The Turret: Starclan Foundation
Page 18
The messenger’s screams echoed and died as his footsteps had. Forty-four times.
The woman sat down, crossing her long, shapely legs. Youthful legs. She licked a small drop of blood from the left corner of her cheek as she admired her young face in the mirror. Now she buttoned her jacket and quickly straightened her skirt before she began brushing her long, silken brown hair. It would not be proper to look unkempt when the cleaners came to remove the mummy of that messenger. This job does have its perks. Listen to yourself! Pure evil. Part of her loved that thought…but part of her was repulsed by it…
***
Asteroid Defense Station 1437
Landing Bay Alpha
Standard Earth Date March 30 3488
Has it been over forty years? Jock looked around the strange structure. Other than the name, not much of the Turret remained as Jock remembered it. He stepped off of the LPCA and walked to meet the greeting party.
“Permission to come aboard, Sir!” Jock asked the Officer of the Deck.
“Permission granted. Welcome aboard, Admiral.” Lieutenant Parker Yamamoto replied. “Admiral on the deck!”
“Admiral!” Corrine Halsey walked two steps toward her father, “Dad!” before running the last five.
“Corry! Nice to see you, pumpkin! Is my Turret ready for inspection?” Jock gave her a hug.
“Dad, no ‘pumpkins’ or hugs in front of my command, please!” Corrine whispered, then she said loud and clear, “And, yes, Sir!”
“Sorry, Commander! I believe you know my security escort, Captain Michael Halsey?” Jock turned to indicate Mike, but instead saw the flash of the big marine going by and lifting his wife into his arms. “Oh, eh-em! Well.”
The crowd of two-dozen marines and sailors that had accumulated on the deck burst into applause as their CO blushed in her husband’s arms.
Mike set her down, and stepped back with a smart salute, “Pleased to see you, too, Commander!”
“Yes, well, Hmm. Follow me, gentlemen. And Marine!” Corry returned his salute and turned to her command, “At ease!” She rolled her eyes before she turned to her father and said, “Admiral, would you care to begin your inspection now?”
“Absolutely. Oh, Tracy sends her love and a message.”
“Message?”
“A weird one. Just, ‘five-zero’. Any clue what it is?”
“It’s a soon to be old record.” DAMN!
“Which way to the mess? I’m starved. Lunch first, then inspection.”
“Follow me.”
After lunch and an hour in their quarters to ‘freshen up’, Corrine brought Jock into her ready room.
“The place has changed a bit. Corry, are you sure you’re okay with being stationed here?”
“Admiral, you’ve asked me that every month for two years. Yes, it’s fine. The only thing that gets me a little-and it is just a little-is coming into this room, where you and Jack’s mom…”
At that moment Mike walked out of the bedroom door, wearing only a towel and drying his hair.
“Corry, do you have a hairbrush or a comb or…” Mike froze as he spotted the Admiral.
“Ha-ha, ha, ha!” Jock started laughing. “It didn’t get you that much! Corry, now I’m the one spooked by visions in this room!”
Corry started laughing even as her face glowed crimson. Mike just stared at the two of them, scratching his head. Then the alarms sounded.
“PROXIMITY ALERT!”
“PROXIMITY ALERT!”
“PROXIMITY ALERT!”
“Admiral, this drill my crew will run without me. I want to see how they react. Here, we can watch on this viscreen.” Corrine indicated the viscreen over the conference table as she and her father sat. Mike joined them after dressing in record time.
The viscreen showed the CIC. The commander’s station remained empty. Not only that, but the Commander was not in the CIC, and that was not a usual occurrence. The crew took only a half second to recognize it and rotate around. Wilson manned at the command station.
“Every time we’ve run this drill without me at the command station, I’ve been standing on the CIC watching. I want to see how focused they are.”
Corrine and Jock watched them run through the exercise with amazing efficiency; four inbound bogies.
“Sensors, talk.” Wilson commanded.
