by T J Bryan
...
Chapter Ninety
Dong Son - Sigrún - Year 3247. November 17 ET: 11:01
Sigrún quietly slipped into the Dong Son system from the dead system of Osaka. The journey had taken forty days and had been largely uneventful but for brief incident at Chaokia. From Cranmore one could travel to Osaka and then on to Dong Son via two routes. One had earlier been taken by Farn on her explorations through New Holland the other was through Chaokia. Both tunnel times were about the same and Captain Marx chose the unexplored route through Chaokia.
When Sigrún had entered Chaokia scans revealed a damaged Dumbbell ship streaming plasma and atmosphere headed for the exit to Osaka. The Megra was at the far side of the Chaokia system and according to his orders Captain Marx chose to hang back and hopefully avoid detection, but within minutes he was scanned. The damaged Megra had spotted Sigrún. Marx knew that if the Megra managed to enter Osaka and then Dong Son that any hope or remaining in stealth was not possible. Therefore he decided to attack. The Megra ship, in obvious distress, was at the far side of the Chaokia system. Traversing Chaokia on reaction engines would take about a day and GWP was not possible within the crowded Chaokia system. However Captain Marx decided to take a shot with casters. If he fired 'K's at that distance, given the speed at which 'K's traveled, the Megra would have entered the portal to Osaka before the missiles could arrive.
As the Captain prepared to load a brace of casters the Megra ship simply blew up. She had been damaged and perhaps the internal damage had resulted in an explosion. Or perhaps she knew that Sigrún might well catch her in Osaka and had decided to self destruct. In any event Marx breathed a sigh of relief knowing that he had not been discovered.
Upon entering Dong Son Sigrún held back, dampened down its' fusion engines, and moved laterally away from the entry portal. Captain Marx did not order a scan of the system because that might well reveal their presence to the known Megra portal monitor. Instead he launched passive probes and directed them into orbits around the eight planets of the Dong Son system. Although Dong Son was a relatively clean system the probes would be difficult to spot circling the planets of the yellow dwarf system. Slowly Marx moved away from the portal but always keeping well outside the planetary systems and the two tunnels to the Hitti systems. Relying on passive probes and passive detection methods he would be able to observe the passage of any dumbbell ships. Their dirty Hitti fusion engines were easy to spot even at a great distance. Remaining on the very edge of Dong Son Marx managed to place Sigrún halfway between the entry from Osaka and the four distant portals. From his distant location he was able to monitor the two way street to old Hitti space as well at the portals to Gatecliff and Severan.
The slow pace of his movements took well over six days and during that time the system was quiet. Then his passive sensors picked up four engine signatures coming out of Osaka and headed toward the Hitti entry portal. The ships were traveling at a speed much lower than Captain Marx knew they usually traveled. For a moment he wished he could actively scan the ships, but knew that was ill advised. Instead he remained like a hole in the void. The four Megra, after crossing the Dong Son system which at their slow speed took five days, then exited into Hitti space.
About two hours later a Megra entered Dong Son from Hitti, followed by another and then another. During a six hour period no less that 22 dumbbell ships entered Dong Son and immediately headed for the Gatecliff portal. The sheer number of inbound ships Marx found depressing. To make his depression even greater the following day another 22 ships entered and proceeded to Gatecliff. The remainder of his 30 day assignment passed without incident, and on the day he was scheduled to leave, he passed by the entry portal from Hitti space and placed 30 mines and took out the Megra portal monitor with a short plasma discharge.
Moments later he headed toward Gatecliff and then on to what he feared he might find at Pope Leo.
Six days later Sigrún arrived at Gatecliff. The system was free of Megra and Captain Marx was grateful for small miracles. Crossing Gatecliff took two days and before entry to the Pope Leo portal he laid the another set of his mines at the entrance. He now had only 40 mines left.
Pope Leo would take another 10 days in the tunnel for entry. But the time subjectively passed both slowly and quickly and soon they were on the doorstep of Pope Leo.
