{"sf1_id":600036,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Chapter Eight - Bai Umbra System Part 1","author":"Lycanthris","words":2475,"posted_at":"2013-10-08T02:21:00.000Z","tags":["Fistful Of Credits","Lycanthris","Novel","Sci-Fi","Science Fiction","Story"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/600036-chapter-eight-bai-umbra-system-part-1","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/600036","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=600036\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"#8 of Fistful Of Credits\n\nAn old sci-fi novel I had been writing many years ago.\nAll characters presented within are © me. Please do not repost or redistribute.","content":"Chapter\n\nEight\n\nBai-Umbra System\n\nPart I\n\nDavid O'Rourke watched the seconds tick by on the mission clock, counting down the _MHS Burnside's_ exit from hyperspace. The timing of their exit would be crucial to the success of this raid. Precisely two minutes and eight seconds ago, the _MHS Sol_ had exited hyperspace in the Bai-Umbra system, and began deploying its starfighters. The two Rovellan space stations in orbit around the sixth planet, which guarded a supply depot on its fifth moon, would then undoubtedly send out their warriors, clad in suits of combat power armor to engage the Martians. However, once the Rovellans flew half the distance from their stations towards the _Sol_ and its fighters, six Martian destroyers were cloaked and waiting to block their return. At that point, the _Burnside_, and its sister-ship, the _Steele_ would drop out of hyperspace next to the stations and open fire with their massive main guns. If they exited out of hyperspace too soon, then the Rovellans would be able to turn and defend the stations before they were blocked by the destroyers, too late and not only would the _Burnside_ be ripped out of hyperspace and be caught in the gas giant's gravity well, but the stations would have time to call for reinforcements as well.\n\n\"Wepps,\" he addressed his weapons officer by the standard occupational nickname, because as an Arkaethan, the Major had no other name, \"get a lock on their comm arrays as soon as possible, and get our shields up as soon as we clear the hyperspace window.\"\n\n_Aye, sir, already on it,_ the leaf-covered alien acknowledged the captain's order, telepathically speaking Martian. It looked up from its crew pit and nodded at O'Rourke, before turning and silently directing its subordinates. Many junior officers and new enlisted personnel found Wepps' silent speech and large, unblinking eyes to be unnerving, but it had served under David for almost fifteen years now, and he had long since gotten used to it.\n\n\"Jackson, how long?\" David asked his navigator.\n\n\"Fifteen seconds, Captain,\" the young lieutenant responded rather stiffly. Jackson had transferred aboard the _Burnside_ just before the task force had left on its mission, and so she was still finding her rhythm among the crew. O'Rourke had decided to use this precision jump as means of testing his new navigator's abilities.\n\n\"Ten... Nine... Eight...\" Jackson began counting down their exit, \"Seven... Six... Five... Four... Three... Two... One...\"\n\nThe Faenir helmswoman, Ensign Anders, disengaged the _Burnside's_hyperdrive and the ship shot back into realspace. Dead ahead of them, visible in the forward view port, was their assigned space station.\n\n_Shields up, target lock on enemy's comm array has been acquired,_ Wepps informed David before he could even ask.\n\n\"Commence firing,\" he ordered.\n\nDozens of heavy blaster batteries along each side of the _Burnside_began sending a hail of fire towards the Rovellan space station. The crimson packets of energy splashed against the station's shields several hundred feet before the actual structure. Once the shields had been worn down, then the _Burnside's_ missile batteries could fire preciscion warheads to knock-out the station's critical systems, such as the comm array.\n\nDavid quickly brought up a tactical sensor map on one of the screens attached to his command chair. Sandwiched between the _Sol_ and its fighters, and the _Burnside_ and the _Steele,_ was the formation of armored Rovellan warriors. Their nimble suits had already begun to turn and suddenly, as David watched, six medium-sized blips materialized out of nothingness on the display, directly between the two Martian battleships and the enemy formation.\n\n\"Excellent job, Jackson,\" he commended his navigator, \"We're precisely where we need to be.\"\n\n\"You say that as if you were expecting otherwise, Captain,\" she quipped.\n\nDavid chuckled and glanced over to see her smiling back. \"Wepps, what's the status of that station's shields?\" he returned his attention to the battle.\n\n_One moment, Captain... Target's shields are down, missiles are away..._ A few more seconds passed and then there was a small, but bright flash on the dorsal section of the station, visible through the bridge's main view port. _Direct hit, target's comm array has been destroyed,_ Wepps reported.\n\n\"Excellent, begin charging the main cannon, and target the station's power core.\"\n\n_Aye, sir_.