Chronicles of a Space Mercenary 0: Tanya, page 18
Tanya was not at all sure they were going to make it even though the stick had never wavered in her hands, the city rushing up at her far too fast, her instincts screaming at her at first to bail out, bail out!, and then, too late, you’re going to die! Starfire couldn’t possibly pull out in time, and then she finally began to level out into stable flight, the airspeed indicator flashing wildly past Mach seven with the city whipping by only meters below. The little ship’s fusion thrust washing across the tops of the outlying districts of the city as Starfire left a shattered wake of sonic destruction with the city no more than a blur beneath her.
The downtown area of the city was now rushing toward Tanya faster than she could comprehend, and Tanya realized Starfire would not gain the altitude to rise above the hundreds of skyscrapers looming ahead like a wall built just to thwart her. But her vision was clearing as the terrible inertia of her desperate attempt to pull them out of the straight vertical dive dissipated under their normal horizontal flight, and Tanya was quickly looking for a way out.
There was no way out. Starfire could neither turn nor rise fast enough to avoid disaster. There was only through them. Tanya only had moments before they would reach the first skyscrapers, but it was enough time to consider, just an amusing little scenario flashing through her mind, that if she managed to live through this, she was going to be in a lot of trouble with the local authorities!
Her ship was traveling so rapidly that the skyscrapers were little more than blurs, and Tanya barely made the maneuver between the first two, coming so close to the skyscraper on her port side that she wasn't sure she was going to clear it until she was already past, the building ripping by at a blazing speed and Starfire somehow slipping into a thoroughfare between the buildings!
The strange reflective haze that blossomed on her rear feed, just seen peripherally on her screen as she fought for her life, was the eruption of the entire dia-glass faces of the buildings she was flashing through as the windows were sucked into the vacuum left by Starfire’s supersonic passage between them. Tanya had no time to appreciate this as she battled against the laws of physics in her fight to gain altitude.
Somehow she managed and after screaming down it like a tornado for twenty blocks, Tanya finally rose above the tallest of the buildings and had the time to glance at her displays. She was flying out of the frying pan, but into the fire as Starfire now rose above the concealing forest of skyscrapers around her and the targeting acquisitions screen suddenly lit up with an incoming bogey.
“Son of a fucking bitch!” Tanya screamed, unbelieving as she flipped Starfire on her side into a port roll and away from the incoming bogey that was attacking from starboard and above, diving on her in a swooping curve and closing at a reckless speed.
If Felone fired on her and missed, each bolt of the plasma cannon would devastate half a block or more of real estate, but Tanya didn’t think Felone would hesitate to fire for a moment. Neither did she have any doubt that Felone’s new ship wouldn’t be traceable back to her or the Organization. Felone surely would be hoping, at that moment, that Tanya felt herself safe as long as the city was below. But Tanya didn’t fall for it, and in full burn she decided to find out what Felone and her new ship were capable of.
In any case, she would not be legally responsible for the people that Felone would murder on the ground below if she turned to give battle now. Again Tanya pulled her stick all the way back, but with her already reckless velocity the inertia was hardly noticeable, a drop in the bucket compared to what she had just survived, and she thought again of the old maxim- whatever didn’t kill her would just make her stronger. She was sure that Felone would make her a great deal stronger before this was finished. Of that Tanya had no doubt.
Chapter 70
Falcon was in full burn, racing around the curvature of the planet to join the combat between the two little ships, both in vertical climbs, rising up through the atmosphere towards space, Starfire in the lead, the second ship glued to her wash without any sign of inferior propulsion.
The two ships seemed to be similar in every respect. Malcomb clicked on the tags Falcon had created for the two ships and side by side technical details scrolled down the screen and nearly dumbfounding Malcomb for the second time in only short moments. Felone’s new ship was exactly the same ship as Starfire! It was the same manufacturer, the same specs, same everything. It was the clone of Tanya’s ship.
