It was when he got to aft of the damage and looked through the airtight door that he saw the warhead. It was one of the anti-fighter missiles and it was lodged below a main support beam.
“Captain, we have a live warhead just below the main portside support beam. I’m sending an EVA team out to pull it free and set it adrift.”
The captain told him to go ahead.
He called the damage control EVA team leader, gave him the mission, and told him to be very careful releasing the missile, for if the containment vessel were damaged it could release the antimatter and explode. The team leader looked at the missile through the port in the airtight door and said he understood.
Commander Gibbons said, ”Relax, it will be just like in training. Do what you were trained for and it will be fine.”
Gibbons hit the pressure check valve, got a positive result, undogged the door, and let the team out once their helmets were secured. He dogged the door behind them and tuned his communicator to the EVA team’s frequency, while calling the damage control watch officer and having him deactivate force field 48.
He heard the young rating pass duties around and had his team hold fast while he made an initial assessment. The missile was loosely held to the hull by some cabling and wiring. The warhead case was cracked and he could see the containment vessel still active. He called the team member over with the bolt cutters and told him to cut away the wiring and cables, but don’t move the missile or cut any part of the missile. He went up and examined the warhead from all angles and saw nothing holding it in place. The bolt cutters made short work of the tangles and soon the missile was floating free. The two of them gently hauled the missile loose from the wreckage and cast it toward the planet.
* * * * *
The queen commander watched the missiles fly before the cruisers, their guns adding to the damage. The missiles had damaged or destroyed three of the odd cruiser-sized ships with what looked like cargo lighters. She also saw three biped frigates get hit by a missile apiece and just cease to exist. Two of her missile cruisers were raked by biped gunfire and the ships just fell apart and tumbled through space like they had been cut with a giant knife. Her missiles appeared to finally start slamming into the biped fleet. She could see missiles detonating in and amongst the biped ships. She could see the flashes and see the ships shudder, but could not see the actual damage through the smoke and debris cloud.
The small ships started coming in on her fleet, now that most of her offensive missiles were expended. Offensive missiles were coming in from all directions. The guns could keep up for a time, but a missile slipped through occasionally. She lost one of her battle cruisers to a volley of ten missiles fired by the small ships. The missiles detonated against the hull one at a time. By the time number ten went off it broke the cruiser in half.
She kept her ships fighting on their own among the biped’s ships. The bipeds’ defense was better at long range, but lost that advantage as her ships closed in and fought among them. She could tell these bipeds would never run, but their tenacity would be their undoing.
* * * * *
Her counterpart, Admiral O’Brien, was totally out of his depth. Every time he tried to organize a counter-attack force, the T’Kab got in the middle of it and broke it up. No matter what he did, they kept hammering him from within his formations. Whenever he thought he had them in a fire pocket, they slipped out to come at him again from another angle. If he was unable to break a force out soon, he would be destroyed in detail. Even his fighters and attack ships were somewhat ineffective. The missiles were not all that good against the peculiar box girder construction and redundancy of the T’Kab ships. The missile would often impact on the surface, not penetrating into the vulnerable interior or, when it did, there would be an alternate circuit or system to take up the load.
He called Vice Admiral Conover and had him land all his A-76s and fit them with a full load of ship killers and come back as hunters. Conover gave the word and eight squadrons of A-76s departed to rearm at the Fleet carriers, taking the four squadrons from the dead assault landing support carriers with them. The Milton’s three squadrons went home to load up.
* * * * *
Tasao Kboso, captain of the destroyer Vernon, told his gunnery officer that it was getting dangerous up here. He had just ordered another round of countermeasures as the T’Kab missiles oriented on them. Concentrated bursts of RF energy, tinfoil clouds, and barrage jamming usually caused the enemy missiles to either shut down and drift or send them off course. This time, the tinfoil cloud caused the missile to explode as it made contact. The explosion rocked the “Tommy” but caused no harm.
Captain Kboso turned the destroyer and went hunting. He saw a missile cruiser coming his way, waited until the ship was broadside to his and launched three torpedoes at her. The torpedoes weren’t fast, but they were persistent, homing relentlessly on the big missile cruiser. The tandem warheads first tore through the armor, opening a hole, then sent a containment vessel full of antimatter into the hole. A second later the containment vessel cracked and released its antimatter. The resulting explosion was so intense that it folded the T’Kab cruiser in two, with the bow and stern slamming into each other.
The captain turned his attention to the frigates scooting through the formation and taking close-in shots at ship’s bridges and other critical points. He ordered his ship to follow and engage any that came within range of his assault landing group. He racked up a score of three frigates, until one damaged his engines and forced him to mount a less mobile defense.
* * * * *
Angie watched the battle continue. Her A-76s came back out reloaded and worked on the cruiser fleet along with fighters and attack craft from the Xerxes. The other two carriers’ wings went against the destroyer/frigate group. The Milton A-76s went after the ships among the fleet. Looking like picnickers swatting at bees they had disturbed, the destroyer/frigate group took a terrible beating from the two wings, yet still only lost a ship every hour of the battle.
