Tommy Thorn Marked (43 page)

Gary pulled ever closer to the flailing enemy fighter, his stableators swinging forward and aft. Control surfaces and speed brakes seemed to twitch with every movement of Gary’s control stick, but he was still unable to get a clear shot.
This guy is good,
thought Gary.

But eventually the Shadowbat’s pilot’s luck ran out. The canyon narrowed, too tight for even this pilot, and he was forced to climb. A maneuver which saved his life, if only for a moment, as Gary was now able to take advantage of his Starbird’s speed and quickly moved to within blaster range.

“Hold still—that’s it—steady,” Gary said to himself.

“Lock!” the computer said.

Gary was pulling the trigger even before the advisory, and six red streams of high energy reached out from his fighter’s blaster ports and converged on the Jayram, resulting in a spectacular fireball.

“Splash three,” Gary said as he sliced through a trail of dirty smoke and watched as the damaged Shadowbat’s flight ended in a smear of fire and metal near the upper edge of the canyon. A lonely momentary monument to the death of another fighter pilot on this frozen moon.

One less Jayram
, Gary thought as he slowed and headed back toward the complex.

“Negative, negative, no heads in boxes—I just want to talk,” pleaded Tommy as the Shadowbat rolled over and pulled toward the dunes in a high-speed death dive.

“Do you copy?” Tommy repeated, but it was too late. The Shadowbat went straight in and exploded on the dune, leaving Tommy to hover over the wreckage in hopes of seeing any signs of life, or maybe a rescue pod.

“Anything, Roat?”

Roat scanned for any life signs. “Sorry, Commander.”

“Tommy—Tommy, come in. Splash four?” Gary asked, still orbiting over the complex.

Tommy waited for a moment. “Yeah, splash four,” he said quietly.

Gary slowed to a hover near the now totally dark facility. He could see Scats unloading warriors on the dune, six hundred feet in front of the complex. Dressed in darkened combat suits, they began to fan out and take up tactical positions.

“Lion Lead from two—Tommy, you better expedite, the Scats are setting up for an attack.”

“Damn!” Tommy said to himself and headed at full throttle back to the complex.

“Scat Lead from Lion Lead—stand down, I repeat, stand down!” Tommy commanded as he made a low pass over the assault ships, rolled around behind the complex, and emerged over the now-empty dome, allowing his fighter to drift toward Gary.

“Gary, contact ops—explain what’s going on out here.”

Gary had slowed to a hover, positioning his fighter between the complex and the Scats.

“Copy Tommy.” Both Starbirds now in a low hover, side by side, facing the assault force.

“Sir, I’m detecting movement from the complex,” Roat suddenly announced.

Tommy turned to see a lone figure, which had emerged from an outer main hatch, walking toward the Scat strike force.

Now what
? thought Tommy, setting his ship down.

“Negative from ops commander. They seem a bit confused as well, but the order came directly from the marshal’s office. They’re working on it,” Gary said.

“Working on it!” Tommy exclaimed and released his restraints. “Gary, I need you to get back to the ship.”

“Back to the ship!” Gary thought he misunderstood the transmission.

Tommy repeated the order as his canopy opened and the boarding ladder extended. “Roat, keep the meter running,” he said, bounding down the ladder, stopping and making eye contact with Gary. “I need you to get back to the ship, Cruiser—please.”

Gary’s ship drifted up and over the top of the advancing Scats. “Copy that, Tommy, good luck. Cruiser is out.”

Tommy watched the Starbird disappear into the orange haze and then turned his attention to the loan Human, who was still moving toward the Scats. Close enough now to see the face inside the helmet, Tommy was surprised to find an older female Human.

“That’s close enough,” she said, letting her loosely held blaster rifle point toward the ground. “What's this all about, Commander?”

Tommy held up both hands. “I’ll explain everything, ma’am, but you need to put the weapon down,” Tommy said and motioned toward the blaster.

She did not flinch but instead, looking at Tommy’s name tag, pulled up the blaster, getting a better grip with both hands. “Look, what I need is to get my facility back to work. Thorn, is it?”

