Remnants of Empire, page 5
part #4 of The Earth Saga Series
“Sir, we are jumping to the maximum range of this vessel, and we would have to refuel to make a jump out of the Pohjois.”
Bender wasn’t surprised that a ship this small had limited range. “Then we better be successful, so we don’t need this junker.” Bender took two steps to his rear. “Standish. We jump ten behind you.”
“Acknowledged.”
“Drive warmed up and ready to jump.” Reported Clar from the pilot’s position.
“Jumping in ten.” Standish said over the comms channel.
Bender looked over at Reyn. “Gear up. Helmets on. Weapons ready.”
Reyn said nothing but moved off the bridge to the ship's main hold that had served as a lounge when the ship was still in service as a pleasure craft.
Bender looked down at the light brown armour that covered his body and ran his gloved hand over his torso. It was dinged up in several places from years of hard use. He looked at the helmet that he was carrying in his left hand. A pale green stripe ran down the front of the facing. He had meant to have it repainted on several occasions but had never gotten around to it. It was either that, or he thought the faded look gave it a little more character, he wasn’t sure.
“Assault ship has jumped out,” Clar reported. “in ten!” He shouted the warning over the ships communications suite.
Bender brought his helmet up and put it on. It took just a fraction of a second for the life support systems to become operational, for his heads-up display to come online, and a radio check to be conducted.
Looking to his right, he caught a glimpse of Takana take a firm grip on a rail that ran along the rear of the bridge. He had seen that look before. It was fear.
“Jumping!”
Everyone who wasn’t expecting something to happen went flying forward when the pleasure craft jumping into the Tango Luna system. What they had collided with, Bender wasn’t sure, but he was on the comms channel at once.
“Standish, you online?”
“Busy!” Came the sharp reply. “’Lition patrol craft.”
Bender moved forward and looked out the front of the ship, and floating right in front of them was the charred remains of a ship that Standish must have pounced on when she had jumped in.
“Scanners?” He asked Clar, who was slowly backing the ship away from what it had just crashed into. “Coming up.”
Bender looked at the information as it was relayed to the hologram that was in the centre of the bridge. It had been synched with the ships scanners and was now displaying an image of most of the system, or at least the section that was most critical to the success of the mission. He also saw telemetry from the assault craft, giving him enough of a picture to work with.
Directly to their front was Balaria. The lifeless moon of Tango Luna Prime and known throughout the galaxy for being the site of an impact crater left by a drunk Prince slamming into it decades earlier. Directly on the other side of the moon was TLP, and in orbit above it was the station.
Imagery from the assault ship showed that there were only three ships docked, one tanker potentially filled with purified water, one destroyer and one frigate. Standish had chosen well and had already severed the moorings and the umbilical that were attached to the frigate, and the ship was starting to slowly drift off station.
In her attempt to attract as much attention as possible, she had destroyed the tanker and was blasting holes in the station. She was aware that the assault craft wouldn’t do much against the armour that a destroyer carried, and she was focusing her efforts where they could achieve the best results.
“Clar, move us in. Slowly. Fly naturally.” Bender suggested. Turning to Reyn and Takana, he informed them to prepare themselves for action.
“Reyn, I want you to take two of our men, and five of Tanaka’s and secure the engineering department. Clar will take our other two men and five more of Takana’s men and secure environmental.” Bender put up his hand and looked at the hologram. The class and type of the Coalition warship were coming up as a Fugar Industries, Mark 5R. “Right.” Bender tapped on the holographic image of the ship and manipulated the image until he got to the floor-by-floor cross-section.
The ship showed five decks. Zero deck was in the middle of the ship, housing the majority of the ships weapons systems. The bottom two decks had crew quarters in the bow, and engineering on two levels at the stern. Deck One had the bridge and bridge officers’ quarters, while the top deck had environmental, along with some other non-essential sections. Luckily, the ship was not supposed to be equipped with Sentinels.
“I need you to take the rest of your forces to hold the stairwell on deck Zero, and to ensure that no one can get to engineering from the front half of the ship on sub-decks One and Two.”
Tanaka moved forward to examine the holographic image.
“You and your men will follow Reyn’s team.” Bender pointed at an airlock on the top of the ship. “We will ingress here, with Clar’s team on point. They will secure and hold environmental, while my team moves down this stairwell, to deck one, and assaults forward to the bridge.” Bender ran his finger along the hologram while he explained his strategy. “Reyn will lead down this stairwell, in the centre of the ship to the main deck. Here you’ll leave some of your forces to hold this point, while the rest of you proceed to sub-one, and assault to the rear to secure engineering, which is located along the bottom two decks. It is critical that you hold these stairwells.”
Bender looked at Reyn, then back down to Takana. “There is only one stairwell on each level, so holding it is critical. We will use speed and shock to secure the ship.”
Bender turned and looked out the front of the bridge. The ship was running parallel with Balaria, and the space station was now visible in the distance.
“What contacts do you have?” He asked.
“Standish and the assault ship, the frigate, destroyer, and four more patrol craft just launched from the planet’s surface.” Clar reported.
