by Martin HC
“How does your own chosen path help us with our friend and the Ferrens?” Tira asked her.
“I can help provide you with the location, ship and even the room the mercenary is being held in,” she answered her. “There is a catch of course.”
“Which would be what?”
“The engineer will be returned to the Ophelia, but only if I bring someone else back with me in my ship, and the Ophelia is to follow. Once done, rendezvous coordinates will be transmitted, you will then be expected to attend and hand over your ship.”
“You can't seriously expect us to give up our ship,” Haydn told her.
“Of course not my love,” she answered, her smile and eyes resting on him. “That is what they will expect you to do.”
“And what do you expect, love?”
“Me, well I expect you to rescue your friends and destroy them all.”
“Why return Arlan to the Ophelia only to leave with someone else?” Tira asked, her eyes narrowing and speaking slowly. “That makes no sense, you could easily have left him behind as leverage.”
“He was driving everyone crazy, it was unreal, did you know he has a problem with velcro pockets, I do. For three full hours he explained everything that was wrong with them, twice,” Feissa told them, there was a pained expression across her face, an almost deep sorrowful look in her eyes as she remembered the never ending tirade of complaints. “The rest was mostly about you two, I have a real fear someone will kill him so a prisoner swap would be in everyone's interest.”
“Hold on, mostly about us two, what did we do?” Haydn asked her.
“Apparently, you've put him out of a job.”
“We haven't put him out of a job,” Haydn shot back, feeling the need to defend himself.
“I, don't care either way, but for a full eleven hours on our way to the meet point, that's all he rambled about.”
“You were trapped on a ship with Arlan for eleven hours, and didn't kill him?” Jill asked.
“Sixteen hours in total, but it felt more like three days.”
“I'm so sorry you had to go through that,” Jill apologised, with seemingly genuine sympathy.
“Couldn't you just have locked him in a room?” Haydn asked her.
“That doesn't work,” Jill answered quickly, shaking her head.
“Indeed I tried, and as your alluring partner there mentioned, it didn't work. After just fifteen minutes I turned around in my own bridge to see him standing there, staring at me. So I tried again, and mechanically locked the door from the outside.”
“What happened then?”
“He hacked the ship's internal comms system. It took us an hour to get the doors open again, finally I managed to shut the fool up by throwing him into the core room. Amazingly by the time we got here, he'd kicked out the other engineers and reactor efficiency had increased by thirty eight percent,” she said impressively. “But getting back on subject though, I will need someone else to return with me, preferably a fighter which rules out Damon and the tech, leaving only Jill.”
“Why a fighter?”
“I need protection until I figure out where they're holding the mute, her presence would dissuade my watching sisters from moving against me early.”
“Surely you could escape some other way, why are you doing all this?”
“Yes I could escape, but they would always chase me. I need them to either think I'm dead, or crush them so completely they'll shake with fear anytime they ever think my name again. Which is where you come in,” she explained before her features softened a little more. “I've always only ever wanted one thing, freedom.”
“Tira, is she lying?” Jill asked.
“No, every word so far is true.”
“Thank you Tira, we will meet you where you are, from there I will return with you.”
“Jill, are you sure?” Haydn asked her.
“They have Brenn, I need to go with her,” she answered, her eyes meeting his own. “There's no need to worry and I trust you to get us out.”
“How sweet, a flame of romance in such a moment of despair,” Feissa said with her soft disarming eyes and smile. “When can I expect your arrival here?”
“Well we're just leaving Darkspace, and have a thing to take care of first that can't wait but it won't take long, I don't think,” Haydn told her, speaking as if detailing an afternoon schedule.
She sat stunned for a second, of all the answers to receive this was truly the last she expected to hear.
“Incredible, you're in the Darkspace and are making it out alive, you will have to tell me all about it, but first please do tell, what takes precedence over your friends well being?”
“The fake hunter fleet led some Darkspace ships out into Mergence space, they're fighting just now, we have to get there as soon as we can to help the Mergence kill them,” he answered her, again as if informing a friend of an office mishap.
“Well, that is most certainly news, you are just full of stories and adventures,” she told him impressively. “But please be sure to not take too long, this Ferren commander tends to be very impatient.”
“Yeah, OK.”
“Good, then I'll be waiting here dutifully for you to arrive, and will let you get to it, goodbye.”
“Bye,” Haydn replied as the display cut, the only one of the three to answer.
