31. Descent into hell
"Nooooooooo"
William saw in horror as the emergency pod indicated that it was getting hit and then stopped sending vitals. That was the second pod in less than thirty seconds and meant that someone was deliberately killing his squad’s life support pods.
"Tellus control, I am ditching this mission and am going to intercept the pods of the Banzai call signs."
No response, static. He turned the Atlas away from the course towards the system wormhole and engaged the turbo once more boosting for the jump point to the sector where the emergency pods were, where Janice and their unborn baby were. Another pod winked out and William punched the screen hard cracking it and making him remember the two smashed knuckles.
"Aaaah stop it you fucking maniac!"
Another winked out before William could jump into the sector. A single SVG that was rather damaged flew from a small piece of wreckage towards another pod. He opened the inter sector hail.
"Stop it Serco. For the sake of Eo, stop it."
"Sorry Tani, orders."
He saw in horror as the SVG destroyed another pod and shouted impotently in rage. He boosted directly for the SVG intent on it destruction before it could destroy the remaining five pods. The SVG ignored him and likewise boosted hard for one of the pods. William checked the readout and winced. Banzai 07, Tatting, the new kid was never going to have a chance to invite that girl from the Baked Onion out on a date. The SVG destroyed the pod and the life behind with too little effort switching target immediately. William found Janice's pod and moved to block access to it. The SVG destroyed two more pods making William nauseous. It was his best friends that were getting executed there and all he could do was watch. The SVG turned towards William and the two pods that were behind his Atlas. It moved in a slow barrel roll forward until it was within 800 metres of the Atlas where it hit the turbo and surged forward at great speed. William fired a spread of flares and mega positron beams at the SVG but due to the unexpected burst of speed he overshot and missed. The SVG fired a set of neutrons that William dodged easily. He was however not the target and the pod behind him didn't dodge taking the beams head on. It was completely destroyed leaving one pod left; Janice's.
William focused on the SVG as it twisted out of his reach setting up for another run. It rolled slowly inwards but he kept his fire. Suddenly it accelerated and he shot a single flare towards the SVG firing the mega positron below the light fighter. It evaded upwards but still sniped off a set of neutrons. William dodged into the shots and took them head on.
"How long can you last Tani?"
"Longer than you bitch."
He knew that one solid flare hit was enough to kill the Serco pilot and kept the pod behind him while aiming carefully. Apparently the Serco pilot knew it too and kept outside of the 800 metres that was the effective range of his mega positron gun. That kept her safely away from the pod however since neutron guns only had a range of 600 metres. William punched the Itani defence channel.
"Any pilot this is Banzai 01. Need immediate help with single Serco Vulture."
"Roger, this is Oscree Garden strike force, inbound your location in one minute."
William focused on the Serco, he just needed to keep it away for one more minute and then it would be swarmed and killed. The Vulture made another forward rolling attempt at closing to Janice's pod and William fired another flare just above the Vulture with several beams of positrons underneath it. The Vulture twisted and dodged out to the side firing a set of neutrons at the pod. William dodged into the beams and winced when he saw the damage readout turn to 66% left. A set of expanding rings of exotic rays predated the arrival of a set of Vultures.
"Banzai 01 this is Oscree 11 and 12, we will take over from here."
"Negative Oscree 11, I'll stay on station and guard the pod."
The two vultures started chasing the SVG and William focused on the pod. It was still showing full functionality and he considered dumping his cargo and scoop Janice up instead. He didn’t know what was inside the medical pod he was carrying but he was certain that it would kill the two “passengers” inside if he dumped them and that would be the same as murder. The three twisting vultures moved closer to William and he focused once more on the SVG ready to take any shots that were fired at the pod. The SVG moved with its rear to William and made an ass-over-head move while sniping yet another set of neutrons towards the pod before twisting back to dodge and engage the strike force. The strike force pilots used the manoeuvre to fire several strings of neutrons at the SVG but missed. William was ready and dodged into the SVG shots taking the hits on his armour but missed the beams of the strike force, one of which tore into the pod. The life status indicator flickered from green to yellow to red in two seconds. William looked at the display in shock trying to understand what just happened. He sobbed one loud despairing cry before his voice broke and became a keening. He hammered the sector wide radio button.
