Eye of the Dracos ec-3

by Ian. J. Smethurst

  Kathryn hobbled over and gently hugged Nikolai, the big Russian towered over her, as he looked down and regarded her badly weakened form with concern.

  “Thank you Nikolai.” She whispered softly, a mixture of relief and profound sadness welled up inside her. Her ordeal was finally over, the nightmare was now gone.

  She had lost so many colleagues, friends, people she had come to admire, and in particular the loss of Sergeant Rachthausen, the person she wanted so desperately to love.

  Tears flowed onto Nikolai’s camouflaged combat fatigues, a slight damp patch formed just below his thick barrel like chest.

  “Let’s get you out of here.”

  11. The battle for Auriga III

  The Liberty had shot passed the Dracos craft that had been attacking it, and continued on toward one of the moons of Auriga III, the two remaining Dracos ships, the flagship Blade of Rhovanion and the warcruiser flame of Celthris slowly began to break orbit, power up their engines and give chase.

  Senergid, a hero of the Dracos people himself, and commander of the entire Dracos fleet was still amazed that this little ship had withstood attacks from three of his best ships, and even gone on to destroy the Vengeance of Kelmarroth, sure their foe was quick and nimble, but it was nowhere near the size and power of the warcruisers. The destruction of the Vengeance should never have happened.

  The fight to reclaim the lost halo world was proving to be a costly one, if they could not recapture the planet, Senergid was going to abandon it, there was no way he was going to risk an empire to capture a planet, no matter how important the Eye of the Dracos was to his people.

  The small enemy ship had gained quite a headstart, his larger warcruisers were much slower to turn, though now they had successfully broken orbit and were chasing after this annoying little vessel.

  “Reinforce the aft shields, take the forward graviton generators offline, and shunt the extra power to the rear ones, just as before.” Michael said as he turned from addressing Logan to the viewscreen ahead, the moon was becoming slowly larger as they neared, the peaks and troughs of its cratered surface more detailed.

  The destruction of the Dracos ship had buoyed the crew up immensely, their weapons could, in fact, hurt these Dracos vessels; they could be destroyed. Although they were not out of the woods yet, not by a long shot, there were still two more of them out there, and coming in from behind where the Liberty was weaponless.

  However if Michael’s plan was to succeed, they would need to take a little pain for a lot of gain.

  “Incoming!” Logan shouted.

  Torpedoes raced towards the small warship, as Eldathar swung the ship from port to starboard to evade the worst of the onslaught, two of the warheads flashed past the Liberty overshooting their target, the contrails clearly visible on the viewer as they sailed by.

  Two others however slammed hard into the Liberties reinforced aft shields, pitching several of its crew, including Michael forward. The Liberty captain braced his fall by landing on his outstretched palms, the deck plating thrummed gently to the touch, as the Solarian derived Ionic engine worked at full capacity, catapulting the ship forward in an effort to get some distance between the Liberty and the chasing Dracos ships, the plates were also cool, a reassuring feeling as Michael scrabbled quickly back to his seat.

  “Shields at eighty three percent.”

  The Liberty continued to hurtle headlong through space towards the safety of the moon, the tiny ship’s flight path criss-crossed with deep violet laser lance blasts from the Dracos cruisers chasing it, several slammed into the Liberties aft shields, weakening them further.

  “Shields are down to fifty one percent, we won’t be able to withstand this kind of pounding for much longer!” Logan Jones replied.

  The ship rocked violently under the withering onslaught; a console shorted out, exploding in a shower of sparks and shattered glass flying across the bridge.

  “Hold your course Eldathar!” Michael shouted over the din of explosions and violent shaking.

  The Solarian pilot nodded an affirmative as he concentrated on trying to dodge the hail of weapons fire directed at them. He had managed to evade the majority of the fusillade of laser lance fire, but in doing so had flown straight into the path of three torpedoes heading straight for them.

  “Brace for impact!” the Solarian shouted in alarm.

