{"id":2454,"date":"2018-05-26T07:17:34","date_gmt":"2018-05-26T12:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ajscifistories.com\/?p=2454"},"modified":"2018-06-02T07:15:33","modified_gmt":"2018-06-02T12:15:33","slug":"master-of-violence-part-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ajscifistories.com\/?p=2454","title":{"rendered":"Master of Violence – Part 17"},"content":{"rendered":"

Master of Violence<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

by AJ Marks<\/span><\/p>\n

Part 17<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cScanner contact!\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark heard the cry as he walked onto the bridge looking over to see the scanner operator looking over at the others who seemed almost relieved to see him walk onto the bridge.<\/p>\n

\u201cSituation,\u201d Mark said making his way over to the center area.\u00a0 \u201cAnd display on the combat scanner.\u201d<\/p>\n

He only had to wait a few seconds before it displayed and he looked on.\u00a0 He noticed three ships this time.<\/p>\n

\u201cRed alert,\u201d Mark said.\u00a0 \u201cInform all commands, military and civilian.\u00a0 Any conformation on what ships they are?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cComputer is working on it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Enterprise went onto red alert even as the computers worked and Hans walked onto the bridge.<\/p>\n

\u201cReading O\u2019krad ships,\u201d the reply came back.<\/p>\n

\u201cDisengage all scanner enhancers, inform the rest of the fleet to do the same, launch all fighters,\u201d Mark said as Hans walked up beside him.<\/p>\n

\u201cRest of the fleet has responded, all ships have dropped scanner enhancers,\u201d Joaquin replied back to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cOpening moves,\u201d Mark said to Hans.\u00a0 \u201cNow we\u2019ll see how good they are, or how much they outclass us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHQ on the line,\u201d Joaquin said.<\/p>\n

Mark looked down to see Richard on the screen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s going on?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIncoming O\u2019Krad ships, three of them,\u201d Mark replied.\u00a0 \u201cThey all appear to be of the bombardment type.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGood luck, we\u2019ll alert all ground commands, keep us informed,\u201d Richard said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo problem,\u201d Mark replied turning back to the bridge crew.\u00a0 \u201cHelm, course three one five point six, move us out.\u00a0 Have the rest of the fleet move up in battle formation alpha.\u201d<\/p>\n

He watched as the orders went out and the engines of the battlestar roared to life.<\/p>\n

\u201cArmor down and in place,\u201d someone else shouted out.<\/p>\n

\u201cFighters launched.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHave VF-4 head to engage the far right ship, the fleet will follow.\u00a0 VF-11 will hang back and wait for any enemy fighters to appear and engage those,\u201d Mark ordered looking at the screen as the ships all moved towards the enemy ships.\u00a0 He could see civilian ships starting to run away from the battle area even as the captain of the Delta base came on.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaptain Sara, how is the station?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cOperating at about eighty percent,\u201d she replied back to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll have to do,\u201d Mark replied knowing he would have preferred it to be higher but they were out of time now.\u00a0 He would know how their weapons and military would do in seconds now as the fighters of VF-4 approached to engage.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Joe felt the conflict of emotions from fear to excitement all rolled up in his stomach.\u00a0 This was it, the battle everyone expected was coming.\u00a0 He turned his thoughts away from the idea their weapons might not be effective to what he was trained to do in this situation.<\/p>\n

The distance closed as the enemy ships had yet to open fire, or do much of anything except continue to close in on Earth.\u00a0 Did they even see them? Or did they considered the fighters to not be a threat?<\/p>\n

The distanced continued to close as finally they were in firing range.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll fighters, fire,\u201d the captain said.<\/p>\n

Joe pushed down the trigger and heard the weapons fire, or imagined it, he never was sure.\u00a0 All twenty-four fighters opened up as they quickly approached and then flew past finishing their strafing run on the enemy ship.\u00a0 It appeared they didn\u2019t do any damage at all as they turned around for another attack run.<\/p>\n

Still no return fire from the enemy ships which only served to confuse Joe as they opened fire again.\u00a0 His shots struck the hull again and he wondered if he was even doing anything when the O\u2019krad ships opened up, but they were not targeted at the fighters.<\/p>\n

