Eric Olafson, Fleet Cadet 20

Chapter 20: The Steel Gauntlet Interlude

The five potato shaped space ships immediately attacked. Their weapons were consistent with Y’All technology and so were their shields. Stahl looked over the scanner results and was convinced it was exactly the same as 1500 years ago. The Chief Science officer confirmed it.”Sir, these are defiantly Y’All ships. Even the power output and everything is exactly the same as it was 1500 years ago. It looks like they made no improvement at all.”

If this was the case, the Admiral thought, then this Y’All invasion would be quite different from the one before. The Union had expected their return and prepared for it. If forces could be amassed fast enough the Y’All Armada would not reach the Milky Way galaxy this time. However he didn’t like the situation. The Y’All acted differently and there was only a handful ships. Before they had come with a huge armada, there were no reconnaissance craft, no advance units, but a massive fleet. They never tried to hide either. He expected them not to respond, but still he ordered channels to be opened.”This is Admiral Stahl of the USS Devastator; we are representing the United Stars of the Galaxy. Calling the approaching ships. We will retaliate with all necessary force to any further signs of aggression. Stand down and respond.”

Alyica did not want to interrupt him but she wanted him to know what she had found out. So she decided to contact him telepathically.

“Admiral I am sensing them clearly. There are not just Y’All inside those ships, I also clearly detect Kermac thought patterns.”

The Admiral showed no sign of surprise but opened the channel again.” I do not know where you got these Y’All ships but since you are Kermac you know who I am and you know what will happen if you do not stand down right away.”

This time there was a response. A Kermac appeared on the screen. He appeared Kermac in every aspect, except his skin was not white but of a dark gray.” Yes we know of you, Demon Stahl. Your presence is unexpected, but we cannot let you leave. We have sixty more ships approaching and it would be best you surrender, not even you can stand against so many Y’All ships.”

“You must be new in the space battle business. So let me give you a little advice: first of all you don’t tell your enemy how many ships you got. Secondly I suggest you get a few more ships, sixty or even a hundred won’t do the trick. Finally I suggest a spearhead formation. Coming at us with a half moon formation isn’t very smart.”

Before he even cut the transmission Stahl said. “Tactical reduce the number of enemy ships to one.”

The scanner operator confirmed sixty ships to approach at high speed.

The Y’All ships were formidable opponents. Tough shields, strong armor and powerful weaponry, the Terran FTL-DE cannon was a direct development of a captured Y’All ship, but this was 1500 years ago. The Union had not stood still and had developed; it seemed the Kermac had found a stash of Y’All ships, just as they were so long ago. Somehow it made no sense to Stahl. Why would the Kermac cause trouble, so far away from their sphere of influence? They knew about the Instantaneous communication and would know the Devastator would report everything back to command right away. Maybe they relied on their disguise and were surprised by Stahl knowing they were Kermac.

The Battle was intense, the primary shields of the Devastator reduced to 60 percent. That had not happened in a very long time. Stahl had left Harris on the bridge. He was the captain and he knew how to fight. Stahl needed action and answers.

To get both he went to Deck 33 called Marine Country, his personal picked Elite team. Stahl’s Own, nicknamed the Steel Gauntlet, already assembled wearing Gilgamesh Quasimodos. It was a wild bunch of beings. Each one of them a rough and tumble individual, specialists in the dirty business of close combat. Even though he was a Navy Admiral now, Stahl never ceased to be a Marine first and foremost, and despite all logic and caution, against all common sense to get himself in dangerous situations, he occasionally led his special team and that was the core of his reputation and legend. He was one of the men, regardless of his immortal and important status. He fought, sweat and bleed with them and this was the reason they respected and loved him. Stahl came out of the Combat Dresser, wearing his own Gilgamesh. On his left shoulder armor was an old symbol only a handful still recognized, an eagle perched upon a globe and a naval anchor below and the letters USMC. Why he called his HK chain cannon “Chesty” no one knew. The Devastator was the product of an ancient and long disappeared civilization called the Celtest. Stahl and a handful of his loyal friends had gone into Exile and traveled on an adventure rich odyssey across the Galaxy. He had found the Devastator and met Alyica in her true form. It was her who told him how to gain the ship and that he was needed back home.

While the ship had been heavily modified and refitted over the millennia with modern Union tech, it still held a few secrets only Stahl and a select few knew about. The secret of the Translocator canons and the Para Dim shields he had shared with the Union, but he kept a few aces under his sleeve. The Transplanter worked on the same principle as the Translocator Cannons, able to shift any matter via a Trans dimensional gate to another location. It also worked with living beings. He and the Iron Gauntlet platoon used this secretive technology to transport themselves directly aboard one of the remaining Y’All ships.

Stahl stepped through the glowing portal and right into hell.