Chapter XXXVII
Date: 126-993
Place: Somewhere over Bromley, near the KGL border
"Captain, one of the vehicles was delayed but civil authorities are arriving as reinforcements and will probably try to cut us off. If we’re forced to leave the main highway I’ll try to let you know. My suggestion however is to look for the massive dust cloud that we and the hover car will be making. Listening for the sound of smallarms fire might be a clue as well."
"Noted and understood, Vasilii," Marcus answers, his eyes still focused on "the road," so to speak. "We’re only a couple of minutes away. Let us know when you turn off and in which direction.
"Martha, be ready to jam the interceptors’ sensors when they’re within range," he orders over the internal comms. "Darishun, be ready to drop the aft cargo hatch on my signal. We’ll be bringing an Amadel on board.
"Emile. The fighters get no quarter."
The captain continues to push the ship for everything she can give him.
Continuing over the comm, Vasilii speaks: "Be advised we’ve turned off the main road and are now headed east. We are still under pursuit and require assistance."
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The Bray Keaven continues streaking towards the border with King George’s Land. After Vargas’ bureaucratic communication with Bat Alpha, the KGL fighters attempt no other communication but do seem to be heading straight for the far trader.
A few seconds later, Vargas — in true Scout "What? No skill in Sensors? No problem" (aka Jack of All Trades) fashion — manages to configure the sensors (and the Bray Keaven’s computer) to track the two fighters. Vargas also configures the sensors such that they quickly pick up the targeting radars that lock onto the far trader 15 seconds from the border.
As soon as the fighters lock on, Martha attempts to jam the radars. Unfortunately, she doesn’t succeed.
Vargas and Martha also pick up the second and third pair of fighters that appear to be scrambling from an airbase near Kingan.
From the cargo bay, Darishun reports that he is ready to lower the rear cargo ramp and render medical aid if needed.
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As the Bray Keaven screams over the border crossing, Marcus spies border guards scattering in surprise. His amusement fades as Vargas yells, "Missile launch! Missile launch from both fighters!"
The pair of fighters are 30km away and closing fast.
Martha redoubles her efforts, dedicating herself to jamming the sensors of the incoming fighters and their missiles. Tapping a quick sequence out on her panel, she activates the library program’s voice input. With a practiced monotone, Martha talks as she works on the exercise before her. "Computer, library access. Request. Engineering. Design specifications. Aircraft. Military. Tech level eight. Common sensor arrays. Output specifications. Summarize and report on screen."
Though the data will take a brief period to correlate, and then it may not even be applicable, she hopes for something useful as she tries to jam the fighters’ sensor arrays.
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In order to give Argent a chance to object, Vargas calls out, "I’m going after the missiles," and begins working on firing solutions for the ship’s lasers, with each laser directed against one missile.
"Do it," the Captain confirms, his eyes still scanning ahead to catch any visual signs of the Amadel and the chase cars. "Martha, can you see anything on the ground yet?"
"Truth be told, Captain, I haven’t been looking. I’ve been trying to jam their sensor arrays.’ Martha makes a few hasty modifications to her on-going efforts. "One sec, and I’ll let you know."
Martha, feeling her jamming efforts aren’t up to par, shifts her attentions to quickly locating the holiday party, using their radio signal with the Captain to help determine their location.
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As the pair of missiles arc towards the Bray Keaven, Vargas directs the computer to target them with the two turrets. The starboard turret fires at the missile launched by Bat Alpha. Unfortunately, both lasers on the starboard turret miss. The laser on the port turret targets the missile launched by Bat Bravo, but it also misses.
Seconds later, the missiles enter their terminal phase. One goes zooming by the Bray Keaven, but the other streaks in towards the front of the ship. Marcus and Vargas both wince as the missile impacts against the far trader’s forward cargo bay ramp/door. Vargas mutters a few choice phrases under his breath.
"Internal ship sensors report no significant damage, Sir," Martha reports. "I’ll be busy straightening out some panels later, but let’s hope that’s the worst of it."
Martha directs the computer to find information on the sensor capabilities of TL8 fighters and their missiles, and then switches to finding the holiday party’s car. Using their communicator transmissions and the Bray Keaven’s sensors, she quickly locates what probably is the holiday party’s ground vehicle. It appears to be heading eastward on a dirt road. There are currently three other vehicles in pursuit. Based on the ship’s current speed, the Bray Keaven should be over the chase in a minute or so.
Martha relays the holiday party’s location to the bridge. "Captain, they currently have three other vehicles in pursuit of them, but we should be there in a Standard minute or so. I don’t know what these fighters will do to them, however, so I recommend we get them out of the sky before we get there."
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To the northwest, the two KGL fighters are still approaching and each fires off another missile before they bank away to get into position for a sternward chase. Further away, the four new fighters are clawing their way to a decent altitude. The new fighters probably will be able to engage in a few minutes.
Vargas starts working the console again. "OK, this time I’m going for the fighters."
"Very well, target and fire at your discretion," Marcus orders. "Thanks, Martha. Try to keep us together back there."
"Aye, aye, Cap’n," Martha mutters under her breath as she continues to jam the bat’s sensors, attempting to interfere with any sudden efforts to lock on.
Marcus takes the Bray Keavan down into a low intercept course to the Amadel, keeping the ships as close to the nape of the earth as possible, trusting his piloting skills to help him to coax the lumbering hulk to do things she wasn’t accustomed to doing.
