THE VALKER 352 RECON: Part II
(Previously: Colonel Logan Vos and his co-pilot Lt. Commander Jared Winger were flying a reconnaissance mission to check out some unusual emissions detected in an unclaimed system near where the 9th Fleet was operating during its campaign against the Vanduul, October 2947. They located a temporary jump point which had seemingly ejected a human probe, lost for centuries. They managed to retrieve an undamaged data-core, however, a flight of Vanduul fighters to also investigate the phenomenon. In the combat that followed, Colonel Vos was victorious but the Vanduul recognised him, and his reputation as a UEE ace known for defeating numerous Vanduul champions saw other challengers arrive and deploy cruise disruptor weapons. After fierce fighting the Duo remained undefeated, but the Vanduul were eager for glory and would not easily let their prize go...)
"...I'm picking up new signals, Logan" Jared called out breathlessly. "A mid sized Vanduul ship, the system is tagging it as a Hunter class destroyer... also reading a screen of fighter sized ships. Mate... This is looking bad. Cruise engines are still down."
Logan worked to calm his breathing and pulse while he checked the state of the Vanguard. The powerful overlapping shields had deflected the worst of it, and the redundant power conduits, cooling systems and chassis structure of the heavy fighter had minimised the effects of the damage that had gotten through. The exterior looked beaten up, but it was nothing catastrophic.
"We're in good shape," he told his RIO. "Did you get a call for back up away?"
"Yeah, I just received the auto-confirm from our Way-Sat. We are seeing a lot of 'duul reinforcements for a system supposedly not important to them," Jared frowned. Logan gave a dry laugh. "Uh, yeah. That might be my fault. The Vanduul love a challenge, and they seem to think my callsign means a good fight."
"Ah, the Chaindog Affect..." Jared nodded sagely as his fingers tapped quickly at his system controls. "I've flown with you long enough to know that you get into more dogfights than most, but you also manage to get out of them again, mostly in one piece."
"Yeah. Sorry about this, man" Logan sighed, banking into a dive towards the reddish - tan world below them. "I'll get you out of this. We'll have another pool party on Cascom and invite the whole base."
"If anyone can worm or bulldog his way out of this mess, it's you" Jared answered with a nervous smile. "I knew the risks when I agreed to be your RIO the first time around, but I keep doing it, so I guess I'm cool with it. I'm uploading our sensor log data. I can't do anything with this probe data drive from here; who knows what it's seen? At least the Fleet will know to add another seven kills to your record."
"I counted eight...?" Logan called back.
"Yeah, but I'm claiming one Scythe" his co-pilot answered with a grin. "They don't rack up as fast when you're a technical officer, I gotta get 'em where I can. I got the last burst in, and like any argument, that's what counts."
The Vanguard sped towards Valker III, shuddering slightly as they started to brush the atmosphere. The Vanduul ships sniffed out the wreckage of their defeated clan mates, and raced after them.
The Senior Comms Officer of the UEEN Destroyer 'Huntress' pressed his hand to his headset and listened with an intense, suddenly interested expression. His hands stabbed at his touch screen before he turned around and actually clicked his fingers for the captain's attention.
"Ma'am! We've picked up a call for help from a recon flight as it bounced through the relays" Ensign Gamble reported in a loud 'action' voice.
Captain Evangeline Black looked up from inspecting navigation screens and gave a nod. "Have we received orders from the Retribution?" She asked, referring to the 9th Fleet's flagship.
The officer shook his head. "None have been dispatched yet, Ma'am" he added quickly "-But the call came from Piranha Leader".
Eva immediately strode across to his station. "Colonel Vos?"
"Yes ma'am," he nodded. It was well known among the crew that they knew each other well, and had served together as junior officers in action against the Vanduul. Whispered conversation suggested a more intimate relationship might exist, but as it must stem from shared danger and experience it was only referenced respectfully. "I'm picking up a data package, looks like their mission log..." he shunted the info across to his station mate and barked "break it down".
"I want a Sit-Rep" Eva ordered in a tone that implied FAST.
