Invasion (The K'Tai War Series Book 1)

by PP Corcoran

  “Bremen reports she’s ready to launch the package on your order, Admiral.”

  “Very well, inform Bremen to launch the package,” replied Robert, - turning to the tactical display covering one entire wall of the flag bridge. The ‘package,’ as they so clinically called the lives of their pilots and the soldiers that comprised their cargo, appeared on the tactical display for a few seconds before disappearing as if it had never existed. Damn, that thing is small, thought Robert.

  A fresh icon began blinking in the display. Initially the yellow of an unidentified vessel, it changed to a solid red. “Contact!” called Anders from his station at Tactical. “Spear Zero One have picked up what the computers are identifying as a K’Tai merchantman. A bulk ore carrier at one-three-seven mark twenty-eight. Range 980,000 kilometers. She’s still within the Harbridge Zone. No indication she’s detected Spear Zero One or the task force yet.”

  Robert contemplated the red icon in the tactical display while he weighed up his options. A merchie would have to run over the fighters of Spear Zero One to even know they were there, if its sensors are as poor as those on a League freighter. Each Lancer is equipped with six anti-ship missiles, any one of which will easily be enough to penetrate whatever shields the merchie has and destroy it. On the other hand, Matheson perversely wanted the K’Tai to come looking for him, and what wouldn’t have the K’Tai warships throughout the system headed in his direction than a merchie captain screaming for help?

  “Force-wide order. All ships to raise shields and go active on all sensors. Instruct Kraken to launch a second flight of Lancers. I want that ship disabled, not destroyed. Let’s see how loud our merchantman can shout, shall we?”

  #

  The bridge of the fleet carrier Walak was a hive of activity as Lord Harvik strode past the armsman, immaculately dressed in the maroon colors of House Jal, guarding the entrance. Harvik’s personal bodyman, Ralan, gave the armsman a curt nod out of professional courtesy in passing. After all, years before, Ralan had stood post just as the young armsman was doing now. The route to becoming the bodyman to any House Lord, especially one as influential and respected as House Jal, took decades of unswerving loyalty and training.

  “Report!” Harvik tried but failed to keep the irritation from his voice. If the Claviger didn’t insist on Harvik briefing him personally on the status of the system’s defenses every time he feigned interest, then he would have been aboard the Walak when the first alarm was raised. Instead, he had wasted precious time in a shuttle craft returning from the surface while the fleet had sat idle in orbit awaiting its commander.

  “My lord. We have received a distress call from a bulk ore freighter at the edge of the system’s Harbridge Zone. The vessel reports it is under attack from at least a dozen fighters with a large fleet of capital ships, he believes them to be battleships and carriers, bearing down on him. His engines are disabled and he is unable to maneuver.”

  Harvik took his chair and spun to face Golar, his second and the officer who had just given him the situation report. Unlike the armsman or Harvik’s bodyman, Golar and the rest of the fleet personnel wore the standard sky-blue uniform of the Imperium’s Navy, with maroon cuff rings and rank insignia designating them as belonging to House Jal. “Let’s get the fleet moving, Golar. Shortest possible intercept course.”

  Golar had an incredulous look on his face. The merchant captain had no doubt inflated the number of the ships involved in the attack in his panic. Nevertheless, the fleet would respond as if the numbers were correct. Harvik doubted the humans would respond in such force in this short time period. Intelligence on the current strength of the humans’ Eighth Battle Fleet in Doberman was sketchy at best and completely unreliable at worst. The numbers and types reported to be attacking the merchantman would mean the humans would have had to dispatch the bulk of their fighting strength, and Harvik could not imagine the human admiral responsible for the defense of a major sector capital like Doberman would leave it so weakly defended. No. What he was probably facing was a strong raiding force intent on disrupting the transportation of Redlazore back to the Imperium.

