A Show of Force (43 page)

“Escape jump! Another minute forward!” Nathan ordered.

“Jumping!” Mister Riley acknowledged as the jump flash again washed over the bridge.

“Damn,” Nathan exclaimed, “how did…”

“Contact! Bravo six is still with us! Above and even further behind than before! Firing again!”

“Escape jump!” Nathan ordered again.

“Jumping.”

“Give me three of them in a row,” Nathan added as the jump flash washed over them.

“Aye, sir,” Mister Riley answered.

“Helm, as soon as we come out of the third jump, turn us two to port as quick as you can.”

“Two to port, aye!” Mister Chiles acknowledged as the next jump flash washed over them.

“After the turn, give me a five-light-minute jump.” Nathan ordered.

“Yes, sir,” Mister Riley replied. “Executing third jump, now.”

“Start your turn,” Nathan ordered as the third jump flash washed over them.

“Turning five to port!”

“Plotting five-light-minute jump,” Mister Riley added.

“Where are they, Mister Navashee?”

“Scanning now.”

“Turn complete.”

“Jump plotted and ready.”

“Execute your jump,” Nathan ordered.

“Jumping.”

“New turn, five more to port. Hard as you can, Mister Chiles,” Nathan ordered as the jump completed.

“Turning another five to port, hard,” Mister Chiles replied.

“Next jump, ten light minutes.”

“Aye, sir,”

“Any sign of them, Mister Navashee?” Nathan asked.

“No, sir.”

“How
did
they know?” Luis wondered.

“They must have been watching the battle,” Nathan said. “They figured out our standard escape jump is one light minute in distance. They just did the same, but with their FTL drive instead.”

“Isn’t the jump drive faster?” Luis wondered.

“Over longer distances, sure. But a light minute? Not so much.”

“Turn complete,” Mister Chiles reported from the helm.

“Ten light minute jump, plotted and ready,” Mister Riley added.

“Execute your jump,” Nathan ordered.

“Those battleships carry a lot of troops, as well as the shuttles to deploy them,” Luis warned as the jump flash washed over them. “Not to mention plenty of fighters to provide cover.”

“I know,” Nathan replied. “That’s why we have to turn around and go back and try to take them out.”

“Maybe we should warn Telles,” Ensign Souza suggested.

“Telles knew the implications before he even sent the message,” Nathan replied.

“How are we going to take on two battleships?” Luis wondered. “They’re just going to suck in close to the planet to keep us from launching KKVs against them.”

“I know,” Nathan replied.

“Jung column detected on road four four seven, crossing road five twenty-three,” Ensign Latfee reported. “Looks they’re headed for the same coordinates as we are, Commander.”

Commander Telles leaned out of the side door of the combat jump shuttle as it sped along between the buildings. His helmet sensors now outside the shuttle, the inside of his visor displayed numerous ground targets on a street three blocks to their left and a few kilometers ahead of them. “Anyone else in the area?” he asked as he looked up and scanned the skies, hoping for friendly icons to appear on his visor.

“Negative, sir,” Ensign Latfee replied. “All the Falcons have been re-tasked to try and keep the fighters from those battleships from coming down and ruining our evening.”

“Ascend and accelerate. Get ahead of them,” Commander Telles ordered. “Then make a one eighty and take the column head on.”

“Yes, sir,” Ensign Latfee replied, looking over at the lieutenant on the flight controls.

“Why not just shoot at them from behind?” Sergeant Torwell wondered.

“Take out a few vehicles in front and you can stop the whole convoy,” the lieutenant explained as he added lift and began to climb up above the buildings. Energy bolts began to streak upward from the roof tops, lashing out at the shuttle as it rose above the skyline.

“What the hell?” Sergeant Torwell exclaimed.

“Those aren’t Jung,” Corporal Davies commented as an energy bolt passed under his feet.

“Are those civilians shooting at us?” Ensign Latfee wondered.

“If they’re not Ghatazhak, and they’re carrying guns, they are targets,” Commander Telles reminded them. “They shoot at you, you shoot back… hopefully with greater precision than your opponent.”

“Yes, sir,” Corporal Davies replied as he opened fire on the rooftops below. Within seconds, the fire from below had ceased.

