The Complete Clockwork Chimera Saga

by Scott Baron

  “Hey, there’s no rush to any of this. Take your time, get comfortable with the systems. The Ra’az aren’t going anywhere, and while their building up strongholds is problematic, numbers are on our side. They’re pinned down and can’t do much damage, so don’t sweat this, okay?”

  “But what if I screw it up? What if I make the wrong decision?”

  “We all make mistakes sometimes. That’s how we learn. But you don’t have to pressure yourself, Freya. Just run through the checklists and make sure you know which missile is carrying which payload to be sure it’s a conventional one. And again, there’s no rush and no pressure. This wasn’t a planned thing, it just sort of sprang up when Maarl told us how the Ra’az had been strengthening their footholds in a few places.”

  “A few dozen is more like it.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t want to make a big thing out of it,” Sarah replied with a laugh.

  “...codes––won’t target––mechanism––” a staticky voice blurted faintly over the comms.

  “What was that, Freya?” Daisy asked, swiveling in her seat. “Sounded like a man’s voice.”

  “Uh, hang on,” she replied.

  “What are you doing? Monitors show you’re cutting power to a half-dozen pods.”

  “I think there’s a bad comms link down there. I’m just sequestering them so I can track down the fault, is all.”

  Daisy listened to the silence. No more static-filled outbursts bleeding over into their systems.

  “Okay, then. What do you say we try powering up the silos? Just a few at a time.”

  “I guess I can do a few at a time,” Freya said.

  “Fantastic. I know you can do it, kiddo. Now, let’s get started.”

  They spent the next several hours accessing and powering on silos around the world, carefully double and triple-checking the payload of each missile before selecting an appropriate unit to target the nearest Ra’az stronghold.

  Freya’s confidence grew rapidly once the project was underway. The top-secret facilities were child’s play for her, once she got over her initial uncertainty. In short order, they were ready to go.

  “It’s almost time. Signal all of your non-combatants in the area to pull back well clear of the facility,” Daisy transmitted to Maarl’s men on the ground.

  For their first attack, they had selected a hardened facility in the hills outside of San Diego, just south of LA.

  “Freya, you ready?”

  “Yep.”

  “Okay, when the stragglers are clear, launch the missile, and let’s see what we can see.”

  The hypersonic missile’s silo was fully online, and the payload had been confirmed to be a conventional explosive, but one strong enough to easily penetrate the facility’s walls.

  “They’re clear, Daisy,” Freya informed her.

  “All right, then. The ball’s in your court. Whenever you’re ready.”

  Freya triggered the launch command that would send the missile soaring to its target.

  Nothing happened.

  “Uh, Freya? Any time now.”

  “I’m working on it.”

  Try as she might, Freya couldn’t get the missile to launch.

  “I don’t get it. The codes are right, and the silo hatch is open.”

  “Maybe it’s because there hasn’t been a maintenance team working on them for a few hundred years,” Sarah posited.

  “But the missile is in perfect condition. I double-checked.”

  “Then something else is wrong with it,” Daisy said.

  “Oh, I just thought of something,” Freya said.

  “What is it?”

  “It’s not a normal missile. It’s hypersonic. When it launches, it uses not just a chemical boost to launch, but a scramjet to reach top speeds. I bet it just needs a jump-start.”

  “Uh, Freya, how exactly does one jump-start a missile? I doubt we can park next to its silo and run jumper cables down to––”

  “No, we just need to give it enough air-flow to trigger the flight mechanism.”

  “You think you can do that, hon? Find a way to feed the air intake?”

  “Yeah, totally. Give me an hour. I just need to fire up one of my mechs.”

  A little more than an hour later, flying high above their target, Freya dropped the missile she had hastily mounted to her belly.

  “This should do it,” she said. “I can see its readouts showing the drive system is trying to kick in.”

  The missile fell faster and faster. The flow of air through the scramjet system was causing systems to engage, but not fast enough.

  “Come on, come on!” Freya urged.

