Resolute Omnibus (The War for Terra)

by James Prosser

  There were a few consoles still clinging to power but the bodies of the Holkan crew lay scattered over the whole area. His men were already patting down the bodies, looking for valuables and currency. Jakes walked to the nearest live console and pulled a body from it. He pressed the screen and tried to find the code to open the cargo hold.

  “Greg, Leo, come with me,” ordered Jakes. “The rest of you prep this ship and get it ready for a paired jump. I want to be out of here in thirty minutes.”

  “Aye, sir,” replied his crew, pulling bodies away from the controls and beginning to gain control of the ship.

  Jakes and the other two men ran from the bridge, clutching their weapons at the ready. Connor had seen the easiest way to the hold on the console and sped rapidly through the ship. The lack of Holkans made him think that he and his crew had already wiped out the defenders when they boarded and took the bridge. Unfortunately his assumption was wrong. As they rounded the final corner leading to the hold, four Holkans opened fire and forced them back down the corridor out of danger.

  “Got any more of those grenades?” Jakes asked his men. “I think I can ricochet one off the wall and take these guys out.”

  “Sorry Captain,” replied Greg. “Porter had all of them and we left him on the bridge.”

  Cursing his snap decision, Jakes tried to think of a way to get around the Holkans. There were no more airlocks to blow and they were outnumbered and outgunned. The solution seemed clear to him as he stepped away from the wall.

  “We surrender!” Jakes yelled over the noise of the plasma bursts. “We give up!”

  The Holkans ceased firing at down the corridor and Jakes could hear them start to walk down the hall. He stepped out into the corridor, exposing himself to the alien defenders and threw his gun down in front of them. Three of the men were advancing on his position and one had stayed behind to guard the door. As they reached Jakes, Greg leapt from behind his cover and sent blistering plasma fire down the hallway. As the Holkans tried to raise their own guns, Leo slid out at ground level and fired at the legs of the slavers.

  Jakes rolled out of the way as the final man unleashed his own weapon. Leo cried out as he was struck square in the chest, carving a smoky hole straight through him. Connor grabbed his pistol and fired as he came out of the roll. The final guard’s head exploded as the chemical projectile shattered upon entering his skull. Greg and Jakes stood still, breathing hard after their exertions. Connor looked back at the body of Leo with regret. Despite his occupation, he hated to see any of his men get killed, even for a worthy cause.

  The two men got to their feet and walked cautiously down the corridor. When Connor reached the door, he tapped the release code into the control and the door slid open. The slaves were being kept in cells, five to each cell. Jakes sent Greg down to find the door release while he stepped to the nearest cell. An electromagnetic field blocked his entry, but he could see the five humans rise as he came near. The tallest, a man close to seventy by Connor’s estimation, came close to the field to look at Jakes.

  “You are human,” the man started. “Where did you come from?”

  “We’re getting you out of here, old man,” Jakes said. “But I need to know if you have ever heard of a man named Heyerdahl?”

  The old man looked back at his companions, apparently confused at the question. Two girls, not much older than eighteen Jakes thought, came closer to the field. The older man said something in a whisper to the girls who looked back at Jakes.

  “If you mean Erik Heyerdahl,” one of the girls said. “Then yes, he was with us before we were shipped out. He left on a different ship.”

  “Do you know where he was sent?” Jakes asked, hope exploding in his chest. “Which planet or ship he was heading to?”

  “Yes,” replied the old man, stepping closer as the field snapped off. “He was being sent to a Ch’Tauk execution facility.”

  “Where?” Jakes demanded, hoping that they would not be too late.

  “Karisia”

  13

  Battleship Resolute

  The deck surged upwards, knocking Lee Pearce from his feet and sending the electric candles flying across the captain’s quarters. Lee braced himself against one of the short chairs and pushed himself back to his feet. Struggling to walk against the bucking motion, Lee managed to make it to his desk and pressed the button to activate the intercom to the bridge.

  “Farthing,” Lee cried into the system. “What the hell is going on?”

