Counterstrike

by D. J. Holmes

  Within five minutes telemetry from the various drones was flooding Viper’s bridge. Becket sat back with a little more ease. Nothing out of the ordinary was detected. She had been concerning herself for nothing. Better safe than sorry, she thought. Acting unprepared and weak wasn’t the Karacknids typical MO for a trap, but Karacknid commanders were crafty. “All right,” she said. “The higher the approach velocity we have, the quicker our missiles’ closing speed will be. They cannot escape us now. Signal the fleet, we will go to full military power in sixty seconds. All ships are to be ready to fire as soon as we enter range. Signal our two light carriers. They are to prepare their Spitfires for anti-missile duty. Launch them as soon as they are ready. Make sure our new point defenses are fully functioning. This is going to be their first real test. Let’s not have a systems failure let us down.”

  A chorus of acknowledgements came from her command staff as they obeyed her orders. Becket watched them for several seconds then looked back to the holo projection. The system’s fourth planet was a luscious green and blue dot in front of her. It had been slowly growing over the past couple of hours. As soon as Viper engaged her engines to full, the world would get rapidly bigger. Perhaps one day humans will colonize it, Becket thought. If we win this war that is. She tried to sound out the name the Kalassai had given the system. “Mala’nuoer,” she whispered to herself and shook her head. It didn’t sound quite right. The slight tremors that ran through her command chair cut her daydream short. Viper was powering up her engines.

  Whilst the Karacknids were not of the standard Becket was used to, their reaction times were at least respectable. Seconds after Viper and the rest of the fleet went to full power and spewed gravimetric waves into space, the reactors on most of the Karacknid warships came online. The two battlestations were a few seconds slower, but they too prepared for combat.

  “Ships breaking orbit,” Armitage reported. “Four frigates. They’re making a run for it.”

  Becket watched the four ships for several seconds as they accelerated away from the planet’s gravity well and settled onto two different headings. The Karacknid commander was sending a warning to wherever his senior commander was stationed. And he wants to make sure it gets there. Depriving himself of four frigates took a reasonable chunk out of the Karacknid commander’s point defenses. “Let them go,” she said when it was clear the frigates were heading towards the two shift passages Maleck’s fleet was covering. There was no need for her to waste any effort on them. “Prepare a course to keep us at maximum missile range. There’s no need to get closer than we have to,” she said to Lieutenant Bradford, her navigation officer.

  “The Karacknid fleet should open fire in thirty seconds unless their missiles are based on older tech,” Salaman announced.

  Whilst it was something to hope for, Becket rather doubted they would be that lucky. Given the inferior nature of the Gramrian and Poideal missiles, her ships would be opening fire second. The Karacknid ships might have inferior missiles but given that the Karacknid empire probably produced hundreds of thousands of missiles every year, it was still probable that the fleet stationed in such a quiet sector got regular resupplies.

  The Karacknid warships and battlestations opened fire right when Salaman had predicted. Viper’s sensors tracked four hundred and eighty missiles streaking towards Becket’s fleet. Along with her eighty Human warships, Admiral Shraw had sixty-five Gramrian warships and Admiral Faroul fifty-two Poideal ones. With just under three missiles per ship, Becket had little fear that her fleet’s point defenses would be overrun.

  “Our Spitfires are about to engage,” Wilson reported.

  Seconds later, twenty-four new contacts appeared just in front of the Karacknid missile salvo. Accelerating out of stealth, the Spitfires engaged the Karacknid missiles with their small plasma cannons. Though Spitfires had not been seen in this part of the galaxy before, the missile seeker heads had the latest Karacknid threat recognition software and they all carried out evasive maneuvers. Even so, twenty-one missiles were taken out. As soon as the rest of the salvo shot past the Spitfires, they ceased their evasive maneuvers to conserve fuel for their final attack runs.

  “We are coming into range with our own missiles,” Salaman reported.

