Battle Earth: 12 (8 page)

"Welcome aboard the Baron, Colonel. It is an honour to have you and your unit aboard. I am Captain Barclay at your service."

He spoke with a deep throaty voice, but also a well educated one. It was clear he had gotten the finest schooling in Britain and sounded like an older, gruffer version of Jones. He turned his attention to Jafar who made his way to Taylor's side. Taylor was expecting trouble and opened his mouth to speak, but Barclay got out ahead of him.

"So this is your alien ally we have heard so much about? Sergeant?"

The Captain strolled over and offered his hand in a surprising gesture. Jafar looked to Taylor as if unsure how to react. Taylor simply nodded for him to continue. He took Barclay's hand and shook with a firm shake. "Jafar," he added.

"I've heard a lot about you, Sergeant. Can't say I ever imagined I would call one of you an ally, but you've more than proven yourself to us all. It is an honour to have you aboard."

Jafar was as shocked, as was Taylor.

"I presume you will be eager to set off?" Barclay asked.

"You have the reports from the attack on the French cruiser the Tourville?"

Barclay nodded.

"A good friend of mine was aboard that vessel, and he died protecting her. Major Moye. But from what he told us before he died, that attack was meant for me. He said there was an elite task force sent after me. They breached the vessel and killed a number of personnel before bugging out."

"They retreated?" asked Barclay in amazement.

"You're just as surprised as I was to hear the news. Have you received the action reports and location information?"

"We have."

"Then take us to the location of the battle. It's time the hunters became the hunted."

"Very well, Colonel. Will you accompany me to the bridge?"

Taylor followed on as the Captain led the way.

"What is your plan for hunting this enemy task force?"

"They want to find and kill me, so I'm going to give them a chance."

"You're going to use yourself as bait?"

"Yes, why not? They'll surely find me eventually. That's a great heap of shit I don't need hanging over me."

"Eloquently put, Colonel, but I get the idea. How do you intend on announcing your presence?"

"I've got a few ideas."

"Coordinates are plotted. We're ready to jump on your orders, Colonel."

"In your own time, Captain."

Taylor watched the bridge crew as they went about their procedures, turning his attention to the four metre-wide display of the space for a last few moments before they left. There were dozens of Navy vessels stationed in orbit of Ony, and he could see that production of a defence grid barge was well underway. The jump gateway then opened before them and obscured their view. The two escort destroyers passed through the gateway first, and they soon followed suit.

"I've never got used to it. This kind of travel," stated Taylor.

"It certainly makes life easy," replied Barclay.

"Yes, and immensely unpredictable. How can you plan for defence when the enemy can be on you with no warning at all?"

"Then be thankful that they have such limited access to the technology."

Taylor agreed. "Yes, for if they ever manage to reverse engineer it, we're in more trouble than you can imagine."

The three ships passed safely through the gateway the other side, and it closed up behind them. Within seconds, they were struck by light debris they could see floating about space before them.

"Looks like they had a hell of a fight."

They could see the debris of one of the smaller support vessels and a number of fighters, as well as debris that Taylor could only imagine came from the Tourville.

"They had a rough time of it," said Barclay.

"Yeah, and I don't see any sign of damage to enemy craft."

"They must have hit them hard and fast."

Taylor tried to imagine what could have done it, and Barclay was quick to pose the question.

"What did this? A large vessel would have torn them apart, but how could lesser craft get the drop on them? I'd expect a few enemy losses at least. The Tourville is a powerful vessel with a fine crew."

Taylor nodded in agreement.

"Send out teams to investigate the wrecks. Let's try and get an idea of what went on here."

"It's all in the file," replied the Captain.

"No, the crew of the Tourville who survived have no idea how it went down. When they were struck, it happened hard and fast. The bridge crew were taken out and all recording equipment destroyed. All we know at this stage is that the Tourville was boarded with little resistance. Let's avoid that happening a second time around."

Barclay started sending out his orders to have the crews prepared.

"So what now?” he then asked Taylor.

"We sit and wait. Learn what we can."

"You expect they'll come back this way?"

"I would. Investigative teams would be easy pickings, and they must know there's a chance I would have come along to see it for myself."

"So what is stopping us from suffering the same fate?"

"The fact we know they're coming. I need to know everything we can about this attack. Next time they come for us, I want to know exactly how they're gonna do it. Let's shoot these bastards down before they have another chance at this kind of devastation. Almost two hundred crew lost their lives aboard the Tourville, and countless more from her support vessels."

"Sounds like we could have done with a little more support."

"Damn right, Captain. I need somewhere to go over the last recordings of these vessels, if you can salvage them."

"I'll have them with you within the hour. You may use my quarters while you are aboard."

