Blood War 1: Last Stand of the Legion: Rift (33 page)

LYTEN SYSTEM

AREA OF RIFT

DESTROYER CAPELLA

BRIDGE

Ririsa ran to her quarters and looked around. Her compartment was a shambles. Despite everything being battened down it looked as if a missile or torpedo had struck close enough to blow things off the bulkheads without ever entering the compartment. Ririsa stepped over her chair and what was left of her bunk. She went to her crypto device that was mounted to the bulkhead. It still had power so she was able to press red destroy button. It erased the hard drive then melted the hard drive into a lump of metal just to make sure. Her computer had already gone into security mode when they went to battle stations. She pressed her thumb on the ID screen and it opened. In the drop down menu she found the destroy command and it too erased the hard drive and began to destroy itself. She had no real personal effects - the ship was her family.

She stood for a moment and remembered the first time she had stepped into this compartment as the Captain of the Capella. It had been her dream since she was a little girl. She had loved the ship and
its crew, as much as you could love a dream come true. Both had lived up to her wildest dreams as a child and now it was being destroyed-that had never been part of her dream. Yet she found below the sorrow of losing her ship and so many of her crew a sense of real pride. It is what they had trained so hard for, for so many years together, and the ship and her crew had lived up to highest standards of the Navy. She was a fighting ship and she had gone down fighting. There was a sense of rightness to the end of the Capella. A fast ship going in harms way to protect those she had been built to defend. She could not have had a better ending, even if it had to come so soon.

An explosion threw Ririsa against the bulkhead and she snapped out of her revelry and headed back up to the bridge. Her young
helmsman was the only one left on the bridge - he was standing at his station - a sailor till the end.

"
Helmsman, it's time. Put her on auto pilot and get to your lifeboat station."

The young sailor reached down and set the autopilot. The
y gently patted the helm.

"Captain
, she was a hell of ship."

"You
’re damn straight sailor, now get to a lifeboat. Remember your training."

He turned and took a moment
to raise his hand up in a salute. Ririsa returned it crisply and the helmsman went below. Ririsa took one last look out of the display at the Capella; the other five-inch turret was gone now. More large holes had been blown in her hull until the Capella was hardly recognizable as a ship. It appeared to be more like a piece of space junk than a fighting ship. All manner of debris, equipment, and bodies were floating out the holes. Ririsa could not stand to watch any longer. She pulled off her Naval Academy ring; her most prized possession, and placed it on the helm.

"Thank you girl
, it was a privilege being your Captain.'

Ririsa pulled the hood of
the evac suit over her head and sealed it. She went below to find a POD or lifeboat.

Someone was shaking Jakob. He slowly opened his eyes. Lieutenant Tmesgen was kneeling over him. He was shaking his
shoulder that hurt like hell.

"Petrussen, Petrussen. Wake up. Come on. The Captain has ordered abandon ship."

Jakob slowly sat up. The interior of the mount was a complete wreck. The explosion had buckled the bulkheads inward and all of the equipment was lying on the deck. The Scam barrel was actually bent. The only lights were from their evac helmets. He was having a hard time orienting himself. Nothing was the same. Then he remembered Nicole.

"Nicole, where is Fremont
?"

In spite of the pain
, Jakob pushed himself up and looked over to her normal position. There was nothing there except broken equipment and debris. Then he saw her seat; she was still buckled into it. All he could see were her feet. He shoved Tmesgen out of his way and, forgetting his pain, he pulled himself to his feet and climbed over to Nicole.

"Nicole, I'm coming. Come on we got to get out of here. I'm coming."

"Petrussen don't. You don't want to see her. Petrussen."

It was too late. When Jakob stood he was able to see the upper portion of her body. She had no head. It had been crushed in the explosion.

"No, no. Not Nicole she...."

Lieutenant Tmesgen grabbed Jakob by the shoulders and spun him around and pulled him close until
they were helmet to helmet.

"She's gone. She's gone. So are most of our shipmates. We owe them to try and survive. Only we can tell their story. We're the only ones who can have the revenge that they deserve."

Jakob tried to break away but the Lieutenant jerked him back.

"Petrussen
, goddamn it. She would want you to survive. Just the way if it had been you, you would have wanted her to survive. Survive for her and all the others sailor. That is all you can do now."

Jakob looked at the Lieutenant
’s eyes through their faceplates. They were only inches away. He saw that he was not just saying it, but believed it. In fact it was what he was doing.

"Aye sir
," Jakob said slowly.

"Follow me
, I found my way in from aft."

