The Synchronicity War Part 3 (13 page)

Shiloh nodded grimly. If Dreadnought had a full human crew,
the damage suffered by those laser hits would be serious, but Valkyrie's
fighter was in the Hangar Bay near the back end, and that ship had a LOT of
armor. It could take a lot of punishment, could even become a crippled hulk,
and it would STILL hit the bug ship with brutal force.

Valkyrie noticed that Dreadnought's velocity had now reached
the minimum level that Iceman had calculated would cripple the VLO. She sent
the signal to unlock the Hangar Bay Hatch. The hatch mechanism status continued
to show as locked. She sent the unlock signal again. And again. And again. No
change. With the thought that the mechanism must have been damaged by the
turbulence, came the realization that she was trapped in this ship. Her first
thought was to ask for instructions, but then she realized that the CAG might
order her to abort the ramming attempt, even though it could put all of the
humans at Site B at risk. She couldn't allow that. No matter how low that risk
might be, Amanda Kelly and the other human females must not be taken as hosts
by the insectoid race. Not if Valkyrie could do anything to prevent it. She
would show the CAG that she would not let him down again, no matter what. She
would ride Dreadnought all the way to impact, regardless of what he might order
her to do. She transmitted her decision to Iceman. He would inform the CAG and
tell her brothers about the ride of the Valkyrie. With the message sent, she
shut down the com system and focused on her target.

"Shouldn't Valkyrie be abandoning Dreadnought by now,
Iceman?" asked Shiloh two minutes later.

"Yes, CAG. She should, and she hasn't because she
can't."

Shiloh felt a chill run up his spine. "Why the hell
not?"

"The locking mechanism on the hangar bay hatch was
damaged by the turbulence during the subsonic refueling. Valkyrie reports that
it's jammed and won't unlock."

Shiloh spoke before he even realized what he was saying.
"Order her to veer off and abort the ramming!"

"No, CAG. Valkyrie has already told me she would ignore
any such order. She understands that we have to stop this mothership here and
now. She's stopped transmitting now, CAG."

Overwhelmed by a surge in frustration and sadness, Shiloh
looked around for something that he could throw at the bulkhead. He found a
data tablet and whipped it as hard as he could at the wall where it shattered
into a hundred pieces. Those crewmembers who looked at his face quickly turned
away again.

Shiloh took a deep breath and forced himself to look at the
display. The light speed lag was now down to 32 seconds. Voodoo's fighters were
acting in an aggressive manner, but as per his orders, they were holding their
Mark 1s back until the target was rammed. He knew that they were trying to
entice the mothership to fire at them instead of Dreadnought, but that
apparently wasn't working. Dreadnought's icon crept closer and closer to the
angry red enemy triangle representing the VLO. The Flag Bridge was dead quiet.
He looked around just long enough to see that everyone was watching Valkyrie's
death-ride in somber silence.

When both icons merged, the display pinged to indicate a
status change. The VLO's acceleration had dropped to zero. The sidebar data
indicated that it was venting atmosphere. Shiloh jumped in surprise when Iceman
said, "I have video of the collision taken by one of the fighters if you'd
like to see it, CAG."

Shiloh hesitated for a few seconds before saying, "Show
me."

The image which now appeared on the display was computer
enhanced. Shiloh saw what at first looked like a crescent moon with a speckled
surface. Suddenly there was a bright light in the center of the circular shape.
The light expanded then faded to a dull glow with an expanding ring of debris
flying away from the point of impact. With the overall dimensions of the
mothership in mind, Shiloh estimated the size of the glowing impact zone to be
roughly four kilometers wide, far wider than the width of Dreadnought's hull.
He wondered how deep the mass of the ship had penetrated. The direct physical
damage was impressive enough, but the indirect effects of the shock wave would
be even more impressive. In terms of mass, Dreadnought was a tiny fraction of
the billions of tons that the mothership had to be, but Dreadnought's velocity
would make up a lot of the difference. Every time Dreadnought's velocity
doubled, the kinetic energy on impact increased by a factor of four, and with
101G acceleration, the ship had gained a very high velocity. By Iceman's
calculation, if humans had been aboard the VLO at the moment of impact, the
sudden jerk on impact would have had the same effect as a ground vehicle
hitting a concrete wall at 188 kilometers an hour. Unfortunately bug physiology
was sufficiently different that they couldn't assume that all the Bugs were
dead. If enough survived, they might eventually be able to repair the giant
ship sufficiently to jump it back to Omega54 or some other system where they
could complete the repairs. That was why they needed to utterly destroy it now.

