ALICE, page 26
They were practicing for incoming smart bombs. That was more of an individual target shoot though learning fire discipline for your own area of responsibility was a challenge for some. Abby and Joe kept creeping into each other’s space, to the point where she wanted to smack them both.
Today they were to start flying in pairs for aerial combat training. She took Joe and paired Abby with April. She hoped that that would keep them focused.
----*----
With just 12 hours to go, Jake was starting to get his game face on. He pulled his fighter out of storage and was doing a preflight for the fifth time when Bonnie came out of the facility door and into the main hangar.
She stopped dead in her tracks and said, “You’re kidding right?”
Jake grinned back at her and said, “Not even a little, I want those bastards to know exactly who is coming after them.”
“I’ve seen the other fighters, and this is not typical. And what are those things on the wings?” she said as she pointed to the four guns mounted to hard points on the wings, two on top and two below.
“Seven and I came up with those and added more for this particular mission. The alien guns are energy based, you know, ray gun type stuff. Their defenses seemed keyed to that as well. We are hoping this will take them by surprise! In testing, they rip right through the alien hull plates.”
“What are they?” Bonnie asked.
“Rail guns. In my day, we could never get them to work properly because of the energy requirements. With the alien power sources, these things can fire continuously until they run dry of ammo. They hyper accelerate a projectile using electromagnetic energy.”
“These four can target independently, the hope being they can take out any of the bombs before they reach earth. Then I can use my main guns on the ship itself. Sara’s fighters have two rail guns and four energy guns just like these,” Jake finished by pointing out the fixed firepower protruding from the wing roots.
“And what’s Sara’s squadron for?” Bonnie asked.
“They are tasked with stopping whatever gets past me. My hope is to take that warship out ASAP, but they are likely to get some launched before I can stop them.”
Pointing to the four rail guns, “those are the first defense. Sara’s squadron is my backup. We have to stop all of those bombs,” Jake finished.
----*----
PeTuk was preparing to go into orbit when his display alerted him of an approaching ship. It must be an error as it indicated the ship had come from the planet’s surface and this planet had no such capability. They were still outside of their bombing orbit, but he halted the ship as a precaution.
As the little ship approached, he noted it was a very small one-person craft, most likely some kind of primitive orbital shuttle. He wasn’t aware they had any orbital capabilities on this planet at all, not that it mattered. If this thing could maneuver even a little, it might make for some reasonable target practice.
He magnified the image and could see it was all in red with a yellow symbol of some kind across the top of the hull. Finally, some acceptable colors he thought. The symbol was a winged creature sitting on a planet with a hooked object behind the planet. The planet displayed the land mass they were preparing to bomb.
Suddenly the communication's system came to life with a hail from the little ship, “Attention, this is Major Jacob Thomas of the Planetary Defense Force. Please state your intentions.”
PeTuk wasn’t surprised at being hailed. However, he was shocked that it was in perfect NeHaw! He checked the log and verified the last contact with this planet required lowering themselves to translating NeHaw into a local language.
----*----
Sara and her squadron were hovering just above the state of Alaska, watching Jake in their helmet display’s as he confronted the alien ship. She couldn’t believe he painted his fighter in the scarlet and gold of the Marine Corps, with the eagle, globe and anchor across the top and bottom of the fighter. No wonder he hid it from everyone!
She zoomed in on his squadron badge to see Wildcards and expect no mercy on the emblem. Where the hell did that come from, she thought? The fact that he was using call sign “Joker” she did think was extremely appropriate.
----*----
PeTuk was in no mood to talk to lower life forms, he had a mission to complete, and this annoyance was delaying him. He told his weapons officer to destroy the ship and clear the way for their bombing run. Obviously, his decision to cleanse this planet a second time was proving to be a sound one.
PeTuk watched as his weapons officer targeted the craft and fired a volley using the energy beam particle guns. As he watched in disbelief, the little ship, simply side slipped the shot, avoiding the tight, concentrated beams by the slightest margin. The guns fired a second and third time. Again, the ship simply moved a fraction to skirt the targeted fire.
The weapons officer then shifted to the broader beamed heat ray cannons and fired several at the same time. They provided a discharge path that spread much wider. The little ship disappeared from view at impact, only to reappear unscathed. Suddenly the little ship erupted in a blaze of fire, ripping through all the gun positions in the forward batteries in less than a second. Each weapon discharged a line of fire, that appeared intermittently.
Moreover, it wasn’t using energy weapons at all, they were firing projectiles! What next, throwing stones he thought?
While the little ship continued to fire, PeTuk ordered his bombardier to launch as he directed the helm to move away from the ship and away from this madness. He commanded the ship away while continuing to absorb the withering fire. As the little ship shifted its fire upward, toward the bridge, his last conscious thought was a desire to put as much space between his ship and this insane planet as possible.
----*----
As Jake raked the alien ships gun placements, he saw several missiles streak past him, catching two with his ship's guns. He then shifted his fire to where he thought the bridge was, trying to stop the launches completely.
“Sara you have incoming,” Jake transmitted.
