Chapter 9: Battle Stations

Spaz grabbed the rail behind the Captains chair "What the hell was that? Report, Crewman Frost."

A young crewman stood gripping the tactical display attempting to maintain her balance. "Sir, We have multiple contacts, three, no four..."

Riu dashed to the tactical display catching her balance as the bridge shook once more and began to manipulate the controls. "Sir, there are four Morgalon fighter craft, one is engaging us, one is engaging the Riu and two engaging the Lanvy. We have taken two direct hits, the the Riu has taken several, and the Lanvy is getting pounded, raising shields."

As Spaz reached the Tactical display the ship once again took a hit. "How the hell did they get this close without anyone seeing them? Morgalons are not supposed to have..." Spaz was interrupted by the voice of the Excalibur over the com system. "Multiple Morgalon contacts, all personnel to battle stations, all Remote Interface Units activated, Remote pilots to alert craft, prepare to launch alert craft, all available personnel to the gun batteries."

"Excalibur what are you doing?" Spaz yelled.

Riu placed her hand on his to get his attention. "Spaz it is standard procedure for the AI to take command of the Remote Interface Units in the event of a tactical situation on a vessel that is under manned. The Remote Units will take over all unmanned positions and attempt to alleviate the threat."

"Sir!" Yelled Crewman Frost. "Three more Morgalon fighters have come on sensors from the other side of the moon."

"Shit!" Yelled Spaz "How the hell are we not seeing them, don't we have long range sensors."

"Yes sir," Frost replied, "however in order to conserve power all systems are at minimum capacity."

"Sensors to full, all systems to full now!!" shouted Spaz. "God damn it, I have been spending too much time on this damn recruitment and have not been paying attention to what was going on on my own ship."

"Sir! Alert fighters have launched, The Riu and Lanvy are already launching fighters. Gun batteries will be online in a few minutes. The Morgalon fighters are retreating."

The door to the bridge lift opened and David, Colonel Jimenez and Dr. Jones entered the bridge, followed by a very frightened looking Erilic and a calm Josh. Spaz ignored the new arrivals as he took his seat in the Captain's chair "Pursuit course Crewman McEntire."

"Yes sir, pursuit course," replied the crewman manning the main navigation console.

"Lt. Cole, put the enemy vessels on screen."

The main view screen changed to display several small space craft. The craft appeared to be a collection of vessels put together haphazardly. Their construction belied their maneuverability as they moved to avoid the smaller Kreg'ar fighter craft and the gun batteries once they came online.

"Sir, the Riu has joined in the pursuit, however the Lanvy appears to be listing badly. They are reporting severe damage to engineering and weapons," reported Crewman Frost. The doors to the upper desk opened and several crewmen took up vacant positions. Spaz did not recognize most of them, but a few could have been Captain Emtoo's twin sisters. Riu leaned in to Spaz and whispered. "Remote Interface Units, manning all vacant positions."

"Sir, damage control is reporting in. Shuttle bay two and the port gunnery batteries are offline. Starboard crew decks have taken direct hits and opened to space. Engineering has taken some damage but should be back online shortly. Hyper drive is disabled until further notice." Announced one of the units on the upper deck. David took a seat to Spaz's left "Captain Walker what is going on?"

Spaz looked down towards David with a frown. "Sir, we got caught by surprise by up to seven Morgalon fighters. We are currently in pursuit and the ships Remote Interface Units have been activated and are manning all vacant positions, and the alert fighters. The Riu has joined in on the pursuit but the Lanvy has taken heavy damage.

"Sir" Crewman Frost exclaimed. "Enemy contact exiting Saturn's rings, its profile matches that of a Morgalon destroyer. The RIU has broken off pursuit of the fighters and is engaging the destroyer."

Spaz looked shocked and a little scared. "How many enemy fighters remain?" He asked as he leaned forward in his chair.

"Three sir." Replied Captain Emtoo, "fifteen of our fighters are in pursuit, however the Morgalon craft are changing course towards the destroyer."

"Sir incoming torpedoes!" Exclaimed one of the Interface Units on the upper deck.

Spaz tapped the ship wide intercom with his left hand. "All hands brace for impact." Then he flipped the switch and looked towards the navigation con. "Evasive action."

"Aye, aye sir."

