Ambush

by G J Moses

  The sound of someone releasing their safety harness rang out hollowly through the bridge before a streak of a person running to the now comatose Corporals side. Through the smoke that was now prevalent, blood could be seen dripping from the corners of his mouth.

  The ship made a sudden lurch to starboard so violent, the feet of Khalessi flew out from under her. If she had not been holding onto the arm of Corporal Lance’s seat with a death grip, she would have been flung across the bridge.

  Suddenly, the ship straightened out with only the sound of energy weapons firing. Through the smoke, the screens showed nothing but destruction in its wake. All the enemy ships were smoking with flames and debris drifting around them. None showed any indication of moving under their own power, but drifted along aimlessly.

  But the Lucky Strike did not stick around to see if any of the Chohish started moving again. It continued on gaining speed even though smoke and debris streamed out of a good portion of the ship.

  “Corporal Dennison report to the Bridge. Repeat, report to the bridge ASAP!” Khalessi yelled into her communicator.

  It was only a few moments before a loud thumping sound could be heard from the hallway getting louder until it sounded like a pile driver just outside the entrance to the Bridge. With a screech of metal on metal, Shon still in his armor with his helmet swinging from a hook on his back-right shoulder, came barreling into the Bridge. Sliding to halt, he took in the scene and without uttering a word, immediately went to Michale.

  Picking up Michale, Shon cradled him, armor and all, in his arms as he headed towards the exit. The thought of doing anything gently in these huge suits of war was not something that ever came to mind, but Shon somehow accomplished it.

  “I am going with Shon to the infirmary. Corporal Lance is still breathing but only with the assistance of his armor. I will be back once I know his status. Karter, can you check on the others?” asked Khalessi.

  “Aye Aye Major, will do. I’ll send you a status once they all report in.”

  Just as she was about to exit the Bridge, Khalessi added over her shoulder. “And you are now to assume the Corporals duties. Any questions?”

  “Yes, just one. Do I get hazard pay? Guarding that one is always dangerous, never listens to anyone.”

  No answer was forthcoming, although Karter did get a nasty glare from Jeanne.

  There were no additional casualties, but the condition of the ship was horrendous. They had lost almost all scanning and tracking systems with the one exception being the probes. But even that was limited. Two of the three probe ejection ports were destroyed. Scanning systems were now limited to only tracking what the probes picked up and the number of probes available was minimal at best.

  And if that wasn’t bad enough, external communications were out. Multiple redundancies were built into every ship to ensure this never occurred, so for this to happen, it spoke volumes about the amount of damage the ship had taken.

  The good news was the engines were not compromised. Unfortunately, over half of the lasers were now out of commission along with several more of the missile pods. The number of missiles available was minimal at best.

  It was another hour before the expected repair robots showed up. Jeanne could image they had more important areas to go to before making their way here. But in short order the Bridge looked half decent. That is if you discounted the burn marks throughout the bridge, empty cavities where workstations used to be, nonfunctioning workstations along with bent metal railings, walls with large cavities what used to house support beams and so much more. It looked like hell, but it was still much better than before the robots showed up.

  “Do we have any ships left in any of the bays? We could try using the communications in one of them.” asked Jeanne.

  “None that I am aware of, but who knows what you hid when you had me loop the images in the bays.” answered Hawke.

  “I had considered keeping a pinnacle here, but was afraid Zeke would check the flight bays again and get suspicious if he saw one.” replied Jeanne.

  Silence would have run its course over the next dozen moments on the bridge, but the crackle of exposed live wires reigned supreme. There were limitations to what the repair robots could do.

  At least the Corporal should survive per Khalessi who had arrived back on the bridge just after the robots had left.

  Suddenly, the ship rocked from missile firing.

  Startled, Jeanne looked at Hawke, who was bent over the scanning workstation. “Cannot tell what is happening. All the probes are showing what is in front of us, nothing local.”

  “LS1, can you tell us why you are firing missiles?” Jeanne asked into the air.

