Part 16

[Schmulky]

“Hawk approach, this is Recreational Leviathan Alliance Code 0075B-NC128, requesting permission to dock, main bay.�

“Levi-128, this is Hawk Approach, you are clear for green docking. Enter downwind starboard on final at Hawk ecliptic, 1500 meters from axis. Do you have a military ID?�

“Hawk, Levi-128. Copy go for green docking. Roger assigned vector. M-ID reads DT7K-421α-K986. Entering downwind approach on final, now.â€�

“Levi-128, Hawk. Copy your M-ID. Inform approach when you have turned on base and switched to IDS."

“Hawk, Levi-128. Copy. Status: Flush with Hawk ecliptic, yawing port 090 for base leg, now. Be advised IDS is already active.�

“Levi-128, Hawk. Copy IDS is already active. You are go for final leg and contact. Prep for tractor.� I ran a final landing checklist."

“Hawk, Levi-128. Go for contact...Yawing port 090 for final approach, now. Velocity is green and stable, maintaining IDS. Prepped for tractor.� The force-field sizzled welcomingly as I drifted through.

“We have you on tractor. Stand by for hard seal."

It felt great to be spinning down in a carrier, again. Soon I was in the hanger, floating along a docking tube between my levi and the hub. Gravity started pulling at me as I drifted through, so I grabbed on to the guide rope and hoisted myself the rest of the way up. Once I was standing on solid ground, I headed for the nearest medbay – the ones near mercenary docking hubs on carriers usually serve as recruitment centers when the ship is below condition 3. The halls were white and sterile, just like I remembered.

Being an assault carrier, the Hawk's actual medbays are pretty small. The walls are full of cryochambers for transporting wounded back from the front. If you get shot or partially melted or so, they just shove you in a drawer for the rest of the mission – longer, if your paperwork isn't perfect. A siege carrier, on the other hand, is a cozier post to get shot at, if you're willing to put up with the assault carrier crews poking fun of the size of your genitals.

The medbay I entered had the bare minimum of one operating table, per regulation, though the recruiter was using it for a desk at the time. “Name?� he asked as I stepped up. I wondered if he went to a special school to practice looking so uninterested.

“Check your tablet,� I said. “You took a retinal scan as I walked through the door over there." I pointed at the door, just in case he missed it when he walked in.

“Indeed,� he answered, after a brief search. There was another pause as he glanced over my record. “We are currently accepting re-activations, however you must submit to both physical and psychological examination.� I knew that would happen. “Why don't you report to Medbay four? It is on Deck 3, section 8.�

“I know, thanks,� I called as I left. Since I wasn't on active duty status, he didn't salute, but I doubt he would have, anyway. He looked like a goon to me, and everybody knows goons never salute mercs.

That reminded me - I needed to get a new uniform.

[Edited on 6-16-2011 by Schmulky]

[Edited on 6-24-2012 by Schmulky]

[Edited on 8-8-2014 by Schmulky]

[Schmulky]

I could see things were bad while we were still jumping in. One destroyer, the Hercules, was barely holding against a Vonari cruiser and a swarm of about 20 fighters. I slewed down, barely missing the blunt nose of the cruiser, seeing red for a bit as too much blood went to my head. On the glide, I pitched up 90 to fire a few shots at the cruiser’s belly. It didn’t do a thing, of course.

“Report� I called.

“Viper 2 here.�

“Viper 3!�

“Viper 4, engaging enemy fighters.� He wasn't supposed to do that.

We all waited around for Viper 5 to chime in, but no luck. I checked my radar. “Anyone see Five?� I asked.

“He slewed port, Sir.� I sighed. Bok was always doing stupid things like that in simulation...Still, I hadn't received a casualty beep, so maybe his transmitter was out.

“Viper 6, go.� At about this time, I cleared the cruiser’s sublights.

“Alright, you know the drill. Buddy up, pick a fighter and shoot. Since we lost Five I can't fly backup - Three, I'm with you.� I started in the direction of Viper 3 to help him out, lighting up a bomber on the way.

“Viper 1, Hercules. It’s good to see you, but what kind of tactics are you using, exactly?� enemy fire glanced off my shield, so I slewed starboard.

“Hercules, Viper 1. Let us scoot and shoot, please.� I said, pitching up to lay some suppression fire.

“How the drenn am I supposed to coordinate a battle with no tactics?� As if the topah had authority over an assault carrier's fighter squadron!

“Just relax and let it all go to hell, Sir. We’ll take care of the rest.� Then, to Viper 3, “Bane, what the frak are you doing in between the cappies?�

“Just admiring the sce-� and there he went. I saw him light up. Vonari beam weapons will do that.

