Blood War 1: Last Stand of the Legion: Rift (37 page)

LYTEN SYSTEM

REFERENCE POINT 212.553

SWIFT BOAT TS 111

Chief Kim had a knot in his stomach. He had just found out how deep they were in the shit. It was one thing to sneak into a huge battle, and get your licks in while the big boats slugged it out with fighters and guns. This was something entirely different. With any luck he could pull off sneaking in and doing some damage. Get his two boats out in one piece. It was going to take more than a little luck and a whole lot of skill.

"TS 111 to 112."

"Go Chief," Zenus Lee said.

"You heard the conversation Lee. This is going to be a tough one. How do you look over there
?"

"Not much change except we are going to be in the middle of the biggest space battle in human history
. Other than that, I think we got it covered."

Kim could hear the fear in his voice but someone who had not flown with him as long as he had would not have heard the slight quiver.

"Yeah, you about nailed it. Look your flying is fine. You are handling her well. How is she responding?"

"Great. I can't believe the change in the performance since you adjusted the crystal. We are about as ready as we will ever be Chief."

"Lee, you were the biggest good oxygen thief I've had the displeasure to work with in a long time, but in the last few hours you have lived up to your potential. So think of this as just a big realistic sim."

There was a long silence on the other end of comm link.

"Chief, a lot of things have changed for me today. I hope I can hold it together."

"You will
, now lets get this thing done."

"Wish we had a saying like the Legionnaires."

"We do, but no one has had to use it since the breed wars. Payback is a motherfucker."

Lee chuckled.

"I like ours better. Let's get some payback."

"Begin counter
-measures and increase to attack speed.”

Kim looked down at his display
. Still no solution.

"Odaka
, do you have a solution yet?"

"Negative Chief. I am still working on it. Some
of the debris from the Capella and Bernards is large enough to confuse the computer I keep having to adjust the sensitivity."

Kim had the TS 111 at attack speed. More and more debris and even fighters were beginning to show up on their sensors. The TS 112 operator was good
; it looked like there were half a dozen of other Swift Boats with them. It would take any operator a few moments to figure out which were real and which were ghosts.

"Odaka
, Chief. I've got our solutions."

"Check. Two per frigate
, right."

"Check Chief and we have got a good clear target profile on each of them. The Long Lances will not have a problem finding their targets."

"Check standby."

"Lee what does you counter measures guy say?"

"They haven't found us yet."

"Stand by
, the closer we can get the better chance the Long Lances will have of taking out our alien friends."

"Roger."

They continued to race toward the battle. It grew on their screen until it was hard to believe what they were looking at. Kim had been in this mans Navy for close to seventy-five years and he had never seen anything like it in a simulation or real battle in a career of service. Fighters were landing or getting in the queue to land. The frigates were moving slowly through debris, obviously looking for something. Then it dawned on Kim they were looking for survivors, they wanted to find the survivors. After D50 he knew they had no intent of saving them. That is when he made the decision. He hoped it would work. He was approaching the minimum range the torpedoes needed to have their own board systems  oriented and find their target. They had been very lucky nobody had seen them coming but they were about to find out just what Swift Boats could do.

"Ludwig fire, fire, fire."

Kim felt the Swift Boat rock as each of the four torpedoes left their tubes and began to seek out their targets.

"They are running hot straight and normal Chief
, those babies are going to nail those frigates."

"We are going to follow the torpedoes into the battle. Lee get a pod of drones out
, put them in 360 around us. That should slow down those fighters."

It appeared to Kim that they were flying into a light show. Weapons with all the colors in the rainbow were from the huge vessel. In the meantime the space around the carrier was filled with debris from the Capella and the Bernards as well as alien fighters still swarming around the destroyed hulks of the vessels.

Kim watched the four Long Lances work their way through the chaos of the battle and home in on their targets. Kim switched his display to a detailed representation of the frigate. Their sensors had a good look and the picture was detailed. It did not look like anything the Confederation had, it was a long, an almost arrow shaped ship, with one large drive and three smaller ones in a cluster in its stern. It bristled with all manner of anti-fighter weapons, it was obviously meant as an escort of the larger carrier. The first streaks representing a Long Lance were close now.  The first Long Lance struck the frigate amidships and a huge explosion erupted from the ship, much larger than the warhead on the Long Lance. The torpedo must have found a munitions locker. It almost broke the back of the frigate, when the second one struck the ships near the bow and it did break the frigates back.

Kim watched with a tremendous amount of satisfaction of the ship broke apart. One of the larger pieces spun away from the rest of the debris. The ship simply did not exist anymore. It had become just more debris in midst of the battle. The
third and fourth Long Lances were almost to their target. Kim could see the Captain desperately try to change course, huge jets from her port thrusters were trying to turn the ships bow into the torpedoes but the Long Lances were smarter than that and they simply adjusted their paths. Both struck the frigate at the same time amidships. This time the vessel broke completely in half in one massive explosion. The two sections of the ship were thrown slowly spinning in opposite directions. The ship was gone.

"Payback is a motherfucker
," Kim said.

The men and women on TS 111 and 112 were cheering. Kim knew that while they had taken out the frigates the space around the carrier was filled with fighters.

"Ok. Enough cheering, now we've got to live through this so we can brag about it."

