by D. J. Holmes
“Take us after them,” James ordered. It was a suicide mission. There was no doubt about it. If the main Chinese fleet didn’t bother sending any missiles their way, the battleship and two heavy cruisers would probably finish them off anyway.
“Signal from Churchill,” Sub Lieutenant Beckford at the COM station called. “Valkyrie and her escorts are to return to formation.”
“Sir, what shall I do?” the navigation officer asked.
“Keep station with Valkyrie, we’re only turning back if she does,” James answered.
It only took a few moments for Jensen herself to contact James. When he opened the COM link he saw Lightfoot had been included in the discussion. “This is my fight, I have unfinished business with the Chinese Admiral. I’m ordering both of you to return to the fleet immediately,” she said as crossly as she could.
Lightfoot was the first to respond, “sorry sir, you’re breaking up.” Before Jensen could say anything more, Lightfoot cut the transmission from Ghost. Jensen was left staring at James. She tried to say something further but James cut his own transmission as well.
“Sir,” the COM officer said as she waved him towards the main holo display. “A message is coming in from Ghost. It’s text only.
Across the main screen came the message from Lightfoot.
She’s planning to close to plasma range. Our smaller guns won’t be effective but without our flak cannons she won’t get close enough to do any damage. It’s our job to screen the flagship, so let’s make sure Jensen gets to where she wants to go.
“Send an acknowledgement,” James ordered. The gravity of the situation suddenly hit him. Jensen had nothing to gain and everything to lose. There wasn’t much chance Valkyrie would survive once she got into plasma range of the battleship’s heavy guns. Why was she so willing to sacrifice her life to stop this Chinese Commander? Even if he got away what damage could he actually do with a battleship and two heavy cruisers? Then he realized. Duty. It was her sense of duty that drove her. She had seen the impossible situation Admiral Cunningham had been placed in. He had to choose between losing most of his fleet and letting Zheng escape. Jensen had taken the choice away from him and, in doing so, protected the rest of the fleet. He was reminded of an old navy saying, if you can’t kill your enemy before he kills you, do the next best thing, take him down with you.
Suddenly, James realized that he had only been playing at being a naval officer before. All his life he had always had other things that were his priority, his family, his reputation, his future, and Christine. The common factor was that they all revolved around him. Even when he had made command decisions that everyone had applauded him for, he had still been acting to win approval, to further his career, his standing. Now he saw what a true sense of duty looked like, what true valor looked like. Jensen was going to sacrifice herself to save the fleet. Momentarily his thoughts turned to Christine. She had chosen her duty, to put herself second and others first. Now he understood.
“Captain,” Romanov called breaking into his thoughts, “we have another message from Admiral Cunningham. He’s threatening us all with a court martial if we don’t turn back. What shall I do?”
James realized he too now had a decision to make. Did he simply follow orders or did he do what his sense of duty dictated. He was about to take his crew to almost certain death against orders. Yet he knew it was the right choice.
“Keep us steady Lieutenant Romanov,” James said calmly. “This is what we came here to do. Let’s be about it.”
“Yes sir,” Romanov said. “We’ll give them hell.” He was grinning as he shouted.
James couldn’t help but get caught up in his enthusiasm, “that we will Lieutenant.”
Over the next few minutes Jensen tried repeatedly to raise either James or Lightfoot on a COM channel. Both refused to acknowledge her call. Eventually she gave up; the next communication from Valkyrie was a set of targeting data. Charging straight after the fleeing Chinese ships meant that neither group could fire their broadside missile tubes. Jensen wanted to target one of the heavy cruisers with all their bow missile tubes. Valkyrie had four while Raptor and Ghost had one each. The battleship would shrug off salvos of six missiles all day but the heavy cruiser Jensen had targeted had already taken a couple of hits. It was possible they could sneak a missile or two in through its defenses.
Even though it would obviously indicate that there was nothing wrong with his communication array, James acknowledged the orders. When the timer to fire counted down to zero, six missiles shot off from the three British ships towards one of the heavy cruisers. In return, the Chinese ships fired ten missiles back from their stern tubes. Both sets of ships managed to destroy the missiles before they did any harm. Neither was deterred though, for as soon as they were ready more missiles came pouring out of the British and Chinese ships.
After the second round of missile salvos was destroyed, the navigation officer on board Raptor called out, “Captain, Valkyrie is increasing her speed, she must be giving her engines everything she has got.”
“Contact Chief O’Neil tell him we need to match speeds with the flagship. Increase our acceleration as soon as you can,” James ordered.
As James watched, the flagship slowly edged ahead of the two destroyers. Lightfoot had obviously anticipated Jensen’s idea for Ghost was soon catching her. Impatiently, James had to wait another thirty seconds before Raptor’s acceleration increased enough to match the other two ships. When she slotted back into formation both destroyers received a text message from the flagship.
“You are both too stubborn for your own good.”