"They have encountered Vanduul forces and are under continued attack. Enemy reinforcements en route. Need support ASAP." Gamble said succinctly.
"Where?" Eva asked as she took the steps to navigation two at a time.
"Uh, Valker 352 ma'am. It's an unclaimed star nearby."
Eva tapped the Navigation officer's shoulder, but he was already bringing up the charts. "How far, lieutenant?"
"Not far, Captain... looks like a dead-end single jump of three-point-six lightyears - it would only take a few minutes to traverse. And we are only a million klicks from the JP."
Eva nodded, jaw clenched, aware of it. "Do we have their last known position?" She called out to her comms officer. He answered in the affirmative. "Pass it to Nav" she instructed. "Then signal the fleet - the Huntress stands by to support Piranha Leader. Can you get me a channel to Colonel Vos?"
"I'm working on it ma'am," comms reported, fingers stabbing and slicing across his interface screens. "There seems to be a lot of interference..."
"Piranha Leader was investigating an anomaly that may be responsible for that," the other comms tech, a midshipman explained, nodding to the mission report he was scanning through. "A quantum anomally giving off background noise. The log indicates they have destroyed eight enemy fighters, but the Vanduul reinforcements include a Hunter class destroyer."
Eva's face hardened. "Comms - Any contact?"
"Receiving a handshake now, Ma'am! We have a channel"
"My screen!" She ordered as she ran to her command chair and leaned over one of the displays. She saw Logan's ID appear as static hissed from the speaker array.
"Colonel Vos? This is Captain Black. Do you read?"
"Eva?!" Logan's voice came back sounding surprised even through the poor connection. "I hear you. We have a situation and could use some help..."
"-Huntress is close, Colonel. We can assist, over."
"We're heading into Valker IIIs atmosphere. I'm going low so they can't surround us, and it might keep the Hunter's guns off us a little longer." Logan explained. "We are still in fighting shape, but the enemy knows 'Chaindog' is here and they want a piece. This is personal for them, over".
Logan was a good pilot, but Eva knew a single Vanguard wouldn't last long against a Vanduul destroyer and its escorting fighters. And if the aliens knew their nemesis was the target, they would go all out to claim the glory of destroying him. Or what if they shot him down and captured him? Would the brutal aliens eat him as it was rumoured? Or would he be kept alive as a trophy? Eva felt a hot shiver run up her spine, and a surge of anger.
"Just hold tight, Colonel!" she said, trying to keep a level tone, to sound calm when she wasn't.
"I've never been tighter," Logan said, obviously grinning. His signal was breaking up. "Can we expect you soon, Captain? We seem to outnumber the 'duul one to thirteen, but my RIO tells me I'm reading those odds wrong..."
Eva saw the awe on the faces of her bridge crew at his humour in the face of death. She knew Logan. It meant he accepted he was in big trouble. She checked her screens. "Have we received orders?" She asked Gamble. He shook his head gravely. Admiral Bloch or Captain Horton must have been unavailable- she was certain they'd send her. Logan was a decorated veteran and poster boy for marine recruitment, they would never abandon him.
She looked across at ops - they still had two Gladius fighters on patrol, and recovering them would take precious minutes. She looked down at her station displays, his signal strength was falling.
"Affirmative, Colonel, we're coming!" Eva saw they had lost the channel and swore under her breath. When she looked up her eyes burned with a cold fire.
"The military's most decorated living ace needs our help," she declared. "And if we needed his then he would be there no matter the personal risk." She turned to her XO. "Sound battle stations! Navigation- give me the fastest route to Colonel Vos. Helm, take us to the JP at emergency cruise. Comms- tell our fighters to await retrieval and direct the nearest 9th fleet vessel to this position to pick them up."
Her crew sounded off with series of "aye-ayes" as the klaxons sounded through the destroyer. Eva brought up the navigator's course. She made an adjustment and sent it back. The lieutenant blinked. "That's against regulations, ma'am... It's very dangerous..." he said hesitantly. Eva shot him a hot look as she dropped into her command chair and clipped on her harness. "Noted. Now punch it!"
