He ordered the rest of the commandoes to cover the position as he attempted to enter the Liberty by opening the port crew hatch. With a weak hiss of de-pressurised air, the hatch opened and the colonel clambered inside.
The interior did indeed look like a scene from world war three, main power was down and the lights were out. Vargev fished out a small torch from a pouch in his webbing, and fixed it to the barrel of his weapon. Shattered displays threw out sparks from damaged conduits, smashed girders and various detritus covered the floor, the colonel had to pick his way through carefully.
Crewmen were slumped on the floor in various places, some dead and some merely unconscious.
He continued carefully picking his way through the ship, his torchlight throwing up shadows in the gloom. Some sections still had power, probably running on emergency backup. How long it would last, he had no idea. It was nearly eight months since Nikolai had last set foot on this ship and it felt, strangely enough, as if he was getting re-acquainted with an old friend.
He managed to make it to one of the main elevators, which, luck would have it, were still operable.
“ Bridge,” he said as he stepped inside, a garbled acknowledgement came through the speakers before slowly taking him to his destination, although noticeably slower than he remembered.
The bridge doors would not open, and with a heave, he managed to open them just enough to crawl through. The stench of smoke and melted circuits was present throughout the whole ship, but especially so here, it hung thick in the air, and his throat felt raw, he hacked and coughed occasionally, Nikolai saw that many of her crew were laid motionless on the floor.
One man groaned as he shuffled uncertainly, trying to get to his feet. He had a deep ragged gash on his upper arm which had stained his royal blue uniform a crimson colour. In addition to another wound on his forehead, just above his right eye.
Vargev quickly made his way over to the man in an effort to help, and as he neared, recognised the man as his old friend Michael Alexander. He held out a hand to steady him.
“ What the hell happened comrade?”
Michael held up a hand to his forehead, it throbbed painfully, “we were in a huge battle in orbit, we were hit, one of those damn command carriers. Drifted for a while before we regained control, then chased by two stealth ships before we crashed.” He lapsed back into unconsciousness.
Vargev gently shook the weakened Michael to awaken him again, “stay with me,” he said studying his friend. “Did they bring any reinforcements?”
Michael slowly opened his eyes again, “no, we came in a fleet, over one hundred and eighty ships, and the biggest fleet we ever put together. However, the Krenarans, they had three hundred. We were outnumbered almost two to one. The battle is still being fought in orbit.
Michael lapsed into unconsciousness a second time, however a medic had managed to make it onto the bridge, looking somewhat battered himself, his white uniform was blackened and torn in several places.
“ Over here!” Vargev called out in the darkness.
The medic made his way over to them, and studied Michael intently before bandaging his wounds with synth-flesh patches. “He’s in shock, and he has lost a lot of blood.”
The medic laid Michael flat out on the floor, and put together a portable stretcher. “I need to get him to sickbay; will you help me carry him?”
“ Of course,” Vargev nodded.
They carried the unconscious Michael down to sickbay, where Kathryn Jacobs, the British chief medical officer, gave him blood. Gradually Michael came around, he recovered quickly.
“ wha… where are we?” he asked.
“ In sickbay,” Vargev reminded him.
“ No; where are we?”
“ On the surface of Gamma IV,” Nikolai replied.
“ Good, so we made it through the atmosphere then?”
“ Yes, you made it through the atmosphere, although your landing sucked.”
“ Err…yeah, sorry about that. It’s good to see you again Nikolai, it’s been a while.”
“ It’s good to see you too, old friend.”
Michael looked up at the gentle form of Kathryn tending to him, “Well I suppose it had to happen some time.”
“ What had to?” Kathryn replied.
“ You had to save me, since I rescued you on Delta base all those months ago.”
Kathryn silently smiled as she continued to tend to his wounds.
Michael was soon on his feet however, and with no small amount of arguing from Miss Jacobs, left sickbay.
The lights gradually came back on, indicating that all the backup generators had now kicked in, Nikolai unclipped his torch from his weapon and placed it back in his webbing.
Kinraid joined them, and greeted Vargev. “Hello there colonel,” he saluted, “Heard a lot about ya’, so I have.”
“ No doubt you have,” Vargev replied, saluting in kind. He was unsure about Kinraid, although he was reluctant to make any judgements about the man. He had never met him before.
“ How’s the ship?” Michael asked the commander as the three of them walked together.
“ She’s taken quite a pasting cap’n, we don’t know if she’ll fly again.”
“ She will,” Michael smiled confidently, “it will take more than a little crash landing to keep her down, she’s a tough little cookie,” he paused as he rubbed his temples, his head still throbbed, he was still feeling the effects of concussion from the crash. “Any news from the fleet in orbit?”
“ None sir, communications are still down.”
“ Damn, okay I want a full damage assessment in one hour commander; get to it.”
“ Aye sir,” Kinraid said as he left the two men alone.
“ He seems like a good man,” Vargev said as they continued along the debris-strewn corridor.
“ Yeah, he is one hell of an officer too,” Michael replied with a nod.
8. The defeat of Alax
The chatter of machine gun fire could be heard ever so faintly just outside of the ship, and then all went silent once again.
“ The other commandoes!” Vargev cried as he realised, he sprinted back towards the hatch.
“ I’ll come with you,” Michael replied as he chased after him.
Together they ran the length of the corridor to the elevator that would take them to deck 6, the lowest deck on the ship, and where the hatch was located. Soon enough the elevator deposited them, as the doors opened they sprinted down the main corridor on the deck, making a sharp right turn, about half way along, and located the hatch.
Vargev slowly crept out, keeping his body close to the hull of the downed ship. The distant echo of explosions and weapons fire was still audible from outside the loading area. The commandoes and the rest of the armoured company were putting up one hell of a fight, Vargev thought. It made him proud.
He looked around the immediate area as Michael clambered out of the hatch behind him. The raider was still intact, however along the interior of the loading bay lay the bullet-ridden bodies of a dozen or so Krenarans, freshly culled.
The commando manning the roof mounted Armschlager was dead. His head was a mangled, bloodied ruin. The other commandoes were also dead, laid amongst the Krenaran bodies.
Vargev made his way cautiously over to one of the commando bodies, picked up its weapon and ammunition, and tossed it over to Michael.
Silently, the big Russian pointed to the wide ramped corridor that led up onto the spaceport platform. Together they sprinted across the loading area to the edge of this corridor. Vargev peered around it, half expecting a dozen more to come at them.
Instead, there was nothing, no sign of movement, just dead silence. Carefully the two of them made their way up the gentle incline, and were almost halfway there when they came upon the gigantic form of the Krenaran Vargev spotted earlier. Oh, this is not going to end well, he thought.