  A now familiar anger rose in Harvik as he thought of the Claviger’s orders which superseded his own. Harvik had wanted the merchantmen to be grouped into convoys protected by fleet units. Unfortunately, the Claviger was more interested in getting the precious ore flowing to the Imperium without delay, insisting the fleet remain based around Agate, no doubt hoping to impress the Devisee with the speed at which he got the mines operating again. Well, his impatience would to cost the Imperium dearly. That merchantman carried over a million tonnes of Redlazore in its hold, and Harvik would bet any money that the freighter and its cargo would be nothing more than expanding gases long before the fleet reached it.

  Harvik tuned out the bustling noise around him, his attention completely focused on the holographic display of the system floating sedately in the air beyond the row of his staff’s workstations. Tapping commands into his own comp, he superimposed the shortest possible flight time to intercept the embattled merchantman. The projected course swept past the system’s gas giant, Rama, and its concentric belts of ice and rock. Harvik’s index finger tapped the hilt of his ceremonial Hadak rhythmically as the Imperium’s master tactician contemplated the situation. If he believed in coincidences, then he might be inclined to believe the humans had attacked the merchantman by chance. However, he had not won countless battles by believing in coincidence. Anyone with a passing understanding of stellar navigation and the workings of star drives knew the said star drive couldn’t be activated within the Harbridge Zone of any star, so the obvious place to intercept a ship was within the zone. Exactly as the humans had done with the laden merchantman, and the shortest route to the merchantman took him precariously close to the rings of the gas giant, where his sensors would be inundated by false returns. You could hide a considerable sized force in those rings, which is exactly what he would do if he wanted to ambush any ships coming to the aid of the merchantman.

  Harvik tapped another command into his comp and felt a smile tug at his lips as a fresh set of icons appeared. Another command highlighted and enlarged the icon. The smile on his face became more a feral grin as the comp displayed a list of ship names and classes. Aha! Two can play at the ambush game, human.

  #

  “Update from Spear Zero One, Admiral.”

  At last, thought Robert Matheson. The last three hours had felt like an eternity as the men and women of Task Force Scorpio had awaited the arrival of the enemy fleet. “Put it up on the main board, Mr. Anders.” The last wisps of apprehension blew away as the tactical plot briefly flickered before solidifying once more. A new set of red icons appeared at the very edge of sensor range. Robert assessed the force racing toward him and drew in a sharp breath. Two fleet carriers. Five fast attack carriers. Eight battleships. Twelve heavy cruisers. Sixteen light cruisers all encased in a screen of destroyers and frigates. “Now that’s a lot of firepower,” whispered Robert. Still, something didn’t quite add up. Robert turned his head slightly left, to where Commander Del Mastro and a couple of her intelligence analysts were poring over the sensor data from Spear Zero One. Del Mastro caught Robert’s look and took the four steps required to reach his seat.

  “Something bothering you, Admiral?” asked Del Mastro.

  Robert pointed to the latest update. “Probably the same thing that’s bothering you, Commander. Where are the rest of the K’Tai ships?”

  “Shield Zero Two’s last download confirms the K’Tai have left only one fast attack carrier, two heavy and one light cruiser in orbit.”

  “Yeah, so that leaves at least a half dozen heavy cruisers and the same number of light cruisers unaccounted for, assuming the K’Tai haven’t altered their order of battle from what Admiral Alderman faced twenty-five days ago.” Robert worried at his bottom lip. Something’s not right here. I’m getting a bad feeling about this.

  “The picket ships reported no significa
nt changes in their last dispatch, Admiral.”

  Anders was correct; however, when factoring the transit time between Agate to Doberman, and Task Force Scorpio to Agate, the information was already twelve days old. A lot could change in twelve days. Robert asked. “Mr. Anders. How long before Admiral Alderman is due to launch?”

  The Tactical Officer glanced at the chrono on his display before answering. “She should be launching now, Admiral.”

