The Line of Succession Vol. 03 - The Final War

The escorting vessels turned to engage the destroyers. That's when the Canberra fired the first volley of anti-ship missiles at the enemy destroyer screen. This was followed by the firing of EMP weapons from the Sussex class destroyers, rendering the remaining enemy escorts totally defenseless. That is, the remaining five escorts, as seven of them had exploded from the initial volley of missiles.

The Canberra dropped her stealth regimen and increased speed to close on the Kledrif, loosing her own round of EMP weapons at the Lomaxxes command ship. The Kledrif was caught flatfooted and her systems shut down. Communications ceased from the Kledrif and she drifted like the derelict wreck she was. Canberra deployed her battle cruisers and, with shields up they closed on the enemy ship. The Canberra and the Sussex destroyers were broadcasting the surrender demand in English, Lomaxxes, Bassin, and Blokish and demanding immediate compliance or risk termination. Caleb and Cwasir stood in the battle shuttle as she moved cautiously towards the enemy vessel.

***********************************************************************************

On the flagship HIMS Larocyn, the Empress of Trionia and the Imperial Joint Chiefs were arraigned around the situation table while the computers updated the battles outcomes. The campaign was going extraordinarily well for the most part, with the exception of the casualties suffered at the Battle of Camelot, as the engagement had been dubbed. But Her Imperial Majesty was worried for the safety of two particular individuals, one of whom was close to being family. As Empress, she could not show favoritism. As a prospective mother-in-law, her gut was churning, as soldiers would say.

Her daughter was not under the same restraints. Every time there was an update from Canberra or her squadron, she paled, even though nothing was germane to her betrothed's fate. She was scared, even more so then when on the Harilyn when the traitors attempted to kill the Empress and herself.

'Why did he have to be a Marine? Why did he have to have such a damn high sense of duty, and honor? Why did he have to be so FUCKING BRAVE??'

She was on the verge of tears when a strong hand gripped her upper arm.

"Courage, Highness. He has been in tougher scrapes than this." Katirine turned and looked into the green eyes of he Chief of Security. Lt. Sanchez was smiling into the Princess's eyes and she winked at her.

"IF some day you would be Empress, and deserving of his love and respect, look at your mother." Her head nodded slightly to the Empress. The serenity of Taralynn's face was an inspiration to any one watching her. Her Admirals and Commanders were monitoring the combat, but the Empress was absorbing it all and forming her own ideas and opinions.

"She is so focused and calm. I could never be like her," whispered the Crown Princess, to no one in particular.

"YES, You can, YOUR HIGHNESS!!", murmured Esmy. "Yes, you can. Have faith."

Katirine looked at her friend. Because she did consider her a friend. Quite possibly her best friend.

"Thank you, Esmy."

"Always, Your Highness."

"Katirine."

"MA'AM??"

Katherine smiled. "My name is Katirine."

Esmy was floored. "Ma'am?"

Katirine smiled again. "Do I have to make it an order, sister?"

Esmy giggled, and blushed. "As you command, ....... sister."

**********************************************************************************

The battle shuttles closed on the Kledrif, the radio traffic was sorting itself out. It seems there was a battle already raging on the enemy vessel between at least two factions. One group wanted to surrender, the other wanted to blow the ship up. There was a standoff in progress in the area of the engineering section of the ship.

Command got involved and counseled to back off and let the two groups fight it out. Colonel Josiah R. Thompkins grabbed the handset and talked to the admiral making the decision.

"Sir, with all due respect, that would involve a complicated withdrawal and retreat. Marines don't retreat, SIR! Oh, sir, you're breaking up, sir." Then he cut the connection.

"Fuckers. Let's go, Major."

Caleb turned to the radio operator and issued the orders and the ten battle shuttles closed in attack formation and with limpet like grace, secured themselves in a circle around an area of the engineering section. With the engineers deploying along with the combat Marines, they immediately started to cut through the hull to gain access to the fusion plants. With their heavy duty cutting tools, they removed a section of hull plate forty feet across by one hundred fifty feet high. It just hung there as the engineers secured tractor lines and cables to the corners and four of the battle cruisers released from the hull and moved off taking the cutout plate with them. Five hundred feet out, they released the plate and moved back to the Kledrif.

