Black Dawn (37 page)

Schiff, Marcus, and Mc Kinney charged through, and others
followed close behind each of them. The major motioned for the last
four troopers to secure the room. He himself never even broke stride
as they ran for the front door.

“
Scanners show power conduits in the walls, leading this
way,” he said. Schiff kept his focus on getting to the door and what
lay probably just beyond it. He did notice that Speed McKinney had
moved up to cover him on the left, and Cook was on his right.

Max Cook was in a class by himself. He was one of those rare breeds--a true berserker. There wasn’t much room in the modern
world for people like that.

These thoughts flashed through Schiff’s head in the four seconds it took to reach the door. He tapped the open button and it slid
aside easily enough. There was a corridor leading down to another
doorway about 15 meters away. That door also stood open. And there
were two branching passageways leading off in both directions, about
halfway down to the other door.

Techs were running back and forth in obvious terror. One was
coming around the corner from the passageway on the right, and moving for the open doorway ahead. Schiff checked to confirm that his
scanner readings showed conduits above the ceiling and in the walls,
all leading toward the room in question. In one smooth series of motions, he charged out, motioned for the rest to follow, aimed his rifle,
and dropped the technician who had almost gotten to the power room
door.

The alarm continued to blare, and Schiff ran for the door, but
paused as he reached the branching corridors. There were three
guards, just coming around the corners---two to his left, one on the
right. He, McKinney, and Cook all fired before the guards had done
much more than raise their pistols.

And that was the moment when the shocked techs inside the
power room truly realized that their comrade who’d been trying to get
in only a moment before, was dead. Upon having this stunning revelation, and seeing the troopers charging toward them, they prudently began closing the door.

Cook saw it, and reacted even before Schiff did. But the door
was closing fast. Cook dove headfirst toward the shrinking opening, as
the door scythed downward. He sailed through the air with the speed
of a hurled knife.

He almost made it.
Landing on his stomach, he skidded toward the closing power
room door as it was slamming downward. He didn’t get under it in
time.
But the rifle he held stretched out in front of him did.
The door hit it, denting it, but that was all. Max got under it,
and using it as a lever, began forcing the door back upward, making
some truly terrifying noises as he did so. Schiff, McKinney, and Marcus were there in a second, and jammed their rifles underneath as well.
With all of that leverage, the door was forced upward, and the troopers
charged in.
To their surprise and amusement, the four technicians in the
room were all literally huddled in one corner, scared out of their minds
by all this. Cook leaned over one of them and growled and the tech
fainted to the floor.
Schiff motioned toward four of the troopers who had come in
behind them, and gave them a set of codes. They jogged out of the
room, and proceeded to take up positions at the branching corridors.
The Major looked around him with great satisfaction.

Commodore Lamont sat in its station chair on the combat drop
shuttle monitoring all the battle fronts. It had open channels to the flag
bridges of all three commanders. Waiting and watching while others
went into battle.

The temptation to be on one of those fronts, leading an assault,
any assault, had been powerful. But it had chosen to command a fleet
not a ship, and that meant keeping track of the big picture. At one time,
it mused, it could have blamed the Rigan programming for the anguish
of hearing all that was going on and not being part of it. Of hating that
part of command. But no longer.

With each new day since the
“reboot” it had been learning
more and more about itself, its desires and its goals. This was what it
wanted. Occasional anguish and all.

“
Schiff to Commodore Lamont,” the Major broke into its
thoughts. “Power room secure. I have someone downloading all the
base information on a hand comp right now. The technicians in this
room were quite helpful after having a little chat with Max Cook.”

Despite the grave situation, Coy smiled.
“I also have a squad…” There was a muffled boom in the
background. “…sealing off one of the only other ways into this area,
and setting up a guard on the other one.”

