Chapter 6
Chapter 6
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Day 19
"The Kadeshi, huh?" inquired Commander Paktu. I, her, Jacyn and Nolan were all sitting at the same table in her conference room. "Should we tell the others?" I asked. The leading Intel expert, Jacyn, answered me. "No. Information this sensitive is confined to a need-to-know basis. We can't be sure about anything yet."
Nolan was shaking his head in awe. "I mean, the Protectors? Why would they leave the Nebula?" The Commander shrugged, "We only stuck around them in the Nebula for a few weeks. We couldn't be sure about their entire behavioral patterns." I looked at the three of them. "Who of you have been in the Nebula?" Only Jacyn and Jel Paktu raised their hands; Nolan and I were both Sleepers on the Exodus. The Commander said, "I even commanded one of the Multi-Beam Frigates that we'd captured." Three MBFs had survived the troubles of the Exodus; eventually one of them was cannibalized to decipher the Kadeshi secrets; the other two were given to an elite Soban Ion Frigate group.
Jacyn offered, "Well, when I was flying a Repair Corvette in the Nebula, I saw very many people die at their hands. I'd like to pay them back for it." The Commander silenced him, "Now, let's not become vengeful. We have to maintain clear heads about this. Fortunately, we could possibly be more ready than we think. A lot has changed since we had encountered the Kadeshi fleet. We have Missile Destroyers, Heavy Cruisers, and more powerful vessels that can aid us in this conflict. A lot has changed in the past ten years."
Nolan banged his fist on the table, "Yeah, but that applies to them, too! Didn't you see the video? If we are correct in our assumption, they have laser weapons. We're still mucking around with bullets on our fighters, and they have miniature Ion Cannons on all of theirs'. We have no idea what kind of new weaponry they yield. They could overtake the sectorβ¦"
Jacyn nodded. "I agree. In any case, we have to show this to the Corporation. An enemy of our enemy is our friend." Cm. Paktu grabbed the datapad with the recorded video feed from the middle of the table. She stood up, "I am going to send a fully armed battle fleet to their head of operations in the sector. I may be able to convince them to form a peace, if only a temporary one." Nolan spoke for the rest of us. "I'm staying here. The squadron has to stay here in case anyone attacks when you're gone." She nodded, and left the room. The three of us were quiet. Then, Jacyn spoke up. "I'm heading over to the Construction Yard. I need its comm. center to hail Halen Chell. We may need him for information on the Kadeshi fleet." We followed.
* * *
When we were arriving at the finished Yard, we noticed that the Sensors Array Vigilance was being grafted to the hull. The one special feature of the Yards were their ability to be upgraded beyond their original design, to allow for stronger sensors, more weapons, and greater holding bays. It reminded me of that brand new ship the Somtaaw built (what was her name? Kuun-Lan?) When we entered the massive internal construction platform, we saw that a new Destroyer was receiving its final touches. We docked our five fighters (though they weren't great company, we had developed an affinity for old 1R-D and 1R-F) in the main fighter bay in the middle of dozens of assorted fighter craft, and headed straight through the immense ship towards the porthole linking it to the Vigilance.
We entered the former-Sensors Array and Jacyn began patching in the coordinates of the Chu'Nath system, in hope that Halen and his forces were still there. It was just about a week since the fleet left for the station, which was overstaying their welcome, but pirates weren't known for their courtesy.
Jacyn brought up the system on the star map and began scanning it for the radio frequency of the station. He furrowed his brow, and began clicking more buttons, obviously without good results. I asked, "What's up?" He shook his head. "It's not there." Nolan asked, "What, the radio frequency? His fleet?"
Jacyn was solemn. "The station."
I was shocked. "What?"
He interrupted me. "Hold on. I'll try to get a visual feed of the area from the flight recorders of ships that have recently been to Chu'Nath. On one of the displays, he scrolled down to an entry in green lettering that was from RECON FLEET 487. It was three hours old.
He put the necessary recording onscreen. It was rather static-heavy, but I could make out a voice and a vague image of the system. "Uhhh, Captain, the place is in ruins, sir." Another voice answered. "What the hell? That can't be!"
"They're all gone sir."
"Could it have been those Turanic ships that just docked?"
I looked at the other four. I sure as hell hoped it was them who trashed the place. The picture came out clear, and I noticed the station was in a very high state of battle damage. Several charred pieces of the hull, some even a hundred meters in length, were floating away from the main cadaver of the station.
"No, sir. I am picking up Turanic debris as well. No one survived."
Damn it! That meant only one thing. "It would appear that the Kadeshi have learned of our meeting," said 1R-F. Nolan nodded, "Which means that they most certainly know we're here." I felt a retching feeling of dread curl my stomach into a purΓ©e. "We have to warn the fleet. Now!"
I led my men to the docking bay. "If the Protectors know we're here, then they'll attack us where we're the weakest, which means our peacemaker fleet out by the Corporate fleet." Jacyn asked, "Would they have the guts to attack the Corporation?" Nolan responded, "They have the guts to do anything."
When we reached our ships, I noticed something. "Wait. We don't have hyperspace capability on these birds." 1R-D inquired, "Then how do we reach them?" I thought for a while, and then grinned evilly, and Jacyn and Nolan thought the same thing.
* * *
It didn't take very long for us to convince the new crew of the Destroyer to make a premature launch from the Yard. They were really convinced of our command by the pulse lasers we were holding. Looking back on it, I didn't think we go about it the right way. A bomb would have been more convincing.
I asked the pilot of the Endeavor, "How long until we enter hyperspace?" He was shivering, "Abut seven seconds, sir!" I nodded. In eight seconds, we were racing at terminal velocity to warn the fleet, and hoping it wasn't too late.
* * *
We reached the sector of space they were in, and saw something that horrified us. It wasn't that our ships were being attacked; it was that the Corporate ones were, and they were quickly dying. There were no Lzz-char defending their fleet anymore, and there was only one burning battleship left. There was one Kadeshi Mothership in the region, but instead of the original needle configuration, it was a rectangular, blocky ship, which was the traditional smooth white o the Kadeshi ships.
The new Swarmers were pummeling the battleship with their green lasers. The ultra-dense hull was being easily melted and torn up by the superheated beams. And within seconds, the large ship was replaced by a larger ball of gas.
We were too shocked to move. The Endeavor was moving towards the Hiigaran fleet, but I knew we had to leave very soon. A few of the Swarmers turned around to face us, and I saw that in the ghostly silence Jacyn was mouthing, "No." But they did start their engines, and the sphere ships raced towards our pathetic ships.
There was only one thing to say.
"RETREAT!"