The War Across the Stars (5 page)

             
“Understood, sir,” Ryan said strongly. 

“What else is there?” Philip asked curiously, obviously having enjoyed the last speech, despite the Admiral's underlying resentment.

             
“The other news is that the Rangers, Beta Squad, and the Lambda Raiders are going on a joint mission to Sontonos.  You will be meeting them in four hours.”

“Aren’t the Lambda Raiders the squad with the Laser rifles?” Philip asked. 

“Oh, and isn’t their a pair of twins in that group?”  Nevin asked.

             
“Yes to both of those,” Dixon answered.  “The Lambda Raiders are led by Master Sergeant Deborah Pinkip.  Master Sergeant Dylan Johnston commands the Beta Squad.  He is the son of the Elonian delegate Gareth Johnston.  The same one who was killed on Delacrose several days ago.” 

             
“All right,” I said happily.  “I’m ready to work with someone with a motive like that.” 

“Yeah,” Max said.  “A tough dude, with a ‘tude.”

             
“I'm just gong to ignore you this time,” Dixon grunted.  “Meet Airman Wanda Xavier in the primary hangar bay in three and a half hours.  She’ll pilot you over to the
Liberator
.  From there you will jump to Sontonos.  Yes, you will have a small fleet with you.  A total of three ships.  Once cruiser, one destroyer, and a frigate.  You will be on the cruiser.  The rest will be explained there.  Good luck,” Dixon finished. 

“Yes, sir,” Ryan said as he saluted.

             
The admiral walked out of the room and went down the hall to the right.  We waited in our room for about three hours.  Then after grabbing our belongings, we headed toward the main hangar bay.  We arrived several minutes early, so we just sat around. 

“This’ll be great,” Max said. 

“Yeah,” Nevin said. 

“All of those ship names confused me though,” Max mumbled. 

“I’ll explain,” Ryan offered.  “The smallest ship is a corvette, however that excludes fighters, transports, scouts, and other small ships.  Then, from smallest to largest the ships are: frigate, destroyer, cruiser, battleship, and our biggest is the dreadnaught.”

             
“Nice,” Nevin sighed.  “Any particular reason you decided to memorize all that?”

“I was in the Navy for five revolutions as a pilot.  I was stationed on the
Hope
.  Then I was shot down on a ground run.  I managed to capture a Vorgian sniper rifle and made it home.  I practiced in my spare time for a while.  Then, they thought I was so good with it that they decided to put me in the new Special Forces team.  And now look, I am in charge of a crucial group of snipers,” Ryan concluded.

Chapter 4

Assault on Sontonos

By this time, we were soaring through space towards the
Liberator
.  Much to my dismay, it was the same style of transport as the one we used on Enphuerzo.  The transports were small, so each team used a separate vessel.  I greatly preferred the Corsair dropships that we had used prior to these new transports.

“I wonder what this Dylan fella’s like,” Max stated.

“But more importantly...” Robert stated, “I wonder what the mission is.”

             
“One minute before arrival on the
Liberator
,” our pilot, Wanda, informed us. 

I saw a large ship with five laser turrets and two railguns.  As we neared it, the ship appeared to grow larger.  The transport turned and we cruised into the hangar bay.  I climbed up the ladder and looked back through the window.  I saw two more transports coming behind us. 

“I’m ready to meet the teams we’re gonna work with,” Nevin said thoughtfully.  “I mean, these are big names we’re talkin’ about.”

             
Next, we touched down on the floor of the hangar bay.  As we plainly walked out to the transport, we saw the landed Beta Squad marching out of their transport. 

“Wow...they march...” Max said semi-thoughtfully.

             
“Ryan Dunkelman,” Master Sergeant Dylan Johnston called.  “Nice to meet you.” 

“Same here Master Sergeant.” 

“Do you have any important intel for us?” Francis Gonyon, one of the Beta Squad, asked. 

