Incursio (Oolite Saga Part 3) Read online

‘Yeah,’ Rebecca fumed, triggering the injectors. ‘Try to keep up with the old deadbeat ship.’

  The Eclipse began a rolling intercept with the Thargoids. She flipped on the rear view. The three other ships were just getting up to speed, their injectors flaring angrily behind as they copied the curving trajectory and then broke off, following random patterns in an attempt to confuse the Thargoid invaders.

  ‘I hope she doesn’t get spaced,’ Derik quipped, watching the old Vampire out-accelerate his Caduceus. ‘I’m beginning to like her.’

  Kiri Mereso was still watching the live video feeds.

  ‘Ships are still fleeing the station. We’ve got confirmed reports that the Navy is incoming but they won’t be here for another five minutes! The Thargoids are closing fast now. We’re going to try to switch to the video feed from Station five… bear with us…’

  Tania managed to grab the uplink. Station five was undamaged and able to transmit directly to the Chronicle Array.

  ‘We’ve got connections across the Chart now. If you’ve just joined us – this is live coverage of the Thargoid invasion of Tionisla! Thargoids are attacking and one of our orbital stations has already been destroyed. Thousands are already dead, the destruction is terrible. The Thargoids have taken out our defenders and are making their way towards Station five. Our thoughts go out to those brave pilots and civilians… Oh… Station five is undefended, ships are trying to evacuate as fast as they can but there is no way that everyone can get out in time…’

  The Video uplink switched to the view from Station five.

  ‘Wait… this is Station five’s video feed. I can see four ships now, privateers by the look of it… I think… yes they’re going to try to defend the station! Thank Randomius!’

  ‘We can see four ships. I can make out a Cobra, what looks like an old Vampire and two bigger ships of a type I’ve never seen before. They’re taking a stance, yes, they’re engaging! They’re all that stands between Station five and the Thargoids. They’re outnumbered and outgunned. Can they hold the Thargoids off for long enough…’

  ‘They’re… that’s strange! The privateers are using some unusual tactics. Their ships are… well they’re sliding… that’s the best way I can describe it! They’re not moving in the direction they’re pointing. Weapons fire is all over the place. It’s got the Thargoids confused for sure. They’ve broken off their attack on the station to deal with the privateers…’

  ‘The Thargoid weapon is something else, a beam of intense white light! We saw it cut a Viper clean in half with a single hit… Oh God… that was a close call for the Cobra… he’s ok though! All the ships are tumbling and spinning now, it’s very close quarter combat… but they’re not being overwhelmed… at least not yet!’

  ‘We’ve got idents on three of the ships, the other doesn’t seem to be listed. The big ones are called Caduceus apparently! Let’s call ‘em Caddies. Tough ships whatever! We’re trying to find out who they are… Yes! Yes! One of the Thargoids is down! The privateers have got some heavy firepower backing them up, not to mention… look at that evasive move by the Caddy! Some serious flying!’

  The Station five video cameras were tracking the battle as it raged between the invaders and the defenders. Despite the loss of one vessel, the Thargoids remained implacable, indefatigable.

  ‘Heavy fire still being exchanged! Damage to one of the Caddies now. It’s limping… the Vampire has come to assist… Wait there’s something else. The Thargoids…. Scanning beams! What are they doing? They’re scanning one of the big ships…’

  ‘VULGATE! DUO, QUINDECIM, NOVEM!’ the proclamation crashed across the wideband again.

  ‘The Thargoids keep transmitting this message! We’ve been trying to figure this out but we’ve drawn a blank so far… now they’re scanning the Cobra… ’

  ‘VULGATE! DUO, QUINDECIM, NOVEM!’

  ‘They seem to be ignoring the other big ship for some reason… now moving towards the Vampire! Scanning beams again… they’ve locked on…’

  Rebecca’s tactics had been a partial success; at least they hadn’t been destroyed during the interception. Flying without Newtonian baffles was an exercise in total frustration, testing the ability of a pilot beyond reasonable limits, trying to marry velocity vectors and directional orientation. It was fine as an exercise or when doing basic orbital manoeuvring but in the midst of combat it was disorientating, wearisome, difficult and confusing.

