Twenty-Six
Unclaimed Planet
Novina Satori continued to call the Ladyhawke as soon as the Eternia had cleared the upper atmosphere. So far, she was getting no response; however, the chatter on the Horde combat frequency was quite intense. The situation wasn't looking too good. If the Ladyhawke had been destroyed, there was no way Novina's signals could be received. The entire bridge was as shocked as she was when General Hammond answered after the tenth call.
"General? How did you get out here?" Jo-jo couldn't keep the surprise out of her voice.
"No time to explain. I'm activating a homing beacon now. Follow it to the battlefield," Hammond instructed. He signed off, shut down the comm equipment, and left the locator beacon pulsing away contentedly.
Novina got a fix on the beacon's location in short order and passed the coordinates along to the four dropship pilots.
Lieutenant Feril acknowledged the order to follow the coordinates to the location beacon. Eternia had the capability to pick up the repeating transmission where the dropships could not, so she had been given a general heading to follow and lead the other dropships to the target area. While the starship could vector the dropships in by heading alignments, the pilots would require something more to get on target. To that end, a channel had been set up to enable the pilots to talk directly to a Guardian.
Feril began transmitting to get the attention of War Wing and Falcon. It wasn't long before she realized where the battle was taking place; off in the distance, a flight of Batmeks was flying wildly about as if something was attacking them. Feril spied other shining objects darting about and presumed that was what had the Horde so agitated.
"Looks like we're coming up on some kind of valley," Feril told the other pilots. "Release the APCs in the clearing to the left, and then form up on me for an attack run." After the pilots acknowledged the order and prepared to deploy the carriers, Feril added, "Anyone who returns to base with a single bullet, bomb, or missile left in their magazines will get a personal ass-kicking from me!"
War Wing slammed to the ground and skidded a short distance before finally coming to a halt.
"And that's Newton's Third Law," Adrian told Teelana.
"I thought the idea was for the Horde to have the equal and opposite reaction?" Teelana said, skeptical.
"Yeah, well, science is never exact, but Gabe was right about one thing," Adrian replied.
Teelana prodded, "Which is?"
"Science is fun."
Adrian made no attempt to get up. He was less of a target laying flat, so the Horde shifted their sights toward the more visible one, much to Teelana's dismay. War Wing's power cell was also far too low to sufficiently power all the weapons.
Teelana observed, "Frost and the general have almost made it to the tree line. They just ducked behind a boulder. I think they are waiting for us." [A comment about Teelana repelling/blocking an attack would work here, and would be expected since the last paragraph mentioned the Horde shifting their attention to her.]
"Lemme guess," Adrian said, levering himself up and to one side. He couldn't sit straight up because of the folded wings. "Dhalon is padding his score?"
"Yes," Teelana sighed. "Anyssa and her games."
The Val-kyrie in question was flying for her life above the battlefield. After the initial laser hits that had revealed her presence, Anyssa had disengaged the cloaking field, powered up the scout ship's shields, and attempted to keep the Batmeks at bay. She did succeed in shooting down two, but those kills came from lucky maneuvers that the scout craft was not designed for. All she could do was keep the fighters away until her friends on the ground withdrew to the Ladyhawke, which had the speed and firepower to take on the Batmeks.
Sonic booms blasted across the field training behind the streaking forms of four sleek fighters. Captain Graza banked around to the right with her wingman in trail while the other pair broke to the left. "We've got this, Scout One. Go cover the withdrawal," she said over the tactical channel.
"What took you so long?" Anyssa demanded, a whimsical tone in her voice.
"Oh, you know us. We just can't resist the chance to teach the Horde that engaging a battlestar is suicide."
"They'll never figure it out if we don't allow the occasional survivor to report back."
"That may happen, if the rumors about the Hoscar are true. But that's Commander Fontaine's problem. If you'll excuse me, I see an opportunity to raise my score to an even twenty." Graza's Bladewing flight dropped down behind a pair of Batmeks that had been veering around for a strafing run on the Guardians.
The targeting system compensated for leading the target, so that when she placed the piper on the mark and squeezed the trigger, red bolts of plasma stitched the sky and the enemy craft when it flew into the line of fire. The Bladewings swung around the expanding fireball that had been a Batmek a moment before and pressed the attack against the enemy's wingman.
The maneuver took Graza out of firing position so she let her wingman, who was in a better position, take the lead. Although she was less experienced than her flight lead, Lieutenant Floran quickly got into the prime shooting position and shot the Batmek down with a burst from all of her guns. It was overkill, but Floran wanted to be sure the enemy went down.
