Back on the Tempest, he pulled Marcus and Cora off to his room for a meeting to discuss his strategy. His room was half its size now, like a fourth of a pie partitioned lengthwise, separating his bedroom from the coffee table and his study by a cabinet that displayed some of his model ships and cars and pictures of his family and friends. There he revealed to them what they had to do to infiltrate the Kett facility.
When he finished, Marcus whistled, leaning back in his chair. "Well, shit. This is even crazier than Habitat Seven."
"I know so if you have unfinished business, you need to finish it now," Scott said, looking from one to the other, forearms on his thighs while his hands were clasped between them.
Cora sat silently in thought, her lips pinched together. Then she raised her head to meet his gaze. "How do you know the Kett won't shoot at us?" she asked.
He shrugged. "I don't. I was counting on their overconfidence," he said and leaned back facing her by straightening an arm resting on his thigh. "If you have any other ideas, I'll gladly welcome them."
She looked uneasy but she didn't say anything.
"I don't," Marcus piped up, a curious gleam in his eye. "From what we heard at the base, this is the best we've got." Then he reached out and clapped them both at the shoulder. "Well, fellas, it's been a pleasure knowing you," he said, smiling at them both that Cora had to smile. She looked away from Marcus and turned to Scott. "Goodness. Following you, Ryders is just one hell of an adventure."
Scott grinned.
"Anyway, are you going to tell the Nexus?" Marcus inquired.
His grin faded. Reporting to Captain Dunn didn't trouble him, but the mention of the Nexus brought up the thought of his sister still in a coma. If he died here, who will take care of her? Will the people at the station cut support on vegetative people to conserve resources when they have no one to speak for them? "As soon as we're done here."
"Alright then," Marcus said and rose up. "I'll just round up the others and have a mini party at the cargo bay if you don't mind. I really need a drink."
"Count me in," Cora answered, rising too. "This might be the last time I'll have it."
"I'll join you later," Scott said. They nodded and went out of his cabin and while the two hollered for their crew to gather around, Scott went up to the ladder beside his door and onto the bridge connecting the cockpit to the research station. He crossed it and walked up to the vidcon room and sent a priority message to the Nexus. He had to wait for nearly an hour before the image of Captain Dunn appeared, looking…furious?
"Where the hell have you been?" she barked.
He leaned slightly back, not expecting that reaction from her. "I've made contact with another alien race," he said, in a voice smaller than what he thought he was going to use to announce his progress and told her what happened at Aya and the bet he'd made with the Angara. He finished with their plan in infiltrating the Kett base. The captain listened silently but still fuming as he talked and when he finished, kept silently fuming still. When it stretched into minutes with him awkwardly looking at her glaring eyes, he had to risk asking her problem. "Captain?"
She screwed her eyes shut and with difficulty, said, "Do you know how we've been ever since you and your team disappeared without informing us where you went?"
He leaned his head back. "Ah."
"You nearly gave us a heart attack. The Founders are still missing with one murdered and then you suddenly disappeared. What did you think we felt about that?"
Scott resisted the impulse to sheepishly scratch his head. She has a point; it would have been very hectic at the station if they thought the Nexus killer struck again. "I'm sorry, but we had to do this. It's a risk but we can't get anywhere without taking one."
"Going on an unsanctioned mission without informing anyone of your whereabouts? That is a violation of protocol, not only of common sense. Why are you so sure that they will not try to trick you to kill you?"
"They asked me not to inform anyone else about going to their city. It was a test of trust and if we had refused, we'd have blown our chance," he answered defensively. "When we arrived there, we didn't know the extent of their technology. We've seen their ships pass through the Shroud without being harmed. I am not sure if they'd be able to detect any covert communications we might have used." He added, in a smaller and slightly petulant voice, "Besides, you could have asked SAM anytime. It goes anywhere I go."
She looked as if she wanted to strangle him through the projection. "Ask SAM?" she said, her cracking. "Do I look like a servant to you, Mr. Ryder, that I personally have to go ask where you are? If you can't make the report yourself, then ask SAM or any of your team to make it on your behalf."
