by Krystyn Dean
“My pilots were going to work on cruiser four. They were being effective, they had taken out the guns that were doing most of the damage, but it may be too late for the Corvette, it looks like she is venting atmosphere It didn’t take long before escape pods started exiting the Corvette. There is still someone aboard the Corvette, she is maneuvering close in to the cruiser. What the hell is she doing? Finally, one more escape pod exited the Corvette and shortly after the escape pods cleared, the Corvette lost her reactor containment field and exploded. When she exploded, she took out the bridge of the cruiser, now the cruiser was venting atmosphere and was trying to escape, but the fighters were all over her. I said, “this is Ringo, all Angel, Cobra and Bingo flights give us a hand on the engines, I don’t want this bastard to get away.” He didn’t, Angel flight Lead, Claire “Cat Eye” Freeman took her flight in close and put a couple of LPP pulses up the tailpipes of the Cruiser. Almost immediately internal explosions began to shake the big ship. Emergency escape pods began to exit the cruiser. Suddenly she split in half, both halves spinning out of control. It looked like she might enter the atmosphere of Apsis Prime. I could only hope the entire crew of the Corvette got out OK.
Back aboard The SFN Ronald Reagan
I watched as the Venture exploded, a cold chill ran down my back, but there was no time to dwell on it. There was a battle to be won.
Fritz had fought the command ship to a standstill, we had some damage, but nothing like we were handing out. Most of the command ships guns had been taken out and she hadn’t fired a missile for a while. It looked like Fritz had things under control.
Captain Mikhail Berzenski On Board the Anton Karpov Was fighting Cruiser one. The Eldirelian cruiser was venting atmosphere and rolling out of formation, the Karpov was following. The Baker had finished off cruiser two and was going to the aid of the Sheppard which had been badly mauled in their fight with cruiser three. Cruiser four was drifting, the fighters had taken her engines out and she must have been running on battery power only because her guns went silent.
The destroyer Connecticut and the Corvette Revenant were slowly circling cruiser five, pounding her with all they had, they were getting return fire, but nothing their shields couldn’t handle. They must have taken out the ships big guns.
Cruiser six was trying to escape before help could arrive, the destroyer Cumbria was in pursuit, the Corvette Norgass was adrift, showing heavy damage. The Cumbria didn’t quite get to Cruiser six before it jumped to FTL and fled.
Toe to Toe, it was no contest, our destroyers were more than a match for the Eldirelian destroyers. The Tiger Shark had taken out destroyer one and was going in pursuit of the Ventures escape pods. The destroyers Ontario, Perth Shire and the Orleanais had finished off destroyers two, three and four, and they were going to the aid of Corvette’s Maiden and Dauphin. Both Corvettes had taken heavy damage, but were still engaged with destroyer 7. Surprisingly the Corvette Strogonar was fighting well against destroyer 8 with the help of two squads of fighters. Corvette Photon was doing equally well against destroyer 9 with the help of 2 squads of fighters. Destroyer 10 was well under control with Bomeer and 2 squads of fighters.
Troop ship one had lost reactor containment and exploded after being beaten by fighters and fighter/bombers. Troop ship two was venting atmosphere, but it looked like they might save her, but her engines were out and she and could only float where she was. I called off the fighters and told them to hold station on the freighter, but only destroy her is she tried to get under way. We would send a boarding party after the battle was over. We could use a ship this big.
Colonel Finnerty had seen an opportunity and he took it. The Marines had boarded the command ship.
On Board the Eldirelian Command ship.
“Fools,” screamed Gwof Kalach, supreme commander of Eldirelian forces on Apsis Prime. “Move this ship, I must escape to report.” “But supreme commander,” said Yeeslax, Captain of the Dreadnaught Sossios Entayta, it will take some time to make the necessary repairs, our technicians are working as fast as possible, but until we can restore the conduit couplers the ship is unable to move.” “Incompetence shouted Gwof Kalach, I am surrounded by incompetence. When I return to Grenushania I will have you and your entire family taken to the prison planet Goros 5.”
Meanwhile just outside the starboard airlock of Sossios Entayta, a company of SFN Marines touched down on the hull.
