Soldiers of Fortune (32 page)

              "Please tell me you're not bringing that damn thing," Crusher lamented, having been on the receiving end of the aforementioned muzzle blast before.   

              "Oh yeah I am," Jason smiled behind his helmet visor. He grabbed a load bearing harness that held several spare magazines, which were a combination magazine and powerpack for the weapon, and a heavy plasma sidearm that he affixed to his right thigh. Jason, like Crusher, also carried a molecular-blade weapon, but only one and significantly smaller at that. He wasn't nearly as well trained in the use of melee weapons like the big warrior was, so he kept his contingency weapons basic. The nanotech in the blades kept the molecules along the edges aligned like they'd just been hit with a sharpening steel, effectively allowing the weapon to re-dress the cutting edge after each use. There were more exotic, energy based edged weapons available, but Crusher was a traditionalist and Jason like his weapon-of-last-resort to be as simple as possible.

             
"Are we ready for this?" Jason asked his friends.

              "Not even close," Crusher snorted, "but let's give it a shot anyway." The trio secured the rest of the items in the armory in preparation for heavy maneuvering and then left.

              "Twingo," Jason shouted as they walked through the engineering bay, "I want you up on the bridge and strapped in before we mesh in." Twingo, half buried in an access panel, just waved at him in an ambiguous response that promised nothing. Jason gave the ship a cursory inspection as he made his way up to the bridge, ensuring everything was secured as it looked to be a bumpy ride. When he arrived on the bridge, he could see Doc and Kage sitting at their respective stations, each trying to remain busy as the minutes counted down until they'd blast into real-space and engage the fleet of warships they'd seen at The Complex.

             
He sat in his seat and waited while it began to adjust for the additional bulk and weight of his armor. "Sixty-two minutes out, Captain," Kage volunteered without having been asked. The Veran looked absurd in the body armor that Twingo had quickly had fabricated for his slight frame. Doc looked no less out of place, but at least more proportional.

              "Thanks," Jason said. "Everybody make sure your weapons are secured on the bridge, we don't need them flying around or someone accidentally shooting something when we start maneuvering."

              "Who would accidentally fire a weapon on the bridge?" Crusher asked, as if it were the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard. Jason remained silent, remembering that the first time he had set foot on the bridge he had inadvertently squeezed off a single round that took out the navigation subprocessor with his AR-15.

              "It doesn't matter," he said. "Just secure everything like I asked." When Crusher just shrugged he turned to Kage.

             
"When we're thirty minutes out, bring all the weapons systems online, including all the missiles in the launch bay, and start self-testing them. I want them primed and ready as soon as we're out. I also want the shields up the instant you see stars through the canopy."

              "I'm on it," Kage said nervously. Jason looked over and saw that Doc was fidgeting at his seat as well. A moment later Twingo walked onto the bridge wearing an unusually subdued expression. Only Lucky looked calm out of them all as Crusher had a disturbingly eager expression on his face as he watched the timer that was projected on the canopy count down.
That's one sick bastard.
He keyed the control to pop and raise the forward part of his helmet so he could talk to his crew directly.

              "Ok, boys," he began. "We've been through this before, so let's settle down and focus on the small things. Get the systems all checked and re-checked, make sure the safeties on our missiles are disengaged, and just concentrate on your small part in the big picture." He wouldn't dishonor them by suggesting they could still turn back, not after they'd made their decision.

             
"This is what we're here for, only this time we're saving the lives of millions of civilians... there will be statues of us and schools named after each of you," a few chuckles at that part, "We're going to hit them hard in orbit, but we're not going to burn-in trying to stand toe-to-toe with those bigger ships. Our main goal is to try and get planetside and stop their ground assault team from retracting the tether. It won't be easy, but we'll make a few passes with the
Phoenix
to try and soften them up first."

             
They each sat a little straighter and went back to their individual tasks as the importance of their mission was reinforced. Jason, with little to do until they meshed in, let his thoughts wander to the things he'd left unfinished in his life. In particular, the beautiful blond woman he had left on Earth to pursue his calling among the stars. She would never know that he had died out here in a blaze of glory, fighting to protect a planet of innocent lives, but he hoped she would have been proud of him if she had.

              "We're five minutes out," Kage said crisply. Jason flipped his visor back closed and slaved his visual input to the ship's tactical sensors. They all sat in silence, anticipating what they would see within the next few moments.

              "Meshing in-system in 5...4...3... 2... 1... NOW!"

             
As the slip energy dissipated and the sensors began populating the threat board they could see the orbital platform was already taking a beating.

              "Shields up!" Kage announced over the alarms.

             
The
Phoenix
streaked into the system towards the fray, largely unnoticed. Jason could see on the display that the three larger warships were firing on the platform, but were staying out of range of its meager defensive measures. From what he could tell, they were content to hammer at its weapon emplacements until it could be jerked out of orbit by their ground team.

              "There is zero com traffic coming from both the platform and the surface," Doc reported.

