Hard Nova Read online

  Jakob banked the fighter and set course for his wingman…er…woman.

  Scarred hulls and shredded armor flew past him. He tried not to focus on anything except his path. Vague warnings popped up on his sensors. Something was coming.

  The Fury shed velocity and spun in an arc around a battered frigate. There he saw the Vulture light fighter. The slender ship was normally a graceful needle; Blue Six looked like a beaten 16-penny nail.

  “You look like shit, Blue.”

  “You look even worse, Silver.”

  Jakob smiled to himself and kept running through his checklists. “I’m bingo missiles.”

  “I know. We all are. I’ve got three minutes of cannon fire.”

  He checked; he had nine. “Right, how ya wanna play it?”

  “You a fighter jockey?” Blue Six called in her slow drawl.

  “Bomber boy.”

  Blue Six groaned. “You shoot the missiles, got it? I’ll keep the flies off yer fat ass.”

  Jakob flipped up his tactical displays and cancelled the normal view. Icons dropped off, and he set the filter for an ultra-high-velocity suborbital missile. They’d come up slow and then suddenly shed the massive booster. At that point they were barely bigger than a fighter and nothing but propellant and violence.

  Fusion blasts flared off the lead frigates. They lumbered a slow drop and used the atmosphere to help brake themselves. Railgun rounds arced away from the TU battleships and clipped over the horizon. With each blast, they left a violet-blue streak through the sky.

  “Here we go!”

  The massive boosters burst through the cirrus clouds in an explosion of orange and white. A few moments later, heavy canisters dropped away.

  Jakob struggled to pick the missiles up on his sensors. Nothing. It was dead. He flipped on active scan, just for a second, and picked it up. “Got it!”

  His Fury dropped low, and he punched the thrusters. The ship banked to one side, and he felt the thin tug of atmosphere. It shook and shuddered. Thermal alarms sounded in his ears.

  “Bandits,” Blue Six said in her quiet voice.

  Jakob focused on his path. Another Fury shot past and then suddenly exploded in a cloud of fire. He barely managed to clear the debris field.

  A Qin interceptor blasted past. Then another. One of them banked hard. Jakob saw it out of the corner of his eye but focused on the missile.

  The slender charge bounced from side to side. It darted erratically but stuck on a course directly for the lumbering Midway.

  Jakob swung lower and felt the air rip at him even more. The air swung his ship faster than it would’ve turned. Then he shot up right on the missiles ass. It danced from side to side. He shot out a burst that went wide.

  The whole nose was cocked from some previous fight. He gritted his teeth and used some Kentucky windage. He never knew where the hell the term came from, but it was older than anyone he knew.

  Rounds zipped through space, and one finally connected with the Qin missile. Propellant shot out, and it spun like a wild top. Then it coasted, and Jakob punched in three more to seal the deal.

  It was only then that he focused on what was around him. The Qin battle line was looming large, but at the same moment the TU fleet was boring straight in.

  “Another batch coming up, fat boy!” Blue Six called. “Sweet Jesus, the Qin fleet is attacking!”

  Jakob took a breath, counted his rounds, and hit the booster once more.

  The sky lit up with weapons fire as all of the TU heavies fired out flak. Qin interceptors shot past on a mission to hammer the TU fleet while the escorts struggled to attack the missiles. As it was, one got past and a Corvette, a lithe and delicate ship normally used to run escorts, disappeared completely.

  “You missed one, fat boy. Gotta do better!”

  Jakob exhaled, hit the throttle, and set out on the hunt.

  ####

  Claire rushed through the hallways. She followed behind a medical team that had one task: extract information and DNA from the prisoners so they could finally reconnect the orbital defenses. This was it, she thought, the end. All they had to do was remove the lock on the computer systems and the TU fleet would be done.

  P’Vet waited at the armored entrance to the submersible bay. “You must hurry! Our fleet is attacking!”

  “Yes, P’Vet. Commander Davos is bringing them in.”

  “Time is essential. Our fleet is being seriously degraded.”

