Overrun: Project Hideaway (28 page)

Parker looked over towards the
window of the small cockpit of the second Defender hanging next to him. Barnes
was barely visible through the cockpit glass. A few lit switches from his
equipment panel offered the only light in the cabin.

Even through the faceplate of
his helmet, Parker could feel the frantic stare of Barnes’ eyes. Barnes nodded
once over at Parker in acknowledgement as he reached slowly about the cabin
activating switches and powering up his ship’s systems.

"You set, Barnes?"
Parker asked easing his own helmet onto his head and breathing into the
transmitter embedded in its mask. He shifted his weight around in his seat
trying to ease the pressure on his injuries and get himself more comfortable in
the smallness of the cockpit.

"Set and ready, Jed,"
Barnes replied back.

His voice was soft. A sense of
defeat clouded his tone. Through the static coming through Parker’s headset, he
sounded like someone who had already accepted his fate. Parker stopped what he
was doing on his control panel and pressed his helmeted face against the
clearness of the cockpit window.

"Barnes," his own
voice sounding different now that it was filtered through his transmitter and
came through the small speakers of his helmet. "This is not the end. Not
here. Not yet."

"I know that, Jed,"
Barnes’ small voice replied. "But maybe it should be."

"Barnes that is not what I want
to hear," Parker said sighing and turning his attention back to powering
up his ship systems.

“We’re going to have to destroy
that ship,” Parker spoke again. This time his tone was more authoritative and
commanding. “Then we'll come back and take care of whomever is left on board.
It’s the only way to safeguard the cargo."

"And then what, Jed?"

Additional lights began to come
on from the main power up of the Hideaway making it easier to see Barnes’ ship
through the darkness of space. The access tubes to both defense crafts started
to shake as the pilots bled more power into their engines.

"Wait up here for this to
happen again? How much of this can we really survive? And what happens when we
don’t?"

"Barnes, let's take care of
these bastards first," Parker said revving more power to his own engines.
"If what's going on is what I think is going on, you’re right, there will
be plenty of more ships heading this way. All with the same purpose. When we
get through this, we'll bring the ship fully online and circle the Earth. Try
and make contact with someone that can bring us down. If not, we’ll land it
ourselves and take our chances on the surface."

The access tube on top Barnes’
ship wobbled twice more and then broke loose. The nose of the craft dipped from
where it hung alongside the Hideaway and moved away.

“Clear,” Barnes reported over
the intercom.

Parker finished bringing the
rest of his ship systems online and waited for his engines to reach full power.
He looked over at Barnes' ship as it broke from its tentacle-like moorings and
dropped into space. It was soon lost within the bright lights of the Hideaway.

A shrill whistle and red
flashing lights brought Parker’s attention back to what was happening inside
his own cockpit. He squinted hard at his control panels.

"I've got some problems
here, Barnes," Parker said, Barnes' ship had long since disappeared from
his view. "Looks like some structural damage from space debris to the
right engine. It’s taking longer to power up."

"I'm circling back
now," Barnes quickly replied.

"What's your
position?"

"Just making a turn off the
rear section of their ship. I don’t recognize any of its markings or see
anything indicating U.S. Admin origins."

Barnes' Defender glided back
into view over Parker’s left shoulder.

Parker’s engine monitors finally
confirmed full power. He flipped through the series of switches to initiate the
detach procedure. With Barnes still on the left side of his ship, Parker’s
Defender pulled loose from the Hideaway and plunged into space. It jerked
sharply to the left as the last of the moorings ripped free.

"Alright, Barnes, this is
it," Parker said slowly and carefully like he was talking to a frightened
child. "Everything matters from here on in. You’ve got to keep it together
and help me out here. Otherwise neither one of us is going to go home. And
we’ll never know what happened."

"I copy," Barnes said.
The right wing of his ship glided up into position next to Parker's.

