Birthright: Battle for the Confederation- Consequence

by Ryan Krauter

  Avenger was rocked by another series of hits from the closest Priman cruisers. Her mag-shield was running at full strength, and thankfully the Primans seemed to actually think there was another Crusader out here with them. The Primans weren't hitting the ship with every shot fired, and Captain Elco could see from the holo field that they were firing towards the point in space where CSS Resilience was broadcasting its IFF as well. Avenger was close enough to fire torpedoes, but that presented a problem; when the Primans saw Avenger fire on another 'Confed' ship, would the jig be up? How long would the ruse last?

  Elco could only order his ship to keep weaving among the Primans, trying to look like she was holding station on the 'other' Crusader class ship in the Priman formation. He he to give Loren a chance to get off the Priman ship.

  Loren and Velk raced down the maintenance spaces of Harbinger in search of the compartment Velk had identified. They arrived and waited behind a vented access panel while trying to ensure there were no crew in the corridor. Both of them knew what was at stake, but there seemed to be an unspoken agreement that encouraged them to try and avoid harming the unwitting crew.

  Finally, Velk deemed the coast to be clear and they snuck into the corridor and then the small compartment. It was bare, all business, about half the size of Avenger's bridge, and filled with silver boxes about big enough to fit Loren's flight helmet in. Racks lined the bulkheads as well as two room-length shelves in the middle of the space.

  "This is it?" Loren asked, almost disappointed. He'd for some reason expected more; he thought he'd hear a choir of angels and see some magic shaft of light illuminate something to show him the way. Instead, just dozens of metallic boxes; it didn't seem so ominous. "So, um, what are these?"

  "These are components of the comm system," Velk explained slowly, as though Loren would need help with the basics such as naming the shape and color to start with. "They get their power and talk to the other components wirelessly. They are all identical, and are meant to operate as a cloud and have individual units replaced as necessary. We will need to destroy at least half of these to bring us below the threshold of acceptable computational power."

  "So," Loren concluded, "we need to bash half the room."

  "Correct."

  Loren grabbed a small handle on the front of one unit and slid it off the shelf, hefting it to gauge the weight. There were four small lights on the front. "Tash isn't going to like this," he sang through gritted teeth. He lifted the unit above his head and then threw it to the deck as hard as he could. It hit with a crash, sides collapsing and seams splitting. He could see flashes of color inside and more of that fiber optic cable that he'd seen in the wall panel access earlier. The lights on the front were out.

  "One down, a whole lot to go," Loren announced proudly, just as the ship began to shake from inbound laser blasts. "And not a moment too soon."

  "I regret that this ship will most likely have to be destroyed in order to save the rest of our fleets. This crew is most likely not complicit in Representative Tash's subversive plot."

  Loren sighed as he stomped on another box for good measure. "Yeah, I know. I wish I could think of something..."

  The ship rocked under another incoming volley. "You mentioned escape pods, Commander Stone. To what end?"

  Loren was surprised Velk would ask. Did he plan to just sit here on the ship and face Tash no matter what?"

  "Well, I figure we can't stay here for one of two reasons. One, the ship might just get blown into really small pieces. The second is that, even if it survives, Tash will most likely not view our actions with kindness. He may even try to hurt us." Loren turned to see if Velk was taking him seriously. "If we leave this ship, we can either catch up with my fleet or your new Commander's. You can help her reestablish control over your military. If one of my people picks us up, you'll still get home. Either way, I figure we can't stay here, so we grab an escape pod or shuttle and get the hell out before they find us, because then they'll start with the anger and the violence. I don't need that kind of stress in my life."

  Velk simply nodded. "I understand, but I admit it feels contrary to my sense of duty to my people. I should confront the Representative right here, on this ship, and end the conflict right now before more of my people die."

  "Except they think he's the Commander. What do you have that will compel them to take your word over his?"

  Velk just looked away, then smashed another box.

