“What?” Gabrielle demanded. Without waiting for information, she had turned on the comm equipment and ensured the emergency frequency was dialed in.
“Bunch of ships firing up,” replied Whitlock. “In a hurry too. You can hear them blowing lines for a quick release. They seem to have places to be.”
“We moving?” asked Jasmine from next to Dylan. She started adjusting the copilot’s seat and going through the post start checklist as Whitlock got the engine on line.
Dylan shook his head. “Not yet. We’re hard against this floater, and that is the safest place to be right now. We start moving, they wouldn’t hear us as their own noise would drown out their white phones, but one of their ships could run us over as their fleet is exiting the port. Besides, we need to record all this, and the best recordings are when we are stationary. Hopefully, when Rafe’s people get the data, they can decipher how many ships moved out and get a good direction. If I was a betting man, I would wager the OrCons have spotted one of our two incoming forces and are moving to intercept.”
The spy ship stayed next to its floater guardian as ships streamed out of Rurik harbor all around her. Once free of their anchorages, the OrCon ships formed into a single formation and then departed in one direction. Once it grew quiet, Flicker departed her position and exited the spaceport. Two hours later she came out of subspace near the minefield. Flicker was still well within sensor range of the enemy base, but her small sensor signature and her proximity to the minefield made sensor detection almost impossible as the mines would show up on any sensor sweep. A quick sensor sweep by Flicker showed no patrol craft nearby. Dylan sent all their data to Typhoon with info copies to Wilson in Topsail and back to Admiral Barrett at Wanderlust. Whitlock reported his ship would stay in normal space until they received an answer in case the reply demanded immediate action on their part. With that, the spy ship moved closer to the mines and hunkered down for the wait.
Chapter 18
Raferty looked at the message from Flicker and frowned. Then he was handed the evaluation regarding Flicker’s white phone readouts as done by Typhoon’s ops section. Tactical and Admiral Levant stood with him in the middle of Typhoon’s flag bridge. He looked at the two of them and said, “Evaluation says it is approximately fifty ships on the move. They have to be after the destroyers. If it were us, they wouldn’t send just fifty ships. They are keeping the rest of the fleet at home at Rurik. I don’t see our destroyers aborting their mission and running. Neither O’Hare or Wilson are built that way. They should have this message by now. The question is, what will they do?”
Tactical responded instantly, “Since the two cruisers are going home anyway, I would use them as a decoy and send them home now. I would have them drag noisemakers and send out phony comms. The OrCons couldn’t read the comms but could get a general direction on the transmissions. Since we haven’t received any reports from the destroyers about running into other ships, I assume they were tracked by a sentinel line. If they were far enough away from the sentinel sensors, the OrCons would not have exact numbers on our ships. Hell, I’ll bet the sentinel line may have tracked one small group heading toward their rally point so the OrCons have no idea about the number of Zeke ships they are after. If they had tracked the entire force of thirty destroyers, they would have sent more than fifty ships out. They may think their prey is a raiding party. No way can they suspect what Wilson’s real target is. If they think it is raiders or a deep probe, our force running for home is a logical course of action.”
Hawkins and Levant nodded. The Admiral said, “They will get a message to us through the cruisers regarding their course of action. My question is, does it change the timeline?” He looked at Rafe.
Hawkins responded, “I hope not. If it does, I think they would put it in their message to us via the cruisers. One thing it does change is our actions at Rurik. I thought we would avoid a fleet action because they outnumber us. That is no longer the case. If our two attacks go as planned, that means the remaining ships at Rurik will sortie against our destroyers at the Metal Moon. Once we hit Rurik, they have to come back to drive us away. If it is only thirty-five or forty ships coming back at us, we will have them outnumbered. We can give battle then or try to engage the fifty or so ships that just moved out against our destroyers. If the two task forces stay apart, we can pick our fight.” He thought for a moment and then asked, “Anyone have thoughts on where to put Flicker? Before she was to wait between Rurik and the Metal Moon and tell us when the Rurik force turned around in response to our attack on their base. That still might be the best answer, but I could see putting Flicker out beyond Rurik in the other direction toward the border behind us to warn us if the force that just left Rurik is coming in behind us to cut us off from getting home. If that force chases those two cruisers to the border, they will be in a prime position to move along the border and cut us off if they can locate us after the battle at Rurik.”