"Mr. Arant, give me a count by minutes to entry," said Captain Marx in a voice so soft he surprised himself. "Check our load of casters please Mr. May." He knew he did not need to ask since he had given the order hours ago, but he felt the need to say something.
"Casters loaded for volley, second round set up to follow," replied Lars Arant on weapons.
"5 minutes to entry."
Marx sat in his Captain's chair and tried to relax. He knew that his outward appearance was one of calm, but inside he knew that any combat at Pope Leo with the probable enormous advantage of many Megra ships might well spell their doom. He knew his crew was good and he had full confidence in them, but he was still filled with dread. Not so much for himself but for a crew that he often considered as mere children on a dangerous adventure.
"4 minutes to entry."
"Mr. Arant, we may want to release our remaining mines at any time. Please be prepared to launch mines on my order."
"Aye aye, Sir"
"3 minutes to entry."
Marx took a deep breath and found himself rubbing his forehead.
"2 minutes to entry."
Captain Marx against his better judgement stood and prepared for entry.
"Entry in one minute."
And then they entered Pope Leo. Knowing the likelihood that they would be immediately detected Marx ordered a full scan and at the same time asked his pilot to plot a direct course to the exit and the Cranmore system almost 22 hours away. GWP was not possible within Pope Leo's gravity wells and he would have to rely solely on reaction engines.
The distance to the cursed planet of the Pope Leo system was 28 hours and on his vid screen he could see only a tiny dot that was the sun of Pope Leo.
"Scan complete," said Mary May. "I have 56 dumbbell ships in system. 52 are clustered in orbit around Pope Leo. 4 are in transit to the Cranmore portal."
Captain Marx felt the bottom fall out of his stomach and returned to his captain's chair and sat down.
Mary May continued. "Most of the dumbbell ships in orbit at Pope Leo are at a reduced energy signature. If they come after us it will take them a while to bring their engines up to full thrust. I also see a very large orbital station of an unknown type, but with dirty Hitti engines. There seems to be some planetary energy signatures immediately below the orbital station as well."
"How many are ships cold?"
Mary May turned her attention to her console. "Fifty. Six are hot."
"Are there anti-matter traces on the orbital station?"
Mary May replied, "We need to get closer and rescan. At our current speed we need about 30 minutes before I can give you an answer."
Captain Marx did a quick calculation in his head. Those cold ships would never get going in time to block his entry to Cranmore. But the four ships headed to Cranmore and the six hot ships in system were a real problem.
"We are being scanned." said Mary May almost at a whisper as if the Megra might hear her from the bridge.
Marx though that if these Megra had learned from previous battles with the OCN, that firing their only offensive weapon, the anti-matter torpedo, risked their own destruction if sand casters arrived within the kill zone of the ship, they might change tactics. However the issue in Captain Marx's mind was did they understand this limitation on their torpedoes? Was their intelligence good enough to inform them of this weakness. However that might not matter. If faced with ten attacking Megra with a torpedo cycle time of 90 seconds on each ship they could easily launch a torpedo every nine seconds. Further torpedoes would be coming from two different directions. Sigrún's tubes' cycle time from its' auto-loaders was eight seconds. E
very eight seconds he could fire four missiles or casters and he had aboard 64 of each. In about four minutes of constant firing he would be dry and undoubtedly dead.
Marx decided to take a risk. "How long for a brace of casters to hit the orbiting station?"
Lars Arant replied, "About fifty six seconds. The distance is good and the hit will be at maximum impact."
"And how long for 'K's to arrive?"
"About an hour and ten."
"Mr. Samulson make for the planet at best speed. Let's have the Megra think we are attacking their base."
"Reload the tubes with 'K's please and target the orbiting stations. On my Mark Mr. Arant."
