by D. J. Holmes
“Damage report?” Jensen called out.
“This is the Fourth Lieutenant here at damage control, the Second Lieutenant has been killed. Reports are still coming in but it looks like we have lost the number two flak gun along with three of our starboard missile tubes.”
Jensen felt a cold drop of sweat run down her back, they had stared death in the face and survived. Most of her fleet had not. She was down to Valkyrie, the light cruiser Justice and her two remaining flak corvettes. If the Chinese Admiral wanted too, he could decelerate and finish them off, Jensen only hoped they had caused enough damage to make him think twice. With Wolfe and the rest of her task force still out there the Chinese might not want to run the risk of being engaged on two fronts. It was a long shot though.
Aboard Drake, James watched as Admiral Jensen’s third missile salvo closed with the Chinese. As soon as she had opened fire with her plasma cannons she had gone to full military power after the Chinese fleet. However, the velocity the Chinese had been carrying into the system meant that both fleets had already fallen out of range of each other. Only the British rapid firing ability and range advantage had allowed her to get off one more salvo than the Chinese ships.
Of that third salvo only two missiles managed to get through the Chinese defenses but both scored a direct hit on one of the heavy cruisers. Seconds later, as its reactors overloaded, it detonated in a colossal fireball
As James continued to watch, both fleets reformed the ships they had left into the best protective formations they could. Then space seemed to go quiet once more. The Chinese still had their two battleships, eight cruisers and six screening ships left. James couldn’t tell if the battleships had taken any serious damage. Even though a number of missiles had scored proximity hits to add to the plasma bolts from Jensen’s second volley they were still heading into the system, towards the second British fleet. Admiral Jensen had managed to punch well above her weight. Yet Wolfe and the rest of the fleet were still outnumbered almost two to one.
Then the Chinese fleet moved most of their screening ships forward again. They were preparing to engage the second British fleet. Wolfe and Broadsword were now angling away; they had completed their mission of luring the Chinese into the system. Yet their opponents were altering course to try and close the range. By James’ estimate, Wolfe was going to take a hammering before she could escape.
“Gupta, alter course.” James requested. “Get us in front of the Chinese fleet’s new angle of attack if you can. We need to try and pull some of their screening units away from Broadsword.
“Tactical, once we have our new position locked in I want you to start calculating missile timings and trajectories. We’re going to flush as many missiles out of our single tube as possible and leave them on a ballistic trajectory. Once the Chinese fleet passes us we’ll signal them to go active. Hopefully the different angles of attack will confuse the Chinese and let us get away. More importantly though, it might make them paranoid, they won’t know who else is out here. We have to give Captain Wolfe a chance.
Ten minutes later everything was ready. The Chinese fleet was twenty-five minutes away from engaging Broadsword and her colleagues. As the Chinese passed in front of Drake she began to flush missiles. Without having to feed them targeting data she was able to get off three in quick succession. James waited another minute and then gave the order.
“Send the signal, tell the missiles to go active.”
There was only a few milliseconds’ delay between the signal reaching each missile and their response. Almost at once, all three went active and began to accelerate along the ballistic course they were already traveling. At the same time their active radar seekers came online and began to look for a target. All three locked onto the solitary frigate that was at the rear of the Chinese formation and began to turn towards it.
High Admiral Zheng was fighting to keep control of his anger. Somehow the British had known he was coming. They had laid an ambush for him. Both his precious battleships were damaged. Not badly enough that they were out of the fight but enough that he knew he was going to be called before the Politburo. And those blasted flak guns. They had allowed the first British fleet to survive his two salvos. Well, he wasn’t going to let the second fleet get away so lucky. Once he had smashed them and their bases on the planet he would turn around and get his revenge.
“Admiral, Xing Lun is under attack. Three missiles have just appeared and are angling towards her,” one of the bridge officers called.
“What! Where did they come from? Have they more ships behind us?” Zheng demanded.
“I’m not sure sir, the missiles seem to have been fired from a ship or two in stealth. We are searching the area now with our high intensity radar.”
Zheng could only watch as the three missiles closed in on Xing Lun. She tried to weave and duck but alone beyond the protective point defense fire of the fleet she could only destroy two of them. The third struck a glancing blow but it was enough to set off its warhead and Xing Lun disappeared in the explosion.
A moment of panic flashed through Zheng, how many more ships were out there lying in stealth? The second British fleet was angling away from his. They clearly didn’t want to enter plasma range but they weren’t running away with abandon. They might just be trying to keep the range open for a missile duel to lure him into another trap of some kind.
“Sensors, are we close enough for a visual inspection of the second fleet yet?” Zheng asked.
“Yes sir, I’m reviewing the take now.”
“How many of their flak ships does this second fleet have?”
