by D. J. Holmes
James had expected Ghost to make an appearance by now and have already begun to engage the cruiser. That she had not had James worried. Maybe he had misjudged how Lightfoot would react? The dice had already been cast though and James could do nothing but push his fears to the back of his mind. If he tried to maneuver Raptor out of the approaching engagement with the cruiser, it would only give the destroyer he had already engaged time to join the cruiser. Together they would make quick work of Raptor. If Ghost was somewhere else his only hope was to fight his way past the cruiser and make for the system’s mass shadow.
When they got into range Raptor fired off her first salvo of six missiles. This time he had included one of the penetrator missiles. It would take twenty minutes for the missiles to cover the distance so, before the cruiser had even begun to fire off its point defense weapons, Raptor had fired one more salvo while the cruiser had fired off one of its own.
When the penetrator missile sensed the cruiser’s point defense weapons powering up it went active. Immediately, the Chinese sensors shifted from detecting six missiles to seeing eleven. The sensors tried to burn through the fake missiles but the ECM on each real missile added to the confusion. In the end the point defense cannons and AM missiles took out five real missiles, including the penetrator, and four of the fake missiles. The remaining fake missiles disappeared with the penetrator but not before the final missile scored a proximity hit.
When the visual images reached Raptor for several seconds James watched the detonation. It looked like the explosion had been close enough to cause some damage to one of the cruiser’s missile tubes. His suspicion was confirmed when the next salvo poured out of the cruiser only contained seven missiles.
When James’s second salvo was ten minutes out from the light cruiser the gravimetric sensors began to beep wildly. The sensors officer called out excitedly. “New contacts, new contacts, I’m picking up six new missiles, they’re heading towards the cruiser from sector four zero five point two four. It must be Ghost!”
James had already come to the same conclusion; no one else would be shooting at the Chinese warship. Lightfoot must have stayed in stealth, waiting for the opportune time to fire. Lady Luck was with them, now the cruiser had twelve missiles heading for it from two converging directions. It would have to spit its point defense. No doubt Lightfoot has used one of his penetrator missiles in that salvo too! A smile finally broke through the look of concern that had been growing on his face over the last half an hour. James had used his second penetrator in his second salvo so the Chinese point defense network was going struggle to cope. But, before he could watch the results of the missile salvos homing on the Chinese ship, he had one heading for his own ship to concentrate on.
Again the flak gun opened up at maximum range and began to whittle down the incoming missiles. Eight became six and then five. The flak cannon then went silent as the more accurate closer range point defense systems came online. Plasma cannon fire took out two more missiles and AM missiles another one. At the last second, Romanov dialed up Raptor’s ECM to full and dove the ship into a tight evasive maneuver. One of the two remaining missiles was fooled but the second closed in and detonated off the ship’s starboard bow. The shockwave threw the bridge crew about at their consoles.
Looking around James could see that no one was seriously hurt, just a little shaken up. “Damage Report,” he demanded.
“The valstronium armor held,” Romanov reported. We lost twenty percent of our point defense plasma cannons in that firing arc though. I’m also getting reports of minor damage and injuries in forward sections one through seven. All starboard missile tubes still report full functionality. Our next salvo will be ready to fire in two minutes.”
“Very well, fire when ready,” James responded, “see if you can re-train any of our other plasma cannons to cover that area before the next salvo gets here.” Opening up a COM channel to Gupta on the auxiliary bridge James ordered, “Take over the damage control from Romanov, let him focus on getting ready to handle the next salvo.”
With Gupta on top of the damage control, James shifted his focus back to the Chinese cruiser. He could only watch the gravimetric sensors to see what was happening in real time. The twelve missiles began to quickly disappear off the plot as they were destroyed. Whoever was controlling the light cruiser’s defenses was good. Yet not good enough, for three missiles detonated close to the ship. As the visuals came through James saw that significant damage had been done to its stern. Still, the cruiser wasn’t giving up for as James watched it fired another salvo, this time at Ghost. The cruiser must have managed to fix the damage to its eighth missile tube for it had fired a full broadside.
Moments later a message came through from Ghost. “Raptor, this is Lightfoot, clear the engagement zone. I repeat, clear the engagement zone. Our last salvo has significantly damaged their main engines. That cruiser isn’t going anywhere fast, we’ll have plenty of time to accomplish what we came here for before they can effect repairs. It looks like they still have all their offensive weapons working so we’re not going to risk trying to destroy them. Please acknowledge. Ghost out.”
James thought Lightfoot had tried to add an extra level of sternness into his command. Not that he really needed to with his strong voice and intimidating build. Lightfoot must have been worried that James wouldn’t let an opportunity to destroy a Chinese ship pass. Certainly, there would be some British commanders who would pretend they hadn’t heard the last message and move in for the kill. While James was tempted - it would look good on his record to have a cruiser down as a confirmed kill, there was a mission to complete.
Speaking to the communication officer he ordered, “acknowledge Ghost’s orders.” He followed this up by ordering the navigation officer to pull Raptor back to the coordinates Lightfoot had sent over with his orders.
