Blood War 1: Last Stand of the Legion: Rift (20 page)

LYTEN SYSTEM

FLEET ANCHORAGE

BATTLESHIP PHOENIX,

LEGIONNAIRE HANGER DECK

"General Quarters, general quarters
, all hands man your battle stations. This is not a drill. I repeat this not a drill."

Juan did not recognize the voice that came over the ships comm. He had no idea who was in charge. The first explosion had rous
ted him out of a deep sleep. He had been sleeping the previous night’s revelry. He had liberty for the past week and had made sure the last night was a memorable one; only he could not remember all of it, so maybe he had a little too much fun. The second explosion had thrown him to the deck. He lurched up to hear the General Quarters announcement. He had never heard a General Quarters announcement that wasn't a drill.

"All Legionnaires
, man your ships. I repeat all Legionnaires, man your ships. Hanger bay personnel make all preparations to launch combat patrol as soon as possible. I repeat, make all preparations for launching all legionnaires ships. This is not a drill. I repeat this is not a drill."

When he heard the order to man his ship
, his years of training kicked in and he threw on his flight suit and stepped into the passageway. Crewmembers and contractors were running in both directions as they headed for their General Quarters stations, or in the case of the contractors, simply trying to get off the ship. Juan pushed his way down the passageway toward the Hanger Deck. He knew only his ship and a couple of the others were flight ready. That was standard Anchorage watch orders. The Legionnaires were normally used for special details or messages that could not be transmitted on any type of comm.  The practice was left over from decades previously, when the Legionnaries were used for any number of small errands. He had done nothing but sleep through the watch every time he had the duty before. Today would be different. He made a right turn just as Ching, his platoon Sergeant, turned down the same passageway.

"What the fuck
, Ching?"

There was another explosion. They could hear this one. Juan and Ching were thrown into each other. The
y stared at one another for a moment then turned and ran even faster for the Hanger Bay.

He reached the Hanger Deck and turned to enter. That is when his training again kicked in
, if you ran into the Hanger Deck you would end up on the opposite bulkhead plastered against the cold metal. You had to be careful when you entered the Hanger Bay's zero-g. Your movements had to controlled and slow or you would end up out of control in a very busy and potentially dangerous environment. As busy as a Hanger Bay was at any given moment, it was now busier than Juan had ever seen before.

H
e was still not used to the size of a battleships hanger bay - it was three times bigger than a destroyers’ he was used to on previous tours. It was the level of activity. He had never seen anything like it. Cables snaked down from the overhead to fighters. More fighters were being pulled out and readied for flight. It looked as if every aircraft handler, red shirt munitions tech and flight crew were in the hanger at the same time, all moving in different directions. But what really struck Juan was despite the number of operations and the continued explosions the various crews moved with a purpose and in coordination with the shipmate next to them. Juan gently pushed himself off and floated in the zero-g to his fighter. His ships’ crew chief was waiting for him. The hatch was open and the plasma was the shade of green that told Juan the Chief had done his job perfectly.

"Chief."

"Sergeant."

"She ready."

"You bet your ass she is," the Chief said.

"Very well. Pilot entering ship."

Juan eased himself into the plasma and waited for the Chief to insert the plug behind his ear.

"Juan."

The Chief had never used his first name on the flight deck.

"Give'em hell for us."

"You bet your ass Ludvig."

The Chief slipped the plug into the port behind Juan's ear. He became the ship. 

"Juan," his ship said.

"Yes."

"We have our orders now. Do you wish to hear them?"

"Yes."

"You are to launch immediately."

"Is that all
?"

"Yes."

"
Ta me de!.
"

"Do you need to defecate? That is not normal during a patrol."

"Negative. Continue checklist."

Juan switched to the command frequency.

"Ching to flight. Status check."

"Falla ready."

"Sibeluus ready."

"Rico ready
," Juan said.

The rest of the flight checked in ready for the patrol. The red lights began to flash and all of the support crews scrambled for the hatches before the hanger doors were opened. It was all Juan could do to sit there and wait as the ship continued to take hits
he could feel each explosions. The countdown clock on the wall finally went to zero. The support crews were off the hanger deck and it had been secured.

"Check all ready. Ching to flight control. 2
nd
section ready for launch."

All
four of us Juan thought to himself.

"Second section, prepare to launch
," the flight officer said.

''All right folks
, here we go," Ching said. "Standard security formation. Takuda you have point."

"Check
," Takuda said.

"Arm your weapons," Ching said.

They were not even out of the Hanger Bay. To arm your weapons before you left the ship was against all normal peacetime protocol. But they were at war and Ching was throwing the book away; smart move the aliens were in the anchorage why wait. Juan double-checked his armament levels and readied his torpedoes.

Ching lead out of the Hanger Bay into the chaos of the battle outside the ship. She had hardly gotten out of the Hanger Bay when her ship disappeared in a flash. Then her
wingman Sibeluus disappeared in another flash. Juan fired as he cleared the Bay, at the ship that had gotten Ching and Sibeluus. He scored a hit. It broke off trying to run. Juan fired again and the alien fighter exploded.

"Got your wing
," Takuda said.

