Ep.#6 - "Head of the Dragon" (The Frontiers Saga) (46 page)

“
Good thinking,
” Nathan told her.

After an uncomfortable moment of silence, Cameron spoke. “It had to be done, sir.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“C2, Falcon,”
Loki’s voice interrupted.

“Falcon, C2. Go ahead,” Cameron answered.

“C2, Falcon. Gun is destroyed, skies are clear, and our fighters are in place to provide air cover.”

“Copy that,” Cameron answered. She turned to Ensign Yosef. “Get the jumpers going again.” She returned to her comm-set. “Falcon, C2. Collateral damage?”

“C2, Falcon, hard to say, sir. There’s a huge dust cloud covering the entire area. It has got to be at least a few kilometers across by now. My scans show most of the buildings within one hundred meters have been flattened. From one hundred meters out to about five hundred meters, the damage varies, but even then, nothing seems to have been left undamaged.”

“Is that damage from rail gun rounds or from flying debris?”
Nathan asked.

“Impossible to tell, Captain. My guess is the farther out you go, the more it’s from debris or the shock wave. Maybe after the wind blows the dust cloud away we’ll be able to get a better look…”

“Which way is the wind blowing?” Cameron interrupted.

“To the north,”
Loki answered.

“Toward the palace?” Cameron asked.

“Yes, sir, I think. Yes, that would be toward the palace.”

“We’re getting his data feed now, sir,” Ensign Yosef commented.

“What’s our next move, Commander?”
Nathan asked.

“Sir, we’re way behind schedule here. I suggest we take advantage of that dust cloud, as well as the chaos we just created, and get as many men down to the surface of Takara as possible.”

“Agreed. What do you want us to do?”

“Load up the heavy cargo shuttles and jump them to Takaran orbit. They can fly down themselves and get their Kalibris up and running. That will give our ground forces much better close-air support.”

“What about the other ships in the system?”
Nathan wondered.

“The Avendahl still hasn’t shown any signs of powering up, and there are only four more ships that are in effective range. They haven’t received the distress call yet. According to Dumar, none of those ships carry more than a few hundred troops. If we get all our forces down now and get back on schedule, we can wrap this up before any other ships can react and move in to reinforce Answari.”

“But what about those four ships?”
Nathan asked.
“By the time we move the heavies into orbit, those four ships will be on full alert.”

“Two of them will, the other two will not. You can attack the two that are not first and still catch them by surprise.”

“Don’t suppose the closer two are frigates, huh?”

“No, sir, they’re cruisers. But you don’t have to destroy them, Captain. You just have to keep them occupied for a while.”

“Easier said than done,”
Nathan commented.

“This is the best course of action, sir,” Cameron insisted.

“It would give us some time to get the heat exchanger back online,”
Vladimir added.

“Very well, Commander. It’s your call. We’ll start loading the heavies now.”

“Understood. C2 out.” Cameron sighed as she looked at the images that had been transmitted of the blast area by the Falcon’s reconnaissance cameras. “Damn, Loki wasn’t kidding, was he?”

“No, sir, he wasn’t,” Ensign Yosef agreed in a hushed voice.

* * *

Three at a time, the jump shuttles appeared amidst blue-white flashes in the sky. They flew over the city with impunity, protected by circling Corinari fighter craft, no longer threatened by the mighty guns of Answari. Each time they appeared, they found an intersection near the column of Corinari ground troops that were marching toward the palace of Ta’Akar. No longer under fire, they landed in the streets and released their loads of fresh soldiers before rising up into the sky to disappear in a flash once again.

“We’re up to nearly seven hundred,” Sergeant Davidge reported to Captain Waddell as they marched down the main boulevard. “That’s three companies, sir.”

“That’s good news, Sergeant,” Captain Waddell agreed. He stopped for a moment, pulling out his holo-map device and activating it. “We’re going to reach our staging point shortly. When we do, I want to set up a command post and a permanent landing zone. There’s an athletic field here with several tall buildings nearby to use for snipers and observers. This is where we’ll stage. The field will give us plenty of room for air operations. I want a whole company to secure that position. When the Aurora launches the heavy cargo shuttles, direct them to that field. I want those airships up and running as quickly as possible.”

