by D. J. Holmes
“Navigation, work up a micro jump to get us out of here,” James ordered. “Stand by for my mark. We’ll have to take another salvo from that light cruiser but as soon as we’ve taken out enough freighters, we’re out of here.” The same thing that trapped the Chinese convoy in the shift passage meant that Raptor could escape when she wanted to. Having jumped into the area hours before her jump capacitors were fully charged. The Chinese ships would still be charging theirs and so couldn’t escape Raptor’s missiles nor give chase when she decided to jump out.
With one eye, James watched the steady approach of the second salvo from the light cruiser. Already three salvos from Raptor had crashed into it but without any penetrator missiles the light cruiser was shrugging Raptor’s attacks off. James judged they had maybe scored two proximity hits but the thicker armor on the light cruiser enabled it to weather them much better.
With his other eye, he watched the main holo display and the fleeing freighters. The computer was predicting they would be in range of another four before the Chinese missiles made themselves felt. After that Raptor could get in range of another nine before the fourth spread of missiles came crashing home. James was under no illusions. Raptor might not survive the next missiles coming in, never mind a fourth salvo. Still, they had a mission to complete. Both Jensen and Lightfoot had entrusted him with this responsibility. As much as he wanted to run to safety the weight of their expectations held him in a firm grip. Besides, it was the job of a King’s warship to put itself in harm’s way James said to himself with irony. After the attack on the Swedish colony ship he had hoped never to be facing a similar situation again.
A shout broke his concentration as Romanov pumped his fists, “I nailed him.”
James checked the feed from the tactical console to see a replay of one of the frigates getting too close to Raptor and being shredded by her heavy plasma cannons. That was one less threat to worry about.
Almost as soon as the last missile streaked off after another freighter, the third salvo of eight Chinese missiles came accelerating into range of Raptor’s point defenses. This time the anti-missiles fared a lot better and only one missile survived to try and make contact with Raptor. Again Sub Lieutenant Jackson threw the ship into a series of evasive maneuvers but to no avail. The single missile managed to get a glancing blow amidships. The angle of the contact meant much of its explosive force was projected out into space. Yet even the fraction of the force that was directed against the hull was devastating. The valstronium armor was blown away as if it was made of steel. Four point defense plasma cannons and three anti-missile launchers were vaporized. The force of the thermonuclear blast blew its way into the ship, crumpling reinforced bulkheads and taking out two missiles tubes along with the twenty men and women who manned them. The force continued into the ship, taking out almost half of the starboard crew quarters. Thankfully, no hands were lost as everyone was at their battle stations. The concussive force momentarily overloaded the inertial dampeners, throwing many of the crew around the ship like rag dolls.
“Damage report,” James shouted over the din of all the alarms.
Gupta was the first to reply over the inter bridge COM channel, “we’ve taken a major hit to our starboard mid sections. Missile tube three is down and I can’t raise tube two. Outer sections three through five are all venting atmosphere. As far as I can tell our point defense network is completely shot up along those sections as well.”
“What about our weapons, can we still hit those freighters?”
Romanov answered this time, “the remaining missile tubes are all reporting full functionality. We’re coming into range of the first freighter in thirty seconds.”
“Navigation, can we still make our jump out?” was James’ next question.
“We’ve lost some of our capacitors to an overload sir. I’ve already got the Chief rerouting some power couplings. I think we can make up the needed deficit by drawing directly from the reactors. The Chief will have to run them up to one hundred percent to meet the power need but we should be able to jump out in two to three minutes.”
“Good enough,” James responded, after he had checked the timing of the fourth salvo from the light cruiser. The next set of missiles wouldn’t get to Raptor for another four minutes. Already the light cruiser had another eight missiles coming in behind them. It seemed like overkill to James, if the jump didn’t work they wouldn’t even last long enough for the last salvo to have anything to target. As he looked again at the ever-growing list of damaged or destroyed freighters, James could maybe understand the fifth salvo. The Chinese Commander was no doubt acting from rage rather than rational thought. He wanted to see Raptor blown out of existence!
“Navigation, as soon as Romanov fires his last missile get us out of here,” James ordered. Once the officer had replied James opened up a COM channel to the auxiliary bridge and the Fourth Lieutenant who had been overseeing the attacks on the light cruiser. “Good job Jones, switch your fire to any freighters in range. There’s no point throwing another four missiles at that light cruiser. Take out as many freighters as you can before we jump.”
Less than two minutes later the last missile launched from Raptor’s tubes and then the ship disappeared back into the darkness of space. Behind her she left twenty-one wrecks and five doomed freighters still trying to outrun the missiles that pursued them. All had once been carrying vital supplies to the Void that would be sorely missed.
Chapter 28 – The Cost of Peace
Few, if any events can be as strongly identified as contributing to the rise of the Empire, as the peace treaty between China and Britain at the end of the Void War.
-Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD
20th June 2465 AD, HMS Raptor, Excalibur
Thirty one days after the fateful ambush of the convoy, Raptor limped into the Excalibur system. She had spent ten full days in the Paracel shift passage effecting repairs. Only once James was happy the ship was stealthy enough to pass through the New Shanghai system, had he returned to the site of the ambush. There they spent a few hours confirming the last five missiles fired before jumping out had all hit their targets. The still expanding balls of wreckage confirmed that even with severely reduced targeting scanners, Romanov and Jones had managed to get all of their missiles on target.
Satisfied that he would be able to bring a complete report of the ambush back to the Admiralty, James had cautiously headed onto the New Shanghai system. Instead of the regulated one point five light hours he had dropped back into normal space three light hours from the system’s mass shadow. Then he had very slowly taken Raptor into the outer system. What should have taken a slow freighter a day took James four, as he skirted around the edge of the system, carefully avoiding the system’s picket ships. Once or twice there had been a few hairy moments, as James was sure the radar beams being sent out into space by the Chinese warships had penetrated the makeshift repairs they had done to the starboard amidships sections. Without having enough spare stealth covering they had only been able to seal up the damaged sections to stop them leaking atmosphere. All the way through the system James had kept the damaged sections of Raptor facing away from the known picket ships in the hope they wouldn’t detect her. Even so, he hadn’t been confident they would make it.
Once at the Damang system, he had finally been able to relax. The crew had been able stand down from battle stations and had begun to focus on the various minor repairs that were still waiting. When they had made it to the coordinates Lightfoot had given them, they sent out the prearranged signal. There had been no response. James then waited half an hour before sending out another. Still, there had been no response. For the next two days Raptor patiently waited for Ghost to join her. Just as James was about to head back to Excalibur, the sensor officer on the bridge had contacted him. A ship had been detected rapidly accelerating into the system from the shift passage that led back to Wi. A few moments later it had been confirmed as Ghost. She was making a direct line fo
r the shift passage out of Damang and back towards the Void. Given the impossibility of real time communication due to the distances between them, James guessed that it was been Lightfoot’s way of telling him to make a run for it. He wasted no time and Raptor rapidly begun to accelerate towards the shift passage to the Void herself.
Sure enough, forty minutes after Ghost had appeared at the edge of the system, four new contacts appeared. They immediately began accelerating along an intercept course towards Ghost. Over the next several hours it became apparent that Ghost had picked up some minor damage as the Chinese ships slowly gained on her. Soon a stern chase developed with the four Chinese ships firing missiles from their forward missile tubes. Between them they could only fire a total of five missiles yet they threatened to overload Ghost’s weakened defenses and cause her more damage, slowing her even further. James dropped Raptor back to add her point defense to Ghost’s and together they made it to the mass shadow and safety. But only just, Ghost had picked up more damage as they hadn’t been able to stop all the incoming missiles.
Presently, James sat on the bridge watching the hive of activity around Excalibur as Raptor and Ghost cruised into the system. In orbit there were a number of freighters unloading all sorts of equipment to the slowly developing colony. There was another group of freighters surrounding the repair station that had been enlarged since James had seen it last. He had looked to see if Drake was still docked at the station. It was unlikely; Raptor and Ghost had been away for sixty one days. Drake was likely already well on her way to Earth. Still, James had hoped to see his old command again. In addition to the freighters, Commodore West’s heavy cruiser, Avenger, orbited the planet accompanied by a light cruiser and destroyer. Lightfoot already sent their mission report to the Commodore’s ship as soon as they entered the system. As James waited for a reply, he stood all the crew down from their typical watch duties, leaving only the essential functions of the ship manned. They all deserved a time of rest and relaxation.
The mood of the crew was mixed and James felt the same. In total they had lost thirty-three personnel with the losses at New Shanghai and then at the ambush site. Some were faces James had only seen once or twice. Others he had started to come to know, while still others were hands that had transferred over from Drake. The victory had been an astounding one. The Chinese convoy had been decimated. Yet, to the crew, the losses still put a dampener on their achievements. In addition, the last thirty one days had been rough on everyone. The workload to get the repairs done had been enormous. Then they all had been forced to endure four days of nerve-racking shifts at their battle stations as they passed through the New Shanghai system. All the time, everyone had been wondering if the next moment would reveal a Chinese warship bearing down on them.
Now, at last, they were home, back in British space at least. If the new repair station could see to their needs James suspected Raptor would be joining the fleet around V17. It would take a fully tooled yard at least a month to make good the hole in Raptor’s side and to replace the lost missile tubes. That was not likely to matter though. Raptor’s main role in a large fleet engagement was to beef up the larger ships’ point defenses. If her flak gun and point defense plasma cannons could be repaired, Raptor was likely to be sent to V17 to join one of the squadrons blockading the Chinese fleet.
“Sir,” Sub Lieutenant Graham at the COM station called out, “I’ve got an incoming message from the Commodore. She’s requested it to be broadcast across both our ships.”
