Chapter 5: Operation Desert Shrike Part 1

The interior of the Atra was much like how Commander Ramírez remembered it. The spaceship corridors and passageway were somewhat similar to the UHN warships but with an alien aesthetic that made practical sense for some. The familiar bioengineered green vines grew on the walls. Even the faintest of hints of gravity could be felt. All Itrean vessels produced a tiny fraction of gravity onboard. It was barely noticeable since the power required to generate on the deck plating was enormous. The leaves provided oxygen while helping out in lowering carbon dioxide. At the same time, the fruit also grew that provided valuable nourishment to the wayward crewmember. He walked beside Tara’Talar as the other Itreans saluted her. They weren’t far from the main bridge of the battleship.

“I really wasn’t expecting to be back on this ship again,” Ramírez commented.

The alien environment had a mild form of nostalgia for him, even if he also felt alienated at the same time. However, he didn’t let it bother him.

“I’m honored to have you back on my ship again,” Tara’Talar said with her profound professionalism. “Last time, you were a stranger. This time, you are a friend.”

“I admit that this was something that I hadn’t really considered when I was going to be made part of Operation Desert Shrike. I thought I might have been given some surprise present from the UHN. Should have known...”

They reached the door as a set of T’rintar Shal’rein soldiers saluted the two officers. The towering shark-like women were adorned with purple and green wrap armor that completely covered their bodies and faces. Their sharp metal-wrapped tails twitched the moment that they saw the incoming Adjunct. Their rifles were larger than the typical sidearms that the UHN used. For Ramírez, he partially felt like he was used to the complexities of an alien society.

“It is always an honor to serve one’s clan,” Tara’Talar said as they stepped into the bridge. “You should be happy to be a part of this.”

“Last time was a matter of life or death,” Ramírez replied. “I didn’t trust you or any of your kind ... no offense.”

They walked into the bridge to see the familiar environment of the room layout. Much as Ramírez remembered, the Atra was a typical battleship used by the T’rintar clan. The design consisted of a primary and secondary bridge that was almost similar to the UHN warships. It was buried in the bow section of the warship under heavy layers of armor plating. The interior was much like the rest of the ship. It was somewhat small while having the crew consoles arranged in a tree-like pattern. They all encircled the central location, which was a large console and alcove for the commander to lead. The strapped seated Itrean crews operated their respected consoles. The scaly fingers were connected into some sort of gel-like substance that seemed to submit commands to outward locations of the ship. A few of the women turned and saw the towering human enter along with their adjunct before they resumed their work.

“No offense is taken, Ramírez,” Tara’Talar confided him. “I didn’t fully trust your people as well.”

“I guess things really do change, after all,” Ramírez said.

“Your former Captain ... William. He was quite convincing in his arguments when I first spoke to him. Ambassador Ifra has a way of ... overemphasizing the truth on some topics. William was ‘straightforward,’ as you humans would word it.”

“William didn’t bullshit on some things ... he really didn’t...”

They walked up and entered the alcove. This central area was never that large but provided a little bit of privacy to the two leaders. The large console consisted of several viewscreens that provided an overall layout of activity going on inside and outside the ship. Tara’Talar placed her hand into the gel-like panel. The console began to light up a little bit as she started to transmit commands throughout the vessel. Her reptilian eyes momentarily closed as she began to concentrate.

“I’m happy that you had a chance to meet my mate,” Tara’Talar told him.

Ramírez folded up his arms. “I keep forgetting that you Itreans take your ... mates along with you everywhere you go.”

“Including our offspring. It surprises me that you humans don’t normally do that. At least you finally had the chance to meet her. You didn’t get that opportunity last time.”

“Yeah...” Ramírez paused as he thought about his wife for a moment. “I’ll be fair in saying that I do miss my wife.”

“Then we will pray that the campaign will be swift ... our victory as promised.”

Ramírez sighed as he looked at his left hand. He began to tap a few buttons near his bottom wrist. His hand omitted a three-dimensional image menu screen from it. He used his right hand to access his basic files and to establish a communication link with Admiral Rex. A series of additional status displays started to appear. However, even with the link, the connection was weak.

