A New Beginning by FoX
Published on Kiith Iopia in 1999
Kehlia walked down the plankway towards the bridge as the engines of the Kushan heavy cruiser fired up. Small in stature (around 5 feet 3 inches), she was in her lower twenties, with shoulder length brown hair. She was well fit with a great smile that didn't see the use it once did. As she entered the bridge, the long view panels opened the darkness of space before her. The Kushan mothership was fading out of view to the right as the detachment headed towards its destination.
The heavy cruiser took the lead, protecting the carrier that it was assigned to. A small dispatchment of Ion and regular frigates also joined, flanking the carrier to the left and right. As she stood there, assessing her resources, the objective began to come in view through the forward view. A long, bright yellow strip stretched across the whole of empty space. A rich and volatile gas cloud slowly was coming into view. Probes were ordered to be sent out to survey the area, she knew the Taiidan were never far. As the contingent of ships closed in on their destination, the whole of the forward view was filled with the bright and beautiful gas cloud. The volatile cloud churned, bringing life to stars deep within its core. There was an infinite amount of gas here to harvest, all they needed was enough to make another jump.
As the probes reached their destinations, the data began to roll in. Space was empty. No enemy probes, let alone enemy ships. The order was given to bring the ships to a stop and dispatch the fighters. As the cruiser lurched to a halt, the carrier began to spew out support craft to guard the harvesting operation. After a quick pass to flush out any hidden enemies, the harvesters were dropped out of the carrier and began their operation.
Kehlia felt uneasy. It was tough not to, with the Taiidan and pirates always ready to destroy anything and everything Kushan. As if the constant threat wasn't enough, she was blind, and she knew it. None of the probes could operate through the heavy gas clouds directly ahead. She wasn't raised a great tactician or leader, how many of the Kushan really were? She did know what danger was though and this was it. She doubted that anyone would be crazy enough to go deep into the volatile gas clouds but she wasn't taking any chances. The order was given to move a wall of defenders and a few frigates to the perimeter of the gas cloud where they were harvesting. She also moved the cruiser and Ion frigates closer while ordering the fighters to patrol the edge. The carrier continued to take in harvesters back behind the defensive wall.
The mission had gone well so far, and they were nearing their objective when the first volley was fired. A large burst came deep within the gas cloud, ripping through the middle of the wall of defenders. The bright explosion signaled things were going wrong, fast. One of the frigates to the left rocked as it was hit by missile after missile, sending it reeling off course and into the frigate next to it. The two frigates exploded brilliantly and quickly died back to the darkness of space. The fighters were ordered to quickly identify the location and designation of the ships that they were being fired upon by. The fighters disappeared into the rolling gas, vanishing from radar. The wall of defenders tried in desperation to quickly move but were being annihilated from the unknown assailant. One after the other blew as they were ripped apart. The frigates were given the order to move into the cloud, the heavy cruiser lagged behind to still give protection to the now relatively undefended carrier. White flashes erupted against and within the yellow backdrop of the gas cloud as friendly and enemy ships alike burst into flames. The assailants still remained unseen to Kehlia, not wanting to abandon the carrier. The comm signal was mostly garbled by the interference of the gas cloud, making any kind of strategic decision difficult. Then, through the soupy yellowness came a friendly frigate, badly wounded and being chased. The call came over the comm signal from the panicked crew, begging for assistance. The enemy cruiser behind it was pummeling the frigate, ripping off large portions as it tried to make its escape. As badly as Kehlia wanted to go and help her comrades, she knew better than to go that deep into the gas clouds to give assistance. The Ion frigates flanking both sides of the heavy cruiser were ordered to hold steady and not to leave their positions. No later had the order been given than the one of the Ion frigates broke away. Kehlia screamed through the comm to get it to come back, but the captain had made up his mind to go give assistance. Now only two ships remained to protect the carrier, but it was much worse than that. The realization hit Kehlia like a plasma bomb. She frantically ordered the cruiser to turn and head away from gas cloud. As she grabbed the comm to order a complete withdrawal, the Ion frigate, going to help its comrade in need, opened up upon the enemy cruiser. As the Ion stream reached the gas cloud, an electrical storm enveloped everything. The resulting explosions ripped outward from the gas cloud. As the hulking cruiser turned to escape, she looked and saw the other Ion frigate get enveloped by the shockwave. She knew she wasn't going to make it. As she ordered full speed away from the area, the view panels were awash with light as the shockwave overtook the cruiser.....
