Vandread, The Next Enemy
Well, according to my profile, it's been around three years since I've bothered with this story, so let's see if I can entertain my fans/toleraters a little!
I do not own the Vandread stuff, but the rest, you bet I do!
#10: The long way around
The dropship docked the lone frigate that could be spared for extraction, which accelerated away from the planet as soon as ship entered the ship's bay. The door slid closed with a subsonic thump, and the atmosphere returned and the students flooded into the bay.
"All hands brace for immediate high gravity maneuvers!" The loud speakers blared, and the ship shook violently. "Impact on the port side, fire on deck 12, sections A through E, H and J. Best speed to the rendezvous point, seal the breach and remove the air!" The deck shook more violently, and then the entire ship was hit with a full three gravities. None of the students were injured, as pursuant to their training, they had laid on the deck to avoid injury when the gravity hit. For six minutes the high gravity persisted to press the students to the deck plates, until suddenly, the ship shuddered one last time, and with a nausea inducing moment of free fall, the normal gravity resumed. The intercom crackled with static, then a high pitched whine for a second, popped and the blared.
"…ort to the bridge! Repeat, will the Arbiters, previously stationed at thee military training facility in orbit of planet xj-4395, "Nexus", report immediately to the bridge!" The message repeated over and over, as Vinn, John, Sophia, Tiffany, Jamie, and Edward, lead by Barnette, headed to the bridge.
"Would someone like to tell me what the hell a bunch of goddamn kids are doing one my bridge!" a man wearing the shoulder pips that read captain, and chest ribbons that read "I f'd up pretty badly to be in charge of a frigate making pickup on a lost planet!" said. Barnette fixed the man with a cold stare.
"You asked for the Arbiters to come to the bridge, and thanks to the crash course at the academy, these four have garnered a field promotion, and are now Arbiters themselves." The tone of her voice left no room for questions, and the Captain swore emphatically, and with considerable skill.
"Fine then, here's the brief." He walked up to a console near the main screen, and started his presentation. "These orders are directly from the Empress herself. The only reason we were able to make pickup because while the Scourge are teleporting troops, they only have enough power to run point defenses. Now that the mainstay of their forces have been deployed, and most of the surface of the planet controlled, they are only deploying from a single ship at a time. In just the time since you left the surface, two more battle groups of Scourge ships have entered the orbit of "Nexus."" A planet filled the screen, with read triangles clustered in several spots across it. "We have just made rendezvous with the battle group behind the moon, which, when the command comes, we will follow them in, while they engage this group," he indicated a group, "as a diversion, and drop you in Orbital Insertion pods, to join the other Arbiters to recapture a facility in the northern region, and secure a special package, classified to X-ray level by the spooks from OEI (Office of Empire Intelligence)."
"Okay, when do we deploy."
"As soon as your group is ready, Ma'am." Barnette gathered Vinn and John by eye, who nodded their assent. To her mild surprise, the kids caught her subtle gesture, and nodded their assent as well. She cracked a wide smile.
"Well, captain, no time like the present, by your leave, Sir."
The running lights dimmed as the newest wave of troop's teleported to the surface. Three incandescent lines intersected the hull, ant the entire ship blossomed into a new sun, pieces of debris colliding with other nearby ships. The entire fleet of 23 remaining ships turned as one to face the smaller human battle group of 14 ships, their fore energy projectors swiveling and glowing as they heated. As the braked, the remaining eleven rounds from the ships Magnetic Accelerator Cannons slammed into the fleet. Two ships forward projector spheres shattered from the impact of the heavy metal slugs, as a swarm of ship to ship missiles dug chunks of metal from the smooth hulls. Several missiles flew straight into the still glowing sockets of the shattered projectors. This ignited the power lines, chaining explosions and gutting the ships fore to aft, and blossomed into massive flame clouds. This engulfed the ship in between, adding to the inferno, and heavily damaging two other close floating ships. In rage the entire fleet gave chase to the now fleeing human group. The lone frigate slid quietly into the debris field, completely stealthed except for the area where the point defenses carved sheets of armor out of the port side. Seven small heat sources detached from the ship, and gained good speed toward the planet. Now, they knew that the Scourge were tracking all objects descending, or in this case, falling from space. Now the way the pods were dropped, they were in the middle of a large cloud of broken ships, better disguised as falling chunks then the actual falling stuff. To draw away as much resistance as possible, the ship dropped a second set of pods, which made themselves very visible. They were known as "thresher" pods. Each pod was filled with a high density foam explosive loaded with razor sharp triangles of metal. This essentially created the biggest shrapnel grenade in history. The explosives would shatter several yards around each pod, and sending the metal shards scything out in all directions and harvesting the lives away from the chaff.
