The burden of command, p.4
The Burden of Command, page 4
part #14 of Empire Rising Series
“No honor among thieves,” Lieutenant Gonzales commented.
“Or they think they have the best chance of escaping if they split up,” Captain Domingo responded.
Or they’re just scared out of their wits, Jake thought, but didn’t say out loud. From what he had read of the few run-ins Imperial ships had with pirate vessels, the pirates could have had ten ships and Resolute still would have a strong chance of defeating them all. Of course, there was no way to know for sure how heavily armed each of the ships in front of Resolute were, but it would take a lot to outgun an Imperial cruiser.
“All right,” Captain Domingo said. “Bring our reactors and engines up to full power. Open a systemwide COM channel.”
“Channel open Captain,” Lieutenant Hitoshi replied instantly.
“Pirate vessels, this is IS Resolute, we are a heavily armed cruiser. Each of your ships is currently being tracked by four missiles. Cut your engines and heave to immediately, or you will be fired upon. Repeat, cut your engines and heave to immediately. You have thirty seconds.”
Everyone on Resolute’s bridge watched the energy readings coming from each of the three ships. They didn’t falter. In fact, one of the ships increased their acceleration rates, likely pushing their engines beyond their safety limits. “Lieutenant Jackson, a warning shot, if you please,” Domingo requested.
“Aye Captain,” Jake responded. With a tap on his command console, one of Resolute’s twin plasma cannons shot out two superheated plasma bolts. At a speed of 0.4c they closed the distance to the nearest pirate ship in six seconds. Each bolt crossed directly in front of the vessels’ nose.
“There will be no more warnings,” Domingo said over the open COM channel. Still, none of the pirate ships decreased their acceleration rates. “Lieutenant Jackson, take the vessel that has increased its acceleration.”
“Yes Captain,” Jake replied instantly. His hand hesitated though. He had never fired a missile in anger before. The pirate vessel was full of sentients. And maybe even Humans who have been captured, a voice reminded himself. Yet, there was nothing else he could do for them. Pressing his finger down caused a mark VII missile to be accelerated out of its missile tube. As soon as it got two hundred meters away from Resolute, its engines kicked in and began to rapidly accelerate towards the pirate ship furthest away from the cruiser. Come on, Jake thought towards their pirate ship. Cut your engines. Cut your engines. His finger had moved to hover over the button that would send a command for the missile to self-destruct.
The other two pirate ships did cut their engines. Yet, the third stubbornly refused to. Point defenses on the converted freighter began to open up on the Imperial missile. Yet, the missile had already begun to carry out evasive maneuvers. Its ECM unit also pumped out copious amounts of energy, throwing off the freighters’ aim. Then the missile got close enough to release its payload. First, strips of its forward sections fell away, revealing twelve smaller missiles. Each missile locked onto the freighter with their own warheads. Then they ignited their engines. Accelerating at rates five times faster than the mark VII’s main engine could propel them, they raced towards the freighter. Their high-speed evasive maneuvers made them all but impossible to hit. Not even one was hit. Jake had targeted the freighter’s engines with the small missiles. All of them slammed home within the space of a half second. Detonating, they released balls of antimatter that ate into the freighters hull. In the blink of an eye, they wiped out nearly a quarter of its rear. For a moment, Jake thought that the freighter’s crew had been spared. If there were captured Humans on board, there was a chance Resolute could catch up to the freighter and send across boarding shuttles. A sudden explosion smashed his hopes. Something inside the freighter overloaded and the entire ship was blasted into wreckage. Guilt assaulted Jake. He had just killed for the first time.
“Send a drone to that wreckage, I want it investigated,” Captain Domingo said, no emotion in her voice. “I know they were pushing their engines, but that was a strange delayed secondary explosion.”
“You think they self-destructed?” Gonzales asked.
