The Cagliostro Chronicles II: Conflagration (25 page)

The first shrugged
noncommittally. He was a dark haired, dark skinned man who stood about six feet tall. “I’m Captain Jepson of the
Eagle’s Claw
and this is Captain Ryan of the
Triumphant
. We both hold you in the highest regard, Captain Johnson. Where you lead, we’ll follow.”

Ryan added, “Without question
.” Ryan was sandy haired and fair skinned, six feet two inches tall, “We know what kind of man you are, Captain Johnson. We know that without you Earth would be a smoking rock of a world right now and its inhabitants all but extinct. We’re here at your service, as these other men and their ships should be as well.”

“Relax
, Ryan.” Nagata smiled. “We’re all here for the same reason. We’ll all follow Johnson and his ‘wonder ship’. Though I still want proof on this Chakix thing.”

The native leaned forward until it was almost nose to nose with
Nagata. “You will have your proof, Earthman, when we return to my world.”

Mark stood.
“Gentlemen, I suggest you return to your respective ships. We’ll reconvene by secured signal later to firm up our plans. We have a busy day ahead of us.”

“What
is your plan, Johnson?” Argento asked.

“The six of you wil
l engage their fleet while the
Cag
returns to the surface to start the assault on the base itself. Once the assault begins I’ll need a thousand troops brought to the surface to aid in the attack. Our allies will look like Chakix’s host here. The enemy is Agalum in all their various forms which I know you men are up on, especially after two straight years of intergalactic war.”

Carlson nodded.
“You’re right, but what about the actual assault on this base of yours?”

“We’ll have to make a full frontal assault. This base is underneath
a live volcano with only one way in or out.”

“Underneath a volcano?
How is that even possible?” Jepson asked.

Mark shrugged.
“I’m not sure myself, but it is. Somehow they diverted the lava flow and built a base in the core of the mountain itself. But don’t kid yourselves, this base is huge.”

“Have you been inside it?” Ryan asked.

Mark shook his head. “No, not physically. I sent in a camouflaged probe. It sent back plenty of information.”

“Well that’s a start,” Nagata concluded.

“We’re not going to have time for much more
, gentlemen. We were attacked leaving that world by more of those predator fast attack ships. They have heavily fortified shields and almost pack the punch of a full blown cruiser.”

“So these smaller ships represent a big improvement in technology for the Agalum
,” Brennan noted.

Mark replied grimly.
“Yes, a very significant advancement over what they had before. Eddie barely won that battle on Chakix, and still barely got away with his life. The
Stargrazer
is still being repaired and we may not be able to complete those repairs on board the
Cagliostro
.”

“You seem very concerned with these new, smaller Agalum vessels
, Johnson. Any reason why we should not just consider them more of the same? I mean we have been holding our own pretty well against everything they’ve thrown at us,” Carlson noted.

“Captain Carlson
, to be honest we’d be foolish not to consider this a major advancement in Agalum technology. Thousands of these small ships swarming across the Earth would be devastating. They are fast, tough, and have increased firepower. Right now the
Cagliostro
and the
Stargrazer
, to a lesser extent, represent the pinnacle of Earth’s space force technologically. All of the advancements to each of your military vessels have come from these two ships, including your shields and hyper-warp technology. Remember, gentlemen, two years ago this was the only faster than light ship from Earth. Now the entire fleet has that ability. These ‘Predator’ fast attack ships represent a change in Agalum thinking, which before was ‘bigger is better’. Now they seem to be going with quantity over size.”

“But is it quantity over quality? You defeated several of these ships yourselves you say
,” Argento asked.

“The quality seemed pretty good
,” Dan added with a shrug.

“Yeah
, they took hits. These were not ‘cannon fodder’ ships, that’s for sure,” Red advised.

Nagata leaned back in his seat and steepled his fingers, “So we’re up against a potentially game changing weapons advancement. Johnson, have you thought about a countermeasure to these ships?
”

Mark met his stare grimly.
“It’s been on my mind, yes. But to be honest I have not had much of a chance to sit down and come up with something that will deal with a swarm of these things.”

“Which is why you should not be out here traipsing around the galaxy getting into trouble. You should be back home designing and building weaponry for EPIC
,” Nagata countered.

“I do more good out here than I would
trapped behind some desk. In case you forgot, Captain Nagata, once again my crew and I are the ones who discovered this very immediate threat, not the military, who by the way I have nothing but respect for.”

Nagata relaxed, seeming to collapse within himself, “I…apologize
, Captain Johnson. I know of your commitment to ending the Agalum threat. I also know what you have done for the planet in the past two years and how only your timely thinking and intervention saved us all from defeat at that time.”

Mark nodded
. “Thank you, Captain Nagata. I, as well as you, know the pressure we are all under with this war. I suggest you gentlemen return to your ships and we can begin to formulate our attack plan. I would like to be underway tomorrow morning if possible and commence our attack at that time.”

“Agreed
,” Nagata replied.

“I will speak to you all at
20:00 hours tonight. Hopefully we can come to an agreement on what each of us will be doing during the attack at that time,” Mark finished.

“That is amenable, Captain Johnson
,” Ryan replied, stretching his hand toward Mark, who took it in a strong grip matching Ryan’s own and shook it firmly.

