I was busy studying Admiral Rodrigues' battle report for the third time. The changes the Zrynt were exhibiting were more than disturbing. My quiet solitude was intruded upon by Lt. Sanchez. "Admiral, we have received a priority one message from Dunamis."
"Send it to my office," I replied.
There was a hiss as my office door sealed and the lights dimmed. The report I was studying vanished. A quick retinal scan was taken and my computer began working on decrypting the message.
A still image of Lisa appeared as the recording waited for my input to begin. "Admiral Ryan," Lisa said in a very formal manner, "it has come to our attention that a sizable Zrynt force is making its way towards Dunamis. They will arrive within the week. All scans show no presence of a Zrynt Lord, but there are anomalies in the ship count that we can't explain. We are recalling your fleet effective immediately. We have a small contingency of ships that were completed after you left, but it isn't enough to take on a fleet of this magnitude. The Nyth'La'Kell and Tuleeriri have pledged what little support they have. All intel we were able to gather has been included, as well as the anticipated intercept area. Good luck Admiral Ryan."
The recording disappeared and left copious amounts of data in its place. I saved all the data and unsealed the room. "Lt. Sanchez," I said after connecting to the bridge.
"Yes admiral?"
"Cease all military activities and recall all ships. Prepare the ship for long haul jumps."
"Yes sir. What would you like me to tell the other fleets out here?"
"Tell them we have urgent business to attend to and will return to aid in the search as soon as possible. I'm sending our destination directly into the navigational computers. I want us underway within the hour."
The room sealed again as I accessed the saved files. The amount of secrecy involved baffled me, but I wasn't about to ignore protocol just because I didn't understand my orders. I compartmentalized the data and sent each group only what was necessary to do their jobs along with a strict need to know policy. By the time I had finished, we were already on our way.
Traveling was much quicker with just a single ship to worry about. The engine crew was up in arms, but we had made the trip in just less than two days. The system we arrived in had three first generation battle stations. They were placed in defensive positions around the subspace exit the Zrynt were supposedly going to appear out of. I had been question repeatedly why the Zrynt were going to attack here, but I was as clueless as anyone. We were just outside the effective area of the subspace inhibitor. One speculation was the Zrynt intended to use this location as a forward base to assault Dunamis. Something told me the reason for the target was more about what we weren't seeing.
A frigate and several smaller Tuleeririan craft arrived later that day, along with a mostly completed heavy destroyer and two battleships from the Nyth'La'Kell. I had sent briefings regarding the new Zrynt ships while in transit, so those were priority one. I didn't place much faith in the outdated battle stations, but they would help keep the fighter population down.
Since we had arrived earlier than planned, it gave me the opportunity to scout the system. Apparently, this system was unique, as it had two subspace entrances that joined just beyond the edge of the star system. I read a proposal to build a research facility in this system, but the idea was quickly rejected based on its location.
The scouts were on their way back to the ship when the found it. Several of the fighters got close enough to scratch the paint. The only thing that saved those pilots from slamming into the cloaked station was a warning that was sent out at the last moment. The station quickly vanished afterward. I had a feeling that the mysterious vanishing station had something to do with the Zrynt's sudden offense. There were definitely secrets being kept.
There is nothing worse than waiting. I had the crew running drills and executing our plan of attack, but there is always those last few moments when you can do nothing but wait. This is the situation I found myself in. As expected, the Zrynt fleet split their force and now was less than thirty minutes from arrival. The Unity was going to engage at one exit while the other miscellaneous reinforcements covered the other exit, backed up by the battle stations. Finally, the first ship arrived and detonated.
We had anticipated this tactic from the Zrynt and were well outside the effective radius. Once it was safe, the Zrynt ships began arriving en mass. The majority of the enemy fleet consisted of smaller craft. However, there were still enough destroyers to be worrisome.
"Initiate attack plan alpha," I commanded. "Send the Paladin, Orion, Solaris, and the Scorpius to assist the other strike group."
The Unity jumped to the Zrynt's flank and began its work of destruction. The four battleships, cruisers and fighters were left to take on the frontal assault. The new Zrynt ships had yet to show themselves.
"Admiral, more ships inbound through subspace. Single contact followed by large group of hostiles."
"Pull back!" I yelled. "Order the other strike group to do the same. How long until arrival?"
"Thirty seconds," Lt. Sanchez stated.
I went into an instant cold sweat. My stomach felt hollow, yet nauseous at the same time. There was no way our warnings would reach the other fight in time. I watched helplessly as two large explosions appeared on the displays. "Any communications?" I asked, holding on to a fragment of hope.
"There is too much interference from the blasts," Lt. Sanchez explained.
"We have enemy ships inbound," Lt. Young announced. "Ships will exit subspace in approximately two minutes."
"Will the area be safe for the Unity?" I asked.
"If we can find a way to burn off the excess energy, we should be fine."
