by Chris Burton
“Okay, the skipper is on shift in a few hours. We’ll have a chat about it later. In the meantime, try to keep your mind on the task.”
Jake thanked the first officer and returned to his station to continue his shift. It did not get an easier, but he resisted the urge to keep checking his watch and concentrated as best he could on monitoring the vast array of comm. messages.
* * * *
Jonathan Hoskins entered the bridge an hour later and went straight to his ready room, where Commander Jacques joined him. Five minutes later, the XO asked Jake to join them.
“Thanks Jake, Please take a seat. Commander Jacques has updated me on your nightmares. Obviously, I appreciate this is making things difficult for you, but it does tend to compound my theory. Your visions of the Kryl beckoning you are particularly interesting.”
“Yes, I agree, Sir. But I don’t see at the moment that there is anything further I can add to this.”
“If the Kryl or perhaps the new Kronan is trying to contact you, then it seems sensible that we allow him to continue. There is the possibility that you could lead us to him. I want you to go back to your quarters and rest for the next twelve hours, without the dream suppressors and with your permission I will ask the medics to switch on the dream image translators.”
“I am not sure I can sleep on demand, Sir. It’s kind of difficult if you are being watched.”
“For now, just rest and try to keep an open mind. You will not notice the image translators, it is just a case of them being switched on within your quarters. The medical team will record the images and the XO, the medics and I will review them.”
“Okay, Sir. I would rather be trying to keep busy though. I feel I should be involved if I can.”
“You are, believe me. We will keep this to ourselves though for the time being.”
Jake left the ready room and the bridge and headed back to his quarters.
* * * *
Surprisingly he fell asleep quickly, fatigue catching up with him. He slept for eight hours, but was awoken several times by his nightmare and his increasingly clear visions. He knew now, who beckoned him. It was Morvalt. He knew that the Kronan was somewhere in the Kryl fleet that surrounded them.
Right now, he felt like he had slept sufficiently. He showered, dressed, and headed to the officers mess for some food. The visions continued as he walked. He felt strangely removed from his ship and his crew, almost as if he was being pulled to the Kronan. After eating, he did a thirty-minute workout at the gym and then returned to his quarters, where he showered again, dressed, and headed back to the bridge.
Commander Hoskins was back on shift and involved in a heavy debate with his XO. Jake elected not to disturb him and returned to his station to succeed the on shift Comms Officer, who no doubt badly needed some rest himself.
The visions kept on coming, but Jake managed to keep them at bay. He was summoned to the ready room about half way through the shift.
“Hi Jake. The image translators indicate that you have slept well. I trust that is the case?”
“Yes, Sir, although the visions keep on coming.”
“Well, I can tell you that they revealed nothing other than your sleep patterns and that means effectively that these visions are not dreams. Are they any stronger, do you have any further detail?”
Jake updated the commander, who paused for a short while before he responded.
“I am going to show you something which is highly confidential. It is part of a body of intelligence provided recently, which reflects the experiences of an Alpha officer’s period of captivity aboard a Kryl ship. Take a look and let me know what you think.”
They watched as first Lieutenant Samos described the Kronan’s sanctuary and his detailed physical attributes and then as a startlingly detailed holographic image portrayed Samos’s thoughts into images of the Sanctuary and Morvalt himself.
When the image scene finished, Hoskins paused the Holographic display
“Is this the scene and the Kryl that you have in your visions?”
“Yes...without question.”
“Then, I need you to find a way to locate him.”
Chapter Fifty-Three
The Sub-Space Fleet
Twenty-five cruisers, including the Halo 7 were now under Jonathan Hoskins’s command and the Commanding Officer and XO of each sat around a conference table aboard the Halo 7.
The hastily prepared meeting was called by Hoskins to discuss the deployment of sub-space weapons. Hoskins wasted no time and as soon as the last pair of executive officers took their seats; he stood
“Thank you for joining me today. I know your time is precious and everyone is up against it so I will keep this brief. Your ships have all been placed under my command to undertake a very specific task in this battle. We were given standing orders to deploy and discharge low yield sub-space weapons against the Kryl fleet.”
He waited for the backlash but everyone was too stunned to respond at present. Relieved, he continued.
“The maximum yield will be type 14 charges and these will all be deployed by Jump Ship and tiger missiles. We have standing authority to deploy on my command against weakened sections of the Kryl fleet.”
“You have got to be kidding me! We are in Alpha Centauri for Christ sake. What about the environmental issues and the very likely loss of life on our sides? This is preposterous!”
The XO of one of the smaller cruisers in the mini-task force stood up, following his outburst.
Hoskins expected this and was prepared.
“Sit down Mister Sorenson. We are at war and in danger of losing. If we lose, we will not be concerned about the environmental backlash and in any case, the yields are very small and will not be deployed in close proximity to each other or our fleet.”
“I am sorry, Sir, but I cannot support this.”
“Oh, sit down Sorenson. Typical bloody environmentalist! What are you doing in Alpha, if your conscience gets in the way of life and death decisions?”
