Beaten but Never Broken
The bright yellow star shone across the Slee system and its planets. No terrestrial worlds orbited in this star's warm embrace, but the shadowy outlines of distant gas giants could be seen. Large and composed of vast amounts of gas and dust, these huge spheres were the lifeblood of the Sapient Congressional Union. The SCU siphoned the gas from the giants and refined it into fuel for their ships, Valuable Tritium and Deuterium could be found in vast quantities in most gas giants across the expanse of the galaxy, and this system was blessed with four such behemoths.
The refinery stations orbited the giants like parasites, leaching the very substance of the giants to power the progress of the SCU and its many races. All was not well within the SCU however, a rogue faction had arisen, driven by hate and greed. This faction, called the Hegemony of Independent Systems, was after the lifeblood of the SCU. They wanted to take the refineries for themselves and in doing so, starve the vast war fleets of the Union making them incapable of defending the thousands of worlds in or around the conflict zone. While this was an important task, the Slee system was far from the largest or closest to the front lines. And this was the cause of her lone defender's distress.
The single Union warship that floated in the cold void was huge and imposing. It was a ship of Human manufacture, the brutalist design and clean lines showing the founder race’s predisposition towards order. The ship was like a huge middle finger to the very entropy that ruled the universe, its straight edges and flat featureless armour panels laughing at the universe's attempts to abrade it away. The ship was layered in meters of superheavy armour that was capable of withstanding horrific levels of punishment, as that was the ships reason for existence.
Captain John Cameron of the Greyson Class ship CMS Olympus Mons was pacing along the bridge as was his habit of late. The son of a fourth generation naval tradition, the lack of action sat ill with him.
He turned to his second, Commander Jrise Kreen, a Nerivith female with long curving horns and skin the color of a pink rose. He asked her “What is the status of our relief? They should have been here two days ago!” he fumed.
Jrise flicked her sinuous tail in agitation as she responded in her slightly husky yet melodic voice “There is a precedent for them being late. Many other shipments and supply runs have been late in the past. They are likely running behind schedule, nothing more.” she assured him as best she could.
He shook his head and growled “They had better be here soon, the longer I wait the more likely there is to be a hypersonic boot going up their ass when they finally get here.”
He smiled a bit as Jrise giggled at his dour mood. “Oh, you and me both. I wasn't made for this sitting, my blood craves action.” she said to him with a smirk.
He nodded his head to the bloodthirsty woman, the Nerivith were even more aggressive in combat than Humans tended to be which was deeply at odds with their lovely succubine appearances. They looked more suited to dancing than fighting, but he had seen her weave her way through an enemy boarding party, slitting throats and disemboweling enemy marines like war was a dance for her. And it likely was.
“With any luck we will be rotated to the front lines soon.” he sighed as he stopped to look at the large main viewscreen. The bridge of the CMS Olympus Mons was situated deep in her 920 meter long bulk, protected by layers of superheavy armour that would protect them from almost anything that currently existed, except maybe Supernova cannons or Paragon lasers. The advancement of sensor technology made having an exposed bridge entirely unnecessary, although all the other known races tended to leave their bridges exposed for some reason. Maybe it was aesthetics, maybe they felt less confined that way, whatever the reason, it was a tactical error to do so in his opinion.
The CMS Olympus Mons was an old ship, and while conflict of this scale had never occurred in the SCU before, that didn't mean that the venerable warship had never seen combat. She had battled rebel warlords in the far south, destroyed pirate warbands to the far east, and obliterated Flesh Tearer raiders in the outer colonies where the law rarely went and many systems fended for themselves. He had never agreed personally with the somewhat self centered way the Union had governed itself. The Core systems and most of the major homeworlds were guarded and well traveled while the outermost colonies were lawless places where the weak were subjugated by the rich or strong. He himself had come from an outer colony and he attributed that to his family's strong appreciation for martial power and order.
As he stood, leaning against the upper railing above the main bridge pit, he heard the sound of a proximity alarm going off and looked around for the source.
His search was ended as one of the ship's Ensigns rose to her multitude of skittering legs and flagged down a nearby officer. The Ensign, a Vinarfel female named Amora Offshine, was a particularly vibrant member of her species. The Vinarfel were large arthropods looking vaguely similar to six meter long Earthly centipedes, but their forward third reared up and they possessed five pairs of arms. Their fearsome appearance was at odds with their temperament as many he had known throughout his life had been temperamental, but good people. They had gotten a bad wrap in the public eye most recently however as the large number of Vinarfelien colonies that had joined with the Hegemony in this recent conflict. He shook his head at the unfairness of it, just as many or more Human worlds had seceded as well, but Humans were seen as friends and explorers and their crimes often overlooked in the public eye. He snorted and turned towards the concerned looking junior commander hurrying his way.
As the Human man stopped at attention he stated “Junior Commander Hunter Doogle Sir, I have urgent news.”
John just sighed internally at the man's stiff demeanor and barked “At ease, Report.”
The man went into the most stiff and uncomfortable looking ‘ease’ that John had ever seen but reported swiftly “Sir, We have detected a possible warp signature approaching. It is either a very large ship, or a great many smaller ones. What are your orders?”
He looked at the man and then over to Jrise standing a short distance away, she had a savage smile on her face. Her blunt teeth startlingly white against her rosy features. “All hands to alert stations, Yellow alert is in effect. Combat roles at stations!” he bellowed across the bridge, his commanding voice ensuring that every voidsman heard the call. Seconds later the yellow alert lights flashed on and a general alert howled through the near kilometer length of the battleship.
He moved steadily but unhurriedly over to his command throne and sat in the large chair. Jrise sat quickly in a seat to his immediate right, it was always good to keep your subordinates on hand for dire emergencies. From his position he could see all the command crew as well as the pit officers at their stations. A ship as large as the Mons was in possession of nearly three thousand crew not including her marine complement. And he was in charge of bringing each and every one of them safely home. It was a huge, almost impossible, responsibility, but he reveled in the sensation of power and command. This was why he had been born. To take the fight to the enemies of the Union, the enemies of peace.
He checked his readouts, there was indeed a large cluster of warp signatures heading their way. Far too many to be their relief, he counted over two dozen signatures, but as close together as they were at that distance it was near impossible to tell.
He pressed the internal comms unit on his throne and said to the ship's computer “Get me Gunnery Master Hagj’Nrak.” The large Gre’vahn man was the primary intelligence when it came to the inner workings of the Mons guns.
After a moment of static, the wide featured head of Gunnery Master Hagj’Nrak appeared on his console. “Yes Captain, I'm very busy at the moment.”
