Post A Reply
my profile
|
directory
login
|
search
|
faq
|
forum home
»
Flare Sci-Fi Forums
»
Sci-Fi
»
Designs, Artwork, & Creativity
»
*Rise of the Warspite*
» Post A Reply
Post A Reply
Login Name:
Password:
Message:
HTML is enabled.
UBB Code™ is enabled.
[QUOTE]Originally posted by HappyTarget: [QB] Hope you guys had a Merry Christmas. Sorry I took so long to get this part up. Better late than never eh? Hope you like it. Writing hand to hand fight scenes is hard to get right (for me anyway :) ). But enough of my blabbering, you want the next chapter right? Well here it is! On the off chance that anyone is still reading. Chapter 23 [PNS Lion, Boat Bay 4, Deep Space (ETA to Target: 1 week, 6 days)] As Citizen Commodore Charles Braganovich swung into the internal gravity field of the battleship's boat bay, he was silently cursing. Not so much himself, as a competent officer would have been, but instead cursing that damned B!TCH Sarah Grant. Any other commander would have just ignored his innocent error in fear of bringing down the wrath of State Security. But no, she had the nerve to call him to account. And, part of his mind said through his anger, she probably has the sway in the council to get away with it to. Damn it, the SS was supposed to only answer to the Committee, and here he was, being dragged in front of a NAVAL Admiral! As he and his escort approached the Flag Conference Room, he forced his walk into a closer approximation of its usual cocky swagger. He wasn't going to be intimidated by a puffed-up Admiral, not a chance. [PNS Lion, Flag Conference Room, That Same Time] Sarah Grant waited silently, but with an almost predatory smile. It was a true pity he was State Security instead of a Navy officer. As an officer in State Security, he was outside the regular naval chain of command. But, because he had been assigned under her command she could execute disciplinary measures no normal naval officer could use against SS personnel. She thanked her hindsight to demand that specification in writing before she allowed his squadron into her order of battle. Because of it, she could jerk him up short almost as much as he so sorely deserved. As it was, she would most likely be forced to settle for a verbal tirade and a black mark on his record. She hoped it would be enough to get him sent somewhere particularly nasty when they returned victorious to the Peoples Republic. But one could hope he would do something dense. If she played her cards just right, he just might. The conference rooms door chimed, announcing that that it was but kicking time. Smiling like a wolf, she turned to the guard waiting by the door. "Citizen Sargent Peterson, would you kindly show State Security Commodore Charles Braganovich in." Although the words were harmless, the tone she used showed just how much respect she had for the SS Commodore. "With pleasure Citizen Admiral!" Sargent Peterson said with a returning smile of his own. He had reason to be happy that the SS was going to get some small part of its own medicine. They had executed his wife, the captain of a heavy cruiser, because she retreated in the face of a superior Manticoran squadron. The old adage of return with your shield or upon it had become all to true for the current Peoples Navy. Unsuccessful commanders were highly likely to be either liquidated or disappeared. While this forced commanders to fight for the Committee, it also severely affected allegiance to it. The navy served the state out of fear, not out of loyalty. Charles entered the room with much of his usual arrogance. Only Admiral Grant, her Commissioner and the sentry were in the room. Before Sarah even had a chance to speak, he started into a tirade. "I protest being called away from my flag ship. There are vital repairs underway that require my supervision. And to be called away for something so stupid as this, it just boggles my mind. The enemy was destroyed, so I see no reason for me�" Sarah interrupted his tirade with one word, her eyes sparkling dangerously. "No." Despite the rage inside her, Sarah managed to force the single syllable out evenly and at almost conversational volume. She could tell from the venomous look he shot her that her carefully planned response had the desired effect. Now take that rope and run with it little man, Sarah thought. Then she smiled to herself, not letting a trace of her anticipatory glee show on her face. You just might get enough to let me hang you with it. No one had dared say no Charles Braganovich in over five years, basically since he had signed up for the Office of State Security. The fact that just being in the SS gave him an air of authority and power. Charles liked the fear he saw in the eyes of others when they noticed him. He liked the power that the uniform gave him, power that was his due and which had been long denied him. That was what made Sarah Grant's continual defiance to his demands unbearable. She refused to acknowledge his superiority, acting as if he was something to be tolerated instead of feared. His self-control around Citizen Admiral Grant had been thin since their first meeting, and now it finally snapped. "No? What do you mean NO?" His voice rose in degree and anger with every word. "You have no authority over ME! You need to be taught the proper respect due the TRUE protectors of the people�" Sarah Grant's open palm struck the desk's surface like a peal of thunder, silencing his angry indignation mid-stride. "ENOUGH COMMODORE!" Her voice filled the enclosed compartment, her rage readily apparent. She continued quickly, lest he interrupt what was to come next. "You are to be confined to quarters when not on