Birthright: Battle for the Confederation- Consequence (24 page)

              Captain Sohk tried to remain as neutral as possible.  "As you wish, Commander."  She now knew the core of the man, however, and she wasn't impressed.  He was going to run from this fight which he didn't know how to manage anyway.  Still, he was the Commander; she would obey and turned to one of her aides.  "Transfer the prisoners to a shuttle."

              The aide nodded and touched her earbud to relay orders.  She looked confused, then tried again.  Frustrated, she began entering commands in a console next to her as Tash quick-stepped to the hatch leaving the bridge.

              "What is the problem?" Sohk asked.

              "No reply from the guards in the conference room where the prisoners were being held, Captain.  I'm tracking sensors and movements now."

              Sohk waited, confident the officer was on the case.

              "I have internal sensors active now, Captain.  The two guards are alive but unconscious.  We tracked the prisoners to a maintenance space, and shortly after that our location beacon malfunctioned and the Confederation ship's beacon was overlaid on us.  I saw them for a short time in a corridor, but they disappeared a few seconds later."  She continued to work furiously at the console. 

              "Captain, our communications array is not responsive."

              Now Sohk was truly worried.  When her own people, thinking Harbinger was a cloaked Confed vessel like Avenger nearby, had started firing towards her ship, she hadn't immediately been troubled.  She simply ordered the beacon cycled, but to no avail.  Failing that, the easiest thing was to issue a fleet-wide directive stating the Confed deception.  Now, it appeared she didn't have access to the external comms.  Velk and that damned human were going to be the death of her ship.

              A series of impacts rocked her ship, and he inner ears felt the pressure change of air escaping.  It ended quickly as emergency bulkheads closed, but her own ships had just opened her vessel to space.

              "Drop the magnetic shield!" she commanded over the wrenching noises emanating from the depths of her vessel.

              Loren and Velk stopped short as they passed into the ship's main hangar bay.  There were three crewmembers in close proximity; Loren ran right up to one and caught him with an elbow to the cheek bone.  Loren snapped his head over to see if Velk needed help; he appeared to simply scare the other crew members into walking away.

              "We must choose a shuttle," Velk said without emotion.

              Loren eyed up the hangar.  There were three of the small ships spotted for launch, all the same model.  "That one looks fastest," Loren said, pointing to the one in the middle.

              "They are all identical," Velk said, confused.

              "Then just follow me."

              Tash ran through the corridors, once bouncing off the buklhead as the ship absorbed another series of hits.  The ship's crew paid him no mind; they were busy enough trying to hold the vessel together.  The only thought on his mind was to leave the marked ship.  Velk and the human had put a giant target on his command ship and he had no faith it would live through the day.  He, on the other hand, did need to live, for he had much to do.  He intended to leave the ship with Loren and Velk as his captives and resume the battle from the first Priman ship he could find.

              Upon reaching the hangar, he saw two shuttles ready for launch and an unconscious crew member on the deck being attended by two others.

              "Crewman!" Tash barked, causing the two good Samaritans to stand up straight and leave their fellow on the deck.   "I ordered Representative Velk and the human brought here.  Where are they?"

              One pointed at the open hangar door where a shuttle was just disappearing from view while the other spoke.  "Commander, they overpowered us and stole that shuttle."

              Tash fumed.  Velk couldn't live!  Everything he'd planned, the plots and schemes he'd hatched just in the last week in order to keep the invasion on his track, were going to be ruined.  The only thing to do was get to Delos first and wipe out the Confed capital.  Maybe if the Council saw the enemy defeated for good, they'd realize the error of their ways in not supporting him fully.  And Delos would be an example to the rest of the galaxy as well.

              He ran past the crewmembers and into one of the other shuttles, slamming the button to close the hatch behind him.

Thirteen

              Captain Elco watched the holo display as the magnetic shield around the Priman cruiser/
CSS Resilience
flicked and disappeared, showing the damaged Priman cruiser behind the curtain.  She'd taken a beating and Elco could see several compartments open to space. 

              Avenger was in better shape, but not by too much.  Her magnetic shielding was more effective, which had meant the Primans fired more at their own badly-cloaked cruiser and missed more shots at Avenger.  Still, the damage was accumulating at what Elco now considered the standard rate: frightening.  The big status board at the rear of the bridge showed plenty of yellow and red shading, along with a continuously updated text readout of incoming damage reports. 

              "Captain," the helm officer said, "two shuttles just left the cruiser." 

              Elco looked at the holo field in front of the bridge, then through it to the main screen on the forward bulkhead where a camera was tracking the small ships.

              "Any bets on whether Loren's in one of those?" he asked nobody in particular.

              As if on cue, one of them began doing barrel rolls, a ninety degree pull up where he killed speed on the approach and then accelerated out on the new vector, capped off with a series of maneuvers starting with forty-five degree pull-ups with a half roll on top, then another forty-five degree pitch change.

