Fight the Good Fight

by Daniel Gibbs

  Sheila spoke up. “I hope you’re wrong too, sir.”

  “Let’s get to it,” David said with finality. The rest acknowledged him; Calvin and Amir left the bridge quickly. David and Sheila took their posts in the CO’s and XO’s chairs respectively. During the next couple of minutes, David closed his eyes and bowed his head in silent prayer. God, I’ve never asked you for victory, but today, I ask you to give us peace if that is your will. Whatever happens, please spare the lives of those under my command and return them safely to their families.

  On the bridge of the Destruction, the ship was still running at battle stations. Seville could plainly see its crew was whispering about what was going on. He realized Barrigo had been discovered and stopped, or that the programming hadn’t worked. I’m not leaving empty handed. Not after all this time. Twenty-seven years ago, I lost my eye here. Today, they pay. No League warship had been this close to Canaan since the aborted invasion nearly thirty years ago. He motioned toward Colonel Strappi, gesturing for him to come closer.

  “Colonel, the plan has failed,” Seville said bluntly.

  “That’s impossible. We just have to give it more time,” Strappi trilled back, apparently unable to accept the idea that the State’s plans failed.

  Seville fought down his utter contempt for Strappi, staring at him for a moment. “Colonel, we have to adapt. We are so close to the enemy…we haven’t been this close in many years. We can strike fear into the hearts of their civilian population centers.”

  “But the State Security Committee—”

  “Is not here, Colonel. Think of the medals that will be pinned on your chest by the chairman himself.” Seville smiled thinly. “Let us be bold and decisive.”

  In truth, Seville had only given the ruse they had played a fifty percent chance of success to begin with; an orbital strike against the major population centers of Canaan had always been his backup plan.

  Strappi cleared his throat. The man was nothing if not predictable; the idea of a medal from the chairman, well, that would always motivate the man. “Alright, Admiral, I’ll go along. Show these religious fanatics that only the embrace of the League of Sol will save them.”

  Seville leaned back in his chair. Useful idiots like Strappi came in handy, at least until he had won the war against the Terran Coalition. Seville looked down toward his flag captain. “Captain Antonov, bring all of our weaponry online. Get a firing solution on the largest cities currently in range of our weapons.”

  Antonov looked up at Seville with something approaching sadness in his eyes. “Aye aye, Admiral.”

  As soon as the Destruction started powering up its weapons systems, the sensors onboard the Lion of Judah picked it up, and milliseconds later, Ruth saw it appear on her screens. “Conn, TAO. Aspect change, Master One.” she announced. “Master One is powering its main weapons, sir.”

  David sat up just a little bit straighter in his chair. “Damn,” he said under his breath toward Sheila, while he punched a button on his console for 1MC. “General Quarters! General Quarters! This is the commanding officer. Man your battle stations! I say again, man your battle stations! Set material condition one throughout the ship. This is not a drill.” As he uttered the words, the general quarters alarm klaxon sounded throughout the vessel, and the lights on the bridge dimmed to a blue color.

  “Conn, TAO! Aspect change, Master One. Master One is changing course and heading toward the capital.”

  David sucked in his breath. “Navigation, put us between Master One and Canaan. TAO, bring all weapons online, and charge the energy weapon capacitor. Raise shields and activate the automated point defense system.”

  Hammond deftly maneuvered the Lion of Judah between the Destruction and the planet, making use of the superior sub-light engines on the Lion and her tactical thruster system. “Conn, navigation. Holding steady on course two, one, six. Master One is directly off our starboard quarter.”

  David could see Ruth carrying out her orders as the tactical readout above his head showed the shields going up, and various weapons systems coming online.

  Sheila leaned over David’s shoulder and quietly asked, “Sir, shouldn’t we ask for instructions from command?”

  “No time, XO. Besides, Barton is the commander of the home defense fleet.”

  She scrunched her nose in response. “Point taken.”

  “Conn, TAO! Aspect change, Master One. Master One has locked its weapons onto us and has completed charging its weapons.”

