Frontiers Saga 10: Liberation (41 page)

Loki raised his helmet visor as he pulled the fallen branches off the lieutenant commander, tossing them aside. “Jessica!” he yelled, coughing at the heavy smoke. He grabbed her vest and lifted her up, giving her a shake. “Jessica! We have to go! Jessica!”

Jessica’s eyes opened. Thick smoke was wafting through the night air, the woods around them building into a conflagration. She coughed, looking about to get her bearings. She looked at him. “Loki?”

“Yeah!” he yelled, laughing with happiness. “Can you walk?”

“I think so,” she answered as she stumbled over the debris. “What happened?” she asked as they moved toward the idling Falcon.

“Only the greatest landing in history!” he yelled.

Josh opened fire again as Loki and Jessica approached the port boarding ladder, sweeping the turret back and forth in case there were any other troops out there that thought they might take a shot at them.

Loki pushed Jessica up the ladder, following closely behind. “How are we going to all fit?” she wondered as she climbed over the edge of the cockpit wall.

“It’s going to be tight, but we’ll make it. We don’t have to go far, one jump and a landing! Shouldn’t take more than a few minutes!”

Jessica got her other foot into the back of the Falcon’s cockpit, looking around with a puzzled expression on her face.

“Lean forward so I can get in!” Loki told her. Jessica leaned forward over the console. She reached out and tapped Josh on the side of his helmet. Josh responded with a thumbs-up sign.

Loki sat down behind her, fastened his restraints, then closed his visor. After pressing the button to close the canopy, he grabbed Jessica and pulled her unceremoniously backward onto his lap.

Weapons fire began to fly at the Falcon from farther out in the woods as the canopy came down over the back half of the Falcon’s cockpit.

“Let’s go!”
Loki yelled over his helmet comms.

“Are you both in? Did it work?”

“We’re in!”
Loki answered.
“Canopy is closed and locked! Get us in the air!”
Jessica was sitting on his lap, twisted to her right with her injured shoulder bleeding onto his pressure suit. Her left shoulder was up against the canopy overhead, and her head was bent over, nearly looking Loki in the face. He could see the pain and fear in her eyes. She had just escaped certain death, and she wasn’t safe yet. None of them were.

Josh pushed the lift throttles forward, causing the Falcon to rise quickly into the air. “Hang on!” he hollered. “We have company!”

Energy bolts streaked over them as approaching Jung fighters fired at the climbing Falcon. There was an explosion as one of the bolts struck the leading edge of the Falcon’s right wing-body, sending debris and melting, molten chunks flying across the fuselage. Tiny pieces of metal struck the canopy, causing Jessica to scream, as they were right next to her head.

“We’re hit!”
Loki yelled.
“Starboard side!”

“I’m losing the starboard lift turbine!” Josh yelled as the interceptor began to roll to the right.

“Punch it!”
Loki yelled.
“Get some air moving over the wings!”

Josh pushed the main jet propulsion turbine’s throttle all the way forward. The Falcon immediately began to speed away. As she did so, her right wing began to rise, leveling them off. “That’s it! Pitching up! Stand by to jump!”

An alarm sounded in Loki’s helmet comms. He tried to see his console to identify the alarm but could not see around Jessica. Another red energy weapons bolt from the pursuing Jung fighters flashed past them on the right side, followed by several more. The light revealed the cause of the alarm. There was a crack in the canopy just above them and slightly to the right.
“Wait!”
Loki cried out.

“Jumping!” Josh announced.

The blue-white flash washed over them.

Loki’s visor cleared. He could barely make out the inside of the canopy in the darkness, but the crack appeared to be spreading.

“Woo-hoo!” Josh yelled over the comms. “We made it! Was that awesome or what?”

“The canopy is cracked!”
Loki yelled.

“I’ve got the Aurora on sensors, three minutes out.”

“The canopy is cracked!”
Loki repeated.

“What?”

“We’re losing pressure!”

“Oh, shit!” Josh exclaimed. He pushed the throttles forward. “I can get us on deck in two minutes.”

“I don’t think she’s got two minutes!”

“How fast are we losing pressure?”

