Ep.#6 - "Head of the Dragon" (The Frontiers Saga) (43 page)

“Damage assessment?” Nathan asked.

“Forward shields are down, all her main propulsion thrust nozzles are destroyed. She’s not going anywhere for a while, Captain,” Mister Navashee reported proudly.

“Very well. Mister Riley, plot a jump to the next engagement zone. Put us one light minute out from the next target’s last known position.”

“Aye, sir.”

“Captain, the cruiser’s still got her weapons, she can still fight. We should finish her off while her shields are down,” Mister Randeen argued.

“She can fight, yes, but only if someone comes into her range,” Nathan told him. “Our job is to keep imperial ships away from Answari, not to destroy them.”

“But sir, we cannot allow ships to survive. Not if they might still be repaired to come seeking revenge on us later…”

“Mister Randeen,” Nathan interrupted, his voice becoming a bit more stern. “We have a limited amount of time before every ship in the system has received Answari’s distress call and will be at full alert. At that point, we will no longer have the element of surprise. With all their shields up, our job will become far more difficult, so we need to disable as many targets as possible as quickly as possible.”

“Forgive me, Captain,” Mister Randeen apologized. “I am only concerned for the safety of my homeworld.”

“As are we all, Mister Randeen. We will return and destroy the cruiser if and when it becomes necessary.”

“Of course, sir.”

Nathan knew he should have chastised Mister Randeen more harshly, especially for questioning his decisions in the midst of battle. However, he understood the tactical officer’s point, and under normal circumstances, he would have agreed. Unfortunately, these were far from normal circumstances, not since he read what Tug had written on his data pad. Before that, he would have agreed with Mister Randeen’s desire to destroy the cruiser.

“Reload tubes one, two, and five with conventional torpedoes. Reload tube six with a fixed yield nuke.”

“Yes, sir,” Mister Randeen answered.

Nathan let out a long exhale. Those few words from Tug had changed everything.

* * *

“Falcon has returned,” Ensign Yosef reported as she watched the data being transmitted from the jump interceptor unfold on the tactical plotting table before them. “It looks like they jumped into the new LZ successfully.”

“Yes, but they were unable to take out any guns.”

“They damaged one. Perhaps if they reload and make another run at it, they can destroy it completely.”

“No doubt the gun teams are doing whatever they can to strengthen their defenses. Besides, we’ve got other things for them to do first.” Cameron looked at the holographic map of the Takaran system being displayed above the plotting table. “What’s the transmission time from Takara to the Avendahl in the shipyards over here?” she asked Ensign Yosef, pointing at the symbol hovering in the air in front of them.

“Six minutes,” Ensign Yosef answered.

“Then they’ve already heard the call from Answari.” Cameron keyed up her comm-set. “Falcon, C2. New orders.”

“C2, Falcon. Go ahead, sir,”
Loki answered.

“Falcon, C2. Jump in and recon the Avendahl. We need to know if she’s powering up yet. Then locate the Aurora, rearm, and return to staging.”

“C2, Falcon. Understood,”
Loki answered.

“What about the jump shuttles?” Ensign Yosef asked.

“Send their pilots the data from the Falcon’s jump into the new LZ and tell them to jump when ready, but one at a time. There’s not enough room there for all three of them to jump in at once. And let’s try staggering their jump intervals slightly. If there are any imperial forces in the area, we don’t want to be too predictable in our timings.”

“Yes, sir.”

* * *

The drone of emergency response vehicles could be heard in the distance as Captain Waddell and his meager platoon continued their double-time jog through the empty streets of Answari. The sky overhead was beginning to brighten, the fog already starting to burn away as the air began to warm with the rise of the Takaran sun. He could also hear the sound of at least one or two airships overhead—not the distinct sound of heavily laden military airships, but rather the smaller drones used by the news media. He was not surprised, as the invasion of Answari had to be the biggest news story in recent history. By the time the fog burned off, the skies would be crawling with such airships, regardless of whatever military restrictions would be placed over the skies of Answari. Normally, the Captain could care less about such coverage. However, those same news feeds could be used to convey the location, strength, and movement of his forces, and that he could not tolerate.

