Star Crusades by Michael Thomas (whitelam books txt) 📗

decompressed. Therest of the fleet stopped shooting, leaving the wrecked ship adriftin space, yet another dead hulk to litter the system.

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” askedthe XO.

“We’ve got an intact, but dead inthe water attack ship,” said CaptainRegina, “And if I’m not mistaken, it looks like she still haspartial power. She’s not quite as dead as we thought.”

She looked at her XO with a raised lefteyebrow.

“Interesting. Get me Captain Olikimmediately.”

It tooka few seconds before his image appeared, and he looked moreirritable than normal. Other officers were nearby, and she couldsee he was on the bridge of one of the Confederate Classwarships.

“Yes?”

“Captain. We’re in range of a crippledattack ship.”

“And? We have a campaign to begin. We don’t have time to striphulks in space.”

“The ship still has power,Captain. If so, we may be able to obtain data from her systems.There may even be prisoners. It’s notoften we catch one of them in space.”

“Go on.”

“I have Jackals loadedwith six lances of Novas that are good togo. I can have them aboard in less than ten minutes.”

He rubbed his chin as he consideredthat, and then gave her the nod.

“One lance only,” he said carefully, “Let’s not risk too many ofour soldiers so early in this fight. Keep the others in reserve,just in case. You recall the last time we boarded and captured oneof their ships.”

“You’re expecting trouble?”

Olik shrugged.

“I always expect trouble, CaptainRegina. If I were on that ship, I’d rig it to blow the second itwas boarded. Eight Novas is already eight more than I want tochance.”

“Understood, Captain. Sending them innow.”

He turned to leave, and then looked back.

“Wait, who are you sendingaboard?”

“Lieutenant Jack Fletcher, withSergeant Jablonsky’s lance.”

Olik smiled uponthe mention of the names.

“Good. They’re more than familiar withbooby traps. Remind them to watch themselves. They’ve died enoughtimes already.”

“Yes,Captain.”

Captain Regina took in a deep breath and then noddedtowards the ship now circling slowly inspace. Trails of dust and gas from breaches in its hull gave it theimpression of a dying beast, but she knew better.

“Helm, bring us in on adeployment orbit around that ship. Keepus moving. I don’t want to make things easy for them. Once theNovas are launched, we will fall back to the outer marker andprovide covering fire if needed.

“Yes,Captain.”

“And Comms, putme through with Lieutenant Fletcher.”

“Sir!”

* * *

Something slammed against thehull of Nautilus so hard it shook thedropships clamped inside. Valentine looked across to Alexis whogave an alarmed expression.

“That was heavy.”

Valentine smiledand then looked to the others. None of the Novashad jumped, even though they were well aware that Nautilus mighthave just sustained a major hit from an enemy vessel. All of themhad gone into combat numerous times, and all critically injured ortechnically killed in battle. For most it numbed their senses, andshe knew at least a handful of them simply did not care whetherthey lived or died anymore. They were here for the camaraderie andthe thrill of combat.

“She can take it,” said SergeantJablonsky, “It’s just debris from theattack ship. That thing is spewing junk everywhere.”

Kallias appeared happy to hear thatpart.

“You mess with the bull,and you get the horns!”

“What?” Hawkins shook hishead, “What are you talking aboutnow?”

Valentine laughed as she listenedto the banter. She’d missed this over thelast months in the medical bays. They’d developed a closer bondwhile she’d been away, though now that she was back, she’d slippedinto routine as though she’d never left. She watched the othersinside the cramped, darkened interior of the Jackal withinterest.

“Okay,Novas.” The side door opened, and Lieutenant Fletcher steppedinside, “We’ve got a mission!”

Valentine had gone into battle inside landing craft, dropships, andeven fully fledged landing ships over her relatively short career.For all that experience, she still felt the nerves in her body, areminder that the unknown waited out there for them, and that evena Nova wasn’t immortal. They could be saved, but only up to apoint.

“What kind of mission?”Sergeant Jablonsky asked.

“Special request from theBoss.”

That drew silence from each ofthem. Only one person was called the Boss in the unit, and that it was easy to enrage their leader,Captain Olik. Those that had served alongside him knew what amonster he could be on the battlefield, and those that hadn’t hadthe pleasure knew the stories. Some had heard of the number of foeshe’d ripped limbs from, while others had heard tales of the mightywarrior standing alone in a passage, taking multiple hits, andsimply howling at his foe to strike him. Valentine knew better, buteven she knew that an enraged Olik was a warrior best steered clearof.

“We’re up for it,” said theSergeant, “Whatever the Captain needs, hegets.”

“Simple mission.I’m taking in your lance aboard a disabledSki’lig attack ship.”

“One lance, Sir? Eight Novas?”

“Ten, including us.”

He tapped his arm, and a plan ofthe ship appeared inside their helmets.Valentine tapped her visor, and it slid down before she realisedthe imagery was being fed directly to her ocular system via herCortex. The ship looked similar to the vessel she’d helped captureon the planet’s surface, though the inner compartments seemedsmaller, and it was clearly much more heavily armoured than thetransport. Overall, there was more common in the design thandifferent.

“The ship has been split open, but shestill has power.”

“What is our objective? Ican’t imagine there are many souls leftonboard?”

“Search and recover. We need any data that can be obtained. We havedone this before on Eridani Prime, and we can do it again. Yourcortexes have been upgraded with the latest data on Ski’lig datasystems. Strip what you can from them. Then we bug out.”

The other Novas began todetach their clamps, but LieutenantFletcher lifted a hand in surprise.

“Hey, where do you think you’re allgoing?”

They seemed confused, especiallyas he tapped the door controls, and theouter door slid back into position.

“One lance enters the ship, two willstay here in case they’re needed for backup.”

“What do you say?” said an irritatedsounding Sergeant.

“Sir, Yes, Sir!”

“Allright, then,” he said happily, “Let’s go to work.”

Hemoved to the vertical barrier and stepped against it. The clampsactivated automatically and locked his Rhino armour intoposition.

“You heard the Lieutenant,” saidSergeant Jablonsky, “We’re goingin.”

The dropship shook, but Valentine knew this time it was not a hit,