Jakob turned back
and looked one last time at Gun Mount 13 and Nicole. He had been changed forever by the hours he had just spent in this small space. Changed more today than his whole life before today. He carefully picked his way through the wreckage of what had been his home for the last three years. Their whole section had been compromised, there was no atmosphere if he had not had his hood down he too would have died. They came to a hatch that was closed. The Lieutenant turned and faced Jakob.

"When I open this hatch there is nothing on the other side
just a large hole. This is where you are going to have to abandon ship. I checked it out. You will see a lifeboat and a POD directly to your starboard when we step through the hatch. You can make it with a good launch. Understood?"

"Yes Mr. Tmesgen."

The Lieutenant opened the hatch and the blackness of space was on the other side. Debris from the Capella floated everywhere. A bunk gently tumbled past the opening. A large piece of what Jakob thought was another gun mount seemed suspended just above the top deck. A body, then another, tumbled past with neither appearing to be alive. During training they had tried to prepare them for this very situation. The abandon ship training was the most realistic simulation they had in basic, but nothing could have prepared him for this reality. Remembering his training, he found his target - a lifeboat just as the Lieutenant said. It had its lights flashing and the nets were out on all sides just like in training. The nets were just like those used for fishing in the ocean, they made the target much bigger and easier to hit. Again, just like in training, he used the crude heads-up in his evac suit display to help him line up with the lifeboat.

It was a simple crosshair like a rifle
; you lined it up with the centerline in your helmet and the leveling system of your suit. In training he had hit it every time but there were no fighters flashing by, missiles being fired and bodies and debris. He lined everything up and carefully pushed off. It was a good launch - the crosshairs were directly on the lifeboat.

"Good luck Petrussen
," Lieutenant Tmesgen said.

F
ighting every instinct to turn around and look at the Lieutenant, Jakob keep his eye on his heading.

"Sir, aren't you..."

"Not now. I've got a couple of compartments to check for survivors then I can join you."

Jakob could not think about the Lieutenant now. He had to concentrate on his trajectory and keep his eye on the target. Someone was already in the lifeboat and had seen Jakob launch,
and with tiny adjustments the lifeboat slowly moved toward him. The closing speed between them increased and Jakob, instead of landing on the side of the small vessel, was going to be caught in the net. As he approached he grabbed the net knowing that if he missed there was a good chance he would not get a second. Concentrating harder than he ever had on such simple act, Jakob pulled himself into the net to the lifeboats lock and closed the hatch. He turned to look back at the ship.

When he did he saw the compartment door he had just left
and was hoping to see Lieutenant Tmesgen appear, instead he watched as the door burst outward as a large internal explosion rocked the Capella. Debris and parts of bodies were blown out of the new hole in the ship. There was no way that Lieutenant Tmesgen could have survived. Jakob numbly floated in the compartment until it cycled through and had an atmosphere. He opened the hatch and joined the other silent survivors on board.

Ririsa was standing at a hatch two decks below the bridge. It used to lead to a compartment where the communications shack was housed, now it, like so many others throughout the ship opened directly into space. It had been her ship, now it was gone, yet Ririsa still had a hard time leaving the Capella. She turned to check behind her one last time. No one was in sight. She had searched every compartment on her way down. Everyone who could have abandoned ship, so she turned back to hatch. She hesitated to take the last step that would signify that her ship was gone.

Alien fighters raced by firing at will at the hulk. Torpedoes continued to explode as she was hit again and ag
ain. Finally, Ririsa knew she could wait no longer; one of the last lifeboats was in sight. She lined up her sights and levels and pushed off, leaving the Capella for the last time. She floated toward the lifeboat with a sense of someone leaving a friend at the worst possible time. Ririsa grabbed the handhold on the lifeboat, pulled herself into the airlock and shut the hatch. She could not bring herself to look back.

LYTEN SYSTEM

REFERENCE POINT 244.123

BATTLESHIP PEREUS

PILOTS READY ROOM

Lieutenant Max Steiner was doing his best to rest in the Legionnaire Ready Room aboard the Pereus. The survivors from his platoon and the remnants of the Bernards platoon had formed up and raced for the main body of the Task Force. The Pereus was large enough to recover them. It was a tremendous blow to them all when they learned of the loss of both the Capella and the Bernards.  Once on board the survivors were led to debriefing where they were questioned closely about the battle. Then they were told to get some rest, they had it coming.

He and the remains of the two destroyers platoons of Legionnaires were all laying down
wherever they could around the Ready Room. Regular quarters were full on the Pereus they were occupied by the Pereus’s own Legionnaire contingent. The Major commanding the Pereus's Legionnaires was working to find berthing but had not come up with assignments. Everyone was exhausted. The battle had been vicious and taken a lot out of all the pilots, not to mention the loss of both the Capella and the Bernards. The loss of their friends and shipmates was also weighing on them all. It was difficult to comprehend; it had been a staggering day full of events that were hard to digest one at a time much less as a whole. Steiner could not sleep, every time he closed his eyes he saw the Capella breaking apart.

