CHAPTER 15 - JERICHO
Sunlight cracks the dusty horizon with its silvery glare. It has been a wild night. The dark, early morning skies had been all lights and action unlike anything I have ever seen in my career. Guns blazing, missiles tracking, bombs targeting, explosions erupting, ground shaking, sky shattering…we did, however, manage to destroy Jackal Two and One but the celebration was short lived. Not long after our efforts to hold our enemies at bay seemed successful, we found ourselves badly outnumbered as swarms of Dynasty fighter squadrons and Battle groups, broke atmosphere, overran the forward command posts and devastated Keden’s frontlines. We and Al-Jair were forced to regroup and await further instructions, and now, the Raiku are mere moments away from taking Dunan and its outlying territories.
“Iron Five…”
Al-Jair comes over our coms
“…We’re making a run on Jackal Seven in twenty minutes. Keep us clear of hostile aircraft and artillery until we’re through…”
“Iron Five copies, we’ll be there in twenty...”
But an avalanche of noise splits the heavens. At thirty thousand feet, we bear witness to a crippled Raiku Battle Cruiser as it falls helplessly to the desert floor below. No doubt killed in orbit, it is a spectacle to behold. About a mile long and half mile wide, the warship comes apart in balls of flaming pieces, each chunk monstrous while the bulk of it travels, according to my scans, at over a thousand miles per hour. But as it falls, it slows. Even in the face of annihilation the Magnatech fail-safes on board would slow it down, reducing a potential planetary catastrophe to nothing more than localized damage.
“That’s gonna make a dent...”
I respond to Mirana on the open com “Whatever hit it must be a powerhouse...”
As if on cue, hundreds of Starships pierce the sky, their blue and white hulls dazzling in the morning sunlight and their Earthfront logos visible even without magnification.
“Earthfront…” Hound breaks the silence.
And we look on as our home ships descend and flood the battlefield within minutes.
“Alpha..!”
I accept Al-Jair’s incoming transmission “Victory here is ours. Your new objectives are to report to Nalas and board the Starship Cala, then rendezvous with Al-Raadein on Aaram.”
“Alpha copies objective Nalas, and Mission Rendezvous with Al-Raadein. It was a pleasure fighting alongside you General.”
“The pleasure was also mine Earther…Fly brave...”
“Fly strong...” I give my blessing and switch to Iron Five’s secure com “…Iron Five, Bullet to Nalas. Form up and speed sync in ten.”
The thrill of battle is still in me but I am, at the same time, glad to be away from this war and finally one step closer to my ultimate objective. I don’t care how long it takes, or what I have to do to get it done, but Terri will answer to me for what he did, even if it is by my trigger.
Leaning sideways, my DAWG drops from the sky and thirty thousand feet becomes twenty thousand in seconds. The fight on Keden might be over, but the war has only just begun. Getting a battle-group to an already invaded Earth is not going to be a walk in the park.
“Iron Five, Nalas Command has you on approach, follow digital to L Z one five, contact on touchdown.”
“Roger that Nalas Command, we have digital.”
Nalas Base is a hazy outline ahead of us, I descend above the Minera, deploy my airbrakes and the distance closes within the minute.
“Nalas Command...Iron five is on deck and waiting.”
“Iron Five... power down and proceed to Hanger seventeen. Condor awaits you for bullet to Aaram. Welcome back.”
“Copy that....”
After shutting down the DAWGs and leaving our cockpits for the first time in almost twenty four hours, we get to our new ship. It has been a rough ride, the past few hours, and we each take turns in the bathrooms onboard Condor. The spaces are not as roomy as the Mirage but will still do nicely. While each of our flight suits are run through a cyclic cleaner, sterilizing and eliminating all traces of piss and shit, the team and I relax in clothes given by Al Jair’s staff. It’s unpleasant business, but a part of the whole nonetheless.
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Now harnessed and sitting in the cockpit of this triangular ship in fresh flight suits, we ready the systems for lift off and are awaiting permission to launch. It has been a gruelling battle and we are all feeling the effects of sleep, but Aaram is five hundred light years from K1 so we will have a good six hour sleep after we enter hyperspace.
“Condor, Nalas Control has you ready for launch. Taxi to runway five and hold, over?”
“Condor copies Taxi to runway five and hold.”
I take a good look at the people around me. It was not so long ago that Terrier was with us, behind the controls, right where Dane is sitting. Things have changed but we are still Iron Five. I steal a glimpse at Mirana and she looks my way. I smile before going back to what we were doing; there will be time to talk later.
With a slight push into my seat, Maria rolls us out of the hangar and into the blazing sunlight, across the tarmac and then with a one hundred and eighty degree turn, lines up with the runway. It has been a long time since I have experienced a rolling takeoff and within the minute, our coms come alive.
“Condor, your launch is a go. Take it to angels seventy and await co-ordinates.”
“Condor copies angels seventy and wait for co-ords...”
The brakes are released and the cockpit shudders under the immense power of the Sol Combustion. Dane accelerates the ship and we speed down the runway. Outside my window, Nalas and her island blurs past and then drops and angles away from us. The familiar sensation of my stomach being pushed into my gut lingers on the edges of my thoughts but in two minutes, the sky grows darker and Keden becomes an image of grooves and lines far below.
At seventy thousand feet, we are on the edge of the planet’s atmosphere. The Condor’s artificial gravity kicks in, and after a crackle on the com, the rusty female voice from Nalas comes through again.
“Co-ordinates to System Gate Jericho have been uploaded. Good luck Condor.”
I acknowledge the Flight Director “Condor has co-ords and our flight is a go.”
Keden’s two Starports are nowhere in sight. Based on the Holo in front of me, they on the other side of the world and according to the info I unintentionally ask for, neither of them would ever be in this location. But Dane draws me from my thoughts as she speeds us up. Everything outside my window shifts now that she has engaged our Eon Drive, and we jump into the blackness of space.
Keden would be nothing but a micro-speck in the portrait of space now, with all of its fighting no longer our concern. After twenty minutes, we come out of warp and the large, cube shaped Gate known as Jericho speeds toward us. Interacting with the System-Gate’s AI is not at all difficult. The Condor’s Artificial intelligence gives the exact calculations to the isolated station and Maria guides us via the Gate’s Digital Magnetics. We slowly, one thousand miles an hour, move along the Eversteel rail that extends outward from the control center and within the minute, the jolt from a split second of electrocution shocks us all as we are launched into hyperspace.