Justice Keepers Saga--Books 13-15, page 15
Completing her latest pass, she soared out from beneath the ship’s back end and sped off into the empty night. She spun her shuttle around, flying backwards as she watched the enemy recede into the distance.
The Scrappy and its two allies were pummeling the Ragnosians with orange particle beams. Did they notice the threat that was coming their way?
Her console started beeping.
Cassi checked her instruments and saw that the incoming ship had problems of its own. Three phoenixes chased it, lashing out with particle beams that bounced harmlessly off the shields.
They figured out the solution soon enough.
Reorienting themselves, they all fired on a single spot. Their weapons stung the battlecruiser’s aft section, knocking the ship off course. In seconds, the second Ragnosian ship abandoned its attempt to support its beleaguered ally, turning around to face this new trio of adversaries.
Overwhelmed, that first battlecruiser began to rise, desperate to get away from the planet. It suffered a few more hits as it pitched its nose up and went hurtling off into the heavens.
“The way’s clear, everyone,” Corin said. “Let’s get going before they come back.” Cassi reversed course to join the other ships, taking a position underneath the Scrappy’s starboard wing while Larani did the same on the port side. The dropships formed up behind her.
Together, they traveled northward, leaving the town of Alsen’s Hill behind. The two battlecruisers had been stationed directly above it, but they would need to get at least a few hundred kilometres away for a gentle descent.
At this altitude, with a velocity of nine kilometres per second, they were able to make the journey in less than a minute. Sadly, the return trip would take a whole lot longer. They covered half the vertical distance in the first thirty seconds, dropping to the edge of the mesosphere, hovering there with gravitational engines to keep them aloft.
One by one, all nine ships turned around.
Cassi pitched her shuttle’s nose downward, and the planet came into view. Lush, green fields dotted with forests and rocky hills. Puffy clouds drifting past on the breeze. Southern Entarel was gorgeous!
“All ships,” Corin said. “Prepare to enter the atmosphere.”
She began her descent at a measly five hundred kilometres per hour. Not nearly fast enough to maintain a stable orbit. If not for the anti-gravity field, the shuttle would drop like a stone. But a slower reentry was a gentler reentry.
After a few minutes, she began to feel a little turbulence as the air currents swirled around her. Her screen lit up with a plethora of stats. The hull temperature had dropped considerably.
The Scrappy was still on her left, barely visible in the upper corner of her window, but she had come out from underneath its wing. She had to regulate her speed to maintain a relative position.
The dropships were still plodding along behind her. They couldn’t maneuver half as well as she could. It was hard to be agile when you were basically a cargo storage unit with an engine strapped to it.
Bit by bit, they increased speed.
The lower they went, the more she had to compensate for wind shear. She ended up pulling ahead of the Scrappy just to get a little breathing room. Green fields gave way to jagged rock formations as they moved southward to the Adunian border.
She gave a start when she looked up and saw nothing but blue sky above her. They had dropped to an altitude where the stars were no longer visible. Her scanners detected what her eyes could not.
There were dozens of Ragnosian ships in orbit, but luckily, they were otherwise engaged with the Leyrian Fleet. They might just be able to pull off this landing without too much trouble.
Alarms started blaring.
She had spoken too soon.
Green dots appeared in her window, two dozen of them flying in a tight formation. When the SmartGlass zoomed in, she saw them for what they were. More of those angry, little drones with the curved prongs.
Hissing air through her teeth, Cassi steeled herself for a most unpleasant encounter. “We’ve got twenty-four coming in at just over Mach One,” she said. “Larani, I do believe that’s our cue.”
“After you, Cassiara.”
She sped up and shot ahead of the others, accelerating to near-supersonic velocities. Her window drew red circles around each of those tiny robots. She chose one. “Sun, give me plasma weapons.”
“You got it.”
The bot that she had chosen rushed toward her for a head-on collision, its prongs crackling with verdant light. It spat a glob of plasma at her.