  “Fire at will,” Becket snapped as she watched the Karacknid salvo. She only glanced at a secondary readout to confirm that every one of her fleet’s two thousand missiles had been released safely.

  Captain Rogers sat forward in his command chair thirty seconds later when a hundred and four smaller missiles shot away from the Human ships in Becket’s fleet. Becket shared her Flag Captain’s anticipation, though she remained still. The missiles were a new design from the Imperial R&D department. Only Imperial ships built within the last six months were equipped to carry them. They were anti-missile missiles with an extra booster stage. The boosters carried the missile warheads towards the Karacknid salvo for two minutes before they disengaged and the warhead released its payload. Six more salvos shot out. Coordinating with one another, the six hundred missiles formed a wall in front of the Karacknid salvo. They detonated, releasing thousands of shards of shrapnel. The Karacknid missiles’ threat detection software had no data from which to interpret the new AM missiles. As a result, they registered them as smaller anti- ship missiles which were no threat. As soon as the wall of shrapnel was detected, they kicked into evasive maneuvers. It was too late for many of them, however. The shrapnel took out eighty missiles.

  Even as Becket watched the shrapnel do its work, the new AM missile launchers on her ships fired again. This time, when the booster stage disengaged, they released a standard AM missile. Using their own seeker heads, they locked onto the Karacknid anti-ship missiles and accelerated hard as they sought to close with them. The Karacknid missiles threw themselves into evasive maneuvers. Just twelve AM missiles hit their targets.

  “Well, it seems the theory has panned out this time,” Becket commented. The purpose of the extended range AM missiles wasn’t primarily to destroy Karacknid anti-ship missiles. Though every enemy ordnance taken out was a bonus. The real goal was to force the missiles to expend their fuel carrying out evasive maneuvers long before they reached her fleet’s point defenses. With so many different evasive maneuvers needed, the Karacknid missile salvo was now well staggered out. Instead of reaching her fleet at the same time, they would enter attack range over a period of ten or so seconds. That would allow her fleet’s point defense gunners plenty of time to prioritize the closest missiles and take them out before working their way back through the enemy salvo.

  When Becket glanced at Rogers her Flag Captain was smiling. “They worked a charm,” he agreed. “No doubt we’ll not catch the Karacknids as unprepared for them again. But they worked this time.”

  “That they did,” Becket replied. She looked back at the Karacknid salvo as it approached. Moments later the familiar sound of Viper’s flak cannons opening up was faintly heard on the bridge. They were quickly joined by plasma and laser cannons and then AM missiles filled space around the fleet as well. In the space of just fifteen seconds all but two Karacknid missiles were taken out. One of the remaining ones had targeted a Human destroyer. Deftly the destroyer twisted away from the missile. A proximity detonation bathed the warship in antimatter. Yet the destroyer flew right through it. Becket’s eyes widened as she nodded in approval. She had read the reports on the adapted gaseous shields Captain Scott and Xui-le had designed. But reading about them and seeing them were two different things. Each Human warship now had a thick layer of ionized gas held by magnetic fields several hundred meters out from its hull. With the briefest of warnings, the gas could be concentrated on any part of the ship. Though relatively simple and extremely cheap, the concentration of matter provided a barrier for the antimatter released from Karacknid missiles to connect with and cancel each other out. Losing a volume of unneeded gases was far better than seeing a gaping hole appear within a destroyer’s hull as antimatter particles negat
ed everything they touched.

  A brief flash off Viper’s port bow took Becket’s attention away from her ship. One of Admiral Shraw’s light cruisers hadn’t been so lucky. Its attempts to dodge the Karacknid missile targeting it had failed. The light cruiser was vaporized within seconds.

  “Check with Scythe and see if she can replenish her gaseous shields in time,” Becket requested. “If not, move her to the back of the fleet.”

  “Karacknids are firing again,” Lieutenant Salaman reported. “Same missile numbers as before.”