Meanwhile, five thousand Imperial Marines and the Marine Engineers (because even if you were an Engineer, you were still a Marine, and that made you a rifleman) moved into the cavernous interior to confront the three ship's reactor plants.

The other fifteen thousand Marines moved along the outer hull to the nose of the ship, and proceeded to make entry. The Lomaxxes set up heavy fire at the entry points on the forward part of the ship and the Marines re-doubled their efforts to force an entry into the ship. They cut an entry into the main lengthwise tube just aft of the bridge, and managed to come in behind the Lomaxxes force seeking to hold the command area. The de-pressurerization of the interior caught the enemy by surprise and a lot of them succumbed before they could suit up. But it just seemed to piss them off more.

The Marines took some casualties but wiped out the defensive force. They pored into the new access point, moved forward and opened the access port to the outside, while pushing forward to the bridge. Here they came on the rebel force trying to resurrect the control circuits to engineering and regain control of the reactors. Not to power the ship, but to blow it up.

The five thousand marines and engineers entered the engineering spaces on the Lomaxxes ship and confronted the three fusion plants. They were installed modular wise on sort of a pallet arrangement, each one an individual entity. The engineers immediately set about to disable and prepare to isolate and remove the cores. They severed all mechanical and electrical connections on the first one and attached a portable force field generator to it. They hooked up harnesses to the 'pallet' and switched on the force field. Then they severed the anchor points to the ship's structure and the tugs from the battle shuttles started to back it out, while the engineers started on the second one. Colonel Thompkins led the second wave into the engineering section. The Marines famed out and augmented the first wave, led by Caleb with Cwasir backing him. The engineers finished with the second unit and were just hooking the tug up when the Lomaxxes broke through to the cavernous interior. They deployed to get at the core of the third power plant for no good reason.

The Colonel immediately sent three strike teams to hit the Lomaxxes and called for reinforcements from the two destroyers attached to HIMS Canberra. An additional 5000 Marines embarked from the two destroyers and they prepared to support the battle from outside. We were holding our own and the engineers were almost finished doing their engineering thing. The harnesses attached and the force field generator was switched on, thank God, when the Lomaxxes lobbed a low yield nuclear explosive of some sort-a rocket propelled grenade, a small explosive charge, we'll never know-at the command section and it went off. The Colonel was close to the front but away from the reactor. The blast rocked the fusion reactor and shook up the innards, but the force field protected it. The amount of radiation escaping increased markedly, but the structural integrity held. But it started to go critical. However, the bomb or whatever it was landed square on the Colonel and the twelve men comprising his command team. It wasn't pretty, but they all died almost instantaneously. The rest of the soldiers were well protected by Marine issued EVA suits and radiation protective gear. It saved the rest of them. Caleb led the rescue efforts as the second element of his command counterattacked and annihilated the remaining Lomaxxes. They recovered the bodies or the remains of the command group.

Bassins had an extremely high resistance to radiation, thanks supposedly to something in their orange colored blood. They were constantly trying to isolate the ingredient, but so far, after more than 1400 years of research, scientists had been unable to find it. I always joked with Cwasir that it was because he was so ugly. He failed to see the humor.

Captain Delacroix raced over and grabbed me.

"The Colonel is dead, Major. You're in command. We're about ready to pull the third reactor out, but it's going critical."

Caleb got on the comm. He moved over to the third tug and motioned to the sergeant driving it.

"Get that thing out of here, push it towards Jupiter, and goose the thrusters. Then bail out and we'll come get you."

"Aye, Aye, sir." He snapped off a salute and climbed on board the tug. They started back out of the hull and were soon clear and accelerating towards Jupiter. The other two power plants were hovering just off the side of the hulk of the Kledrif and were being shepherded by the remaining two tugs. Caleb commed the #2 tug and told him to rescue the #3 tug's pilot after he bailed out. Cheers went up from the troops as the #2 two tug picked up the floating non-com and returned to retrieve her load.

Caleb got on the com and assumed command of the mission. The Marine contingency regrouped and moved out to secure the Kledrif. The forward units moved into the interior of the ship and, as per orders, proceeded to 'eradicate the vermin'. It was brutal, and complete. By the time the ship was secure, almost fifty thousand enemy combatants were exterminated. Literally. The also found about two hundred captives imprisoned in a lower hold.

