Captain’s Vengeance
Chapter 1:
The space battleship Oklahoma was the first commissioned interstellar
battleship of the Sol Alliance.
During the early period of expansion in the 2150's, a rise in piracy
threatened trade between the frontier worlds, the age of the interstellar
battleship began with the commissioning of the Oklahoma in 2152.
The Oklahoma was unique in that it had the ability to maneuver in
Earth-gravity environments found on many of the frontier worlds.
It was designed to do this so it could close within short range of a
targeton a planet's surface.
Even though she was surpassed by superior designs within a decade, the
Oklahoma would see many more adventures than the average ship because of its
ability to operate in such varied environments.
She was a proud ship with a courageous captain and many a pirate dreaded
thesight of this dreadnaught in the sky's of the planet they were on.
Captain Jack "Bloodhound" Williams stood gazing out the window of his
quarters down upon the Earth below. Stationed at the low-earth-orbit Naval
yard 500 miles above Earth, the newly commissioned interstellar battleship
Oklahoma was preparing to leave it's orbital construction dock on it's first
mission to Lacaille 8760,12.87 light years from Earth.
Alien ruins had been discovered on the planet Vetustus in the Lacaille
system as well as various asteroids and moons within the Lacaille system.
Piracy had been enough of a problem to warrant an increased military
presence on the frontier worlds, but with the discovery of these remarkable
ruins, the pirates flocked to the system to try to get their hands on
valuable artifacts that could fetch a considerable price on the black
market.
A knock came from the cabin door, it was the commanding officer, Edward
Hollander, "We are almost done filling our food stores, captain, we
will be ready for departure in 1 hour." "'Thank you commander, I'll be on
deck shortly, carry on."
The captain put away the books on his desk and headed amidships towards the
main lift. Once on the lift, the captain addressed the built-in information
display "Where is chief engineer Bannister? ”The terminal replied.
"Starboard
engine room, sir." "I wish to go there then."
A few moments later, the lift door opened and the captain entered the engine
room, it was reminiscent of a WW2 submarine as the area was full of
machinery, with the largest part of the room taken by the propulsion system.
The latest advances were incorporated into the sub-light propulsion system,
the Oklahoma had the ability to sustain over 1 gee thrust over extended
periods of time in any direction thanks to the wonders of inertial
propulsion. No exhaust of any kind had to be redirected to achieve this;
simply phasing magnetic fields could change the thrust vector to any angle.
The captain held a certain amount of awe for the ship's technology, not only
could it hover above the ground of any given planet, it could accomplish the
feat in total silence and then it could rise directly up off the surface
into space and engage it's trans-light drive to venture to any star system
within the immediate stellar neighborhood at 150 times the speed of light,
and without need of any fuel. 'Truly a marvel' the captain thought.
Commander Bannister had been fine tuning the engines and he wanted to see
what the engineer had accomplished the last few days. He squeezed through a
short passage into a small open area where most of the engine monitoring
systems were. Bannister was intensely looking at a readout screen, oblivious
to all else around him.
The captain spoke. "Commander Bannister!" The commander looked up, slightly
startled "Sir, I didn't see you come in, I apologize." "That's all right
commander, tell me the status of your modifications." Bannister had a slight
grin, the captain and he spent many hours discussing tech while the Oklahoma
was being built in orbit.
"We've been able to install that improved superconducting coil into the main
power channel, I think we'll see 10% improvement in thrust in the sublight
engines, maybe as much when we engage the trans-light engines, based on what
the computer models are telling me" "The installation went pretty smooth,
I'm surprised just how fast my crew was able to install the coil,
considering we just produced it from the nano-shop two days ago."
"Good work, commander" the captain couldn't suppress his smile "I'm anxious
to see what she's capable of when we take her out"
The last two weeks on board the ship were quite hectic, but the captain
found his way to engineering a couple of times to discuss the technical
modifications that Bannister was overseeing. Captain Williams served a few
years as chief engineer aboard the cruiser Gallant, he could've been
promoted before then, but he did love learning
about the technology that made all of this possible.
Not only were the propulsion systems remarkable, but the state-of-the-art
nano-factory onboard gave them tremendous flexibility in repairing and/or
modifying the ship whenever the need arose.
Bannister served under him while they were on the Gallant, the captain could
see the incredible gift Bannister had in getting technology to do his
bidding. He was a brilliant engineer and they had become friends aboard the
Gallant. When he was promoted to Captain, Williams had vowed to get him on
his ship as chief engineer.
