A Pirate's Tale: The Only Solution Is Retribution (43 page)

Leonidas nodded, “You make a good point, Barney.  Keep loading them in Embree!”

Embree nodded and kept his eyes on his panel.  He hadn’t found the Senior Fleet Commander’s ship.  Evidently, he had a well-trained fleet and didn’t need to issue instructions.  He would have to wait until the fleet arrived and watch closely for a single transmission to be sent to all the Romanov Ships.  That officer had to be eliminated early.  He would be smart enough to recognize the pattern and takes steps to neutralize it.  Leonidas looked at Embree and saw his expression, “Embree!”

“The Overall Major Commander of the Fleet moving toward us is not communicating.  I’m going to have to wait for the fleet to arrive and see him issue the attack order before I can lock his ship down!”

“What if they’ve been ordered to attack when the fleet arrives and he remains silent?”

“Then we’re going to have to find him on the fly.  He will see the pattern we’re using and start issuing orders to neutralize it.” Embree answered.

“He’ll issue the attack order.”  Everyone on the bridge looked at Carl and he felt their gazes.  He looked up from his panel and shrugged, “It’s like what that fellow Gem said, the Major Commander has a huge ego and will not allow anyone else to make that order.  That order is his alone and his ego won’t allow him to subordinate it to anyone else.”

Leonidas stared at Carl and then said, “Am I like that?”

Carl rolled his eyes and said in fake sincerity, “Oh no, Sir.  You are different from all the others.”  Leonidas lowered his eyes as he stared at Carl and Carl shrugged, “It’s like when we were going in to take out the artillery on Regulus.  All of us were in position and most of us should have already gone in but we had to wait for you to give the order.”

“But I had to make sure everyone was organized and ready,” Leonidas said defensively

Embree chuckled, “Sir, you had trained us to operate independently of each other from the beginning.  Our units knew their targets and could have gone in as soon as we were ready but you made us wait.”

Leonidas looked at Desire and saw her shrug and then nod.  He sighed and said, “That Commander will issue the attack order.”  Carl smiled and turned back to his console.  Leonidas learned a valuable lesson that moment and would not forget it.  He thought about it and said, “Embree, connect me with Blakely.”  He waited and a few moments later, Blakely appeared on the monitor, “Yes.”

“I’m sending you the coordinates of the Romanov Fleet you’ll be facing and I want you to form up the forty units in subspace and send them into normal space simultaneously.  As soon as they enter normal space, start the pattern.”

“We need to make sure they’re all organized and in proper position when they enter normal space.”

Leo saw Carl smiling at his panel and exhaled sharply, “Do all that in subspace.  They’ve practiced the pattern before we came here and we don’t want the Romanovs to change their formation before we can start the pattern around them.”

“Are you sure about this, Leonidas.”

“I am, Captain.”

Blakely sighed, “Alright, I’ll do it your way.”

The monitor went dark and Desiree said with a smile, “Carl is right.”

Leonidas saw Carl smiling from ear to ear and he shook his head, “Carl, I am going to promote you once this is over.”

Carl’s smile immediately disappeared, “Sir, why would you punish me for giving good advice?!  You should appreciate it and leave me the hell alone.”

Leo smiled and lowered his eyes as he saw Embree lower his head to keep from laughing.  Barney stared at his monitor and fought hard to keep a straight face.  Carl saw them and said, “WHAT’S SO FREAKING FUNNY?!”  The entire bridge crew burst out laughing and Carl stared at them with a scowl on his face.

• • •

Leo looked at the tactical monitor and saw that one half of Serge’s Warships were holding station above the planet’s largest city.  It was currently on the opposite side of the planet from where the filament passed.  The other half of Serge’s ships were formed up between the planet and the closest point to the filament.  They were organized into twenty-five independent one thousand ship units arranged in five lines separated by four hundred miles between them.  Their bows were pointed toward open space where his ships would emerge from the filament and enter normal space.  There was twenty thousand miles between the filament and the planet’s current position and that would have to be navigated for the two fleets to engage in combat.  That separation would allow the forty Pirate Units to move into position as the Romanov Fleet came out to meet them.  Blakely appeared on Leo’s display, “We’re ready.”

Leo looked at Embree, “Find that ship!”  Embree nodded and Leo looked at Blakely, “Start it rolling.”  Blakely nodded and disappeared from the monitor.  Leo pressed a button, “Gem, are you ready?”

