Crineal Chronicles 1: In Hera's Service (32 page)

“Pretty
good, Sir. Admiral Sybilene is a good commander and the pilots are doing fine.
I don’t suppose I could steal Major Strieger from you, could I, Sir? I could
use her to hone the squadrons to a fine edge.” The gaunt-faced Colonel gave him
a hopeful look.

Crineal
chuckled. “Sorry, Bara. Strieger’s all mine. You find your own second to do
that. Is that what you stopped to ask me?” he looked at her curiously.

“Actually,
no, Sir. Admiral Sybilene has been feeding me some leading questions about the
recent crew transfers. Mainly she seems to want to know where I heard the rumor
from. I’ve stalled her and said I wasn’t going to break any confidences, but I
thought you ought to know.”

He
grimaced. “Damn. I didn’t mean to put you in a bad spot with your admiral. I’m
sorry about that.”

Barazon
waved his apology away. “It’s fine, General, Sir. I’m sure you’re not telling
your admiral who your source is either. Besides, I’m glad that I was able to
get rid of some of my problem pilots, so I’m not complaining. I just wanted to
give you a heads up.”

“I
appreciate it, Bara. Why don’t we get together after the battle and I’ll buy
you dinner to make up for the trouble I’ve caused you?” Crineal offered.

The
colonel smiled at him. “Deal, Sir. I look forward to it,” and with that she
saluted and left the conference room leaving Crineal to wonder how much
Sybilene and Ken’Rathel had managed to piece together.

He
spent the afternoon giving the same briefing to his own squadron leaders and
thankfully the meetings seemed to be getting easier. His evening, however, was
harder, with another round of pleading to stay from Cyndora. This was followed
by more crying and then cuddling up in bed together whilst giving her all the love
and comfort he could.

After
a last briefing for his own squadron the next day he escorted Cyndora to the
waiting shuttles where the rest of the recreation staff were boarding. He’d
found her another purse that almost qualified as a bag and made sure he’d
filled it with chocolate bars and some accessories. He noticed she was also
wearing the earrings he’d given her for that first dinner party. As they
entered the shuttle bay, Cyndora spotted Jaydea, Marshalla and Xianing and gave
them a little wave. Jaydea waved back and it caught the attention of a guard.
He looked as if he was about to shout at her but then saw who had entered the
area and snapped to attention. Crineal walked Cyndy over to join her friends
where they were waiting to board. He noted that the shuttle was actually a
personnel shuttle rather than a cargo shuttle, such as the one he’d seen her
arrive on. He hoped that indicated that someone on board was starting to take
the hint that the assistants were people, too. They arrived at where the three assistants
were standing.

“Sir?
This is Jaydea, Marshalla and Xianing. My friends from the dorm,” Cyndora
introduced them to him. All three were standing at an assistant’s attention
with their breasts firmly thrust forward and trying not to stare at him.

Crineal
acknowledged them with a half bow. “At ease, ladies, it’s good to meet you
after hearing so much about you all.” He watched as they relaxed a little.
“Hopefully you won’t be away from the Annihilator for long, but Cyndy has some
treats that you can all share.” He looked over at all the assistants who were
trying their best not to watch him and decided that he should say something. He
raised his voice so they could all hear him. “I apologize for uprooting you all
from your dorm. I assure you that it’s only temporary in order to keep you all
safe whilst this ship goes into battle.” He paused to find the right words.
“This may sound stupid given how you came here, but nevertheless, I just wanted
to say thank you for the work you put in. I’m guessing no one else will say it,
but I thought someone needed to. Thank you all.” He turned back to find Xianing
and Marshalla looking at him with stunned expressions.

The
oriental-looking woman spoke up. “General? Sir? I’ve been an assistant for
seven years now and no one has ever said thank you to me before. We should be
thanking you, too, Sir. Things have been so much better for us since you
started looking after Cyndy.” Crineal could see she was nearly in tears.

“I’m
sorry. I’ve stood by far too long. I’ll try and make sure that your rights are
protected and enforced from now on.” He saw that the lines of assistants were
starting to board the shuttles. Crineal turned to Cyndora and kissed her deeply,
not caring who saw. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Cyndora
looked at him with tearful eyes. “You’d better be here when I get back,” she
said huskily.

“I’ll
be here.” Crineal turned to the officer in charge of the assistants. “Look
after them, Lieutenant.”

The
young man stood stiffly at attention. “Yes, Sir, General. You have my word.”
Crineal nodded and gave Cyndora a last wave as she boarded the shuttle before
turning and leaving the bay. The task force made its penultimate jump two hours
later.

Crineal’s
quarters seemed horribly empty to him that evening and the bed felt awfully
large. His night was restless and he was glad when the alarm buzzer went.
Crineal skipped his exercise routine and just made breakfast before putting on
his flight suit and making his way to the bridge. Crineal greeted Captain Aldar
and Admiral Ken’Rathel and set about transmitting the jump data packages to the
other carriers. He sent Devastator’s package first. That way when something
went wrong it would be seen that they had had lots of time to potentially mess
around with it. With that task complete, he turned to Admiral Ken’Rathel.

