Ambush

  After one final glance, Zeke turned to the medical technician standing next to him.

  “Make arrangements to get him transferred to the Lucky Strike brig. No delays. I want him confined by stasis fields so he cannot move and hurt himself or anyone else. I want four sentries suited up, full armament, guarding him always. Got it?” ordered Zeke. Seeing the technician shake his head in confirmation, Zeke placed his hand on the technician’s shoulder. “Go on, make it happen.”

  Just as the tech was about to walk out the door, Zeke stopped him. “Tell the sentries, if he wakes up and they feel threatened, in any way, KILL HIM!” The tech jolted back, surprised by the vehemence he heard in the captain’s voice. With a nod in acknowledgement, the tech continued his way.

  With that, Zeke left the medical bay heading to the command center. On the way, he ran into Hawke.

  Grabbing Hawke’s arm in the Sorath arm shake, Zeke commented “Great job Hawke, you had me scared there for a moment. Glad you made it out in one piece, although I see your wearing a brace on your leg. And is that a head wound? How are you feeling?”

  “I am doing great actually. I sprained my ankle, but they injected some nanites that should help heal it within a few hours, until then, the brace. Other than a skin bonder on my head and a slight headache, I am feeling… well… exhilarated just does not do it justice. I cannot thank you enough for giving me the opportunity. It may not mean much in the long run, but it sure felt good to confront the enemy of my ancestors in our native fighting gear.” Hawke responded while returning Zeke’s arm shake with a big smile on his face. “Oh, it felt so very good.”

  “Your actions may mean more than you think, but I am glad it worked out. Now, we’ve got a lot of work to do. We need to get to Nocuous as fast as possible. I have a feeling that it will not be so easy as the just completed ground action.” Zeke notified Hawke as they entered a lift.

  “Ok, my friend, I know you well enough that you have something up your sleeve that you are not telling anyone. What’s up?” queried Hawke with a raised eyebrow.

  “I have some suspicions that I would like to confirm a bit more first before I do that. I do not want to prejudice you in case I want to ask for your thoughts. Be patient my friend, bear with me for the moment, you will be one of the first I tell if my suspicions bear out.”

  Both exited the lift and made haste to the meeting room. As they walked in, they could hear Titus speaking. Jamie, Will, Gunner, Khaleesi, Isolde, Jeanne and Jan were already there.

  “…think will happen when you leave?” they overheard Tutus ask the group.

  “I have some thoughts there Titus, if you have a moment to let me get some answers first.” Zeke butted in before anyone could answer.

  “Ah, Captain, there you are. Please, ask away, I would like to get your opinion.” responded Titus.

  “Khaleesi, can you give me the latest update?”, Zeke asked.

  “Well, as everyone knows, the missile mines did the trick. Glad we had them. The shields were strong, but thankfully, had the same issue we encountered. Once the shields were down the primaries, fighters and Battleoids made short work of the Chohish.” updated Khaleesi.

  “Casualties? How bad?” asked Zeke

  “Surprisingly light considering we took out over fifteen thousand Chohish. In total we lost just over one hundred and eighty men and women, almost five hundred injured, but most are expected to recover. Most of the casualties were the land-based Army units, they did not have the shields or armor that the Irracan and our RGN Marines have. We left instructions on how to get their units updated with the stocks supplied by Jeanne.”

  Sighing, Zeke ran his hand over his eyes. “I hate to lose anyone, but it could have been worse, much worse. Please pass on my thanks and congratulations to you and your teams for an outstanding job. I expect to get some requests for medals based on the actions I saw. Some went way above anything we could have asked them. Sergeant Garcia is one that comes to mind, how is he? I saw him standing over a wounded comrade even though he was wounded himself. There must have been a dozen Chohish bodies around him.”

