by H. Alesso
In truth, when he compared himself to Hawkins, he suffered from a tortured paradox. His inner desire to be noble, selfless, and virtuous competed with his profoundly base and self-promoting nature.
CHAPTER 29
All In
The bridge of the Indefatigable was cold and inhospitable. Hawkins shivered, but not from the cold. The capture and mistreatment of so many colonists and rebels was a terrible wound to him, but the most painful of all, was news that both Alyssa and Joshua were captives on Zeno under the cruel domination of Warden Seward.
He raged against Charles Victor, against Jacob Seward, against everything they stood for, and everything that now stood in his way. It filled him with a great twisted fury that wrung, exhausted, and drained his being—turning his flesh and blood into icy resolve.
He knew instinctively . . .
Rage is a destructive emotion.
And yet, he was alive with that overwhelming dark passion—an emotional firestorm dominating his mind and reason. He knew only one purpose—to rescue those taken.
Under his command, the ships Indefatigable, Castor, Retribution, and Liberty headed to Zeno. The bridge crew of the Indefatigable exchanged concerned furtive glances, but there was no hesitation in their performance.
The planet had plenty of time to scan the ships as they approached and its fortress was primed when they reached high orbit. The fortress opened fire first and splashed radiation on the shields of the rebel fleet.
The weapons officer reported, “We’re within weapon’s range, Captain.”
“Commence firing.”
Hawkins concentrated gun and missile fire on the fortress to suppress its heavy weapons. After an hour of heavy bombardment, the fort was weakening and Hawkins ordered his ships into a lower orbit so Liberty could begin to unload its five hundred soldiers stashed in its cargo compartments. Its shuttles dove to the planet’s surface under the covering fire from the rebel fleet.
Several shuttles exploded, but most arrived safely and disgorged their troops with Hale leading the landing force while Hawkins remained on the Indefatigable.
Hale said, “I hope we survive this. Good luck.”
Hawkins said, “Survival is what you have to do after things go wrong. I hope I’ve planned better than that. Remember speed is everything. It’s all a matter of time. We don’t have much. I’ll cover the landing as long as I can, but you must move quickly, or we’ll fail.”
***
A million kilometers away, aboard the Special Forces flagship, Ajax, Rodríguez timed his countermove perfectly. The Special Forces Fleet came out of stealth mode and drove at full speed toward Zeno.
Alarms sounded throughout the rebel task force as the Jaxon force approached. The ships took only seconds to reach their highest level of readiness.
Aboard the Indefatigable, Hawkins waited patiently in orbit, ready to direct the rebel fleet’s defense.
The Ajax along with three frigates and six sloops charged headlong at the Indefatigable and her consort.
It’s wasn’t a good policy to open fire at maximum range. The first salvo, patiently calculated and properly aimed, was too precious an opportunity to use lightly. It needed to be optimized for best effect. Hawkins selected an individual target and ordered the first broadside salvo to fire at optimal range with great precision at the lead Jaxon frigate, significantly damaging it. The ship fell out of formation and limped out of the battle.
“Grand shooting! Grand!” boomed Gunny’s baritone voice.
Hawkins’s heart beat rapidly as he realized that his efforts had paid off. He wanted to leave orbit, but he had to remain to cover the landing force.
A second coordinated rebel broadside knocked another Jaxon ship out of action. The rebels now had a fair chance in a toe-to-toe slugging match with the remaining Jaxon ships. However, the enemy was known to be resourceful.
The battle was now violently joined as the Ajax fleet altered their course to fire their broadsides.
The Jaxon ships managed a ragged barrage which wasn’t as destructive they had hoped, but nevertheless, damaged the Retribution and the Liberty.
But as it turned out, the rebels still had a great deal of fight left in them. They fired another coordinated broadside at the Ajax.
As a sloop maneuvered to shield the Ajax, she exploded in a fiery ball and disappeared.
The Special Forces Fleet closed on the rebels.
Hawkins ordered the Indefatigable to fire as rapidly as possible. He left the Castor to cover the landing site while the Indefatigable and Retribution accelerated toward the enemy.
The engagement remained brutally violent as they closed.
The Ajax task force fired another salvo. It crippled the already damaged Retribution.
Gunny reported, “Retribution is a wreck, barely able to navigate, let alone defend herself.”
The enemy frigates launched another devastating salvo at the fragile converted cargo ship, the Liberty. She suffered more and more damage until her captain was forced to abandon ship.
The Indefatigable was now a shadow of its former self. The harmony that typified a well-coordinated, finely-tuned machine had dissolved. The engines weren’t in their normal rhythm; the ship’s motion was slightly erratic, though Hawkins couldn’t put a name on the difference. He sensed the ship and its crew were hurting.
He ordered, “Helm, intercept the nearest enemy.”
“Aye, Captain.”
With the enemy now closing on the Indefatigable, they came around and headed directly toward the Ajax.
“Mmmm,” said Hawkins watching the enemy bear down on him. A wave of apprehension and excitement didn’t stop him from calculating his next course of action. He swallowed hard and set his plan of action in motion.
