“Oh! … scratch the transports” said Chad with some elation. He then added “two have survived.”
“Bogey 2 warping away” said Crystal.
“So too are the surviving transports.”
“28 runners still heading our way.”
“Time to impact?” asked Dave.
“Two minutes.”
“Engage 1 for 1…what about our shields. When will they be back up?”
“Missiles away” advised Crystal.
“Shields restoring” called out Chase. “Currently at 20%. Three minutes to 50%.
“Gunter, damage report” hailed Dave.
“Three and four are toast” said Gunter, his breathing was laboured and then he started coughing. “Small fire, we’ll have it out in a sec…” but then he started coughing again.
“Are one and two in danger?”
“No” followed by more coughing.
“Great thanks” replied Dave. He terminated the call and then ordered “Launch CAP and have them intercept leakers.”
Kat’s lightning was spat out as the Resolute powered on. She engaged thrusters, banked right and headed back towards the planet. From her perspective the light show was over. She was cloaked and searching for Rose. She could see Sammy and then Juko but not Rose. As number 2 she led the way in her absence. Her eyes were on the display and the enemy leakers. All twelve of them were rapidly heading towards her effective range. She targeted six different missiles one for one and fired. With her cloak gone she hailed “Rose, where are you?”
Rose was nearby but yet to fire. She too let loose six of her eight missiles and replied “See me now Kat?”
“Thank god I thought you were gone.”
Juko and Sammy had released their load as well. The trouble with independent fires was that they all could have targeted the same leakers. After the engagement two enemy missiles survived.
“Still two leakers” cried out Crystal.
The heavy pulse cannons came into play at 100k destroying one of the two. When the close in light pulse guns railed everyone in the command centre instinctively gripped their chairs, bracing themselves for the impact. But it never came. The enemy missile was destroyed in a hail of pulse fire.
“Turn us around Ivan” ordered Dave. “Were there any strikes on the surface?”
“I don’t think so” said Crystal “but given the nukes I can’t be sure.”
He decided to break cloak. He just had to find out. He hailed “Rihan.”
“Dave.”
“Are you alright?”
“Are you?” she asked.
“Yes where fine.”
“It’s been pandemonium here.”
“Were you attacked?”
“No, we’re good. What happened?” she asked.
Dave gave her an account. She had no idea about the twenty enemy transports, or about this being a different group of ships.
“So what, Soola’s still out there?” she asked.
“Yep. We’re out of missiles but a shuttle is due in any minute now, along with the Sydney and Washington.”
“I need to recloak. I’ll catch you later honey. Take care.”
“You too darling.”
Dave terminated the call. “Initiate cloak.”
“Initiating.”
“How many missiles do we have left?”
“12 Sir.”
Chapter 19. Assam 0955, 25 May
After Rihan finished speaking with Dave she hailed Kirkland and briefed him on what had just happened above them. She had been talking for a minute before she realised that he hadn’t acknowledged anything she had said. “General are you still there?”
“Yes Commander” said Harry. “Sorry. Just playing catch up here Rihan.”
Rihan realised that this was the first time he had used her first name. He had been very formal to that point. “Of course Sir it’s all happening so quick.”
“Yes it is, isn’t it? Looks like we’ve dodged a bullet but we’re not out of the woods yet are we? This Soola is a vindictive bastard.” He said that with a bit of venom. He was regaining his composure. “We better postpone the attack till things are resolved upstairs. Do you agree?”
“Yes Sir that sounds good to me.”
Chapter 20. Resolute 1010, 25 May
The radiation alarms went off in the Washington as soon as it warped in with her sister ship and shuttle. There were no ships detected but Reina knew that that didn’t mean there were no ships present. Sure enough she was hailed as the Resolute decloaked.
Dave was talking very fast as was his way when he had a million and one instructions to convey in a limited time. Reina remained her usual calm self, taking it all in. She finished by saying “We’d better hurry then.”
