COLOSSUS_Departure [Book 1}

by Terry Frost

  Allen and Stavens had strong feelings for one another for several years. Before she became a member of his crew they dated in secrecy for many months prior to him getting selected by the USC to command Colossus.

  When asked to choose his staff he hesitated to choose her as his Chief Medical Officer because he knew it was against regulations to choose someone he was involved with to be one of his executive staff. But he thought about the dangers and possible scenarios on such a mission and would need an elite and competent medical officer available. Commander Stavens was the best, and he knew he could trust her to handle any critical situation that might come up.

  All they needed to do was to make it look like they fell for each other while on the mission. It was one thing to be involved prior to his selection and another to have the relationship seem to take place during their future mission.

  Chapter 26

  Colonel Hammer and Captain Slain had just scanned their assigned planet and it was devoid of life as the sensors told them the temperature on the planet at the time of the scan was -30F while facing its star and -150F when facing away from its star.

  “Well, nothing on this one, Colonel. You ready to go to our next scheduled planet?” Captain Slain asked.

  “Fine by me, Captain. Our next target is several million miles closer in so maybe we will get lucky. Proceed, Captain.”

  Captain Sokolov on board the USC Perseus wasn’t fairing any better than the men on the USC Striker. He had finished his scan of the large orange colored planet and found no life. He and Major Hoser were scanning the four moons orbiting the orange giant and had the same results as they did on the large host planet.

  Sokolov and Hoser were looking at their planet chart given them by Admiral Allen when Mikail said as he pointed at the chart, “This one is on the Striker’s list, so I guess our next target will be the large dark green planet right there.”

  “Big sucker, Captain. Damn thing has six moons orbiting her. I’ve caught a good feeling about this, and I think with it being the color it is it might have a breathable atmosphere. I just hope it isn’t occupied by a bunch of giant Human eating monsters.”

  “I second that, Major. Let’s be on our way, shall we?

  “You’re the pilot, Captain.”

  ****

  Admiral Allen and the crew of Colossus were preparing to get within orbital range of the large planet in his view screen while he was sitting in his command chair in Command Central. He looked over at Admiral Petrov and said, “While we are still a good distance from the planet call our general and tell him to begin his war games. We don’t want to be too close to the planet just in case there is intelligent life there. We don’t want to set off any alarms and have an alien attack force come to meet us when we are only practicing our war game scenario.”

  “Good idea, Admiral. See now, that kind of thinking is why you are paid the big bucks, sir.”

  Allen smiled as Anatoly called to inform General Dubois to begin the war games.

  While the games were taking place, Admiral Allen ordered Lieutenant McManus to just let Colossus drift without its engines engaged. He wanted the ship to basically be at an “All Stop” until the games concluded.

  Every available hornet and wasp participated in the war games and after an hour of chasing and evading maneuvers as well as implementing General Dubois’s famous V-shape attack and defeat formations, the general was beaming with pride and glad to give his admiral a good report.

  General Dubois was in the admiral’s Ready Room briefing him on the success of the games, and when he finished the briefing he sat patiently waiting for Allen’s reply.

  “I took the opportunity to watch the games for most of it, and I’m pleased with what I saw. Looks to me like our pilots haven’t skipped a beat, General.”

  “No, they haven’t, sir. Maybe the next time we scan a planet without any possible chance of life we can let our hornets make a few bombing runs with their plasma bombs.”

  “That can and will be arranged, Alias. Great job and let's move forward now and see if we can find ourselves a home. I can just imagine every Colossian on board is praying we can do just that.”

  “I agree with that, Admiral, and thank you for your time.”

  ****

  Admiral Allen and his executive staff had had many meetings since the Colossus left Mars. The subject of finding a new world for Humans came up during several of those meetings. Whether it was for their own reassurance, or just to be reminded how difficult the mission was, they all knew actually finding a new world might take many years beyond the life expectancy of the present crew, and everyone else on board.

