Omega Force: Savage Homecoming (14 page)

Crusher risked a look back over his shoulder and saw the police aircars were overcoming their timidity of flying so close to the ground and were now closing the gap. He had begun to contemplate ditching the vehicle and making a run for it on foot when a familiar, ground-shaking rumble was felt in his chest. Sure enough, the
Phoenix
overflew them, the downwash from the lifting body and repulsors shoving the aircars of their pursuers around enough to make them hesitate.

Crusher saw the gunship settle slightly just above the street, still flying along at a good clip, while lowering the rear cargo ramp. Without hesitation he mashed the accelerator and aimed for the opening.

“Crusher!” Lucky warned. “Our closure speed is too great!”

*****

“They’re aboard. Closing us back up,” Kage said from the right seat.

“What are those destroyers doing?” Jason asked as he slammed the throttle back down and climbed a bit to clear the buildings, sending the
Phoenix
racing along on a northerly course.

“They’re descending quickly out of high orbit to try and box us in,” Doc said. “They’ll be in weapons range within five minutes.”

Even a ship as powerful as a ConFed destroyer couldn’t simply fire through the atmosphere at a ground target at any angle or range it wanted to. The atmosphere itself would diffuse the shot enough that it would have little effect on a heavily shielded vessel like a DL7 gunship. The preferred tactic was to bring the ship into low orbit and directly overhead of the target to minimize the distance the shot would have to travel. Unfortunately, all the destroyer-class vessels in the ConFed fleet also carried orbit-to-surface missiles that had no such limitations. Jason fervently hoped they weren’t willing to light one of those off with the
Phoenix
running so close to the ground over a populated area.

The ship shuddered and pulled to the right before the computers could compensate as a shot from the nearest destroyer splashed against their shields.
I guess they’re not above a few warning shots.
In response to the warning blast, Jason advanced the throttle all the way to the stop. The
Phoenix
roared as her four main engines came to full power and hurtled them out of weapons range within a few seconds, still pushing north. He allowed the ship to gain some altitude to get out of the denser atmosphere at ground level.

“I think they’ve guessed your plan, Captain,” Doc said. “Their drives are flaring and both ships are trying to adjust for a polar orbit.”

“They won’t make it in time,” Jason said confidently. “Prep the slip-drive; get us out of here as soon as we’ve cleared the atmosphere.” One of his favorite tricks was to bait the more powerful capital ships into a lower orbit in order to use their energy weapons and then he’d race for one of the poles to make his escape out of the atmosphere. By the time they realized what he intended, the larger ships had little chance of pulling back up to a higher altitude and changing orbits in time to intercept him.

The
Phoenix
was now travelling hypersonic as he brought the nose up sharply. The gunship clawed her way up out of the atmosphere, the two pursuing destroyers hopelessly out of range. He just hoped the twarlans didn’t have any nasty surprises waiting for him.

“You’re clear, Captain. Slip-drive ready when you are,” Kage said just as the drive control lit up to let him know it was ready.

“Burn, baby, burn!” Jason yelled, his adrenaline still surging as he slapped the control to engage the slip-drive. With a whine and shudder the
Phoenix
meshed out of the system and away from their tormenters. Unfortunately, it was also taking them away from Deetz. “Rotate transponder codes and contact the
Diligent
to let them know our status.”

“We’re down to our last set of clean codes,” Doc said to him from his station.

“That’s unfortunate. Those aren’t cheap,” Jason said as he climbed out of his seat. He then looked at Taryn with concern. She looked like she still had a death-grip on her seat and was trembling slightly. “You OK?”

“No, I’m not OK!” His question seemed to have snapped her out of her trance.
“How can you be so casual about all of this?!” Jason just shrugged helplessly.

“You get used to it, I suppose,” he said. “Let’s go grab a drink and check on Lucky and Crusher.” She hesitantly released her harness and took his hand, allowing herself to be led off the bridge. “Let me know when you raise the
Diligent
,” he said over his shoulder.

He tried to calm Taryn as best he could, but she was having none of it. She had been having a pleasant conversation with Doc and Twingo after her first alien planet adventure when he had called saying they were under attack. A bit later he had burst onto the bridge and began an emergency engine start with no explanation. He had offered little more as he pushed the
Phoenix
down into the city after Deetz, giving her a front row seat to the horror of trying to maneuver the big gunship at unsafe speeds in cramped quarters. Even with some of the danger she’d been in up to that point, the chase through the city had frayed her last nerve.

When Jason opened the hatch to the cargo bay, an acrid smell of smoke overwhelmed him. Coughing slightly, he stepped through and out onto the mezzanine. The entire cargo bay was engulfed in smoke, and the sparking remains of an open cockpit aircar were smashed against the blast door that led to the armory under Jason’s feet. He could also make out huge rents cut into the deck.

