Ep.#6 - "Head of the Dragon" (The Frontiers Saga) (12 page)

“Meanwhile, the Aurora will jump into high orbit over Ancot and take out her network of comm-sats. This will not only help prevent outgoing communications, but will also greatly hamper their communications on and above Ancot itself.” Cameron again played with the holographic display controls, causing the display to zoom in on the planet Ancot. The effect was much like falling rapidly from space, stopping only three hundred meters above the surface. In front of them now was an aerial view of the Ancot garrison, the airfield, and the power station situated between them.

“The second target is the primary power station that serves both the airfield and the garrison. Josh and Loki will jump into the atmosphere of Ancot as close to the surface as possible, dropping down to only a few meters above the surface in order to stay under the firing lines of the anti-aircraft plasma cannons that defend the power station and the airfield. They will launch a pair of cruise missiles at the power station, then turn toward the airfield and launch their remaining missiles at the airfield itself, targeting the roll-out tarmac in front of the ready hangars. If we are lucky, this may prevent some, if not all, of their fighters from launching while keeping them intact for our use once the airfield is under our control.”

“The Ta’Akar are not known for allowing equipment to fall into the hands of an attacking force,” Lieutenant Waddell pointed out.

“True,” Tug agreed, “but if we are aggressive enough and swift enough, we may catch them off guard.”

“The third target is the civilian power plant that serves as the backup for both facilities,” Cameron continued. “This will be the responsibility of the Karuzari operatives on Ancot. Word has it that this facility is also poorly guarded, as it is a civilian facility. The fourth and fifth targets are, of course, the airfield and the garrison themselves. Moments after the power has been taken out for both facilities, pairs of jump shuttles will jump into the atmosphere above, dropping assault teams to charge the targets.”

“You can only cram about twenty or so troops into a shuttle,” Lieutenant Waddell said with a frown. “Forty or fifty guys is a rather small force with which to attack an installation.”

“Once the first wave has been delivered, the shuttles will jump back to a nearby rendezvous point to meet with the Aurora and reload a second wave of troops,” Cameron stated.

“How long will that take?”

“Approximately twenty minutes,” Cameron told the lieutenant. “The shuttles will continue to ferry troops as needed until the mission is complete.”

“That’s a long time to wait for reinforcements when you’re in a firefight,” Lieutenant Waddell commented.

“We could cut that time in half if we ran the op with a closed bay,” Cameron told Nathan.

“Close it up then,” Nathan agreed.

“Captain, we just started getting used to running flight ops with the deck open,” Major Prechitt objected.

“Can’t be helped, Major,” Nathan told him. “As I see it, this operation is primarily a ground operation. We need to configure ourselves to best support the ground assault. If they fail to succeed, the mission itself fails.”

“Yes, sir,” Major Prechitt said.

“Thank you, Captain,” Lieutenant Waddell said.

“We should be able to jump the shuttles down and up,” Nathan suggested. “With a little practice, we might be able to cut that time down even further.”

“My men would appreciate that, sir,” the lieutenant stated.

“Some fighters will undoubtedly get off the ground,” Major Prechitt warned.

“Of course,” Cameron agreed. “This is one of the reasons that the comm-sats were included in the target list. With their monitoring systems down, we will be able to surprise them with a wave of our own fighters. After delivering their payloads, Josh and Loki will make a run for orbit, drawing the Takaran interceptors away from the surface.”

“Assuming all of this works, how are we going to hold the targets long enough to haul away their resources?” Jessica wondered. “If the people of Ancot have such a lucrative relationship with the empire, they may not like what we’re doing.”

“Give me a few hundred men, and at least four Kalibri gunships, and we’ll hold them for as long as you need, sir,” Lieutenant Waddell stated confidently.

Nathan noticed that it was the first time that the lieutenant had shown any confidence in the mission. “How are we going to get the gunships to the surface?” Lieutenant Waddell asked.

“They are designed to be collapsed to fit inside large cargo shuttles,” Major Prechitt stated. “They fit two to a shuttle.”

