by C H Gideon
A moment later, they engaged the enemy.
Five Orau stood there ready for them.
Ka’nak ran across the front of the alley, ducking and firing. He took one of the invaders by surprise and dropped him with a shot to the head. A second Orau returned fire and struck the Melowi. He grunted, but the blast didn’t penetrate his armor.
That was when Jiya turned the corner.
She loosed a barrage of fire, killing the one who’d shot Ka’nak and wounding another.
Then they were all dead, quick as that after Reynolds and Geroux came up behind them.
“One down, about eight more buildings to clear,” Ka’nak said with a laugh, starting off without waiting again.
“Stop!” Jiya ordered, bringing the warrior to a halt.
“We stay together,” she ordered, growling at him. “We stand a better chance of winning if we do this as a team, not some random collection of assholes.”
“Interesting visual aside, she’s right,” Reynolds stated. “We can’t stand to lose anyone playing cowboy.”
“I’m afraid I don’t know that reference,” Geroux complained.
“The maverick or the rebel,” Reynolds clarified with a huff, remembering once again that none of his crew came from Earth. “Regardless, we stick together.”
Ka’nak nodded to them and waited for the others to catch up.
Jiya offered him a grateful smile.
She’d been put in charge of these people and their lives. She was responsible for them, and she hadn’t been taking that responsibility as seriously as she should have been.
Not any longer, she swore.
It was time for her to grow up, same as the rest of the crew.
“San Roche, follow us and engage any targets that present themselves, but keep an eye behind you. We don’t want the Orau to sneak up on us.”
She turned to Ka’nak. “You and I will continue up front like the last time, only more carefully, and Reynolds and Geroux can take the back.”
Reynolds nodded his agreement with her decision, and he even waited for her to signal their departure before they set out.
Jiya swallowed hard as she and the Melowi warrior made their way along the building toward the next waiting enemy.
She was glad Reynolds had seen fit to let her take charge, and she promised herself she’d earn it by doing it right. None of her crew would die on this mission.
As they approached the corner, Jiya triggered her comm. “Any Krokans in the building to my right?” she asked.
“Negative,” San Roche came back a second later.
Jiya grinned and raised her weapon, firing bolt after bolt through the wall in the direction of the Orau hiding behind it. Screams rang out, and Jiya motioned Ka’nak forward.
The warrior went with a smile on his lips.
He stepped around the corner to find the Orau retreating and ducking to avoid being shot by the unexpected gunfire ripping through the building. Ka’nak added his weapon’s voice to the chaos, shooting down the handful of Orau before Geroux and Reynolds cleared the far corner.
The pair arrived to find everyone dead.
“Seven more,” Ka’nak counted, but this time he waited for the others before he ran off.
Shuttle fire continued to blast the streets around them as San Roche covered their approach.
It was still a long way to their target, the shuttle occupants hiding in the last building on the street, and there was plenty of time for things to go wrong.
Jiya decided that wasn’t going to happen.
They’d clean up the scum that were the Orau and the crew from the Loranian shuttle.
At the last building before engaging the Loranian crew, Jiya caught shrapnel to the neck that charred her skin and made it hard for her to turn her head all the way to the right, and Ka’nak was shot in the arm.
San Roche flew the shuttle closer and threatened to unload on the Orau who had turned the tide in the enemy’s favor, and the bluff worked perfectly.
As soon as the shuttle roared above, the last of the Orau’s discipline gave way and the ranks broke. No longer covering each other, they became most intent upon fleeing; the soldiers threw their weapons down and ran. Those who fought died quickly without the cover fire of their fellows.
The Loranian hideout was easily twice the size as any of the other buildings at the outpost. It was also better defended, and made of stone and steel rather than the wood of the other huts and buildings.
There were a number of murder holes for windows, and although Jiya could not see anyone peeking out of them, she could feel their presence as she hunkered behind cover.