  "So where's the nearest escape pod?"

  Velk spoke without turning around. "There is a small shuttle hangar near here; we should take one of those. First, they're far more capable than a pod, and second, the escape pods are culturally seen as the lowest of priorities. It might not be serviceable."

  "Doesn't sound like the fleet safety inspectors would approve of that."

  "You forget we spent a thousand years out beyond the fringes of this galaxy. All we had were our ships; there were no planets we could go to, nothing else in proximity that would offer any sort of salvation if a ship were to be lost. Our fleets were spread out and already overcrowded; the grim truth was that if your ship was in trouble, the only truly ideal solution was to spend your last breath trying to save it. If we all fled our ships every time something went wrong, the fleet would have become overtaxed in the first hundred years. It may sound harsh, but we viewed the idea of abandoning ship as an act of cowardice."

  "You need to live to see this thing through, Representative. Let's smash this junk and get out of here."

  Admiral Bak watched as the two fleets passed within medium range of each other again. Torpedoes crisscrossed the dark of space, laser batteries flashed, shields sparkled, hulls were punctured, explosions vented into space, lives were lost.

  The engagement was evenly divided. More damage to his vessels, roughly the same to the Primans. He still couldn't figure out what was going on with Avenger, and his techs were pointing out a constant low grade weapons exchange within the Priman fleet itself. It seemed that Avenger and the mystery transponder signal for Resilience were weaving among the Priman fleet, absorbing damage but not dealing any back out.

  "Admiral," Bak heard from across his Flag Plot compartment, "we have an incoming message from Avenger."

  "About time," he muttered. "Put it on my station here," he commanded.

  Captain Elco's face appeared on the display panel at Admiral Bak's station. "Captain," the admiral began, "I'm sure you have a hell of a story, but just give me the short version."

  "Loren and Velk are aboard a Priman ship," Elco quickly stated. "They activated a beacon for a Confed ship in order to get the Primans to fire on her as well as to identify her so we could extract them. We're in here among the Priman fleet with them so we can do that and hopefully finish the Priman ship off in the process; it's carrying the man who was their Commander until earlier today. He's on the warpath and intends to head straight to Delos after he wipes us all out."

  "Sounds like the sort of person I'd like to shoot," Bak replied.

  "We'll see if we can arrange in introduction. In any case, they're getting hammered by the Primans, and as soon as Loren and Velk are off, we'll try to finish the job."

  "Good luck," Bak wished to Elco. "I'll keep us engaged with their fleet so we don't break contact too soon. If you need anything, let us know.

  The lights on the bridge of Harbinger snapped off for a second before coming back on. Tash knew what that meant; the ship's power grid was compromised. If power distribution was lost, that meant no shields, guns, engines, anything. Harbinger might not be the glorious mount he rode into victory on after all.

  "Captain Sohk," Tash announced, "I am going to have the prisoners transferred to a shuttle and made ready to depart if this ship becomes too damaged to lead from. They are critical to demoralizing the enemy."

  Captain Sohk tried to remain as neutral as possible. "As you wish, Commander." She now knew the core of the man, however, and she wasn't impressed. He was going to run from this fight which
he didn't know how to manage anyway. Still, he was the Commander; she would obey and turned to one of her aides. "Transfer the prisoners to a shuttle."

  The aide nodded and touched her earbud to relay orders. She looked confused, then tried again. Frustrated, she began entering commands in a console next to her as Tash quick-stepped to the hatch leaving the bridge.

  "What is the problem?" Sohk asked.

  "No reply from the guards in the conference room where the prisoners were being held, Captain. I'm tracking sensors and movements now."

  Sohk waited, confident the officer was on the case.

  "I have internal sensors active now, Captain. The two guards are alive but unconscious. We tracked the prisoners to a maintenance space, and shortly after that our location beacon malfunctioned and the Confederation ship's beacon was overlaid on us. I saw them for a short time in a corridor, but they disappeared a few seconds later." She continued to work furiously at the console.

