Talosian Chronicles 5: Raptor Squadron (16 page)

“Fifteen seconds to drop, stand by.” Lissa’s voice said in her ear.

The buildings were replaced by a scattering of the bluish trees, as the Raptor dropped lower into the large park near the center of the city.

“Three, two, one. Go!” Lissa called.

Jerry and Sam, in Rail One, shot forward. The rear tires of the open wheeled vehicle throwing small roster tails of dirt into the air as the wheels hit the soil and then turned right sharply, When the first rail left the Raptor, the nose of her rail dropped to the deck and Cindy also accelerated rapidly out of the belly of the Raptor. She turned to the left and accelerated to her assigned route as the Raptor rose into the air behind her. They were across the park and shot between two rows of residential buildings in seconds.

“Rail Two is clear, and on route green. No resistance,” Cindy reported.

“Rail One is clear, proceeding to route yellow, minimal resistance,” Sam’s voice followed hers.

They rounded a corner with the tires squealing on the smooth pavement. They’d gone just a short distance when alarms began squealing at them, followed shortly by a missile impacting next to them.

“What the fuck was that?” Cindy said over the noise of the alarms.

“That would be a tank, sweet-thing,” Ben replied calmly as he opened up with the rail gun and lasers.

“They got fuckin’ armor?”

Ben chuckled through the headset, “They’re ground troops; duh!” He barely got those words out as another missile hit close enough to push the rear of the rail sideways. ““Another hit like that and we’ll lose the shield generator!”

Cindy had slowed somewhat and was swerving as much as she could on the narrow street. “
Damocles
, we have a tank blocking route green. We could use some help.”

“Sorry Two, can’t right now, more fighters have shown up and they are not playing nice. You’re on your own for a few minutes,”” Lissa replied.

“Shit.” A glance at her monitors for an alternative route showed two more tanks moving down side streets. “Computer, identify target to our front.””

A moment later a picture of the tank appeared on the screen. ‘Imperial medium tank. Weight: 34 tons. Propulsion: antigrav/magnetic. Armament: One class three medium bore laser cannon (Anti-armor), four small bore medium class laser cannon (Anti-missile/anti-personnel), One medium-range multi-objective missile rack – 10 missiles (Anti-armor/anti-aircraft). Armor: Unknown composition. Mirrored surface reflects lasers and is strongly resistant to projectiles. Deployment: Any. Crew: 2.’

“Well, that was really fuckin’ helpful.” Cindy said to herself.

“Rail gun rounds and lasers are being deflected by the armor.” Ben reported as he fired a missile.

“So increase the round velocity!” Cindy yelled back to him.

“I’m already at the highest velocity I can go in atmosphere. I need a command override to increase it more.” They both saw the missile hit the tank, the explosion blew the windows out of the buildings near it. A large sheet of what Cindy guessed to be armor was thrown into a nearby air car, destroying it. Seeing this, Ben opened fire with the rail gun again and was rewarded with an even bigger explosion as the tank blew up.

"Rail Two, this is One," Sam called. "I have a clear run on the target, but could use assistance getting back. Can you jump over before those tanks do?"

"Sounds like a plan Sam," Cindy called. "Take out the control center and we'll be there as soon as we can. Chances are, we will be bringing friends."

"We might be able to do something about that if you can get them into the open park, Major." Lissa called. "They're hugging the buildings and making it very difficult to target them. Remember, they can move just as fast as you can."

"Understood,
Damocles
. We'll double back and see what we can drag with us," Cindy replied. She stomped the brakes and cranked the wheel hard to the right. The tires screamed as the rail slid around on the pavement, almost rolling over. She pressed as hard as she could on the accelerator and headed back the way they had come relying on the burst of speed to shake any weapons locks.

Coming to the intersection they needed to turn at, Cindy again stomped on the brakes to slow them for the corner. That was the only thing that saved them from ten missiles that would have utterly destroyed the land rail. As Cindy turned the corner, a hail of missiles blasted the street apart only a few yards farther down. If they had continued, they would have been in the middle of it.