“Four inbound bogies, configs match Mark III Target Drones, Sir.” Lieutenant Thomas Kowalski had rotated into the sensor station to pull double duty with his comm assignment until the replacement comm officer arrived. She came in just as Tom finished his report.
“Shavers status, Parker?”
“Locked and ready, Sir!”
“Fire at will. Four rounds only. Laser status?”
“His commands flow easily, the crew has no problems following his orders. Good, Corrine. But four Shavers? Protocol calls for four on each target…”
“Admiral, Eddie’s found something here. By checking status in the weapon-of-choice, he was able to fire about ten seconds sooner.” Corrine’s proud voice carried the compliment to the Admiral.
“See that you tell him that, Commander.”
“Oh, I was planning on it, Sir.”
Twenty seconds later the exercise ended when all four Shaver rounds destroyed the target drones.
“Computer,” Corrine opened her comm to the CIC, “time from bogie detect to target destruction?”
“Elapsed time for this Class One Exercise is forty-two seconds.”
“PROXIMITY ALERT!”
“BATTLESTATIONS!”
“PROXIMITY ALERT!”
“BATTLESTATIONS!”
“PROXIMITY ALERT!”
“BATTLESTATIONS!”
The CIC staff never skipped a beat as they drove right into their tasks. Corrine, Jock and Mike made it to the CIC before the computer announced the third alert.
“Admiral on the Deck!” Wilson announced as he vacated the command station just as Corrine slid into it.
“Talk to me, Wilson!” Corrine’s command easy and level voice removed half of the tension from the CIC.
“We have sensor…shit! Four thousand contacts on predicted Bug path. Configs match Bugs, Commander” Edison’s manner slipped back to pure professional mode after the momentary slip. “ETA weapons range four-point-three hours. Velocity zero-point-five light speed. Now picking up a larger group behind. It looks like another sixteen thousand ships, same config.”
“Comm, get me Fleetcomm. Send ‘Paul Revere’.”
“Message sent, Commander”
“Admiral?”
“Fight your Turret, Commander.” What the hell happened to our picket ships? They must have been destroyed, jammed, or bypassed.
“Aye-aye, Sir. Comm, station wide.”
“Open.”
“This is Commander Halsey. This is not a drill. Repeat, this is not a drill. This looks like the real deal, people. This is what you’ve been preparing for. You have the tools. You have the talent. You have the damn guts. Trust your training and stay focused. Turret Halsey, lets squash some Bugs!”
Jock swore he could feel the entire station shake with the “HOO-RAH!” He shot a quick glance at Mike, recognized the pride he saw there. I’ll never look at my little Corry the same way again!
“Commander, Taclink with 1284, 1157, 1389 and 1621 online and four-by-four. Designation 1437 Command Flag unit.”
“Roger, Comm. Admiral, the station to my right is now your area command link.”
“Thank you Commander. Comm, open link to Fleet and ADS on Taclink.”
“Open.”
“This is Admiral MacAlister. You know what needs to be done. You are trained for it. You have the tools. You have the training. You have the ability. You have the drive. You have the plan. Now you have the opportunity. Trust your training, trust yourselves, trust each other. The ADS units on active Taclink are now designated Star Castle Shannon. Godspeed and good hunting.”
Jock heard the roar of the ancient che
er, “HOO-RAH!” one more time. Revving them up is the easy part. The waiting is the hard part.
“Weapons, talk to me, Taclink numbers” Corry’s voice refocused her crew.
“Three hundred forty Shavers with firing solutions. Outlyings window opens in one hour, forty minutes, center window, ours, in one hour, fifty-five.” Yamamoto read his stats like an accountant.
“Fifteen hundred GravTorp tubes loaded with twenty reloads each.” Troy Hicks clicked off his assignment.
“Six thousand Shrikes in silos. Ten reloads available each silo. Yields set on max at Fifteen Kilotons.” Montgomery’s accent calmly delivered his information.
“Two hundred Gravitic grapples ready, projected to be in range of bogies at pass-through.” Elsa’s voice was as calm as the rest.
“Two hundred lasers charged and ready.” Jones took a deep breath after reporting.