"Yes, Ma'am."
She put a hand up her temple to rub it and then dropped it and gestured with a chopping motion to emphasize each point as she said, "From now on, Pathfinder, I expect regular reports from you or any of your team if you can't do it. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Ma'am."
She put her hands on her hips and huffed out the last bit of anger she was about to use to ream him out more, before asking him to repeat the plan to save the Moshae. When he finished, she was shaking her head. "This is extremely risky. Are you sure there's no other way?" she asked.
He nodded. "The base was heavily fortified. The Angara are going to do the other way. Either we had to risk this or not. I'm also open to suggestions."
"Could we ask to do something else?"
He tried not to smile at the thought that she'd try to bargain and shook his head. "This was their condition. They won't accept any less than their scholar's rescue."
He saw her bow her head and put a hand over her face, rubbing her temples. She didn't speak for a long time and he knew she was weighing the costs and benefits of their attempt for an alliance as he had back at Techiix.
She sighed and dropped the hand. "You're the only Pathfinder we have left," she said, showing that she too thought that they have more to gain from an alliance with the Angara.
"I know. That's why we need to make arrangements for SAM's transfer just in case we fail." She was still captain of the Hyperion where SAM's physical body was housed. "I won't have time to authorize a transfer," he said. If they were targeted, their death would be instantaneous and to transfer SAM out of his head before the bullets even hit would literally be suicide for him.
"Are you sure you can't leave Cora to carry on as Pathfinder?"
"I need her there. She's crucial for the operation. I don't have any other people who have the training and the biotic capability to do this."
"SAM?" she called off-screen, "What would happen if the Pathfinder were to die without transferring you to someone?"
SAM answered them both, its voice echoing due to the lag of the vidcon in the Tempest. "It would cause severe damage to my processing matrix."
"But will our technicians here be able to repair you?"
"Possibly. Most of the knowledge on my creation is in my memory banks which will not be affected. However, the crucial ones are locked in Alec Ryder's memories which are tied to my processing matrix."
She cursed. "Dammit. This would mean we would lose SAM too." She chewed her lip, staring past him as she thought. Then her gaze returned to his face. "Fine. Those Angara better keep their word," she muttered. "Good luck to you and your team, Pathfinder," she said, almost as if she was saying goodbye. "Know that your sacrifices will be honored. Rest assured we'll take care of your sister and carry on your work."
"Thank you, Captain and… good luck," he said back. She nodded then closed the line.
They went back to the Voeld Angara base and he informed the commanders about their plan to sneak into the Kett facility. As they listened, their expression went from disbelief to acceptance then looked at each other.
"If you succeed, you'll give us more time to save the Moshae and get out of the system before reinforcements arrive," Commander Do Xeel admitted. "Very well. We will incorporate your plan to ours. We'll need time to lure the destroyer guarding the planet out the system. Have your team ready anytime."
"Wait, destroyer? The Kett have a destroyer?"
"Yes. That is why we haven't been able to get close."
He paused. If they have a destroyer, then what's the problem? Destroyers were meant to hit large targets; it's not going to hit a cruiser which their plan was based on. Surely their smaller vessels can cripple it? Unless its point defense is extremely good. "And you don't have something to counter it? Like a dreadnought of your own?"
"The Families won't spare them since the Armada may attack a homeworld at any time. Even so, those won't have much of an effect since kinetic barriers and armor are useless against it. Besides, we would prefer not to engage it so near the planet, as the range of its weapon is wide." She tapped at the console and the cluster map appeared, highlighting the neighboring system. "We've observed high Kett interest in the Remav system, so another fleet will try to draw it there. But even if we succeed in luring it out, it's too near so we have to finish the battle quickly."
Commander Do Xeel then explained the broad facts of the battle plan. Scott listened looking respectful while thinking to himself that the Andromedan way of fighting was very different from theirs. For one, the Angara and the Kett don't form a straight line facing each other and slugging it out as if they're infantry of gentlemen.
