Ep.#15 - "That Which Other Men Cannot Do" (The Frontiers Saga) (21 page)

“Hey, I didn’t make the saying up,” Josh defended, “and I sure as hell never said it made sense.”

“Jump complete,” Ensign Latfee reported as the jump flash windows on the combat jump shuttle turned clear again. “Fifty meters up, four clicks out, two-fifty closure. Thirty seconds to insertion point.”

“Nothing on my threat board,” Sergeant Torwell reported from his gunner’s bubble atop the combat jump shuttle.

“Just the way I like it,” the lieutenant said.

The sky outside was a brilliant topaz, as the two hundred and thirty hour day was about to begin on Adlair. Light reflecting off the gas giant Hartog provided the primary illumination for the first eleven and a half hours of the Adlairan day, after which the world would be bathed in direct sunlight from their parent star, Eta Cassiopeiae, for an equal amount of time.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” the sergeant declared in awe as he gazed outside.

“What did you guys do to Torwell?” the lieutenant asked. “Did one of you spike his water bladder?”

Commander Telles smiled as he gazed out the window. The young, talkative sergeant was correct. It was a breathtaking sight to behold. The commander had studied the data on this world in great detail, and he knew that for the next two hundred and thirty hours, this world would cycle between this dreamlike, topaz night sky, and its usual pale blue daytime sky, every eleven hours. It would then return to perpetual darkness for another two hundred and thirty hours, as the moon made its way quickly around the backside of its parent planet, Hartog, plunging the world into frigid temperatures. Were it not for the large moon’s constant internal volcanic activity, kept in constant motion by the pull of Hartog’s massive gravity well, the moon would be a ball of frozen rock and ice, instead of the rich, lush world that the terraforming engineers of a thousand years ago had created.

It was no surprise, however, that the people of Adlair preferred to live in small villages contained within protective domes built into the sides of the planet’s many rolling hills. While it might be warm and lush during the sunny part of their trip around Hartog, it was less than ideal during the other half of their journey.

“Weapons hot,” Master Sergeant Jahal ordered. “If it’s armed and it isn’t wearing black, kill it.”

“Fifteen seconds,” Ensign Kainan announced.

“I’ve got a lock on the target,” Lieutenant Delaveaga reported from the Celestia’s tactical station. “Ready to fire.”

“Troops are in the airspace, ten seconds from deployment,” Ensign Kono announced.

“We’re late,” Cameron realized unhappily. “Comms, tell the Ghatazhak to hold position on the ground and take cover while we blast the target.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Lieutenant, as soon as those CJs move off to safe range, you’re cleared to fire.”

“Yes, sir,” Luis replied. “Estimate thirty seconds.”

“Confirmation from Commander Telles, sir,” Ensign Souza reported. “They are taking cover in place.”

“Any sign of the Aurora?” Cameron wondered. “She should have handled those frigates by now.”

“No, sir,” Ensign Kono replied. “And I’m picking up two FTL signatures that I believe are the frigates.”

“Are you sure?”

“That they are FTL signatures, yes,” the ensign assured her. “But there’s no way for me to tell what kind of ships they actually are. I’m just guessing that they’re the frigates, since they’re too small to be cruisers.”

“All combat jumpers are clear of the target area,” Luis reported. “Opening fire on the troop base on the surface with our ventral quad rail guns.”

“Very well,” Cameron replied. Still concerned, she turned toward the comm station at the aft side of the bridge. “Mister Souza, dispatch a jump comm-drone to the area of the battle platform and auto-hail the Aurora.”

“Aye, sir,” Ensign Souza acknowledged.

Luis looked at his captain. “You think they ran into trouble?” he asked. “Like,
battle platform
kind of trouble?”

“Doubtful,” Cameron admitted. “Just playing it safe, that’s all.”

“Two contacts!” Mister Navashee reported urgently from the Aurora’s sensor station. “Frigates! Just came out of FTL! They’re locking missiles on us, sir.”

“Continue firing on that battle platform until we jump!” Nathan ordered his tactical officer. “Be ready on the escape jump, Mister Riley. Execute when our port shields reach forty percent, or
any
missiles get within a kilometer of us.”

“I’ve got my finger on the button, Captain,” Mister Riley assured him.

“Maintain a clear jump line at all times,” Nathan reminded his helmsman. “Jess, try to angle some of your quad shots under their neighboring shields as we pass. Try to take out some of their shield emitters so we can get a clean shot at one of the other arms.”

“You got it!”

“Inbound missiles,” Mister Navashee reported as the bridge shook from rail gun impacts against their weakening shields. “Eighteen of them. First ten are twenty seconds out!”

