Chapter 24: chapter twenty four

(“Did the torpedoes do the job?,” asked Drake Davies. His shaded goggles rode his forehead, pushing his spiky hair back. “We might be able to wrap up this encounter before Lois and Gerry get in the game.”

“Roll a check,” said Jimmy. “You created a flare when the three torpedoes hit the asteroid.”

“One,” said Davies. “I can't see anything from my cockpit.”

“Got a fifteen,” said Web. “I guess cranking back around let me see something, if not everything.”

“There is a crater and maybe a opening where there should be rock,” said Jimmy. “Yeager might have blown the cover off whatever was there.”

“I'm going to drop one of my three torpedoes into that hole and see what happens,” said Web. “I'll also send back to the Fort and let the others know we've been attacked and are answering fire.”

“Right,” said Drake. “I'm going to orbit the asteroid and watch for more guns to pop up to shoot at us.”

“All right,” said Jimmy. “I need a roll for you, Web.”

The asteroid floated over the table with a marker for the two aircraft performing their maneuvers.)

Doolittle fired one torpedo as he dropped down. He thought he had missed the target but the torpedo changed course and blew up another section of the rock floor. He pulled up out of the way.

“It looks like a tunnel system,” said Yeager. “Someone turned this rock into a base of some kind.”

“We just opened it to vacuum,” said Doolittle. “Which way are they going to jump with us out here looking for them?”

“I'm ready,” said Yeager.

A flock of energy guns unfolded from the surface of the asteroid.

(“I'm not ready for that,” said Drake.”

“Roll for initiative,” said Jimmy. “Two.”

“Nineteen,” said Web.

“Sixteen,” said Drake.

“What do you want to do, Web?,” asked Jimmy.

“I'm dropping my last two torpedoes on the ground, and calling for a retreat,” said Web. He picked up his dice and rolled for the volley. “Six.”

“Fifteen,” said Jimmy. “You hit the asteroid but none of the guns are affected.”)

Yeager picked one of the guns to shoot at and his weapons failed to fire. He pulled away as the guns fired back at him and missed.

“I have a weapons malfunction here,” he reported.

“Head back to the Fort,” said Doolittle. “I think we're going to need more fire power to crack this nut. I have some pictures we can use to plan our next flyby.”

“That's more than four guns down there,” said Yeager. “We might need the Fort to get rid of all those cannon so we can find out what's going on.”

“I know,” said Doolittle. “We have some kind of secret base. We're lucky they didn't launch fighters to chase us down.”

“I don't know if the Fort can do more than what we did,” said Yeager.

“Maybe Schultz will think of something we can use,” said Doolittle. “We can't leave that thing out here to attack shipping when it gets close enough.”

“All right,” said Yeager. “We should turn this over to the regular command to let them drop a battleship on the thing.”

“We won't get the money if we do that,” said Doolittle. “Bucky won't pay us if we just turn the job over to someone else.”

“I'm not that greedy,” said Yeager.

“We need the money if we want to pay what we owe on credit,” said Doolittle. “I don't want to lose the Fort over lack of payment. We need funds and this is the only way we can get them until we get hired for an official raid.”

“All right,” said Yeager. “But if we can't crack this, we write off the torpedoes as the cost of doing business and try to do another mission somewhere else.”

“I don't have a problem with that,” said Doolittle. “Let's head back in and see if the others can think of something we can use.”

“Do you think that thing is automated?,” said Yeager. “If it is, it won't retreat until we critically wound it.”

“I know,” said Doolittle. “I'm more worried that the Constance and the Fort don't have enough firepower to blow that thing up. If we raid, that has to be the goal.”

“I'm with you on that,” said Yeager. “If they had been able to concentrate fire, we'd be floating in space, waiting for a pick-up.”

“The fighter explosions wouldn't have been that bad from the perspective of someone farther away from this than we are,” said Doolittle.

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“Schultz wouldn't have found anything but a cloud of debris,” said Yeager. “At least we avoided that.”

“We still have to go back to give them another shot at us,” said Doolittle.

“I know,” said Yeager. “Maybe Schultz will have some kind of shield to protect us from all those beams trying to set us on fire.”

“I hope so,” said Doolittle. “We could have lost both of our fighters under that.”

The two pilots flew back to the station at top speed. Nothing chased after them. That was good. Yeager didn't have any torpedoes and his guns were out. Doolittle had two torpedoes and his guns worked fine but he wasn't sure he wanted to get into a fight without his wing man.

He definitely didn't want his wing man to go up in a fiery explosion. Getting a new pilot would be a pain.

“There's the Fort,” said Doolittle. “Circle around and land. I'll follow you as soon as you move your boat out of the way.”

“Check,” said Yeager. He brought his fighter in at an angle and then cut the engines so the craft could float into the bay gently. He applied a touch of brake thrusters to bring his vehicle down in its spot.

Doolittle circled the Fort, keeping an eye on the landing lane. He lined up and sent his fighter toward the bay. He cut as much of the thrust as possible to float into the mother ship's hangar. He directed the bottom jets to hold him up until he could spin horizontally and drop in place.

“That was a disaster,” said Yeager. “At least we know there is some kind of pirate asteroid floating around out there.”