Alongside that message James had also received a message from the Chief Engineer. Valkyrie was the newest battlecruiser to have left the Vulcan shipyards. Her acceleration was impressive indeed. Chief O’Neil estimated that the destroyer’s engines wouldn’t last more than twenty minutes at the current rate. Raptor simply couldn’t keep up with the flagship for long. Quickly James sent a message back informing the chief that they would get into plasma cannon range in thirty minutes, the engines could blow up after that for all for al he cared but they had to last that long.
Five minutes later, as the fourth salvo crashed into the Chinese ships, a cheer went up on the bridge of Raptor. A single missile had punched through their defenses and scored a proximity hit on the Chinese heavy cruiser. Its speed didn’t falter but when the Chinese fired their next salvo it had clearly lost one of its stern missile tubes, for only nine missiles streaked towards the pursuing British ships.
Ten more minutes passed as the two groups of ships continued to exchange missile salvos. Valkyrie brushed off another proximity hit and they managed to get another hit on the heavy cruiser. It visibly wobbled as James watched and then began to lose speed.
Just then the data on the holo screen began to change. “Captain, the Chinese ships are slowing. They’re turning sir!” Romanov shouted.
Immediately, James knew what Admiral Zheng planned. He had accepted they couldn’t drive off the pursuing Valkyrie before she got into plasma cannon range. He couldn’t risk that so he was slowing and turning to present his broadside missiles tubes towards Valkyrie. Given the current speed of Valkyrie, the Chinese would be able to get off one and maybe even two broadsides before the range closed enough to allow the plasma cannons to join the fight. To confirm his suspicions, seventy four missiles erupted from the Chinese ships and began to accelerate towards Valkyrie.
A notification told him Lightfoot had opened a COM channel. “It looks like we’re going to have to earn our pay today,” he began. “Valkyrie needs to get through this storm or else we have wasted ourselves. I’m taking Ghost as close as I can to the flagship. She’s a good ship I’m sure she can handle a hit or two.”
James knew his talk was all bravado. Even a proximity hit from the battleship’s large missiles would likely end either Ghost or Raptor.
Without a hint that he didn’t believe what he was saying Lightfoot continued, “Y
ou’ve studied the trick Villeneuve used at the second battle of New France? I’ve suggested to Jensen we do the same; it might buy us a little time. I’ll send you the targeting data now.”
“Yes,” James agreed, “I’ll bring Raptor in to join you. If we survive this, it’s my turn to buy the drinks. Raptor over.”
As Valkyrie, Ghost and Raptor continued to accelerate towards the Chinese ships, the closing speed of the incoming missiles didn’t give them long to prepare. When the missiles were only four minutes out, the British ships fired their bow missile tubes for the last time. The six missiles accelerated for only a minute before they exploded just in front of the approaching Chinese missiles. Of the seventy four, five were destroyed in the blast, six more had their targeting sensors fried and lost lock on the British ships. Sixty three raced on into a hail of explosions as the flak cannons threw up a wall of shrapnel to fend them off. As all the missiles were targeted at Valkyrie, they had come in on a tight cluster allowing the flak rounds to tear through them, taking out over thirty. The closer in point defenses filled space with plasma bolts and then AM missiles. Still six got through. At that moment Ghost and Raptor turned their ECM up to full. As all three British ships were in such close proximity, two missiles were momentarily confused. It was long enough for them to fly past the ships and explode. The remaining four didn’t lose their targeting lock and came crashing in. Ghost took a direct hit that was meant for Valkyrie. The missile penetrated her valstronium armor and detonated in Ghost’s stern, knocking out her engines and sending her into a spin, luckily it took her away from Valkyrie. It must have been a missile from one of the heavy cruisers, for a battleship missile would have obliterated the whole ship.
A single proximity hit wracked Raptor; thankfully it was far enough away that the blast didn’t get though her armor. Most of her starboard point defense weapons were burnt off the hull and alarms began to squeal from multiple terminals on the bridge, indicating the concussive force of the explosions had still caused some severe internal damage.
Valkyrie took a direct hit on her port side amidships. Six missile tubes were knocked out and large sections of the ship began to vent atmosphere. The last Chinese missile also got proximity hits on the battlecruiser but her thick valstronium armor managed to hold, preventing any serious damage.
As James was surveying the damage to his ship, he missed Jensen’s next move. It was Romanov who was the first to spot it, “Captain, Valkyrie is accelerating again, she can’t possibly hold that acceleration for long, she’ll blow her engines.”
Looking at the holo display, James saw Romanov was right. Valkyrie was pulling away from Raptor again. As the projected course updated he saw that Jensen would get into plasma range before another missile salvo from the Chinese could reach her. They would never have survived another one. Jensen had to take the risk of either overloading her engines or causing a reactor meltdown.
“What shall we do sir?” Romanov called, “we can’t match her speed now.”
Before James could answer, he received a communication from the Rear Admiral. “Turn back immediately, protect Ghost, that’s an order Somerville. She’s a sitting duck without any defenses. Get her crew off before something else happens to her. You can’t help me now; your plasma cannons won’t be able to penetrate the battleship’s armor at the range mine can. My crew has sent their last messages for home across to you. Tell your uncle I hope I made him proud. Now go, don’t let our sacrifice be in vain!” she shouted before switching off the COM channel.
