Fire on the Frontline Page 8

  “Another? Just exactly how many of these bastards are out there?”

  “A shitload,” Ferriero replied by instinct, and then he sat straight on his chair. “Pardon the language, sir.”

  “Nevermind that, Lieutenant. Just put the sensors view up on the screen.”

  The moment Ferriero obeyed the command, Jeryl felt his blood freeze inside his veins. The word Ferriero had just used—a shitload—was exactly the first word that Jeryl thought of to describe what he saw on the screen. This time, the Udenar weren’t coming with fifty or so raiders. No, this time they had brought whatever else they had hidden on the star system. The viewscreen was completely littered with blinking red dots, all of them representing an Udenar ship.

  “Can we get a read on those ships’ signature?” Ashley asked Tira, the young ensign working next to Ferriero.

  Despite her being a novice on The Seeker, she had already proved herself as more capable and intelligent than other senior officers. The girl can think on her feet, and she was devoted to her job in such a way that Jeryl couldn’t help but be reminded of his younger years in the Armada.

  And she’s pretty too, he thought. Those were, more often than not, the truly dangerous women...and Jeryl knew that by experience. After all, he was married to a woman just like that, one as beautiful as she was deadly capable.

  “No ma’am,” Tira replied. “They have around 150 fifty raiders there, and there are some bigger ships as well...but I can’t know for sure what they’re flying. Probably more second-hand Tyreesian vessels. But even if they’re using old dreadnoughts and cruisers, there’s—”

  “No way we stand a chance,” Jeryl said, finishing Tira’s sentence. “Alright, Ferriero, tell Engineering to power up the FTL drives and plot a course back to Union space.”

  “On it, sir.”

  “What about the Confederation fleet?” Ashley asked. She had an expression on her face that Jeryl didn’t appreciate—she wanted to stand her ground and fight, even though the odds were against them.

  “They’re going to leave as well,” Jeryl replied. “Without The Seeker’s help, there’s no way they’re a match for a fleet that size.”

  At least I hope they run, Jeryl thought, or we’re all fucked. Asshole or not, Jeryl wouldn’t abandon Captain Harlan West to a certain death.

  Chapter 14

  Cassius

  Flushed with anger, Cassius Ojun stormed into the Vice Chancellor’s office. Horace Brody looked up from his desk in surprise.

  “Chancellor. Sir. What can I do for you?”

  “You can explain to me why I had an embarrassing slipstream conference with the President of the Terran Union.” He crossed his arms and clenched his jaw.

  “Sir?”

  “The Udenar memo that didn’t arrive in my inbox until this morning. You didn’t think that was something that required my immediate attention?”

  “No sir. I didn’t want to bother you. If the claims are true, it’s a Human Confederation matter. The Terran Union has no business meddling.”

  “Except when Udenar ships cross over the border to fire on a Terran Armada ship. A ship that rescued two of our citizens.”

  Vice Chancellor Brody’s face fell. “I missed that. I only skimmed the message. I’m sorry.”

  “I averted a war, this time. You better hope that Terran Admiral is as understanding as the President. If not, you’re responsible.”

  “Yes, sir,” Horace mumbled with downcast eyes.

  Cassius stalked out of the office, glaring at Horace’s wide-eyed assistant. He expected some incompetence from the lesser staff, but not the Vice Chancellor. It occurred to him the man needed a second assistant, but his annoyance outweighed the thought. He would punish Horace first, then give him another assistant.

  Back in his own office, he powered up the slipstream and waited for Admiral Flynn’s face to appear.

  “Chancellor Ojun. I see you’re finally taking this matter seriously.” It seemed all angry military officers had the same disapproving frown and upturned nose.

  “I apologize. I only got the memo this morning. How are the woman and child?”

  “Scared, but in good health.”

  Good. He hoped they hadn’t suffered much. He had a soft spot for families. This woman was tenacious enough to jumpstart a beat up shuttle and evade the oncoming fire to save her child. He wanted to talk to her. The people needed a hero, and a bravery award for a blue collar single mother should do just the trick.

