Counter-attack

by Max Glebow

  “Continue firing on enemy heavy ships, pursuit planes, take off. Battleship Saint Petersburg, fire thirty torpedoes with anti-small ships filler.”

  The time won by the torpedo attack of the 'Invisibles' was running out. If I wanted to stop the wave of heavy enemy ships rolling towards our squadron, it was time to start.

  “Start deceleration. Torpedo bays, stand by for full firing.”

  Our pursuit planes have taken on the quarg machines covering the torpedo bombers. The forces were so uneven that I didn’t expect any clear results, but the unpiloted pursuit planes proved to be good. Still, the absence of a pilot in the cockpit allowed operators to treat their machines in a completely different way, throwing them into such perilous attacks that no living pilot would ever dare to undertake. Anyway, my men shot down 15 torpedo bombers and some pursuit planes, and then 30 torpedoes crashed into this chaotic dogfight, and hit the pursuit planes and torpedo bombers with small missiles out of splitted warheads.

  Well, I got to hand it to the quarg pilots who covered up the torpedo bombers even at the cost of their own lives. If they couldn’t hit a rocket, they’d put their machine in the firing line, but there were a lot of missiles, and even such selflessness didn't help enemy pilots to save many protected machines. But a dozen torpedo bombers finally broke through towards our battleships and fired.

  Yeah, I underestimated the enemy, and I got greedy about the number of drone torpedoes allocated to the strike. Now, a hundred torpedoes were coming at us, and that was a serious test for the anti-aircraft systems of hybrid battleships.

  Five explosions shook Dragon's Tail. All the hits were to the fore part. The armor raised by the lizards didn’t withstand the impact, and our armor couldn’t do it either, because a torpedo is too bad a thing. But the ship did not suffer any real critical damage, and quasi-living armor gradually began to heal up the holes. Battleship Saint Petersburg was less fortunate. It caught seven torpedoes, which led to more serious consequences. Fortunately, the engines weren’t damaged, but two hits to the drone torpedo bays completely stripped the ship of that weapon. Both battleships sustained damage to several major caliber guns, which didn’t make us happy either. Anyway, my savings backfired, and I scolded myself for being presumptuous.

  “In 30 seconds, the enemy will fire on us with the main batteries,” pronounced dispassionately Slin-at, “I begin to perform evasive maneuvers.”

  Yeah, it made sense at almost ultimate distance, but I seriously feared that, given the density of the fire we risked getting caught in, maneuvering wouldn’t help us.

  “Torpedo bays, full salvo. Target is enemy aircraft carriers,” I gave the order as soon as the quarg aircraft carriers were within range. I wanted to knock these unpleasant weapons out of the hands of the quargs. The anti-torpedo shields were a major obstacle to our efforts and resulted in a large amount of drone torpedoes being used to overcome them.

  “The enemy began firing.”

  Almost immediately, Dragon's Tail was hit. Probably it was just bad luck, but it happens in combat. We’ve had another major caliber cannon destroyed, and this one was made by lizards.

  “Disperse fire to the maximum extent!” I still sought to damage as many enemy ships as possible.

  The distance was shrinking, and our shells were hitting the targets more and more often, but we were getting hit a lot too. Dragon’s Tail was shaken by enemy shells. Not all of them penetrated the armor, lizard engineers ate their bread, or whatever they like to eat, for a reason, but the damage was mounting. By now, only half the major caliber guns could have fired. Battleship Saint Petersburg, oddly enough, was holding up better, although it entered the artillery battle in a worse condition, but the longer this went on, the more obvious it was that we should get out of the fight before it was too late, if it wasn't already too late.

  “Start acceleration to break off the enemy,” gave I the belated order.

  “The enemy has put forward a stunningly thin veil of mosquito forces against our torpedoes,” Slin-at commented on the new markers on the tactical projection, “Rear Admiral, don’t you think it’s strange that the enemy hasn’t repeated the attack of torpedo bombers? After all, they have achieved some success.”

  “So they have no torpedo bombers or other mosquito forces, at least not on those aircraft carriers still trying to pursue our squadron. Give this information to the Fleet Commander.”

