Center Worlds - Spark
Becoming Commander

TGX-2 Flight Wing -9 BA

It was a boarding run that awarded Lieutenant Gya command of her own TGX. The crews had been diving deep into Michelab space beginning to finally press home victory as Clan Michelab began to lose territory on an almost daily basis. Fighter wings had begun making deep runs on capital ships, even landing in the hostile ships to then make raids and capture them from within as the TGX-2 stood off, ready to barrage fire if the ship made any hostile actions.

One one raid, as they closed on their target, fighters scattered from a mainframe pulse that was at extreme range. Sensors painted the target and identified it as the TGX-4, from Clan Faniruf.

“She’s burning badly, look at the damage, her entire left side is torn open,” Gya reported as they swept along the hull of the stricken ship.

“We didn’t do that, nor did our TGX.” Sergeant Wakin said as they spun around to check for weapon points or active hotspots that needed to be disabled.

An explosion made the ships scatter again and they saw what looked like weapons fire inside the ship as bodies were flung into deep vacuum.

“I think they’re fighting each other.” Sergeant Haybo said as the fighters spun around the aft end of the ship, where the eight drive ports were, all feathered and none lit.

“Then we’re going to the bridge,” Gya said and adjusted her controls to line up with one of the four docking bays on the gigantic but badly damaged ship.

“Lieutenant, this is a TGX. We got thousands of crew on board, we can’t just walk in there.” Wakin said, astonished, but followed her lead and also adjusted for a landing.

“Just you watch us, Sergeant. This is Wing leader Desinlo. We are landing on board TGX-4 to take command. The next message will be from the bridge.”

“What in Helva’s name is she doing?” Ryo said as he heard the signal from the comm.

“All six fighters have gone inside the TGX-4 bay, Sir. They are out of comm range now.” Tactical reported as the ship shuddered from a mainframe blast fired by the stricken but still dangerous battlecruiser they were approaching.

“They are going to get themselves killed,” Kalen said as he watched the displays. “All guns, target power relays on the TGX-4 – knock out mains power to guns, precision aim only. If you can’t hit the target, do not fire.”

“That ship is already burning, one stray shot from us...” Ryo said, watching as gun crews began to fire singly at specific targets on the stricken ship to assist the small team that had now landed on board.

“We won’t miss, Commander. I just hope that young lady of yours knows what she’s doing.” Kalen replied as the ship rocked from another mainframe blast that glanced off the armour.

Gya pulled off her flight helmet as the ship came to a halt and indicated pressure was outside. She was up and on the deck as the other members of the flight team also hopped out of their birds, then the six of them dashed across the bay and into the cross corridor leading towards the heart of the ship.

Weapons drawn, they ran towards the main grav chute as the ship was rocked by an explosion from the aft quarter. “Bloody Helva, that might have been a fuel blow. This ship is not going to survive, Desinlo!” Haybo said as they reached the primary conduit, to replace it sealed with zero pressure reading on the other side.

“Spiral corridors, let's go, we need deck 25 and we’ll secure this tub,” Wakins said as they turned and ran down one of the two spiral corridors that weaved around the central shaft to provide alternate access to every deck on the gigantic ship.

“Hostiles up ah-” Sergeant Magna shouted then was felled by a shot through her head and chest as the security team ahead opened up against the invaders.

Gya and Wakins felled the soldiers and then moved onwards, reaching deck 25 without further incident.

As they prepared to storm the bridge, they heard what sounded like an argument, then a single shot, and a thump as a body hit the desk, Gya walked onto the bridge weapon drawn, to be presented with a bloody scene.

Most of the senior officers were dead, and some of the junior officers also, but a few remained standing, and one of them held the still-smoking weapon that they had heard the discharge from. He looked at Gya as she walked in, then dropped the gun and raised his hands.

“On behalf of the crew of the TGX-4, we surrender to Clan Camelin.” He said, then knelt, as did the other officers who were still alive.

