Beyond Mars Crimson Fleet (31 page)

“COMMANDER, RAPIDLY
APPROACHING SHUTTLE FROM THE REAR!” Randall cried out.

“DE-PRESSURIZE SHUTTLE BAYS AND OPEN HANGER
DOORS!” Richard shouted out. Wakinyan then grabbed the helmsman by
the shoulder. “When I tell you to brake, you brake! When I tell you
flank speed, I want flank speed! We’ve only got one shot at this!”
Wakinyan stressed the urgency of the situation to the female
crewman.

“Aye, Commander!” the woman
acknowledged.

The
Crazy Horse
aligned itself evenly, but just above the fleeing shuttle.
Gradually, the single destroyer dropped behind the other two
Martian ships.

As
the
Crazy Horse
passed the smaller craft, Wakinyan bellowed out, “BRAKE!” as
he judged the timing to be right. Instantaneously, the ship slowed
down considerably and allowed the shuttle to
enter.

“THEY’RE INSIDE AND DOWN!”
Randall informed loudly from across the bridge.

“CLOSE BAY DOORS! FLANK
SPEED!” Wakinyan roared in response.

The
engines of the
Crazy Horse
went to maximum burn, which shot the destroyer
forward at an incredible speed. She soon rejoined the other two
destroyers, and the small Martian force turned again to attack.
However, the last of the crimson ships finally cleared their
computers and were prepared for battle.

As the three Martian ships
re-enter the formation, they were greeted this time with a massive
salvo. However, because they were moving so fast within the fleet
itself, the fire became reckless, crazed, and inaccurate. Lasers
struck friend and foe alike in the raging shootout. As Wakinyan had
planned it, the “Earthers” were doing more damage to themselves
than to his ships. Still, they were taking hits.

“HELMSMAN, HARD TO PORT!
KEEP US IN THE MAIN FORMATION OF THEIR SHIPS!” Wakinyan
commanded.

The ship then rocked from a
hit.

“DIRECT HIT TO DECK FIVE
FORWARD! COMMANDER, THE POUNDING THE CRAP OUT OF US! HOW MUCH
LONGER ARE WE GOING TO KEEP THIS UP?” Randall became
anxious.

“UNTIL DENKO GETS HIS ASS
OUT OF HERE!” Wakinyan replied.

The
Crazy Horse
then got slammed with another hit.

“DIRECT HIT TO DECK TWO AFT!” Randall
excitedly advised.

Richard pounded a fist on
his command chair, then suddenly jumped up and ran to the Helmsman
position.

“MOVE IT SAILOR, I’M TAKING
OVER!” Wakinyan confronted the female mariner.

The woman unbuckled herself
and jumped out of the seat as the deputy commander slid
in.

“EVERYONE, STRAP YOURSELVES
IN!” Wakinyan yelled as he harnessed himself to the
chair.

Randall and the rest of the
crew did likewise hurriedly.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GOING TO DO?” Jim fearfully
asked, fully knowing his friend’s temperament of hostility had gone
from bad to worse.

“THIS!” snarled Wakinyan as pulled back and
turned the sticks at the same time.

The
Crazy Horse
spun and went into a
barrel
roll
like a fighter. However, the other two
Martian destroyers just peeled off and went in separate directions.
The Martian Destroyer
Sorenson
unfortunately flew right into a kill zone and took
over two dozen hits simultaneously. She blew apart within
heartbeat.

Randall
quickly turned to Wakinyan. “WE’VE JUST LOST THE
SORENSON
!”

Richard’s eyes narrowed in
rage, as they locked onto an enemy ship on his scanner. “MAIN GUN,
FIRE!” he snarled.

The
lasers of the
Crazy Horse
ripped through the void and tore into the bridge
of an Earth frigate. As the ship went out of control, it plowed
into another frigate. The two vessels then disintegrated in a
funeral pyre of detonation.

As the
Martian Destroyer
Lee
tried to rejoin the zigzagging
Crazy
Horse
, a volley of lasers raked the
destroyer from behind. The pulse energy weapons penetrated deeply
into the ship. In a brilliant flash of a nuclear fireball, she
died.

Seeing
the
Lee’s
demise,
Wakinyan went insane with fury. He jammed the control sticks back
while braking at the same time. The
Crazy
Horse
went into a tight loop, popping up
into a squadron of cruisers. So close was the Martian destroyer’s
impromptu course correction to several of the Earth ships, she
actual scraped and dented the hull of one of the big cruisers in a
near miss. Finally after completing her sharp circle, the
Crazy Horse
came up
directly behind the enemy ships that had just blasted the
Lee
to
particles.

“WEAPONS, FIRE!” Wakinyan yelled, bent on
revenge.

The
lasers of the
Crazy Horse
targeted the destroyer squadron with deadly
accuracy. She scored numerous hits on two ships, which seconds
later instantaneously blew apart, sending the fragments of their
incendiary destruction into other Earth vessels. A third zigzagging
Earth ship then collided with another in a vain attempt to escape
the lethal wrath of the pursuing Martian destroyer. They too were
transformed into an expanding inferno of fire and debris.
The
Crazy Horse
,
however, quickly veered and rolled away as the explosion spent
itself.

In the meantime, the
remainder of Denko’s squadron was initiating their hyper-drives.
His objective was complete; the Martian destroyers under his
command were towing all three damaged ships and were leaving the
system with the colonists.

“Fullback to Right Guard!
Fullback to Right Guard!” Denko repeated. “We are underway! Repeat!
We are underway!”

The rescuers and their
charges then vanished through an inter-dimensional portal—and to
safety.

