Deadenders
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: Castle reached a dead end with Season 8, but it's going strong here. Rating: K Time: The far future.
The Great Prophet dismounted from the vehicle. One of the blue scarves brought out a comfortable chair which he sat in. He began to speak, not loudly, but managing to project his voice to the males who'd come to hear him.
"My brothers, the humans have lied to us. They have told us that they defeated the Xanks and their friends the Tooks. They have said that they have destroyed the planets of the Xanks. These are all lies. The Xanks are winning the wars. As you can see, Xanks have come all the way to the furthest part of the human sphere of influence. Would this be so if the Xanks had been defeated?"
"Now the humans would like to destroy Xank planets, but the Xanks are much more kind. They could reduce our whole world to ashes, but they know that would destroy us Ka Raras and they won't do that. Rather, they will help us drive the humans off our planet. How will they help us, you ask? Come with me."
The Great Prophet returned to his vehicle, and it was driven slowly into a side canyon. There they found a huge ship parked. Prinsloo and the rest could see a hole in the hull of the ship and various Xanks, Tooks and even Ka Raras were working around the hull.
"Now even we Ka Raras can see that the ship has been damaged." The Great Prophet said. "But the ship is being repaired. And the ship is still very powerful. Observe."
One of the Xanks spoke into some sort of communicator and a bolt of purple lightening shot out of the ship and drilled a hole in the canyon's wall.
"In a few minutes, brothers, when it cools you may walk up and see the damage this Xank weapon has done to the solid rock. There are more holes in the rocks where the Xanks have demonstrated their power before."
In about ten minutes a Xank gave the all clear and the males began climbing up a narrow pathway to where the bolt had struck. When they got there, the rock was still hot. Too hot to touch.
"Go down to the next one." Said a blue scarf. "It's old and you can walk right in."
Indeed, one male did so and paced the depth of the cave made by the weapon.
"Fifteen paces, through solid rock. Surely, the humans have nothing like this."
They were led back down to the Great Prophet. He told them to go back to their homes and say nothing to anyone of what they'd seen. However, they should be ready to rise when the mountain clans and their off-planet allies attacked.
It took four days for Prinsloo to get back to the Castle's ranch.
"My God!" Mike said. "A Xank warship? Here? Can you describe it?"
"I drew pictures of it and the canyon it sits in." Prinsloo said.
They all examined the drawings.
"That's a Xank raider." Castle said. "It's about the smallest warship they have, but it's plenty big enough to level everything on this planet."
"Why haven't they done so already?" Mike asked.
"It's damaged. Its hull was holed, and I suspect their drive systems are damaged. But when they can lift off, they can tear the planet apart."
"How long will that be?"
Rick shrugged,
"I have no idea."
"The sooner we destroy the ship the better then."
"How?" Someone asked.
"We can send a message to the nearest planet with a space navy." Strelkov said.
"Assuming they believe us and assuming they care, that could take months." Rick replied. "I'm not sure we have that long. In spite of what this Great Prophet said about not telling anyone, I'm sure word is getting out."
"We have three helicopters." Kate said. "Ours and the two in Alphaville."
"One of those is a medical chopper."
"They can pull the medical gear out easily enough and it'll be a transport helicopter again."
"Three helicopters against a warship? Even a damaged one?"
Chen Water Lily smiled.
"Luckily you have someone here who makes things. And destroys things. Call Alphaville and get their helicopters and I'll have a few things they'll have to bring. Now if you'll excuse me, I must get to work."
By the time the two other helicopters arrived from Alphaville, Chen was almost done with a missile.
"It's got a fairly rudimentary guidance system, but Kate will have to get so close to launch it that it shouldn't be a problem. But just in case, we'll be loading up the other choppers with Bergman's missiles. They're not designed to take out spaceships, but if you can fire them through the hole in the ship's hull, they'll do a lot of damage."
"Beckett's flying the chopper with the guided missile?" Rick asked.
"She's our best pilot. Makes sense." Chen replied. "Her chopper won't be able to carry any crew, not even a co-pilot because of the weight of the missile. The other two will each carry one door machine gunner, two missile crewmen and a spare, just in case."
"I'll be one spare." Strelkov said."
"I'll be the other." Castle quickly added.
"Are you sure it's a good idea to send both of our leaders?" Mike Castle asked.
