Blood War 1: Last Stand of the Legion: Rift (22 page)

"Admiral, if I may?" Kitmura said.

"Go ahead
, Captain."

"Ma'am. I have been thinking about our dead friend and what it took to place her in exactly the right place for her mission. Istas is right
; this took an almost inhuman amount of patience to pull off. The Xotoli must have been working on this since they first took children before Gaxola. Once they had the children they must have raised them in a zoo-like environment. Watching them as they grew up. I looked up the ages of the children and there were teenage girls taken. I lost my parents when I was young and grew up in an orphanage. The older girls took on mother-like roles with the rest of us, caring for us and dealing with our needs. The Xotoli simply let them grow up watching their behaviors then when they felt they understood humans they began to engineer what we saw today. Combining two alien species DNA to produce enough human to pass but give it enough of their DNA to produce what we saw, would have taken some time, even with advanced engineering. Not to mention a great deal of socialization so they could pass in our society. No, I think Istas is right, a race that patient would not depend on a single agent for such an important assignment."

Usiche had watched Kitmura closely as he gave his analysis. To take your own difficult personal history and use it to understand something so foreign was truly remarkable. It was also courageous
; revealing a past so difficult with ease and dignity was a very unusual. In fact it was unheard of on Sol. She liked this young Captain more and more. It only reinforced her decision to have him at her side. She doubted Knott would have been able to pull together such disparate facts to come up with that analysis. Usiche turned to Istas. 

Usiche looked at
Istas. She was standing straight, her color had come back and she actually looked more rested than she felt.

"Istas
, I have a question," Kitmura said.

"Yes."

"How strong was that thing?"

"Stronger than I am with my enhancements. Only my training allowed me to win."

"They did not know she would have to fight someone like you. In fact with the weapon it was only luck that required her to use her power. Would you agree?"

Istas looked at him for a moment before she said,

"Then why engineer her with that much strength? Unless..." Istas said.

"Yes, unless you were going to use them as surrogate fighters
," Kitmura continued. "This is only a hunch but I think that when they invade, they will use thousands of what we saw here today. The Xotoli sit back and let their engineered warriors fight their fight and do the dying for them. She could have surrendered, but she chose to die instead. She was programmed that way. Would you agree Istas?"

Istas turned to the Admiral.

"I believe he is correct. It is the same as those who use us to fight their fights."

"Yes, I am afraid you might be right
, Kitmura, but at this point there is nothing we can do but wait. It changes nothing. See to it that the video is distributed widely with your analysis. Even if you are wrong, the troops can still be on the lookout for others like her."

Usiche's eyes met Istas. They were huge and brown
, and with her beautiful unlined face and her fashionably grey hair, she hardly looked like the trained killer she had shown herself to be. She was small, as were all of the Rift females; it felt strange having this small female as her bodyguard.

"Looks like I may need your protection again."

Istas smiled and said,

"I will remain at your side."

Kitmura had returned from his station and was standing next to the Admiral.

"Admiral
, if I may?"

"You have more?"

"Yes ma'am. To build something like we saw is one thing. To train it to fit in seamlessly into a military structure with background checks could mean only one thing. That someone on our side of the fence was feeding them the vast amount of social, professional and military Intel they would need for training our attacker."

"The Captain is correct
, Admiral. It is only through our contacts here that we were able to place me here. It would take much longer for someone not of the Confederation. Istas said. "

Usiche smiled; that much she had already put together. Again this young Captain was proving his abilities under pressure.

"Yes Captain, I think you’re right. I had come to the same conclusion. That makes the question of who and how a very important one. Any ideas?"

"No ma'am
, not yet."

"Istas?"

"Mother has no information either."

Knott could hear their conversation from this station. He had turned back to his console to make sure they could not see his face. He knew it had to be a mask of fear. They were talking about treason at the highest level. He was a traitor

"That person will have to be dealt with later. We have a battle to fight right now."

What Usiche did not say aloud was the fact she did not think she would be alive to see that day. She doubted they had much time left
, but she would make them pay for her life and the lives of her command. The Confederation depended on that sacrifice. When you took the oath, everyone knew this day might come, but most careers for decades had been more about "in fighting" and politics rather than winning battles. Usiche had played the politics as well as any other officer, but she had worked to be as competent as she was savvy. Now faced with the most important battle in human history, Usiche did not want to be remembered as the Admiral that lost the war on the first day. In spite of the obstacles she intended to put up a fight and with a lot of luck they just might be able to win this battle.

Until then the Confederation would depend on the Legion and the few naval craft and personnel she had left. It was ironic that most members of the Confederation felt the Legion was a dumping ground for criminals, adventurers and people like Kitmura with no other future except service. She had found them to be the most professional and dedicated of any group she had ever commanded. She was asking them and her Naval men and women to win against impossible odds but that came with the oath.
             

LYTEN SYSTEM

AREA OF RIFT

DESTROYER CAPELLA

BRIDGE

"
Captain, the Legionnaries launch is complete," the officer in charge of the ships Combat Information Center said.

"Thank you
, Mr. Isaias," Ririsa Grogen said.

