by Sid Kar
“Get back to your tasks,” Barryett said and walked over to Dorrvyk’s communications stations to look at the planetary defense plans that were coming in. Raptor walked over to the Commodore’s station and climbed abroad to his seat and took charge of his computers.
“Any refusals?” Barryett asked.
“Some,” Dorrvyk said, “Capitan Hedgewyk’s team is intercepting and decrypting the rest for us,” Dorrvyk looked over to Hedgewyk who nodded his head in affirmative and said, “Vice-Commodore, they are passing electronic confirmations of the plans back and forth between the ground stations and the battleships. We have grabbed them.”
“Forward them to the displays of the entire command room staff,” Raptor said.
“Yes sir,” Dorrvyk replied and multiple displays lit up with the schematics of Nestor’s defense plans.
“It would have been easier to have the new Chancellor you appointed, Commodore, to give orders to all their ground batteries,” Hedgewyk said, “As it is now, Dorrvyk’s requests are being accepted or denied base by base.”
Raptor shook his head but he was in no mood to explain his decision as his mind was already formulating their response.
“That would have taken too long,” VC Barryett chimed in to explain, “The candidate whom we appointed Chancellor is not very popular with their officers and I can just imagine him getting into debates with individual base commanders.”
“Then why did we appoint him?” someone asked and Raptor waved his hand.
“Toll, now is not the time to ask political questions…” Raptor said.
“Sorry sir, I was just curious,” Capitan Overyk, the navigation officer said, “Colonel Tollvyk hasn’t returned.”
Raptor turned around to look at Overyk and was startled at his own absent mindedness. That was the kind of question Tollvyk would ask and right at that inappropriate moment too.
"That is alright, Overyk, I intend to explain that and a lot more shortly after the battle,” Raptor said then looked at Rocket Fire Section and the vacant chair of that section’s senior officer, “But why the hell is Tollvyk not at his battle station?” Raptor could not believe Tollvyk would act like a petulant child who refused to come out of his room after a scolding.
“You ordered him out of the command room,” Capitan Alvina said.
“Oh that is ridiculous,” Raptor stood up from his chair. He looked at Alvina and she matched his eyes with calm earnestness. He was surprised to see her speak out for Tollvyk while all the other officers were staring hard at their computers and displays sensing their Commodore’s anger.
“She is right sir,” VC Barryett said, “If he returned to the command room without your order, he would technically be defying a direct order from a superior officer. Now since you expect him to return without asking your specific permission first and realistically won’t hold it against him, but that doesn’t mean he is expected to go ahead and do it without any qualms.”
The officers and the other staff in the room let out a collective sigh of relief. Barryett was the only person who by virtue of his rank and of his stature as a former Commodore, could firmly dissent from the Commodore.
Raptor let out a deep breath. He knew Barryett was right. Technical the point was, correct it also was.
“I will go get him, meanwhile Overyk get your section to search for the location in Nestor’s oceans that has the deepest depth,” Raptor said and started climbing down from his station.
A few faces turned around to look at each other and there were expressions of shocks on the other faces as well. VC Barryett walked over to Raptor as he got down on the command floor and headed to the door.
“What are you planning on doing, Commodore?” Barryett asked the question that was in everyone’s mind but that no one else dared ask.
“I am going to submerge us,” Raptor said.
“Did I hear that correctly, sir?” Barryett raised both of his brows in wonderment. He looked after Raptor as he walked towards the door. Barryett had not thought very highly of the new Commodore he had been assigned, what with the stained records of nearly every officer abroad, and honestly including himself. But after Raptor had pulled off that daring victory when even a war hero like Antrar had thrown up his hands, had made him rethink his opinion. Perhaps Commodore Raptor was a lot more than the sum of his records.
Now he wasn’t so sure if his first impression wasn’t the correct one and the victory some sort of a fluke.