The pair soared off to meet a fresh wave of Batmeks arriving from orbit. They had left the carrier to assist the ground forces before the Logoss destroyed it. Now, they were going to engage some of the best pilots in the Val-kyrie fleet.
Adrian perked up when Feril's voice suddenly sounded over the com channel set up in the tactical net. "Damn, it's good to hear a friendly voice."
"We're almost on top of the battle, but we need a reference," Ferial said, keeping her flight of dropships low in order to surprise the Horde.
"No problem," Adrian answered. He dropped onto his back to point the guns in the collar skyward. A small amount of the preciously small energy reserve was used to fabricate two smoke shells. Rocketing from the muzzles, the canisters trailed red smoke all the way. At five hundred feet, the canisters detonated into large red clouds. "There's your mark. Everything beyond that point may be considered hostile."
"Copy that," Feril replied, lining up on the location. "Rolling in hot."
"Bring the rain." Adrian said, finally getting up. He took Falcon by the elbow and moved back toward the forest. "Time to go."
Falcon, not listening in on the channel set up to talk to the Guardians, was about to ask what he meant by that when she got her answer.
Four dropships popped up from the oasis side of the forest ring and soared across the tree tops as graceful as a bird in flight; weapons pods deployed for battle. Missiles rippled from the upper pods as the Horde forces tried to redirect to the new threat. Explosions blossomed across the skirmish line.
The three APCs opened up on the enemy as soon as they had a clear target, not that the mass of Horde forces was hard to miss. In a matter of seconds, one quarter of the remaining enemy force was destroyed, or so badly damaged as to be a non-threat.
On the small window in his field of view, Teelana's face was a mask of astonishment. "I love it when a plan comes together," Adrian said, grinning broadly.
What plan? War Wing asked again.
Ignoring the sarcastic AI, Adrian trailed Teelana as the pair made their way toward their companions. An exceptionally fine shot by one of the remaining Horde artillery guns flattened them with the shockwave from a proximity impact.
Four armored figures leapt from the personnel bay of Feril's hovering dropship as it slid into position above the prone Guardians. The remaining four Guardians grounded in a skirmish line facing the enemy.
"We'll take it from here," Jake Rockwell declared, deploying his twin Gatling gun pods.
War Wing and Falcon picked themselves up and continued their run for the rock outcropping. Adrian began to think that they might just get out of this intact after all.
Lieutenant Floran got separated from Captain Graza in the frenzy of maneuvering craft. Now, she was in the sights of a particularly proficient robot pilot, and things were not going well.
"Captain, I'm in trouble," Floran reported calmly, though inside she was anything but. "I can't shake a Batmek fighter. Several more are closing in on me."
"We can't get to you," Graza said after analyzing the spread of her squad. She tried not to dwell on what could happen. Losing a member of her squadron was not an option.
Anyssa came through with a lifeline. "Switch your secondary frequency to the following," she instructed. "We can use this to communicate with the Earth ships. I have someone who can assist."
"Blue Two, dive toward my position and my weapons officer will punch that fighter's lights out," Feril instructed, lining up for the shot.
"I hope she's a good shot," Floran said grimly. She spotting the hovering dropship and swung around to dive on its position. An alarm began to blare when the ablative armor dropped below thirty-percent effectiveness. Floran slapped a button to silence the alarm and concentrated on the dive. She was surprised when a male voice spoke to her.
"I've been known to hit what I am for," Lieutenant Covney said. "Nine times out of ten. On my mark, pull out of your dive and bank to your left."
The Bladewing blocked the dropship from the view of the pursuing Batmek. All Floran had to do was hang on and hope the ablative armor and refractive coating held out.
"On my mark…3..2…1… Pull up and bank left!" Covney commanded. The Val-kyrie did as instructed, though her fighter appeared to struggle with the tight maneuver. It did finally pull up and away, however, giving Covney a clear shot at the Batmek.
The robot pilots got a nasty surprise as they were suddenly confronted with the Earth dropship and two missiles ripping from the upper pods. The closure rate between the descending Horde fighter and the ascending missiles was infinitesimal at best; the Batmek exploded in a boiling cloud of expanding gases and debris scattering in all directions. Covney launched two more missiles into the teeth of the Batmek that had been trailing its partner. The fighter emerged from the fireball only to create one of its own when the missiles slammed into it.
"I love it when they come to me," Covney crowed with delight.
"Dropship – move!" an unfamiliar voice barked suddenly.
Feril didn't hesitate. She slammed the throttles forward to the firewall and flew toward the enemy lines. Laser bolts blasted through the space she had just vacated moments later. Captain Graza pursued the Horde fighter that had just executed the failed strafing run, lined up the shot, and blew the Batmek into flaming wreckage out beyond the valley's west rim.
