Kaylee entered the medical bay of the Bastet, the door closing behind her with an abrupt swish. Lee Nash, the chief medical officer, muttered something to the shift nurse then turned to her, "Admiral, I'm afraid I have no news for you, he's still in a coma and on life support."
Kaylee sighed and nodded at him, "I figured as much, but that's not why I'm down here..." she lifted her left arm and pointed to a rip in her uniform, soaked with blood, "Patch it up, doc, I need to get back to work."
Nash sat her down on an examining bench and pulled a table covered in medical implements to the side, sitting on a stool in front of her. "Well, the gash isnt too deep, doesnt look like there was any damage to the ribs, but it's in a bad spot, will take a while to heal." He began picked up a suture from the table and began stitching the sides of the tear back together.
Kaylee winced in pain as he worked the needle through her skin, continuing the conversation to keep her mind off of the doctor's work, "Shrapnel nicked me when that fighter exploded in the docking bay, didnt even notice the cut until someone pointed it out, adrenaline I suppose."
He chuckled, "Aye, it can be an amazing thing." He pulled the suture string around itself in a knot, finishing the stitching, "Alright, there you go, cant do much about the uniform though. You work yourself too hard, Ms. Staite."
She shook her head in response, "No, if anything I'm not working hard enough, we lost three men in that explosion this morning, I could have saved them if I had pushed myself harder..." She sighed, "I should have pushed myself harder." "You couldnt have done anything about it, nobody could have known that ship's core casing was breached, accidents happen."
She stood up, brushing the tear in the uniform as if trying to wipe the damage away before heading for the door, "It wasnt an accident, Nash, it was the guild, it's always the damn guild..." Her voice was cut off by the carrier's intercom system, "Admiral Staite to the bridge, Admiral Staite you are required on the bridge immediately." She sighed and headed out the door, mumbling under her breath, "It just never ends..."
---
Kaylee entered the bridge, heading straight for the command chair, "Status report!" she shouted out among the background noise and bustle of the command crew. The communications officer spun his chair around to face her, holding one hand over his earphone, listening as he spoke, "Admiral, we're getting a distress call from Toledo, it's requesting all Order ships proceed to Omicron Delta immediately."
She nodded and turned to the helmsman, "Helm, plot a course for Delta, get us there as soon as possible. Comm, route the transmission data to the briefing room and get the wing commanders up here," she motioned to Bourne, her XO, and the tactical officer, "Let's go."
Minutes later, the last of the wing commanders entered the briefing room. Kaylee hit a switch on the communications display, bringing up the transmission the comm officer had received. The communications officer onboard the Pyramid, Admiral Brandon's flagship, flickered onto the screen, his voice carried with it an air of urgency, "Attention all Order vessels, a massive attack by the Guild Core is moving against Toledo, all Order ships are being recalled to Omicron Delta to head off the approaching enemy fleet." The message repeated itself on a loop, Kaylee cut off the signal as the ship jolted forward, it's jump drives engaged.
She turned to the assembled wing commanders and officers, "Well, knew they'd give it a shot eventually. Alright, I want Alpha and Beta wings to launch immediately upon arrival, set up an escort perimeter for the Bastet, after the launch space is secure we'll send out Charlie, Delta, and Gamma wings to assist the fleet. Gamma will link up comms with the Pyramid to coordinate bomber attacks against enemy warships, Charlie and Delta are on the defensive, make sure the guild's bombers dont get in range of our ships. The Bastet will maintain range and support with artillery. Any questions?" They all shook their heads, "Get to your ships, I want everyone ready when we drop out of the jump tunnel."
Kaylee and the two officers entered the bridge once again. She sat down in the command chair, wincing slightly as her stitches stretched, then turned back to the helmsman, "ETA to jump exit?" The pilot turned to look back at her, "Thirty seconds, Admiral." Kaylee nodded, "As soon as we exit the jump, cut engines so we can launch fighters." The pilot nodded, "Aye-aye Ma'am."
