Clouds whipped by his cockpit as he rocketed through the upper atmosphere, thousands of kilometers above the research outpost that was built through funding by Earth Gov and several small corporations that were interested in this sector. He was racing high above them, deep into the zone, engines whining at near full power, as he was getting ready for a dive into the well.
He tightened his hands over his stick, about to make the difficult turn, and felt like gulping; atmospheric maneuvering was rough even on the most steeled of Starfury warriors. He cut power down to seventy percent to his engines, just to be on the safe side, said a little prayer, and then jerked his stick over working the controls madly.
His jets on his fighter fired rolling over his fighter practically in mid air, almost impossibly, an alarm activated as he crashed into the side of his seat, and then his engines roared back to life and he dove.
He decided to ride out the storm, and let gravity do its work, he cut power to his main engines and cut his speed ever so slightly.
Michael Keegan was now in free fall, the G-Forces on his fighter forcing him up to his feet, keeping him pinned into the back of his seat. His fighter was dropping like a stone. About two thousand meters up he threaded power through the engines again, and used his retros to shed speed from his falling craft.
He leveled off at about fifty centimeters, bringing his fighter into a almost dead stop before engaging his main engines and then shooting back up, climbing twice as rapidly as he fell, as he caught a group of Centauri bombers off guard, he then went to work.
Colonel Norman and his Marine Captain were on the ground, walking lightly through a dirt path that cut in between the main station and a far off post, with only one main route in or out of the place to the space port. It was going to be difficult to get these people out.
But he had to try.
He was hefting a standard PPG rifle, an updated version of the Earth Force staple for over a half century now. Jose was lumbering along an M5885 heavy repeating sniper rifle, a powerful slug thrower that could reach out dependably and scour a target over nine hundred meters distance.
A roaring over-head caused the two men to look up, and they saw a pair of Raptor class Starfuries gently going by in the daylight, before revving their engines and rocketing off into battle.
They were there to keep the enemy off of the backs of the ground forces. They were assigned to stop the enemy fighters, bombers, and bricks from falling through the atmosphere and over running them, the latter carrying divisions of ground forces to swarm over the base and capture it for the Centauri. The Centauri had come in force this battle, this was no mere diversion.
In space a furious battle was beginning for the future of the inhabitance below, if the Earth Force task force failed, then the scientists below would be subject to death or imprisonment, as likely were their families.
The task force consisted of about thirty-two ships of almost every class, along with hundreds of Starfuries, doing battle against a Centauri task force many times the size of the Earth Alliance's.
An Earth Force Centurion class Dreadnaught, along with a pair of Delta Novas was slicing into the Centauri line of assault cruisers that were on the attack. They covered for each other, and provided crossfire for one another, the Nova's taking care of the fighter defense as the Centurion engaged in long range suppression fire of the enemy gun positions aligned against her, before slashing their attackers up into little tiny bits.
Starfuries were engaging all over the map, spinning out of the way, and in fireballs, attempting to engage anything that came close to the planet's atmosphere. Both sides were taking heavy casualties.
The Gandalf was in high orbit, forming a planetary blockade, her weapons firing on almost complete defensive as they shot bolts of energy out of the sky. They had one of their squadrons helping them out and then another pair of squadrons from the Calypso that was parked in the battle somewhere. The Gandalf also had a pair of Lupo frigates with them, helping and supporting their fields of fire, and doggedly defending this piece of sky from Centauri heavy drop ships.
On almost the opposite side of the planet a pair of Nike class Battlecruisers, along with four Vigilante cutters, and another Lupo frigate were engaging the heaviest thrust that the enemy was making against the planetary defenses. They were the ones that were leaking the most and letting ships though.
A nuclear explosion went off deep in space, ripping apart one Centauri heavy cruiser apart, and nearly destroying another pair. One of the Nike's adjusted her position slightly, and unleashed a storm of railgun shots, finishing off one of the two vessels. Thus stopping the first Centauri thrust dead in its tracks. Then they and the fighter squads with them went after the enemy ships that were surrounding them.
The Calypso meanwhile was doing battle far and away from the planet, deep in a lane of gravity that separated the planet from one of its moons, and then finally out towards deep space. Without the old Poseidon class Carrier there, the fleet would be in deep trouble. But her and her fighters were proving to be the deciding factor to the battle so far. Allowing the combined Earth Force fleet to keep the enemy at bay, and then shooting down all their fighters and drop ships. And also allowing the capitol ships enough room to really open up some holes in the enemy defenses.