Because the Retribution was no longer able to respond to communications, he coordinated his ship’s fire with the Castor. He managed to concentrate their fire at the foe.
All ships reloaded their weapons. The Retribution remained on the starboard side of the Castor in an attempt to find shelter. The devastating accuracy of the Jaxon ships was disheartening. Each side approached unwaveringly.
Hawkins wrenched his mind away from the turmoil and forced himself to concentrate on his next action. He ordered his ship to maneuver to better support the damaged ships and still cover the landing site.
As the battle ebbed and flowed, the enemy ships drew ever closer and more threatening. The ship-to-ship battle was only one hour old and many had already died.
The Indefatigable’s position was in a lower orbit than that of an enemy frigate. She was engaging closely, but was taking a terrible pounding. To her credit she was beating up on the enemy too.
The enemy fire contributed to the confusion around the Indefatigable.
“Damn them! Damn them all!” Gunny’s baritone voice could be heard over the din of confusion.
The enemy came on in an attempt to finish the fight. A word from Hawkins swung the Indefatigable toward the nearest enemy ship. The ships were now fighting in the clinches.
Gunny said, “Their fire is slackening. I’m sure of it.”
They passed ahead of one frigate as it came up on their starboard quarter. The action commenced abreast until the enemy ship passed ahead. When he had gained sufficient distance, it raked them. Hawkins fumed; the Indefatigable was unable to bring a single weapon to bear upon the frigate.
The ship bore around upon her heel, and ran toward the Ajax. The ships were close and they used their secondary weapons to light up the enemy.
They separated momentarily and then the action recommenced, even more deadly than before. Nothing deterred them.
At that critical juncture, Hawkins ordered the Castor to launch an all-out counterattack by charging at the enemy ships. Despite this tactic, the enemy streamed forward. If anything the enemy ships continued with renewed ardor. Castor’s attack led her to become the main target of the Jaxon fleet and after repeated close broadsides the ship was so severely hol
ed, her crew had to abandon ship, adding a second rebel wreck in orbit.
Hawkins hoped the Ajax would stop to reorganize its task force. He tried to balance in his mind the calculus of ships lost on each side, to reach a conclusion that he could accept.
The weapons’ fire from the Indefatigable was conducted with so much skill and effect that the enemy frigate finally turned aside.
The engagement between the two forces was hotly contested. The outcome hung by a thread. If it broke against Hawkins, all hope would be lost.
His limping ship circled around and prepared another attack. After exchanging several shots, the sloop veered away. She’d had enough. She was so badly damaged that she could no longer fight, but could only look for a means to escape certain doom. Hawkins maneuvered further away and started taking long range shots.
With all the rebels badly damaged, the Indefatigable was now essentially alone in a desperate battle with the remaining enemy frigates.
It was a difficult moment, but Hawkins had to make a decision and live with the consequences . . .
Courage will only get you so far.
The Indefatigable had sustained significant damage and a hull rupture had opened. Before the air became too thin, they had to isolate the leak. A column of smoke drifted across the compartment.
The smoke wafted through the corridors. A noxious fetid stink caused him to pull back from the fumes. Lights flashed critical information. The environmental systems were overloaded and failing.
Hawkins cursed.
He was merely following the only course available to keep his ship fighting.
Almost forgotten, the Retribution had been marked as dead long ago, but thanks to the cover the Indefatigable had afforded her, she was still intact, limping away from Zeno.
The severely damaged Indefatigable and the derelict Retribution were all that were left of the rebel force in the debris strewn space over the planet.
Though the rebels had inflicted massive damage to the Special Forces Fleet, it was still a strong and powerful force. Hawkins was out of options. To remain and fight against such prodigious odds would mean the senseless slaughter of his men. The frequent nearby explosions were enough to convince Hawkins that the remaining Jaxon frigates and sloops were too well led, and too dangerous, for him to remain over Zeno. He reluctantly ordered his crippled beaten ships away from the planet.
He stared in dismay at the naked landing site—the visible impoverished results of his error—an error that exposed a deep flaw in his thinking—an error that would propagate to the detriment of all who had followed him.
He watched from afar, as Rodríguez led a landing force of several hundred men to the surface, leaving Admiral Samuels in command of the Special Forces Fleet in orbit over Zeno.
***
Hale’s five hundred soldiers on Zeno had initially made good progress against the poorly led troops of Seward. He captured the fort and reached the gates of the prison when he received the message from the Indefatigable.
In the bitterest moment of his life, a crestfallen Hawkins admitted, “I am unable to defend the landing site any longer. I’m taking what’s left of the fleet to the other side of the planet. You can expect Rodríguez to start landing reinforcements behind you.”
Hale’s men were already being relentlessly pounded from space. Mortified, Hale could only respond, “An unhappy assessment.”
Hawkins was sick at heart from his crushing failure.
All is lost.
***
As night fell, Rodríguez faced great resistance on the ground from Hale’s rebels. He sent a message to the Ajax, “Admiral Samuels, fire the fleet’s heavy weapons directly into the prison compound. Start at the building’s nearest the walls and destroy the entire surrounding palisades.”
