Into the Black: Odyssey One (20 page)

Stephanus tapped in a few commands, bringing his own Cam-Plate modifications up and then setting the computer to automatically control the system.

The original laser defence system became standard issue on all NAC aircraft after one of the prototype units successfully prevented Air force One from being splashed by an anti-missile laser, wielded by a terrorist group who had paid off the designer after the government cut his funding.

Ironically, the technology hadn’t started as a defence system at all, at least not in the conventional sense, but rather as an active camouflage system for tanks. The basic technology had been based on liquid crystal molecular shifts that occurred when an electrical charge was applied to the material. The Cam-Plate system used a series of nano-molecular constructs to shift the light absorption quality of the material, to blend it in with its environment.

The design was one of the great ‘eureka’ moments of the twenty-first century, though it would undoubtedly be forever shadowed by the development of Cee-Emm fields and the Transition Drive.

The nano-structures were incredibly efficient, and later tests determined that when they adjusted to a specific color, it was with far more precision than was actually required for mere camouflage. In fact, the nano-structures could alter the surface of the armor in such a way as to almost perfectly absorb, or reflect, any given frequency of light, and even many frequencies above and below the visible spectrum.

It was more effective to already have the enemy’s frequency programmed in than it was to rely on the computer to be able to detect, analyse, and adapt during battle conditions, but few enemies were quite so nice as to broadcast their laser frequencies.

Too bad.

So Stephanus and the rest of the Archangels would have to entrust their lives, yet again, to the computer’s adaptive capabilities.

Well, it’s better than nothing,
Stephanus thought dryly as the program self-tested and flashed all green across the board, “All fighters, switch to auto-adapt combat programs.”

“O… okay.” Brute stammered a bit as his hands flew over the controls almost of their own volition, reacting instinctively, activating the analysis programs and algorithms that connected them to the plane’s armor plating.

Stephanus was relieved to see Brute’s plane smooth out as the computer adjusted its cam plates to reflect the incoming laser attack. He was considerably more relieved when Brutes wing stopped smoking as the automated repair system put out the small electrical fire and rerouted the areas circuitry.

“’Angel Lead, missile away.”

The rocket flared briefly under Stephanus’ wing and flew away from the plane accelerating fast toward the first of the enemy fighters. The alien ship had barely begun to react to the attack when the missile impacted and delivered its payload.

The oddly spherical explosion that was unique to zero gravity blinded both pilots and sensors for a moment before it cleared.

“’Angel Three confirm the kill,” Steph ordered calmly.

Archangel three, ‘Racer’, paused briefly to double check his sensors for his wing commander, “confirmed, nothing left but some dust.”

The Archangel’s growled in satisfaction.

None of them would admit it, but for a second there they’d actually been afraid that the aliens would prove to be juggernauts, somehow able to take everything they could throw at it and keep on coming.

Evidence that they weren’t, was the most welcome news the team had heard yet.

Stephanus grinned, “all right… Lock on and let fly. I’ll cover you from here.”

Stephanus listened briefly to the acknowledgment and watched the rapidly expanding contrails of the three fighters as they roared into the now, obviously, one-sided battle. Five minutes later, the battle was over and the four flyers were rocketing back to rendezvous with the main group.

Stephanus watched the small signals representing the combatants converge on his small screen, he knew that the ’Angels could handle the alien fighters in one on one, but they were outnumbered by the swarm that was preceding the alien capital ship.

*****

On the Odyssey’s bridge, Captain Weston watched the four lights blink off his tactical display, with no small amount of satisfaction.
Good job, Steph.

“Commander Roberts, signal the Archangels main group and tell them to prepare for an artillery barrage. We’ll thin out their opposition for them,” He ordered, leaning forward slightly and designating corridors along the path between the Odyssey and the alien ship.

“Yes sir.”

A moment later the Commander turned back from his station, “they report ready, tactical is coordinating firing vectors with them now.”

“Good, tell them to fire for maximum effect, when ready,” Eric Weston said, sitting back calmly in his chair as his stomach churned and he watched the tiny lights that showed the Archangels, and wished that he was out there with them.