Ririsa stared at the holo of the Battle Space around her destroyer. It showed all the ships
, both Confederation and alien in the area, with they're heading and speed. They were all alone except for the Bernards. It was getting lonely out here. Ririsa kept glancing at the area of space where any ships that made it out of the anchorage would first show up. Nothing, just the two destroyers, yet  the battle space was not the usual  perfect circle on her display. Some of the destroyer’s sensors had been destroyed and the aliens were doing some electronic counter measures and shielding their ships. CIC was still working to bypass counter measures.

The one thing that
the holo did show was that the number of fighters attacking the Capella had decreased significantly. The Legionnaires were engaging the aliens as quickly as they could get into position. The Legionnaires would be facing terrible odds if the number of alien fighters was still the same as the first waves.

"Yeah!"

One of the bridge crew yelled as a Legionnaire destroyed an alien fighter, but as soon as he had fired, another alien ship had destroyed the Legionnaire’s ship. The alien and Legion fighters were so tangled together it was difficult to tell who was winning and who was losing. She knew her Legionnaires - they would fight till the last fighter. More of the aliens were leaving, heading for their ships to rearm. It was her chance to disengage and get her Legionnaires back. She was sure she would need them.

"Mr. Isaias
, have the Legionnaires break off and form up in defensive stations for us. Bring us to course 124.7"

"Aye, aye. Captain."

Ririsa watched as the Legionnaires broke off their fights and returned to take up their stations. She could only imagine what they were calling her for pulling them out of the fight.

"Captain. Lieutenant Steiner is requesting permission to follow the fighters and attack their launch ships."

"Advise Steiny Man that his request is denied. He will take up defensive stations as ordered."

Ririsa smiled
as she knew what was coming. Steiny Man, as the crew and his Legionnaires knew him, was not one to back away from a fight no matter what the odds. He was one of the best but she would need that aggression and his courage very soon.

Ririsa watched as the
Legionnaires began to take up their stations as ordered including Steiny Man. Then she noticed a single Legionnaire accelerate away from the others following the aliens.

"Goddamn it. Get that
Legionnaire back here before I court marshal him."

"Captain, the aliens are jamming some of our comm. We cannot contact the
Legionnaire."

"Who is it?"

"Lieutenant Steiner."

Ririsa was shocked. Steiny Man was a true warrior but he was also disciplined
, - a big loud Groombridger who barely made the maximum height limits to be a Legionnaire. She still could not believe he could fit into his fighter. Ririsa knew Steiny Man well as she had pinned more than one medal on his chest, so she had a hunch that he knew something she did not. He would never disobey an order without reason. Nor would he leave his platoon unless he thought it was more important than the order given. She hoped he was onto something, as they desperately needed some luck. She watched as the green symbol for Steiner's ship approached the edge of the battle space, it reached the red line edge and disappeared as it passed beyond their sensors range. He should still be visible if he had his identification locator operating. 

"Did we lose Steiner?"

"Negative, he went dark."

"Advise Sergeant Darrow he is now in command of the platoon until further notice."

"Aye, aye Captain."

"Mr. Temesgen advise sick bay to organize medical teams to go through the ship and take care of the wounded. The guns mounts are the first priority. Also advise all personnel not assigned to gun mount battle stations
and who are not manning other critical stations to report to the nearest gun mount and assist the crews."

"Aye, aye Captain."

"We need those mounts back up. The  aliens will be back and the Legionnaires will not be enough. No comm from Steiner?"

"Negative Captain."

Ririsa leaned back in her command chair. All right old friend, good luck. It will either be a medal or a court marshal for this. I will have to trust that you know what you’re doing.

Lieutenant Maxwell Steiner knew what he had done and the chance he was taking. He was beginning to second-guess his hunch but it was too late for that. He glanced at his speed and heading, he was dead on the trail of the alien fighters. Something had told him that they still did not understand the alien order of battle or the real size of their fleet. There were just too many fighters, the Confederation could never launch that a strike that size  with the Fleets current ships and normal complement of Legionnaires.

He hoped that by going dark he could slip in close with the returning fighters without being noticed. There was one straggler who appeared to be damaged because he was spewing all sorts of debris and venting a number of different types of fuel. If he stayed behind the bird with the broken wing all the debris
flying off of him and the fuel he was leaking would help hide in it's wake.  If he were flying that damaged bird, trying to nurse it back home, he would be taking the most direct course back his to his mother ship that he could. Steiny Man was going to need all of famous luck to get close enough to see what he thought had to be the launch platform for the fighters. It had to be out here. The alien fighters were much bigger and could have a very different range than the Legion's fighters that would explain a lot. Yet it was hard to believe they would have a whole fleet just for the fighters. It had to be something else.

             
Well Steiny Man, you are about to find out if that hunch was correct, and unless you are really lucky, you’re either going to be a hero or a hemorrhoid. He had been in the brig before but he did not want to go back - it was not much fun. So he needed to find something.

Petty Officer Jakob Petrussen had not realized that he had either passed out or gone to sleep leaning against the gun mount. Somebody was shaking him awake.

