Scorpion Relay - Part 28

“JEEZ! They’re all over our sensors!”

“We’re losing the stealth field!” Mason declared worriedly.

Aaen retrieved the tricorder and began waving it near the ‘prize’, reading the data on the display. . . Son-of-a—you’ve-gotta-be-kidding-me, “Alright, I think I know how they’re getting so close!” He looked at Maxon and Jonathan; both of them looked curiously at Aaen, a look that told him they thought they had a good idea of what he was going to say next—“They installed a freaking tracking device on this thing.”

Mason snapped at the announcement, and Jensen looked up briefly and paused for an instant.

Aaen calmed slightly, returning to the thruster controls, narrowly dodging a few more green bolts. He eyed the view screen and said, “The stealth field is distorting the tracking signal, for now—but if we don’t repair it we’re going to be lit up like a light bulb in a dark room.” The shuddering was getting sharper, faster. Maxon and Jonathan briefly observed the prize’ on-and-off blue glow with a silent combined skepticism over whether this was going to be it—one spy shuttle versus an entire-freakin-armada, they both thought silently.

Maxon gasped. “Is there any way to disarm the tracking device?”

“It’s embedded into the device’s infrastructure—the only way to completely stop them from picking up the tracking signal—Urgh!—is to—“

“Activate the device,” Jonathan quipped.

“We don’t have enough power!” Mason interjected. “I’m working on the stealth field and the translight engines. It’s going to take some time. Maybe a few more minutes before we have translight power?”

“I don’t think we’ve—URGH—!” Aaen forced himself upright from another near-miss. “Got it. . . Captain, if we take a hit, we won’t be able to run for much longer,” But, maybe—“Do we still have that decoy standing by?” The viewscreen was full of variably-sized bright-green hulls soaring in different directions, like predators looking for their prey.

Maxon turned to Jensen. He looked back at her and nodded.

“If we’ve still got it, now’s a good time to use it! They might mistake it for us and redirect their fire!”

“Fire the decoy!” Maxon commanded.

“Decoy–away!” A brief sharp mechanical scream filled the bridge for a second.

. .The lightning stopped. .and then a massive oval-shaped distortion became visible, then as a warbird which approached the decoy and fired another bolt of green. A brilliant, violent fiery explosion filled the upper-right corner of the viewscreen as metallic debris scattered in every direction. The warbird slowed as Aaen maneuvered them into a roll and then hard to port around the warbird.

“More ships are decloaking! There’s gotta be over a hundred ships out there.” Jonathan declared bleakly.

“It won’t be long before they realize it was a decoy!” Aaen added. “Mason, where are you at on the translight drive?” he asked frantically.

Mason gasped hard. “I’m working on it! The stealth field’s struggling. I don’t think I can repair them both!. . Which one should I focus on?”

Maxon took a deep breath as she contemplated her response, leaning forward as she held onto her armrests to try to stay upright amid the building turbulence from numerous continuous near-misses. None of the rest of the crew blamed Aaen, this was like riding a turbulent maelstrom with high-waves while dodging lightning and falling flaming asteroids. Aaen wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep dodging all this fire—he silently asked Maxon and Jonthan, ‘do we run, or hide?’

“. .Repair the translight drive.”

“They’re gaining on us, and closing!” Jonathan boldly declared.

“Permission to increase to ‘Emergency impulse’?” Aaen asked Maxon.

“Granted!”

Aaen noted the yellow speed meter continued along its track, the end turned a dark orange and the impulse engines’ heat level was climbing almost twice as fast as before. The floor began vibrating, a sensation that built to a firm grumble.

“They’re starting to take-up formation around our position!” Jonathan announced. “We’re barely staying ahead of them!”

“—The stealth field is failing!” Mason declared in terror.

“Cannons are fully charged, but I doubt they’re going to do much good against that many ships on our tail, Captain.” Jensen declared.

Maxon was at a loss for words.

“How long until we have translight drive?” Jonathan asked Mason directly.  

“I need another three minutes, but the stealth field won’t last for that long!”

“Do we still have time to interface the cloaking device will our systems?” Aaen asked.

“We don’t enough power! That blast from those warheads, or mines or whatever, damaged the main power grid. We’re lucky the translight core is still online!”

The crew started doubting whether or not they would survive.

“I need two more minutes to repair the translight drive.” Mason announced.

Maxon turned to Aaen, “You got this, Commander—” a thundering explosion lit the viewscreen and the bridge and threw the nose to port. The crew was nearly thrown from their seats to starboard. The hull groaned from the physcial stress and pressure of trying to stay upright.

