Wolves at the Gate

by Shane Van Aulen

  “My lady, we have detected numerous launches from their old escort carrier,” the space radar operator reported.

  The Ship Mistress shook her head wishing she could kill a few of her people to set the right tone with them but instead she asked, “Type and number?”

  “Hard to say as they are bunched together and are emitting a sensor scrambling signal,” she answered looking hard at her monitor.

  “Best guess?” the Second quickly suggested.

  “At least forty missiles and four torpedoes probably standard ship torpedoes,” she said knowing that if they were the Confederation’s hypervelocity torpedoes they probably would have already hit them.

  “How long until they are in our defensive range?”

  “Two minutes, but I’m also reading more launches approaching on the same trajectory but they are larger, probably star fighters,” the sensor operator informed.

  “How many star fighters?” the Second asked.

  “At least fifteen,” she answered “but they have massed behind the frigate and their signatures are somewhat masked.”

  The Second looked to the seated ship mistress, “Maybe we should slow and wait for the KD102?”

  Lady Sen-Re made a face as she stared at her central viewing portal.

  “No, if we engage them and keep them here then the KD102 can make up the distance and assist us. If we slow or stop then they will all escape,” she declared not about to be robbed of this kill.

  The destroyer KD54 shook for a second as it was struck by a particle hit.

  “Point defense laser six has been destroyed,” someone announced.

  “Mistress, the frigate has launched missiles and two standard torpedoes,” the space radar operator called out.

  “Lock on and destroy them as they approach,” Sen-Re commanded sure that they would destroy them.

  “My lady, the frigate has changed heading and is coming into range,” the Second said from the sensor’s station.

  “Destroy it!” she yelled standing up from her seat.

  “Mistress, we have multiple incoming star fighters emerging from behind the frigate. Registering twenty-four enemy target locks, four flights of six star fighters probably Saber SF-86 and SF-15 types,” the operator of the space radar unit reported. This now gave them twenty-five targets, as well as the flights of incoming torpedoes and the ship launched missiles.

  “Particle turrets fire on the frigate, all others weapons systems open fire on the star-fighters and torpedoes,” Sen-Re directed as her ship rocked for second from a particle hit from the enemy frigate.

  “All right you Bastards, it is time for you to earn your wings,” Lt. Collins announced on an open channel to the Boyington’s star fighter group.

  The comm. channel flooded for a few seconds with grunts, aye sirs and a few words of profanity.

  “What are your orders, sir?” Lt. Lester asked as the channel cleared.

  “Break into four wings coming at the destroyer from four separate vectors. Keep to your maximum distance, get radar target locks and fire at range. Remember, no hot dogging, this is a battle of distance. We are buying time for our ships to escape while trying to overwhelm the Karduan’s defense grid. So, light them up, get tone and then get the hell out of there,” he ordered.

  “Wilco, Bastard One out,” Lester replied.

  The crew of the Goliad watched as the four star-fighter wings raced passed them running out and along all sides of their ship.

  “Ok, let’s show these fighter pilots that they aren't the only fast ship in town,” Mike said, “Mister Pitt, full impulse, take us into optimum firing range.”

  “Aye sir,” Jeremy answered accelerating the frigate and closing the distance to the destroyer.

  “Petty Officer Baker, keep the missile turrets and the particle turret firing as planned. Standby missile pods and torpedoes,” he ordered feeling his ship take a particle hit from the destroyer.

  “Minor damage to port armor,” Curtis sang out.

  Mike had it timed all out, the missiles and torpedoes from the Boyington as well as his own from the Goliad. They would all hit within seconds of each other. Along with that the fighters and Goliad would add their fire in an effort to overwhelm the enemy’s defense grid. They had even prep for this when they were playing cat and mouse by dipping into the enemy’s range and firing not at their bridge or engines but at their point defense lasers.

  “Its working sir, I’m reading multiple missile hits,” Curtis said and added, “it seems they are concentrating their fire on the incoming torpedoes.”