  That confusion had saved them though. The Thargoids had taken a crucial few seconds to adjust and in that time the privateers had closed sufficiently to negate the long range advantage of the plasma accelerator.

  But fighting a talented foe, with counter intuitive flight controls at point blank range with effectively no shields, was no walk in the park.

  Coyote had a lucky escape after two of the Thargoids tried to bracket his ship with parallel bursts of plasma, only Derik’s swift intervention prevented his destruction. The pilot of the Hammer had taken advantage of this diversion by pummelling one of the Thargoids into submission. The respite was short lived. Undaunted the Thargoids spun around and triggered their weapons again, slicing deeply into Derik’s ship. He rolled it away, engines spluttering. Damaged but not mortally wounded. Rebecca decoyed the Thargoid away, trading fire.

  ‘Heavy damage! Lost my shields!’ Derik’s voice called on the narrow-band. ‘Down an engine too - sorry ‘bout that.’

  ‘You’ll hear no complaints from me…’ Coyote’s voice came back. ‘Frak, what’s that?’

  ‘Scanning beams,’ said the deep voice. ‘They’re prioritising targets. Watch for their next move!’

  ‘VULGATE! DUO, QUINDECIM, NOVEM!’

  ‘Yeah, whatever,’ Derik announced as his ship was flashed by the spectral beams of light. ‘Come here bugs!’

  ‘Drawing a bead on you Coyote!’ Rebecca warned, triggering a burst of fire at the nearest Thargoid warship.

  ‘Comprende.’ Coyote’s Cobra spun rapidly around all three axis, triggering its injectors at random intervals. Blistering laser fire burst forth as it stabilised. The Thargoid warship over-shot but its scanning beam raked across the older ship.

  ‘VULGATE! DUO, QUINDECIM, NOVEM!’

  ‘Looks like you’re next on the bug quest, girl! I suggest you get yourself elsewhere!’ Derik snapped as the turrets on his Caduceus blistered against the Thargoid shields.

  Rebecca winced as the scanning beams caused flickers of light to bounce around her cockpit. She triggered the injectors to give herself a little more room to manoeuvre.

  ‘RAGAZZA! DUX DUCIS, INCOLUMITAS!’

  ‘These bugs are really starting to freak me out… prak!’ Derik called. ‘Girl, woman… whatever! They’re all heading your way!’

  Rebecca saw the change in tactics at the same time as the others. All four remaining Thargoids were making a bee-line directly for her.

  ‘Oh frag…’

  ‘Move!’ Coyote bawled. ‘Get your ass moving girl!’

  Rebecca fled, the Thargoids in single minded pursuit. Coyote and the Hammer pilot managed to destroy one of them as they passed. They seemed suddenly oblivious of the other ships.

  Green lasers flickered out in the void.

  ‘Something strange is happening. The Thargs are all chasing the Vampire! They’re ignoring the other ships… another Tharg down! Yes! One of the privateers is falling back, too much damage. The Vampire is running, the three remaining Thargoids are following it! The other two privateers are close behind… wait! One of the Thargoids is breaking off to engage them… the Caddy is taking it on… the Cobra is still pursuing the other two…’

  ‘The Thargoids following the Vampire have switched to their normal weapons. Maybe they’re damaged? No, it as if they’re trying…’

  ‘The Vampire is being hit, its shields are failing! I can see plasma beginning to leak from its drives! The pilot’s going to have to eject…’

  The enigmatic pilot of the Hammer experienced a brief moment of plea
sure as he dispatched the third Thargoid invader. Adjusting his scanner he could see the battle had spread out away from the Station. The Thargoids had made a fatal error in single-mindedly pursuing the Vampire.

  But they never do anything without a reason, the cold calculating bastards.

  The Vampire, whatever the piloting merits of the irritating but surprisingly well informed woman aboard, should have been inconsequential. The two Caducei were the bigger tactical threat but the Thargoids had deliberately thrown away the advantage they’d gained once Derik’s Persistence had been crippled. The Hammer was the next logical target. Then the Cobra and Vampire, unequipped with turret weapons, would have been quickly mopped up.

  The question is why?

