Birthright: Battle for the Confederation- Turmoil (19 page)

The noise outside
died down to almost nothing, and was followed by the new sounds of boots
crunching on the shattered glass, broken walls, and other debris littering the
ground outside.

Finally, Elco heard
a voice.

"Over
here!" it called excitedly.  Elco was fairly certain hew knew that woman's
voice, but didn't dare get his hopes up to far.

There was a
commotion and then disconcerting quiet as many pairs of boots gathered on the
other side of the shattered and buckled hangar doors.

"Captain
Elco!" called the voice again.  "It's Lieutenant Commander Mastruk. 
We've tracked your comm device to this location but there's too much
interference to get a signal through.  Friendlies, coming through the crew
door.  Don't shoot."

Horle's eyes darted
to Elco and were rewarded with a hesitant but growing smile.  Elco was just
lowering his sidearm when Mastruk's head, covered in a combat helmet and eyes shielded
behind her datalink-enabled shooting glasses, poked through the door.

"Please don't
shoot me, Captain," she requested.  "My day's been way too hard to
end it like that."

Elco grinned now,
relief washing over him as he finally let himself accept the idea that he and
the others would live.

"I promise to
not shoot you, Sarria," Elco said with confidence.  He holstered his gun
and motioned for the rest of the Lemurians to do the same, which happened
quickly.

Mastruk wrenched on
the door to get it open; it stayed in that position, the frame and hinges too
out of square to let it swing freely ever again.  After she'd entered, she was
followed by a half dozen Avenger crewmembers and an equal number of medics.

"How did it go
up there?" Elco asked cautiously as Horle listened.

"We beat them,
Captain," she said with a tired but beautiful grin.  "Avenger took
her share of hits, but Majestic and Cobalt engaged the bulk of the Priman fleet
and are a lot worse off.  They're still airtight, but I don't know much more
right now.  There were twelve Priman cruisers that entered the system; two left
under their own power, the rest were destroyed and I believe two are in the
process of being boarded and captured."

"Excellent,"
Elco said proudly.  He'd mourn the deaths later, at an appropriate time.  Right
now, he would just enjoy the feeling of a Confed victory, no matter how small.

"What about our
destroyer force?" asked Horle, a slight hesitation the only outward sigh
of worry.

Mastruk's smile
disappeared as she grew somber.  "They fought very bravely, General,"
she began, eyes darting back and forth between Horle and her captain.  She
wondered if Elco would want her to debrief him first, but he gave no indication
for her to stop so she assumed it was alright to tell him everything.

"I'm sorry;
they were all destroyed." She only paused for a second, wanting to tell
him everything and get this horrible task off her shoulders.  "They took
on two Priman cruisers.  They had to do it to protect the transports, which had
been ordered to heave-to by the Primans.  They were sitting targets there, and
the Primans were going to take them out.  Captain Renner and the destroyers
fought them off, but in the end Captain Renner placed his ship in the line of
several incoming torpedoes and took the hits himself.  They saved the
transports; not a single one was destroyed after Captain Renner's forces
engaged and they're all on their way to the staging location now."

General Horle took
the news quietly, only nodding as it all sank in.  "Thank you for your
honesty and kind words," he managed to say, though Sarria could tell it
was already threatening to tear him up.  "What now, might I ask?"

"Avenger is in
orbit above the city trying to coordinate everything," Mastruk answered to
both the senior officers.  "Searching for whoever's in charge now, trying
to link up with the military, and basically acting as the hub of operations for
everything that's happening.  Captain Montari was on his way to Avenger to set
up shop there for a while since Majestic has no means of communication.  We're
supposed to bring you back upstairs and get you checked over and
debriefed."  She looked at the uncomfortably small number of Horle's
remaining troops.  "We have enough room in the transports for everyone,"
she added.

"Then let's
go," Elco answered.  He gestured to Horle and then the human-sized door
Mastruk had entered through, and Horle agreed.

"Yes,
let's," Horle replied.