\n\nDavid returned his attention to the tactical display. Just at a quick glance, it appeared as if the Rovellans had already lost at least a third of their warriors from the last time he had looked at the screen. Unlike most of the galactic super powers, who used squadrons of starfighters, the Rovellans preferred flying in suits of robotic power armor that allowed them a personal feel in combat, which suited their warrior culture. They were basically giant space suits with an engine strapped on the back, and a few blasters and missiles mounted as well. While the suits were more agile, and difficult to spot, being about a third the size of a starfighter, they were easily destroyed, having no shields, little armor, and they had no where near the speed of a starfighter. Still, the Rovellans stubbornly used them, so that they could keep combat up-close and personal. The six destroyers had also done their part to eliminate some of the Rovellan warriors. Though their batteries were smaller and less powerful than the mighty guns of the _Burnside_ and the _Steele_, they could track fast moving targets.\n\n\"Ensign Chung,\" he addressed the young comm officer, \"patch me through to Admiral Vaeres aboard the _Sol_.\"\n\n\"Aye, Captain. Shall I put it through to your console, or on the main viewer, sir?\" Chung asked. Typical of a recent academy graduate, he usually asked for specific instructions for any task, instead of making an educated guess. Chung had come aboard with Lieutenant Jackson, a last minute replacement for the _Burnside's_ old comm officer, who had been killed while on shore-leave, during the Rovellan raid on Tanaeus Four. Like Wepps, David had served with the old comm officer, a Kowesh Lieutenant named Garnel, for many years. It would take some time to get Chung broken in.\n\n\"Put him through to my console, Ensign,\" he answered. He would have to let Chung know to always put his communications through to his console, unless otherwise stated. That was something Garnel had picked up right away. David decided he would pull the kid aside later for a talk, instead of admonishing him in front of the rest of the bridge crew.\n\nAfter about thirty seconds, the Admiral appeared on one of the view screens attached to David's command chair. \"General,\" the Admiral addressed him by his official rank, instead of the more informal title of captain, \"What can I do for you?\"\n\n\"Just wanted to make sure that the enemy didn't get off any transmissions before we took out their comm systems, sir.\"\n\n\"Negative. It looks like we caught them completely off guard. You're plan seems to have gone off without a hitch. When you're finished with the defense station, start softening up the lunar base. The _Sol_will begin deploying the marines once we've eliminated all of the enemy combat suits.\"\n\n\"Aye, sir. O'Rourke out.\"\n\nThe_Burnside_ continued to pummel the Rovellan space station with its gun batteries while it was left nearly defenseless, its warriors trapped on the other side of the Martian destroyers, their numbers rapidly dwindling.\n\n_The main cannon is fully charged, Captain,_ Wepps finally announced after five minutes of waiting. Though it took a great deal of time to charge, five minutes is an eternity in combat, the massive cannon that ran along the _Burnside's_ long, ventral axis was capable of destroying an enemy starship or space station in a single blast. It could even be employed to obliterate comets, asteroids, and small moons in emergency situations.\n\n\"Excellent, fire when ready,\" David gave the order. Wepps signaled one of his subordinates in the weapons systems crew pit, and a stream of directed energy, a quarter-mile wide, shot forth from the bow of the battleship. Within seconds, the space station's power core destabilized, and erupted in an uncontrolled fission reaction. For a few brief seconds, a bright flash filled the entirety of the bridge's view ports. The ship shook slightly as a wake of ionized particles buffeted its shields. When the flash subsided, only the tiniest pieces of the station remained, drifting and colliding into each other randomly in the void of space.\n\n\"Ensign Anders, bring us into a geo-synchronous orbit over the supply depot on the moon, roll the ship to give our batteries a clear firing solution.\"\n\n\"Aye, Captain,\" Anders responded, and began to adjust the _Burnside's_heading. Anders had been serving on the ship for a little more than a year now, and it was likely she would make lieutenant before this tour of duty was over.\n\nIt was another thirty minutes before the last of the Rovellan combat suits had been eliminated, and the _Sol_ began sending shuttles full of Hegemonic marines down to the surface of the moon. Despite the heavy bombardment the outpost had taken from the _Burnside_and the _Steele_, the remaining Rovellans on the surface, true to their nature, fought tenaciously, and it would be almost six hours before the last pockets of resistance had been eliminated.\n\nOn the _Burnside_, the bridge crew assembled in the captain's mess for a celebratory dinner, while the ship's Niäsan executive officer, Commander Bedohl, and the relief bridge crew began the evening watch. Though it had been an easy victory; only five Martian starfighters had been lost and there were a few minor hull breeches on the _Venus_, one the destroyers; things could have gone much worse. It had also been David who had petitioned the fleet's admiral with the unorthodox strategy of using precision hyperspace exits to catch the enemy off guard, and therefore, the fleet's victory was largely due to him.