Moon Dreams
Page 41
Ambush
Paul was wearing his moonsuit and light coveralls without his helmet as he sat in the Hopper’s cockpit and contemplated the changes Julia and his one time students had wrought over the last two weeks. Not only had they finished it but they had mounted an upgraded laser system on it. It wasn’t that he didn’t agree that they needed to weaponize everything that made sense, it was just that at heart he was a man of peace and the twisting of his fun and useful project into a deadly if fragile weapon went against the grain.
Julia was reclining in the second seat surrounded by a series of flat panel screens mounted on new, rather rough looking mounts, “We added four power stacks on the cargo deck along with the laser core. The pointer head is a chimera of the original optical bed and parts from one of the telescopes that was going to the far side observatory. It’s got a longer focal range than even Laser One, over a thousand miles and it can deliver an energy pulse equivalent to a medium caliber artillery round.”
“And when the Stack’s aren’t delivering energy to the laser they can provide thrust.” Paul finished as he went over the controls, wincing. The four new stacks were fixed, giving the armed hopper a lot less maneuvering margin than he liked. And while the craft was draped with stealth cloth the three big cooling vanes and the angular shape would be impossible to miss in space.
“Lots of thrust, nine gees along the centerline, way more than you can take long term but enough to clear out quickly.”
His comm tweedled, and his heart jumped, he’d been expecting this call, “Mr. President, Major Tien.”
“Major?” he put the audio on speaker.
“Mr. President, that force we spotted taking off from PS are bound for us in combat formation, accelerating at one and half gravities. Probably less than three hours out though the vector is a bit odd. The Colonel is on his way to the defense center.”
Julia hissed, “That was quick, what set them off?”
“Oh hi Julia, unknown, it’s a bigger force than before but not by a lot, three groups of four bombardment platforms. One of the moonships, six fighters in two formations of three, each escorting a bombardment formation. They’re at one and a half gees, but I don’t think any of them are near max mass.”
Paul thought, they had no time, he’d suspected they wouldn’t, “Tell Arkan to contact me when he gets to the defense center.”
“What are you going to do?” Julia asked.
“Intercept them,” Paul replied flatly, his heart was pounding, he looked at her, “Who can operate the laser system on this thing best?”
Her eyes went wide, she licked her lips, but her voice was firm, “Me.”
He’d been afraid she’d say that, but he’d taken the job, he had no options. He tapped up a new Comm link, “Major Yarina, all the fighters are going up. Moonship Control what is the Aurora’s status?”
Patsy replied, “Stacks warm, nav up. The lasers bolted to the ceiling and the cables are run but we haven’t got it aligned yet Paul...uh Mr. President.”
“You and Raoul the duty crew?”
“With Saddee on offensive and defensive systems.” Paul squeezed the bridge of his nose, he was taking his friends, and in one case perhaps more than that, into deadly danger, but he had no options that he could see.
“Mr. President, are you on your way?” Tien sounded worried.
“Tell Olarik that we are going to meet the enemy in space and we are going to make this the Luna Republic’s coming out day. I’ll be piloting the hopper.” He cut the comm channel before he could hear a protest and called the ‘garage’ monitor. “How long to open the dome the usual way?”
“About an hour and a half Mr. President.”
“Get everyone out and start pumping it down but I’m going to have to cut my way out of here with the laser in about ten minutes.” He started to hit the buttons to bring the stacks from standby and warm the laser up.
“Uh, sir no need for that, we have an emergency protocol, give me fifteen and we’ll unzip the dome for you.”
“Get it done. Richards out.”
He hadn’t noticed Julia slip out of the open frame cabin, but now he saw her trotting towards him with two armored coveralls over her shoulder.
“Paul! Damnit Mr. President, we don’t need you risking your life. There are other perfectly competent people to take the hopper up.” Arkan burst out over the speaker.
Paul unstrapped and hopped out through the open lattice that provided rollover protection for the cockpit, starting to strip his light coveralls off before he had stopped hopping. “Maybe but they aren’t here and we don’t have time to think about this.”
The Colonel started to speak but Paul interrupted him, “Arkan, it’s my decision and unless you and Conti want to find someone else to play President, please drop it and get back to doing whatever it is you should be doing, other than arguing with me.” He tapped the comm pad off and started to pull off the light coveralls.
-Strike Force Nike-
Major Terrance Maguire leaned back in his command seat, looking around at the engineer’s position to see if there was anything new. Cursing the fact that his command, the Sadongese Space Cruiser SSC Revenge, ex-MoonDream, had yet to be upgraded to match the MoonBeam. The ship had a laser mounted in the cargo hold and a director that could deploy through the old crew hatch, but other than that, and some sheets of Kevlar to add a little more protection to the cabin, he was still flying an all but unprotected civilian freighter. Of course, she was principally the bait in this game of cat and mouse.
