Chapter 18

“The scouting run made by ships one-six and zero-one confirms the presence of a UEC battlegroup,” Captain Anders said, his hands behind his back as he scrutinised the images and recordings playing back through the briefing room monitors. The Balokarid Kith was present, as were a few senior human personnel, plus Lambert and

Mezul’s crews. It turned out there were five aliens on her ship, though Lambert didn’t know the three others apart from her and Ruvaara. “It’s as I thought,” Anders continued. “the Confederacy must have been operating in this sector well before the Hub declared its independence.”

“Not necessarily, Captain,” Kith Shaliyya said. “I’ve seen this ship before, during Dur’shala’s invasion. It must have tracked us into the nebula.” Her tone went dour. “And we lured them straight to you, for this I am sorry.”

“Why?” the Captain asked. “it was extremely lucky you ran into one of our ships, there’s no need to apologise for surviving.”

The Kith looked like she wanted to speak, but hesitated. It seemed they were still adjusting to human culture, and vice versa. “What kind of firepower does a human destroyer carry?” she asked, turning to logistical matters. “I’ve seen it wrought devastation, but do you know of any specifics?”

The Captain leaned his hands on the table. “Ten torpedo tubes, five a side, fifty-odd point defence batteries, and the railgun, obviously.” He zoomed the feed onto the giant railgun, the view making them all stare right down its barrel. “We can deal with the rest of the weaponry, but the railgun’s the biggest threat. That thing’s designed to take down capital ships.”

“I doubt even our shields could stand against a single shot of that weapon,” the Kith mumbled.

“There’s little that could,” Anders replied. “So it is indestructible?”

“Now when did I say that?” Anders asked. “Its packing a lot of firepower, but requires support to work effectively. You see the tanker ship?” He zoomed in on the fuelling ship Lambert had seen before. “That’s the only way they’ll be able to rearm and refuel their ships safely, without it they’re dead in the water, so the destroyer will stick to it like glue, and we can use that to our advantage.”

“And what about the destroyer’s other armaments?” she asked. “Our objective is to eliminate this ship, yes? How can we stand against such devastating firepower?”

“We can’t,” Anders replied, Shaliyya shooting him a confused look. “But there is a weakness to its design. The torpedo tubes face down the length of the ship, and the railgun is fixed on top of the nose for maximum visibility. Maximum, not infinite. Say we approach from below the ship, or behind...”

“The railgun would be ineffective,” Shaliyya said, finishing the thought. “At least until it turns around. We could send out several wings to try and distract them, while your frigate finds an angle of engagement.”

“Our own missile tubes should be able to tear that thing apart,” the Captain replied. “How many Sala’ci do you have ready to fly?”

Squaring her shoulders proudly, the Kith held out an explanative hand. “Between our three carriers we have eighty two fighters. I know that is not much, but we have had little time to rebuild.”

“Not much? That’s more than double my own forces,” Anders replied. “I’ve got twenty two corvettes and thirty five Raptors on standby, our stores have a decent amount of ammunition ready to go, but it doesn’t take a genius to see we’re both outgunned and outnumbered, two-to-one at least. But if we can manoeuvre correctly, and get my frigate in range without that railgun getting a bead on us, we might stand a chance.

“We have a saying for situations like this,” Shaliyya said. “Against the strong, be the swift.”

“We have a similar adage,” Anders said, turning his eyes to

Lambert and Mezul’s crews. “I specifically said not to engage, but you did fine work out there, all of you. We’ve got four less ships to worry about now, and plenty of intel on top of that.”

The feathery headdresses of the Balokarids bristled, while

Lambert and Carl nodded respectfully, the Captain didn’t give out praise too often. The bridge was dismissed for the time being while Anders and Shaliyya stayed to discuss a plan for the coming battle.

On his way out, Lambert was stopped when a hand touched his shoulder, Captain Anders pulling him aside. “You seem to have a knack for working with these aliens, Lieutenant,” he said. “I know you didn’t sign up to be an ambassador, but I want you to stay with them for the time being. Keep me updated on any problems or otherwise.”

“Yes sir.”

“Excellent. I was a little sceptical at first, but you’ve done good work so far. Keep that up and we just might make it out of this in one piece.”