Inherited War 3: Retaliation (24 page)

“Computer!” Cole shouted.

“Yes, commander.”

“What’s going on, where are those ships going?” Cole rose and headed for the door. West grabbed him and stopped him mid stride. He pointed at Sky.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Shit,” Cole remembered Gavreal’s warning. He had to be here when she woke up. He turned around and ran to his desk. “Keep an eye on her and let me know if she starts to wake up,” he said to his friend.

“You better be finding out what happened to my ships, Bain,” he said as he brought up his desk console and started to reroute information to it.

“Sorry Sir, all I have is this, and the code was verified,” a voice recording began to play in the room, and Cole recognized the voice. A long series of numbers were spoken to unlock base systems.

“Bain,” Splits voice was clear as a bell to Cole. “All transports to have AI’s assigned and sent to these coordinates within the hour.” That was it, no more. Cole rocked back in his chair and pondered the message. Split had found something on his mission, something big. But why did he need every transport in the fleet, was the question? He had been sent to find information, nothing more.

“So?” West asked.

“It’s fine; Split has my codes because I gave them to him. If he needs our ships than it’s important. Besides, we still have the warships.” He was about to turn back when a light pinged on his console. He had a message. He played it.

“This message is for Cole McLeod of the human survivors. We, the government of the Twin Worlds, are saddened to hear the news of events that transpired on your base. We agree that the unfortunate deaths of our people must be investigated but find that other matters may temporarily trump said investigation. We actually are in need of aid at the moment. All attempts to contact the Nixa homeworld have failed and our long-range scans of the system are unable to determine the cause of said problem. A recon flight by one of your ships would be greatly appreciated, as our fleet is still woefully under strength and cannot be used in such a manner. Pending the outcome of the recon, we can once again take up the matter of the murders.”

The Worlder representative disappeared, and Cole felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. He looked at the list of ships ready for duty and picked one at random,
The Reprisal.
He contacted the ship’s captain and gave him his orders.

“Warp well outside of the Nixa system, far enough away to be out of range of their sensors. Send in a small stealth ship to access the situation there and bring back a report, ASAP. Cole out.” He watched as the ship changed its heading and warped out of the system. Nothing to do but wait now. He sent West back out of the room and sat back down with Sky.

Cole lost track of time after that. Hours then days passed without him noticing. Someone came by every few hours, brought him food, and changed out Sky’s nutrient IV. While he was awake, he sat next to her, holding her hand, and when he grew tired, he lay next to her and slept. Gavreal came buy often and checked in on Sky, with always the same report. She was reconnecting with her own mind. She would wake when she was ready. They left Cole alone for the most part. West showed up now and again to check on Sky and deliver reports. Cole gave them a cursory glance but not much more than that.

Cole had just lain down to go to sleep when the door opened and West came in.

“Cole?” he said. “Are you awake?”

“Yeah, but not for long. What’s going on?”

“
Missouri
just came back,” he said.

“And?” Cole asked.

“Mission complete. They hit the sites we marked and the water is gushing to the surface. They launched the atmo processors and turned them on. Early estimates say at least a decade before there are enough gasses in the air to form an atmosphere, then a few more years to raise the temp to habitable conditions. They also dropped converters to turn some of the water into oxygen and some to release CO2 into the air,” West reported.

“Any problems?” Cole asked his friend.

“Naw, just thought you should know is all.”

“Okay, thanks,” Cole said and West made to leave.

“Wait,” Cole said, something eating at his mind. “Didn’t we send a ship out to investigate Nixa?”

“Yeah, a few days ago,” he responded.

“What did they find?” Cole asked.

“Dunno, haven’t reported back yet.”

“That’s odd. Turnaround for Nixa isn’t that long. I expected a day or two, at most.” Cole sat up in bed and rubbed at his eyes. “Raise them on the Point to Point. I want to talk to the captain.” That’s when the alarm klaxon began to blare and the red warning lights came to life. Cole was out of bed and at his console that was linked into the command deck of the base.

He forwent looking at the screen and made a connection with the base. He had been nervous about doing a mind connection with anything since his ordeal, but instinct overruled caution and he found himself on the VR deck. Crew and base personnel were popping in all over the computer generated Command Deck.

“Report,” Cole ordered and not just a few heads turned to look at their absent of late commander.

“Unknown ship just jumped in system, Sir.” The scanner chief reported. Com’s interrupted them at this point.

“Sir, incoming transmission from the ship,” he reported.

“Show it to me.” Cole ordered. A moment later, a grainy static filled feed opened up in front of them. Quiet whispers went around the room. “What, what is it?” he asked, not knowing.

“That’s Phelps Sir. Captain Phelps of
The Reprisal
,” someone offered. Sound cut in and out for a moment before a loud squelch cut through the VR deck.

“Hom….se….s is…prisal,..ver.” The sound was choppy at best.

“Can we clean that up?” Cole asked.

“No sir, that’s them, not us,” Com’s replied.

“Sir, she’s tore up,” the scanner chief reported and threw up and image of the battered ship. “She triggered the unknown alarm because she was unrecognizable as one of ours, and she wasn’t broadcasting a FFA.” At this point, the sound cut in.

“Home base this is
The Reprisal,
over,” Captain Phelps said.

“Go ahead, Captain. We have you and are dispatching ships to help.”

“Negative, Home Base. …suffered catastrophic…ailure and are moments away from gravity release. I have a message for the Commander,” Phelps said partially breaking up as he talked.

