Chapter 49: Surprise Attack

In the medical bay of the GNS Crest Ridge lay 20 men getting treated. The soldiers were the only survivors onboard the GNS Athena.

Admiral Briggins walked to the medical bay, followed by his second in command and spoke to the doctor first.

"How are they?" The Admiral asked the head doctor, a short woman in her 40s with brown hair tied in a ponytail turned towards him.

"Most of them will be able to be discharged by tomorrow, minor burns on a few and one soldier with a broken leg. They are lucky to be alive Admiral." The doctor spoke, reporting on the health statuses of the soldiers.

"Can I speak with them now?" The admiral asked, wanting the doctor's opinion.

"Of course Admiral. They are healthy enough to hold conversations." The doctor answered, leading the admiral towards the injured soldiers.

"A-Admiral." A young man in his late 20s stood up before saluting him.

"It's alright soldier, sit. I need to ask you a few questions."

Admiral Briggins calmly spoke before gesturing the young soldier to rest, noticing his bandaged leg.

"Thank you, sir." The soldier spoke before sitting down.

"Now, tell me everything that happened."

The admiral spoke as the soldier started to recount his experience.

1 Day Prior

"This is the GNS Athena, all GSN vessels, we are on a reconnaissance mission, Command has informed us that Astrillith vessels are in nearby systems, which is why we are to do a sweep of the planetary systems present."

The captain of the GNS Athena ordered the 7 other vessels around him.

"All Corvette Class vessels, move ahead and scout the area. Rig all ships for silent running while the frigates will provide screening for the GNS Athena as we make our way to this system's star, over and out."

The captain finished speaking as he sat in his chair.

"Are the teams ready?"

"Yes captain, teams 1 through 5 are ready, team 6 is on standby." A woman with short hair spoke to the captain.

"What the hell is so special about this rock?" The captain, A. Collins was displayed on his name tag.

"We don't know sir, the orders came from up top and that the SRB would handle this. All we have to do is keep them covered while they complete their objectives."

The captain was visibly annoyed but let it go.

An hour later most of the ships had made it to a large moon surrounded by small debris which orbited an ice giant.

"Sir, the Corvette group reports no radar nor visual sightings, we seem to be in the clear." The woman spoke.

"Good, tell the teams to start deploying." Captain Collins spoke and soon five of the six teams were on transport vessels heading for the surface.

"Any issues?"

"No captain, sensors are normal, they will reach the intended target in 2 minutes."

"This is Team 1, we're about 5 clicks out of the target, no suspicious signs so far." A man's voice spoke over the radio.

"This is Team 3, we're about the same ove-wait, what is that, I'm picking something on the scanners...EVADE, EVADE..." The line between the GNS Athena and team 3 was severed as the last sound heard was of an explosion.

"WHAT THE HELL, tell the other teams to watch their sides, the Mundo and Blake are to push forward towards the surface." The captain shouted as the crew quickly got to work.

'RED ALERT, RED ALERT, ALL PERSONNEL ARE TO MOVE TO THEIR DESIGNATED POSITIONS, THIS IS NOT A DRILL, I REPEAT THIS IS NOT A DRILL.' Red lights flashed across the GNS Athena as alarms sounded onboard, indicating the crew to prepare for combat.

"What's going on?" A few soldiers of Team Six asked their squad leader as they were awaiting further orders.

"I don't know, for the moment sit tight, until orders come through, we're not Navy men so stay out of their way." The Squad Leader calmly spoke as he sat.

"Sir, we have lost contact with teams 1 to 4, team 5 has been ordered to retreat and Mundo and Blake are covering them."

"Have we identified what attacked the transports?" The captain asked.

"Sir there seem to be ground defences hidden underground, for some reason, our scans are unable to pick them up. They seem to have activated when the transports got too close to the location." The female officer spoke.

"Fuck me, Command is going to chew me out for this. Inform HQ we are returning, we don't know what else is out there." The captain informed the officer.