  Forty-five seconds later, there was a small explosion as the missile drove into the ground, far off-target, and having failed to power up.

  “At least the warhead stayed inactive,” Daisy said.

  “Safety system. It won’t engage unless the entire missile is hot,” Freya informed her.

  “Makes sense.”

  Daisy thought on the problem a long while as she surveyed the map of the area surrounding the Ra’az facility.

  “Okay, so it is looking like the missiles are a no-go.”

  “I’m sorry, Daisy. I tried. I don’t’ know why––”

  “It’s not your fault, kiddo. You did a great job, and the idea about dropping it to kick-start the scramjet was an inspired one. I’m proud of you. It’s just, there was nothing more we could do. Something’s janky in the systems, and until we figure out what it is, we’ll just have to do things the old-fashioned way.”

  The old-fashioned way was by sending in ground troops, and while they had determined that a normal assault was simply not an option, Daisy talked it through with Marty and Freya and thought they’d come up with a novel idea.

  “You ready?” Daisy signaled to Marty several hours later, once he had loaded up his contingent of human and Chithiid soldiers.

  “Yep. Ready to rock. And you?”

  “Likewise,” Daisy replied. “Okay, you know the drill. We’ll fly in low and hot to draw their attention.”

  “And their fire.”

  “Yes, and their fire. Thanks for the reminder.”

  “My pleasure,” Marty chuckled.

  “While we do, we’ll have a pair of conventional ships make what looks like an attack run from the flanks. They’ll think we were a diversionary tactic, and they’ll be right.”

  “And while they’re busy with you and the other ships, I’ll come in map-of-Earth low, nice and slow, sticking behind the hills and out of sight. I’ll drop my payload about one kilometer from the base, then will peel off to a flanking position and run a decoy pass, like you’ll be doing.”

  “Exactly. At that time, Maarl’s guys will begin a fake ground assault. They’ll be far enough back to be clear of their weapons, but it’ll put the Ra’az on high alert and cause them to monitor the wrong direction,” Daisy said. “At which point another pair of conventional ships will make a medium-height pass from the rear and be driven off. That should hopefully keep their eyes off the ground, where our small team will be approaching from.”

  “These guys are cut off from global comms, so there’s no risk of reinforcements coming to back them up,” Freya said. “However, I think it’d be prudent to position a small ship high above to keep an eye out, just in case.”

  “Murphy prevention?” Marty asked.

  “Pretty much,” she agreed.

  “Sounds like a good plan,” Daisy said. “Are Tamara and the others ready to rock?”

  “Yep. Shelly and Omar are going to take up the rear, keeping their Chithiid trainees in the middle while the pros run point,” Marty said.

  “It’s going to be a true baptism by fire,” Daisy said with a smile.

  “Yeah, by live fire,” Arlo joked.

  “Indeed,” she replied. “Okay, then, let’s do this.”

  The ships took up their assigned positions and began the assault. As expected, Freya came under heavy fire as she a
pproached, but easily dodged it before peeling off, allowing the flanking ships to make their decoy runs. Meanwhile, Marty and Arlo successfully avoided detection and dropped their precious cargo barely a kilometer from the facility.

  “Damn, that guy’s stealthy as hell, Daze. For all his shit-talking, they’re a great pilot/ship team.”

  To be fair, I think Marty does the majority of the flying, though, Daisy noted.

  Freya ran another pass as the Chithiid ground forces began moving in toward the front of the facility. A few of the larger cannons actually found their range and very nearly hit the advancing forces before Freya fired a few distracting shots, allowing the Chithiid to pull back slightly.

  Daisy watched the feed of the ground team provided by the ship circling high above. Its camera possessed a fantastic optical system, and she could see the team clearly as they reached the rear of the facility undetected.

  “Those loyalists are sloppy,” she noted. “Did you see how quickly our guys reached the perimeter? And totally unchecked.”

  “Well, we are keeping them rather occupied on the other sections of the facility,” Freya noted with a giggle. “And our team isn’t exactly a bunch of slouches.”