Flinging the flight-stick sideways, Cassi performed a roll, one wing dipping while the other pointed up toward the heavens. The shot sizzled past the shuttle’s exposed belly. She returned fire.
Orange bolts surged from her cannons, converging on the drone and smashing into a hunk of charred metal that dropped out of the sky. Then she was racing ahead of all the others, leaving them behind.
Stomping on the left pedal, she spun the shuttle around and flew backwards through the air. The fleet of robots receded into the distance, on course to attack the Scrappy and the troop carriers.
She reversed course, coming up behind one of those little demons and blasting it before it could open fire. A sudden flash made her eyes sting. Scorched metal rebounded off her shields as she passed through a fireball.
The next thing Cassi knew was flying over the Scrappy’s rounded nose, skimming its dorsal hull, which shimmered in the sunlight. The aft section slid past beneath her, leaving her alone with nothing but blue sky above and green fields below.
Once again, she brought the shuttle around with a sharp, yaw turn, and flew back the way she had come. She moved in close behind the Scrappy. The ship was surrounded by a cluster of angry robots, each spitting streaks of green plasma.
She selected a target.
But Corin had a few moves of his own.
The Scrappy rolled over, exposing its belly to the open sky. A tempest of orange plasma rose from its ventral cannons, scorching drones that tried to attack, reducing them to chunks of wreckage.
Once again, the Scrappy flipped over, righting itself and spitting even more ammo from guns on its dorsal hull. The drones that followed quickly broke off their pursuit when they lost more than half their number.
More were approaching from up ahead, flying over the escarpment that lined the Adunian border. Cassi braced herself for a little more dogfighting, but an orange particle beam flashed across her window, creating a horizontal bar that blocked her path, frying every robot that passed through it.
And then the Agaleen sped past her on a perpendicular course, heading east. Some of the drones followed, diverted by the sudden attack.
The Scrappy raced ahead to deal with the next batch.
Adjusting its pitch, the little ship climbed into the stratosphere and then flipped upside-down with its nose pointed down at the ground. It hovered there for a moment, waiting.
Half a dozen robots tried to slip past.
They fell to missiles and charged bullets that rained down on them from above, their metal bodies falling to crash among the jagged rocks. When Cassi checked her scanners, she found no further resistance waiting for her.
Glancing up through the window, she allowed herself a small smile. “Ninety-two kilometres to go,” she said. “Let’s do it.”
“Way ahead of you,” Corin replied.
The Scrappy proved his point when it came down and leveled off right in front of her. They continued their journey, passing over fields, forests and streams. At one point, she saw a small town to her left and a network of railways that connected it to neighbouring cities.
In less than ten minutes, they were decelerating, coming to a stop above a small patch of woodland just north of Alsen’s Hill. Her console beeped when the scanners picked up half a dozen hover tanks moving into the city. The Ragnosians had already begun their invasion, but they had no more air support. That would change soon enough, she suspected. They would have to move quickly.
Two dropships landed in a large clearing surrounded by trees. Another touched down about half a kilometre to the east. The soldiers would have plenty of cover to disembark.
Her job was done.
Well, except for one last thing.
“Shuttles,” Corin said. “I think now would be a good time for you to ‘scout the area.’”
Cassi nodded. “Agreed.” Her hands flew over the console, plotting a course. “Are you with me, Larani?”
“Indeed.”
Side by side, they flew south over the town.
“Okay, guys, you’re up.”
Jack was strapped into one of the seats along the cabin’s port-side wall, drawing air through his gaping mouth. He stared nervously up at the speaker that projected Cassi’s voice. “Are you sure this is a good plan? Because it doesn’t seem like a good plan.”
Anna was right next to him, giggling as she undid her harness. “You’ll be just fine, sweetie,” she said, standing up. “Come on.”
“Shouldn’t I at least get a parachute?”
