“I’ll be in the conference room.” Hall stood from his command seat and moved to the nearby office as he sent requests to different people in the system.
It wasn’t long until Chen, Ortiz, Nerva, and Jerome were all looking at Hall.
“Right now we’ve got a problem. We’ve got the two ships heading for the refinery and then the remainder are heading for the Yard. My plan is to break off seven ships, three battleships, three carriers, and the Moby to hunt down the two freighters that are headed for the refinery. Then take the remainder of the fleet, and push the Luyten forces into the defense network around the Ark and the Yard.” Hall looked to the people around the table.
His gaze landed on Chen. “You will be in charge of the second fleet to catch those freighters. I hope that the pressure means that they might think about just running out of the system and we can hunt them down at a later date. If they surrender, then good. If not, blast them to hell.”
“Got it.” Chen nodded.
“Good.” Hall sent over a file and messages to the other captains, informing of their switch in command and their new objective.
“We’ve got them on the ropes, but they’re determined. We need to crush their morale. We’ve seen that they’re not all together. If we can get them to panic, they’ll look to flee. Now, Jerome, I want to get you and some of the RSD pilots talking. I have an idea,” Hall said.
Jerome leaned forward, ready to act.
Chapter Eighty-Seven
Mining Facility One-Seventeen
Oort Cloud, Emarl System
10/3557
Pela and her crew were buried deep within their chosen asteroid belt. The equipment she now used was better than anything she thought she would get her hands on, but the new refinery and jobs that had opened up within it were mind-blowing. She’d been accepted, along with Lucus, to lead a full team. And she was more than loving it. Lucus was a great hunter.
The order to evac had come across her NIAI, and then Pela had looked to Lucus. “Evac, really?”
Their team had been small, but they were deep inside a mining section that supported Refinery Seventy-Seven.
“Gondi, timing to evac safely from this point?”
“Borderline. Within parameters.”
She already knew this; it was something their team had decided when moving down to this level for the veins.
Lucus shouted for the others inside their operating hub. “Pulling out. Evac procedure, quickly, people.”
Lucus was in charge of their team. Pela hadn’t wanted the promotion, although it would have been a slight increase in her pay grade.
“Ashaeed wants to connect,” Gondi said.
While Pela was reducing the speed of the equipment to leave it where it was, she accepted his link.
“What is it? We’re in the middle of evac here.”
“I know. Please hurry.”
“We’re as fast as protocol and training allow. Don’t worry—we’ll get out in time.”
“Pela, you don’t see what we do. We’re on the surface.”
“Oh.” Pela paused in her procedure. “Let me see.”
The vid link that came in then showed her a totally different side to the goings-on. She turned to Lucus, and although there was panic trying to rise up her throat, she simply said, “Linking you in.”
When the eighteen of them had all seen the short vid shot of what was heading their way, not one of them balked.
All Pela could think of was Aileen, Remy, and Ashaeed. Her friends meant everything to her. “Aileen?” she asked Ashaeed. “Remy?”
“She’s working with him, but they’ll be out on time. We’re being sent to an evac point west of you, though.”
Pela let out a breath. They’d both be okay. She didn’t need to quite panic so much. Concentrate on her job now—that was what they all needed.
“Lucus?” one of the others asked. “What do we do?”
“To the letter, guys. If you can...double time!” Lucus replied. “Shut Arty down and get us out.”
Arty was the nickname for their digger. Pela smiled at him, turned back to her console and worked as fast as she damned could. They all did. There wasn’t time to unsee what was heading their way; there was only time to react. Gondi relayed all the information through to Lucus’s NIAI as their systems stopped working and they pulled back.
“Excellent, guys! Come on, we’re way ahead of our best evac time. Carry on like this, we’ll have the new record for the whole refinery!”
It was good he had this rapport with the others. They worked fast with the right motivations and it wasn’t just that they’d seen several things about to blast their asteroid and refinery to shreds; it was just how they rolled.
“Shuttle’s waiting on the surface,” Lucus said to her as they made their way up. “Two teams are also on their way out.”
“Timing?”
When he didn’t answer, she knew. “They’re behind. Fuck.”
Pela turned inside to see whether she could contact her friend on one of the other teams.
Nothing.
Chapter Eighty-Eight
LMFC Crusader
Oort Cloud, Emarl System
10/3557
Captain Tameesh didn’t look at the advisor who was being carted away by the security guards.
Once he saw how the battle was going, he had sent a message to Captain Yao of the Atonement. The two of them had worked together and knew the other well.
When seeing the destruction the Emarl fleet was raining down on the Luyten fleet, they’d made their own plans and moved to escape. They’d executed their advisors before they could say anything and then headed for the nearest refinery.
They could form their own company with the two freighters and if they were to get back to Earth and Her Colonies, they could sell the tech to competing companies and conglomerates and have lives of luxury.
