The Return: The Conglomerate Trilogy (Volume 1)

by William S Frisbee Jr

  “Aye ma'am,” Bebchuck said looking between the two. He motioned for Carmichael to head to the door. Felix seemed to understand and leapt to follow Bebchuck.

  “With all due respect Lieutenant Ferraro, I would like to stay with you,” Carmichael said.

  Leonessa looked at Carmichael and nodded, unable to find her voice.

  “By your leave,” Bebchuck said and left. Felix followed Bebchuck after a quick glare at Luke.

  “You will not back me up?” Luke transmitted to Musashi.

  “Yes, I will back you up,” Musashi replied. “But not when you are in the wrong or preparing to break your oath, meat sack.”

  “Metal headed prick,” Luke transmitted and returned to his chair. He glanced back to see Musashi’s unpleasant smile.

  Luke tuned out everyone and concentrated on the tracks with Nelson, plotting the most efficient course through the gauntlet. He could not throw caution to the winds and it affected his planning.

  The Caliphate cruisers would follow the shuttles to protect them. Luke would have to choose between targeting the shuttles and targeting the cruisers. The more shuttles he missed the more troops would have to be dug out of the warrens and habitats. If he ignored the cruisers, he could wreck serious damage on the shuttles but the cruisers would rip him apart. Then there was the speed issue. The faster he went, the harder he would be to target and hurt, but the fewer shuttles he could target and destroy. He glanced at Leonessa. He had to survive. She had to survive. Dammit.

  Any surviving cruisers would provide support and be able to destroy any defenses Athena had against the shuttles.

  Luke regretted assigning the grav tanks as point defense for Athena as he could have used them. He still had fighters and they would be the most dangerous offensive weapon he had against the shuttles. The frigates were also expendable and had excellent point defense weapons.

  Six hundred shuttles. Luke tried to remember the last time head seen so many attacking vessels.

  “Missile launch,” Nelson said and Luke looked up at the display. That was a lot of missiles. There was a very distinct chance the Ultio would not survive it.

  “Have the fighters and frigates deal with them,” Luke said. The Caliphate ships were launching waves of missiles. Sending masses of missiles to overwhelm the Ultio’s defenses. The missiles would arrive at the edge of the point defenses at the same time and saturate the defenses and sensors. It could be overkill but there was one weakness. The missiles and warheads had a specific range and choice. If the fighters and frigates got among the missiles before they deployed the ships could wreak massive destruction on the missiles. If the missiles deployed early to deal with the fighters and frigates, they would not be spread out enough and would destroy themselves.

  The Cutlass, Longsword, and fighters accelerated hard. Had there been humans onboard they would be jelly.

  “Shuttle is away,” Nelson said. “The crew of the Shrike is safely away.”

  Luke nodded. Amanda and Jeremy were on the shuttle too. They could accelerate fast and far enough to get out of the danger zone. They might be in trouble if there were any Caliphate frigates that survived but Luke doubted they would concern themselves with a mere shuttle.

  Glancing at Leonessa, he saw determination on her face and fire in her eyes. Brita and Carmichael were not any different as they watched or worked on their screens.

  “Commander?” Carmichael said.

  “Go Ensign,” Luke said.

  “I’ve got enemy communication intercepts,” Carmichael said and hesitated. Unsure if she should tell him. “High Amir Serkan is the Fleet Commander.”

  The name meant nothing to Luke.

  “So?”

  “He was the weapons officer in command of the last surviving frigate at the battle of Naantali,” she said.

  Luke’s heart froze over as he looked at the plot, his eyes narrowed on those icons on his display. He would have been the bastard who ordered the missile launches. The missiles that had killed Elena. Nothing else had survived Naantali, just the one cursed frigate that launched the last two missiles. What were the chances?

  “Which ship?” Luke said slowly, the ice reaching his voice, raising in pitch. “I want to know which freaking ship that dead son of a bitch is on.”

  “Trying to find out now sir,” Carmichael said. Luke didn’t hear the fear in her voice when she replied. Leonessa and Brita glanced at Luke with wide eyes. This was a side they had not seen, Luke’s voice echoed through the CIC, full of threat and danger.