  “Sergeant Garcia is recovering and should be back in action in a day or two. When we reached him, he had no ammo, exhausted the charge for his laser, and had taken several serious injuries. There was a total of sixteen Chohish bodies in the immediate area. The Sergeant surprised everyone by asking if anyone had any spare ammo magazines as he wanted to rejoin the attack. That was overridden. The Marine he was protecting is also expected to recover.”

  Smiling, Khalessi continued. “The Sergeant seems to dislike the attention he is getting. Some in sick bay have been replaying the recorded show of his ‘performance’ on the battlefield, again and again. Seems many of the younger Marines and Army personnel are in hero worship mode. I was asked by Garcia if I could have the record classified and if he could go back to his quarters. I did agree to let him move back to his quarters on the Lucky Strike, I need men of his caliber. But as to his request for classifying the file, it would do him no good. Too many copies have been made. Half the screens in medical are playing it by now.”

  Jumping in, Will went on with the report. “Once we got all our ground troops out, we razed each camp with the primaries repeatedly as you requested. There is not much left, if anything at all. We took the injured Chohish, only a few were found, and gave them to Titus except for a few that you requested. We had those shipped to the Lucky Strike Brig with the officer Hawke captured. Good job there by the way Hawke. Anyway, we also took several bodies for medical examination. Then we zapped the areas again. Can I ask why?”

  “I wanted to remove as much identification on how we attacked the camps. And Titus, please have your crew keep their search going for any Chohish survivors until the other Chohish forces arrive. The least amount of data they know about us, the better.” answered Zeke.

  “That we will Zeke, we have not found many, but the few we have found, we have brought inside. Unfortunately, not many were alive, almost everyone here has lost family and they would like nothing more than payback. I cannot guarantee we will get them all, but we will do our best.”

  “Thanks Titus, keep up the search for as long as possible. As to what happens after we leave and the Chohish ships arrive, is anybody’s guess. But I do not think they have the ground forces or equipment to do more that station a token force on the ground. The number of the prior ground forces and equipment suggests several large troop transports were used and I doubt they kept more than a small contingency force for unexpected emergencies. Based on the logistics of supplying troops, they should only have enough troops to harass you. I expect, though, that they will leave a ship or two in orbit to support these units. They will not make the same mistake twice.” Zeke shrugged his shoulders before finishing with “but it is all a guess.”

  “That is all we have to go on though, guesses.” responded Titus. “And I think you are correct. Well, no matter what, we are in better shape than when you got there. And for that, we cannot thank you and Jeanne’s crew enough for all your help. I have supplied Will with all the information we have on Nocuous and the Governor there, Rayna Reynolds. You will like Rayna, and if she still survives, tell her I said hi. Good luck to you all. With that, unless you need me for something else, I have things to do in preparation for after your departure.”

  Working his way around the room, Titus shook everyone’s hands. All except for when he reached Jeanne. Taking her right hand in both of his, he gripped it tightly, while gazing directly into her eyes. “Young lady, I and my people are in your debt. Without your intervention, I doubt we would be having this conversation. My people have instructed, not asked mind you, that I give you our only fighting Navy vessel. It is not up to the caliber of your destroyer, but it is not totally useless. If you want it, that is.”

  In surprise, Jeanne and Zeke looked at each other. “What? You have a Navy?”

  “What vessel do you have?” queried Will with genuine amusement in his voice. “This
planet has more surprises than any other that I have traveled to. When times permit, I would love to be able to roam the depths of this planet, so I can find out what else you have hidden here.”

  “Anytime, my friend, anytime. And you would not be disappointed. We purchased a decommissioned ship a few years ago. We have been upgrading it as funds became available. We were only months away from re-christening her. Her original call sign is Fox.”

  “The Fox? You have the Fox?” exclaimed Gunner in surprise. “I remember her, she was the hero ship of the Vendelli action. My brother served on her. She was a state-of-the-art destroyer before that battle. She was so badly damaged that they decided to scrap her. How did you get your hands on her?”