“That’s crazy! What does that mean?” Kerin asked from the co-pilot’s seat as he watched what Malcomb was doing.
“It seems too unlikely to be a happenstance.” Malcomb mused. “I don’t think it was coincidence.”
“This Felone wants to beat Tanya on equal terms.” Kerin said. “I can’t imagine what else it could be.”
“That does seem to be the case . . .” Malcomb began but the beep of an incoming jump signature forestalled further comment as they waited for Falcon’s AI to tag the ship. It cost more for the AI than for the ship itself, but Malcomb was perfectly willing to accept his limitations and flying a spaceship was definitely one of them. He had never even been in a spaceship until they had taken the liner to the Kievor Trade Station and Falcon was the first ship whose controls he had ever sat in front of, though he hadn’t actually piloted Falcon either. She piloted herself.
Falcon had nearly reached jump velocity as they burned around the curve of the planet in an attempt to cut off Tanya’s pursuer, but it had become obvious they weren’t going to get there in time. Malcomb watched Falcon’s jump velocity indicator intently as the incoming ship slid into real space, well within photon cannon range.
Falcon tagged it as Adjudicator before the newcomer had finished its exit and then blasted a warning siren throughout the ship, rolling viciously to port just as the blaze of a thick ruby beam flashed to starboard, right where they had just been. Then Falcon was charging her own photon cannon and coming around to do battle.
“Jump velocity not attainable while performing evasive maneuvers; permission to engage Adjudicator?” Falcon asked.
“Granted!” Malcomb said, though he was sure Falcon was only being polite. One advantage of paying the extra million and a half credits for the AI was that it could and would defend itself without needing orders. It was sentient, and therefore it had as much desire to live as any other being.
Falcon thrummed as the photon cannon blazed out at Adjudicator, but the bolt passed by harmlessly as Adjudicator rolled out of the way at the last instant, her human pilot showing extraordinary skill and judgment under the deadly accuracy of Falcon’s AI.
Adjudicator came out of her roll and immediately fired again, the turret winking its red message of death clearly as Falcon dove at full burn, the maneuver made at the last moment, the photon beam passing so close that the lighting within the Bridge dimmed a moment as the extreme energies of such a close call interfered with Falcon’s systems, but she was as well shielded as she was piloted, and only a direct strike would damage her. The battle came to a reluctant close then, neither firing upon the other again as Falcon outran effective photon cannon range while Adjudicator only slowly gained new velocity after exiting.
“Orders?” Falcon asked.
“Can you follow those jump signatures?” Malcomb asked immediately as both Starfire first and then the second ship vanished into jump, the pursuer ship jumping exactly where Starfire had jumped and presumably at exactly the same vector and velocity. A deadly trap for Tanya if Felone came out of jump right on top of her, were Malcomb’s immediately thoughts.
“Have acquired jump trajectory/velocity data. Orders?” Falcon informed.
“Follow them.” Malcomb said.
“Reorienting upon jump signatures, trace and pursue.” Falcon said, but she had already taken that action, had already been reorienting upon the jump signatures, and Malcomb had a moment to wonder just how intelligent the machine really was? It was a machine after all, no matter how you looked at it, but it was also alive and obviously extremely intelligent- he wondered what it thought about all this, but if it was in disagreement as to their actions, it wasn’t showing it in any way Malcomb could figure- Falcon seemed quite willing to go after the attacking ship.
Malcomb also couldn’t help but notice Adjudicator still coming up behind them. It hadn’t given up either, and was slowly accelerating up their wash and would unquestionably be following them into jump. Malcomb wondered how it would all end.
Chapter 71
Tanya was well aware that Felone would be following her through jump and she knew that Felone would have the instrumentation aboard her ship to track Tanya through jump just as easily as if she was tracking her through normal space. When Tanya exited, Felone would be coming out right on top of her.
