Mike's War: Sequel to Jesse's Starship (29 page)

“It took slightly longer than I thought.”

“What happened?”

“He was leery of me at first. It took three days before he decided to make his move.”

“I suspect you pretended to be afraid?”

“Of course.”

“What happened?”

“Jesse’s ship recorded everything. His remarks about what he was going to do to me and then making the first move.”

“And?”

“The Enforcers took him to the hospital at Delphi and he’ll be released into the population there once he regains control of his arms and legs. I also suspect the concussion might be an issue.”

“What about your family?”

“I saw my sister and brother smile for the first time. Mom is also coming around. I’m sending them my pay to support them.”

Josh looked into Prissy’s eyes, “Are you alright?”

Prissy smiled, “I really am. I love you, Josh. I just had to do this.”

Josh nodded and held her hands.

The intercom system announced, “Jump in one hour. Move to your duty stations.”

Josh looked at Pricilla, “You need to get something to eat.”

“I ate on the way here. We need to go and do the final systems check.” Josh nodded and they walked out of the cafeteria holding hands.

• • •

Mike looked at Hetzel and said, “Have you notified the Alliance ships to join Admiral Adams in orbit?”

“I have; they’ll be arriving momentarily.”

“I want you to be close to a communication panel in the event I need to contact you.” Hetzel nodded. Mike pressed another button and saw Adams appear, “The Alliance Q ships will be arriving momentarily.”

“I’ll issue their assignments and move them out from the planet.”

Mike stared at Adams and started to speak but Adams said, “Mike, don’t worry about Josh. We’re proud of him and know this is part of being parents of a soldier. You’re doing the right thing.”

Mike slowly shook his head, “I’m praying he makes it out safely.”

Adams smiled, “Get in line; so are we.”

• • •

Josh and Prissy slid down the tubes into the cockpits of their A 10s. They started their systems check and Josh heard Prissy say, “You know if you don’t make it I’m going to kick your butt.”

Josh looked up and said, “Prissy, if I don’t make it, there won’t be a butt left around to kick.”

“Now there you go getting all logical on me. You know that’s stupid…especially at a moment like this.”

Josh sighed, “I’ll do my best to avoid the butt kicking.”

There were several minutes of silence and then Josh heard, “If you don’t make it and I can’t hit that ship with the slivers…”

Josh looked up and saw Prissy on his display staring at him. He knew she expected him to try and talk her out of it but he sighed and smiled softly at her, “I would do the same, my love. The fliers don’t stand a chance against that ship.”

Prissy smiled softly at Josh and then her eyebrows came together, “So don’t make me do it; YOU GOT THAT!?!”

Josh smiled and nodded. He went back to checking his Hog’s electronic systems. Time seemed to move faster than he thought it would.

• • •

Bent rushed into the ranks of Spartan Fliers and took his position in line. His platoon Sergeant smiled, “I was wondering if you were going to make it.”

Brent smiled, “I wouldn’t miss this for anything.”

A hundred Fliers would step up on a platform and a line of racks would move up behind them and lock them in. The racks would them move up and back over the top of the mechanism and another hundred warriors would be locked in and lifted. There were two sets of racks operating on the giant transport and when the last line of each regiment was lifted, the first line was back at the front. The racks would launch the Spartan Warriors out of the giant transports at fifty miles an hour. All two thousand would exit the ship in less than a minute. They would then fall seventy miles from orbit into the planet’s lower atmosphere.

• • •

Mike looked at the countdown and saw it move to ten seconds. He had a bright yellow button on his panel and the Spartan Warriors would be ejected from their transports when he pressed it. The countdown hit zero and the huge Alliance armada disappeared from above Sparta. It reappeared above Fippen and Mike was stunned at the giant Gracken transports hanging in low orbit above the planet. One moment they were there and the next all of them disappeared. Mike said, “What were they doing, Hot Shot?”

“It appears they were on loading huge loads of metal ore.”

“What kind?”

“Iron and aluminum.”

Mike’s eyes narrowed; why would they be doing that? “Do you detect any Gracken Warships?”

“There are none in this planetary system.”