Captain Patterson flat out scowled at the tactical display. He was leaning over a bridge railing hanging onto it as another light hit shook the fabric of the ship gently. He was only holding the rail as hard as he was out of frustration and bitterness, the only sign of those negative emotions as he forced them through his hands and into the metal.
He was staring at the tactical sensor display directly in front of his eyes, and the situation looked grim despite how well they were doing. The Centauri had sent in nearly a full battle fleet against their position, going to use this area as a staging area apparently. They had not expected to run into any resisistence, and were putting up a fierce fight as a result. However, most of their capitol ships, their Dreadnoughts, old Battle Cruisers, and defense cruisers, were hanging back, not engaging the Earth Alliance Forces. This left only wave after wave of ships to break themselves against the Earth Force lines, most of them succumbing to the firepower quickly, but others staying in there long enough to get a few good quality shots through. These were intercepted by the Gandalf and her escorts, but every now and then a shot got through.
Patterson knew why they were doing it, they had underestimated the forces arrayed against them and did not want to risk their big bulk ships on a minor defense. As a result though they were getting slaughtered against the Earth Force Lines.
But Patterson knew this could not continue for much longer, that eventually they would get tired and begin to charge their lines. Right now they were staying just out of reach, well within extreme range for the Gandalf's long-range particle cannons, and her ion guns, but out of effective range. Most of the shots the Gandalf would fire would be intercepted long before they reached their targets, at least as the battle stood right now.
The only way that the ion bolts would stand a chance of getting through is if Patterson turned all nine of them on one target and fired. But they were a little busy fending off the gnats of the Centauri advanced fleet right now, and not even a long stream of pulses would get through the Centauri defense.
Patterson's frown deepened, his brows furrowing in slight concentration. All he had to do though was let his expert crew handle themselves in the line of fire.
This part of the job he really hated, he hated having to hand back for large amounts of time and just let his crew do their jobs. Because it was not really up to him to micromanage, and shout orders all the time, he could just give the assignments that he thought best at the time, and hope everything worked out. Allowing his crew to follow those orders, and then to improvise their own as they saw fit as the messages continued to go up and down the chain of command.
"Sir, long range engine scans reveal that the Centauri Capitol ship screens have begun to move, they are warming up their engines and are coming in."
Patterson arched his eyebrow at the crewman who announced this, his mind racing and souring. He was really hoping that the Centauri would give them a few more minutes in order to get the refugees out from the planet surface.
"Alright, lets realign us, bring us around and bring our main guns to bear on the lead vessels, fire on my mark." Patterson ordered, and then thought of something "and also tie us into the tactical computer onboard the Dreadnaught, we need to tie into them to see what they are doing in order to anticipate when we need to cover them. Get everything else in the air that we possibly can."
"Everything is already in the air."
Patterson sighed internally, then set his face in a grim mask. This was not going to get any easier.
Keegan twisted his control yoke around, shooting him up and over a Centauri missile that was launched at him. He saw it streak off toward space on his tactical display, then adjust to find a new target, he spun around brought his systems online and fired, taking it out long before it could reacquire him, or go after a new target.
He twisted around in his harness, observing the furball that he and a squadron of Thunderbolts were in. They were badly outnumbered, Centauri fighters going after him like flies to rotten meat, swarming and buzzing around him cautiously, looking like they were flying an odd race track pattern, being cautious.
He had no choice, he realized, he revved his engines up and made a sharp dive, pursuing a fighter that was trying, suddenly, to go evasive. He put a pair of bolts into its starboard wing, ripping it to shreds and causing it to spin out of control, slamming into the rocks below.
He continued on his course, the canyon walls filling his canopy view within seconds. He leveled off precisely and merged into the canyon, shooting into it at near full speed, he had to stifle a shocked gasp as his heart, and most of his other internal organs, felt like they were being slammed up through his neck.
He flashed on Stacia's face, and nearly shook his head to clear it, and then realized that both actions could get him killed. By the time he was able to concentrate he was getting onto another fighter that was sitting in front of him, hovering, he had to pull the trigger quickly, blindly destroying his prey and sending it to its fiery death.
He then had to twist and spin his fighter around, its engines roaring as it nearly crashed into the canyon wall.
Keegan had always hated atmospheric piloting, you had to worry about so much more doing this, and you were always so much more trapped in this kind of combat then in the stars far above.
He cursed to himself as suddenly his alarms screamed at him, as the swarm of fighters far above him launched a hail of missiles and ion bolts down at him. Two of the bolts hit him, causing his ship to jar significantly; he got it back under control and looked for a way out.
He saw one, then arched his eyebrows significantly as he ran an eye over his tactical scanner, and saw it clear on the other side.
