Sigil of the Wolf - 11. Chapter 11

HMS Excalibur - Ezu VI System

His feet pounded the deck plates as he jogged, checking the clip in his submachine gun. His men were sweeping the deck ahead of him, creeping through the ship that had, a few short hours ago, been their home, and now was a battlefield.

The Fida'i's were stalking their prey. He turned a corner catching sight of a pair of his men, dressed for battle as they moved from room to room searching for the enemy, ignoring the quivering deck as the Excalibur sustained another hit.

The Highlord was giving the Amsus as good as he got, but Colonel Mayfair couldn't afford to think about that as he approached the forward command post. It had taken the rattled young marine standing guard on the Colonel's cabin exactly thirty seconds to reach a decision and release the Colonel after the first intruder warning had gone off. The Colonel couldn't blame the young pup for being scared; at least it had given him time to mount some kind of defence.

A squad of his men had established a secure zone around Excalibur's forward damage control centre, pulling crates from the sides of the corridors to establish barricades and provide cover should they come under direct fire.

Mayfair noted a Fida'i moving across a lit part of the lower deck, shedding her wool coat as her armour began to blend her with the background, vanishing in that way they did when ever they wanted to move about unseen. At least they had them on their side, wicked black knives in hand, they'd be an asset.

He ran past a marine carrying the Squad Assault Weapon standing impassively in the shadows, the dull green glow of his night-vision optics lighting the shadows around his helm. They were truly terrifying; the heavy machineguns they carried were more than capable of chewing through enemy units. He was glad that someone had had the foresight to equip them.

Sergeant Hobbes was waiting for him, the grizzled veteran coordinating with Chief Hickey. The Excalibur's chief of the boat was pulling schematics and deck plans out of their lockers and spreading them out across the small situation table for the Marine officers. Hobbes leant down to mark enemy units on them with a red pencil.

"What do we have?" Mayfair asked, slipping on the TAC-link headset that plugged him directly into the Excalibur's communication channels, the sound of battle ringing out across the radios.

"They're appearing all over the ship, sir." Hobbes had served in the old Karin Guard under Mayfair; the two had a long history together and the Sergeant knew exactly what his Colonel was expecting from him. "I ordered the first and third platoon to secure the forward sections. Fifth is back guarding engineering while I'm coordinating our fire teams and sweeping deck by deck."

"What are the likely targets?" Mayfair asked, looking over at the chief, he had his own suspicions, but the chief knew the ship like the back of his hand, if there was a vulnerability the Amsus were out to exploit he would know about it.

"So far they are making for our primary magazines. If they blow one they'll cripple us, if they get both we're done... sir." The chief hastily scanned the schematics before him.

"I think the Amsus are done playing catch us if you can." Hobbes added darkly.

"They know better than to let this ship get into their territory." Mayfair commented, "get Captains Sanchez and Dui on the horn and order them to tighten up around the magazines, also," he looked over at the chief, "I want all non-essential fleet personnel clear of the area..."

"That's gonna be tough," COB replied, "the gun crews are going to need ammunition..."

The lights flickered and dipped a dull booming echoing through the ship again as the damage control screens flickered and the deck was plunged into the dull reds of emergency lighting. The chief inputted commands as he yelled at his damage control teams to get a handle on the situation.

Colonel Mayfair waited, repositioning his units on the plans, nodding as Hobbes had his radioman relay the messages, closing the nets around the Amsus on their mad dash through the ship.

"How the hell did they get on ship?" Mayfair murmured, staring over the charts; there was no sign at all. The first sightings had been deep within the ship, well away from the protective barricades set up towards the outer hull to stop them penetrating that far. His men would have seen them had they breached the hull; no, the only explanation was that they had appeared out of thin air.

* * *

Firlotte dashed along the deck. The main power had been cut to this section, and he needed to fix it. The power junction was one of three that were crucial to the ship's operations; the ammunition elevators that fed missiles into the launch tubes had stopped working, as well as bulkhead controls for the starboard aft quarter. A little time and he could bypass it all, get the systems up and running.

