Chapter 45

The Spitfire, guarded by the Missile Carrier Princess Victoria as well as elements of the Technocracy and Kingdom Fleets, followed in the wake of the 6^th Fleet.

“Big,” I murmured as we observed the command ship via the AIs monitoring the battle.

“Well, it is, though not as big as a Raffagee battlesphere,” Flinn replied.

“We never tried boarding one of those ... well, not a whole one.”

“That’s true,” Flinn nodded. “Feeling nervous?”

“A bit, yes.”

“You’re not, normally,” she frowned. “What’s so different this time?”

“The potential to go boom if mishandled,” I replied.

“Ah yes, and it’s not under your control either.”

“Yes, Flinn. This is something I’d definitely want to have control over. If it were up to me, I’d simply destroy these things, at a distance.”

“I agree. Unfortunately...”

“Yeah, some bright spark wants a look at what they’ve got,” I sighed.

“Fleet Engineering,” the AI informed us.

“Figures. No doubt they’ll be hoping the aliens have found a safe way to use it,” Flinn mused out loud.

“Don’t know why, we have mass conversion for energy,” I pointed out.

“True, however we need a fusion plant to give the energy needed to do it in the first place. Sounds like Fleet Engineering are looking to cut out the middle-man.”

“Cheap power,” I snorted.

“Yep, the pipe dream of a lot of engineers.”

“Command ship has been designated,” the AI informed us.

“Let’s go,” Flinn ordered.

“Landing craft and boarding pods have been launched,” Gollant informed Clessik.

“Let us pray the aliens are reluctant to scuttle their ship,” Clessik replied.

“Yes, sir. It worries me too.”

“As it is, that thing is still bristling with weapons, even if we believe the anti-matter beam is now disabled.”

“The Heavy Fighters have cleared a spot, but you’re right, they’re taking casualties on the run in,” Gollant frowned.

“Bad?” Clessik asked as he checked the cube for an update.

“Within acceptable numbers, but still bad for those hit by it.”

“Yes, but the Empress commands.”

‘It appears they have decided to board the vessel Corsuuli,’ a Master commented to the group as a whole.

‘Interesting, let us see what they intend to do, should they actually manage it,’ the senior Master replied.

‘Yes. Let the prey come to us for a change.’

‘It has been aeons since we were truly challenged on our own territory,’ the senior replied in satisfaction.

It had been perhaps the roughest trip I’d ever undertaken in a landing craft. Even with grav-control, the ship had lurched and seemingly bounced around as it dodged anything the alien ship had thrown at us. I was also aware that many other craft had not been so lucky.

“Ready yourselves!” the pilot yelled over the comm channel.

We all gripped our polearms tightly and waited for the hatch to open, knowing from the reports that the ship was well crewed and that they were fighting fanatically.

“Go!” Flinn yelled as the airlock opened onto a scene of battle.

The Troopers led the way straight into a mass of fighting creatures and, for a moment, eased the pressure on the units already fighting. The ship itself was vastly different from vessels I had previously boarded. It had wide, tall corridors which also allowed the aliens to come at us in strength. That said, more Troopers were arriving and were helping us stabilise our lines. This enabled the medical section to start healing the wounded as the fighting moved away from us. It was also noticeable that the aliens were also grabbing and pulling away any Troopers they downed and harvesting from their bodies as well as feeding on them.

“Here they come again!” a Senior Monitor warned as a wave of aliens came racing down the corridor straight at us, despite a hail of bomblets and pellets tearing apart their front ranks. They were met, as ever, by a wall of Troopers holding firm to their polearms, though this time the aliens had the numbers and mass to begin pushing our line back. Despite this, the Troopers held, aided by more bomblets being thrown over the top of the aliens’ heads which kept their numbers to a barely manageable quantity and prevented our line from going under.

We Healers were, along with our Meditechs, struggling to cope with the number of casualties, particularly as the landing craft were unloading and breaking away immediately without doing evac due to the heavy fire coming their way when they did.