The second move was to purge the Luyten fighting forces. They’d sealed off the areas where the trained fighting forces were kept and started to open the air locks and explosively decompress different areas.
This threw people out of the ship and sent them drifting. Anyone left behind was killed by the forces that were loyal to Captain Tameesh.
Though that wasn’t his biggest problem. The biggest problem was the seven ships that were aiming at Crusader and Atonement.
“Faster,” Tameesh said, unable to stop his knee from bouncing as he leaned forward.
The Emarl ships were much faster but the two freighters pushed as fast as they could. The heavier gravities weighed down on everyone.
They wouldn’t get a long pass at the refinery, so they had to make it count before they powered out of the system.
Tameesh’s thoughts were if they were able to hit the refinery then maybe the higher-ups wouldn’t be as angry with them. Also, it gave them an excuse to push to exit the system. He was trying to cover his ass as much as possible.
He wanted some damn payback and if he could destroy this refinery, he’d feel a little better about himself.
His eyes snapped to the other screen as he saw the dogs on his tail. He felt the cold flush of adrenaline as his neck tingled.
“Moby.” His voice was barely a whisper, as if he were talking about the reaper itself.
The room chilled as others started to see it too.
The Moby was coming. Behind it there were six other ships, all of them accelerating at their incredible speeds.
The hunters had become the hunted.
“Increase our speed to the maximum!” Tameesh yelled out as the Crusader’s engines pushed to its limits.
Chapter Eighty-Nine
ENS Moby
Oort Cloud, Emarl System
10/3557
Chen’s eyes were cold as he looked at the Crusader and Atonement fleeing.
“Liang, relay to the other captains. Prepare recovery shuttles for those who surrender to us. Also send out a broadcast to the dutchman people in space, offering to take t
hem in if they surrender. Give them my word as commander of this force. Also Mark’s—it might have more of an impact as they know who Mark is.”
“Understood.” Liang started talking into his headset and sent out the messages.
The ships started opening their launching bay doors and shuttles were prepared to launch.
Chen’s eyes moved to check the rate of repairs as well as ammunition and mergers making it back to their positions.
His fleet was ready.
“Seven hours until intercept,” Carla said.
“Send orders for people to stand down and get some sleep. Make sure that the cafeterias are open with hot food and drink. Messes are to be closed and no alcohol served.” Chen knew that some people would be wanting a drink but he needed to have them focused and ready for the battle ahead.
They couldn’t resolve their losses yet.
“Captain, we have different commanders on the enemy’s side who wish to talk to Mark,” Liang said.
“Forward the request to him,” Chen said. These people had come from the Luyten system, but by the propaganda that they had been told, it seemed that they thought the Emarl system was the last bastion of the Harmony Forces.
If Mark could prove his identity, then it was possible to get these people to surrender and they could rescue some of them.
Chen, as a captain, wouldn’t wish dying while being dutchman on anyone. It might incur more problems. He couldn’t save them all, but he would do what he could.
“The refinery evacuation is underway. Mining ships and freighters are dumping their cargoes and loading people as we speak. They will clear the refinery and the LMFCs with plenty of time,” Carla said.
“Good.” Chen let out a sigh of relief.
***
Mark finished talking to the different commanders of the Luyten forces. He only frowned slightly and inside his helmet. But Ava patted him on the shoulder, sensing his emotions and words even if he hadn’t done anything outwardly.
“It seems that they were duped like the Harmony Chosen were—thought that they were coming here to safeguard their planet and they were instead just coming to wipe out the remainder of the EMF,” Mark said.
Ava didn’t say anything as Mark took a deep breath.
“I was able to remove the blocks on their armor so that they can use their sensors and talk to one another better. They were really separated from one another. Hopefully we can save a few of them.”
“We’ll do our best,” Ava said.
“I feel useless here,” Mark admitted.
“Our time will come. We need to clear the system, secure our base and then we can advance onto whoever is controlling the Maraukians,” Ava said.
Mark nodded, his helmet moving slightly. He had felt useless for too long, just hitching a ride. They’d trained mergers of all kinds; their strength was growing every day and their military strength had reached the stage where they could hold their own now.
Maybe when they had defeated the Maraukians and those who were controlling them, they would be able to advance into the future. Not needing to fight anyone and working to build and grow together.
The groundwork had been laid down with Sam and the Emarl system.
“I just hope that this is the last time I have to fight other humans,” Mark said.
Ava didn’t say anything but Mark knew he had her wordless agreement.
Chapter Ninety
LMFC Crusader
Oort Cloud, Emarl System
10/3557
Captain Tameesh let out a snort as he saw shuttles headed out from the chasing fleet as they moved to the people who’d been ejected from Atonement and Crusader.
The fleet wasn’t slowing down but they worked their hardest to rescue as many people who had surrendered as possible.
