Gunship (30 page)

Ty, meanwhile, was plying both his blaster and battle rifle at the same time. He picked off a group of enemy snipers positioned on the nearby rooftops with well-placed head shots, then dove behind some crates on one of the side streets and blasted another bounty hunter in the face. A new set of Tethers emerged, this time in full body armor with head gear.

Ty rolled his eyes. “You’ve got to be kidding! Gunny, I could use a little help out here!” He dodged as the crates in front of him exploded, hit by the bounty hunters’ explosive darts.

Chang was fighting off three more Tethers inside the building. The explosion knocked all of them back into a pile, with Chang on top. The gunny pulled a sticky grenade and slapped it onto the back of the bounty hunter below him, then ran and dove behind what was left of the counter. Another explosion shook the building as the three men were incinerated and the front part of the building slumped from the overpressure. Chang stood up, grabbed his blaster, and began clambering through the smoldering rubble to where Ty was still fighting.

Ty continued blasting away. He had his blaster in his left hand, pointed down the alley across from him, while his battle rifle with its holoscope was aimed forwards, anchored between the barrels and his body. Sweat and dust mixed on his face as he blinked and peered between the two barrels, watching for his chance. From his periphery, he saw a Tether drop from the side of the building into the alleyway. He had jacked his blaster to full so it would penetrate the body armor in three shots, knowing that this meant he would run out of power fast but also that he didn’t have a choice. He fired, not looking to the side, a three-round burst dropping the man instantly.

Several more moved down the street towards him. He steadied his breathing, waiting for them to make a mistake. He watched as one leaned slowly out, exposing the seam along the neckline of his suit, a weak point that Ty promptly exploited, hitting the spot and blowing the man back with a rifle round. He grinned as the other two scurried back into their cover and the man he had hit slumped. Just then, a shadow loomed over him; Ty looked up perfectly to catch the butt of a battle rifle full in the face. He fell like a sack of rocks. The Tether pulled off the extra armored plating that Ty’s blaster had decimated in the alley and then called his transport. A small, mottled-gray ship that looked like some type of evil ninja star descended on his location, stirring up clouds of red dust in the road. Two other Tethers covered him as he dragged Ty’s limp body to the small tactical ship and tossed him into restraints in the back, then climbed into the cockpit with his partner and took off.

The Tethers cleared the street. There was no sign of the other target, and the building he had been in was on fire and had collapsed. Maude sat in the street, tossed sideways by the explosions, dusty but undamaged. The Tethers called in their transports and took off to set up for their next target.

—————

“Captain!” Duv hollered down the hall, and Reilly turned on her way to the cabin. One look at Duv had her double-timing it back to the bridge where he and Tiny grimly pointed to the ship’s security suite. A burst transmission had gone out just minutes before near or on the ship, and it wasn’t one of theirs.

“That isn’t even in a format we’d use—it’s Vhax. That’s alien for sure.” Duv punched some more keys and turned the transmission into a line of digits.

Tiny’s eyes narrowed. “Captain, we need to take off. Now!” She spun to the back of the bridge and started hitting switches, lighting the ship up.

“What is it?” Reilly gestured at Duv to follow suit as he closed the bay and prepared to lift off.

“Unless I’m mistaken, and I don’t think I am, we’re about to be hit by Tethers. Someone set Seekers on us. The code varies, but there is enough there that I recognize. We’ve been tracked, and that was the signal giving the go-ahead to start. We need to get to the gunny and Sergeant Ty fast.”

“Duv, get us in the air and put us as close to Chang and Ty as you can. I don’t care if you have to take out buildings to do it.” Reilly left the bridge with Tiny.

“Roger that, flattening buildings is approved.” Duv lifted the bird off and skidded sideways in the air as he turned her sharply towards the salvage yards. “Hang in there, guys, we’re coming.”

—————

Chang blinked in the sunlight. The street was clear and nothing was moving. Several fires burned at the front of buildings along the street. He held his gun ready as he turned slowly around the area, looking for anything that moved. The building he had just crawled out of was ablaze, and with a loud crack, the rest of it came down into a heap. He glanced back at it nonchalantly and then turned as he heard the sound of an inbound ship.

