Blood War 1: Last Stand of the Legion: Rift (19 page)

"Sir, if they weren't ready before
, they are ready now."

Aijuba had spoken quietly so no one else could hear what she had said.
She knew he had meant what he had said. He and Aijuba had stood side by side through all the years working to have a unit ready for this moment. Now they would face together what they had prepared for, for so long. They would meet their fates together.

"Aijuba we have a battle to win. Let's get to it."

"Fuckin' A Dasan."

The two turned and strode toward the hovercraft. When he saw who was driving the two hovers and who were the gunners he turned to Aijuba.

"I thought these former sergeants were in the brig?"

"Yes, sir. I got them out
. I thought we might need them."

It was hard for Aijuba to suppress a smile.

"Let’s see if I got this right. Sergeants Kifle Elias, Brandon Yu, Trigg Masa and Chesmu Taro, all of whom were in the brig on various charges, mostly having to do with hospitalizing police officers from Yal during a drunken brawl, are now my drivers and gunners?"

"Yes sir. It would appear so."

"Didn't I take at least one stripe from each of them?"

"Yes, sir. You did."
Aijuba said.

Each of the
troopers had sergeant stripes painted on the arms of the armor.

"Why are they still wearing their stripes?"

"Well sir that is hard to explain," Aijuba began with a smile.

"All right. They are all
, as of now, promoted back to sergeants. Although I would not count on them keeping those stripes long if I know them."

"Ah sir, from the sound of things we'll all be dead in a few hours anyway
," Kifle Elias said.

Dasan could only shake his head and laugh. If Aijuba had not done it he would have ordered it anyway. They were the four best enlisted men in the Brigade. The four were some of the first to volunteer for the original Light Infantry
Company and were part of the first cadre he and Aijuba had drawn together to start the Armored Infantry Brigade. Dasan had fought with them through too many campaigns and police actions to count over the years. Their skills would be needed. The four could just not stay out of trouble when there was no one to fight. It only proved the old saying that if you wanted the best soldiers go look in the brig first.

"You should be so lucky. You'll end up spending most of your days in the brig even if we live through this."
Dasan said.

"Sir, how can you say such a thing?" Kifle the gunner on the first hover said.

"Because it true," Trigg Masa, his driver said.

The four sergeants laughed together. Dasan mounted the hover. Aijuba took her place next to Dasan and they exchange
d a glance before they hinged their helmets down.

"You didn't even ask?"
Dasan said.

"But sir. You were so busy
," Aijuba said and closed her helmet.

Dasan heard her
laughing over their private frequency.

"Remind me to demote you
when this is over."

"Yes sir."

"Where to, sir?" Sergeant Taro said.

"Do you think you can find Fleet Headquarters?"

"Yes sir."

The
hovercraft rapidly accelerated toward the Fleet Headquarters Mega Complex. The second hover was close behind, providing cover and a bodyguard.

LYTEN SYSTEM

D50

SWIFT BOAT TS 111

Chief Kim eased the boat closer to D50 until they were on the backside of the asteroid, just under the horizon from the base.

"Odaka
, are you picking up anything?"

"Negative Chief
, not even the usual background emissions."

"Ok, everyone on your toes. I am bring
ing us up over the horizon. Be prepared to...well be prepared."

Kim eased the
Swift Boat up over the horizon and then slowly forward toward their base. It was then he started to encounter debris. It was floating up from the open hanger bay doors. Small things - paper, a wrench, pieces and parts from supply. Then he saw the first body slowly drift by and he knew that the base had been attacked. He tried not to look at the person's face but he couldn't help it. It was Garis, the Chief in charge of Hanger Bay number 1. Her face was in the twisted agony of someone who had experienced explosive decompression.

Kim
continued to bring the Swift Boat slowly over the horizon and toward the base. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The lights were still on but the area around the base was filled with debris. The debris was normal objects Kim had seen everyday on the base, now they were floating above the asteroid. It was shocking to see a chair or a desk float by his ship. The escape hatch to Flight Control was wide open as if someone had gone for a walk and forgotten to close the door. Both of the Hanger Bay doors were open.

