Chapter 40: Battle for Karsakini Part 5

The shuttle gently set down next to the airlock. A small gantry extended from the ship to the airlock, and gently locked onto the side of the huge station. Down on the assault deck, Chief Engineer Cory Hill got up, and went to the airlock. He checked the hatch, and seeing the seal showed a tight fit he waited for the air to build up and the lights to come on. Activating his com unit, he called the captain.

"Captain, I have a green light on the hatch, and airlock is pressurizing now."

"Roger, Hill, I'm notifying Captain O'Rourke, now," replied Captain Conner from the bridge of the shuttle.

Jamie switched over to the NAT team frequency.

"Captain O'Rourke, we've down. Pressure is coming up on the lock. You may arm your weapons and move to the lock."

"Roger, Captain. NAT teams one and two are moving out, three is staying behind as ship's security."

Then the connection was broken on her side. Leaning back in her chair, she stretched her six-foot tall frame as she watched the explosions from deep space.

"Damn, someone is taking a pounding out there, and we're stuck down here investigating the asteroid with a building on it," she said.

Looking over at her copilot, she started to continue what she was saying when suddenly a huge flash caught her eyes. She jerked her eyes back to look outside, as something blew up.

"Damn, Jimmy! They're kicking some serious ass out there! There went another ship."

Lieutenant Jimmy 'Hound Dog' Mutt looked up from his sensor panel, "Yeah but something huge just came through a hyper gate and is engaging one of the medical cruisers." Reaching down he picked up his Thermos and poured some coffee for himself.

"Coffee, Ma'am?" he asked as he held the cup out to her.

"Yes, please, Jimmy." Reaching her hand over, she took the offered cup. As she sipped her coffee, she flipped through the com units, trying to get some information on what was going on.

Sammie listened to Captain Conner's orders and stood up.

"Okay! Teams one and two, you're with me. Team three has shuttle security. Lock and load people," she ordered.

Grabbing her plasma rifle she swung it over her shoulder as she checked her pistol and axes.

Lieutenant Kevin Anderson looked over at his fiancée and smiled as he said, "Captain, I have team two. I will follow your lead once we're inside."

"Do so, Kevin," with a smile she continued, "I wouldn't trust anyone else," as she walked up the stairs to the airlock exit, with her team following her as she went.

Commander Valick watched the battle on the main screen and winced as the Valmiksia hypered away, leaving the system defenseless. Turning to his weapons station, he started arming the Vortex cannon, and checked to see which enemy ships were within range and settled on the destroyer at the edge of the system.

"Let's take care of that destroyer first. Bring capacitors online, charge the conduits and open the energy tap."

He said as he reached over and smashed the red alert button, as he started typing the coordinates into the massive weapon.

"Commander the system has not been tested yet. It could blow apart in our hands."

"Well then, Doctor Hai, it's as good a time as any to find out! Now, arm the damned cannon! Let's help our warrior brothers who are dying at this time."

"Sir, we don't even know if we can hit them at this range."

"Doesn't matter, Doctor, even if we're close, we can open a vortex near the ship and it should destroy her."

"But..."

"Do it."

"Yes sir, under protest!" replied Doctor Hai as he started powering up the systems.

Across the valley on one of the mountains, a dome opened. A large cannon came up out of its hiding place. Turning, it locked on to the coordinates it had been given. The energy in the weapon built up. Ten seconds later, it discharged its energy, and the beam traveled to the edge of the system.

Captain Joyce Lawson of the Mastiff knelt beside a sparking panel and yanked it from its mooring. "I need a new weapons panel here," she said as she held her hand back, she checked for damage.

Ensign Shannon Duncan replicated a new weapons panel and walked over to the captain saying, "Here you go, Ma'am."

"Thank you Shannon," she replied.

She finished her inspection of the connections, plugged the new board in, and powered it up to see if everything worked.

"I have power to weapons and tracking," she said as she stood up and looked at her crew working on repairs.

"Ma'am, repair crews have gotten in to medical one, they are repressurizing the damaged sections so they can open the full bay to get the survivors out. We have forty-one dead in the bay, no survivors. I'm sorry to report Commander Lawson didn't make it, Ma'am."

Joyce's heart froze as the news of the loss of her husband hit her. Turning she sat down hard into the weapons chair.

She mumbled, "Thank you, Shannon.

"Ma'am, can I get you anything?" Shannon asked with concern in her voice.

"No, just get me the rest of the damage reports," she replied as she wiped the single tear from her left cheek.

"Yes, Ma'am ... and once again, I'm sorry." Turning the sixteen-year-old walked back to her damage control board and finished contacting compartments of the ship. Looking over at her Aunt, she sniffed, and wiped her eyes. "Damage control to Engineering, give me a status..."