"So will you be joining me on the bridge when we take her out of dry-dock
Mr. Bannister?" "Aye captain" Bannister replied with a smile "My boys can
handle it down here for a few minutes without me" "Very well then, Mr.
Bannister, I'll see you on the bridge at 0100 hours" The captain turned and
left, making his way to the bridge.
The bridge was a hive of activity as the captain stepped off of the lift, CO
Hollander cried. "Captain on deck!" The crew on the bridge stood at
attention "As you were." The captain replied and they resumed their frenetic
activity.
After a few minutes of signing forms and last minute checks with the port
authority, the final authorization was given to depart. Commander Bannister
stepped onto the bridge just then. "You almost missed our departure Mr.
Bannister" the captain stated. "Sorry sir, just doing some last minute
checks on the subsystems, she's ready when you are captain."
The captain had a contented grin on his face as he gave the order "Helmsman,
take us out slowly." Lieutenant Dupree, the helmsman, responded "Aye sir"
The Oklahoma moved from the dry-dock smoothly, like a giant whale swimming
slowly through the ocean. Dupree reported "The Oklahoma has cleared the
dock, sir" The sun was high overhead and gave a bright glare across
Oklahoma's gray hull as the blue orb of the Earth hung below the battleship.
The captain's pulse quickened a bit as he gave the order "Bring her up to
escape velocity and then vector leeward, away from the sun" "Aye sir."
The acceleration started slowly building as the Oklahoma's powerful engines
thrust the ship upward.
The battleship would normally accelerate in an "upward" fashion as that
would provide the most convenient acceleration profile for people to adapt
to as well as minimizing the amount of loose items that would be flying
about that weren't secured properly. As the ship rapidly achieved escape
velocity an alarm sounded that instructed people to sit down and secure any
loose items. Once the high acceleration kicked in, you didn't want to be
standing or you would quickly kiss the deck.
Dupree reported. "Escape velocity achieved sir." “Take us to 1.5 g thrust,
Helmsman" "Aye sir."
Bannister looked over at the captain with an amused smile. The captain
replied "Let's put her through the paces Mr. Bannister."
The Oklahoma responded with ease. Bannister was monitoring a screen with
several graphs displayed. "She's not even breaking a sweat sir, I think
she'd do 2.5 if you asked it of her" "I'm sure she would Mr. Bannister, but
no reason to push her past her limits right now, she's already proved
herself I think."
Bannister replied with a mild disappointment in his voice "Aye sir."
"Mr. Dupree, steady as she goes, let me know when we hit 100 Km per second,
I'll be in my quarters" "Aye sir, I estimate 100 KPS in 1 hour 54 minutes,
I'll let you know sir."
The captain leaned over Bannister's shoulder on his way to the lift and told
Bannister quietly "I'm going to really push her when we go trans-light, what
do you think she's capable of?"
Bannister grinned and replied "I bet she'll get 450-490c sir" The captain
looked somewhat skeptical and replied "We shall see, commander, that would
be a new speed record" "Aye sir, but if any ship can do it, the Oklahoma
can"
The captain made his way back to his quarters, and put in a call to admiral
Benson as he was instructed to do once the Oklahoma was underway, after a
few moments, admiral Benson answered the com. "Congratulations Captain
Williams on a smooth launch, it appears you have quite a wind to your sails"
"Yes sir, Admiral Benson, I thought I'd test the modifications my chief
engineer made recently, it appears she could do quite a bit more if needed.
I wish I could've been there on her launch captain, but circumstances in the
Lacaille system preclude me from going on an actual mission right now, I
have to see to it that your sister ship, the Nevada, launches on schedule.
All of the admirals of the Sol Alliance were monitoring your launch; you
could sense the envy in the room as the Oklahoma shot away at 1.5 g from
Earth. That's a hell of a ship captain." "The captain retorted with a grin.
"Thank you sir, I agree"
The admiral continued. "As you know, the discovery of artifacts on Vetustus
a couple of years ago brought increased piracy to the system. The Sol
Alliance viewed this as only a nuisance because the theft of a few vases
wasn't anything to be concerned about. However, a month ago, an asteroid
base was found in Lacaille's main asteroid belt that had been built by this
ancient civilization. It appears that everything has been preserved and in
remarkable condition, more than likely, there will be functional alien
technology in this base and it will have some military value, we certainly
can't let this fall into the pirate's hands. We want you to scout the inside
of this base with your engineering team and procure, if possible anything
that may be of value. Then you can transport the artifacts to our Lacaille
asteroid base where it can be analyzed, the Oklahoma can transport large
items, none of the ships at our Lacaille base had the ability to transport
anything larger than 3 meters across. There has been a couple of pirate
cruisers in that area that have kept us from getting any kind of landing
party onto that base, with the arrival of the Oklahoma, we will control all
pirate activity in the Lacaille system in short order."
