Ambush

  And it was not alone. By this time Jeanne was by his side. “Zeke, we need to leave, now. Shon, bring him along!”

  Letting himself be pulled along by Shon until they reached the exit, he paused to take one last look at the Bridge. The place that had come to mean home to him for the last several years. Ignoring Shon’s pull for a second, he spoke quietly into his helmet.

  “LS1, can you send yourself over to the Jackal?”

  “Negative, communications are down.”

  “Can you download your memory onto a portable memory stick so I can take it with me?”

  “Negative, my memory is too large and there is not enough time. Captain, it has been my honor to serve under you.”

  And finally, as Jeanne came up to assist Shon with Zeke, he heard LS1 whisper. “Have I told you that I am impressed, truly impressed?”

  When they reached the entrance to the lift, they saw flames coming up the empty shaft where the lift was supposed to be. They hastened down the hall on the right towards an emergency stair well only to see them twisted all out of shape.

  Backtracking, they raced down the hall on the left where the handholds were twisted and the well was full of smoke but looked passable. Khalessi took the lead, followed closely behind by Jan.

  As they waited their turn, Zeke sidled up to Jeanne. “How? How did the fighters get here?”

  Putting her armored hand over Zeke’s, she patted it only to say “You are not the only one to have an awesome crew. Later, I will explain it all. But only after you tell me about Horus and Salamis. Right now, we need to concentrate on getting out of here.”

  “Shon and Michale, please get our chatter boxes in the well and started down. No delays, I am not sure how long it will stay open.” came Khaleesi over the helmet communications.

  It is an odd feeling to be in full Marine armor and get picked up like you were just an infant, but that is how Zeke felt after Shon lifted him from the deck and literally threw him feet first down the stairwell. The armor protected him from the hand rails that he hit several times on the way down, but the sudden stop at the bottom took his breath away.

  But he did not have time to fully catch his breath before he was yanked out of the way by Khaleesi to make room for Jeanne who had been thrown down right behind him. Trying to regain his balance, he saw Jeanne had received the same treatment as himself to make room for Hawke as he came down head first.

  Grabbing Hawke before he hit head first on the floor, Khaleesi threw him to Jan. Jan caught him upside down before twirling Hawke who landed on his feet in a mind-boggling display of juggling over a thousand pounds of armor and flesh.

  But if he thought that was amazing, he was stunned when he saw Shon come dropping down with Michale on his shoulders to lift his feet up just before he reached the floor to push hard against the shaft’s wall. Shon came flying out to hit the wall in a controlled bounce to land on his feet just inches from Zeke. That feat was replicated in kind by Michale who landed next to Jeanne.

  And none too soon because as soon as Michale had moved out of the way, Karter came barreling down. No sooner than he was down, Khaleesi started moving in the direction they were to go. With a quick back flip of her hand towards the two Captains. “Captains, if you would. Shon, Michale…”

  As he was pushed by Shon to follow Khaleesi moving down the hall, he thought about reminding Shon, who the Captain was, but thought better of it when he saw Jeanne getting the same treatment. “Marine’s!” he muttered only to hear a lone female, he would swear was Jeanne, chuckling in his helmet.

  It took a long time, but they finally reached one of the fighter bays. What Zeke saw left him speechless.

  The bay, had taken immense damage, with debris laying everywhere. But he watched as fighters flew into the bay even though the ship was tumbling. Once they landed, they were being refueled and rearmed with missiles. And he recognized one of the personnel working on the fighters that should not be here. That being Lieutenant Commander Jamie Chandler.

  “How the hell?” he got out when he felt Jeanne lean into his side and wrap her arm around his upper arm. “Jax and his engineers repaired the stasis units here to allow the fighters to land. The Marine officers have been working tirelessly, since we left, to stack all the fuel and armament. Then they had to clear the area when we got here. They did try initially to break into the Lucky Strikes fire controls, but that failed. The controls were a long shot anyway. The fuel and all, were left here in storage rooms as it could not all be offloaded in the time you gave them. That was a key part of our plan.”

