Deep Space Endeavor (42 page)

“These men will be brought up on charges immediately,” Natora exclaimed in outrage. “You have my deepest regrets that someone under my command would try something so dangerous and stupid. Thankfully, no one was hurt.”

“We appreciate the sentiment, Admiral, now if there is nothing else…”

“Actually,” Natora replied, interrupting her. “There is something. I’m terribly sorry to h
ave to bring this up at such an awkward time. But Naval Command is concerned because you have produced more ships than we ordered, and currently have even more in production. This is a violation of Earth laws, as SSE already has the maximum amount of ships allowed. The additional ships will have to be confiscated, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, right, you’re sorry,” Nina blurted. “But, you also happen to be wrong
as usual. None of those ships are complete, so we are not in violation of anything at this point.”

“I don’t understand, then, why build several ships and not finish them?” Natora asked, starting to think he wasn’t going to like the answer.

She replied with a smile. “Because Serge and I are in the process of deciding whether or not we are going to move our Earth facilities to Polisia, and we don’t want to have a dip in production while we settle into our new home. That is, if we decide to go through with the move.” Manny and Ariel looked surprised as she added, “That’s what the dinner meeting was about. I was hoping to talk it over with my associates, but I obviously didn’t get a chance to tell them before everything got crazy.”

Admiral Natora was starting to get hot under the collar of his dress whites. “You can’t move your production off Earth.”

“Of course we can, our contract with Naval Command comes to an end in a little over nine months, at which time we are legally allowed to move anywhere we choose.” She countered. “It wouldn’t be good business if we were to wait until then to begin thinking about what to do. We’ve made no decision, but we are prepared to. If I don’t feel safe coming to Earth, I won’t continue to have the bulk of our military production here.”

“If
you pull your facilities, the Coalition will no longer do business with you.” Natora threatened.

“You should really read the stipulations in the contract, Ad
miral,” she corrected. “If the Coalition decided not to renew its contract, Sea Side Enterprises becomes free to begin supplying individual planetary defense forces with ships. There are thirty-one other planets in the Coalition, and each planet would like approximately eighteen ships.”

“That’s five hundred fifty-eight
ships,” Manny added. “Not to mention companies with fleet privileges."

“I think we could make do with that for a while.” Nina concluded. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some
business to discuss with Captain Marcos and Captain Hernandez."

As the transmission ended, Natora knew they had him. He should have never agreed to such a clumsy attempt. Now, if SSE moved, things would really begin getting out of hand for the Enclave. Natora downed the last of his brandy as he prepared to report the
se troubling new developments to the Enclave.

______

Endeavor
arrived at Kaldor to quite a sight. Eighty-one warships were in stationary orbit above the planet, exactly where Jesse had asked them to be. Fourteen Destroyers, twenty-two Frigates, and forty-five gunships were awaiting a siege of their world. Kaldor also had almost ninety squadrons of fighters. It was an impressive fleet by Lawless Sector standards, but it wasn’t going to be nearly enough.
Endeavor
docked with the Kaldorian flagship,
Reliant
. Jesse boarded to sit in an emergency meeting with Kaldor’s High Council. The High Council consisted of the Chairman, Kaldor’s three governors, and the three district capital mayors. Admiral Togglasem, the commander of Kaldor’s space navy was also present. Jesse went over the plan to save Kaldor with them while
Endeavor
deployed three hundred and fifty magnetic-smart space mines.
Endeavor
had three hundred and eighty of the mines aboard, but he wanted to save a few, just in case.

Jesse sat with the eight most powerful men on Kaldor and told them of the mine field. The plan was to let Garrinoras get his fleet into position, and then give him the chance to surrender. No one actually thought he would, it was just a tactic to give the mercenaries of Ginderbar a chance to get into position. Once the mines were activated, it would take a sizeable chunk out of Garrinoras
' fleet. He would likely respond by launching all of his
Razzers
to weaken the Kaldorians without exposing anymore of his ships. That was when
Endeavor
would strike.
Endeavor
would eliminate a large portion of the pirate’s fighters. Only then would Kaldor launch its fighters. At that moment, hopefully, the
Battle Hammers
of Ginderbar would arrive at the left flank of the pirate fleet and attack. They would be launching almost two hundred squadrons of fighters while the
Battle Hammers
attacked the flank. Hopefully, this surprise maneuver would be bringing the battle to a quick end. Jesse would have overall command of the fleet until Commander Enosal arrived. At that point, Admiral Togglasem would take control of Kaldor’s fleet while the mercenaries hammered the pirates. Everyone agreed this was their best chance, and prayed his idea would work. Mayor Valinor believed it would, but he was the only one in the room that had ever seen Jesse in action. Now, all that was left was the wait.

______

Nine hours after Jesse had returned to
Endeavor
, Garrinoras’ fleet jumped into the system.
Endeavor
was already cloaked, and sat at the midway point between fleets. The crew of
Endeavor
were all at their stations. Collin had the stick, Josiah had sensors, Kimi was on weapons and Cassie had shields. Enso was ready to help with power and engineering if the need arose, and Agent Sandstorm was in the shuttle, ready to cloak and deploy if Garrinoras employed jamming.
Endeavor
and its shuttle could still get close enough while cloaked to trigger the mines through a jamming field. Wennagal was ready to help with damage control. Suzy had the snow wolves in med-bay to keep them from distracting anyone during the coming battle.

As Garrinoras’ fleet deployed in a manner meant more for intimidation than strategic value, he opened a transmission to all channels.
Endeavor
, the Kaldorian fleet, the High Council and all of Kaldor could all hear what he was about to say.

