Mutineer (Empire Rising Book 7)

by D. J. Holmes

  “If we were to fire one of the new missiles and immediately after the first stage was jettisoned, began accelerating with the two released missiles, the missiles would have a total acceleration time of thirty minutes, identical to our current anti-ship missiles. However, in that time they could travel twenty percent more distance, thus giving us a minimum powered range twenty percent greater than our current missiles. The theoretical maximum range is infinite. If we wanted, we could launch the missiles from one side of a star system, boost them up to their maximum cruising speed using their first stage drives, then cruise on a ballistic course to their targets and switch on their secondary engines when they came into attack range. Of course, our opponents would have to stay in one place for that length of time, but it is theoretically possible.

  “There is one drawback. The missiles released in stage two are significantly smaller than the warheads our normal anti-ship missiles carry. However, they are large enough to fit a nuclear pumped grazer warhead that produces one beam.”

  James let out a whistle as he sat back in his chair. “Impressive. That would give us a lot of flexibility in a number of combat situations. I can already think of one or two ways we could use them to great effect.” He thought about Yue’s suggestion of splitting the missiles between every ship in his fleet. Quickly he realized he didn’t know enough about the missiles to make such a decision. “Let’s hold off on distributing these new missiles to the fleet. I want us to schedule another planning meeting tomorrow where we can focus on throwing out some strategies and tactics we could use with them. Invite all the senior admirals in our fleet. Make sure they have a technical breakdown of the new missiles’ capabilities. I want to have a brainstorming session and then run some simulations before we decide how we’re going to deploy them.”

  “I’ll arrange that as soon as we’re done here,” Scott replied. “Is there any time tomorrow you would prefer to meet?”

  “Make it early,” James requested. “Then we can run some simulations throughout the rest of the day. Hopefully by then we’ll have some direction to give Yue as to what he should do with his new toys.”

  Yue smiled and nodded at James’ remark.

  “Okay,” Scott responded. “I believe that is everything we need to cover in relation to the arrival of our reinforcements. Now we can turn to the rest of the agenda for today’s meeting.”

  Turning to Lieutenant Dzedzyk, Scott raised an eyebrow, inviting James’ navigation officer to take over. She was the only one not to have spoken so far. In response, Dzedzyk reached forward and changed the image being displayed by the holo projector. Yue’s missiles disappeared and a star map of the space around X-38 took its place.

  “This is the current deployment of all our forces outside of X-38,” Dzedzyk began in a confident but soft tone. Though she hadn’t served with James before joining the Outer Defense Fleet, she had served in the RSN and had always been comfortable working under him. “We have sixteen scout ships and thirty-six exploration ships operating in the nine systems we have discovered beyond X-38. Most of them are concentrated in the two systems we’ve discovered in the last six months. As yet, no shift passages leading away from either of them has been discovered, but we are confident both systems will contain shift passages that will lead to further systems. It’s just a matter of time until we find them. This data is five days old, though nothing is expected to have changed since the last scout ship returned with an update.”

  “Do you have a proposed route for our forward operation?” James asked.

  “I do,” Dzedzyk replied with a nod. With the touch of a button the view on the holo projector changed slightly. Six systems began to flash and a circular route connecting them changed color. “I suggest we go from X-38 to X-40 and then follow this route. This way we can visit both of the newly discovered systems and check-in with the Commodores leading the exploration missions. Lieutenant Commander Ivanov has already planned a number of training operations we can hold in each system. Finally, in X-44 and 45 we could arrive unannounced on a hostile vector and see how the scout ships in each system respond to an unknown threat. In total, if we follow my proposed route, we’ll be gone for one and a half months, though at any point along the route, we’d be no more than three weeks away from X-38. More importantly, if any Flex-aor attack was to materialize, we believe they would have to come through X-42, 44 or 45. At any point along the route we’d be in position to intercept them before they could reach X-38.”

  “Very good,” James said with a nod. “I think it will work. Ivanov, fill us in on some of the operations you propose we carry out on this extended reconnaissance mission.”

  As Ivanov spoke James partially listened and partially allowed his mind to wander. Extended reconnaissance mission was a fancy way of saying he had become bored sitting in orbit around X-38. He knew that if he was bored with all the responsibilities he had as the senior UN commander in this system, then his Captains and crews must be even more bored. A couple of months spent cruising through the most recently discovered star systems would boost morale. It would also allow his fleet to carry out live fire exercises and practice their battle formations for real rather than just in simulators. It had taken nearly eight months to get the senior UN Admirals’ approval, but a month ago a ship had arrived giving the go-ahead. Since then Yue had been stockpiling resources for the mission. Now that the logistics officer was confident the fleet could move and keep itself in fighting supply, it was time to plan what they were going to do.

  For a couple of hours James allowed the conversations to go back and forth as every member of his staff chipped in on the plans Ivanov had drawn up. By the end, the operations officer had a number of new ideas to work on and a few tweaks to add to the exercises she had already planned.