“I’ve got the initial targets programmed in.  I’m concerned about the overall Commander.”

“I’ll go after him once we locate his ship. You start taking out your targets and I’ll join in after we find that ship.”  Gem nodded and disappeared. Suddenly, the Pirate Units appeared in normal space around the Thermopylae and accelerated away.  Embree stared at his console and after a few moments that seemed to take forever he yelled, “GOT IT!!  PROGRAMING THE FIRST TWO MISSILES IN THE LAUNCH TUBES!!”

Leo looked at Desiree, who was manning the ship’s controls and yelled, “GO, GO, GO!!”

The Thermopylae and Play Toy accelerated away from the Pirate Fleets entry location with Gem going vertical and Leo diving under the advancing pirate warships.  Their ships were faster than any ships in the Pirate’s Fleet and they turned and headed toward the Romanov Fleet as it began moving out to meet the attackers.  The two ships were masked by the Pirate Warships moving toward the Romanov formations and they came roaring in from above and below the Romanov Fleets before they were detected.  Frick stared at his missile console and saw a warship glowing on his panel.  He waited as the target ship attempted to move into the rear of the advancing formations in front of it and saw the launch button go green.  He pressed it and saw two missiles leap away from the Thermopylae.

• • •

The Romanov Sensor Officer shouted, “Sir, I have an enemy vessel moving under our formations at high speed.  It will be in blaster range in less than thirty seconds!”

The Fleet Commander had been focused on the pattern being used by the incoming wave of Pirate Warships and didn’t like what he was seeing.  He had lifted his communicator to change the formations of his fleets but instead yelled, “MOVE US INSIDE THE REAR FORMATIONS NOW!!”  He felt the acceleration push him back in his chair and activated his communicator, “Attention all fleets…”  That was the only thing that was heard.  There were no ships around his vessel to slow down the two missiles tracking in and they both hit a moment apart.  The vessel exploded in a massive blast as the Romanov Fleet continued straight ahead.

• • •

Leo yelled, “YES!!”  Then he turned to Embree, “Start giving Desiree the course to the next targets.”

“Sending it now, Sir.”

The Thermopylae made a radical turn and headed across the rear of the advancing Romanov Fleet and Leo felt the ship shuddering as missiles left their launch tubes.  The Play Toy passed them in the opposite direction at high speed as the rear blasters on the ships located at the back of the advancing fleet began opening fire at them.  But they were moving too fast to be targeted effectively.  A blaster would hit them and the Thermopylae’s hardened hull would shrug it off.  “Keep us outside their blaster range, Desiree!”

Desiree stared intently at her console and shook her head, “Easier said than done; we’re about to have to penetrate their formations to go after the other Junior Fleet Leaders!”

Leo nodded, “Do the best you can, Lieutenant.”  Desiree smiled, it had been a long time she had heard Leo call her lieutenant.  It felt like she was home fighting with the Tenth Legion again.

• • •

Blakely led his unit of four hundred Pirate Warships toward the advancing fleets and just before arriving, he turned vertical and began moving over the top of the front formation.  Six hundred warships moved out of the huge formation and gave chase.  He led them around to their left flank and saw Geoffrey’s Unit coming around over the top of the Romanov Formations with a huge formation of ships pursuing him.  “Ready, Lads!  On my command, open fire as they pass overhead…FIRE!”

The ships pursuing Geoffrey’s Unit saw Blakely’s Unit at the last moment and they were ravaged by the hundreds of blaster beams hitting them from below.  By the time they managed to start targeting Blakely’s Unit, it was past them and out of range.  Another Pirate Unit blew past them from the right and opened fire on them.  When it had moved away, only a hundred and forty Romanov Warships were still operational and they were calling for orders on what to do…but no one was answering them.  Another passing Pirate Unit fired on them and there were no survivors.

But everything wasn’t roses for the Pirates.  The Units were being fired on and they were losing ships.  Blakely had lost a quarter of his Unit’s ships but still kept course on the pattern.  To break away would be suicide with all the crisscrossing ships.  He saw another Romanov Unit moving below him and he lifted his communicator, “FIRE AS WE GO BY ABOVE THEM…FIRE!!”

