“Continue on course,” Michael said, wanting to put the awful grisly scene behind him.
The fleet accelerated again; jumped back into plasma drive and resumed their journey towards Delta base. Two hours later something began to show up on the ships sensors.
“We’ve just picked up something large and unmoving,” the Solarian sensor operator said.
Michael turned toward the officer; please don’t let it be another one of those ship graveyards he thought. His mind was still reeling from the sight of the dead Naval officer; it haunted him, and would for many days yet.
There was a tense silence amongst the staff on the command centre, as the Solarian officer studied his readings. “It has what appears to be some kind of defensive ring around it,” the officer said.
The news immediately made Michael feel better, as he realised what the officer may have found. He made his way over to the monitor, and decided to see for himself.
“It’s Delta base,” he almost cried out in jubilation. “We’ve arrived.”
He quickly walked back over to his chair, and seated himself again. “Signal the fleet to drop out of plasma drive on my order,” he said with authority driven by enthusiasm.
Immediately the Solarian command staff got to work, hands flew over consoles as crewmen contacted other ships notifying them of the situation; all this within minutes and with consummate skill, the entire command centre buzzed into life.
“The fleet confirms it is standing by,” Televis said.
“Major, order alert status, we don’t want any surprises. And Televis signal the fleet to do the same,” Michael shouted out his orders as though he was already a seasoned Captain; despite he had only been in command of the Liberty for a few days. Technically Nikolai out ranked him, however since Michael was much more highly trained in ship based operations the Russian allowed the Naval officer the infraction.
The command centre darkened noticeably, light from the myriad displays shone out; casting shadows across the oval room. Above every console a red light shone unblinking; bathing the command centre in a dark ruddy glow. The entire room took on a menacing air showing what the Liberty was really designed to do; and that was to remorselessly, and uncaringly destroy absolutely everything in its path.
Michael gave the nod, “drop out of plasma drive.”
Together; the Liberty and the entire fleet dropped out of plasma drive in a huge flash, lighting up the surrounding space.
“Bring up the viewer.”
The holographic viewscreen shimmered into life once again. Clearly depicting the enormous form of Delta base; it had changed much from when Michael had last seen it, it looked broken, badly damaged. The outer defence perimeter was still standing, although barely, huge breaches were clearly evident; rents were torn across its surface, blackened craters smashed into its hull. Its once proud rail-cannons that had kept the station and its occupants safe for so long were now merely ruins, the turrets blasted apart with horrifying power. Some gave off a fiery glow, still ablaze; indicating a recent attack. Here and there explosions sent out great plumes of flame, which lit up parts of its blasted surface as the munitions within succumbed to the heat.
Some of the inner laser towers were still operable on the base itself, though many looked like blasted blackened craters torn deep through the hull, where Krenaran weapons had silenced them in strafing runs.
Great tears and rents ripped across the surface, where particle cannons had done their work. They looked like great open wounds, and in some, flames continued to lick out into the blackness of space as uncontrolled fires continued to rage.
Michael gazed at the devastation before him, not really believing his own eyes. “Who could do this to Delta base?” His voice cracked with emotion. “It’s one of the most heavily defended facilities in E.O.C. A territory.”
Vargev shook his head, not really believing the scene either.
“Life signs, tell me there are some life signs,” Michael needed some sort of confirmation, a hint of anger welled up at what he was watching.
His mind was running through a myriad of thoughts all at once; he hoped and prayed Jana and Theo were still alive, however looking at the scale of the devastation in front of him, his heart sank.
“Some, isolated pockets, but faint,” a Solarian said.
This news made Michael feel slightly better, but not much, they could still be alive over there, “any power on board, environmental systems?” he asked, the urgency growing in his voice.
“Only on some decks.”
“What about docking facilities, are we able to dock with it?”
“Negative, the docking ports are all damaged beyond repair.”
Figures; Michael thought. The Krenarans didn’t want anyone escaping; wanted them all on-board like a tin of sardines to take pot shots at. He grew angrier, studying the shimmering image on the viewer intently; suddenly he spotted something that gave him a glimmer of hope.
