by Chris Hechtl
“Yeah, yeah, I know. I swear it's unfair that you bugs got off easy on the uniform department,” the Neogorilla said, using a finger to tug on her stiff collar. “Let's get this over with,” she grumbled. She nodded to the Marine sentry at the door. The sentry nodded once, then turned and knocked on the door crisply.
“Enter,” Commodore Logan replied.
Both officers entered and then came to attention as the sentry closed the door behind them. “At ease,” Shelby said from behind her desk. She had her fingertips touching each other in a tent shape on her desk. “You've had an … interesting mission,” she observed.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I read the logs. You did good work. Koko, you'll need to get Shrill Kill to the yard to get the repairs started. They've got the parts replicated and ready to install once you get your ship in the slip.”
“That is a relief, ma'am. Any estimates on how long it will take? And I thought there were ships under construction?”
“There were, I've stopped that for the moment. For the time being, a sublight frigate is in the slip. The tugs will pull her when you arrive and then put her back when they are finished with you.”
“Understood, ma'am. I think we'll have time before the enemy shows up here,” the Neogorilla observed.
“Exactly.”
“Unless the enemy changes tactics and goes through Tortuga to attack from an unexpected direction,” the T'clock observed darkly.
Shelby shot a look at the T'clock. The bug captain bobbed his antenna but didn't say anything else.
“You made the right call with Blitzen. At least we and the populations will get some warning,” Shelby said.
“Ma'am, about the people we left behind …,” Captain V'z'xx said cautiously.
“I'm actually less concerned for them as I am for Mercy Flights 1 and 2 as well as the people who aren't being helped by the medics,” Shelby said pensively as she rested her chin on her fist. After a moment, she reached up to scratch the side of her nose. “I'd hate to see those ships and people caught by the pirate bastards,” she said.
Captain V'zxx indicated grim agreement. Captain Fowler grimaced darkly, her massive jaw working as if she were chewing on a rock.
“There is nothing we can do for them unfortunately,” Shelby said, sitting back and letting her hands drop. “We'll go over the formal debrief in a bit. For the moment, Captain V'z'xx, you made the right call on leaving the medics behind.”
“It is still not conducive to easy sleep,” the T'clock admitted.
Shelby studied him but nodded slowly. “Understood. I agree with you. I'm going to have your ship serviced as quickly as possible. We have a couple medical understudies, none to the level of a full doctor of course, but they have trained up to paramedic and SBA status. We're still in the process of shuffling people around. You might get some of them; you might get others if they are promoted. Just letting you know.”
“Aye aye, ma’am. What is the fallback plan?” the T'clock asked.
“We're not falling back; we're going to hold,” Shelby said coldly, sitting up straight. “Mahoney will remain in the third echelon and will only move in once the situation is clear so you can take on the wounded. But we'll discuss the overall plan later. For the moment,” she said, picking up the tablet on her bloater that her hands had been partially obscuring. “Going over your report, you sounded general recall, but …”
]][#]]]{OO}===}==>
Shelby had advance warning of the enemy ships, which was a very precious thing. Getting Shrill Kill back was also a good thing, though she was destined for at least a week in the yard's hands opened up like a gutted fish as they rebuilt her upper sublight drive and did their best to get the other damaged sections rebuilt. She'd be buttoned up in ten days according to her own estimates, then need a few days to blow off the rust. Plenty of time to get back to the jump point she reminded herself.
She issued orders to shift the mines from the other jump points to the Tortuga and Tau-1929 jump points. She also ordered all mines in production at the moment to go there as well. She had the freighters also haul out and dump her meager reserve missile pods and weapon platforms on both jump points.
While that was going on, she had Boni dredge up the admiral's engineering design A.I., Mercury. She spent a day cloistered with the two A.I. working out a plan for her next step. Once the rough design was ready, she had them pass it on to Lieutenant Prometheus to run virtual sims on to make sure it was ready. She took a couple hours of sleep and then when she was ready she met with her tactical team on Prometheus to go over their options.