Sigrún was now headed at an increasing speed directly toward the planet. Since Sigrún was diving deep into Pope Leo's gravity well they were picking up greater acceleration than their reaction engines normally provided. The six hot dumbbells were still deep within the gravity well and in order to confront Sigrún they had to climb out of the system and their speed would be reduced by the pull of the planet. The four dumbbells approaching the entry to Cranmore would be tomorrow's problem. That is if Sigrún lived to tomorrow.
"Mr. May. Calculate for me the arrival of 'K's two seconds after the impact of casters."
Not waiting for Mary May's answer Marx said, "Mr Arant, Mark."
Looking out the vid screen the crew caught the sight of four missiles speeding away in toward the orbiting ships and station. Captain Marx looked at the bulkhead clock. In a little more than an hour the 'K's would arrive. Would the station or the ships surrounding it be foolish enough to try to shoot the 'K's down with torpedoes before they hit the station? Captain Marx was betting everything that they would try to defend the orbital station.
Mary May again almost in a whisper provided the calculation for timing the arrival of the casters two seconds before the 'K's..
With the six dumbbells rising out of their Pope Leo base and the 'K's on their way Marx knew it was going to be close.
"Mr Samulson, after we toast their base I want to continue acceleration and sling shot around the planet and head toward the Cranmore entry. Please prepare a plot."
Mary May spoke, "The timing of the arrival of the 'K's and the casters is going to be close. I suggest we use the auto fire system rather than rely on my fingers. I mean our launch trigger."
"Very good Mr. May. After we fire our casters at the station, prepare another brace of casters for those six hot ships."
Time passed and when the moment arrived the crew seemed a bit surprised. The auto fire system launched four casters and the crew could barely see the streaks of the casters with their GWP engines flashing inward toward the planet and the station.
Fifteen minutes later Captain Marx ordered the launch of another brace of casters toward the six hot ships climbing up to meet them.
Without asking Lars Arant began an impact countdown on the casters aimed at the station.
"8, 7, 6..."
Marx found himself clenching his fists as his fingernails dug into his palms.
"3, 2, 1, impact."
The vid screen flashed a brilliant white and vid screen attenuation set it, but as vision was restored a second flash occurred far brighter than the first. The station had fired a torpedo and it had been intercepted by the casters. The station was badly damaged. And almost a dozen ships were venting and in unstable orbits.
"For the incoming ships now Mr. Arant. Mark"
Again four casters streaked from Sigrún and toward the six incoming ships.
Ten seconds later six metric tons of depleted uranium pellets impacted three of the incoming Megra at nearly 60% of the speed of light. The scan revealed three staggering under the impact with one ship loosing all power. However three kept coming and most important to Sigrún they had not fired their torpedoes. While the Megra may have panicked in protecting the orbiting station, or simply did not understand that their offensive weapons were their doom in the face of well timed casters, these three dumbbells were not about to make the same mistake.
However all three remaining ships were clustered together and without separation they simply could not use their torpedoes without risking their own destruction. Marx simply was astonished that they did not separate and place Sigrún in a position for easy destruction by torpedoes arriving from different directions and without the risk of overall self squadron immolation.
"Give me a staggered round of casters on that cluster of ships. One caster every five seconds. Lets force them to keep their heads down."
"Mr. May. Status on those four ships headed for Cranmore?"
The first caster of the staggered series launched and Marx felt the slight movement of the bridge as the caster sped away.
Mary May responded. "They have reversed course and are headed this way. Assuming they continue to accelerate and do not alter course they will arrive at the station after we hit the entry point of the slingshot."
For the first time Captain Marx thought they might make it. The four dumbbells were making a bee line toward what they assumed was a direct continued attack on the orbital station. Should they do so Sigrún would pass the station at great speed and slingshot around the far side of the planet. The four ships simply would be on the wrong side of the planet and too slow to be of any effectiveness, and Sigrún's exit speed from the slingshot would make interception impossible.