Tactical answered his dilemma. “Keep Flicker at the halfway point. We know the Rurik force that moves toward the Metal Moon has to come back to their base to save it, and Flicker can track them. We do not need any big surprises there. If that fifty-ship force moving out of Rurik right now locates any of our ships, our ships will file a contact report and we can use them to track those fifty OrCon ships.”
Hawkins looked at Levant. He nodded in agreement. Rafe nodded back and then said to Tactical. “Don’t send any messages yet. We’ll wait for messages from Jack Wilson and then decide what to do. If the cruisers are running back home as we suspect, they should send us an update on Wilson’s plans. Let’s hope the cruisers let that Rurik force get close enough for sensor contact and then they drag the OrCons as far away as possible before we hit either target. If that happens, that OrCon force will take itself out of position to be a threat and we will have eyes on them.” The small conference broke up.
Chapter 19
Captain Jack Wilson looked at sensor sweeps from Appaloosa. The Horse class light cruiser and her companion were now only five hours ahead of his destroyer force as they were making a wide turn to pass far off Wilson’s port side while returning to home space. They were still sending back their sensor’s readings to provide early warning of potential problems in the area. The two scouts might be returning to friendly space, but Wilson wanted to work them right up to the last minute. All was quiet in his destroyer, Topsail. In fact, the voyage had been without incident so far. Jack had concluded that the lack of enemy patrols meant there were sentinel systems doing the watching for the OrCons in this sector of space. He had talked with Killian O’Hare and was not surprised when she presented the same conclusion to him before he could bring it up. Later, he thought he shouldn’t have been surprised by her remarks at all. You don’t survive for years in the Badlands without picking up several tricks along the way. He had thought he would like working with O’Hare, and that was proving to be the case. Both leaders agreed there was nothing to do about it now, and they would press on. They had an attack to conduct, and it would take much more than a sentinel report to drive them off their plan.
The comm operator broke up his musings with an announcement. “Incoming from station Bravo Three Kilo.” Frequencies rotated on a continuous basis and callsigns changed every hour, but Wilson didn’t have to look up the callsign in the operations order. He had memorized the sequence of callsigns for the spy ship Flicker. He knew any information from Flicker would require immediate action and seconds spent looking up the callsign would be wasted time at a critical moment. Raferty Hawkins had informed the three Zeke commanders of the small ship’s existence at their last meeting before they split up to return to their ships. To say the three were amazed would be an understatement. Hawkins told the story of the spy ship’s capture and her battle history with Flot 1. His audience had to admit Hawkins used the spy ship well and the small craft would come in handy on this mission.
“Please send the message through decoding and on to me,” Wilson ordered. He would
be the only one to read the plain text. He read Flicker’s report and then sent their accompanying white phone recordings of the enemy ships leaving Rurik to the ops station for analysis. Then, on short-range ship-to-ship, he called O’Hare for a conversation.
She came up immediately on screen and didn’t waste time asking about the topic. She had received the same report he did and already knew the topic. “Jack, we have to assume that enemy ship movement is in response to us, even if they are actually after the Typhoon force.”
Wilson nodded. “We should have analysis in a minute. That should give us a fair estimate of the number of ships on the move and their departure direction.”
Even as he spoke, he could see Reese Patrick, Nemesis OpsO, come up to O’Hare and hand her a sheet of paper. She read it and turned back to the computer screen. “Roughly fifty ships. Their direction is toward us.”
