Bretonian Armed Forces Defense Intelligence Staff (DIS) (iRP) (AO)

[Capt. Henry Morgan]

Location:
LD-14
Leeds System
Bretonia

Captain Winston Doyle was pacing the bridge of the Sovereign. The Sovereign, her sister ship, the Blackpool, and an assortment of fighters had been patrolling the area around LD-14 for a few days now. Command had recently received intelligence indicating a possible Kusari raid on LD-14, perhaps even a full attempt to capture the station, and it's MOX production facility. So far, though, they hadn't had so much as a blip. As serious as he knew the situation was, Captain Doyle couldn't help but be a bit bored. A voice broke him from his reverie. It was the Bridge comm officer, a fresh-faced Ensign whose name he hadn't learned yet.

"Captain Doyle, I've just lost comm contact with both the Blackpool, and the station!"

"Equipment failure?"

"Negative, sir. The equipment is operating perfectly. There's just no signal."

"Oh hell.... we're being jammed. All hands to battle stations NOW!"

Just as everyone got to their posts, the sensor officer, Lieutenant Patil spoke up.

"Sir, I've located the source of the jamming. We've got three Kusari Destroyers, a handful of fighters, and" Lt. Patil looked right at Captain Doyle, fear evident in his eyes. "one Genji-class Battleship. I think they came in through the back side of the Uranium field."

Winston knew at once that the Kusari meant to take LD-14, and fast. The Genji-class Battleship was a very powerful vessel, and supported by three destroyers, they had brought a very formidable battlegroup..

"Helm, pull us back closer to the station. Gunners, target the first Destroyer, and fire at will. Comm, keep trying to break through the jamming. Contact the Battleship York if you can. They need to know what's happening here. Also, try to contact our forces here. If we can't coordinate, we'll lose LD-14 for sure."

As Winston watched the sensors, he saw that, even without communications, the Blackpool's Captain saw what the Sovereign was doing, and followed suit. Both ships were taking a pounding from the enemy ships, but their concentrated fire on the same Destroyer quickly overwhelmed it's shields. Both ships opened up with their Light Mortars. After a couple shots, the Kusari Destroyer blossomed into a miniature supernova.

Clearly, the Kusari hadn't expected such a coordinated response to their sudden attack. The remaining two destroyers moved into closer formation with the battleship The Genji-class battleship waded into the battle for the first time. With a few bursts from it's heavy guns, it brought down the Blackpool's shields, and the combined fire from both it and the remaining two destroyers reduced the Blackpool to a depressurized, radioactive hulk seconds later.

Winston was shocked at how quickly the Blackpool fell. He needed to take some more aggressive action, and quick.

"Helm, take evasive action, avoid their fire. Gunners, target one of the remaining destroyers and bring it down! Comm, have you broken that jamming yet?"

"No, sir. The jamming field appears to be coming from the Battleship."

Suddenly, the deck lurched, throwing anyone not strapped into a chair to the deck. The lights on the bridge dimmed, then went back up. Winston picked himself up off the deck. He had hit his face pretty hard on a console on his way down. He tasted blood in his mouth. He spit the blood out, and a tooth went with it. Still, he didn't outwardly show any pain.

"Damage report!"

"Sir, direct hit from a Heavy Mortar. Main power is offline, we've switched to backups. We can't power our Light Mortar anymore, but all other systems are fully functional. We've damaged one of their destroyers, first, though. It's moving away from the combat area."

"Target the Battleship at once, and fire with all turrets! Target it's weapons. We might not be able to kill it, but we can still pull it's teeth..."

"Aye, sir!"

Winston strapped himself into his own chair, so he wouldn't be thrown to the deck again. He couldn't afford to be knocked unconscious at this moment. He then settled and watched the battle unfold on his sensor screens. By focusing on the Battleship, he was leaving the Sovereign open to fire from the remaining destroyer, but it couldn't be helped. He needed to force that battleship to retreat, or the battle was lost. Just when it looked like they might succeed at piercing the Battleship's shields, though, the Sovereign was struck by an out-of-control Templar that had been seriously damaged by a Kusari Chimera.

The collision knocked the Sovereign off course for just a moment, but that was all the Kusari ships needed. Immediately, the Sovereign was struck by both a Light and a Heavy mortar from the enemy vessels. The ship lurched horribly, and there were small explosions all over the bridge. The main lights were off, leaving nothing but the feeble emergency lighting to see by. Many of the display screens had also went dark. Only a handful of bridge personnel were stirring at all.