He cursed again, the missiles were right on top of him. He spun his fighter around radically to port, saying another short prayer, as he rocketed into the cave, the twelve missiles lost him, and slammed into the cave, one even penetrating its depths to explode on the roof. He shot out the other side, the fireball expanding out just after him.
He glanced up to the ceiling of his cockpit, acquiring two fighters on his tactical net. He threaded his throttle and cut his speed drastically, bringing his fighter into a near hover, as he fired two missiles off the ejector racks. The surprised fighters tried to juke, but were torn to ribbons, a third one taking some damage.
He fired his thrusters lightly, bringing his speed up as the enemy fighters looked for him in retaliation for what he did to their squad mates. He skimmed the edge of the canyon, just barely staying ahead of it, but breathing calmly. He was now used to it, and was able to successfully navigate the rock face of the canyon, buying him a few extra seconds. His speed was less then Mach 1 though.
His warning alarms started to chirp at him again, as the sensitive passive scanners were sensing Centauri class scanner beams passing over his skin, trying to attain lock on. Keegan was not going to give them the satisfaction.
He gripped the throttle, and then rocketed forward, shooting out from the cliff that he was using to help hide his fighter. Ahead of him were two Centauri fighters, gliding into the canyon to try and intercept him.
He charged at him hard, launching himself into a power charge forward, his engines slightly roaring to life, using the sudden increase in power to jolt his fighter forward.
Keegan saw one of the Centauri fighters take a blind fire right at him, he cringed as his fighter took an obvious hit. His upper left wing display glowed showing where he had been hit; this launched his fighter down toward the rocky bottom, nearly causing him to crash into the dry river bed. He adjusted and raised his fighter again, going off the ground, and inverting. Two seconds and he was on top of his opponent, he fired simultaneously and the enemy exploded in a bright flash in front of him. Keegan blew right on through the debris storm at full power, and more warning alarms began to come to sudden life.
But he was not out of it yet, as he had to gently roll his fighter down to the deck again, going just below a charging enemy, he came up again reverting his fighter and charging at the wall, he initiated a direct spin, moving around 180 degrees back the way he came. His momentum nearly carried him into the rock face behind him, but his engines caught up and then roared against the rock mass, shooting him in pursuit of the enemy plane. He toggled a missile and fired it, it went into the fleeing fighter's engine housing, and this too was annihilated in mid air.
He then left the Canyon at near full speed, and accelerating rapidly. He was tired of this, and needed to get to space to rearm and refuel. He used full advantage of his stealth suite, deploying all of his systems, as he attempted to get back to the long night.
The gray floor rushed up to meet Patterson's forehead as he lost his balance and fell hard to the deck. A white nova exploded before his eyes as he connected with it hard, he must have gone out cold for a couple of seconds. The hit was still rattling through the structure of the ship. The lights were out, and the acrid smell of burnt circuits reached his nose. He registered that his vision was a bit blurry, and his mind sluggish. He shook his head hard, clearing both his vision and his mind, slowly working to determine what happened. They must have been hit by a Centauri heavy death pulse from one of their Dreadnoughts.
He glanced around his command center, and saw that the lights were indeed out, only the console displays were still working, and a strobe light at the back exit of his bridge. He looked left and saw two of his crew lolling in their chairs, their station darkened and cracked as it exploded in front of them, an orderly was checking them. He looked grim.
Finally, two more members of his crew noticed him and jogged over to assist him.
"How bad are you hurt?" the orderly of the group asked him full of concern.
He ran a short diagnostic; he seemed to be fine, though he tasted blood in his mouth and knew that his forehead was bleeding cause of the sharp pains. "I think I can hang in there."
His orderly ran an eye over him, smiled, nodded in acknowledgement, and then went on over back to his position.
Patterson stood up, glancing back at the destroyed crew station, and realized it to be the damage control station. A hull breach alarm was blaring throughout the ship though, letting him know that her skin was badly punctured. "Kill that alarm, I am sure the people who can do something about it already have." He ordered grimly. He then looked up at the main status board to see where the enemy ships were, "give me a full power burn from the main G.O.D. cannons, and target Dealta-5, along its neck if you would. Lets see how well they can hold up to our fire."
"Yes sir." The weapon controller barked before relaying a series of his own orders to the person manning the fire control station that was in charge of the main guns.
The helm also had to adjust its position ever so slightly, as the ship swung around directly, pointing bow on toward the enemy Dreadnaught. The latter attempted to maneuver out of the firing line, but was too slow and too bulky to do much of anything. Still they had a small chance to make it.