“Magnify that spot,” he said pointing towards the display.
It was a wrecked fighter bay, probably taken a direct hit from one of their torpedoes Michael wondered; it left a huge blackened breach in the station’s surface.
“Any chance we can land in there?”
“Possibly, however there will be very little room for error,” Televis replied.
Michael looked at the Solarian navigator, who in turn looked back towards him with a slightly nervous look on his face.
“Don’t worry, I trust you.”
“Contact the fleet, tell them to form defensive formation, and that we are going to attempt to land on the facility.”
Again hands flew across control panels. “Fleet confirms,” Televis said.
The other Solarian Vessels spread out and began taking up strategic positions around Delta base; covering each others fire arcs.
Michael leaned forward in his seat pensively. “Okay take us in, engines at ten percent sub-light, thrusters at users discretion,” he said almost whispering.
The Liberty slowly and silently glided toward the pock marked and pitted surface of the station until it was directly adjacent to the breach. With barely enough room for the small ship to enter, it slowly advanced.
The shredded outer hull of the station cast a steadily increasing shadow over the matt black and silver hull of the Liberty as it slowly made its way further inside. The viewer fell completely into darkness.
“Forward landing lights.”
The landing lights came on; brightly illuminating the bay, broken girders partially concealed the frozen bodies of Naval personnel trapped underneath, they looked for all the world like tiny frozen mannequins looking up at the comparatively huge ship approaching them. Debris littered the bay floor casting shadows as the landing lights from the Liberty played along the detritus as it advanced.
Half smashed gantries hung limply from the walls, casting further shadows onto the scorched walls themselves. Slowly the Liberty drifted further inside the bay.
“Cut all power to the engines, let her drift in.”
The Solarian pilot cut the power to the engines. Ever so slowly the Liberty crept further and further inside the bay. Its lights continued to play across the scorched, debris ridden interior.
“Lower landing legs.”
Three large hydraulic landing legs slowly lowered from the underside of the ship. Shoots of gas escaped from the struts as they vented excess gas used as a shock absorber to cushion the vast weight of the Liberty.
“Gravitic engines at five percent, reverse thrust.”
The engines whined into life almost imperceptibly as they killed the small amount of forward momentum of the ship.
“And, set us down,” Michael whispered with finality.
The gravitic engines gave a slight whine and the ship gradually came to a rest upon its landing legs. Which only gave a small jet of gas, as the remaining excess was vented off again to equalise the weight of the ship.
“Okay, cut all power to the engines,” Michael said.
He nodded his appreciation at the pilot’s ability, and smiled. Turning to the form of Vargev sitting in his chair at his console, he said. “You fancy a space walk Nikolai.”
“I’m game.”
“Televis you’re with us,” Michael said to the Solarian.
All three of them headed to the lower airlock on deck 9 of the Liberty. Once they were there Televis pressed a button on a metal floor length cabinet just near to the airlock and a rack of environment suits slowly slid out. They each donned one; surprisingly they were an exceptional fit. Together they donned their helmets and clicked them into position, the hermetic seals locked into place keeping the suit air tight.
“Everyone give me a seal check,” Michael announced.
They all pressed a control on the environment suits’ cuff, a small light shone green on each suit.
“Seals are okay,” the other two said in response.
“Okay I want constant radio contact; we don’t know what we are going to face in there.” They each pressed a small black button on the sides of their helmets, and inside a small microphone extended.
Michael and Vargev hefted their huge Armschlagers, which they had retrieved earlier. “Okay, depressurize the airlock,” Michael said into his mic.
Televis touched a small control panel on the wall, and a huge whoosh could be heard, as the air vented out into the vacuum that was the fighter bay.
“Release the hatch.”
A second control was pressed, and with a deep metallic sound the hatch slowly opened in the side of the Liberty.
The three of them gradually drifted out from the hatch and into the frozen, barren fighter bay, pushing off from the Liberty’s hull. Gradually they drifted across the tight confines of the bay, as though a flock of gulls gliding through a thermal.