  “Negative.”

  In frustration, Jeanne turned to frown at Khalessi when she heard her chuckle. Only to scowl at Karter when he laughed. “Marines!” Jeanne stated.

  “Well, I have had enough sitting around here waiting for death, I am going to the infirmary.”

  “Captain, I do not recommend that. Dr. Javier Preruet has put the infirmary under quarantine and locked all access.” LS1 informed Jeanne.

  “Why would he do that?”

  Both Marines chuckled when she got no response upon which Jeanne sneered at both and gestured non lady like with her right hand. Seeing her gesture did not get the desired result she expected. The chuckles turned to roaring laughter.

  “Marines!” murmured Jeanne to herself.

  As the laughter slowly died, tensions grew as they had no idea if any of their plans were going to come to fruition.

  Nothing from the probes indicated anything directly in front of them, but they were blind to anything from any other direction. The tension mounted as time seemed to slow to a crawl.

  It was over sixty minutes later when the ship stopped rocking from missile firing. Everyone looked at each other in surprise whereupon Hawke exclaimed. “Well, that is not good news” in a higher pitched voice.

  “All functioning missile pods have expended all their available missiles. As far as I can tell, the tractor beam is doing something with them, but what, I cannot tell. LS1 has me locked out from seeing what is happening.”

  The ship continued on.

  The hours dragged by and was only broken by Jan and Khalessi who decided to go to the mess hall where they would pick up something to eat and drink for everyone on the Bridge.

  It was a good hour or more before they came back. Jeanne was going to ask what took so long, but she was afraid she already knew the answer when she saw Khalessi still buttoning her shirt as she walked in while carrying a tray. The huge grin on Jan’s face confirmed it.

  Again, the waiting.

  It was Hawke’s sudden exclamation that grabbed everyone’s attention. “The probes have reached Niflhel. They are indicating there are at least three Battleships over Niflhel with a host of other ships. I could not tell the full makeup before the probes were destroyed.”

  Wiping some mustard off her face, Jeanne remarked that it matched what they expected, so that should be good news, no? Then she had to duck the ketchup packet Jan threw at her.

  “Well me bucko’s, what shall we do for the next few hours?” queried Jeanne with a smile. “Anybody up for poker?”

  “There must be something we can do before we arrive?” asked Jan.

  “If you are an engineer, I am sure Jax could use some help. But besides that, sit back, relax and hope Masson is able to do his part.”

  “I know how I want to relax. Khalessi, are you doing anything?” asked a winking Jan.

  “Down boy, down. We are getting close and I need to stay sharp. Later, once this is all over, I will knock your socks…”

  “Oh, come on you two, knock it off, please?” begged Jeanne. “If you two are bored, why don’t you go help your officers Khalessi?”

  “I checked, they are progressing as planned and asked, well, insisted, actually told me in no uncertain terms to leave them the hell alone. That we would just get in their way.” Pausing so s
he could look at Jeanne with a smile on her face. “What they actually said is not something I want to repeat verbatim in front of a lady.”

  “You calling me a lady?” asked Jeanne snidely.

  “No, I was talking about Jan.” laughed Khalessi.

  A grunt was the only response.

  Silence reigned again until Khalessi stood. “I need to check up on my crew and make sure they recharged their armor before we get to Niflhel. Then I will be getting into my armor so I will be gone for an hour or two. Jan, you coming?”

  Shrugging negative, Jan replied. “I am no good in armor and would just slow you down. I will stay here for now.”

  “Let me go with you, I need to do something. Do you have any spare armor?” asked Karter.

  “Yes, we left spare units here just in case.”

  With that, both Khalessi and Karter left the bridge leaving Hawke, Jeanne and Jan to stare at each other.

  That only lasted for a few minutes before all were startled when the ship started slowing down.

  “Here we go again. I don’t suppose you can tell us what Captain Kinsley is up to, can you LS1?” asked a doubtful Jeanne.