  Luke sat back and thought. His hands were shaking. He had thought about it many times over the years but the chance of returning to the Sol system and finding out who had commanded the ship that killed Elena had been so remote. Logically, it had been so incredibly impossible as to be unworthy of the planning because returning to Sol had been impossible.

  Now however, things were different.

  “We will deal with him,” Leonessa said, disrupting his train of thought and reading his mind. “Get through this first. Survive this gauntlet, and you can hunt him down later. Go Mongol on his fleet until he is the last one, then you can kill him.”

  Luke looked at Leonessa, and for the briefest moment saw Elena. It was exactly what she would have said. Luke sat there in shock as the realization hit him. He turned back to his boards before he could see more or think about it.

  “The Frigates and fighters are about to make contact the missiles,” Nelson said and Luke saw the weakness in his plan. If the Caliphate ships destroyed the fighters and frigates, there would be no defense screen for Luke's ship, and then they would launch another unstoppable wave at the Ultio.

  “Everyone buckle up, helmets on,” Luke said. “It will get fun, and not the ‘ha ha’ kind of fun either.”

  “Open a channel to the Caliphate vessels,” Luke said, a cruel smile appearing.

  “Open,” Nelson said, curious now.

  “Caliphate dogs,” Luke said. “This is Commander Luke Kishi of the New Alamo Defense Force. I destroyed your fleet at Naantali over forty-five years ago. I have returned to do it again. Is that pig eating, rat dog bastard, Serkan the inept, among you?”

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  Old Voices

  Serkan remembered that voice and his blood boiled. It had been New Alamo on the other side of those wormholes, not aliens! He would kill them this time. He smiled. Allah was great and was giving him another chance.

  The vessels he was looking at now on the plots could be destroyed. If this was Luke, Serkan smiled, it was time to finish the job. He had the firepower this time.

  “Detonate the missiles?” the weapons officer asked. If they detonated now, they would annihilate the frigates and fighters.

  “No!” Serkan said. “Concentrate on the large vessel. Insha’Allah! We will destroy that infidel. He has escaped me for the last time and Allah the Merciful has returned him for his punishment.”

  “Insha’Allah,” the Weapons Officer said.

  “Open a channel, broadcast to all,” Serkan said.

  “Open,” the Communications officer said.

  “Infidel dog,” Serkan began, his blood boiling, but he allowed the joy of his impending victory to be heard in his voice. “Allah the Great has delivered you unto me. I killed the whore Elena, now it is your turn to die.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

  The Gauntlet

  Luke smiled his cold smile. This was his game. He would not let his emotions cripple him. They were his strength, his secret weapon.

  “Frigates and fighters inflicting massive damage on the missiles,” Nelson transmitted.

  “So,” Luke said on the open channel. “You are still buggering the bridge crews. Glad to hear from you Serkan. At first I was worried someone competent was in command.”

  A plasma lance scored on one of the Caliphate battle cruisers, ripping it in two.

  Leonessa’s eyes opened wide as she recognized the voice.

  “He commanded the task force that att
acked the Shrike,” Leonessa sent to Luke.

  “Will you cry like that whiny bitch of yours? ‘I love you’” Serkan mimicked.

  “You weren’t on the ship I blew up I see,” Luke said ignoring him. “Pity. I’ll get you, eventually. I just ran out of missiles last time. So many cockroaches, I was bound to miss some. At least one cockroach always escapes you know.”

  “Insha’Allah,” Serkan said, seeing what Luke was talking about, Luke heard the fear and awe in Serkan’s voice and it made him smile. Another one of the Caliphate’s proud ships was now dead.

  “Eighteen missiles made it through,” Nelson transmitted to Luke. “Point defenses are picking them off. Three have deployed warheads.”

  “Brace for impact,” Luke said after switching off the open comm.

  The Ultio shuddered but no major alarms flashed and demanding attention.

  “Shields have held,” Nelson reported.

  Luke flipped the open comm back on and saw Leonessa’s message.