Mike watched the Q ships move out into high orbit and form above the transports. He looked at the city directly below him on the planet’s surface and wondered what the Gracken were thinking. He looked at Tilly and saw she had her hand at her neck. She was worried. He blew out a breath and pressed the yellow button. He watched the two thousand Fliers shoot out and start their long drop through the planet’s atmosphere.

• • •

Josh and Prissy’s A 10s were released from their brackets on the side of the transport and Josh pulled up the feed from the Q ships. He moved the view of the city in closer until he found the Beamship on top of the highest building in the city. He touched the display and a red x appeared on the Beamship. He touched his helmet and said, “Move us to a position directly above that designated target.” The thrusters in the wings and fuselage ignited and the small warplane moved fifty feet and stopped. The nose and tail thrusters activated slightly and the nose of the plane turned directly toward the planet below. Josh was impressed with the transport’s pilot. He was directly above the target.

Josh looked up at the new countdown on his panel. The Fliers were going to take ten minutes to fall into the planet’s atmosphere where their personal force fields could assume a foil shape and start them flying. The force fields foils would activate about twenty five thousand feet above the surface and about a hundred miles out from the city. The Fliers would be coming toward the city from all directions at four hundred miles an hour. It would take them fifteen minutes to arrive and Josh was going to drop fifteen seconds before they arrived. Prissy would begin her drop seven seconds behind Josh. That Beamship had to be removed before the Fliers moved above the city. That ship’s beams would blow through the Fliers’ personal force fields.

He stared at the Gracken ship on his combat display and saw it was turned up on its side. The Beamship had two beams; one on top and one on the bottom. In order for the Gracken to use both beams, the ship had to be tilted on its side so that both beams could be used to fire down on the city or at anything moving above it. The only thing that made this mission even slightly possible was that the two beams could not be fired directly above it. Their mounts wouldn’t allow that much rotation. There was a small area between the beams that could be attacked. At least the Alliance Engineers had thought there was. He’d soon find out. If he was slightly off-vertical, he was going to die.

Josh looked at the small tactical display in his visor and saw the silver X’s of the Fliers moving toward the city were really moving fast. He looked at the main display and saw the countdown reach five, “I love you, Prissy.”

“I love you, too, Josh.”

Josh gripped the two red paddles on the steering wheel with his index fingers and pulled them fully back when his visor reached zero. The two Alliance thrusters on the Warthog ignited and he was slammed back into his chair. The Fliers took ten minutes to reach the lower atmosphere; Josh was going to be there in ten seconds. He gripped the wheel and kept the paddles pulled fully back. The targeting laser was active and he would have to wait for it to illuminate the Gracken ship before he could fire. The planet was getting larger and closer by the second.

• • •

The Beamship’s Scanning Leader yelled, “We have a small ship dropping in on us from directly above!”

The Ship Commander yelled, “Fire on it with both beams!”

The Gunner fired and yelled, “Commander, that ship is coming in between the beams. We can’t move them enough to hit it!”

The Commander screamed, “All of you but the Gunner get out and rock the ship back and forth in its mounts!”

Six huge Gracken exited the ship at an incredible speed and pushed on the hull. It wobbled slightly and moved back on its mounts.

Josh saw the Gracken on his display pushing the ship and the two Gracken beams moved slightly toward him and then away. One of the beams only missed his cockpit by inches. He pulled the paddles in a death grip and screamed at the laser, “COME ON!!!”

The red X on the display turned green and Josh pulled the rotary cannon’s button back with his left pinky finger. One of the giant beams began moving toward him and suddenly jerked away. The Beamship exploded as two hundred guided sliver rounds twisted in flight and slammed into the large ship. The ship’s explosion blew away the top of the tall skyscraper as Josh saw the building moving toward him at an incredible speed; he released the paddles and used his middle fingers to activate the thrusters in the nose of the Warthog. He pulled back as hard as he could on the steering wheel but the building was now filling his display. He pressed the thrusters on the front edge of the wings with his ring fingers and the nose began moving slightly up. He screamed as the plane shot at the top of the building barely missing the ragged roof’s edge. If the top eight floors hadn’t been blown away, he would have hit it.

