CHAPTER 6 - SOLACE V
The cockpit, and all in it, is a blur while my seat automatically returns to its inclined position, and my muscles tingle as blood-flow in my body becomes normal again. The Starport Argus is nothing more than a hazy shape to me. A very unpleasant heaviness saturates my being as the magnetics from Argus slows us rapidly to a crawl. This ungodly and tormenting sensation feels like an unwanted hand moving around in my stomach. I hate it.
The rest of the team is in no better shape than I am. The cockpit’s auto induction system whirs into action, a little late, and fills the space with an odorless gas that clears the effects of our jump.
Why couldn’t they invent something to drink before the jump?
Well, according to “them” whomever “They” are, we should always eat and drink at least, four hours before any jump. The forces in hyperspace could cause undigested food and drinks to flow back into the lungs…enough said.
The induction system shuts off with a noticeably loud click.
“We need to get that fixed…”
“I agree buddy...”
Hound and Akita stop their chatter as the com lights up.
“Mirage…Argus Control has you…link and rep live.”
I find my tongue. I think it was hanging around somewhere near my chin, but I’m not entirely sure. I’ll definitely have to get the Induction mechanism looked at when we get back to base.
“Mirage copies Argus. We’re a flyby to Solace Five.”
“Argus Control copies Mirage flyby to Solace Five. Link out.”
I close the coms and pull up a map of the system. We are ten point eight AU’s from Solace Five; one-point-something billion miles, and it will take us one and a half hours to get there. I punch in the co-ordinates and Terri aligns us for Hyper Light speed.
I open the com again, “Argus Control…Mirage is ready for high-light to Solace Five.”
I wait as they run our trajectory through their systems. I am hungry, another aftereffect of the jump. The com goes active again.
“Mirage…Argus Control copies your flight. You’re a go for high-light.”
“Control…Mirage copies go.”
I kill the com and Terri hits the throttle. The scene beyond the windshield stretches a bit, and then stretches some more and all sound in the cockpit vanishes. I am pushed into my seat and the lights on the outside become blurs as we vanish into space.
********
The blue and white, more white now than blue, ball of Solace Five takes shape ahead of us. It looks like a distorted sphere as we exit the warp stream. My mind seems to have arrived first but my body catches up not long after. It’s a rush.
“Terri, go dark. Bull, give me a scan. We need to find them.”
The cloaking device used on the Mirage, gives us the appearance of invisibility by using the same reflective regeneration technology as our MAV’s. It’s just one of the many toys onboard.
“I got ‘em in planet airspace, heading north.”
“What’s ahead of them?”
The image increases in detail as Bull checks the data. “I’ve got a mountain Base about ten miles from their current location.”
“Terri, get us down there.”
“When all this is over, I’m gonna buy the first round.”
“Bull…when this is all over, you can buy all the rounds, how about that?”
Laughter fills the cabin. The ship’s cloak deactivates and the thrusters push me into my seat as we begin our approach for atmospheric entry.
My tracking module tells me that the Spaceport belonging to this planet is on the other side of its thick ice rings, and would be at our position in twelve hours. This is a good thing. It means that our presence here should go unnoticed.
With its lack of structured law enforcement, the risk of tracking or interception by any authority won’t be a problem on Solace Five and unless we encounter pirates or security from the local mining companies, we should be on the deck and still undetected in about twenty minutes.
Almost three times the size of Earth, the bright surface of Solace Five fills the windshield until it is all that is there and the cockpit shakes as we enter atmosphere. Outside, the skin of our ship superheats to over two thousand degrees Fahrenheit and flares crimson but on the inside, other than the minor shaking around us, it is a relatively comfortable entry.
The planet surface shifts and shimmers but becomes clearer as we descend. I make out mountains and the gaseous clouds that surround them. Made up entirely of ice, frozen gases to be exact, this world has a temperature, according to my reading, of a lovely minus five hundred and fifty five degrees. I remember this place well.
I had been here once in the past, but that was a recon mission when I was a rookie in the corps and hungry for a little action.