However,
Wakinyan was too busy to acknowledge the transmission. The officer
was fully immersed into saving his ship. Another destroyer squadron
was in pursuit of the
Crazy
Horse
, and they were slowly gaining on it
while scoring several minor hits.

“We’ve kicked over one hell
of a hornet’s nest, Commander! I think it is time we beat-feet out
of here!” James gave his opinion.

Wakinyan came to the same
assessment. “We’re just about to do that, Mr. Randall. What’s that
big ship coming up on our starboard?”

“Ship is
identified as a
Super Dreadnought
class.” However, Randall paused in surprise and
then quickly turned to his friend. “It’s their flagship, the
Quinton
!” he blurted
out.

“How many missiles do we
have left?” Wakinyan asked.

“Four!” Jim was swift to
answer.

“WEAPONS!
TARGET THE
QUINTON
WITH ALL REMAINING MISSILES!” Richard ordered. “Engine room!
You there, Marcus?”

“Here, Commander!” the
intercom came alive. “What the hell is going on?”

“Later, Chief! Right now, I
want you to give me everything you’ve got! Redline the sub-lights!”
Wakinyan instructed, referring to the sub-light engines used in
normal space.

“One of them is in shutdown mode now, Commander!
We’ve been barely maintaining battle speed with the other two. And
the strain on them is ready to blow them apart!” Marcus emphasized
the danger.

“If you don’t do it, a
bunch of Earthers are going to use us as target practice! You can
cut it off as soon as we’re in hyperspace, but I want everything
right now!” Wakinyan made himself clear.

“Aye,
Sir!” Marcus acknowledged apprehensive of the danger. He then
turned to his
Black Gang
of engineers. “REDLINE THE SUB-LIGHTS!” he barked
loudly.

Within a
second, the power gauges of the
Crazy
Horse
shot into the
Red danger zone
while her engines
suddenly blasted the ship speedily forward.

* * * * *

Aboard
the
Quinton
, all
power was finally restored. The bridge, however, was a complete
shambles. Selena looked around and silently cursed Trager for doing
this. However, Captain Renee was quick to interrupt
her.

“Admiral,” the captain
announced, “all power has been restored, but several systems are
still down. The good news is we should be fully operational within
a day, and that includes the battle matrix system.”

It was indeed good news to
Selena’s ears. However, the good news was quickly followed by some
bad.

“ADMIRAL, A MARTIAN WARSHIP
IS MOVING IN TO ATTACK!” the command and control computer loudly
informed.

Captain Renee eyes bulged
in disbelief. “That captain must be absolutely mad!”

Selena didn’t care.
“WEAPONS, LOCK ON THAT SHIP AND FIRE!” she ordered.

* * * * *

With a
final burst of speed, the
Crazy
Horse
charged fearlessly at the enormous
ship. Even though she was hopelessly out numbered and being
pursued, she unleashed the last of her missiles. The four
projectiles immediately locked on to the
Quinton
and
accelerated.

The great
weapons of the
Quinton
then came to life and targeted the
Crazy Horse
. Moments later, they
discharged a lethal barrage. However, it was too late. The Martian
ship seconds earlier had energized its hyper-engines and vanished
into another dimension.

It only
took a moment for the
Quinton’s
lasers to destroy the four missiles. However, they
passed harmlessly through the
Crazy
Horse’s
disappearing hyper field—and
blasted part of the group of pursuing Earth destroyers. As several
of the vessels exploded as the victims of friendly fire, Selena
temper flashed violently. In a fit of rage, she picked up the burnt
tiara crown and threw it against Trager’s now abandoned
scanner.

* * * * *

Chapter 18:
Traitors

In
Trager’s mind, the
Crazy Horse’s
escape was nothing short of miraculous. This
opinion was formulated by the fact that Trager, Abner, and the
surviving engineers needed to don spacesuits before they could be
escorted to Wakinyan. At the time, it seemed outlandish, but as
they were paraded through the interior of the ship, they easily
understood why.

Gaping
holes breached the hull through compartments of the vessel, making
them uninhabitable. Ducts, cables, and other wreckage were strewed
about the corridors, as spacesuited mariners and marines worked
hard to repair the damage and clean it up. Still as the group of
deserters and their escorts moved through a number of interior
airlocks, the Earth officer was completely dumbfounded as to why
the
Crazy Horse
had
not been destroyed in the previous battle. The damage was so severe
that the Martian vessel was forced to drop out of hyperspace to
make some critical repairs. Yet, the ship was still intact and
operational. It was like a giant hand had protected it and all
those who sailed aboard her.

As the group passed through
a final airlock, Major Franks pointed to a conference
room.

“You can take your helmets
off now,” Major Franks said as he removed his own, “but keep them
handy just in case.”

Trager regarded the major’s
words as either a very bad joke or honest lack of confidence in the
ship’s atmospheric integrity. Yet, the Earth officer heeded the
advice, and tucked his helmet underneath his left arm. The group
was then ushered into the room.

Two Martian officers stood
alone, conversing quietly among themselves. Trager, however,
expected the one wearing the deputy commander’s rank to be
Yamaguchi Noda. But the young officer who turned to gaze at the
group with piercing, steadfast eyes was definitely not
him.

“Please, be seated,”
Wakinyan offered chairs to his standing guests. “I am Deputy Fleet
Commander Richard Wakinyan, and this is Captain James Randall,” he
introduced. “Is Commander Trager among you?”

“I am Commander Trager,”
the proud officer took a step forward, “and this is Chief Engineer
Abner Strephon,” the older officer gestured to his friend. “We are
the ones who contacted Commander Paladin.”

Wakinyan face was as stone.
“Commander Trager, I am not one to stand on formality. Commander
Paladin has guaranteed safe passage for you and your crewmen to any
destination you desire, but after we have confirmed your
information.”