Chapter 11: The Battle of MJJ-12

“Come on! Come on!” one of the crew members yelled to another as they walked as fast as they could to the airlock passageway. “The Atra is already setting up the gate probes. Move your ass now!”

A female officer quickly looked behind her. There was no one else that she saw. Kane was inside the Atra by the airlock as the crew of one hundred was being rounded up. Some Yutilians and a few Shal’rein had all met up with the evacuating crew. Ifra was helping others in their rapid adjustment to the new environment. Kane was also addressing the crew while Ramírez was trying to keep the evacuation in proper order.

“What is our headcount?” Ramírez yelled out.

“We did it several times,” Doctor Aline replied. “Ninety-nine are present except the captain, of course.”

It was all that Kane needed to hear. He went and activated his left-hand display. He activated his communication beacon and patched it into the bridge of the Gabatrix. The screen was audio-only.

“Captain, can you hear me?” Kane asked.

“Yes,” Captain William replied through the voice channel. “I’m picking it up on my sensors that the last crew member departed the ship. Can you confirm on your end?”

“Confirmed!”

“Very well. Good luck, Ambassador.”

“You too, Captain.”

The com channel closed down. Kane’s hand display went dark as he slowly closed his hand. He knew that it would probably be the last time he would ever see the captain alive again.

The crew was standing crowded up in the central passageway of the Atra. It was a unique experience for everyone. To see the growing vines and branches on the passageway walls shocked a few individuals. Surprisingly, many were calmer than expected. It wasn’t to say that everyone was completely relaxed, though. Some of the crew looked at the Itreans with disgust, wonder, or anger. One of the male crew members even reached his hand and touched one of the fruits.

“It is alright,” Ifra told him. “It is edible.”

Despite being told that, The crew member pulled his hand away, afraid to cause any form of anger to the aliens. It was understandable for the most part. The humans knew that they were on someone else’s property.

“Listen, everyone!” Ifra explained. “I assure you that you will not be harmed.”

“Yeah, after the stunt your people pulled at Eutera!” one of the crew members called out.

“Everyone, we’re going to get the Euterans back!” Kane replied. “We have reached an agreement. The Euterans are alive and well. They will be returned.”

Kane and some of the crew turned their heads towards the airlock hatchway. Everyone was at a safe distance as the hatchway doors sealed closed. The passageway airlock was being retracted from both ships. The connection between both ships was severed as the crew knew that they were trapped in the Atra.

“Everyone!” Ramírez called out. “It’s the captain’s orders that we’re here. The crew of the Atra will take us back home. Their adjunct has promised us that. I want all divisional officers to take charge of their divisions. I want us to remain here and listen to the T’rintar people and their instructions. I’m sure they are used to influxes with a large number of people. I don’t want to hear any complaints or any trouble! Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir!” some of the crew called out. Others nodded as they listened to their executive officer.

“Ambassador Kane ... Ambassador Ifra,” Ramírez said as he turned to look at them. “I’ll need to speak to both of you immediately.”

Kane wasn’t that far from the commander. Ifra, on the other hand, was still talking with some of the Yutilians and Shal’rein. She was giving careful instructions on how the crew needed to be treated. Her hands were full, but many of the T’rintar were giving their quick nods. Some were armed as expected, but others appeared to be medical staff of some sort. It seemed the Itreans were treating the crew of the Gabatrix with proper respect and dignity.

Kane looked at the hatchway porthole window. The Itrean warship had thick, see-through material as he could see the retractable passageways. He had one final look at the UHN Gabatrix. The ship, despite its age, looked beautiful. It was a shame that space made it hard for individuals to look at it from the outside. That was the job of the cameras. While he could hear the sounds of the conversation, alien languages, and interactions of hundreds of individuals, he knew that outside that hatch was absolutely nothing. Temperatures were absolute zero. There was no sound, and it was nothing but the lights of the two warships. Thankfully, it seemed well-lit enough that he could see the Gabatrix in its full glory. The centripetal ring was still spinning proudly, and there was a series of different lights that would flicker on and off. Even though the Atra was bigger than the Gabatrix, the UHN warship was still pretty big. Two hundred eighty meters in length still translated to a rather big size.