He fished out a screwdriver from his tool belt, quickly switching the heads as he pulled back on the sliding hatch that would give him access to the troublesome junction.

He dropped the screwdriver as the Amsus trooper turned to face him. "Sorry, wrong door," he said, slamming the heavy blast door shut and sprinting for cover.

A squad of troopers burst from the junction room, spraying the hall with automatic fire as the technician dived behind a heavy crate, shivering as the bullets hammered into the container as he wrestled with the sidearm all crew members were supposed to wear in combat situations.

The key problem was that Ashley wasn't quite done with his firearms course; he'd only been on the ship a short time, and while Sergeant Hobbes ran a firearms training course, Ashley hadn't been certified yet. Something about not being able to hit the broadside of a barn at five meters.

Another burst of weapons fire, and Ashley ducked, covering his head as the bullets slammed into the wall opposite him. He didn't have time to be scared; if he didn't do something, then he was dead.

He picked up the gun from where he'd dropped it, biting his lip as he nervously clicked off the safety, shaking as he braced it and swung around the crate.

"I'm gonna die...I'm gonna die..." he murmured, pulling the trigger as the sound of gunfire erupted around him.

The weapons fire went silent, as he opened an eye, the other still squeezed tightly shut in anticipation of much pain and death. He gaped at the dead Amsus troopers on the ground around the junction room door, and he lifted the pistol in shock to look at it.

The steady clacking of a machinegun bolt sliding home caused him to turn around.

The Marine was standing back a ways in the gloom of the corridor, the green light of his goggles giving him a visage of death. He stood a second watching the startled technician, before he clanked away, moving off back to the fight.

Ashley swallowed as he changed the magazine in his pistol, rubbing his sweatdrenched red hair as he looked back at the junction room door, seeing where his own shots had fallen; typically, they had all gone wide. He shook his head as he slid the pistol away and recovered his screwdriver, thankful that his short life wasn't going to end in a squishy and horrendously painful kind of way.

The junction room was a mess; the Amsus had carefully sliced right through the junction leads and heavy cables that fed power to the ship. And he stopped cold, realizing that it was a new system. The Amsus had known exactly where to hit them, and had known exactly how to disable the power to that section of the ship.

That meant someone had told them...

He didn't like that thought at all, and he fished for the TAC-link clipped to the pocket of his utility vest, stopping when he saw the small, white plastic device stuffed into the recess of the junction box. He didn't need to be a technical god to recognize Polian technology when he saw it.

He frowned, reaching out carefully to get a better idea of what it was, his hand drawing back as the small device shimmered and vanished.

It wasn't supposed to do that.

Ashley reached out again, watching as the air around the device rippled like disturbed water, feeling the smooth covering underneath, pushing his slender fingers around to feel the edges. His mind worked through what it could be; it was small, flat and invisible.

A demolition charge of some kind, he surmised, as he pulled a flashlight from his tool belt and turned it on, gripping it between his teeth as he went to work to disarm the device by touch. If he could find the right activation control he might... He snapped his hand back as the device reappeared, the Polian script on the LCD panel displaying a countdown.

"Aww crap..." Ashley murmured around the flashlight still clenched between his teeth; he didn't have long if the decreasing dots on the counter meant what he thought they meant.

* * *

Mayfair ran. Elements of the squad that had protected the fire control centre were advancing up the hallway ahead of him, the sound of heavy combat ringing through the corridors, some of his men dropping to a knee as they engaged the Amsus troopers that were retreating back towards the magazine.

He squeezed his trigger, walking his automatic fire through a group of Amsus Troopers that had camped in the Excalibur's mess hall, continuing his push forward as some of his men went in to secure the room.

The call had come in minutes ago; the Forward Magazine had been overrun, the Amsus, having concentrated their forces, able to force their way through the makeshift barricades and into the heavily armoured magazine.

