Starship Vengeance

chapter 21

Chapter 21

"Zrynt arrival in five minutes," Lt. Sanchez called out.

"Alert the rest of the fleet," I ordered. "Sound the call for
battlestations." We had spent the week drilling for this event. The
entire fleet ran like a well-oiled machine. Within minutes, the fleet
was ready to fight. Concealed sensors fed the computers real-time
data. The computers extrapolated the data and presented it as a
holographic model of the area. I watched the timer slowly tick to zero
and the first of the Zrynt ships emerged.

"We have positively identified the ships as Zrynt. Still waiting on a
total count." Lt. Young announced. I stood and walked to the edge of
the holographic projection. The number of ships was still climbing.

"Send a message to the Tuleeriri. We may need their assistance after
all." I watched in horror as ship after ship emerged from the hole in
space. "Give me a ship count!" I ordered.

"They have twenty large class A destroyers, twelve Class B destroyers,
thirty smaller Class C destroyers, and five hundred and three
interceptors and scouts" Lt. Young said, his voice unsteady. "No sign
of any Zrynt Lord activity." The silence was broken by a collective
sigh at the last announcement.

"Charge jump drives." I commanded. "Warn the fleet that things might
get difficult. Set current location as fallback point. Now we wait." I
paced back and forth as the Zrynt ships slowly made their way towards
Brixxepsua. The Xroex wasted no time in mobilizing their fleet. I paid
particular attention to the lead ship, knowing Maxir was in command.
As the fleets drew closer, Maxir's ship broke formation and headed for
the heart of the Zrynt ships. I felt a growing sense of terror tearing
away at my insides. My palms grew sweating as I watched the ship draw
near. The Zrynt, true to their nature, destroyed the ship without
hesitation. Shahae let out a startled gasp. She quickly recovered and
tried to look calm and composed. It was easy to see that every muscle
in her body was tense.

"Xroex ships engaging" Lt. Young announced.

"No word from the Klixrax," said Lt. Sanchez.

The two fleets converged on each other like two angry lions.
Curiously, the Zrynt ships seemed to be ripped apart without any
apparent weapon fire from the Xroex. Dozens of Zrynt ships met this
fate. Unfortunately, the Xroex were losing ships as well. They seemed
to be holding their own. That's when the fighters were released.
Thousands of fighters swarmed towards the unprepared Xroex ships. In
less than a minute, hundreds of ships were nothing more than floating
tombs. The Xroex fleet fell apart and ships began racing back towards
the planet.

"The Xroex have activated the emergency beacon!" Lt. Sanchez yelled
triumphantly. I stood still, watching the Zrynt creep ever closer to
the doomed planets. "Admiral, they have called for help, we need to
move!"

"If we show up immediately after they activated the beacon, they will
know that we did not leave as we were told to do. Judging on how they
have reacted to everything else, this would have destroyed what little
good will we have with them. Be ready to jump on my mark." I waited
until the Zrynt were dangerously close to the planet. "Mark."

The word had barely left my mouth when the drives were activated. The
moment we arrived, the crew flew into action. All the pent up energy
was released. The battleships began jumping to pre-determined points
as soon as they cleared their docks. All ships were launched in record
time. The destroyers carrying fighters had been tagged the moment they
launched their fighters. It was the Unity's task to neutralize them as
quickly as possible. We had placed ourselves at the rear of the enemy
fleet. As we let loose our salvo, the Zrynt stopped and turned their
murderous attention on us.