“Hold on sir, I can make out at least two of their flak corvettes and one, possibly two flak frigates.”
Everyone on the flag bridge looked away as the Admiral let out a string of curses in mandarin. He had to grip his hands into fists to stop them shaking. His anger was turning into fear. Even if the British didn’t have any more ships out there in stealth, this second fleet would be able to soak up a lot of his missiles. It would take a while to hammer them into dust in a long-range missile duel. And their ECM missiles would ensure they continued to get hits on his ships.
He made up his mind. “Tactical, plot us a route out of the system. We can’t risk the battleships. We can repair and come back again to finish this.”
“Aye sir, I’ll transmit the orders to the fleet.”
“Good, once that is done I want you to work up a firing solution on those colonies. We’ll fire a salvo of ground attack missiles as we pass.”
Ground attack missiles were missiles tipped with pure titanium instead of nuclear warheads. Accelerated to high speeds they would penetrate deep into the planet’s crust, causing colossal local damage. At least he would have the last say in this engagement Zheng consoled himself.
Captain Wolfe had been watching the entire battle longing for the chance to get her ships into range. She had felt the death of each of the British ships. She was proud of what they had achieved but now she wanted to get her revenge. Her fleet could fire a much larger salvo compared to Jansen’s and she wanted to make it count.
“Captain, the Chinese are changing direction,” her sensor officer reported. “It looks like they are trying to avoid action.”
“What?” she questioned.
It didn’t make any sense. The Chinese still out massed her by more than two to one. Her flak guns and ECM penetrator missiles would even the odds some but the Chinese would still have the advantage.
“Navigation, try and keep them in range. I want to get off as many salvos as we can before they blow past us. And be prepared to reverse course, it may be a trick to try and get us to come into plasma range.”
Despite her and her navigation officer’s best efforts Wolfe couldn’t prevent the Chinese from escaping. The fleets passed close enough for them to fire one missile salvo each. The British ships put out eighty-two missiles. Knowing that it would be her only salvo, Wolfe had ordered that her cruisers load two ECM penetrator mi
ssiles each.
The remaining Chinese could only manage a salvo of one hundred and eighty but it was still significant. When it became clear that almost all the missiles were targeted at the flak frigates and corvettes, they pulled away from the rest of the fleet. The British had learnt from the Damang Incident. Each ship ignored the missiles angling towards it and instead focused on protecting her sister ships. The move worked well, knocking out most of the Chinese missiles but, in the end, both flak frigates took proximity hits and exploded. Almost all of the other missiles aimed at the rest of the fleet were knocked out with one exception. A lucky hit took out the light cruiser Demise.
On board the battleship Hai Hu concern tinged the sensor Lieutenant’s voice as he shouted, “Admiral, they have more ECM missiles in this salvo than normal. They are going to hit us hard.”
Zheng could do nothing but watch the coming destruction. All he could hope for now was that the fleet he had sent to Camelot had achieved more success. Once he combined his forces and licked his wounds he knew he would be back.
One by one the British missiles disappeared off the plot. Ten made it into attack range and a medium cruiser and a destroyer both took direct hits and exploded. Hai Hu shook as she took another proximity hit that knocked out more sensor nodes and another missile tube. After ensuring no more serious damage had been caused, Zheng gave the order to fire a final volley of missiles at the planet’s surface. Everything that remotely looked like a British piece of equipment was targeted.
Unopposed, Zheng smiled as he watched the missiles rain down destruction on the planet as he led his ships out of the system. Even though he was leaving the system in defeat he could at least hold onto one success. The British efforts to settle the planet had been thwarted for now, and he knew he would be back.
Onboard Valkyrie Jensen also smiled. Unknown to Zheng his last act of vengeance proved to be impotent. One of her first acts when she came to Excalibur had been to organize her engineers to set up fake colonies. She had hoped it would give her another tactical option in any battle. In the end they had served their purpose perfectly, luring the Chinese Admiral deeper into the system, setting up her ambush. Finally she allowed herself to relax, the battle was over. It had cost them dearly but they had achieved the impossible, they had managed to drive off two Chinese battleships.
Chapter 14 - Aftermath
First Battle of Excalibur: battle report
On the 13th of March 2465 AD a Chinese fleet under High Admiral Zheng attacked the British forces guarding the Excalibur system. The British forces commanded by Rear Admiral Jensen were outnumbered by a factor of almost three to one. However Jensen managed to get a portion of her fleet into plasma range and rake the Chinese warships. Soon after the Chinese were forced to retire from the system.
Chinese loses: One battlecruiser, a heavy, medium and light cruiser along with five destroyers and four frigates.
British losses: One heavy and two light cruisers along with one destroyer, three frigates and one corvette.
Outcome: British victory.
-Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD.