“I can’t see my console!”
Loki told him.
“Call up the systems data on your displays!”

Josh did as he was instructed, switching his main data display to show the ship’s various systems. “Oh my God! We’ll be fully depressurized in just over a minute!” Josh keyed his mic to transmit. “Mayday, mayday, mayday! Falcon inbound, two minutes out! Losing pressure! We have Lieutenant Commander Nash on board! Request emergency landing and medical rescue!”

“Falcon, Aurora flight. Copy your mayday. Cleared for emergency landing. The apron is all yours.”

“Screw the apron! That will take longer! We’ll use the forward elevator like usual!” Josh said.

“Negative, Falcon. Forward elevators are offline.”

“Fuck!” he swore in frustration. “Copy! Ninety seconds! Open the outer doors on bay two so I can roll straight in!”

“Falcon, Prechitt! Did you say you have Lieutenant Commander Nash on board? How is that possible?”

“She’s sitting on Loki’s lap, sir! We’re losing pressure, and she doesn’t have a suit!”

“Copy! Come straight in and get down quickly, Josh. We’ll be standing by.”

“That’s my plan!” Josh assured him.

Jessica was not looking at Loki, but he could see that she was in distress.
“She’s having trouble breathing!”

“Touchdown in one minute!”

Jessica turned her head toward Loki’s face, twisting her body around so she could face him. He could see the fear in her eyes. Even worse, her skin color was changing.
“Oh my God! She’s turning blue, Josh! Hurry!”

“I’m at full power!” Josh told him. “Coming over her bow now! Pitching over!” Josh cut his main drive and flipped the Falcon end over, putting her into a tail first attitude. He fired his mains again to slow down as they passed over the top of the Aurora’s forward section. As they passed aft of the forward section’s highest point, he began to translate downward, closely following the curve of the Aurora’s upper hull on his way to the flight apron at her midsection.

Jessica’s expression changed from fear to panic as she grabbed at Loki’s helmet. Her neck muscles were straining and her mouth was opening wide with each breath as she desperately tried to breathe in oxygen that simply was not there.
“Oh, God. Oh, God.”
Her eyes began to bulge as she felt their landing gear slam onto the deck harder than usual. As they rolled into the main transfer airlock, she lost consciousness completely. Her hands released their grip on his helmet, falling onto his shoulders as her entire body went limp. Loki was speechless, in shock at the horror he had just witnessed.

The inner airlock door at the back of the Aurora’s main hangar bay began to rise. As the door rose, air was sucked into the unpressurized airlock before the repressurization cycle had finished in order to allow the medical team access to the lieutenant commander more quickly. Rescue technicians scrambled under the door as it raised, racing toward the Falcon.

The Falcon’s canopies were already up. Josh was rapidly removing his helmet and restraints, letting his helmet tumble over the edge of the cockpit and down to the deck below as he stood and turned around. He climbed out, moving quickly along the flattened topside of the Falcon’s nose. He grabbed Jessica’s lifeless body and pulled her off his copilot with all his might, lifting her upward. Loki pushed her legs up and out, letting them fall off the side of the Falcon’s nose. Rescue workers scrambled up the already deployed boarding ladder, grabbing Jessica’s legs and taking her weight off Josh. They lowered her down to the medical technicians waiting below them, who laid her on a gurney and immediately began resuscitative efforts.

Major Prechitt ran across the Aurora’s massive hangar deck, reaching the main transfer airlock as the medical teams rolled Jessica out of the bay. She was already intubated and had intravenous lines and a cardiac monitor. One of the technicians was straddling her on his knees, riding the gurney and doing chest compressions as they rolled quickly across the hangar deck toward medical. The major stopped in his tracks, watching them as they rolled past. He turned aft again and looked up at the Falcon’s nose. Josh was sitting in the back of the cockpit with his best friend, holding Loki as he cried.

* * *

Lieutenant Telles watched from the entrance to the combat shuttle’s cockpit as another escort Talon was torn apart by enemy fire.

“That’s two!” the copilot exclaimed as the shuttle bounced along.

“You must fly lower, below ten meters,” the lieutenant told them.

“Ten meters?” the copilot asked. “Seriously?”

