by PP Corcoran
“Very well, General. Deploy your forces.”
#
TDF Cartagena - 31 Aquilae
From the Flag Bridge, Rear Adm. John Radford looked at the Holo Cube, which displayed the 31 Aquilae system before him. The blue icons of BatFor One, First Fleet, and Terran Defence Force surrounded his Nemesis class battleship, TDF Cartagena, in a layered globe. Destroyers formed the outer shell, cruisers a mid-layer and the battleships at the heart.
Compared to John’s last command, the Vanguard class survey ship TDF Henry Hudson, TDF Cartagena was nothing less than a monster. The Nemesis class battleship, designed with only one thought in mind, to defeat anything that ‘The Others’ had so far fielded in a toe-to-toe stand up fight, was 980 meters long, 120 meters at the beam and weighed in at 52,000 tonnes. The Nemesis wasn’t designed to hide from the enemy; it was designed to close with and destroy him, using the most efficient particle weapons, grazers and missiles that mankind, utilizing Saiph technology, could devise. The Cartagena was not alone. Two more Nemesis battleships, the Lagos Bay and the Fort Royal, four Vulcan class heavy cruisers, two Talos class light cruisers and ten Agis class destroyers rounded out BatFor One. For this mission it had been decided that BatFor One’s Marine element would not be required.
As John continued to watch his display, it split and the face of his flag captain, Joshua Ward, appeared.
“Admiral, I see we have customers,” said Ward grimly.
In the display, the red icons of ‘The Others’ six ships moved past the outer surveillance shell in three groups of two ship formations and the lonely blue icon that represented the Henry Hudson. “Well, Captain. There’s the first good news of the day. ‘The Others’ have either not detected or have chosen to ignore the Henry Hudson. The bad news is that the Buzzards are still making a best time course for Garunda.” Without taking his eyes from the display, John called, “Tactical, estimated time till the Buzzards reach Garunda?”
The lieutenant at Tactical checked her readouts before answering. “Current rate of advance would put Buzzard One’s arrival in orbit around the planet in fifty minutes, Admiral.”
The clock was ticking, thought John. “Project phase line Trafalgar onto the tactical display and give me an ETA for the Buzzards breaching the line.”
A red globe superimposed itself around Garunda. Phase line Trafalgar – an imaginary sphere, which was the scientists’ best guess using references from the Saiph database at the maximum of the Buzzards’ planetary bombardment range. To John it marked his decision point.
“Forty-five minutes till phase line Trafalgar is breached by Buzzard One,” called the lieutenant at Tactical.
John thought that this could be the longest forty-five minutes of his life. With a voice calmer than he felt, John ordered, “Communications, signal to the fleet: All ships to battle stations.”
John looked back to his display and the waiting face of Capt. Ward, “Captain, I believe that I may have some business for you shortly.”
#
All conversation on the flag bridge of the Cartagena slowly tailed off as Buzzard One inexorably closed on phase line Trafalgar. John found himself staring intently at his tactical display. The Buzzards had retained their three two-ship formations as they closed with Garunda. Then it happened: the leading Buzzard passed the red line.
“Phase line Trafalgar breached by Buzzard One, Admiral!” came the confirmation from Tactical.
Now we find out if all our hard work will pay off, thought John as he gripped the sides of his chair that little bit harder. “Communications, signal to fleet: We will go with ops plan Nelson Two.”
The communications officer transmitted the prearranged signal. Just as quickly, the ships of the fleet replied. “Fleet acknowledges, Admiral. Nelson Two on your command.”
John waited a heartbeat before ordering, “Execute!”
With that order, BatFor One, Terran Defence Force disappeared from the outskirts of 31 Aquilae only to reappear a split second later barely a hundred thousand kilometres from the leading two-ship Buzzard formation.
John leaned forward and quickly studied his tactical display. BatFor One had reemerged from fold space, not in the globe that it had entered it in, but now arrayed in a conical formation with the three battleships at the point of the cone and the cruisers spreading out on the flanks. Of the destroyers, there was no sign. John shifted his eyes closer to the planet and was relieved to see the blue icons of the destroyers forming up as a shield between the Buzzards and the planet. They were John’s last line of defence against any missiles fired at the planet that leaked past his cruisers.
