Battlegroup (StarFight Series Book 2) Read online

  “Servant for propulsion, activate your devices!” he scent cast in a mix of releaser, primer and signal pheromones.

  “Activating,” the young female responded in a mix of aggregation and signal pheromones. “Hunter Seven, recall that one of our two propulsive devices is still dead from the earlier attack by a Soft Skin nest.”

  “It is recalled,” he scent cast.

  He remembered that. In truth this Soft Skin flying nest was identical in length and width to the nest that had pursued him as he had launched particle disruption seeds and Storm Bringer globes at the Soft Skin colony world in the fourth flight zone. But there were three such nests among the eight that had defended the world. Whichever it might be, its head end carried a heavy particle sky light stinger that was most deadly. Time to leave their hideaway. Their nest must be free to use its stinger rings at rear, middle and front.

  “Alert!” called the Servant responsible for monitoring perception signals from cold space. “The Soft Skin nest has dispersed three parts of itself!”

  His five eyes took in the new imagery. The three small flying nests had the shape of one of his mandibles. Orange flame flew out from the wide end of each nest as they arced away from the home nest. It seemed he now faced four opponents rather than one.

  “Stinger Servant,” he called to the Swarmer responsible for directing the stingers of his nest. “Do these small nests have any stingers? Or are they just large versions of particle disruption seeds?”

  “They are different from the two particle disruption carriers launched earlier by this Soft Skin nest,” the young male replied in a mix of signal, aggregation and trail pheromones. “My eye tools say each small nest has a single sky light stinger tube at the end of its body.”

  A rumble and deep vibration told him his nest was now moving up the tube their stingers had cut into the ice ball. Soon they would be in cold dark space, able to fight with all their stingers. And able to fly freely in whatever flight path was most helpful.

  “Flight Servant, guide our flight path to a space above the incoming Soft Skin nest,” he scent cast to the older female who guided the movement of his nest among the empty coldness of the dark outside.

  “Guiding,” she scent cast back to him, her pheromones thick with aggregation and trail scents.

  The front perception imager showed the white surface of the ice ball falling away as his nest rushed into cold darkness. He saw that the Soft Skin nest was well within the range of his stinger weapons.

  “Stinger Servant, fire on the large flying nest! And use our middle stingers to bite on the three small nests!”

  “Biting!” called the Servant.

  But as soon as he saw the green and yellow beams of his stingers reach out, there came a single red beam that hit directly on the front ring of his stinger tubes.

  “Stingers destroyed by heavy sky light beam!” called the Stinger Servant. “Half our front stingers are gone. Shifting aim with the other half of the ring.”

  But even as he saw a green beam from one of his stinger tubes hit one of the smaller flying nests, a second red beam reached down from the Soft Skin nest and hit the lower portion of his front ring of stinger tubes.

  “All front tubes now dead!” scent cast the Stinger Servant in a mix of signal and death pheromones that carried a hint of anxiety.

  Seven breathed forth a strong mix of aggregation, territorial and trail pheromones. “Servant for all chambers, share my Hunter scent with all Swarmers everywhere on our nest! We fight! We are Swarmers! We can bite with many mandibles! The loss of a few does not prevent the death of the Soft Skin!”

  His loud expulsion of pheromones filled the air of the Flight Chamber and was carried to all chambers of his nest by way of the pheromone signalers that existed in every chamber of his nest. There were twenty six-groups of Swarmers in the nest. Whether Servants, Fighters, Fighter Leaders, Workers or Worker Leaders, all would sense and feel his determination. They would survive this attack by a single Soft Skin nest. Even better, they would soon have Soft Skin captives to play with, before affixing larvae to them to feed the next generation of Swarmers. He was the Hunter. It was up to him to find the flight path that led to victory.

  “Flight Servant! Swing our nest to bring about our middle ring and rear ring to fire on the large nest!” he said in a rush of signal pheromones. “Stinger Servant, fire all your sky light and sky bolt tubes at just the large nest! Surely we can bite deep!”

  “Swinging to attack!” she scent cast.

