Apex (22 page)

Fortunately the outpost's reserve cells held more than enough charge for the smaller craft, but for future use Riax was going to have to fashion a portable recharger linked to a reactor. Until that time the craft would have to function off a single charge.

With the gunship fully powered Riax floated it out of the vehicle bay and up towards the entrance shaft. He halted his progress as he saw the first of the empty cargo sleds returning. He scanned the ‘road' ahead and moved into a gap after the first three had cleared.

It was a tight fit, but the large gunship was able to navigate up the shaft vertically. It was far too long to rise up horizontally, but putting its nose to sky gave it a few meters clearance, which was all Riax needed to get it clear of the outpost.

It rose up beneath the treetops, just clearing the edge of the dirt-­rimmed crater as it pivoted on its side until it was pointed south, but its narrow profile was tilted up and ‘resting' on its port side. Riax slid the bulky craft between the massive tree trunks, zigzagging away from the outpost entrance for a few kilometers before tilting up again and very slowly pushing through the canopy.

Limbs snapped or bent, making way for the now blue gunship's knife-­like profile to slice up through the treetops and into the bright daylight. Riax leveled it out and easily spotted the hovering
Resolute
a few kilometers off. The large ship was holding steady with its underside almost brushing the treetops while its upper surface appeared just as green.

That was due to the cloaking field being reset and mounted on the top of the freighter so that it matched the coloration of the vegetation in case anyone in orbit was taking a closer look at the area. The thick atmosphere kept any long range scans at bay, but with more and more mercenary ships entering the system it was only a matter of time before the moon was thoroughly scanned.

From the side the ship appeared normal, and Riax easily picked out the open primary bay doors. Unlike the ventral ramp/descender, this entrance sat on the ship's port side for the exclusive use of allowing access to small loading craft while in space.

Riax easily maneuvered the gunship into the freighter and set it down at the end opposite the boarding ramp/descender and the off-­loading drones, parking it next to the kelzat that he'd previously delivered to the ship in the same manner. He powered it down quickly and jogged over to the ramp as the last of the speeders were slowly making their way up and into the bay. He tucked all of them away in a neat row along the wall and dropped back down to the planet, suffering through the rapid pressurization again.

He returned to the outpost several more times, bringing back the other gunship, another kelzat, two aerofighters, two starfighters, and four small shuttles, one of which he used to ferry some larger pieces of equipment that the cargo sleds couldn't carry. By the time the sleds had finished their transfer of the small cargo Riax had already closed down and sealed most of the outpost against the Vespa's continued salvaging efforts, though as promised he'd left the life support on . . . but little else.

Absent during the entire cargo transfer, the Vespa and her mercs reappeared just as Riax was coming up through the small personnel shaft on his way to leave.

“I trust you've taken all that you require?” Lilly asked.

“Yes, but I suggest you have the bay entrance reburied. The doors are sealed, but anyone on the ground will be hard pressed to miss the hole.”

“We will,” she said agreeably. “I have ordered our ships insystem to cover your exit if required. I have also ordered our fleets to move into systems between here and Cres territory should you require their assistance.”

“Generous of you,” Riax said, half thanking her.

“Yes, it is.”

“And risky,” he pointed out.

“Your presence in the galaxy will trigger many changes, more of which will be beneficial to my efforts than negative, therefore you are worth protecting in your vulnerable state.”

Riax raised an eyebrow at the word ‘vulnerable' but didn't voice the obvious irony evident in the pacifistic and physically weak Vespa's statement.

“Don't break anything,” he said, walking off and leaving the outpost to the mercs. He headed back to the empty descender and rode it up one last time, passing out of the oxygen rich layer and briefly into the less hospitable outer canopy atmosphere before rising up into the ship and having his ears pop again as the pressure dropped suddenly.

The descender reattached itself to the floor, again becoming a ramp. Interlocks then clanked into place as Jalia sealed it from the bridge. Riax took a relaxed breath, exhaling the denser air in his lungs and looked around at the stacks of cargo and equipment they'd recovered. With a satisfied smirk he headed up to the bridge.

 

Chapter 24

J
ALI
A
TOOK
THE
Resolute
across the moon's surface a kilometer above the treetops until the freighter had circled around to the far side, then angled up towards orbit with the moon's mass hiding them from view. Kicking in the ship's gravity drives at nominal power, she jetted the ship off at an angle, heading farther out into the periphery of the star system.

“We're live,” she said as the ship's sensors began to pick up passive signals from other ships' active radars. “Looks like they're camping out at all the jumplines.”

Suddenly the communications panel registered an incoming point to point signal. Jalia frowned and put it through to her headset. After a moment she turned around and looked at Riax.

“The Concordat wants to know which jumppoint we're using,” she told him, not sure herself. The Human hadn't told her yet.

“Arcad.”

Jalia nodded, and began a brief conversation in the commerce language.

The Arcad System had been one of the possible destinations within range of the
Resolute
's jump capability from Hellis, but blocked by unreliable spacelanes. Traveling to Mewlon had essentially been a detour around the unstable region of interstellar space, making a left jog, now followed by a right back to Arcad. Not only did it add considerable distance to their journey, it was causing them to accelerate and decelerate twice as much, costing twice the fuel.

