Iron Five - Dogs of War by Seon Stronghold - HTML preview

He grins crookedly “An Earthfront operative, networking with Pirate scum…” He laughs loudly “I love this galaxy. Who knows, Captain Gant? We might very well be onto something worthwhile. I’ll see you again, if ever.”

With a slight bow, the grinning Commander walks away and our escort returns to lead us back to our ship.

 

*******

 

1700 hours – System time

 

Around us, mountainous asteroids rotate slowly as the Condor’s Magnatech holds us in place. So far, we have not found a gate but our sensors indicate something large headed our way.

“I’ve got a ping…”

Bull relays the info across my Dees and Dane turns the ship slowly toward the location, maintaining our invisibility. One hundred kilometers away, right where our sensors indicate the disruption, space warps and ripples and a medium sized, deep space hauler emerges from the slipstream of Hyperspace, then crawls to a stop beside an asteroid rich in iron ore.

Within minutes, with powerful blasts of electrical strikes, it breaks apart the rocks nearby and pulls them to its hold by magnetically charged beams.

“A dead end...” Akita sighs heavily.

He is right. Ever since our arrival, we have been on the prowl. Twenty-four hours, six worlds, four asteroid belts and not one system gate found.

“We need to get back to Viking Cove.” I say it to Dane, and without hesitation, she aligns the ship and makes the jump.

 

 

 

 

 

System: Adra

Location: Equia-Ar

0500 hours – System time

 

0 days to Raiku arrival

 

Seven hundred thousand kilometers from the gas giant known as Equia, one of three beautiful moons orbiting it was fast approaching daylight. This moon, Equia-Ar was one of few in Adra that had an oxygen rich atmosphere and as the sun spilled light across its horizon, Captain Hewel Jaksen basked in its glow.

The pirate stood proudly at the helm of the E.R Scuttler, a Prowler that was once a Frigate, stolen and refitted to suit his needs. He was silently enjoying the view from the three hundred and sixty degree Everglass cockpit. On his left, Equia radiated with rich blue hues while below, his moon lay vast and wide, spread out and away from him like a map. Dead ahead, his destination awaited where he would intercept a lone ship jumping through their space. According to the pings from censors placed strategically throughout his territory, alerts of ships in hyperspace were often received long before his victims arrived, and he had grown considerable wealthy this way.

With one last deep breath, the short, heavily built man sat, secured his harness and mentally readied himself for what was to come.

“Quartermaster...initiate...” He spoke clearly.

“Aye Captain...”

However, even as the young man replied, Jaksen did not hear him. His mind was on the prize three billion miles away. If the sensors were correct, then one ship, a monstrous one, was almost there. Most likely, a barge, he thought, as the Scuttler lurched forward, forcing him from his daydream, twisting space and time as they jumped into Hyperlight.

 

System: Adra

Location: Colloid Belt

 

The monstrous foreshadow of The Scuttler preceded the ship’s arrival by a split second. The heavily armed vessel exited Hyperlight and floated to a halt.

“Full scan...” Captain Jakson asked without taking his eyes from his point of interest.

“Nothing yet sir...” An older woman with hair like a porcupine’s spikes answered almost immediately.

The excitement of taking another prize by force filled him wondrously. The anticipation of making his victims suffer thrilled him even more. There was nothing in the galaxy that got his heart racing like the screams of dying men beneath his gaze, not even the women of leisure on his home world.

Just then, a thousand kilometers away, space shifted and bulged and a titan, unlike anything he had ever seen before, arrived from Hyperspace.

Looming above him, even at this distance, the thing was beyond comprehension. Like an ominous giant wheel rotating through space, it was clearly a ship, but of what class he did not know.

“Captain...” His navigations officer said nervously “...we shouldn’t be here...”

It was too late. Within seconds, thousands of battle cruisers and warships filled the void, the smallest of them over ten times the size of his prized Scuttler and to his shock and horror, plastered across the hull of the nearest, was the red and black symbol of the Raiku Dynasty.

“Quartermaster, go to highlight...now!”

“I can’t, they’ve got us magnet-blocked...”

“How is this possible? We should be able to break free...”

