They ran the last kilometer and a half without any further incoming fire directed at the spaceport ramp itself, but they could hear the distant thunder of strikes still coming in, likely trying to down any ships that had escaped. If there was any doubt that the ConFed was operating under a new paradigm, watching them bombard a populated planet from orbit erased that. They now feared no repercussions for their actions, and those in charge of the military had gotten the message loud and clear.
"They're nailing escaping ships even through all that cloud cover!" Twingo shouted from the top of the ramp. "Plasma cannons…lasers won't make it through all that."
"They're targeting any grav-drive signature they see pop up in a radius around this city," Jason said. He turned and saw Crusher carrying a now-limp Qazvi over his shoulder. There was a smoking hole in her clothing that told him someone had gotten a lucky shot through. "Get to engineering and get the mains ready to fire. Doc! We have wounded! Restrain and check her for trackers once you stabilize her."
By the time Jason made it to the bridge the reactor was already up to sixty percent output and climbing and the repulsors were online. As he strapped into the pilot's seat, he watched the four switches on his engine management panel flick up to the 'PRE-START' position on their own, flashing amber as the massive plasma thrust motors began heating.
"Kage, get your ass up here!" he bellowed over his shoulder, nodding to Lucky as the battlesynth came in and took up his usual position.
"What are you going to do if they detect the thermal bloom from the mains?" Kage asked while he shrugged into his own restraints.
"We don't have any choice." Jason pointed at the holographic situation display between the two stations. On the outer edge of the detection range, five assault dropships could be seen inbound for the spaceport. "But let's make it a little harder to pick us out. Target those two cargo haulers on the other side of the terminal…the two small ones taking on fuel."
"Really?" Kage was incredulous. He wasn't necessarily averse to collateral damage during a mission, but he knew Jason had a strict policy about harming civilians.
"They're narco-smugglers." Jason shrugged. "The Phoenix flagged the markings on the hulls as we were coming in on final. Hit 'em with the chin turret as we overfly. Who knows, maybe Mok will pay us a bounty for chipping away at the competition."
"Targets locked, chin turret deployed and armed," Kage said.
"Doc, you have everything secured back there?" Jason asked.
"Patient is secured, we're ready back here."
"Well…let's see how this goes," Jason said, feeding power to the repulsors with the thumb switch on the master throttle. The gunship groaned a bit as she rose into the air, followed by the familiar pops and bangs of the landing gear retracting.
Jason tapped the right peddle, spinning the ship a bit so her nose was on the intended targets, and pushed the hat-switch on the stick forward. The maneuvering thrusters screeched as they tried to push over a thousand tons of spaceship forward. They weren't meant to be used while still on a planet's surface so it was painfully slow going as the Phoenix drifted over the other parked ships towards their unsuspecting targets.
"Firing!" Kage called, opening up with the multi-barrel plasma cannon mounted in the articulated chin turret. As soon as the shots impacted the first ship, Jason flipped the switches for the mains to 'RUN' and was rewarded with a hearty boom as all four lit off at once. The Phoenix leapt forward, and he pulled to port just as Kage finished sweeping the gun down the second ship, both now burning spectacularly while small secondary explosions could be seen blowing pieces of the outer hull out.
Jason pushed the throttle up to about a quarter and pulled the nose up just slightly to get some distance between them and the conflagration before the fuel tanks ruptured and—
Boom!
The liquid hydrogen fuel load lit off with a tremendous explosion on the first ship once containment had been breached. From how energetic it was, Jason guessed the ship had also been carrying something in the cargo hold that had been explosive. He slammed the throttle down and was hurled back into the seat as the Phoenix leapt away, her four main engines roaring as they shot out over the city and followed the contour of the land down into the mining regions.
As he guided his ship over the rolling hills, Jason was clenched up, waiting for a plasma shot from above that would destroy the small ship and kill them all instantly. At least he hoped it would be instantly. He hadn't had a lot of time to formulate a plan before the ConFed started shooting the place up, but he had a rough idea about how he might be able to use the terrain to his advantage from his observations on the flight in.