“Kane!” Ramírez called out to him. “I need to talk to both of you immediately!”

Kane shook his head and turned away from the closed-up hatchway. He walked up to the commander as he saw Ifra finally pull away from the other individuals she was talking with. She walked forward, stepped aside from a pair of two humans talking, and reached Kane and Ramírez.

“What do you need?” she asked.

“I need to have a talk with both of you,” the commander said. “It’s imperative. I need to talk to your Adjunct. Ifra, I’ll need you to help translate for me. Kane, this whole mission reflects around you. The Captain trusts both of you with his own life. Every second is priceless right now. Ifra, can you take me to your bridge?”

“Yes,” she replied. “Follow me.”

Kane almost forgot about the almost zero-gravity environments. He noticed that the women from the Gabatrix, even with their hair tied down, were gently being pulled downward. The insanely light gravity emitted from the Itrean ship was barely noticeable, but it was still there regardless. Even some of the crew noticed it as well.

Ifra’s tail accidentally hit Kane as he went and followed behind her. Ramírez walked beside Kane as they began to head forward to the bow of the Atra. There were additional Yutilians that stood beside the hallways, watching the two humans walk behind Ifra. Ifra almost seemed to reflect a form of royalty status. She even walked in a style that showed that she was both kind and essential. The feathers would even lower down the moment they would see her. Kane was observing all of it. A few of the Yutilians even lowered their heads a little bit. The two humans were the only thing that really made them look up, though. It made Kane feel better to see that the Itreans didn’t look so savage up close as they did. The only noticeable exception was the Shal’rein, which obviously towered over the humans. It did make him feel better to know who the Itreans really were, though.

“Kane...” Ramírez spoke to him. “The Atra is currently trying to make a wormhole gate to leap into the New Olympian system. I must get a chance to talk to the Adjunct. I know that she’s in control of the ship, but I still want to be updated on the battle scene. The Durgas is going to be in weapon’s range in like five minutes.”

“I know that doesn’t sound good,” Kane said.

“The only reason why the Durgas can’t fire its railguns is that its nose is pointed directly at us while accelerating. If it fires its rounds, it will actually run into its own shots. We are at least safe from that, but we have issues to worry about.”

“What is it?”

“When the wormhole gate is opened up, I need either you or myself to send a communication to the New Olympian fleet. If the Atra jumps into their system, we risk getting ourselves blown away by their defenses. Supposedly, they managed to repel two Shal’rein clan fleets without even getting a scratch from one of their dreadnoughts. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want whatever they have to be used on us by accident. This mission is so important that I don’t want us to die because of simple, friendly fire.”

Kane remembered those great white ships that the New Olympians possessed. The commander was right. They had powerful warships and more than the means to repel fleets of enemy warships.

“I would encourage us to take us to Mars or Earth, but I’m still afraid of the wormhole gate being traced. If the Aksren and the Shal’rein get the coordinates to Mars before this treaty is ratified, then kiss our ass goodbye. That’s assuming if they don’t already have the coordinates,” Ramírez directed his question to Ifra. “How much further is the bridge?”

“It isn’t that far,” she said with a couple of clicks in her voice. “We take an elevator and ride up to level 1. They operate both the dorsal bow and ventral bridges during combat.”

“It doesn’t help we’re a sitting duck. Assuming the Itrean gate folding technology is the same as ours, they would have to be near still in order to open the wormhole. It makes escaping difficult.”

“It’s why the captain is staying behind, isn’t he?” Kane asked.

There was a short pause in Ramírez’s voice. “Si ... he knows what he’s doing. It was just like the Cabot. The UHN Drake managed to escape because the Cabot distracted the Aksren warships long enough to allow the others to escape.”

“There’s no hope for him, is there?” Kane asked.

“There has been no hope for us this whole year. It was only until these last couple of days before something did happen. The Captain knows that, and it’s worth sacrificing himself for it. That small amount of hope is all that matters.”

Kane nodded his head. Even Ifra turned her head slightly as she replied to him. “He won’t be forgotten, though...”