"Plot their expected exit point and get us as close as possible. I want the decks around the shield capacitor bays evacuated. Get us in and out as quickly as possible."
The jump wasn't the smoothest I had experienced. Jumping into an area saturated with excess energy made for quite the experience. "Where is the enemy ship?" I demanded after my head had cleared.
"Unknown sir," Lt. Young replied. "Our sensors are virtually useless in this soup."
"Admiral, engineers reporting that at our current rate we have five minutes before we are unable to bleed off the excess energy," Lt. Sanchez said.
"Begin sweeping for signs of the enemy ship. Activate all energy weapons. See if that won't buy us a few more minutes."
The bridge was tense as we sought out the new Zrynt ship. We were using every method we could think of to burn off energy, from turning on every light to slightly increasing the artificial gravity. The energy from the blast was dispersing as well, which working against us as much as in our favor. We stuck out like a sore thumb.
Fifteen minutes into the search alarms were set off. "Admiral, we are taking fire!" Lt. Sanchez shouted. "Our shields are almost maxed out as it is. We can't take many more shots without them failing."
"Return fire!" I ordered. "They're close if their weapons are working this effectively."
"No contact on enemy ship. All shots trashed," Lt. Young announced.
"Admiral, two minutes until we have to bail," Lt. Sanchez stated.
"Navigation, plot a series of jumps. Let's see if we can burn off some power."
We knew where the enemy was, but without knowing the full capabilities of the ship, it was impossible to accurately narrow down the search area. "Sensors are at eighty percent efficiency. No sign of the enemy ship," Lt. Sanchez announced.
"Admiral Rodrigues said they had stealth technology. Start looking for anomalies that might give off their location."
"Admiral, it may be possible that they are no longer in this area," Lt. Young stated.
"The Zrynt have never run from a fight and any smart commander would never turn his back on an enemy. They're out there, just waiting for the right time to strike."
Several minutes later Lt. Young jumped up, "Admiral we found an anomaly in the dispersal pattern to our port side. We thought it was nothing at first, but it appears to be moving in a most unusual manner. It seems to be following us."
"I want all weapons aimed at that location. Maintain current course and speed. Fire on my mark."
Tensions were peaking as the seconds passed. The adrenaline fueled bridge crew were waiting on edge for the order to let loose. I waited ten more seconds before giving the order, "Fire!"
The enemy was fractions of a second too slow in bringing up their shields. Their hull was raked by super focused, high powered energy beams from the Unity's bloodthirsty lasers. Several rounds from the railgun made contact as well. They penetrated deep into the ship's armor, but not deep enough to mortally wound the ship.
"Jump to their lower starboard side and maintain weapons fire," I ordered. Most of the energy around us had dissipated, so the jumps were much smoother than they had been at first. The crew flawlessly transitioned to the new firing vectors. A noticeable fluctuation appeared in the enemy's shields. A few shots were making it to the hull. The enemy finally brought their weapons to bare, but it came at a price. Their first barrage severely weakened their shields, resulting in heavy damage to their outer hull. Still they fought on. Several minutes later, their hull final began buckling. Rapid decompression in several areas of the hull finally quieted the Zrynt ship.
"Order the Leo and the Draco to come and guard this ship," I commanded Lt. Sanchez. "If anything over there twitches, erase if from existence. Lt. Young, take us to the other battle."
The two battle stations were nowhere to be found. "Find our ships" I ordered.
"Admiral, we're picking up debris several hundred klicks away," Lt. Young said. "Initial scans indicate it was one of the new Zrynt ships."
"Where are our ships then?" I demanded.
"Admiral, I'm picking up a communique, but there is too much interference to extract anything," Lt. Sanchez said.
"Take us to the source of that transmission," I ordered.
The transmission originated from the second fallback point. We arrived and I began assessing the damage. One Kell battleship was missing and their heavy destroyer was badly damaged. Half the Tuleeririan ships were gone as well. The Paladin, Orion, Solaris, and Scorpius were present, but with varying degrees of damage. Scar like lines across their hulls, indicating where the damage had originated.
"Admiral, incoming transmission from the Paladin."
"Put it on the main screen," I replied.
"Admiral Ryan, it's good to see your ugly face my friend," Commander Turner said with a smile.
"I leave you in charge for an hour, and this is what I find? You are as bad as a three year old," I replied with a grin. My face sobered as I took in the damage again. "How did you know they were going to cannibalistic on their own ships?"
"Our sensors aren't nearly as good as yours, but we were able to pick up a strong energy signature moments before it returned to normal space. I can only think of one thing that small and with that much energy. I gave the order to pull back, but it wasn't soon enough for some. We saw the new Zrynt ship arrive and disappear, but their timing was off. The high energy levels irradiated their hull worse than the soils of France. It allowed us to track them and trap them."
"Good work. I want more details, but that can wait for a formal debrief. Let's see the injured ships off, and then we'll return to our main mission. We can make repairs while en route."