Frontiers Saga 10: Liberation (40 page)

“General, please,” Eli begged.

“Governor, do not bring shame upon yourself with such behavior. Have some pride.” The general smiled again, pleased with the moment. “It will all be over soon, one way or another.”

* * *

“Captain, I’m detecting missile launches on the surface of Earth,” Mister Navashee reported.

“We’re too far for them to be targeting us, right?” Nathan said.

“Yes, sir.”

“Are they targeting their own ship?”

“No, sir,” Mister Navashee answered. “I don’t believe they are surface-to-orbit missiles. Based on their trajectories, I believe they are targeting the surface.”

The wave of relief that Nathan had felt only minutes ago was suddenly replaced with a renewed feeling of despair. “What are they targeting?” Nathan asked with trepidation.

“There is no way to determine with any certainty, sir. They could be targeting population centers, or they could be targeting infrastructure. The two are often in close proximity.”

“Comms, put me through to Lieutenant Telles,” Nathan said.

“One moment, sir,” Naralena answered.

“Helm, best speed back to low Earth orbit.”

“Aye, sir,” Mister Chiles answered.

“Lieutenant Telles is on comms, sir,” Naralena announced.

“Lieutenant,” Nathan called over his comm-set, “the Jung are launching missiles from surface bases at targets on the surface.”

“
Have you determined what they are targeting?
” the lieutenant asked over the comms.

“All we know is that the trajectories suggest major population centers.”

“
Captain, I believe the Jung are executing what your history records refer to as a ‘scorched Earth’ policy. The Ta’Akar utilized a similar strategy. When a world is about to be lost to an enemy, leave nothing behind of value.
”

“Are you referring to weapons, infrastructure…”

“
And people, sir,
” the lieutenant said, interrupting the captain. “
They are glassing the planet, Captain. Suggest the Aurora begin neutralizing the surface missile sites with her quads in the same manner used during the attack on Tanna.
”

“Captain,” Mister Chiles interrupted, “in our current condition, it will take us nearly two hours to reach Earth.”

“Incoming message,” Naralena announced, “from Jung command. Message reads, ‘
Your move, Captain.
’”

Nathan looked dumbfounded. His ship was badly damaged—barely able to make headway with only limited weapons capability—and the Jung were determined to either force his surrender or lay waste to his world. “It doesn’t make sense,” he said.

“
Captain,
” Lieutenant Telles said, “
the Jung are a vast empire with unlimited resources. Although they may have preferred to keep the Earth’s infrastructure and population available for their use, it is just as easy for them to wipe the slate clean and rebuild to suit their needs. If left without alternatives, they will not hesitate to do so.
”

“We cannot allow that to happen,” Nathan said.

“Allow me to attack their command and control center in Geneva,”
the lieutenant insisted.
“If they are utilizing a centralized weapons control system, we may be able to stop the launches. It is our only chance of delaying them until the Aurora arrives and destroys the weapons from orbit.”

“Lieutenant, you’re talking about attacking what is undoubtedly the most heavily guarded Jung facility on Earth. I know the Ghatazhak are good, but are you
that
good?”

“
I offer you no guarantees, Captain
,” the lieutenant answered, “
but yes, we
are
that good.
” The lieutenant paused a moment before continuing. “
Sir, you realize that this means I cannot rescue Lieutenant Commander Nash.
”

Nathan’s head fell as the realization hit him. “I know, Lieutenant. I know.”

“
I am sorry, Captain.
”

Nathan took a deep breath, letting it out in one long sigh. “Good luck, Lieutenant.”

* * *

“
Falcon, Telles,
” the lieutenant’s voice called over Loki’s helmet comm.

“Telles, Falcon,” Loki answered as the Falcon rolled onto its right side and started a climbing turn from treetop level. “More troops on the ground! More bandits inbound! Fast movers in five! Heavies in ten! You’d better hurry, sir! She’s already surrounded! She’ll be pinned down in minutes!”

“
Change of mission,
” the lieutenant said, his voice devoid of all emotion. “
Combat Two and Three have been redirected to higher priority targets.
”

“What?”
Josh cried out as he rolled the interceptor to the left and pushed their nose down.

