E. D. F resurgent (e.d.f chronicles)

  E. D. F resurgent

  ( E.D.F chronicles )

  Ian. J. Smethurst

  Ian. J. Smethurst

  E. D. F resurgent

  1. Michael’s loss

  Michael Alexander was sat at the bar of the ‘black hole’, a bar-cum-meeting place aboard Delta base. It was a reasonably large open plan area, and one of the more popular haunts on the station. Surprisingly, it escaped major damage from the utter devastation wrought on the massive installation by repeated Krenaran attacks just over eight months ago. Even now repairs were still ongoing in some of the more badly damaged sections of the station. It was finally adjudged by E.D. F command that it was sufficiently operational again to resume its role as fleet command installation for the navy barely three weeks ago.

  Although right now the black hole was quiet, only a handful of other men talked and drank. In the background soft jazz music was playing, though Michael; not being particularly schooled in the jazz players, had no idea who played it. He had come here for one purpose, and one purpose alone; to forget.

  Having just arrived back from an escort mission with a small flotilla of converted Lincoln class supply ships carrying a force of E.D. F troops from the 8 ^th ‘black jacks’ infantry company to the fighting around the Aurelias colony. It had been a fairly routine mission, with only a little resistance around Aurelias itself.

  He was nursing a scotch; rolling the small whisky tumbler around with his fingers and contemplating the past. Of happier times, before he had become haunted by the loss of his wife Jana, and his son Theo.

  Most nights when he slept, he would dream that he was still with them; tonight would be no different. Some nights would be worse; asleep, he would long for them to come back, seeing their faces in his dreams. Then he would awake, and know they couldn’t for they were now dead; it didn’t make it any easier, the sense of loss was devastating.

  He had celebrated his 35 ^th birthday last week; alone, nursing a scotch just as he did tonight.

  “ Would ya’ mind if I pulled up a chair next to ya’ cap’n?” said a familiar Irish sounding voice. It was Lieutenant Commander Quinn Kinraid.

  Michael silently gestured for the tall, ginger haired man to have a seat.

  Quinn had been hand picked to be second officer on board the Liberty, after Televis had been placed in command of the Solarian battle cruiser Faeriath. He was a tall man at 6 feet 5 inches, and had a long mane of flowing auburn curls which ran just past his shoulders, held together in a tight ponytail, he also sported a medium length yet neatly trimmed goatee. Personally chosen by Michael; they had been long time friends, but also Kinraid was a hell of an officer and could more than handle the ship when Michael wasn’t around.

  “ Ya’ lookin’ kind a down to me sir, if ya’ beg ma’ pardon.”

  “ I miss them Quinn….I miss them a lot.”

  “’ Tis the tragedy of war so it is; not all wounds can be healed, sir.”

  “ Ten months on and I still miss them. I remember them like they were still here.”

  Michael and Quinn had already talked about the deaths of Jana and Theo, although Quinn had barely been serving on the Liberty a little over a month. The commander had explained that at an early age, he had lost his mother in a chemical leak at a local research laboratory in Aberdeen, and had spent the rest of his life before the E.D. F, with his father in Dublin.

  Michael drained what remained of the whisky, and stared blankly at the empty glass, it reminded him of his empty life.

  The viewer blazed into action, directly across from where the two were sitting, the brightness of the screen cast an almost eerie glow across the bar, as well as the two men’s faces.

  “ This is the outer colony news service, I am Annika Raumov; the headlines today. The war continues to go well for the E.D. F — Solarian alliance, and notable victories at the Perseus and Malthus colonies have been recorded. We take you now to General Macken of the 14 ^th E.D. F battalion ‘head hunters’ to describe the engagements.”

  The picture changed to a young looking man, barely in his thirties, his camouflaged features stained with the soot and grime of battle.

  “ Generals are getting younger everyday,” Michael pointed out, before turning his attention back to the viewer.