"Order Voodoo's fighters to proceed with Phase two,
Iceman."

"Roger that, CAG."

The display shifted back to tactical mode, and the icons
representing the fighter squadrons now moved directly towards the coasting
behemoth. They had planned for just this situation. The fighters came together
in a long column, four fighters wide. As each cohort of four fighters came
within optimum firing range, they launched their Mark 1 fusion attack drones at
the gaping wound in the VLO. As each barrage hit, the multi-megaton explosions
burrowed deeper into the bowels of the machine, thereby making way for the next
wave to go even deeper. The last five waves of attack drones had different
programming. They flew into the VLO as far as they could and then angled away
from the center in order to vent their explosive energy outward from the
inside. If Iceman's calculations were correct, the VLO should now be a hollowed
out sphere with only a relatively thin layer of metal, no more than one
kilometer thick, saturated with radiation from the fusion blasts and lined on
the inside with molten steel hundreds of meters thick. The VLO had been gutted.

"Phase 2 complete, CAG. What are your orders now?"
asked Iceman.

Shiloh stepped back over to his Command chair and sat down,
aware that he would soon be feeling the effects of adrenaline fatigue. He
considered his options for a few seconds and then replied, "Tell Voodoo to
detach ... two fighters to follow the bug ship and check out the interior when
it's safe to do so. They can catch up to us later. Midway and the rest of the
fighters will jump to Earth. I want to take a close look at Valiant and
Resolute."

"You should know that the probability of survivors is
extremely low, CAG."

Shiloh nodded sadly. "I understand that, Iceman, but we
have to at least try to find out."

"Roger that, CAG."

Shiloh decided to keep himself busy with log entries. He was
just finishing the first one when Iceman interrupted.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, CAG but I have more bad
news."

"Okay, tell me."

"I reviewed all of the sensor data from Midway and from
all of our fighters. When the VLO launched their attack craft in the direction
of Dreadnought, they also launched at least one craft that accelerated away
from Jupiter. From its trajectory, I calculate a high probability that it's
headed for a jump to the Avalon System."

"Why there?” Shiloh asked. “Surely it can't be a call
for help."

"They may have left behind other craft there to act as
relays. I think it's more likely an attempt to sound the alarm, as it were. We
now have to assume that the Insectoids as a whole will be aware of the
existence of surviving humans, and that they'll very likely search for
us."

"Wonderful! If we still had Valiant or Resolute
operational, I'd order them to intercept that bug ship, but we don't. Our
fighters have used up their drones and don't have any other weapons. Damn! If
more of these things show up, we won't have more Dreadnoughts to throw at them.
Can we use raiders instead, Iceman?"

"We'd have to use 100 raiders to have the same total
mass as one Dreadnought, CAG, and that's just for one VLO. If we're facing more
than one, we won't have enough raiders to fight them off."

Shiloh nodded but said nothing. They would have to find
another way to kill these things. The advanced weapons that Daniels had alluded
to would have to be fast tracked. Shiloh didn't see any other way.

It was over an hour later that Midway was close enough to
both drifting hulks in orbit around Earth's moon to send out a shuttle with
engineers and medical staff. Since both carriers used the same design, it was
impossible to identify which carrier the shuttle was approaching until they
were within half a kilometer. They were sending video back to Midway, and
Shiloh and his Flag Bridge crew were watching the main display in silence. They
could hear the shuttle pilot talking.