John smiled and asked “I believe it, we have a large amount of contacts inbound, there is a high probability that they are hostiles, please tell me you have the Nova cannon ready to fire.” he finished with a slight plea.
Hagj’Nrak shook his head sadly and said “Not yet captain, but if I put the boys on it double time it should be ready to fire in about forty minutes. Why did the enemy have to attack right as I was doing maintenance on the man gun, quite rude of them…” the man trailed off as he was distracted by something in the background. Suddenly he roared “NO!! NOT LIKE THAT YOU ARSELING!! YOU WANT TO KILL US ALL…” the link cut shortly after and John chuckled to himself. That man was a wonder with guns, but people? He just never seemed to get the hang of biological flesh and blood machines.
Jrise spoke up “So no main battery. We should still have enough secondaries to send these fathersuckers straight to hel.” she swore colorfully.
He nodded in agreement as he asked “But without the Iron Storm shells, there is a high chance any ships larger than a frigate will be able to approach within weapons range. We will likely suffer heavy damage in any upcoming fight. I have the main blast doors over the main gun sealed so it should be safe from most fire, but I am loath to take the chance…” he trailed off as the first warp signatures finally resolved themselves into ships. “By Lucks fleeting grace…” he whispered to himself as he saw the ships materializing in battle formation.
There were thirteen ships, six frigates, four destroyers and three cruisers, although two of them were light cruisers. It was still bad, that was an awful lot of firepower about to be directed at them, and they had no backup.
“Well, I think I know why our backup never showed up.” Jrise muttered from beside him.’
He leaned forwards and saw that the lower pit was awash with hushed whispers and muted panic, deciding to make a statement he opened the all ships com and cleared his throat.
The noise grabbed everyone's attention as he started “This is the captain speaking. As you all are likely aware, our relief has not arrived, and to make matters worse, we are detecting the approach of numerous hostile ships entering the system as I speak. But do not be alarmed, we are the Union's finest, and this vessel is out home. The enemy wants to take her from us, to render her down to ashes. But this will.. Not.. Happen. I swear on my honor and on my family's illustrious name that we will beat these bastards back to whatever dark pit they crawled out of. They will rue the very day they decided to test their mettle against the likes of us, the children of Olympus!” He finished with a roar that was echoed by every member of the crew he could see on the bridge.
He heard the high pitched hiss of multiple vinarfell and the keening cries of many nerivith as they shrieked their battle cries to the void, even the low muted gurgle of some Slaaveth as they used their aquasonics in open air. After a minute of this he began again “Now, move to your battle stations with all possible haste, for on this day, we bring ruin upon the enemies of the Union. Captain John Cameron of the CMS Olympus Mons out.” and he severed the link.
Jrise was bobbing her horned head and flicking her tail excitedly. She turned to him and said “Oh I missed your war speeches. That one was one of the best I have heard you give, well spoken. I feel my blood coursing through my veins, I feel ready to kill.” she finished excitedly.
He shook his head and said "I just hope it's enough, this looks bad." He said while gesturing to his console and the numerous contacts it was reading. What's more, there were more contacts on the way, they would likely arrive in less than an hour.
"We should attack. We need to dispatch these enemies before their backup can arrive.” John said smartly.
She looked at her own console and then over to him as she said “As much as I want to agree, I find I must do my duty as the small voice by your side and ask if it would not be more prudent to wait for them to attack in a more defensible position? With our backs to one of the giants perhaps, then they will not be able to outflank us.” she suggested.
He nodded and then asked “And then who would protect the other three refineries, we can't protect the whole system, we need to push the attack as soon as possible, before their warp drives can recharge. They will likely scatter across the system as soon as they are able.” he pointed out to her.
She was silent for a few seconds before nodding and saying “I will admit the thought of such a maneuver had slipped my mind. I see the point you are making.”
He shifted in his chair before looking out over the mass of junior officers and voidsmen on the command level of the deck. It was possible that in undertaking such an aggressive stance, many hundreds of the crew would die. But the alternative was them failing to hold the system, which was unacceptable. They would not lose such a valuable fuel depot to the enemy if they could do anything at all to prevent it.
He made up his mind and opened a channel to the bridge crew. “This is the captain, we will be advancing on the enemy position immediately, no delay. Charge the warp engines and plot a course for their position now.” he commanded over the link before severing it.
He nodded as he heard and saw the junior officers begin to move as one, their actions preparing the ship for war, and an emergency warp jump. The yellow lights on the edges of the bridge went from a slow intermittent pulsing to solid yellow indicating an imminent warp jump. He tensed as the all too familiar feeling crashed through him. Jumping into the alternate space of a warp bubble somehow interfered with the base neural network of living things, science still had no explanation for it instead dubbing it warp shock.
The ship lept forwards on his console, suddenly racing towards her enemy at thousands of times the speed of light, they would be upon the enemy in less than ten minutes at this speed. He needed to prepare himself. The crew was ready and the weapons of the Mons were armed. Unfortunately her Nova cannon was not quite operational yet, but the enemies were likely spread out enough by this time to make an iron storm shell less effective.
Leaning back in his command throne, he closed his eyes briefly and tried to enjoy the last bit of relative peace he was likely to have for the foreseeable future. The enemy would be able to see them coming, and would likely be aiming every gun of theirs at them. But they had made a critical error. Unless they had intelligence more accurate than a week old, they would not know that the CMS Olympus Mons was here. They would probably be expecting a cruiser or battlecruiser at the most for such an out of the way system. They would not be expecting the armoured might of a Greyson class battleship to burst upon them. Their fire would roll from the superheavy armour of the Mons like rain from the back of a seabird.
Only a single minute to go now, he was ready, his ship was ready. He turned to Jrise and asked “Are you ready? I'm going to need you watching for anything I miss.”
She nodded and with a savage grin replied “Yes captain, I have been waiting to follow you into battle again. We shall show these rebels what they get when they mess with the Union.”
He frowned in thought and nodded at her words. They likely would, but at what cost? Well, it was no use dwelling on the subject as they burst from warp amid a cloud of high energy particles.
**********
The CMS Olympus Mons burst from the warp in a blaze of white sparks, the outer layers of her hull dark and slightly pitted like the skin of some vast cosmic predator. She immediately opened fire upon the rebel ships that she had pounced on. But the rebels were not surprised, their own guns firing instantly upon her translation.
A rebel frigate, a Nebula Type F Class, was almost instantly holed as it was struck by a full broadside from the Olympus Mons. The eight 225mm Pendragon superheavy railguns tearing the smaller frigate nearly in half. As secondary explosions tore the small ship the rest of the way apart, another frigate on the Mons’ other side was suffering a similar fate.
