Amantus
Copyright© 2026 by QM
Chapter 21
“Well done, all of you, you performed well above expected standards,” Amantus praised the bridge crew. “Drop battle stations and move to high alert and begin a search for survivors.”
“Yes, sir,” Brug replied. “Tarpheli too?”
“Just mark them unless their situation is life-threatening.”
“Understood, sir.”
“Flotilla-wide message from Commodore Hrilt,” Carva informed the bridge.
“Put it through to the ship,” Amantus ordered,
What followed was a somewhat vainglorious speech by the Commodore, thanking the flotilla for achieving a stunning victory for his flotilla and the Protectorate. This was mostly ignored by the bridge crew, who were carrying out the tasks Amantus had set them. Dorce was currently speaking to Senior Commander Virik to assess the minor damage from the battle and what would be needed once the flotilla returned to Conveelt.
Finally, the shift handover arrived, and Amantus brought Commander Tukle up to speed on the ongoing operations, which consisted of using the Sabre’s landing craft to ferry crew from damaged ships to the assault carrier Hammer or the medical ship Calm. Once done, Amantus made his way to the canteen for a relaxing meal. In this, he failed somewhat, as he was constantly approached by various officers and crew who wanted to get Amantus’s view on the battle and how he’d kept the Sabre undamaged. Finally, though, Amantus made it to his cabin, then to a study period, and then to sleep.
On awakening, Amantus found a message on his perscomp requesting that he report to Dorce at the shift changeover to review the tactics Amantus had employed.
“Well done, Sub-Commander,” Dorce congratulated Amantus once the salutes were exchanged. “Your tactics were noted by several command officers within the flotilla, and I’d like you to write out a report for them on what you used and why.”
“Of course, sir.”
“Under normal circumstances, you’d get a citation for your acts; however, your circumstances are far from normal, and what you did cannot be officially recognised,” Dorce continued.
“I understand, sir.”
“Good, though rest assured that those who serve with you are aware of your actions and appreciate your endeavours to keep them alive,” Dorce smiled.
“Thank you, sir,” Amantus replied.
“Carry on, Sub-Commander.”
“Sir,” Amantus saluted and left the day cabin.
Amantus found that a reduced flotilla had continued its patrol, with the damaged ships having been patched up and returning to Conveelt. Checking through the records, Amantus found, not to his surprise, that the plot set was fixed and that the flotilla would emerge from XD space in the same place as it had many times previously.
“We might as well paint a target on the flotilla,” Amantus sighed when mentioning it to Lieutenant Gille.
“Those are the orders we have,” Gille shrugged.
“I know,” Amantus nodded. “But you’d think someone on the Commodore’s staff would have realised.”
“Possibly not, we don’t tend to get ambushed that often,” Gille chuckled.
“We’ll be doing the same manoeuvre when we transition,” Amantus informed the bridge crew. “Just in case.”
“Are you expecting another ambush, sir?” Lieutenant Brug asked.
“The flotilla that ambushed us is still out there and might try,” Amantus shrugged. “We didn’t wipe them out.”
“True, sir.”
Amantus then started to assemble the tactical report on his actions during the previous battle, listing the various manoeuvres he’d used as well as the others that he had picked up from Mance, Sulli and Vinns. Fortunately, most of them were listed on his perscomp, so collating them didn’t take long. After that, it was simply a case of tidying up the report to make it readable.
“We’ll be transitioning in five rotations,” Gille warned.
“Full alert,” Amantus ordered. “2G random side drift when we emerge.”
“Yes, sir,” Polaf replied.
The Sabre emerged along with the rest of the flotilla, though there was no ambush. What was detected, though, was evidence of a Tarpheli infiltration in a series of distress signals from an asteroid mining station.
“Our squadron has been ordered to investigate,” Carva informed Amantus. “We are to take the lead.”
“Plot us a course and take us in,” Amantus ordered.
“Course plotted, sir,” Gille replied.
“Take us in, detection active,” Amantus ordered.
“Yes, sir,” Brug replied.
“Course transmitted,” Carva informed the bridge. “Acknowledged.”
“Let’s go,” Amantus ordered.
The Sabre and four other destroyers left the flotilla and vectored in to where the distress signals were coming from.
“Detecting a large asteroid,” Brug informed the bridge.
“Send a signal, let’s see if they’ve got comms,” Amantus ordered.
“No response, as yet, sir,” Carva replied.
“Beginning slowdown,” Polaf informed the bridge.
“Looks shot to hell,” Carva added. “Bringing up on screen.”
What appeared was a mining ship orbiting the asteroid, with several holes from hyperbeams.
“Detecting energy sources,” Carva continued. “It hasn’t been looted, either.”
“Send a shuttle across, let’s see if anyone is alive over there,” Amantus ordered. “Order the other destroyers to maintain a perimeter.”
“Orders sent and acknowledged, sir,” Carva replied. “Shuttle is on its way.”
