“Activating sensor suite now,” called out Lieutenant Reynolds, her weapons and tactical officer.
The downside to a smaller ship like the Viper was it meant everyone wore many hats. They all had to take on a lot more duties that would generally be split among different sections on the larger warships. The upside of that was that all the officers and enlisted on the Viper were going to become familiar with a lot more of a ship’s functions than they might on a larger vessel.
The sensors pulsed out their signals, blanketing the system. They detected the electronic signatures of several ships and satellites. Moments later, they determined that the electronic signatures were from either Space Command or TPA vessels. The two ships in orbit of New Eden sent her a challenge code, which her XO immediately authenticated.
“Helm, bring us to a new heading,” Commander Dobbs ordered Ensign Hunt. “Take us closer to the Voyager and send them a greeting. Inform them we are the vanguard of the rest of the fleet that’ll be arriving in the system later today and tomorrow.”
“Aye-aye, Captain. Sending the message now,” Hunt replied.
Dobbs knew Ensign Hunt was the son of her former commander. It didn’t bother her that he’d been assigned to her ship. She liked and respected his father. When they’d spoken a few months back, he didn’t make any mention of his son being assigned to her ship. She hadn’t received any special orders regarding Ensign Hunt, not that she’d expected any. She knew the senior Hunt was very much a by-the-book kind of guy. He was an exceptional ship captain, and he wouldn’t want his son to receive any special treatment.
An hour later, a message from the Voyager arrived. It was encrypted and read “Eyes Only,” for the captain. She knew it must be important if she was receiving it after being in the system for only a couple of hours. Her ship was still at least two hours away from reaching the Voyager and New Eden.
Dobbs pulled her terminal screen up so only she could see it. She then activated her captain’s code and unlocked the encrypted message. It was short and sweet, directing Viper to make the best possible speed to a new set of coordinates, where they’d find one of the stargates the Zodarks used to connect this system to their other networks.
Holy crap, Dobbs thought. Admiral Halsey wanted them to go through this stargate and start exploring what lay beyond it.
Continuing to read her FRAGO, she saw her ship was supposed to make a short stop at the Voyager, then pause at the newly built space elevator on New Eden to pick up a couple of passengers.
Great, more mouths to feed, she grumbled to herself. Don’t they know this is a small ship compared to every other one out here?
The next three hours flew by. The Viper made good speed as it approached the Voyager. Compared to past ships and even others currently being built, the Viper-class frigates were incredibly fast. Where her previous ship, the Rook, could cover the twelve-light-year distance between Sol and the Rhea system in twelve days, her ship could do it in three. Their MPD thrusters could produce speeds five times as fast as the thrusters on the larger warships. This made the Vipers an excellent choice for deep space reconnaissance and exploration. It also meant that in a fleet battle, they could quickly zoom in and out to deliver a deadly barrage of plasma torpedoes or Havoc missiles. Of course, their thin armor and limited defensive systems also meant they could be blotted from the stars, so it would be risky.
“Captain, we’re approaching the Voyager,” announced Ensign Hunt. “They’re asking if you’d like them to send a shuttle over to pick you up.”
“Tell them yes, that would be nice,” Dobbs replied. Her ship wasn’t large enough to warrant a shuttle, let alone a whole shuttle bay.
Looking at the Voyager on the main screen, Commander Dobbs saw some of the scars and scorch marks on its armor—battle damage that had been repaired in the system. As they approached, the size difference between her ship and the Voyager became almost comical. The Viper was a mere one hundred thirty meters in length, forty meters in height, and thirty meters in width. The vessel also had two twelve-meter wings on either side where the Havoc missile pods were located. It was a packed ship—not a lot of room for nonessential items.
*******
An hour later, Commander Dobbs ducked her head as she exited the shuttlecraft and entered the cavernous area that constituted the flight bay of the Voyager. Dobbs always marveled at how massive the ship was—it was a few hundred meters longer than the Rook. Voyager carried a contingent of RA soldiers and a squadron of Ospreys and orbital assault ships—it didn’t pack the same firepower as her old ship, but right now, it was the most powerful warship the Earthers had.
