by Allan, Jay
He watched as the fighters zipped through, taking out missile after missile. He was right, some of them got too close. A few were destroyed outright; others were heavily damaged or were blasted with immediately fatal doses of radiation. But overall the strike was a massive success, with losses well within acceptable parameters. That was a term Compton despised, but he couldn’t argue with its accuracy.
The buoys were next, and they opened up, firing clouds of tiny heavy metal projectiles at enormous velocities. A 1-centimeter piece of osmium-iridium alloy at 3,000 kilometers per second imparted enough kinetic energy to vaporize a target the size of a missile, especially one that could be destroyed by nothing more than a wire being ruptured and cutting power to the containment system for a nanosecond.
Compton let out a long breath. Between the fighters and the buoys, they’d taken out almost half the missiles…and his fleet’s point defense batteries hadn’t fired a shot yet. So far so good.
“Arm plasma torpedoes.” Duke’s voice was loud and clear. His eyes were focused straight ahead, watching his ships on the tactical display. The main fleet’s missile attack had just gone in, and the enemy force was disordered and occupied with damage control. He’d timed his second strike perfectly.
His people had paid heavily the first time they’d sliced through the enemy fleet. They’d taken a toll, but they left behind almost 1 in 5 of their number. Now they were back for revenge.
“All ships report ready for attack run, sir.” Lieutenant Tosh sounded edgy, but she was holding things together. Tosh was Duke’s tactical officer on Jaguar, and when Duke took command of the task force, she inherited the overall support role. It was a massive jump in responsibility, but one she had handled well so far.
Duke shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He had the task force accelerating toward the enemy at 4g, which was extremely uncomfortable, but not enough to require the couches or any meds. He wanted as much velocity as he could get, but he wanted his people sharp and alert even more.
They’d slipped through missile range while the enemy was firing at Compton’s fleet, and they’d managed to avoid more losses. Three more ships went down to particle accelerator fire, but the enemy had been focused mostly on its point defense operations against Compton’s strike, and their fire had been light and poorly targeted. Losing anyone hurt, but 3 ships was better than his most optimistic expectations had been.
“Commence attack run.” He sat still, trying to stay as comfortable as possible under four gravities of pressure. “All ships fire at will.” His first attack had been tightly coordinated, with fire control directed from the flagship. But now the enemy fleet was badly hurt, and he wanted his captains picking their targets by opportunity, going after damaged vessels they could finish off. Duke wanted blood.
The wave of attack ships streaked toward the enemy fleet, each captain altering thrust, changing vectors to go after chosen targets. Duke’s task force consisted more than half of Alliance ships, backed up by a crack contingent of boats from the PRC. He had some of the best fast attack ships in space, and now he resolved he would prove their true worth.
“Make a course for enemy target 14, lieutenant.” Duke had assigned designations to each of the First Imperium vessels to help organize the attack. Number 14 was a Gargoyle with a massive gash on one side, spewing a huge cloud of frozen fluids into space. A well-placed pair of plasma torpedoes would finish it off, Duke was sure of it. “I want a course directly at the bogie…right down its throat.”
“Yes, captain.” Tosh worked the controls for a few seconds. “Thrust calculated and entered into nav computer, sir.”
“Execute.” He leaned back. “And get me the chief gunner. I’m going to have his hide if he misses the shot I’m going to give him.”
“All vessels, launch laser buoys now!” There was hazy smoke on Midway’s flag bridge. The new ship had gotten her baptism of fire, taking damage from a missile near miss and a grazing shot from a heavy particle accelerator. She wasn’t damaged badly, but something was putting a lot of caustic smoke through the ventilation system. Not enough to seriously hurt anyone, especially sealed up in their survival suits, but messy and annoying nonetheless.
Hurley’s people had done a tremendous job intercepting missiles, even if 33 bombers got caught too close to antimatter explosions and were destroyed. But even with her efforts and the point defense fire from the fleet itself, Compton’s ships had taken heavy damage from the enemy warheads.
The barrage had been all antimatter-armed, which meant the enemy vessels had carried their enhanced weapons internally, something they’d never done before. That meant only one thing to Compton…the force he was facing was considered expendable. The enemy had to know it didn’t have enough strength to take out a fleet the size of his. There were two only two possibilities he could imagine. Either the enemy hadn’t expected a force as strong as his, a supposition he immediately rejected. He only had half of Grand Fleet, and the enemy had seen greater forces than he now led during the battles on the combined Line worlds. That left only one option. His people were walking into a trap.
The more he considered it, the more it made sense. This enemy force was here to soften him up, to cause as much damage as possible before they sprung whatever trap they had planned. But it didn’t matter. Compton had no choice…his people had to take this world and find some way to defeat the First Imperium. Besides, he thought with a grim smile, there’s a good chance they don’t know Augustus Garret is on the way with the other half of the fleet. Maybe he’d get to spring a trap of his own.
Trap or no, right now it was time to go toe to toe with the enemy forces in Sigma 4 and finish them off. He’d sliced and diced at their forces every way he could devise, wearing them down with Hurley’s fighters and Duke’s attack ships. Now he was done with the subtleties.