Juan glanced at his situation display and saw the anchorage filled with red arrows
, which represented the alien fighters moving in all directions. More and more green arrows were showing up as other Legionnaires got into the fight, but there were still not enough. The attacking fighters seemed to be ignoring Juan and Takuda. They continued their attacks on the larger ships in the anchorage.

"We can chase these fighters all day. Let
’s go find something big to shoot at!"

"Right beside you."

Takuda was as good as Juan and she may have even been better; they would make a good team.

"Going near light."

"Check."

"3,2,1"

They drove their ships to near light. The two fighters flashed out of the anchorage and headed along the reverse heading of the incoming aliens. Their combined speeds of the fighters attacking the anchorage and Juan's heading in the opposite direction gave them a chance of getting past the incoming fighters. On his situation display, a huge reading began to fill the top of the screen. It was so big it felt like a punch in his stomach when it first showed up. Destroyers and battleships were screening for the larger ship. They felt like jabs from a boxer, they were so close. Something strange about the screen caught Juan's eye. He slowed his speed so he could close in on the huge target under control. He watched his approach indexer and his combat maneuver screen for any signs of enemy fighters. There were none yet, they must be getting lost in all the traffic.

The only ships that had offensive sensors on were the screening ships.
There were dozens of other support ships around the largest one. He switched the situation display to index the targets by counter measures. There were only fourteen vessels with offensive target designation systems active, in other words, ships of war, and over sixty vessels with only defensive counter-measures active. The ratio of ships of war to support vessels was familiar. It was important but he could not remember where he had seen it.

"Go silent
," Juan said.

Juan and Takuda
both shut off all offensive electronic signals and drifted toward the alien fleet using their initial closing momentum to close the distance. It was the old tactic of turning off your electronic signature and going silent for a close attack.

"Let
’s designate the biggest ship as target one."

"Yeah, it looks like a number one if I ever saw one
.... wait."

Another ship emerged from the other side of the giant ship. It was just as big
and was moving into close proximity to the first one. Juan glanced at his readouts and could not believe his eyes. Each was two and one half miles long and a mile high.

"
Kak
. What is that thing doing?" Juan said.

"You got me by the ass
," Takuda said.

Juan's counter measure warning lights began to flash as the destroyers and battleships tried to lock on to them. The
ir systems must have gotten a glimpse of the two fighters approach before they went silent. His caution advisory indicator was still green; they had not been able to lock on yet but it was only a matter of time. His power indicator was green and his crystal temperature was green.

"Juan look
," Takuda said.

The two huge ships were docking. No, that was not right
; they were merging into something else. Huge arms folded out from each ship to secure the docking with the other ship. They became a huge rectangular structure over five miles long and a mile high. Once merged, their smooth surfaces were transformed. All manner of antennae, compartments and other apparatus emerged for their interiors until it resembled a city in its complexity. When the transformation stopped, activity began on both ships. Platforms began to slide out of both ships. Red and purple lights began to flash like landing lights for vessels.

"Those are landing platforms," Juan said. "Do you have your video on?"

"Yes as soon as I saw them begin to dock."

"Me too. We'll need to get this back to Fleet soonest."

The two ships began to fire their engines and slowed their forward progress.

"Now what?" Takuda said.

Juan could see smaller thrusters adjusting the huge stations position. The aliens wanted to be somewhere very specific apparently. Then it dawned on Juan, he knew what they were doing. Juan reached up and changed his situational view to a planet orientation. They were directly over the Fleet Headquarters and Military Port.

"They are maneuvering into a geostationary orbit over Fleet Headquarters on Rift
," Juan said.

As soon as he said that
, the huge station began to fire what appeared to be some sort of spikes at the planet. You could see them, they were being launched at such a slow speed, and unlike any weapon he had seen. Hanger doors behind the platforms began to open. First a few, then dozens, and finally hundreds of small vessels began to emerge from Hangers. The vessels formed into formations and dove toward Rift.

"That's the landing force
," Takuda said.

"You
’re right. That thing is their Base for the landing force. This is not just a hit and run raid; they intend to occupy Rift."

That is
why the number of ships struck Juan. He had read an article in the Warfighter about the creation of planetary invasion capability; it contained the ratio between the ships of war and support ships. It was by that Colonel Sand he thought. The one pushing for ground troops in the Legion. This was an invasion force and they had found the base for the invasion. The attack on the anchorage was to prevent any of the ships of line getting out and engaging the landing fleet.

"We've got to
notify Fleet," Juan said.

"Check. We both should broadcast to make sure."

"Roger that."

Juan put the huge base in his targeting computer and flipped on the target designator. He switched to a Fleet wide frequency and sent the target information to everyone. Up until then they had been two tiny targets in a whole sea of ships moving around the fleet
; as long as they remained silent they could hide in the clutter. Now every alien ship in the area would know their position.

"This is a Fleet wide notification of a Threat Class Alpha target. This is a Threat Class Alpha target notification. Be advised these coordinates are the base for an invasion fleet. I repeat
, this is the base for an invasion fleet. The aliens are going to invade Rift. I repeat they are going to invade. This is a Threat Class Alpha. All available ships respond. I repeat all available ships respond."