Omega Force: Rebellion (OF11)

by Joshua Dalzelle

  So far, the bulk of the civilian traffic within the system seemed unsure what was happening. The Orbital Authority had finally issued a general alert for the area and warned them to begin clearing out, but most still loitered where they were. The idea that someone would attack the Miressa System seemed so outlandish that apparently nobody was taking it seriously. That might work in the Machine's favor since more witnesses helped spread the story faster and allowed it to grow in scope, but for Jason's plans, it created an all new wrinkle he hadn't counted on. A few thousand slow, ungainly freighters stampeding out of the system once they realized the Eshquarians were actually serious about opening fire would be a mess he'd have to navigate around.

  "Have we received any direct queries from the planet or and ConFed ships since we fired up our beacon?" he asked.

  "No, why?"

  "I just expected the Machine to detect us pretty early once we were out of the Sarafin," Jason said. "It's either not nearly as omnipresent as we've been assuming, or we're not seeing the whole picture."

  "A little late to worry about that now," Kage snorted. "We're fully committed at this point. Any surprises they throw at us will have to be dealt with on the fly."

  Something about what Kage said about surprises nagged at the back of Jason's mind, but he couldn't pin it down. What was he forgetting? What could have been overlooked? On the surface, what they were about to do was ridiculously easy…as long as they hadn't been discovered. If the contractor crews on the Eshquarian ships had purged and loaded in new encryption routines, then they were going to be caught with their ass flapping in the breeze. Unfortunately, there was no way to test ahead of time whether the weapon encryption was the same as that of the com systems of the ship. Kage had already checked the latter and found that they were still good, he just hoped the same held true for the former.

  Still…could it really be this easy to thwart a hyper-advanced AI?

  "This is it," Mok said tensely. "Once they exchange the first volley prepare to get us out of here. Try to blend in with the rest of the panicked herd."

  "When do you want to actually mesh-out, master?" Similan asked from the pilot's seat.

  "As soon as we know for certain that Kage was able to disable the warheads on the missiles and the Sarafin deploys the attack boats," Mok said. "Hopefully, in the confusion of the missiles never reaching the defense force ships, our crews will be able to retake their ships and get out of here in time."

  "We'll be able to— It's beginning, master. The Imperial ships have activated their targeting scans."

  They were the only two on the bridge of the small courier ship. Mok had sent the crew below to the galley and ordered all sensor feeds to other parts of the ship shut off. The crew was loyal to him, but if they talked to their peers and word got out that Mok had been orchestrating things here in the Miressa System, he would have some uncomfortable questions to answer from his subordinates.

  Similan let out an anxious grunt as, on the sensor display, one hundred and seventeen ship-to-ship missiles leapt from the launchers of forty-two Imperial Navy warships, streaking towards the antique display pieces that made up the Miressa Home Defense Force below. Each missile was tipped with a fusion penetrator charge meant to weaken a ship's armor and an antimatter primary charge that would do the real damage. They were some of the most advanced munitions any nation had in service, expensive and difficult to manufacture.

  "What a waste," Mok sighed as the missiles approached the delineation zone, where they would receive the shutdown orders from the Phoenix and go inert.

  "Master!"

  As Mok watched, the sensor display scrambled as the weapons all activated their formidable counter-countermeasure systems. The primary engines, a single-use miniature grav-drive, engaged to send the missiles accelerating towards their targets at full speed. At first, he couldn't understand what he was seeing and thought maybe their plan had failed…right up until he saw the missiles begin to separate and prioritize targets.

  "Omega Force," he hissed, the anger building up inside him. Burke had taken it upon himself to change the plan.

  "What can we do?"

  "We can do nothing. Not anymore," Mok said shortly. "Get us out of here, Similan."

  "Shall I recall the Sarafin?"

  "No. The spacers aboard those ships deserve a fighting chance. I won't deprive them of that because of the stupidity of one stubborn human."

  22

  "First wave is tracking clean," Kage said. "All commands accepted and acknowledged. The HDF won't know what the hell hit them."