But not for long, a stream of ion pulses erupted from the main guns all along the Gandalf, four of them directly pointing at their query. This ripped the defenses down, draining them and impacting along the hull, compromising the larger ship's maneuverability. Against a ship so formidable every bit helped. The barrage also prevented them from launching a retaliatory strike, as the Centauri vessel had to reroute power.
Then the big guns on the Warlock class destroyer opened up, two crimson particle beams split space into component parts as it shot through the vacuum, colliding with the Dreadnaught near perfectly amidships, ripping its hull apart, and causing explosive decompressions. But yet the Dreadnaught survived, albeit it was limping off in need of heavy repair, but it could still fly.
Even if the Gandalf had the will to finish off her opponent, she could not have done it anyway. Two Vorchan class assault cruisers, and one Mirado jumped on top of the Earth force Destroyer, firing at it with all main guns, causing the Gandalf to respond with an impressive barrage of defensive, and counter battery fire.
Patterson cursed to himself as the ship began to tremor violently and constantly, he knew that his hull plating was really beginning to buckle and take a strain. He knew what he had to do, but it took an extreme amount of will to order it, and he knew it left the people on the surface in an extremely vulnerable position, but he had no choice, he had to survive to fight another day. It just took him seeing a Lupo frigate disappearing on the sensor scopes to realize that he absolutely had to. He sighed deeply and put his orders into practice.
"Helm, take us out of here, readjust our orbit to a high standing position, set us directly over the planets northern pole region, about fifty thousand kilometers up should do the trick. Then prepare to defend, communications tell the Lupo the same thing."
"Yes sir." Said his helm team.
The ship powered forward, the Lupo heading out into deep space away from the battlefield, and toward the only operation jump gate in the entire area.
The Gandalf was under a hail of yellow bolts of energy that was hitting mostly in the stern part of the ship, as their enemy tried to disable their opponent's engine system, and knock the Gandalf out of the fight. Perhaps even destroying her. The Gandalf responded in kind though, forcing one of their harassers to fall back or be destroyed utterly.
Michael Keegan was right next to the Gandalf as her engines began to move, and new order assignments were being routed for him to go to. He stayed close to his ship, about five hundred meters back, as he powered up to follow his home base up the well.
On the surface Colonel Norman, and his Marine Captain were standing on a dirt path outside the space port that they were using to evacuate the scientists and residents that it was their task to evacuate. Norman still had his rifle, this time locked and loaded. Jose was scanning the deep horizon around the winding path, looking for any interference, as the next group of refugees passed him on the right, heading up the path.
A line of Blue pulses passed just over his head on the left, barely intercepting his ear in mid flight, as it headed at a small knot of people, cutting most of them up badly. Jose got down into a crouch and snapped up his sights, bringing his weapon to bare on anything that he could see. It took him a few seconds to see the small wave of Centauri Royal Special Forces passing over part of the path just over the next ridge, perfect range for his weapon. He bought it up and began to poor fire onto his target, dropping a few of them, and causing others to falter.
Norman bought his weapon up and hipped fired at the enemy formation, causing them to scatter a bit, but it was a mostly ineffective strike at this range. Jose scowled at that, and glanced over to the colonel, before resuming his fire on the enemy position, cutting down three or four of them.
Then their coms beeped at them, and from what Jose could tell his entire squad too. Norman answered it, moving into a more concealed position behind a rock. Despite the growing din of battle, Jose could still make out the words.
"Norman here, what is happening Captain?"
Captain Patterson's voice came over the link, staticy to the extreme due to the weapon disruptions between the receiver and transceiver, but it was still perceivable. "James, you might want to hurry it up a little bit, the Centauri are moving into position with some really big guns, we have lost the high ground, trying to provide you with all the cover that we can." An explosion could be heard in the background emphasizing Patterson's next point. "But we are not going to last much longer, you have to get them out of there."
Norman looked up, glancing to the rear of his position, then to the front, estimating distances, and looking at his Marines who all had heard the message. Some of them looked a bit uncomfortable, being put on the block was not a step that many of the men under his command would like, he knew that his Captain would, his Captain preferred to do things from the scramble.
"We'll manage, James out." He said. He then brought his weapon up and started firing again at the much closer Centauri infantry formation.
"We need to hold them off for a few seconds, buy us some time, or we are never getting out of here." James said, this peaked Jose's interest, depending on what he would do would either break or make his career, or ruin Jose's respect for his superior, though it was already sliding.
Norman looked sky ward again, then crossed his hands, drawing his link up to his mouth, and activating a frequency. Jose had to reload.
