Mako (The Mako Saga: Book 1) (60 page)

“Ryan!” he coughed—the stick refusing to acquiesce, his instruments shrieking with the imminent threat. “I can’t get—”

A silvery blur flashed over his nose, and just like that, the attacking Phantom vanished in a cloud of flames.

“I can’t take you anywhere without you getting me into trouble,” Mac chortled, soaring around in a broad, effortless loop to fall in formation on his wing.

“Thanks, Mac,” he panted after regaining control. “Not that I ain’t thrilled for the help, but what the hell are you doin’ out here? I thought you were headed back to Aura?”

“We’re not seriously gonna have the whole ‘boss of me’ discussion right now, are we? Besides, nothing pisses a girl off worse than guys who make promises they don’t intend to keep.”

Remembering both the vow he’d made and the way she’d looked at him in the Sand Tiger, Lee shrank for a moment into his seat. He had to admit, as half-cocked heroism went, this definitely had been a cake-taker.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he deflected, “So where’s—”

“
Captain!
” Layla cried under duress. “I’ve got
four
hostiles right on top of me, and I just took a major hit to my starboard wing. Navigational controls are failing. I
need
help!”

“Layla, hang tight,” Lee said, snapping the Mako around with Mac trailing closely behind. “Northern Star and I are inbound. ETA, 30 seconds.”

“
I don’t have that long!
” she screamed over the loud metallic crackle of ricochets filling the comm around her. “
I’m about—
”

Two cataclysmic shots slammed into the lead pair of Phantoms, eviscerating both in a ball of fire and debris as the behemoth Tuskan plunged through the cluster of smaller fighters like a Great White shark through a school of flopping seals.

“
What’s up, bitches?
” Link howled, plowing the monstrous gunship through the ravaged carcasses of his victims, which shredded like tin foil against the Tuskan’s armor-plated hull.

“Tiny?” Layla blurted aloud.

“
Damn straight, baby! Who’s your papi now?
”

Sitting—legs folded—in his captain’s chair, Link turned a belittling eye to the two escaping Phantoms.

“Hey Hamish,” he cackled. “Get a load of these little pansies. They’re under the false impression that they somehow belong in our sky. Please… educate them!”

“Can do, Captain,” Hamish said with delight from the rear-deck gunnery chair, then coasting the bomber’s dual slider cannons into a quadruple-barreled formation atop its fuselage. A second crushing volley later, both fighters were gone.

“How do you guys like Link and Hamish’s new ride?” Danny asked, knifing his Thresher in behind the Tuskan and falling in alongside Mac and Lee.

“Link, you have my word you’ll never hear another disparaging word out of me again about your taste in ships,” Mac offered. “Compensate away, dude.”

“I hate to break up your little reunion up there,” Ryan interrupted from the war zone below, “but we’re getting ready to make a run on another one of these cruisers and frankly, we need all the help we can get. So if you could—”

“Delay that order, Captain,” Katahl interrupted from his chair on the Praetorian’s bridge, where he stared bleakly at the battle telemetry—the number of red dots representing Alystierian forces now far outnumbered the blue dots representing his own.

“Sir?” Ryan said in confusion.

“Vince, I want you to get your folks out of there. We’ve lost enough people today and frankly, we simply cannot afford to lose any more. We’re pulling out.”

“With respect, Admiral, let us at least—”

“You heard the order, Captain.”

“What about the mine, Admiral?” said Lee. “I mean, we retreat and there’s no way we’ll be able to regroup in time to protect Kendara, and if that happens…”

“In roughly an hour there won’t be anything on Kendara for them to take,” Katahl responded, the dejection thick in his voice.

“I don’t follow,” Ryan replied.

Katahl heaved a sigh. “I dispatched Sgt. Major Noll there before we broke orbit with specific instructions to detonate the mine should we fail to defend Dulaston. By the time Masterson reaches it, there’ll be nothing left but a crater full of rubble and ash, and with nothing left to fight over, maybe this war can finally end.”

“Sir, that’s a really big piece to sacrifice,” Ryan pressed. “Just give me and my people out here a little—”

“Hold on, Admiral, there might be another way,” Lee cut in.

“Here he goes again,” Link moaned.

“No, seriously, we might have another option,” he continued, staring through his canopy at the goliath Alystierian ship now in visual range, all but untouched and still spewing enemy fighters.