After the meeting, he went back to the Tempest parked outside and emerged onto the cargo bay where Marcus and Cora were working with Gil and Vetra to prepare the room for the operation while Jaal above them on the platform looked, silent but alert. The air was tense with knowledge that at any time, the question of their survival will be tested.
Two days had passed and Commander Do Xeel sent them a message to assemble on the orbit of Voeld and join the rest of the fleet. When everyone was accounted for, a carrier drove them to the system. It carried frigates, cruisers and small combat vessels, which were designed differently from the ships that escorted them to Aya. Well, some of them anyway.
The normal frigates were flatter with their guns like pincers and rotating thrusters at the wings. The cruisers were spherical with a smooth surface, flaring at the back to hide the light of the exhaust when viewed from the front. However, this design was a minority because the rest of the fleet was composed of the ugliest ships he has ever seen. There was no uniform design he could discern or what purpose it served. To be kind, he would say they look like a bunch of misshapen potatoes, with thrusters and guns and tubes which look like vents poking all around it like eye nodes. But if he were, to be honest, they look like….shit. Stealthy shit, to be fair. Discreet scans by their ship suggest that either they were covered with metamaterials that cloak from radar or infrared scanners or have an efficient heat storage system which made their heat signature too low to be easily detected from afar (or else indistinguishable from other celestial objects like asteroids) and nearly undetectable when they were idle, as some of them are doing now.
Even so, despite the ugly design, he thought the Angara's manufacturing capability must be great enough to produce ships of unique designs instead of mass-producing their fleet by following a very simple, easy to make and assemble design.
Halfway to the system, the carrier stopped and dropped off the ships, the Tempest along with them and then went away in a flash. Commander Do Xeel's ship positioned itself at the head of the formation and sent a message to all ships to prepare for arrival.
The Kett Fleet was composed of fighters shaped like a tailbone with the drives at the back and cruisers shining a dull waxy green, ovoid with protrusions like legs near the slightly bigger back and guns studding its body aside from the two running on its length. All of this made it look like fat, hairy caterpillars floating around the planet cocooned in ice.
Barring obstacles, a powerful telescope can see billions of light-years away so approaching objects cannot be hidden. The Angara knew the general direction of their enemy, but their enemy didn't know what direction the attack will come from or when. Even with powerful telescopes, the observing stations cannot watch the whole universe or distinguish the light of ships which were fainter compared to suns. The Angaran fleet was provided information with the orbits of the stations and the composition of the Kett fleet simply by focusing their telescopes on that direction. Though they don't know each ship's exact location, their patrol patterns gave the Angaran navigators enough data to guess where they will be for their gunners to use during the opening salvo.
The fleet then went closer and closer to the system by popping behind massive suns or planets, stopping only to let their FTL drives cool down until they can jump again. When near enough, they dropped out of FTL approaching from above, below and sides of the planet's orbital plane to surround the Kett fleet and minimize hitting the base directly. When the Kett fleet was in range, the vanguard jumped into FTL and decelerated, releasing missiles as they sped past the planet to stop at the other side. Some of the missiles hit the Kett ships who were just starting to orient themselves. Some of it missed, but fortunately, the satellites orbiting the planet were hit and destroyed them. As the vanguard flipped back to hide their main thruster and face the enemy counter-fire with their front where their armor and shields were strongest, the second group zipped past, releasing missiles at the Kett ships who were oriented towards the vanguard group. The other groups followed using the same pattern, reaching their post as the Kett finally realized what they were doing and abandoned orienting on each new arrival and instead went into a defensive formation. The Angaran fleet also moved into their attack pattern, moving in a starburst to confound the enemy's targeting and spreading to surround them while maintaining distance for mutual defense.
The Kett fleet then clustered into a defensive formation, moving to evade shots coming from all directions and also in a way to prevent a lucky Angaran ship from appearing in their middle and attacking them from behind. As their main guns ran the length of their ship and not omnidirectional, they had to orient them towards the Angaran ships to counter them but with this, they also risk exposing their sides to the others which will have more accurate shots due to the wider target. Since they can use the planet to defend from attack from behind, some Kett ships went immediately into FTL, before the Angaran Fleet could surround them, and return to attack from behind. Thus, the formation of the Fleet changed from abreast to spherical, with frigates moving behind and facing back to guard the flanks.
