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Chapter

Eight

Bai-Umbra System

Part I

David O'Rourke watched the seconds tick by on the mission clock, counting down the MHS Burnside's exit from hyperspace. The timing of their exit would be crucial to the success of this raid. Precisely two minutes and eight seconds ago, the MHS Sol had exited hyperspace in the Bai-Umbra system, and began deploying its starfighters. The two Rovellan space stations in orbit around the sixth planet, which guarded a supply depot on its fifth moon, would then undoubtedly send out their warriors, clad in suits of combat power armor to engage the Martians. However, once the Rovellans flew half the distance from their stations towards the Sol and its fighters, six Martian destroyers were cloaked and waiting to block their return. At that point, the Burnside, and its sister-ship, the Steele would drop out of hyperspace next to the stations and open fire with their massive main guns. If they exited out of hyperspace too soon, then the Rovellans would be able to turn and defend the stations before they were blocked by the destroyers, too late and not only would the Burnside be ripped out of hyperspace and be caught in the gas giant's gravity well, but the stations would have time to call for reinforcements as well.

"Wepps," he addressed his weapons officer by the standard occupational nickname, because as an Arkaethan, the Major had no other name, "get a lock on their comm arrays as soon as possible, and get our shields up as soon as we clear the hyperspace window."

Aye, sir, already on it, the leaf-covered alien acknowledged the captain's order, telepathically speaking Martian. It looked up from its crew pit and nodded at O'Rourke, before turning and silently directing its subordinates. Many junior officers and new enlisted personnel found Wepps' silent speech and large, unblinking eyes to be unnerving, but it had served under David for almost fifteen years now, and he had long since gotten used to it.

"Jackson, how long?" David asked his navigator.

"Fifteen seconds, Captain," the young lieutenant responded rather stiffly. Jackson had transferred aboard the Burnside just before the task force had left on its mission, and so she was still finding her rhythm among the crew. O'Rourke had decided to use this precision jump as means of testing his new navigator's abilities.

"Ten... Nine... Eight..." Jackson began counting down their exit, "Seven... Six... Five... Four... Three... Two... One..."

The Faenir helmswoman, Ensign Anders, disengaged the _Burnside's_hyperdrive and the ship shot back into realspace. Dead ahead of them, visible in the forward view port, was their assigned space station.

Shields up, target lock on enemy's comm array has been acquired, Wepps informed David before he could even ask.

"Commence firing," he ordered.

Dozens of heavy blaster batteries along each side of the Burnside_began sending a hail of fire towards the Rovellan space station. The crimson packets of energy splashed against the station's shields several hundred feet before the actual structure. Once the shields had been worn down, then the _Burnside's missile batteries could fire preciscion warheads to knock-out the station's critical systems, such as the comm array.

David quickly brought up a tactical sensor map on one of the screens attached to his command chair. Sandwiched between the Sol and its fighters, and the Burnside and the Steele, was the formation of armored Rovellan warriors. Their nimble suits had already begun to turn and suddenly, as David watched, six medium-sized blips materialized out of nothingness on the display, directly between the two Martian battleships and the enemy formation.

"Excellent job, Jackson," he commended his navigator, "We're precisely where we need to be."

"You say that as if you were expecting otherwise, Captain," she quipped.

David chuckled and glanced over to see her smiling back. "Wepps, what's the status of that station's shields?" he returned his attention to the battle.

One moment, Captain... Target's shields are down, missiles are away... A few more seconds passed and then there was a small, but bright flash on the dorsal section of the station, visible through the bridge's main view port. Direct hit, target's comm array has been destroyed, Wepps reported.

"Excellent, begin charging the main cannon, and target the station's power core."

Aye, sir.

David returned his attention to the tactical display. Just at a quick glance, it appeared as if the Rovellans had already lost at least a third of their warriors from the last time he had looked at the screen. Unlike most of the galactic super powers, who used squadrons of starfighters, the Rovellans preferred flying in suits of robotic power armor that allowed them a personal feel in combat, which suited their warrior culture. They were basically giant space suits with an engine strapped on the back, and a few blasters and missiles mounted as well. While the suits were more agile, and difficult to spot, being about a third the size of a starfighter, they were easily destroyed, having no shields, little armor, and they had no where near the speed of a starfighter. Still, the Rovellans stubbornly used them, so that they could keep combat up-close and personal. The six destroyers had also done their part to eliminate some of the Rovellan warriors. Though their batteries were smaller and less powerful than the mighty guns of the Burnside and the Steele, they could track fast moving targets.

