Siege of Terra (The Mavrik Woods Series, Book 1)

by Robin MacMillan

  That doesn’t explain why the ship’s rocking all over the place, making it almost impossible to walk in a straight line. Even though it’s a military vessel I had never before seen the likes of it. If I had indeed been rescued in this particular ship than it’s capable of space travel, which most vessels I’ve been in are mainly just gunships, none were ever able of leaving atmosphere. Much must’ve happened since I’d been captured.

  I stumble upon a closed door; I look around the side for a latch or button of some kind. As I run my hand down the side looking for a button a panel chirps at me and the door whizzes up. The two people that are in the room turn their heads and look at me, “good to see you up on your feet Colonel.” The person’s obviously male, it was hard to tell at first, seeing as they’re in gear from head to toe.

  “How did I get here?” I ask, even though I’d already put most of the pieces together.

  “The Major carried you here, after he dropped you off he ran to the turret controls, seeing as we have dozens of Execution Class scout ships on our tail.” The other one says, however this one’s female.

  “Name and rank?” I ask both of them.

  “Major Zoë Foxx, hundredth and fourteenth battalion,” the woman says.

  “Sargent Daniel Watts, hundredth and fourteenth battalion.”

  “I’m assuming you already know my name?”

  “Indeed Sir, we were sent to rescue you, you would think we would know everything about you, well, anything that could give us an advantage.”

  “An advantage in a rescue mission? That makes little sense.”

  “You know what I mean. Sorry to cut this short, but we need to get back to dodging enemy fire,” Major Foxx says.

  “Get back to? I never stopped Major.”

  I turn around, before I leave the cockpit I say, “is there anything that I can do to help?”

  “Yeah, go down that hallway and take the second left, there you will find a room where the turret controls are. Good luck.”

  “Right back at you Major.”

  I leave the cockpit and go down the hallway that the Major told me of. The emergency lighting is still on, making it a little bit harder to navigate through the tight corridors. I run my hand down the same spot that I had on the cockpit door, the door opens up to a room filled with monitors and chairs.

  “Colonel, you shouldn’t be here! You need to rest, don’t worry about us we have got everything handled,” T-Raves voice comes shouting out from behind one of the consoles.

  “I’m not sure that you can order me around Major.”

  “Sorry, forgot to add ‘with all due respect.’”

  “In any case I’m fine enough to help shoot stuff down, just point where you need me.”

  “There’s a terminal over there that’ll reroute the power from the destroyed turrets, energy is still getting to those turrets, but it’s useless and a waste of energy. I would have done it myself but if I leave this console then we will get overrun.”

  “Where will the power get rerouted to?”

  “The active turrets and the engines, we need all the speed and firepower that we can muster. After you’ve done that come and take a seat at one of these empty consoles.”

  I run to the other side of the room, I look at the terminal that I’m supposed to be flipping switches on. There’s no switches however; it’s just a thin screen that’s leaning up against the wall.

  I tap the screen with my index finger, everything comes to life. Menus, options, video logs, the list is endless. I find the search feature in one of the scroll down menus, I type in power distribution.

  More options come up.

  I scan through them quickly. My eyes glance over Turret control, it must’ve been the correct option, after I tap it another menu appears, this one shows all of the turrets and their placement on the ship. It’s the first time I actually got a rough outline of how big the ship is and the shape and structure of it.

  A long nose protruding from the front; wings come off the nose, and a single engine in the back, in between the edges of the wings, giving it the appearance of an arrow head. I’m not sure if the color is accurate to the representation on the screen, if so the ship is black.

  The turrets on the screen are labeled and numbered to specify their location on the hull; almost half of them are outlined in red to designate them as inoperative.

  I tap one of the dead turrets, the menu zooms into a picture of the turret and several options. I hit the deactivate button. The menu zooms out; a second later that same turret that I had hit goes grey. I repeat the process until all of the turrets that were destroyed are all grey in the menu.

  I go back to the search menu, I hit power distribution again. This time I go to the engine screen. The engines read that they are operating at a hundred and sixteen percent.

  “Major, is it wise to push these engines further?”

  “As long as they have the proper power then it should be fine, it was designed to handle lots of stress.”

  I hit the calculate power button on the engine screen, from all the power that I’d stored in a buffer from the deactivated turrets there’s enough power to boost the engines another twenty three percent. I hit the button that’ll transfer the energy from the buffer into the engine power lines. The sounds of the engines roar through the ship as energy floods the system.

  “This is Major Foxx; whatever you did down there is working. Keep up the good work,” her voice comes over the intercom beside my head.

  “Good job Colonel, now get over here, we aren’t out of the woods yet,” T-Rave only gives a moments worth of praise.

  I notice a hot liquid running down my arm. I look down quickly and notice that blood has managed to seep through the gauze pad.

  “Shit, Major is there a med kit in here somewhere?”

  “Yeah it should be in the locker by the terminal over on that wall.”

  I run over to the locker that T-Rave indicated and open it up. I grab the med kit and set it on the ground.

  I grab the edge of the gauze and rip it off in one quick motion, my eyes water slightly as bits of charred flesh come ripping off due to being almost fused to the gauze.

