Chapter 36: Battle for Karsakini

Part 1

Ken stood on the flag bridge of the Washington, and looked at the holomap. The Oregon was five hundred miles to his portside. The destroyers Bulldog, Boxer and Doberman were in an arrow formation directly ahead of the two battleships. Behind the flagship, the remaining ships of the fleet stretched out to their individual time drops. The last ones were the hospital ships, while directly behind him were the assault cruisers.

Worried about what was going to happen, Ken chewed on his cigar. So many people were depending on him, and his new fleet. Questions raced through his mind. Where they ready? What if more ships where there then what was supposed to be. What if they nuke the prisoners when we try to free them? Suddenly Jessica interrupted his thoughts.

Jessica looked over at her new husband and saw he was very worried. Splitting her image, she appeared in hundreds of compartments at the same time, from weapons posts to environmental, and she got a status check from all compartments. As each report came in, that image vanished and with a smile on her face, she saw they were ready as possible.

Walking over to Ken, she gave her report, "Admiral, ninety seconds until fold shut down, all systems are a go. All fighters and bombers are ready to launch when you give the okay. Missiles are armed, weapon stationed are manned and automatic light pulse cannons are online." Cocking her head to the side, she looked at Ken and asked in a calm voice, "Are you ok, my love?"

Ken smiled at his beautiful wife and replied, "I'm fine, Jess. Thank you for asking."

Turning his head he looked at Commander Susan Alexander at the communications console and said, "Susan, please open a com to all ships, all compartments."

Ken walked over to his command chair and sat down.

Susan's fingers flew over the holographic board and she replied, "Channel open, Sir."

"Thank you, Susan."

Looking at the main screen, he starts speaking, "This is Admiral Thompson; I wanted to wish everyone good luck and God speed. We have the technology, the knowledge and the right of vengeance for what has been done to our loved ones. We will be victorious until our enemies are destroyed and our people are free. As Sir Winston Churchill said in 1940, 'Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.' Although he was talking about the fighter pilots of the RAF; here, I'm talking about everyone of you. All hands in the fleet, Red Alert, man your battlestations. We begin Operation Dunkirk in ten minutes. Flag, out."

Around the fleet, the crews sealed their compartments and brought up their forcefields, weapon mounts became live, and shield generators went to full power. Down in the launch bay, four nervous young women walked around their fighters doing their final pre-flight inspection. Each fighter was painted a different color. They stood out against the dark blue fighters of the rest of the fleet. With their inspections of their fighters finished, they gathered and hugged each other. Walking over to the corner, they held each other's hands.

Tina looked at her friends, reached into her pocket, and pulling out four small cases.

Then she said, "Amy, come here, please."

Amy appeared and smiled at her friends, and asked, "What's up, ladies?"

Tina smiled and said, "I need a witness."

"Oh?" before she could finish Tina knelt in front of her friends, "OH!" Amy said,

Tina looked up at her friends and said, "Maria, Kathleen and Shannon, would you three become my wives?"

The three girls looked at each other, and then pulled Tina to her feet and kissed her hard, as they whispered their yeses in her ears.

Tears ran down her face as she pulled Maria into her arms. Opening the small case with her name on it, she said, "Maria Sandalwood, with this ring I thee wed, to forever to love, honor and protect you, so help me God."

As the ring slipped onto Maria's hand, she kissed her.

Tears ran down Maria's face as she returned the kiss and she whispered, "I love you."

Tina quickly married Shannon and Kathy. They stood there holding Tina's hand as they slipped the gold band on her finger as they said, "Tina Wayne, with this ring we wed thee, to forever to love honor and protect you, so help us God."

Amy stood there watching the four young women proclaim their love to each other, unknown they had another witness.

Kalaria stood there and cried as she watched them hug each other, and she whispered, "Love each other, and protect each other."

She then turned and walked away.

"Congratulations you four, what last name do you want?"

Before Tina could say anything, Maria said, "Wayne! And thank you for being here, Amy."

Shannon and Kathy nodded their heads in agreement, and Amy entered it in the log.

"So noted, and good luck. Fly safe, now. I need to go," she said as she vanished.

Tina smiled and looked at her best friends ... no wives, and said, "Are we ready to kick ass and chew bubblegum?"

"Damn! I knew I forgot something," replied Kathy Hernandez as she started searching her flight suit.

Everyone started laughing at the joke, as Kala walked up in her flight suit, and said "Ladies, are we all ready to go? Also, congratulations you four on your bonding and becoming one house love each other and protect each other."

Coming to attention all four girls blushed at the same time and a serious look came across their faces, as Tina said, "Ma'am! Yes Ma'am! Apocalypse Squadron is a go. Thank you for your words."

"Your welcome, but you had better get in your ships. We drop out in thirty seconds."

Before she could continue, the four girls were running for their fighters and climbing up into them. Shaking her head she prayed their eagerness did not get them all killed. Walking over to her repaired fighter, she patted the armor and checked that all the pulse lasers caps were removed. Then she climbed up into the cockpit, and started powering up.

Activating the newly installed com unit she said, "This is Commander Kalaria, to all pilots; bring your fighters to 'power up'. We launch when the doors open..." she stopped for a second and gathered her thoughts before she continued, "Pilots of the Washington, good luck. Let's free our people! Remember stay in pairs. Cover each other on your attack runs. Kalaria..."

The ship shimmered, the klaxons started blaring, and the massive launch bay door started descending. As soon as she had enough room to get out, Kala shoved her throttle up to full power. The thirty thousand pound fighter started rolling, and then shot through the hangar shield, and back into space.

Behind her, more fighters started boiling out of the ships as the warships opened up on the nearby Crytherian ships.