“All units deploying laser buoys, admiral.” Harmon sounded aggressive, anxious to get at the enemy. “Estimate 45 second until full dep…” His head snapped around to his display then back toward Compton. “Particle accelerator fire from the orbital forts, sir.” He turned again, reading the data coming in on his display. “Yorktown was hit sir. Reports are sketchy, but it looks like she’s taken heavy damage.” He stared at his data again for another few seconds. “Admiral, I think we’re looking at weapons significantly more powerful than those we’ve encountered before.”
Fuck, Compton thought. He knew what it was right away. “They’ve got antimatter-powered particle accelerators on those fortresses.” He’d been worried about the forts, but he hadn’t foreseen more weapons powered by antimatter…and now he felt like a fool. They had antimatter-fueled point defense weapons…why not particle accelerators too? Whatever else had been happening while they were preparing Grand Fleet, the enemy got more antimatter up here, that much was certain.
“Get me Admiral West.” Compton had sent West’s task force on an attack against the fortresses. She’d taken a wider course, and she should be coming around from behind the planet in a few minutes.
“Yes, sir. Setting up the relay now.” West’s ships were using the planet for cover, which meant Compton didn’t have a direct line to her flagship. Harmon had to set up the link, using a series of other ships as relays. It would take a minute or two.
Compton looked down at his screen and flipped his com to the AI link. “Joker, I want ongoing reports on any activity from the new particle accelerators.” Compton had been interacting directly with Harmon and the rest of his staff more often recently, instead of working through his AI. In the brief instances over the last month when he’d been able to spare time for idle conjecture, he’d wondered if it was some kind of subconscious reaction to the machine enemy. If it was, he thought with passing amusement, it was wasted effort. Working through another human being who was in turn working through an AI didn’t seem to make much difference when he really thought about it. And he wasn’t going to squeeze the computers out of modern war even if he wanted to; that much was a certai
nty. War in space was complex business, and men needed their electronic aides if they were going to fight it. But it didn’t really matter - his people where all fully occupied right now, and Joker was perfect for relaying him information promptly.
“Yes, sir. There have been a total of five shots…excuse me, a sixth has just occurred.” Compton’s AI had been upgraded several times, but the personality module had remained consistent. “Shining Crescent has been hit twice, and is the most seriously impacted, admiral. The vessel has suffered severe damage to her reactors and is currently operating on 20% power.”
“Admiral, I have that link to Admiral West, sir.” Harmon was staring across the flag bridge, waiting for Compton’s orders.
“Put it through to my line.” Compton switched his com from Joker’s line. “Erica, I need your people to go in as quickly as you can. Those fortresses have some sort of super particle accelerators on them. There’s no way we can take that fire for the time it will take us to close.”
There was a delay of a few seconds’ as the signal bounced its way from ship to ship over to West’s flagship, and the same as her response made it back.
“Understood, sir. We’re on the way.”
“Very well. Compton out.” Back to Joker on the com: “Update?”
“It appears that the enemy platforms were seriously damaged by Admiral Hurley’s bombers. There are six fortresses, each of which appears to support at least four anti-matter particle accelerators. The weapons are not attached to the forts themselves; they appear to be satellites deployed approximately ten kilometers away from the stations.”
“Hold, Joker.” Compton snapped his head toward Harmon. “Max, advise Admiral West that the particle weapons are in detached satellites positioned near the fortresses. Those are her priority targets.” He switched his attention back to Joker. “Continue with report.”
The AI resumed where it had left off. “It appears that only one of the stations retains four operating weapons. Another has two, and the remaining four have only one each. Spectral analysis of the area strongly suggests the bomber strike destroyed the remaining installations.”
I wish I could kiss you, Greta, he thought with a sigh…twenty-four of those things would have torn the fleet to bits. “Commander Harmon, are the laser buoys in position?”
“Affirmative, sir.”
Compton stared over at his tactical officer. “Open fire. All units.”
Erica West gripped the armrests on her command chair. It was more habit than anything else…she was firmly strapped in and wearing a survival suit. Holding on was extraneous to say the least.
Her ships were coming in slow, thrusting to swing around Sigma 4 II. When they cleared the planet they’d be in a point blank range fight with the fortresses. She had no idea what those particle accelerators could do at such close quarters, but she knew it couldn’t be good. At least her lasers would be effective too, and she had her ships under orders to fire every weapon as soon as they came to bear.
“All laser batteries, prepare to fire.” She was commanding the task force flagship herself. Flag Captain Jones had been a freak casualty during the missile barrage, hit by a broken girder. She’d recover, but with a broken spine and fractured skull, she wasn’t going to be running the ship any time soon.
Monmouth was coming around first, followed closely by the PRC’s Yahsida and Akagi. The three capital ships were followed by half a dozen cruisers and a flotilla of Russian-Indian destroyers. More than enough to finish off a few damaged orbital forts. She hoped.
“All batteries…open fire!” She almost shouted into the com. It had been a long time since West had commanded a ship directly, and it felt good. Two of the forts had come into Monmouth’s field of fire, and she wanted to hit them as hard as possible before they could target her own ships.