  “Ch’Tauk dreadnought just exited from jump, Captain. It brought friends. We need you up here, sir.”

  “On my way,” Lee replied, closing the channel with a slap.

  He found the wall and held onto the metal chair rail for support, feeling the deck begin to calm as he approached the door. Exiting his quarters, he turned left and made his way down the short hallway to the bridge. His combined office and quarters was the closest room to the command deck and it afforded him quick access to the heart of the ship.

  Entering the bridge from the starboard side, Lee quickly stepped up onto the command pedestal and took his seat. The chair and the shared navigation console were raised above the main areas of the bridge and gave Lee an unobstructed view of the projected view screen. To the right side of the screen was the communications console where his first officer sat, monitoring his board intently. To the left was the weapons center, manned by a short creature with eight arms and a large head.

  “Scramble the Demons,” Lee ordered, activating his small holographic display. “Shield status?”

  “Already prepping for launch, Captain,” Farthing replied dryly. “Miss Bennett said to say she was sorry to miss dinner.”

  “Shield status operational, Captain,” the synthesized voice of the octopod weapons officer replied. “They caught us off guard, but we received only minimal damage. Crews are already working to seal the breach on deck six.”

  Lee pulled up the local situation map on his display. Although the ship had not been equipped with the most modern devices when he had taken command, his unique engineering crew had overhauled and refitted the aging battleship with upgraded systems as soon as they came aboard. Although older than most ships in the small Terran fleet, Resolute now boasted some of the most advanced weapons and shields available. Lee had learned that the battleship had been added to the attack fleet attached to Baal for just that purpose four years ago.

  The display showed a large glowing dot that indicated the Ch’Tauk warship. It was four times the size of Resolute and had the familiar large cannons on the nose. Alongside of the destroyer there were two more large ships that the computer identified as cruisers. Several dozen smaller dots told Lee that the ships had already launched fighters against his ship.

  The Resolute had jumped into the system after finding the remains of a Terran Confederation cruiser and examining the encoded flight recorder. The ship had been ambushed along with the carrier group attached to the Zeus. Apparently, the ship had sacrificed itself to allow the other vessels time to escape. Although saddened by the loss of the ship and her crew, the discovery had given Lee hope that they were on the trail of the lost fleet. Finding nothing when they arrived, however, Resolute had decided to recharge its solar batteries and try to look for clues.

  “Charge up the M-Space engines, Lieutenant Artzen,” Lee ordered the engineering officer who sat behind him. “This is not a good situation and I want to get out of here if it gets too hairy.”

  “Aye sir,” said the older man, tapping keys on his console.

  “Goldstein, we need to stay out of the line of fire of those big cannons,” Lee said to the lead navigator. “Turn us to keep the cruisers between us and that big ship.”

  “Aye sir,” replied the man. “Setting course and turning ninety degrees to port.”

  The two helmsmen operated their consoles with crisp efficiency. Goldstein, the younger man, had been lead helmsman under Captain Chang when he was in command of Resolute and was still Lee’s
first choice for the position. The woman to his left was Lee’s age with short, white hair that made her pale skin look even whiter. Both officers worked as a team to keep the ship out of danger.

  Lee recognized the dots on his screen that indicated that the Demon Squadron had already launched and were speeding towards the incoming Ch’Tauk forces. The sight of the small ships on his screen filled him with longing. As a fighter pilot, his heart was calling him to leave the bridge and jump into the Silver Eagle to join his wing mates. Unfortunately, the nature of this battle required him to stay right where he was and direct the battleship from the command chair.

  “Farthing,” ordered Lee. “Tell Aztec and Merlin to try to draw off one of the cruisers. We can’t take on the whole fleet ourselves without dividing them up.”

  The first officer complied, relaying the message with the two pilots. Although the Ch’Tauk had greater numbers on their side, the advanced shielding and weapons that the Elves had installed helped to even out the odds. Lee only hoped that the technology would be enough to protect his friends as they sped off to confront the monster ships.