“I've been drawing a lot of comparisons of this situation to the B101a1 battle,” Ensign Brudbaker observed. “That pirate force was going to attack Pyrax through a defended jump point. The forces are almost identical too, one battlecruiser, smaller ships …” Ensign Brudbaker, Prometheus' JTO said thoughtfully.
“The force mix is different but yes, similar in the lead capital ship,” Lieutenant Z'k'th'ss'th said. “The force in B101a1 didn't have as many cruisers.”
“True,” Ensign Brudbaker admitted. “But we've got more on our side too. We've got cruisers and destroyers plus time. We know they are coming and know their force mix.”
“We don't know that they don't know where we are. They might have gotten that information along the way,” the Naga tactical officer reminded his understudy.
“Yes, sir, that is true,” the ensign said with a grimace.
“I'm going to forward deploy a light cruiser to Tau-1929. They will watch the enemy's movements while in stealth and will not let the planets know they are there,” she said. “This way, if we know they are coming on that axis, we can get some advanced warning and possibly shift additional forces as a welcoming committee to the Tau-1929 jump point.”
“And if it is Tortuga?” the Naga lieutenant asked.
“My money is on the Tau-1929 jump point. They may not know we're here and are following in our wake. If they went to Tortuga, they would lose our trail. They would then have to double back, which costs time. We'd be caught flatfooted I admit,” Shelby said. “But I still doubt they'd expose that jump point chain, possibly believing we don't know about it.”
“Unless they are confident of a win, ma'am. They do have the most mass and firepower on their side,” the lieutenant pointed out.
“There is that,” Ensign Brudbaker agreed. “What about that BC, ma'am?” Ensign Brudbaker asked nervously. “That's a lot of firepower, ma'am. I don't see a way of knocking it out. We have to get through the other ships first too.”
“Don't worry, we've got a surprise in store for her,” Shelby said grimly. “I've got everyone working flat-out to come up with as many surprise packages as we can get into space. That will leave it up to you two to figure out the best way to use them.”
The two tactical officers looked at each other. It was easy to see the dubious expression on the ensign's face. “Ahem,” the Naga said. “If you could fill us in on what these surprises are, ma'am?” he said, turning to her.
“Sure. We've stopped assembly of new hulls for the moment. Ship 5 is a headache. But I didn't stop the part assembly lines. We're taking a page from my Nightingale tactics …”
]][#]]]{OO}===}==>
Tau-1929
The light cruiser Zeng He exited hyperspace well short of the normal jump zone. Her arrival was a bit bumpy, but the light cruiser weathered the turbulence well, Captain Zeb thought. “Secure from hyperspace. Go to silent running.”
“Aye aye, sir.” The ship's dumb A.I. replied. “Rig for silent running. All hands, rig for stealth. Rig for silent running,” the ship's A.I. said over the intercom.
His orders to forward deploy included a special clause not to inform the native planets that they were there lurking under stealth. Hopefully, the locals didn't see their energy pulse, so they wouldn't know they were there.
They didn't have long to wait. Blitzen arrived two days later. The little ship crossed the star system
, broadcasting the news of her arrival and the imminent arrival of the pirates to the population on the planets. There was no observed response from Delos. Governor Los of Samos acknowledged Blitzen in an omni broadcast and thanked the courier for the additional warning.
Four days after her arrival, the small courier approached the Tau-1252 jump point. She slowed to take up station on the jump point. Once she was settled in place, Commander Zeb ordered a comm laser to be placed on the courier.
“You surprised the hell out of us over here,” Captain Z'll said. “Thank the gods you are here,” the Veraxin said fervently.
“Your report?” Captain Zeb asked.
“Oh yes, here,” the other Veraxin replied, transmitting his ship's log. “What do we do? Just sit here still?”
“Yes,” Captain Zeb replied.
“Seriously?” the other Veraxin male captain asked.
“Those are your orders,” Captain Zeb replied.