Suddenly everyone went flying as the ship rocked from something as the ship started sliding starboard.

Joyce picked herself up off the deck and scrambled into her command chair as her crew returned to their stations.

"What the hell happened?"

"Ma'am, I'm scanning now, something is dragging us sideways," replied Ensign Judy Fast from the sensor station then reports, "Ma'am, a small black hole has appeared five hundred miles to starboard."

"Prepare to fold. We need to get out..."

"Ma'am, it's gone."

"What? What the hell is going on? Ensign Carr I want you to set up a fold sixteen hundred miles away from our location. Jump when you have to, your discretion."

Abigail looked up from her board as Captain Lawson addresses her "Aye-aye, Ma'am. I'm setting them up now with four back up jumps," replied the young helmswoman but before she can complete it, another energy burst and the ship started being dragged backwards. Several damaged hull plates were ripped off and sent hurtling towards the new black hole.

"Jumping now."

The destroyer re-appeared behind one of the moons of the last planet and sat making repairs throughout the ship. Damage control teams rushed to start their repairs. Spiderbots continued to seal the damaged midsection while internal bots repaired the shattered compartments and dealt with the dead, bringing the bodies to the morgue so they could be buried, later.

Commander Vickie Henderson brought her Mech through the shattered defenses of one of the cities on Tau Ceti. She caught sight of a squad of Marines helping some injured humans onto one of the flatbed hover trucks. Moving down the road, she stopped when she saw the Marines dive for cover and started searching for the shooter. Activating her sensors, she spotted movement down the road and saw around ten thousand Crytherians marching towards the ten Marines some were armed and firing on them.

"Shit!"

Lifting her left arm, she activated the two rail guns and started firing in front of the crowd tearing up the road to stop them. Activating her external speakers and language software, she stopped firing, and said, "Stop where you are, if you come closer you will be killed, all we want is to free the slaves you have kidnapped from their homes."

They refused to stop, so Vickie raised her gun sights on to the crowd and opened up as she saw several rockets fly towards her. Five hundred rail gun rounds tore through the crowd as tears dripped down her face.

"The bastards are hiding among the civilians," she said.

When she stopped firing, thousands of Crytherians lay dead from the high explosive rounds that had ripped through their ranks, while the rest ran for their lives.

Tina groaned as she lay in her cockpit. Her engines were dead, and she smelled smoke. Suddenly the canopy was ripped up and away, and she was being lifted out of the damaged fighter.

Steven had watched the battle-taking place on Tau Ceti. He was sitting on one of the peaks enjoying the morning air. That was when the craft had appeared, and had plowed into the forest, below.

It had taken him an hour to get to the craft and when he looked in, he was surprised to see a human and not a Crytherian. After a few attempts, he had gotten the strange glass open, and now he had the human in his arms as he carried the person to a small stand of trees.

Grabbing a cloth from his pack, he washed the person's face and checked for any injury. All he found was the knot on the head. Hearing a noise behind him, he turned and saw a panel open on the side of ship. Several spider-like objects came out and started repairing the ship.

Turning back to the human, he asked, "Hey are you Okay? Wake up?"

Tina groaned, and her eyes flickered open. She looked up into the face of a young man. His white hair was tied in a ponytail, while his yellow eyes were looking on her.

"Ohhhh, my head. What happened?" Tina cried out as pain shot through her head.

"You crashed. Can I do anything for you? I can get some herbs to help you."

"Help me sit up. Can you tell me how the battle is going?"

"No, I can't. I don't know much. I saw the explosions, and then you appeared out of ... like magic and then you crashed. I ran from my mountain to get here. I'm sure the skull faces are coming, we should go."

More pain shot through Tina's head, "Ohhhh, do me a favor, go to my fighter, attached to the back of the seat, you will find a black case. Please bring it here."

"Okay, let me get it for you."

Turning he ran back to the craft the person called a fighter, keeping an eye on the metal spiders that were crawling all over it. He climbed up the side of the ship and looked in. Finding the case, he grabbed it, and ran back to the pilot.

"Here you go," he said as he set it down beside the pilot.

"Thank you," reaching over, she opened the case and fumbled around inside it.

"Damn it, where is it?" she said.

As she rolled over, she felt a sharp pain in her pocket. Rolling back, she pulled the nano-injector from her pocket.

"Now how the hell did you get in there?" she said.

She turned the medical tool, injected it into her arm, and the healing bots went to work on her.

"Here let me see your arm."

"Why?" Steven asked as he looked at the person.

"If anything is wrong with you this will cure it."

Taking the injector, she emptied it into his arm when he held it out.