“DIRECT HIT–TO STARBOARD SHIELDS!” Jensen declared as his computer exploded, shooting debris into his face as the rest of the crew ducked threw their arms up to protect themselves from the explosion. Jensen threw his arms up to shield himself but the sheer force of the blast threw him out of his seat hard against the back cabin wall, then he crumbled to the floor behind Maxon.

The crew recovered. Jonathan touched his fingers to Jensen’s throat to check his pulse, then looked at Maxon and nodded.

A subtle mechanical hiss turned into a thundering scream—“Translight drive’s repaired! You’ve got all the power we’ve got left in the engines in the translight drive!”

“MAXIMUM SPEED!” Maxon bluntly commanded.

Aaen watched the speed indicators change position as the stars again became rapid streaks of light—translight five.

“Oh, no—!” Mason said bleakly.

“What?” Jonathan asked directly.

Mason looked shocked, “The stealth field’s gone!”

*****

Steve H. told Jordan Foutin, "You are the next Tom Clancy. You really are a gifted writer."

DANIEL STORM, a Jordan Foutin eBook, is available for $8.99 at any of these fine online retailers: 

smashwords.com (Remember to like and share!)

apple iBooks (This link is best viewed on iPhone or iPad)

barnesandnoble.com 

scribd.com 

kobo.com

blio.com

Make sure to buy your copy today, and like and share!

Make sure to like the official StormTeam Simulations Facebook page for the latest, including when DANIEL STORM will be available on Amazon.com for Kindle eBook and softcover! Coming soon!

Scorpion Relay - Part 27

“How’s the stealth field holding up?” Maxon asked directly. Aaen and Mason noticed a shift in her voice—she was starting to panic, Aaen noted.

Jensen checked his computer screen. . . “There was some disrupter damage to the aft outer hull—looks like the stealth field’s still operational. . .” The humming was getting louder. “We need to keep moving,” Jensen added.

Maxon turned around, “Aaen, plot a course back to Starbase One.”

Aaen was already working on that, keeping in mind the humming as he watched the sets of coordinates appear on his screen out of a seemingly scrambled grouping of decimal numbers. The coordinates appeared, and he immediately began making the changes to their heading. His computer chimed acknowledgment as the cabin felt like it was shifting position. The stars moved in the view screen—

—The crew noticed the humming gradually stopped. . .

“New course entered!” Aaen boldly declared.

“Maximum speed. Translight-nine!”

Aaen turned his head as if to silently correct the order, then looked over his left shoulder. “Maximum is Translight nine-point-nine-five.”

Maxon leaned over, “Do it!” she yelled over the alarms.

The impulse engines quickly powered down as Aaen watched the translight engine control instrumentation quickly respond to his carrying out the order. A raging roar filled the cabin as the stars turn into violent streaks of white light.

The alarms stopped, but the lights stayed red. Aaen noted the translight engine heat was on a gradual, steady climb. The translight coolant levels were. . .oh crap.

Jonathan’s screen flashed, accompanied by a brief alarm—a sensor alert, the crew noted.

“Jonathan, what’s wrong?” Jensen asked, noting a frustrated look on Jonathan’s face while he read some new information on his screen.

“I’m not sure. . . I’m getting some really weird readings from. . .” the look on his face suddenly changed to shock—

A blinding white light filled the view screen as the cabin suddenly began violently vibrating and rattling as the shuttle was engulfed in a high-voltage frenzy as the nose violently shot straight up; the crew snapped as they were pressed into their seats as they grabbed their stations and pushed away in hopes of physical stability while feeling as though they were suddenly thrown forward by a synchronized blow to the back. A flurry of alarms filled the cabin as the lights erratically flickered on and then off violently—the computer screens began flashed white.

“. . .REPORT!” Maxon commanded to the rest of the crew as she struggled to stay upright.

Jonathan was first, forcing his weight against a wall, “Sensor readings are sketchy! From what I can tell, hundreds of spacial warheads just detonated. .directly in our flight path!”

Aaen eyed his screen amid the flashing. “TRANSLIGHT ENGINES ARE OFFLINE!” he checked the navigational readings, “We’re tumbling through space!”

“There’s extensive damage to the primary stealth field assembly—URGH!—we’re losing main power! We’re not gonna have the stealth field for much longer! I’m also detecting damage to the translight nacelles. . .!”

The bridge lights began to gradually dim as green flashing lightning pulses filled the viewscreen. The flashes lit up the bridge. There was barely enough light from the overheads to see the floor. Judging by the number of pulses, Aaen guessed—

“Holy-cow. .there’s an entire fleet decloaking. .they’re flying all over the place.” The cabin started to mildly shudder with each flash. The shuddering varied with the brightness of each flash. “Looks like they still can’t get a weapon lock on us.”