Vapour trails streaked from the Vanguard's stowed wing edges as Logan's fighter dove through the thin atmosphere of Valker III towards a region of broken rocky fissures and canyons amid a desert of gritty black veined sand. As he started to level off he deployed the fighter's wings, using the extra lift to find horizontal about a hundred meters above the surface. He retracted them again to preserve speed as he angled into one of the larger fissures which yawned open, a canyon which stretched for several kilometres before branching in two. "Think we'll be harder to find in here?" He asked his friend in the Vanguard's turret. Jared Winger admired his companion's optimism.
"Ah, marginally...sure... Hunter class destroyers are thought to have a particularly powerful sensor array, hence their Navy designation."
Logan knew it might only gain them a few minutes, but even that might be enough. "Evangeline is en route with the Huntress, and I think we'll do better down here than a Glaive will... in fact, I'm hoping that the Vanduul will only come at us one at a time..."
"Being the enemy's most wanted pilot has gotta have some perks, huh?" Jared said, hoping it was true.
"Hey, that might actually happen..." Logan replied as he guided them through the fissure, keeping as low as he safely could. He throttled back to 100 metres a second to minimise their IR signature and give the airframe a chance to cool. He powered off the shields.
"Yeah, that's dropped our EM significantly," Jared said a moment later. "I'm keeping the sensor suite passive and powering off all but essential systems."
They reached the fork in the fissure and Logan banked left, following the canyon as it narrowed. He throttled back until they were barely moving. "Maybe we could land?" Jared suggested. "I'm staying open to the possibility," Logan agreed. "If I see somewhere that will shelter us from above.
Tense minutes passed. "Whoa!" Jared exclaimed. "The Vanduul are blasting the sky with all kinds of pulses... I'm seeing ladar, radar, infra, ultra, microwaves, even ionisation bouncing off the walls. Must be the Hunter. Nothing should bounce back to them unless they are right overhead, though... Keep our drive trail low..."
The ravine opened into an impact crater ahead, red rock forming a jagged shock ridge revealing a strata of similar hued earth and stone. Crystalline sparkles Glittered in the shadow. It was too open to the sky, so he quickly slowed and spun the Vanguard around, flying back the way they came.
A minute later, and Jared's voice was tense. "I'm getting strong signals, boss... intensity rising... they are coming at us."
"Roger that, Sentinel" Logan acknowledged, adjusting his grip on the HOTAS and wiggling to get comfortable in his seat. It was always going to end in a fight. "Turn your O2 up a notch, I don't want you fainting on me when we bring the pain to these reptiles." His RIO did so and adjusted his harness, then let his finger hover of the power system of his panther repeaters. He tried not to hold his breath as he glanced at the Vanguard's sensor screens and forward out of the turret armaglas.
Dark specks appeared in the sky above the ravine, perhaps five thousand metres up. They altered course and headed for the sky above the canyons. Jared's screens were with flashing. There was no way they could remain detected. The Vanduul were a few klicks out and closing, steadily losing altitude. "A glaive and two scythes" Logan murmured. He sucked in deep lungfuls of air. "Be ready..." he told his RIO. The enemy suddenly adjusted their angle - they had been spotted. The Vanduul ships dived down hard. Logan chuckled. "I bet they can't get a lock, am I right?"
Jared nodded. "Yeah... their targeting system is pinging us like crazy, but we are basically a ground structure right now, their space to space missiles can barely see us. Uh... you want shields forward, right... right?!"
"Not just yet..." The Glaive's medium lasers flashed, bolts of red plasma hissing down at them and falling short. They travel slower in atmosphere, Logan chided his opponent as he tilted the Vanguard's nose up thirty degrees and lined up the heavy fighter's huge ballistic gatling cannon. It spooled up as he half depressed the trigger, adjusting his aim on instinct as the HUD was in low power standby mode and barely visible. "Eat lead and die" he snarled as he unleashed the weapon's devastating ammunition.
