The peaceful planet of the Matriarchs is under attack and Gus Johansson and his crew of unlikely heroes aboard the Corvus are called into battle. What can one ship do against a fleet? Gus will need to use every trick in the book, call in some favors, and find some allies if they are going to get out of this mess.
“Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, this is transport Whiskey, Alpha, Bravo 329, Lupine, we are under attack!” a panicked voice came over the comm.
“Transport Lupine, this is Matria Orbital Defense. We copy and are getting a DF on your position keep transmitting,” Sub-lieutenant Desson commed from her station.
“This is Captain Faolan Flannery,” a calm man said. “We were preparing to dock with asteroid hab Lysistrata 223 when a Dellan raider jumped us. The raider is in pursuit. We are under maximum burn for your position Orbital.”
“Rodger Captain,” Desson said. “Are you armed?”
“That’s a negative Orbital. I’ve got a few countermeasures but no offenses.”
Desson turned to the sensor operator, “How long until we can use our first gun battery?”
“The transport will be inside the 90th percentile hit radius in thirty minutes,” the operator said.
“Orbital,” Flannery said. “Can you scramble anything to help hab 223? The raider sortied a boarding party to breach the hab.”
Desson’s fingers ran through the available assets on her console. “I’m launching something now, Captain. I need you to hang on for thirty minutes.”
Faolan turned to his co-pilot and navigator. “Looks like we are going to have to make our own luck, kids.” He released his harness, swung his short legs to the deck, and groaned against the two-gravity acceleration. “You’ve got the conn, Ace,” he said. “I’m going to grab our passenger and try to slow them down a little.”
Captain Flannery was an old friend of Gus Johansson’s. The Lupine was down a vac jockey due to an injury and Gus’s crewman, Drake Sheridan, had volunteered to lend a hand.
“Aye Skipper, Good Luck,” the young man replied.
Flannery slicked back his wavy red hair, grabbed his helmet from the rack, and thumped aft. He slapped a wad of DNA coded sealant on the bridge door and trudged away as it fused the lock.
Drake Sheridan looked up from his nap as the captain stuck his head into the mess deck. “Time to earn your keep, young blood,” Flannery said. “There’s a Dellan raider on our tail and closing. Meet me at the cargo section airlock. I got to grab a few things first.”
“Roger that, Skip,” Drake said. “I still got a few things to settle with the Dellans, anyway.”
The Lupine was built to the common transport design. Containerized cargo fastened in a structural frame made up the forward section. The crew quarters, reaction mass, and engines were the stern.
“Ship, override airlock safety protocol, command code Red Wolf.”
Flannery and Sheridan exited the ship into the open vacuum of the unpressurized cargo frame section. Flannery scanned the cargo and found the container he was looking for. Thirty-three tons of partially refined austenitic taconite pellets for the smelter at Forge.
“What’s the plan,” Drake asked.
“I got a few remote-controlled destruction charges here,” Flannery said. “We are gonna turn this container into a thirty-ton shotgun.”
“I like it!” Drake agreed.
“Captain, that raider is getting close,” Ace said over the comm.
“XO, I know you got this,” Flannery commed.
“What’ve you got planned out there, Skip.”
“I’m gonna leave a surprise for those fellas following us,” Flannery said. “A trick Gus Johansson told me he used once. Pull up a maneuver file called, speed bump.”
“Okay Cap, I got it,” Ace said, as he opened the file and read it and shook his head. “Are you sure about this?”
“Nope, but we aren’t gonna last thirty more minutes,” Flannery said. “They are faster and more maneuverable. This might even our odds. Remember, don’t waste time braking when you get near the Orbital Battery, just keep accelerating.”
“If Gus used this plan, it is probably fifty percent skill, fifty percent luck.” Drake said.
“Okay, sending the file to navigation.” Ace said. “Get your ass back here as soon as you can, Skip,”
“Don’t worry, momma Flannery didn’t raise no heroes,” he said.
Ace checked the external cameras and saw the captain’s short figure passing a giant frame wrench to the much larger Sheridan. Sheridan flipped the tool with practiced ease.
The navigator asked, “What the hell is that guy up to?”
“It looks like he’s loosening the cargo frame locks,” Ace said.
“At two-Gees? Is he crazy?”
Flannery’s voice sounded over the comm. “Ace, start the maneuver.”
“Rodger Cap, hang on.”
Ace cut the engine to zero and the crushing force vanished. He engaged the automated sequence that had been fed into the flight computer. The ship pivoted ninety degrees and stopped.
Sheridan popped the cargo locks, and the ship backed away, casting the cargo frame adrift. The Lupine rotated again to its original heading.
“Skipper, you better hot foot it,” Ace warned. “Ignition in ten seconds.”
Flannery and Sheridan floated to the airlock of the crew section. Flannery hit the door cycle panel and watched it flash red.
“Shit! Damn safety lock won’t open if it senses a thrust sequence in progress,” Flannery knew he didn’t have time to fuck around arguing with the computer. “Ace, we are locked out. Good Luck!”
Flannery saluted the camera feed and disappeared from the screen.
The computer rattled the final moments. “Three, two, one, execute.”
The crushing acceleration returned. Free of the cargo section, Lupine was now topping three and a half gees.
“Matria Orbital this is Lupine,” Ace choked. “We have two men overboard.”
