The Gandalf was rocketing through space at flank speed, its engines pounding the hyperspace as they burned deeply into it.
Stacia Clarke was in the engineering section, she had on her sleeveless uniform shirt that she used as padding for her exercises, and it was steaming in here. The main temperature controls had failed because of the last Centauri attack, and they were far down her priority list to repair. Right now she was working on the main navigational controls, trying to boost power to the sensors and computer so they could stay locked on the beacon and cut a few hours off their trip.
She needed to bring it back up to full specs. She also had a team going over the battle armor, checking it and repairing it as best they could.
She ran over her diagnostic board, wiping her forehead in the process to keep sweat out of her eyes. The Captain had ordered a full burn right to Earth, at this rate she would have just enough time to complete the repairs necessary…she smiled whimsically, only to have it blown up and in need of repair again.
She heard the hatch leading to the lower decks iris open, glanced down curiously and saw Michael striding in.
"Whoa." He said upon entering. "This reminds me of my Dad's summer kitchen."
Stacia stared at him blearily, and then finally she shook her head clear, getting back to work by running a diagnostic tool over the piece of engine that she was near.
She then heard him climb the metal chain stairs leading up to the second level where she was at.
"How is it coming?" He asked curiously.
"Slowly…but we should be done soon, and just in time for us to get to Earth in another day."
"That's good" He said, sweat finally starting to break out on his forehead.
She was suddenly glad of his presence, suddenly glad that he came into give her a distraction from all of the many things she was doing, she was starting to get a bit overwhelmed by it all.
"How are the battle simulations coming?" She asked.
He frowned worried. "Not well, with the force that the Centauri are likely able to muster against us the odds do not favor us at all. Even if we arrive it just will not be enough, if the Centauri do what they are supposed to, only hope if the rest of the EA fleet or the ISA get there, and according to coms report, both fleets have been mobilized in part."
"Will we make it?" She said at him looking tired and worried.
"I honestly don't know. And with us racing off into the battle the way we are I do not have the time to go up in the squadrons and have the new sets really practice with one another, just briefings. Which I got another one to do in about five minutes."
"Fine, have fun."
"Uh…yeah sure, buckets of it I am sure." He said stalking off, looking a bit uncomfortable again.
She sighed and then started to get to work again.
Captain Patterson was wringing his hands on the bridge of his ship, pacing back and forth slightly. It was so frustrating going into battle and not really knowing what to expect when one got there, especially as it was the fate of your species that was on the line. But he could do nothing other then wait.
An orderly was attaching new light panels toward the back of the bridge, getting them back online, and tactical was coordinating with other repair teams, making sure that the weapons got online again. The Bridge was a bee hive of activity, but alas he could not do any of it himself, just receive status reports every now and then.
He was bored and anxious. The fate of his entire species was at stake, and there was nothing he could really do about it at the moment. Not knowing was the most difficult thing in the world. And the waiting, the transitioning from one extreme event to the other, hoping you could get there in time.
And there was his own personal stake in the matter, which caused him to pause and stare out the window in reflection.
James Norman stepped up behind him. "We are still about fifteen hours out." He said casually.
"I know James, we should not have waited as long as we did, I should have ordered an immediate burn, this is just so frustrating."
"We will get there when we get there, unless there is something else on your mind?"
Patterson sighed to himself deeply. "Oh you know there is."
James let himself go down into silence for a few moments as he absorbed this. "You know, when we get there you should probably go see them."
"Too much to do once we get there, fending off am interstellar armada tends to dry up ones time after all." He said with a wry smile.
"If we have the time to make, you will make it I am sure." James said wisely, Patterson gave his first officer an odd look.
"Why not" Patterson mumbled, contemplating that grim fact of life as the ship continued to lurch forward into the vortex.
He grunted to himself then made a fluid motion over to operations. "Status" He ordered.
"We are still about a day out sir, no word yet from Earth other then the general recall order a little while ago. Engineering reports that they are up to about 60% armor recharged, and most of the critical internal systems are repaired. Med Bay just discharged their last wounded member of the crew ten minutes ago, and Doctor Albright is in the process of cataloging what we have for future reference."
"Thank you Ensign" He said, then he returned to his seat, plopping himself down in it, and then he crossed his legs.
"Now all we have to do is wait for the dawn." Norman said brooding.
"May it not be our last." Patterson agreed with less enthusiasm then he should mutter under the circumstances.
"Agreed." A crewman said in the back of the bridge, Norman frowned, Patterson smiled at that though. He liked his crew.
He just hoped that it would not be the last time that they would get to be together before hurtling off into another fire, too many of them had died already on this perilous command. This bitter tour of duty that he had placed himself into, he had no one else to blame but himself.
It was his responsibility to keep his crew safe, to lead them through the darkness and the light, the candle and the star, no one else had this enormous responsibility.
He came to a decision with the finality that he came to this decision the eight times since they left the research colony.
"We need to run another battle simulation." He announced.
"Another one sir, we have run eight in the last while?" The Ensign manning ops asked boldly and curiously.
"There might be a too fine point to something." Norman ventured.