Dark Angel 97 roared into view and did a tactical landing, kicking up a cloud of dirt that rolled down the street, causing a brown out. Chang put his head down and got into Maude, firing her up until the tire caught and flipped her right side up again. The ship’s ramp slammed down and Reilly came off, followed by the rest of the crew. He drove into the bay, and then jumped out of the TORR, pulling the brake as it hit the deck.

Reilly glanced around the street with Tiny. Dead Tethers were scattered everywhere in between flaming buildings. Tiny waved them forward to check it out while Reilly turned to Chang.

“Captain, they got Ty, took him alive—they were armed with neutralizers. We have a chance of getting him back, but we need to go now!” Chang called over the engines.

“Tiny! Saddle up!” Reilly yelled as the woman came running back, flanked by the others. “They got Ty.” Tiny looked fierce and Marek cursed. “Marek, I need you and Chang on the guns now. Tiny, you’re with me on the bridge. Macen, Brynt, get the med center prepped and then stand by to help with any emergencies that come up—and strap Seth down in his bunk. I think things are going to get a bit bumpy.”

“We’ve got company, Captain!” Duv called out as Reilly and Tiny made the bridge. Chang and Marek shimmied down the ladders into the right and left gunner mounts, while Duv routed the rail guns to bridge control. He jumped the Dark Angel off the deck while Reilly pulled up the holo-display to look at the red threat icons honing in on their position.

“Duv, execute escape route Charlie and then shoot for the sky, we need off-world like yesterday.”

Duv started the sequence and drove the ship low and fast over the desert floor, heading into the mountains.

“We’ve got more waiting for us up there. It looks like they eliminated the ISU defense stations. Sure you don’t want to clear these out first?” He flipped another switch, and the ship jumped up a notch as the display generated a 3D blueprint of the canyons he was about navigate.

Reilly strapped into the navigator seat while Tiny locked down the back of the bridge and fired up the shields. “They got Ty. Chang thinks he’s still alive. We don’t have a lot of time.”

Duv looked around, a shocked expression on his face, and then redoubled his flying, upping the speed and bringing both rail guns up to full readiness. No one had ever taken Joby Ty before. His thoughts strayed to what that meant.

“Captain, if we don’t get him back before they jump…”

“Then we press on to meet with Commander Zain. Once he gets Seth fixed, we’ll head back for Ty.” Reilly’s eyes were steel as she worked the plots through the canyons and calculated trajectory and speeds. She looked at Duv. “You ready?”

He took a breath and nodded as the first canyon came up on his screen. Behind them, rocks showered down as several laser blasts slammed into the side of the mountain. Duv flew deeper still into the first canyon as Chang and Marek flipped their gun pods in reverse and waited for their pursuers to appear.

“4…3…2…1…bank!” Reilly marked the first turn as Duv jigged left and down through a tunnel, popping back up moments later to the surface. “Twelve degrees, ready, bank!” He flipped the ship sideways as Chang and Marek opened up the Bofors laser turrets, blowing one of their pursuers out of the sky.

Reilly continued to call out the turns as Duv flipped the ship deftly through its paces, barely skimming walls. Another ship crashed behind them, unable to deal with the increasing complexity of the canyon tunnels.

“We are inbound to the honeycomb…switching to optical tracking. Duv, you call it.” Reilly switched her nav display over to the rail gun mount and began to target the ships behind them.

“I got the best Mark-One eyeballs in the fleet. Ain’t no one can keep up with me!” Duv breathed softly to himself, focused. A small globe came up from the panel in front of him and generated an up-close holo-view of the honey combs while a laser locked onto his eye movements and the HAILE system confirmed the lock. Duv would use his eyes to guide the ship, where they went, the ship went. He reviewed his training:
look out in front, way in front, follow the curves with your eyes, your eyes lead the ship, don’t look too close to the nose, don’t get distracted or you’ll crash and burn.

The honeycombs were a series of caverns and tunnels that led to a large opening in the top of an active volcano. Some were interconnected, some were dead ends, and because the volcano was still active, the layout of the tunnels was constantly changing. As hot gas and liquid spurted upwards, new tunnels and tubes would form or old ones would get sealed off and collapse. Duv had recently mapped the tunnels, but even so, it would take all of his flying skills to get them through it.

