Merkiaari Wars: 02 - What Price Honour (43 page)

Meyers nodded. “Captain Colgan had planned to rescue the contact team and jump out system, hoping to bring the Fleet back to help. That was the plan, but fate dictated otherwise—observe.”

Joshua activated the holotank and everyone sat still to watch. The audio was frighteningly real and made Meyers jump as warning sirens blared from the speakers. Crew yapped and barked orders, sounding like a pack of hunting dogs on a scent, but over it all came a translation in quietly spoken English.

“I hear,” Tei’Varyk said. “
Open fire!
”

Meyers smiled grimly at the hisses of shock coming from her captains as
Naktlon
erupted in fury. Torpedo launchers went to rapid continuous fire attempting to saturate the defences of Tei’Varyk’s chosen target. As the range closed, his beamers and particle cannons spoke.

The Merki heavy cruiser blew apart, but even as it did, missiles infinitely more powerful than any Shan torpedo hammered
Naktlon
closer to destruction. Closer and closer, but finally the fire ended and he was still there. Though battered and bleeding atmosphere, he continued to pour fire into the remaining enemy ships.

“Magazines destroyed or depleted!”

“I hear. Continue with all remaining weapons. Kill them all!” Tei’Varyk snarled as his ship slowly died around him.

The holo image became shaky and hard to make out as
Naktlon
bucked and reared at the centre of nuclear fury. Fires had broken out in some of the bridge consols, but no one took any notice except to close helmet visors to keep the smoke out. Meyers kept one eye on the scrolling damage report on her compad. She was trying to keep it coordinated with the holo tank.
Naktlon
was blinded to starboard, and nearly so on her portside, but her great engines continued to propel her into the heart of the storm to kill her enemies even as she was hammered into uselessness.

“Take out those honourless light fangs!” Tei’Varyk snarled as they pecked away at
Naktlon’s
armoured hide.

Naktlon’s
particle cannons swivelled and targeted first one, then a second light unit. Both blew apart as energy beams designed to strip the hide from a Merki dreadnaught ripped through them.

Meyers made a note to find out more about Shan particle cannons. They seemed similar to an Alliance PPG, but the output was much higher. She wanted some of them for the Alliance. BuShips was working hard to increase the numbers of heavy cruisers, notably the new
Washington
class. She was sure BuWeps would jump at the chance of adding such powerful particle cannons to their arsenal.

 “Target the next—” Tei’Varyk began, but that was as far as he got.

Naktlon,
broken and barely making way with a single drive, was hit amidships. The beam sliced through deck after deck killing Tei’Varyk’s crew and severing control runs. His particle cannons locked and fell silent as power cables were turned to slag. His remaining torpedo launchers, had they ammunition would have been useless as power runs to the launch rails were cut. By far the worst damage was to
Naktlon’s
fusion room. The beam reached the core of its reactor and
Naktlon
erupted with super hot plasma eating everything in sight. Blast doors slammed and alarms screamed, but it was all for nothing.

Naktlon
broke in two.

Groans of anguish filled the room as the holotank froze on the image of Tei’Varyk being thrown out of his command station. Meyers had the benefit of knowing what would happen next, but this viewing was the first time for her Captains.

“At this point things become disjointed,” Meyers said into the silence. “
Naktlon
was destroyed as you see, but the two Merki heavy cruisers have taken critical damage. Captain Colgan decides to change course and intercept them. He destroys them both while sustaining heavy damage to
Canada
. He loses thirty-eight crewmen plus the dead from the earlier action. All told, he has lost over half of his crew. Continue playback please, Joshua.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Tei’Varyk flew through the air and would have crashed to the deck had not the internal gravity field failed. It failed because
Naktlon’s
aft section including fusion reactors and power generation had just been destroyed.
Naktlon’s
forward section, bleeding atmosphere and crumpled almost beyond recognition, was ejected from nuclear fire like a cork from a bottle.

Tei’Varyk hit his helmsman in the back and was grappled to safety, but others were less lucky. A scream of anguish was cut short as another crewmember, a female this time, smashed into the viewscreen with crushing force.

“Tarjei!” Tei’Varyk yelled in fear and pushed off to reach the limp figure floating a few metres away. Blood floated on the air and the figure seemed lifeless.

“Tarjei is Tei’Varyk’s mate,” Meyers said as the holotank blanked. “The next log is approximately an hour or so later.
Canada
has engaged and defeated the remaining heavy cruisers and is closing on the wreck of
Naktlon
looking for survivors.”

 “Contact!” A voice announced, but there was no answer from Tei’Varyk. He was strapped into his station holding his dying mate in his arms. “Contact Tei!”

“What contact?”

“I have a contact bearing two-zero-five degrees. I cannot be certain Tei, but I think Tei’Colgan has come for us.”

Tei’Varyk sat in silence, staring at his one operational monitor. On the screen he watched Merki troopers running through city streets and killing everyone they found. Fires were leaping up and people were falling in heaps or fighting back with nothing but their claws.

“Have the elders responded?”

“No Tei, they cannot hear us.”

Tei’Varyk held Tarjei and rocked her gently.

Kajika reached across his consol to operate an empty station’s controls. A moment later, a fuzzy and rolling picture appeared on the damaged viewscreen. The blood running down the screen did not obscure the image too badly. A worried Human face peered at Tei’Varyk from a smoky bridge.

