E.D.F chronicles - The Krenaran massacre. Read online

  “It was an alert level 2, you’re a Naval officer, you didn’t have any choice, you had to go,” Katherine said softly.

  Michael turned away from her and stared out of the view port, gazing out into the colours of the plasma wake swirling all around them as though contemplating the cruel universe itself.

  “Maybe,” he said bitterly. “But tell me this, where does the Navy end and family begin; because I don’t know anymore.”

  And at that Katherine slowly and quietly left Michael to his own thoughts.

  “I just don’t know anymore.” Michael said as though he was addressing the whole of space.

  The Liberty and the remaining Solarian ships continued their journey through plasma drive.

  After the long spell in which Michael needed to recollect his thoughts once again, he strode back onto the command centre. Katherine was not present; she must have gone below decks, Michael thought.

  “How long until we reach the Sol system?”

  “At current speed, eighteen hours,” Televis replied.

  Outwardly Michael tried his best; inwardly however he felt drained. The events of the past couple of months had taken their toll on him, shadows hung around his eyes from his often sleepless tortured nights.

  “Why not get some rest? There will be plenty of time for action later comrade,” Vargev said.

  “I’ll rest when we rid ourselves of these Krenaran murderers; every stinking last one of them.”

  Vargev said nothing, but he had to admire the man’s persistence.

  For a few hours it was quiet; almost deathly so. Nobody dared to argue with Michael for the time being, save for the notable exception of Vargev. The Solarian crewmembers busied themselves at their stations with their usual professionalism.

  Vargev’s voice broke the silence. “Whoa! Hang on a moment. I think we have weapons fire up ahead.”

  “Looks like two Krenaran stealth ships attacking a Terran vessel,” Televis cut in.

  Vargev studied his display. “Confirmed, it’s a Lincoln class supply ship. It must be a straggler to be without some form of an escort out here. What do you want to do?”

  Michael had been itching for a true test of the Liberties systems as well as get his own little bit of payback on the Krenarans.

  “Have the rest of the fleet remain in plasma drive; we’ll catch them up. I want to see what this little baby can really do,” Michael smiled as he walked over to the Solarian pilot. “I’ll take this one.”

  “Are you sure sir?”

  “Positive,” Michael replied. This was personal; and he wanted to teach the Krenarans a small lesson which he was going to deliver personally.

  The pilot relinquished the chair; Michael sat down and slid his hands through the grooves on each side of it. Metallic cover plates slowly lowered and locked into place over his arms. Preventing him from being thrown out of the chair, they were cushioned on the inside and felt comfortable; unlike the previous heavy gadgetry of the older chair he had to put up with when he first piloted the Liberty.

  Small touch screen controls rose up at an angle just near to his finger ends; allowing for easier activation. It was a nice touch, he thought.

  “This chair is much better than the old model.”

  The other Solarian pilot smiled, nodded, and then took up a position at an auxiliary console for the time being.

  “Order battlestations; activate all weapons, and reactive hull armour.”

  The command centre darkened to its menacing ruddy glow once again, the red lights illuminated the tops of the displays. And a flurry of activity began across the ship once again, as all systems went to maximum alert.

  “Okay, drop us out of plasma drive.”

  The Liberty burst back into normal space, after leaving plasma drive. Due to it’s newly reconfigured stealth systems, the Krenaran ships couldn’t detect the ship dropping out of plasma drive behind them.

  The Krenaran ships appeared to be toying with the defenceless E.D.F transport, and had already badly damaged the supply vessel; they were now beginning to close for the killing blow.

  Michael touched a few controls on his right finger pad, increasing power to the negative Ion propulsion system, and the Ionic thrusters systems together.

  The Liberty rapidly accelerated to a break neck speed as it bore down on the hapless Krenaran vessels.

  This is going to be fun, Michael thought as he allowed himself the briefest of evil grins. He punched in a control on the left finger pad, and the Liberty unleashed the fury of its Fusion cannon straight at the nearest Krenaran ship. The bright blue beam smashed into the enemy ship just left of its main engine. The colossal impact spun the enemy ship almost completely around.