duty for the remainder of the mission. Now get your sorry a$$ out of my sight!" Charles stood stock still for a moment, his face a mottled mask of seething fury. A small corner of his mind was screaming for him to calm himself, that something wasn't right here. He ignored it. Thoughts flickered through his head in mere milliseconds. The absolute nerve of this b!tch. Pushing him around like he was some green middy, not a full Commodore in State Security. It was time to teach her a lesson. With an animal snarl he lunged across the narrow desk, hands clutching for the front of Citizen Admiral Grant's uniform. For a split second he actually held the cloth of her tunic in his clenched fists. Then as he let go with his right to punch her in the face, he squealed in pain. As if of their own volition, his hands spasmmed open. He darted a glance down at them to see what the problem was. The problem was two sets of feminine hands raped around his wrists, crushing the pressure points there like steel traps. Shock and fear replaced the wrath in his eyes and his face went white. Looking back up to Sarah Grant's face, he saw a satisfied smile spreading across her lips. Sarah twisted the set of arms she now held captive until she heard another squeal of pain. Leaning towards Charles' face, her whispering voice was like liquid nitrogen. "Bravo a$$hole! I had hoped that you would do something as dumb as this. Hoped� but never actually believed." Sarah's shoulders gave a miniscule shrug. "Oh well, I'll gladly live with misjudging your intelligence. It's a small price to pay since it gives me the chance to do this." Sarah's smile turned wolfish. Charles' eyes went wide, then he felt his strained arms being pulled forwards. His feet left the ground as he was pulled like a limp doll across smooth polished surface of the desk. His arms still held firm, he was soon dangling half off of Sarah's side of the table. Charles felt a foot in his gut, but it only offered fleeting support. Abruptly, his arms were released and he felt himself heaved bodily forward. The last conscious sight State Security Citizen Commodore Charles Braganovich saw was the solid alloy bulkhead rushing towards his face with surprising rapidity. Picking herself up off of the deck, Sarah looked over to Citizen Sargent Peterson. "Citizen Sargent, take this scum to the sick bay. After the doctor declares him fit for travel, get his no good carcass the hell off of my ship. I want him to be escorted by armed marines to his flagship. Once there, he is to be placed in the brig. I want you to choose a few noncoms and some officers to 'help' with his guard duty. As much as I hate having to place them on the same ship as that," she pointed to the unconscious SS Commodore, "and his ilk I can't trust his own people to follow my orders. "I understand fully. You can count on me SIR!" He could risk using the honorific because there was only the Admiral and her Commissioner present. As unnatural as it was to trust a Peoples Commissioner, Peterson found himself trusting this one. Although the Admiral tried to hide it, he could tell she did to. That in and of itself spoke volumes to the fact that Gunther Foche was not a run of the mill Committee spy. And if he was good enough for the Admiral to trust, that was good enough for one Sargent Hugh Peterson. Sarah nodded a happy nod and strode out of the room. Commissioner Foche nodded to him as well, then followed the Admiral out of the room. Looking down at the prostrate form lying behind the conference rooms desk, Hugh licked his lips. How easy it would be for the Commodore to have a few 'accidents' before he found his way to sickbay� but no. That would make him no better than the Black Legs� and besides, you never knew when a hidden camera was watching and recording every action you took. [GSN Warspite, Gym, Two Days Later] Thad went through his warm-ups, making sure to stretch every tendon and work on every muscle. Then he went up to the wall gravity control. It was late at night, so he had the gym to himself. That suited him best because he liked to play with the gravity when he worked out. He had been taught many martial arts by Manpower's techs, but only the deadly moves, not the philosophy behind them. For the longest time, he hadn't even realized that they had a philosophy at their base. All Manpower had wanted him to know about martial arts was the fastest way to kill an enemy. Of all he had learned since, he liked Thai Chi best. But as a martial art, it wasn't very practical for a fight. So Thad had created a combination of the normal dangerous martial arts with Thai Chi as a part of his daily workout. The result was a beautiful synthesis of the slow style of Thai Chi mixed with the moves of the more deadly martial arts. Turning the control till it was set at 0.6 g's, he returned to the mat in a series of bounds. Standing stalk still Thad cleared his mind. All of his concerns and worries that went with being a flag officer responsible for over 100, 000 lives, not to mention being on some very powerful peoples sh!t list, left him, even though it only lasted the length of his kata. Then he started the graceful, slow motion ballet. The reduced gravity allowed him to stay airborne longer, allowing him to perfect his technique for when the moves were executed in normal gravity. Kicks, blocks, chops, flips. The moves and combos flowed freely into eachother, one after the other without conscious thought. Towards the end of his routine, Thad even pulled a few moves that were virtually impossible to do in normal gravity. Using his enhanced muscles, he jumped high in the air, spinning like a top at least 12 