Counterstrike (Black Fleet Trilogy, Book 3)

by Joshua Dalzelle

  “Report!”

  “Possible contact, sir,” Davis frowned. “The Vruahn device issued a warning with a general distance that would put it near the edge of the system and a heading that had an accuracy of seventy degrees.”

  “That’s not very accurate, Lieutenant,” Jackson said. “Why isn’t the tracking data updating?”

  “Enemy signal lost. Attempting to reacquire.”

  “So that answers that,” Jackson said as the words scrolled across the main display. “Or maybe not.”

  “Sir?” Davis asked.

  “If this is a Phage Super Alpha, and it’s the only Phage ship in the system, will it still be broadcasting their carrier frequency?” Jackson held up a hand to silence Davis. “Go ahead and answer audibly through the bridge speakers.”

  “Probability is high that you are correct, Captain,” the cube said. “Adjusting search parameters to compensate for a single advanced forward unit.”

  “Just think how much easier it would have been if the Vruahn had just given us a few sets of their active sensors that are capable of picking a Bravo out of an asteroid field,” Barrett groused.

  “I asked for them, Lieutenant Commander,” Jackson said. “Apparently with our metal alloy ships the system couldn’t be adapted. Vruahn ships use a type of ceramic composite material for their hulls. No metal.”

  “Sorry, Captain,” Barrett said. “Just complaining out loud.”

  “Coms! Send the order to the Artemis and Atlas to get started,” Jackson ordered. “We are operating under the assumption a Super Alpha has arrived in-system, sent out a query message to any potential Phage left, and will now be coming downhill to investigate. Tactical, how’re we looking?”

  “All perimeter Spheres have been successfully deployed, as have their associated Shrikes,” Barrett said. “The Spheres are operating autonomously, but I have an override command that the Vruahn cube has put on one of my terminals.”

  “I have to say, handing over control of so many nuclear penetrators isn’t my favorite part of this plan, sir,” Davis said softly.

  “Nor mine,” Jackson agreed, “but the risk is minimal and our technology is simply too slow to make proper use of them anyway. You have to look at it as a calculated risk … why would the cube bother firing our own missiles at us when it has seventy-two gravity bombs already at its disposal?”

  “Of course, sir,” Davis nodded.

  “Coms?”

  “Orders confirmed, Captain,” Keller said. “Artemis just answered via tight beam laser.”

  “We are now running silent,” Jackson said. “Full emission security protocols are in effect. Tell your backshops that I do not want a single radiation source active that has a path to an antenna on the hull.”

  There were two more pulses on the frequency that they were assuming was the Phage network carrier upon which they built their “hive minds.” Jackson wondered how accurate the term frequency was, since the signal was not at all related to the EM spectrum and, as it had been explained to him, utilized a quantum effect that humans had barely begun to look at in theory, much less any sort of practical application. As such, they were wholly committed to trusting the Vruahn when they said that not only did this carrier signal exist, but that they had the means to detect it.

  Thankfully the second Alpha they had killed of the three they’d found in the system was intact enough for him to implement his strategy. He had the Atlas and Artemis fly up next to the burnt-out hulk and match its velocity, rotation, and heading. After that it had been just a matter of waiting for evidence that a Super Alpha had made an appearance before ordering his two ships to begin lancing into the dead Alpha’s hull with pinpointed laser fire in what he hoped looked like an effort to dissect and recover pieces from the ship.

  “Still nothing on passives,” Barrett reported. “But our range isn’t so great that I’m expecting to detect anything until the shooting starts.”

  “I hope you’re wrong about that, Lieutenant Commander,” Jackson said. “We have two ships sitting down there with their asses hanging out in the breeze. Even with their active sensors running the Link won’t update in time at this distance for us to provide any meaningful support.”

  “Understood, sir,” Barrett said tightly.