  No response was her answer. Looking at Hawke, she saw he was now studying the console in front of him.

  “We are less than two hours from Niflhel. And looks like the earlier report is accurate in that there are three Battleships with a supporting fleet of cruisers and destroyers in orbit around Niflhel. I sure hope Zeke figured on these many ships.” he reported.

  “Woah, what the hell? A pair of probes was ejected but they did not fly off. Hmm… these were grabbed by tractor beams and positioned against our port and starboard sides. Although… it now allows me to see the local area at least. Uh oh, looks like we got a major problem. The engines are spewing radiation, pretty bad too. Looks like whatever repair Jax did, it was not complete. But… wait a minute. I do see the missiles now, barely though, hard to see through all the radiation. They are tucked in close behind us, real close, must be over a hundred of them snuggled in the gaps between the engines.”

  “More probes… joining the missiles… what the hell is he planning…? Ok my friend, I have been with you too long not to know you have something up your sleeve, but it was not fair in not letting me in on it. What, oh what, are you up to?”

  All of a sudden Hawke roared out in laughter. Looking up, Hawke gave Jeanne and Jan a wide-eyed look at the same time he grabbed his chest as he tried to contain his laughter. Shortly, he was able to talk to the two people staring at him like he had gone mad.

  “The Captain, even now, is up to his old games. We used to play a game regularly at the Academy that we still play occasionally although not nearly as often. The game is for me to figure out his intentions or battle plan in the battle simulators. If I could guess it, he has to buy me drinks, if I didn’t, I would have to buy. Then we would reverse it, I plan, he has to figure it. Not surprisingly, he won a lot more often than I. It is a fun way to grow your analytical skills. We would sit for hours discussing them over drinks.”

  Still trying to contain his laughter, Hawke stood straight where he now sounded amazed. “To do this now… the Captain, god I love that man, sent me a message after that last set of probes. ‘Did you guess it yet my friend? I am getting thirsty, real thirsty.’ Who else would do that at a time like this? When did he program the message? How did he know I would even be watching the scanning console?” And then he lost it again with a deep belly laugh.

  “Probably because he knew you would be bored and want to do something. Do you know?” asked a puzzled Jeanne.

  “No idea” a still chuckling Hawke responded, “no idea at all.”

  Strangely, this revelation by Hawke brought a smile to her face. Jan, who noticed it, looked at her with an inquisitive look on his face.

  “My father was like that. Even in the worst of times, he always found a way to lighten the mood. I remember when I was five during the eruption of the Mount Sorrow volcano. You must remember that one. That one was bad, really bad, a lot of people died during that one. My father was leading the rescue parties and had been gone for weeks on end. The news coverage showed several rescue parties being wiped out. I was so afraid I would never see him again. When he finally came home, he was covered in soot and blood, a lot of the blood being his own. My mother had to help him in the door, he was limping so badly. I will always remember how, after he sat down at the kitchen table, he sat me on his lap and held me tight.

  “As he held me, he kissed my forehead and whispered ‘It’s ok little one, I am home now. But I did bring something for you.’ Whereupon he brought out a small wooden carved figurine of a Tortuga tiger, my favorite animal. ‘I carved this for you from a tree limb. Don’t tell your brothers or sisters or they will make me go back and carve them one too’ at which he poked me playfully on the nose. I was amazed at the feel of it and asked where he got the wood. ‘Why, I picked it up on the volcano hilltop to swish away all the ladies swooning over me.’ How my mother laughed at that while she swatted him playfully. I hugged him when he winked at me.”

  “It was charred, discolored and smelled horribly. But how I loved it. The wood has a unique grain from trees that only grew on that mountain. I never did tell my brothers and sisters, but they saw me cradling it when they came home from school. They, of course, begged my father for their own. My father did go back, at great risk mind you, to get more branches so he could carve figurines of their favorite animals. He even made one for my mother who had him carve it in his own image, but he only agreed to do that if she would allow him to make one for himself in her image. Oh, how they loved each other. I still have that figurine he gave me; it is one of my most treasured possessions.”

