Attack ships, p.10
Attack Ships, page 10
part #2 of Starwing Elite Series
It was a massacre.
I watched as the marines opened fire at the mercs on the ground. The mercs tried to either return fire or hide in the fields. Neither was a very good idea considering what they were up against. The guns on the hovercrafts made a whine I will never forget. In front of me, I watched the mercs torn to pieces by the shells as they pulverized anything in their path. I don't think a single mercenary survived that encounter. They were low on ammo to begin with; this whole tactic of trying to take over one of our FAS ships was their way of getting out before the marines arrived.
Now I understood. The mercs had some kind of advance warning the marines were on their way and knew what to expect. I checked into it later and found out the UDF Navy had landed an entire battalion. They were busy taking out stragglers around the landing zone when this group of marines happened on the mercs who tried to jump us.
"FAS ship from Hard Rain," I heard a voice speak over my audio. "This is the United Democracies Force Marines. I am Captain Johann Spector. Do not attempt to leave the surface. We will eliminate the ground threat and make further contact with you." There were no questions from his side of the transmission and I heard the audio go silent.
"Takes care of that," I heard Orlando mentioned. "Now why the hell did they want us down here if the marines intended to mow them down on their own?" He watched bodies fly through the air on his screen and shook his head.
I knew exactly why they'd wanted us down here. It was obvious to me.
"Bait," I growled down from my chair. "The Udies wanted us to lure out the remaining mercs so they could use them for target practice. There never was any intent for us to get into the fight down here." The disgust in my voice was heard by everyone.
"So what the hell are we supposed to do about it?" I heard Medoro ask from his station. "Are we supposed to sit on our collective asses and watch them go bird hunting?"
"Sounds like the plan," Medoro spoke from his chair. "If anyone of those mercs gets too close I can shoot them, but don't think it will be necessary. Look at that, the hovercraft on the left just burned two of them to ashes with a flamer. Guess we get to sit here and enjoy the show."
It wasn't the lack of activity that made me angry. I didn't like it that Shelly and his boys were dead because some Udie officer hit on a plan to use us to lure out this bunch of fortune hunters. Couldn't they have bombed that facility from orbit and accomplished the same thing? Probably not if they wanted to keep the building intact. The pirates did most of the work for them, after all.
I watched the hovercrafts work together to hunt down the remaking mercs for the next two hours. Only once did I see a merc try to surrender. The man was torn in half when he walked out from the fields into a clearing. He was a young man who already limped when he stood in the center and raised his hands to surrender. Two hovercrafts saw him at the same time and raced over to where he stood. They both opened with their forward guns and turned him into raw meat in seconds. The marines were taking no prisoners that day. After the intense fighting with the mercs and cartels, no one expected anything else. The mercs had gambled on a fast way to make money and paid for it. They weren't paid in silver or gold, but explosive shells.
I looked out at the remains of Shelly's ship and didn't know what to say. Now there was only eight of us men left on the Hard Rain, plus the training class and children. I didn't know how Captain assumed she would keep the mothership in operation. We would be way understaffed until we got some more recruits. The problem with new recruits was that you couldn't pull them off the shelf. It took months, if not years, of training to get them up to speed. Most didn't make the final cut. Once the young guys, whom we always needed, found out that life on the ship consisted of more than fighting and fucking, they lost interest. I'd watched it happen plenty of times. The most hardcore recruit would leave when he discovered the pack women were off limits to him for the present. Most of what he’d do consisted of following instructions and learning how to fix oxygen scrubbers.
And there would be the ceremony we'd have to attend in their remembrance. The navy might try to find the remaining body parts for a decent burial on the surface, but it would fall for their packmates to say the words that sent their souls on the way to eternity.
The last merc was smoked and the hovercrafts finished their search. I sat there, watched them sweep over the fields, and around us until they were certain all were dead. It was only then they powered down the rotors that the large low-flying ships landed on the ground. Once the blades had stopped their motion, the rear doors of each hovercraft opened and the Udie marines emerged. I watched as they stormed into the fields, in search of any final merc that survived. None had, or at least the troopers on the ground didn't find them.
"Captain wants to know the situation from your end," I heard Ely's voice on the audio. "Did any of Shelly's people come through?"
"I'll check later," I informed her. "The mercs hit his FAS while it was a good four hundred feet in the air. Direct hit. It was blown to pieces and the main fuselage is still burning on the ground. I'll ask the marines to check, but I doubt it. All of his people look to be KIA."
There was a few seconds of silence from Ely.
"Captain says to stay on the ground until you know for sure. She says to find any personal effects you can and then get your ass back up here in one piece. She doesn't want to lose another crew."
I turned and watched the marines on the ground sift through the remains of the FAS. One sergeant took out a pad and began to make notes. In the distance, I could see other marines pull bodies out of the field and line them up. It would be very hard to come up with a clear body count after this massacre.
"Tell Captain I'll be down here as long as she needs. I don't see us headed any place until the Udies finish with their assessment."
