triton.

  Captain Valent checked the emergence timer on the main display at the front of the small, crowded bridge and watched it count down from 00:00:2:00 to 1:59. “Less than two minutes, then we’re in it,” he announced ship-wide. “The first ship we have to kill is called the Ferryman, and they probably have backup. We burn and turn to the next fight until we’re home. Time to earn your pay.”

  He put his hand on Minh-Chu’s shoulder and smiled at him. “Ronin, you have work to do.”

  Minh-Chu was up and down the hallway to his fighter at a run, dodging past other crewmembers along the way. “How are our chances?” Jake asked Frost.

  “Can’t get a read past her hull, but she’s only got four particle beam turrets, our shields can handle those for a week. I expect missile banks, maybe even a micro-nuke, but no antimatter. That’d register even through the pinhole we’re looking through. I expect surprises from that ship, though, even though it looks like she’s stock, straight out of the yard.”

  “What about the mess past her?” Jake asked, looking at the incomplete scans millions of kilometres behind the Ferryman.

  “I’m thinking the same as you probably are, Captain,” Frost said. “Chaos. I see fragmented readings of high powered beam weapons, what looks like broken hulls, nothing to be sure of other than something big is happening just on the other side of the moon.”

  “Well, we’re about to find out,” Jake said, returning to the captain’s chair. “Stephanie, get your boarding teams ready. I don’t know if we’ll have time, but we might be boarding that ship.”

  “Acknowledged, we’re ready,” Stephanie replied over the comm.

  “Emerging in nineteen seconds,” Ashley announced, getting a good grip on the controls and double-checking the mind-link system. “I’m going evasive as soon as we’re clear.”

  “Remember, this isn’t just a wormhole,” Jake said quickly. “We’re trailing a lot of hyperspace particles behind us because we combined both FTL techs.”

  “Yup,” Ashley said as the Warlord emerged from the wormhole distortion and she flared all the ship’s thrusters hard. The hull rattled under the pressure, but her trick worked: the exotic particles that would make the ship unstable during a turn were sent away from the ship.

  The main display flickered as Ashley spun the main thrusters so the ship accelerated sideways. Particle beams and small gauss cannon fire missed the Warlord for long seconds.

  Captain Valent used the time to check the more acc
urate scans of the area for friendly craft, more enemy craft, or other potential complications to the engagement. As a cannon on the Ferryman was used, panels opened up on her outer hull. When they began to heat up, the guns stopped firing and the panels closed. “Gunnery control, have our turrets focus on those hatches,” Jake said.

  They started taking hits and Jake was satisfied that their shields would give them some time, as long as there weren’t any larger surprises aboard the Ferryman.

  “Captain, only the rear launch doors are opening,” Ronin reported over the communicator. “The front ones were never re-cut.”

  “We work with what we have, Ronin. Launch.”

  “Punting, or vaulting in this case,” Ronin replied.

  “Something I want you to think about, Ronin,” Jake said. “This is Wheeler, we’ve finally got a shot at him, but this is a brute force encounter, not a chess game between captains. We slag him, leave a smouldering ruin behind, and move on. You cover us while we do the deed.”

  “Yes, Sir,” Ronin said. The navigational symbols for three extended Uriel fighters appeared on Captain Valent’s display. Minh was flying with Joyboy and Pisser as his wingmen.

  The Ferryman launched an entire bank of missiles. Their fighter cover was on top of it, destroying eighteen of the projectiles, but ten got through, bursting the second before striking the Warlord’s hull. “What were those?” Frost asked.

  “Damage?” Captain Valent asked.

  “Critically super-heated panels between frames eleven and twelve, sections twenty one and thirty,” Angela replied.

  Ashley rotated the ship so a stronger section of their shields was facing the Ferryman. Jake could see she was getting ready for another volley from the positioning of the ship and her engine pods.

  “Frost, as soon as their next volley lands, launch nine pods. I want them to split as soon as they clear the ship so we have a few hundred micro missiles on the way to the Ferryman. We need all our gunners concentrating on weakening their shields around those beam weapons.”

  “Aye,” Frost said.

  Jake glanced at the slim forty metre long ship. Her engines were built in little bulges down the length of her hull. It was a manoeuvrable ship with more armour than he would have expected from a vessel her size. He looked up the profile of the missiles Wheeler had just launched at them and cringed. “Ronin,” Jake addressed. “They’re firing shield breakers. They’re small, but they emit a pulse before striking an enemy shield that works like an EMP against a section of shielding before hitting.”

  “Gotcha, expensive little buggers, gotta knock ‘em out,” Ronin said.

  Jake watched as Ronin’s small fighter group used the Warlord as cover, peeking out, draining their energy weapon batteries then retreating for a few seconds while they recharged. It was a safe manoeuvre, especially since one shield breaker missile could do serious damage to an Uriel fighter.

  The Ferryman let the next volley loose, opening a set of panels running the length of the ship as thirty-five projectiles fired. Minh’s fighters thrust out from behind the Warlord, firing automated countermeasure gun pods and a couple of missiles of their own at the cluster of deadly projectiles.

  At the last instant, Ashley rotated the main thrusters of the Warlord and flared them as hard as the controls would allow, pushing many of the remaining missiles away, or forcing them to detonate early.

  “Scattered hits,” Angela announced. “No significant damage.”

  “Counter launch!” Captain Valent ordered.

  Nine missile mines were hurled from the bottom of the Warlord’s hull. They burst into hundreds of micro-missiles that sought out the Ferryman.

  “Ashley, roll us over into position on the other side of the Ferryman,” Jake ordered. “Frost, get ready to launch the other half of our mines and reload the first half as fast as you can.”