  "Captain, our communications array is not responsive."

  Now Sohk was truly worried. When her own people, thinking Harbinger was a cloaked Confed vessel like Avenger nearby, had started firing towards her ship, she hadn't immediately been troubled. She simply ordered the beacon cycled, but to no avail. Failing that, the easiest thing was to issue a fleet-wide directive stating the Confed deception. Now, it appeared she didn't have access to the external comms. Velk and that damned human were going to be the death of her ship.

  A series of impacts rocked her ship, and he inner ears felt the pressure change of air escaping. It ended quickly as emergency bulkheads closed, but her own ships had just opened her vessel to space.

  "Drop the magnetic shield!" she commanded over the wrenching noises emanating from the depths of her vessel.

  Loren and Velk stopped short as they passed into the ship's main hangar bay. There were three crewmembers in close proximity; Loren ran right up to one and caught him with an elbow to the cheek bone. Loren snapped his head over to see if Velk needed help; he appeared to simply scare the other crew members into walking away.

  "We must choose a shuttle," Velk said without emotion.

  Loren eyed up the hangar. There were three of the small ships spotted for launch, all the same model. "That one looks fastest," Loren said, pointing to the one in the middle.

  "They are all identical," Velk said, confused.

  "Then just follow me."

  Tash ran through the corridors, once bouncing off the buklhead as the ship absorbed another series of hits. The ship's crew paid him no mind; they were busy enough trying to hold the vessel together. The only thought on his mind was to leave the marked ship. Velk and the human had put a giant target on his command ship and he had no faith it would live through the day. He, on the other hand, did need to live, for he had much to do. He intended to leave the ship with Loren and Velk as his captives and resume the battle from the first Priman ship he could find.

  Upon reaching the hangar, he saw two shuttles ready for launch and an unconscious crew member on the deck being attended by two others.

  "Crewman!" Tash barked, causing the two good Samaritans to stand up straight and leave their fellow on the deck. "I ordered Representative Velk and the human brought here. Where are they?"

  One pointed at the open hangar door where a shuttle was just disappearing from view while the other spoke. "Commander, they overpowered us and stole that shuttle."

  Tash fumed. Velk couldn't live! Everything he'd planned, the plots and schemes he'd hatched just in the last week in order to keep the invasion on his track, were going to be ruined. The only thing to do was get to Delos first and wipe out the Confed capital. Maybe if the Council saw the enemy defeated for good, they'd realize the error of their ways in not supporting him fully. And Delos would be an example to the rest of the galaxy as well.

  He ran past the crewmembers and into one of the other shuttles, slamming the button to close the hatch behind him.

  Thirteen

  Captain Elco watched the holo display as the magnetic shield around the Priman cruiser/CSS Resilience flicked and disappeared, showing the damaged Priman cruiser behind the curtain. She'd taken a beating and Elco could see several compartments open to space.

  Avenger was in better shape, but not by too much. Her magnetic shielding was more effective, which had meant the Primans fired more at their own badly-cloaked cruiser and missed more shots at Avenger. Still, the damage was accumulating at what Elco now considered the standard rate: frightening. The big status board at the rear of the bridge showed plenty of yellow and red shading, along with a continuously updated text readout of incoming damage reports.

  "Captain," the helm officer said, "two shuttles just left the cruiser."

  Elco looked at the holo field in front of the bridge, then through it to the main screen on the forward bulkhead where a camera was tracking the small ships.

  "Any bets on whether Loren's in one of those?" he asked nobody in particular.

  As if on cue, one of them began doing barrel rolls, a ninety degree pull up where he killed speed on the approach and then accelerated out on the new vector, capped off with a series of maneuvers starting with forty-five degree pull-ups with a half roll on top, then another forty-five degree pitch change.