  “Biting deep!” declared the young male in charge of stingers.

  Seven watched as green beams and yellow lightning reached out to the oncoming Soft Skin nest. Which had begun to spin even as its head stinger fired another red beam at his nest. The dance of life and death had begun.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Jacob watched the front wallscreen’s vidcast from the Bridge of the Philippine Sea. The left side of his screen showed a sensor track of all neutrino emitting spaceships flying near the comet hideout of the wasp ship. The middle showed Joy and Aelwen as they sat in the center of their Bridge. And the right side showed a true space image of the black space between the Sea and the wasp ship, with the three Darts showing as bright silver triangles with orange flame flaring from the tail of each craft. Watching with him was Daisy in her XO seat, while Richard’s seat was occupied by the Marine pilot for the Dart that remained on the Lepanto. The young man, an Anglo from Philadelphia, wore his white Marine dress uniform. His shoulders showed the rank of master sergeant. It didn’t matter to Jacob. What mattered were the next few minutes as the two big ships fought with lightspeed beams as the Darts maneuvered to attack position.

  “Captain, the wasp ship is free of the comet,” called Rosemary from Tactical. “It’s firing lasers and lightning bolts!”

  He saw that. He noted how Joy’s own proton laser beam happened nearly at the same instant as the incoming beams from the front end of the wasp ship, which was now curving upward according to the true space image. Clearly the wasp ship was trying to get above the Sea, which was now spinning to reduce the impact of incoming beams. A second proton beam finished the destruction of the wasp ship’s front ring of laser tubes. But its middle ring now took up the attack, firing four green laser beams and four yellow lightning bolts at the Sea. From what he could see of the true space image of the Sea, as seen from one of the Darts, there was no punch through yet on the destroyer’s half meter thick armor. But it was clear a large part of the hull’s adaptive optics lenses had been crisped by the lightning bolts.

  Daisy pointed. “Captain! The middle Dart is hurt!”

  “But it’s still moving,” called Aaron the Marine. “There! Our three Darts are moving to hide behind the destroyer’s hull. All four are heading fast for the wasp ship!”

  “Closing speeds are 300 klicks a minute,” called Louise Slaughter from Navigation. “Range between the two is down to 1,917 kilometers.”

  Jacob gripped hard the ends of his armrests. He wished so badly he could be there with the Battlestar, providing supporting laser fire to Jefferson and her people. In the true space image, five yellow-white stars blossomed.

  “Yes!” cried Daisy. “One of the missiles she launched has detonated five thermonuke warheads! They’re forming a plasma haze between her ship and the wasp ship.”

  The battle actions on his wallscreen were similar to what Joy had shared with him before she left to race after the wasp ship. But it was not identical. The move of the Darts behind her ship had happened due to their thin hulls. Two or three laser hits on a Dart’s body would cut it in half. Only the cone-like block of titanium that was the Dart’s nose could long resist incoming lasers and lightning bolts.

  Jacob watched as brave people followed his orders.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Richard watched the holo in the middle of Dart Two’s cargohold as he and his four Marines sat locked into their accel seats. Which rocked now as Howard the pilot jerked the Dart into hiding behind the bu
lk of the Philippine Sea. Darts One and Three did the same, though Three was leaking air from its top hull thanks to the laser hit by the wasp ship. At least it had not been one of the electrifying lightning bolts.

  “Range decreasing,” called Howard over the hard shell comlink frequency. “Chief, when do we go for penetration?”

  “Once we get within nine hundred klicks of the wasp ship,” he said, knowing the Dart’s neutrino signaler was carrying his words to the pilots and Marines on the other Darts. “Or when Captain Jefferson blows her nuke warheads. Her ship is taking loads of incoming. Our strike will ease some of the attack beams.”

  “Maybe we can penetrate through the middle ring of laser tubes,” called Jane Diego from her hard shell. “Chief, what say?”

