Chapter 1(first draft, rev1)

The Indefatigable shook with a succession of blows and Captain Rodriguez's couch swung chaotically from side to side. She grabbed the overhead bar and straightened herself back into position, putting her other hand on her glass display. An overhead display was showing in angry red digital numbers that atmosphere pressure was down 1% over the entire ship. Grimacing, the captain pulled the visor down on her helmet and locked it.

“Switch to your suits!” Rodriguez punched a button on her panel and sent the alert throughout the entire ship. All over the bridge her crew closed their visors and switched to internal air. Automatic sensors began displaying important information on the visors to make managing the Indefatigable easier.

“Start the reload cycle! I want hot tubes in record time people!” Rodriguez watched her crew go about the business of fighting the battle, expertly getting both munitions and energy weapons cycled back to their firing positions. With nine Ozaergothe ships still returning fire, fighting the battle was her top priority. Other matters would have to wait.

“XO, status report!”

A tall man whose dark face was mostly hidden by his helmet turned towards the captain from his couch's position. “We are streaming atmosphere in fifteen percent of our compartments. Two thirds of those are on the port side. Our gun crews have been on internal air for twenty-two minutes.”

Rodriguez did mental calculations and absently nodded her head. “That gives them about an hour, okay.” She punched at her board. “What about the starboard gun ports?”

“Still no good. Jammed tight.” The XO swapped pads with a chief. “And still no word from the flag or auxiliary CIC.”

“We have to assume the Admiral is dead.” Rodriguez felt ash on her tongue as she spoke. “We will continue the battle according to her plan.”

The captain knew the plan well enough herself and deviating from it at this point would only complicate matters. After all they were winning and punishing their foes. 

“Tactical?” Rodriguez's attention suddenly turned to a new alert and she felt a leaden weight in her belly. "Give it to me, ensign!"

The tactical officer changed the overhead screen to a computer generated image of seven dots approaching the battle area at high speed. “Seven bogies, designate them Sierra 22 through 28.”

Those seven ships would appear somewhere off her force's starboard bow. One of her battle cruisers had fallen astern due to damage and most of her destroyers were making missile runs on the current targets. There was precious little her five serviceable battle cruisers could do to counter the threat. So much for the Admiral's plan, she thought.

Briefly she considered ordering her capital ships into 'shell' mode, which would show their heavily armored 'tops' and 'bottoms' to the enemy on both sides. The problem with that of course is that it would leave the smaller ships and the Invincible open to attack from both enemy forces. Rodriguez knew she had to protect her capital squadrons, especially the battle cruisers. Her own heavy ships had to be her number one priority. On the other hand losing all of her cruisers and destroyers would not make her any friends either.

“What is the composition of the enemy force?”

The tactical officer brought up another display listing the ships. The images were more distinct now and visual sensors were giving batter looks.

“Looks like a force of second rate ships, lead by those Class Two heavy cruisers.”

“That's nothing to be worried about.” The Operations officer was staring at her own display and not even looking at the screen.

“They still have fighters, OPS.” Rodriguez gave her ops officer a glare and the woman blushed and bent back to her station. “Speaking of, how long on the carriers?”

The XO checked his board. “Twenty minutes.”

“Oh, never mind then.”

Indefatigable rocked once again, not as badly this time. Rodriguez knew she had to make a decision now on whether to continue the main engagement or switch to he new comers.

“Okay people, let's finish this.” Rodriguez straightened her chair and began typing on her screen. “OPS, order the dreadnoughts to shell up and burn to a position behind this new force and the initial enemy force. Order the Beijing and Damascus to leave Invincible and come up on our starboard side. Then redeploy all drones from the current force to the new one. I want a three thousand kilometer anti fighter shell.”

“We're down to four drones deployed and four on the racks.”

Rodriguez nodded. “Okay launch those remaining drones, all ships. I want a solid wall, include Invincible's drones. We can bring them under our control.”

Her operations officer looked up. “Sir, that will leave Invincible defenseless.”