“Yeah, but somehow they’re getting an idea of where we’re at.” Aaen quipped.

Maxon looked at Mason. “Jensen: shields up. Mason—quick, put all translight engine power in the impulse engines! Commander: make sure we’re on our original heading and engage full impulse.”

Aaen checked his instrumentation, made a few adjustments to their heading with the thrusters to get them back on course, then said, “Heading: confirmed. Increasing speed to full impulse!”

“. . .Good job.” Maxon said gratefully. Aaen noted her tone of voice calming. “Mason, start working on repairing the translight engines. Try to keep the stealth field online as long as you can.”

“Aye!”

The impulse engines quickly grumbled, the sound gradually turned to a mechanical whine then gradually faded out.

Another alert sounded—Mason snapped. “New long-range message! It’s from Admiral Carrell!” More green lightning pulses lit the bridge; the shuddering caused the crew to push against the walls for physical stability. Aaen sharply used the thrusters to maintain the shuttle’s heading.

Maxon leaned toward Mason. “What does the message say?”

“. . .Admiral Carrell got our mission status update. . . The sixth fleet is being dispatched to our neutral zone border at these coordinates.” Mason pointed at the coordinates. Aaen leaned over and read the coordinates—doubt about whether they would make it there at this speed immediately followed.

“Mason—I need translight engines back online as quick as you can.” Aaen declared directly.

“—Captain, I’m picking up a distress beacon, it has a Federation signature,” Jonathan announced.

Maxon turned around. “Where from?” More green lightning lit the bridge.

“The planet surface.”

“It might be our source,” Aaen suggested.

“Lock onto the signal with transporters and beam it into the transporter buffer. Jensen, work on finding a way to keep the source in the transporter buffer as long as you can.” Jonathan pointed and commanded. 

Jensen nodded and began working. The sound of the transporter filled the bridge about a minute later, Aaen guessed as he struggled to keep the shuttle on its heading.

“How are they even getting close?” Maxon asked.

. . .Aaen was lost-in-thought for a few seconds as he contemplated possible answers. . . Then he had a hunch and he turned around and glared at the ‘prize’ which was resting horizontally on the floor between Jonathan and Jensen. Another sharp hull shudder forced the crew forward against their stations. 

*****

Steve H. told Jordan Foutin, "You are the next Tom Clancy. You really are a gifted writer."

DANIEL STORM, a Jordan Foutin eBook, is available for $8.99 at any of these fine online retailers: 

smashwords.com (Remember to like and share!)

apple iBooks (This link is best viewed on iPhone or iPad)

barnesandnoble.com 

scribd.com 

kobo.com

blio.com

Make sure to buy your copy today, and like and share!

Make sure to like the official StormTeam Simulations Facebook page for the latest, including when DANIEL STORM will be available on Amazon.com for Kindle eBook and softcover! Coming soon!

Scorpion Relay - Part 26

“THEY’RE OVER THERE!—FIRE!” a male voice growled from some fifty yards behind. This declaration followed by three non-sequential bright-green directed lightning bolts, the first exploding against a tall dark tree—the away team frantically ducked and covered their heads as they continued running; the second immediately struck the ground just behind Jensen’s feet; the third narrowly missed Maxon’s right shoulder, instead creating a splash in a large mud puddle ahead.

Jensen snapped and started running backwards, ignoring the sound of dirt crunching under his boots—he visually confirmed four hostiles were in immediate pursue, each roughly five feet tall and getting taller as they drew closer, carrying heavy particle rifles—he quickly took aim, adjusting for the fact this jungle seemed to be bouncing up and down, and returned fire with four shots in rapid succession. He noted he nearly knocked out the target on the far-right, but missed. NARROWLY, he pressed his jaws together in frustration. He anticipated where they were aiming next and snapped, ducking left, then right, feeling the warm scream of two green bolts, one narrowly missing his left shoulder, the other nearly took his left ear off. He felt the residual heat of the bolt on the left side of his face, but knew he was okay. He snapped and took aim again, and then a knee, and fired—a red-orange bolt struck the target squarely in the chest. The force of the bolt picked the target off the ground as they tumbled into the air like a rag doll, loosely dropping their rifle on the ground as they fell flat back-first unconscious on the ground. The target’s chest glowed a circular dull faint dark red coloration which quickly faded away. The other three pursuers raised their rifles and fired—Aaen heard the hiss of the bolt and narrowly avoided a direct hit to his upper back.