Mark, Red, and Dan watched the shuttles leave the hangar deck and disappear into the six ships ringed around the
Cagliostro
.

“
Whaddaya think?” Dan asked.

“We have our fleet, though it
’s only half a dozen ships of various sizes and firepower.” Mark shrugged.

“Yeah kinda what I’m thinkin’ too
,” Dan sullenly agreed.

“What about you
, Red? From a security man’s perspective are we going to have enough men and firepower to take down that Agalum base and those ships out there? Don’t forget we saw an Agalum G’Kor class world crusher in orbit around Chakix.”

“That’s a big space ship, loaded with firepower. But unless they are going to destroy Chakix, which I doubt since they have a base there, it’s really too bulky and slow in a pitched battle
. But its guns could probably destroy any ship in this fleet in two blasts. Then again, it’s pretty unprotected up close. A few ships circling it close to its skin and blasting off major components, like weaponry, fuel storage, if we can get at it that is, communications, and even their engines and then hangar decks and we should be able to render it useless and helpless if not outright destroy it.”

Mark continued to stare out of the
hangar deck at the blackness of space. “But the key is getting close enough to it to do so.”

Red nodded, “Yeah that pretty much sums it up, Mark. No matter what ships are in the attack, if they don’t get up on its skin
, they’ll be vaporized.”

Mark sighed and
turned back toward his friends. “Wonderful. Red, did you get any readings on how many other Agalum ships are circling that world?”

“Honestly
, there are too many. Upward of a hundred right now, or at least when we last saw it.”

“We’
re going to need a diversion, something to draw some off, hell hopefully most of them off. At least temporarily.”

“What are you thinking, Mark?”
Dan asked with slit eyes.

“I’ll let you know in a few hours
,” Mark replied. He turned with a grin on his face and entered the maglovator, heading to his office on the engineering deck.

“Change of plans
, gentlemen. Await my signal here and I’ll contact you when we’re ready to begin the assault, unless there are other changes, which is entirely possible.”

On the main view screen of the
Cagliostro
was a large image of Captain Nagata on the left side of the screen and five smaller images running down the right, one above the other.

Mark Johnson’s declaration was met with differing responses.
Captains Ryan and Jepson merely nodded in agreement. Carlson and Nagata seemed to seethe with anger, but were not quite ready to explode just yet. The rest appeared to have a ‘wait and see’ attitude.

“What’s your plan, Johnson?” Carlson asked.

“You’ll see when I return.”

“What if you don’t? Nagata queried suspiciously.

“Then go on without me and destroy that base.”

“Why be so secretive, Captain?”
Argento prodded.

“Because I’m not about to let you a
ll try to talk me out of this. Secondly, the
Cagliostro
can fully camouflage itself. With what I’m attempting we’re going to need that. None of you can help me with this. This has to be done stealthily. That’s something only the
Cag
can do right now.”

“How long will this mystery mission of yours take?
” Nagata pressed.

“I’m assuming two to three days at most, but I can’t be certain. Just keep your comm line open for our call
. When you get it, be prepared to implement whatever information I give you immediately.”

Nagata’s eyes narrowed.
“What are you planning, Johnson?”

Mark smiled.
“Captain Nagata, I’m planning to save the day. Again.”

Ariel cut the communication off at Mark
’s command.

“Take us out of here
, Danny.”

“On our way
, Mark,” Sledge replied steering the
Cagliostro
away, and accelerating into hyper-warp.

The
Cagliostro
disappeared in a burst of light, leaving the half dozen ships behind.

Mark asked,
“ETA to Chakix world?”

“Approximately four hours at present speed
, Mark,” Dan answered.

“Double our speed
. I want to be there in two.”

Dan nodded and accelerated the ship even more.

“Red, if you see anything out there, I mean anything, I want to know what it is and how far away. Especially if it’s a predator.”

Mark turned back to Danny.
“How’s the camouflage unit?”

“
Camo is fully engaged, we are invisible.”

Mark nodded and smile
d, “Good let’s go hunt us up a predator.”

***

Three hours later the
Cagliostro
sat in stationary orbit around Chakix and waited.

Sledge turned toward Mark and announced, “Camouflage is at one hundred percent, Mark
.”

Johnson nodded, “Thanks Dan. We may be here a while. But those big G’K
or class ships out there can’t see us. That’s a plus.”

“Yes it is
,” agreed Ariel, “Do you have a plan to capture one of those things?”

“I do. I pl
an to float around up here until one appears on long range scanners and then we’ll fly to it. overpower it and magno-beam it aboard.”

“That’s a plan?” Eddie laughed.

“It is for what we need. We really don’t need to get fancy with this. When we find one I’ll have Ariel jam all communications coming out of that thing and then we’ll take it by force. Once aboard the Cag we’ll throw the crew in a cell and engineering will dismantle the thing.”

Dan swivel
ed his seat around to face Mark. “What if it’s booby trapped?”

“I suppose it could be.
” Mark held his chin in thought. “We are talking about the Agalum after all, so anything’s possible.”

“It’s somethin’ ta consider
,” Sledge added. “But that’s all. I mean it’s probably not anything ta worry about.”