Defender of the Empire: Cadet #1 (37 page)

             
“All alive say ‘aye’.” He called out rubbing his bloody fingers on his pant leg.

             
“And if unconscious say nothing aloud. If dead, have your ghost moan.” A dry voice grumbled from somewhere nearby.
Well Race is still with us.
Braeden thought as others groaned and started to sit up. He tallied the entire way to his chair. His bridge crew, at least, were still with him. They were all struggling back to their stations. Evens, mercifully, turned off the klaxon.

             
“Thanks Evens. What’s our status?” Braeden asked.

             
“I don’t know what they hit us with, but shields are down. Hull breaches on decks A, D, and E. Those sections have been auto-sealed. Engines, sub-light and hyper, are offline.” The helmsman said tiredly. He had the beginnings of a nice goose-egg forming on his head.

             
“Life support?”

             
“Miraculously untouched, sir.”  Evens replied.

             
“At least we have some good news. What about weapons?” Braeden directed toward Milo.

             
The lieutenant shook his head. “Sorry, sir. They’re down.”

             
Braeden sat back in his chair and his second shook his head. “Lovely, we’re sitting ducks with no teeth.”

             
“Ducks don’t have teeth, Race.” Braeden said turning to his com officer. “Rael, tell me that we can quack.”

             
Before she could answer a hail came in. “At least we can hear, sir.” She said. She hit an answer button and apparently they could quack too. Admiral L’Seral’s visage took over the view screen. Her clear blue eyes took in the state of the bridge. A steel gray brow rose as that gaze settled on Braeden.

             
“You look like shit.” She said.

             
Braeden snorted. “Today is not one of my better days.” He admitted. “There is a Zar’daken warship here making things interesting. I don’t know what they hit us with but our defenses attack systems are offline.” He reported.

             
The admiral frowned. “We’ll be there soon.”

             
“Don’t fire the SCF.”

             
“What? Why not?”

             
“The cadet’s LFA is still locked to the Telmick’s ship. And the Telmicks have jammed their com.”

             
“And let me guess, they are in the middle of everything.” The admiral said dryly.

             
“Of course.” Braeden said.

             
The admiral sighed. “Of course. We are still coming. You need someone to look after your asses.” And she wasn’t kidding. The
Terrenza
popped into space near him already firing lasers and more char missiles. LFG’s were already pouring out of her shuttle bay. There were not as many as the
Hail Mary
had brought, but every ship counted.

             
“I want repairs done on defenses and weapons. Get the LFA’s out there too.” Braeden ordered. He then called down to the transporter room. “Landon, are you alright down there?” He asked.

             
“Aye captain. A little banged up, but I’ve suffered worse at family reunions.” lieutenant Mark Landon replied.

             
“Can you get a lock on the cadets?”

             
“Don’t know, lets us see, shall we?” The man was quiet for a time and Braeden waited. His gray eyes fixed on the battle taking place in front of him.  There was a kind beauty in the scene. The hydrogen dust swirling in motes and starting to glow thanks to the energy imparted from stray laser blasts. The lasers and missiles flashing. The Zar’daken darts and the LFG’s weaving about in mesmerizing patterns. And near them, the large terrestrial planet burned under its thick atmosphere. The clouds would boil where a volcano erupted.  “Sorry captain,” Landon began. “There is something jamming the transporter.”

             
Braeden closed his eyes for a moment. “Damn. Thanks for trying, Landon.” He shared a look with his second when there was a flash of light out of the view screen. “What the hell was that?” He asked as his eyes narrowed on the Telmick ship. It looked a little worse than it did a few moments ago.

             
“The Zar’daken’s hit the Telmick ship, sir.” Milo reported. “I don’t know if it was a stray shot or if they meant it.”  A second laser bolt struck the mercenary ship. Whatever shields the mercenaries had were apparently not working right because the next anyone knew was the shields flashed as they gave up.

             
“I think the Zar’dakens are cleaning house.” Race muttered next to Braeden.

             
A moment later it appeared that he was right. Another laser blast struck the defenseless ship. There was a pause as the Telmick ship was pinned by the laser. It then exploded. And anything attached to it would have been caught in the blast.

             
Braeden’s eyes went wild. “Tell me you have them.” He said over the com link to Admiral L’Seral.

             
Her voice, when it came over the stunned bridge crew, sounded just as shocked as they were. “No. We were hit and it was just enough to knock out the transporter…”

             
Oh God, please no!
He thought helplessly. He couldn’t breathe. Didn’t want to because it would mean he was still alive and she was dead. She couldn’t be dead… not after everything he had done to protect her…

B
ut she was.

Chapter 28 – Phoenix

              It was a relief to see the
Hail Mary
fire a return volley at the Zar’daken ship after that terrible moment where she seemed so still. She jumped a short distance away just in time before the Zar’dakens could hit her again. LFG’s flew out of many bay doors and the
Hail Mary
resumed firing. Lasers and Char missiles crossed paths with whatever the Zar’dakens were firing in return.

A Char was a
missile with a special payload: Char Jelly. A peculiar jelly-like substance mined from Colony Lenti. It had the peculiar property that when exposed to a vacuum would stick to anything that had a form of some kind and eat at it like acid. I have no idea what kind of accident or stroke of craziness that led to someone finding this out, but they did. And one of those things that the jelly sticks to are shields, since they have a form in space. The Fleet uses the chars to wear down shields. The jelly constantly eats at the shields that it is stuck to. Holes begin to form in the target ship’s defenses. And if enough is used, it fries the shield generator of the target ship. The jelly than falls on to the hall of the vessel and begins to degrade its hall. It really was a nasty piece of work, but sure made things easier for the empire to protect itself.

