The Voyage 12
#12 of The Voyage
Tales of The Voyage 12 By Raven Fox: A couple of weeks have passed since the events of chapter 11. Janice is being trained in flying the Zeus class fighter with William. William finds one of the bases of the enemy who destroyed Rikus' ship.
Two weeks since the events of chapter 11, miles away from the Athena in deep space.
William clutched the control stick of the Zeus fighter he's currently piloting. The human grinned in his oxygen mask enjoying this fighter. Instead of wearing an oversized helmet, the human is wearing a sleek helmet with a pair of goggles over his eyes. The eyewear used micro projectors that transmitted data to Williams' eyes. William saw a green outlines showing flight parameters as if the readings were floating in front of him. The human with the other pilots who fly this fighter take an anti-nausea pill twice a day to avoid getting ill wearing the hi-tech eyewear. He looked over to his right seeing another Zeus flying with him. William wondered how Janice is doing, but he picked her radio call.
"William, Riku is right, there is a difference flying a fighter in space. This is neat, I kind of wished the North had this fighter, the outcome would have been different." Said the anthro female tiger.
The human chuckled to himself and answered. "Keep that opinion to yourself Janice, I don't want to lose you as a wingman. The other people who flew my wing in battle are back at that group of planets the rodents live on. You're the only person who flew with me in battle and the only one I trust on my wing with this bunch. It will take getting use to, but I think you will adjust. That's why we're flying at the moment; I am still adjusting to this fighter."
In the cockpit in the fighter, the female tiger grinned. She just loves this fighter as Russell her human male mate. Janice still has feelings for William and she's glad that she's flying with him again. A steady beeping got the tigers' attention making her go thru procedures in identifying the reading. "William, I got a reading of a large planet one million miles ahead of us. Primary scans says the planet might is a gas giant, plus there are energy readings from it." Janice said to William.
William pinged his scanner and got the reading his wingman reported. The human scrutinized the reading switched radio channels. "Mother vixen, this is kit. We're reading a large gas giant one million miles ahead of us with energy readings." He said in the radio doing a slight chuckle knowing that the way he contacts Riku annoys the artic vixen.
The bridge of the Athena.
The artic vixen scowled at the com device and grinned. Riku knew that the human does the call because he looks at her as a mother. She keyed the com device. "Kit, this is mother vixen, return to the ship. We're going to keep our distance from that planet and launch some probes to check how far the warning devices activate. Then we'll do a recon with cloaked Zeus fighters."
Williams' Zeus.
The human took in Rikus' orders and nodded. "That's why she's a captain and I am a fighter pilot." He thought to himself wanting to check the jump device on this fighter. But William calmed down knowing there will be another day to try a jump in this fighter. "Mother vixen, this is kit, understood, returning to base." He said in the com device watching as Janice followed him.
Minutes later, hanger of the Athena.
William did the post flight check on his fighter and walked to Janices' fighter watching as the female tiger checked her fighter and walked to him. "So what do you think we discovered at that planet?"
The human was about to reply when a reddish brown vixen walked up to them giving William a hug, "Another ship is going to meet up with us to drop off a couple of personal." Joan said to him and watched the human male who she loves nod.
Earth known as Sol 4, shipyard in London England.
Trish looked at the large black space ship which was delivered to the Royal Space corps. The female wolf walked the length of the ship taking in the lines. To her, the ship looked like the one that landed at the Yorkshire Moors a little over three years ago. But this ship is larger and she heard one of Rikus' people mentioned that this class of ship is an updated class of the type Riku commanded. Plus Trish heard that this class has a more stable and more reliable core that doesn't detonate when the ship crashes.
As of now, the remaining five ships of the Trafalgar class are scheduled to have their reactor cores replaced with the same type as these new ships that were just delivered to the Empire. The admiralty decided to call this class of ship, the Excalibur class.
The female wolf walked on the boarding ramp to board HMS Broadsword to check on progress on getting the ship readied for use for the British Empire. Trish grinned as she did the courtesy saluting the colors to board the ship.
The male human being the commanding officer meet the wolf at the entrance, "Commodore Trish, we're ahead schedule regarding getting the ship ready for service for her majesty."