Nothing on the threat screens, Maguire settled back and rolled his shoulders to get rid of the stress that was building. The plan was to loop up and out then come ‘straight down’ at Luna Haven, giving them maximum effectiveness with the rocks while keeping all the ships clear of Luna Haven’s weapons. As they started that final leg he would announce his presence and demand Olarik surrender his space platforms. Olarik would have to react very quickly; hopefully he’d make the mistake of sending up his forces to fight.
Maguire had mixed feelings about the situation, their plan made sense but he didn’t understand what Olarik was up to. The colonel was an admirable officer, a level headed cold-blooded planner. Given the colony’s fragility Olarik had to know his options were limited. Of course, there was Paul Richards, whose role beyond technical genius was far from clear - and that bothered Maguire. The engineer was smart and dedicated to a dream Maguire couldn’t fathom, but it seemed unlikely that Richards would be working for Arkan if the Kazakh was simply after a bigger role in the latest New World order that was quickly evolving.
A bell rang, “Priority secure message,” The comm panel intoned.
“What the hell,” Maguire muttered, this wasn’t to plan.
The comm system read out the message, “From Sadongese Space Force Headquarters, be advised, all three observation platforms in Luna orbit have ceased communication, sensors indicate all have been engaged and destroyed by laser fire. Message ends.”
“Shit.” How had Olarik found them?
-Luna Republic Defense Flotilla Hawk-
“Secure link established Commander,” Julia’s voice came over the earphone, her voice a bit wispy as she fought the 3G’s they were pulling.
Paul grunted to himself and moved his hand to tap the comm pad, “Colonel Tien?”
“Mr. President?”
“Just Hawk Lead for now Colonel. I need you to feed us trajectory updates. Do we have a tactical net established yet?”
“Understood, Hawk Lead, we have vectors on all combatants and your systems should be getting updates now.”
He saw one of his screens spring to life with icons and vectors. “See it! Thanks, ops.”
“Yes sir, the observation platforms are gone as ordered. We have analyzed the strike forces course. It appears that they want to deliver a high velocity high accuracy salvo from directly overhead. They have to know we’ll spot them before launch.”
“But not i
ntercept right?”
“No, but they would be very vulnerable to attack as they pass by.”
Paul grunted, “It’s another show of force. But they want to stay away from the base defenses and if that’s the MoonBeam we might not want to engage with our fighters.”
“Analysts say it’s the MoonDream, not the MoonBeam, much higher cargo capacity.”
“OK, Colonel Tien, understood. We about ready to start the show?”
“The tractor with the programmable transmitters will be on the ridge in another five minutes.”
“Get ready to fire the Earth Link up as soon as you can, hold off on the second antenna till we are in position.”
“Roger that sir.”
“Talk to you later major.” Paul tapped another button, “Arkan?”
“Paul! Good to hear from you.” The colonel’s tone was sarcastic.
“Sorry Colonel, Arkan, about Helena and about me, no time to think, had to act.”
“Understood Mr. President, and the Colonel agrees with you, Arkan is struggling with being down here when his friends are up there.”
“I understand that Arkan.”
“Do you think they’re baiting us Colonel?” asked Julia.
Paul grunted, half of it in frustration, half of it his fight for air against the acceleration. “As long as they don’t know we know they’re there, I don’t care.”
“Paul, Julia’s right. Conrad is playing for checkmate one way or the other. My guess is that they’ll get in position then make a big long threatening speech, surrender or die, giving us time to get our ships up and into a fight. Has to be the plan, they’re looping a lot further out than they need to.”
Glancing at the tactical display Paul followed up, “Enough said Arkan, you have any suggestions about tactics?”
“This is a new world Paul, nothing I can tell you right now will be of any particular value, even if I’m right it’ll only be a lucky guess. What’s your plan? Get in fast, hit hard, and get out fast, destroyer and fighter tactics, not battleship tactics?”
Paul manipulated his tactical screen, showing his planned vector, “You see our course?”
“Cross in front of him, and come to a stop well out of his sensor range then accelerate so you’re overhauling him? Could lead to a fur-ball, a dog fight if you’re not careful.”
“We’ll catch up as he’s decelerating or curving his course to get his strike vector. Either way as long as he doesn’t see us till we light up we’ll get that fast pass with our weapons zeroed in while we catch him looking the other way. And then we’re in position for at least one more run before he can get into launch position.”
“When will you start the warning transmissions?”
“Half an hour before intercept, that way they can never complain that we didn’t give them warning.”
“Will do, Luna Link should be up any second.”
“Roger that, talk to you later Arkan, Hawk Lead out.”
“God speed Paul, come back safe, we need our heroes.” The line chirped closed before Paul could even begin to think of a reply.
