by T. J. Jones
He shrugged. “Well, it’s the only hand I’ve got to play. Gotta make do with it, I guess.”
Dekav nodded. “I see.”
The Kestrel banked hard and pushed to full speed into the battle with the Odyssey and the Truth and Jubilation. He weaved in and around the different sections. Jarod was doing what he could to bring the star drive’s weapons to bare, but his maneuvering was not as stunt oriented as Adrian’s was.
Adrian noticed that Mary Jo was doing something fancy with the fore section, emitting charged particles that were acting as a sensor jammer screen, forcing the Truth’s weapon strikes to miss their marks.
“Atta girl, Mary Jo.”
He flew right through the jammer screen, watching the particles discharge and pop on the main viewer. Dekav let the phased pulse cannon turret have a shouting match with its twin. They both were winning as far as Adrian cared. He twisted the Kestrel along its axis into a roll to avoid a poorly aimed heavy beam attack.
Breaking off the run, he banked hard and sent the Kestrel along the surface of the Truth where the Odyssey had been hammering for the better part of ten to fifteen minutes now. “Dekav, scan that goddamn ship and find me a weakness we can exploit.”
Dekav shook his head. “The Odyssey is holding its ground, but neither vessel is giving much. Your crew are using your ship’s advanced technology rather admirably. It is keeping the Truth from incapacitating it. However, your weapons are incapable of truly breaching the shield of the Truth when it goes into siege mode.”
Adrian sighed. “Great. Options?”
Dekav paused. “Well. The Truth’s shield system was rated to withstand an attack on several magnitudes larger than your ship can deliver.”
“What about a warp core breach?”
Dekav looked at him concerned for a moment, beat passed, then his chin lowered in a nod. “Yes, I believe that would work.”
“Good, then we’ll use the Kestrel’s core.”
“Commander?”
“We’ll sacrifice the Kestrel’s warp core to punch a hole in their shields. That should give the Odyssey a chance to really pound their ship.”
Dekav looked nervous.
Adrian laughed. “Relax, I’m not going to sacrifice the Kestrel just yet. We’re still a little outgunned. But when the time is right, I’ll let that bastard have it.”
Dekav nodded. “Agreed.”
The Kestrel went into a spiraling dive dodging several warheads and using its GARDIAN systems to take out the rest. The adjustable nacelles extended as it bottomed out its dive and rose upward, the pylons tucking in close to the body to narrow out the Kestrel’s mass field. He was glad they at least, had the point defense edge on the heavy dreadnaught. Otherwise, the fight would have ended long ago.
He wondered how differently things would have gone with the captain still alive. What steps would she have taken? What orders given? Strategies used? Would she have been able to be more effective than he was? She had spent time in the Dominus Wars as well, using vessels almost as large as the Odyssey. He had to admit he was in a little bit of a loss with the flagship sized Odyssey. He was used to something a little more like the Kestrel. Small, fast and agile.
The Odyssey was a big, bulky, tank and hit like your drunk uncle in a bar fight. While the Odyssey hit hard, adjusting to its bulk and lack of grace was a struggle for him tactically. Still, he was extremely thankful that the Alliance engineers had taken to adopting a more war capable post-Dominus fleet. Prior to that, focus went almost solely on exploration. What with all the colony worlds. Still, they were trying to get back to their roots, which at least explained the development of the quantum tunneling drive. However, the QT drive was still a wildly unpredictable and unproven technology. He disliked the idea of leaning on it to get home.
The various weapon implements, though. Those he was glad to have now. They had kept the ship and his crew in the fight — given him more options, more choices, more chances. The choice not to not throw in the towel. To not give up on his people. No man left behind. Unfortunately, he would never truly be able to live by those words. There would always be casualties, a reality he was becoming more and more familiar with in each passing engagement.
It was easier before when he was not at the complete top of the chain. Losing wing mates were hard, but he never had to do all the administrative work. Never had to write their families. Send their bodies off. Now it was his job. The cold ruthless calculus of wars. Sacrifice ten people here, to save ten thousand people there.