“I’m open to suggestions, Summerston, but make it quick.”

Chapter 33: All In

“
Oh, hell no, you’re not!
” Mac erupted in protest.

“It’s not as crazy as it sounds…” Lee defended his idea while eyeing the chasmic dimensions of the Crimson’s main engineering section on the technical specs he’d just been sent.

“You’re right, it’s not crazy… it’s
full-on insane!
”

“She’s right, Lee,” Danny agreed. “Have you got some kinda death wish or something?”

“Listen to your friends, Summerston. This is a bad idea,” said Ryan, but Lee went on anyway.

“Everybody just shut up for a second and listen. A ship that size would have to operate with a major power supply in order to function, right? Detonate it and you get a blast wave the size of Texas, and if timed properly, you could conceivably take out a huge chunk of their fleet in the process.”

“That’s fine and good, Lee,” said Danny, “but I thought you said they had safeguards in place to prevent something like this from happening? The jamming thing, remember?”

“Yeah well, that part is up to Mac.”

“Sure, no problem,” she scoffed. “Gimme a sec to pull out my magic wand and universal hacker’s playbook, and I’ll get right on that!”

“C’mon Mac,” Lee pressed. “Back home, you said it yourself. You’d had some success with a few simulations, right?”

“
You idiot!
” she fumed. “Do you have any clue how many permutations of that code I ran? Try 1,736! You know how many actually yielded results, bearing in mind that by results I mean their signals weren’t completely degraded into oblivion?
Two!
And one of them went straight through a star to get there, which, believe me, isn’t exactly a trip to the tanning bed! That’s not even taking into account the fact that, in both instances, the Alystierians adapted instantly to the hack, meaning that even if I could pull this off—and I’m not saying I can—you only get one shot before the crack is useless. Not exactly Vegas odds, ya know!”

Lee’s lips thinned. “They’ll have to do.”

“They’ll have to do,” Mac mimicked. “Even if by some miracle this does work, and you don’t bounce off their hull like a bug or fry your own hyperdrive jumping through that much radiation, you just expect to drop a Mako right in the middle of main engineering, ram a missile down their throats, and jump out—no harm no foul? That’s not brave, you dumbass…
It’s suicide!
”

“I can do this, Mac,” Lee declared. “This
is
doable. Listen to me, if they retreat now, then by all accounts, this war is over if the Alystierians push the issue. Nothin’ says they’ll back off if there’s no more Caldrasite mine because, after today, the Aurans will have never been more exposed, and Masterson knows this. With all due respect Admiral, they put you ‘all in’ with this offensive, and you know I’m right. But
we
can change that,” he challenged. “We… us. We have the chance to fix it, and by doin’ so, save the lives of countless innocent people. We, us, Mac! Just think about that for a minute.” Lee sat up straight in his seat. “We all came on this trip for our own reasons. Some of us came because we needed a change. It didn’t matter what that change was— as long as it got us away from the disappointments and mundane crap of our daily lives, we didn’t care. Others came because they hated their jobs, or they had no place else to turn for money. Then for some of us,” he huffed. “Well, some of us came because frankly… there just wasn’t a whole helluva lot worth stickin’ around home for. But that wasn’t the case 10 years ago, was it? Back then, we had dreams. We had drive. We had plans, ambitions, and aspirations. We had things in our lives that we were passionate about—things that we believed in—and come hell or high water, nobody was gonna take that away from us. Only somewhere along the line, that’s exactly what happened. Chalk it up to whatever you want— family crises, unforeseen life circumstances, crazy ex-spouses, or just plain bad luck—but for whatever reason, somehow, somewhere, we lost those pieces of ourselves.”

Lee unclenched his fist and took a breath before continuing.

“I don’t know about you guys,” he said, “but I’m sick of livin’ my life day to day, just gettin’ by for the sake of gettin’ by, with no real reason or point to any of it—and we all know that no amount of money can change that, either. It’s been a long damn time since I’ve felt this clear about anything, and now this is the second time today it’s hit me. So… just like back at Reiser’s condo when we started all this, I’m gonna put it to you this way: I’m doin’ this. If for no other reason than to have the peace of mind of knowin’ that I put it all out on the table for these people, I’m doin’ this… Because I
believe
that I have to. That’s me. Now you have to decide for you.”