  “More importantly, where the hell is this ship?” a surprised Isolde asked?

  “We were looking for something cheap that we could work on as funds became available. The damage to her was terrific, but the frame was still solid, so we called in a few favors and bought her before she went on the auction block. There would have been a lot of collectors or corporations that we would not have been able to outbid. I believe the Navy sold the Fox to us so she could be restored to fight once again, even if it was against raiders. No insult my lady, but we were hoping that between the Fox, the station, and the fighters, we could persuade ‘certain’ people to leave us alone.” Titus explained while shrugging his shoulders.

  “And since you lost your ships to assist us, my people believe it is only fair to let you have the Fox. The Fox, by itself, will not do us any good against the Chohish but, maybe with you, she will live up to her name once more.”

  “And to answer your question, Isolde, we towed her to the other side of Little, one of our three moons. We would have added her to Jeanne’s ships in defense, but her main power core had been pulled from the ship and was being worked on when the Chohish arrived. By the time they got it back online, it was too late, so we just shut down all electronics. The Fox is operational, it will require some more work, but the defense and offensive capabilities are there.”

  “I would be honored to accept the Fox my friend, especially as you will not need to worry about these ‘certain people’ anymore.” exclaimed Jeanne with a laugh in her voice. With that, Jeanne stepped forward to hug Titus. “We will use the Fox to avenge both our peoples. Please let your people know that once this war is over, we will return the Fox to the proud and generous people that deserve her, the Niflhelians. If we survive that is. We will proudly fly both our system flags on the bridge until then.”

  Turning, Titus waved goodbye to the group before leaving.

  “Well, that was a surprise! Having another man of war is an unexpected bonus. Anybody else have any more surprises before we leave?” questioned Zeke.

  “As a matter of fact, yes, we do.” Will said while turning to look at Jeanne. “Do you want to tell him?”

  Shaking her head negatively while wearing a sly smile. “No, you go ahead, I want to see if Zeke’s expression matches what you told me it would.”

  “Ok, this should be fun. As you know Zeke, Jeanne and her crew were in the system here when the Chohish arrived. Their purpose was to pick up their ‘packages’. Those ‘packages’ have now been made available to us. You may find them useful.” Will said while barely able to contain his excitement.

  “Ok Will, get it off your chest. It seems Jeanne has subverted my officers who now seem to take great pleasure in my discomfort. Spit it out man!”

  “It seems the ‘packages’ they were picking up are several dozen sleds equipped for deploying missile and antimatter mines. The sleds are the advanced models that can be programmed to deploy while they are being towed by tractor beams.” Will informed the group. “Oh, I almost forgot to mention, while at full speed” the last said jovially.

  Zeke’s surprise, jaw dropping open in amazement, was shared by most in the room.

  “How? Where? You have got to be kidding? I do not know any sector or fleet that has received shipments of that model yet. I thought they were still in development.” Zeke blurted out with amazement and disbelief written all over his face.

  Laughing loudly, Jan patted Will’s back. “Your description of how he would look and sound was spot on. I wouldn’t have missed that for anything. Right Captain?”

  “Yes, if the jaw dropped any further, I am afraid your doctor would have to inject some medical nanites to reattach it. The look on his face was priceless.” a chuckling Jeanne responded. “But we need to get moving Jan. We only have a short time to get our people on the Fox and meet up with the Lucky Strike. I am sure Will can handle the packages and send some over to us. And Will, there are a few more items there that you will like. But it is time we got moving, till later people.”

  The group watched in amazed silence as Jeanne and Jan hurriedly exited the conference room.

  “Well the last few moments were an unexpected, but definitely, a welcome surprise. Gunner see about getting some of their fighters stationed on the Fox. That should also allow us to fit the pinnacles they brought with them too. I am not sure what Titus has deployed in the Fox but make sure she also has as many shuttles as she can handle.”

