The scientists revisited their conversations with the queen and realized how much they had shared about the K’Rang and Human civilizations. They carefully watched their responses from then on. Occasionally, they would pass on disinformation to the queen to make her accumulated data less accurate. The queen noticed a difference in the way they reacted to her, but kept on with her program to learn as much from them as she could while she continued to focus on escape.
The Chief Agent monitored every conversation between the scientists and the queen. He or his assistant monitored her continuously. He also looked for any weakness she could exploit to escape. What the agent knew that the queen did not know was that the facility was inside one of the former lunar gun emplacements of the planetary defence system. Even if she escaped, she would have nowhere to go. The moon was 450,000 kilometers above G’Durin and the shuttle came only once a week.
* * * * *
The Vengeful patrolled one light-year ahead of the 5th Battle Fleet, on guard for incoming colony pods. So far Captain Evan Gardner had seen three. He had taken out two of them and one had gotten by. He contacted the Fleet and a fighter from the DeGaulle destroyed it well forward of the fleet.
The Voracious was on his starboard side in relation to the approaching colony pods, but out of sensor range. Only a blinking green dot with a number beside it on the holographic situational display showed them where they were supposed to be. Laser comms and automatic position reporting put the Voracious and the other scout ships where they were supposed to be. They had extended their range to where their sensor bubbles just overlapped to gain as much coverage of the space around them as possible. Three other scout ships were in line beneath them, also just out of sensor range with overlapping sensor bubbles. They covered a prodigious swath of space.
Suddenly, the proximity warning rang out on the Vengeful’s bridge. One pod was slipping through the space between the Vengeful and the four other scout ships. Lieutenant Commander Garner called back to the 5th Fleet and an A-76 from the Bolivar fired on and destroyed the pod as it approached. So far no pods passing within the sensor range of the scout ships had gotten past the 5th Fleet.
* * * * *
Reports were forwarded to the Supreme Queen that they were losing contact with colony pods launched through one sector. She sent the Second Annihilation Force, transiting nearby, to investigate. The orders were received on the flagship and the deadly fleet turned to investigate. The task force followed along behind several pods, watching to see what might be affecting them.
The task force was still some distance from the sector, so the queen in command put all on regular watches until they approached closer to the sector. It would be a day or two before they would know what was interfering with the pods.
* * * * *
Evan Gardner heard, “Captain to the bridge,” and was up like a shot. There was urgency to the voice not heard for routine matters. He stepped out into the central hallway still zipping his jumpsuit, and was on the bridge in 27 seconds. His executive officer was looking at his monitor.
“Captain, we got company. I think they’re coming out to see what’s happening to their pods.”
The captain looked over his executive officer’s shoulder as he took his own position and brought up the tactical view. He saw a very large capital ship surrounded by four cruiser-sized ships, two destroyer-sized ships, and six frigate/corvette-sized ships. Evan asked his executive officer if he had sent 5th Fleet a contact report yet.
“Yes, Captain, as soon as they appeared, and we just sent the data packet of what we’ve seen.”
“Well, Kim, we need to move. They’re heading right at us and look, there are pods running just ahead of them. I think you’re right. They are wondering where their pods went. Did you include the engine signatures with the data packet?”
“Yes, Captain.”
Evan said, “Sensors, use the laser comms to inform all scouts we are moving from our position until they pass out of our patrol sector.”
The sensor representative on the bridge said, “Aye aye, sir,” and passed the message back to the sensor section.
“Helm, come to course 170 degrees/mark 45 at 0.9c.”
The helmsman smoothly turned onto the new heading and increased speed to just below light speed.
Evan thought if they could get out of the way and not leave a trail, they could get in behind them and provide position, heading, and speed data to the 5th Fleet. He would get below them, wait for them to pass, and trail behind them at matching speed.
