Ambush

by G J Moses

  “No, Jan and I want to take a roundabout way to check on my men and women. We’ll meet you there.” replied Jeanne.

  “Khaleesi?” asked Will. “Coming?”

  “I think I will tag along with Jeanne and Jan, if they do not mind my company.” responded Khaleesi looking at Jeanne questionably.

  “You are more than welcome. We would enjoy your company.” answered Jeanne with Jan acknowledging with a head shake.

  With that, they all left. Each going in their own direction except for the troupe. The troupe, looking at each other in disgust, lifted their arms in the air, sniffed, and broke out laughing.

  “When was the last time that we smelled like this, in the presence of officers, and they thanked us?” Danny gasped before breaking out into full-bodied laughter.

  Planning

  Casually making their way to the conference room, Khaleesi, Jeanne and Jan, discussed what they saw earlier while munching on some protein bars. They had just exited the mess hall after meeting up with some of the New Providence fighter pilots. Most of the pilots had been catching a quick meal while they could.

  “That was eye opening, wasn’t it?” queried Jeanne walking next to Khaleesi with Jan just behind. “Tell me Jan, if you had a fleet available, what would you do to halt the Chohish?”

  “No idea… oh, I get where you are going with that. Interesting… in fact, I am truly impressed. And that, has not occurred for a very long time.” rejoined an obviously startled Jan.

  “Hmm… based on what Dale and Danny told us, Zeke, was taking steps to get information on the Chohish before we even had the ground action on Niflhel. He has been thinking of the big picture, the war, while we were working on the small picture, the upcoming battles.” a thoughtful Jeanne uttered.

  Khaleesi grunted. “That’s Zeke. I have learned so much since I have been associated with him. How do I explain it? Most officers I know, confine themselves to what has been proven or used in the past, how to fight in a box so to speak, rarely do they think outside of it. Zeke, though, is never in it. He changes your whole perspective on how to look at something, if you hang with him long enough.”

  Just at that point, they reached a lift they needed to take up several levels. The lift signaled it was arriving momentarily. “Are you aware that at one time, you actually had to push a button to signal the lift to come to this floor to pick someone up? Otherwise, it would sit idly on another floor, even though no one else may even be on that floor?” asked Khaleesi.

  “Really? I find that hard to believe. If they could build an elevator, why would they not have built a sensor to know who was ready to use that elevator? Are you sure? Makes no sense to me.” Jan, who was standing just behind them, voiced his disbelief.

  “Well anyway”, Khaleesi continued, “if you think this is the only avenue Zeke is pursuing, you will be mistaken. Like I said, forget the box. He is working multiple projects dealing with the Chohish if I know him. And I would like to think I do.”

  Stopping just before entering the lift that had just arrived, Jeanne casually rested on the entryway, stopping the door from closing. “I have a personal question about Zeke. Zeke seems to have an excellent relationship with the crew. Dale and his brother along with the rest of the troupe have a bit of hero worship. But they are not the only ones, are they? Justified?” queried Jeanne.

  “The crew, and I mean the whole crew, respect and admire the Captain. They respect his skill, his knowledge, his planning and mostly, they know he will do everything in his power to try and keep them safe. But not at the expense of the RGN doing its job. They know that danger is always present, and death is common. That comes with the job. But Zeke will never ask any of them to do something he would not. So, is it justified? Yes, most definitely it is.” Khaleesi answered as she walked past Jeanne into the lift. “We would, we have, follow him wherever he leads us, no matter how dangerous.”

  As they piled into the lift, Jeanne had one final question. “Um… so what does his girlfriend say about his being away so long?”

  “Oh, my God!! You too?” Khaleesi exclaimed. Shaking her head and leaning against the side panel, Khaleesi looked directly at Jeanne while murmuring softly but loud enough that both Jeanne and Jan could hear her easily. “I need to find out how he does it. The man is like a magnet. Wow… he is a freaking magnet.”

  Turning a slight shade of pink, Jeanne, looked at Khaleesi with an air of innocence that fooled no one. “Uh, what?”