"Thank you, please have Captain Morris and Sergeant Jafar sent up to me."

The Captain acknowledged and showed him to his quarters before leaving him in peace. The Captain's quarters were spartan to say the least. The only decoration in the room was a single picture of his family secured to the wall beside his desk. The room looked like it saw little use, and Taylor liked that about the Captain. He could already see he was a man loved by his crew, and that was a valuable asset.

Taylor, Morris, and Jafar had been going over the few reports they had received from the Tourville when Barclay entered.

"We've recovered the last recorded data from the Lampo. A small destroyer, it was the hulk we saw when we first arrived. We also managed to salvage a little data from one of the fighters. It's not much, but it's all we can get."

"Thank you, Captain. Please join us so we have a fresh pair of eyes on all of this."

Taylor brought up the new information and projected it onto the table. He took them to the point in time thirty minutes before the attack. They had the ship’s technical logs but no video information at all. He went through the info minute by minute until he reached the point three minutes before the attack began.

"What is that?"

"Power fluctuation. Primary power loss for a brief period and secondary power kicked in to take up the slack," said Barclay.

"What would cause it?"

"All kinds of things. Work being done by engineers, a failing electrical component."

Taylor brought up the log from the fighter and matched up the time codes until he stopped and pointed at a similar power fluctuation.

"What are the chances of that? Happened at the exact same moment, to the second. What are the chances, Captain?"

Barclay looked confused as he studied the two.

"The odds of it happening are incredibly slim, unless the cause was the same for both."

"What would be the effect?"

"Not a lot, a brief power fluctuation. Lighting and life support can be interrupted for a second or two."

Taylor shook his head as he tried to figure it out.

"Weapons systems?"

"Nothing that would be noticeable."

Taylor looked back over the data from the Lampo.

"What's this?" he asked Barclay.

"Proximity scanner sensors. Looks like they failed during the power flocculation."

"Moye seemed to think the Mechs just came out of nowhere. One minute they were fine, and next they had Mechs swarming through their vessel. No one could work out how they made it in without being spotted."

"The cloaking technology we used to see with Karadag, they could have used it to get nearby with smaller craft. Maybe get in undetected?"

Taylor looked to Barclay for answers. His face suddenly turned white as it all fitted together in his head.

"If the proximity scanners were damaged or tampered with, then boarding craft that were invisible by sight or scan would be able to breach the hull without warning. You'd never even know where they'd latched on unless you could get visual confirmation. They could hit anytime."

Taylor quickly lifted his comms unit.

"This is Colonel Taylor. Calling all hands to arms. Prepare to be boarded!"

Barclay looked at him in horror.

"You don't think?"

"Yes I do. This was the perfect bait to get us right where they wanted us. They were never hitting us with force, but with stealth. Spool up the gateway, and get us the hell out of here!"

Barclay tapped the comms channel on the desk beside him, but just as he opened his mouth to speak, he was silenced as the lights flickered, and they felt the power surge before coming back online.

"It's begun," said Silva.

"Get us back to Ony; best thing we can do right now is get out of here. At least back there we can get some help."

"This is the Captain. Plot a course to Onekaka now!"

They rushed out of the Captain's quarters to find the crew looked stunned by what they were hearing. Finally, his flight officer turned and stuttered as she responded.

"Gateway won't activate, Sir."

Oh, shit! What have I got us into?
Taylor thought.

"Get me engineering!" Barclay bellowed.

Taylor raised his comms channel.

"Prepare to repel borders. We've got hull breaches incoming. Location unknown. 1st Platoon to the bridge and secure it, 2nd Platoon to engineering and hold there, 3rd Platoon, you're on patrol."

"This can't be happening," Barclay whispered to himself.

"I guess you wanted to bait the enemy. Well, you've done it now, Colonel," said Silva.

A few seconds later, a call came through to the bridge that opened with small arms fire.

"We've got enemy contact at Level Four on the starboard side. We can't hold them...we..."

Several more shots rang out, and the transmission ended. Taylor turned to see a few members of 1st Platoon had arrived.

"Hold this position. Do not let them get through you, got it?"

He turned back to Barclay.

"You want to get us out of this? Get the engines going. The only way the Tourville made it home was because she jumped out. Left here much longer and she'd have been torn apart. Get us up and running!"

He turned to leave, but Barclay called out.

"Colonel? Where are you going?"

"To try and thin them out. You've got your job to do, and I've got mine. Get us moving, Captain!"

He rushed to the door.

"1st Platoon, you hold here unless I tell you otherwise. Jafar, Silva, on me."

He rushed onwards with just the two of them at his side.

"Running a little thin, don't you think?"

"It'll have to do, Silva," replied Taylor.

They all had their rifles on them, but no one had shields.