"Thanks, whoever you are," Feril said, releasing several bombs on a line of Horde tanks as she passed overhead.
"The name's Graza, and I'm just returning the favor," Graza answered. She switched to her squad's tac net. "What's your status, Floran?"
The young pilot responded after a quick check of her status boards. "Ablative armor is almost gone on the back quarter. Refractive coating is at about half effectiveness."
"Fly high cover with Blue Four," Graza ordered. "This fight is almost over."
Despite the counter-attacks, the strafing runs and general beating the Horde army was enduring, they still managed to close the range on War Wing and Falcon. Teelana fried two drones with EMP blasts, but they kept coming. She made it to the rock formation just as a hail of rail gun slugs intersected with her.
Most of the slugs did little to no damage to the tough etherium alloy armor; however, one round struck the lower left side at the back near the power reservoir and recharge port. Falcon screamed in Teelana's mind. It was a primal scream of unimaginable pain.
The battle suit immediately peeled back armor plates and components to revert to the form-fitting combat mode power armor. From there, the suit withdrew into the large red crystal on Teelana's left hip. The now totally vulnerable woman collapsed to the ground, dazed and confused.
War Wing expended the last of his energy reserve launching himself into a high arc. He landed on the boulder Teelana lay behind, reverted to the power armor, snapped up the auto-pistols holstered on his thighs, and began blasting battle drones. While the maximum effective range was only around fifty meters, the etherium bullets provided by the Val-kyrie more than made up for it in punch. Two drones shuddered from the impacts of the rounds punching through the armor chest plates as if they were tissue paper. The drones toppled backwards, twitched a couple times and then lay still.
A powerful explosion blew Adrian backwards into the rock outcropping behind him. He slammed hard into the unforgiving rock and dropped to the ground in an armored heap.
Dhalon stepped out from behind the tallest finger of rock pointing skyward, battleaxe in hand. He raised the weapon over his head and heaved it with every ounce of strength in his feline body. The axe tumbled end over end and bit deeply into the chest of battle drone trying to outflank their position. The impact, and resulting damage, unbalanced the drone. With a speed no one would have suspected in such a compact frame, Dhalon sprinted straight at his wounded target the moment he released the axe, leapt into the machine and toppled in completely over onto its back. He wrenched the axe loose and slammed it repeatedly into the sparking breach until the machine stopped twitching. His foe vanquished, Dhalon extracted the double-bladed axe and went in search of more targets.
Teelana shook off her daze and crawled over to Adrian, she and Frost arriving at the same time. The Marine grumbled about never being able to open the power armor in times of need. Teelana pressed her hand against the glowing dome in the center of the six silver rays radiating from it on the chest plate. The armor responded immediately, compacting itself into the six-pointed medallion attached to a heavy silver chain.
Adrian immediately rolled over and coughed up blood. Teelana had never seen anyone in such pain before. The impact had clearly caused internal injuries, considering the man's barely restrained groans and painful cries. It tore at Teelana's heart to see Adrian like this, despite the explosions going on around them and the enemy steadily closing in for the kill, Teelana wanted to use her magic to at least ease his pain.
Before she could make her choice, Adrian reached out and grabbed her by the raised collar of her vest, pulling her close. "Get the ship," he groaned, eyes filled with the pain of his injuries. "We're leaving." He released Teelana and dropped flat on his back.
Frost punched Teelana in the shoulder, not hard enough to hurt, just to break her out of her frozen state. "Go! We got this." He pulled out a small medical kit, and began self-aid and buddy care.
Teelana would not be able to recall later how, but she managed to transform into Zoar, fly through the forest ring without hitting any branches, and land near the Ladyhawke in a matter of minutes as if her brain was on autopilot. She stumbled through the outer hatch and was passing through the inner one when the ship rocked violently for a moment. She made her way through the corridor, up the stairs and was dropping into the pilot seat when a few more flashes brightened the sky outside. At first, Teelana thought it was lightening, but the storm had long since moved out of the area.
As she clipped the mic and earpiece to her right ear, Teelana spotted a familiar shape hovering over the trees. "Anyssa! What are you doing?" she demanded as she powered the ship up for flight.
"Making sure those trees are broken so you can lift off. Once you have the ship powered up, set the anti-grav lifters to maximum, lift the nose, and go to full power on the main engines. The trees should slide backwards," Anyssa explained.
"And I will slide the ship right out from under them," Teelana said more to herself than to the Val-kyrie woman.