The problem now for Sigrún was the remaining three dumbbells that continued toward him. With casters firing every five seconds Captain Marx wondered if they would try to fire a torpedo. He could see that their one very serious error was that they were bunched up and too close to one another. If a caster hit one of their torpedo launches within their kill zone they might well loose all of their ships, and up to this point Marx realized that they knew this danger very well. They withheld their fire.
However they could not withhold fire for ever. With their station burning and half a dozen ships in orbit tumbling to a fiery death on the planet's surface they had to do something; even something stupid.
Mary May spoke again almost in a whisper. "Pass by in sixty seconds."
"Mr. Arant continue firing sequenced casters, but I want continuous firing on three tubes with our 'K's. Target the connectors of the ships if you can. You will only have a few seconds as we pass."
Moments later the 'K's sped out of the tubes and toward the Megra squadron.
And then the Megra made the error that almost cost Sigrún its' life. One of the ships in either desperation or stupidity launched a torpedo as Sigrún passed within 70,000 kilometres. A caster shattered the torpedo destroyed all six Megra, but the explosion hit Sigrún hard and her port side armor split along three seems. Atmosphere was streaming out of the ship as she began to tumble.
A claxon screamed and the lights went out on the bridge. Captain Marx pulled the tab on his ship suit and his rebreather hood deployed. Backup lights came on and the claxon's screams diminished as air rushed out of the ship and into the void. Mary May lay unconscious on the deck her rebreather torn to shreds by some flying object. Marx rushed to the bulkhead to obtain an emergency rebreather when the artificial gravity failed and he found himself and his crew in free fall. He struggled to reach the emergency rebreather but he simply had no leverage as he floated above the command con. He looked down and saw that Paul Samulson his pilot was fighting to maintain some control of the ship. Samulson' seat restraints had not been affected by the explosion, but Marx could see that Lars Arant and been knocked from his seat and lay unconscious. However his rebreather hood had deployed. Brandy Haverson was frantically working the maintenance station but Captain Marx knew the situation was dire. The entire MS was a mass of blinking red lights.
However one thing was clear. The engines were unharmed and although they had lost atmosphere and were tumbling they were still headed to the slingshot point. The question now was could they get the ship under control enough to make the exit.
A moment later internal gravity was restored and Marx fell t
o the floor with a hard hit. His left arm prevented a catastrophic hit to his head but the pain of the impact told him his arm was broken. Still he reached for the emergency rebreather and crawled to Mary May. He fastened the hood and hit the O2 bottle.
As he looked up to check the status of the rest of the crew he noticed bots streaming down the passage way as if in a hurry to abandon ship in a panic, however he knew they were racing to repair the ship. Several large droids carrying sheet steel passed by as well. Turning his attention to the environmental station he realized that Bob Menendez, younger brother of Captain Fanny Menendez was dead as was Phillip Norlick the son of the assassinated Chairman. Their injuries Captain Marx knew were so extensive that the doc box could do nothing but pronounce them dead and log the time.
Marx looked out the vid screen at the tumbling starscape and every few seconds he caught a glimpse of the burning station. Above the vid screen he could see a buckled seam on the hull of Sigrún. Two small droids were scurrying across the seam spraying some kind of sealant. Captain Marx returned his look at the vid screen which miraculously still functioned. The station was beginning to come apart and the previously cold dumbbells were streaming away from the station. Marx was curious. Why would they run from the station rather than attempt to engage Sigrún and continue the fight? Clearly they could see that Sigrún was badly damaged and unable to fight. And then he realize why the Megra were running from their station.
The orbital station was undoubtedly a supply depot and a supply depot meant an ammunition dump. The station must have had dozens, if not hundreds, of spare anti-matter torpedoes on board and if one blew, the entire station was likely to become a mini nova.
And Sigrún was going to pass within 200,000 kilometres of what might be an explosion that scorched the very surface of the planet and wiped everything out of the system within a million kilometres. Once again it was going to be close.