Retribution Read Free Page B

replacements?”
    “Had replacements. Two, but these were consumed after we put out the first fire.”
    “So you mean we are on 50% life support till we get more replacements.”
    Gunter nodded.
    “Can we get these down below?” asked Dave referring to the planet Beta Phi around which they were now orbiting.
    Gunter shook his head and then added “Not this new tech stuff Sir.”
    “Fuck it” exclaimed Dave in frustration. “Alright flush the dud ones and I want monitoring 24/7 down here.”
    “Of course Sir” said Gunter. He paused obviously trying to formulate his words.
    “What else Gunter?”
    “We need to close down more of the ship Sir. Currently we have 25% closed down. The air is going to get very stale very quick. We need to close down another 25% pronto.”
    Dave knew he could only achieve this by closing down his main operational spaces on F and G deck. F deck housed his fighters and G deck housed the shuttles and vehicles. Cloaking was offline and their missiles all expended in the battle earlier today. In effect the Resolute would be unable to operate effectively. His ability to stay here and link up with the Ark Royal group was now rendered useless.
    “Alright, I’ll have to recall all fighters and shuttles and close down the rest of F and G deck and the front of H deck. How long have I got, to recover our forces from down below?”
    “If you recover the fighters now, we can keep the forward half of G deck open for say three hours.”
    “OK…Looks like we’re going home sooner than we thought.”

Chapter 4. Assam 1830, 25 May
    Commander Rihan Kabel swept her long auburn hair back from her eyes, where it had fallen while she dozed off in the chair at the Alliance Army HQ. The hail from her husband, Dave Warner, had startled her. She blinked her eye lids forcefully and gave a slight shake of her head as she re-acquainted herself with her surroundings.
    “Yes Dave what is it” she asked.
    Dave gave her the abridged version and ended with “So you need to round everyone up and have them all aboard by 2100.”
    “Oh terrific. There’s just no rest for the wicked is there?”
    “Afraid not honey. I’m sending the remaining shuttles back down to Niku. Use the one’s you have there now to load up from Assam. Expedite the extraction of the droids. The sooner we get them aboard the sooner we can close down the forward section of H deck.”
    “What about the wounded down here?”
    “We take them with us if they can be moved. I’ll ask Mary to send medical teams down to assist.” Dave made a mental note to himself to ask 1 st Lt Mary Chernside, his ships senior medical officer, to arrange for this. “I’ve just informed Kirkland. He’s not too happy about losing us. I have to arrange with Reinna to take over security of the Kunter. Got to go honey.”
    Rihan begrudgingly started to think of all the things that needed to happen to extradite everyone. She called LCmd Jim Bucknell, commander of the 30 th Independent Marine Company, and told him to round up everyone in Niku and that included the 1 st Droid Bn. The droids would use their own pods to move back to the Resolute but the 30 th Coy would need the light and heavy shuttles.
    “One of the shuttles will have a mobile med bay Jim” said Rihan. “Make sure you extract anyone who can move from the hospital.”
    “Does that include the Commodore?” asked Jim.
    “No, even if he can be moved he’ll want to stay here anyway. Oh and make sure you hand over responsibility for securing the spaceport to the local authorities.”
    “Understood Maam. Consider it done.”
    “Sue, this is Rihan.”
    “Yes Rihan.”
    “You still at the hospital?”
    “Yes but Art’s asleep now. What’s up?”
    “We have to mount up and leave right away; including all wounded who can be moved. Mary will be arriving soon with a med shuttle. Can you please ask the medical staff there if it is safe to move Art and Buster?”
    “Oh gee. Why the rush?” Rihan