The battle chatter that was coming from the resource operation had died. Kultaris stood over the comm officer aboard the Kushan mothership, listening to the dead static coming through. The last frantic orders of retreat must not have been issued in time. The dispatchment of their only carrier and protection force had been destroyed. The mothership was low on resources, they needed that resource run, and needed it badly. It was bad enough to be stranded, it was much worse now to have lost such a huge contingent of ships and Kushan life. The low resource level not only prevented another jump, but limited the remaking of defensive ships that could be built. The mothership was a sitting duck. Not near enough firepower to defend nor the resources to escape.
As the shockwave overtook the heavy cruiser, the viewpanels were awash with hot, white light. Kehlia closed her eyes as the rumbling and the jolt of the shockwave shook the ship. The sudden movement threw her to the ground, then all was quiet. The incredibly bright scene quickly dimmed and was gone. Slowly she opened her eyes to see the viewpanels filled with the wavy blue of hyperspace. The hyperspace navigator had done a blind jump, without a doubt saving everyone on board. Kehlia, awash with the cascading of feelings, got up but quickly stumbled to the cold deck plates. Rising to her feet again, she looked around to see the other officers with the same stunned and confused look of emotions as her. Some began to rejoice, most sat stunned, while others just broke down and cried. Nobody had a clue where they were going or what the situation was, but that didn't matter. For the moment, they were alive. Kehlia struggled over to the navigation officer's console, still shaky after all of the events. As she reached the console, the officer stood up to address Kehlia. The slightly portly officer was dripping with sweat and shaking vigorously as he attempted to salute her. Kehlia quickly brought his arm to his side and hugged him
Kultaris quickly paced back and forth across the bridge of the Kushan mothership. He had absolutely no clue what to do. All the time and resources invested into the virtually brand new carrier were lost. Thousands of trained fighters and friends were lost. An immense amount of collected resources were lost. Fifty percent of the Kushan defense was lost. As if that wasn't enough, he knew that the enemy was here, and it knew what the Kushan were up to. This area was picked for one reason, and one reason alone, the vast gas cloud that just consumed so many Kushan lives. He knew he couldn't head in that direction. He needed a new defense, but he also needed a new resource gathering force. Which was more important at this point? When was the enemy, if ever, going to attack? He was stuck, and without a miracle, that was about as good as the situation was going to get...
Kehlia stepped back from the hyperspace navigator. She needed to figure out what exactly had happened and where they were going. She asked the nav officer what had happened when he made the jump. The portly officer replied, saying as they were banking to flee the area, he saw the carrier make a blind jump. Realizing that they were as good as dead, he got a lock on the carrier and jumped right behind them. As the shockwave approached, the cruiser bucked and entered the safety of hyperspace. From all accounts they had lost all of the protection force. However, although the overall mission was a failure, the newest member of the fleet, the massive carrier, had escaped as well. The relief was only momentary as the re-entry warnings began to howl through the ship. The carrier was coming out of hyperspace, and the cruiser was coming out right behind it. Kehlia quickly ran over to the comms officer, ordering a message to be sent to the carrier the second they dropped out. As the wavy blue of hyperspace quickly faded to the deep blackness of space, the hectic orders came through the comm from the carrier.
"All gunners, focus forward fire power on the Taiidan carrier!"
The Kushan mothership began to crank through its last amount of resources as the final collector rolled out of the bay. The ship and its limited defenders had moved to a small area of asteroids, trying to gather whatever resources it could find. Kultaris didn't have a clue how they were going to get enough resources to get a sizable defense, let alone enough to make another hyperspace jump. As the first resource collector approached the asteroid field, an explosion ripped the ship in half. Mines. The order was given to quickly pull back away from the asteroid field, but a chain reaction had begun. The mines attached to the asteroids began to detonate, one after the other. The force turned the relatively minor debris into a weapon of mass destruction. The rock projectiles pulverized the defenders, too slow to get out of the way. As one blew after the other, they reeled into each other in their panic, destroying the entire squadron. As the rest of the fleet began to flee, one of the larger asteroids flew through the resource collector, leaving a gaping hole in the middle. Kultaris clenched to the railing as the mother ship lurched to escape. Nothing was going right, and he knew that it was going to get worse. The nav officer spun around from his station and yelled up to Kultaris.
"Sir, we have unknown signatures heading our direction!" Kultaris closed his eyes. This was definitely going to get a lot worse.
Kehlia grabbed the nav officer and ordered an assessment of the situation. The Kushan carrier was directly ahead through the viewpanels, opening fire upon the enemy carrier. There were no Taiidan defenders, anywhere. Something wasn't right, the enemy carrier wasn't even firing back. Kehlia gave the order to the carrier to cease fire. Everything was still, the entire area was abandoned. The cruiser accelerated to approach the enemy ship and then it was clear to what had happened here. The enemy carrier had been hammered. The hull was full of small holes and darkened by constant bombardment, far beyond anything the Kushan carrier could have done. Although heavily damaged, it wasn't abandonable by any means. Something else had happened here.