"Doesn't look like we're being pursued," Kage said. "Two more ships were caught up in the explosion of the second ship, and now everyone has spotted the ConFed dropships. It's more or less complete chaos right now." Jason eyed his airspeed and pulled the throttle back to fifteen percent, letting the gunship loaf across the countryside and greatly reducing the chances of a ship in orbit spotting their thermal signature.
"Unfortunately, that was the easy part," Jason said. "We'll now need to run the blockade…and we'll have to do it without having detailed intel on where the ships above us are deployed."
"Why can't we just find one of these mining operations and hide out until the heat is off?" Kage asked.
"You saw what they were willing to do already to try and get this asset." Jason shook his head. "They'll tear this planet apart if they think she's still here. This world means nothing to them, and after what they did to the Eshquarians, there isn't anybody who’s going to stick their neck out for one unaffiliated tier-three world. No, we'll need to get the hell out of here and fast."
"This ship was built to run blockades," Kage said, patting the center console. "We could just fire up the grav-drive and fly right into their teeth."
"If it was just one capital ship above us, sure," Jason said, "but they've blanketed the planet too well. We rush up and try to take one by surprise, and we'll be within range of three more."
"Then how about you come up with something instead of just rejecting every idea I throw out there."
"What's the com chatter sound like?" Jason asked, pulling back on the stick so the Phoenix could clear a gentle swell ahead. They were now flying subsonic, barely faster than a commercial aircraft, and—hopefully—blending into the scenery if anyone above happened to catch a glimpse through the dense cloud cover. Thankfully, those clouds were laden with metallic particulate and ionized to the point that conventional sensors would have a tough time picking them out of the ground clutter.
"Oh, wow! The ConFed is deploying dropships and starfighters to three other spaceports," Kage said. "The blockade is still deployed for total coverage, but their fast-attack corvettes have run down two ships leaving the system and disabled them. Who the hell do we have back in the infirmary?"
"Apparently, someone a little more important than your average spy, and someone good enough to get the drop on you," Jason said. "Do we know how the XTX-2's will behave if launched within an atmosphere?"
"Why would— No! You can't seriously be thinking about doing that!"
"Why not? We already gunned down a bunch of their troopers, might as well round out the day by knocking out a couple ships. I doubt they'd be able to stop them in time if they came up from underneath," Jason said, banking to port again so they were on a northerly course away from all the major settlements that dotted the equator.
"They're not as powerful as the dash-fours, but they still use a skipper type slip-drive for the primary stages, and that won't work this close to the target, not to mention the usual issues of operating a slip-drive within an atmosphere."
"But they can do up to five skips," Jason insisted. "Can't you send them out and back so they have time to arm?"
"In theory…maybe. But what about—"
"Just start getting the targeting package ready," Jason said. "Let them pick their own targets, but put in constraints the
y can only hit the ships that are covering the spaceports."
"How does that help us? We're already—"
"Just do it! I don't have time to argue." Jason was gambling on the fact the ConFed fleet would display its normal hubris when coming in to subdue a planet like V'pal, and his advanced (and highly illegal) munitions would take them completely by surprise. He also wanted his choice of targets to confuse the hell out of them.
"How many dash-twos do you want to waste on this lunacy?" Kage asked as he prepped the targeting instructions that would be uploaded into the missiles before launch.
"Three," Jason said. "That'll leave us an additional two along with the XTX-4s in the bays."
"Targeting package uploaded, you can arm and launch from your panel…crazy bastard," Kage said.
"Standby." Jason selected the missiles that blinked green from the armament panel and opened the forward weapons bay doors in the belly. He pulled up into a shallow climb, rolled one hundred and eight degrees to starboard, and held the trigger down as the ejectors spit all three missiles off the rails. He continued his roll until he was knife-edge relative to the ground and yanked the stick back, slamming the throttle forward. The Phoenix bellowed as her engines flared and shoved the gunship away as the missiles' repulsor first stage kicked in, and they rose shakily into the sky.
