Voyage of Daedelus, Part 3, The story concludes Options

[Svea Rike]

USS DAEDELUS - ARCTIC SEA

Captain Rolland and Petty Officer Third Class Edwards were making their way through the aircraft carrier Daedelus, just mere moments before it was attacked by the Russians. Edwards had a mixed feeling about all this; he was going to see combat for the first time since he left Hawaii, but he could also get killed. Real life is hard. "Sir, if I may ask, what is our plan of attack?" Edwards asked Rolland. "Point and shoot, pretty simple really" Rolland replied while he entered the munitions room. "Here, take this" Rolland threw a box of grenades to Edwards, who grabbed it. "What's this for?" Edwards asked. "Helicopter ammo; one of our Comanches have been equipped with a multi grenade launcher" Rolland replied. Edwards left the room while Rolland grabbed the quarter's telephone. "Get me the ECA navy" Edwards heard Rolland say. Edwards made his way to the flight deck. Up there, crewmen were scrambling in every direction, carrying ammo and fuel hoses while some guided fighters on the landing strip. On the horizon, he could see the Kuznetsov carriers approach them; soon their bombers were in range. Edwards headed for the Comanche helicopter named 'Iron Arrow', and the female pilot of it, Lieutenant Hawking, stood next to it. "You there, I need your help" Hawking said to Edwards when he got there. "I have grenade ammo" Edwards told her. "Yeah, but my gunner is nowhere in sight and I don't have enough time to go find him" she said. "The damn Russians are just some clicks away" "But I'm just a supplier, I have no aviation training!" Edwards exclaimed. "Just aim, pull the trigger and voila, couldn't be simpler!" Hawking said as she pulled Edwards into the gunner's seat.

Roberts stood at the back of the Daedelus looking at the Russian ships. "God damn it, there's probably a dozen ships around those carriers" he said. The Daedelus was way more powerful than a Kuznetsov, but three of them with supporting ships; that wasn't an easy match. Roberts cleared the landing strip as fighter after fighter was launched, all veering around and heading for the Russians. He saw Comanche and Viper helicopters take off as well, one of which had a grenade launcher on it for whatever reason. The Kuznetsov carriers countered the F-22s by launching their naval Sukhoi planes at them. The Sukhoi planes outnumbered the F-22s three to one, but had limited technology. The Raptor fighters took down more and more Sukhoi planes, and soon the Russians realized that numbers is not always everything, point proven during the Battle of Britain more than a century ago. However, what the Daedelus and the Raptor pilots didn't realize that F-22s weren't the only sixth generation fighter that was carrier-operable in these waters. High-tech PAK-FA fighters were launched from the carriers, surprising the fighter pilots as much as the Daedelus' crew. The new technology was a match for the Raptors, yet they weren't enough to destroy all of them. "Oh shit, get down everyone!" Roberts yelled as he saw a pair of fighters come in to strafe the Daedelus' flight deck. The bullets missed Roberts by a few inches.

Rolland was observing the tactical map of the battle. "Why on Earth can't I get any information on the Russian positions?" Rolland said. But then it hit him; the Russians had blackout nodes on their ships. It was obvious, how else could they have avoided their radars for so long? But that also made things much worse; it meant that the ECA navy had no contact with the Daedelus; it was blocked from their view. "We're all alone out here on this one" Rolland said to the bridge officers. "Damn me for not busting Carnaby's cover earlier!" Rolland cursed on himself. He exited the bridge and headed down towards the flight deck. In the middle of it, he heard the speakers say: "Enemy troops have entered the ship, enemy troops have entered the-" It turned static. Rolland leaned towards the wall; this was his entire fault he thought. But how could the Russians have boarded the ship, wasn't the bay closed? "Carnaby had it opened in the last moment!" He said as he punched the wall. Rolland hurried to grab a rifle from a nearby storage room. Several other officers scrambled past, all carrying rifles and heading down towards the cargo bay. "Only a miracle could save us now..."

Edwards looked towards the closing Russian destroyers as the Iron Arrow took off from the flight deck. "You know what to do right?" Hawking asked him. "Yes, ma'am" Edwards replied. The Comanche moved towards a Russian destroyer, and as soon as they were in range, Edwards pulled the trigger and unleashed a barrage of high-explosive shells towards the ship. The shells exploded on impact, and severely damaged the destroyer's bow, hull and command bridge. "We're coming around" Hawking said. Edwards opened fire again, this time damaging the hull enough for it to halt and begin sink. "These shells are more powerful than anything I've ever seen or heard about before" Edwards said. "They're experimental" Hawking replied. "I don't know how they work, I was just the pilot they wanted as a tester" The Iron Arrow circled above more destroyers. Edwards watched around him; he saw more Comanche and Viper helicopters firing missiles and avoiding anti-air fire by shooting off flares. It was a miracle they had enough well-trained pilots able to fight the advanced Russian anti-air systems. The Daedelus had the best-in-class. Edwards focused and opened fire on another destroyer.