Unfortunately, until they had access to another jumpship, these small zigzagging jumps were the best they could hope for. Given that the freighter only had an effective range of .7 wesks, they were fortunate to have sufficient stellar density to allow them transit options at all. In the sparser regions of the galactic swirl jumpship travel was the only means of transit between some star systems.

Hellis to Mewlon had been only .2 wesks, while Mewlon to Arcad was double that at .4 wesks, meaning that Jalia either had to devote more fuel to the acceleration and deceleration phases or suffer double the time span of travel.

“The Concordat battleship is requesting a rendezvous before we reach the Arcad jumppoint,” she said, half turning back toward Riax. “It is also requesting a dual jump.”

“How fast are they?”

“They said they can make 5.3.”

Riax considered that for a moment then nodded.

Jalia turned back to her navigation board and began looking for a suitable rendezvous point as she informed the battleship of their acceptance of the escort offer.

“Here,” Riax suggested, pointing at a small uninhabited planet near the system's star.

Jalia pulled up the planet's coordinates with a tap of the display and relayed it to the mercs. They sent their acknowledgement, along with an ETA.

“Four hours,” she told him, cutting communications.

“Can we make that?”

“Easily,” she said, beginning to plot out their route in advance of the next microjump.

T
HE
R
ESOLUTE
ARRIVED
in orbit around the uninhabited, rocky world of Kentoria an hour ahead of the Concordat battleship. The enemy mercenary units hadn't moved from their blockade positions along the jumplines, or to be more accurate, just off them. They didn't want to risk a collision with any incoming ships, rare as that might be, but they needed to remain close in order to intercept the
Resolute
regardless of which incoming trajectory she chose.

By now the freighter had to have shown up on every systemwide scan, but no one had moved to intercept them during transit, nor had they come for them as they camped out around Kentoria. Actually catching a gravity drive powered starship in space was a difficult thing to do, and it seemed like the mercs were intent on stacking their odds by poaching the jumplines.

They could, of course, also see the Concordat battleship moving towards Kentoria, and perhaps that was what kept them from at least sending a cutter or fighter squadron out to harass the freighter. The battleship would, no doubt, rouse their quarry and cause them to waste additional fuel. With enough subsequent intercepts it would be forced to either flee the system along the jumplines or head back to Agas for refueling, either of which would bring them into the mercenaries' hands.

Jalia imagined there must have been quite a ruckus aboard the mercenary ships when the battleship not only reached the planet and didn't scare off the freighter, but deployed into escort position beside it. The pair moved toward the Arcad jumpline via a near photosphere crossing trajectory that would bring them up the line from the bottom at high speed, making them difficult to intercept.

The battleship and freighter had to interlink their navigational systems to keep from running into each other during course alterations, given their differing masses, but the pair managed to keep within a twenty kilometer distance of each other as they slid past the star and began making plasma engine adjustments to finesse themselves onto the jumpline.

The enemy, however, had the advantage of seeing them coming and had positioned a catch fleet in close to the star, hovering on the jumpline just above the photosphere. When the targets passed their position at an angle approaching the jumpline, the fleet accelerated on a microjump attempting to match their velocity. Given that they weren't leaving the system, they were able to accelerate and decelerate at a whim and quickly nulled out the differences between the two, then using plasma engines angled off the line to intercept the freighter before it made it to its jumppoint.

The intercept was made fourteen minutes prior to arrival on the line, with the enemy's starfighters making first contact as they swung around behind the battleship and freighter and accelerated to null out their momentum, then started firing on both ships' aft quarters.

The lachar blasts were of no threat to the five kilometer long battleship, and didn't register much energy depletion on the
Resolute
's shields either, but every bit chewed off now would make it easier for the incoming capital ships to get through and knock out her engines. Both ships opened fire with small batteries, two from the
Resolute
and fifteen from the battleship.

The ‘heavy' lachars that they'd appropriated from the merc frigate were about 15% more powerful than the ‘small' anti-­fighter batteries on the battleship, meaning that the big ship also carried a massive amount of firepower. The incoming fighters might not be too worried about the larger batteries, but the incoming ships would not be so fortunate. The fact that they were actually going to engage the behemoth showed how serious they were about seizing the freighter.

One of the six fighters took a glancing hit, but with such great firepower that small impact blew the side of the fighter clear off the ship. It spun wildly from the explosion and careened off laterally as the rest of the fighters zipped past the two ships and made a wide arc to reposition themselves for another attack run.

The
Resolute
was situated port of the battleship, with its bulk standing in between the freighter and the approaching fleet as it opened fire with its
heavy
lachar batteries at range. Six of the meter-­wide streams of energized particles leapt out in blazing purple lances, crossing the gap between ships at near lightspeed. Two of the distant shots hit, and even as dispersed as they were from the distances involved, took down the shields of a corvette and frigate and chewed through half the corvette's armor as an afterthought.