  This was the part of the plan that Jackson was least happy about, but he felt there wasn’t much he could do to mitigate the risk. With the entire squadron flitting around the dead Alpha the target wasn’t likely to risk its own safety by getting close enough for them to fire on it. But with only two destroyers performing what was hopefully an obvious salvage operation Jackson hoped that the Super Alpha would be much more brazen in its approach. He knew that this particular breed of Phage had the ability to hide from their sensors, so the danger to his two ships was significant, but he also knew that if they ran silent and became a dark hole in space that the Phage had an equally tough time detecting them.

  Under normal circumstances the risk of losing forty percent of his total force would be completely unacceptable, but they had been tasked with the success of this mission no matter the cost. Admiral Marcum had even gone so far as to intimate that he fully expected the Ninth to take significant losses. The part of that conversation that had galled Jackson so badly was that the admiral made it clear that he expected Jackson to make it back even if not everyone else did. Even as angry as he’d been when he had departed the Amsterdam, he had to concede that the ability to put his emotions aside and think purely strategically was a lot of what made Marcum fit to wear his stars and, conversely, Jackson’s own inability to do the same made him a questionable starship captain at best.

  “One more pulse detected by the Vruahn sensor,” Barrett said. “Signal strength was good, but still no actionable information. Indeterminate—”

  “Whoa!”

  Jackson’s head snapped up at the outburst from the helmsman just in time to see the fading light of a massive explosion on the main display. They’d been sitting with the optical sensors trained on the Atlas and Artemis, and while they couldn’t make out exact details there was no doubt about the magnitude of the explosion they’d seen on the display. Explosions in space were an odd thing to watch, or at least not what one would normally expect. Once the oxidizers were gone it disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

  “Rep—”

  “Telemetry from the Artemis has dropped!” Hayashi shouted.

  “Atlas is declaring an emergency!” Keller had to shout overtop of everyone else. “I can’t make it all out … too much shouting on the bridge.”

  “Coms! Try to raise the Artemis!” Jackson was gripping the armrests so hard that his hands hurt. “Tactical, full active scans! Get me a fucking location on the target! OPS, I want the Ares at full power within the next five minutes.”

  “Formation is going active,” Barrett said tightly as all three ships that were loitering in a loose triangle around the target area began bombarding it with high-power radar energy. They were at a close enough range that they didn’t have to wait long for valid returns.

  “Got the bastard!” Barrett called out. “It’s moving on the Atlas. Artemis does not appear in the area.”

  “Helm! Put our nose on the target and drop the hammer.” Jackson leapt to his feet. “All ahead flank, emergency acceleration.”

  “Aye aye, sir!” The helmsman shoved the throttles all the way up and disengaged the safety interlocks to allow the engines to run up past their accepted maximum operational output. The Ares surged forward with the helmsman manually piloting the ship down towards an enemy that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. From what they’d learned the Phage were unable to mask themselves from detection after firing their primary weapon, but the effect only lasted for around twenty minutes. Jackson hoped to close the gap to the point that it would be unable to hide from him no matter what it tried.

  “Coms, have the rest of the squadron stand by,” Jackson said. “I don’t want them accelerating towards the target until we’re cer
tain what it’s going to do. Tell the Atlas to do whatever it can to clear the area. OPS, is there any evidence the Artemis is still intact?”

  “Negative, sir,” Hayashi’s voice sounded very small. “Radar is detecting a debris field that is consistent with the mass and composition of a destroyer. No lifeboat signals.” Jackson had to swallow three times in quick succession to make sure he didn’t vomit on the deck.

  “Tactical, begin plotting a firing solution,” he said once he trusted himself to speak. “Targeting pattern Echo-Three-Three. Helm, come starboard seven degrees, four degrees declination and reduce engine output to one hundred percent.”

  “Coming onto new course. Engines ahead flank, aye.”

  “All offensive systems are online, sir,” Hayashi said. “Engineering is reporting all primary flight systems are good to go.”

  “Prep the auxiliary boosters and deploy the nozzles.” Jackson could still feel his heartbeat in his ears after the loss of the Artemis. “Prime the fuel lines and stand by for ignition. We cannot let this bastard slink back off into the outer system.”

