Con-Red: Recourse Read online

  Felix increased his speed as much as the ship’s systems would let him and closely monitored the enemy craft pursuing him. At the same time he continued his erratic zigzag pattern of flying above the treetops, trying his best to not give them a sitting target. As he watched the enemy try their best to line up proper kill shots, Felix’s mind couldn’t help but wonder why they were expanding so much energy on direct line of site weapons. They had proven only moments ago that they had missiles capable of destroying the shuttle, so why did they switch tactics all of the sudden, Felix thought, when they could have finished them off already.

  The time for those mysteries to be solved would have to wait, however, as more flames and smoke appeared in front of him. He flew through the rising line of smoke and glowing ambers and watched as the two fighters followed him. One went through the smoke cloud as well, while the other swung around it and held a straight line of flight instead of following Felix’s bank to the left. He was confused for a second as the distance between them grew larger, but a series of flashes from the larger ship hovering above them caught his eye through the rear-facing camera. A series of explosions followed those flashes almost immediately, creating a wall of fire directly in front and to the left of his path.

  A series of concussions in rapid fire succession passed over the shuttlecraft and caused Felix’s primitive instincts to almost take over. It was only his advanced training and wartime experience that prevented him from pulling the ship away from the explosive fire ahead of him and into the opposite direction. His mind ran through the calculations as if on automatic, identifying the ploy even before his instincts could overpower him. He now realized why that other enemy fighter had gone wide. The gunship-like ship was trying to herd him into an optimal firing position for that second fighter.

  Not wanting to give the enemy the satisfaction, Felix allowed himself a slight cocky grin as he did the exact opposite of what was expected of him and turned directly into the ascending smoking inferno. He punched through the flames without a problem and proceeded towards his intended destination, which was rapidly approaching. Just hold on for a few more minutes, he willed the damaged shuttlecraft.

  Felix reached over to punch in the overrides to the ship’s safety protocols in order to cox as much speed from the craft as possible when a horrible singeing and scraping sound resounded throughout the ship. He looked back towards the cabin in time to a see a shimmering yellow beam slice through the entire left side from stern to bow. This beam was accompanied by a tremendous shower of sparks from the conduits and subsystems that ran along the top of the cabin. For the second time in as many minutes the controls surrounding Felix blinked off and the shuttle lost all power, but unlike before there was no sudden resurrection for the craft. Instead, with the engines nonfunctional and the repulsor field projectors without power, the ship lost all control and fell towards the forest below.

  As they arced towards the tree canopy, Felix took a deep breath and leaned back into his pilot’s chair. There was nothing else to he could do and so he would just have to wait and see what happened to them all.

  “Get ready, it’s going to be a bumpy landing,” he called back towards Nolan through the comm.

  Felix never heard if his partner replied back before the shuttle’s blunt nose clipped one of the tall Fronta trees. The slight impact triggered the ship’s crash response system, which was a self-contained and heavily shielded unit, causing crash webbing to eject from both sides of the pilot and occupied passenger seats. Within a fraction of a second the malleable webbing surrounded each seated member from neck to ankle and tightened automatically to secure everyone firmly in their place in preparation for a collision.

  The events thereafter unfolded before him in adrenaline induced slow-motion. One second he was looked at the dense tree canopy and in the next he was being spun around in a clockwise direction. His vision was a quick blur, too fast for his eyes to register distinct details, but even so Felix thought he saw a blossoming explosion at the previous location of one of the small enemy ships. He wasn’t able to form another complete thought as he felt a sudden weightlessness, which finally culminated in a horrible crushing sound and sensation from the rear of the shuttle.

  That weightlessness was caused by the other part of the crash response system. At a pre-calculated altitude the antigravity generator activated just before ground impact and bled off as much velocity as possible with an opposing force to the planetary pull. As such any damage from the crash was greatly reduced and the gravity free environment allowed for a decreased chance of injury to the passengers within. Felix experienced the effectiveness of the system first hand when he opened his eyes and gazed out of the cockpit viewport into the blue and gray sky above crash.