“Head-on looks like it’s out,” Ka’nak advised, putting words to what they were all thinking. “They’ve cleared a killing field in front of this place.” He gestured to the open terrain between the building they lurked behind and the one they needed to get to.
“Yeah, I think I’ve been shot enough for one day,” Jiya agreed, rubbing her neck.
“Our targets are still in the building, right, San Roche?” Reynolds asked over the comm.
“Affirmative, sir,” the shuttle pilot replied. “There are twenty Orau, five passengers from the shuttle, and unfortunately, about twenty local Krokans, too.”
“Gralflie tits,” Jiya growled. “These guys are starting to piss me off.”
“Just starting? What’s the plan?” Geroux asked, staring at the building.
“We use the shuttle to distract them,” Jiya suggested when she heard it approaching. “We let San Roche pressure them and—”
A thought clicked in her head, and her eyes shot wide.
“Oh…shit!”
“What is it?” Geroux’s alarm raised her voice an octave.
The comm crackled before Jiya could get explain.
“The Loranian shuttle is coming straight at me,” San Roche shouted.
“Bring up the trigger,” Jiya ordered, and Geroux scrambled at her wrist to comply, fingers flying across the datapad.
As soon as the explosive detonator was up, Ka’nak pushed past Reynolds and tapped the controls.
The Loranian shuttle exploded mid-flight before it reached San Roche, going down in a ball of flame in the middle of the street. There was a tremendous crash and fire and sparks danced about, threatening to engulf the outpost.
“What?” he asked as everyone stared at him. “You said I could push the button.”
“Damn it!” Jiya watched the flames spread. “We aren’t trying to burn the place down. We need to put that fire out.”
“I think we might have more important things to worry about,” Geroux mentioned, gesturing toward the sky.
Beyond the city a legion of missiles streaked into the sky, leaving behind trails of smoke and fire as they headed for space.
“They’re attacking the Reynolds?” Jiya asked, her heart pounding at seeing the missiles rise.
Reynolds shook his head. “I don’t think so,” he answered. “Given the angle, it’s more likely they’re bombarding Krokus 4 again.”
“They’re hoping we’ll pull back,” Ka’nak stated.
“That’s not going to happen,” Reynolds replied. He reached out to Captain Asya through Comm. “Can we shut these missiles down, Captain?”
“Little busy right now,” she answered, and the crew could hear the sounds of battle in the background. “Mopping up the Orau ships at the moment, but we’ll take out as many of the missiles as we can while we’re here. Then we’ll start in on the sites, but it isn’t going to happen right away if you want us to keep the ship in one piece. Mostly.”
“Do your best,” Reynolds growled, cutting the link. “Looks like it’s on us, people.”
The Loranian shuttle crew and the last of the Orau fled, the two groups racing in different directions.
“I’ve had enough of these sandy assholes,” Reynolds shouted, realizing the Orau had been delaying them long enough to launch their barrage and to send the automated shuttle after them a
s a distraction.
“Go after those missiles,” Reynolds ordered San Roche. “Sit in high orbit and kill as many as you can. Buy my ship time to clear the Orau.”
“What do you want us to do?” Ka’nak asked.
“A couple of these damn launch sites are smack dab in the center of this outpost,” he replied. “That means there are civilians. We need to eliminate those to minimize casualties. Asya can’t hit these sites without causing significant collateral damage.”
Jiya nodded, understanding the situation. “Ka’nak, you and Geroux hit that one over there.” She pointed toward the nearest of the contrails leading back to the site. “Reynolds and I will—”
Reynolds shook his head. “You’re on your own, Jiya,” he countered. “We need to catch the Loranian shuttle crew before they slip away. That’s on me,” he stated, racing off before anyone could argue.
“Then that’s how it’ll be,” she said, gesturing for Ka’nak and Geroux to take off. “I’ll get the other site. Stay in contact on comm so we can rendezvous once we’re done.”
Ka’nak and Geroux dashed away, picking up speed on their way toward the center of the settlement. Jiya hesitated for just a moment, watching as Reynolds disappeared around a corner as he chased the Loranian shuttle crew.