The Seven pods containing the soldiers smacked into the claw chewed plain outside Juliet Lewis, about six feet from the outer walls.
The covers hissed, seams appeared, and the faces spiraled away as the small charges split it open. John, who was stuffed tightest, being a mountain of a man, squeezed out, and stretched while looking around.
"Damn, Captain Bream certainly got us close enough! The Scourge must know that there's something here, because the entire force that was assaulting this outpost has gone." He walked over the uneven ground to the kid's pods, grabbing his equipment because it couldn't fit in with him. Vinn fell out of his, picked himself off, and dusted himself off while looking slightly scornful. He turned and grab his weapon, which was heat sealed inside an air tight plastic wrap. He pulled out his oiled knife from his hip sheath, and sliced the package open.
"Yeah, if captain Mira was still with us she would have set us down on the wall all facing the same direction."
"She was good, but not that good, no one is that good, and she probably would have gotten us inside the structure. But for a male pilot, he could be a lot worse. 'member Fitzsimons?" Barnette had stepped lightly out of her pod, and unstrapped a large stainless steel case. She popped out the recessed legs, and extended them to a comfortable height. She opened the case, pulled out her specially crafted Scavenger Rifle. It was custom crafted for her, (was bought with a little card she got from Jack the previous year.) The gun was essentially made so that it was perfect for her, and would be uncomfortable for anyone else. It was, like all rifles Barnette preferred, a bolt action, with the chamber lock on the right. But, unlike most scoped rifles, the mount for the scope was on the flat left side of the weapon, so that the normal sights weren't obstructed and it could be used easily for both long and close range.
"Barnette, are you show some of that man hating that we've heard stories about?" John asked as he fed shells into his shotgun. Vinn looked up from unwrapping his ammunition and chimed in.
"Yes, I believe I heard something a riot back when it was just Hibiki, Duello, and Bart." Barnette turned and fixed them both with a single fingered salute.
"Maybe I'm still not so keen, but Bream is an ok pilot for a guy." She finished zeroing her scope and slung it over her shoulder. She closed up the box, folded the legs, and strapped it to her back. Vinn cleaned his knife and re-sheathed it, and shouldered his duffle.
"Yeah, it has been proven that women make better ship pilots than males anyway. Vinn stated blandly. John finished loading his gear, and then checked the kids, they having remained quiet through the entire standard conversation. Barnette gathered the two adults by eye, and gave a small nod to Vinn, who when and checked the kids gear. John raised a brow, and was rewarded with another small nod.
"Alright, Ladies, here's the plan, we're going into the base, looking for any clues to where Jack went. Ed, your'e on point, Soph, your on drag, Barnette, your second, followed by Jamie, then me, Tiff, and Vinn. Move out. The gate to the compound had been ripped off its massive hinges, and dragged clear. Ed trudged through sweeping the ground area briefly with his M4, Barnette sweeping the second floor. As Sophie entered she slapped a black disk on each side of the gate. A spark jumped the gap, and she picked up rock, and tossed it through. The whole gap lit up as the rock was incinerated by a few hundred thousand volts of electricity. She gave Ed the thumbs up, and they swept the area individually. The four kids checked the perimeter, while the three adults scoped the melted metal around where Jack disappeared. Shortly after they got there, the kids signaled perimeter secured. Gaining nothing from the warped metal, they proceeded to the ramp down and into the dark. As they hit the dark, Edward noticed that the dark took on a bluish glow. He turned back and noticed Barnette was covered in an emerald glow. She seemed to noticed it to, and looked back. Everyone was looking around.
Jamie was glowing both Blue and red at the same time, Vinn yellow, Tiffany yellow and blue, John red, and Sophie green and purple. They were slightly mystified, their Paexis energies displaying themselves of their own volition. There was a loud CRACK and flash of red/blue light, and Tiffany was on her knees. Another CRACK and flash of purple/green and Sophie was down. Three more CRACKS, and the rest were down.
"Wh… What's… happen…ing…" Barnette managed to choke out, before fully collapsing. The aura around each intensified, and with a giant earth shaking boom, each person flashed out of existence one at a time.
END CHAPTER 10