Tanya hadn’t jumped haphazardly though, in fact she had a destination in mind for the conclusion of this affair where it would be just her and Felone and to the final bitter end. Tanya was getting tired of Felone, and when she got tired of people their life expectancies generally shortened, yet Felone’s hadn’t been truncated in any appreciable manner that Tanya could detect at all.
In fact it seemed the opposite way around, she feeling as if it was her life expectancy which had grown shorter. Felone’s surprise attack with the new ship had just about succeeded in burying her and Starfire, and that was about the closest Tanya had ever come to anyone killing her- at least in her adult life. This had to be brought to a conclusion one way or another, and there was no assurance that it would be she who walked free.
After fourteen minutes in jump Tanya’s own sophisticated equipment informed her that they she’d reached her pre-designated exit, and Starfire dropped out of jump in full burn, the empty vacuum suddenly giving the fusion thruster purchase and slamming Tanya back in her crash seat. Four seconds later space vomited up her pursuer, also in full burn and riding up her wash with an obstinate refusal to quit that only the truly obsessed could possibly possess.
Felone was obviously quite insane but she had not fully taken Tanya’s measure. It had never occurred to her that Tanya had been born into an insane world and herself remained sane even while acquiring the ability to call upon that buried madness, that instinctual rage that rose in all human hearts when the decision to fight or flee had been made in favor of the fight.
Tanya possessed in full measure that ability that any human could exhibit when backed into a corner, the ability to act without thought, consideration, or warning, and to attack ruthlessly, without the faintest compassion for one’s enemy. All humans had this ability written into their DNA, ready to be unleashed when necessity required. Tanya’s rage had reached the boiling point and she could feel the heat of that madness expanding and surging within her, lusting for release.
The asteroid field was approaching rapidly and Felone would not be able to catch Starfire before she reached it. Tanya had not failed to notice that Felone’s ship was the twin to Starfire. So did Felone want to prove a point, or was it something else? Did Felone assume she would have the advantage, given identical ships, because she assumed her own superiority? Or was it simply a head trick, to give the impression that Tanya could never win, that it was little more than a game to Felone, to knock Tanya off her game, to sap her confidence? But Tanya wasn’t insecure about her abilities- they had been tried and tested on many fields of battle and they had yet to be found wanting.
Neither would her emotions play to any disadvantage in the coming drama, if that had been Felone’s intentions. Tanya would let the rage boil, but with control… She would become angry, but never to the point of losing discipline. That would kill her faster than Felone’s plasma cannon.
They were almost to the asteroids. Tanya had chosen this place as the ultimate testing ground for their coming battle. It was millions of cubic kilometers, filled with chunks of rock and ice ranging in size from mountains to pebbles that, at high velocity, could breach a hull like it was paper.
Everything was constantly moving and colliding, a kaleidoscope of shifting debris and crashing mountains. It wasn’t a place to go into except as a last resort, or unless you were one of the truly insane. At this moment, even Tanya was on the razor’s edge of sanity as she grimly raced towards the field under full burn.
Chapter 72
Falcon came out of jump and slammed them into their crash seats as their massive thrusters caught solid space under full burn. Of Tanya or Felone there was no sign, but Falcon was handling the tracing and pursuing and Malcomb did not question its actions until he saw the massive asteroid field ahead. He was dumbfounded by the images on his displays and the obvious fact that they were racing towards it at an ever increasing velocity.
“Falcon, is that an asteroid field?” Malcomb asked judiciously, though even to someone as ignorant of space travel as he it was still obvious that the solid haze of blinking lights on his scan screen could be nothing other than a massive and extremely dangerous debris field.
“Affirmative.” Falcon answered. “Do you wish to issue an order?”
“No.” Malcomb said simply after only a moment’s thought. “Carry on.”
“I wouldn’t mind knowing what you plan to do?” Jerin said.
“I plan to follow them into the asteroid field to aid Starfire’s defense.” Falcon said, and Jerin and Malcomb exchanged looks but didn’t comment.