  All three warheads slammed headlong into the Liberty, crewmen were thrown through the air with the sheer force of the impacts. Conduits exploded all over the ship, power flickered in several sections, as delicate circuits struggled to cope. Smoke and the debris of collapsed supports filled the bridge, virtually all the command staff were thrown hard to the floor.

  Kinraid lay unconscious near to his ruined sensory console, the display had shattered, leaving nothing more than a blackened charred wreck, filled with sparking and damaged circuits.

  Michael groggily got to his feet, his head throbbed, and he rubbed his temples to clear the fog from his mind. Wiping away the debris from the grey leather of his command chair, he slumped slowly back into it.

  “Status,” he asked weakly.

  Logan managed to make his way to an auxiliary sensory console to the left of where he fell, picking his way through the detritus littering the floor. “If I’m reading this right, we’ve lost the aft port graviton generator, the other one is about to shut down to vent off excess energy. Main engines are still intact, though we have several stress fractures along the aft hull.”

  “So we are defenceless?”

  “It looks that way.”

  “Injuries, casualties?”

  “Yet to come in, so far we have two casualties reported.”

  “How long until we reach the moon itself?”

  “Another three minutes sir,” Eldathar replied studying the display in front of him, one of the few that remained undamaged on the bridge.

  “This is it, we have no more room for error, if we even take a single hit, we are done for.”

  Eldathar gravely nodded his understanding, just as a laser lance shot smashed into the undefended rear of the Liberty, blasting straight through the hull, and almost pitching the ship into an uncontrolled spin.

  The Solarian wrestled against the controls with every ounce of his strength, in an effort to keep the ship stable, if he lost control again they were all doomed. Alarms signalling damage to the ship blared out loudly throughout the vessel.

  “We’ve got a hull breach, deck three, aft section, casualties reported,” Logan said.

  Michael slammed his fist down into the arm of the chair, he was getting a little sick of being shot to pieces, “main engines?”

  “They missed them, by a matter of just two metres.”

  The Liberty captain let out a relieved sigh, at least he still had the engines intact, it was about the only thing in his ship that was.

  “Structural integrity is at sixty three percent,” Logan reported.

  Eldathar managed to jink the ship to avoid another barrage of fire, just as a voice came across the speakers.

  “You have fought bravely, your ship and crew should be commended. However, you cannot win this battle. You are out-gunned and outmatched in almost every regard; it is over. If you surrender now you have my personal word that no harm will come to your crew.”

  Michael considered this for a moment, but didn’t believe a word of what he was hearing, “to whom am I speaking?”

  “My name is Calvaris Senergid, commander of the Blade of Rhovanion.”

  Michael carefully picked his way through his debris strewn bridge to Eldathar’s position, before whispering, “are we still on course for the moon?”

  “Yes, captain.”

  “Good, don’t deviate for a second.”

  “Understood.”

  “I am giving you one last chance to leave here with your ship and crew intact; I await your reply.” Senergid said once again, the sternness in the Dracos commanders voice all too apparent.

  Micha
el calmly re-took his chair, eyeing both Logan still manning the tactical station, and Eldathar in the pilot’s chair.

  “It’s a fine offer, Calvaris Senergid, a noble one. But one thing you don’t know about us. Is that the Liberty or its crew never surrenders to anyone. So in the words of my people, screw you!”

  “How dare you spea…” Michael nodded to Logan to cut the transmission, which he did with a smile.

  Kinraid slowly regained consciousness, and staggered his way over to the auxiliary sensory console that Logan was using, his face was burned and bore a nasty cut down his left side, which bore the brunt of his console exploding. His long auburn locks were blackened and matted, the pain in his movements evident to see.

  “Glad to have you back commander.”

  “Wouldn’t miss it for te’ world cap’n.” Kinraid smiled weakly.

  “You cannot hide, you cannot run, we will hunt you down and destroy you, I am offering you a way out.” Senergid’s voice came across the speakers once more, his voice still betraying the anger at being unceremoniously cut off.

  “Is he still speaking?” Michael asked with a smile.

