The Fisk was currently patrolling well outward of Nasser’s orbit. Due to the discovery of the heavy destroyer, the Navy had doubled up on all patrols. Since the Navy wasn’t able to double up on the number of destroyers, that meant that the Navy wasn’t covering as much territory. On the other hand, two well-handled second-generation Federal destroyers ought to be able to handle the one heavy destroyer.
The Fisk was seventy thousand kilometers ahead of a third generation destroyer, one of only one in the Nasser system. The Vincennes had a nearly 2G acceleration advantage over the Fisk, and her missile launchers could load and launch weapons a few precious seconds faster but she wasn’t any less noisy and her energy weapons were no more powerful or accurate. Due solely to her superior acceleration, she trailed the Fisk as they drifted some fifteen million kilometers above Nasser, which at that distance was little more than a very bright object.
An alarm went off on the bridge, and Shin Ho swung around to look at the communications display. A ship had just jumped into reasonably close proximity. Shin Ho immediately commed the captain and asked, “Sir, a ship just jumped in, two point two million kilometers due north. Do we have anything due?”
The captain promptly told him, “No. Go to general quarters, comm the Vincennes and send off a copy of our sensor records to Nasser.”
In addition to complying with his captain’s orders he ordered the missile room to shift to heavy missiles and commed the power room to verify that it wasn’t in the middle of a maintenance project.
While he was talking to the power room, two more ships jumped in, both within a half million kilometers of each other and the first ship, now identified as the same heavy destroyer they’d earlier tangled with. Moments later, and within seconds of each other, the two new ships were tentatively identified as unknown second gen destroyers.
Ten minutes later, four more ships appeared on the Fisk’s sensors. There were now seven.
The captain appeared on the bridge and ordered the Vincennes to increase its acceleration while he reversed the Fisk in an effort to bring the two close enough to be able to support each other.
Meanwhile, the seven destroyers, four of which were completely unidentifiable, meaning they were new construction, were busily trying to maneuver into some sort of a formation. Their entrance had been very ragged and they still resembled a herd of cats, but there were seven of them.
The captain commed the Vincennes and said, “This is clearly an opening move, and it might not be the only one, they may have more ships. My guess is they are making a move to take the system, which means taking us. I’ve sent an alert, and no matter what happens here, they are now identified. Question is, what to do now.”
The Vincennes captain said, “We don’t let them get within missile range of us, but even more importantly, we must not allow them to target our orbiting infrastructure.”
They discussed possible tactics, and ended up deciding that the Vincennes’s acceleration advantage meant it stood the better chance of remaining out of missile range.
As the seven ships converged on each other, Shin Ho closely monitored their movements and emissions. He put up a plot of the system, highlighting the three fixed federal bases, all located in Nasser orbit, and the position of the two carriers, one cruiser and two additional destroyers. Those carriers were the only real federal offensive weapons in the system that had the ability to deal with this many ships, and one of them was in dry-dock, while the Bon Homme Richard was currently seriously out of position.
Additionally, he had no idea if these strangers were the only ‘enemy’ ships in the system. The fact that they had emerged close to the Fisk and Vincennes couldn’t have been an accident, and Shin Ho quickly came to the conclusion that the first order of business for the still unknown enemy would be to destroy the two federal destroyers that at present represented the only federal warships preventing them from capturing or destroying all the fixed federal installations in Nasser orbit.
It didn’t look good.
Over the next two hours the federal destroyers remained outside of heavy missile range and waited both for a response to their flash messages and for an opening move from the still disorganized enemy formation.
Shin Ho’s captain emerged from his cabin and after looking at the plot announced, “At present, our two ships are all the federal forces available to prevent the destruction of all three federal installations. We have over ten thousand troops on the surface and we have to assume that if the orbitals were lost, those troops would be overwhelmed and if they were fortunate, captured.
In total, we have over thirty-five thousand people in this system, and I have no doubt that the survivors would not be treated with kindness. Therefore, we must do whatever necessary to prevent this force from entering missile range of the planet.”
He paused to allow all his bridge officers to absorb the implications of his words, and then continued, “We are going to launch a preemptive attack, targeting the heavy destroyer. I assess the odds of success as being low – they’ve got seven ships to provide missile defense; however, our attack will provide us with good intelligence on how well they can handle their ships and what those ships’ abilities are. We expect the Tillotson and Défiance to jump into position within the hour, providing us with a decent offensive punch. In order not to give away our intentions we will continue to hover outside of missile range, giving ground as necessary. It is possible that one or more enemy ships will jump, either to place themselves inside our missile envelope, or in an attempt to get between us and the planet.”
He took a sip of coffee and resumed, “We are now slightly less than four million kilometers distant from Nasser, making it unlikely that they are going to attempt the latter move; however, it can’t be ruled out. If that happens we’ll have to adapt.”