His girlfriend took two steps forward, then glanced back over her shoulder. Her devilish grin left Jack with a sinking feeling in his stomach. This was happening no matter how much he protested. “We’re too low for a parachute,” Anna said. “It wouldn’t work anyway.”
“The enemy has no air support,” Cassi reported. “You’re never gonna get a better opportunity to pull this off.”
Removing his safety belt, Jack stood up and narrowed his eyes. “Did I ever tell you that I really don’t like heights?”
“Sweetie, you can Bend gravity!”
“Yead but not enough to fly!”
“You’ll be fine!” she insisted, taking his hand and pulling him toward the airlock. The inner door slid open with a hiss, allowing them to squeeze into a tiny cubbyhole that was just big enough for two people.
The inner door closed, and the outer hatch opened, exposing him to the glare of harsh, afternoon sunlight. When he worked up the nerve to look, he saw the rooftops of small buildings along a major thoroughfare and domed houses in the neighbourhoods surrounding it. “How high are we?”
“Ninety-one point two five metres,” Anna said. “Freefall should take just over four point three seconds, assuming no intervention by friendly Nassai.”
“Friendly Nassai,” Jack muttered. He really didn’t want to do this. Summer thought the whole thing was hi-freaking-larious, which only stoked his irritation. Why was she so eager to go splat on the pavement?
The shuttle slowed to a crawl, practically hovering over the south end of town. And the moment was upon.
Anna took his hand.
She was watching him with a radiant smile, her red hair fluttering in the wind. “Come on,” she said, pulling him forward. “This’ll be fun!”
Together, they jumped out of the airlock.
Jack felt like he was going to have a heart attack. The wind assaulted him, and the ground rushed up to meet him, threatening to squish him like a bug. In that drawn-out instant, he could have sworn that he heard Anna laughing. Damn her! She would be enjoying this.
At the exact halfway point of their fall, they created a Bending together, reversing gravity’s direction in a small bubble around their bodies. They decelerated, landing gently in the middle of a road, releasing their hold on space-time the instant their feet touched pavement.
The small buildings on either side of them appeared to be empty. He saw no one in the windows. Either the town had been evacuated, or they had all gone into hiding. It was quiet; he could sense no threats. The Ragnosians hadn’t made it this far south yet.
Anna thrust her fists into the air, spinning around with giddy glee. “Skydiving!” she screamed. “Woo!”
The two shuttles sped away, both pulling up and climbing into the deep, blue sky. Their absence left an eerie silence on this quaint, little street. Jack was getting tense. They had to get out of the open.
When Anna turned around, her face lit up with a beautiful grin. “Six seconds,” she said. “I counted. I’ve always wanted to do that, but they were like, ‘No, don’t use your power for trivial reasons.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t be out here where anyone can see us,” Jack suggested.
“Mmm. Good point. Let’s go.”
8
Sitting alone in her quarters, Telixa lifted a glass of wine and inhaled the aroma. She had been on duty for hours. Her first officer had insisted that she get some rest, and she couldn’t argue the point. This battle would go on for days. She couldn’t stay awake through all of it.
Hanging back at twice the distance of Leyria’s moon, the Flagship was in no danger. The captains knew their orders. She could leave them to their work, sleep a few hours and then come back when she wasn’t quite so exhausted.
She kept telling herself that, but experience suggested the opposite. Those idiots needed a firm hand. She feared the prospect of waking up to discover that one of them had fired a nuclear missile down on the planet. That would be a colossal mistake. Putting aside that it would make the Leyrians fight that much harder, she needed the planet’s impressive infrastructure if the fleet was going to establish a permanent presence here.
Maybe she could take some of that technology back home with her. Maybe that would be enough to convince her government to scale back on these expansionist wars.
“Admiral,” Lieutenant Thren said over the comm.
Groaning, Telixa slammed her glass down on the table. “Yes, what is it?”
