Counterstrike

by D. J. Holmes

  Having the higher starting momentum, James’ missile salvo reached their targets first. Lightfoot had timed his missiles to hit the Karacknids just a couple of seconds later. Both massive missile salvos crashed into the Karacknid fleet from two divergent angles. With their point defense fire split, the Karacknids were overwhelmed. More than a thousand missiles burst through the point defense fire and released their destructive energy into their targets. Drake’s sensors detected more than three hundred hits. Before a full analysis could be made, it was Drake’s turn to defend herself. The point defense weaponry James was used to was joined by concussive missiles, directed energy beams and hundreds of thousands of railgun cannon rounds from the Alliance warships. Despite their best efforts, James knew missiles were going to get through. Seconds later the now familiar blue balls of antimatter bloomed within his fleet. Positioned behind a range of screening ships, Drake didn’t even have to carry out evasive maneuvers. But as James watched other ships be wiped out by the antimatter, it was obvious many weren’t so lucky.

  With his converted missile pod freighters having already pulled back, it took James just a few seconds to confirm that the eight escort ships in formation with Drake were still alive. “Leave damage control to Admirals Ya’sia and Jil’lal and their staff,” James ordered his officers. “Focus on getting our next salvo off.” With the Karacknid fleet badly damaged, James didn’t want to give them a chance to hurt his fleet any more than necessary.

  Whether from the confusion his first salvo had caused, or because of his crew’s superior skill, Drake and the ships around her opened fire a full two minutes before the Karacknids. Just as they fired, Lightfoot’s fleet released another salvo of multistage missiles. By then James’ officers had analyzed the effectiveness of their first salvo. One hundred and sixteen Karacknid warships had been destroyed. Seventy-eight more had lost power to one degree or another. They were being left behind by their comrades as the main Karacknid fleet decelerated.

  When the Karacknids finally fired, their salvo numbers had been reduced by twenty percent. “What was our damage?” James asked after giving enough time for Ya’sia and Jil’lal to get a handle on their ships.

  “Thirty-eight ships destroyed, eighteen more have had to pull back Admiral,” Lieutenant Commander Ivanov informed him. “Sending the file to your command chair.”

  James glanced down at it. At most, his fleet had lost five percent of its point defense weaponry. The second Karacknid missile salvo was going to be far less effective than the first. On the other hand, as James watched his missiles crash into the Karacknids, hundreds more reached their targets. Right across the Karacknid fleet, ships were blown apart. It was quickly apparent that the numbers had swung decisively in his fleet’s favor. Over the course of the next twenty-five minutes, James watched in almost complete silence as his ships finished the battle. Whilst the Karacknids’ rate and weight of fire quickly fell away, his fleet kept up a merciless bombardment.

  “All right,” James said when the last enemy contact disappeared from Drake’s sensors, “Switch our focus onto rescue operations and damage repairs. Signal Admiral Lightfoot, instruct him to close with the orbital stations and finish them off.”

  “Understood Admiral,” Miyagi responded.

  James nodded to his Chief of Staff and pulled up the damage report on his ships. Just sixteen more had been lost and only a handful had suffered further damage. In total, it looked like eighty of his ships had been destroyed or would have to be sent home. A ten to one kill rate, James thought. Even in the simulations of phase one of Counterstrike, they hadn’t achieved such success. A good start. A very good start. “Signal our two gravity well squadrons, inform them they can begin operations,” James ordered.

  Minutes later, from beyond the edge of the system’s mass shadow, two small squadrons of ships appeared. They were heading towards the systems’ two shift passages that led towards galactic east. At the center of each squadron were two gravity well cruisers. With the addition of the fifth cruiser James was keeping in reserve, they were all the gravity well cruisers Humanity had. The latest intelligence from his scouts indicated that the Karacknids had built three further fleet bases to the east. If and when word reached them of his incursion, they would move to intercept him. When they did, they were going to find the shift passages they normally used were closed to them. Each gravity well cruiser had the ability to pull an entire Karacknid fleet out of shift space and keep them in normal space. Once there, the Karacknids would be able to chase down the cruiser, but that was why each squadron had two. When one was threatened, it would power down and jump out. Then the second cruiser would power up its gravity wells and keep the Karacknids trapped. With a bit of luck and a lot of coordination James hoped the two squadrons would be able to keep whatever forces that came from the east busy long enough for him to complete Operation Counterstrike. If the Karacknid fleets to the east decided to try and circumnavigate the cruisers, it would take them a couple of months to head deeper into their own territory and circle around.