Wilson was handed a readout that had the same two items. He shook his head in disappointment. “They got to be after us. There has to be around one hundred warships at Rurik. If they had found Typhoon’s sixty-five ships, they would have sortied every warship in port.” He paused in thought. “Hell, they probably saw only a portion of our force before we assembled. If they had seen all of our thirty destroyers plus the two light cruisers, they would have sent more than fifty ships.” He thought out loud. “That OrCon Rurik force will be approaching on our port side. I wouldn’t be surprised if orders were sent to the OrCon base at Batsur to scramble ships to do a sweep toward the Rurik force to catch us between them. They would be coming from our starboard side. The Batsur group would have a long way to go, but they would do it. The OrCons probably figure we are a raid-in-force and will scurry home once we are discovered. That Batsur force may be moving to cut off retreat routes.” He paused for a second in thought and then added, “The Batsur ships are far enough away where they shouldn’t be a factor, but it means we have to keep to our timelines to ensure they don’t become a factor.”
The two captains stared at each other. O’Hare gave Wilson a cynical smile. “If they are thinking we will run for home, let’s help them come to that conclusion. How lucky are you feeling, Captain Jack?”
Jack recognized the deviousness in the smile. “Probably not lucky enough for what you have in mind, but let’s hear it.”
O’Hare said, “We go subspace and cut our route short by turning toward the Metal Moon now. The shorter route will compensate for the slower speed while in subspace so our time-on-target remains the same. The OrCons won’t see our change in course coming because they can’t imagine that the Metal Moon is our target. After we go subspace, our two cruisers run toward home and drag noisemakers behind them. If you think that isn’t enough ships to create a good sensor return, send a couple destroyers with them and have them dangle noisemakers. As we move through subspace, the Rurik force will pass by far off on our port side but much earlier than they think they would encounter us so will be focused on the running ships. The OrCons will be going hell bent after the cruisers to get them on their sensors as soon as possible. Depending on the time the OrCons get the information that the raiding party is running for home, they may change course to set up an interception closer to the border and would not pass near us at all.”
Wilson thought for a moment. It was risky. They would be in subspace, and the only warning that the plan didn’t work would be when the enemy ships were on top of them, listening on white phones and ready to engage. He would really hate it if that happened. The only thing he hated more was giving up the mission and running for home without firing a shot. He looked at O’Hare and then nodded. “We’ll do that. I will send four destroyers with the two cruisers. That should be enough ships to create a good sensor signature. They will have to strap on enough noisemakers and drag some behind them, but they should be able to fool the Rurik force for a while. Long enough for us to move away in subspace.
“Besides, Raferty is getting the same information we just received. When he figures out half of the enemy fleet has sailed and taken themselves away from Rurik, he may move on Rurik and force a fleet action against the remaining Orion ships. That will bring those fifty ships currently looking for us running back to support their comrades. They’ll have to give up looking for us or our cruisers.”
O’Hare nodded but added, “The force moving out now will be a wild card as it’s possible we won’t know their location when all our attacks go down.” She paused in thought and then said, “Since we’re adjusting on the run here, why don’t we leave open the possibility of moving to Rurik after our attack in an attempt to join Raferty. If the force leaving port now tries to intercept either of us, it would be better if we were together.”
Jack Wilson smiled. “Good idea. I’ll tell the cruisers and they can send our new plan to Hawkins as they run like hell. I will say no change to the timeline so there will be no confusion about that. Rafe will be updated, and the OrCons will hear the comm from the cruisers and that may draw them toward our decoys. We would accomplish two things at once.”
Killian smiled back at Wilson. “That’ll work.”
~ ~ ~
Eight hours later, a message came in to Typhoon from Appaloosa, one of the two cruisers with Jack Wilson. Hawkins, Levant, and Tactical gathered again on the flag bridge and were joined by Captain Alistair Bond, Levant’s operations officer. A paper copy of the message was passed around. The message confirmed their earlier thoughts about Wilson’s course of action. The destroyer commander was staying on time and on target. Although the confirmation was nice to have, nobody aboard Typhoon ever doubted that would be the case.