* * * * *
Vice Admiral Conover called Rear Admiral Tsao and gave him a mission. He was to take command of a two-carrier task force composed of the Bolivar and Garibaldi battle groups. He would move forward, flank the approaching fleet, and destroy all enemy combatants and support ships. The remainder of the Battle Fleet would attack if the enemy fleet approached within one-half light-year.
Rear Admiral Tsao ordered the task force to pull off the line and come to a course and speed that would position them off the flank of the approaching force at three quarters of a light-year from the Battle Fleet.
While they reformed into a movement formation, his Flag Staff drafted an operations order for his approval and dissemination to the other commanders. In less than thirty minutes, the Flag Staff had the key details of a plan briefed to Rear Admiral Tsao. He made some minor tweaks, sent them back, and approved it when they came back to him fifteen minutes later. The plan was in the hands of the subordinate commanders in less than an hour.
Angie called her squadron commanders in and read them the operations order. It was brief, clear, and to the point. It was Angie’s job to destroy at least half the enemy fleet, more if she could. She quickly assigned her two A-76 squadrons to attack the big ship in the center. Three F-53 squadrons would split load anti-ship and anti-fighter munitions and take out the six frigates. One F-53 squadron would fly CAP, or Combat Air Patrol, over the Carrier Battle Group. One F-53 squadron would fly CAP over the strike package. If there were still targets left, her squadrons would land, reload, and strike targets in order of cruiser, destroyer, and frigate. She released her commanders and called the Garibaldi’s CFW to coordinate the second strike if there was one.
Her counterpart came up on the screen and Angie laid out her plan. He agreed with her and he told her he was going to concentrate on the targets in the same order if he didn’t take them all out in the first strike. She warned him about the radiation generators on the ships’ undersides and said she had told all her aviators to stay above them, even though the fighters were radiation shielded.
The senior Fighter Force Officer, Major General Shaw, broke into their conference and asked them to brief him on their plans. They briefed him and he approved then dropped off. What a refreshing change from old Bugger Off, Angie thought.
* * * * *
Evan slowed the Vengeful to 0.9c as the T’Kab fleet slowed before him. They were approaching the kill zone where over a dozen pods had disappeared and they were being cautious. Evan communicated this speed change to the 5th Battle Fleet, even though it should have shown on their long-range sensors. The Fleet informed him of the two-carrier task force to his starboard and warned him to stay out of the way. A message from the Bolivar came in, asking him to kill any ships that made a run for it after they sprang the trap.
Evan ordered sensors to plot target solutions for all T’Kab ships and maintain them continuously until the battle was resolved. The sensor section set to work methodically from largest to smallest ships and had solutions plotted within minutes.
* * * * *
Rear Admiral Tsao made final coordinations with his counterpart before launching their CAP, then called Vice Admiral Conover to inform him he was launching. Vice Admiral Conover wished him success and to carry on. Rear Admiral Tsao looked across the table to his operations officer and nodded. The operations officer picked up a comms unit and said, “Execute, execute, execute.”
They could feel th
e shudder as ships from eight squadrons powered up and launched through the flight deck force field. The symbols for over 90 ships showed up on the flag plot instantly, fanning out to form up, orient on the enemy, and attack.
Angie watched the plot from the Bolivar’s Combat Information Center. She saw the 65th squadron fly its racetrack pattern over and below the task force. The 44th Fighter Squadron broke into four-ship groups and provided high, low and back cover for the strike package. The 9th and 35th Attack Squadrons oriented on the main ship. The 18th, 32nd, and 75th Fighter Squadrons oriented on the frigates, and all pushed their throttles to the stops for the run to their targets.
The squadrons from the Garibaldi showed similar actions as they moved to attack the larger escorts. If all went well, Angie’s squadrons would kill seven ships and the Garibaldi’s ships would take out six. The task force escort’s missiles would be fired if the fighters and attack ships were unable to destroy the enemy fleet.
