"Ki--"
There was a loud explosion, and Isabelle could feel the ship venting air. She held up tight upon her seat, knocked by the wave of explosion. How was that possible? This ship had over 3 layers of armor!
The hull breaches were immediately sealed by nanobot units, quickly patching up the holes.
She looked worried at the control pannel - there was a large fatigue showing on the screen. The speed was beginning to drop, but the countermeasure they've launched was enough to distance the strange mine enough.
Hell, she had to revise her comment. She hoped this thing was the top of the Order's fleet, because if their whole armada was like that... She didn't felt like elaborating in this way.
They slowed down enough to breath normally. Isabelle looked back toward the cell just to make sure no one was harmed, and saw with satisfaction the defected officers looked just slightly unconscious.
Well, now her plan didn't worked either, the order ship blocading her own.
She sighed slowly. That wasn't going as expected at all.
"Commander. I surrender - mind you what, I don't do that often, so feel proud. Just let my men go away in this freighter. I won't oppose any resistance."
With that, she left the comm post, and openned the cell of the prison, looking defenitively beaten for the first time... since quite a while.
What now...
She was going to get that back, somehow, someday. She never left something unachieved... never.
That was her only consolation...
//For those who might have read this and got confused a second ago. I had a lag problem and 1 of my lines was cut off we had to fix it. So the last 2 post were edited to fix the problem//
"Like I said earlier General we dont want you nor your men. However I do want to shake your hand. That was a brave attempt you made there. Do note that if you do allow me to shake your hand it will be done on my ship. Safety reasons."
The Tenabras boarding team opens the door to the rhino and brings aboard Trinity and her crew. As for her cruiser it was safely in tow of the Osiris Battleship Adelka, the sister ship to Tenabras.
Isabelle felt terribly numb, as she watched her prisonners slip through her finger. Nonetheless, it was useless to be bitter about it.
Just now, she wanted to satisfy her curiosity. She went through the airlock, escorted by two silent and not-very-friendly-looking soldier from the Tenabras. She took the time to look around, inspecting the interior of the ship. The design looked so much like that of the Citadelle, she could have sworn it was the same ship with just some distortion...
But her mind was busy on something else.
A question probably only a high ranking member of the Order could answer. Not that she would take his word for the truth, but it was certainly better than the walled modest silence used in the navy to such questions...
Travis waited at Command Center of Tenabras for Isabelle to come. As she entered she reminded Travis of his sister. She looked somewhat curious but strict at the same time. He walked up to her and shook her hand. Though something was in his hand. A medal.
"This is the highest medal I can give someone who is not part of the Order. The Medal of Valour. You deserve it for your effort. Now if you want a tour anything id be happy to escort you myself. My sister would like to "talk" to you however she now has her weapons back so I denied her that request. Please enjoy the medal."
There was a slight amusement that crossed for a second the face of Kaitlynn.
"You remember me much of some heroes from the legends of Old Earth... hearing you makes me feel like I'm the bad guy around..."
She shook slowly her head, as she accepted the medal.
"Thank you, sir. It isn't exactly of my custom to receive something from an enemy. And if I showed it in public I'd bet I would be in St-Mitchell in the next few days. Nonetheless..."
Isabelle threw in a respectful military salute, as one would do toward an equal officer.
"Nicely set trap by the way. I see you love much your sister. Too bad if she wants to... well, I can't blame her." she blushed slightly as she put the small medal in a pocket of her uniform.
"If I might ask sir, if I could ask a few question while we... tour your ship. I hope it wouldn't mind you?" hell, what am I doing, if anyone caught that they'd say I'd be siding with the enemy...
But I need to know WHAT am I fighting...
They might be indeed more enlightened on this than either LSF or Navy.
Secret is often sign of ignorance, wasn't it...
"Ask away but keep in mind certain sections to this ship you will not see. I have to keep my secrets as much as the next."
Before starting the tour Travis signaled someone to take command. Then he signaled the 2 guards to go back to there post.