A beep in his ear, “Awk Lead this is Luna Link we are live.” Paul recognized the voice, Thompson, Arkan’s top noncom.
They were on the edge of the beam; he could see the flow of data on a small screen. “Thanks, I can see it Sarg, good work.”
“Roger that, ‘Awk Lead, ‘it em ‘ard zur.” The link toned off before Paul could reply.
-The Pentagon-
Derry was sitting in the foyer of Admiral Davies office, his third period kicking his heels for hours in a day replete with them. He’d been here before noon to talk to a couple of friends, they had gotten him in to talk to Davies, on quiet but now he’d been waiting for over an hour.
Davies was an unusual Admiral, ex SEAL, ex chopper pilot and only later a surface officer. He had gotten up to the chief of operations, next in line to the Navy Vice Chief of Staff, by pure power of personality and intelligence. Derry had never met the man, but knew he was hard on everyone he didn’t consider up to his standards.
Something was going on, there were a lot of people, civilian and military, hurrying back and forth in the halls but most wireless systems didn’t work inside the Pentagon and on mahogany row there were no wall monitors and people only spoke in hurried whispers.
Suddenly the door to Davies office exploded open, a short burly man in rumpled blue suit looked at Derry from dark eyes, “You’re Jenkins.”
Derry had come to his feet, “Yes sir.”
“Davies,” A broad stubby fingered and, Derry found, immensely powerful hand was thrust at him. “We have an issue I hear you may be able to help explain, come with me.”
“Sir.” Derry followed as his rather wild haired guide spun on his heels
As they almost ran through his office, the Admiral spoke quickly, “About noon our time air assets off Palalo Sadong spotted craft taking off. A few hours later ground and air based space observation platforms reported a formation departing near Earth space probably for the moon.”
As he spoke they passed through a corridor and entered an elevator with its door open, the door snapped closed and they were nearly weightless for what seemed a long time before the floor tried to collapse his knees with deceleration.
The elevator door snapped open to show a corridor and guards who looked at Davies with blank eyes. They checked both ID’s and thumb prints before waving them through. On the far side of a thick insulated door was a vast operations room, with row upon row of workstations. Every station manned by officers from one of the four services, and other officers walking back and forth in the aisles. Most of the room seemed to be trying to stay calm and ignore the knot of gesticulating people that was Admiral Davies destination.
A woman’s voice spoke overhead, “.....once more, this is Luna Republic Defense Center to Palalo Sadong strike force, you are approaching our twenty thousand mile exclusion sphere, your vector and formation shows hostile intent, if you do not break away from your approach to Luna we will engage with lethal force. Acknowledge and comply with this message!”
A lieutenant commander at one of the consoles looked around, “Admiral Davies, several stations are receiving a narrowcast downlink apparently from the moon. Data is currently one way but has response enquiries and coding embedded. It includes e-mail and v-mail from various addresses of people known to have gone missing from Primus Junction Utah, going out to family and friends. There is also web page information about a Luna Haven, the Republic of Luna and the moonships.”
The admiral looked at Derry, “What do you think, some kind of trick or the real McCoy commander.”
“Do they list political leadership?” Derry asked the operator.
“Yes sir, President pro tem is listed as Paul Richards. The Vice President pro tem is a Conti Smith.” Pictures of Paul and a man Derry didn’t know appeared.
“That’s Paul Richards; don’t know the other man sir.”
Davies was looking surprised, “I do, Conti’s been knocking around the world for longer than I have. Guess I’d forgotten he worked for an Aristides subsidiary. If he were up there with me he’d be my choice for VP.”
“I’d guess the Admiral General figured out they were going to declare independence.” Derry said his stomach roiling.
The excited officer reporting on the feed pressed on, “There’s more on the feed, press releases. The Luna Republic is sending out copies of its base claim to territory on the moon, charter of independence, constitution and base laws. Its providing some specifications on the Paaly Stack power and propulsion system, and....”
“Enough commander, unless something big breaks.” The admiral turned to another console, “Lieutenant, anything coming in from our own sensors?”
“A couple of astronomical instruments have locked onto the location of the downlink; they can see something but no details. It’s in the same area as some amateurs picked up what they thought was dus
t and laser glints from some kind of battle the other day.”
“Anybody working on an uplink?” The admiral called out. Someone a couple of rows down held up a hand, “A NASA facility is almost there sir.”
“Good.”
“You know this Paul Richards; he called you?”
“Known each other for years, he was a contract engineer and project consultant. He used to work for the Navy sir.” Almost everyone in earshot seemed to freeze, “He was one of the contract program managers for Crazy Pork. Apparently we funded the early work that led to the drive; it was one of Paul’s programs. I looked it up. It was a tiny research grant, on a small scale fusion concept. It was cut off because the inventor wouldn’t report on his results. Apparently the inventor, Dr. Cooper Paaly knew he was onto something, he vanished about four years ago with his equipment.”