On the Gabatrix’s bridge, the captain sat by the center command console of the bridge. William knew that even if the warship was set to automatic, the quantum computer core was still no match for human ingenuity and the reflexes against its foe. The computers could make numerous calculations a second, but in the end, it was no match against the human spirit. One person was still needed to control the whole ship in this final action.

The captain was strapped in his chair. He reached into his Velcro pocket and pulled out a small hypo syringe. Only to be taken in an emergency, he looked at it closely.

“Well ... only to be taken in times of severe stress and high gs,” the captain said to himself. “The price of living on a low gravity planet...”

The syringe was an emergency medication to help prevent blacking out and to give the body temporary extra strength in case of shipboard combat operations. It would give the body the edge needed to handle the high-intensity gravity pressed onto the human body. He undid the cap and pushed it to his neck. He then pressed the button, and the liquid was quickly injected into his bloodstream. It was quick and painless. He then put it back into his pocket.

William took a deep breath and already felt some of the effects kick in. He looked at the screen and then reached into his other breast pocket. Then, he grabbed the large brown-wrapped cigar out of his pocket. He put it to the edge of his mouth and admired the taste of it.

“Yep...,” he said with a mouthful of a cigar. “Time to stick it to them.” He pulled out the one match that he had and then pulled out a small laser lighter. He held the match near his face and placed the laser igniter on the tip. With a little button press, the laser emitted its oppressive heat as the match began to cook.

In zero gravity, the fire burned slightly differently. The captain already knew this as he saw the match ignite. With no gravity acting on it, the flames expanded like a sphere from the burning tip. He was quick as he brought it to his cigar. The tip of the cigar began to burn. He saw as the flame started to consume the match, quickly burning itself out. He took a few puffs of his breath to ensure the fire would slowly burn the cigar. He tossed the match in a random direction as it burned up to a black molten stick.

“Now ... to turn on the ventilation to the max,” he said as he put the laser igniter away and reached his hand to the control console panel.

William stuck his augmented arm onto the controls. Immediately, his arm began to glow blue as he interfaced with the ship. He could feel the connection, knowing he had full control. The battleship was his to do as he pleased. No one would be there to complain about smoking a cigar and burning the oxygen up. No one would be there to tell him what he was doing was insane. This was his world now.

The captain could feel the controls in his mind. He took control of the ventilation to ensure that the smoke wouldn’t pile upon his face. He felt the air kick in as it began to push the growing sphere of smoke.

“Damn good cigar...,” he said to himself. “Too bad the humans on Earth screwed themselves up. They must have made a good profit off of these. At least now...”

The captain paused as he saw on the display that the hatchway passageway had been retracted. The Gabatrix was free from the Atra. He then began to activate the forward thrusters. Slowly, the ship began to clear from the Atra. William could still see the Durgas getting closer. Little by little, it would be within firing range. Instead, he seemed unfazed.

“Opening up a channel to the Atra...” He said as he sent off the signal to the T’rintar warship.

The straps were holding him into his chair. He could feel the acceleration pulling him forward slightly while he looked at the large horseshoe display screen. He could see the Atra as it was deploying gate probes very similar to the Gabatrix earlier. The probes were shaped differently. They were starting to form a ring that was at 30% completion. Meanwhile, he waited for the Atra to respond.

“Tala’Talar ... where are you?” he asked. He waited for a response from the hail.

Several seconds would pass when the screen popped up on his display. The face of Tala’Talar was clear and easy to see. The elongated cranial crest was prominent.

“Captain...” She called out.

“What is your status on your wormhole gate?” he asked her.

She seemed to struggle as she translated the words in her head. Finally, she replied back to him. “We have 15 of your minutes left.”

“Good ... keep it up,” he replied.

“The Askren ... dreadnought will be firing its weapons soon. We will use what is ... working here to shoot at them.”

“Don’t hesitate. As soon as that wormhole is open, get out. Don’t worry about me. I called because I need to know about Aksren battle tactics. When I shoot my rail guns at them, what direction will the Aksren go?”

