AN: I'm back, to chew ass and kick bubble gum and I'm all out ass.
I'm going to be honest with you lot; this chapter had kicked my arse something fierce, I gotta thank everyone properly for waiting this long, for leaving reviews, comments and criticisms, yes I do read them, yes I don't reply to them.
Probably should get around to doing that.
Good news: I'm not dead, the story isn't dead and I haven't even attempted to kick my alcohol drinking habits in the slightest, and I'm working on the next chapter rewrite.
Bad news: I'm doing Open University full time and working part time on Saturdays and Sundays, meaning I have less time to write, so it'll take a while for the next chapter to be released.
So I'll apologise in advance now.
Okay, I'm done apologising, please enjoy this glorious chapter update and I'll see you on the bounce.
November 30th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.
SSV LION R-106, Combat Information Centre.
[10 Hours until Alpha Relay Reinforcement Fleet arrives.]
[Play: Le Castle Vania - John Wick Medley.]
After a couple of minutes at the nearest trauma station being assisted by corporal Andryzweski, Liam stepped through the hatchway door. His head no longer bandaged, the raw wound had been closed and sealed with medi gel.
At least the doc on hand cleared him for duty, lucky him.
"Captain on the deck!" was bellowed, no one stood from their stations which was a good thing considering the ship was still in the middle of a fight.
"Commander, I have the conn," Liam announced.
"You have the conn, aye sir," Ka'mara replied, placing Liam's wireless back onto its base.
Liam strode up to the damage control station to the rear of the CIC, looking at the status board.
"Damage control, sitrep," Liam ordered the officer overlooking the station.
"Sir, everything between frames sixty four and frame nine has buckled. Fires have broken out. We've lost the water mains for the fire suppression system, and fire crews are trying to contain the blaze with handheld gear."
Taking stock of the situation Liam muttered to himself, "Fuck me." He shook his head.
He pulled the wireless from the damage control station. "All hands this is the Captain, seal emergency bulkheads at frame seventy and frame five. Damage control teams secure and brace for rapid decompression."
Two announcements came through the damage control station that the emergency bulkheads had been sealed.
"Lieutenant your key," Liam ordered, holding out his dominant hand expectantly.
The Lieutenant did as ordered and removed a small nondescript key from around his neck, handing it over.
Liam inserted the key into a slot next to the emergency vent controls, turning the key ninety degrees clockwise.
Outside the ship the Hierarchy and Hegemony fleets watched as huge gouts of flames blew out of the hull, followed by a number of bodies. Admiral Nyx upped his opinion on the Lion's commanding officer. To make the hard call to vent several compartments with the crews inside to prevent loss of the ship was both pragmatic and tactically sound.
Undoubtedly later on the decision would weigh heavily on him, but for now his ship and his crew still had a fight to win.
Back inside the Lion's CIC, Liam watched as the affected areas changed on the status board from red to green. "Never gets any easier making these decisions. Extract our damage control teams from that section, and keep it exposed to vacuum until the fight is done with." Liam ordered once more, with a more sombre tone to his voice.
"Aye sir, I'll get it done," The Lieutenant replied evenly. "Sir, yard hounds are going to be pissed when they see the old girl back home… Especially when they see how shagged our armour is."
As macabre as that sentence was, Liam couldn't help himself and smirked.
"Carry on, Lieutenant," Liam said as he passed the key back, before making his way back to his station. He noticed Ka'mara looked like she swallowed a lemon.
"Ka'mara just give me a sitrep, don't sugar coat it," Liam said sharply.
Ka'mara grimaced, "Port pod is fucked, Roland's words not mine. Chief Carson has got the reactor restarted. He's prioritized engines, the HMWHS* and pods. He's worried they might overload the main fuses if they jumpstart the full grid."
Liam nodded in acknowledgement.
"Our blue steel strike worked, but black wing took thirty percent losses. The portside couldn't launch grey wing, so they took it on themselves to buy time for the battle buses," Ka'mara concluded.
November 30th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].
Hegemony Combined Fleet Alpha, Dreadnought Divine Right.
Bridge / Combat Information Centre.
[10 Hours until Alpha Relay Reinforcement Fleet arrives.] [Play: Manowar: Warriors of the world - Warriors of the world.]
Consoles flickered and died as crew scrambled back to their posts, The Divine Right had taken multiple hits from micro disruptor torpedoes to the aft. Reports were called out from the lower castes.
"Engines are critically damaged!" One Batarian junior officer bellowed.
"Fires have broken out in main engineering, the suit rat slaves are trying to prevent the spread and repair the damage," Another officer barked from their post.
