Dark Echoes - Part 24

The hull shuddered again multiple times as Aaen aimed at the hatch. The sound of multiple metallic clicking and crackling sounds confirmed the locks had been engaged amid a resounding red alert. Security wasn’t going to be far behind. Aaen reasoned the only way he was going to get out is by blowing the hatch, cutting through it, or waiting for a power failure and then forcing the hatch open. None of the options offered much in the way of promise for stealth. . . shoot. Then again, if the hatch opens from the outside—he aimed at the crevice, thumbing the beam setting on the pistol to narrow. He noticed the air was getting thinner. There was no time to wait, on top of the fact that the pistol was down to 60% of maximum power—he fired. Sparks flew all over the tube as he gradually traced the beam along the hatch crevice.

“Valiant’s continuing to engage the dreadnought!” Jones declared. “Their defensive matrix is down to 80 percent!”

“Give them whatever help we can!” Smith commanded Sandberg.

“I think I’ve got a fix on the Captain’s location!. .He’s on what looks like an engineering maintenance access junction on their 70th deck! There’s a bunch of hostiles approaching his location—I’m also detecting an atmosphere change where he’s at. They might be trying to vent the oxygen!”

“Can we get a phase lock on him?” Smith asked, amid several more sharp hull shudders.

“Affirmative! What are you thinking of doing, sir?”

Smith looked at the pulsating lightning pounding the dreadnought’s vulnerable hull, sending fireballs and small bursts of burning debris into space. “Ending this,” multiple hull shudders rocked the ship after dozens of near-misses. Sparks shot from various points along the ceiling.

He had an idea. “Jones, get me a technical scan of the dreadnought.” 

*****

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

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Dark Echoes - Part 23

Aaen braced against a shudder with one arm in the engineering maintenance tube, clutching his particle pistol sidearm with the other, continuing to crawl into the seemingly endless tube. This sucker was built like a space station!—Maybe a lot tougher! He opened what looked like a computer access junction, tried to access the ship’s main computer to find a map of the place. Surprisingly, it wasn’t restricted information—

The away team’s faces were light to moderately singed as they struggled to file into the bridge. The doctor directed them to the medical bunks, performed triage, then administered treatment. Most of the injuries were easily healed—burns from close-call particle shots. They had just gotten out of a firefight, but they seemed to have accomplished what they set out to, and came back alive, so that would mean ‘mission accomplished’. Now the crew needed to get patched up and sent back to their muster stations—Wilson was starting to look tired at all of these radical evasive maneuvers. Even the doctor was wondering how long they would be able to evade all of that fire from the dreadnought; one hit in the right place and—

The crew braced for another series of sharp shudders.

“The Valiant’s drawing most of their fire! They’re not giving up on trying to find us, though!” Jones declared.

Wilson rolled again sharply to port, angling the hull to yaw hard to starboard to take them under the belly of that beast! A lightning-like pulse hammered the dorsal section of the port side translight nacelle, sending Odyssey on a sharp tumble on both axis’. The ship behaved like it had taken a sharp blow to its would-be left shoulder and tumbled away along the floor—

The dreadnought’s tactical radar flashed thrice as a blurry anomaly suddenly appeared, “Sir, I think I might have something,”

“Gotcha!” Aaen thought sharply. The bridge was 69 decks up, and positioned slightly forward of the would-be navigational array—the data suddenly disappeared, replaced with, “DATA UNAVAILABLE - LEVEL 10 CENTRAL COMPUTER LOCKOUT IN EFFECT.”

Shoot, Aaen gasped, they must know I’m here and they’ve probably traced the connection. Security’s probably on its way. Shoot! He reaffirmed his grip on the pistol’s grip.

He had to find a way to get to the bridge. The mental picture of the ship’s internal diagram was still fresh in his memory. The route wasn’t going to be easy, but it was tactically feasible—the exit was only a hundred meters or so ahead, and a few brief turns away. The hull shuddered again as if some kind of carpet bomb had impacted. He started crawling faster. A ship like this was going to have plenty of well-trained, experienced military-grade operators onboard in case anyone they didn’t want on board happened to find their way in.

There was only one way he was going to get out of here alive—he subconsciously questioned his odds. His thoughts raced with tactical possibilities; all were very risky, none of them were strictly favorable. The ambient temperature felt like it had nearly doubled in the last seeming few seconds. He began to feel perspiration building on his forehead and face as he thumbed the force setting on his pistol to high stun. He was coming up quickly on the exit. He anxiously aimed around each corner as he crawled through the bowels of this monster. With any luck, he wouldn’t have to increase the setting into the red zone. 

Before he knew it, he was at the exit hatch of his choice—

*****

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

Make sure to check out our official website, like and follow the official StormTeam Simulations Facebook page and @StormteamS, and @JordanFoutin for the latest! 

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Thank you, and happy reading! 

Dark Echoes - Part 22

“Where-are-they?” Another mild hull shudder, this one accompanied the sound of a distant metallic bang.

“Their stealth system is still active. Targeting sensors can’t get a definitive lock yet. I’m recalibrating and trying another sweep. We should have them in the bag in a few minutes,” If they show up on this radar!

The floor subtly vibrated under the rumbling carpet bomb thunder.

“They’re not getting through,”

“What about the Valiant?”

“It’s trying to draw our fire so Odyssey can keep shooting at us. The Valiant’s arming their weapons.”

“Let’s see what they’ve got!”

Suddenly the bridge blacked out and the floor shuddered violently. The crew braced for stability amid a flurry of alarms and alerts.

“Internal explosion on deck seventy! We’ve lost sixty percent of available power!”

“What?”

“Sir! We’ve lost the defensive matrix on the port side!”

“Commander! I have some new information on that dreadnought!” Connors shouted over the booms of torpedo near-misses.

“Whaddya got?” The crew braced against another hull shudder. He realized the dreadnought’s fire was getting closer, quickly—

“That ship’s design isn’t on file—!” Another sharp, abrupt hull shudder. “It was designed and manufactured off of the record because it was privately designed and funded by a politician who was elected under a false alias! The dreadnought was manufactured in a private shipyard controlled by a known terrorist cell—the shipyard isn’t on any of our star charts!” The hull shuddered again. Wilson executed a series of tight barrel rolls and then a wide, full-circle cartwheel as Sandberg fired another particle weapon barrage. “That politician laundered campaign funds to fund the construction of that monster!” Another hull shudder. “They’ve been conspiring to overthrow The Union for almost five years! Congress has charged that guy with treason!”

Another abrupt hull shudder. The crew braced again.

They want to stage a coup? Smith thought.

“That politician was recently declared an enemy of the state after they were investigated by Congress and then later charged with funding a known terrorist cell known because of its anti-Union efforts! The UIA is looking for them! Our people are in trouble!”

The fireball appeared in the viewscreen.

“A huge hole just exploded in their port-side hull! I’m reading a complete failure in their port-side defensive matrix! Connors has her window!” Jones’ declared.

“I’ve still got the lock!”

“Get ‘em outta there!” Smith commanded, taking the center seat amid another series of abrupt hull shudders.

“Valiant reports they’re engaging the dreadnought!” Hayes’ declared. 

*****

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

Make sure to check out our official website, like and follow the official StormTeam Simulations Facebook page and @StormteamS, and @JordanFoutin for the latest! 

Make sure to buy your copy of STORMTEAM, available on Amazon.com in Kindle eBook, softcover, and audiobook! Also available at these fine retailers:

Smashwords.com (Remember to like and share!)

Apple iBooks

Barnesandnoble.com 

Scribd.com 

Kobo.com

Blio.com 

Thank you, and happy reading!