What had been a simple plan to capture the aliens and nuke the missile sites had turned into a clusterfuck of titanic proportions.
With San Roche no longer providing air support, the crew were on their own. She needed to disable the launch sites, rendezvous with her crew, free the planet from Orau rule, and return to Krokus 4.
She decided that she’d better get started.
Jiya ran off before the cowering Orau figured out her top cover was gone.
She had a missile site to take out.
That suited her mood perfectly.
Chapter Sixteen
“We’ve lost them!” XO called. “The Loranian cruiser has Gated.”
Asya snarled. “Any way to track those fuckers?” she asked.
“Not while we’ve got these Orau shitstains strafing us,” Tactical answered. “While those Loranian twits didn’t collapse our shields, they sure as hell kicked them in nicely. We’re actually taking damage from these fighter-bombers.”
“Then draw power from the engines if you need to and reinforce our shields,” Asya ordered. “If we can’t chase the cruiser, we need to swat these flies before someone gets hurt.”
“I still can’t believe they survived that,” Ensign Ria said, eyes wide as she worked her console.
“Neither can I,” Tactical admitted, for once stating something without sarcasm. “They took the ESD and shrugged it off.”
“Not exactly,” Asya clarified. “We took out their shields and did some damage after the fact, so it wasn’t a complete waste of effort.”
“No, you don’t understand. The ESD is effective against Kurtherian technology. It has been used to destroy Yollin superdreadnoughts. There is no defense against it. Something must have gone wrong with the weapon. I wonder if Gorad planted a virus when he was fucking around in my guts?” XO snarled.
“Running a diagnostic on the system now,” Tactical reported.
“We knew they were different from the start since they tracked us through our Gate,” Asya replied, “but we’re going to have to worry about that later. Scanners are picking up a sortie of missiles being launched from the planet’s surface.”
“That’s not it,” Tactical bemoaned. I’ve found the code that was latched onto the ESD power system. The ESD fired at ten percent effectiveness. The system is down until I can strip the bullshit from the control programming. I’ll do that as soon as we put these Orau fucks in their place.”
Comm interrupted. “Got Reynolds on the line.”
“On speaker,” Asya replied.
“Can we shut these missiles down, Captain?” Reynolds asked.
“Little busy right now,” she answered, and the crew could hear the sounds of battle in the background. “Mopping up the Orau ships at the moment, but we’ll take out as many of the missiles as we can while we’re here. Then we’ll start in on the sites, but it isn’t going to happen right away if you want us to keep the ship in one piece. Mostly.”
“Do your best,” Reynolds growled, and the comm went silent.
“That went well,” Tactical quipped. Asya gave the empty tactical seat the finger, a gesture she’d picked up from watching human videos. She liked using it as an all-inclusive, word-saving retort.
“Like he said, we’ll do what we can.” Asya shrugged. “Tactical, split your efforts between the missiles that reach space and the Orau,” she ordered, spying the shuttle inserting itself between the missiles and open space.
“There are more Orau fighter-bombers incoming,” Ria announced. “They’re rising from the far side of the planet.”
“Can a superdreadnought fight off blood-sucking bugs?” Asya growled. “It didn’t work out well for that death star, but we’re not one of those, are we ladies and gentlemen?”
No one replied.
As Asya contemplated the state of affairs, Tactical turned the superdreadnought into a fantastic display of energy-fueled weapons. The closest Orau fighter-bombers vanished in the first few milliseconds, then the next concentric ring.
Missiles launched through the engagement zones, racing after the Orau missiles that had gotten past San Roche. Tactical whooped and catcalled as he spun his death dance.
Even after that awesome display, there are still too damn many to count, Asya thought. And they kept coming.
“These guys are like fucking hyenas,” Tactical muttered.
“What are those?” Ria asked.
“Smaller predators who run in packs to take down larger foes,” XO explained.
