Where Coming To You.

“No. Guard the moon. Where coming to you. They probably already have artillery inbound. Have Nova calculate optimal firing trajectory from the jump point. That should tell us where the third ship is or give you some idea.

“On it.” She said and we moved out of the war room and a quickened pace. I found Anastasia and her family. “You all need to come with me.”

“Where are we going?” Anastasia said as she came over and I out my hand on her back.

“To the shuttles.” I said.

“My lord. What is happening?” Alice said as she came out of a room with her cam over her ear.

“Three Alliance ships just entered the system and at least one is heading this way.” I shook my head and rushed Anastasia and her family to the shuttles. “Harper.”

“Sir.” Harper rushed forward.

“Get Anastasia's family on that shuttle and get them as far from here as you can.”

“I am coming with you.” Anastasia took my hand to protest.

“I need to know you are safe. You can't go where I am going but I promise you I will come back for you.” I said and kissed her.

“Okay.” She said. Harper grabbed her arm and led her away.

“I am coming with you.” Alice said keeping pace.

“Wouldn't expect anything else.” I smiled. Alice was about to get her first taste of war. The shuttle kicked like a mule as I pushed her as hard as I could to get us to the carrier. It still took an hour to catch up to her which was time we didn't have. I landed as quickly as the bird allowed putting her down a bit harder then I should. The second I was on board we made straight for the command center. Jenkins was looking at a holo of the system. Our ships where playing a game of cat and mouse as they used the moons and planet to mask their approach. Despite being outnumbered we could still lose if they reached their intended targets.

“Birds are still playing dead my lord. Their slowly decelerating but still moving fast as hell. Maybe we will get lucky and hit ” Jenkins said.

“How do we look Nova? We find the third ship.”

“Got it. It's bad sir.” Nova said as she brought up the image. “The third jump was a launch platform. A kinetic artillery projectile the size of a destroyer is heading right for where you thought. The impact will take out most of the city and earth quake will decimate the rest and most of the nearby area. Not even I can calculate how bad the impact will be. It could be a planet killer sir.” I had heard of a weapon like this but to see it in person was indescribable as a sense of dread filled me. The amount of material to construct it alone was insane. You could build ten destroyers out of it. I had expected artillery of some kind but this was far worst then anything even I could foresee.

“Can we...”

“We can not intercept it Baron.” Nova cut me off. “The damn thing is traveling to damn fast and or guns wouldn't even dent it if we could. Even if we could put the carrier in it's path it cut right through this ship.”

“So what are our options?”

“Can we hit it with a missiles? Could you calculate a long range trajectory.”

“Might save the city from direct impact but it will still hit the planet. It be a crap shoot as to where it would hit and could cause it to fracture into several smaller pieces on reentry. Could kill more people then it would save. If we were going to hit it it have to be with everything we got and that isn't much. Even if we were fully loaded at the speed it's moving we wouldn't have much of a window.” Nova shook her head. Trusted her opinion even if I didn't like the answer.

“And we would leave the moon wide open.” Jenkins gave me a look. Either choice meant someone would die.

“What if we nuke it it the upper atmosphere? Is it an angled attack. So when it hits the atmosphere it's not going straight in. It's going to come in at an angle to deal the most damage it can and reduce atmospheric shearing that could throw it off target. If we put a nuke just under her nose could we destroy it or at the very least knock it off course and back into space?” I replied. I was trying to think of everything I could at this point.

“I'll have to run the numbers but the EMP from the nuke could do major damage to any electrical systems on the planet below. It have to highest level of the atmosphere in the remotest place to minimize it's effect.” She said as she ran the numbers. A nuke above the planet wasn't ideal since it take out anything electronic over a large area but it was better then it hitting it's target.

“What about the other two?” I looked at the map.

“The watchtowers are tracking the two others. Ours won't have a firing trajectory till after the explosion on planet. But the one at the ship yard has a clean shot already but is still playing dead.” Jenkins replied. I could guarantee she was primed to fire her guns already.

