Book 2 – Chapter 9

Book II – Chapter 9

 

“When the Imperium started off it was not the Empire it was now. It was a tiny planet, in a small sector, with less than ten thousand citizens. It wasn’t until the Battle of Korhal did we become a galactic power house. During that time we were still preparing for the war, so we were spending more time focused on building our empire than war. It was a time of great peace.”

-Excerpt from ‘Birth of the Imperium’ Chapter 2

 

 

“Ah shit. Leo I don’t know what to say other than I can reach his position in fourteen minutes with the new hyperdrive engines with your permission.”

 

“And I’m telling you no. Those engines hasn’t been fully tested yet.” Leo exasperated.

 

“Well then I don’t know how I’m supposed to save him! The data he sent me shows seven ships bearing down on them and we need to get to him quick.” Guy yelled.

 

Biting his lip, Leo came up with an idea.

 

“Send one Replicator Cruiser, if it works then you have the go ahead to take four ships with you.” Lao offered.

 

Seeing that he wasn’t going to get a better offer Guy relented. “Ok I’ll have the ship readied.”

 

Meeting point.

Prometheus.

 

“How long until they arrive?”

 

“ETA 55 Seconds.”

 

“Well the waiting is killing me. I want to try out these new tactics you came up with Ira.” Nathaniel said.

 

“Oh yeah I have a feeling it’ll be a hit. Once we have control of their systems it’ll be like taking candy from a baby.”

Nodding in agreement Nathaniel pressed his comm device. “Are the combat teams ready Paul?” Nathaniel asked.

 

“Ready and itching for a fight.” Paul’s voice responded through the intercom.

 

“Good cause they’ll be here any second.” Nathaniel said.

 

“Can you patch me into the communications transmission if there is one? Just in case.” Pasl asked.

 

“Sure thing, they’ll be here soon.” Nathaniel said.

 

“I hear ya, sir.”

 

As the ships were about to arrive they received a transmission from the Lions.

 

“You sure you want to do this?” Jason asked.

 

“Don’t worry about us.” Nathaniel smiled.

 

“Fine, it’s your funeral.” Jason sighed.

 

“Haha, you’ll sing a different tune once we win. Here patch into this frequency.” Nathaniel said.

 

“What’s this?” Jason asked.

 

“This is our cyber-warfare center. Patch into that and you’ll know where were moving, our attacks, and our ship-to-ship combat situation.” Nathaniel said.

 

“Interesting.” Annie said with a devious smile.

 

A short moment later seven ships came out of warp. Surprisingly they didn’t come out guns blazing.

 

“Sir, were being patched through to the Lion’s ship.” The comm officer reported.

 

“Let’s hear what they’re saying.” Nathaniel nodded.

 

“-you doing there Jason?”

 

“Well at the moment im a little confused as to what you, a pirate group, are doing with raiders and other pirates? I thought you worked alone Kakarov?” Jason asked.

 

“Well it’s one of those things of mutual interest. That and the 300,000 credit bounty on your head that was just released.” Kakarov chuckled.

 

“300,000? That seems a bit low if you ask me.” Jason said in mock horror.

 

“It is but most of us would do it for free. Seeing how you thwarted us on so many occasions. So seeing how were all were itching for a reason to go after you. This just gave us something to do.” He smiled.

 

“Come on now Kaka—“

 

“Enough! You won’t intimidate us to run away this time, you only have two ships against our seven. No matter how good ‘Annie the Angel’ is.” He yelled as he cut off the transmission.

 

As the line cut out Jason sighed.

 

Moments later the battlecruisers from the raiders and pirates moved in. the moment they were in range they opened fire at the Lion’s battlecruiser. Luckily the Lions were able to activate their defense matrix on time before the missiles hit.

 

“Move us in! Open fire with all available railguns and missiles. After that I want us to beam the capture team on to the ship in the back, it seems that one had the highest long range weapon capabilities. Take out their weapon’s and then proceed with plan Alpha-Charlie” Nathaniel ordered.

 

“Yes, sir” The men responded.

 

The Prometheus moved in and their railguns fired up and started firing at their nearest target. The Lions on the other hand had started maneuvering towards the other left end of the wave of enemies, trying to use the other ships to interfere with block the angle of fire. The pirated were ready for this though and were moving already to accommodate the movement.

 

“Sir, Capture Team is away.”

 

“Good! Release the drones have them focus on intercepting missile fire. Spin up the APBs and move us in position to–”

 

“Sir! Three more ships incoming! From our port side!”

 

“Damn it ok get-“

 

“Sir, correction 4….5….8 ships inbound from our port side.”