“Yes, sir.”

“
Jolly, Weasel leader.
”

Captain Waddell tapped his comm-set. “Weasel leader, go for Jolly.”

“
Jolly, Weasel leader. Enemy column of Tak regulars en route to your position. They just left the palace grounds. They’ll be on you in five mikes.
”

“Weasel leader, Jolly. Anything you can do about them?” Captain Waddell asked.

“
Jolly, Weasel leader. Affirmative. Will engage once they are out of range of palace triple A. ETA to contact: three mikes.
”

“Weasel leader, Jolly. Keep me updated.”

“
Will do, Jolly. Weasel leader out.
”

Captain Waddell looked up as Weasel leader’s fighter streaked overhead, waggling his wings at his fellow Corinari below.

Captain Waddell smiled. He knew his job was far from over, but he and his men hadn’t been fired on for nearly ten minutes. Considering they were marching down the main boulevard of their enemy’s capital city, that was a miracle in itself. Although the plan had gone anything but perfect to this point, one thing was for sure: they had caught the Ta’Akar completely off guard.

* * *

“Jump complete,” Mister Riley reported. “We’re in low orbit over Takara.”

“Contacts?” Nathan asked.

“No warships in orbit, Captain,” Mister Navashee reported. “Just the usual spaceports and transfer stations, along with a few hundred comm-sats. However, fighters have scrambled from at least three nearby airbases on the surface.”

“Are they headed to orbit?” Nathan wondered.

“No, sir, they are all headed for Answari.”

“ETA?”

“The closest one will arrive in approximately thirty minutes, sir.”

“They must have scrambled them the moment the Answari base was attacked,” Nathan surmised.

“From their position relative to their departure point, that’s a good guess, sir.”

“Comms, let Major Prechitt know about those fighters,” Nathan ordered.

“Yes, sir.”

“And tell flight ops they have a green deck. Let’s get those cargo shuttles off the deck.”

Major Prechitt studied the tactical map being transmitted to his plotting table in the Aurora’s flight operations center from her CIC. He had twenty-five fighters running air cover for the ground forces in Answari at the moment. However, there were at least seventy-five enemy fighters en route to Answari from three different directions.

“Captain, CAG,” Major Prechitt called into his comm-set.

“
CAG, go for Captain,
” Nathan answered.

“Sir, I recommend we scramble the rest of our atmospheric birds to intercept the southeast group of bogeys.”

“
What about the fighters we already have down there?
” Nathan asked.

“They’ve been on station for nearly fifteen minutes, sir. I’d rather send freshly fueled birds to tackle the bogeys. From our current position, they’ll burn far less fuel dropping down from orbit than the birds on the surface will spend running full throttle at lower altitudes.”

“Understood,”
Nathan answered.
“Make it happen, Major.”

“Lieutenant,” Major Prechitt called to his operations officer. “Scramble the rest of our atmospheric fighters. I want them to intercept the group coming in from the southeast.”

“Yes, sir,” the lieutenant answered.

In the Aurora’s main hangar bay, Takaran fighters captured from Ancot started rolling out of the bay in pairs onto the flight apron aft of the hangar bay. As they rolled out onto the apron and into open space, they thrusted upward and climbed away from the Aurora, clearing her main propulsion section just as it passed under them. Within five minutes, all twenty-five captured fighters had left the ship, formed up into an attack group, and had begun their descent into the atmosphere of Takara.

The four heavy cargo shuttles came in low across the Answari skyline, dropping down quickly onto the athletic field that Captain Waddell and his men had setup as a secure staging area. No sooner had their rear loading ramps been lowered than Corinari troops had gone charging inside. Moments later, those same troops were hauling out everything from medical supplies and food rations to portable heavy gun emplacements and shoulder-fired rocket launchers. Once emptied of supplies, the airship mechanics that had come down in the heavy shuttles began rolling out the carefully folded up Kalibri airships. Two airships were rolled out of each heavy cargo shuttle. As the airship mechanics began to unfold the small, agile airships to prepare them for use, the troops ran back inside the heavy cargo shuttles and carried out the remaining equipment and supplies.