“Damn...,” he commented. “I’m having a hard time with the linkup for the fleet.”

“Your augmented hand?” Tara’Talar asked him. Her reptilian eyes opened as she looked up at him. “You received an upgrade from our doctor, yes?”

“Yeah ... what about it?”

“Your new upgrade. You can interface with our system for a better reception. Your link is having a hard time trying to penetrate our armor.”

“Ah ... what?”

“Your ... what is what the humans call? Artificial? Yes ... your artificial hand can interact with our system now.”

“That’s why they needed to poke and prod with it earlier. I thought it was just booster shots and stimulants they were giving me.” He paused as he looked at the console interface. “I can ... really do that?”

“Try it,” she told him calmly.

Ramírez was partly hesitant. The imager was still powered on as he looked at the console. There was a separate control panel, or perhaps it was an interface. He lowered his hand and pressed it into the gel. It was surprisingly cool but not frigid that the receptors on his fingers couldn’t pick up. The liquid was malleable and soft to the touch.

“Eh...,” he commented with some disgust. “It’s like sticking a hand into a pot of snot. It’s...,” he paused.

“Concentrate ... the information should come to you.”

The system was amazingly responsive since the augmented hand was now programmed to receive the information the Itrean computers could transmit. The gel started to become warm as green lights erupted near his hand in the form of bioluminescence. He was momentarily hit with a jumble of images that hit him, but his brain was processing the information. For a moment, his head was throbbing in pain similar to a mild migraine, but it quickly diminished.

“Ah...,” he remarked as his free hand was pressed to his forehead. He closed his eyes as the pain was entirely gone. When he opened up his eyes, he began to see something new. Unlike the UHN computers, the Itrean computer was designed to link in different ways. The outcome, however, was unique. As he looked, he was able to see status displays. The alcove almost seemed to be alive as the information was being processed. Before he knew it, he could see every piece of data that was appearing in both English and Itrean.

“Can you see it?” Tara’Talar asked.

“Yeah ... it’s so different. I can interact with it?”

“No ... that is just information being sent to you.” She extended her hand and waved it around near his vicinity. The scaly fingers overlapped with the images showing that they were intangible. Nothing else was different except how he perceived the area.

“Ok...,” Ramírez remarked. “How do I submit information?”

“Think of what you want. Concentrate, and the computer will do it.”

“Ok ... similar to our interfaces ... understood.” He began to think of what he wanted. His eyes could look at the entire scene of what the cameras could see. No ... the Itrean vessels didn’t have cameras per se. They were optical organic eyes. They were tiny and lined parts of the hull. As he concentrated, he could see where he wanted to see in the vacuum of space. Displays near his left eye showed what these ‘eyes’ were looking at.

In some instances, the interface was far more elaborate. Ramírez could see the enormous fleet of warships that had gathered near Mars. As his eye looked at each ship, the name and registry would appear. A brief series of notes on the class was also displayed on the bottom. As soon as his mind asked, it received. The T’rintar fleet was in two wall formations. Their green colorization would be more prominent, but the lack of light made it hard to decipher. However, the size and display of outside lights helped. The computer highlighted the most important ships in the fleet formation in bright green. One of the dreadnoughts, an Alamaiz Mark 2 Class Defense Dreadnought named the Ki’Ki’Maryen, was seen.

“How does this thing know English?” he asked.

“Our text information translation programs are improving,” she explained. “However, expect the data to not fully display correctly at times. Your brain is also having to decipher it as well.”

“Got it,” he said as he almost shook his head. “I think I’m getting the hang of this. It’s ... interesting.”

He continued to survey the arena of gathered vessels. There were so many warships. There were four hundred in all. As he scanned further away from the rear of the T’rintar fleet, he could see the UHN ships, but it was a fraction when compared to the number of alien ships.

“I ... I know what I’m looking at,” he noted. “29 Alamaiz Mark 2 Dreadnoughts... 40 Mark 1s... 20 Mondra Dreadnoughts... 300 Italq Battleships... 9 replenishment vessels ... my brain.” He took a deep breath as he could finally make sense of everything. His vision was steady, and his mind was becoming clear.