“Those shuttles don’t fit in our hangar deck,” Nathan pointed out.

“No, but they do fit on our flight apron,” Cameron told him. “They could be waiting in orbit over Corinair. We could land them on our deck and then jump them to orbit over Ancot in less than an hour.”

“Captain, this entire plan seems to hinge on one thing:” Jessica observed, “the assumption that we can jump into the atmosphere and do so at extremely low altitudes. Can that even be done?”

“We’re working on that right now,” Nathan assured her.

* * *

Loki had checked, double-checked, and triple-checked his jump plot calculations. Every time he ran them, he got the exact same plots. He even had Abby run them just as many times back on the Aurora. Not only was she getting the same plots, she was also getting tired of running the same plot over and over.

“
The numbers are perfect, Loki,
” Abby’s voice promised over the comms.

“You’re sure you’ve compensated for the planet’s gravity?” Loki asked yet again.

“
Gravity, magnetic field variances, wind speed, direction, and weather conditions at the jump target, even temperature and humidity.
”

“And there’s no traffic in the arrival zone?”

“
There’s no air traffic in the atmosphere of Corinair within one thousand kilometers of the arrival zone,
” Abby promised. “
Major Prechitt’s fighters are keeping an eye on the area, just to be safe.
”

“We’re only jumping a few thousand kilometers, Loki,” Josh teased. “Can we jump already?”

“We’re jumping into the atmosphere of a planet, Josh,” Loki defended. “No one has ever done this before. So if you don’t mind, I’d like to be sure everything is perfect.”

“Everything
is
perfect,” Josh insisted. “Except my navigator has the heebie jeebies.”

“The what?”

“The heebie jeebies,” Josh repeated.

“What the hell are the heebie jeebies?” Loki wondered.

“I’m not sure,” Josh admitted. “I heard Lieutenant Commander Nash say it. I think it means you’re nervous, or you feel like something bad is about to happen.”

“In that case, yes, I have the heebie jeebies,” Loki admitted. He took a deep breath, checking his instrumentation once again. Everything seemed to be in order.

“Loki?” Josh pleaded.

“All right, all right,” Loki said, adjusting himself in his seat and tightening his harness. “Let’s do it.”

“Woo-hoo!” Josh cheered.

“Let me guess; Lieutenant Commander Taylor again?”

“Coming to jump course. Reducing speed to plot specifications.”

“
Falcon one, Talon two-one,
” the chase pilot’s voice reminded him over the comms. “
Remember, you will be jumping into the atmosphere, so you will suddenly go from no drag on your airframe to a lot of drag. You are going to get shaken up pretty bad. If the calculations are off even in the slightest, the forces could crack your airframe and split you in half. If that happens, or you lose control of the aircraft and cannot jump back into space, do not wait to eject. Understood?
”

“You bet,” Josh answered over the comms. He switched off his transmitter so that no one but Loki could hear him. “No way I’m ejecting.”

“Do what you want,” Loki insisted, “but if this ship breaks in two, I’m punching out with or without you.”

“Just don’t forget to start the turbines as soon as we finish the jump and there’s air for them to breath,” Josh told him.

“I know my job,” Loki protested. “Just don’t crash us into a mountain or something.”

“At twenty thousand meters?”

“Assuming twenty thousand meters is where we end up,” Loki muttered.

“Course and speed are good,” Josh announced. “Killing main drive.”

“Twenty seconds to jump point,” Loki reported as he scanned his instruments. “Jump field emitters ready. Reactors at one hundred percent. Turbines are armed and ready to light. Ten seconds.”

“
Good luck, gentlemen,
” Talon two-one’s pilot wished them over the comms.

Josh couldn’t help but wonder how he had ended up here, on the far side of the Pentaurus cluster, more than twenty light years from the world on which he had been born and raised. He thought about his parents and his sisters. They, just like most people on his homeworld, would probably never leave the continent on which they were born, let alone get out into space. But flying had always been Loki’s dream as long as he could remember.