Samuels replied, “The detained amnesty colonists are still being held in cells within that compound.”
“There are rebels dug in, and around, the bastions of the prison. They’re putting up a stout defense. I have no choice. Now do as I ordered, and pour fire down on them,” roared Rodríguez.
“That would be a war crime, to which, I will not be a party,” responded Admiral Samuels with equal venom.
“Open fire immediately, or I’m have you court martialed in front of President Victor!”
Forced to make the toughest choice of his life, Admiral Samuels said, “Go ahead, do your damnedest. I don't care what you want anymore—I just don’t damn well care.” With that, he ‘folded his hand,’ and the ordered his battered fleet to leave.
Between fury and frustration, Rodríguez unleashed savage curses as the Special Forces Fleet left orbit and depart from Zeno.
***
All is not lost!
Hawkins brought the remnants of the rebel fleet, back over the landing site. Even though they were badly damaged, the Indefatigable and the Retribution provided some meager cover fire as he gathered every man his ships could spare and landed them behind Rodríguez troops on the outskirts of the Zeno prison complex.
As the rebels began landing, several enemy cannons sent shells that exploded on the ground around them. Everyone was already exhausted; now cold windy dusty debris spewed directly into their faces. The earth shook and the sky was alive with the thunderclaps of more explosions. One struck so close to Hawkins that it knocked him flat on his back. His body became numb and his legs refused to obey his urgent pleading.
Move!
He couldn’t remember what he had to do.
How long was I unconscious?
It had only been a few seconds, but he swung in and out of lucidity.
He was bleeding from shrapnel wounds. He cursed and screamed oaths into the darkness. Then he moved forward once more.
The rebels took cover momentarily until the barrage lifted, they swarmed forward again. An obstructing enemy strong point was eliminated and a key parapet was captured. Another parapet in the center of the position toppled over, completely blocking the way. Men began digging into the dry hard soil trying to construct some cover. Crawling on his belly, Hawkins crept forward with several men following him.
For a moment, Hawkins thought they had succeeded in reaching a good position, but he was wrong. The enemy was reorganizing and appeared as stronger than ever.
Rodríguez’s men were entrenching to their rear, even as they continued to attack Hale’s position which surrounded the prison defended by Seward. The layered battle continued in a confusion of ambiguous directions.
Hawkins sent a message to Hale telling him to hold out and that help was on the way. He added that he was going to lead a group through the maintenance tunnels into the inner prison control center. If possible, Hale was to meet him there when he won his way through.
With a final “Good luck,” they signed off to deal with their respective battlefronts.
Hawkins ordered Gunny to continue to fight to reach Hale while he took twenty men through the maintenance tunnels. He followed the tunnels under the prison and worked his way toward the prison central control room. It took nearly an hour of treading their way through the tunnels and breaking through security hatches before Hawkins and his men reached the inner prison area.
When they reached the area under the security control center, they had to fight their way past a dozen guards until they controlled the cell locking mechanisms. Then they released the prisoners and sent them back through the tunnels toward the rebel lines.
Hawkins found Joshua among the prisoners. Joshua stayed with him while the other prisoners used the maintenance tunnels to escape.
After detailing the remainder of his men to escort the prisoners to safety, Hawkins and Joshua proceeded to look for Alyssa. Hawkins guessed that Rodríguez and Seward might be keeping her as a hostage somewhere near the warden’s office.
As they approached the office, a red dot magically appears on Joshua’s torso; Hawkins watched in slow-motion horror as a bright red flower blossomed and grew on the boy’s chest until the pencil laser beam burst
through his heart.
Joshua collapsed to the ground.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Hawkins fired his pistol three times and dropped the assailant. To his surprise, it was his old tormentor, Lasseter—the vicious con whose gang had made his own stay on Zeno so hellish, so long ago. Knelling over Joshua, he picked up his head and cradled it in his arms. Joshua had trusted him to make everything good and right, but he had failed.
A consequence of my choices.
He listened to gun fire in the distance, but he couldn’t pull himself away from the boy whose bravery had first inspired him to act at Newport, so very long ago.
Finally, Hawkins laid Joshua’s body onto the ground and rose over him. He pulled his eyes away and began to walk toward the action. Soon, he was running, thinking of Alyssa, desperate not to fail her, too.
He came to the entrance of the warden’s office where he expected to find Seward and his staff. They would know where Alyssa was.
He burst through the unlocked door.
Alyssa was tied to a chair at the far end of the room.
He only took two steps into the room before an alarm went off inside his head. Some fine nerve of remote perception warned him that he had, once again, charged into peril. Before he could heed that counsel—a red dot appeared on his chest.
He whipped around and fired at the source.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Seward’s frothing mouth spat out insults, but as he looked at his own chest, he trembled, and went white. Clutching his chest, he cried for mercy.
A moment later, he dropped to the ground—dead.
A fresh red dot lit up on Hawkins’ chest.
He swung back around toward the new source and pressed the trigger—again, again, and again.
CLICK! CLICK! CLICK!
Empty.
He took a deep breath and waited for the red dot to turn into a pencil laser beam and penetrate his heart.
CHAPTER 30
One Man