  “That all you got Serkan? Oh, by the way, I have a friend of yours here from the Shrike. She says ‘hi’ and she and her crew are doing fine. Something else about you lacking the man hood to face her in battle? Running like a frightened rabbit from a little cruiser?”

  Luke motioned for Leonessa to speak.

  “I’ll accept your surrender now,” Leonessa said with a grim smile.

  Beams from the cruisers lashed out. One found the Ultio but failed to penetrate the shields.

  More beams lashed out. Luke ordered the Ultio sideways with her nose and primary weapons pointing at the cruisers, providing a smaller target and using her already considerable speed to cut through the shuttles. Point defense turrets and secondaries lashed out at the shuttles. Fighters and frigates fell on the defenseless shuttles like lethal predators, too fast for the cruisers to target and kill. The Ultio had momentum and flew sideways with the grav generators jinking the ship around to make her harder to target while the heavy armor and weapons faced the cruisers.

  Brita pointed out targets for Nelson and shuttles died.

  * * *

  “Fire on that ship!” Serkan said, frothing at the mouth now and screaming in anger. “Everyone fire on that ship, launch all missiles, I want them dead! Fire everything, point defense weapons, primaries, secondaries, all missiles; RAM THEM if you have to!”

  “Amir, we should allocate fire onto the fighters and frigates. They are inflicting massive causalities, they-“

  “SILENCE!” Serkan screamed. “Obey my orders! Kill that ship!”

  “Insha’Allah,” the frightened bridge officer said.

  * * *

  “You made him very mad,” Nelson said and laughed. “They are ignoring the frigates and fighters to concentrate on us. Even point defense weapons are being shot at us, and there is no way they can range us.”

  The Ultio was shaking under the impacts. A rail gun round fired by one of the battle cruisers pierced the shield and sliced the armor, piercing the left hammerhead but not going through.

  “Everyone buckle up,” Luke said. “It will get rough.”

  The shields were weakening as the plasma lances continued to reach out and shatter ships. Not every shot scored but when they did, a ship died. So far, six Caliphate ships had died and two crippled. It was not enough.

  “At least two hundred shuttles have been destroyed,” Nelson said.

  “Plasma lances are inoperative,” Nelsons said and Luke swore.

  Luke opened the channel to the Caliphate forces.

  “Are you guys even bothering to aim? Shooting with your eyes closed? Scared?” Luke taunted. “I almost spilled my tea laughing when I saw you shooting your point defense weapons at me.”

  Missiles spilled out of the remaining ships, sometimes fired individually, just to get them out of the tubes in haste. They were easily targeted and destroyed. One missile made it into deployment range though and exploded where it killed some nearby shuttles. The Ultio shook and Luke understood she was hurting. He saw the damage board. Too many decks were open to vacuum; there were too many tears in the hull. Something would make it in sooner rather than later. It was small consolation the last missile attack had taken out a pair of Caliphate shuttles.

  “Run complete,” Nelson announced, sooner than Luke expected. “Accelerating to escape.”

  Luke checked his board. It was true. They had passed through the shuttles and unless they went back, they had nothing to lose by accelerating away. Incoming fire all but stopped. Missiles still tried to follow them but they easily picked off. A stern chase was a long, hard chase.

  Both the frigates were unscathed and only two fighters had been lost.

  “You screwed up again,” Luke said over the open channel. “Does your slave master tolerate so many screw ups? I didn’t even spill my tea,” Luke lied. Half the boards were out and there was an atmosphere leak in the CIC. The engines and gravity capsules had been shielded by the battered hammerhead and were still functional. The wormhole drive was also functional.

  Luke turned off the communicator for a second.

  “Continue to target the shuttles as long as you can,” Luke said. Unfortunately, the plasma lances could not be brought to bear. “Missiles, secondaries, whatever you can.”

  “Aye sir,” Nelson said.

  Luke looked around the CIC at Leonessa, Brita, Carmichael, and Nelson. Nobody was injured. The casualty board was flashing and Luke saw Scotty, his engineer had died. Scotty would be missed, but the dying was not over. The ship's AI clusters could handle engineering for now.

