Solbidyum Wars Saga 5: Desolation (6 page)

Kala walked over to me and put her arms around me and laid her head on my shoulder.  “Tib, I know you are doing your very best, that is all anyone can ask.  You’ve already done more for the Federation in the fight against the Brotherhood than anyone else; I don’t think there is anyone in the Federation who thinks otherwise.”

“That may, or may not be true.  However, no matter how much I do, I worry that it may not be enough.  It's obvious that the Brotherhood has been operating a long time, and has been organizing for years.  How they have been able to organize and get to the size they are today without detection amazes me, but be that as it may be, now we have to work very hard to get organized and trained so we can fight off the Brotherhood.  It would appear they are a much larger organization than was thought, and they have been preparing for a long time to take over the Federation, and now they believe they are ready.  The question is, are we?”

It was near noon on the sixth day after leaving Megelleon, when we received a direct call from the
NEW ORLEANS
; by now we were close enough that it was no longer necessary for us to use the DSC system, though there was a delay of several seconds between questions and responses.

“Admiral, this is Commodore Stonbersa,” the Commodore said as his image appeared on the vid screen.  We’re detecting the identification signals from the
ALI
and your escort ships on our long range scanners.  I would advise that you turn them off, as the
HAPRIN
has your ID codes and will be able to locate and fire on you if you don’t.”

“Thank you Commodore, we’ll take appropriate measures.  What is the situation there?”

After a brief pause while the message moved through the vast distances at light speeds the Commodores response came back, “The the
HAPRIN
arrived about an hour ago, and is taking up positions for an assault on the planet.  Admiral Regeny was able to get word through to the bases on Plosaxen and all flight worthy ships have left the planet surface and are cloaked so they won’t be damaged by fire from the
HAPRIN
.  They still are in the general area but not so close as to be hit by random fire.  If we need them for an attack they can assist in minutes.”

“Unless we can find a weakness in the RMFF shields there isn’t much we can do.  We’ll have to try A’Lappe’s suggestion of continuous fire from the
NEW ORLEANS
against the
HAPRIN
in hopes it overloads their fusion reactor, and weakens their shields, but other than that we don’t have much to go against them at this time.  Is there any evidence that the Brotherhood have figured out the cloaking system on the
HAPRIN
?”  I wanted to know.

Once again there was a lag before the Commodore’s answer came back.  “Negative on the cloaking, Admiral.  Either they haven’t been able to get a crew member to show them how to use it or they prefer to be visible, thinking it might provide some psychological effect if they can be seen.”

“In that case, Commodore, I suggest you launch as many patrol ships and fighters as you have, and open fire on the
HAPRIN
as soon as you are in range.  Keep firing and see if it weakens their shields enough to do some damage.”

“Will do, Admiral, do you want me to call in any of the ships from the bases on Plosaxen to assist in the attack?”

“Not unless you have a means of identifying the locations of those ships,” I said.  If they have beacons that you can identify their whereabouts while cloaked, okay, otherwise you might end up hitting one in the assault.

“One more thing, Commodore, it looks like the Tottalax are planning on joining the
HAPRIN
, no doubts with hopes of knocking out all the defensive ships so they can hammer Plosaxen.  You need to make sure you have Nibarians on the bridge and weapons so if the Tottalax do attack with their weapon, you will be able to continue firing on the
HAPRIN,
and to also maintain your own defenses and navigation.”

“With the Nibarians we picked up before departing the shipyard, I think we will be able to cover all the stations on the ship, should the Tottalax hit us with their sleep weapon again.  Marranalis and Kerabac have been training them to handle the weapons systems, bridge, and engineering sections should we get hit by them.  I think we’re safe on that measure.”

“Thanks, Commodore.  By the way, I’m authorized to re-instate you into the Federation military with the rank of a fleet admiral to head up one of the three fleets.  You’d be answering only to me and Rear Admiral Regeny if you take the offer.  The Federation needs your expertise as a fleet admiral, more than I do as a personal fleet commodore.  What do you say?”

There was a long moment of silence before the Commodore’s voice returned; when it did it was strained and it was obvious that Stonbersa was overcome with emotion.

“Tibby, I’m overwhelmed.  I didn’t think I could ever do better than being Commodore of your personal fleet and I have been deeply honored serving as such, but to be a fleet admiral with the Federation!  There haven’t been fleet admirals in nearly 500 years.  Yes!  Yes, I’ll accept.”

“Good,” I answered, “I’ll provide you with more details and orders once I can get back aboard the
NEW ORLEANS
and we can sit down face to face.  In the mean time you have your orders.  Carry on.”

It was a few hours later when Captain Dolaner contacted me.  “Admiral, we are approaching Plosaxen.  It looks like a battle is taking place with the
HAPRIN
firing at the planet and their shots being blocked by what we assume is the
NEW ORLEANS,
as it can’t be seen, but I can’t imagine what else could be blocking and returning fire at the
HAPRIN
.  The
HAPRIN
also appears to be taking fire from a lot of smaller cloaked ships as well, but there is no evidence of any damage being done.”

“Is there any sign of the Tottalax ship?”

“Yes sir, it’s just a little ahead of us heading toward the
HAPRIN
.”

“Damn it,” I muttered.  “I had hoped to get there before them.  I imagine as soon as they are in range they will try to knock out the crews on our attacking ships.  I was hoping that we would have received some of the ear buds from the Brotherhood ships we captured at Goo’Waddle before we encountered the Tottalax again.  If we had those, we’d be immune to their sleep weapon.  At least, we have Nibarians aboard the
NEW ORLEANS
.

