Everyone turned to their duties. When he was sure nobody was looking at him, Raferty leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly. He willed himself to relax. He needed a moment of calm. He actually preferred short impromptu fights like this rather than elaborately planned, complicated battle plans. The more time to plan the more he worried about whether he was covering all the contingencies or whether the current plan was the best possible answer. He knew the keys to a successful battle were surprisingly simple. Solve the riddle of time and distance so you bring the most weapons to bear on your enemy at a critical place at exactly the right time. Then simple math takes over. I have more weapons firing at you than you have at me. All else being equal, I win. It was simple, really it was. But sometimes the simple things are very difficult to do. In a long planning cycle, Rafe always had to resist the temptation to tinker. Therefore, he liked a short planning cycle and an even shorter battle. He liked it most when he won.
Predator slowed and adjusted course away from the fight. The ship still had ninety percent of its offensive missile warheads but only fifty percent of its interceptors. The ordnance crews could break out interceptor warheads from the ship’s magazines and convert offensive missiles to defensive interceptors. Rafe would have that done immediately, but this would not increase the number of missiles onboard. Missile bodies were identical. The warhead is what made missiles either offensive or defensive interceptors. Offensive warheads were mostly explosive with a smaller seeker system while interceptor warheads had little explosive with a large seeker system needed to track and intercept fast incoming enemy missiles. Jammers and decoys were down to sixty percent. The guns had fired fifty percent of canister rounds and ten percent high explosive. The maintenance lives of the two engines had been reduced. But Predator was alive and undamaged as she streaked away.
Chapter 16
Captain Mallory’s force was also departing the battle at top speed but, unlike Predator, this force had not absorbed the tail chase attack yet. The battle had gone well so far. The enemy battle cruiser Senator was barely functional. Five destroyers were gone and two damaged. One heavy cruiser eliminated and the other three were damaged, one severely. One light cruiser had slight damage and a second battle cruiser had been hit twice.
The Empire ships had no damage yet, but the OrCons were organized now and their numbers would start to weigh in as the battle continued. Sky knew the minefield was the only thing keeping the OrCons from direct pursuit. As she turned her force to port away from the minefield and the battle, the enemy force also turned to port and began to move up the long side of the minefield on the planet side. Sky continued the port turn until the force had turned one hundred eighty degrees and continued away while keeping the minefield between them and the enemy. She aimed her force directly at the planet Alejandar.
The OrCons continued to shoot through the minefield at the fleeing Empire force but never a full force broadside. The OrCon commander knew Sky would command detonate the minefield once the OrCons fired a large missile attack through it so the commander sent salvos through but never a full broadside. The Empire vessels shot interceptors and guns at the incoming missiles and knocked the great majority down and the remainder exploded onto shields harmlessly. So far so good. Sky could live with these attacks as her force pulled away. The minefield blocked direct pursuit and OrCon force would have to move around it as the Empire flotilla slipped away.
Suddenly a cloud of missiles erupted from the OrCons. Their commander had had enough and wanted the minefield gone. The missiles sped through the minefield bearing down on the Empire force.
“Six hundred nineteen inbound. One hundred eighty-one seconds to impact,” reported Commander Cassidy in a tense voice. She also did not like using the audio ability of the defense computer.
Sky weighed the odds. Her force could probably handle this, but the operative word was “probably.” The last thing she needed was damaged ships left behind. But detonating the minefield would immediately bring another broadside and then the enemy force would turn directly toward her force in pursuit. The longer the minefield remained an obstacle between the two squadrons and forced the OrCons to take “the long way around,” the more distance her ships could put between the two flotillas. She decided to absorb this attack.
“We’ll take this attack,” she spoke to her captains on her command network and then turned to her ops officer. “Lisa, be ready to detonate the field if there is a large follow on broadside.”
“Aye, Captain.”
Interceptor missiles flew out of all tubes and the action recently seen with Predator was being repeated on a larger scale. The interceptors cut down the incoming attack. At maximum range, guns joined in the defense and decoys and jammers flew from all ships. Smaller guns added their fire to the defense as enemy missiles came within range. Only twenty-four missiles reached the flotilla. If the missiles had impacted throughout the flotilla, the various ship shields would have taken the hits with no damage. But the OrCon commander had designated all missiles at one ship. The heavy cruiser Apollo took all the hits. Her port quarter shields absorbed sixteen hits in such quick succession they could not be recharged. They then failed and the last eight missiles impacted on the port side of the hull. The ship lunged to port under the impacts and internal explosions racked the vessel as they rolled through Apollo’s interior and ended in one final large discharge as her engines detonated. There would be no survivors.
Sky said a prayer and returned to the present. The OrCons had fired a second large salvo as soon as the first salvo had cleared the minefield. This second group of incoming missiles became the focus of Commander Cassidy even as the flotilla was fighting the initial onslaught. She waited until the forward-most missiles were about to exit the minefield and then detonated the mines. The hundreds of mine explosions destroyed the second incoming attack. With the mine obstacles gone, the OrCon squadron immediately launched another broadside and turned to port in direct pursuit of the Empire force. Their strategy was obvious now. Focus attacks on one or two ships at a time and whittle down the Empire force through several attacks until there was nothing left. Well, two can play at that game. The destruction of the second wave of incoming OrCon missiles by the minefield explosions gave the Empire force several seconds to switch briefly back to the offense.