"We are no where near that point yet Colonel; there are still so many scenarios to be run, schedule it for ten minutes."
"Yes sir." Norman said. It was his unique position; he just realized with an uncomfortable start, to be the ultimate balancer. To balance out his military need for drill and regularity with the needs of the crew, he knew that this was not going to make Stacia a happy girl. But that was irrelevant in the long run.
In the end the simulation went off without a hitch, nearly perfect. Fending off a long term siege while massively outnumbered, it probably helped that the crew did have real world experience. But not in a guerilla war type setting that the Sim called for.
Still the situations were similar enough that the crew used their experience and knowledge and translated them over to come away with a near flawless record. They were almost ready to defend their home.
Of course no one knew how they were going to react in such a situation until they were presented with it. Especially this one, they were fighting for their home. The right for their species to continue to exist and play a roll in the interstellar community, for all that was worth, and all the pain that came with it.
Sixty Four Percent of the Crew was from Earth.
Over eighty from the Solar System, even a mixture of "Marsies" were in amongst the crew.
And there was not one amongst them that was not a human that did not have all the trappings and flaws, and grandeur that came with the species. And they would be fighting for the cradle of their civilization, the birthplace of keys and nexuses, scarce few humans could contemplate the roll they had played on the stage. Only others knew. Others on distant worlds, grateful to humanity for all it had done. And condemning for all of its sins.
This is what they were fighting for, one of the only things worth fighting for. The right to continue to live, just live, to make of your life and of the universe what you will, and to live free and justly, without the overburdened strains of governments or of the threat of alien invasion.
After all that is why the military existed in the first place, this was always their jobs, to defend humanity, no matter the pain no matter the blood and no matter the cost. To defend humanity against all of its foes, both foreign and domestic.
It is never the roll of this military to be an instrument of the government to be used on the people, never an instrument of oppression, only an instrument of freedom, to keep men free and to try and free others who did not have that voice nor that right. Though sadly they had been used too many times as an instrument of great evil, once was already a thousand times too often. And they had to clean house, under the leadership of those like John Sheridan and Mathew Gideon, to be there for the people.
This was a sacred honor, and a sacred duty. Passed down by civilizations of old with the same desire, and the same yearning, a yearning to be free, to live their lives in a peaceful world.
The Gandalf surged, entering the outer solar system, their home, their engines lightly revving as they were getting ready to transition back into normal space.
The coms console on the bridge started to beep, drawing the attention of everyone that was on the bridge at the time, Patterson looked over as the crewman listened intently to her ear piece.
"Sir, message from a ship that is near the Io relay station, it sounds like a standard distress signal."
Patterson's stomach knotted up, but his face remained passive as he waved for the young woman to put it on the Bridge speakers.
"This is the EAS Morgan Le Fey calling any other ships in the local area, we were jumped by a battle squadron of Centauri Vorchan class cruisers and require immediate assistance. Just us and an Omega were on station, we have taken massive damage so far, hull breaches on multiple levels, does anyone hear me?"
Patterson scowled to himself before making up his mind. "Battlestations! Set condition one throughout the ship, charge weapons and prepare the outer armor, load all rail guns and prepare for close in fighting."
The crew made to follow his orders, as they all got ready for the battle ahead.
Stacia looked up from her work just as the alarm klaxons began to sound, she could not believe this, and they were not the nice and quiet ones of yet another battle drill either. She stormed over to one of the com relays and slammed down on the button. "Bridge, what is going on?"
"Sorry Stacia, we received a distress call from Io, they are under attack and need our assistance."
Her hands turned pale as she gripped the panel too hard. "Affirmative, just don't break her too much."
"I will do my best, Patterson out."
"And I just got her fixed too!" She threw her hands up in exasperation and then sighed. "Alright everyone, we have jobs to do, spread out on damage control duty and bolt everything down, we need to make sure that we do not take too much damage this time." Her officers nodded as they all got to work.
"Weapons, set interceptors for a wider dispersal pattern," Patterson ordered.
"Purpose being?"
"We need to let the bigger bolts and bursts to be stopped, those should be the ones that we worry about in our condition, if we worry about all of them we will just wear out our interceptors and defenses, we need a way to stop them swiftly, letting some of the lighter shots through…our armor should be able to hold up to that for awhile."
"Yes sir" The weapons nodded as he began to make the adjustments.
Colonel Norman stepped up behind him. "All sections reporting locked down and ready for action, we are ready to engage the enemy."
"Thank you Colonel, Navigation, proceed at will. Jump when you are ready."
"Arriving at transfer point in 3….2…..1…." The power to the jump engines surged as the ship opened a jump point, transitioning back into normal space….
Into the raging inferno, the battle was raging full force by the time they arrived on the scene.
A Starfury exploded in mid space, twirling in on itself in one fireball, another spinning around on its retros and firing, clipping a Centauri fighter as it spun off in the distance on fire. Another fighter shot at the still turning Fury, destroying one of its engines and causing it to spin and hit one of the cruisers. Two Starfuries were fleeing from a group of fighters, one exploded and the other had to try and rocket out of the way, though it was eventually destroyed.
