Frontiers 07 - The Expanse (27 page)

For the first time in the last ten minutes, Loki was beginning to feel hope. They were still being pursued by at least twelve Jung fighters, all determined to destroy them, but they might actually avoid both crashing into the planet and burning up.

“Passing thirty! Speed: five thousand. Temps dropping.” Josh checked the thermal shield control display. “Thermal shield temps are down to three thousand! I’m dialing the reactors back down to one hundred percent. Passing twenty-five. Speed: three thousand,” Josh continued to report. “Speed down to two thousand. Passing twenty.”

“Pitching over!” Loki announced as he used the thruster to perform another end-over. As the ship shuddered through the maneuver, Loki killed the main drive. “Mains at zero!” he announced. “Nose is coming down!”

“Spinning up the turbines,” Josh announced as he grabbed the flight controls again.

“Killing thermal shields!” Loki announced as the view of the planet below filled their forward view once again.

“Turbines are hot!” Josh announced. “We’re back in powered aerodynamic flight mode!”

“I’m reengaging the auto-flight system,” Loki reported. His body went limp with relief, his head dipping forward for a moment. “Don’t you fucking ever do that to me again!” he screamed.

“What? You were awesome!” Josh said as he began leveling the ship off. “Leveling off at five thousand meters. Speed at five hundred KPH.”

“Four more contacts!” Loki announced. “Three o’clock low, about twenty kilometers out and closing fast. They’re skimming the mountain tops.”

“Loki, is this the hornet’s nest the captain was talking about?”

“I expect so, Josh.”

“Arm missiles,” Josh ordered as he began a slow turn to starboard. “Target all four and prepare to fire.”

“You’re not really going to take them on, are you?”

“Don’t have much choice, do I?”

“Missiles armed. Acquiring targets. Josh, I’m pretty sure stealth recon doesn’t include engaging enemy targets in combat.”

“Stand by on the nose turret as well, Loki,” Josh ordered. “I’m pretty sure they’re going to launch on us.”

“Targets locked. Powering up the nose turret and acquiring targets.”

The seconds ticked by as the Falcon closed on the four oncoming Jung fighters skimming along the edge of the mountain range that stretched out below them.

“Targets will be in missile range in five seconds,” Loki announced.

“As soon as all four missiles are away, I’m gonna roll over and dive so that you can keep our gun turret on them. See if you can take out their missiles. We’ll deploy decoys just before we duck down below the other side of the ridge line.”

“Max range,” Loki announced. “They’re pitching up to fire.”

“Firing missiles,” Josh announced. “Four away.”

“Four running hot and normal, locked on targets. Time on target: twenty seconds. They’re firing.”

“Rolling and pitching.” Josh rolled the interceptor to port in a lazy arc, moving across to the opposite side of the ridge line as he did so. “Pitching down.”

Loki tapped the nose turret’s targeting screen with his finger, touching each of the symbols that represented the incoming Jung missiles. “Guns have acquired. Keep us on this attitude for ten seconds,” Loki said. “Firing guns.”

Long, angry, red bolts of energy leapt from the twin barrels of the Falcon’s nose turret toward the incoming Jung missiles, firing in continuous succession. First one, then another, then a third missile fell to the assault.

“One missile left,” Loki announced proudly.

“I can’t hold this any longer, Lok,” Josh declared. “I’ve gotta roll and level off, or we’re gonna hit the mountains.” Josh rolled the ship back over again, slipping down on the opposite side of the mountains from the oncoming Jung fighters.

“I’ve lost the contacts,” Loki announced. “They’re on the opposite side of the ridge.”

“Pop decoys,” Josh ordered as he pushed the Falcon down deeper into the valley below.

“The last missile is coming over the ridge line,” Loki announced.

“Is it tracking us or the decoys?”

“Too close to tell,” Loki said. “The decoys, I think.”

“Pop the last batch,” Josh ordered.

The last twelve decoys shot out the back of the Falcon, glowing red hot as they fanned out from either side in an irregular pattern.

“Decoys away. That’s the last of them.”

Josh watched as the oncoming missile streaked over their starboard side. “Shit! That was fucking close!” he declared as the missile struck the second set of decoys and exploded.

“Canyon narrows up ahead, Josh. Terrain following sensors can’t see past the next bend while we’re below the ridge line.”

“Any idea how many of those fighters are left?”

“Nope,” Loki answered, “can’t see them either.”

“Damn.”

“Wait,” Loki said, “I’ve got one climbing. He’s down a half loop,” Loki decided. “I think he’s gonna roll next to try and get in behind us.”

“I like this guy,” Josh said.

“There’s another coming in behind him. Same maneuver.”