feet off of the ground. As he fell, he extended one foot in a mock attack. Landing, he sank into a crouch, then sprang up and backward. His trajectory and speed carried him in a lazy arch 2/3rds of the way across the gym. It also carried him directly towards the room's sole punching bag. Extending his fist, he landed a solid blow dead center. Using the force of the blow to spin in mid air, his feet came up fast. Thad planted both feet into the center of the bag as it swung back down. The attack changed his direction entirely, and he hit the floor, rolling into a defensive crouch in the middle of the floor. After he had finished, he settled down at the center of the mat again. Taz was having fun of his own. While he strongly disliked the next part of the regimen, his delight was unmistakable as he shot around the room. He was literally bouncing off of the walls. Running full speed at roughly a 45-degree angle to the wall he leaped, towards it. Then he rebounded off at an angle, his speed and muscles causing him to float over almost the entire gym before the slight gravity pulled him back down to the deck. Then he was off again, bolting for the nearest wall to start the cycle again. Being that treecats are arboreal and that Grayson had nearly deadly concentrations of heavy metals, there weren't many trees to leap from and to. Since this was as near to that as Taz could get, he was in heaven. Watching his friend unabashed glee at the freedom of 0.6 g's, Thad let him play for longer than usual. The last few days had really showed beyond a shadow of a doubt that treecats are empathic. The emotional turmoil that nearly all of the Grayson officers and enlisted men were undergoing had changed Taz from his normally happy go lucky self to an easily irritated, mostly miserable individual. Any piece of happiness that Thad could give him was a godsend. Especially after their fleeting, yet certain, connection while Thad struggled to overcome his Manpower programming. Thad put off continuing his conditioning regimen until he could feel his muscles tightening up again. Then he finally got up and approached the gravity control again. "Sorry bud, but playtime's over. I need to work out and as fun as low g is, it isn't conducive to maintaining muscle mass." Taz sniffed disdainfully, then leapt to his usual perch on the pommel horse. Seeing that his cat was lying sprawled, ready for the gravity increase, Thad turned the dial up to a full 1.4 g's He nearly let out a grunt as is weight jumped from 60% of normal to 140% in less than a second. An irritated bleek emanated from his companion. "What's your problem, its only 0.05 g's more than you had to endure on Sphinx. I think that the standard single gravity of naval vessels has spoiled you Mr." A snort was his reply. Snickering, Thad continued. "You know, it wouldn't do you a bit of harm to work out under the heavy gravity as well. All those pheasants Master Chief Gibbons has been making for you will take come back and bite you in the belly. Then when you are too fat to move, I will be the one to pelt you mercilessly with tennis balls and Frisbees. Revenge is a dish best served cold, and I am perfectly willing to wait until you are round like a butterball before I extract it." Taz made a point of turning his back on his human, settling back down facing directly away from his good-natured tormentor. Laughing at the furry back, Thad said "Ok, ok, I get the message, no more teasing. Today anyway." Thad sent an evil grin towards Taz's back, then made his way towards the mat again. What followed was a far cry from the graceful, delicate quality that the low g moves embodied. These moves were all about speed and power. Activating a subroutine in his visual implant, a figure seemed to appear in front of Thad. It looked as real as any normal person, its face and body hidden behind a black ninja suit. Of course it was all just computerized simulations sent into his optic nerve that his brain interpreted as a human standing three feet in front of him. The computer figure bowed, and Thad followed suit. Then the fight was on. Combinations were a flurry of strikes and kicks, coming so fast after eachother that there little noticeable gap between attacks. Every time the image tried to hit him Thad made a move to block, stopping the phantoms assault cold. The training program stored in the mini computer in Thad's brain was adaptive. It knew when it was being to easy or to hard. It scaled the speed and ability of the artificial opponent to provide the best test and challenge to the user. Seeing that its current difficulty setting was insufficient, it raised the bar a few levels. Still Thad blocked everything the program could throw at him. Since a direct command was required to allow the AI to bend and/or break the laws of physics, it executed the only option left. First one, then two simulated opponents appeared behind the first one. Each was identical in appearance to the first. Thad now faced the equivalent of three masters of every known martial art. Clearing his mind of everything but the task at hand, He waited for the program to continue. The three bowed, Thad following suit, then two of the images began to circle behind him in opposite directions with the original remaining at the ready in front. Thad coiled into a low guard position allowing the AI to surround him. Then he exploded out of the crouch, catching the first opponent off guard. His roundhouse kick landed squarely on the target's temple. The computer removed him from the program. That was just one of the problems with the program. The bodies disappeared, indicating an attack had been ruled a kill. Another