"Ensign Chung," he addressed the young comm officer, "patch me through to Admiral Vaeres aboard the Sol."

"Aye, Captain. Shall I put it through to your console, or on the main viewer, sir?" Chung asked. Typical of a recent academy graduate, he usually asked for specific instructions for any task, instead of making an educated guess. Chung had come aboard with Lieutenant Jackson, a last minute replacement for the Burnside's old comm officer, who had been killed while on shore-leave, during the Rovellan raid on Tanaeus Four. Like Wepps, David had served with the old comm officer, a Kowesh Lieutenant named Garnel, for many years. It would take some time to get Chung broken in.

"Put him through to my console, Ensign," he answered. He would have to let Chung know to always put his communications through to his console, unless otherwise stated. That was something Garnel had picked up right away. David decided he would pull the kid aside later for a talk, instead of admonishing him in front of the rest of the bridge crew.

After about thirty seconds, the Admiral appeared on one of the view screens attached to David's command chair. "General," the Admiral addressed him by his official rank, instead of the more informal title of captain, "What can I do for you?"

"Just wanted to make sure that the enemy didn't get off any transmissions before we took out their comm systems, sir."

"Negative. It looks like we caught them completely off guard. You're plan seems to have gone off without a hitch. When you're finished with the defense station, start softening up the lunar base. The _Sol_will begin deploying the marines once we've eliminated all of the enemy combat suits."

"Aye, sir. O'Rourke out."

The_Burnside_ continued to pummel the Rovellan space station with its gun batteries while it was left nearly defenseless, its warriors trapped on the other side of the Martian destroyers, their numbers rapidly dwindling.

The main cannon is fully charged, Captain, Wepps finally announced after five minutes of waiting. Though it took a great deal of time to charge, five minutes is an eternity in combat, the massive cannon that ran along the Burnside's long, ventral axis was capable of destroying an enemy starship or space station in a single blast. It could even be employed to obliterate comets, asteroids, and small moons in emergency situations.

"Excellent, fire when ready," David gave the order. Wepps signaled one of his subordinates in the weapons systems crew pit, and a stream of directed energy, a quarter-mile wide, shot forth from the bow of the battleship. Within seconds, the space station's power core destabilized, and erupted in an uncontrolled fission reaction. For a few brief seconds, a bright flash filled the entirety of the bridge's view ports. The ship shook slightly as a wake of ionized particles buffeted its shields. When the flash subsided, only the tiniest pieces of the station remained, drifting and colliding into each other randomly in the void of space.

"Ensign Anders, bring us into a geo-synchronous orbit over the supply depot on the moon, roll the ship to give our batteries a clear firing solution."

"Aye, Captain," Anders responded, and began to adjust the _Burnside's_heading. Anders had been serving on the ship for a little more than a year now, and it was likely she would make lieutenant before this tour of duty was over.

It was another thirty minutes before the last of the Rovellan combat suits had been eliminated, and the Sol began sending shuttles full of Hegemonic marines down to the surface of the moon. Despite the heavy bombardment the outpost had taken from the Burnside_and the _Steele, the remaining Rovellans on the surface, true to their nature, fought tenaciously, and it would be almost six hours before the last pockets of resistance had been eliminated.

On the Burnside, the bridge crew assembled in the captain's mess for a celebratory dinner, while the ship's Niäsan executive officer, Commander Bedohl, and the relief bridge crew began the evening watch. Though it had been an easy victory; only five Martian starfighters had been lost and there were a few minor hull breeches on the Venus, one the destroyers; things could have gone much worse. It had also been David who had petitioned the fleet's admiral with the unorthodox strategy of using precision hyperspace exits to catch the enemy off guard, and therefore, the fleet's victory was largely due to him.