  It didn’t take the sergeant long to see that they still weren’t out of the woods, so to speak. A dark colored delta-winged craft, with two orange stripes on each wing, and a large central ventral air intake was turning towards them in the distance. Felix watched as the fighter quickly lined up with the downed shuttle and accelerated towards them. The fighter’s nose dipped forward slightly to line up for a ground attack. With nowhere left to run and no time to get everyone out of the shuttle, Felix did what any soldier in his place would, he reached down to grab the sidearm hanging around his thigh through the crash-webbing.

  Before he could even pull the weapon out, however, a large red beam of light impacted the left wing of the fighter. Another lancing beam quickly followed the first, this time targeting the craft’s underside. Felix almost let out a cheer, but instantly realized that neither shot had done any damage to the fighter. The ship’s skin seemed to glow for a second, but quickly return to normal no worse for wear.

  His moment of victory came only seconds after, when a spark of fire appeared seemingly in midair above the forest. At the front of that light was a relatively small elongated shape that gave off a slight shimmer when the sun hit it. Having used the weapon previously himself, Felix recognized the MP-85 Slammer missile instantly and followed its tiny contrail as it instantly accelerated into the sky at over six times the speed of sound. It sped past the enemy fighter’s altitude in less than a second, seeming to miss it completely, but the grin forming on Felix’s lips never disappeared. Without fail the contrail ceased in midair, if only for a fraction of a second, until the motor reignited, only this time the missile was accelerating down instead of up.

  Everything happened so fast that the fighter never had the time to react. One moment it was flying towards its prey and the next a high explosive anti-armor warhead was penetrating through its outer skin. Just before the explosion ripped the craft in two along the middle, Felix saw a quick flash from what seemed like the fighter’s shields. The missile was designed with heavily shielded targets in mind and therefore contained a tandem warhead. The first charge had the job of punching a hole through shields and propelling the second warhead into the heart of the target to detonate internally.

  Even as the fighter remains fell to the ground Felix knew he had to suppress his excitement, at least for the time being, since there was still another ship in the sky hunting them all. That large gunship type ship would most likely be tougher to put down than its smaller brethren. He scanned the sky slowly with his eyes and it didn’t take long for his visor to locate the large rounded vessel. His image zoomed in and followed the craft as it turned towards them, cautiously descending towards the forest in a search sort of search pattern, looking for those responsible in the deaths of its comrades.

  This being the case, Felix knew that everyone inside the downed shuttle would be easy prey should the enemy decide to pursue them further. He let go of the pistol grip and pushed his hand down further along the lines of the pilot’s chair until he felt a small rounded bump just below the seat padding. Reaching back just a bit he felt for the opening at the rear of the bump and slid his armored hand inside. It was a tight fit, but his fingertips finally found the four impressions within. He pushed down against buttons loc
ated under his fingers and felt them click upon the slight compression.

  A soft sheering sound echoed through the cockpit the instant he pressed the buttons down and the crash-webbing around his torso and legs detached from the back of the chair. Felix finally pushed his arms out and pushed the lightweight mesh away from his body, dropping it on the floor as he stood up. He turned around awkwardly inside the tight confines of the now tilted cockpit and ducked his head down a little while making his way cautiously through the short corridor extending towards the passenger cabin at the rear. Felix held onto the sides of the aisle as he descended into the downward tilted cabin

  He looked over at Nolan and saw his partner getting out of the tight webbing as well, so he proceeded toward General Stelle’s still unconscious body. His uniform’s bioscanner displayed the general’s vital signs on Felix’s visor, informing him that the general was no worse for wear from the crash. It seemed that during the battle the general’s body had actually recovered, with the help of the administered medical compounds, from borderline critical to stable. With a sigh of relief he reached over and triggered the crash-webbing release as his other arm rested against General Stelle’s shoulder to keep the man from falling over.

  From behind Felix heard the sound of Nolan standing up and soft mocking groan from the Specialist in his helmet speakers. “Remind me to never ask you for a ride, Sarge.”