Domingo shrugged. “They weren’t for surrendering.” She then turned her head slightly towards the images of the other two pirate ships. “Lieutenants Ahoka and Jackson, report to the hangar bay immediately. Take boarding parties over to those ships at once. Secure their crews and search them. COMs, make sure those ships know that if they harm even one of their prisoners, they’ll live to regret it.”
“Yes Sir,” Lieutenant Hitoshi replied.
Jake nodded at Ahoka as they both jumped to their feet. As he passed Captain Domingo’s command chair a hand reached out and stopped him. Domingo leaned in closer. “Focus on securing that vessel,” she instructed him. “You’ll have plenty of time later to go over what just happened. It’s never easy the first time.”
“Thank you Captain,” Jake said as he tried to keep his emotions from his face. She had read him like a book.
Chapter 4
The period known as the Interwar Years is far from uninteresting. For the student of political history, there is much to learn from that period of the Empire. With the Karacknid War over, the founders of the Empire were able to turn their full attention to fleshing out many aspects of the Empire’s jurisprudence and administrative practices. Yet, for naval academy students interested chiefly in military affairs, our time is better spent elsewhere.
-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.
When Jake stepped out of the bridge, Ahoka was waiting for him. “Everything okay?”
Jake forced a smile on his face. “Of course, let’s go. They’ll be waiting for us.” Quickly, they moved to the turbo lift and took it down to Resolute’s main hangar bay. Four assault shuttles were sitting in the middle of the hangar. Marines and Navy crew were loading up into them.
Major Onoda, the commander of Resolute’s marine detachment, and his second in command, Lieutenant Jamison, were waiting for them. “Lieutenants,” Onoda said as they approached. “Ahoka will join me, we’re going to secure the armed pirate ship. Jackson, you will accompany Jamison and secure the freighter. Get geared up in your combat suits, and let’s get this show on the road.”
“Yes Sir,” Ahoka replied for both of them. Moving over to one side of the hangar bay, Jake and Ahoka found their combat suits were waiting for them. Quickly, they put the light armor on, grabbed plasma rifles and jogged back to the shuttles. Jake shared a quick glance with Ahoka as they parted, and then boarded his shuttle.
Moving through its passenger compartment, he saw there was only one free seat. He smiled when he saw Sergeant Becca was sitting beside it. She gave him a nod as he sat. “It looks like you’re stuck with me, Lieutenant. Just stay behind me and you’ll be all right,” Becca said by way of greeting.
Several nearby marines chuckled, and Jake rolled his eyes. “Just don’t shoot me by accident.”
“I’ll try not to,” she replied with a grin.
Jake shook his head as the marines started cracking more jokes. Thankfully, they were not all at his expense. Despite their ribbing, it was a comfort to know the special forces marine squad would be with his boarding party. Pulling out his datapad, Jake looked through the personnel files of who had been assigned to his team as the shuttle took off. He nodded when he saw they were all officers and crew from his duty rotation. Glancing up, he looked around to catch their eyes and acknowledge their presence. A few gave him smiles or nods. They didn’t know him well yet, but he hoped they at least appreciated he knew what he was doing. At least, when it comes to running a ship, Jake said to himself. Boarding a pirate vessel was another matter entirely. Yet, it is for all of us, he reminded himself. Only the marines would have experienced this kind of thing before, and even then, probably not all of them. Thankfully, his team had been split up and assigned to the eight marine squads on his and Lieutenant Jamison’s shuttle. They would be well looked after.
As the shuttle approached the pirate freighter, Jake could sense the excitement from the naval crew around him growing. He understood. Admiralty law stipulated that thirty percent of the value of any ship taken as a prize would be distributed to the crew of the Imperial ship that captured it. Given that the pirate freighter was likely to be crammed with stolen cargo, they could all be seeing a very handsome reward. The changing attitude of the marines starkly contrasted with Jake’s team. Their banter had died away. Now, they were all quiet. Most stared at one point or another in the shuttle. Their minds were elsewhere. Jake accessed the COM channel for just his navy personnel. “Listen up,” he said to them. “This is serious business we’re about to attend to. The Marines can’t secure the entire ship for us. We will be operating in tandem with them. If the pirates put up a fight, we will have to neutralize them quickly. Forget about the prize money. Thinking about it now could get you killed. We need to get in and secure the freighter as quickly as possible. Keep your mind focused on the mission.” Leaning forward, Jake looked up and down the length of the shuttle to make eye contact with as many of his team as possible.
