Battleship Furiosa (21 page)

"We've got the ships
covered,
" said Lieutenant Commander
Holder."

Nate almost cheered as a crackle of
light marked the detonation of weapons well before they could
strike the ships.

Awesome!

He then rolled to the left and adjusted
his course to line him up for a strafing run.

"Keep hitting them!"

The pair of G
atling guns spun up quickly as they unleashed a veritable
hail of deadly shells. The chain drive pulled in ammunition from
the hoppers and thrust them into the weapon with incredible speed.
Dozens of white lights glinted as shell after shell struck the
facility. A single autocannon on a level platform swung around,
took aim, and then exploded.

"Good shooting,
" said Billy, as they pulled apart once more.

Nate twisted his head and smiled
as two more platforms exploded. The tagged targets were dropping
quickly, and by his estimate, there could be only a couple left to
deal with.

"Ironclad Leader, just a couple
more to go. I think you're clear to come through."

"Affirmative. Furiosa is moving
past now. Good work. Finish off the last few, drop sentry buoys,
and get back aboard."

"Yes, Sir."

As he rolled to the right, and
slightly above the dock, a hidden weapon activated its scanners. As
soon as it was switched on, the threat indicators on the nearby
fighters blinked red, but the gunners were quick enough to fire a
burst before two of the Mantis fighters blasted it apart. Billy
spotted the flash of gunfire and rolled away just in
time.

"Nate! To your right!"

Without thinking, Nate pulled on
the stick and boosted his engines. A single high-velocity slug
ripped into the underside and tore an engine outlet cleanly away.
Worse was that the impact put so much kinetic energy into his
fighter he spun out of control, directly towards one of the taller
habitation blocks. The eerie structure was massive and protected by
layer upon layer of curved plates. A missile whooshed by and
narrowly avoided him, before exploding and sending debris into the
nose of his craft.

"I'm in trouble... fighter is..."

Then came scores of bright white
flashes from deep inside the secondary docking bay. Nate's fighter
kept spinning, but the blast of broken metal and debris swept him
aside and back out into space. Billy pulled up at the last minute,
and through either incredible luck or judgement, he managed to get
away. The four Mantis fighters accelerated away from the station as
a huge section tore apart and drifted away towards the passing
ships. Billy looked back for his friend, and then screamed in
surprise as the broken part of the facility disintegrated in an
apocalyptic blast.

Byotai Imperial Battleship
'Furiosa'

Serpentis System, Deadlands

24 December 2472

This was a critical mission, and now he
was drifting in space with no idea what was happening. Minutes
earlier he'd been leading the fight. Now he might be alone, with
his friends aboard Furiosa and on their way out of the Serpentis
System. That feeling of being left alone was almost as terrifying
as knowing what would happen to him if he was stuck inside the
fighter. His life support system could only keep him going for so
long, and though he had plenty of air, his suit would only keep him
warm for a short time. He'd die from the cold well before he needed
to worry about loss of oxygen.

What happened? Am I hurt?

A hundred thoughts filled Nate's
mind as his spacecraft drifted about. If this had been a
simulation
, it would have been over by
now. Instead, he began to panic as all kinds of horrific scenarios
sprung to mind. With no systems functioning, there could be leaks,
each one allowing the warm and breathable air to escape. He could
end up as little more than a drifting corpse, frozen like an ice
cube. He reached out to the controls, but in the blackness each
felt much like the next. It was a terrifying moment.

Nate shook his head in
frustration and then began tapping his body all over. His hands
still had touch, though they were starting to cool. He tapped his
torso, waist, and upper legs. Everything felt as it should, much to
his relief. With the blackness all around, he might just as easily
have been badly hurt, and the darkness merely a consequence of his
injuries.

Wait, my eyes?

Hi
s
heart pounded until he noticed a flicker of light to the right that
quickly faded. It was only for a moment, but it was enough to
highlight parts of the cockpit interior. It didn't help him with
his predicament, but at least it showed he was conscious and not
seriously injured. His mind drifted back to the engagement around
the correctional facility. The gun turrets and missile platforms
appeared, and he recalled hitting them with missiles and conducting
long strafing runs. Then he remembered being hit by gunfire. His
fighter had spun wildly out of control before the bright flash had
almost blinded him and knocked out his fighter. In theory, he had
been incredibly lucky to not be killed by the carnage outside of
his cockpit.

Idiot, why is it always me that gets
hit?

Nate licked his lips and looked
up and to his right, but still he could see nothing. He began to
turn in the other direction when something shook the fighter
violently. He expected to hear warning sir
ens, but everything was off-line and the spacecraft as dead
as a piece of charcoal. He grabbed his harness as the fighter spun
for a moment, until striking another object. Only when it stopped
did he calm down for a second.

The next one could kill me. Now think,
and get back to the ship...fast!

Just thinking about
the battleship helped, but only for a few
seconds. Then his mind did him few favours by convincing him they
were gone, or at the very least leaving him behind. He thumped his
fist against the central display column. Every single light in his
cockpit was dim, and the canopy had deactivated, automatically
reverting to its black colour that made it impossible to see
outside. The only remaining power seemed to be from inside his
suit, and to the power system it carried.

You need to see
outside. Redirect power from your suit and get the computer
on
-line.

Nate smiled to himself as he recalled
an argument Rex had had with Matilda weeks earlier. She'd been
adamant that it was possible to power up the fighter's onboard
systems from your own suit for a few minutes. Rex had laughed her
down; telling her the idea was nonsense. What use would a few
minutes be in a fight, and all at the expense of losing power to
your own suit?