  "Fool's flying like he's trying to perform an air show," Elco muttered. "Well, I guess we know which one's our XO." The ship shuddered and Elco stumbled under the impact. The Primans must have finally realized that there was only one Crusader class Confed ship in their midst. Oh well, it was time to go anyway.

  "Helm, ninety degrees to port and down fifteen degrees. Make sure our rear tubes are pointed at that cruiser." Elco reached over to his panel and tapped the comm stud while looking at the weapons officer's station across the bridge. "Lieutenant Commander Mastruk," Elco called, waiting to see her face on the display before continuing. "We're leaving. Keep firing torpedoes at that cruiser until it's a dust cloud or we're out of weapons. Loren and Velk are clear, so let them have it."

  "Comms," he continued, "make sure our landing guidance is online so Loren can land in the Vipers' hangar. Send Marines too, just in case."

  Elco cringed as the hammer blows of more impacts rained down on his ship. He was reassured to some measure by the schematics in the holo field, though; Avenger's laser batteries were blazing away at any target they could reach, her AA/point defense turrets spit nonstop laser fire at Priman fighters and inbound torpedoes. There were already four torpedoes of her own halfway to the Commander's cruiser.

  The shuttle bucked as Loren showed off while heading towards Avenger.

  "I am not entirely sure what you hope to accomplish with these maneuvers, Commander Stone," Velk tried to say in a neutral voice.

  "There's a raging firestorm outside and a Priman cruiser where their rogue Commander lives is sending out a shuttle headed right to Avenger. If it was me, the cynical side would be wondering if it was some sort of boarding party, suicide mission, that sort of thing. I'm flying like an air show wannabe in the hopes they realize it's us aboard and don't blast us before we get a chance to land. In fact, their landing guidance lights are all lit up for us." Loren gestured to the decreasing distance between them and Avenger's underside landing bays. "Looks like we're cleared into the port side hangar."

  They did a double take as both noticed another shuttle streak from the landing bay, angling off towards the next nearest Priman ship.

  "What the...?" Loren said, partially distracted by the landing pattern but having noticed the odd departure. "Who's that?"

  Velk turned to Loren and stared daggers. "Do you remember my mention of the dishonorable nature of abandoning ship?"

  Loren only nodded.

  "Who aboard that vessel do you think cares so little for honor that he would leave a ship in the middle of a battle?"

  "That hump!" Loren yelled as they passed through the air barrier and into Avenger's port side hangar. Tash was getting away!

  The shuttle landed in the Vipers' hangar
bay. No sooner had it dropped to the skids and the hatch was opening, Loren and Velk following a second later.

  They were greeted by Marines with rifles cradled, waiting for signs of trouble.

  "Just me and the Representative, folks," Loren called out distractedly as he pointed Velk towards the hatch into the main corridor of the ship.

  Out of the corner of their eyes, they saw the view out the aft of the hangar and the blossoming explosions as Avenger's torpedoes hit home on the cruiser they'd just left. The ship convulsed, flashes of light escaping from the seams as internal explosions breached the outer hull.

  "Commander," Velk put his hand on Loren's shoulder, the Marines all bringing up their HMR-12 Hammer rifles in response. Loren only waved them off as he stopped to look at Velk.

  "What is it?"

  Velk inclined his head towards the aft of Avenger and at the Priman cruiser, now starting a spin to port and falling out of the maneuvering Priman formation. "That ship no longer houses our wayward Commander; it does not need to be destroyed."

  Loren was about to remind him they were at war yet, but reconsidered. If Tash had been aboard, Loren would have run to C3 and stabbed the 'launch' button for the aft torpedo tubes himself until the magazines were empty. But as it was, the ship was a wreck, no longer capable of fighting and most likely doomed in short order no matter what happened next. The people on that ship didn't need to die. He only wondered if the Primans would have extended him the same courtesy. Still, he realized this was a potentially pivotal moment for Confed/Priman relations.