“Our children go through a similar event when they use the systems for the first time, too,” she explained. “I’m surprised that you are understanding it so quickly, though.”

Within a few more seconds, the human officer comprehended everything. He could attune himself to what he wanted to learn and observe. The technology was impressive. It wasn’t too powerful or better than the UHN interfaces, but it did have unique qualities. He could almost feel something that echoed in the ship for brief moments. It was as if he could feel the heartbeat of the Atra. Was this what the Itreans felt when connected to their consoles? He simply didn’t know and kept it in mind. The Itreans were so mysterious, even if most of their information was public knowledge by now. Even if they were slightly on par with the UHN by technology, their resources were utterly incredible.

“We never stood a chance,” Ramírez remarked to Tara’Talar. “150 warships ... that was all we had before we met you. One good offense and Mars would have buckled under the Aksren or Shal’rein fleets. Cebravis ... not even Batrice could stop it. It was good that you considered us allies ... for we would have been surely dead.”

“Your ships are still adequate for combat,” she replied back. “Your crews and leaders can still make a difference. Captain William, at least proved that point with a warship as old as our Ikra Battleships.”

“I agree, but there isn’t enough of him. You simply have sheer numbers that dwarfed our puny settlements.” He continued to survey and reorient himself. He found the UHN marine assault force fleet. There were 16 Phalanx Class Assault Carriers in all, including their respected MMACCs that they ferried. One older Fu Yi Class Military Transport named the UHN Rio De Janeiro was among the formation. This didn’t include the fact that there were dozens of smaller Mark 12 and Mark 13 assault shuttles. They were little more than gunships to help provide cover and support the landing invasion.

“Godspeed, marines,” Ramírez commented. “Marine Taskforce Shrike is ready and is preparing to detach their habitation modules.”

He continued to look at another UHN task force that was at a far distance from marine ships. He found the UHN Ark Royal and the sphere formation of battleships that encircled around in a defensive pattern. It was labeled Taskforce Bravo with additional Itrean numbers to indicate squadron locale.

“Found her, opening and establishing communications with Admiral Rex,” Ramírez stated.

“I have a proper link with Fleet Adjunct Yuio’Larin,” Tara’Talar stated. “I can pass the link with her to your console if you wish.”

“No, that’s alright. It will be too much clutter on my end to keep track of everybody. I will stay with my Fleet CO for now.”

Tara’Talar said nothing while Ramírez could see the console viewscreen pop up with Fleet Admiral Rex’s face. He seemed preoccupied and waited for him to answer back. There was a lot of information that was still being processed. Finally, Rex turned his eyes to look at Ramírez.

“Status, Commander Ramírez?” Rex asked him.

“Stable, sir,” he answered back. “Although, adjusting to Itrean tech is going to take a little bit. T’rintar clan fleet is in position for the jump to Cipra. I can see that all UHN ships are ready to make the jump as well.”

“Correct, the UHN Array is reporting issues with its primary comm system, but their status is green.”

“I’d recommend keeping any ships back and have them join up later if need be.”

“Negative,” he boastfully stated. “And have them miss out in the thrashing? No. Their secondary array is still functioning perfectly.”

“Sir,” a male crewmember that couldn’t be seen from the screen stated. It was coming from his ship. “We have final confirmation from Chairwoman Lee. She says ‘Commence Swoop and Slash.’ ... followed with ‘Echo in the wind.’”

Ramírez could at least give some praise for the current elected leadership for the UWA. She was following her code words to the letter. She was way more attuned to the needs of the military than the previous leadership would have ever tried. The code words for “Launch the attack” and “Godspeed to all.”

“Roger,” the Admiral commented. “Mark the time... 1100. All ships commence gate opening sequence. Task Force Shrike, commence gate opening sequence at 1145.”

“Fleet Adjunct Yuio’Larin, acknowledges final confirmation,” Tara’Talar stated. “Commencing gate probe creation.”

