Dark Fate, Chapter 89

Chapter 89 – Hit and Run

(Renegade 4)

They had been coasting in on minimal power, doing their best to keep the Ouran from noticing them. While the rest of the Renegades were tasked with running a search pattern to try and find the enemy ships, they had a different job. ‘Visual inspection of the enemy wreckage’. In other words, check to make sure that no one was being sneaky by playing dead in the debris field.

David Beard yawned, and stretched as he got up to walk around the cabin of the Renegade. Well, ‘walk around’ was a stretch. The little ship was designed to be lived in, but that was only in the same way that an RV was designed to be lived in. At least this was one of the bus-sized RVs, and not one of the cramped, barely larger than a truck ones. But it was still an RV, and that meant there wasn’t much room to walk around.

His yawn was echoed by that of his gunner, Holly Berry. “This is the part they always gloss over in games,” she said. “Combat flight sims usually take you straight to the combat zone. And RTS games usually have you busy dealing with the base and trying to build up your forces. But they don’t give you the perspective of the forces themselves.”

Looking back to the girl (who he had to remind himself was a ranked player, even if she was hot enough to make him forget what he was saying at times), David nodded. “Yeah. This is more like those flight simulator games that Microsoft puts out, or one of the undersea exploration games that have been big recently.” He sighed, and shook his head. “I’m going to get a snack. Want anything?”

“Coke, and a Snickers, thanks. Not like there’s much choice.”

With a grunt of acknowledgement, David went to the small pantry. The thing was stocked with almost a month’s worth of MREs, and they had plenty of bottled water to go with it. But those were the ‘emergency’ supplies, for if they were forced to stay on long deployments. The Boss knew gamers needed more than MREs to stay in the game, though, so there were several cases of Coke, and a lot of snacks.

Grabbing a pair of cokes and some candy, he returned to his chair. As he handed Holly her snacks, David sighed. “I wonder why there’s only Coke and snickers. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate Coke, but I really would love some Mountain Dew. And maybe some Doritos, instead of Snickers.”

“Who are you, D.Va?” Holly laughes, shaking her head as she cracked open her can of Coke. “But, for reals. Know Randy, the gunner for Renegade 2? He actually asked the Boss about it. Apparently, the answer was that the Boss likes Coke, and he likes Snickers, so if he’s paying to stock snacks, then that is what is getting stocked. If we want different, then we can pay to restock.”

David considered that, as he took a sip from his own drink. “Well, I guess I can respect that. More the fact that he came out and said it than anything. Most people would give some BS reason. He really just said that he stocked what he liked, and if we wanted different we should shell out our own money for it?”

“Yep,” Holly nodded. She opened her mouth to continue, but a ping from her console cut her off. Game face back on, she turned to the plot, and said, “I think we have something. Bringing it up on screen.”

David whistled as he saw what she was looking at. “That must be the cruiser that ‘disappeared’. Clever bastard is hiding in the shadow of that big fucker that got blown in half. They’re what, sixty meters from the hull?”

“Looks like, according to the scans. Even if we went active, it would have looked like a solid object until we got just about this close.”

David nodded slowly. “Charge the torpedoes. Can’t have the aliens sleeping on the job.”

(Feast Hall, Huntship Brethak Claw)

“Huntleader!”

Hasluh was in the feast hall, finishing off the second of his live dega rodents, when he heard the call. Looking over to his second, Unraz, he nodded. “What is it, Unraz? News from the hunters searching for our Erborha?”

“No, Huntleader. Our own sensors have detected intermittent gravitic pulses. No set pattern or vector, and they were just barely strong enough to be detected. If we weren’t fully stopped, and then they might have been lost in our own engine ‘noise’. The pulses might just be background radiation, but I ordered a trickle charge to the beam weapons, just in case it is a stealth drive.”

“Good work, Unraz.” Hasluh looked to the other Ouran who were in the feast hall, trying to look like they weren’t listening in, and smirked. “And you lot pay attention! It is better to have your weapon in hand, and not need it, then to try and ask your enemy to wait while you go to the armory, because you didn’t think you’d be needing your pistol today! That is why we had our shields up, before we left hyperspace, and that is why we are alive, when all the senior Huntleaders and the Great Hunter are dead. Someday, if you live long enough, you will go on to lead your own hunts. If you wish to bring honor to your clan, then learn these lessons well.”

As the crew cheered, he looked to Unraz. “Come, show me what the Sighter has found.”

(Renegade 4)

“How long until pulse torpedoes are ready?”

“Two minutes, since we’re doing a double-blast.”

David nodded slowly. “Have the ion cannons ready to go, just in case. If we don’t destroy it, a couple blasts will disrupt their systems while we get out.

Holly just nodded. “Understood.”

(Bridge, Huntship Brethak Claw)

“That is the last vector I saw the gravitic pulses on, Huntleader. There’s nothing out there, according to passive scans.” The Sighter’s tone sounded doubtful, though.

Hasluh shook his head. “Speak, Sighter. This is a hunt, not a time to shine my scales.”

The Sighter nodded. “I’ve been using visual scans, and there have been a few cases where I thought something came between us and one of the stars. But there’s so much debris that I can’t be sure that it is a ship. And yet, it is on the same vector as the last pulse detected. My instincts say that one of the ships is there, stalking through the wreckage of our fleet.”