  Kinraid whispered, “Approachin’ the moons gravity well in ‘tirty seconds.”

  “Can you get a transmission to the Eisenhower?”

  “Once we’re on te’ other side of the moon, yes. ‘Tey won’t be able to jam our transmissions then.”

  “Good, do it, we’ll need their help.” Michael smiled, he had the plan, now all he had to do was carry it out.

  “You cannot possibly think you can mount an effective defence any longer, surrender…” Michael motioned for the transmission to be killed with a silent wave of his hand.

  “Approachin’ gravity well in five, four, tree, two.”

  “Hold on to your hats,” Michael said, betraying just a hint of nerves.

  Eldathar poured every last drop of power remaining into the engines at the exact instant the Liberty hit the moon’s gravity well, the ships own momentum, in addition to the gravitational pull of the planetoid, meant that the Liberty surged forward, far outpacing the Dracos ships in pursuit.

  The small ship shuddered and rocked as Eldathar fought against the gravitational stresses of the moon that threatened to pull the vessel toward it.

  “Speed is at twenty percent over maximum, we are approaching eighty percent of light speed.”

  “Keep it coming!” Michael shouted over the din of violent shaking and rocking, the occasional snap of a torn power cable, and general rattle and crash of fallen debris.

  The Liberty raced forward, inverted to the cratered lunar landscape below them, giant boulders, impact craters from asteroid strikes, peaks and troughs shot past them in a grey blur as the ship continued to ride the crest of the moons gravity well.

  The Dracos ships attempted to maintain some kind of a pursuit, but their hesitation had cost them dearly, the Liberty was now far ahead of them. Senergid ordered the two ships to a stop while they waited for the Liberty to come around the far side of the moon.

  “Transmissions ‘r’ free cap’n, ‘te moon itself is blocking their jammin’ systems.”

  “Send out an alert one message to the Eisenhower, tell them we require urgent assistance, that should get their attention.”

  “Aye sir, transmittin’ now” Kinraid said, as he worked the controls at his console.

  After a brief pause, the commander spoke up again, “message received, ‘tey are inbound, an’ ‘tey are not alone.”

  Michael looked at Quinn questioningly, the commander simply winked back at him.

  “Command have been busy,” Michael smiled as he settled back down into his seat, things were about to get interesting.

  The Liberty shot forth as it continued to circle the moon, increasing speed all the time. The shuddering increased in its intensity, an occasional panel blew out, resulting in a loud explosion and an almost blinding shower of sparks. They had to hold on, had to stay the course.

  “Approaching ninety five percent of light speed!” Eldathar announced.

  The craters, boulders, and mountainous terrain of the lunar surface shot past ever faster as the Liberty continued to pick up speed. It raced headlong around the moon, and as the ship came around to face their attackers. Still in the process of changing course themselves to bring their own weapons to bear. The Liberty with all its accumulated momentum behind it, was by far the fastest. The Solarian gently glided the ship on its apogee away from the moon, and used the last remnant of the force emitted from the gravity well itself to slingshot the ship towards the Dracos cruisers, the Liberty rocketed toward them with incredible speed, the Dracos ships simply had no chance to react.

  “Fire!” Michael shouted; fist clenched.

  The Liberty fired torpedo after torpedo, a flurry of five warheads all shot towards the Dracos ships as the E.D. F warship closed with terrific speed.

  The torpedoes slammed home with such force that it caused one of the Dracos cruisers to lurch wildly, its shields flared brightly as they desperately tried to absorb the explosive force of the high energy warheads. The third impact caused the shields to ripple and fade, the remaining two torpedoes smashed directly into the ships hull with devastating force. Blasting apart one of the ships wing-tip laser lances in an intensely bright explosion that lit up the entire port side of the vessel.

  The second tore its way deep into the ship’s main hull, a gigantic explosion carved out a deep, black crater. Torn and twisted decks were plainly visible, flames streamed out of the hull breach, having the appearance of an open wound. Smaller explosions nearby continued to burst out through the ships dark outer hull in miniature balls of flame. The ship slowly listed, as the fires within began to consume the entire vessel, escape pods could be seen jettisoning in a desperate attempt to flee the growing maelstrom.