He had been considering that as well. The weight of the thought and decision was pressing down on him as he dodged fire from the Truth, making the Kestrel move in ways only his brother Danny could have imagined and sacrificing the ship in the last stand. The Odyssey proper. Drawing the line in the sand here. Not one more inch farther. He would draw them into the nebula and blow the Odyssey if he had to in order to ensure the White Empire did not go after the Alliance.
Now he was really feeling that Chinese war proverb of fighting with your back to the river. On the other side of that “river” was home. He knew there would be no easy fate for anyone back home if the empire pushed forward. The only battle fought in this war was going to be here. It had to be. It was his duty to give everything, all of it, to ensure the safety of the Alliance, her member worlds, and their citizens.
It was a duty he took very seriously. One that was starting to look more and more like his only option left. He was throwing everything he had and the kitchen sink at the problem to keep from having to resort to it, but he was fast running out of options. His hands danced across his console in a flurry of commands and controlling. Pitch, yaw, roll, speed, power settings, repair drone priorities, so on.
The scenario was familiar; the stakes were familiar. It was just the bad guy that had changed. He was still fighting a war to save his people. Now it was just so far away from home that home was nothing but a distant dream. Far off away as it was, though, he still had to do what he could to protect it here. From Docent Vay and his White Empire.
The Kestrel took a nasty shot in the aft section. He cursed, stabilizing the ship and avoiding the rest of the enemy fire. Automated damage control drones deployed and went to work to undo the damage where they could. Dekav watched behind his shoulder a drone fabricate in a swirling shimmer of light and matter, activate and then hover off the pad, floating into a maintenance shaft to carry out its orders.
“The ship truly is automated.”
“Like a living breathing being. All we’re doing is telling it where to go and what to shoot. It handles the rest for us.”
“Freeing you up to keep such a small crew.”
“Exactly.”
Dekav nodded impressed. “The empire would need a crew of at least ten to twenty to staff a vessel as small as this. At minimum.”
Adrian grinned. “Perks of the Alliance, I guess.”
“So it would seem.”
The Kestrel rolled and laid down another volley of fire as the fore section took a particularly mean shot. Adrian called the damage up in a subwindow on his tactical console. The angry orange and red glowing sore in the hull made him grimace. “That’s where the families are quartered. Hopefully, Mary Jo is following protocol and has them clustered in the inner decks to avoid breaches.”
Dekav nodded. “Lt. Hunter seems very capable. I would anticipate she has covered that contingency.”
“Thanks.”
“The fore section of the Odyssey is falling back to the nebula.” Dekav noted. Adrian nodded. “Good call Mary Jo.”
She was able to help, but she had to be mindful she was holding most of the ship’s families and non-combatants aboard.
“Ben, what’s the status of those birds?”
“Almost rearmed.” Adrian heard the rush in his voice. His CAG wanted airborne fast.
“Let’s pick up the pace here. It’s starting to get a little crowded out here.” The Kestrel buffeted from a near miss.
“Yes, Co
mmander.”
Adrian focused on the main screen. He could really use the arbitrator showing up any time now. That would really be great. He glanced over to Dekav. “Any chance your friends will be showing up soon?”
Dekav checked the sensors and his brow furrowed in a way that Adrian knew was not a positive sign. “Nothing in range as of yet. However, this ship’s sensor range is limited only to what is within the immediate battle space with all the munition detonations saturating the combat airspace. Beyond that, I can’t say with any solid accuracy.”
“Ok, thanks. We’re just going to have to keep holding on then.”
The Kestrel flew in low above the top of the star drive of the Odyssey, where Lt. Vail and Lt. Tiaahl were operating the battle bridge. Its weapons were still hammering the Truth, along with long-range fire support from the fore section, hiding within the nebula now. The Kestrel’s cannons and missiles launched, illuminating the hull of the Truth with all the impacts against its shields.
“Dammit what I wouldn’t give for a MAC about now.”
“A MAC?”
