The Relentless was a marvel of modern engineering. As I took the four-passenger cargo tug from Armstrong Transfer Station, the pilot thoughtfully did a pass from bow to stern before heading for the aft launch bay. My new home was nearly a kilometer long, boasting the greatest single concentration of firepower ever included in a man-made ship. The front of the ship was shaped like a wedge, tapering back to a cubic rectangle that continued for the length of the ship and ended squarely just forward of the aft-facing thrust tubes. The ship was painted a flat black to better blend in with the vast nothingness of space, but splashes of color were visible as the ship tested its running lights. It was a simple, elegant design, providing almost no weak points in structure while maintaining maximum compartmentalization and functionality.
Twenty-two missile tubes on the port side of the ship were open with maintenance crews swarming in and out of them. Retractable swivel-mounted miniguns tracked our tug as we traversed the surface of the ship, the artificial intelligence in the fire control center plotting our likely destination. The aft launch bay was mounted on the top (dorsal) side of the ship, just forward of the engineering space and power plants. The tug pilot thoughtfully steered us behind the ship before docking us, allowing me to stare down the massive tubes of the fusion power plant.
“She sure is something, ain’t she?” The pilot sounded as though he were from Louisiana. He was a civilian contractor, outside of my chain of command. He had been entertaining company on the ride out, telling anecdotes of growing up poor in the bayou country. I was sure half of the stories were hyperbole, while the other half were outright lies.
“She sure is,” I agreed wistfully. I could see the domes covering the aft projecting rail guns, the domes themselves covered with the blisters of particle beam weapons for point defense. As I watched, the domes shimmered as ionized particles in orbit began to impact the dense magnetic field surrounding it. “Does it always do that?” I asked, pointing to the rail gun domes.
He nodded. “Yep. They got themselves some strong magnets in there to throw a little iron coated, depleted uranium bead at nearly point-seven cee. I can’t get within two hundred meters of it, or bad things will happen.” He waggled his eyebrows. “Never cared to see what those bad things are.”
“I don’t blame you.” The light from Earth was reflected on the smooth black finish of the underside of the ship.
“You’re a Marine, right?”
“Yeah,” I replied, leaning forward in my seat to get a better view of the ship from the underside.
“So tell me…why are you guys stationed on a ship like this?” He coughed. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you guys are useless. But this beauty is designed for ship-to-ship action, not ferrying you boys and girls around to capture real estate.”
I shrugged. “The General Staff doesn’t share its motivations with me.” I pointed at a bubble of clear glass or quartz sticking out of the bottom of the ship, near the center.
“That’s the observation blister. It’s basically a fancy crew lounge that gets sealed up behind armor during combat.” We passed a scant fifty meters from it. I could dimly see shapes moving inside through the faintly reflected Earthlight.
“I guess we’re here to protect the crew.” I realized that this man had never seen the true video of our first contact with the Rak’Lan. “You know, in case we’re boarded, or something like that.”
“Does that stuff happen often?”
“It does happen,” I said. We had heard several reports of it during my period at the NCO school. Most of our heavy ships carried at least a platoon of Marines with them at all times now to prevent our ships from falling into enemy hands.
“Must be a cushy job. Cruise out to Saturn, loaf around while the Navy files do a little fighting, snap some pictures, and then cruise back.”
I looked at him with a blank expression. “I wouldn’t call it a cushy job,” I said carefully. “There will be constant training, readiness exercises, drills, and of course, the possibility that the Rak’Lan will succeed in getting their troops aboard the ship.”
He nodded without really hearing me. “So aren’t you awfully young to be a Sergeant?”
I frowned back at him. “Uh, yeah. I guess.”
“Must be taking some heavy casualties out there, huh?”
His manner was beginning to irritate me as he pressed for more and more information. “Some of us are just good.”
He blinked at my comment before laughing in a harsh guffaw. “I’ll have to remember that one. ‘Some of us are just good.’” He repeated it to himself. “Well…are you ready to get aboard your new home?”
“Why not?” I replied.
He rapidly changed direction in the tug and swung us over the top of the ship toward the launch bay. Maneuvering carefully, he used a series of short blasts from our guidance rockets to position us for entry. The bay doors swung open at our approach, recognizing the code exchanged between our computer and the AI controlling the shipboard functions.
Inside the launch bay rested the two assault boats and the two fighters, as well as a place to dock a tug such as this one or a standard passenger shuttle. Deftly, the pilot settled the tug into the docking cradle, sighing as all perception of motion ceased. “I’m cutting us over to local gravity,” he said, flipping a switch on his control board. We were instantly weightless. “Bastards,” he muttered to himself. “Damned engineers like to work in free fall.”
I grinned behind his back as I unstrapped and moved back toward the airlock get my rucksack and gear. “We’ll have pressure in the launch bay in three minutes,” the pilot called back. “Hang tight until then.”
I gave him the thumbs up, choosing not to yell over the hiss of air being pumped into the launch bay that was easily audible through the thin skin of the tug. After a few moments, the hiss of air lessened and stopped completely. The pilot motioned toward the airlock. “You’re good to go now,” he said. I gave him a jaunty wave and opened the airlock, pushing off of the exterior of the tug toward the launch bay entrance.
I felt like I had just come home.
Edge of my seat as always…….I wish these sections were longer…..Cant wait for the Relentless to see some action….