Starship Vengeance

Chapter 22

I was sitting in my office, drowning myself in reports. The door was locked to keep out unwanted visitors. No matter how hard I tried not to, I found myself pulling the damage and casualty reports again. Every battleship had sustained moderate to heavy damage. Four were dead with a dozen other seriously injured. The only reason they were still among the living was the medical advances we had gained as a result of our alliance with the Tuleeriri.

Along with the battleships, several cruisers were damaged with some minor injuries to their crew. I cringed as I saw the reports on the fighters. Almost all were damaged in some degree with four being completely destroyed. Of the four, we had only managed to rescue a single pilot. Finally, there was the Unity. Our shields were offline. The second capacitor bay went offline shortly after our fight with the Zrynt. We had three large perforations in the hull with light to moderate damage to the rest. I sighed and pace. I knew this next part by heart. Casualties: three technicians, four marines, one mechanic and two engineers were dead. The medical bays were inundated with those suffering moderate to severe injuries.

Truth was, as bad as I thought we had it, the Xroex were in a much more severe position. Three quarters of their ships were gone. Without knowing how many personnel were on each ship, it made it hard to accurately say how many had laid down their lives in defense of their home. I estimated the number of dead was over ten thousand.

At the end of the day, nobody was excited about the outcome of the battle. Sure we had won, but that victory came at a steep price. The Tuleeriri arrived shortly after the battle had ended, with the ancient ship on board. At least we wouldn't have any surprise visits from the Zrynt for the next several days.

I walked back to my desk and closed out the reports. The next screen that came up was our current location. The Xroex still weren't communicating much with us, but the little they did say indicated they wanted us far away from Brixxepsua. In order to maintain what little good will we had going, we were on the far side of their star, in a lower orbit than I was comfortable with, but our repair crews needed all the energy they could get. A notification arrived indicating the Stargazer was finally able to dock. The other seven battleships were either too damaged, or their docking locations were too compromised to allow them to fully dock. We had been able to shuttle the injured to the Unity for treatment luckily. It was going to take round the clock work for a full week before we could even begin to be fully functional.

I found myself pacing again. The needless loss of life weighed heavily on my shoulders. It was an oppressive blanket that threatened to drag me down into oblivion. Worst of all, I was reminded that no matter how many technological advantages we had, the Zrynt could beat us by their overwhelming numbers.

I was ripped from my musings when Sarah barged into my office. "You know, when somebody locks a door that generally indicates that they do not want to be disturbed," I said, not even bothering to hide the annoyance in my voice.

"I can leave you to you moping if you'd like, but I have some great news," she said, purposefully ignoring my attitude. "Judging by your troubled mind, I would say you could use some good news."

I sighed, realizing she wouldn't go away. "You're absolutely right about the good news. What do you have for me?"

"I have finished analyzing the data from the Tesslani."

"Tesslani?" I asked.

"It is the name of the ancient vessel," she answered, looking slightly annoyed at being interrupted. "As I was saying, I have finished analyzing the data. It told the same story of the demise of the Adeosmorix and the rise of the Zrynt. However, there was an additional entry that caught my attention. It foretold of a ship that would come from the stars and unite all people in defeating the Zrynt."