“We’ll attack with one long salvo. Keep shooting offensive missiles until we must go defensive again,” ordered Sky, “and focus on one heavy cruiser.”
The remaining Empire ships launched missiles in a continuous salvo lasting fifteen seconds at a single target and then switched to interceptors in time to ensure interception of incoming missiles at maximum range. An attack of two hundred twenty missiles sped toward the OrCons. They fought back in the same fashion as the Aurora Empire ships. Interceptor missiles, guns, decoys, and jammers were deployed and steadily reduced the incoming attack. But still seven missiles impacted on the heavy cruiser Pylkiy. This ship had already absorbed numerous hits during the initial surprise assault and had gamely hung in the fight with weakened shields, forward main twin turret demolished, and hull integrity compromised with several compartments open to space. Five Empire missiles expended themselves on the weakened forward shields, but the last two drove through the shields and impacted on the hull. The twin explosions rocked the ship and pieces of the bow separated from the hull and drifted away. The heavy cruiser dropped out of formation and out of the fight.
The OrCon second salvo had been destroyed in the minefield, but the third wave was closing in and the Empire squadron went back on the defensive. The scenario played out as the first attack. The attacking missiles were cut down, but over thirty got through the defensive fires and homed in on the Mackenzie. Suddenly the destroyer Pearl left her position on Mackenzie’s aft port. She rose up and closed on the flagship to take up a near position on Mackenzie’s port quarter. She then turned broadside in front of the enemy missiles. It happened so fast it barely registered on
Sky or the others in CIC before the rain of missiles hit Pearl. The gallant little destroyer literally disintegrated under the impact of over two dozen missiles that quickly overwhelmed the shields and shattered the ship in small pieces. Five missiles made it through the conflagration to impact Mackenzie’s shields and exploded harmlessly. Sky was momentarily stunned by the event. It was not the destruction, she had seen the destruction of ships numerous times, but the act of self-sacrifice was rare and totally unexpected. She knew Mackenzie was the obvious target for the attack, but everyone took their chances, and she never would have ordered any ship to do what Pearl had just done. She shook off the sensation and looked around the CIC. Everyone was stunned and momentarily frozen in place.
“Back to work, people,” Sky spoke with authority, “There will be time later.” For exactly what she didn’t dwell on, the crew would digest this in their own way, but it had to be later. Everyone turned back to work.
The Empire ships bored in on Alejandar, the planet closest to Potenka. A giant ball of rock and ice, the planet was uninhabitable and had no space traffic near it. Alejandar and its nineteen moons in orbit offered several tactical possibilities and Sky intended to use them to complicate the enemy pursuit and, hopefully, escape. Her squadron continued to fight off the incoming missiles, but the attack was not coordinated and none of the missiles inflected any damage. Sheer numbers favored the OrCons, but the attacks had to arrive together to overwhelm the Zeke defense and this was not happening as the OrCons saw the destination of the Empire ships. They were desperate to inflict damage before those ships became lost in the Alejandar orbit. The Aurora Empire ships reached the outermost moon and circled around it to place the moon between them and the pursuing OrCon squadron. This would break the lock of incoming missiles and hide the ships from their pursuers. The ships had escaped, at least temporarily, and Sky had a couple maneuvers in mind to make it more than temporarily.
Chapter 17
Captain Sergei Korlov frowned. Despite being a pleasant, optimistic man by nature, a frown had become his habitual expression over the last several weeks. He suddenly recalled one of his mother’s many expressions, “You keep looking like that, your face will freeze in that expression.” A brief smile flickered across his face even as he chased away the unbidden reminder of simpler, happier times. The frown returned.
It seemed to him that he had been frowning for several weeks now. He had frowned when he learned of the planned surprise attack on the Aurora Empire. He had frowned when he learned his ship, Republic, would be part of a force making a long trip through the territory of the Goldenes Tor to attack a small Zeke squadron in the Badlands. He had frowned upon their arrival in the Badlands when they had attacked and destroyed a settlement identified by their Goth escorts as a newly established Zeke township. The Goths had said the settlement had caught their passing force on their sensors and would warn the Zeke squadron if not destroyed. It was definitely possible their force had been imaged by the settlement sensors, but the subsequent attack was an over response. One of the Goth destroyer captains had openly questioned the attack on an uncovered frequency before being shut down by his Goth admiral.
Two days ago Korlov had frowned when he was briefed on the plan to attack the Zeke squadron here. Too complicated and too dependent on Goth intel. Now he was frowning throughout this screwed up battle.
“Admiral Stavka for you, sir,” an operator spoke out.
