章 12: Cost of Victory
"Evasive manuevers!" I shouted. Ensign Dave started a sharp turn and I found myself flying to the right side wall of the bridge.
"Too late!" Lieutenant Karl said.
A far away but loud explosion was heard. The bridge shook, tossing around everything which weren't stabilised. The lights flickered. Some of the computers automatically rebooted.
Lots of new siren sounds filled the background. The damage control console was full of blinking lights.
"Damage report!" I shouted.
Ensign Katyusha quickly recovered from the shock.
"Missile hit! Armor spalling and hull breach near aft propellant tank segments. Engines TAC-3 and 4 destroyed. We are leaking methane and oxygen. At least 2 dead, many more injured."
"Mr. Dave, get us out of here!" I ordered.
"Unable to comply, sir. Engine pipings are damaged. We will end up causing more explosions." Dave said.
"Commander Mei, disable the chemical-"
"Already working on it. MPD thrusters should activate in a minute." Mei already knew her duty before I could even say anything. And that is exactly why she was still sitting in the cruise-nav duty station. Tachibana had made a good decision.
"Sir, enemy drones approaching!" Sungho said.
"Start the flak screen again. Shoot the surviving drones down with railguns!" I said. Lodos started launching flak missiles again, creating a deadly cloud of fragments between our ship and the drones.
"Sir, a few Homeland Defense ships have separated from the main fleet and is coming to intercept the enemy carrier." Lieutenant Karl said.
"Commander Mei, fly us through-"
Before I could finish the sentence, a loud sound was heard close by to the bridge.
"Damage report!" I ordered instead.
"Sir, reactor number 3 is inoperational. Power output is getting lower." Katyusha said.
"Commander, we can not allocate enough power to get a decent push from the MPD thrusters." Mei said.
"Get the chief engineer on the line!" I said to Aziz. He quickly reached Lieutenant Commander Scott.
"Scott here, sir!"
"Chief, can you start up reactor 3 again? We need more power!" I said.
"Uhh... sir, the reactor's radiation shielding was blown up. We can start the radiator, but not without killing tens of engineers on the spot and giving cancer to the rest of the crew." Scott explained the situation.
Unless this was our last resort, starting the reactor again was out of question. It was a dilemma...
We could stop shooting and allocate more power to our thrusters, trying to run away; or we could keep shooting and hope that our allies were fast enough to drive the enemy carrier away. With an old semi-functional warship, we had already done more than what was expected from us.
I eventually decided to keep shooting. Our MPD thrusters could not match the thrust of the chemical rockets of the enemy.
"Commander Mei, do not draw any power to engines." I said.
"Aye, sir." she said and gave up whatever she was trying to do.
"Sir, allied drones!" Lieutenant Karl said. Drones from the Homeland Defense fleet had arrived to relieve our battle load. The Martian Fleet Carrier Horus, Missile Cruiser Kybele, Missile Cruiser Osiris and Beamship Vindicator were about to arrive.
"Sir, the enemy carrier is recalling drones and is preparing to run." Lieutenant Karl said.
Soon afterwards, the carrier was out of our effective range, and the drones were long gone. The task force separated from Homeland Defense fleet was trying to catch up with the carrier.
"ALCON 3." I said. Sirens and flashing lights stopped. Lodos fully extended it's radiators again.
I felt a great relief, like the rest of the crew. Despite the odds, not only we had survived our first battle, but it was also a decisive strategic victory. If something had happened to Pavonis orbital shipyards, we could lose our logistic support.
"Detailed damage and casuality report." I said to Ensign Katyusha.
"One minute..." she said. "There are damage reports from countless decks."
I walked over to the damage control station to see the reports myself. The aft sections of the ship was completely covered with red lights. The enemy missile had completely destroyed a few large sections... If Ensign Dave had not made a sharp turn just before the impact, it would probably destroy Lodos.
"Sir, we have a total of 14 dead and 53 injured. Medics can not reach some of the damaged parts of the ship. Casualities may increase." Katyusha said.
"Commander Mei, activate MPD thrusters and rendezvous with Pavonis shipyards." I said.
"Copy that." she replied.
"Ensign Aziz, send Ms. Katyusha's detailed damage and casuality report to Pavonis orbital and the headquarters." I said.
"Understood." Aziz said.
Lodos' MPD thrusters activated again, and we were now travelling back to the starting point of our journey: Pavonis orbital shipyards.
I got out of the bridge and headed to the medical bay. When I got close, I began hearing screams of people, and doctors shouting at each other across the deck...
I entered the medical bay to see the situation myself. At the enterance, nurses were trying to calm the injured people down. Some of them only had small slits or bruises, but some were not that lucky. An engineer had lost it's right leg, and another one had a thin metal beam going through his chest.
Just a bit farther ahead, I saw that all the surgery rooms were occupied. I couldn't find the chief doctor, and in order not to interrupt the medical operations, I got back out of the medical deck.
"Lieutenant Commander Kagan, you are expected on the bridge." Aziz made an announcement.
I quickly got back to the bridge.
"What is it, Mr. Aziz?" I asked.
"Grand Admiral is on the line, sir." he said. I got an headset and started speaking.
"This is Lieutenant Commander Kagan of LC/M Lodos, sir." I said.
"This is Grand Admiral Rashid of the Martian Navy. Lieutenant Commander, please come to the Navy headquarters as soon as possible." he ordered.
"Sir, Rear Admiral Tachibana is still-"
"I know. As soon as Lodos docks with Pavonis orbital, take a shuttle and fly back here. We will talk more later." he said and closed the communication channel.
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