The Epherium Chronicles: Embrace (25 page)

“Walsh is in the first fighter?” Hood asked.

Wells nodded. “And I just received a security comm confirming Krieg’s account. It seems Walsh critically wounded an undercover security officer protecting Krieg and shot another pilot, before he locked himself in the docking bay.”

“This never ends,” Hood muttered and looked back at Wells. “Lieutenant, patch Lieutenant Krieg’s comm channel to my station.”

Wells did as he requested, and Hood opened the channel. “Wolfhound, this is Archangel. What’s your status?”

Krieg’s slightly frustrated voice came over the channel. “This is Wolfhound. I am in pursuit of Commander Walsh, but I’ve been unable to lock weapons in this field. There’s too much debris, and any of the bigger ones shield him when they pass between us.”

Hood watched the fighters zigzag among the asteroids on his overhead screen. “Wolfhound, we are going to move the
Armstrong
out of the field, and I have no support to offer you. I won’t mince words with you on this, but we need Walsh alive. You are authorized to engage, but disable if possible. However, if you cannot prevent his escape from the asteroid field without destroying his fighter, take the shot. I repeat, deadly force is authorized as last resort only. Do you copy?”

“Understood, Archangel,” Krieg replied with a slight growl as he struggled to maintain control of his fighter and narrowly missed another asteroid in his path.

“Good luck and good hunting, Wolfhound. Archangel out.”

Hood closed the comm channel and moved down to the Helmsman Station. As he moved closer, he noticed Lieutenant Sparks leaning over his station, his head in hands. “Lieutenant, are you alright?” he asked.

The young helmsman’s whole body was shaking, and Hood recognized the signs of what was often described as “battle fatigue.” He had seen it many times in young officers and crew members who had been through a traumatic event and lost the ability to function. Hood put his hand gently on his shoulder. “Lieutenant, look at me, son. It’s alright now.”

Sparks turned and looked at the
Armstrong’s
captain, his eyes red and irritated, and his hands still shaking. “We...we almost died, sir. All the asteroids, so close...”

Hood knelt down and looked directly in his eyes. “But we didn’t die, Lieutenant. That is in thanks to you. Your skill and quick reactions saved all of us.”

Sparks hands stopped shaking, he sniffled and managed a small smile. “I, uh...I did, sir?”

“Yes, Lieutenant,” Hood replied, still keeping his calm demeanor. “Now, I need you to focus. Can you do that?”

Sparks nodded as Hood pointed toward his terminal screen that now showed a large portion of the asteroid field and all their current movement vectors in relationship to the
Armstrong
.

“Lieutenant Aldridge has made this easy for you. All the paths of those rocks are here for us to see, but I need you to pilot us out of here.”

Sparks started to shake his head. “I don’t know, sir. I’m not sure I can do it.”

Hood’s voice was a little firmer now. “Listen, Lieutenant. I understand you’re scared, but I chose you for this crew because you are one of the best. I believe in you, and so does everyone else here. There are several thousand metric tons of spinning rock out there, and I need a steady hand to guide us through that mess.” Hood stood and patted him on the back, “Besides. I got enough dents in this girl already. Any more and Command will try to take the repairs out of my paycheck.”

He didn’t respond to Hood’s humor, but Sparks’ face seemed more resolved now. He nodded slowly and started to go through his sequence to re-engage the helm controls. “Aye, sir”

“Thanks, Lieutenant. It takes a strong-willed person to face his fear for the sake of others and overcome them.” Sparks looked up and smiled and Hood returned it. “Alright, Lieutenant, let’s fire her up and get out of here.”

Sparks nodded and activated the
Armstrong’s
thrusters.

* * *

Krieg banked around two more asteroids and got a glimpse of Walsh who once again tried to elude him by maneuvering behind another large, elongated rock. Krieg knew this game of cat and mouse was going to end badly. Someone was going to make a mistake and end up littering their fighter on the surface of one of those rocks, but it wasn’t going to be him.

With each hard bank, the G-Forces weighed in on him, and his head was pounding now. His fighter’s system stabilized his suit to compensate, but the forces only seemed to compound the injury.

He cut his thrusters and dove underneath the next asteroid and found Walsh in the open. He tried to line up a shot, but Walsh forced his fighter down hard, and Krieg had to complete an inverted roll to keep with him. The other fighter accelerated, and Krieg lost his opportunity as Walsh again managed to slip around another asteroid.