Jonathan snapped, took a knee behind a tree, leaned right, and fired back—the bolt struck its target in the upper shoulder and was instantly pulled off its feet as it jerked left and collapsed face-first in some dry dirt as its weapon loosely flew several feet away.

Jensen and Jonathan heard Aaen yell another direction he read from the scanner. They stood up and continued running with the rest of the away team. Two more green bolts narrowly took down Maxon and Aaen due to sheer distance, they both knew. Every member of the away team could hear an entire army now coming after them, both on the ground. . .and in the air.

Maxon activated her communicator and held it to her mouth, “Mason, open the loading hatch! HURRY!” she shouted. The cloaking device got a couple of extra hands to carry it the remaining distance to the shuttle. The hatch was already starting to open. They all noted more footsteps, from who-knows-how-many different directions! They all silently agreed—

—Maxon pointed to the hatch and snapped, “Okay, get the shuttle on-board and start working on find a way to secure it. We GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE! MOVE!” The away team reacted with speed and precision as bolts of lightning sounded from not-so-far-away. The cloaking device was quickly in the cabin as the away team took their seats.

“Computer! Close the hatch!” Maxon commanded. “Mason?” referred to what she was hearing on the comm channels.

Mason quickly turned around with a terrified look as numerous loud seemingly muffled communicator transmissions sounded like they were competing for the same target. “They’re calling-in everything they’ve got on this planet, and everything within high-translight distance.”

Oh, great—Aaen thought, withholding an exclamation, sitting upright while hovering over his computer controls and looking at the image of dense brush and shadows overcasting on the jungle surface in the viewscreen.

“WOAH! WE’VE GOT CONTACT. . .coming from ten o’clock to three—No. . .to TWO O’Clock! We’ve gotta get outta here, now!” Jonathan declared, appearing shocked. Green particle beams scored the image on the viewscreen—

—WE’RE UNDER FIRE! Aaen realized. He snapped. “Captain?” The bridge turned red with a flurry of alarms.

 “TAKE US UP, MAXIMUM SPEED!”

YOU GOT IT! Aaen silently zealously replied. Aaen wasn’t slow in carrying out the order. He brought the docking clamps up first, then abruptly leaned left, glaring at the computer screen to his immediate left. “Mason, make sure I’ve got power in the thrusters!” he commanded as a flurry of green bolts narrowly missed the hull—he noted the not-so-subtle sound of high-power particle beam explosions against the surrounding rocks and the larger trees that were visible, and multiple that were not. Aaen frantically adjusted the controls on his screen. . .quickly switching to the thrusters. The hull sharply lifted off in less than a second as Aaen noted the sound of brush slapping the hull as it climbed above the dark shade, then Aaen increased the shuttle’s speed to full-impulse and then immediately angled the nose to the sky. The only thing in the view screen was blue sky and distant faint white cloud cover. They could still hear the sharp, violent hiss of particle weapon fire from the surface. Aaen manipulated the thrusters to subtly maneuver around the incoming fire. . . And then there was none audible as the blue hue gradually turned a sharp black.

“Are we—?” Maxon asked as another alarm sounded.

“Holy-cow! They’ve got every ship within a half-parsec doing high-intensity scans for us!"

The sensor scans’ reverberating hum was getting louder by the second, Aaen noted, and he started wondering just how long the stealth field was going to keep them hidden. . .

*****

Steve H. told Jordan Foutin, "You are the next Tom Clancy. You really are a gifted writer."

DANIEL STORM, a Jordan Foutin eBook, is available for $8.99 at any of these fine online retailers: 

smashwords.com (Remember to like and share!)

apple iBooks (This link is best viewed on iPhone or iPad)

barnesandnoble.com 

scribd.com 

kobo.com

blio.com

Make sure to buy your copy today, and like and share!

Make sure to like the official StormTeam Simulations Facebook page for the latest, including when DANIEL STORM will be available on Amazon.com for Kindle eBook and softcover! Coming soon!

Scorpion Relay - Part 25

Aaen executed the command on the scanner. A high-pitched whine—almost deafening—filled the room. The away team covered their ears and cringed tightly, and Aaen watched carefully as all four surveillance cameras began to spark violently, immediately followed by a thick plume of black smoke.

"NOW!" Maxon yelled in a whisper as the away team swarmed through the room. Maxon pointed around her, and then at the door as she commanded, "Jonathan, Jensen, watch the door!" There was only one door to this room, Aaen noted and quickly began working on collecting the prize.