"Report!"

Lieutenant Patil spoke up. He appeared to be in a fair bit of pain, and was cradling his left arm. He activated the controls on his console with only one hand.

"Sir, we've lost all main and auxillary power generators. We're down to backup batteries only. We're dead in space. The Kusari vessels have moved in toward the station, and have begun bombarding it's shields."

Winston considered this for a moment. The Kusari clearly considered the Sovereign out of the fight, and looking around him at the carnage on the bridge, he was hard pressed to disagree. Unless he could think of something, though, it looked as if LD-14 was lost, and the sacrifice of so many lives would be in vain. He couldn't let that happen. He considered a moment longer, and came to a decision.

"Comm, signal this to all decks: All hands, abandon ship!"

The young ensign at Communications, looking battered but not seriously hurt, looked surprised.

"Sir? Shouldn't we try to fight? There's got to be something we can do!"

"I've got one more trick up my sleeve, Ensign. Get to the Escape pod!"

"Aren't you coming, sir?"

"Of course I am. There's two pods here, and I think you can all get into one. I'll take the other one once I'm done here! Now, enough questioning my orders. GO!"

"Aye, sir."

As the remaining bridge crew evacuated, Winston sat himself down at the helm console, after removing the Helmsman's body from the chair. He brought up the command protocols, and entered the code that started the self-destruct sequence. He then re-routed all remaining power into the Cruise engines. He knew it wouldn't last for long, but it didn't need to. By the time it failed, the Sovereign would already be where it needed to be. After entering the instructions into the console, he pressed the 'execute' button, then headed for the escape pod.

He didn't have much time now, but he couldn't resist having one last look around the bridge before he went. This vessel had been through so much, it was a shame that it had to end this way. Winston then strapped himself into the remaining escape pod, and activated the release control. He was pressed back into his seat as the pod was kicked from the ship. A moment went by, then it felt as if the pod was struck by a massive hand. Everythng went black.

One week later

Winston opened his eyes. There was an intense light above him. He wondered for a moment if he was dead, then he heard voices around him. He tried to sit up, when he felt a hand restrain him.

"Where am I?"

"You're at a medical facility on Planet Leeds. Take it easy there, sir. You've been unconcious for a week. Rest up a bit before you try moving."

"At least tell me what happened out there. How is my crew?"

"I'm not clear on all the details, but your crew is fine. It's all we've been able to do to keep them out of here all week. You've got one visitor who asked to be let in the moment you were awake, though. I'll go get him now."

Winston settled back a moment, though it was difficult for him. He desperately wanted to know what happened out there. He heard the door open, and looked to see who was visiting him. To his surprise, it was Fleet Admiral Percy Nelles himself.

"Sir!"

Fleet Admiral Nelles smiled at him.

"At ease, Captain. Given the circumstances, I think we can forgo the usual salute"

Winston chuckled a bit. He had too many questions, though, and he didn't waste any time.

"Sir, what happened? Did we stop the Kusari?"

"Indeed, you did, Captain. That was a hell of a fight you put up. The explosion of the Sovereign managed to take out both the Kusari Battleship, and Destroyer. After communications failed, the Admiral on the Battleship York realized that something was wrong, and moved in to investigate. They arrived shortly after the enemy capitals fell, and they assisted in mopping up the remaining fighters. Then they scooped up your escape pods, and sent you all back here. I've personally authorized some leave time for your people. You've all earned it. The doctors tell me you'll be fit for duty within a couple days. I want you to report for debreifing as soon as you're able."

"Yes, sir. What happens next? I want to get back into the fight, but I no longer have a ship..."

"We've got another one lined up for you, Captain. You've got two weeks leave coming up. Take some time and rest. After that, you'll report to Southampton Shipyard to take command of your new ship. I'll leave the details for you as a surprise."

"Thank you, sir."

"No, thank you, Captain."

With that, Fleet Admiral Nelles left. Winston fell asleep again shortly afterwards.

Two weeks later

Captain Winston Doyle, and his remaining crew from the Sovereign were in a shuttle approaching Southampton shipyard. In the row of docks, he saw a line of vessels, some being repaired, others being built. At the end, though, he saw one Dunkirk-class Battleship that appeared to be ready for service. He looked a little closer at the nameplate on it's hull, and was speechless.

The nameplate read "HMS Sovereign".

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