A pinpoint of white light appeared in front of them, at the end of the jump tunnel, the pilot began counting down, and as she reached zero the tunnel faded away, leaving the backdrop of Omicron Delta surrounding the ship. The communications officer hit a button on his control panel to activate the ship's intercom, "We have exited the jump tunnel, Alpha and Beta wings you are cleared for launch." Within seconds, the glaring engines of eight fighters could be seen leaving the front of the carrier, four of them splitting left and four right, forming a circle around the carrier.
Kaylee turned to the tactical officer, "Status?" He spoke back to her, staring intently at the active scanner panel, "Looks like the action is at nine thousand meters, heading 152 mark 090... my god, there must be two dozen guild battleships there, too many scanner contacts to track. Order forces are at 143 mark 090, they're heavily outnumbered."
She nodded and turned towards the comms officer, "Get the other wings in the air, have them rendevous with the fleet. Helm, take us to cruise, park three thousand meters from the engagement zone. Tactical, bring weapons and shields online, I want pulse cannons and mortars operational for long range bombardment."
As twelve more snubcraft left the front of the ship, the Carrier slowly lunged forward, building up speed as it's cruise engines engaged. The fighters and bombers were slightly faster, and pulled ahead of the Bastet to meet with the main fleet. As they neared the battle, the involved ships became visible out the forward viewport of the bridge; the tactical officer was right, there were at least two dozen Guild Battleships, and twice as many smaller warships, present. The Order fleet was outnumbered nearly two to one, but were holding ground surprisingly well. As the Bastet dropped out of cruise, the hum of the weapon capacitors charging resonated throughout the ship. "I want analysis on those battleships, figure out which ones have their shields down and fire mortars!"
Within a few seconds, the mortar cannons on the Bastet's wings began lobbing balls of antimatter into the fray, exploding into massive plasma clouds whenever they hit enemy ships. Several flashes later, the first Mako-class Battleship fell apart, sending debris flying into it's allies. The comms officer turned back towards her again, "Admiral, the Pyramid is ordering a tactical retreat back to Omicron Minor, we're regrouping with reinforcements from Alaska." She nodded, "We'll cover their retreat, as soon as our people are out of disruptor range, get our cruise engines online and take us to the jumphole."
As the rest of the Order fleet, battered and bruised, fled towards the Omicron Minor jump, the Bastet continued firing volleys of mortars into the oncoming enemy. It wasnt long before they turned their focus to the carrier, a sitting duck amidst fleeing targets. Enemy fire spread across the Carrier's forward shields, exploding mere feet from the hull. "Evasive action, charge cruise and get us out of here!"
As the Bastet entered cruise speed, the ping and clang of enemy fire against the shields and hull reduced in frequency until they were out of range. Kaylee sighed a sigh of relief, "Damage report?" the tactical officer turned back towards her, switching off the weapons control system, "Nothing to report, the ablative armor and shields did their job, all fighters and bombers are accounted for... charlie, delta, and gamma are back with the main fleet." She nodded, holding her side in pain as she stood up, "Comm, get ahold of the Pyramid, patch Admiral Brandon through to the briefing room."
Kaylee sat at the desk in her quarters, compiling a report on the previous day's battle. After Order forces had retreated back to Omicron Minor, the Guild did not follow. It was curious that they had put so much effort into such a massive fleet movement against them... yet didnt follow through when they had retreated. Something was amiss here, she just couldnt place her finger on it. There was nothing of tactical or resourceful importance in Omicron Delta for the Guild to procure, at least not in the direction of Order space. The only reason to amass such an assault would be to wipe the Order out entirely, yet they hadnt proceeded with the attack. She sighed and brushed her hair back, maybe they were simply taking time to rummage through the debris of the destroyed Order warships, trying to find something of value.
The intercom in her room lit up, and her XO's voice carried through the air, Admiral Staite, message incoming from Admiral Brandon, patching it through to your quarters Ma'am."
