Chapter 64: The Bark of the Big Dogs

"Freya! Can you break through!" a voice called.

"Not against two Sa'arm battleships," Captain Walker replied calmly. "I might be able to force the Sa'arm to lay off River Oaks, but that's about it."

"Odessa just blew!" a voice called. "It looks like her engines took a direct hit!"

"Esther, do we have escape pods from Odessa? Can we try to rescue crew with our tugs?" I asked.

"Tracking showed at least ten escape pods boosting from Odessa before the end. But her destruction threw up a debris field. Right now I can't localize on any one escape pod."

"They have an open transmitter on a specialty channel," James said. It sounded like he was talking through clenched teeth as he continued. "Tif, if we can, have someone transmit on that frequency and get the escape pods to move off the ecliptic. That should reduce the chance that they will be hit during the battle."

"Marilyn?" Tiffany called out. "Can you handle that from the nursery? We are out of bodies."

"I'll take care of it," the woman replied.

"Meiko!" Michelle called. "I'm the one coordinating with the carrier. Is your search and rescue team ready?"

I looked up. The sergeant had moved over by his men. The fatigues he had been wearing were now covered by a vacuum suit. He was holding the helmet in his right hand and glaring at two marines who were kneeling down and adjusting the legs of their suits.

"Sergeant, are your men ready?" I called out.

"All present and accounted for," the man said. "We are ready to serve."

I stifled a giggle and spoke. "I have seven marines here. Five in regular vacuum suits, two in battle armor. I just need to brief them. What's the status, Mike?"

"Good and bad news," Michelle said. "The carrier has taken more than a dozen hits and only a few rooms still have power and pressure. Can you even see their teleport rooms?"

I checked the console. The system reported three rooms, but only one with power to the pad. It was designated as the central starboard teleport room. "I see three, but only one works. The name suggests it's in the middle of the ship."

"Must be the starboard one," Michelle said. "It would have been on the far side of the attack. That is good. The concubines' room is a short walk aft. The flag bridge is actually directly above the concubines' room. Those should be their two priorities."

"Anything else?" I asked.

"The main bridge is intact. Engineering got shook up, but the rooms are holding pressure. The hanger and launch areas are a bit of a mess, but the ship's damage control is already working there. They say they don't need help," Michelle told me.

"Ok, Mike, I'll pass that on. I'll be teleporting the men shortly," I replied. "Sergeant. I have a quick status of the ship you are going to."

"Right, maggots," the sergeant barked out. "This is your opportunity to redeem yourselves after we got stuck on this career ending shit detail. Listen closely."

I shook my head. "The carrier has taken several hits and most of the ship has been depressurized. I'm going to be teleporting you to a teleport room near the middle of the ship. From there you need to go aft. A short distance aft from the teleport room is the concubines' quarters. The concubines need to be evacuated. After that, we need to check the flag bridge to see if anyone is alive. It's one level directly above the concubines' room."

One of the marines raised a hand. "How can we move the concubines if the passageways are depressurized?"

"Mike?" I whispered. "Can we move the concubines?"

"Yes," she replied. "Captain Burros confirmed that all of them are in skinsuits. However, the doors to their room are all jammed. The marines need to open up the room."

I nodded at this and looked at the marines. "The concubines are in skinsuits. They just can't escape their room, the doors are jammed."

Sergeant Watkins nodded. "Ballard! Take Hodges and Miller once we are there, you'll head to the flag bridge. The rest of you will be with me as we free the concubines."

He turned and walked over to the pad. The marines scrambled to follow him. One of the armored members separated himself slightly from the others. When the other marines noticed this, two others joined him. As soon as all of the marines were arrayed on the pad, Sergeant Watkins turned to look at me. "Ready."

I looked at the console to confirm that the teleport connection was solid. The display confirmed that all was ready. I held up my right hand. "Sending in three ... two..."

The men disappeared from the pad. "Esther, the marines here have headed out to the carrier."

"Good," Esther replied. "The other two are back here. They will be returning with Mickey and Terrence shortly."

"Kitty, let me know when you are sending," I ordered.

Before she replied, more panicked comments came over the open communication. "Cancun! Captain, two Sa'arm cruisers are stalking the corvette."