The Romanov Fleets were being decimated but they still carried out their orders to attack the Pirate Units they were assigned to attack.  Finally after an hour of fighting, a surviving Romanov Fleet Leader yelled, “BREAK OFF AND MOVE INTO FORMATION, BREAK OFF AND…”

The command ended abruptly as a missile hit the Fleet Leader’s vessel but the surviving warships broke off their attacks flew away at high speed, and moved into a tight formation.  Blakely saw them and said, “Hit them as they move away and back out!”

The Pirate Units rushed in and opened fire and flew out as quickly as possible.  Another eight hundred Pirate Ships were lost during the attack by the concentrated cross fire from the tight Romanov Formation.

• • •

Serge watched the attack on his monitor and was screaming at the Commander of the Fleet above Romania, “WHAT IS THAT IDIOT DOING?”

“Sir, his ship was taken out before the battle even started.  It appears that most of the other Commanders have been killed as well.  That Fleet has no leadership.”  Serge glared at him and the Fleet Leader said, “We can defeat them but you have to release me to go after them ship to ship.  We cannot chase them in formations.”

Serge’s face was red and his mouth was a rictus of rage.  The Major Fleet Commander pleaded, “Sir, I’ll leave enough ships to protect the city, you must release me to go after them!”

Serge was scared out of his wits but was too angry to think.  He forced himself to calm down and said to his assistant, “Tell my ship to prepare to lift.”

“Yes, Sir.”

He turned back to the Fleet Commander and said, “I am moving my ship above the planet where it will move into the ranks of the ships you leave behind.  Once I’m there, go and kill every single one of them!”

“Yes, Sir.”

• • •

Leo looked at his tactical monitor and saw the surviving Romanov Warships holding tight formation and opening a combined blaster barrage at any pirate ship that came close to them.  Blakely appeared on his monitor, “I’ve reformed the units.”

“How many ships do we have?” Leo asked.

“We’ve lost about four thousand.”

“It appears we’ve destroyed about fifteen thousand of their warships.”

“What are they doing?”

Leonidas stared at the Romanov formation a thousand miles away on his monitor and said, “I’m not really sure.”

Embree looked up from his panel and said, “Sir, I have high numbers of warships moving around the planet and moving in our direction.  They are not in formation but are scattered in a massive wave.”

Leo sighed, “That other Senior Fleet Commander is ordering all of his ships to come out and attack us ship-to-ship.”

Gem appeared on the monitor with Blakely, “The pattern will no longer work.”

“What are we going to do?!” Blakely asked.

Leo sighed and said, “Our purpose in coming here was to reduce their numbers enough such that Serge wouldn’t be able to control the galaxy or leave and attack Tortuga.  He still has enough ships to make that happen.  We can’t win this fight but we can cripple him enough to make it worth doing if we stay and destroy as many of his ships as possible.”

Blakely shook his head, “No one should be forced to stay and die.”

“Notify all our ships what’s happening and allow those that wish to leave to do so.”

Blakely began speaking over the general frequency and Leo saw the surviving Romanov Warships holding formation start charging their blasters.  Once the twenty thousand ships from the planet arrived, they would join the massive wave and overwhelm them.  Leo looked at his bridge crew and said, “I can’t force you to give up your lives.  Ask the crew to vote on whether or not we stay.”

Embree started speaking over the intercom and after a few minutes he looked at them, “Sir, they say that they will stay with you whatever your decision.”

Leo looked at Carl, “What do you say, Carl.”

“Sir, I should have died about six wars ago.  I’ve been living on borrowed time and I personally want to kick this Romanov’s backside into next week.”  Carl reached in his console and took a small bag out of it.  He held it up where Leonidas could see it, “I went back and collected some of the dirt I was hugging when you ordered me to attack those blaster bunkers just after you were promoted to Lieutenant.  If I had stayed in the dirt, none of us would be here today.  I’m in it till the end.”

Desiree, Barney, and Embree nodded.  Leo looked at Gem, “We can at least help knock down the numbers.  I’m taking the Thermopylae and I’m launching all my remaining missiles at the ships holding formation in front of me.”

“I will join you.”

Leo looked at Gem on the monitor, “Thank you, Gem.”

Gem smiled, “It’s been my pleasure, Captain.”

Leo lifted his communicator, “Attention all missile crews, we’re advancing on the Romanov formation in front of us and firing the remaining store of missiles as we fly around the formation.  Boost in twenty seconds.”