“Anybody alive in here?” he called.

“We are fine, Captain,” Lucky called out from below. “But I fear Twingo will not be happy when he sees what Crusher has done in here.”

“What the hell? Why am I taking all the blame?”

“You were piloting the vehicle at the time of the impact.”

Jason made his way carefully down the steps and saw Crusher sitting on the deck next to the crashed vehicle, legs splayed out in front of him, and Lucky kneeling beside him. “You OK?”

“I’m good, Captain,” Crusher said.
“Just catching my breath.” He hauled himself to his feet with a grunt. Jason took the time to look Lucky over as the air handlers began to clear the smoke out of the hold.

“You gave us quite a hell of a scare, big guy,” he told his friend.

“I was scared myself,” Lucky admitted. “I will tell you about it later.” Jason nodded and slapped Crusher on the shoulder as Taryn walked up and hugged the battlesynth.

“Well, the bastard got away again, but so did we. Seems like a clean break,” Jason said.

“Captain, the Diligent is on the com. They say we were identified while leaving Torestellia,”
Kage called over the intercom. The others just looked at him.

“I said it
seemed
like a clean break,” Jason said with a shrug before heading up the stairs to take his lumps. When he walked into the com room he could see Crisstof’s face, and he was not happy.

“I must necessarily make this communiqué brief, Captain. You’ve stirred up quite a mess. Please rendezvous with the
Diligent
at the provided stellar coordinates for debrief,” Crisstof said. He then terminated the link before Jason could answer him and actually shut off the transponder node he had been using.
This is a tad unusual.

He walked up onto the bridge and flopped down into the pilot’s seat, the others staring at him expectantly.

“Did the
Diligent
provide coordinates?”

“Yes, Captain. I’ve already loaded them into the nav system,” Kage informed him. “We can change course at any time.” Jason stared at the blacked-out canopy for a long few seconds, considering blowing Crisstof off and trying to pick up Deetz’s trail again while it was hot.

“If I may, Captain?” Doc said, clearing his throat. “I can see you’re considering ignoring Crisstof. I suggest we don’t do that. He seemed agitated for some reason, even fearful. This may be something we need to take seriously.” Again, Jason said nothing as he weighed his options. He had been working with Crisstof and Kellea for a couple of years and he knew they weren’t normally prone to this sort of huffiness at their methods.

“Change course, Kage,” Jason said, making his decision. “Take us to the
Diligent
, best possible speed.” Doc looked mildly relieved as the
Phoenix
came to a new course and increased velocity. Jason stood back up and checked the countdown timer projected on the canopy before heading back to his quarters to get cleaned up and talk with Lucky for a bit.

“It was an interesting experience,” Lucky admitted. “I was fully aware of what was going on around me, but my motor control and vocalization subsystems were having trouble coming back online.

“I could hear your concern, all of you, as you stood around me. It was heartening to know you cared so much, so I redoubled my efforts to reboot the affected systems.”

“So your cognitive functions came back as soon as I applied power?” Twingo asked speculatively. “I scanned with every instrument I could think of and I wasn’t getting an up or down on if your brain was booting back up.”

“Each of our … brains … is uniquely different,” Lucky explained. “You would have to know exactly what to scan for to detect it.”

“I’m just glad you’re back,” Taryn said, both hands wrapped tightly around a hot mug of chroot. She’d never gotten used to the cool temperature the crew preferred to keep the ship at. “We were scared.”

“I would never leave you alone to fend for yourself with these cretins, my dear,” Lucky said with his uniquely dry delivery.

“Cretins? Not all of us,” Twingo protested. “Mostly just Jason and Crusher actually.”

Before Jason could retort, Kage came over the intercom, “
We’re ten minutes from the Diligent. Flight crew to the bridge. Immediately
.”

“He knows he’s not actually in command just because he’s the only one sitting on the bridge, doesn’t he?” Twingo grumbled as they made their way up to the command deck.

They landed without incident on the
Diligent’s
flight deck and were pulled into the hangar. After taxiing to their usual spot, they disembarked and were met by a grim-faced Commander Bostco as well as Taryn’s parents, both of whom rushed to hug her.

“How bad is it?” Jason asked him, ignoring the glare from Taryn’s mother.

“Pretty bad,” Bostco confirmed. “They’re waiting for you in the usual place.” Jason just grunted and led the way to the port side conference room they usually met in. Once they all filed in and found a seat, Crisstof began.

