Tales of a Renegade

[JonasHudson]

Part X:
Escape from Gaia

Edinburgh System
Mid December 827 AS

Hudson exited the mess of the Ark Royal and made his way to the bow the ship. The corridors were packed full of BAF personnel and Royal Marines. He could hear the bustle of the crew from every direction, from people shouting orders back and forth, and the operation of loud equipment far off in some unseen location.

He’d been operating from the ship since he rejoined the service. The weeks prior had been brutal. For months, things slowed to a crawl. Hudson’s crusade against the Enclave had worn him down. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d gone further than Freeport 6 to Planet Harris. He’d lost his old base, and there was practically no business for him as a freelancer or junk dealer.

Kusari’s invasion changed everything in Gallia though. Things were changing again quickly. It only took one false move to shift the entire balance of power in a region, or hold it. Rheinland’s civil war had proved that recently as well. Now, the Enclave had made a leap back into Gallic space by capturing Planet Quillan in a bold move. But that left them open Edinburgh, where they’d been fortified for more than a year.

It became clear that they’d finally given up and were making moves to pull out. New supply lines formed though Orkney, and Hudson jumped on it. Days of attacks lead to them taking a beating, and he pulled back to Tau-31. He'd made his point, happy to give them a kick on their way out the door. Word must have traveled, as not long after, the 'service' gave him a ring.

It had been a long time. There had been many changes, both to the Bretonian military establishment, and the SIS’s leadership. But Hudson knew it was perhaps a good time to return to the intelligence service in the hopes of joining the final push to liberate Planet Gaia, the only habitable planet in the Edinburgh System. The last Royalist holdout of the Gallic war.

Hudson made it to the forward observation deck and stood in an open gathering area in front of a large viewport, looking out towards Gaia. There was a group of BAF officers gathered talking on the other side of the room. One of them turned and noticed Hudson after he arrived, and waved him over.

“This is the SIS Agent I told you about. I heard he was on board and figured he might be able to help us with our little problem” the Commander said to the others. Hudson looked at him curiously. He had been summoned there minutes ago, not knowing why. Until then, he’d been spending his days reading intelligence reports and updates on skirmishes near the planet.

“What’s this about Commander?” Hudson asked him directly.

“Agent Hudson, your presence here couldn’t be better timing. I checked your record, and it says you have experience in operating behind enemy lines. We have a situation that requires a special operation.”

“Yeah that’s right, I used to do a lot of under the scanner flying in and out of Leeds during the occupation. What is it you have in mind?” Hudson inquired. The other officers looked at the Commander and nodded. He bade Hudson to follow him. They all proceeded again down into the vessel to an operations room, with a tactical display, that focused on the planet.

“If you’ll turn you attention to the display Agent Hudson. As you know we’re making our final push on Enclave battleships still defending Gaian airspace while their transports evacuate the planet. What you may not know is that two days ago a BAF Special Service force tried to force land a small raiding party that attacked an Enclave command and control center on the surface, in hopes of causing a decapitating blow against their defense grid.” the officer stated in a neutral tone. A Leftenant next to him then spoke up.

“Sadly sir, that raid failed. Somehow it seems they were ready to meet our attack. They encountered much heavier resistance than expected. Contact was lost with our team almost 48 hours ago. But, each soldier in the raid had a temporary tracking device planted in their body. It was able to send us proof of vitals and a general location just 24 hours ago. We believe several of our men may be being held at a detention center not far from the fortress they attacked.”

“And let me guess, you want to try again?” Hudson retorted sarcastically.

“Well, no. We’re not sure if we had a leak. So far only we know you’ll be involved. We want you to take another team in to get the POW’s. Avoid the fortress at all costs. Whatever you need to do, do it. Get our people in, our special forces will go in and get our men, and you fly them all back out. Can you do it?” he asked.

Hudson looked at the map on the table, lit up and glowing with several indicators scatted about. Some flashed indicating units currently engaged, others for units returning from combat. Several different kinds of alert noises could be heard, all beeping together. It was an impressive sight. The dark room was only lit by the displays for the most part. He looked up at the officers.

“I can get you in yeah, it won’t be easy. I’ll have to use a civilian freighter just to approach the planet. Even in that case, they’ll shoot us on sight. But say we get past their airspace patrols, we go in low, cloaked as far as we can go. So, yeah, I can get you in, and probably out” he chuckled, “the rest is up to your men. I’ll need 6 hours to call in a ship”

“Very well Agent Hudson, our soldiers will meet you in space, we’ll transfer from one of our freighters to yours away from any possible witnesses. They’ll have all of the information you need. Remember, time is against us. Enclave forces are expected to finish their evacuation any day now, and its unlikely any of our POW‘s will be left on the planet, or evacuated” the Commander finished.

