Garrick

#

Garrick climbed another rung on the ladder upwards to the bridge on the Ezekiel. Power to non-essential systems like the lifts had not yet been restored. Even the engines were barely working, and weapons systems were still over twelve hours away at the very least. Ramsey said it might be impossible to repair them without being at a station.

He resented being pulled away from engineering, but Peters had insisted it was urgent. So he left Ramsey in charge and begun the climb.

He reached top deck and promised himself that if Peters had called him up for nothing, Garrick would throw him down the access ladder.

"Captain Peters stood to vacate his chair.

"This better be good, Peter--" Garrick caught sight of the image of ships rising through the clouds of Caxis. There were at least ten he could see, of a similar design to the ships the insurgents used and now flying out to meet the incoming Alliance fleet. "Are those ships from Caxis?"

"Y--yes it seems that way, sir. The Caxian ships look like they're moving to take a position waiting for the Alliance ships to arrive."

Garrick swore loudly. "What's the status of the Edinburgh?"

"They're being swarmed by hoppers, sir. It looks like they're trying to pull the same trick they did with the Forge--burning through and trying to take the ship."

Garrick squinted at the hoppers that were circling the Edinburgh. These insurgents had shown they were smart. They had disabled the Edinburgh, making it much harder for the crew of the ship to destroy the vessel before the insurgents could take possession of it, but the fighting would be fierce inside. If it had been him, he would have done every thing in his power to steal a bomb without taking over the ship.

"The hoppers are closing in, Captain Peters said. Sure enough, the small fleet of hoppers were now fastening themselves onto the hull of the Edinburgh, and beginning to cut through the outer bulkhead to gain entry to the ship.

This doesn't make sense.

Garrick scanned the hull for anything that might suggest the insurgents were planning something other than a straight capture of the Edinburgh. "Show me where the bomb would fire from."

Peters looked at him quizzically.

"Weapons tubes, missile launchers--anything like that."

There was the sound of tapping on a keyboard as Peters tried to bring up schematics of the Edinburgh. "Looks like the Edinburgh has two large torpedo launchers with openings on the forward section of the ship."

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Garrick felt a sinking sensation. "Are there any hoppers in those areas?"

More tapping as Peters worked his console. The viewport zoomed into the front of the Edinburgh to show a hopper settling itself over the opening of the torpedo launcher.

Garrick pounded the arm of his chair in frustration before opening a connection to Ramsey in engineering. "Get me all the power you can!"

#

Marcus

#

"Reports are coming in Jenkins said. "The boarders have engaged the Alliance forces on the ship. They're meeting fierce resistance."

Bronikowski took this in her stride. "Where is the Alliance fleet?"

Marcus consulted his screen. "They've reached the Caxians. Both fleets are holding position facing each other." He looked through the identification tags of the Alliance ships to see whether there were any that he recognised--"Napia, it's the Phoenix Rises."

"They didn't take the bait." Bronikowski hit her fist on her chair. "We don't have long. Can we get any helmet feeds up of beta squad?"

"Coming up now the officer responded. Shortly after a feed appeared on the viewport of what looked like just a section of hull.

"Are they cutting yet?" Bronikowski said.

"Not yet, sir. The bomb they found is in the tube ready to fire so they have to be delicate. They're waiting for your orders."

Marcus' mouth went dry. The Alliance had been ready to fire at them--to destroy Caxis. He felt faint.

Bronikowski tapped the arm of her chair. "Hamasa, this is Napia. You have the go-ahead to retrieve the bomb from the tube. But be careful, god-dammit. That bomb can't go off."

"We got you, Napia," Hamasa's voice came through the bridge's speakers. "Just make sure the Alliance don't get here first."

At Hamasa's prompt, Marcus checked his readings again and with a start he realised that the fight had begun. "The Phoenix Rises has engaged the Caxians."

"Put it on the viewport," Bronikowski demanded.

Moments later an image appeared of ships against the cloudy backdrop of Caxis itself, beams lancing out between them. Marcus made out the familiar shape of the Phoenix Rises at the centre of the Alliance formation, flanked by two other warships of the same class and a myriad of smaller frigates like the Edinburgh. The Caxian ships were dwarfed by comparison, arrayed in a loose line that was an insignificant smudge in the way of the tide of Alliance vessels moving towards them. The beams the Alliance ships concentrated on individual Caxian ships tore through the target in minutes. By Marcus' reckoning it would be over in seconds.

No one spoke on the bridge. There was no need to point out that the Alliance would soon be on them, any chance of victory disappearing alongside the Caxian ships trying to mount a defence.

There was a flash of light as another of the ships exploded. When he squinted through the shrapnel and freezing gases, another Caxian ship had disappeared, but there was also a gaping hole where one of the Alliance warships had been.

"They rammed it," Bronikowski kept her voice flat.

He said nothing. Faced with the choice again, with Sophia and Lio below them, he couldn't object to those ships sacrificing themselves to save them.

"We need to head for the lanes," Bronikowski said. "Start towing the Edinburgh."

"But sir, that could make it dangerous to extract the bomb--" Jenkins started.

"We don't have a choice. If we stay, we'll get caught."

Marcus couldn't stay silent this time. "But if the bomb goes off, the whole of Caxis--"

"This isn't up for debate." Bronikowski jumped to her feet. "Start towing the ship now and signal the other ships to guard us."

"Y--yes sir," Jenkins said.

This can't be happening. This can't be happening.

Another flash filled the viewport as another Caxian flew into an Alliance warship, destroying it.

How many people had died already today? How many more will die before the day is out?