"Captain Evans, the two visiting Asia class destroyers are in trouble!"

"Sif, Athena! We might be able to line up the lead battleship, but you have to keep their missiles back. We lost our port point defense stations to the fighters."

The cries cut off almost as quickly as they had started. "Sorry, we've had some issues with the communications filter," Tiffany said. "Right now the battle above us is close. The carrier has been heavily damaged, but is still fighting. The missile cruiser and one of the Asia class destroyers have been destroyed."

"Good to hear," James said. "What is the status on the Sa'arm?"

"All their lighter ships are gone. Every scout, fighter and corvette has been destroyed. They still have four ... no, one of the remaining Sa'arm cruisers just blew up, they are down to three there. They still have all three battleships and the hive sphere," Tamara replied.

"Can we win?" Esther asked.

Just then, a huge cry of victory rang out over the colony's speakers. "Scratch one Sa'arm battleship!"

"What happened?" I asked.

"Beowulf got one of the battleships lined up and managed to send four rail gun bullets in," Ingrid said. "That took out a battleship."

"Meiko!" Kitty called out. "I have people to send to you."

"The pad is clear," I said. "Send them now."

The pad lit up with an incoming teleport. I watched the light fade and saw the two marines I had sent to Kitty appear. Each one was carrying someone in their arms."

Craig sprinted out of the medical room. He was dragging a gurney. "Lindsay!" he shouted. "We need a second gurney!"

One of the marines stepped forward and deposited his passenger on the gurney that Craig had brought. From the medical room I could hear someone grabbing a gurney and rushing forward with it.

Craig pushed the first gurney into the medical room. The marine stepped forward and looked around. He walked toward me as Ed appeared from the medical room pushing a gurney.

"Where is the rest of the squad?" the marine called out.

"They are on the carrier. The ship has taken a lot of hits and they are performing search and rescue," I said.

"Can we join them?" the other marine asked.

"The ship has lost pressure in the areas the rest of your squad is in," I said. "And we can use some help here."

"Doing what?" the first marine asked.

"Meiko!" Ingrid called to me. "We need the teleporter."

I raised my right hand with the palm out and put my left hand over my ear. "What?"

"Athena was covering Beowulf and just got peppered with a flight of missiles. They're still getting the full casualty count, but the ship is definitely out of the fight and will need injured evacuated," Ingrid told me.

"I'll have people get gurneys lined up and prepare Donna's group. How many and what kind of injuries?"

"Last count I got was that, of their forty gunballs, only eight responded green after the hits. Sixteen are making their way to the elevators for recovery. Another twelve are dead on the grid. It was a couple of those sliver missiles," Ingrid informed me.

"That leaves four gunballs unaccounted for," I observed.

"The system shows them on the grid and moving, but they get no response," Ingrid replied. "They are counting them as still active for now.

"Damn," I said. "Have them contact me directly when they are ready."

I looked up across the room. The marines had left the pad, but were simply standing in the middle of the room. "Donna!" I shouted. "We have incoming wounded! Athena took hits from some of the sliver missiles. They have reported massive casualties among their gunners."

"Athena has broken off from the fight," Esther's voice called out. "Who is working with them?"

"I'm working with them," Ingrid replied. "They have lost too many gunners to continue the fight. Meiko and I are trying to coordinate evacuation of wounded. I'm going to guide them to a repair dock."

"Use Inanna," Louis called out. "Our lasers can perhaps give them a little cover."

"It looks like Mongolia is covering Athena," Tamara called out.

The noise in the headset stopped again. Over the colony speaker system Tiffany's voice called out. "Everyone, the filtering system is failing. Try to keep all communications to a minimum when possible so we don't miss important information."

"Mieko!" Ingrid called out. "Three to teleport from Athena's aft teleport room. Well, six, their concubines are carrying them."

I looked up to confirm that the pad was clear. My console was still set to the carrier's teleport room so I frantically tried to switch the teleport connection to allow the injured from Athena to be brought down. The system was a bit sluggish, but I managed to get a strong connection to the pad on the cruiser. "Athena, we have a good connection, do you want me to initiate teleport?" I asked.