Cerberus

by John Filcher

  Down in the pilot ready room, the freshly showered crews of Bulldogs 1 through 4 gathered for their debriefing. Lieutenant Sunderland walked in, followed by his wife, Amie, who was carrying an unmarked box. The expression on his face was stern.

  “All right, you animals, grab your seats. First off, somehow you all managed to survive, which is itself an outright miracle.”

  The pilots snuck worried glances at one another, wondering why Sunderland seemed to be in such a foul mood after their victory.

  “Secondly, I’m shocked you didn’t trash your birds. Another minor miracle. And thirdly, the Captain has requested, and I agree I might add, that you have earned one of my celebration beers!”

  As Sunderland said this, he couldn’t keep the fake stern expression on his face any longer and the pilots broke into whoops and cries of excitement. Sunderland’s craft brew making skills had long been perfected and had become legendary in the Confederate fleet.

  After his sparring, a very sweaty Ronin stumbled into his quarters for a shower and some sleep. Although he didn’t notice it due to his haste to get into the shower to clean up, after he changed into fresh clothes he noticed a large, plain brown bottle with a note attached to it that said “Captain’s celebration beer” on it.

  After pouring a mug of the cold oatmeal stout, Ronin took a sip and sighed contentedly at the smooth, creamy malt taste. Sunderland really should have been a brew master running his own brewpub because the man knew how to brew beer styles matching exactly what everybody seemed to like.

  Chapter 19

  Birthing Pains

  Feeling refreshed, the prime bridge crew had returned to their posts on Cerberus, which remained at November Station. Commander Mueller stood next to Captain Ronin in his command chair as they reviewed the after-action reports.

  “So far we haven’t had to engage the Tomcat fighters,” Ronin noted.

  “Haven’t been close enough to need the sub light fighters,” Mueller responded with a grin repeating something Ronin had mentioned earlier. He chuckled at hearing his own remark thrown back at him.

  “The scout team we sent back to Wolf 184 and Wolf 99 reported there isn’t enough remaining of those ships to bother with. They never knew what hit ’em, so they won’t know to adopt new tactics yet,” Ronin responded, with no small amount of satisfaction.

  “Captain, the Argo reports ship launch is imminent,” Lt. Maria Delgado broke in.

  The main view screen was changed to show the optics of the now very close Argo Shipyard. A minute or two later, the left side of the shipyard’s rigging (as seen from the perspective of the optical image on the Cerberus view screen) appeared to be giving birth to another ship.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Ceres, the second Cerberus-class heavy cruiser.,” announced Ronin, before opening a commlink at his console. “Cerberus Actual to Ceres Actual, welcome to the world!”

  Seconds later the reply came back. “Cerberus Actual, this is Ceres Actual, it’s good to hear from you, Captain Ronin! Like old times, but with new stuff!”

  Smiling broadly, Ronin responded. “Captain Michelle Rodgers, as I live and breathe. Looking forward to taking your new toy out for a spin?”

  On the bridge of the Ceres, Captain Rodgers was grinning broadly as her XO, Tom Chastain, looked on with a bemused expression.

  “Captain Ronin, Captain Hu Nagun of the Kitty Hawk and I were best friends in the academy at Green Bay,” Rodgers explained in her East Texas accent.

  Tom’s eyebrows rose in acknowledgment as he nodded slightly before the corner of his mouth quirked up into a slight smile at the banter between the ship captains.

  “That’s affirm, Captain Ronin. After what Cerberus did in the Battle of the Belt, we’re dying to see what she’s got under the hood.” Rodger’s bright teeth contrasted sharply with her dark skin, as she didn’t bother to try to conceal her excitement at finally launching Ceres into space.

  Ronin’s upcoming reply was interrupted by another ship wide announcement. “Second ship launch imminent.”

  The bridge crews of Ceres and Cerberus gave their full attention to their respective view screens as the Argo superstructure opened to reveal the birth of another dark gray Cerberus-class vessel. Before Ronin or Rodgers could issue a greeting, their commlink nodes chimed with an incoming conference call.