“Unless you've made ace in a day you can quit the battle chatter! Now, Vipers 2, 4, and 6, max out galactic up and form delta on me. We’re goanna reset the game.� I dispatched the five incoming missiles by whaling on the countermeasures, wishing the whole time that levis came with some kind of point defense.

We all made it out, though I took some fire and Six took a missile. The reds were starting to move towards us like a swarm, now, and I knew we had to re-engage them before they cleared the destroyer - their secondary target. “Alright, everyone,� I said, “keep the delta, then split and baitback as we make gun range. Two, you’re with me.� One thing I will say about my squaddies - they most always acknowledge the order while they’re executing it, not before. It saves precious seconds.

Approaching the bandit cloud, I gave Avi CM control. At the range limit, Two and I each went belly up on inertial and hit our IDSs, using up our ventral shields to draw the reds attention. Then we pulled into our loop and cut through our eight Vonari in two and a half minutes. I looked at my TAC display; the Hercules was in trouble. “Two, target the cruiser,� I said.

“But, Sir-�

“I will pay for your gorram missiles, Lewis! Follow orders!�

“Yes, sir.� I knew the destroyer was safe as soon as she jetted off, but I was getting worried about the two particularly green nuggets who were right now trying to baitback nine reds, with limited results. They were sort of skirting the edge of this cloud of fighters, not really picking anyone off, barely dodging all the missiles being launched at them. Anyhow, I took one look at the situation, and decided to do the stupidest thing possible.

I flew Avi straight into the middle of the cloud.

Amid the sea of missile prox'alarms I tagged the closest bogey and tried to catch its tail. Unfortunately our trajectories were perpendicular, but I still got the satisfaction of seeing it caught in Four’s crossfire (I could tell from the green of the beams) before it lit up. “Thanks, Four,� I called. He didn’t reply, which was fine by me, so long as he was still shooting. Someone from the destroyer was yelling at me - I ignored him.

The rest of the battle was pretty much a blur. Target, fire, engage IDS, throttle up, fire, dodge, drift, slew port, fire, spiral, afterburn down, pitch up, toggle IDS, fire. I was almost constantly changing direction and shooting, and the missile alarms were just barely more incessant than Avi’s CM jettisons. Chaos. Total, constant, incredibly noisy, jerky, wordless chaos. In that time, all the glorified situational awareness in the world utterly worthless. Just point, click, and try not to get wiplash from the afterburner. Don’t pay attention to how disoriented you are - you can worry about that later. A massive explosion - the Cruiser? Worry about that later, too.

Finally, there was one bogey left; I lit him up good. “Viper 1, scopes clear,� I said. “Squad, report.�

“Viper Two.� That was it. On my radar, I saw the light for Viper 4 go out and I knew he was dead. Simon Kender never wore his suit in a fight. Idiot.

“This is Hercules, Vonari reinforcements are en route. We should be able to execute a jump to Command Alpha within 20 seconds, though, so this counts as a happy ending. Mission accomplished, folks!� Avi confirmed on the HUD that payment had been transferred to my account just before we all jumped out. No time to recover bodies.

***

As I set up a straight-in approach to the Hawk’s main bay, I seethed at the hubris of the Hercules’ commander's words. “Happy ending.� Four of squadmates were dead, one destroyer was heavily damaged with massive casualties of its own, and he figured it was a happy ending.

It's not even an ending. Tomorrow, again, I will get some new nuggets and five days to train them. On the sixth day, I’ll take them to die on the Front. Again. I'm training my own cannon fodder so I can give another brass hat with a big boat a “happy ending.� This isn't a defensive war, anymore. At some point during the past decade, it has become a war of attrition.

[Edited on 7-30-2011 by Schmulky]

[Edited on 7-30-2011 by Schmulky]

[Edited on 7-30-2011 by Schmulky]

[Edited on 6-24-2012 by Schmulky]

[Edited on 9-26-2012 by Schmulky]

[Edited on 8-8-2014 by Schmulky]

[Edited on 8-8-2014 by Schmulky]

[DaveK]

Thanks! - eagerly awaiting 14 onwards!

I thank my lucky stars that we Capricorns aren't superstitious, touch wood, but 13 is an unlucky number as everyone knows (apparently unless you are Jewish) so the sooner you can manage Episode 14 the safer we will be!

