Desperate Defense: The First Terran Interstellar War book 1 (Founding of the Federation 4)

by Chris Hechtl

  One moment the cruiser was trying to get away; the next it was kicked over by 80 megatons of force spread out on its ventral and port side. The force was partially diverted by the thick angled armor, but not enough. Some of it translated through the ship to a weak spot, not in her armor, but in her frame.

  Frame structures buckled and then broke in twisting screams of agony. One moment the ship was in one piece, the next it had been snapped in half, each piece twisting and spinning slowly away into the depths of the void.

  The eight torpedoes that had been fired at the battleship fared worse though; they ran into a chunk from the cruiser and exploded, tearing it apart. The follow-up eight torpedoes spread out to get around the debris and explosions but temporarily lost lock. When they got around the wall of debris and fading plasma, they reoriented and dived into the battleship's flank, but their coordination and timing was gone. They impacted on the larger ship's shields, battering it down and blasting plasma to sear away some of the equipment on her hull, but there wasn't enough damage to cripple the ship.

  Adrienne grinned broader until her cheeks hurt. She could hear the screams and victory cries over the network despite the miss on the battleship. The collective group had already turned; she knew they would get back to the barn and rearm for the next strike. But something clawed at her attention. She looked around, momentarily confused until her implants screamed and her vision flashed red. She looked to her left and pulled up in time to see rounds coming at them from the battleship.

  Something hit her fighter on the wing. She felt the ship shudder, then spin out of control in a death blossom. The inertial dampener was overloaded, and she blacked out before she could pull the eject handle.

  ~~*^*~~

  “The wing got the cruiser but not enough of the battleship to put a dent in her,” Jan said sadly. “Her shields are already coming back up. The bombers and fighters were decimated; all of the bombers had been destroyed as well as half of their escorting fighters.

  “I saw that. Damn,” Admiral Lewis murmured.

  “We can try mounting torpedoes on the surviving fighters, the interceptors,” the CAG offered.

  “Get your people on that now.”

  “Sir, Sea of Space is calling again,” a communication's tech reported.

  “Not now,” the admiral replied irritably as he turned to the hapless sailor.

  “Sir, Sea of Space has changed course.”

  “They did what? I thought he … damn it …” Walter turned until he looked at the plot. What he saw made him blink his gummy bloodshot eyes in surprise and then narrow them. “Get me Sea of Space. Now.”

  ~~*^*~~

  Ludwig had watched the second battle with his crew. They were going to pass within a half a million kilometers of the battle. “What do we do?” his XO said. “If that big ass ship wins, it's all over. They'll chew everything up. I've got family …”

  “We've all got family,” the captain said heavily. He felt the eyes on him. He leaned forward, feeling their weight, the weight of the world, perhaps his entire civilization on him.

  Slowly he straightened. “Duty is heavy as a mountain,” he murmured.

  “Sir?” his XO asked.

  Ludwig ignored the XO as he picked up the phone and hit the intercom button. “Now hear this. Now hear this. This is the captain speaking. The navy is doing what it can to stop the enemy, but it looks like they are coming up short.”

  He waited a beat, feeling himself settle into a cold certaincy of what he needed to do.

  “The enemy has to be stopped, one way or another, or there is no going home for anyone. There will be no homes to return to, here or anywhere. So, we're changing course. The rest of you will be taking the shuttles and abandoning ship. You've got five minutes. It's been an honor serving with you all. Good luck,” he said as he cut the circuit.

  He turned as he hung the phone up. “What? You heard me. Get to the shuttles, people. You've got five minutes before I initiate a burn to that ship,” he said, pointing to the large enemy warship.

  “Sir? Where do we go? We're in deep space, those shuttles won't get us far,” the XO warned.

  “One of those navy ships has to be alive. Hope and pray one is. One way or another we're going to end this,” Ludwig vowed as he walked over to the helm station. “I have the con,” he said.

  “The captain has the con, aye, sir,” the tech said by rote as she rose, eyes wide. “Sir.”