  “I hear they let anybody into this party!” said the German-accented voice of Capt. Alfred Jurgenson, the new captain of the Cygnus.

  “Welcome to the show, Captain!” replied Ronin. Rodgers greeted Alfred a few seconds later.

  “Now that you’re underway, our orders remain unchanged to conduct your shakedowns while we escort the shipyard to its new location. How soon do you anticipate beginning?” Ronin asked.

  He wasn’t surprised to learn that it was immediately.

  Chapter 20

  Wayside Station

  Three months later, Cerberus arrived at Wayside Station. Its latest location was directly opposite that of the Earth as they orbited around opposite sides of Sol. Ronin and Muller were quickly ushered into the office of Adm. Jessup Rodding. They were only mildly surprised to see one of the chairs in the room occupied by the mysterious Colonel Hobson.

  “Dan, Diane, good to see you! The past few months have been quite successful for Cerberus,” Rodding said in a tone indicating he was mostly in a good mood as he shook hands with them.

  “Yes, sir, it went better than we ever hoped,” Ronin said. Rodding poured dark caramel-colored bourbon into four glasses and handed one to each of them.

  “First, a toast. I understand Cerberus is the best flying brewpub in the galaxy because of Lieutenant Sunderland’s brewing expertise, but I guarantee even he can’t match this Kentucky bourbon. Salute!” Rodding said.

  Feeling the burn as the expensive liquid went down, Ronin nodded in appreciation as he looked down at the bourbon remaining in his glass. Rodding wasn’t given to many indulgences, but his taste in fine bourbon was top grade.

  “Ah. That’s good stuff. Been saving it for your return,” Rodding noted to Ronin. “Captain, I have a little surprise for you. You children and parents are here on Wayside, so you’ll get some quality family time in before your next deployment.”

  Ronin looked at the Admiral in surprise. “They are? Why are they here?”

  Rodding looked grave for a moment before he responded. “Two reasons. The first reason is you have become so famous on Earth, we feared for their safety and privacy. The media wouldn’t leave them alone, and we didn’t want agents of the Collective to potentially have any access to them. The second reason will be explained by Colonel Hobson,” Rodding said, nodding in the Colonel’s direction.

  “Captain, as you noted in your log entry after the Battle of the Belt, your suspicions about the economic collapse of the Collective matches our own observations. We’re afraid the AC is gearing up to start a new war on Earth before its time runs out. It needs resources, and the Confederacy is the only place the Collective can look to for them. That strike force you wiped out in the Battle of the Belt was a last-ditch attempt to keep the Confederacy from having unfettered access to the solar system and beyond.”

  Mueller spoke first. “Sirs, is the Collective’s fleet still a threat?”

  Rodding nodded. “Yes, there are enough remaining frigates and destroyers to cause problems, but we’re much more concerned about the situation down on Earth. Now that the fourth Cerberus-class ship is about to launch, we have achieved battle space supremacy and we intend to ramp up the pressure on the Collective with the entire Cerberus-class of ships. Your sister ships are being dispatched on raids to clean up known outposts and the Collective’s space stations, locations which were learned from reading the enemy’s communications thanks to our AI’s cracking the encryption between Shanwei and the command and control shuttle you captured.”

  Ronin nodde
d. Cutting off the Collective’s lifelines to the resources of space would inflict a major hurt on their ability to contest the Confederacy for economic or military victories. It was also the obvious strategic goal, even if the Collective had no idea how the Confederacy was going to achieve that end using the new jump drive ships. Ronin supposed it would come as a terrible shock to the Collective when they finally realized what the Cerberus-class ships could do. He was just glad they brought his family to join him. For the first time in his life, space was safer than remaining on Earth.

  “Cerberus will join this rapid reaction force to achieve the objective of cutting the Collective off from space borne resources, Hobson added. “Your raids will generally be against targets in near Earth proximity, with the goal of making the Collective overextend its resources to guard everything because they no longer will be able to predict where we will strike next.

  “Also, don’t be surprised if Cerberus is called upon later for satellite destruction or orbital bombardment of planetary targets,” Hobson concluded.