"Marine squadron, target my position, there is some Centauri coming up the ridge at about five hundred meters from my current position, I need you to hit it, and cut it off, this will buy us the time to get the rest of the people out."
He got a series of clicks over the com, as Jose knew that they were calling in assignments to take out the Centauri contingent.
He had to look up for a second as a sonic boom interrupted his thinking, and his aim, causing him to misfire once, and then to look up in the sky. Two Thunderbolts were streaking in, cutting speed fast after their small burst to set up their own attack run.
Those two planes gently rolled in, confirming their target coordinates, and how they were going to eliminate it, then one of the T-Bolts snap rolled away, lining up on the formation, and launching a golden line directly into the heart of it, blowing it apart. Jose could hear screams over the explosions, and the escaping engines of the Thunderbolt.
Then on its heels the other one came swooping in, dropping two more small canisters before the enemy army. They exploded and a fireball expanded before his eyes instantly, the modern version of napalm. The heat wave reached the two men, and nearly caused Jose to stagger backwards.
"Thanks for the assist, you may have saved a lot of lives today."
"No problem, we are pulling out too, only some Raptors will be left for air defense, its beginning to get hairy up here, everything that is not a stealth is getting painted by sensor sweeps. Good hunting."
"Thanks, ground forces out." Norman waved as the Thunderbolt did a victory roll above them before rocketing space ward.
"That was close sir, good thinking." Jose said approvingly, but not trying to let it show, it could be complicated for him if he did do it.
"Yeah thanks, but it will only buy us a minute or two they will outflank our new lines, or they will clear them the old fashioned way, and we still have fighters to worry about." Jose nodded at the wisdom of this before setting his face into a grim grim mask. "Marines! To me, we will hold them right here, we must fight our rear guard action, we will slowly fall back, but we have to make sure all the survivors get onboard those shuttles, and then shuttle up ourselves. Take positions."
The Marines moved out between the two men's position, setting up what was likely to be a slaughter, for one side or the other.
In orbit the Gandalf finally reached its position, then launched counter battery fire at two of the enemy ships still following them, the two assault cruisers broke off looking for reinforcements that would never come.
Patterson was continuing to lean back over the rail in his command center, glancing at all the controls, the room smelt acrid with smoke from the destroyed systems that were agitating and annoying his eyes. He was trying to see what the situation was, and it was beginning to look grim for their side.
One of the Centauri Dreadnaughts was beginning to sneak its way into orbit, around the place that the Gandalf was at. Starfuries were buzzing around it trying to shoot it down.
There was a big bulge running down its right wing, pointing now at the planet surface. "Sensors, get me energy readings on that device right there on its starboard side." Patterson said pointing at the screen.
His scanners punched in the information on the station, seeming to go dreadfully slowly, as they bought up the information on the screen that their Captain requested. They relayed it to their controller who relayed it to Captain Patterson.
"Sir, detecting a large amount of energy in that device, it is building up exotic particles. Readings match the beam that destroyed the Columbia, and it looks like it is powering up for a firing sequence. I estimate around a minute."
Patterson narrowed his eyes dangerously, his ship was not in any shape to take that on, all he could hope to do was buy them time, unless of course. "Get me the surface"
His coms person nodded to him.
"Colonel Norman here, go."
"James, a Centauri killer is coming into orbit, of the type that destroyed the Columbia at the beginning of the war, it is settling into orbit and will be ready to fire soon."
He heard Norman cuss to himself, then a pause as he was debated something. "How long do we have?"
"A matter of minutes sir." One of the people at tactical supplied.
"We do not have that long, we are not even launching yet, we are close, but not there."
"Well that takes care of that question; we will try and buy you a little time, Gandalf out." Patterson singled to cut the feed as he debated himself what he was going to do.
"Helm, invert us completely around, point the Dorsal side of the ship down the gravity well toward the planet, maintain position. That has the greatest amount of our firepower, we will force them to reroute power to their defenses or risk being hit by our weapons."
"Aye sir, moving now."
The ship inverted its position, spinning around facing 'down' the gravity well toward the planet, all weapons on that side of the ship repositioned itself, pointing down at the Centauri warship.
Their weapons locked on to the ship, tracking the positioning of the enemy. Then they alighted, firing streams of particles at the target. As predicted the Centauuri ship was forced to take power from the pre fire sequence, and other critical systems, and then started to keep the Earth Force Destroyer's barrage away from their hull.
The Centauri then countered with their own bursts of energy from their guns, pointing 'up' at the Earth Force ship, which then launched its own intercepting fire to take out the bolts in mid flight.