  “I think I remember seeing that, if I am thinking of the right one that is. Your uncle has it, it sits on his desk at the Capital building. It is small, a bit charred, but very well made. When I picked it up, it was very dense but surprisingly light. When I asked your uncle about it, he said that he was holding it for someone, that it had great sentimental value to him and another. I did not realize that was yours.” expressed a startled Jan.

  “Yeah, that is mine. I gave it to my uncle to hold for me a couple of years ago, it meant too much to me to chance losing it on warship.”

  The atmosphere on the bridge was mellow for a few minutes until a workstation cackled with an electric discharge reminding everyone where they were.

  Checking with Jax on the radiation leakage, they were informed it was not due to faulty engines. Vents were open to allow the radiation to leak out, but they were being controlled by LS1. There was nothing Jax could do.

  Slowly the time ticked down when they would arrive at Niflhel with no word from Khalessi or Karter.

  It soon became noticeable that the ship had changed its speed. The ship was accelerating then decelerating in a jerky fashion. Baffling, but Jax confirmed, it was LS1 again.

  Abruptly, the main screens which had gone blank, turned on again with an image of Niflhel and the enemy fleets.

  “Looks like we are about to arrive. Where the hell is Khalessi and Karter?” asked a concerned Jeanne.

  No sooner than had she said it when she could hear the stomping of metal on metal. In the door came the two in question in full armor carrying their helmets.

  “We brought spare suits of armor and placed it in the office down the hall. You will need it when we get to Niflhel. You too Hawke, we put your special armor on the center table. We put an extra half dozen units there so we have enough for Doc, Jax and his staff along with the Captain if they all make it up here.” conveyed Khaleesi.

  “Thanks, we will head down and get dressed. You may want to get the engineers to join us as soon as they can. It will take some time to get them suited up. I would like to tell you what is going on here, but we have no idea. LS1 is still controlling the ship and remaining quiet on what is happening.”

  As they left the bridge, Jeanne watched as Khalessi got on the communicato
r to call the engineers. She knew Khaleesi would try and reach Doc, but Jeanne had been unsuccessful when she tried earlier, several times. She doubted they would have much better success, from what she heard, it was just the way Doc worked.

  Entering the Bridge in Marine armor, Hawke led the others in carrying his helmet in the crook of his arm. His armor was unique as it allowed room for his wings while also being much lighter to accommodate his thin bones. Looking at it, it was a thing of beauty. But Khaleesi knew not to let that fool you, it was very lethal. It had different weapons that her unit as it was geared for a Sorath.

  Instead of guns and lasers, the armor was setup with a pair of Whisper guns situated on both forearms that were aimed by pointing the arm and triggered by a pad in the hand. These guns shot out thousands of tiny little slivers of metal per minute that could go through the vegetation that thickly covered his planet. The ammo compartments were wrapped around the upper arms and flowed down both the sides of the armor. These were backed up by a single shot Plasma cannon on his chest. The rear of the armor opened to allow the wings to be used.

  “Welcome back, any news on the engineers or Doc?” asked Khaleesi.

  “The engineers stopped by to put their armor on, although they bitched about it the whole time, complaining they could not do much wearing that bulky crap. They left saying they had things to do, unlike us as we had enough time to bother them. You know, the normal talk for engineers.” laughed Hawke as he responded.

  “No word from Doc, I doubt we will hear from him unless we have someone else injured that he needs to look at.” finished Hawke as he sat down.

  “It will not matter much, looks like all my planning is for naught. We are only minutes away from Niflhel and no word or sign of him. Oh well, it was a long shot anyway.” uttered Jeanne in disappointment.

  “eeeoooeeeooo bip bip eeeoooeeeooo”

  “Enemy missiles have been launched. We cannot respond, we have none, any that we had are trailing us. But then again, LS1 would probably not let us do that even if we did.” announced Hawke.