  “And Jamie?” asked a bewildered Zeke.

  “Oh, that, Jamie, along with a good portion of her crew, came here with the fighters in a pinnacle.”

  “I am looking forward to hearing more about this plan of yours, and don’t try and pawn if off as someone else’s, I recognize your handiwork.” quipped Zeke.

  Walking further into the bay that was humming with activity, he saw Jax wearing a plain spacesuit, bent over a pile of parts scattered on the floor in front of him.

  Skipping in a now familiar way of moving fast in Marine armor, he rushed over to Jax. “Jax, are we going to lose the ship?”

  An exhausted sounding Jax responded. “The Lucky Strike is banged up, mightily banged up, there are severe fractures in the ship’s structure that could cause the ship to break up at any time. If we take another hit, I doubt the ship can handle it. That’s the bad news.”

  Stopping to catch his breath, Jax continued. “Good news is, I was able to shut down the main reactors just before they blew. Several of the secondary reactors are functioning and should be enough for what we need at this time.”

  “Can we download the ships AI? Save his memory somewhere?”

  What he saw on Jax’s face, let him know his answer without a verbal reply. “What happened to your armor?”

  “Took it off, too bulky to work with. Now, unless you have something important to discuss, I have a million things I need to get to.” Jax said as he pulled up a circuit board out of the pile in front of him. “Ah, that’s the one.” he concluded with just before he walked off.

  It was Jeanne, having been standing quietly behind him, that suggested they check out if any of the pinnacles were still around so they could monitor the activity.

  In high gear, they and their Marine shadows, made their way into the controlled mayhem and found Jamie, who informed them a pinnacle was attached to the hull outside the bay in case of a necessary evacuation.

  It took quite a few minutes before they could get into the pinnacle through the airlock. And once in, Zeke was again surprised to see Isolde and Will in the middle managing the fighters remotely.

  Removing his helmet, he stared at the flurry of activity.

  “Hello Captain, it is good to see you again.” Isolde said with a wide smile while tapping Will on his arm.

  Peeking over his shoulder, Will noted Zeke’s presence with a nod and smile, but never stopped his conversation with whomever he was speaking to.

  “How did you persuade my crew to disobey my orders?”

  In the process of removing her helmet, Jeanne put her helmet in the crook of her arm before responding. “They did not disobey your orders. You ordered them to get off the Lucky Strike, which they did. And they are still off. But you never ordered them on what to do after that. They were more than willing to participate without even knowing the details.”

  “And what about Doc, Jax and his team?” retorted Zeke.

  “I had nothing to do with that. They were not leaving on their own accord. You are stuck with insubordinate personnel that care so much about you and the Lucky Strike that they are willing to go to their death while accepting the penalties for ignoring your direct command if they survive.” laughed Jeanne. “Oh my, how horrible is that?”

  The pair made their way to stand by Will where they could view the activity outside the ship. While there, they took off their armor as it was too bulky to wear in the confines of the
Pinnacle. Jan and Hawke followed suite. Khaleesi had stayed outside with her officers helping clean up the fighter bay with the power supplied by her armor.

  The Chohish fleets were fleeing the area being chased by a large Irracan force supplemented by a few RGN forces. The Irracan force comprised of several battlecruisers, cruisers and destroyers while the RGN forces were a cruiser and several destroyers. These were supported by at least fifty to sixty fighters.

  “Where did this force come from?”

  It was Jan who answered from just behind Zeke. “The Irracan forces are under the command of Captain Dante de Clisson.”

  Surprised, Zeke turned to look at Jan. “Any relation?”

  “Her older brother. The battlecruisers are under command of two more of her brothers, Stewart and Javier.”

  “Where did they come from? We did not see them during our trip.”