"Kim to crew
, we are going to slip into the hanger and re-arm and power up if we can. I don't know what we will find. Be prepared for anything."

Kim eased the ship over Hanger Bay 1. He could
see down through his hull cameras nothing but floating debris and bodies in the Hanger. No signs of life. He eased the ship forward and came to a hover over Hanger Bay 2. Again, nothing. He decided to take a chance and see if a hail got a response.

"This is TS 111
. Is there anybody alive? Respond if you can or give a sign."

Nothing. Then he heard
,

"Chief Kim is that you
?"

"Roger. Who is this?"

"This is Furlong. Me and some of the others off TS 112 were in our evac suits for a drill. Chief Bufort was timing us."

"Is he alive?"

"Negative. The decompression got him. He was not in a suit."

"Roger. Find some shelter
; we are going to land and it will kick up anything loose down there."

"Roger. Chief we're ready."

Kim hovered over the open Hanger Bay then slowly lowered the ship it’s berth.

"Everybody don your escape suits. There's just
a vacuum out there."

As the crew struggle
d into they're suits Lee said,

"What do you want us to do
, Chief?"

"Let's re
-arm and power up. I want Long Lance torpedo's beyond that. Lets see what is left and we'll figure it out from there."

"Aye, aye Chief
," Lee said.

The crew had donned their suits and reported
that they were ready to exit the boat.

"
Alright, prepare to enter vacuum. Three, two, one."

The hatches to the outside of the boat slid open in front of each
crewmember. Kim floated to the ground in the light gravity of D50. He turned to see the damage done by the torpedo. At Brigia'a station there was nothing but a tangled mass of metal and wires, with no hint that Brigia ever existed. She had simply been disintegrated in the blast. In a way it made it easier to accept her loss. He saw Lee standing staring at the hole where Brigia should have been. He could not tell how Lee was taking the loss until he said,

"Chief
, I've never loaded the Long Lances on the TS111. You will have to show me how to modify the tubes."

"Right. There are some other modifications but they are simple. I'll show you how
, and then I want you to do that first. Get the guys off 112 to help you."

Lee and the rest of the crew began to round up the torpedoes and other weapons system ammunition while Chief Lee began to inspect TS 111. She was badly damaged on the side where she took the torpedoes
, but double and triple redundancy built into the boat had taken care of any system damage that may have occurred. He could see the nano's working to repair as much of the damage as they could. The nanos would not be able to repair all the damage but restoring some of the critical systems would have to do. He checked the drive and the crystal. They both were intact and had received no damage. The armor around them had proven itself again. He had seen some of these old ships return when you would swear they could not get off the ground.

He thought to himself, ‘n
ow let's see if I can remember the work-around for souping up the crystal. During the Breed Wars they found the Swift Boats needed more speed badly. They unable keep up with the destroyers or battleships they were tasked with protecting, so a couple of old Chief's had put their heads together and found a way to tune the crystal in such a way that it increased the power flow through dramatically. The change not only was able to increase their speed but it made the ship easier to fly.

There was a three-axis coordinate
to work with in a crystal, as it was now configured in the boat. If he remembered correctly, if you could reconfigured the crystal along its leverage planes you could increase the point groups from five to seven. Seven point groups would almost double your power. But if you were not careful you could fracture the crystal along those same leverage points and it would be useless.

He opened the door to expose the crystal and stared at it for a long time. It was as beautiful as he remembered. It looked like a three foot diamond
, carefully cradled in its protective housing. It glowed in the low light of his helmet. The Von Fleet crystal was one of the rarest minerals in the universe. Only the heat and pressure of a planet’s core could produce something so strong and yet so delicately beautiful. The regular spacing between the reflecting planes amplified the power of the drive. It was configured as a cubic with axis at right angles that were all equal. Now all he had to do was change that axis by twisting the crystal by thousands of a millimeter.

