Horizons
Page 7
Joe looked down at the armour he was wearing and ran his hand over his covered forearm. The material was hard and cool to the touch. He looked at his feet which were clad in a pair of Alliance issue combat boots. They were heavier than he would have liked, but they went with the rest of the suit. He hadn’t had any training on the helmet yet, and he was still coming to terms with the use of their infantry weapons. Joe knew that if the Coalition landed troops, he’d need to make sure he was a part of the fight.
“Dinalis!” Joe started moving towards the lift platform. “I’m going to finish my training.” He didn’t wait for the alien to respond.
As the platform started its descent, Joe knew that the best way for him to stay focused was to keep his mind engaged, and only worry about what he could control. Giant space battle, no. Honing his skill in the use of his new kit, yes.
18
Pullo Obo, for as ferocious as he looked, wasn’t a stupid commander, or at least that was the impression that Keegan had deduced over the last thirty minutes. He knew that the Coalition attack had caught his forces dangerously spread out, and the addition of the Keeper ship had prevented him from forming a coordinated plan of attack with his other ships or calling for reinforcements.
His cruiser and one of the destroyers had already been destroyed, and a second destroyer was knocked out of action. His remaining forces consisted of an under gunned destroyer located on the enemy facing side of Earth, and a light carrier on the far side of the planet. His fourth destroyer seemed to be making an end run for the enemy tanker and the Keeper, but those ships were under the protection of the last enemy destroyer, a ship capable of repelling an attack from the friendly destroyer. Even though they were in the same weight class, they were not equals.
As the black mass of fur that was the Ship Master continued to stare at his displays, it dawned on Keegan that Obo would realise that it was going to come down to his old dreadnaught to win the battle for the Alliance.
Keegan looked at Lysa who was slowly biting her nails in a rather nervous manner. Looking back at the three-dimensional hologram in the centre of the room, Keegan noted that they were now on the home-stretch, and had passed the sun, but were going to arrive at Earth after the first wave of enemy ships had, and by the time they arrived, well, only his darkest fears knew what he suspected they would find left.
He remembered reading of weapons that were in existence that could kill every inhabitant of a planet just by putting some device into the atmosphere. Keegan had already looked over the information on the enemy ships that the long-range sensors had been able to detect and then compared those figures against the characteristics of the ships that were in the 73rd. Joe was right when he had said that the ships assigned to Earth’s defence were old because, in comparison to the ships that the Coalition had sent, they were ancient.
And it seemed quite clear to him that older ships were outclassed in every department, speed, armour, and weaponry. Only superior tactics or luck was going to allow the 73rd to prevail in this contest.
The initial success that the Pride of Floxis had achieved was purely a numerical victory since the ships they had knocked out weren’t the most potent ship the enemy had sent. The heavy cruiser was more than a match for almost the entire 73rd put together. Keegan had watched Obo draft a signal to be sent to the nearest Alliance base asking for reinforcements the minute their signals were no longer jammed, but unless RG 27 could destroy the Keeper, there was no chance of getting back-up. Keegan also knew that Obo didn’t have a plan other than to attack. Possibly because he had no other options. He couldn’t jump out of the system, and the nearest Alliance outpost was too far to make on conventional propulsion. It was a simple equation: victory or death.
“Sir, 27 is making their attack run on the trail element now.”
19
Several million kilometres away from the Rock, the 27 had initiated its attack run on the tanker and the Keeper ship. The destroyer that had been providing protection for the two non-combat vessels had moved off towards Earth at high speed and had left the pair to make their way unescorted, a move which allowed the 27 its only chance to attack.
The long body and quad pulse engines allowed the 27 to rocket across the gulf of space that separated it from the two enemy ships quickly. Like the rest of the 73rd, the RG 27 was a throwback to the more enlightened times before the war and was packed with sensors and weapons that were built to a far higher standard than was found on more modern ships, and for a destroyer class ship, she was remarkably manoeuvrable and agile.
All the poise and grace that the ship possessed was partially the result of the entire body of the ship being moulded from a single casting of Carbonate Nineteen on the Core world Radeon Pum Tar II just six months before the civil war begun.
The one downside of all the speed and grace that the ship offered was the very high maintenance requirements and the limited weapons systems that were onboard. In keeping with the elegance of the design of the ship, its builders had given the ship a single long-range missile battery, a short-range battery, each capable of firing only one missile at a time, and a front-mounted extended range medium laser, and a rear-mounted light laser. For a ship of its size, it was woefully under-gunned.
Hiding in open space was never an easy task, and when enemy warships were on alert, it was made even harder. The 27 had found a giant asteroid to position itself behind, and once the commander thought that the enemy destroyer was out of range, he gingerly manoeuvred the ship out from behind the rock and threw the ship after the tanker and Keeper with everything the ship's engines could offer, and the 27 was the fastest sub-light speed ship on the battlefield, which aided it in its task.
