MVOTHT Ch 14



Interlude Beach Head Station

Har Hi sat in a Khari-Wolf Fighter watching his Loki torpedo taking out the last Y'All Ship. It had been a hard ugly and short battle. The Y'All still where on the same technological level they had been 500 years ago and one on one they stood no chance against Union tech, but they had attacked with an overwhelming force. A fleet of almost 1000 ships had attacked the System. He was informed that this was the rest of a much larger fleet that had attacked an Outpost. Beach Head was heavily defended and build up for exactly that purpose, however one really expected them to show up anymore and not so sudden. Mc Elligott had personally taken the command of a Battle ship group and now as on the General Channel." Good fight everyone! They caught us with our pants down, but considering the huge force we did well. We lost good beings today, but it shows we can defeat them this time. We came here to find the Y'All. That they found us first does not matter now. We are at war!" Then the real bad news came. Mc Elligott called Har-Hi. " Lieutenant I have very grief news. Your friend and Captain Eric Olafson was aboard a space train in transit as the Y'All destroyed the receiving station. The trans space tunnel collapsed and the train and everyone aboard is lost." Har-Hi felt numb and didn't recognize his own voice." Everyone?" "Everyone aboard the train yes. However of your friends only Eric was aboard this train. I will brief you on the details as soon as you land!" ________________________________________ Richard Stahl put the report down. The Y'All attack was bad news, but he had been in wars before and he was confident they would emerge from this one as victors. He had already ordered his new ship the USS Dominator on a course to M 31. The Old Celtest Ship was almost completely adapted to Union Fleet Use but still had its original drive. He would be able to make it across the gap without using the bridge, of course even with the fast Celtest Engines it would take him 3 month to get across. The old Devastator under Harris was already on her way. The report he just read had nothing to do with the war. It was a detailed report how Captain Olafson was abducted and how he or she died in the first Space train disaster. A nosy reporter allowed to ride along. Not an approved reporter either was allowed to ride with Olafson. He went against all policies and named Officers names and even destinations. that two criminals who escaped could not let that chance pass was Elligott's fault twice over! He was responsible for those crooks to be alive so they could escape and it was he who decided that having a reporter along was a good idea." True, the space train disaster solved the problem with the criminals but at what cost? A friendship of 3000 years he had with Elligott but this time he would not just have a hard talk with him. He would ask him to take responsibility and retire. ________________________________________ Mc Elligott read the same report and he knew he did make a bad decision. However he had a bigger problem at hand right now. Long range Scouts confirmed they found the staging area for the Y'All Armada. How long before the Armada was ready to move, no one could say, but he did not have enough assets here to deal with it. The best thing would be to evacuate M 31 and retreat across the Bridge. Over in the Old Galaxy was more than enough force to deal with the Y'All. Only the largest and newest ships could make it across the gap and they would take month to get here. On the other hand the Union had member species here and they could not be evacuated or abandoned. Luckily only one Space train receiver station was destroyed. Eleven lines were still operational. Every ship building engineer and worker needed to be brought here along with production assets and parts to built up the M31 fleet. All he had was 300 Ultras and 2000 smaller ships. According to the long range scouts, the Armada was a million ships strong at least! Surprisingly Lonely Base had survived, however was dangerously low on Munitions and only Translocator Cannons were effective against the Y'All. If the Y'All started to move soon. M31 and everyone here would be lost.