  “I would too,” Lt. Collins remarked and looked from the holo-map over to his fire control station. “Alright, fire missile pods one and four.”

  “Firing pods missiles away,” Baker said as particle energy blast hit the hull armor near the bridge. She was thrown to the deck and hit her head. There she laid unmoving.

  Mike ran over and took over her station.

  “Firing torpedoes,” he announced and let loose with a torpedo from each launcher. One was a standard torpedo while the other was a Blitzkrieg.

  He wanted there to be no chance of missing and had set up the destroyer to spend its defensive fire shooting at other targets.

  The Goliad rocked from a particle hit and a red light lit up on the fire control station’s panel.

  “Our particle turret is down. That last hit disabled it,” Mike said.

  “Bastard One is reporting that they have expended all of their missiles and are breaking off their attack,” Specialist Ryan announced from the comm. station.

  “Good, tell them to get back to the barn and rearm,” Collins said and continued, “How many star fighters did we lose?”

  “Four damaged, but they report that they are still able to fly,” Specialist Ryan reported.

  The long-range diversionary attack work, Mike thought.

  “The Blitzen hit the enemy’s bridge, I’m reading massive damage,” PO2 Curtis said with a serious expression.

  “Firing our farewell presents,” Lt. Collins said and launched two more torpedoes.

  One was a standard torpedo while the other was the TPA coated Blitzen. The standard was locked onto the damaged destroyer while the TPA Blitzen was being fired at the second destroyer who was still out of the battle.

  The Blitzen was fast and had better ECM but at longer ranges it could still be detected. The trans-poly aluminum coating would block the enemy’s sensors long enough for the hypervelocity warhead to strike its target. This was another reason Mike had to get the Goliad closer to cut down the enemy’s detection time.

  “Turning us away and firing all thrusters, impulse drives to maximum,” Jeremy said bringing the old battle frigate to a new heading and directing it back towards the nebula.

  “Reading a second torpedo strike on the lead destroyer, severe damage amid ship,” PO2 Curtis called out.

  “What about the second destroyer?” Mike asked looking to the main viewer.

  A moment later an explosion registered on the second destroyer.

  “I’m reading damage to her engine section, but her speed is not slowing,” he said.

  “She still has inertia or maybe we didn’t damage her maneuver drives,” Mike said leaning down to check on Baker who was breathing but was still unconscious with a bleeding head wound. It looked like she had smashed her head in her control station from the last particle blast.

  “Med-Bot is on the way,” Ryan said having already summoned the robot when the fire control operator had first been injured.

  Mike grabbed his extra auto med-kit from his combat suit’s pocket and pulled it out. Placing it on the side of her neck, he read the small screen displaying her condition. There didn’t seem to be any extensive head trauma and he didn’t see a reason to use any of the kits more advanced Heal-X injections. Med-Bot could fix her up with an injection of Heal-X Two and maybe a bit of pseudo-flesh as a bandage.

  “Sir, Boyington is reporting that all of its star fighters have lan
ded,” Ryan relayed.

  “Good, tell them to head to the nebula,” he instructed, “and tell them well done.”

  Med-Bot arrived at that moment and moved across the bridge to the downed spacer. Kneeling down the robot did a quick scan and proceeded to administer a mild pain reliever, a stimulant and a spray of pseudo-flesh for her head wound but it didn’t use any of the Heal-X Two that it carried. Mike was about to question its decision when the Petty Officer’s brown eyes opened and she looked up at him.

  “How do you feel, Cindy?” he inquired.

  “Like a bad hangover but I’ll survive,” she said and reached up for his hand and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet. He then guided her to the fire control station’s seat.

  “Will you be ok or should I find someone to relieve you?” he asked in concern for her welfare.

  “I can still do the job, sir,” she said like a trooper.

  Mike nodded and left it at that. If she felt she could still do her job he’d let her unless he saw that she was faltering.