Kaylee slid her report to the side and turned the desktop display towards her, it showed the face of Admiral Lee Brandon, stern and quite serious looking. "Admiral Staite, we're launching a counter-offensive against the Guild in one hour, I need you to organize the second recon batallion, their commanding ship was destroyed in the battle and you're being put in charge. Get them to Omciron Delta by oh-nine-hundred hours. Admiral Brandon, out."
She switched the monitor off and stood, brushing the creases out of her uniform. Twenty hours since she had slept, and fatigue was starting to set in, but there was too much to do still. Brandon's reasoning seemed sound enough... if the Guild wasnt pushing onward, that meant they were either crippled or had suffered heavy enough losses to rethink their strategy. A counter-assault would catch them offguard and unorganized... at least, that was the hope.
Kaylee shut off the lights and headed for the bridge.
---
The Bastet neared the Omicron Delta Jumphole with the second recon batallion in tow. To both sides, the present Admiralty were assembled with their own fleets, overall a force of more than two dozen warships and several dozen snubcraft. Despite being outnumbered the previous day, reinforcements from across Sirius had been called back to defend Order space, and the combined fleet size had nearly doubled. Still, judging by the guild's presence during the last engagement, they would remain slightly outnumbered.
Brandon's voice echoed over the comm system, "This is Admiral Brandon, all craft proceed through the jump to Omicron Delta, we'll regroup on the other side before proceeding into guild controlled space."
The warships, with fighters and bombers in tow, entered the jump hole by the handful, leaving only seconds between each ship's entry before the next followed. Kaylee's group was the last to jump, and once the last of them had entered, the Bastet made it's way into the gravity well. The jump between Minor and Delta was relatively short, the jump tunnel took only a minute or so to traverse, but when jumping into a potentially hostile situation that tunnel seems to extend forever.
As the Bastet neared the jump exit, the bright white light at the end of the wormhole rushing towards it, flashes of blue and red light jumped across the bow. The tunnel collapsed just behind the ship, leaving the Bastet in the middle of an all out brawl between Guild and Order forces.
Kaylee sprung forward in her chair, shouting at the command crew, "Son of a bitch, they were waiting for us! Condition Red, evasive action, get weapons and shields online!"
The massive carrier leaned to it's port side, pulling a wide manuvering arc as the boosters engaged, narrowly avoiding being rammed by a Mako-class battleship that was spinning out of control, in the process of exploding. As the Bastet came about, roughly one kilometer from the battle, the full view of the engagement came into view. The Guild had apparently arranged their fleet in a massive sphere around the jump hole, just waiting for The Order's counter-attack. The first ships to jump into the system were destroyed almost immediately, the rest were somewhat protected from fire by the debris of the destroyed craft and were able to take evasive action before meeting the barrage of fire from the guild fleet.
Kaylee looked towards the tactical officer, "Drop our countermeasures and get second recon to our position, we need to draw some of those guild ships away from the jump and make a gap in their line. Focus on the nearest guild ship and fire mortars."
As the recon batallion wove it's way through the wall of guild ships to rendevous with the Bastet, the carrier sprayed a stream of countermeasure flares into space. In such massive quantities, the flares would both interfere with sensors and communications, as well as create a very large sensor profile at the Bastet's location, hopefully creating the illusion of a second fleet incoming, and drawing the attention of the enemy away from the other Order ships.
The helmsman, on edge and ready to strafe incoming fire should the need arise, looked back at Kaylee, "Admiral, I dont think it's working, none of them are turning to our position..."
Just as Kaylee was about to respond, several of the guild ships began to come about towards the Bastet's position, opening fire on the carrier and it's accompanying cruisers almost immediately. The helmsman cranked the ship hard to port, yelling out "Brace for impact!" just before several mortars slammed into the shield, dropping it in one volley. The Bastet shook and lunged to the side from the collision, nearly throwing Kaylee out of her chair.
The tactical officer, frantically slamming buttons on his console, yelled back to her, "Shields down, hull at ninety percent and dropping, taking heavy fire!"