Commodore Raptor stopped just in front of the main door, turned his neck with a sly smile on his face and said, “I want Colonel Tollvyk to be here to hear this, otherwise Toll will say: what is this, a goddamned submarine?”
The entire room guffawed loudly and Barryett’s face lit up with a grin. No, he told himself as Raptor walked out of the main door and disappeared, Commodore Raptor was greater than his past.
“You heard your Commodore,” Barryett turned around to face the officers, “let’s find him the deepest trench one can stick a large spaceship in.”
Raptor knew exactly where he would find his friend Tollvyk. He eschewed the hovercraft and kept walking down the hallway and then made a right turn. This corridor led to the officers’ quarters and a few benches were attached on either side of the wide hallway. One man was sitting there holding his personal radio in both of his hands staring down at it, expecting the sound of the command to return to cackle out of the speaker at any moment.
“Toll,” Raptor said walking over to him and patted him on the shoulder, “Come on, Toll, I need you. The war we came here seeking has found its way to us.”
“I am sorry Commodore,” Tollvyk saluted, “I won’t break decorum again.”
“Perhaps I was too harsh,” Raptor said and both of them turned back.
“Perhaps you were,” Tollvyk said, “but don’t second guess your decisions, not even for me.” Toll then looked around. There was no one else in the corridor as all the officers and the crew were attaining to their battlestations and their predetermined positions. “Raptor,” Tollvyk whispered, “we were attacked by our own back there. That mechanical fail-safe to avert mid-space collisions only works with other Starfirian Army spaceships.”
“I know,” Raptor said then put his finger on his mouth as they turned the corridor and walked into the main hallway leading to the command room. There were twenty Starship Guards armed with laser guns patrolling the outside entrance of the central command room and Raptor did not want them to hear anything of this. If even the rumor of that incident leaked out then it could cause big problems for the morale of the crew and the outside officers. As it was this Starship had been assigned a crew with assorted attitude and character problems.
“I intend to hold the command officers’ meeting to address that issue right after the battle,” Raptor said as they passed the guards who promptly saluted both of them and walked into the command room.
“If we survive the battle,” Tollvyk grinned wryly.
“That’s why I need you and your rockets,” Raptor said, “get to your station.”
“Yes Commodore,” Tollvyk turned to face Raptor, then quacked his boots on the shiny metallic floor with a clang and saluted him sharply in view of the other officers who were greatly relieved to see them together and calm.
Raptor walked over to Overyk’s station where VC Barryett was looking over the navigator’s shoulder at an oceanic depth map of Nestor that Overyk had pulled on the display.
“Found anything?” Raptor asked.
“Yes sir,” Overyk said and then pointed to the screen, “Nestorians call it the Packtonus Trench, named in honor of the first submarine commander to dive his boat in there. It is twelve miles deep and the ocean around the trench is at least ten miles deep for fifty square miles around the trench. We can submerge and hide Conquistador there with at least a mile of water above us to spare.”
“What about the effects of displacement? Any islands or shore nearby that would get flooded?” Raptor asked.
&nbs
p; “Fortunately, only a few uninhabited islands that may temporarily submerge,” Barryett said, “Nestorians would flip out if we drowned a few of theirs just for a tactical advantage.”
“Take us there and dive us in,” Raptor said walking back to his station.
Starship Conquistador had already flown away from Nestor’s capital and was above the ocean. Capitan Flyptar, the flight officer, increased the speed and directed the Starship to the location of Packtonus Trench while keeping it flying as close to the surface of the ocean as possible to avoid any detection by the Mercurian scanners. Overyk engaged the computer and directed it to plot and program a safe dive into the oceans while avoiding collision with underwater mountains lining the trench or the ocean bottom. He sent the preprogrammed solution to Flyptar who along with his flight staff took the Starship down.
Conquistador struck the water slowly nevertheless the enormous size of the Starship created huge displacement and waves hundreds of feet high that ran screaming out of the epicenter in all directions.