“I’d assume nothing you don’t already know,” Phillip said to Francis. 

“Aah, Phil, it’s good to see you again, man. I didn’t figure you’d have anything.”

I smiled slightly, impressed that Phil personally knew one of the Beta Squad.  The six-man team was one of the most renowned special ops teams in the Elonian Empire.

             
“Let’s go find what this raid is all about,” Sergeant Deborah Pinkip said as she and the Lambda Raiders approached us. 

“I concur with Sergeant Pinkip,” Johnston agreed as we gathered together and began walking to the bridge, where we began introducing the teams. 

“Hello, I’m Corporal Carl Hays,” a tall soldier greeted.

“I’m Joseph Hays,” said a slightly taller soldier who looked like Carl. 
Their only difference appeared to be a few centimeters in height, Joseph’s hair was darker, and Carl wore glasses.

“Mikel Eric,” an average sized soldier stated plainly, clearly not big on introductions.

“Hi, I’m Maria Clause,” the shortest member of the Lambda Raiders introduced herself.

“That’s my team,” Sergeant Pinkip announced. 

“Alright, team, now it’s your turn,” Ryan told us.

             
After our introductions, Sergeant Johnston said, “OK, then, Gonyon! You can start.” 

“Yes sir,” Gonyon said back, “I am Francis Gonyon.  I’m the tech expert.  Give me a technical snafu and I’ll fix it or reprogram it to do whatever we want,” he explained. 

“I’m Steven Roland,” a man with very short black hair said. 

“Scott Keys,” a particularly strong-looking man announced with a scowl on his face. 

“And I’m Benjamin Butler,” a short, stocky, bald soldier said. 

His build indicated he was from Delacrose, the largest planet in the Jerico system.

             
Then, we opened the door and walked into the bridge.

“Hello...” a man with the captain’s insignia emblazoned on his shoulder announced, “I’m Captain Palmer.”

“We are ready for the mission,” Johnston said. 

“Good” Captain Palmer said quietly.  “We all should know Rigel Korth correct?”

“Yes sir!” Sergeant Pinkip acknowledged.

“Your mission is to assassinate him and do as much damage to his military complex as possible.  He has been terribly hard to keep track of, but we know he will be there.  He was promoted all the way to Colonel after his stunt back on Delacrose.  Though for all we know, he may have held the rank prior, and it just wasn’t public.” 

“Ahh... that fool!” Sergeant Johnston uttered angrily. “I will personally remove him from existence!”

“Furthermore…” Captain Palmer began.  “Francis Gonyon, co-inventor of the Absolute Zero Gun will be using his gun in combat today.  Gonyon would you like to explain it?” 

“Yes sir,” Gonyon accepted.  “The A-Z gun is slow to fire, but it has devastating results… on anything.  It fires a super cooled projectile that upon impact fills a square half-meter area with ultra cooled mist.  That entire event occurs under a second after its launch.  The mist, near instantly, freezes anything it touches to absolute zero.  This causes all molecules to essentially stop moving. In that state they are extremely easy to break.  So, with that in mind a bullet is launched zero point one two five seconds after the A-Z shot.  The bullet then hits the target shattering the entire area that was ultra cooled,” Gonyon explained. 

             
“Ha, ha! I should have expected something ingenious like that.” Phillip exclaimed. 

“Yeah, but let’s use an example.  If we were to shoot the wall of a building, depending on the thickness, we could theoretically punch a hole clean through.  Imagine the effect on massed infantry.  A drawback however, is that it takes about fifteen point eight seven two seconds to cool the next round.  Which means the user will definitely need escort, and that in its current form, has little chance of becoming standard soldier armament.  The super cooled bullet is made of dense Hentronium.  The mist is stored in a capsule held at two hundred degrees to help avoid the mist destroying the bullet. As long as the mist is in the packet its effects are essentially neutralized. Once the trigger is pulled, the first bullet passes through the tip, and a weak force field bursts the packet.  The mist then leaks out of the capsule and spreads out over its half-meter radius.  I have one of the two currently existing A-Z guns.  The other one is at a classified testing facility,” Francis concluded. 