  “Go,” he said gruffly as he took her seat and began to plot a course.

  “Course plotted, sir,” his navigator said as he fed the course to the helm station.

  The captain looked over his shoulder and cracked a smile. “Thanks, George. Now get.”

  “Yes, sir,” the navigator said as he took off at a run. The XO followed after a moment.

  ~~*^*~~

  “No response from Sea of Space, sir. They are on course for the enemy battleship. The battleship hasn't noticed them yet.”

  “Damn it, Ludwig, what are you doing?” Admiral Lewis demanded. He looked over his shoulder to the tech. “Keep trying.”

  “They deserve some cover, sir,” Captain Lily Wilson said. “I think we can oblige,” she said.

  The admiral looked at the captain and then nodded slowly. If they threw enough threat axis at the enemy ship, just maybe, maybe, one would get through to something vital.

  “We're moving in to give Sea of Space some cover,” he said with a slight catch in his voice.

  ~~*^*~~

  Captain Lewis realized that if the enemy warships weren't stopped, they would wipe out all life in the solar system. The navy was torn apart; the fighters were a spent force. What was left couldn't get through to that ship; he knew it.

  “What the frack am I doing, I'm no hero,” he muttered as he finished setting the ship's course. He got up and headed for the door, hoping there was at least one lifeboat left when the alarms wailed. He looked back and realized that the computer was attempting to divert the ship off the collision course. He swore and threw himself back into his chair. He overrode the electronic idiot savant and then took the helm.

  “Guess I get to ride you all the way in,” he muttered.

  ~~*^*~~

  Admiral Lewis watched as the militia ships took the rounds meant for his four precious destroyers. He had them move in a shuffling dance, keeping them as moving targets as they fired back with their own weapons at the enemy. Their small guns had quickly dropped the enemy's shield and were gouging small chunks out of the armor, but they weren't doing enough damage against the titan. They waded in anyway, with all the gallantry of their mission but one by one the converted civilian ships were torn apart and fell behind. Then it was his destroyers turn.

  He looked to his left and saw one other ship with them; Resolution was trailing slightly behind his force, somehow still there, still under power despite her grievous damage. He turned back in time to see a broadside from the enemy's smaller kinetic turrets tear into three of his destroyers. They tumbled, two exploding, the third, his son Taylor's destroyer Duty and Honor, a dead stick, shredded from stem to stern.

  He had no time to think about his eldest son's fate or any of the fates of the sailors on those ships. Freedom shook, taking damage herself. But she fired her missiles anyway. She volley fired everything she had, and they ran into a wall of tungsten and uranium in return, creating a wall of plasma. The destroyer frantically blew her OMS up to get clear of it and any mass coming at her behind it.

  ~~*^*~~

  “It's over. No way we can beat that ship now,” the XO said tearfully.

  “Not quite over,” Captain Renoir said heavily. He'd seen what Sea of Space was up to. He had heard the orders from the admiral to go all in to cover the ramming ship. His ship might be unarmed but she was far from out of the fight. “We have the one weapon we need to do the job. Engineering, I want you to shut off or bypass the stops you put in place. I want full engines, red-line everything and keep it there.”

  “S
ir?”

  “You heard me,” Captain Renoir said gruffly, vision swimming a little as he sat in his chair and gripped the armrests. “Navigation, I've got one last course for you to follow,” he said, punching in some numbers.

  ~~*^*~~

  “Herd leader! The enemy ships—two are on ramming courses from different directions! We can only fire on one of them!” the ship's alpha warned.

  “Maneuvering, get us away quickly!” the Beta bull barked.

  “They are faster than us. We can't get clear of both,” the helm bull said desperately.

  The Beta bull swore viciously as he noted the ship's Alpha bull barking orders to try to get the ship out of the death trap it had found itself in. He should have seen such a tactic coming. He'd driven them into a corner, made them desperate. Now he was going to pay for his blindness and foolishness it seemed.