Slightly concerned James had no choice. “Ok Lieutenant, put it over the ship wide COM.”
Seconds later Commodore West’s voice could be heard across the ship. “Crew members of Ghost and Raptor, this is Commodore West. Welcome back to Excalibur. I have read over your Captains’ initial reports and I wish to send you my congratulations. Each of you performed admirably.” James was able to watch the visual of the Commodore and as she paused she allowed a small smile to creep onto her otherwise stern expression. “I also wish to inform you that as a direct result of your actions and the other raiders that went into Chinese territory a cease fire has been declared.”
Immediately, a chorus of cheers erupted across both ships. They had been so loud on the bridge of Raptor that James hadn’t been able to hear the rest of the Commodore’s message. He waited patiently until everyone had settled down and finished exchanging handshakes and hugs. Once they had, he replayed the message on the main holo display.
“..a cease fire has been declared. A popular movement broke out on Earth and across many of the Chinese colonies demanding an end to the war. The Politburo tried to repress the demonstrations with force. When that failed a junior member of the Politburo launched a coup to oust the members he felt were responsible for the war. There is still fighting between the various factions on the Chinese colonial worlds but on Earth, Minister Na has officially been accepted as the interim president of the Communist Party. His first act was to request a cease-fire. At the moment discussions for a peace treaty are ongoing. You have done us all proud. Commodore West out.”
James could only sit back in relief. He had known the PR battle back on Earth hadn’t been going well for the Chinese government. His uncle’s ploy to make it look to the rest of mankind that the Chinese had discovered the Void second and then were trying to steal it all for themselves, had worked perfectly. Even many of the Chinese populace hadn’t believed their government’s claims to have gotten there first. Those who did, then had to deal with the fact that their government had broken the UN Interplanetary Act. To make matters worse, on the same day news of the unprovoked attack on the British convoy had hit. RSNI had ensured that the recordings of the battle from the only surviving ship had been uploaded to the datanet. The Chinese government had tried to block their populace from seeing it but RSNI had made sure it was available. As the war had progressed, news of the nuclear bombardment of the colony on Excalibur had infuriated everyone. Only the officers involved in the first battle of Excalibur knew it had been a fake colony and they were all sworn to secrecy. James had no doubt that the visuals from Drake’s encounter with the Chinese destroyers at New Stockholm had also been made available to the Chinese populace. The images of a warship firing on a fully loaded and undefended colony ship was sure to have had an effect on the war spirit of the Chinese people. If the other raiders had been as successful as Ghost and Raptor, things would have been getting very difficult for the senior Politburo members before the end.
After he allowed the message to play throughout the ship a third time, James noticed he had also received orders to dock Raptor at the repair station. After that he was to appear on board Commodore West’s ship. He passed on the information to Gupta and Romanov and then ordered Gupta to open communications with the station to inform them of Raptor’s needs. Once that was done James called his steward. It would take another four hours to dock with the repair station. He wanted to prepare a celebratory meal for his Lieutenants before they got there.
*
Two hours after docking with the repair station, James sat in the reception area of Commodore West’s office aboard Avenger. Lightfoot had already been in with the Commodore for almost an hour. No doubt she wanted to go over everything with him first and then get James’ perspective separately to make sure she had covered every angle. She would be expected to send her own report back to the Admiralty with those of Lightfoot and James.
Coming out Lightfoot grinned at James and came over to shake his hand. “It’s good to see you in person again Captain. There were a few moments back there I wasn’t sure either of us would be seeing home again!”
“I know the feeling sir,” James replied. “Maybe you’ll take me up on the offer of a drink this time once I’m done with the Commodore?”
“I think I can do that but you better go on into the Commodore, she doesn’t like to be kept waiting. Contact me when you are finished with her,” Lightfoot said as he pushed James towards the entrance to Commodore West’s office.
For the next forty-five minutes James went over every detail of the mission with the Commodore. She made him go over the ambush on the convoy twice as Lightfoot hadn’t been able to tell her anything about that. After she was satisfied, she turned to the subject of Raptor’s repairs.
“We lost a third of our starboard crew quarters. Missile tubes three and four are also completely destroyed. New tubes will have to be installed. We’ve sealed the damaged sections of the hull but if we take another missile hit in the same place it will likely split us in two. Having spoken with the Commander of the repair station I think our point defenses can be brought back to near enough ninety five percent efficiency. Our offensive capabilities will need the work of a repair yard back at Britannia or Earth though.”
As she considered her options, West tapped her fingers on her desk. Her long blonde hair had been tied up tight at the back and her face seemed to almost always be set in a scowl. James knew she could smile but her default expression was one of somber seriousness. She reminded him of one of the dorm superintendents he had had back at boarding school. Her expression ensured that he and his friends had always known their place and were aware that crossing her would bring swift punishment. Everyone had been afraid of being caught up to no good by the superintendent. James felt the same way with West.