Ragnarok-ARC

by Patrick A. Vanner

  "Vampire, vampire, vampire!" Ensign Green shouted from his scanning station. "Full missile launch from the port-side destroyer." With the first of the destroyers adding its missiles to the remaining frigate's, and the main batteries not configured for sweeping, the volume of fire directed at the Fenris was once more capable of swamping her point defense.

  "Commander Martin, hit that frigate hard—then all missiles engage the destroyers." The range closed, and the Fenris drew even with the last frigate.

  "Broadside away!" Lasers flashed from the starboard mounts as the pulse cannons accelerated their ferrous rounds to a significant fraction of the speed of light. Armor plating vaporized as the lasers clawed along the hull, then shattered at the impact of the hypervelocity rounds. The Fenris sailed past the wounded frigate and began to fire on the rapidly approaching destroyers.

  "Starboard frigate damaged but is still maneuvering. Port frigate is turning to reengage," Ensign Green reported. "Missiles incoming from both destroyers now." The ship shook once again as a beam from a destroyer bored into the Fenris. "And lasers."

  "Martin, maintain fire on both destroyers. Port and starboard midship batteries only, prepare for another broadside."

  "Midship batteries only, ma'am?" he asked, not understanding why she would want to use only a pair of lasers and pulse cannons, not the entire broadside. He launched another missile salvo.

  "Midship batteries only, Commander." She assured him that he had indeed heard her correctly. "Navigation, prepare for maneuvering. At my mark, ninety degrees up on the bow, maintain current vector and acceleration." She watched the projection, seeing the distance between the Fenris and the destroyers closing. Laser and missile fire continued to lance back and forth between the ships. The distance continued to close, and as they passed an invisible point in space, Alex leaned forward in her chair and shouted, "Mark! Get her nose up, Sam." Lieutenant Commander Samuels began to swing the Fenris' bow upward. With the drive at one hundred percent, maneuvering the ship within the drive field while maintaining particle concentration and location was slower than at a lower concentration. Thus, while a simple reorientation of the ship was something that could be quickly accomplished, doing so while maintaining their current heading and speed required more time, as well as a delicate touch on the controls. After several long seconds, Commander Samuels' skill had the Fenris perpendicular to the Xan-Sskarn destroyers while maintaining their course between them.

  "Bow up, ninety degrees," he called out. The Fenris, while still within their cross fire, now presented a much smaller profile to their line-of-sight weapons.

  "Guns." She did not elaborate further.

  "Firing." Lasers and hypervelocity rounds reached out from the Fenris' midship batteries and smashed into the destroyers, while a majority of the Xan-Sskarns' return fire missed Fenris. Some of that fire, however, still found a target, and explosions erupted along the length of both destroyers.

  "Ensign, what's it look like?"

  "Ma'am, I'm reading hull breaches along both destroyers. I don't think we got any critical systems, but I do read a slight power fluctuation in the starboard destroyer, and it looks like we got a couple missile batteries and laser mounts along the way." Green refined his scanning sweeps to see if there was any more information that could be garnered from them. Another wave of missiles was incoming, and point defense intercepted most of them. The few that did manage to evade the tracking guns expended their plasma along the top of the Fenris' hull where damage was minimal. The armor along the top side boiled under the intense fire, but held.

  "Navigation, port-side spin, ten degrees per second. Guns, reengage with broadside missile batteries, both destroyers, as we present to them. Maintain fire until fifty percent losses to their point defense, then cease fire."

  The dual affirmative responses reached her simultaneously.

  "Good move. Looks like they couldn't pass up the chance to get us in a cross fire." Greg murmured into their private channel.

  "Thanks, I really didn't think they would risk friendly fire, but there's no point in taking chances. And this time it paid off," she replied and refocused on the projection.

  They were through them, but not yet past them. Ensign Green reported that both remaining frigates and the destroyers were changing their headings. Alex continued to gaze at the projection in front of her. She could see the Xan-Sskarn ships spinning themselves about, but it was a futile maneuver. By the time the Xan-Sskarns had shed their forward momentum and could begin to accelerate on another vector, the Fenris would have too much of a lead for them to have any hope of catching up, even with the Fenris braking to recover her Valkyries. The display was counting down the time until they were out of engagement range. Twelve more minutes and they would be safe, for a while. The Fenris had passed beyond effective beam range ninety seconds ago, but missiles continued to home in on them; however, the more distance they gained from the launchers, the more time the point-defense net had to target and eliminate them. Two minutes later, Fenris' missile tubes fell silent. The Xan-Sskarn's point defense had the same advantage they did. There was no point in spending missiles on an ever-diminishing chance of scoring a hit, not when they were going to be needed elsewhere, and soon. The final twelve minutes of the engagement dragged out for what seemed like hours. Five more Xan-Sskarn missiles managed to avoid the point-defense net and inflicted yet more damage on the already wounded Fenris.

  "We are clear of engagement envelope," Ensign Green reported; the relief in his voice was pronounced.

