by D. J. Holmes
“Stay down,” Moony said.
The three marines were lying on the edge of a cliff several kilometers from the shuttle. From their vantage point they could see through the thick forest canopy into the clearing where the stealth shuttle was hidden.
As they watched, an Indian shuttle came into view, rocketing above the tree tops. It slowed to half its speed as it approached and flew over the clearing. It made two more passes over the clearing before it came to a complete stop the third time. Slowly it descended into the clearing.
“They are taking the bait,” Harte said.
“Quiet,” Moony replied.
He flipped open the protective case on the detonator he was holding. As soon as the shuttle touched down a handful of Indians in power armor jumped out the rear door. They spread out, securing the perimeter. Five of them carefully made their way towards the stealth shuttle. When the lead soldier got close enough to touch the British shuttle, Moony hit the detonator.
In the blink of an eye a small tactical nuke bathed the clearing in a giant fireball. The marines’ visors automatically darkened to protect their eyes from the intense light. When the fireball cleared, there was no sign of the stealth shuttle or the marines who had been near it. The Indian shuttle was on its side, one of its wings had been blasted off and the rest of its structure was engulfed in flames. As the marines watched, the fire reached something critical and the shuttle exploded.
“There’s no way anyone in combat armor could survive that,” Harte said.
“No,” Samuels agreed. “I think we are done.”
“Done?” Moony said. “We are only just beginning. The Indians are about to face a whole new kind of hurt.”
Chapter 21 – The Hornet’s Nest
‘Orders are there to be interpreted.’ To a certain extent that has been the unofficial motto of the Imperial Navy. Of course, more than once this has been understood to mean, ‘orders are there to be broken.’ When that has been the case, things have not always worked out in the Empire’s favor.
-Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD
31st April 2467 AD, HMS Endeavour, outer edge of the Haven System.
Groggily, James reached up and tapped the COM unit that was buzzing beside his bed. “What is it?” he asked reluctantly. He had been enjoying a pleasant dream about Suzanna and didn’t want it to end.
“You’re going to want to come see this Sir,” Second Lieutenant Julius said. “New contacts have just appeared accelerating into the system.”
“I’m on my way,” James said.
As soon as he walked onto the bridge he looked at the main holo display. Endeavour had been cruising in stealth towards the shift passage to Independence for the last thirteen hours. They were now almost half way there.
“What have you got?” James asked Julius who was sitting in Mallory’s command chair.
“It looks like a convoy jumped into the system about ten minutes ago. They have been slowly accelerating towards Haven,” she said as she zoomed the main holo display onto a group of ships moving from the shift passage from Indian space towards Haven.
“Have you identified them yet?” James followed up.
“There are four destroyers and three frigates around the edges of the formation,” Julius answered. “The rest of the ships appear to be freighters of various designs. These three ships are the ones of interest though.”
When James looked at their profiles he saw what she meant. “More troop transports,” he said. “Just what the people of Haven need. More Indian soldiers to contend with.”
“They are moving into the system very slowly,” Julius said. “It appears that some of the Indian patrol ships are moving to help escort the convoy in, but we could intercept it if we wanted.”
Looking closely at the acceleration profiles of the Indian convoy James saw that Julius was right. With a slight course alteration Endeavour could head back into the system under stealth and get in front of the convoy. The escorts were likely to be pumping megawatts of radar waves out into space around them and Endeavour couldn’t get too close before she was detected. But she could get close enough to fire off a couple of broadsides at the troop transports.
“Call Mallory and Becket,” James said to the COMs officer on watch. “Tell them to report to the bridge.”
“Aye Sir,” the Sub Lieutenant said.
“You know this isn’t exactly what our orders have laid out for us,” James said to Julius.
“I know Sir,” she said with a mischievous smile. “But you have taught us orders aren’t everything. It’s like the situation with the Vestarians. If we just let those troops get to Haven they will make life a lot harder for Major Johnston and the rebels fighting the Indians.”
“I can’t argue with that,” James said. “But we have some vital information to get home to the Admiralty.” Still, he thought to himself. How can I walk away from such an opportunity to hurt the Indians?
When Becket and Mallory arrived, James let Julius outline her plan. “So what do you think?” James asked his two other officers. “We’d be going right back into the hornet’s nest. After we attack the convoy the Indians will be swarming all around us again.”
“We have escaped from them three times now,” Becket said. “I am sure we can do it again. Endeavour’s stealth technology has proven itself better than its designers ever imagined.
“I hate to be the cautious one,” Mallory said when James looked at him. “But our mission was to get as much intel as we can on the Indian invasion force. Every combat situation we have found ourselves in has been a result of trying to accomplish our mission. If we attack this convoy we will be overstepping our orders. Perhaps more importantly, we will be risking our mission. If we are destroyed, then the Admiralty won’t know what is going on here.”
“Then we will just have to make sure we get away,” Becket said confidently. “We know we can do it.”
“I don’t doubt that,” Mallory said. “If it was up to a vote I’d be for going after the convoy. I just think we need to know what is at stake.”
“Thank you,” James said. “I am well aware of our orders, but your caution is helpful.”
Now what would my uncle do? James asked himself. Ever since his first command his uncle had been feeding him ancient novels about the seventeenth and eighteen century British navy. They were full of stories of daring naval captains who had won fame and glory for themselves as they had almost single handily beaten Britain’s enemies. I think he almost longs for those days. I know he has been trying to impart some of that spirit into me. I guess it has worked, James thought.