And hurry they did. The two frigates stood picket while the in-space replenishment took place. Lima Alpha was on CAP. Val’s cheerful demeanour belied her concentration. Thankfully this time they didn’t need to tweak the settings on the MagGrab and the missiles were being loaded in short order.
To speed things up they used a hippo to offload the smaller Javelin missiles using the transport’s other conveyor. These were then offloaded in G deck and moved up via the service elevators to F deck.
It was a triumphant Val that hailed Dave 45 minutes later to tell him that the replenishment was complete. It was music to Dave’s ears. He congratulated Val and her team for a job well done. He then ordered the transport to warp away.
Dave had used the period to reflect on whether to retain the Sydney and Washington here. On the negative side of the argument they could be a liability. They would certainly be in harm’s way and at risk of destruction.
With them there the Resolute might as well remain uncloaked. It could then use its active sensors. They were yet to test the rogan ships for any vulnerability to cyber-attack. All previous engagements bar the last one had been too short with the Resolute warping away within one minute. Maybe now was the time to do so. Certainly having an extra 150 missiles wouldn’t hurt. So in the end he opted to retain the frigates.
He was in the middle of a conversation with Rienna and Herb when Crystal yelled “Incoming ships.”
“You and Herb take the frigates we’ll deal with the Kunter” said Dave.
Ivan had already authorised the first strike of 75 missiles at the Kunter. Chase had ordered Li to launch the rest of his fighters to CAP until further ordered.
“5 enemy fighters launched” called out Chad.
“Incoming missiles – 50 targeting us” said Crystal.
“Engage incoming 1 for 1” said Ivan.
“Initiate cyber-attack profile bravo.”
“Initiated” responded Jasmin.
Cyrstal advised of the missile strikes ranging between the respective frigates of each side. Both enemy frigates had targeted the Sydney.
“They’ll need help Crystal” called out Dave. “Match them one for one.”
“Missiles away” responded Crystal.
“Kunter accelerating and closing with us” advised Chad.
“He’s trying to close to beam range” said Chase.
“13 leakers heading our way” warned Chad.
“James, keep our distance from the Kunter” ordered Ivan “Lima Alpha and Lima Charlie, engage leakers.”
‘Enemy fighter accelerating. They’re making a run at us” warned Chad.
“Lima Bravo, engage fighters.”
“Bogey 2’s gone” called out Crystal. “14 Hits on Bogey 3. She’s warping up.”
“Sydney’s hit” called out Chad.
“Herb” hailed Dave “what’s the damage?”
“We’re still good.” Dave could sense the tension in Herb’s voice. He could hear his staff in the background. They sounded on the ball. That was good.
“We’ve got problems Sir” hailed Gunter.
“What?” demanded Dave, his voice tense.
“Fire in E26. If we don’t control it we could lose life support. Need help.”
“
OK, hang on. Val, Gunter needs help with a fire in E26.”
“On our way” replied Val.
Dave terminated the call and looked to the holo where he saw Lima Bravo about to engage the enemy fighters.
Rose had adopted the arrowhead formation. Her four lightnings were racing to intercept the five enemy fighters. She was matching off her fighters one for one against the enemy. She took the extra herself. They had no intel on how many missiles these enemy fighters carried. So she was going to be a little cautious and fire off two for one in the first instance. Then she changed her mind and ordered “Four for one”.
Kat made the adjustment and was focussing on the range to her target. Because of the angle of attack, hers was the furthest. Rose and the others had just released their salvo. She had to wait a few seconds more. She hated those seconds. ‘Come on!’ she screamed to herself. ‘Now!’ She fired and banked away in hot pursuit of her colleagues who were putting as much distance between them and the enemy as they could.
As Rose was powering back on the home leg of what would become a racetrack she thought ‘We got the first shot off. Their missiles probably don’t have the same range. Great!’ She was at max speed now. Her charges were in toe. The enemy fighters suddenly turned away after firing their own missiles. ‘Christ’ said Rose as her display indicated there were 25 enemy missiles headed their way. ‘They better not have any more’ she thought. But she couldn’t rely on that.