  “ Thank you. The Malthus victory was a textbook rapid deployment. Firstly E.D. F and Solarian naval forces drove the Krenaran ships back, and quickly launched God-hammer bomber squadrons to knock out any Krenaran air defences on the surface. Once this was complete Stockholm class landers deployed almost seven hundred troops and one hundred armoured vehicles to the surface, to commence the ground war in conjunction with God-hammer bomber raids; the colony was re-captured within three days.”

  “ So they finally re-took Malthus,” Michael raised an eyebrow, “funny how they don’t tell you the casualties.”

  “ Or what ships we mighta’ lost buying their way in.”

  “ Well Lieutenant I am going to retire, I have an important briefing with Admiral Mc’Kenzie in the morning,” Michael said suppressing a sigh.

  “ Okay, I’ll see ya’ tomorrow cap’n.”

  With that, Kinraid watched the remainder of the outer colony news, while Michael returned to his quarters.

  His new officer’s quarters were located on deck 14, forward section of Delta base. They were considerably smaller than his previous family quarters; the deck his old quarters were located was still not fully repaired yet. However his new place was nicely laid out with a large comfortable bed, an opulent lounge and separate eating area.

  Michael undressed, slid into bed, and settled down to his usual restless night’s sleep.

  The next morning arrived; he awoke, got dressed, had a small but appetizing breakfast, and headed to one of the myriad briefing rooms on the upper sections of the station to attend the briefing with Admiral Mc’Kenzie.

  “ Come in captain,” The deep voiced admiral spoke.

  Michael filed into the dimly lit briefing room; it was deceptively large an large oval table, lit and surrounded by chairs dominated the centre of the room, there was also a large viewer fixed to the far wall.

  Michael saluted the man, who appeared to be in his mid forties with slightly greying hair, and sat down at the impressive table.

  “ How is your new second officer, Kinraid isn’t it?”

  “ Yes admiral, he is proving to be an excellent officer sir,” Michael replied, wondering what exactly the admiral was getting at.

  “ Good, because you’ll need him, orders have just come through from E.D. F command; they are preparing a big push towards Gamma IV. The Krenarans in that area have not yet captured Echo base, but enemy ship numbers in that area have increased dramatically over the past few weeks. We think they are building for an attack on the base itself, and if it falls it could swing the entire war back in their favour.”

  Michael quickly realised the stakes were high; Echo base was the primary base for the engineering services. As well as the main shipyard for the navy; without it, repairs to naval vessels would be drastically cut as they would have to rely much more heavily on the smaller, less equipped substations. It also supplied a vast proportion of armoured support, arms and equipment to the Troop division.

  “ What kind of ground forces do they have there admiral?”

  “ The majority of the 3 ^rd armoured company, the “Hells angels”, as well as a sizeable proportion of the E.D. F Commandoes; led by your old buddy Colonel Vargev,” The admiral smiled.

  Michael chuckled a little, remembering his exploits with the enigmatic and notorious former Major Vargev.

  “ Something funny, captain?”

  “ Err…no sir, it’s j
ust I haven’t heard from Colonel Vargev since just after we were both promoted together.”

  “ The Liberty is cleared to depart at 18:00 hours with the sixth battlegroup, made up of the Jupiter class assault carrier Hermes, the Danitza class battleships Defiant and Vengeance, four Jefferson class heavy destroyers…anyway the full fleet lists are on here.”

  The admiral passed him a disc for his data navigator, which he gently slid into a pocket on his uniform.

  “ However, you are to rendezvous with a second battlegroup at wolf 359, altogether there will be nearly two hundred E.D. F and Solarian ships taking part in this operation captain, and we expect heavy resistance…One last thing Solarian intelligence has picked up on this Krenaran.”

  The admiral pointed towards the viewer, it lit up showing the fuzzy image of a huge Krenaran, with heavy mechanical legs. His sheer size dwarfed the other Krenarans in the picture who, at eight feet tall, were not small either. “All we know is his name is Alax, and we think he is in command of the Krenaran military. The Solarians are scared stiff of this guy, and we believe he may be operating around Gamma IV. We have designated him an Alpha level threat, if we should locate him or find out which ship he is on, we are authorised to terminate with extreme prejudice. That will be all, Captain.”