Aboard the Sossios Entayta
We touched down right on target. I am Colonel James Finnerty, I am in command of the Outlander company of SFN Marines. Gunny Applewhite began to set up the breaching charges and within a few minutes he called me on the suit intercom,” OK boss ready to open her up now.”
“Alright everyone, heads up, we are going to blow the hatch. On three Gunny.” One, two, three.” There was some vibration, but no sound outside. We are not sure what that sounded like inside, but it is a huge ship so it might not have been too bad.
Inside the Sossios Entayta, supreme commander Gwof Kalach said, “those fools had better know what they are doing, it sounds like they are destroying the ship.” Captain Yeeslax said, “it may have been a small explosion supreme commander, I will send a squad to check it out.” “You will not,” shouted Gwof Kalach,” keep those idiots working we must leave here before those bastard humans decide to put more missiles in to the ship and kill me.”
Back at the airlock, the outer hatch fell forward and drifted in to space, this time there would be no pressurization in the airlock, so we had to blow the inner hatch as well. Gunny set the charges and then retreated to the hull, “ready sir” he said. I said “Stand clear everyone, when this hatch goes this section of the ship is going to lose pressure suddenly, no telling what might come boiling out of that hatch.” The pressure release was something to see. The sudden evaporation of the moisture in the air created a small cloud at the hatch. Through the cloud all manner of dust dirt and a few bodies came flying out. As soon as the pressure had equalized, we moved in to the corridor. The automatic hatches sealed, but anyone this side of the hatches without the proper equipment was killed almost instantly, we counted twenty-two bodies plus the five we saw flying in to space. I am surprised that we have had no response, the second blast should have gotten their attention, even if the first didn’t.
I said “OK Gunny, we need to get through the next hatch without blowing it. Got any ideas?” He said, “Colonel, the outer hatch we blew had no pressure on it so it just floated away, if we can find it and drag that hatch back in to place, we could seal it with the new spray Dr. Garrett gave us for hull repairs, there is a chance that with a seal the pressure will come back up.” I replied, “Gunny please tell me you brought some with you.” He said “Corporal Harris, front and center, Maxwell and Gerould, take some volunteers and go find the first hatch, it should be just outside the airlock. Drag it up here pronto. Sure enough, the Marines came back lugging the heavy hatch, they set it up against the inside wall, blocking the hole we had burned around the hatch then Corporal Harris ran several beads of the new sealant around the edges. It took a few minutes, but the pressure began to increase. Apparently, the system sensed the leak had been repaired and was re-pressurizing the corridor. I said, “great job Gunny, keep this up and you may wind up being promoted to Lieutenant”. Gunny said, “no thanks Colonel, I’d have to stop blowing shit up.”
The pressure finally came up and equalized. The next hatch opened normally. It turned out that the Eldirelians like continuity in their ships. The layout of the command ship, although much larger, was identical to the ship we had ‘liberated’ earlier. I said,” Lieutenant White, take three squads, secure engineering, give me a shout if you need help or when you have engineering secured.”
“Sergeant Maxwell, take four squads and reconnoiter the ship. Secure anyone you find, if they give you any trouble at all kill them.”
I finally noticed what I should have known all along. We had a large green Marine in our unit
. “Dammit Diviak, what are you doing here? You were not assigned to this raid.” Diviak Y’shol said, “you came to kill Eldirelians, yes? I will help, is what I do best, kill Eldirelians.”
I replied, “OK Diviak, you’re with me.” “We are going to the bridge. Lieutenant White, I don’t want to try to take the bridge until you control engineering. Your first, and most important job, is to disable their self-destruct module. As soon as that is done, give me a shout and we will secure the bridge. Let’s Go.”
I could hear sporadic plasma discharges. The M411A Plasma Pulse Rifle is quiet but deadly. It is based on the LPP cannons our ships carry. The directed plasma pulse will penetrate the toughest armor we have yet seen. The only true defense is a personal shield like the one all Marines wear. The Marine personal shield is based on the shield technology developed by Dr. Garrett for our ships.