“Sergeant,” he began as they entered the college district’s main plaza. He slowed his advance as the amphitheater came into view. “Secure the perimeter. Get some shooters on the tops of nearby buildings. Those are news drones buzzing above us. They are probably responding to reports of the Falcon jumping in here. I want them gone.”

“Yes, sir,” the sergeant responded.

“And put men along the upper edges of the amphitheater. No one other than our men gets over those hills.”

“Yes, sir,” the sergeant assured him. He looked up at the first few floors of the building nearest them, seeing several faces peering out from the windows above. “What about those civilians?” he asked, pointing toward the windows. “They might start coming out of their apartments.”

“Then scare them back in,” Captain Waddell ordered. “We don’t need to start shooting innocent bystanders. But if one of them makes a hostile move, drop them. Is that understood?”

“Yes, sir.” The sergeant turned and started bellowing out orders to his men.

Captain Waddell looked about the plaza, watching as his men dispersed according to the sergeant’s instructions. He looked at his digital time piece on his wrist. The next wave of jumpers would be coming in within minutes, which would nearly double his forces. He didn’t mind that at all, but he needed a lot more than double his current strength of eighty men if he was going to push on and engage the palace directly.

* * *

“Jump complete,” Loki reported. “Beginning scans.”

“Make it quick,” Josh commented. “These people already know what’s going on in Answari.”

“Oh shit,” Loki mumbled.

“What? Is the Avendahl powered up?”

“No, but there’s at least fifty fighters headed for Takara,” Loki explained.

“So? It will take them at least a couple hours to get there,” Josh told him. “This will all be over by then.”

“But it will only take them about a minute to reach us, Josh. We’re sitting right in their flight path.”

Josh fired his main engines and throttled them up to full power. The jump interceptor might be old, but she was fast. “Well, whose bright idea was it to jump in on a direct path between the shipyards and Takara?”

“Sorry, I wasn’t thinking,” Loki defended as he frantically plotted an escape jump.

“I’m coming to port,” Josh announced. “Jump us to the Aurora’s last known position.”

“I’m working on it.”

“Well work faster,” Josh urged, looking down at his own tactical display. “Those fighters will be in firing range in fifteen seconds.”

“Got it. Come to two-two-one, speed four thousand.”

“Two-two-one at four thousand,” Josh confirmed. “Gimme a sec.”

“You have twelve,” Loki told him.

“On course and speed,” Josh announced.

“Jumping,” Loki said as the interceptor’s jump flash filled the cockpit.

* * *

The summit of the hill surrounding the amphitheater was lined with Corinari troops, all looking out at the plaza and the buildings surrounding them. Arranged in pairs, one man kept an eye on the streets while the other one scanned the windows and rooftops. The fog was beginning to lighten as the morning sky took on an amber glow. It momentarily turned blue-white, swirling about as the first shuttle jumped in about twenty meters directly overhead. The shuttle’s engines screamed, applying maximum thrust as it fell from the foggy sky.

Captain Waddell cringed as he watched the shuttle fall, coming to a hover just three meters above the deck. After stabilizing for a moment, the pilot set the shuttle gently down on the large, uncovered stage at the center of the amphitheater, its landing gear deploying and locking into position only a moment before it touched the stage.

Sergeant Horvath hollered at the men in the shuttle to disembark quickly as the shuttle’s loading ramp swung down to the stage with a thud. The men filed out of the shuttle, immediately forming up in a kneeling position just shy of the crest behind the men guarding the perimeter.

As the last man’s boots left the boarding ramp, the shuttle immediately began to raise its ramp, increasing its thrust and slowly rising off the stage. As the shuttle reached four meters in altitude, it rotated slowly to starboard and advanced over the hill and down the main promenade of the college square. It began to pitch its nose upward and climb, and just as it cleared the rooftops of the nearby buildings, it disappeared in another flash of blue-white light.

Captain Waddell looked about, scanning the twenty men that had just arrived. He looked at his watch. “Just over a minute,” he said to the sergeant.

“We can do better,” the sergeant muttered.

