by Brian Fisher
Chapter 75
Vengeance slipped quietly out of hyperspace, at the edge of chaos. Nearly five hundred Ta'Reeth warships drifted helpless and out of control. Their heavily armored hulls were cracked and broken open, as if they had been crushed with a giant mallet.
Corin wove his ship carefully through the debris, searching for signs of life, and finding none. He checked his sensors repeatedly, in hope of finding Redemption as he made his way deeper into the carnage.
"Major, how's it going down there?" Corin asked as he narrowly avoided contact with a severed spar, careening wildly away from a nearby cruiser.
"Prinelle is awake now." Corin could hear the relief in the other man's voice. He hadn't said anything, but Corin knew that losing Prinelle again would destroy Narja completely. "Brutus is still in the DioBed, with your daughter at his side."
"Thank you for keeping an eye on them." Corin sighed. He wished that he could be there with his family, but knew that he was needed right where he was. It surprised him that he had actually included Prinelle and Narja as family in his thoughts. "When you get a minute, I could use you up here."
"I understand." Narja paused before he spoke again. "I'll be there in a moment."
Corin turned his attention back to the graveyard of ships. Something incredibly powerful had done this. The knowledge that something that wielded this kind of power even existed sent a chill down his spine. Deep in the recesses of his mind, Corin pictured some massive, all-powerful being taking these vessels, and crushing them in his hands, before casting them away like the ruined hulks that they were.
"What happened here?" Narja asked as he stepped onto the bridge. His eyes drifted across the destruction on display before him. In all of his years of fighting, he had never seen anything on such a scale. Hundreds of thousands of lives had been lost, and he was looking at the horrific results.
"I don't know." Corin shook his head. "Would you please contact Redemption? I'm going to run a few more sensor scans as we go."
Narja nodded as he sat down at the communications station and started working. He forced himself to focus on the console, instead of the view screen. What he saw there was the enemy, but death was still death, no matter what race or creed you came from.
Corin flew in close to one of the Ta'Reeth cruisers. The great spires that dotted the hull of the ship were cracked and bleeding. The blood froze the instant that it met the cold vacuum of space, only to be broken away by fresh blood, and frozen all over again.
He watched closely as the great ship bled over and over again. Puzzled, he replayed the image. The ship bled, froze, and bled again.
"Oh, my God." Corin muttered.
"What is it?" Narja looked at his friend.
"Watch this." Corin pointed to the view screen, and played the sequence again for Narja. "Do you see it?"
"See what?" Narja squinted at the screen. "The bleeding?"
"Partly." Corin ran his hand over his face. "Look closely. It's healing itself. These ships aren't dead." He pointed at the replay again, and magnified the image. As it played, the crack grew smaller each time the ship bled.
"Have you been able to reach Redemption yet?" Corin asked while he recorded the data on the Ta'Reeth ships.
"No, I haven't." Narja reluctantly sat back in his seat. He quickly started working again, trying to contact his ship.
"Don't bother contacting Redemption. Instead, send this data package to Captain Kim, and tell him that we're doing what we can." Corin's voice stopped Narja cold, and brought his eyes to the view screen. "Tell him to send reinforcements now."
In the center of Hell, lay Redemption, her hull crushed and scarred. No lights shone in her portholes, and precious oxygen spouted like geysers from a hundred separate wounds. The mighty ship listed badly to port, and started to tumble.
Around Redemption were the remains of hundreds of Ta'Reeth cruisers and fighters. Each of the enemy ships was mangled beyond clear recognition. Only the bone hulls identified them as Ta'Reeth, and the amount of wreckage gave an indication as to the class of vessel. These ships, unlike the ones farther out, were dead.
Corin carefully picked his way through the wreckage. He flew around Redemption, carefully running a thorough scan of the ship, before finally docking Vengeance amidships.
"Alright Narja, we've got a lot to do, and no time to do it." He motioned for the Caldonian to come with him. "We've got rescue gear in the cargo bay, and environmental suits near the airlock. Let's go."
The two men didn't bother speaking as they ran to the cargo bay. They already knew what they had to do. They took lights, a few tools, and a portable power supply out of a locker, and hurried back to the airlock. When they reached the airlock, Narja left Prinelle a short message, then climbed into his suit.
The suits were old and bulky, but they served their purpose well. Corin and Narja quickly checked each other's suits, and then opened the airlock. On the other side was a short passageway, and then Redemption's hull.
Vengeance's airlock opened without any problems, but Redemption's airlock was another issue. The armored hull around the airlock was badly creased, jamming the door shut. With the power out, Corin tried to use a hand crank to open the malfunctioning airlock. He strained hard, putting all of his weight against the handle, but it would not move at all.