“Point-defenses are engaging the incoming missiles,” Jessica assured him.

“Jump flash!” Mister Navashee added. “Comm-drone.”

“Incoming message,” Naralena reported. “From the Celestia. They’re asking for our status.”

“Message: Engaged with battle platform and frigates. Require immediate assistance. End message.”

“Sending.”

“Arm four is coming apart!” Mister Navashee declared in excitement.

Nathan turned back toward the main view screen, switching camera views just as the bulk of the heavily damaged number four arm of the Jung battle platform broke off from the platform’s central structure and began separating into several pieces, rocked by internal explosions deep within the arm itself.

“Yes!” Nathan declared triumphantly. “That was one of her maneuvering arms, right?”

“Yes, sir,” Mister Navashee replied. “She’s going to be slow to rotate and keep her good shields toward us as we pass.”

“Then at least we’ve got a fighting chance,” he declared. “Mister Chiles, turn us toward the nearest frigate. We can’t fight a battle platform with a couple of frigates pestering us, now can we?”

“
Telles, Celestia Actual,
” Captain Taylor’s voice called over the commander’s helmet comms as the bombardment suddenly stopped.

“Celestia Actual, Telles. Go ahead,” he replied as he rose to his feet and stared at the settling dust a few hundred meters away.

“
We need to disengage the target. The Aurora is heavily engaged with the battle platform and two frigates, and they need our help. Can you handle the situation on the surface as is?
”

Commander Telles glanced at his tactical display on the inside of his helmet visor, noticing very few red icons, most of which were moving around slowly and in haphazard fashion. He then checked the weapons status displays for the four Super Falcons circling high above them. Each of them still had two busters, and four chaser missiles. “I believe so,” the commander replied. “Deploy the CNS-sats, then go and help the Aurora. I believe they need you far more than we do. Return when you can.”

“
CNS-sats are already on their way out,
” Cameron assured him. “
The net will be up in two minutes. Celestia Actual, out.
”

“On our own, again?” Master Sergeant Jahal wondered, a broad grin on his face.

“It is less complicated this way,” Commander Telles replied.

“Holy shit, Lucius! Was that a joke? From Captain Serious?”

“That’s
Commander
Serious,” Telles replied without missing a beat. “Advance on the target, and confirm with the Super Falcons that we own the skies. Then clear the marines in close behind us, just in case.”

“Yes, sir,” the master sergeant replied, still grinning.

“I’ve got four more bandits to the northeast,” Loki reported with surprise.

“Where the fuck did they come from?” Josh wondered. “There was nothing left of that base when we flew over, that’s for damn sure.”

“They must have been parked elsewhere,” Loki replied. “Maybe they keep some tucked away, or something. Two, One. We’re turning northeast to intercept. Targets are low and slow, only four-twenty closure. Range in twenty seconds. You take the two on the right, we’ll take the two on the left. Pop two, jump up and then jump back down vertical on them to finish with guns in case they manage to evade.”

“
Two copies. Selecting two on right. Will pop two, then jump up and take them in a vertical dive with guns as needed
.”

Loki quickly selected the two targets on the left and assigned one chaser to each target, leaving two more in his weapons bay. “Falcon One, popping two,” he announced over the comms as he fired the two chaser missiles.

“Pitching up,” Josh said as he pulled the ship into a forty-five-degree climb and added power to maintain airspeed.

“
Falcon Two, popping two.
”

“Chasers have acquired,” Loki said. “Ten seconds.”

“Jumping,” Josh announced as he pushed the selector switch on top of his flight control stick forward and pressed the execute button.

The windows of the Super Falcon’s cockpit turned opaque for a brief moment. Josh pulled his throttles back to zero thrust, rolled the ship inverted, and pushed their nose down onto an intercept course with the four Jung fighters passing far below them.

“Five seconds,” Loki reported. “They’re taking evasive actions.”

Josh watched their altitude rapidly decrease, moving the jump range select dial one click at a time to match their decreasing altitude.

“Impact! One down, the second one is breaking to the east and climbing.”

Josh rolled slightly right and altered his angle of dive before initiating the next jump. When the cockpit windows cleared, the fleeing Jung fighter was passing right in front of him at a range of less than one hundred meters. Josh squeezed the gun trigger on his flight control stick, sending a pair of plasma blasts from their wing cannons into the target, causing it to explode. “Two down,” he said as he rolled right and leveled off, adding power again to maintain airspeed.

