A Show of Force (3 page)

“Losses?” the commander asked dispassionately.

“
Estimate two hundred and twelve still combat effective.
”

“That’s nearly half their force,” Master Sergeant Jahal said under his breath.

“What about the insertion teams?” the commander inquired, ignoring the master sergeant. “Did any of them make it in?”

“
Affirmative, but they didn’t last long. There are too many Jung troops inside the walls. We can keep jumping teams in and try to thin the bastards out, but we’re going to lose a few hundred of our own doing it, not to mention a few combat jumpers. So far, we’ve been lucky.
”

Commander Telles took a moment studying the tactical map.

“Incoming message from the Aurora, Commander,” the comm officer reported. “Message reads, ‘We now own the 61 Cygni system.’”

“Own?” the master sergeant looked at his commander. “Nash?”

“Undoubtedly,” the Commander agreed. “Such a bold statement would be out of character for Captain Scott.” Telles returned his attention to the views of the battle. “Two Leader, Command… Dragon five.”

“Scott isn’t gonna like it,” the master sergeant mumbled.

Commander Telles ignored his master sergeant’s warnings. He knew that there was a high probability for loss of Coporan life under the alternate plan. Most military bases utilized civilian workers to perform mundane housekeeping tasks, and they had no intelligence as to whether or not the same was true on Copora. It was for that reason that they had decided to at least attempt to insert a number of Ghatazhak precision strike teams within the Jung base, in the hope that the element of surprise would provide the edge they needed. What they had not known, however, was the actual number of Jung soldiers stationed within the base. One thing he was quite certain of; the current strategy would result in even greater Ghatazhak losses, all without any guarantee of success. In his mind, such losses were unacceptable, not because the loss of his men bothered him, but because future reinforcement levels were unknown.

“
Command, Two Leader. Copy Dragon five.”

Commander Telles looked at his comm officer. “Get me the Aurora.”

“Jump complete,” Commander Eckert reported as Scout Three’s jump flash faded away. “At intercept position tango seven.”

“Weapons?” Captain Nash inquired.

“Laser turrets charged and ready,” Lieutenant Scalotti replied. “Plasma cannons are also on line.”

“Rolling over,” the captain said as he put the ship into a roll to starboard. The image of the moon Copora below began to move along the outer edges of their window-like forward view screens, from left to right. “Let’s hope nothing bigger than a shuttle tries to make a run for it,” he added as Copora came to rest across the top of the screens at the end of their roll maneuver.

“Captain, the Aurora is moving. She’s changing position,” Ensign Agari reported.

“Message from Aurora, Captain,” Wellsy announced from the comm station. “Dragon five… minus two twenty.”

“This ought to be interesting,” Captain Nash commented.

“Contacts!” Ensign Agari reported. “Three ships, coming up fast from the surface. Shuttles… two personnel, one cargo.”

“FTLs?” Captain Nash asked.

“Unknown. They’ve got the power plants for it, though.”

“ETA to FTL threshold?”

“Lead ship will reach threshold in a minute twenty,” Ensign Agari answered.

“Any armaments detected?”

“No, sir.”

“Comms, broadcast on all frequencies… Tell them to return to the surface or they will be destroyed,” Captain Nash ordered.

Ensign Wells activated their comms and immediately began his broadcast. “Attention departing shuttles! Return to the surface immediately or you will be fired upon!”

“I said, destroyed, Wellsy,” Captain Nash insisted, slight irritation in his tone.

“Sorry, sir,” the ensign replied. “Return to the surface or you will be destroyed.”

“One minute until the lead ship reaches FTL threshold.”

“Target the lead ship’s engines,” Captain Nash ordered.

“Aye, sir,” Lieutenant Scalotti acknowledged.

“Any chance they didn’t hear the warning?” the captain wondered.

“If they have their comms on, they heard it, sir,” Wellsy insisted.

“Fifty seconds to threshold,” Ensign Agari reported.

“Lasers locked on the lead ship’s drive section,” Lieutenant Scalotti reported.

“Lead ship’s power levels are increasing rapidly,” Ensign Agari warned. “Suspect they’re going to FTL, sir.”

“Take their engines out, Donny,” Captain Nash ordered.