Chapter Nine

Loren stood
completely motionless, eyes straight ahead but looking at nothing in particular
through the huge viewports in the aft wall of the conference room behind C3. 
It was one of the best views on the ship; almost the tallest point, with a view
of the top of the Aft Quarter on the main gun deck and the engines, plus two main
laser batteries and a handful of point defense turrets. 

His gaze swept the
armor plating of his ship, damaged once again in battle with the Primans.  He
could see all the individual sections of armor that were fused together to make
the larger plates now; before the war, Confed ships were coated with a metallic
layer that marginally helped reduce their signature to Enkarran sensors.  But
Confed wasn't fighting the Enkarrans anymore; the Primans had some of the best
sensors in the known galaxy, and eventually the ineffective coatings were no
longer applied and in fact removed when ships came to the yards, saving tons of
mass in the process.

He heard a weary
sigh to his left and glanced over at Captain Montari.  Majestic's captain was
seated at the starboard conference table where he'd made a temporary home while
trying to coordinate the force of three damaged ships under his command.  The
briefing room was quite large since it took up the width of the command tower;
split in the middle by a smaller version of the solid 3D holo generator found
on the bridge and C3, there were conference tables with seating for nine on
each side of the bridge.  Loren hadn't even really considered there to be two;
Captain Elco always held briefings at the port side table, and he'd never used
the starboard one in all his time aboard.

"You look like
I feel, Commander Stone," Captain Montari said with a weak grin, then
chuckled softly. 

"That bad,
huh?' Loren replied. 

Montari only nodded,
but indicated a chair across from himself at the table for Loren to occupy.

Loren obliged and
headed over, a cup of rapidly cooling stim-caf in his hand.  Some people were
put off guard by Captain Montari's often stunted conversations and compact
speech, but Trin were like that.  As a people who used smell and taste more
than verbal communication, they often didn't waste extra syllables on the
spoken word.  Montari did his best to elaborate in order to not seem
standoffish, but Loren didn't mind.  As long as the man liked killing Primans,
he was ok by Loren's standards.

Loren sat down and
looked at the pile of work in front of Majestic's captain.  There were three
separate piles of data pads, some disposable hardcopy printouts, the remains of
a cold ration supper, and even a few handwritten notes scribbled on whatever
scraps of material must have been handy at the time they were pressed into
service.

"How are
Majestic and Cobalt doing?" Loren asked.

The Trin pushed
himself back into the seat and rocked back away from the table.  "Majestic
is rough but serviceable," he began.  "Cobalt is in better shape but
her drives are wreckage."

Loren knew a little
more than that from his own time surveying the reports that came streaming in
to Avenger; he'd just wanted to show concern to Montari, not really expecting
much of an answer.  Majestic had been pounded hard; many of her offensive
weapons were destroyed, her shield generators were overloaded and burned out,
and much of her armor was compromised.  The good news was that the heavy armor
had saved a good portion of her crew and allowed the big ship to fight a force
that was numerically very superior to her.  The bad news was that the ship was
looking at serious yard time and a supply chain that was starting to run low on
parts for the older ships that were no longer in production. It was quite
possible the ship would end up being scrapped.  The Confed navy leadership was
supposedly in a heated debate about building more of the Starshaker ships to
old specs versus building a modern updated version, but like all bureaucracies
the end result was a lack of either new production battleships and their
support infrastructures or a serious effort at beefing up the supply chain for
the older ships.  Loren knew Captain Montari was probably in for a fight to
keep his ship from heading to the breaker to be scavenged for spares.

Cobalt hadn't done
much better.  She'd suffered severe damage as well, but many of her damaged
components were modular and designed to be easily removed and replaced.  Her
engines, though, were through.  She'd been towed into planetary orbit by
Majestic, and would be stuck there until a specialized tug could arrive. 
Coupled to the rear of Cobalt, the tug was basically a large engine unit,
comprised of both sublight and hyperdrive engines.  It would get the damaged
ship wherever she needed to go.

"How is
Avenger?" Montari asked.