“I don’t know, maybe it’s because there are so many...”

With frantic fingers on an interface only seen through his Digital eyes, Hewel Jaksen activated their distress beacon and opened communications on all channels.

“Unknown Starfleet Command...this is Captain Jaksen of the ER Scuttler...we are non-hostile...I repeat, non-hostile...”

There was no reply.

“Unknown Starfleet Command...this is Captain Jaksen, of the mining ship E.R Scuttler...requesting release from Magnetic lock...we are non-hostile...”

There was still no reply.

Consumed in what appeared to be an ocean of monsters, he urged the pilot to try for Hyperlight once more but the effort was futile. Suddenly, alerts and warnings lit up the room, splintering his mind between fear and the almost unbearable sound of every alarm triggered simultaneously.

“Evac...evac...get to the pods...now!”

Belts unclipping filled the air as the message went out throughout the ship. Everywhere, on every deck, men and women strapped themselves into single pods designed for deep-space survival and the evacuation had begun.

Captain Jakson ran to his escape pod. Every great captain was always last to abandon ship. Good thing he was not a great captain, he thought. The information streaming across his Dees told him that roughly half of his crew had already jettisoned. This mattered little to him. He jumped into the car-sized capsule, let the automated system strap him in and initiate, then braced for the thunderous jolt as powerful hydraulics snapped from the ship and spat him into vacuum.

200km

300km, 1000km

2000km

The digital interface showed him how far he had flown from the doomed Scuttler, and as the impact of unseen missiles split his beloved ship into billions of pieces, Hewel gasped.

“Oh God...”

His last words left him breathless. Beyond his viewscreen, Hunter-class missiles painted portraits of death and destruction and flashes of exploding escape pods filled his vision. In an instant, he was no more.

 

 

*******

 

 

System: Adra

Location: Toru-En

0637 hours – System time

 

0 days to Raiku arrival

 

We are all sitting at the bar in the Oxpar Inn and coughing on what the locals call, Thruster juice. A local favorite when it comes to morning pick-me-ups, the drink, served steaming hot consists of one cup Furic coffee, quarter cup over-proofed rum, and a half cup of Corosis, a wine made from fermented peppers.

“Iron Five...” I turn to see Edria as she quickly approaches “...come with me.”

The way she says it makes me forget my drink from hell and follow without asking questions.

She leads us outside and down the pathway, to a metallic pod that opens when we arrive. Inside, soft white walls envelop the small space and from a chair before a moving digital interface, Captain Obek turns to us.

“Gentlemen...Lady...I believe we have found your quarry. Ten minutes ago, we received a distress signal sent out on all channels. This signal was interrupted early in the transmission, suggesting that those who sent it are no longer with us.”

“How do we know that it’s not just a ship stranded or damaged in vacuum?”

Obviously choosing his words carefully, the Captain gives his response.

“Given the ship, and the nature of its captain, it is highly unlike him to do this. A distress signal to his clan would have sufficed, but on all channels? This is something different. ”

“Okay, we’ll check it out. Keep the search for the gate active. If this turns out to be nothing, we’ll need to be re-directed quickly.”

“Our network has scoured the system many times over, there isn’t any Raiku gate here…”

“Then search again. In the meantime, I want co-ords and everything about this distressed ship and her captain uploaded to us on the go...everything.”

I stop his protests before he can begin his argument.

“So be it. On-the-go, Captain Gant…”

His words drip with venom and no farewells follow, but this is fine, I do not intend to return either way.

 

*******

 

Fifteen minutes later, we are in the Condor and the ship lurches as the autopilot follows the station’s magnetic guidance. Above us, Eversteel hangar doors slide open and after passing through them, they close, locking us into a giant chamber. Within seconds, another pair of moving doors reveals the inky void of space.

With clearance given by the traffic controller, Dane locks the co-ordinates given to us by Captain Obek into the ship’s navigation system and I confirm it.

“Iron Five...” I address my crew and they all turn toward me, but there is nothing to say though our silent exchange speaks volumes.