"You useless sons of whores, do I have to do everything myself! Arm the fucking nukes, fuck taking any slaves! I want every fucking Turian on that damn planet dead!" Trentch was visibly enraged, near foaming at the mouth.
Vice Admiral Mehalek listened to the constant stream of slurs coming from his superior's mouth as he ranted and raved. Now, Vice Admiral Mehalek was something of a radical in Batarian culture. While he and his family owned slaves, they were well kept after and were never punished maliciously in a flagrant and public manor. He was a loving husband who remained loyal to his wife, finding concubines to be of bad taste.
He was a father who loved his children equally, even the bastards he sired early in his youth, with each of them set to inherit equal portions of his acquired wealth and owned lands. Most of all he was a true patriot, a man who realised an internal threat when he saw one.
Admiral Trentch had just become one such threat. Mehalek's dominant hand was fingering the safety strap holding his sidearm safely in its holster. Mehalek's position gave him some level of protection, he was after all the unnamed political officer. He could take executive action on behalf of the ruling party of the Hegemony. However, he would have to guarantee two kill shots to take command of the fleet.
Trentch would be the easiest kill shot seeing as he stood directly behind the man. Just close enough to raise his sidearm's barrel within the Kinetic barrier's envelope the Admiral donned at all times.
The problem was the Named Political Officer, who was openly supporting the Admirals actions by not taking direct action against him. The NPO knew full well that an escalation to total war was unacceptable to the Hegemony and the party. However, the man refused to take any action as he stood towards the front of the bridge.
Worse yet, the paranoid bastard was also wearing a kinetic barrier. A Batarian State Arms mark Nine. One of the strongest personal kinetic barriers on the Hegemony market.
The problem lay in the fact Mehalek was not donning his own kinetic barrier, as a measure to maintain his cover as just the Divine Rights executive officer. Frowning, Mahalek knew if he didn't take immediate action the Hegemony was well and truly going to be crushed. Not just by the Turian's who would move to a full navy mobilization, but by the greater galactic community as a whole.
Not even the neutral counsellors would be able to stop the call to arms by their respective governments if Trentch successfully glassed Agamemnon.
So, steeling himself, Mehalek activated his omni-tool and drew his sidearm before the Admiral or any of the crew could react to the situation. Mehalek blew the Admiral's brains out before declaring, "As the Hegemonies UnNamed Political Officer (UNPO), I declare the Admiral's orders to be an act of treason! Long live the Hegemony!"
Mehalek shifted his stance and took aim at the ship's NPO, firing multiple rounds into the man's kinetic barrier. Rounds ricocheted off the now visible barrier as it was struck multiple times by grain sized mass accelerated rounds. The panic caused had left the NPO somewhat flat footed, struggling to pull his own sidearm to shoot at the threat that stood some ways towards the back of the bridge.
Unfortunately for Mehalek, the NPO only had to get lucky once during the brief firefight. He disabled Mehalek's dominant arm with two shots to the shoulder, shattering his shoulder blade.
"Fucking treasonous cur!" the NPO barked as he approached the downed Vice Admiral.
"You know as well as I do that the Party forbade an escalation to total war! That glassing Agamemnon would not only do that very thing, but escalate it to a total war against the entire council!" Mehalek shot back with venom in his voice.
"Like I give a fuck! My son is dead, snuffed from existence by that dreadnought. Revenge will be mine, cur. I think glassing the planet will be just the start," The NPO said furiously as he stood directly over the Vice Admiral and pulled the trigger till the pistol's heat sink oversaturated.
Mehalek collapsed in a heap on the deck, blood pooling around the motionless corpse.
"Arm the nukes!" the NPO ordered the command staff. When no one made a move to follow his order, he pointed the pistol towards the crew. "NOW!" he bellowed.
November 30th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.
SSV LION R-106, Combat Information Centre.
[10 Hours until Alpha Relay Reinforcement Fleet arrives.]
[Play: The Hoosiers: The Trick To Life - Rules.]
Klaxons blared suddenly throughout the CIC.
"Radiological Alarm!" barked one of the officers from the alcoves above CIC. "They've armed nukes!"
Ka'mara was stunned. Either the officer commanding what was left of the Batarian fleet was getting desperate, or more than likely was just that stupid.
"Are they insane! They know full well going nuclear will escalate the war by pulling the council on to our side of the conflict!" Another Turian officer who was providing medical aid to a member of the CIC said in disbelief.
"Ka'mara. Get your father on the line, 'cos this is going to end one of two ways. With them standing down and surrendering to the Hierarchy, or with them being nuked to nothing more than dust and echoes," Liam said before turning to Smollet, saying one simple word. "Bandersnatch."