  Michael saluted the admiral, and left the briefing room. Nearly two hundred ships, that’s a hell of a lot of resources they are putting into one action, he thought.

  Keying in a control on his wrist comm. Kinraids voice came over the device, “yes cap’n.”

  “ Schedule a meeting for 14.00 hours commander, in one of the briefing halls. I want the whole crew there.”

  “ Yes cap’n; is everythin’ all right, sir?”

  “ We’ve got a new mission Quinn.”

  “ I love it when ya’ talk dirty cap’n.”

  Michael ended the communication with a chuckle as he continued down a long, brightly lit, curved corridor; towards the nearest elevator stop. Once it arrived he entered the large mass transit elevator.

  After a few short minutes it stopped on his deck, and disgorged its payload of people, including Michael. Who hurried to his quarters and prepared his gear.

  He packed a full landfall uniform, as well as his standard naval gear, carefully packing it all into a large black holdall.

  After he finished packing, he reached into his pocket and took out the disc the admiral had given him, picked up his Data navigator from the glass table, and inserted the disc into it.

  There was a detailed overview of the mission, the objectives, and a full list of the forces involved, he thumbed through it.

  There were nearly seventy ships leaving from Delta base itself, another one hundred and thirty were stationed at Wolf 359. There were nearly eighty Solarian ships in the fleet alone.

  He glanced over some of the names, the Nimitz, the Honduras, the Invincible, the Eurinades. These were some of the most famous ships in the fleet. By the time he had finished packing his gear and looked through the mission report, it was getting near 13.00 hours.

  He decided to grab some lunch at a restaurant he had wanted to visit for some time on deck 11. As he made his way over to this restaurant, he could almost sense the station buzzing into life, it was always busy anyway; as a station of this size and importance invariably is, especially with the wartime repairs and the comings and goings of naval personnel.

  However this felt different, it felt energized, as though something big was about to happen. Everywhere navy personnel could be seen loading supplies onto the multitude of vessels docked with the station.

  Motorized carts and loading vehicles were busily transporting the heavier items onboard the enormous battleships, and servicing crews were performing systems checks and last minute repairs.

  Michael was glad the Liberty was such a small vessel, at barely one hundred and forty meters long it didn’t take nearly as long to prepare.

  Briefings were shorter, since the standing crew of the Liberty was only 41 men. It could be prepped, briefed, and gone within an hour. The lumbering battleships and carriers needed nearly a full day.

  However the downside to the Liberty was that although it is an E.D. F registered vessel; it was not built by the E.D.F. It was a captured Krenaran stealth ship, upgraded with Solarian weapons and technology. She is easily the fastest and arguably most deadly ship in the E.D. F fleet. However crewing her was a different matter entirely. Her systems were so far removed from standard E.D. F systems, that very few crewmen were actually able to operate them. This was the reason why Michael was placed in command of her, because it was he, and the then Major Vargev who captured her, and Michael who actually flew her.

  He also wondered how much of the fleet had been upgraded with the new long range laser turrets. Since the older rail-cannons had proved to be utterly ineffective against Krenaran ships. Solarian scientists and the E.D. F research division had come up with the new designs, however to change the entire fleet over to the new weapon systems was taking time; and still only about a third of the E.D. F fleet were so equipped.

  The pressure on the engineering services was huge, right across the entire E.O.C. A territory. The backlog was still several months until the change over was complete.

  Michael arrived at the restaurant ‘Wormholes end.’ It was a large airy place, with lovely ambient lighting that danced across the walls, together with plants and even palm trees, giving the place an almost exotic, planet like feel; and situated within an orbital installation that was nearly one eighth the size of the moon. That was not an easy feat to achieve.