The frigates had managed to get shots off, and as their own lighter railgun fire slashed across the gap, it did nothing whatsoever to the titanic armour plating of the Mons. the bright flashes and expelled particles of molten armour as the shots dug more than a meter into her hide. But her skin was thick, thicker than most vessels of her class. She was a bullet sponge to the small caliber guns arrayed against her, soaking up their fire without any effort and dishing out punishing blows in return.
With her main gun out of commission for this fight, she was instead relying on her many secondaries. After her main broadsides came the follow up shots from her six larger, but slower firing, 250mm Harbinger superheavy railguns. The six shots sped outwards, seeking the slightly heavier targets of the light cruisers. Three struck the right cruiser amidships and tore great gaping hollows through her main decks, the wound was a fatal one, but not immediately so. The dying light cruiser fired again and again ineffectually on the Olympus Mons before it was in turn silenced by another volley from her Pendragon broadside.
The light cruiser to her left fared no better, it had pulled into a sharp turn as the Mons had exited warp which caused two of the three shots to fly wide. But the turn caused the bow of the ship to be struck directly by the third shot instead. The huge chunk of tungsten alloy burrowed deep into the light cruiser's core till it touched off the ship's main reactor. The reactor itself wasn't explosive, but the tons of fuel mixed with the ship's oxygen supply quickly turned the ship into a cloud of rapidly cooling debris. These debris struck a nearby frigate, wounding its engine and causing it to slew off course.
This wounded frigate floundered for a full minute before it was acquired by one of the Mons’ many gunners and targeted by one of her port Hornet swarm missile launchers. The missiles might have been relatively small, only 155mm in diameter, but the Hornet swarm launcher fired two hundred and eighty of them in a single salvo, this tide of high explosive ordinance fluttered towards the doomed frigate almost leisurely before impacting as a single mass. The explosive potential of each rocket magnified by the others detonating around it, the frigate's defenses were overwhelmed and destroyed. Its hull cracked, its bridge was shattered, its engines slagged. Its destruction came slowly as its life leaked out of its ruptured hull, its guns warped or blasted out of shape and its crew mostly dead from the overpressure waves that had buffeted the ship's interior.
The largest rebel ship, a Starfire Type L Class, rushed along the side of the Mons as she was dealing out death to the rebel ship’s charges. The enemy ship managed to dodge a volley from the Mons’ Harbinger cannons and used its maneuverability to duck under a close range 520mm Nuclear Torpedo that had been launched in a desperate attempt to stop it. The Cruiser was raked by the Mons’ vast array of 30mm gatling cannons, the armour piercing shells tearing craters in its light armour before the ship got behind the Mons.
The Cruiser managed to fire a salvo of heavy railgun shots directly into the Mons’ main engines, the hit causing the top engine to explode violently while the lower suffered crippling damage to its thruster nozzle. The Mons retaliated quickly though, its rear mounted flak cannons opening up. The 92mm flak cannons were not designed to destroy large targets like cruisers, but their combined fire distracted the rebel ship long enough for the Mons to turn. Like the wrath of an angry god, the full might of the Mons’ portside battery opened up on the hapless rebel ship, tearing it to red hot splinters. Fragments of the shredded ship pinging off the meters thick armour of the Mons as she seemed to growl in anger.
The enemy fleet wasn't finished yet however, while the Mons had been distracted, a pair of rebel destroyers snuck under her and rained fire upon her belly. This tactic might have helped them against a lighter ship, but even the thinner armour on her belly shrugged off the fire as if it was naught but stinging rain. In response the Mons rolled slightly in order to bring her torpedo tubes in line, the huge dark maws of the launchers aiming directly at the two unfortunate Destroyers.
The destroyers, sensing the impending danger, decided to try and flee. But that was exactly the wrong move because as they turned away their anti missile and point defense batteries were obstructed, this allowed the Mark 47s and their nuclear payloads to approach uninhibited. The Mons turned away from the fleeing destroyers, confident that they would be dealt with. And this prediction came to be as twin flashes, brighter than a star, appeared for a brief moment. As they dimmed the molten slagged remains of the two destroyers could be seen, slowly drifting end over end into the deep dark void of space.
The battle wasn't won yet however as the remaining rebel ships rushed the Olympus Mons all at once. Three frigates and two destroyers all unleashed their full weapon compliments as a single volley, the coordination and precision something to behold. Like streaks of solid starlight, the numerous kinetic projectiles streamed across the kilometers separating the ships and struck the Mons with bright flashes. Missiles and slower high explosive ordinance flitted across the void, the point defenses of the Mons opening up. The streams of brilliant tracer fire lit the void like lines of fire in the vacuum of space, the tracers burning their internal oxidizers and leaving faint trails of smoke that quickly dissipated in the cold black of space.
The CMS Olympus Mons was a huge ship. All along her nine-hundred-and-twenty-meter length light burst forth as enemy hits registered on her armour. Several of her guns were destroyed by lucky hits in the barrage before she was ready to retaliate. But finally she straightened and pointed her least damaged side towards the remaining enemies.
She listed slightly from the damage she had received as her engines struggled to keep her stable, thousands of enemy shells having struck her armoured hull and even breached it in several locations. She was injured, but that only served to enrage her crew as they fought for their lives with the savagery of beings who knew that they were doomed but only wished to take as many of their enemy down with them as possible.
The Olympus Mons fired her guns, the guns seeming to boom even in the airless void of space, the fires sizzling and the electricity arcing. Her shots struck true, the form of one of the frigates being smashed aside, its corpse quickly venting atmosphere and tiny squirming bodies into the darkness. The pinpricks of small secondary explosions across its torn surface like the twinkling of stars against the background. Only four enemy ships, all of them damaged to various degrees, rushed her with the wild implacable pace of maddened animals. They seemed more intent on taking her out than on saving themselves, but their efforts were in vain.
One by one the Mons swatted them out of the endless sky. A frigate took a torpedo straight to the prow and crumpled inwards as its structural integrity failed, the g forces at play sending it cartwheeling off into the night. A destroyer shuddered as if in pain as it took three Pendragon shells straight down its throat. Its rear compartments belched flame as its ruptured hull began to break apart, it shuddered suddenly like it was caught in the grasp of some mighty creature before its internal magazines detonated and it simply ceased to be. The last frigate was overwhelmed by two of the Mons’ Hornet swarmer missile launchers, the cloud of missiles smashing it to pieces, the burning chunks of the warship quickly snuffed out by the airless void as they tumbled out of control.