Tara’Talar was processing the information. The captain could see that his ship was completely clear of the Atra. He issued a new series of commands to the ship. The forward thrusters ceased, and the rear thrusters activated to slow the vessel down. He felt himself be pushed to his seat lightly as the battleship came to a stop. Then, the vectoring thrusters began to activate. The Gabatrix was altering its course, pointing its aft section directly at the incoming Aksren dreadnought.

“Captain ... you shoot them, and they will go to port ... they will go to the left,” she tried to answer the best she could.

“My left or their left?”

“Theirs...”

“Good..., that is all that I will need.”

Tara’Talar gave a quick nod to him. Her reptilian eyes seemed to explain it all. “Captain ... human named William ... we will remember you. Your sa ... sacra ... your action will not be lost.”

“Thank you, Adjunct. Take good care of Earth ... or in this case ... Itrea. Captain William out...”

The channel closed as the face of Tara’Talar faded. His cigar was still in his mouth as he savored the taste. He had to keep puffing it, or the cigar would quickly burn out.

“Let’s do this...,” he said to himself. He looked at the overhead screen and still saw the dreadnought getting closer. “How about a little music?”

He cycled through the list of music available that was depicted in the Gabatrix’s core database. He already had the music chosen. A melody of Chinese war drums and electro beats began to play together.

“Ah ... nothing beats ‘Telin Lee’s Martian Dance Music.’”

He didn’t hesitate any longer. This part he knew was going to get intense. He activated the forward thrusters. The fierce, hot flames began to emit from the warship. The acceleration of the ship going backward pushed his body harder than ever before. The straps were doing their part in holding him in place.

“Come on ... come on...” He said. “The enemy has a head start over you. You have a lot of ground to make up ... Come on, Gabatrix ... you may be old, but you still got some fight in you yet.”

The g forces were getting intense as he could feel his body being pulled hard. The blood was pulling forward. The ship was going in reverse as fast as it could go. The Atra was starting to get further and further away from his screen.

Kane, Ramírez, and Ifra arrived at the bridge of the Atra. The place looked different than the Gabatrix’s bridge. It seemed somewhat small. There was a large central section that consisted of consoles that pointed up like a cone. Yutilian women were sitting on chairs that held them in place. The center bridge almost looked like a giant tree of some sort, but Kane could still see the computer consoles and working technology in place. The large console in the center of the circle was where Tara’Talar stood.

Kane briefly saw Captain William’s face before the screen went down. It appeared that the adjunct of the ship and William quickly exchanged words before they closed the channel.

Ramírez looked around him as well. The room was elaborate. It was almost alive with all the branches and vines. There was no horseshoe display in front of the bridge. There were a couple of screens here and there in the circular room. The crew’s location was where things seemed interesting.

It didn’t appear that the Itreans used augmented arms or limbs that he could see. The Yutilians, in this case, were on chairs that kept them cushioned and protected. Their arms and hands were fully integrated into the consoles. The orifices their hands were inserted into almost looked like a man with his arm stuck in an animal’s mouth. This must have been the way the Itreans operated. It was very similar to how most humans worked in UHN vessels, but they needed augmented limbs to do it. These Itreans literally connected their own bodies to the framework of the ship. It was like watching cells operating inside a body.

Kane remarked on what the Yutilians looked like. There must have been around twelve Yutilian women working on the consoles. Each Yutilian, even if they were the same race as Ifra, had different defying looks. Some had different colored feathers. Some had different cranial shapes, breast sizes, scale patterns, colors of the scales, slightly fatter or skinnier, and different tail shapes. Some had blue scales, while others had more red or green color. They were dressed in some sort of thin, almost skintight green overgarment. Rank insignias, at least what they looked like, seemed to be at the center just above the chest. They had the same magnetic wrappings on their feet, just like Ifra’s. Their brains and minds seemed focused on the tasks at hand. They didn’t even notice Ifra and the two humans walking onto the bridge.

Ifra walked up to the center portion of the large cone. Almost like an office in the dead center of the bridge, the adjunct was busy behind her console. Her hands were placed at the center of her screen. Unlike the other consoles, this one seemed more original, having a series of digital buttons. She was busy issuing commands but was alerted to Ifra and the humans’ arrival.