“Four years ago he was working for us? Oh to hell with it!” Now Derry saw why Davies’ hair was disheveled, he’d never seen anyone tear at their hair before.
“Sir we have radar signals coming from space, looks like someone has lit up.”
-Strike Force Nike-
“How the hell did they spot us?” Maguire snarled for about the fourth time, unable to stop himself repeating the question.
“No indication of radar signals on any receiver sir, there is a powerful transmitter trying to establish a downlink to Earth but it’s not pointing our way. We are outside of any passive sensors blind pickup. It almost has to be a bluff.” Sergey, the defensive system specialist replied crisply.
“Then how do they know where to point the damn signal?”
“Uh...it’s a fairly broad beam,” this time Sergey didn’t sound very positive.
“Screw it,” Maguire hit a switch, “This is Nike Lead, all Nike, light up and get into combat formation. They must have spotted us, full sector scan they have to be up and getting ready to intercept.”
-LRDF Hawk-
“Any chance they’ll see us?” Paul asked, as he saw the symbol that told him the enemy radar systems were sweeping space with high power microwaves. Hawk’s two formations were behind the enemy but catching up fast now. Almost the most dangerous time, the enemy commander had reacted more quickly than he had expected but had no idea they were behind him.
The reply came over the link from Luna, with its distinct light speed lag. “No, nothing pointing our way.” They were practicing strict emcon, emission control up until a few seconds ago. That’s why they’re in such a loose formation; they didn’t know where each was. Now they’re tightening up but they’re giving us all sorts of targets.” Came the reply over the link from the other part of his attack force.
“Blowing the spy platforms and the call to break off hasn’t given the game up?” Paul asked himself softly.
Julia replied, “They may suspect a bluff of some kind. We hit him with a lot of different things in quick sequence, but we can’t depend on keeping him off his game.”
Paul stared at the tactical situation image, “ten minutes to light up, and eleven till closest pass.”
She reached over and gripped his arm, he looked over, turned his arm to grip her hand, wished there was more he could do. But time was counting down fast now.
“How close are we going to get?” she asked.
“My intent is to keep the hopper tucked up with Alexis and get no closer than about five hundred miles, you’ll open the engagement at maximum range, we need to do damage and also keep them focused on us. The fighters will come in from a different vector at a much higher speed closing with their stacks in standby, ballistic, depending on distraction, their small size and the stealth tarps to allow them to get into engagement range without being spotted.”
“They won’t have a very long firing run.” Julia pointed out.
“But they will get at least one good track, maybe two and hopefully the chance for a second engagement.”
-Strike Force Nike Fighter Lead-
Hanging from his seat straps as his fighter decelerated towards huge silver gray crescent Rich Halberg was a little uncomfortable, a little puzzled, a little tense, but those were minor beside the gloating bubble of satisfaction. He’d finally found his place in the world, a place where his abilities were recognized and he wasn’t restrained by stupid rules and PC bull crap.
Halberg, and many others in the Admiral General’s court, simply wanted to wipe out Luna Haven and rebuild if there was any real value, after they had established hegemony over the world. He’d lobbied hard for a kill strike on the colony instead of the stupid and ultimately expensive surgical, pussy, strike.
But General Howard, Colonel Tassinara and even Major Maguire had thought that Olarik could be convinced to rejoin them. Now they had this second half hearted raid though with a real punch hidden behind the pussy blow.
Now they found out that Olarik had somehow lost control or even turned. Maybe they’d be allowed to use any nukes they didn’t use killing Yarina and the others on the town. That’d show the stupid civilians, any who weren’t nuke fried or vacuum dried meat, who was boss.
He felt his smile broaden as his as his attention came back to the here and now and ‘his’ pair of nuke armed platforms, what a kick! Nukes! And it wasn’t like the other two were harmless, they were ‘spinners’ loaded with canister rounds packed with thousands of ball bearings, the platforms would spin them out in a tight spiral and detonate them to create a wall of deadly fragments that would shred anything the Lunies had.
“Anything on your screens, escort force?” Rich grimaced at Sergey’s call, they were networked, and the Revenge had a better view than the fighters. His three fighters were arrayed with one pointing ‘north’ one ‘east’ and one at the moon; Terry was griping about hanging from his straps as they decelerated into orbit. Halberg had told the Aussie wuss to stop whinging.
With the six fighters arrayed they had almost spherical coverage with the fighter’s big nose antennas, netted together they should spot even a stealthy enemy at a thousand miles, twice that at least ahead.
Halberg focused on the glowing screens that filled the instrument panels of his fighter, ignoring the glowing beauty of the view through his fighter’s transparency. Spectacular space vista’s palled quickly, especially for a fighter pilot. At the velocities and ranges inherent in space warfare the unaided human eye was of little value. Once you had taken off, and even more when you transitioned from air to space, the view out the bubble was no more than a distraction.