  The lead of the med team walked up to Claire. She gave a salute and spoke. “The prisoners are both sedated. The extraction process can begin once they’re inside.”

  “And what of Rob?” Claire asked.

  “Davos reports that he was killed in the fighting.”

  P’Vet said, “And so it is done.”

  Claire turned away from the medical team. One brother dead. The other about to be. For just a second, she wondered who the real monster was. She composed herself and nodded to one of the human guards. “Open it.”

  The human guards stepped to the edges while the cyborg guards stood in the center. The lock pins slammed back with a clunk. The cyborgs pulled the hatch back. Damp ocean air flooded inside in a cool wave.

  The submersible was just rising up through the energy field.

  The medical team pushed through two gurneys with IV bags and dermal patches laid out. The cyborg guards stepped closer to the edge of the water. A mechanical arm latched the submersible and pulled it in to the dock.

  “Your brother earned his end,” P’Vet said.

  Claire didn’t say anything. She’d written Robert off long ago, after what he’d done to their grandfather. He never shared the vision. “Yes, he did.”

  The hatch of the submersible swung open. Inside she could see a crush of people.

  Davos stepped out with his heavy fusion rifle cradled in his arms. He took two steps and beckoned into the sub. “Get them.”

  One of the cyborgs stepped ahead, and the medical team closed on the door.

  Claire took a step back.

  Davos turned, leveled his rifle, and opened fire. The blistering white rounds knocked one of the cyborgs into the water. The rounds stitched to the side and blasted a hole through the center of P’Vet. The human guards returned fire, but both were leveled in a second.

  Claire ran. She sprinted past the Qin’s steaming corpse. She felt the heat of a fusion round burn past her.

  More rounds fired from inside of the submersible and massacred the waiting medical team.

  The second cyborg surged past Claire and crouched with its heavy cannon aimed at the sub. Fusion rounds glanced off its armor.

  Claire leaped up the steps and dove through the hatch. A searing burn clipped her on one shoulder. She knew the feel: a ricocheted fusion round.

  A high-pitched crack of a sniper rifle dropped the other cyborg. It fell in a heap.

  Armored suits surged out of the submarine.

  Claire tried to engage the closing mechanism, but it was too heavy. Her hand stung as a slug slammed against the steel just inches from her. She took one last look and sprinted down the hall.

  The traitor was alive.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Gavin rushed out of the submersible with Rob’s pistol clenched tight in two hands. He swept the barrel across the room and saw only corpses. “Clear!”

  Brutus advanced through the door with Victor just behind. The two poured fire down the long hallway. Three of Brutus’s soldiers advanced just behind them. They leapfrogged up the hall from one doorway to the next, tossing in grenades as they went. The heavy whop-whop of the fusion rifle was deafening. The air smelled of the sea and burnt meat.

  Jack crawled out behind the others and gagged. He turned away from the corpses lining the dock.

  Rob ran up to the hatch. He pointed at Lopez and Cross. “You hold this exit!”

  Lopez jogged up to the edge and tucked himself next to the wall.

  “Boss?” Cross said to Gavin.

  �
�Your sniper can keep anyone from moving up that hall,” Rob said.

  “Do it, Cross,” Gavin said. He knew he could trust Cross to hold; as long as he had the rounds in his rifle, nothing would advance.

  The sounds of gunfire and explosions rocketed down the hall. A heavy thud blasted out, and then it was silent for a moment.

  “They’re going to breach the main access now,” Rob said.

  Gavin helped Jack across the dock and hunched down next to the wall.

  “What then?” Jack said.

  “Then you get to work your magic,” Rob said. He pulled out a TU pistol and looked at Gavin. “Stay close. We won’t have much time.”

  “Time until what?” Lopez said. He sighted down his weapon.

  “Until the Qin blow this facility.”

  Jack groaned.

  A massive explosion shuddered through the room. Bits of dust and debris rattled free from the ceiling. The pool of water behind them rocked back and forth. A sickly-smelling air washed into the room.