“Firing lasers,” Lieutenant Scalotti replied.

A split second later, a small burst of yellow-orange light was seen in the distance, along Copora’s horizon. A moment later, a bigger flash of light.

“Target destroyed,” Ensign Agari reported.

Captain Nash turned partly to his left, calling back over his shoulder. “I told you to target their main drive…”

“…I did, sir.”

“At those power levels, our lasers must have overloaded their reactors, Captain,” Ensign Agari said in defense of the lieutenant.

“We did warn them that they would be destroyed…” Wellsy chimed in.

“…I was hoping to avoid that,” the captain interrupted. “Hell, we don’t even know if the occupants were Jung…”

“Who else would they be?” Commander Eckert insisted. “They were trying to escape, after all… And they didn’t heed our warnings…”

“For all we know their comms are out. Hell, they don’t even know who is invading them.”

“Come on, Captain…”

“Second shuttle will reach FTL threshold in twenty seconds, Captain,” Ensign Agari warned.

“Lasers are locked on the second shuttle,” Lieutenant Scalotti added.

“Second shuttle’s power signature is rising,” Ensign Agari reported.

“Take them out,” Captain Nash ordered, shaking his head.

“They’ve got to be Jung,” Commander Eckert insisted.

“Firing lasers,” Lieutenant Scalotti announced.

“If they’re not, they would have turned around after seeing the first shuttle destroyed,” the commander continued.

“Second target is destroyed,” Ensign Agari reported.

Captain Nash sighed. “I don’t suppose the third shuttle is turning around?”

“No, sir,” Ensign Agari replied.

“Locked onto third shuttle,” Lieutenant Scalotti added.

“They’re powering up as well,” Ensign Agari announced.

“Take them out as well,” Captain Nash ordered, resigning himself to the inevitable.

“This is war, Captain,” Commander Eckert reminded his captain, keeping his voice low so that the rest of the crew could not hear him. “People die.”

“Doesn’t mean I have to like it,” Captain Nash replied.

“
Falcon One, Three, Five, and Seven,
” the flight controller’s voice crackled over the comms. “
Redirect… Redirect. Grid four five seven. Fifteen point four by eight point five. Ground forces moving to ambush Strike Two at target bravo.
”

Loki punched in the new target coordinates as the message continued.

“
Eight armored with WEPS. Ten armored personnel carriers, without. Falcons One and Three engage. Falcons Five and Seven fly cover. Jung fast movers inbound from the north. ETA, three mikes. Warning… Dragon two.
”

“You got it?” Loki asked.

“Got it,” Josh answered as he initiated a high-speed turn. “How far?”

“Minute five at max speed,” Loki replied.

“Can we jump there?”

“At this altitude?” Loki declared, his eyes wide. “We’re skimming the treetops, Josh.”

“Can we?”

“Fuck,” Loki cursed as he punched the coordinates into the jump-nav computer. “Hold your course and speed,” he instructed. “Three, Five, Seven… One. Jumping in five. Flight. Falcon One. ETA to target, four seconds.”

“Hell yes!” Josh exclaimed.

“Three……”

Josh wiggled in his seat, leaning forward slightly as if preparing for the jump and the following attack run.

“Two……”

“
Oh, my God,
” one of the other Falcon pilots exclaimed over the comms.

“Heroes or zeros, baby!” Josh declared in excitement.

“Please don’t let it be zeros,” Loki mumbled as his visor became opaque. “Jumping.”

The jump flash washed over Falcon One as it streaked along the treetops. It disappeared a split second later, taking the tops of several trees with it.

A long line of armored Jung vehicles raced down the main road that led from Gastien to the Jung military base in the countryside just outside of the Coporan capital. Not more than a kilometer behind them, a blue-white flash of light appeared in the evening sky.

Falcon One suddenly appeared as the blue-white flash subsided, along with the tops of several trees that came tumbling along under them, falling to the ground and smashing through the trees below.

Josh’s visor cleared as their jump flash faded away.

“Jump complete,” Loki announced. “Convoy is dead ah…”

“FUCK!” Josh exclaimed, his eyes going wide. Directly ahead of them were several mammoth trees, each standing more than twenty meters taller than the others in the surrounding forest. He quickly rolled the Falcon onto its starboard side, barely managing to pass between two of the towering Coporan trees.