Ladyhawke came alive under Teelana's direction. All main systems were repaired and ready flight. There was still some minor damage the auto-repair was working on, but those systems were not critical to normal operations. So, following Anyssa's directions, Teelana powered up the anti-grav lifters and attempted the lift the nose of the ship as high as it would go. When nothing happened, she was afraid the weight lying atop the ship might be too much for the lifters to handle. Teelana was considering her options when the view outside the windows jerked and tilted upwards ever so slowly. It seemed to take an eternity for the bow to clear the tree tops. There was a scary scraping sound on the upper hull as the trees shifted and branches snapped. Not waiting for any confirmation from Anyssa, Teelana reached to the center console and slammed the engine throttles to the forward stops. It took a moment for the signal to reach the engine computers in the rear, but when it did, the roar through the open hatches in the cargo hold confirmed she had power up.
The scraping and snapping on the upper hull intensified as the trunks slid to the rear, passed the tipping point, and fell off the back of the ship. The sudden loss of mass caught Teelana by surprise and the Ladyhawke surged forward out of control for several frightening moments. Teelana retarded the throttles and steered the ship back around toward the rock outcropping.
General Hammond dropped the remaining battle drone in range of their position with a tight group of laser bolts to the head. Seeing that the other Guardians had shifted their fire and were now unleashing a ferocious attack on the Horde machines pressing toward the rocks, Hammond turned his attention to his fallen companion.
"How is he?" Hammond said to Frost.
"He's busted up pretty bad, sir," the corporal responded.
"I can make it!" Adrian wheezed, wracked with pain. "I can make it!"
Ladyhawke exploded from the forest and roared away for a heart-stopping moment before leveling out and turning back.
Hammond turned to the Quaedian, who still harassing the Horde with well-aimed laser fire. "Dhalon! Time to go!" the general barked. He turned his attention to getting Adrian on his feet.
Frost took Adrian's left arm across his shoulders which Hammond took the right arm. Adrian groaned, grunted, and cried out in pain at each slight movement. Tears filled his eyes from the pain, but he struggled to stay conscious at least until they got into the Ladyhawke.
The bounty hunter ship bursting from the forest was the signal that it was time to leave. It was a fortuitous event because at that moment, Captain Graza received a message from the Logoss to return. By now, the dropships and the Eternia were all monitoring the same comm channel thanks to Anyssa.
"Earth forces, I have just received the recall order from the Logoss. The Horde warships are disabled and the way is clear for us to leave the area before reinforcements arrive, but we have to go now."
Captain Majourny acknowledged the transmission and began recalling her forces. The Eternia had been cruising at a sedate pace down the river valley to catch the Horde from behind. Jo-jo planned to fire on them only when the time came to pull out. With the recall order sounded from the battlestar, Lieutenant Denton opened up with all available guns.
The first targets to be obliterated were the remaining mobile gun platforms and the mobile artillery units. Ventral quad guns pounded the carriers as the Eternia passed overhead to rendezvous with the dropships, who were engaged in picking up the ground forces. The four Guardians were way over to the left near the extraction point for the Ladyhawke where they had turned back a Horde flanking maneuver. There appeared to be a brief pause in the withdrawal as if one of them was unsure of where to go. Feril solved the issue by putting her dropship nearly on its belly close to the Guardians and stringently order them aboard.
The dropships lifted off with such synchronous precision, Jo-jo would have suspected they had practiced the move. The pilots moved in pairs toward the mothership, continuing to fire their weapons as they lined up with the open bays. Once every round of ammunition was expended, the ship would rise up into the bay to smack soundly into the lift arms to ensure a good connection. At that point, the powerful hydraulic arms pulled the dropships safely up into the bay. Once all four where back in the bays with the APCs and Guardians, Eternia wheeled about and delivered one more strafing run before blasting off for the stars.
Anyssa orbited the landing site where the Ladyhawke had come to rest making sure no stray fighter attempted to ambush her friends. Captain Graza had called out the recall order, but Anyssa refused to leave her friends behind, even though the four-ship Bladewing formation still remained.
Finally, Core Command got involved, but it wasn't the duty officer's voice that came from the speakers. Commander Fontaine ordered, "Scout One, Blue Squadron will escort the Ladyhawke home. Return to base immediately."
Left with no choice, Anyssa aligned with the source of the transmission, and threw the throttles to full power to escape the atmosphere.
"Don't worry, Scout One," Captain Graza assured her, "we'll see to it they come home safely."
"I'll hold you to that, Blue Leader," Anyssa answer tightly.