It was a mess. The relief troops under Captain Dui hadn't arrived in time, and Mayfair's team had been the first to respond, the Colonel grabbing his submachine gun and bellowing for his men to follow him as they rushed towards the heart of the ship. Other fire teams were converging on the Amsus but they refused to give up their small foothold aboard the ship.

The fighting was pitched; several times on the way to the magazine they had been stopped, pinned down by automatic fire, the occasional concussion grenade hurled in their direction, marines hurling themselves out of the way as others took up positions to cover them.

The Amsus were relentless; just when he felt he had contained them, still more seemed to join the fight. Even the Fida'i, impressive as their fighting prowess was, were beginning to show their frustration at the unending carnage.

Mayfair lifted his hand, gesturing with two fingers, cutting his second fire team free of the squad and sending it down one of the side corridors to flank the Amsus position as he nodded to his team's sniper, the corporal dropping to his stomach as he crawled towards the corner ever so slowly.

"What do you see?" Mayfair murmured, keeping his submachine gun up and his eyes peeled.

The young corporal sighted through the scope of the modified Amsus VLR-01 sniper rifle, one of the few concessions of technology that was light years ahead of anything Imperial. He sighted over the Amsus barricades and through the open doors into the magazine. "I have seven targets; it looks like two more are inside the magazine attaching something to the missile racks." He paused, "Looks like a charge, sir."

"Nail them first," Mayfair ordered, gesturing for Sergeant Hobbes. They were in a bad position; a stray shot, and half the ship would go up. It meant they had to be selective with their firing, and the Amsus would have no such restriction.

The Corporal took a couple of shallow breaths and pulled in a long one as the first shot rang out, the weapon system engaging the bullet which had a miniaturized jump drive contained within a titanium shell, the steady click-clack of the bolt sliding back on the modified weapon loading the second round, the second shot firing as the Corporal tracked on another target. Simple, clean, and effective, the bullets jumped, hitting with an unerring accuracy, the sniper felled the two Amsus techs, switching targets and dropping another Amsus trooper before they could react.

He rolled back to the safety of cover as the Amsus returned fire, bullets ricocheting off of the deck where the marine had been.

"Cracking shot," Mayfair nodded, clapping the Marine on the shoulder as he looked over at Hobbes again, "Go!"

* * *

"They're retreating," Lauren observed as the first Amsus Raptor jumped into hyperspace.

"Bring us about," Darien ordered, "provide cover for our fighters, I need a combat landing." He leaned down to squeeze Lauren's shoulder, "The moment they're down, execute a jump and follow that battle group. If we jump in along with their main group we'll have enough time to jump away again before they can realize who we were."

"Risky, with the boarding party," Lauren said, looking up at him, "Mayfair is reporting heavy fighting around the forward magazine."

"Mayfair?" Darien asked in confusion. If anyone could handle a boarding party it was the Karin Colonel, but... Darien stared at the tactical screen, "If we miss this opportunity, they'll have enough time to regroup on the other side and we'll never break through."

"We have two full charged jump pods," Lauren glanced over the helm readouts, "The third is charging, when we jump they'll be able send whatever forces they already have in that system after us..."

"Yes," Darien nodded, "However, if we crash jump, they'll over shoot us and we will get some breathing room."

Lauren stared up at the Highlord in shock. What he was proposing was insane.

Hyperspace was a relentless and unforgiving realm. The titanic energies involved in jumping through hyperspace made jumping possible to enter for only short periods of time, ships leaping in and out before hyperspace could spit them out forcibly.

Darien was proposing to shut the engines down before the transit was complete, riding the hyperspace energies and letting it deposit them where it will. It was a dangerous and unpredictable manoeuvre, and there was the chance that they could get stuck on a hyperspace eddy that could hurl them light-years off course...

He noted her look of concern and shook his head. They had to get through the Amsus lines, and they both knew it. His eyes searched hers as he waited for her to do as he ordered.

