Storm' Fury: The Shenkar War (14 page)

              “Thank you, sir, but I cannot take all the credit as I had a fine crew with me.”

              Admiral Kelvin smiled but did not comment any further. Instead he turned and used his hand to direct the captain’s attention towards the two world leaders.

              “Let me introduce President Adam Sheehan and Prime Minister Colin Denshire, I believe you know them although not personally.”

              Captain Denshire again saluted the two politicians. Both wore friendly smiles as they each in turn extended a hand to shake. As he shook the Prime Minister of England’s hand the man spoke.

              “Excellent work Captain, I would say you pulled our fat out of the proverbial fire with that little maneuver of yours.”

              “Thank you sir,” Dunklin said uncomfortably.

              “Yes, your bold action saved the fleet and possibly Earth, although the docking chief of the shipyards wasn’t too happy with you. I understand you threatened to take half his shipyards with you when you engaged the fold engines,” said a smiling President Sheehan.

              “Uh…yeah, well I really wouldn’t have but I figured he didn’t want to take that chance.”

              “Oh don’t worry Captain; you aren’t in any trouble for that. In fact we have come here with a promotion of sorts,” reassured the Prime Minister of England.

              Captain Dunklin was struck speechless at this new piece of information. He opened his mouth a couple of times but couldn’t think of anything to say. Instead he turned his attention to Admiral Kelvin with a look for help. Admiral Kelvin laughed as he clapped Dunklin on the back.

              “Let us retire to your day cabin and talk of this.”

              Captain Dunklin led the trio into a small office off the bridge. A small desk sat opposite the door with a comfortable chair behind it. Two sets of shelves rested against the wall to either side of the desk. The only other furnishings in the room were four chairs, two sat directly in front of the desk and the other two sat off to the side. It wasn’t much of an office but it served its purpose for the captain to retire to when he wasn’t needed but needed to remain close by.

              Not sure what to do Captain Dunklin went around behind his desk and took a seat. Both of the politicians took the seats directly in front of the desk as Admiral Kelvin pulled a seat from the corner before taking a seat. After making himself comfortable he turned his attention to Captain Dunklin.

              “Now Captain how would you like to take command of the
Kraken
permanently?”

              “Sir?” Dunklin asked dubiously.

              “Well originally the
Kraken
was to be flagship of the expeditionary fleet under the command of Fleet Admiral Saunders. Unfortunately, Admiral Saunders was severely injured in the recent battle. He is expected to recover but it is unknown if he will ever fully recover. To tell you the truth the only reason he is alive is due to recent medical breakthroughs with the alien technology.

              So now we need to find a new captain and the council believes you are that man. So what do you say? Are you ready to take the fight to the Shenkar?”

              Captain Dunklin was dumbstruck at the offer that had just been presented to him. He hadn’t seriously expected he would get a dressing down for what he had done but he nothing would have ever given him the idea that he would be offered command of the largest warship in the Earth defense fleet.

              “I do believe our young captain has lost his ability to speak,” Colin Denshire said, his face clearly showing the enjoyment he was having with the whole situation.

              “So what do you say? Or do I have to go find another?” asked Admiral Kelvin.

              This time Sean Dunklin was able to find his voice and even smiled slightly as he spoke.

              “I would be honored ‘sir’ but I have to ask isn’t there anyone that is more qualified than me? I was only recently promoted to captain and didn’t expect my first command to be the
Kraken
.”

              “If you didn’t ask me that question, I think I would have doubted our selection. The truth of the matter is you don’t fear to take chances and I like that. Plus we have worked together before and I don’t see any reason to change that.”

              “Are you to accompany the expeditionary fleet? If so why are you not commanding the fleet?”

              “Yes, I will be, but not in a command capacity. There is a good chance we will be encountering other races the Shenkar have enslaved. I will be serving as a diplomat to negotiate any possible treaties. It will be your command and yours alone.”

              Captain Dunklin sat back in his chair and studied the trio in front of him. He didn’t need any time to think it over as he already knew his decision.

              “How big a battle group will be going?” he finally asked.

              At this the three men looked at each other before the admiral spoke.

              “Well with the recent attack our fleet has been severely diminished. We originally planned to have a full battle group accompany the
Kraken
but that is not possible anymore. As it is we have had to revamp the entire plan. Initially the
Kraken
will be going in alone to perform guerilla style attacks upon Shenkar, something you are already familiar with. We plan to make contact with some of the enslaved races in hopes of setting up resistance networks. That is the reason I will be accompanying you, I will serve as a liaison for Earth to negotiate with any sentient race we meet. As for your support, well you will have a full complement of pilots. Roughly two thousand of those pilots will be made up of the
Templar
Knights
and the newly graduated
Paladins
. You will also have a full division of the new
Praetorian Guard
as well as the armored support of the new X-21
Spartan
battle tanks.”

              Captain Dunklin nodded at hearing this information but then realized something.

