“Distress call received.”
Five
“This is John Slice.”
A popup told me Apricot Mapping Service, which didn’t mean much to me. All I knew was it was a civilian outfit.
“I'm six jumps beyond Lufafluf, on a previously unknown backdoor into Thorn's space. I jumped into a Trixone scout fleet. They beat me up badly before I could jump back out again, and now I'm running from them back the way I came. There is nothing ahead of me that can take this fleet. My drones are all gone, my ship is barely holding it together, and I won't survive if something breaks and they catch me.”
“Defend the Lufaflufs. Jon, if you get this, I bit off more than I can chew this time. You told me so. I didn’t listen. But hey, at least this backdoor is known now, and there’s time to get a defense force in place. I doubt I'm going to see it. If so, it's been fun. Slice out.”
There was silence on the all ship channel, just for a moment.
“Boss?” said a voice, identified as Eric Neilson, captain of Claymore.
Before I knew it, a Scimitar was rocketing out of an oblong in space nearby, and hastily brought to a halt.
“Dreamwalker,” said the Imperator. “Take Claymore and Unassailable, and save Slice. Assess the situation and report in. If there's a scout fleet, there's probably a bigger force behind them. Find out, and deal with them if you can. Fall back to Lufafluf if you can't. I'll make sure there's help there, if you don’t get any before.”
“Sir?” I asked, not believing I’d just been put in command of a small fleet.
“You're the ranking officer, and I can't spare anyone else right now. This fight isn’t done, and we've incoming in the next system, so we'll be here a while. You have your orders. Go.”
I was about to ask go where, when another oblong appeared ahead of Claymore. Instinct kicked in.
“Dreamwalker to all fighters. If you have hull damage or your shields are below fifty percent, form up on Unassailable in whatever flights you can. The rest of us form up around Claymore. Move.”
Jane had Crusader already moving, and it only took a minute to form up six flights and Crusader around Claymore, with the rest around Unassailable, who was moving to follow Claymore. The remaining drones were vanishing back into Unassailable, tagged as badly damaged. No help there.
In that minute, I checked on Neilson. Lieutenant Commander, and while ex-military, had been a civilian pilot for the AMS, which explained his being sent. Claymore had no fighters on board, was down to thirty percent shields, but they were regenerating rapidly. Mine were not a whole lot better.
“Jane, coordinate all ships, and take us through.”
“Confirmed.”
Almost as one, Claymore and her escorts passed through the oblong, and we found ourselves between a very damaged looking cruiser, and a typical Trixone fleet. Unassailable was moments behind us.
“Unassailable and escort forms up on our cruiser. The rest of you follow me.”
“Gee, am I glad to see you guys,” said a female voice.
A white dot dropped out the bottom of the cruiser. The popup identified it as Tag'Em, a standard corvette like the Imperators. It flashed past Unassailable on its way to form up with my forces. Her captain was listed as Jessie Ball, without any rank, which made her a civilian. A wild card in other words. Somewhere between a liability and just what we'd need. I hoped she knew what she was doing.
“Boss, Jessie's the real deal,” said Vulture, in singular mode. “Consider her a flight lieutenant.”
“Will do.”
I widened the channel to include Tag'Em, while also bringing up the details on the enemy fleet. It was a standard medium Trixone fleet, being two battleships, two cruisers, and eight destroyers making up the dozen. They were already launching two hundred fighters.
“Permission to join your party, Tag'Em?” asked Nielson.
“Just like old times Eric, only different.”
There were some chuckles.
“How are we doing this Dreamwalker?” he asked, in a more serious voice.
I knew he was a rank below me, but in terms of experience, he was light years ahead of me. He could have taken command as far as I was concerned, if he'd wanted to. Apparently he didn’t. I thought quickly.
