Forgotten Past: Chapter Thirty Four-Front Line

“This is not freedom.” Riddick jerked awake, and Carolyn murmured
his name in her sleep.

“What the hell was that?” he questioned himself out loud as Carolyn’s
words came echoing back to him. She hadn’t even been talking to him,
so why was he dreaming it?

Because you’re trapped, a little voice in his head told him, but Riddick
shrugged it off, laying back down beside Carolyn. He saw a tear
squeeze out from beneath her eyelid and concern gnawed at him. What
nightmare plagued her? he wondered.

But then that voice, the one that sounded just like him, repeated itself
and he questioned himself. The voice was right, though. He wasn’t free.
He was with Carolyn, on her ship, of his own free will, but he was still
running from the law and the Company.

Everyone wanted Richard B. Riddick, he realized angrily then heard
Carolyn give out a small cry of pain. He placed his hand on her face and
she calmed immediately, relaxing beneath his touch. But only one of
those people count, he told himself and watched her until he fell asleep.

~~~

Morning, but not quite. No real morning with no rising sun, Riddick
thought dully as he stared silently out the view screen.

Al-Anon, a Company space colony, populated by Rangers and
Company officials, was a tiny green dot on the radar screen.

“I want a full 3D map of Al-Anon and everything around it for hundred
miles. Send out eighty Imps and get it done, immediately if not sooner,”
Carolyn ordered, standing near Riddick on the command deck.

All five view screens were on and Carolyn watched as the tiny probes
took to space, launching across the view screen to her left in a flurry of
flashing silver metal.

“Imps?” Riddick murmured questioningly, leaning down to whisper in
her ear.

Carolyn kicked up a corner of her mouth and nodded. “Intelligent
Machine Probes,” she explained. “I.M.P.”

“Ah, I see,” he murmured and watched as Carolyn walked to the
holographic radar station in the center of the command deck.

She pulled a keyboard out of the side of the square table and punched
in a number of commands. Fragments of the scenery began to pop up on
the screen, the areas closest to the ship showing up first.

“Ten minutes and we’ll be on the scene,” Jesse Allard, Carolyn’s head
pilot, stated.

Carolyn left the radar table to step beside Jesse and glance at his
control screen. “Ten minutes...” she muttered and headed to Leah
Lang’s table.

“Tell everyone to get in their positions. Make sure everyone knows we’ll
be on the scene in ten minutes,” Carolyn commanded the younger
woman.

“You got it, Creed,” Leah answered and flicked the internal comm.’s
system on. “This is the command deck. We arrive in the vicinity of
Al-Anon in nine minutes. Everyone to your stations. Repeat, we arrive
in the vicinity of Al-Anon in nine minutes. Everyone to your station.”

“Good,” Carolyn said and clapped Leah on the shoulder. “Continue to
tell them how far we are every ninety seconds.”

“Sure,” Leah answered and set her watch to keep track of time while
Carolyn headed back to Riddick.

“Eight minutes,” he said quietly and Carolyn nodded.

“You ready for this?” she asked.

“All my life,” he answered harshly and Carolyn grabbed his hand,
threading her fingers with his.

“Here goes everything.”

~~~

Reed watched as the 3D map of the battle sector appeared on the
holo-table. The advanced radar system Carolyn had uploaded to their
computer system worked like magic and gave anyone who had it the
upper hand.

The Imps from Carolyn’s ship were made to communicate with their
own radar system, and he was pleased to see the radar system mapping
out the area.

The Charmer, Ahsatan, and Nylorac would all be arriving in Al-Anon
flight space in three minutes.

The advanced radar system was mapping the center position of
Al-Anon and the positions of sixteen resistance battle cruisers and thirty
lesser ships, as well as twelve Company battle cruisers and four smaller
battle transports.

Al-Anon was vastly outnumbered. It seemed the outcome of this battle
was set in stone.

Ships began to appear on the view screen and Reed felt a vicious smile
spread over his face.