  “I think that will do for today,” James said when the discussion of the exercise they were evaluating came to an end. “I’m going to set the date for our departure as two weeks from today. We’ll inform the rest of our Admirals about the general plans tomorrow at our briefing and as we lock down the finer details we can pass them on. Good work today everyone. We’ll meet in three days to continue this discussion and see where we are at. You’re all dismissed.”

  Chapter 2

  A short sharp victory is every fleet commander’s dream. Military history tells us they are extremely rare, and usually, their benefits are fleeting. War always demands a high price in lives and material.

  -Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD.

  UNS Golden Hind, X-41 system, 7th June 2478 AD.

  James was sitting on the bridge of his flagship watching his fleet carry out a series of battle maneuvers. For this drill he was simply a spectator. Lieutenant Commander Ivanov had split the Outer Defense Fleet into two opposing forces. One third of the fleet was defending the system’s fourth planet, a rocky uninhabitable world that represented X-38. The other two thirds were simulating a Flex-aor attack and were trying to break through the defending forces and get into missile range of the rocky planet. It was assumed the Flex-aor had a new kind of large missile that could take out orbital battlestations with one hit. It was therefore paramount that the defending force, though outnumbered, did not allow the attackers to get their heavy missiles into range of the illusionary orbital battlestations.

  Commanding the defending forces was one of James’ oldest friends, Rear Admiral Georgia Gupta. She was normally the commander of Battlecruiser Squadron One, but for this engagement both James and Sato were presumed dead and she was the third ranking commander in the Outer Defense Fleet. Sato was commanding the attacking forces. James was happy to just watch and asses the performance of his fleet.

  Though he was an observer, Golden Hind was not and her bridge was a hive of activity. The first time James had stepped foot on Golden Hind’s bridge he had been blown away. He had been on the bridges of both British and American pre-UN battleships. They were impressive, but the UN Defender class battleships were a huge step above them. Golden Hind’s b
ridge was designed to service both her Captain and the Captain’s command staff, as well as an Admiral and his command staff. Just four meters to James’ right sat Captain Becket. Arrayed around her in two concentric semi-circles were all the Lieutenants and Sub Lieutenants who manned Golden Hind’s command consoles. Arrayed around James in a single semi-circle were his command staff. Everyone on his staff had a console from which they could help him manage his fleet. They too were assumed dead and they were watching the battle unfold themselves, though they were making a lot more notes for the final debrief than James was. They had to analyze everything and report on the tactics employed by Gupta and Sato. James was content to take in the general strategies his subordinates were trying to achieve and worry about the details later.

  Gupta was trying to lure Sato into a trap. She had deployed all the missile pods from her ships into a position flanking Sato’s most likely route of attack. Now she was maneuvering her ships to draw Sato into the ideal firing solution where the missiles from her missile pods and those from her own ships would hit Sato’s fleet at the same time. Sato was being cautious. He knew Gupta would try some kind of trick and he was moving slowly until he found out what it was.

  James was watching this unfold on Golden Hind’s gravimetric sensor display, for Sato’s fleet was too far away to detect using conventional sensors. He noticed the new signal from the edge of the system as soon as Golden Hind’s sensor officers did. One moment the gravimetric sensors were not detecting anything within forty light minutes of that section of the system, then a repeating ping was detected. The source of the pings was easy to figure out. There was only one way that kind of signal to could be generated.

  “That’s a gravimetric COM. It’s sending a priority one flash alert,” Golden Hind’s COM officer reported loud enough for James and his staff to hear.

  “Inform Gupta and Sato that the training exercise is over. Both fleets are to rendezvous with each other immediately,” James ordered. A priority one flash alert meant possible enemy contacts. Today’s exercises were over.

  “Understood Admiral, I’ll contact them immediately,” Emilie replied.

  James nodded to his niece and then turned towards Golden Hind’s COM officer. The gravimetric COMs allowed for real-time communication across entire solar systems. However, they could only give out pulses of gravimetric energy. The content of their signals was not much more complex than the old Morse code used by Humanity centuries ago. It took time for complicated messages to be transmitted.

  “The contact is the exploration frigate Hercules,” the COM officer updated as the next batch of information was decoded. “She’s detected anomalous electromagnetic signals from further along the edge of the system. Her Captain suspects unknown ships operating in the area.”

  “Dispatch one of our clippers to X-38,” James ordered. “Inform Rear Admiral Jackson that we have made contact with unknown ships. We are operating under the assumption they are Flex-aor.”

  “Aye Admiral,” Scott replied as she turned to her console.

  “Form the fleet into formation Delta three once we have concentrated our forces,” James followed up. “There is no known shift passage out of X-41. At least, none known to us. If there are ships, they have to be Flex-aor. They would know this area of space very well.”

  “Aye Sir,” Ivanov acknowledged.

  “Hercules has transmitted her sensor data to us,” Golden Hind’s COM officer announced as the ship’s computer decoded more of the gravimetric pulses. “I’m transmitting it to our tactical consoles now.”

  James smiled as Miyamoto swung round to his console in a flash. Golden Hind’s tactical officer did the same, racing to see who could interpret the data faster.

