“This will allow you to fire their weapons.”
Rubbing his wrist, a marine sergeant smiled as the fire of the fight returned to his soul.
“When do we move?”
“Not until I give the word or until all hell breaks loose,” he replied as he handed the small automatic pistol to the former officer from the Wolf.
“In case we get separated.”
With a bump from the shuttle they knew that they were now docking at their new destination. Mike reset their shackles so they were loose enough for each man to slip their hands out when the time was right.
“Remember intense anger can block their surface probes.”
Everyone nodded in reply and then turned to face the hold’s door as it opened.
Exiting the shuttle, the specially selected prisoners found themselves onboard another ship and within a gigantic shuttle bay. Mike estimated that there was enough room to let four large freight shuttles land and unload with room to spare.
They were quickly whisked away under armed guard and were taken into the interior of the vessel. The navy commanders looked to each other and then to Collins.
“Battle Destroyer,” one of them said and was shoved by a Blue guard for speaking.
Mike had to agree, the ship was vast and only a Karduan battle destroyer or larger could be this big. After traveling for ten minutes through corridors and lifts they found themselves at the ship’s brig. There they were separated into cells with two men per cell. As they were herded into their cells they could see that the other cells also held human prisoners.
There must have been at least thirty additional prisoners held in the ship’s brig. Collins found himself locked in with Gus Jansen who looked worried at being behind bars.
Gus started to speak, but Mike held up a finger and then pointed to a panel in the ceiling. The room was bugged and any conversation would be overheard. They sat there in silence for the next two hours until a guard opened the door and signaled for Collins to come with her.
He was taken through a number of corridors to a central lift, which they then rode for several levels to their destination. The lift doors opened onto a vast command bridge.
It was similar to the bridge of the Star Wolf, but was even larger. The size of the bridge made him sure that he was on either a battle destroyer or even an immense star destroyer. It was a circular bridge with a central raised command platform that extended to where Mike stood by the lift.
At the center seat was the Fleet Mistress standing next to another older Karduan lady whose vine and leaf patterned rank insignia made her a Ship Mistress. In front of the command station were the pilot and navigation stations. To the left was what he determined was the fire control and communications stations.
Besides the guard that brought him here there was a second armed Karduan guardswoman standing to his right near what he believed was the ship’s sensor section. There he noticed not only the second heavily armed guard, but also another human. He was a young man probably no older than nineteen. His uniform was in horrible shape; it was clearly soiled from sweat and abuse with numerous rips and bloodstains. His rank made him an E-4 specialist.
Around the young man’s neck was what looked like a sort of dog collar. Beside the grim thoughts of what the collar was for he saw that the human specialist was sitting in front of a section of equipment that looked different than the rest of the Karduan stations. In fact, he didn’t have to struggle to figure it out that the station was a Confederation maser unit.
The fleet mistress had turned and looked at him as his eyes scanned the bridge stopping at the human made detection unit.
“We just had that installed from one of your people’s captured ships,” she said in English.
Her pale smooth face smiled as she gloated at both her mastery of English and the advantage that her fleet had with such a human detection system.
Mike tried to keep his face expressionless, but realized that he needed to shake her up so he smiled in return.
“Do all of your ships have maser systems?” he asked in Karduan.
Mar-Odon’s smile slipped from her flawless face. “No just this ship,” she replied almost against her will as she felt herself slip into a surprised awe.
Nearby the ship mistress turned and looked at the human who could speak their language.
“You are right my lady, he is a rare find and perhaps a dangerous one. We should have him taken back to his holding cell until we are ready for a full interrogation.”
There was something else about this young man who spoke Karduan and could block their scans. It took her a moment, but she realized that unlike other humans he strangely smelled good to her.
“No, I wish to speak to him. Once we are out of the system we will have time to break him to our will.”
She was about to ask how long until they reached the gravity well when the ship’s proximity alert signaled.
“What is it?” the Ship Mistress demanded.
The Karduan sensors operator near the maser system answered her question.
“It appears that a group of human merchant ships that had been in orbit around Austro Prime, have broken their orbits and are following us towards the gravity well.”
“Number and type?” the Ship Mistress commanded.
“Two older sloop class ships and four various sized armed merchant freighters.”
The Fleet Mistress shook her baldhead, “No real threat to us. They are probably in just as much of a hurry to escape this horrid system as we are.”
The Ship Mistress was less trusting.
“Signal them to fall back and keep their distance.” She then turned her head back to the sensor section, “What about the Austro ships?”
A pause answered her question for a moment followed by an answer. “Their eight ships including four system cutters, two armed freighters, a minelayer and a frigate, who are all holding their positions on the other side of the planet.”
“Pathetic, but good,” Mar-Odon said in disgust at the lack of any real combatants.
Mike had taken a step back from the fleet mistress as her attention was diverted to the main viewer. It put him that much closer to his guard and as things were going it wouldn’t be long until their trap was sprung.