Reilly fired off the twin rail guns in response to a few bouncing blasts from the nearest enemy ship. It split in half like butter under a hot knife, and she watched as the pilot was pulled out by the rushing air to his death. The nearest ships both attempted to pull back and wound up getting in each other’s way. The spikey star-shaped wings crashed together, entangling the two ships and pulling them into the wall just behind Dark Angel 97. The resulting explosion pushed Duv forward and up briefly as Tiny adjusted the shields to protect the ship.

“Whoa! Okay, that was almost not good.” Duv veered off of the wall that suddenly appeared in front of the ship and banked a sharp 70 degrees upwards, then leveled out and began to dodge clumps of rock and lava pillars as the tunnel flashed by. Reilly continued to focus on the enemy. If Duv couldn’t get them through this, then no one could, and they’d all be dead. So it was no use worrying about it. She fired another blast with the rail gun as the ship behind flipped over the beam and returned fire. Two more ships dropped in behind the first one, black and well armed, and began to fire as well.

“Chang! Marek! We’ve got a couple Dreggers back there—see if you can’t knock out their launchers before they get much closer—we’ve got no room to maneuver here!” Reilly fired up the electronic countermeasure system just in case. Dreggers carried heavy explosive rounds that would launch and attach to a gunship’s hull, then burn through the outer hull and detonate their primary explosive packages beneath the armor plating. In space, this would cause a severe breach, but within the confines of the gas-filled lava tubes, it could cause the engines to explode, blowing up the ship—not to mention bringing the entire tunnel system down on them.

Duv flipped the ship upside down, rapidly spiraling up and then suddenly down again through the tunnels as the others continued to engage the Dreggers. He turned it right-side up and then pulled a quick flip and zoomed into a side tunnel. One of the Dreggers came up short, careening into a wall and exploding. The tunnels shuddered in response while the other two ships continued to follow them. Marek winged the smaller ship on the next turn, and Chang followed up with a volley that pushed it into a dark shaft. They watched as the explosion blasted out through the openings in the tunnel walls.

“C’mon, baby. Almost there, almost there!” Duv muttered under his breath, sweating as he banked and beginning a steep climb up a tunnel that would lead back towards the surface. The remaining Dregger followed doggedly, sliding around their fire as if it was immune. It opened its launcher.

“Captain! She’s getting ready to launch!” Marek hollered out.

“On it.” Reilly waited for the Dregger to launch its deadly payload, then punched the countermeasure button. Three decoys exited the back end of the ship. The Dregger’s explosive round locked onto the right decoy and blew up. The concussion of the explosion blew both ships around. Duv cursed as he temporarily lost focus and grabbed the yoke, struggling to push the ship back on course and out of the wall. He slid the bird side to side and then pulled a steep right bank and shot up one of the lava tubes.

“Uh, Captain? I’m going to have to make us a short cut—looks like the volcano is pissed!” Duv kept his eyes locked on the holoscreen while pointing to the map. The heavy detonation had reopened several active lava chambers, and molten rock was rushing up the tunnel behind them, causing the cross-tunnels to collapse. Reilly cursed and spun the rail guns forward, dialing them to full power and charging them up.

The Dregger apparently had also realized what was happening and was zigzagging behind them, avoiding bursts of lava as it exploded from the side tunnels. The fighter shot at them, desperately trying to take the Dark Angel down so it could get ahead of the volcano. Laser fire peppered their rear shields as Tiny worked, shifting the power to the aft portion of the ship to buy them time. The Dregger suddenly disappeared as a wave of lava poured out of a side chamber, pulling it down under the fiery tsunami.

“Chang, Marek—I need your guns forward! We’re going to have to blast our way out of here!”

Reilly watched as Duv guided the ship, jinking and pushing as fast as he could towards the surface. The lava was closing in as he slid the ship sideways into a low tunnel and then blasted straight up. Through the bridge window, they could see a dark cap of rock blocking their escape. Duv gritted his teeth and gunned the ship towards the wall.

Reilly gave the signal, and they all opened up their guns, blasting at the rock. The rail guns cut two deep channels while the Bofors turrets ground away at the stone, breaking it into pieces. Even with the full firepower of the gunship, the lava cap stubbornly refused to give way, yielding chucks of debris slowly as the ship continued to advance forward. Duv quickly ran out of room as the lava flow continued to surge upwards behind them.

“Brace for impact!” Duv maxed the thrust and drove the gunship forward.