Tara’Talar was already standing when she turned around. To Kane, her physical appearance was way more apparent than that of the Yutilian women. She was an Aksren serving the T’rintar clan. Her cranial protrusion jutted from her head, and she had an almost beak-like nose. She did not have feathers like the Yutilians, and she was a little bit taller. In reality, she was almost around human height. Her tail was slightly longer, and she had the same number of claws jutting from her fingers and toes. Her uniform was somewhat different in color, being green and black. It covered her chest, arms, and lower extremities. Her scales also looked different, being red and green. Did all Aksren look like her? Who knew, but that wasn’t important at the moment.

“Ifra ... Kane...,” she called out to them. “The human named Ramírez...”

“Adjunct Tara’Talar,” Ramírez said to her. “Thank you for having our presence.”

“I am ... controlling this ship. Please leave the command room.”

“Tara’Talar, it is essential that we speak to you,” Kane addressed her. “The New Olympians have a powerful fleet in their system. We need to send a message through the wormhole to that system. We need to tell them to stand down, or we risk them shooting us.”

The adjunct seemed to understand about three-quarters of what he said. She instead looked at Ifra and spoke in her own language. She made a series of local grunts, cackles, chirps, and, of course, her own words. Ifra responded back, translating the words for her to understand.

“Yes ... Ambassador Kane ... Commander Ramírez,” Tara’Talar said. “I will let you send the message when the worm ... hole opens. I need to lead my ship.”

Ifra gave her quick nods. She gestured for the two to leave the adjunct’s alcove. She used her pointer claw to aim towards one of the displays away from the center of the room.

All three walked to the display near the entrance to the bridge. Instead, the screen flicked on, and they could see the camera of the Atra aim towards the Gabatrix. Another one was focused on the Aksren dreadnought.

Kane could see the intense flames that radiated from the Gabatrix’s forward thrusters. The intense orange and blue light glowed as the ship was flying in reverse.

Ramírez looked around a little bit more. He seemed more composed, but his eyes would occasionally look back at the display. He crossed his arms.

“Everything will be alright,” Ifra addressed Ramírez. She even put her clawed hand on his arm. It was the first time that Kane had seen her try to calm another human down. She had seen the inflections on his face and could tell that he was stressed. It was apparent why, but Ifra was doing what she could to ease him.

Ramírez simply sighed. “I just hope it’s worth it...”

Ifra let go of Ramírez as she watched the scene on display.

“Why is the captain flying the ship in reverse?” Kane asked as the ambassador watched the scene unfold.

“The Aksren dreadnought popped in almost directly behind the Gabatrix,” Ramírez replied to the ambassador. “He’s just warming up. Remember that in space, you can do whatever you want with a ship. Most UHN warships are designed to be able to reach their top speeds in reverse just as it would going forward.”

“Why?”

“In space, sometimes combat doesn’t work the way you think. We noticed at times that the Aksren missiles have a greater range than ours. We have had a skirmish or two in which they use their forward thrusters to achieve their max range over ours. This ensures that we can’t hit them while they hit us.”

“Does the captain have to worry about this?” Kane asked.

“Probably not. There are factors involved right now. That dreadnought is heading straight at us at full burn. It would take them a lot of time to slow down and go into reverse. Another way is for them to do a slow turn to avoid the Gabatrix. Either way, the Captain has advantages and disadvantages right now in this battle.”

“In what way?”

Ramírez pointed at the dreadnought and the Gabatrix. “For one, the dreadnought has had at least ten minutes of additional burn time with their engines. I can’t tell from this display, but the issue with traveling in space is acceleration. The Gabatrix is capable of reaching top speeds of about 400 kilometers a second. This may sound fast, but I bet the Aksren are capable of reaching similar or faster speeds. If you noticed, we’re in ships that lack much in gravity. If this ship went from zero to 400 kilometers a second in, well ... a second, we would be reduced to red paint stains on the wall and bulkheads. We have to get the ships to reach top speed slowly. This isn’t a battle of top speeds. It’s about a battle of acceleration. The captain has his hands full.”

“How can he win?” Kane asked, shaking his head. “You said six missiles, right?”

“Yeah ... we typically have a lot more than that.”

“Why did they underarm us?”

