by D. J. Holmes
On the auxiliary bridge Jensen had received the same message from her own sensor officer, even before the alert from the main bridge came to her command chair. She waited with apprehension. Her smaller ships were spread out around the system, trying to ambush a single Chinese scout. If the Chinese had decided to push their entire fleet into the system she would be caught without a good proportion of her screening elements.
After another thirty seconds she asked the question she already hoped would have been answered, “Has Arrow changed her acceleration pattern to give us a direction for this fleet?”
It was the Third Lieutenant who answered, he was with the navigation officer on the auxiliary bridge, looking over her shoulder at her console, “No Admiral, they are just sending us the same message, enemy fleet approaching.”
“So be it. Order all our light ships to return to Excalibur. Get me Broadsword on a COM channel.”
Moments later Captain Wolfe appeared in front of Jensen. “Captain, I think we have an enemy fleet approaching Excalibur; one that hasn’t arrived yet. The friendly ship Arrow identified can only have come from the shift passage to Chinese space or V17. If there is a fleet coming, wherever they are coming from they won’t be far behind our friendly. Here’s what I have in mind.”
Five minutes after Jensen went over her plan with Captain Wolfe and then Captain Chambers, Valkyrie and the other ships that had been lying in stealth around Excalibur boosted out of orbit under minimal thrust. Meanwhile every other ship in the outer system, bar one, went to stealth and turned to head for Excalibur and Broadsword. Pelican jumped out to warn Commodore Williams at Camelot. On Excalibur’s surface, the men who had landed there began the tasks they had been assigned.
It took seven hours for Drake’s message to reach Valkyrie but when it did Jensen breathed a silent sigh of relief. She had taken a big gamble by splitting her forces. Even more of a one given how many more Chinese ships were bearing down on Excalibur than she had thought. Everyone on the bridge was shocked by the news that they could be facing two battleships. No one expected Valkyrie to stand up to one, never mind two.
However, her smart thinking had given them chance to get in the first decisive punch, hopefully it would be enough. She had already altered course on the assumption that the delay meant that the Chinese would be coming from V17. Now all she had to do was wait and hope the Chinese Admiral hadn’t adjusted to fighting in the Void yet. If the Chinese approached from a completely unpredictable direction, she would be caught badly out of position.
Aboard Drake, James, along with everyone else was very nervous. They were the only ones who had seen firsthand both Chinese fleets. The thought that they had combined their strength and were on their way was frightening indeed. As more time passed, this possibility was becoming more and more of a certainty. James had half expected the Chinese fleet to beat them to Camelot. That they had not meant they must have gone to join up with the first Chinese fleet at V17. The next most logical course of action would be to head straight for Excalibur and strike before the British even knew they had overwhelming numerical superiority.
“Commander, where do you think Admiral Jensen is?” asked Lieutenant Becket, who was manning the tactical station.
James took a few moments to consider his response. “I’m not sure, but if I was a betting man I would put money on her laying an ambush somewhere. Either she had some ships in the outer edges of the system already in stealth or she took whatever was in stealth around Excalibur out of orbit when she got our message. One way or another she’s going to try and hammer the Chinese if they push into the system.”
“Then why are the rest of the outer pickets coming back in towards Excalibur under stealth,” Becket followed up.
“Simple, if the Chinese jumped in and saw that every ship in the outer system was already firing off their drives at full burn they would know they had been made. The outer picket ships are coming under stealth so that by the time the Chinese do arrive they’ll still be close enough to meet up with Captain Wolfe and Broadsword and yet not give away Jensen’s plan. I understand your concern though. If Jensen is caught out of position, the ships still in orbit are going to be left well and truly isolated.”
For his part, James had ignored Jensen’s order to head for Excalibur. Having come out right on the edge of the system’s mass shadow it would take him hours to reach Excalibur under stealth. If a battle were going to be fought he would only end up out of position and no help to anyone. Instead Drake was angling to get ahead of any fleet that would jump in from the direction of V17. Due to Drake’s angle of entrance into the system, heading straight for Excalibur would have put him right in the firing line of the Chinese if they came straight from V17. Drake would either have had to remain in stealth and watch the battle or open fire and go down fighting.
As it was, James had put Drake in a position to choose her time of attack. Hopefully, the Chinese fleet would not get close enough to detect them and force their hand.
*
13th March 2465 AD, 4am, Hai Hu, approaching Excalibur system
An air of invincibility emanated from High Admiral Zheng as he sat in his command chair on the flag bridge of the People’s Spaceship Hai Hu. His rage had been growing and growing over the last two weeks. The appearance of the British forces had caught him by complete surprise. The disappearance of the destroyer Tian’e had turned his surprise to anger and the constant British scout ships showing up at V17 had sent him over the edge. It had only been his own scout ships inability to get a good look at the British fleet that had prevented him attacking the system the British were now calling Excalibur. Then his reinforcements had arrived along with the latest intelligence reports. Minister Chang and his intelligence service estimated that the British couldn’t have more than a handful of cruisers in the Void by now. Zheng had leapt at the opportunity. His reinforcements significantly tipped the balance of force in his favor and now he was on his way to crush the British at Excalibur and Camelot. He would send the British back to Cambridge with their tails firmly between their legs.