  He pounded his armrests in frustration. He'd underestimated the aliens, underestimated their willingness to die to defend their herd as he would have. It was a mistake he knew he wouldn't live long to regret.

  ~~*^*~~

  “Sir, Resolution is going in, full bore!” Ensign Sedong reported in a hoarse voice to the admiral. Too much time speaking, too much emotion had traveled through her vocal cords. She was losing her voice and she knew it, but she had clung to her duty and stayed at her post relentlessly. “It looks like they are on a collision course with the battleship as well!”

  “They are what?” Admiral Lewis demanded, staring and feeling a tearing within his heart at seeing such courage, such sacrifice in his fellow Terrans. “Damn,” he muttered. Somehow, he thought he should be feeling a sweltering of pride at such sacrifice but all he could think about is the loss.

  ~~*^*~~

  The battleship fired a fusillade at the incoming ships. The colony ship's shields were never designed to handle such mass impacting on it; they faltered and fell.

  On the other side of the ship, Resolution's full bore death ride had allowed the ship to shed some of its twisted and torn wreckage. Some small bits still clung stubbornly by wires, hoses, and cables, but the majority of the bow was gone. About a thousand kilometers out, Resolution began to shed life pods and even a shuttle. Their headlong plunge into the battleship and the fury of the battleship's defensive fire made many wink out in small bursts of explosions.

  Admiral Lewis was never sure afterward which hit first. He didn't have an angle to see his brother's ship. He did see Resolution as the ship was torn apart under the pounding, but still a freight train on her collision course.

  One moment the battleship was there, thundering at them, trying to get around them, the next all three ships were an eye-searing explosion of debris, plasma, and dust, expanding ever outward.

  The crew on the flag bridge were deathly silent at the sacrifice. But when the eye-searing lights cleared and they saw the last enemy ship crumpled and a derelict, the tired applause started.

  Admiral Lewis sat back heavily in his chair. “Damn. It didn't have to come to that. They were done,” Admiral Lewis murmured.

  “With respect sir, they are now,” Ensign Sedong murmured. “What about the other ships?” she asked, indicating the fleeing enemy ships on the main plot.

  “Any ships that can catch them are to move out now,” the admiral ordered.

  “ROE, sir?” Jan asked over the tactical link.

  “This is war. If they won't surrender and heave to, then either make them or destroy them. I'd like prisoners however, and I'd like to get my hands on at least one of their ships,” Admiral Lewis said tiredly as he rubbed his brow. He knew he had sweat stains. He probably stank. He didn't care.

  ~~*^*~~

  “Is it over?” Jan demanded tiredly. She'd never felt so weary in all of her life. The butcher's bill wasn't something she wanted to think about.

  “Don't jinx it, ma'am,” Sedong-Jin Oh, Argus's captain, replied, equally tired.

  “I'll try not to,” Jan said as she saw the enemy support ships run for the hyper limit.

  “Signal from Admiral Lewis. All ships are to go after the fleeing ships. Take any out we can,” the communication's tech reported.

  “Very well. Helm, you heard the woman. Get us in there,” Captain Argus ordered. “CAG, we've got to nail those ships. That mean's we've got more work for you and your people.”

  “Aye aye, sir,” Commander Dalton replied from the cockpit of his fighter. “I've got SAR still out, sir. We've recovered a couple of fighters.”

  “Are the pilots alive?” Admiral Kepler asked, looking up from her seat.

  “One, ma'am. Lieutenant Hatfield made it, but she's aspirated a lot of blood and vomit. She's also had an eye pop out of its socket. There may be brain hemorrhaging. The docs are going to have their work cut out for them. Her implants are all that are keeping her alive.”

  “So she's out of the fighting,” the admiral said with a wince.

  “SAR teams have been called for with the other damaged ships from the flagship, ma'am.”

  “CAG, your fighters will be on their own,” Jan said. We're going to be stuck here performing cleanup.”

  “Not a problem, ma'am. Those ships have no armaments that we can see. My fighters are armed and the surviving ships are moving in now. We'll stop them. One way or another,” he said grimly.