"Well
enough," Loren replied.  "We've taken a beating, as we usually do,
but we've had worse."  He tried to keep it short to accommodate the Trin. 
"We'll get back in the fight after some repairs."

Captain Montari
nodded in approval, satisfied that at least one of the Confederation ships in
the system wasn't just floating wreckage.

A chime sounded and
Loren looked up at the main display.  It stretched all the way across the forward
bulkhead, a space shared with the holo generator's field and a myriad of
screens and data feeds.  A window opened on each side of the display, meant to
be visible to either conference table.  The face of the communications officer
appeared.

"Call from
Lieutenant Commander Mastruk, Commander Stone," the woman said.

"Put it
through, Ensign," Loren replied, swiveling his chair to face the screen.

The feed changed to
show Sarria Mastruk, still wearing body armor and web gear and holding her
HMR-12 Hammer rifle while standing in the personnel section of a Freedom class
transport.  She'd admitted a deep and abiding love for the rifle's design and
that she often made sure her name was on the roster for ground ops just so she
could get a chance to carry and perhaps fire one.

"Didn't get to
use your rifle, I see," Loren began with a guarded smile.  He'd already
seen the reports that there were no Priman forces on the planet; her mission
had been more one of rescue than combat.

"Maybe next
time," she said with a sigh.  "I did find something else I was
looking for, though."  With a grin, she moved from her space in front of
the camera and let someone else step into view.  For a moment, Loren saw the
scene on the transport, a dozen Drisk wearing battered, torn and dusty uniforms
of the Lemurian military.  Then the newcomer was on screen.

"Captain!"
Loren said with a genuine smile.  Captain Montari perked up and turned his head
to watch the display as well.

"It's good to
see you, Captain Elco," Montari added.

"It's good to
be seen," Elco replied.  "Sarria informed me of the situation; you
chased off twelve Priman ships?"  Elco's expression was one of apprising
respect.

"We paid a
price," Captain Montari admitted, "but only two survived.  I wish we
could do that every time we engaged them."

"I'll take
anything I can get at this point," Elco said humorlessly.  "We have
General Horle and some of his staff aboard.  We'll bring them up and have
Doctor Elrad check them over.  Has any organized government announced itself yet?"

Loren looked at a
datapad he was holding, which showed the latest intel.  "Apparently we
have two different parties claiming they're in charge now," Loren replied,
a look of resignation on his face.  "Without knowing more about their
politics or roles of succession, I couldn't say whose claim is better.  As long
as they want to keep evacuating, it's fine by me."

"Perhaps the
general can help sort it out," Elco thought out loud, eyes drifting off
towards the commander of Lemurian forces a few seats away.  "I'll let him
know and get him started on thinking about that.  In the meantime, we'll be
there soon."  With a nod showing a little more cheer than a minute
earlier, Elco cut the connection.

Captain Elco made
his way over to General Horle, who was surrounded by three of his staff.  He
was trying his best to get things organized, using the data console behind the
cockpit as a workstation.  Elco waited for a lull in the conversation before he
interjected.

"Could I have a
minute, General?" Elco asked.

"You can have
as much as you want, Captain," Horle replied.  He dismissed the other
officers, giving himself and Elco a measure of privacy.

"We've received
communication from two different parties on the surface claiming succession of
your government," Elco began, knowing the general would rather just have
the truth and not sugar-coated spin when it came to intel.  "We're hoping
you can help sort it out when we get back aboard.  I'll make a stateroom
available for as long as you'd like to remain with us."

"Thank you,
Captain," Horle replied, standing up with some effort.  He'd had a combat
medic treat his wounds, but he was only stabilized, not healed, and grimaced
with the effort.  "For everything, I mean.  I probably won't stay long;
I'm going to have to head down there and show everyone that just because the
capitol was destroyed doesn't mean our planet is going to devolve into
anarchy.  We still need to evacuate; I doubt the Primans will let this slide
for long, if for no other reason than to make a statement to anyone else who
tries to fight back."

"Believe
me," Elco reassured him, "I'm going to put in another request for any
lift that we can spare."