As Krieg maneuvered his fighter around the next asteroid ahead, he felt something warm slowly moving down his forehead. Krieg instantly recognized that it was the blood from his head wound. The battle needed to end soon, for if the blood reached his eyes, his impaired vision would end it for him.

Krieg needed to make something happen, so he pushed his throttle to maximum and chose a new path around the wide metallic tinged rock that put him on a parallel course to Walsh. To Krieg’s surprise, Walsh continued to flip around smaller asteroids in a wide arc which lead him back to the large asteroid that they had passed a few moments earlier. Krieg snaked his way past a few more of the rocks and saw what he was looking for, a small group of three asteroids close to Walsh’s current path.

Krieg couldn’t lock onto the asteroids, so he lined up a shot for a missile, fired and hoped for the best. The shot rang true and exploded in the middle of the three rocks, bursting them into a destructive rock storm. Krieg exhaled slowly and waited.

Walsh’s fighter careened away from the blast and flew right into Krieg’s field of fire. Krieg fired three quick bursts from his cannons. The first just missed the underbelly of Walsh’s fighter, but the last two struck his left engine and wing, separating them both from the fuselage. Walsh’s fighter began to spin out of control and tumbled over the top of the nearby large asteroid, and sparks flew from damaged areas caused by Krieg’s attack.

Krieg approached Walsh’s fighter from a high angle and tried to get a look at Walsh’s cockpit to determine his condition. Unable get a good visual on Walsh he opened his comm channel back to the
Armstrong
. Just as Lieutenant Wells’ voice came over the comm channel, Walsh ejected from his fighter.

* * *

“Walsh’s fighter has broken up, sir,” Aldridge announced. She checked her screen again. “I have confirmation. He’s now EVA.”

“Put Krieg on over watch to keep him safe,” Hood replied. “I know the catapults are down, but can we get a shuttle out there?”

“Yes, sir. External bay controls are operational, and the shuttles can be released with their thrusters.”

Hood opened a comm channel to Sanchez. “Raf, I need you in the aft docking bay. We need a shuttle out there to collect Walsh and retrieve the beacon. It’s going to be our lifeline back to Earth, so we need to get it out of this field and keep it safe.”

Sanchez sounded out of breath as he responded. “I just arrived at the bay. I have two pilots suited up and headed out now to prep a shuttle for launch. It looks like Walsh really did a number down here. Techs have tried to reboot all their systems several times and work around the lockouts, but nothing’s worked.”

“Keep on it, Raf. We need those fighters,” Hood said and closed the channel. He leaned back in his chair briefly and rubbed his temples with his thumbs. His head throbbed from the effects of the jump. It was definitely better than the first few jumps, but he needed a clear head. He needed to think.

The
Armstrong
began a long bank as it passed another asteroid, and Hood had to hold onto his chair to stay seated. He looked up at the screen and could see several asteroids still in their path.

Lieutenant Sparks called back to Hood’s station. “Captain, I have two asteroids on our port that are going to press us into another group. If we stop, we’re going to get boxed in.”

“Maintain your course, Lieutenant,” Hood replied. He opened a channel to the teams standing by the weapons crews on the port side of the ship. “Gunners, this is the captain. We have incoming rocks in your zones. I need point defense weapons only with short simultaneous controlled bursts focused on the center mass of each asteroid on my mark.” Hood paused and watched his screen as the asteroids moved closer to the ship. “Mark! Fire bursts.”

The point defense guns in the forward and rear quarter of the ship each targeted a separate asteroid and fired as instructed. The impacts of the blasts slowed the large rocks initially, but by the third burst, the asteroids slowly began to change course. The blasts from the small guns caused only minimal damage to the larger rocks and after few more bursts, Hood ordered the guns to cease fire. Hood watched his screen as the two asteroids now moved slowly away. After a few moments, the
Armstrong
slipped past them.

“Sir, shuttle is ready to launch for retrieval of Walsh and the b—”

Aldridge was cut off by a member of the Sensor team to Hood’s right. “New contact!”

Hood adjusted his screen from his terminal to display the location given by the sensor team. The new contact had appeared on the far side of the large asteroid close to Krieg’s location. “Lieutenant, what have you got?” he asked Aldridge.