  Resolute opened fire with its starboard cannons as it turned broadside to the nearest cruiser. Ripples of plasma energy scorched the thick armor of the enemy warship. The banded ship tried to maneuver around so that the large forward mounted cannons could face the Terran battleship. Goldstein kept the Resolute moving to evade the big ship and keep their own weapons facing the enemy.

  Lee spotted the three Demons spreading out along the battle. Alice’s ship seemed to shift back and forth between chasing and leading the Ch’Tauk fighters and he saw the enemy numbers begin to diminish. Jackal and Baron seemed to be working together to attack the insect-like fighters from multiple sides. His other two friends, Aztec and Merlin, both survivors of the first battle he had fought with the Baal carrier group, had begun peppering the far cruiser with plasma fire and making it follows them.

  Although the strategy seemed to be succeeding, Lee had learned not to rely on early battle results. Things could always go bad very quickly and he needed to be sure that he was ready. Still, he thought, all in all he would rather have the carrier at his back rather than standalone against these odds.

  Ten of the Ch’Tauk fighters broke away from their pursuit of the Peregrines and headed for Resolute, which was still trying to fend off the cruiser’s big guns. Lee saw the fighter wing split off and try to surround his ship, using a pincer maneuver similar to what he had used the last time he had faced a cruiser. His ship began to shudder as the fighters opened fire and the shields absorbed the plasma energy.

  “Open fire with all weapons,” Lee said, realizing the danger the fighters posed to his ship. “Try and get those fighters off of our backs before they overload the shields.”

  “Aye sir,” said the octopod. “Opening all weapons ports and targeting the fighters.”

  A massive quake rocked his ship as the cruiser fired its big cannons directly into the broadside of the battleship. Lee had been concentrating so hard on the fighters, relying on his pilot instincts, that he had not seen the cruiser turn into them. He held on to the armrests of his chair and the inertial compensators struggled to right the ship up and down directions. Farthing, pulling himself back onto his padded feet, tapped more keys on his console and tried to reestablish contact with the fighters. His console flickered with intermittent energy spikes and then died altogether.

  “Captain,” announced Farthing. “I’ve lost communications with the fighters. Our systems are not responding.”

  “Engineering reports that our jump engines are down, Captain,” said Artzen from behind. “They estimate twenty minutes to repair even with the Elves climbing around the thing.”

  “Damn,” Lee said, realizing that he had waited too long to try to make their escape. He had been lucky in the past year to have escaped from the enemy by a hair’s breadth. Each time, he had credited his escape to skill or bravery, but he knew that it had been simple dumb luck and that he could not rely on it forever.

  He surveyed the situation monitor, looking for any way out of the battle but not seeing one.

  “Gentleman and ladies,” he said to his bridge crew. “I’m open to suggestions.”

  There was no answer from the bridge as each crewman studied their consoles. Goldstein was working his panel with a furious tapping, trying to turn the sluggish old battleship away from the pursuing Ch’Tauk cruiser. The ship had stopped firing after wounding Resolute with its canon. It seemed to be holding back and allowing the fighters to throw bolts of plasma into his ship’s shields. Lee looked back at the big view screen and saw why.

  The Ch’Tauk dreadnought, which had been floating motionless against the darkness of space, had begun to move towards the Terran battleship. Lee could tell by its bearing that it intended to use the massive single cannon protruding from its bow to wipe Resolute from existence. He had heard stories from the invasion of how the battle cruiser Achilles had tried to protect Baal from one of the super weapons and been decimated for its efforts. He didn’t want Resolute to suffer the same fate.

  “Full power to thrusters, Goldstein,” Lee said to his helmsmen. “Get us out of the way of that thing.”

  “Trying to, sir,” replied the man. “Controls are not cooperating. We must have taken more of a hit than I thought.”

  “Keep it up, Lieutenant,” said Lee, trying to reassure the young man. “You’re the best helmsmen I’ve ever had and I know you can do this.”