The command room staff could see their giant spaceship diving into the ocean through the transparent diamond shield and were awestruck and speechless. This was one maneuver they had not performed even in any training exercise.
“We are a submarine now?” Tollvyk blurted out and to his surprise the room burst out in laughter.
“What did I say?” Raptor chuckled, “that he was going to say that.”
The laughters died down in a few seconds as the flight computer steadily lowered the Starship’s tallest structure that was ten miles long into the trench and rest of the Starship submerged into the ocean and soon enough it was completely below the ocean surface and there was at least a couple hundred meters of water above every point on top.
“That’s good enough,” Raptor said and the flight staff held their spaceship steady.
VC Barryett walked over and stood in front of Raptor’s station. He was getting impatient to hear the reasoning behind this tactic and he sensed that so was the rest of the crew.
“Attention,” Raptor said, “I hope no one here thinks that we are hiding out below the oceans and away from the action out there in the orbit and in the space. We have fought a battle already and won. This is a battle hardened crew now and we will face this Mercurian enemy. We are just biding our time.”
“I don’t want us to do all the fighting,” Raptor said, “It is true that Starfire Empire guarantees the protection of Nestorian Republic amongst a multitude of our other protectorates and they pay us for it by guaranteeing huge orders for our machines and industrial equipment. But that doesn’t mean we have taken over their war for them.”
Raptor looked around and he saw a few of them nod their heads in agreement. At least no one’s facial expressions or body language seemed to disapprove of his decision.
“We are going to wait till General Bakus’ battleships get here and engage this Mercurian Empire or whatever it is,” Raptor said, “then the Nestorians are committed, they can’t throw all the responsibility on to us. Then we will join the battle. Then we will strike.”
He saw a great many smiles on the faces of his crew and he knew they were now with him.
“There is a second tactical reason,” Raptor said, “We will surprise the Mercurians completely, after all no one expects a Starship to jump out of the ocean like a fish.”
There were a few chuckles and even VC Barryett smiled and nodded his head in approval.
“And now, while we wait,” Raptor said, “we prepare to use our secret superweapons!”
Chapter 3: Deception
General Vegus unconsciously pushed out his lips while he stared at the gravitron scanner display on one of his screens. The thousand rockets were lurching fast at the four battleships which he was leading straight into them. He saw that the Mercurian Battleships behind the rockets were decelerating at a higher rate than before. Some of it was because they were getting too close to planet Nestor and a spaceship that zapped around at higher than light speeds near a planet risked getting sucked in and smashed into the planet due to even a slightest mistake in flight or navigation. Only the computer could calculate velocity fast enough and send signals to the steering mechanism to change course rapidly to avert collision. But a spaceship on autopilot couldn’t react to its enemy, was set on a particular course that could be pinpointed and targeted by the enemy with accuracy.
However, the Mercurians had decelerated more than required by safety considerations and changed their vector which meant they were at least startled by the Nestorian battleships’ move. Vegus was glad they were surprised but he had to admit it was a very risky strategy. If they did not survive the rocket barrage then all the next steps of the plan were completely useless.
“Contact with enemy rockets in T minus one minute,” Tagg said.
“Switch full power to laser defense system,” Vegus said, “Switch laser defense to automatic.”
“Laser Defense now automatic for the next ten minutes,” Joules said.
This phase of battle would be decided in the next two minutes, Vegus thought to himself, nevertheless it was possible that the enemy was too cunning by half and had programmed some of his rockets to linger back and arrive later. Ten minutes would pick up all the incoming stragglers.
“Launch all Defender counter rockets,” Vegus ordered.
“All defender counter rockets launched,” rocket officer Xanus Torks replied while he entered a code on his computer and flicked on a switch.
Four hundred defender counter rockets ran out screeching from various tubes all along the outer hull of their battleship. At the same time, four hundred rockets each were also launched from the other three battleships in perfect synchronization.