“This should be fun.”

~~~

Bruce took the comm. unit from Miranda Hardwick. “Bruce Levake,
Nylorac,” he spoke into the speaker

“Hey, Bruce. This is Joel Summers over on Rorrim One. How’s your
crew?”

“We’re good and ready, Joel. The head position treating you well?”
Bruce questioned, recognizing the name of the leader of the resistance
itself.

“Always. I see you’ve got an extra. Is that The Charmer? Don’t tell me
you were really able to get Creed Xander to play on our team?” Joel
replied.

“I told you I knew her. Reed O’Dell over at Ahsatan knew her from
before, as well. The Company hasn’t been treating Creed with the
respect she’s used to and she wants a little revenge if nothing else. She’s
willing to play with us.”

“That can only be good for us. Our readouts show that all three of you
have got aluthium plating. You know what that means.”

“Yeah, yeah. Front line with you and the rest of Rorrim. I’ll get the
word out to Reed and Creed ASAP. I’ll you see after. This is Nylorac,
signing out.”

Another crew member approached Bruce, showing him charts Joel had
sent over, telling him which positions they needed to be taking on the
grid.

Bruce handed the comm. unit back to Miranda before giving out his
instructions. “Get The Charmer and Ahsatan on the comm. Tell Creed
she needs to go to LH-3B and Reed needs to go to LH-3D. Rorrim One
is moving into position at LG-3C, Rorrim Two is at LI-3C, and Rorrim
Three is at LH-2C. The six of us will have the colony surrounded.”

“You got it,” Miranda answered and began calling up the other two
groups.”

Bruce turned his attention to the view screen where he could make the
distant forms of six separate battle cruisers, all resistance oriented.
“Finally, a little action,” he murmured darkly.

~~~

“Creed, we’ve got a message from Nylorac. They say to move to
LH-3B.”

“Where are we approaching from?” Carolyn questioned, stepping down
from the platform to approach the radar table.

“LG-5E. We need to move up one grid and move diagonal through
LH-4C.”

Carolyn turned to Jesse. “Do it,” she commanded and he threw the jets,
adjusting their course and raising up.

Carolyn watched their position on the 3D map and saw the icon
representing The Charmer come up through the grid to appear at
LH-4D, Nylorac and Ahsatan in their wake.

“What’s your call for the Imps, Creed?” Toni Swanson asked.

“I want them on full perimeter scan. I want to know where and when
everything is during this battle. No surprises,” Creed commanded. “Is
that understood?”

“Of course,” Toni answered and fed the commands into the computer.

The Charmer was rapidly approaching its destination and a shudder
racked the hull as a energy blast exploded off the port side.

“Dammit, they’re firing on us already. Charge the pulse cannons and
the RPC-57 cannons. I want stun blasters on full charge, as well. If we
can knock the power out for some of these Company jerks it can only
do us good. I want power generators running on full capacity. If we can
make contact I want it to count. Make it happen!” Carolyn commanded
and returned to her chair on the raised platform.

Riddick knelt on one knee beside her chair, gripping the arm as another
energy blast racked the ship, this time exploding off starboard side.

“I want that ship to be nothing but space dust,” Carolyn called to her
weapons crew.

“You want them disabled or disintegrated?” Rock Stans questioned.
Rock’s job was manning the stun blasters and energy cannons.

An evil grin split Carolyn’s face and she felt her adrenaline begin to
pump. “Disintegrated,” she answered and Rock grinned maliciously
before firing the energy cannons.

Carolyn watched as the iridescent blue blasts echoed off into space,
colliding in eerie silence with the hull of the enemy ship firing on them.

“Damn, their aim sucks,” Ryan Dowling commented as he fired a volley
of pulse cannons at the ship. A gaping hole appeared at the stern of the
battle cruiser, a little port side, and Rielle Black finished the job with
the RCP-57’s.

The Charmer flew threw a field of cruiser debris as the cheers subsided.

“Eleven enemy battle cruisers left, and only two of the lesser battle
transports. Wait, make that ten battle cruisers. Another one just went
offline in LI-B2 not far from Al-Anon,” Toni stated, giving Carolyn the
stats on the battle.

“Good. Alert me when we arrive at our destination,” Carolyn answered.

“We arrive in approximately two minutes, Creed,” Tatum stated,
checking the radar readout.

“Excellent. If we see any cruisers, I want them gone. We’ll let Rorrim
decide which ones to keep. Any we run into are history,” Carolyn
ordered and watched as her crew flew to do her bidding.

“They work well at this,” Riddick commented, watching as everyone on
deck worked like crazy to keep the ship working correctly during
battle.

“The orders we got on the way here were to invade Al-Anon instead of
destroy it. Rorrim is hoping we can get some sort of inside information
by taking the colony over instead of laying it to waste,” Carolyn stated,
watching the view screens for signs of enemy contact.

“That seems reasonable enough. Not to mention the position of Al-Anon
in relativity to things would make for a great base of operations.
Repairs to damaged cruisers could be made there, too,” Riddick
answered, also watching the view screens.

Carolyn considered this for a moment. “I don’t know. It still seems like
a danger. The colony is highly populated. We could sustain heavy loss
by invading. Loss we wouldn’t have to deal with if we just blew the
whole damn thing away.”

Riddick thought through this. “Maybe you should message Rorrim’s
leader and run your thoughts by him. When it all comes down to it, he’s
in charge of this whole operation.”

“I don’t like that much, neither,” Carolyn admitted. “I’ve always been
in charge of my own decisions. Creed Xander isn’t exactly the sort of
person to take orders. This all seems... awkward to me,” she confessed.