  “Aren’t I the only helmsmen you’ve ever had sir?” Goldstein asked from over his shoulder. “In any case, I’ll do my best, sir.”

  Lee could not control the smile that crawled across his face. Even in the face of death, his crew could keep a sense of humor about them. He was a new captain and had always heard his commanders talk about pride in their crews, but until now he had never really understood how close he had become to these people. The loss of this ship would be tragic for the fleet, but to him, as long as they died fighting with honor, than he knew that his spirit could rest easy.

  “Sir,” Farthing said from his station. “I’ve got the fighters back. They are all okay, but Baron has taken damage to his starboard wing and is having trouble maneuvering back to us, Alice reports having ‘the time of her life’.”

  Lee shook his head at the report. As worried as he was over his ship and the battle, a portion of his mind was terrified that Alice would die out there, alone and afraid and he would never have had the chance to ask her the question. He made a decision about how they would go out and turned back to his helmsmen to give the order.

  “Turn us about, Goldstein,” Lee ordered. “Aim our nose straight at that dreadnought and go to full speed. We’re going to ram Resolute straight down their throats.”

  Goldstein hesitated for only a moment, but then began tapping keys again. Lee saw the view screen shift as the battleship turned away from its retreat and into an attack posture. Partway through the turn the ship was hit with another massive blast from the cruiser and began to list over. The bridge went dark as the power systems started to fail. Lee felt lighter in his seat as the artificial gravity sputtered and failed. He began to float from his seat across the bridge, following the inertia of the ship. As he impacted the wall, the gravity returned and he was dumped onto his backside near the view screen.

  The lights flickered back on and Lee packed himself back up. He stepped back across the small bridge and sat back in his command seat. The view screen was dark, though and his holographic display refused to come back on line. The rest of the bridge crew had crawled back to their stations and were trying to restore some functionality to the bridge. Farthing was the first to call out as his communications station popped back to life.

  “Captain,” the feline explained. “I’m reading a new target incoming, sir. Whatever it is, it’s massive.”

  “Did they open a new jump point?” Lee asked. “How many more do they need?”

  “No, Captain,” replied A
rtzen from behind. He was monitoring the sensor station that was near his own console. “The incoming vessel was hiding behind the star, sir.”

  “Get me that screen,” ordered Lee.

  Farthing tapped keys on his console, trying to revive the ship’s eyes and ears. After a moment of frustrated tapping, Farthing cried out as his console erupted into a shower of sparks. Farthing pulled back from the panel, his white fur smoking a little as the sparks landed on him.

  “Sir,” announced Artzen. “The new target is resolving into multiple targets, still no identification. We can’t receive any transmissions right now, not even ship transponders.”

  “Where are the Ch’Tauk ships?” Lee asked, turning his chair to stare at the Engineer. “Are they still closing on us?”

  “No sir,” replied Artzen. “They’ve spotted the new incoming and are turning away.”

  “What are they waiting for?” Lee said to himself. “They don’t need reinforcements to finish us off.”

  Lee stood and stepped down to see the scanner console. The large unidentified targets were closing on the Ch’Tauk position fast. The formation of ships began to spread out, seemingly joining the Ch’Tauk dreadnought in a strange formation. Lee saw the Demons on the scanner, drifting slowly towards Resolute, unsure of what to do and unable to contact their mother ship.

  Suddenly, Lee noticed that the Ch’Tauk fighter squadrons began to diminish rapidly. Although there had been a momentary increase in the number of fighters in the battle, now it seemed that there were fewer and fewer each second. With a crackle of static, the dot representing one of the cruisers vanished from the scanner.

  “What the hell?” Lee said aloud. “Whose side are they on?”

  A bright flash from behind him caused Lee to turn and look at the view screen. There was a pop and the image began to resolve into static. Finally, the screen showed the darkness of surrounding space, highlighted only by a few bright red flashes in the distance. Farthing stepped away from his console, which was still spitting sparks, but now showed signs of life.