  “I will look into repositioning the fighters and shuttles, but they only have one pinnacle that I am aware of. They must have lost the other two in their prior actions. And I am sure Jeanne would like to keep one with the Fox.” Gunner replied.

  “Well, that is a shame, it would have been nice having additional pinnacles with slipstream capability. Ok ladies, gentlemen, we have some planning to do to make the best use of these gifts, better end this meeting and get moving. Except for Isolde and Will, walk with me on the way, will you? I want to run some thoughts on the course we should take to Nocuous.

  As Zeke stood up, he had another thought. “Khaleesi, you better walk with us too. The rest of you, get the Lucky Strike loaded and ready to leave in an hour. We stayed here too long already.”

  The four of them started walking down the hall that led to the lift that would take them to the flight bay. “Just to make it formal Khaleesi, I am placing you in overall command of all Marines and troops. I want them to get as much rest as possible as I expect we will need them when we get to Nocuous. Take as much ammo and spare equipment as you can fit, as I doubt, we will be able to get resupplied for a good bit of time.” ordered Zeke.

  “We have already started loading and expect to be complete in the next hour. The addition of Fox will require some repositioning of assets, but it should increase our total strength by a third or so. No complaint there. Any thoughts on what we will encounter when we reach Nocuous?” asked Khaleesi.

  Throwing his hands up while shrugging his shoulders, Zeke replied “There has been no communication at all from Nocuous for more than a week. The communications from Nocuous stopped several days prior to the advanced warning that Niflhel got, thanks to Jeanne and crew. Titus said that is not unusual and they thought it was just the normal communications failure with all the recent sun flares they have been having.”

  “According to Titus, Nocuous have even deeper underground facilities than they do here. Between the surface conditions and the security needed for the minerals being mined, they took no chances and went deep, real deep with all the security systems they could come up with. Both planets are dependent on their mining.”

  “I may be wrong, but I suspect that the Chohish have been there already and we will find something similar as we did here. But to a much lesser degree. The surface would be too hard to set up and maintain a large camp on. If I was them, I would not worry about getting into Nocuous population centers, but only have a force large enough to keep them sealed up. That would not take much as far a military force is concerned and once the system is pacified, come back and take care of any survivors.”

  “I concur, that is my thought too. Anything else?” asked Khaleesi.

  “Yes, once we get within detection range of Nocuous and can get some semblance of an idea what awaits us, make arrangements f
or getting your forces on the ground ASAP. I expect we will not stay more than a few hours and I want to take advantage of every second we can. I will have my hands full, so… again… I will trust to your judgement. And I will not be leaving anyone behind so your plans must include boarding again with all equipment. I decided that it is best to keep our forces together from now on. You never know what may come up.”

  “OK, I expected something like this when you changed my orders to keep us on the Lucky Strike. If that is all… I need to run.” responded Khaleesi.

  Saluting smartly before turning and walking away, Zeke, Will and Isolde heard Khaleesi muttering as she walked away from them. “Hmph… is that all?… merge three different groups of ground forces into one integrated unit, take them into combat against an unknown enemy disposition, and get them all back on board in less than a day… sure, not a problem… just a walk in the park… Captains!”.

  All three looked at each other and laughed before continuing down the hall.

  “Any update on my earlier requests?” asked Zeke looking directly at Isolde.

  “Yes, they should be completed in the next hour or so. We should be able to try reaching out to Nocuous within a few hours or so. Governor Titus gave us the security codes that were in place when communications were lost. Hopefully any Chohish orbiting, or on the planet, will not be able to track it. If the Chohish knock it out immediately, we will have to be out of the tunnel before we are in range. Maybe we will get lucky as we are not doing a broadcast, but a point to point based on the location that Titus gave us.”

  “Well, not much else we can do with the limited time and resources. All volunteer crews for the other shuttles?” asked Zeke as they reached the small lift that would take them to the small bay where they would be catching a shuttle back to the Lucky Strike.