Again, Cindy pushed the accelerator all the way to the floor. Missile and laser blasts chased it down the street and Cindy tried to swerve as much as she could to avoid a missile lock. A laser blast hit the rear of the land rail and almost flipped them. She heard Ben cry out in pain and then swear a blue streak.

"What happened Ben? You alright?" Cindy asked, not daring to look behind her to see for herself.

"That last hit took out the shield generator. When it blew, I caught a piece of it. I think the armor stopped it, but I know I'm gonna have a nice bruise at least," Ben replied.

"Well, hang on and keep your damn head down!" Cindy replied. "If you see that fucker that shot us, kill him!"

"I'm working on it, Cindy," the man replied. "That's how they did it! Cindy, we have three of those assholes shadowing us. One of them looks to be a heavy missile launcher though."

As he finished talking, Cindy saw another hover-tank pull out to block their route. "Fuck! Hang on!" she warned as she engaged the anti-grav unit to jump the tank instead of ram it. The tank tried to fire at them, but because of their speed missed. Both Cindy and Ben knew they were in trouble.

"Rail One get off that street, now!" a voice she didn't recognize called over her comm. Without looking where she was going, Cindy cut hard right, into an alleyway between buildings. Behind them, the street exploded into small chunks of ferro-crete and armor plates as a shadow fighter hammered it from the air with missiles and mass drivers.

"Thanks, whoever that was," Cindy called.

"Don't thank me yet, I only got one of them from the looks of it. Two others are damaged, but that missile launcher is still moving," replied the pilot. "If you can lead them to the park, we'll have a warm welcome waiting for them."

"We're working on it!" Cindy replied.

"Rail Two, this is One, objective destroyed. We're on our way back. We'll cut over to the east and see if we can help you out any," Sam replied.

"Negative, One. By the time you get here, this little party will be over. Head for the rendezvous," Cindy ordered.

"Understood, heading for point delta-three," Sam replied.

Cindy turned left out of the alley and once again headed for the park. The arrival of five missiles let them know they hadn’t lost the tanks. One of the missiles impacted near the rear of the rail and threw it sideways.

Cindy got the vehicle back under control as they emerged once again into the park. Cindy opened up the land rail and shot across the open ground for the relative cover of the buildings on the far side. A hail of missiles announced the arrival of the missile launcher into the park. Cindy and Ben made it half way across the park when a missile blew the front of the land rail apart.

The blast drove the nose of the rail into the ground causing it to flip. The speed they had been going lifted them into the air. When it came down it continued to flip, end over end, until it finally slid to rest against a tree.

The tanks that had been chasing them emerged into the park to be met by fire from the
Damocles
and four Shadow fighters. The larger caliber slugs from the mass drivers pounded into the heavily armored craft and pushed them to the ground. Missile impacts shattered the armor and the heavy craft exploded before any of them made it twenty feet into the park.

Jerry and Sam, had been passing close to the park on their way to the rendezvous, saw the crash and headed in. Bailing out of their rail before it stopped moving; they pulled Cindy and Ben’s unconscious bodies from the twisted metal.

Without waiting for Jerry and Sam to use the jump packs in their suits, Lissa used a tractor to grab them off the ground. Once they were in the cargo bay, she set the rails for self-destruct, closed the door, and did a full burn for the sky.

“Operations, this is
Damocles
. We are returning to base with wounded. Request emergency approach and a medical team standing by.” Lissa called.

“Affirmative
Damocles
. Transferring you back to Flight Control. Medical has been alerted.”

“Thank you, Operations,” then changed channels. “Flight Control, this is
Damocles
requesting emergency approach. I have wounded on board.”

“
Damocles
, emergency approach granted. Turn on heading one-one-three. Reduce speed to one-seven thousand. E.T.A. three minutes. Beacon activated.”

“I see you, Flight. We’re coming in,” Lissa replied.

