Riss Series 3: The Riss Survival (33 page)

An impressive performance, The Aliens missiles had been launched at a hidden target based on the approximate direction of our last launch, so seeing even two was impressive. And they had gone through the Duster debris, another impressive feat. Their missiles ability to turn off when they encountered chaff and turn back on when they were through it, somewhat nullified the use of chaff.

The fighter monitor was eerie, because the Ghosts were invisible, so only the Aliens' fighters could be seen moving. Strange to see them zigzagging in and out and occasionally disappearing. The worst part was not knowing how many Ghosts were also being destroyed. Six Alien fighters had been destroyed or disabled based on the monitor, of which the Mnemosyne's lasers had destroyed two as the fighters searched for the ship.

"Byer what your status?"

"Two destroyed… three operational."

I hated to think what that meant for the Mnemosyne. As I watched, five blinked out. I could only guess that the Aliens' fighters had made a mistake by turning their backs on the Ghosts.

Five were still functional and racing towards us. Lasers destroyed two, then the Mnemosyne shook as fighter after fighter rammed us and exploded.

Judging by the damage, battle metal held against one fighter and limited the damage from another.

I wondered if Ghosts had destroyed them.

"Commander Byer, what's the status of your group?" A long silence followed. I could imagine him trying to compose himself. It had been bad.

"… One… returning… only partially functional," he choked out. I could feel his pride and pain. His group had done the impossible but the price had been steep.

"Check with the Ghosts guarding the Wave. If they've destroyed a scout, recall all of them to the
Mnemosyne
. We are going to need them to cover the Scorpions when we check on the disabled cruisers."

"… Yes, ma'am." He would never voice the, haven't we done enough, he was feeling.

One disappeared as it cleared the debris. Lasers failed to stop the second one. The
Mnemosyne
shuttered.

With the destruction of AA4 the immediate threat was over, but there was still A1 and an unknown number of additional cruisers, and the condition of the Eirene.

"Dybbuk, nice to hear you're alive."

"How bad, Da'Maass?"

"Forty crew dead, sixteen wounded, eight Scorpions dead, three wounded. I'm afraid we need repairs before we can fight another one of those nasty little cruisers."

"Look after wounded and make any repairs necessary to enter the Wave. Thank you, Da'Maass. You did far more than anyone could have expected. I owe you."

"I'll remember."

"Go. I'll have a message for you before you reach the Wave." I cut the connection. He had done terrible things as a Raider, but he was hard to hate.

"Nance, what is your status."

"A few scratches. Nothing serious. You and the Asp hogged all the cruisers. What's the condition of the Asp?"

"Barely operational. Forty-eight dead, nineteen wounded. I'm sending him back to Freeland. What about A1?"

"Momma seems to be out of babies, but I'll bet she's a nasty bitch on her own. She's making for the Wave."

"Can't let her leave. She's seen too much."

"Any ideas on how we stop her?"

"Maybe. It worked against the Raiders at Tamerland."

"If I remember correctly, you were awarded a Silver Star, but they didn't say why. A lot of speculation whether you deserved it. Want to share."

"Compute a skip to within one kilometer to the Port side of C1, and let me know the timing." I smiled imagining Nance's expression. Tamerland had been the first real application of Symath.

"Nadya, a five second skip."

"The Mnemosyne is a four second skip. You will skip on my count. I will skip one second later, so we'll arrive at the same time—the Eirene on the Port side and the Mnemosyne on the Starboard. If humans manned the ship, I'd say we would have ten seconds or more to unload on it. But robots are going to be much faster, and I suspect their automatic laser defense will be close to instantaneous. I think the Riss can target A1 in five seconds."

"Agreed. I'll bet the Raiders didn't enjoy that surprise party."

"No, too rowdy. Nance, we aren't going to get a second skip, so we have to hit them with everything we can this time. Skip for three seconds after you fire. Good hunting. Ten, nine, eight… three, two, one, jump." A second later, everyone became transparent for four seconds and A1 appeared—a metal monster—reaching out with fames of destruction.

I heard as we faded and seconds later materialized back into real space.

"Nance, what's your condition?"

"Better than C1. It's lost power and their weapons appear down. I've several compartments to space, Sixteen dead, twelve wounded. Mama's a nasty bitch."

"At least for now it isn't going any place. Your Ghosts are in better shape than ours. Have them support two attack shuttles of Scorpions. Let see what we find. I'm going back to investigate what's left of the cruisers."

"Colonel Seng, prepare for boarding actions. We are going to investigate each of the disabled and destroyed cruisers."

"Yes, Captain." I felt inhuman ordering the Ghosts into action after the losses they had sustained—they had lost an additional two stopping the scout. But I had to make sure those cruisers couldn't be repaired and put back into action. We would have to grieve later.

I felt the tension leaving me, as Thalia worked her chemical magic. It would make perfect sense. The Council of Gods weren't organic. Long ago, they had been. Now they were reduced to computer memory. Their mission was to confine war-like organic creatures—like humans—to their planets to avoid them spreading throughout the universe—or maybe universes.