Making it into range of the ship's long-range missiles was the first concern of her crew, but the minute the ship lost the protection of the asteroid it had come up on the sensors of the enemy ships, including the hulking modern destroyer that was almost in a position to engage the Alliance ships in Earth’s orbit, but once it detected the fast-moving attacking ship, it changed its course in an attempt to come to the aid of the two ships it was supposed to be protecting.
It didn’t matter much that the 27 had been detected by the destroyer, it was moving too fast, and would hit the two ships before assistance could be provided for them, and their defensive armaments were not going to be able to repel the attack that was coming. When the first missile was launched, the two enemy ships had already turned and started to make a run for cover behind the sun, but the 27 was too fast, and the missile that it launched slammed into the engine housing of the tanker before it could even turn forty-five degrees.
The initial explosion sheared off a large portion of the ships port side engine, and showered the starboard engine with debris, taking them both off-line, and with only manoeuvre thrusters left, the ship was dead in space. A second missile impacting on the top of the ship snapped the primary support structure that ran the length of the ship and ruptured the giant purified water tank that the ship was carrying. As the vacuum hit the water, it vaporised all 600,000 tonnes of fuel instantly.
Switching its attention to the Keeper, the 27 fired a third missile at the ship, but metres from impact, the missile came to a halt, and floated in space, the ships onboard electronic warfare suite had done its job and jammed the weapon. Instead of wasting any more ammunition on what would be a fool’s errand, the 27 continued racing towards the Keeper and opened fire with its extended range medium laser.
The half metre long bolts of charged particles lit up the darkness of space as they raced from the charging Alliance ship towards the fleeing Coalition ship, their aim needed to be true, as they could be the key factor in deciding how the rest of the battle for the system would unfold.
20
“Sir, enemy carrier has deployed a screen of drones, and is launching fighters towards our ships in orbit of Terra.” The detection technician’s voice sounded strained.
The Rock was still five minutes from being able to off
er assistance to the destroyer and the light carrier that were in Earth’ orbit, and in that five minutes, there was an excellent chance that the Coalition ships would neutralise them before the Rock could get there to offer assistance.
Keegan kept staring at the three-dimensional image of the battle as it unfolded. He knew that the fate of the entire system was in the balance, and he knew that things would change rapidly in their favour if the 27 could knock-out the Keeper. His hands were wet with perspiration, and his mouth was dry, and he was starting to have a pounding feeling behind his eyes. He had had a rough enough time during the battle onboard the Epsilon, this second foray into outer space was proving just as stressing.
Perhaps his scientific background and a love of all things space had led him to falsely believe that he would spend his time gallivanting across the cosmos, visiting strange new worlds, seeing things that he wouldn’t believe in his wildest dreams. Being dropped in the middle of a long-running civil war was not what he had expected when he had first left Earth, and now, with enemy warships in Earth’s orbit, he felt a sense of depression and helplessness.
Months ago when the Epsilon had first been discovered he had a feeling that it was the beginning of a time of exploration and advancement in many fields for his race, now he had the sense of a small child suddenly playing in an adults game. Humanity wasn’t ready for this level of conflict. Earth was decades away from being able to stand on its own against a force from beyond the Sol System, and here they were, suddenly outgunned, and with the possibility of the invasion that some members of the SETI team had once feared.
The only difference between the concerns that had been voiced about the Epsilon and what was happening now was that it was just a different fraction that was the hostile element, and one that would never have found Earth if the Epsilon hadn’t crashed and sent off a distress signal in the first place.
Keegan looked at Lysa, she was still biting her nails. There was a look of fear on her face, perhaps even a sense that she was resigned to the fate that awaited her, and her planet. Keegan gently elbowed her on the hip.
She whipped her head around quickly and stopped biting her nails. “Yes?”
Keegan gave her a forced smile. “We’ll be okay.”
She looked at him blankly. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. Pullo Obo will keep us safe.”
They both looked at the large black mass of fur that was at the far side of the room. The beast was exuding anger that was palpable. When the time came, Obo had the look of someone who was going to bring a wrath upon the enemy; Keegan just hoped he had the means to carry out his vengeance.
“Sir! Enemy drones have entered the atmosphere.”
“Understood. Destination?”
“There is a large formation heading for the PCS, Sir.”
Obo let out a low growl, betraying the pure, beast-like, nature of his species.
Keegan swallowed hard and looked down. This was it, he thought to himself. Earth was under attack.
21
“You understand how to use the rifle now?” The Light Sentinel asked in its usual cold tone.
Joe looked down at the weapon that he was holding. The system was a particle beam rifle, according to the robot that had been providing his instruction. It was standard issue to all members of the ship's security detail and the Light Sentinels. Its lightweight and sleek design disguised its deadly capabilities. The weapon was designed with a thin body, a pistol grip, and then a rear section where the power unit was located and a telescopic buttstock to fit any user. An optics suite on the top of the weapon offered variable functions depending on the condition the user was operating in.