The admiral continued "You have one of the strongest technical backgrounds
of any captain in the fleet, as well as more years of experience than most
others, that's why you were the choice to be one of the first captains on
these new interstellar battleships" Captain Williams replied with a mild
curiosity "Yes sir?" The admiral heard the question in his voice and
responded "I'm aware you know all of these things, captain, and this mission
to
Lacaille will require your technical knowledge because I want you to do an
initial assessment of the artifacts there and see if any of this alien
technology would be useful." "I see sir."
"This will be a good shakedown cruise, admiral, I look forward to it." "I
thought you would captain, the Oklahoma will be crucial to restoring order
to the Lacaille system, the researchers on Vetustus barely have any weaponry
to defend themselves from pirate attacks, you'll bring more than enough
firepower to bear on this problem, good luck captain." "Thank you admiral"
The admiral then ended the transmission. 'This mission seems to have it all'
the captain mused.
After a few minutes, Lieutenant Dupree hailed the captain in his quarters.
"100 KPS in 15 minutes sir." "Thank you Mr. Dupree, I'll be up shortly"
Chapter 2:
The captain stepped onto the bridge a few minutes later; the bridge was once
again alive with activity as the crew prepared for trans-light jump. "Mr.
Dupree, give ship-wide alert for trans-light." "Aye sir" Dupree activated
the alert which warned people to secure loose items and to find a place to
sit. Generally the transition to trans-light was quite smooth with only a
mild disorientation felt by some of the crew as the ship entered into
trans-light travel. The Oklahoma's trans-light drive was untested however,
and generally a ship would have a unique feel in regards to how it entered
trans-light mode.
The trans-light drive used focused gravity waves to create space-time
oscillations in the direction of the ship's travel. The ship would traverse
these compressed space-time waves to achieve a velocity that appeared
greater than
the speed of light to any observer; however the ship technically never went
faster than light through its local space-time. A drive's capability to go
faster than light was determined by how powerful these space time waves were
and how high of a ratio the nodal resonance field around the ship could
maintain with stability.
It was like a flat rock skipping on a turbulent pond, the rock has to hit
the crest of each wave it skips across or it will hit the wave valley and
sink into the pond. In this case, if the ship hits a wave valley it will
fall out of warp, nothing catastrophic, but a considerable waste of time and
energy nonetheless.
The earliest trans-light drives were fairly reliable, but occasionally a
drive couldn't synch with the wave front and the drive would essentially
become useless and leave a ship stranded light years from home. That was
quite rare, even with the older drives, but it was always a possibility. The
Oklahoma had powerful wave front space-time generators as well as a rapid
phase-locked secondary resonance generator that could read ahead of the
incoming wave fronts in real time and shift its nodal frequency accordingly.
This made any possibility of falling out of trans-light mode almost nil as
well as giving the ship a theoretical ability to be the fastest design yet.
The lieutenant spoke "We have now reached 100 KPS sir" The captain replied
"Helmsman, set course for Lacaille 8760." "Aye sir, course laid in." "Very
good lieutenant, engage trans-light now, take her to the redline" The
lieutenant raised one eyebrow in mild surprise and replied "Aye sir, maximum
output, engaging!" The lieutenant flipped a transparent cover off of the top
of the drive activation button and pushed forward on a lever to the side of
his seat.
The ship began making unusual humming sounds that shifted through several
low frequencies as its speed increased, the unusual side effect of the
trans-light drive was that the ships passage through space-time waves set up
unique sonic resonances through the hull. Each ship was different in how it
"sang" when in trans-light mode; the Oklahoma had a deep resonating sound, a
sound of power.
The stars on the view screen went dim in the center of the screen with a dim
blue ring growing around the black center.
As Dupree eased the throttle forward he called out the speed. "100c,150c
200c" The captain stared at the view screen and the blue ring slowly
expanded in diameter, when Dupree reported 200c, the blue started shifting
to violet
as the warp drive increased the frequency of it's low-pitched thrumming.
"300,350,400,450" The Oklahoma was now moving faster than any trans-light
naval vessel had went before. Only the private racing ships had went faster.