  Daisy couldn’t help but agree.

  While the Chithiid trainees were performing admirably, given this was their first real firefight, it was the human contingent that really impressed her.

  Of course, she knew Tamara would be rock-solid, and watching her plow through loyalist forces as they breached the rear of the facility confirmed that. Shelly and Omar, likewise, were known factors, and talented operators.

  But the other humans, the stocky and well-armed ones in full battle gear whose faces she didn’t recognize, well, they were a sight to behold. She watched in awe as they moved as a deadly unit, sweeping through the facility, taking down loyalists and Ra’az alike.

  Holy crap. Look at them go! Who are those guys? Are they from the fleet?

  “Hell if I know. I’m just glad they’re on our side.”

  A half hour later the facility had fallen and a handful of loyalist survivors were marched from the grounds, hands bound behind them. As for the Ra’az, they had gone down fighting, as had been expected.

  “Excellent work, team,” Daisy called out over open comms. “Secure the facility and report in. Maarl will have further instructions.”

  She keyed off the comms and reclined in her chair, a happy smile on her face.

  “Okay, kiddo, take us back to Dark Side.”

  Chapter Eight

  Daisy was absentmindedly playing with the musical pendant Arlo had gifted her as Freya lifted off and took a leisurely course around the globe as she climbed toward the edges of the atmosphere.

  The left-most gemstone on the pendant played a happy little tune when she pressed it.

  “I like that song,” Freya said.

  “Me too. It’s nice. Cheerful,” Sarah agreed.

  Daisy pressed the stone again and silenced the pendant. She pressed the other two stones in turn, each playing an equally pleasant melody, though the first was her favorite by far.

  She was about to slip the pendant back into her shirt when, on a whim, she pushed in all three of the small gemstones at once.

  A strange musical tone emitted from the device before she released the pressure.

  “Okay, that wasn’t so pleasant,” she said, tucking it into her shirt.

  “Freya? Daisy? Were you just attempting to signal me?” Mal said over their comms.

  “No, we weren’t. Why do you ask?”

  “I had slight readings of music a minute ago, then a strange tone just came blasting through on one of the unused off-band frequencies. I wouldn’t have even noticed it, but I’ve been playing with them while trying to find a way to cycle signals to remote craft,” Mal replied.

  “Hang on a minute. You received that signal all the way out on Dark Side?”

  “Yes. I’m in Hangar Two, at the moment. Why? Where are you?”

  “Just took off from LA.”

  “Yet the signal still came through,” Mal said, confused.

  “But radio waves shouldn’t even be able to reach you there. The moon blocks the signal,” Daisy pointed out.

  “I know, and as I said, it’s an off-band frequency, though you’re right, it shouldn’t have been able to make it here, let alone into the base.”

  “Weird,” Daisy mused, pulling the pendant free and studying it closely as it dangled from its chain. “I had no idea this thing was that powerful of a transmitter.”

  “It isn’t, really,” Freya said. “It’s just that the frequency and cycle of the transmission is really odd. It doesn’t behave like normal radio waves do.”

  “Well, old-timey radio stuff is an entirely different tech than all of these new comms systems, so who knows why it worked like that,” Daisy said. “In any case, it wasn’t the most pleasant of sounds, so I think I’ll be sticking to the regular musical functions only, thank you very much.”

  Daisy was jolted in her seat slightly as they passed through the turbulence at the edge of the atmosphere.

  “Are you feeling okay, Daisy?” Freya asked. “I’m trying to keep the flight as smooth as possible.”

  “Don’t worry about it, Freya. I’m all good. It was just that storm combined with Finn’s heavy breakfast that did me in the other day. Note to self, eat light if we’re flying through a hurricane.”

  “Tornado,” Freya corrected her. “Hurricanes are tropical storms that occur over water.”

  “Of course they are. Thanks, kiddo.”