  He ordered a large dinner, after having only a light breakfast, he was feeling very hungry. Quickly sitting down to eat, and taking a sip of coffee. He tended to prefer restaurants to the food synthesisers, because to him simply keying in a command and then taking your food, seemed terribly impersonal. He preferred the personal touch that being in a restaurant brings.

  Once he had finished, he walked over to the payment area, and handed a rather fetching woman his payment card.

  “ Will that be all sir?” The long haired brunette woman asked.

  “ Yes, thank you.” Handing her his payment card; the transaction was processed. The waitress handed it back to him.

  “ Thank you,” he repeated; and then quietly left the restaurant.

  His wrist comm. chirped, checking it he found it was from Kinraid. “I’ve managed to get briefing room 3, sir. If that’s okay with ya’, I’ve assembled the crew.”

  “ Good work commander, I’m on my way,” Michael replied, before closing the communication in mid-stride.

  He arrived at the briefing hall, situated on deck 8, five minutes or so after 14.00 hours. He strode onto the small raised stage area in the centre of the hall. The room was laid out almost like a tiny old earth cinema, with an angled floor where people could all get a good view of the speaker.

  The 40 other crewmembers which made up the crew of the Liberty all stood to attention as he entered.

  “ Please be seated.”

  The crew all sat quietly.

  “ As of this morning, we have new orders. We are to leave Delta base with the sixth battlegroup, and then join up with a second battlegroup, the 18 ^th at Wolf 359. Once there we are ordered to advance to Gamma IV, and support the forces already there. We expect heavy resistance; reports suggest that Krenaran forces have been massing for an attack on Echo base itself. We are to ensure that doesn’t happen, understood.”

  “ Yes, Captain,” The unanimous reply came.

  “ Any questions,” Michael replied.

  “ What time do we depart sir?” Ensign Jackson asked.

  “ 18.00 hours.”

  “ How many ships will there be going on the mission sir?” Ensign Hawkins asked.

  “ All told, nearly two hundred.”

  There were shocked faces and audible gasps across the hall, 200 ships; it would be the biggest fleet action of the war so far.

  “ Would we get our usual pre b
attle drink, sir?” Lieutenant Jones asked with a wry smile.

  It was an old naval custom that Michael re-introduced, although it only happened on board the Liberty. Before a mission, each crewman gets one measure of rum. It was something the admiralty didn’t know about, but Michael found that it helped calm the crew, and relieved pre-battle nerves, and was something that the crew came to greatly appreciate.

  “ Yes, as always, one shot for each man; no more.”

  In unison, the crew threw up a great loud cheer.

  “ We get the ship prepped and ready first. Then the drink,” Michael said as he dismissed the crew.

  Later that day, the Liberty became a hive of activity, as supplies were brought aboard and loaded, systems checks were made, and the ship generally made ready to depart.

  The chief weapons officer onboard, Lieutenant Logan Jones, ran through the various systems checks on the main fusion cannon with two tall Solarian assistants. He checked the magazines on the high energy torpedo launchers were full and the reactive hull armour was functioning properly. When he and the assistants were happy, they gave the weapons systems the all clear.

  Eldathar, the Solarian navigation officer checked over all the thruster and pilot systems on board. Once this was complete he gave the piloting systems the all clear also.

  Johnson Logameier, the ship’s chief engineer checked over all the engineering systems with his accompanying Solarian assistants. Three quarters of the engineering staff were Solarian, and he found this frustrating at times. He checked over the plasma drive systems, sub-light engine, and the Solarian power core. After a slight re-calibration on one of the power feeds to the sub-light engine, he also gave the all clear.

  Kathryn Jacobs, the only medical officer onboard, was busily stocking the small, rather rudimentary sickbay with appropriate medical supplies she had brought on board. There was no doubt in her mind she would need them, she always did on missions like this.

  Michael and Quinn were busily checking over all the command functions, internal and external communications, the sensor suite and holographic viewscreen.