Tracer fire streaked up into the Glaive's path, the heavy fighter's shields giving the barest blue flicker as the 70mm shells slammed into it. Logan's weapon fired a combination of armour piercing, high explosive fragmentation and white hot burning tracer shells... dozens tore through the Vanduul fighter's cockpit, reducing the pilot to a bloody mist in an instant, before ripping the ship in half. The two Scythes peeled away and Logan slammed the throttle to emergency power, hitting the afterburners. The dust and grit behind the Vanguard was blasted away down to bare rock for a hundred meters behind the engines as the navy fighter leaped skyward on twin plumes of thrust. "Light up the starboard tango!" Logan ordered as he extended the wings and twisted the Vanguard after the Scythe to their left. Jared's heavy repeaters spat plasma as he tracked the second enemy.
Logan turned inside his target, followed it through its evasive turns and grinned as the warrior guiding it dove into the ravine - an easier target. He brought the nose down and sent bolts of fiery destruction slamming into it from the quad laser cannons. The Scythe's shields burned away, then the asymmetrical wing. It spiralled into the rocky canyon wall and exploded in a jumble of metal and flying rock. Logan guided their ship down the ravine, keeping it steady as Jared fired bursts from the twin panthers. The Scythe wheeled after them, powerful blasts of plasma hissing past and then kissing the shields. "Nail him, Sentinel " Logan urged, and Jared lined up his repeaters and fired a long salvo. The Scythe jinked but the RIO kept him under constant attack until the alien fighter suddenly ploughed into the ground, tumbling as it burned briefly and scattered debris over hundreds of metres.
"Damn, you're actually getting the hang of this, huh?" Logan joked.
Jared sighed heavily. "Yeah, well it seems like the right time to peak, y'know?"
Logan laughed and skimmed along the canyon. Vanduul fighters appeared above, racing after them. They flew fast, weaving along the fissures and around the edge of the crater into another canyon. The alien destroyer loomed into view, and their ears were assaulted with the strident blaring of missile lock warnings. A sound came over the comm on several frequencies at once, raw, alien and unencrypted.
"GHLA'RGH ZCHT UL'VIKTAZ, CHYN-THRAC!"
Logan barely had time to be astounded - the Vanduul did not communicate with humans, yet surely that was a deliberate message? For him? The Navy's best cryptologists believed 'chyn-thrac' was their specific name for him. Perhaps they could translate it, if they survived... but suddenly his HUD was flashing and a dozen Sykkel anti-fighter missiles were racing down at them. "Shoot them, Sentinel!" He shouted, flipping all power to the engines and skimming around the crater edge. Jared's repeaters sprayed skywards, but hitting the missiles needed as much luck as skill...
Somehow, the Lt. Commander had both; he burned through one which detonated, the concussion and shrapnel knocking another into a wild, spiralling course. Logan killed his thrusters and launched a sprayed of flares, luring more of the enemy missiles off their tail.
With the engines barely running, Logan reinforced the rear shields and jerked the Vanguard under the side wall of the crater as the missiles slammed down just behind them. Some struck the crater wall, blasting tons of rock into the sky, others streaked overhead as they dived down, losing their tracking and skimming away to blast new craters into the terrain of Valker III. Two struck the Vanguard, dumping their explosive energy into the shields and sending hot shrapnel digging into the armoured hull.
Logan was jerked forward in his seat, but he ignored the pain and eased the engines up again, looking for the next ravine or canyon they could take shelter in. The Vanduul destroyer cruised lower, all sharp angles and brooding insect-like menace. The ventral gun batteries tracked them as Hunter scented its prey.
"Incoming fire" Jared warned as the capital ship opened up with its turrets. Crimson bolts rained down from above, a storm of deadly fire which blasted the ground behind them like an apocalypse. Dirt and sand vapourised in superheated plumes, filling the air with haze. Scythe and Glaive fighters dove down from each side, trying to flank them or cut off their escape. The fastest pulled up just above the ravine Logan was aiming for, speeding towards them head on. Logan targeted them and spooled up the APOC gatling, sending a burst of 70 mm shells hissing towards it. The Vanduul was either brave or looking to make a name for himself; he held his course and rotated to dodge the deadly projectiles, then flipped and strafed to the side, opening up with his cluster of lasers. A missile jumped away from the Vanguard and struck the daredevil alien's ship almost as they met each other. The Scythe was knocked away, barely under control. "Got ya!" Logan heard Jared hiss. They flashed past the damaged fighter and Logan concentrated on the terrain ahead. The Scythe was disintegrated as it flew into the hail of fire tearing up the landscape behind Piranha One. "Uh, I'm still claiming that ..." the RIO mumbled, watching over his shoulder.