“Let’s get all this stuff over to the supply area and tracked,” one of the supply sergeants hollered at his men as the next wave of jump shuttles appeared in bright blue flashes above the staging area. “I want to know how much we have of everything.”

“The heavy cargo shuttles have off-loaded and are standing by at the staging point, Captain,” Naralena reported.

“Understood,” Nathan answered.

“The shuttles aren’t returning, sir?” Mister Randeen asked, somewhat surprised by the news.

“They don’t have the fuel to make it back to orbit,” Nathan explained as he turned toward the tactical station directly behind him, “and even if they could, we don’t have a way to refuel them since they’re too big to enter our hangar bay.”

“They’ll be sitting ducks if those fighters break through,” the young tactical officer pointed out.

“Acceptable losses, Mister Randeen,” Nathan answered calmly. “How long until our fighters intercept that first group of bogeys?”

“Two minutes, sir.”

“Comms, ask flight ops how long the first group can maintain cover over Answari before they’re bingo fuel.” Nathan looked back at Mister Randeen. Although a quick learner and a good ship-to-ship combat tactician, he knew little about the logistics of flight operations, and it was evident by the look on his face that he wasn’t sure why his captain was asking such questions. “At some point, we’re going to have to resume our attacks on imperial warships. I don’t want to leave our fighters down there to run out of fuel before we get back.”

“Sir, Captain Waddell reports that the last of his people are on the ground,” Naralena announced. “He’s sending up his wounded using the jump shuttles. He also asks that we send additional medical supplies down to him ASAP.”

“Why?” Nathan asked. “I didn’t think he had that many wounded yet.”

“He’s getting requests for medical aid from Answari residents. It seems the local emergency response system is overwhelmed at the moment. The Captain has walking wounded gathering at his perimeter.”

“There’s something we didn’t think of,” Nathan muttered. “Very well. Tell the quartermaster to ready all the aid we can spare on short notice, but remind Captain Waddell that he is not there to provide aid, even to civilians. That will come later, hopefully.”

* * *

Jessica did her best to keep her eyes forward and her head down as was expected of a female palace servant. She was not crazy about the costume she had been stuck wearing for this mission and found herself envious of Jalea, who due to her age, could not have portrayed a servant and had instead been costumed as a senior physician assigned to the emperor’s private medical staff. Jessica could not wait to lose the pointed heels and skirt and get back into a basic day uniform and combat boots. It was surprising how much more vulnerable she felt in her current outfit.

So far, Mister Dumar—who had been going by the name of Schiller since they dropped into the palace grounds under cover of darkness—had managed to get their group of sixteen impostors deep into the palace’s underground command complex. There was but one more checkpoint through which they needed to pass, after which, they would be inside the command center’s secure perimeter and would be free to move in for their final attack.

The fact that they had made it so far with barely a challenge as to their identity and purpose was proof that Mister Dumar’s expertise in Ta’Akar procedures was due to far more imperial service than he had disclosed on his original resume. It was also proof that his assertions about the lackadaisical nature of the palace security forces was also correct. Three decades without a single threat to palace security had made them overconfident and lazy, even in the face of a real attack on the capital city in which the palace resided. Jessica could not help but wonder who and what Mister Dumar really was or if they might all be walking into a trap. Although the logic of such a trap played out correctly in her head, her instincts told her otherwise, and it was those instincts that kept her playing the part of a royal servant. That, and the idea that this crazy plan might actually work.

She stood patiently, staring at the boots of the Karuzari in a palace guard’s uniform standing in front of her and listening intently as Mister Dumar chatted up the officer at the last security checkpoint. The two of them walked down the line of soldiers—which stood two abreast—as they chatted in Takaran. They paused at Jessica and Jalea, who stood side by side halfway down the line of guards. Although she did not meet his eyes, Jessica could feel the Takaran nobleman’s eyes on her cleavage as he pretended to inspect her tray of medical herbs and aromatics. The officer knew that such things were favored by the emperor, especially during times of great stress, of which this was without doubt. He made a comment to her, which she did not understand but was certain was lewd in nature. She smiled slightly and said nothing, maintaining her gaze on the boots of the man standing before her. Jalea did respond to the man, however, and in fairly stern tones that spoke of the confidence expected of a physician chosen to serve the emperor himself.