Lieutenant White called on the suit intercom, “Colonel, it looks like the entire crew is back here trying to effect repairs to their propulsion system. A lot of them are just standing around, it’s kind of weird, but before I jump these guys, I need more boots.” “On the way lieutenant.”
“Corporal Sanders, take 4 squads and reinforce Lieutenant White, call up the layout of the ship on your HUD (Heads up display) if you are not sure where you are going. Go now.” “Aye Sir,” said Sanders. “Corporal Hardy, take three squads and reinforce Sergeant Andrews. The rest of you are with me.”
“Gunny, do you have enough breaching cord if we need to blow the hatch to the bridge?” Gunny replied, “yes sir, it’s like my credit card sir, I don’t leave home without it.” “Damn gunny you just love to blow stuff up don’t you?” Gunny just smiled.
I checked the layout of the ship on my command HUD, I noted that there were two means of access to the bridge, one was from the corridor we were now in, and the other was through the captains’ ready room. I said, “Gunny can you QUIETLY get in to the captains’ ready room?” Gunny said, “I think so, if it the same system as the ship we have at Titan. Let me give it a try.” Gunny pulled a small computer plate from his side pocket. Took the cover plate off the hatch security system and connected two leads to the terminals. It only took about sixty seconds for the computer to find the correct code. The door to the Captains ready room opened with a small pop.
In Engineering of the Sossios Entayta
In engineering, we were preparing for the takedown. On the suit intercom, I said “Alright everyone, listen up this is Lieutenant White.” “Check your target designator, pick a target that has not already been assigned, then pick and designate a secondary target. On my mark, NOW, NOW, NOW.” Apparently Eldirelians don’t believe in internal security. No one was watching for intruders and it was like shooting fish in a barrel. It almost made me feel bad---almost. I said, “Cease fire, cease fire, secure the area.”
“Corporal Hastings, help me with the self-destruct module. It appears to be just like the one on the Titan ship. Here, help me remove this cover. OK, the red wire and the blue wire are the primary and secondary activators, once we cut them, we can remove the power pack and the system will be disabled.”
Elsewhere in the Sossios Entayta
We were reconnoitering the ship, and Lieutenant White had notified us that the self-destruct module had been disabled. Sergeant Andrews said, “OK, just because we have had no resistance to this point does not mean we won’t. As we get deeper into the ship it could get dicey.” And it did.
As we came to a turn in the corridor, Corporal Hardy did a quick check. He held his finger up to his lips to signify silence, then said quietly on the suit intercom. “There is what looks like a squad of armed and armored troops seven or eight meters down the corridor.” “They are relaxed like they don’t expect intruders, but they look like they could be trouble.” Sergeant Andrews said “what do you think, Hardy?” Corporal Hardy said, “Sergeant there is no cover. I think the best approach is going to be two or three frag grenades, and when they go off, do a high low around the corner then just blow the hell out of them.” Alright I Said, “make it four grenades, they’re cheap, everyone ready? OK, let’s do it on three, one – two - three.”
Four grenades went flying down the corridor, I was surprised at the response, these guys must have been professionals. The grenades took out about half of the enemy troops, but the other seven or eight responded at once. Their recovery was nothing short of amazing, normally four frags would kill about half of a squad, which they did, the rest should have been disabled or disoriented at the least, but they came out fighting hard. We lost three marines and two more were badly injured. And that wasn’t the end of it, the original squad was reinforced by more enemy troops. It was difficult to get an actual count, but it looked like we were up against at least three squads. I looked at the ship display on my HUD. I said, “Hardy, take two squads go back about thirty meters, there is a corridor that goes off to your right, another thirty yards is a corridor that parallels this one. Another sixty yards should get you behind them, but stay awake, if I thought of it they may have as well. Don’t be afraid to use grenades, we aren’t trying to make friends.
