Battleship Avenger (Conquest of Stars Book 2) (18 page)

Alvina lifted the
top cover of her belt buckle and pressed a small button inside. It was an
emergency alarm built into the belts of all the command room officers. It did
not take long for starship guards to rush towards them and the first wave of
guards reached them in a little less than four minutes.

Capitan Styx
arrived with twenty starship guards in about eight minutes and a couple of them
had powerful flashlights they beamed on the spot.

Alvina was the
only one standing but with fingers of her one hand clutched in the other. Rest
of the starship guards were either writhing on the floor or doubled over leaning
against the stacks. A few minutes later, Raptor and Tollvyk arrived with a
contingent of Strike Soldiers behind them. Raptor had decided to personally
inspect the scene when he heard that Alvina had pressed the alarm and Tollvyk
just could not help himself but be aroused by the news of a brawl onboard the
spaceship.

“What the hell
happened here?” Raptor asked.

“Definitely not a
brawl,” Tollvyk commented, “more like a drubbing.”

“Thanks Colonel,”
Alvina said, “We lost but for the lack of your presence.”

“Oh I would have
busted that boy real hard, whooped him blue and glue,” Tollvyk made a fist in
the air.

“I have never been
punched that hard,” Hartar slowly got up still holding his stomach, “And I have
boxed in my youthful days.”

The medical staff
abroad starship streamed in and attended to the guards still reeling from the
blows.

“He banged our
heads together,” a guard told the doctor probing his injuries.

Tollvyk started to
laugh but grabbed his mouth, turned around and stopped at a short cough.

“Why did you let
him?” Capitan Styx asked while walking amongst his guards, “You all practice
both armed and body combat daily. Is there a slacking off that I am not aware
of?”

“Capitan, he was
wearing mechanical armor,” another guard said.

“I have never seen
anyone move that fast,” a third guard added.

“I have,” Hartar
said finally managing to stand up straight, “he was a Stardjacker.”

Raptor, Tollvyk,
Alvina and Styx were stunned to hear this. The guards were confused. One of
them asked, “What is this Stardjacker?”

“A secret,
specialist unit of our army,” Hartar said.

“That is enough,”
Raptor said and walked over to Alvina. He held her fingers in his hands and Alvina
looked at him tenderly, “Capitan, do you need medical treatment or are you
ready to take over your responsibilities?”

“My fingers are
returning under my control,” Alvina said, “I might take a spray for pain
control.”

“Do that,” Raptor
said, “I should have you back in command officer’s quarters which has stringent
controls to prevent even a Stardjacker from penetrating.” He turned to the
medical staff, “I am authorizing a leave of a couple days for guards who are
injured. And how are you Hartar?”

“I don’t want a
leave, I want to catch this sod,” he said.

“Still want to
fight him, Toll?” Raptor asked with a sly grin.

“Maybe without his
armor,” Tollvyk replied.

“We have
procedures in place to deal with a rogue Stardjacker,” the capitan of Strike
Soldiers who had accompanied Raptor said to him.

 “Yes I am aware
of that, the army prepares for all contingencies,” Raptor said, “But we are on
a warpath and the battle looms large, I can’t have this spaceship turned inside
out to search for him.”

“What do you want
us to do?” Capitan Styx asked.

“Starship Guards
will continue their routine as before,” Raptor said then turned to the capitan
of strike soldiers, “It is unfortunate Col. Jarvyk is not with us, but convey
my orders to your next most senior colonel to present himself to my command
room promptly.”

 “Yes sir.”

Alvina and Hartar
returned with Raptor and Tollvyk in their hovercraft while Capitan Styx and his
guards along with the strike soldiers began a thorough search of the Cloth
Reserve section to uncover any clues about the intruder.

“General, we are
picking up a large spaceship on our rear,” Capitan Tagg said breaking beads of
sweat on his forehead, “It came out of nowhere.”

“What?” General
Bakus jumped up from his chair, “It must have trailed us quietly and we missed
it for so long.”

Tagg looked at
Major Joules with concern on his face. Joules had been made second-in-command
of Battleship
Avenger
and Tagg hoped he could save him from the brunt of
Bakus’ anger. Joules walked over to the scanner and looked at the side screen
that was spitting out numerical data.

“They must have
better gravitron scanner than us, much better,” Joules said, “no outlier
numbers to indicate that it was ever on our scanners.”

“That’s not good,”
Bakus said, “If Mercurians have a spaceship behind us then they must have been
watching us and one of theirs must have doubled back to get on our rear.  If we
attack their planet we will be caught in the crossfire.”

Bakus slammed his
fist on the table. He had been pleased with both the smooth handling of the new
spaceship as well as his crew’s performance. They had stealthily cruised to the
very edge of the solar system having the Mercurian planet. They were now parked
just behind the outermost planet running final checks on their weapons systems.
Once they left the gravity field of this planet they would be detectable on
Mercurian scanners.

 “General, I am
receiving an encrypted message from Starship
Conquistador
,” comm officer
Jovus exclaimed with delight, “Commodore Raptor wants you to rendezvous with
him abroad his spaceship along with our tactical officers.”

