“We just got the final transmission.” Cooper Brown sat on a folding chair in his makeshift headquarters. His legs fidgeted nervously as he spoke, and his boots scraped lightly on the rough stone floor. “Stingray was destroyed. They hit her with some energy weapon from almost double our own laser range. Hopefully she was able to transmit some data on it to Raptor before they finished her off.” That information could be crucial to the war effort. It was the first serious data they had on the enemy’s energy weapons and, once again, they were superior to anything the Alliance possessed. “They took out the orbital station and satellites with the same weapon.”
Jacob Meklin’s face stared back from the portable com unit, his expression grim. “Any word on Raptor?” Meklin’s face bounced around the screen – he was walking down a corridor holding his ‘pad as he spoke.
“We got a flash message from Captain Calloway. Raptor has heavy engine damage and he’s had to restrict the reactor to 40% output. Apparently one of the containment chambers is cracked.” Brown tried angling his head, but finally he couldn’t take Meklin’s face sliding all over his screen. “Jake, can you hold still for a minute? You’re making me seasick.”
Meklin laughed, briefly breaking the tension. “That’s pretty impressive, wouldn’t you say? Since there hasn’t been a sea on this planet for forty million years.” He stopped walking and leaned against the wall, holding the ‘pad steady in front of his face. “Better?”
“Much. Thank you.” Brown squelched his own short laugh. “Anyway, Raptor’s decelerating, but with their present reactor and engine capabilities, it’s going to be days before they can make it back.” Any brief trace of amusement was gone from Brown’s face. “The station’s last report indicated one of the enemy ships had broken off. Projections strongly indicate a course to intercept Raptor.”
Meklin was silent for a moment, but his expression confirmed he knew just what that would mean for Captain Calloway and his crew. “Hornet?”
“As far as we know, Hornet is still undetected. We can’t be certain.” The third ship in Calloway’s squadron had been ordered to remain hidden and not to intervene in the battle taking place. Her mission was to stay intact so she could transmit data on the enemy ground forces once they landed – intelligence that General Holm and the Marines needed desperately if they were going to have a chance of mounting a successful defense against the invaders.
“Are your people ready, Coop?” Meklin’s tone changed, became grimmer. It was bad enough thinking about the naval crews up there, but Cooper’s militia were citizens of Adelaide. Those were Meklin’s friends and neighbors up there in the trenches, waiting for God knew what.
“Yes.” Cooper’s voice was just as somber. He’d done everything he could, but he knew his forces had no real chance to win the fight that was coming. “We’ve got the approaches to New Sydney and Johnston covered. The troops are dug in and as ready as they can be.”
“You’re positioned to cover the shelters too then?”
“Yes. Most of the civilians are in the tunnels under the Wings.” The Wings were the two mountain ranges that flanked the capital of New Sydney. They were honeycombed with mining tunnels that had been hastily converted into shelters for the planet’s civilian population. “Johnston and the other settlements are a side show. The main battle will be around New Sydney.”
Meklin sighed heavily. “Ok, we’re sealing up the shelters now. After I sign off we’ll be going silent.” He paused for a few seconds. “Take care of yourself, Coop.” There was a sadness in his voice he couldn’t hide. He didn’t expect to see Brown again.
“Good luck to you too, Jacob.” Brown was no more optimistic, but he had put on his warrior persona. If he had a fight ahead of him – no matter how hopeless - he was going to think about winning, not worry about losing.
There was a sudden commotion down the corridor from Brown. “Major! We have landing craft inbound.”
“Got to go, Jacob. It’s showtime.” He smiled one last time at his friend and cut the link. He looked around the small headquarters for a few seconds before grabbing his helmet and rifle. “Captain Krantz, take over here. I’m going to the surface.”
Riley Calloway leaned back in his command chair, trying to find an angle that didn’t make his shoulder hurt like hell. It was dislocated – badly – and the tendons and ligaments were torn to shreds. The medibot had set it crudely, but with Raptor’s sickbay a pile of junk metal, there was only so much that could be done. At least the injections had offset the radiation dose he’d received. Between that and the stimulants, he was alert and aware. More aware than he wanted to be…at least with regard to the losses his people had suffered.
Raptor had been hit hard. She was limping along on one-third power, still decelerating so she could turn and head back toward Adelaide. She had twenty dead from her complement of 87, and many of the rest, including her captain, were wounded.
Calloway had watched Stingray meet her end. He couldn’t help but feel the loss even more keenly since Captain Heinz had taken her vessel from the relative safety of its hiding place to save Raptor from the enemy missiles. Calloway hadn’t been able to repay the favor…his ship was still zipping away from the scene, its damaged engines and reactor struggling to decelerate. It wasn’t like the shattered Raptor could have done anything to save Stingray anyway, but it was hard to sit helplessly and watch friends and comrades die alone and unaided.
Stingray had done her duty until the very end, transmitting close in scanner reports to Raptor right to the last second. And that data was crucially important indeed. Stingray - and Adelaide’s orbital facilities - had been torn apart by an enemy energy weapon…one with almost twice the apparent range of the heaviest Alliance lasers. The data had already been sent to the Commnet station for rapid transmission back up the line. The forces massing behind Adelaide needed to know what they would face. The 18 th Squadron was on a thinly-disguised suicide mission, but eventually the Alliance would make a real stand someplace. Calloway’s people had increased the chances for that battle to be a victory, and that gave him some comfort. If they were doomed men and women, he thought, far better to die for something rather than for nothing.
Raptor and her crew were likely to join Stingray very soon. Their scanners had detected one of the enemy vessels veering off in their direction. They’d survived the missile barrage, but they’d made a spectacle of themselves doing it. Calloway knew the chance of going silent and slipping undetected into the void was nil, and now he had his confirmation.
The enemy vessel was close enough to launch missiles, but it had not done so. Apparently they were planning to finish off Raptor with that energy weapon. Calloway didn’t know if that was simply a tactical choice or if it indicated a limited supply of missiles, but he reported it anyway, sending another pulse transmission to the Commnet station.
They’d get a close look at that new weapon…far too close. Calloway set the ship’s AI to record and retransmit data until the last second. That would be Raptor’s final service, he was pretty sure of that. The ship was tactically ineffective; its weapons systems were all non-operational. All it could do now was share a view of its demise with comrades who might be able to use that information in some future battle.
“Ensign Carp, begin startup sequence for lifeboats Beta and Gamma.” Raptor had four small escape pods for use in abandoning ship, but only two were still operational. “Program for overload.” The ships had a capacity of 24, but he needed to get 33 people on each…everyone still alive on Raptor except himself.