“Lucky, I am overjoyed to see you have recovered,” he said, nodding to the battlesynth, who only nodded back. “Now then … since our partnership began, I’ve overlooked certain operational details of this outfit with the knowledge that sometimes it was worth it for the greater good. But, you’ve far overstepped your bounds this time, I’m afraid.

“I have been on the com with a representative of ConFed Fleet Command concerning a series of attacks on Torestellia. As you know, that planet’s status is tenuous, at best, and closely protected by the ConFed Council.”

“You mean rich guys like you like to make sure the twarlans stay happy rubes so you can continue to harvest minerals,” Jason said, in no mood to be preached at like he was an errant schoolboy. “What attacks? We were fired on by Deetz in a market square and gave chase. This isn’t exactly the most dramatic thing we’ve ever done.”

“Flying your warship down a crowded traffic lane of a city is quite dramatic, I assure you,” Crisstof said, raising his voice. “I
may
be able to smooth this over with the ConFed fleet, but either way I am suspending Omega Force operations for the time being.”

“You listen to me, old man,” Jason snarled, coming out of his seat so violently it flipped back against the wall. Everyone, even Crusher, jumped at the sudden display of ferocity. “It was
MY
planet that was attacked and I will take whatever steps necessary to make sure that bastard synth can’t take another crack at it. You don’t have the authority to stop Omega operations. You tried that once before and it didn’t end well. Don’t try it again.” Jason gave the chair one final kick to get it out of his way and stormed out of the conference room, leaving a stunned Crisstof standing at the head of the table gaping like a fish out of water.

“Captain.”
Jason heard the voice, but kept walking. “Captain!” Still not turning around, he continued on. “
Jason!”
He stopped and looked back to see Kellea walking towards him.

“Yes … Captain,” he said in an icy voice.

“I had nothing to do with this,” she said in a slightly hurt voice. “This is his ship; I only have so much authority. Please come back in and talk this over.”

“There is nothing to talk over. He’s made it clear he sees humanity as a second-rate species, not worthy of even half the effort I’ve given in the past year for half a dozen other worlds at his request,” Jason bit out. “As far as I’m concerned, my partnership with Crisstof Dalton has run its course.” He turned to walk off again but she stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

“Where are you going?”

“I’ll be aboard the
Phoenix
,” Jason said, turning to look at her. She dropped her hand.

“I mean … if you’re ending your arrangement with Crisstof, what
does this mean about you and me?” she asked so quietly that he could barely hear her. Jason was taken aback for a second. She had never openly admitted there even
was
anything between the two of them. So he did the one thing that came naturally to him when dealing with women: he made matters exponentially worse.

“Tell my crew we’ll be departing the
Diligent
in one hour,” he said flatly as he turned his back on her and walked away. He caught enough of a glimpse at her face as he left to know his words had stung, but he didn’t turn around to take them back. He had come to Crisstof in good faith to solve a serious threat to his world, his species, with the expectation it would be handled with as much enthusiasm as he himself had displayed when protecting alien worlds he’d never even heard of. Now he felt that Crisstof had just been going through the motions, and for some reason that hurt quite a bit.

His clarity and focus returned as he crossed the hangar deck towards his waiting ship. He didn’t need Crisstof, the
Diligent
, or even Kellea to solve this problem. He’d handle it himself, as he always should have. He went up the ramp and made his way directly to the com room on the command deck. He began going over all the information he’d been gathering since he first saw Deetz’s visage on the broadcast from Earth.

After about half an hour he slammed his hands down onto the console in frustration. He had scant little to go on. Without a doubt he knew the synth had been drawing him out, picking the locations and circumstances of their engagements. What he didn’t know was why, or what he would try next.
Is it me, or is it the ship? Could it really just be revenge?
He made a mental note to ask Lucky if synths could go insane. Sitting back in the seat, he pondered whether Deetz was actually after the
Phoenix
, then quickly discarded the idea. While the DL7 was somewhat unique, it was hardly worth this much trouble. Besides, he’d been commanding an entire fleet up to that point.

He became aware of voices on the bridge and wondered how he hadn’t noticed anybody walk by the com room. When he strode onto the bridge, he saw Kellea talking to Doc and Kage animatedly.

“There you are,” she said. “There’s been an attack. One of Deetz’s ships hit a colony a little over twelve lightyears from here.” Jason simply crossed his arms and looked at her.

“So were you going to do something about it?”

“You’re actually going to be like this?” she asked in exasperation. “We’re already flying enroute to that planet now. We could drop back to real-space to let the
Phoenix
launch, or you could swallow your pride for once and help us when we get there.” Jason gave her a hard look before responding.

“This doesn’t mean we’re back on the team,” he said. “Let me know when we get within thirty minutes. I’d like to launch when you drop out of slip-space. I don’t want to be stuck onboard if you get hit with that weapon.”