He switched his display to the sphere of drones around the two ships. The drones did not carry any weapons they were the weapons. Several fighters near them turned and began their runs on the two Swift Boats. When they did
, the nearest drone turned red signifying it had a target and streaked toward the target. Made of the depleted uranium like the rounds in the mini guns these small drones were deadly.  The drones were small enough to almost be impossible to detect in time to stop but were devastating when they struck the target. The first drone struck a fighter. Kim knew the sequence; once it struck the ship it shed some of its mass against the armor of the fighter becoming sharper as it smashed into the ship. It carried the heat of the violent collision into the interior of the fighter. The heat was so tremendous it would kill anyone in the interior of the ship and set off any munitions on board the ship. The fighter disappeared in a flash of orange and white light.

More fighters were inbound. Losing one of their own meant nothing to them after they had lost the two frigates. More and more of
the drones flashed away toward the fighters; most found targets but some missed.

"Kim to Lee. Do we have another pod of drones
?"

"Roger that. When do you want me to deploy?"

"Your call. We are almost in the midst of all the debris. They are not going to follow into that. "

"Aye, aye chief."

"Stay close. If they are able to separate us we're fucked."

"Roger that."

This was some of the most demanding piloting Kim had ever experienced in all his years in space. They entered the debris field, fighters flashed by after completing their runs on the remains of the Capella and Bernards. Odaka was firing the mini and the scram as the fighters flew by, he was able to damage several and destroy one. Kim jinked right then left, up then down, to miss the largest debris. There was almost a constant drumming on the hull from small pieces of debris. Kim was watching the status of the hull closely. It was holding. Since the TS111 was designed to strike capitol ships its armor was much thicker then other vessels its size. Kim had counted on this when he decided to push on through the debris and battle. Lee was staying right on his tail. They were almost through the field when Odaka said,

"Chief
, I am getting pings from lifeboats off the Capella. They are occupied."

Kim glanced at his situational screen, sure enough there were six lifeboats filled with survivors moving slowly through the battle. It was only a matter of time before the fighters would turn on them. Kim had an idea. He had to verify they were
occupied; it could just have been a bad readout.

"Capella lifeboats
, this is the Swift Boat TS111, do you read?"

There was a long pause. No answer.

"Capella lifeboats, this is the Swift Boat TS 111, do you read?"

"Swift Boat 111
, this is the Capella lifeboat, we hear you 5 by 5."

"Roger that. Good to hear you. Are all six boats occupied?"

"Roger 111. We are filled to the gills."

"Good
. Advise everyone down there to brace themselves the best they can and prepare for a tow."

"Check
, will do."

"Have the boats take up a line abreast formation. There are two of us and we each intend to pull three boats."

"Roger. We will be ready."

Kim watched his display as the six boats took up the line abreast formation. Towing six lifeboats would make them a very tempting target. They needed some cover.

"Lee have we deployed the second pod of drones?"

"Negative."

"Good. Are you picking up the lifeboats?"

"Check Chief."

"Ever towed anything in the sim with a Swift Boat?"

"Once
, for fun."

"Well you
’re about to do it for real. The trick is to catch their magnetic ropes on the first pass. It is fairly easy, the ropes will be looking for a tow, they will find your ship if you are in range. So go down your checklist for towing and hit the approach speed on the nose, otherwise you will tear the lifeboat apart."

"Uh, check Chief."

"The hard part is flying while we tow them. We will not be able to take any evasive maneuvers. So once we have them in tow, deploy the second pod of drones and we will get the hell out of here."

"Chief...I'm not sure..."

"Lee, we don't have a choice unless you want to abandon those survivors to the aliens."

There was a long pause before Lee answered
,

"Roger. Chief I have the checklist up on my screen."

"Good, this is how it will works. They have formed up in a line abreast formation for us. We will go in side by side. You grab three and I'll grab three. I'll take the port three, you the starboard three. Then we will go back to our attack formation with you in a trailing position. That is when I want you to deploy the drones. With any luck they will protect us until we can clear the area."

"Got it
, Chief."

"Odaka watch for the magnetic ropes. You ever seen them on a display before?"

"Negative Chief."

"They are invisible to most of the sensors so simply keep your screen on the counter measures readouts. The computer reads them as counter measures by an enemy ship. Don't ask me why
, but they do. The ropes are going to look like silver snakes to the sensors. I will fly through this shit and you watch for the ropes. You’re going to have to talk me through the approach so we'll line up with the three to the port side of the formation."

"Got it
, Chief."

Kim looked down and set his throttle to the speed he need
ed, he adjusted with the retros. Lee came up beside him and matched his speed. The lifeboats were below and to their rear. Kim glanced at his sensor readout. The lifeboats magnetic ropes were glowing silver on the screen, they had sensed a friendly vessel and had been automatically deployed.

"On my mark. Three, two, one."

Kim made a big loop and began to line up on the lifeboats, all the while the debris kept banging against the hull and streaks of fire from the battle flashed by. They were at the edge of the battle zone and this was dicer than Kim had thought it would be. A stray missile flashed by after missing its target, it apparently was not the smartest missile because it simply ignored them and headed out into space. That miss was too close for comfort. When the TS 111 came out of the loop Kim lined it up with the three slowly writhing silver magnetic ropes from the lifeboats to the port of the six tiny ships. Lee kept his position perfect. He matched Kim’s speed as they approached the ropes. One of the last of the drones flashed away as fighters began to notice them and the lifeboats. They only need a few more seconds. Then the last drone found a target and disappeared.