  “Good job everyone,” Luke said. He checked the plot. All the Caliphate warships were attempting to change course to follow the Ultio. They had stopped kicking out missiles and there were only two undamaged battle cruisers and five cruisers still able to change course.

  “Athena Command this is the Leonis Ultio,” Luke transmitted on a secure channel.

  “This is Athena Command,” they replied. “Go with transmission.”

  “Sorry Athena,” Luke said. “That’s all I could get. I’ll try to pull off the remaining cruisers to give you a better shot at those shuttles and I will continue harassment, but my ship has more in common with swiss cheese than a warship.”

  “Copy that Leonis Ultio,” Athena Command said. “You have done better than we could have hoped for. God speed and good luck!”

  “Thank you. You too. Leonis Ultio out,” Luke said.

  “Athena Command out.”

  “Nelson, fluctuate the drive, make it look like we took damage. Slow down Can we bring in the fighters for re-arm? How are the landing bays?”

  “Landing bays are functional,” Nelson said. “Adjusting drives. Ordering Frigates to fall back and cover us. Bringing in the fighters to re-arm.”

  Luke watched the tracks. The Caliphate cruisers were all pulling some very hard maneuvers to turn and follow the Ultio. Luke smiled thinking about how much they were suffering.

  The Leonis Ultio broke out of missile range of the Caliphate cruisers and Luke sighed in relief.

  “Atmosphere is stable in the CIC,” Nelson announced minutes later and Luke popped off his helmet. The others followed his example moments later. Luke looked over at Leonessa. She was smiling. The Caliphate had been hurt.

  * * *

  Serkan looked around him. He looked at the master fleet board showing so much red, showing crippled or destroyed ships. His fleet had been shattered. Everyone was straining to breathe as the Khalid attempted to turn and follow the infidel’s ship. The infidel ship had to be hurt but how could it speed up like that? Were they even alive?

  His anger and hate gave him the strength to do more than just breathe as he looked at his boards. The infidel had taken damage and Serkan knew he should continue to provide support for the assault shuttles. They would run the gauntlet of Athena’s close defenses shortly.

  Serkan suspected the infidel ship was faking drive damage to get him to follow, but he didn’t care, he would follow rega
rdless.

  Serkan listened to death whispering in his ears. He had failed the Caliph. The Caliphate could not allow this disgrace and Serkan’s death would be horrible. The only thing he could still do would be to kill the infidels. Their death would not redeem him in the eyes of the Caliph, but it would redeem him in the eyes of Allah.

  Glancing around Serkan watched for any sign of disloyalty, any clue one of his bridge officers might see an opportunity. If Serkan knew how the Caliph would respond, so would his officers. The Caliph wanted Athena under control and the officer that gave him Athena would be rewarded.

  “The shuttles are taking heavy casualties because of the Athena defenses High Amir,” the Sensor Officer reported, straining to speak. “They are requesting assistance.”

  “Tell them it is Allah’s will and his test of their faith,” Serkan said.

  “Insha’Allah,” the officers said.

  * * *

  "The Plasma lances are back online,” Nelson reported an hour later and Luke smiled. They did not have to suffer high gravity maneuvers at this point and repair bots were everywhere, fixing the Ultio. Given enough time, they could rebuild her. “Forward gravimetric and lidar sensors are also coming back online.”

  “Gray, what is the status on Athena?” Luke transmitted.

  “Caliphate troops are concentrating on wiping out point defenses. Surviving shuttles are returning to the transports,” Gray reported. “I expect them to continue shuttling troops to the station. We have lost most of the point defenses and right now only the grav tanks are still operational because they are mobile. They can’t knock out the shuttles fast enough. The enemy has not captured a solid foot hold in any of the habitats yet.”

  “Nelson, loop us around to strike the Caliphate support ships,” Luke said.

  “You will attack unarmed ships?” Brita asked.

  Luke looked at her. “Ask the people of Athena if they are helpless.”

  Checking the plot Luke saw it would take another two hours to get into range of the support ships. A lot of troops could be moved in that time.