by Danny Brown
“I agree with your assessment,” responded Tabitha. “And the Federation will stand with you against this enemy,” she added stiffly.
“Are you willing to slave your systems to the Bojovník, as the scenario’s your Commander Campo suggests? Are you willing to abdicate command to me?” asked Commodore Eikel.
“Yes!” Tabitha answered quickly. “We can’t afford any confusion, not if we want to live!”
“Agreed,” he answered, relief evident in his voice. “And let us hope our pirates are not a truly professional military with updated weapon systems and well-trained crews.”
“Let us hope.”
##
While the Federation fleet was not a real fleet, but a small task force, the Commonwealth home fleet was severely diminished in numbers, with the majority of the ships curiously missing. The combined allied fleet was not even a full fleet. Worse, the difference in combined tonnage to the enemy was startling. None of the men and women would be backing out of this fight. Not with a planet with a few billion people depending on them.
Across the fleet, ships repositioned. Federation and Commonwealth ships intermixed, organizing not by nationality but by capability. All the warships launched their armed drones, now numbering in the thousands.
Watching this scene unfold, Jackie had a thought of absolute horror go through her mind. What if this was the fleet that decimated Earth, or if that fleet was part of this one?
Pari, run a comparison of ships against the ones in the attack on Earth fifteen years ago.
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Just do it!
<
That was quick.
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Jackie rolled her eyes.
Well?
<
She felt sick. Some of this fleet participated in the invasion of Earth. They were involved. They killed her friends, her neighbors, her family. She had to tell Tabitha. She promptly walked over to Tabitha’s station and looked at her with almost a panicked look.
“Spill it,” Tabitha said, seeing the look on her face.
“Sir, portions of this fleet are the ships that participated in the invasion of Earth, in the massacre of Orlando,” she said through her teeth.
Tabitha sat up straight. “WHAT?”
“If you look at this file, you will see the confirmation.”
“This is classified intel, where did you get it? Oh, never mind, probably that obnoxious AI.”
<
“Sir, I thought it necessary for us to know what we are up against,” Jackie said, her voice shaking.
“I don’t know what you are yet, but I think you’re one of the good guys. Can you hold yourself together for this fight? We need all hands on deck!”
“Yes, sir! I will not let you down!” Jackie responded.
“Good,” Tabitha pressed a few buttons. “Sirs,” she said, regarding Commodore Eikel and His Eminence. “New intel I’m sending your way. It is confirmed that portions of this fleet are the same ones involved in the atrocities against Earth years ago.”
Both their eyes got wide. As leaders, they were intimately familiar with all the great military actions of the last century or more. This attack was a work meant to involve the mass slaughter of civilians.
“Good God! I’ll inform my ship commanders. Trust me. It will motivate them. If the battle goes south, no one will even consider surrendering to these monsters,” responded Charles. “Commodore, there is something you should know. While your Commander Campo’s scenarios paint a much more favorable outcome than traditional military tactics, none of them show a victory for us.”
He paused to let that sink in.
“Commodore, the Federation will not stand by and watch as the planet of Wellington is raped. Every one of our men and women is ready to do whatever it takes,” responded Tabitha.
“Whatever it takes,” answered Commodore Eikel as he quickly signed off.
Tabitha knew the presence of the Federation here could make the difference. Even if it didn’t, she knew the treaty with the Commonwealth was worth the blood of every one of the thousands of Federation military personnel, should it come to that. Losing her entire task force in defense of Wellington would cement an unbreakable bond between their empires, a bond that could one day save the lives of millions. Today, soldiers did what they did. Lay down their lives so others might live, to stand in the gap between the innocent and the oppressor.
Today was a good day to die.
##
Captain De Vitis looked at his pale-faced bridge crew as he addressed the entire crew of the Nemesis.
“Friends, today we face an enemy that is bent towards destruction. They are not here for territory, nor strategic gain. They are here for the rush of killing. The thrill of murder. Your parents may have raised you to believe monsters are not real. I am here to tell you they are, and they are here. It is the responsibility of all of us to draw a line in the sand, and say ‘you may not pass’! It is our missiles that stand between them and mindless rampage. It is our crew, you, that stands between a child’s innocence and the pleasures of a madman. It is for such a time as this that you are called to serve, called to fight, and even called to die. Know this, we will fight and will not give up. This is not a game in which a surrender is an option. Make your peace with the Creator of us all, as many of us will stand before Him before the day is through. But let us make it our purpose to ensure all of them have that same meeting in eternity! This universe is better off without them, and it is our time to take out the dredges of humanity!”
##
Pari.
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Stop it!
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Ha. Ha. Listen, I need something.
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That’s a great question. What CAN you do for me?