“This is Luna Republic Defense Center to Sadongese Strike Force. Break Now or we are weapons free. May God have mercy on our souls.” He had really grown to hate that woman’s voice; he waved his finger in her general direction.
But his gut tightened and he looked hard at the tactical situation screen, they were fifteen minutes from reaching the decision point, hold off or go straight in for a strike.
He knew what they should do; he tapped the command link, “Maguire.....”
-Strike Force Nike Lead-
Maguire cursed as he saw the link from Halberg light up a few seconds after that damned woman finished her curse. It was probably just more unneeded advice but he had to make sure it wasn’t something important. Before he could reach the ‘receive’ icon the cabin of the Revenge filled with the heart seizing sound of the master alert, “Clang, clang, clang…”
Xu, the engineer yelled, “Laser, laser, targeting laser….range…range is…unclear, but closing very fast….”
Maguire cursed, whatever system the enemy had, must have spotted them, it hadn’t been a bluff and Arkan had sent interceptors up. Then his tactical screen showed the direction of attack. From behind!
But like the good officer he was he issued orders as his head spun in shock, “Xu, get the laser director extended.” He shifted to tac net, “Enemy is closing from behind, repeat enemy is closing from behind, reverse axis of attention, say again, reveres axis of focus.” He started to roll the ship so the laser head woul
d be pointing in the direction of the incoming threat.
“RRRRRR…” another alarm. “SHIT…. goddamned laser, laser fire detected…” Xu was getting excited, too excited, but there was nothing Maguire could do about that, now. Xu groaned, “Oh crap…explosion bloom…another?” Maguire saw the images on his repeater, the ragged flickering blot, spinning and spewing before fading. He cursed under his breath as a fighter then a platform fell off the net. .
The tactical display suddenly shifted. It showed his little strike fleet, twenty two, twenty now in three closely linked clusters, following a line through space. Another line passing near theirs, a single red bead slid down that line with mind numbing speed.
Maguire snarled, “Xu, what’s the range?”
“Ah…Oh…range? Range is….”
The weapons officer yelled, “target, target spotted….range is less six hundred miles...” The alarm growled, “RRRRRRRR.” another of the icons on the tactical screen, the one closest to the racing red dot flashed orange.
“Target two missiles on it and Fire, Fire, Fire, everything you can fire.” Maguire screamed, as he punched the comm pad to link to the fighters.
There was a thunderclap, and the Revenge shivered. The master alarm howled its protest and red smeared across the control board that had been a comfortable green a second before.
Xu was screaming, Maguire figured he’d have the stupid coward shot, later. The ship bucked and shivered again, Guns yelled, “Hit him, laser tagged him! We have a lock, Missile four is accelerating for the intercept - damn it - he’s passed! Captain, roll ship, I can’t bear on the target any longer!!”
Maguire realized that the propulsion system was still working, had to be, he still felt like he was seated on Earth. His hand on the collective twitched, the ship shivered, started to roll.
Finally Maguire realized what Xu, was screaming, “FIRE! FIRE! We’re on fire!”
His eyes jerked to the sea of red indicators, yes there was the fire alert, in the other compartment. It was both on fire and leaking air like mad.
On the tactical screen one of the platform icons was ringed in orange sprinting away from the rest of the group, after the red bead falling away from them at a ridiculous rate..
Xu’s voice was a moan, “Fire. We’re on fire! Oh God, the oxygen tanks!”
Maguire’s throat constricted, “Shut the hell up and open the compartment to space you fool.” He jerked around, struggling with his harness, he saw Xu’s hand reaching for the correct button, hit it.
There was a thump and the floor plates shivered under them again. There was an odd shrieking sound, then nothing. Then quiet….or it seemed quiet even with the electronic pings, rings, chirps and growls of the alarms. Then the lights flickered and went out and emergency lights flickered on. There was a whine and he could see the reset starting...
Maguire sagged across the back of the seat he had been about to jump over, then, “Xu!” the little oriental engineer looked at Maguire, who finished, “you probably just saved our lives, so…when we land I’ll give you twenty minutes…after which, if I ever see you again I will kill you…do you understand me?”
The gurgling sound and bobbing head were sufficient, Maguire rolled back into his seat. Looked over at the weapons officer, who was cursing under his breath, “What’s the problem weps?”
“Everything gone, the laser, and the radar, the laser was a goner anyway, a hit took out the cooling loop and the system lost pressure when it was firing. I think the diode array’s gone and the lasing cavity’s burnt out. It looks like we had a power surge of some kind, the rest of the systems look like over-voltage trips.