              "That explains the leisurely attack we're seeing," Jason said. Even at their current range they could see the flashes of energy bolts splashing against the enormous orbital installation. "They took out communications and now they'll just toy with them until the tether is retracted. Arm up the big boys, I'm going to line up directly behind the closest ship and stuff them up his engines. We'll then get one clean pass on the second ship with the main guns before that third ship in higher orbit can get a bead on us. Hopefully."

             
The "big boys" were two missiles they had inherited when they took possession of the DL7 gunship; a pair of high-yield tactical nukes. They were as old as the ship, but if they flew up into a ship's engines, the results should be quite dramatic. Unfortunately, they only had the two... while the missiles were sure to help even the odds a bit, they were still hopelessly outgunned once the remaining ships turned their attention on them.

              "We're locked," Kage reported. "We'll be in range in fifteen seconds."

              "Hold back, I don't want to risk their point defense taking them out, surprise is out only advantage right now," Jason said as he pushed the throttle up and raced towards the exposed rear of the closest ship. The sensors told him they had their shields up, but the section of shielding that was covering the engine emitters would be significantly weakened due to the gravimetric distortion propagating outward. Typically, that outward distortion would offer a significant level of protection when the ship was under way, but not when it was sitting in a station keeping mode. The relatively small missiles should be able to punch through and deliver their payload... in theory.

             
He watched the distance between them and their target dwindle rapidly until Jason thought he could just make out the tiny speck of the targeted ship against the backdrop of Shorret-3. "Open the weapons bay and prepare to deploy. Two shots, no interval."

              "Weapons bay open, ready to deploy," Kage said, his hand over the fire control. These particular missiles required they both initiate the launch sequence, so Jason squeezed the trigger on the control stick and waited just a few more seconds before pulling their speed back.

              "FIRE!"

              Kage hit his own fire control and two thumps were felt through the ship as the missiles came off the rails and fired their engines. A split second later, two brilliant blue sparks raced away from the
Phoenix
at over two-hundred g's of acceleration until they were quickly out of visual range.

              "Close us back up, we won't get a second shot with missiles," Jason ordered as he throttled the ship up to pursue their two nukes. He wanted to pass over the target just as they realized they were under attack and hit the second ship hard before they could get a bearing on the small, speedy gunship. As the larger ship began to resolve itself in the optical sensors there was a sudden, brilliant burst of light that washed out the displays and automatically darkened the canopy for a moment. A split second later the canopy cleared and Jason could see the ship listing badly, now unable to keep its position over the planet.

             
Still aiming to pass over the ship and pop out around it to hit the second ship, Jason was unprepared with their first target exploded right in front of them, the chain reaction that had been started by their missiles hitting the engines sending the reactors into meltdown.

              "SHIT!!"

              It was too late, the
Phoenix
plunged into the quickly expanding debris cloud before Jason could even think about steering away or stopping. Chunks of ship ranging from large to very large pummeled the combat shields and shook the ship violently as it battered through the heavy metal storm. Alarms began blaring and a list of warnings began to scroll over the tactical display, alerting them that all was not well.
Fucking stupid bastard! You've killed us all before we've even started!
A series of loud pops that sounded throughout the ship were their first indicators something critical was about to fail.

              "Power couplers are failing all over the ship!" Twingo shouted. "We're losing the shields! I'm trying to stabilize and re-route..."

              "Second target coming up," Kage said, still on task. Since he could do nothing about the shields getting ready to give out, he slammed the throttle down and relied on the
Phoenix's
speed to get them through the mess he'd flown them into. He lined up along the lateral seam of the hull and squeezed the trigger. Brilliant red bolts of plasma shot out in rapid fire mode from both of the forward emitters, causing the enemy ship's shields to glow and waver as they fought to absorb the onslaught of energy.

             
The main guns began to overwhelm the enemy's shields as a handful of bolts passed through and caused massive damage along the ship's starboard side as the
Phoenix
shot past. Just as they cleared the aft most portion of the target's hull, they were rocked by a blast so violent Jason almost bit through his tongue. Two more hit them in rapid succession before they were out of range.

              "That was bad," Twingo said unnecessarily. "Shields are gone. Slip-drive is gone. The port engine is out altogether and the starboard engine is highly degraded."

              "We were hit by the third ship, the orbital platform, and the point defense of the ship we just strafed," Doc said. Jason cursed himself for flying too close to the orbital platform, whose crew could not realize they were trying to help. In such a defensive mode they were just firing at anything within range. He cranked the controls over in an attempt to come about and try to make landfall near the platform, but all that happened was the ship rotated attitude, but continued along the original trajectory.

              "I've lost maneuvering," he reported.

              "I'm not surprised," Twingo said. "One gimpy engine isn't enough to maneuver freely in space, especially so close to a planet. We're now at the mercy of standard physics... The grav drive is dead, Captain, better shut it down and bring the mains online. We'll have to do a complete orbit and try and enter on the other side."

             
Jason chaffed at the delay, but began to reconfigure the ship's propulsions systems anyway. As he was doing that, another detonation rocked the ship and yawed them violently towards the planet. "What the fuck?!"