  Med-Bot had cleared her and quickly left being summoned to treat another injured crewman.

  “Sir, the Oliver has reached the nebula,” PO2 Curtis said and continued, “the second destroyer is continuing its pursuit course and is not stopping to help the other damaged Karduan ships.”

  “What about our particle turret?” Collins asked of no one in particular.

  “It is dead, sir,” Cindy Baker replied, “it took a direct hit and we’re probably going to have to replace it again.”

  Mike let out a slow breath thinking that a particle turret was worth a destroyer any day of the week that is unless you still needed it.

  “Ok, we’ll just have to rely on fusion turrets, missiles and torpedoes,” he said while thinking that they were probably running low on both torpedoes and missiles.

  The race continued with the last destroyer trying to catch them but knowing that they had too great a distance to make up. Mike had ordered the convoy to enter the nebula when the Boyington had reached them.

  Dr. Kannon had recommended polarizing their hulls, the donning of space suits and if needed anti-radiation shots. He wanted to hold off as long as he could on the last one.

  Mike watched as the convoy entered the nebula.

  “Can we read them?” he asked wondering if the maser unit could pick them up.

  “Yes sir, but just barely at this distance,” Curtis replied.

  “Just a few minutes more and we’ll be at the edge of nebula,” Ensign Pitt said closing on that finish line as fast as he could.

  The Goliad suddenly rocked for a second as the inertia dampeners kicked in and steadied her.

  “What the hell was that?” Mike asked.

  “Someone launched an escape pod,” Curtis said seeing the little craft jettison away from the frigate.

  “What deck and who?” he inquired thinking that they were in the clear but now they had to deal with this.

  “Engineering deck, sir,” PO2 Curtis answered.

  “Patch me through to Chief Schmidt,” Collins said.

  “Aye sir,” Ryan replied and said, “Chief is on line two.”

  “Chief, what the hell just happened?” he demanded looking down at the screen in the arm of his chair.

  The chief’s face looked tired and stressed but most of all pissed.

  “That little shit Thach was hiding in one of the escape pods. We had locked the heads to keep him at his station but he slipped away again. We didn’t have time to go look for him during the battle. One of my people found him after we made our turn to run. We were trying to get him to come out and he must have hit the jettison controls,” CPO Schmidt explained shaking his head as he spoke.

  “Ok, keep those engines together and prepare to polarize the hull,” Mike said knowing that none of this was his fault.

  “Roger that,” he replied as the channel went dead.

  The bridge crew was quiet for a moment until Jeremy spoke up breaking the silence.

  “Sir, do we come about and try to pick up the pod?” he asked.

  Mike looked up at the holo-map and the locations of the pursing destroyer and the escape pod. If he came about he’d have to fight the second destroyer and he doubted his frigate would be the winner of that match.

  “No, we continue on course,” he said it sounding like a lead weight even to him.

  The bridge remained silent until they reached the edge of the nebula.

  “Sir, the destroyer is passing by the escape pod,” Curtis announced.

  Mike nodded but didn’t say anything. He was grateful that the Karduan’s hadn’t destroyed the pod but he knew that the little man inside of it was far from being out of the woods.

  “Polarizing the hull,” Ensign Pitt shared.

  “All stations report that radiation protocols are in effect,” Ryan said closing his helmet’s face plate.

  “Entering the nebula,” Jeremy said as he piloted them across the radioactive cloud’s threshold.

  “Petty Officer Curtis, what are you seeing?” Mike asked as the main viewer became a bit scrambled.

  “Sensors are working at a limited range. The maser unit is still picking up the convoy as well as the destroyer,” he said.

  “Clearly?” Collins asked.

  “No, but I can tell they are there and how far they are,” he answered.

  “I can get a positive weapons lock,” PO2 Baker added.

  Mike got up and moved to the maser station to see for himself.

  “Sir, you can see that the images are distorted but still readable,” Greg Curtis said as he pointed to his monitor.