Captain Korlov’s frown deepened. He recalled his first frown with regard to the current operation. It had occurred when he learned Admiral of the Third Rank Herman Stavka was to be the commander. He did not believe Stavka was the worst commander he had ever seen, but the Admiral had no feel for independent operations. Tough, tenacious, and driven, he was better suited for the command of a small part of bigger operations in which his opponents had limited options. He had no imagination and didn’t credit his opponents with one either. This was not a good trait for a commander far from home in the middle of an area such as the Badlands. If there was one trait known about Badlands natives throughout the universe, it was that they were a very imaginative group.
Now Admiral Stavka was stuck on his damaged flagship Senator wanting to be informed of the action. It was a reasonable request, but Korlov assumed there were still enough working sensors on the damaged battle cruiser to give the Admiral a good view of the battle so this wasn’t a call for an update. Captain Korlov had never activated his screen window to the Admiral and planned to blame Senator’s damage for the disconnection. Recovering from the surprise attack and taking command of the force after the damage to the flagship had taken all of Korlov’s time and he had had none to spare for the Admiral. Now as they chased the Zekes, there was time. Korlov sighed and activated his screen on audio only.
“Yes, Admiral,” he said respectfully.
“You are letting them get away!”
“I am not ‘letting them’ do anything of the sort, Admiral. Captain Mallory is accomplishing that entirely on her own. We will continue to pursue.”
“If they reach that planet and its moons, there will be a thousand places to hide or they can creep away in subspace!”
“Yes, Admiral. We will do our best to prevent it.”
“Do more than your best, Sergei. Ensure they do not get away!”
“Of course, Admiral,” Korlov said respectfully as he signed off. He had every intention of doing his best to prevent the Zekes from escaping, but being ordered to do it did not increase the chances of success and only served to irritate him.
This battle had gone wrong even before it started. The Empire squadron obviously knew they were coming and had laid a trap. The minefield showed they had been briefed on the Goth-inspired plan of attack forced on the Confederation force in return for passage through Goth space and for the Goth intel keeping them posted on the whereabouts of the Zeke squadron. The Goths had wanted the Confederation squadron to be the instrument of the Zekes’ destruction but also wanted to pull all the strings while dodging all responsibility. Fortunately, Captain Dimitri Federov, commander of Senator, had convinced the Admiral to go around the planet and come in from behind or else they might have come out of subspace right in the minefield. Dimitri, his best friend in the service, had undoubtedly been on the bridge when Senator absorbed the initial onslaught along with the other ships upfront.
The flagship in the front ... thought Korlov; the Admiral just had to be the first.
After the initial attack, chaos ruled. As senior ship captain, Korlov took command and got the defense organized. The flotilla had taken much punishment from the Zekes and that damned Edinburgh destroyer shooting from the rear. They chased off the destroyer and should have crushed it but, somehow, it had gotten away. Finally, they were returning fire on the Zekes and forcing them to be on the defensive. Shooting through the minefield had delayed them coming to grips with the smaller force and, wisely, their Captain Mallory did not immediately destroy the minefield but took on the first Confederation salvos while moving away from the fight with the minefield blocking the most direct pursuit route to the Empire ships. Korlov didn’t like using up missiles with their resupply limited to their two support ships but, finally, he had to shoot a large enough salvo to force the Zekes to blow the minefield. Looking back on it, he should have shot that salvo at the earliest possible moment to get the mines off the battlefield and begin the pursuit sooner. But after absorbing so much punishment, they had finally inflicted some damage on the enemy. The bridge crew had cheered when the enemy heavy cruiser had disappeared in a series of explosions. But there was no cheering when the destroyer had sacrificed herself to save the flagship. Korlov had wondered how many ship captains in his navy would have done that. Some surely, but not many. Several things had been said about the Zekes over the years. They were arrogant. They were self-righteous. They thought they deserved to run the universe. But nobody had ever called them cowards. Korlov said a quick prayer for that brave ship.
Chapter 18
“Execute escape plan Charlie,” Sky ordered as her force dropped off the OrCon’s sensors.
Her staff had drawn up three escape plans to be carried out as circumstances dictated. The third plan applied to current events. The ships quickly moved into the pre-briefed formation.
Commander Cassidy was on screen to all ships, “Prepare to go subspace in 5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... now.”
The small squadron vanished from sight. Ten seconds later, all ships slowed their speed, assumed a five-degree nose down attitude, and moved toward the south pole of the moon. Eight minutes later Sky’s force turned ninety degrees to pass under the moon and they were now aimed at the approaching enemy force. They continued in the shallow dive as they moved toward the onrushing OrCons.
Captain Korlov was directing his force as they approached the large planet. The destroyer Ognevoy was left at the Zeke entry point to give alert if the Zekes doubled back out of the moons and returned toward the original battlefield. He split his force in two and sent a battle cruiser, a heavy cruiser, a light cruiser, and a destroyer around each side of the planet and its moons. He sent the last ship, the light cruiser, Ranvir, into the planet’s orbit. Ranvir was to nose around, and hopefully flush the prey out into the open. All ships were to run slow and silent to allow the best conditions for listening for ships in subspace.
Allies of Convenience: Pirates of the Badlands Series Book 1 Page 8