Angie looked at her stopwatch, waiting for the release point at 90% of the range of the T’Kab weapons, where the ships would launch their missiles and turn back. She counted down to zero and heard the missile launch commands from her squadron commanders. The Garibaldi’s ships’ missiles launched seconds behind the Bolivar’s wing.
The screen clouded as the computer struggled to resolve the hundreds of missiles from the ships that launched them. Eventually, a line of missiles resolved as the strike package turned back towards the two carriers. The CAP held in place and allowed the returning ships to get ahead of them before turning back and returning to the carriers to reinforce the task force CAP while the other squadrons rearmed. Two F-53s from the CAP were directed to intercept and destroy the three pods running before the enemy fleet.
* * * * *
Alarms rang out on the Annihilator Task Force’s flagship. The queen commander checked the plot and ordered all defensive weapons to be brought online and fired. The heavy and medium energy weapons were aimed and fired. Missiles were launched and directed toward the incoming missiles. Several of the interceptor missiles took out some inbound missiles, but many more leaked through. A patchwork of plasma, directed energy, and laser weapons reached out and took down a score of missiles, but more bore in on their targets. The queen ordered all ships to take evasive maneuvers and prepare to fire back. She encouraged her targeting officer to find the enemy’s ships and have targets ready before this strike hit. Try as he might, the task force sensors just were not powerful enough to pick the enemy ships out of the clutter.
The four frigates and two corvettes were the first to feel the impact of the inbound missiles. A single antimatter warhead each consumed the smaller corvettes. The frigates absorbed two warheads before they were burning hulks dead in space. One frigate, shielded by another, managed to be missed by the entire missile strike. A lucky shot by a turret gunner destroyed the one missile that gained a lock on them. The flagship took six missiles amidships, below the bridge, but still maintained power and headway. She turned down and back, using the mass of the cruisers and destroyers to shield her ship from the incoming missiles.
The destroyers and cruisers were not so fortunate. Three to four missiles each consumed the destroyers and broke the cruisers up. Missiles slammed into the burning hulks as the burning flagship turned to make a run for the T’Kab home world.
Rear Admiral Tsao contacted Vice Admiral Conover to arrange for a Scout Force ship to track the flagship back to its home world. Rear Admiral Hasselrode issued the change of mission order to the Vengeful after a conference call. He authorized the Vengeful’s captain to cross-level supplies with any and all Scout Force ships in sector.
Rear Admiral Tsao ordered two fighters be outfitted with special missiles. He ordered the outgoing strike package to destroy any remaining escorts, but let the flagship run. When the arming of the special missiles was complete, he ordered the two ships to fire the special munitions at the flagship, but no others.
Angie acknowledged the change in mission and launched the two ships to run down the flagship and fire their missiles. The ships launched while the strike package killed the remaining T’Kab ships, including the lucky frigate. Angie called the strike package, minus the two special ships and the strike package CAP, back to their respective carriers.
The two F-53s with the special munitions lined up below the flagship, waited for the ship to clear the debris field and launched two deep space homing trackers into the hull of the flagship. The flagship sailed on, blithely unaware that they were leading Fleet to their main base/home.
* * * * *
Angie sat through the debriefings and then called her squadron commanders in for a quick debrief of her own. She was ecstatic over six frigate/corvette kills and no losses. A plasma ball grazed one ship, but paint was cheap. The commanders said the guns on the T’Kab ships did not track fast enough to lock onto the inbound missiles and their long-range guns were even slower, allowing their ships to fly in, launch and turn out with not a shot being even close for the most part.
Only seventeen missiles were knocked out by T’Kab weaponry. The rest flew straight and true into the formation, doing major damage wherever they hit. Only the flagship had good luck. They shot down the majority of missiles and the ones that got through did no major damage. The ships appeared to consist of parts of other ships hastily welded and plastisealed against space. It was a wonder they moved at all.