  Derik’s Persistence had fallen back towards the station, unable to stay with the battle. The Hammer was likewise too far away to assist now. The Vampire was heading towards the graveyard, presumably looking for some cover, the Thargoids in close pursuit. It was already trailing a plume of plasma.

  Shame. She had some talent. Looks like our over-attired contrabandista was right…

  Rebecca was jerked violently as Thargoid laser fire streaked through her ship’s depleted rear shields and ripped into the hull. She could see plasma leaking from the starboard engine. Damage reports flickered up on the console. The Eclipse was dying around her.

  Warning! Energy unit damaged.

  Warning! Starboard Engine at 40% of rated output.

  ‘Come on girl. We can do this!’

  She could only roll quickly to the right now. With the starboard engine down on power her options for evasive moves were rapidly shrinking. The Thargoids were no fools in combat. She compensated for the increasing yaw as she burnt the remaining fuel in her tanks trying to flee.

  Ahead the Orbital Graveyard grew on the scanner. Green lasers licked across the hull. She had an idea…

  Rebecca snapped off the yaw compensators abruptly and the Eclipse spun violently out of control.

  Warning! Excessive yaw. Abort Manoeuvre.

  Warning! Excessive yaw. Abort Manoeuvre.

  She slammed the yaw compensators back on, steadied the ship and fired the injectors again. The starboard engine refused to engage, forcing the ship into an oscillating spiral.

  Stay with that bugs!

  Green laser fire passed close by the cockpit. Both Thargoids were still directly on her tail. Rebecca couldn’t believe it.

  I couldn’t have kept up with that… these bugs are seriously committed…

  ‘I could do with a little help here…’

  The Thargoids closed once more.

  Coyote cut his thrusters as Rebecca’s Eclipse suddenly spiralled upwards off the forward viewer. The pair of Thargoids broke off in opposite directions, equally bemused by the erratic motion of the Vampire. It was difficult to tell if Rebecca had planned the move or simply lost control of her ship. Coyote saw the Eclipse steady and then spiral back around.

  ‘This girl flies like a banshee in a blizzard,’ he muttered, slipping in behind one of the Thargoids and delivering a belly full of laser fire into its shields.

  Green lasers flickered out towards the spiralling Vampire, narrowly missing it. A moment later he had to duck his ship aside as the streaming white weapon blazed forth towards him.

  They’re trying to take her alive!

  The girl’s voice came across the narrow-band, beginning to sound desperate.

  ‘I’m right behind you,’ Coyote fired back. ‘Stay on course; we can outmanoeuvre them inside the graveyard. Almost there…’

  The outer graveyard markers flickered past. The Vampire didn’t reduce speed, narrowly avoiding a collision with an ancient Adder class vessel drifting indolently in front of them. The Thargoid immediately behind vaporised it with a flash of the streaming weapon. Coyote was forced to fly around the resultant debris. He rolled his Cobra completely, bringing it back on course.

  There was no sign of the Vampire.

  Did they get her?

  Space was suddenly full of objects, a tumbling menagerie, all heading in his direction.

  ‘Mierda!’

  Ships, mausoleums, gravestones, markers, beacons. Thousands upon thousands of tumbling artefacts clouded the scanners, streaking past at insane speeds. An artificial asteroid field. Coyote pulled behind one of the bigger monuments, trying to figure out where the Vampire had gone.

  Instruments were useless. Visual flight rules only. Informed guesswork. Seat of the pants.

  ‘Where the frak are you?’ the girl’s voice called.

  Still alive then…

  Coyote triggered his own injectors, an almost completely reckless move under the conditions. A horrific scrapping sound indicated he’d not gotten away with the gamble completely. Green hull plating flashed in the darkness.

  The second Thargoid hadn’t seen him coming. The full might of the Cobra’s weapons struck out. The Thargoid didn’t even react before exploding into a million shining shards.

  ‘Just the one left. Hang on!’

  Rebecca saw the other Thargoid explode out of the corner of her eye but there was no respite. Coyote was too far away to help her with the final assailant. It was impossible to fly safely inside the graveyard at full throttle. Sooner or later…

  Warning! Witchdrive fuel exhausted.

  A gravemarker drifted across her flightpath. Rebecca instinctively spun her ship to the left, forgetting she’d lost an engine. The Eclipse banked slowly… much too slowly…

  Frak!