  "Second wave?" Jason asked.

  "Veering off in approximately four minutes to head towards the secondary target package."

  "Mok?"

  "His ship is leaving the area. The Sarafin is still coming down towards the Eshquarian line," Doc said. "I can't imagine how pissed he is right now. You may not have to worry about the Machine. You just crossed one of the most powerful crime lords in the known galaxy."

  "Won't be the first time."

  "Yeah, but it could be the last," Crusher said. "You don't get too many chances to tweak a person like Mok before he has to teach you some respect."

  "Fuck him. He thought he could kick off a civil war with half-measures and keep his hands clean so his profit margins stayed high." Jason sneered. "If we're going to do this, let's do it right."

  The secondary protocols Jason had instructed Kage to program were commands to turn all the missiles back to full function and unleash them on the hapless ConFed fleet waiting below. Instead of a choreographed show where the Eshquarian volley would break against the HDF's defense screen, the observers in the system would witness a slaughter as the most advanced ship-to-ship missiles in service tore through a group of outdated, outclassed ships like a wet tissue.

  While he'd been planning the operation, Jason hadn't wanted to waste the opportunity on just taking out a bunch of ships that the Phoenix could probably handle on her own. His plan had caused some uproar among his own crew because of the certainty of civilian casualties but, in the end, he had won the argument. A third of the missiles the Eshquarian ships had fired would soon veer off and target the Cardalir Shipyards and T'Acren Base, the two massive landmark orbital facilities in the Miressa System, and a sizable part of the ConFed's entire military operation.

  "First missiles are going evasive…the HDF point defense screen is pitiful," Kage said. "Enemy is trying to— Oh! Holy shit!"

  On the sensor display, Jason watched as the HDF formation was ripped to shreds. He felt a pang of remorse as he realized that damn near all of the spacers aboard those ships weren't evil, they were just doing a job.

  It was over quickly.

  The Eshquarian missiles didn't leave a single ship intact. Multiple hits made sure all that was left of the entire formation was just an expanding debris cloud. Jason turned his attention to the other missiles they still had in flight just in time to see the shipyard take three direct hits, one of the main docking complexes shearing off completely and spinning towards the surface. The facility was in orbit over larger of Miressa Prime's two moons, so even if the structure fell from the sky completely, there wouldn't be a mass casualty event on a populated planet.

  "T'Acren Base put up an admirable fight," Kage said. "Four missiles still got through. They're declaring an emergency and escape pods are launching now." The T'Acren orbital facility was actually in a heliocentric orbit, anchored behind Taus as it orbited the star. Jason watched on the computer-generated image as one last missile slammed into the superstructure and hit something critical. The base blew apart in slow motion, splitting along three faults and drifting apart.

  "All weapons have been expended," Doc said quietly. "All targets destroyed."

  "Mok's crews have deployed and are moving towards the Eshquarian ships now," Kage said. "Maybe we should try and—"

  "New contact! Huge! It just meshed-in deep in the system!" Doc's voice cracked as the sensors began tracking over two dozen new arriv
als, all arrayed within the system.

  "Beacons are resolving," Kage said. "Uh, no…it's the 405th. That big one that just meshed-in is a dreadnaught."

  "I thought those were just rumors," Crusher stood up. "They actually exist?"

  "That's…not good," Jason said as he saw how the ships were deployed around the system. The massive dreadnaught hung in space over Taus while the other ships fanned out to provide cover for Miressa Prime. The sight of it made Jason's blood run cold. "They've got us pinned down in here."

  The 405th Battlefleet was one of the preeminent and most feared mainline combat unit within the ConFed fleet. The ships were all new, cutting edge vessels out of the Aracoria Shipyards, the same place that designed and built the Defiant, and it was crewed by the best of the best. No political appointments or legacy officers aboard these ships, just hardened warriors and spacers that knew how to do their jobs.