“Fly brave...” Hound chimes in

“Fly strong...” Pitbull Answers

“Ahwoo…” Akita grunts

Without another word, Dane allows the AI to align our flight path and we make the jump.

 

An hour later, the loosening of pressure across my chest signals our arrival and the Condor’s Magnatech pulls us from Hyperlight.

“We’re dark…”

Pitbull verifies that the auto-camouflage has engaged and all communications modules are offline. With the engines asleep, we hang motionless in space. Above and on my right, Eru, a dead, ice-planet a quarter the size of Earth, hangs in space. According to the information fed to me, there is no breathable atmosphere there and frozen hydrogen makes up most of its surface. My attention quickly leaves it however as the computer reveals the reality around us.

Below, an ocean of war ships spread out and away in every direction, creating the illusion of a manmade black hole blotting out the distant stars beyond them. Across their monumental hulls, the red insignia of the Dynasty is only visible because of my enhanced vision and at the helm of the fleet; a ship like no other leads them.

“If that’s the lead battleship, then that’s where we’ll find Terrier…” I say it to myself.

“Um…boss…” Pitbull manipulates his controls, manually scanning the location so our enemies cannot detect any signals leaving our ship. “…That’s not a battleship…”

“What is it?”

I force my Dees to enhance the thing four thousand kilometers away. It is like a wheel, rolling slowly, hauntingly through space yet holding its position. What makes it stranger, is that compared to the largest of the Raiku’s battleships, this one is easily ten times their size.

“God help us…” I mumble, as reality hits home.

“The ship is the gate…” Akita takes the words from my mouth “How the hell are we supposed to destroy that?”

“The Reactor at its center, if we can expose the power source it should be enough to destabilize the entire ship.” Pitbull replies.

“How do we cross four thousand kilometers in any reasonable amount of time without waking this god-damned giant?”

Akita’s question sinks into my stomach like a bag of rocks. If we launch the missiles from this far, they would be intercepted within seconds and we would be nothing but dust and parts shortly after.

“We can’t, but I can…” Everyone turns to me with questioning faces that seem to challenge my sanity “If the Condor moves at even the slowest possible speed needed to get there in any decent time, they’ll detect us. If we launch the missiles from here, they will not make it and we will become one with the cosmos. However, if we can load the missiles onto a DAWG…”

“Forget it Alpha...forget it…”

“Just hear me out Akita. Load my DAWG. I will go dark and get beneath the fleet. If I can stay close enough to their hulls to take a piss on them, they will not pick up my movements. From there I can leap-frog to the gate and set a timed charge…”

“A timed char…Alpha, are you listening to yourself?” Akita’s desperation overflows “You won’t even make it past the first ship. Someone is bound to get a visual…”

“No they won’t…” I counter “…Look, they’ve traded Everglass for reinforced hulls. There are no windows.

Dane cuts in this time “…And what if you are discovered, then what...we go to Highlight and leave you to die?”

“All of us need not die here and we all know the risks…”

“Save it Huski…” Pitbull now “…I’d rather we took the Condor to Hyperlight, and slammed it into that sucker…”

“I’m not asking permission. I’m giving you an order…”

“That’s a bullshit order and you know it…” Akita again

“Hold on a sec, Alpha might on to something here…” Hound finally opens his mouth and silences their protests “You deliver the missiles and set the charge. Timing will be everything because we will have to make the jump seconds before it blows. You should be able to maintain stealth even after you plant them…”

“But what if he’s spotted?”

Hound continues, ignoring Akita “Alpha, if the shit hits the fan while you are out there, blow the damned thing and go dark. There are fighters and transports moving between ships even now and after a direct assault, they will be sending hoards to search the area. That would leave many docking-bays open and vulnerable.”

I finish the thought for him “Ditch the Mecha, steal a ship…”

“Exactly…” He nods

“Okay, if you have to steal a ship, where do we rendezvous?”

I open a Star-map in order to give Akita a proper answer

“Tat’ra…It’s on an unusual path around its parent star and should be safe enough.” I log the co-ordinates of the massive, rocky planet one hundred and seventy light years away to our Dees “You’ll have priority jump authorization from any Starport in this system, under the current circumstances.”

