The Tau Ceti Agenda

generators and no propulsion. Fire teams and damage diagnostics showed a hole through the aft section of the supercarrier big enough to build a housing community in and the majority of the air wing was four minutes away in deep space. Oh, and there was the little fact that there had just been a small fleet of enemy ships appear in normal space right on top of them. This was definitely a typical Navy day.

I'm open for ideas. Timmy?

I'm working on it, sir. The CHENG's team and I are rerouting everything we can to get us some sort of propulsion. With the enemy ships above us and the facility below us, on the other hand, it is unlikely that they would fire the mass driver at us, in fear of hitting them.

That was the whole point of taking up this position, Timmy.

Aye, sir.

Keep at it.

Aye.

'CO! The hauler is dumping out Gnats as fast as it can throw them. I've got more than a hundred and counting!' the air boss shouted. 'Our guys are gonna be outnumbered by at least one order of magnitude, sir.'

'Warn them and tell them to make do.'

'Aye, sir.' The air boss reluctantly relayed the order to the CAG. What DeathRay said in return was rather foul.

'Captain. We've got nukes,' the XO said with a crazy grin on his face.

'You're damned right we do, Larry. Let's send those battle cruisers a few of them.'

'Roger that, sir.'

'Gunnery Officer Rice!'

'All hands, all hands, prepare for QMT jump in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, jump!'

The ship had surged with a strange feel of static electricity, and then there was a crackling sound reverberating down the corridor through the structural members. Then everything seemed as normal as before.

We just jumped to Sol?

Apparently so, I'm asking the Lorda troop lifter now.

Kira raced down the corridor toward the engineering section of the Phlegra, scanning through drawings and schematics of the ship hoping to find an internal Achilles heel. On several occasions, she was nearly spotted. But to her advantage, the ship was only being manned by a very skeleton crew.

Kira, I'm picking up handshaking pings from U.S. fleet sources!

What! Here?

There are hundreds of them. And it's the Sienna Madira!

Oh my God! They must be attacking the facility. We have to warn them about Luna City!

Who do I contact? Uncle Timmy? Captain Jefferson?

No! Boland! Contact Jack Boland. He'll remember me. Penzington, Nancy Penzington was my name then.

Right, I recall. I'm handshaking with his AIC now for a secure channel.

Jack! I'm getting a message to you from on board one of the enemy vessels that just teleported in, Candis alerted DeathRay.

For me? Who is it?

All I'm getting is code name Bachelor Party!

Holy shit, put it through!

'DeathRay, DeathRay, this is Nancy Penzington, code name Bachelor Party, do you copy?'

'Penzington, is that really you?'

'Watch your six, DeathRay!' Fish cried out over the tac-net. 'Fox three!'

'Oh shit!' DeathRay dove hard to the deck, pulling up with only meters to spare before he slammed the surface. He toggled to bot mode and put his feet down, running and jumping over a catwalk that led down a dugout crater rim, taking cover there. The Stinger on his tail shot past him, rolling over into bot mode himself and firing cannons backwards toward Jack's Ares-T fighter. Tracers ripped past, blasting up dust all around him. Jack rolled over onto his back, tracking the yellow Xs in his mind over the path of the Stinger until they both turned red. 'Guns, guns, guns.'

'Roger that, Boland. It's good to hear you're still alive.'

'What can I do for you, Penzington. I'm a little busy right now!' DeathRay toggled back to fighter mode, going full acceleration back up into the fray and away from the exploding enemy mecha behind him.

'This takes priority over all orders you have, Boland. This battle cruiser that I'm on is about to QMT jump to Earth space and kamikaze into Luna City. It must be stopped.'

'I need to relay that to the Madira.' DeathRay toggled a channel in his DTM.

'Roger that, Boland. I'm gonna try and shake things up from the inside. Penzington out.'

'CO Madira, DeathRay!'