Aldridge was already hard at work at her terminal. Everyone watching could see her intense concentration on the screen. “Sensors are having a hard time locking on, sir, but I’m certain it’s our shadow from earlier.” She continued adjusting settings and looked back up at Hood. “Sir, it’s heading for Walsh’s location.”

Hood called back toward the Communications Station. Lieutenant Wells was still in contact with Krieg. “Lieutenant, inform Krieg of what’s heading his way.” The Communications Officer nodded and began to explain the situation to the Rook Squadron commander.

Hood keyed a private channel to Aldridge. “Can we can lock any weapons on that ship?”

“Hmmm,” Aldridge replied as she worked. She put the channel on pause in order to confirm what she saw with the Sensor team then re-opened it. “It’s not good, sir. At this range, our weapons are optimal, but whatever mineral is in the rocks is limiting our sensors. We can’t get a lock, even on Krieg’s fighter. There is so much of the belt between us and them, it’s doubtful we could get a meaningful shot anyway.”

“Alright, keep working on it and get me an ID on that ship.”

* * *

Krieg closed the channel to the
Armstrong
, angled his fighter back in an arc to check on Walsh, and activated his HUD. Seeing nothing on his scope, he moved around a smaller asteroid to get a better look at the area where the
Armstrong
reported the incoming contact. After a new sweep, his sensors still had nothing, but he visually picked up something coming over the larger asteroid closer to Walsh.

His HUD lit up with a threat warning. He was being targeted. He drove his fighter behind the small asteroid just as a burst of shells from the incoming vessel zipped past.

Cursing himself for being so careless, he accelerated his Stingray and worked his way around another string of the floating rocks as he tried to keep distance on his new aggressor. As he cleared another asteroid, he stole a glance at the new ship. It wasn’t large, nor did it have any similarities to any known Cilik’ti vessel, but now that he had been attacked, his scope registered the threat, and he started a target lock.

The ship was approaching Walsh’s location, and Krieg opened a channel back to the
Armstrong
. “Watchtower, this is Wolfhound. I am engaged, I repeat, I am engaged.”

Lieutenant Wells’ voice came over the comm channel. “Roger that, Wolfhound. What’s the status of EVA 1?”

Krieg checked his scope and looked back at Walsh’s last position. “She’s closing fast. Almost on top of him.” Krieg’s fighter shook as another salvo from the unidentified ship struck an asteroid close to him, spraying tiny bits of rock at his fighter. Whoever was piloting that large of a ship in this field was damn good or flat out crazy, he thought.

The attacking vessel had reached Walsh, and Krieg could see a hatch on its underbelly open. Krieg dodged a new blast from the ship and looped behind a larger rock for protection. “Watchtower, they are pulling him into their ship.”

Hood’s voice came over the comm. “Wolfhound, this is Archangel. Engage that ship, don’t let it leave the field. Do whatever is necessary to stop it. We can’t let it leave with Walsh.”

“Aye, sir, engaging.” Krieg swallowed hard and steeled himself for what he had to do. He drove his fighter down below the asteroid he was still hiding behind and accelerated on a vector that would provide a minimal aspect for the attacking ship’s two sets of cannons on its side.

The ship had already pulled Walsh inside and was now turning away from him. Krieg activated his weapons systems and locked onto its port side engine array. He easily avoided two bursts from the ship’s guns and executed a high speed attack on the engines. His cannon shells riddled the port side of the ship and tore off armor plates, but they failed to penetrate the engine.

Krieg accelerated into a high speed inverted roll for another run, when his HUD flashed a new threat. A pair of missiles was headed his way. “Hey, that’s cheating,” he said.

Krieg broke hard left and activated his ECM. As he forced his fighter into another high powered bank away from the incoming missiles, he quickly checked his systems. The ECM showed active, but the missiles still maintained their lock. “It’s never easy is it,” he muttered to himself.

Knowing he couldn’t dodge both the ship’s guns and the missiles currently on his tail, he broke away from the hostile ship and headed deeper into the asteroid field. The missiles were closing steadily on his position, and he had to do something quick. Krieg cut thrust to his starboard engine and banked hard right around a small asteroid. Both missiles followed, but one nicked the asteroid and exploded.