Maguire shrugged, “We’re alive and we touched them, they are moving too fast to get turned around anytime soon.” The ships main systems had reset but most of the tacked on military systems were down hard, he was out of communications. But he was still sitting in his seat; the lights were back on and the navigation system up. They were alive, the ship would get them home, and everything else could wait till later.
-Strike Force Nike Fighter Lead-
“Maguire, this is Halberg, we should talk to .......” he stopped realizing that the link had not opened. He felt rage simmer up, Irish prick, ignore him would he?
Then over the general net Maguire’s voice, flat and controlled, “Enemy is closing from behind, repeat enemy is closing from behind, reverse axis of attention, say again, reverse axis of focus.”
Halberg felt a little floaty, shocky, his hands numb, the general alert sounded, he saw the tac-net shifting, an icon blinked, telling him the net was degrading, and then two vehicle icons blinked out. From the edge of his eyes he caught a flash, a glint of something, which was gone in an instant.
The tac net screen showed a red line and a bead slipping along it, already even with them about to pull ahead. “RRRRRRR…” the audio tone of the threat receiver growled, shocked him out of his stasis, jerking his attention to the threat receiver display. A radar signal, not from the red bead, a fighter radar, closing fast and too bloody close.
His moment of shock hadn’t lasted long, Major Rich Halberg, Palalo Sadong Space Force, was a natural killer in his way, and a good pilot with lightning fast reactions. Before his mind had caught up to the situation his hands were gripping the sidearm controllers and he was rolling his fighter to respond to the oncoming attack.
Terry, Terrance Smith the ex Australian pilot was even faster, but as fast as his reaction were, as well honed as his instincts, and responsive as his craft was, none of it mattered. The one megawatt laser beam punched through the hull below his feet and then carved its way through the pilot’s seat and the pilot. He screamed as his cockpit filled with fire and smoke. As his control inputs rolled the fighter the beam sliced through the shivering hull. The end came when the laser chopped into the ejection seat charges, rupturing and detonating them. The forward hull of Terry’s fighter exploded, hurling chunks of the dead craft and its pilot into space. A second hit carved through the rear fuselage into the hydrogen and oxygen storage tanks and an instant later the ruined ship erupted into a cloud of jagged wreckage.
Rich saw his wingman explode and screamed in rage, his fingers had already punched the command to send the missiles under his command lunging at the four fighters his radar showed so clearly now. His threat receiver screamed and one of the missiles blew up at almost the same instant. As he fought to bring his laser to bear he could see that the enemy was almost out of range. Then the enemy was out of range and he was left screaming curses at their rapidly fading radar blips.
One side of his Perspex filled with bright light that wasn’t the sun, a flash of terrible blue white light that faded to red and was gone. The honk of the nuclear event detector that had been installed when the original F-104 had been built three quarters of a century before sounded for the first time in the fighter’s life.
-LRDF Hawk-
Paul realized his hands were shaking, the alarms were silenced, the voices over the tac net had settled back to a normal timbre. The enemy was fifteen hundred miles behind and the range was opening at almost fifteen miles a second. The infinite no man’s land of space had reasserted itself. Julia still had the MoonDream in her sights but at this range keeping beams focused and localized was impossible, they’d end up shining a very bright flashlight at it, no more.
Behind them, caught on several screens a brilliant violet spark erupted into a featureless sphere, fading from white to yellow, red and black, leaving vacuum awash with a sizzling storm of radio frequency static..
“What the hell was that? A laser hit?” yet he was almost sure he knew what it had been.
“Warning, warning, all Hawk, Hawk lead, we have platforms accelerating at ten Gs plus in pursuit of Alexis and the Hopper. This was an ambush; they are not loaded for bombardment.” Tien called out, he probably hadn’t seen the detonation that confirmed his guess.
“Shit that was a nuke!”
Someone else was screaming.
Paul hit his general send, “Break, break up the formations, Patsy get the Alexis out of here, Helena get your fighters clear.”
Before he was could close the link another hellspot erupted.
“Hopper, Julia, we are feeding you two tracks, two platforms in pursuit, they are still falling behind but accelerating at ten Gs they will catch up in less than twelve minutes. Fighter lead you and your wingman are being chased by two platforms. You have thirty minutes.
“What about Chas and Minna?” Helena called back sharply.
“Sorry Fighter Lead, we don’t have tracks on them any longer. They were intercepted by one of the platforms, it was less than a mile away when it vanished and their ships went a moment later.”
“Oh God.” Helena whispered. Paul cursed silently to himself.
“What about the first explosion?”
“One of the platforms you shot up Hawk Lead, looks like it detonated by accident, a hundred miles from anything when it blew.”
“Roger that. Salvage fusing?” Paul responded.
“Poorly executed, a lash up,” Tien was obviously irritated by the incompetence.