Bender nodded. There was a lot of firepower on the Coalition’s side of the fight. It was critical that they get to the frigate before the ship’s crew was able to get her into the fight because the pleasure craft would have no chance against a fully operational frigate. Bender put his hand on Clar’s shoulder.
“Faster.”
As the pleasure craft accelerated to its maximum speed, Standish had her hands full battling the myriad of threats that the Coalition defenders were throwing at her.
The destruction of the patrol craft she had encountered once she jumped into the system had alerted Coalition forces to a raid of some kind and responded as one would expect, so when Standish made her run on the station, she was met with a barrage of fire from turbo-lasers, beam cannons, and missiles. Luckily for her, the assault ship was an old Jarosisan Racer and still had all the race modifications that had made it a winning ship during the old Race Series that was among the most popular games during the reign of the Empire. Add to the speed and manoeuvrability her piloting skills, and a deadly compliment of weapons, the assault ship was a lethal, compact package.
Jumping in so close to an enemy threat had forced Standish to use her full complement of weapons out of the gate. Energy cannons, and missiles, and light ballistic-guns. It wasn’t worth the risk at that range to be conservative.
Once the patrol craft was dispatched, she accelerated to attack speed and dove down to the surface of Balaria, cutting across the moon’s surface just metres above the rough terrain in order to avoid detection, and once she was in line with the station, she pulled up hard on her flight stick, and brought the nose of the ship to bear her objection and accelerated to maximum speed.
Standish knew she was most vulnerable in open space, and needed to cover the distance to the station before a collective response to her attack could be ready.
The assault ship was just over twenty metres long, and less than five metres high, making it a small target for any ship designed to face capital ships. The twin-boom engines at the rear of the ship burned bright purple as the engine sucked down water to feed its hunger while pushing it across space at tremendous speeds.
Once the ship had jumped into Coalition space, it ran a system-wide search for all vessels, friendly or otherwise. When the report informed her that there was a frigate in the space docks, she knew that was her target, and the instant that the dock’s umbilical came within range of her high-powered laser cannons, she opened fire. Part of the trouble with a craft as fast as the racer was that it could outrun its own missiles, so it couldn’t fire them forwards while travelling at max sub-light speeds.
It didn’t matter, though, as the laser cannons were equally capable of tearing into the space station and the umbilical’s that held the ship in place. Once the frigate was freed, Standish turned her attention to the tanker that was parked nearby and fired a series of shots at the ships water tanks until her onboard AI reported they were breached. Purified water wasn’t as easy to come by as some would hope in the dark of space, and a tanker was always a prime target.
By the time the tanker was disabled, the first volleys of fire had started streaking towards her from the station, forcing her to crack a small smile. This was a front-line installation, but their weapon systems were slow to react and very inaccurate, and she was feeling slightly disappointed.
Playing with the stick lightly, Standish allowed the racer to dance in between the incoming fire, and when the occasional missile was launched from the station, she had more than enough time to fire a well-placed shot to disable it.
When the pleasure craft had jumped in with the assault team, she was already getting confirmation that additional ships were taking off from the planet’s surface and heading her way. She also knew that it was just a matter of time until the destroyer came online, and while she could outrun it, she couldn’t do much damage to it, and with that in mind, she executed a precision gun-run on the station, firing her full complement of weapons at anything that looked like it was of value. Communications antenna, viewing ports, weapons pods. She even slammed the racer to a full stop and fired off a series of shots into the station's open hangar bay. The laser blasts cut through the atmospheric shielding that separated the dangers of space from the station, and destroyed two shuttles and vaporised at least half a dozen mechanics scurrying about the deck.
Looking to her left, Standish quickly re-evaluated the tactical situation, and decided it was time to make a run for cover, and hopefully draw the wrath of the Coalition forces away from the station and the planet, and most importantly, the assault team.
Turning the ships nose towards the massive G-type star that occupied the centre of the system, she accelerated away from the station with a collection of Coalition ships in pursuit, but Standish was wily enough not to leave them too far behind, she wanted them to think that they had a chance to catch her, so she checked her speed, and for the racer, made a casual run away from her pursuers.
Monitoring the situation closely, Bender knew that it wouldn’t take long for the Coalition forces to realise that this wasn’t just a raid on the station and bring more elements into the system. He also had to consider the possibility that the crew of the frigate would get the ship operational which would prevent any attempts to board. His last worry was that there would be a full complement of crew on the ship, and even if they were poorly trained, it would be difficult for his small raiding party to overpower what could be up to eighty personnel on the 250-metre-long craft.
Fortune must have been on their side, Bender reckoned. They were now moving at the ships top speed and still appeared to not have attracted any attention from the station, or the other ships in the system. When they reached a distance of 1000 kilometres, Clar put the ship on an intercept course towards the frigate, which was still listing away from the station, and showed no signs of activity.
“Clar, kill the onboard gravity and then take up a position at the airlock. You are the first man through the hatch. I will pilot us into position.”
Bender toggled his comm unit and advised the rest of his team that the gravity was going offline, and ordered them to ready their weapons.
