“Send out an alert one message to the Eisenhower, tell them we require urgent assistance, that should get their attention.”
“Aye sir, transmittin’ now” Kinraid said, as he worked the controls at his console.
After a brief pause, the commander spoke up again, “message received, ‘tey are inbound, an’ ‘tey are not alone.”
Michael looked at Quinn questioningly, the commander simply winked back at him.
“Command have been busy,” Michael smiled as he settled back down into his seat, things were about to get interesting.
The Liberty shot forth as it continued to circle the moon, increasing speed all the time. The shuddering increased in its intensity, an occasional panel blew out, resulting in a loud explosion and an almost blinding shower of sparks. They had to hold on, had to stay the course.
“Approaching ninety five percent of light speed!” Eldathar announced.
The craters, boulders, and mountainous terrain of the lunar surface shot past ever faster as the Liberty continued to pick up speed. It raced headlong around the moon, and as the ship came around to face their attackers. Still in the process of changing course themselves to bring their own weapons to bear. The Liberty with all its accumulated momentum behind it, was by far the fastest. The Solarian gently glided the ship on its apogee away from the moon, and used the last remnant of the force emitted from the gravity well itself to slingshot the ship towards the Dracos cruisers, the Liberty rocketed toward them with incredible speed, the Dracos ships simply had no chance to react.
“Fire!” Michael shouted; fist clenched.
The Liberty fired torpedo after torpedo, a flurry of five warheads all shot towards the Dracos ships as the E.D. F warship closed with terrific speed.
The torpedoes slammed home with such force that it caused one of the Dracos cruisers to lurch wildly, its shields flared brightly as they desperately tried to absorb the explosive force of the high energy warheads. The third impact caused the shields to ripple and fade, the remaining two torpedoes smashed directly into the ships hull with devastating force. Blasting apart one of the ships wing-tip laser lances in an intensely bright explosion that lit up the entire port side of the vessel.
The second tore its way deep into the ship’s main hull, a gigantic explosion carved out a deep, black crater. Torn and twisted decks were plainly visible, flames streamed out of the hull breach, having the appearance of an open wound. Smaller explosions nearby continued to burst out through the ships dark outer hull in miniature balls of flame. The ship slowly listed, as the fires within began to consume the entire vessel, escape pods could be seen jettisoning in a desperate attempt to flee the growing maelstrom.
The intensely bright incandescent blue beam of the Liberties fusion cannon, tore the stricken enemy ship apart in an almighty explosion, the final coup de grace, sending out a powerful shockwave and debris in all directions.
Senergid was dumbfounded as he watched the fiery destruction of the Flame of Celthris, the small enemy ship which should have been destroyed a long time ago, now slowed to a stop dead ahead of his own vessel.
Towards the rear of the Blade of Rhovanion, four bright white flashes heralded the arrival of the Eisenhower, two Ghandhi class destroyers, and the Washington class heavy cruiser Arizona.
Caught between the guns of the Liberty directly ahead, and the firepower of the E.D. F flotilla closing in from behind, Senergid knew it was all over.
“Contact that alien ship,” Michael asked, staring intently at its dark crescent shape filling the viewer.
“Channel open.”
“Senergid, your position is hopeless, now it is you who is outgunned and outmatched, we demand your unconditional and immediate surrender.”
The Dracos fleet commander looked up from his chair at the face of his enemy filling his own viewscreen, straightening his black robes in a last ditch attempt to retain what was left of his shattered pride.
“Well played captain, well played. This is not over, your people have made a powerful enemy here this day, and you cannot protect this system forever. We will return one day, and we will reclaim that which is rightfully ours.”
“And we will be ready,” Michael replied calmly, though in truth the force behind the enemy commanders statement sent shivers running through his spine.
The communication ceased, and the mighty Dracos flagship slowly came about, and made to leave the area. It moved slowly and solemnly, as though a dark monster who knew it had been defeated and was slinking back into the darkness of its home. Its giant engines lit up in a bright orange glow, as it accelerated away from Auriga III.
“Eisenhower is requesting if we should pursue?” Kinraid asked.
“Negative, there has been enough bloodshed for one day, let them go.”
In a way Michael realised, he felt sorry for the Dracos. Though once Solarians, they had let their hate consume them. Their hatred of the Solarians who they blame for almost destroying their people all those years ago, their newly found hatred of the E.D. F for keeping a planet that they believe is rightfully theirs away from them, and their hatred of the galaxy as a whole. In their hate, they had become insular, isolationist, and fiercely paranoid; in a people that held the kind of power the Dracos did, that was a dangerous cocktail.
It’s a shame, Michael thought, if they learned to co-exist peacefully with those around them, they wouldn’t need to resort to their isolationist ways.
“Set course for the veil, it is time to return to Corvandris, the galaxy is not ready for us to emerge just yet.” Senergid said with a mournful sigh, a lot of Dracos had died to reclaim a world that was theirs by right.
One day he knew they would have to emerge from their self-imposed isolation, although he also knew of the problems plaguing his people. In their isolation, the galaxy had forgotten about them, history had moved on, new races had come to the fore and overshadowed them. Just like this E.D. F, a great sadness came over the Dracos commander as his ship returned to the all-concealing darkness of the veil, the electromagnetic interference overcame his ships sensory systems, rendering them useless, as he began to navigate his ship by memory alone. Just as every other Dracos ship had done within this all consuming nebula.
The Liberty, too badly damaged to risk another atmospheric entry, docked with the comparatively giant Eisenhower, the four hundred and thirty man heavy cruiser dwarfed the Liberty at over five hundred metres long, it was fully four times its size.
Michael said to Kinraid, “you’re in charge until I return.”
“Where ‘r’ you goin’?”
“To say hello to an old friend.”
With that, Michael left the battered debris strewn bridge of the Liberty, and headed down toward the ships main docking hatch, passing various members of his crew attempting to affect temporary repairs, and restoring broken power conduits. The crew seemed in good spirits, despite the utter pounding they had taken, he wondered just how much of those spirits were down to the fact that the fighting had stopped. Crewmen saluted him as he passed, smiling warmly.
The elevator he had taken was not its usual self, a little stop-start instead of its typically smooth three hundred mile per hour transition of the ship, still it was to be expected.
He passed sickbay on his way to the hatch, partly to get cleaned up a little, he was bearing a number of scrapes and bumps himself, and covered in the soot and grime of battle, and partly to see how Lillian was coping with the casualties the ship had taken. He did not want to bother her, as he could see the ship’s tiny sickbay was simply swamped with crewmembers bearing various forms of injuries. The scene made him feel guilty, Michael, being the experienced ship captain he was, knew he had to keep his own form of professional detachment from his crew, just like Lillian had to when she declared a crewmember deceased, or at least he tried to.