“They would want our ships in the system to go for shipyard so they would hit them first. They know the carrier is here so they want to draw it away before they attack. You can use that and catch them by surprise.”

“How would we do that? That is like trying to teach an elephant to sneak on fresh snow.” jenkins shook his head.

“The rings and the magnetic pole.” I stated as I touched the keys at the holo screen. The magnetic poles of the moon were at a greater angle then the rotation of the planet. That will create a blind spot in their sensors. By the time they see the carrier you will be in firing range. Roll her onto her side and fire everything you have. Hit her in the ass end and kill her engines. If she can't maneuver she won't be able to make the turn to hit the moon.” At the range I was talking about what little ammo we had in the guns left would make the most impact. Even if he only wounded her the other ships could finish her. As long as he could keep the destroyer from turning it would be enough.

“Sir.” Nova spoke up. “No good sir on the nuke. No matter what that thing is going to hit the planet given the mass of the projectile velocity. The best I could suggest is ramming it but you need a hell of a lot of speed.” Nova said. That would be suicide but if the ship had enough mass and speed it could knock it off course. Not that we had anything close enough to catch it.

“Do any of the gunships with jump engines?”

“One sir. Newer bird the vanguard took on before her trip into the abyss.” Jenkins said.

“Can she...”

“Fuck yes she can sir. I love it when you talk crazy.” Nova smiled catching onto what I was thinking. “She could get in front of it if push the engines into the red and do a double slingshot. I would have to be on board to do the math.” Hell she was ahead of me on this one.

“Nova your with me. Jenkins you protect that moon. The second you have that ship in range give her everything this bird has left and launch every gun ship. Signal the other ships to open fire the second ship the second we take out the planet killer.”

“So what are you going to do?” Jenkins asked.

“Something really stupid. You ready to do this?” I looked at Nova.

“Hell yeah.” Nova said loudly.

“Miranda. You stay here. Were going to need a pickup.”

“Yes sir.” She gave me a look to say I hate you. I knew

“Hang on.” Nova grabbed Alice's camera from behind her ear

“Hey.” Alice yelled.

“Sorry but you will want to record this.” Nova smiled and slid it on. We moved quickly back to the shuttle bay. Men where moving about getting the gunships prepped and ready.

“Sir.” A lieutenant I didn't recognize said as he snapped to attention.

“I am taking this ship lieutenant Lee.” I said as I cheated and read his uniform tag.

“I can fly her sir.” He replied.

“So can I lieutenant.. You get the rest birds ready to fly. You have an alliance destroyer to tend with.”

“Yes sir. You heard the man. Move your asses people. We are going to kick some Alliance ass.” He yelled loudly. Least he had bravado.

“This bird have a name?” I said as I went up the ramp and hit the button to close the airlock..

“Nero.” She smiled.

“Seems fitting.” I smiled considering she was gone to go up in a ball of flames. “Get into a OA suit while I take her out.”

“Yes sir.” Nova said as she pulled off her tank top to show she wasn't wearing anything underneath besides two nipple piercings and a belly button ring.

“Problem sir. You want to take a picture?” She shook her head at me and bent over to wiggle out of her pants. She was wearing underwear though they where so small they didn't cover much of anything in the ass. I shook my head and went to the controls

“Skip, skip, skip.” I said to myself going through the pre flight routine in my head and hoping the ships crew had done their job and kept this bird up to snuff. “Vanguard this is Nero, see you on the other side.” I replied as I taxied her toward the airlock.

“Good hunting Nero.” Jenkins replied.

“Thank you Vanguard. Going radio dark.” I said switching off the com.

“Sir.” Nova said as she came up with a helmet.

“Thanks.” I said putting it on as I felt the seal squeeze my neck. I would worry about the rest later. The inner airlock closed and the inner airlock opened and I took off cutting toward the moon. “You ready?” I said as I glanced over.

“Always sir.” Nova smiled. I kicked it and drove it toward the moon. Picking up speed as I rolled her so the moon was above us as we got closer until we slung shot around toward the planet. Thirty minutes later we burned hard around the planet using it's gravity to accelerate us. The ship shaking as we drove her beyond her limitations.

