by D. J. Holmes
If circumstances had been different, entering Mindus territory would have provided some relief. Though the Varanni Alliance Fleet spent most of its time passing through relatively new and therefore underdeveloped Mindus colonies, what they saw was impressive. James had no doubt the Mindus were significantly more advanced than Humanity. What he saw on several of their colonies was just as impressive as what he had experienced in Crian and Varanni space. However, there had been no time to dwell on those things, nor to stop and visit any of the colonies. The Varanni fleet had simply sped through each Mindus system as fast as possible.
Despite all these stresses and distractions, one thing dominated James’ thoughts. As an Admiral, one of the most foolish things he could think of doing was to risk one’s entire fleet in a battle against an unknown foe. Despite the intelligence they had on the Invaders, there was no way to know for sure how the Invaders’ technologies and weapons would stand up against the Varanni Alliance’s technologies and weapons. It was a massive risk to gamble the fate of the Mindus civilization, and possibly even the Varanni Trading Alliance, on one battle. Yet that was what Jorum was driving his forces towards. It was what circumstances demanded. Nevertheless, James could not shake the deep-seated fear from his psyche. A sense of foreboding dominated the fleet’s two-week voyage to the Mindus homeworld. A sense of foreboding James could do nothing about.
When more scout ships returned just one day before the fleet reached their destination, James’ fears were brought into sharp focus. The Invaders had moved into the Mindus home system. They had already breached the outer layer of Mindus defenses and were currently laying siege to the system. The Varanni Alliance Fleet had no choice but to launch themselves into the battle. For better or worse, they were committed.
Chapter 33
My own experience of combat has been somewhat limited. As a lieutenant I fought in the border skirmishes with the Xindar. Then as Captain of the assault cruiser Hercules, I was attached to Fourth Fleet. We saw action in three battles during the Third Antarian War. Each battle was a cleaning up exercise however, for the war had been all but won by the time fourth fleet was committed. Even so, it is not hard to imagine the devastation and catastrophe that is the result of a real fleet engagement. In many ways I am happy that is it something I can only imagine.
-Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD.
UNS Golden Hind, Mindus home system, 14th January 2479 AD.
“Guardian is sending her sensor data through now Vice Admiral,” Emilie reported.
“Put it through to our main holo projector,” Scott ordered.
“There it is,” Miyamoto responded. “Red icons are Invader formations, blue Mindus warships and green their orbital defense stations...” If he was going to add any further explanation, what appeared in front of everyone stopped him short.
James had to sit back in his command chair as he tried to get perspective on what the holo projector was showing. For at least ten seconds no one on Golden Hind’s bridge spoke. Scott was first to break the silence, but she didn’t bring any clarity, “How is anyone supposed to analyze this? How can we come up with a strategy or tactic to face this?”
James was inclined to agree with his Chief of Staff, nevertheless, he forced himself to make sense of what was before him. The one saving grace was the Mindus orbital defenses. They provided some framework upon which to interpret everything else. As far as he could tell, the Invaders had breached most of the Mindus’ outer ring of defenses. A couple of asteroid bases and one orbital defense platform around the system’s tenth planet were intact, but apart from those isolated sources of resistance, the outer system was under the control of the Invaders. Several fleets of six or seven hundred warships were patrolling the outer system, keeping it locked down and preventing any reinforcements making it to Jaranna. Indeed, one of those fleets was engaging a Mindus force of about two hundred ships. It looked like the Mindus force had recently come out of shift space from another system.
The second defensive line was clearly under threat. Both the seventh and eighth planets within the system had Mindus orbital defenses and warships around them. Both were under heavy attack. The seventh planet looked like it was about to fall; more than fifteen hundred Invader ships were exchanging missile salvos with three hundred Mindus warships and the orbital defenses.
It was clear that those engagements were simply secondary engagements. The real battle was still in its early phases, but it dwarfed everything else that was going on in the system. Almost eight thousand Invader warships split between six fleets were maneuvering against Jaranna, the Mindus homeworld. They were still a couple of hours away from entering missile range, but it was clear the different fleets intended to attack Jaranna from all sides at once. Along with the orbital defenses around Jaranna, there were two and a half thousand Mindus warships. James strongly suspected that wouldn’t be enough.
“This doesn’t look good,” Becket commented. “What do you make of this Admiral?”
“We are just in time,” James replied, putting a brave face on their situation. He spoke loud enough for everyone on Golden Hind’s bridge to hear. “Without us Jaranna will fall. It’s up to us to prevent that. That’s why we’ve come all this way. It’s time to show these Invaders what we are made of. Signal the rest of our ships, tell them to prepare for battle.”
“Aye Vice Admiral,” Emilie responded as she tapped a number of buttons on her command console.
“I believe Jorum will opt for plan beta,” James said to his command staff. “If so, we will begin to accelerate at a decent rate any moment now.” Orders came through from Guardian less than a minute later. Every ship was to match the flagship’s course and speed. It took a couple of seconds for Guardian to reorientate her nose towards Jaranna, and then she lit off her engines. Moments later the one thousand seven hundred and thirty-four Varanni Alliance ships followed suit.