              "Fool's flying like he's trying to perform an air show," Elco muttered.  "Well, I guess we know which one's our XO."  The ship shuddered and Elco stumbled under the impact.  The Primans must have finally realized that there was only one Crusader class Confed ship in their midst.  Oh well, it was time to go anyway.

              "Helm, ninety degrees to port and down fifteen degrees.  Make sure our rear tubes are pointed at that cruiser."  Elco reached over to his panel and tapped the comm stud while looking at the weapons officer's station across the bridge.  "Lieutenant Commander Mastruk," Elco called, waiting to see her face on the display before continuing.  "We're leaving.  Keep firing torpedoes at that cruiser until it's a dust cloud or we're out of weapons.  Loren and Velk are clear, so let them have it."

              "Comms," he continued, "make sure our landing guidance is online so Loren can land in the Vipers' hangar.  Send Marines too, just in case."

              Elco cringed as the hammer blows of more impacts rained down on his ship.  He was reassured to some measure by the schematics in the holo field, though; Avenger's laser batteries were blazing away at any target they could reach, her AA/point defense turrets spit nonstop laser fire at Priman fighters and inbound torpedoes.  There were already four torpedoes of her own halfway to the Commander's cruiser.

              The shuttle bucked as Loren showed off while heading towards Avenger.

              "I am not entirely sure what you hope to accomplish with these maneuvers, Commander Stone," Velk tried to say in a neutral voice.

              "There's a raging firestorm outside and a Priman cruiser where their rogue Commander lives is sending out a shuttle headed right to Avenger.  If it was me, the cynical side would be wondering if it was some sort of boarding party, suicide mission, that sort of thing.  I'm flying like an air show wannabe in the hopes they realize it's us aboard and don't blast us before we get a chance to land.  In fact, their landing guidance lights are all lit up for us."  Loren gestured to the decreasing distance between them and Avenger's underside landing bays.  "Looks like we're cleared into the port side hangar."

              They did a double take as both noticed another shuttle streak from the landing bay, angling off towards the next nearest Priman ship.

              "What the...?" Loren said, partially distracted by the landing pattern but having noticed the odd departure.  "Who's that?"

              Velk turned to Loren and stared daggers.  "Do you remember my mention of the dishonorable nature of abandoning ship?"

              Loren only nodded.

              "Who aboard that vessel do you think cares so little for honor that he would leave a ship in the middle of a battle?"

              "That hump!" Loren yelled as they passed through the air barrier and into Avenger's port side hangar.  Tash was getting away!             

              The shuttle landed in the Vipers' hangar bay.  No sooner had it dropped to the skids and the hatch was opening, Loren and Velk following a second later.

              They were greeted by Marines with rifles cradled, waiting for signs of trouble.

              "Just me and the Representative, folks," Loren called out distractedly as he pointed Velk towards the hatch into the main corridor of the ship.

              Out of the corner of their eyes, they saw the view out the aft of the hangar and the blossoming explosions as Avenger's torpedoes hit home on the cruiser they'd just left.  The ship convulsed, flashes of light escaping from the seams as internal explosions breached the outer hull.

              "Commander," Velk put his hand on Loren's shoulder, the Marines all bringing up their HMR-12 Hammer rifles in response.  Loren only waved them off as he stopped to look at Velk.

              "What is it?"

              Velk inclined his head towards the aft of Avenger and at the Priman cruiser, now starting a spin to port and falling out of the maneuvering Priman formation.  "That ship no longer houses our wayward Commander; it does not need to be destroyed."

              Loren was about to remind him they were at war yet, but reconsidered.  If Tash had been aboard, Loren would have run to C3 and stabbed the 'launch' button for the aft torpedo tubes himself until the magazines were empty.  But as it was, the ship was a wreck, no longer capable of fighting and most likely doomed in short order no matter what happened next.  The people on that ship didn't need to die.  He only wondered if the Primans would have extended him the same courtesy.  Still, he realized this was a potentially pivotal moment for Confed/Priman relations.

              Loren nodded and ran to the bulkhead and punched the comm panel, putting in the code for direct access to the bridge.  "Loren to Captain Elco!" he yelled.

              "Elco here," came the swift reply.  "Good to hear you again."

              "Good to be here.  Captain, we should call off the attack on that cruiser were on.  It's hosed and Tash isn't aboard anymore."

              "Are you sure?"

              Loren could tell Elco wasn't entirely sold on the reasoning behind the request.  "Yes, Captain.  Trust me; please call it off!"

              "Alright, I guess you must know what you're doing by this stage of the game, eh?" Elco gave a fatalistic grin and turned off-screen as the signal was cut.

              "Mastruk, call off the attack on that cruiser."

              "Second volley of torpedoes is away, Captain!" she reported.

              "Send the codes and take them out then."

              "Got it, Captain."