"Petrussen are alive. Petrussen."

Jakob slowly opened his eyes. Things were swimming around and wouldn't stay still.

"Yeah, yeah. Reloading."

"Petrussen wake up. The aliens are gone for now."

Jakob could not focus on the face in front of him.

"Fremont, is that you?"

"No
, it’s Lenormand. The corpsman. Don't move for a couple of minutes and let me see if I can help you out a little."

Lenormand put a mask on Jakob. He then began feeding a number of different aerosolized drugs into his system through the O2 he was
administering. As soon as they hit his lungs they were absorbed and Jakob began to feel better. The world stopped spinning and things began to come into focus. He grabbed the mount to keep from falling, finding his hand was sticky with blood.

The gun mount was covered with his blood, Nicole's and the rest of the crew. His controls were crusted with it. He looked over at Nicole
, she too was being administered to by a corpsmen; he was wiping the blood off her face. A mask like his own, covered her nose and mouth but their eyes met and she nodded. They had made it. The ship was still intact. The lights in the mount were flickering on and off giving the scene an almost surreal look with blood everywhere and the gold spent dart casings littering the deck.

"Petrussen
, I am going to treat your legs. Even with the pain meds I gave you, this is going to hurt. I am going to apply enough nano's to close your wounds. They are too big to leave open. I need to close them and put on a patch. You ready?"

Lenormand gently applied the nano paste to the wound
. At first it only tingled, and then they started to close the wound.

"Ahhhh. Fuck!"

Jakob grabbed a handle on the Scram and squeezed it as hard as he could, trying to manage the pain by focusing on something else.

"Hang in there bro. It won't take much longer."

"Ahh. That really fucking hurts," Jakob said.

Jakob tried to see if he
could pull the handle off the Scram. He couldn't, of course, but it helped that his hand was hurting with the effort.

"Almost there."

A few seconds later the pain eased and Jakob was able to take a deep breath. He looked down at his legs. The nano's had done their job; the wounds were closed with the nano's forming something that looked strangely like a patch you put on clothes, only the color was a little off. It was darker than his skin. Tentatively he moved his legs. There was pain but not enough to slow him down.

"Thanks doc
," Jakob said. He started to stand but Lenormand pushed him back down.

"Give it a few more minutes. Let it cure before you move or we are going to have to do it again."

"No thanks. Where are the uh...the rest of crew?"

"A detail removed their bodies to a temporary morgue we've set up."

"Thanks."

"
They are our shipmates too. We'll take good care of them."

"How's Nicole?"

"Why don't you ask her yourself?"

He looked over and Nicole smiled at him. The wounds on her face had been patched the same as Jakob. In the flickering light she still looked pale but better than before.

"You're good to go, sailor?" Jakob asked.

"Damn straight."

Jakob nodded then closed his eyes as the meds really began to kick in. He let the drugs do what they were supposed to and he began to feel better by the minute. Lenormand continued to work on Jakob, changing the drug regimen and closing the last of his smaller wounds.

"There
, that's about all I can do at this point. We'll have do some repairs to muscles in your legs when we have more time but you should be good to go for now. Can you stand? We are going to decon this mount."

Jakob grabbed what was becoming his
favorite handhold and stood. He was good. Tentatively he walked out the hatch. Nicole was already standing there, leaning against the bulkhead.

"Good to see you
," Nicole said.

"Good to be seen."

"No, I mean it is good to see all of you," Nicole said with a smirk.

Jakob looked down and saw he was nude. Lenormand had cut his
skivvies off.

"Ah man. Doc
, did you have to?"

"Yeah. Nobody cares."

Lenormand yelled from inside the mount. A fog of disinfectant rolled out of the hatch as the two corpsmen worked to clean the inside of the mount.

"Yeah, nobody cares
," Nicole said with a smirk.

"You know what you can do
, Fremont."

They both smiled
, glad to be able to think about something else for at least a moment. Then Nicole held out a standard black uniform jumpsuit she had behind her back.

"You..."

Jakob realized that Nicole had the same jump suit on, so she had been nude too when she had come out of the mount.

"
You had your chance," Nicole said.

"No, I didn't."

Three sailors walked up to the two. The oldest said,

"We were told to report to Mount Thirteen as part of the crew."

"Good. What is your normal battle station?" Jakob said.

"I'm a cook."

"I'm a yeoman. I work in the ships admin office."

Jakob and Nicole exchanged a glance. They may not be trained but they were willing to learn.

"Ok, we'll teach you everything you need to know. No problem," Jakob said.

Then he looked over at Nicole.

"You know I think we should man the mount with our evac suits on. That way if we lose atmosphere we can still fight."

"Good idea. Ok guys
, let’s get moving," Nicole said.

Lenormand and his partner came out of the mount.

"Its all yours, Petrussen."

"Thanks doc."

Lenormand looked at him and said "No problem. We need you up and manning your post; we couldn't afford for you guys being tango uniform. We got a lot more work."

Lenormand and his partner moved on to their next assignment as Jakob and Nicole helped their new mount cre
w get into their evacuations suits.