"460,470 entering red line sir, 480, 490, 496, we're at max output sir"
There were smiles on the faces of all the crew members on the bridge, but
the biggest smile was on commander Bannister's face who had walked onto
the bridge just as the Oklahoma had went into trans-light.
The captain noticed Bannister standing there "Well
done Mr. Bannister, it looks like the Oklahoma is officially the fastest
ship ever built." "Aye sir!" Bannister replied with enthusiasm. "We beat the
record by 30c!" "Congratulations to you and your team commander, I imagine
the engineer aboard Nevada will want to review all of the modifications you
made to the engines and the data during operations, she'll try for our
record in a couple of months I
suspect." "I may have to change a few numbers around in my data to slow'em
down some sir." The captain restrained himself from laughing "I won't tell a
soul, Mr. Bannister."
The Oklahoma stayed redline for one hour, the captain believed it was always
good to break in new trans-light engines and if there are any potential
problems, it will show up then and not later when the Oklahoma was in the
middle of it's mission. After an hour, the ship was eased back to a speed of
400c, cruising speed, for the duration of the journey to Lacaille. At 400c
they would be there in twelve days, during that time the crew became
accustomed
to the unique behavior and noises of the ship in trans-light mode. The
Oklahoma produced a continual thrumming sound that the crew adapted to. In
many ways it was like an old sailing vessel with some of its unpredictable
behavior in trans-light mode.
As the Lacaille system neared, the captain received communications from a
researcher on Vetustus that headed the xeno-archeology expedition there. Dr.
Carla Heidelburg hailed the captain on his private com. Dr. Heidelburg began
abruptly "Captain Williams! Will you be at Lacaille soon? We are in a crisis
situation here!" The captain replied calmly "We are still two days out Dr.,
why don't you tell me what's going on?" "Captain, the pirates came and
slaughtered a quarter of the expedition, including women and children, they
forced many in our expedition aboard their ship and took off. They now have
our people as hostages!" The Dr. could barely hold back her tears as she
sobbed "We're hiding a few miles from our encampment, we can't take the
chance of going back, we desperately need your help!" The captain replied
"We'll make for your site at maximum speed, just hold on for a couple of
days and we'll evacuate you to our military base in the asteroid belt." Dr.
Heidelburg regained some of her composure "Thank you captain, please hurry."
This represented a new low for the pirates; somehow he would have to get
those hostages back if possible. The captain spoke to his com device
"lieutenant Dupree please", the computer instantly recognized his voice
along with the name Dupree and connected him to Dupree on the bridge.
"Lieutenant Dupree, engage TL drive to maximum output, we are urgently
needed in the Lacaille system" "Aye, aye captain." Dupree responded. The
ship soon changed the pitch of its powerful drive, indicating she was once
again past redline.
Chapter 3:
The Oklahoma came out of TL mode only a million kilometers from Vetustus,
she came in under a 2 gee deceleration, shedding the residual motion
difference between Sol and Lacaille as rapidly as possible. The Oklahoma was
soon hovering over the hidden camp of Dr.Heidelburg and her colleagues, they
were soon onboard the ship and on their way to the Lacaille asteroid base.
The captain arrived in the mess hall, which was converted to a temporary
quarters for the surviving members of the Vetustus expedition.
An attractive woman with blonde hair promptly approached him "Captain, thank
you for arriving with such haste, we couldn't have held out much longer" The
captain recognized her voice from the conversation two days ago. "I'm
pleased to meet you Dr. Heidelburg, I would have much preferred less
regrettable circumstances to do so." "Please, call me Carla captain" "Yes
Dr....umm Carla, why don't we sit down at a table, so we can talk?" Carla
followed him to a table away from the other people in the mess hall and sat
down.
The captain began "So Carla, how many people do you think the pirates now
have hostage?" "We counted 20 missing after your crew recovered all of the
bodies" She had to stop herself from speaking for a few moments to regain
her composure after being reminded of the tragedy their expedition suffered.
The captain gently touched her face in a reassuring manner "Don't worry
Carla, I'll do everything in my power to get them back" She grasped his hand
and held it to her cheek "Thank you captain, I've never experienced such
barbarism, it doesn't matter how advanced our technology becomes, humans
seem to have a tendency to revert back to their primal nature whenever they
believe that no one will hold them accountable." The captain responded with
a bit of fire in his voice "They are going to be held accountable very soon
Carla." Carla looked at him with admiration and some trepidation, realizing
that holding them accountable could put their friends that were taken
hostage in harms way. The captain stated, almost rhetorically, "I don't
understand why they did this; piracy has been nothing but raids for treasure
in the past, why did they resort to this?"