Roberts opened a weapons closet and grabbed an assault rifle. The Russians were all over the lower areas of the ship. He ran down the stairs towards the lower areas. Roberts had previously served aboard the 'Cornelia Marie' fishing vessel, and had appeared in the reality TV show Deadliest Catch. He knew all there was about staying alive in a storm, walking when the ship sways in all directions and the like. However, Roberts had actually never been in actual combat before. His hard earned training with the crab fishers made him the right man to keep moral up high aboard the Daedelus. Roberts bumped into Rolland. "What are you doing down here, sir?" Roberts asked. "You really think I should be up on the bridge when I can do better service down here?" Rolland replied. The two continued down towards the lower areas, when they spotted a Russian marine. "Enemy!" They both said as they opened fire on him. This made them both understand that the other was as eager to get in a fight as them. Roberts and Rolland kept engaging the Russians alongside more crewmen, most of which had also never seen combat before. "We keep put pressure on them, we might drive them off the ship" Rolland said. The sailors were able to fight off the Russians and drive them down to the bay, which was wide opened and had two Zubr- class transports docked in it. "No wonder so many Russians were able to enter the ship, the doors are as wide open as the legs of a Kentucky whore!" Roberts said. Roberts and Rolland kept firing on the mad Russian marines, surprisingly still here even though they have no chance of capturing the ship. "You know something, sir? I never wanted to be in the navy!" Roberts said to Rolland. "Me neither, but I'm still CIA" Suddenly, a Russian marine mounted a PKP machine gun and opened fire. Roberts was shot straight in the chest. "No!" Rolland yelled and shot the Russian. "Don't worry sailor, It'll be alright" He said to Roberts, who had gotten four 7.62 rounds straight in his chest.

"Looks like they are receiving reinforcements!" Hawking said as she saw several Frogfoot bombers come in from the south. "Damn bombers are targeting the ship!" Edwards said. Edwards had destroyed one destroyer using only the experimental shells equipped in the grenade launcher, and had severely damaged many more. "I'm running low on shells!" Edwards said. "I'll land to rearm, hopefully the Frogfoots will miss us" Hawking said as she turned the helicopter towards the Daedelus. The Iron Arrow landed on the southern end of the ship were only a few crewmen stood ready to rearm, most of the others were down in the lower areas fighting Russian marines. The Frogfoots unleashed a deadly payload of missiles and bombs on the center of the ship. The hard steel landing strip did take quite a beating, but not enough to destroy it, meaning fighters could still land to rearm. The Iron Arrow took off again, however it got shot down by Russian PAK-FA fighters. The helicopter crashed on the flight deck, leaving Edwards and Hawking severely injured. Edwards managed to get the cockpit window open, but only to look straight at several Frogfoot bombers moving in to the Daedelus, ready to deliver the killing blow. Edwards saw his life passing before him, but suddenly, the Frogfoots exploded in the air, followed by several F-22 Raptor fighters speeding past. Then almost a hundred bombers and fighters of the US Navy zoomed down from the skies, obliterating several Russian destroyers and one Kuznetsov, which gave the other carriers enough reason to retreat. Edwards turned his head, and as the smoke cleared, a gargantuan vessel emerged. It was the Spirit of Freedom.

The Battle of the Daedelus had left the carrier severely damaged, both externally and internally. The nuclear engines had been shot to pieces, thankfully they didn't explode, and the flight deck was beyond repair. The bridge and hull had been left with minor damage, meaning the ship can still be commanded and wouldn't sink. As the carrier docked with the Spirit of Freedom, Captain Rolland met with Edwards in the medical bay. "There you are" Rolland said. "Hey, captain" Edwards replied. "You did quite something up there; I've gotten several commendations for you" "Thanks, sir. Hey, where is Roberts?" "Well, when we fought the Russians, he got shot by a machine gun" Edwards froze. Did the man he served with for... a month really die? "He didn't make it" Rolland said. "Hmm, well in a firefight you either live or die, has to accept it sometimes" Edwards replied. "By the way, why did you get so angry when Carnaby admitted he was the one who destroyed the Reagan?" "Oh, that. Well you see Carnaby had always been a traitor" Rolland said. "He sold weapons to terrorists, giving intelligence to the Russians and this, of course, but he also allowed the GLA to use the Particle Cannon against the Reagan. How else would they have got the keys to the cannon?" "Indeed. Good thing the bastard is dead" Edwards said. "What will happen now?" "Well the ECA still needs our support, so I guess the Daedelus will be repaired alongside the Spirit of Freedom" Rolland replied. "But how come they found us, weren't we blocked by blackout nodes?" Edwards asked. "Well, turns out blackout nodes doesn't block e-mails. So it was obvious we were in trouble when the CIA couldn't see us on the radar" Edwards and Rolland laughed at this.

FIN

[MARS]

Overall, this story had a more Hollywood action movie feel to it with a few inaccuracies but it was a fun read. I find it interesting how we're not only inspiring people to write fan-fiction - which is always appreciated - but that said fiction actually covers a very wide range of styles.

[Svea Rike]

Overall, this story had a more Hollywood action movie feel to it with a few inaccuracies but it was a fun read. I find it interesting how we're not only inspiring people to write fan-fiction - which is always appreciated - but that said fiction actually covers a very wide range of styles.

Thanks, MARS! Me as well as many others I believe, find that ROTR is one of the few stories where you can expand the universe with fan-fiction and be greeted positively about it. Rise of the Reds has such a good storyline and it is very easy to find something new to write about because there is always something happening.