  “Admiral, I think our stealth ships are about to go active,” Lieutenant Anderson informed James as he drew his Admiral’s attention back to the main holo projector.

  James nodded his thanks to Anderson and waited expectantly. The Karacknid commander had dispatched six frigates from his fleet to bring news of James’ attack. Two had headed towards the eastern shift passages. They had already jumped out. The remaining four were all heading towards the shift passage that provided the quickest route to the system he and the Alliance admirals had designated as the Karacknids command HQ system. It was the system from which the Karacknids had launched their invasion of Mindus space. After Admiral Gupta’s successful raid on the Jaranna system, intelligence indicated that ninety percent of the Karacknids supplies and reinforcements flowed through their fleet HQ system. James had no intention of letting the Karacknid commanders there know of his incursion.

  Just two minutes later, the two squadrons of ships that had left Lightfoot’s fleet hours before the battle appeared as they accelerated. Each squadron consisted of six destroyers and a light cruiser. Coordinating their maneuvers, they fanned out to intercept the four Karacknid frigates. For half an hour the Human and Karacknid ships carried out an intricate dance as the Karacknid captains tried everything they could to evade being caught. Three of the Karacknid captains failed. James was impressed by the actions of the fourth captain. Somehow the frigate survived a missile salvo from a destroyer and managed to evade coming into range of a second destroyer that attempted to close with it. The Karacknid frigate almost made it to the system’s mass shadow and the point where it could escape into shift space. Then the two additional ships James had sent with the squadrons came into play. Both were upgraded versions of the gravity well generator cruiser Gupta had used to such effect on her raid on Jaranna. They powered up their generators and the final Karacknid frigate found itself in the midst of a far larger gravity well. Instead of being able to jump out to shift space in five minutes, it had to travel another hour and a half to get away from the gravity well that was restricting its shift drive. Its problem was further compounded by the fact that the gravity wells were mobile. Though not as fast as the frigate, the gravity well cruisers could chase it for hours if necessary. Such a long time was not needed though. With only one target to chase, the two squadrons James had assigned to intercept the Karacknid messenger ships encircled the Karacknid frigate and destroyed it.

  “A complete success,” Captain Fisher said with a grin when the Karacknid frigate disappeared from Drake’s sensors. “Congratulations Admiral. Phase one has gone better than expected.”

  “Indeed,” James agreed, not sure if he should be pleased or concerned. He wasn’t used to things going so well. “Now let us begin phase two,” he added. “Prepare the fleets to rendezvous and continue on our planned course. It’s time to see how far we can push into the Karacknid empire.” James couldn’t help but grin. For years now those were words he h
ad never been sure he’d be able to say.

  Chapter 19

  Invading enemy systems is easy, holding them is hard.

  -Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD.

  Drake, outer edge of Karacknid HQ system, 13th February 2484 AD (four weeks later).

  The same grin spread across James’ face four weeks later as he stared at the sensor data his scouts had just returned with. He had raced his fleet through nine Karacknid systems. Occasionally he had dispatched small squadrons to raid the Karacknid infrastructure, but his main fleet had pressed on without pause. Though he had known word would spread of his attack, his fast pace had paid dividends. In front of him the Karacknid HQ system was in a state of pandemonium. As far as James could tell the Karacknids were trying to evacuate as much of their supplies as possible. Three convoys of freighters were easily identifiable as they made their way out of the system. Between them and moving into and out of the system were more than a hundred other freighters operating on their own.