“Bull where are they?”
“Fifty miles north of our drop zone…they’ve stopped.”
“Terri and Bull, stay with the ship and wait for my orders.”
“Aye Cap’n…” Terri comes back.
I remove my helmet and unclip my harness. The metallic scent of the ship hits me. Its cold scent reminds me of winter nights on base back on Earth. I miss home. It has been a long time…too long.
“I can’t wait until we’re back on Earth and getting a little R and R.”
“I’m with you on that one Alpha.” Terri answers longingly.
“It’s been too long. I miss Earther girls.” Akita breaks in.
We all laugh.
We’re seven minutes from arrival and Akita, Hound and I are strapping into our MAV’s and waiting for the thud that would signify touchdown. The old, rusty taste of a power bar in hand will silence my stomach’s protests for now but as soon as this ordeal is over, I will be having some good old Thai food.
This mission is now unpredictable. I’m not sure what we are going to find out there but whatever it is, I hope that it is worth the trip.
Everything around me shakes as we impact the icy surface.
“Damn Terri, take it easy!” Hound’s voice rings over the com.
“Sorry guys, the winds are a bitch.”
The hiss of the ship’s hydraulics connected to the Hold as it closes and decompresses, meets my ears. I hit a virtual switch on my HUD and my cockpit clamps down and seals shut as the floor beneath us rumbles and begins to lower our MAV’s to the ground outside.
“Bull, scan and jam.”
“Bull copies. Scan and jam.”
“Terri, keep the engines hot.”
“The fires will be lit boss.”
I push the throttles and the machine begins to move. The three of us step down from our platforms and touch the frozen surface.
“Let’s go.”
My com lights up. It’s Bull. “Good hunting guys…”
********
With this system’s bright white sun directly above, we push our MAV’s across and over the rough but blindingly white, icy surface and were it not for our Digital Eyes, we’d be blind in a matter of minutes. The ground rushes by forty feet below at one hundred miles per hour; we should be arriving at our destination in seven minutes.
“Okay guys, on foot from here.”
I pull the throttle back and reduce speed. My mental command initiates the air braking system and I remain suspended for a moment in time, between positive and negative G. I switch my engine to hover and drop vertically.
Akita comes to me “I’ve got three light Mecha and a Heavy on scan, two miles out.”
“Okay let’s disappear.”
The three of us ripple into the surroundings and vanish from sight. We’ll run-walk it from here. There is no telling what we are getting into. My warning system goes haywire.
“What the hell is that?” Akita shouts over the coms.
“Terri Get the ship in the air, we’ve been compromised!”
My scope shows the three light Mecha and one Heavy along with an unknown. This changes things.
“Alpha I can’t get a read on the new guy. Where’d he come from?” It’s Akita again.
Hound breaks in “Must have been cloaked.”
I link with the ship “Bull keep us undetected all the way in.”
“I’m trying Alpha.”
My com comes alive with a rush of static “Earthfront Terrorists…” His words are sharp and clipped “…You are within a restricted zone and are therefore in violation of our laws. I order you to immediately cease your advance and power down your machines.”
I switch to our secure com “How are they detecting us?”
“I don’t understand it Alpha…” Bull’s confused voice echoes across our channel “… I’m blocking with everything I’ve got.”
Solace Five’s blue and white, uneven ice carpet rushes by on the edge of my vision. “Guys we’re weapons hot, I repeat, weapons hot.”
The calm but angry voice comes through again. “Earthfront Militia, you are to stand down immediately or die.”
I think for a split second about making contact but I get rid of the thought all the same. Our mission is to destroy that fleet. We will need another man. “Bull, get over here. Terri, get the ship to us and give air support…”
“Already on my way…”
“Hound, Akita…track the heavy and get rid of it first. Bull…you out there?”
“Coming to you, boss…got a tally on those Lights.”
“Hound…flank, Akita…high ground, I’m going after the unknown, Bull, take a shot when you have it.”