"Uncle Mike, if we lose, all the leaders in the world won't help. If we win, losing two leaders won't hurt much."
The two Grant brothers would man the machine guns and Bergman and the sniper Esposito would fire missiles from Castle's bird. McGary, the other sniper would team with Silent Smith, who everyone admitted had a knack for hitting what he aimed for.
Because of the backblast of the missiles, they'd have to be fired out one side door of the choppers allowing the backblast to exit out the other door. The disadvantage of this was that it would present the best target to the Xank ship.
Prinsloo, in his years as a peddler, had traveled all over the mountains. He was able to pinpoint on a map exactly where the ship was. The helicopter pilots were able to chart a course that would bring them to the damaged section of the Xank ship's hull while exposing them to the least amount of fire. They hoped.
They took off well before dawn, hoping to arrive at the enemy ship just as the sun rose.
"This is Kate." Her voice crackled in the earphones of Castle's radio. "They don't seem to have seen us. Beginning my run in…now."
Rick and everyone watched as Kate's helicopter sped towards the damaged enemy ship. Then they saw the missile's engine fire and speed away.
"Guiding. Guiding. Looking good. Guiding?" They could hear her voice. Then, "Shit! It hit the damned hull."
"Some of the blast went inside, maybe it did enough damage…" Strelkov began.
Then they saw a bright bolt of purple energy shoot out from the ship, but missing Kate's chopper badly.
"There's a gun turret above the hull breach!" Castle yelled. "I bet it's damaged too. Close on the ship and try to fire directly into the hull breach."
The four men in the two helicopters fired their missiles as fast and as accurately as they could. Some flew through the hull breach and exploded. Many did not.
"The ship is lifting and trying to turn to bring her working guns to bear on us." Rick yelled.
The pilots of the two missile armed helicopters tried to turn with the enemy ship so as to stay out of the arc of fire of the functioning guns and be able to fire into the hull breach.
"He's starting to rise." Yelled the pilot of Castle's helicopter. "If he gets much higher, he'll start outrunning us."
"Aim for the grav plates at the bottom of the ship." Castle yelled back. "Stop him from gaining altitude."
The two crews fired missiles at the grav plates that were forcing the enemy ship upwards and were rewarded with a burst of bright blue flames and then the Xank ship fell by more than a hundred feet.
"Keep at it!" Rick yelled.
Then the enemy ship began rising again and was soon more than 500 feet above the helicopters.
"He's starting to spin." Yelled the co-pilot. "He's spinning fast. More than he needs to bring his working guns in line to hit us. We hit something; I think."
The ship kept spinning faster and then began to wobble.
'The wobbling is increasing." One of the other pilots yelled.
"Shit!" Someone yelled. "He's losing control. We gotta get out of here. When he hits the ground the anti-matter containment field will be destroyed and there's gonna be one hell of an explosion."
They could now see the Xank ship tumbling through the air, totally out of control.
All three helicopters turned and sped away as fast as they could.
Less than a minute later, there was a blinding flash of light behind them and then torrent of rocks blasted into the air by the detonation of the anti-matter.
"We've been hit by something." Screamed the pilot of Castle's helicopter. "I'm not going to be able to keep this thing in the air much longer."
"There's a flat space where you can land about a quarter of a mile ahead of you." Kate radioed. "Get there and I can pick you all up."
The pilot made it to the flat space and more or less crashed there. That wasn't the end of their problems.
"Lots of Ka Raras headed this way." Bergman yelled as he dragged Espo out of the crashed copter.
"You two okay?" Castle yelled.
"Yeah!" Espo yelled. "We gotta go. Grant and the two pilots are out. Run!"
And run they did.
The ka Raras were gaining on them. Castle had had to leave his assault rifle behind in the wreckage pf the helicopter but pulled his pistol and fired at the onrushing enemies.
"If they get to the missiles we left behind and can use them, we're screwed." He yelled to Bergman.
Bergman paused to reload his assault rifle.
"I doubt they have a clue on using the missiles, but just in case I left a live grenade propped between two missiles. When one of the missiles gets pulled out, BOOM."
Just then a missile flew over them but missed everything and everyone badly. Then the crashed chopper exploded.
"That'll hold them for a while." Bergman said.
"Chopper's here. Get on board." Castle yelled. As he was hauled aboard something hit him like a sledgehammer and there was nothing but darkness.
