Retribution (35 page)

“What about Tumos. You know those transports hold a thousand rogan warriors each.”

“I’m ordering the Army to high tail it to Tumos. Your droid pods at Butros Alia are on their way too. I’ll divert some ships from the Harlow group to support them. Do it now” said Phil and he terminated the call.

Dave knew when it was pointless to continue arguing anyway. “Aubrey new orders. We’re bustering to the Mailon. We have to take her and destroy the remaining enemy ships.”

“And abandon Tumos?” replied Aubrey. Her craft was just slowing to enter the atmosphere.

“Yes…no…look other reinforcements are on their way to Tumos. There’s no time for debate Aubrey.” Dave looked across at Chase who gave him the thumbs up. “Here’s your new orders. Let’s go.” Dave terminated the call. “James you have your new course.”

“On it Sir. Hold on tight everyone.” The Resolute was still a thousand kms from the atmosphere, so it had more leeway for its manoeuvre to turn back up. But it was going to be a tight turn nonetheless with near max G’s.

Dave selected the shipwide channel. He was straining to speak but time was short and he couldn’t wait. “We’re going to close with the surviving enemy ships, destroy all caps and frigates and capture the enemy carrier, the Mailon. Jim, prepare for a boarding operation. She’s a big ship, you’ll need the droids. Li, prepare to escort the boarding op. Crystal bring us in to within beam range of the closest enemy cap and open her up like a tin can once we are within range. John once that happens engage the other two enemy caps with fifty missiles each, the four frigates with 25 each and then put another 25 into the Mailon. We’ll then launch the boarding op. Show time is in three minutes. Go.”

“Aubrey” hailed Dave.

“Sir.”

“I want you to stay cloaked till I order you to engage.” Dave then explained his course of action. “You’re our insurance policy. Things will be messy and we’ll need help at some point but you can deliver that best if you remain cloaked. Understand.”

“If you insist.”

“I do.”

The Resolute was using its burst speed to close with the enemy at 72 kilometres per second (kps). They would cover the remaining 8,000 kms in two minutes. The Phantom had more distance to make up but it was bustering at 79 kps and would arrive at the same time or pretty close to it.

It was a very nervous Julian that climbed into the droid pod on H deck. He couldn’t really believe this was actually happening. But Jim’s forceful command left him in no doubt.

Kat was doing her preflight in her Lightning on F deck. Her adrenalin was already up, having raced to get into the craft. She had asked Li how many enemy fighters there would be. All he had said was ‘lots’. That didn’t sound encouraging.

Parinya was calmly issuing instructions to her warthog crews as Jim was barking orders and all but pushing his marines into the shuttles. He saw the hatches close one by one and was the last marine to climb aboard. He made his way up and sat behind Parinya and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned to see his thumbs up. She nodded.

In the command centre, John was entering the last missile instruction. His fingers worked over time. Crystal called out from her chair “Fires are you ready?”

“Almost” he called back. He saved the missile fires and quickly set the beam fire.

“Cyber attack ready?”

“Ready” said Jasmin.

“Missiles and beam ready” announced John.

“Limas ready?”

“Ready” announced Li.

“Golf ready?”

“Ready” announced Jim.

“Whiskeys ready?”

“Affirmative” replied Parinya in her calm manner.

The Resolute was slowing dramatically now. The holo was zoomed in and they were closing in on the nearest enemy cap. It was twelve thousand kilometres away. “Pilot, reduce to 20kps. Line us up” ordered Crystal.

Dave could see that Crystal was actually enjoying this. She was all concentration like the hunter training for the kill shot. The pink transparent globe around the Resolute’s icon on the holo was almost touching the enemy cap. She wanted a bit more overlap just in case of a sudden move. “Fire” she commanded.

John activated the fire tasks. The two beam weapons activated and the light blue lazer beams tore across the void of space at 300,000 kps. For all intent and purpose, it was instantaneous. The drain on ship power was noticeable if you were looking at the appropriate data. But John’s attention was elsewhere. “Beam activated. Missiles away.”

By the time he finished those words the enemy cap was being ripped apart by the beam attack and the first of the nearby frigates was rocked by a salvoe of missiles. The third Gen Torad missiles were travelling at 150 kps. They covered the distance to the furthest ship in the group in 13 seconds. The enemy’s automatic combat systems should have launched intercepts. But none came.