The final ship, a Model 909 Destroyer of Yeown design, was left alone to face the full fury of the Olympus Mons’ full battery. The Mons fired a full broadside of her 225mm Pendragon superheavy railguns. The battery was missing a shot as one of her guns had been damaged beyond viability, but the other seven tungsten alloy shells streaked across the kilometers gap between them in seconds before tearing through the rebel ship as if its armour was as insubstantial as air. The destroyer tried to correct its course even while the great rents in its hull bled its lifeblood into the cold abyss of deep space. It seemed to gain control for a moment and lined its guns up on the Mons again, but before it had the chance to fire a catastrophic explosion from somewhere in its core billowed outwards and tore the ship in half. The sparkles of frozen gasses and liquids shone in the dark as the distant star lit upon them.
Her final work done, the damaged Olympus Mons slowly turned and limped a fair distance from the debris field. The fight had been hard and to her battered crew had likely seemed an eternity. But the reality of the situation was that the entirety of the fight had taken less than a half hour.
**********
Captain John Cameron of the CMS Olympus Mons was thoroughly exhausted. After coordinating the fight and barely managing to keep the ship from being entirely crippled, he felt more mentally drained than he could ever remember feeling. The ship's hull had been breached in dozens of places, but the Greyson class battleship had been built for exactly this purpose in mind and would be fine. The same couldn't be said for the nearly three hundred crew that had been lost to damages. Either in direct impacts of when nearby areas of the ship depressurised explosively, the wind sucking the air from their lungs and rupturing their organs like the blastwave of a bomb.
He hung his head in his hands for a moment in despair. He knew he had already done the impossible, he had won against overwhelming odds. But at what cost? His crew deserved better than to die in some backwoods scuffle over a few ancient refineries that no one likely remembered the names of. But such was his duty, and he would carry out his duty with the utmost respect and decorum because he was a Union officer. Not some rebel detractor, but a man of pedigree and grand heritage.
Jrise spoke up suddenly from next to him “Captain, good news! Gunnery Master Hagj’Nrak has just reported that the Nova cannon is ready to fire. But he says that the cannon is likely not stable and may sustain damage if fired. He reports that it's the best he can do with the time they have however.” she finished, expectantly waiting on his answer.
He took a moment before responding “That is good news. If we are only going to get a single shot, then we had better make it count. Instruct the helm to pull us back from the estimated exit point of the next enemy group. We’ll hit them with an iron storm shell as they exit, they won't even have time to see us.” he said with conviction and a slight smile.
She nodded and went to relay his orders to the crew. He was glad she was here, he had known Jrise since the first day he had stepped out of officers corps and onto a small system defense picket ship. She and him made a formidable team and had managed to stick together for the entirety of their military careers. There were times when part of him wished that military protocol wasn't keeping them apart, but then his good sense would return and he would be grateful they were just companions in arms.
He watched the ship's system readouts as the helm received his orders and the CMS Olympus Mons started to slowly pull back. He grimaced at her reduced speed, they had lost one of their main engines, and while the other Hyper Igniter engine would be able to maneuver them with its 2,550 kilonewtons of thrust, it was far from an ideal situation. Take into account that the operating engine was damaged and likely slowly coming apart as they used it meant that they were on a clock here. He needed to defeat the next wave of enemy ships as fast as possible, and the best way to do that was with the Olympus Mons’ Nova cannon. The Nova cannon was a giant twenty-five meter bore railgun that ran a significant portion of the total length of the ship, it was capable of accelerating truly titanic projectiles to nearly eight kilometers per second. The Iron Storm shells were even more deadly than the normal rounds though. They turned the massive bore into a shotgun by separating into a multitude of giant tungsten alloy spikes after leaving the barrel of the monstrous gun. If aimed properly, they were capable of destroying entire fleets of ships in one swift and devastating blow. Which is exactly what he was counting on.
The enemy ships' warp signatures were fast approaching. Due to the nature of warp travel, signals could be detected from inside the warp but not sent, so they would likely know that battle had commenced but would have been unable to ask any questions or information about it before they arrived.
“If they are smart they will exit warp early to assess the situation. But that's not likely as they would probably assume the first wave was successful.” he said as Jrise glided back over to him.
She cocked her head while giving her tail a flick in his direction before she asked “And what makes you think that these rebels have the combat experience to do something as simple as that?”
He chuckled and said “Just because we managed to embarrass their first wave doesn't mean that they are tactical invalids. They might surprise us, and that's exactly what we don't need right now. They will be here in less than ten minutes, we need to patch the ship up as best we can in that time.” He finished with a wave towards the lower deck.
She sat next to him in her seat and smiled “It's already being done. I anticipated that order and had damage control teams working on patching as many of the holes and breached areas as possible. They estimate that they will have upwards of sixty percent of them fixed by the time the second wave arrives and almost ninety before the third.” she said with grace and pride.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
As the second in command on the ship, she was in charge of maintaining discipline among the crew, and the state of them after such a battle showed that her work had not been in vain. The crew’s morale was still high and they were working on undoing the damage they had taken even as more enemies loomed ever closer. It was a proud moment for him and he smiled back at her.
They shared a moment before he cleared his throat and said “Alright. Have the secondary guns readied in case there are stragglers from the main guns area of effect. I don't want any of them getting behind us again.” he said a bit gruffly.
She nodded and spoke into her wrist worn assistant “Ensign Gentry, you will assist Lieutenant Krupp in ensuring the main battery guns are ready for combat.”
A small “Yes Commander.” was heard before she severed the link and nodded to him. He smiled, she was his link to the lower crew. Many of them would follow her where they would hesitate to follow him, not because of any shortcoming on his part. Mainly because as the commanding officer of the entire ship, his duties rarely saw him time to converse with the lower ranks. He sometimes wished that it were not so, but it was the life of command to be venerated above all others.
With nothing left to do until contact, he sat back in his command throne and watched the various command channel notifications as they scrolled across his console. There were warnings about depressurised zones, damage to cabling leading to dangerous short circuits, and a few mentions of damaged ammunition that needed to be disposed of.
He watched the countdown to enemy contact as it neared zero. Hopefully they would be caught entirely unawares by the ambush.
The enemy ships entered back into realspace from the alternate and he roared “FIRE!!” even as the main gun was already discharging.
The twenty-five-meter projectile accelerated from a standing rest to almost eight kilometers per second in moments, the fearsome recoil causing the near kilometer long battleship to jolt backwards. The millions of tons of heavy armour and steel moved like it had been pushed by a titanic creature such was the force behind the Nova cannon’s discharge. Inside the gun numerous shortages sparked and capacitors blew out as the gun fired before it was truly ready. But such was the need for the swift dispatchment of the second enemy force that the loss of the main gun was deemed an acceptable sacrifice.
Deep in the core of the ship the Gunnery Master howled in despair as his main charge was wounded beyond repair.
