First Command

by Rodney Smith

  Kelly walked back to the galley for fresh coffee and to check with sensors on the status of any other combatants in the vicinity. Chief Johnson reported no contacts other than the K’Rang fleet in the cluster. Kelly had Chief Johnson inform him the second the 3rd ALG sprang the first trap.

  Kelly didn’t have long to wait, as the K’Rang fleet was moving faster than expected. The first trap in the cluster was a web of stealth mines across the most direct and widest path. When the leading destroyer lost part of its bow to a mine, the autonomous mines behind the rear of the formation moved out to block off their escape. Torpedo ships swarmed out from behind a brown dwarf on the starboard side of the fleet and let loose with all torpedoes. 56 torpedoes spread out and locked in on the major combatants. As the fleet launched defensive missiles to ward off the torpedoes, an A-76 squadron left the cover of a brown dwarf on the port side of the fleet and launched 144 medium missiles at the penned in K’Rang. Further defensive missiles left the ships and sped out to intercept the incoming missiles. The torpedo ships and A-76s pulled away and flew to land on the Golden Eagle to reload.

  Only ten torpedoes and twelve missiles made it through the K’Rang defensive fire to a target. One frigate took two torpedoes amidships and was ripped in two by the combined explosions. A second frigate lost all gun and missile mounts forward of the bridge. A light cruiser lost its stern and drifted in space venting gases, a total loss. Secondary explosions ripped large chunks off the ship and sent them off through the cluster. The immobile lead destroyer received three medium missiles and ceased to exist. The antimatter warheads tore the ship into small pieces. One support ship lost its stern to a medium missile. Four and a half ships destroyed or damaged was not a bad result.

  Kelly watched as the destroyer and three remaining cruisers methodically blasted the space in front of them to open a path through the minefield. Slowly and by twos, the K’Rang fleet passed out of the kill zone.

  * * * * *

  Fleet Commander J’Kalt called for damage reports. Four ships were total losses and one partially damaged, but still underway. He would have to move slower now and fire on every possible hide location. He couldn’t let the Humans dictate his maneuvers. He had to find a way to get out of this tunnel they were leaving open for him and find a clear path. The Shadow Destroyer was picking up terrestrial comms ahead, so there must be a base out there.

  As J’Kalt analyzed his current situation, the Shadow Destroyer reported they had come to a dead end. Gravity was increasing and they must turn around. As J’Kalt gave the order to reverse course three assault landing carriers appeared from behind a series of four brown dwarves and opened fire on the four rear guard frigates and support ships. Their plasma guns, designed to send plasma bubbles at hyper velocity speed through a planet’s atmosphere and destroy defensive positions, burned through the hulls of three support ships and a frigate. The burnt husks of the four ships floated off into the gravity well of a brown dwarf and were sent into a slow spiraling orbit. The Human assault landing carriers turned and disappeared into the cluster.

  J’Kalt ordered the three remaining rear guard frigates to pursue the carriers, but a squadron of A-76s was waiting for that. They killed two of the frigates and chased the third away. J’Kalt ordered his remaining fleet to move out of the dead end and form up in an all around defense.

  * * * * *

  The three assault landing carrier commanders were elated. They had just done what tacticians will tell you shouldn’t be done. They had intentionally put their ships into harms way. Normally carriers of any kind never see the enemy directly. Oh, they may see fighters or attack ships, but never main combatants. CDR Milton was the most elated of all. His idea had borne fruit. Not only did they take out four ships on their own, the accompanying attack ships had taken out another two. Mark down four for the gators.

  CDR Milton saw an opportunity to take out the two remaining light cruisers. If they could sneak their carriers behind a pair of brown dwarves to one side of the formation, they could get clear shots at the two remaining light cruisers and slip away to their next hide location. He briefed his plan to the other two captains and they were for it.

  They would pull back out of sensor range and line up behind the twin brown dwarves and moved forward slowly. Unfortunately, they failed to account for the final rear guard frigate being slow to rejoin the formation. His sensors picked up the Bee as it slipped in behind the dwarves. The frigate lay in wait for the carrier to pop up, relaying this information to the Fleet Commander. Many guns swiveled in that direction.

  The Bee dropped down below the dwarf. The Yellow Jacket went high. The Wasp went right. All three carriers fired at the two light cruisers and moved to slip back behind the dwarves. The Yellow Jacket had to pull up to be able to loop back behind the dwarves and presented a perfect target to the K’Rang fleet. A broadside from seven ships hit the Yellow Jacket in the port side AS-500 docks and folded the ship in half. CDR Milton and 700 crewmen died in an instant, as secondary explosions cascaded through the hull. The light cruiser N’Gal exploded five seconds behind it, as six sun-hot plasma balls burned through her hull. The light cruiser G’Bid evaded two plasma balls, but took one on the bow, causing minor structural damage. A fourth plasma ball hit the main deck and burned out an entire missile pod. G’Bid was still combat effective, but at a reduced level.

  * * * * *

  Admiral Minacci was shocked to hear of the loss of the Yellow Jacket and all its crew. He had never lost anyone under his command before. Now he had lost 700. He considered pulling the two remaining carriers back to his location, but the losses they were inflicting seemed to be worth the risk. He signaled the captains to continue, but not to put their ships in danger unnecessarily.

