[Starhawk]

2430.2 Heroes:
Admiral Flynn forced herself to remain calm and appear confident and relaxed as her SD division along with the rest of the main line of battle closed in on the ominous Ulda Frav IV, she as most of the other flag officers in the fleet were concerned over the fact that the atmosphere of this world was so thick and stormy that it was hard to tell what was on the surface, and the thought of leading her SD division into an unknown situation ate at her nerves like acid.
“Ma’am, if you keep worrying like that you’ll give yourself an ulcer.” A cheerful teasing voice said from behind the flag officer, a thin smile crossed Flynn’s face as she turned around to face her Flag captain, Rukia Fujita was part of the first generation born on the colony of Sparta and looked every inch the Spartan girl, she was well muscled yet still enviously built, medium height for the empire and her face bore what had become a traditional tattoo, the teardrop just below her left eye was something everyone in her generation had been branded with upon birth, it symbolized that those who had died in the process of colonizing Sparta and defending the empire in her name would never be forgotten, Fujita also had that rugged Spartan attitude that was unsurprising for a world where just about everything on the surface was trying to kill you, Flynn often wondered if there was anything that would make Fujita nervous beyond men, and forced herself to hide a grin at the thought: Rukia Fujita was only 25 Icaran years old and had been part of the navy since she was 15, in just ten years she had proven herself countless times, and risen through the ranks with astounding speed and competence, her current command was received after a promotion from Sailing master for her heroic actions during the “Valhalla Incident” where the Blackbird had almost been overrun by mutated creatures of some sort, she faced all the dangers of the universe with a grim self assurance that would earn her a place among the best flag officer’s in the navy some day, yet for all that she still blushed and got flustered whenever men paid her good looks and nice figure any attention.
“Well if I do get an ulcer Rukia, I’ll just get Sanders to fix it for me, then I can go right back to worrying.” Flynn smiled at her flag officer for a moment before returning her view to the Flag bridge’s main plot. Technically Rukia should have been on the main bridge but for a reason even Flynn wasn’t sure of she had a gut feeling that made her reassign the captain to the flag deck instead, leaving Commander Orland in command of the main bridge.
“Admiral, we are closing on target, weapons range in 5 minutes.” Tactical officer Han’ cleared his throat in an attempt to hide his own nerves, but Flynn knew him to well and nodded with a reassuring smile.

“Admiral, sir we are closing on target, weapons range for main line of battle, 3 minutes and counting, Admiral Flynn reports that left flank is ready, all other commands report green across the board.” The communications officer reported from the main bridge’s com section.
“Thank you, order main line to accelerate and close the range at 50 gravities.” Babcock’s grim expression hid the fact that his stomach was a ball of raw nerve, he hated the situation, going in on a world who’s defenses were a total unknown, it wasn’t a good situation at all and the memory of the loss of Lord Nelson still haunted him.

“Flag, orders main line to accelerate to five-zero gravities, weapons range on enemy world in one minute at that speed.” Commander Orland relayed the order from the main bridge, as Flynn and Fujita watched the main plot, The only reason Babcock would order the fleet to accelerate is if he was afraid that if they went in at their current 1/3rd speed they’d be under fire for too long, that means he’s worried. Flynn thought to herself as she watched the distances close.
It was only thirty seconds later that it happened, a single light flare was seen on the main plot, before the massive volley of beams lashed out at the Tyrant herself, it had all happened s fast Flynn barely managed to bark out an order to brace before her body was turned into so much bloody wreckage as the flag bridge was shattered by a beam spray. A peace of shrapnel cut Fujita’s left arm clean off, but her scream of agony was cut short as another piece of wreckage slammed into her chest, crushing her ribcage and sending one of her ribs through her left lung, as the flag bridge depressurized Rukia Fujita heard the gurgling screams and brief shouts of agony from other officers who were killed in horrible ways as wreckage flew about the flag bridge like darts, even in her agony Rukia caught a glimpse of Lieutenant cutler being cut in half by a massive splinter as he ran for the bridge doors, the same splinter that killed him hurtled into Spacer 1st class Darwin slicing his throat open with horrible ease.
After what seemed an eternity Rukia felt her body go weightless and noticed that she was being pulled clear of the wreckage, another sharp pain cut through her like fire however as another shard of wreckage severed her right leg at the knee, then darkness took her.