They hit the wall hard, and the crew lurched with the impact. Tiny struggled to keep power balanced between the forward and aft shields as the others continued to fire at the rock entrapping them. The engines screamed as the rock ground against the hull, then finally gave way around the ship. The Dark Angel jumped into the light, and Duv punched it as the volcano roared to life behind them, spewing heat and lava high into the air. The crew cheered as the gunship screamed towards space.

“Stay frosty, folks. We’re not through this yet.” Reilly charged up the rail guns again as the ship broke into the black. Seekers drifted everywhere in sight, joined by about twenty Tethers. They had been waiting for the gunship to appear and now slowly moved into attack formation around the Dark Angel.

“We’ve got a lot of company up here…” Duv noted as Chang and Marek spun the guns outward and around, taking in the view.

“Tiny?” Reilly said, not taking her hands off the rail gun controls. Tiny deftly flipped the switches on the electronics suite, interrogating the nearby ships until she found Ty’s handheld signature.

“Over there, in that small knot of ships at the back. It looks like they’re prepping to jump.”

“Duv, we need to get to that ship and disable it before it jumps. Everybody, weapons free! Duv, go now!” Reilly commanded.

Duv pivoted the gunship in a tight loop and shot up through the knot of enemy fighters. A firestorm immediately ensued as the enemy gave chase, trying to bring down the Dark Angel as it dodged through the remaining debris from the Roen defense stations. Duv smiled grimly and began a series of intense maneuvers. He played chicken with several ships, pulling up and causing their pursuit to fly into each other or have to suddenly veer off, then shot straight down on the confused enemy below so the gunners could take them out. He hit the motion dampeners as two other Tethers flew by and one crashed into the back of the gunship briefly then spun off. Tiny grumbled and sent him a look as she upped the rear shield again.

“Y’all always like fighting like this?” Marek yelled to Chang as he mowed down three Seekers and two spaceborne Tethers.

“Like what?” Chang replied, calmly returning fire, flipping his pod to track one of the Tethers who had fired a rail gun at him and blowing the target to pieces as they passed.

Several more Tethers began diving on the ship, forcing Duv to engage in some old-school dog fight tactics to allow the gunners to take them out. He spun the Dark Angel, just missing a head-on collision with a Tether traveling parallel to them, the bottom of the Tether scraping above the bridge window as he dove again. As he spiraled out of danger and banked the bird back around, the Tethers tried another strafing run on the gunship with their lasers.

“Outnumbered! Y’all are always the hell outnumbered!” Marek hollered back, spinning his pod as two more Tethers blasted by him, trying to break through the shield to kill him. He spun his gun up and returned their fire, whooping as his tantalum laser rounds connected with the backside of one of the ships, causing it to explode violently as the engine went up.

“Think positive!” Chang hollered back, firing rapidly at another Tether who had launched high-explosive mines towards their hull. “We are not outnumbered, we just have unlimited target selection!”

Duv spun the ship and then banked again. They were in range. Reilly fired both rail guns simultaneously, striking the nearest ships in the group that held Ty. They split into pieces as their pilots were ejected into space. She ran the rail guns up again while Chang and Marek continued to keep the other fighters at bay. Suddenly two of the ships jumped away. Reilly fired, taking down the third, but it was already too late. Ty was gone.

“Captain, they jumped! We lost Sergeant Ty!” Tiny confirmed from the back of the deck.

“Damn it! Tiny, did you track them?” Reilly blasted two more Tethers and their associated Seekers as Duv continued to maneuver deftly through the barrage of return fire. The gunship shimmied in the wave of laser fire as the Tethers began to mass again. Chang and Marek blasted away at several more as they bunched together and strafed them, leaving behind a series of laser scores on the side and back of the gunship.

“I have a rough plot based on trajectory. It’s enough to get us close.” The ship shuddered as two more blasts hit the port side. “Shields are holding, but I recommend we get some distance between us and the Tethers. Under this type of fire, they won’t hold for long.”

“Duv!” Reilly swung back, but Duv was already in motion. He flipped on the journey program and launched the first journey, jumping the ship away from the Tethers and then immediately jumping again along a series of shorter hops to throw off any pursuit, and engaging the ship’s stealth shielding. After the fourth jump they paused, waiting.