Carla held back from telling the whole story until now because of what she
feared the military might do, but now was the time to reveal the whole
truth. "Captain, we found a functional artifact on one of our digs, an
artifact that contained incredible power. It was small enough to carry in
the palm of your hand, but the power it generated was so intense, the
pirates could pick it up on their sensors from orbit. They set down by our
camp and began asking
questions, it was obvious they wouldn't leave until they got what they
wanted, so I gave it to my niece who took it and tried to hide it. Their
leader soon discovered what I did and went berserk, his men tore the camp
apart looking for her and started killing us until she came out from hiding.
Most of us fled when the killing started, so I'm not sure what happened
after that, but it's safe to presume that they have this artifact, along
with the hostages."
The captain replied grimly "This is serious indeed, Carla, part of my orders
are to analyze and secure any artifacts that could be useful, we have to get
your group to the Lacaille base as fast as possible so we can proceed with
hunting down these pirates"
The captain rose from the table and went to the nearest com. "Lieutenant
Dupree." After a brief moment Dupree answered "Yes captain?" "Increase
acceleration 1.5g to Lacaille base." "Aye sir, 1.5g."
The effect of the acceleration was soon felt throughout the ship as the
Oklahoma raced towards Lacaille base.
Chapter 4:
The Oklahoma arrived at Lacaille base and released her passengers, once the
captain conferred with the base commander on the last known whereabouts of
the pirate cruisers, the Oklahoma was underway once again.
The best guess of the pirate’s location was an area in the asteroid belt on
the opposite side of the Lacaille system from Lacaille base. The captain
decided to execute a quick TL jump in-system which would increase the chance
of catching the pirates off guard, in 15 minutes they were on the other side
of the system. The captain ordered passive intelligent sensor drones to be
set up in a couple of locations and set about patrolling the area. After a
day of patrolling, one of the intelligent drones registered a likely target
of suspicion, two destroyers in the area of the drone.
The destroyers ID showed to be of a couple of older ships that were
stationed at the Phobos Naval Yards a decade ago, further checking of the
history showed the location of the destroyers as unknown after they were
decommissioned. "Mr. Dupree, lay in an intercept course to the cruisers at
1g, I don't want to appear to be aggressively pursuing them." Dupree
responded. "Aye sir, course laid in, estimated ETA in 2 hours." The captain
activated his com. "Mr. Bannister, meet me in the ready room for a tac-ops
meeting" The captain looked over at Commander Hollander. "You too, Mr.
Hollander" "Aye sir" the commander replied as he and the captain moved
towards the lift.
In a few moments, the captain, and both commanders were sitting at a table
in the ready room. The captain addressed them. "Gentlemen, we are about to
enter into battle, I intend to hopefully get into close action and possibly
board one of them and take both as a prize. There are hostages aboard one or
both of these destroyers as well as a valuable artifact that appears to be
some form of power source; we have to try to recover both. Mr. Bannister,
you told me earlier you had the chance to study the technical readouts of
these destroyers." "Aye sir." Bannister replied. "These are two of the
oldest destroyers in the space command, the Hotspur and the Impulsive; their
weapons shouldn't be able to do much damage to our armor without repeated
hits. Also the power systems on board are not of the distributive type like
the Oklahoma, they are centrally located just a few meters from the bow. If
we can hit them there, that should bring them to a stop without too much
damage." "Thank you commander, we may have the opportunity to put Oklahoma's
capabilities to good use. This is a new ship and they don't know what she's
capable of, we will be aft of them during pursuit which will limit them to
only their small aft guns. When we close to within firing range we’ll ramp
up the thrust to maximum to bring us to their port side quickly, that's when
we'll hit them in their forward section to take their power generators out.
We will then board the ship most likely to have their commander aboard, if
we take him out, then we have a good chance at forcing the surrender of the
other ship. Mr. Bannister, go over the technical readouts with gunnery
officer Higgs so he'll know exactly where to hit them. Mr. Hollander, you'll
head the boarding party, speed and surprise will be to our advantage
gentlemen, if we execute this perfectly, hopefully the butcher's bill will
be low." Hollander and Bannister replied with a grim "Aye sir."