Trish grinned at the human, "I am glad, you're orders have been changed by her majesty. According to our spies, the unknown enemy who destroyed the Explorer has attacked the Earth known as Sol 3. They destroyed the United States capital Washington D.C. killing the president and 90% of the personal in line of succession to that office. So there's confusion at the colonies and her majesty thinks we should add another planet to the Empire. So this ship and HMS Excalibur are going to the Earth known as Sol 3 to do a friendly change of government at that planet. With Riku and her people with the rodents being across the galaxy concentrating most of their forces at that part of the galaxy." The wolf does a canine grin, "We'll just do a stop at Williams' home world doing humanitarian aid to a world who just suffered an unprovoked attack by hostile alien forces." She said to the human who nodded in agreement.
Captain Sir Pete smiled, "We will launch on schedule Commodore Trish, and so what's the mission plan?"
The wolf beckoned the human to follow her to his stateroom. She saw different humans and morphs doing their duties getting the ship readied. Trish liked the layout of this class of ship compared to the one Riku used to command. The wolf saw the Commodores' cabin getting refurbished for her future use. She followed the Pete into his stateroom watching the human look at the larger Commodores' cabin with envy, "Sorry Pete, that cabin is mine, I would taken the one on the Excalibur, but I like the name Broadsword better.", The wolf thought to herself shutting the cabin door locking it, "HMS Excalibur is going to our sister country on Sol 3 where the captain of that ship is going to talk to that British government while we fly to the colonies to start aid there. From what I heard from some of our agents we have on that world, there might be little resistance when we show up at that Earth." Trish said to the captain of HMS Broadsword, "From what I just said to you in the last ten minutes is classified and you can't mention your mission till this ship is passed the orbit of our moon."
The captain of HMS Broadsword nodded in acknowledgement watching the female wolf leaving his stateroom. Pete looked at a picture of the type 22 frigate on the bulkhead which this spacecraft is named after. His father was the weapons officer on the frigate, "My father is going to visit me tomorrow. What will be his thoughts if he knew what the maiden voyage of this ship is going to be doing?" Pete thought to himself looking at the picture of the frigate taken by his father with the Hong Kong colony in the background. The sea lord of the Royal navy like the photo so much, he requested copies of the photo along with a copy of the negatives.
Near the unknown gas giant planet, Rikus' ship Athena.
"Riku, HMS Trafalgar just exited its' jump field.", Sara said looking at the bridge display showing the British ship heading to them.
The artic vixen looked at the ship feeling a pain because the ship looked like her old ship except of the union jack painted on the side. She watched in interest as the ship maneuvered to the docking port, "Let's go greet our guests." Riku said to the collie seeing a hurt expression on her friends' features.
Sera followed the vixen out of the bridge and went down the passageway. The memory of the old ships' demise is still fresh on the two canine gals as they waited at the docking airlock, "I heard that the British are really putting a lot of effort in converting the ex-Camelot ships to their specs." The collie said to Riku.
The sound of the two ships docking is heard as the docking collars attached, Riku sighed, "I heard that they're calling them the Excalibur class. Our spies reported that the new yards at Ireland are being use to convert the Trafalgar class to use the same core design as the Camelot class." The vixen said to the collie.
"It can be done, but it will take one or two months to do the conversion. I don't know how good their yards are, but if I were them, I will do one ship at a time so that only one ship will be down. Right now, they only five of the ones based off the Bane class and the six we just gave them. The British had two almost being done built with a third just being started, but from a cloaked Zeus, the third is being changed to have the same lines as the Camelot class.", Said Sera as air hissed as the docking collar pressurized.
"We'll talk more on this subject later.", The vixen said as the door opened letting in a couple humans wearing military uniforms of the British Empire. Riku picked up a mike, "HMS Trafalgar, arriving.", the human male saluted her.
"Request permission to come aboard.", The human male said in a thick British accent.
Riku returned the salute, "Granted, welcome aboard Captain Allen."
The British captain looked at his surroundings and looked at the artic vixen with the sable colored female collie standing next her, "I've got a few personal to off load and some other things to drop off.", Allen said to Riku as a female mink followed him onboard with a male human.
Riku smiled at Naomi and watched as Sera hugged the human male. She looked at the British captain, "How are things at England?"
"Things are doing fine at Great Britain, should have HMS Excalibur and HMS Broadsword ready in a few days for their shakedown trials.", Allen said as personal still came on board the Athena.