“We’re on it,” Sara replied.
As Jake peppered the bridge with rail gun fire, the launches stopped. He watched as the view ports erupted outward, blowing atmosphere and debris out into space. Then everything stopped. The alien ship seemed to go lifeless. He did a quick check of his heads up display, watching the bombs streak earthward and the icons representing Sara’s Black Knights screaming in to meet them.
One by one, the bomb icons disappeared until none were left, only the Black Knights.
Jake took his fighter forward and did a cautious flyby of the alien craft. Still partially powered up, he could tell there were hull breaches in several places. Jake could see atmosphere still escaping in spots. Blown out, the missing bridge windows gave it a lifeless look. From his ship, he could see bodies floating inside, bloated from the pressure loss.
Satisfied the ship was in a stable orbit, Jake announced over an open mike to all facilities, “Ladies and Gentleman of the Planetary Defense Forces, we have seized our first ship! ALICE can you hack into this thing and land it? Black Knights, its sensor target practice time!”
----*----
Jake joined Sara’s squadron in destroying all the alien sensors in orbit. While they were working the known satellites, Sara took her wingman to the moon to remove all they located there as well. Once the sky was clear of sensors, including the ones on the moon, all five fighters converged on Dallas, Jake bringing up the rear. Bonnie and the rest of the staff were in the hangar waiting for them as they landed. As each climbed out of their fighters, the pilots were mobbed. There were hugs and kisses all around.
Once free of her reception, Sara ran up to Jake’s fighter. Bonnie and Becky having beaten her there, she gave him a hug and a kiss, “We did it!”
Then she stepped back and smacked him in the chest, “How did you do that? How did you manage to avoid those guns on the cruiser?”
Jake laughed and said, “come on, let’s go inside and I’ll tell you my secrets!”
He asked Dallas to link all the facilities together, projecting holograms for each of the other three facilities so everyone could join in. Once everyone settled in with a drink, Jake and his group in the dining room near the control center, he announced, “A toast, to the 1st Planetary Defense Force!”
There was a cheer, then after the toast, Sara asked, “OK Jake, tell us. How did you duck that fire? No one can move that fast!”
Jake smiled and answered, “I didn’t.”
“What do you mean you didn’t, I watched you!” Bonnie replied.
“I didn’t,” he insisted.
“OK, if you didn’t who did?” April asked.
“ALICE did,” he answered with a smile.
“HUH?” Sara said.
“The ALICE systems were tied into my fighter’s sensors and controls. They analyzed the gun angles, and detected the charged guns. They moved the fighter right before it fired on me,” Jake explained.
“What about the times they shot right at you and you didn’t move? In fact, it looked like you disappeared?” Bonnie asked.
“That was Seven’s contribution. She installed stasis field generators in my fighter. Turns out, stasis fields absorb all kinds of energy, which is why they mask the ALICEs from the aliens. They activated and deactivated the field to protect me.”
“That’s incredible!” Sara said.
“Thank god we know transmission signals can pass through stasis, but blasters can’t!” Jake said.
With that settled, they all dove into partying with gusto.
By the time Jake left the celebration, it was in full swing at all four locations. Not being a big drinker himself, he left the partying to the others and went to find some quiet.
Back down in the hanger, he was looking over his fighter, debating on removing the extra rail guns when Dallas spoke up.
“Jake we might have a small problem.”
“What’s up?” Jake replied, feeling a small surge of panic.
“We haven’t been able to take control of the alien ship. I am afraid you may have shot out the primary control systems when you destroyed the bridge crew. We will likely need someone to go on board and install an interface to allow us to override the primary systems control and bring it down,” she finished.
“Right now?” Jake asked.
“No, it is in a stable orbit for the time being. But the sooner we can get it down here, the sooner we can start extracting information on our adversaries.”
“Yeah, I didn’t want to spoil the party, but this is just round one.”
“Exactly, however, I do want to mention that this mission is not without some risk. We have not been able to confirm the remaining crew on board is lifeless. There have been no transmissions from the ship since the battle, however, there are sections that maintained integrity thus retained atmosphere. I should also mention that the alien energy weapons would penetrate a combat suit. As their defenses were tailored to energy weaponry, but vulnerable to projectiles, ours are vulnerable to energy weapons fire. Should an alien crewman obtain a weapon, members of the boarding party are at high risk.”
“Well, as the only one trained in this type of thing, I guess we know who's going?” Jake replied.
“That was not our desire,” Dallas stated, “the warning was to suggest other members of the defense force should be utilized!”
“Right, I’m sending untrained troops into a potentially hot situation in my place. Have you not paid any attention?” Jake flipped back.
“I will take a backup, however. Sara has some introduction to urban warfare, so she understands the basics. Do we have any weapons that will work in a vacuum?”
“Nothing we have 100% confidence in at this time. Unfortunately, the ship in hangar 19 had a very limited number of personal weapons and they are all in some state of disassembly in other facilities. You could use terrestrial firearms, however, they are untested, and may not function reliably in space,” Dallas replied.
