by PP Corcoran
“You come back to me, John Radford. Do you hear me?”
John could hear the strain in her voice and realized that he had fallen head over heels in love with this woman. “I promise,” he said softly, and could hear the strain in his own voice. He slowly pulled away from her, turned and headed for the shuttle pad.
Patricia sat alone at the table and stared after him, the tears that she had tried to hide from him now running freely down her face.
#
Adm. Jing regarded the faces of the three men and one Persai floating in the Holo Cube before him from his seat on the Flag Bridge of TDF Reliant. “Are you certain that the mated drones will be up to the task, Commodore?”
Without hesitation, Commodore Nikulin answered the ranking officer of the combined Commonwealth fleet, hastily cobbled together and now sat in hiding in the shadow of the only gas giant in the 31 Aquilae system. “I have complete faith in the system that Ensign Roawan has devised, sir.”
Jing’s fingers formed a steeple in front of him and he pursed his lips in his trademark pose. Jing knew that time was of the essence. ‘The Others’ were now only ninety minutes from the ability to fire on Garunda. To commit his forces to a battle plan that was ultimately reliant on an untested weapon, designed by an ensign, from a people who two years ago were still on the cusp of their own industrial revolution, was a big ask.
Around the Reliant floated the biggest fleet ever brought together by the Terran Defence Force. When the call for help had arrived from Adm. Thapa and he had stated that he was initiating Case Yellow, Jing had known that time was short. He organized his ships on the fly. Jing brought with him BatFor Two, which had been the alert BatFor ready to respond to any incursion into Earth space, and the parts of BatFor One and Three that had enough men on board to be able to fight. He had stripped Earth’s defences to the bone; the politicians had still been howling their disagreement as he ignored their calls and folded out for Garunda with seven Nemesis battleships, five Vulcan heavy cruisers, six Talos light cruisers and seventeen Agis destroyers.
Vice Adm. Lewis had not had to overcome the same whinging politicians. Thapa and the men and women of BatFor Four were based in Janus, and Governor Crothers had immediately given Lewis his blessing to take whatever he needed to come to their aid. Governor Crothers and the population of Janus felt a deep affiliation with the men and women of the TDF. In fact, a large percentage of the crew operating the ships of BatFor Four had already applied to become citizens of the colony when they left the services. Lewis had arrived with two complete BatFors: six Nemesis battleships, eight Vulcan heavy cruisers, four Talos light cruisers and twenty Agis destroyers.
What was unexpected was the speed with which the Persai had reacted. When Jing arrived at the rendezvous point, behind the gas giant, he found ten Persai cruisers waiting for him. Force Leader Taminth had not hesitated in placing his ships under the command of Jing and Jing decided to leave Radford where he was on Taminth’s flag ship, Vitaros, as his liaison officer.
Jing caught the eye of Lewis in the Holo Cube and Lewis gave him a curt nod. With that Jing made his decision.
“Admiral Lewis, you will immediately fold with BatFor Five and Six and join with Admiral Thapa and bolster his defences. Your aim is to slow ‘The Others’ as much as possible. Try and keep them at arm’s length; they are not permitted to enter weapons range of the planet at all costs. Commodore Nikulin, continue to deploy as many weapons as possible. You will launch only on my command but you can work on me giving that order…” Jing check the time displayed at the bottom of the Holo Cube. “Twenty six minutes from now.”
Jing turned his head to regard Radford and Force Leader Taminth, the last two members of this council of war. “Force Leader, for this to work I need those Goshawks providing anti-missile defence for the Vultures to be put out of action. Can you do it?”
Taminth’s ears went back and his lips curled back to display his incisors, and his voice in the Admiral’s ear was cold as ice. “Admiral Jing, my people have waited a long time for this moment. Again, The Enemy come to butcher the innocent, but this time they have met peoples who will not succumb without a fight. We of the Persai will do our duty or die trying.”