His parents never could have afforded to pay for his flight training, so he had taken a loan from a man of less than perfect repute. It had seemed logical enough at the time, but just as he finished his training, the Ta’Akar had restricted all interstellar traffic, allowing only Takaran ships to ply the interstellar routes. That had caused an immediate glut of qualified pilots seeking employment. An eager young pilot fresh out of flight school hadn’t a chance of landing a job.

And so his loan had gone into default. Despite his promise to take any job he could find in order to pay his debtor back with interest, he was turned over to the judicial system, his servitude sold to a harvesting outfit on Haven in order to satisfy his debt.

Ironically, just after his arrival, the last in a string of fed up copilots had just quit after growing tired of Josh’s reckless antics. With a large contract to fill and no qualified pilot’s available on short notice, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Loki found himself riding shotgun with Josh in the harvester, and his life as a pilot had finally begun. Of course, he hadn’t expected it to lead to this.

“Ten seconds to jump point,” Loki reported as he started the jump sequencer. “Sequencer running.” Loki paused for a moment. “Hey, Josh, you ever miss flying the harvester back on Haven?”

“Uh, no.”

“Yeah, me neither,” Loki agreed. “Five seconds.” One last glance across his instruments told Loki that everything was in order for the jump. “Four…”

Josh scanned his own instruments. Their course was perfect, heading on a line that would put them flying parallel to the surface of Corinair at twenty thousand meters above the ground when they came out of their jump. Their current speed, although agonizingly slow for a space vessel, would be perfect for atmospheric flight. It was just enough to give them sufficient lift to glide long enough to fire their air-breathing jet turbines, but not so fast that it would rip their ship apart… or so they hoped.

“…Three…”

Josh lowered his auto-visor on his flight helmet and carefully placed his left hand on the throttle and his right hand on the flight control stick.

“…Two…”

He placed his right thumb on the button on the side of the flight control stick to switch from space mode to atmospheric mode.

“…One…”

It dawned on him that it would have been a good idea to write a script that would automatically switch flight modes and light the jet turbines for such a jump.

“…Jump.”

Through his darkened auto-visor, blue-white light quickly spread out from the emitters on his interceptor’s hull, creating a glowing blue-white sheen that surrounded his tiny ship. Almost immediately, the glow brightened and became so overwhelming that he had to close his eyes tightly despite the automatic darkening of his helmet’s auto-visor.

It was not their first jump, but usually, once the jump flash subsided, they would find themselves once again in the blackness of space. In many cases, the stars would not even appear to have changed. That was not the case this time.

The jump flash subsided and the cockpit was instantly filled with the bright sunlight of Corinair. At this high of an altitude, the sun was much more intense than when on the surface, and Josh was thankful that his auto-visor was down and working.

When the jump completed, there was a brief instant where everything was calm. His engines were all off and, for a split second, there seemed to be no sound of wind rushing past the outside of their canopy. A moment later, the sudden mounting of air pressures on the outside of their interceptor as it plowed through the atmosphere gave way to a thunderous boom. It felt like they had just crashed through a stone wall, and the interceptor began to shake more violently than he could ever remember.

“What the hell!” Loki exclaimed. “Did we hit something?”

“Start the turbines!” Josh screamed over the suit comms as he struggled to get control over the aircraft. He knew they were probably not experiencing any more turbulence than normal at the moment. It just seemed excessive compared to the normal smoothness of spaceflight.

“I already tried!” Loki answered. “They’re not lighting! The sensors still think we’re in space!”

“Recycle them!” Josh screamed. He could feel his nose wanting to dip in the drag of the atmosphere. “Shut them down completely and restart them!”

“I’m trying!”

“Make it fast!” Josh insisted. “I can’t keep our nose up!”

“
Falcon one, Talon two-five! You’re losing airspeed rapidly!
” someone advised over the comms. Josh glanced at his radar display, suddenly remembering that there were a few fighters out there keeping the area clear for their test jump. “
You need to add power,
” the voice advised calmly.

“Really?” Josh responded smartly. “Gee, thanks! I never would’ve thought of that!”

“Our jet turbines didn’t light!” Loki reported to the pilot on the comms. “I’m recycling them now!”