“Admiral, the Lokar and the Dronamod have been forced to retreat from their position over Alsen’s Hill.”
“What?”
“The army has no support from orbit, ma’am.”
Telixa stood up with a sigh, anger flaring up within her. “Lenai,” she muttered. “That girl is far too clever for her own good. Can we get the Nassai out?”
“No, ma’am,” Lieutenant Thren replied. “Colonel Sarsen is reluctant to try. The town’s police force has set up blockades around several key installations, including City Hall and the Nassai research facility. They’re lightly armed. Under other circumstances, our people would easily overpower them, but with the Alosian forces behind them…”
Telixa understood. It was the hammer and the anvil. If Sarsen diverted some of his troops to capture the research facility, the Alosians would hit him from behind. He would be trapped between two hostile forces. With the police playing a defensive role, it was better to focus on the more urgent threat. “Get several of our ships in orbit!” Telixa barked. “Take out the Alosians from above.”
“That will be exceedingly difficult, ma’am,” Thren said. “Ten Leyrian ships have taken up position in orbit. They seem to have anticipated our response.”
“Of course, they have.” Telixa began to putter around her sitting room. Sending a small force to Alsen’s Hill had been a calculated risk. She could have ordered twenty ships and fifteen thousand soldiers to secure the town, but the Leyrians would have recognized it as a high-priority target and would have sent a comparable force to stop her. Better to keep them focused on the obvious landing sites like Denabria and Pelor. That way her people could take the Nassai with minimal resistance. And the plan would have worked if not for Anna Fucking Lenai!
Telixa fought her way through a cloud of exhaustion. Her head drooped with the weight of her fatigue. Oh, how she wanted to sleep. “Contact the colonel,” she said. “Tell him to send a small contingent of his force into the city. They are to avoid the police blockades and focus on the residential neighbourhoods. I want them to round up a few dozen locals and take them into custody.”
“For what purpose, ma’am?”
A reasonable question. Never discourage your people from asking reasonable questions. “We’re going to contact the mayor and arrange a trade,” Telixa explained. “They order the police to stand down, and we return their citizens. I’m betting they’ll prioritize human lives over Nassai.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Thren said. “Right away.”
Ducking into an alley, Anna pressed her back to a wall of gray bricks. She breathed deeply, calming herself. “Think they spotted us?”
Jack was right beside her, huddled against the wall and peering around the corner. “We’ll know in a second.” He lifted a pistol in one hand, its muzzle pointed skyward. “Get ready.”
The soft hum of flyer drones passed without incident. Those tiny, wedge-shaped monsters that might decide to suicide bomb you if their guns proved ineffective. The Ragnosians must have deduced that someone had exited the shuttles. Their troops hadn’t moved this far south, but robots could cover a lot more ground.
Shutting his eyes tight, Jack bent forward and pressed his fingertips into his forehead. “Too close,” he whispered hoarsely. “We’re gonna have to get off the main streets. Sneak through the residential neighbourhoods.”
Anna returned her pistol to its holster, her mouth tight as she considered it. “That will slow us down,” she protested. “The town will be lousy with enemy troops by the time we make it to the lab.”
“No choice,” Jack said, jerking his thumb toward the road. “Unless you want to be target practice for Skynet out there.”
He was probably right, though it pained her to admit it. She had been hoping that Rajel and the others would keep the enemy busy, but it was easy enough to send a squad of drones to hunt down a pair of Keepers on the desolate streets.
Wiping the sweat off her brow, Anna heaved out a breath. “Come on.”
In a heartbeat, she was running toward the back of the alley with Jack hot on her heels. They found a wooden fence there and trees poking up on the other side, their branches covered in thick, green leaves. If she had to guess, she would say that was someone’s backyard. It didn’t matter one way or another. They had to press on.
Anna jumped, grabbing the top of the fence, planting her feet against the wooden slats. Pulling herself up required very little effort. She flipped over it, then dropped to land crouched in a small garden.
