Operation Orion - Kevin Dockery [10]
Jackson nodded. The familiar tingle of adrenaline was kicking in. “Each drop boat has a full vidscreen array, just installed,” the captain continued. “We’ll send you real-time updates as we get the images. Good luck.”
For only the second time in history, the U.S. Navy SEALS got ready to drop from the frigate on a combat mission. It took less than thirty minutes for the Team to deploy into the two drop boats. The navy coxswains and a pilot and a copilot, as well as a gunner, would operate the craft while the SEALS got ready for full-vacuum environment. Jackson commanded the Teammates aboard Mikey with Master Chief Ruiz as senior NCO; Sanders and Harris fulfilled those roles on Tommy.
Jackson turned on his screen and looked at the images and readouts pouring directly from the CIC’s main computer. They were approaching two spaceships, it was clear. One of them was a large vessel matching the image of the Lotus he had seen earlier; the other was a much smaller ship with two massive engine pods.
“We’re picking up energy weapon discharges from the smaller ship,” Carstairs was explaining in the lieutenant’s earphones. “There’s an IR thumbprint in the stern half of the Lotus. Her forward quarter is as dark and cold as space itself.”
“She’s under attack, then,” Jackson deduced.
“Yes. I want your Team to stay put until we get a little closer. The range is eight thousand klicks and closing fast.”
“Aye, aye, sir. Can you download the deck plan schematics for the Lotus into Mikey’s computer?”
“Good idea. I’ll have it done,” the frigate’s skipper responded.
Jackson was examining the blueprints, finely detailed, that displayed the various passages, compartments, holds, and machinery of the Lotus when the Pegasus was rocked by a powerful jolt. The SEALS, each man strapped in, felt the lurch but maintained position. The lieutenant’s earphones crackled into life.
“Drop boats! Away all boarders!” Carstairs barked. “Make for the Shamani ship. We’re taking fire from the bogey, and I’m going to bring all hell down on that buccaneer.”
Immediately the hangar doors slid open, revealing the fiery bulk of Alpha Centauri. The star appeared to be unsettlingly close to them, though it was still many millions of kilometers away. The launch rockets exploded, propelling the two drop boats away from the frigate, and immediately the engines blasted, guiding the two small craft straight toward the star. With his visor down, Jackson saw their target, a slim outline of shadow against the brightness of the flaming thermonuclear surface. The filters in the canopy and hull of the boats kept the temperature at a tolerable level, but even so Jackson could feel the warmth on his face.
The other ship was nearby, and as they flew closer, he saw specks of light blinking from the hull. With a sick churn of his stomach, he realized that he was observing the blasts of an energy weapon, probably the thing that had given the frigate such a blast. If a beam from that caught one of the little boats, his Team could vanish in an instant. The sense that he had utterly no control over this part of the mission tossed his guts into an acidic lake. If only he could do something!
He saw sparks of light astern and saw that the rapidly receding Pegasus was blasting away with the particle cannon. The eerie green beam flickered in his eyes, but he knew it was a constant barrage, like a stream of water moving at the speed of light. The smaller ship—he had come to accept Carstairs’s assessment of it as a buccaneer—moved away from the Lotus, engines blazing. The energy weapon on the pirate ship flashed again, but Jackson sensed that it was firing wildly now.
The Shamani ship was expanding to fill their field of view, fortunately blocking out some of the intense radiance of the star. Jackson recognized it from the image in the SIC but saw immediately that the forward hull section had been riddled with violent impacts. Dark, airless holes gaped along that section of the ship, and in places he could see all the way through