  Ronin’s eyebrows rose at the phrase “orbital bombardment.” The old legends spoke of some orbital bombardment precipitating The Fall, and it had not happened since.

  “Sir, would the Confederacy really abandon the Treat of Midway by launching nukes from orbit?” Ronin asked with a great deal of concern.

  Hobson realized he hadn’t adequately clarified what such bombardment would involve. He took a sip of the bourbon and responded, “No, we would not initiate a nuclear strike unless responding in kind, or to some other unforeseeable emergency situation. Your rail guns will have targeting information fed to them from Tacnet. We’ve created some special slugs for you. Their kinetic velocity will be high enough to cause a heck of a blast, but there won’t be any toxic or explosive material contained in the slugs. They’re just super hardened titanium alloy shells over two-ton solid cores, so they won’t burn up entering the atmosphere. Speed will do all the damage that’s needed for small targets. They’re part of your resupply while Cerberus is here for the week.”

  Satisfied, Ronin sipped the wonderful bourbon. It was going to be an interesting week.

  “Got another interesting item for you,” Hobson said.

  Ronin and Mueller both looked at him.

  “Our AI had some success in descrambling some of the data you brought back from Ninebase. It turns out dark matter was an old, pre-Fall energy source research project. They had pretty much perfected the theory and power generation on a small scale. Their scientists had set up shop at Ninebase to scale it up in a safe, distant place, but they didn’t get the chance to finish before the war brought it to a halt. They died where they worked when their air and food ran out.”

  It was an interesting history lesson, but Ronin didn’t see the relevance until Hobson added, “Ceres will soon be on her way to reestablish Ninebase and startup the project. We think we can finish what they started and hopefully upgrade the range of Cerberus’ jump drives.”

  Now that was interesting, Ronin thought as he and Mueller shared a glance.

  “Maybe we’ll have some time to do some exploring a little further from home someday,” Mueller noted in a somewhat hopeful tone.

  After Mueller and Ronin left Rodding’s office, Mueller turned to Ronin out in the hallway. “Never have I been so glad to have my family with me on the same ship,” she said to him with a worried face.

  “Me too. Now it’s my turn again, too. I’ll have to take over one of the family-size quarters to accommodate having my kids with me.”

  Mueller patted Ronin on the shoulder. “I’ll take care of having you moved to larger quarters. Go see your family.”

  As Mueller left to return to Cerberus, Ronin asked the station’s AI where his family was staying. The AI informed him. “Your family are currently in the station’s guest accommodations, which are quite far from your current location. Do you require directions?”

  Dan responded he would need directions as that section was unfamiliar to him. As he followed the AI-provided route to a maglev tube station, Ronin again marveled at the sheer size of Wayside Station. It seemed endless.

  A week later, the ship’s AI woke up Ronin. For a moment, he was slightly disoriented because he was still unused with the new family quarters. The family had moved in the prior afternoon. As he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, his son, Edward, came in, looking as equally sleepy.

  “Dad, it time to get up already?” he groaned as he half fell into Ronin’s waiting arms for a good morning hug.

  Ronin grinned, “You’re as slow to wake as me,” he said as he squeezed the boy. “Go get ready for work, hey?” he half told, half asked his son. As Edward stumbled out of Ronin’s room to go shower up and get dressed for the day, Ronin’s commlink node next to the bed chimed with an incoming call.

  “Captain, we’re ready to depart,” said Lieutenant Anzio. Ronin had rotated Anzio into the third watch while they were in port to start getting her some command experience. “We’re resupplied, and the new ordinance is stowed,” she added.

  Ronin replied, trying not to sound like he just woke up. “Understood, Lieutenant. Take the ship out and I’ll be along in about a half hour or so.”

  Ronin quickly stood, stretched, and hit the showers. Throw some grub to the little wolves out there, and it’ll be just another day at the office, he thought as he quickly dressed.