“Lovely. Well, I suppose we have to try then don’t we?” Lucky for you lads I’m always up for getting shot at for a good reason” Hudson replied to him with a half grin. With that, the officers nodded, glanced at each other for a moment, and departed. Hudson made his way to the hanger bay.

* * * *

“One minute to atmosphere” Butterfly exclaimed loudly as she piloted the ship, flicking switches while holding the wheel with one hand.

A battered, old Bactrian class freighter was barreling towards the Gaian atmosphere at breakneck speed. Hudson came up front from the cargo hold of his old resistance runner, the Stratocaster.

“Alright, drop cloak, raise the shield for re-entry. Take us in low darling, you know the drill” he said with a smile. The computer’s voice could be heard low in the background saying “shield activated”. With that, the ship began to rock and forth, and turbulence began to increase. Hudson grabbed onto a grip bar lining the bulkhead. Boltcutter and Bulldog were right behind him, and they all watched the re-entry.

Finally the bumping dropped off and the ship began to stabilize. Just when the cloud cover and ionization cleared, they made a hard pull up, just before skimming the tree line, staying just above it.

“Nice flying as usual my dear. Just like old times, am I right? Alright activate the cloak and proceed to the coordinates. Make sure your automated topographical sensors are active, try not to hook any treetops…eh?” he said as she glanced back at him.

“I got this cap, cloak is up, we’re moving in at full speed. ETA, 16 minutes” she shot back, her gaze still fixed forwards.

Hudson nodded at her with a grin, and turned to the others. They followed him below. In the main bay a dozen special forces soldiers were huddled together, ready to go into battle. He turned to their squad commander, “So far so good! 15 minutes!”

Hudson looked around the crowded room. He looked at his own men who were also ready for a big fight. Somehow he was only just realizing they were back in the that old fight again. He thought about the last few years and the things they’d been though. Hopefully Gaia’s fate would be better than that of Leeds. That much was likely, the real question was, what comes next?

Suddenly an alarm started going off, and Hudson turned quickly to fire himself up towards the bridge. Butterfly’s voice rang over the intercom as he did so, “Uh captain, we’ve got a problem, you better get up here…”

Hudson burst into the bridge and quickly sat down in the empty pilot’s chair next to hers. He strapped in.

“What we got?” he demanded.

“Fighters, two of ‘em. They’re behind us a bit, they just showed up. I don’t think they can see us yet, but they’re on just about the same path. They could have seen us during re-entry” Butterfly explained as she stared down the scanner.

“They could have been cloaked too. Dammit. We’re almost there, we’ll have to take our chances, I --” his reply cut short, when the ship made a strange, dastardly noise from the ship's cloaking device suddenly failing.

“Cloak disruptor!” She yelled. The ship’s cloak had been fried by a jamming device, and they were now visible.

“Reactive the shield, stay on course, all crews to turret stations!” Hudson yelled back over the intercom.

The fighters, Lynx class very heavy fighters, rolled and dove towards the freighter. They tried to strafe them, but the freighter’s turrets delivered a flurry of turret fire back in their direction. After a few attempts, they pulled back out of range and kept their distance. The freighter was still only about 50 feet above the tree line, and was now spotted by ground defenses. Yet they were too low for most of it to get a direct shot. Flak was also filling the area, but the ship pulled in over the wall of a prison compound, at the edge of their defense perimeter. A tent city with what looked like a makeshift landing pad could be seen in the distance, probably an Enclave civilian camp.

“This is it, hatch is down, soon as we hit the ground you are good to go!” Hudson yelled over the comm, “Boys get down their and hold the foot of the ramp, I’ll be right there”

Jumpstart abandoned his turret station and joined him as they made their way down into the cargo hold again. Hudson pulled his sidearm and stopped at the foot of the ramp.

“Bulldog is with me, the rest of you hold this ramp until we all return. I’m going in with the team. We need 10 minutes!” Hudson ordered over the sound of the engines humming loudly. They had landed in the yard of a walled compound that was now in total disarray.

Lucky for them, Enclave forces had been stretched thin, and prisoners were low priority it seemed. The freighter’s turrets had taken out their guard towers, hopefully the surprise was enough to help pull it off.