  "Thank you, Ensign." She, too, was relived that they could finally breathe easy. "Bow down ninety degrees and cease port-side spin. Level us out, please, Sam." The Xan-Sskarn's missile fire had been far too accurate to risk allowing only aft point defense and the single-chaser laser mount to provide defense. She had kept the Fenris perpendicular and rotating, relative to the Xan-Sskarns, even though it had presented a larger target, so that the entire ship's point defense could be utilized. It wasn't something she would have normally ordered during a battle, exposing the entire ship to fire, especially when they had already been hurt so badly, but she hadn't been able to see another way. She didn't think the Fenris would have cleared the engagement envelope in any shape to fight if she had remained with only her stern facing the enemy.

  "And slow us to one-quarter speed."

  As the Fenris adjusted to the new settings Samuels entered, Alex punched up flight operations on her net.

  "CAG?"

  "CAG here, ma'am."

  "What's your status down there in the bay? Can we land the Valkyries?"

  "Well, we have a few small fires to contain, but my crews are on that now. The landing bay is functional, though we're going to have to recover one at a time. Port-side launch tubes are out of commission this side of a shipyard, but the starboard tubes are all in the green. We can land them, Captain, but the bay is a mess, and with only three tubes operational, it's going to take that much longer to get them back out into space." Alex's left hand began entering numbers and equations again. With the current deceleration rate of the Fenris and the speed of the Valkyries, interception would be in nineteen minutes. "Ian, give me your best-guess estimate on turn around time for the whole squadron." She didn't want to say "the remaining squadron," but she knew that with only eight Valkyries left, recovery operation times were going to be reduced.

  "I would have to say between twenty and twenty-five minutes from first recovery to last launch, ma'am." His reply came fast enough that Alex knew he had been waiting for the question. She entered his high-end estimate into her calculations. Factoring in that, acceleration, and last known distance to the Asgard, she saw that they would have just enough time to accomplish the recovery operations before they were back in the thick of things.

  "We'll begin Valkyrie recovery as soon as they are in range. Ian, you're not going to have much wiggle room on your turnaround time. Twenty-eight minutes after the first touchdown, we're going to be engaged again, if not sooner
."

  "Captain, my boys and girls will have those birds back in space before then, even if they have to throw them out of the ship with their bare hands." He sounded confident. He knew that launching fighters with fire incoming was extremely dangerous. It was too easy for a Valkyrie to be washed away by missile plasma before it could get clear of the blast radius.

  "You're free to begin recovery as soon as possible. Contact Barbie and get 'em lined up and on the deck."

  "Roger that, Captain." With that, Alex cut out from the net, punched up engineering, and listened as Heron began a litany of damage they had sustained in their brief engagement.

  "Alex, port-side forward is a total write-off. I have the compartments sealed off, but we took too much damage there to do anything else. Hell, some places are still hot. I can get port-side missile-tube three back into the firing net, and we're reinforcing the areas behind the hull breaches now. The calibration on the drive envelope is out of alignment, and it's causing a slight fluctuation, but it's still within acceptable safety margins."

  "What's the status of the in-system and FTL drives?" She was concerned that with the drive envelope fluctuating, the Fenris might suffer a drop in maximum speed.

  "The P-Drive is at one hundred percent, as are the emitters, and the Humptys are just fine. We took a pounding, but we lucked out in that regard. I should also have some of the damaged point-defense stations back on line by the time we reengage." Alex smiled in relief: finally, some good news.

  "Pass my compliments on to your damage-control teams and stay on top of things. McLaughlin, out." She was about to order that the plot be expanded when she was interrupted by Lieutenant Bennard.

  "I am receiving message traffic now, ma'am. Mostly battle chatter at this time—nothing directed at us yet."

  "Keep me informed of anything major, Lieutenant." She knew that Bennard would screen out what she needed from the flood of messages he was receiving and would update her accordingly. She checked her fighter display and was surprised to see that landing operations had already commenced.

  "Navigation, be prepared to take us to maximum military power, heading zero four eight mark zero eight five, as soon the last Valkyrie touches down."

  "Heading zero four eight by zero eight five max accel on completion of recovery operations, aye, ma'am."

  "Scanning, give me a picture out to five light-minutes; I want to see what we're heading into." She waited as the projection distorted then rematerialized into view, showing a much larger view of the current conflict. From what she could see on the plot, there were still localized distortions more than likely caused by Lokis. Only two other ships besides the Fenris were currently unengaged, and all of them were pulsing, showing signs of battle damage. Even with the display set to a five-light-minute radius, there were too few green icons and far too many red. They were outnumbered almost two to one, and as she watched, the ratio increased as several icons representing screening ships increased the tempo of their pulsing, suffering more damage, then winked out of existence. She searched along the heading she had ordered and found the flagship. The Asgard icon was pulsing slowly; her remaining screening ships were shielding her, taking the brunt of the damage, but with the number of enemy ships closing in, it was only a matter of time before that screen was wiped away. Already she could see the icon of a light cruiser begin to pulse dangerously fast. By the number of ships surrounding the Asgard, there was no doubt in Alex's mind that the Xan-Sskarns knew exactly which ship in this fleet was the flagship. They needed to get in there and pull off some of that attacking force before it was too late. She saw that the last fighter was on approach and signaled Commander Samuels to stand by.

