War From a Distant Sun by Anthony James

Author:Anthony James [James, Anthony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-05-17T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Status reports!” shouted Recker, giving the engines maximum. A spaceship always emerged from lightspeed at a low velocity and made an easy target for anything hostile. The accepted tactic was to go to full thrust and execute evasive manoeuvres, launching disruptor drones at the same time if you were dropping into the middle of a battle zone.

“Weapons systems online and available,” said Aston over the sound of the acceleration.

“No errors on the hardware,” shouted Eastwood.

“Waiting for sensor calibration, sir.”

“Commander Aston, I want you to help out on the local area scans,” said Recker, banking the Punisher hard one way and then the other.

“On it, sir.”

“Sensor recalibration complete,” said Burner. “Positioning underway. We’re in Exim-K. Commencing close range scans.”

“Working on the fars,” said Aston.

Recker could fly without conscious thought and he was able to study the bulkhead display to see what the sensors were picking up. Right now, there was plenty of darkness.

“Nothing on the close-range scan,” said Burner. “I’m expanding the sweep radius.”

If there was an enemy warship close by, Recker was sure it would have made itself known by now. Given that the Punisher wasn’t going to be within easy sensor range of either Oldis or Resa, it was enormously unlikely the Daklan would spot their arrival. Even so, the tension in his shoulders and arms didn’t lessen and he waited impatiently for his crew to paint him a picture.

“I’ve located Oldis, sir,” said Aston. “Forty million klicks to port.”

“Remember it’s in near alignment with Resa,” said Eastwood.

“Yes I got that, Lieutenant.” Aston went quiet for a few seconds. “There’s Resa – about forty million klicks starboard.”

“An easy stroll in cosmic terms,” said Eastwood dryly.

“What about the far scans, Lieutenant Burner?”

“Nearly complete, sir. Done. We’re in the clear.”

Recker backed off on the controls and reduced speed to half. “We made it here safely, so that’s the first hurdle jumped. Commander Aston, Lieutenant Burner – check out those planets and see if you can determine which one we should check out first. Bonus points to the officer who pinpoints the location of a Daklan outpost.”

“Let’s get it done,” said Aston. “I’ll take Oldis.” She sounded eager and her hands flew confidently from place to place on her console.

“I guess that means I take Resa.”

Recker would have liked to walk between their stations to see how they worked – it was always good to learn new tricks or see how other experienced officers did what they did – yet even the all-clear on the wide area sweep wasn’t enough to make him abandon the controls. He didn’t get a sense of impending danger but wasn’t about to treat instinct as fact.

Lieutenant Burner was the first to report. “Resa - planet eight of twelve, with zero moons. We’ve got rocks, ice and a ten thousand klick diameter. From this range, there’s not much else to be seen,” he said. “I’ve attempted a penetrative surface scan to hunt for anything which might have triggered the lenses on the monitoring station.” He exhaled in frustration.

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