As Raptor began to change direction, the second salvo of Chinese missiles altered course to follow. The flak cannon again began to fill space with shrapnel.
Ten seconds before it was programmed to cease firing to allow the other point defense weapons to open, the energy supply to one of the electromagnetic rings in the fourth barrel over loaded. The resultant surge in the magnetic force along one side of the barrel pulled the next three flak rounds off center before the safeties shut the flak cannon down. Two of the rounds exited the barrel, heading off in the wrong direction, but the third collided with the end of the barrel and exploded. As a thousand explosive ball bearings erupted from the explosion and detonated themselves the flak cannon was shredded along with a number of point defense plasma cannons.
Unaware of the confusion engulfing the bridge of Raptor, the remaining five Chinese missiles continued towards the ship. What was left of the point defense plasma cannons opened fire, taking out one missile. Another two fell as Raptor fired off as many anti-missile missiles as she could. Two still survived and they both homed in on the nose of the ship. As one they exploded only eight hundred meters from the ship when their seeker heads realized they wouldn’t get a direct hit. The explosive force of the thermonuclear detentions quickly dissipated in the void of space but not before a significant amount of the force crashed into Raptor.
This time the bridge crew were thrown about much more forcibly and two officers lost consciousness as their harnesses failed to stop the excessive g-forces from impacting them. Disorientated from the shockwave and the flickering of the damaged lights on the bridge, James shook himself to try and refocus. Romanov was hunched over at his console. His head lolled about from side to side and a thick stream of blood was making its way from his hairline down the back of his neck. After getting full command of his senses James keyed his command console. “Medical assistance to the bridge immediately,” he ordered on the medical COM channel. Then he switched command of the tactical console to his command chair. The first damage reports coming in showed almost all of the valstronium armor had been blasted off Raptor’s starboard nose section. The life like metal was alre
ady flowing from other parts of the ship to even out the armor’s thickness. It would strengthen the nose sections but would leave the rest of the ship generally weaker. Starboard missile tube six was reporting as inoperable but the remaining five were ready to fire. Checking that Raptor’s gravimetric sensors were still working, James updated the missiles with the latest data on the cruiser’s position and then pressed the command to fire.
He watched his own missiles streak off for a few seconds and then opened a channel to Gupta. “How bad is it Lieutenant?”
The auxiliary bridge was further forward than the bridge and Gupta looked well shaken up. Sweat was pouring down her face and her hair had shaken itself loose from her ponytail and was splayed everywhere. The look in her eyes was all James needed to see to be reassured that she was still in full control. “We’ve lost nearly sixty percent of our forward starboard point defensive network. Starboard missile six is damaged but I think it can be repaired. We’ve also lost our flak cannon. A review of the last few seconds of the attack indicates that the flak cannon malfunctioned and damaged itself along with some of our point defense cannons. So far I have reports of two fatalities and five serious injuries. They are all being taken to sickbay now. Everyone else is working flat out on the repairs.”
“Good work Lieutenant,” James said, “let me know if there are any more fatalities or injuries.” Before commanding Drake, James had not been on board a ship that had had a fatality. He had felt the deaths of his crew on Drake deeply and he knew it would be the same today. Maybe even some of the fatalities would be crew members who had followed him from Drake. Yet right now he had to get everyone else to safety and so he forced his feelings out of his mind and looked back to the holo display.
Ghost was making her way out of the cruiser’s missile range at full speed. She had obviously weathered the cruiser’s first missile salvo but the second one was about to enter engagement range for the point defense weapons. Her own flak cannon dealt with four of the incoming eight missiles. Only one survived the closer range weapons. For a moment James thought it had scored a direct hit as the explosion played havoc with Raptor’s sensor feed. A few seconds later Ghost reappeared on the same vector, still accelerating at her top speed, indicating that any damage had been minimal.
From the cruiser another eight missiles shot out of their tubes towards Ghost. Someone had made a mistake though, probably out of rage. With Ghost and the crippled cruiser now pulling away from each other, the missiles didn’t have the range to catch Ghost. In vain they accelerated after the British warship but eventually their small fusion reactors ran out fuel and they faded off the gravimetric plot as their engines died.
The final missiles from Ghost and Raptor on the other hand, crashed into the cruiser’s point defenses five minutes apart. Only one managed to get a proximity hit and James hoped it had caused some internal damage to add to the time it would take for the cruiser to repair itself. From the visuals it was clear the light cruiser would still be able to put up a fight, if it could get into range of the British destroyers once its engines were back online, though James knew Lightfoot had no intention of sticking around to see how long that might take.
Chapter 25 - Hunted
By the later stages of the First Interstellar Expansion Era the British Space Navy had become obsessed with stealth technology. This would go on to prove very useful for the whole human race.
-Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD
12th May 2465 AD, HMS Raptor, Wi
A full two days after the battle with the light cruiser that had left the door to Wi Li open, James, Gupta and Romanov stood on the bridge of Raptor. They were watching the now fully regrouped ships of the system picket, including the somewhat repaired light cruiser, charging straight for Ghost and Raptor.
