Wanderer

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Jess had the Wanderer start evading even as his implants sped up his thoughts. Then he started to sort through the sensor information, trying to find out what exactly was going on.

The first thing he noticed was the station, or what was left of it. Large sections were nothing more than buckled and melted wreckage. Other sections were venting atmosphere and sometimes flames. A few areas were still mostly intact but they were being pounded by fighters.

Two large freighters sat near the station, the Rustbucket and the Paramanda. Jess could see several shuttles making runs between the freighters and the stations, presumably to rescue any survivors. The freighters were being attacked too, and Jess could see the wreckage of three others floating nearby. Despite that the two surviving freighters were staying put.

The picture was completed by an Imperial frigate, the Poison Arrow, sitting some way off and pounding the station with heavy weaponry.

Space was awash with people pleading for mercy, begging the Imperials not to kill their children, but it had no impact on the attackers.

Jess groaned. At full strength the Wanderer could handle a single frigate with ease. With the state it was in now, taking on the Poison Arrow could be more than the Wanderer could cope with.

He couldn’t do anything else. If he left then he’d be damning every single surviving civilian to certain death. He wasn’t sure if the Wanderer could see off the enemy forces. He knew of only one way to find out.

He turned the Wanderer towards the two struggling freighters, then did something that was impossible for any other ship. The Wanderer jumped a far shorter distance than most ships could dream of doing, emerging from jump space near the Paramanda, right amongst the Imperial fighters.

Jess immediately lashed out with the Wanderer’s weaponry, destroying three of the attacking fighters and damaging one more. Despite the success Jess was painfully aware of how much more a fully functional Wanderer could have done.

He managed to take out another two fighters before they recovered from their shock and turned their attention to the Wanderer. Realising most of the fighters were now heading his way he started to move away from the Paramanda and the Rustbucket.

Jess managed to pick off two more fighters but the Imperial pilots were learning the Wanderer’s weaknesses with every attack. They soon realised the Wanderer’s surviving weaponry was clustered in certain areas which meant there were also safe spots for the fighters to sit in. The ship couldn’t turn anywhere near quickly enough to keep the nimble fighters out of those safe spots.

More and more shots started striking the Wanderer’s shields, followed by several missiles. Nowhere near enough to trouble the Wanderer normally, but a worrying drain on the already stretched shields.

Jess kept moving away from the base and the freighters while trying to make is seem he was doing nothing of the sort. He didn’t want them noticing what he was doing and turning back on the civilians.

Jess kept the Wanderer turning as best he could, trying to land hits on as many of the fighters as possible, but it was clear the Wanderer couldn’t stay in the fight for more than a few minutes more.

Another ship dropped out of jump, a freighter. No, not a freighter, the freighter. The one that the Wanderer had left behind when it entered jump space. The Casatarna according to its identity.

Moments later it launched a ship. To Jess’s surprise it was an Imperial fighter. He stared for a moment then smiled grimly. Of course it was. He should have known any ship following him through jump space would be Imperial. That seemed to be the pattern of his life now.

He barely paid the new fighter any attention as it streaked towards the Wanderer. What difference would one more make? Not a lot. At most the Wanderer would have to leave the fight a few seconds earlier.

The new ship reached weapons range and opened fire. At the same time one of the existing swarm of fighters was destroyed. Jess smiled grimly at seeing the balance kept, one new fighter arrived, one existing one was removed. Another quickly followed it. Jess was pleased, that meant the Wanderer could draw the fighters’ attention for a little longer before having to leave.

Then the Wanderer pulsed information to Jess that left him frowning. The Wanderer hadn’t fired at either of the ships that had just been destroyed. That made no sense. If it had just been one then Jess would have written the loss off as cumulative damage catching up with it, but two going the same way made that highly improbable.

A third fighter was torn apart. The Wanderer confirmed it was responsible this time. Then a fourth exploded, but again the Wanderer had nothing to do with it. A moment later the ship worked out the cause. The new fighter was firing at the Imperials, not at the Wanderer. Jess just stared for a moment, then he realised the newcomer was about to fly right into one of the areas where the Wanderer’s weapons were still active.

Jess sent a frantic override command, marking the newcomer as friendly. He felt the Wanderer doing the same thing at the same moment. He couldn’t tell who gave the order first but what mattered was it worked. The weapons re-targeted, choosing less ideal targets.

The newcomer winged a fighter and destroyed another as Jess watched. The Imperial forces hadn’t spotted what was happening yet. Jess put that down to a mixture of the confusion of the battle and the sheer unlikeliness of the action. Even he and the Wanderer had only just figured it out.

The Wanderer drew Jess’s attention to an incoming voice-only transmission from the Casatarna. It was a repeating message being transmitted on a tight beam directly at the Wanderer when there was no risk of any Imperial fighters intercepting it. Jess listened to the short message.