Instantly, every warship and orbital station with a gravimetric sensor within the system detected the latest arrivals. Without having to wait for orders from their Admiral, two of the Invader fleets patrolling the outer system changed course and moved to intercept the Alliance Fleet.
“I don’t think they’re too happy to see us,” Miyamoto commented. “They’re coming right for us. They don’t even know who we are.”
“We’re coming from Mindus space,” Becket responded. “It doesn’t take much to guess we would be hostile to them. Plus, if our guess about their species is right, they don’t have any friends or allies. They probably respond negatively to every war fleet they encounter.”
“Guardian has just transmitted her message,” Emilie reported.
James nodded. Travelling at the speed of light it would take half an hour for the message to reach the Invader forces that were moving against Jaranna. Realistically, James held next to no hope that Jorum’s demand for the Invaders to immediately withdraw from Mindus space would receive a positive response. No commander would give up such an advantageous strategic situation in response to threats made by an unknown fleet, a fleet their own ships outnumbered more than six to one. Still, James couldn’t help but hold out a little hope. It was the only way he could see the battle ending without serious losses on both sides.
“No sign they are turning around,” Miyamoto reported ten minutes later, just after the point when the nearest Invader ships should have received Jorum’s message
“I wouldn’t be holding your breath,” James replied. What little hope he had had evaporated. If the two nearest fleets moving to intercept them weren’t even going to hesitate, then he knew whoever was commanding the Invader’s forces wouldn’t either.
“Admiral Jorum has requested a holo conference with his senior commanders,” Emilie announced.
“Acknowledge the request,” James responded as he stood. “I’ll take the call from my briefing room.” Less than a minute later he was sitting behind his desk and connected with Guardian. Jorum was outlining his plan of action.
“We wil
l attempt to use Gupta’s Rush against the two fleets coming for us now. No doubt the Invader Admiral is happy for two of his smaller fleets to engage us so he can get a sense of our capabilities. There’s no sense holding back so we will oblige him. After we push through these two fleets, I expect our opponent to send a much larger force our way. We’ll split into our preassigned formations to punch through their forces. If we can add our ships to those defending Jaranna, we should be able to make the Invaders think twice about assaulting the world. Once we have made it to Jaranna, we will be in a much better position to launch a counterattack. We’ll take out as many Invader ships on our way in as possible. Does anyone have any final suggestions or questions?”
James had nothing to say, they had already gone over what they would do if faced with this kind of scenario. They had caught the Invaders by surprise, most of their efforts were focused on containing the Mindus fleet and assaulting Jaranna. If the Alliance Fleet could move fast enough and directly enough towards Jaranna, there was a good chance they could punch through the Invaders before they could concentrate enough ships to stop them. It seemed everyone else understood the situation as well, for no one spoke.
“Very well,” Jorum said. “It has been an honor to lead you thus far. May we all do our people proud in the coming battle.” He gave a deep bow to his subordinates before cutting the COM channel.
James gave a nod to Gupta before he cut his. She would be happy that Jorum had decided to adopt one of the tactics she had suggested. She nodded back and winked, though as he caught her eye he sensed another emotion she was trying to mask. It wasn’t hard for him to guess what it was. If her tactic didn’t work, the Alliance Fleet would be thrown into disarray before the real fighting had even begun. Suddenly the fate of the fleet, and even the Mindus homeworld rested on her idea working out. Welcome to command old friend, James thought as he stood and moved towards the access hatch to Golden Hind’s bridge.
“We have a communication coming in from the nearest Invader fleet,” Emilie reported excitedly as James moved towards his command chair. “It’s not encrypted and our translators seem to be able to make sense of it. It’s audio and visual.”
James let out a whistle. This was the last thing he expected. “This will be interesting,” he said. As far as he knew, the Invaders hadn’t responded to any of the Mindus’ attempts to communicate with them. “Let’s hear what they have to say.”
When the bridge’s main holo projector changed to show what was clearly an image of a warship’s bridge, gasps and other expressions of shock erupted around James. Unintentionally, James let out a gasp of his own. The image sent James’ mind back to when he had been forced to hold a tarantula in junior school. The hairy spider had made his skin crawl, and he felt exactly the same now.
The creature before him had a torso and head not too similar but repugnantly different to that of a Human’s. The head looked misshapen because of its four pairs of eyes and the torso was sparsely covered in long thick hairs. If there were any similarities between the Invader species and Humans, they ended there. For out of the alien’s torso six thin articulated arms ended in what looked like razor-sharp claws. The image didn’t let James see what the lower half of the alien looked like, but he wasn’t going to complain. What he was seeing was more than enough to give him nightmares. When the Invader opened its mouth and began to speak, he wasn’t shocked to see razor-sharp teeth.