“Very well, gentlemen. You have your orders. Admiral Thapa’s people are dying out there, so let us get to it. Dismissed.” The four faces vanished from the Holo Cube and as Jing watched, the tactical display changed as Lewis’s ships folded away to join their comrades in BatFor Four, while the Persai ships left to begin their attack runs. Commodore Nikulin and the Wayfarer returned to Garunda to supervise the final deployment of the weapons that the plan hinged on. Jing sat back in his chair and without thinking his fingers formed a steeple, fervently he hoped this was the right decision.
#
John gripped the arms of his seat on the flag bridge of Vitaros a little harder. For the first time, the Vitaros’ sensors got a good look at the battle raging between ‘The Others’ and the human ships defending Garunda. In the five hours since ‘The Others’ began their attack, BatFor Four had virtually ceased to exist. As John watched, a Vulture fired its main x-ray laser and the TDF destroyer Black Skull, which had strayed into the Vulture’s weapons range, vanished in a blinding flash.
The arrival of Adm. Lewis and his reinforcements had been in the nick of time. BatFor Four was critically low on missiles – both anti-ship and anti-missile. If ‘The Others’ had managed to coordinate their fire properly, they would have swamped BatFor Four’s meagre defences and ensured its destruction. For whatever reason, they had not yet managed to do so. Now the twenty Agis destroyers of BatFor Five and Six brought their own highly coordinated anti-missile systems into play, and the number of ‘‘The Others’ missiles getting through their orchestrated fire was slowing to a trickle as the battered remnants of BatFor Four retired behind Lewis’s fresh ships and full magazines.
Taminth gestured for John to join him. John left his seat to stand by the Force Leader’s side as he regarded the main tactical plot. “Admiral, from the information supplied by BatFor Four we have identified the twelve Vultures and their escort of two Goshawks apiece. My command will break into five pairs and we will attack as one wave with each pair assigned to engage the escorting Goshawks. I intend to attack the Goshawks protecting the Vultures closest to Admiral Lewis first, in an attempt to relieve some of the pressure on the Admiral, then sweep through the remainder of The Enemy fleet until all the Goshawks have been destroyed or until we have sustained sufficient critical damage which precludes any further offensive action.”
Taminth’s plan was simple in concept. John had seen the effect of the Vitaros’ main high energy plasma cannon in action. Unless ‘The Others’ had another surprise up their sleeves, then the cannon should be sufficient to deal with the Goshawks. John’s only worry was how the Vitaros and her sister ships' x-ray missile point defence lasers were going to hold up. Vitaros was going to have to get within ten thousand kilometres of the Goshawks to ensure a one shot–– one kill ratio; and if ‘The Others’ could get a lock onto the Vitaros while the Persai were getting a firing solution, then their point defence x-ray lasers would be pushed to breaking point.
Well, John thought, we’ll just have to wait and see. “Force Leader, I concur with your plan.”
Taminth let out a short grunt as he put one hand on John’s shoulder and turned to address the Persai on the flag bridge. “Let us send The Enemy to hell. Attack!”
The Vitaros winked out of existence only to reappear a moment later less than nine thousand kilometres off the starboard side of a Goshawk.
The Persai at Tactical shouted, “We’re being hit with rapid, high band radar, Force Leader! The computers are calling it targeting radar. Four seconds until main weapon is ready to fire. Targeting solution looks good. Firing now.”
John stared at his readout as the invisible x-ray laser reached out, at nearly the speed of light, and touched the hull of the Goshawk dead centre. John mouthed a silent prayer, h
oping the Persai weapon proved effective on ‘The Others’ ships as all the simulations had said it would be... It was.
Before his very eyes, a large plume of escaping gases and debris exploded from the far side of the Goshawk, and seconds later it exploded into a million pieces.
A jubilant cry went up from the bridge crew and Taminth had to shout to be heard. “Navigator! Get us out of here before they target us.”
“Yes, Force Leader.” And the Vitaros’ Gravity Drive took it away from ‘The Others’ without suffering a single hit.
As the Vitaros re-entered normal space, Taminth requested a status check on all the Persai ships.
The Persai officer at tactical carried out his order, he paused and became still. “Burrav disobeyed your orders, Force Leader.”