He turned to his two companions, looking at them and registering he'd somehow messed up. They both stood beside each other, staring at him in wonder.
“What?” he asked.
“You will just tell that woman anything for a bat of an eyelid, won't you,” Tira answered him.
“And don't think we didn't hear you call her love, I guess you think you're just to much man for one woman,” Jill teased.
“Oh come on, Jill. I was just being nice, trying to gain her trust, she wants to help us.”
“She has our friends and needs our help, there's a difference,” Jill replied.
“Yes, but she was still really nice about everything,” he was in a hole and he knew it, at times like this it was always best to change the subject. “Tira, how's the Mergence fleet doing?”
She knew the question for what it was and could have dragged the conversation out, just to see if he dug himself deeper. In the end she threw him a bone and gave him the change in subject, one he was so desperately needing.
“They've fought through and won losing almost half their numbers, the second wave will be on them in just under five minutes, we will get there in six,”
“Let's just hope they can hold out,” Jill told them.
When the Nightmares Just Won't End
Y'Riell's commanders carried the day, it'd been a costly victory with both battlegroups two and four dying in much the same fashion as those before them, but they finally overwhelmed the brutal enemy's defences and watched her blow. Y'Riell's fleet was now a battered shadow of its initial power, the three battles they'd engaged in so far had ripped the heart out of her fleet's moral, and killed close to eighty three thousand spacers.
They were in conference now, discussing search and rescue operations. The drive core of the fallen hunter ship had been recovered, but captain Ismal Hoult herself was yet to be found.
“We need to find her, she knows things, her knowledge of the forces at play here could help us expose those who ordered them into that region, who is truly responsible for them bringing that thing back out.”
“Yes Admiral, we will do everything in our power to find her, but please understand she might never be found,” one of her commanders told her.
“There is always the possibility she was lying, to keep us from killing her,” her own battlegroup commander, Captain Hilden said.
“That may be, but I do not believe so, there was a...” the central holo display burst to life interrupting them all and gripping their attentions, one of her command team senior officers appeared with his face sullen, he did not wait for an invitation to speak.
“Admiral Y'Riell,
” he spoke loudly, clearly. “Sensors report enemy signal spikes, a short distance from here and moving towards us, tactical believes we are facing between four and seven Darkspace ships.”
Silence gripped them all, they lost half their numbers in a fight with a single enemy unit, this would be their final doom and they all knew it.
“How long do we have?” she asked the officer.
“Seven minutes at the most.”
“Thank you,” she told the man before turning back to her commanders. “Suggestions?”
“If we fight, we die, we would not be capable of taking down one more single enemy,” one spoke.
“I agree, we must withdraw,” another answered.
“The search and rescue teams?” the third asked.
“We leave them,” Hilden stated.
“You're suggesting we abandon our own people out there,” Y'Riell asked in shock.
“If we leave they perish, if we stay to recover them then we all perish, Admiral,” he answered calmly, leaving her speechless. His logic was cold but true and getting no response from her, he turned back to the rest of the commanders and continued. “It will take us another ten minutes to spool our star drives, we start running now, away from the signal source.”
They all nodded and turned to the Admiral for her final agreement, they were right and she knew it, still it was so hard for her to give the go ahead, but she gave it all the same. Sadly, the plan crumbled to dust. The same wave that disabled the hunter fleet, and the great Desian fleet before that, now just now hit them too, each and every drive system failed.
The information was told to them from the same officer as before after reopening the channel. Y'Riell noticed how his sad eyes told more about their situation than words ever could have.
“Return to your crews commanders, none of us are leaving now and they will need you more than I do. Face this enemy, we may be dead in the water but if we can still sting these nightmares in any way, we will.”
They nodded their understanding, each hologram disappearing one after the other until only Hilden remained.
“Admiral, I understand you've never ventured to my command-and-control centre, I would like to invite you down to see it, the view it provides can be breathtaking at times.”
“I would never have entered unless invited, Captain. I'll be down shortly.”
Walking back onto her flag deck, Y'Riell looked around the room at her officers, the finest there ever was, they'd never given up throughout it all, professionals, experts and the most loyal of colleagues.
“Wrap up all data and transmit to fleet command, everything possible, they will need as much intelligence about these seed like ships as possible, including the key to disabling their stealth.”
Straightened herself, she saluted them all.
“Estimated sixty seconds to first contact,” one of Hilden's specialists told them.
She arrived with three minutes to spare, and they waited silently together. The tension was palpable, everyone hoping to hit their enemy at least just once before they would die.