Satisfied he had concentrated them on the task at hand, he sat back and began to mentally prepare himself. The first thing he did was check his plasma rifle and make sure it was fully charged and had been run through a system’s diagnostic. Then he closed his eyes and focused on his breathing, already aware his heart was beginning to race. His mind went to his father. Even with his augments, Jake knew he wouldn’t be pleased at what was about to happen. You can’t protect me forever, he thought towards his father.
“All right, listen up,” Lieutenant Jamison’s voice said from the other shuttle. “When the shuttles dock with the freighter, the marines will exit first. We will secure the hangars and then the navy crew can come on board. We’ll split into our assault teams then, and clear the ship. Speed is key in these operations. You have all drilled for this. Just remember your training, and you’ll be fine.”
“Understood,” Jake replied on behalf of his shuttle.
“You’ll be with us,” Becca said as she leaned over touching her shoulder to Jake’s. “We are taking the bridge. Try to keep up, but don’t move ahead of your navy crew.”
“I’ll do my best,” Jake promised.
“Sixty seconds out,” the shuttle pilot announced.
“Combat helmets on,” Becca ordered. Up and down the shuttle, marines activated their combat armor, causing their helmets to slide up over their faces. The navy crew, in smaller combat suits, lifted their helmets from between their legs and attached them.
As he always was when he put on a combat suit helmet, Jake felt overwhelmed by the sudden influx of data. His helmet was integrated into the marines’ battlenet. It gave him access to all the information flowing from each marine. Minimizing most of the information, he focused on the layout of the freighter the shuttle’s scans had returned. It was a pretty standard layout. From the visuals he had seen of the freighter, it looked like it had been put together from a hodgepodge of other ship sections. That wasn’t unusual for pirates. It meant the ship could have been built by any one of a hundred different species. The only way they were going to find out who was manning the ship was to confront them face-to-face.
“Approaching one of their hangars now,” the pilot announced.
Jake twisted against his command chair’s restraints to look out the nearest view port. Up close, the freighter looked even more odd. Its different hull sections contrasted with one another starkly. He just got a glimpse of Lieutenant’s Jamison shuttle before it disappeared behind the freighter’s hull. Then, the black of space disappeared too as the shuttle descended into one of the freighter’s hangars.
As soon as the shuttle touched down, the Marines charged out of the rear access ramp. Jake followed right behind them. He waited until Becca looked back and raised a fist. “Clear!” she called over the COM channel.
Waving behind him, Jake led his crew out. “Stay close to your marines, and be careful,” he said over the COM channel. Quickly, he moved over to Becca’s side. “We are ready,” he said to the special forces marine.
“Higgins, take point,” Becca ordered.
Without another word, the four special forces marines set off towards the nearest hatch. Jake followed on their heels. Moving far quicker than Jake thought safe, they began to head through the freighter’s corridors. When they came to open hatches, the Marines paused, peeked in to make sure there were no hidden pirates, and then moved on. As they got deeper and deeper into the freighter, Jake grew more concerned. They still hadn’t encountered any pirates. Where are they? He asked himself. From the layout and size of the corridors and rooms, the ship could be used by many different species. He was still none the wiser.
“Bridge should be thirty meters ahead,” Higgins reported. “Just around the next corridor.”
“This is Jamison,” the Marine Lieutenant’s voice suddenly said. “We’ve encountered our first pirates, they are Human!” Jake stopped in his tracks. Humans. His hands gripped his plasma rifle tighter. Humans attacking other Humans was the worst kind of piracy. Jamison continued. “We have located thirty prisoners so far. Four pirates were guarding them. They have all surrendered. But they won’t share any intel on where the rest of the freighter’s crew are.”
