by Selby, Caleb
“I can’t believe the entire fleet is coming!” said Armid excitedly when they were some distance down the corridor. “It’s over for the Namuh. Over! They don’t stand a chance!”
Trivis nodded but did not answer. He was deep in a maze of troubling thoughts. The entire Unmentionable Fleet was coming? Why? It made no sense. Of course the objective of securing the garden and the Grimsin Tree therein was critical, but calling up all the forces in the empire when a mere fraction would suffice. And how would the Grimsin be divided amongst the entire Unmentionable Armada when certain shares had already been promised to the operatives currently on the assignment? Trivis was certain he would not take a smaller share and was confident his immediate comrades felt likewise. It just didn’t add up.
23. Battle Over Voigt
Commander Searle moved briskly down the hall, half jogging, and half walking, toward her bridge. She had only been gone for a minute, returning from a quick consult with her tactical engineer when a rather frantic sounding ensign called her back.
“Commander on deck,” an officer called out as Searle walked through the doors.
She motioned for the officers to be at ease as she made her way directly to the monitoring station.
“What’s happening, Ensign?” she asked the small framed officer standing at his station in the center of the room.
The officer looked up and then quickly pulled up the star system screen; he then sat back in his chair, arms folded with a contented smile on his face.
“What exactly am I looking at here?” asked Searle as she leaned in for a closer look.
“It’s the Ilo,” the officer answered confidently.
Searle looked at the officer for explanation. “I can see it’s the Ilo,” she said patiently. “What’s important about it?”
The officer shook his head, leaned forward and tapped several buttons on another screen. “See here? This is an image of the Ilo Battle Station taken four months ago.”
“And...” said Searle, getting annoyed with the delayed presentation being put on by the officer.
“And this is the Ilo image our scanners compiled five minutes ago,” stated the Ensign as he sat back once again with a look of accomplishment and pride on his face.
Searle leaned in closer, studying the screen intently. Suddenly she saw it! “Help us all,” she whispered. “Get Fedrin on the link! Now!”
“Aye, Ma’am!” the communications officer answered promptly.
Searle walked straightway to her command chair and strapped herself in. “All stations prepare for battle,” she announced over a ship wide announcement. “Secure all lose articles, lock all connecting bulkheads and prepare for immediate combat! I repeat, prepare for immediate combat!”
“You’re on with Fedrin,” the communications officer announced.
“Patch it here,” Searle said nodding toward her personal transmitter.
“What’s happening, Commander?” asked Fedrin, paying more attention to his own commotion filled bridge than to hers.
“We found them,” was Searle’s reply.
“Yes that will be fine,” Fedrin said to one of his officers and then looked back to Searle and shook his head. “I’m sorry. What was it you said?”
“I said we found them,” she repeated patiently.
“Found them? Found whom?” Fedrin asked, nodding in response to an engineer trying to ask him a ‘yes or no’ question.
“The Krohn Fleet,” Searle answered.
Fedrin was just about to pass out another order but froze and looked straight at Searle. “You found the Krohns?” he clarified.
She nodded.
Fedrin raised his hand for silence, which was immediately obeyed. “Where?” he asked, looking to another screen fixed on his command chair.
“Zoom in on the Ilo’s lateral axis, sector sixteen by thirty,” Searle answered.
“Kesler, lock visual scanners on Ilo and zoom in tight on sector sixteen by thirty,” ordered Fedrin.
“Aye, Sir!” Kesler answered as he dropped his dozen other pressing tasks and immediately obeyed Fedrin’s order.
A strange stillness filled the Iovara Bridge as Kesler worked on the scanner. Officers, who just moments earlier were running important errands in preparation for a possible battle, found themselves standing completely still, waiting the result from Kesler’s unique order.
“How we doing there?” Fedrin impatiently asked after a few moments.
Kesler looked at one screen and then turned to face another. “Coming back right now,” he answered.