James was momentarily frozen. He had already consigned himself to dying. Their mad dash after the battleship hadn’t seemed like it would end any other way. Now he had been offered a lifeline. But did he want to take it? Dying would be so much easier than going on, what had he to live for? But if he let his ship be destroyed, it would be a mockery to Jensen’s sacrifice. Valkyrie was dying for a purpose. How could he let his ship die for nothing? Yet he still needed something to live for. For a few desperate seconds he hesitated.
As his conflicting thoughts tugged at him, finally one side won out. Jensen had shown him what real valor, what a real sense of duty looked like. That was what he had to live for, to honor her sacrifice by living for what she exemplified, what he wanted to have in himself.
As he ordered Raptor to turn and decelerate to come alongside Ghost James couldn’t help smiling. His uncle had obviously gotten to Jensen too. He was sure it wasn’t through old style books but whatever method he had used it had been just as effective. After the first book he had read almost two years ago now, he had laughed at the idealized view of a naval officer the book had presented. By the end of the books, he had hoped it could be true. Now he knew, he had seen it in Jensen. He only hoped he could live up to her standard one day too.
After he made sure the navigation officer had put Raptor on the right course towards Ghost and Gupta had the damage under control James set himself to watch Jensen’s last moments. He willed himself to take in every last detail; this was something he didn’t want to forget.
In vain the Chinese ships fired another volley of missiles. For a moment James was worried that some had been targeted at the two damaged destroyers but as Raptor’s computers projected their trajectories it was clear they were all heading for Valkyrie.
Twenty seconds before the battlecruiser got into plasma cannon range escape pods began streaking away from the ship. Somehow James didn’t think Jensen was aboard them. She had likely ordered everyone who wasn’t necessary for the operation of the plasma cannons to abandon ship. Once they were clear Valkyrie opened fire. She carried four twin turrets of heavy plasma cannons. Four bolts streaked out towards the Chinese battleship. They all struck its stern, driving through the valstronium armor and ripping apart its engines and power transfer couplings. Each heavy cruiser also had two bolts targeted at it. One, already damaged, exploded as one of the plasma bolts hit something vital. The other cruiser immediately began to lose acceleration, indicating that the bolts aimed at its engines had found their mark.
For a few moments James feared the battleship would still get away as it seemed to continue on its course unfazed by the hits. Then one and then another secondary explosion tore through the stern of the ship and immediately its acceleration dropped to zero. It wasn’t going anywhere soon.
Looking at the Chinese ships James had missed Valkyrie’s fate but with a tap of his fingers he replayed the visuals. The Chinese ships had fired their plasma cannons less than a second after Valkyrie’s. The bolts had passed each other in space before more than twenty collided with Valkyrie. On the visual she seemed to simply fall apart. At least five of the bolts tore right through the ship and appeared out the other side. The others caused so much damage that Valkyrie lost all structural integrity. The acceleration from her engines immediately caused her to break apart. The engines themselves actually accelerated through the ship until they collided with the reactor compartment. The resulting destruction from four fission reactors exploding blinded Raptor’s sensors. When the feed came back on there was nothing of Valkyrie to be seen.
As he stopped the playback of the recording, James bowed his head. You did it, he thought to himself. Now we just have to make sure your sacrifice was worth it.
“Sir,” the sensor officer called. “I’m picking up a transmission from Admiral Cunningham’s flagship. He’s calling for the immediate surrender of all Chinese ships.”
Quickly, James looked at the wider sensor feed from the rest of the system. Admiral Cunningham’s flagship had just burst out of the middle of the Chinese fleet and was heading towards the now stricken Chinese battleship. The computer estimated that they would reach it in less than twenty minutes. Relieved that he wouldn’t have to deal with the damaged battleship, James replayed the sensor feed to see how the rest of the battle had unfolded.
Initially Cunningham had stood his fleet off from the approaching Chinese ships. They had then hammered the Chinese with four more missile salvos heavily damaging t
he battleship and remaining battlecruisers. With the risk from entering plasma cannon range reduced, he had left his smaller ships to continue hammering the Chinese with missiles, while he had taken the British battlecruisers and heavy cruisers into the teeth of the Chinese fleet. Even before the first plasma bolts had been fired a number of the more damaged Chinese ships had surrendered, including the battleship. Those that hadn’t surrendered had been quickly crippled or destroyed as plasma bolts had rained down on them.
Returning to watch the Admiral’s fleet in real time, it was clear that the British ships hadn’t escaped unscathed. Two of the battlecruisers were already dropping behind, indicating they had suffered serious damage and one of the heavy cruisers that had accompanied the Admiral into the Chinese fleet was nowhere to be seen.
“Captain,” the COM officer called, “the two Chinese heavy cruisers have surrendered, there is still no word from the battleship though.”
James brought up the sensor feed on the battleship. Admiral Cunningham would be in missile range soon. It would have to surrender soon or face destruction. Part of the data the holo display was showing him seemed confusing. “Sensors, why does there seem to be a power fluctuation coming from that battleship?” James asked.