The battle between the two ships quickly dissolved into a blinding spectacle of crisscrossing beams of light. Each intercepting the other, sometimes just before they could hit one of the ships, fighters moved in and out of the stream, and then stayed to one side not wanting to be shot down.
"This isn't working; we are not draining their power fast enough." Patterson frowned in frustration at his sensor screens. "Load nukes in tubes one-three, and stand by to launch on my order, also load ammo J-12 into the rail guns, we need all the defenses we can get."
"Loading Captain"
He waited as the railguns began adding their fire to the din of battle going on outside, causing the ship to shudder with each shot. Ammo J-12 shooting out at the enemy vessels, and then deployed toward the coming rounds, when they impacted with the bolts of energy they absorbed the energy and then blew up, taking out the bolt of ionic energy. Some of the energy leaked through, and continued on their way, to hit on the Gandalf hull, which absorbed the energy harmlessly.
"Set proximity fuses on the missiles, as soon as the Centauuri get a hard lock on them I want them to detonate, the EMP and the blast wave should be enough to give us that extra time, also the loss of their scanners. Arm only two of the missiles; let us hold one of them in reserve."
"Yes sir." One of the tacticians said, their hands racing over their console. "Awaiting final authorization from you sir."
Patterson went over to his chair, and took off his identi card from his neck, slamming it down in the card slot as a tone sounded letting know his identity was being read. When it was confirmed a button snapped open on his chair, he opened it, and slammed it home.
Two missiles exploded from their launchers, and went on their merry way toward the enemy ship, the ships sensors swung around detecting the launch and trying to get a bead on the missiles. If they hit they would likely rip the Dreadnaught in half from stem to stern, and it would take about three minutes to close the distance.
The scanners picked up the missiles at about a minute out, then targeting rays came on line and painted the incoming warheads. At that the explosive reaction detonated, causing a shockwave to form, ripping into the Centauri vessel, and also a surge of radiation which even penetrated the EMP hardened systems on the warship. This caused the weapon start up sequence to stutter, and their sensors to go blind, but that was about it, and the sensors were rapidly resetting themselves.
In the interim, the Gandalf got in a few good hits from hits main ion guns, causing some damage to the outer hull, causing it to glow as ablative armor was shaved off in giant sheaths.
The Centauri ship was finally able to retaliate, bringing all of its sensors back online and firing everything she had. Four missiles shot out along her axis, and deployed toward the Destroyer, but they were intercepted by a long-range strike from a Thunderbolt.
Bolts of energy began to crisscross in mid space again, hitting one another and causing them to explode in bright novas of energy. Each group heading up slowly at the target, and then being intercepted by quick rays of energy from ships interceptors.
The Gandalf got their rail cannons knocked out by a series of hits, while they fired, and two plasma bolts hit the Centauri ship causing some impressive damage.
Back on the surface the team had retreated back to the landing platform and Shuttle Park; shuttles were beginning lift off sequences, as the last of their crews and passengers made it on board.
James Norman fired another burst from his weapon; cutting down two Centauri, Jose was right behind him, covering his rear. He had to duck out of the way and behind some shipping crates, in a maze of passages and crates, as the Centauri had returned fire. A lot fewer of them then he had expected.
"We need to get out of here sir" The young Marine to his left said.
"Hold on, we can hold them off a little more, or we are all lunchmeat. But stand by to fall back on my command." Norman said placing his weapon over the boxes and firing sporadically, on his last stand.
"Yes sir." Jose responded, adding his PPG to the general din, he hit two of the Centauri soldiers.
A stream of them came over to the left, both Marines opened up on them nearly shoulder to shoulder. The Centauri then began a rapid retreat from the area, ambling over boxes and stuff as they scrambled to get away.
"What the hell?" Jose commented baffled.
"We need to get out of here, orbital bombardment!" James said as he remembered what he had forgotten in holding off the Centauri.
Jose snapped into movement early, his toned muscles rippling as he made off to a jog on the last freighter that was still prepping for launch. James huffed behind him, just managing to keep up.
Jose had to throw him down hard to the ground as a pulse of energy nearly intersected James's path, which would have brought an end to his glorious career.
"Thanks" He grunted still on the ground.
"No problem." Jose said hoisting his superior up as they made to board the freighter as its engines began to roar to life.
The two men entered the boarding ramp, which upon their arrival slammed shut. Jose made to strap himself in, after checking equipment and personnel all throughout the passenger compartment, while James went to the cockpit with the pilot.
"We need to get out of here!" James said sticking his head in between the two seats, and glancing between the two men manning their consoles.
"Three minutes for the engines to get going."