“Meanwhile, I want to ensure that everyone gets fed. Just so you fully understand, we must prevent these ships from getting within missile range of Nasser. That means we must survive, at least, long enough to prevent the destruction of Nasser’s orbitals. Lt. Lee, remain on the bridge, everyone else, you have fifteen minutes to eat and return to your duty station.”
The captain sat down in the command chair and waved Shin Ho over, “Lieutenant, I want you to comm the power and missile rooms. I need to know of any problems. We’ll be attacking the moment the Tillotson and Défiance jump in. I’d suggest that you comm the galley and have something brought up, I don’t think you’re going to get much opportunity to eat after the battle begins.”
Forty-two minutes later the two ancient destroyers appeared, a mere fifteen thousand kilometers aft of the Fisk and only ten thousand kilometers from each other. Three minutes later the four ships went to maximum acceleration toward the intruders.
It took nearly ten minutes for the seven enemy ships to respond, by which time the four federal destroyers were just moments away from extreme heavy missile range. On command, all four ships launched four heavy missiles. Within the next minute they launched two more flights, at which time they four ships reversed acceleration.
They now had forty-eight heavy missiles in flight, all targeting the one heavy destroyer. The attack had little chance of destroying the ship, but it would provide good intelligence on the enemy’s capabilities and how well the ships were handled.
Chapter 25
Lt. Alexi Tretiakov, the Federal Destroyer Gresham
Alexi stepped onto the bridge and saluted Captain Korchagina, the commanding officer of the Gresham, Alexi’s new assignment.
His promotion and reassignment had both come as something of a surprise, but now that he was aboard the ship, he looked forward to working aboard the recently federalized Lubyan destroyer.
The Gresham had orders to transfer from Lubya, where it had been operating for the last forty years, to Nasser, where it was to join the rapidly growing federal presence.
Captain Korchagina was a fellow Lubyan and had spent the better part of twenty years in the tiny Lubyan Self Defense
Force, with periodic three-month assignments aboard a federal ship or base.
Following the conclusion of the civil war, the Federal Navy had gradually turned over large numbers of destroyers and missile boats to the various systems. In turn, those systems agreed to maintain the craft. Most of the systems had used them for customs and largely non-military system maintenance, but over the years and decades, the vast majority of those ships had become too expensive to operate and had ended up in the breakers.
Lubya was one of the newest and smallest colonies, but it was also one of the most remote, and had elected to continue to operate all four destroyers it had received. At present, two ships were idle, awaiting delivery of replacement parts, or in the case of one, awaiting allocation of funding that would allow the system to order the parts.
Of the two currently operational destroyers, the Gresham had just been federalized and money for repairs to the third and fourth ships was in the pipeline. As soon as they became operational, the remaining two would be federalized and reassigned.
Captain Korchagina casually returned Alexi’s salute and waved him to a seat. He leaned back in his chair, revealing an expanse of stomach that was virtually unheard of in the regular Navy. He began, “I’ve reviewed your documents and I notice a number of discrepancies.”
Alexi sat a little straighter, but since he hadn’t been asked a question didn’t reply.
The captain looked up and raised his eyebrows. Alexi realized that he was expected to respond, and so he asked, “Sir? Discrepancies?”
Captain Korgachani told him, “I see that you are missing a number of medical implant updates - three to be exact, and one of your certifications is out of date.”
Alexi mentally ran through the possible certification deficiencies and said, “Sir, I’ve served aboard the Tillotson since leaving the Academy. The ship maintained a very active patrol of the system of Nasser, and therefore, it is possible that my captain or his exec was unable to keep my medical implants up to date. Is there a problem?”
The captain gave Alexi a reasonably hard look, “Lieutenant, failure to take care of the little problems inevitably leads to big problems. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to bring your records up to date, but I want it understood that I expect you to pay careful attention to your duties – all of them. It appears that you have some experience on second-generation destroyers, which is why you were assigned to my ship. Our orders are to depart immediately for Nasser. It also appears that you know that system, and I may from time to time call on you for information. You are assigned to the bridge, standing watch with Lieutenants Keum and Prokopchenko.“
“We’re due to undock within the next six hours, and I’ll want you with me on the bridge – we need to begin getting you up to speed. Right now, I’ll have an aide take you to your quarters, and then I want you to report to the quartermaster to get your paperwork straightened out. That is all.”
Alexi saluted smartly, received an offhand reply and followed an enlisted man into officer country.
As he walked he looked curiously at the ship. It seemed to be spotless.
He dumped his belongings on the top bunk of his assigned quarters, checked the time and quickly went aft to the power room.
He found the officer in charge, Lt. Cdr. Filipov, and introduced himself. He said, “I’ve just transferred in from the Tillotson. It is my understanding that we’re departing within just a few hours, but I wanted to introduce myself and get up to date on your plant.”