Looking below them, they could all too clearly see the wreckage of twisted girders and smashed gantries littering the floor, intermingled with the frozen bodies of the fallen. There was what looked like the frozen body of a pilot, he was just ten feet from his peregrine fighter when he was decapitated; his head could just be seen a few feet ahead of him.
Gradually they made it over to the wall of the fighter bay. And scrabbled down it, careful to avoid the razor sharp edges of twisted metal that jutted out from the broken gantries still affixed to the wall; any one of which could tear a hole through their suits, and they would be done for; finally they made it down to a door.
Shouldering their weapons; and with a huge strain, both Michael and Vargev managed to force open the door enough to venture inside.
The long corridor was dark, dank and eerily quiet, some emergency lights blinked, but most barely worked; giving a strange almost strobe light effect to the place.
Several bodies lay still on the floor, also frozen due to their exposure to the vacuum of space.
As they proceeded down this dark oppressive corridor, they felt slightly nauseous as they could feel the slight crunch of them walking on small frozen pools of crimson human blood.
Michael could feel his heartbeat slowly quicken in his chest as the menacing atmosphere began to take hold. All three of them continued to take slow, deliberate, almost nervous steps.
Their breathing became shallower as they continued, straining to hear every sound, no matter how small. In case something should creep up on them.
In a flash Vargev spun around, levelling his weapon. There was a dull, metallic crash behind them. As they looked they could find nothing.
“Probably just a bulkhead,” Michael said nervously. “Let’s keep our eyes open anyway.”
Slowly they carried on through the gloom. Under the pressure of the oppressive atmosphere Vargevs commando training began to kick in; constantly looking all around the corridor for signs of danger.
“I don’t like this comrade.”
“Neither do I, but we still need to know what happened.”
They pressed on; albeit slowly, the whole place was deathly quiet. The faint ghostly scream of twisted metal in the background set their nerves jangling again.
Televis pulled out a scanner as they approached a bulkhead door, he passed his scanner over it; the lights twinkled in the gloom. “There is power in the next corridor.”
They approached the door tentatively. There was a faintly red glowing panel next to it. Michael pressed it and it changed to green; the door rapidly slid open, something flailed against his helmet, Michael involuntarily gasped and fell backwards he levelled his weapon; his heart pounding madly, what the hell was it?
Looking up he saw that it was the form of an E.D. F crewman; slowly swaying, suspended by a bunch of cabling.
“Hung himself, rather than be captured,” Vargev said studying the body.
They shuffled past the rapidly freezing corpse, still gently swaying, and closed the bulkhead behind them.
Here there was light, and they could see much better. Vargev keyed in a control to re-pressurize this part of the corridor. And slowly the corridor re-filled with air.
“Environmental facilities must be working in this part of the station.”
The lights continued to flicker though, casting shadows across the debris strewn floor. Eventually the trio came to a door on the left hand side of the corridor.
Televis pulled out his scanner again. “There is a life-form on the other side.”
“Is it human?”
After a short tense pause the answer came, “yes.”
The three of them breathed a sigh of relief.
They tried the door control but it was locked, “Damn,” Michael cursed.
“I’ll try my override code,” Vargev replied. Punching in a set of numbers, the result came up green, and the door quickly opened.
A hysterical woman charged headlong screaming at them, she had long dark straggly hair and dirty skin. There was evidence of a tattered medical officers uniform underneath all the dirt and dried on blood stains. She hurtled headlong towards them brandishing a long metal knife.
“Get away from me you murdering Krenaran bastards!” She screamed madly with fury and terror combined.
“We’re Human!” Michael shouted back.
It was no use, the mad screaming woman continued to rush towards them. Vargev reacted instantly and grabbed the knife arm; using his immense strength he pushed her backwards against a wall and held her there, by her arms.
“We’re Human!” He repeated.
The woman, unable to move in Vargevs vice like grip eyed him for a second as if silently weighing him up. She seemed to calm a little.
“Not Krenaran?” she said simply.
“No,” Michael Replied.
“I am going to release you now,” the Russian released his grip, and backed off a little from the young woman.
“Who are you?” Michael asked.
“My name is Katherine Jacobs, Ensign, medical officer here,” she replied, her speech slightly broken.