“This isn’t going well,” I commented to Flinn over the private channel we used.

“I know, too many aliens and far more room for them to attack us in numbers over a wide front,” she replied as we repaired a puncture wound on an injured Trooper.

“We need to find a pinch point to stabilise the line.”

“Or make one.”

“Not much in the way of construction materials here,” I replied thoughtfully.

“There’s the internals of the boarding pod,” Flinn replied after a moment’s thought.

“Good idea,” I agreed before summoning a Monitor over.

We both explained what we wanted and the Monitor assigned a team to strip down the interior of the pod, cutting and pulling internal bulkheads out along with support bracers and anything else they could remove. They then began to fuse it to the walls of the ship, forming a formidable V-shaped barrier to channel the aliens into a killing zone where they would not be able to easily grab and kill our Troopers.

We then waited for a lull in the fighting before a fall-back order was given and the Troopers were able to take their place behind a barricade.

“Should hold them for a while whilst we reinforce,” I stated to our group.

“Let’s hope so. Retreat isn’t an option here,” Flinn replied quietly.

“Yeah, here they come again!”

The barricade worked. It enabled our Troopers to hold the line as the aliens were unable, for the most part, to grab them and pull them to their deaths. What it could not do was aid our advance for the moment but at least it gave us a respite during which we sorted out the wounded as well as reinforced our position with recent arrivals.

Elsewhere on the alien ship, other incursions had taken a leaf out of our book and set up a reinforced bridgehead or, sadly in many cases, had gone under and been wiped out to a man or woman.

“Report on the boarding operation?” Clessik enquired of the AI.

“It has not gone well, Admiral. Too many of the close defence guns on the ship were intact and the ship design itself, complete with a large crew of defenders, has further reduced our numbers,” the AI replied.

“Ship design?”

“Broad corridors, large, open spaces, many alternate routes mean the aliens can flank or get behind our forces should they try to advance.”

“I see,” Clessik nodded thoughtfully. “Can we withdraw?”

“No,” Gollant answered for the AI. “We need to take out a lot more of their close-in weapons before we could attempt that. Unlike their ‘grown’ ships, these are fired and retracted below the hull in armoured containment.”

“Ah, so we don’t know where they are until they fire?”

“Correct, sir. Even then they’re tough nuts to crack.”

“I’d guess that where we took out the anti-matter guidance is far too radioactive?”

“Yes, sir.”

“How long can the Troopers hold?”

“Several days at the current rate of attrition.”

“Prepare another wave. Send it in under the protection of our lighter craft. Have it preceded by a massive attack around our current lodgements by our Heavy Fighter wings.”

“Yes, sir. It will take some time to organise.”

“Nevertheless, do it.”

“Yes, sir.”

“The prey falter against our presence,’ the senior intelligence reported to the feasting Masters.

‘As is right.’ a Master replied. ‘Yet continue to monitor them. They have been troublesome in the past.’

‘As you command.’

‘What of our foolish creations?’

‘They are being reduced slowly and still refuse to acknowledge our call to them.’

‘A pity, but no matter. We can always create more.’

‘Yes, Master.’

For all the barricades had enabled the Troopers to defend better, they had not eased the pressure on our position or the constant stream of wounded to the medical area. Still, we were coping and despite the reports coming in, were in good spirits. This was raised to an extent by the retreat of several hundred Troopers from retaken boarding operations being able to move freely across the hull of the command ship.

“They also noted and marked the anti-shipping defence positions,” I noted to Flinn.

“Good. Hopefully our fighters will be able to take a good few out and enable reinforcement or retreat,” she nodded.

“Possibly retreat, I can’t see an easy advance from here.”

“True, but no doubt someone will be going over what we’ve seen so far. Perhaps they’ll see something we can’t.”

“Let’s hope so. I kind of got used to the idea of winning,” I chuckled.

“Didn’t we all.”

“Second attack going in,” Gollant announced. “Troopers already there have marked the position of several defence stations.”