"Lieutenant Steiny Man."

Steiner opened his eyes and that took an effort.

"Yeah, Lima
."

"Sir
, something is up. I think they are getting ready for a big attack on the carrier and the alien fleet."

"How..." Steiner said trying clear his head.

"I know someone in Flight Operations, we served on the Lalande together before I got assigned to the Capella."

Steiner sat up and ran his hand through his hair, rubbing his head vigorously
, trying to wake up. He looked around and saw every other pilot was doing the same. The mention of going after that damned carrier would be sweet revenge.

"We need to get a wake up for everybody. Does anybody know anybody in Sick Bay here?"

"Yeah, L.T. I do," Solis said.

Solis tried to stand then had to grab a chair to steady herself. Even she looked bad which
since she was the best looking female in the platoon, was hard to do.

"They are not going to let us go on any missions in this shape. Go talk to your friend. Tell them about the Capella. There is no way we're going on this one. Anybody got a problem with that?"

There was a chorus of profanity laced no's. They all wanted a piece of that carrier.

"Good, go see your friend and promise them anything."

Solis, through her fatigue gave Steiner a knowing smile. She was famous in the unit for her exploits off duty.

"Anything
, Lieutenant?"

"Yeah, but don't worry about
it, you probably won't survive the fight anyway."

"Gee thanks L.T."

Solis turned and hurried out the door.

"Everybody get up
and move around. Drink fluids, anything that you can think of to get your bodies awake."

They were all moving around slowly
but it wasn't working. When Solis returned with two corpsmen from Sick Bay, a man and woman, Steiny man looked at Solis and motioned her over.

"Two."

"Yeah."

"Way to take one for the team."

"Oh, I don't think it will be too hard. Threesomes are fun."

Steiner and
Solis laughed together. The two corpsmen came up to him and gave him injections in arm. Then they gave him an inhaler to use. He was beginning to feel the full effects of the drugs when the Flight Briefing Display that covered the forward bulkhead of the room suddenly snapped on and the Pereus Legionnaires began to file into the room.

Steiner waited until the Major walked in and waylaid him before he got to the podium.

"Sir,"

"No
Steiny Man. I am going to need everyone at their best."

"Look at me and the others. We are ready to go."

The Major glanced at the Capella and Bernards pilots, they stood as group behind Steiner. Every one of them looked as if they had a good night’s sleep instead fighting a space combat battle.

"Steiny Man I don't know how you did it but..."

"Sir, we're the only ones in the room who have fought these kaks."

The Major paused. Steiner was right. It would be a huge help to have pilots experienced in fighting the aliens.

"Ok, but I want you prepared to give a briefing at the end of mine. Understood?"

Steiner
smiled that big smile he was famous for throughout the fleet and turned to his pilots. They all broke into smiles and found places to stand to listen to the briefing. They were in the fight to revenge the Capella and Bernards.

The Major gave the briefing covering way points, flight formations and all the other details a strike this large always needed. The details would be loaded onto their ships but the
pilot still needed to know the overall plan.

"Now
, Lieutenant Steiner will brief you on the alien ships and tactics."

Steiner stepped up to the podium.

"These
kaks
are good. Their ships are much larger than ours, they look like an arrowhead with part of the shaft attached but don't let that fool you. They are very agile but not as maneuverable as we are, so use your maneuverability. They are crewed with a gunner where the shaft meets the arrowhead. He has a plasma-type cannon on the top of the ship and underneath. That does not count the forward firing weapons on the wings, for lack of a better word, of the arrowhead. They carry a lot more weapons than we do since they are so much larger. We do have the edge in speed and maneuverability but they are much more heavily armored than we are and it can take several hits before one is destroyed. Attack in pairs, if at all possible. We were outnumbered and they were well coordinated in their attacks on us. In other words these are some bad motherfuckers and it is going to take all of your training to get this done."

"Is there a best angle to attack them? Above, below, right, left?"

"I didn't find one. Did anybody else?"

Steiner looked out
at the Capella and Bernards pilots but none had an answer.

"Good luck. Remember the Capella and the Bernards."

Then other pilots chimed in with their own lost ships.

"The Orion."

"The Leo."

"The Indus."

The Major stepped back up on the podium and held up his hand for silence.

"And all our fellow Legionnaires. Man you
r ships.
Guerre à mort
."

There was a chorus of
Guerre à mort
from all over the room as the pilots filed out of the room.