It wasn't so much the feeling of helplessness I'd experienced when the missile struck Shelly's FAS. We were used to get the mercs out into the open. They never had any intention of using us for anything else. We were the lure that was needed to bring them out in the open.
"They could've told us the plan," I seethed out in the open. "We knew this was a hot zone, but the goddamn navy never once told us the real reason we were supposed to land at this particular site."
"I'm going to miss Shelly and the others," I heard Orlando sigh. "He was a great guy. I loved it when we were on that station. Had a blast. Won't ever be the same again."
"I'm going to ask Captain to issue a complaint," I announced. "It probably won't do any good. They'll ignore it the same as they've ignored everything else we need. At least there will be a record to show we weren't informed about what to expect. Maybe it will save Order lives in the future."
"We've always been expendable," Tran pointed out.
11
We waited a good ten standard hours until the “all-clear” was given by the Udie Marines. Orlando called me over to the ship when the world came in from the main task force. I’d been outside with the others looking over any damage we took on the way down. It wasn’t as bad as I thought, but there were still plenty of repairs that would need to be made when we made it back to the Hard Rain.
“We got a call coming in from the Udies” Orlando yelled out from the hatch. “The officer wants to speak to you.”
I looked over Tran, who was out there too, and at Orlando’s face as it stared out of the opening. “Did he say what he wanted?” I asked.
“Maybe we’ll get a chance to get in on the fighting,” Tran commented. The guys were still pissed we didn’t get to do much. Not to mention we’d been used as bait.
“I'll know soon enough,” I commented as I brought up the screen in front of me. It was supposed to be visible to myself only, but the officer wasn’t using a scrambled signal.
“Corwin?” the officer asked. Good, at least he knew better than to use titles with us. Captain had the only title in the ship. Outsiders couldn’t understand how we maintained rank with no clear titles, but you learned what everyone did when you’d slept with half the ship’s population at one time or another.
“We've taken care of the hostiles on the ground,” the marine spoke to me. "You are clear to leave and return to your mothership.” He looked stern, but I knew it was for effect.
“And I don’t have to worry about ending up like our comrades?” I demanded. "Seems to me everything was supposed to be clear before they were blown out of the sky.”
“We've taken care of that situation,” he countered. "We have air and ground superiority.”
Somehow, I didn’t quite believe it all.
“We'll leave,” I informed him, “but I’ll have every weapon system armed before we do. I assume nothing at this stage.”
“Your decision.” The screen went blank.
“I've talked to Captain,” Orlando spoke to me as I closed the hatch behind. “She says to be careful during takeoff. The Udies claim they have everything under control, but she doesn’t believe them. She also says to get our asses back in one piece or she’ll personally see to it that you sleep alone for the next year.”
Won’t be around to take the punishment if I don’t, I thought. Captain did have a sense of humor.
“Medoro,” I cried out as I made my way up into the tower. “What’s the ammunition supply like? We still have plenty of what we need?”
“Looks good,” he cried out from the loader’s position. “Did you want a list of what we have?”
“Not necessary,” I called back. “I'll know once the screens are activated. Everyone lock your tops in place, we have to get out of here now. Tran, keep your eyes on that scanner. I want to know if anything makes a hostile move out there.
Minutes later, I heard the rumble of the plasma thrusters as the FAS began its quick ascent to the sky. I’ve always dreaded takeoff from the ground, no matter what the surface. In space, an engine going bad means you have to make contact with the ship to get it fixed. One goes back on the way out of a gravity well and you end up a burning pile of metal on the ground.
I watched the screen in front of me trace our progress up into the horizon in reference to the position of the Hard Rain before the main thrusters fired. Once the FAS pushed out in the direction of the mothership, there wasn’t a whole lot we could do.
Which is why I thanked all that is holy I spotted the three hostiles coming right at us before I gave the order to light the fuse.
“Incoming hostiles!” I yelled over the audio to the crew. “Tran, can you get a fix on how fast they’re moving?” I gave him the coordinates over the audio.
“Starfighters,” he confirmed. “They have the same profile as those merc ships we chased down here. Guess the UDF navy didn’t get them all.”
Yeah, I thought, how convenient. The bad guys show up in hot pursuit of us at the most vulnerable moment. Now they’ll know right where we are and can finish us off. Condolences will be sent to the mothership along with the ones for Shelly’s crew.
“Medoro, I want everything loaded and ready,” I let him know. "We still have plenty of room to move out here and they’ll be forced to deal with the pull from below; the same as us. Orlando, break to the right of the lead ship, it’ll confuse them. If they think there are more of us out there, they’ll hesitate before attacking. We’re not going to let them take us out!”
With Shelly gone, it meant only one more FAS and crew on the ship. Captain couldn't risk sending out Tank and his men; without them, they’d be useless until a new group of FAS ships and crews could be provided. The Hard Rain would be decommissioned, and everyone sent to the colonies until more FAS ships or a complement of starfighters could be arranged. I knew she didn’t want that on her hands.
