Welcome Wagon

“Something must be left to chance; nothing is sure in a sea fight above all.”

                                                -Adm. Horatio Nelson

            The door to the CiC opened and Marie walked in, Karl’s .45 on her hip and Stingy’s beaten and dingy form on her head.  As a mental side note to George R.R. Martin, she didn’t think for one second how her breasts felt underneath her flak jacket.  Her holster was affecting the ride of her pants something fierce, but adjustments could be made discreetly.  General quarters had sounded over a half an hour ago and the command crew was appropriately attired in their deck armor, emergency re-breathers at the ready by their necks.  There was music playing over the action of the human machine before her. She thought it might be Bizet but it could be Berlioz, she mixed them up occasionally, she didn’t know why.  She looked over and saw Zed using his the navigation station as a piano, its surface converted into a representation of ticklish ivories.  It wasn’t regulation, but rank had its privileges, and they weren’t in the combat zone yet.  She smiled until Marcus finally took the time to look up from the central operations display to notice her. 

            “Drop your cover in my ship Commander”.  He went back to looking at the display of the Antarian system on the table display in front of him.  “Well, at least he’s staying professional”, she thought.  She took Stingy off and folded him into her back pocket before stepping up to the command table with Marcus.  She clipped her comslip onto her lapel and set it recording. 

            “Reporting as ordered Captain, you are on the record.  Are we ready to do this?”  Marcus nodded.  He raised a hand to Zed and snapped his fingers.

            “Zed, heads”.  He added a jerking head to the package to imply haste and Zed promptly cut the music and came over to them, his keyboard had returned to its practical state and unnamed crewman #4 slid into the station before the chair had finished swinging back into place.  As soon as they were all in position Marcus began to lay out the relevant facts for the sake of Marie’s viewing public. 

            Here’s the situation.  Antaria, fourth planet of the Antarian system, a holding of the Conglomerated Energies Corporation is in full revolt.  The planetary Governor is missing, presumed dead.  The capital, Caracas, has been occupied by the locals and her planetary guard units, routed.  All surviving units and surviving company employees have fallen back to this position.”  He pointed to a large peninsula that looked a lot like Kamchatka back on earth.  “Antaria, being light on oceans, has no standing navy, so this position is untenable to them as there are no ships coming to evacuate them in a Dunkirk manner.  This is where we come in.  The Righteous’ Orbital Infantry contingent, currently standing by in their drop tubes and landing craft, will make planet fall here, here, and along this line here.”  He pointed to the capital, the center of the Kamchatka pocket, and a line connecting the two.  “From these positions, we will break the encirclement with the Kamchatka and line forces, while the remainder of the units soften up the capital and causeway between for the breakout from the beachhead and combined assault on the capital.  Easy peezy”. 

            Marcus looked up at the assembled faces, wordlessly asking for any questions.  Asking questions being part of her job, Marie obliged. 

           

            “What about the approach to planet?  It seems you’ve glossed over the entire first part of the operation”.  Marcus tilted his head liltingly with an unsure, gritted smirk while Zed simply shrugged.

           

            “Well,” Marcus replied.  “That’s the known unknown of the situation.  We know there is very little likelihood that the rebels on Antaria could have amassed anything that could threaten a Conglomeration warship, much less the Righteous, and we only know what we’ve been getting from our listening post on Antaria’s moon, which isn’t much.”  Zed interjected.

            “As far as they’ve reported, all commercial traffic has stopped, so nothing is going in or out, but everything they’re telling us beyond that is basically ‘It’s fuzzy’.”  Marie gave a little chuckle, looked at both of them like she used to at the academy, like they were just dumb, arrogant shits.

            “Seriously?  All the might of the Conglomeration and you idiots are sliding, confidently, into the largest planetary revolt in over a decade based entirely on ‘It’s fuzzy’?  I’m glad I’ve got this recorded for future posterity.”

            “No worries Marie, she’s the most powerful ship in the fleet.  Nothing can go wrong”.  Zed told her with a slap on the shoulder.  Marcus nodded his agreement.

            “Yes, it will soon be the end of their pitiful band.”  He said.  Marie could feel his internal shit-eating grin in the back of her mind.  “Good guys damnit, good guys!”

            “Sir, coming up on Antaria”.  Generic crewman #2 broke in from a console behind them.

            “Good Mr. Kemerovo,” Marcus replied, turning his attention to the viewer in front of them.  The Battle lights came on and turned the CiC a dim red as the blank screen in front of them resolved in to the large, dingy red ball of Antaria in front of them, he moon was to the upper right corner.  She saw a sliver dot shoot forward from the bow, the light tether that held it to the ship was indiscernible in the vast darkness.

            “Picket probes out sir, data links incoming”. Another generic uniform called out.

            “Good, try and raise the Deputy Governor, let him know we’re here.”  After a few moments, the sallow face of Deputy Governor Schmidt appeared on the screen. He looked like a fly desiccating under a car windshield, and the sound of the nearby war was obvious in its proximity. 