Parker turned to look again at
the small ship outside the cockpit window next to him. Barnes seemed faceless
in his dark helmet. Ominous. Foreboding.

“But what about the ship?”
Barnes’ voice was soft through the speakers in Parker’s helmet. “They’re
already onboard.”

Parker felt his stomach turn.
The panic and adrenaline that had consumed him since the unknown crew had tried
to board the Hideaway was now replaced with a sickening feeling of absolute
doom.

"The emergency war
procedure program has been activated,” Parker answered quietly back. “The
controls were signaturized immediately. It’s impossible for them to duplicate
the handprints burned into the controls. I'm the only one that can pilot the
ship or authorize an override. If they’re here, then they have to know or at
least suspect something like this. They have to know they can’t access the ship
or the cargo."

"And what if they
don't," Barnes’ voice whispered over the comlink into his ears. "What
if they don't know that?"

Their ships skimmed along the
three hundred yard length of the outside hull of the Hideaway.

“Then they don’t,” Parker
answered back.

The enemy ship was at the far
end of the Hideaway on the side furthest from the blackness of the darkened
moon. It was silently attached to the Hideaway’s hull. Lights along the
Hideaway’s surface began to glow from the ship’s power up while the two small
Defender ships skimmed by.

“Then we lose the ship. All this
will be destroyed. And no one will have what’s inside.”

The Defenders approached the
Hideaway command center area which was now fully lit.

"How long will they have to
disarm?" Barnes asked. "If they try to access?"

"The nukes arm instantly
after receiving the destruct command. Thirty seconds. At the absolute most.
They would need three times as many men as they have on that ship to even reach
them all to attempt a manual disarm override. Even if they knew where they all
were. For them to track us up here, they have got to know that."

The two defense crafts blasted
towards the front of the boarding ship.

"Bring your weapons systems
up."

"Already up and
ready," Barnes returned.

They were almost to the
unidentified ship. Though half the size of the Hideaway, it was still a mammoth
structure. It was easy to see that this was a carrier frigate meant for hauling
large cargo.

"Stay close to me, and stay
close to this ship," Parker instructed. "Vicinity indicators register
after one hundred meters. It will arm nukes and the caplets. The boarding craft
is too long to attack from the rear. We’d be dead before we even got halfway.
We’re going to have to do everything pretty close to here."

Parker got another sickening
feeling that racked the insides of his gut. The holovid images of the prisoners
being administered the radiation caplets flashed through his head. The pain on
their faces when the radiation first began to bleed in. And the ugly aftermath
once they had fully released their wrath.

Parker decided then and there
that was not how he would meet his end. If he was going to die today, it was
only going to be after the complete destruction of the Hideaway and all it held
within or landing the ship safe and intact back on Earth.

The Defenders made their way
closer to the unidentified ship. There was still no reaction, activity or any
indication that anyone onboard was aware the small crafts approached.

"Are you hearing me,
Barnes?"

"I copy, Jed,” Barnes
replied. “It doesn't give us much room to operate. Especially when we fully
engage in a fight."

"That's why I want you to
stay next to me. Right next to me. Do you got that?"

"Lose one, lose the
other," Barnes said grimly. His voice sounded more distant across the
ship-to-ship transmitter.

"Barnes, we lose one, there
will be no other. I can almost guarantee that."

At that moment, the noses of
both Defenders breached the surrounding space of the boarding ship. Their wings
skimmed just above the Hideaway’s hull. A light jolt shook Parker’s craft when
its base scraped against its surface.

Parker initiated his own weapons
system sequence and armed every rocket to fire. Barnes pulled in closer next to
him. They were ten meters from the Hideaway’s landing bay and the long
cylindrical tube attached to it from the frigate.

The two small ships headed for
the nose of the frigate and the area directly above the boarding tube
connecting it to the Hideaway. Parker hoped this was the area housing the
command center.