My targeting computer tracks and locks on to the strange Mecha just beyond the last rise ahead. Warnings of all sorts bombard me now. I pull the trigger and rocket low, fifteen feet to be exact, above the terrain. The familiar vibrations run through the space around me as five missiles pull away and mark a smoky path toward the enemy machine in the distance.
What the hell is that thing?
I’ve never seen anything like it. It looks like a forty-foot metallic man. I wait but two of my missiles hit air and three explode before impact.
“Hou…lee, Boss, you see that?”
Akita’s comment helps to free my mind from the minor trance.
“…That thing dodged five missiles!”
“Akita, go for the heavy!”
I’m barking into the com, my eyes never leaving my target. I switch to hover and ground controls, and drop to the planet surface. The sensation is crazy, like hundreds of ground quakes rushing through my stomach all at once. My MAV hits the planet surface running. Large chunks of ice split apart under the tremendous weight as I engage the unusual Machine in close quarters combat.
My tracking systems alert me of its lock-on. I shove the throttles forward for more power and watch the distance between us close. Every sensor on my HUD that can, warns of enemy radar and weapons that are targeting me but I ignore them, maintain my mad dash, switch to guns, squeeze the trigger and hold it.
RRRRREEEEEEEEE
Somewhere on the outskirts of my mind, I hear my Auto-cannon erupt. Tracer rounds light a path to my target and the cockpit trembles with the kickback, but the bullets hit nothing.
He jumps into the air and rockets straight up; the ice beneath him cratering in his wake.
“Look at him go.” Akita’s voice in my ear
I switch to flight mode in my run and push for every ounce of power my MAV can muster. The engine howls and the G’s push me hard into my seat. I leave the ice but my finger does not release the trigger and my gun follow’s its prey in a deadly arc as he tries to outmaneuver me.
“Guys I’m airborne and engaging the unknown. Terri, keep tracking us just in case.”
“Gotcha on scan Cap, be careful.”
I level off at fifteen thousand feet and cut in toward the enemy machine as he doubles over and plummets back to the planet surface. He’s fast, and agile. I’ve never seen anything like it. My tracer rounds never stop. I’ve got to get him.
Almost…damn, I was so close.
I’ll be out of ammo soon if I keep this up. In my head, I activate both missile launchers and along with blazing gunfire, four Hammerheads speed away from me.
This pilot is good.
His Mecha easily avoids the attack. I hit the speed brakes, roll over and pull away hard. The unknown machine just stopped, almost instantly.
“Alpha, what’s going on?” Akita screams into my head.
“That crazy sonofabitch just dead stopped me…almost had an air to air.”
I strain against the forces that are trying to rip me apart. My speed brakes retract and just as I add power, the warning systems go red. A missile is speeding my way. He’s toying with me, and getting under my skin, but I refuse to back down and so, push toward the oncoming projectile.
800ft
700ft
600ft to impact
I center on the approaching killer and squeeze off three quick bursts of tracers.
The missile explodes as I pass a hundred or so feet away. My warning systems alert me yet again and I realize that the strange Mecha is behind and above me; a killing position. With a movement of eyes and hands, I enter a mind-bending dive. I hope my pursuer is foolish enough to follow…apparently he is.
The planet surface dangles beneath me. Thirteen thousand feet, twelve thousand feet, ten thousand feet, nine thousand, my enemy’s tracer rounds track off and ahead of me but none of them hit true.
“Bull, are you jamming his tracking?”
“Gotcher back Boss.”
That’s a relief. Where is he? I don’t believe it. The unknown has already freed itself from the insane plummet and is trying to intercept me from another angle. My warning systems go mad again and he has me locked up. I drive full power to my thrusters and enter a stomach knotting turn and burn to approach him head on, engine screeching, guns blazing. I hope to catch him off guard as the superheated streaks leaving me, bridge the gap between us. My com comes to life just as the strange Mecha drops below me and out of sight.
“Earthfront dog…It’s time to die.”