  Louise Alderman was in command of Robert’s two fast attack carriers, and right now she and they were lying in wait for the enemy fleet, hidden by the gas giant Rama’s rings, ready to pounce on the unsuspecting enemy from the rear. Now, though, Robert was beginning to second guess his decision. Alderman’s carriers had only sixty Lancers between them. A single K’Tai fleet carrier had a complement of ninety fighters and he faced two of them, with an additional five fast attack carriers, giving the K’Tai commander 330 fighters at his disposal!

  “Confirm we have had no indication the K’Tai have launched any fighter patrols, Mr. Anders.”

  “Confirmed, Admiral. The K’Tai are running with shields at full power and have active electronic countermeasures and sensors, which is making it difficult for our own sensors to burn through. However, at their current speed, fighters would simply have run out of fuel attempting to match the fleet’s advance.”

  Anders makes a good point, thought Robert. Still something is not right here and I just can’t put my finger on it. What am I missing? Why would the K’Tai be heading in at full speed without the precaution of putting a fighter screen well ahead of them? They have enough destroyers and frigates that even if they didn’t want to risk their fighter strength, they could use the larger vessels as a screen, but they’ve chosen to do neither. They know we’re here and have been for hours, so what… The answer came to Robert in a flash of inspiration and he hoped to hell he was wrong.

  “Break radio silence! Order Admiral Alderman to go active on all sensors and begin recovering her fighters immediately!”

  The moment Alderman’s sensors went active, the same data began to appear on the Robert’s tactical display, and what it showed stole the blood from his face. From the dark side of the gas giant, Robert counted over a dozen heavy and light cruisers. In front of them like an onrushing wave were at least 200 fighters.

  “Primary K’Tai fleet is changing course and slowing! Fighter launch detected!” cried Anders as the display changed to reflect the fresh information. Robert’s two fast attack carriers had been caught in a classic pincer movement and faced the full fury of the K’Tai fleet without the support of his cruisers. In a matter of minutes, the carriers would be surrounded by K’Tai fighters. There was every chance he was facing the complete loss of his carriers and his entire fighter strength.

  “Incoming signal from Kraken, it’s Admiral Alderman, sir.”

  Robert activated his private display and the strained face of Louise Alderman stared back at him. Robert tried to think of something to say, but Louise beat him to it. “Robert, I’ve canceled the recall notice for the fighters. Instead I’m going to use them to punch through the K’Tai fighter screen and then run like hell for the edge of the Harbridge Zone and escape into hyper.”

  Robert looked across at Anders, who was running the numbers. In seconds he had his answer. It would be tight, but the speed of the fast attack carriers should keep them ahead of anything bigger than the K’Tai light cruisers. “She could do it, Admiral.”

  Robert saw a dark shadow pass over Louise’s face. “If I’m to save the carriers, I’ll not be able to slow down and recover all the fighters.”

  Robert made the same cold calculation Louise must have made. Each fighter represented a single pilot. Sixty fighters meant sixty men and women. The complement of a fast attack carrier like the Kraken was 770. 1540 souls versus sixty. The words which answered the waiting woman seemed disembodied from Robert even though he spoke them. “Admiral Alderman, you are hereby ordered to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure the survival of your carriers, up to and including the sacrifice of your fighter wings. Understood?”

  It took Louise a moment to realize what Robert had done. By ordering her to abandon her fighters, he would take responsibility for their loss. That had not been her intention by telling him of her plans. “Understood, sir… and thank you.”

  Robert tried to give her a reassuring smile, but his face refused. “Good luck, Louise,” he said as he cut the link. “Navigation. Bring the force to full military power and plot a course that heads us in-system, keeping the K’Tai fleet at maximum missile range. Mr. Anders, I want a firing solution on the K’Tai carriers. Ignore their other ships, apart from the merchantman. I want that out of my sky, if you please.”