"As you can tell most of my crew are females just like my sister. Why? I cant tell you. Anyway you lead. I'll tell you if you go toward a part of the ship you cant go into."
"Sure."
Isabelle thought she recognised the whole ship had exactly or so the same configuration a liberty dreadnaught had, and headed toward where she guessed was the hangar bays. Mere curiosity of course, she wasnt searching for anything in perticuliar.
"As of first question, we in the navy mostly know very sketchy part of the real big plan. I was assigned... 4 years ago? or so, at St-Mitchell to prevent a nomad infestation. The official version talked about a new artificial-bio life form that has mutated into something parasitic."
She shut her memory from the horror scene she endured that day. She really didnt needed to recall that...
"... of course, I guess they are alien life forms, are they?"
She continued to walk, without looking too much where she went, passing one corridor to another. It was funny, she was certain she knew the ship by heart, yet she felt like in a maze now...
Maybe it was just the different hull painting.
"If so, why are they hostile to human kind for instance?"
She remained silent for a little while, and chained up the next question,
"And, where do they come out of?... we have never traced back their source point... we have no idea where these nomads... are being, grown... or whatever."
Now, she was sure she was suposed to be well at the extremity of the bow of the ship, yet the corridor continued...
well, it wasnt exactly the citadelle, wasnt it, she thought, a little vainquished smile on her face.
"The aliens or nomads. All I can say about them is. They are survivors. What we thought was the thing that will slow them down so much wasnt it. It was as though they had another bigger base then the one we destroyed so long ago. Though we have yet to find this said base we have been searching for ages."
Travis then put his arm in front of Isabelle as she was getting ready to turn to a different corridor.
"You can not go that way. Sorry."
They continued down the corridor. He knew they were going toward the hangar bay but didnt care. Not much was in there at this time.
"Anyways you and I do the same job. Which is to defend against the nomads. Only problem is we, the order, have to defend our systems against them and the Navy. Strictly between you and I. I think we're failing somewhat. More and more of those nomads keep coming in. As for your forces they dont get to close to us. thankfully."
A voice comes over system comm.
"Commander all escorts were called off. Its just us and Trinity's ship now."
Travis acts as though he didnt here it and they continue. From where Isabelle is walking he realized she seems to have the gist of the ships layout.
Liberty naval admiral Simon Alban, in command at prison station St-Mitchell knew something went wrong when the blink marking the hijacked cruiser and the rhino super heavy freighter suddenly stopped in the middle of ther route. He asked his comm specialist to reach for general Kaitlynn's ships, but the channel was disrupted - not too surprising in the area, somehow the strange cyan nebula that covered the whole Alaska system was from time to time refractive to communication signal. Maybe the ship were merely experiencing some minor ion storm unseen on scanner.
Anyway, security wasn't much compromised.
It only hapenned for a milisecond, so fast, if the officer at the radar didnt jumped in surprise, he'd have thought he'd dreamed about it.
For just that milisecond, over a dozen of capital type "dots" appeared on the screen, and disappeared.
Right in front of where the Rhino and the cruiser were...
Which both disappeared right after.
"Admiral, I have a ..."
"... very bad feeling about this? Me too."
Alban immediately seized his comm unit, and punched in the code for a general alert.
They witnessed such things before of course. Some of the crafts the orders sent in system were able of cloack, and so did some of the nomads. Their stealth modes allowed them to go by unseen on both scanner and visual... but at each activation and deactivation of the cloacking device - or whatever it was on a nomad body, their scanner could pick them up for a few seconds.
They never picked up something that massive since quite a long time.
"Why does it always happen on my shift..."
He rose up from his command chair, obviously nervous. The command room aboard St-Mitchell was suddenly busy with activity, holo screen projecting reports, intel, communication from the nearest naval vessel...
Within a few minutes, 3 cruiser patrol with their escort of a total of 6 gunboat and 12 Avenger class starfighter answered the call. From St-Mitchell, he authorised the deployment of a whole special combat squadron, using a strange prototype of the LSF...
