“Navigation, intercept course on Master Two.”
“Aye, aye, ma’am,” Mitzner called. The stars immediately began to move.
“TAO, firing point procedures, neutron beams, Master Two.” Tehrani tugged her uniform sweater down nervously. I expected more ships here. “Stand by to coordinate your attack with elements Gamma and Epsilon.”
“Firing solutions set, ma’am.”
They were still out of range, but Tehrani wanted everything lined up. Numerous dots appeared next to the Zvika Greengold on the tactical display, representing the small craft being launched. They sorted into flight elements and roared away from the carrier. She noticed that one of the Sabres bore the designation of CAG. I don’t recall giving Major Whatley approval to join the fight. Tehrani grinned. Who am I kidding? I’d have to confine him to the brig to keep him out of space in an all-squadron scramble situation like this.
“Conn, TAO. Almost to maximum range of our forward neutron cannon, ma’am. Master Two is accelerating to intercept. Inbound missiles,” Bryan reported.
“TAO, set point defense to automatic mode.”
“Aye, aye, ma’am.”
The second the enemy frigate closed within range of its primary armament, it began a withering bombardment of plasma balls coupled with blasts from forward-mounted neutron beams. While the League tech wasn’t as advanced or as powerful as the Coalition’s weaponry, it still packed quite a wallop. The shield-charge indicator for the Greengold’s forward arc dropped like a stone.
“Steady as she goes,” Tehrani murmured, more for the bridge crew’s benefit than her own. Closer and closer, the frigate came, until it was at point-blank range. “TAO, match bearings, shoot, forward neutron beams. Signal Gamma and Epsilon elements to break and attack.”
“Aye, aye, ma’am,” Bryan replied.
Two beams of blue death erupted from the neutron-beam emitters on the Greengold’s bow. Moving at the speed of light, they connected with the shields of the League frigate. While the enemy’s protective screens held, they were severely weakened by the assault. Each Mauler bomber let loose with a Javelin anti-ship missile, while the Boars added their projectile cannons to the fray. It didn’t take much to collapse what was left of the energy barrier. Two Javelins impacted the brittle hull of the enemy vessel, causing massive explosions. A moment later, a chain reaction began a series of secondary detonations. They ended with the frigate blowing apart. No life pods were launched.
“Conn, TAO. Master Two neutralized,” Bryan said with disbelief.
“Good shooting, Lieutenant. Get our Marines into the vacuum and task the Red Tails for close escort.” Tehrani turned to Singh. “Communications, ensure Major Whatley knows I’ll hold him personally accountable for the shuttle’s safety.”
“Aye, aye, ma’am.”
Tehrani returned her attention to the tactical plot on her display. Allah, watch over us. I do not believe that is the last the enemy will throw our way. Although she reasoned that it would be nice to catch the League with its pants down, just once.
With his Marines strapped into their harnesses aboard four combat transport shuttles, Major Kosuke Nishimura took his place in the jump seat of the lead craft’s cockpit. The warrant officer pilots worked through a series of preflight checks and paused at the final liftoff command.
With going on twelve years in uniform, today would be Nishimura’s first actual combat experience. Something tells me the sims still don’t touch the real thing. Limited purely to boarding actions against pirates or a few vague “police actions” in which the Terran Coalition had involved itself in a conflict between neutral planets, the TCMC hadn’t seen sustained fighting since the Saurian Wars, just like the rest of the CDF.
Nishimura pushed it all out of his mind, allowing peace and balance to flow through him. He whispered a prayer in Japanese to Hachiman, the patron deity of warriors in the Shinto religion.
“Marine units, you are cleared to engage,” Wright announced, his voice crackling through the commlink in the shuttle. “Good hunting, good luck, and Godspeed.”
Nishimura sat ramrod straight and opened his eyes. “Take us out,” he said to the pilot.
“Aye, aye, sir. ETA is five minutes.”
Typically, a shuttle ride was smooth and relatively slow, thanks to numerous peacetime safety regulations. Not so when executing a combat insertion. Nishimura gripped the handhold next to him as the craft shot out of the Zvika Greengold’s hangar bay, pulling several Gs. I think the warrant is enjoying this.
The first couple of minutes were uneventful, precisely what one wanted when hurtling through space to attack an enemy installation. Then out of nowhere, the missile-lock-on warning buzzed in the cockpit.
“Hang on,” the pilot called over his shoulder. “It’s going to get bumpy.”
As it turned out, the warrant officer was selling his maneuvers a bit short. The shuttle bobbed and weaved like a raft going down a steep mountain stream, and at times, Nishimura felt like his stomach was going to erupt through his chest. The view of the stars through the window at the front of the cockpit spun with enough force that he got dizzy from the simple act of looking at it.
“Shuttle Four is down,” someone called over the commlink.
Nishimura cued the commlink integrated into his helmet. “This is Marine Command Actual to any friendly fighters. We are under attack. Our force can’t sustain further losses and retain the ability to win.” With the request delivered, he took a moment to whisper a prayer for the souls of the dead in Japanese.
“Hang on, Major,” Justin replied. “Red Tails are almost there.”
Two League fighters made a firing run on the lead shuttle, but unlike the last time when they only had to worry about shooting at unarmed—at least for space combat—shuttles, a group of four Sabres roared in. Nishimura took a few seconds to figure it out, but a fifth craft, another League fighter, had joined them. That must be Spencer. It got behind one of the attackers and blew the offending enemy apart with sustained plasma-cannon fire. The other enemy was bracketed by two friendly craft and destroyed with three missile
