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The Majestic was not the newest Battle Carrier of the Empire, but it was one of the most modern battle ships in the system. The Trena Militia never built anything approaching the size of the ten mile long, five mile wide, and one mile tall hollowed out asteroid. The ship was heavily armed, but it usually worked in cooperation with a fleet. A fleet that had long since went on to other deployments. The Imperial Armed Forces felt that the Majestic’s Landing craft were the single biggest resource that the Kingdom needed from the Empire. The Princess had agreed. She was aboard the Majestic to have lunch with the Majestic’s commander when the alert went down. They left the captain’s quarters he to his bridge her to flag plot. Now she was sorry that she had let the Majestic’s battle fleet leave. She was a fish out of water. She wasn’t a naval officer, but a marine ground pounder. Maneuvering a fleet was not that much different than maneuvering brigades and divisions around a battle field. She could if she had to, maneuver the small fleet around she had basic courses in this at the war college; but she was a SpecWar at heart, not a rock driver. She would have to depend mostly on the captain of the Majestic and his staff.
“Ma’am we have a message from the barge.” a young starman came up to her where she was studying the plot several hours later. The barge had successfully navigated the asteroids and was almost to the Republican fleet.
“Read it,” The princess said looking at the plot. Wondering if they had enough resources to even bloody the nose of the fleet they were now seeing. Jonesy voice came from the speaker.
“Captain Steven,” the AI’s voice spoke, “I can’t prevent the weapons barge from going to the Republic Fleet. I cannot detonate the barges weapons. Junior disabled the self-destruct mechanisms. The barge will arrive in the fleet in about forty five minutes. Your landing craft will be cut to ribbons if they try to rescue me. The Republic has fighters out all over the place. A missile strike that destroys the barge is the best way. Destroying me will destroy the Republican fleet and prevent these weapons from falling into their hands. Take me out!’
“That’s Jonesy!” Princess Carroll said, “I don’t know how she did it, but she got herself on the barge. She’s right. A missile strike on the barge will take it out.” She punched a button on her console.
“Captain Steven,” she spoke into the console. “You are missiles free. Take out that weapons barge.”
“What about the bombs?” Stevens asked. “It’ll be in among those asteroids coming toward s Trena. Won’t the heavy weapons cause problems?”
“Not as much as the Republic using those weapons against us.” The princess responded, “The detonation will destroy some of the rocks, destroying the barge here among the rocks should not harm Trena. More importantly the Republic will lose a fleet. A good size fleet at that! That will slow them down for a while. It will take the Republic years to rebuild that fleet. I want the stragglers taken out. There will be some. But none of the Republican fleet gets out of here. I am tired of these people.”
“Yes ma’am,” the captain said. Seconds later the 1MC called, “All hands battle stations Missiles! Battle Stations Missiles!”
Within minutes the Majestic coughed four missiles towards the barge. Only one was needed to do the job, but the captain wanted to make sure at least one got in. Forty minutes later as the missiles got to the barge’s vicinity the Republican fleet’s anti-missile defense came alive. They tried to knock down the incoming missiles. One incoming missile had been made to believe that a small asteroid was the barge. Counter missile fire took out a second. The missile’s self-defense suite had been overwhelmed by the lasers, and small anti missiles. It got almost close enough to the barge. A surveyor flight that had been for days reporting that it was seeing something suspicious in the asteroids, was lurking near one of the republic vessels that seem to have responsibility for the forward edge of the fleet. Its captain felt vindicated as his team guided one of the missiles directly into the Cruiser’s bridge.
“All right,” he exclaimed, “Now we get us the hell out of here before that god awful barge goes up.”
He knew he had almost no hope of getting his ship to safety. He ordered his star flight engines lit off and crossed his fingers. The fourth and final missile detonated on the barge as Surveyor 10 transitioned to light speed it was never heard from again.
Every Last Mother's Child Page 234