“Fuck! Did we hit anything?”

“No one else. I think we got two of them.” Loki watched as the two Jung fighters finished their roll and dove in behind them. “Yup, they’re diving down, coming in behind us.”

“It’s on, baby!” Josh announced, pushing his throttle forward.

“Josh, we don’t know the canyons ahead.”

“Yeah, but they do, and they’re not backing off. So they must be navigable. Just keep the nose turret pointed aft and take a shot whenever you can. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

Several energy bolts streaked past them.

“I think they’re trying to tell us something,” Loki said.

“Like what?” Josh laughed.

“I think they’re trying to tell us to stay out of the canyons.”

“So say something back.”

“Like what?”

“Like, ‘Eat hot plasma, asshole.’”

“Okay.” Loki opened fire, skimming his turret from side to side. For the most part, their rounds of energy were far below their pursuers, as the targets were flying at the same relative altitude and the Falcon’s gun turret couldn’t fire aft at an upward angle. “Bounce up a bit,” Loki suggested. The Falcon suddenly rose upward a few meters, giving Loki a clean shot. He fire again, missing the targets but making them feel the heat of the plasma bolts as they streaked past the enemy cockpits. “That made them nervous.”

“Here we go,” Josh announced as he made a hard left around the first cliff.

Loki tried not to notice as the reddish-purple canyon wall passed uncomfortably close to port. Instead, he focused on his targeting screen, hoping to get a clean shot as Josh snaked back and forth through the narrow canyons.

The lead Jung fighter had the same idea, firing continuously as he weaved to and fro just a few hundred meters behind them. The Jung leader’s wingman followed closely behind, taking a single shot at a time whenever his leader was out of the way and his sights were anywhere near the Falcon.

Josh couldn’t tell the difference between the leader’s shots and the wingman’s, as his attention was focused on simply not crashing into the sides of the narrow, winding canyons. Every so often, the canyon would split, forcing him to make a split-second decision to the right or to the left with nothing more to go on than instinct. At any moment, he feared his choice might lead to a dead end, and their escape would fail in either a fiery crash or an unavoidable missile shot as they climbed out of the canyons.

“Missile!” Loki cried. “Jink right!”

Josh didn’t hesitate, rolling the interceptor to the right once as the missile passed under their rising left wing-body. “Missiles! In here!” Josh cried. “I was wrong! I don’t like this guy!”

Loki glanced at the systems displays. “We’re burning propellant, Josh. That red line is coming up fast.” A warning light flashed again. “Shit! Jink left!”

Josh glanced at his rear display and saw the incoming missile approaching on their starboard side. With a twist and a yank of his control stick, he pushed their tail down and yawed it to port, rolling the interceptor starboard at the same time. The missile passed right through the spot where their entire starboard side had been a second ago.

Loki watched the missile pass over them and streak ahead, slamming into the massive overhang that jutted out from the right side of the canyon ahead. The missile exploded on impact, cracking the reddish-purple rock and sending it tumbling down directly in their flight path. “WATCH THE ROCKS!” he screamed.

Josh glanced up from his console just in time to see the rocks falling directly in front of them. He stopped their roll, standing on their left side, passing between two massive chunks of the collapsing overhang, shooting safely out the other side.

The lead pilot was not as quick, trying to climb over the collapsing overhang. He skipped off the top, cracking his fuselage and catching fire, spraying burning propellant all over the wilderness below. His canopy blew and his ejection seat blasted him high up into the air. His wingman also climbed, managing to miss the collapsing overhang. He had to continue to pull up hard, going to full throttle to avoid slamming into his leader as he ejected.

With the lead Jung fighter down and his wingman in a climb with his belly facing the Falcon, Josh had his chance. He pulled hard to starboard at the upcoming split as Loki fired a few more rounds toward the climbing wingman.

“What are you doing?” Loki demanded. “Pitch up! Do a three-quarter loop and launch missiles while he’s showing us his belly!”

“All we need is a short run of straight canyon while no one’s on our tail, and we can pitch up slightly and jump away without anyone seeing us!”

“Well he can’t see us now,” Loki reported as the second Jung fighter fell off his tracking system, his line of sight to the target having been blocked by the canyon walls.

“We just need a kilometer or two of straightaway,” Josh mumbled as he navigated the winding canyon.
Maybe the next turn
, he thought. “FUCK!”

As the Falcon came around the next turn in the narrow canyon, a massive waterfall appeared before them, cascading down from the top of the canyon on their left as they finished their turn to starboard. Unfortunately, their turn was swinging them wide to port, directly toward the massive falls.

