CHAPTER 12 - BEHIND ENEMY LINES
Iron Five
System: K1
Time: 0600 Hours Dunan Local
20,000 Km from Atmospheric entry
We are flung out of hyperspace and the caramel colored Keden warps into view and takes shape. Our approach is not from the K1 Starport, but from a point in the Solar System given to us by the computer on Artac Nine. All of our warning systems go haywire.
“Guys we’re locked up and it’s not the Spaceport that’s doing it…” Maria shouts this across the comms.
“We’ve got no weapons…” Bull is busy at his console trying to jam whatever it is that has us in its sights.
“Maria, get us out of here. Go to hyper…”
“Where..?”
“Anywhere..!”
“I can’t. They’ve got us Magnet-blocked…”
“Can we approach the planet?”
“Yes but not fast enough to escape…”
“Get us as close as possible. You said the DAWGs could survive in vacuum?”
“Yes but the systems have never been fully tested.”
“Well from the looks of this, we might be testing them real soon…”
“Alpha..!”
“Akita..?”
“Look…”
We all turn toward what Akita is showing us and my breath leaves me. It’s madness. Hundreds of Kedenian and Deepcore destroyers hang on the open side of the planet and one of them has its sights on us.
“Starship Cala, you are entering restricted space and are ordered to surrender ship and crew. Keden Battle group Command requests Commanding officer ident and intensions. You have ten seconds to respond.”
I don’t hesitate. It makes no sense to fight this “Starship Cala copies orders. Ident, Captain Richard Victor Gant and our intentions are non-hostile, I repeat, non-hostile. We are here to find and recover SysDef Base crew. I also request to know who has us in Magnetic Guidance…”
“Battleship Nova Seven has you on link. You have ten seconds to surrender.”
“Request to speak with a commanding officer.”
“Request denied. You have seven seconds to comply.”
I kill the coms “Maria, get us to that planet. Bull, jam whatever they throw at us…” I turn to Hound and Akita “Hang on to somethin’ boys…”
The ship shudders as we break free of the Magnatech holding us. Unlike Spaceports, because of our distance from the battleship, we have the power to escape it.
“Alpha we’ve got incoming missiles” Akita confirms visually what we see on the holoscreens.
“Maria, can we get into atmosphere?”
“I think so…”
The Cala launches toward Keden and the first missile goes wide and detonates safely away. I turn just in time to see three more approaching and…
One!
Two!
Three!
The Cala buckles and lists and the crunching noises that I hear, tells me that the ship is beginning to break apart.
“Get to the Gear!”
Frantic sounds of belts unclicking and bodies shuffling fill the cockpit. I get to the doorway and wait there while Akita, Hound, Maria and then Pitbull passes through. Without a second glance, I follow my team into the large hold behind the cockpit and run, drift, almost fall toward the opening DAWG. Then the ship shakes violently and I lose my footing, but I reach out and Pitbull stops my fall. In a split second I am back on my feet.
“Thanks…”
“Nothing to it Cap…”
I slide into the cockpit thing, The Brace, according to Maria, and let it suck me into the confinement of the machine. Then the systems come to life and I activate everything, from full offensive to total defensive modes.
“Maria…I hope you were right. Are we ready?”
There’s no time left
“Let’s go Cap and if not, it was an honor serving with you…”
Hound’s words sink deep but Maria’s fill the com now “Bullshit. You got me into this and now, you’re going to get me out.”
Another missile warning alerts me of our imminent doom. I lift my hands and see the robotic arms on my DAWG rise in front of me, both Vulcans beginning to spin. In my head I select armor piercing rounds and squeeze both triggers with my index fingers. The side of the Cala tears up and disintegrates within seconds as I trace a destructive arc along it. The bullets leaving my machine appear as superheated streaks of high speed lights that carve and decimate everything in a whorl of sparks and smoke. Then as the intense decompression of oxygen suddenly meeting vacuum takes place…“Go, go, go..!” I yell it with all my heart and wait as the team makes for freedom one after the other.
The last of the team gets to the crumbling opening and I disengage the clamps that keep my Gear in place. The sensation of being released mixed with the knowledge of the missiles about to strike, makes me push my legs like never before. I feel as though a foot is lodged somewhere in my stomach and as I make my run, the impact of the final few missiles hits me from behind and pushes my DAWG at odd angles away from the exploding ship.
The momentum carries me until I am a safe distance away, and then I shut down my thrusters, initiate the suit’s Magnatech and everything stops spinning. The first thing I notice is the mixed brown of Keden below me. The caramel colored orb hangs in the black of space like a shiny marble.
“Status..?” I stabilize myself and take a look around.