  When one of their meetings would end without the topic of finding a new world, Admiral Allen knew the topic was always on their minds and he would sometimes end a meeting with, “I would not have accepted this command if I didn’t believe in my heart we will find our new home. So keep the faith.”

  And on other occasions, he would simply say, “Keep the faith, you are dismissed.”

  After seventy-two hours of scanning planets without any luck, Admiral Allen ordered the Striker and Perseus back to the Colossus for general maintenance. Both Battlecruisers had seen many hours of flight and regular maintenance was always required.

  “How the hell are we ever supposed to find a livable world if after scanning a few planets we have to report back to Colossus for maintenance? Seems to me the Striker could continue on for many more cycles without needing a damn oil change,” Colonel Hammer said.

  “For one thing, Jak, the Striker doesn’t do oil changes,” Captain Slain said with a snicker.

  “Hell, I know that, Kenner. It was a joke, but you stiff collar guys never do understand a good and witty sense of humor.”

  “You think you’re witty, Colonel? And what the hell do you mean by stiff collar guys?”

  “Prim and proper types, Captain. You know, like the British.”

  “Well, now your just getting plain insulting, Jak.”

  “Sorry, Kenner, I’m finding the last two weeks of this mission to be rather boring, and when I’m bored I tend to get a little on edge. I don’t mean to take it out on you as you are a good old chap.”

  Kenner didn’t say anything back, he just glared at Jak.

  “Damn, looks like Captian Sokolov beat us back, which means we will need to stay out here for a couple hours until the Perseus is moved off the carousel.”

  “I could just hop into my hornet and fly into the bay while you wait. I’m hungry and don’t want to eat another damn nutro bar.”

  “Sorry, Jak. If I have to wait so do you, mister.”

  “Well, shit. Always thinking of protocols aren’t you, Captain? You do know you have twelve very capable wasp pilots on board that can hold your hand while I’m away.”

  “And you know that a ranking member of the military above the grade of captain has to be on board during all missions with certain exceptions. Yep, that’s me ole chap. All prim and proper you know.”

  Just prior to calling his two Battlecruisers back for their timed maintenance schedule, Admiral Allen and the Colossus had finished scanning the large orange planet and her three moons. The massive ship had jumped to the other large planet on the admiral’s list, and it was at that location the two cruisers met up with their Admiral.

  The orange planet had no water that the scanners could detect and was filled with canyons several miles deep. The geologists on board all agreed the planet had to have had water or some kind of liquid on its surface at some time during its lifetime. The huge planet was completely void of any vegetation. It consisted mostly of mountain ranges, gigantic boulders, and a clay type surface.

  Two of the three moons had active volcanic activity and the third one was only a barren rock world. After the scans, Allen thought I guess we were unbelievably lucky to have stumbled upon two intelligent worlds so close together. I really hope this doesn’t continue further into the Calphor system. It sure will be deflating if this is all this
huge star has to offer us.

  Allen and Petrov were in Petrov’s Ready Room having an evening glass of scotch when Commodore Jeeves, who was flying the Colossus while his admiral’s had taken their evening leave, called Allen with news of the next planet coming within sensor range.

  Chapter 27

  Admiral Allen and Rear Admiral Petrov came out of Petrov’s Ready Room and walked over to their command chairs. Commodore Jeeves stood and walked around to the side of Allen’s chair and stood with his hands behind his back.

  As Allen took his seat he could see the planet on the viewscreen, but they were still over 150 miles away and he said, “Ensign Cherny, magnify to Power 5 if you please.”

  “Aye, Admiral, magnification to P5.”

  What everyone in command central saw next was a beautiful blue planet which had to mean one thing to the space travelers, water. Several crew members let out sounds of amazement, but only at minimum voice activation.

  “Will you look at that, Admiral?” asked Petrov.”

  “Yes, I see it. That planet has to have liquid water on it, Admiral. What do you see, Commodore?”

  “I have to agree, sirs. It is the only planet we have seen other than planet Hopus to be made up of mostly water.”