TDF
Star Dancer

Assault Orbit

Hyperion, Aurigae System

Commander Jennifer Williams, Commanding

Ian had just gotten confirmation that the civilians at the spaceport were being moved to the cargo tram station by Imperial troops when he heard Lissa's call to operations. He was tempted to run back to the Raptor bay to meet them, but knew he couldn't. The incoming ships had just passed their projected interface point and were still in hyperspace. He was in the process of pulling ships back to the planet when he heard the call.

Chloe looked at him worriedly as he closed his eyes for a moment to pray that Cindy was okay. She turned to one of her aides. "Get down there and find out what's going on with the
Damocles
ASAP. Verify Major Williams' condition."

The aide nodded and ran from the room.

Ian opened his eyes and got back to work. "Ops, take the
Damocles
mission to the starport off the board. Since the Imps are already moving the people, they won't be needed there."

"Enemy vessels dropping from hyper! Four hundred MK from the planet!" tracking called.

"All ships! There's your target!" Ian called. "Don't let them get close to the planet."

"Admiral, message for you from Commander Williams," the comm officer said.

Ian nodded, and a recording from Jenny was played for him. She was jogging down a hallway as she recorded it. "Ian, Beth let me out of Medical and I'm cleared for duty. However, I heard the message from the
Damocles
before I left medical and Beth and I are on the way there with the trauma teams. I know you probably can't get there, so I'll make sure you know what's going on." She paused. "Hang in there and know that we all love you." The message ended.

Ian looked up and wiped a tear from his face. "What's the status of those ships?"

"The bastards couldn't have slowed much before dropping out. They're heading straight in at speed and seem to be ignoring the pounding their taking," Major Eischens replied. "They are every bit as tough as the commander said they'd be. They have to know that once they get here, they won't be leaving."

"Suicide troops. The mission above all else. The only thought they have for their own safety is the impact it will have on finishing their mission," Chloe said. "Sounds like fucking suicide bombers back on Earth."

"Tracking, project their plot and make sure our fighters know where they'll be needed," Ian ordered as he watched the plot being projected in the tank. Ian nodded. "
Star Dancer
and
Prometheus
, they're coming right at us. Let's go give them a warm welcome to Hyperion."

Chloe handled the ship's maneuvers while Major Eischens kept up with the ground battles. The incoming Imperial ships would, if they lasted that long, be heading straight into the two battle cruiser's teeth. Unfortunately, if they did make it that far, it would also mean that they had gotten close enough to the planet to deploy their deadly cargo.

"What I want to know is how those assholes are managing to survive the pounding we're giving them?" Chloe asked.

"Missiles are all but ineffectual against them. It's like their entire hull is covered with point-defense guns, but the shields are insane! Every time we think we knock them down, they come right back up," a tech said from near Major Eischens. "They’re really odd looking ships, too, we have nothing in the Alliance database that is even close to these things."

"What do you mean?" Ian asked.

The tech brought up an image of one of the inbound ships, froze the frame and removed all the visual 'static' of exploding weapons, laser flashes and shield impacts, then turned the craft so the view was side on. The ship almost looked like an ear of corn after it had been shucked. The tech explained his observations. "As you can see, it seems to have armor attached like a dragon's scales. As near as we can figure, each scale has its own shield generator and weapons. We have not yet been able to identify a central command area and assume it's positioned deeper in the ship…"

"Those aren't scales Lieutenant! Those are hundreds of pods!" Ian said looking closer at the image and even zooming it in. "They must be the small pods Jenny was talking about. She said they would change into suits of heavy mechanized armor."

"Those are some strong shields for personal armor! Are our troops even going to be able to damage them if they make it to the ground?" Eischens asked.

Ian shook his head. "Jenny implied they would be more like mecha than personal armor. Almost like the FROG prototypes we're testing, except these have pilots." He shook his head. "Our troops will have their hands full fighting them. If we had some of the FROGs with us, at least it would be an even fight. If these hit the ground, we're going to need our fighters and tanks to focus on them. The infantry is simply not equipped for this, and I doubt these folks are going to want to stick around to play." 

"We're moving; we'll be in range of the Imperial ships in five minutes," Chloe reported. "Both
Star Dancer
and
Prometheus
are charging their particle cannons."