Parker took in a deep breath. He
kept the tip of his left wing tight to Barnes' ship. The front of the frigate
flew straight at them quickly filling their cockpit windows. They were almost
upon it. Their approach still seemed unnoticed.

Parker readied all weapons to
fire.

"Let 'em loose," Parker
said quietly into his transmitter. "Break left when they go, meet near
mid-rear. We'll go after the command area again upon turnaround. We might get
one more shot at them before they realize we're off the Hideaway and coming at
them from out here."

"Roger that," Barnes
said into his ear.

Two rockets broke loose and
dropped from beneath his wing. Parker pressed two buttons on his control stick
making his ship do the same.

A total of four in all sped away
from the two fighters. A bright orange fiery glow trailed after them. They
drove straight into the nose of the unidentified ship and impacted directly
over the boarding tube.

One following the other, two
found their mark near the top of the section attached to the Hideaway by the
boarding tube. The two others simultaneously punched into its hull a little
further to the right. The frigate jerked backwards to the left upon impact and
then whipped back again to the right. Fire spewed across the boarding tube
feeding off the oxygen and fuel being lost into space.

The fire and destruction
released by the rockets spit back at the small Defender ships causing the
pilots to break formation and stray from their intended course. Barnes headed
left around the boarding ship to avoid the explosions and debris while Parker
veered hard down and right.

The exploding hull of the large
frigate cut sharply between their wings. Both Defenders ducked under its
structure at the middle of the ship. Barnes brought his craft high and Parker
continued his course low. Both struggled to find a path through the destruction
that would allow them to turn around for another attack.

Trying to bring his craft back
around, a sudden hot flash of sickness coursed through Parker's body. It felt
like he had swallowed the liquid fire that was spilling into space ahead of
him.

His last maneuver had taken him
just far enough away from the vicinity detectors to activate the radiation
caplets under the surface of his skin. He felt his eyes roll up in the back of
his head and his stomach threaten to explode as the radiation was released into
his bloodstream.

Parker fought hard to maintain
control of his ship and keep himself from passing out. Through a thick film of
sweat and tears that instantly covered his eyes, he brought his ship back on
course with the Hideaway halting the leak of radiation into his body.

Parker gasped through his mask
and tore it from his face. Barnes brought his ship up next to him.

"We’ve got to go
again," Parker said weakly into his transmitter before leaning to his side
and vomiting across his control panel.

The pain searing from his neck
had subsided to a bearable piercing throb.

"Careful of that hundred
meters," Parker fought hard to speak. "Another one of those..."

Before he could finish, Barnes’
ship wrenched hard to its side. Its nose turned upward away from the ship, and
its tail bounced down along the frigate's hull. It then veered suddenly
straight towards Parker’s ship nearly rupturing its hull with its wingtip.

Parker broke hard right and
away. His ship dipped dangerously close to the Hideaway’s hull to avoid the
collision.

"Barnes!"

He was close enough to the
cockpit window to see Barnes' left shoulder leaned up against its protective
glass. He could also hear Barnes trying to say something across the
transmitter.

Both ships still flew at full
attack speed toward the front of the frigate and the Hideaway.

"Activating weapons,"
Barnes’ voice cut thinly through the static.

His wing dipped again toward the
frigate. His Defender stumbled and jerked in its flight as it brushed against
the Hideaway’s surface. Its nose dipped hard forward almost crashing straight
into the Hideaway’s hull.

But at the last second Barnes
managed to bring it back up and again straighten its course towards the
frigate.

"Fight it Barnes!” Parker
screamed. “Fight it! Goddamn it! Keep it close to the ship!"

Barnes's fighter still wobbled
and dipped not yet recovering into a straight flight path.

"…went too far as
well.…"

Return rockets and weapons fire
bellowed at them from every area of the unidentified ship. Many at once and
others in jagged waves shot from its surface. Their flaming tails propelled
them straight towards the coming Defenders.

Neither Defender craft changed
its course. Both kept a straight path into the coming bombardment and the front
of the frigate.