was that they offered no resistance to his attacks. His body moved through the simulated enemy, throwing him slightly off balance as he finished the attack. That momentary lapse was all the AI needed. The second enemy dove in a struck his lower right arm with a knife like hand. The AI ruled that a hit, so his arm became unresponsive below the elbow. Thad cursed the computer's ability to block neural signals to his various appendages for what seemed the billionth time. Spinning left, he brought up his still responsive arm to fend off the storm of follow up attacks. Then he lashed out with an assault of his own. But the AI had other plans. While he was concentrating on the second image, the third launched his attack. Thad caught it out of the corner of his eye and leapt back just in time. The image's foot passed mere millimeters in front of his vision. Thad's foot lashed into the empty air where the attacker was. He scored a hit that would have broken an actual person's leg nearly in half. The ghost crumpled as if its strings had been cut, much like a person would fall if they lost the support of the leg that had been holding them up. Thad drove his fist into the image's head as it fell. It disappeared as the AI judged it to be dead. Dropping into a crouch, Thad swept the legs out from under the other image. When it was down, Thad's hand flicked out to deliver a chop to its exposed larynx. The third and final AI disappeared from his vision. Shutting down the practice routine, Thad got up and reset the grav to normal before making his way toward the showers. It was fortunate that his schedule allowed him time for his workout late in the evening. The gym was usually vacant then, allowing him to play with the gravity without disturbing others. Thad had found out during his first cruise that not very many naval personnel liked working out at higher than one gee. "Come on bud." Thad called to his cat. Taz let out a contented sigh as the gravity returned to standard. "You are spoiled aren't you. Find yourself weighing three tenths less than you grew up under and you're in heaven eh?" Ten minutes later, Thad exited the gym in a fresh uniform with his cat in its now customary space. He had become so accustomed to his weight that now walking without him there seemed abnormal. As he walked, he changed his mind as to his destination. He changed course and made his way to Admiral Cole's quarters. The honor guard outside the Admiral's quarters braced to attention and saluted sharply as Thad approached. Returning the courtesy Thad asked, "Is the Admiral available? I would like to have a word with him if he is." "Of course sir. Just let me ask. The Admiral is catching up on some paperwork." "Thank you Petty Officer." Pressing the com stud the young marine said, "Admiral Cole, Captain Armstrong is here. Shall I let him in?" "Certainly Jenkins, he can come in. In fact I was just about to send for him." Nodding his thanks to PO Jenkins, Thad entered the grandly furnished room that was the office and living quarters of Admiral Cole. Once the Admiral had taken up residence, Thad had found out just how correct they young crewman had been when he said that the flag officers quarters were amazing. The Graysons seemed to have spared no expense in lavishing comfort on their flag personnel. "Have a seat Captain, I was just perusing the latest report about what might have happened to Admiral Harrington. From the sensor data that CruRon 18 got before they hypered out of the system, she should have been able to escape. She was virtually free and clear of all bogies on sensors. I think she must have been hit by someone lying doggo in her exit vector." "A commander as good as she is should have been able to escape unless something nasty was lying in wait along her path." Thad agreed. "In fact, Admiral Harington is the reason I decided to come here to speak with you." "Indeed� well spit it out then." "I would like to request that our deployment date be advanced, to tomorrow if possible." "And your reasoning behind this request Captain?" "It has been three days since we got word that she is overdue. The crew is going stir crazy just sitting here waiting for further word about Lady Harrington. Cmdr. Custer and I have been trying to keep them sharp with a judicious round of sims, but actually going out on maneuvers would be a LOT better. And since our actual date of departure is only four days away any how, I think that an early execution of our orders is the best thing." Thad wasn't sure how Admiral Cole was going to react. He hadn't been around him long enough to know for sure, but he had a good idea that his reaction was going to be positive. You never could tell though. Thad had served under a few Admirals in his years in the RMN. Some didn't mind getting suggestions from junior officers, others hated juniors 'questioning' their judgment and standing orders. "I agree with you 100% Captain. I said virtually the same thing to High Admiral Matthew's and Admiral Whitehaven just this morning. They gave me the go-ahead orders just ten minutes ago." Thad let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. He was relieved that his initial opinion of Bruce Cole had been correct. He had seemed like a decent sort, and especially so after he allowed Thad to remain in command after his past came up to bite him in the a$$. The Admiral continued, "TF 55 will ship out for Looking Glass station as of 0'600 tomorrow." [/QB][/QUOTE]
Instant Graemlins
Instant UBB Code™
What is UBB Code™?
Options
Disable Graemlins in this post.
*** Click here to review this topic. ***
© 1999-2024 Charles Capps
Powered by UBB.classic™ 6.7.3