“Dear God!” Someone on the flag deck swore angrily as the brilliant blue flash on Tyrant broke her apart like a toy, a second brilliant flash followed hurling wreckage and bodies away from the once mighty super dreadnought. Cairo too was hit, her shields were brought down in short order and half her armament was turned to wreckage and shrapnel.
“Silence!” someone else barked out, though they had just witnessed a horrible action in real time and at close enough range that they actually saw the ship die instead of just a simple light code winking out on a display, they were still Icaran spacers and discipline must be retained no matter what.
“Report now tactical!” Babcock’s mind raced back to the real world as he recognized the voice that had barked the order, Captain Michael Susevni’s firm baritone cut through the speaker’s in the flag bridge like a cold wind, and for the brief moment he had to think Babcock remembered how grateful he was for having an officer like Susevni on his ship.
“Sir, HMS Rodger Young is almost in position to drop troops, the 14th SD Division is moving to cover her, main line of battle is in weapons range in thirty seconds.” Babcock, heard the other stations replying, as the situation began to organize it’s self, but he still couldn’t shake a sinking feeling that something was still very wrong.
“Firing line achieved, all commands report firing solutions on enemy platforms.”
“Order all commands to open fire!” Babcock barked the order with more feeling then he had intended but that hardly mattered as his screen came to life, two SD Divisions of the 1st fleet’s main line of battle for this operation all opened fire simultaneously, unfortunately the planetary defenses got off another single volley and HMS Cairo vanished in a ball of flame and wreckage which started almost immediately burning up in the atmosphere of the enemy world, HMS Despoiler took several direct hits but her shields managed to hold somehow, barely saving her from the same fate of Cairo.
“Rodger Young is in drop position Admiral!” Captain Susevni’s voice strained over the com line.
“Drop troops, all ships cease fire!” Babcock’s mind raced as his ship’s scopes zoomed in on the troop transport containing the 1st Icara regiment, just as his weapons ceased fire the troop ship accelerated to 150 gravities and hurled loose over 360 drop ships as she raced clear of the planet’s atmosphere to prevent being destroyed like the two far stronger SD’s that had gone before her.

As planetary weapons fire was shifted from the fleet to the dropships, 4 vanished in small balls of flame and wreckage before they were even able to enter the atmosphere, the rest made it to the surface at 12 gee’s and unleashed the wrathful soldiers of the 1st Icaran in a single cohesive wave of destruction, unfortunately 40 more soldiers died as they dome city fell to the army, bringing the total army casualties up to 80 for this operation, but finally the remaining weapons platform fell silent and the warships in orbit were safe, Babcock immediately dispatched SAR teams though he honestly held out no hope of finding any survivors from the disastrous destruction of Cairo and Tyrant.

Ten minutes later however, while Babcock paced the main bridge the com lines buzzed to life as one of the SAR cutters returned to communications range. Babcock’s head whirled around as he all but ran to the com station to listen to the report.
“This is SAR one five, to base we have a survivor in stasis get med teams ready to meet us upon docking, I repeat we have a survivor, but we need medical teams right away.”
“Get medical teams to boat bay one, now, and tell Doctor Harris to prep sickbay for surgery.” Susevni said with a grim smile as he watched the cutter approach, one survivor, out of 12,200 crew, it was pathetic but at least it was something.
“What ship do you suppose the survivor is from Captain?” Babcock’s right eyebrow rose as he saw Susevni’s face turn into a mask of pain.
“Sir, it’s got to be from Tyrant it may sound horrible but if anyone survived Cairo they burned up in the atmosphere with the rest of the wreckage.” Michael looked down at the deck and frowned.