“Yes, ma’am, I’m Commander Thorn, and I know you’re a bit confused, but…”

“I can only guess that this is some sort of crazy Star Force exercise, but that little fly-by stunt you pulled sent my whole staff into a whirl—and now this.” She pointed at the Scats, which had stopped for now.

“Please drop the weapon, ma’am. This is no drill.”

“Not a drill? Then please tell me what the heck is going on!”

“We were briefed by Imperial intelligence that Jayram raiders had hit this facility—in fact, me and my wingman just smoked a couple of Shadowbats.”

“Shadowbats—Imperial intelligence…are you kidding?” she said while gesturing back toward the complex. “If Raiders had been here, do you think anything would be left?”

Tommy glanced over his shoulder at the strike force, which was starting to creep forward. “No, I guess not, but we were jumped by Jayram fighters ma’am, no doubt about that.”

“Jayram fighters, here? Not possible,” she said, moving her hand higher up on the rifle.

“Look, I'm sure we can figure this out. Just—please! Put the weapon down,” Tommy said and moved a bit to his right, trying to put himself between the female and the Vantek sharpshooters that he knew were out there.

“Commander, those are Imperial troops, right?”

Tommy nodded, becoming more uncomfortable.

“The last time I checked, Titan was part of the Empire. So go do your job somewhere else. I've got work to do.”

Tommy took a step closer. “Sorry, ma’am, but right now my job is to keep you from getting zapped.”

The Human female, feeling threatened, stepped back and raised her weapon, pointing it at Tommy.

“Your job! I’ve always thought the job of any Human in the Force was to be an Imperial lackey…”

She had just finished saying this when an energy blast tore past Tommy and ripped into her midsection, the impact throwing her twenty feet before she bounced several times and slid to a stop. Tommy dove to her side. Blood, mixed with pressurized suit gas, rose up from the wound and froze in the Titan air.

“Hold on!” Tommy shouted, putting his faceplate near hers, and began fumbling with a small med kit that he had pulled from a suit pouch. “I’m going to get you inside,” he continued reassuringly while pressing some patching material against the gaping wound.

She closed her eyes in pain as a rocket whizzed past Tommy and impacted against the main complex. The horrific explosion was quickly followed by a dozen more, all fired from the now-charging assault force.

Tommy glanced over his shoulder. “Scat Lead, this is Commander Thorn. Stand down!”

Tommy’s order was drowned out as more blaster fire as he bent over the female in an effort to protect her.

She winced and looked at Tommy with confused eyes. “Whose side are you on, Commander?”

Tommy lifted up her helmeted head as she clutched her wound.

“Thorn.” She paused, struggling to catch her breath. “I knew your parents,” she continued, her eyes filling with tears.

“My parents?” Tommy asked.

A trickle of blood, running from her mouth, began to pool along her helmet’s seal.

“Sometimes we have to choose a side, Tommy.” She raised a gloved hand to Tommy’s faceplate. “I chose Humans, Commander,” she said, then closed her eyes—dead.

Tommy paused for a moment, taking in the blaster fire and explosions that continued to rip into the complex, before rushing toward his fighter and scrambling up the ladder.

“Roat, forward shields to max, and get me a lock on the nearest target.”

“
Forward shields to maximum, Commander, but there are no targets. I—”

“The closest Scat, Roat!”

“
Sir?”

“Damn it, Roat—lock up a Scat!” Tommy shouted and selected missiles.

“Yes, sir,” Roat said even as the locked tone warbled over Tommy’s headset.

“Scat Lead, from Commander Thorn. For the last time Sergeant, stand down!” Tommy again ordered.

“Move aside or be destroyed along with the rest of these Human traitors,” the Scat leader responded.

Tommy stared at the target lock symbol flashing over one of the closing Scats, his gloved finger resting on his stick’s trigger.
Human or not, enemies of the Empire are my enemies. How did this person know my mom, and why do we need to destroy unarmed families? But orders are orders
… Confused thoughts raced through his head, when there was a sudden series of flashes. The Scat force had opened up on Tommy’s Starbird.