She must be out of her mind with fear; she could still be useful though, Michael thought.
“Okay Katherine.” Michael began as soothingly and calmly as he could muster. “What happened here?”
“What does it look like!” She shouted, breathing hoarsely. “We were attacked; it’s been the fourth goddamn time!” Tears began to roll down her filthy cheeks. “It’s like they’re toying with us, why won’t they just leave us alone?”
“They won’t. Because we have something they want,” Vargev said.
“Like what?”
“Never mind about that there’s no time to explain, let’s just say you shouldn’t be attacked again for a while anyway. Tell me about the attacks,” Michael began questioning her.
“Each time our laser turrets have managed to drive them off; but only just, the station has taken so much damage that it might not survive another attack.”
“Who is in command now?”
“Most of the command staff were killed when a salvo of torpedoes blew apart the command centre,” she replied sadly, as though reliving those events. “Lieutenant Commander Dickinson is in charge now, well on the last check anyway.”
“Where can we find him?” Vargev asked.
“Deck 49, inner section, it’s been rigged up as a temporary command centre. If we keep to the inner sections there is still air and power; follow me.” She said enthusiastically, her tears had gone, for now.
They all unclipped their helmets and followed her.
“Who is he?” Katherine asked in wonder, looking up at the tall form of Televis.
“He’s a good guy, here to help us,” Michael said.
“I’ve never seen anyone like him before.”
“Don’t worry; you’ll be seeing a lot more.”
At that they left what appeared to be a small, dirty, unkempt medical bay and they followed the young ensign through the darkened corridors and partially collapsed decks.
They came upon a giant hole in the floor, where what appeared to be a huge piece of machinery had smashed its way though it. Michael looked down as he passed, and could just about see where the huge lump of machinery finally came to rest several decks below. Slowly and carefully they picked their way around it with barely enough room for their feet.
Eventually they passed through some doors, and the room opened out into what resembled a rudimentary command centre. Albeit half the stations were non-functional; the four of them walked over to the centre of the room.
Katherine Jacobs led them to a man on the floor; a bloodied steel pole poked through this chest. His royal blue E.D. F Naval uniform soaking wet with blood. And she held out a hand is if gesturing to the other three men.
“Lieutenant Commander Dickinson.”
Michael had barely known him; he was the assistant chief communications officer on board Delta base, however Michael had only met the man twice throughout his whole career. He was a by the book officer, although a capable one nevertheless.
Coughing a mouthful of blood he managed to turn his head towards them.
“Is there nothing you can do for him?” Michael asked Katherine.
“We have given him morphine; if we remove the pole, we might risk killing him.”
“Who…who are you,” Dickinson said looking up at the three new men in front of him.
“I’m Lieutenant Michael Alexander, This is Major Nikolai Vargev 1 ^ st E.D. F commandos, and this is Televis.”
“Televis…what the?”
“No time to explain, but he’s on our side. We’re here to help.”
At this Dickinson laughed a throaty laugh, coughing up a small amount of blood in the process. “No one can help us now,” he spluttered. “The E.D. F is finished.”
“Well; I’ve got 69 Solarian battle cruisers outside, that says it’s not.” Michael smiled.
At this news Dickinson was genuinely surprised, “Solarians, who the hell are they.”
“They have come to help us, but we need to know where fleet command is, and what has happened?”
“Fleet command has been transferred to Alpha base,” Dickinson coughed. “The first attacks happened on the Agemman and Aurelias colonies.”
“I already know about those, I was on the Ulysses before she went down.”
“Right; well the fleet was formed into its constituent battlegroups as per the orders given when alert level one was introduced.” A small breath escaped Dickinson lips as he spoke. “With their damned stealth abilities, the fleet was doing nothing but chasing shadows.” He coughed up another small amount of blood.