  Becket nodded to him as he looked up from his command console and turned her attention to her own missile salvo. She doubted the Karacknids would survive two thousand missiles, but if they did, what was left would not be able to threaten her fleet. As her two thousand missiles entered range of the Karacknid point defenses, explosions ripped through them. Within seconds three hundred were gone. Hundreds more detonated as they twisted and turned in an effort to avoid the Karacknid fire. Becket shook her head. The Karacknids were trying their best but it was nowhere near good enough. A glance at a secondary readout suggested the enemy warships were equipped with standard Karacknid targeting sensors and jammers. That made Becket frown. Either the Karacknid gunners weren’t up to the standard she was used to or something else was at play, for the enemy point defense fire wasn’t as effective as she expected. Well over a thousand missiles actually got close enough to the Karacknid warships to detonate. The first to do so were the missiles from her ships. Their bomb pumped grazer warheads allowed them to engage the Karacknid ships at much longer ranges. Four hundred of them detonated, sending eight hundred laser beams into the Karacknid warships and orbital stations. Nearly half of the Karacknid ships were obliterated outright. The rest were so damaged by the attack or distracted by the destruction of their comrades that almost all of the remaining Gramrian and Poideal missiles got close enough to score direct hits. Every Karacknid ship and station in orbit around the system’s fourth planet was wiped out. The only trace of them was the salvo that was still accelerating towards Becket’s ships.

  “Pass the word to our friends,” Becket said as she sat back in her command chair in satisfaction. “Congratulate them on their attack. Inform them I want to make sure we take no additional losses against this second salvo.”

  “Aye Rear Admiral, transmitting now,” Lieutenant Rondon responded.

  Becket watched as her fighters and multistage AM missiles engaged the enemy salvo. Then the point defenses of her ships opened up. “They learn fast,” Becket said when the point defense gunners of the Gramrian and Poideal ships took out all of the Karacknid missiles targeted at them. None of her fleet had to take evasive maneuvers. “Good work everyone,” she called out for all of her staff officers and Viper’s bridge officers to hear. “Analyze the enemy debris and make sure there’s no damaged ships hiding amongst the wreckage. Rogers, launch a couple of tungsten spears to level their surface base. If the Karacknids want to reoccupy this system, they’re going to have to rebuild everything from scratch,” Becket ordered.

  “With pleasure Admiral,” her Flag Captain said with a grin. “It’s nice to kick some Karacknid ass so thoroughly for a change.”

  Becket nodded. “Indeed it is. Long may it continue.” As her ships made sure they had completely destroyed the Karacknid fleet, Becket watched the four Karacknid frigates as they raced across the system, now with news of the border world’s demise. Either the two that were heading to the nearest shift passage were so fixated on her fleet that they weren’t paying any attention, or their commanders were completely inept. Either way, both of them disappeared off the gravimetric display without a warning. Maleck’s ships hadn’t even needed to come out of stealth. The Karacknid frigates had come close enough that they had blasted them with their energy weapons. The other two frigates at least figured out something was wrong for they both altered course. In response, Maleck’s second group of ships revealed themselves. Coming out of stealth they charged the two Karacknid frigates. Twenty missiles raced towards the two Karacknid frigates. In reply the frigates fired six of their own. As both groups of missiles converged with their targets the two Karacknid frigates disappeared whilst Maleck’s ships remained untouched.

  “Break orbit,” Becket ordered as soon as the frigates were destroyed and her sensor officer confirmed the Karacknid fleet and surface base was no more. “Dispatch Hercules and Zion to take out the small gas mining station. The rest of the fleet will rendezvous with Maleck’s ships. Navigation, plot us a course to our next target.”

  Chapter 10

  In the early years of the Empire it often took weeks to traverse a hundred light years. This was in part due to the windy nature of shift passages and the relatively slow speeds shift drives could achieve. Compared to the size of the Empire now the areas fought over in the War of Doom seem small and close together, yet it was quite the opposite. With travel times of months between different theatres of the war, geography was as much a factor in any battle as enemy ship numbers or commanders.