"Sir, we have an incoming comm from the approaching unknown ships!" Kultaris ordered it to be put through. The words that came through were slow, and simple.
"Surrender." Kultaris leaned back against the railing of the Kushan mothership. Surrender? Who asked for surrender? The Taiidan surely don't take prisoners and the pirates could care less. The computer didn't recognize the signatures of the ships, they were certainly something they hadn't seen before. Kultaris looked over the nav officer's shoulder. Only three ship signatures registered. They wanted us to surrender on account of three ships? They had to be big, but even given that, that was quite the request of them. The three ships slowly trolled into view of the Kushan fleet, what was left of it at any rate. The ships were around the size of a heavy cruiser, nothing big and certainly nothing to declare the Kushan to surrender over. What card was this new enemy holding? Kultaris's question was soon answered as hundreds upon hundreds of tiny agile ships poured from the hangers of the enemy cruisers.
Kehlia gave the order for a dropship with a small scout party to inspect the Taiidan carrier. If they could snag this carrier it would surely overshadow her defeat at the gas cloud. The dropship docked with the vacant carrier as the two salvage ships began to head toward their capture. After a few short moments, the scout party's reports began to roll in over the intercom.
"Ma’am, there was definitely some on-ship fighting here, and looks fairly recent. Blast marks and blood trails run across and through most of the corridors. But no one is here ma’am, there aren't even any bodies. Whoever hit the place took everyone out with them, dead or alive."
Kehlia leaned back against the cold railing on the bridge. Funny, she actually felt bad for the Taiidan. They were sitting ducks, without any defense. They threw everything they had at us during our gas harvesting mission, and lost any possible defense for their carrier. That also means whoever did this was still out there, along with the now undefended Kushan mothership. They had to gather some resources to make the jump and they had to do it fast. The order was given to abandon the carrier for now, they would come back for it later. As Kehlia began to leave the comm station and head towards the nav officer, an excited voice came through the comm from the scout party. They had found something!
Kultaris looked through the forward view of the Kushan mothership as the hundreds of minute enemy ships washed over the hull. The ship rocked as hundreds of small particle drivers opened up. Two defense frigates reeled back and forth in an effort to track the fast ships but it was no use. Even when one or two enemy ships were shot down, it did nothing to effect the enemy's overall effectiveness. The swarm quickly surrounded the two frigate ships, ripping them apart. The motherships gunners blindly shot into the thick group of ships, hoping to get lucky. But taking out a few ships was nothing when in these shear numbers. A valiant crew aboard one of the resource collectors plowed through the wave of fighters, taking out as many as it could before it blew apart. But all of it was of no use, there were just too many and they were all too fast. Once again, the comm channel opened up with only one word from the enemy ships, "Surrender". The hull of the mothership was beginning to fail under the continual fire from the numerous ships. Kultaris looked around at his officers, none gave him a look of surrender, and he wasn't about to do it himself. No sooner had he spoken then the mothership jolted hard and the lights began to dimmer. They were dead. Power was failing, and without it, any chance at survival was gone. The enemy cruisers were moving towards the mothership, they were coming to board. Kultaris ordered everyone to arm themselves, they weren't going to be taken without a fight.
"Sir! We have friendly ships jumping in from hyperspace! It's Kehlia's detachment from the resource gathering mission!"
"Open all fire upon the near enemy cruiser!"
The heavy cruiser's ion streams ripped through the enemy cruiser in a heartbeat, unprepared the assault it found itself under. Hot white flashes signaled the death of the enemy cruiser as it blew apart. Kehlia quickly ordered the cruiser, carrier, and supporting craft to move to intercept the now enraged fighters. She also ordered the recently acquired plasma bombers to be launched. Kushan scientists had been working forever to try and design a cap killer bomber, but they always had been incredibly unstable. As it would turn out, the captured Taiidan carrier happened to have a new dispatchment of their plasma bombers, couldn't have been better for the Kushan. The carrier and cruiser positioned themselves between the swarm fighters and enemy cruisers, keeping them busy while the plasma bombers went to town. The cruiser was ineffective, to say the least, against these agile fighters. Ion cannons blew through the middle of the swarm, taking out a few as they came in but leaving most intact. The heavy cruiser rocked and shuddered as the fighter swarm pelted it from all sides. The enemy was doing no better though as the second enemy cruiser blew apart under heavy bomber fire. The third and final cruiser wasn't going to stick around though. Leaving its fighters behind, it beat a hasty retreat, jumping into hyperspace. The relief was only momentary though, as the hundreds of tiny fighters still remained. The continually pounding upon the heavy cruiser was beginning to take its toll. The hull was loosing its structural integrity, and loosing it fast. Kehlia gave the order to retreat towards the mothership, in a hope to consolidate their power. She knew she couldn't outrun the fighters, she just had to hope she could make it to the mothership in time to gain some support fire. As the cruiser lurched towards the mothership, the constant rumbling grew quiet. The enemy ships weren't following! Now what the hell was going on? The cruiser was scrapped, they could easily finish it off but yet they sat there, motionless. Then the realization of it hit her. They were out of fuel! Ha! For all of their speed and maneuverability, they were nothing without their support cruisers. An exchange of speed for fuel meant nothing without someone to refuel you. Hundreds of enemy ships sat, waiting to blown out of the sky, one by one. This was more than just a chance to take some target practice though, this was a chance to learn more about a new enemy.....
