Chapter 24

Reporting to GF Command was easy enough, the AIs patched us in to the group who had requested it, headed by Commander Gust.

“Congratulations on your capture of an alien core, sub-Commander Flinn,” Gust began. “You too, sub-Commander Kiria and Prefect Torun.”

“Thank you, sir,” Flinn replied for us all.

“I want your Healer group to join our main assault on the command and control craft in the centre of the alien formation. The Assault Carrier Venzulis will be despatched along with the Missile Carriers Princess Royal and Imperial Wrath and five squadrons of Heavy Fighters. We shall move directly through the alien formation in a full assault on this vessel with the hope of capturing it.”

“Yes, sir.”

“The Empress commands!”

“And we obey!” we all replied.

“Good. This is a risky mission, hence only experienced Troopers are being sent, which is why you’ll be going along. Be careful and return safely.”

“Yes, sir,” Flinn replied.

“Any questions?”

“When are we setting off, sir?” I asked.

“As soon as the Venzulis is loaded.”

“Yes, sir,” Flinn added. “We’re on our way.”

It took several hundred rotations before the Venzulis joined the two Missile Carriers. By then, 5^th Fleet, along with the Hegemony and the recently arrived Missile Cruisers from the Technocracy had begun their assault on the alien fleet. Mostly they were picking off those vessels on the outer edge of the formation and were at times finding it hard to strike down the larger craft due to the masses of close-in defensive fire those ships could lay down.

This changed somewhat when the Venzulis, flanked by the two Missile Carriers and the five squadrons of Heavy Fighters joined the fray with the missile storm produced punching a hole in the alien formation and allowing passage into the core. A rapid dash by the Venzulis got it into landing craft range of the designated vessel and we followed a storm of missiles to board the vessel.

Both the Missile Carriers were firing as fast as their launchers could be re-loaded as the Venzulis emptied itself of landing craft, boarding pods and shuttles. Even the more experienced Troopers were looking on with awe as massive explosions hammered the closer alien vessels while we approached our target, dodging the occasional shot at us.

“Prepare to board!” came the command from the pilot.

There was a distinct ‘clunk’, which felt more as a vibration than a noise, as we docked on the back of a boarding pod and the doors opened.

“Let’s go!” Flinn yelled out as we rushed through the pod and onto the alien vessel.

There was chaos in the corridor we’d penetrated, but we were prepared and Flinn and Torun led the way, with their polearms point first, straight into the sides of an alien about to kill one of our Troopers. I then used the axe part of my polearm to finish it off as the other two pulled back.

“On your feet Trooper,” Flinn ordered. “You don’t have permission to die.”

“S ... sir!”

We hauled the guy to his feet and then advanced behind the ‘mincer’, cutting down any alien that they’d failed to take out. More Troopers were coming in behind us and Flinn led us to the side to set up the healing station. Our Meditechs had moved forward with the ‘mincer’ and were either treating the wounded or helping to bring them to us. All around us, as opposed to the other boardings we’d done, was the sound of battle as the aliens were pouring reinforcements in to try and stop our advance.

“Sounds like they disagree with our plan,” I chuckled.

“Yes, we do appear to be unwelcome,” Flinn grinned as we steadily got our Troopers back on their feet or prepared for evac.

‘Healer Kiria, you are ordered to the front line,” the AI informed me.

“On my way, what’s the issue?” I asked.

“Commander Gust is seriously wounded but does not want to be relieved. He wishes you to heal him, whilst assisting in command.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously,” the AI stated.

“Better hurry,” Flinn advised, knowing I’d be slightly better in a combat scenario than she would be.

“On my way,” I replied, setting off at a run.

The Meditechs had Gust stabilised when I got there, though he was not mobile. He was, however, able to observe and command the battle unfolding before us.

“We need to penetrate into the secondary interior ring,” he gasped out as I used my wand to examine his severe abdominal lacerations, including a nasty little neurotoxin that was killing him slowly but surely.

“OK,” I nodded, deciding that he wasn’t going to die on me immediately and allowing the wand to administer a series of nanite compositions that would slow the process, giving the AIs time to come up with the perfect solution.

I then moved forward to observe what was going on, finding that the aliens were using some sort of portable grav-shield to prevent our advance and keep us in the detachable outer ring.

“Use the fragmentation bomblets and throw one above the shield, whilst the rest of you roll them under it,” I advised the Senior Monitor. “If you’re lucky, at least one will get under and cause it to be dropped.”