“They’re certainly putting on a good show,” Romanov said to the bridge at large.
“Indeed,” James agreed, “too little too late I’m afraid.” No doubt the Chinese Commander was trying to cover his back. At least it would look like he tried to engage the British destroyers once he had repaired his ship. It was just a pity his targets were about to jump out of the system, their mission complete.
After Raptor and Ghost met at the coordinates Lightfoot had sent to James, they had waited for over an hour before setting off together towards Wi Li. The wait had allowed the damaged cruiser and the two frigates that had eventually joined it to overshoot Wi Li. With the cruiser’s engines damaged, it hadn’t been able to slow down and enter orbit. Instead, it had been forced to continue further into the inner system and actually ended up well past the system’s star and on its way out towards the far side of the system before its engines were repaired enough to arrest its momentum.
The damage to the light cruiser left only two destroyers to oppose the British ships, the one that had been guarding Wi Liang and the one Raptor had exchanged fire with. They had both retreated to Wi Liang and had sat in orbit, obviously concluding that a missile duel with two destroyers equipped with flak cannons would be futile. Thankfully, they hadn’t realized that Raptor’s had been damaged.
With Wi Li at their mercy, the two British ships had moved into orbit. The planet, being recently colonized, didn’t yet have any orbital defenses. RSNI had identified two planetary weapons facilities, which Ghost had bombarded with ground assault missiles. They were simply anti-ship missiles with their nuclear devices replaced with a shaft of valstronium. Accelerated to very high relativistic speeds, when the missiles hit the surface of a planet the impact released megatons of explosive force without the radiation from a nuclear detonation. There had been a moment of alarm aboard Raptor when a third planetary defense installation had been identified. The first sign of it had been when it began to spew missiles that accelerated out of the planet’s atmosphere and towards the ship. Thankfully, the installation had only been partially completed and so only had six missiles ready to launch.
Throughout the human sphere, orbital defense platforms were the preferred defensive fortification as missiles fired from a planet’s surface spent a lot of their fuel boosting out of the planet’s gravity. The only drawback was that a system needed a well-established orbital industry to begin constructing something as large as a battlestation. Thankfully for Raptor, Romanov was quick on his toes. His fast thinking led him to take Raptor down deeper into the gravity well as the missiles accelerated up to reach them. This meant when the missiles got in range of the point defenses they were still travelling at very low speeds as they tried to overcome the planet’s gravity. The point defense network was designed to be able to intercept missiles coming at Raptor at speeds of up to 0.6c. The much slower missiles that were just breaking orbit didn’t prove much of a challenge even with the damage Raptor had already taken to her defenses.
Once safely in orbit, both ships had then begun picking off targets the RSNI had identified as either facilities used in the Chinese military industrial complex or belonging to Politburo members. Everything in orbit had been destroyed but the ground targets had been selected more carefully. With a limited supply of ground assault missiles, they had been reserved for heavily protected facilities. In each case, the British ships had given the occupants at least an hour’s warning before the facilities had been destroyed. For the rest of their targets, including ones that were in heavily populated areas, the marines had been sent in to plant demolition explosives. At a number of targets, firefights had broken out between the marines and the Chinese army contingents based on the planet. Yet there wasn’t a centralized garrison to coordinate the defense. Whoever had sent the army units to the planet as guards had simply assigned platoons or companies wherever they were needed and left them in charge of their own area. Thus, there had been no way to mount a coordinated defense. That left the Chinese army units sitting ducks for the marines. Wherever the defenses had been too strong the marines’ shuttles had simply pulled back and poured heavy plasma cannon fire into the buildings, destroying them with their defenders inside.
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After the first several hours a woman, claiming to be a RSNI agent, had contacted Ghost. She had been working on the planet for the last two years. Major Johnston had taken a squad of marines and picked her up. She had passed all the checks Lightfoot had been given before embarking on the raiding mission. She gave her name as Julia Bell and had provided the two destroyers with a number of secondary targets she had identified over the last two years. Two of which she insisted the marines assault in order to see what intel they could gather. To everyone’s surprise Julia had also insisted she accompany the marines and from Major Johnston’s report, she had clearly undertaken some special opps training in the past. After personally dispatching at least five Chinese soldiers, she had instructed the marines to extract a number of Chinese computers and other hardware. The two shuttles carrying her and Major Johnston’s men had been so full after their two raids that they had struggled to get back up to orbit. At the time James had wondered just how many RSNI desk jockeys it would take to go through all the data Julia was bringing them.
Along with the damage to the planet’s infrastructure, the destroyers had also captured and destroyed six freighters carrying war material. In each case they had ordered the crew to abandon the freighters before they blew them up. The first Chinese Captain had refused and tried to escape out of orbit from Wi Li and head to the protection offered by the two destroyers at Wi Liang. Lightfoot had simply fired a missile with its acceleration reduced to minimum at the fleeing freighter. Without ECM or point defenses the freighter couldn’t escape and Raptor’s sensors had shown most of the freighter’s crew had abandoned ship just before the missile had caught up with them. James had hoped that if anyone had been left on board, the foolish Captain had been one of them.