  I open up the container and remove the gauze and tape, I clench my jaw as the stinging sensation runs through my entire arm as I press down and tape my shoulder up.

  I see a small syringe of antibiotics at the top of the container. I remove the cap on the needle and inject it into my arm.

  I shake my head to clear my thoughts up. I leave the med kit where it’s lying down on the ground and rush to one of the turret consoles.

  I sit down at the console; the screen comes to life as the HUD that controls several turrets pops up. I tap the controls for one of the central turrets at the front of the ship, “how can I control all these at once?”

  “You don’t, just find a way to multitask, pick a turret and scan your surrounding area. If there’s nothing in that area then go back and pick a different turret.”

  “Sounds tiring.”

  “Very, but it’s been keeping this ship from being ripped apart.”

  “Good point.”

  I return my gaze to the screen, in the whole region that the turret that I’m controlling there’s only one ship. I line up the reticule in the middle of the HUD and hit the fire button on the console. The ship lights up in a brilliant flash of light, “I got one!”

  “Just keep focused.”

  I never take my eyes of the console screen, it all feels like a game from this perspective. Definitely not like being in the cockpit of a real fighter craft.

  The number of ships that are pursuing us quickly diminish, I watch as fighter after fighter gets hit and explodes. The explosions don’t last as long as one would think. As soon as the ships burst into flames it was gone, the explosions were only alive for mere milliseconds, Seeing as there’s no air in space there’s nothing to fuel the fire.

  In only minutes there’s only two contacts left on the scanner. I glanc
e over the top of my screen. T-Rave’s sitting on the console opposite me. He’s still in full gear minus his helmet, beads of sweat are pouring down his face as he channels all his concentration towards shooting down enemy fighters.

  “Is that all?” I say, it didn’t seem like it had taken that long to get rid of them all.

  “We aren’t out of the woods yet. Turret control to the bridge, how are we doing on power?”

  “We are almost there, we need another surge and we should be good to go.”

  “Well, I will give her all she’s got, hopefully it will be enough,” T-Rave hops out of his chair and went to the power terminal that controlled all the turrets.

  “What are you doing, I already deactivated all the inactive turrets.”

  “Yes you did, I am however deactivating all the turrets.”

  “What? Are you crazy? If we do that then we will be sitting ducks!”

  “No we won’t, if we can get as much power to the engines as possible then we can outrun them if more happen to show up. If we don’t and more do show up then we won’t be able to hold them off forever, if that happens then we will die in the cold vacuum of space when their weapons tear this ship to shreds.”

  I stand there and stare at him. He does have a good point, if we can't get away far enough we’ll most likely get blown out of the sky.

  “You’re kinda working quickly and without informing me of your actions.”

  “Things work fast around here. Technically you’re not even on duty, seeing as you’ve been away for a long time. Major Foxx and I are in command of this mission, you’re just along for the ride, with all due respect of course.”

  “Alright, do what you have to.”

  All of this makes me feel really small, seeing someone with a lower rank making all the decisions. It doesn’t bother me too much, just to the fact that I don’t really have any say in the matter.

  T-Rave gives a nod of acknowledgement; he fiddles around with the controls on the terminal. Seconds later all of the consoles in the room go dead from the lack of power being channeled to them.

  “I think you did it Major, we have enough power to push the engines to the max, prepare for a jump,” Major Foxx says.

  “What exactly does she mean ‘jump’? I didn’t know we we’re capable of things like that.”

  T-Rave answers almost immediately, “we don’t really, we’ve only gotten so far as to make a small jump, it’s mainly just a way to build up speed. Once we make that small jump we’re at maximum speed. Nothing the Hakorians can throw at us will make allow them to follow us. If we need to run then we can.”

  It’s amazing what can happen in such a short period of time.

  The floor plates under me begin to shake, “might want to hold on to something.”

  I try to take T-Raves advice, before I grab anything around me the floor shifts, it’s as if I was standing on a rug and then it was suddenly pulled from under my feet. My feet are all of a sudden above my head. My back slams into the floor; pain arcs through my shoulder as the burnt skin rubs up against the steel grating.

  “I told you to hang on,” T-Rave grins.

  “You could have warned me earlier,” I notice T-Rave’s still standing, “how come you didn’t go flying?”

  “After a few of those it doesn’t affect you,” he gestures at his feet, “hence the standing.”.

  I stand up and regain my balance, only to feel the floor lurch yet again under my feet. T-Rave had mentioned that it was going to be just a short jump, what I felt must have been the ship leaving the hyperspace window. At least I didn’t get knocked onto my back.

  “Is that it? Are we home?”

  T-Rave looks at me, “of course we aren’t. It takes a week to get home, that jump was just a way to build up enough speed to make the trip possible within that short of time.”

  “How long would it take to get home with one continuous jump?”

  “Well, through the calculations that the scientists have done it would take about twenty minutes.”

  “How come we just don’t do that?”

  “It’s simple; we just don’t have enough power. Our power generators just don’t have enough storage capabilities to provide enough power for a constant jump.”