Screw this up Kim and you might as well see if you can really jump hard enough to leave this rock
, because that was going to be the only way you and the rest of your crew were going to leave. He wasn't a Crystal Tech - they kept trying to send him to the school but he could not give up flying. But that didn't keep him from learning the old Midnight Chiefs Fix as the off-the books modifications were known. If he could twist the crystal enough without breaking it they could gain the power they needed. Kim turned to look for a Crystal Kit and almost ran into Lee. The men and women from TS 112 were standing behind him.

"Chief
, the 111 is loaded and ready."

"Good. Now..."

"Chief, I am a Relief Pilot. I've passed the written and the simulator. I was waiting for a flight check for it to be official. We were thinking that the 112 is not damaged, it is just missing a pilot. They are willing to fly with me. We want to arm the 112 and fly with the 111."

Kim had to suppress a smile of satisfaction. He knew the kid had it in him
; now he was proving he had more than even Kim had thought.

"Good. We can use it like we used to fly in
duos. I want you to load it with extra chaff, anti-fighter missiles and any other defensive armament or electronics you can think of. We are going as a Hunter Killer team. You keep the fighters off my ass while I attack. We found back in the day that you were more effective in duos. You up for it?"

"
Kak,
yeah Chief. We'll get right on it."

"Done. Get it ready to fly. Right now one of you
can get me a Crystal Kit."

Lee and 112 crew
all turned and hurried off, with some forgetting how little gravity was on D50 and almost bounced out of the Hanger Bay. One of the crew from the 112 brought a Crystal Kit for Kim. With a deep breath he turned and looked closely. He had to make sure he did not twist the crystal along the dislocation lines. If he did it would break. Instead he had to perform what they called a crystal slip - twisting the crystal just enough to create more right angles, thus increasing the power magnification. The old Chiefs had done this all the time when he was still just a spaceman, but that was twenty years ago; the crystals and the technology had changed a lot over the years. He hoped the crystal would react the same.

He attached the monitor to the crystal cradle and turned it on. It showed the internal structure of the crystal and the stress points. He slowly increased the angle on the first right angle. The display began to flash red "danger, danger you are exceeding the angle of the crystal". Kim ignored the warning and increased the twist by a thousandth of a
thousandth of an inch at a time. He was sweating so much in his suit; he was having a hard time keeping his faceplate from fogging up. He twisted the crystal one more thousandth and suddenly the display showed that there were now seven point groups. The crystal held and the 111 now had almost twice as much power as it had before. It had worked. Kim straightened up and breathed a sigh of relief. Now for the 112. This time it did not take as long. Doing the first was the hardest; all the old tricks had come back and still worked. The two ships were ready now.

"Chief
, both boats have been rearmed, powered up and the liquid oxygen tanks have been topped off. We are ready for launch."

Kim glanced around to make sure the rest of the crews were still busy with preparations.

"Lee, now listen to me. The changes I just made will increase the power almost double to what you are used to in the simulators. You’re going to have to be very light on the stick, understand?"

"What did you do
, Chief?"

"If we live through this I will teach you the trick.
It's an old Chief of the Boat trick. Lee, we are going hunting for big game. We are going to the Anchorage and get ourselves into this fight. Understood?"

"Fuckin A. Chief."

"Now get your crew on board there pilot and let’s go through our checklists so we can go hunting."

"Yes Chief."

Lee had no idea what two Swift Boats were going to do against an entire alien fleet, but he was just glad he was going to get a chance to fight back. This one is for you Brigia he thought. Flashes of her laughing in his bed after they had made love, the wonderful feel of her body against his were so strong he could almost feel her; it was as if she were there with him. She seemed to say 'didn't know you cared so much, you should have told me.’ Lee hurried into the pilot’s seat of the 112. He had a battle to fight.