Adrian nodded. “Yeah, Magnetically Accelerated Cannon. It delivers a sabot shell that strikes a shield facing and then injects a high-speed kinetic kill device. They can propel a shell at well over Warp 5. Even if the penetrator doesn’t make it past the shields, the impact is still strong enough to punch out a shield facing.”
“So why wasn’t the Odyssey equipped with one?”
“The Alliance Corps. Of Engineers liked the idea of rigging an energy cannon of that size right into the warp core to power its capacitors. Also saves space used for shell storage. The spinal lance cannon is powerful, but she needs the shields down in order to chew through a ship. The MAC just does not care. It either goes right through them or knocks them out in the first shot. Unfortunately, they are bulkier and usually require the ship frame built around them. The Odyssey’s keel was already laid before the conversation was started about mounting the spinal lance cannon.”
The ship lurched from another hit, a glancing shield blow. Dekav relaxed from his temporary brace on the console and looked to Adrian again. “I see. So your fleet has other more powerful warships than this?”
He focused on the console, maneuvering the ship, lining up fire solutions, and keeping their butts out of the fire. “Something like that, yeah. More combat-minded vessels definitely. The Odyssey is supposed to start the fleet’s transition back to a more exploration-based mission. They learned from the war we fought previously, that we could not just have our ships out there in the black with minimal defenses and offenses. So they are much more capable of defending themselves now than they were.”
“War is a painful education.”
“It is. But we did learn.”
“The important thing is that you still hope for peace,” Dekav added.
“We do. That is why we are fighting now. For the peace of the Alliance.”
“And for the future peace of my people.”
“Yeah, and for your people too. And all the others caught under the heel of this empire.”
Chapter Twenty
“The Prophets speak for the gods. The gods are absolute. The Prophets are absolute. Faith is absolute.” – First Prophet of Destiny, shortly after the compact with the Eaons.
Docent Vay’s index and middle finger were tapping an irritated beat on his console. His cheek was resting on his left hand’s knuckles as he watched the Odyssey and the humans continue to defy him, the empire, and the will of the prophets. If he was to be the herald of the gods, he would need his victory and soon. This Rain was establishing his background in war quite well. The way he could make his vessels move. It was akin to being back on Loeria watching the Academy of the Arts dance shows. Especially the smaller escort vessel that had detached itself from the aft of a section of the more offensively capable half of the Odyssey.
He had had his suspicions that Commander Ran was commanding the battle from within that. The way it moved and struck at his vessels felt very much how the larger aft portion of the Odyssey was moving up until the smaller vessel’s entrance into the fighting. Now both larger portions of the ship were using less unorthodox maneuvers and behaving more like capital vessels.
He had to admire the commander for his performance. He was doing an admirable job. The Humans had designed their vessels with an exceptionally high level of technological focus. Much more different from the design theories applied in the empire. His own vessels were made to sustain so much damage and still be capable of sustaining operations that over seventy percent of their systems could be catastrophically damaged and still operable.
He doubted that same theory would apply to their ships. It had been roughly five microcycles since he had given the command to fire at will on the Odyssey. Thus far, it had remained in toe-to-toe exchanges with the Truth. Her support vessels had suffered a bit of a beating. The frigate was lost, destroyed by the smaller escort and the fighters. The Odyssey’s snub fighters were out of play since then. Out of munitions if he had to guess. Which reminded him, he meant to send a letter of praise to the engineers for their work on the new oscillating shielding systems aptly named siege shields for being able to withstand a siege laid by an enemy fleet.
“Docent Vay! I have good news.”
His brow ridge lifted with curiosity as he glanced down to his cyber warfare officer. “Go ahead.”
“Docent, I’ve decoded the transmission from the human officer. We have their full galactic layout.”
He sat upright. That was good news indeed. “Open a channel to the humans.”
He waited with anticipation as Commander Rain and an elite, the Acolyte Dekav, appeared seated in a small vessel. His hunch was right. The human was using the more maneuverable and offensive escort vessel as his command platform. He was an action driven man. A fighter. Vay admired that in him. What he detested though found unsurprising was the elite had found himself in the Commander’s graces.