* * *

Feeling I had to do something, I left the Bridge and made my way to the medical unit. Doctor Dayton's clothes were spotted with blood and she looked exhausted. When she saw me, she walked over.

"Are you hurt, Nadya?"

"Not physically. But I could use a good psychologist."

"If you find one, I'll join you." She turned and walked back into the unit. I left taking the stairs to level one where I found Commander Byer. He looked worse than Dayton.

"Captain Reese, there’s kaffa on the table." I noticed Squadron Leader Katlin rise as I entered. I waved her to sit.

"You were right, Captain. The Aliens had a scout ship in system. It began to leave when you and the Eirene had destroyed six of their cruisers. It was an easy kill with the new Ghosts. We were almost on top of it before it noticed us, but we still lost two. That damn laser defense is really nasty."

"Good job. We need to keep the Aliens in the dark for as long as we can. That will give us an immense advantage. Just like today. We had heavy losses, but what we learned can reduce our losses in our next engagement." I poured a cup a kaffa, and took a sip. "I'll be sending Scorpions to look at each cruiser and want fighter support while they're in transit."

"It's funny in a way. Last year supporting the Scorpions would've just been an assignment. This year I have friends on those shuttles. We'll see them safely across." I spent an hour discussing the damages to fighters, pilots, mechanics, and bays, before leaving for the Scorpions area.

"Captain Reese, Seng greeted me. Terril, who had been talking with him, nodded.

"Colonel Seng, what's your status?"

"I had eight killed and three wounded during the engagement. At the moment, twenty are helping with repairs. I can recall them if necessary."

"Recall enough for two attack shuttles. I want to look inside each cruiser. First to make sure the robots are … dead, and second, to see if there's any useful information left behind. Don't spend too much time looking, as I'm sure Admiral Wattson will send a team to collect what appears useful. The Ghosts will support your crossing. No suicide actions. If you encounter heavy resistance, withdraw, and we'll send a few missiles over instead."

* * *

It took most of a day to locate and examine each cruiser. Fortunately, the teams encountered no resistance, and no heat sensor activated lasers. The robots and computer system seemed to have been fried when the ship was no longer operational, except for one. We marked its location for later examination.

"Nance, how is it going?"

"A1 is the size of four or five Heavies. We may have been lucky. The ship has several hundred missiles in addition to hundreds of fifty and ninety centimeter lasers. If we had tried to take it on directly, the space gods only know what would have happened. As it was, we took a beating even with that hit-and-run tactic. And it looks like they had bays for up to twelve cruisers. There's a repair station next to each bay. No mess hall or work out area," she snorted, "but lots of computers. That maybe the reason those systems reacted so quickly. I think they have a computer for each bank of lasers, which means they were probably activated automatically. We're still searching the damn thing, it's like a deserted city—eerie."

"Do you need any help?"

"No, it'll just take time to examine each compartment."

"Send over your dead and wounded. I'm going to rendezvous with the Asp. They were beaten up badly, so I'm sending them back to Freeland. We'll stay until they send relief."

* * *

I took a shuttle over to the Asp, while the dead and wounded were being transferred. On approached the extent of the damage was obvious from the gaping holes and blistered metal. It surprised me the
Asp
remained operational enough to enter the Wave.

"Welcome aboard, Captain Reese. That was one monster of a ship. I couldn't believe now it kept spitting cruisers. They're small but faster than the Asp, reloaded faster, and had better ECM. I thought mother was going to lose her oldest, if not her favorite son. But I guess she's going to have to endure me a bit longer." He gave that roguish laugh I could imagine coming from the famous pirate, Blackbeard, of earth's ancient history.

"Da'Maass, You're the hero of Fools Landing. You knew the danger when you fired on the Aliens ship."

"I trusted my dybbuk to save me." He laughed long and hard, "And she did."

"Let's get you home safely. When you enter Freeland space … "

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Facing reality

"Admiral, the
Puma
is reporting the Asp has exited the Wave. It's decelerating and broadcasting it has Scorpions security aboard and carrying dead and wounded from the engagement at Fools Landing. And has an action report from Captain Reese. The Puma is at Battle Stations, awaiting instructions," Captain Dannatt said with the hint of a smile.

"Tell that … Captain Lambert to turn off his weapons, and escort the Asp to the Golden Eagle. That's all we need is for some over-zealous Captain or XO to fire on the Asp to create a major incident with untold repercussions. Half the fleet is jumpy and the other half either doesn't like the Riss or the Treaty. And almost everyone outraged that we armed the Asp." Wattson shook his head. "It’s a pressure cooker and won't take much for it to explode."

"Yes, sir. Anything else?" Dannatt asked.

"Yes, alert medical we have incoming wounded, and contact Admirals Stenberg and Zann. I would think they would like to be present when Da'Maass arrives."