The massive guns cycled through a five second recharge as their capacitors drew energy from the ship's reactor with tiny sparks of return fire lazily hitting the battleship's shield wall and puffing into nonexistence. The weaker lachars couldn't maintain cohesion at this range, but the enemy fleet of twenty eight capital ships was closing fast.

The fighters made another pass through, this time fore to aft, stitching the freighter with more green shards of light before moving off to avoid the free-­fire zone and wait for the capital ships to ball up and provide targets of opportunity.

A large impact ripple manifested itself on the battleship's starboard side as a MAC round hit true. The six meter long metallic shard deformed and deflected on impact, draining 7% from the ship's shield strength in the process. Unlike the lachars, MAC cannons had no range limit, aside from accuracy, and packed a much stronger punch, though they also had limited ammo, which was why most ships didn't carry them.

The battleship's crew quickly backtracked the round to its source and targeted it with six of the main batteries on the next salvo. The light cruiser took the impacts on its squarish forward pod where the MAC cannon was housed. The shields popped on impact and the entire front section of the ship mushroomed open from an internal explosion. The mid and aft sections of the blocky ship were still intact and functional despite the current explosion-­induced list, but its main cannon was obliterated and would not be getting off a second round into the battleship.

The green, red, and yellow lachar blasts began to increase in number and intensity as the fleet closed within twenty five kilometers and began to maneuver around the battleship for a shot against the freighter. The Concordat's main cannons systematically picked off enemy ships two at a time, with more batteries coming into play as their firing arc increased.

The battleship had sixteen main batteries altogether, six starboard, six port, two dorsal, two ventral, and within moments all of them began to fire as the mercenary fleet surrounded the battleship and began taking direct shots at the
Resolute
.

The first ships to come into firing position were the four surviving corvettes, the smallest capital ships in the enemy fleet. They maneuvered around the aft end of the battleship, where no main batteries had a firing arc, and came up behind the freighter, targeting its engines.

Jalia adjusted their current drift angle. Both ships were currently ballistic for the next few minutes as they approached the jumpline, so with a bit of thrust she rotated the ship slightly and gave Riax a clear shot with the plasma cannon. The now white fireball, thanks to some recently installed Human components, shot backwards from the ship and hit the nearest of the four corvettes square on. He wasn't sure if these mercs realized that the freighter was armed or not, but their attack profile suggested the former because the ship took the blast obliviously. It didn't even bother attempting an avoidance maneuver in response to the
Resolute
tipping up to bring the cannon to bear.

The extremely hot plasma didn't have to travel far to get to the ship and burnt through its shields on half a charge, meaning the other half remained relatively intact and hit the hull burning a bright blue, dulling in intensity by the shield strike, and sank into the ship for a brief moment before exploding the outer hull.

The corvette burst open at three other positions, each progressively aft as the remaining plasma burnt through the interior of the warship. The other two corvettes immediately backed off and down, trying to get in the aft arcs of both ships as the battleship cored and exploded the fourth corvette.

The fighters made another quick strafing run, angling in and around debris for cover as they racked up a few more hits, along with several red lachar blasts from the retreating corvettes and a pair of frigates coming up and over the top of the battleship, one of which disintegrated by a nearly pointblank impact of a heavy lachar, the most potent and destructive range the weapon had, hitting with 99% cohesion.

All around the battleship the merc ships were being taken out hard, but they didn't relent and put as many hits into the
Resolute
as they could.

And they were adding up.

Jalia could see the numbers and do the math, and they weren't going to make it. As soon as the shields went down they were done for. Her ship had no armor, and if they were intent on taking it intact they'd put a few well-­placed shots into her engine bank and they'd be adrift, protected by the battleship, but with no way of leaving the system, which she figured was the point.

These mercs were willing to sacrifice themselves in order to disable her ship. What they had planned for later she didn't know, but if they were willing to tackle a battleship then they must have some serious firepower en route.

She just needed to buy them a little time and the battleship would do its job . . . but how?

Jalia watched the holographic and flat screen displays, trying to figure some maneuver to give them more cover as the aft shields dropped below 40%. The bow shields were still holding at 78%.

Her eyes glanced over to the battleship . . . a rough, blocky monstrosity with a slightly wider midsection than the rest of the elongated vessel.

“Everyone hold on and watch your lines of fire,” she yelled aloud before contacting the battleship and quickly telling them what she had planned as she flattened out the
Resolute
's angle once again and used her lateral plasma vents to move the freighter closer to the battleship. Their escort continued to fire shots over and under the ship as a merc battlecruiser tried to position itself with the
Resolute
in between the two warships to use it as a shield and blast away with impunity.

Jalia took care of that quandary as she tucked the
Resolute
underneath the battleship and nestled up against the central bulge, using it to block any incoming forward fire, then rotated it upside down so Riax could use the plasma cannon.

An odd transmission from the battleship prompted Jalia to give her headset to Ella, who was situated at the shield controls. The Cres quickly coordinated with the shield operator on the battleship and reset their shield dynamics.

“Mooring beams, now!” Ella told her. “Get us within eight ketak and hold there . . . firm!”