13th March 2465 AD. HMS Pelican, the Camelot system
HMS Pelican exited shift space on the edge of Camelot’s mass shadow. Her Captain was about to order Admiral Jensen’s warning to be transmitted when his sensor officer stopped him.
“Sir, I’m picking up lots of radiation bouncing around out there. I think we are too late. The readings are consistent with a high number of nuclear detonations.”
“Shit,” Jennings said, “are there any signs of friendly ships?”
“Negative sir, I’m not picking up any vessels in the system.”
“Ok, continue scanning while our jump drive charges. Navigation, I want to jump us a further six light hours out of the system, let’s see if we can pick up anything from the battle.”
Jennings had always thought it strange that a ship could jump further from a system and in effect look back in time. If he could get a telescope powerful enough he could jump to a position where he could watch his great, great grandfather back on Earth. Yet now it was going to prove useful. He could jump further out of the system and look back at the battle that had already occurred.
Half an hour later the entire bridge watched silently as the sensors picked up a large group of Chinese ships heading into the system. The British had already reacted and Commodore Williams was leading his forces to engage the intruders. At this range it was impossible to do anything more than identify the number of heat sources. Estimating type and class was out of the question. They could however, detect the heat and radiation of nuclear explosions.
The Commodore’s ships survived the first two waves of missiles and managed to take out one of their opponents with their return fire. However, as the third set of explosions blossomed around his ships two of Commodore Williams’ eight blips disappeared. Then two more disappeared in the next salvo. Finally, the fifth salvo from the Chinese ships destroyed the last British ship. In all, four Chinese ships had also disappeared from the plot yet no one on board had cheered their loss. The RSN had never lost an entire task force before. No amount of Chinese losses would make up for the men and women that had just disappeared in front of Pelican’s eyes.
*
15th March 2465 AD, HMS Drake, the Excalibur system
Two days had passed since the first battle of Excalibur. Most of Rear Admiral Jensen’s ships were in orbit around Excalibur effecting repairs. The initial joy over the defeat of the Chinese had given way to dismay at the news from Camelot. Almost all of the ships in the Void had served as one unit back at Britannia and so everyone had lost friends in one or both systems.
James was eager to get out of Excalibur and return to V17 to see what the Chinese were up too. Yet every functioning ship was needed to patrol the approaches to Excalibur in case a Chinese ship tried to sneak into missile range. Admiral Jensen had contacted him personally to commend him on his actions in the battle. She suspected the Chinese would have driven on and destroyed Wolfe’s task force if Drake hadn’t spooked them off. As a reward, she had promised she would release Drake to go and watch the Chinese fleet, but not until enough ships had been repaired to set up a proper picket system.
“Commander,” Sub Lieutenant Fisher said from her position manning the sensors console. “Two ships have just lit off their drives and are coming out of orbit from Excalibur.”
“Acknowledged Lieutenant,” James replied. “Navigation, plot us a course out of the system that will line us up for a jump to V17.”
It took just over two hours for the message James had been expecting to reach Drake from Valkyrie. Admiral Jensen had sent a video message and so James put it on the main holo-display.
“Commander, we now have enough ships back in fighting trim to allow me to spare you. We need to know what the Chinese are up to. I want you to jump into V17 but don’t enter the mass shadow. Watch for as long as you need but once you have a good idea of their strength and intentions, head straight back. And again pass on my thanks to your crew.”
When James had first spoken to the Rear Admiral after the battle she had looked tired and haggard. Now she seemed back to her calm and controlled self. That was reassuring.
“Navigation,” James ordered, “Bring us onto our new vector, it’s time to return to the lion’s den.”
*
Hours later, Rear Admiral Jensen watched Drake disappear from the system. She had been desperate to send someone to poke their nose into V17 but she hadn’t had enough ships to properly protect her fleet. Already she had sent one badly damaged destroyer back to Cambridge with news of the battle and a request for immediate aid. The Chinese light cruiser that had been damaged and then surrendered was almost ready to be sent home as well.
Currently, she only had Valkyrie and six other cruisers under her command. She had lost almost a third of her force when the two Chinese battleships had tried to force their way into the system. If Commodore Williams’ task f
orce was added to the equation the proportion lost approached half of the ships she had entered the Void with. Those losses had been taking their toll on her. They were all men and women who she had spent the last year commanding. Now they were simply gone. Thankfully, she had more than enough responsibilities to keep her busy and stop her mind dwelling on the losses for too long.
The last two days had been nerve wracking, to say the least. She had feared the Chinese would either come back in strength to finish the task or send their smaller ships to coast into Excalibur. The Chinese still had more than enough firepower to destroy her fleet if they came against her with everything they had. On the other hand, a small ship could enter the system under stealth and possibly get close enough to launch a spread of missiles. With so many damaged ships she hadn’t been able to properly cover all the approaches.