  -Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD.

  IS Viper, Karnlian system, 23rd October 2483 AD (five days later).

  Like in the previous system, before revealing her presence Becket sent Maleck’s ships in stealth to cover the shift passages out of the system. Then she powered up her ships and headed into the inner system. Unlike the Karacknid border world, this system was heavily populated. There were hundreds of freighters moving between several outlying asteroid mining facilities and other inner system orbital structures. With so much traffic Becket had given up trying to sneak her fleet close enough to attack the few Karacknid warships that were in orbit around the one inhabited planet. According to the Kalassai intelligence, it was occupied by a species who called themselves the Karnlians. They had been conquered by the Karacknids fifty years ago. Just minutes after her ships revealed themselves, the five Karacknid warships in orbit powered up their engines and fled. A fleet being willing to stand up to her ships was one thing, five lonely Karacknids doing so was nothing but folly.

  “Split the fleet,” she ordered once it was clear they intended to abandon the system. Seconds later her fleet split into eight smaller groups. The majority of her ships continued with Viper towards the Karnlians’ homeworld. The rest spread out to cover all of the major industrial nodes within the system.

  Over the next hour and a half several messages reached Viper from the Karnlians’ homeworld. Many of the freighters fleeing from her ships also sent messages demanding to know what was happening. Becket ignored them all. She wanted to wait until she could have a two-way talk with the Karnlians’ leaders.

  “We should be close enough now,” Lieutenant Rondon informed her as Viper and sixty-four ships closed with the inhabited planet.

  Becket nodded. There were more than forty stations orbiting the planet but only two appeared to be of Karacknid design. Neither was particularly well armed and from the looks of things, none of the Karnlian stations had any offensive or defensive weapons. “Open a COM channel, make sure they know I want to speak to their leaders directly. Not some diplomat.”

  “I have someone for you Admiral,” Rondon said a couple of minutes later. “Two someones in fact. They are both Chancellors of the planet. It’s a position they share.”

  “Very well, put them on,” Becket responded. Having already accessed some of the radio transmissions coming from the planet, Becket knew what the aliens would look like. Despite that, she was surprised by their attire. The two Chancellors were dressed in the most elaborate costumes she had ever seen. Anatomically, the Karnlians were similar to the Kulreans. With grey hairless skin and two arms and two legs they looked like the old popular view of what an alien should be. At least, Becket knew that’s what a typical Karnlian looked like. The ones in front of her were so decorated in multicolored clothes which stuck out at weird angles that the only parts of their bodies she could actually see were their eyes and mouths. Altogether the display made her think of a pe
acock. Clearly one’s clothes indicate one’s status, Becket decided. “Greetings,” she said in as innocent a voice as she could muster. “I am Admiral Becket. You will understand if I’m not prepared to reveal anything else about myself. I already know some of your species’ history. About how the Karacknids conquered you. Given what we know of them I’m sure they have forced your species to serve as slaves in everything but name since then. My species and our allies are at war with the Karacknids. However, this is not a liberation. We cannot hold the system. We are here simply to destroy Karacknid infrastructure. I’m sorry that your species finds itself in the crosshairs.”

  “You are threatening us then? You intend to destroy us so that the Karacknids can’t enslave us again once you leave?” one of the Chancellors spoke.

  Becket decided it was fear rather than a calculated insult that caused the alien not to introduce itself. Given what it had just said, she understood entirely. “We have no desire to harm a single one of your species. We do not see you as our enemies. However, the economic contribution your system makes to the Karacknid empire is a legitimate target of war. I wished to speak with you to give you fair warning. In one hour from now my fleet will destroy every installation in this system. The other elements of my fleet are delivering the same message to the mining facilities and orbital stations they have approached. We will allow some of your freighters to remain so that they can transport your people back to your homeworld. But everything else must be destroyed. We cannot leave it in Karacknid hands. I’m sorry that we are doing this to you. Especially after what I am sure the Karacknids have done to your society already.”