The voice from the back was drowned out by shouts and rants from all sides. Hoskins stepped in once again.
“Gentlemen, Ladies, please! Clearly, this is a contentious issue and I respect the ideological substance behind Commander Sorenson’s objection. However, this is going to happen, the order has already been given and anybody who feels that they cannot be part of this, should leave now.”
Sorenson stood up and looked first at Hoskins and then Commander Frances, his CO.
“I am sorry, Sir,” he addressed both Hoskins and his CO. “But this is one step to far.”
“Commander Frances. I suggest you take Mister Sorenson outside and discuss the implications of this with him. Is there anybody else who wishes to leave? I am about to discuss a more detailed battle strategy.
No one else moved and Hoskins addressed Sorenson again.
“Commander Sorenson. You will not discuss the subject matter or content of this meeting with anyone. Is that clear?”
Sorenson nodded, saluted and left, with Frances at his heal.
“Okay, let’s move on. I should stress I expected a hard time on this one. The deployment of sub-space weapons was never going to be easy on anyone’s conscience.
Hoskins went on to detail the strategy, which would lead to target sections of the Kryl fleet being made available for attack.
“Okay. Now you need to go back to your ships and await delivery of the charges. These will be supplied via Eagle and support craft. Each ship’s allocation will depend on their launch capability, but the minimum number of charges will be eighty per ship. You can proceed with installation to the Tigers straight away. I will provide release codes to the CO and XO of each ship. Any questions?”
“When can we expect the charges and do we know when we are likely to deploy the first charges? Also, I am little apprehensive about exactly how we are going to be sure when safe to deploy is actually safe. Alpha ships of the line and Jump Ships will come in and out of the firing range persiste
ntly. There is no such thing as a safe deployment.”
“All good points Alex. The charges will be supplied from a variety of sources, but the process has started already. Expect first delivery within the hour but note that as this is need to know. You will have to preserve your security protocols, including delivery, storage and of course, code processing. This new offensive phase has started already—we will deploy within a few hours. As for when is safe? You are right; you can never be certain but I am afraid this will be down to each CO and XO’s judgment. As always, there will be losses. Our job is to keep these to a minimum.”
“Does anyone actually think this is going to work?”
“Once the first batch of warheads is deployed, it will be free for all. Every crew member will know what we are doing. There are going to be protests?”
“I would expect each of you to contain any issues within your ships. Okay, time is of the essence. Get back to your ships and let’s make this work!”
* * * *
Well, that could have been worse, thought Hoskins as he returned to his ready room.
Commander Jacques joined him straight away.
“We have received some incoming fire Jonathan. Not targeted directly, but our frontal shields are running below tolerance.”
“Must have been a hell of a hit. I didn’t feel anything?”
“I’m surprised. It seems the new strategy has started. Are we in the right position to commence our part?”
“No...we will move out in the next hour or so. How long until our shields are back up?”
“Ten minutes maximum. How did they take it?”
“Badly as expected. We had one walk out, Commander Sorenson, XO for the Gemini 8. He has stepped down and Frances’s weaponry officer is acting up.”
“So we are good to go. Have you spoken to the Sentinel Commander yet?”
“That’s my next job. Can you start to coordinate the movement of our ships to the grid position we discussed and then get Obeya up here? It’s time we looked at our own sub-space deployment.”
“Will do. If this doesn’t work, have you considered an exit strategy for the Halo?”
“No, Number One. I think we may be stuck here for the duration.”
“All ships report, charges are uploaded and ready for deployment.”
“Excellent. Let’s have a look at the left flank. Just there, look there are about a hundred Kryl vessels disconnected from the main flank. The area looks clear. This looks like a target, Number One.”
“Lots of Jump Ship activity in the area. That will give us good coverage. We should launch maybe four charges?”
“Better make it five.”
“CAG respond. Hi Obeya, coordinate with ships, 2, 3, 4 and 5 and launch one Rapier from each into grid sector 3.9.2. We have Jump Ship coverage, so good to launch ETA three minutes.”
“Confirmed, Commander. Ships launching in one minute.”
Hoskins waited anxiously as the seconds ticked by.
“All Rapiers deployed. Missile target in range in forty-five seconds. Require confirmation to deploy.”
“Comms. Clear Jump Ships from grid vector now.”
Jake Carter dispatched the pre-prepared warning message and awaited acknowledgement.
“All Jump Ships acknowledged and clearing. Target area clear.”
“CAG. Confirmation to proceed. Launch tigers.”
The missiles deployed seconds later and all the Jump Ships pulled out of the target grid successfully. The five tiger missiles exploded within their given grid variation and eighty-seven Kryl Cruisers were vaporized simultaneously. There were no Alpha vessels caught in the grid variation area.
“I think you can call that an unprecedented success!” Hoskins allowed a smile to come across his face. What do you think Number One?”
“Wow, there is a small void developing, presumably because the charges were released in the same area. Impressive though and with no losses, that is a real coup for us.”