  At this point, the Destruction could fire on the Lion at any time. David looked toward Taylor. “Communications, signal the Destruction, warn them off.”

  A couple of seconds passed before Taylor responded, “No response, sir.”

  So this is it. A fake peace deal, the Trojan horse defeated, and now the League will try to kill as many as they can before they run away. David paused for just a moment. He knew that there would be many that would try to hang the debacle on him, but more importantly, on his crew. He also knew what had to be done; the Destruction could not be allowed to fire on Canaan, and it couldn’t be allowed to leave the system with the information it had undoubtedly gleaned from sensor sweeps. Still, he didn’t want to fire the first shot, and he figured that Seville was hoping he would get a propaganda coup against the Terran Coalition. He looked to Ruth next. “TAO, firing point procedures, Master One, all forward mag-cannons and neutron beam emitters,” he stated as formally as possible.

  “Aye, sir, firing solution set,” Ruth responded automatically as her training took over; her hands betrayed her nerves as they shook for a moment.

  The second-guessing by David ended a few seconds later. “Conn, TAO! Aspect change, Master One! Master One has opened fire!” Ruth nearly shouted, and a moment later, the ship rocked slightly as weapons fire slammed into the Lion from the League dreadnought. “Shield’s holding, sir!” Ruth announced after reviewing the status displays on her console.

  David leaned forward in his chair. “TAO, match bearings, shoot, all weapons, Master One.”

  Weapons fire erupted from the Lion’s forward and aft magnetic-cannon turrets, and at the close range, there were no misses. The Destruction’s shields flared, absorbing the hits, which were followed up by attacks from the Lion’s secondary weapons system, its neutron cannon emitters, which fired directed energy pulses.

  “Conn, TAO. Multiple clean hits on Master One. Master One shields are holding.” As Ruth spoke, the ship buckled again as incoming weapons fire hit it. “Conn, TAO. Aspect change, Master Two! It’s powering up its engines and charging its Lawrence drive.”

  David’s head snapped around; with the transport attempting to jump out, he would have to disable it to give the Marines time to board the ship and secure it. “TAO, firing point procedures, Master Two! Target its engines only with the neutron cannons. Disabling shots only, TAO.” The overwhelming stress of a combat situation in point blank range of Canaan was getting to him, and everyone else on the bridge.

  “Aye aye, sir, firing solution set.”

  “TAO, match bearings, shoot, neutron cannons, Master Two.”

  Blue beams of energy darted out from the Lion once again, stabbing into the League POW transport; they cut through the shields and hull of the ship like a hot knife through butter, neatly slicing off the engine exhausts and manifolds. The League transport was effectively unable to further maneuver in space.

  “Conn, TAO, Master Two disabled,” Ruth said, exhaling sharply.

  “TAO, firing point procedures, Master One, Magnetic cannons and neutron beams,” David said, resuming the attack on the Destruction.

  As Ruth made the necessary calculations, David looked toward Taylor. “Communications, signal Colonel Demood… he is ordered to release the breaching pods and secure Master Two by any means necessary. Alert command that we’ve engaged the enemy and request reinforcements.”

  31

  Calvin stood next to his second-in-command, Major Raul Cabello, reviewing a 3D projected schemati
c of the League Transport that contained the POWs. “This just looks gnarly, Cabello,” he pointed to the areas of the ship they had no intelligence on. “How many Force Recon Marines do we have on this tub?”

  Since Force Recon was considered Special Operations Capable forces, they were the most trained and best equipped Marines onboard the Lion of Judah. Under normal conditions, the MEU would have a company of actual special forces operators attached, but the Lion only had three hundred out of three thousand Marines currently embarked. Thankfully, of three companies attached, one was a light company of Force Recon Marines.

  Cabello looked up from the schematic and spoke, thick with a Spanish accent, “Forty, Colonel. I’ve ordered them all to suit up and prepare for VBSS.” VBSS was what the Marines called “Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure.” “We can breach one team of twenty on the port side of the ship and the rest on the starboard side to split the defense security teams inside the ship. After that, we have the rest of our two hundred and sixty combat Marines board and secure the areas the spearheads take.” Two bright dots began to glow on the schematic, indicating where Cabello planned to insert TCMC forces.