“Is there any sign of the
HAPRIN
’s shields weakening?”

“Not at this time sir.”  Dolaner answered.

“At the moment other than for the crew on the
NEW ORLEANS,
no one knows we are arriving.  I think we should use our cloaked advantage to take a closer look at the Tottalax ship close up.  The Tottalax don’t need any shielding because our weapons have no effect against their ships.  Perhaps if we get a detailed look, we may see something that will give us a clue about their weapons or some weakness we can use against them.  Captain Dolaner, I want you and the escort ships to join in the assault against the
HAPRIN
.  Kala and I will fly under and around the Tottalax ship while remaining cloaked and record what we can of the ships' exterior.  If we’re lucky we might find something that will give us some clue to a weakness.”

“I must protest, Admiral,” Captain Dolaner replied.  “Our job is to provide protection for you until you are safely aboard the
NEW ORLEANS
.”

“Yes, but how can I get aboard the
NEW ORLEANS
as long as the
HAPRIN
is engaging them in battle?  In order to accomplish your task, you need to add your fire power to that of the
NEW ORLEANS
and the other ships attacking the
HAPRIN.
Hopefully it will overload their fusion reactor enough to weaken their shields enough so some of the shots from the
NEW ORLEANS
can get through and do some damage.  Otherwise, I will never be able to get aboard.”

“I hardly believe that to be true, Admiral, are you making it an order that we attack the
HAPRIN
?”  Dolaner asked nervously.

I knew Dolaner was right, but at the same time I wanted to get the
HAPRIN,
and I wanted to discover as much about the Tottalax ship as possible.  I could just have easily ordered one of the security ships with us to survey the Tottalax ship and I could have assisted the other ships by using the
ALI
in the attack against the
HAPRIN
.  Fortunately Dolaner hadn’t thought of that, so I said,  “Yes, Captain, that’s an order; you and the other escort ships join in the attack against the
HAPRIN
while I survey the Tottalax ship.  Once we’ve made a close up visual record of the Tottalax ship, I will join up with you and the other escort ships in attacking the
HAPRIN
.”

“Yes sir,” Dolaner responded, “Try not to take too long, Admiral.”

Kala and I watched the three blips on the vid screen that represented the locations of the cloaked escort ships as they slowly arched away from the
ALI
and headed toward the
HAPRIN.

“Tib, do you think this is a wise move now instead of staying with the escort ships?”  Kala asked.

“I don’t see that it makes any difference.  We can’t be seen by the Brotherhood on the
HAPRIN
or by the Tottalax.  They have no idea we’re here, and I don’t think the
HAPRIN
will realize that the shots from the escort ships will be from my escort, either.  They will simply assume they are cloaked ships from Plosaxen joining the fight.  We’ve got a few minutes before the Tottalax fire up their sleep weapon, and I want us to get some close-up vid recordings of their ship before they do.”

Kala strapped into the seat beside me as I veered off from our previous heading toward the
NEW ORLEANS
in the direction of the Tottalax ship.  I knew the ship was large, but as we drew nearer I found myself being amazed at its size and design.  It wasn’t as large as the
HAPRIN
, but it was closer in size to the
NEW ORLEANS
.  The ship itself was a khaki green color with a very smooth appearing surface.  The overall shape of the ship was sort of like two oval shaped bowls turned so the widest tops of the bowls were turned facing each other with a gap of about 500 meters between the two halves.  Set back inside the bowl-like edges was a wall that ran around the periphery of the bowls.  No windows or view ports could be seen anywhere, nor were any hatches or doors visible.  “How do they get in and out of that thing?” I muttered.

“I was just wondering the same thing,” Kala responded as her eyes panned the screen.  We were still drawing closer to the ship and now were only about 1000 meters from hitting it if we didn’t avert our course.

“There, Tib!  What are those things?”  Kala asked as she pointed toward the screen.

As I looked, I noted a line of little bumps that appeared around the edges of the bowl-like rims. In the center of each bump, I could see what looked like a short pipe extending from the hull.

“Do you think they are some sort of guns?”  Kala asked.

“As far as I know the Tottalax have never fired any sort of guns or weapons in battle with the Federation.  My guess is that they have something to do with their sleep weapon.”  I answered.  While I was saying this I noted that the rods appeared to be slowly changing color and seemed to be lighting up in a white glow.”

“Tib, are you seeing….”

My head was splitting with pain.  Somewhere a klaxon was blaring, and a voice was repeating… “Warning, impact in two minutes, course correction needed.  Warning, impact in one minute and 45-seconds  course correction needed.  Warning, impact in one minute and 30-seconds course correction needed.”  I opened my eyes and saw the surface of a planet rushing toward us at incredible speed.  .  “Warning, impact in one minute and 15-seconds course correction needed.”  The voice blared out.  I needed to do something, but what.  The pain inside my head made thinking hard.

“Warning, impact in one minute collision unavoidable, prepare for impact.”

From somewhere deep inside of me, my instinct kicked in as adrenaline began flooding my system.  I found my hands flying over the console trying to make course corrections.

“Warning, impact in 45 seconds collision unavoidable, prepare for impact.”

Instinct told me there was only one chance for surviving the crash, it would take a lot of luck but at the last second if I could pull the nose up and with the correct angle of impact, we might skid across the surface of the planet in a controlled crash that we might walk away from.

“Warning, impact in 30 seconds collision unavoidable, prepare for impact.  Crash impact in 25 seconds, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5," I initiated the controls to raise the nose of the ship and felt a sharp jerk forward and pressure against my face and chest as the repulsive gravity force of the personal inertia impact dampers hit me from the front and then blackness again.