“Understood. Can we at least talk? It's been a bit lonely over here,” the captain replied.
“I feel for you,” Captain Zeb said. He had his comm section transmit emails and personnel mail to the crew.
]][#]]]{OO}===}==>
Four weeks and two days later the pirates arrived in an explosion of energy across the solar system. Once the ships got underway for the next jump point, Captain Zeb clacked his mandibles.
“It worked,” he said in a tight whisker laser to Captain Z'll.
“What worked?”
“You are the bait. By seeing you, they will march on you to try to keep up and hopefully ignore the planets,” he said.
“Ah,” the other captain replied. “A little notice of that would have been nice,” he said dryly.
“Sorry, I thought it was obvious,” Captain Zeb said apologetically. “Their course is now plotted. I'm feeding you our CIC information now. When they get a day out you can jump for home,” he ordered.
“Cutting it a bit close, aren't you?” the other captain said nervously.
“I said a day, not an hour,” Captain Zeb replied. “Don't lose your nerve,” he said firmly. “I want all their attention on you if this is going to work,” he said.
“What is going to work?”
“We'll tell you when we meet up in the capital,” the other Veraxin captain replied.
]][#]]]{OO}===}==>
“The ship is just sitting there. Perhaps out of fuel?” Captain Baker said.
“I doubt it,” Captain Gutt replied. “She's most likely just watching us.”
“They have to refuel sometime, right?” Captain Burke demanded.
“They will. Hell, they might have done it while we were still in hyper. I don't know how they could have paid for it, but …,” Captain Baker shrugged such considerations aside.
“Aye,” the admiral rumbled. All eyes in the captains' conference turned to him. “Keep the pressure on them. We'll jump right after them. Keep pressing them and run 'em to ground,” he growled.
The various pirate heads nodded slowly. Some of them grinned in anticipation.
]][#]]]{OO}===}==>
“There they go,” Lieutenant Troykov growled in disgust as they watched the little courier ship jump.
“Yeah, that was anticlimactic,” Captain Layafette said. “They did cut it closer than last time,” he observed.
“It still sucks,” the lieutenant said, clearly resentful of not getting the kill or capture.
“Don't worry. If this mission pans out, we'll have plenty of targets for you real soon,” the captain said soothingly.
“Yeah, problem is, some of those targets shoot back,” the lieutenant replied darkly.
]][#]]]{OO}===}==>
“They are twenty-three hours out and decelerating. We've got a good read on them,” Lieutenant Sore Tooth, Zeng He's tactical officer said.
“Target the ships of opportunity with passives only. Make sure we aren't exposed here. The idea is to make the shot and then let them go. Bleed them.”
“Piss on them more like,” the elf grumbled. “Like poking a Neobear. Kicking him in the shins,” she said.
“Whatever works,” the Veraxin captain agreed.
“They've made turn over. They are stern to us,” CIC reported.
The captain signaled first-degree understanding. They had all been expecting it. The incoming ships had locked onto the courier and had poured on the speed in a vain attempt to run her down. Now they had to flip to brake before they flipped back for the jump. Such activity was a stupid waste of fuel and clock time on their hardware, which meant they had it to burn or just didn't care. Or they wanted the little courier to run scared. “Tactical, final programming. They'll flip before they go into hyper though, so we want to hit them before that.”
“Aye aye, sir,” the tactical officer replied. She set up a clock. It began to count down from twenty-two hours. She continued to exchange information with the passive sensors from each of the weapon platforms and missile pods the cruiser had deployed around the jump point. Her tactical computers soaked it all in, ran it through their processors and algorithms, and then made adjustments as needed.
While that was happening, Zeng He was slowly drifting away from the jump point to remain clear of the action.
]][#]]]{OO}===}==>
“Turn over in five minutes, sir,” the navigator reported.
“Understood. Keep me posted,” Commander Misaki said from the hot seat.
The noncom at the navigator's station looked up in surprise. “Oh, sorry, ma'am,” he said. “I guess I missed you,” he said.