“You’ve obviously given this some thought...”

Akita is right. I have been thinking this through and through, ever since we received the mission, and though it is still a hard pill to swallow, I would rather go out with a bang knowing that the rest of my team is alive in the end.

“What if we can’t get out of this system?”

I turn to Dane and think on this for a moment, then adjust the map to find an option.

“If we can’t safely leave this system, then we’ll meet on Ji’i.” A water-world materializes before us “There are no land masses here, and thousands of miles of ocean will make for a perfect hideaway if things get messy.”

“Can we make the alignment for a safe jump?”

I ask the computer for the answer to the question and it gives us a clear path to the planet.

“That’s halfway across the system!”

“You have a better idea Akita?”

“No, but we’ll get there in an hour, not bad. I still think this is madness, but it’s the best shot we’ve got.” Akita finally agrees.

“I’ll go strip the Novas and load the DAWG, Hound, Akita…with me. Pitbull, stay here and make sure we remain unseen.”

With the plan now agreed on across the board, we are in the loading bay within the minute. Reconfiguring the missiles and my DAWG however, this takes us three full hours and by the time we are done, everyone is exhausted.

“Reminds me of the good old days when Hawk had us repairing machinery in the biting cold as punishment for our sins.”

We laugh at the memory Hound has just conjured.

“Euga…damned planet nearly killed me.”

I remember it well. Akita had collapsed from exhaustion, but we got him through it. “Good times…” I laugh, though there is no real joy behind it and swallow the last of an energy bar.

“Let this turn out to be the same, okay Alpha?” Akita stares at me, troubled.

“I’ll get it done. Just be ready to haul ass if these bad boys go off before I can make it back…”

“Ahwoo, Captain…” Hound grunts our battle cry and pulls me off the floor.

The hiss of my DAWG as it opens plants a foot in my gut and at the same time, fills me with the thrill of adventure. I wait with flying bugs moving around in my stomach, as the cockpit spreads apart like a metal flower blooming.

“What do we do about Terrier?”

“One thing at a time Hound, we’ll have to lure him out of hiding, but only after we blow the gate.”

“That’s if he’s not on it when it gets an ass-kicking from these Novas.”

Akita smiles as he says it, but in those words, I sense his anger toward our former comrade.

“It doesn’t matter. We are here to make sure that these bastards do not make that jump, and that is what we are going to do. Terrier…that is another bridge we will cross when we get to it, if we get to it. Hound…?”

He turns toward me, his face grim.

“If the shit hits the fan, give these to Mirana…” I hand him my dog tags, a fitting name now that I think of it.

“I hope I don’t have to…” He takes them, then nods and walks away.

I snap my helmet in place and lean into the cockpit brace. The sleek, gurney-like mechanism locks my body in place and retracts smoothly into the confines of the windowless Mecha. As the interior compresses me within the sealing cockpit, I am lost in a familiar split second of darkness and not being able to breathe.

The computer needles my brain with thousands of invisible fingers. Information streams through my mind in real-time and across my Digital Eyes, it takes form. My DAWG and I are one again.

“Huski…” Dane’s words hit my ear softly “…are you ready?”

“Master-arm, good...Novas, offline…Auto-cannons, offline...A.I is with me. Cloak, good to go…Magnatech, engaged…Life support, online…”

After running through the rest of the checklist, I take a deep breath and move one of the DAWG’s arms in response to Hound and Akita’s salutes as they leave the loading bay.

Dane comes back “All systems are green. Cabin cleared and sealed. Vacuum in three…two…one…” She counts down, barely above a whisper, as though someone in one of the battle cruisers nearby might hear us.

The cargo doors beneath me open.

“Don’t go anywhere…I’ll be back in a sec…”

“Then hurry up…I don’t think I can hold my breath for so long.” She replies.

“Going dark...”

It is the last thing I say as I detach from the Ship. Beneath me, two Dreadnoughts hang in vacuum like colossal steel beasts but as long as I maintain the current rate of decent, my DAWG should remain cloaked.

With both engines cold and most of the electronics asleep, all I have is life support and the Mecha’s Digital Magnetics online.

