The Crimson Heart Part 7 by Cameron Olson

(6 ratings) Rate this Story (5 best) 1 2 3 4 5   2 comments /

Kirika backed away a step and let her hands rest on his chest plate, smiling at him until he turned to go. She didn't turn back to the repair crews until Tevvin was back out in the hall. Jennifer met him there, hulking and inscrutable in her dark-crimson heavy PA, and said she had everything ready to begin securing the defeated ships. Tevvin nodded to her and gave her the go ahead and she walked off down the hall, making very little noise for something so heavy. Tevvin returned to the bridge and found Garrett waiting for him. No questions were asked, but Garrett said that intensive scans of the assault cruiser with her shields down had revealed some disturbing facts. For one, the ship was almost brand new. For another, she was a Deimos Shipyards design, one of their brand new Phobos class assault cruisers. Only the MCL StarNavy had access to those.

Tevvin, his mind once more on the business at hand, narrowed his eyes as the implications of that registered. He messaged Jennifer that he wanted her to take the assault cruiser first. He said nothing about prisoners as he assumed she would take as many alive as possible. Then he called over to John on the Wild Lion and asked if his men could lend a hand in capturing the assault cruiser before the survivors decided to try something stupid like scuttling it. John said he could and would and minutes later an assault shuttle launched from the HA StarNavy hunter/killer and sped to hover near the docking ports of the silent assault cruiser. It was soon joined by two from the Dawntreader and all three latched onto the big ship as one and poured their death-wielding passengers into its hull. As soon as Jeniffer had confirmed that the boarding was in progress, Tevvin ordered the Martyr's Servant and Firedrake Redeemed to head back into hyperspace and bring the disabled vessels down into realspace along with any survivors they found floating about, as well as send the freighters rendezvous coordinates. The Wild Lion went with them but left her fighters to help keep watch on the remaining two pirate destroyers until their crews could be dealt with. With seven class two ion cannons aimed point-blank at their hulls, those in the destroyers were content to wait.

Several hours later Tevvin was sitting in his chair again, lost in thought. as Kirika entered the bridge. She approached and rested her hand on his shoulder without saying anything and Tevvin grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze.

"So what's this I hear about an MCLS ship?" Kirika asked after a minute.

"Actually, they're all MCLS," Garret said when Tevvin remained silent. "The Phobos Assault Cruiser was just the give away, being so new. The others are all last generation. Probably why we survived."

Tevvin made a tsking sound and said, "Never belittle a miracle, Garrett."

Garrett smiled and continued, "It appears that someone in the MCL StarNavy either gave a bunch of ships to some pirates, or that part of the MCLS stripped all the identifying marks off their ships and then stationed them here to blockade Shepherd's Vineyard.