Well, phase one worked, thought John. The micro jump that had first been performed by the Vasco De Gama in 70 Ophiuchi to get into a firing position behind another Buzzard had been practiced and practiced as the tactical advantage that it gave was fully recognized.
Now for phase two. Without another word of command from John, all three Terran battleships fired their main grazer armament. The targeted Buzzards had no time to react: by the time their light speed sensors told them that BatFor One was there, the light speed grazers were only seconds behind. As John watched, the grazers of Cartagena and Lagos Bay (four of the heaviest grazers ever mounted on a Terran ship) struck the flank of Buzzard One. They pass through the battle armour like it wasn't even there, taking off the rear third of Buzzard One and leaving the remaining two thirds to begin a steady tumbling motion in the same general direction that the Buzzard had been originally headed on.
“Communications! Inform the nearest cruisers to engage what remains of Buzzard One with HVMs,” ordered John without taking his eyes from his display. Damn! Buzzard Two had been lucky, only one of the grazers from Fort Royal had impacted; but the bow of the Buzzard was now an expanding ball of plasma.
The gunners of Buzzard Two were quick off the mark and Q laser fire began hitting the armoured hull of the Fort Royal. But this was what the Nemesis class of battleship had been designed for. Fort Royal shrugged off the hits as her forward particle cannon opened fire and she maneuverer to bring her grazers bear. As the particle cannon impacted on Buzzard Two, John could see in his display that Buzzards Three and Four had slowed to allow Buzzards Five and Six to catch up; and their formation was changing.
John’s Tactical officer had seen it too. “Admiral, aspect change of the remaining Buzzards. They’re manoeuvring broadside onto us, I would suggest to deploy missiles and to clear as many weapons as possible to engage us.”
As the Tactical officer finished, a fresh set of red icons appeared on the display and began speeding in the direction of the Terran ships.
The Tactical officer reacted immediately. “Vampire, Vampire. Enemy missile release. The fleet now has weapons free for anti-missile assets. The cruisers are engaging.”
Compared to the near light speed grazers and particle weapons, missiles might seem slow, but the anti-ship HVMs that BatFor One carried moved at sixty thousand kph and had a powered range of three hundred thousand kilometres; they could carry either a nuclear or a conventional warhead and be controlled from the firing ship or by the missile’s on-board computer. The anti-missile HVMs could accelerate up to a hundred thousand kph but had a much shorter range, only a thousand kilometres. Again, they could carry either nuclear or conventional warheads controlled by the firing ship or on-board computers.
John watched the display as a shoal of anti-missile missiles flew from the cruisers of BatFor One as the battleships held their missiles in reserve. John knew that this was the first major engagement between ‘The Others’ and the Terran Defence Force and, although John would have loved to engage with everything at his disposal, this fight was also a chance to learn how effective the Terran tactics and weaponry were, so, despite himself, John held back from committing his battleships fully.
“Second missile separation from the Buzzards,” came the call from Tactical. “Fewer in number this time but with a larger energy reading.”
As John continue
d to watch the battle develop, Q lasers continued to strike out at Fort Royal, but the Nemesis battleship seemed unaffected by the strikes. The Fort Royal’s particle cannon were taking large bites out of Buzzard Two and as the Fort Royal’s grazers came to bear, they fired in tandem, striking the Buzzard dead centre. With a blinding flash, the Buzzard simply ceased to exist. Where a 220,000 tonne starship had once been, there was now only an expanding cloud of debris.
Out of the corner of his eye, John could see that the Tactical officer, whose fingers had so far throughout the battle been flying over his controls as he coordinated the actions of the whole of BatFor One, had paused and was looking intently at his repeater display. “Problem, Commander?”