It was dark and someone was screaming at him. He just wanted to rest. He tried to tell whoever it was to go away, but no words came out.
"Captain Castle."
"Don' yell." He managed.
"I'm whispering, actually."
The voice was familiar. Who was it?
"It's Dr. Parish. You were wounded. You're going to get better, but it'll take a while."
He managed to pry one eye open. There was Dr. Parish.
"What happened?"
"You were shot. A bullet hit the side of your upper arm, went through and damaged some of your lung. I'm regenerating all of that, but it'll take time. Now I'm going to give you a sedative to help you sleep."
"Wait…" But that's as far as he got.
When he woke up again, it was daylight, and he was in his own bedroom at the ranch. As soon as he moved, one of the machines he was attached to began to beep. In a few seconds Dr. Parish came in.
"You're awake, I see."
"I am. What happened to me?"
"You got shot in the right arm. The bullet broke your humerus and kept going into your lung. I'm regenerating all of that now. The bone and muscle can be regenerated in a few days, but regenerating the lung tissue will take longer. You'll be here for about two weeks."
"How come I'm in my room and not in the clinic?"
"We've had more casualties. The destruction of the Xank ship convinced a lot of the Ka Raras that the humans hadn't lost the war after all. However, the Great Prophet still has a lot of fanatic followers, and they decided that had no other option than to attack us. We're doing the best we can, but it's tough with only one helicopter."
"One helicopter?" Rick asked. "Mine crashed but what happened to the other one?"
Dr. Parish looked away for a moment.
"Your chopper was hit by small stones and was too badly damaged to fly very far. Captain Strelkov's chopper was hit by several multi ton boulders. No one got out."
"Are you sure. Did anyone go and look?"
"I did." Kate Beckett said from the doorway. "The chopper is under tons of rock. No one got out."
"Who's in command of Strelkov's unit now?" Rick asked.
"They elected some guy named Rick Castle."
"Really?"
"Really."
"I've got to get out of here and take command then."
"You'll be attached to the regeneration unit for two weeks, as I said." Lanie replied.
It was only then that Rick noticed that a very large machine had a vice like grip on his shoulder.
"How am I gonna take care of myself with this thing on me?"
"Oh, I imagine someone will help you out." Kate said.
"Anyone I know?"
Kate just laughed.
A month later Rick Castle walked into Montgomery's office.
Montgomery stood from behind his desk and threw Castle a sloppy salute.
"Welcome, Major Castle."
Rick just laughed.
"Making me a major hasn't changed much. I've only managed to recruit five new people and I still have only one helicopter."
"You're officially the commander of the Auroran Defense Forces. The Prophet's attacks are winding down and the next ship will bring in reinforcements." Roy said. "Earth has recruited a strong, airmobile infantry company for you. You'll have more than just lift birds. They're sending scout ships and attack helicopters in addition to attack and recon drones. And you're getting more. There'll be an engineer platoon and an intelligence platoon. Maybe more."
"And
"I'm not sure what the intelligence platoon will do. The Prophet has no radios or anything they can listen in on." Rick said.
"The ship will put recon satellites in orbit as well as communications satellites. You'll be able to keep track of the whole planet."
Rick laughed again.
"Sure, and I can't even cover all of the Great Steppe with the helicopters I'm getting."
"There's more. Earth is sending a division of four destroyers to Aurora to scour the planet and the solar system for any other Xank or Took holdouts. Finding Xanks here really upset people back on Earth. Once they've done that, one destroyer will stay in the Auroran system and the other three will scout around nearby solar systems for anything suspicious."
"I doubt they'll be around that long." Rick said. "What's suspicious out here?"
"Oh, I'm sure they will be. We're on the very edge of the human sphere of influence here. Beyond us are other star faring societies. It won't be hard to find "suspicious" FTL traces."
"And none of this will have anything to do with the Ancient's Expedition. It's just a coincidence that the only military force on the planet is based at the Castle ranch and the Earth destroyers here have nothing to do with protecting the expedition. They're looking for Xanks, after all."
"I suppose you're right, Roy."
There was a knock on the door to Roy's office building.
"Castle, it's lunch time and then some. You coming or what?"
"I'll be right there, Kate."
The End
Author's Note: Next up, depending on how fast I can write, will either be Christmas Island, my annual Castle Christmas story, or The Prince, the Princess and the Other Wizard, a sequel to The Princess and the Wizard.