  As they moved in closer they could see two fairly good sized continents. The land mass near the center was elongated and covered nearly a quarter of the planet running from middle center all the way down to its lower Hemisphere.

  The other land mass was just coming into view from the top of the planet as it orbited. When all of the mass came into view it was shaped like Australia back on Earth except it was ten times larger. The planet was huge and was estimated by Commodore Jeeves to be about the size of Saturn.

  Colossus was now positioned only twelve miles from the blue planet and the excitement became jubilant as they saw actual cloud formations covering many sections of the new blue world.

  Suddenly, before anyone had time to really study the planet, a call out came from Ensign Cherny.

  “Admiral, I have a contact at 200 miles out, sir, and it's moving extremely fast.”

  “On screen, Ensign, magnification P3,” Allen ordered.

  A large slow turning six-pointed star showed up on the view screen. Allen immediately knew what the object was from the description Burseq Maalik gave him, and it was a Hive nest.

  “It’s a Hive nest. Go to Red Alert. Shields up. Battle stations, battle stations.”

  With the Red Alert sounding shipwide, all military personnel was running to their assigned battle stations to prepare to defend Colossus and every citizen on board the massive ship. All pilots were scrambling to their fighters.

  Captain Sokolov, Major Hoser, Weapons Lieutenant Stern Baffy, and the twelve wasp pilots had just exited the USC Perseus when Marine Captain Teasor, who had been off duty, came running to the Battlecruiser. Hoser and Teasor would be manning the hornet and Baffy would be manning the ion cannons while Captain Sokolove flew Perseus.

  Lucky for the Perseus it hadn’t been lowered on the elevator to begin maintenance yet, so all Sokolov needed to do was wait for the carousel to turn the Battlecruiser around so it could take off.

  The Striker, on the other hand, was one man short of the required crew under battlefield conditions. All twelve wasp pilots and Weapons Lieutenant James Cargon were on board, but the missing person was Commodore Jeeves, which was Colonel Hammer’s co-pilot for the hornet. Jeeves was on the Command Center’s deck with his admirals.

  “Well, fuck. Looks like I’m going it alone in the hornet. Jeeves is on Colossus,” Hammer stated.

  “Like hell, you are, Colonel. How you going to fly the hornet without a co-pilot to shoot your ion cannons.”

  “It is obvious to me, Slain, you don’t realize the full potential of my battle skills. You just make sure you don’t get the Striker blown to a million pieces.”

  Jak jumped out of his co-pilot seat and slid down the ladder to the hangar bay and could still hear Captain Slain raising all kinds of hell.

  Captain Sokolov and the Perseus flew out of the bay and turned immediately to his left and positioned the Perseus just right of the Command Center of Colossus. To the right of him were the combat wasps in a spread V formation with Major Hoser and Captain Teasor in their hornet in the center of the V.

  Captain Slain and the Striker had positioned themselves in the exact location as the Perseus except on the left side of Colossus. The remaining three squadrons of combat wasps which totaled ninety fighters exited Colossus. Thirty flew to the rear of the big ship to protect its flank. The other sixty positioned themselves two miles in front of the Colossus and would be the first to engage the approaching enemy.

  Back in the Command Center, Rear Admiral Petrov said, “Look at the size of that ship. This is going to be a good test for our shields, sir.”

  “The correct statement, Anatoly, is a test for the whole of Colossus and our fighters. Let’s pray we can defend her properly.”

  General Dubois and Weapons Commander Kenta Masato had just ordered all weapon stations to report that they were locked and loaded. They would be in charge of firing strategies, something General Dubois was an expert at and one of the reasons Admiral Allen had selected him for the position of shipwide military engagements.

  The Hive nest had covered most of the 200 miles extremely fast and when they were only ten miles from the Colossus, the massive star-shaped nest came to an almost full stop.

  Helmsman Lieutenant Gordo McManus spoke, “The Hive Nest has slowed to a crawl, Admiral.”