"You incompetent pieces of shit."
He fired a flare directly at the strike force vultures disregarding the IFF that prevented his flares from detonating, hoping that the presence of the SVG would trigger the detonation. It did and the three Vultures flew apart damaged by the flare. The two strike force vultures were now designated as enemy on his radar, the direct hit overriding the IFF. He pumped another flare into the Vultures strafing them with mega positrons at the same time. The SVG boosted off and ran for the jump mark. William ignored it for now and proceeded to smash the two strike force Vultures to bits. The hails that cried for cessation of fire were ignored as he killed first one pilot and then the other, ensuring their demise with a mega positron shot to the rescue pods. He was alone in the sector with only the holed pod that contained the dead Janice as company. A large warning sign blinked on and off on his HUD telling him that the Itani government now saw him as their enemy. He had been labelled KOS. William frowned and thought for a second.
"If that is how you like it, so be it."
He ejected the cargo and scooped Janice up instead. Through tears he boosted for the 3k mark and deep space. He needed to be alone and figure out what he was going to do now. He had been betrayed by his own people. He had failed Janice and their baby by blindly following orders from the same people. Someone was going to pay for this.
###
Kalimenshae Kael aka Asteroth jumped away from Tellus station after fulfilling his grizzly task and met up with Cat.
"Finished?"
"Yeah. Had some problems with a Tani in an Atlas but the stupid strike force finished it for me."
"Can you make your own way out to Helios?"
"Yeah, I'll just lay low for a day or two until they get tired of looking for me."
"Roger Cat. Sorry for that last task but it was directly from the headquarters. I'll be seeing you in grey, ja?"
"Yeah, sure."
He watched her jump out and turned for his own escape route. He would have to take the long route with the Itani still in command of the Geira/Deneb wormhole, but at least then he would get some time to think the scenario through and figure out why it had gone so spectacularly wrong.
###
Admiral of the Fleet Otestrom sat in his command chair with closed eyes and received the news from Tellus, all of it bad. Not only had the Omega been destroyed along with the unfortunate Captain Utia Taerow and the entire team been killed, but it looked as if the Serco had succeeded in killing the entire Swift Wind squadron as well. And not just disabling it, but pod killing it to a man and woman.
"We have a theory that William Cutting, the squadron leader, helped the Serco invaders. He is accused of at least two kills on the station guards from Oscree, the two brain-frozen in his custody and finally we believe that he killed his girlfriend as well Sir."
Otestrom opened his eyes and stared at the intelligence officer in front of him who immediately stopped speaking. Sweat started emerging from pores on his forehead and a slight trembling forced itself out into his hands. The intelligence officer stammered on.
"Ehm, we, that is ah, the recovery vessel recovered the recovery pod. No, eh the medical transportation pod that he was carrying, sorry Sir. But the prolonged exposure to vacuum had destroyed the contents Sir, ehm thus finally killing professor Raewon and one of his people. Eh, I do not have the name here Sir."
The Admiral leaned forward and folded his hands.
"Are you telling me that William Cutting, winner of the Deneb Star with golden leaves and stars for bravery, the Divinia Commander's seal for valour in combat and last but definitely not least the Itani medal of Heroes in gold with swords and Oak leaves, top scoring ace of his class and incidentally my nephew deliberately killed his team mates he himself had trained for three years and then killed his girlfriend of five years and their unborn baby merely months before they were getting married?"
"Ah, Sir if you put it like that."
"I do. Maybe you need to dig a bit further into that before flinging theories around. How much exists of the Omega project."
"Absolutely nothing Sir. Three low level techs is all. We can attempt a mind reading on the remains of professor Raewon but that would take an executive order from you Sir. Since he is dead he is effectively beyond our reach."
"And I shall honour that. You may not mind read him. Understood?"
The Intelligence officer looked shocked but managed to stammer his understanding across. Otestrom frowned; it had been a high price to pay for the restoration of the status quo, now he had to persuade his Serco opponent to stop these mindless killings of pod'ed pilots.
"Give me the head of the counter intelligence team up here and now. The rest of you, leave us."
He had a plan but it would be risky.