Kehlia breathed a sigh of relief as she sat back in the shuttles chair. Everything was calm for now. The shuttle jolted as it detached from the cruiser and headed towards the Kushan mothership. The events of the past day were beginning to fade from her mind, but she knew they would all come back when she had to explain to her superiors and peers what exactly had happened. She could only hope that her valiant efforts in the previous hours would more than weigh against her catastrophic loss during the harvesting mission. For now though, she knew she could relax. Days worth of sleep would have to be made up in the five minute trip.
"Ummm, sir.." Kultaris turned around to face the intelligence officer that had entered the bridge. "It seems sir that the unidentified enemy who attacked us has no intentions of us capturing them. As our salvage ships began to close in on the fighters, they self distracted. I'm sorry sir." Kultaris sighed and sent the intelligence officer on her way. Another great opportunity lost, he was beginning to dislike this area more and more. No sooner could he let this new bad news settle than Captain Thruark came bellowing onto the bridge. Damn it, thought Kultaris, this was the last thing he wanted or needed to deal with at this time. The heavily built captain was around six feet tall with blonde red hair which had receded halfway back his head. His green eyes and heavy mustache gave the burly captain quite the menacing look.
"Look what she's done now sir! How many times does it take for that manufacturing slave to screw up before you will take any action?" Thruark was crimson red in the face, obviously not happy. Kultaris just leaned back and let Thruark vent all of his frustration.
"She isn't fit to fly a scout fighter let alone command a heavy cruiser! Kehlia should be down in the manufacturing bays where she belongs!" Kultaris looked up from Thruark to see Kehlia slowly strolling into bridge. Kultaris took a deep sigh. This was great, just great. Thruark spun around to see the figure of his hatred come before him.
"Well, if it isn't for the little lady now. Did you have to abandon another one of your ships?" Kehlia just looked away from Thruark and addressed Kultaris.
"Sir, the cruiser and carrier are currently under repair. The captured Taiidan carrier and plasma bombers will arrive shortly to be looked over and repaired if necessary. With your permission sir, I would like to brief you..." Kehlia shot an icy glare over at Thruark. "..another time." Kultaris nodded and dismissed Kehlia. As she strolled out of the bridge Thruark yelled after her.
"None of you alliance breakers from Kiith Hraal should be commanding anything! Go back to the manufacturing decks where you belong!" Kehlia paused as the words hit her back, then continued out of the bridge. Kultaris grabbed Thruark on the shoulder and spun him around.
"Never do that again Thruark, especially in front of the crew!" Thruark lowered his head and stormed out of the bridge.
"I can't handle this, I just can't do it anymore." Kehlia placed her hand on the frosty cryo-pod before her. "Is this all worth it? All these people are dying Dad, to find a home which may not even exist. This harmony for all Kushan is a joke, the Kiith lines are still drawn, they always will be. I just wish you could be here right now to help me. I don't know what you did to get me where I am, and to get yourself cryo-frozen but I don't know if it was for the best." Kehlia rose to her feet, a tear slowly rolling down her cheek. "I really hope this is all worth it Dad." Kehlia gathered her stuff, kissed the cryo-pod and walked out of the chamber....
"Sir, repairs have been completed and the fleet is assembled. We have the required resources to jump and await your orders." Kultaris looked out the view panels ahead of him. The heavy cruiser and two carriers were beginning to pull tightly together as the last of the smaller craft went into their respective hangers. Kultaris walked over to the comm officer and paged the cruiser.
"This is Kehlia sir, go ahead." came through the comm port.
"Well Kehlia, this is about as quiet as its been since we left, I think it's about time we got a name for your little ship there." The comm was quiet as Kehlia paused for a moment.