  When Miyamoto began to speak first, he received a nod of approval from James. “There’s no way to be sure what the contacts Hercules has detected are. But the computer gives a sixty percent chance they are Flex-aor warships, possibly a number of small scouts of some kind. I’d put the likelihood even higher than sixty percent myself.”

  “I’d put it at hundred percent,” Scott suggested. “Look at the gravimetric plot now.”

  Four new contacts had appeared on the gravimetric plot, accelerating hard towards Hercules’ position. “Whoever they are, they don’t seem friendly,” James commented. “Contact all our other exploration and scout ships within the system. They are to make their way towards these new contacts in stealth. Whoever is out there already knows our fleet is here, but they can’t know how many other ships we have operating in the system. Let’s see if we can get some eyes on them. Tell Hercules to avoid those incoming ships but not to escape too quickly. Let’s see what else she can detect.”

  “Hercules is sending their sensor data to us,” Golden Hind’s COM officer updated everyone. “They’re detecting at least fifty contacts cruising into the system at low power levels. They estimate there could be more coming in behind them. They think the contacts chasing them were screening ships for a larger fleet.”

  James looked over to Miyamoto. The tactical officer was pouring over his console but a few seconds later he looked up and nodded to James. “I’d say their assessment is correct.”

  “Two new contacts,” Golden Hind’s tactical officer reported. “They are accelerating on an intercept trajectory for Sure-foot.”

  “Will they catch her?” James asked at once.

  “They might, it depends on their maximum missile range. If the ships are Flex-aor warships and their missile range has increased, they may get one missile salvo away.”

  James stroked his chin as he thought. The alien fleet, if it was a fleet, was appearing on a trajectory that put them directly between his fleet and the shift passage out of X-41 that led to X-38. Unless the clipper he had dispatched escaped the pursuing flex-aor warships, Rear Admiral Jackson and X-38’s fixed defenses would have no warning that a potential enemy fleet was on the way. It was vital Sure-foot got through. Vital enough to risk some other ships. “Send a signal to our exploration and scout ships in the system. Any ships that can intercept the warships closing with Sure-foot are to do so. Sure-foot must make it out of the system.”

  James turned his mind to the wider tactical situation. He didn’t yet know the size of the enemy fleet but the Flex-aor seemed to like to operate in fleets of at least five hundred warships. If that was all the Flex-aor had, he was confident his fleet could go toe to toe with this new threat. However, if there were two or three fleets operating together as they had done six years ago, then his fleet would be smashed. “Bring our fleet to a halt relative to the system’s star as soon as Sato rendezvous with us," James ordered. “We don’t know what kind of threat we are facing. If this is another full-blown Flex-aor invasion, we can’t waste our ships against a fleet that greatly outnumbers us. If they intend to make for X-38, we may have to let them proceed and remain in their rear to harry them. Let’s assume we are going to take on whatever is out there though. Begin preparing our fleet for battle.”

  A chorus of responses came from his command staff as everyone prepared for the Outer Defense Fleet to fight its first real battle.

  *

  Though anger was coursing through her mind, Hack’tar was careful to keep it from seeping out to any of her subjects. She wanted them to think she was supremely confident. In one sense, she was. Her ships outnumbered the alien fleet by nearly fifty percent. She should be able to destroy them quickly and fall back towards her mother’s homeworlds. Except, doubt filled her mind. She knew her people could be beaten. Half of her fleet had been destroyed in her failed attempt to cleanse one alien world. Now there was this new alien fleet in front of her. Worse, she had only just managed to evade scouts from the other alien race two weeks ago. She thought she had finally freed herself from pursuit. Yet just as she did, she was facing another fleet.

  To add insult to injury, this fleet was in one of the systems her sister was supposed to control. That the species she was meant to have cleansed was here instead meant only
one thing. Her sister’s invasion fleet had been thrown back. That was chilling; her sister commanded a fleet several times the size of her own. If her sister had been defeated, the force in front of her fleet was even more formidable that the one she had just fought.

  What do I do? Hack’tar asked herself. She was in a situation she had never had to consider before. If this new alien species had defeated her sister’s forces, then it was possible they were threatening the Flex-aor homeworlds. What was left of her fleet was even more important than she thought. Her mother wouldn’t want her to throw away her ships in a meaningless battle, not when they might be needed to protect one of her mother’s hatcheries. If I don’t fight them, they could follow me back to our homeworlds. She would have to evade a pursuing hostile force all over again.

  As she thought more about the situation, Hack’tar’s lips peeled back, revealing her teeth. It had dawned on her why the alien leader had brought their ships to a halt. Her fleet was blocking the alien fleet’s only way back to their own space. No doubt they were afraid that her fleet was about to launch another attack. They want to get past me and back to their space, and I want to get past them and back to my space. Yet they don’t know that and are not going to let me pass. For a few moments, she entertained the idea of moving her fleet away from this alien fleet and allowing them to head back to their own space. It would avoid a battle. Yet it would allow them to follow my fleet. Even if all her fleets had been destroyed, her sister would not have allowed the aliens to learn the paths through shift space that led to her mother’s hatcheries. No, we must fight. This alien fleet needs to be destroyed and then it will be safe to return home.