  “I’ve just ordered half a fleet of ships to deploy for investigation. It will take them three days to arrive at the border.”

  “My ship is still out there. Keep in mind they have orders to engage if the Udenar cross the border again.” Flynn’s tone was a dare. He hoped they would do just that.

  “Noted.” Cassius pushed the button to power down the slipstream. Those Terran Union bastards always acted superior when they were the ones who started the Earth-Sonali war on faulty assumptions. It took them five years to fix their own screw up, and they still had the nerve to look down on the Human Confederation.

  It was both funny and sad. It was a shame he had to be congenial. His rebellious side wanted to say screw the lot of them. The responsibilities of higher office were a real drag, but worked hard to keep his face bland and friendly. If he returned Flynn’s contempt, the situation could only fester.

  The Human Confederation fleet filled with battle cruisers made their three-day trek to Galea. On the third day, Cassius dumped all his menial paperwork on Horace while he monitored the detachment via the HCS Crimson’s slipstream. It wasn’t necessary, but he wanted to see the events firsthand. He assumed the Terran Union Admiral exaggerated the gravity of the situation. He would judge for himself if further action was needed.

  The flagship leading the fleet slowed to sub light drive as it approached Galea’s sector. Cassius saw the planetary system as tiny specs and flashes.

  “Long range scanners are picking up a Terran Union ship exchanging fire with fifty Udenar ships just outside Galea’s moon orbit,” Captain West relayed for his benefit. “From its signature, it seems we’re looking at The Seeker. We’ll have visual in three minutes.”

  Son of a bitch!

  Cassius leaned forward as if that would speed things up.

  “Screw that. Step on it, Captain!”

  It was against procedure. The closer to a star system you were, the more dangerous FTL became. They did not have time to coast up to the planet.

  “Yes, sir! This is the Crimson. Jump on my mark,” Captain West broadcasted to the rest of the fleet. “Mark!”

  The slipstream turned to static for a few moments as the Crimson made an FTL jump, followed by the remaining two hundred twenty-four ships. Cassius held his breath.

  Cassius whistled through his teeth when the slipstream came back into focus. The Seeker did its best to fend off the fifty Udenar ships. The raiders that flowed from its belly served as a distraction, moving in shoot-and-run patterns.

  The Udenar shook them off and pressed forward, forcing the Armada ship to back off. It had superior weapons and shielding, but the constant barrage would soon overwhelm The Seeker. If the fleet hadn’t jumped, The Seeker would be toast.

  The Crimson wasted no time. It charged in at full throttle, the fleet separating into their squads.

  “Squads one and two, take the rear,” Captain West barked.

  Ninety ships veered off to round up behind the Udenar.

  “Squads three and four, flank!”

  Ninety ships veered around the opposite direction.

  The last ninety rushed forward, rail guns pounding the Udenar. Raiders deployed, pouring from each of the ships. They surrounded the enemy and started picking them off in rapid succession.

  It only took a few moments for the backwater thieves to attempt a retreat. Immediately, they were boxed in by the three squads.

  “Yeah!” Cassius yelled, forgetting that slipstream worked both ways.

  “Sir,
could you not distract my CNC crew?” Captain West asked in the background.

  Cassius cleared his throat and settled down.

  The Human Confederation fleet destroyed the remaining Udenar while the Armada ship brought its raiders back to bay.

  Quiet aftermath followed. Cassius could hear each member of the CNC breathing for a moment.

  “Bring those raiders home,” Captain West ordered.

  The racket of the CNC returned to normal. Cassius only saw the view of the patched-in screen. Debris littered the vacuum of space. It was an ugly sight that left Cassius nostalgic for the simplicity of his farming planet. He did his job and came home to his wife every night. His children smiled and welcomed him home. His biggest worry was old terraforming equipment. Those had been the easiest years of his life.