"Well sir, my Father has been a big influence in my life and on the life of our trip. He believed this journey was what our race was destined to complete. In his honor, I would like it to be christened 'Sojourn'.
"Well then captain, take the Sojourn to lead position, and prepare to jump." Kultaris closed the comm and strolled to the center of the bridge. "Nav officer, alert the other ships, and begin jump sequence." The waveform event began to form before them. The bluish waves washed over the mothership as it shot into hyperspace.
Kehlia reclined back in her chair aboard the bridge of the Kushan heavy Cruiser 'Sojourn'. The dazzling blue waves washed across the view panels as they continued through hyperspace. Harder on herself than anyone else could possibly be, the events of the past few days rolled through her head over and over. She should have known better than to have ion cannons anywhere close to a gas cloud. Thruark was right, she had no right to lead people into battle. Kehlia rubbed her eyes hard, trying to wash away the thoughts in her mind and just relax. Maybe Thruark would calm down a bit now. He finally got command of a capital ship, the Taiidan carrier SHE had captured. Ha, there is some gratitude for ya. She didn't care for the Taiidan carrier design, so rough and cold, much like the Taiidan she supposed. Of course Thruark wasted no time in naming his command ship. The 'Avengence' nearly doubled the manufacturing power of the Kushan fleet. The Kushan carrier still remained unnamed, who needs a name for a ship anyways. Kehlia moaned to herself, she had to get some rest. She slowly rose to her feet and notified the nav officer she was heading to her quarters. It was time to have that date she had put off with her pillow.
Cerlayne walked across the row of auxiliary fusion pylons, making sure each was functioning properly. The pylons didn't supply any power during normal operation but were only backups for the cryo-chambers should something happen to the main core. If the main core went down, the people onboard would hopefully have enough time to fix it, but even a momentary power failure in the cryo-chamber would be a catastrophe. A single degree variation could kill the 5 million in cryo-stasis. Therefore it was decided to create these backup fusion pylons, in case of such an emergency. Although only lowly grunt work, Cerlayne still knew the extreme importance of keeping these online and running. Cerlayne whistled to herself, keeping with the hum of the pylons. Their low hum was all that would keep her company during the long shift hours.
"Captain. Captain."
Kehlia's eyes slowly rolled open as the comm in her room opened again. "Captain. Captain." She couldn't have even closed her eyes. Kehlia rolled to her side and looked at the clock. Three hours, how could that have been three hours, seemed closer to three minutes. "Captain. Captain, are yo.."
"Yea, hold on one second." Kehlia interrupted as she swung her feet over the edge of her bed. She pulled her silk gown over herself as she rose to her feet. "I'll be to the bridge in a minute."
"Understood ma’am. We'll be dropping out of hyperspace in the next ten minutes or so." The comm channel closed. Kehlia slowly pulled herself into her officers uniform. You just had to love the impreciseness of hyperspace travel, she thought to herself. Who knows when we'll stop exactly, I guess we'll stop when we run out of resources. Kehlia shook her head, there had to be a better way. Kehlia pulled her hair back into a ponytail and headed through the deckways to the bridge.
Kultaris looked intently out through the viewpanels, waiting for the drop back to normalspace. What fun dangers would await this time, he thought to himself. The wavy blue of hyperspace broke apart before him and faded quickly back to the deep blackness of space.
"Sir, the Sojourn, Avengence, and other carrier have successfully fallen into normalspace ahead of us." Kultaris smiled to himself, they really had to name that other carrier, kind of took the whole drama out of it.
"As of yet sir, we haven't picked up any enemy vessels in our direct vicinity." Heh, 'as of yet', the nav officer picked his words very nicely. Kultaris ordered the manufacturing bay to begin to turn out some probes to see what's out there.
"Sir, there is an open communiqué out there, do wish me to put it through?" Kultaris nodded at the comm officer as he patched it through. The voices on the comm were weak and under great distress.
"Taiidan force: We head to your superiority and surrender. Please, this is a medical ship with woman and children aboard. We carry no means of defense and will obey by your command. Please cease fire!"
The communiqué broke up. "Nav officer, do we know where that is coming from?"
"Yes sir, we know the general direction but we have no clue as to what either force is comprised of." Kultaris quickly ordered the probes to be scrapped and to start churning out some fighter craft.
"Comm officer, order the three capital ships to form point around the mothership and head in the direction of the communiqué."
"But sir, we don't know what kind of a force is out there, if we just wait for the probes I'm sure.." Kultaris shot a quick look at the comm officer.
"That was an order, not a request, let's move."