  He pushed the loss of the Yellow Jacket into the back of his mind. He would mourn them later. For now, he had several hundred K’Rang memorials to arrange.

  * * * * *

  Connie watched the death of the Yellow Jacket and it all hit her at once. This was real. This wasn’t some simulator back on Antares Base, but real combat where real people died. She pushed her feelings back somewhere deep inside to be pulled out and mourned over later. She had just seen 700 crewmen die. Rather then cry over them, she would have to find out what went wrong so that it didn’t happen to others or to the Vigilant.

  She asked Kelly, “Sir, what did they do wrong?”

  Kelly thought for a moment, then replied, “The K’Rang must have seen their approach, probably that frigate lagging behind the fleet. They were waiting for them to pop out from behind those dwarves. Look how the guns were already swiveled in that direction. The Yellow Jacket went high and had to loop up and over to get back behind cover. If they had gone left, right, or down, they probably would have made it back under cover. The assault landing carriers have thrusters only on the bottom and sides. That loop, and the fact the K’Rang were waiting for them, killed them.”

  * * * * *

  Fleet Commander J’Kalt watched the debris of the carrier being slowly sucked into the brown dwarves’ gravity. That would make the humans more cautious and not so cavalier. It was time to recon by fire. He instructed all his ships to open fire with energy weapons on any suspicious location that could be used as a hide spot for Human ships. He also ordered an increase in speed.

  J’Kalt watched how his ships reacted to their new orders. Every dust cloud, brown dwarf, and asteroid was grazed by energy weapons fire. That would keep the Humans’ heads down.

  There was one threat J’Kalt had not experienced, and his lead destroyer was about to run into it. Just around the next bend was a threat with no fear and no head to keep down.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The autonomous missile pod had been constructed in the armaments factories on Schirra, otherwise known as Centauri B-7, the Energy World, Inc. planet. The pod and the others like it had been on their way to Algol Station, to be delivered to the Algolian fleet, when the Baratarians captured them. It had originally been prog
ramed to activate when Aldebaran ships came into its sensor field, but were easily reprogrammed to react to K’Rang engine signatures. This pod and the other five around it were waiting to accomplish their purpose.

  It was another pod that first detected the engine signatures of multiple K’Rang ships approaching at 0.2c. That pod sent a burst transmission to the other five, dividing the targets among the six of them. The pods stood behind their cover, unflinching, as energy bursts flew by or were absorbed by what they hid behind. When the ships were almost within minimum range, they rose up as one and let loose their missiles against the most valuable targets.

  Sixty medium missiles launched against the K’Rang fleet. The missiles so close there was very little the K’Rang could do. The missiles were inside the minimum launch range for defensive missiles. All they could do was fire all guns in the incoming missiles’ direction and hope to hit something. The close in defensive guns took out some missiles, but a disproportionate number made it through to their targets. Two missile/gun destroyers were lost in antimatter explosions as bright as a sun. A damaged light cruiser went out in a similar way. Two support ships trying to evade the fire turned into the path of missiles aiming for the destroyers and disappeared in a number of blinding antimatter explosions.

  Fleet Commander J’Kalt looked on his diminishing command and had them increase speed to 0.3c. He must get through to this base that was reading stronger and stronger on his sensors. If he could reach their base, he could threaten it, causing the humans to have to come to its defense. There he could engage them in open battle and defeat them. He had his two newest defensive frigates reload missiles at their support ship. He pulled out the Shadow destroyer, his Shadow heavy cruiser, the remaining light cruiser and the two reloading frigates to ram through the remaining human defenses at 0.5c. The remaining fleet would be under the command of the senior destroyer captain. J’Kalt’s heavy force would go to port and the light destroyer-led force would go starboard. The heavy force would push through quickly and assault their base. The light force would continue to feel its way through the defenses. When the Humans pulled back to defend their base, the light force would close with the heavy force, come in behind the Human fleet and destroy it in detail.

  When the frigates were reloaded, J’Kalt gave the order to move out. He wished good luck to Captain H’Rak, the light force commander, and watched on his sensors as they went wide around a brown dwarf, firing the whole time. He ordered his heavy force to make half light speed and for the Shadow destroyer to find them the best route to this base.

  * * * * *

  Admiral Minacci watched the two groupings diverge on his tactical plot. As he watched the sensors resolve the ship types, it was obvious the force moving to port was the bigger threat. He revised his attack plans slightly, but both groups were still within the cone reconnoitered by LCDR Blake. He looked for how he could defeat this K’Rang in detail. He looked at the next trap for the group heading left and assigned two A-76 squadrons to cover the minefield they were about to blunder into at half light speed. The other group was heading toward another missile pod obstacle and he assigned two torpedo squadrons and an F-48 squadron against them. He sent a message to the Leviathan to start laying mines closer to Barataria, just in case.