With that came probably the most annoying process of the entire campaign. Despite the abilities of gate folding travel, it still took time to establish it. Every ship in the fleet began to start launching a series of gate probes ahead of their respected bows. Gate jumping still required that a wormhole be made. Doing this too early would only invite the enemy to launch countermeasures as the final confirmation was being made. It simply meant that every ship had to wait. The shuttles that were already out in space quickly began to head toward the marine taskforce ships to hitch a ride. This was mostly due to the fact that the shuttles didn’t carry gate probes.

“Ugh ... now to fucking wait,” Ramírez quietly said to himself. Tara’Talar, however, still heard it.

“Commander Ramírez,” the admiral stated. “I’ll be on the line, but I’ll have you on mute till I can confer with the other ships. If you need me at the moment, just wave your hand.”

“Understood, sir. Not much to do but wait.”

With that, Ramírez stood quietly as the channel was put on mute. Tara’Talar was in an almost similar situation as well. She turned her head to look at him.

“I would encourage you to sit and get strapped in,” she told him. She tapped a couple of buttons near the console as a small one-seat stool lifted from the ground. She kept her hand on the console as she rested her butt and tail on the furniture. A set of seating straps connected her to the seat. Even in almost zero gravity, the fact remained that the ship would eventually engage in heavy evasive maneuvers. He followed suit as a similar stool lifted up and pressed near his butt. It was not exactly the most comfortable of seats, but it did its job. There was a backrest, but most of it was clunky to prevent the spine and neck from taking too much stress in high-speed turns. The chair, however, was slightly small for his much larger frame.

“More preparation this time, huh?” he asked.

She was thinking back to almost a year ago. “I always had this. I just didn’t need it as much as we will now.”

He could feel strapped in. “Well ... no argument from me then. Shame that you don’t have a human-sized one.”

Ramírez had the time to wait. The collaborative gate leap process was tricky to perform but also interesting to look at. He could see it all from his displays. Every ship was in the process of deploying gate probes. The UHN probes were cylindrical devices that would deploy and begin to fly out not far from the bow section of the vessel. Each one that flew out was starting to form a circular ring pattern. However, such a process was slow and often required everything to be correctly synced. Otherwise, the probe emitters wouldn’t have been able to fold space. The Itrean ‘gate probes’ had a similar function. However, theirs’ were more of large thin blocks. As they flew out, they would fly into position and begin to extend a circular lattice to connect to the other probes.

“I’m sorry that I don’t have one of your size,” Tara’Talar commented.

“No, I meant that more out of sarcasm,” he confided her. “I wasn’t trying to insult you.”

“I see...” She turned and looked at him thoroughly, her gaze almost unending.

He continued to observe the outside environment of warships. While almost all of them were launching their probes, three T’rintar vessels didn’t have to. He focused his attention on these rather unique ships. They were as long as one of the T’rintar dreadnoughts. It followed a similar blocky cylindrical profile but had a single large spinning centripetal ring near the rear. Most of the vessel’s bow was allocated to carrying a large forward mounted railgun. Ahead of the barrel was a large, cumbersome structure. It was shaped like a ring that could easily consume the warship.

“What are those?” Ramírez. “Oh ... are those the siege dreadnoughts?”

She altered her viewport so she could see it. “Yes, those are the Hyhy Siege Dreadnoughts.”

Ramírez already had some notion of what these ships were. They were a unique vessel in the T’rintar clan inventory. The entire frame was built around its powerful railgun but also carried a prefabricated gate array in front of the cannon. The ship was capable of folding space and then fire its shell through to the exit aperture on the other side. Essentially, it was capable of shooting from one solar system to another. It could even jettison the array, activate it, and fly through it to save itself from destruction in emergency situations. Even now, the three vessels were using their arrays to fold space towards Cipra.

“Hmmm,” Ramírez commented. “Are you sure those things are going to perform their jobs adequately?”

“It was a part of the plan for them to begin shelling Cipra.”

“Yes, but how accurate are they?”

“If they have the exact coordinates and accurate data, their shots will decimate ground targets and bases.”

“Yeah, but I already reviewed your plans. You are relying on six-month-old spy reports. It’s possible that the Aksren clan may have moved them or built new ones.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Tara’Talar said as she gave a slight wave of her hand. “The goal is to attract the Aksren defenses to approach our fleet. The dreadnoughts will further encourage that to happen. From there, it will create the opening for your marines to land on Cipra.”