“What the…” Loki exclaimed as one of the trees passed directly over their canopy only a few meters away. He could see the flashes of blue-white light from the other three Falcons jumping in behind them, against the tree branches as they streaked by.

The Falcon snap rolled back to the left, coming level once again.

“Holy shit!” Josh exclaimed. “They’ve got some big fucking trees, don’t they!”

Loki ignored his pilot’s comments, focusing on his console displays. They were closing in on the convoy rapidly. “Opening weapons bays; dropping busters! Engaging nose turret!”

Four small missiles, two each, dropped from the Falcon’s port and starboard weapons bays, their engines igniting as their tiny winglets deployed. They immediately streaked ahead, slamming into four of the Jung armored vehicles only a few seconds later. As the enemy vehicles exploded, red-orange bolts of plasma from Falcon One’s nose turret peppered the roadway, blowing it to pieces. The plasma bolts found their targets, and although they did not destroy them they instantly superheated their surfaces, causing the men inside to perish as some of their body armor melted and burned them, while others simply burst into flames as the Falcon streaked over their heads and climbed away into the Coporan night sky.

The surviving vehicles continued down the roadway at top speed. Energy weapons turrets on top of several vehicles rotated to face behind and opened fire on the other three approaching Falcons as, one by one, they too released their weapons and opened fire with their nose turrets.

“Did you see that?” Josh exclaimed as they continued to climb. “We blew the shit outta them!”

“Loop back and continue your climb,” Loki instructed. “Fast movers coming in from three four zero, twelve thousand, ten clicks out.”

“Got it.”

“We’ve got two intercepts left,” Loki continued. “Get our nose on them so I can lock on.”

“No problem,” Josh replied as their climb became inverted. Just before the top of their arc, Josh snap rolled the Falcon right-side up and continued to climb at a thirty degree angle.

“I’ve got them,” Loki announced. “Six targets, total. Targeting two. Firing intercepts.”

Two more missiles dropped out of the Falcon’s weapons bays and streaked away on fiery tails of white-hot thrust. The intercept missiles crossed the now nine kilometer gap between the Falcon and the incoming Jung fighters in a matter of seconds. The first missile slammed into the lead Jung fighter, but the second one missed.

“Damn!” Loki swore. “One missed!”

“We can jump in and take them!” Josh urged.

“No time!”

“
Convoy destroyed!
” Falcon Seven reported over the comms.

“Five Jung fighters inbound!” Loki warned.

“Falcons, One, Three, Five, and Seven,” the flight controller called over the comms. “Ten seconds to Dragon… Jump, jump, jump!”

“We’re outta here!” Loki declared as he activated an emergency jump, engulfing their ship in blue-white light.

Four jump flashes lit up the night sky, leaving behind the burning wrecks of the Jung convoy on the roadway below. The scene became eerily quiet as the deafening ‘crack’ of the jumps faded away. Only the sounds of the burning wreckage, and the cries of the dying could be heard. In the distance, the sounds of the battle that had been raging at the Jung base only a few kilometers away had all but faded.

“Captain, relay from Ground Command. Clear for Dragon,” Naralena reported.

“Lieutenant Commander?” Nathan said, facing aft and looking at Jessica.

“Executing Dragon, aye,” she replied. “Mister Chiles?”

“Executing roll maneuver,” the helmsman answered.

The image of the moon Copora moved around the outer edges of the main view screen, tracking along the bottom from left to right, up the right side, and across the top, coming to rest directly over their heads.

“Locking main guns on target,” Jessica reported. “Firing.”

Lieutenant Kellen, leader of the second Ghatazhak strike team watched from their safe fallback position five hundred meters away from the Jung base. Over the last five minutes, he and his men had feigned a disorderly retreat, lulling the unsuspecting Jung soldiers defending the base into a false sense of victory. Now, he witnessed the complete destruction of the base as bolts of plasma rained down from orbit as the Aurora bombarded the helpless base into a massive pile of smoldering rubble. Debris shot high into the air, spreading out in all directions, as the plasma shots continued to fall from above, one after the other.