Angie’s own target was a tougher nut to crack. The T’Kab ships may be crude with their open box girder construction, but they were very sturdy and could take a lot of punishment. Their cruisers took five or more missiles to cause enough instability to threaten structural integrity.
Nevertheless, she and her squadrons poured in missile after missile, to some good effect. The cruiser group lost a ship every hour but destroyed or disabled a human escort ship every 30 minutes. Both sides had expended all their shipborne missiles and still the battle raged on. Less technologically sophisticated than the humans, the T’Kab practiced gunnery more often and were better at it. The T’Kab would land four for every three shots by the human gunners, although the human gunners were more accurate in hitting their targets. The two fleets stood like two punch-drunk fighters, weaving around the ring, seeking any advantage over the other.
The carriers were safe, for the T’Kab could not figure out how to attack them as heavily defended as they were, but they slowly and inexorably attacked the escorts and the assault landing carriers. Three of the landing ships were lost to the guns of one of the T’Kab cruisers. Massed fire by the closely spaced human escort ships turned back one cruiser attempting to break their defensive formation and attack the assault landing ships they were defending. In response, the Milton recalled its F-48s and A-76s from the planet, loaded them with anti-ship missiles, and destroyed the cruiser.
* * * * *
The one group not bothered during this melee were the logistics ships moved to the far side of the planet before the battle started. Among these ships loaded with missiles, spare parts, food, weapons, and lubricants was a nondescript auxiliary ship with what looked like a crane built into its mid-section. The ring ship started receiving urgent transit request messages, so moved out of the crowded group of support ships and opened up its ring. Within seconds, two battle cruisers shot through the gate at a considerably higher speed than recommended. Then another two came through and an
other and another until there were 148 combatants of a decidedly elegant K’Rang design. Shadow Commander K’Rel had his ships form up in the leaping tiger formation and move northward over the pole to do battle with their ancient foe.
K’Rel shook off the effect of the cold of the ring transit and concentrated on the approaching battle. Kelly, along as his liaison officer, smiled at the K’Rang’s reaction then saw the tactical display. The K’Rang tactical display showed a scene of disarray with red and blue ship indicators mixed together like a hairball in space.
K’Rel said, “The T’Kab have gotten inside your formation and stripped away your advantage of extremely accurate long-range fire.”
The ship life indicators showed dim for a large number of ships. The big carriers were fine, but the small assault landing support carriers were taking a beating. K’Rel could see two of them completely lifeless, or so close it almost didn’t matter. It was time for his kind of battle, up close and personal. He keyed his communicator to his direct link to his commanders and said, “It is time to let them feel our fang and claw. Advance into battle!”
Chapter Twenty-Two
The K’Rang Fleet approached with claws out and blood in their eyes. They took out the first T’Kab ship they came upon by massing fire until they turned the ship into so much scrap metal. They worked their way around an orbit or two as one massed formation, crushing any loose T’Kab ship.
The destroyer/frigate group was their next target and it lasted less than an hour as the overwhelming power of the fully supplied and equipped K’Rang Fleet was applied to the seven remaining T’Kab ships of the destroyer/frigate group. Even though the unique construction of the T’Kab ships made them hard to destroy, the larger warheads of the K’Rang missiles made up for it.
The cruiser group was more of a challenge, as the T’Kab fought more like the K’Rang. They liked to get in close and duke it out in close quarters. The two fleets chewed at each other with guns and torpedoes, but the K’Rang were rested and fresh, while the T’Kab had been at battle stations all day. The outcome was never in doubt, but the T’Kab gave the K’Rang a good fight even as they were whittled down to nothing.
Eventually, the T’Kab threat in orbit was no more when a cruiser destroyed the flagship of the T’Kab reserve fleet with its queen commander on board. Some ships tried to run for it; the fresh K’Rang crews ran the fleeing ships down and destroyed them one by one. Kelly was quite impressed with the K’Rang efficiency and lethality in battle from this vantage point. He recalled it was not that long ago that it was from the opposite viewpoint.
* * * * *
The scientists and the diplomats gathered with the supreme queen and the sentient queen. The humans and K’Rang were not patient this time, not understanding. They did not discuss terms. They did not display any untoward courtesy. They informed the queen that she no longer had a fleet. They brought a survivor from the cruiser group to tell her the truth of it. They told her that she had four cities under allied control and a fifth and sixth under siege. Residents of these cities were brought into confirm their story. Her outlying planets were about to be depopulated by the use of the K’Rang queen virus. She had one day to agree to the terms proposed by the allies or the virus would be used.
The use of the virus was a small deception for two reasons: first, the virus’ recipe was lost over 100 years ago and the expertise to recreate it was lost along with it. Second, the GR Senate would never approve the use of biological warfare agents.