“We need to monitor the void. My understanding is that it will dissipate quickly, because of the size. If not then we will need to create an automated divert on all NAVCOM’s.”
“Sir, the Kryl have diverted about two hundred ships to our coordinates.”
“Thank you Mister Carter. CAG, launch full defensive JS capability.”
The Kryl reacted as suspected and targeted the mini-task force. Hoskins recalled over two hundred and fifty Jump Ships back to their respective hangar bays prior to launching the first sub-space attack. These ships now formed the mini-fleets defensive Jump Ship capability.
“We won’t be able to launch new missiles with these Kryl ships targeting us specifically.”
“No, but we can go around them and attack the diverted fleet from the other side with SS charges. They are playing into our hands.
* * * *
“Comms, any discord noted on any of our ships?”
Jake monitored internal communications on all twenty-five mini- fleet vessels.
“There are minor protests on some ships, Sir. No mutinies to speak of.”
“Good. Keep one eye on it, but don’t lose sight of the fleet wide and enemy comms.”
“Number One, let’s have a look at the Kryl’s diverted fleet. Is there enough room for an attack from behind them?”
The two executive officers approached the Holoboard and started to discuss the next attack.
“Sir, Admiral Shenke, ship to ship, priority one.”
“Thank you, Mister Carter. I will take in my ready room. Keep looking Number One.”
Hoskins was right where he wanted to be. Now, suddenly it looked as if they did have a chance.
“Mister Hoskins. Your SS deployment was first class. Do you have the situation under control with the break off fleet? Are they targeting you?”
“Yes, they are targeting us. We are planning to use to our advantage. How are things in the main battle?” Hoskins wanted to deflect the fact that the Halo 7 had still not been hit by a targeted weapon.
“Not good. The Kryl have decided to open up their big guns. The Mother ship is firing some kind of high intensity discharge weapon. Not plasma, but stronger, it is smashing our Jump Ships to pieces.”
“Has the Mother ship been freed up? Maybe we could target...”
“Let’s not get carried away. The Mother ship remains fundamentally protected and firing SS charges into such a large column could be counterproductive. Stick to the agreed strategy for the time being. Rodriguez is dealing with the Jump Ships and I will handle the Mother ship.”
Chapter Fifty-Four
Preparing For Invasion
The Malchian’s, were the Kryl’s elite invasion force. They were utterly ruthless and a caste in their own right, within the divisions of the hierarchal Kryl. They were relatively few in number, but made up for this, with their devastating and ruthless fighting capability. The Malchian’s sole domicile was the Queen’s ship and there they stayed until called upon to do battle.
Seren was the Malchian leader and Queen had just summoned her.
“It is time for you to enter the fray Seren.”
“We were waiting for your command, my Queen.”
“It is a pity we have waited so long before we released you from the depths of this ship. Many lives could have been saved if we could have called on you when we first encountered the humans.”
“We will make up for that now, my Queen.”
Take a thousand strong unit and destroy the heart of the human fleet. Take out the vessels known as the Viceroy and the Illustrious.”
“And the Halo, my Queen?”
“No! Leave that to me. Your people must not touch the Halo 7, it has a different destiny.”
“Very well My Queen. We will depart immediately.”
True to her word, Seren launched a thousand Malchian Arrows from the depths of the Queen’s ship within minutes of leaving the Queen’s sanctuary. Thirty seconds later, they began their assault on the Viceroy.
&nbs
p; * * * *
Morvalt returned to his own sanctuary. The Queen gave him full autonomy to rage war on the Alpha fleet. She trusted him again and it was time for him to put that trust to the test. First, he had to continue his game with Jake Carter.
He waited until the sanctuary held complete silence and he opened his mind, seeking out the human. He was further away now, still within the theatre but more distant. He found him and entered his mind but this time to probe him. So, the Halo 7 was the lead ship in the sub-space attack. That changed the complexion of things. The Halo 7 was a risk, which needed to be neutralized, but he could not do that, while Carter was on board. Perhaps now is the time to bring Carter to me.
He entered his mind again but this time he suggested, rather than probed. The seed had been planted—now Jake Carter would come to him.
Chapter Fifty-Five
The Last Stand
These new Kryl vessels were different. They were bigger, faster, and more mobile than the standard Kryl fighters and far more deadly. Shenke saw that the Viceroy was their key target. They surrounded the flagship and were strangling every section. Shields took a pounding and if he left things as they were, they would fail and the Viceroy would be finished.
“Launch all reserve Jump Ships and target the new fighters. Get some cruiser coverage around us. We need to remove these new ships before they cause us serious problems.”
“Sir, the Illustrious reports a similar attack. They have launched Jump Ships but are losing shield capability.”
“Port shields down to thirty-five percent.”
“Compensate. Where are those Jump Ships?”
“They are in the fray, Sir, but they seem to be no match for these new ships.”
“And the cruisers?”
“Coming in now.”
“We will pack them in tight and squeeze the Kryl out. Get Me Admiral Rodriguez on the ship to ship!”
Rodriguez responded immediately.