  “Launch when ready,” the admiral said as she turned to the next problem.

  ~~*^*~~

  The alien tanker, transport, and freighter were too slow and were pounded into wreckage. They refused to acknowledge communication attempts to get them to heave to and surrender. The two dispatch ships were slightly faster and managed to escape. Their captains were unsure on where to go or what to do. They had only enough fuel for a few short jumps and no safe haven around.

  Out of desperation they went back to the Altair hyperbridge jump exit. They had no idea about how to find the route back to Rho; it was not in their computers.

  All they could do was wait and hope.

  Chapter 36

  Eden

  Just when he thought things couldn't get worse, the Gamma bull woke to news that a dispatch ship had arrived during his rest period. The ship had a short message that it transmitted as it came into the solar system. By the time he had finished his morning feed, he'd read the orders twice. They'd thrown him off his feed; he was so angry and sickened that he wanted to vomit it all back up.

  There was no news of his requested ground troops or the colony ship. Instead, the Alpha bull had thought of something far worse; he had decided to pull the fleet back together, minus the gamma's battleship.

  His orders were to send his cruisers and two out of three support vessels, even his dispatch boats, to the hyperbridge jump-off point that the Beta bull had gone off into.

  The Gamma bull seethed; instead of getting word of additional support, he was losing most of his force. It just wasn't fair, but the decision was out of his hands.

  The one good bit of news was that the dispatch ship had the latest copy of the translations and intelligence on the aliens. The aliens called themselves collectively Terrans, and that was of minor interest to him. The news that they were of multiple species, however, made him stop his seething and waken his curiosity to read further.

  ~~*^*~~

  Jeeves was inside the enemy's computer network. The A.I. had mapped each of the ship's various computer networks and knew them down to the smallest bit. When new information was received by the battleship's communications network, he made a copy right along with the ship's Alpha bull and the fleet's Gamma bull.

  The copy of the translation files and what they knew of Terrans caused a series of rapid-fire breakthroughs in his translation efforts. After several checks to make sure he was on the right track, he reported the news to the governor.

  “You've broken their language and files with this new data? Outstanding!” Jack said. Ever since the enemy had withdrawn, they had begun systematically pummeling any suspected Terran hiding spot. It was nerve wracking for the pe
ople on the planet, wondering if the enemy had finally sniffed them out.

  “Yes, sir. I have translated roughly 70 percent of their language. I am updating my files with bots as we speak.”

  “You are everywhere? In every corner of their datanet?” Jack asked carefully as he thought about what it would mean. Hope began to stir in the back of his mind. He'd hoped for this sort of scenario the moment he'd sicced Jeeves on the enemy's computer network, but he'd honestly never considered that they wouldn't eventually find the A.I. and try to block him.

  “Yes, sir,” Jeeves replied. “In every ship. I can now create a header, access their communications, and send a virus to any of their ships.”

  “And they don't know?”

  “They haven't taken any action indicative that they know I am there at this time.”

  “That gives me an idea. I think it's time we teach them some of our most recent history,” Jack growled darkly. “Call in the troops.”

  “By call in the troops, I assume you mean the senior leadership and not the militia,” Jeeves asked.

  “You got it.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  ~~*^*~~

  “So, why are we all here?” Paul asked as he took his seat at the table. He nodded to Debby and the others as they did the same. “Jeeves,” Paul said with a nod to the holographic avatar. “Long time no see. Been busy?”

  “Very,” Jeeves replied. “All of the work in infiltrating and translating the alien computer databases as well as my work managing the various bases has forced me to evolve somewhat.”

  “Um …,” Paul frowned thoughtfully.

  “He's no longer a dumb A.I. is what he's saying. He's become a he, fully sentient,” Menolly supplied.

  Paul looked over to her and then to the A.I. “Are you serious?”

  “Yes.”

  “And that's a good thing. Jeeves has finished infiltrating the enemy's databases. He's got a report,” Jack said. “The floor is yours, Jeeves,” he said.