  The fleet had jumped in on them in such a way that there was no place to try and run. They were in a scatter deployment that allowed them to cover any escape vector Jason might take. He wasn't foolish enough to think he'd continue to escape notice. A DL7 sitting in space near where the HDF had just gotten wiped out wouldn't be a hard puzzle for the Machine to put together.

  "Oh, boy…we are so screwed."

  "Admiral!"

  "I see them," Kellea said with a calm she didn't feel. Her battlecruiser was a formidable ship, but compared to a dreadnaught and two battleships along with the accompanying destroyers and cruisers that made up the 405th Battlefleet, she was insignificant. If they decided the Cridal ship needed to pay for what had just happened down in that system, there was little she could do to stop them.

  As the ConFed's real warships arrayed themselves into a blocking formation, the panic really set in for the ships still loitering in the area. The holographic tactical situation display exploded into action as drive signatures flared all around the system. Everything from small courier ships to massive cargo haulers were pushing for the outer system at maximum power. The ConFed ships seemed content to let them pass by, which made Kellea wonder what their point was here until she saw that the Eshquarian ships were still just sitting in the same place in a loose formation.

  "Admiral, there's something off the sensors have picked up," Captain Essel said, pointing to one of the overhead displays. "Just after the Imperial Navy ships attacked the Home Defense Force, a small flotilla of attack boats swarmed their fleet. They came from a cargo ship that has fled to well beyond weapons range."

  "Are they attacking, or helping the Eshquarians?" Kellea wondered aloud.

  "Within fifteen minutes of their arrival, the ships in the formation drifted, and some had their power signatures drop dramatically," Essel said. "If I was to guess, I'd say it was a boarding party meant to capture them."

  "One small attack boat to take on the crew of a Luex-class battleship?" Kellea scoffed. "Try again. Something else is happening in this system. Keep observing and report anything unusual."

  "We're not leaving?" Essel asked, confused.

  "We're here as invited guests." Kellea smiled. "We won't be so rude as to leave just because our hosts are having a bit of an internal squabble."

  "I… Yes, Admiral."

  "Captain! A ConFed assault carrier is deploying fighters near the engagement area."

  "What possibly point could there be for that?" Essel asked.

  "They're going after the attack boats," Kellea said, frowning. "This just gets more confusing as it goes along. What's this group here breaking off for?"

  "They're pursuing a single ship that was in the area, Admiral," the sensor operator said. "The beacon has it listed as a high-speed courier ship, but the sensor profiles list it as a Jepsen Aero DL7 that's on our Report and Track watch list."

  "Of course," Kellea sighed, a few things becoming clearer. "What's the gunship doing?"

  "They're…fleeing, Admiral. They have nine Stellovar-class fighters in hot pursuit. So far, the DL7 is outrunning them."

  "But he has nowhere to go," Kellea mused, narrowing her eyes as she looked at the display. "He's cut off from any mesh-out point his ship's slip-drive would be able to use."

  "Admiral?"

  "Just thinking aloud, Captain. I know who is flying that gunship, and he's not a man who allows himself to be so easily trapped. I'm just trying to figure out what his role is in this little drama we're watching."

  "He looks like he may have blundered into an area he can't escape," Essel said.

  "If I know him, he's probably counted on this, and he's baiting the fighters for some reason we can't see yet."

  "We're in deep, deep shit, Jason!"

  "I know, I know!" Jason snapped. "I can fucking see them, Kage. Twingo! Take the safeties off the main reactor and run it up as hot as it'll get. Full combat mode, I need everything she's got!"

  The fighters had been a complete surprise. Assault carriers had fallen out of favor with most fleets and fighter squadrons were seen as an ineffective, frivolous use of resources when most modern combat shuttles were multirole craft that could handle fighter missions as well as drop off troops. Now, Jason was being pursued by nine of the hottest fighters the ConFed had ever made, and it would only be a matter of time before they'd use their numerical advantage to corral him into a spot where they could open up or push him near one of the capital ships so they could hammer at him.