“
Falcon Two. Two down.
”

“Two, One,” Loki replied. “All four targets are destroyed. Local threat board is clear. Join up on us. We’ll make a few wide perimeter sweeps to make sure before joining the others.”

“
Two copies. Rejoining.
”

“Now
this
is the kind of liberation I like,” Josh declared. “Jump in, blow some shit up, kill a few fighters… Easy as pie.”

“I thought it was
easy as cake
?” Loki wondered.

“No. The expression is, ‘A piece of cake’
.
”

“Where does the pie fit in?”

Josh shook his head. “You’re hopeless.”

The rear cargo ramp lowered as the troop shuttle touched down in the open field just south of what was once the Jung troop base on Adlair. The shuttle’s engines immediately began to wind down to idle as troops began pouring out the back, spreading out right and left as they left the ramp.

Biorgi followed the man in front of him, turning right once his boots hit the crunchy, tan-colored soil of Adlair. Energy weapons fire could barely be heard in the distance over the sound of the shuttle’s four, massive engine pods.

As soon as the last man left the ramp, the shuttle’s engines spun back up, lifting the ship into the air. She climbed slowly, accelerating forward as her aft cargo ramp raised up into its fully closed position. A moment after the ramp closed, the troop shuttle disappeared in a blue-white flash of light against the topaz morning sky.

With the shuttle gone, the sound of energy weapons fire was more noticeable. In fact, it was growing louder with every step. Biorgi continued to follow his platoon leader, Ghatazhak Sergeant Lazo, toward the dissipating cloud of dust and smoke that their forces had encircled.

After running for a few minutes, Biorgi saw Sergeant Lazo raise his hand and then drop it, signaling them to hit the ground. Biorgi did as instructed, assuming a prone position, his weapon aimed in the direction of the devastated Jung troop base. He looked at his tactical display. Stretched out from side to side were both blue and red icons…more red ones than blue. They were oriented along the horizon. Biorgi thought the commands, causing his visor to zoom in directly ahead so he could see the targets in greater detail. He could scarcely make out the Ghatazhak, in their menacing, flat-black combat armor, as they attacked the line of Jung soldiers. The enemy was easier to distinguish. They wore the traditional dark gray uniforms and armor, with the red trim that the Jung seemed to favor. Many of them were unarmored, appearing to have been caught by surprise by the orbital bombardment that all but leveled their base.

The enemy soldiers took cover behind fallen structures and chunks of tan-colored concrete that had been strewn about by the rail gun impacts. They tried to create a coherent defensive line, but the Ghatazhak were too aggressive, too precise. The black-clad soldiers continued to press forward, their line finally merging with that of the enemy.

Biorgi took aim at a Jung soldier with a red icon on him and checked his range…
Too far.

“
Squads One and Two, move left one hundred meters,
” the sergeant ordered.
“
Seven and Eight, move one hundred right. The rest of you fan out evenly between them in groups of two squads.
”

Biorgi rose to his knees, his weapon still aimed toward the battle, waiting for those members of his squad to his left to move. Then he got to his feet and followed them, in a running crouch, for one hundred meters, before falling back down onto his stomach.

He looked back toward the engagement zone. Getting up and running had caused his tactical display to zoom back out to zero magnification, so again, Biorgi thought the commands to zoom in. He picked another target and took aim. He was still too far to guarantee a kill, but it was better to be ready.

“
First Platoon,
” Sergeant Lazo’s voice called over Biorgi’s helmet comms. “
Move forward to optimum firing range and take up firing positions. Move, move, move!
”

Again Biorgi rose, and again his tactical display automatically reverted to normal magnification. He followed his squad leader, as did the rest of his squad, and the second squad behind them. In a crouch, with their weapons still trained on the engagement area toward which they ran, they moved briskly across the uneven, jagged terrain of Adlair. The sound of energy weapons grew louder with each crunch of their boots. Red energy bolts slammed into the tan soil in front of them, sending bits and pieces of the moon spraying into them as they ran. One of the bolts slammed into the man next to him. Biorgi stopped in his tracks, spinning around to look at his fallen comrade. His instinct was to help him, but he realized that he was beyond help. Half his face was gone, along with the side of his head…all of it neatly cauterized by the Jung energy blast that had taken the marine’s life.

Biorgi felt someone shove him forward, urging him on, and he complied. Seconds later, that same man who had shoved him forward toward the battle also fell to enemy fire, his right leg and hip melted away and still burning as the man screamed in agony. Biorgi spun around and saw that someone else had dropped to the man’s side to help him, followed by another. Biorgi spun around and continued to charge forward into the battle.