  “That’s it!” Rob said. He stood and moved through the hatch. “C’mon!”

  Gavin walked right behind Rob with his pistol at the ready. Jack was close behind. At each door they passed, Rob moved past without even looking.

  Gavin turned and looked inside one. Smoke rose up from the center of the room; a few human corpses were scattered about. He recognized grenade damage.

  “This is the human wing. The Qin have their own space,” Rob said.

  “Oh God,” Jack said. He covered his mouth with one hand and stifled another gag.

  They rushed ahead and came to another airlock. This one was shredded apart. Molten metal solidified on the hinges, and the whole thing was askew. The blast had been terrible enough to crack the wall itself.

  On the other side, the rooms were distinctly different. The passages were smoother, with walls of stone and conduit. The doorways were smaller, and the air still had an odd tint to it. A few Qin corpses lay along the route, but mostly it was clear.

  Rob led them into a room just before a wide chamber. In the center stood a bank of computer systems with heaps of cables running into the walls. A single Qin lay dead a few meters away from it.

  Jack pushed past Gavin and whipped out his data pad. He squatted on the floor next to a console, popped open a service panel, and connected the data pad.

  “This is it,” Rob said. He stepped close to Gavin and clasped both hands onto his shoulders.

  Gavin grinned back. So much fighting, so much death, and here, finally they could defeat the Qin fleet.

  Jack stood and pushed his eye next to a camera. He exhaled loudly and then sat back down. “It works! Half the lock is done!”

  Rob slapped Gavin on the shoulder. “Now you, go!”

  Gavin ran up to the camera. The dim black disc winked at him.

  “Now take a breath,” Jack said. “Just like last time.”

  Again, as he’d done weeks before, Gavin calmed himself and thought of home. He pictured the shores, the sea, the way the clouds were. Then an old memory cropped up, his mother tending to Claire and Rob. They were so little.

  He opened his eyes and stared into the camera.

  The screens suddenly changed. The Qin text dropped away and was replaced by a simple text interface. A database flickered on one side. There were no markings on the text, just a single character for each menu and an equation alongside. It was cryptic and totally impossible to decipher.

  “Where’s the Qin command system?” Rob said.

  “Got it! The lock is off. Transferring control now. I had to write my own interface. It’s no problem, I can control it.” Jack said excitedly. “Now we—“

  “Good-bye, brother,” Rob said.

  Gavin turned with a questioning look on his face.

  Rob raised his pistol and fired a round right into Gavin’s chest.

  Gavin squeezed the trigger on his own pistol but nothing happened. It fell from his hands and clattered to the floor. “Brother…” The word slipped from his lips.

  Jack clambered away and struggled to draw his pistol. Rob was on him in a second and punched him squarely in the face. “You do as I say or I’ll shoot you!”

  “Fuck you! What are you doing?” Jack yelled. He scrambled to reach Gavin.

  Rob latched onto him and jammed his pistol against Jack’s head. “We’ve got orbital defenses to reprogram. Now move!”

  Gavin stumbled ahead one step and then fell onto his face. He focused on Rob and then on Jack. He tried to speak, but no words would come. Instead, he watched in silence as Rob dragged Jack, struggling, out of the room.

  Then he was alone.

  ####

  Jack tried to break free. He pulled his arm back, threw a punch, and was rewarded with another smack to his face. His eyes blurred.

  What had happened shocked him. Gavin was the tough one, the one who should survive, the one who was saving his ass. Now it was all down to him to try and make this right. His hunch had proven right. Now if I can just get a few seconds to engage this program.

  “Victor,” Rob called down the hall. “Head back to the sub, clear it out.”

  Jack yanked his arm again and shouted out. “Cross! They’re—“

  Rob slammed his fist into Jack’s stomach.

  The wind blasted out of Jack, and he couldn’t even gasp.

  Victor marched past and calmly slid another magazine into his weapon. “The old man is right there.”

  The sound of gunfire was more sporadic. It came in fits and bursts. Occasionally something would cry out.