[Maarschalk]

LOL....DaveK, and thanks Schmulky for another good read....I'm not jewish and 13 is my lucky number.......looking forward to part 14 anyways.....:P

[Marvin]

... 13 is an unlucky number as everyone knows (apparently unless you are Jewish) ....

Or Italian.

[Schmulky]

As luck would have it, I am Jewish (agnostic)!

Speaking of things that link Jews and Italians (other than The Merchant of Venice and Brooklyn during the 50's and 60's), did you know that Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel used his ties with the mafia to play a central role in making Las Vegas the commercial megalopolis it is today?

[Marvin]

I think that was a movie with the guy who otherwise thought he was Dick Tracy.

[Schmulky]

This war ain’t like it used to be.

Whoever’s in charge is shipping nuggets to the front at a prodigious (Martis tought me that word) rate. Combat flight takes months to learn, and squadron cohesiveness takes months to develop. Also the recruitment bar is too low; Take Bok, for example. Easily overwhelmed, making the same wrong manouver over and over. Dead, because I didn’t have the rank to pull him and no-one would listen to me.

The Alliance hasn’t conducted a single offensive mission in eight years, you know that? The Galactic-North Blockade is spreading thinner than ever, which is why there is almost never an engagement involving more than one destroyer these days. Did I mention that carriers never see the front, now? The Alliance can’t afford the fuel for its carriers to jump! They stay moored near command stations, while the pilots leak money getting to and from the fight.

Speaking of money, I could literally turn a better profit if they paid me in manure. I could trade it as biomass in one of the agricultural systems for twice the value I make in a single mission, and that’s with my fracking promotion! I could barely afford to upgrade my wings with all the money I had left two months ago; nowadays I make enough to buy one missile each time I finish a contract, with barely enough left over to break even on gas. If it weren't for my repair system, I’d actually be losing money. I guess it’s a good thing I'm in this for the stress relief.

Maybe the worst thing is that the Blitz is fading from everyones’ memories. The people I've talked to about it don’t really have a deep reason for fighting - it's a job or a hobby. If you don’t know why you’re fighting, how can the guy next to you trust you to cover his ass? After the Blitz everyone worried their planet might be next, and we pulled together on a bigger scale than I realized. Now the Alliance single-handedly foots the bill for an increasingly tenuous stalemate, while sending a constant stream mediocre pilots to their deaths.

Now here’s the part that really bothers me: I can’t for the life of me reason out why we’re in a stalemate. The Vonari made first contact with humanity something like 220 years ago, now, and half a minute later the Federation didn't have a flagship. Then they punched straight through the Orion sector to Earth, setting up only one forward base of operation along the way. They did the same thing again a year later, but with a massive fleet containing “several� carriers. 50 years later, it hit the public record that the Vonari carriers were destroyed in the nick of time, while powering up an intervessel superweapon to destroy the Earth. All this adds up to Vonari having the basic technology to perform a Blitz for at least as long as we've known of their existence.

So at First Contact, the Vonari were light-years ahead of us technologically, and we've been racing like hell to catch up. That makes sense, right? Thing is, over the past 230 years or so, why haven't the Vonari been advancing, too?

Then there’s the Galactic North Blockade. I said before it was a stalemate, but again I can’t figure out why. The Alliance destroyers are spread out, because that’s how blockades work, these days. Fighters dispatch from carriers and command stations to support the destroyers. The only reason this crap system works is because the Vonari stopped focusing their attacks a decade ago - there’s usually only one Cruiser per battle, now, too. With all the resources they've thrown at this blockade since then, they could have pushed right on through as a fleet, if they felt like it. They could have easily overwhelmed us something like five to one, if they wanted a direct confrontation. Blitzed some more planets, while they were at it. But they didn’t.

Also, and this is a purely rhetorical question, what exactly is keeping the Vonari from jumping right past the Blockade? Nothing! Absolutely nothing! Using tech from 2285, they could have pushed as far as Cygnus before establishing a base. There are enough hidden systems in that region that the Vonari might not even need to conquer anything, and could take months to find assuming someone knew to look. More than enough time for them to conquer the sector. Or destroy it. Or whatever they're trying to do.

The Vonari could be hitting us a lot harder. Should be, really. Especially since they haven’t retreated, the facts lend themselves to an ominous conclusion: the Vonari are actively maintaining the stalemate.

[Edited on 6-24-2012 by Schmulky]

[Edited on 6-24-2012 by Schmulky]

[Edited on 1-18-2013 by Schmulky]

[Edited on 8-8-2014 by Schmulky]

[Edited on 8-8-2014 by Schmulky]

[Maarschalk]

Nice one Schmulky, thanks for sharing....