“Humans,” Garrinoras boomed in a voice so deep it shook the deck of
Endeavor
. “The mighty Garrinoras claims your pitiful planet as the first prize in his birthright to rule the Lawless Sector. Power down your vessels and prepare to be boarded, or you will be destroyed. If you attempt to fight back, I will kill a thousand civilians for every man I lose. To fight me is to doom your planet to destruction. If you turn over the criminal Jesse Marcos and return to me what he stole, I may consider having mercy on you once I am the ruler of this planet.”

The Council was worried,
even though they knew the attack was coming, seeing one hundred ninety-two ships arrayed against them was frightening. The people of Kaldor heard the threats and had no knowledge of the plans to defend the planet. They knew a great battle was coming and they began panicking on the planet's surface. Even Admiral Togglasem after seeing the odds was contemplating capitulation. Just when things seemed like they might begin to spiral out of control, Jesse spoke into the silence on all channels. “Nice speech, Garrinoras. How long did you practice that one?” He mocked. “Yeah, eighty-two ships are going to surrender without a fight because you say so. Let's all just pack up and go home. Did you really expect that to work? The good people of Kaldor will never accept the rule of a despot like you.”

“
Colonel Marcos,” Garrinoras cursed. “I was hoping to have the opportunity to kill you today. It was no doubt you that warned the Kaldorians of our impending arrival. No matter, we are more than a match for their insignificant fleet. I am giving you one last opportunity. Surrender, or your fleet and your planet will be annihilated.”

“What is it with you evil tyrants and your fascination with annihilation, Garrinoras?” He continued to mock. “I’m feeling rather generous today. I just found a huge treasure, so I’m in a good mood.” He said this purposely trying to rile his opponent. “I’m going to give you one chance to surrender.
Turn around, and go back to Zinnebulous, and we’ll pretend this whole annihilation threat never happened. What do you say, buddy?”

“You have just sealed the fate of an entire world, Marcos. Kill them all,” Garrinoras ordered, fury evident in his voice.

Garrinoras’ fleet moved to engage, and the Kaldorians moved into their pre-arranged defensive positions. Jesse hit the activation switch on the smart mines, and they attacked. Without warning, explosions started happening all around Garrinoras’ fleet as shields went down and ships exploded. Nearly sixty-five ships were incinerated by the mines in under a minute. Then the fighters came. Garrinoras launched almost five thousand
Razzers
at the Kaldorian fleet.

Admiral Togglasem commed Jesse, “Do we launch the
Cutters
now, that many fighters will destroy a large part of the fleet.”

“Not yet, wait for my signal,” he replied as
Endeavor
waited for the right moment. “Launch it now, Kimi,” he ordered. Kimiko pressed the button, and the laser net shot out of
Endeavor
. As the net grew to its full size, it tore through almost half of the pirate’s fighters. The rest of the fighters, not understanding what had happened, broke off in an uncoordinated attempt to avoid destruction. “Now, launch your fighters,” he called to Admiral Togglasem, and Kaldor launched its
Cutters
. They were still outnumbered over two to one, but that's when the
Battle Hammers
arrived in all their destructive glory. The
Hammers
launched their
Spykes
and began engaging the pirate capital ships.

Battle Hammers
were impressive ships. Jesse had negotiated the design blueprints into his deal with Commander Enosal.
Battle Hammers
got their name because the ships resembled the top of a hammer. With a square box front flowing into a slightly smaller rectangular body, two powerful engines flowed in a slight curve to the back of the ship in what looked like the claw of a hammer. The ships were overloaded with weapons, high powered particle cannons, impact missiles and shield-busting torpedoes, not to mention the several laser cannons used to defend against fighters and gunships. Each ship carried four squadrons of
Spykes
. The Mercenaries called their fighters
Spykes
because they looked like large spikes used in construction.
Hammers
and
Spykes
, Jesse found it fitting.

“Commander Enosal, welcome to the party,” he greeted.

“Looks like the tricks you had up your sleeve worked.” Commander Enosal replied, truly impressed by the amount of destruction Colonel Marcos had inflicted while incurring little, if no, loss. “Allow me to congratulate you on a well thought out defense.”

“Thank you, S
ir, but we haven’t won the day yet,” he replied.

“Yes, we have,” Enosal countered. “Garrinoras just doesn’t realize it yet.”

Admiral Togglasem had moved the fleet into attack position. The Kaldorian
Cutters
and the Mercenary
Spykes
were handling the
Razzers
at a four to one kill ratio.
Endeavor’s
anti-fighter lasers were cutting a swath straight to the
Retribution.
Endeavor
began hammering the
Retributions
shields with her plasma beam, while the
Pillager
opened fire on
Endeavor
. Several ships filled the gap between
Endeavor
and
Retribution
, so Jesse set his sights on the
Pillager
. He hated that ship nearly as much as the
Retribution,
and decided it was time to say goodbye to Captain Janus for good.
Endeavor
launched two torpedoes at the
Pillager,
disabling the front and rear shields.
Endeavor
then opened up with its plasma beam, ripping the
Pillager
in two and the bridge of the
Endeavor
let out a loud cheer knowing they would never again have to encounter Captain Janus. Heavy weapons fire from the
Retribution
rocked
Endeavor’s
shields. Collin began evasive maneuvers as space lit up around them. Garrinoras must have known he was going to lose this battle by this point, but he wanted to make sure he at least killed Colonel Marcos before he retreated.