  The intensely bright incandescent blue beam of the Liberties fusion cannon, tore the stricken enemy ship apart in an almighty explosion, the final coup de grace, sending out a powerful shockwave and debris in all directions.

  Senergid was dumbfounded as he watched the fiery destruction of the Flame of Celthris, the small enemy ship which should have been destroyed a long time ago, now slowed to a stop dead ahead of his own vessel.

  Towards the rear of the Blade of Rhovanion, four bright white flashes heralded the arrival of the Eisenhower, two Ghandhi class destroyers, and the Washington class heavy cruiser Arizona.

  Caught between the guns of the Liberty directly ahead, and the firepower of the E.D. F flotilla closing in from behind, Senergid knew it was all over.

  “Contact that alien ship,” Michael asked, staring intently at its dark crescent shape filling the viewer.

  “Channel open.”

  “Senergid, your position is hopeless, now it is you who is outgunned and outmatched, we demand your unconditional and immediate surrender.”

  The Dracos fleet commander looked up from his chair at the face of his enemy filling his own viewscreen, straightening his black robes in a last ditch attempt to retain what was left of his shattered pride.

  “Well played captain, well played. This is not over, your people have made a powerful enemy here this day, and you cannot protect this system forever. We will return one day, and we will reclaim that which is rightfully ours.”

  “And we will be ready,” Michael replied calmly, though in truth the force behind the enemy commanders statement sent shivers running through his spine.

  The communication ceased, and the mighty Dracos flagship slowly came about, and made to leave the area. It moved slowly and solemnly, as though a dark monster who knew it had been defeated and was slinking back into the darkness of its home. Its giant engines lit up in a bright orange glow, as it accelerated away from Auriga III.

  “Eisenhower is requesting if we should pursue?” Kinraid asked.

  “Negative, there has been enough bloodshed for one day, let them go.”

  In a way Michael realised, he felt sorry for the Dracos. Thoug
h once Solarians, they had let their hate consume them. Their hatred of the Solarians who they blame for almost destroying their people all those years ago, their newly found hatred of the E.D. F for keeping a planet that they believe is rightfully theirs away from them, and their hatred of the galaxy as a whole. In their hate, they had become insular, isolationist, and fiercely paranoid; in a people that held the kind of power the Dracos did, that was a dangerous cocktail.

  It’s a shame, Michael thought, if they learned to co-exist peacefully with those around them, they wouldn’t need to resort to their isolationist ways.

  “Set course for the veil, it is time to return to Corvandris, the galaxy is not ready for us to emerge just yet.” Senergid said with a mournful sigh, a lot of Dracos had died to reclaim a world that was theirs by right.

  One day he knew they would have to emerge from their self-imposed isolation, although he also knew of the problems plaguing his people. In their isolation, the galaxy had forgotten about them, history had moved on, new races had come to the fore and overshadowed them. Just like this E.D. F, a great sadness came over the Dracos commander as his ship returned to the all-concealing darkness of the veil, the electromagnetic interference overcame his ships sensory systems, rendering them useless, as he began to navigate his ship by memory alone. Just as every other Dracos ship had done within this all consuming nebula.

  The Liberty, too badly damaged to risk another atmospheric entry, docked with the comparatively giant Eisenhower, the four hundred and thirty man heavy cruiser dwarfed the Liberty at over five hundred metres long, it was fully four times its size.

  Michael said to Kinraid, “you’re in charge until I return.”

  “Where ‘r’ you goin’?”

  “To say hello to an old friend.”

  With that, Michael left the battered debris strewn bridge of the Liberty, and headed down toward the ships main docking hatch, passing various members of his crew attempting to affect temporary repairs, and restoring broken power conduits. The crew seemed in good spirits, despite the utter pounding they had taken, he wondered just how much of those spirits were down to the fact that the fighting had stopped. Crewmen saluted him as he passed, smiling warmly.