“I think we just found them,” Higgins said. “Sergeant, you’re going to want to come and see this.” Ahead of Jake, Becca disappeared around a turn in the corridor. She popped her head back a moment later and gestured for Jake to join her.
“We have eight pirates manning a makeshift barrier in front of the bridge’s main hatch,” Becca said over the command COM channel. “They are armed.”
“They’ll be trying to delete files in the bridge,” Jake said hastily. “We need to take it.”
“You have permission to breach,” Jamison replied.
When Jake rounded the corridor, he saw Becca leaning her head around another turn just five meters ahead. She snapped it back in a flash. Four or five plasma bolts slammed into the corridor’s wall. Becca turned to Jake. “We’ll need you for this too, the more guns the better. We’ll launch grenades and then we attack.”
Jake nodded. “Understood,” he said as confidently as he could.
“In three,” Becca said as she unhooked two grenades from her utility belt.
Without issuing any more verbal commands, Becca and her three special forces marines attacked. Stun and explosive grenades were hurled around the turn in the corridor. As soon as they exploded, the marines charged. Moving quicker than Jake had seen any of them move before, they ran up the corridor. In just three seconds, they covered the twenty meters to the barrier. Jake rounded the turn in the corridor just in time to see Becca hurdle it. She was firing as she leapt, raining down plasma bolts on whoever was sheltering behind the barrier. By the time Jake reached the barrier, eight human pirates were lying on the floor smoking. Plasma bolts had burnt large holes in all their bodies. Despite his combat suit’s air filtrations system hiding the smell, Jake almost threw up.
Before he could, a rough hand grabbed him and pulled him towards the bridge’s hatch. “It is locked Lieutenant,” Becca said. “Work your magic.”
Jake had to think for a second to figure out what she meant. Then, he frantically pulled out his datapad. Attaching it to the door’s mechanism, his military grade decrypting software made short work of the door’s digital lock. As it slid open, he jumped back just as the marines hurled stun grenades through the opening. Their explosions were followed by screams and groans of pain. This time, when the marines rushed in, Jake did his best to keep right behind them. Plasma rifle up, he swept his gaze left and right as he looked for threats.
The bridge was small, about half the size of Resolute’s. Yet, it was crammed with pirates. Most were covering their eyes or ears. Some were still at their stations though, their fingers tapping furiously. Two began to draw weapons on the marines. Plasma bolts shot them down instantly. “Step away from those consoles,” Becca ordered loudly. “Now!” Four of the five pirates at their stations did so. One didn’t. Becca immediately moved towards him. She struck him on the head with the butt of her rifle. He crumpled to the deck.
Movement out of the corner of his eye caused Jake to turn. He opened his mouth to shout a warning. Instinctively, he knew it would take too long. Time seemed to slow down as he reacted with all his enhanced speed. Pivoting and raising his rifle, he depressed its trigger. Spraying shots along an arc, he drilled three bolts into the bridge’s deck, and then two at the pirate on the floor. He wasn’t quick enough to stop the pirate opening fire. One plasma bolt had left her pistol before Jake killed her. It flew just past Becca’s head before exploding against the bridge’s ceiling. Like lightning, Becca’s rifle whipped around. She held her fire when she saw the pirate was dead. “Good shooting Lieutenant,” she called out enthusiastically. Then she laughed. “That was close! I owe you one. Now get over here and see to this console,” she added before Jake could reply.
As Jake moved over, he shook his head. He knew he would be far more shaken up if an energy bolt had come so close to his head. As the marines secured the other pirates, he began to access the console. He quickly discovered it was the ship’s navigation controls. The pirate had been deleting all of the freighter’s astronomical data. Jake smiled when he found several files still largely intact. Everything before the last four months was gone. But several systems stood out in what was left. His smile widened when he selected the most interesting, and an attached file appeared from another database. Quickly, he attached his datapad to the console and extracted the files. He didn’t want them disappearing on him.