The queens went into deep despair over the situation as briefed to them. They agreed to the terms dictated to them by the allied representatives. There would be a dividing line between the allies’ territory and the T’Kab. All sentient creatures in the food ranches and feedlots would be released immediately. The colonization pods would no longer be used across the boundaries of the allies.
The agreement was penned in Galactic Standard, Imperial K’Rang, Angaerry, and Morse code. It was signed by the three allied representatives, marked by the Supreme Queen, and witnessed by Captain M’Taso, who started the whole chain of events.
* * * * *
The transports lost above the T’Kab home world complicated the redeployment of the combat forces and supplies back to their home station. The damage to the Behemoth stretched out the redeployment schedule for ground forces. The Marines had it worst, because they lost four assault landing carriers, meaning they lost the ability to transport four brigades.
The plan was developed to load the saved AS-500s on the ground at the spaceport. The first lift would be using these preloaded AS-500s. They would orbit; load the AS-500 into the surviving assault landing carriers and transport through the ring to Marine Base on Gagarin. There the AS-500s would offload and land at the base airfield. The assault landing carriers would return through the ring without the AS-500s and pick up a second set of loaded AS-500s and transit to Gagarin, as before. The loaded AS-500s would depart the carriers and drop out of orbit to the base, while the first set of now empty AS-500s would load aboard the carrier and return to pick up the remainder of the Marines and their supplies.
The corps would take a bit longer as there were twelve divisions to return. That would require three lifts plus the 28th Maneuver Support Command. Each lift would be two weeks to load and a week to offload. The 30th Corps would leave the second city and move to the military airfield north of the capital with the 28th Corps Support Command and secure the airfield until redeployed in two months time.
Damaged ships were returned to be repaired and returned to service, if possible, to be used for salvage if not. The Behemoth was determined not to be salvageable, despite the pleading of Commander Jim Gibbons. It was used as salvage, stripped of parts to support the other Behemoths. It broke Commander Gibbons’ heart, but he accepted the necessity of the action.
Hundreds of military funeral ceremonies were held all over GR space and veterans of the war attended whenever one was held nearby. The veterans and their families became a powerful political voice and supported the Colonial party. Kelly’s uncle took full advantage of their constituency to maintain his party’s majority position and his position as majority leader. Naturally, military issues were high priority by all parties trying to court this new bloc of votes. A new, larger Behemoth was built to replace the brave ship lost to combat. Commander Gibbons was kept in uniform to consult with the designers on the new Behemoth. All the problems identified in the original ship were fixed in this new ship.
The new Behemoth was commissioned as a GR Ship on the day that Commander James Gibbon reached mandatory retirement age from the Fleet. The ship was commissioned and Commander Gibbon was given the conn to move the ship out of space dock.
The losses to the Marine assault landing carriers were made good with a new class of assault landing carriers. The F-53 and F-48, two of the oldest fighters ever in the inventory, were replaced with the F-70 and F-72.
* * * * *
In the packed base chapel on Gagarin, Sergeant Ingrid Solbrig was marched down the aisle by her company commander and given in marriage to Flight Officer Second Class Bradley Mason. In the second row, by special invitation, sat Commander James Gibbons, GRRF (Retired). In an unusual event for a normally joyous occasion, a moment of prayer was held in memory of absent companions.
It was after the wedding and on their honeymoon aboard the Adventurer that Brad told Ingrid that he was heir to the Mason Space Liner Company. He told her this so she would not expect to live an ordinary life.
She told him, “I could love you as a flight officer with a modest income. I guess I can love you just as much if you’re rich.”
Then she pushed him overboard, laughing, “You could have told me sooner.”
* * * * *
Kelly’s three-year tour as Defense Attaché that stretched to five was finally over. He was called in to see the Chief of Fleet Operations, Admiral Yevgeniy Lavorov, on the matter of his next assignment. The admiral had him brought into his office, had him served
coffee, and asked about Candy, young Andrew, his parents, and his assignment as attaché. After the pleasantries had been observed, he handed his pocket tablet to Kelly. It contained a list of twenty-seven names. The text at the top said, “The following officers are respectfully nominated for promotion to the rank of Rear Admiral, Lower Half.” The signature at the bottom was that of the president of the Galactic Republic. Kelly’s name was second on the list. Kelly had to sit down.
Kelly stammered slightly, “Sir, I don’t know what to say.”
“Well, don’t thank me. The President decided this on his own, not that I don’t agree with him. He’s the one you should thank. I brought you here to discuss your next assignment. I have three to offer you. One is program manager for the Orion-class Scout ship. Two is Chief of the Legislative Liaison Branch. Three is commander of the 2nd Assault Landing Group. It’s getting the next Milton-class assault support carrier and three of the new class assault landing carriers. The next Milton-class is due to be launched in two months. The three new Superior-class ships will be formally named in a ceremony next week, but they will be the Superior, the Baikal, and the Victoria. They are all being built simultaneously at three worlds’ shipyards and will be commissioned in three months. It’s part of a modular design concept build.”
All Enemies Foreign and Domestic (Kelly Blake series) Page 30