Telles watched his visor, his head pointed directly to port, as the shuttle pulled ahead of the convoy. His head continued to track aft until the convoy was well behind them. “Come about to port, Lieutenant, and bring it down to the deck three streets over.”

“Coming left,” the lieutenant replied. “All guns forward, boys.”

“Door gunners, you might want to pull your guns in and stay inside for this pass,” Ensign Latfee warned. “Those side guns will warm your heads up a bit.”

The shuttle continued a hard left turn, descending quickly as it came out of the turn pointed directly down road four four seven.

Lieutenant Kainan brought the shuttle down to only a few meters off the ground and continued racing toward the onrushing Jung convoy. “Got ‘em, dead ahead.”

Sergeant Torwell looked at his targeting display and adjusted his turret to put the aiming circle on the lead vehicle. A second later, the shuttle’s main side guns began to fire repeatedly, and the sergeant joined in, holding his trigger down to fire his double-barreled plasma weapon continuously.

The bolts of plasma energy sliced through the first few vehicles, causing them to explode and careen out of control. The first five vehicles collided, jamming up the roadway. They continued to fire as they passed overhead, the shuttle’s side guns tracking downward until the target was aft of the side guns’ field of fire. The shuttle pulled up sharply and began to climb, turning to the right as soon as they cleared the tops of the buildings.

“Starboard gunner, hit them as we come around,” the pilot ordered.

The starboard gunner pulled his weapon down and swung it outward, locking it into its firing position just in time to swing his barrel downward and open fire on the convoy as they passed again. At the same time, Sergeant Torwell opened fire with the topside turret as well.

“That should slow them down a bit!” Sergeant Torwell exclaimed.

“Two minutes to target coordinates,” Ensign Latfee reported.

“Jump complete,” Mister Riley reported as the jump flash faded away.

“Bravo five, four kilometers. Five port, three down,” Mister Navashee reported.

“Bringing tubes to bear,” the helmsman added.

“Locking all forward torpedoes and main plasma cannons on target,” Luis followed.

“Bravo six, ten kilometers, forty-two to starboard and eighteen down. Five is bringing her guns and launchers onto us.”

“Firing all forward tubes,” Luis announced. “Firing main plasma cannons.”

The Aurora’s bridge flashed repeatedly with tinges of red-orange as sixteen plasma shots left the Aurora on their way to the Jung battleship in low Earth orbit directly ahead of them.

“Bravo five is firing,”

“All weapons away!”

“Turning to next jump path,” Mister Chiles announced.

“Jumping in five seconds,” Mister Riley added.

“Five’s missiles will hit us in seven seconds.”

“Three……”

“Bravo six is firing,” Mister Navashee added.

“Two……”

“Rail guns only.”

“One……”

“She’s sweeping the area,” Mister Navashee continued.

“Jumping!” Mister Riley announced as the jump flash washed over them.

The Aurora’s bridge shook as rail gun rounds slammed into her outer hull.

“We jumped through their rail gun fire,” Mister Navashee explained as the bridge continued to shake.

“More like
into
it,” Nathan mumbled.

“Three kilometers, dead ahead!” Mister Navashee added.

“Firing all forward weapons!” Luis announced.

The bridge lit up again.

“Pitching up!” Mister Chiles said as he initiated a climb to get a clear jump line.

“Five seconds to jump!”

“Firing quads!” Luis added.

“Three…”

“Six is bringing her aft topside missile battery around!” Mister Navashee warned.

“Two…”

“I’ve got it!” Luis replied.

“One…”

“Six is firing…”

“So am I…”

“Jumping…”

“Hell yeah!” Luis exclaimed as the jump flash washed over them again. “Tagged those missiles as soon as they cleared her shields!”

“Coming about,” Mister Chiles reported.

“How many shuttles did you count,” Nathan asked his sensor operator.

“At least two dozen on their way down,” Mister Navashee replied. “Twice as many fighters as well.”

“Comms, relay that info to command,” Nathan ordered. “How many Falcons are left?”

“Last count was twelve,” Luis replied.

“Those odds suck.”

“Falcons are great at picking off Jung fighters,” Luis pointed out.

“They’re going to have to be. I’m sure there are a lot more fighters on those ships.” He turned to Mister Navashee. “Did those shots have any effect on their shields?”

“Yes, but only about a five percent drop, even with the main cannons.”