"Slick," Kage said admiringly.
The XTX line of anti-ship missiles was unfathomably expensive, highly illegal, and no longer produced after a treaty outlawed that style of missile. They were built to be launched in the void of space, and he hadn't been entirely sure the repulsor-drives that were meant to just get them clear of the launching ship would be able to propel them within a planet's atmosphere. He'd used the Phoenix's arcing, inverted flight to give them a little inertia as they came off the rails, and then got clear as fast as he could in case they became unstable or simply fell from the sky.
"You're clear, throttle back. First stage slip-drives should be going on in—whoa!"
"I…didn't expect that," Jason admitted as he watched on the display. When the small slip-drives engaged, the fields had stabilized close to the surface and had scooped out sizable chunks of the ground. He assumed the missiles had just taken the dirt with them, trailing behind in the slip-space fields, but watching in real-time, it looked like it just vanished. "Is that going to cause any problems when they stop and come back?"
"How the hell would I know?" Kage said. "You're the only one stupid enough to arm and launch anti-ship missiles while flying so close to the surface of a planet. You might want to make a note, assuming we survive all this, that there are missiles specifically made to be fired from a planet up to orbit."
"Yeah, but if this works, think of all the money we saved not having to buy two types of expendable munitions," Jason said.
"It is probably a bad time to bring up that each of those XTX-2s cost over twenty million ConFed credits each," Lucky said from behind him.
"I stole them anyway." Jason waved him off. "Most I swiped from Crisstof's ships, the others I helped myself to from Mok's personal stash when we blew his house up."
"We've lost telemetry, but they should be on their way back by now," Kage said.
They waited another ninety seconds before the orbital com channels exploded with excited chatter. Kage tried to filter out useful intel, and the best they could make out was that two of the three missiles they'd fired had scored direct hit on ConFed warships. No word on the third missile, and that concerned Jason greatly. XTX missiles never failed, and he was afraid the damn thing might have hit a civilian freighter instead of a ConFed ship.
"Fighters are pulling back up into orbit," Kage said. "They're probably being ordered into defensive positions around the capital ships. If they didn't pick up the missiles' outbound flight, they probably think they were hit from someone who just arrived in the outer system."
"Full active sensors," Jason said. "I need to know what's happening up there. If they aren't redeploying their screen, we may have to resort to drastic action."
"What do you consider drastic if not just destroying two capital ships?!"
"Sensors. Now."
The holographic display populated with threats and non-combatants, the Phoenix's computer categorizing everything, as the active sensors swept the system. Jason could see the chaos he'd caused over the planet's largest starport near the equator, including the two light cruisers his missiles had hit, now adrift in orbit. He also saw where his third missile had gone: it had hit a patrol frigate that had been loitering out near the largest moon. The frigate was broadcasting emergency codes and was spiraling out of a stable orbit towards the moon's surface.
"There…there's our window," he pointed to a gap in the blockade that was left as two cruisers had moved down to try and cover the gaps left by the ships he'd hit.
"Grav-drive online," Kage said. "Ship is configured for exo-atmospheric flight. Hit it."
Jason flipped the switches on the mains back to 'STANDBY' and verified the grav-drive automatically stepped in as primary propulsion. Kage had already plotted their optimal exit vector and course to keep them out of range of ConFed guns as much as possible, so Jason angled the nose up and smoothly pushed the throttle to half-power, about as much as the ship could take while so low in the atmosphere.
The Phoenix rocketed up away from V'pal, clawing for altitude as the sky turned black around the canopy. The buffeting and scream of air passing over the hull faded away and, soon, the ride was silky smooth with just the hum of the ship to remind them they were underway. Jason advanced the throttle to the stop and watched as their relative velocity climbed, and the gunship zipped between the narrow gap in the picket coverage. They made it up and through without so much as a warning over the com from the ConFed ships, most of which seemed to be angling over to cover the starport near the capital.