“Jump
data sent, Sir. Jumps are programmed for ninety minutes time. With your
permission, I’ll go and make sure all our small craft are in place.”

“Permission
granted, General, and good luck out there.” Ken’Rathel returned Crineal’s
salute and watched his lead pilot exit the bridge.

Crineal
headed down to Bay Alpha Ten and to his waiting fighter. As he entered the bay,
the crew chief working on his Hunter saw him and saluted.

“Good
morning, Sir. She’s all ready for you,” Tech Chief Walyar said as Crineal
approached.

He
returned the salute. “Thank you, Chief. I’ll try not to scratch the paint work
today.” Crineal gave him a grin and climbed the steps to the cockpit putting on
his helmet as he did so. He could see the other three fighters of his group
already warming up their engines as he settled himself into his flight couch
and did the pre-flight checks. With those completed Crineal sealed the canopy
of his Hunter, cocooning himself inside and powered up the engines. Their
steady hum assured him that all was well and he lifted off to lead his flight
out of the bay. Saphya, Perl and Linthea followed him and took up their
assigned flight positions as they made their way to join the other squadrons
that were allocated in the wings below the carrier. As far as Crineal knew,
this was the largest force assembled for decades outside of ceremonial duties.
One hundred twenty-five capital ships and over three thousand small craft, he
thought. The rebels wouldn’t lack for targets today. He keyed his comm.

“All
units, this is Zeus.” Today he had an extra designation as task force
coordinator. “All craft report in through your chains of command. Olympus
Control, please confirm when all units are ready.” His own flight leaders,
squadron leaders and wing leaders reported in to him and he dutifully reported
their readiness to the Annihilator. Ten minutes later his comm activated.

“This
is Olympus Control,” Admiral Ken’Rathel’s calm and steady voice came through,
“All ships confirmed ready. Time to jump ten minutes, repeat one zero minutes.”

As
the time ticked down, the comm chatter was non-existent in his own squadron.
Everyone knew that the first fifteen minutes after the jump were going to be
sheer hell and the pilots were mentally preparing themselves. The time on Crineal’s
display ticked down to fifty eight seconds and as it did so the Devastator’s
strike force on the far left of the formation disappeared.

“Zeus,
this is Olympus Control. Devastator force has jumped early. Instructions?” Ken’Rathel’s
voice sounded both irritated and tense.

“This
is Zeus, no time to change the jump now. We’ll wait for the preset mark and
follow the plan.” The display read forty seconds.

“Roger
that, Zeus.” Ken’Rathel said in a tight voice.

The
clock ticked down and the rest of the task force jumped leaving the auxiliaries
and their escort alone in the void.

Vice
Admiral Arizankis stood on the bridge of the Devastator waiting for the jump to
be initiated. He thought Crineal and Ken’Rathel were cautious fools and he
couldn’t understand why he hadn’t been given command of this task force.
Arizankis supposed it was because Ken’Rathel was a noble and Crineal was
Sar’Clax’s lap dog. Once they jumped and engaged the rebels he’d show them what
a properly commanded strike force could do, he thought.

At
ninety seconds to go on the countdown a hidden subroutine in the data package
on the Devastator activated and overwrote the jump instructions before
retransmitting them to the rest of its strike force. Thirty-two seconds later
the Devastator and its consorts jumped.

Vice
Admiral Arizankis wasn’t paying attention to the countdown when the jump
occurred, but he knew that something was wrong even as the alarms started to
blare out. Captain Enalamon of the Devastator may have been a vicious martinet,
but he was also sharp and took in the situation in a moment as the strike force
reappeared in normal space. They were inside the rebel perimeter and on top of
one of the cruiser squadrons.

There
was no hesitation as he gave the first order of the battle. “Gunnery, open fire
on the nearest enemy cruiser,” Enalamon commanded before turning to Arizankis.
“Admiral, something has gone wrong. I suggest that all ships open fire and we
should try and fight our way out.”

Arizankis
stood in shock for a second then nodded and activated his comm. “All ships open
fire, target the nearest cruisers.”

Thankfully,
all of the weapons stations on the imperial capital ships had been powered up
and were ready to seek out targets. The rebel cruisers proved to be slower, due
to the total surprise of an Imperial strike force appearing in their midst, and
the carrier and its escorts got in the first blows. Enalamon studied the
tactical display. One of the destroyers had been lost already as it jumped into
the space occupied by a rebel cruiser. Both ships had disappeared in a huge explosion
that lit up the surrounding squadron. The carrier’s heavy laser batteries tore
through another rebel cruiser, battering aside its shields and ravaging the
hapless ship before it blew up. Devastator’s three cruiser escorts concentrated
their fire on a third rebel cruiser and its engines blew apart under the
barrage sending it tumbling through space as a dead hulk. The strike force’s
destroyers split their fire between the remaining two cruisers in the enemy
squadron. Although the weapons they carried were less powerful, there were ten
of them each firing on a single cruiser. The shields on one failed and laser
fire scoured away weapon mounts and blew holes in the ship, leaving it a wreck.
The other suffered a spot failure in the shielding around its power core; the
cruiser was vaporized as the core exploded. The battle had been going for less
than ten seconds and the rebels had lost five cruisers in return for one
destroyer.