Turning towards the Chief Gunnery Officer, Liam gave him a simple set of instructions. "Contact the watch officer of the magazine, tell them, tell them to break open the hushed casket, I'm authorising the use of Katies."
"You sure sir? You'll be opening Pandora's Box." Liam grunted in the affirmative at the CGO's question.
"Better to have it ready and not need it." Liam answered.
November 30th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.
Capital City, Agamemnon, Blue Actual.
[Play: JAXSON GAMBLE: Warrior (Single) - Warrior]
"Bandersnatch, I repeat Bandersnatch, all birds stay clear of actual and x-rays!" Smollets voice came over each of the pilot's headsets. Without hesitation, those who hadn't already closed their sun visors did so.
In fear of a nuclear flash ending up frying their retinas, any vipers around the Lion peeled away to maneuver into the shadows of friendly naval forces. Shielding themselves from the initial blasts from the coming nuclear ordnance and following massive bursts of gamma radiation.
At least the pilots would have that additional safety margin. The Lion's gun crews had no such luck. Their only protection would be a few inches of lead, a couple of feet of titanium, and Potassium Iodide pills better known as KI pills to weather the storm.
Blue Actual, still flying CAS for the ground pounders planetside, strafing targets of opportunity, shook his head at the call. The Batarian fleet in orbit had just made itself less of AN enemy and more of THE enemy. A very fine distinction, but a distinction nevertheless.
It was a line few extremists crossed back home.
Authorizing or striking a clear civilian target with conventional weapons, would be met with a swift and brutal kick in the teeth and balls. Before having their ass tried at the Hague on Earth maybe costing you a decade or two.
Authorizing or striking a clear civilian target with nuclear, biological, chemical or radiological weapons…. Well the last man who had done such an attack and lived to see their ship being boarded by the Lion's marines, lets just say had led a miserable life and still was.
The poor bastard had found himself 'slipping on soap in his cell shower stall'. Which broke his spine in such a way to not only give him limited mobility, but left him in excruciating pain for the rest of his natural life. While he rotted away in a maximum security prison in 24/7 solitary confinement for his own protection.
All whilst the courts battled and consistently delayed the death penalty.
November 30th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.
HNV Spirit of Palaven, Combat Information Centre.
[10 Hours until Alpha Relay Reinforcement Fleet arrives.]
[Play: Thirty Seconds to Mars: This is War - Search and Destroy.]
Admiral Galavan Nyx couldn't believe it. The Batarian fleet had armed nukes. Not one member of the staff in the Palavans' CIC made a noise. Ka'mara had told him over his private comms line, that this would end one of two ways.
The first, surrender; the second, death.
"Open a channel, all frequencies," Galavan ordered. The comms officer complied, giving a nod to acknowledge that they had followed the given order.
"This is Admiral Nyx, I am giving you one opportunity to stand down your nuclear armaments and surrender. Failure to comply will be met with retaliatory force…. This is your only warning," Galavan warned with a growl to his flanged voice.
"Sir, multiple hardpoints just lit up on the Lion's ventral hull. I'm reading radiological signatures. Her ventral flanks are lined with multiple single use missile launchers. By the spirits! Sensors detect 800 low yield tactical nuclear missiles!"
The live tactical map before the Admiral updated real time. Showing the Lion limping forward into a vanguard position and presenting the largest number of anti-fighter batteries, whilst adjusting enough that the hull breach was facing away from potential nuclear strikes.
Nodding to himself, Galavan realized what the crew of the Lion were trying to accomplish. Opening the sixth fleet's channel, Galavan began issuing orders. "Reform the fleet, I want a secondary interception grid in place behind the Lion in case this fails. Spirits guide us if it does."
Galavan paused for a moment, before issuing another order. "Comms contact the Lion's fighter craft. Have them stationed by our ventral hulls, we're extending the range of our Guardian Lasers to their maximum."
"Aye sir."
It wouldn't be long before the admiral received a very obvious response to his request for surrender; as missiles were launched sporadically from the Batarian vessels. "By the Spirit's! Nuclear weapons have been launched!"
Outside as dozens of multi megaton nukes bared down on the Lion and the Hierarchy fleet, all of the Lion's available CIWS opened fire, golden tracers denying the immediate space around the Lion.
Nuclear explosions lit up space with miniature artificial suns, some were singular others in chain reactions, eventually a few slipped through.
November 30th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.
SSV LION R-106, Gun Charlie-3.
[10 Hours until Alpha Relay Reinforcement Fleet arrives.]