Before Clar killed the gravity, Bender activated the mag-bolts in his boots, ensuring that he wouldn’t float up once the power was killed. Takana had no such kit and slowly started to float up once the internal gravity was turned off.
“Go with Clar.” He ordered.
Less than five minutes later, the two ships were connected, and the pleasure crafts docking sleeve was pressurising, and filling with breathable air, and warming to a tolerable temperature to Takana are her force, most of whom were wearing rudimentary body armour that they had made themselves.
Bender knew that speed was critical in securing the ship, any delay would be paid in blood, and when Clar signalled that the collar was pressurized he opened the near side hatch, moved down the short distance to the frigates hatch, and placed a device to hack the airlocks access panel, which succeeded in doing so in seconds.
Without waiting for further instructions, Clar opened the hatch, and dropped an organic destabilisation grenade into the ship, and slammed the hatch shut. After a brief pause, he opened the hatch back up, and jumped down into the frigate, quickly followed by his portion of the strike team.
Bender was right behind the last member of Clar’s team, and when Clar moved into the ship, Bender looked to his rear quickly to check that his team was stacked up behind him. Happy with what he saw, he jumped into the frigate, pistol up and ready.
The space he found himself in was no more than five metres wide and covered in dead bodies that had been torn inside out by the grenade Clar had tossed. Glancing towards the front of the ship, he noted that Clar’s team had already secured the environmental control room which was just metres away. Facing to the rear of the ship, Bender started moving forward, pistol up and ready. His suit offered him advanced sensory capabilities, and he could hear voices ahead.
He knew that risks had to be taken to ensure the ship was captured, so he moved quickly towards the stairwell that was twenty metres away, encountering no crew members, but upon reaching the staircase, he could hear voices coming from the first deck.
Pulling a grenade off his belt, he primed it, then tossed it down the stairs and waited for an explosion that let off a thunderous bang before racing down the stairs, rounding the bottom, and moving forward, towards the bridge, one of his operatives right with him, while the men Takana had supplied trailed at a safe distance. Reaching the second stairwell to the main deck, Bender paused only long enough to throw another grenade down to the next level, before quickly descending and then continuing along the narrow corridor.
The ship was similar in design to many Alliance ships, with grey painted steel walls lining the interior of the ship. As he raced along the hallway, he constantly scanned for any emerging threat to his front, and also examined every compartment door that he passed, and finally stopped when he reached a door marked Ship Master.
Toggling a thermal scan of the room with his helmet, he detected one occupant, who appeared to be using a communicator. Without hesitating, Bender opened the door and spotted a Qeran woman with a radio in her hand. Bringing his pistol to bear, Bender fired a single shot, hitting the woman square in the face, and boring a hole through her head.
Not pausing to watch her body slump to the ground, Bender fired a second shot at the radio that was mounted on the wall of the room, and swiftly exited the room and continued his march towards the bridge.
As he moved, he monitored the status of Reyn’s team, which seemed to have been slowed on sub-level one for some reason. “Reyn, status?”
“Light Sentinel in the engineering department.”
“Understood.” Bender was in no position to assist his second, but he knew that Reyn was more than capable of dealing with a single Light.
By the time Bender had reached the bridge, the hatch to it was sealed tight, but this was an eventuality that Bender had prepared for, and he quickly pulled a spider charge from his armours right leg pocket, tapped the back switch once, and then threw it at the door. As the explosive moved through the air, its built-in sensors detected the size of the door, and quickly sent out six appendages in a circular shape from the core, and attached to the door.
Bender took three paces to his rear, and knelt down and brought his left arm across his helmet to cover his visual sensors. After a series of beeps from the charge, it vaporised itself and the parts of the door it was attached to, leaving a hole in the middle of the door, with six deep cuts where the arms of the charge had been.
Rising to his feet, Bender charged forward and dove through the hole that had been created, head first, executing a well-honed roll forward, and came up onto one knee, and fired six shots, killing all the crew members he could see from his position.
Rising to his feet, he scanned the bridge, and moved forward to the command chair that was located just behind the pilot’s station, where he spotted a crew member cowering, hands held high in the air, and without hesitation, Bender fired another shot, killing the crewman instantly.
“Bridge secure.” He announced over the strike team’s communications net.
Looking back to one of the miners that were standing still at the entrance of the bridge, Bender ordered him to take the bodies to the stairwell at the rear of the level.
“Reyn, status?”
“We’re pinned down on sub-level two.”
“Clar.” Bender knew that if the top deck was secure, he could move his forces to eliminate the threat on the lower levels.
“Go.”
“Have you secured the top deck?”
“Yes.”
“Leave one operator in the environmental room, and take the rest of your team down to sub-level one, and support Reyn’s attack on engineering.”
“Understood.”
Bender looked around the room, searching for the navigation systems, which were located on a wall that was splattered with the blood of one of the dead crewmembers. The navigation console was like many others that Bender had seen in the past, and had a very simple to use jump system, albeit one that required a commander bio scan in order to allow access to the jump key, which was located somewhere on the terminal, but would only pop-up into view once the ship master had authorized it.