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Jackie sighed.
Okay, what about the tactical scenarios? Is there any tweaking to my algorithms? Anything that can give us an edge?
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Okay, strike that. What about our electronic counter measures? And what about those of the Commonwealth?
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Like how much more successful?
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Wow! Well, that is a must have! Okay, detail the changes in a file, I’ll forward it to both commodores. They won’t like the last minute software updates, but we need that advantage.
Next, what about our missile guidance systems?
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Oh for crying out loud! How can we make them more efficient?
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Jackie waited nervously.
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Great. Put it in another file and send it to me.
“Commodore Summers, I know we are down to the wire, but I have updates to ECM’s for both fleets and missile guidance systems as well. The files detail the software changes and the anticipated overall effectiveness of each change. If we implement these, I think we will see improved eff
iciencies.”
“Send them!” belted Commodore Eikel, startling Jackie. She was so immersed in what she was doing she did not realize the video link between the two flag bridges was still open. “Yes, I’ve been made aware of your super-secret AI buddy, so I have no doubts it’s been poking around to see just where to make the changes. I think the timing is unfortunate for more upgrades, but I’d rather roll the dice to gain every advantage.”
“Yes, sir!” Jackie answered.
“Did your virtual buddy give any advice about concerning the scenario’s we’ve run?” Charles asked.
<
“No, sir. But I would be curious to see the projected improvements to the existing scenario’s,” Jackie responded.
<
A few minutes later, “Fifteen point six percent, Commander. Given a number of factors, it at least pushes us into the margins of survivability. It’s on the low end, but we need every advantage we can muster.”
You do that to annoy me, Pari, don’t you!
<
To annoy me?
Chapter 24
Dennaway Star System
In orbit above the planet Wellington
Jackie was watching the main wall screen in the flag bridge when the enemy fleet came out of FTL above the planet of Wellington. The large transports were in the rear, tucked away from the combined allied force. Immediately, the transports ejected their deadly cargo in haste, may thousands of dropships full of bloodthirsty pirates rushing towards the planet below, and just as quickly all enemy warships ships fired at the defenders.
“FIRE!” she heard Commodore Eikel yell over the comm. Immediately, railguns lashed out, missiles ejected from their tubes, heavy lasers fired, and point defense seemed to go nonstop.
“Look at their formation!” exclaimed Tabitha. “Loose knit, not well organized. Talk to me about those missiles!”
“Sir,” one staffer replied, “the missiles are modern Federation issue.”
“WHAT?” screamed Tabitha.
“Commodore Eikel…” she started.
“Yes, yes, we see it!” He said hastily. “The scenarios are updating continuously. A kick in the pants they are using modern missiles! By all appearance though, they are under trained but have good toys.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Tabitha replied.
While they were talking, two Federation destroyers blew apart, cut in half apparently by heavy railguns from the enemy dreadnoughts.
Just then, as in response, one of the enemy’s heavy cruisers turned into a miniature sun for a moment as it violently exploded, and a light cruiser had its engineering section nearly severed from the ship, leaving it spinning and without power.
It was incredible, but the defensive capabilities of the allied fleet seemed to get the upper hand! They were not only using Jackie’s formations, but also the last minute updates to the defensive suites, and it was paying dividends!
As the fighting intensified, one of the Commonwealth Battleships exploded suddenly and early in this fight.
“The HMS London just went down! They must have got a lucky shot in!” one of the staffers on the Bojovník exclaimed over the comm.
“Release all fighters, I repeat, release all fighters!” shouted Commodore Eikel.
The fighters between the two were the most modern fighters either side possessed, with the Commonwealth Lance-5’s and the Federation Hellcats. Unfortunately, the Nemesis only had a single squadron with them, barely adding to the two hundred and forty Commonwealth fighters.
For the second time on this mission, Jackie had to wonder why the Federation’s newest battlecarrier was not assigned a full complement of two hundred and forty fighters.
In response, and quite to their surprise, two of the enemy dreadnoughts released over five hundred fighters.
“Enemy fighters incoming! What type of fighters are those?” asked Tabitha.
“They are Zikar Zebra-2’s!” one of her staffers responded.
The Zebra-2’s were two generations older than the fighters the Commonwealth and the Federation had. Two generations, not ancient, but were more modern than they would expect from pirates. The allied fighters were more than a match for the enemy, but having to face a force of small fighters diminished the strategy they had developed with the intention of targeting the smaller enemy warships. They had hoped that if the fighters could destroy everything smaller than a light cruiser, it would greatly increased the odds of success by reducing the number of guns. Against the larger ships, using fighters would just be throwing lives away.
“How did they get fighters from the Zikar Empire!” Tabitha exclaimed.
