Another sonic boom echoed in the sky.
“I’ve got you, Lee! Just hold on a little longer!”
Flaps!
Hammerhead soared through the cloud cover, but it wasn’t firing.
Something was very wrong.
Chapter 30 – Incoming
Hammerhead
Flaps rocketed for the battle zone on the ground.
He could see the thermal signatures of the ORA soldiers surrounding the green friendly outlines. The scattering of pulse blasts criss-crossing the din.
Then Lee’s transponder moved toward the ORA base. Wrong direction Lee. What was he up to now?
Then he saw. Another green icon appeared on the tactical console. A deployable pulse turret. It began to pound the enemy positions.
Right on, Lee!
He hadn’t seen any sign of the enemy fighter. He shook it from his thoughts. He had to get the survivors.
Minutes later there was an explosion near Lee’s position. The turret vanished. Hammerhead shook, and the fighter blew past.
The armor held for now. The damn thing was quick. It banked away. Its signature was flashing in and out of the tactical display. It appeared again this time near Sergeant Dawes’ position.
Hammerhead’s point defense turrets would have made short work of that thing. If it had any left.
The small ORA fighter decided it didn’t have the firepower to take down Hammerhead, so it’d target his friends instead.
But Yuri had one weapon left.
He decelerated hard and banked. He could see the fighter on the display now. Sergeant Dawes must be lighting it up for him. Bless you Dawes.
He aligned.
The fighter slowed to bank for another pass on Dawes and Endeavor’s survivors.
It wasn’t something you should do in an atmosphere, not with engines capable of accelerating to an appreciable percentage of light-speed. It would turn the ship into a ballistic rocket making it impossible for the enemy pilot to react.
Flaps poured full power into the engines.
***
Lee had caught up with Dawes. The enemy no longer advanced. Half had been cut down by the turret, the other half dared not move, they couldn’t be entirely sure what was happening. They’d taken fire from the direction of their own base.
The enemy fighter had strafed them once already. Vaporizing six people on the first pass.
Dawes looked at Lee. “Why doesn’t Flaps shoot him down?” he asked.
Lee shook his head. He didn’t have an answer. He just knew something was very wrong.
“It’s possible he can’t. Hammerhead took some heavy hits during our insertion.”
They watched as the little fighter blipped and strafed Hammerhead then angled back towards them.
“Incoming! Everyone scatter, don’t group up!” Dawes yelled.
Even if they had wanted to, the wee men and woman of Endeavor just didn’t have it left in them.
The fighter loomed large. Another deafening sound. An elongated streak ended abruptly with an explosion on the end of it.
Hammerhead and the ORA fighter were both gone.
Chapter 31 – For Yuri
“That boy . . . would have made a fine marine” – Randall Dawes
Phoenix
“Commander, I think I have it!”
Zane beckoned for him.
Aaron unclasped his harness and moved to see what had the ops officer so excited.
“I believe we can detect the mines,” he said. “Just a final—there.”
The mines—little red blips—populated the tactical display. The dreadnought had been moving like a snail across the desert, it’d only maneuvered a ten-thousand klicks from the mines it dropped. Surely, mines wouldn’t detonate and hurt their own mothership.
They’d need a little convincing. If he destroyed the matter-antimatter containment, it would detonate. The problem was the mines were too far to inflict any real pain to the dreadnought.
He’d have to nudge them along. Now more than ever, he was glad he saved the remaining gravitic charges. “XO, bring us to the extreme range of the kinetic barrier.”
The dreadnought wasn’t firing missiles, but it still had flak and plasma cannons in excess. If he got too close, it would be enough to knock out Phoenix after the pummeling she’d already sustained.
“Ayres, align us to the same plane as the dreadnought and those mines, with the mines directly between us and it.”
“Zane, I’m sending you new coordinates for the gravitic charges. Maintain a point-two-five firing rate only. We don’t have much left.” He swiped the information to the ops station.
Zane nodded. “I’ve got it.”
“Fire.”
Zane complied and gravitic charges pushed the mines towards the dreadnought. It didn’t take long to build their momentum to a couple hundred meters a second.
It didn’t take long for the dreadnought captain to figure out the intent either.
Point defense erupted from the dreadnought.
“XO, starboard thrusters—gently. Push us a couple thousand meters to port.”
She complied, giving Herman a clear line of sight. The ops officer fired the gravitic charges at the designated coordinates—ahead of the mines. Not close enough to slow their progress, but instead, along the incoming vector of fire from the dreadnought. A kinetic barrier between the dreadnought’s point defense barrage and the mines.
The gravitic charges continued to drive the mines forward. Close enough.
The mines couldn’t get closer without the gravitic charges exploding ahead of them which were protecting them, pushing them back and they couldn’t stop protecting them yet.
Aaron fired the final tungsten rounds from the railgun magazines shredding the mines’ containment.
The destructive energies washed over the dreadnought. It listed out of control, going into a lateral spin. Its maneuvering thrusters no longer fired. Secondary explosions tore away at its rear section. Severely, wounded but not defeated.
Aaron refocused the ship’s sensors on the battle on the planet. He didn’t like what he saw.
“Hammerhead’s in trouble. That fighter is a problem. I’ve got to get down there while Flaps keeps it busy.”
“XO, the ship is yours. I’m going to get our people.”
Aaron entered the lift. Someday he had to make some kind of emergency tunnel to the hangar deck. Waiting on the lift to take him somewhere in an emergency would soon cause his head to explode.
His people needed him. It didn’t matter if he was about to cruise into a thousand ships of the Baridian Empire or charge a line of infantry with his bare hands. There was only one barrier that could stop him. That was death itself.
And he’d been dead before.
Dad always said there was no greater love a man could have—than to lay down his life for his friends.
He slipped behind Star Runner’s helm. He was off the deck and into the black.
***
Indri-3
Lee’s eyes lied to him.
Flaps . . .
Hammerhead and the ORA fighter vanished in a fireball. The debris rained down near their position. Several hot shards nearly pierced him. Sergeant Dawes was looking up too.