Several rotations went by before Carva announced, “Shuttle docked.”
“Bring up the bodycams of the troopers,” Amantus ordered.
“Yes, sir.”
The monitors showed a powered-down vessel with objects floating in zero G, though currently no signs of life. Amantus listened to the force Lieutenant ordering his men to head for the nearest major energy source, where there might be a possibility of life. “Ship identified as the mining ship Valos,” the Lieutenant informed Amantus.
“Looking it up,” Carva said. “Registered to Colime Industries on Senkat.”
“Inform the flagship, they’ll be able to get in touch with the owners,” Amantus replied.
“Yes, sir,”
“Detecting life signs behind this bulkhead,” the force Lieutenant announced. “Opening it now.”
What appeared on the screen was a group of haggard-looking people, clearly delighted to see the force troopers.
“Thank the gods,” the one who appeared to be in charge said. “We were suddenly attacked with no warning.”
“By who?” the Lieutenant asked.
“No idea, we just detected a ship approaching and expected to have to pay the usual bribe before it shot out our powerplant and drive.”
“We’ll need to check your logs, if that’s ok?” the Lieutenant replied thoughtfully.
“Sure, we have nothing to hide,” the man shrugged.
“Let’s get you across to the Sabre,” the Lieutenant decided. “We’ll return with some engineers to see if there’s anything we can do.”
“Sure.”
Amantus met the crew of the Valos as they alighted from the shuttle, even as a second shuttle left, containing an engineering complement.
“Welcome, I’m Sub-Commander Amantus of the destroyer Sabre,” he introduced himself.
“Captain Tark of the MS Valos,” the man who had been doing all the talking replied. “It was truly good that you people were around.”
“Happy to help,” Amantus replied. “I’m to take you to the Captain.”
“Lead the way, Sub-Commander.”
Amantus left Tark with Dorce, then made his way back to the bridge and requested to see the Video observation logs of the Valos and was granted access to them by Commander Tukle. Amantus then downloaded them to his perscomp and grabbed a meal before displaying the results on the main screen in his cabin with the lights dimmed to enable all aspects of the videologs to be examined. It was soon obvious that whoever had attacked the Valos was not Tarpheli, though it was not immediately obvious from the videologs who had done it, other than they were likely human.
Amantus then got the ship’s mainframe to enhance certain aspects of the attacking vessel, looking for anything that might identify it, finding several Protectorate body markings and attaching them to the videolog before sending the logs back to Tukle and settling into a history of the Vrenner War, the last major campaign the Protectorate had fought before moving to a phase of undermining its enemies before taking them over.
When Amantus awoke, the almost unnoticed hum of the ship’s drive informed him that they were underway. A quick glance at the ship’s log told Amantus that the destroyer squadron was ‘towing’ the Valos, and had permission from the flotilla to return to Conveelt. Waiting for Amantus on the bridge was Tukle to hand over the shift and congratulate him on identifying the attacking vessel from the Valos logs.
“We now suspect it was corporate sabotage from a rival looking to expand into the claim the Valos had made,” Tukle concluded.
“They could have killed them, probably would have if we hadn’t come along,” Amantus frowned.
“Yes, which is why Captain Dorce flagged your findings to the Commodore and back to Conveelt,” Tukle replied.
“I suspect Internal Security is going to be busy,” Amantus wryly smiled.
“They’ll be looking for links to clan activities, as well as the perpetrators,” Tukle shrugged.
“I’d bet credits it’s to keep the clans and noble houses out of any open accusations of corruption,” Amantus chuckled.
“Seems likely,” Tukle smiled. “Though I suspect in the background, there will be some sort of retaliation or consequences.”
“Hard to tell at our level,” Amantus replied.
“Yeah, true,” Tukle agreed before heading off to enjoy his relaxation period.
It was getting on towards the end of the shift that the destroyers reached Conveelt and handed over the Valos to the civilian yard tugs. The Sabre then headed over to the naval yards for armour repair and replacement before Amantus signed off on the shore leave requirements, which followed the rest period of each shift. Copies were sent to the perscomps of all the senior officers before Amantus handed over the shift to Tukle, who was back on duty.
As Amantus had lucked out in being on shore leave immediately, he made his usual trek to the base datacentre to see if their records had been updated with any new biographies or historical records. He also plugged in his communication device and sent his mother the Valos logs and his suspicions. However, he was surprised when Helia appeared on screen, as it was a sleeping period on Vreekoos.
“Amantus, my son, it’s good to see you,” Helia began.
“Honoured mother,” Amantus replied. “I take it you are well?”
“I am,” Helia smiled. “How is your career going?”
Amantus told Helia of the promotion and transfer, then explained the issues the flotilla had faced due to the complacency of Commodore Hrilt, along with his dereliction of duty in not passing along Fleet standing orders. Amantus then told Helia of the attack on the Valos and his suspicions of noble or clan involvement in getting rid of a rival’s operation.
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