  Observing Jeanne, Jan started laughing and commented. “Khaleesi, I think you nailed it. She does like him. Hmm… then again, seeing her blush like that… I’ll place a wager that it is more than just ‘like’. Oh, this is just too funny.”

  The person being made fun of, swung around to face Jan angrily. “Don’t start on me Jan, I know you happen to like Khaleesi more than just as a friend.”

  Both Jan and Khaleesi started laughing. “I sure hope so! We have been sharing a room since we left Niflhel. Whenever he is on board anyway.” Khaleesi wheezed out through her laughter.

  In frustration, Jeanne slammed her ornate hat against her hip. “I should have known you two would be in cahoots against me.”

  Just as the lift signaled that they had arrived at their destination, Khaleesi reached over to put the elevator on manual hold. Turning to Jeanne with a great big smile on her face, which looked out of place on her normally stern features, she calmly said “In answer to your original question, no, Zeke is not married, not involved and not seeing anyone casually at this moment. I wish he would find someone as he is driving all the unattached, and some of the married ones too, women on this ship crazy trying to hook up with him. You may have a better chance. I believe that, even though the RGN does not frown on fraternization or relationships due to the length of time being away from home, Zeke being the Captain makes it more ‘complicated’ than the rest, if you know what I mean. Being you are not a crew member under his command… you may be able to get ‘under him’ in another way.”

  That took Jan by surprise who doubled over in laughter as he saw Jeanne turn bright red and get all flustered. He also noticed that Jeanne did not deny her feelings towards Zeke which only made the whole situation even funnier.

  Straightening up and choking a bit to contain his laughter, Jan reached between the two ladies to take the lift off manual override. As the doors opened, he gestured for them to proceed him. “Ladies, as much as I have enjoyed this, if we delay any longer, the object of your discussion is going to get very cross at our having delayed his meeting and demand an explanation. I am sure you do not want that… although… I sure would enjoy it tremendously.”

  In exasperation, Jeanne twirled her hat so the several of the plumes lashed Jan’s face. “I think when we get to Nocuous, I will have to send a message to my uncle on your disrespect for one of his favorite nieces.”

  Taking no notice of the plumes, Jan chuckled as he informed Khaleesi. “Her uncle would probably send me a bottle of his best Tortuga Whiskey for that one. He will get a huge laugh once he heard what pissed Jeanne off. Poor guy, probably has not had a good laugh since we left.”

  As they entered the conference room, Jeanne paused to give a severe stare to Jan and Khaleesi. “Not one more word from either of you. Do you hear me?” Jeanne then entered in her typical swaggering walk like she did not have a care in the world.

  The conference room was packed with attendees. Fighter pilots, Marines, technicians, etc.…

  Just as they sat, in walked Zeke. Zeke stopped on his way to check on several of the men who were wearing bandages. But when he finally reached the front, everyone knew he meant business. A casual observer would have seen the general straightening of postures be it standing or sitting. The smiles disappeared and became serious.

  Looking questioningly at Isolde, Isolde nodded and reported “The Fox is online and on the side screen. We have both audio and visual. Captain Kennedy, you good?”

  “Captain Meghan Kennedy here, we are good here on the
Fox. We can hear clearly and see the whole room. Thanks for the setup.” replied Meghan.

  Smiling his thanks to Isolde, Zeke walked to the front of the conference room where he turned around so he was facing the audience.

  “Ladies, Gentlemen, in a few hours we will leave the asteroid field which is only a short distance away from our goal, Nocuous. I do not expect to meet any more Chohish ships ahead of us prior to reaching Nocuous but you never know. It is possible we may meet them at the mouth of the Asteroid field, but who knows for sure. Hawke, until Gunner returns, you are in charge of our fighters. Make sure we keep the fighter rotation going as we did before. We do not want to get caught by surprise.”

  Upon the mention of Gunner, everyone looked around to see if anyone had information on his condition. All were shaking their heads negatively.