“Claymore and Crusader have the Battleships. Tag'Em has one of the cruisers. We do a close pass and keep going, turning to come back for another pass on my order. Turrets to shoot at whatever is in range as we go through. Fighters are to concentrate on the enemy fighters, while we punch through them. Everyone with capital ship missiles prepare to fire them. Jane will provide your AI's with your target, and when to fire.”
I muted the channel and turned to Jane.
“Try and get them all impacting the cruisers and destroyers at the same time, regardless of where they're fired from. I'm saving ours for point blank range on the left battleship. Aim Claymore at the right one and suggest they fire whatever missiles she has as seems best.”
“Confirmed.”
I unmuted the channel. We had another minute before the fighters were in range, and an intense feeling of déjà vu came over me. I waited thirty seconds.
“Fire FF's if you have them.”
My own finger pressed the button, ten of them launched, and kept on launching as I held it down. Ten seconds out, another finger touched the torps button, and fifty launched. A hole began to appear in the middle of the tree formations, and Crusader dived through, Claymore on my right, and Tag'Em to her right. The three CO's had kept the triangle formation, so 266 was above me, while 267 and 268 were below and outside of me and Tag'Em.
This time, I didn’t bother strafing. I held my fingers down on gun trigger and launch buttons, and blazed my way through. Claymore was doing the same, with an even bigger and longer hole continually formed in front of her, while Tag'Em was weaving around trying not to be hit by anything. Too late to ask if she had the shielding to do this. I muted the channel again.
“Jane, see if Claymore's turrets can protect Tag'Em more.”
“Confirmed.”
I unmuted the channel again, and called out break instructions to several Excaliburs about to get king hit. They took only some of the hits, instead of all of them.
And suddenly, Crusader was out into clear space, with the plant fleet ahead, still coming on at their cruising speed, still in a line abreast formation. Claymore adjusted course for the right side battleship, and I formed up next to the bigger ship. Tag'Em, being really small next to both of us, did the same, and the three of us left the remaining fighter scrap behind us.
Around us passed a blur of mosquito missiles fired by Unassailable, and ahead the missiles fired at us by the large trees started boiling space. Crusader and Claymore were also launching them.
A few seconds later, the first of the capital ship missiles passed us as well, but neither I nor Claymore had yet fired ours. The three of us were now in the crosshairs of the enemy fleet's guns, and juking wildly to avoid being hit too hard.
Tag'Em staggered, but kept going, a gash in the hull down the side I could see. And I realized I was now getting part of what I could see from Claymore's cams.
Twenty seconds out from my target, I launched my eighty capital ship missiles, and followed by mashing the torps button and holding it down. Seventy of the missiles hit, the battleship's shields went down, and the third rank of torps tore into the innards of the ship, as I gently eased up and over.
Now I pressed the strafe button, eased her over in a nose down angle, and kept firing both front guns and torpedoes.
To my right, Claymore had fired her titan turret at the battleship, and her battleship turrets at the cruiser Tag'Em was targeting, while sending her missiles at the other cruiser. Tag'Em's torpedoes ripped through the remaining hull of the cruiser, and all four largest ships came apart at the same time, with the three of us shooting past over the top into empty space.
Unassailable and the Excalibur IV's missiles had devastated the destroyers as
well, so as I pulled the speed off Crusader and prepared to turn, I could see only debris behind us.
The AMS cruiser was slowing down now, with Unassailable keeping pace. The Excaliburs with them both were all pointed back towards us, even though keeping pace with the bigger ships. It made sense, as those firing their cap ship missiles could do it better facing the way the missiles needed to go.
“All ships rendezvous with the AMS cruiser,” I ordered.
As we headed back, I checked on damage to ships. We hadn't lost anyone, but it had been a near thing. Tag'Em looked a bit like cheese, although the upper deck was intact. None of us had more than twenty percent shielding, and in several cases, shields were not regenerating, which meant the generators themselves were shot. Several more had holes in them, and according to Jane, six of the pilots were on pilot chair life-support, their suits in spacesuit mode.
