Mako (The Mako Saga: Book 1) (50 page)

****

“
Hell yeah, baby!
” Danny shouted with elation as Lee’s Mako exploded out of the canyon and back into open space.

In the cockpit, Lee’s computer chattered away in its monotone voice, “target eliminated,” though it was quickly drowned out by the eruption of cheers and excited screams that flooded over the comm behind Danny’s.

“Nicely done, Renegades. Nicely done indeed,” Ryan congratulated.

“Not bad for a bunch of chuckleheads from another planet, huh Captain?” Mac offered, drawing a wry grin from Ryan.

“Not bad at all, Star,” he replied. “Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t exactly pretty at times, but it got the job done.”

“Hey, I’ve made my living on ugly,” said Link. “So don’t hate on it!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Ryan conceded. “Now get your butts back on deck, and I’ll see you for the debriefing. After that, the first round is on me in the OC.”

Sighing with relief, Lee altered course and began the long trek to regroup with the others, his thoughts and emotions completely awash in the sheer adulation of the moment. He honestly could not believe that they’d pulled this off. Even now, after all of the long hours of training and the intense physical prep, plus countless hours online back home, surely today would’ve been the day when they would have finally failed. And yet, here they were, reveling in the success that should have never been theirs, and if that weren’t sweet enough, they’d gone ship to ship with the single most prolific squadron in the ASC fleet to do it.

Of course, who’s to say what would’ve happened had this been a live firefight, but who cared. Training exercise or not, this was no game. It was as close to the real thing as they’d ever see; and despite all the naysaying, and the finger-pointing, and the skepticism in the beginning, they’d still defied the odds to pull this off—a fact that Lee Summerston couldn’t have been prouder of, more so even than the useless doctorate on his wall back home.

Watching the rest of the two squadrons come back into range of his scopes, Lee was practically beaming as he keyed the comm for his final address.

“Nice job everyone, now—”

****

A spectacular flash of light exploded off to the right and Lee’s face filled with horror as an Alystierian cruiser emerged from hyperspace, directly on top of the group’s position.

“
Contact Captain
!” Layla shrieked in a panic as several squadrons of Phantoms poured out of its hangar bay. “We’ve got an Alystierian War Cruiser, and 18… 19… 20 hostiles, inbound and closing fast!”

“
Eight-Two! Eight-Two! Bug out! Bug out! Bug out!
” Ryan screamed, jerking his Thresher away from a trio of Phantoms who peppered his hull in railgun fire. Meanwhile, several hundred kilometers away, Lee scrambled to process what was happening.

“Captain Ryan, we can’t fight back!” he blurted in fear.

“Yes, you can, Lee!” said Ryan. “Lift the glass cover on the far side of your weapons console and flip the Master Arms Switch inside. That’ll set your weapons systems to ‘hot’ but just focus on trying to get out of there and back to the ship. We’ll cover you!”

Tipping back the glass and flipping the small switch inside, Lee felt a hard, repetitive thump through the stick as the weapons systems came online, followed by the high-pitched, ratcheting clink of two sets of railguns arming to strike.

Taking hold of the throttle, Lee watched his radar telemetry as both the Renegades and Hit Squad were quickly overrun with enemy fighters, which swarmed onto them like wasps from a nest, firing relentless volley after volley at each of his friends, who scrambled for cover behind the veteran 51
^st
.

Primed, ready, and now just seconds away, Lee Summerston felt a paralyzing chill when a terrified voice bristled over the comm.

“
Leeeeeeee!
” Mac howled in a panic. “Something’s wrong! Everything is shutting off!”

Mortified, Lee watched helpless through his scopes as Mac’s engines extinguished and her canopy light went dark. As of now, she was completely defenseless.

“
Captain
!” Layla shouted. “
Northern Star is dead in the water!
”

“Mac, this is Ryan,” he called, trying to remain calm despite the four Phantoms circling on his position. “Talk to me, what’s happening? What do you see?”

“
I don’t know
,” she chattered in fright. “I hit the switch like you said, and everything just went dead. I’ve got no engines, no telemetry, no life support, nothing!”

Fighting to evade another pair of Phantoms that strafed past his starboard nacelle, Ryan stared in wonder as a third of the enemy force broke loose from the engagement to set up a wall around the disabled Mako.