  The ship cleared the debris field in short order, easily avoiding the wreckage circling the globe. They’d been retrieving salvageable materials at a greatly accelerated rate since Celeste and her fleet arrived. Coupled with the Chithiid’s need to test their newly installed weapons systems, the space junk served dual purpose.

  What could be salvaged was taken to be repurposed. What could not, became target practice for the novice Chithiid gunners.

  Several of the mid-sized Chithiid ships were running targeting drills as Freya made her way to Dark Side. Being a stealth ship, it was incumbent upon her to make sure they knew she was there so as not to accidentally discharge their pulse cannons in her direction.

  “They’re getting pretty good, don’t you think?” Daisy mused as she watched the ships fire salvos at their drifting targets.

  “For a bunch of guys who hadn’t even fired a cannon until not that long ago, I’d certainly say so,” Sarah agreed.

  “Hey, you guys! Look over at nine o’clock,” Freya said, excitedly. “They’re trying out a new warp drive!”

  Sure enough, off to their left side––though in space, where there is no up or down, left was a matter of personal orientation––an exceedingly large Chithiid transport ship was glowing the telltale light blue of a vessel about to warp.

  “See the warp bubble?” Freya chirped with excitement. “It’s so much more stable than that old Ra’az garbage.”

  “One solid bubble, not a series of smaller ones. And on a ship that big, no less,” Daisy mused, impressed. “This is good news. They’re making even better progress than we’d anticipated.”

  “Now let’s just hope our luck holds when it comes time to begin the assaults,” Sarah added. “Not to be a party pooper, but we’ve still got a ways to go until they’re all ready for battle.”

  “Sure, I suppose,” Daisy replied. “But at some point there’s only so much more training you can do, and once the tech is dialed in, it really doesn’t make much sense to wait any longer.”

  The large ship flickered a moment, then warped away from view, only to return a few moments later. The blue ring around it was faintly crackling as the system powered off.

  “Huh, they jumped out and back so quickly, I wonder what’s up with the system,” Daisy said.

  “It looked like there was a power feed issue,” Freya commented. “If that was the case, I think the fleet’s warp tech is design
ed with a built-in safety to return a ship to its original position in the event of anything malfunctioning. My guess is it just kicked in and brought them back.”

  “Chu will not be amused his toys weren’t working properly. I know he and Vince spent the whole day on them.”

  “I think it worked, actually,” Freya said. “Just there was a power level issue, is all. Did you see how faint the warp bubble was? I mean, the fleet’s tech is nowhere near as powerful as the Ra’az orbs you stole, but even so, that was a particularly lackluster warp bubble. Still, it’s far more than the Ra’az currently have, so there’s that.”

  “Silver lining, huh?”

  “Always.”

  “The kid’s an optimist, Daze. You sure she’s yours?”

  “Ha-ha, very funny, Sis,” Daisy said with a laugh.

  “We’ll be in Dark Side in a few minutes,” Freya said, excitedly.

  “What’s up with you?” Daisy asked. “You seem all worked up about going back to the base. You been up to something again, Freya?”

  “You’ll see,” she replied cryptically, then said no more.

  Freya’s mass hovered above the deck in the vast space of Hangar Two while Daisy disembarked. She had clammed up and wouldn’t say any more about whatever her surprise was during the entire landing process.

  “Fine, be all mysterious, then.” Daisy laughed at her as she stepped down onto the ceramisteel floor.

  A sturdily built man with a square jaw, close-cropped hair, and piercing blue eyes stood by, watching her. With the fleet sending visitors to Dark Side so regularly, seeing new faces was a common occurrence, but something about the way this one was smiling at her made Daisy pause.

  Then she noticed the red bow stuck to the uniformed man’s chest. Like a Christmas present, only minus the wrapping paper.

  Not one to be kept wondering, Daisy changed course, walking directly to the visitor to introduce herself.

  “Stripes,” Sarah noted.

  I see them, Daisy replied, counting the stripes on the man’s sleeve. So, another soldier. I know the fleet’s big, and Dark Side is something of a novelty, but I still don’t see why they’d rather come here than down to Earth first.