The Vanguard flew last low and fast, Logan having to remind himself to breath as he zig-zagged and swept around the curves of the fissure. The anti- ship cannons of the Alien destroyer struck around them, blowing huge craters into the surface and causing shockwaves of superheated air which rocked the Vanguard. Jared kept the pursuing fighters at bay with the panther repeaters but Logan knew running only bought them time. He wanted to fight, but the destroyer shadowing them was too dangerous: it had the height advantage and the sky above offered no cover. Ahead was a formation of towering rocky columns over a landscape of crumbled stone and sand. They flew into them, weaving from left to right. Now Logan could double back as he curved around a mesa like obstruction ... He took a Scythe pilot by surprise and blew it into molten metal with the Vanguard's four heavy lasers and a deflection attack as it passed. The satisfaction was brief; the destroyer unleashed a barrage of fire which obliterated the rock around them and buffeted their shields. They were the pursued again.
A minute later and even the stout Vanguard couldnt take much more. The HUD flashed warnings from nearly every system, and they were forced to take power from the weapons and engines to keep the shields intact. Interior pressure was slowly leaking from somewhere. Suddenly, Jared swore and Logan feared the worst...
"Massive Q-field spike!" The RIO shouted, confused. The sky flashed bright white, as if lightning had suddenly struck from everywhere at once. A huge concentric shockwave bloomed in the sky, hurling the atmosphere ahead of it and condensing it upon itself until it was almost a solid wall of force. At the centre and rushing ahead of it was a UEEN Javelin class destroyer, diving towards the ground at a sixty degree angle. Its powerful shields were a blazing blue hemisphere before it, clearly visible as they deflected and absorbed the impact of untold kinetic energy. They burned out in an instant, the warship's hull glowing almost molten soon after. Vapour boiled in its wake, the sky roiling.
"Its the Huntress!" Jared exclaimed in awe. "They must have hit upper atmosphere at quantum drive velocity!"
Logan felt a surge of elation. "Light our emergency beacon and try to hail them" he ordered. The Vanduul destroyer veered away as it detected the new arrival and took stock of the situation, giving them precious breathing space, although the Scythes still pursued them.
Eva grunted as she was thrown forward in her harness, the inertial dampeners overloading and fizzing out as the entire crew lurched heavily. There were groans and shouts as people were knocked into bulkheads, their consoles, each other. They arrived in the upper layer of the planet's atmosphere with all the force of a planet killing meteor. The ship was vibrating feverishly as they tore through the thickening air towards the ground at hypersonic velocity. Klaxons groaned and wailed, and red lights pulsed across the tiered bridge. As the blue glare of the shields vanished suddenly, and the armourglas windows creaked ominously, Eva could see a reddish landscape below.
"-Shields are down"
"-damage reports coming through..."
Her crew were calling out reports from their stations; the Huntress was shaken but still in fighting shape. "Silence the alarms," Eva ordered. "Helm, there will be a shockwave - keep us ahead of it. Sensors; anyone nearby? Can you locate Colonel Vos?"
"Stand by, Ma'am!" Came the fervent reply.
Her Chief engineer's face appeared on one of her screens. "Captain, I need a minute to replace a part fried on arrival and reboot the shields. Engines are almost 100%, power core is straining but within safe limits. No serious damage detected yet, but our hull is so hot its boiling off - we'll lose minor systems or some functionality for certain, but I'll keep an eye on that."