Commander Bannister went over the plan with Jason Higgs. The Oklahoma only
required one person to operate the ship's guns because all of the guns used
a solid AI that could be directed by voice commands and graphical input. The
gunnery officer could program targets or simply call them out in the midst
of battle as it unfolded. The AI could respond quicker than any human and
had deadly targeting accuracy.
Meanwhile Commander Hollander suited up with the marines; they were busy
suiting up in their power armor. The suits made a human into a virtual tank
with enough firepower to blast a hole through a destroyer's hull as well as
giving the marines the ability to operate in a an environment without an
atmosphere, it was the perfect system for boarding parties as well as
in-space action as the armor was equipped with an inertial propulsion unit
that gave them considerable maneuverability in a weightless environment.
Chapter 5:
The Oklahoma neared it's interception point and went to battle stations, as
it neared the two destroyers one of them fired a shot and it hit the
Oklahoma's bow. The distance was great enough that the shot dispersed by the
time it struck, barely warming the hull.
The captain replied "Doesn't appear they have friendly intentions, what's
their rate of acceleration Mr. .Dupree?" "Just 1g sir" Dupree replied.
"Let's set our acceleration at 1.2 g and see if they match it helmsman."
"Aye aye
sir" Dupree replied. After a minute Dupree informed the captain. "They don't
seem to appear to be able to pull any harder sir, we're gaining on them"
Just then a bright blue flash emanated from the Impulsive's aft gun, it
struck the Oklahoma in the bow and took out a chunk of the hull, the ship
shook with the impact. The captain spoke with concealed alarm in his voice
"What was that Mr. Higgs?" The gunnery officer replied "I would guess they
adapted the artifact to their weapon systems, based on what I know of its
spectral output, the power from that strike was five times greater than from
their normal guns capabilities." "We have no more time to play games,
maximum thrust Mr. Dupree and bring us to the port side of that destroyer,
we have to concentrate on taking that one out first." "Aye aye sir." Dupree
engaged the inertial systems to maximum. "We'll be along side in 30 seconds
sir." As the Oklahoma grew closer the firing intensified from both
destroyers. They succeeded in knocking small chunks away from Oklahoma's
armor. Just then, another powerful blast came from the Impulsive, this time
a sizeable hole was blasted from the hull. The ship rocked from the blast as
debris went flying from the damaged area. The helmsman reported "Hull breach
sir, decks 3 and 4!" "Seal off those decks!" The captain replied. "Mr.
Higgs, take out their power and take out that aft gun!" "Aye sir!"
The Oklahoma's guns locked in on the
designated areas of the destroyer and opened fire. The top forward gun
erupted in an intense blue plasma as it
released a beam of energy from its barrels; an intense plasma burst
blossomed on its hull as the shot hit the destroyer in the bow section. The
Oklahoma followed that shot with another one to the aft gun that had been
punishing the Oklahoma. Another white-hot blast erupted on the destroyer’s
gun placement that produced a sun-like flash that faded rapidly leaving a
mound of molten slag where the turret had been.
The Hotspur shot a few greenish bolts of plasma at the Oklahoma, doing
marginal damage to its hull. The Oklahoma responded with a couple of blasts
from it's aft guns, the blast from the Oklahoma's guns ripped the front part
of the destroyer's hull out, totally disabling it.
The Impulsive was slowly cart wheeling in space in a general drift from the
Oklahoma and the Hotspur was spinning at a fairly rapid pace from the power
of the plasma weapons detonating on its hull. The captain ordered "Mr.
Dupree, take us along side the Impulsive and plant a magnetic grapple on it
to bring its spin under control." "Aye sir." Dupree responded. After a few
minutes, the Oklahoma had stabilized the spin of both destroyers and they
were motionless in respect to the Oklahoma. "Commander Hollander, send your
marines into the Impulsive, try to procure the hostages first and then deal
with anyone that doesn't surrender." Commander Hollander replied "Aye sir,
we're ready to go."
Chapter 6:
Hollander stood in the aft docking bay along with the others in his boarding
party dressed in full battle armor, he addressed his men. "Ok men, we're
going to enter into the damaged section of the hull, we'll probably have to
blast our way through the debris to get into the ship, once we get inside
we'll split up, me, Breckinridge and Thomas will look for the hostages,
Salazar, you take Heathrow and Jones and secure that artifact, take out
anyone that resists." The men responded with enthusiasm. "Yes sir!"
The aft docking bay doors opened and Hollander and his men floated out from
the back under the power of their propulsion units. They veered to the left
and headed towards the damaged hull of the Impulsive.