  The other ship broke off its attack on the supply ship and began to head for this new assailant.

  “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size!” Michael shouted his anger at the holographic viewer in front of him.

  The damaged Krenaran ship managed to regain some of its momentum and also began to head toward the Liberty, the damage it had taken was plain to see from the scorch marks and twisted hull plating at the rear of the ship.

  However the sheer speed of the Liberty meant it shot past the enemy vessel before the Krenaran ship even had a chance to fire. The damaged enemy ship managed to come about, and increased speed, chasing down the Liberty.

  Both ships shot through space at a horrendous speed, the Krenaran ship fired its particle cannon; narrowly missing the top of one of the Liberties high energy torpedo launchers.

  In his chair Michael banked the ship left and right, and then threw the ship into a tight barrel roll. As more particle cannon beams hurtled toward it. Crewmembers on board were almost thrown from their seats as the artificial gravity systems strained to keep up with the frenetic manoeuvring.

  “Oh no, you didn’t just shoot that green shit at me!” Michael shouted again as he jinked the ship from port to starboard.

  “He’s gonna fire again!” A worried Vargev shouted checking his screen.

  “Oh, hell no!” Michael replied as he threw the Liberty into a steep climb. The shot went wide, and the Krenaran vessel carried straight ahead, unable to turn anywhere near as fast.

  Michael threw the Liberty back down into a steep dive; then quickly levelled her out, coming up behind the attacking Krenaran ship. Michael fired the Fusion cannon again; this time it was a direct hit. The bright blue beam slammed into the Krenaran ships engines like a missile slams into a tank. The engines were instantly torn apart in a blaze of fire. The enemy ship continued to drift through its inertia, but its primary sub-light drives were now ruined, effectively leaving it dead in space.

  “How do ya like them apples!” Michael shouted triumphantly.

  “Incoming torpedo!” Vargev shouted.

  “Oh shit!” Michael shouted, as he remembered the second Krenaran ship. He mashed the accelerate control as hard as he could; and the Liberty hurtled forward, the torpedo in hot pursuit and gaining rapidly.

  He jinked the Liberty from side to side, trying to throw off the deadly missiles guidance systems, however the torpedo continued to close.

  “Damn it, lose the goddamn torpedo!” Vargev shouted, panic in his voice.

  Michael continued to hurl the Liberty from side to side, then as he jinked to starboard, he simultaneously applied the reverse thrust, rapidly decelerating the ship.

  With the torpedo’s guidance systems unable to process the speed at which the Liberty decelerated, it shot in front of the ship. And straight into the Liberties own fire arc.

  Michael launched one of the Liberties own torpedoes, and the two warheads collided in a huge, blinding explosion, that rocked the entire ship, sending a shower of sparks across the command centre.

  The lone remaining damaged Krenaran ship closed fast and bore down upon them. Several Particle cannon shots shot past the Liberties hull; illuminating the ship in a green glow as the beams passed. One however did manage to hit home, the ship shuddered
violently, and most of the command crew were thrown to the floor.

  “Direct hit, upper port side, reactive hull armour is weakened; but holding.” Televis announced as the data, flooded through his screen.

  “God-dammit! Okay so you wanna play!” Michael shouted at the viewer.

  The two ships dodged, weaved and jinked with one another at an incredible speed.

  “Y’all have to come here, running your mouths, and now you want to get rough!” Michael shouted again.

  A green flash shot past very close to the Liberty, lighting up the holographic viewer in a bright green light.

  “Oh, we don’t want none o’ that shit!” Michael shouted.

  He’s god-damn enjoying this, Vargev thought as he looked at the form of Michael in the pilot’s chair, crazy son of a bitch.

  The Liberty continued to bank and weave. Then Michael threw the ship into an almost impossibly tight arc. The ship shuddered as the effects of inertia tested the Liberties sturdy hull to the limit.