  As he walked out into his family’s common area that was the center of their quarters, Edward and Sarah were eagerly awaiting his arrival. They were very excited at their first full day on Cerberus, and were looking forward to meeting their new schoolmates in the ship’s small classroom.

  “Dad, does the ship have good food?” Sarah asked, causing Ronin to laugh.

  “You’ll get used to it kiddo,” he said knowingly as the three left to go to the galley for breakfast.

  Chapter 21

  Wolf 14,

  Battle of the Dark Side

  Months later, Cerberus appeared near the dark side of Earth’s moon, taking a cloud of enemy Type 112 fighters by surprise.

  “Launch Tomcats,” ordered Captain Ronin as soon as the jump was complete. The war birds rapidly shot out of the ship’s launch tubes, in minutes all eighty of them having formed up into two squadrons.

  While they were doing so, Lt. Matt LeCroy loudly said, “Incoming ordinance!” as if they all somehow weren’t expecting such a hot reception. “They’re throwing everything at us, Captain” he added after another moment of reading Tacnet.

  “Lieutenant Perez, execute jump,” ordered Mueller as soon as the squadron launches were completed. With a flash, Cerberus vanished about a minute before the ordinance arrived.

  “Your calculations were perfect, Lieutenant LeCroy,” noted Mueller after the jump. “They missed us by a minute.”

  LeCroy nodded, without taking his eyes of the Tacnet plotting. “Thank you, ma’am. Drone telemetry now reaching us. The Collective’s heavy guns can’t hit the Tomcats. They’re too small, fast and maneuverable. Type 112 enemy fighters are about to engage with our squadrons.”

  Inside his Tomcat, Sunderland and his rear-seater Chris Tagget were plenty busy. “I count 125 Type 112s,” Chris said.

  “Roger that. Let’s draw them off and keep them busy.” Sunderland responded to Chris. Sunderland activated the all-fighter commlink. “Taurus and Leo squadrons, remember the game plan. Draw them away from the base defense network, then engage,” Sunderland added.

  A chorus of confirmations acknowledged the order as the fighters began their cat and mouse game to lead the Type 112s out of position.

  On the Cerberus bridge, LeCroy followed the clearing of the airspace over the target. Minutes later he reported, “Captain, the squadrons have drawn them off.”

  Ronin nodded his understanding. “Launch Bulldogs,” he responded.

  Down in the hangar bay, the four Bulldogs
that were waiting heard the order over their open commlink before the deck chief followed by announcing the green light launch status of each ship. “Bulldogs 1 through 4, your boards are green. Launch in sequence,” Ronin said.

  Each Bulldog quickly left the safety of Cerberus. As they prepared to jump, Pilot Officer Erin Johnson opened a commlink to Corporal Mackey, who was riding in the back with his Bravo team. “We’re ready to jump, Corporal,” she noted.

  “Roger that. Haul the mail, and we’ll deliver the pain, Pilot Officer,” acknowledged Mackey, who had been following the battle on Tacnet.

  Johnson rolled her eyes to herself. Do Marines recruit for both corniness and cockiness? That was painful. “Jump in five. Four. Three. Two. One. Jump,” she announced over the open commlink channel to all the Bulldogs.

  As the other three Bulldogs were synced to Johnson’s, the Marine assault group arrived simultaneously roughly two hundred feet over their landing zone. “Jump complete. Nobody’s home. Landing now,” Johnson announced over the commlink channel.

  The Bulldogs settled on the surface, and the Marines spilled out in less than a minute. As soon as they were clear, the Bulldogs lifted off and jumped away.

  “Bravo team, Bravo one. Move out,” ordered Mackey as the team quickly went into the nearest access building. As the new designated breacher, Pvt. Carlos Guthrey positioned himself outside the airlock as the rest of the team lined up behind him along the wall.

  “Execute breech,” ordered Cpl. Brett Blackwater.

  Since stealth wasn’t necessary, this particular breaching didn’t involve the breaching jaws. Much to Guthrey’s pleasure, it involved placing explosives and blasting their way through.

  Bravo team felt the concussion as the airlock blew inwards, making Blackwater thankful they couldn’t hear sound in space.