  He wanted badly to hinder the ferocious beams coming from the wasp ship. They were hitting the top and sides of the Sea. Even though the destroyer was spinning to reduce beam impact time, he could see from the holo that his ride home had lost half its adaptive optics, leaving black streaks across much of its hull. Three spots showed deeper wounds. No air or water leakage yet, thank the Goddess!

  “We will enter at the middle of the wasp ship, but Howard, do not try to crash into their weapons ring.”

  “Understood,” called the middle-aged pilot who hailed from New Jersey. “I’ll add our spine laser to the fight though, once we come into the clear.”

  “As will every Dart,” Richard said. “Soon. Pretty soon we—”

  Five yellow-white stars bloomed in the holo.

  “Heading out!” called Howard.

  Richard watched as his Dart and the other two Darts swung out from behind the Sea and headed at full blast for the wasp ship. The shield of the thermonuke plasma haze was a help Jefferson had promised him to help his Darts approach without being blasted by the wasp ship’s lasers and lightning bolts. The haze diffused incoming lasers and bolts. It also made pointless any laser firing by the Darts or the Sea. While the rads would be high when they passed through the haze, exposure time would be limited. The metal of their hull plus the rad absorption layers of their hard shells would reduce rad exposure to several full body x-rays. Not good, but not harmful.

  “Range is 1,200 klicks,” called Howard. “Clear of the haze.”

  Beside and across from him his fellow Marines locked their metal boots into stirrups on the floor of the cargohold. As did Howard in his own hard shell at the front end of the hold. The pilot relied on nav and true space wallscreens to guide his piloting, along with attitude thrusters that jerked the Dart up, down and sideways as needed to make difficult the targeting of his craft.

  “Firing!”

  A varoom sound came over his combat suit’s external pickups as solid fuel charges added thrust to the single fusion pulse thruster of their Dart. It pushed them ahead at a speed close to 500 klicks a minute. The craft’s reverse thrusters would fire as they drew within a hundred kilometers of the wasp ship hull, otherwise they would pass right through the alien spaceship like a bullet through butter. That would not do. But moving fast while still in space was a key ability of every Dart. Less time in space meant a greater chance of surviving to board the enemy ship.

  “Impact!”

  Richard felt the ship’s inertial damper field take hold of him as the sharp nose of the Dart impacted the steel hull of the wasp ship. The field was the single factor that allowed humans to survive an intentional crash landing into another ship. A grinding sound came to his suit’s pickups.

  “We’re halfway in!” called Howard. “Debark!”

  Jane was the first to the Dart’s midbody airlock. They had two airlocks. One in the middle of the craft and one up toward the nose, just shy of the solid titanium nose plug that had cut through whatever thickness of steel the wasp craft possessed. Halfway in meant they could exit through the midbody airlock. Which now groaned over the cargohold’s thinning air. The hatch stopped moving outward. Jane tossed a packet of C4 plastique through the narrow opening. Her right hand held the detonator. Orange flame seeped into the hold as the charge blew up whatever was obstructing the hatch. Its motor finished opening the hatch wide enough for a hard shell.

  “Ooh Rah!” she yelled, firing her flamethrower ahead of her.

  “Ooh Rah!” he yelled along with his three Marines as they followed Gunnery Sergeant Jane Diego into the wasp ship.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Daisy watched the front wallscreen as the three Dart assault ships blasted for the wasp ship even as each fired their stern lasers. The Philippine Sea supported them by firing its proton laser at the enemy’s middle weapons ring. The hit disabled the enemy lasers on the side facing the Sea. But the wasp ship began to spin in order to bring its surviving weapons tubes into play. She jerked in her seat as the three Darts rammed the hull of the wasp ship. They were embedded at the nose, middle and rear parts of the enemy ship, with only their thruster and retro rockets showing clear of the shiny metal. More green laser beams and yellow lightning bolts zipped across the space between the wasp ship and the Sea, each strike hitting somewhere on the Sea thanks to the destroyer being just 1,500 klicks out from the wasp ship. Which was the same size as the destroyer. She winced as the image of the Sea’s Bridge showed red alarms flaring from its roof.

  “Flip us to bring our lasers into play!” Jefferson yelled over her vacsuit comlink.