Fedrin glanced at Searle and raised an eyebrow. “On main screen.”
Fedrin, together with the rest of the Iovara command crew, looked up in awe as the massive floating hulk of metal, more than a hundred times the size of the Iovara, stood before their eyes.
At one point in time, the massive station had been the primary forward post for the Namuh Federation expansion. Used at first for launching scouting runs to nearby systems, it was eventually retrofitted to function as a low yield shipyard and supply depot for the fleets. Shielded better than ten battleships, and armed with nearly as many DEG turrets and EMOD batteries as the entire Second Fleet, the Ilo was truly the most advanced technological achievement of its day. But a mere five years after its commission, the Great Krohn War began on the opposite side of the Federation, forcing the high maintenance station to become an unacceptable liability to maintain. The mighty Ilo was therefore all but disbanded, leaving a skeleton crew of a mere four hundred souls to operate a station that once took the combined efforts of more than twelve thousand.
The last time Fedrin had seen the station, it was still in full-scale operation. He remembered how the near thousands of lights and beacons dotted over the structure made it shine like a star. He was shocked, and a little disheartened, at the sharp contrast that now faced him. The floodlights that once proudly shown over the bold Ilo name were absent. The dozens of docking bay lights were out; even the flight warning towers were disengaged. The only portion of the station that still hinted at a remnant of life, was a small face on the upward hemisphere, where the remaining crew resided.
After a quick inspection of the station, Fedrin turned to Searle perplexed. “I’m looking at it.”
“You’re not looking hard enough,” Searle commented.
Fedrin reluctantly turned back to the screen and studied the image. He was nearly about to ask Searle for a clue when he spotted it. “Kesler, tighten image around the lateral axis!”
The image on the screen changed from the full station view to a small shaded section on the station’s surface.
Kesler’s jaw dropped.
“Would you look at that?” Jonas exclaimed from up in his station.
Tarkin looked at the screen and then to Kesler. “I don’t see anything.”
“It’s a Krohn Battle Cruiser,” Gallo said quietly, starring at the screen. “It has somehow latched onto the Ilo in hopes of blending in.”
“Which it very nearly did,” remarked Fedrin. “Good work Searle...fantastic work!” he added. “You may have just saved a lot of lives!”
“It was actually my Ensign that deserves credit for the find,” Searle clarified. “I never would have found it either.”
Fedrin nodded to the officer and then turned back to the image. “So they’ve been here the entire time.”
“But why?” Searle asked. “They could have easily destroyed the colony. Why just sit around playing hide and seek?”
“Maybe they knew we were coming and wanted us more than the colony?” Fedrin suggested. “After all, they have no idea of our intentions to get the data device. Perhaps their plan all along was to lure us here and they feared that if they destroyed the colony too soon, we wouldn’t come.”
“So you think this entire thing was a trap, for us?” Searle asked.
Fedrin shrugged. “If it was, I intend to mix things around a bit for them.”
“How do you want to proceed?” Searle asked.
Fedrin rubbed his chin as he thought. “We’ll continue on our normal course toward the planet…for now,” Fedrin answered. “We’ll take it nice and easy until we’re just outside the range of their missiles. Once we’re there, we’ll turn hard toward them and get a few shots off before they break away from the station. Their shields are obviously down as are their main weapon systems evident by the lack of EM waves flying around. We should get them totally by surprise.”
Searle let out a long sigh. “Here goes nothing then,” she said and waved a quick goodbye.
Fedrin nodded. “Good luck, Searle!”
“You too!” she answered as the transmission ended.
“All right, gentlemen,” Fedrin spoke up. “Looks like we’ve just gotten our first break in a long time. Let’s take advantage of it.”
The officers looked at each other and then turned to Fedrin, all ears.
“I want everyone on full battle readiness but whatever you do, don’t make it look like we’re battle ready. I want our formation to be easy and causal. I don’t want the plasma weapons charged fully until I say. And don’t sound the alarms!”