***********
The enemy force materialized from the warp amid sparkling white lights as gathered subatomic particles vented from the warped regions around their ships. These particles, while dazzling, were quite harmless. Not at all like the massive tungsten alloy spikes that had been hurled towards them from the distant Union warship moments ago.
Before the rebels had time to react the iron storm shell was upon them. Massive spikes moving kilometers per second impacted the lead ships of the formation with such violence that many of them simply vanished amid flashes of light like those of nuclear detonations. But these were not the fires of atomic fission, rather the total disintegration of physical matter into its constituent mass energy density such was the power of the impacts. Where once a ship had drifted, now only an expanding cloud of cooling gas and some small debris remained.
In an instant a full ten of the enemy ships were naught but expanding clouds of superheated gasses. Their deaths looking more akin to minute nebulae rather than conventional explosions. Not all the enemy suffered such a fate however, two frigates and a single Bloodwood Class light cruiser managed to somehow survive the desolation. The rebel ships scattered in different directions as their captains tried to make sense of what had just happened. From their perspective they had just exited warp before the majority of their number had been struck down by some powerful force. Even now they would be scanning frantically to determine the source of the fire and what had happened to their friends. They would likely detect the debris field and the massive form of the Olympus Mons quite easily.
The CMS Olympus Mons moved towards them sluggishly, like a man loath to leave one's bed on an early morning. Her approach was detected and in the seconds it took the enemy ships to come up with some sort of rational plan of action, she had already fired on two of them. The leftmost frigate shuddered and spun out of control as it took several direct impacts from the superheavy Harbinger railguns. Soon it was disabled and drifting slowly out of control, its main power down and its backups smashed.
The other frigate was spared such a fate as the Mons targeted the remaining light cruiser. The cruiser wasn't going down quietly though as it fired its own guns in response. While not as railgun heavy as its Vinarfelien or Human designed counterparts, the yeown vessel was nevertheless armed with an impressive array of conventional kinetic cannons. These battle cannons spewed fire as they hurled their hatred at the armored skin of the Mons. the shells impacting with hammer blows that carved huge craters into her armoured hide, but ultimately had no effect. The Olympus Mons returned far more effective fire in the form of her bow mounted torpedo tubes and several Pendragon railgun shots. The railguns impacted the armour of the light cruiser, tearing through it as they were designed to hit much heavier targets than these. As the light cruiser reeled from the impacts a single Type 47 nuclear torpedo slipped through its defenses and detonated amidships. The resulting blast caved in the ship's hull and deformed its huge armour plates as if they were as flimsy as paper. The molten drops of slagged armour cooling slowly in the void as they spiraled off into the dark oblivion.
Turning her full attention to the last frigate she swatted it from space with contemptuous ease. The massive ship smashing the small vessel like a hammer would crack a nut, its insides becoming its outsides as it was ripped inside out by several tremendous impacts from the Mons’ main guns.
And just like that the enemy was done, the battle finished. The ship lumbered back to its original position as it tended to its wounds, old and new.
**********
The bridge crew let out a mighty cheer as the last enemy frigate was torn asunder, John smiled widely at their celebrations. He knew that the fight was far from over and they were not likely to make it out if the third wave was anything like the first two. The Olympus Mons was heavily damaged, her systems fluttering between usefulness and total meltdown. She had lost many of her guns in the fights and was reduced to only about sixty five percent of her combat potential. What's more, ammunition was running low for some of her weapon systems and she had no means to replenish her stockpiles in the system, her warp drive was malfunctioning as well so they wouldn't be able to flee even if they wanted to. But he was still smiling.
“That was textbook. Those rebel bastards didn't even have a chance to scream before they were annihilated.” he chuckled to himself grimly.
He felt a touch on his shoulder and looked to see Jrise smiling as well. She leaned away and said “We won't make it out of this alive I'm assuming?” she asked him quietly.
He shook his head sadly and replied “Not likely. The third wave will have the benefit of speed and maneuverability over us, we can't warp back to one of the giants to cover our back, and we are running low on ammo. No, we probably won't survive this. But I’ll be damned if I don't give them a bloody nose to remember us by.” he finished with a grunt.
She gave a small sigh before leaning over the arm of her chair and saying "If this is really the end, well. Then I guess I should tell you that I have always had feelings for you John." She said to him.
He jerked slightly before looking at her. She gazed into his eyes without a hint of deceit and he slowly replied "I… have felt the same. But I am your superior and it would be indecent of me to have expected the same from you, though part of me had always hoped." He finished quietly.
She nodded and said "If we make it through this, we will find a way." She promised him.
John nodded solemnly, he wished there was more he could say but lacked the courage to take the next step. Luckily for him, nothing further needed to be said.
He waited in tense silence as the moments ticked by, the progress the damage control teams were making was little short of miraculous. He watched the reports as stores of ammunition were spread evenly across the Olympus Mons' remaining guns.
He felt a little useless, all command level orders had been given, and all he had left to do was wait. But waiting for him was often the hardest part. There was a simplicity to combat, every action and reaction part of the larger dance that ended only two ways. Victory or death.
The enemy signatures drew ever closer, while warp signatures could be detected by specialized equipment from enormous distances, the signatures themselves conveyed little true information. One could only guess as to the size of the ship or even its class, the bubbles let no light out and were similar in appearance to the event horizons of black holes. Dark spheres that seemed to absorb all light emitted at them.
He didn't fully understand the nature of how the drives worked himself, sure he had taken the basic prerequisite courses at officer training Corps, but that didn't mean that he understood half of what they had been saying. He wasn't planning on becoming some sort of technical wizard anyways so his ignorance on the matter had never really bothered him. He knew tactics and naval gunnery, that was his expertise.
The warp signatures were very close now, it was time to see exactly what he was dealing with. No doubt the last wave would have a more important individual in command as they would likely have expected the other two waves to have cleared out any resistance. 'Unlucky for them it seemed' he thought to himself.
"It's about time. John." Jrise said from next to him.
It took him a moment to realize she had used his name instead of his rank and he looked over at her. She was lounging on her chair as if she was entirely relaxed, and given what he knew of Nerivith and their general lack of stress induced anxiety, she likely was.
"This is it indeed… And none will say we fell without a fight." He added after a slight pause.
She held out her hand to him and he hesitated before he took it. Her fingers were long and delicate looking, nothing like the powerful but squat digits of his own hands. Her fingers looked fragile, but he could feel the cords of muscle hidden just below the surface. He had expected her hands to be soft, and they were, but not in the way he had imagined. He stayed like that for a few moments before he released her hand and smiled. "I always wondered what your hands felt like." He admitted a little awkwardly.
