Got it! The AIC tracked the enemy tank on her left, but it was having a hard time locking it up.
"I got the third one!" Popstar burned it down in a mad charge, firing her DEG.
Deuce pursued the remaining wounded one, which then turned on her and one of the Warlords. The enemy tank tried to go to its DEG and shoot from the hip, but the Warlord grabbed the end of the barrel and tried to yank it away, which led to a tug-of-war between the two mecha. Their struggle was enough for Deuce to get the upper hand. She managed to get the end of her DEG pointed into the cockpit of the enemy mecha, and then she pulled the trigger.
Great move, Deuce!
"Watch your backside, Deuce," Skinny's voice buzzed.
Deuce dropped and spun as best she could manage, but a tree trunk caught her in the side of her torso, sending her flying across the battlefield and down. The enemy tankhead was good and managed to keep her too busy to go to offense. Every instant required her to make a new block or dodge.
"Jump up, Deuce!" Skinny shouted. "He's got help coming in on your seven!"
"Warning, enemy targeting lock imminent! Warning, enemy targeting lock imminent!" said her Bitchin' Betty.
"Shit, I'm locked up!" Deuce jumped and went full throttle, but she didn't jump away from the enemy tanks. Instead, she attacked the wingman of the one that had just locked her up. Her bot-mode mecha propelled full-force into the enemy tank as it fired its cannons at her. Several rounds splashed against her hull, and a few of them actually tore through her wing. She tackled the tank at the shoulders, spinning it around. His wingman hesitated at that point, which was just enough time for her to push off the tank she had tackled and run into the mix of Army tanks and Marine FM-12s to break up his lock. Or so she thought.
"Warning, enemy missile lock! Warning, enemy missile lock!"
The Arcadian tankhead fired a mecha-to-mecha missile that was locked on her. The missile twisted through the traffic and caught her square in the back as she pulled the ejection handle. Her ejection seat shot out of the explosion at a low angle up through the trees, pounding into them and flipping end over end. Several large tree limbs broke off into the seat and Deuce's body until the seat cleared the tree canopy on a ballistic trajectory that then fell right back through the trees. This time the tree limbs were a blessing, as they slowed her descent, but they weren't blessing enough. Deuce came to a stop against a giant boulder near the river, her neck broken and her heartbeat failing.
I'm a goner, Bobby.
Just rest, Caroline. I'm administering immunoboost, stims, and pain medication.
Oh, God.
I've triggered the beacon. Help will be here soon.
It was great serving with you, Bobby.
The honor has been mine, Colonel.
Deuce flatlined, but the suit managed to bring her back.
Stay with me, Caroline.
As she tunneled out for the last time, she was blinded by a brilliant white light.
Chapter 28
July 1, 2394 AD
Ross 128, Arcadia Orbit
Friday, 3:45 PM, Earth Eastern Standard Time
"We're all stop, CO! Approximately three astronomical units from Arcadia out of the ecliptic," Nav announced.
"Good job, Penny!" the admiral replied. "XO, COB, get my ship back in order."
"Aye, sir."
"Air Boss, how is the QMT of the fighters coming?"
"We'll be at one hundred percent within the minute, sir."
"Good. As soon as that is done, have the wounded QMT protocols sped up. I don't want to lose a good soldier because we couldn't get them to sickbay in time."
"Aye, sir."
Wallace scanned the ship in his DTM, trying to figure out his next move. It wouldn't take long for the Seppy ships to figure out where they were. The interesting thing would be to see if they attacked them there, or if they took the QMT facility back, or if they'd try to protect the QMT control facility on the planet below at Capitol City.
Whatever the Seppy bastards did, he needed a new strategy. Casualty reports from the first wave were huge. The Lincoln was dead in the water, and the Tyler had lost Aux Prop and several DEG batteries. The Roosevelt and the Madira were in the best shape, but they were limping a bit.
"CO! CDC!"
"Go, CDC!"
Shit, what now? he thought.
I'm detecting seven hyperspace jaunts, sir. I'm sure it's that, Uncle Timmy replied.
"Sir! We just detected seven hyperspace jaunts. Five from the previous engagement zone and two from the enemy vessels that were waiting in reserve out by one of the moons," the combat direction center officer explained to him. Wallace didn't like what he was hearing. That was seven ships; they were coming to finish them off.
"Roger that, CDC." Admiral Jefferson turned back to his XO. "Larry! We've got incoming. Let's get ready for it."
"Aye, sir!"
Sound the call, Tim.
Aye, sir.
"General quarters, general quarters, prepare for incoming attack. All hands, all hands, man your battlestations. Prepare for incoming attack. All hands, all hands, man your battlestations," Uncle Timmy announced again over the intercom and to all AICs.
The bosun's pipe sounded throughout the ship, sending a chill over the already overworked crew. Considering that the day started with wargames in the desert of Mars and then wound up across the stars in a real shooting war, the admiral realized that his crew were performing like superhuman heroes. Sometimes, that wasn't enough. But according to his orders from the president, it had to be.
"CO, the ships are coming out of jaunt near us at the following coordinates, sir. Uh, only one of them is coming out close to us. The others are a tenth of an AU off," the STO shouted over klaxons that started up. Wallace had his AIC turn the annoying things off.
"Roger that, STO."
"CO! CDC!"
"We've got the ships coming out of hyperspace, CDC."
"Uh, yes, sir. But, sir, we're picking up EM disturbances near the planet that would suggest QMT jumps."
"Keep me posted, CDC. I hope that's our backup."
"Aye, sir."
"CO! That Seppy hauler is on a collision course for the Lincoln!" the Nav shouted.
"I'm detecting activated gluonium, Admiral!" the STO added. They sure as hell didn't need to be around if the Seppies fired off a gluonium bomb that close.
"Shit! Kamikaze, Admiral!" the COB shouted.
"Helm, emergency jaunt away from here now!" Wallace sounded an alarm across the fleet ships and opened a channel. "Evasive jaunts immediately! Gluonium Kamikaze!"
"Emergency jaunt, sir!" Helmsman Lieutenant Junior Grade Cindy Lewis frantically punched in the commands for an emergency jaunt. It would take the hyperspace projector a few seconds to spin up the quantum vortex required to pass out of normal space. Who knew if they had time?