  Anders’ team bent to the task. The Tactical Officer had obviously guessed his admiral’s next move, as within moments, a fire plan appeared on Robert’s display. Running his eyes down it, Robert thumbed his approval. Seconds later Asp anti-ship missiles began to ripple fire from the cruisers of Task Force Scorpio. The first wave of fifteen Asps didn’t carry warheads; instead they were equipped with electronic countermeasures and radar jammers which filled the K’Tai sensor operators’ screens with static. As the K’Tai switched frequencies to overcome the interference, the smart jammers followed them, giving the K’Tai responsible for identifying threats to their own fleet only sporadic readings through the blanketing electronic fog.

  Behind the ECM-equipped Asps came the heavy hitters. The heavy cruisers of Task Force Scorpio could launch twenty-four missiles at a time, while the light cruisers could launch sixteen. Anders’ decision to ripple fire meant the initial fifteen Asps were followed closely by two waves comprising 337 missiles, armed with a variety of proximity weapons that detonated their nuclear payload when their onboard systems detected the presence of energy shielding. These weapons were designed to collapse a warship’s shields, allowing the use of the second type of Asp missiles--those equipped with contact nuclear warheads which detonated against a ship’s outer hull--and the just as deadly bomb pumped lasers warhead, a one-time-only weapon that harnessed the power of its own tiny nuclear device, detonating and focused it into an extremely powerful laser beam that literally sliced through enemy battle armor. A hit from one of these beams on a hull not protected by shielding or thick armor could cause even the largest ship significant, if not fatal, damage. These two missile types were Task Force Scorpio’s true long-range ship killers.

  #

  “Missile launch detected from the human cruisers, my lord.” Harvik acknowledged the announcement with a slight wave of his hand, masking his surprise that the humans had launched their missiles from a range greater than his own missiles’ endurance would have allowed powered flight...but no matter. The enemy commander was expected to try anything to save the two stricken carriers. Perhaps the human commander had fired his missiles from such a great distance in a vain attempt to cause him to alter his plan. It was too little too late. Harvik had launched his first wave of fighters while the fleet had been still in orbit around Agate. The nimble little bat-wing fighters had expended almost all their fuel reaching the rendezvous point with the ships of Commander Tolav. It was indeed fortunate Tolav’s ships had already been inbound for Agate, having completed their patrol of the outer system. The crucial part had been the rendezvous with the fighters; however, Rig had smiled on him this day and all the fighters managed to latch to the outer hulls of the cruisers who refueled them from their own fuel bunkers. The rest, as they say, was in the hands of Rig.

  Harvik guessed the humans had laid a trap for him. Why else would they have toyed with the ore freighter and not destroyed it outright? The humans wanted to draw him away from the inner system. Test his strength. Unfortunately for them, he saw right through their deception and now they would pay the price.

  “Let the cruiser screen deal with the missiles. We will concentrate on the carriers. With them destroyed, the humans will be easy prey for our own fighters while we
sit back and nibble at them until their ships are nothing more than scarred hulks floating in a sea of their own debris.”

  #

  “Shit, that was too close for comfort,” cursed Lieutenant Adriana Bacchi, call sign Widow, as a burst of rail gun fire sliced through the space her Lancer fighter had occupied a split second before. When her squadron leader ordered the Lancers of TFW 831 to press home their attacks on the K’Tai who were currently doing their best to spread her and her fighter to the distant corners of the galaxy, she had no idea he meant to get in so close. At under 100 meters, her Lancer flashed across the surface of a K’Tai heavy cruiser, quad mounted cannon firing burst after burst, hammering away at the ship’s energy shielding. Adriana would have much preferred to be targeting the K’Tai ship with a Penguin anti-ship missile, but that was wishful thinking. The hard points on the Lancer’s skin were almost bare. Of the six Penguins Adriana had shot, two had been intercepted by K’Tai defensive missiles, while three more had splashed harmlessly against the powerful energy shields of a K’Tai battleship. A single Penguin just didn’t have a big enough punch to penetrate anything bigger than a cruiser’s shields. The missile was designed to be used en masse, to batter down an enemy’s energy shields and swamp the target’s defenses.