Monmouth’s heavy lasers lanced out toward the first of the stations, their invisible pulses hitting the target hard at such short range. A Yorktown A, her flagship backed a strong punch, ten heavy laser cannons and an array of lighter weapons. She didn’t have the new enhancements the Yorktown Bs did, but the ship was still an awesome instrument of war.
“Multiple hits on target, admiral.” Hank Krantz was West’s tactical officer. He’d been one of her captains for the last few years, but she’d needed to switch around her staff for this mission. “Some damage…it’s hard to get accurate readings through those enemy hulls.”
The First Imperium ships and forts were armored with a strange alloy, laced with some type of dark matter infused metal that had, to date, confounded Earth science and remained a mystery, even to Tom Sparks and his research team. One thing was certain, however…it was extremely tough and highly resistant to laser fire.
“All batteries maintain fire.” She looked down at the data streaming in. Damn, she thought…these stations are tough.
“Particle accelerator hit on Akagi, admiral.” Krantz glanced up, a stunned look on his face. “Her reactors are both out. Secondary explosions…she’s bleeding air.”
West felt the blood drain from her face. One short range hit from these things can cripple a battleship, she thought…how the hell can we fight something like that?
“Admiral, I have a message from the flagship.” Krantz was excited, almost yelling. “The heavy enemy weapons are on satellites located around the primary forts. We are ordered to concentrate on destroying those.”
“No shit.” West was rattled. She’d never seen one shot almost wreck a capital ship. “All batteries, ignore the main platforms. Widest dispersal up to 20 klicks from the forts.” The satellites were small and hard to individually target, but she didn’t have any choice. They had to get those heavy particle guns. Now.
“Yes, admiral.” Krantz repeated the order on the fleetcom line.
West stared at the tactical screen. One more hit would almost certainly destroy Akagi. She wanted to send her to the rear, but there was no way to do it. Without her reactors she was on emergency power. That was nowhere near enough to decelerate a ship that size and turn it around. The stricken PRC battleship would continue toward the targets at her initial velocity, without weapons and almost defenseless. We might be better off, West thought for an instant…it will hurt less tactically to lose a crippled ship than to have a combat-effective one hit and taken out of action. But that wasn’t how she was wired. She didn’t use her wounded for cover…even if it was the most expedient play. Akagi and her crew were under her command, and she would do everything she could to save them.
“Get Akagi on my com, lieutenant.” She had an idea. “Now!”
“I have Lieutenant Commander Roku, admiral.”
Captain Ishida had been Akagi’s commander. Things must be bad over there, she thought. She tried to place Roku…he had been fourth in the chain of command, she thought. “Commander Roku, I want you to try something.” There was no point in asking about the captain and other officers or grilling Roku on the ship’s condition. That wasn’t West’s job, and the commander of Akagi had more important things to do than recap the last few minutes for her.
“Yes, admiral.” Roku’s voice was raw and hoarse. He was speaking English himself, and with no translation program rehashing the transmission, his tension came through unfiltered. “What would you like me to do?”
“I want you to fire your missiles.” No point wasting time, she thought…get right to the point. Akagi didn’t have the power to fire her lasers, but missiles could be launched off the batteries. “I want you to target the area around the fortresses.”
“Admiral, our targeting systems are badly damaged, and we’re well below minimum range for missiles anyway. We’ll never hit a target.” There was confusion in his voice. He didn’t understand what she was getting at.
“I don’t want pinpoint targeting, commander. I just want you to disable the safeties and expel the things in the general direction of the platforms. Detonate the nukes when they are close. Like mines. Do you understand?”
“Ah…yes
, admiral.” His tone was still confused, uncertain. It was clear he didn’t really get what she was after.
“Antimatter, commander.” She was trying to make him understand. “Those things are fueled by antimatter. I want nuclear explosions all around that area. All we need to do is damage the containment on one of those things or overload a vital circuit with radiation, and the antimatter will annihilate.” Her voice had gotten louder, more emphatic. “That’s why they’re positioned so far from the forts to begin with…they’re vulnerable.”
“Yes, I understand.” She could hear the beginnings clarity in his voice. He was starting to comprehend.
“I can’t shut down our laser barrage to retask for missile fire, but your lasers are offline anyway.”
“Yes, sir. Understood.” West could hear him shouting orders before she cut the line. Good, she thought…he understands.
“Admiral, I have Delta-Z codes from Boise and Mikasa.” The Grand Pact had adopted Alliance protocols for the final transmission from a doomed ship.
West didn’t respond. In the back of her mind she was trying not to hate herself for being relieved it was two heavy cruisers destroyed and not two battleships. How many, she thought, of the what…thousand crew on those two ships…will escape? She didn’t want the answer. Not now.
She was watching her screen, following the effects of the laser barrage her ships were firing. They’d gotten one of the satellites, but taking potshots with lasers wasn’t going to get the job done. Not fast enough.
“Shit, those things are hard to target.” She muttered softly under her lips, venting her frustration. “Good,” she whispered a moment later as she saw a cloud of small objects on her display…Akagi’s missiles. I hope this works, she thought anxiously. They’re not expecting incoming missiles at this range, and those birds are putting out minimal power and will be hard to detect.