“Yes, sir!”

It didn’t quite go to plan. It was the bomblet that was thrown high that got through, but the ones thrown low also helped, the lower edge of the shield was blown back and it toppled forwards from the initial blast.

“At them!” the Senior Monitor roared and several Troopers darted forwards to take on the alien defenders. The defenders though also advanced swiftly to take on the Troopers, using their mandibles and claws to bat individual Troopers aside as well as penetrate their armour. This was countered somewhat by the hail of pellets that the Troopers unleashed at them, forcing them to use their clawed limbs to cover their weaker areas.

I’d meanwhile got back to Gust and was repairing the tears and lesions to his abdomen. including re-attaching several parts of his intestines. He, in the meantime, was viewing the battle through the AI feed in his armour and generally acting completely unlike my normal run-of-the-mill patients in that he demanded to be alert during the procedure.

Fortunately, that was an option, as I was able to use the wand to local, anaesthetise the area as well as ensure he didn’t go into shock. In all this he was giving out a stream of orders to his advancing Troopers after I’d cleared away the blockage. I was also informed by the AI that the nanites required to reverse the neurotoxin damage were complete and I deposited them in his armour’s medical port and from there into his system.

“They’re blocked again,” he sighed. “Could you see to it, Kiria?”

“Yes, sir,” I chuckled as he was clearly beginning to recover, despite the damage to his internals.

This time the hold-up was being caused by three very large aliens who had been equipped with some sort of built-in beam weapon that was capable of slicing through a Trooper’s armour. Nor was an easy approach possible as they were at the end of a long corridor that linked the internal sections, plus there was no way to throw a bomblet down there without getting cut down.

“Other teams are pinned down as well, sir,” the Senior Monitor informed me.

“What we need is a small missile or a means to throw a bomblet down there,” I mused out loud.

“We tried. It’s just too far for a bomblet,” he replied. “Pellets just bounce off the damned things, same with railgun rounds.”

“AI?” I asked after a moment’s thought. “Could you bond a stem onto the base of the bomblet?”

“Yes, Kiria. You can use your wand to do so,” the AI replied.

“OK,” I replied and then used the wand to form a stream of nanites around the bomblet base and some dense particulates fallen from the wall.

I then made sure it would fit down the shaft of my pellet firer and then removed a pellet head from the firing tube. Loading the blank pellet, I then slid the stem down the barrel of the firer and set the bomblet to impact activation. I then waited for the alien to fire, rapidly got to my knees and fired. It wasn’t perfect, though it did reach the end of the corridor and hit the alien in its side and blew a large chunk of its armour away which blocked the corridor slightly, enabling the closest Troopers to rush up and throw their own bomblets.

“Clever,” the Senior Monitor noted.

“Seemed the only way to get the range from cover,” I replied with a grin as the advance continued.

“At least you had something that could do it.”

“True, though no doubt you’ll get the official version, just as soon as the AIs can get the weapon plants to make any,” I grinned before heading back to finish with Gust.

“Well done again, Kiria. Not sure how I’d have dealt with that situation, but that probably would not have been it,” he greeted me.

“We just needed something to give us the range and from cover,” I shrugged as I started using the grav capabilities of the wand to finish tidying him up and ensuring the nanites continued their work.

Soon enough, Gust was able to start giving out orders, guiding his Troopers advance as they penetrated ever deeper into the alien ship. The news from the battle outside was good too, the Empire was slowly whittling down the alien fleet, particularly by the Hegemony flotilla. whose weapons were deadly against them. Inside, it was fairly obvious that we’d passed the point where the aliens could split their vessel, plus the proximity of the Heavy Fighters had stripped most of the outside of its close proximity weapons.

“We just need to capture this ship,” Gust informed me. “Hopefully it will have something valuable to us that will prevent it from being fired on.”

“I’m surprised they haven’t at least tried it on the sections we hold.”

“I’m fast coming to the conclusion that they don’t think that way, plus the pressure our fleet is putting on them means they may not be any too keen on diverting their fire our way.”

“Whatever keeps us safe,” I chuckled as I repaired the last tear and began to clean out his insides in preparation to sealing the wounds totally.

‘This prey have penetrated the command ship,’ the senior intelligence reported. ‘Also, their fleet stands supreme on the field of battle.’

‘We have lost?’ a secondary intelligence asked.

‘We will lose.’

‘What is to be done?’