In reply, the second volley of missiles from the Buzzards lit up in John’s display. The commander at Tactical spun his chair to face John with a look of puzzlement on his face. “Sir, it would appear that this second volley of missiles, our count is twenty from each Buzzard, are on a course that would leave them clear of our engagement envelope. They will not come anywhere near our ships.”
John looked again at the display, trying to discern the enemy’s intention. Why fire sixty missiles in the middle of a firefight that all head off at a tangent from the enemy? With a start, John sat bolt upright in his seat and hoped to God that he was wrong. “Tactical! Have the destroyer screen around Garunda shadow the trajectory of that second wave of missiles. I believe they’re not aimed at us at all – they’re going for the planet, and they’re just completing a dog leg course to avoid us intercepting them.”
The battle continued to rage around John. His battleships had, so far, taken only minor damage, and John could feel a growing sense of confidence emanating from the flag bridge. ‘The Others’ didn’t appear to have an answer to the heavy grazers mounted on the TDF ships, and the particle cannon, although not as effective, was still able to inflict significant damage. The missiles that had been fired at BatFor One had been easily defeated by the anti-missile HVMs from the cruiser screen. John could feel himself involuntarily relaxing a little in his seat. Maybe this was not going to turn out so badly after all. A call from Tactical changed all that in an instant.
“Aspect change on that second flight of missiles that we have been tracking.” The commander paused checking his data. “Looks like you were right, Admiral. The missiles have changed course and are now heading for the planet and are increasing speed. The enemy missiles are now traveling at seventy-five thousand kph.”
Damn! Thought John as his eyes moved across the display to focus on the missiles closing with Garunda. The missiles had formed into three distinct waves. The first wave consisted of thirty missiles, followed by two further waves of twenty missiles each.
John looked at the blue icons of his ten Agis class destroyers, which had interposed themselves between the oncoming missiles and the planet. John knew the Agis class were designed as fleet protection ships. They mounted a complex fire and control system, which allowed them to integrate their defensive fire with other ships. Their firepower was distinctly skewed toward the role of long-range anti-missile pickets specifically tasked to kill any missile threat to the fleet. Were John’s ten Agis ships going to be enough against sixty incoming missiles?
John ran a quick scenario through his head, then turned to his tactical officer, “Tactical, re-task the cruisers closest to the enemy missiles. I know it’s a long shot and the chances of hits are minimal, but they are to engage the enemy missiles heading for Garunda with their particle cannon. I think the Agis can do with all the help that they can get.”
On John’s display, he could see the cruisers he re-tasked shift position slightly so to better bring their weapons to bear on the new threat. That was when all hell broke loose.
Three of the Buzzards slipped into a tight triangle formation and slowed noticeably. Before John or anyone else on the flag bridge could react, a bright blue beam shot out of the bow of each of the Buzzards and all three beams connected with the Lagos Bay. The sidebars on John’s display had difficulty keeping up with the thermal blooming recorded from the battleship.
There was a stunned silence on the flag bridge. In the main Holo Cube, the blue icon representing the Lagos Bay changed to a flashing red; after only a moment, it changed to a solid red. The Lagos Bay was gone... along with two thousand humans.
John shook himself. He was still in a firefight and the Buzzards were lining up for another shot, “Tactical, Fort Royal and the heavy cruisers are to concentrate fire on a single Buzzard. I want Cartagena and the light cruisers to swing around for a flanking shot. Let’s give them two distinct targets and see if we can’t split their firepower.”
As BatFor One maneuverer to come at the Buzzards from two sides, the first wave of missiles headed for Garunda were engaged by the Terran destroyers in their desperate attempt to stop them reaching the planet. The command and control of the Agis ships was second to none: enemy missiles began to fall victim to coordinated anti-missile fire. The first wave was reduced to just eleven survivors. ‘The Others’ sprang their next surprise.
At a range of only fifty thousand km from the Agis destroyers, all the remaining eleven missiles detonated. A single bomb-pumped x-ray laser shot from the nose of each missile and impacted on an Agis. Each x-ray laser beam was barely ten centimetres in diameter. It struck the hull of an Agis and blew chunks off the ablative armour where it hit a weak point. It penetrated deep into the core of the ship, destroying everything it touched until it reached the outer hull on the opposite side of the ship, where the armoured hull halted its deadly path.