“I’m here, Captain,” Cole replied.

“Sir, Nixa is lost.” Fear gripped his heart with its icy hand. “…urrounded by ships and is unapproachable. …ousands of ships, Roche, Esii and others. We jumped too close and were ambushed and overwhelmed. …e jumped as soon as we could and did our best to patch up. Got it up enough to make last jump home, gravity containment at 5% and dropping. Tell my wife I love her.”
The Reprisal’s
gravity collectors went critical and the ship turned into a brief star. It exploded with such a great release of energy that it lit up the night sky like the noonday sun. Everyone on the deck was silent. They sat in stunned disbelief as the loss of friends washed over them like a wave.

“Eric,” Cole said.

“Yeah,” West responded.

“How many on her?” he asked in a quiet voice.

“Forty, one was Liam,” he replied.

“Shit,” Cole muttered under his breath.

“Bain!” Cole shouted.

“Yes, Sir,” the AI responded.

“Get me the Worlder system on the Point to Point com.” The base AI made the connection and sent the call out. Within seconds, a face appeared on the other end.

“Ahh, Commander Cole. Good to see you up and about and back in charge,” the Worlder said.

“No time for that, I need to speak to someone who can issue orders.”

“Right, right. One moment please.” The face disappeared and was absent for a while before a new one took its place.

“Commander Cole, good to see you again.” A Worlder in full military attire said. “I am General Fane, and I think I know why you are calling. Nixa.”

“Yes, we just lost a ship,
The Reprisal.
We got her report moments before she blew. Nixa is surrounded.”

“We just received the same intelligence and are at a loss as to what to do. With the amount of ships reported to be in the area and our heavy losses during the last battle, we simply cannot send a sufficient force to aid in any meaningful attack,” Fane said. Cole sat back and thought for a moment.

“What’s the standard mode of attack for the Roche?” Cole asked the General.

“The Roche have never been ones to hang out in orbit and pound planets with fire. They are warriors and would rather be looting and pillaging than up in ships. Frankly their ships aren’t very good at space battles, one on one, but they have a lot of them and their massed fire is deadly.”

“So do you believe they will launch a ground invasion?” Cole asked.

“Probably already have. Nixa is a prime target. The Roche have wanted to pick it for centuries. The Esii held them back. They will be down there and their ships will only be lightly manned. Still, I wish to reiterate, there are thousands of them there and even undermanned, they are too much for us to take on head to head.”

“I agree, general. I wonder though, do you have many heavy transports?” Cole asked.

“Transports I have, planets to safely land them on, I don’t,” he replied.

“I know I’m not the person you want to be taking requests from right now, but will you help me if I can show you how we have a chance at winning?”

“Commander, Cole, I don’t know what happened up there, but I assure you we are still your friends and allies, so if you have an idea that will work, we will help.”

“Good, thank you. We need two things. First, we need help here on Home Base. Our female population has just increased our general population by over twenty-five thousand, and I am about to take away most of the male support from them. I need nurses, nannies—frankly anyone who is willing to come help all of our new moms here on the base. Secondly, I need all of your heavy transports loaded with your best ground pounders. By heavy, I mean ships that can take a beating and still make planet fall. I need them soon.”

“Hmm, I can get started on the soldiers, but it will take time for your ships to ferry volunteers to your base,” the general said.

“No general, it won’t. I will give you the coordinates to Home Base and let you shuttle your people here in whatever tubs you can get in the air.” As a collective, the bridge personnel turned to look at Cole. “General, I trust my friends, and if the Esii and Roche had known where this place was earlier, they would be besieging us and not Nixa. Can we count on you?”

“Yes, yes you can. Let me see for a moment.” The General looked down as he scanned readiness reports. “Two days, give me two days and I can have two hundred ships that hold a thousand soldiers each just outside of the Nixa system.”

“Two hundred thousand, can you spare that many?” Cole asked.

“That’s only about twenty percent of active personnel and ships.  Though it’s not a drop in the bucket compared to the Roche. We estimate with the volume of ships in orbit around the planet they have, and these are conservative estimates, over a billion Roche in system.” Cole was rocked back by that number but he kept his disappointment from showing on his face.

“Keep one of your ships half empty. I need room for myself and the five hundred humans that are coming with us. Two days General, see you then.” Cole broke the link and thought for a moment. “All personnel, this is Commander McLeod. Prepare for deployment. All crews to their stations and everyone in full combat skins. We are going to war.” He cut the base com and disconnected from the computer. He turned to get an armful of Sky as she threw herself into his arms, weeping hysterically. West, as tactless as always, didn’t bother to turn his head from her nudity and watched as the couple finally reunited.

“West, beat it,” Cole said as he held onto Sky. Eric threw a jaunty salute and didn’t look away until the door closed and blocked off his sight.

Cole held onto Sky for what seemed like hours before she finally adjusted her body so she could sit on his lap. She placed her hands on either side of his face and looked into his eyes for another eternity.

“Sky, I—” Cole started to say before she cut him off with a finger to his lips.

“No, I don’t care what’s going on or who we are attacking. This moment is mine and mine alone.” She leaned forward, kissed him firmly on the lips, and pressed her body close to his. Cole felt the wetness of tears streak down her cheeks as she cried once again. He hoped they were tears of joy. Finally she relented, moved her face away from his, and smiled at him.