“I could fire triplets with the main cannons,” Luis suggested.

“And risk overheating them again?” Nathan replied.

“What about alternating them? Triplets on the outboard cannons the first time, inboard the second.”

“Worth a try, I suppose.” Nathan looked at Mister Navashee again. “What do you think that would get us?”

“Twenty percent drop per pass, maybe?”

“Five passes and we’d have a shot,” Luis said.

“Unless of course they just FTL it away long enough for their shields to regenerate. How long does that take?”

“Not long enough,” Mister Navashee replied.

“No, to pound a battleship into submission we need two ships.”

“What about the Scout ships?” Luis suggested.

“Not enough armor. We’re likely to lose them if we send them after those battleships.” Nathan sighed. “I don’t think we have a choice.”

“Captain, those ships are too close to the planet…” Mister Navashee warned.

“What if we just recall the Ghatazhak and leave? We can hit them with KKVs later, when they aren’t expecting it,” Luis said.

“They’re never going to leave low orbit,” Nathan said, “and if they do, they’ll go to FTL within seconds. We have to strike now and finish them. This wasn’t an ambush. If it had been, they would have spread their ships out all over the place… hidden them all, leaving only a few smaller assets out in the open. They didn’t know what or when it was coming. Now they know. Now they’ve seen how we defeat their biggest assets. We can’t back away now.” Nathan turned to his communications officer. “Ensign Souza, prep a jump comm-drone. I have a message for command.”

Naralena paced back and forth in their suite at the Cetian Liberation Army’s underground facility just outside of the capital, switching back and forth between Jessica’s repeating warning broadcast and other news stations reporting on the battle that raged over Cetia. Jessica’s broadcast had been repeating for five minutes now.

Jessica’s broadcast suddenly stopped, replaced only by a gray screen. Naralena checked the remote to ensure she had not changed feeds. She switched back to another feed, checking to make sure she had not lost all her feeds.

“
…getting word now that Cetian security forces have surrounded the broadcast studio and have isolated it from the network,
” the newscaster reported. “
We’re also being told that they have no reason to suspect that the repeating broadcast was meant to spread the bio-digital plague to this world…
”

Naralena switched feeds again, checking a third one.

“
…are looking for these two women,
” the next newscaster said as two pictures appeared on the screen. They were digitally enhanced photos of both her and Jessica, taken from a security camera at the train station. “
The one on the left is the same woman as on the broadcast. The one on the right is believed to be her accomplice. Both women are suspected of being carriers of the plague and should not be approached…
”

“What?” Naralena exclaimed. “That doesn’t even make sense! Even if the plague still existed, why would we want to infect others?” Naralena looked around the room. “Great, now I’m talking to myself!” She changed to yet another feed.

“
…can see in this footage, a Terran combat shuttle attacked and destroyed a convoy of Jung troops on their way to help retake the broadcast studio in the…
”

Naralena continued flipping through feeds.

“
…have massed on the central district, taking complete control of the area within minutes. Civilians are warned to take shelter as the enemy troops are shooting at anything that moves, both military and civilian…
”

“
…women, children, if they aren’t wearing the same black armor as they are, armed or unarmed, these ruthless Terran soldiers are killing them. The invaders have no sense of…
”

“
…their ships somehow appear out of thin air. Our technical experts are theorizing that the Terrans have some sort of advanced faster-than-light capabilities, which is why the Jung were attempting to maintain a quarantine around the Sol system to begin with…
”

“
…this footage, sent to us by a cargo vessel in orbit over Sorenson clearly shows the destruction of an entire battle platform using some kind of Terran super-weapon. If you slow this down, you can clearly see two jets of debris coming out of the platform, a primary one here, and a secondary…
”

“
…Jung representatives have repeatedly offered a peaceful solution to resolve the dispute with the Terrans. However, we have been told by representatives of the Jung diplomatic corps that there has been no response to their…
”

“Jung diplomatic corps! Hah!” Naralena exclaimed, switching feeds again.

“
…why the Terrans would want to expose the rest of the core to the same plague that has decimated their world for centuries is beyond understanding. One can only speculate that the plague itself has twisted the minds of their leaders to believe that…
”

“I don’t know how much more of this I can take,” Naralena said as she continued to switch feeds.