  Turning in a wide half circle, Zeke made sure he had their undivided attention. “I can tell you all would like to get an updated status on Gunner. He is alive, that much I can tell you. What condition he is in, I cannot answer. Only Doc and his staff can answer that. Unfortunately, you all know Doc, he will not provide that until he is ready.” Whereupon Zeke raised his eyes heavenward in exasperation while continuing. “And no power on this ship will change that, heaven knows, I tried!”.

  At which most in the room laughed as they were quite aware of Doc’s idiosyncrasies. Many had been on the other end.

  “Ok, on to more serious matters. I did not have the time to thank everyone on the job at the choke point, but since a good many are here, good work people. Good work indeed! Not sure if anyone has had the opportunity to view the new video by the Lucky Strike’s troupe. Well, if you find time, you might find it is a very interesting piece. Which leads me into what I have learned.”

  Taking the main screen controller, he put up a picture of five different dressed Chohish on the center screen. “These, ladies and gentlemen, I believe, are our enemies.” There were gasps around the room. Some had not seen the enemy up close until now.

  Highlighting each one at a time, Zeke gave his opinion on the four they held in the cells below and what he thought their roles were. When he reached the Chohish that Danny impersonated, the image showed the actual Chohish from Niflhel.

  “This one represents, I believe, their leaders, military anyway. The other Chohish, upon seeing an image similar to this, called him ‘Sovereign’. The two Chohish camps on Niflhel only had one, as far as I can tell. I am assuming he was the overall General for both camps. I surmise that each of the battle fleet’s trailing us also have their own. Although, based on the actions after we first punched through, we may have taken one out when we took out the battleship. Based on the opulence displayed on the ground leader, they would naturally be on the largest ship. If you watch the activity just after that engagement, you can see that the enemy looks a bit confused. One of the cruisers actually stopped firing for a noticeable period of time.”

  At which point Zeke brought up the battle from when they first encountered the Chohish up on one of the side screens and set it to run in a loop.

  “None of the prisoners nor any corpse’s that we saw on Niflhel, indicated a female or one that can reproduce. Examining the corpses that we collected from Niflhel, they do not show any type of umbilical cord scar. All that fits into my theory that the Chohish are an Ovoviviparity species. Similar to the Furlaeran race. All conjecture right now, but it is all I have to go on at this point in time.”

  “Based on that, here is what I propose and would like your feedback. I expect we will find at least a few Chohish ships protecting their ground forces at Nocuous. If they have too many, we may not be able to stay and may have to come back at a later time. If they have a small enough force, we will try and take them out. I do not think it will be very large as they would have wanted to have the most ships available to stop us at the slipstream incursion points. In fact, I believe it will be only three destroyers.”

  Several raised their heads in surprise.

  “How did you come up with that? We have not had any further communication with Nocuous.” asked a puzzled Hawke.

  “Actually, you did that Hawke” informed Zeke. “You mentioned that the Chohish fleet your people first met were numbered twelve ships. I looked up the notes you sent me. The twelve ships were made up of two battleships, four cruisers, and six destroyers. Some of your notes you sent me detailing a few of the battles you were able to dig up, the opposing fleets were almost, if not all, in increments of six. Finally, we met six ships. One battleship, two cruisers, and three destroyers. I believe that the two fleets at the other slipstreams would have been equal in size. So… we met one battleship and two cruisers in the asteroid field. That leaves three destroyers if my numbers prove accurate.”

  There were a lot of astonished looks looking back at him. Except for Jeanne, who was wearing a strange smile while shaking her head positively.

  With an acknowledging nod from Zeke, Jeanne spoke up. “That analysis would be supported by the ships we met. There were eighteen ships that we faced off against. You can guess the breakdown.”

  All in the room looked at Jeanne and Jan in astonishment. It was Will that voiced their amazement. “Three destroyers against an armada of that size? And you held them off for several days?”

  “It was more of the tiger chasing the rabbit. Until the rabbit had to become the wolf when trapped. We had to keep the Chohish interested in us and not break off. We had to nip at their heels and force them to use the whole armada to surround us.”

  Standing and spreading his wings slowly, Hawke waited patiently as people moved to give him room, until he had them stretched out fully. Raising his right hand to cover his heart, he slowly pounded on his chest three times. “You could have escaped, but instead, you allowed yourselves to become boxed in to buy Niflhel time. I salute the Irracan forces with the Sorath salutation we reserve only for the best of the best. Those that demonstrated they were ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of others.”