"We'll have to try a different one." Corin's voice sounded hollow over the suit's communications system. "There's one aft of here. We'll go out through Vengeance's hatch."
"Are there life signs aboard Redemption?" Narja asked, picking up the portable power unit. The tone of his voice betrayed the thoughts and emotions that he tried to hide.
"I couldn't get a definitive number, but yeah." Corin grunted. "Did you get the data package off to Captain Kim?"
"I did, and it was marked as being received." Narja grunted as he hauled the rescue equipment down the corridor. Time, it seemed, was always in increasingly short supply as the two men hurried through the ship.
"Good." Corin sighed as he opened the airlock, and stepped out onto Redemption's hull. His magnetic boots gently pulled against the battered metal as he walked. Redemption continued to spin and tumble through the heart of the debris field, threatening to dislodge both Corin and Narja.
"Keep your eyes on the hull, so that you don't get disoriented." Narja called to Corin, reminding himself as much as the other man. If either of them came away from Redemption, there would be no saving them, and the mission would be lost.
The access hatch lay recessed into the hull, with a manual release next to it. The handle for the release was a simple tee shape that was just under half of a meter in length. Corin grabbed the handle with both hands, and heaved. Slowly, the hatch ground open.
Narja shone his light inside the darkened hatch. Inside was a small compartment that was barely large enough to fit the two men and their equipment. Cautiously, they dropped into the compartment, and closed the hatch.
Corin and Narja quickly searched for the next hatch. It was larger than the previous one, and on a bulkhead that ran perpendicular to the hull. Another handle was recessed into the bulkhead next to the hatch. With a little effort, Corin was able to open it.
When they stepped through the hatch, everything was dark. Their environmental suits muted the sounds coming from the darkness. Corin glanced down at the readouts on his arm. There was breathable atmosphere in the ship, but it was growing thinner by the minute.
"We should probably keep our suits on." Corin spoke to Narja through the intercom.
"Agreed, but we need to get to engineering." Narja pointed his light ahead. "If we can help get the power back, they'll be able to start repairs."
"What was that?" Corin started as something brushed his shoulder. He spun quickly, nearly falling down. Floating near his shoulder was nothing more than a section of bulkhead, with a piece of power conduit seared to it.
"It's nothing." Narja continued ahead. "Follow me."
"Yeah, no problem." Corin muttered. H
e considered turning off his light, and using his implants, but thought better of the idea. The implants worked well enough, but after a while they began to hurt when he used them too much.
With Narja leading, the trek to engineering did not take long at all. He led Corin along the outer corridors, avoiding possible encounters with the crew, and then took a series of empty corridors toward the heart of the ship.
When they reached engineering the doors were closed, but not sealed and easy enough to open. Stepping through the door, Corin could hear muffled voices and sounds that he couldn't identify coming from the darkness. He glanced down at his readout, and saw that the atmosphere was safe before he opened his face shield.
"Alright, you had better answer me! Who's got those blasted lights?" Kamira yelled from the darkness. "You'd better get them over here on the double, or you're going on report!"
"Alright already. Stop yelling at me." Corin retorted sarcastically.
"Who is that?" Kamira yelled back. "You had better answer me!"
"Corin Dante." He replied. "And Major Narja. Would you like some help?" he shone his light to where Kamira's voice had come from. She looked furious, floating helplessly in mid air.
"Give me a hand, please." Kamira asked quietly as she stretched out her hand toward the light.
Corin and Narja both helped to steady Kamira. Without the artificial gravity, she still floated, but with their help, she was able to move around.
"What happened here?" Corin finally asked. He used his light to look around. Tools and parts floated throughout engineering, as did the unfortunate crew.
"I think we blew out just about every power coupling and relay on the ship." Kamira took Corin's light away from him, and began her own inspection. "We don't have anything. No communications, power, computer support, nothing. I can't even run an MRU."
"Well, we noticed that you've got around a hundred hull breaches too." Corin grimaced. The ship had taken more of a beating than he had first thought, and from the carnage outside, he thought that it had to have been a tough fight.
"We brought you a portable power unit." Narja interjected as he showed the unit to Kamira.
"That's good. We can hook that up to one of our MRUs, and at least get started on something." Kam sighed. "I can't even run a repair drone. They all run off Angel. Until we get the core up and running again, we're in deep trouble."
"What about that thing in my cargo bay?" Corin asked hopefully.
"What thing?" Kamira looked at Corin.
"You know, that drone you built when we crashed. It's in my cargo bay, and I've got a working MRU." Corin motioned toward Vengeance.
"You are a genius." Kamira smiled. "I can use that drone independent of Angel. It's slow, but it'll still work."