One of the Go-mash transport/warships move in to take over the evacuation of the captives. It appears the captives were more than just captives. The remains of more than four hundred bodies and parts of bodies were found in holding areas next to the holds where the captives were found.

The captives told of in excess of a thousand individuals herded onto the ship before it left the home planets. As the trip progressed, the population of the hold shrunk. They talked of many corpses being ejected into space.

The group consisted of lesser able species in the known (and unknown) galaxies. Some were sentient, some were not. At least one was of humanoid type. The obvious conclusion was that the Lomaxxes did not care. It was already suspected that they were cannibalistic. The proof was now in front of them. Many of the surviving captives told of losing family members and friends.

The Go-mash moved the rescued captives to their ship and the transport/warship backed off and resumed station with her sister ship.

The Intel weenies were having a field day, swarming all over the computers, sensors, and the charts and comms intercepts in the bridge and navigation areas of the Kledrif. They were plotting the reverse intercept course to the Lomaxxes home planet, trying to fine tune their planet's location.

Meanwhile, Caleb was consolidating command of the 947th Imperial Strike Force and getting the one destroyer ready to return to Earth with the casualties remains, the wounded, and the shattered hulk of the Kledrif hooked to tractor beams. It would be a long haul, but the medical facilities on bound the destroyer were first class. HIMS Loyalist departed to Earth and Imperial Command finally responded. The high command gave access to the frequencies for the task Force led by HIMS Repulse. They shared all Intell with command and they in turn commed to the Repulse and her squadron. The Task force altered course and moved on the enemy home location- a three planet group situated around a large red dwarf in the Crab Nebula.

Command discussed the thought of having us return to Earth with the captured hulk but I assured them we were all ready to catch up to Repulse and her sister ships, and aiding in the subjugation of the Lomaxxes home system- or whatever we found there. I had spoken with the commander of the Go-mash forces on the two ships, Commander Rem-tan Huty. As big as Go-mash were, this guy had to bend down to come through hatchway when he came to talk with us. It seems that the Go-mash troops that had interacted with the survivors were visibly affected by the scenes they encountered in the ships hold. It brought up images of past instances in their interactions with indigenous races, which they almost once were.

In short, they wanted revenge.

We returned to HIMS Canberra and all the attack shuttles were recovered. Commander Huty came with us and we moved to the Combat Center for conferences with Command and to bring Vice-Admiral Farnsworth up to speed. James Alonzo Farnsworth was commander of the Canberra and in charge of the Task Force.

The Go-mash were up for deploying with us and they thought the 'refugees' might be a help. Seems like there were many other 'captives' there that they felt they could communicate with and help them to get out. It made sense to me and I made the case to Command. There was plenty of room on the two Go-mash warships and it would not be a problem. Plus, it would be the right thing to do. Rem-tan Huty looked at me with ill-concealed hope.

Command didn't take long.

"Go ahead, Admiral. Bring Commander Huty up to speed, and get under way.

"God speed, Major. And good luck."

We made ready to move out and rendezvous with HIMS Repulse and her Task Force, which was re-designated Expeditionary Force Alpha. Comms were established and FTL links were set up with Repulse, Tlandin, and Coventry, and their escorts.

MEANWHILE........

I was not aware of 'higher powers' pushing buttons.

Back onboard HIMS Larocyn, the Empress and the Joint Chiefs were plotting the up coming engagement. Command had been transferred to Larocyn from the old Cheyenne Mountain and the combined Imperial Fleet Headquarters in Yorktown. The Empress was following everything with great interest. The Crown Princess was much more focused.

"Why haven't we heard anything about the engagement out beyond Jupiter? What are they doing??"

Her Head of Security tightened her grip on Kat's arm.

"No news is good news, Your Highness. He'll be fine. He's too stubborn to let anything happen to himself. He's also very afraid of making you mad at him if anything happens." She smirked a little.

Then she giggled and smiled as she sidled up to the Princess's side and whispered, "And he is very horny, for some reason!!"

Katherine blushed, grinned, and said in a quiet aside to her good friend, "Can't imagine why."