“If you’ll follow me, Commander, I’ll take you up to the admiral’s office,” a lieutenant said as he motioned for her to follow him. “She’s looking forward to meeting with you.”
The two of them walked through several winding corridors and eventually came to an elevator. Her Viper didn’t have an elevator, just several stairwells that connected the two decks. Technically, her ship was probably big enough to have three or even four decks, but it didn’t. Those areas were packed to the gills with supplies to sustain them for their long patrols.
When they arrived at the admiral’s door, the lieutenant knocked twice. A moment later, the door opened, and he motioned for her to come in. His job of escorting her completed, he turned on his heel and headed back to his post.
Commander Dobbs walked up to Admiral Halsey’s desk and snapped off a crisp salute. “Commander Amy Dobbs, captain of the Viper, reporting as ordered, ma’am.”
From behind her desk, Admiral Halsey returned the salute. “At ease, Commander. No need to be formal. Please, join me over here. I’d like to catch you up and briefly go over your new set of orders, but more importantly, I’d like to get a rundown of what’s going on back on Earth. I’ve been away from the rest of the fleet for a while now—what’s going on back home?”
Dobbs smiled and followed the admiral over to a pair of couches and a single chair. Just then, a couple of Halsey’s other officers walked in along with the ship’s master chief. Commander Dobbs took her seat at the far end of the couch, and the others sat down. Halsey doled out coffee to those who wanted a cup.
For the next twenty minutes, Admiral Halsey brought Dobbs up to speed on what had transpired in the system since she had left fifteen months ago. It had taken longer than the admiral had wanted, but the RASs had finally secured the planet. The space elevator was now fully operational, and mining operations were now running at full speed. They’d even established mining colonies on Tigris and Pishon, the two moons in orbit of New Eden. Halsey said they were still waiting on the space elevators for those two moons to be completed, though.
When she finished giving the updates on the Rhea system, Admiral Halsey smiled and said, “I guess it’s time to tell you about the new assignment I’m giving the Viper.”
Halsey pulled up a video of the stargate. “Honestly, we have no idea how it works or what powers it,” she admitted. “However, we do know that if a ship approaches it, it activates. Our scientists think it creates a wormhole to the stargate on the other side.”
She cleared her throat. “We want the Viper to travel through the stargate and assess what’s in the system on the other side and beyond.”
All eyes turned to Dobbs, who agreed to the assignment without hesitation.
“So, your turn,” Halsey said. “What’s going on back in Sol?”
Commander Dobbs gave them the quick and dirty of Earth’s goings-on. Halsey and the other officers grilled her for over half an hour.
Judging by the questions they were asking, Dobbs suspected they were grilling every ship captain and crew that entered the system. She didn’t blame them—they were clearly starved for news, and the com drones only provided so much information. They’d been deployed from Sol now for fifteen months. That was a long time to be gone from home, and a lot of things were changing.
“When is the rest of the fleet going to arrive in th
e system and reinforce us?” probed Admiral Halsey, urgency in her voice.
She wrinkled her eyebrows at the question. Just read the orders, ma’am, Dobbs thought, but she didn’t say that out loud.
“Admiral, I…um, two more Vipers are arriving in the system in the next twelve hours. Tomorrow around this same time, four TPA cruisers will arrive, escorting two Arks and about two dozen TPA and Republic freighters. Five more Vipers will arrive with them as well—”
Before Dobbs could go on, Admiral Halsey interrupted. “Whoa, what is Space Command shipping us? I wasn’t aware of any additional RASs being sent here. And what other warships are supposed to join us out here? Nothing personal, Commander, but the Vipers aren’t exactly armored battlewagons that’ll be able to slug it out with a Zodark fleet.”