Gya looked at Wakins. “This was almost too easy.” She said, then walked over and they disarmed all of the survivors on the bridge, kicking weapons clear and making sure there was no chance of a problem.

The ship shuddered as a low rumbling explosion rolled along it, and the lights flickered.

“Lieutenant, we have to stabilize this ship or it’s going to tear itself apart!” Haybo said.

Gya looked at the officers. “I want all of you to assist us to save this ship. This is not about loyalty, or fealty to a clan, this is about saving your skins. If you don’t want to help, get out that door and don’t poke your head back in here, I’ll blow it off.”

Within minutes the fragmented officers and the fighter pilots were at the ship’s consoles bringing up what they could of the broken systems.

“If I’m reading this right, TGX-2 is twenty thousand kims away and closing. No weapons fire detected. We are still firing though!”

“Shut down our guns, no power to any weapons at all. Play dead so they don’t cut us any more open than we already are.” Gya ordered and the two crew at the reactors shut down and diverted power away from gun control.

“Do we have any power to thrusters or maneuvering at all?” She asked, watching the static-filled readouts.

“Engines are cold, they’ve been cold for hours according to this. Did you people mutiny?” Came the question from navigation.

“Yes, we refused to follow the Clan leaders when they told us we were going to strike a liner and resort. We never wanted this fight, and we were conscripted into it. We began to fight back, and most of the damage you see is from us fighting the senior officers. Almost all the enlisted crew here were involved in the mutiny.” One of the officers explained.

“We’ll sort that out later. Shut down all fuel flow, and begin to close all airtight doors. We have to isolate everything and begin to stop the fires before they hit main trunk lines.” Gya said.

“I’m not getting anything from central. Is the primary computer online?” Wakins said.

One of the officers shook his head and indicated a blackened door. The central door was open leading to the computer core and it looked like an explosion had occurred inside.

“The Captain threw a grenade in there when the Computer advised him that the action he was planning would result in the loss of almost half the crew. That triggered us to rise.” Another officer reported.

“What in the worlds happened here?” Haybo mused as they fought to stabilize the ship using the crippled automatics.

“Without central control, a lot of the automatics will close, but we won’t be able to open them except manually. This ship’s over a kim and a half long, and half again as wide. That’s a lot of space to cover. We’re going to have a lot of dead crew if we can’t replace a way to get this coordinated.” Gya said into the air.

A sound made her turn and she saw a work gang standing at the open door to the bridge, tools held in a slightly menacing but not quite threatening manner.

“You the Commander?” One of them said.

“I’m the new Commander, Clan Camelin. We’re taking command.” Gya replied.

The entire crew relaxed. “Thank the Gods, at least somebody with half a brain is on board now. I’ve got two hundred crew ready to get this boat stabilized, Commander. You tell us what to do and we’ll get it done. We are ready to follow your lead.” The Deck Chief said.

Gya saw through the corner of her eye as Wakins put his gun back in the holster, then turned to the officer on comm. “Put me shipwide, we need to get this settled now.”

“Attention crew of TGX-4. My name is Desinlo, I am from Clan Camelin. We have assumed command of this vessel and are working to maintain stability and repair the ship. Secure your stations, and secure your areas. Move to safe zones and assist in repairs. We will rescue you if you are trapped, help us by helping yourselves. Bridge out.”

She turned to the deck crew bosses who were now gathered just inside the bridge.

“We need engines back online, and we need to stop all venting before we end up losing the air plants. Reactor control is good, but we have cold drives, which means no fuel, and possibly no fusion activity. Start in the core and work back and forward, in two teams, check every compartment you replace. Every able crewman should be ready to assist, otherwise, they made their choice, and you deal with it as you see fit.”

The bosses nodded and the crews scattered to begin slowly searching and securing the ship. The officers and pilots left on the bridge made quick work of clearing the bodies, then checking and fixing what damage could be done to make the controls function better.