"I should probably find out what kind of assistance the Admiral needs." Narja handed the power unit to Corin. "I will be in contact with you shortly." without saying anything else, Narja left Engineering.
"Alright, let's get this thing plugged in." Kamira indicated the power unit. "The MRU is over here." she pushed off a nearby cabinet, and soared over to the MRU with Corin's light in hand.
Corin sighed and activated his implants. Engineering lit up as if it were daylight. His implants scanned the visible spectrum, and a few others, picking up every detail. The damage that he saw with his implants was staggering. Nothing had escaped unscathed.
Once Corin reached the MRU, it took only a couple of seconds to connect the power unit, and get the MRU running again. He watched silently as Kamira keyed a series of commands into the system. As he watched, Corin disconnected the auxiliary communications unit from the arm of his suit, and handed it to Kamira.
"This will let you talk to Narja, me, or Vengeance. I'll have Narja leave his with Jason, so that you'll have a link with him too." Corin stopped and thought about what he should say next. "I should get that drone out for you."
"Corin." Kamira said quietly as he turned to leave.
"Yeah Kam?" He stopped and looked back at her. She reminded him of T'Sula, of all the things that he wanted.
"Don't let her down." Kamira forced the tears not to come. "Go get her Corin."
"I will." Corin willed the words out of his mouth, and then quickly left engineering.
Corin backtracked the route that he and Narja had taken. His thoughts raced as he sealed his suit, and entered the airlock. Hard vacuum greeted him before he managed to clear his mind, and bring his thoughts back to the tasks before him.
The crew of Redemption was counting on him. Mekala was counting on him, as were T'Sula, Prinelle, and Narja. He focused his eyes on his ship, and placing one foot in front of the other, walked back to Vengeance. Everything in his universe counted on him, on his ability to see things through.
The weight of his thoughts nearly crushed him.
Corin finally reached the airlock, when something in the Ta'Reeth wreckage caught his attention. Near the edge of the wreckage, something moved. It was small, much smaller than Redemption or Vengeance, yet it was bigger than a man. Corin paused, and watched as whatever it was flitted back and forth through the debris.
He closed his eyes and accessed Vengeance's sensors. After a moment of searching, he found it. There, at the edge of the wreckage, was a Ta'Reeth fighter.
Silently, Corin cursed. The fighter could only be doing one thing. It was sending reconnaissance data back to its fleet.
"We've got problems." Corin spoke without preamble into his communications unit.
"What kind of problems?" it was Admiral McWilliams coming over his system now.
"We've just been reconned by a Ta'Reeth fighter. Did Narja tell you what we found?" Corin found a new sense of urgency and hurried into his ship.
"Yeah, they're healing. We don't have much time." Jason sounded tired. "Oh, Corin?"
"Yeah?" Corin asked as he sealed the airlock and turned off his gravity boots.
"Welcome back." Jason kept as much out of his voice as he could manage. The man had managed to give him and his crew a glimmer of hope yet again, and Jason had no idea how he would ever repay him
"Thanks." Corin started to run. The cargo bay wasn't far, but running in an environment suit tired him quickly. When he reached the cargo bay, Corin's chest was heaving badly.
Sitting in a heap near the far wall was the drone. Corin walked over to the drone as fast as his labored breathing would allow. He removed the data pad that was attached to the drone, and powered up the machine. It cycled through a brief systems check, and then stood on its powerful legs.
The deck shook as the drone walked over to the cargo bay door. Corin followed the drone. When he reached the door, he sealed his suit and opened the cargo bay. As the doors quietly slid open, a shimmering forcefield snapped into place, keeping the ships atmosphere intact. With the doors fully open, Corin and the drone stepped out onto Redemption's hull.
"I'm programming this thing to detect and repair all of the hull breaches. Any objections?" Corin asked as he finished and initiated the program.
"That sounds like a good place to start." Kamira replied.
"Alright, I'm going to close up here, and check on Mekala." the words had barely come out of Corin's mouth when the Ta'Reeth struck.
A dozen fighters strafed Redemption, coming from the stern, in a tight formation, ripping massive holes in Redemption's already fractured hull. After strafing Redemption, the fighters turned, and attacked again. They came in closer, with their plasma cannons firing as fast as they could. Redemption's hull burst open from the strain, venting precious atmosphere into space.
Immediately behind the fighters, came a squadron of shuttles. They were larger, and bulkier than the thin shards of serrated bone that preceded them. The shuttles streaked in, and slammed into Redemption's hull with enough force to send shockwaves across the mighty ship.