I hear my own heartbeat…somewhere behind my ears…inside my jaw…I am not sure but I must remain calm. My bodysuit keeps the temperature just right, yet I feel sweaty.

I fall past the battleship at over five hundred miles per hour and come to a complete stop seconds later. It takes a moment to get oriented. With the enemy vessels now above, I suddenly feel as though I am upside down. From this position, in every direction as far as can be seen, the underbellies of the Raiku fleet flood my field of view. With a gradual increase of power, I accelerate and the Lizard Skin technology maintains its invisibility. At this pace, I should cover the distance in a little over five hours.

Seven minutes in, I come across my first problem. I have hopped from ship to ship twice thus far but this time, the distance is much greater to the next one. Ahead and between two monstrous cruisers, Raiku scout-craft zip back and forth, from port to port in a constant stream of traffic. My best bet would be to slip beneath them, even though it will extend my time in space.

So be it.

Without slowing, I dive, pulling away from the safety of the shadow above. I am not too worried though. With my Sol engines cold, they would not read me.

Out in the open, a few fighters slip past overhead, less than six hundred feet, but I’m still safe. The hairs on the back of my neck stand on edge and ice cold, prickly fingers cover every inch of my skin. I feel it before I see it. The DAWG’s AI burns a clear image of a Hollowtip into my mind.

The short, hollow, cigar shaped fighter with eight wings fully extended, rips past me at over a thousand miles per hour, compromising my camouflage but I hold it together. Keeping my frenzied heart rate in check, along with my breathing, I regain control and vanish from sight once again.

That was crazy. The Raiku pilot had grazed me by less than twenty feet, yet no one had noticed the flickering Mecha left in his wake. I reach out with my mind, pushing even further than before. The computer feeds me the data I seek, and every scout within range is imprinted somewhere into my brain. This action adds to my troubles, but being able to push past the invasive, exhaustive effects between our mental connections to the machine is why we survived Hawk and his training camps; and though it takes much concentration, preventing another narrow escape will be worth the fatigue that comes afterwards.

 

It takes almost a half hour but I finally cross the divide between ships and blend into the hull of a carrier. This behemoth is a flying military base that can deploy hundreds of attack craft within seconds. Like a beehive, it buzzes with life as more Hollowtips go and come from open docking-bays that are well away from me but within sight.

Hollowtips are Raiku, next-generation fighters. With advanced Sol and Magnetic Technology, eight flexible wings protruding from their small bodies make them capable of technically impossible maneuvers at high speeds anywhere in and out of atmosphere.

I leave the looming carrier and cross a lonely divide to another vessel. Here, traffic is non-existent and I transition from ship to ship with relative ease until four hours later, my target finally comes into sight.

A thousand kilometers away, the towering jump-gate has the look of a small space station. It is a marvel to behold, a testament to engineering beyond anything I have ever seen; a gate that not only can be launched through hyperspace, but also can obviously launch itself...crazy.

I come to a complete stop beneath a Command Platform. These giants, used by all the powers in the galaxy, can enter a planet’s atmosphere and set up shop surface-side as an almost impenetrable base of operations. Unlike those we saw on Keden however, this one, like all the others I have seen here, is an almost flat, five-sided Eversteel Pyramid.

From its gaping docking-bays, Holowtips leave trails of energy in their wake high above me, creating the appearance of yet another hive, but my concerns do not lie here. Beyond this, nothing stands between my objective and me. One vigilant pair of eyes could see me coming or going. One flaw in my cloaking would make my efforts a waste. I think of Mirana. Our lives are about to change in one way or another, but these thoughts must be subdued so I push forward, gliding smoothly by the grace of Magnetic technology and hoping that no sensor picks up the faint energy that guides me.

Eight hundred kilometers away and the enormous vessel hangs like a monolith build by gods. The slowly rotating outer ring casts shadows that form and vanish as the resident star, a distant eye at the center of the system, shines on it. From here, the true form of the vessel takes shape. It is not a wheel rotating through space, but a gargantuan, rotating disk.

In space, up and down is relative

I remember the words of the first instructor we had in flight school, and he was right. I approach the jump gate and my DAWG