I sighed, and stepped down to normal sight mode.
The mage was yawning.
Six
Landing Excaliburs on the flight deck of Claymore was a slow process.
The new mark IV's only just fit on her flight deck elevators, and so landing was done one at a time, giving the AI plenty of room to align the bird properly. The older and larger Excaliburs were too big, and once the new ones were all on the maintenance deck below, they landed two wide down the flight deck, pointing out the front of Claymore, ready for launching. The more damaged the bird was, the further back it was on the flight deck.
The pilots all had to spacewalk to the nearest airlock, where they were met by trolleys controlled by the ship's AI.
Ball re-docked with the AMS cruiser, who I now learnt was called Apricot Blossom. I stayed where I was until she reported in. What worried me was there'd been no coms from the ship since we arrived.
“How's the crew doing?” I asked her.
“Blossom is still active, according to Tag'Em, but the CCC is toast, and the crew had to withdraw to the medical bay. Their suits kept them alive, but Slice took a severe blow, and is in a care unit. In fact, they all are, as life support has failed completely outside of medical. We're going to have to send in repair and SR droids to get them out.”
I looked at Jane, and she nodded. Within moments, search and rescue droids with repair droids on the sleds started launching from both Crusader and Claymore.
“Can you remain there until the care units are retrieved, and then bring them to Claymore?”
“I was going to. But frankly, I need evac as well. My repair droids can fix most of the damage, but not any time soon.”
“Can you get to a shuttle?”
“Sure.”
“Then you may as well come to Claymore as soon as you can. Jane will see to the crew there.”
“You have Jane with you?”
“Yes,” said Jane.
“Okay, I feel a bit better now. On my way.”
Her channel closed. I looked from Jane to the mage, and back again.
“According to Tag'Em, who's talking to Blossom, Apricot One is still on board, and in perfect shape. She can take the care units over to Claymore using Slice's corvette when the SR droids retrieve them. Okay with you?”
The popup told me Apricot One was the same class as Tag'Em. I nodded agreement.
“You want the gig?” she asked next. “Or shall we magic over?”
She was grinning, but Shenaid frowned.
“Gig,” I said.
Getting to the gig was another matter. Some halfwit had removed all the life support on all the other decks, and there was no travel car. Jane led us both to a hole, and simply jumped in. Shenaid looked totally aghast, I felt the same way, but I shrugged and jumped in after Jane, with my suit going into space suit mode almost immediately. Towards the bottom I felt myself slowing, and much to my surprise, I touched down lightly. Jane was waiting, and Shenaid touched down lightly a few moments later with her eyes screwed shut. She opened them looking surprised to be in one piece.
Jane led us into the hangar bay, and into a small shuttle, outfitted for senior officer comfort. We took seats, while she went into the small cockpit in the front. The gig dropped out the bottom of Crusader as soon as the doors were open enough, and shot across the short distance to Claymore. Instead of going in the back end of the flight deck, which was normal, Jane shot in the front end at full speed, came to a shuddering halt above empty deck near the back, did a U-turn as the deck slid along under us, and dropped neatly on an elevator.
Shenaid face palmed, and looked up at me.
“She's a worse pilot than you are! And I thought that wasn’t possible.”
I took it as a compliment, but said nothing, holding my grin in.
Down on the maintenance deck, there was a scene of general chaos, as Excaliburs were being moved into tubes or maintenance alcoves. Jane shot us around several of them, scaring the shit out of several pilots walking nearby, and settled the gig down next to what I assumed was another one of those gravity holes. This proved to be correct, as Jane jumped out of the airlock before the stairs were wheeled up, ran across to the hole, and jumped up.
The two of us looked at the empty space where she'd been, looked at each other, and stared down at the cargo droid positioning our stairs. We went down sedately, and found the three squadron CO's approaching. I waited for them. The mage waited for me.
The three of them grinned suddenly as they came up to us.
“Never used an up access shaft before?” laughed Vulture.