“Bull, all good…”
“Akita’s alive and kicking…”
“Hound is okay…”
“Maria is…Dane is okay…”
We need to get out of here now. The silent detonations in vacuum close to atmosphere draw my attention as the Cala splits apart and begins to drift in pieces at all angles. The front of it bends under while the center tears up into millions of burning particles. Then the stern bursts open, spinning slowly away from the blazing frame and toward us.
“Hou…lee…um Cap…”
I turn in the direction Akita is facing and the sight is increadible. From what my computer tells me, five hundred Raiku ships have appeared from hyperspace and without delay, the fireworks begin.
What the hell is going on?
“Alpha, let’s get out of here before we become space dust…”
“You’re right Hound. I’m on point. Team, follow through, tight formation let’s go!” On the digital interface in front of me, I see many options outlined in translucent blue lines. I select what I need and think of entering Keden’s atmosphere and without realizing what I’ve done; the computer initiates the required sequence.
“Atmospheric entry ninety eight percent success”
“What the hell...? It talks? Dane, you didn’t say this thing talked…”
“I forgot about that…”
Ninety eight percent..? That’s good enough for me. And because we are all synced, my actions are easily followed by the rest of the team’s auto piloting systems as I drop toward Keden.
Picking up speed, we accelerate and are pushing past five times the speed of sound. In a few minutes I approach the hazy aura of the planet and for the last time, look back at the muted battle raging above and behind us. The Raiku have clashed with the blockade and while the first wave is halfway through, more of the Dynasty forces are still arriving. This is a full scaled invasion. In all my time, I’ve never seen anything like it.
“Atmospheric entry in five, four…”
I focus on what’s beneath us as the computerized voice continues
“…three, two…”
Everything shakes
“…one”
The DAWG’s auto piloting system keeps me from tumbling uncontrollably and shuts the engine down. Keden is now a blur of light brown and red haze and we rocket downward at over ten times the speed of sound.
********
“Alpha…” It’s Bull on the open channel. Even in atmosphere there is no static interference “…We’re on the outer edges of the Dune Desert. From what I’m picking up, there’s nothing at the base.”
“Copy that Bull…I’m still gonna check it out.”
“…Gotcher back boss…”
His words carve furrows into my stomach. The thought of finding her dead is beyond me. I switch to manual command, then open up the menu on my HUD and select Air Operations. Almost instantly the machine responds and the sensation of freefalling takes over. I am no longer a passenger in a cockpit, I am now a man flying in a suit and without much thought I push my head over, ask my engines for power and enter a burning dive.
The rest of the team follows suit. The Neural Link tells me that we are all spread out at five miles apart and my Dees indicate the ground at fifty thousand feet and closing.
Forty thousand feet
Thirty five thousand feet
Thirty thousand feet
Twenty five thousand feet
Twenty thousand
Fifteen thousand
I pull my head up and push my hands back to force the DAWG out of the fall. The engine screams and the heady rush flows through me like an overdose. The Mecha responds more like body armor and less like a Machine. Maria was right, it does whatever I do. We pass over the Dunescape by only a thousand feet and while the sandy hills zip past us, I see the base in the distance…what’s left of it.
“Coming up on the Base guys, everyone, give me a full sweep…”
I’m calm on the open channel. I’ve made up my mind to accept whatever I meet and in spite of the hollow feeling in my gut, I still hope.
“Roger that Alpha…”
“Damn, it’s all gone…Huski are you seeing what’s under all that rubble?” It’s Akita in my ear now.
“Yeah…”
I ignore the lump in my throat. I’ve seen death before but this is ridiculous. Through the eyes of the onboard computer, the forms of dead bodies buried under tons of fallen steel and Evercrete is life changing. I will the DAWG to slow down and it does. The fallen Starship and what is left of its passengers appear in layers of lines connected to streaming data.
This is tragic.
“Those weren’t Earthfront ships Alpha…”
“I know Akita…Something very big is happening and we’re flying blind in it.”
“Yeah…” Bull joins us “…flying blind in a shit storm.”
Between the Cyclones bearing Earthfront logos and an invasion of Raiku ships on Keden, I am left to believe that Earthfront and the Dynasty have bigger plans for the Galaxy.
“So what’s the plan Boss?”
I take a second to reply to Akita “We go with the flow.”
“Aye aye Cap”
Descending brings an unfamiliar sensation. If it weren’t for the knowledge and memory of me climbing into this thing, I would believe entirely that it was me, naked and flying around with guns and missiles somehow strapped to my body.
“What the hell happened? What did this?”
Pitbull answers Hound before I can say anything “Cyclones…”
I look on as the last of us touch down on one of the dusty landing pads; my mind grasping for answers before asking my question. “How do you know?”
Pitbull’s voice is steady and even. He is angry but in control…I know him enough by now to judge correctly “…I’m picking up a Cyclone a few miles out. We can get to it if we try.”