Dobbs grimaced at the explanation of the inadequacy of her ship. “I can’t really speak to what’s being transported, Admiral. I’m sure it’s in the order packet we transmitted to you. As to additional warships, Admiral Hunt will arrive in the system with his new warship and fleet in ten days. I was also told Fleet Admiral Bailey, along with President Luca, will be traveling with him to see New Eden in person.”
“What?” asked Halsey, shocked. “I wish I had been told sooner I was going to have a group of VIPs visiting—hang on a second, Commander. Did you say ‘Admiral Hunt’?” Halsey exclaimed.
Geez, did she not read her new set of orders herself? We transmitted them several hours ago…
“Yes, Admiral. Captain Miles Hunt was just promoted to rear admiral the day before my ship left for Rhea,” Dobbs informed them. “His new ship, the George Washington, is traveling with four additional Vipers, four of the new battleships, and ten orbital assault ships.”
The officers in the room all let out a soft whistle as she told them about the new fleet.
Admiral Halsey stood up but signaled for everyone else to stay seated. “I’m going to have the galley bring up some sandwiches and fresh coffee. Please, you all continue talking amongst yourselves. I’m going to sit over by my desk and review the order packet you sent. I apologize for not having gone through it before our meeting. I suspect most of my questions would have been answered if I had, Commander. We’ve had a lot going on the last couple of days. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting you to arrive for a few more weeks.”
Dobbs smiled. “It’s not a problem, Admiral. I understand you are a very busy person out here. I believe Space Command is sending you a lot of help over the next few days—I’m sure it’ll lighten your load once they get in the system.”
Master Chief Riggs, the senior enlisted man in the fleet, spoke up. “Commander, mail call has not exactly been a big priority out here. Do you know what may be the holdup? I have a lot of angry TPA sailors and ground pounders complaining that they’re not receiving mail from back home.”
All Dobbs could do was shrug. The TPA was doing all they could to evacuate as many people from their territory as they could to their colony on Alpha Centauri. Establishing a regular shipping channel between Sol and Rhea wasn’t exactly high on their priority list.
“Chief, when the TPA ships arrive in the coming days, they might have a better explanation than I can give. As to our people, I would have thought mail would have been traveling with the supply ships. Hasn’t it?” Dobbs asked, curious if something else was going on.
“Commander, as you know, supply ships don’t visit the Rhea system on a regular basis. It can be a month or more before we receive a new ship,” Chief Riggs explained. “It’s been a tough slog down on the ground for our soldiers, and mail from home is a big morale booster. That’s all.”
For the next thirty minutes, the rest of the officers continued to pepper her with questions about Earth. Dobbs did her best to share what she knew. She told them about how the whole planet was practically shaking in their shoes when they saw some videos of the fleet battles and of the RASs fighting the Zodarks. Everyone out here was being hailed as heroes back home. The number of people who wanted to join the TPA and Space Command was skyrocketing. People wanted a piece of the action, and they wanted to keep the Zodarks away from Earth.
She went on to explain the new deal that had been worked out with the Belters, and the new colony they had established under the nose of everyone. That piece of news caught a few of them by surprise. The Belters had mainly been known to be pirates, at least the ones that weren’t running mining operations and shipping raw ore back to the shipyards. Before the discovery of the Zodarks, piracy was the biggest concern for Space Command. A lot had changed since then.
After eating a sandwich and gulping down a cup of coffee, which Dobbs had to admit was terrible, Admiral Halsey joined them again.
“Commander, I think I have a better understanding of what’s going on and what’s happening next,” Halsey said. “This does change my own orders to you a bit. What I’d like you to do is skip docking at the space elevator and head directly to the stargate. I need you to make the best possible speed to the system called YV-FDG. This is apparently the Sumerian home world system, which they call Lagash. Your job is to recon the entire path to this region and gain an understanding of what the system looks like.
“How many Zodark ships or outposts are there? Are there any possible threats that may impede our liberation of Sumer? Once you have that information, you’re to return and report what you’ve seen. You are not to engage the Zodarks or anyone else. Do not attempt to contact anyone. We need you to slip in and slip out once you have some intelligence on the area. Is that understood, Commander?”