  Anatoly looked at Allen and said, “Maybe they want a pow wow.”

  “Highly unlikely, Admiral. They are killers and they don’t pow wow. They are getting ready to send their fighters, and I’m of the opinion that for some reason they have to slow before their fighters can fly. If so, that will give us a tactical advantage in the future should we survive this first contact.”

  Admiral Allen was correct. In a matter of seconds over a hundred cylinder shaped fighters came flying out of the round single craft bays located in each section of the Hive nest ship. Then the center of the nest opened up and a dozen large attack craft came streaming out of the large bay.

  The next voice the Colossus defenders heard was General Dubois and he said, “W1 and 2 (meaning wasp one and wasp two) attack, attack, attack.”

  The sixty combat wasp took off in their V formations towards the enemy and within seconds was engaging the oncoming Hive fighters. Even though the Hive fighters were fast they couldn’t match the maneuverability of the combat wasps. Heavily outnumbered by the Hive fighters the wasps were still killing them at a ratio of ten to one.

  General Dubois called for the Striker and Perseus to began taking on the dark Hive heavy fighters. The heavy fighters did have great maneuvering capabilities making them harder to fight. One of them had broken through the front line defenses and was firing at Colossus.

  The Hive heavy fighter had weapons that shot out ten bursts of projectiles in rapid succession but the projectiles couldn’t penetrate Colossus’s shield and just made bright impact flares upon the shield.

  Major Hoser and Captain Teasor had blown two of the heavy fighters into smoldering chunks of metal, as Colonel Hammer flying his hornet by himself, was doing a remarkable job by taking out a heavy fighter and was in the middle of chasing another one when his ship took at powerful hit aft.

  Hammer lost power for a second or two then everything came back online. But when his hornet took the hit he thought he heard someone scream in the back of his hornet. He thought for a second he was just hearing things and that maybe the powerful hit rang his bell a little. But then he heard a whimpering sound.

  While dodging oncoming fighters, he flew out of the line of attack and flew away about a mile from the fighting, and said, “Who the hell is on my ship. I know your back there cause I heard you. Come out right fucking now.”

  As he turned his head to look into the rear of his hornet what he saw shocked
him. There were two stowaways, and they were the Daakie Prince Gorvik, and the Venic girl, Julan.

  “I’ll deal with you two later. Right now I need to know if you, Prince Gorvik know how to shoot at what you aim at.”

  “Most certainly, Colonel. I’ve had many hours training for battle on our Zurguts.”

  “Well, hop up here and help me with the ion cannons.”

  The prince jumped into the co-pilot’s chair and took hold of the firing joist, ready to shoot when Colonel Hammer got back into the fray.

  Looking at Junal who was crouched while peering out in between the two pilots Jak said, “Get yourself in the back and hold on to something.”

  Junal looked at Jak and all he could see was the young alien’s exceptionally beautiful, gold speckled eyes and her nervous smile. She hurried to the back of the hornet, sat on the floor, and held onto a small bar attached to the hornet’s structure.

  Captain Mikal Sokolov and his crew on the Perseus had made short work of several of the attacking Hive fighters but sustained some damage while in battle.

  Colonel Hammer thought to pick the best avenue to get his two stowaways back to Colossus. He wasn’t going to be able to get there without taking out some of the torpedo-shaped Hive fighters. Hammer looked quickly at the prince and said, “You ready?”

  The young Daakie prince swelled chest some and while looking for targets said, “I was born to be ready, Earthling Colonel Hammer.”

  Hammer smiled and turned his hornet towards the fighter just to his right and without a word Prince Gorvik let go two bursts from the ion cannon and vaporized the fighter.

  He turned his head towards Hammer and said, “Daakie training academy uses Hive replicas for shooting practice. Gorvik score best among all.”

  With only a few of the attacking Hive fighters left to eliminate, Jak thought his concerns about making it to Colossus was steadily improving. But then he saw another hundred or so Hive fighters blast away from the nest.