With a straight face, and staring at the status board, Esmeralda whispered out the side of her mouth, "Because he loves you, your dummyness."

Katherine jerked and turned to look at Esmy. Esmy remained focused, staring at the status board, grinning.

"He'd better," she whispered.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs was outlining the results of the engagements.

"Your Majesty, we have successfully concluded all attacks on the solar system. Unfortunately, there have been some casualties. Counting the 132 sting ships, the 20 Corvettes, and the 1 destroyer, we have taken more then 11000 casualties.

"Then, with the losses to the Marine units in the attack on the Lomaxxes command ship, the Kledrif, we are looking at an additional 2500 losses. All in all, we are lucky, extremely lucky we were ready for them."

The last remarks shook the Princess. She staggered and went weak at the knees. Only Esmeralda's attention and hand on her arm saved her from pitching forward.

"Careful, sister", she whispered. Her eyes darted to the Empress in time to catch a shudder at the last casualty announcement. 'The Lady is tough. But still human,' Esmy thought.

She turned back to the Princess. Katherine had recovered, and had resumed a stoic grimace.

'She' ll make it. I HOPE!'

The Admiral and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs continued with their briefing.

"The Canberra's Task Force is moving out to rendezvous with Expeditionary Task Force Alpha. We're sorry, Your Majesty, but Colonel Thompkins was killed. Major Lomer has been promoted to Colonel and assigned to command the 947th. We anticipate Task Force Alpha will arrive in system in about three weeks, with Canberra and the Go-mash ships about one week behind them. We will then begin to ........"

The rest was lost on Katirine.

HE WAS ALIVE! That was all that mattered! The Galaxy, the Kingdom, the Lomaxxes and everything else could go to hell. HE WAS ALIVE! She sagged and broke down crying.

"Come on, sister. Let's get you to your quarters." Esmy whispered to Katirine, and nodded to the rest of her detail and they helped the Princess to the hatchway.

"Your Majesty, I think the Princess was over come with the grief of all the casualties. With your permission, we will retire."

The Empress turned to look at her daughter's retreating form, and her close friend and nodded.

"Thank you, Lieutenant. Please see to my daughter's well being." The Empress turned back to the status board as her daughter and her detail left the briefing room.

***********************************************************************************

Meanwhile, the HIMS Canberra and her entourage made haste to rendezvous with Task Force Alpha. The Task Force broke out of hyper-space just outside of the small star system. They were far enough away that the planetary sensors would not pick them up, but they managed to detect two destroyer-sized craft, orbiting the second of the three planets. No overt signs of activity.

The inner planet was almost devoid of activity.

No patrol craft, no satellites, no communications activity. There were, however, signs of surface activity on three of the smaller land masses. Too small to be considered continents; maybe massive islands. All of it matching the profiles of the species we had rescued from the Kledrif. And then some. It seems like the Lomaxxes were harvesting indigenous life forms and raising them like food stocks.

The middle planet, third from the star, was teeming with life. It appeared to match up with readings of Lomaxxes life forms. The Task Force slumbered and waited for our arrival.

While Canberra raced towards history, (WOW) we re-fitted and re-armed and rested up. The troops stated to get restless, so training ramped up and the gyms and ranges became well used. My troops were getting antsy; they wanted payback. And they couldn't think of a better recipient then the Lomaxxes.

Two weeks later, we emerged from hyper-space and rendezvoused with the Task Force. Repulse set up comms and we met up by video with everyone involved. The combat requirements were fairly simply. The Repulse, the Tlandin, and the Coventry would engage and neutralize enemy destroyers, and occupy the surrounding space. The Canberra, due to her enhanced communications and surveillance capabilities would hang back outside the orbit of the third planet and monitor all incoming (if any) comms and intercept and restrict any outgoing missives. Our battle cruisers would patrol and monitor any traffic while the other ancillary elements of the combined Task Forces swept the system and cleaned up any 'residue', so to speak.

The plan was put into action, and it worked flawlessly.

YEAH, RIGHT!

The three super dreadnoughts slammed into the system and neutralized (read: blew up) the two enemy warships. No quarter was offered and none was given. With shields engaged, they started taking fire from the surface of the third and second planets. The Repulse and the Coventry deployed to take on the second planet, while Tlandin moved to deal with the third.