Riku nodded watching as Naomi walked to the hanger knowing that the mink is wanting to go see William, "He's going to be busy tonight." The vixen thought to herself knowing that she in for a busy night sending messages to her commanding officer.
Hours later, HMS Trafalgar.
Allen watched as the Athena grew distant in one of the viewers. The human male was about to order a jump when the com device beep a series of beeps indicating that an alert message was about to be received. A sense of dread gripped Allens' heart remembering the last time he heard that series of beeps, "Bloody hell, did we lost another one." The human thought to himself as the printer expelled the message.
HMS TRAFALGAR...TOP...SECRET.....MESSAGE FOLLOWS..REDEZVOUS WITH HMS EXCALIBUR....AND.... HMS BROADSWORD..TO PROCEDE TO EARTH KNOWN AS SOL 3 TO ASSIST WITH HUMANITARIAN AID. CONTACT.ROYAL SPACE COMMAND WHEN AT MARS ORBIT AT SOL 3....COMMODORE TRISH SENDS....ALFA..ROMEO..ECHO..FOXTROT..DELTA..8.9.4.6..CHARLE..BRAVO...MESSAGE....ENDS.....
The human pulled out a card in his uniform doing a check and called his XO who validated the orders, "Bloody hell, she's got to be taking a piss. I thought that planet was off limits, plus they got nice pubs at that England.", Allen said to his second.
"Well, orders are orders, when are we going to rendezvous with those ships sir?", Asked the XO question ally.
Allen reread the message looking at a coded line, "Three days from now, I thought those ships won't be ready in another week."
"The conversion must be going smoothly or they're ahead of schedule.", The XO replied rereading the message.
The next day, a cloaked Zeus fighter flying at the gas giant atmosphere.
William looked at his readouts floating in his line of vision. He cringed at the readings, "Crayon gas with a touch methane, ammonia and hydrocarbons, topping off with -400 degree temp. I forgot the one hundred fifty PSI atmosphere reading. Nice place to take my stepfather on a holiday without a mark twenty EVA suit." The human muttered to himself.
"Tempting kit, but you better focus on the mission. That energy reading is should be in view in twenty seconds.", Rikus' voice said in Williams' headset.
He chuckled and looked at the pinkish red sky in front his fighter, "Blimey, mother vixen you better see this!", William exclaimed typing a command at the keypad near his right knee.
Bridge of the Athena.
The bridge crew just stared at the display as the image from the nose camera of the Zeus fighter showed something impossible. Joan looked at the sight in interest watching the image flicker as the filters did the job cleaning the signal.
"Kit, this is mother vixen, do a couple more passes and return to base.", Riku ordered looking at the picture of the floating city. The vixen typed a message at the console, she looked at the message she typed and typed another command. She watched the screen as a window played a sixty second loop of one of Williams passes.
"Mother vixen, this is kit, returning to base.", Said Williams' voice with the image of the city vanishing being replaced with the pinkish red of the sky. Seconds later, the view changed to space. Joan typed on her console and the normal view of space is now being showed on the screen.
A few days later, Mars orbit, HMS Trafalgar, Sol 3 system.
Allen looked at the Red planet with a grin. He was on the ill fated HMS Explorer as second in command when the Empire explored the Red planet at his home solar system. The male human watched as two white fields appeared as two ships larger than his appeared, "They're here." He said as the computer identified the two ships.
"HMS Trafalgar, this is Commodore Trish, follow us to the planet Earth at Sol 3.", Said a female voice on the com unit.
"Helmsman, follow those ships matching their speed.", Ordered Allen feeling his ship move following the two ships.
Unknown gas giant, Williams' stateroom on the Athena.
The male human pressed his face in the gray colored fur feeling softness of fine hairy furry breasts. He massaged them placing his mouth on a pink nipple gently sucking on it. William felt the slim hips moved on his feeling the wetness on his scrotum sack.
Naomi gently moved the humans' head giving him a kiss on the mouth. The female mink stroked his hair, "So my love, what happened to you while you were guests of the British?"