He had several problems at this point. The first was woefully apparent. He wasn’t on a prison ship, but on a warship and without his raid team of fellow Werewolves.
The second was that he had given his compact automatic away to his follow captives. Lastly and most importantly, this ship carried a Confederation maser unit, which would be able to detect the trans-poly aluminum treated torpedoes, missiles and fighters. If he didn’t do something the enemy would have a big advantage, one that they hadn’t planned on.
At that moment the sensor station’s proximity alarm sounded once again.
“My lady, ships are emerging from the gravity well,” the Karduan operator declared in a voice sounding a little stressed.
“Who are they? Number and type?”
“They are our ships,” the sensor operator reported followed by a sigh. “So far a vanguard, three destroyer escorts and two destroyers. There are several other ships following them just outside of the gravity well’s horizon.”
The ship mistress shook her head and looked to Mar-Odon.
“I thought we were the only battle squadron operating in the area?”
The fleet mistress frowned and called to her communication station.
“Signal them to identify themselves and their house. Have their senior mistress standby to speak with me.”
“My lady!” the communications operator shouted, causing all heads to turn towards her.
“What is it?”
The comm. operator held her hand against her earpiece pressing it closer to her head almost as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The multiple paneled view screens were showing a dozen frantic faces from other ships. One of these view screens showed a bridge on fire.
“What is going on?” demanded the Ship Mistress.
“The rear ships in our squadron are under attack and have taken heavy damage from missiles, torpedoes and fighter attacks.”
“What! That’s impossible we would have detected any incoming fighters or missiles!” the Ship Mistress exclaimed as she rushed to the sensor station. Seeing that nothing was wrong she turned to the human maser station. Again she saw that the screen appeared to be clear in fact it was too clear as it wasn’t even showing the trailing merchant ships that their Karduan sensors were reading.
“What have you done?” she screamed, reaching to her belt for a small control pad. Pressing a button on the pad, the young human specialist fell to the floor screaming in pain, as he was shocked through his collar.
Mike thought for a moment that even though the young man was racked in agony he seemed to have smiled in victory as he fell. Despite his need to act he waited another moment as the approaching squadron entered into effective range.
“My lady!” the Karduan sensor operator was shouting over the screams of the human slave. “The ships following our new arrivals are four human frigates and a light cruiser!”
Even as the operator’s words sunk into the star destroyer’s bridge crew the Imperial ships opened fire. The first ship to strike wasn’t even on their sensor screen.
The ISS Star Wolf had relied on her stealth plating to lead the advance on the enemy fleet. She was then first in position to fire and was still undetected by the enemy ships’ sensors. Her main guns and spinal particle cannon concentrated on the closest large ship, which was the second largest ship in the enemy fleet, the battle destroyer.
In the Karduan line, the battle destroyer would have gone into the well following behind two sloops and two destroyers. The idea was that if any enemy ships were at the next bend point the lead four ships would engage the enemy and shield the approach of the heavy hitting and more valuable battle destroyer. Once through the bend the other screening ships, the star destroyer and rear most ships would then follow.
Unfortunately, the lead ships and the battle destroyer hadn’t detected the Star Wolf until she opened fire with all turrets, all tubes and her main gun. The front half of the battle destroyer was virtually obliterated from the overwhelming and accurate hits.
All hell broke loose amongst the Karduan fleet as they realized they were under attack from both the rear and the front. The approaching Karduan ships were actually Confederation controlled. There also seemed to be a problem with their sensors. They were unable to detect, lock on or shoot down incoming missiles and torpedoes. Even the human fighters seemed as invisible as their deadly attack cruiser.
As the front and rear of the Karduan fleet were crushed and confused by the sudden and unexpected attacks the middle of their formation started to react.
Onboard the star destroyer’s bridge, the fleet mistress and ship mistress simultaneously yelled out orders and commands.
“The trailing freighters are the source of the attack to the rear, order all nearby ships to open fire on them,” commanded the Ship Mistress.
At the same time Mar–Odon shouted out an order.
“Have all lead ships fall back and regroup here,” she said as she pointed with her crook of office toward the viewer. “Send an order to the Austro defense ships to aid us as per our treaty with them.”
“Main gun, lock onto the position of the last shot from the enemy ship’s spinal cannon and return fire,” the Ship Mistress ordered, determined to takeout the hidden enemy that had robbed her of their second largest ship.
Upon hearing that Mike knew that it was now his time to act. He had practiced for hours to release his cuffs and cast as he grabbed onto his weapons. Spinning around he did just that and he faced the armed Karduan guardswoman as his cast and shackles fell to the floor.
The only weapon he had was his extension sword, but that was enough. As he turned he angled the pommel upward and thumbed the extension pad. The knightly weapon’s carbon blade sprung to full length as its tip pierced the startled guard’s gorget armor, passed into her throat and up into her brain.