  The Krenaran ship tried to attempt the same manoeuvre, in a desperate bid to keep on the Liberties tail. However the Liberty was far more manoeuvrable; and invariably ended up behind the Krenaran ship.

  “Gotcha!” Michael shouted as his thumb mashed the button on his left finger pad again.

  Two high energy torpedoes shot out of the Liberties launchers and rocketed their way towards the Krenaran ship. Unable to evade the torpedoes they struck dead centre, slamming through the Krenaran ship’s hull, which buckled and then blew itself apart completely in a massive fireball.

  “That’s for Jana and Theo,” Michael whispered at the viewer as the flames of the wreckage died down. He slowed the Liberty almost to a dead stop, and motioned for the Solarian pilot. “You can have your chair back now.”

  “Thank you sir,” The Solarian said with a proud nod.

  The command centre was deathly quiet; Michael could feel the eyes were on him as he walked towards the command chair and sat down, “What?” he asked innocently.

  The command staff stopped regarding him as though he was totally insane and switched their attention back to their consoles.

  “We’ve got a communication coming through. It’s from the transport, audio only,” Televis announced.

  “Patch it through.”

  The raspy voice of a highly relieved, elderly man filled the speakers. “Thanks a lot whoever you are, that was some of the best flying that I’ve ever seen.”

  “Not a problem; do you require assistance,” Michael replied.

  “That’s a negatory, we should be okay now, thanks to you guys,” the communication ended.

  Some of the eldest commanders in the E.D.F Navy can be found commanding transport vessels; usually when a Naval officer retires, yet still yearns for that thrill of being out in space. He will enlist as a commander of one of the myriad transport vessels serving stations and the larger battleships and front line vessels of the fleet.

  “All part of the service,” Michael whispered to the departing view of the battered transport. “Let’s catch up to the rest of the fleet shall we.”

  The Liberty shot back into plasma drive. And after about half an hour, it had reformed with the rest of the fleet.

  Vargev said out loud, “I wonder what the E.D.F will make of sixty five unknown vessels suddenly dropping out of plasma drive right outside Mars.”

  “Well, they’ll either welcome us with open arms or the three dozen or so rail-cannons dotted around Alpha base will blast us out of the stars.”

  “So it’s fifty-fifty then, hell, I’ll take those odds, that’s better odds than I’ve had since this whole damn war began.”

  The fleet continued on its journey. After another six hours, it had finally passed into the solar system.

  “Signal the fleet; tell them to drop out of plasma drive on my order.”

  After a slight pause Televis said, “fleet confirms.”

  “Well it’s now or never.”

  On board the enormous installation known as Alpha base, the biggest installation in all of E.O.C.A territory; a silvery grey haired, grey moustached Admiral Mason looked on despondently.

  Another eighteen severely damaged E.D.F Naval vessels had just returned from yet another failed fleet action near Barnards star. The fleet was twice that size originally; and their flagship. The Montgomery class carrier Yellowstone was lost. The casualty rate in this war was fast approaching a million lives; the biggest single loss was at Foxtrot base, the intelligence hub of the E.D.F, there, one hundred and forty thousand people had died.

  Admiral Mason was one of the few senior Admirals in the E.D.F left alive, now in his late fifties. Before this war broke out he was getting around to planning his retirement after an illustrious career commanding three different ships, most notably the battleship Rushmore, before being posted to Alpha base as one of the Admiralty in 2069.

  He looked out over the massive operations deck of the gargantuan station, towards the observation ports; he thought for a moment that he could see a very faint white light forming. It was far in the distance, and he had almost dismissed it as starlight. That is, until it began to grow.

  “What the hell is that?” He said pointing a finger out towards the expanding halo of white light.

  A young officer stood next to him and asked, “what’s what…sir?” Baffled by the Admirals outburst.

  He showed the young officer. “That.”

  The white light gradually grew brighter, and then blinked out of existence, leaving empty space once again.

  Another officer at one of the myriad stations lining the operations deck announced, “scanners are reading sixty five ships approaching, all unidentified, sir.”