Tameesh couldn’t help but curl his lip in disdain. “Do you believe this, Yao?” He used a sound-cancelling device so that no one could hear him and Captain Yao talking to each other.
“Hopefully it slows them down a bit more,” Yao said.
“We only have another hour until we’re in range of the refinery, then another four and we’ll be out of the system,” Tameesh said. “Who knows—they might stop at the refinery to try to help the people there.”
“There’s a lot of ships moving away from the refinery,” Yao said.
“They’re all freighters, though. They’re probably moving the goods out. What’s a few dozen lives to a few million credits?” Tameesh said. In the EHC, life was cheap, but money ruled.
Yao didn’t have any reply, making Tameesh uncomfortable as he started to second-guess himself. He clamped down on his fears and cleared his throat.
“If they aren’t distracted, then they’ll catch up with us in two hours,” Yao said.
Tameesh didn’t say anything. He wanted to refute Yao’s claims, if only to make himself feel safer, but it was a fact. There was no messing around.
His own nerves were on edge and he had hoped that talking to his old friend would make him feel better. Instead, he felt an itch between his shoulder blades.
He looked around unconsciously. There wasn’t anyone there. Instead, he was feeling the chill of knowing the enemy was closing in on him.
Before, it had excited him in the corporate world; here, death and destruction awaited those who failed.
“I have a few reports I need to look over. Make sure that you’re ready to fire on the refinery when we reach it,” Tameesh said.
“Naturally,” Yao said.
They closed the connection.
Tameesh was used to this lonely feeling. It made him feel stronger, as if a lone wolf. He checked the pistol on his hip and glanced around the bridge. Betrayal was normal. He could only guard against the people around him so much.
The time started to wind down as they neared the refinery. Ships were leaving the refinery in droves and different sections seemed to shut down.
“Coming into attack range,” one of the sensor operators said.
“Prepare all missile tubes and rail cannons. Send word to the Atonement. We will fire twenty percent of our remaining ammunition,” Tameesh said.
The people bent to their tasks as the different armored doors opened and the craft readied itself for action.
The trajectories had already been planned out. As they entered range, dull thumps could be heard as the two freighters opened fire. Missiles and cannons let loose. Following pre-calculated trajectories, they arced through the system.
After a few minutes, the armored doors started to close as the freighters continued on their way. It would be another thirty minutes until the leading missiles reached the station, with the other attacks raining down over the following ten minutes.
Tameesh looked to the seven ships following behind. The shuttles had been retrieved and none of the ships showed any indication of turning away to assist the refinery.
Tameesh let out a cough and rolled his shoulders as his back felt tight and sweaty.
Chapter Ninety-One
Refinery Seventy-Seven
Oort Cloud, Emarl System
10/3557
Johnny picked up a glass of water, watching as all his people started to report in. Felicia’s miners were pulling out in time; they were all hopping on shuttles, freighters—anything that could get them out of the facility and away from the asteroids surrounding his refinery.
“Misha, report?” he asked.
“There are fourteen crews still working in the refinery. They’ve two freighters on standby to lift them.”
Johnny stared at the screen. Fourteen crews. That meant 1,500 people were still on the ground. This was too close for comfort. In fact, it wasn’t just too close...
Felicia was the one who asked. “How are you doing?”
“The crews are on time. The issue’s evident—they don’t have enough.”
“What do you mean?” Carly came back at them.
“They can’t get out after they shut the refinery operations
down.”
Silence echoed across the net.
“I’ve two crews missing,” Felicia said. “A member of another crew is aiding them, but you’re dealing with a lot more than me, ole man.”
Felicia’s term came with a gentle slap; he knew it, and so did she. “Make the decision, Johnny.”
Johnny stood with purpose and he moved back to Misha’s side. “Put me through to the refinery—all stations, all personnel.”
Johnny watched from a few internal cameras monitoring the inner sections.
“This is Johnny Walker. All crews, put your jobs aside and get to the evac point. Abandon all tasks. I repeat. Abandon ALL tasks and evac.”
Johnny watched as a couple of the crew leads looked up to the monitors. He physically saw one of the older men order, “Abandon all tasks. Evac. Now!”
And then they started to move.
Misha looked up at him, tears brimming in her eyes. Johnny met her gaze as she said, “If they leave it running, it...”
“Losing the refinery is nothing compared to the lives of those people. No matter how much she’s worth to me, to us, they’re worth more.”
He leaned down, clicked a few of her keys. Then, together, they followed the fourteen crews with their escape.
Chapter Ninety-Two
Refinery Seventy-Seven
Oort Cloud, Emarl System
10/3557
Johnny had taken back to pacing the room. When Leon fired off what they had, they all watched in real-time. He stopped and focused in on the screen once more. Johnny didn’t know the names of the ships that were headed his way, or know how many enemy lives were onboard. But if he could swat them out of the black, he would have.
Enemies on All Sides (Maraukian War Book 4) Page 34