Frontline sf-4

by Randolph Lalonde

  She flipped the ship end over end and the emergency deceleration engines at the front fired, the shields took several hits from the oncoming Eden Drones.

  After seconds of waiting everyone in the cockpit finally heard the tones indicating that the main missile batteries had solid locks on the attacking ships and Leland unloaded the launchers, sending all forty eight heavy missiles at them all at once.

  “Oh my God!” Ashley exclaimed as everyone in the cockpit flinched, ducked and instinctively threw their hands up over their faces. The missiles exploded less than five kilometres from the ship's nose, sending brutal shock waves and shrapnel back at them. The Cold Reaver shook and rocked.

  “What happened?” Leland shouted out over the sounds of decompression and collision alarms.

  “Decompression in forward debarkation, we lost our lower turret, no shields. Closing the compartments off,” Finn reported hurriedly.

  “Can we enter hyperspace?” Ashley asked, she struggled with the controls, forced to guide the ship free of the planets gravity while flying backwards with only partial engine power.

  “Checking.”

  “What happened?” Leland asked again.

  “You never fire that many missiles, especially not at four point eight clicks,” Larry called over his shoulder. “Try thinking for once!”

  “I didn't know! I've never worked on this ship!”

  “That goes for any ship! It's common sense!”

  “Leland, go check our passengers,” Ashley ordered. “Finn, hyperspace?”

  “We're good. I'll have to watch the emitters we have closely though. Generating a field on navigation's mark.”

  “Mark in three, two, one, mark,” announced Larry loudly.

  The hyperspace field took several seconds to surround the Cold Reaver and Ashley watched the acceleration rate of the ship multiply evenly across the hull sensors. All sections of the ship were accelerating at the same rate, they were safe. She locked the controls and sighed deeply.

  “God, Leland's clueless,” Larry stated under his breath, shaking his head.

  She nodded. “Captain always had trouble finding good tactical people. I'm starting to understand how he felt. Still, he probably saved our asses, barely.”

  “Those Eden ships were taking full on hits from our turrets without slowing down. I hate to admit it, but you're right,” Finn confirmed.

  “How is the damage, really?” Ashley asked.

  “We're missing the main debarkation ramp in the front, three emitters are gone, one engine is down to nine degrees of rotation and the ventral turret is gone, just gone. I can't tell how bad the shield emitters are for sure but we're missing at least three.”

  “Captain's gonna kill me,” she groaned.

  “Just blame it on Leland,” Larry shrugged.

  “Can't do that. I picked my crew from who was available, he's my responsibility. I'm going to make sure I'm in the room when Stephanie sees his performance review though.”

  “She's going to tear him apart.”

  Ashley nodded. “He's been spending all his simulation time in fighter jockey scenarios or at the bar. I think he might get put off this time.”

  “I'll be there to see him down the gangway,” Larry said quietly. “I won't be blowing kisses either.”

  Morning Briefing

  It began in the conference room at the front of the bridge with Laura delivering her summary of her understanding of the Triton as a developer of new technologies. All eyes and ears were trained keenly on the relative newcomer in the golden light coming through the transparent hull as she began. “ The Triton was designed and built to be a hard target on her own and with a squadron of fighters on patrol whenever she's running at sunlight speed it would take a large strike force to get through to her. I don't know what the Sol Defence Forces were afraid of, but judging from the redundant systems, extra armour and heavy weaponry built into every fighter or gunship design made to run off of her and the ship herself, they were definitely afraid of something.” Laura said before sitting down near one end of the bridge meeting room table. The view along the left hand wall was of the stellar nursery, the angle they viewed it on that day brought out shades of yellow and blue. All the senior officers except for Ashley were present.

  “What could tha' be?” asked Frost. “This ship's harder than the Aboris moons.”

  “Well, imagine being sent out on mission for half a century. You don't know if you'll see home during that time, and you know for a fact that you'll be hundreds, thousands of light years away from anyone who can help you if you run into trouble. If you run into a combat situation there's no back up. Few human organizations would actually spend the time or go to the trouble to capture or destroy this ship, so I'm thinking they were preparing to meet up with another race entirely. What's more, there are a lot of rooms made for diplomacy, they made sure that they had both options covered; peace and war. This ship is made to be Earth away from Earth, politically if this were still a Sol System owned ship this would count as one of their territories. ”

  “This ship counts as a territory? How does that make sense?” Asked Cynthia.

  “In the same sense that an island or a space station equipped with an embassy makes sense. The only difference is that this one can move. The other reasons why I'd say this ship is built around a model of fear is it's hardness to natural forces like meteor strikes, intense radiation and gravitational forces. The architects of this vessel wanted to allay everyone's jitters where living in space was concerned, so single people felt comfortable in her berths and families could feel at home and safe in the larger quarters,” Laura brought up a holographic schematic above the table and went on. “The hull was laid down in four sections as far as I can tell, and using highly refined materials they built the civilian habitation center first, designating it the Botanical Gallery. They should have called it the park, considering its size. The area around it came after and it includes two of the generators, three berths and critical systems, then there's another layer over top that extending to the inner command deck where the officers quarters are located. The thickest, most energy and matter resistant metal surrounds that layer. That same layer extends around the Botanical Gallery and two of the main reactors.”

