Ep.#5 - "Rise of the Corinari" (47 page)

“From where?” Nathan asked.

“From all over the planet, sir. They appear to be Corinari interceptors.”

“They’re going to attack the Wallach,” Jessica said, astounded. “Don’t they realize how hopeless that is?”

“They don’t care,” Nathan said. “They’re refusing to go down without a fight.”

* * *

“The Wallach will be coming around the far side in ten minutes,” Nathan announced ship-wide. “According to our calculations, that will be the best moment to strike as it presents the least risk for the planet should the drone miss. We need to get this right the first time. If we don’t, we’ll have to wait another ninety minutes for the Wallach to complete another orbit and come back into position. Every time she makes an orbit, tens of thousands of Corinairans die. We cannot allow that to happen. We
will not
allow that to happen. I intend to put this ship in close proximity to the Wallach, directly in the path of the incoming drone in order to use the Yamaro’s transponder to guide the drone to the target. We will jump out of the way at the absolute last second in order to ensure that the drone collides with the Wallach. That means we’re going to have to take a lot of rail gun fire, and maybe even some energy weapons fire. So damage control parties will need to be on their toes, as well as medical.” Nathan paused for a moment, trying to decide what else to say. “No captain could expect a better crew. It has been an honor to lead you all into battle. That is all.”

Nathan looked around the bridge. Never had there been a quieter moment. He looked at the solemn faces of his crew. Each of them understood the risk, but each of them also understood what was at stake. What amazed him was that not one of them complained. Not one of them asked to leave. That’s when he realized that Tug and Master Chief Montrose were right; the captain was someone that you were willing to follow into battle, even if you knew you would die doing so.

“Mister Sheehan,” Nathan said, “jump us in.”

Tug watched as the Aurora jumped away in a blue-white flash of light. She had only jumped a light minute away, jumping straight down into orbit, not more than five hundred meters ahead of the Wallach. By now, she would already be taking fire, even though it would take another minute for that fact to show up on Tug’s sensors. He watched and waited, trying not to think about the astronomically long odds they were about to play. Even if every single thing went absolutely perfect, it might still fail. There were just that many unknowns involved. The only thing he was sure of was that the amount of energy that would be unleashed if the drone actually did impact the Wallach would far exceed any weapon ever known to have been invented or used in the history of humanity.

The history of humanity.
Tug thought about that for a moment, wondering how history would judge their actions on this day. Would they call them heroes or madmen? It could go either way.

Eighty-seven seconds after the Aurora had jumped away, Tug picked up sensor readings indicating that they had engaged the Wallach in battle in orbit over Corinair. A few seconds later, he picked up the Yamaro’s transponder signal being transmitted by the Aurora from her position in front of the Wallach. He now had five minutes and thirty-seven seconds in which to execute his part of the plan. He applied a small amount of forward thrust, just enough to set his ship in motion, and then pressed the jump button.

A moment later, as the flash cleared, Tug picked up the comm-drone launch platform on his sensors. It was exactly where it was supposed to be, two hundred meters away from him. He began transmitting the update to the drone’s navigational software that included the instructions for the drone to steer toward the Yamaro’s transponder signal. With any luck, the Wallach’s electronics jamming would not interfere with the transponder signal, since it was a ‘friendly’ signal, but there was no way they could know for sure. It had been another reason they had chosen to take their shot at this particular time, as the drone and the Wallach would be headed directly toward each other instead of the Wallach going across the drone’s flight path. This moment not only decreased the likelihood of striking the planet, but it decreased the amount of course correction needed by the drone to stay on target right up to the moment of impact.

Tug’s communications system beeped, indicating that the data transfer to the drone had been completed. He checked his mission clock and saw that the proper launch window was coming up in fifteen seconds. He spun his interceptor around and prepared for the chase. A few seconds later, the mission clock hit zero and he pressed the launch button.

The drone streaked past him a few seconds later. Tug fired his engines and brought them up to full power, the force pushing him back into his seat slightly despite his interceptor’s inertial dampeners. He chased the drone, watching it continue to accelerate away from him. The comm-drones were extremely fast and could reach subluminal speeds of ninety percent the speed of light in as little as thirty minutes. Even if his ship could accelerate that fast, his inertial dampeners could not prevent his body from becoming a pile of sludge against the back of his seat.