She giggled slightly and said "And your hands are like hardened leather. Rough and heavy, but I think I like it." She said with a slight purr.
He swallowed and sat back up straight. Clearing his throat he said "Ah, well. We should probably talk about it later, don't you think?" If she noticed the slight reddening of his cheeks she didn't say anything as she just nodded and went back to her console.
She would be the death of him if he made it through this, part of him was still a little surprised that he was so okay with that. After so long of denying that he felt anything for her he felt strangely naked. Like a sheet of armour he had been hiding behind had suddenly been removed and he was now totally emotionally exposed. As much as he disliked the feeling, it was also novel, something he had never experienced before. He smiled grimly to himself as he decided that whatever happened, he would not let this new opportunity go.
Turning his attention back to the main problem, he once more scrutinized his command console. The Nova cannon was down, fatally damaged by the shot that had cleared the second wave. He knew that it had been a necessary sacrifice, but he still lamented the loss of the ship's main armament. At least he still had the Pendragons and Harbingers. Well, most of them.
Several of the large electromagnetic accelerator cannons had been destroyed or damaged too badly to be quickly repaired. And what was worse, some of the more experienced gun crews had been killed in action as well. The guns were easily replaceable, the highly trained men and women behind them? Not so much.
He thumped his throne's armrests with a closed fist 'Damn those rebels for thinking they were better than him, and damn them for pushing the Union into a civil war.' He thought angrily to himself. This whole loss of life could have been avoided if they had been willing to talk about it instead of just shooting. But the past was the past and therefore out of his reach.
The CMS Olympus Mons was hurting, she was shuddering slightly as the uneven thrust from her many damaged and destroyed maneuvering thrusters caused her to experience uneven thrust vectors when she tried to stabilize herself. This in itself wasn't that much of a concern except that the slightly unpredictable movement would throw off her aim slightly when they engaged the last enemies. And while a tenth of a degree seemed small, over the tens of kilometers they would be likely engaging at, it equated to dozens or hundreds of meters, enough to entirely miss a ship if it was also maneuvering to dodge incoming fire.
He sat up straight as the enemy warp contacts disappeared well short of their friend's debris field. ‘Damn, they must have gotten a signal out!’ He thought to himself.
“Cursed Luck!” He swore out loud this time as the readout of the enemy ship composition was detected a few moments later.
Jrise made a noise halfway between a groan and a whistle as she saw the readings as well. “Well that’s going to be a bit of an issue.” She said bluntly.
John nodded his head as he read the screen. While the number of ships was almost identical, the manner of ships posed a different risk entirely. He counted them out as their signatures were confirmed by the bridge officers below. There were several frigates and destroyers as before, but where there had been but a few light cruisers there were now many more. He saw five light cruisers as well as a regular cruiser and a battle cruiser. The light cruisers were only about four hundred meters long on average, not small but dwarfed by the CMS Olympus Mons' armoured bulk. The battle cruiser was another issue entirely, at just over seven hundred meters in length, it was nearly the match of his own ship, if less heavily armoured.
He checked the signature again and swore, it was worse than that. The Rebel flagship was a Deblait Class Ion battle cruiser, specifically designed to attack larger capital ships. The rebel leader of this battle group was likely in command of the largest and most capable ship. It only made sense.
He jerked a little as Jrise commented suddenly, startling him from his darkening thoughts "If we blow up the big one, the smaller ships might turn tail and run. Worth a shot?" She finished with a shrug in his direction.
As if the enemy had heard her, the rebel ships started to move into formation with the battle cruiser at its core.
"Well, that complicates matters." He grumbled to himself. He pressed a series of keys on his console that set the general alert to red and combat mode to active. The sirens remained silent and the lights did not strobe so as to allow the bridge crew to focus on their tasks. The rebel forces obviously saw them by now and had not hailed. John knew enough about combat to know that they were about to be under fire.
As the rebel ships drew closer they fanned out to present the widest possible formation while still remaining close enough to be mutually supportive and have overlapping point defense zones. He grimaced as he saw the tactical acumen of the rebel commander apparent in the movements of their troops. This was likely to be the CMS Olympus Mons’ final battle. Fearing the enemy would do more harm than good however and he sat straight as he steeled himself for the fight.
The enemy ships drew near, the flagship becoming more distinct as they approached. John swore as he saw the repaired marks across the surface of the ship, the crew were likely veterans of multiple conflicts then and wouldn't be easy to break. He pulled up comms to Hunter and Julina, his two junior commanders and prepared to give the orders to engage.
**********
The CMS Olympus Mons floated still in space, the small flashes of impacting debris lighting its battered and torn form for brief moments as it sat still, waiting for the arrival of its enemies. The rebel ships slowed their headlong approach as they neared the debris field between them, they acted wary, as if sniffing for a trap. But there was none, the Mons had no more tricks to play, only its final stand and willingness to go down fighting.
As if by some unspoken agreement, the two forces sat still and silent across the battlefield from each other, neither wanting to make the first fatal move. After a minute of stillness, it was the rebels who made the first move.
A pair of Bloodwood Class light cruisers jumped forwards with a speed that was at odds with their four hundred and sixty eight meter lengths, but these were flankers, designed to get behind larger enemies and deprive them of light escort cover. As the Mons was alone, they would serve the function of harassers most likely, getting behind her and biting at her rear and flanks.
The two light cruisers were followed at a distance by a pair of destroyers as well, likely to act as point defense to keep the Mons from simply overwhelming them with missiles right away. The two pairs of enemy warships made sure to stay out of the Olympus Mons' effective fire range as they approached and due to her low ammunition stores she held her fire so as to not waste any shots.
Now it was the rest of the rebel fleet's turn to act and they did, moving as a single entity towards the CMS Olympus Mons. The Deblait Class battle cruiser needed to get pretty close to use its Ion cannons, so the smaller ships of the rebel fleet surged forwards to act as shields for their flagship.
The first ship to cross into the Olympus Mons' effective range was a Nebula F Class frigate. The Vinarfel ship was a newer design and mounted high powered chaser railguns that fired straight ahead. As the frigate charged its chasers to fire, the Mons' fired a pair of her Harbinger super heavy railguns at the ship. The twin two hundred and fifty millimeter tungsten alloy slugs impacted the bow of the frigate right in between the two chaser guns. The impact was so fierce that the armour simply splashed out of the way, molten ripples tearing a great ten meter crater out of the ship's front as they dug over eighty meters into the guts of the ship.
The frigate jerked as the slugs stalled some of its forward momentum, after a moment's hesitation the ship exploded from within. The explosion unpeeled the ship like an overripe fruit, its twisted armour panels and shorn internals burning momentarily till the vacuum of space swept the oxygen away.
