“We’ve got them, Commander. Things are rough down here as well. We’re surrounded.”
“I understand, stand by. We’re coming to get you.”
Flaps pushed the engines hard. They needed to get in and out fast. It wasn’t necessary to get close, only to get a lock on the caches located around the vessel. Too slow and they’d get hammered, too fast, and they’d overshoot too quickly.
The first havocs were away and found their mark.
Phoenix accelerated along the dorsal structure too fast for the dreadnought’s turrets to track. The computer handled the firing. It was too much of an instant for a human to keep up.
Another havoc found its target, another missile cache down.
Flaps triggered a hard braking maneuver as they approached the dorsal bow of the ORA ship, Phoenix pitched down to get a bead on the underside cache locations. The deceleration allowed some peppering turret fire from the dreadnought to burn away more of her battered rear armor.
Several more missile volleys and they’d destroyed all caches the computer identified. Only two reloads of tungsten for the railguns remained.
As Phoenix accelerated away, Aaron held his breath. No more missiles came. It’d been long enough for the behemoth to reload based on previous attack runs.
“Commander . . . enemy attack craft!” Herman called.
“I see them. Damn, the launch bay is behind and we don’t have any more missiles.”
The dreadnought was launching small attack craft, and they were heading towards the planet.
Aaron fired a burst from the railguns but they sailed harmlessly past the small, nimble craft.
He pounded the console. “They’re too quick. We’ll never hit with tungsten from this range.”
“Commander, I have a suggestion,” Ayres said.
“By all means, XO.”
“Ensign,” she said. “Take us above relative to the dreadnought. Bring us over in a wide intercepting arc. Zane, ready the kinetic barrier. I’m sending the targeting areas to your board.” She swiped her info across. “Execute.”
Zane worked his station and fired the kinetic charges. They exploded and created a gravitic wall directly ahead of the accelerating fighters’ vector.
Aaron didn’t need any prompting. With the fighters slowed by the opposing force of the gravitic charges exploding in front them, he fired the railguns at maximum firing rate.
The enemy craft were blown off their course and into the path of the streams of railgun fire. The gravitic charges had considerably slowed their forward speed. A tungsten slug traveling at point-seven of light-speed equated to enough kinetic energy to obliterate the tiny craft. Several more bursts from the railguns nailed forty of the nimble fighters, but one had escaped.
They had enough tungsten slugs for one more volley.
“Take us wide around, Ensign. I want a good shot at that launch bay.”
Phoenix fired her last salvo of tungsten and destroyed the launch bay.
“Yuri, bring our people home.”
Flaps nodded. “On my way.”
Ayres took the helm.
***
Flaps scurried from behind the helm as the XO tucked herself in.
“Watch for that fighter craft, Yuri,” Aaron said. “Remember, Hammerhead is out of ammo and we’ve got none to give you.”
Flaps vaulted for the hangar deck.
The lift speed made him want to tear his eyeballs out. Finally, he arrived. He bolted up the ramp into Hammerhead’s cargo deck, up the ladder and behind the helm.
Already the bay doors were open. The craft was in standby mode, no need to power it up now.
He lifted off the deck and into the black.
***
Indri-3
“Stand by . . . we’re coming to get you.”
“Stand by? What does he mean stand by? We’re surrounded on all sides.” The corporal said.
As if on cue more pulse laser blasts lit up the dark.
The enemy had managed to penetrate the dampening field, and got their weapons partially working but their weapon fire was inaccurate—countermeasures still messed with their aiming systems. They had to aim manually.
Ahead of them, the mangled barricades smoldered with the occasional hit. To the right a large fjord blocked any movement in that direction. The enemy advanced. Some no doubt, flanked.
Dawes projected above the chaos. “We need to abandon this position. Everyone hold your fire. We know they still can’t detect our thermal signatures. They’ve only just got their pulse weapons working.”
Dawes was right.
The survivors of Endeavor cowered close by. Fear, stims, and the instinct to survive fueled them now.
“Everyone!” Dawes shouted above the ruckus. “We’re falling back. Chen, Ubu, you’re on point push ahead.” He gestured to Endeavor’s crew. “Stick close to them, no matter what, understood?”
They both clicked their acknowledgement.
Lee folded up the deployable turret. The only working one left. The other positions had been overrun. Corporals Ubu and Chen retreated to Dawes’ position.
“Sergeant,” Lee said. “This is your show. Get them home.”
The sergeant called after him but Lee ignored him. He slung the folded turret on his back and sprinted through the dark. The enemy had numbers. But Lee and the marines held one advantage, with the heat and motion shielding on their armor, they could move undetected.
It didn’t seem these people were any good at this kind of fighting. Everyone knew you brought the old school stuff along in case of energy dampening. If the roles were reversed, the marines would have spotlights.
That’s the thing with technology, in some ways it made you lazy to critical thinking. Too much reliance. It was good when it worked. When it didn’t, then you needed a fall back. Horses came to mind.
He continued his sprint towards the enemy base. They were only a half-klick beyond it. He occasionally stopped to check for enemy movement.
His jump-pack had taken a blast from a pulse weapon and was out of commission. The trusty grappler wheeled him to the top of one of the base walls and he positioned next to the remains of a turret. He shoved a melted turret off the tower and deployed his own pulse turret.
Their HUDS could still see the thermal movements of the enemy soldiers in and out. He raised Dawes on the comm. “Sergeant, give me a direct tactical feed, your HUD to mine.”
The interference from the enemy jammers still hadn’t completely blocked them. He linked the turret into his own HUD. Its threat board populated with the movement of the enemy thermals.
Dawes was linked to Lee’s suit and the turret. Friend or foe software would ensure their safety, but Lee made sure to designate the area around Dawes as a friendly zone so the survivors from Endeavor wouldn’t get hit as they moved.
He activated the turret.
Immediately it started blasting away at all the hostile motion and heat signatures. One by one the elevated turret vaporized the advancing ORA troopers.
A few minutes later, the turret was still pulverizing enemy positions forcing them away from Dawes’ position. Lee had programmed it to protect that area.
Then a thunderous roar echoed throughout the battlefield. He tracked the source. His heart sank—not their ride. The small craft banked. Damn. It was headed for him. He’d hoped the turret would continue to incinerate the advancing ORA soldiers.
He stepped off the tower and rolled when he hit the ground.
The craft’s plasma cannon silenced the turret, then banked and headed for the survivors. It must have spotted them visually, or it possessed more powerful sensors.
The craft dove and strafed the ground. Lee’s stomach churned. All this to be cut down from above.