“Unknown ship, this is the Casatarna. The fighter we launched is friendly to you and the civilians here, despite being of Imperial origin. Clay is there to help. Please do not attack him. Unknown ship, this is…”

The message kept repeating. Jess considered for a moment, then sent his own voice-only message back the other way.

“Casatarna, this is the Wanderer. Your message is understood, if a little late. Luckily actions spoke louder than words. We can talk more once this is over.”

He set the message to repeat automatically. Just who was on board the Casatarna? Were they Tainted? Were they pirates or slavers? Were they Imperial, playing some deep game? Were they truly free civilians? Even if they were, how could he be sure?

He pushed those thoughts aside. For the moment they were allies, though he’d still be keeping a very close eye on the new pilot. What was his name? Oh yes, Clay. Jess was very aware Clay was in a perfect position to turn on the Wanderer if that’s what he decided to do. If there was one thing Jess had learnt since escaping on the Wanderer it was not to trust anyone’s motives until he got to know them, if then.

Clay swung his fighter sideways, targeting another of the Imperial fighters. He poured fire into it for a few seconds then pulled away as several other enemy fighters bracketed him.

Enemy. How much had changed in such a small amount of time. A few months before he had been a loyal member of the Imperial navy. Even a few weeks ago he’d still been part of something calling itself the Empire, though not a happy part when he realised it was bent on a scorched earth policy which would kill untold billions of innocent civilians.

Now he attacked the Imperial forces without hesitation. When the Casatarna arrived it was clear the remains of the Empire were executing their scorched earth policy once more. Seeing the mysterious ship the Casatarna was following also engaging the Imperial fighters just gave him another reason to get involved. That ship had a name now. It had identified itself as the Wanderer in a message that Zeek had relayed to Clay.

The enemy fighters hadn’t paid Clay any notice as he approached them. Even when he started destroying their ships they still took a long time to realise what was happening, let alone do something about it.

The honeymoon was over now. The enemy fighters were paying as much attention to Clay as they were to the Wanderer. He was hammering at them but struggling to concentrate on any one ship for long enough to damage or destroy it.

“Clay, this is the Wanderer. Swing right and down, as close to us as you can manage.”

Clay jumped at the message then double checked its source. Sure enough it had come in over the encrypted link he and the Casatarna were using. Had Zeek hooked the Wanderer in? He tried to think of a way to ask the question knowing the Wanderer would be listening in, even as he evaluated the request and decided to follow it.

He had to keep dodging as he did so. Five fighters had latched onto him from behind and others were taking pot shots when the chance allowed. He almost brushed the Wanderer as he swung below it, lifting up beyond it to get a few seconds respite from the chasing fighters.

Moments later shots were striking his shields again, telling him the fighters had a clear shot. His sensors suddenly flickered and danced as something washed over the fighter. He thought it was another of the strange distortion waves but it was over too quickly and the results were different. He checked on the ships behind him… and saw nothing except a few fragments of wreckage and the discharge from plasma weapons heading away.

“Wanderer, did you just take those fighters out with a plasma weapon?”

“Yes,” came the reply. “Thank you for leading them into position.”

Clay shook his head. Hitting a fighter with a plasma weapon was normally almost impossible, the discharge was simply too slow to catch a nimble ship, but at point blank range…

Laser fire hitting his shields jerked Clay from his thoughts. He rolled his fighter, swinging it up onto a different direction.

“Come left twenty degrees and up ten,” came more instructions from the Wanderer.

“That won’t bring the fighters close enough for plasma weapons,” replied Clay.

“No, but it will put them where a bunch of our lasers are still working. We can take a few of the fighters out.”

“OK, but please try to not cut it quite so close this time.”

“No problem.”

“Do you have a name? You know mine, and calling you the Wanderer is a bit clumsy.”

“I’m Jess.”

“Nice to meet you Jess…” said Clay. “And nice shooting!” he added, as the Wanderer took out another three fighters.

Clay managed to turn on a fighter which already had lowered shields, hammering it with fire and blasting the cockpit apart.

“Likewise,” replied Jess. “On both counts.”

“You know that frigate is getting closer all the time, don’t you?”

“I know. I can take care of it, but I didn’t want to leave these fighters to attack the freighters and the shuttles getting people off the station. If we can take care of some more then I’ll go deal with the frigate.”

Clay grunted noncommittally. At first glance the frigate outgunned the Wanderer by several orders of magnitude, but the Wanderer was clearly more than it seemed. The plasma weapons alone showed that. Would it be enough? He had no idea, but there was nothing he could do about it except help reduce the number of fighters.

That was becoming much easier. Against just the Wanderer or just Clay’s fighter the Imperials had a clear advantage. Now they were having to factor in not just the Wanderer and Clay, but the interaction of the two. That was making them hesitate, and in a battle hesitation was deadly.