For their purposes, however, a few times the speed of light would be enough. Even with the deceleration effects of the Wallach’s multi-layered shielding, the amount of kinetic energy that the drone would be carrying upon impact would devastate the Wallach. The beauty of the plan was that, because the drone would be traveling faster than the speed of light, the Wallach would not even see it coming. About the only warning she would get would be when her shield emitters suddenly fried due to overload as the drone passed through the shield layers. They might actually see the drone for a split second before it struck their ship, a thought that Tug found intriguing.

Within a minute, the drone reached ten percent the speed of light. As it did so, it disappeared as its FTL fields engaged and the drone instantly jumped up to ten times the speed of light. Tug checked his sensors, ensuring that they had registered the exact speed of the drone and the time that it had gone to FTL. The Aurora would need the information for their part of the plan.

The Aurora vibrated and shook as she continued to take rail gun fire from the battleship Wallach not more than five hundred meters behind her.

“Keep it up, Josh,” Nathan ordered. “The more we move around, the more she has to work to hit us.”

“It doesn’t look like they have to work hard enough, sir!” Josh responded as he jogged the ship from side to side and up and down.

“Missiles reloaded!” Jessica announced.

“Helm, steady her out for a moment. Fire when ready, Jess!”

Jessica waited for the ship to steady, adjusting the angle on the missile battery sitting on top of the Aurora until the aiming reticle was centered on the Wallach’s live image in the target camera. “Firing!” she announced, pressing the launch button.

On the forward view screen, four more missiles streaked over their heads on their way to the Wallach. Nathan knew they weren’t going to do any good, but at least it kept the enemy thinking they were invincible, which was fine with him.

“They’re still firing their energy weapons at the planet, sir!” Ensign Yosef reported.”

Nathan felt guilty for thinking it, but as long as the Wallach was firing her energy weapons at the planet, they weren’t firing them at him. They could take a pounding from her rail guns for a while, as their hull had been designed for just that purpose. It was several layers thick, with specialized sections in between that greatly absorbed the kinetic energy the enemy’s rail gun rounds carried. It would take several very lucky shots, all striking in the exact same spot and at the exact same angle, for one of those rounds to puncture their inner hull.

“Don’t worry about that right now, Ensign,” Nathan ordered. “You just keep your eye on that mission clock.”

Of course, it wasn’t only hull punctures they were worried about. There were a lot of things on the hull that could be damaged, and they had already lost several external systems. If it hadn’t been for the constant jamming being performed by Mister Willard, the Wallach would have gotten a much clearer targeting image and would have been able to take aim at specific components.

“Captain!” Abby shouted above the noise of rail gun rounds striking the hull and the various warnings and alarms going off all around the bridge. “We’ll have a much better chance of hitting the Wallach if we can get her to turn and show us her profile.”

“Not much chance of that!” Nathan told her. “No captain shows any more cross-section to an enemy than they have to.”

“Contact!” Ensign Yosef reported.

“It’s Tug, sir!” Naralena reported. “I am receiving a data transmission from him now.”

“It’s about time!” Nathan observed.

“Missiles reloaded,” Jessica reported.

“Fire when ready,” Nathan ordered.

“I’ve got the launch data,” Ensign Yosef reported.

“Send a copy to Doctor Sorenson as well,” Nathan ordered. “I want two brains as well as all our computers checking the math on this one.”

“Missiles away!” Jessica reported. “We’re down to seventy-five percent on our rail gun ammo.”

“Why isn’t she firing any missiles at us?” Nathan wondered.

“She doesn’t need to,” Jessica stated. “She’s just harassing us, giving her rail gun operators some target practice. “If she ever runs out of rail gun ammo, she
might
start lobbing missiles at us. Besides, she knows we can jump away if she does.”

“Her captain’s not as dumb as I’d hoped,” Nathan stated.

“I have a solution, Captain!” Ensign Yosef announced. “Coming up on two minutes to impact. Setting countdown clock.”

“Abby?” Nathan called, turning her way.

“I concur!”

“Very well,” Nathan agreed. “I just hope we can last two more minutes.”

“Captain, can’t we just turn our belly to him and take the shots?” Jessica asked.

“If we stop firing, he might think we’re out of ammo and turn his energy weapon on us for a finishing blow,” Nathan stated. “Mister Willard, what can he see of us through your jamming?”