"Get us ready for a fast exit," Eva told him. "We can't stay here more than a minute or two. Bridge out." She peered ahead through the shivering armourglas windows as the Huntress screamed towards the ground at 7,000 kph, slowing as atmospheric friction buffeted them. They left a glowing tail and a cone of compressed air in their wake. Their point of entry was like the blast wave of a nuclear explosion chasing them down. When it hit the ground it would hit like a bomb, devastating everything within a hundred klicks or more.
"Ma'am! There's a Vanduul Hunter class destroyer at angels four, seven klicks out, 30 degrees starboard... And I'm detecting a navy emergency beacon! Similar course - It's Piranha One!"
"This is it!" Evangeline declared. "We'll get one one run only." She glanced at the readout for the enemy ship on her screens then gestured to her XO. "Stratten! Target that destroyer's drives with every thing we have! Hobble it!"
"Ma'am, yes ma'am!" The commander nodded, relaying orders to the other stations.
Gamble shouted with elation. "Captain, I have Piranhna Leader on comms! Putting him through".
Evangeline looked down to see a shaky holo of Vos in the Vanguard's cockpit as he rolled his ship this way and that. "Right on time, Huntress!" He said, panting with exertion. Eva grinned back. "That's the only time that matters. Logan, we are riding the front of a massive shockwave that will crush any ship in its way. We have one chance to pick you up. Can you pull off a scoop landing at supersonic velocity?"
Logan laughed. "That all? Just like on our second tour, that time at Varaad? I guess I'll have to..."
Eva nodded. "Well use our tractor beam to equalise your speed as much as possible. Try not to mess up my flight deck, Vos..."
"Aye-Aye, Black" Logan grinned, obviously pleased to see them. He took a deep breath and made sure he was tracking the incoming Javelin destroyer, lining up with its trajectory.
The Huntress bore down on the Vanduul Hunter, angling behind its stern, moving far faster than their enemy. The alien ship's turrets spat a furious slew of plasma towards the Navy ship, but the great speed of the Javelin in its dive made it a difficult target to hit in spite of its size and the energy weapons lost much of their power and speed inside the atmosphere. Only the AA weapons came close.
"Ready to fire, Captain" Commander Stratten reported with an icy glint in his eyes, gripping the rail of his station defiantly as the ship shook around him. Eva grinned ferociously. "Do it - fire at will!"
"Weapons free! Cripple the enemy's drives" The XO repeated. Four ship killer torpedoes slowly accelerated away, and the Huntress' Ship to Ship cannons opened up with a boom-hiss-boom. As they neared to within a few kilometres, the Javelin destroyers ATA turrets let fly. Singly they couldn't harm the capital ship, but all together, and with the enemy shields being slammed with the big guns, they would hurt.
The Hunter's defensive guns whirled after the incoming torpedoes, firing rapidly to bring them down. Almost the size of small starfighters, they were equipped with their own powerful one shot shield generators which could absorb significant damage. The Vanduul guns finally managed to track and hit them as they homed in on the vicious looking vessel's engines... But it was too late - the torpedoes hit almost together, the shaped detonations ripping through the enemy's weakened shields and laying waste to the drives. A hundred tons of scorched metal cascaded down from the wounds, revealing the breeches torn into the Hunter's hull. Two of the drives flickered out, and the swarm of anti-fighter fire struck moments later, compounding the damage. The alien ship listed to port, her speed slowing as it began losing altitude. The Huntress, her engines at full power, roared past.
Her own shields were only just coming online, directed to the rear to cover them as the Hunter vainly sought to strike back.
"Make sure the Flight deck is clear and ready to receive Piranha Leader," Evangeline told her XO. "We need a solid tractor beam lock, we are attempting a Kleinbacher scoop at best atmospheric speed. How long until the shockwave hits?"
"26 seconds, Captain!"
"Time to intercept Piranha?"
"16 seconds!"
Too close, Eva thought. The channel to Logan was still open. "Logan, no time to match vectors- meet us head on".
"Roger that!" Logan acknowledged, hauling on the stick and rolling the Vanguard around so that he was heading directly at the Huntress, still only a speck the size of a fly diving down at them. Logan forced himself to exhale and take a slow deep breath, thinking through the sequence of actions he would need to take. Twitch-hard yaw-airbrake-thrust-correction-afterburners-wings-gear...