  “They arrived after we left. If they followed the plan, they came through the tunnel.”

  The battle seemed to be wrapping up with the Irracan and RGN forces breaking off. That was odd as they looked to have the capability to finish off the Chohish.

  “The Chohish are going to get away.“lamented Hawke. “I so wanted to see them fry in hell.”

  It was now Hawke’s turn to be surprised when Isolde and Will both start snickering with Isolde commenting. “Not quite, keep watching, should be anytime now. You will definitely enjoy this.”

  Now that Isolde had everyone’s attention centered on the main screen, time seemed to come to a standstill. It felt like ages until they saw a pair of unique style of fighters appear in front of the Chohish. They were a bit larger than the RGN and Irracan fighters, but their appearance caused Hawke to gasp in surprise. The fighters were in the shape of a large bird.

  “Aaie!! Where did they come from?” yelled Hawke before he even screamed louder when he saw the two were now being joined by first a dozen, then several dozen, then more and more until there had to be several hundred fighters.

  And if that was not enough, three large ships with one gigantic ship following the fighters.

  “How did my people get here?” But before anyone could respond, the two separate fleets collided. And if anyone thought that Sorath’s were not up to the task, they should be sent a video of this battle.

  At one time the Sorath’s and Chohish might have been equal in battle, but that was no longer the case. The fighters tore into the Chohish fleet and showed them there was no longer any comparison between the two. They had gone to the same advanced flight schools as RGN pilots and it showed. The Chohish fighters were destroyed one after the other until there were only a very few that raced back towards their capital ships.

  The Chohish capital ships tried turning, but they were not going to be given the time. They had already been seriously damaged, now they were lit up by missiles again, and again. The largest of the Sorath ships spewed dozens of missiles every few seconds with the other three adding a dozen each to the mix.

  All watched in fascination as one of the Chohish battleships disintegrated in front of their eyes followed by a cruiser. They were not alone for long. Several destroyers were pulverized by fighters until they drifted aimlessly. And the scene repeated again and again until all the Chohish ship stopped moving on their own.

  Just when Hawke thought he saw everything, the three large Sorath ships spewed forth a slew of Marine shuttles.

  While that was progressing, Zeke sat down at an empty seat. Even though Doc had worked miracles, everything was taking its toll. Now that the emergencies seemed to be over, he was having problems staying awake. It was only as he started nodding, he realized someone else had grabbed another chair so they could join him.

  That someone, leaned their head on his shoulder where he felt a saturation of hair fall around his face. Knowing who it was by the perfume she wore, Zeke leaned in to snuggle against her neck.

  “It has been a terrifying while exciting ride through life these past few days, but the best part has been meeting you. I hope you are going to stick around for a while.”

  It was a strange group of friends that watched as two captains, that had been fighting each other just a few weeks ago, fell asleep in each other’s arms.

  Epilogue

  Humming to himself, he meandered down the passageway slowly while he admired its unique construction. It was much wider and taller than he was used to, brightly lit by hall lights, recessed deep into the ceiling that had an orange tint to it. The decorations on the wall were all of large savage winged reptiles flying over tall grass plains and gigantic trees of unknown origin.

  There were many others heading in the same direction as he but he did not recognize anyone. That was ok, he enjoyed the solitary walk as they had been few and far between the last several months.

  Rounding a corner, he saw he had reached his destination. A large group, made up of all the military branches, were making their way into a large conference room. Intermixed were dozens of individuals in civilian dress but they were definitely in the minority.

  At the entrance stood a half dozen Sorath’s, dressed in their unique military dress uniforms, checking credentials and assisting with directions where they were to sit. Another dozen, dressed in armor that he had recently seen Hawke wear, were placed strategically around the conference room entrance.

  As the crowd thinned, he saw someone he wanted to see more than anyone else. The woman was accompanied by a very large man that hovered protectively around her and glowered at anyone that ventured close. This glare was turned on himself until that man recognized who he was, whereupon he smiled and nudged the woman he towered over.