“How to do my job without looking like I’m doing it?” Jonas said to himself curiously. “I’m usually trying to do the opposite.”
Tarkin and Kesler looked at each other and shook their heads.
***
Commander Colby stared out the window, as the Ilo station grew larger and larger with each passing moment. They were close enough now that several of the bigger Krohn ships were easily identifiable on basic scans.
He glanced behind him and eyed his command crew. They nodded in unison to his unspoken inquiry of their readiness. Colby then turned back to the window and continually watched as his ship inched still closer to the tens of thousands of Krohns that wanted to make him, and his crew, their supper. The thought was less than pleasant.
He had just turned from the window and was making his way back to his seat when he heard it. Loud hisses and gurgling tongue clicks sounded over the fleet-wide broadcast channel. The alien utterances were chilling and vile, even though they were not understood.
“What in the world was that?” Colby yelled as he ran to the side of his communication officer.
“It came from the Defiant!” his officer yelled.
Colby shook his head. “Drezden, what is going on over there?” he said to himself.
“The transmission keeps repeating,” the officer announced. “And it’s an open link. Anyone in the system can hear it!”
“Someone has just given us away,” said Colby under his breath. “Any chance one of the Hornell fighters could target the Defiant’s transmitters?”
The officer shook his head. “No need. The Defiant is pulling out of the system!”
“She’s what!?” Colby yelled.
The officer pointed at his screen. “She is heading back toward the warp-point!”
Colby glanced at his own screen and then shook his head. “What is going on?”
“This is First Lieutenant Kesler to all ships,” the overhead intercom suddenly sounded out. “Launch the attack! I repeat, launch the attack!”
“Here we go!” the officer announced.
“Hard to starboard!” ordered Colby followed moments later by an unnatural lurch in the ship directly toward the Ilo station.
“Picking up Krohn EM signatures,” the lieutenant announced. “They’re waking up!”
Colby shook his head as his ship centered on the massive station. They were being forced to spring the trap much, much too soon.
***
The ships of the Sixth Fleet, minus the Defiant, which had indeed abandoned the fleet with no warning or alarm, promptly changed course from the planet and headed toward the battle station simultaneously. Weapons were hot, shields burned at maximum, and nerves were on edge.
The anonymous tip from the compromised Defiant had barely finished sounding out when Krohn ships began dislodging from the station and prepared for the imminent attack.
Hornell fighters swooped into defensive positions around the capital ships while the small squadron of tactical bombers remained close to the Hornell for protection, waiting for their chance to strike.
Fedrin’s ships had yet to reach weapon’s range when the Krohn force had assumed their battle formations and opened all gun ports, effectively nulling the ‘would be’ surprise counter offensive Fedrin had quickly planned.
For several more painstaking minutes, nothing happened. The Krohn fleet grew closer and closer while the Sixth Fleet pressed onward.
“Where are Voigt’s fighter squadrons?” Fedrin yelled out when he noticed the skies begin to fill with Krohn fighters pressing hard on their position. “We’re going to need them!”
“No answer from the colony on that,” Tarkin answered. “My transmissions asking them to launch aren’t being answered.”
Fedrin shook his head. This wasn’t going to be pretty.
***
“What are they doing?” Catrin asked Commander Kendrick as she pointed to the advanced Krohn fighters brazenly entering the range of the point defense batteries. “They must know they stand no chance this close to us!”
“They want blood at any cost!” Kendrick answered knowingly. “Life is cheap to them.”
“Well let them try!” Catrin answered resolutely as she brought up the tactical transmitter to her lips. “All point defense batteries, fire at will! I repeat, fire at will! Light up my sky!”