  The intercom crackles and Major Foxx’s voice comes through.

  “Jump successful, ETA to Terra just over six days and four hours. Get comfy gentlemen, it’s gonna be a long trip.”

  I lean against the wall.

  She was right, a whole other six days before I’d be able to see me wife, even though I’d already lasted two cycles, minutes seemed to last hours.

  My vision is all of a sudden going black; I my knees buckle; my head begins to sag to the side. Through my fading eyes I can see T-Rave running towards me, “Colonel, don’t you da-” I can't make out what the rest of his sentence is. I see his lips moving through my blurry eyes. Next thing I know I’m on the floor, fading into unconsciousness.

  ****

  Day 29: Cycle 3: Period 2: Year 2397

  From what I can tell there’s a beeping sound coming from somewhere near the right side of my head. I try to open my eyes; partially successful, only a small slit opens in my eyelids.

  I’m on a medical bed.

  I try to move my body, my limbs however are sluggish in response, I look down at my arm, a plastic tube is connected it, red fluids are flowing through the small hose, probably some form of nutrients.

  My lips try to form words, my throat is parched however, all that comes out is a faint growl. My eyes glance over a monitor that’s beside my waist, I touch the icon that’ll alert someone to help me, at least I think that’s what it’ll do.

  It’s only a minute or two later when I hear footsteps bang against the metal flooring.

  “Colonel, are you alright?” Major Foxx says as she comes through the door.

  I gesture for her to come over; once she’s standing over me I mouth the word water to her. She reaches over to a table to with a cup on it, she puts the cup into a slot in the wall, it fills with water. She grabs a straw from the table as well, putting it into the cup to make it easier for me to drink.

  The cold water feels good running down my dry throat, after several long gulps, I move her hand away, “where are we?” I manage to say.

  “Still on the ship, you’ve been unconscious for days.”

  “How long un-” I cough violently, “until we get home?”

  “We are still a couple days out, but we are getting there slowly, we are almost in communication range. Is there anything you need?”

  Hoisting myself up into a sitting position, I rub the back of my neck, lying in a bed for days really gives you the cramps. I get a better look at my surroundings; I have a much better view of the room now that I’m sitting up. There’s a window to my left, what lies out the window is quite marvelous. Personally, I’ve never been in space, the sight is spectacular; infinite blackness, with thin white streaks arcing through the vast abyss, “it’s beautiful.”

  “That it is.”

  Syreena pops into my head, images of her gorgeous face streams into my mind. That’s when I remember she’s badly injured and in a coma. A tear runs down my cheek.

  “Something wrong?”

  “Just having a moment to myself,” I wipe the tear off my cheek.

  “Is there anything that I can do?” She asks.

  I think for a moment, “yeah,” I turn my head towards her, “you can get me out of this damn bed.”

  “Sir, you’re in no condition to leave the infirmary.”

  “I’m fine Major, just help me get up.”

  She grabs my shoulder and spins me around on my bed, my legs slide over the edge. I bend my neck to crack it; the air in between my joints pop out.

  “I’m good now, I can probably do the rest myself, dismissed.”

  “Sir,” she looks me right in the eyes, “let me know if you need anything, and also, Major Ravenson wants you to join him in the mess hall when you
can, or rather, when you feel ready.”

  I nod at her; she gives a quick salute in return and walks out the door.

  A heavy sigh comes from my lungs, it surprises me how much energy it’d taken from my body just to sit up. I peer out the window again; a beautiful sight, one I thought I would never see.

  When I stand up and off my bed I realize that I’m fully dressed. When I’d broken out of that prison on board the ship I was wearing a simple white tunic, ripped and bloodied up. Someone must’ve changed my clothing while I was unconscious, a simple white tunic with military markings line the trim around the collar.

  Beside my feet on the floor lies a pair of standard issue military boots, as well as socks. I slip the socks on and slide into the boots, they feel like they’re molded around my feet.

  I stand up and off the bed and walk over to the open door, the hallway that’s connected to the infirmary has a whitish glow to it.

  I walk around for a few minutes, wandering aimlessly through the corridors and going into every room I can. Seeing as I’ve never been on a ship this advanced I want to see as much as can and how far in advancements we’ve managed to make since my capture.

  After several minutes I find a Holomap that’s built into the wall plates. I touch the button on the side of the projector, the hologram shines to life.

  “Welcome, please select your destination,” it says in a monotone voice.

  I scroll through the different locations that the ship contains, after a few seconds I find the mess hall; I touch the icon that says ‘locate’.

  “Follow the green icons; they will lead you to your destination.”

  “What green icons?” I say to myself, seconds later neon green lights light up the inside floor plating.

  “Hmm, well that’s convenient.”

  I walk in the direction of the illuminated floor plates, they make several left and right turns. The lights go right underneath a door; it must be the mess hall, seeing that this is the first door that I’ve encountered that requires me to pass through. The door whirs open on hidden mechanisms. I step inside, the room that I'm in is indeed the mess hall. T-Rave sitting at one of the tables, alone, a pile of food sits in front of him on a plate.