\n\n\"So, stop me if you've heard this one,\" Major Nemin began. David had asked the ship's chief engineer to join them at dinner, mainly because the Bemoi was so entertaining, and would quickly fill any awkward silences, should they pop up. \"Two Klaknari walk into a bar on Delorkon Two, each with a dictation bot trailing behind them, carefully recording their master's business dealings. Suddenly, the bartender turns around and sees them, and announces, 'Hey we don't serve their kind here! They'll have to leave!' so one of the dictation bots turns to its master and says, 'I'm sorry sir, why don't you go wait outside,\" Nemin ended his joke with a huge Bemoi grin, flipping his lips inside out, which always got laughs in and of itself.\n\nMost of the crew had a good laugh, but Ensign Chung looked perplexed, wondering what everyone was laughing at.\n\n\"I don't get it,\" he finally admitted, \"why did the bot tell the Klaknari to leave?\"\n\n\"Because Delorkon Two is a bot-world, Scott,\" Anders explained.\n\n\"A bot-world?\" Chung was still confused.\n\n\"It's in the Thladian Commonwealth, neighboring the Fullini home system, Sengal. The Fullini created a model of self-aware androids about two-hundred years ago, eventually the Commonwealth passed laws giving full citizenship rights to any self-aware bots, just as if they were organics. After a while, these androids were even given their own 'homeworld' to settle,\" David explained.\n\n\"You're kidding... They gave _bots_ citizenship rights?!\"\n\n\"I swear on the keel of the ship,\" David assured him.\n\n\"Dang, I knew the Commonwealth was crazy, but giving bots citizenship!\" the young ensign shook his head. \"What do they look like?\" he added.\n\n\"The original models were all the same,\" David began to describe them. \"They were short like the Fullini who built them, about five-six, they had grav-ball-shaped heads and a cylindrical torso. Their arms and legs were like long segmented cables about three inches in diameter. But once they were given their own world, they started constructing themselves. They stopped sticking with their original design schematics, or even a strictly humanoid shape. The only thing that remained the same was the design of their sentient CPU.\"\n\n\"Dang, so they can look like anything then?\"\n\n\"Pretty much,\" Anders expounded on the captain's description, \"there are giant farming bots, military models, and there's even a rumor that they have starship-type ones; completely self-aware ships that have no crew.\"\n\n\"Come on,\" Chung said skeptically, \"now I know you're pulling my leg. Starship bots?!\"\n\n\"It's a big galaxy, kid,\" Jackson said as she stood up from the table, \"and you get to see it all in the Hegemonic Armed Forces.\"\n\n\"Yup,\" Nemin chimed in, \"Didn't you see the recruitment poster?\" He flashed one of his inside-out grins again.\n\nSmiling at Nemin's quip, Jackson excused herself, \"Well I need to hit my bunk if I'm going to be fit for duty tomorrow. If you'll excuse me, sirs\" she saluted David, Wepps, and Nemin.\n\n\"Dismissed, Lieutenant,\" David saluted back casually, adding, \"Once again, good job on those hyperspace plots.\"\n\n\"Thank you, sir,\" she smiled back at him as she exited the room.\n\nAnders and Chung both excused themselves, leaving the Captain with his two senior officers.\n\n\"Well, what do you guys think?\" David asked.\n\n_Jackson seems to be acclimating well, though I can sense some underlying tension in Chung,_ Wepps broadcasted his thoughts to David and Nemin. _I believe some battle simulations would be beneficiary for him before we become involved in a less orderly combat situation than we had today._\n\n\"I agree, Cap'n,\" Nemin added, \"I got a lot of new crewers down in engineering. They're smart, and know the ship's systems like the back of their hands, but I'm worried if they'll be able to focus on their repairs if the _Burnside's_ getting rocked by enemy fire.\"\n\n\"Unfortunately, I think we'll be too involved in the real thing to have time for simulations. I have to hop a shuttle over to the _Sol_ to meet with the Admiral about our next target. We have to begin clearing out the systems around Olm Naefti, but after I get back I'll see what Bedohl and I can work out for drills.\"\n\nDavid stood up from the table and headed for the door.\n\n\"Oh, and Cap'n,\" Nemin stopped him, \"As for Jackson, I'd watch out... I think she's got a crush on you...\" he grinned.\n\n\"Great that's just what I need... Kieran gets jealous enough when there isn't anything to worry about.\"\n\nEven Wepps laughed at that, the leaves on its face contorting around its eyes. Both it and Nemin, having served with David for many years, had witnessed his wife's temper, which was as fiery as her hair. She was always very irritable when David had female bridge crewers, even though he had never looked at another woman since they had been married.\n\n\"You guys keep that to yourselves, or you'll wish the Rovellans had gotten to you,\" he warned as he left the room.\n\n  \n  \n\n"}