The 'Sojourn' rocked back as it accelerated to take point of the fleet. The distress call had broken up just minutes before and she knew they had to hurry. The two carriers took point to both sides as the mothership loomed behind. The bridge was quiet in anticipation of what was ahead, only the vibrating deck plates broke the silence. The small alarm from the nav officers station seemed to shrill, making everyone's heart skip a beat.
"Ma’am, we have enemy signatures directly ahead. There are three large Taiidan signatures along with smaller support craft. Um, the craft under fire also registers as Taiidan." This had all the writings of a trap, a poorly executed one at that. However, it wouldn't surprise Kehlia if the Taiidan had begun to turn on one another, they weren't known for their humanitarian efforts. Kehlia was heading towards the comm when the message came through from the mothership.
"Continue to move in on the Taiidan attack force but be prepared for a trap." Well, that answered her first question. She knew her second one would be answered soon as the flashes of battle began to come into view.
The 'Sojourn' rocked back as it accelerated to take point of the fleet. The distress call had broken up just minutes before and she knew they had to hurry. The two carriers took point to both sides as the mothership loomed behind. The bridge was quiet in anticipation of what was ahead, only the vibrating deck plates broke the silence. The small alarm from the nav officers station seemed to shrill, making everyone's heart skip a beat. "Ma’am, we have enemy signatures directly ahead. There are three large Taiidan signatures along with smaller support craft. Um, the craft under fire also registers as Taiidan." This had all the writings of a trap, a poorly executed one at that. However, it wouldn't surprise Kehlia if the Taiidan had begun to turn on one another, they weren't known for their humanitarian efforts. Kehlia was heading towards the comm when the message came through from the mothership.
"Continue to move in on the Taiidan attack force but be prepared for a trap." Well, that answered her first question. She knew her second one would be answered soon as the flashes of battle began to come into view.
The Taiidan drone frigate closed in on the helpless medical frigate as it was rocked from the side. The 'Sojourn' opened all forward batteries directly upon the Taiidan war machine. The Taiidan commander quickly came about, ordering his support craft to intercept the Kushan fleet. He stood on the bridge of the drone frigate, leaning over the rail in front of him.
"Order all ships to engage the Kushan scum. Focus all firepower on the lead heavy cruiser!" The support craft screamed by the slower frigate, opening up upon their nemesis. "Bring the carrier around, and have it start churning out some plasma bombers!" barked out the commander. The Taiidan commander smiled to himself. The nav officer read only the heavy cruiser, mothership, and a Kushan carrier. Once the heavy cruiser was out of the way, the Kushan would be easy pickings. The new Taiidan Kaark Class plasma bombers would make short work of the supporting carrier and mothership. Not to mention the Kushan had just dropped out of hyperspace, they had to be low on resources. The commander smiled again, this would guarantee him the respect he had been seeking for so long. Disposing of medical 'waste' was far below his excellence. The commander leaned against the rail, lost in his own world. The nav officer yelled again.
"Commander!" The commander's head snapped up.
"What?"
"Sir, we have another Taiidan carrier in the area, it's coming in quickly." The commander hit the railing and mood quickly darkened, someone was coming in to steal his glory.
"Order the Taiidan carrier to come around behind us and join with our assigned carrier."
"Sir, they aren't responding, and they are still coming in, fast." Who the hell did they think they were, this was his operation. "Sir!" The commander looked out through the viewports. The unknown Taiidan carrier filled the entire view.
"Order our assigned carrier to close in and back us up, we may need..."
"Sir! Our carrier is heading away, it's leaving the area and making the jump to hyperspace!" The Taiidan commander sat dumbfounded, why had his support carrier just fled? The commander turned to the viewports again to see the unknown Taiidan carrier open fire.
Thruark ordered all forward batteries to open fire upon the Taiidan drone frigate. The frigate rocked as the gunners sprayed the hull.
"Ha ha! Stupid Taiidans! Launch the plasma bombers, and fighters, lets finish this off!" The Taiidan drone frigate fired up its engines, accelerating towards the mothership. "Keep on that frigate! Nav officer, what’s the battle status?"
"Sir, the mothership has sustained minimal damage, with the 'Sojourn' taking most all of the attack. It's heavily damaged and limping towards the cover fire of the carrier and mothership."
"Well surprise, she almost destroys her flag ship again. Good thing we're here so she doesn't take everyone down with her. What’s the status on the enemy drone frigate, has it been destroyed?"
"No sir, it's outpacing us and has outreached our batteries." Thruark sat upright in his chair.
"What about the plasma bombers? Haven't they hit the frigate yet?!"
"No sir, they can't get through the drone frigate's heavy defenses. The frigate is on a course to the mothership, but with it's armament it shouldn't do much harm." Thruark sat back in his chair uneasily, he had let them get by him. His only consolation was the drone frigate wasn't a cap attacker, the mothership and carrier combined fire power should take care of it.