This was one-sophisticated-piece of equipment, Aaen judged: a pristine crystal-like cylinder resembling a warp core with a deep, bright ocean-blue internal glow—only this thing was only three feet tall, and about six inches in diameter, and had more wires coming out of its three levels of multi-colored blinking circular external ports than the Voyager's main computer core. Scanner readings were going ballistic! Aaen noted, trying to wirelessly sever the connections so the device could be recovered and analyzed after returning it to Intelligence. . . His frantic efforts—

A glaring, intermittent alarm sounded from somewhere down the corridor, from the right—oh, crap, he thought, snapping, and then quickly going back to work. . . C'mon. .C'MON!. . . The device was fighting his every effort—URGH! "Captain!" Aaen started turning his head.

Maxon rushed to his side, "What is it?" she asked, noting the near-terror in his voice. "Is it ready to go?"

Aaen abruptly turned his head. "There's some kind of counter-measure in this thing's base unit that won't allow the scanner to interface with this thing. There's no way to sever it from his housing by scanner. First Officer! Jonathan!"

He snapped and then immediately, sharply, entered the room. "What?" he replied with an alarmed look on his face.

The lights in the corridor outside changed to a darker, deathlier shade of green. They had 30 seconds left before their faces would be all over every military network on this and every other planet under their control. They had to act—NOW!

The sound of indistinguishable orders being yelled echoed from down the corridor from the right.

"The cloaking device won't separate from its base. You need to take out the base with a cannon blast!"

"Whatever you're gonna do! Do it QUICK! We're gonna have company REAL-QUICK!" Jensen declared sharply.

Jonathan stepped behind the largest of the control panels in the room near a far wall and adjusted the power output on his sidearm, took aim as Aaen, Maxon, and Jensen ran for cover, and then fired! The beam was brighter and screamed louder than on standard setting—the base exploded instantly through the room, sending fine glass and metallic shrapnel fragments flying.

The away team could hear countless pairs of combat boots clashing against the metallic corridor floor outside—they were out of time, they each realized.

Aaen rushed to the cloaking device, holstered his scanner and then tried to pick up the device so the away team could start back for the shuttle. . . He quickly felt a flood of sharp pains domino down his back and abandoned his effort. . . A solo lifting effort was hopeless. This thing was just too darn heavy. He turned his head at the away team sharply.

"Jonathan and Jensen, you take the device. Aaen will get us back to the shuttle." Maxon's order was carried out immediately. They tilted the device toward the vent shaft and then carried it by the top and the bottom of the device. Aaen pulled out his scanner and they started back for the shuttle, twice as fast as they came in.

Maxon's communicator beeped. She retrieved the device and answered the hail. "Maxon,"

"Don't forget to close the vent cover!" Aaen whispered loudly back through the shaft.

"—Captain, this is Mason. You all need to get back here fast! Short-range communications are going crazy! And there's a lot more foot activity out here! There's gotta be at least a hundred security personnel out here, and there's more coming from underground and transporter signatures from ships in orbit!"

"WHERE IS IT?. . . LOOK OVER THERE!" a voice yelled from behind. Jensen was working on replacing the vent cover as two bright green particle rifles rose up. Jensen ducked as twin bright green directed particle bolts nearly scored the back of his head and then exploded against the metal vent lining. He dropped the vent cover and scrambled on three of his four back to the away team, returning fire twice—and missing as narrowly. The vent cover landed at an angle against the mouth of the vent.

"GO! GO! GO!" Maxon yelled.

They returned to the original tunnel in fifteen seconds—the doors were still open, and the sound of running boots smashing against dirt and wood were getting louder.

"The shuttle's a hundred meters that way!" Aaen declared, pointing the way.

"LET'S GO!" Maxon commanded. The sounds were getting louder. "—MOVE! MOVE! Jonathan, take point!" Jensen brings up the rear!"

Aaen led the away team running back up the ramp, sidearms-ready, a sharp slight left turn—ten seconds of sprinting later, Jensen snapped, and then roared, "—CONTACT-REAR!"

*****

Steve H. told Jordan Foutin, "You are the next Tom Clancy. You really are a gifted writer."

DANIEL STORM, a Jordan Foutin eBook, is available for $8.99 at any of these fine online retailers: 

smashwords.com (Remember to like and share!)

apple iBooks (This link is best viewed on iPhone or iPad)

barnesandnoble.com 

scribd.com 

kobo.com

blio.com

Make sure to buy your copy today, and like and share!

Make sure to like the official StormTeam Simulations Facebook page for the latest, including when DANIEL STORM will be available on Amazon.com for Kindle eBook and softcover! Coming soon!