Hasluh nodded. He trusted his Sighter’s instincts in this. His own instincts agreed. There was a hunter out there. He turned to the Gunner. “Status on weapons?”

“Charged and ready. I haven’t shifted the arcs, for risk of frightening our prey into attacking early.”

“Good,” Hasluh grinned as he took his seat. “Well, we have an Erborha that has crept close to us, hoping for an easy kill. Time to show them that we are not so easily caught. On my mark, shields to full, sensors active, full power to weapons and engines. We will try and make them miss with their first shot. Gunner, as soon as you have a target, fire, do not wait for further commands.”

There was a flurry of movement as commands were given, and the Brethak Claw prepared to pounce upon the prey that would dare to hunt it. Hasluh nodded, approvingly. He had trained his hunters well.

“NOW!”

(Renegade 4)

“NOW!”

Holly pressed the button, and fired both torpedoes. As she did so, David brought up the shields and engines, just in case. And it was a good thing, too, because the cruiser’s shields chose that moment to go to full power, and they began moving! More importantly, the weapons turrets tracked and locked on to them.

“Shit! Hit them with the Ion cannons! I’m getting us out of here.”

Holly just nodded. “They’re firing!”

“Going evasive!”

(Bridge, Huntship Brethak Claw)

“REPORT!”

“Shields holding at 13%! They stabilized just as the weapons hit us. No radiation leak, but the feedback sent a power surge through several secondary systems. Stealth is offline.”

“And our Erborha?”

“They followed their initial attack with ion cannons. Shields held, but it disrupted the targeting sensors enough that they were able to evade. Even so, we skimmed their shields.”

“Take us on the hunt! Kill that ship before it can get away!”

(Bridge, Hellspawn)

“Captain! Weapons fire from the wreckage of the alien fleet. Renegade 4 breaking stealth. They found the missing cruiser!”

Slave-Captain Elalana nodded. “Status of Renegade 4?”

“They appear to have been detected. The enemy raised shields just as they launched weapons. Return fire crippled their stealth and FTL capabilities. They’re running.”

“And the cruiser?”

“Minimal shielding, and they haven’t returned to stealth. Can’t say more from here, Ma’am.”

“Very well. We can’t leave Renegade 4 to their fate. Helm, prepare a quick warp jump. Tactical, I want everything ready to fire the moment we come out of warp. We’ll come out behind the cruiser, and take them down.”

“Captain! Active scans going off across the system. Enemy has gone active! Closest target, twelve thousand kilometers to port, three degrees up angle.”

“Match trajectory and fire pulse torpedoes! Take it down!”

“Firing!”

“All Renegades are engaging! Rogue Squadron is scrambling the alert fighters, and the combat patrol is making an attack run on the closest ship. All other pilots scrambling to their fighters. All ships engaging!”

“Alert the Admiral, let him know that stealth is no longer an option.”

“I’m already aware, Captain.” There was a stir as I walked onto the bridge, wearing my weapons and armor, but I waved it away. “Back to your duties. We have a fight to win!”

The crew returned to the business of fighting, and I looked at the Captain. “Status?”

She nodded, and said, “Renegade 4 found the enemy, and the enemy found them. Both sides appear to have suffered damage to stealth systems, and the fight has sparked all ships into active combat, as the enemy ships lit off active scanners.”

“Captain! Several enemy ships are moving towards Earth. I believe they are attempting to draw forces away from Renegade 4 and the cruiser.”

I looked at the plot. Thanks to quick thinking and dumb luck, five enemy vessels had been destroyed in the initial confusion. That brought the list of confirmed kills to fourteen. Six ships had already been limping on damaged engines, and another five were dead in the water following this latest surprise attack.

But that still left thirty ships to deal with, and it would be at least fifteen minutes before any of my ships could use their most powerful weapons again, even on single shot mode. But the Hellspawn was more than just pulse torpedoes. It would mean painting a target on us, but we could change the tide.

“Captain, get us to the cruiser, weapons free. Have Ceres Base track the ships heading for Earth, and alert local authorities so that they can mobilize military forces. Tell them that their best chance will be either while they’re entering the atmosphere, or when they’re on the ground.”

“As you command, Admiral.”

(Control Room, NORAD)

“General! We are detecting more weapons fire in space. Multiple locations. Definitely some explosions.”

“Any sign of who is doing the exploding?”

“No, sir. But we are detecting eight contacts heading for Earth. All definitely not the ships we’ve seen around Ceres before it disappeared.”

“Right, designate contacts as hostile until proven otherwise. Intel says that these are likely to be pirates and slavers. They are going to be looking to raid, not engage in a pitched battle, and they don’t have the ground forces for an occupation. Where are they heading?”

“Trajectories indicate they are heading for New York, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Beijing, Moscow, Berlin, and London. ETA twenty minutes.”

The General nodded. “All major population centers, that they’d be able to pick up on, even from orbit, spread around the globe. Foolish of them to not concentrate in a single area.”

“Actually, sir, it makes sense, since ‘we’ have already displayed weapons that can hurt them. Spreading out means they can’t be taken out all at once. And if they are just raiding, then they may be counting on getting out before local forces can respond.”

“Do we know if our weapons can kill them?”

“Unknown.”

“Well, that’s just freaking great. Get me the President.”