William looked at her eyes stroking her long red hair giving her a kiss on the nose, "Not much, they were interested in a few areas I was at on Joans' home world. Didn't get a chance of what they wanted because their ship was attacked, then it crashed on the surface. I am glad Riku told me why her ship was the only one in service and why they were taken out of service." The human shudders of the memory of the nuclear blast when the opened core was exposed to a planets' atmosphere. He hugged the mink feeling her slim body, "I miss that ship, and you could tell when it was in motion by a slight shudder it made. This ship, it's smooth in motion and it's quiet."
The mink nodded remembering the lime green monochrome readouts with low resolution graphics at pilots' station on Rikus' old ship. She did miss the old ship, but she prefers the high resolution with 16 million color display at the pilots' station, "This class of ship has the newest inertia compensators that cut down the motion of the ship. One thing, you noticed that I didn't have you take a drink because I've been treated so I make love slowly to you my mate." Naomi gives William another kiss keeping her motion slow, "This is much better; I bet you prefer making love to me this way." The mink said to him enjoying this method of making love.
"This is so nice.", Said the human and resume sucking on Naomis' breasts.
The door opened at his stateroom with Riku and Joan walking in. Joan looked at the couple in bed and grinned. Riku looked at the male human in bed with the mink shaking her head, "William, you got to follow us to the bridge. We just received a radio call from your Earth."
William gritted his teeth putting on his uniform and watched as Naomi dressed herself. The mink grabbed his shoulder, "Don't worry love, we'll finish this later."
"Remind me to lock the door." The human whispered to the mink as they left his stateroom.
Bridge, Rikus' ship Athena.
"Riku, this is Kessler calling from Area 51. Three unknown ships just entered our atmosphere. Two are unknowns, but the third looks like yours. I am sending a video from one of our spy satellites. I think you heard what happened to Washington D.C. and some areas on Earth.", Said the male human from a display. A second later, a video showed three ships in formation.
"Make a one minute loop of that video Brittney.", Ordered the artic vixen looking at the three ships.
Sera walked up to the display watching the video. The collie watched as the filtering software cleaned up the video looking at the ships, "The one at the left is the ex-Camelot, due to that small bulb on the tail fin due to an experimental rear scanner. Ex-Moonrise is the one on the right; you can see that light blue flicker at the starboard impulse engine. Our yards can never get rid of that anomaly; the yards must have overhauled that engine at six different occasions. They were thinking of replacing that engine, but we gave that ship to the British. With HMS Trafalgar in the middle because the Union Jack is more to the nose with the remaining four of that class with the Union Jack at the middle of the hull."
The rest of the bridge crew stared at the collie with surprised looks.
"Every ship is unique, just got to spot the differences that makes each one unique.", The collie said to the bridge personal with a twitch of her bushy tail.
The planet Earth known as Sol 3, a formation of F-35 Lightning 2s.
The six aircraft flew to the two large black craft. Inside the lead aircraft, the male human looked at the unknown craft with a puzzled look. One looked like a squashed Virginia class attack sub, but bigger. While the larger one looked like a squashed Trident ballistic missile sub, but larger, "Moon base, Moon base, this is Tiger flight, I have boogies in sight. They look like flatten submarines with the British Union Jack painted on them. Requesting instructions."
"Tiger, get a closer look of the unknowns.", Came a reply from base.
Bridge HMS Broadsword.
Trish looked at the six fighters flying close to the ship, "F-35 Lighting 2s, the newest fighters of the United States." The female wolf turned her head to a male fox, "Major Henry, turn on that shield generator we have installed when we first got this ship." She watches as the fox typed on the terminal in front of him.
Lead F-35 Lightning 2.
Alarms went off in the aircraft giving the pilot six different malfunctions, "Moon base, Moon base, I getting six different system failures. Got to turn away before I lose control of the aircraft." Said the male pilot turning his aircraft away from the unknown craft.
Secret base at Nevada.
Kessler watched the encounter from a display. When any military hardware gotten close to those spaceships, something cause control malfunction on the piece of hardware. The human male remembered that every time Rikus' ship showed up, their equipment didn't have any problems, "I better tell Riku about this, she might know about this." He thought to himself and looked at a tech, "Send a message to Riku, those ships generate something that screws up any computer controlled vehicles."
"I knew that depending on computers will cause something like this. Never should of retired the F-4 Phantoms.", Said someone in the room.