“We have his quarters’ location, Commodore. Ready to complete this phase on your order.”
Coy, as well as everyone else within earshot knew who the
‘his’ referred to.
“Very well,” it said.
“Seal up all the doors, shut down all
power.”
“Aye, sir,” Schiff barked a crisp, verbal salute.
“Commodore Lamont!” Sweggert said suddenly from one of
the two
Talons
orbiting with the shuttle. “Movement on the surface of
the planetoid, about two klicks from the base! A small ship, flying
low!” Following Coy’s specific orders, the fighters had maintained an
intensive scan of the planetoid’s surface as they orbited high above it.
Looking for exactly what Sweggert had just found.
Coy’s heart stopped beating. Then started back up at triple its
normal pace.
“Their fearless leader”, it said derisively. “I thought he just
might find a way to sneak out before the base was taken.
Talon
craft,
secure that target. He is not to escape.”
Both
Talons
fired off their engines, and began a corkscrew dive directly at the fleeting ship.
The shuttle roared after the
Talons
, but of course, was not diving nearly as fast. The fighters sped toward an intercept.
“Weapons systems coming on line on that thing,” Pierce reported from her gunner’s seat on the same
Talon
. “I’ve got a definite
power spike.”
“Stay on it.” Coy ordered “Prepare to return fire, but don’t take
the first shot. “Let’s see what…”
“Commodore!” Pierce interrupted. “Power levels on the target
are dropping, rapidly.”
“What? Why?” it asked.
“Unknown. Its speed has dropped off too…damn…”
“What is it lieutenant? Report.”
“Sir, I’ve…I’ve lost it. It’s completely gone from the scanners. I’m not picking it up anywhere, now.”
Coy shut its eyes, clenched its fist, and pounded the control
panel.

“
Cut that com channel!” Butler roared. Aziza enthusiastically
obliged him, and the grimy pirate vanished.
Tony Knepp called in from his dedicated channel on the
Blackbird.
“Do we return to base, Captain? Abort the attack run?”
“Negative, Commander. Continue with that attack no matter
what.”
“Acknowledged.”
“So, are we going to surrender, sir?” Aziza asked after that
circuit closed, knowing full well what the answer would be.
“Like hell! Parker, stand down on the dorsal cannons. I think
this qualifies as a ‘more dire circumstance’, don’t you? Redirect
weapons generator energy, and…power up the quadcannon.” He studied the tac grid for a moment.
Zachary and the other captains seemed to have dealt with the
five destroyers that had tried to block their approach to the moon.
Then had gone on to intercept the five ships that had been coming in
from outside the system, and those two forces had just begun to engage
one another. No help from that quarter. It looked like it was up to the
Raven
and the four ships still with him.
“I want to focus our combined firepower on one target.”

The pirate cruiser hit the
Raven’s
shields once again. The
BlackFleet flagship had turned around to face one of them, and still
had not fired yet. The one which was closest continued hitting her
port, and then front shields. The other moved in to finish her off if the
surrender did not come within seconds. They were quite confident that
they had overwhelmed the BlackFleet at last.

Then, a nimbus of energy began to play about the
Raven’s
nose. It soon grew blindingly bright. Then, four points of eye-piercing
light melded together at her bow, and combined into a huge shaft of
energy. It blasted out, slamming into the first cruiser’s shields.