“Next time spend less time playing with that video game and more time on the job, Bert,” the XO said mildly.
“Sorry, ma'am,” the chastened noncom mumbled.
The XO studied him for a moment, then nodded and turned away. It wasn't like there was a lot to do just yet.
]][#]]]{OO}===}==>
“Coming up on Zero, sir,” the tactical officer reported.
“Signal the platforms to go for Alpha one launch. Target the BC and ships with the best profiles. Let's see what happens,” Captain Zeb ordered.
“Aye aye, sir. Order to fire sent,” the tactical officer said, then sat back and crossed her arms to watch the fireworks.
]][#]]]{OO}===}==>
One moment the task force was about to perform a routine flip, the next moment klaxons were shredding the piece on the decks.
“What the hell?”
“We're being hit by fire control coming from our stern! Danger close! Vampire! I say again, Vampire, Vampire Vampire! Multiple missiles inbound!” the Neomutt tactical officer called out, yelping in surprise as he frantically worked at his station.
“Battle stations!” the XO snarled as the captain rushed onto the bridge.
]][#]]]{OO}===}==>
“Battle stations! I say again, battle stations! All hands, man your battle stations; this is not a drill! We are under attack on our stern!” a voice said from the overhead as the klaxons went off.
“What the frack??!?” Captain Layafette demanded as he looked up blearily from his rack. He checked the clock and then swore viciously as he yanked the blankets off and swung out of bed. His ship shuddered. He managed to reach out and slap the intercom button linking him to the bridge. “Bridge, what the hell is going on?” he demanded. He heard frantic battle chatter in the background and the word Vampire, which made his blood run cold. He yanked open his small closet and grabbed his skin suit and put it on frantically.
]][#]]]{OO}===}==>
“Battle stations!” Lieutenant Raz yelped as missiles blossomed on her plot like leprous mushrooms.
“Where the hell did they come from?” a rating demanded.
“Does it matter? Now shut up and let me work!” the tactical officer snarled as she frantically tapped at her station to get her tactical systems up and running.
“Shields are spooling up,” a rating reported.
“Make it fast, they are already in final acquisition mode!” a rating
said just as the ship shuddered. “Energy fire detected from dorsal and ventral locations one o'clock Z axis!”
“Son of a …”
“All guns, fire on the weapon platforms!” Lieutenant Raz said desperately.
]][#]]]{OO}===}==>
Talons of energy ripped and tore at the heavy cruiser's Fancy and Black Corsage dorsal and ventral shields and surfaces since they were the closet ships to the four deployed weapon platforms. Each weapon platform could fire only one burst of energy per every three seconds before it could fire again.
“Return fire!” Admiral Ishmael barked over the radio. Weapons lashed out, sometimes blindly. Two narrowly missed hitting sister ships. A second salvo ripped and tore at the two heavy cruisers. Two shots missed narrowly as both ships frantically maneuvered. Fortunately for them the weapons of the various ships locked onto their attackers and fired, taking out the weapon platforms before they could fire a third salvo.
The missile pods were targeted solely on the battlecruiser. They had more time to get to their target, so it gave the massive ship a slight edge in defense to get her shields up, but not to turn around. Point defense and counter missiles lashed out to intercept them. Several of the missiles were taken out in their late boost phase, and their explosions sometimes induced fratricide in their fellows.
Twenty missiles survived to kick their shrouds clear and deploy their submunitions. Four of the missiles were pure ECM and decoy platforms. They offered no physical threat, but their systems did damage to the enemy ship none-the-same, lashing at it with energy to blind their sensors just as they were coming online, burning out threat receivers and destabilizing the tactical computers just as they were stabilizing.
That left 128 submunition warheads.
Since the munitions were in their final acquisition mode and so close, the ship's frantic point defense guns managed to pick off forty-seven of the warheads through blind fire and blind luck. That left 81 nuclear warheads to go off in the stern of the ship.