  “Then there's the gunnery deck and hangars?” Frost finished for her.

  “That's right, but even they are surrounded by a two meter thick inner hull.”

  “Figures we'd be set up in the most dangerous place. My shooters sit right between those double hulls.”

  “I wouldn't go that far. In the thinnest points of the outer hull there are five meters of solid material that is specially formulated to get more resistant as more energy and pressure are applied to it. Previous estimates on thickness were based on what we were seeing from the inside, but since the exterior survey was completed I was able to finalize the analysis. Over top the outer hull there are three different types of shield emitters made to work separately or in concert. Wheeler only used one since the others require more training. Conventional shielding, using combined particle and energy emitters were his choice because they're easy to understand, the parts never need to be deployed and they defend against most weapons equally. This ship is equipped with an antigravity shield as well as another hardened energy field I'm still studying. Together they take up a lot of power, but are partially self sustaining since the energy is made to interact and they'll be incredibly difficult to penetrate. I'll also be calibrating over twenty layers of refractive shielding, so we can prevent all light based weapons from hitting us. Most of these systems are made to somehow absorb energy from the outside when they're calibrated and deployed properly, but considering the risks of bringing those functions into play, of creating a feedback across all the emitters, I'm taking it slow. I want to use the shields properly but it'll take time to fully understand them. It would be faster if I had more experience with this kind of shielding but Freeground just started implementing energy shielding less than a decade a
go.”

  “That all goes down as soon as someone gets an EMP weapon through, right?” Asked Alice.

  “No, in fact the hardened energy shield would continue to operate along with all the other critical systems, Liam can go into why in a minute, but my point in all of this is that the Triton was made to be outnumbered. I'm starting to realize why anyone whose survived a fight with Sol Defence considers themselves so lucky. This ship is more heavily armed and shielded than seven or eight vessels in her class, with all the shield systems up and running along with the inherent cloaking properties built into her hull, she's not only hard to find, she's also hard to damage at all.”

  “If that's the case, why don't we see other military outfits build ships like this?” Cynthia asked.

  “I think Liam could answer that better than I can,” Laura said, nodding at the older gentleman.

  Unlike the other officers, who all showed up in the vacsuit uniforms made specifically for their departments, he wore his blue robes to meetings. The Captain had privately insisted he do so, as it was a fair sign of rank on the ship as much as any. Liam had become a spiritual advisor to many crew members and his time was in great demand. “Thank you Laura. The reason why no one outside of the Sol System builds ships like this is simple. It costs at least twenty times what it would to build this compared to a carrier of similar class. That's not even considering how the core systems are built. The computing and command management is set up on a crystalline storage and organic processing system. Quite simply the thinking power behind each system is a self sustaining gel that contains microscopic organisms that calculate at an incredible speed. The crystal that contains them is a data storage system that changes microscopically.”

  “I've heard of that. If you turn them off they last forever and since the crystal's structure doesn't change unless the compound inside instructs it to, there's no chance data will be lost,” Alice said.

  “Right, but there's a problem. We can't make any of these core circuits with materializers. We have backups in storage, but we're low. I have a team of four working on growing more.”

  “How long would it take to grow a replacement for the average circuit?” Asked Captain Valance.

  “About a week, but we could grow more than one at a time once we get the mixture right. It could take us up to a month to accomplish that.”

  “Can temporary circuits be used if there's no replacement?”

  “Some of the left over terminals from the automation could stand in, but reaction times would go down dramatically. That's why we had a few seconds of blackout when we were struck by a nuclear warhead, some of our systems had to reset.”

  “All right, keep that set up as a backup plan. How is everything else going down there?”

  “Very good. Everyone's putting in a lot of hard work and it's showing. We've started using ergranian metals for several different fabrication processes since the reactors are turning out more every day. Some is being cycled into mass materializers to enhance fighter armour, we have an amount earmarked as a supply for future repairs and I've even managed to fashion a few high yield torpedoes based on Sol Defence blueprints. We'll have to keep them disarmed until the last minute, they're well beyond what any port allows within striking distance. I only made them because of your specific request, Captain.”

  “Are they all code keyed?”

  “Aye, it takes two codes and active biological scans to arm them from any command station.”

  “Good, thank you Chief. I hope we never need to use them. How is life for your staff?” Captain Valance asked, trying to change to a lighter topic.

  “We're finally concentrating on the wormhole generator and getting settled in to the lower berths. Most of the engineering and maintenance people are pretty happy, the bunks are a whole step above what they're used to on other ships from what I gather and the junior officers know they'll be getting better quarters as soon as those billets are cleared.”

  “How long do you think it'll be before we have the wormhole systems up?”

  “Without the right parts it'll take a month. We need to find people qualified to machine the parts to specification or buy them. It'll be hard to find parts for this ship in any port. In the meantime we have everything wired so we can test any temporary components we manage to complete. With any luck we can get it generating micro-wormholes for communications but I wouldn't expect more.”

  “We'll make finding qualified craftspeople a top priority and I'll keep working a plan that could get us a replacement system,” Captain Valance reassured.