  “Target is underway, sir,” Barrett said. “It’s accelerating slowly on a course that will almost perfectly bisect us and the Icarus.”

  “Coms, tell Captain Wright to be ready for it to try and rush by her,” Jackson said. “She’s clear to engage as per our original targeting plan, and if she doesn’t have a shot she is to withdraw.”

  “Target is approaching one of the gravity mines,” Barrett said, referring to the Vruahn gravity bombs they’d peppered the system with as a contingency. “Range of three hundred and forty thousand kilometers and closing, but it’s not on a direct intercept. It will cut across the outer range.”

  “Can we catch it before it clears the weapon’s maximum range?” Jackson asked.

  “Negative, sir,” Specialist Accari spoke up from the nav station. “Even with the auxiliary booster we won’t close within weapons range until we’re both within the gravity mine’s effective radius.”

  “Shit.” Jackson looked at the graph the tactical computer was updating on the main display. The Super Alpha would cut across the influence of the gravity bomb at such an extreme range he’d have to order a full-yield detonation. That also meant that if he continued his headlong pursuit he would put the Ares at significant risk when the bomb went off.

  “Is that bomb’s corresponding Shrike in position for a shot if the Alpha continues along this course?”

  “No, sir,” Barrett said. “The missile will be far out of position even if the bomb succeeds in slowing it down or stopping the Alpha. We’d deployed it with the intent of detonating when the target was inbound from the outer system.”

  “Understood,” Jackson said. “Helm! Zero thrust. We’ll continue along this pursuit course on momentum. Nav, I assume you’re tracking our progress and will alert the helm to any potential hazards?”

  “Affirmative, Captain,” Accari said.

  “Tactical, give the order to the Vruahn cube to detonate that gravity bomb when the Alpha passes at its closest projected point,” Jackson said. “Coms! Tell the Icarus and Hyperion to hold position.”

  “Orders sent,” Keller said.

  Jackson looked back at his com officer, and then around at the rest of his bridge crew. The shock and dismay they felt at the loss of the Artemis was written plainly on all of their faces. For the duration of the war the spacers of the Ninth had walked around with a cocky strut, secure in the knowledge that their squadron commander and their fast, powerful ships would see them through every conflict without a scratch. And why not? Every engagement the Starwolf-class ships had participated in to date had been won with hardly a scorched hull plate to show for it. But they’d never stared down an enemy like this: so much like the powerful Alpha constructs but so much more devious and cunning. Only the original crew members left from the Blue Jacket remembered what it was like to go up against a Phage ship like this.

  Now, in the very first shot of the engagement, the Artemis was completely destroyed with all hands aboard, and the Atlas was damaged to the point she was out of the fight. If he didn’t address this soon he would lose his crew to fear and doubt. The only problem was that he hardly felt qualified to comfort them; he was concerned that they would see right through his hollow words and look at the truth of the matter: his orders had directly led to the deaths of thousands of their fellow spacers. What right did he have to offer them comfort?

  “Sir?” Davis said quietly from beside him, nudging him with her elbow. “Are you okay?”

  “Hardly,” he mumbled before raising his voice. “Coms, patch me through on the shipwide and establish a com link to the rest of the squadron.”

  “Channel established, sir,” Keller said.

  “This is Captain Wolfe aboard the Ares,” he said without preamble. “As you’ve already heard or seen, we lost the Artemis in the opening salvo of this battle. Captain Forrest and her crew were brave, skilled, and performed their duty without question. Let’s not dishonor them by doing any different than they.

  “Word has come back that the Phage core mind has been located by Colonel Blake’s strike force. The entire Terran Starfleet is now relying on the Ninth Squadron to once again complete its mission so that the safety of all human worlds can be assured. We will mourn our comrades after we execute the capture of this bastard … and then we will take our vengeance out on the core mind that sent it. Ares out.”