I'll tell you the use...now.

The fighter carried a small backup
power unit that was charged and kept topped up by the pair of
primary engines. It could run all the onboard systems independently
of the engines if needed, but for some reason was now completely
flat, drained of every joule of energy.

He
fumbled in the dark before remembering the lighting on his
suit. All it took was the flick of a switch, and a set of low-power
emitters activated. The soft light dazzled him, but it didn't take
long for his eyes to become accustomed. Every single instrument was
off-line and completely dead. Indicators in his suit showed the
ambient temperature already falling substantially.

Need to do something...fast. Try the
power.

He tried to
reach his flank, and after two fumbles, he was able to tap
open the flap on his flank and pull out a thin ribbon cable. As his
eyes moved back to the cockpit, he realised he'd completely
forgotten where the external maintenance socket was, and that sent
a shiver of fear through his limbs.

Where is it? Come on!

Try as he might he could not
remember, and when he saw that his suit's power had already dropped
down two percent
, he began to panic. Nate
could already feel cold creeping into his suit, and he knew from
stories he'd read, that it would soon spread to his limbs, and then
slowly to his body. One of the emitters on his suit flickered and
shut down. At that very moment, fear took over. His chest pounded,
and he felt as though his heart would stop at any
moment.

"Must...I must..."

Nate's breathing quickened, yet
no matter how deep he breathed there seemed to be no air. He
reached to his chest and thumped at his thin armour, as though that
could have any discernible effect on his life support system. His
right hand slid along the cockpit, tapping flat panels and buttons.
To his surprise, he found something that felt suspiciously like a
power socket. He looked down and tilted his head to allow the light
emitter to show him the area more clearly.

"There it is!"

Though still panting, he
pulled the ribbon cable from his armour and
pushed it into the port. The magnetic connection clipped into
place, and a single red flight appeared on the central console.
Nate's eyes zeroed in on it like a falcon spotting its prey moving
through scrubland.

"What now?"

As he spoke, the words
made
a dull rumbling sound, as if he was
half asleep. He shook his head violently and then concentrated on
the computer system. A column of red text filled the left side,
showing him all the deactivated systems. A handful blinked amber,
including the engine start.

Surely not?

Without thinking about it too
long, he expended nearly ten percent of his suit
’s power and activated the engine start system. At first
there was nothing, just the grim blackness that constantly served
as a reminder of his potential future. Only the blinking amber
light gave any indication that the fighter might spring to life.
The pair of CTC Danthros V engines were hybrid powerplants and
thrusters, capable of both atmospheric and space flight. Neither
could function without the small internal power unit functioning,
though. This unit was needed to start up the two engines, as well
as to provide backup power for the fighter's systems. Nate nearly
choked when the blinking amber turned solid amber and then blinked
green, as it showed ready to activate the engines.

"Come on, do it!"

The light flashed again, and the
indicators for the portside Danthros V engine turned green. Just
seconds after that the engine started to feed electricity back into
the fighter, quickly charging up Nate's suit, as well as refilling
the small backup powerplant. Another light switched on, and to his
excitement the second Danthros V engine sprung to life. Immediately
after that, the multiple red lights turned to amber as power surged
through the cold, almost dead hull of the fighter. A single display
switched on, and most of the onboard systems powered up. Life
support was next, and he breathed a sigh of relief as the
temperature reading quickly recorded the increase. Everything was
returning to normal, and with it, his pulse. Last to activate was
the canopy, and it slowly turned from translucent to fully
transparent, finally allowing him to see what was happening
outside.

What happened out there?

He'd expected to see flames, or
perhaps nothing but the void of space. Instead, he could see only
fifty metres before his line of sight was broken by a massive
section of station. Even as he watched, the section rose upwards
and was replaced by large sections of girder. There were parts of
the shattered station in all directions, yet one thing they had in
common, they were heading in the same approximate
direction.

"This is the last call.
Get aboard in the next sixty seconds, or you'll
be left behind."

Higgins!

Nate's eyes ran down the line of
status lights and stopped as he read the red light over the
communications system. It marked the operability of the video,
text
, and audio system, and the news was
not good.

"Are you kidding me?"

Nobody could hear him, but that
didn't stop him complaining to himself inside the cramped and
lonely fighter. With each word he spoke, the sense of fear and
abandonment seemed to become more and more real. Knowing his
friends were out there merely made him more desperate.

"So I can listen, but not
transmit."

A yellow flash obliterated a
section fifty metres wide, and through the gap came a sight he'd
never expected. Nate almost choked. Ahead lay the flank of Furiosa,
and she was bathed in the flashing of guns. Explosions raced back
and forth, and he quickly understood what was happening. He closed
his eyes for a second and hit the thrusters. As the fighter moved
forward, he almost cried out with excitement.

Hurry!

Debris drifted so closely that it
took every effort to navigate through the minefield of broken and
twisted metal. Another flash sent a cloud of shattered metal
compartments into his path, blocking his way through. Cursing to
himself, he pulled up his burners and twisted through another batch
of damaged segments. The ruined parts of the station were all
around him, and even the computer found it hard to calculate a
route through the wreckage.

There!

The glimmer of yellow light
below
showing a partially intact landing
platform gave him a chance. He had no idea what the light might
signify, but it was at least different to the wall of metal moving
ever closer to his fighter. He rolled the Lightning fighter ninety
degrees and then accelerated ahead, with both engines belching long
blue streaks of flame.