  The two turned. Rob stepped up to the door and halted. “If you so much as move, I’ll shoot you in the stomach.”

  Jack couldn’t even nod; his entire abdomen was seized up tight.

  Rob pushed open the door with his pistol. The gasketed door creaked open. Inside was a complete medical suite. Machines hummed and pumped liquids through tubing that all ran to a low medical bed.

  Jack stumbled in behind Rob. He bent over and wrapped both hands tight on his stomach. A few breaths finally came, first in ragged gasps and then smoothly. When he looked up, Rob stood next to the bed and simply stared down at whoever was on it.

  The machines hummed and purred. Something hissed and, moments later, another machine pushed air. There were mechanical sounds—the sounds of death being held at bay.

  Jack scanned the room but saw nothing he could use. He thought about trying to sneak out but decided against it; the door was a few meters away and he had no doubt that Rob would shoot him. If there was one thing Jack wanted to avoid, it was being shot anywhere.

  Rob said something, but Jack couldn’t hear it. Then Rob leaned forward over the frail figure on the bed and ripped out every single cord and cable.

  The person on the bed struggled weakly for a moment and then collapsed.

  Rob stood up straight and watched for a second before dragging Jack out of the room.

  They came to a multitiered room with a massive starscape hovering in the air. Icons for both fleets winked all around it. Missile icons rose up from the oceans and headed directly for the TU fleet. The two lines were close, almost touching, and every few seconds the icons updated. A massive cloud of pixels danced in between both fleets. Jack guessed that those were the interceptors.

  At the first tier were low-level workstations. Qin corpses lay strewn all across: some dead at their stations, others sprawled out on the floor.

  Jack passed the corpses and studied the layout of the workstations. He knew he didn’t have much time. In a few short minutes, he had to scrape together something that Rob couldn’t control. The consoles all seemed similar to what he’d worked with on the captured Qin starship.

  As they climbed to the next tier, he caught a glimpse of the working guts of the computer system. There, beneath the tiers, was the computer system that did all of the hard work to coordinate an entire planetary defense. It was now wide open to Jack.

  At the very top, the master control workstat
ions all showed the same thing: Jack’s program.

  Rob beckoned to the nearest workstation with the pistol. “Sit. We’re going to even the odds.”

  ####

  Kane stood in the center of the chaos and listened as orders and information came in from every front. One eye watched the orbital display while the other focused on progress on the ground. Another round of missiles was due up any second.

  They’d moved to a secondary command center after an electrical fire started in the main cells. Now, instead of a wide-open, ergonomic work area, they were packed into what was normally used for training.

  “Sir!” a marine called to Kane. “Admiral Hayabusa is requesting to speak with you.“

  “Thank you, I’ll take it here.” Kane lifted his comm set to his ear. “Hiro?”

  A voice crackled on the other side. He pushed it tighter onto his head and finally adjusted it properly.

  “…you hear me?”

  “I hear you, what’s the status?”

  “Kane, we’re holding the missiles, but in a few more barrages my fighters are out of ammo. If we bring them back in, we’ll miss a barrage. We can’t sustain that! Our frigates and destroyers are getting torn up; we need that close support. Without fighters, they’re being hammered by the flak around them.”

  “The fleet must hold. We must stand—“

  “They didn’t make it, Kane. We need a secondary plan. I’m going to break some of the fleet free, look like we’re flanking, and then I’m going to withdraw what’s left.”

  “And then what!” Kane bellowed. “Get chased down and shot one by one?”

  Hiro spoke calmly. “The Qin fleet won’t chase. We’ve got an army trapped on the ground, forty-some million men.”

  “You will not.” Kane spoke with conviction. “You will not trade those soldiers for your own ships.”

  “Be rational, Kane. We’ve got the troops to replace them. If we lose this fleet, it’ll take us a decade to build more.”

  “No.”

  “Kane, you’re under too much stress. You have to—“

  “No. You will do your duty.”

  Kane ended the call and frowned. He saw the staff around him trying to do their job and staring at him at the same time.