Y'Riell broke the silence, “you were right this a breathtaking view.”
“If only you'd seen the Draxis nebulas from here,” he told her.
“Next time,” she answered.
“Estimated three zero seconds to first contact,” the same specialist reported.
Seconds after second ticked by, there was no noise, a silence no one dared fill sung around them, up until two of her battleships died, exploding violently in the night. The command room was like nothing she'd ever seen, and the view of their deaths were picture perfect.
Hilden stood straight beside his Fleet Admiral and looked at his command team “All battlegroups, all weapons, open fire.” He commanded.
The previously silent room erupted into a hive of noise and activity, information was shouted from one group to another, passed from comms specialists to other battlegroup ships and back to the captain himself at times. Compared to her flag deck this was a box of chaos, noise and mess, which Hilden through training and intellect could unwrap and comprehend.
Every fleet ship opened fire as one, quad lance and pulse cannon batteries burned through the night, missiles flared into the darkness with their payloads detonating in the distance.
The light show was intense and beautiful to witness, it struck Y'Riell as ironic that so much meant for death could be so entrancing, despite possibly never even hitting their enemy. It didn't matter, they would throw everything possible at them nonetheless, and would not go silently into the night.
Three more cruisers died.
“Remaining battlegroups advancing on proposed enemy location, core ejections in preparation,” a tactical specialist called across the bridge.
More blinding balls of energy erupted to life around them, marking the bravest and most loyal spacers paying the ultimate price.
Y'Riell didn't ask the question, she understood the plan, at least by enveloping the enemy inside the fleet and detonating every core, they might just hit the invisible death dealers with enough force to kill them all at once.
“It is an honour to die at your side, Admiral,” the captain told her, looking into her eyes.
Y'Riell had never pursued her feelings for Hilden, her professionalism wouldn't allow it, but today she would die. Reaching for his hand, she opened her mouth to reply, however the seconds had all ticked away, and there was no more time. Seventh fleet's flagship, the mighty Maelstrom, shook violently. The floor dropped away and came back up to smash into them, while explosions echoed throughout her powerful hull.
The Impatient Hunter
Babaidou hadn't expected to win against the Mergence fleet, for him it was a probing strike, a means in which to test his enemies force and tactics, and he gained much knowledge. His command had since been in contact, they were going to war.
Hunter fleets throughout the republic, were being upgraded and augmented for higher level fleet warfare against a developed enemy. His strike against the Mergence was acknowledged honourably and the intel gained praised. Other fleets from all sectors of the expansion regions were being recalled and reassigned.
His own recall had also been issued, but he was determined to see a single task through first. During the battle analysis from their fight, two of his ships had been destroyed by one single powerful shot, they tracked back to the source on visual feeds, and there it was. The stealth ship they hunted for so long, sat behind the Mergence fleet.
Given her display of power, she would have to be destroyed. Capture he realised was non achievable, and they could not be allowed to ally with the Mergence.
“Did you witness how the target defended the smaller ship, the runner?” The masked spy enquired.
“What of it?”
“They are the bait you need to capture your prey, commander.”
“You think me a fool, of course they are,” Babaidou confirmed.
The commander spent some time now preparing a trap for his stealthy enemy under the advice of the spy. The cartel alerted him to the capture, and they planned to draw his quarry into the open using the prisoners.
“You never mentioned anything of the weapons they have, spy. We cannot fight that.”
“I hadn't realised how capable she'd become, the oversight is mine.”
“And now you've had an unknown technology built into my own ship, other than the authority chips you have, what do we really know of you? A nameless figure hiding under a mask.”
“Commander, the target was where I said it would be and the machine will work, lets not forget my authority comes from your own, do you distrust your government?”
“The Republic I love, you, I would usually have executed by now. Why should I not rip that mask off and torture the name from your lips?”
“The mask remains Commander, you wouldn't like what is under it, my name though is Arterou and all you had to do is ask.”
“Well Arterou, this waiting game has me at little patience alr
eady, and if your device does not work, there will be nowhere you can run to.”
“It will work, commander. Stick to the plan, and do not hesitate when the time is right,” Arterou finished, casually brushing off the threat.
Timelines had been exceeded by unacceptable lengths and the cartel promised him their asset would come through. A little more patience was all that was needed, and the sister who returned with the prisoner had been sent on him by her elders. It was nothing more than a bid to pry more time from the commander and it worked, for now.