Rodriguez bit her lip. “I know. Order Captain Henderson to retire at best speed towards the carriers. Inform Admiral Curren that he should deploy some fighters to protect her. Right now we need everything here.” Rodriguez didn't look at her officers. “Also, tell Captain Takeda her cruisers and destroyers will need to close to short weapon range. Close with beams, kinetics, and missiles.“

Rodriguez finished her orders and finally did look up into their faces. Around them, the enlisted crew performed their tasks and ignored the officers. For these brace souls, the battle was all consuming and they had no time to ponder the moral or ethical implications of higher decisions. An officer in the Solar Republic armed forces on the other hand was expected to ponder them. The captain knew her officers were uncomfortable with writing off the Invincible, because such a prize would draw the attentions of the Ozaergothe like sharks to blood.

“Yes sir.” The operations officer began sending out orders.

Rodriguez watched as her battle cruisers closed up on one another and the dreadnoughts threaded the needle between the two enemy forces with minimal damage. All of this was lost on the enemy who saw the lone Invincible fleeing the battle at ten percent of her normal speed. The Ozaergothe began redeploying their ships, sending battered fighter squadrons and practically dead ships after her.

“We are coming up on a firing position, captain. Force Four is deploying fighters and it looks like they are going to make a laser run.”

“That leaves them open to the Beijing's group. Order Commander Rozkov to make his own laser run on the Ozaergothe heavies. All other ships, prepare to fire secondary batteries at Force Four. Main batteries continue firing on the Forces One, Two, and Three.”

Orders went out from the officers to the crew or to other ships. The lull in battle was over and the ships of both fleets began once again exchanging heavy shots. Rodriguez watched as her command began picking apart the survivors of the first groups of Ozaergothe ships. Several ships attempting to pursue Invincible were torn apart by close range fire from the Republic's cruisers and destroyers. The exchange wasn't one sided though as a Republic light cruiser blew up in the midst of the chaos and two destroyers fell out of formation. On her screen Rodriguez watched the smaller ships tear into the Ozaergothe fleet, using themselves up as her battlecruisers put more and more pressure on the dwindling enemy force. At a certain point the dreadnoughts finished their maneuvers and added their own heavy guns to the storm of Republic fire.

In the midst of it all, Indefatigable maneuvered to get her main batteries into position. The gun ports on the starboard side still refused to open due to damage sustained earlier in the battle, so the port side openings were the only option. All the battlecruisers were in an 'open' gun position and vulnerable to the return fire of the Ozaergothe. By the time the five ships had made their run, they were all bleeding atmosphere.

“Give me an update XO.”

The XO resumed his position on his couch, using one foot to prevent himself from falling out.

“Force Four is falling back, but it does not look like they will get away. Damascus is belly up and Indomitable can barely make half speed. She is falling astern now.”

“What about the initial Ozaergoth forces?”

“Only two escorts seemed to have made it out, they made a pass on Invincible and she's dead in space now. Her return fire took both of the enemy ships out though.” The XO paused for a moment before continuing in a lower voice. “Commander Behm is requesting assistance and ordering his crew to abandon ship.”

Rodriguez swallowed hard. If Behm were in charge then Henderson was dead or incapacitated. “OPS, break the surviving escorts into two groups. One will begin assisting Invincible and the other disabled ships. The second group will fall in with us. Also, send a communication to the carriers that the enemy has been destroyed. Have the dreadnoughts fall back on the carriers as soon as they are finished. We'll cover the ships picking up survivors.”

“Computer estimates we may have a few hundred Ozaergothe survivors, captain.”

“Good, standard retrieval procedures.” Rodriguez checked the atmosphere pressure. It was down three percent now, but they were out of combat. She lifted the visor on her helm. “Get everyone who can back on ship air. Order the gun crews to get their packs recharged before assuming their damage control positions.”

Rodriguez removed her helmet and handed it to a yeoman. Sitting both feet on the floor, the captain pulled up her fleet screen. Invincible and Indomitable would likely have to be towed to a safe location and then repaired enough for a Cadmus jump to the local fleet base. It was also likely she would need volunteers to fill any holes in Invincible's crew. As her crew started putting things back in order, Rodriguez began to reorganize the task force. In twenty minutes she had something resembling a battle line and escorts.