* * * * *
The queen could not believe her good fortune. She had used the wreckage of her task force to screen her movement from the bipeds and made her escape. She saw on her monitor that two ships had dropped below the wreckage and were on a weapons run toward her ship. Her sensors warned that her ship had been locked onto and two missiles were inbound.
The missiles approached the target and ran hot and true until right before impact. A proximity sensor notified the warhead to set off a shaped charge, burning a hole into the pressure hull and depositing the electronic components into the hull. The fighters turned back and fired the remainder of their missiles into the boiling flaming destruction that used to be the 2nd Annihilation Task Force.
Evan Gardner held the Vengeful at just inside sensor range of the flagship and followed it at the leisurely pace of FTL factor 3.7. He sat in the galley with his XO and Chief of the Ship and discussed what would be a long surveillance mission.
“Chief, keep the people on their toes. Don’t let them slack off just because they’re bored. We can use this to work on ratings tests and towards earning their Scout Force flying bat pin. XO, periodically walk them through a system they probably haven’t looked at in a while. I suggest the special weapons cabling into the dorsal weapons bay as one, the auxiliary control systems for bridge systems for another. Don’t dismantle anything. We might need them at a moments notice.”
The officers and senior chiefs retired back to the captain’s cabin conference room, where the sensor chief and the quartermaster pointed out likely destinations on the holographic star chart.
After watching the two argue for their favorites for a few minutes, Captain Gardner raised his hand and said, “So what you two smart guys are telling me is you haven’t got a clue where we are going. Who can tell me if this no longer flaming wreck we are following will even make it home?”
The Senior Chief Machinist spoke up. “Sir, that battered wreck took six ship killer missiles and is making almost factor four. It may be put together with weapons and parts scavenged off other ships, but its engines are in excellent shape. None of the missile strikes were in critical places. As long as they don’t break something, they’ll make it.”
Evan steepled his fingers. “Okay, let’s get everyone on patrol watch schedule. Sensors, don’t get tunnel vision. This guy could be calling for help or a tow or for company. Let’s not get surprised. Any questions? Then let’s get to work.”
Evan watched them disperse to their sections and turned in to gain back some of the sleep he lost in the last 36 hours. He checked his schedu
le and he was supposed to be sleeping. He turned down the lights and did just that.
Chapter Thirteen
The three Elders met to decide what to do about the Ground Force traitors, now that the situation with the T’Kab was less precarious. After all, they would need their unified forces to help subdue the T’Kab on the five worlds, and the five former unified force commanders were the best strategic minds in the empire. They couldn’t keep them in jail without a public trial or the military might revolt. J’Kol had killed the revolt when he had Baron T’Kana sign his resignation and retirement papers.
J’Gon said, “What about the commando team that kidnapped Mrs. Blake and I? Surely we can execute them. They did great physical harm to the Human military attaché and violated my private home. I say execute the leader that masqueraded as my personal servant and kidnaped Mrs. Blake, at least.”
G’Tol and J’Kol conferred for a few minutes in low tones that J’Gon could not hear, then G’Tol said, “We’ll let you execute the raid leader. It will serve as a lesson to those not involved and a reminder of the peril of shooting at the king and missing. It’s an old Human saying. What do we do about the five unified force commanders?”
J’Kol said, “I vote to exonerate the five commanders, retire them, and put them to work here in the Military Headquarters drawing up plans for the movement and application of force against the T’Kab. They are uniquely suited for this work.”
The two other elders conferred again and agreed.
J’Kol had one other recommendation. “I want a special award created for service to the Empire by an outsider. I would like the award to feature a large B’Rella. I believe the Humans prize them greatly, although they are worthless here. I would like to present this to Mrs. Blake for her service during our kidnapping and my trial. Her defense was stealthy and airtight. The tribunal had no choice but to acquit me in the face of her almost instantaneous knowledge of our laws and tribunal rules. I fear the outcome would have been much colder for me if she had not been kidnapped along with me.”
All Enemies Foreign and Domestic (Kelly Blake series) Page 15