Minutes Earlier…
[Play: The Prodigy: Invaders Must Die - Warrior's Dance.]
The order had been given to all of the gun captains, commanding the dorsal batteries to load Katies; there were very few exemptions placed within the Alliance Charter that permitted the use of such controversial ammunition.
Given the fact all of the gun crews were given orders to boost up on Potassium Iodide (KI), before the order to pull the Katies meant one thing; the poor bastards they'd been shelling for the last couple of hours had gone nuclear.
Escalating the situation, the gun captain's thoughts were broken when one of the loaders on the leftmost breach barked. "Gun 1 Ready!"
Followed by the centreline. "Gun 2 Ready!"
And finally the rightmost. "Gun 3 Ready, let's kick some slaver teeth in, sir."
No one could see out of the gun, but they felt the tell tale vibrations of hundreds of CIWS guns opening up. "Steady lads, wait for the order, I won't be bailing your arses out of court for twitching on the trigger."
Outside, several tracers clipped the back end of one of the nuclear missiles causing it to spin vertically, as it continued under its own constant momentum. Inside the Lion an announcement was made. "All hands brace for contact!"
The ship shook violently as the nuke impacted directly on Gun Charlie-3, the crew felt nothing for in an instant the explosion consumed them, they died laughing at their captain's quip.
Meanwhile in CIC Liam found himself with some newly bruised ribs and a migraine to boot. "Damage Report!" He bellowed, gritting his teeth in the process.
"Gun Charlie-3 took a direct hit…. It's gone. Charlie's 1 and 4 have sustained most of the damage, they're knocked out of action, Charlie 2 reports that they're good to go." The CGO reported with a hand to his earpiece.
That's when a second and third nuke made contact. "Fucking hell!" Liam bellowed as several console fuses blew out.
"Dual nuke strikes on the dorsal armour plate, fires have broken out on A, B, E, G and I decks. Damage Control is responding." An officer bellowed from one of the above alcoves. "Armour kept out the hard stuff." they finished.
"Several nukes made it past us, the Hierarchy is working to intercept them." Smollet reported from her station.
"Sir, several ships haven't fired, their ordnance is still hot in the tubes, orders?" one of the sensor operators asked. "Keep our guns screening those fuckers, if they launch we kill them, get targeting solutions for our Rapier pods, any ship that opened fire. End them."
"Aye sir!"
It took less than a minute for the battered and bloodied Lion to end the lives of thousands; the Divine Right and its followers were reduced to nothing but dust and echoes, the remaining ships realising they were well and truly fucked, surrendered.
Fortunately, the Lion lacked the facilities to take on a surge of POW's and freed slaves, which left the Search and Rescue efforts to the Sixth fleet and the surviving Agamemnon planetary defence force vessels.
The Lion, now sporting far more numerous war scars, took to positioning herself in stationary orbit above the capital city, besides the Lion was the Pride of Palaven. "Retract the pods, it's time we put some goddamn boots on the ground. Open the toy box, I want armour support down there yesterday."
Ka'mara nodded, picking up her wireless to give the order, all the while Liam picked his own wireless up typing in one of the many memorised directories. "Major Fenix, get your ground pounders into the pod's, you and yours are going to play nice with the locals; take Steel Raptor Troop with you. One to a section to act as interpreters, lest the civvies blow your ugly mug off."
Ka'mara looked across to Liam as he put the wireless down. "Get Durandall and Roland on the line and tell them to rig Sheila, Fury, Oddball and Black Knight for Orbit to Ground transit."
"I'll get it done." Ka'mara replied, a little more relieved that Agamemnon was secure orbitally. "My father will want to arrange to come aboard." She stated matter of factly.
"I'll be happy to arrange it, but first. I need a sitrep on those fires that broke out." Liam said as he turned towards the alcoves.
"Sir, two gas lines to mess halls three and nine ruptured. The chief cook and his crew managed to get the blaze in three under control, minor injuries, mess nine was worse off DCT's deployed Argon gas to suppress it, three fatalities reported." One of the junior officers barked out in response.
"Damage control teams have got the other fires under control, marines rocked up with additional fire extinguishers seeing as the fire on G deck was threatening one of their armouries." Another junior officer chipped in.
"Alright, once everything is dealt with, I want damage control efforts on effecting expedient repairs, hull breaches can be left as they are, I got a shit feeling we haven't seen the last of the Batarian Hegemony yet." Liam rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Spirits willing they won't be stupid enough to commit a second wave." Ka'mara muttered.
To Be Continued….
Notes: *HMWHS - Highly Mechanised Weapons Handling System.
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