“Commander Rain. Good to see you are holding your own so well. I see you’ve taken to picking up the Empire’s garbage as well.”
Rain scowled. “Well, my folks always said I was too stubborn to know when to back down.”
“So it would seem. Acolyte Dekav. I was wondering where you had gotten off to. I see now you have turned traitor. Unfortunate.”
“Get to the point Vay,” Rain barked.
“Very well. I just wanted to let you know that we have finished decoding your navigational indexes sent to us by your captive officer. Do pass on my thanks to him. I was entertaining the notion of subjugating your vessels again. However, I have decided this battle is simply a sign of resistance. You would easily stir up antagonism to the empire when we begin subjugating your people.”
Rain laughed. “You are so deluded, aren’t you?”
Dekav elbowed the commander. “It really is unwise to antagonize someone who is threatening to destroy you.”
Rain shrugged nonchalantly. “So let him. If he can. So far all I’ve seen is a lot of blusters and no show.”
Vay leaned forward with a scowl on his face, lips curling and teeth bared. “You listen here, you pink skinned grub! I will take my fleet to your home world and crush your United Systems Alliance one world at a time. When I am done devouring your systems of their people, I will consume what is left of your resources all for my own glory to return to the empire. For I am the herald of the gods!”
Rain did not look amused at all. Dekav was expressionless yet tense. “Was I supposed to clap at that? I don’t know this is the first time someone went into a monolog for me.”
Vay’s eyes narrowed in a scowl. “You dare mock me?!”
Rain leaned back innocently. “I mock you? Never.” He rolled his eyes and cut the comm line. This sent Vey into a near rage. He slammed his fist down and threw one of his guards over his post. The guard fell into a heap at Tacent Cor’s feet.
“Destroy that ship until it is nothing more than an echo of stardust! Warn the flee
t that when the other Elite vessels enter the system they are hostile as well. It’s time we rid the Empire of their filth once and for all!” He stormed into his personal chambers on the command center.
In the bridge of the Kestrel, Adrian leaned back with a wry grin. “Well, that went pretty well.”
“I don’t take your meaning, Commander. Angering Docent Vay is unwise. Songs have been sung by the subjugates of those foolish enough to do so.”
The Kestrel took a nasty shot to the port weapons bank. Dekav flinched as a fuse panel burst and a shower of sparks lit up the dimly red bridge area. Adrian frowned. “That last hit took out our port side warhead launcher and our cannons. Dammit.”
Dekav gave him an “I told you so” look. Adrian immediately pointed at him. “Don’t you even say it.”
The Kestrel lurched again, unable to find some breathing space as the Truth began to focus its fire on the small escort. “Systems are failing at a concerning rate, Commander.”
“Then we go to plan B,” Adrian said, aligning the ship up with the Truth. He opened a commline with Mary Jo and Jarod. “Hey, you guys hanging in there?”
The bridge on the fore section had seen better days. It was looking like the situation on the Kestrel. Shot up. The battle bridge looked a little better but Adrian had expected that.
“We’re here,” Mary Jo said.
“Still in the fight, Commander. Your vessel however, is losing power and efficiency at a rate Tia would find maddening. Dock with the star drive. We’ll cover you.”
Adrian shook his head. “No, we’re going to use the Kestrel’s warp core to punch a hole in the Truth’s shields. I need you guys to link back up. Jarod, power up the spinal lance cannon. Get it ready for a full blast. I don’t know what kind of window you’ll have to work with so you’ll need to be primed and ready.”
“Understood. Lt. Hunter,” Jarod said.
Mary Jo nodded. “Right. Commencing docking sequence.”
The fore section and star drive slowly approached each other. The fore section lowered itself back down onto the star drive. The Odyssey was complete again. Adrian brought the Kestrel around to the rear of the Odyssey, making it look as though he was on a docking approach. He skimmed the surface of the Odyssey’s hull so closely he could see the faces of the crew and families from their windows.