  The air crackled with energy and smelled of ozone as the main reactor ramped up and power coursed through the gunship. The main drive output edged up by another few percentage points past the suggested maximum output and the Phoenix shot ahead of her pursuers, able to outrun them for the time being.

  "Can we outlast those fighters on fuel?" he asked.

  "Negative," Twingo said over the intercom. "We're going through our fuel reserves at an alarming rate right now, Captain."

  "They're just going to keep swinging out and around, pushing us into those cruisers," Kage said. "When that happens, we're going to get smacked with one of the big guns."

  "What about the Eshquarian fleet? Any reaction from them yet?"

  "Eh…nothing you'll be happy about," Kage said as he watched one of the flanking Imperial frigates begin to inexplicably spin wildly out of formation. "I think we may need to concentrate on our own exit strategy here, Captain."

  "What do you think I'm doing?!" Jason barked. "We need a distraction, or at least something to open up that picket line so we can slip through without taking a missile up the ass."

  Kage went silent and let Jason work. Very rarely had he seen his captain panicked to the point that he wasn't sure what to do, but it seemed like Jason was feeling the net close in around him and all he could think to do was run. The Phoenix was a powerful ship after all her modifications, but she wasn't invincible and nine Stellovar fighters were certainly reason for serious concern. While Jason concentrated on fleeing their pursuers, however, Kage was more worried about them getting too close to one of the big boys and having it get a lucky shot. The main guns on the dreadnaught the ConFed had brought to the party would vaporize the Phoenix, shields up or not.

  "Have the fighters reached the Eshquarian fleet yet?" Jason asked.

  "Not yet, but they're on their way," Kage said. "The ConFed fleet isn't moving to intercept them just yet for some reason…that's odd."

  "They just took a full volley in the face from a fleet they assumed had no teeth," Jason said. "They'll hold these ships back in a defensive pattern to control the flow of traffic around the planet and make sure they don't come any further down. The fighters are being sent out to try and pick off the attack boats, so I assume they've figured out that someone has boarded and is trying to take control."

  "So…where does that leave us?"

  "Out of options," Jason said. "Are there any other ConFed targets of value in this region of the system? They have to be military targets."

  "Nothing but the ships that just meshed-in on top of us."

  "Guess that'll have to d
o. Let's get some distance and give them a little surprise…bring all of our XTX-4's online."

  Jason allowed himself to run one more circuit ahead of his pursuers before turning out away from the engagement area, appearing to be running for a mesh-out point that was being covered by two heavy cruisers. By now, his little ship had likely come to the attention of the ConFed fleet commanders as his erratic flying and unusually high-power output would make her stand out on their sensors. In hindsight, it might have been better if he'd just tried to flee to the outer system and blend in without all the outbound traffic.

  "What's the plan?" Kage asked.

  "Do any of the ConFed ships have their shields up?"

  "They've powered weapons, but no shields up right now," Doc said. "No need with the Eshquarian fleet still being so far out."

  "Target the dreadnaught with all four of the XTXs," Jason said. There was a pause while Kage seemed to choke on something, and even Crusher looked back as if he'd lost his mind.

  "I'd like to point out that if we shoot them all off, we won't have any left, and they don't make them anymore," Kage said. "Also, if you damage a ship that expensive, the ConFed will hunt us down for the rest of our days."

  "I feel like we're past all that already," Jason said. "Target the ship, standby to fire."

  "Holy shit, this is going to be bad," Crusher muttered.

  "Everybody wanted to be a rebel and poke the ConFed in the eye with a stick," Jason said. “So, what's the matter? You wuss out when the stick is too big?"

  "Your managerial skills leave a lot—"

  "Shut up and target that ship. We'll stay on this course another fifteen minutes, and then swing back around," Jason said. "Once we fire, we're heading for the planet."

  "Do I even want to know why?" Kage asked.

  "Because we need to find some way to improve our odds, and flying in circles out here isn't doing it. We need to get closer to the surface and work to her strengths."