Bringing her sensors on line, Tina's eyes searched around. They quickly locked on to a massive battleship between the Oregon and Washington and identified its class.

Back up on the command bridge, the crew jumped to their assignments as sensors, communications and weapons officers started doing their jobs.

"Admiral, we have an Orient class battleship between us and the Oregon. I'm scanning for the second battleship now," replied Susan as she looked into her scanners, and continued, "I've got her, Sir. She is coming around the primary, now. The second battleship is between us, and the space stations. We were off our mark by one AU, at least."

"Very well, no use crying over spilled milk. Open fire on the Crytherian battleships as they near us. Orders to the greyhounds, they are to engage all smaller ships. Launch all fighters and bombers, their targets are any ship trying to get away."

The mighty warship opened up and antimatter explosions danced down the side of the Crytherian battleship as she opened fire with her rail guns, heavy pulse lasers, and missiles.

Captain Haln of the Battleship Os grabbed the armrests of his chair as his ship came under heavy attack by two strange warships. One out massed his ship two to one in size while the other was even a little larger.

The strangers opened fire on his command without warning and he snarled, "Open fire, all batteries. Launch all bombers."

"Sir, opening fire, we shall feed them to Kalshean God of Death."

Shaking his head at the weapons officer comment, he replied, "Keep firing, and target their weapons, helm climb us up out of this cross fire."

Both officers replied and jumped to their work, the huge battleship started climbing above the plane of attack, and then her shields started to collapse.

"Shield failure, rear quadrant."

"Get them back up," replied Haln as the first of the explosions started detonating along his flank.

Ten million miles away a swarm of heavy bombers came sweeping in on a heavy cruiser. Captain Vickie Henderson aligned her bomber up and started firing her torpedoes at the nimble ship. Flanking her, ten other bombers added their ordnance and the shields exploded from the multiple hits. Yanking back on the control stick, she stood her plane on its tail and fired her afterburners, leaving the ship behind as an Odin missile came in and slammed into the enemy ship's flank.

The cruiser Star Fury exploded as the enemy missiles slammed into her. Attacked from all directions, she had no chance, and there were no survivors.

Captain Haln Looked at the main screen. He saw the some small craft that were like the ones that had destroyed the Star Fury, heading right towards him.

Tina brought her fighter around to the bow of the huge battleship and aligned up on the bridge, around her, her wives fighters followed her. Turning on the tactical frequency, she activated the language conversion software as well as the com unit, and said, "To the Crytherian battleship. Know this! We are your death! We find you and your race guilty of murder, and slavery. I personally find you guilty of the death of our parents. Go to hell you bastards! Apocalypse Squadron, out." Changing back to her fighter frequency, she continued speaking, "Launch Odins! Launch Galahads!"

"Sir, we have a message from the ships heading towards us."

"What's it say?" he asked.

"Sir, I'm confused on this, but it said, 'To the Crytherian battleship. Know this! We are your death! We find you and your race guilty of murder, and slavery. I personally find you guilty of the death of our parents. Go to hell you bastards! Apocalypse Squadron, out.' That is all they said, what do they mean?"

"What?" he said as he looked up, and he saw four missiles leave the four ships and head for his command. Dozens of smaller missiles followed.

Fear flew through his gut as he saw the missiles, and he shouted out, "Destroy those missiles."

The four thirty foot long, missiles dropped from the fighters and streaked towards the battleship, which started firing on them as the smaller faster missiles flew past them. Some of the smaller missiles were intercepted and exploded, but a handful smashed into the enemy's bow. Their antimatter warheads reached critical mass, and they exploded.

The battleship's weapons went silent as its shields crashed down. The energy released by the antimatter warheads climbed over the bow, wiping out gun mounts and shield generators. Two of the giant Odin's were destroyed, but the remaining two smashed into the huge ship and detonated.

The resulting explosion threw the Federation fighters around the system like toys. The shock wave blossomed out from the destroyed battleship and shoved the two battleships apart. Washington found herself tossed among some Crytherian cruisers while the Oregon went hurtling towards Tau Ceti.

The rest of the fighters, in pairs and in squadrons, swept through the system. They targeted weapon platforms, courier boats and destroyers, blasting them to smithereens with antimatter warheads. The Washington fought her way out amongst ten Crytherian heavy cruisers. Over near Tau Ceti the Oregon turned and started engaging the second battleship that had appeared from behind the planet.

Ken staggered to his feet, and asked, "What the hell happened?"

"The Crytherian battleship has been destroyed. We are now under attack by ten of their Tiger class heavy cruisers." Amy said as the ship shuddered under the combined firepower of the cruisers.

Ken looked at the holographic board and sees the ship is being surrounded. "Split all batteries! Right front, left front, right rear, left rear! Target those cruisers and take them out. Launch reserve fighters."

Down on the bottom of the ship, the last two landing bays dropped open, and another hundred fighters streaked from their cradles. Across the system, the Bulldog latched onto a Crytherian cruiser. Just like the Terran dog she was named after, she refused to let go. Whipping around the enemy ship, she opened the enemy hull like a can of beans.

Suddenly, the Bulldog exploded, as other Crytherian weapons punched into her forward magazine. The antimatter warheads exploded as the magazine was crushed. The explosion ripped the cruiser apart, destroying several merchant ships and shattering the thirty fighters that were racing to aid her.

"Admiral the Bulldog has been destroyed, we have also lost contact with thirty-four fighters. I've beacons on sixteen pilots."

"Launch SARS. Tell the destroyers to pair..." before he could continue several cruisers exploded under the bombardment they were receiving from the Washington. The weapons that had been firing on those cruisers turned. They opened up on the next cruisers in line. Explosions started detonating out of the hulls of the cruisers. Fighters started darting between the enemy ships, launching Galahad missiles into the huge ships.