The
base defense systems had already begun to react and the big emplacements swiveled
their guns one hundred eighty degrees to target the Devastator. They locked on
and opened fire. The carrier shuddered under the onslaught, its shields
weakening. One of its destroyers caught a massive laser bolt amidships and
broke in two. The other ships in the force were also taking hits and their
shields were flaring as the rebels started to hit back. Devastator’s small
craft found themselves in the worst position. They weren’t designed to stand up
to even destroyer fire and now they found themselves at rest and trying to
power up their weapons whilst in range of the cruiser squadron’s destroyer
screen. As soon as the rebel destroyers recovered from their shock, they opened
fire. The only thing that spared some of the Imperial fighters and bombers was
the fact that a lot of the fire was directed at the carrier and its escorts.
Even so, the wings were decimated as they fought to put distance between
themselves and the big ships. The Devastator was now taking serious hits as it
turned its fire onto the surrounding rebel destroyers. The smaller rebel ships
took heavy damage from the carrier’s guns, leaving them wrecks or totally
destroyed; but the Devastator was starting to fail. Laser batteries were
falling silent as they disappeared under the pounding of the rebel fire. One of
the cruisers was drifting dead in space; its systems completely knocked out.
Another vanished altogether as a shot from one of the fixed defense cannons
punched through its weakened front shield and tore through the ship lengthways,
blowing it into small pieces. As explosions ripped at the Devastator, no one on
the bridge noticed the countdown timer hit zero.

The
rest of the Imperial task force appeared as scheduled outside of the rebel
perimeter. The guns of the fleet were already locking onto the fixed defenses
as planned and the bombardment rolled out like a tidal wave of destruction. The
nearest rebel emplacements never had a chance. They were locked on to the
Devastator, and before they could retarget, they were blown apart as the
kinetic rounds hit them with massive force. Those further away did manage to
return fire before they too were destroyed; but their response was light and
only a few shots got through. Crineal saw the Annihilator take a hit on its
port side and one destroyer near the Cataclysm blow apart as a rebel heavy
cannon found its mark. His fighter wings gunned their engines and followed the
opening strike in as the task force behind them started to pick off the
remaining emplacements. The Axes that were patrolling the perimeter had turned
inwards to deal with the Imperial fighters from the Devastator force and were
now out of position as the task force’s Hunters roared in behind them launching
a blizzard of missiles. Crineal checked his display as they released. Two wings
of Axes scattered around the perimeter in squadron-sized formations; no sign of
any Archers yet but he’d bet they were at the dockyards arming up. He spared a
moment to look at the status of the Devastator strike force. All three cruisers
were either totally destroyed or wrecks; only two destroyers were still firing
and they were under heavy attack; and less than fifty of the small craft had
survived. As he watched, the Devastator took one last hit and exploded in a
tremendous fireball, the expanding sphere of debris adding to the wreckage in
the area. She had died well though, Crineal thought, an entire cruiser squadron
destroyed and other ships damaged. Ironically, the worst ship in the fleet was
going to be known for a heroic last battle. He shook his head and turned his
attention back to the fight. The missile attack had almost totally destroyed
the Axes that had been on patrol but more were launching from the dockyards and
cruisers. However, right now the way was clear for the Star Bolts behind Crineal’s
Hunters to launch their torpedo attacks against the remaining rebel capital
ships. Three of the five wings each targeted a cruiser squadron whilst the remaining
two picked out the orbital dockyards. The Star Bolts were similar to the
Hunters in shape but somewhat bulkier because of their two missile pods. Each
pod held six energy torpedoes giving the Star Bolts a huge punch against
capital ships. The torpedoes flew from the bombers and locked on to their
targets. The rebel ships’ point defense systems were good, but totally
overwhelmed by the weight of fire. A lot of the torpedoes were destroyed, but more
than enough made it through and the enemy cruisers and destroyers started to
take hits. One by one, the rebel ships were being smashed into scrap metal.
Crineal led Hera Squadron in to engage the newly launched Axes in his assigned
sector. Three survivors of the patrolling Axes were trying to head for the cover
of their big ships, but Lambda Flight got there first and opened up with a
laser salvo. The Hunters’ fire crisscrossed the three fleeing ships and they
all seemed to blow up together. As the four fighters from Lambda pulled away
from the wreckage, the nearest rebel destroyer, badly hit and burning, got off
a last shot before blowing up. The long range laser bolt squarely caught the
underside of one of the Hunters and Lambda Leader vanished, Captain Hugarl
never knowing what hit him. Crineal cursed at the bad luck and toggled his
comm.