“Lima Control we need cover. 25 incoming.”
“Roger that. We’ll assist” said Li. He tasked Chase who informed him that they had committed 25 missiles.
“Two missiles at incoming” said Rose. “Mother will handle the rest.”
Kat fired off her two as they banked into the return leg of the racetrack. They were now chasing the enemy fighters. The enemy fighters had not fired their missiles defensively. So now they were trying to outrun the missiles originally fired from Lima Bravo. In that they had miscalculated. Rose was about to commit their remaining missiles for a second strike when all of the enemy fighters were wiped from the display.
”Yee ha” yelled Juko. The other joined in. But their celebration was short lived as Rose reported “Shit 20 more missiles incoming. From where?”
“From the Kunter” advised Sammy.
“Engage with remaining missiles” ordered Rose. But she knew these would not be enough. “Buster to mother” she ordered her colleagues. “Control we need more help. 20 incoming. We’re out. Bustering home.”
“Roger” said Li. He went through the same process and 30 seconds later advised “30 missiles away.”
Even so Rose knew that the Resolute’s missiles would take longer to reach the enemy missiles than they would to reach them. It was a race for survival now.
Kat knew this all too well. She was willing her craft to go faster. Her eyes were glued to the display. Her hand began involuntarily shaking. Her jaw was tight. Her mouth dry. She felt her head ache. ‘I don’t want to die!’
Chase’s mouth was also dry. He too was in the grip of fear as he saw this drama played out on the holo in front of him. He knew there was nothing more they could do. He watched as the defensive Javelins took out 9 of the enemy missiles. That was a good result but not good enough for Chase. “Time to impact?” he asked.
Crystal knew what he meant and responded “30 seconds. Time to intercept 30 seconds.” She could see Chase’s eyes reddening in anticipation of the loss.
Despite all the other goings on nearly everyone was either watching the Lima Bravo tracks on the holo or watching Chase. Chad though was watching the data feeds on his display. “We’ve lost Lima Bravo 3 and 4” he advised.
Chase stood and immediately looked at Chad knowing that he often just concatenated the next casualty. But Chad added nothing for a moment while he double checked. “Lima Bravo 1 and 2 are good.”
“Thank god” exclaimed Chase. “Thank god” and he sat back down.
“Life support failure on E deck” reported Chad. “Isolating.” He then switched to the ship wide channel. “All personnel In E deck aft of E16 evacuate immediately. Area will be sealed in one minute.”
“Shit” responded Dave.
He was scrambling to check on the damage report when Crystal cried out “24 hits on the Kunter…make that 31…slowing…changing course.” Dave would have been celebrating were it not for the red alert advising that cloaking was now offline.
‘Gunter’ he hailed.
“Sir” replied Gunter, sounding out of breath. The sound of the fire control team nearby did not fill Dave with any cheer.
“What’s happening in E deck? Cloaking is now offline.”
“This fire is getting out of hand Sir. We need to vent the aft section and starve the fire of oxygen. I can’t get to the cloaking system till then.”
“All right Gunter deal with the fire but then get cloaking back on line.”
On board the Kunter Admiral Soola was dealing with pandemonium. His ship had suffered serious damage in so many areas. It could no longer fire its beam systems. He had no more missiles. His consorts were either destroyed or warping away. He hated to admit it but he was defeated. “Initiate warp” he ordered.
Felis was grateful that this arrogant fool had finally come to his senses. But both were surprised when engineering advised they could not initiate warp. They both assumed that the warp drive was damaged. But it wasn’t. The culprit was the cyber-attack launched by Jasmin. The Kunter would be going nowhere fast.
“We are defenceless Admiral” said Felis. “Our warriors are all down on the planet. We cannot warp away. For the sake of the crew you must seek terms.”
“What!” said a furious Soola. “Rogan do not seek terms.”