  "Commander Samuels, go," she ordered as soon as she saw the status of Valkyrie One change from in-flight to recovered.

  "Engaging new course and speed now, ma'am." As he executed the new flight plan, the Fenris leapt forward, racing into the fight.

  Chapter Twelve

  USS Fenris

  October 8, 2197

  0712 z

  Groombridge 34

  It was beautiful. Painfully, hauntingly, disturbingly beautiful. It was all there in front of her, displayed for her viewing: the multicolor flashes of lasers, the expanding balls of fire that were once ships, and even the deadly dance of the fighters. Alex was mesmerized by the beauty of the delicate yet intense flames leaping from damaged ships, both friend and foe alike. As she watched the conflict unfold, another battle was playing across her mind. She saw ships weaving and spinning in a ballet of death, friends giving their all to no avail as, one after another, they fell to an overwhelming enemy. Voices yelling in confusion and fear as they passed on grim reports, others shouting her name, looking to her for answers.

  "Captain," Greg called into his mike, wiping blood from his face as he watched her stare at the events unfolding in front of them. He knew what she was seeing; he was seeing it as well. Ross 128. The difference was that he had only been the Gna's tactical officer, she had been the captain, ultimately responsible for her ship and crew, and she had lost most of one and, later, the other. Both losses weighed heavily on her.

  "Alex!" he hissed intently, and relief washed over him as he saw her shake free of the past.

  "Conrad, time to battle zone assuming we go for Valkyrie launch?" she snapped, coming out of her reverie.

  "Ten point two five minutes to maximum engagement range of the closest Sally ship." Deflated at the sight of what they were speeding into, Petty Officer Conrad's voice was flat. Alex connected to the flight-operations net.

  "CAG, what's the status of the Valkyries?"

  "We're finishing rearming the first three now, Captain. They'll be in the tubes and ready for launch in two minutes. The next group will be ready three minutes after that, and as soon as they clear the tubes, group three will be ready for launch. Say eight minutes to full squadron launch." That was cutting it close, and she said so. "Well, we'll still have seventy-five seconds to engagement range, so they will have plenty of time to get clear once we slow to launch speed."

  "I guess that'll have to do. Notify the helm when your birds are in the tube, and keep in mind we don't have much time for deceleration. We're going to be at maximum launch speed, so tell them it's going to be a rough one."

  "They're ready for it, ma'am." She acknowledged him, and signed off.

  "Captain," Lieutenant Bennard's hushed voice said in her earpiece. "I'm picking up specific comms traffic now."

  "How bad is it, Lieutenant?" Alex's voice was soft.

  "Bad, ma'am. The carriers Aegir and Uller and their entire battle groups are completely destroyed. Their remaining fighters are moving to support the rest of the fleet now. The Mjölner, Vidar, and Hermod are the only remaining battleships, and the Vidar and Hermod are each reporting heavy damage and the loss of most of their screening ships. The Mjölner has lost main power, but is still under attack. What's left of her squadron is attempting to shield her, but they're all reporting extensive damage as well. Ten percent of the Valkyries were lost upon launch or never made it out of the tubes. Overall, fighter strength is down to forty-seven percent, and falling fast. The carrier Odin reports fires out of control in both her bays and cannot land her fighters. She is requesting—" He stopped his litany with a sharp intake of breath. "Correction, the Odin has been destroyed. The carriers Sif and Asgard are under heavy attack and are requesting assistance. Their screens are still relatively intact, but they are now heavily outnumbered. The Sleipnir and Sigyn destroyer squadrons are responding," he ended quietly.

  "God in heaven," Greg breathed over the net. "This is not good." A sudden thought struck him. "What's the status of the troop transports?"

  "Seventy-six percent of them and their screening frigates have been destroyed. From what I'm hearing, it sounds like the Sally bastards are using them for target practice, sir." The anger now lacing Bennard's voice was reflected in Higgins' face. Alex saw that the Fenris had slowed to launch speed and that the first of the Valk
yries were launching. Eight more minutes to engagement range, and it looked as if the Xan-Sskarns were ignoring them, concentrating on the flagship and the remains of the fleet rather than worrying about a single damaged heavy cruiser closing in on them from behind. She intended to make them regret that decision.

  "Ensign Green, status of the fleet?" she asked, though she knew that answer would be demoralizing to all those who heard it.

  "Yes, ma'am. Sixty-three percent of the fleet is either destroyed or no longer combat capable, and all remaining ships show signs of battle damage. Fighter losses are now at seventy-eight percent. The enemy now outnumbers us two point seven five to one, though a majority of their ships are damaged as well. Currently, only the Fenris, the Ran, and the Krulak are not engaged at this time. However, two Xan-Sskarn destroyer squadrons are on an interception course with the Ran." Alex knew that the Ran was another heavy cruiser of the same class as the Fenris, but she was not familiar with the Krulak.

  "XO, the Krulak?" she asked. He turned to his console and began to retrieve the information that she had requested.