Taminth struck the arm of his chair with his hand with such force John thought it would break. “What did that impetuous fool do?”
Taminth’s Tactical officer turned to face the Force Leader. His voice was hollow at the dishonour and needless sacrifice that disobeying the Force Leader’s orders had caused. “After engaging and successfully destroying his assigned Goshawk, Burrav attempted to engage the Vulture it had been escorting. By the time Burrav had a lock on the Vulture, he had come under fire from other Enemy ships. His ship simply couldn’t stand up to the massed Enemy fire and it was destroyed.”
Taminth bowed his head low for a moment. John thought he heard a mumbled prayer for the dead Persai before Taminth told the Tactical officer to continue with his report.
“We have confirmation that all ten intended targets have been destroyed, Force Leader.”
Taminth nodded slowly and turned to John. “It would seem that our plan is working. We will immediately re-engage the remaining Goshawks.”
“They’ll be expecting us this time, Force Leader,” said John cautiously.
Taminth nodded again. “Agreed, but time is running short; and if Admiral Jing’s plan is to succeed, we must press our attack.”
This time it was John’s turn to agree. “True. By my calculations the Admiral should be launching his attack in twelve minutes.”
“Then we have no time to waste, Admiral Radford.” Taminth spun in his chair. “Communications! Signal the ships to begin their second attack and continue until all Goshawks are destroyed.”
Vitaros once again entered fold space, and as it emerged into normal space John’s repeater display filled with the bulk of a Goshawk. John’s readout told him it was 4,850 kilometres away. Damn! That was spitting distance in a space battle. The Vitaros’ navigator was good.
The Tactical officer was watching his display intently as the computers worked frantically to get a lock on the Goshawk. “Target locked. Firing in three, two –”
The Persai never got to say ‘one’ as the Vitaros was rocked by the impact of a Q Switching laser fired by the Vulture on the port quarter. The Tactical officer’s station took the brunt of the impact as the laser penetrated the Vitaros’ hull and entered the flag bridge. His voice was cut off as his station exploded and he was shredded by the deadly fragments.
John could only watch the horror unfold in slow motion. Taminth became the next victim. His chair was ripped from its mount and flew across the flag bridge to be stopped by an unyielding bulkhead. The sound of escaping atmosphere filled John’s ears. He reached for the emergency helmet mounted in a rack at the side of his chair, secured it in place and said a silent prayer as all the tell-tales turned green. At least he did not have to worry about the lack of oxygen killing him. John punched up the weapons control on his repeater and was astonished to see the green ready light of the main armament still flashing its ready signal. John doubled checked to see that the weapon was still locked onto the Goshawk and pressed down on the firing stud with all his might.
4,850 kilometres away, the Goshawk that had killed Taminth expired itself.
The remaining Persai on the flag bridge were struggling to come to terms with the sudden violence and the death of their commanding officer. John had to act and act quickly before another of ‘The Others’ ship started using the Vitaros for target practice and they all died. John worked furiously at his terminal, fully expecting the next moment to be his last.
“Navigation! Fold us to the coordinates I have just sent you. Damage Control! Get that hull breach sealed. Communications! Slave fire control to your terminal and be prepared to fire on our next target.” John barked his orders.
The Vitaros folded to the coordinates John had supplied and as it entered normal space, another Goshawk appeared in John’s display. John bared his teeth behind the protective faceplate of his helmet. “Lock on and kill that son of a bitch.”
The Persai at communications did not hesitate. “Yes, Force Leader.” As the fire ready light turned green, the Vitaros fired and another Goshawk was guided into oblivion. John did not have the time to gloat; he punched another set of coordinates into his terminal and sent them to the navigator.
The Vitaros rocked as another laser hit her, but she folded away only to reappear directly behind a Goshawk. John didn't need to speak any words of command. As soon as the fire ready light turned green, that Goshawk joined its companions as rapidly expanding clouds of wreckage.
A red zero began flashing in John’s display. Time’s up, thought John. Hopefully, they had done enough for Adm. Jing’s plan to work. “Fold for the rendezvous point, Navigator.”