She paused, hands hesitating, but she willed them to move. She'd been through so much with that man, literally through life and death, and he'd always come through for them. He knew what he was doing, and her hands punched in the command sequence.

"Last fighter is down," Sub-Lieutenant Galadriel reported, looking up at the Highlord.

"Go," he commanded.

The Excalibur executed its first jump, entering the heart of the Amsus blockade, copying the Amsus battle group's jump almost exactly. Enemy cruisers and fighters were swirling around as they tried to reorganize, a couple of Predators sweeping up in surprise as the Imperial flagship appeared right in their midst.

"I think we've been seen," Darien said with a tight smile as the Amsus battle cruisers altered their position, and the Raptors deployed to make an attack run. The Excalibur's sensors scanned the ships and displayed the readouts on the tactical display. They were all sitting on fully charged jump pods, waiting for him to perform exactly that manoeuvre. A carefully orchestrated trap, with the original battle group sent to force him to jump before his third jump pod was fully charged, leaving him in a system with Amsus ships ready to follow him through his second and hammer the ship while it was waiting for its third. Clever.

Darien really didn't feel like playing ball.

"Make sure they see our jump profile," he ordered, walking back to stand before his command chair smiling tightly; he wanted them to know where he was going, in fact he wanted them to follow him.

"We're ready..." Lauren said, taking a deep steadying breath as she gripped the console.

"Jump!"

* * *

Ashley looked up, as the deck slammed into him, sending him sprawling across the floor, the Polian charge slipping from his hands and bouncing off of a wall. He tried to get up and scramble for it, as the deck heaved again, tossing him aside as the charge was hurled down a gangway, bouncing down the steps and clattering to the deck below.

He willed himself to get up, clutching onto the wall feeling the snap of gravity failing. Someone had executed a crash jump. He'd heard of the theory, but to actually attempt it? Few ships could withstand the maelstrom of hyperspace.

Ordinarily he joked about the universe being pissed off at him; this time it was true.

Hyperspace was slamming the Excalibur with a vengeance, adamant that the vessel did not belong, tearing at it as it tried to force the knife-like vessel back into its own universe.

He reached out, wrapping his other arm around the rail, his fingers skimming the smooth side of the Polian charge as he tried to grab it, praying that it wouldn't go off. The device floated tantalizingly out of his grasp and he felt the shudder as the Excalibur was buffeted by the storm again, the charge jumping up as the technician snagged it, pulling it close against his chest as he held onto the rail for dear life.

* * *

Darien rode the up swells, keeping his feet braced and his hands balled behind his back. It was like riding a surfboard, all he had to do was bend his knees and push into the roll and he was able to keep his feet.

The deck lurched and pitched, the serene clouds of white outside the view ports belied a malevolent intent. Hyperspace wanted them gone. It was an uncontrolled fury, the ship's bow rising up as if against a stormy sea, crashing back through the waves of clouds as they rolled past. The rest of his crew were clinging onto whatever they could in the hopes of weathering it.

He felt sorry for the fighter crews down on the hangar decks. The fighters had had no time to secure; loose equipment and people would be bouncing around as if inside a tin can. He gritted his teeth; they were helpless now in the storm, the ship's jump pods depleted; they had little choice but to wait and pray that hyperspace would let them go long before its tidal forces tore them apart.

When it happened, it was a gentle settling, the ship rising again for another tremendous crash that never came, the view port clearing to show the stars and the unknown system they had come out in.

"Damage report?" Darien ordered, moving forward to the secondary helm console and punching up a navigation chart, the Excalibur already trying to place where she was in relation to where she had been.

Other crewmembers reported into their various sections, listening as the reports buzzed across the bridge; minor injuries here and there, and damage from unsecured items being hurled around. The ship was shaken but her damage from the transit was minor, at least he was thankful for that.

He turned as a rather bruised and battered technician, clutching a small white dome in his hands and looking white as a sheet, came onto the bridge. Firlotte extended the device before he collapsed with a grateful sigh into the chair beside Darien.