Reluctantly releasing his sword, he grabbed the gauss rifle from the dead guard’s hands. Turning sideways Mike flipped the weapon’s safety off and fired a burst across the bridge and into the second armored guard who was standing over the fallen human specialist.
He was lucky in several ways as the bridge was now a room of raging chaos. The bridge crew scrambled to fight the battle around them while oblivious to the danger within.
Luckily, the Karduans had completely copied the human needle rifle right down to its safety. With the implanted weapon’s chips, that simulated a Karduan DNA signature, he had no problem firing the enemy rifle. Fortune favors the prepared he thought spinning from his position just as the fleet mistress turned to see what the problem was.
The older Blue’s irisesless eyes grew large just as he horizontally butt stroked her across her face with the stock of his rifle. The blow spun her around like a top followed by her collapsing to the ground in a heap of robes and blue blood. Later, they would find that her jaw was completely broken.
The young lieutenant turned his captured weapon on the bridge personnel on the left side of the room. Using a controlled burst, he took down the fire control and communication’s operators. He was planning on using his body’s natural turning momentum to cover the entire bridge in controlled bursts, working left to right. That was the plan until he got shot.
“Look out!” A shout in English gave him a sudden warning providing him a microsecond to move.
Diving behind a console a pistol round hit him in the right thigh. Hitting the hard deck, it was a weird feeling for him as he realized that he had been shot yet at the same time he hadn’t felt the pain or shock of being struck. Popping up he saw that the shot had come from the ship mistress, in spite of that the situation was quickly changing.
The human specialist had tackled the lady officer and was wrestling with her on the ground. A second Blue - a male had also run over to the pair and was trying to help. Collins was going to shoot the Karduan male to aid the specialist, but the operators at the helm and navigation stations had drawn pistols and were firing at him.
Switching the selector switch to full auto Mike wasted no time suppressing the Karduan fire. With a sustained burst from his captured gauss rifle he fired until the magazine ran dry.
Ducking behind the console he checked the weapon’s ammo gauge, dropped the rifle and reached over to the dead comm. officer’s belt to retrieve her pistol. The Karduan ship pistols had been designed to be fired in a single action mode without recoil. Though it was a purely Karduan design, it was still a well-made and trustworthy sidearm; one that Mike had fortunately familiarized himself with.
Ducking around the communication’s console he scanned the room holding the captured pistol in a two-handed Weaver combat grip. The final burst from his gauss rifle had taken out the two operators and looking around the room the only movement he saw was near the maser station.
The specialist having been a high school wrestler had beaten the ship mistress into the deck. He was standing over her holding her pistol, which he couldn’t get to fire. Next to him was the Karduan male who had picked up the second guard’s gauss rifle.
“Fucking Bitch!” the specialist screamed and kicked the downed ship mistress full in her face smashing her nose into a pulp. In his other hand he held the control unit that operated his slave collar. Pressing a button, he tried to release the collar from around his neck, but this also failed to work.
Mike had leveled his weapon on the Blue male and ordered him in Karduan to drop the rifle or be shot.
The specialist looked up from his beating of the unconscious ship mistress.
“Don’t shoot sir! He is a friend!” he called, waving his arms and stepping in front of the Blue.
It took him a second, but it made sense, the male Karduan was a follower of their prophet the Redeemer.
The Karduan face looked surprise for a moment and he then broke into a smile.
“Yes, yes I’m! Do you know others that believe?”
“Quite a few. Are there any others onboard that could help us?” he said even as he moved to the helm’s controls.
“Yes, there are, I could use the ship’s communications system to call them from their posts.”
Mike sat down and went over the pilot station’s controls.
“Do it! And then see if we can lock down the decks, or blow their airlocks. A ship like this has to have a huge crew and we are a few hands short.”
“What about me sir?” the specialist asked. His rage had subsided and he had knelt down next to his fallen tormenter. There he tied the hands of the ship mistress behind her back.
Collins glanced from the controls, “Collect the weapons and anything else we can use. Try to lock the bridge doors and check if any of these ladies are still alive.”
As his two unexpected allies rushed to carry out his orders he angled the front of the ship so that its spinal cannon was now pointed at a Karduan destroyer screening the larger ship from the human forces. Reaching behind his ear he tapped his sub-dermal receiver. The neural transponder sent out a signal that the communication officer on the Star Wolf was waiting for.
“We are reading you Werewolf Two,” CPO Parker’s voice resonated strangely within his head. A second later the comm. officer continued.
“Where the hell are you, sir? The other teams are taking control of the freighters and they reported that you weren’t with them.”
Mike spoke out loud causing his two helpers to pause from their duties to stare at him for a moment.
“I was taken to the fleet mistress’s flag ship and I’m currently in control of their bridge and have captured their ship mistress as well as their fleet mistress.”
There was a long pause as the bridge of the Wolf not only erupted in cheering, as they tried to track his signal.
The Log of the Gray Wolf (Star Wolf Squadron Book 1) Page 48