“Yes, Force Leader.” That was the second time that a member of the bridge crew had called him that. Maybe they had just forgotten that he was a human admiral and not a Persai.
#
Adm. Jing watched the clock inexorably counting down to zero. On his tactical display, ‘The Others’ fleet was approaching a line, which represented one hour’s Buzzard flight time from Garunda. The time at which they would reach maximum launch range for any missiles targeted on Garunda. His display was constantly updated by the information arriving by courier drone from Adm. Lewis. Drones were arriving every five minutes now as the battle reached its most critical phase.
As the clock touched zero, Jing turned to his waiting Communications officer and uttered a single word. “Execute!”
#
Commodore Nikulin could cut the atmosphere on the bridge of the Wayfarer with a knife. Mad panicking over now, either the plan would work or it wouldn't. Nikulin couldn't help but smile as he watched Ensign Roawan nervously hopping from one foot to the other, as he lent over the shoulder of the Wayfarer’s Tactical officer.
Roawan had come running onto the bridge demanding to speak to him. Nikulin had put it down to fear, fear that he was about to witness his whole planet die before his eyes. But Nikulin had been wrong. Roawan had explained his idea to him and Nikulin had been flabbergasted at how simple it was.
Take all the available courier drones on board the three replenishment ships, remove the seeker heads on them, replace those with megaton range nuclear warheads from the anti-ship missiles Nikulin’s ships were carrying, and finally load the software that CPO Higgins had devised. And hey presto – immensely accurate, Gravity Drive-equipped, nuclear tipped, ship killers. Something Research and Development had been working on for what seemed like an age, a lowly Garundan ensign and a human chief petty officer had solved in a matter of a few hours.
“Commodore, courier drone from Admiral Jing. Download is one word: ‘execute’.”
Nikulin addressed the young Garundan. “Ensign Roawan, if you would do the honours.”
The Wayfarer’s Tactical officer pushed his chair back from his terminal and stood up, inviting Roawan to assume his post. Roawan sat, lent over the terminal and let his finger hover over the flashing red light, savouring the moment for just a brief second before pressing down with all his strength. “Weapons away, sir.”
163 nuclear-tipped courier drones picked up speed and vanished as their Gravity Drives engaged.
#
“Drones arriving three hundred kilometres to our stern, Admiral!” Lewis rocked
in his seat as another near miss shook the hull of the Reliant. His ships had only engaged with ‘The Others’ for a little over half an hour but his list of casualties in ships and men filled the display.
Unlike BatFor Four, Lewis was forced to close with ‘The Others’ as the distance between the enemy fleet and Garunda had shrunk. With the reduced gap, ‘The Others’ had been able to bring their powerful main armament into play, and that had increased the number of hits his ships had taken.
Now the decisive moment. “Tactical! Update your plot and prepare your strike package. I want ten drones assigned to each Vulture. It may be overkill but let’s make sure of a kill. We only get one chance at this. The remainder at your discretion.”
Reliant’s Tactical officer’s hands flew over his keyboard as he prioritized his target list and entered the latest location data. “Targeting package ready, Admiral.”
“Send it!” Lewis said with a sense of satisfaction.
The drones disappeared into fold space, only to reappear a second later, less than fifty kilometres from their intended targets. No living thing could react quickly enough. Computers on board the targeted ships tried. But on locking onto their targets, the drones accelerated as hard as their drives would go. Two seconds after lock on, twelve Vultures and five Buzzards were racked by multiple megaton nuclear explosions. When the blast clouds dispersed, not even wreckage remained to show where millions of tonnes of starships had once been.
The flag bridge of the Reliant broke into spontaneous applause and cries of delight, no doubt mingled with a sense of relief as they realized that the untried weapons had performed exactly as anticipated. All twelve Vulcans destroyed, along with five Buzzards. Add that to the twenty-four Goshawks that the Persai killed prior to the launching of the weapons and the four Buzzards destroyed by BatFor Four in their long retreat towards Garunda. That left only two Buzzards, who found themselves suddenly all alone and facing the might of the combined Commonwealth fleet.