              “Correct me if I am wrong but I thought we lost several of the command staff of the
Praetorian Guard
when the
Phoenix
was hit?”

              “Yes, you would be correct in that. It will be a little out of the ordinary but we will have alot of the
Templar Knights
serving as officers until a new batch of officers can be replaced and trained. You will need to coordinate with them to fill the gaps in the ranks.”

              “Of course, who will I be coordinating with?”

              “Commander Brennan. I believe you are familiar with him. We were planning on offering him the CAG position aboard the
Kraken
.”

              Captain Dunklin smiled at hearing this. Yes, he was familiar with Commander Brennan. It seemed so long ago but in truth it was roughly two years. He had met the man for the first time at the outpost in system 238. Sean had been fresh out of the academy hell bent on proving himself...at least that had been the plan. Once presented with the opportunity to do just that he failed. If it hadn’t been for Commander Brennan and Lieutenant Commander Maxis, he probably would have been the death of them all. He had sworn to himself that if a situation ever presented itself again then he would not make that mistake again. Fortunately he hadn’t hesitated this time and because of his actions he had been largely responsible for saving the defense fleet.

              “So when should I expect to have the pleasure of Commander Brennan’s company again?”

              “He should be here within the hour. Now on to other business, I have come to understand you have some unexpected guests in your brig?”

              Captain Dunklin was taken aback for a moment at the admiral’s knowledge of this. The “guests” Admiral Kelvin spoke of were in fact two Shenkar warriors that had been found unconscious in a severely damaged shuttle that had been found floating adrift. He knew they were under orders to avoid taking prisoners but he couldn’t just leave the two warriors to die from asphyxiation. He had ordered the shuttle towed aboard into a currently unused hanger bay. There had only been a handful of crew that knew of the prisoners so how Admiral Kelvin learned of this was a surprise to him.

              “How did you?” Captain Dunklin began to say.

              “Oh there isn’t much that goes on within the fleet that I don’t know about Captain. Don’t worry, you are in no trouble for this, in fact I would like to see your prisoners as do the President and the Prime Minister.”

              This last part made the captain look over at the two politicians. As if sensing what he was thinking President Sheehan spoke.

              “We would like to try and establish communications between our two races. There has already been too much bloodshed between our two races. We are hoping to establish some sort of cease fire….if that is possible. Personally I don’t believe it is possible but if anything we might be able to learn something useful.”

              Captain Dunklin thought this over for a moment and came to the conclusion that they did have a very good point. Maybe they could learn something useful and better yet maybe they could establish a ceasefire.

              “Would you like to go see them now?” the captain asked.

              “Yes, please lead on, would you.”

December 26
th
, 2013 11:35am

                                 EDF
Kraken
, Terran system, high Earth orbit

              Shizta awoke with a sharp pain surging through his skull. Placing a hand to his head he expected to feel dried blood upon his forehead but was surprised to find the wound upon his head sealed with some sort of medical adhesive. Inspecting the rest of himself he found a bandage had been wrapped around his thigh as well as his forearm. Realizing he lay upon a bench in a small room he pushed himself up to get a better view of his surroundings.

From the looks of it he seemed to be in some sort of holding cell. The room was small and completely empty except for a small bed, a latrine and a small basin that looked to be for washing oneself. The entire room was immaculate, if he were to judge he would say this cell was new. The only door to the room was a door made of some transparent material, probably plasti-steel, which would allow anyone outside a clear view of the cell’s interior. On the door was a smaller door that was probably used to pass meals through.

              In addition, to the hallway, Shizta could see another cell directly across from his own. Like his cell it also was occupied by a lone Shenkar warrior. It looked to be the same warrior he had helped from the bridge and had accompanied him on the shuttle. It was hard to confirm, however, due to the Shenkar warrior was heavily bandaged and was being fed some sort of liquid intravenously. There was also medical equipment set up to monitor the warrior’s vital signs. So it seemed whoever their captures were they didn’t want them to suffer or die on them. Could it be the humans that have captured them? Most likely but from what he had come to understand from reports these humans were the ruthless killers used by the Meshtrell. Hardly seemed the actions of the ruthless killer he had witnessed from the security footage taken from the
Tryliene
. Venturing a guess he would say he was aboard one of the human’s warships, perhaps even the massive battlecruiser that had destroyed the two Shenkar command bases.

              The sound of approaching voices drifted down the hall which in turn made Shizta look up, his curiosity piqued to who his visitors were.

December 26
th
, 2013 11:48am

                                 EDF
Kraken
, Terran system, high Earth orbit

              Captain Dunklin led the admiral and the two politicians through the passageway towards the brig, speaking as he walked. After several minutes they came to a small room which, from all appearances, looked to be a guard station. A small desk was set off to the right with an ensign sitting behind it. The ensign looked up at the newcomers and immediately came to his feet, saluting the newcomers. The admiral and captain both saluted the ensign in return.