“It uh… kinda looks dangerous, right?” Jerin said a few moments later as the asteroid field continued to blossom on their screen, yet still invisible to normal vid feed.
“It will be.” Falcon said, but if this was Falcon’s way of giving them their last chance to change their minds before it was too late, and both Malcomb and Jerin understood that this was the case, neither spoke up to accept the offer. The asteroid field continued to draw nearer.
………………..
Adjudicator came out of jump 0.05 Light Seconds short of the point at which the other three ships exited. Jason was definitely expecting to be ambushed as he exited. After all, it’s what he would have done with the lag time it had taken Adjudicator to reach the jump point, and Falcon would have had more than enough time to be prepared, waiting with photon cannon charged. But surprisingly, nobody had been waiting and Adjudicator was now far behind in the race to reach the asteroid field.
Jason could understand both Tanya and Felone’s motivations for wanting their duel to be in the asteroid field. Both felt they were the superior and with their small ships the battle between them would be a reckless and splendid one, but what Jason couldn’t figure out quite yet was what in the hell whoever was piloting Falcon thought they were doing chasing them into that asteroid field! Even an expert pilot would be risking himself just passing through it, yet Falcon seemed intent on joining the fray. It was reckless beyond measure, and yet Jason found himself burning at full thrust to get there as well.
“Fuck it.” Jason said to no one. “You want to play? I’ll play!”
Six minutes later Tanya went into the asteroid field with Felone close on her tail. Two more minutes and Falcon disappeared as well, hidden from scan by the mountains of debris already between them. Adjudicator continued to burn at full thrust.
]Chapter 73
Starfire entered the outside perimeter of the massive field, and even though Tanya was forced to take evasive action to avoid the erratic movements of the massive boulders and debris flying everywhere, she was unwilling to let deceleration be one of those maneuvers. Felone was on her ass and if Starfire wasn’t in continuous full burn- and Felone was- then Felone would be able to advance to within effective firing range. Or would Felone be the first to decelerate with the obvious result that Tanya would then have her chance to get behind her!
Tanya refused to decelerate, even as the effort to avoid the flying debris became ever more difficult with every moment of burn, and Starfire dodged and danced right into the thick of it. She narrowly avoided a spinning boulder that would have dwarfed some moons, and Felone was right behind her, diving into the leading edge of the massive asteroid field.
The field itself had resulted from the destruction of a nascent planet, annihilated by immense tidal forces during the formation of a star system. Its orbit was contracting on a spiral that would someday consume another planet, but there was a far better chance that it would first obliterate several combatants in a mad, chasing battle amongst its chaos.
Tanya jammed the stick to starboard to avoid another boulder that came in at a tangent and bounced off the mountain sized monolith Starfire had just missed and was burning down the side of, the frantic change in vector throwing Tanya into the side of her crash seat and the boulder, the size of a skyscraper, spinning by overhead within meters of Starfire’s hull.
She then threw the stick forward and dove, being thrown hard into her straps while she fought to hold the stick down under the brutal maneuver to avoid a dense collection of small debris rushing at her that looked completely impenetrable. Tanya could see no clear way into it anywhere along its kilometer wide face and it was rushing at her rapidly. Starfire dove into a high gee loop with the field of debris climbing right into her fusion wash before Starfire completed her loop and was running at full speed before the onrushing mass.
Felone was out of sight but was showing weakly on Tanya’s scan as somewhere above her, Starfire now completely enmeshed within the debris field- a maze from which a ship without excellent instrumentation might never depart, a maze from which even a ship with excellent instrumentation might never depart.
In a relative clearing amidst mountain sized boulders, Tanya dove towards a passage through twisting boulders below her just as Felone’s bright fusion flame caught her attention, appearing momentarily far above through a freak clearing in the debris and burning directly towards Starfire, but Tanya only saw her for a brief moment and was then cut off from sight as they raced further into the maelstrom.