  Jeanne acknowledged Hawkes salute with a bow and a flourish of her hat. As Jeanne raised from her bow, she was startled to see that all dressed in the RGN or Niflhel uniform were standing and mimicking Hawkes salute.

  On the screen, showing the Fox conference room, you could see everyone standing rigid and saluting.

  Zeke waited until all the chest pounding ended and everyone had sat down again. “Ladies, Gentlemen” Zeke looked around the room to make sure he had their attention again. “If there are only three destroyers, what I propose is that we try to disable, but not destroy, the ship furthest away when we reach Nocuous.”

  “I believe the ‘Sovereign’ in charge of this fleet would have stayed to command that theatre of combat. If you look at the battle we just had, I do not believe he was on the battleship we just met. They fought too sloppy.”

  Pacing back and forth, making sure he held their attention, Zeke continued. “I am sure they have also been in communication with their other ships and, and if I am correct that we took out the leader in the first fleet, they may try and keep their leader in this fleet away from any action, if possible. I am counting on it anyway.”

  “With that, thoughts anyone?” inquired Zeke.

  Will raised his hand. “Assuming we can knock out the other ships, and somehow immobilize this ship, how are you going to capture this ‘Sovereign’ alive? Better ask now as I never know with you. You are planning to subdue the ship’s defenses first, correct?”

  Standing quietly, Khaleesi turned towards the audience. “Already worked out. This is why Zeke wanted to keep the Marines on board. The Marines, following the fighters in the Marine shuttles, are to breach the ship and secure it. We will be sending most of the shuttles we have stuffed with Marines to achieve our objective based on what we normally staff a destroyer with. If he is on a larger ship than a destroyer, we will send the shuttles back to bring any Marines left behind along with anybody else we can grab, like the ship’s cooks and dishwashers. So, if they have n
ot been doing it already, the cooks and dishwashers better get to the gun range for some practice.”

  They were a smattering of laughter along with a few that looked around in panic. All could hear someone whispering “She is kidding about the cooks, right?”

  With a guarded cough, Hawke now stood while Khaleesi sat down. “I would be honored if I was allowed to join the first wave of Marines. I have my own armor and will not be a burden to anyone. I do use the gun range frequently.”

  Looking up and directly at Hawke, Khaleesi was about to answer when Zeke raised his hand to interrupt her. “Sorry Hawke, but I need your fighter skills more than I need your gun skills. Now that your brace is off and your ankle is back to normal, I need you elsewhere. I know you want to be there and how personal it is for you. But you are the best RGN fighter pilot on board at this time and with Gunner not available, I need you to personally lead the RGN fighter group during this action. Without you, we will lose lives and fighters needlessly.”

  “Jeanne is the best Irracan fighter pilot and can lead them.” a flustered Hawke replied.

  With a smile, watching Hawke get ready to argue his point, Zeke continued. “Sorry Hawke, Jeanne will not be available. She will be busy elsewhere. Jeanne and I will be going along with the Marines in person.”

  With a startled look, Khaleesi pounded on a table before vehemently protesting. “Captain, you never mentioned that, I do not recommend that action, just too dangerous! I cannot lead the Marines and worry about you two at the same time.”

  “I totally agree. But it will not be an issue for you to worry about as you will not be with us.” Zeke raised both hands and waved them when the room erupted in pandemonium.

  Speaking to the whole room, but looking directly at Khaleesi as she was now standing and obviously upset. “Stop, settle down, listen to me for a moment. We cannot afford to lose focus now. You, Khaleesi, will be tasked with planning and then leading the attack against the main ground force when we get to Nocuous. Jeanne and myself will need to be on that ship so we can see the layout, the way they are organized, the numbers and so much more. We will not have much time, nor do we have the knowledge or time to get it, to take that ship with us. I sure as hell do not plan to leave it intact for whomever follows behind us. And no, video’s just do not cut it. It is critical, so this is not an option.”