It only took a couple of minutes, as the team cruised along at 10 km per
hour between the ships, to reach the gaping hole in the forward section of
the Impulsive. There were still areas which glowed orange from the residual
heat
of the explosions from Oklahoma's guns, the team set down in an area that
was dark with a small clearing for the marines to establish a foothold on
the Impulsive's exposed deck.
Hollander found a sealed door on the deck, stepped up to it and spun the
handle on it and air rushed out through the door, blowing Hollander off the
deck momentarily before his suit's propulsion unit pushed him back onto the
deck. The marines entered through the door with their suit's headlamps on to
illuminate the darkened deck.
"Looks like we're in luck men" Hollander shouted through his com. "This
room's been sealed, we can reseal the door we came in without losing anymore
air in the ship" Hollander stepped over to the door the entered in and shut
it tight. As soon as Hollander gave the all clear, Salazar spun the handle
on the other door and opened it. A brief rush of air flowed through the room
as it equalized the air pressure with the rest of the ship, as soon as
Hollander stepped through the door he spoke to Salazar on the com. "We'll
make our way to midship, the brig is located there, You take your men to the
aft section on the upper deck to see if anything can be recovered of the
artifact on that aft gun." "Aye sir." Salazar responded and with that, they
split up, going down different corridors.
Salazar's team went through a narrow corridor that led to stairs going to
the upward decks. Hollander's team encountered no one as they made their way
towards amidships, upon reaching the mid-section the team started searching
rooms, some rooms revealed dead crew members, a couple of rooms had live
crew members in them that weren't eager for a fight with the intimidating
form of a marine in full battle armor. Normal small weapons would be useless
against the armor and the built-in rail guns of the suits could punch a hole
in the side of a lightly armored ship.
After a few moments each of Hollander's team were walking several pirates
together in front of them, it quickly became apparent that they were going
to have to make a temporary cell for them. After interrogating the pirates,
they learned of the location of the hostages, one deck up in a brig, ten of
them. They marched their prisoners to that location and Hollander opened the
door to the brig, much to his relief, the hostages seemed unharmed. An
attractive dark-haired woman spoke first. "Who are you guys?" She asked.
Hollander replied. "We're a boarding party from the interstellar battleship
Oklahoma; we've disabled both of the pirate ships and are here to secure
these ships." "My name's Stefanie, we're so glad your here, thank you!" A
wave of relief washed over the former hostages as they started to gather
around to thank the marines. Salazar, recognizing a threat still existed
until the pirates were secure, immediately spoke up. "All right people, back
up please, we have to put these prisoners in the brig." The people complied
with his request and made a path.
After searching the prisoners for any weapons, they were moved into the brig
and interrogated then the door was locked. The next order of business was to
find a place to put all of the former hostages. After talking to
Stefanie, she pointed them to the mess hall two decks up as good spot to
stay. They made their way to the mess hall and the people sat down at the
tables there. Hollander gave them weapons taken from the pirates that they
took prisoner and stationed Thomas to stand watch.
After interrogating the prisoners, Hollander found that most of the crew had
made their way to the bridge after the Oklahoma disabled them. If there was
to be any resistance, it would be at that location. He contacted Salazar on
his com. "Salazar, what's happening at your location?" Salazar responded. "
Sir, it's been fairly quiet, we're near the location of the turret, but
there's a bit of debris to clear out to get to it. There is a glow coming
from the wrecked turret, I think that may be what we're looking for." "Very
good, Mr. Salazar, secure that artifact. Lieutenant Breckinridge and I will
sweep the deck for any other survivors. We believe most of the survivors are
holed up in the bridge and we'll wait until you’re done to force entry into
there, we'll need all of you on hand when we do that." "Aye sir, we'll be
done shortly."
Salazar urged his men along. "Let's tear out that wreckage and get to the
source of that glow." Both of his team responded "Aye sir." They moved
briskly to the wreckage from underneath the turret and put the strength of
their battle armor to work, they tore out the mangled steel blocking the way
to the turret. Soon they had the way cleared and the artifact was sitting
right above them, lodged in the barrel of the wrecked turret. A few tugs
from Jones' power-augmented armored hands and the surrounding steel gave way
and the artifact dropped out, Jones caught it in his hand. The artifact was
an orb with a bluish glow which was fading; it had grown noticeably dimmer
in the time that they had begun clearing debris. Salazar contacted Hollander
on the com. "Commander, we have secured the artifact and we are making our
way back to you now." Hollander responded. "Good Work lieutenant, we've
cleared the lower decks and haven't found anymore pirates, looks like the
bridge will be our final stop, meet us at the mess hall" "Aye sir,
we'll be right there" Hollander's men reassembled at the mess hall,
once there, he instructed Salazar to give the artifact to Stefanie for
safekeeping. It would be less likely to be lost when they got into a combat
situation at the bridge. All of the marines then headed towards the bridge
on the upper deck.