  “90 percent of our torpedoes have been shot down,” reported the operator, “I see nine hits on enemy aircraft carriers. Two of them were destroyed by the explosions of the propulsion systems, and three others halted acceleration, apparently with serious damage.”

  The battle continued. Our battleships held, but only miraculously kept their speed up. The well-designed hull layout that we borrowed from the quargs made the propulsion systems one of the most protected units of hybrid ships. That was the only hope left. None of the two battleships represented a major combat force. Barely 20 per cent of the guns were firing, the rest of the cannons were turned into mutilated wreckage, sticking out of the battered sides. Even self-healing lizard armor couldn’t cope with the damage. The repeated hits of heavy projectiles into the breaches in the armour destroyed the vital internal structure of the ships. By the minute I felt like we weren’t going to get away.

  “The enemy stopped the forced acceleration and started realignment,” the operator shouted out loud suddenly. The nerves of all the officers at the command post of the battleship were extremely strained, well, maybe, except for Slin-at, though who would understand him, the lizard.

  “Fleet Commander on the line!”

  “Igor,” heard I the voice of Nelson, “hold on, we’re coming.”

  “But Admiral, Sir...” I resented it, but the Admiral wouldn’t let me finish.

  “They’ve stopped the pursuit, Rear Admiral,” patiently explained Nelson, even though he could just shut me up with an order, “You stopped them. Those enemies who can catch up with us are already less than us. The enemy fleet is stretched like a long bowel, and the mosquito forces are depleted. Our second squadron is coming, soon the fleet will be united again. There won’t be a better time for a counterattack. And no hero stuff, it's enough. Battleships Dragon’s Tail and Saint Petersburg, withdraw from the battle!”

  ***

  “Stop the pursuit of the enemy,” ordered Yash, seeing that the advance team’s forces were no longer sufficient to destroy the human squadron, “Prepare to repulse a counterattack of the enemy fleet.”

  Yash was an experienced commander and had no doubt that a counterattack would follow. He himself would have done exactly that, because his fleet now had a very strange battle order, if not to call this formation a complete mess. As the human squadron was pursued, his ships were damaged and forced to stop the superacceleration. Eventually they stretched into a long chain without any system, and now that chain was slowly shrinking, gradually regrouping into a united fleet, but the speed of the process was not at all satisfactory to Yash.

  “The Fleet vanguard to proceed with the conversion to a defensive order. Bind the enemy squadron by battle until the arrival of the main force. If necessary, allow a slow retreat towards us.”

  “Commander Yash,” the communications officer addressed the Commander, “There's a clear text signal from one of the enemy’s larger battleships. This is a message to us, written in our language and this is a quarg who reads it out!”

  “But...” Yash seemed to have been electrocuted, “How is that possible?”

  “I don't know, Commander,” the officer was confused, “but that’s a fact.”

  ***

  After the removal of the block, almost all the captured quargs forgot much of their lives, but it was kind of a selective process. Personal memories unrelated to war, politics, system of power, and other such things have generally been preserved, and with them were kept pieces of other information, from which Federation security officers have attempted to put together at least a general pictu
re of what was happening in the quarg society and why they were waging this debilitating war on two fronts.

  I contacted Major Karjalainen ten days before a quarg fleet emerged from hyperspace in the vicinity of star Ran. I couldn't stop thinking that many quargs have been engaged in war with us and the lizards not of their own free will, but because of hard and irresistible coercion. And it seemed to me that the main factor in this coercion was the need for regular renewal of the block, without which the quargs simply died.

  “Good afternoon, Rear Admiral, Sir,” Security Major greeted me from the tablet screen.

  “Good afternoon, Mr Karjalainen, let’s dispense with the ranks. I took you away from your business on a matter that has long occupied me. In our last conversation, you said that among the prisoners with the removed block there were quargs willing to cooperate with us.”

  “That's right. There are now more than 20. We keep them separate from the other prisoners under improved conditions, and use them as 'artists' in our performances when removing blocks.”