“
Shields at fifty-two percent. Damage to the right stableator, and the graviton is failing,” Roat advised

Under attack, Tommy felt he had no choice but to open up on the assault force. His first missiles made scrap metal out of the farthest unshielded Scat. Blaster fire did in another before they even knew they were under attack. Tommy then let the nose of his damaged fighter drift to the right, bringing his blasters to bear at close range on the now-charging warriors.

“Graviton generator fail, I cannot maintain a stable hover, Commander,” Roat said as another volley hit the fighter.

“Take it easy, Roat, I’ve got this,” Tommy said even as his crippled fighter slammed into the ground and slid across the dune before rolling over on its side.

“Sir, I'm dying,” Roat said matter-of-factly. Then the ship lost power.

With his crumpled Starbird lying on its side, Tommy shook off the shock of the crash and hit the emergency evacuation handle, severing his restraints and blowing the canopy a hundred yards across the Titan dune.

“Move, Tommy!” he yelled, but as blaster bolts continued to slam into the burning fighter, he paused just long enough to reach into a side panel of the cockpit and eject a small clear disk. “Got ya,” he said and, pulling his 203, dove behind what was left of his ship—now surrounded by Vantek warriors.

“Stand back,” the lead Scat pilot commanded. “This Herfer is mine.”

The Vantek pilot skillfully maneuvered his Scat, moving to within a few feet of Tommy, who stood, twirled his blaster before letting it slide back into his holster, and faced the Vantek pilot.

The alien pilot raised his faceplate and flashed a broad grin. The barrels of his Scat’s nose gun twitched as they rotated into a position pointing directly at Tommy, who stiffened.

But then, without warning, the Scat was hit by a pair of missiles, the resulting fireball throwing Tommy several feet, before a wall of blaster fire descended on the remaining Vantek troops, tearing them into bits of space suit and red mist.

Tommy regained his wits, rolled over, and saw Gary’s Starbird. He had brought it to a hover, just sixty feet from the carnage, whips of smoke still rising above his blaster ports. “I thought I gave you an order, mister,” Tommy said, standing to watch Gary let his fighter drift a bit closer.

“So court martial me, Commander,” Gary said.

“Court martial…are you kidding? We just committed treason,” Tommy said, looking at Gary.

“I’m sorry, but we didn't sign up to butcher Human women and children, Tommy,” Gary said. “Besides, no one would convict us for ending a Vantek's miserable life,” he continued.

Tommy was about to respond when Gary’s fighter was hit by a barrage of blaster fire and collapsed in a heap.

Recovering quickly from the shock of the sudden attack, Tommy rushed toward Gary's ship, sliding to the cockpit just moments after the canopy blew off.

“Cruiser! Cruiser, are you all right?” Tommy shouted and dragged Gary clear of the burning fighter just prior to a series of secondary explosions.

Once clear, Tommy began to check his friend for wounds, but Gary held him off and put a hand on Tommy’s shoulder. “This really did turn out to be a day to remember,” he said before closing his eyes.

“Remove your weapons!”

Tommy, alerted by the mechanical voice, looked up to find a half dozen Tarchein Blisters, which had surrounded their position; every nose mounted blaster trained on the two Humans.

Lifting Gary slightly, Tommy looked back down through the clear faceplate. “A day of days, my friend,” he said, then stood and tossed his 203 into the Titan dirt. “A day of days indeed…”

“It is very clear from the recovered data, General, that the Commander was fired upon,” Remus said again, but this time raising his voice.

General Ethos stayed calm, relishing every moment of Remus’s discomfort. “As I have said repeatedly, Chairman, the Vantek pilot was merely protecting himself. All of the transcripts…”

Remus waved him off. “The fact is, Tommy, er, Commander Thorn never fired until he came under attack!”

“He designated a Star Force assault transport as a target, Remus, and not even the same craft that was the alleged threat. He then destroyed said Scat, along with several Vantek warriors. The facts could not be clearer.” Ethos sat back in his chair, suppressing a smile.