“Hold together Nero.” I said under my breath.

“Fuckkkkkkkkkkkk.........Yeaaaa....” Nova Hooted and hollered. She sounded like she was riding a roller coaster. “And we are maxed.” I said as the ship began to stop shaking. We were doing far beyond the speed this thing was made for and basically heading right for the planet killer.

“So are we good?” I asked.

“I think so. I will need you to make some course corrections to get her in line with the sun. then we just got to hit the broad side of barn that is moving thousands of miles an hour with a tractor traveling at about half the speed of light and hope it budges.” She said as she began doing calculations on the control panel.

“It will.”

“And hope that we don't die.”

“We won't.”

“Then wait for a rescue hoping someone will find us.”

“They will.”

“And hope I don't puke in my spacesuit considering I have no zero g training.” She gave me a look.

“Your on your own with that one. You do the math and I will handle the exit strategy.” I said as I got up and went to the back to strip and slid into the body glove then slid on the space jacket and pants and put the helmet back on and connected the MMU and re-breather unit.

“So what are you doing?” Next I went to the back after grabbing some explosives.

“When we go to jump I will have to blow the airlock. The force should be enough to suck us out. I said rigging the door. Typically it had a fail safe to prevent it from opening without depressurizing the rear cabin. We wouldn't have time to wait for that so I was just going to blow the lock.

“So we are going to be the cork in a champagne bottle. You really know how to show a girl a good time baron.” She replied over the com.

“I do what I can. How do we look?”

“She is coming up fast. I will need you at the helm in about twenty minutes.” She replied back.

“Be there in five.” I replied back. I rigged the door up and put the control into the vest pouch. I got back up front and sat at the controls.

“Slow us a little. Full thrust for fifty seconds.” She said not taking her eyes off the panel.

“Roger.” I said as I flipped the bird a one eighty and fired the main thrusters and watched the timer she had set.

“Yaw. Ninety six degrees.” She added. I turned her till we where facing the sun. She gave me roll and pitch vectors then recalculated and had me make even smaller course corrections as she prepped the jump engines and set a timer before they would initialize. “Now pray to whatever you believe in.”

“Get in the corridor.” I shrugged and she unstrapped herself.

“Here goes nothing.” I said putting my hand over the button and entered the jump code and waited for the timer. My hand was shaking. I pulled out the detonator and got ready to move. Three, two, one. Zero. I hit the button and got up running for the door. I could hear the jump drive powering up and the explosion as the doors blew. Then nothing as the air blew out. I went flying out as I jumped ad tackled Nova to push her out into the void.

“Ah.” She screamed as we floated about. I fired my thrusters and turned around ad saw a small bright flash of a fire ball in the distant black of space.

“Hold on. I am coming.” I said as I turned towards Nova.

“Fuck.” Nova said as she flailed about.

“Almost to you. Hold on.” I said as I burned towards her.

“I got you.” I said ad grabbed her around the waist and pushed the control on wrist for the suit to counter thrust and stop us from spinning.

“I can't breath.” Nova said. She was hyperventilating.

“Focus. Your fine. Slow breathes. Close your eyes and focus on you breathing.” I said spinning her around and pressed my helmet to hers. She went to turn her head and I grabbed her helmet. “Don't look that way. Look over my shoulder. Keep your eyes on the planet. Use it as your point of reference to originate yourself. North is up. South is down. East is right, west is left. Keep your eyes on the planet.” I said and she nodded and slowly caught her breath. Zero G was a scary bitch. It was like a feeling of falling endlessly.

“Better?”

“Yes. Sorry sir.”

“Hey where all scared sometimes.” I shrugged or the best I could do in this suit.

“What are you scared of sir?”

“Everything I don't know.”

“Then you must be terrified all the time.” She gave a laugh.

“Theirs the smart mouth bitch I know and love.” I tapped my helmet against hers. We had to wait a bit for Miranda to come pick us up as I hit the beacon. We climbed in closed the door. Nova taking off her helmet and taking a deep breath.