  * * * * *

  Kelly watched the destroyer group and thought he saw an opportunity. The group was heading right through the gravity tunnel he’d found before. It had two opposing 90-degree turns and would reduce the task force’s ability for mutual support. He lined up and waited. When all but the support ships entered the bend he launched at FTL Power 1.1. He shot across the intervening space and stopped just aft of the four unguarded support ships. His gunners opened fire as soon as they came to a halt, and took out the engines on all four support ships. He jumped back out to his previous overwatch position as two of the support ships were wracked with explosions. Now the fleet had no reloads or spares. Kelly reported his kills to 3rd ALG operations. The news cheered up the Admiral.

  Kelly had Connie go back to engineering and check on the status of the stabilizers. He knew he was putting a lot of stress on them and didn’t want a failure at a critical time.

  * * * * *

  Steven Maynard was inspecting the plans in effect for safeguarding the population and defending them. The senior Marine Brigade Commander and the Bishop-Commander, who was overall in command, escorted him. They first inspected the facilities being built for the evacuated civilian population. The Marines were in charge of this and, at first glance, it was a marvel of efficiency. The citizens were brought in an AS-500 load at a time. They were identified, given an ID/rations tag and assigned to a bunker. Each bunker could hold 500 citizens or up to 2000 in an emergency.

  The heavy Marine brigade’s engineer battalion commander briefed that they could build three bunkers a day, using plasteel forms and metal flaked structural foam. Once they were covered with 4 feet of dirt and hydro seeded with colored shredded straw they blended into the forest and were impervious to sensor probes. The engineer battalions in the other two brigades could build 2 per day each, and the Templar Corps engineer battalion one a day. He stressed that volunteers were joining in and they expected to double those numbers tomorrow, when civilian construction equipment arrived. In the interim, trenches were being dug that would provide cover under the tree canopy for thousands more.

  Maynard did the math quickly in his head and remarked that in only a month they would have shelter for the entire population.

  The battalion commander, a long time dirt digging engineer, asked, “Would you rather we did nothing, sir?”

  Steven realizing his attempt at gallows humor went awry, said, “Certainly not, Colonel, and I meant no insult to you and your men’s efforts. I just hope the K’Rang give us enough time to complete these preparations. On behalf of our government and the population you will save, you have our undying gratitude.”

  Steven moved on, spoke to some former captives and members of the brotherhood. He assured them the K’Rang fleet was being whittled down by the hour and that Barataria had some pretty formidable defenses in the form of the Templar Brigade and the Marine allies. He pointed out that Baratarian forces in conjunction with the Fleet had already destroyed over half the K’Rang fleet.

  He moved on to a clearing with a hover ship waiting, and climbed on board. They moved to the three planetary defense system installations and were briefed on them in turn. He saw the sector each site monitored and the sensor picture provided by the fleet sensor grid. He asked if it might be wise to place the three sites equidistant around the planet. The site commander explained that the K’Rang had no assault landing ships or forces, so they would be concentrating their fire on the civil or defense centers if they reached orbit. The goal was to knock out as many ships as possible before K’Rang destroyed the installations.

  Steven thanked them for defending the planet and boarded the hover ship to take him to his Defense HQ.

  * * * * *

  Sally Halstead evacuated early. The Ruin View customer base dried up when all the captains flew off to battle and the senior Brotherhood members deployed to their wartime jobs. She found a scene of relative efficiency as groups of evacuees were brought in 100 at a time and stood in line for inprocessing. She was determined to do no such thing.

  She pointed her nose in the direction of the dining facility and volunteered her services. When they figured out that this short, slightly pear-shaped woman was THE Sally Halstead, they put her immediately to work. In two days, she had increased evacuee and camp personnel morale. She was able to ramp up her production to feed thousands by training and supervising all the military cooks. Items that would never make it into a military recipe guide were served daily. Even though her meals were high quality, they were not high cost or unavailable to those with special dietary needs.

  Sally had a habit of making suggestions to the head engineer colonel whenever he passed through her line. She helped them in making more shelters fas
ter, by suggesting they link them together, rather than making them all free standing. This increased their production by one-third because they built three for every two they constructed. They even got an assembly line going once they had the use of the civilian construction equipment and personnel.

  The best news was when they finally had a top end total on the number of evacuees. The number was less than 90,000. The Brotherhood members preferred to self evacuate to lodges or vacation homes they had scattered throughout the outlying areas. This left only the former captives to be sheltered.

  Sally suggested they could fit more into each bunker if they used stacked bunk beds. When the Colonel said they didn’t happen to have 45,000 bunk beds, she suggested they build them. Barataria had portable sawmills and the Marines were cutting down trees. There was all this unemployed labor sitting around. The Colonel saw there was no evading her or faulting her logic. He put a captain on it to get it started and turned it over to the evacuees. Trees were dragged into place and fed through the portable saw mills, cut to length, drilled for bolt holes and rope holes, assembled, roped to hold up the mattress and moved into place. Another line assembled the mattresses. Pretty soon almost all 100 shelters had bunk beds and 90,000 former captives had safe, clean shelters. Overhead reconnaissance showed they were even fairly well blended into the forest. The engineers switched from shelters to living conditions and started building sanitation facilities to replace the more primitive early facilities. Hot and cold running water and showers replaced buckets and soapy rags.