Not bothering to listen he flew back in this time targeting the weapon systems and hoping to do some damage.<\/p>\n

He and Carl concentrated on the weapon system until he was almost out of ammo when the weapon stopped firing and the O\u2019krad ship showed a slight burst of flame coming from inside the ship.<\/p>\n

\u201cAim for the weapons, we can hurt them,\u201d Joe said to everyone even as he turned around for another attack run which would probably be his last considering he was almost out of ammo.<\/p>\n

The rest of the fighter group flew in to attack targeting the weapon systems as well.\u00a0 It concerned Joe that there were still no fighters at all in this attack.\u00a0 Were they waiting for something?\u00a0 He decided to keep an eye out on the scanners for anything unusual.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

\u201cCaptain, VF-4 is asking to rearm.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGo ahead, tell the hangars to be quick,\u201d Hans replied even as Mark watched the battle scanner.<\/p>\n

The Earth defense fleet continued to press their attack and close the distance.\u00a0 At first there had been no return fire at all, and when they finally did open fire they targeted the close by civilian ships instead of the warships.<\/p>\n

It left him with questions he didn\u2019t have any answers to.\u00a0 Were they purposefully attacking civilian ships?\u00a0 Why were they not attacking his ships?<\/p>\n

\u201cMain guns charged and ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFire,\u201d Hans said.<\/p>\n

Even though Mark couldn\u2019t hear the weapons fire, he almost imagined a sound.\u00a0 The one problem with fighting in space, there really wasn\u2019t any sound aside from the rumble of the engines unlike the movies.<\/p>\n

\u201cDirect hit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEnemy ship status?\u201d Mark asked wondering if they could determine such damage.<\/p>\n

\u201cScanners indicate one of the enemy ships is showing power fluctuations, unknown what it might actually mean.\u00a0 The other two seemed to be operating normally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before Mark could ask anything else the Enterprise shuddered slightly.<\/p>\n

\u201cHit on deck six, no damage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even as the report came in the ship shuddered again taking another hit.\u00a0 The Enterprise returned fire against the O\u2019krad ships as the engagement continued on.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn range of Station Delta, its opening fire as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark knew they needed all the firepower they could get.\u00a0 Early reports from the fighter squadrons seemed encouraging to him, considering they were able to damage the ships with their firepower.\u00a0 Now as the larger weapons opened fire the battle was just starting to heat up.\u00a0 He wanted to eliminate this group quickly in case there were more ships on the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cIntercepting high powered transmissions,\u201d Joaquin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably reporting back to their commanders of what is going on here,\u201d Mark said to them.\u00a0 It was actually expected.\u00a0 \u201cCan we jam those transmissions?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can try, not sure it will work,\u201d Joaquin replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo it,\u201d Mark said.<\/p>\n

He watched the man work even as the Enterprise rocked again with another hit.\u00a0 So far the armor of the ship held up to the attack.\u00a0 The main guns fired again even as reports of the fighter squadron rearming floated across to where he sat, strapped into a chair.<\/p>\n

The command position in a battle, at the battle scanner, and unlike the movies they were belted into the seats to prevent them from flying across the deck when the ship was hit.\u00a0 A lot of information was flying around the bridge and he listened in on some of it.\u00a0 Some were damage reporting coming in, which were minor at best.\u00a0 A few systems were damaged by the shock of the hit, but no hit had yet to penetrate the armor and cause real damage.<\/p>\n

\u201cReport coming in from Delta station, its under fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark looked on to see the station\u2019s systems.\u00a0 So far everything appeared to be holding there.\u00a0 He wondered about its armor, as it had lighter armor than the Enterprise.\u00a0 The battlecruiser had been built with heavy armor, the designer had gone for the maximum thickness they could develop as weight didn\u2019t matter at all.\u00a0 As a result the three feet of armor was more than any other Earth ship ever built.<\/p>\n

