First Journey Chapter: 15

Chapter: 15 Out for Revenge Dai patriarch Ima Win-Do had narrowly escaped the slaughter. He was still shivering involuntarily; most of his tribe including the Ima mother was gone. He had seen her rupture and disappear inside an antimatter fusion bomb explosion so huge it looked like the birth of a small star. The Devastator a ferocious demon with shields glowing from energy strikes breaks through that cloud of destruction. Only the attack of another clan's Dai Mother upon the Devastator saved Ima Win-Do Battleship and everyone aboard. One of his destroyers had sacrificed itself flying into the path of three Loki torpedoes. He ordered Helm to retreat, as a salvo of FTL beams hammered into the shields, breaking through at numerous points. These beams damaged many systems exterior hardpoints, including navigation and weapon sequencing sensors. The damaged navaids, before crew discovered they were impaired, gave incorrect data directing them to traverse deeper into Union space rather than heading for Freespace. Upon determining the navigational error, they continue on that course as they had nothing to lose. His tribe's destruction was almost complete, and from the last images he saw of the space battle, many other Dai too were in dire straits and unlikely to survive the onslaught of the Unions forces. His mind burned with the shame of retreat and his heart heavy with the loss of everything he held dear. The traitors had lured them into a well conceived and deployed trap. The Thalim Nebulas always had been a remote Union area frequented only by miners and a few civilian ships. Comprised of only two star systems with useless ice planets in both systems, none of which were inhabitable without significant terraforming. It always had been a good hunting ground for the Dai method of battle, but completely unexpected thousands of asteroids suddenly turned into heavily armed automated firing points, equipped with Translocator cannons, batteries of Loki torpedo tubes, and defended by Thor Gunboats. As mighty as the Dai Fleet was it would have been much more of a fight with a well-organized armada. The decision to allow the individual tribe to attack without centralized control proved to be utter madness now looking back to do it. Without any coordination between the Dai Tribes, there was chaos and confusion their side and military precision and tactical guidance by the Eternal warrior on the other side. He wondered now if he should have joined Kar-Hi, but it was too late now. He had fled in the face of the enemy, no matter the fact that thousands of other Tribes had turned and fled as well. He had never before been this deep in Union space. On their long-range scanners, he saw only three ship contacts and sixteen star systems within reach. His navigation systems still weren't reliable. Navigation relied on precise timekeeping and an extraordinary sensor array that calculated the movement towards the Galactic center and several known pulsars. That gave the exact location of any ship, but the Sensor array dedicated to that task malfunctioned, and his navigator set the ship position the old way by comparing star charts and making course calculations. All three of the contact appeared to be civilian ships, two of them from the size and speed most likely space buses, full of arrogant union citizens trying to reach the next port. Since he did not know where he exactly was any of the sixteen systems could be fleet bases and approaching them would get him destroyed before he was able to do something. He sought anything, anywhere, to quench his desire for revenge. The third target was fast and more prominent luxury clippers, full of wealthy citizens, a worthy goal for a pirate. This time it was not a raid for ransoming or to give it a chance to surrender. He wanted to cause as much death and destruction before union forces would finally get him. "Charge all weapons. Maximum speed, upon reaching the range of weapons, you have permission to open fire without warning or surrender round. Fire for effect taking out its engines first.  Exact our revenge on it without mercy." The attack came entirely unexpected, as the scanner operator of the American Dream was watching GalNews about the space battle between Dai, Nogoll, and Union forces like everyone else on the bridge and thus missed the fast approaching contact. I was still sitting in the Command chair, while the main viewer showed high definition recordings of the space battle of Union Fleet against the Dai and the Nogoll. Blows slammed into the yacht as if delivered by titanic fists shock the ship so violently that Alex, Captain Lethra, and everyone standing were thrown about then pulled abruptly to the opening in the hull. Smoke filled the bridge, and a dozen warning sirens and signals blared as the lighting flickered. The automatic restraints on the chair grabbed me, and a force field bubble encased the command console and me. As I watched, in shock, a remote camera monitoring a corridor wall paralleling the hull ruptured and engulfed a crew member, drawing the crew member into the void of space. Before an emergency force field sealed the break, it caused the opposite wall also to disintegrate, a wall containing the entry to the bridge and thus decompressing the bridge. There were only two officers still moving as they too had remained in their seats and kept safe behind force field bubbles, the rest was piled up near the now sealed crack, among them the Togar captain and Alex, none of them showed any signs of life. The main screen now showed a red space ship pursuing us. The Helm officer moaned with a wimpy voice. "What are we going to do?" I responded, " We need to increase the distance between them and us immediately, go to flank speed and execute a sixty-degree turn to port." "But flank speed, I can do that only with captain permission." None of the controls of the seat responded, and a Computronic voice said. "You are not registered or authorized." Alex staggered to his feet, streaks of vacuum dried blood covered the majority of