Many let out a
sigh of relief upon realizing that it was the Starfirian spaceship on their
scanner and there were smiles in the room. Joules was slightly irritated, “He
wants you to present yourself as if he is in charge of this battle,” he
scoffed.

“We need them far
more,” Bakus said, “I will go and I want you to come with me and get Capitan
Agnosis up here.”

“Is that a good
idea?” Joules asked.

“Him and the
spacefighters are one of the lynchpin of our attack,” Bakus said, “I can talk
strategy but I can’t talk spacefighter tactics.”

 “I will go get
him and meet you in the bay,” Joules said, “I will coach him to swallow his
pride and show deference to Starfirian officers no matter how caustic their
remarks.”

“You do that,”
Bakus said then turned to Tolus, “Capitan Tolus, prepare the fastest shuttle
abroad this battleship for immediate takeoff.”

“Yes sir,” Tolus
replied and called up the shuttle bay staff and started giving out the orders.

General Bakus,
Major Joules and Capitan Agnosis were greeted in the landing bay abroad
Conquistador
by Capitan Styx and a dozen of his starship guards. Styx and Agnosis exchanged
an awkward glance – the last time Agnosis had landed Styx had put him under
chains – but Styx turned away from him and spoke to Bakus.

“General,” Styx
said, “Please follow me.”

As they were
walking down the corridors, the Nestorians were flummoxed to see Strike
Soldiers patrolling everywhere with their laser guns ready and drawn.

“I don’t mean to
intrude,” Bakus said to Styx, “But it looks like a curfew to me.”

“Just a drill,”
Styx lied, “practice for if the Mercurians manage to infiltrate us.”

Bakus suspected
that something was up abroad
Conquistador
but it was not his place to
push for answers. He just hoped this did not get in the way of their combat
operations.

Styx led them to a
small conference room and waited outside with his guards while Bakus, Joules
and Agnosis walked in.

Raptor immediately
spotted Agnosis and asked, “What is he doing here?”

Agnosis said
nothing, he had been ordered by Joules to only speak when spoken to.

“He is going to
lead our spacefighter attack on the planet,” Bakus said.

“Alright,” Raptor
said tersely, “Welcome abroad our spaceship. Unfortunately we don’t have time
for a tour.”

“Some other time,”
Bakus said. It was a tradition amongst space fleets when one ship commander
visited another for the first time he would receive a tour. But Bakus didn’t
care for it; Starfirians would have arranged it in such a way so that
Nestorian’s didn’t learn anything about Starfirian army technology anyhow.

“This is my
Vice-Commodore Barryett,” Raptor said and then pointed to a younger man on his
left, “and Colonel Kartar Ryft; he is the top ranking officer of our space
fighter section.”

“Major Joules,”
Bakus pointed to him, “My second-in-command and Capitan Agnosis you are
familiar with.”

“General what is
your battle plan?” Raptor asked.

“Now that you are
here, much better strategies are available to us than my plan,” Bakus said, “I
certainly hope you haven’t come all the way to just watch the action.”

“Joking general?”
Raptor said, “This is not a cruise ship. But make no mistake, I have not been
given an order by my Supreme Commander to strike the Mercurians, but you have
received a direct one by your Chancellor. We will do what we plan to do, you
will receive benefits as a side effect but you will have to eat the dish we
serve you even if it’s too sour or salty for your palate.”

“We are however
open to any suggestions,” Barryett said, “We have a plan in mind but aren’t
rigid.”

“In that case, you
should know that our plan of attack is straightforward,” Bakus said, “Make a
run with the battleship from one side and the spacefighters from other,” he
looked at Agnosis, “We will hit as many military sites as possible. But if
their strength is insufficient and we get an opportunity, we will do another
run to strike their industrial sectors.”

“You will be lucky
to manage one run on your own,” Raptor said, “There are three Mercurian
battleships guarding that planet.”

“How can you know
this Commodore?” Joules asked, “Even Starfirian scanners can’t distinguish
battleship’s gravity signals from so far when they are orbiting close to a
planet.”

“We caught two
Mercurian ships flying deeper into their space beyond this system on our
scanner,” Raptor said, “Computer matches them to two who were involved in the
attack on your Nestor. Five of theirs had escaped, that makes it three still
guarding their outpost here.”

“That is a
conjecture,” Bakus said.

“True, but it
doesn’t matter,” Raptor said, “Here is our plan of action.
Conquistador
is going to make a mad dash at the target planet; they will launch either one,
two or all three battleships – latter if they are mad – at us. We are going to
lead them away from the system leaving the planet for you to clean up.”

“You are going to
just fake an attack?” Bakus said wide eyed, “and give us the privilege of doing
all the fighting?” Bakus hadn’t forgotten how
Conquistador
had hid out
under the ocean while Nestorian battleships in the orbit were taking a beating.