Conquest watched as Lieutenant Wayne got to know the human who had rescued her. The emergency fold had damaged the ship badly. Going through the systems, he found many damaged panels and failed systems. Two major systems were working that were critical: himself, as the AI, and the spiderbots. Sending out a silence command, he continued issuing ordered to the spiderbots, to expand the fighter into a two-seat version. He also deployed a holoemitter, to hide the fighter.

Steven brushed a leaf out of pilot's hair and said, "My name is Steven Sword, what is yours?"

Tina looked up into Stevens yellow eyes and she smiled, as if she has known him all her life.

"I'm Tina. God, you have sexy eyes."

"Sexy? I'm not sure what you mean, but I will take it as a compliment Tina."

"Oh, it is," she said.

Reaching up she pulled his head down to hers and they kissed, right there on the ground, in the middle of a war, with a crippled fighter less then thirty feet away. The inquisitive AI was watching them. Taking his hand, she set it on her breast to massage while they kissed, but his hand just sat there so she made him massage it by gently squeezing her hand over his.

Steven's eyes went wide when she set her hand on the bulge on her chest and pressed their lips together. Having lived alone for ten years, he knew that some humans had different parts on their bodies, but was unsure why.

"Why did you do that?" he asked when they separated.

"Because I wanted to thank you for saving my life, and you're a handsome man and for some reason I'm very attracted to you."

"Are you not a man?"

"No I'm a female," she said and then saw the confusion on his face, which causes her to giggling she smiled up at him. "How long have you been here?"

"I was always here, ever since I was little."

"Okay. Well, I'm a woman, and you're a man. We have different bodies, one difference is that I have breasts and..."

It suddenly dawned on her what she was talking about, and she blushed.

"Why did your face turn red?" he asked in confusion when she stopped talking to her.

"Never mind, I will explain later. For now let's get out of here, and get us to my ship if we can."

Pushing him back a little, she got up, looked at her fighter, and groaned aloud, "Oh no!"

The once sleek fighter was blackened and burned. The undercarriage was heavily damaged and one of the missile packs was gone. Walking to the fighter, she climbed up on to the wing and into the cockpit.

Steven followed Tina, and stood on the ground, down by the wing root, and asked, "What's wrong Tina?"

"Everything," she said.

She started to activate the emergency beacon, but it was inoperable.

"Damn it. Conquest, status report?"

"Ship has sustained heavy damage, sixty percent of flight controls off line, engines off line, weapons off line, self destruct off line, emergency beacon system destroyed. Spider bots are on line and are initiating repairs. Hyper engine is destroyed, and is unrepairable at this time. Estimated time of repairs to get in the air, is two hours ten minutes."

"Very well, continue repairs. Can you add a second seat?"

"Affirmative, I have already initiated the commands. It will take an additional thirty minutes to reconfigure the cockpit."

"Then do so, but first build a holo emitter to hide the ship."

"Already built and working. You're inside the zone so you can see me as I am, anyone else would see a large stand of trees."

"Tina, who are you talking with?" Steven asked in confusion while leaning in from outside the cockpit.

"The ship's computer. He is initiating repairs, in three hours we will be leaving this place and then you will go home with me."

Captain Haggi looked at the sensor of the small recon shuttle. A report of a ship crashing in the area had him up here with his small squad of warriors.

"Anything pilot?"

"Negative sir, I cannot find any crash site. Maybe the ship didn't crash?"

"It was burning when it went in, or that's what the report said. So find it for me," ordered Haggi as he adjusts his armor.

"Yes Sir, continuing scans as we go."

Banking the shuttle around, they headed for a large patch of trees. They dropped to tree top level to avoid attracting any attention from the fighters that were attacking a large missile base five hundred miles from his location. His shuttle over flew one part and his sensors beeped, looking at the instrument, he saw that it has detected two human life signs.

"We have humans below, probably escaped slaves. Do you wish to capture them?"

"Yes find us a clearing to land, we will work our way back to them," replied Haggi as he went to the back of the shuttle.

Tina watched the small shuttlecraft as it went over and pulled out her pistol, "Conquest status report?"

"The ship is landing about three miles away in a small clearing; I detect approximately sixteen Crytherians onboard."

"I need some claymores," Tina said as she climbed out of the cockpit and slid down on the wing. The claymores appeared and she started setting them up around the clearing. When she has finished, the area around the fighter was as safe as she could make it. Walking back to the fighter, she sat down then asked, "Steven, are you hungry?"

"Starved. Food is scarce out here."

"Conquest can we have a two KFC meals, and two bottles of water," Tina asked as she stood up.

"Coming right up," replied Conquest as the replicator pad came on and generated the food.

Steven's jaw dropped in surprise. He scrambled back off the rock he was sitting on. His eyes were drawn back in fear, as his nostrils flared.