Jess smashed apart two more Imperial fighters with the Wanderer’s weapons, just as Clay took out a third. Jess searched for his next target… and found none. The remaining fighters were heading away as quickly as they could. Not a moment too soon either, the frigate was almost in weapons range of the station.

“Clay, keep those fighters retreating. I’m going after the frigate.”

“I think we left it a bit late, you’ll never get near it before it opens fire on the station. What…”

The rest was cut off as the Wanderer leapt into jump space. A few moments later the Wanderer returned to normal space almost on top of the Poison Arrow. Clay’s broadcast kicked in again.

“… can’t believe he’s jumped and left everyone to it. I thought… what the… how is that possible? No ship can jump anything like that short a distance!”

Even as he was listening, smiling at Clay’s confusion, Jess had the Wanderer lashing out with plasma weapons and lasers. He’d brought it out of jump space in a position which allowed the maximum number of the surviving weapons to target the frigate.

Because the Wanderer was so near the Poison Arrow all of the destructive force was focused on a tiny area of its shields, causing a spot failure. The Wanderer detected the failure and Jess unleashed every missile he could through the gap, large and small, and followed up with concentrated bursts of plasma.

A few missiles were destroyed by point defences but almost all made it through. There simply wasn’t enough time for the defences to target any more. Those that struck dug deep into the warship, and the plasma that followed struck even deeper.

Jess had chosen his position carefully, finding the shortest route to the bridge of the frigate. Now that paid off as the missiles caused heavy damage there and the plasma annihilated the entire section.

Jess anxiously monitored the stricken ship’s generator, worrying that it would go critical without input from the bridge, but his fears were unfounded. Instead the generator started to power down smoothly. Apparently one of the engineers had foreseen the same problem and was dealing with it.

Jess moved the Wanderer slightly and opened fire on a new area, this time drilling through the shields and then destroying the shield generators in the area. Escape pods started to launch from the frigate as the crew took in the seriousness of the situation.

The generator readings suddenly spiked in the opposite direction, and they kept on climbing. With a curse Jess threw the Wanderer back into jump space. Even that nearly wasn’t enough.

Moments later the ship was shaken by a huge explosion which bled over into jump space. The Wanderer shook and groaned under the stress. Several new critical alerts pushed their way into Jess’s mind. He shoved them aside for the moment, concentrating on getting the Wanderer back into normal space again. The transition was rough but the ship survived it.

He was further away from the station, and the Imperial fighters, than he’d hoped for. He saw they’d started to circle back again. Clay had managed to keep them away from the two freighters and the shuttles so far but it was a struggle he was going to lose. By splitting into separate groups they could ensure at least some slipped past.

Jess wasn’t sure the Wanderer could reach them in time and he didn’t want to risk another jump until the Wanderer could shore up some of the worst structural failures. But if he didn’t then those fighters would wreak havoc amongst the evacuation fleet.

He needn’t have worried. As the destruction of the Poison Arrow sank in the fight went out of the Imperial fighter pilots. Seeing the Wanderer heading back towards them was the final straw for most. They pulled back, desperately offering their surrender.

Clay easily despatched the few who insisted on maintaining the attack. This time Jess was able to fully appreciate just how skilful Clay was. It almost seemed as if he was controlling the enemy fighters as well as his own, manipulating them into just the right position at just the right time.

Soon there were no more hostile ships. Those that sought to surrender had clumped together several minutes’ flight from the station. The shuttles were continuing to evacuate people but it was clear the freighters couldn’t cope with all those that remained. Jess opened up the channel to Clay and the Casatarna.

“Casatarna, Clay, this is the Wanderer. You know there’s a lot more people on that station than the freighters can handle, don’t you?”

“He’s right, Zeek,” said Clay. “Can we take any of them?”

There was a pause, then the same voice as Jess had heard from the Casatarna before. Zeek.

“I wish we could,” Zeek said. “But you know how full of passengers we are already. I don’t think we could squeeze any more in without there being an… incident.”

Jess frowned at that. There was something going on there, something more than was actually said. He was sure Clay’s response would have been interesting, but some of the people on the station didn’t have any time to spare.

“The Wanderer can take them,” Jess replied. “We’re setup for carrying passengers at the moment anyway. We’ve taken some damage but it looks like we’ll only need to take four or five hundred people — we can do that easily.”

“That’s assuming they’ll come,” said Clay. “Yes, we turned up and destroyed the Imperials who were attacking the place, but for all they know we could easily be carrying the Taint.”

“So far I haven’t seen anything to prove that you aren’t,” replied Jess. “For that matter those on the station might be Tainted, or some of them at least.”

“True,” sighed Zeek. “And we can’t be sure you are clear of the Taint either. All we can do is offer them a choice… the risk you may carry the Taint against the certainty of their deaths if they stay. The sad thing is some will almost certainly choose death.”

“Well we can only offer to help,” said Jess. “It’s up to them whether they take it. Let me contact the freighters and any parts of the station still capable of receiving, while the survivors can still be saved.”