  “Do you think a space radar unit could pick them up?” the worried ship captain inquired.

  “I don’t know, sir,” he said and paused and then explained, “by polarizing a hull in here we are kind of reflecting our image from the dust and gas of the nebula making us give off a stronger signature.”

  “What if we depolarized the hulls?” he suggested.

  PO2 Curtis turned and looked at his captain’s young face in shock and a bit of horror

  “We’d be bombarded with radiation but it would reduce our signatures and might make us invisible,” he said feeling his mouth go dry.

  “Ryan, contact Dr. Kannon on the Mary Walker,” he ordered.

  “Aye sir, give me one minute,” the specialist said and then added, “I have him on the line, captain, audio only.”

  “Commander, what would be the effect if we stopped polarizing the hulls?”

  “Lieutenant, I wouldn’t advise that, the radiation in here is very toxic,” the doctor replied.

  “Yes sir, but how long could we last?”

  “I’d say with space suits and the ship’s normal radiation protection we’d have at least eight hours. After that we’d have to administer anti-radiation shots, in fact we should start the shots as soon as we turn off the polarization just to be on the safe side,” he said reasoning as he spoke.

  “So at least eight hours?” Mike pressed.

  “Yes, and if we do the A-Rad shots it could buy us another four or five hours,” he said.

  “Thanks, sir, stay on the channel, please,” he said and then looked to the comm. station, “Open this channel to all ships.”

  “Aye sir, channel open, audio only,” Ryan said.

  “This is Lt. Collins, we've done a good job but we still have a destroyer on our tails. Our polarized hulls are acting like a beacon and the Karduan’s will probably be able to see us even in this gaseous soup. So here are my orders, everyone will un-polarize their hulls just before the destroyer enters the nebula. You will then go Negative-Z 2000 and wait for the destroyer to pass over you. The Goliad will stay lit up and will lead the Kardies deeper into the nebula. You will then leave the nebula, head for the gravity well and escape the system. Start anti-radiation shots as soon as you drop the polarization of your hulls. Hopefully, you can get clear of here in thirty minutes so your exposure should be minimal,” he explained.


  “What about you,” Dr. Kannon’s voice asked.

  “I’ll get them to follow us one way or another. Eventually, we’ll make our way out of here and to the gravity well but don’t wait for me, sir,” he answered not wanting to push a Lt. Commander but he knew they could escape with a little luck.

  He could hear the physician sigh, “Very well, good luck Lt. Collins and thank you for all you have done for us.” It sounded like goodbye because it was.

  “Good luck to you too, sir,” Mike replied and then looked to Ryan and signaled with a slash of his hand to his neck to end the transmission. His orders were not up for debate at this point.

  “Channel closed, sir,” Ryan said.

  “Good, now get me the Boyington, ship to ship,” he said wanting to talk to them without the others listening.

  “Lt. Howard here,” came the carrier captain’s voice.

  “Howard, you heard the plan but if it all goes to shit, you have to carry the ball and get the convoy out of here,” he said.

  There was pause for a moment and Collins thought that he had lost the comm. signal.

  “Right, we’ll get them to safety,” he said sounding more confident than he had heard from him before.

  “Roger, out here,” Mike said as the line was closed.

  “Well I’ll be, he sounded different,” Curtis commented also noticing the change in his voice.

  “It’s amazing what a little combat does for you,” Ensign Pitt said having had a similar experience after his first battle.

  “Sir, the destroyer is entering the nebula and they have polarized their hull,” Curtis announced.

  “What about the convoy?”

  “They have already depolarized and have dropped below the line of pursuit,” PO2 Curtis answered.

  “All right everyone, cross your fingers, hold your breaths and say a prayer,” Mike instructed knowing that this was the risky part.

  They watched the holo-map as they saw the destroyer pass over the hiding convoy and continued after the polarized hull of the frigate.

  “They’re on the hook,” Mike announced letting out a breath.

  “Orders, sir?” Pitt asked.