"Sir! We have a BIG problem!"
Cerlayne crashed to the ground as the mothership shook violently again. Something was hitting them hard. She stumbled her way to one of the viewpanels in the pylon generator chamber. The chamber lay at the very bottom tip of the mothership, to more easily contain any of the extreme accidents that could occur, causing Cerlayne to have to strain her neck upwards to view along the skin of the mothership. Large chunks of the mothership were being blown apart but she couldn't make out what was hitting them so hard. Then, one of the enemy fighters streaked by her viewport and slammed into the section above, throwing her to the ground hard. God, they were crashing right into the mothership! The mothership's gunners and support craft tried desperately to take out the enemy ships, but the damage was still being done. Cerlayne slowly crawled to her feet and looked back through the viewport. Then the real danger came into view as the distant star's light danced off of the hull of the Taiidan drone frigate. It was heading straight towards the mothership at full speed!
Kultaris gripped the railing in a desperate attempt to hold his footing as the mothership shook from tip to toe. The once clear victory was now being smeared as the mothership sustained heavier damage. The constant shaking slowed as the last of the fighters were pegged off by support craft fire. Kultaris stumbled back into the railing, trying to support himself back up.
"I want a complete damage analysis, we had to have taken some heavy damage." "Sir, structural integrity is holding, but the hull has taken quite a beating and..." The nav officer quickly broke in.
"Sir! The Taiidan drone frigate is closing in on us, fast!" Kultaris looked up and out the viewports to see the frigate barreling towards the Kushan mothership. "God, there's no way we can get out of the way." Kultaris said.
"Increase engine power to full and try to get the hell out of the way if you can, nav officer." The mothership groaned to life as it desperately tried to veer out of the way but it was too late. The frigate was locked on to the bridge, and they weren't about to get away. Kultaris grabbed tightly to the railing preparing for the immenent impact.
Cerlayne quickly drew her head away from the viewport as a brilliant white ion stream flowed across the mothership. The Sojourn's main batteries opened fire upon the frigate in a desperate attempt to stop the suicidal ship. The drone frigate lurched to the side and blew apart, sending the forward compartments reeling downwards toward Cerlayne. Her momentary relief turned to utter fear as the front half of the Taiidan frigate continued on a path directly for her. She stumbled backwards to the ground, quickly jumping back to her feet and running down the tight corridors. She had to get as much crew out of the area as she could before they sealed off the area. Her fist slammed against the alarm, sending a shrill wail through the area. Quickly, she ordered as many crew out as she could as the sealing doors began to fall. "Come on! Let's go, we got to get out of here fast!." God, she thought, she hadn't shut down the auxillary fusion pylons. If they were on and they got hit, the damage would be catastrophic. She quickly sprinted down the hallway, sliding up to the main pylon control. Shaking violently she punched in the access controls and shut down all of the pylons. Cerlayne whipped back around to make a run for the doors, but she was too late. The hissing of the doors sealing was the last thing she heard as the drone frigate smashed into the Kushan mothership.
Kehlia looked in horror as the Taiidan drone frigate ripped into the bottom of the mothership. They were too late. The resulting explosion washed the entire area in hot white light. Kehlia grabbed tightly to the railing as the Sojourn was assaulted by flying debris. As the light dissipated into the blackness of space, the damage was ever apparent. The entire bottom portion of the mothership was gone! Kehlia put her hand to her mouth. God, how many had died. Kehlia blinked in disbelief at the catastrophy, trying to bring herself back in command. "Ahh, secure the area and keep an eye out nav officer. I want a shuttle readied as soon as possible to take me to the mothership." Kehlia slowly walked off of the bridge shaking her head. Hundreds more had died again, all for a new home.
Kultaris sat forward in his chair with his hands over his face. It could have been much worse ..... but the hundreds that were lost ..... god, it was all just too much to handle. The damage was severe, but somehow the auxillary fusion pylons had been spared. Someone obviously had the prescence of mind to shut them down before impact, a decision that cost that someone their life. Kultaris let out a long sigh, straightening himself upright in his chair. Thruark quickly came running up to Kultaris, his face as red as ever.
"Sir, I saw the damage, I can only hope most were spared. My crew did the best they could to stall the frigate. She almost cost us everything this time sir." Kultaris, still silent, raised his eyes to Thruark. "Sir, we have to do something about her. She left her point as guard and almost caused the destruction of everything we hold dear in the process."