“Praetorian, this is Katana! Northern Star is a dead stick! Repeat—Northern Star is a dead stick—and she’s cut off from the rest of the squad! We need Emergency Evac,
now
!”

“
LEEEEEEEEEE!
” Mac screamed, and Lee’s eyes went wide as three Alystierian Phantoms broke loose toward her position.

“
MAAAAAAAAC!
”

Slamming the throttle forward with such force that it nearly jumped out of its track, Lee shot up straight in his seat, and wrapped his fingers around the stick in preparation for the conflict that was now a heartbeat away. Fighting instinctively against the restraints tethering him to his chair, Lee slid a hand under the belt across his chest, as if somehow lessening it would get him to her that much faster. Reaching the perimeter of the nightmarish scene, he ripped back on the trigger, sending a pair of blue-tracered Eagles plowing into two inbound enemy fighters which detonated on impact, engulfing them in flames as the lone ship sliced through the inferno. No sooner had he cleared the scattered debris, he was instantly met by another four Phantoms, which opened up on him in a simultaneous shockwave of railgun fire, igniting his forward hull plating in a wash of sparks. Sensing an imminent weapons lock, Lee flipped the Mako into a wing-over-wing vertical roll, just in time to avoid a pair of oncoming missiles while locking on to two of his attackers with a pair of his own, and firing. Shards of metal and flaming debris deflected off of his canopy glass like grains of sand, meanwhile the two remaining fighters knifed past him in a blur of silver and black before circling around to regroup with two of their comrades and continue their onslaught from behind. Still, he advanced.

As the others fought to come to his aid, and completely oblivious to their panicked shouts and frenzied commands which filled the comm like staticky white noise, Lee continued to fight his way through fighter after fighter—wave after wave—until finally, he reached visual range of Mac’s position, just in time to witness a lone Alystierian Phantom descend upon her lifeless machine. His engines maxed out and his trigger finger at the ready, Lee blistered toward her in a state of near delirium, terrified as the enemy fighter circled around for what would now be an unprotested kill shot in cold blood.

But to Lee’s shock, when it fired, it wasn’t with a weapon, but rather some sort of magnetic tether that anchored itself to the side of the Mako. Then, through the crescendoing sounds of screaming engines, the anarchic comm, and the steady pounding of weapons fire that would soon cripple his deteriorating ship, Lee’s ears were pierced with a single, bloodcurdling scream.

“
LEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!
”

A massive explosion rocked his Mako, and the lone fighter, which had fought so valiantly to this point, buckled hard under the blast, slamming Lee’s unrestrained body forward with such intense force that it ripped the air from his chest.

The collision between his open-faced helmet and the canopy, however, was not so gentle.

Crumpling back into his seat, dazed and disoriented, Lee stared blankly through the shower of sparks and demolished instruments around him, his nose filling with the stench of burning electronics as something warm and wet crawled down his face and into his mouth. It tasted like old pennies, he thought.

Hearing the madness of the scene around him fade to a dull, muted hum in his ears, Lee squinted into the distance—through swelling eyes and red-smeared glass—at the foggy image of Mac’s fighter being dragged toward the cruiser, and a shudder ran down his spine when her screams soon subsided. He gave no thought to the trio of battered Threshers that raced by overhead, or their vain attempts to block the ship’s escape. Nor, for that matter, did he acknowledge his team’s fervent cries over the comm, pleading with him for any sign that he was alive.

Instead, he reached out with a lethargic hand and watched—helpless to stop it—as the massive ship vanished once more to black… this time taking a dear friend, and the last of his consciousness with it.

Part Three

Chapter 26: Awakening

Stirring to the sounds of beeping monitors and a liquid drip, Lee squinted awake through the intrusive glare of the florescent lights above his bed, his nose filling with the pungent scents of chemical cleaners and sterilized equipment around him. Fumbling with the cannula in his nose, he felt a mild sting from the cuts on his face, though the discomfort was forgotten instantly as the last five horrifying minutes of his memories came surging back to him in a rush of fear and emotion.

“Whoa, Summerston, relax,” Reynolds said, scrambling to restrain him while Danny and the others jumped to Lee’s bedside to assist her. “Everything’s fine. Just take it easy or you’ll tear out your IV again.”

