A soldier's story

As I walked onto the bridge, there she sat, her eyes as blue as a midsummers day, her lushes golden hair long and wavy as if there were a breeze but I should have known better there was no breeze on a Admirals bridge.
“Commander you got that?”
“Yes, Ma’am”. I really should not have daydreamed while she talked but I could not help my self.“Good then you will be briefed on your mission in detail later.” Yes, I was off the hook. “You will be escorted off my bridge”
But I knew she had known somehow what I was thinking.

As I walked into the elevator, I could not help to wish one day I got to have a cruiser but I was stuck with my corvette, Guard Dawn Under Heaven. The guard stood 6 foot tall and the 6 mm pistol in his holster and his big broad arms should have been intimidating but I had lost all interest in him. The heavy cruiser Guard Iroquois was flag ship of the Guard fleet even though there were bigger and better classes, this ship had seen all the combat from the great war. My thoughts had returned to the captain of the ship. I could not help but admire her, she was the fleets best tactician the navy had seen.
“Your stop” The guard said in a deep tone of voice.
“I know” I replied in an annoyed tone. I don’t know why i was annoyed, i just was.

As i walked into the hanger the troop transport shuttle had just landed and the bay doors were closing, silly really as we were sitting in the docking yard. I got on to the shuttle and the bay doors opened, another silly precaution I thought. The shuttle flew out and i got a view of the mighty Guard Iroquois. Then the shuttle doors closed and the pilot accelerated to full speed.

Five minutes later the sound of the shuttle engines slowing down could be heard through the armoured plating. I stood up out of the seat and yes the shuttle’s doors opened. We flew into the hanger of the Guard Dawn Under Heaven. I hoped that I would be briefed by John the AI that had just been installed in my ship. The hanger doors closed and i stepped out onto the hanger floor. As I walked up the steps to the elevator, the sound of the engines firing up ready to launch, and I knew I was home.

The operation that I had been assigned was a simple routine check of the outer colony Star view 8. There were fragments of a radio call coming through, the guide thought it could be the rebels which had tried to take out 5 of the outer colonies. I was sent as the rapid response. I was aloud to use the jump gate which I had never used before but now I had reached the bridge, my bridge. 

The AI I had been given was very helpful which meant I had to very little calculations and shouting. But that was before we exited warp speed. There was 2 unknown ships the size of a frigate and a smaller ship that reminded me of a whale with a massive bow and a middle section that was very thin and a aft section almost as big as the bow but not that big, the smaller ship turned to face us. 
“John, scan that ship and get shields and weapons online!” I barked at the AI.
“Yes sir.” John’s voice was calm and almost like a river that flowed smoothly.
“Have the scans come back yet?”
“No sir we can get a reading yet, their shields are far more advanced than anything we have ever seen before and their ship’s do not match any in the records.” John replied .

“I was afraid of that” I was not scared of the smaller ship until there was a glow of green on the under belly of the ship. "Fire all missiles and aim for the green glowey thing” I ordered but I was that might not be enough and it was silly that we had not resupplied our missiles when we were at Earth. Then I remember the reason I was the admirals favourite even though she did not show it. The reason I had been pulled of duty from operation crisis, my ship was being modified to take out destroyers the rebels had captured. While I was thinking all this the missile’s had struck the enemy ship and there was a explosion of white light and then when it faded there was a silvery bubble that protected their ship, their advanced shield.

“John fire the photon torpedo at the lager ship that is now looking at us.” I barked alarmed. The missiles could have taken out a cruiser but they did not scratch the surface of this new ship. The second large ship turned to face us as the photon torpedo hit the first large ship splitting it in two. “Yes” I shouted as the crew cheered on the bridge. “John aim the torpedo at the other large ship.” John’s voice was worried which annoyed me as we would clearly win this battle. He replied “Yes sir, but the smaller ship has launched its weapon which is measuring a charge that could incinerate us.”

I was worried now and regretful that I was annoyed at John. “Wait till the last possible moment and launch thrusters on the starboard side. After you do that launch photon torpedo’s at the larger ship.” I shouted above the roar of the sirens. I was glad that I had also been given a squadron of fighters. I turned to the navigation officer, “you set a course to sling shot around the planet after John does his thing”. His voice was deep and his hair longer than regulation said it should be. “Yes sir.”

John reappeared on his terminal, “Sir they have launched fighters, you might want to hold on to- never mind” The thrusters had kicked in but a second too late and the shields were down and we had lost the front left lower decks and the observation platform was missing all together but the only torpedo tube was still operational.
“John fire photon torpedo” I shouted above the sirens, I turned back to the navigation officer and asked, “is the reactor still giving us max power?”
He replied nervously, “Yes” and then he fell out of his chair and then I saw the head injury, the long cut along his head. I told John, “transfer navigation to my screen!” 

John replied, “Photon torpedo impacted on their ship with no damage what so ever, yes sir”
I looked at the view screen and saw the burning hull of my ship and beyond that the wreckage of their first large ship and beyond that the second large ship still intact. The small ship had been crippled by the first ship’s starboard side plating hitting it in the aft section. “Two down one to go” I muttered to my self. John being an AI heard me and said “Sir there is no escape for us as the RH are inbound to the sector with a corvette.”

I knew the RH had been our enemy's for a long time but there was no excuse for the fact they were in this system. Then the large unknown ship was glowing green again. I input the sling shot calculations for the planet Omicry 3’s gravity well where we could trap the RH corvette and destroy the lesser target. “John reload remaining aft nuclear mine and deploy it with a detonation command on my screen, if the green glowy ship follows us.”
Good John the first super smart AI that humans had created. His voice was calm again “Yes sir, would you like to arm the missile pod 2 with armour piercing bombs?”
“John you read my mind” I was impressed the AI knew I was going to ask him to do that. Our fighter group launched and quickly took down their fighters with precision they aimed for the weapon's of the enemy ship.

The next few minutes every one was strapped down and the fighter group was distracting the ships weapons until they all got hit by the newly shown defence lasers on the hull. The ship began to follow us. 
“ John deploy the nuclear mine and scan for any incoming objects.”
John voice was harder to read this time maybe he was stretched to thin, “Will do sir.”

With the nuclear mine in place and a reading of the unknown ship and its position on my screen I told John to focus on shooting the RH corvette down. The unknown ship passed inches over the nuclear mine and when the middle section was directly above it the mine exploded engulfing the entire ship in a white light and then disappearing along with the middle section of the ship, I watched the remains crash into the planet and hoped no survivor's if any were under it. Then I turned to face the forward view screen, I have given navigations back to the second navigation officer and watched as the RH corvette came into view, John said “Firing missiles.Sir detecting 10,056 survivors on Star View 8.” I looked at the fire erupt in the RH corvette with satisfaction, I leaned back in my chair and told John to message command requesting for a outpost ship and a cruiser and a jump gate be sent to Star View 8, then I told the new navigation officer to set down in the remarkably undamaged ship yard in the outskirt's of the capital Ukarma.

I am Solider and that was my first battle and the is MY story.