The Excalibur lurched to the left suddenly as the ship began to make evasive maneuvers and bolts of energy shot from the defensive batteries destroying all but one of the incoming torpedoes. Spaz held tightly to the captain's chair as the ships inertial dampeners attempted to compensate for the sudden movements. David flew forward into the tactical controls as Dr. Jones, Josh and Eleric gripped onto the rail behind Spaz.

The shipped rocked more violently as the torpedo slammed into the Excalibur and exploded. Crewman Frost flew back from the tactical control station and slammed into the rear wall of the bridge, crumbling to the floor. One of the male Interface units fell from the upper desk, his face crashing against the tactical display, blood splattered across the control and covered Spaz and Riu.

Spaz wiped the blood off his face with his sleeve as Dr. Jones headed to check on Crewman Frost, who was starting to stand and waving him off. Dr Jones turned and knelt to check on the fallen Interface Unit and simply shook his head. "Damage report!" Spaz yelled as he stood up and lurched towards the tactical controls.

"Sir, direct hit to the starboard flight deck, damage control is on the way. All other systems still operational, shields at twenty percent and falling."

Spaz looked towards Captain Emtoo who simply shook her head. "All batteries target that destroyer and fire at will." Spaz commanded

"Sir, The Riu has taken several direct hits. Her shields are gone and she is listing badly," reported another Interface Unit. "One enemy fighter managed to dock with the destroyer and she is in full retreat. All of our remaining fighters are engaging the destroyer."

The Excalibur sped towards the Morgalon destroyer, its forward and port batteries blasting into the Destroyers shields, and the seven remaining fighters swarming around it firing into the destroyer. The Morglalon destroyer turned away from the oncoming craft on a course to take it out of the solar system. More blasts laced out of the Excalibur, and several torpedoes shot from the forward bays, one got through the shields into the rear of the craft. After several more direct hits from both the forward batteries and torpedoes, the Destroyer began to slow and then exploded.

Everyone on the bridge cheered as the Destroyer exploded, everyone that is except the Interface units who remained typically emotionless, and Spaz who shook his head as he sat in the Captains chair with an audible sigh. He looked around at the battle damaged bridge and shook his head. "Sir I think we need to talk, Dr. Jones, Colonel Jimenez, Captain Emtoo can you please accompany me and David to my ready room?" He asked as he rose from his chair. "Crewman Frost, please keep an eye on our guests, you have the con."

"Yes sir." She replied as she sat in the Captain's chair.

Spaz entered his ready room and took a seat behind the desk as the rest followed. David and Captain Emtoo took the two seats in front of the desk while the rest sat in the two couches that lined either wall. "Captain Walker what is this all about?" David asked as he took his seat.

Spaz leaned forward over his desk and laid his hands on his forehead. He sat there for a few seconds before looking up at his friends. "David, we are making a huge mistake and this fight just proved it." David looked at Spaz and then at Captain Emtoo. "What mistake are you talking about?"

"Sir, we have been taking things too lightly, we have been acting as if we had all the time in the world and we have put people in positions that they do not deserve simply because they were here first." Spaz said as he looked around and then leaned back in his chair. "You gave me command of the Excalibur and Colonel Jimenez command of the Riu. But neither of us have any tactical experience or training. Until a few months ago, Colonel Jimenez was a civilian nurse and I have always been a pilot. Yes I have flown missions in the gulf and other areas but never in this scale. I have no experience commanding a ship. However we do have people on board who do have experience, retired naval Officers who we simply delegated to commanding repair crews. They are the ones who need to be in command of these ships, not me and Colonel Jimenez. No offence intended towards Colonel Jimenez."

"None taken Captain." Colonel Jimenez responded. "Actually after seeing what just happened I agree with you. If I had been on the Riu when all this happened I would not have done any better."

"Captain Walker, I gave you the command of this ship..." David started.