Every warning light comes alive and screams madness in my ear. I can almost smell the chemicals in the oncoming exhausts as no less than ten missiles, Nova class, now track me. I’ve got seconds before I become ash and dust. Mentally I command the vents on my thrusters to yaw and as my MAV spins and I face my ten demons, the vents in front of my machine obey me now, driving me backward.
Digital numbers on the upper right of my HUD tells me that I’m pushing past Mach two. I center the reticule on my pursuers and squeeze the trigger as my heart, beating the life out of me, feels like it’s trying to claw its way into my gut, but I keep it together taking deep breaths; I got this.
I barely hear the Auto-cannon, but the lines carved by it through the sky finds their prey as, one, two, three missiles are no more. My thoughts are rapid and ever changing in the moment. Pulling a hard left turn, I roll inverted and drop, back first, still flying backward, toward the planet surface now twelve thousand feet below.
Guns spitting and chewing up the sky, I select my MD’s and deploy a large load. Looks like frenzied fireworks going off in my trail as I turn yet again and push hard on the power.
Unlike chaff for heat seekers, MD’s or Magnetic Decoys draw weapons guided by Magnatech away from their intended target. Six missiles register now on my HUD as neutralized; the MD’s have done their jobs disrupting the onboard tracking systems and fooling the miniature computers into thinking, they had found their targets.
The sky in my line of sight, lights up as the missiles detonate and in my head, the focused thought of climbing higher changes my course with only one thousand feet to go.
As I shift to the right, the clear sky vanishes and the icescape below comes into view. The last missile is still tracking me and my Cannon is almost out of ammo. I am now reduced to short bursts, but the wild and erratic evasive maneuvers, coupled with flying backwards makes it difficult to center on this target. I see the missile clearly. My computer tells me that it’s five hundred feet and closing.
The com comes to life. “Alpha I’ve engaged the unknown and I’m…oh God!”
Hard static hits my ear. I twist my machine hard, roll over at twenty thousand feet, and drop into a suicidal plunge. I say suicidal because it is against everything I have learned, to enter a backward supersonic dive.
“Terri!”
I shout into the com. The missile is still tracking hot on my trail.
Damned Magnatech things never stop.
I’m sure that was Terri. A gnawing sensation forms in my stomach and chest that I haven’t felt in a long time. The Neural Link between Terri and me is gone. The effect of this, like a hole dug in my gut shakes me. I hate it. I want to scream, or cry but I can’t. I must keep it together.
“Alpha, we’ve engaged the unknown…” Akita’s words are quick and his voice strained as though in a high G turn “…He got Terri, and now the bastard’s on my six.”
The chatter increases as Hound comes through. “I’m on him, just hold it together…”
“I can’t shake him, Alpha, get down here!” Akita’s Auto-cannon is going mad in the background along with his shrieking engine. It means that he’s backwards flying too.
“Hang in there I’m on my way!”
My gut cramps as though held in a vice. I can’t wrap my thoughts around what Akita just said. A proximity warning goes off. The missile is closer now. I’ve got to get into the fight.
“Bull…” I roll out of my crazy dive and try to outplay the incoming projectile “…where’s that rail gun of yours?”
“I can’t get a lock Alpha. This guy is either a magician or he’s that good.”
I kill the evasive and drop straight down. The altimeter hits seven thousand feet and shows me six thousand in two seconds. I’ve got twelve seconds before I become a permanent part of this planet.
The missile closes but I wait for the digital crosshair to move into place. A little bit more…almost…I squeeze the trigger and hold it. I can feel the ground not far below. The last of my ammo leaves me, and the line of tracers end with the explosion of my pursuer. I shift my vents again, they spin me around and I begin moving forward once more.
My MAV comes out of the dive with a murderous cry and a hundred and fifty feet to spare. I’m hard pressed to my seat and my vision dims around the edges, but my suit does what it was designed to do and prevents me from passing out. Akita’s signal is five miles south of my current position so I hit the throttle and watch the indicated airspeed push beyond the speed of sound.
“Bull, where are you?”
