Tiger Poking by Timothy Ellis

Author:Timothy Ellis [Ellis, Timothy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-03-16T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty Six

I finally sat in my chair.

“Q-Ships?” I asked, looking towards Jodie’s hollo.

A butler put a drink in my hand, and I started sipping it.

“All taken,” she said. “But the dragons did a lot of damage to most of them. The station battle is ongoing, as are several large battles happening down on the planet. The second lot of Excaliburs are currently running air cover, and making a difference.”

Second lot? I looked back at Jane, who was nodding.

“The Excaliburs took out the fighters,” she added, “but we lost nine which are in pieces on the ground, and the rest are basically junk sitting in storage bays now. Trying to fight the tiger birds was a bad move with them. We should have just jumped in behind them and given them the full nine torpedo shot. Next time, we will. We shifted to new birds, and went back to support the troops.”

“The admiral in command at the jump point wants a word,” said Growly.

“We have a civilian on the planet wanting to talk to you as well,” said Charlie.

“Admiral first.”

“I’ve sent home our damaged ships,” Growly told me. “They went directly to the shipyard. The picket cruisers and destroyers are back where we need them now as well. Do I form the rest of us up and jump us where the locals can see us?”

“Do they want to see us?”

“Apparently.”

“Fighter status?”

“All on board,” said Zac. “As is what we wanted recovered from the debris field. I got the word to leave the debris as it is, and a mage will be along shortly to clean it up.”

Presumably the Knight Marshal was off with the dragon host or something. This was prime second battle of the day time, after all.

“Okay, put the admiral up.”

A screen popped up where we could all see it, and the bear looked smaller and more regular bear shaped than the last ones. It was pitch black. He looked around the flag bridge.

“Who’s in charge there?” it demanded.

The dialect sounded very close to the other bears, and the interpreter had no trouble with it.

“Me,” I said. “Knight Space Marshal Pound. The fleet about to attack you has been destroyed. The ships following you were all captured. Your planet and orbital station have our troops fighting alongside yours, and the tigers should be neutralized fairly soon.”

He seemed to relax. Then looked sharply to one side looking worried. We’d jumped, and he was seeing our fleet for the first time, although we were not close.

“Your fleet is impressive, Knight Space Marshal Pound. But your ships are Keerah. Why is that?”

“We’ve been blending in. Besides, most of our crews are either tigers or other species of big cats. The ships suit them better than they do me.”

One of his ships vanished, having jumped out. He turned to the same side again, and waited for a report. He looked surprised, and then looked back at me.

“I’m told you left a big mess.”

“We’ll have someone clean it up shortly. Traders will not be inconvenienced too much.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.