“First Foxtrot base fell, knocking out the majority of our intelligence, the 19 ^ th Airborne company stationed there managed to put up some resistance, but they were heavily outgunned and soon were either destroyed or captured.” He said as he wheezed slightly, Kathryn tried to wipe up some of the blood with a dirty cloth. “With the fall of Foxtrot base; the entire Connaught sector fell, shortly after that the colony at Eidolon fell also.” He coughed again. “Then there were the attacks on the Perseus and Malthus colonies; there have been sightings of Krenaran ships around Gamma IV and Gamma Aurigulon. Hell, half of the entire E.O.C. A territory is crawling with Krenaran ships.” He sighed a hoarse sigh. “If the Molrav and Bryant sectors fall, the gate will be open to attack Earth itself,” Dickinson said coughing again.
“It won’t come to that,” Michael replied solemnly.
“What about the Commandoes?” Vargev asked.
Dickinson coughed up another mouthful of blood. “They are the only ones who seem to be holding their own in this damn war, the Krenarans always attack in greater numbers when they are around.” He gasped as a surge of pain racked his body. “The commandoes have been responsible for allowing hundreds of thousands of civilians to escape the fighting; and are currently holding some of the most important colonies. They are damned heroes, every last one of them.”
Vargev felt a surge of pride; he smiled and nodded his head approvingly. His men, his division are fighting so bravely, and so heroically. So that others may live.
Dickinson spluttered and said. “Listen, the Krenarans are still around, the last attack was only around half an hour or so ago. That’s what did this to me.” He said looking at the length of steel sticking through his blood soaked chest.
“What about my wife, and son?”
“Where are their quarters?” Katherine asked.
“Deck 19, forward section.”
“I am so sorry,” Katherine replied solemnly.
A tense silence ensued as the news hit Michael hard, he had been expecting it when he first saw the devastation of the base itself, but it was as nothing compared to the hammer blow of actually hearing those fateful words first hand.
“That section had taken a direct torpedo hit; there were no survivors.”
Michael said nothing, just stared at Katherine blankly; a tear began to trickle down his cheek as the awful finality of the news hit him like a speeding train; his wife and son, the two most important things in his entire life, were dead. He felt at that point like his heart had just been torn out, chewed up, and spat out. Walking over to a small corner of the gloomy command centre, he leant on a wall, needing a moment to himself.
Vargev nodded knowingly.
He promised Theo that he would keep the nightmares away, and he had failed, failed in the one thing in all the universe that really mattered.
His life had just become meaningless, and he was ashamed to admit that right now he wished the Krenarans would come and kill him too; right then and there.
His wrist-com. quietly beeped breaking him out of his despair; it was the Liberty. “I believe we have detected 14 Krenaran vessels; closing rapidly,” a Solarian voice said.
“How long until they get here?”
“Five minutes.”
The transmission ended.
Michael desperately tried to recover his thoughts, this was not what Theo and Jana would have wanted, him despairing like this. Walking back over towards the group he said, “get as many people as you can together, you’ve got five minutes; move!”
“Will do,” Katherine said as she sprinted off down the corridor.
Michael turned back to Dickinson; who was laid perfectly still, no movement whatsoever. Vargev solemnly closed the officers’ eyes.
Outside the station, the black and silver shapes of the Krenaran stealth ships could be seen advancing towards the larger Solarian ones, and like a pack of rabid wolves the Krenaran vessels set upon the Solarian force.
Multiple green particle cannon shots flashed out across the blackness of space and were traded with flashes of bright blue fusion cannon beams. Gradually the Krenaran ships closed in on Delta base; ready to deliver the death knell to the already beleaguered installation.
Katherine and three other crewmen managed to race back to Michaels’ position in the command centre, they had all donned their environment suits, even Katherine and the crewmen had them on. They must have grabbed them on the way back, Michael thought managing a wan smile at their industriousness.
“We’ve got to get to the Liberty fast,” Michael said as he secured his own helmet once again.
The others nodded; and they started their sprint back through the dark, dank, ruined corridors of the massive installation.
Outside, five Solarian ships turned in perfect vee formation; their fusion cannons spraying out beams of bright blue death. Three Krenaran vessels were caught in the conflagration and torn asunder with horrifying speed and power.
Four torpedoes smashed their way into the hull of the station one after another, the impacts ripping away great chunks of fiery debris.
Michael and the rest of the survivors raced headlong for the Liberty, there was no sense of the claustrophobic tension like before; instead they just raced for the ship, for their salvation.