“You? How ‘bout me? On here, you’ve made it very obvious that you’re
in control of everything on this ship. Even me,” Riddick told her
quietly.

“You know what I meant. Just because I don’t want you beating Jack
senseless like she’s some errant child doesn’t mean I’m in charge of you
by any means,” Carolyn corrected, glancing away from the screen to
lock her eyes with his. “Whatever the case, Riddick, you’re always in
charge of yourself, and you know it.”

Riddick shrugged, allowing a small smile to play on his lips. “That’s
bad?”

Carolyn grinned. “No. I would have my hands full trying to be in
charge of you.”

A charge rattled the hull and Carolyn jerked her attention back to the
view screen.

Riddick stood slowly, watching as explosions began to permeate the
dark space around them. He crossed his arms over his chest as he
watched explosion after explosion light the space around The Charmer.

These blasts were coming from Al-Anon itself and one finally connected
with the battle cruiser, sending a shock through the entire ship that
knocked people to their knees.

Riddick crouched low, absorbing the shock with gritted teeth.

“Rorrim wants direct communication with the captains off all the ships
on the front lines. Should we allow them through, Creed?” Gabriel
West called over the scream of explosions racking the ship.

“Put them through!” Carolyn cried as another energy blast struck her
ship and slammed her into the left side of her chair.

“You got it!”

“This is Rorrim One! Take out Al-Anon’s weapons! We have disable
them. Throw everything you’ve got at their particle cannons and energy
blasters!”

The order was a good one and Carolyn immediately ordered her crew
to follow through.

“I want you to set screen four on sector six of the grid over Al-Anon. I
want to see for myself that we’re blowing the hell out of them!” Carolyn
ordered and watched as screen four zoomed in on the colony.

Guns on its outer walls were being destroyed by the six battle cruisers
on the front lines.

“Company battle cruisers are down to eight, and they’re out of smaller
ships. Resistance is at thirteen battle cruisers and twenty-seven lesser
crafts. We have thirteen escape vessels active towards the outer grid.
They’re being recovered by other battle cruisers,” Toni Swanson
informed them and Carolyn nodded.

Four guns were destroyed on Al-Anon and Riddick watched the cruiser
at LI-3C take a hit that rocked it port side.

Space battle was terrifying in its silence. The idea that something so
horrible and deadly could make no noise beyond the walls of a ship was
eerie, to say the least.

The battle continued for eight hours, with the resistance ahead.

Four Company battle cruisers were taken over, the crew ejected
through jettison tubes to die in space, a message to the Company that
the resistance was indeed playing hardball.

Riddick told himself it was better them than him. They were on the
wrong side of things and shouldn’t have been working for the Company
in the first place.

The order to invade the colony was given, and all resistance members in
shape to make the invasion were given the order to be at the colony
ASAP.

Carolyn ducked her head low against her chest, once again seated in the
captain’s chair of the command deck on board The Charmer, her
beloved battle cruiser.

Riddick watched her shift her shoulders, wondering at her thoughts
when she stood and gave the order to follow Rorrim’s orders and head
for the docking port of Al-Anon.

Two of the three Rorrim ships were already docking upon arrival and
when Riddick and Carolyn stepped off The Charmer to the deck of
Al-Anon a number of Company workers were lined up, hands behind
their heads as Rorrim crew members held them at gun point.

Two resistance men were dead, but the other seven bodies belonged to
Company men and Riddick curled his lip at their still forms
disdainfully.

Carolyn walked to one man and toed him over with her boot, looking
down at his face, frozen forever in an expression of pain, without
remorse.

She studied him as one might an insect pinned to a board then stepped
away, stretching her wings carefully.

Riddick watched her reach out and trace the still sore scar where she’d
been cut through the wing carefully and then flap the black wings
easily.

Carolyn looked up and caught Riddick watching her and smiled,
adjusting her shades before heading back towards him and the crew
members from her ship she’d ordered to follow. The members of her
entry crew that were well were there, too.

Jack was absent, the bullet wound to her side still not fully healed and
she’d fought Riddick when he’d said he was coming, claiming that his
wound was to dangerous.

“Mine? I wasn’t found bleeding to death in a corridor, if you remember
correctly,” he’d argued, grabbing her arm and dragging her to the lift
to meet the rest of her crew.

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s go then,” she’d muttered and there they were now,
waiting to see what was next on the agenda.

“Let the killing commence,” Riddick murmured, running the pad of his
thumb along the edge of his shiv.

Carolyn checked her shoulder holster and ammo clips, then the blade at
her thigh and the other at her boot.

“Yes, let it begin,” she agreed.

Indeed, Riddick thought and awaited his moment.

***


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