[Schmulky]

As much as I loved my church, I traded it in. I had to. Let’s face it, Levis are slow. You might be able to wax most human pilots if you’re smart, but keeping up with a Vonari in a Levi is like an elephant dallying in parcour. It’s no secret that Vonari missiles pack a big punch, and Leviathans are about as sitting-duck as can be when it comes to missiles. Also, I was tired of leaning on my afterburner so much. I checked with Avi - the AB was active roughly 68% of the combat time I had logged since returning to the front. Most of the rest of the time was spent on the glide, but even so I’m sure you can imagine I burned a lot of fuel in a fast way. I wasn’t going to solve that problem by switching to an Evoch-C, so I flew a few more missions, lost some more nuggets, and earned another promotion.

Once that was done, I headed back home. You know what it’s like to fly between chunks of the planet where you grew up? It’s awkward, is what it is, so I only stayed long enough to make the gate to Vonarion. Common sense compelled me to spend as short a time there as possible, too, so it wasn't long before I was in what we Renegades used to call Candyland, if we mentioned it at all. Suffice it to say, with the merchandise I traded once I got back to Pearl, I had more then enough money to buy an Avenger.

I knew this buy would probably save my life soon, but I was sad to give up my massage chair, surround sound, and bunk. I was also pretty sad to be back in the type of spacecraft that might go into a flat spin if you sneezed wrong. Luckily the latest model of Avenger can handle an AI, so I didn’t have to give up Avi. He’s a real trip, you know.

Did you know you can become an admiral out here and still never receive a higher command than one fighter squadron - as their leader? I didn't. Used to be that admirals commanded fleets, but...whatever. Also, it’s a good thing each skirmish is the same as the last one out here, because there are no more briefings. Just co-ordinates and a synopsis of an ongoing engagement. It’s like an incredibly deadly pay-per-view that only starts in the middle.

I been thinking: I want to see who is in charge of this war. I also want to see a living, breathing Vonari, even if I have to kill him right after. I think I have a plan to do just that. I’ll present it to my commanding officer tomorrow, if I can find out who they are and track them down. I want to start making a name for myself, so maybe I can influence the way things are going.

[Edited on 1-18-2013 by Schmulky]

[Edited on 8-8-2014 by Schmulky]

[Edited on 8-8-2014 by Schmulky]

[sundalo]

Welcome back Schmulky! Thank you providing us with one of the best fan fiction here in Evochron, I always enjoyed your stories. Can't wait to see more of your fine work sir!:)

[Edited on 6-25-2012 by sundalo]

[Schmulky]

Thanks for the kind welcome back! Unfortunately I was not quite as prepared as I had hoped I was, so I have a few cannon questions. First: From which planet in the Vonarion system did the the Vonari originate - or does the Alliance even have access to that information? Second: just how far did we get in the Arvoch campaign? I have been doing my research, and I have uncovered several hints that the Alliance may have...well, done something interesting in Vonari territory...please U2U me to avoid spoilers. Though I have no internet access from home at the moment, I am eager to get more out there as quickly as possible! Libraries are awesome.

[Schmulky]

Years of piloting left me with an odd feeling as I headed into combat in the same room as my entire squadron. Me and eight marines were sardined in the back of a lamprey, checking gear over and over. Armor, weapons, ammo. Armor, weapons, ammo. Somewhere around us were 15 other dusted-off lampreys, each with a squad doing the same thing. That was my plan, anyway. I have no idea what the brass hats did to it.

Our squad leader, General Christofferson, didn't say much as we tried not to fidget. He checked his loadout once, then stared off into the distance like he was trying to decide if he preferred steak or ham. I liked that he led by example, and I tried to match it, but in the end I couldn't. It was dark (there hadn't been time to replace any cabin lights) and the hull creaked every time a thruster fired. In all fairness, these lampreys hadn't seen service in something like 20 years – until four hours ago. Doesn't make it any less hair-raising.

Some guy across from me started praying. The General shifted his rifle. Someone else took a moment to throw a disapproving look at my gun. Again. I smiled back, he looked away. I thought about how all the debris analysis reports indicate the Vonari eat oxygen, and hoped they were right. Suddenly there was the whooshing of jumpspace, then the grumble of retro. We all started counting down from eleven like in the briefing, and scrambling like hell to our positions on the forward bulkhead. I had gotten down to three when a truly massive bump smashed us all down into the floor – by the floor I mean the bulkhead. Then the Cruiser’s gravity took hold and we all fell to the floor, proper. There was absolute mayhem as we all sorted our limbs out, then the port hatch opened.