  The impact was short and abrupt. Rebecca thought she still had control until she felt the nose of her ship drop and saw the flight instruments start spinning. The Eclipse failed to respond to her inputs, yawing and rolling indolently. The Thargoid behind triggered its weapons, the green lasers surgically slicing deep into the Vampire’s engine nacelles and exhaust manifolds. Plasma spewed into the void.

  Warning! Engines off-line.

  Warning! Reactor malfunction.

  Warning! ECM damaged.

  Warning! Energy low!

  Red lights and warning symbols flickered across the heads-up display before disappearing entirely. Rebecca briefly saw another artefact hurtling towards her, the terrifying crack of the hull shattering around her and felt the flight harness biting into her flesh.

  Warning! Escape pod auto-eject off-line.

  Warning! Artificial gravity off-line.

  Warning! Inertial Management system off-line.

  Warning! Hull breach. Integrity failure.

  Flying shards of debris slashed her arms and face as the hiss of escaping air pounded through the cabin. One piece sliced across her neck.

  She saw her necklace and the data-cube flew across the cockpit and get dashed to smithereens against the bulkhead.

  No! Rebka!

  Rebecca tried to reach for the escape pod controls. Her senses were overwhelmed with pain as the g-forces caused by the spin of her disintegrating ship took hold.

  Reach! Press it… reach…

  Mercifully it was short-lived. Blackness engulfed her.

  Chapter 3

  Coyote nursed his Zaquessoian Evil-Juice, staring out across the emptiness of space towards the planet Tionisla. The view was now filled with Navy gunships, frigates and a pair of behemoths, slowly patrolling the space lanes around Tionisla all the way out to the distant jump point. They were trying to look as if they had something to do. No further Thargoid vessels had been spotted.

  The panoramic holofac behind him continued with the over-excited coverage from the Tionisla Chronicle. The young reporter he’d seen aboard ship was milking the news for all it was worth, long after the events had calmed down. Big news indeed but it didn’t justify the unending analysis.

  He’d chuckled at the attempts to identify the ‘Saviours of Tionisla’. The journos had found each combateers’ carefully crafted alter egos in the public data-feeds. Coyote was a gemstone dealer, Derik a haberdashery salesman, even their mystery companion had claimed to be a Factori
an Cleric. The young woman had shown a distinct lack of imagination. She was merely listed as a miscellaneous trader.

  As he watched the coverage moved to video footage of the woman’s wrecked ship. The Thargoids had been carefully trying to disable it during the attack but the impact against the gravemarker had put paid to that. Coyote had watched as the ship struck, lost power, spun and begun to disintegrate. The wings, nacelles and parts of the hull had been ripped off. What was left was little more than a carcass. There had been no response to any hails.

  She flew well but ‘Deadly’ just isn’t enough. Well, we warned her…

  ‘We still don’t know the fate of the commander from the Eclipse,’ Miri Kereso’s voice burbled across the news feed. ‘But one thing’s for certain, the ship is a total loss…’

  In Coyote’s other hand was a small business card. It was entirely blank apart from a small piece of text on one side. He turned it over in his fingers.

  Latitude Bar : 18:00 : Station Time : Tionisla 5

  Nestling close to the station he could see the mechbots working on the extensive damage to Derik’s Caduceus vessel. The plasma weapon had torn a huge gash in the ship. A lesser vessel would have been pulverised, only the remarkable tenacity of its design had saved the day. The Caduceus was a strange and mysterious bio-ship. It was a self-healing and, to Coyote’s way of thinking, slightly sinister vessel. Damage like that would normally take days to repair; it seemed as if the ship would be restored in hours.

  The pilots of the Caddies were equally particular. Derik Roh’i had turned out to be a large green lizard, ostensibly from Tionisla itself. Other than resembling an oversized old-earth velociraptor, his main distinguishing feature was the ocular implant that replaced one of his eyes.

  Coyote had warmed to him quickly after meeting him a couple of days before, sensing a fellow combateer of wide-ranging experience and ability. The lizard had an offhand, off-base manner which Coyote found disarming. Derik’s companion was not so engaging. Coyote repressed a shiver just thinking about it.