The commander, an older female, asked, “You were on the Tillotson? What kind of ship was he?” Alexi smiled, “Now, he is a fighting ship, but when I first reported aboard, he was a mess. Can you give me a quick synopsis of your systems?”
She smiled, “I understand that you ran into an unclassified heavy destroyer. Is that true?” Alexi somberly agreed. She turned to her console and brought up a schematic. She said, “Our two fusion plants are running at about eighty-seven percent original rated output, and both capacitor banks have been recently rebuilt.” Alexi asked, “What about the cabling?” She shook her head and he asked, “Have you had access to the upgrades and improvements recently made to the other second gen destroyers?”
She said, “A few.”
He glanced at the time and shook her hand a second time and excused himself.
He ran forward and up and arrived at the tiny office. He introduced himself again and was offered a chair.
The quartermaster seemed to take his position seriously, and also seemed to want to take his time. Alexi finally interrupted him, “The ship is preparing to undock and leave for an extended cruise. I have a great deal to do, so we need to quickly wrap this up. What else do you need from me?”
He was told, “We need to schedule you in to get three implants replaced.” Alexi stood, “If that is everything, notify me of the time and place.”
He didn’t understand why such a little detail was so important.
He quickly ran back up to the bridge and spoke to the Comtech on watch. Within just a few moments he was able to learn that the Gresham had not received very many updates. He told her, “The Navy has available a full system upgrade, Mod 17.3.5. It includes some badly needed improvements to our sensors and in particular will allow us to feed one energy mount from multiple capacitors. Please pass this on to your department head and if he or she has any questions I’ve been working with that mod for at least six months.”
She asked, “Sir, what can you tell me about Nasser?” He grimaced, “The situation is rapidly deteriorating. We have two carriers and the Los Angeles, plus a number of destroyers, but we’ve recently discovered that Nasser has secretly built a heavy destroyer and probably possesses a number of old second gen destroyers plus an unknown number of shuttles and/or missile boats.”
She asked, “Do you think we’ll see any action?” He sighed, “I’d be very surprised if we didn’t.”
Right on time, The Gresham transferred from external to internal power and began preparing for departure.
Alexi changed into a working uniform and was back on the bridge ahead of time. He hated not knowing the condition of the ship, or its crew, and spent his time asking detailed questions about the hardware and software. In general, it was in much better condition than the Tillotson had been when he reported aboard, and not in as good a condition as it now was.
The captain appeared on the bridge and after taking over the watch, told Alexi, loudly enough that all three bridge personnel easily overheard, “Lieutenant, on my ship we don’t stand watches in old or soiled uniforms. Change into an acceptable uniform and return to the bridge.” He turned his back on Alexi.
Ten minutes later Alexi was back on the bridge, wearing his single good uniform.
On the Tillotson, the captain had constantly stressed the need for his officers to not only know their crew, he wanted them to know the ship as well. He felt it important that his people were cross-trained as much as possible and he didn’t pay a great deal of attention to uniforms. This captain seemed to think that form was important.
The Gresham backed out of the enveloping dock, turned and slowly edged away from the relatively small structure.
Alexi stood off to the side and watched as the captain slowly applied acceleration.
They powered away from the beautiful planet, Alexi’s homeland, and at twenty hours jumped out of the system.
Over the next two days the Gresham’s captain visited the various departments, made visual inspections of the plant and personnel and routinely found things to quibble about. Oddly, he didn’t seem in the slightest concerned with the fact that he was entering what was essentially a war zone.
The ship successfully jumped into the far reaches of the Nasser system and within thirty minutes was hailed by a very jumpy picket, an unarmed craft. After verifying the Gresham’s identity it transferred a large packet of information, including the fact that at that very moment two Federal destroyers were under attack.
The Gresham was ordered
to immediately jump into position to support the two ships.
Alexi was on the bridge when the order came in. Captain Korgachani scanned the report. Just hours earlier, two Federal destroyers had been jumped by a heavy destroyer, backed up by six additional destroyers. They had slowly given ground but were in a bad spot, since they could not afford to allow the ships into heavy missile range of Nasser’s three main installations plus the myriads of satellites and ground installations. Unfortunately, they were severely outgunned by the seven ships, but the providential arrival of the Gresham would improve the odds.
Apparently, one carrier was down for maintenance and the other was struggling to get out of the intense gravity well of the system’s largest outer planet. Once clear, it would be able to jump into the inner system where its’ fighters ought to be able to handle seven lightly armed ships. Additionally, it had two escorting destroyers. Unfortunately, they were out of position. If the enemy ships moved fast enough, they ought to be able to sweep aside the two interposing Federal ships and directly attack Nasser’s installations.
Hawk Flight (Flight of the Hawk Book 3) Page 13