Space Knights: The Arrival by Gregory Samuelson (buy e reader .TXT) 📕

continue this mission we will be destroyed before we get one ship down on the planet and even if we get a division of troops down on the planet they’ll have knights down there waiting for them and our men will be cut off and slaughtered. We must get out of this and head back home. Perhaps we’ll have another opportunity to go after the Althorians and try to get rid of anyone that aspires to be the Griffin General. I will speak for us. Now I have to notify Bruise. I will talk to you after we are on our way back.”

Courak and Coalar saluted Rattell and signed off. In the moment of silence that followed Rattell put his hand to his forehead and tried to think of what to say to Bruise and then what he should say to the Griffins. He removed his hand from his head and activated the console again as he signaled Bruise.

Bruise sat silent for several minutes as Rattell filled him in on the armada surrounding Caldar and about his discussion with Courak and Coalar. In the end Bruise had to agree with the three. “This is horrible. We were so close to getting our knights on the planet and possibly eliminating this threat to us and now we have to turn around and wait for another shot.” Angrily he paced out of the frame of Rattell’s kytherum’s screen. A moment later he reappeared and seemed to have calmed himself. “What are you going to tell the Griffins?”

“I will tell them that we are on our way to a rescue mission. They ought to buy that and let us go.”

“What if they don’t buy it? What do we do then?” responded Bruise.

“If it comes to that then we’ll engage them and battle for our lives and try to take out as many of them as we can.”

“Let it be so,” Bruise said angrily. He was still steaming even though he knew that there wasn’t anything he could do about this situation. In a way he almost wished that he’d had his way, that there was a whole fleet on this mission and that when they dropped to normal space speeds they could just engage the enemy and fulfill their mission. “Let me know what happens when you talk to them and when we are on our way back.”

“I will do that,” Rattell replied, “Let your men know that they have access to the practice rooms to work out their frustrations. You may use them as well.” Rattell saluted his friend and clicked off the communicator. He felt for his friend and he knew that Bruise was incredibly frustrated. There just wasn’t anything that they could do. With only three ships they didn’t stand a chance. Maybe someday he would command a fleet and he would be free to engage his enemies.

Bruise sat only for a moment as the communicator screen went dark and then in an instant rose and strode from his room. He brushed past several knights on his way to the nearest practice room. Upon entering the room he drew his sword and as men swept out of his way he drove his sword into and through a practice dummy.

While Bruise ranted and raved and slashed three more dummies, Rattell went back to the bridge, sat back in his command chair and waited for the navigator and pilot to drop the barrier drive. He was very practiced in controlling his emotions and temper. However, this was pushing him to the utter limits. There just wasn’t anything more he could do at the moment.

The ship slowed as the drive worked in reverse and brought the ship to its destination and at last took its familiar two minutes of shimmying and shaking as the drive cut out and the ships regular engines engaged. Rattell unconsciously clutched at the arms of his command chair as the ship raced and shimmied as the braking engines engaged to bring the ship to a stop. And there in front of him blockading and protecting the planet was a rather vast fleet of ships.

Rattell grunted and almost casually activated a large viewer to give him a better picture of the opposing ships. He was taken aback as he saw for himself how many ships were there and the variety of them. There were the great Griffin Galleons that resembled gigantic eagles. Of course there were the familiar Althorian battleships. There were some fighter carriers that had swarms of flying space horses and battle hawks. Off to the right of the Galleons were some Frigates and to the left were seven starships that looked like sleek sports cars with swept-back wings.

Surprisingly, none of the ships seemed to have their weapons activated; however, Rattell was positive that if he made a single aggressive maneuver that all of those ships would immediately activate their weapons. With that many ships against him, he was certain that his three ships would be destroyed in minutes.

Suddenly Rattell’s thoughts were interrupted as the communications officer turned to him and announced that they were being contacted by the lead Galleon. “Sire, the lead Griffin ship is trying to contact us. How should we respond?”

“I’ll take it here,” replied Rattell as he flicked a blinking switch on the right arm of his command chair. Immediately, a desk rose from the floor in front of him and out of this desk came up a kytherum, the communicator screen. As it turned on he was almost shocked to see a Griffin commander looking at him.

“Greetings, I am Admiral Thade. May I ask why you are here? Do you need assistance?” the Griffin asked very politely. Rattell had dealt with Griffins before and was no fool. While Thade sounded polite and concerned, he was still a battle commander and a very good strategist.

“I am Admiral Rattell, and my three ships and I are on a rescue mission,” Rattell said in a carefully practiced voice.

“Oh,” said Thade, trying very hard to