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“DAMAGE TO REACTOR SIX!” Someone cried as the deck tilted. I held firm and let the shiver that ran down the spine of my ship wash over me as well. “We are venting drive plasma!”
There were still around sixty of their ships alive. Around the same number of ours, and my fleet was destroying them. This ship was giving us a hard time however, a Phelb heavy carrier. It massed one and a half of the Eternity in tonnage and seemed to be able to deliver a heavy punch of firepower as well. We had stronger shields, but it was still a knockout fight, and we had already gone six rounds with other carriers and cruisers.
“Commander, we are receiving a transmission from the surface.”
“Put it through.” I said as my ship rolled half onto its side and fired a salvo from its dorsal guns. The Phelb heavy cruiser staggered and tried to roll back up and was gutted by four precision strikes that I hadn’t seen coming. “Who?” I asked, turning to the weapon’s officer. The Shockwave roared up in the gap and hammered into the Phelb ship on her midpoint, breaking it in half. The dreadnought barely seemed to notice, sailing onward and spitting cannon rounds at ships as it went. I shook my head in amazement. Captain Jones was pissed.
“Commander,” It was Vearse on the transmission. “We have landed in Vatican City.”
“Status?” I asked.
“We have neutralized the group that was seen taking the Colonel into custody. We have six prisoners and we are working out where he was taken. We have also rescued Sergeant Kelis and his men and we have established a full perimeter around the Pantheon, and surrounding locations.”
“Excellent work First Sergeant.” I replied, resisting the urge to duck as a Phelb fighter streaked in towards our bridge and was vaporized by the point defense cannons. “Did Sergeant Kelis recover any useful artifacts?”
“Yes, ma’am, they are being loaded onto dropships to be taken to the Backlash.” One of our smaller carriers, hanging on the edge of the fight to extract Destota when he was located.
“Outstanding. Find the Colonel as soon as possible.”
“We are on it, ma’am.” He clicked off and the doors hissed open behind me. I turned and saw Venlent be escorted onto the bridge with two Nightstalker guards, who both looked like they wanted to be anywhere but on the bridge escorting someone they considered unworthy.
“I will give you exactly two minutes,” I said, turning to face her fully. “To explain yourself, Lieutenant.”
“Commander, there was no way for us to land and rescue Colonel Valentine.” Venlent replied hotly. “You were not here...”
“If I was here, I would have landed that ship and killed anyone moving to find the Colonel. He is not just my husband, he is the leader of our entire infantry and special operations soldiers. What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking I needed to preserve councilor Wingell.” She replied. “He has vital information...”
I channeled my inner Destota and punched her as hard as I could.
As a rule, Vandorians are larger than average humans from Earth. I stood at just over six feet, whereas Destota was right around six feet and seven inches tall. Venlent was around my height and trained the same as I was. But I was angry, and my anger came through as I leaned over the fallen woman and drove my fist into her face six more times before the guards pulled me back and held me loosely. “You left him to fight a thousand Phelbs on his own!” I shouted at her.
“He killed all of their Praetorian Guards and their Pope!” Venlent shouted back at me, rising and wiping a smear of blood from her nose. I struggled against the guards and they did nothing more than hold me back. “He killed three hundred of them before they actually captured him!”
“You could have saved him!” The bridge shook again as another impact shook me and I shrugged off the guards. “Get her off my bridge.” I snapped at them. “Put her in the brig.”
“What!” Venlent cried. “You can’t!”
“Don’t tell me what I can’t do on my own ship!” I screamed back.
The Eternity rocked, and Shockwave fired salvo after salvo into an approaching force of Phelb cruisers. I bit down on my anger and ordered my ship to fire.
—-