##
Jackie could only watch in horror as the enemy Zebra-2’s performed exceptionally well. The Commonwealth fighters should have been able to take on twice as many as foes, but they had assumed the enemy fighters to be stock and without upgrades.
As the performance data came in, it was apparent the avionics, propulsion and inertial dampeners were all modernized, creating a fighter only a generation behind theirs. And they had five hundred of them.
The first engagement was brutal, so many people dying so quickly. After the initial engagement, there was more dogfighting. What became apparent was that, while the pirate fighter jockeys were good, the allied ones were better. Much better.
The losses from the Commonwealth were staggering, but the enemy losses were far worse. After an hour of brutal fighting, all the enemy fighters were destroyed, all without a single escape pod.
The Nemesis lost its only squad of fighters, and the Commonwealth was down to ninety-five fighters, though many escape pods were visible on sensors.
##
With the formations of enemy fighters broken, the defenders focused on the disorganized smaller ships. It was evident the pirates were not using a shared battle network as every ship was responsible for its own defense. And that was fine as the fighter force of the Commonwealth decimated enemy lines. First, they focused on the corvettes, which proved too easy to defeat. Those ships performed just as poorly as they had more than one hundred years prior when they were first commissioned. None escaped.
The problems began when they tore into the destroyers. The point defense proved harrowing as the enemy lost over half of their destroyers to the fighters. Losses became too great to continue this strategy, so the fighters were forced to pull back.
The allied ships were pouring everything they had into decimating the pirates, and they fought valiantly. Unfortunately, the pirates out massed them two-to-one. And the enemy was focusing on the larger ships, almost ignoring the smaller ones.
“Sir, we’ve lost three more heavy cruisers! And the battleship HMS Longhorn is no longer responding!”
Tabitha’s face turned white. Much of their strategy had relied on retention of their largest ships. With losing now two battleships, and several heavy cruisers, their victory was in serious doubt.
As the battle raged on, the loss of their drones seemed to reach a tipping point. The other two dreadnoughts that had not launched fighters but marine assault craft, around three hundred of them. They must have filled all available space in the hangers. That meant somewhere around twelve thousand enemy troops had been launched, and they were on approach not to the planet, but to the allied fleet. These were boarding parties.
“Alert the marines! Prepare for boarders!” yelled Commodore Eikel.
Just then, the Nemesis lunged, throwing everyone in the flag bridge off their feet.
“Report!” yelled Tabitha.
“Hull breach! Sir! It was a skipjack!”
Skipjacks were very illegal, very rare, and very deadly ship killers. The engines used a series of directional nuclear explosions also known as bomb-pumping to achieve insane levels of acceleration and were all but unstoppable by ship-based point defense systems.
The Nemesis lunged more violently a second time, everyone on the flag bridge immediately
hit the ceiling twelve feet above, then slammed into the floor. Jacqueline Campo laid there, her head and her left leg laying at strange angles as death came for her at last.
##
“Sir! The Nemesis!” screamed the tactical officer on the flag bridge of the Bojovník, pointing to the wall screen.
As Commodore Charles Eikel witnessed, a second deadly skipjack slammed into the Nemesis. The first one had taken off a huge chunk of her bow off. Deadly, but survivable. The second one hit dead center. The explosion ripped clean thru the ship causing explosions bursting out of the bulkhead on the opposite side. The ship was dead. Large pieces were breaking off of her as she listed and the power readings dropped to minimal.
“Quickly! Slave her drones to us!” the commodore screamed as half a dozen allied cruisers died a few moments later.
The battle had been lost, and now the enemy was sending in their boarding parties.
“Have the drones target the MACs!” he yelled.
Immediately, the enemy MACs took fire. First, one exploded, then two more, then a half dozen. There were just too many of them to stop, and the defensive drones were disappearing at an alarming rate.
Commodore Eikel blew out a breath as he sat in his chair.
“It’s over,” he whispered. “I thought she was the one, the one who would save us from the coming darkness.”
The commodore was in shock.
Just then, four simultaneous explosions rocked the mighty dreadnought as major sections were opened to space, holes appeared that destroyers could fly through. The railguns went silent. The lasers ceased, the missile tubes lay dormant. The Bojovník was as dead as the Nemesis.
##
The battle would never be won, the pirates had too many tricks and had planned for too long. While they lacked experienced personnel, they had numbers. They also had tonnage, and they had skipjacks. Those had been their secret weapon. The allied forces were broken, most ships heavily damaged or destroyed. To their credit, they fought on, though they all knew it was a futile effort. Every one of them knew what the pirates would do to the population on the planet below. Every one of them gave their all to hurt the enemy the best they could do.