One of his flag officers broke into his thoughts. “Admiral, we will be exiting shift space in five minutes.”
Zheng grinned; it was time to see what his battleships could do. As Hai Hu came out of shift space he watched the sensors update the various displays. Faint traces could be detected of ships in orbit around the habitable planet but nothing else. Satisfied his own fleet was alert and in formation he ordered them to move forward.
As his fleet’s acceleration gave their presence away, he watched the British react. First, the ships around Excalibur began to break out of orbit and form a cohesive unit. Then it seemed like every picket ship they had in the system came alive as they too went active and made to rendezvous with the larger ships.
Zheng waited for the moment the British would turn tail and run. His sensors had managed to identify no more than five cruisers in orbit around the planet. They were outnumbered more than three to one. This wasn’t the Damang system, here they had nothing to protect. Yet as he watched, the cruisers finished forming up, turned towards his fleet and made their intentions clear. They were going to fight. It didn’t make sense, Zheng thought, unless there was a reason he hadn’t anticipated.
“I want a full sensor sweep of that planet. I want to know if there is anything there.” Zheng called out. He had to wait impatiently for almost a minute as the sensors were redirected from the approaching fleet.
“Admiral, there appears to be at least a couple of energy sources on the planet. We can’t make out anything more than that at the minute but their strength indicates that the British have at least a couple of colonies or military bases up and running.”
Impossible, Zheng dismissed with a thought. They hadn’t had the time. Yet how did they manage to get ships to the Void so quickly? Suppose they had known about it for longer than they had let on to the UN. Then they would have had ample time to get together the men and materials needed to begin to for
tify Excalibur. Only they mustn’t have had the time they needed to complete their orbital bombardment shelters. There was no other reason; the fleet approaching him must be seeking to protect a planetary base. Standard Chinese and British protocol was to build their colonies with bombardment shelters that would protect their military and colonists from everything short of a series of thermonuclear missiles.
The British fleet obviously hoped to delay him enough for the bases to be evacuated. Zheng knew he had a great opportunity before him. The British population was weak. If he could present them with a stunning defeat, one where their own colonists had been bombarded from space, they would lose their heart for war. They may even lose the heart for sending their children off to new colonies with dreams of wealth and success. The Void would fall to the Chinese by default! Sure, it meant he would have to fire on civilians, but wasn’t that why he had been chosen for this mission?
“Signal all my Captains, inform them that I think the British are going to fight. Tell them to be prepared and to double-check their missiles. I want our first salvo to be devastating.” Zheng ordered.
*
As the Chinese fleet charged into the system, Jensen watched them until they were only light seconds away. During that time she had been constantly weighing up the decision before her. She had almost pulled off the perfect ambush, almost. The Chinese were charging right for the planet as she had expected. However, their trajectory into the system was slightly off her prediction. Slowly, she had been working her fleet towards them but the differing speeds made things difficult. The Chinese were still accelerating and had almost reached their top speed. Valkyrie and her consorts had been limited to five percent of their maximum thrust to ensure they weren’t detected. Getting her slow moving fleet to cross paths with the stampeding Chinese without being detected had been difficult.
As things stood, she had lined up her ships to get close enough for one passing shot at the Chinese with their plasma cannons, maybe two. She could alter course again. However, now that both fleets were so close, they might detect her ships maneuvering thrusters, getting closer would also give the Chinese the chance to react and fire back with their own plasma cannons. Jensen wasn’t sure her fleet would survive such a volley.
Reviewing her options one more time she made up her mind and sat perfectly still, refraining from ordering anymore course corrections. Two volleys would have to do. It would leave Wolfe and Broadsword in a tight position but hopefully she could do enough damage to help them out.
Admiral Zheng was already composing his report for the Politburo. His fleet was about to put out the greatest missile salvo since the final battle of the New France Campaign. With almost two hundred missiles at his disposal he had aimed them all at the five cruisers approaching him, ignoring the smaller ships. With over thirty missiles targeted at each one he was sure none would escape damage, with luck they would even all be destroyed in the first salvo.
There was still an hour to wait but he had already ordered most of his light ships to form a protective screen ahead of his main fleet. The British had a slight range advantage and he wanted to make sure neither of his battleships took any damage. With only limited repair capabilities within the Void he didn’t want to have to send either of them home unnecessarily.
A sudden explosion drew his attention back to the main body of his ships. One of the frigates he had left guarding the rear of the fleet had disappeared off the tactical plot, indicating that she had stopped communicating with the flagship.
“Admiral,” his sensors officer called out in a panic. “I have multiple heat sources and drives coming on line, bearing zero seven seven point three. They are almost dead astern!”