“Hang on!” Josh yelled as he switched the automatic thrust vectoring system to manual, swung all four of the Falcon’s turbine exhaust port straight down, and slammed the throttles to full power.

Loki looked up and saw the massive waterfall, his eyes opening wide as he watched the approaching water drop from what seemed like a thousand meters above them.

The Falcon slammed into the waterfall at over three hundred kilometers per hour. It felt like they had hit the side of the mountain, and for a split second, Josh was sure they had. The Falcon was suddenly pushed downward by the force of the water falling down upon them. Their turbines screamed at the additional load as they struggled to keep the interceptor aloft. For a split second, the Falcon was more submarine than aircraft.

That split second seemed an eternity to Josh, the sound of the pounding water deafening him even through his pressurized flight helmet. He wondered if this was one of those moments that warriors spoke about. Those moments in battle when everything seemed to go in slow motion. His eyes darted back and forth across his console. His altitude was dropping fast, as was his airspeed. Warning indicators were lighting up all over his cockpit, on his main console, and on either side of him. He thought he could hear the warning tones in his comm-set, but they were lost in the din of the waterfall. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see his canopy as it develop spider-web cracks along the port side. Another glance told him that they were rolling to starboard, already thirty degrees over. He instinctively adjusted his throttles, decreasing the lift on the port side to try to slow the roll, but it didn’t seem to be working.

A second later, it was over. The Falcon burst out the other side of the massive waterfall with multiple alarms sounding in their comm-sets, just as Josh had thought. He switched the thrust vectoring back to automatic so that the ship would level itself.

“Multiple cautions and warnings!” Loki yelled, having no time to comment on what they had just done. “Port reactor is offline! Jump drive is offline! Turbine two is down. Turbine three is flooded and trying to restart! Inertial dampeners are offline! Trying to reinitialize!” Loki looked at the cracked canopy. “I’m not sure, but we might be losing pressure in the cockpit!”

“Slave the thrusters to my flight stick to compensate for the failing turbines, so I can keep her level until I can set down!” Josh ordered.

“Set down where?” Loki asked as he slaved the thrusters normally used to maneuver in space to Josh’s flight stick.

Josh scanned his Terrain-Following Sensor display, looking for someplace to land. Something caught his eye, something on the wall of the canyon ahead. He looked out the forward canopy, bringing the ship to a sloppy hover about fifty meters above the massive river below. The canyon widened into a wide valley a few kilometers ahead. “Are missiles still working?”

“Yeah, but…”

“What about those new toys, the decoys and comm-drones?”

“They’re still online, Josh, but…”

“Arm the missile warheads but not their engines. Prepare to drop all our missiles as well as all the drones on my mark,” he ordered.

“What the…”

“Just do it!” Josh pushed the base of the stick forward, causing the ship to accelerate toward the valley ahead. “Don’t arm the engines on the drones either!” he ordered as they accelerated.

Loki shook his head, having no idea what Josh was up to. “Missile warheads are armed. Drones are ready to drop.”

“Drop everything!” Josh ordered. “Now! Now! Now!”

Loki opened the bay doors and released all four drones, followed by all four missiles. “Everything is away!”

Josh immediately stopped their forward acceleration, coming to a quick stop, again hovering precariously in the air as he struggled to keep the damaged ship aloft. He watched as the ordnance and the drones coasted ahead, slowly falling to the ground as they moved away from them. A few seconds later, they hit the ground, and the missile warheads exploded in a huge fireball that instantly vaporized hundreds of trees and left a massive crater in the ground. The blast ripped apart the drones, setting off the charges designed to blow the mini-jump drives and ZPEDs in the comm-drones. The ZPEDs flashed brightly, like miniature supernovas that burst into life and then died in a single moment.

Josh pulled the ship up and to port, turning around and heading back toward the waterfall as he slowly climbed.

Loki noticed they were turning around. He also noticed they were headed closer to the canyon wall. “What are you doing?”

“I just gave them a crash site,” Josh said. “Now we have to hide.”

“Where?” Loki asked as they turned around to face the waterfall. “We’re not going back in there, are we?”

“Not exactly,” Josh told him. “Look up to the right, just under that overhang. There’s a small cave.”

Loki trained the Falcon’s sensors on the cave. “That thing’s not tall enough for us to land in, Josh.”

“It is if we don’t use any landing gear!”

Loki just laughed in frustration. “Don’t suppose there’s anything I can do to change your mind.”

“Hang on,” Josh said. Josh pulled the ship up higher and turned into the canyon wall. The mist was heaving from the waterfall only one hundred meters away, and it made it difficult to see. Josh also knew that it would make the cave wet, and wet meant slippery. Slippery was good, especially when landing without landing gear.