Chapter 7:
As Hollander's team reached the stairs that led to the bridge, he led his
team up the staircase. When he reached the access door to the bridge it was
locked, Hollander turned the handle to the door with full force and promptly
broke the handle off. Hollander looked over at Salazar and said.
"Lieutenant, help me cut through this door with the suit lasers" "Aye sir"
They both activated their lasers on their forearms as they aimed them at
the door, after a couple of minutes they had managed to almost cut through
the door when an explosion from inside blew out the door and slammed it into
the wall of the hallway. Smoke and sparks filled the hallway as a man in a
powered suit burst from the doorway. He leveled his gun at Heathrow
and fired; it hit him in the right arm and punctured his armor. Salazar and
Hollander had their guns on him by the time
he fired the shot and returned fire, their railgun projectiles hit him in
the chest and shattered his armor around the point of impact, blood seeped
out of the hole in his armor and he fell down the stairwell. Hollander
shouted "Let's rush in men; there may be more of them!" Salazar and
Hollander burst through the door to the bridge with his other men close on
their heels. The bridge was filled with six armored troops waiting for them,
all hell broke loose as two flame throwers showered Hollander's team and
laser fire filled the air.
Hollander's team absorbed the blast from the flame throwers as the
temperature in their suits rose like an oven. The team leveled their rail
guns and lasers at the opposing troopers and opened fire. Chaos reigned
through the smoke and the fire, several of the rail gun slugs punctured the
hull of the destroyer and the air started leaking out of the bridge.
Breckinridge took aim at one of the fuel canisters of the flame throwers
attached to the back of the pirate armored suits and sent a rail gun slug
into it, the entire bridge erupted in an explosion with yellow-red flames
filling the area. The hull, already weakened from several rail gun
punctures, gave way and the entire front section of the bridge ruptured. As
the air poured from the hole in the bridge, the flame followed it out and
dispersed into space along with the remaining men in combat. The pirates had
older armor that had not been equipped with propulsion units; they
became helpless as they were thrown out into the vacuum of space along with
debris from the explosion. Hollander's men were thrown from the bridge as
well, but they simply kicked in their propulsion units and flew back into
the damaged the ship.
The captain, after seeing the flames and explosions erupting from the
superstructure of the Impulsive, hailed Hollander on the com. "Commander,
what's happened? Can you read me?" Hollander replied. "Aye captain, we got
into a tussle with the last holdouts on the bridge, we put'em in their
places though. We secured the hostages safely and recovered the artifact."
"Good work, Mr. Hollander." The captain responded. "The other boarding party
has finished sweeping the Hotspur and found no survivors; we'll be sending
the rescue medics over to return the survivors from the Impulsive. Bring the
artifact back over here immediately." "Aye sir, we're on our way" replied
Hollander.
Hollander's team activated their propulsion units and flew back to the
Oklahoma in a matter of minutes.
With the onboard nano-factory of the Oklahoma, repairs were made to the
Impulsive and the Hotspur to get them back to low-level operational status.
A week later, the Oklahoma came cruising into Lacaille base with the two
destroyers limping behind it. The station was abuzz with excitement as the
Oklahoma neared; the tale of their adventure had already been broadcast
throughout the colonized worlds.
A nice bonus from the Sol Alliance navy was to be expected from the capture
of the two destroyers, the recovery of the artifact, and a measure of fame
for the great interstellar battleship Oklahoma and its captain.
Worlds throughout the frontier rejoiced at the Oklahoma exacting vengeance
upon the brutal pirates that victimized the Lacaille expedition.
Many from Carla Heidelberg's expedition elected to stay at Lacaille and
continue their studies, they proved to be invaluable help in the next few
weeks as the Oklahoma made expeditions to investigate the alien asteroid
base and uncover the secrets of the technology that resided there.
The Oklahoma had made quite a name for itself by the time the Nevada came to
relieve her, the first of many adventures this famous ship would have in the
next few years.
Acknowledgements:
Thanks to the author of the political thriller Elective Decisions, Chris
Davis, for helpful writing tips.
scifi short story, sci-fi short story, hard science
fiction |