“Tei!” Colgan said in relief. “Hold on, I’m coming to get you out!”

Tei’Varyk blinked and seemed to come back to himself at hearing a Human voice. “Tei’Colgan. You should have left when you had the chance,” he said in a dead voice.

“It’s okay, we killed the last of the ships for you.”

“And what of the ones landing troops on Harmony?”

“What?!” Colgan looked aside at his own screens.

“Do not
Canada’s
sensors reach so far?
Naktlon’s
are all but destroyed, but we are still receiving transmissions of the landings.”

The holotank blanked and the lights came up. “That completes the relevant portions of the logs given us by Captain Colgan and Tei’Varyk,” Joshua said.

“Thank you, Joshua,” Meyers said. “We do have some more data, but none fit for direct viewing. Your compads have been uploaded with what we know about the target system, but I will go over it with you now.

“Firstly, the Merki squadron was completely destroyed, but those ships merely constituted half the screening units for the Merkiaari landings, which I’m afraid went ahead unopposed. We will be facing troop transports and light screening units. All of the heavies and the few dreadnoughts they sent along were destroyed by Shan fortresses and ships, but I don’t trust the thought that this mission will be easy.”

“They may have been reinforced, Admiral,” Commander Svenson of
Neptune
warned. “May I make a proposal?”

“Go ahead, Commander,” Meyers said leaning back in her chair and smiling encouragement. She had already planned the mission, but encouraging juniors to participate in these sessions was part of the job title—besides, she wasn’t infallible. Valentin might have a good idea.

“Thank you, Admiral.
Vigilant
and my own
Neptune
are our fastest units. I propose the task force jumps short and we two go in to recon the system.”

Meyers smiled. It was a simple but sensible precaution. She had already planned to do it that way, but the task force would not jump short. Instead, she had planned to hang back at the system periphery while her destroyers reconnoitred the system. That way she could receive scan data directly rather than waiting for her scouts to jump back to her.

“
Vigilant
and
Neptune
will advance into the system ahead of the task force,” Meyers agreed. “
Sutherland
will use her wings in a wide deployment on the off chance that the Merkiaari are lurking so far out. As soon as I a have definite scan data, we will move in and take out their screening elements. With luck we will catch them napping, but lucky or not we will take them out and give our ground forces a chance at the Merki on the surface.”

“About that, Admiral,” Thomas said. “Am I right in assuming we will be met by more ships on route?”

“That’s correct. Our rendezvous is an uninhabited system known simply by its catalogue number: NGC 1513-4964.”

“Do we know who we are picking up, ma’am?”

“Not specifically,” Meyers admitted and she was uncomfortable with that lack. “Admiral Rawlins simply stated that our ground force would be waiting. I’m sure it will be sufficient. Once we have the system secured, Fifth Fleet will jump in to hold it against further attacks while helping the Shan rebuild their defences.”

“That’s a long term project, Admiral. Very long term.”

“Agreed, but the Merkiaari have been a long term problem for us and the Shan both. They won’t just disappear because we want them to.”

“Shame,” Thomas said.

“That it is,” Meyers agreed. “Now then; regarding ship readiness. On my way to
Victorious
, I noticed some maintenance ongoing in
Vigilant’s
number two missile tube…

 
* * *

Uriel, Snakeholme system

Beep!

Pamela dropped her feet from her consol and put aside the romance novel she had been reading. She was just getting to the good part too. Oh well, no rest for the wicked.

She punched up the live feed from her sensors. “I have a contact, sir.”

“Location?” Giles said, looking up from his own book. He had always been partial to a good fantasy adventure.

“Red sector…” she said frowning and refined her data. “Red six. It’s a drone. Should I make contact?”

“Go ahead, Pam. Shunt the message straight to my consol; it’s probably routine.”

Pamela nodded and did that. “I’ve notified SysSec to pick up the drone, sir.”

“Good. I—”

Pam turned and found Giles punching keys rapidly. He looked shaken, he looked afraid.

General Burgton’s office, Petruso Base, Snakeholme

General George Burgton shuffled the compads that were beginning to pile up before him on the table into order, before finishing his coffee. He could have accessed data far more comprehensive than this, via his processor and an uplink to the regiment’s database, but he wasn’t interested in the recruit’s assimilation of their biomech and cybernetics at the moment. Neither was he interested in their scores on the range, or any of the other hundred and one bits of statistical information he could access. He wanted a more personal take on things, and that could only be supplied by people, not computers. Hence this meeting, and the pile of compads containing notes and personal observations of the recruits, written by their instructors.

Burgton glanced at Stone where he sat at his ease between Hymas and Flowers. The three musketeers… he smiled as he remembered how they came by that appellation. They had been inseparable in the early days of the regiment’s inception, and had saved each other’s lives many times since. Three closer friends would be very hard to find.

He leaned forward and raised the jug. “More coffee, Ken? Anyone?”

Stone shook his head. “I’m sloshing already. Thank you, sir.”

Flowers and Hymas also shook their heads, they hadn’t finished theirs. Burgton poured himself a fresh cup, crossed his legs, and sat back to savour it.

“You know, I think this might actually be good for them,” Colonel Flowers said, going through the latest data on one of the recruits. “Look here.”

Burgton took the offered compad and raised an eyebrow. “Hmmm. I see what you mean. Fuentez’ scores have risen almost two points across the board. Is it the competition do you think?”