             
Holes were soon appearing in the Zar’daken ship’s shields. Which made it easier for the LFG’s to get up close and personal with their cutting edges. I shook my head at the light show.

             
“Have we had any luck yet getting out of here?” I asked.

             
Westley shook his head, but it was Jason who replied. “I think the Telmicks have jammed the com when they locked us out of the hatch.”

             
“Basically, we are lucky the ship is responding to us at all.” Westley remarked. Jason shrugged in response.

“Can we somehow turn that signal to our advantage?” I asked.

              “Perhaps, if I could single it out.” Jason answered.

             
“I’ll look too.” Marius said. As the two of them worked Zar’daken darts poured from the warship. An intense dog fight occurred between the LFGs and the darts. The darts had numbers on their side, but the LFGs were having no trouble cutting through many of them. But the darts did have a suicidal tendency as well as a mini blast cannon each that were proving to be effective. The
Hail Mary
was struck again. I felt panic. What had I been thinking to have anyone come after us? The first Legion Fleet ship I had ever seen and been on seemed to be dead in the water. No shields, no engines and no weapons. The LFGs moved into a defensive formation closer to the
Hail Mary.
Their goal seemed to be keeping the impossibly large tide of darts from swamping the weakened vessel.

And it made me wonder… Unable to tolerate being still a moment longer I pulled up the LFA’s database at my consol
e. I looked up the Zar’daken darts. They were small little things and were piloted by the mother ship only. They were too small for a pilot. I smiled as I glanced back out of the view screen. I had the beginnings of a plan, but would we be able to use it in time to save anyone?

A
moment later another Legion Fleet starship entered this oft ignored brown dwarf solar system. I grinned. It was a pilum class starship. Somewhat smaller than the
Hail Mary
, this ship was faster and had the nastiest weapon the empire has ever employed; the SCF. The SCF or Solar Core Flash was a highly focused blast of energy directly from the core of a mainstream star. And this particular ship was the first ever to use an SCF cannon.  The
Terrenza
had joined the party.

Upon her sudden arrival, more LFGs joined the fray. I tilted my head. It really was crazy out there. Stray lasers were lancing through the clouds of hydrogen gas around them causing glowing eddies to form. A
nd as far as I could tell, the Telmick ship hadn’t been hit once. 

“Have our friends included themselves in the fight ever?” I asked.

Westley glanced at me as the other two paused in their work. “You know? I don’t think so.” He replied.

Marius checked something on his consol
e. He shook his head. “They haven’t, which is strange, unless they are hopping that both sides would forget about them if they don’t draw attention to themselves. Though that hasn’t stopped them from having a couple shots graze them a couple times by both sides.”

Suddenly the LFA shuddered. “Were we hit?!” I
asked clutching the arm rests of my chair.

“No, that was the mercenaries next to us.”

“They got hit. I think it severely weakened their shields.” Marius added.

“Who fired on them?” Jason asked. “Was it our side?”

“No, it was the Zar’dakens.”

My eyes widened. “The Z
ar’dakens figure their chances are slim right now, especially now that a SCF is pointed their way. They are cutting their losses and keeping the Legion Fleet from succeeding at the same time.” I observed. I had seen the gangs on Colony Lenti practice similar behavior.

“You mean to say
that they want to destroy the Telmick ship?” Jason asked incredulously.

“Aye. What happens to us if we are still
attached and that happens?”

His eyes got wide.

“We go with them.” Westley said darkly.

“Right.” I said thinking fast.
“Have either of you isolated the signal yet?” I asked Marius and Jason. Both shook their heads. “Right.’ I said again.

“She keeps saying that.” Westley said softly to no one in
particular watching me.

I ignored him and turn
ed to Jason. “Can you hail the Telmicks?”

“Never had a problem with them. Why do you want to talk to them?”

“I have an idea.” I replied.

“Right.” Jason mimicked me before tapping on his consol
e.

The leader of the mercenaries appeared once again on the view screen.
  He arched a brow at us, which caused a few of the tattoos on his face to form strange shapes. “Have you decided to return the boy to us?” He asked.

“That seems to not be a wise idea at the moment since your
employers are firing at you.” I observed.

He gave me a disgruntled look. “That was a stray shot, child.”

It was my turn to raise a brow at him. “Really? After all this time? I think they are cleaning house. They seem to favor no one witnessing their activities.” I said. I had no idea if that was actually true or not, but it made an eerie kind of sense given how no one had once said anything at all about the Zar’dakens being on the prowl once again. I guess it could have been kept quiet, but, somehow, I didn’t think so.

Before the leader could dismiss me his ship, and thus mine, sho
ok violently. Because he was a Telmick he only swayed. I had the feeling that if I hadn’t been strapped in I would have been out the view screen.

“Their shields are gone.” Westley informed me.

I shrugged at the Telmick. “I don’t think that was a stray shot, do you? It also doesn’t seem like either of us have much time, so I propose a trade of sorts. You release us and give us that jamming signal you are using on us. We will then provide you with a decoy to get out of here with your lives. We will even keep your clan name to ourselves so you need not worry about repercussions from us.”