Star Wolves - The Tribes of Yggdrasil: Book 1

Chapter 21

As the Gungnir sped toward Earth, the sensors officer spoke up, "High Commander, Captain," she said with a squeak, "we have ships launching from Earth! Friendlies!"

"What?" Willms asked.

"Friendlies, sir! I'm receiving valid IFF signals from them. Five ships in total sir. There's a frigate called the Halifax, launching from Eastern Canada, the cruiser Diana launching from the UK, the battleship Sam Houston from the Southern USA, the destroyer Kee Lung from Northern China, and the cruiser Sergey Kirov from Siberia!"

"What is going on? Nobody but the SID is supposed to have built warships." Artman was confused.

"M'am, sir, they're engaging the enemy," combatives said.

Artman was smiling. "Well, good for them! I'm not sure it will be enough, but damn their hides, I'm glad they disobeyed the treaty."

The Sam Houston was a 90,000 tonne battleship, bristling with weapons in true American style. He (couldn't call Sam Houston a she), reminded Artman of an old Western movie where the hired gunslinger comes to town and kills the bad guys.

Artman flinched as reports of the destruction of Tokyo, Chicago, Toronto, Geneva and Singapore came in. They would go down fighting, she thought. "Valhalla or bust," she murmured.

"Ma'am?" Willms asked.

"Sorry, just thinking out loud, Steffen."

The Gungnir was now in weapons range and skimmed through the atmosphere, firing her various beam weapons at any Hrymar vessel she could target.

Three more SID destroyers were out of commission, but not destroyed: The Brisbane, the Frankfurt, and the Cannes, followed shortly by the Alfar battleship Bedwen.

"They've lost about half their fleet m'am, but we've lost eighty percent of ours, and all planetary missile defenses are exhausted."

"To the last, Steffen," she said sternly.

"Absolutely m'am."

"Captain," the sensors officer said, "several of the Hrymar ships are lifting off the planet's surface and leaving the atmosphere."

"Hold your fire!" Artman yelled. "There is a high probability they have human captives on board. Combatives, tag every ship that has landed and has taken off again. Comms, let all remaining fleet ships know these are not to be fired on."

"What do we do with them?" Willms asked.

"I don't know yet, Steffen, but I don't want to kill our own people. We'll have to figure something out. For now, focus on trying to prevent anymore from landing."

"Aye, m'am."

Perth's senior engineer, O-3 Mac Thompson said, "Captain, we can't have the reaction drive back online in time to stop re-entry. We're floating down now, and shields are off-line."

Captain Molly Coogan nodded. She couldn't ask any of the other ships for help; they were busy saving people on the surface. "Understood, O-3. Crew, this is the Captain. Evacuate the ship, I repeat, evacuate the ship."

An orange evacuation light now flashed in every room and corridor throughout the Perth.

Molly let the crew evacuate, but stayed on the bridge. She wasn't trying to be noble and go down with the ship, but if there was any final opportunity to fire on a Hrymar vessel, or do anything to assist another ship, then she'd stay to the end. There were few working systems, and she had only five minutes before the Perth was a glowing cinder in the atmosphere.