“They’re going to need more than they have,” Asya declared, pumping her fist as Tactical took out another wave of Orau ships.
“Fuck, yeah, they are,” Tactical agreed. The superdreadnought’s weapons slowed. Bolero started to play over the bridge’s speakers. Asya raised her hand to stop it, but the building tempo caught her attention. Tactical started cycling through the Reynolds’ weapons systems in time to the music.
Ensign Ria picked up on the pace and maneuvered to bring the Orau ships into the most lethal engagement zones.
“Fuck, yeah!” Tactical cheered. Asya leaned back and watched. She’d never seen anything like it. The firepower. The dance of death. The enemy that refused to give up. Missiles. A crew stranded on the planet.
“Rest gently, enemy mine,” she cooed softly at the Orau ships. “You’ll not have to worry about anything ever again. And then we’ll be on our way.” She smiled darkly as the Orau ships died before the onslaught unleashed by her ass-mouthed tactical officer.
The one good thing about an AI was that no matter how much Tactical gloated or talked shit, he never stopped fighting.
“Got one of the missiles,” Tactical called, but there was no excitement in his voice. “There are too many of them, though. San Roche is doing well, taking them out, but his weapons are limited and these damn things are smart, staying at extreme range from us.”
“Then we’re going to have to hope that Krokus 4’s shield can defend against whatever gets past us,” Asya replied, but then a thought hit her. “Helm, send a couple of the Pods out and chase those things down before they get too far. Maybe we can cut down on how many make it all the way to Krokus 4.”
“On it,” Helm replied. Asya was glad the AI personality hadn’t completely shut down when Ria had taken over his post.
He’d assumed a passive stance, which spoke more to the condition of Reynolds’ brain than Helm’s functionality, fortunately.
Asya watched as three of the SD Reynolds’ Pods launched from the hangar bay and raced after the missiles that had gotten by.
“Keep those bomber fucks away from the Pods,” Asya ordered Tactical.
“As if I don’t have enough to do?” Tactical shot back. Ria re
oriented the ship to keep it between the bombers and the Pods.
“I’m thinking you need more,” Asya told him.
She wasn’t sure how limited the AI personalities were while separated from the main consciousness that was Reynolds. She couldn’t risk overwhelming any of them.
So, rather than have Tactical fire on the missile sites, she took the job on. She fiddled with the console, transferring partial fire controls to her post so he didn’t have to bother with it. She tagged the crew’s location, aimed, calculated trajectories, adjusted for conditions, and started lobbing missiles at the planet below.
Tactical took out another of the Orau then, leaving only two flitting near the Reynolds. Annoyed by their nagging presence, she redirected a couple of her missiles at one of the Orau, grinning as they struck it broadside and sent the ship tumbling.
Tactical annihilated it seconds later.
“Great shot!” Asya called. “Now wipe that last piece of shit off our heel and focus on those damn missiles.”
“That was like a pat on the back and a kick in the ass at the same time,” Tactical muttered. “I think I liked it.”
“Of course you did,” Asya shot back, but she couldn’t stop smiling. She launched another missile at a launch site on Krokus 1. And then another.
Tactical focused on the last fighter-bomber, trailing it as the ship tried to circle over the top of the superdreadnought to avoid the big guns. It thereby brought itself into the range of the array of canons designed to protect the ship against a maneuver exactly like that one, however.
The ship exploded, debris and vented atmosphere swirling in a murky cloud where the ship had been a moment before.
Tactical immediately went back to targeting the missiles shrieking up from the planet.
Asya noted that a second wave had joined the first, then a third was launched.
She growled. “Pretty persistent bunch down there.”
“Those guys are getting ready to pound us worse than a sailor on shore leave,” Tactical remarked.
“That disturbing image aside, kill the missiles in flight. I’ll keep targeting the launch sites,” Asya ordered.
Takal came over the comm right then. “I’ve been monitoring the battle, Captain,” he told her, “and I might have an idea.”