Kessler nodded in agreement, "You're right, I think we're screwed." The human male thought to himself.
Rikus' ship Athena.
"That's the story Riku; you got to keep any computer controlled hardware away from those ships. There's something being generated that screws up our computers from those ships. We retired and scrapped all of our fighters that were controlled by control wires and hydraulics. The only way to get a close look is using a craft that's shielded or something really old with no computers controlling the craft.", Said Kessler from the com display.
Riku held her muzzle thinking, "I never ran into a weapon like that."
"I had.", Said Naomi looking at her. "I heard of the rats testing a type of shield generator to go against our Dragon fighters. If I were you, I wouldn't buzz one of those ships with a Zeus because the Ferrets used the same flight computers as the ones off the Dragons. I would use a type 10 reconnaissance probe because it uses the same shields as the Zeus to see if the Zeus can come close to one of those ships."
Riku nodded in agreement and sighed, "Alright, get William here, he's going to love this. I have an extra Zeus fighter; you and William are going to his home word and do a reconnaissance of Earth."
The mink thought for a moment and looked at the artic vixen, "We need to hitch a ride to the Sol 3 system. The ferrets never did a long jump with the Zeus fighter."
Riku typed on the keyboard at her command chair and grinned, "The Ermine is a system away from us. I'll get a hold of Sabalt the captain of that ship; he's a friend of my mate Xander. That ship is heading back to the home world and it's the same class as this one. One last thing, do you know of any way to counter act that shield?"
Naomi shook her head, "I don't know of any counter measures of that shield. Tissare told me that the rats only had a prototype built before the war ended. He told me that the prototype was disassembled and destroyed."
"What happen to the personal who built that shield generator?", The vixen asked the mink and saw Naomis' look, "I take that the personal disappeared."
The mink nodded, "Yes, they disappeared around the time the British were testing their ships. As I know, there is no known defense to that type of shield."
Riku sighed, "Get William here and get yourself fitted for a flight suit. I heard that the Zeus fighter is just like the Dragon you flew before, you should have no problems flying that fighter." The vixen grabbed Naomis' shoulders gently, "Keep an eye on that human, he likes to get himself in trouble. You know how I feel about him."
Naomi nodded again, "I'll keep an eye on him for you. Just be wary of that city, I have a bad feeling about that place." The mink leaves the bridge and looks back at the vixen, "Don't let your guard down here Riku, William thinks of you as a surrogate mother." She walks away.
A day later, high Earth orbit. Williams Zeus fighter.
William licked his lips and looked at the fighter next to him. It was a trip of all trips to get here. He and Naomi had to jump to another ship to hitch a ride close to the Sol 3 system. After five hours on the Ermine, he and the mink had to do a couple of jumps to his Earth. The human pinged his scanner scrutinizing the readout, "What the...???" As a small ship escaped the Earth just missing the two Zeus fighters by less than twenty feet.
"William, I see the British ships engaged battle with two large ships." Naomi said on the com circuit.
The human saw a ship like the one that attacked the Athena with another attacking one of the British ships. One was charging it's main weapon to fire on the ship. William held a thumb over the button that will fire the anti-capital ship missile at the unknown ship. But the British ship fired a series of weapons causing one of the ships to start exploding. The human saw escape pods go to the other ship and the ship jumped with a white flash and was gone. He turned his head and watched as the remains of the enemy ship entered the atmosphere and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. William watched as the British ship headed back to Earth. The human key his com system, "Naomi, follow me, but we got to avoid those British ships."
"William, this is agent Kessler, please land at the coordinates I am sending you. Trust me, I am a friend of Captain Riku and we need to talk." Said a male voice in his com unit.
HMS Broadsword, the bridge.
Pete exhaled the breath he was holding quietly as his ship headed back to the Earth. He grinned as the bridge crew celebrated the destruction of the enemy ship, "That's for HMS Explorer you bastards" The human muttered to himself.
The male tiger at his station interrupted, "Sir, two dragon class fighters activated their cloaking systems. We're scanning for them now, but those dragons were painted black instead of gray, plus they seem bigger."
Trish, sitting at the Commodores' chair replied, "Those weren't dragons, the two fighters are known as the Zeus class. I have seen them on Rikus' new ship when I was a guest of hers." The wolfess grins, "I wonder if William is flying one of them?"