“They need them for the fleet. Each missile is one that can save a ship or take down another. Sorry, Ambassador, but we’re all expendable in this mission.”

“What does he hope to achieve?”

Ramírez shook his head. “The only thing that he can do ... buy us the crucial time to escape. It will take time for the Aksren missiles and warheads to reach us. If he can shoot some of them down, then we might make it. I don’t know how durable these Itrean warships are, but they seem difficult to take down.”

“How many did they take down at Cipra?”

“The Aksren? Let’s see ... we lost over twenty battleships, but they lost a scout ship and a battleship in return.”

Kane’s eyes went wide. He knew the Siege of Cipra was a horrific loss for the UHN, but he didn’t realize it was that bad.

“Don’t feel bad ambassador,” Ramírez said. “I feel the same trepidation that you do. It’ll be fair to say that the Aksren did outnumber us badly at Cipra. Maybe if the Atra was at full operational status and we had a full armament on the Gabatrix, we might have been able to take on that dreadnought ... maybe. Unfortunately, we are what is given to us ... nothing but shit.”

Kane sighed. He could feel his heart pound a little bit. Literally, the Gabatrix was the only actual shield that the Atra had. His adrenaline began to pump as fear was starting to hit him.

“Kane...” Ramírez tried to say to him. “I wanted to say I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“How I treated you earlier these couple of days. I just hated Aniruddha and his administration. The Captain believes in you ... both of you. Well ... I don’t need to say anything more about it. I’m just going to do my job.”

Kane looked at the center of the bridge. There was nothing else that he could do but watch.

The Gabatrix was doing a full accelerated control burn of the forward thrusters. Captain William had the cigar firmly in his teeth. Embers were being blown forward as the smoke blew away. The captain didn’t care. His attention was keeping his body focused despite the forward gs being pressed against his back.

“Come on, ... come on,” he said to himself with a mouth full of a cigar. “They do this on the Neptune’s Trial for all new ships and crews. Full accelerated burns to push the body to the limit. Going to hope that stimulant will keep me going. Setting the ship on automatic course to them, if the computer sees me pass out...”

He watched on the console as it happened. The battle drum music continued to play in the background. The console lit up with alerts. He could see it on the horseshoe display screen as the Aksren dreadnought opened its four forward launch doors. It was now in weapons range as all four torpedoes were shot out in a salvo deployment. He could see the Aksren were targeting the Gabatrix first. The warheads flew out and went to the ventral side of the warship as their engines went to full burn.

“Ah ... typical,” William replied, sighing. “Aksren battering ram salvo. The most important torpedo to shoot down is the last one. Three normal anti-armor missiles followed with a nuke. A little early to give me the welcome sign, aren’t we?”

William already knew the tactics. Fire a spread of missiles and then have the last one with a nuclear warhead on it. Once the armor was ripped open, the nuke would fly in and detonate inside the warship. It was quite an effective tactic, at least for the beginning of the conflict.

The captain could see another series of actions being made from the dreadnought. Eight missiles were launched from the vertical missile array battery of the Aksren warship. One by one, the missiles flew straight up. Then, they turned in flight and began to head straight towards his direction. He looked at his display console and could see that the missiles were not targeting his ship. They were targeting the Atra.

“Only eight?” William asked out loud. “Come on, ... you have more than that. You are second-guessing, aren’t we, captain? Don’t know what your priority is?”

He looked at his display console and saw two things pop up. The estimated time of the torpedoes’s impact is three minutes. The time for the missiles to impact the Atra is about four minutes.

Captain William immediately activated the defenses of the Gabatrix. The two rear Genisen Mk 11 Anti-Missile Batteries turned. The twin-barreled 150mm Flak cannons, single short-range missile battery, and laser emitter all in one quickly tracked the incoming torpedoes. The lasers were the first to fire. Hoping to burn the torpedoes, the laser emitter activated. A high-intensity beam was focused on the lead torpedo. While the turret was hitting the torpedo, the laser wasn’t doing enough. Even though it was burning the enemy torpedo under a hot white light, the weapon seemed to be rated to handle high temperatures. It was also possible that the alloy of the torpedo was rated against lasers, much like UHN warships.