  “I need two or three of the most loyal, preferably officers. I want to record an address to the quargs, and under the right circumstances, broadcast it on enemy ships and troops instead of the standard offer of surrender.”

  Karjalainen went silent for a while, while looking at me.

  “Khm... It's very interesting. But I can’t make this decision myself, I need to coordinate with my supervisor,” the Major was thoughtful, but it was obvious that he was interested in the idea.

  “No doubt, Mr Karjalainen,” I smiled with understanding, I am sending you an approximate text of the address. I’m not a propaganda expert, so I’ll appreciate a constructive criticism.”

  Let the security officers do their part by adjusting my text. Working together unites the participants, especially when there are prospects for all the benefits that it will bring.

  Anyway, my initiative has been approved. The text has been redrafted, but its essence was preserved, and I even sent it to Lit-ta to get the same constructive criticism. But only in lieu of comments I received a brief response from the Governor-General of Iota Persei: “That’s extremely admirable, Admiral. When the tape is ready, send it to me, I’ll show the Senior. She’ll be interested.”

  ***

  The fleets converged using a classic line-of-battle formation. The last time I saw anything like this in Barnard’s Star system, but in that case Admiral Nelson fought the battle relying on the orbital fortresses of Barnard-3, and now the battle was in outer space.

  I sent a hundred 'Invisibles’, which had completely depleted their ammunition, to the edge of the system to reload, a transport ship full of drone torpedoes was waiting for them there. It was obvious that these ships would not return in time for the main phase of the battle. Except for the battleships Saint Petersburg and Dragon’s Tail, which have actually become ruins, I had at my disposal three aircraft carriers with torpedoes that had not yet taken part in the battle, and 48 'Invisibles' of outdated design left with the slow part of our fleet, which was now in a hurry to join the fighting squadron.

  I was aware that in the fight that was about to start, it was best not to get in the way of Nelson. A battle of heavy ships using a line-of-battle formation is his speciality, in which all the high officers of the Federation are no match for Admiral Nelson. The only way I could help him was to put the remains of drone torpedoes to good use, which I was going to come to grips with.

  The quarg vanguard was holding on to its dignity despite our numerical advantage. Commanders of our battleships and cruisers, tired of running away, have smoothly re-formed to an attack order and struck the heavy ships of the quargs before they had time to complete their maneuver. At this stage of the battle, the Titan-class ships did not take part in the combat. Titan itself had not yet reached the battleground while moving from the fourth planet, and similar quarg ships have fallen far behind in pursuit of our squadron, but it was clear to us and to the quargs that they would not stay away for long.

  By the minute, the quarg fleet was growing, receiving reinforcements in the form of stragglers which were pulling up to the scene of the battle, and at some point, the balance of power aligned and began to shift in favor of the enemy. This was the moment I chose for a torpedo strike, because I didn’t want to wait for the quargs to pull up straggling aircraft carriers and put a full anti-torpedo shield in front of their ships.

  “Aircraft carriers Wellington, Valletta, and Windhoek, take over the target distribution and take up position for a full launch of drone torpedoes,” I gave the order long awaited by the ship commanders, “The firing configuration is standard - three waves with different types of warheads.”

  My only targets were heavy ships, since enemy aircraft carriers within reach have already lost almost all of their pursuit planes and probe carriers, and at this stage did not pose a major threat.

  The salvo turned out to be spectacular. As the ships of the adversaries have converged on the effective range of main batteries, the commanders of quarg battleships cruisers failed to organize efficacious anti-torpedo defenses. Of course, the commander of the quarg vanguard did try to assemble some kind of anti-torpedo network from the remnants of the mosquito fleet and light ships, but, it is well known, when you do something with unfit means, often the result isn’t very good either.

  If I had more torpedoes, the consequences for the enemy would be catastrophic, but these three aircraft carriers had less than 500 torpedoes, only a third of which had anti-ship filler. The quargs shot down some torpedoes on their way, and the ships' anti-aircraft complexes also managed to destroy some torpedoes, but about a hundred torpedoes reached their targets. After a series of bright flashes on the armor of enemy battleships and cruisers, there was a sharp change in the balance of forces on the tactical projection.