“Half the command consoles are offline, waveguides have been severed due to the firefight in here. Watch it!” Sergeant Wakins said as he pushed another officer out of the way just as the console erupted a shower of sparks and flame.

“We’re going to need to rewire the primary waveguides to bypass the damage. Does anybody know where the spare cable is?” Gya asked as she doffed her flight jacket.

“Lieutenant, we don’t have time for that sort of maintenance!” came the response.

“You just watch me, if you’re going to do something right, do it properly, or not at all.” She said, pulling a length of cable from a storage cabinet and with the help of two of the deck crew that were helping with repairs, spliced and rerouted power to the damaged consoles faster than anybody they had seen before.

The consoles powered up and diagnostics rang true, then they began to pull real data from the massively damaged ship.

“How did you do that so quickly, Ma’am?” One of the deckhands said as Gya wiped her dirty hands with a cloth before rolling her sleeves back down.

“Six cycles of working inside the TGX-2. Waveguides and cabling in the core were all they would let me do because it was the most protected part of the ship. This...” She indicated the cabling, “I know better than most.”

She went from console to console, running a diagnostic on each one and making fast field repairs with the help of the deckhands who stood back and just handed her the tools as they were used to repairs at a slow but steady speed. Gya was almost running as she made basic but key repairs to the bridge console, bringing the command heart of the ship back up to a basic functional level.

“Disconnect all waveguides to the system core, bypass it, and run it through auxiliary sensor control. It’s not the core, but the consoles won’t know the difference in the basic signals,” she ordered the two deckhands, then slid under one of the consoles and pulled out a mass of cabling which she threw out the door and quickly weaved a replacement length of silver fabric into place, bringing the final console linkage up and the bridge came to life again.

Gya stood up, her collar now damp with sweat as the air system was not running properly and it was getting warm on the bridge, but the consoles were all online, status was coming in, and they had basic control over the massive ship again.

“Ma’am – TGX-2 is signaling, they want a hard dock.” Came the message from Comms. Gya walked over and told them to acknowledge and then prepared to greet her Father as he walked on board the stricken battlecruiser.

After the TGX-2 had hard-docked to the stricken but stabilized TGX-4, Commander Camelin came on board, surrounded by a security detail and was met by some of the pilots from his wing. They walked him to the bridge, where he looked at the devastation all around and then looked at Gya, who was standing there waiting.

“Commander Desinlo, Commander Camelin is on deck.” One of the officers said.

“Commander?” Ryo said, amused.

Gya shrugged. “They put me in charge, I guess when you command a ship, you get to be Commander.”

“I agree, that you do, Commander Desinlo.” Ryo said, then took another look around the smashed bridge. “Status of the ship?”

“The crew mutinied against the Clan Faniruf officers. Well, the Michelab officers, had replaced the Faniruf senior officers weeks ago. This was all caused by the mutiny. We came in time to stop the ship destructing, and the crew was pleased to have somebody on board who wanted to look out for their interests, Sir. I think you have another TGX under the flag.” Gya reported.

“Correction, Commander. You have a new command.” Ryo said as she noted he was still standing in a position of attention.

“Sir?” Gya said, very confused.

“I do not have the time to command two battlecruisers. This ship is going to need major repairs, best done at Tara, where the major facilities are that are friendly to our flag. It needs a leader, and you have already proven yourself with this crew. I can and am issuing a field promotion, Commander Gya Desinlo. Take this ship and bring it home to Tara, then refit it for active duty.” Ryo said, then saluted her.

Gya looked around and the other officers and her flight team were also saluting her.

“But ... what about a crew? I’m going to need officers.” she finally said.

“I need Captain Kalen on board my ship, you can have Cato, and just about any other officer you may require, most of them can afford to get some independent command experience as well,” Ryo said.

Gya nodded, having now already put on the mantle of leadership for this broken ship, she would do her duty, and she would do it well.