              Down in C3, Mastruk tapped in a master command at her console.  She sent a destruct code to the three torpedoes on the way and watched the display as small explosions blew them apart without detonating their warheads.  It was a waste; they didn't have many of the big weapons left and they'd just taken them out.  With enough time, the controllers could have retasked them to another target, but something must have been extremely time critical for the Captain to just call for their self-destruct routine.  Oh well, hopefully it was for a good cause.

              Tash stepped out of the shuttle to see the hangar bay techs waiting on him.  Shuttle activity during a battle was extremely unusual, and as a result he had quite an audience.

              "Captain Sohk insisted I leave her vessel; the cloak had failed and she realized she was too much of a target.  Her sacrifice will be noted in due time."

              He stepped over to the senior officer present.  "Tell your captain to send the order to commence our run to Delos immediately.  I have preprogrammed orders stored in every ship here.  Go now."

              The crew woman simply nodded and tapped the earbud she was wearing, informing her captain of the Commander's presence and new orders.

              Admiral Bak was starting to think this wasn't going to last as long as he'd hoped.  The Primans kept maneuvering, and finally he saw what they were trying to do; they were trying to position themselves so that Bak's fleet was outboard of them relative to Delos.

              The last pass having been completed, he looked at the holo field to get an update on his fleet's status as well as what the Primans were doing.  He saw them maneuver and reform, but instead of turning back towards him they turned away. 

              A sinking feeling struck him, made worse by the fact that he knew he wouldn't be able to react in time.  He felt heartburn, bile in his throat; he was going to be left behind.

              The Priman fleet made another minor course adjustment and jumped to hyperspace.

              "Dammit!" Bak yelled as he pounded his holo table.

              Ravine's small fleet was down to eighteen ships now, having lost one to friendly crossfire as they weaved through Tash's larger fleet and one to a spread of Confed torpedoes.

              From the bridge, she watched Tash's forces align and then disappear.  A half dozen derelict but intact ships from his fleet floated where they'd been left behind.  His fleet was probably down to somewhere in the high fifties in terms of hulls; the Confeds had taken out a good number entirely, plus disabled a half dozen more.  On the negative side, the Confed fleet was no more than a Task Force now, boasting only seventeen ships in various states of repair.

              She was watching Captain Vol coordinate fleet movements when she received an incoming message from the Confed ship Avenger.  The communication was carrying a recognition code unique to Representative Velk.

              "Representative," she said as she accepted the comm request from a bridge station.  "I am glad to see you well."

              "Likewise, Commander," Velk replied.  "The Confederation forces are trying to organize a push to follow Representative Tash.  We believe he escaped the Harbinger and is aboard another vessel.  I was able to request Avenger stop her bombardment of Harbinger.  May I request that we contact her captain to inform him of your new status and inquire as to the Representative?"

              "Please do so," she replied, "and link me in."

              It only took a second, and they were then viewing the wreckage of Harbinger's bridge.  Captain Sohk was there, a cut above her left eye bleeding slowly but continuously, a trickle running down her eyebrow and around the outer corner of her eye.

              "Representatives," she said solemnly.  "Do you wish a report?"

              "I am here to change your orders, Captain," Ravine replied, holding up the totem she'd shown her own forces earlier before they'd entered hyperspace.  Captain Sohk stood straighter as she called her bridge crew to attention.

              "Much has happened in the last few hours, Captain," Ravine said.  "Suffice it to say, Representative Tash is no longer Commander.  As the new Commander, I am altering our plans with the guidance of the Council.  I need to know what the Representative has planned."

              "He intends to make for Delos, Commander," Sohk admitted.  "I believe he plans to attempt an all out assault on the Confed capital and force a surrender in one decisive battle."

              Ravine shook her head, doing her best to keep an impassive face as a good Commander would.  They couldn't see her disappointment or anger.

              "My fleet will form up to pursue.  Do you have any vessels here capable of joining us?"

              Captain Sohk looked down at a display and shook her head.  "I am sorry, Commander, but most of these ships are barely survivable as it is."

              "Then I will leave a cruiser to tend your needs."  She looked at Captain Vol, and he nodded before giving orders to a subordinate.  She really didn't know if they could spare a ship, but there were a half dozen of her people's vessels out here that might be doomed to a cold and painful death if abandoned.

              Aboard Majestic, Admiral Bak was frantically trying to coordinate his decimated fleet's actions.  He could offer up sixteen fighting ships, having detailed one destroyer to help recovery of escape pods and assistance to disabled vessels. 

              The Priman fleet had a lead on him and their ships were most likely in better shape; he'd have to push his ships to their max and beyond to keep up and resigned himself to potentially losing one or two in the impending chase.

              He was interrupted by simultaneous comm requests from Captain Elco of Avenger and the Priman in charge of the small force that had appeared to try and disrupt the larger fleet.  He accepted both requests and put them on a split screen at his station.