"We'll have a combined collision speed of 1200m/s!" Jared shouted in a tone that left no doubt he thought the manoeuvre was insane.
"Only if we crash!" Logan pointed out, eyes narrowed and focused. "Get out of the turret now!"
The Huntress was pulling up hard, and so close to the terrain of Valker III that a rooster tail of displaced air and swirling dust was thrown skyward a hundred metres in their wake. Several of her turrets were still exchanging fire with the Vanduul Hunter as it struggled to give chase - they'd hit it hard! Logan jinked left so that the air pressure caught his fighter's tail, and then he cut the engines and threw the stick and pedals hard right. The Vanguard violently flicked around as he battled to control a near perfect 180 degree spin. He pushed the throttle forward and flicked on the hydrogen afterburners: first he was pulled forward in his harness, next he was pushed back heavily into his seat. He watched the rear camera, making corrections to his course as suddenly the Huntress loomed huge and black, filling the screen. Logan triggered the wing stowage sequence, but realised it would barely have to begin before the Huntress reached them...
COLLISION WARNING: REAR! The ship's computer stated unnecessarily. The Vanguard jolted, and the daylight vanished except for a bright rectangle ahead that rapidly shrank. The hull shook, shuddered and groaned, and Logan was pressed so forcefully into his flight seat he thought his ribs would crack. Genetically modified to withstand Gee-forces into double digits, even he felt throbbing pins and needles and a mind numbing black fuzz smother him as the tractor beam violently arrested their momentum. There wasn't enough space! The Vanguard hit something hard with a loud metallic crunch and a sharp snap and ceased to move. Logan couldn't feel anything until the throbbing started...
On the bridge of the Huntress Captain Evangeline Black was gripping her command chair with a white knuckled grip. "Did we get them?" She asked her XO, her stomach clenched tightly with apprehension.
Commander Stratten appeared surprised, grinning as he nodded. "Yes ma'am! They're in our grid."
Eva thumped her seat with a fist in celebration. "Outstanding! In that case, Mister Gellar - get us off this rock NOW! Full Shields forward! Emergency Q-jump, Go - go - GO!"
The javelin destroyer's engines flared as she tore horizontally across the planet surface, the nose thrusters lifting her degree by degree until she was pointing into the first third of the sky. Above them was a rushing white disc of atmosphere so compressed and charged with so much energy its core was fiery orange. Eva jabbed the "Riot Comm" button, broadcasting on every main frequency so there was a chance the Vanduul would hear them.
"When you see your ancestors, tell them the 9th Fleet sent you!"
The sound of the spooling jump drive filled the ship, there was a moment of perfect calm, and then white noise and the viewport blurred and streaked as the Huntress was hurled from Valker III into space.
The blastwave, only seconds behind, swept down and smote the rocky world with the force of tens of thousands of kilotons. The Hunter was snapped in half and then crushed into fragments which were hurled in every direction. The Vanduul fighters were obliterated in an instant. The rocky formations were pulverised, stone and grit blasted outwards in a storm front of ear shattering noise and fury. The mighty force scoured the landscape down to bedrock. Nothing was alive to hear the sheer noise of it, the very air ripped apart. There was total destruction within 100 kilometres, easily visible from space, but the pressure swept the entire way around the small, barren world.
The Huntress finished her brief jaunt at quantum speed and dropped into real space, her shields destroyed and forked nose melted and glowing. Globlets of molten metal, fragments of hull armour and insulation trailed in her wake as the engines fell dormant. Blastdoors and armoured panels slammed shut bulkheads and several of the bridge windows as a multitude of pressure leaks were detected.
Eva looked about and shared the shocked and then jubilant expressions of her crew.
"We're clear, Ma'am" Stratten reported, and a cheer sounded around the bridge.
Eva smiled as she unclipped her harness, moved to shake hands with the commander. She received salutes with a grateful nod of her head. "Thank you everyone. You pulled off the impossible. Commander Stratten, you have the bridge. Get us shipshape ASAP. I'm heading to the flight deck."