  “You heard the captain,” Chief Green shouted to shake everyone out of their stupor. “Let’s get to work!”

  The Ares continued her unpowered flight pursuing the Alpha, which appeared completely unconcerned about their presence. It undoubtedly had the positions of the three remaining combat-capable ships left in the system but seemed content to keep just ahead of the Ares with no overt move to evade or escape. Even across the vast distance and across the species-lines Jackson could almost feel the arrogance the thing exuded. It had already taken out two ships with a single shot, destroying one, and now glided away in an almost taunting manner.

  Jackson hoped he was about to kick the smugness right out of the son of a bitch. Never in his life had he hated something so completely as he did the Phage, an intelligent species with inexplicable motivations that seemed only bent on killing as many as possible with no warning or explanation. The loss of the Artemis had stoked the flames so that now his hatred burned white hot within his chest like a mini-supernova. He wanted to not only eliminate them … he wanted them to suffer for what they’d done.

  “Target has not significantly altered course,” Barrett interrupted his thoughts. “The gravity mine’s internal sensors have a lock and the Vruahn cube is updating the countdown. Detonation in ninety-eight minutes.”

  “Nav! How far will that put us out of the affected area?” Jackson called.

  “We will be two hundred and seven thousand kilometers out of the sphere of influence and just over four hundred kilometers behind the target,” Accari anticipated his captain’s next question.

  The next hour and a half passed at an interminable crawl and it played hell with Jackson’s nerves. He was anxious to swing back at the Alpha and let it know that it wasn’t going to have an easy time of it, but he also wanted to get the mission back on track and get Barrett into a position where he could target the specific regions the Vruahn had indicated would disable the marauder. The biggest challenge now became keeping the Alpha engaged without taking any more casualties but also not allowing it to escape.

  “Stand by,” Barrett said unnecessarily as everyone with a free eye had it turned towards the countdown timer on the main display. “Detonation!”

  Jackson had no idea what to expect from a Vruahn gravity weapon, but at such a close range he’d sort of expected there to be some visible light phenomena given the forces that were at work. There was no discernible effect that was visible from the bridge of the ship, but the sensors told an entirely different story. The cube had warned him that the weapons were som
ewhat unpredictable at full yield, but he’d not bothered to ask just how unpredictable they were.

  “Alpha has been … thrown … nearly seventy thousand kilometers off course.” Barrett shook his head. “It was sucked in towards the epicenter of the detonation. High-Res radar is showing that it’s tumbling in an uncontrolled flight roughly parallel to its original course and streaming something dense into space.”

  “The opposing forces of the weapon must have ruptured the hull.” Jackson was suitably awed. The hide of a Super Alpha was nothing to sneer at, and at the edge of its effective range the Vruahn weapon had managed to split it enough that it was spewing that viscous glop that ran through it into space. “Is the blast area clear?”

  “Our own accelerometers are picking up some residual eddies and ripples, sir,” Hayashi reported. “But there’s nothing that should cause more than a few bumps.”

  “Very well.” Jackson stood. “Helm, direct pursuit course, all ahead flank. Coms, I want the Icarus and the Hyperion turning in and running ahead of the target but not to pursue. I want to box it in, not give it an avenue to escape from. The Vruahn weapon knocked the piss out of it, but it’ll be coming around soon and when it does it won’t be nearly so overconfident. Expect something new and horrible from this thing as well as a few ploys to try and get us within range of that plasma weapon.”

  The Ares rumbled to life as the engines were reengaged, and the helmsman corrected their course so that they were once again rushing after the target at full speed. Jackson had seen how tough these things were first-hand and he knew there was no way that a single blast, even one like he’d just seen, was going to put it out of commission for long. By the time they closed the gap it was likely that the hull breeches would be healed up and it would be hauling ass out of the area to rethink its next move.

  “What’s our range?” he asked.

  “Five hundred and thirty thousand kilometers and closing,” Hayashi answered. “The blast also knocked it further out relative to our position.”