The point defense turrets on the Iovara, cruisers, destroyers, and mighty Hornell roared to life. They cut down the Krohn fighter groups as fast as they came into range, blasting dozens out of the sky in mere moments. The magnificent barrage of yellow point defenses, orange glow of engine cores, and the Krohn fighters’ blue energy weapons made such a dazzling display of light, color and sound that it was nearly impossible to tell what was going on. So many ships, near innumerable fighters, and such firepower turned the scene into momentary chaos, until the first wave of Krohn fighters had been destroyed.
“Commander,” Catrin spoke up as the last of the nearby enemy fighters careened out of control and exploded near the Corinthia heavy cruiser. “Interceptor squadrons are requesting that we coordinate their attack formations and organize pursuit.”
Kendrick shook his head. “The Krohns want to be chased. Have our wings set up protective positions around the fleet and guard for flanking runs by Krohn gunships. Do not give pursuit clearance.”
“Sir!” yelled Catrin, looking up at the main screen. “Look!”
Kendrick looked up just in time to see multiple bursts of white light, followed by tiny streams of grayish smoke, come streaming from the Krohn capital ships in the far distance. Missiles!
“This will not end well,” Kendrick said shaking his head. “All hands prepare for impact. Divert all nonessential power to the forward shields and hold on!”
Catrin nodded as she typed out the orders and held her breath. The missile launch was on its way!
***
“Forward point defense batteries prepare to fire on my mark!” Searle ordered as she watched helplessly as the deadly missiles approach the fleet.
“You’re receiving a transmission from Commander Sanders,” Searle’s first lieutenant called up from his station.
“On screen!” Searle ordered.
“Searle!” Sanders exclaimed when he saw her. “Fedrin wants you to drop back and cut to your port side. We’re going to move ahead and veer to starboard so we...”
“So we can maximize the number of batteries that can fire at the missiles,” Searle said aloud as she gave the go ahead nod to her lieutenant.
“Exactly!” Sanders said.
The missiles were nearly atop the fleet when the ships suddenly broke formation, half veering hard to port and the other half hard to starboard. The remaining point defense batteries began to open fire, releasing another powerful display of intercepting weaponry.
“Don’t let up!” Se
arle ordered as she saw the rate of fire from one battery slow down.
The missiles came closer and closer. A few exploded violently as point defenses got lucky; but most kept coming, unimpeded by the counter measures valiantly thrown up by the vessels of the Sixth Fleet.
“The Bolter has been hit!” Searle’s lieutenant announced. “A direct hit was scored on her transmitter station.”
“You ok, Sanders?” Searle called out through her transmitter.
A static ridden transmission filled her personal screen. “The missile…no…penetrate…hull…out…main transmit...”
“Be careful!” Searle yelled, hoping Sanders could hear her better than she could hear him.
“You...too!” Sanders called back and cut the transmission.
“Got to go!” Searle shouted as she spotted more missiles coming in hard and fast, dodging the point defense rounds and seeking their targets with a fiery rage.
“Oh no,” Searle’s lieutenant said in trepidation as he spotted five missiles bearing down hard on the Corinthia.
“Tenith get out of there!” Searle yelled into her transmitter. “Punch the main engine core!”
“They aren’t going to make it,” Searle’s lieutenant remarked sadly as he watched the missiles simultaneously impact the hull of the mighty cruiser.
The massive vessel stopped dead in space as if hitting a brick wall. The huge hulk of masterful engineering and precision craftsmanship then sat in space for a moment, uneventfully. All running lights were out and only sputtering activity emitted from the engine cluster in the rear. All exterior signs made it look as if someone had simply pulled the plug on the mighty war machine. Just when it seemed that perhaps she was not as bad off as first supposed, it happened.
Tears filled Searle’s eyes as the mighty vessel began to explode near the engine core. The explosions were small at first; but as they moved in synchrony up the fuselage, they grew larger and larger, each one blowing out larger fragments of twisted metal and armored plates into the surrounding space. The fiery explosions finally reached the plasma weaponry core causing a single, tremendous fireball to signify the end of a vessel that had taken three years to build, and only twenty seconds to destroy.