Read Ep.#1 - "Escalation" (The Frontiers Saga: Rogue Castes) Online
Authors: Ryk Brown
Ep.#1 - "Escalation" (The Frontiers Saga: Rogue Castes) (29 page)
President Scott sighed again. At eighty years old, he was still healthier than most men his age, but the burdens he had carried for the last nine years were taking their toll. For the first time in his life, he was ready to throw up his hands and walk away.
He looked at his security advisor. “Mister Lovecchio?”
Mister Lovecchio also sighed. “The admiral makes logical arguments, Mister President. I’m afraid that either way, we are once again looking at destruction on a massive scale. The question is, whose shall it be? Theirs or ours?”
The president leaned back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling as he took in a long breath, then let it out slowly. “I cannot in good conscience kill billions of innocent people just to demonstrate our resolve. I shall, however, authorize an immediate strike against all high-value Jung military assets.”
“
Mister President, we must also strike the infrastructure that supports those assets, or…
”
“Let us first see how the Jung react to our first strike,” the president said, cutting the admiral off. “If, as you suspect, the Jung do not believe we are willing, and able to conduct such strikes, then this first strike should be enough to convince them otherwise. If it doesn’t, then we will strike their infrastructure.”
“And if that is not enough?” Mister Lovecchio wondered.
“Then God have mercy on their populations,” the president said, “for they will be the only asset left to target.”
* * *
“Incoming flas
h traffic,” the communications officer announced.
Commander Tusel pressed the button on the overhead intercom. “Captain to the bridge,” he called calmly. “Threat board?” he asked, after removing his finger from the intercom button.
“Threat board is clear!” the ship’s tactical officer replied from the far side of the cramped compartment.
“Mister Baskin, how long until our next launch cycle?”
“Four hours, twenty-eight minutes, sir.”
The communications officer handed the message pad to the commander.
“You triple authenticated this message?” the commander asked, looking at the young ensign.
The ensign’s eyes were wide, and his face was pale. “Yes, sir. Triple authenticated, did it a fourth time, in fact. The message is valid, sir.”
The XO looked at the young ensign. “It’s okay to be scared, son. This is scary shit,” he added, holding up the message pad.
“
Captain on the bridge!
”
The captain stepped up to the commander and the communications officer. “What’s up, Commander?”
“Flash traffic, Captain,” the commander replied, handing the message pad to the captain. “Fully authenticated.”
The captain looked at the message, then at the frightened young ensign. “Take it easy, Mister Kyle. It’s not the end of
our
world. It’s the end of
theirs
.” The captain handed the message pad back to the ensign, and looked at his XO. “Let’s do what we’re paid for, Commander.”
“Yes, sir,” the commander replied. “Mister Dormand, sound general quarters.”
“General quarters, aye!”
The commander pressed the button on the overhead intercom again. “Weapons, Bridge, spin up all SKKVs and prepare to receive targeting packages. This is not a drill.” He turned to the captain. “Captain, please insert your launch card.”
Captain Anderson pulled the small plastic card out of his shirt pocket and inserted it into the slot on the red box on the port bulkhead. “Commander, please insert your launch card.”
Commander Tusel pulled his own launch card out, inserting it in the slot below the captain’s card.
“
Bridge, Weapons. Launch cards verified. Loading targeting packages. SKKVs will be ready to launch in five minutes.
”
“God help whoever those things are about to hit,” the commander said under his breath.
“Well, at least it will be over for them quickly,” the captain replied.
* * *
“I’m telling you, Cap’n
, nothin’ is movin’,” Marcus insisted. “The Jung have the entire cluster locked down now. Not even the linear FTL ships are willing to take runs. Even worse, no one is
askin
’. No one wants to risk losing their cargo, and no passengers wanna risk being detained by the Jung. Everyone is layin’ low, waitin’ to see what happens next.”
“But surely there are runs available
outside
the cluster?” Dalen suggested. “I mean, doesn’t anybody want to get further
away
from the Jung?”
“Probably, but most people are probably waiting to see what happens,” Captain Tuplo said. “Besides, if no one is flying
into
the cluster, then that means there will be more ships competing for runs
outside
of the cluster. When people
do
start migrating further out, the competition will be greater.”
“But so will the demand, right?” Neli asked.
“Perhaps,” the captain agreed. “But it’s all a bunch of ifs, nothing solid.” The captain sighed, considering their situation. “I don’t see how we have any choice but to sit and wait it out, just like everyone else.”
“We’ve got enough propellant left to get off this rock, and land somewhere else, don’t we?”
“Yup,” Josh replied. “Maybe even two depart and landing cycles,
if
we jump out quick and jump in low,
both
cycles.”
“And if we don’t, we end up stranded elsewhere.”
“Then we jump to someplace that likely has runs available,” Marcus suggested.
“Great solution, Taggart,” Captain Tuplo agreed sarcastically. “I don’t suppose you know where that somewhere is? Because if you don’t, if we’re not
sure
that runs will be available where we jump to, then we’ll most likely be stuck there.” Captain Tuplo shook his head. “No, I’m not risking it. Haven may be a dusty, shit-hole of a world, but such as we are, the known is better than the unknown. We stay put for now. Sooner or later, either things will start moving, and we’ll pick up a run so we can get off this rock and move further out, or the Jung will start expanding their territory beyond the cluster, and we’ll have no choice in the matter.”