With this first loss, the enemy fleet moved in more earnestly as if to avenge the death of their comrades, and they likely would be doing just that. The flanking ships cut in towards the Olympus Mons as their allies moved into range, the result was that the Mons was suddenly receiving heavy effective fire on three separate fonts. The hits splashed against her armour, high explosives tearing craters in the already heavily damaged plates. One large section of her ablaitive armour was torn away in its entirety and the lighter structural armour underneath started to take a beating, deforming under the heavy impacts.
The CMS Olympus Mons might have been in trouble, but she was far from toothless. She fired her remaining Pendragons and Harbinger cannons simultaneously, the massive slugs little more than brilliant streaks of bluish light as they screamed towards their targets. At such high velocities they were impossible to dodge at the short ranges the rebel ships found themselves at. A full salvo of the huge railgun shots tore into the leftmost light cruiser, wreaking terrible carnage upon its lightly armoured frame. Chunks of armour, twisted and now glowing with heat, were sent spinning into the deep depths of the interstellar void by the impacts. The sudden outgassing of the rebel ship's interior dragging the flailing forms of its crew to their doom.
As the light cruiser burned and secondary detonations tore it apart, its accompanying destroyer escort pounced and fired a pair of shots straight into a chink in the Mons' armour. The shells dug into the armour, and punched through. The massive battleship shuddered as one of her main reactors was smashed into oblivion. The entire compartment where the reactor had been was scoured clean as superheated plasma comparable to a star's heart swept through the engineering decks immolating dozens of crew and blowing out more sections of the hull.
The hit was devastating and would have been the death of almost any other warship, but not the Olympus Mons. She was a Greyson Class, built specifically to take a murderous beating and survive. Her remaining guns fell silent for a single moment as she switched to her backup primary reactor. As her guns regained power she attacked with renewed ferocity. If she was to die then it would be atop a mountain of corpses, her blood staining the swords of a thousand adversaries.
The offending destroyer had but a single moment to celebrate its triumph as it was smashed to splinters by another full salvo from the Mons' guns. The Mons simultaneously fired all four of its Mark 47 launchers at the rebels, the nuclear torpedoes powering towards the enemy ships. To cover their approach she fired a pair of her Hornet missile launchers, each armed with two hundred and eighty missiles each. The near five hundred projectiles streaked towards the enemies, the rebel ships unable to deal with the sheer volume of fire the Olympus Mons was capable of putting out.
Countless missiles were destroyed by the point defenses of the rebel ships and even one of the torpedoes was smashed aside but it was simply too much. The munitions impacted several of the rebel ships like a wave of explosions before the much larger blasts of the Mark 47s caused the battlefield to be illuminated in a hellish orange glow. As the light dimmed the two frigates and another destroyer were gone, only the rapidly cooling spheres of plasma they had left behind were there to mark that they had ever existed.
The rebels were close now, in a few moments the battle cruiser would be in range to use its Ion cannons and the fight would be over. The Mons spat death one last time, firing everything she had in a symphony of destruction that wiped four more enemy ships off the face of the galaxy and tore a large portion of the bow armour from the rebel flagship. The destruction wasn't enough, even losing two more destroyers and two more light cruisers wasn't enough to scare them away, and then the rebel battle cruiser fired its main guns.
Beams of pure light and electromagnetic energy were projected from the main beam cannons of the rebel flagship, striking the CMS Olympus Mons directly on her weakest armour. The Ion beams did little physical damage but they quickly overloaded all the surrounding systems as they created an incredibly powerful but localized electromagnetic pulse. This pulse knocked out weapons systems, blast door overrides, and even shut down local life support.
Twice more the rebel ship fired on the Mons, each strike dealing more damage and blacking out another portion of the ship. It was careful not to shoot at the bridge location in the craft's belly so as to leave it operational. It seemed that the rebels had other plans for the Olympus Mons than to just kill her outright. As the CMS Olympus Mons drifted disabled in the cold dark void, a message was sent to her from the rebel flagship. A message that she would be unable to ignore.
**********
John sat silently in his command throne, they had lost, this was it. And yet, the rebels had ceased firing on them, they were still alive. Sure the ship was likely disabled beyond their ability to repair, and they were at the whims of an enemy force, but with life there was hope.
He sat up as his console beeped and he heard the voice of Ensign Hope Linsen, one of the communication specialists, say to him “Captain, we are being hailed by the rebel battle cruiser, she is calling herself the HMS Indomitable. Shall I respond?” she asked him nervously over the link.
He shook his head, though Ensign Hope wouldn't have seen his physical reaction, before he answered “No, Pipe it to me directly. I will speak to them myself.” he said with more determination than he felt.
After a moment's pause, the smaller screen on his console resolved into the image of a proud Yeown woman, her uniform marking her out as a Commodore of the Navy, likely a bastardized version of the similar Union rank. She cracked a wide predator smile as the link was established and she leaned forwards before she spoke. “Ah, finally we meet face to face. You have fought valiantly, surrender now and your lives will be spared, continue to resist..” she shrugged before continuing “And I will have no choice but to destroy you. Because of your tenacity in combat, I find that I no longer have the manpower to take your vessel as a prize.” she finished with a glare at him.
He shifted a little in his seat as if trying to make himself comfortable. He didn't want her to think he was overly affected by his words, if he played this right, he might be able to talk them out of death. “Hello there, I'm assuming you are in charge here?” he said simply.
The Yeown woman did not respond immediately as there was a slight time delay from their long range, but after a moment's pause she drew back with a frown. “Yes, I am Commodore Taise Kuligan of the Hegemony of Independent Systems Navy, and you are?” she finished with a flick of her tall ears.
He smiled and glanced at Jrise next to him, she said nothing but watched him with a slightly worried expression. “I am Captain John Cameron of the Sapient Congressional Union Navy, and this is my ship, the CMS Olympus Mons. As you can see, she is in a bit of distress at the moment and it seems that I have only you to ask for assistance.” he said confidently.
Taise shook her furred head and said “I'm not sure you understand what I'm saying. Either surrender unconditionally and wait till I get reinforcements to drag you to Hegemony space, or be destroyed, those are your only two options. Choose wisely.” she added with a low growl.
He nodded as if she had simply told him the time of day before coolly looking to Jrise and mouthing to her that he needed her opinion. She said quietly “We surrender and we end up in a Hegemony prisoner camp, starvation awaits us as well as an ignoble death at the hands of these barbarous rebels. I don't think we should give in.” she finished.
He nodded and looked once more to the Rebel Commodore, her eyes flicking to his as he asked “We… might need a little time to decide, would an hour or so be allowable?” he implored the woman.