“Falcon copies. ETA to next extraction?”

“
Falcon, Telles. Extraction unlikely. Instruct Nash to continue escape and evade for as long as possible.
”

“Lieutenant! She is nearly surrounded! They’re moving in on her position as I speak. I can see her on my ground sensors!” Loki argued. “If they get more troops on the ground, she’s done for!”

“
Continue ground support as long as possible,
” the lieutenant said, “
but do not engage superior forces…
”

“Is he fucking kidding me?”
Josh yelled.
“What the hell does he think we’ve
been
doing?”

“
The Falcon’s survival takes priority. Understood?
”

“Understood,” Loki answered.

“This is bullshit!”
Josh exclaimed.

“The captain has his reasons,” Loki insisted.

“Just like he had his reasons to leave us behind… Yeah, I know. It’s still bullshit!”

“I know.”

Josh pulled the Falcon’s nose level and tightened his turn, circling around toward Jessica’s position.
“I’m turning to fly over her again. We have to tell her.”

“I know,” Loki answered.

The Falcon leveled off and continued over the treetops toward the lieutenant commander’s position.
“They’re still on us,”
Josh said, glancing at his threat display.
“Transmission range coming up.”
Josh watched his display as they entered the comm circle on his ground track display.
“We’re in range.”

Loki said nothing.

“You’ve got to tell her, Loki!”
Josh insisted.

“I… I don’t know if I can.”

“Fuck this!”
Josh rolled level again, pulled the Falcon’s nose up hard, and slammed his throttles forward, pulling the interceptor into a vertical climb.
“Nash, Falcon! Hit the deck! We’re coming to get you!”

“What are you doing?” Loki asked.

“I have no fucking idea, but don’t bother trying to stop me!”

“I’m not. I’m not,” Loki agreed, “but we need some kind of plan!”

Josh looked quickly around his cockpit, hoping for inspiration.
“You’ve got more elbow room back there than I do up here, right?”

“A little, yeah, but…”

“Think she’ll fit on your lap?”

Loki looked puzzled for a moment, then looked around frantically, realizing there might be enough room after all. He reached down between his legs and grabbed his seat lever, pushing the seat back fifty centimeters until it stopped at its most aft position. “Yeah! Yeah! She’ll fit! Barely, but she’ll fit! I won’t be able to do anything back here while she’s on board though. You’ll have to do it all yourself.”

“No problem,”
Josh assured him,
“except maybe the escape jump.”

“I can set that up now,” Loki assured him. “I’ve got several micro-jumps already set up as escapes. They won’t jump any farther than high orbit. Just make sure there’s no one along your jump path.”

“Perfect,”
Josh said as they continued to climb.

“But how are we going to get to her?” Loki wondered. “She’s surrounded, and they’re not more than fifty meters away!”

“How fast can you plot another jump, straight down?”
Josh asked.

“Oh, God,” Loki said under his breath. “Can you give me an altitude and speed ahead of time?”

“One hundred kilometers, but I can’t promise a speed.”

“I need something, Josh!”

“Fine! Half a meter per second!”

“You can’t fly at half a meter per second, Josh,” Loki argued. “That’s a hover.”

“More like a stall actually,”
Josh corrected.

“Oh, God,” Loki moaned as he pulled his seat forward again.

“You’ve got about twenty seconds to figure it out!”
Josh warned.
“Reducing power.”
Josh pulled his throttles back slowly, trying to time the Falcon’s stall to occur at exactly one hundred kilometers above the surface of the Earth.

“How close do you want to come out?” Loki asked.

“How many meters will I need, at a descent rate of half a meter per second, to come to a hover just above the treetops using full lift thrust?”

“You’re not making this easy, Josh.”

“Do I ever?”
he said as he watched their rate of climb begin to drastically decrease.
“Passing eighty.”

Loki furiously entered the jump parameters, pausing and closing his eyes for a moment to make quick calculations in his head.

“Ninety,”
Josh reported.
“Rate of climb is falling fast. Ninety-three.”

“I’ve almost got it,” Loki said.