“…Anyone got any live readings here yet..? Because I’m getting nothing...” I take note of the time on my HUD. It’s now oh-nine-hundred hours, Dunan time.
Maria, who has been silent for most of the trip, joins in “Negative Alpha…”
As a matter of fact, I haven’t heard her speak since we escaped the ship in vacuum.
“Dane..?”
“Huski..?”
“…you alright..?”
“I’m okay Alpha, just pacing myself…”
“Okay lets go get that Cyclone and see what this sonofabitch is all about.”
I open my vents for maximum push and as they burn hot, I jump into the sky and watch the ground fall away in the blink of an eye.
If this Cyclone is nearby, then where are the others? That Deepcore pilot had said that there were seven more. It had to be them that had leveled the Base. Either way, the dead of SysDef on Keden will be avenged today.
The team and I are now edging past the speed of sound and as the sand and dust dunes of the desert flash past; I try to ignore the worry that’s beginning to seep in.
Maria comes over the com “Alpha, I got a tally on the Cyclone…”
“Copy tally…” I see my target “…I got him too. Looks like we’re crashing the party…weapons hot…”
I’m two miles out and slowing down quickly. The edge of the Dunescape is in view and what looks like a Kedenian MAV is battling an Earthfront Cyclone.
That Ked pilot is good.
The onboard computer alerts me of six life-forms. I push the thought to a place somewhere in the back of my mind, keeping my focus on what is going on ahead. In a split second, the information races through me and my heart stops for a moment. I pick up the Kedenian pilot who’s MAV is now slamming into to the ground but somehow, he has survived the crash. The enemy in the Cyclone is there also, along with the two crazies in the Booster Tank headed to their deaths. I turn my attention to the other two on foot…
“Alpha, are you getting this?”
“I see them Akita…going ballistic!”
I am seeing Mirana and a girl in my head as the super computer streams the battlefield information through me like a wildfire.
How did she get out here?
But there is no time to waste. Switching to ground controls as I drop out of the sky, my tracking reticule locks on to the tin-man boasting the Earthfront insignia. I think of my missiles, select ten Brimstones and without thinking twice, release them.
I’m making sure this bastard doesn’t come back.
As my legs slam into the ground, the heat seekers trace an arc above the space between us and with a series of hollow booms and a vicious flash, the cyclone becomes nothing but a balloon of tumbling fire and bits and pieces of flying metal.
“Bull…weather..?”
“Clear and Sunny Alpha…”
“Let’s get to them and when we do…” I’m already moving “…give me a defensive perimeter, and kill anything that shouldn’t be there!”
“Copy that Cap…”
I find the communications linkup and activate the frequency find “Kedar Booster Tank, this is Iron Five Commander, Richard Gant and we are non-hostile…repeat, non-hostile. Request pilot ident and escort to Dunan do you copy?”
I wait a few seconds before he comes back “Captain Asan Aseid copies Iron Five request and will be ready for escort when you are.”
“Copy that. You guys go get your pilot from that wreckage and we’ll keep eyes out for any more hostiles.”
“Will do Commander…”
I approach Mirana and the girl. They are scared but the Base Commander stands defiantly still. I physically crouch and the DAWG does the same. In my head I split the cockpit open and hear it depressurizing. The Brace lowers me to the dirt and the bright world outside my machine comes into literal view. With my feet on the desert floor, I remove my helmet and walk-run toward her. She is a mess. Her tight bun of hair is now loose and scattered across her shoulders. There is enough dirt on her skin to be noticeable even from this distance and her clothes are torn and ragged but I don’t care; she is alive.
“Huski..?”
I like the look in her eyes but she is as shocked as she is worn “Commander…” I salute and then nod to the young girl behind her.
“What are you doing here..?”
“I’ll explain later…” What in the Galaxy justifies me being here? “…right now, we need to get you to safety. We’re going to Dunan and when we get there, I’ll let you know what’s going on.”
I turn my thoughts inward and find the Booster Tank then speak away from Mirana.
“Hey Asan..?”
“Yes…”
“You got room in there for two more?”
“We’ve got room in here for four more…”
“Good, come get these two ladies when you’re done and then we’ll be heading out…”
“…On our way”
The Booster Tank whines as it turns, a quarter mile away and begins coming to us.
“Captain…” She looks at me and even in our predicament, amazingly, they haven’t lost their intensity “What are those, and where are your MAV’s?”
“Those are Dynamic Automated War Gear…”
“Dogs..?” She utters with a smile.
“Yeah, Dogs. But there’s no time for an explanation now. You two get in the Booster and we’ll take it from there.”
I keep an eye on her as she hustles away and thank God she’s alive. I want to tell her what I am feeling but I can’t. It just doesn’t fit and I know somehow that it is better this way.