Sickbay:
Admiral Tyson Babcock walked through the doors to sickbay and flinched when he saw the wrecked body of Captain Rukia Fujita laying in a life support bed in the corner of the sickbay, a long black “box” where her left arm, and right leg had once been the bone molder nano-bots reconstructing the skeletal structure that had once been there, Babcock felt a momentary spark of happiness that the boxes were blacked out, he had seen videos of bone molders at work and the following flesh growth process and it always made him sick, he had distinct memories of vomiting on one Sharon Carlson back in the academy and how embarrassed he had been, especially since she happened to be one of the most attractive girls back in the academy.
His thoughts came to an abrupt end when he got close enough to see the real wreckage of Captain Fujita’s body, her chest was flat from the injuries she had sustained, and her face bore the scars of several pieces of glass that had apparently cut through her helmet.
Doctor Harris walked over to him, her face a mix of emotions, she braced to attention politely, more out of courtesy then any real necessity to do so since all medical staff were otherwise outside the chain of command.
“Admiral, I’m surprised to see you down here, are you alright?” Her soothing tone made him relax slightly but he still felt the sickening ache in his stomach at the thought of Rukia’s shattered body, and the 12,280 other lives lost just two hours ago.
“How is she Doc?” he kept his voice steady and calm though the grief he tried to hide showed through to the doctor and she placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.
“Well Admiral, her left lung was torn open, and her right was filled with stomach acid, we had to use two synthesized lungs to replace them, her stomach was literally knocked lose, which is how the acid got in her lungs, her ribcage was shattered, her heart was nicked by a piece of metal, her right arm was broken clean in half and her skull was fractured in two places, to be honest I’m surprised she made it as long as she did.” She paused as the Admiral flinched in response to hearing the list of serious injuries
“Will she make it doc?” he choked up again, remembering the losses that were so well embodied in the wrecked body of a young girl that was half his age.
“She’ll make it, but it’ll take time, her limbs must be re-grown from scratch, we had to replace her heart, lungs, kidneys and 4 of her ribs, the anti-rejection medicine will keep her body from rejecting the synth organs, but it will also keep her on her back for a few weeks, to be honest my biggest fear right now is for her mind, I’d like to have a psych tech take a look at her as soon as she is able to get out of sickbay.” Harris took her hand off Babcock’s shoulder and walked over to the bed that held Rukia, she pressed a button on the woman’s bed and Rukia’s eyes opened softly as she tried to look around.
“Your safe Rukia, I won’t keep you awake for long, but I think Admiral Babcock would like to talk to you, if you need anything you press this call button okay.” Carla Harris said sweetly as she turned back to Babcock.
“You can talk to her for five minutes Sir, after that I’m going to put her back under so she can get some rest.”
“Alright doctor, thank you.” Babcock forced a parody of a smile at the doctor and stepped closer to Rukia.
“Hi there Captain, how are you doing?” he felt stupid almost immediately upon asking the question, afterall how could she be feeling, her body was torn all to hell and she was the only survivor of a crew of 6,100 people
“I’m okay, sir.” Rukia whispered after a moment, and tried to raise her right arm in a salute, but Babcock gently took her hand in his own and smiled back at her.
“Don’t worry about that Rukia, you’ve earned a little rest I’d think.”
“Sir….my ship…how is?” her body was wracked with a coughing fit, Harris stepped forward to get a closer view of the monitoring equipment but stepped back and nodded at Babcock.
“Rukia, I’m sorry but Tyrant and Cairo were both destroyed, you’re the only survivor out of the two of them, and from what the doc says your damned lucky.” Tyson smiled thinly at her and patted her hand softly.
“Oh, God….it’s….it’s my fault.” Her voice was choked and her breathing became noisy as her body tried to let her cry, but failed.
“Don’t you dare think that Rukia, you listen to me, I ordered the fleet in, I ordered Flynn’s division to the left flank, not you, and don’t you think for one moment it’s your fault that you lived, God only knows how you survived, and it was obvious he didn’t think it was your time yet.” his tone was sterner then he intended so he quickly put his right hand on the young woman’s bandaged forehead.
“Rukia you are a lucky young woman, and your parents will be glad to hear your alive so please don’t feel guilty, as a matter of fact when you recovered I was intending to give you command of Rochester since her Captain has been promoted to Brevet Commodore.”
“Thank….thank you…sir…I.” she struggled to recover her voice but Babcock simply rubbed her forehead gently, and put up his other hand to stop her from speaking.
“It’s okay Rukia, you rest now…..I’ll talk to you again later.” His tone was so gentle that it surprised even him, Babcock had seen war wounded before, had seen men and women turned into twisted wreckage by flying debris and the weapons of war but for some reason he couldn’t put his finger on Rukia Fujita felt to him like he was looking down at his daughter and he couldn’t help but feel sorrow for her.
Harris tabbed a control on the life support bed and Rukia’s eyes slowly closed as her body relaxed back into a dreamless sleep.
“Let me know when she wakes up Doc, I have a lot of letters to sign to the families of those less fortunate then her.” Babcock patted the young woman’s hand once more then turned around and walked back out of the sickbay doors.