  “Jesus……go to general quarters; ready all weapons systems. Contact the fleet and tell them to form defensive formation. Put all fighter wings on hot standby and ready to launch on my command.” There was a genuine urgency in his voice. If this is some kind of Krenaran trick, then by Christ they will pay heavily for it.

  “Done sir, the fleet has begun to form defensive formation, all fighter wings have been scrambled and are on emergency standby,” the young officer replied confidently.

  A little too confidently Mason thought, as thousands of officers and crewmen scrambled to prepare the station for battle.

  On board the Liberty Michael grew tense, he could see the faint form of Alpha base in the distance. He was looking for any hint of a clue as to what was happening over there.

  Finally it came, “Alpha base has powered its weapons, and so has the E.D.F fleet. They are advancing in a defensive formation,” Vargev said.

  In a defensive formation; that must mean they are going to place themselves between us and the station. Prevent any possible attack on the station itself, Michael pondered.

  The Liberty and the rest of the Solarian fleet continued to cautiously advance.

  “I suggest we power up our weapons and defences too,” Televis said.

  “Negative,” Michael replied with a wave of the hand, still fixated on the viewer. “We don’t want to appear threatening.”

  The enormous tower block sized rail-cannons adorning the outer hull of Alpha base slowly whirled into position and locked onto the slowly approaching Solarian fleet, as did the multitude of weapon systems within the E.D.F battlefleet arrayed between them.

  “We have an incoming transmission, it’s from the station,” Televis said.

  “Patch it through.”

  Admiral Mason’s face appeared on the holographic viewer, together with the vast operations deck behind him. “Unidentified fleet, you have hereby violated E.O.C.A Territory, you are therefore ordered to stand down immediately, and prepare to be escorted out of E.O.C.A territory.” He took a short breath. “Any alteration in course, or attack upon E.O.C.A property will result in all necessary force,” the communication abruptly ended.

  “Well, there’s your answer comrade, it was nice knowing you.”

  And as the communication ended, th
e huge forms of three hulking Danitza class Battleships slowly turned their massive hulls toward the Solarian fleet, bringing their powerful primary rail-cannon turrets into play, as if to emphasize the point.

  “We’re not done yet; contact the fleet, order all stop.”

  “Fleet confirms,” Televis replied.

  Right across the Solarian fleet, blue Ionic thruster systems glowed brightly; bringing the vessels to a dead stop.

  The E.D.F fleet was now plainly visible. As was the massive form of Alpha base, fully one quarter the size of the moon, and the headquarters of the E.D.F for the past two decades. In galactic terms the two fleets and the station were nose to nose.

  “Contact the station.”

  “Channel open,” a nervous Televis replied.

  “Alpha base command; this is Lieutenant Michael Alexander, we mean you no harm, we are here as your allies, repeat we mean you no harm.”

  Admiral Mason studied the image of Michael Alexander on the stations own viewer. “He’s a human; this must be some kind of Krenaran trick. Try to get us to lower our defences while they attack. Prepare to open fire on my command.”

  The massive gun turrets continued to track the Solarian fleet.

  “They have weapons lock on us,” Vargev said with a worried tone in his voice.

  Tense, silent seconds passed as Michael Alexander, and the Admiral studied each other over the viewer; finally Michael broke the silence between them.

  “Contact the station again.”

  The face of Mason re-appeared. “Admiral this is madness, we are not your enemy. We are not Krenaran, and this is not a trick, if we were Krenaran we would have attacked already. Please consider what you are about to do very carefully.” He paused to allow the admiral time to let what he said sink in. “Do you really want the lives of 65 allied ships, and a potential alliance that could change the whole face of this war to fall apart because of one mistake.”

  Mason studied him for what seemed like an eternity; deep down he had to admit that this supposed Michael Alexander had a point. He looked over to the arrayed ranks of communications and operations personnel, the stakes were massive Mason already knew that. He prayed he was about to make the right decision, if not he had just handed E.O.C.A over to the Krenarans.