John could not believe it but was soon distracted. “We have hits” he announced excitedly. “Scratch Bogey 1…” which was the subject of the beam attack. The tally was coming up far too fast. So he waved his hand in a gesture like someone ushering a person to enter through a doorway. He returned his focus to the red alert that just fired on his station. “Fighters launching.”

“Evasive action” ordered Crystal.

James began a dive and turn. A flash of laser light streaked across his vision through the cockpit. “Fucking hell” he yelled out. His eyes were momentarily blinded by the intensity of the light. After the shock he realised that it was a miss. He regained his focus and continued with the evasive manoeuvre.

“Come on Jasmin” called out Crystal.

“I’m in. Give me a minute” replied Jasmin as she tried to make sense of the data being streamed to her from the cyber-attack. She had a list of ship systems, which she scrolled through.

“We don’t have a minute” said Crystal forcefully.

“There that should do it” said Jasmin.

“Yep that’s done it” said John and he laughed “No more beaming from you sunshine.” But he was quickly diverted. “Scratch Bogeys 2, 3, 5, 6 and seven” advised John. “Just the Mailon and a frigate left. Oh and we have twenty two enemy fighters. Engaging fighters.”

“Aubrey” hailed Dave “take out that frigate and as many of those fighters as you can.”

“Roger that” said Aubrey. Dave could tell she was all business now. He like that about her.

“James bring us around and stay in standoff range of the Mailon’s beam weapon” ordered Crsytal. “Just in case” she added with a look to Jasmin. “Sir, should we commit the fighters?”

“No. There’s no need for them just yet.”

Chapter 17. Phantom over Polaris 0057, 26 June

“Forty at Bogey 7” barked Aubrey. “Engage fighters two for one.”

“Engaging. We’re down to 16 missiles” advised Phil.

The Torads streaked out and struck the remaining enemy frigate. It never fired a missile in its own defence. It exploded and was gone in a flash.

The 22 enemy fighters were heading for the Resolute in two columns. Coming at them were 20 missiles from the Resolute and 44 from the Phantom. Each fighter fired off four of their own missiles in defence and two in offense aimed at the Resolute. The craft began turning back to their carrier. The ranges were so short and the speed of intercept so quick that within a few seconds only three of the fighters survived.

The Resolute fired off its remaining missiles at the incoming enemy missiles and took them all out bar four. These were despatched with the close in pulse cannons.

Chapter 18. Tumos 0058, 26 June

True to its ETA the droid pod carrying Jules touched down one km west of the facility. He was still unconscious inside his pod. The jolt of the landing and the absence of Gs aroused him. He felt like shit. Apart from the effects of the travelling, his inner demon, his fear of being shot again, began rising from within.

He checked the display and could see the battle was still going on at the entrance. He could see the icons for the other droids along with those for the two command droids occupied by Emilio and Sue. He knew he couldn’t stay where he was. It wouldn’t be long before the rogan detected him.

‘You can do this Jules’ he said to himself. ‘Right form them up.’ He hit the commit for the dismount and then punched in the tasking order to deploy facing east. He was the last ‘thing’ to get out of the pod and the least elegant in doing so. He mounted the command bot.

“Maam” he hailed “it’s Meyer I’m west of you. Where do you want these droids?”

“Right Jules” said Sue “Have them move up behind my droids and be ready to assault this location.” The location appeared on Jules display. It was right into a concentration of rogan at the northern end of the runway. “Then you better move yourself up into the tunnel with me.”

“You got it. I’m on my way.” Jules took thirty seconds to commit his order to the droids. There was nothing fancy. He used all the default settings, placed the forming up point (FUP) behind Sue’s droids and the Attack objective at the location she had specified. That was it. He flexed his hands on the movement controls for the droid and was soon striding down the runway at 10 kph just behind his droids. So far no rogan had engaged them. ‘I hope it stays that way’ said Jules.

Chapter 19. IRS Mailon over Polaris 0058, 26 June

Assani was cursing his commander’s folly. “We must warp now. Forget the strike” he said forcefully.