Kaylee shook off the blast and situated herself back in the command chair, "Activate shield capacitors! Full speed ahead, gain some distance on those battleships and bring us about!"
The command crew was seasoned enough to know the drill, they had already started executing her orders even before she gave them. The ship shook from several more impacts, but within several seconds it was out of enemy weapons range, drifting through space as it turned back to face the opponent. The guild ships had, for the most part, broken their wall around the jump hole and were now scattered, engaging the Order fleet in secular bouts. The recon cruisers accompanying the Bastet had flanked the Mako pursuing her, and were firing batteries of pulse cannons into the lightly defended rear section of the hulking craft.
The tactical officer took action before even receiving the command, "Target shields are down, firing mortars one and two!" Bright flashes of blue and white light lit up the sides of the bridge as the massive mortar cannons fired, sending balls of antimatter hurling towards the battleship. The collision was signalled by a flash and a cloud of smoke pouring from the Mako's engine section.
Turning from the defeated battleship towards the main engagement, the Bastet's helmsman muttered, "Ma'am..."
Kaylee looked out the forward viewport and noticed bright blue and purple beams of light stretching across the entire engagement zone, tearing through Order and Guild ships alike. Just to the side of the battle, a near solid blanket of Nomad ships, mostly composed of cruiser-sized forms, had unleashed a barrage of fire on both fleets. Kaylee slumped back in her chair and spoke to herself, "My god..."
Similar comments were heard from the rest of the command crew. "Where did they come from..." "I've never seen so many before..."
The daze only lasted moments before the flashes of battle brought the crew back to their senses. Kaylee ordered the Bastet forward, and as they neared weapons range she issued the command to blind fire mortars into the nomad fleet. The density of the alien craft was so great that even unaimed shots were more likely to hit than to miss.
For the moment, both The Order and Guild fleets united against a common enemy, Makos and Osirises fought alongside one another, tearing into the heart of the Nomad assault together, and similarly being rended asunder together.
Within minutes the Guild fleet began to retreat the scene, and as luck would have it the bulk of the Nomad assault took to pursuing them, leaving only a few ships for The Order to deal with. "Tactical, give me a damage report on the Order fleet." Kaylee said, glancing towards him. "More than a quarter of our ships have been destroyed, most of the remaining craft have taken heavy damage and..."
He was cut off by the Bastet lunging violently to the side as it's shields failed and alien fire met the hull. "Shields down, ablative armor failing! Decompression reports on decks four and six!"
"Order a retreat, get us to the jump hole!" Kaylee shouted, pulling herself back into the command seat once more. For a moment, she oddly pondered why they had never put restraints in the command chairs, the ship sure moved about enough when struck by hostile fire.
As the Bastet barreled for the jump hole back to Omicron Minor, it fired full batteries backwards at the Nomad Cruisers that had attempted to flank the second recon fleet. One cruiser tore apart, it's core exploding as the shell of the creature split from weapons fire. Three more took it's place, firing blue and purple beams at the ship as it fled for safety.
Just as the Bastet's primary engine was disabled, it was sucked through the jumphole back to Omicron Minor, left dead in space on the other side.
The Bastet hovered above toledo, a complete wreck. The main reactor was damaged, engines were down, several turrets were not functional, and two compartments were still exposed to open space, sealed off and full of frozen corpses. Kaylee, just returning to the bridge from engineering, was hit with a wave of audio chatter coming from the consoles as the bridge door swished open.
She headed for her chair, requesting a status report as she sat down. The Communications Officer, half distracted by the number of transmissions occuring, did his best to piece it all together, "None of the Nomad ships made it to Toledo, but scouts are reporting residual signs of combat all over Omicron Delta. Admiral Brandon has been injured, Admiral Mirage is assuming command of the remaining fleet. What few ships we have left are gathering at Toledo in a defensive formation around the planet, most are badly damaged though. Admiral Mirage is sending out a transmission to the fleet, I'll put it on the main screen..."