Chance is a fickle thing. Of the eleven x-ray lasers that had survived to strike at the Terran destroyer’s, six shots were clean misses. TDF Conquerant and Venomous took one hit apiece, causing minor damage, but TDF Oberon was struck by three: one penetrated her forward missile magazine. The result was immediate and catastrophic. Megaton range nuclear weapons exploded before the crew of Oberon had an inkling that something was wrong. Oberon died, along with 250 of her crew, in all-consuming nuclear fire.
Oberon’s sister ships could not spare the time to mourn her passing as the dispassionate computers compensated for the hole left in the anti-missile net by Oberon’s passing. The second wave of missiles was upon the destroyers and the space around them filled with HVMs, particle beams and laser defence cluster fire as computers on board the destroyers took over from their human operators – for only they were quick enough to prioritize and engage targets as ‘The Others’ missiles swept over the little destroyers.
The third wave arrived quickly on the heels of the second, and again space filled with the defensive fire of the nine remaining Agis destroyers as they struggled to cope with the onslaught. TDF Venomous found itself rocked to the frame by the explosion of a fifty megaton missile as it died under the fire of one of the Venomous’ laser defence clusters. The shock caused the command and control system to go off line for a fraction of a second; and yet more time was lost as the system re booted itself. It was enough. Two of ‘The Others’ missiles made it cleanly past the destroyers and began their final plunge towards the surface of Garunda.
A shout from Tactical alerted John to the impending destruction on Garunda. “Leakers! We have leakers. At least two missiles moving beyond the engagement range of the destroyer screen and headed for the planet surface. Time to impact two minutes.”
John knew in his heart that there was nothing he could do to stop the two remaining ‘The Others’ missiles. He could only pray that whatever their target, it would be thinly populated and casualties would be minimized.
John pulled himself back to his current predicament – the remaining Buzzards. Fort Royal and the heavy cruisers had succeeded in destroying another of the Buzzards from the group of three that had killed the Lagos Bay. From the readings on his display, it would appear they had badly damaged another. That left only two to deal with: the remaining Buzzard from the three-ship formation and the single Buzzard that had so far hung back fro
m the main battle.
As the Cartagena and her two Talos light cruiser escorts swung around, it brought the Buzzard broadside onto the Cartagena’s grazer. As John watched, the grazer fired, striking the Buzzard amid ship and cutting it cleanly in half. The smaller grazers mounted on the two Talos light cruisers fired, and the remains of the Buzzard were wiped from space.
John was staring intently at his tactical display, plotting his next move, when the icon for the Agis destroyer TDF Dagger vanished, only to reappear virtually touching the planet Garunda. It hung there for a few seconds before again disappearing and reappearing in almost the exact location within the tactical display from which it had vanished. John rubbed his eyes quickly; it must have been a brief fault. Dismissing it, John still had the last Buzzard to worry about.
“Aspect change on Buzzard Six, Admiral!” called the Tactical officer. “She’s reversed course and is moving away.”
John’s reaction was immediate. “Communications! Signal all ships: Engage the remaining Buzzard immediately.” The information that that Buzzard contained would be priceless to ‘The Others’. They had witnessed the effectiveness of not only the Terran weapons but of their own on the Terran ships. John had to stop that knowledge from getting back to ‘The Others’.
The commander at Tactical was fully engrossed in his display as he reported to John, “Direct hit on the rear quarter of Buzzard Six, Admiral. Her speed is dropping; looks like complete engine failure.”
With ‘The Others’ ship dead in space, John paused for a moment and with his steeple fingers in front of him, he realized that a golden opportunity was presenting itself. But it would have to wait for the time being – that ship was not going anywhere in the short term.
John regarded the floating image of Garunda in the tactical display and felt the heavy burden of responsibility weigh on his shoulders. He wondered at the destruction caused by the two missiles that had managed to survive the destroyers’ desperate attempts to protect the planet.