  The woman, with long brunette hair and green eyes, was swirling a black tricorn hat with several long red and black feathers as a whip to keep her area clear from the other attendees. When her gaze turned in his direction, his heart melted when he saw the affection shine through.

  “Hello Jeanne, you are looking so stylish and becoming today, as always I may add. What do you think of this meeting? It should be very interesting.”

  Moving to stand at his side, Jeanne hooked her arm through his. “Well, good morning Zeke, finally woke up, did you?” Running her hand softly over his cheek, she gazed into his eyes. “You needed it, my love, you looked exhausted after playing Hawke in racquetball last night. Hawke whipped you pretty good, have you thought about taking lessons? I am guessing the extensive drinking afterwards is a custom between you two?”

  Chortling softly, Jeanne shifted his arm so it now rested around her waist. “My command staff are already seated inside. I waited for you so I could get a great seat up front. You are the main attraction you know.”

  Tightening his grip on her waist, he dragged her several inches closer. “Amazing ship we are on, isn’t it? Never been on a Sorath Carrier before, I hope I get time to explore it before we leave.”

  Before Jeanne could respond, a Sorath interrupted them to ask them if they could take their seats. A quick glance around showed they were now alone in the hallway besides the Sorath security detail. Nodding positively, Zeke and Jeanne were taken by surprise, before they had a chance to move, when the Sorath security detail came to attention, spread their wings wide and full while snapping their rifles against their chests.

  Flustered a bit at the tribute, they walked into the now silent conference room only to see everyone was watching their every move. A Sorath came to lead them to the front where they were seated in the middle of the first row between Governors Muldane and Reynolds.

  The Governors acknowledged their presence with a quick hello and shake of hands. Governor Muldane was about to say something further when they were interrupted by a banging of a fist on a table.

  Khaleesi, Hawke, Isolde, Will, Jax, Gunner, Jamie, and the rest of the command group from the Lucky Strike were seated beside Governor Reynolds while the Irracan officers from the Fox such as Anne, Meghan, Masson, with one open seat that was quickly taken by Jan, were seated next Governor Muldane.


  In front of Zeke, facing them seated behind a table on a raised stage, were half a dozen senior officers that Zeke only recognized one of. That was Admiral Katinka Chadsey, the Admiral who had promoted him to Captain and gave him command of the Lucky Strike. The other five officers were made up of a Marine and Air Force General plus three Sorath’s of unknown rank.

  It was Admiral Chadsey that had been banging her fist. “Ladies and Gentlemen, please come to order. Most, if not all, of you have already been updated on the tragic events that transpired here six months ago. We are not going to rehash them again at this time. This meeting is for discussing what our next plan of action should be.”

  “Captains Kinsley and Clisson, as you are already aware, the Lucky Strike and the Fox were sent to the RGN Naval shipyard at Vro for repair and refit. I am pleased to say, they should both be returning within the next several months. You will need to have your crew start training in the simulators on the many upgrades that were installed during the refit. The ships will be accompanied by an RGN task force along with a large Sorath contingent.”

  “Thanks to the foresight of Captain Kinsley, we have a good idea which slipstream the Chohish used to arrive in this system. We are keeping them under heavy scrutiny. When first identified, there were two Chohish sized fleets guarding that slipstream.”

  Sitting but still speaking in her command voice. “The Chohish have since enlarged the two fleets with an additional four more fleets. It is possible they will add more, but even so, the current force in this system should be able to handle twice the current armada.”

  “Question, once the reinforcements arrive, what should our next step be? I open the floor with Captain Kinsley, as reported to me by many here, has a unique understanding of the Chohish. Captain, if you please?”

  Standing, he turned to Jax where he signaled him to join him. “Admiral, if you do not mind, I would like to make use of the overhead projector. There is some detail I would to present that may have some bearing in your planning.”