  “Captain West, send a shuttle to pick up the woman and child. Have them brought to Centralia immediately,” Cassius said as he leaned back to relax. He would personally house them and take her statement. At the moment, he didn’t trust anyone else to follow protocol. After she was settled he would hold a ceremony in her honor. The press would eat it all up, and the Human Confederation would love her. Within a month, she and her child would be the most recognized faces in the system.

  “Yes, Chancellor.”

  One thing was clear as he watched the dogfight: though the Udenar ships were inferior to The Seeker and his own ships, they were still higher quality than the pirates have ever had before. Someone with more funding and resources had to be behind the Udenar.

  Cassius powered down the slipstream and paced around his office. There were three choices.

  Someone within his own ranks, which seemed unlikely. Those ships were not a design Cassius recognized. They were similar to traditional Udenar ships, but they were too old to be as fast as they were.

  The Kurta Colonies were an option, but they distrusted everyone and kept to themselves more than the Udenar. They were more interested in hunting each other than conquering a foreign planet. His next choice would have been the Terran Union, but The Seeker was the most famous ship since first contact. The Armada brass would never put it in danger for a ruse.

  That left the scheming Tyreesians. They were ambitious and organized. They had their eyes on Galea for some reason.

  Cassius stopped pacing and sank back into his chair.

  Galea was a farming colony. A year before, the geology team discovered a material that was unlike anything they had seen before. They had trace elements of two different soft metals, infused with a crystalline mineral dust. The result was a hardened conductive material that cast a brilliant prism of color when you held it to the light. Cassius kept a lid on it and ordered another team there for extensive testing. The team named it Bachnian crystal and was currently testing its use as a battery.

  That was what they were after. They must have discovered a use for it that Cassius hadn’t thought of yet.

  Cassius sucked in his breath. If the Tyreesians were involved...

  He reached over the desk and hit the stationary comm, “Admiral Hennesy, power down the FTL in our ships.”

  “Sir?”

  “You heard me. Remotely power down those FTLs before they jump!”

  “Yes sir.”

  Cassius took three deep breaths to quell the shaking.

  Did he just sentence the crews of over two hundred ships to death—or did he actually save their lives?

  Chapter 15

  Jeryl

  “Engineering says FTL drives are ready to go,” Ferriero announced.

  “Do we have our coordinates set?”

  “We do, sir. All we need is one order, and we’ll be out of here in the blink of an eye.”

  “Very well,” Jeryl replied. “Await my command,” he continued, and then fell into deep silence, looking at the viewscreen. He felt his heart pick up the pace as he watched the hundreds of blinking red dots grow closer on the screen, just like angry wasps circling their enemy.

  The Confederation fleet remained motionless as the Udenar approached, and Jeryl hoped that just meant they were still powering up their FTL drives. No sane captain would dare lock horns with a fleet that size, even if that fleet was mostly composed of rusted-out Tyreesian ships. As arrogant as Captain West seemed, Jeryl doubted the old man would be crazy enough to engage.

  And still, the Confederation’s fleet looked as if it was waiting for the Udenar. It didn’t make any sense.

  “Something’s wrong, Captain,” Ashley called out to Jeryl, never taking her eyes from the viewscreen as she said it.

  “I know,” he replied tersely. Turning to Mary, he issued another command. “Hail Crimson. I want to talk to their Captain before we jump out of here.”

  With a simple nod, Mary went to work, and a few seconds later, Captain West’s semblance took over the previous image of the Udenar fleet on the viewscreen. Just like before, there was still that air of arrogance about him.

  “Captain, I hope you’re not thinking of engaging that Udenar fleet,” Jeryl said, hoping to receive another arrogant reply from Captain West. That didn’t happen, though.

  “We’re...still analyzing the situation,” he merely responded, and Jeryl immediately noticed that the Crimson’s captain wasn’t being truthful. If there was something Jeryl was proud of, it was his skill at reading people under pressure—something a dozen well-off New Washington businessmen with a hole burning in their pocket could attest to.

  But this wasn’t a poker game. There were lives at stake here, and something very, very wrong was happening.

  “Analyzing what situation? There are hundreds of ships coming toward you! Your fleet doesn’t stand a chance, Captain. Power up your FTL drives and get the hell out of here!”