“Surprise, surprise. You’re playing it safe again,” Neli muttered.
“No one is forcing you to stay on, Neli,” Captain Tuplo said. “If you don’t want to be here, I’d be happy to have Marcus drive you back to town.”
Marcus cast Neli a stern look.
“Sorry, Connor,” Neli apologized.
“It’s all right, Neli,” the captain replied. “We’re all on edge right now.”
“Maybe we could jump back to Ladila,” Dalen suggested. “I heard they were planning to hire ships for full time round-trips.”
Captain Tuplo got up from his seat and walked over to the counter in the Seiiki’s galley. “What makes you think people are going to vacation on Ladila now?”
“It’s outside the cluster, ain’t it?”
“No one’s gonna be wastin’ their money going to some overpriced resort world,” Marcus told him. “Not when the Jung might invade
their
homeworld while they’re gone.”
“Well, let’s size up the situation, shall we?” the captain said, as he poured himself a cup of tea. “Neli?”
“Food and water for a week, maybe two. But like we talked about, the long nights will start next week, and that should bring plenty of rain. And if we start harvesting all the wild molo around here sooner rather than later, I can probably have enough cleaned up and cured before our regular food runs out.”
“Dalen, did you find anything of value in that wreckage?”
“There might be a few things we could swap, but they’re gonna take a lot of cleanin’, and we ain’t gonna get much for them.”
“Anything we can use to fix the ship?”
“Other than scrap metal to help reinforce the cargo ramp, no.”
“So,” the captain summarized, “our options are bad, worse, and worse still.” The captain took a sip of his tea.
“And we’re about out of tea as well, Captain,” Neli said. “So we’d better start reusing the leaves we’ve got left for as long as we can squeeze some taste out of them.”
“So, we conserve everything, go on diets, drink less tea, and hope the runs start coming in before the Jung show up,” the captain said.
A distant clap of thunder erupted from outside the Seiiki.
“What the hell was that?” Dalen wondered.
“Thunderstorms?”
An alarm sounded from the cockpit.
“That’s the sensors,” Josh realized. “That wasn’t thunder,” he said, jumping up from his seat. “That was someone jumpin’ in, right on top of us.”
Everyone ran out of the galley and headed aft. Dalen glanced upward as they passed through the main passenger compartment, just in time to see a shuttle pass over them. “We just got overflown by a shuttle!” he yelled as he followed them through the hatch and into the cargo bay.
Captain Tuplo jumped down from the landing to the cargo deck, followed by Josh and Marcus. They ran toward the back, their weapons drawn, but before they could get to the edge of the cargo ramp, a dust cloud blew up the ramp and into their faces, stopping their progress.
Captain Tuplo closed his eyes and turned his head away to avoid the cloud of dust, cringing at the scream of the visiting shuttle’s engines as it touched down outside. Within a few seconds, the engines began to wind down, and the thrust wash that was blasting them began to subside.
As the dust settled, four men in full combat armor came walking toward them.
“This don’t look promisin’,” Marcus grumbled.
“They look like Ghatazhak,” Josh commented.
“Not the way I remember them,” Marcus disagreed.
“Ybarran, maybe?”
“We might wanna holster our weapons, Cap’n,” Marcus suggested.
“What the hell would the Ybarrans want with us?” Captain Tuplo wondered. “Or the Ghatazhak, for that matter.”
“I dunno, but both are pretty quick on the trigger,” Marcus replied as he put his weapon away.
Josh did the same, as did Captain Tuplo.
“We best act friendly,” Marcus said, as he started cautiously down the ramp.
Captain Tuplo and Josh followed suit, the three of them walking down the ramp, side by side, with Dalen and Neli following behind.
Connor examined the four men. “They gotta be Ybarran,” he said under his breath.
“Why do you say that?” Josh wondered.
“You told me all the Ghatazhak were the same size.”
Josh noticed that one of the four men was noticeably smaller than the others. As the four soldiers approached, the smaller of them removed his helmet, revealing that he, in fact, was a she. “Jess!” Josh cried out, breaking into a run toward her.
Jessica opened her arms and embraced Josh. “How are you doing, Josh?”
“I’m great!” Josh replied. He looked at the soldier next to her as he removed his helmet as well. “Lucius!” he said, reaching out to shake the general’s hand.
“It is good to see you again, Joshua.”
Captain Tuplo looked confused, as Marcus also went down the ramp to greet them.
“Marcus,” Jessica greeted, embracing him as well.
“Good to see ya, Jess.” Marcus looked at the general. “General.”
“Mister Taggart.”
Captain Tuplo walked tentatively down the ramp, unsure of what was going on. “You
know
these people?” he asked Marcus and Josh, as he stepped off the end of the ramp.
“It’s good to see you again, Nathan,” Jessica said, stepping forward. “I almost didn’t recognize you, with the beard and all.”
Captain Tuplo looked confused. “I’m afraid you’ve mistaken me for someone else, ma’am. The name’s Connor. Connor Tuplo.”
“She’s not mistaken, Captain,” Marcus said.
The captain looked at Marcus. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“He’s right, Captain,” Josh said. “Your
real
name is Nathan. Nathan Scott.”
Thank you for reading this story.
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COMING SOON
“RESCUE”
Episode 2
of
The Frontiers Saga:
Rogue Castes
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