"I do not think we have that long"
"Well that is too bad, for we need that time to make sure the engines are warm, or we will not even make it above fifteen thousand feet, and crash brutally."
"Look, there is a Centauri warship in orbit of us, right now they are aligning a weapon that took out an Earth Force Destroyer in one shot, and they were no where near their max power. If we do not get out of here we won't."
"We won't either way, you cannot rush this, we just have to hope that your guys up there can hold them off for a little while, otherwise we are down for the count."
James tore his PPG free from its holster and charged it, pointing it skyward getting two shocked looks from the two men before him. "I will not hesitate to shoot you unless you get this tub moving, I will fly it out of here myself, this is on its lowest setting but at this range, who knows what it will do to the two of you."
"But-but you can't, we can't."
"Maybe if we injected some interstellar hydrogen into the system that would heat it up in a hurry." The co-pilot opined.
"OK, that could work, it will be a rough ride though, strap in colonel."
"Better rough then dead." James said retreating through the open hatch.
The ship rocketed off the ground, lifting slowly into the air. It turned slightly northward, and then powered into the sky. The old ship threatened to shake itself apart, a relic from the Minbari war, as it over powered into the sky.
Then the impossible happened, Norman had to gasp in shock, unrestrained, as the bolt of yellow plasma exploded before the warship, heading downward into the planets surface, causing a dust storm to be picked up.
The ship buffeted, and rocked, as it was hit by the expanding fireball, as they were pushed sky ward. It encompassed around the entire ship, nearly taking them out, radiation sensors and heat alarms went haywire.
The ship surged ahead, just managing to stay airborne as it went ever sky ward, opening up a huge lead, and then bursting through the upper atmosphere and into the midst of the raging battle.
"Sir they are away, all ships made it thus far!" An Ensign yelled in triumph, applause and cheers went around the nerve center, and Patterson let it happen for a few seconds before waving everyone silent.
"Alright, we are not out of this, prep the jump engines and head on out." Patterson ordered, getting people moving to prepare the ship for jump. "All fighters and shuttles, emergency combat landings are authorized." The communicator arched her eyes at him in some surprise.
"Yes sir." She then relayed his message to the pilots.
The Earth Destroyer broke orbit at that moment, heading slightly into deep space, laying down cover fire from all of its batteries as it went. Several shots got through though, staining the already weakened Shadow Tech armor, nearly causing a few hull breaches along the way.
The Shuttles landed along the hull of the ship, grappling on, nearly as many that could fit onto the ship as she was prepping for jump. The fighters took up defensive position around the mothership, adding onto the fire from the interceptors, and putting up a near solid wall of energy.
The freighter however had to dodge and juke through mid space, dodging fighters, and groups of ionic bolts, flinging themselves at distant starships trying to flee the area. The pilot was looking for a place to land his bird, so they could escape with the rest of the fleet.
The pilot nearly barrel rolled his vessel, spinning it evasively as he shot his vessel past two Centauri vessels, that did not seem to turn around and follow them.
The pilot shrugged it off, and then braced himself, as he threw his entire engine power into a burst. The ship shot forward, coming right at the Earth Alliance Dreadnought that was clearing the space around itself, in its own preparations to jump, and take on refugees.
The big freighter collided with the floor plating on the main hangar of the big ship, and then bounced a couple of times before coming to a final stop, in the end just small enough to fit in the belly of the beast.
"Sir, we have received a report from the flag, all ships are onboard we are clear and free to jump." One of the flight control officers said listening to his earpiece.
"Prepare to jump on my order." Captain Patterson said, evenly, despite the surge of relief that was swelling up within his chest.
"And, you may jump."
"Yes sir, jumping." The Ensign manning the helm said as the ship transitioned smoothly into the hyperspace, going at full speed in any direction that was not the research colony.
Stewart Albright was walking along one of the corridors of the Gandalf with a distinctly determined gait, his face set in a grim mask. Around him were the refuse of humanity, the caste out, at least for the time being. Some were screaming in fury, others crying and holding onto loved ones, while still others were looking round in dazed confusion, trying to drink in their new circumstance.
But he ignored all of this that was not his job; he had to worry about more pressing concerns. He huffed and puffed as he fast walked down the hallway, nearly jogging, wishing that he could jog, almost grumbling all the way through. He knew what he had to do. This deck was converted into a refugee center, where all the personnel from the planet was just stuffed and gathered to try and be kept out of the way, but yet being able to be attended to. Albright wished they had a regular psychologist aboard.