Zheng had been replaying the visual feed from the frigates last known position. All he could see was an expanding ball of debris. With his sensor officer’s report he quickly put two and two together. That’s why the other ships didn’t run away, he thought, they are not alone.
Jensen smiled as the only frigate that could have warned the Chinese crumpled under her plasma cannons. This was the signal for the rest of the ships to drop out of stealth and open fire. As one, every ship fired and a hail of plasma arched out to strike the Chinese ships. She had ordered the first volley to target the smaller ships, as she wanted to whittle away their point defense. Valkyrie was the only exception. Her larger guns were aimed at the lone Chinese battlecruiser. She wasn’t sure Valkyrie’s guns could punch through the larger battleship’s armor at this range but she knew they would make quick work of the Chinese battlecruiser.
Mere seconds later the battlecruiser visibly shuddered on the visual display. Jensen saw at least one of the four heavy plasma bolts punch right out of the other side of the battlecruiser. She wasn’t going to last long. Simultaneously, a light cruiser, four destroyers and the remaining rear guard frigate exploded.
The rest of the Chinese ships continued on as if nothing had happened. Their crews too stunned to react. Thirty seconds later Valkyrie and the heavy cruiser Achilles fired their plasma cannons again; they were the only ones with large enough caliber guns to do any damage at the ever increasing range.
Each ship had targeted one of the battleships and explosions rippled across their armor. Neither dropped off the plot though and no secondary explosions were detected. Instead Jensen’s attention was drawn back to her ships, one of the Chinese heavy cruisers had managed to turn and return fire before the range became too great and the destroyer Sandstorm erupted into a ball of fire.
“Signal all ships.” Jensen shouted over the noise of the bridge, “Everyone is to go to rapid fire on their missiles now!”
The Chinese were clearly getting their act together, even as Jensen’s fleet fired their first salvo of fifty-five missiles the Chinese turned as one and returned fire with over one hundred and eighty. As Jensen’s missiles approached the enemy it looked like the first salvo would do significant damage. Yet suddenly the Chinese forward screening ships appeared, decelerating between their larger brethren to add their counter fire to the battle.
“Target their new screening elements in the next salvo,” Jensen snapped.
The Damang incident had taught the British a number of hard lessons. One had been that ships that specialized in point defense were much more effective at protecting other ships. Missiles that were accelerating straight for them were harder to intercept.
She watched as the Chinese began to engage her missiles. Silently she willed them through the point defense barrage and onto the two battleships. Every missile had been targeted at them in the hope that being caught with their screening units out of place would have allowed some to get through the battleship’s defenses.
The forward screening ships had reacted faster than Jensen had anticipated and their additional fire was reducing her missiles quickly. In the end only four missiles got through, three scored proximity hits on one of the battleships, stripping off some of its armor, external weapons and sensor nodes in thermonuclear blasts. Yet it continued on.
As the Chinese missiles approached the British ships Jensen ordered another salvo fired and then the British ships switched their focus to point defense. The flak cannons reached out and began to engage the incoming Chinese missiles. Jensen had one flak frigate and three flak corvettes with her, combined with Valkyrie’s two flak guns that gave her fleet seven. Each had been assigned a cone of space around her fleet and soon the incoming missiles had to go through a hail of fire, the likes of which had never been seen before in human interstellar war. One hundred and eighty were quickly reduced to one hundred, then sixty and then thirty nine. Next it was the turn of the point defense plasma cannons to open up, closely followed by the AM missiles. More slowly, they too began to whittle down the explosive force arrayed against Jensen’s fleet. As the last ten accelerated up to attack velocity, the British ships went into evasive maneuvers and launched decoy drones. All but two of the missiles missed their targets. Yet, as the fleet reformed its formation, a light cruiser and
a flak corvette were missing.
Jensen grimaced at the losses. Yet their initial ambush meant they were still giving better than they got. She checked the range. Her ships would only have time for one more missile salvo. As she was watching the Chinese ships they eventually managed to fire off their second salvo. It was actually larger than the first as their screening ships were able to add their firepower. In response the British fired their third salvo and then prepared themselves for the coming onslaught.
Silence descended on the flag bridge as the superior numbers of the enemy quickly reduced the British second salvo. In the end the missiles only managed to get hits on two frigates and a light cruiser. Both frigates exploded but the light cruiser continued, albeit falling behind her consorts.
As the second and last Chinese missile salvo rained in on her ships Jensen had to grit her teeth to remain still. Their first salvo had almost overwhelmed her defenses and now she was down two flak guns.
One hundred and ninety missiles became sixty from flak cannon fire. Then the plasma guns and AM missiles began to knock them off in fives and tens. Yet it wasn’t enough. Fifteen reached attack range and went to their maximum acceleration. The heavy cruiser Achilles and the flak frigate Bat both exploded from direct hits. Valkyrie rocked as two missiles scored proximity hits.