“Nothing more than a silhouette, sir,” Mister Willard explained. “He cannot see any more detail than that.”

“I’ll keep that as a last option,” Nathan decided.

“Ninety seconds to impact!” Ensign Yosef announced.

Nathan tried not to think about the comm-drone that was streaking toward him at ten times the speed of light.

An alarm sounded on Abby’s console. Red and orange lights began flashing on a drawing that represented the Aurora and all the jump field emitters that were placed about her hull. “Captain, I’ve got a hit on a primary junction on the power distribution system for the emitters!”

“What does that mean?” Nathan asked.

“It means I’m not sure if the system will compensate properly through the other nodes.”

“Will it or won’t it, Doc?” Nathan asked, shouting to be heard above the alarms as well as the sound of rail gun rounds as the sprayed across the top of the ship.

“I don’t know! I did not design that part of the system; my father did!”

“Great! Can we pull out of the way manually?” Nathan asked.

“If we do, the drone may alter course to stay with us,” Mister Willard warned.

“What if we just turn the transponder off and then try to move?”

“I don’t know, Captain,” Mister Willard admitted. “It may just track the ship itself, in which case it will still alter course to stay with us. The whole plan was based on the idea that we could jump out of the way at the last second!”

“One minute to impact!” Ensign Yosef announced.

“Do what you can to make sure the other nodes compensate, Doctor,” Nathan ordered. “And pray that your father designed those compensation systems correctly.”

“I will try, Captain,” Abby promised, “but it would help if we did not take any more hits like that along our topside. The system can only compensate for so much before it will refuse to allow a jump to occur.”

“Doctor, you have to override that particular fail safe. This ship has to jump!”

“If I do and the other nodes do not compensate for the damaged power pathways, some parts of the ship might not be included in the jump!”

“Yeah, I was trying not to think about that part!” Nathan admitted. “Josh, roll us over and show them our belly!”

“Rolling!” Josh announced as the ship began to roll, the stars on the main view screen rotating.

Nathan could hear and feel the vibrations of the Wallach’s rail gun rounds as they walked from the top of his ship, around the port side, and across onto her reinforced underside. The shaking eased slightly, as did the noise, but both were still present.

“Thirty seconds to impact!” Ensign Yosef reported.

“Tell me you have our escape jump already plotted,” Nathan said to Loki.

“Are you kidding?” Loki asked.

“Captain,” Jessica called, “she’s turning!”

“What?”

“The Wallach, she’s yawing and rolling! I think she’s trying to bring more guns on us!”

“She thinks we’re out of ammo!” Nathan exclaimed.

“Twenty seconds to impact!”

“She’s moving in closer as well!” Jessica added. “She’s trying to move in for the kill!”

“I was wrong about that guy,” Nathan mumbled. “He’s a dumbass.”

“Ten seconds to impact!” Ensign Yosef yelled.

“Mister Sheehan! Stand by to jump on my command!” Nathan ordered.

“Standing by to jump, aye!” Loki answered.

“Five……”

“Set forward view screen to the target!” Nathan ordered, wanting to take one last look at the ship he was about to destroy.

“Four……”

The main view screen switched over, showing a view of the Wallach as she approached. She was still a few hundred meters away.

“Three……”

“Magnify,” Nathan ordered.

“Two……”

The image on the screen magnified once. The image of the Wallach now filled the screen.

“JUMP!”

Tug watched from his position just a few kilometers away in a higher orbit over Corinair. He could see neither ship from his position, but had all of his reconnaissance cameras trained on the event. On his main console, he had one of his cameras zoomed in on the Wallach’s position. He saw the Aurora’s jump flash, followed a moment later by a flash so intense he had to cover his eyes despite the auto-darkening capabilities of his helmet visor. It took several seconds for the flash to subside enough to actually see anything on his monitor. He zoomed out slightly in order to encompass the entire image of the explosion. The force of the drone’s impact had ripped the massive battleship in half. The concussion and subsequent secondary explosions had then blasted her apart from the inside out sending fragments spinning off in all directions. The biggest debris field had shot out from the opposite side of the once great warship, the force of the impact causing the far side of the ship to spew outward. Those pieces would have enough velocity to leave orbit. They probably would have enough velocity to leave the entire system.