As the Kett fired at them, the ships move to evade targeting in a spiral motion, not laterally which would slow it down unlike the former due to using opposing thrust to change direction. Surprisingly, the potato-shaped ships were very agile in evading shots due to the thrusters that studded their body.
Both fleets will aim to pick off ships one by one by concentrating fire on it. However, as their formations are only as strong as their weakest link, they will change their formation so as to protect more of their badly damaged ships. Both fleets will count on that change so their tactics included predicting each other's movements along with the accuracy of their information (same) and the relative strength of their fleet (the Kett have slightly better armor). For now, the Angara has the advantage due to their initial sudden attack and their position, which gives them more freedom to maneuver.
Unbeknown to him, the carriers that dropped out midway to the location were encircling the area in a random pattern with a cache of missiles and to collect heat from the ships, as each fighter was fitted with detachable sinks to trap heat generated from the battle. As the battle was happening near a star, the build-up of heat would be faster and time would be a constraint. The fighters were provided with the carriers' locations and would occasionally withdraw from the battle to go to them to replace their sinks with new ones or replenish their missiles and return, thus able to fight longer and maybe win simply by outlasting their enemy.
So, the Angara's battle plan was this: Destroy the satellites around the planet and if possible, prevent the ships leaving the area to summon reinforcements. They assumed that reinforcements will be informed as soon as they arrived as they could not tell which of the ships had QEC or if the base had it.
Back at the cargo bay, Scott, Marcus, and Cora watched the battle via a projection with SAM helpfully gave them a play by play of the battle, the distances scaled to the millimeter, showing them who hit this ship or that based on data the Tempest's sensors receive. On their way to the planet, Commander Do Xeel said to them, "The destroyer is about an hour away so whatever you do down there, finish it quickly." The Tempest, without being tasked with either defending or attacking, went around the battlefield at the back of the fleet to travel to the side of the planet opposite the base. With their stealth technology, they were able to enter the atmosphere of the planet and moved to the mesosphere. Then the Tempest swerved, so it was moving forward with its rear. Then Kallo went on the line to inform them that they're in the drop zone.
They stopped watching and turned off the projection, focusing on the matter at hand. The three soldiers checked on their armor, ensuring that their jump jets were working and have enough juice. They also checked on their parachutes, just in case there was a malfunction midair. They also performed checks on their weapons. Finally, Scott told Kallo on the intercom that they were ready, and their pilot answered them to standby for decompression. The cargo bay began to bleed the air and pressure level inside the hull out into the night until both had equalized. Then they pressed against the wall beside the cargo bay doors, holding to the netting, waiting for Kallo's signal. A few minutes later, the door opened, and they stared out into thousands of feet of rushing black air. Holding onto the ropes on either side, they shuffled to the very edge of the ramp and looked at the lights on each side of the gaping aperture.
Scott signaled for them to go now. Marcus and Cora turned on one heel, facing into the dark abyss and jumped, arms apart, faces down. Scott was about to follow them when Jaal called him back. He looked back and saw the Angara behind the glass on the corridor to the cargo bay, looking at him with wonder and great disbelief.
"You're insane," he said.
Scott just smiled at him then threw himself overboard and into the air. He was still smiling as he plummeted and joined his companions, dreaming to replicate the Angara's expression to every one of his people who doubted them. Scott had one last glimpse of the Tempest going up and out of sight of the nearest Kett ship peeking from the horizon before he flipped towards the planet. Their suits then began to oscillate their shields to minimize friction with the air. Stabilizing their fall position, they dropped through the stratosphere and finally the troposphere and below. The sky was clear, the stars visible, black shapes of mountains rushed upward on all sides until the base was in sight. They could see the ring of the wall and then the tower, looming tall over it all. Three thousand feet passed by and they showed no sign of stopping, growing closer and closer to their destination.