Static
“Trying to kill this thing without hitting any of our guys…”
“Why was Terri in his MAV? I told him to stay with the ship.”
“He jumped in to back us up. I wish I had told him no.”
I ignore Akita’s pain as his gunfire saturates the background of my com.
“Hound…?”
“In the heat boss…wuw! This guy is crazy!”
“Hold on I’ve got a fix and I’m burning hot…” I hit the speed brakes so as not to overshoot the action going on below and fight a wave of nausea as the reading goes from one thousand seven hundred, to five hundred miles per hour in five seconds.
The battlefield looks like something from a bad dream. The three, enemy Light Mecha are all nothing but melted piles of black metal. The Heavy is in pieces not too far away…looks like it fell out of the sky, and a large lump in my throat drops into my stomach along with a hundred stones. Terri’s MAV is spread across the ice and burning in large and small pieces.
I shove it from my mind; I’ll have time to deal with it later. My engine burns hotter as I force my MAV higher.
“Where’s that bastard?” I see him now “Hound, Akita, keep him busy.”
“Not a problem boss.”
I track the unknown Mecha as he pursues Akita and evades Hound. They too should be running low on ammo by now.
“Bull, get to the ship and be ready for anything.”
Static again
“On my way…”
After climbing to five hundred feet above the action, I push my MAV into a shallow dive to catch and match the speed of our Deepcore opponent. Akita has him following his evasive run in a large, seven-mile circle, perfect for my intentions. Just a little bit more…almost there. I can’t fire my remaining missiles because he’s obviously able to detect them early and steer clear, but for what I’m about to do…for Terri and the rest of my team…he will never see it coming. I push my engine for more power and drop toward my enemy.
“Akita, get out of the circle and lead straight.”
Without question, he obeys. “Alpha, I’m in the open and that bastard is locking me up.”
I watch the Deepcore Mecha zigzag Hound while keeping a bead on Akita.
“Hold Akita, I got him.”
My team trusts me as I drive full force toward the unknown…all of my proximity warnings alerting me.
“Terri…this one’s for you buddy…”
“Alpha…!” Hound’s voice “What are you doing?”
Five hundred feet
Four hundred feet
Three hundred feet
Two hundred feet
One hundred feet
At fifty feet away, I switch to ground controls. The machine fights me but I hold it, extend and then shove the titanium legs of my MAV forward.
Impact
The collision is monumental. Beyond anything I have ever felt; it shakes me to the bone. Every joint in my body feels unhinged. My head snaps back violently and I know that were it not for my seat’s protective brace, I would be dead now. The sounds of metal bending and twisting against metal, bombards my ears as the thin strip of bullet proofed, protective glass around my cockpit shatters.
With the last of my mental capacity, I switch the controls to hover and initiate full power. The MAV hits the ice with thunder. Ice and snow rush by and onto my visor and everything around me, fades away.
CHAPTER 7 - AFTERMATH
“Hey Alpha…?”
I open my eyes. The room is bright with sunlight and a gentle breeze brushes my skin. I sit up on the couch and see Terri in the seat opposite me.
“Terri…I thought…”
I can’t remember what I thought.
“It’s okay Rich. Everything is okay.”
He hasn’t called me that since we were teenagers. There is something about the way he says it that makes me think…about what? I have no idea.
“How long have I been out?”
“The guys are preparing to launch so I thought I should remind you. I know you wouldn’t want to be left behind.”
Suddenly I remember that we are supposed to leave this planet. I look closely at my childhood friend. He looks younger.
“Damn, I forgot. Thanks, let’s go.”
His eyes keep me unmoving. They are soft. His face is sad but happy. How is this possible?
“I’m sorry Cap, but I’m not flying with you guys this time.”
We look at each other and the strange feeling that passes between us is unnerving.
“Why can’t you go with us?”
He smiles “Good hunting Alpha.”
His voice echoes into the distance. His face becomes a transparent nothing and instantly, the room around me disappears, replaced by a frozen ground littered with bits and pieces of a MAV…Terri’s MAV.
I open my eyes and feel warm trac