Ramírez had a chance to hurriedly review the entire campaign strategy earlier, but even with an hour to do so, he felt that there were ... issues with the concept.

“I don’t know about this,” he said as he shook his head. “I just feel that the Aksren are waiting for us to spring our little trap. They have to know that this is coming.”

“You feel that your people haven’t done a good enough job in keeping things secret?”

“Everyone,” he firmly gestured. “Your people, my people ... things like this can’t be kept hidden enough that the enemy won’t eventually learn. At the same time, we are relying on old intel.”

“The Aksren clan are weakest at this time,” Tara’Talar argued back. “They didn’t anticipate our alliance when they took your world. They didn’t anticipate that you would ever return to reclaim it. Even if they know we are coming. Their control will end soon.”

“True, but I have been studying enough of them. The T’rintar are going to be fighting an uphill battle. You’ve been so used to fighting on a defensive setup. The Aksren clan might be weak on Cipra, but they will have plenty of resources and ways to surprise us.”

“My clan will be victorious against them. The Aksren may have more resources, but they,” she paused as she tried to find the word. “Squander their resources. Their people fight with less experience ... their knowledge is more limited in combat.”

“Says the one that came from them. Look ... I’ve learned to be the type of person who thinks twice on everything. Damn ... I just wish we had more.”

“I don’t understand.”

“We need more ... more of everything,” Ramírez said as he looked down for a short bit. “Your people aren’t ready to share your assault ships. We have eighteen of those phalanx carriers, and we got sixteen all ready to go. If we lose those ships, we lose our capability to launch a return trip to Cipra or any other planet that might be taken in the future. Building them aren’t in the high priority list for the UHN. Plus, we have shoveled over a huge amount of our marines ... good fighting men and women. We can’t afford to lose them on some haphazard mission like this.”

“Your people seem like they are more than ready to carry out on this, though. Perhaps you are too worried that this will fail?”

He sighed. “Not you too.”

“What?”

“The whole ‘Ramírez is too paranoid or worried’ shit. I get enough of that back at home as it is.”

“I heard some of what you told Admiral Rex. I know that you try to talk quieter to each other, but Itrean hearing is a little bit better than you think. I didn’t mean to ... um ... I don’t have the word ... overhear? Yes ... but I know that you hampered the meeting process between our ambassadors almost a year ago.”

“It wasn’t my best course of action if that is what you mean.”

Tara’Talar tilted her head slightly. “You could have been right. Among my people, disease has taken as many lives as guns and bombs. It has shaped our destiny. We have only learned to make our bodies more resilient to them because of the countless years we used diseases against each other. It might have been possible that you humans might have had a deadly disease that our bodies simply couldn’t have fought off. If you believed that you were right or wrong, I could tell you that in the end, there was no perfect answer for you. In the end, we are allies, and you now have a chance to see every ... angle of the argument.”

Ramírez seemed to think about it for a short amount of time. Everything made sense, and she wasn’t the type to misjudge others so easily. She was fair and balanced in how she viewed things. She also made a valid point in her argument.

“I ... thank you,” Ramírez said. “You women ended up unleashing a whole disease that wiped out the male population of every clan species that exists. It’s ... terrifying. Perhaps all of you are right. I fear that the Aksren will simply nuke Cipra if we win, but on the other hand, maybe they won’t. They wouldn’t have to do it at all when they can drop a bio bomb over our marines.”

“It’s why we developed a vaccine, including anything else that the clan species can use against you.”

He shook his head. “Such a ... dishonorable way to fight ... yet it works so well.”

“It was our way to take worlds without having to destroy them. The Yutilians of the T’rintar clan were quite efficient with it, using it to devastate the Alara’jal and the Palierans. Even Zilik’s Disease came from a Yutilian. It is our greatest ability and our curse to have such powerful weapons.”

Ramírez tilted his head to the side. “You sound like you prefer the life of peace.”