  As Captain Valance expected, the Ferryman’s countermeasures, mini-cannons firing flack, shredded most of their initial launch before they could reach their target.

  “Captain Valance,” came Captain Wheeler’s voice over the communicator. It was a one-way message, intended to begin a dialogue. “Why would you even bother fighting a boarding action in that antique? We can settle our scores without the messy collateral damage.”

  “We built her like an antique because we couldn’t find better parts,” Frost said under his breath.

  Jake shot him a withering look over his shoulder and said; “When we’re within a kilometer, launch the second load. Get the quad set warmed up.”

  “Aye, Captain,” Frost said.

  Captain Valent watched the display. Ashley was having difficulty getting into position; the Ferryman’s pilot was probably under instructions to keep her away from extreme close range. He opened a channel to Wheeler. “It’s Captain Valent now, and I’m looking forward to marking your broken hull as a navigational hazard and moving on. This is already over, Wheeler. Surrender or die,” Captain Valent said before jamming the Ferryman’s frequency.

  Ashley was finally getting the Warlord close to the Ferryman, and their opponent’s shields were no longer keeping up with the punishment the Uriels and the Warlord’s guns were meting out. “Ronin, shred their aft dorsal section,” he ordered.

  In seconds the Uriels were in position, unleashing a torrent of micro-missiles and gunfire on the upper-rear section of the Ferryman. A burst of fire and light erupted from the rear of the enemy ship and Pisser’s fighter exploded into pieces. Ronin and Joyboy thrust away from that section of the ship and fired from a greater distance, staying evasive.

  Captain Valent didn’t let the loss faze him - there would be time for mourning later. A full volley of missile strikes erupted against the Warlord’s hull. Sections of hull plating were heated to the point of being soft, they lost three main launcher barrels, and others were warped. Two crewmembers were obliterated, five more were being medicated into stasis.

  “Fire barrels eleven through seventeen,” Jake said, knowing the others either weren’t loaded yet, were warped by the heat, or damaged beyond use.

  “Roll out, Ashley,” Captain Valent ordered, but she was already rolling the ship and thrusting away, so the Warlord would fall in behind their enemy, with her undamaged fore section pointing straight at the Ferryman.

  The mines burst apart, freeing hundreds of mini-missiles that had less than two kilometres to travel before impacting on the rear section of the Ferryman. Countermeasures destroyed a third of the projectiles before they hit their target, but the rest struck home.

  The Warlord was pointing directly at the Ferryman, nose first. Captain Valent looked to Frost, who nodded. “They’re hot, sir.”

  “Open torpedo tubes and fire the quads,” Jake said. “Start moving us in the other direction, Ash.”

  The hum of the railguns one whole deck beneath the bridge rattled the floor, and the bridge crew could feel the vibration of four railgun-assisted torpedo tubes firing their heavy projectiles. Rockets activated as soon as the torpedoes were two hundred metres away from the ship, and they made the distance between the vessels in less than a second. One was thrown off by countermeasures, missing entirely then detonating too late, well in front of the Ferrymen.

  The other three struck the rear of the enemy ship. It was impossible to see the munitions in action, but Captain Valance knew that each torpedo forced a two point eight ton slug into the rear of the Ferryman followed by hundreds of kilograms of solid xetima fuel, which would burn without the help of exterior oxygen; it carried its own. The ruined aft section of the Ferryman burned hard, as though the three rough entry points became rockets for several seconds, then flamed out, glowing white and yellow.

  “Target weapons,” Captain Valent said, speaking to the bridge and Ronin. “If you see anything under power, tear it to shreds.“

  “The Ferryman is signalling her surrender, Sir,” Kadri said.

  “First Officer,” Captain Valent said to Stephanie though his comm. “Get set to board the Fe
rryman. If there is resistance, you are to retreat and we’ll slag her from a distance.”

  “Aye, just get me on that ship,” Stephanie replied.

  Captain Valent was just checking on the sections of the hull that had been superheated and damaged during the fight and was pleased to see that the energy absorbed from the engagement was helping the ship to regenerate when something came up on his alert system. He stood and brought the far side of Kambis up on the main tactical display at the front of the bridge. “Hail the Sunspire,” he ordered.

  “Right away,” Kadri said. “Freeground registry, under Captain McPatrick. Response coming in from Doctor Carl Anderson, formerly of-“

  “I know, put him on,” Jake said.

  “Jacob,” Doctor Anderson said with a smile. “You’re on the wrong side of the battlefield.”

  Jake’s comm chirped with a notification that he had a message waiting from Jason Everin. He ignored it for the moment and replied to Anderson. “What are you doing in this section of space?” Captain Valent asked.

  “Recruiting,” Doctor Anderson said. “If you’re looking to join the fight over Tamber, I’ll check you in with our group leader, The BSF Argos.”

  “British Security Force,” Captain Valent said. “You brought the British.”

  “We brought the British,” Doctor Anderson said with a grin. “They have this taken care of for the moment, we can finish what you’re doing so you can get to Port Rush. A ship your size may be able to push through the fighter screen protecting the planet.”

  “Why, how bad is it down there?” Jake asked.

  “The Leviathan is resisting, but we’ll take it down. The planet is where the real war is, I’m afraid. The Warlord should be small enough to provide effective air cover while evading, and your people will make a big difference to the Triton settlement down there if you can drop them on the surface.”

  “Understood, can you pick up Wheeler’s ship? Do you have time?” Jake asked.

  “We’ll tractor it in, I’m sure he’ll be glad to see me again,” Doctor Anderson said.