“Launch all Ranger offensive rockets,” Vegus ordered further.
“All ranger rockets in space,” Xanus replied.
This time two hundred offensive rockets followed the counter rockets and flew behind them and likewise from the three remaining battleships.
Vegus held his breath and watched the screens as did the rest of the crew. There was nothing further for them to do now. It was all luck. They had practiced and practiced this scenario at least fifty times now. And while they had created this plan with Jak Confederacy in this mind, there was no reason it couldn’t work against Mercurians either. Jak Confederacy was another Starfirian protectorate and to avert a war with them Nestorians had agreed to sign the protection contract with Starfire Empire.
Speaking of which, Vegus wondered, where the hell was that Starfirian spaceship? It should have finished boarding all the essential personnel and joined them in space to battle the Mercurians.
His thoughts were brought back to the battle at hand when hundreds of explosions burst out in space when defender counter rockets tried to intercept the Mercurian rockets. Ranger rockets did not try to intercept but evaded the incoming rockets and kept moving forward in space towards the Mercurian spaceships.
“Approximately five hundred enemy rockets destroyed,” Tagg said with a slight joy in his voice.
“That means five hundred are still intact,” Joules commented wryly.
“Square Formation now,” Vegus shouted the order. But he did not have to as this step was preprogrammed in all the four battleships’ flight computers.
“Battleships converging to a square formation,” Joules replied.
The four Nestorian Battleships moved significantly closer together and turned their under belly’s towards each other forming a square shape with each battleship making a corner of the square. This dramatically reduced the surface area that was exposed to the oncoming rockets and provided for a joint laser defense of their hull facing inward.
Just as the battleships had completed their formation the space around them lit up with green lasers shooting out and interdicting the Mercurian rockets attempting to crash hard into them.
Most of the rockets were destroyed by the lasers but a few got through and exploded on the hulls of the battleships.<
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“Damage Report! Damage Report!” Vegus yelled looking around as their entire spaceship shook multiple times and lights flickered twice.
“Damage assessment now coming from various quarters,” Joules spoke while keeping his eyes on his display, “Seven hits with no penetration, shields down in five of those spots. Two more direct hits with hull penetration. Significant and irreparable damage. Fires in multiple compartments but under control. Battleship will hold, but we are out of both offensive and defensive rockets.”
“Yeah well that second part was part of the plan,” Vegus said, “Execute the retreat maneuver.”
“Retreat maneuver auto engaged,” Joules replied.
This was also preprogrammed into all four of the battleships flight systems. Battleships Defender and Protector sharply banked right while Guardian and Watchman banked hard to the left; they made a full U-turn and headed back towards the planet Nestor.
Suddenly, six battleships broke off from the Mercurian Fleet and three each took up pursuit after the two Nestorian formations.
“General, we got three enemies on our tail,” Tagg said.
“I rather not engage without our Rangers,” Vegus said, “Continue onwards to Nestor, once we have support from the planetary batteries we will turn around and give fight with our lasers.”
“How are our Rangers doing?” Joules asked.
“On course towards the Mercurians,” Xanus said, “Looks like that took Mercurians by surprise. They are only now beginning to maneuver, looks like our plan is working.”
“Not just yet,” Vegus replied, “Our ranger rockets aren’t meant to hurt the enemy, those are!” Vegus said and pointed to his screen at eight hundred other ranger rockets that had rushed up from their rear and were now trailing the original eight hundred rockets launched by the battleships.
This was the lynchpin of Operation Shield Deception. At the same time as Vegus’ battleship fleet had moved forward, the ground batteries had also launched eight hundred ranger rockets, with exactly the same electronic and gravity signatures as the ones launched from the battleships. They had flown in the rear of Nestorian battleships and thus avoided detection by Mercurian scanners. Each of these rockets was mated with a rocket from the battleships to follow its exact velocity and maneuver.