Area 51.
Kessler looked at the two fighters braking to a stop in the hidden hangers. He watched as a young male human walk up to him and a female gray colored mink. The male human knew for the last ten years that alien life isn't gray skinned humanoids, but anthropomorphic beings. Kessler has a few members of the furry community on his staff and it annoyed Riku when a few of them asked the vixen for her to marry them. He knew of William and how Riku thought of him as an adopted son, "So how is my friend Riku?"
William brought Kessler up to date of what happened to Rikus' ship and how she was placed on a new one. The human male explained how her race gave six ships of the Camelot class to the British.
"How did those British disable computers on weapons systems?", He asked William.
Naomi explained the war at the rodents' planets and her suspicions of how a rat weapon might have fallen in British hands, "That weapon was design to use against our dragon fighters. But we can't fly these Zeus type to those British ships because they use the same avionics as the dragons. So we half to fly a very old fighter to take a closer look at those British ships."
The discussion went for another half hour and Kessler lead William and Naomi to another hanger, "I think you might be able to fly this fighter to those British ships."
"What kind of fighter is this? This makes Rikus' old ship look top of the line!", Naomi exclaimed looking at the fighter with techs all over it prepping the fighter for flight.
William grinned gazing at the fighter like he was looking at mink naked, "That my mate is a Mc Donnell Douglas F-4 Phantom 2. She's doesn't have computers moving the control surfaces. There's only one problem, the British will see those twin exhaust trails from seven miles away."
Hours later, HMS Broadsword.
"Alert, unknown fighter closing in.", Replied Major Henry looking at his scanner.
"Bring the image on the main viewer." Ordered Trish as the image is projected on the screen. The wolf saw a green and silver fighter flying to the ship, "Activate the shield generator." She saw that the fighter still flying to the ship and ordered, "Radio that fighter to turn away or I'll shoot it down."
F-4 Phantom.
"Unknown fighter, turn away or we will shoot you down.", Said a vulpine voice on the radio.
William knew the voice, "Major Henry, is that you? Is Trish with you?" He said in the radio.
HMS Broadsword.
Trish did a wolfish grin, "William, I see that you manage to get pass our shield. We're here for humanitarian aid to this planet. I don't want to do any harm to you because I have respect for you and Riku will hunt me down if I did anything to you. Just turn away and I'll get a hold of you so we can get reacquainted. I would like to show you the Commodores cabin on this ship."
F-4 Phantom.
William sighed while he made the old fighter circle the British ship, an angry chitterling came from the mink from the intercom from the backseat, "Alright Trish, I'll leave you in peace because this fighter is unarmed. I just wanted to take a look at your shiny new ship. See you around Trish; we'll keep an eye on you limeys." He turned the fighter back to area 51.
HMS Broadsword.
The wolf watched as the fighter turned away, "Track that fighter, and tell me where it lands." She looks at a black colored rat standing nearby, "Love the shield you installed on this ship, but it seems to be ineffective against vehicles that have mechanical controls."
The rat shrugged, "The shield I designed was to be used against those dam Dragon fighters the minks flew."
"I know, our current fighters will deal with the old fighters.", Trish said to the rat and walked off the bridge grinning knowing that William is on this planet.
Area 51.
William walked away from the F-4 seeing Kessler looking at him. The human male knew that he might be receiving bad news.
Kessler sighed, "Due to the Federal government were being wiped out not long ago and the military being powerless due to the dependably of computers.... The United States and most of this planet just surrendered to the British of the Sol 4 system.
William lowered his head looking at the polished concrete floor being glad that his real father isn't alive to see the country he fought for has just surrendered to a foreign power, "I am really sorry that this happen, do you want me to contact Riku to get you out of here?"
"No, I and my staff will remain in hiding. We will gather anyone who will want to leave this planet and contact Rikus' people to evacuate the ones' who want to leave.", Kessler answered.
"Do a through interview on them, because Riku hates cowards. I would not like to see a certain female Washington State governor living on Rikus' home world.", William said to Kessler.
The older male human extended his hand, "You have my word, plus when will you be leaving?"
"I am going to stay for awhile and check out the new leaders of this planet. Want to talk to a certain female wolf before I leave.", William said and look at his mink mate.
END OF CHAPTER 12