"I know you
will," Horle replied," and that's why I want you to have this." 
Horle held out his hand, a data chip in his palm.  It looked so innocent,
devoid of intent.  It was just a little data chip, common to the entire galaxy,
its coating worn and chipped from use, but somehow Elco knew it contained
something disproportionate to its innocuous appearance.

"Your music
collection?" Elco joked with a smirk.

 "Almost as
valuable," Horle countered gravely.  He held out his hand farther and
gestured to Elco to take it, which the captain did.  "This is our
development work on the sensor penetrating technology we've been working on. 
You've probably heard what it's all about; reconfigurable circuits that can
learn and adapt, as close to artificial intelligence as galactic conventions
allow.  The prototypes could penetrate and neutralize Priman jamming and
countermeasures.  Basically, this levels the playing field.  You get your full
sensor use back, and they don't get to cheat by scrambling electronic emissions
any more."

Elco looked at it
reverently.  Confed used Lemurian technology in a number of its weapons systems
already, but this tech was new and nobody had dared to plan on using it in case
it never turned out.

"And you're
giving this to us?" Elco said slowly, not wanting to misinterpret the
gesture.

"Yes,"
Horle replied simply.  "You've helped save our planet, got dragged into
something that was none of your business, and still stepped up and gave us
everything you could.  The least I can do is return the gesture with something
of value.  And let's be honest; if my planet is evacuating, I don't know how
long it will take for us to continue development on this technology.  I do ask
that when you turn it over, it's with the understanding that when we can
support it again you get us involved with supply, just like all the other
systems we license to you.  But for now, I'm not worried about that.  It just
needs to be put to use, and I'll trust that things work out on the back
end."

Elco just nodded,
the simple gesture all that General Horle would want.  He reverently placed the
chip in a breast pocket, then extended his hand for the general to shake, which
he did.

"I'll make sure
this is put to good use, and that you get involved when you're ready,"
Elco reassured him. 

"Then go kill
some Primans," Horle replied.

Captain Elco was
back where he belonged: on the bridge of Avenger.  He looked around slowly,
taking it all in, for he realized one day he'd have to move on.  The
realization had never really sunk in before, but after the Lemurian battle and
Loren's able handling of the ship he'd come to acknowledge that other people
were in fact capable of caring for the vessel.  Well, to be honest, he admitted
that he believed Loren was capable of it; he wasn't sure about leaving Avenger
in anybody else's hands, but if he received orders to move on, he'd be damn
sure to do everything he could to get Loren the job.

His reverie was
interrupted by a chime and a message icon blinking on the desktop in front of
him.  He tapped it and the message opened.  It was from Admiral Bak,
naturally.  Since yesterday when Captain Montari had sent his after-action
report in to Confed Navy HQ, Elco had been expecting the call.  He assumed the
admiral would want a more detailed debrief on the battle, the tech General
Horle had given him, or perhaps had another mission already in the works.  The
message in front of him, though, was the last thing he'd expected to see.

"Say that
again, please, but slower this time?" Loren replied to Captain Elco.  They
were in Elco's day cabin, where the two had been finishing up the last of the
reports and admin work before making ready to leave Lemurian space.  Already a
pair of Confederation class cruisers had arrived to relieve them, to be joined
by another Crusader class vessel in a few hours.  Their time here was drawing
to a close, and while Loren had expected Elco to reveal their new orders,
they'd caught him off guard.

Elco chuckled. 
"We've been ordered to the Delos system."  The captain set down the
data pad he was holding, absentmindedly arranging the contents on his desk as
he talked.  "Navy HQ wants us to drop off the original data chip to their
R&D facility in the asteroid field, which has finally had enough Priman
mines cleared to be open for business again.  Then we're supposed to orbit
Delos.  Senator Dennix and the Governing Committee want to congratulate us
personally for our role in acquiring the Lemurian technology.  Maybe they want
to parade us in from of the media for a bit; I'm not sure about their motives,
really.  But either way, we make way to Delos.  After that, it's off to the
shipyards in the asteroid belt for repairs."