“Fair enough.” She brushed by him and exited the bridge. The two members of his own crew stood there, just looking at him.

“What?”

“You’re serious about breaking ties with Crisstof?” Doc asked. “Do you remember how difficult life was before the Eshquarian mission? It would have been nearly impossible to help all those that we have so far if we didn’t have his logistical support, not to mention the
Diligent
has saved us more than once.”

“What do you expect me to do, Doc?” Jason said with an exaggerated palms-up shrug. “The safety of Earth is not a priority to him. One little bump in the road on that planet and he overreacts and overreaches his authority over us. If this was a ConFed world or a planet like Eshquaria, would our methods be questioned over the results? We’re not exactly causing mass casualties out there.

“But, since Earth is an uninitiated planet with little to offer, the vibe I’m getting is that it’s just not worth it. Damnit, Deetz still has two powerful ships at his disposal! My species only exists on one planet. One! If he sterilizes Earth, humanity dies right then and there. I’m not willing to make compromises with Crisstof Dalton with that hanging over my head.”

“I don’t disagree with you, Jason,” Doc said placatingly. “All I’m saying is that once tempers have cooled, maybe the two of you can readdress the issue.”

“I wouldn’t hold my breath on that.” Jason then turned and bellowed down to the main deck, “Twingo! Get your ass up here and get the ship ready. We’re flying into a firefight.”

“We are?” Kage asked. As usual he had stayed out of the contentious argument.

“Probably not,” Jason admitted. “This colony was hit to get us moving again. The game is still on, and Deetz isn’t out of moves. We’ll either find nothing or we’ll find another trap.”

*****

The
Phoenix
charged out in front of the
Diligent
as they entered the star system, simply known by its navigational designation of D755, making a direct course for the first planet. It was a small, rocky world with a domed colony on it, as the atmosphere was too thin to support life. Jason wasn’t actually clear as to why anyone would build it in the first place. There were no unique mineral deposits on the planet or any other discernible reason to build such a large habitation on such an inhospitable world.

His first instinct proved to be correct after the first active scan: there were no enemy ships in the vicinity. He reduced his velocity and ordered Doc to begin full spectrum active sweeps of the area. Since the enemy didn’t use slip-drives, there was no point in trying to determine an escape vector from the leaked radiation left behind. He also had Kage trying to raise the colony, so far to no avail. He feared the worse for the inhabitants.

“Nothing?”

“Not anything interesting, Captain,” Doc said. “I’m not even getting any power readings from the few satellites they had in orbit.”

“I was afraid of that. We need to hurry,” Jason said, pushing their speed back up.

“Afraid of what?”
Kage asked, still working the com panel.

“No power signatures anywhere? They used that weapon of theirs on the colony, which means the life support systems will also have been deactivated.”

Jason slid the
Phoenix
into a low equatorial orbit and made a complete pass around the planet so the
Phoenix’s
optical sensors could put eyes on the target. The results weren’t promising. The colony looked completely dark and the thermal signatures of the support buildings were nearing ambient temperature, meaning they had been shut down for some time. He now had little hope of finding anyone alive inside the large structure.

“Plot me an entry vector,” he told Kage. “We’re already out
here, let’s see what Deetz has left for us. We’ll land two klicks to the south on that hard pack, and Lucky and I will walk from there.”

“I’m to stay here again?” Crusher said with disappointment.

“Yes. You may need to come rescue us,” Jason said without humor. “A hit and run on a random colony for the fun of it? No, there are some surprises waiting for me in there.”

He touched the ship down lightly on the planet’s surface and contacted the
Diligent
. Not surprisingly, Taryn had somehow managed to work her way to the bridge as the video link was established.

“We’re going down to the habitat, but we don’t expect much,” Jason said to Kellea.

“We’ll be scanning the system while you’re doing that, and will meet you in orbit over the planet.
Diligent
out.” Once the screen blanked, Jason climbed out of his seat and indicated with his head that Lucky should follow.

“When we’re on our way, go ahead and take the
Phoenix
and search the surrounding area. I don’t want the ship sitting on the ground with all the unknowns right now,” he told Doc before he exited the bridge.

It took him only just over ten minutes to climb into his armor and boot its systems up. After a quick operational checkout, he tried to open the door to the cargo bay but it jammed after cracking only a few inches. He looked at Lucky, who couldn’t see his face behind the opaque visor.

“You guys really did a number with that aircar crash. We’ll have to go out through the crew entry hatch,” he said, pointing above his head. They exited the armory and backtracked through the common area to the smaller hatch above the armory. “We’re heading out now; keep your ears on,” Jason said into the com as he lowered the rear ramp.