“
What?” Butler exclaimed truly shocked. “Their shields are
still holding after that?”
“Yes, sir,” Parker said. “Looks to be 75 percent of normal.
Orders?”
“Prepare to fire again,” Butler replied.
“The shields on those things are even stronger than when we
fought them before.” Bon reported. “Looks like they’ve found a way
to enhance their shielding overall by 40 percent.”
“Forty percent…?” Butler blew out his breath in exasperation.
The ship lurched again as they were fired upon by the first cruiser. The
second cruiser was moving in close to the first, and now it too began
firing. The deck under him lurched once more.
“Our forward shields down 68 percent,” Parker said.
Lamont had ordered him to take this base. Nothing else was
acceptable. They were jolted twice more, and Ken hung onto the back
of one of the station chairs.
“Message coming through, sir,” from Aziza. “He’s ordering
our immediate surrender.”
Butler thought of the pirate’s face, and his resolve hardened.
“Parker, target the weakened shield quarter on the first cruiser
that attacked us. Fire!”
The quadcannon blasted out again. The other Alliance ships
also fired. Despite the second cruiser’s attempt to place itself between
its sister and the BlackFleet ship, Parker hit the mark with her usual
skill. The combined energy broke through the remaining shields and
slammed into the hull of the pirate cruiser, punching a thirty-foot wide
hole into her bow. The rest of the shields on the enemy ship wavered
and then finally fell.
The
Raven
aimed herself directly at the severely damaged ship
and charged forward, the other ships following in her wake. Both enemy cruisers began firing on all of them as soon as they began to move.
“Fire it again, Kensie!”
The quadcannon bore into the damaged ship again even as they
sailed on toward the pair of cruisers trying to box them in.
“Six seconds from impact, sir,” Parker announced.
Then there was a boil of light from within the cruiser ahead as
internal explosions wracked it. And a second later, a colossal explosion ripped the ship right in half.
The
Raven
and her companions soared through the fireball,
and on into open space. The other pirate ship blasting them from behind began to give chase.
“Quadcannon units overheated, Captain,” Parker said.
The one down side to the big gun was that they could only fire
it three times in a row and would require a four minute cool down and
recharge period before they could use it again. That attack temporarily
frustrated, Ken turned his attention to their immediate concern.
“Hoffman, take us out another 12,000 kilometers, and bring us
about 180 degrees. We’ll keep them guessing.” Butler glared at the vid
representation of the big enemy ship. “One of us is not getting out of
this battle alive. After careful consideration, I’ve decided that it should
be him, rather than me.”
The ship traveled only a little further away from the pirate
base, then, suddenly wheeled around in its course and headed straight
back at its pursuer. Particle beams ripped across space as yet another
head-on collision seemed imminent.

The
Blackbird
and the two
Talon
groups dove toward the base.
Ground defenses had opened up and begun firing. The BlackFleet
team swerved, ducked and banked, avoiding the deadly energy ripping
at them from below. But they continued to burn through the moon’s
atmosphere, approaching the base at reckless speed.

“
Distance, 7,000 kilometers, and closing,” Danielle Cheny
called out to the
Talon
groups. All nine craft were screaming in toward the base preparing to fire.

Tony Knepp watched their approach from his station on the
Blackbird’s
cramped bridge. They had to fire at short enough range
that the base defenses would have no chance of stopping them. And
they were just about to that point, when he looked again at his scanners
and got the same nasty surprise Ken Butler was getting at just that
moment up in orbit.

Twenty-six fighter craft were lifting off from the base.
“Those are more of the
Talon
prototypes!”
“Yes, and coming this way fast.”
In fact the attackers were not even waiting for positive lock up,

but were firing beam weapons indiscriminately in the direction of the
oncoming ships.
“No choice,” Knepp decided. “All craft, fire!”
Sixteen missiles blasted toward the base defenses. Two of
them took out two of the enemy “Talons” who happened to be in their
path. Most of the rest struck their intended targets.
.Ground defenses, and some bunkers were vaporized as multiple explosions rippled around the complex.
The
Talons
and the
Blackbird
split up into two groups. They
looped upward, and then down, changing the angle at which they were
attacking the approaching pirate craft. They swerved back and forth
firing, and their orderly attack cut through the disorganized ranks of
the pirates. Four more of the pirate fighters were obliterated.
Then they crossed past one another in a well-practiced pattern,
and curved upward and away from each other, using the extra momentum and speed gained in the dive. They forced the remaining twenty
fighters to split up in their pursuit. Which they did quite poorly.
“We’ve got twelve following us,” Cheny said as they looped
through the moon’s thin atmosphere, preparing for another run on the
base.
“And we’ve got eight,” Smith observed.
“Dust yours off as fast as possible, and get back to us,” she ordered casually. It didn’t seem to matter that she was talking about two-
to-one odds.
Smith felt the
Talon
jarred slightly as their shields were getting hit from behind. Smith replied equally casually. “Roger that,