  “I think we’ve caught them with their pants down,” Fisher commented. “It’s mayhem in there.”

  “Which means we’re just in time,” James said as he thought through how to approach the situation. The vast majority of the Karacknid freighters were heading towards the shift passage that led to Jaranna. That meant the supplies would eventually make their way to the Karacknid fleets along the front line. If he could, he wanted to take them out. The entire point of Operation Counterstrike was to cut off the Karacknids’ main artery of supply. Alliance fleets up and down the front line would be launching their own attacks as they pressed the Karacknids. With his fleet cutting off Karacknid supplies and reinforcements, Alliance High Command intended to push as far into Karacknid space as possible. The entire operation was designed to buy the Alliance and Human shipyards more time and space to churn out warships. Yet James’ eyes were drawn to the Karacknid fleet that was defending their HQ stations. Seven hundred ships was less than the border fleet he had wiped out. But if they escaped, they’d be able to join the Karacknid ships based at Jaranna and threaten his fleet. He had to contain them or he could end up having to retreat fastener than intended. “Signal Commodores Scott, Rivers, Teleck and Mar’yal,” he requested as he came to a decision. “They are to detach themselves from the fleet and hunt down those Karacknid convoys. They can rendezvous with us as soon as they have done as much damage as they think they can. Make sure they know they’re not to risk their squadrons engaging more powerful escorts.”

  “Right away Admiral,” Lieutenant Martinez replied from his COM station.

  “Miyagi,” James said as he turned to his Chief of Staff. “Inform the others we’ll be jumping in momentarily. We are going to ignore the convoys and head straight for their main base. Let’s see if we can encourage the system fleet commander to stay put.”

  “Aye Admiral,” Miyagi responded with a nod that showed he understood James’ intentions. The Karacknids had set up their main base of operations in orbit around the system’s third planet. It was a rocky volcanic world that intelligence suspected was rich in several rare elements. Alongside an extensive mining operation on the planet’s surface there were orbital refineries to process whatever was mined. Neither of which was of much concern to James. It was the massive supply stations and forty orbital battlestations that had his focus. The supply stations were estimated to hold enough supplies to keep a fleet of six thousand warships in operation for more than a year. The orbital battlestations, combined with the Karacknid fleet, would have enough firepower to take on all of his ships. Each battlestation was more than three times the size of Unity. No one knew exactly how much firepower each one put out, but it had to be colossal. James couldn’t destroy them all, but at the very least, he wanted to keep the supplies and Karacknid fleet bottled up in the third planet’s orbit. “We are ready to go,” Miyagi informed James five minutes later. James responded with a wave of his hand.

  Drake’s jump into shift space and then reversion to normal space jostled James. Within the blink of an eye he was pressed back into his command chair as Drake’s impulse engines fired up and the battleship’s inertial dampeners increased their power to compensate. The four squadrons James had assigned to chase the convoys broke ahead of the main fleet. James split his time between watching them and keeping an eye on the Karacknid battlefleet. Predictably, the convoys increased their acceleration rates. At least the freighters that could did. The handful of warships that were playing escort duty turned to engage the ships hunting them. As several small battles played out, James paid particular attention to Commodore Scott’s squadron. His former Flag Captain commanded the medium cruiser Misfit. With ease Scott’s ships dealt with a small group of Karacknid escorts and slipped into the middle of a convoy more than one hundred freighters strong. James couldn’t help but be filled with pride as the woman he had come to think of as a younger sister ripped the Karacknids apart.

  “The Karacknid battlefleet’s reactors and engines are lighting up!” Lieutenant Anderson called out. “They are breaking orbit.”

  James felt his heart beat faster as he switched his full attention to the enemy battlefleet. It was indeed breaking orbit. But it wasn’t moving to intercept his fleet. For a second, James thought they were running. Yet he had positioned his fleet to block the Karacknids’ main line of retreat. At least, he thought he had. James suddenly feared he had missed something. As the Karacknid warships settled onto their intended heading, James frowned. Either there was a shift passage he didn’t know about or the Karacknid ships were up to something else. Just as he zoomed out the image on his personal holo projector, Miyagi saw what was happening. “Look at this convoy here,” his Chief of Staff said as he gestured towards the main holo plot. “It’s reversing course. They’re trying to avoid Mar’yal’s squadron.”