Sparks flashed out along the dark corridors and the explosions of battle could be heard from outside, occasionally the station would rock violently; shaking them all as it took yet another hit.
Fire spurted out from newly ruptured conduits, coating the corridor in a fiery glow as the flames licked out occasionally. They continued running further through the maze of corridors and junctions; half a dozen collapsed girders and support beams fell smashing through the deck plating a few meters ahead with a deafening clang.
“We’ll have to jump!” Michael shouted. The heat from the sparks and flaming conduits was slowly baking him inside his suit.
He was the first to jump the gap; after what seemed like an eternity. His feet landed on the deck plating with a thump; he had made it across.
With no small amount of luck all six of the others managed to make it also. Televis with his long legs almost jumped too far, and nearly went sprawling into the corridor wall.
Vargev jumped last; as he sailed over the gap he realised his mistake. He had jumped a fraction too short.
Desperation grabbed him and he reached out frantically with his hands trying to gain any type of purchase; there was none, and Vargev held his breath as he slowly, clumsily fell. The deck plating whooshed by on the other side; he just could not reach it; down he went.
With a painful yank something grabbed his arm; Vargev looked up, Michael had hold of him, stopping his fall into the black pit below. There he dangled, until Televis managed to help Michael haul the Russian back onto the deck plating of the corridor.
“That’s one you owe me this time,” Michael said into his mic.
Vargev smiled and they hurriedly resumed their race towards the Liberty.
Outside, the buckled silvery crescent shaped form of a Solarian battlecruiser listed heavily as it slewed toward the wrecked outer defence perimeter; its hull ablaze from the impacts of multiple particle cannon hits; The 410 metre long hull came tearing through a section of the already damaged perimeter like a giant battering ram.
The hull was ripped asunder as multiple explosions flashed out; metal shredded like tin foil under the colossal impact of the two hulls, flames, and twisted debris engulfed the whole area. That entire section of the perimeter was completely torn apart in the huge impact; leaving a great fiery breach, briefly it illuminated the whole station and the multitude of nearby vessels in a fiery glow.
Still inside the station, Michael, Televis, Vargev and the rest of the survivors were hurled against the wall of the dark corridor, as the entire station reeled against the colossal impact of the crash.
“Oh no!” Michael shouted panicking as he checked his suit, “I’m leaking air.”
“It’s not much further,” Vargev replied, “hurry!”
They raced even harder towards the fighter bay which housed the Liberty, Michael’s lungs burned. It began to come into view at the end of the corridor; the ship was constantly being lit up by the criss-cross of blue and green flashes and the explosions outside. It looked for all the world like a giant light show was happening in the bay, with the Liberty in the centre like a giant black shadow.
They reached the end of the corridor, “jump!” Vargev shouted.
All seven of them jumped, and gently glided across the vacuum of the fighter bay, the blue-green flashes of weapons fire lighting up the bay all around them.
Michael was struggling for breath as he touched his wrist-comm. “Liberty; ready the engines and activate all weapon systems as soon as we are aboard!”
The seven of them floated across the bay; to Michael it seemed like an eternity, he tried desperately to keep his breath shallow to conserve what little air remained in his suit. He was beginning to feel light headed as the oxygen starvation began to kick in.
They hit the smooth hull of the Liberty with a jarring ‘thunk’ as they quickly managed to gain a purchase and scrabbled their way inside the lower hatch. Vargev helped the weakened form of Michael inside as they did so.
The gravitic engines immediately powered up once they were aboard with a dull whine; and the small lower hatch closed behind them. After a few seconds the hatch re-pressurised again. With practically his last breath Michael managed to tear off his helmet; gasping frantically for air.
“Are you okay comrade?”
“I’ll be fine, just give me a second,” Michael said wheezing.
The others quickly removed their environment suits as well; flinging them into a corner. Once his breathing returned to normal Michael, Televis and Vargev all raced for the command centre. Katherine and the remaining three survivors simply followed them, bewildered at their strange new environment.
The Liberty gradually lifted up from the fighter bay floor as its gravitic engines took over, it’s landing legs retracted and disappeared inside the hull as hatches covered them.