  “Flipping,” called the woman’s Navigator.

  “Firing both lasers,” cried the Cajun woman at Weapons.

  Two green laser beams streaked out from the Sea and hit the middle weapons ring on the wasp ship. She appreciated the talent of the Cajun woman as tube after tube went dead from multiple laser hits. While the unusual closeness of the two ships made targeting each other far simpler than at a range of ten thousand klicks, it also made more devastating the impacts of each weapon. The lasers and lightning bolts lost far less energy at such a short range. The other wallscreen image that displayed the hull of the Sea showed black streaks covering half its hull. Had anyone been hurt on the ship?

  “Weapons, detonate the surviving thermonukes!” Joy yelled hard. “I want some shelter from that rear weapons ring!”

  Daisy watched as five thermonuke warheads of three megaton yield per warhead detonated in black space. Once more they created a yellow-white plasma haze between the two battling ships, giving some respite to the lifeforms on both ships.

  “Engines, get us the hell out of range!” cried Jefferson.

  “Firing engines!” answered the Chinese woman.

  Daisy nodded to herself, ignoring how her helmet scraped her forehead. As a pilot she felt as if she herself were inside the Sea, taking blow after blow from the wasp energy beams. While the lightning bolts did not penetrate the hull, the powerful green beams of the wasp’s carbon dioxide lasers had cut three deep holes in the ship’s half meter of armor. Clearly Jefferson wanted to remove her ship from further damage while the boarding Marines did their raids inside the wasp ship. She blinked as the left side of the wallscreen changed from its spysat image of the two ships to display a live vidcam image from a Marine’s combat exoskeleton.

  “Ooh Rah!” yelled a voice she recognized as Richard’s.

  Daisy watched as the leader of all the Marines on the wasp ship followed after another Marine whose right arm fired a blast of yellow flame through the open hatch of the Dart.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  The first thing Richard noticed as he followed Jane into a dark space was the lighter gravity. His memory supplied him with the fact the wasps preferred half gee worlds. A bright yellow light beam flared from Jane’s left shoulder as she worked her helmet controls. Behind him he felt the thudding tread of the other three Marines as they followed him into a room that glowed red from the touch of Jane’s flamethrower. Tim, Jack and Didier they were, all of them combat blooded from fights in Venezuela, the Congo or Malaysia. Earth was still racked by petty revolts in small nations where the local dictator ignored everyone else. The American special forces teams had bec
ome the rescuer of last resort for diplomats and civies caught up as firefights suddenly flared in capitals they had thought safe to visit. His gunnery sergeant headed for a circular hatch that was shut tight.

  “Chief?”

  “Go ahead. Deploy the tube.”

  Richard watched as Tim handed forward a flexible tube that was made up of plastic rings inside a clear plastic fabric. One end of the tube held magnetic clamps for wall attachment, while the far end was weighed down by a two meter high metal hatch. He moved to the right to cover the circular hatch even as Tim moved to the left, gaining an angle of fire that was clear of Jane’s white hard shell. Jack was next to Tim, aiming his arms at the wall hatch. Behind them Didier held the metal hatch end of the tube. He had already activated the magnets on the bottom of the hatch. The tube was intended to act as a quick and dirty airlock so they could blast a hole in the person-high circular hatch without causing all air inside the wasp ship to be lost to space. While the Dart was wedged tightly against the silvery metal of the wasp hull, still, air was escaping out to space. The five meter long tube would accommodate the four of them, barely. Jane moved inside the tube and headed forward. The soft C4 plastique that she now applied to the outer rim of the wasp hatch might not be needed, if the tech panel attached to her armored chest could find an Open signal for the hatch. Then again, opening a hatch to a room that had lost air pressure might require a command from a wasp. Whatever. He glanced down at the vidscreens on the inside rim of his helmet. The Marines from Darts One and Three were doing the same as his people. Wayne and Auggie were in charge of those teams. His vidscreens showed what they saw. He heard their fast breathing over the comlink frequency shared by all the hard shells.