The holographic viewscreen on the forward viewport of the bridge flickered to life, showing Mirage's face. Despite the circumstances, and how worried she probably was about what had happened, she maintained a stern face to hide that emotion. "Pilots and Officers of The Order, we stand here today to defend our homeworld against a potential invasion. Many have died in the past two days, many ships have been lost, but we have left the Guild's fleet crippled and survived a major Nomad assault. As bad as things may seem, we will prevail, as we always have." She paused for a moment, turning her head away from the viewscreen to listen to one of her bridge officers before continuing, "Every transport, freighter, and noncombat ships in our fleet are currently on Toledo's surface, ready to evacuate personnel to Omicron 100 if another aggression should threaten the planet. We dont know what the Nomads or Guild have planned, we dont know if they will attack again, but we will remain vigilant until we can be assured that Toledo is safe once more. All combat craft are ordered to form a defensive formation in planetary orbit, additional instructions will be relayed when more information is available. Admiral Mirage Bre'Delakorsa, out."
Kaylee sighed and rubbed her temples, trying to get rid of the headache that had persisted for the past two days. It was hard to imagine another Nomad assault, the first attack was bigger than anything they had seen since the Nomad war in 801 A.S., and most of those ships had been destroyed. What more could the Nomads have to attack with? Similarly, the Guild had been beaten and bruised as heavily as The order had, they were unlikely to have much more to fight with.
She sat for a few minutes at the center of the bridge, tuning out the noise around her, until the repeated calls of her tactical officer broke the daze. "Admiral, we have guild ships on scanners!" Kaylee snapped back into reality and wasted no time in calling out orders, "Link sensor contacts with the fleet, make sure they know what's coming in. Comm, hail the closest guild ship, put it on the main screen."
Once more the holoscreen flickered as the transmission link was made, and the face of the lead guild ship's captain became clear. Kaylee stood up as she spoke to him, "Captain, your fleet is battered and broken, I suggest you turn back and end this pointless hostility before we finish the job."
The Captain's face didnt flinch, "Ah, you must be Admiral Kaylee Staite, heard a lot about you. I could turn back now, if you really want me to, but before I do you should know that we came here to... help you... as ridiculous as it sounds."
Kaylee paused a moment, trying to contemplate what she had just heard, "Help us? Your fleet just tried to wipe ours out a day ago, and now you're claiming that you're here to help us? How stupid do you think we are?"
He chuckled to himself, "Well, you dont want me to answer that, but really now, if ever there was a time I wasnt lying, this would be it. I'll try to explain this situation to you, but I must be brief, we havent any time to spare. We just jumped here from Omicron Delta, and not ten kilos from that jumphole we encountered a fleet of Nomad battleships and support craft that stretched further than the eye could see. They're coming here, Admiral, and I suspect they've had enough of this dispute... I suspect they intend to wipe you out."
Kaylee had a puzzled look on her face, "And why would you choose to help us, as far as The Order is concerned, The Guild only wants to see us wiped out."
He nodded, "True, we harbor no love for your little organization, but let's be realistic Admiral... if The Order is wiped out, who do you think will be next? As much as we hate you, we enjoy living more, besides I think we'd rather miss these little chats, dont you?"
She shook her head, this had to be a joke, or some trick, but there was no way to be certain. "Very well, captain, but keep your distance from Toledo, if this nomad fleet truly does exist, your men can flank them from behind as they clash with our fleet. Just know this... we dont trust you, and if one of your gunners so much as slips and misfires on our craft, all of you are going to die." She gestured towards her communications officer to cut the transmission, "Summarize that for the rest of the fleet, if they happened to not be listening in. If what he says is true, this might be our last chance to fight the Nomads back."
---
Kaylee had only just returned from the medical bay, to get something for her headache, when the bridge alarms went off. She rushed to her position, "Status report!"