*****

Outside, the Odyssey’s primary laser array began to glow as the massive energy banks were charged, in preparation for the battle ahead. Seconds later the big weapons opened fire, aiming straight into the ranks of the Archangels, and beyond them, the enemy fighter craft.

As the powerful laser crossed the stellar void, the Archangel squadron split smoothly apart, allowing the powerful energy beam to slice through the space they had previously occupied. The enemy craft were not so fortunate.

A dozen of the small enemy fighters went up like matchbooks in a furnace, as the Odyssey’s big guns cut a swathe through their ranks. Most of the rest were caught in the explosions of their comrades, as the tight beam laser vaporized fighter after fighter with its lethal glare.

By the time Stephanus had rejoined his team, the Odyssey’s judicious use of its long range cannons had evened out the odds in the coming battle, considerably. With war whoops echoing across the tac-net, the Archangels plunged back into the fray, their weapons blazing as they engaged the enemy.

The silently screaming turbines of the Archangel squadron left rapidly, dispersing twin contrails of expanding plasma in the vacuum of space, as they roared through the Drasin fighters, wreaking havoc through the aliens’ formation as they worked to clear the path for the Odyssey.

One on one, it quickly became evident that the enemy fighters were no match for the Archangels and within minutes, Stephanus and his squadron had decimated the first wave of Drasin fighter craft. However, it soon became obvious to even the most gung-ho Archangel, that the Drasin learned from their mistakes.

The second wave of fighter craft came at the Archangels in trios, each Archangel suddenly faced with three enemy fighters. Stephanus was the first to realize the enemy’s primary reason for this method of assault or at least, the primary result.

“Watch it ‘Angels! Each ship uses a different laser frequency, so don’t count on the cam-plates to save you,” he snapped as he flipped his fighter in a barrel roll that dropped him under the line of fire of an enemy fighter. Invisible laser light scored space where he had been, but Steph just haloed the Drasin and flipped his fighter end for end as he loosed a missile up the alien’s plasma stream.

The explosion that followed tore the alien fighter to shreds, and Steph righted his plane quickly as he glanced around, “Stay with your wingmen! Don’t let them catch you alone!”

The tac-net echoed with replies from the others in his team, as Stephanus jigged his fighter into a tight roll, leaving two enemy fighter craft well behind. That still left him with one following tight to his six, however. Twisting the flight stick violently, Stephanus spun his plane around in a rapid spin, allowing the fighter’s inertia to continue pulling it along its previous course, and smoothly swinging his guns onto the alien craft. Hunter became hunted in a short handful of seconds, before Stephanus squeezed tight on the firing stud, turning the enemy fighter into a cloud of rapidly expanding debris.

Many of the other Archangel’s weren’t faring so well, Stephanus could see the drifting fuselage of three of his squad floating dead in space.

Thank god the cockpits were all ejected.
He pushed thoughts of those drifting hulks from his mind, as the two Drasin fighters he had lost earlier swooped back onto a pursuit course with him. He quickly found himself hard pressed to avoid the criss-crossing lasers that dogged his fighter through his desperate evasions.

Sweat was beading above his eye, when the second Drasin vessel suddenly went up in a blaze of blue-white flames.

“Thought you might need a hand, Stephanus,” he heard the grin in Flare’s voice as Archangel Four slid alongside him for a moment before the remaining Drasin moved in for another pass.

“Break on three Flare, he can’t follow us both.”

“Roger that, Stephanus.”

The two sleek fighters paralleled each other for a moment longer before breaking hard away from each other and leaving the Drasin fighter to follow its original target, Stephanus.

“Anytime you’re ready, Flare!” Archangel Lead rocked quickly back and forth as incoming fire from the Drasin ship swept along its wingtips.

“Just lining him up, boss man.” Flare’s fighter dropped smoothly into position behind the Drasin ship, her vertical thrusters flaring as she bellied in on its six, giving him mere seconds to register her presence before the four linked laser cannons on her wings glowed briefly. Seconds later, a charred and drifting fighter was left in the place of the bogy who had been hunting Stephanus.