  Felix grinned a little inside his helmet and looked over towards Nolan coming over towards him, “Specialist Velarsk, what makes you think I would ever offer you a ride? Anyways I think I did a pretty good parking job. Even got us a nice view.”

  He turned his body slightly to gesture at the forward cockpit viewport and the sky beyond when he heard something heavy hit the side of the shuttle. Felix quickly glanced towards the right side of the cabin, recognizing the sound of heavy footsteps making their way along the outside of the craft. Setting General Stelle’s body back into its former seat, both Nolan and Felix reached for the carbines still magnetically attached to their armored chest plates. Felix slipped his hand around the grip quickly and felt the weapon release into his hand. The PC-105 carbine instantly activated, causing the upper portion to push up and forward at the same time as a short barrel extended from between the upper and lower.

  Both Nolan and he braced themselves against a row of seats to steady themselves in the tilted environment and put the general behind them for protection. They just got into position when a portion of the cabin’s side exploded out, leaving a rectangular hole from which sunlight shone through. Felix knew someone on the outside had triggered the explosive bolts on the emergency hatch. As he watched the opened hatch with his HUD crosshairs moving slowly side to side, a large dark figure dropped effortless through the opening onto the uneven cabin deck, surrounded by a halo of bright light.

  Felix let out a slowly breath in relief and allowed himself another smile as soon as his visor identified the new occupant in friendly green as Colonel Duntan Slaige. Relaxing a little for the first time, Felix stood up from his half-crouch and lowered his weapon towards the cabin’s deck. He watched Nolan repeat his actions and stand up as tall as possible in the presence of their superior, but the Colonel just stood there in silence for a long second and looked at both soldiers before his eyes seemed to find General Stelle slumped over behind Felix’s bulk.

  “You both going to just stand there or can we get the hell out of here?” Sergeant Logwari finally heard over his comm.

  “Yes sir, ready to go,” Felix replied as he turned towards Nolan, “Specialist, grab the General and any medical supplies you can salvage, we’re outta here.”

  He looked back towards the open hatch in time to watch Colonel Slaige make his way effortlessly up towards the shuttle’s cockpit. It wasn’t his place to inquire about the man’s actions so he moved towards the hatch instead, with Nolan following closely behind him and the general draped over his shoulder. Felix stepped into the light flowing through the emergency opening and let it wash over him for a moment before flexing his legs and leaping up through it.

  The shuttle’s metallic skin held firm under him as his heavy frame landed on top of it. He took note of the pair of heavily armed marines guarding the hatch the instant he emerged from inside the ship. Taking a long look around, Felix’s vision settled on the shuttle’s damaged rear end and dark streaks of scaring running along parts of the ship’s body. Scattered among those scars were holes of various shapes and sizes from the missile that had hit them earlier. Thankful to actually have the chance of checking out the damage he walked away from the hatch and jumped down from the wreck to the forest floor below.

  The renewed experience of being on solid ground again was nothing compared to the feeling he felt when his armor connected to an actual working battlefield tactical network. His visor lit up instantly with countless updates and Felix stood there motionless for a moment while the data washed over him. Even though it had been only mere hours since his evacuation from the Cave, the separation from a constant flow of information had started to get to him. It was a condition increasingly common among soldiers and even regular civilians who, from birth or occupation, have been exposed to a never ending supply of data. After years of constant access to a global network, it was easy for certain predisposed individuals to become addicted, just like a multitude of various chemical compounds.

  Information withdrawal, as the psychologists termed it, became a condition that seemed to plague many soldiers whenever they got isolated from a data network. This was primarily due to the years they spent in training on how to work as a team and as such to exchange as much data among each other as possible to help accomplish the mission. Some individuals simply had difficulty transitioning back to a non-networked life in which they could never again know what others were thinking or doing ahead of time. Not having information at ones beck and call could be somewhat to traumatic, psychologically.