A long, thoughtful silence fell over the comm.

“Alright,” Danny spoke up. “For the record, I still think this is the single stupidest plan I’ve ever heard, but where do you need me?”

Lee wasted no time. “First things first, Danny… Layla needs to get outta here. She’s in no condition to fight, so I want you to fly cover to get her back to the Praetorian. From there, you can operate from the bridge and gimme real-time updates when needed.”

“Copy that,” said Danny.

“How about us, Top?” Link piped up from the Tuskan.

“Link, I need you and Hamish to clear a path for us through this mess back into open space. I’m gonna have to bring the Mako to a complete standstill before I make the jump, otherwise my inertia exiting the window could slam me into a wall or something, and frankly, I’d rather not have my day end that way if it’s all the same to you fellas.”

“Aye, Lee,” Hamish answered. “We’ll clear the road.”

“Captain, if you wouldn’t mind givin’ ‘em a hand with that?”

“You got it, Summerston,” said Ryan. “My guys and I will fly in diamond formation around you on the way out. That should give you some extra protection, but,” he added, “it’s gonna leave us pretty exposed to enemy fire. Mac, if you wouldn’t mind flying solo on the tail, that’d be a huge help.”

She said nothing.

“Admiral, you onboard with this?” Lee asked.

“Honestly, son,” said Katahl, “the fleet jumps whether you do this or not. So just tell us what you need.”

Eyeing the battle telemetry on his display, Lee ran the numbers in his head. “Order all ships remaining on the right flank to swing ‘round 62 degrees to port and concentrate all the fire they can muster on that carrier’s forward section,” he began. “While they’re engaged, tell the rest of the fleet to circle in behind them in preparation for the withdrawal. But here’s the key: They have to take their time when they do it.”

“Come again?” Katahl asked, confounded.

“Masterson knows he has you on the ropes,” said Lee, “but he won’t take any chances. He’ll redeploy the majority of their forces to counter your move, and by doin’ so, that oughta put most of them right in the wake of the blast when it goes off. But we’ve gotta give ‘em time to get there.”

“How do you know he’ll take the bait?” Ryan posed.

Lee’s expression turned lopsided. “Honestly, sir… he’s too ambitious not to.”

“Some of those ships don’t have much left in the way of hull integrity, Summerston,” the admiral noted. “They won’t be able to hold out for long.”

“They won’t need to,” said Lee. “As soon as I make the jump, I want you to order the fleet back to a safe distance at the edge of the system and hold position there.”

“What about you?” Ryan asked, drawing a dark chuckle from Lee.

“Oh, believe me,” he answered, “I have no intention whatsoever of bein’ in that thing when it goes up. As soon as I’m in, I’ll have one finger on the trigger and another on the jump button to get outta Dodge. Just wait for me at the rendezvous, and I’ll meet you there when it’s done.”

That left one final opinion to be heard, and in spite of his assurances that this was the right call, Lee could tell by her silence that its owner was struggling mightily with the decision, and why wouldn’t she be? At the end of the day, perilous circumstances or not, he didn’t want to leave her any more than she wanted him to go.

“Okay,” Mac said in a cracked, near-whisper. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Admiral, you’re up,” Lee instructed, throttling up his engines and triple-checking the last of his jump calculations in the Mako’s Nav-Com before transmitting them to Mac’s console.

“Attention all crews, this is Fleet Admiral Katahl. All fighters return to your ships to prepare for immediate withdrawal. On my order, all ships are to…”

“Five-One!” Ryan commanded. “Assume diamond formation around Daredevil and proceed to sector 37.1 at the edge of the battle zone. That should give him the space he needs to work. Jester, you’re on point.”

“Copy that!” Link acknowledged, lumbering the Tuskan to the head of the convoy as the four remaining Hit Squad Threshers formed up around the Mako with Mac in tow for aft defense. That left the final call for Lee.

“
Move out!
”

****

Standing on the bridge of the Alystierian flagship Kamuir, Alec Masterson looked on with approval as the battle raged on several hundred kilometers away.

“Flawless,” he thought, peering through the glass at the violent lightshow ahead, his plan to trap the Aurans into a single, fate-ending battle having worked to near perfection. Now, as one by one their ships continued to fall, the final killing stroke was all but at hand.