The opaque black Raven Claws launched in a hurry, their engine burning blue ion fuel... then disappeared slowly, as their stealth technologies made them cloack in the nebula of Alaska.
"Admiral Alban to strike force Iota. Mission orders are to rescue, and scare 'em off."
A holoprojector on the floor deployed where he stood, as a 3d map of the soon-to-be battlefield appeared. miniature projection showing his own forces, approaching the area where the unknown crafts appeared for the last time.
Long minutes passed, as they came within range through the difficult to navigate asteroids.
"Sir! We detect multiple vessel engaging their cruise engines and running away in the direction of Omicron Minor!"
Admiral Alban cursed silently, as he openned his comm, asking for the nearest units around the Omicron Minor limits to stand at the ready.
That was bad news. It was certainly the Order, trying to rescue their commander. And if they were heading home, it meant they were succesful. He had to...
His fighter ops officer spoke next, pointing hastily toward the battlefield hologram,
"Sir! contact! Our men are requesting orders, they are entering maximal firing solution in a few seconds!"
--
"I see" Isabelle said, as they went downward through a lift. A bit more of a walk, and they arrived where she guessed it to be; the ship's hangar, with a number of fighter crafts aligned on the side, ready for launch. Down, was the hangar hatch door, set in a diagonal setup unlike the horizontal one on the Citadelle. She looked around, and finally saw a larger ship... it was an armored transport painted in the order's distinctive grey-black configuration.
At some time, it was hard to control her emotions in this kind of situation. But she was iron disciplined when needed.
"That said, where is your sister? Guess I owe her some civilised talk... even though it will merely be showing some respect toward each other."
--
"Admiral, we are standing ready, heavy positron canons are charged, and can fire at your order." Said the colonel commanding the expedition from one of the cruiser. The gunboat captains came up with similar readyness message, and so did the fighters.
Strangely, only two crafts remained; an order dreadnaught, and the cruiser... they seemed merely to be moving away, though at a slow pace, the battleship unable to go in cruise mode with so many obstacles.
things weren't that calm on the other side. At the Omicron Minor, the trap he'd set up was going into a full fledged fleet combat, cruiser and dreadnaught exchanging fire with the order warships.
"Well I'll tell Trinity you want to have a neutral talk with her. I'm sure she is looking forward to talking to you. Anyways these are our finest fighters and bombers in the fleet. We have never lost a single ship and intend to keep it that way."
They, Travis and the General, continue to walk about looking at everything there is in the Hangar.
As Isabelle and Travis walked around the hanger. Another message came over the Tenabras Comm.
"Multiple gunboats on long range scanners in route to our position. All hands general quarters. I repeat all hands general quarters! This is not a drill!"
Alarms all over the large battleship started going off. Travis already knew what it was. The fleet Isabelle told him about.
"Wait here one moment."
Travis said to the Navy General as he calmly walked over to a holo-comm.
"Launch the fighters and bombers. I'm sure the escorts are also being attacked now. Also tell Captain Emily, Navigations Pilot for Tenabras, to get ready to activate cruise engines. Get the defense team ready to drop CMs were not going to fight them here. Not yet..."
In the Command Center of Tenabras the well trained crew springs into action. Preparing for battle ahead. Captain Emily sets up the ship ready to activate cruise at a moments notice.
Pilots in the hangar bay run to there bombers and fighters. One after another a ship is gone from the hangar.
The fleet communication room is hectic as all ships in the massive fleet start joining the battle. Tenabras has seen many battles but this one was different. It was in a very hard to navigate system. Navy vs Nomad vs Order. This battle wasnt going to end well.
Travis returns to the General.
"Well General Isabelle. Like I said before we dont want prisoners so *pointing at a ship with Liberty Paint* that is your way out of here. You and your crew can take the Rhino and that ship back to the Cittadelle. *pausing for a minute* Yes we know which ship you command and what its capable of. God speed."
Travis turns around and starts gets ready to walk away to the Command Room.
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