"Massive Nomad signatures inbound, Admiral, and... something... is at the vanguard, something big, unidentified, it matches nothing in the database!"
"Give me a visual, is the rest of the fleet powering up?" The tactical officer nodded at her, and brought up a visual scan of the unidentified ship on the holoscreen. It was massive, several times larger than the battleships they had encountered in the past, dwarfing those surrounding it. Kaylee slowly stood up, staring at the image along with the rest of the bridge crew, "What the hell is that thing..."
She was cut off by a massive vibration wave resonating through the ship, and through the viewports could see the same wave effect on the rest of the fleet. The front of the unknown ship expanded, opened up, and a light brighter than the heart of the sun flashed within it. The flash coalesced into a beam of light that jumped forward from the mouth of the creature, tearing through two ships and slamming into the surface of toledo, throwing bits of the surface clear into orbit.
With that initial attack, wave after wave of Nomads, from fighters to battleships, lunged forward at the line of Order ships surrounding the planet. They opened fire, sending a near solid line of energy bolts into the fleet, several collided before the ships could begin evasive action, littering Toledo's orbit with a multitude of purple and white explosions.
Once more, communications chatter bombarded the bridge as the commlink relayed various captains shouting orders to their crew, calling for assistance, or sending may-day warnings as their craft plummeted to the planet surface. Luckily, the initial blast from the unknown ship had missed The Order's underground base on Toledo, and the evacuation process began immediately, with dozens of transport and freighter craft launching into space with all the personnel they could carry, before jumping to Omicron 100.
"Target the closest battleship, all batteries fire!" Kaylee shouted, bracing herself in her seat as a large chunk of steel - the midsection of a Resheph cruiser, collided with the Bastet. With main engines down, evasive action wasnt possible, they would simply have to weather the incoming fire and debris and attempt to bombard the attackers from range with mortars.
The Unknown ship lit up and fired again, blowing yet another chunk out of the planet's surface. Several Osirises moved in to concentrate fire on the vessel, in an attempt to distract it and temporarily halt the attacks on the planet. Their effort was valiant, but futile, as the massive craft's point defense weaponry tore them to pieces. Kaylee could see escape pods jettisoning into space as the ships crumbled and fell apart.
As the Nomad Battleships pushed their assault against the fleet, several altered course to come after the Bastet, in high Toledo orbit. The carrier's shields dropped within seconds, and the incoming fire tore the forward section of the ship, including all four docking bays, clear from the hull. Kaylee's heart skipped a beat as she realized that the Bastet was about to be destroyed, and hitting the intercom button on her seat's control panel, she yelled, "We're going down, all hands... abandon ship!"
As soon as she had given the message, she rushed to the back of the bridge, where the command crew escape pods were situated. Just as Kaylee sealed the hatch on her pod, another volley of Nomad fire hit the bridge, depressurizing the deck and causing any of the command staff who werent incinerated by the blast to be sucked into space, flash frozen, dead instantly.
Kaylee blacked out as she was thrown against the wall of the pod as it rocketed from the carrier. Time passed, she didnt know how long it had been, but as she regained consciousness she had a full view of Toledo and the last remnants of The Order's fleet being destroyed in Orbit. A feeling of dread filled her as the unknown ship, now quite close to the planet, lit up again. The blast emitting from it's gaping maw sent a shockwave from it's point of impact, scorching the very atmosphere of Toledo from one side of the planet to the other.
Tears poured down her face as massive cracks opened in the planet surface, spreading red and yellow fault lines across the globe like spider webs. In an instant, Toledo had been turned from a white world of snowy mountains into an unstable orb of molten rock. The place Kaylee was born, the place she had spent all the early years of her life, where she had trained to become a Captain in The Order, where every pre-service memory she had ever experienced took place... was gone. Toledo was a dead world, destroyed by that... thing... without a single moment of hesitation.
First her ship, her crew... now her homeworld, all taken from her in a matter of days. Kaylee swore that if she survived, she would visit vengeance upon the entirety of the Nomad race.