 

“Son of a—“

 

“Sir were being hailed! Authorization code…Murphy!”

 

“On screen.”

 

In the center of the Prometheus’ tactical display appeared none other than Murphy and Takiel with another man at their side.

 

“Hey there Commander! I got those mercs you wanted, then I heard you were out here with no supervision so I brought your new help. This is Commander Jerome Wilson leader of the Infinity Fighters. They’re former confederacy so they’re on your list of requirements.”

 

“Well you couldn’t have come at a better time!” Nathaniel smiled.

 

“Well I do try to do good work.” Murphy smiled.

 

“Pardon me but are we here to just extract you or are we going to take out those pirates and raiders as well?” The brown skinned commander asked.

 

“We’re going to capture and repurpose them commander. If you do well you get one of your choosing to yourself.” Nathaniel smiled.

 

“Oh I’ll take you up on that! Our ETA is in one mike.” the commander smiled.

 

“Affirmative.”

 

On the other end, Jason and Annie were having a hard time dodging missiles and laser fire.

 

“All forward batteries target Kakarov’s ship! He’s leading them so if he goes down they’ll scatter!” Annie roared.

 

“Annie! I just got word from that Nathaniel guy. He says he’s got reinforcements coming in. ETA thirty seconds.” Jason announced to her.

 

“Tell them to hurry up!” she yelled as she returned to giving the crew orders.

 

A short while later, eight battlecruisers appeared on the starboard side of the attacking raiders. To their surprise they weren’t after Jason and the Lions but were trying to save them! Seeing how they were fresh into battle but were outgunned and out manned, the seven ships began their escape. The fastest ship to begin its escape held Paul and his Capture team.

 

“Capture Team report!” Nathaniel yelled.

 

“This is capture team. Were in a corridor on the way to the engine room, I don’t think we’re going to make it. Request evac!”

 

“Helm get ahold of them and beam them out.”

 

“We can’t sir! Their defense matrix is up and interfering with the transporter. We can get things in, not out, sir”

 

“Damnit! Ok send in as many replicators you can direct into their cargo hold. Capture Team we can’t get you out, we’re sending in reinforcement, make your way to the cargo hold once you take control of the ship head right back for Deadman’s port! How copy?”

 

“We read—“

 

“They’re gone sir.”

 

“Damn it” Nathaniel yelled as he slammed his fist.

 

“Don’t worry Nathaniel, Paul isn’t a child and he didn’t become my second in command by not being capable.” Ira reassured him.

 

“I hope so Ira, I hope so.” Nathaniel prayed.

 

==============================

 

Olympus

 

On the Atlas, Guy was counting down to the ignition of the new hyperspace engines on the replicator ships. “Ready to go in Three…. Two…. “

 

“Hold it! Incoming transmission on the emergency channel. Decrypting. Playing message.” His helmsman said.

 

‘Guy, cancel that request for help. Full details to follow. Tell High Lord Leo were going to stay a few days extra. Eight ships well be returning to the Imperium in 13 hours. Recommend you get on with your mission. See you when you get back.” Nathaniel said.

 

“End of message, receiving full combat log and transmission data now sir.”

 

“That rat bastard. Scaring the life out of me send details over to the High lord and see if we get the green light.”

 

=-==–=-=-=-=-=-=-

 

Unknown Ship.

 

Paul shut the door and checked on his men. With him were eleven men, five who he had fought with for several years, six of whom were military vets from earth. The idea was to see how people with different training reacted to the CMC-400 suits.

 

“So what’s the verdict?” one of the men asked.

 

“Well we’re still in warp, so long as we can take control of the ship before it exits warp I think we’ll be ok.”

 

“and if it drop out of warp before we can capture it?” another asked.

 

With a dark expression Paul slid his finger across his throat. “Don’t let them take you alive.”

 

Realizing the seriousness of their situation they all nodded.

 

“Luckily we have help. Commander Nathaniel send over some replicators before they lost us. So if we’re lucky they’ll take control of some of the systems. Any of you Earthies got a way to interact with the replicators?” he asked.

 

“I do. I can do it now if you want.” One marine told him

 

“Good, what’s the status?” Paul asked.

 

“”They’re in the cargo hold multiplying. Eta 11 minutes before they move out. Says here that they’re going to seize the engine room then the bridge next. Says all life forms are hostile with exception to us. They’re set to kill.” He told them.

 

“Good, now it’s time to commandeer us a ship. We’re going to take the bridge first once the replicators move to the engine room. We’ll sync out attack with the replicators. Until then we rest and keep an eye out for patrols. It’s a good thing we took out their ship sensors.”

 

“Rodger.” They responded.

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