his face, "System recognize Alex Enroe, Alfa, Delta, Niner, Zulu, Kuebec dash Aardvark hereby Authorize Full captain command authority to Eric Olafson," and then he collapsed to the deck unconscious. The controls lit up, and a bank of screens lowered around me. "Command authority granted." "Activate all available shields, reroute all reserved and spare energy to aft shield generators." "Acknowledged." The Helm Officer turned. "Sir, do you still wish flank speed." "Now hear this, I Eric Olafson, take full command of this ship, Obey all orders with a question. Martial law now in effect. Helm, Flank speed, sixty-degree turn to port in 10 seconds." The helm turned toward me, "Sir, Flank speed, we are moving away. Sir, we have only one ISAH pod left, but it seems we are still faster than Dai BattleShip." "Helm, and all others, you will keep your eyes on your controls and screen, the next person to turns away is on the report. Do not continue to question me. Acknowledge." I received three loud, Sirs, and I had gained help. I looked down to find the right contact for ship wide. "This is Eric Olafson, I have taken command of this vessel by orders of Alex Enroe. Both he and the Captain Lethra are injured.  All Departments report. Damage and status. Medical emergency on the bridge." "Engineering here. We have still full power but only one ISAH pod, we lost the other three. Several Hull breaches, sealed with nanite foam and force fields. Main generators at 100 percent and not damaged. Primary shields gone. Secondary shields holding." "Engineering shut down every nonessential system. Concentrate on repairing the shield generators." "We'll do our best." "Medical reporting. We have 67 casualties, 19 reported fatal." "Triage and prioritize. Bridge crew first." "Sending medics and bots." "Tactical, do we have tactical? Communications?" There was no response, and then the Computronic replied. "Tactical and Communication stations are not replying." "Computronic open Communication channels on all available com equipment." "Open." "This is the American Spirit, Enroe Industries private Yacht. Eric Olafson, speaking. We are under attack by Dai Than Battleship in pursuit. We are damaged, and there are heavy casualties. Need immediate and urgent assistance." I then told the Helm Officer to transmit our coordinates and whereabouts. "We are being hailed." The Computronic reported "Put it on." "American Spirit, Chief Ima Win-Do, patriarch glorious Dai Than Ima Tribe. I have lost my honor, and my tribe, but not my will to fight. Your demon warrior destroyed  Our Mother, and now I will seek revenge.  I shall cause mayhem and destruction. I see you are only a boy, where are your officers?  Are they dead or did they run and hide like cowards?  Surrender and I shall be merciful. Your hail for help heard by Union forces, I have no doubt, but all help will come too late for you. Surrender and I shall not launch fighters. I will kill you all quickly and painlessly. But I beg you to defy me, and then I shall board your pathetic ship.  We will take pleasure in skinning you alive." I looked down again to identify the correct contacts for tactical. Then I responded." I am Eric Olafson, temporarily in command of this Vessel. You are in Union space and have committed acts of piracy and murder." While I talked, my fingers were activating weapons. "I will not let my crew down, and I will fight you to my last breath. Bring it on you cowardly red pig-face and learn that Neo Vikings do not surrender, ever." The tactical screen showed his vessel just barely within reach of our Loki Torpedoes, the American Spirit, although, a private yacht had two tubes for these military grade weapons. I noticed big doors opening in the hull of the Dai Ship, displayed on the screen that showed a magnified view of our pursuer, no doubt Fighter bay doors. I cut the link and yelled." Helm reverse thrust full reverse." "What?" I overrode his station and did it myself and cursed. "When this is over I am going to kick your sorry ass from here to Andromeda and back." The battered and damaged luxury yacht's mass inertia compensators could not cope entirely with the sudden reversal of thrust, and the Medics just coming on the bridge were thrown off their feet, and I was pushed hard into the restrains. The Dai Battleship in full pursuit rushed forward, closing the distance between the two ships by half in two heartbeats. I hammered my fist on the Torpedo release, and both tubes launched, aiming at the open doors. At the same time, I fired every available FTL weapon, and any other button lit on my console. The Dai crew was good, and it's Computronic reacted faster than its team several of the Dai Cannons fired and the American Spirit shuddered hard, but I saw with satisfaction as one of the two torpedoes slipped right past the open doors, into the hanger of the Dai ship. Their Point Defense guns destroyed the other Loki. I maintained the reverse thrust. Two more shots peppered our bow, and our shields utterly collapsed. The Dai Battleship was at least eight times the size of the American Spirit, then it suddenly expanded into a bright fireball, and a massive explosion ripped through its hull. I immediately changed back to forward thrust. Two round objects released from the doomed Battleship began to follow us. Not fighters, but so kind of armed lifeboats and while their weapons were small we had no shields and their fire would cause damage. Again, I reversed thrust going well past the red line. We hit one of the spheres head on, and I fired the remaining FTL cannon at the other vessel. The tactical screen and the remaining sensors showed both spheres to be mere cosmic dust and no life signs reported aboard or near the remaining fragments of the battleship. I took the time to wipe the sweat of my brow and said. "All hands, you are now under the command of Damage Control Center. Send reports to the damage control center and follow their orders. Helm report to my chair, IMMEDIATELY, if not sooner!" Twenty minutes later we were hailed by a fleet of Enroe Security ships.