Jake thought for a moment, then asked, “Dallas, do we have any scuba equipment in inventory?”
“Yes, we have an extensive selection of both sport and military equipment. However, your combat flight suit is a fully functional spacesuit. It is unnecessary and quite unwise to attempt to use scuba in space,” Dallas offered.
“It’s not the scuba gear I’m interested in,” Jake replied.
----*----
Jake went back to his room after leaving the hangar, taking the long way around. Fearing someone pulling him into the party again, he avoided going near there entirely. Entering his quarters, he was startled to discover both Sara and Bonnie sitting in his living room, Sara sipping what looked like wine, while Bonnie held an orange juice.
“Surprise!” Bonnie said, standing to give Jake a quick kiss with Sara doing the same. They both settled back down in their seats as Jake crossed the room to get a soft drink from the wet bar and then joined them.
“To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” he asked of both of them as he sat down.
“We came to run interference, but stayed to explain,” Bonnie replied.
Sara just smiled and pointed to the bedroom.
Jake got up and peeked inside his bedroom. There, sprawled across the end of his bed from one side to the other and face down, was Becky, her long blonde hair hanging over the edge. Sandy was on her back, with her head up on the pillows and one leg hanging off the edge of the bed. Both passed out cold and stark naked, their clothes spread all over the bedroom floor.
Jake backed out quietly, closing the door behind him and then sat with the other two. He sipped his drink without comment, the two women sat quietly, watching him expectantly.
Finally, Jake offered, “scheduling conflict?”
Sara laughed, “No, more of a budding rivalry, but under control. Apparently, there was a conversation regarding how to reward your heroism. Several drinks later it devolved into a full blown argument about who should reward you.”
“We followed them to your quarters, expecting to find you here. When you weren’t, they decided to await your arrival,” Bonnie said with a laugh of her own.
“I see,” Jake replied, “So that explains the clothing explosion in my room.”
“Yes, they insisted you got to choose, you lucky dog you!” Sara said, laughing even harder.
Several thoughts passed through Jake’s mind, mostly involving blue dye and electric clippers. In the end, he decided to let sleeping girls lie and leave it at that.
Bonnie and Sara weren’t quite as forgiving though.
“We could shave their heads?” Bonnie offered, with an evil grin.
“Already went down that road,” Jake said with a laugh, “but payback is a bitch and those two are relentless. Best to just let them lie and I’ll sleep elsewhere.”
“Which reminds me, how many of those have you had tonight?” Jake said pointing at Sara’s wine.
“This is my third, why, you still want your reward?” she said with her own evil grin now.
“How would you like to go spear fishing tomorrow?” Jake asked.
Chapter 17
The next morning Jake, Sara, Bonnie and a few others who were less hung over from the night’s celebrations, met in the hangar. Becky and Sandy were nowhere in sight.
Jake and Sara were suited up in their flight suits, each sporting an accessory pack mounted on the front of their flight suits.
“The chest pack supplies your environmental needs in your flight suits, providing 24 hours of EVA time,” Dallas said.
She continued as a bot slid up carrying the bag, “Here is a sack containing the interface modules we need installed on the bridge. If the controls there are too badly damaged to integrate with, you may have to locate auxiliary controls and install them there.”
“And the other items I requested?” Jake asked Dallas.
Two bots scurried up, each carrying one long spear gun and two shorter versions.
“The long guns have been fitted with a grapple tip, simply shoot at the hull and they will attach. There are 500 feet of line on the reel to tether your craft for use as a safety line. Simply clip your belt line to it once you are tethered.”
“The two smaller guns have three spears, each with a razor tip. They will penetrate anything short of a combat suit. Simply fire and reload by placing the next shaft in the barrel and compress using the toggles behind the spear tip,” Dallas finished.
Sara grabbed her guns, Jake having explained last night that they might not be the only living things on the spacecraft. Each was a high-pressure pneumatic spear gun. The longer of the two was about 3 feet long and the smaller about 14 inches, all with an inch in diameter tube and a pistol grip at one end. There were additional spear shafts clipped to each side of the tube with the small ones.
The spear shafts contained two toggle flaps at the end by the tip that allowed you to draw the shaft into the gun, compressing the piston inside, thus charging the gun.
They each climbed into their fighters, donning helmets, and as everyone backed away, closed the canopies. Hovering their ships, they headed to the hangar opening, with Jake leading the way and Sara close behind. As they lifted up through the open doors, Bonnie and the rest headed to the control room to monitor the mission.
Jake continued to lead the way up with Sara on his right. Soon they cleared the atmosphere and banked to rendezvous with the alien ship in orbit.
He slowed their approach and brought his ship up very slowly on the left side of the bridge windows, Sara mirroring his actions on the right side. Once they were in a stable position about 200 feet from the ship, Jake took a deep breath, hoping these suits worked as advertised and opened his canopy, then fired the long spear gun hitting next to the bridge window frame. He then tied the other end off to his fighter, giving him a tether line.
Sara repeated Jake’s actions and tucking her spear gun pistols in her belt, attached her safety line to the tether and climbed out of the canopy.