"What was that?"

Laughing Tina carried the food and drinks back to where they were sitting then explained.

"That is a replicator. It just made us some food from my home country. It's meat from an animal called a chicken, this is a vegetable, mashed potatoes and gravy, and this is a salad food we call coleslaw," she said as she pointed at each item on the plates.

Steven watched as she opened the bag to put something out. Then she started eating the food. Pulling the lid off as she did, allowed the smells to be wafted up to his nose. His belly rumbled. Grabbing a handful of the coleslaw, he shoved it into his mouth and started eating it.

"Good..." he said as he stuffed some chicken in his mouth.

Tina giggled and shook her head, "Use your fork on the coleslaw and potatoes."

Steven stopped and looked at Tina in confusion, "fork? What is that?" he said with a mouthful of food.

Reaching over, Tina opened the bag for him, and started showing him how to eat the food.

"This is Elizabeth Chang for Sol News Network. I'm making my first broadcast aboard the USS Washington from the battle area. I've a preliminary count for all of you back home. Four million seven hundred and ninety thousand humans, one hundred and thirty thousand Tralcans, and one hundred and ten thousand Dralins have been freed from slavery. I will explain more about the Dralins, and will carry an interview with their leader.

"Losses have been heavy in the fighter wings, and some ground units have been lost as well. The only warship we have lost has been one of the destroyers. Several ships have been damaged, but the enemy's resistance has crumbled. Their losses have been as follows: two battleships, seven cruisers, and thirty destroyers have been destroyed, or captured by Federation forces. Ninety-one merchant ships have been captured, along with all three space stations, and the space dock. The captured ships have been fitted out for the transfer of people. The space dock is on the way to Terra as we speak and should arrive there in nine weeks. Merchant ships and warships that have been captured are departing as we speak. Over the next nine to fourteen weeks, ships will start arriving in the Sol system.

"Admiral Thompson has kept his promise to all of you on Terra. Your loved ones are coming home. We have also captured the governor of the system, and many high ranking officials who orchestrated the abduction and systematic murder of our citizens. Admiral Thompson has sworn that the people responsible will stand trial. This is Elizabeth Chang for C.N.N. Thank you and God bless."

"And cut!" ordered her camera operator, Jim Stone, "Beautiful honey, just beautiful, I think ... no, I know ... There are going to be a lot of happy people back home."

"Thanks, love, now what's the word on Tina?"

"Sorry, Hun, its official, she was killed saving the Oregon," Jim said as he walked towards his wife of ten days.

"Damn it," Beth said as she sat down and tears start coming to her eyes as she remembered the spunky fifteen-year-old kid. Wiping her tears, she looked up as Jim took her into his arms and let her cry.

Ted hurled debris from his the main console, trying to bring power back onto the shattered bridge while medical crews work like demons to save the wounded. Ted stopped as he yanked the control board free and looked out through the nine-foot hole in his bridge. The internal forcefields shimmered in the lights from the emergency systems. More crewmembers flooded into the room, as Ted looked at his sister.

"Lisa, get me a damage report."

"Coming in now," Lisa replied as she went through the reports. "Ted, its bad, portside weapons are decimated. The shield generators are off line, environmental, and shit ... Sir, let me light up the board."

Turning she pulled up a holographic map of the ship and it showed over seventy percent of the ship was red indicating damage.

"Son of a bitch!" Ted swore, as he looked at all the damages to his beautiful ship.

"Okay, let's start the bots on repairing the hull, and all critical systems. Get me communications as soon as possible. What's the casualty count?"

"Not good Ted. We have twenty-one hundred dead, three hundred fifty wounded and seven hundred and twenty-nine missing in action. Most of medical is intact and they are treating the wounded. A lot of the dead are from the shattered portside weapons." Suddenly she stopped as she felt more power and information flows into her, then she continued, "Sir, fold engines are online, along with communications."

"Son of a bitch that's half the crew," Ted said with despair, "get me the flagship."

"They are already calling."

Ken watched the Oregon limp away, her hull ripped open. A huge gash was torn in her side where the enemy battleship had rammed her.

"Get me the Oregon. I want to talk to Captain White."

Ted's picture came up on the main viewer. It showed the smoking ruins of his bridge.

"Ted, just how bad is it?"

"Bad, Admiral, I'm down to just half my crew effective. Portside weapons are gone. We've able to fold and life support is holding. Estimated time of repairs for the hull is nineteen hours."

"Ted, I want you to take your ship to the rendezvous. Repair her and then escort our people home. I will join you as soon as we can."

"Ken, we can still fight!"

"Negative, you're out of it. Now withdraw, and good luck. I'm transferring all wounded to your ship. When you get home, tell Jenny I love her. Flag out!"