Rafe looked at his companions. “We had this figured right. He has six ships running for home and the remainder are going subspace now to proceed to target.” He looked at Tactical. “Please send a comm to the cruisers. Tell them that if they get a sensor lock on that OrCon force of fifty ships or that force gets a sensor lock on them, they are to send a comm with the location. Then they are to maintain contact and keep sending position reports while holding the contact as long as possible.” He stopped and stared at the overhead in thought.
Tactical pushed the conversation. “With Wilson in subspace for the next six hours, that will slow them up. I know they say in the message they are turning directly toward the Metal Moon early to cut down the distance they have to travel so the timeline remains the same, but that adds six hours of subspace time to the twenty-four hours of subspace already in the plan.” She turned to Levant. “I know how this is going to sound like an insult, but I’ll just say it. We all know what subspace can do to some people. Do you think they can handle six hours in subspace, come out for a short while and then do twenty-four hours?”
Levant thought for a moment. He knew he should be offended by the question but wasn’t. It was a valid point. The Metal Moon attack was the most important part of the campaign. Ships travel at half speed in subspace so going under twenty-four hours away from the Metal Moon was twelve hours of travel time in normal space. The closer they got to the base, the heavier the normal space traffic would be as ships entered and left the Metal Moon spaceport. Thus, the subspace ships had the highest risk of discovery as they closed on target at the end of the long period in subspace when they would be most likely to suffer the effects of subspace. Then they were expected to exit subspace and fight a major battle.
Levant looked at all of them. “No way the extra time in subspace helps, but nothing can be done. I think they can do the subspace, but they will start the battle like someone just waking up from a deep sleep. I suspect their performance will be less than stellar at first, but getting shot at usually causes one to focus in a hurry.”
Everyone nodded. That wasn’t a best-case scenario, but war seldom gave you best-case anything. Each person in the group trusted Jack Wilson and Killian O’Hare. If those two couldn’t accomplish a mission, then it probably couldn’t be done. Bond said, “I’ll task the cruisers with their instructions.”
Rafe nodded. “I realize
they were supposed to get back to Wanderlust to help with the defense there, but we have to maintain contact on that group chasing them.” He paused and then added. “Tell Appaloosa’s captain that he is to maintain contact as long as possible. If the enemy ships turn away, I want one of his ships to maintain sensor contact while the others return to Wanderlust.” He looked Bond in the eye. “Tell that cruiser captain to pick a good ship for that mission. If we fight the other half of the Rurik fleet at Rurik or somewhere else, we will be at reduced strength heading home with damaged ships. The last thing we need is to be surprised by fifty fresh enemy ships jumping us. The lone ship designated to stay with the OrCons has to maintain contact. That enemy group may be looking for Wilson right now but poses a threat to us in the future. I could see the situation where we hit the base, and the force responding to the attack on the Metal Moon returns to Rurik but just maintains sensor contact with us without offering combat. When we withdraw after the attack, that force stays with us and vectors the first group toward us, and we end up fighting the entire Rurik fleet in open space on the way home. We need to know where those fifty ships are at all times so we need a good ship of our own keeping tabs on them.”
He paused in thought for a moment. Everyone waited. They knew he was considering that potential course of enemy action and was coming up with his own counter to it. He said, “Another course of action for us might be to hit the base and depart before the Metal Moon force gets back to us and becomes a threat to engage us. We can have our lone scout keep us informed on the first group’s location, and we can hit that group on the way home. They have fewer ships than us, and the fight would be closer to the border.” He looked at the faces around him. “Let’s go with that adjustment. We hit the fifty ships on the way home and run from the other task force.” Everyone nodded. The impromptu conference broke up.
Smoke on the Wind Page 14