Scott waited for the shots to come if the Kett were more suspicious and not enjoying the sight of people plummeting to their death. He knew if they decided to blow them up instead, their death would be instantaneous. The mass accelerated projectile, meant for ships, would rip them into pieces and cook the remains. Or they'll die by laser, their body turning into charred husks if it had not vaporized immediately upon contact. He thought morbidly that if the Kett wants a taste for human meat, they need only go outside and spread their hands and they'll receive a meal like manna from heaven.
At five hundred, they were luckily on the path towards the transmitter. If they hadn't, they would have adjusted by using their jump jets and that would have alerted the Kett. Or they'll have to accept flying past their target and landing somewhere then disable the transmitter some other way with the Kett probably at their heels. He knew this technique was supposed to be used to land them not on the target itself, but since approaching from the land was slower, this would have to do. With ten minutes to decelerate, Scott signaled to Cora and they hook themselves on both sides of Marcus and waited for five before activating their biotic field.
Part of the perks of was the ability to have biotics even if they were not born with it. It was not true biotics; his ability was merely the power of ships to create a barrier and accelerate his speed, scaled to a person's size. So, he won't be making singularities anytime soon. Through his implants, SAM was coordinating with and making the minute adjustments to his suit's micro-emitters to mimic biotics.
They floated down the platform, nearly missing the edge, and then quickly ran to the center column, heart hammering in their chests at their lucky escape but now confident that the Kett won't shoot them without destroying the transmitter too. They knew they had minutes before the Kett probably watching see them, board their gunships and a second for them to arrive and shoot at them. They quickly unpacked the bombs from their pack. Scott handed one to Cora and she charged to the other side as he and Marcus strapped theirs on the base of the column between the platforms. They then ran towards each other then, holding each other's hands, they quickly jumped off. He and Cora made a barrier around them and as they fell, they saw the ground illuminated for a brief second before the air rippled and a strong wind buffeted them away with a roar. He looked back to see the tower splitting in half, its pieces falling.
As they flew, Scott tapped on his omni-tool. "The transmitter's down. I repeat, the transmitter's down," he said into it, hoping that the Tempest received it and passed it on to their allies. They pulled each other closer. Cora once said that these barriers were strong enough to withstand direct hits from ships. Their barrier might hold the first shot, but not the second, third or the subsequent shots.
Is this how we die? he thought as they fell through the air, the snowy landscape of the Kett base before them. He already had died but not as clear-headed like this before. There was no struggle, no sense of peace, only the long and slightly boring wait for the strike to come. They'd die instantly of course, but would they still be conscious, like a ghost hanging around to see as their body fell into pieces? Would they have seconds of awareness as pieces of their body burned towards the earth? Would they feel the air become so still as a flash of light shone on the ground then erupt into huge mushroom clouds of dust and…smoke?
Yes, smoke, because he realized the ground below is being bombarded from orbit.
He was about to yell and shake his fist, exhilarated to be alive when the air rippled and gave a sharp, violent scream and the shock waves sent them sharply flying. Then another one exploded and another and another, buffeting them uncontrollably until they screamed. They did not notice their bubble land through the haze and bounced. The barrier burst on impact due to their shock and they rolled to the ground. Scott yelled for his companions and them also for him, crawling towards each other over the heaving ground and the deafening explosions. The air was choked with dust but there was a collapsed shed nearby and they staggered to it. Cora produced another barrier and they huddled together as the ground shook and the explosions thundered around them. Scott opened his omni-tool to contact the Tempest and yelled their location, asking them not to bomb them. He barely heard Kallo's answer as another roar ripped through and soil showered over them, hot air sweeping in and fizzling against their barrier.
They could do nothing but wait for it to be over. Scott curled in a fetal position, helpless, unable to do anything but cower in terror.
AN: This chapter is the hardest part for me to write (mostly because of the physics involved) so thanks to szierera for helping me on my grammar, spelling, lore, science and overall coherence of this fic. If you still find the physics here as wonky, don't blame the beta. He did his best but I insisted.