“Defensive screens at one-zero-seven percent, now passive.” Kevin Alvarez reported.
“Tactical Plan Beta for the ADS on Taclink; GravTorps and Shrikes launch round one for standby stealth mode. Shavers ready for rapid, sustained fire. Lasers keep your targeting locks. Grapples, stay alert. Screens, go active after initial Shaver fire.
“Fleet, execute Black Smith. Task Force Anvil, Task Force Hammer and Task Force Nail, execute well and keep your eyes open. Admiral MacAlister out.”
Now, we wait.
Chapter Seven
The Battle For Castle Shannon
Ort Cloud
Standard Earth Date March 30 3488
“Sensor update, Commander.” Lieutenant Wilson declared.
“Talk to me, Eddie.” Corrine Halsey commanded.
“The first four thousand Bug ships have begun decelerating hard. Twelve thousand objects inbound at zero-point-five light speed.”
Damn it! Jock thought, they know about the turrets, and they’re attacking them. That’s what I’d do, keep them busy. Crap.
Course projections. Give me targets, Eddie, and ETA. I need information, and I need it now.”
She’s damn good. Thinking way ahead. Jock thought. She could fight this Taclink Grouping on her own.
“Projectiles are smaller than predicted, more numerous. Target appears to be us, Commander. None are targeted at the adjacent turrets. ETA two hours.”
“Commander, they’re trying to keep us busy. We’ll need to split our Taclink sensors; track the projectiles, as well as the main group.” Jock responded. “Comm, is Fleet into Taclink yet?”
“Four-by-four, Admiral.”
“Commander, your thoughts?”
“Their vanguard is targeting us. They are ignoring or are ignorant of the other Turrets. First, we hit the projectiles with the Shavers. They’re small targets, but Parker can hit ‘em. Second, we target their main body with the other Turret’s Shavers, and all the combined GravTorps. Third, we target our Shrikes at their vanguard, the other Taclink Shrikes at their main body. Fourth, we use our lasers and grapples against their vanguard, and the rest of the Taclink weapons against their main body.” Corrine let out a huge sigh at the end of that.
“Good plan, Commander.” Jock took a deep breath. “We’ll follow your first and fourth recommendations and target the incoming with one Shaver round per projectile. Lieutenant Yamamoto, you don’t have to hit each one, but more than half would greatly enhance our odds of survival.”
“We’ll do better than half by a bit, Admiral. It’s Tuesday, so I’m using both eyes today, Sir!”
“Our lasers will target the rest. On your toes, Lieutenant Jones.”
“Fish in a barrel, Admiral.” Jane replied.
“All other weapons target the main body. Commander Singh?”
“Here, Admiral” Tracy’s voice cracked just a little. I know where this is going. She thought.
“Command of Castle Shannon Taclink is hereby transferred to you.”
“Admiral,” Her voice cracked until she swallowed, “Mr. Mac, I…” The image of Jock cleaning her scraped knee when she was seven years old, drying her tears, her second father, flashed before her.
“You have the judgment, the talent, the guts and the training for this, Commander Singh. You’re my best choice.” Jock softened his tone a touch, “I need you to do this, Tracy. It has to be this way.”
“Aye-aye, Sir!” she snapped a professional response while glancing around her CIC. Every eye was on their own station, giving her a moment to be human. “Admiral, one more thing.”
“Yes, Commander?”
“Fortiter, Sir.” Tracy unconsciously rubbed her right shoulder as she spoke.
“Fortiter!” The voices of Commander Singh’s bridge crew echoed over the comm.
“Fortiter, Tracy.”
Damn you, Corry, you’d better come through this OK. And your dad and husband too, Tracy thought.
“Comm, Turret Halsey only.”
“Open.”
“We’re target number one for the Bugs right now. They haven’t targeted the other turrets, most likely because they don’t know about them. Our mission is to reduce the main force so the Fleet can mop up. We will fulfill that mission.
“I’m asking a lot from each of you. Earth is asking a lot from each of you. Give ‘em Hell!”