“As long as we don’t lose anymore shuttles, that’s all I care about.” Captain Waddell looked at the buildings. More and more of the windows were filling with the faces of the young men and women that attended the very college they were currently borrowing as their landing zone. “We’re building an audience.”

“Safe bet imperial command knows where we are,” Sergeant Horvath told the captain.

“They’ll no doubt redirect those troop transports the Falcon spotted, maybe even send some airships.”

“I thought the Falcon took out the airbase,” the sergeant said.

“If I remember correctly, they often kept a few at the palace primarily as emergency transports.”

“How long?”

“I figure fifteen, maybe twenty minutes if we’re lucky.”

“That’ll only get us another one hundred pairs of boots on the ground.”

“Setup a defense, Sergeant. We need to be ready.”

“What about those people in the dorms staring at us? Maybe we should round them up and secure them somewhere before things get nasty.”

“We can’t spare the man power, Sergeant. Besides, those kids aren’t armed.”

“Yet,” the sergeant added as another blue-white flash appeared above their heads and the next shuttle fell from the swirling fog.

* * *

“Jump two complete,” Mister Riley reported. “Calculating final jump.”

“Mister Navashee, confirm the target’s course and speed, and update the track for the navigator,” Nathan ordered.

“Yes, sir.”

“All torpedo tubes are loaded and ready, Captain,” Mister Randeen reported. “Missile pod is deployed and standing by. All rail guns are ready.”

“Very well.”

“Contact!” Mister Navashee reported.

“It’s the Falcon,” Mister Randeen reported from tactical.

“Receiving situation updates from the Falcon, sir,” Naralena reported from the comm-station.

“What’s going on?” Nathan asked.

“One moment, sir,” Naralena told him.

“The Falcon is requesting to land and rearm again,” Mister Randeen reported.

“Final jump plotted and locked,” Mister Riley reported.

“Stand by, Mister Riley.” Nathan signaled Mister Randeen to allow the Falcon to land.

“C2 is reporting they have been sending jumpers in one at a time to an alternate LZ. Sending image to main viewer.”

An aerial view of the college square and the amphitheater appeared on the Aurora’s main view screen. Nathan studied the map for a moment. “That’s awfully tight.”

“Loki reports that the shuttles have to come in straight down, jumping in only twenty meters above the ground to avoid being targeted by the remaining air defense batteries.”

“
Captain, CIC,
” Master Chief Montrose called over the comm-set.

“Go ahead, Master Chief,” Nathan answered.

“Sir, that’s a lousy way to fight a ground war, sir.”

“Can you elaborate, Master Chief?” Nathan asked.

“Even if they can jump all fifteen hundred of them into that LZ—which is doubtful—as long as those guns are working, they’ve got no air support. Even worse, Takaran airships are bound to show up sooner or later, which means they’ll be in even bigger trouble.”

“Suggestions?”

“We need to get our air support down there to cover them.”

“Those guns will rip them apart, Master Chief,” Nathan protested.

“Probably, but there are only two guns left, Captain, and the Falcon damaged one of them. Surely a few of our birds could get in there and do some damage.”

“
Captain, CAG,
” Major Prechitt chimed in. “
That’s not going to work. Those guns can reach all the way to orbit. Our fighters won’t even make it down into the atmosphere to launch their missiles.
”

Nathan thought for a moment.

“Captain,” Naralena said, breaking the silence, “C2 is suggesting we try using the quads on the guns.”

“What, is she serious?” Nathan exclaimed. “We have no idea how accurate they’ll be from orbit.”

“
The atmosphere will undoubtedly have an effect,
” Major Prechitt added over the comm-set, “
not to mention the planet’s gravity. The collateral damage could be significant.
”

“
I’m certain Commander Taylor has considered that possibility, sir,
” Master Chief Montrose added from the CIC.

Nathan sighed. “Mister Riley, new plot. We need to be in orbit over Answari.”

“Yes, sir,” Mister Riley answered.

“Major, get the Falcon rearmed and off the deck as soon as possible. I’ve got a mission for him.”

“Yes, sir,”
Major Prechitt answered over the comm-set.

“Jump control, Captain,” Nathan called.

“Captain, Jump control. Go ahead,
” Abby answered over the comm-set.