You'd never know how it happened, but suddenly everybody was out the hatch and the insertion zone was secured. This was a lot easier than any of us had dared to hope for, because there were no Vonari to be found. No mechs or boobytraps, either, just lots of smouldering wreckage. I was second-to-last out, so I probably wouldn't have seen much action in the first room, anyway, which is fine by me. The lamprey's aft shield was active to keep the air from blowing out the rupture, but it's no secret that battle shields aren't designed to handle that kind of a situation.

We divvied up into two teams of four, and one lucky team got me. My team went fore to secure the bridge (if Vonari even have bridges), the General led his team aft to disable the engines. There were only two bulkheads in the room anyway, so it was pretty simple. Doggy doors are pretty much the same as our hatches, but with a bar instead of an entire wheel. Like the plan said, we shut it behind us.

The next room was more of the same, but without a big hole in the outer wall and the ceiling wasn't quite as high. There were loads of ducts and conduits, and what looked like massive capacitors. The room seemed to be lit from every direction, which was really unsettling. At least there were only two doors in this compartment, too. I liked the simplicity of it. There wasn't time to learn much more, seeing as Team Leader kept a mean pace. This was tricky because the Cruiser was only at point-eight gees or so. Word for the wise, stay out of life-threatening situations that involve running in unfamiliar gravity. That’s all I have to say about that.

We found a kind of ladder in the fifth room and were heading down one at a time when the ship lurched. The guy on the ladder at least had something to hold on to, but the rest of us were not properly braced. I gotta hand it to the teenagers, they kept quiet as they picked themselves up. I wasn't hurting too bad, but I was powerful scared because my plan was real particular on absolutely no missile fire on the cruiser during execution. Without my 3D radar I had no idea why or how much the plan had changed. The ship lurched again, but this time we were ready - no injuries. Then I heard a gods-awful shredding and a howling. A breach! Lucky TL had just secured the bulkhead, but we all knew it wouldn't hold for long. The compartment connected to a tunnel toward the center of the cruiser, so we clambered in. Lurch.

Somehow in the middle of an impromptu missile attack, I couldn’t help but feel like something was incredibly out of place. Something was so wrong I could almost hear it buzzing... Even though there were just two doors between me and a rapid decompression, I unsealed my helmet. Turns out humans can breathe Vonari air. Lurch.

Before I had only been able to feel the missiles, but now I could hear them unfiltered. And if there is one sound I know, it is a Vonari missile impact. Whoever ran this boat was coordinating strikes on our insertion points! I knew that there were probably fifty fighters out there trying to keep the missiles off us, probably lighting up like flies on those electric rackets. I felt sick, but I kept running as I wrestled my helmet back on. I blinked a text, “pups shooting selves� and got green pings all around.

***

We were crawling for our lives through a uniformly lit accessway, full of what I took to be big electrical cables. It put a decent shadow in the center of the tube. After that was a bit of a gift - a real hallway! It was about three meters high and it still had the weird lighting, but at least we could move like a squad again. They gave me tail, which was fine by me.

My suit computer reckoned us about a third of the way to the central axis of the main hull, slightly fore of our IZ. All the doors leading off from the hall looked automatic, save for the occasional accessway. None of the doors had windows, or even a peephole. I wondered if the puppies had bad eyes, but I mostly concentrated on keeping my cat feet. The further in we got, the closer the gravity got to Earth-normal.

Other than the even light, things actually started looking like an Alliance destroyer. Not a surprise, really, since they mostly do the same thing. When TL had us clear another room to get one more hatch on our backs, we wound up securing a birth, I think. It was a dead ringer for an alliance enlisted birth with the familiar stacked racks, but no mattresses. Just chains. “Gotta leave marks,� one guy cracked. Another laughed. Our huds all flashed “SILENT� from the TL.

I wondered why the halls were three meters high, but the racks were only two meters long.

[Edited on 1-19-2013 by Schmulky]

[Edited on 3-22-2013 by Schmulky]

[Edited on 8-8-2014 by Schmulky]

[DaveK]

Great - the saga continues!

[Marcellus]

Happy to hear the story returns from one of the best fan fiction of the game!

[Maarschalk]

Welcome back Schmulky, glad to read some more chapters, always great stuff to read!....

[Schmulky]

Hey all, thanks for the lovely welcome back! I've given up on waiting for a good time, so I'm going to just keep writing as I can, which will be sporadic. New episode soon, I promise!

[DaveK]

The good time will come, even if it takes a while!

[jlordcross]

i love this story keep it up looking forward to next episode