The fighters overhead had swung around and returned. This time they didn’t go in close for gunfire, but dropped mines from higher above. The ship’s turrets aimed directly upwards and started shooting the mines in mid air. Flak was still going off, just above the ship, which was safe for the moment.

Hudson and Bulldog entered the prison, only to find the team had already mostly cleared the main area. They were setting everyone loose, and Hudson joined them. Within minutes dozens of people were running around, flooding outside, and the soldiers were making their way back with all of the BAF marines.

As they returned to the yard, someone from the wall on the far side started shooting at them. People scattered and there were more exchanges as they crossed to the ship. Finally, they made it all back aboard, and the ship lifted off.

“This is it captain, we can stay low but not for long! You gotta get them fighters off our back!” Butterfly reported over the intercom.

“I have a plan my dear, as always. Well…you know I can think of something fast anyways!” he laughed back, “Throw all power into the shield, with those fighters close by the cloak is useless. Head for the nearest large body of water” he said as he checked the map.

“Body of water? You planning on going fishing captain?” she retorted.

“I think we all are. Not much choice as I see it. More fighters coming in from the other direction”

“Incoming Missile” the computer voice rang out.

“Sooner than later would be nice” he said as he winced at the scanner. He looked up as they cleared one last hill and emerged out over a large lake, comparable on some planets to a full on sea.

“Shield power diverted. We’re a flying bubble. Lets take her down” he said.

“Captain we don’t do this too often. As in, never. We’ve taken quite a lot of flak fire, and this ship wasn’t brand new in the first place” Butterfly replied angrily, "I doubt the shield will hold very long"

“We need to try, if we go up with those patrols closing in, we’re done for. But I’m willing to bet those fighters won’t be as crazy as us”

The ship then began to descend, and plunged into the water at full speed. Its shield displacing the water, it sank below the surface. Missiles following them impacted on the water’s surface, and the fighters, began to orbit.

The Stratocaster then began to ‘sail’ off further into the lake, towards the deeper parts. As they reached several hundred meters, Hudson signaled to hold their depth, and continue towards the other side of the lake. Their own scanner range now diminished, he’d need to gamble on when to come out.

They held at the bottom for a short time. Hudson paid the cargo hold a visit, and told the strike team what was going on. All he could do now is wait in hopes they would give up. Hours of calm went by. Hudson had ordered them to stay quiet.

Finally the silence was broken by an explosion nearby, which rocked the ship.

“Nuclear Mines” Hudson yelled out.

“Great, now what?” someone yelled.

“Butterfly, get us moving!”

More explosions followed them, but as they moved off, they seemed to lose the explosions. Things were getting rough. Hudson then heard a sudden bang, and a snap. Soon, water started trickling at his feet.

“Captain, that last hit killed our shield, we’re exposed to the water, and probably have a leak by now!” the pilot reported. Hudson remained calm, but had to admit, he knew this mission was going to be a big one, but this is a bit dark, even for his usual fate.

The ship reached a massive wall finally, there was no where left to go. They pulled up and made for the surface. They burst out of the water at full speed and left a huge cloud of vapor behind them.

Hudson checked his scanner, and waited for weapons fire. Those fighters could easily be right on top of them. Yet he blinked twice to be sure, that the area was clear. Unless they were cloaked, they may have gone in the other direction.

“We still have cloak fuel” Hudson demanded, “hit the switch, get us under cloak while we can! And make for space full speed!” he turned and hit the ships intercom, “damage report, check for hull breaches or fractures!”

The ship’s cloak engaged after a few moments, and Hudson sat back in his chair, breathing a long earned sigh of relief. He looked over at his pilot who’d been clutched to her controls for hours now. One thing was for sure, this one had been a close call.

He made his way back to the cargo hold. Internal stopgaps kicked in and they were holding together. Hours passed and they made their way safely back past the BAF armada to the rendezvous point, which was inside a shipwreck graveyard not far from the Ark Royal.

* * * *

Days later, Hudson awoke aboard the Ark Royal to an alert. The ship was moving. Someone in the corridor could be heard yelling “They’re gone! They’re gone!” as they ran to the other end of the ship. Hudson turned to his computer console and checked for a status report. The ship was now bound back for Leeds, as suddenly all Enclave forces near Gaia had disappeared towards the Orkney jump hole. It was over.

He sat down and gave it some thought. It had gone on a long time. Sirius was entering a pivotal time, with Kusari also returning from Gallia stronger than before. Only time would tell, but for the first time in years, old Bretonia was free of Gallic forces. However, where one era ends, another just begins...

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Leeds Resistance Forces | Tales of a Renegade |The Freelancer

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