***
Task Force Nail
USF Lexington
Standard Earth Date March 30 3488
“Comm, direct link to Admiral Gordon.” Commodore Rhonda Rhodes did not like what she saw unfolding. Not one iota.
“Open.”
“Mark, do you see it?”
“Yeah. They’re piling on 1437. Jock’s there.”
“Damn! Mark, let me take Task Force Nail to support him.”
“I can’t let you do that, Rhonda. Your twelve battlecruisers and twenty-four cruisers are the only stealth ships in the fleet, and I need them to support Hammer even more now. I don’t think the turrets will be as effective as we needed them to be if the Bugs know they’re there.”
“Mark, let me go stealth and move to 174.224.88. Can you see it?”
“Hold on, let me look…” Admiral Gordon scanned the coordinates position, studying the 3D relationship to Hammer, Anvil, and the Castle Shannon. “Hmm…Nice, Rhodes. Go. And good hunting, Commodore!”
“Aye-aye, Sir!” The invisible ships of Task Force Nail began moving the moment the Admiral uttered the word “nice’.
***
Task Force Hammer
USF Dreadnought
Standard Earth Date March 30 3488
“Admiral Gordon to Task Force Hammer, we’re moving to new intercept coordinates. Formation to 174.188.80. Acknowledge.”
“174.188.80. Roger That, Admiral,” echoed from the thirty battlecruisers and sixty cruisers in the task force.
“Charlie, we’re gonna end up in a knife fight here. I can feel it.” At least we’ll be in position to help Jock.
“It’s what I’d do, Admiral. Try to disrupt our formations and get in close to use the beams. They have the numbers, about twenty to one.” Charles Gridley replied.
“But we’ve got speed and maneuverability, and our ships should have superior firepower. I just have to figure out the best way to use it.”
***
Chrysler Building
55th Floor
New York City
Standard Earth Date March 30 3488
“What?” The brown haired woman snapped impatiently at her comm. Why does everything hurt?
“It has begun.”
“Good. You know what to do, so do it.” I feel like Hell! I can’t stay like this. It just isn’t right!
***
The Battle For Castle Shannon
ADS 1437 CIC
Standard Earth Date March 30 3488
“Sensors, immediate updates on any changes. Weapons, thirty second notice before Shavers firing point.”
“Aye, aye, Admiral!” Wilson and Yamamoto chorused.
“Commander, what do you see?” Jock indicated the large tactical vis
creen. I need to teach here, and not get in her way. I just hope it’s not a waste.
“They need to get in close to use their numbers.” Corrine observed.
“Exactly. They’re swarming.”
“Kill the queen, disorganize the swarm?”
“That may just work if the queen is here.”
“She has to be, Admiral.”
Jock stared at his daughter in surprise. “Go on.”
“They don’t have FTL comm. The queen has to be in comm range. Unless it’s all preprogrammed.”
“Right. If the Queen Bug is here, and we target it…”
“Everything moves to defend it.”
“And if it is preprogrammed? Doing the opposite of what they expect may just overload the contingencies built into their plan.”
“So, we hit their rear, ignore the vanguard and the main body.”
“Comm, Fleet Comm One, link.”
“Open.”
“Jeri, Mark, Karen, Commander Halsey has an idea…”
“New sensor contact, Admiral! Three ships, big…about eighteen kilometers in diameter, roughly egg shaped. Vanguard has ceased decelerating. Main body is now decelerating hard.”
“Good work Wilson. Admirals, I think those three big ships are the CIC of their operation. Suggest change to Flying Wedge, use Anvil to punch a hole through their first wave so Hammer can move in and squash the queens.”
“I see it, Jock. What about Earth? A lot of ships will get by us…”
“The main body is decelerating hard. That means that they’ve already released their payloads, and they are committed to protecting the three big ships. Karen, you bring up the four hundred heavy cruisers of Beta Fleet to intercept any projectiles aimed at Earth. Once Hammer has engaged the Bug’s VIPs, Anvil will pursue and destroy all main body Bug ships. Beta will mop up and support as the situation allows.”