“Launch the strike” commanded Meeka.

“Twenty one missiles launched” called out the specialist.

Meeka turned to face Assani. “Now we can warp away.”

“Initiate warp” yelled Assani.

“Warp not engaging” came back the terrified voice.

“Try again” yelled Assani.

“It’s no use Sir.”

Assani looked with venom in his eyes at Meeka. “See what you have done.” He got up from his seat and left the command centre. Doing so normally would have invoked the wrath of his commander but not this time. Meeka was suddenly overcome with the realisation that he was not going to escape. He sat there unmoved, staring at nothing in particular. His staff were all staring at him. But he didn’t see them.

Chapter 20. Resolute over Polaris 0059, 26 June

“21 Enemy Missiles launched” announced John “heading for the planet. Can we commit our fighters?”

“Yes” called out Dave emphatically. He had a terrible feeling in his gut.

“Limas away.”

“Aubrey engage those missiles.”

“Roger.”

“Polaris incoming missiles – suspect nukes” advised Dave.

Kat and Rose shot out from the Resolute, turned and vectored after the missiles faster than any bullet ever travelled. They were soon at max speed and each launched six Javelin missiles. These travelled at 150 kps, a good 30kps faster than the enemy missiles. But the distances were so short relatively. It was going to be close.

The enemy missiles that were destined for more distant targets were all picked off in time but the two earmarked for the closest targets of Nova Vista and Tumos escaped interception.

Chapter 21. Tumos 0100, 26 June

Sue saw the big red alert message and her heart sank. “Emilio take cover, nukes on the way. Leave the droids as is.”

“Fuck. Will do” replied Emilio.

“Come on Jules get inside the pod” she barked.

Sue knew she had to reseal the tunnel. She fired the pre-planned charges as she closed the hatch on the pod. She strapped herself in opposite Jules, sealed her suit and set the emergency beacon to activate in five minutes.

Her mind was racing. She forced it to slow down by concentrating on just one thing – Art. She prayed he would be safe.

Chapter 22. Nova Vista 0100, 26 June

“Christ” exclaimed Harry as he hit the nuke alert. This would seal the lower levels where they were and send messages to all commands within 50kms.

The commander of the 39
^th
Bn went white when he got the command. The pilot of the shuttle had immediately vectored away from Tumos and was now heading west at maximum speed.

Troops within the city manning checkpoints were now running to their shelters, Gen Shen Xian, included. He was bussled down into the downtown shelter on Maclean St along with fifty or so soldiers. The young one pipper with him, who had never seen action, looked like he was already dead. His face was ashen and the veins on his temple protruded and bulged with stress. “We’ll be all right down here” said Shen.

“If you say so Sir” said the young officer.

Rihan swallowed hard as she held up three fingers in front of herself – a physical reminder of how many nuke attacks she had or was about to take shelter from. She remembered the last time and how she had begun repeating the mantra. A smile came across her face. She felt calmer already.

She looked across to Harry. He was still strapping himself in to his chair. Not that it was needed down here but it was an ingrained response from eighteen years of service, most of which had been on board ships. He saw how calm she looked and he was impressed mightily. He smiled back. “They better not destroy my home” he said out loud. “I’m going to be mightily pissed if they do.”

That brought a lot of laughter from the others in the command centre. “Yeah that goes for me too” said Andy “fucking bastards!”

Phil smiled but his thoughts were already focussed on what happens after this. ‘They will pay’ he said to himself.

No one down in the shelters could hear the point missile defense system firing nor the railing of the pulse cannons as they attempted to engage the missile in the last two seconds of its journey to the spaceport. Thirty of the point missiles and twenty thousand pulse shots were fired. One of the point missiles exploded within twenty metres but was not powerful enough to destroy the missile. It did, however, manage to affect its course ever so slightly. The point of impact was shifted eight kilometres north east.

The manufacturing area of Durramside, 21 km NNE of the centre of the city was the new ground zero for the 1 Megaton blast. It burst in the air about 100m above ground level. All buildings within 2.4 kms, including the massive Mitsubishi auto plant, were levelled. The two residential suburbs to the north and west were also levelled. Thankfully the bay was to the east. The solar farm nestled south between the space port and Durramside was wiped out also.