  “Aircraft carriers Windhoek, Valletta and Wellington, withdraw from the battle and proceed to the assembly point to resupply,” I ordered the commanders of the ships fired, “Space control, report torpedo strike results.”

  “26 of the enemy’s heavy ships were destroyed. 39 others sustained varying degrees of damage,” reported the operator.

  “Rear Admiral,” a three-dimensional image of Admiral Nelson appeared in the corner of the projection screen, “Good salvo, congratulations. But cool your jets for now. The squadron from the fourth planet and your remaining 'Invisibles' with it will now be coming. Save them for the enemy’s super-battleships. We have to deal with the other enemy ships ourselves now.”

  “That's right, Fleet Admiral, Sir,” answered I according the regulations.

  “And get to my flagship, because your Dragon's Tail might be falling apart. I’ll send the admiral’s boat for you.”

  I was looking at the tactical projection, and my mood was getting worse by the minute. What was happening now was what I tried my best to prevent - a slaughter, a mutual extermination, in which the heavy ships on both sides were grinding each other up. And the fact that the quargs had the same losses as us, and maybe even bigger ones, didn’t really reconcile me with what was happening.

  In this battle, every second people were dying, they were experienced military men, and no one will be able to replace them. The Fleet can be rebuilt, but the people can’t be rebuilt. Lit-ta told me that this was the issue with which the lizards had already been confronted. Now we had to experience it ourselves the hard way.

  The squadron from the fourth planet finally joined the battle, and it flared up with renewed vigor, like a fire into which a fresh batch of firewood was thrown. The quargs were also approached by reinforcements, but there were still a few minutes left before the arrival of the Titan-class battleships. Now I was inactive, Nelson’s order forced me to be present at the flagship as an idle spectator.

  At this point, a third of our fleet has been flying through space in the form of shapeless debris, this kind of battle quickly absorbs the forces of the adversaries. The quargs were worse off. At least, we started to suffer lo
sses only after the beginning of the last phase of the battle, and the enemy began to lose ships over the planets and then in pursuit of our squadron, so now the forces fighting between the orbits of the second and third planets were roughly equal. But twenty large battleships of the enemy were approaching the battlefield, posing a terrible threat to our fleet, even though they had been damaged in battle with orbital fortresses.

  “Commander, Sir,” I’ve decided to distract Admiral Nelson from managing the battle, “Allow me to take command of the light forces of the squadron.”

  Nelson turned to me looking surprised. At this stage of the battle, the Admiral saw no practical use of destroyers or corvettes.

  “What for, Rear Admiral?”

  “Seven new aircraft carriers are coming with the enemy super battleships. These ships are capable of putting out such an anti-torpedo shield that the remaining drone torpedoes I have will not be capable of effectively striking at the super-heavy ships, and I think the consequences of the failure of this strike are as obvious to you as they are to me.”

  “Go on.”

  “I want to bypass the super-battleships formation on the side and fire the torpedoes along the vector perpendicular to the trajectory of their motion, before the enemy has yet to engage our fleet, but if I try to get the 'Invisibles' into the strike position, they’ll be detected by enemy patrols, and the aircraft carriers will deploy an anti-torpedo shield.”

  “It will be so,” agreed Nelson.

  “I want to launch a light forces attack on enemy aircraft carriers, or rather, a mock attack.”

  “But it’s useless. Battleships will kill our destroyers and corvettes like targets in a range, one shell for one ship.”

  “Casualties will be high, but the aim is not to destroy aircraft carriers. I am well aware that the light forces attack is doomed to fail. I need something else. In the process of this attack, destroyers and corvettes, moving in a deployed formation, will filter the space from the side where the 'Invisibles' will subsequently launch torpedoes, and they will destroy all enemy reconnaissance and patrol ships, and it would seem logical and should not arouse suspicion in the enemy. As a result, no one will detect the 'Invisibles', and when the enemy spots them, it will be too late.”