"You arrogant prick!" Thruark spun around in time to catch Kehlia's fist straight in his face. Thruark tumbled backwards, crashing to the deck plates. Kehlia walked over to him, placing her boot over his throat. "Thruark, you just killed hundreds of your fellow Kushan today with your arrogance." Kehlia pushed harder down on his neck as he struggled. "You had the easiest job of all, and you screwed that up! Easy pickings on a surprised frigate and you couldn't handle it. Hell, the carrier fled, and you still couldn't take care of it! Instead, your ignorance let him get away and kill those that weren't even in battle." Kultaris rose out of his chair and pulled Kehlia away from Thruark.
"Enough of this, we have enough problems as it is." Thruark slowly rose from the ground, blood trailing from his nose. "You two need to return to your ships and begin any and all repairs that need to be done. We'll send out a party to go retrieve some resources as soon as we have a decent task force ready. We're also going to need..." The comm officer broke in,
"Sir." Kultaris broke away from the two other officers and headed to the comm station. "Sir, we have another incoming transmission from the unidentified medical vessel, I'll put it through."
"Unidentified task force, we thank you for your intervention. We are heavily damaged and loosing systems as we speak. We appeal to your mercy and request assylum aboard your ships."
God, he had forgotten all about the ship that started this whole mess. Thruark shuffled over to the comm station.
"Sir, we can't take in Taiidan. It's probably just a trap, who knows what is on that ship. If it's not a trap, it's something the Taiidan don't want, and if they don't want it, why would we?" Kehlia quickly interjected in.
"We came all this way to answer that distress call. In no way are we going to abandon it now, not after what we just lost."
"But sir, they are on a medical vessel. Who knows what diseases we would be exposed to. We should just finish them off, it's the humane thing to do." Kehlia shot a disgusted look at Thruark.
"Sir, we have more than enough room aboard the Sojourn, you can't possibly be enertaining this savage's ideas..." Kultaris threw up his hand infront of the two and dismissed them. He had a lot of thinking and not much time to do it.
Kultaris ran his hands across the cold railing in front of him. His eyes ran out into space, wondering what the hell he was going to do. The small medical vessel had continued to call for assisstance but had now drawn quiet. The eerie silence sent chills through him, people were dying out there. Could he risk his own people for the lives aboard the Taiidan medical ship? The silence through the bridge continued as he gripped tighter to the rail. "God damn it! increase speed and bring us close to the Taiidan medical vessel. Order the Sojourn to prepare a boarding party and bring any survivors aboard. Tell Kehlia to be prepared for anything and notify the Taiidan vessel we're coming aboard."
The boarding ship slowly rolled past the forward viewpannels of the Sojourn. Kehlia watched closely as it made its descent towards the medical vessel. "Keep all forward batteries trained on the ship, I don't want them to pull any funny business on us now. Tell the boarding party commander to update me as soon as possible." The comm officer nodded and turned back to her station. Kehlia walked up to the forward viewpannel and looked out upon the medical ship. The hull was in horrible shape with puncture marks spread all about it. They were going to be lucky to find any survivors. "Ma'm, the commander has docked successfully and is calling in." Kehlia broke away from the window and headed to the comm station. "Go ahead commander."
"Ma'm, most of the ships systems seem to be down. We are slowly making our way to the bridge and have had no contact yet with anyone aboard. Ooh, wait a second here, we've got a body over here. God, it's an elderly woman. This is strange though, it's tough to tell with the damage sustained, but this woman doesn't look Taiidan at all. You have to be kidding me. Ma'm, we have more heavily damaged bodies, looks like more woman and some children."
Kehlia drew away from the station. That wasn't any medical frigate, it was a ship full of women and children. As bad as the Taiidan were, they didn't execute women and children without reason, at least Kehlia didn't think they would. The comm from the commander came open again.
"My god! Ma'm, you're not going to believe this."
"Kushan?!? How the hell could they be Kushan? Are you sure about this Kehlia?" Kultaris leaned over the comm station, waiting for a response. "Yes, sir. There isn't any mistaking it. From our accounts we have recovered fifty survivors and two hundred bodies." Kultaris closed the comm and walked back to his chair. All along they thought they were the last of their species, but somehow their were more. Maybe some were kept back as a slave race for the Taiidan, who knows. Why the hell had he waited to go rescue those aboard the ship. If he would have just issued the order earlier, who knows how many more Kushan could have been saved. The question that rested heaviest on his mind though was whether or not their insurrection was the cause for the execution of those aboard the medical vessel and countless others who may lie elsewhere.
Kehlia stood in amazement as one by one the rescued Kushan walked down the corridor and looked back at her in equal amazement. Who knew how many other Kushan were under the oppresion of the Taiidan. There was a new mission to be had now. This was no longer a search for a home lost. This was a search for a scattered people and the complete destruction of the Taiidan.