  “Thank you for telling me how to run my ship, Captain Montgomery,” Captain West replied, lowering his voice into a whisper. He was gritting his teeth so hard that Jeryl wouldn’t be surprised if the old man simply shattered his jaw. “Like I said before, we got this.”

  Then, Captain West looked up with furrowed brows, as if he was reading something on his own viewscreen, and cursed something under his breath.

  Without any warning at all, the line went dark, Captain West’s image replaced by mere darkness.

  “What the hell happened?” Jeryl asked, turning to Mary. She was tapping away at her holographic keyboard, but nothing she did managed to bring the Confederation captain back online.

  “I...I don’t know, sir. The line just went dead. They either shut off their comms links, or...I’m not sure, sir. I’ve tried hailing them again, but it’s as if they’re not there at all.”

  “What the fuck?” Jeryl hissed, low enough to keep his anger hidden from the rest of his crew. What the hell was going on inside these Confederation’s ships? Why were they not moving and getting ready to engage their FTL drives?

  “They must have a death wish,” Ashley whispered, and then went to Tira’s side. “Get us some visuals on them and put it up on the screen.”

  Without a word, Tira tapped her keyboard twice and the CNC’s viewscreen lit up with a livestream of the nearby Confederation fleet. To say they were motionless was an understatement—the whole fleet seemed adrift in space, almost as if their engines had suddenly decided to take a leave of absence at the same time.

  “Ferriero, what’s the ETA for the Udenar fleet?”

  “They’re...one minute out, sir!”

  “Shit. Still no response from them?”

  “None, sir!” Mary replied, and Jeryl felt his heart jump inside his chest anxiously. He couldn’t abandon the Confederation fleet like this, especially when he didn’t know what was going on...but if he stayed, he’d be risking The Seeker and its crew.

  “Sir, let me try something,” Tira suddenly said, jumping from her seat and eyeing Jeryl.

  “Speak up.”

  “I can try and run an analysis of their systems. Under normal circumstances we shouldn’t be doing this, as they could see that as hostile from our part.
..but that’s the only way for us to know what—”

  “Permission granted. But work fast, Ensign Tira. The clock’s ticking.”

  “I always work fast,” Tira said with a smile, and then sat back down on her chair, her fingers flying over her keyboard so fast that Jeryl could barely keep up. Usually, the Armada insisted on sending him green rookies, but it seemed they had finally listened to Jeryl’s pleas and had started sending him capable personnel.

  “Thirty seconds!” Ferriero said, and Jeryl felt his mouth turn dry as he saw the red avalanche of Udenar ships on the viewscreen drawing closer. Soon enough, even The Seeker wouldn’t be able to jump out of the star system. There was no way Jeryl would attempt an FTL jump under heavy fire.

  “Tira, give me something.”

  “One second, sir, and I...got it!” She exclaimed, her face so close to the monitor that her nose almost touched it. “Their FTL drives seem to have been deactivated remotely!”

  “So, you’re telling me that the Confederation fleet can’t make the jump?”

  “That, well, huh...yes, sir.”

  “Shit,” Jeryl muttered again. Why the hell had the Confederation deactivated the FTL drives on their own fleet? That didn’t make any sense. The only reason any Admiral worth his salt would deactivate the drives like that would be…

  “POWER DOWN OUR FTL DRIVES!” Jeryl shouted, and every head in CNC turned to look at him. “Do it now,” he insisted, and Ferriero immediately went to work, no questions asked.

  “What the hell’s going on?” Ashley asked, and Jeryl just gritted his teeth.

  “FTL mines. They’re all around us,” Jeryl finally replied, watching as the Confederation fleet finally engaged their sub light engines and slowly started pulling back. That was the only way to escape a minefield like that; if a ship tried a jump into FTL with these mines around it, it was almost certain that the only place its crew would be jumping into would be the afterlife.

  “Five seconds, sir!” Ferriero shouted, the urgency in his voice enough to make Jeryl stand up from his chair.