It slowly began to reverse its way out of the fighter bay. A green particle cannon shot, fired close to the hull of the station missed the rear of the Liberties main engines by just metres.
“We’re clear,” a Solarian said just as Michael and the six others rushed onto the command centre.
“Bring us about, ninety degrees; full thrusters,” Michael said as he re-took his place back in the centre chair.
The electric blue Ionic thrusters of the Liberty glowed as it spun around in its impossibly small arc, painting the hull of the station a bright blue light as the light reflected from the thrusters. At exactly the same time, a Krenaran stealth ship hurtled straight for them.
“Fire!” Michael shouted urgently.
The Fusion cannon of the Liberty roared its anger, slamming into the Krenaran ship and hitting it just above centre. The massive impact of the shot forced the enemy vessel down towards the hull of the station, where it hurtled straight past the Liberty and collided with the installation in a massive impact, the speed of the Krenaran ship tore a great fiery gouge along the hull of Delta base.
“Tell me that was a fluke,” Michael said.
The Solarian pilot simply smiled.
“How many enemy ships are out there?”
“I’ve got three remaining on sensors, they are retreating,” Vargev replied.
“Let them go. What are our losses?”
“Two ships destroyed, and one heavily damaged,” Televis replied.
“What’s the status of the damaged ship?” Michael asked wiping the sweat and grime from his brow.
The Solarians blue tinged brow furrowed as he performed a full scan of the damaged vessel with his typical practiced ease.
After a brief pause studying the data he responded, “main power is failing, engines have been destroyed, plasma drive systems are not responding. There is fire on multiple decks.”
Michael rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a second, damn it, if they can’t get into plasma drive, they are as good as dead. And we can’t wait for them to make repairs, those Krenaran ships will be back; with friends. And we can’t tractor it all the way to Alpha base above Mars either.
“What is the name of that ship?”
“The Loriath,” Televis replied.
Michael drummed his fingers on the arms of his chair for a moment, “contact the fleet; tell them to evacuate the Loriath and to distribute survivors accordingly.”
Michael didn’t like doing this, but he had no choice. Just losing one Solarian ship was a significant blow. And in just one battle his fleet was now four ships down. Yes they had rescued some of the survivors aboard that devastated station, and yes they had found out that fleet command had been transferred to Alpha base, but they had paid a high enough price for the information.
“The fleet confirms sir,” Televis replied
Michael nodded and watched the display. Gradually the other Solarian ships closed on the stricken Loriath like giant metallic bees tending to a wounded drone. There was a quiet silence as the fleet did its work with the crew of the disabled ship.
“All remaining crew have been distributed amongst the fleet,” Vargev said.
Michael hated what he was going to have to do next, but with a grim finality he said. “Bring us about, and ready the torpedoes, target the Loriath.”
There was a slight almost painful look on the Solarian crew members faces as they realised what Michael was about to do, but just as much as he did, they knew it had to be done they could not risk the Krenarans capturing her hull.
The shattered; ruined shape of the once proud Loriath could be seen listing slightly in the viewer. Televis also looked over at the image of the Solarian ship. “I once served aboard her, she was a fine ship.”
“I am really sorry,” Michael said with genuine heart ache; “fire.”
Two high energy torpedoes shot forth from the Liberties twin launchers and raced towards the stricken Loriath, detonating on impact. Its broken crescent shaped hull slowly burst apart in a bright fireball, the shockwave from which expanded outwards for several seconds before it; and the fires dissipated forever, leaving just shattered debris.
Televis bowed his head, saddened as though he had just lost an old friend.
Michael looked over towards him, “I’m sorry.” He said again, “But it was all that could be done.”
“I know.”
After a long pause, Michael said at last with renewed vigour. “Re-form the fleet, and plot a new course, bearing 196 elevation 4.”
The fleet slowly reformed again and together leapt into plasma drive in a bright mass of swirling plasma wakes. After a short period the wakes closed in on themselves with a blinding flash, leaving the ruined remains of Delta base in the distance, and the hull fragments of the Loriath slowly floating in space behind them.