  Calvin nodded. “Looks good to me. What about EOD?” he asked, referring to Explosive Ordnance Disposal. “We didn’t get our team on before the ship launched, and I’d wager we’ll see some booby traps over there.”

  “Well…” Cabello said. “We have a volunteer.”

  Calvin raised an eyebrow. “A volunteer?”

  “I think I’ll let him speak for himself.” He motioned to a Marine sergeant standing near the hatch to the passageway. “Sergeant, bring Mr. Uzun in.”

  The sergeant motioned to someone in the passageway from Calvin’s perspective, and a few moments later, an older man in civilian clothing walked into the room and strode over to Cabello and Calvin. “Gunnery Sergeant Hadi Uzun, reporting for duty, Colonel,” the man said crisply in accented English.

  Calvin couldn’t quite place the accent. As he looked the man over, he appeared to be in good shape, wearing an engineering technician’s jumpsuit and work belt. “You’re out of uniform, Gunny,” he said with a trace of a smile.

  “I’ve been out of uniform for eight years, Colonel. But I spent fifteen years in the Marines specializing in explosive device disposal,” Uzun said, looking Calvin in the eyes. “I’m onboard as a member of the contractor team. I overheard some of your Marines talking about needing an EOD tech as I was checking a power relay. If you’ll have me, I’m your man.”

  “Colonel, I took the liberty of pulling Mr. Uzun’s service jacket. He was honorably discharged for medical reasons and has high performance rankings during his time as an EOD technician.”

  Calvin looked at Cabello. “I can’t allow a civilian to join a boarding op against a League POW transport, Major. Good Lord, how many regs does that break?”

  Uzun cleared his throat. “Colonel…once a Marine, always a Marine.”

  Calvin glanced back to Uzun; he could tell Cabello backed putting the man onboard, and he knew they desperately needed someone that could disarm League booby traps and the onboard self-destruct system. “Damn right, Gunny. Get in uniform and get a bomb suit. We’re dusting off as soon as the bridge gives the order.”

  A change seemed to come over Uzun; he stood just a little bit taller and a little bit straighter. “Sir, yes sir! Semper fi!” he said to Calvin, and then turned on his heel to leave.

  At that moment, a corporal rushed up to Calvin and Cabello. “Sirs, Colonel Cohen has requested that the rescue operation begin immediately.”

  Calvin looked toward Cabello. “Get those boys in the breaching pods, Cabello. I will take team A, you take team B. Corporal, please relay to the bridge that we will be ready to launch momentarily.”

  “Conn, TAO! Master One’s aft shielding is close to collapse, sir,” Ruth announced.

  “TAO, firing point procedures, forward vertical launch array. Target eight Hunter missiles on Master One’s aft section, make tubes one through eight ready in all respects,” David said, deciding to use the precious Hunter missiles his ship carried. Hunters carried advanced artificial intelligence and could evade all but the absolute best League point defense systems; in this combat, the League battleship lacked its escorts and the overlapping point defense coverage they carried. He wanted to end the battle quickly and disable the Destruction.

  “Aye aye, sir, firing solution set for eight Hunter missiles on Master One. Tubes one through eight ready in all respects.”

  “TAO, match bearings, shoot, tubes one through eight, Master One,” David said.

  Ruth pressed the launch button on her console, and eight Hunter missiles thundered into space from the Lion’s forward vertical launch array; a missile cell that popped out of ship’s superstructure and could retract to be reloaded fully in less than an hour. The array held one hundred and twenty missiles in total, of which forty were Hunters and the rest less sophisticated, but still powerful LIDAR tracking variants called Starbolt missiles.

  “Conn, TAO. All missiles running hot, straight and normal sir.”

  The Hunters went active a thousand meters from the Lion and quickly linked with the Lion’s tactical network, locking on to the Destruction. Evading enemy point defense weaponry, they plunged into the weakened aft shield. Out of the eight, six hit their target and two were destroyed by point defense; the shielding on the aft of the Destruction flared violently and winked out.