“Ninety-six.”

Loki closed his eyes again, running over his calculations in his head one last time. Pilot reaction time, time it would take the lift thrusters to come up to full power, the acceleration rate of their descent when they came out of the jump and suddenly found themselves in thicker air: he had thought of everything…

“Ninety-eight.”
The stall horn began to beep at them through the helmet comms.

…
He hoped
.

“One hundred!”
Josh announced as the stall horn blared.
“Pitching back down!”
Josh used the Falcon’s attitude thrusters to push the nose back down as the interceptor transitioned from climb to fall, bringing the ship level with the Earth’s surface positioned one hundred kilometers below.
“Falling!”
he announced as he reached for the lift turbine throttles.

Loki’s eyes were fixed on the vertical speed reading, waiting for the zero to change to a negative zero point five. A moment later it did, and he pressed the jump button.

The blue-white jump flash washed over the Falcon.

The woods flashed with red light as energy weapons fire flew at Jessica from all sides, forcing her to duck down. She could not rise to return fire from between the rock and the fallen tree trunk where she hid. To do so would have meant instant death. Then the weapons fire suddenly stopped. A man’s voice rang out through the eerily still night air. “
Surrender now and you will not be harmed!
”

“Fuck you!” she hollered between rapid breaths. She raised her weapon and fired blindly over the log at her back.

“
You are surrounded! Your air support has abandoned you! Surrender or die!
”

Jessica thought about Sergeant Tonkton. He had given his life to protect her and the knowledge she carried in her memories. She looked at her watch. Nearly two minutes had passed.
Was he right? Had they abandoned her?
A million thoughts raced through her mind, but one thought kept coming back to her, interrupting and overriding all the others. Major Waddell.

“Fuck,” she cried to herself in a barely audible whisper. She could her the crunching of leaves as her would-be captors moved in on her. She laid her Corinari energy rifle down on the ground next to her and slowly pulled her sidearm out of her holster. She turned the weapon on, flipped the safety off, and stuck the weapon in her mouth, squeezing her eyes shut as tightly as she could before moving her finger toward the trigger.

There was a thunderous clap, like there had been a tear in the sky. A shock wave hit her, and everything went dark.

A split second later, the flash was gone, and the Falcon was falling at one meter per second from an altitude of only twenty meters… and they were accelerating.

As his visor cleared, Josh slammed the throttles all the way forward, bringing all four lift turbines screaming to life.

Loki glanced to his left as his visor cleared. The tops of trees, each of them dangerously close to the interceptor, shot up above them from all sides, shaking violently in the Falcon’s thrust-wash. Loki braced himself for impact, but it did not come.

“Get on the nose turret!”
Josh ordered as the Falcon settled into a hover only five meters above the surface.
“Let them have it!”

Loki quickly responded, opening up with the Falcon’s nose turret and sending streams of energy bolts toward every red icon he could target on his ground sensors.

Josh rotated the hovering interceptor from left to right, firing his wingtip energy cannons into the woods beyond for extra measure as he spun the ship full circle. As he finished the circle, he could see Jessica lying unconscious only twenty meters to their port side. She was covered with tree branches that had been ripped from nearby trees by the shock wave of their sudden arrival. As the Falcon’s yaw maneuver ended, he activated their landing gear and hollered at his copilot.
“Go get her!”

Loki pulled the canopy release as the Falcon bounced and settled onto the ground. The boarding ladder appeared automatically to the left side of the ship just as Loki swung his leg out over the edge of the cockpit, placing his foot in the first ladder hole that had opened in the side of the interceptor. Two rungs later, he jumped to the ground, falling to one side as he hit.

Josh watched Loki pick himself up and head toward the still unmoving lieutenant commander, climbing over fallen branches in order to reach her. Something caught his eye just to the right of his copilot: three Jung soldiers attempting to move through fallen debris to get to Jessica. Josh pressed a button on his console, and a small control pad jutted out from the bottom edge. He swung the nose turret toward the left, firing as he swept toward the approaching soldiers. The energy bolts ripped through the soldiers, killing them instantly as they fell into smoldering mounds of melted human flesh.