The tactical officer spoke up, “Flotilla Hawk, enemy disposition update, the MoonDream is accelerating at three Gs, vector is clear of Luna shaping course for a return. It does not appear to be in communication with the rest of the strike force, it was the closest ship to the first detonation. Three enemy fighters were destroyed or knocked out, two are accelerating for Earth, and one is obviously in trouble, accelerating erratically. Four platforms were destroyed outright, one intercept, three maneuvering for intercept, four others have ceased any maneuvering. Be warned we have no way of telling if all or some are nuclear armed.”
“Not all are Luna Defense. I got a secondary on one I hit, it blew to hell and spewed a lot of trash, but it was no Nuke.” This was the calm voice of Helena’s wingman Scott Blackmore.”
“Roger that confirmation Fighter two.”
“Helena, can you take on the two maneuvering for you.” Paul called.
“Yes, I just hope a hundred miles is clear enough.”
“We’ll get the one following us.” Julia was calmly confident, “what about the ones that have gone dumb?”
“What’s their orbit look like Luna Defense?” Paul asked.
“They’re too slow for a clean escape; they’ll loop back into the inner system eventually, about a hundred years from now, no way for a quick solution.”
“I don’t like leaving that sort of crap wandering in our space,” Paul found it very strange to be saying that.
“There is one remaining enemy fighter we are unclear of the status on. It is tumbling, not maneuvering; it’s following the remaining bombardment platforms on a ballistic vector. It is not communicating but its radar is on, in search mode, but not switching modes. IR shows that its power source is still operational and it does not appear damaged”
“Damn it.” Paul muttered, but he started to plot a new course anyway.
Julia’s suit wobbled, she was nodding her head, “No way of knowing what’s up till we get too close for comfort. Even with my sweet baby.” She patted the nearest laser status screen affectionately.
-The Pentagon-
“Nuclear detonation!” Someone screamed as a pulse of blue white punctuated the rather boring black background with its overlay of small red and yellow icons and electronic warfare symbols. At a hundred thousand miles they had seen only the occasional glint up to now.
“What the hell! Who gave these shit heads nuclear weapons!” Davies snarled dangerously. As emphasis another detonation flashed, “Shit, shit.” The Admiral shook his fist at the ceiling.
Activity had amped up all around, “We’ve lost some of the observation sensors, overloads in certain frequency channels.” Someone called out.
“We’re not going to have to worry about an EMP event; the explosions were too far out.”
“Nuclear detonations make this a UN concern,” someone called out.
“Screw the UN, the UN doesn’t have dick to say until this is long over.” Someone else responded hotly.
“As usual DoE is being useless,” A youngish Air Force general snarled, “But one of my operational analysts says the blasts were in the hundred kiloton class.”
“Who’s firing off the Nukes Jenkins?” The Admirals hot eyes were on Derry.
“The Chinese have been Mindow’s backers from the start sir. My guess is Chinese nukes on PS weapons, against the Luna Republic ships.”
The Admiral nodded, “Sounds right, don’t think civvies would go nuclear this quick.”
Things did not get a lot clearer for awhile; there was only one radar on now, apparently in an out of control PS space fighter. There were hints that the two forces had at the least fought to a draw and were withdrawing, but that was more guess.
“Anything coming over the link, if not can we send queries?” Derry asked the lieutenant commander watching the Luna Republic traffic.
“A press release just hit the server, claiming their forces met the PS strike force, and the PS used nuclear weapons. They claim to have knocked the PS force about before the Nukes went off; they lost two fighters to one of the Nukes. Disclaimer of any Luna Haven nuclear weapons or intentions, which is sweet of them but they know as well as we do it’s meaningless given they can drop asteroids on our heads if they want to.”
“Less editorializing commander, anything else,” The admiral had appeared as if out of nowhere.
“No, sir, ah a, some queries on a Luna Haven chat board about the whereabouts of President Richards, there’s a rumor that he and his girlfriend are up, in the fight.”
The admiral pinioned Derry again, “That sound like our man?”
“Paul never backs down if he thinks he’s the man for the job, don’t know about the girlfriend.”
“Gay?”
“No, just burnt and busy.”
“Aren’t we all?” the Admiral grunted.
The lieutenant commander jerked as if shot as he read something, “Ah, Admiral Davies sir,” He looked around at Derry, “There’s a message on the main server, a request for Commander Jenkins to call President Richards.”
“Well apparently he isn’t up,” The Admiral sniffed, he looked at Derry, “You have his number.” At Derry’s affirmative he pointed at a pad on the console, “Dial him up.”
Derry did as ordered. There was a pause, then the beep of a line going through.
Nothing except heavy breathing.
“Paul, this is Derry.”
A grunt, near a gasp, “Hey Derry, scuse me, the gravs are a bitch.”