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The two KGL missiles streak towards the Bray Keaven unimpeded. One malfunctions badly and mistakenly targets a harvesting trailer filled with wheat. There is an explosion of gold–colored bits of plant matter as the missile strikes the trailer. Unfortunately, the other missile stays true and strikes the far trader on the port side just forward of the cargo bay door. Fortunately, the hull holds.
Vargas directs the computer to return fire. The port laser fires on Bat Bravo first, but misses terribly. The starboard lasers fire upon Bat Alpha. Only one laser of the pair hits, but the pilot briefly realizes the folly of attacking a starship while the fighter disintegrates around her.
Marcus keeps the Bray Keaven in nape of earth mode and zooming towards the Amadel. He narrowly avoids a couple of windmills, but his superior flying skills allow him to just miss them. At least they do this time.
Martha’s computer search on TL-8 missiles yields some potentially useful information for jamming purposes if she has the time to factor them into her activities. As she works, she occasionally glances at the graphs, making subtle adjustments here and there as she attempts to factor the data into her jamming efforts, whispering an infrequent lyric or two of a hymn of Saint Elvis as the sweat rolls off her furrowed brow.
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On the bridge, Marcus and Vargas spy the cloud of dust being raised by the ground vehicle chase. The Bray Keaven is now about 30 seconds before arriving over the chase.
Bat Bravo has decided that he really doesn’t want to engage the far trader alone and starts taking evasive maneuvers. The quartet of new fighters is still clawing their way to altitude and will probably be able to engage within a couple of minutes.
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Vasilii’s voice over the comm system. "Captain, I have you in sight southwest of us. Be advised we are still in a combat situation and one of our number is slightly injured. Also the vehicle has sustained damage but is currently still operating."
"Emile, if you can take out the fence without hitting the Amadel or putting a big hole in the ground, do it," Marcus orders as he angles the ship to come up directly behind the pursuit. "If not, take out those mopes behind our boys.
"Darishun, my friend," Marcus adds over the internal comms. "Stand by on the hatch, I’m going to try to get in front of the Amadel on the road, then match their speed or hover. Be ready to drop the hatch on my mark."
In the cargo bay, Darishun responds to Marcus’ instructions, "Yes, I am ready to lower the rear cargo bay ramp. Please remember that the forward ramp is blocked by some seats that we installed for our rescue pickups. I am also standing by to render medical aid if needed. Perhaps if we took a chance to talk to the locals about the impracticality of attacking us, they would let us depart in peace?"
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Marcus brings the Bray Keaven low over the fields and lines up directly behind the pursuit. Due to a sudden gust of wind, he barely misses yet another windmill, and only his skill in piloting saves the Bray Keaven.
Vargas remarks, "I think that firing the lasers at the fence will leave a bit of a hole, so I’ll take out the locals instead." Vargas directs the computer to target the starboard lasers at the constabulary patrol car and the port laser at the hover car further back. Unfortunately, all lasers miss, leaving decent–sized craters of vaporized wheat and soil where they strike. A fire starts near one of the strikes.
A second later, the constabulary car suddenly veers to the right in a cloud of dust and slows down dramatically.
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Meanwhile, Martha is feverishly trying to incorporate the computer’s TL-8 missile data into her jamming efforts. With a flash of inspiration, she succeeds faster than originally expected and manages to break Bat Bravo’s radar lock. She also notices the four new fighters trying to lock on, but they haven’t gotten locks yet due to the range.
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On the bridge, Marcus and Vargas see the Amadel go flying through the gate. The car’s driver manages to keep the car under control briefly, but then the car veers off the road and spins out about 50m from the gate. The two bridge crew see someone being ejected from the front right window and land somewhere nearby in the growing wheat. The ground car comes to a rest after several turns.
The Bray Keaven is now about 100m away from the ground car. There is a hover car closing quickly on the stopped ground car and is 60m away from the ground car. Bat Bravo is 10km away. The four new fighters are about two minutes away from the distance where Bat Alpha and Bravo fired. Given the range of the ship’s weapons, the Bray Keaven can fire on the fighters at any time, assuming that the lasers can bear on the target.
Marcus attempts to spin the ship around and bring it down on top of the pursuing hover car before landing close to the Amadel."Attention: pursuit car," he intones over the external loudspeakers, "I will bring the full force of my weapons to bear on you if you don’t immediately break off pursuit. I don’t think I’d miss you at this range. Also, I suggest you order your interceptors to break off, as well."
Switching to internal comms, Argent adds, "Darishun, drop the hatch and tell the boys to get aboard now!"
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"Hang on, boys," Martha mutters to herself as she continues to jam the sensors of the incoming fighters.
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Marcus brings the Bray Keaven low over the hover car and gently raps the top of the hover car while the external speakers boom his warning over the fields. After holding contact a moment more to make sure that the hover car driver understands the gravity of the situation, Marcus raises the Bray Keaven and sets the far trader down about 30m from the stopped Amadel. Marcus places the starship's nose towards the new inbound fighters so that the starboard turret can bear.
While setting the far trader down, Marcus notes that the hover car has spun around and is heading away from the Amadel at a high rate of speed.
Meanwhile, Vargas directs the port laser and starboard turret to fire at Bat Bravo. Unfortunately, all three lasers miss.
Martha continues her jamming efforts. Bat Bravo is busy performing evasive maneuvers, so isn't trying to lock on. Two of the new fighters fail to lock onto the far trader, but the two other fighters achieve preliminary target locks in spite of Martha’s efforts and will be able to fire shortly.
In the cargo hold, Darishun drops the rear cargo hatch as soon as Marcus announces that they are touching down. As soon as the ship and ramp have descended, Darishun exits the ship and waves to the Amadel to enter.