Able to stun biological targets, and powerful enough to damage Sentinels, it was a weapon that was suited to many tasks. Depending on the rate of fire, and the intensity of the particle beam, the operator had a varied number of shots before having to reload the charge pack.
“Yes.”
“We couldn’t find a helmet that would fit you, but this neural transmitter will allow you access to all our comm channels, including this ship, your own forces, and even access to any telephone numbers that are listed on your phone.” The robot took Joe’s phone and laid it on top of a datapad. “All your contacts are now logged into our system.”
Joe took the elasticised band from the machine and put it around his head like any other headband. An earpiece fit nicely in his right ear, and a micro receiver was placed at Joe’s left sideburn.
“How do I test it?” he asked
“Think of someone you need to contact then speak to them. The system will then contact that entity, and then you just speak once you hear a light tone in your ear.” The robot stepped back. “Try it.”
“What, just like think of anyone who is now in my phone or your database, and the system will automatically call them?”
“Affirmative.”
Joe smiled. Okay, here we go. “Call Rhea.” Nothing happened. Not a beep, a tone, nothing. Joe looked at the robot. “Is something wrong?”
“You need to think it, not say it.” The robot instructed.
“Okay.” Joe closed his eyes this time, and gave the command again, this time without saying it: contact Rhea.
Without an instant's hesitation a light tone came on in Joe’s ear followed quickly by a voice he recognised at once. “Hello.”
“Rhea, it’s Joe. Where are you? Did you leave the PCS?”
“Yeah. I wanted to get a few things from the house. What’s up?”
“Drama. Stay where you are, I’m coming to get you.” And with a singular thought, Joe ended the call.
The robot looked at Joe and gave a very human-like nod. “Excellent.”
“Thank you.” Joe looked around the small armoury where his instruction had taken place. “Can you give me another two energy packs?”
The machine quickly turned and went to a locker and pulled out the additional two packs. “You remember how to change these?”
Without replying Joe hit the pack release button on the rifle, pulled out the pack, set it down, picked it back up, returned it to its locked position and checked that it was secured in the weapon.
“You do.”
Joe picked up the two additional energy packs and attached them to a belt that ran around the suit of armour.
“Thank you.”
Joe turned, checked the safety was still on and moved out of the armoury. The shit had hit the fan in orbit, and Joe knew that the party could be coming his way at any moment, and he needed to get Rhea from the house and back to the PCS as fast as possible.
Moving into the main hall of the ship he could tell that every crew member in the atrium had their full attention on their monitors, trying to get any information that could assist their situation, but without communications, it was impossible to mount a joint response to the Coalition attack in space. When Joe finally exited the massive ship, he could tell it had been put on war-footing. There was a pair of Light Sentinels setting up a weapons system on the beach facing into the island’s tree-line, and a squad of Canadian soldiers establishing a machine gun position halfway up the beach. The word had reached the humans: there was a fight on, and it wasn’t looking good for the home team.
Joe quickly made his way down the gangway that separated the ship from the shoreline and moved up the beach. Some of the local soldiers saw him sporting the armour and gave him a quizzical look. They had never seen the armour worn by anyone before, and on a human, it must have looked even more foreign.
When Joe reached the tree line, he broke into a light jog, still trying to master the feeling of being encased in the suit with the clunky boots on his feet. He didn’t know if the Coalition would send an attack force after the PCS now, but he assumed that it was just a matter of time until someone hostile showed up.
Wanting to make the best out of a possibly dodgy situation, Joe thought it wise to reach out to the Sentinel Commander, and make sure he was able to offer support if the need arose.
“I am on patrol at the west end of the island.”
“Can you get back to the VLT house and secure Doctor Stokes?” Joe knew that even if the big guy were further away than he was, the SC would be able to get back to the house before Joe could.
“I’ll be there shortly.”
Joe cut the channel and concentrated on his running, which was becoming less forced with every step he took. He felt confident that he could use the weapon he had been given with a high degree of competence, but he was concerned about going up against Sentinels. He knew that the last time he had faced off against Sentinel’s he had been knocked out in seconds. A repeat performance would mean disaster.
Reaching Lakes Road from the dirt trail, Joe increased his pace, just as he heard the first sounds of approaching fighter jets. The roar put a smile on Joe’s face. He knew that there was a joint US and Canadian combat air patrol over the island, but it was a token force, and if the Coalition were coming down, they’d be coming downforce.
Using his communication system, he placed a call to the White House and was quickly transferred to the Situation Room under the West Wing. The President was meeting with his entire staff, and there was a buzz in the air when the phone was answered.
“Joe, what’s happening?” There was a pause. “You sound out of breath.”