Everyone exchanged looks.
“I thought you were management Paul?”
A laugh, two actually, one feminine in tone.
“Yeah, well we’re small; I’m still the best pilot we have for these things. Wait one Derry.” Luna Defense this is Hawk Lead, we are closing on the four dead arrows and the tumbling pigeon, anything new.”
“Suggest you let Julia pot them from max range Paul, no knowing what they’re going to do.”
“Sounds good,” Paul grunted after the light delay pause.
“Feed me the tracks Luna Defense,” a woman’s voice, with the typical laconic calm of an experienced military officer.
“Hawk lead, you will be passing within a couple of hundred miles of the tumbling pigeon in a minute, it’s still not showing a reason to be out of the fight. Assume he’s a hostile playing possum.”
“Derry.”
“Here Paul.”
“We did not launch any Nukes, but I’m sure the Admiral General will claim we did. After that, things are going to go nonlinear on the world stage; we all know it, and then doing anything will get really, really hard. We have to end this soon; very soon, no waiting or we may not be able to do it. When you get to your admiral tell him that. We’re not having luck through other channels.”
Davies leaned forwa
rd, “Mr. President this is Commander Jenkins’s Admiral, Admiral Davies, didn’t have a chance to introduce myself, I hear your message and concur to the hilt, what are you doing chasing down wreckage, sir.”
“Think there may be a nuke among em and they are not in escape orbit, I’m on the only ship with a laser with enough reach to kill them from a safe distance.”
Davies grimaced, “Roger that sir, good hunting.”
There was a warning clang over the audio.
“Tumbling pigeon has gone active, maneuvering, blowing smoke and chaff.” The woman’s voice was flat.
“Damn it, he’s hitting ..... with....radar in pencil....” Paul’s voice was ripped by static.
“Electronic warfare attack from the fighter,” someone reported superfluously.
More crackling, “.....Lead.....slowing at m.....Gs, not dea.. ...peat not dead..”
The screen was lit by another hell bulb, “Nuke, same class.” Someone called out rather pointlessly.
“...t the f...er. Now yo.... just .... little chance.....” That was ‘Julia’s voice through the high G gasps and the roaring crackle of static.
“Pa....ong fighter, you ....alone....it up, you will...fairly.” Paul called out.
The hiss and pops faded a lot, “Hey, that you Richards.” The voice was faint but clear above the remaining static.
“Halberg?” There was disgust in Paul’s voice.
“The same, you know you really make this quite worthwhile, I’ve wanted to kill you for some time.”
“Hey Ricky, same back at you,” that was Julia.
“Oh Julia, my love, your presence gives me shivers of delight.”
“When you run out of chaff and smoke I’ll give you shivers right up your ass Ricky.”
“When that incoming vaporizes you I shall send air kisses after you.” ‘Ricky’s’ voice descended to a savage snarl at the end and the hissing a crackle of static redoubled
“Take....you damn....hole,” And suddenly the static was fading. “Thank you Helena, woo, damn it, he’s still accelerating and blowing clouds.”
“Incoming, two” Someone pointed out.
There was a thump and then a growl over the audio, and then quiet, “One....nice fireworks, Smithy was right, lots of shrapnel, we clear my dear?” Julia sounded almost light hearted.
“We are well clear, the other’s at two hu...” Paul’s voice was cut off by the thump and growl of the laser firing.
There was a wash of static, and on the screen in the operations room another bulb of hellfire ignited.
“The remaining deader is nearly in range.” Paul’s voice was calm.
“Damn it, Halberg’s getting away again.” Julia came close to whining.
“What do the two of you have going on; I think I need to know.” Paul asked calmly.
“He’s a king sized asshole, but mainly he stole my chopper, I shot him down with a hunting rifle. We never got past that for some reason.”
“Ah, friendly rivalry thing, I see.”
Another woman’s voice came over the line, “Would you two cut out the pre-coital repartee and kill those damned bombs, I need to pee and I don’t like doing it in my suit.”
“Roger that Helena.”
Derry leaned forward, “Ah, Paul you’re still on open mic you know?”
“Uh...oh sh...sorry Derry. Things got a bit interesting there for a few.”
“I heard, and saw. You’re getting too old for that sort of thing Paul, as well as being on the wrong career track.”
“We’ll talk about it at my next career counseling day. Is Admiral Davies still there?”
Davies leaned forward grinning, “Have to agree with the commander Mr. President, it’ll set bad precedents if you’re not careful.”
“Agreed Admiral, I spoke a bit with Derry about the plan, he can give you a quick rundown and you’ll see more from some things I’ve sent to Derry. After I get down and cleaned up we will need to meet and come to an agreement on a plan of action.”
Davies nodded, “Agreed in principle, we’ll get back to you on where and when.”
“Thank you Admiral, Richards out.”