He rounded a corner and still had to pause, despite his crusty exterior there were still times when this job still surprised him. He was now at the injury wing of the survivors. He grimaced to himself, and then cleared his throat while lowering his head, then he proceeded forward. He went up to one of his nurses who rattled off a quick status report, he nodded blankly at the words, before proceeding forward to pick a likely subject that he would need to work on first.
He bent down over a young woman, in her early twenties or so, and his heart did an odd throbbing. Mixed feelings welled inside him. Part of him warmed, but part of him grew cold in order to do his job and get things over with. He always swore to himself that this was going to be the last time, but something always drew him back, it was never enough to save people, it was the ones you lost that you remembered.
She stirred, and he reached out and caressed her cheek, blood getting on his hand slightly. He murmured words of encouragement at her, trying to calm her, she was obviously frightened and in pain. His usual steel of a soul was shattered, and pouring out for the world to see. But just as quickly as it opened, it closed in upon itself again. He barked at one of his orderlies who brought him a medical kit, he then got to work on the girl, and anyone else he could save, Marines with plasma burns, and people with all sorts of injuries.
Captain Patterson was sitting wearily in his chair, his eyes drooping slightly. His mind was screaming at him that this was not what he should be doing, nor that this was the way he should be feeling, that there might be something wrong. But yet, he could not help it, the Gandalf was cursing by lazily in hyperspace. They were safe.
He glanced around his control center, and saw the damage in crystal clear reality, now that the lights were back up to full illumination. Or as full as they could ever be given that a few of them were knocked out and destroyed during the battle.
Pieces of debris from stations were strewn everywhere, consoles were burnt out, and black, this contrasted sharply with the brightness generated by the lights, making everything seem a bit solemn. Darkness obscured some areas of the command center, furthering the effect upon Patterson's mind; he tried to run another self check on himself and could simply find nothing wrong.
James Norman entered from the back, Patterson turned in his seat and saw him, he looked gray and dirty from combat, his vest still attached, but he gave his Captain a lopsided smile.
"Good to have you aboard Colonel." He croaked at his 2IC.
"Likewise Captain, whats our status?" The Colonel said with a lopsided grin, clearly glad he came through the fire.
"I am not yet sure, we seem to be fine." Patterson said, finally allowing himself a small jolt of consciousness as he moved to find out just what was wrong with his ship.
"Well perhaps we need to get on that sir."
Patterson nodded, and the two officers moved to make their rounds.
They were completed rather rapidly, and the senior staff was in the briefing room again, minus Doctor Albright who was joining them from sickbay. He looked especially grim and weary. They all were, this ship had continued to get the crap beat out of it of late.
"Well, where exactly are we?"
"Based on readings we are on the other side of the new boarder, we had to come out and get into enemy space in order to heave too as we figure out what to do, I do not know the exact position, we are a bit off the beacon and starting to drift again." Keegan reported sounding grim.
"Right, so we need to get back then." Patterson said determined.
"Right, but where do we go from here?" Stacia asked the assembled crowd, looking around.
"Well the obvious answer is Eath." Patterson said, and then continued as it seemed no one got the logic. "Soon Earth Force command will be issuing a general recall order across most of the Alliance, sending the ships they need to protect home world from attack. Both we and the Centauri know this though, so now is the only viable time they have to really win this war. They are going to go straight to Earth. The longer they delay, the more time we have to prepare and realize what their final destination is. They want to win this war, and they have shown us that they will go to any lengths to achieve this. Earth is the next obvious target."
"The loss of Earth on both the EA, and the ISA, will be devastating, damn near crippling. The Centauri move in." Jose said.
"But I am not sure that this is about the Galaxy, this is about revenge, plain and simple. Against the one power that has been able to thwart them in the past." Keegan said, volunteering information for the first time.
"They mean to wipe out the human race." Stacia said aghast.
"Exactly" Keegan said. "Look at their tactics, the waste of lives and resources, they are not doing this for some strategic or tactical advantage, they are just trying to take out as many of us as possible, and not carrying about their own lives is an excellent way to do it. I say we make a full burn for Earth."
"I agree," Norman started, "it makes the most sense from where I am sitting."
"Alright, on max burn we should be about four days out from the sol system, five tops. We need to hurry."
"The one thing that worries me is we took a fair bit of damage again over the research post."
"You are just going to have to fix it on the fly Commander Clarke, I am sure you can do it." Patterson ordered.
"Give me two days, and I will get us back into tip top shape."
"Alright, set a course for Earth." Patterson heaved a sigh, his whole body rippling, "ladies and gentlemen…we sail into the unknown fires of war, and the future, we fly to help save our home, I need each of you to be at your best. Dismissed." They filed out of the room, all in a single file line, again leaving Patterson to contemplate what he was going into.