"So, stop me if you've heard this one," Major Nemin began. David had asked the ship's chief engineer to join them at dinner, mainly because the Bemoi was so entertaining, and would quickly fill any awkward silences, should they pop up. "Two Klaknari walk into a bar on Delorkon Two, each with a dictation bot trailing behind them, carefully recording their master's business dealings. Suddenly, the bartender turns around and sees them, and announces, 'Hey we don't serve their kind here! They'll have to leave!' so one of the dictation bots turns to its master and says, 'I'm sorry sir, why don't you go wait outside," Nemin ended his joke with a huge Bemoi grin, flipping his lips inside out, which always got laughs in and of itself.

Most of the crew had a good laugh, but Ensign Chung looked perplexed, wondering what everyone was laughing at.

"I don't get it," he finally admitted, "why did the bot tell the Klaknari to leave?"

"Because Delorkon Two is a bot-world, Scott," Anders explained.

"A bot-world?" Chung was still confused.

"It's in the Thladian Commonwealth, neighboring the Fullini home system, Sengal. The Fullini created a model of self-aware androids about two-hundred years ago, eventually the Commonwealth passed laws giving full citizenship rights to any self-aware bots, just as if they were organics. After a while, these androids were even given their own 'homeworld' to settle," David explained.

"You're kidding... They gave bots citizenship rights?!"

"I swear on the keel of the ship," David assured him.

"Dang, I knew the Commonwealth was crazy, but giving bots citizenship!" the young ensign shook his head. "What do they look like?" he added.

"The original models were all the same," David began to describe them. "They were short like the Fullini who built them, about five-six, they had grav-ball-shaped heads and a cylindrical torso. Their arms and legs were like long segmented cables about three inches in diameter. But once they were given their own world, they started constructing themselves. They stopped sticking with their original design schematics, or even a strictly humanoid shape. The only thing that remained the same was the design of their sentient CPU."

"Dang, so they can look like anything then?"

"Pretty much," Anders expounded on the captain's description, "there are giant farming bots, military models, and there's even a rumor that they have starship-type ones; completely self-aware ships that have no crew."

"Come on," Chung said skeptically, "now I know you're pulling my leg. Starship bots?!"

"It's a big galaxy, kid," Jackson said as she stood up from the table, "and you get to see it all in the Hegemonic Armed Forces."

"Yup," Nemin chimed in, "Didn't you see the recruitment poster?" He flashed one of his inside-out grins again.

Smiling at Nemin's quip, Jackson excused herself, "Well I need to hit my bunk if I'm going to be fit for duty tomorrow. If you'll excuse me, sirs" she saluted David, Wepps, and Nemin.

"Dismissed, Lieutenant," David saluted back casually, adding, "Once again, good job on those hyperspace plots."

"Thank you, sir," she smiled back at him as she exited the room.

Anders and Chung both excused themselves, leaving the Captain with his two senior officers.

"Well, what do you guys think?" David asked.

Jackson seems to be acclimating well, though I can sense some underlying tension in Chung, Wepps broadcasted his thoughts to David and Nemin. I believe some battle simulations would be beneficiary for him before we become involved in a less orderly combat situation than we had today.

"I agree, Cap'n," Nemin added, "I got a lot of new crewers down in engineering. They're smart, and know the ship's systems like the back of their hands, but I'm worried if they'll be able to focus on their repairs if the Burnside's getting rocked by enemy fire."

"Unfortunately, I think we'll be too involved in the real thing to have time for simulations. I have to hop a shuttle over to the Sol to meet with the Admiral about our next target. We have to begin clearing out the systems around Olm Naefti, but after I get back I'll see what Bedohl and I can work out for drills."

David stood up from the table and headed for the door.

"Oh, and Cap'n," Nemin stopped him, "As for Jackson, I'd watch out... I think she's got a crush on you..." he grinned.

"Great that's just what I need... Kieran gets jealous enough when there isn't anything to worry about."

Even Wepps laughed at that, the leaves on its face contorting around its eyes. Both it and Nemin, having served with David for many years, had witnessed his wife's temper, which was as fiery as her hair. She was always very irritable when David had female bridge crewers, even though he had never looked at another woman since they had been married.

"You guys keep that to yourselves, or you'll wish the Rovellans had gotten to you," he warned as he left the room.