“Unknown ships, you have entered Karacknid space. Turn around immediately and we will not interpret your actions as hostile. If you continue on your current course, we will take it as an act of war. Your fleets will be destroyed and your homeworlds conquered. There will be no second warning. Turn around immediately.”
As soon as the alien was done speaking, the COM message ended. Everyone on the bridge stared at where the image had been for several seconds as if spellbound by the alien. James had to blink several times to get the image out of his mind. A shiver ran down his spine. Everything about the alien had given off a sense of danger. James shook himself; he certainly didn’t want to meet any of the Invaders in person.
“Do you think Jorum will respond?” Miyamoto asked.
“Unlikely,” Becket answered before James did. “We’ve already said what we came here to say. They clearly don’t intend to back down and neither will we.”
“At least we have a name now,” Scott said. “We’ve been wondering about these aliens and their existence for years. The Karacknids.” James was sure Scott wasn’t aware, but as she spoke her fingers traced one of the scars that ran down along her cheek. She had been severely injured when a Karacknid ship had detonated on Vestar. Rather than have the scars removed, she had kept them as a reminder.
“We do, and now we know what our enemy looks like,” James added. “We also know something more. Not once have they spoken to the Mindus. I suspect they were confident of victory all along. That they have broken their silence now suggests they are unsure. They may be terrifying to look at, they may have a vast number of ships, but they still feel fear. They are not unbeatable. Let’s show them that their concerns are justified.”
“Fleets Alpha and Beta are altering course slightly, they are maneuvering to get around our flanks,” Miyamoto reported.
“They will want their two missile salvos to come at us from as wide an angle as possible to split our point defenses,” James explained.
“Guardian is signaling,” Emilie informed everyone. “The fleet is to prepare for fire plan foxtrot.”
“Execute the formation change,” James ordered. Fire plan foxtrot was the ideal way to deal with two Karacknid fleets trying to maneuver against the Alliance Fleet.
“New contacts. New contacts. Confirmed missile launches from Alpha and Beta Fleets,” Golden Hind’s sensor officer shouted. “Three thousand missiles from Alpha Fleet, three thousand one hundred and eighty from Beta.”
Though James knew the operational range of the Karacknid anti-ship missiles, it was still impressive to see it in person. Golden Hind’s own multistage missiles could out range the Karacknid’s, but they would have to cruise on a ballistic path for quite a long way before kicking in their second stage boosters. Such a long ballistic flight meant they could only really be used to target orbital targets. The Karacknid’s had a powered missile range almost equal to that of the Varanni and greater than the Crians and the other Alliance warships.
With the Alliance Fleet’s maneuvers being dictated from Guardian, James had little more to do than simply watch the first engagement play out. His ships were reduced to playing escorts to the Alliance ships that could actually hit the enemy. Seconds after the Karacknids opened fire, Jorum turned his fleet towards Beta Fleet. He increased the fleet’s acceleration rate by five percent. It was a modest increase, but with the Alliance Fleet now moving towards the Beta Fleet’s missile salvo, it threw off the Karacknid’s attempt to coordinate their salvos. Beta Fleet’s salvo would reach the Alliance Fleet a full two minutes before Alpha Fleet’s salvo.
Before either salvo got into range, Jorum gave the order for his ships to open fire with their starboard missile tubes. From the Varanni, Crian and Hexotal warships, seven thousand missiles were launched against Alpha Fleet. Missile for missile, they weren’t as deadly as the incoming Karacknid missiles, but their numbers would more than negate that disadvantage. Like the Human ships, the rest of the Alliance warships were restricted to point defense duty until the Karacknids came into range of their missiles.
Seconds after the last missile was released by his ships, Jorum ordered his fleet to alter their heading. Two minutes later, Varanni, Crian and Hexotal port missile tubes released their ordinance towards Alpha Fleet. Attacking from multiple angles allowed the Karacknids to split the Alliance Fleet’s point defenses, however it also let the Alliance Fleet fire both banks of missile tubes. If the Karacknids had a third or fourth Fleet, their tactic would be far more effective. For now it was working in the Alliance’s favor.
“They’re pul
ling back,” Miyamoto reported as both Alpha and Beta Fleets altered their trajectory slightly.
James nodded. The Karacknid commanders were trying to keep the Alliance Fleet at extreme missile range. It was their usual tactic and given that half of the Alliance Fleet wasn’t opening fire; they had probably figured out that only some of the Alliance ships could engage them at their preferred range. You’ve seen how much fire even half of our ships can put out, James thought, you should be pulling back completely. Despite being outnumbered, the Karacknid commanders were willing to continue the engagement, that was a mistake.
Before the first Karacknid missile salvo from Beta Fleet reached the Alliance Fleet, Alpha, Beta and the Alliance Fleet released a second salvo of missiles. The holo plot around the Alliance Fleet reminded James of the battle of Connecticut. That was still the largest battle he had fought in, though that would change before the day was out. The engagement the Alliance Fleet was now in could at best be described as a skirmish compared to what was going on in the rest of the Mindus home system and soon Golden Hind would be in the thick of everything.