Corporal Hardy on the Eldirelian ship Sossios Entayta
I took two squads and followed the corridor back, it looked like this might work. We found the parallel corridor Sergeant Andrews pointed out. We were able to get all the way down to the corridor that would put us behind the Eldirelians. As I checked around the corner, I could see that the enemy troops had prepared for just this eventuality. We were going to have to do this the hard way. The Eldirelians had fortified the intersection of the two corridors with whatever they could find. We couldn’t attack them directly. I said “Sascha, check that hatch behind us, see what is inside.” She came back and said, “Corporal, it looks like some kind of meeting room, it looks like it butts up to the other corridor, but there is no outlet other than this hatch.” I said, “Ok, so if we cut through the wall about midway, we should be between the two Eldirelian reinforced areas, right?” Sascha said, “that’s right Corp, but I don’t want to jump out in the middle of those bastards.” I said, ”we won’t Sascha, I have something else in mind. Bring up some breaching cord, I want a window right here.” I drew an air picture. Sascha carefully put the breaching cord in the place I designated. Breaching cord doesn’t make much noise, but just in case I called Sergeant Andrews and said, “when you are ready make as much noise as possible, grenades and some of the heavy plasmas weapons for about a ten count, we are going to burn through a wall here.” “OK” said Andrews, “starting now.” I lit off the breaching cord and waited, Sergeant Andrews and his people did a good job. The bad guys never heard a thing. Fortunately, the window I had cut fell toward us and no one seemed to notice it. I gathered half of the remaining grenades we had. Sascha and I split our grenades. “On a count of three, start popping grenades down the corridor to your right. I will do the same to my left. Maybe we can get the Eldirelians to shoot at each other.” On three we started popping off grenades, I didn’t take long, confusion reigned, each group of Eldirelians began shooting down the corridor toward one another. At the same time, Sergeant Anderson and his people began to advance, and my people did the same. To add to the confusion Sascha and I began shooting blind down the corridor toward our left.
Back with Sergeant Andrews
I was impressed with Hardy’s ingenuity, he had improvised, adapted and overcome. That is what marines do. It took about ten minutes to mop up. We had lost two more marines and had six more wounded, but the resistance was over. Several Eldirelians surrendered. We restrained them with our microcell ties. The microcell ties could not be cut; they could only be released with a tool that had the proper frequency. Once we had the area secured I assigned guards for the prisoners and finished the reconnoiter. We hooked up with Lieutenant White whose team had secured engineering.
On the bridge of the Sossios Entayta, supreme commander Gwof Kalach said, “why have those fools stopped reporting progress, I must get bac
k to Grenushania to make my report.”
“I think you may be late with your report Gwof Kalach” said Captain Yeeslax.
“What?” Said Kalach, “I must not be late for the report, I promise if I am late returning, you and all of your family and this crew will go to the prison planet Goros 5.”
Just as Supreme commander Gwof Kalach made his threat, the hatch from the corridor to the bridge fell in. As Human Marines poured through the hatch, more came in through the captain’s ready room. Gwof Kalach screamed, “kill them, kill them all you fools, I must be saved.” Captain Yeeslax said, “Gwof Kalach, we cannot kill them, you forced me to send our bridge security to make repairs. There are no weapons on the bridge except for mine and I don’t intend to use it on anyone except perhaps you. I only wonder which prison planet the humans will take you to, I hope it is far from wherever they send me.”
As we secured the prisoners, The Captain of the ship came to me and said, “sir I surrender my ship to you, I am Yeeslax, Captain of the Sossios Entayta.” I replied, “thank you Captain. I am Colonel James Finnerty, we have taken several of your crew captive and many of them are injured. We have medical people with us, but if you have medical people of your own and you guarantee they will cooperate we will release them so they can attend your people. They will be working under our supervision of course.” Captain Yeeslax said “Thank you Colonel. I will talk to them, we will cooperate.”
I noticed that Diviak Y’shol walked up very close to Gwof Kalach. At first I was concerned that he might injure or even kill Kalach, but he simply stood there until Kalach stopped screaming. Diviak said, “do you recognize me Gwof Kalach?” Kalach replied, “You are the criminal Diviak Y’shol, you should be dead, are you here to kill me now?” Diviak replied, “I can assure you Gwof Kalach, you Eldirelian piece of drackle dung, I am quite alive, and I promise I won’t kill you. In fact, I intend to see that you live a long unpleasant life. You will pay for every Rheagane life you took, every Rheagane woman and child you raped, and the world you ravaged. No Gwof Kalach, I won’t kill you, I promise you a long and wretched existence. I promise.”