“Five would be better.”

“Those are mountains up ahead,” the copilot pointed out, “big ones.”

“Follow the lake,” the lieutenant advised.

“Isn’t that kind of obvious?”

“If you fly low enough, their ground radar will become ineffective, and they have no ships in orbit to assist with tracking.”

“They have eyes.”

“Which will be made less effective by the midafternoon sun reflecting off the water.”

The copilot turned and looked at the lieutenant as if he were crazy, but the copilot could not find the words to express himself.

“Talon Eight, Telles. Fly your ship low over the water and into the base of the east side of the capitol building.”

“Uh, did you say you want me to crash into the target?”
Talon Eight’s pilot asked.

“Affirmative. You may eject just before impact.”

“Of course.”

The combat shuttle’s copilot looked at his pilot, rolling his eyes.

“Talon Nine, Telles. Circle around and fly into the opposite side, first floor. Eject before impact.”

“Seriously?”

“It is the only effective strategy, and it gives you both the greatest probability of survival.”

“What about when we come down?”
one of the Talon pilots asked.

“If we are successful, you should have nothing to fear. If we are not, you would have died either way.”

“Just so you know, these shuttles have no ejection systems,” the copilot told the lieutenant.

“That is why I ordered the Talon pilots to ram the building.”

“How are you going to get to the command center if the building comes down on top of it?” the copilot asked.

“The building is designed to withstand far greater forces. It will not collapse.”

“Then why ram it in the first place?”

“The concussion of the impacts and the fire and smoke from their burning fuel should provide adequate diversions that will allow us to deploy onto the upper floors. They will be expecting an attack from ground level.”

“You couldn’t come up with a less risky way to get in?”

The lieutenant looked puzzled. “If I could, I would have used it.” The lieutenant turned around and headed aft, transiting the short, narrow passageway as the shuttle descended to eight meters above the lake. He looked at his men, standing ready to deploy. “Two minutes!” he called out. “Red Leader, Blue Leader. We will enter from the sixth floor balconies. Blue goes up, Red goes down. Access the underground command bunker and take control. Maximum force is authorized. Collateral damage is expected.”

“Red Leader copies.”

“Talons Eight and Nine, Telles. Begin your attack run.”

“Aren’t you going to wish them luck?” the copilot asked.

“The Ghatazhak do not believe in luck,” Lieutenant Telles said, “only opportunity.”

Both Talons brought their main engines up to full power and quickly accelerated away from the combat shuttles. Talon Nine veered off to the right, going into a shallow climb. Energy weapons fire began to leap out at him as he gained altitude. The Jung antiaircraft batteries were tracking him now that he was no longer skimming the waves on the lake. He veered out farther, then steepened his climb as he circled around to the far side of the capitol complex.

Eight more Jung fighters lifted off from the tarmac near the capitol building, climbing quickly as they turned to intercept Talon Nine. The lead fighters in the group began to fire at the approaching Corinairan fighter, but Talon Nine’s pilot maneuvered his ship wildly to avoid the fire. The first four Jung fighters overshot and turned to circle around behind him.

The second four fighters opened fire, and again Talon Nine jinked. It was not enough. Three bolts of plasma energy tore off the Talon’s left wing, and he began to spiral as he dove toward the capitol building. Seconds later, he struck the building at ground level, exploding on impact without ever having a chance to eject.

“Talon Nine is down!”
Talon Eight’s pilot reported over the lieutenant’s helmet comms.
“No chute! I’m going in! Ten seconds!”
Several seconds later, the lieutenant heard the pilot announce his ejection.

“Talon Eight is down! Right on target!”
the copilot announced.
“I see his chute! Ten seconds to deployment.”

The shuttle’s crew chief pressed the button next to his jump seat, and the cargo hatch at the rear of the shuttle began to swing outward from the top. It quickly dropped open, stopping level with the compartment’s deck to form an outside platform.

The lieutenant stood. “Ghatazhak! Stand ready!” His men also stood, turning to face aft. They held on as the shuttle began to yaw to starboard, doing a quick one-eighty so they were sliding up to the capitol building stern first. Black smoke entered the back of the shuttle as it slid through the billowing columns.