The Reign is Over

The Reign is Over - Part 2: Turbulence

The silence of the midnight advance of Lieutenant McNamera was broken with a deafening alarm klaxon and the sudden dive of the troop transport.

The officers and cadets were strapped into their harnesses, but the inactive pulse rifles of more than one young cadet flew about the interior of the troop bay. Veteran hands shot out, ready for the free-falling weapons the moment that the transport snap-hooked into defensive maneuvers. Weapons were handed back, or simply clipped where they should have been secured in the first place.

Lieutenant McNamera shot an admonitory look at the young cadet whose nerves she had helped steady only a few minutes ago, and settled back into her padding minus the worry that the young cadets rifle would smack her in the face should the transport go through any further maneuvers.

The transports were encased in military grade stealth-tech and coated with enough armor to make a capital ship jealous, but there was a reason the mission to assault the Reignover compound had required approval from the United Human Government's Board of Directors. Reignover had amassed enough firepower to destroy the ring if he had been mad or stupid enough for suicide. That didn't mean they were clear of danger, however. Reignover would destroy as many innocents as it would take to keep himself safe. If he succeeded here, then the UHG might decide he wasn't worth the expense in lives and ships to extricate.

McNamera gritted her teeth, willing the ship onward as though she could land it on Reignover's front lawn by will alone.

A sleeping god of destruction stirred, slapping the side of the transport with an avalanche of sound and fury. The engines held, the armor secure, and the transport shrugged off the near-miss with aplomb. The pilot brought the ship into a steep climb, McNamera's stomach lurched as they changed direction, and the engine wound up to full throttle as the ascended.

All pretense of stealth was gone. Clearly McNamera had been right when she presented her briefing, and Reignover had gotten contacts in the military. He had field combat sensors, and tactical missiles with adaptive AI strong enough to break through their transport's countermeasures. McNamera let out a fierce, hungry grin. With their ship breaking stealth, Reignover was sure to send in combat craft capable of dispatching them with lethal efficiency.

Exactly as Lieutenant McNamera had wanted him to.

The air outside boomed as fighters broke the sound barrier multiple times in a smattering of seconds. McNamera held her breath, and the two Lieutenants who had been with her for the full mission briefing looked as expectant as she had. Shortly afterwards, the transport was showered with the sizzling heat-wash that was the signature of the gargantuan energy tossed about by a capital ship's plasma ordinance.

McNamera was shouting victorious obscenities as the ship gently reoriented and resumed its journey. Reignover had made all the right moves, but he wasn't playing the same old game anymore. The UHG had decided to put their foot down, and the three kilometer long bristling profile of the ISF Hidalgo was parked just outside casual detection range, but well within range of her crack-shot crew.

Reignover had become Icarus, and Hidalgo and her crew were only too happy to play the sun.

To be continued...