  With the information now at hand, however, Sergeant Logwari accessed it freely in order to find out what was happening around him. Somewhere above the forest hovered a small drone transmitting data to all friendly units within the area. The first of the filtered updates showed up on Felix’s overlaid map as small icons representing the three marines that had come to help Nolan and him. As he had guessed, they were part of the Marine Special Operations Group with Colonel Slaige as their commanding officer. In fact the Colonel seemed to be the highest ranking officer within the battlefield.

  His map flashed again as it registered two new members joining the TacNet. Those two happened to be Nolan and General Stelle respectively as the former climbed out of the shuttle. Felix started to turn towards his partner when a large, green shaded, armored figure landed in front of him. It was one of the marines that had been guarding the hatch only moments ago. The figure’s large hand reached out and slapped Felix’s right shoulder.

  “Good job getting the General out of there, Army. The landing could have used some practice though,” a feminine voice called out to him with humor before the suit identified her as First Sergeant Katherine Questok on Felix’s HUD.

  He shook his head slightly and let out a laugh, “maybe you can give me a few pointers when this mess is done with...ma’am.”

  “Ha, you wish Army. I doubt you could handle my lessons anyways,” she snapped back quickly with a laugh, which ended rather abruptly as she spun on her heels to look back at the crashed shuttle.

  Caught by surprise Felix stepped to Katherine’s side, in order to see what happened, just in time to watch Colonel Slaige climb out of the shuttle’s emergency hatch. The man looked around for a moment and nodded to the marine still standing guard on one side of the opening. That same marine, Sergeant First Class Martinez ‘Joker’ Liandro, reached back into a small pack attached to his backside armor and produced what appeared to be a small satchel charge. As Duntan Slaige jumped down to the purple flower covered forest floor, Joker tossed the square shaped object into the shuttle’s interior.

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sp; Felix instantly snapped to attention with his weapon tight across his chest when he saw Colonel Slaige turn towards him and start moving in his direction. The Colonel carried a data storage drive in his left hand, which he quickly stuffed into his side pouch upon coming to a stop in front of Felix.

  “Sir, thank you for the assist,” Sergeant Logwari quickly said as he eyed the imposing man in front of him.

  “The least we could do Sergeant. Good job with getting the General out of there,” Duntan replied with a short pause. “Plus it gave us a chance to get these bastards back some for their attack.”

  “Yes sir. Only one ship remaining.”

  “Yeah, we have something in store for him as well,” the Colonel replied and turned his head slightly to look over Felix’s shoulder and into the sky beyond.

  Intrigued Felix turned to follow Duntan’s gaze and quickly found the enemy gunship in the distance, still moving in their general direction. The Colonel spoke through the TacLink system again, “package secured, Hammer is a go, repeat Hammer is a go.”

  Felix watched as with that given command a solid beam of blue-white light flashed across the sky and struck the large ship on its right side. A brilliant crimson wave ran over the entire side of the ship, radiating from the site of impact, as the particle beam hit the gunship’s shields before it could reach the hull beneath. Four more beams followed the first without much respite between them, each one targeting within the same area as the first. One after the other they impacted the shields protecting the enemy craft and with each one Felix could see the glow from them fading more and more. It was finally the last shot that hammered through and stung the hull plating. There was no great explosion as there was with the fighter, but even a great distance Felix could see the armor plating buckle and dent internally before a series of large cracks radiated from the point of impact.

  Once the gunship’s protective field showed its weakness more deadly particle beams descended upon it, like a swarm of bees. Tens of the glowing lances struck the hovering craft in short volleys. By the amount of fire raining on the enemy, Felix estimated that it was coming from a full company of tank. Even with a full TacNet disruption the targeting systems on those tanks remained completely functional, as was proven when most of the beams slammed almost on top of the first impact. Under the saturated fire the heavy armor plating fractured and weakened before finally exploding out as some of the particle beams penetrated into the ship. The accompanying fireball jettisoned from the created opening and informed everyone in the vicinity of the minor victory, which was accompanied by a number of soft hoots over the TacNet from soldiers scattered throughout the dense forest.