“If they send only
one after me, I will turn my ship right around and rip it to shreds,” Raptor
said, “If they send two or three then I will take them on a ride out of the
system but if they send three you will have an easy victory. But my actions
don’t concern you because either way you face reduced enemy strength.”

Bakus looked
keenly at Raptor. He was an efficient commander who tried to do most with least
resources and even with other’s resources. He had proven his mettle at the
Battle of Nestor but he was a Starfirian and Bakus did not trust the Empire’s
agenda for this region of space.

“We will go along
with it,” Bakus said.

“Good,” Raptor
said and smiled wide, “In the spirit of our cooperation, I am going to give you
five hundred of my spacefighters under Col. Kartar’s command. They will attack
the target planet from the opposite side of your battleship’s vector.”

“We very much
appreciate that,” Joules said.

Bakus, Joules and
Agnosis took their leave and were once again escorted by Capitan Styx and his
guards to the bay from where they flew back to
Avenger
in their shuttle.

“That was generous
of Commodore,” Agnosis said, “I am also curious to see Starfirian fighter
planes in action.”

“Don’t let that
gesture fool you,” Bakus said, “Starfirians want to collect data on the
Mercurians and Col. Kartar’s spacefighters will be loaded with electronic
sensors.”

“Oh…” Agnosis
mumbled.

“But you did well,
Capitan,” Joules smiled at him.

“I did nothing,”
Agnosis said.

“Exactly,” said
Bakus and guffawed along with Joules.

Agnosis grinned
sheepishly as he docked the shuttle in
Avenger’s
bay.

Starship
Conquistador
came out from behind the outermost planet of the system and slowly accelerated
towards the target planet. The Mercurian outpost’s scanners lit up with the
large and distinct gravitational signal of Conquistador as it made its run
towards them. The Mercurians dispatched two of their three battleships to
engage it in mid space.

Commodore Raptor
kept his spaceship steady on the course. He did not want to switch course too
early for fear that if Mercurians were too far way, they might decide to
abandon chase and return. He wanted them to commit to chasing him. Conquistador
flew all the way just short of the estimated rocket range of Mercurian
battleships, then Raptor turned its vector away from the target planet. He kept
his speed low enough that Mercurians would have hope of catching him but fast
enough to easily maneuver out of the path of any rockets. The Mercurians
however did not launch a rocket barrage. Both of them had taken a beating in
the attack on Nestor and their arsenal was depleted too. They tried hard to
close the range but to no avail. Every time they thought they were gaining on
the Starfirian vessel it would just zoom ahead.

General Bakus and
his crew patiently watched this chase. Starship Conquistador took its two
pursuers out of the solar system along with it and they disappeared in deep
space out of Avenger’s scanner range. Two days had passed since Bakus had the
meeting with Raptor and now it was his turn.

“Nestorian
soldiers,” Bakus said to his command room, “We come to avenge the attack on our
republic, on our homes and the death of our comrades and civilians. Let us put
the Mercurians on notice that they can’t make us the subjects of their foul
ambitions.”

The officers and the
crew nodded their head in support of Bakus who turned his head slowly to look
at everyone. There was determination on their faces and that is what he wanted.

“Major Joules,
give me top acceleration to the target,” Bakus said.

“Yes General,”
Joules replied. He directed the flight crew to pull Avenger out of its hiding
behind the outer planet and accelerated at top rate towards its target.

Bakus closely
watched the scanner data. There was no movement from the Mercurian planet. No
battleship came out to do battle with him in space. This was either good or
bad, either Com. Raptor’s plan had worked or the Mercurians were preparing an
ambush for him. But it didn’t matter because they were fully committed now.

At one point
Avenger had to decelerate again to avoid getting pulled into the planet by its
gravity. The Nestorian spaceship flew for two hours before it received its
first certain data point about the enemy.

“General Bakus,
the electronics scanner shows one Mercurian Battleship present in the planet’s
orbit,” signals officer Porkus Bellus said excitedly.

“The Starfirian
was right, I have to give him that,” Bakus said.

“That’s why they
didn’t come out,” Joules said, “In the orbit it will have support from
planetary ground batteries. The force multiplier effect.”

“This ship can
handle both,” Bakus said.

“General, the
scanner computer indicates this enemy ship was at the battle of Nestor,” Tagg
remarked.

“Even better,”
Bakus said, “We make them pay for it.”

The planet became
bigger and bigger on the visual display and the officers stared at it.

“It is aqua blue,”
Joules said, “Is that all water?”

“It is
greenish-blue,” Bakus corrected, “And unless their oceans are filled to the
brim with algae, that appears to be methane oceans.”

“It is methane,” Porkus
confirmed, “chemical composition data now filtering in…nitrides, sulfides…what
the hell, those are oceans of liquid methane. What kind of aliens find that
hospitable?”

“We don’t know yet
if that’s their natural habitat or they are living inside temperature and
atmosphere controlled domes,” Bakus said.

“Their battleship
is still not coming out,” Joules said, “Looks like it is going to be a
sub-light speed battle.”

“Yes, a punch for
punch fight,” Bakus said.