He barely missed the top and saw another building directly in his path. He twisted the wings and the Hog fought hard but managed to turn and scream down toward the street running between the buildings. He pulled back with all his strength as the plane roared down on the thousands of civilians in the street below. The sonic boom arrived and blew out glass in the tops of the buildings.

• • •

Pricilla was screaming in behind Josh and saw the Beamship explode destroying the top of the tall building. She pulled back on the steering wheel and twisted the plane slightly to the right. She used full thrusters and managed to pull the plane up fifty feet above the buildings surrounding the target and flew out over the city at an incredible speed. She searched for Josh and couldn’t find him. “JOSH! JOSH!!” She hit the side of her helmet, “WHERE IS HE!?!” She continued to pull back on her steering wheel and saw hundreds of Gracken Warrior’s beams being fired at her from the building below her. She activated the thrusters and felt her heart in her throat.

• • •

Josh screamed down the avenue he was over and saw the civilians grabbing their ears and jumping out of his path. He managed to bring the plane level at ten feet off the ground and his force field clipped more than a hundred light posts as the plane screamed at the next line of buildings. Josh knew that he had to apply his thrusters to gain altitude and he pulled the paddles back smoothly as the thrusters on the nose of the A 10 pushed it higher. He screamed in on the tall buildings in front of him and pulled fully back on the steering wheel. The nose went vertical and the Warthog flew up the face of the skyscrapers. Gracken Warriors tried to fire on him but he moved too quickly for them to get off a shot, much less aim.

• • •

Pricilla climbed and her tears began falling. She looked down at the city searching for the explosion where Josh crashed and saw his A 10 shoot out of the city at full vertical. She almost lost control as she wept. She cried for what she had almost lost. She cried for having him back. And she cried for joy at knowing the heart of a true warrior. She composed herself and said, “That was pretty good flying.”

Josh’s heart was beating out of his chest and he managed to say, “Give me a moment; I need to check my pants.”

Pricilla started laughing and Josh said, “It’s not funny; I’m serious.”

Pricilla managed to stifle her laughter and said, “Follow me to our rendezvous with the other Hogs.” Josh turned his plane and followed her. His close brush with death convinced him that he and Pricilla were going to discuss a wedding with his parents. Life was too short and getting shorter.

Adams and Jeanette watched Josh’s dive and Jeanette wrapped her arms around him and held on. When the beams barely missed Josh’s plane, she pushed her head into Adams chest and then immediately pulled it back. She couldn’t watch but she couldn’t miss it either. When the Beamship exploded and Josh’s plane disappeared below the building, Jeanette pushed her head back into Adam’s chest and held on. After a few moments she tilted her head back and opened one eye. Adams said, “He made it!”

Jeanette released Adams and jumped up as she screamed. Adams dropped into his command chair and said, “I think you broke a rib.”

Jeanette grabbed his face and rained kisses on it. Adams could only say, “I really think you broke one.”

• • •

Mike saw the Fliers arrive and watched them start banking in on their assigned buildings. They began firing at the Gracken firing from the windows and he pressed the second yellow button launching the two thousand heavy warriors in the Spartan Infantry. They would drop into the city and start evacuating the civilians. He noticed a blue light flashing on his panel and he pressed it, “Sanders here.”

“Sir, you requested that a shuttle be dropped on the city where our regiment was killed?”

“Yes.”

“We’ve arrived and there are no physical remains of our warriors, Sir.”

Mike sighed and said, “Thank you for trying.”

“There is one thing we’ve found that is disconcerting, Sir.”

“What is that?”

“We stopped and did an examination of the destroyed Gracken Heavy blasters and found something unusual. It appears that all the wiring inside the coating is made of platinum.”

“What?”

“Yes Sir, all of them. And all of their electronic circuits and circuit boards are done in gold.”

Mike leaned back in his chair and said, “Are you sure about this?”

“We’ve examined ten of the destroyed Gracken Blasters and they’re all constructed the same way. The housing is made of a super hard plastic.”