“We should alert the General so we can get clearance to really attack that thing and have the government investigate where it came from,” said Doolittle. “This might be the start of a stealth attack on the system.”

“That doesn't seem like something the Red Line would do,” said Yeager.

“That thing had enough guns to hold off a small fleet,” said Doolittle. He let the automated systems plug into his fighter before he retracted the canopy and dismounted. “Even with the Fort, we might need more help than the Constance to do anything to that monster.”

“Hey guys,” said Mannheim. “We're going over your combat recordings up on the bridge. Schultz is going crazy trying to figure out how the thing was made.”

“I'm glad one of us is happy about what happened,” said Yeager.

“I'm more worried that there is more than one of those things waiting for ships to fly close to the Red Line,” said Doolittle. “They might push in to attack the station while we're trying to figure things out.”

“We're looking at another war,” said Yeager.

“Not yet,” said Doolittle. “Just because we think the Red Line is behind the trouble doesn't mean that it is.”

The two pilots took the elevator up to the bridge. They had both fought the Red Line before mustering out to be private contractors. Mannheim had flown everywhere and everything before they picked him up as their quartermaster/reserve. Schultz had come on last as their mechanic. He didn't fly as much as the others but he kept the fighters and other vehicles ready for deployment.

“I worked a little computer magic off the recordings and got a good picture of what we're looking at,” said Schultz. She pressed a button. “Look at this.

A hologram of the brief fight sprang into existence. At least ten guns had been shooting at them as they did their flyovers. If they had connected, the fighters would have gone up in smoke. Their shields were not strong enough to take so many hits.

“Can the Fort handle that battlestation?,” asked Doolittle. He had invested a lot of the company money into their base. He didn't want to risk it if he could help it.

“I think we can punch through whatever shields they have if they have any,” said Schultz. “I didn't see anything that would give us an edge. Maybe if we took up a station next to cover, we could use the main guns without exposing ourselves.”

“What are the chances the pirates are concealing something inside that shell?,” asked Doolittle.

“I think fairly high,” said Mannheim. “Yeager got lucky that he exposed a corridor with his torpedoes.”

“It didn't stop them,” said Yeager. “Either the thing is automated, or they were ready to fight in a vacuum.”

“I'm going to say we're dealing with some automation,” said Schultz.”

“So we can shut everything down if we can get close enough to the brain,” said Doolittle. “How do we do that?”

“Someone is going to have to get inside that asteroid, find the brain, plant a bomb to blow critical systems, get clear,” said Schultz.

“This looks like a job for me,” said Yeager. “How do I get inside?”

“I don't see any obvious hatches,” said Schultz. “The easiest way might be the hole you blew in it unless they have a way to repair the damage while we're planning to go back.”

“Are you sure you want to try something like that?,” said Doolittle. “We can wait until Bucky has the Constance in the air and can back us up in an attack.”

“O'Hara has a personal stake in this where he wants his revenge more than he wants to protect the system,” said Mannheim. “We need help, but I don't know if he will be able to be effective with the loss of his crew.”

“We don't have anyone else who can help us with this,” said Doolittle. “We're at the edge of the known system. Beyond this is the Red Line that we're watching for the next invasion of our space.”

“And they will invade,” said Yeager. “This might be the opening move of their next invasion.”

“Schultz, how much work does the Fort need before we can take her out and do what we need to do?,” asked Doolittle.

“We're almost ready to go right now,” said Schultz. “I have some armor plate and gun batteries to install, but she's done for the most part.”

“I'll help you with that,” said Doolittle. “Mannheim, get Yeager a bomb to carry with him. We're going to make a second run out there and see if we can get inside that asteroid and carry out this crazy plan.”

“I think I have some things in the arsenal,” said the older pilot. “We're going to fly in and drop him off?”

“That seems the easiest thing we can do,” said Doolittle. “We'll probably draw fire as we come in but I don't see any way around that.”

“I hope you guys can pick me up after I do all the hard work,” said Yeager.

“Mannheim and I will be doing the hard work,” said Doolittle. “You'll be hanging out and making new friends.”

“Let's go, Yeg,” said Mannheim. “You're not going to blow yourself up.”

“Give him a dead man's switch in case they find out what he's doing and shoot him full of holes,” said Doolittle. “We might as well get something out of this in case there is a problem.”

“I'll give him a control in his suit and a voice command,” said Mannheim. “That way if he gets shot he can just tell it to blow up.”

“Let's go ahead and get this done so we can get out there and earn our money from Bucky,” said Doolittle. (“Can we have a montage here?”)

(“I don't see why not,” said Jimmy. “Schultz's mechanical skill gets things done faster than she expected. She has to compensate for Doolittle, but the repairs and upgrades are finished ahead of time.

“Mannheim has problems with the bomb controls, but he finally gets the thing loaded in a suit for Yeager to wear without blowing everything up.”

“He gives Yeager a thumb's up and a smile,” said Gerry.

“I do not give him one back,” said Drake.)

“Everyone ready?,” asked Doolittle. “Let's drop our suicide bomber on the enemy and see what happens.”

“I don't plan to die,” said Yeager.

“Mannheim is flying you in and dropping you off,” said Doolittle.

“I'm going to die,” said Yeager.