“Damage Control to Captain.”

Rodriguez looked up, realizing she had become lost in the minutiae. Everyone had been too busy to notice and too well trained to need constant supervision. She wondered if they were dealing with their own feelings about the battle yet or if that came later. For her it would come much later.

“Captain here, go ahead.”

“Sir, we have restored atmosphere and heat to the flag. We were about to go in.”

The voice on the other end of the comm sounded anything but eager. For a moment the captain considered sending the XO down or just ordering her crew to take care of it. Space travel was always a little nauseating and the rigor of high speed starships only made that worse. Most people got used to it and Rodriguez rarely noted it herself. Right now though, she admitted to herself that felt damn sick. She id not want to see the pulped bodies of the flag bridge or the Auxiliary CIC. Yet how could she pawn that off on someone else?

“Roger that. I will be right down.”

Five minutes later Rodriguez was standing by the hatch to the flag bridge. She could see scorch marks around the hatch and some of the outer panels had blown out as well. Suddenly the captain felt very ill.

“Better put your mask on sir. In case of any toxicity.”

Rodriguez pulled the reserve gas mask from her suit and slid it over her eyes, nose, and mouth. The clear material lacked nuances of a full helmet and everyone sounded like they were under water.

“Open it up.”

The technician opened the door and the scene inside was straight from hell. Rodriguez had feared that the Admiral and her staff had been pulverized by exploding boards and panels. Instead they had suffered a combination of explosive force and intense conflagration.

Rodriguez stepped inside and let the medical and damage control teams follow her in. The whole room was scorched and bits of people and equipment were everywhere. None of them had put their helmets on yet and all the bodies were blackened from fire. Only the gold borders of the Admiral's suit would allow visual recognition. Her body was on the floor near the door, the body of another crewman on top of her. It appeared the Admiral had been dragging the crewman to the door when all hell broke loose. One last act of bravery by a woman whose career had been filled with them.

“Its not going to be easy separating the bodies.”

Rodriguez wanted to scream at the medic. Of course it would be fucking difficult! She wasn't blind! Instead of yelling and making a fool of herself, the captain merely nodded.

“Do the best that you can.”

Rodriguez left the room and made her way to Auxiliary CIC. Thankfully only three crew had been in there at the time and they had died in a less horrific way. Still their deaths were part of a mounting toll that Rodriguez had never envisioned paying. The battle against the Ozaergothe was supposed to have been a cake walk.

By the time the captain had made her way back to the internal elevator, she could feel herself coming apart. The adrenaline of the battle was gone and even with the mask on she could smell burned human flesh on her suit. Rodriguez wanted to rip it off and flush it out into space but her crew would wonder if their captain was going insane. She wouldn't be the first of course. No she would join a long line of spacers who had seen one battle too many.

“Fuck no, not me.” Her voice echoed in the lift and it frightened her. Jennifer Rodriguez was a lifer and damn proud.

“Not me.” This time she whispered it and let one hot tear leak from her eye.

“Bridge to captain.”

Rodriguez watched the comm panel. She considered not answering it. The voice was her XO and no doubt he had more bad news. Some new gruesome scene she would visit. The captain was not sure she could handle it right now. Maybe not ever.

“Bridge to captain.”

Rodriguez wiped her face and touched the panel.

“Go ahead Jack.” Using his position seemed too impersonal right about now.

“I just wanted to let you know that Commander Behm only had to evacuate his wounded. Looks like Invincible will be back under her own power in an hour. He sends his compliments and asks if that will be good enough.”

Rodriguez managed a wane smile. “More than good enough. Tell Behm to take as much time as he needs. I will be back on the bridge in five minutes.”

“Aye, aye. Bridge out.”

Good news about Invincible wasn't much, but it was enough to calm her fears. She could put them aside and she could do her job. At least for a little while.

Next Chapter: Chapter 2 (first draft)