The Tau Ceti Agenda

October 31, 2388 AD

Oort Cloud

Saturday, 7:57 AM, Earth Eastern Standard Time

"CO, CDC."

"Go, CDC," Captain Walker said. The last shot from the mass driver had taken the hauler completely out, and it ruptured with violent orange plasma from every seam and weld joint. The hauler exploded, sending debris reeling in all directions. The remaining vehicles from the Separatist fleet scattered and fought for their very lives.

"We need to take evasives from the debris field, ma'am. The cloud is gonna be hell on the flight wing."

"Understood, CDC. Air Boss!"

"Yes, Captain?"

"Pull the fighters in under the ship or spread them out from the debris cloud vectors." Sharon looked at the tracks in her mindview battlescape and could see that if the Blair didn't take the brunt of the debris cloud it would be bad news for both the Madira and a large portion of the fighters. The Madira was still without her SIFs and propulsion and had been battered to bits. It couldn't take much more damage. "Nav!"

"Ma'am?"

"Move us upward into the debris vector to cut off as much of it as we can. SIFs full power to upper decks, XO."

"Aye, ma'am."

The battle was winding down, from a large-vessel standpoint. The mass driver had turned the tide. The hauler and all the remaining battle cruisers except for one had been completely destroyed, which seemed to have knocked the wind from the Seppies' sails. The one remaining enemy battle cruiser was taking up station under the Madira, using it as cover from the mass driver. It was taking potshots at the wounded supercarrier from underneath but was reluctant to completely take out its umbrella. For some reason, it hadn't jaunted out, so its hyperspace system must have been damaged in the fray.

With the full flight wing of both supercarriers now in the action, the numbers game was turning, too. The Blair had been able to vector within the battlespace without fear of being hit by the big guns, which enabled it to dump its full load of mecha and drop tanks onto the surface. That had made a tremendous tide-turning swell on the planetoid. Last word from the tank line was that it was collapsing, and the U.S. forces were pushing through to the teleport facility walls. That was how the plan was supposed to have worked from the beginning.

"Good work, Tommy." Lieutenant Noonez nodded to the marine and then turned away from the viewscreen and took a few steps away to answer a call. "Yes, Major."

"Well, there's one battle cruiser left, Tommy. You didn't get them all." Pagoolas slapped him on the armored buttocks with an armored hand and laughed.

"I'm not so sure about that," Tommy replied. The yellow targeting X zoomed all the way in to the upper decks of the Madira. The view was so zoomed that Tommy could see popped rivets on some of the hull plates. "Wow, she's taken a real beating."

"Seppy motherfuckers," Bates whispered.

Tommy worked the targeting system back over the hull of the ship until he found the large blown-out section in aft decks. The hole went all the way through the ship and was several meters in diameter. Tommy looked over at the metal cubes on the conveyor belt, which were only two meters on a side. Then he looked back at the hole in the Madira. He panned the view to the center of the hole and could see the Seppy battle cruiser on the other side using the supercarrier as a shield. Tommy zoomed in through the hole onto the hull of the enemy battle cruiser and locked the targeting system on to a hatch on the exterior of the enemy ship.

"I'm not sure that is a good ide . . ." Sergeant Nicks started to say but was interrupted by the whooshing of the mass driver.

A fraction of a second later, there was a flash of light from the other side of the supercarrier.

"Got you, you Seppy son of a bitch."

"I can't believe you did that," Bates grunted.

"Oh! He shoots, he scores!" Pagoolas added.

"Oh shit." Then Lance Corporal Suez realized what he had just done. What if the pointing system had been off slightly? It hadn't been, but what if. "Uh, maybe we ought to not brag about that shot. In fact, let's not even discuss it any further. Let's just forget it ever happened."

"What the hell?" Lieutenant Noonez turned toward the marines and the viewscreen.

"Captain, the enemy ship just took a mass driver hit!" Colonel Chekov said, surprised.

"From the facility?" Captain Jefferson asked. The view in his mindview showed the ship beneath them suffering from secondary explosions down the length of it. It was going to blow. "Shit! Brace for impact!"

"Looks like the shot came from the moon's gun, Captain." The STO gripped his console as the supercarrier was jolted from the enemy ship exploding.

"How's that possible, STO?" The XO banged an elbow against the edge of his station. "Goddamnit all to hell."

"The vector I'm getting from the debris ionization trail of the pellet shows it passing right through the hull breach in the aft section of the Madira, sir."

"Damage reports?" Jefferson said as he scanned his own DTM inputs. The damage had been minimal exterior hull dings. They were far enough above the exploding enemy ship that the debris field was scattered, and since their relative velocity had been matched, the debris only had the velocity given to it from the explosion. The hull plating of a supercarrier could handle much worse.

"We're good, sir." EndRun consulted with his AIC and tapped at his console for moment and then added with some enthusiasm, "We're a damned sight better now that there ain't a goddamned ship beneath us blasting us with DEGs."

"Good. Air Boss, how're our pilots doing?"

"They've caught up and are now superior numbers, Captain. It's only a matter of time before they've mopped up."

"Ground Boss?"

"Same story, Captain. The Warlords suffered pretty heavy casualties, but Warboys had pushed them all the way to the southwest wall of the facility."

"Have the Angels been deployed?"

"Search and rescue are in theater, Captain. They're staging them here and to the Blair," the air boss replied.

"CO, Captain Walker is hailing us," the communications officer announced.

"Sharon? What can I do for you?"

"Well, Wally, that was going to be my question. Your ship looks like it has seen better days. What can we do to help?" Fullback asked.

"CO, we could take casualties and let them focus on the mop-up," the XO commented, rubbing at his elbow.

"Good idea, Larry. Sharon, route your SARs here. We'll be the hospital. You mop up this mess."

"Roger that, Wally."

"Once we've got this station completely under control, then we'll figure out what we need in the way of repairs. Good hunting."

"Aye, Captain." Sharon showed Wallace a white, toothy smile in the DTM videolink and then saluted the Flagship's CO.

"Air Boss, let's get those wounded in here."