Stephanus thanked his savior briefly, before turning his attention back to the battlefield. The Archangels had acquitted themselves well in the battle, but the sheer force of numbers was quickly beginning to wear them down. He knew that if something didn’t happen soon things would go from bad to disastrous.

He needn’t have worried.

Captain Eric Weston had commanded the squad long enough to realize their limits.

A shadow passed over his cockpit, as the bulk of the Odyssey slid into the dogfight, its short range weapons blazing as they intercepted enemy missiles and fighters alike. Within moments the battle had been turned to a rout as the enemy fighters peeled off and fled back to their carrier.

Chapter 13

“They’re firing again. Minimal damage effect. The cam-plate modifications are holding.”

Captain Weston nodded, he hadn’t expected anything else. The Capital ship’s lasers were only Class One, so they couldn’t adjust the beam frequency without severe modifications; the fighters however, worried Weston.

“Have all local defence weapons continue to fire on the enemy fighters,” he ordered. “Then lock onto the Drasin mother ship and prepare to fire.”

“Aye Captain,” Waters replied. “I have telemetry coming back from our targeting laser systems now, Sir.”

“Good,” Eric replied. “Send the numbers to the computer and have it adjust the heterodyne frequencies of our main array to match the highest absorption level we can hit.”

“Yes Sir,” the young man grinned nastily, sending the command and data into the computers with a flick of his wrist.

It only took the computer moments to analyse the return bounce off the laser they had painted the enemy ship with, carefully filing away various snippets of information about its molecular structure, heat expenditure and perhaps most importantly, frequency absorption rates.

Then the computer took that information, sent it to the main laser array, and adjusted the frequencies of the primary heterodyne coils to produce what should be an energy beam that would induce massive critical failure in the chosen target.

However, in the short time while that was happening, something outside changed.

“Captain! We’re reading…,” Waters began to speak; jolting in his seat as his displays went haywire for a second, then went totally dead.

Weston tried to say something, but his breath suddenly caught in his throat and he clutched at his chest in shock, as a sweeping wave of dizziness dropped him to one knee. Around him the same thing was happening to the others on the bridge, and through the ship the scene was the same.

And, in the space of seconds the NAC Odyssey was drifting, unguided in space, her crew dropping to the deck plates like the proverbial flies.

*****

“Jesus H. Christ, Steph… What the hell is that?” Brute asked in shock as the Archangels broke wide, circling back around.

The battle with the fighters was all but won, when the enemy cruiser entered into the picture. The enemy ship had closed with the Odyssey, while the Archangels had turned and burned with their alien counterparts and using that damned stealth signature of theirs, had managed to get closer than anyone in the flight group had realized.

As the Archangel’s swept back around, they could see a spectacular sight, something straight out of a sci-fi film, greeted their eyes.

A crackling beam of energy had joined the two massive ships, a scene that Milla would have recognized in an instant, had she not been trapped in the embrace of the Drasin weapon. As the beam wreaked its havoc on the Odyssey, the Archangels soon found themselves under heavy attack again, as their artillery support drifted uselessly past.

Commander Michaels didn’t see any other options so he immediately made his decision and kicked the fighter he had strapped onto his back up a few more notches, “Archangels. Form up on me!”

Around him the rest of the flight team responded in kind, forming up smoothly behind him as they swept out and around, skirting the edge of the enemy range, just before turning back into the fires.

Stephanus’ voice rang out over the tacnet. “Team’s two, three, and four cover us from the fighters. Team one, you’re with me. Time for a strafing run on the big boy.”

Acknowledgments echoed across the net as the Squad broke up into teams and whirled in at the enemy fighters, weapons blazing. Stephanus’ team broke through the enemy formation and centered on the source of the energy beam that was assaulting the Odyssey.

“Team One. Fire at will.”

The enemy cruiser grew to massive proportions as they rocketed down toward its surface, pulling up at the last moment as their weapons blazed and skimmed along the armor plates. The three fighters’ missiles, lasers, and cannon fire, lit up the local vacuum with a blazing light. They ripped along the surface of the big ship, skimming the mottled black and violet hull. Semi-spherical explosions erupted in the wake of the four Archangels, shuddering through the big Drasin ship with destructive energy.