"Captain!" Another officer spoke and got the Captain's attention.

"What is it Officer Rygielski?"

"Sir, we can't connect to the HQ, our Comms are down." The officer spoke.

"Have you checked with the others?" Collins asked, his wariness increased.

"Sir we can't communicate with the other ships." The officer's words made the Captain nervous.

"Damn it, use morse to relay this message to the others, increase their speed to maximum, while covering the Athena, we are leaving as fast as we can. It's a goddamn trap and we'll be sitting ducks if we stay here any longer." The Captain ordered.

Just then a beam of light came into view of the command deck.

The next second an explosion was felt to the right of the GNS Athena.

"Sir, the Frigate Rodez just exploded!" An officer spoke as another opened up the cameras showing the visuals of the ship.

A debris pile of wreckage was present as almost nothing was left.

"What happened?" The captain asked as he was caught by surprise.

"Sir, the ship is gone, it seems something hit the ammo and fuel storage bays simultaneously."

"Damn it, tell all ships to get ou-" Another beam of light was seen as suddenly two more explosions rocked the ship.

"SIR, The Allan and Richter have been destroyed." The officer shouted again.

"RETREAT EVERYONE RETRE-" The captain's words were cut off as a large explosion occurred on the bridge, disabling the ship.

"And like that sir, all we heard were explosions, the ships didn't get a chance to fire back. All we saw were beams of light hitting the ship and an explosion would occur straight after."

The soldier finished recounting his experience.

"I was told to let you SRB boys do your own thing, no questions asked, but now I've lost an entire task group, and by your account, without an enemy spotted nor fired at. Tell me squad leader Nicholas, what the hell was the SRB looking for over there?"

Jake was currently at the New Canberra Park. He wanted to clear his mind after yesterday's events so he had taken Iris with him, knowing she would have caused a greater fuss if he left without her.

Jake sat on a bench eating ice cream with Iris as they looked at the water fountains and scenery currently present.

Although it was not Earth, it did a good job of helping Jake reminisce, the large trees and indigenous animals on Serenitia Prime closely resembled some of Earth's so they did not stand out too much.

"Having fun Iris?" Jake spoke to his sister as she happily ate her ice cream.

Iris turned to him, quickly nodding as she had ice cream on her nose.

Jake laughed before wiping her face and patting her head.

Iris was getting bigger, she had lost all of her baby fat and getting taller by the day.

'How much of her life would I miss if I just focused on the mission instead?' Jake asked the Atlas.

(Enough for you to regret it. But you're still young, why worry now?) The Atlas spoke seemingly waiting for how he would respond.

'Because I don't think I can do this without them. What kind of family member will I be if I'm absent for half their lives? I'll do what needs to be done Atlas, but not alone.' Jake spoke to the Atlas resolutely.

(I am in your head, of course, I know all your thoughts and emotions, it's why I've structured our plan this way, I just wanted to hear it for myself.)

'Hah, very narcissistic of you.' Jake smirked at the Atlas' words.

"Jake, when can I join you and Aria on the ship?" Iris asked after she had finished her ice cream.

"Soon enough, but before that, I'm going to take one more trip, it might be a month or two longer, but after that, we are going to move." Jake spoke to Iris, telling her of his plans.

"Really?" She quickly asked excited by the fact that they would be moving.

"Yes, somewhere closer, maybe the third chain." Jake spoke, Iris was young but Jake made sure to teach her well, the younger, the easier it was to grasp information quicker.

"Are we going to go back home too?" Iris spoke with a fleam in her eyes. Jake knew what she meant by home.

"That's the plan but not so soon, it will take some time, but I promise we will return home." Jake smiled at the excited Iris. He had already spoken to Aria and Lyra about some of his plans and planned to inform Elizabeth and Grace when they returned.

"It's almost time for lunch, let's go Iris." Jake called his sister, who insisted on a piggyback ride.

"Oh Iris, never change."