Soola was taken completely by surprise when Felis fired the pistol. The first round hit him in his chest. He fell back onto the rail behind him. When the second round hit, almost immediately after, his eyes looked like they would burst. He slumped to the floor dead.
Not one of the crew had come to his aid. They now looked to Felis. “Hail me the enemy cruiser.”
Back on Resolute Gunter was dreading the call he had to make to his boss. “Sir, the fire’s out and we have a temporary seal on E27. But the cloaking system’s fried, Sir.”
“Can it be repaired below?”
“No Sir, not on Beta Phi. This is new tech. We will need to refit back at Tumos.”
“Can we still warp?”
“I think so, Sir. The temporary fix should hold till then.”
“Sir” interrupted Jasmine “we are being hailed by the Kunter.”
“OK Gunter, keep at it. I have to go.” Dave switched channels. “This is Captain Warner of the Resolute.”
“Sir I am Commander Draag of the Imperial Rogan Ship Kunter. I offer you our surrender and seek terms.”
“What happened to Soola?” asked Dave.
“He’s dead.”
“Tell me why do you think we should offer terms? It was you who nuked Klaster?”
“Yes, it was Admiral Soola who ordered the destruction of Klaster, on both occasions. He was also responsible for the destruction of New Hammersley.” Draag paused and continued at a slower pace “Not all rogan are like Soola. Not all rogan want this conflict. I am willing to act as an emissary to seek peace between our races. Do you want peace Captain?”
Dave thought long and hard. He could see that everyone in the command centre was watching him. ‘Yes I want peace but have I had enough revenge?’ He began repeating his mantra instinctively to himself. He did so for a good twenty seconds.
“Do you want peace Captain?” asked Felis again.
“Yes. I want peace Commander but there will be many in my Government who will want compensation for these unprovoked attacks.”
“Of course. We should talk then.”
“Yes we can talk.”
Chapter 21. Assam 1200, 25 May
Rihan was so relieved when she heard Dave’s voice and more so when he briefed her abou
t the surrender. She was sitting in the gate lounge of Terminal 2 looking out over the scorched earth. The rogan bodies were still lying there. She would have to attend to that. She saw Emilio waiting nearby. She turned to him, smiled and said “It’s over.” Emilio smiled back.
The surviving rogan warriors laid down their arms and marched into captivity. Their first task was to bury their own dead. They had to do so quickly before the radiation level increased from the fallout.
The rebels melted back into the population. Kirkland though set up teams to track down their leaders. Justice would be metered out.
Murray Benson was still on duty. He was glad to hear the news but not as glad as when one of his agents called in with a sighting on Bane.
Fifteen minutes later India One was closing in.
“Hurry up” hailed Art to Buster who was a good 50m forward. Buster and Akos had already gone over the damaged wall that lay ahead at the end of what used to be a lovely courtyard in the old commercial quarter. But it had seen better days and big business had moved on to the more modern Ablet district. That lay ahead of them and was where Bane was last detected.
He had been ID’d entering the Grist and Morgan Trading Bank not more than 20 minutes earlier. They were now in a race to get there before he departed. They had chosen this back way to avoid detection.
Jade was on top of the damaged wall holding out her hand to assist Art. “Do we still have eyes on?”
“Yep. They still say he’s in there.”
“Time to hustle” said Jade and she jogged along the back lane and caught up with Akos who was giving Buster a leg up over a gate.
Buster was over the other side and checking out the back door to the building ahead. It was locked, but not for long. “It should be on the other side across Melka Drive” he hailed Art.
“Right I’ll catch up with you in a minute.”
Art found Buster at the front of the building, which looked like it was digs for some hard luck lawyers. “Where’s Akos?”
Buster pointed upwards. “First floor.”
“Akos” hailed Art “See anything.”
“No one anywhere.”
“Akos you stay put and cover while we cross.”
Insurrection: Book 3 of Warner's World Page 34