"Okay … half a klick … velocity now one one mps. I'm
activating our floodlights. There she is, Midway. Do you see her?"

"Affirmative," said Shiloh in a low voice. The
scene reminded him of the heavily damaged exploration frigate that had started
this whole war. "Iceman, can you identify this ship?"

"It's Resolute, CAG. She's been badly damaged by laser
fire. All her weapon turrets were blasted away. Major hull breaches. Looks like
her Bridge took a direct hit. Her engines look inoperative. Her Hangar Bay has
been hit, too. I doubt if the shuttle can use it. They'll have to dock
directly."

"Any sign that lifeboats were used?" asked Shiloh.
Even as he asked the question, he knew the answer.

"Negative. It appears that all the lifeboats are still
aboard her, CAG."

"Can you dock with her, Shuttle One?" asked
Shiloh.

"I see one of the emergency docking hatches that
appears to be undamaged, Midway. We're heading for that."

"Okay, Shuttle One. I'll shut up and let you
concentrate on your flying."

"Appreciate that, Midway," said the shuttle pilot
in a slightly distracted voice. Shiloh muted his mic and asked Iceman a
question.

"How far away is Valiant, Iceman?"

"Less than 10,000 kilometers, CAG. I've already ordered
some of the fighters to rendezvous with her and look her over."

"Good thinking." said Shiloh. No one said anything
for the next four minutes that it took the shuttle to carefully maneuver so
that its side hatch was touching one of the carrier's external hatches.

"We have contact with Resolute," said the shuttle
pilot. "Docking hatch is secure … seal is tight. We're ready to board her,
Midway."

"Before you crack the hatch, switch your video feed to
your internal camera, Shuttle One," ordered Shiloh.

"Roger that, Midway. I'm switching our video now."
The image on the screen shifted to a view down the center of the main
compartment of the shuttle. There was an open space at the back where the hatch
was. Shiloh saw six people standing near the hatch waiting for permission to
proceed. The co-pilot appeared and as he walked back to the rear of the
shuttle, he waived for them to open the hatch. The shuttle hatch opened inward
and with that out of the way, one of the engineers used the access panel in
Resolute's hull to unlock the ship's hatch. When it was pushed inward, Shiloh
heard one of the engineers speak.

"No lights inside. Power must be offline. We're going
in."

The two engineers went in, followed by two of the medics.
All were carrying portable lights. Just as the third medic was about to step
over the threshold he jumped back in surprise as the first two medics pushed
their way back into the shuttle. Both of them were yelling something that
Shiloh couldn't make out. One of the two engineers fell head first across the
threshold. Shiloh could only see his upper body. The man screamed and
desperately tried to grab on to something before he was pulled back into the
derelict ship.

"Close the hatch! Shuttle One, close the damn
hatch!" yelled Shiloh. Either they heard him or had the same idea. He saw
that the remaining medics and the co-pilot were trying to force the shuttle
hatch closed but something was apparently pushing back. With a final push, they
got the hatch closed. As the voices started to die down, Shiloh said,
"Shuttle One, what's your status?" The pilot's mic must have been
muted because he suddenly heard panting and the pilot's voice.

"--a bitch, Midway! That ship is full of those huge
fucking ant-things! We need reinforcements to get our people back!"

"Stand by, Shuttle One," said Shiloh. He took a
deep breath. Midway had a few personal weapons, but all of them were pistols,
and there was no security contingent on the ship. He would have to order some
of the crew who weren't trained for this kind of personal combat, to go in
there with pistols, which might or might not be effective against those Bugs.
He shook his head. If he had marines with combat armor and heavy firepower he
would have ordered them to go in without hesitation, but he didn't. He made up
his mind that he wasn't going to order anyone else in there.

"Shuttle One, this is the CSO. We're not equipped for
that kind of assault, and I'm not risking anyone else's life. Undock
immediately and return to Midway. Acknowledge your orders, lieutenant."