She growled low again as she said “No. You have fifteen minutes to decide, then we open fire regardless.” she said as she terminated the link.
John sat silently for a few moments before Jrise asked “What's the plan, what did you want the time for?”
He nodded his head at nothing as she spoke, hearing her but not really listening to the words. His mind was racing with options, he knew they were balanced on the edge of a blade, one wrong move or careless step would send them hurtling to their doom. And no matter what he thought, the outcome remained the same. Certain death now, or probable death later after prolonged suffering? He snorted loudly as he came to a decision.
He glanced at Jrise before motioning her to come over to him as he enacted his idea. She walked over and watched curiously as his fingers flew over the keys of his console. He was adept at computer systems, always had been since he had been a lad, and now he was putting his unused skills to the test. After a few minutes he sat back and let out a breath.
“What is it?” Jrise asked curiously as she looked at the screen. On it was a simple set of commands that would be broadcast to the entirety of the crew. It said “This is the captain, you have all fought hard and have done more than any could have expected from us. You are heroes, one and all. But now I am afraid we are faced with an impossible decision, Death, or Servitude. While the chances of death are lower in bondage, it remains an ever present threat. But I am not going to make this decision for you, you must choose for yourselves. You will have four minutes from the time of receiving this message to make a decision, after that, new votes will not be counted. May Luck guide you to the end of all things in the palm of her hand.”
She gasped as she realized what he was doing but did not rebuke his decision. Instead she nodded and he pressed send. As the message raced throughout the ship, he sat back into his chair and tried not to break down. All the years he had been their captain, and he could not protect them in the end, but he could ensure that they went out on their own terms. The majority would tell if he had trained them well, or if he had made cowards of them all. He knew what he would have done, he would have fought tooth and nail till the bitter end. Death was better than slavery and suffering after all.
He grunted in surprise as Jrise walked over to him and plunked herself down on his lap. “What in the name of Luck are you…” he managed to get out before she grabbed his head in her long fingered hands and kissed him suddenly.
He tensed for a minute, his first reaction to draw away, but then the rational portion of his brain was subsumed under the warmth of her embrace and he melted into her. He had no idea how long they stayed like that, but after what felt to him an eternity she released him and he gasped.
She giggled sweetly and said “I have wanted to do that for far too long… Captain.” she finished with another little laugh.
John's head was swimming with emotions and feelings he had long suppressed and he looked into her eyes for a moment. They were deep violet, the sclera around her irises a pale blue that matched her copper blood. He finally managed to say “Yeah, me too.”
She smiled widely, revealing her blunt fungivore teeth as she cuddled closer to him, laying her horned head in the nape of his neck. He knew that he was breaking regulations just allowing her to act in such a manner, but he found that he suddenly didn't give a shit anymore. He wrapped his strong arms around her and she sighed and sank into his embrace. They had been friends for so long that no words needed to be exchanged, they both knew how they really felt about each other, and they knew that this was the end. They might as well be honest with each other in the last minutes.
He looked up at his console as it dinged, the talley for the votes had come in, out of the roughly three thousand crew they had started with, fewer than eighteen hundred had responded, he was sure if that meant the other were dead or if they just hadn't been able to respond in time. But the vote was clear as crystal, they would not surrender.
He jostled Jrise slightly and she sat up and looked at the talley. “I guess that's that then.” she whispered. He nodded at her comment.
She stood and moved to his side as he opened a link to the HMS Indomitable. Once more the face of the Yeown woman appeared on the screen. Taise spoke suddenly “Have you come to a decision? You have two minutes left.”
He nodded and answered before sitting up straight. “No sense wasting any time. We have decided… We will not surrender, we will not be taken to be used as hostages or slaves by your overlords. We may die this day, but we die free man and women of the Union, curses on our lips and wrath in our hearts. Do your worst rebel scum!!” he shouted for effect. The crew in the bridge pit had apparently been watching as a mighty cheer erupted from the lower command pit at his words.
Taise snarled and spat “So be it! Burn in agony you Union vreenth!!” and she severed the link.
Jrise moved to sit with him again as the ship shuddered, the first impacts from the rebel warships tearing into her thick armour. Without the ability to maneuver, she would soon be overwhelmed as the enemy would be able to accurately target weak portions of the hull and cut them apart. He pulled Jrise close and she in turn hugged him tight before she whispered in his ear “You have been the joy of my life, both as a friend, and now however briefly, as more.”
Tears welled from his eyes as the emotions finally got the better of him and he sobbed lightly “And you have been my light in the darkness, my reason for living. I only wish we could have continued on, but alas, all good things must come to an end.” he finished.
The pair clung to each other as the sounds of destruction grew louder, and then with a mighty explosion, the bridge was breached and fire and burning steel consumed them all.
***********
Taise sat back heavily in her seat and pounded her fist on the arm of her chair. “Why did they have to be so stubborn!!” she raged.
Other members of her crew looked away so as not to bring any of her ire upon themselves. She stood suddenly and howled in anger as her claws unsheathed. After a moment venting her rage she collapsed back into her chair, utterly exhausted by the entire ordeal. On her small command screen she watched as the huge Union ship was gutted. It was a messy death, the ships remaining to her barely sufficient for the task.
As the ship finally stopped venting atmosphere and fire, she slumped once more. This whole operation was supposed to be a cake walk. She had been sent with three entire skirmish groups, the fact that they had nearly been wiped out by a single antiquated union battleship boded ill for the entire campaign. What would have happened if there had been but one single additional Union ship to guard the system. They likely would have been entirely destroyed.
The only reason she had not been eradicated is because she had thought it prudent to bring an ion cruiser, just in case they had a capital ship.
She turned towards her second in command, a wiry looking Slaaveth female, as she commanded “Tell the fleet to move into the system, refuel and then destroy the refineries, once that is complete we will regroup at rally point delta. And tell them that speed is more important than stealth, more Union ships might be coming.
Her subordinate nodded and moved to carry out her order, meanwhile Taise just turned to look at the slowly cooling wreckage of the battleship.
She smirked slightly to herself, those self righteous fools, they could have survived this, albeit as prisoners, but still alive. Instead they had chosen death. Most noble of them, she knew they were her enemy, but she would make sure that they were never forgotten. She would commission a commemorative plaque for the Battle of Slee herself if she needed to. Warriors like that were rare in this modern galaxy, and it mattered little to her that they were her enemies. They might have been on the opposite side, but they were still honorable. She smiled for the first time since entering the system, oh there would be consequences for her disastrous action here, but she found that she cared little. She had witnessed greatness today, and that was reward enough.
End of Story