I turned to look at the screen in front of me to get a better fix on the incoming mercenary ships.
And now there was one more.
“Four hostiles!” I shouted.
And then I looked at the profile.
It was the Thunder Horse. The goddamn pirates were back again.
“Hey," I heard Orlando say from his position. "That’s not a merc, it’s the pirate ship!”
I watched as the pirate ship began to fight gravity as it tried to maneuver its way across the skyline. The screen showed it powered up as the Thunder Horse pulled hard against the forces that wanted to smash the massive ship on the surface. My mind could feel the rage inside that ship. Those women wanted to burn the mercs alive. It was a rage different from what I’d seen inside Precious. Whatever pushed those pirate women forward were several orders of magnitude greater than what I’d seen inside our new wife.
The pirate ship moved between us and the merc starfighters with speed. It couldn’t fight too hard against the forces below. The gravity would tear it apart should they try overmuch. I watched the Thunder Horse move in between the starfighters and us. They knew about us, but the mercs were the subject of the pirate women’s rage.
“What do we do now?” Medoro asked me over the audio. He had the same view up on his screen. It was obvious what the pirates had in mind.
“Continue to stay on course and make for the Hard Rain,” I explained. “No need to fire the main thrusters just yet. We can maintain orbit without them. Once the battle is decided, we head back home. But not until. The pirates may need help with the mercs. If the mercs defeat the pirates, they’ll be too weak to come after us, so we can wait.”
The pirates opened up on a mercenary ship the moment it came within range. I’d watched them deal out pain to their enemies before, so I was curious as to how they would handle the current threat. Somehow, the pirates had enough reserve power to turn the full array of their lasers directly on the first starfighter. I expected to see it torn apart by the lasers, but something else happened.
As the lasers pulsed together at it, the ship glowed with an inner light that made it fluoresce in the darkness of space. The first pulse took out all of its vital systems and it went red on the icon screen, although the starfighter was intact. The second pulse caused it to flare again.
This time I looked close at the report from the AI. The pulses of the pirate lasers were designed to increase the internal heat level of the merc starfighters each time they fired. The pirates fired three more times in five-second intervals. The last time raised the internal temperature of the targeted merc starfighter to over four hundred degrees.
They baked the pilot after rendering him defenseless. A cold chill went through me. These women were being cruel because they could. Whatever turned them into monsters played out in the stale bounds of outer space.
It took another four pulses for the ship to disintegrate into component parts. I watched the bits scatter into the void, along with the fried parts of the pilot. Now, the pirate ship turned its attention toward the other two starfighters.
They were already into full retreat over the event horizon of the planetoid. The Thunder Horse followed with sure and controlled precision. From inside it I could feel their captain as she plotted how she wanted to kill the mercenaries. For some reason, she seemed to want to take one prisoner.
“Full power to the thrusters,” I informed Orlando over the audio. “The pirates have this under control. I don’t think they need our help or want it. Let’s get home before they come for us as well.”
“Got it, boss,” I heard Orlando relay. "Full power in three, two, one....”
I was slammed to one side of the tower as the engines fired and pushed us toward escape velocity. We moved toward the icon of the Hard Rain on the screen in front of me. The acceleration didn’t last long, but I never took my attention off that screen. It showed our position versus the Hard Rain versus the dance of death the pirate ship enacted out on the periphery.
The engines didn’t fire for very long. Soon, I felt the acceleration decrease. From the screen, I could see the pirates play with and destroy the remaining two starfighters. I watched as their ship launched auto-drones that sorted through the remains of one of the mercs until it found what it wanted. Whatever it found was brought inside the ship. The Thunder Horse engaged its drive and vanished into the void of Insubstantia. I couldn’t tell from the profile where it was headed. All I cared about was that the pirate ship was gone and we didn’t have to worry about it pursuing us.
By now, we were on a direct course with the Hard Rain. All we needed to do was sit and wait for the mass to carry us into the ship’s direction and make contact with it.
“You can remove your tops,” I let the rest of the crew know as I took off my helmet. “Combat for now is over and I don’t see it flaring up until we’re home.” I attached my helmet to a holder on the hull and turned back to the screen.
“Captain has your assignments for the evening,” Imani told me as I looked at her face on the screen. She read them off and I sent the names down to the other men.
“I see you’re with Indigo tonight,” she spoke to me after sending the list over. She’d let me have a few minutes to read it. “Wish she’d chosen me. You’re going to need a lot of attention this evening and most of us will be alone tonight. Damn, now Shelly’s crew. Captain will have to push hard for replacements or your men will have to double up.”
In some instances, this would’ve been funny, but not right now. Double duty was something we had to pull on occasion whenever the ratio was off. It was hard enough keeping one woman satisfied every evening. Two was possible, but took a lot out of you. It was easier when I’d been assigned with another one of my pack brothers with one wife when the balance was off in the other direction. At least that way we could each get some sleep.
Indigo waited for me after we brought the FAS into the hanger on the Hard Rain. There was plenty to do with all the repairs that needed to be made.