The Warlock Class Heavy Destroyer exploded off in the distance, its defenses just plain overwhelmed by the number of targets that it had to face.
The Gandalf though got the ship that got its sister, ripping it in two with its two heavy particle beams, destroying it almost instantly, the Gandalf itself was beginning to take heavy fire from a pair of cruisers, it countered with its own Ion batteries, both sides scoring some impressive hits on one another's hull plating. The Gandalf then launched the rest of her fighters, as the battle continued to rage all around her.
On the bridge the officers had to brace their hands against the control panel as hit after hit after hit rocked through the ship and caused multiple breaches in the hull, their interceptors just were not enough to be facing two Centauri cruisers. They were beginning to buckle and they needed help, they were responding ferociously with counter battery fire, landing some good hits themselves, they were within 200 kilometers.
"Sir, we are beginning to take massive damage." One of the ops officers said turning around in his seat, screaming over the din of the battle.
"I think it would be a good time for some nukes." James Norman said crossing over to stand beside his captain.
"I know James, but with their defenses the way they are, we will be lucky if we are able to get through that wicked cross fire, and I doubt we could get a nuke in there."
"Sir, message coming in from Keegan." The flight control officer said suddenly from the back of the bridge, catching his Captain's attention.
"Put him on." Patterson said gruffly, keeping the annoyance out of his voice.
"Sir, it's obvious, we need nukes for this or we are dead, we simply cannot survive long enough to affect the enemy without them."
"Your point?" James spoke up.
"Sir, let us escort the nukes in, I think we can do it, have Delta and Alpha Squadrons escort the bombs in."
"It's risky." James observed.
"Do we have a choice?" Patterson asked.
"No" Keegan answered.
"OK, fire control, alight six of the nukes launch pens, two decoys and four fully armed. Have the decoys give out more radiation, which should be enough to confuse them that extra bit. Set fuses for proximity, five kilometers distance from the main targets, EMP dispersal to the max."
"Yes sir!" the officer said just as another hit rocked the ship greatly, causing the ceiling to spark slightly.
The tubes deployed spewing the long cylinders of the missiles as they exploded to the targets, the Starfuries got in line, Alpha acting as interceptors, and the Marine fliers making advanced strafing runs on the enemy ship, losing several fighters in the process, but most of the pilots and their EWOs bailing out to fight another day.
The bombs exploded exactly like they should, ripping two of the primary cruisers apart, taking care of a third recon vessel, and the shockwave slammed into a Morado class cruiser, causing massive damage.
The ships sensors failed, and by the time they had the chance of getting them online, the Gandalf had pounced on the enemy ship quite quickly, hitting it hard with multiple blasts from their main railguns, ripping the ship to shreds. The Gandalf then turned on its heels and blasted towards the final engagement going on, the one between the Earth Force Omega and another couple of cruisers. The main station was now secured so this was the only battle that they had to worry about.
The Omega was trying to defend herself doggedly from her aggressors, just hopefully hanging on long enough for someone to come to their aid.
It did.
The Gandalf swooped in high from the other side of the battle, firing its G.O.D. cannons at extremely close range, ripping one of the cruisers to shreds and actually damaging another, then its Ion Cannons got to work slamming into the other two cruisers causing their defenses to be stripped away in one solid blast, this was followed up by blasts from the main railguns, which swept away the twin cruisers before they could make their retreat.
"Thanks for the save" The Omega's commander said over the speakers.
"You are welcome, we will stay in escort position until we can get you into space dock, and if you are jump capable I suggest you use it."
"Affirmative, we are." The Commander said and then signing off, obviously too tied up with getting his ship under way then with appropriate decorum.
The larger Warlock settled into position off the port bow of her sister, protecting her as she made the jump to hyperspace, the Gandalf then made her own jump into the hyperspace, heading off for Earth to debrief and report in.
Several moments later the ship was in orbit around the lunar colony, waiting to receive her orders from the EA command structure. More and more ships were arriving by the hour, to take up defense of their home world. The area of responsibilities were changing almost constantly.
General Baker was on the screen. "Scott, you will join up with your normal battle squadron and fleet assignments, you will be the emergency flag ship in case the primary one falls in battle, you will take your orders…especially your fighters…from group 12 command. We do not know at this time how many ships will be with you joining the fight, but Group 12 is the last one, so it may not be all that many, right now we only have five others including the flag ship of the group. I understand though you have taken some damage?"
Patterson got up and jolted his uniform into position. "Yes, we have. We never got our battle damage sorted out in the first place, and we need some basic over hauls, we have been in combat since the beginning of the war."
"I see, well then, you should be fine in docking berth 12. It should take about an hour, and then get on out, other ships are waiting for the chance."
"Understood," The com panel blinked out. "Helm, go to docking berth 12, set course for the beacon, and then turn the control over to the dock master."
"Aye aye sir." The Helm said, and then he punched in the buttons on the control panel completing the order.
The ship docked in the birth, and that was the end, until the war would be declared again, and the storm began.
All they had left to do, was await the dawn.