He could see some damage starting to accumulate on the station.\u00a0 Even as he looked on he noticed one of the enemy ships had fallen back and its power levels were fluctuating wildly at the moment.\u00a0 Then the other two started to move further away from the enemy ship.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll ships, back away from that one ship, it looks like it could explode at any second,\u201d Mark ordered.\u00a0 He watched as the ships of the fleet slowly moved away from the damaged ship.<\/p>\n

Suddenly the engine levels peaked and the signal disappeared.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne enemy warship destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cConcentrate all firepower on this one,\u201d Mark said.<\/p>\n

Once more the order went out and the fleet moved in for another attack.\u00a0 Mark had a hope they might actually win this battle.<\/p>\n

\u201cDelta station is heavily damaged.\u201d<\/p>\n

He looked back over at the screen seeing the damage indicators coming in.\u00a0 He knew it was about to explode and hoped the people on board were getting to the escape pods.<\/p>\n

The fleet continued to attack, he could not spend much time on the station as the battle was still going on, one he could not afford to lose.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Jeff watched the screen, it had been linked into the scanners of the ship in orbit and the station.\u00a0 Even as he watched the station was going critical.\u00a0 The order had come across to abandon the station and he hoped most got to the escape pods.\u00a0 Surprisingly Alpha station had yet to be targeted by anything.<\/p>\n

The Enterprise had reported no major damage either.\u00a0 He looked over to see Toncor and Yissffer standing there.\u00a0 The Volor had not been able to get back to his ship as the attack started while they were still in the meeting.\u00a0 Jeff had been slightly surprised to see the Volor return back into the room as the attack continued.<\/p>\n

A cheer went up when one of the enemy ships had been destroyed meaning they could fight them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt appears the ships are turning around,\u201d someone said causing Jeff to look for himself.<\/p>\n

Sure enough the O\u2019krad ships were turning around and appeared to be moving away, retreating from the planet.\u00a0 The military wasn\u2019t allowing them time to back off and continued to press the attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy continue?\u201d Yissffer asked.\u00a0 \u201cThey\u2019ve been beaten back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeff paused to consider the question.\u00a0 True, they could let them leave peacefully.\u00a0 In some circumstances it might actually be the better course of action, but he also understood the reason here.<\/p>\n

\u201cSimple, if we let them go, they can come back with more ships, including those we let go,\u201d Jeff replied back to him.\u00a0 \u201cWe have no idea how large their fleet is.\u00a0 This was only the first of many battles we\u2019ll be having with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yissffer remained quiet with that reply even as Jeff understood what he had said.\u00a0 This was only the second real battle between humanity and the O\u2019krads.\u00a0 For humanity to survive they had to adapt to new technology rapidly, and gain a larger defense force quickly.\u00a0 So many things they had to do and Jeff still felt they had no time upon which to do it in.<\/p>\n

\u201cO\u2019krad ships have retreated.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were some cheers of celebration, but Jeff merely felt exhausted.\u00a0 It was one battle.\u00a0 There was still a lot more they had to do.\u00a0 The war had just started.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want all sectors to report in and damage reports of all ships at once,\u201d Natile said standing up.\u00a0 \u201cOrder any repairs at once, highest priority.\u00a0 We need the rest of the stations operational as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also need to know what happened to station Delta, see if we can improve the stations and their survivability,\u201d Jeff said to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo it,\u201d she ordered looking at some other people.<\/p>\n

Several people got up and started walking around leaving Jeff, Toncor and Yissffer still in the room and a few other military officers working the stations getting reports and such from the fleet.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot what I expected,\u201d Toncor finally said as they stood and began walking out as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I am surprised, I doubted anyone could have stood up to the Dark Race,\u201d Yissffer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you\u2019ll find humans are full of surprises,\u201d Jeff said.<\/p>\n

End part 17<\/p>\n

Continued in part 18<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Master of Violence by AJ Marks Part 17 \u201cScanner contact!\u201d Mark heard the cry as he walked onto the bridge looking over to see the scanner operator looking over at the others who seemed almost relieved to see him walk onto the bridge. \u201cSituation,\u201d Mark said making his way over to the center area.\u00a0 \u201cAnd […]
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