             
“All right…” Palmer sighed.  “Now you all know how that thing works.  I think it’s about time you get to see it work,” Palmer said. 

Several of us nodded silently.

“In about five minutes we jump.  When possible try to use the correct tactics for this.  Have the quiet lasers in front, snipers picking off the enemies from the back and the assault rifles providing cover for the snipers in case of attack.”

“We know the rules sir, I’m ready for the mission,” Sergeant Johnston announced, seemingly bothered by being instructed on ground tactics by a naval officer.

“In that case, head on down to the hangar bay.  We’ll want you on the transport and ready to launch as soon as we arrive at Sontonos, Sergeant.  So be ready.” Palmer instructed. 

“Yes sir,” Johnston called out. 

We then hurried down the hall, all the way back to the hangar bay.  We all reentered the transports and sat down.

             
Then the
Liberator’
s intercom came on and we heard Palmer’s voice, “All crew at battle stations, Palmer out!” 

Then we all prepared to jump.   Although we were unable to see, I could tell we jumped. Then, there was an explosion, coming from within the ship.

The intercom came on again, “Repair Team B, please report to Hall D, Deck 7.  We landed right on top of a Vorgian Fighter Squadron,” Palmer’s voice commanded.

“That sounds bad,” Robert said to us. 

“Let’s get outta here,” Airman Xavier said. 

We began to lift.  A voice came over the transport’s COM.

“This is Phifer,” a deep voice said.  “The bay is open.  Let’s roll.” 

“All right,” Wanda responded. 

We began to drift toward the now open gateway.  We then began to rapidly pick up speed. 

I climbed up the ladder.  What I saw froze me with terror.  There were four Vorgian Cruisers, and seven Frigates, three Corvettes, six Destroyers, and two Avenger-Class Battleships.  It would take more than three ships to take on that fleet. 

Then, the COM link opened.  “This is Palmer. The
Liberator
has sustained heavy damage to its shield.  We are already at forty-four percent.  Make this quick.” 

“What’s happening, James?” Max asked. 

“There are over twenty ships out there!” I groaned. 

“Oh shoot!” Ryan said in an alarmed voice. 

“That is not good,” Philip sighed. 

“What did we expect?  It's a Vorgian planet!” Robert pointed out.

We had nearly made it to the atmosphere.  I looked port of the ship.  Then I saw one of the orbital laser defense turrets.  It had turned toward us and soon opened fire.  Beams of bright red light passed by our transport.  We began our entry into the atmosphere.  One laser turret had concentrated on the Lambda Raiders’ transport, forcing them to sway side to side to try to avoid the onslaught.  Then a singular beam passed through the transport, causing the oxygen to quickly begin escaping into space.

“We are halfway through the atmosphere,” Wanda announced. 

The laser turret finally stopped its assault, having fallen out of range. About two minutes later we broke through the dangerous portion of the atmosphere into the air.  As we descended we saw a large building, several AA guns stationed on top.  As I feared, they opened fire.  Explosions from the AA shells erupted around our transport, one of them shattering the window on the other transport.  Then, the COM link opened with their craft. 

“This is Timms,” the voice said, “We have taken heavy—” I heard an explosion from beside our transport.  An AA shell had collided with the helm of his transport, likely killing him instantly.

I looked toward the side to see the door open up and Sergeant Pinkip leap out.  Mikel Eric, Carl Hays, and Maria Clause followed her.  However, I did not see Joseph Hays.  Their transport had begun to descend at a near vertical angle. 

“We are unable to regain connection with the Lambda Raiders,” Wanda informed us. 

I watched their damaged transport get pummeled with AA shots, ripping it apart.

“Most of them jumped out,” I said. 

“Most?” Ryan questioned.