She strode from the bridge and as battle stations was still lit, a marine in armour fell into step behind her. The lift was locked down, so she jogged the stairs down two decks, the crew jumping to the wall as she passed. She arrived at a heavy bulkhead where a team of hangar crew, medics and engineers were assembling, several in space suits.
She looked for the highest ranking one and addressed him. "Chief Wech, how's the flight deck? What about our guests?"
Wech snapped a salute. "Flight deck is secured and pressurising ma'am. Fire retardant systems activated. We are going in now, Captain, please stand back."
Eva stood aside as the team activated the bulkhead, revealing a large airlock. They marched inside and prepared to cycle the airlock, when Evangeline jumped forward, her escort leaping after her. "Chief! I'm going with you". Her determined stare brooked no argument. Wech nodded and cycled the airlock. With a hiss the bulkhead to the flight deck rolled open, revealing the large open space in the centre of the ship. Amber lights provided faint illumination, and a haze filled the air. The rear of the hangar was piled with unsecured objects, parts crates, loaders, ruptured gas cylinders and an over turned and battered MPUV... the Vanguard crowned the mess, wings broken and tail booms compacted like an accordion. The top turret was smashed off and there was no sign of it, and vapour rose from the cooling engines and vents. Fire retardant foam covered it, and half the hangar, like bubble bath.
The response team ran into action. Extraction fans were activated, the lights restored, and the medics rushed to the Vanguard. Eva followed, careful to keep out of their way. The heavy fighter had had its momentum reduced by the tractor beam and Logan's flying to the minimum survivable speed... any other ship than a Vanguard would never have remained as intact, she thought. "The main ramp is blocked, blow the emergency bolts on the canopy and hatches!" Flight chief Wechs was shouting. Eva was staring at the cockpit... she couldn't see any movement. The gold tinted armourglas was covered in fractures, the APOC gatling visibly bent.
"Logan?" She edged closer, peering at the crumpled fighter. "Get them out" she urged. The rescue team shouted a series of warnings and explosive bolts blew in rapid succession, sending the canopy and emergency hatch flying clear. They moved in, ducking inside the interior of the ship and hooking a ladder up beside the cockpit. A gloved hand appeared and gripped the hull beside the ladder, and with obvious effort, Colonel Logan Vos pulled himself up and looked about.
"Anybody looking to buy a slightly used Vanguard?" He asked, before doubling over with a fit of coughing. A medic helped him up and over on to the ladder. He clambered down and assured them he could stand unaided, which he did with only a few wobbles. Eva ran over and beamed at him. "Logan! You made it!" She smiled, and with only a brief hesitation she leaned in and embraced him tightly a moment. Her crew showed no sign of noticing.
Logan tried not to winch, but his ribs were hurting, as well as his lower back. "Permission to come aboard, Captain?" He grinned at her. She laughed and nodded. "Thanks for getting us out of there, Eva. We owe you - big time." He looked back at the Vanguard, then noticed the turret was smashed off. "Hey, is my RIO okay? Jared? I told him to get out of there..."
A tech poked his head out the emergency hatch and gave a thumbs up. "Captain, the other crew member looks like he was knocked unconscious, but he's alive."
Logan's co-pilot was stretchered out just as he was coming around. "Did we make it?" He rasped.
"You sure did, Winger" Eva answered, squeezing his arm. She'd known him since she recruited him to help form the veteran core of the UEE sponsored militia in the Oberon Cluster. "The Vanduul will have to try harder than that to take you down."
He held up four shaky fingers. "I got three!" He smiled. "Thank you, Captain Black. Illusion's are on me" he said, remembering one of her favourite cocktails. She nodded.
"I'll need them after I start the paper work for this. You'll be fine, Winger. Get him to med-bay" she nodded to his stretcher bearers. "You too, Logan. There are no propaganda holos rolling here, get checked out."
He stood to attention respectfully, although he out ranked her, and nodded. "Yes ma'am." Looking back at the wrecked Vanguard he groaned. "Ugh, landing gear. I knew I forgot something..."