  “Signal the Vestarian,” James snapped. “Order him to pull back. He is not to tangle with the main Karacknid battlefleet.” Rather than engage the main enemy fleet, the Karacknid commander was moving out to allow one of his convoys to fall back to their fleet base. James glanced at Fisher and Miyagi and shared a nod with each of them. The Karacknid commander’s maneuver meant he intended to stay in this system and protect the fleet headquarters. That was exactly what they desired.

  With his main fleet not able to catch and engage the Karacknid battlefleet before it fell back into orbit, James slowed his warships’ approach and dispatched more light ships to engage the freighters that were still trying to escape. Over two hours, hundreds of freighters were mercilessly hunted down and destroyed. Then, when the killing was over, James planned out a new set of orders. “Inform Lightfoot he may detach his fleet. Then signal our raiding squadrons. They are to return to our supply train and rearm and refuel. Then they can proceed with their part of phase two. Send word to our mining frigates. They can begin their operations as well.”

  “Transmitting those orders now Admiral,” Martinez replied.

  “Bring the rest of the fleet to a halt just outside of powered missile range of the third planet,” James added. “Let’s get as good a sensor reading on their battlestations and fleet as we can. Make sure there is a constant patrol of fighters on guard duty. We don’t want them launching any surprise fighter attacks.” From the scans Drake had already taken of the Karacknid stations, it was clear some of them were designed to launch the Karacknid equivalent of James’ spitfires. If he wasn’t careful, they could give him a headache. In order to keep the Karacknid battlefleet locked up in orbit he’d have to sit tightly on them, yet by moving in so close he would have very little warning of a sortie of Karacknid fighters.

  As James’ orders were sent out a number of different things happened. Lightfoot’s flagship Vengeance and four hundred Human and Alliance warships split off from the main Allied Fleet. He turned onto a heading for the shift passage that led to the Jaranna system. The Karacknids had turned the Mindus homeworld into a forward base for their invasion of Alliance space. Whilst it had been heavily rai
ded by Admiral Gupta’s fleet thirteen months ago, the Karacknids had been rebuilding it ever since. If he could, Lightfoot had orders to destroy everything that was there. Even if he couldn’t, Lightfoot’s fleet would give early warning of any Karacknid attempt to send aid back towards their fleet HQ system. The four squadrons James had dispatched to hunt down the Karacknid convoys all turned and reversed course. They would rendezvous with the large fleet of supply freighters and escorts James had kept well outside the system’s mass shadow. After replacing their spent munitions, they would split up and head north and east into the Karacknid empire. James had given them express orders to destroy and cripple as much infrastructure as they could. Finally, from the supply fleet, sixteen freighters powered up their engines and entered the system. They made for the nearest asteroid field. There they would collect the materials they needed for what James had in mind.

  *

  IS Drake, 28th February 2484 AD (fifteen days later).

  After the excitement of the successful battle against the Karacknid border fleet and the rapid advance into Karacknid space, the fleet’s sudden boredom was impossible to miss. Even James had to admit that their occupation of the Karacknid HQ system wasn’t what he had imagined. For just over two weeks his ships had slowly circled the Karacknid HQ world observing their enemy. The Karacknids hadn’t done anything to break the monotony either. While their ships remained on high alert, the Karacknid fleet did not break orbit once. Instead they seemed content to watch James’ fleet as it went around and around. Despite sending out a number of scouts and receiving constant updates, no large Karacknid fleet appeared to be coming to their HQ’s aid. To the east the main shift passages any Karacknid fleet might have taken had been cut off. To the west Lightfoot had been sending constant updates on his progress towards Jaranna. Though his updates became more and more out of date as Lightfoot progressed further away, as yet he hadn’t encountered any serious resistance.