“Listen to the lady, bro,” Danny offered, placing a hand on Lee’s chest. “You took a helluva bump out there, so do us all a favor and let her help you, okay?”

“How long have I been out?” Lee asked in a dry, raspy voice as Reynolds produced a pen-light to check his pupils.

“A little over six hours,” she answered.

“What happened?” he managed.

“We got ambushed,” Danny replied. “That’s all we know right now.”

“How?” Lee blurted. “How did they—”

“We don’t know,” Danny rushed to explain, “but Wyatt and his guys are on it. They managed to salvage one of the Phantoms that attacked us, and they’re tearing it apart as we speak to see if there’s anything in the computer core that can give us some answers.”

Then, like recalling the last vivid details of a nightmare, Lee’s thoughts flooded with the last thing he heard before blacking out… the shrill, terrified scream of his best friend.

“Mac?” he snapped, jolting upright again only to be met once more by Reynolds. “Is she—”

“We don’t know, lad,” said Hamish from the corner. “All the evidence seems to suggest that it was the Mako they were after, not Mac. She was just along for the ride. It could’ve just as easily been any one of us.”

“But why? How is that even possible?” Lee stammered, cupping his bandaged head, which began to throb. “How could they have—”

“They had help,” Link grumbled beside Hamish. “Reiser and Wyatt think that someone onboard planted something on her fighter before we launched—an EMP of some kind. That’s why all of her systems went dead in-flight, because they wanted the Mako intact.”

“It also explains why none of those Phantoms fired on her when they dropped out of hyperspace,” Hamish pointed out. “They didn’t want to risk damaging their prize.”

Danny turned back to Lee. “Katahl’s not playing around here,” he insisted. “He’s ordered a full-scale investigation to begin immediately, but they’re keeping it pretty hush hush so they don’t tip off whoever did this. When you get right down to it, they need to get that fighter back just as much as we want Mac, and whoever is behind this can’t hide forever. They’ll find him.”

“Yeah,” Lee muttered, placing the heels of his hands over his eyes and pressing. “That’s assuming she’s got that much ti—” His face went pale with the recollection.

“Lee?” Danny asked, like the others, sensing that something was up.

His jaw tight and his eyes narrowed to slits, Lee swung his bare legs over the bedside—teetered hard—then caught himself on the guard rail in time to get to his feet.

Seeing him stagger, Reynolds raced to steady her patient. “Back in bed, now,” she ordered. “You’ve suffered a mild concussion and two cracked ribs. I’m sorry, but you’re in no condition to go anywhere!”

“I appreciate your concern, Dr. Reynolds,” he said, ripping the taped IV from his hand and tossing it onto the bed along with the cannula. “But I’m checkin’ outta here. Now you can either help me, or get outta my way.”

****

“Hand me that soldering iron,” Wyatt instructed the young engineer beside him as he sifted through the demolished computer core on his workbench. Meanwhile, across the flight deck, Ryan and Noll continued their interrogations with a number of the engineering staff. Grunting in frustration as another circuit board popped between his fingers, Wyatt whirled around on his work stool to see Lee Summerston—dressed in a hospital gown—spring from his feet in mid-stride to land fist-first with the full weight of his body on the unsuspecting chin of one Jeud Aston, crumpling the petty officer to the deck like a rag doll.

“Lee, what the hell are you doing?” Wyatt shouted, running toward the commotion.

“
She had nothing to do with this, you son of a bitch!
” Lee roared, wrapping his hands around Aston’s throat and laying into him with another closed-fisted volley.

Racing toward the scrum, Danny, Hamish, and Link were tackled in transit by the ship’s security and pinned to the ground.

“There’s the bad guy over there, you dumbass jarhead!” Link protested from his stomach.

“Stand down, Lee,” Ryan yelled, wrapping his arms around the other’s shoulders as he and Noll fought to restrain their pupil. “I said
lay off!
” Then, with a final, aggressive pull, he unclamped Lee from his victim and shoved him to the side. “He can’t talk if he’s unconscious… or worse!”

“That’s your man, Captain!” Lee shouted, shoving a finger at Aston. “He planted the EMP, I saw him do it.”

“What do you mean, you saw him?” Ryan asked, directing a trio of guards toward the beaten engineer who struggled to his feet, his face now resembling the texture and color of minced meat.