Finally, a real mission, Dobbs thought. She nodded. “Yes, ma’am. We’ll be in and out before they know we were even in the system.”
With nothing more to be said, the meeting broke up, and Commander Dobbs was brought back to the shuttle bay. In the next hour, her ship would make the best possible speed to the stargate and venture further than any Earther had ever traveled, nearly two hundred light-years from Earth.
*******
Star System 33-JRO
RNS Viper
“Have they detected us yet?” Commander Dobbs asked anxiously.
Lieutenant Reynolds shook his head. “Unknown, Captain. But they are definitely heading this direction.”
“Helm, get us through the gate now,” Dobbs ordered.
“Jumping,” Ensign Hunt announced as he gave the ship some power. In seconds, they slipped through the stargate and started their journey down the rabbit hole.
Traveling through the stargate was an exciting experience. Once the ship crossed into it, it was like the ship was stretched like a piece of Play-Doh until it suddenly appeared on the other end of the gate. Oddly enough, the jump didn’t take long. They crossed dozens, and in some cases hundreds, of light-years in a matter of minutes. On the other hand, some of those jaunts between gates could take as long as a few weeks or a month.
“Exiting the gate,” Hunt announced nervously.
As soon as she had a read on the system they’d just entered, Commander Dobbs realized there was no place to hide.
“Helm, accelerate us to maximum speed, and bring us to a position directly behind the gate,” Dobbs ordered confidently. “I want us twenty thousand kilometers above and behind the gate. We need to set up an ambush.”
The ship accelerated swiftly as Ensign Hunt pulled the Viper into a tight turn. It took them a few minutes to get into position, but once they had reached the navigation point Dobbs had ordered, Ensign Hunt pulled the ship into a slow-moving circle. He kept the engines running at fifteen percent power, but they were ready to move to one hundred percent in an instant when the enemy fleet eventually jumped through.
Commander Dobbs stood up and connected her neurolink to the ship-wide 1MC, addressing the crew. “We’re going to sit on the rear side of the gate and wait for the enemy fleet to jump through,” she informed them. “Once the Zodarks arrive, our ship is going to fire a full spread of plasma torpedoes and Havoc missile magazines. Then we’ll FTL jump away to th
e stargate on the other end of this system before the Zodark ships have a chance to lock onto us.”
Dobbs had always been a bit of a renegade. She’d heard Admiral Halsey’s orders not to engage the enemy, but she wasn’t about to leave a large group of Zodark ships unscathed if she had the power to do something about it. She’d learned that sometimes it was better to ask for forgiveness than for permission—she could always play it off as self-defense if she had to.
For the next eight hours, they sat there, moving in a slow circle around their position as they waited for the enemy fleet to arrive. Commander Dobbs knew having the crew at battle stations for so long was hard on them, and they could only stay sharp and alert for so long.
She would need to stand them down if the enemy didn’t show up soon. Then again, she needed to keep them close to their battle stations in case the enemy did show up. Once the Zodark fleet arrived, they wouldn’t have very long to carry out their hit-and-run attack. The enemy’s sensors would detect them in short order. A single shot from a Zodark vessel and they were toast. She knew it, and so did the crew.
Lieutenant Reynolds got up from his station and walked over to Commander Dobbs. “Captain, I know you ruled out using the nukes, but I’ve been running through some calculations on the gate. If we were to swap out the HE warheads for nukes, we could deploy the missiles now. We could position them around the gate here, here, and here,” he explained, pointing to the locations on her station’s map. “It’d keep the gate outside the blast radius, but it’d put the nukes right in the middle of the enemy fleet. Once they jump into the system, either we can detonate the missiles in place, or we can activate the missiles to do a quick burn and hit them or get closer before we light them off.”
Reynolds had advocated for the use of their limited supply of nuclear warheads before. They didn’t have a lot of firepower on the ship, but the six atomic warheads they carried could cause some considerable damage.
Into the Battle Page 15