  “I know, it's the first priority with the engineering staff. Anyone who has machined parts is to look over the schematics for the parts we need. I'm hoping that a few of them will have the skill, but I know none of them have the experience. My maintenance people are working on the rest of the ship. We finally got the main communications array repaired. Now we're moving on to making the living sections of the ship more habitable. There's everything from backed up waste disposal units to damaged deck plating. The more the maintenance people repair, the more damage they find, but we're getting a handle on it.”

  “How is tactical?” Jake asked.

  Agameg Price smiled and leaned forward on the conference table. “Very well. Everyone is in advanced training and a few are even double specializing in communications. My teams have very high scores in simulations and are working well with gunnery and heavy weapon teams.” He looked to Frost then.

  He looked back at him.

  “I think that's your queue.” Stephanie whispered from across the table.

  “Ah, aye. We're workin' with tactical quick, that's a fact. My loadin' teams are up to speed, only three simulated injuries this week an' my gunnery crews 'ave things down pretty smooth. New recruits are fittin' in pretty well, only one in three wash out.”

  “One in three?” Laura asked, quietly surprised.

  “Aye, we show 'em a simulation replay that went completely wrong for one of our gunners. After tellin' all the recruits it's the real deal when they first see it some of 'em actually run outta the room.”

  “What happened in the replay?”

  “Well, a turret gets brought down for reloadin', a mechanic goes into the chamber ta realign the load belt, so he's right in there, then the loaders emergency handle gets caught on the magazine. The gunner doesn't give anyone a chance ta get clear afore he raises the turret back into firin' position and he dinna see the mechanic crawl into the forward servicin' chamber. He takes his first shot, the mechanic gets fried and mulched, the explosive rounds headed into the chamber detonate, kill the gunner, an' since the armoured loader is still too close, caught on the magazine as he is, he gets his arm and shoulder blown clean off, leavin' the loadin' crewman inside a right mess. I left the simulation runnin' since it was a good fire, explosion and rescue drill.”

  “Did anyone survive that in simulation?”

  Frost chuckled and shook his head. “No, but the medical team managed to keep the loader kinda livin', or what was left of him, on a sub deck. Seein' that's what gets most of the squirmers tossin' their breakfast 'cross the deck. I 'ave the newbies who made it clean it up.”

  “Could that actually happen?” Asked Liam.

  “Aye, if the gunner isn't payin' enough attention and doesn't check the status of his rig before chargin' up. I've never seen it personally, thank the powers.”

  “Here's hoping you never do.” Captain Valance said with finality. “What happens to a lot of the recruits who can't stomach your test?”

  “A few 'ave come back, most of the rest get sent to maintenance or to the flight deck dependin' on their qualifications. I don't think Angelo minds.” He grinned at the Deck Chief.

  Angelo Vercelli smiled back and nodded. “No washouts here Captain. After they see the man eaters up top they're usually glad to get in with the grunts below. We've had a couple accidents but nothing major thanks to the vacsuits we're set up with. I've seen one hold up a whole engine pod when it cam
e down on one of my people's legs.”

  “That's what they're for,” Stephanie commented. “Fashion is reserved for off duty.”

  “I hear ya. Anyway, we've just pumped out and assembled our eleventh Uriel fighter and our fourteenth Ramiel interceptor.”

  “How are our pilots doing?”

  “All nineteen of them are fine, but we're still very short. Ashley's a practical star in sims, but in all honesty she's not ready for teaching.”

  “I know, she's a gifted pilot but not experienced enough to lead. I'd like to take control of the SSG until we find someone better,” Alice volunteered.

  “Sorry, what does SSG mean?” asked Panloo, the night pilot for the Triton. She was standing in for Ashley since she was her direct subordinate.

  “Space Superiority Group, sorry, I've spent so much time in the dogfight sims lately that I forget not everyone is steeped in the lingo.”

  Panloo covered her pink nose with her long, white furred paws and laughed in soft squeaks. “That's all right. I prefer infantry simulations. Under fictional conditions that sort of thing can be a great deal of fun.”

  “I think it's a good idea for you to take over training, I hope we manage to get a few more pilots in the next recruitment trip.” Captain Valance said to Alice. “As long as it's temporary, I still want you on the bridge.”

  “Oh, it's temporary. I wouldn't give up night watch command, in fact, I'll be doing both at the same time. There's time to fill during my shifts right now so I'll program in the round the clock regimen for anyone in training and fly short patrols before and after my shift.”

  “Just don't wear yourself thin. Keep it down to a combined twelve hours on duty a day.”

  “Don't worry, Captain, I'll keep my head on straight.”

  Stephanie nodded and started her report when she was sure the exchange was finished. “We're on patrols, watch and training in security. The Intelligence team is still backlogged but they're getting better at prioritizing. There's really not much to report other than the new recruits are doing well in drills. Even the washouts we're getting from Chief Frost are turning out to be decent grunts,” she said, not so much as glancing at Frost. “Oh, and the pay grade structure has boosted morale for the most part. Now that everyone knows that extra qualifications and good performance will directly affect their pay there has been a big improvement overall.”