“How do we look?” I said as I could hear the radio chatter of fighting. Then I saw a flash of light in the distance near the moon and radio silence. “Vanguard. Come in vanguard.” Nothing but static. “Vanguard. Do you read me.”

“We read you baron?” Jenkins replied.

“What was that blast?”

“We must have hit the enemies reactor sir. I would suggest steering clear of the area because of the debris.” He replied. I was glad to hear it wasn't the carrier.

“Understood. Damage?”

“We took a few hits but this thing took um like a champ Sir. Minor hull breaches to the outer haul. Minor breeches to the inner haul but they are contained. Possible a few injured. The ship yards didn't fair as well though sir.”

“How bad?” I said and looked over at Miranda.

“Several wounded on board the Defiance and the ship yards took a hit. At least two ships damaged and one destroyed. From what we can tell all of the workers managed to get out. While she was fighting the Defiance the Intrepid came around and fucked her up the ass Sir. Both enemy birds are dead sir.”

“Have the Intrepid aid the defiance if needed. Have the nearest ship jump to the system they came out of and have a ship pick us up in route. Where heading for the ship yards.”

“Confirmed sir.” Jenkins said.

“You got telemetry on the planet killer?”

“Yes, Sir. You knocked it pretty far of course. It still has good momentum but nothing is in it's flight path.” Jenkins replied. I hope they didn't have more of those because I doubt the same trick would work twice.

“Confirmed.” I smiled and looked at Nova. “

I spent the next hour talking on the comm to every ship in the sector. Our ships where heading back to our system from the resupply and the allied carrier that had handled the resupply would jump to the system the alliance had attacked from just to be sure. The Atlas caught up to us in route and took us aboard. She was running dark. Cruising under her own momentum. Even the gravity was off to reduce her heat signature but she was an older model so it made sense they would kill as much as possible. After exiting the shuttle bay I was surprised by a friendly voice.

“Oh thank god.” I heard a voice say and looked up to see Anastasia floating towards me. I grabbed her and hugged her tight.

“How did you get here?” I asked and looked over her shoulder to see Harper.

“When we heard about the planet killer I took the shuttle into high orbit. When the Atlas passed I asked it to pick us up as she passed.” Harper said. I had to commend her logic. Stay close to the planet but stay off the ground if it had hit.

“Jessica is on board as well. I have her patched in to her people at the shipyard.”

“Thank you Harper.” I smiled. I meet with the Captain Andrews and Jessica. Thankfully none of the ship builders where on duty at the time and other personal where able to get out in time before the ships where hit. Two looked damaged but fixable while the third had taken the blunt of the attack and would need much a lot of repair or even just stripped for parts. The cleanup would slow production but we had the shipping guilds ships now. None the least I wanted to go and see if I could help in any way. Even if I could just throw money and man power at the problem it was better then sitting on my ass.

A crew member pointed me to the luxury suit. Not that I expected much luxury on this old tub. On the flip side this be the last ship the enemy would expect to find me on. I came around the corner to find Harper standing at the door with her eyes closed. Her body floating back and forth in the zero gravity. Her arms folded in front. She snapped to as I approached and rubbed her face.

“Go get some sleep Sam. You have done enough today.” I said and gave her arm a squeeze.

“Yes sir.” She nodded and headed off. I went in to see the room had a bed though it had a blanket resembling a cargo net wrapped around it. Anastasia was asleep as her lovely red hair floated about. I smiled and took off my jacket and tossed it aside.

“Hey.” Anastasia smiled as she looked at me.

“Sorry. Didn't mean to wake you.”

“It's okay. I am having trouble sleeping.” She shrugged.

“It takes some getting used to.” I smiled and walked over and squatted down so my ass sat on the bed.

“I can imagine. I know something that might help.” She smiled as she sat up and grasped my arm giving me a kiss.

“What's that?”

“Something I saw in a dirty movie once.” She grinned.

“Oh really? Naughty girl.” I smiled and shook my head.

“Hey. I said I was virgin. Not a nun.” She shrugged and kissed me again. This time lasting much longer.