Graza smiled briefly before getting back to work. She knew Anyssa and her view of the warrior's commitment to friends. Anyssa did not make friends easily and took her friendships very seriously.
The remaining Earth people, and one Quaedian warrior, made their way to the grounded bounty hunter ship. One was clearly injured by the way he was being carried. The Quaedian opened the outer and inner hatches for the trio of humans to rush straight through. Once inside, the hatches were sealed and the ship began to lift off.
"Don't worry about the remaining Horde units," Graza advised the Ladyhawke's pilot. "They have nothing left that can hurt us. Just follow us out and we'll get you back."
"Understood," a female voice replied.
Graza and her wingman led the way over the battlefield and up the river valley. Once they lifted out of the valley and pointed toward space, the Bladewings suddenly had to throttle up to full power to catch up to the Ladyhawke. Graza had known the engines had been upgraded, but she had no idea it could give a Bladewing a run for its credits. Graza advised the pilot to slow down a bit so that her squad could form up for escort.
"I have wounded on board. We need to get aboard your ship as quickly as possible," the woman said, her concern plainly evident in her voice. Graza could tell immediately that the pilot was barely holding it together.
"Affirmative," Graza responded. She switched frequencies briefly to advise Core Command of the incoming ship with wounded.
By now, the formation was out of the atmosphere and closing on the battlestar, which was aligned for the jump into hyperspace for home. Eternia was on final approach to the starboard landing bay with Scout One close behind. All the other fighters were already back on board. Only Graza's squad and the bounty hunter ship remained. Blue Two and Four accelerated ahead to line up for landing on the port side landing bay. Blue three soared ahead when her turn to land came up.
Teelana watched the fighters on the sensor board as they made their approach for landing. The outer wings folded down to form the side landing struts. One-by-one, the Bladewings slid into the bay.
"We're the last ones," Captain Graza said.
"I've never done this before," Teelana admitted. She didn't add that she was afraid of hitting the roof of the bay if she approached wrong.
"No problem. Just stay on my tail and I'll take you all the way in," Graza replied. She slid her fighter out in front of the Ladyhawke and took the lead. "Look at the other landing bay. Do you see those two lines of strobe lights?"
Teelana looked and found them after a moment. "Yes."
"Good. You'll see them in a moment after I get far enough ahead of you. Look about one third of the way down the landing bay. Don't fixate on that point, whatever you do. As you approach, let your eyes slide up the landing deck. You will touch down on the point you were initially looking at on approach. And, no, you won't hit anything doing as I just explained. No has ever done that, so don't be the first."
"Right. Got it." Teelana tried her best to ignore what was going on behind her back near the cargo hold. She needed to get this right on the first try. Graza explained where the control for the landing gear should be. She found it low on the center console, next to the lever for the landing struts. Ships like the Ladyhawke were equipped with two sets because one never knew what type of area one would be landing in. Three green lights indicated the strut and roller pads were extended and locked.
The Bladewing was now so far out in front that Teelana had trouble seeing it until it passing into the landing bay. Now it was her turn. Core Command talked to her down the approach corridor, but Teelana ignored it. She concentrated on what the fighter pilot had told her. She suddenly realized that she didn't know the woman's name. It was a strange thought to be having at a time like this.
Eyes sliding up the bay as she approached, Teelana had such a death grip on the control yoke that her knuckles were white. No one was shouting at her to abort the landing and try again, so she pressed on. She didn't notice passing through the atmosphere shield at the end of the bay. Awareness returned when the ship bumped slightly on contact with the deck. Teelana immediately applied the brakes with the foot pedals and activated the forward thrusters to slow down.
Ladyhawke slowed to a halt well short of the mass of Bladewings being serviced in the forward half of the bay.
Commander Fontaine watched the entire operation with clinical interest. A medical team was on its way to meet the Ladyhawke and tend to the wounded on board. She suppressed her anxiety over how long it was taking to get the ship in. She was well aware that no one on that ship had ever shot a landing on a battlestar's decks, and to rush this would end in disaster. The Horde re-enforcements were closing on the system, but the window to get clean away was still open.
"Once the ship is down and secured, jump to hyperspace," Fontaine ordered Colonel Darius.
Darius nodded in acknowledgement. "All fighters are accounted for, and the Eternia reports the same of her people."
The flight controller reported, "Ladyhawke is down and secured. Medical team is responding."
"Helm, get us out of here. Jump when ready," Darius ordered.
Logoss, already aligned for home, powered up the hyperdrive. A cloud of bluish electrical energy formed ahead of the battlestar. Tendrils reached out as the ship began to accelerate, latched on, and the warship disappeared in a flash taking the cloud with it.
235