Once they'd made it past the smaller, furthest moon with still no pursuit, Jason relaxed. He prepped the slip-drive to take them out of the V'pal System and put them back on course for their original destination, making a mental note to get a hold of Mok and explain why they were running so late. The fact their target had seemed to be waiting in ambush for Kage when they had just landed weighed heavily on him, so he decided to tell Doc to keep her unconscious for the duration of the flight.
"That could have gone better," Kage said, leaning back in his seat and slapping the release for his restraints while Jason shrugged out of his own and let them retract back into the seat.
"It also could have gone a lot worse."
5
"Do you understand what the word covert means, Captain?"
"To be honest, that all felt pretty discreet and covert."
"You can't be serious," Mok deadpanned, leaning back in his chair.
"Nah," Jason said. "We completely fucked that one up. To be honest, we didn't realize how hot the target was until the ConFed opened fire on that little spaceport."
"Yes…and then you blew two cruisers out of the sky and sent a third ship careening into a moon to, how did you put it, cover your exfil?"
"Yes."
"That's it? Just yes'" Mok spluttered. "No apology for risking this operation with your reckless use of highly controlled strategic munitions? No contrition for making the ConFed focus even harder on the Eshquarian intel officer you have strapped to a bed? None of that?"
"No."
Jason watched in fascination as Mok struggled to get himself under control, gripping the desk so hard that he could hear the wood creaking. After a few long moments Mok, one of the quadrants most feared crime lords, managed to calm himself enough to open his eyes and stare across at his guest.
"I've not lived a moral life, even before descending into the underworld of this galaxy…but I cannot imagine what I've done that makes the universe decide that I deserve to be saddled with you humans."
"Oh, come on," Jason laughed. "You only know one, and we barely see each other."
"You're bad enough on your own," Mok
said. "But I've recently had dealings with your kind. Some young pup your planet's military sent retrieve a Veran information broker I sometimes use."
"Weef Zadra?" Jason asked. "You sent us to her once. I was wondering what happened to her. Kage said she just dropped off the grid. So, Earth's got her now?"
"Not exactly," Mok said. "Anyway, your fellow human couldn't just go get Zadra and take her where she wanted to go. Instead, he disrupted my entire operation in the Kaspian Reaches and stole a shuttle with a full cash shipment that was coming back here."
"Sounds like my kind of guy." Jason smiled widely and put his feet up on the desk.
"Hardly. He seemed quite a bit brighter than you and, at least, had the good sense to show some respect in my presence," Mok growled, shoving Jason's feet off the desk so hard the human had to grab the armrests of the chair to not end up on the floor. Jason had to constantly remind himself that Mok wasn't just some weasel administrator, afraid to get his hands dirty. For the time being, Mok seemed to recognize that Jason messed with him as a way of showing he no longer completely distrusted him, but the crime boss wasn't used to having people ruffle his feathers for entertainment value.
"Noted," Jason said, sitting up straighter. “So, what'd you think of Qazvi Ba?"
"That's not her real name," Mok said. "It's a code name that's part of Imperial Intelligence's Last Stand Protocols. There's always someone named Qazvi Ba. Think of it more as a job title that gets passed on. It's actually a phrase in ancient Eshquarian, a dead language from long before the time they had space travel."
"Last Stand Protocols," Jason repeated. "Sounds ominous."
"It was more of an interesting thought exercise than anything else," Mok said. "Since we—they—always had to imagine worst case scenarios for threats to the Empire, the process was formalized some centuries ago, and the service was given a substantial budget to ensure that it could weather a preemptive strike or internal coup."
“So, there are contingencies in place to handle something like what just happened?" Jason asked hopefully.
Omega Force: Rebellion (OF11) Page 5