"Sir I am sorry to interrupt you but I should not have command of this ship. I was originally given command until a more suitable commander was available. I feel more suitable candidates have been found and we are not using them. In the last few months I have been giving introduction briefings, and monitoring repairs on the Excalibur. I should have been learning everything about this ship. As the ship's Captain I should know every aspect of this ship, ever system and their operations. I did not even know that our sensors were at minimum power or the vulnerability that left us in." Spaz interrupted as he stood from his chair and leaned over the desk. "Sir, a ships captain's duty is to his ship, not to all the other stuff we have been doing. Colonel Jimenez should have been on the Riu, as its commander that was her place, but we have been doing everything but commanding our ships. It is time we got someone in charge of the Excalibur and Riu who knew how to run a ship, how to organize her crew and what he needs to know about her systems. Sir we have a retired British Admiral with command experience and a medically retired French Naval Captain who commanded a carrier in the French Navy. They should have command not the two of us. Let me and Colonel Jimenez return to getting the recruits organized and training our fighter pilots and let command of the ships fall on the people who know what they are doing."

David looked around at his command crew, seeing the nods of agreements he nodded his head and stood up. "You make sense Captain Walker, we are all learning new things, and this has definitely been a learning experience. Excalibur, are Colonel Young and Colonel Benoit still on board?"

"Yes sir,"

David nodded, "very well, please have them come to the captains ready room."

A few minutes later two men in new EDF uniforms entered the ready room, one had an obvious limp. Both came to attention in front of Captain Walker's desk and saluted, the older of the two spoke in a thick British Accent. "Colonel Young and Colonel Benoit reporting as ordered."

Spaz returned their salutes as David rose from his chair and they exchanged places. "Gentleman it has come to my attention that the two of you have experience commanding a ship."

"Yes sir." The two responded together.

"Well, due to recent enemy activity it has come to my attention that we have need of Captains with command experience. I am herby promoting the two of you to the rank of Captain in the EDF Space Force. Captain Young, you now have command of the EDFS Riu, Captain Benoit, you have command of the EDFS Excalibur. Colonel Jimenez will take over your duties as commander of the repair crews on all three ships. Colonel Walker will have command of the fighter squadrons with orders to recruit and train pilots. This is effective immediately, congratulations Captains," David said as he extended his hand to the two new ship commanders. The two new Captains shook David's hand "Thank you sir, you will not be disappointed," stated Captain Benoit.

David nodded. "The two of you have a lot of work to do. I will leave it to you to determine the priorities for recruiting and training on your respective ships. As you probably know we just survived an attack by the skin of our teeth, so I leave it up to you two to ensure we are ready the next time the Morgalons show up. Dismissed."

"Yes Sir!!" The two captains said together as they came to attention and saluted.

David returned their salutes and then took the seat behind the desk and picked up the pad in front of him. "Colonel Walker I am authorizing you to institute your recruitment protocol, both Dr. Debbin and Dr. Jones have assured me that they are fully capable and have enough medical staff to cover just about any injury that has been experience by any disabled vet you recruit, both physical and mental. Captain Riu please cease Operation Search and Rescue, by our numbers we should have enough raw recruits either trained and deployed, in training or awaiting training to cover the current needs of the repair crews. Colonel Jimenez, see to your crews, priority is power, life-support and then weapons and shields." He said as the two new Captains exited his ready room to see to their new commands. "I want an update on the damage sustained in this fire fight and exactly how many craft were lost by 1300. Thank you you're dismissed."

The rest of the command staff quickly saluted and exited to carry out their orders. David turned to look out the window behind him and stared at the space-scape as the ship slowly made its way back to earth. "What am I going to do? We are not ready for this; I dont think we will ever be ready. My crew has no actual space combat experience and I am not sure we can pull this off." He whispered to the stars.

David continued to stare out the window at the spacescape beyond, he could see wreckage floating by, parts of the destroyed or damaged fighters and ships, both Earth and Morgelon. "Such a waste of life." He thought as the ship started moving slowly into the wreckage.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door chime. "Enter."

The door hissed open behind him. "Sir we have detected life signs in the wreckage of the Morgalon ship. It appears that some of the crew managed to get to escape pods prior to the ships destruction. There are also several distress beacons." A voice stated behind him.

David turned around and leaned against the desk; he looked up and shook his head. "What do you recommend Captain Benoit?" He asked.

"Sir, according to Captain Emtoo there are no Morgalons detected among the survivors. Sir, I recommend transporting the survivors to the ship and placing them in empty stasis pods until we can interrogate them and determine why they were serving on a Morgalon ship. Once that is complete we destroy all the sources of the beacons." Captain Benoit replied as he stood at parade rest in the doorway.