Once settled, the shuttles broke open, releasing a dozen warriors apiece. The warriors were heavier than the ones that Corin had seen before, and the exposure to space
did not seem to affect them at all. These Ta'Reeth had small, efficient looking cannons on each forearm, and long razor sharp claws at the tips of their fingers.
"We're being boarded!" Corin yelled into his communications unit. He ran back into Vengeance, and closed the cargo bay doors, allowing the drone to continue its work. Stripping out of his environment suit as he ran, Corin used his implants to initialize his shields and weapons systems.
"Narja, I could really use you right now." Corin called out as Vengeance's twin Gatling railguns came to life. He climbed into the turret and strapped himself in. Targeting the shuttles, Corin opened fire. The armor on the Ta'Reeth ships was thick and heavy, but gave way to the barrage of hyper-accelerated iron particles.
"I can't help you right now Corin. We're being boarded." Narja's terse reply came swiftly.
"Yeah, I'm trying to prevent that." Corin grimaced as he obliterated another shuttle. Sweat formed on his brow and began to drip down his face as he continued to fight against the Ta'Reeth.
The fighters came around again, but instead of targeting Redemption, they fired on Vengeance. The smaller ship rocked violently under the impact of the Plasma cannons, but her shields held. Corin ignored the fighters, steadily blasting away at the shuttles and warriors. If he could buy enough time, maybe Kamira could get Angel back online.
"Corin, incoming!" Prinelle's voice rang clear over the intercom. "I'm reading two more flights of fighters, with shuttles behind."
"Keep me posted." Corin swore under his breath. "Admiral, how's it coming down there?"
"We're a little busy." Jason grunted. "Should have power back in a couple of minutes."
The next wave of fighters streaked in, strafing Redemption and Vengeance. Corin did what he could, and destroyed a handful of shuttles before they could land. He continued to shred the shuttles and fighters as fast as he could, but the Ta'Reeth still managed to board Redemption.
"Where are those reinforcements?" Corin screamed into his com unit.
"Right here." Captain Kim's voice rang in his ears.
Corin looked up just as a hundred Resistance and Caldonian cruisers broke through the shroud of debris. Sleek fighters streamed out of the giant ships hulls, followed by several dozen shuttles.
"Redemption's being boarded. They have no power, or Marines." Corin quickly reported to Captain Kim.
"Good copy. We're taking care of that now." Captain Kim replied. "The rest of the fleet is unable to attend. They're busy with the rest of the Ta'Reeth fleet."
"Understood. Admiral, did you copy that?" Corin lit up another fighter.
"Tell Quin to hurry up and get his rear over here." as Jason spoke, Redemption's power flickered, faded, and then came fully to life. Her weapons systems roared into activity, instantly vaporizing dozens of Ta'Reeth ships. The tumbling slowed, and then came to a stop as Redemption fired her thrusters.
The Resistance shuttles landed on Redemption's hull, and quickly released their Marines. The troops were swift and efficient as they entered the ship, killing any Ta'Reeth that came in view.
A few minutes passed before Corin stopped firing. The fighters were gone, and no more enemy shuttles came to land. He checked his sensors, and they showed that he was right. The fight was over, for now anyway.
"Captain Dante, please detach from my hull. You are welcome to land in landing bay three." Angel's voice sounded strained, but it was still good to hear.
Corin was relieved to climb out of the turret. To him, it meant that his family was safe for just a little while longer. It took him a moment to reach the bridge, but when he did, Mekala greeted him, with Brutus right behind her. Prinelle was seated at her station with a resigned smile on her face.
"Feeling better?" Corin asked the Caldonian.
"Yes. Thank you." Prinelle sank into her chair. "Are we going to go get this T'Sula Mir now?"
"I think it's time to." Corin sat in his seat, and quickly detached his ship from Redemption. Landing bay three was only a moment away, but it seemed like an eternity. Vengeance's thrusters fired smoothly as Corin slipped around Redemption, and into the landing bay.
Narja, Kamira, and Jason were waiting for them. Each of them looked weary, but whole. Kamira grinned as Corin walked down the ramp carrying Mekala, followed by Prinelle and Brutus.
"Corin, thank you." Jason stepped forward with his hand outstretched. "If it wasn't for you, all of you, we would all be dead."
Corin took the Admiral's hand, and firmly shook it. He couldn't find any words, so he simply nodded.
"I still need to get T'Sula." Corin whispered. "Can I take the Major with me? He's a good man."
"Narja?" Jason glanced over at his friend. He didn't want to send him out again so soon, but he knew that if he stopped him, there would be more damage to his friend than he would ever fully realize.
"I will return soon Sir." Major Narja smiled and joined his fiancé as they returned to Vengeance. They waved as the hatch closed, and Vengeance left for Earth.