            “Schmidt here Captain, I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you!”  He winced timidly.  The accompanying boom informed of a nearby explosion.  “Please begin your landing.”  Marcus stiffened for a moment.  Marie could sense his self-importance in that second.

            “Just a moment Governor, The Conglomeration is very upset with your Corporations handling of this situation.  I am required by law to inform you that as acting planetary governor, you will be, providing the Governor is in fact dead, held liable for this failure alongside your CEO in answering to the reasons and remedies for this bailout and its possible prevention in its future.  Under the terms of your business license, your company, on return to financial and operational fermity, will pay all applicable fees, penalties, and interest.  Do you agree?

            “Yes, Yes, dear god, yes!  Please, land your men!”  The Governor pleaded.

            “Copy that, stand by.”  Marcus signaled and the feed was cut, returning to the grand view of Antaria.  “Commander Johnston, away all. . . “  He was interrupted before he could finish.

            “Captain, new contacts, bearing 040, elevation 050.  Civilian craft, multiple units approaching our position moon side, weapons signatures detected.”  They all turned their attentions to the viewer again.  Sure enough, they saw a line of mismatched craft moving in loose formation directly towards them.  Trawlers, tugs, stolen yachts, the fleet of a resourceful people Marie thought.  It didn’t make them any less doomed.  She could feel them in her head when she listened closely enough.  There was no fear, but there was no hope either.  They had decided what needed to be done, that feeling made her worry a little.

            “Commander, Let us show them the firepower of this fully armed and operational Battle cruiser!”  Marcus waived to Zed.  Marie looked at Marcus.

            “Really? Palpatine?”  She said.  Marcus shrugged.

            “Ready gravatic cannon!” Zed shouted, the call echoed through the necessary crewmen until the call came back. “Gravatic cannon ready!”  Zed nodded to Marcus.

            “Now watch this”.  Marcus said to Marie while returning the nod to Zed.  He pressed a button on the console next to him.  The ship hummed and the lights on the ship dimmed as a mass of energy drained through and out of her.  Nothing etched its way across the darkness towards the ramshackle fleet.  One second there was a threat, suddenly there was nothing but flakes of debris.  A large cloud from which Marie could sense nothing. 

            “Dear god”.  She whispered.

            “Away all Orbital infantry”.  Marcus ordered.  A soft thrumming began as O.I.’s in their capsules streaked towards the surface and fighter-bombers and landers screamed out of the hull toward their targets on planet.  Marie had no thoughts in that moment.  The sheer horror of what she had see, the simple, casual destruction she had witnessed, decorated with a joke on top, sat heavy on her.  Nothing could describe it.  He reverie was broken by a pestering alarm.  A crewman called out, the same one from earlier about the particle fleet.

            “Sir, we have incoming.  Multiple launch Surface to Space missiles incoming.“  Marcus, content in his confidence shrugged it off.

            “Raise the Magnetic shields.”  He kept his eye on his monitors, watching the numbers tick down, as the Righteous discharged is human payload.

            Suddenly there was a scream in Marie’s head.  A feeling of victory, a screaming hate, and it wasn’t coming from Marcus.  Something was wrong, something had happened, or was about to.

            “STOP”!  She screamed.  But it was too late.  The Crewman activated the shields.

*     *     *

            The lights and electronic displays all went dark.  The gravity plating had shut down leaving them all floating free in the air as they were all thrown violently towards the rear bulkhead as a loud crack, one that might signal Armageddon from a heavenly trumpet, shrieked out throughout the skeleton of the ship. 

After reorienting her body in the tumbling dark, Marie saw the carnage while the systems slowly came back on as the computer figured out what it was still connected to.  A good chunk of the CiC staff was dead, crushed, or smashed open as their frail forms broke on steel.  The rest ambled dizzily back to their stations, the worse for wear.  She saw Marcus and Zed were already up.  Marcus was bleeding from his forehead, and despite the zero gravity, she could see he was favoring his left leg. Zed’s right arm hung limp at his side.  They were staring dumbfounded at a message that had appeared on their table.

“EAT MANY DICKS”.

“Eat many dicks?” What the fuck does that mean?  Right now?” Marie coughed.  It came out a little more panicked that she had expected. 

“How the fuck should I know?!” Marcus snapped. 

“Funny,” Zed said humorously, “Sounds like something Karl would have said.”  Marie’s eyes went wide as her stomach registered her brain falling into it.  Shit. Holy fucking shit, Karl, this, he did this?  Do they know? Can they know?  She was lost in the thought and worried when she saw they were wide eyed too.  In between them a projection appeared of the Righteous.

“No fucking way” Zed said, slack jawed.

“It must have happened after we dropped out of ftl, it’s the only way we wouldn’t have known.”  Marcus replied.

“Someone repolarized the Magnetic drive. . . How?  That’s. . . a lot of work, it can’t happen.”  Zed continued.  Marie looked at the image.  The Righteous had been split in two and both halves were tumbling in space.  Marcus cleared his throat.

“Abandon Ship.”