“Nope.”
The mage just looked daggers at them.
“Easy enough,” said Falcon. “Stand inside on this side of the deck, facing outwards, and push off with your knees.”
“At the top,” added Hawk, “you'll see a rail approaching to the side. Grab it and pull yourself out.”
“Mind the gravity shift,” said Vulture. “Anyway, do what we do.”
They went in, and one by one bent their knees and shot upward. I waived the mage in, and she refused, so I went in, looked up, saw the three of them jump out near the top, and shrugged at the mage. I did the same as they did, felt myself rising at an alarming rate, looked for the rail and flailed my arms out at it, and managed to pull myself out of the shaft, where I promptly fell on my face.
Three pilots lost it for a moment, realized they were laughing at a superior officer, and raced off towards the bridge. I picked myself up, looked back out to see where the mage was, and found her coming up sedately. I reached a hand out, she took it, and I gently tugged her to a set down landing.
“That was easier than I thought,” she said.
I refrained from saying anything, and looked around. Like BigMother, there was a circular stairway leading down to the next level, which I assumed was also accommodation. There was also a smaller access shaft pair going up again, and a very steep set of stairs going the same way.
I followed Shenaid onto the bridge. There I found LC Neilson still in his chair, Jane over where she always seemed to sit, my three CO's sitting behind her, and a young woman I assumed was the ship AI sitting next to Jane. The mage took her normal chair.
“Eric,” he said, rising from the center seat, and offering his hand.
There was the remnants of a British accent there, but clearly, he'd been away a long time. He stepped over to the helm seat, sat, and waved me into his captain's chair. I reluctantly took it.
“What's our status Jane?”
“You mean apart from shot up ships and exhausted pilots?”
“Apart from that, yeah.”
“We're in okay shape. Apricot Blossom is in the worst shape, but by morning Blossom and I can have the CCC operational again, and life support restored to her main deck. The ship will then be able to fight again, although I wouldn’t recommend it. Tag'Em will be patched and ready to go by then as well. Apricot One is fine, but needs a pilot. Unassailable will have some drones operational by morning as well, but it's going to take a week to build a whole set of new drones for both ships, and that might not be t
he best use of resources.”
“Leave that a minute. What else?”
“Rockmonster's Excalibur IV is in bad shape, but repairable. Sometime tomorrow, depending on which order you want fighters repaired in. There are several others in nearly as bad shape, and then a whole lot of minor stuff.”
I looked at Vulture.
“Least to worst,” he said, and I nodded to Jane.
“Claymore, Crusader, Nascaspider, and General Montgomery are all undamaged.” A popup told me the Monty was an assault frigate, and the spider was another standard corvette. “Claymore has replacement ordnance for everyone, but we're going to need to replace what we used or risk running out in the next battle we face.”
“Hence priorities.”
“Yes. Fighter repairs seem the highest priority. Then Tag'Em and basic repairs to Blossom, and missile fabrication.”
“Who has the fabricators?”
“Unassailable has more, because she was designed to replace drones. Claymore has them as well, but not the stocks of resources needed. If we don’t get reinforcements soon, we'll need to find some.”
I looked around the group. No-one said anything.
“Fine. Get started on what you can.” I remembered what we'd done after my battle in the center seat of Orion. “Better launch a Lightning as well, and get eyes on the other side of the jump point Slice was ambushed at.”
Heads nodded.
“You want the whole system covered?”
“Yes, you better. And go through any jump points you find, and give them eyes as well. The more warning we get of anything coming at us, the better.”
She nodded, as did the others.
I paused, waiting for anyone to say something. Instead, a woman bound onto the bridge, pulled Eric out of his seat, and hugged him. He sat again, looking a bit bewildered. A popup told me he was married. Jessie sat next to him, and looked at me.
“Jessie Ball, at your service, Commander, sir.”
Legend of Dreamwalker (The Hunter Imperium Book 5) Page 3