"Colonel Mayfair reports he has secured the forward magazine..." Galadriel climbed the small ramp from the tier below to report directly to the Highlord, "I'm getting a full casualty report..."

"What is this?" Darien asked, interrupting her and looking at the engineer's mate, turning the white dome over in his hand as he examined it closely.

"Polian bomb, sir." Firlotte said, pushing his shock of red hair back into some semblance of order as he caught his breath.

Darien's eyes went wide, as Galadriel frantically called for a damage control team, other officers drawing back as if expecting it to explode.

"I disarmed it, sir," Ashley explained reaching out to lift it up, "Watch this..." he tapped it as the weapon vanished in his hands.

"Invisible bombs?" Nazzien asked, stepping up to join the other senior officers.

"They were setting one of these in one of our power junctions," the technician explained, switching the weapon off, "They could have placed a hundred of these things aboard and we'd never see them..."

"The forward magazine," Galadriel reminded, "The Amsus penetrated and held the magazine for at least ten minutes."

Darien was already on the TAC, calling down to Colonel Mayfair who was securing the magazine, alerting him to the new threat while Nazzien ordered crewmembers to begin the search for other devices.

"We can't search every missile," Darien said speaking in a low tone, looking down at the device in his hands, insidious little things; they could easily be secured to a missile, and if even one were to detonate in the magazine...

He looked up, "Nazzien, arm all missile launchers."

"Highlord?" Nazzien inquired, as he gestured for his gunnery crews to do as they were told.

"At our maximum rate of fire," Darien asked, an idea forming, "how long until we empty the forward magazine?"

Nazzien blinked. "Thirty seconds for the Aegis missiles, maybe three minutes for the Short range missiles, five for the long range..."

"Highlord," Lauren warned, "You're talking about firing almost our entire missile payload..."

"Fire, Nazzien," Darien ordered, glancing at his first officer, "I know, but I don't think we have much of a choice. We'll have to make do with our rail cannons and the aft magazine..."

"The aft magazine's for fighter missiles, and we fired ninety percent of our nuclear payload in that last battle." Lauren watched as the Excalibur's rapid-fire missile launchers began to hurl her precious ammunition out into space, the Aegis system exhausting itself and falling silent as the larger missiles roared away from the ship.

The night sky came alive with explosions as the Polian bombs detonated, the blasts sweeping through the other conventional warheads; brilliant white flares shed light over the Excalibur's hull.

* * *

Sephradon looked up from her throne, anger twisting her regal features. "What do you mean you lost them?" She demanded, the fury etched on her face beginning to boil over.

"We believe they must have executed a crash jump manoeuvre..." The Amsus Fleet Marshal dutifully reported, unaware of the danger it was in, "our ships followed their jump coordinates and executed a full jump, however the Imperial ship never re-emerged from hyperspace."

"And what of the strike force sent aboard?" She demanded.

"Failure," the Fleet Marshal replied, "We successfully used the Propylons to gate troops onto the vessel; however, they were unable to meet their objectives..."

Sephradon killed it without hesitation, walking through the black ooze that was freezing across the floor of the main audience chamber as she approached the cluster of Inquisitors that waited for her orders.

"What of the Polian modifications to our ships?" She demanded furiously.

"The enhancements have been made to our Predator wings," the first Inquisitor replied, "Our cruisers and Raptors are taking longer. Currently our staging point at the Ordessus system is operating at maximum capacity."

"Expand the facilities," she commanded with a wave of her hand.

"Milady," The Inquisitor paused, "That will require more people."

"Indeed," she said, turning to another Inquisitor, "You stated that there were refugees evacuating from the front to avoid being caught in the conflict."

The Inquisitor nodded.

"Put them to work," she ordered, satisfied that she was able to solve two problems at once, focusing again on the matter at hand. "Find Taine's ship and destroy it," she commanded, "No mistakes, no hesitation, I want it destroyed, am I clear?"

"Yes milady," echoed the Inquisitors.