“I admit ... that I didn’t have much trust in Ambassador Ifra when she talked about it, but as I had a chance to see your people more and more, I started to see what she wanted. I’ve been used to living this life for ten years...” she paused as she thought about it. A few clicks appeared in her voice. “War, death, destruction, stalemate ... it never ends. Then you humans come. You fight, but you see more. You choose to ... set aside your ... bad feelings with others. Now you take us up as mates and offer the cure to our mistakes. Your people are worth saving. More and more of the T’rintar are seeing it that way as word spreads. They are willing to even fight for you if it means fighting the Shal’rein and Aksren clan. Yes, I would prefer a life where I would be ... away from this.”

“I’m sorry what had happened to the Ambassadors, though. To lose their child from the events at Fort Batrice ... tragic.”

“You have been in communication up with them?”

He shook his head. “I heard word of it ... haven’t been checking up with them, although I did send a condolence letter to them.”

She looked at her console. “Ambassador Ifra is pregnant again. They are trying again in wanting a child. They believe in hope.”

Ramírez nodded his head. “Let’s hope that things will go well for them. Let’s hope everything goes alright...”

She made a quick nod. “I wouldn’t be the one to say to have hope, but ... it is a desirable goal.”

Ramírez began to look at the feed as he could see the Hyhy dreadnoughts had created a wormhole in their frontal gate arrays. The swirling mass of blue and purple particles had become more and more stable. Tara’Talar had been watching it as well. The vortexes were small but getting larger. Eventually, lightning emitted from them as the folded space apertures had fully formed. Suddenly, each of the dreadnoughts showed a massive power surge. Two of the large power modules in the rear shimmered a little bit as the frontal cannons emitted a bright temporary glow. The railguns would fire, emitting a blue and purple particle effect that flung from the barrels. A large hypervelocity round was expelled that almost instantly flew straight into the wormhole. Its exit point would be exactly where it was targeting, practically over fifty light-years away at the planet of Cipra.

“Incredible...,” he remarked. “A pinnacle of engineering achievement. If only we had such weapons.”

“They are expensive,” she said.

He continued to scan the surrounding spectrum. The rest of the fleet was about halfway through their gate probe array construction. The Itreans were much quicker in getting theirs established, but this had to be a coordinated strike. The UHN warships were working as efficiently as possible. It wasn’t a race, but the operation was a go. There was no turning back on this as the T’rintar siege dreadnoughts had commenced with their bombardment.

“Another fifteen minutes before we make the jump to Cipra,” Tara’Talar stated.

“Understood,” he replied back. He looked over to the Ark Royal. “God be with you, Rex ... I’ve lost enough as it was.”

“You respect him?”

“He’s a fool. He endorsed me to become an officer in the past. Believed that I had more than what it takes to become an officer. The fact was that he was right, but it doesn’t mean that I saw his mistakes ... which he made often. I know what he’s thinking right now. He truly believes that he can win this upcoming fight.”

“Why do you consider him a friend yet have such a lack of confidence with him?” she asked him.

“He should have been Fleet Admiral by now, but he made a few mistakes during his career. He would get a little too political at times and voice his opinion when he shouldn’t. Chairman Aniruddha was a moron and deserved to resign during the whole Minerva crisis, but Rex went up and publicly endorsed him and his political ideas. I’ve been guilty of this myself, but you should keep your ideals to yourself. It’s unbecoming of an officer. Because of his actions, he alienated some of the other admiralship and politicians, especially Chairwoman Lee’s own group. He’s been having to make up for his actions ever since.”

“I see...,”

He sighed. “Don’t get me wrong. Rex just has a way of jumping into things without thinking things thoroughly. I don’t care that he has had all this time to come up with every plan in the book, but the fact remains that he truly believes that this battle will be in his favor. Is he correct? Is he doing this to impress the people around him? Is he willing to vest the lives of all of those around him? No offense to you, T’rintar, but us humans still have our political shit ... sometimes, it risks the lives of others in turn. He sees you as a way to achieve his own future.”

“Sometimes you worry too much...”

“What?” he gave an agitated look at the reptilian woman. It was said in a mocking gesture but in a way that she tried to be professional at the same time. When he looked at her long enough, he could see her smiling for a short bit while she remained attuned to her console.