  “Conn, TAO. Master One’s aft shield has collapsed.”

  David began to form the words to order Ruth to capitalize on this development and pound the Destruction’s aft quadrant with mag-cannon and neutron beam fire, but before he could, Taylor interrupted him. “Conn, communications! General Barton is demanding to speak to you, sir.”

  David just groaned inwardly. Of all the times, I have to deal with Barton now? “Put it on my viewer, Lieutenant,” David said rather matter-of-factly.

  Barton’s face popped onto the viewer that hung from the ceiling above David’s chair. “Colonel! What are you doing? I show sustained weapons fire between you and the peace convoy!”

  David fought to keep his neutral expression. “General, sir, we discovered a League saboteur onboard the Lion. She has been apprehended, but the Destruction opened fire on us after—”

  “You are supposed to be securing peace in our time, Colonel! Not starting another war! Stand down now! The Ark Royal will deal with this!”

  David glanced at Sheila out of the corner of his eye. “General, we can’t stand down. If we disengage, the Destruction will be free to fire on Canaan.”

  While Barton was yelling, Sheila made a gesture across her throat to Taylor, indicating for him to cut the line.

  “Colonel, I said—” The screen blinked out mid-sentence.

  David cranked his head over to Taylor, who shrugged apologetically. “I’m sorry, sir, General’s Barton’s signal seems to dropped. Should I try to get him back?”

  Sheila smirked despite herself. “I don’t think we have time for him right now, sir,” she said with a trace of mirth in her voice.

  “I concur, XO. TAO, firing point procedures—”

  “Conn, TAO! Aspect change, Master One! Master One is powering up her Lawrence drive!”

  David quickly adjusted his tactics. “Navigation, match course and speed, Master One. TAO, drain the energy weapons capacitor. Navigation, charge the Lawrence drive!”

  Sheila glanced at David. “Sir, are we going to pursue them?” She looked somewhat doubtful of the strategy.

  “Of course we are, XO. We’ve got to. They’ve been inside Canaan’s defense parameter and beyond that. This is a massive propaganda victory for the League. We’ve got to neutralize that ship.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  He could tell from her tone that she wasn’t completely sold on the idea, but David’s gut was almost always right. Besides, I’d really like to take down a League dreadnought in our first combat. If nothing else, that’ll help morale on the hom
e front.

  “Communications, Conn. Colonel Demood reports that they are ready to begin the rescue operation on Master Two.”

  David felt relief at the news; they could pursue the Destruction without leaving the POWs behind. “Communications, patch me through to Colonel Demood.”

  A moment later, Taylor said, “Sir, Colonel Demood is patched into your console.”

  David glanced down and spoke into the mic. “Demood, this is Cohen. Bring them home. Godspeed, and good luck.”

  Calvin’s voice crackled through the speaker. “Godspeed Colonel, Demood out.”

  “Conn, TAO! Master One has successfully opened a wormhole.”

  David snapped his head up. “Navigation, all ahead flank. Follow Master One through that wormhole. TAO, stand by to immediately reacquire Master One upon transit.”

  There was a chorus of “Yes, sirs,” followed by action on the part of Ruth and Hammond; David stared at his tactical plot as the Destruction disappeared from their screens. The two breaching pods from the Lion launched, followed by several large shuttlecraft headed directly for the transport; with that, the Lion was ready to pursue the fleeing enemy ship. The Lion’s engines rapidly accelerated and the ship flew through the void, following into the wormhole generated by the Destruction before the wormhole’s vortex collapsed in a dazzling array of colors.

  32

  The Lion of Judah emerged from the wormhole close on the trail of the Destruction. In the seconds it took for sensors to snap back on and the ships to recover from the stress of wormhole transition, the bridge crews of both ships steeled themselves to reenter the fight. On the bridge of the Destruction, Admiral Seville watched Colonel Strappi pace the floor of the bridge. Fighting the urge to sneer at the man, he counted down the seconds in his head until the ship’s sensors snapped back online.