When it came down to it there wasn’t really a choice, I’m not running away this time. He had been faced with little choice when he had decided to leave Johnston and his men behind. There had been no way to get them off the planet safely. But I’ll be damned if I let another fifteen thousand troops land on my wife’s planet.
“We’re going after the convoy,” James said.
*
Seven hours later James was still on the bridge. He was glad that he had got so much sleep before Julius had woken him up. Mallory was in the command chair beside him and Julius had moved to the auxiliary bridge, ready to take command should something happen to himself or Mallory.
The Indian convoy was moving at the speed of its slowest ship and they had ample time to line up their attack on it. James had decided to fly straight across the middle of the convoy two light minutes above their position. It would allow Endeavour to fire off two missile salvos before the convoy passed out of range. Traveling at her top speed of 0.38c, it also meant that none of the convoy’s escorts would be able to follow her without braking and turning after Endeavour as she fled.
“Radiation levels are approaching maximum,” Becket said from the tactical console.
“Fire as soon as they reach detection level,” James said.
The four destroyers and three frigates escorting the Indian convoy had been joined by a light cruiser a
nd another destroyer. All nine warships were filling space with radar waves and Endeavour’s stealth coating could only absorb so much.
“Firing,” Becket announced a minute later.
As soon as Endeavour’s eight missiles erupted from her missile tubes all hell broke loose among the convoy. The escorts that could orientate their main search radars in the direction of where the missiles originated did so. Within seconds Endeavour’s stealth coating was overwhelmed and she became visible to every ship in the convoy.
The freighters accelerated as soon as they detected the missiles. Those that had turned into Endeavour’s path rapidly tried to reverse their course as soon as she became visible.
Whoever is commanding the convoy is good, James thought as he watched the warships’ more coordinated response. As soon as it became clear that the missiles were aimed at one of the troop ships two of the destroyers accelerated closer to cover them with their point defenses. The three frigates turned onto a converging course with Endeavour and went to full military power.
“They are trying to get those frigates into plasma cannon range to take us out quickly,” Mallory shouted as soon as he saw what was happening.
“We have the range advantage with our heavier caliber plasma cannons,” James said to Mallory, “don’t let them get close enough to hit us.”
“Yes Sir,” Mallory answered.
It only took a few more seconds to see what the commander of the convoy had ordered the rest of his ships to do. As soon as the last one had lined up its missile ports, twenty-four missiles shot out from them, all accelerating straight for Endeavour.
“Time to activate our decoys,” James ordered.
After Mallory’s stunt with the recon drones, Endeavour’s stock of drones was almost empty. James knew the bean counters at the Admiralty would be very unhappy to find out just how many Mallory had used. Each of the drones cost over a half a million credits. Yet they would be a lot less happy about having to replace an entire exploration cruiser. With that in mind, James had launched every one of the remaining drones. They were all flying in close formation with his ship.
When Malik sent the orders, every one of them switched on their active sensors and accelerated. The added radar strength was able to burn through more of the Indian missiles’ ECM, allowing Becket to more accurately target them. At the same time, the sudden explosion of new electromagnetic and gravimetric contacts confused the Indian missiles’ targeting data.
As Becket focused on making sure Endeavour’s point defenses took out as many of the incoming missiles as possible, James took a moment to watch his missiles attack the troop ship. The two destroyers that had moved to aid the troop ship had set up a cross fire on his missiles. With all the fighting Endeavour had been involved in, she was down to just two penetrator missiles. James had ordered one each to be used in the two broadsides. The impressive defensive fire from the destroyers and the penetrator missile canceled each other out. Two missiles got past them and dove in towards the troop ship.
Desperately, it fired off its weaker point defenses. One of the missiles exploded, taken out by a AM missile. The second one continued on. In one last effort to survive, the troop ship frantically went through a series of evasive maneuvers. The missile kept with it however and just as it turned to hit its target, the final evasive maneuver of the troop ship actually brought them both together. The missile penetrated right through the troop ship’s thick valstronium armor before it exploded. The entire ship disappeared in the blast.
James punched one of his fists into the air. His reaction went unnoticed by the rest of the bridge crew as they were all frantically working to take out the incoming Indian missiles.
“The flak cannons took out twelve,” Malik called over to Becket.
“Got it,” Becket responded. Sweat began to fall down her forehead as she directed the fire of the point defense plasma cannon crews and picked out targets for the AM missiles.
As soon as the remaining Indian missiles came into range, space around Endeavour and the eight drones flying in formation with her filled with green plasma bolts. AM missiles quickly followed them as thirty were launched from the British ship. Twelve Indian missiles became eight, then six, until finally only three remained.
“They are all targeting drones,” Malik called out excitedly, “we are clear.”
James saw Malik was right. All three missiles broke away from Endeavour and homed in on two of the drones that were radiating electromagnetic energy into space. None of the missiles got direct hits, the drones were too small for their targeting computers to accurately hit, yet the resultant explosions from the thermonuclear warheads destroyed them.
“Good work,” James said to Becket and the rest of the bridge crew after the last missile exploded. “We just need to beat the odds one more time! What are the frigates doing?”
“They are about a minute out from their plasma cannon range,” Mallory answered. “I nailed one but the other two are still coming. They are jinking and diving, making it hard for me to hit them.”
“Stay on them,” James said. “They can’t get a hit on us.”
“They are opening fire,” Malik called front the sensor station.
“They are wasting their shots,” Mallory said confidently. “There, got another one!” he added.
“They are not aiming at us,” Malik said after the first round of bolts flew past Endeavour. “They are trying to take out the drones. They can destroy them at their current range.”
“Damn,” James said as he saw that they had already destroyed two of the drones. As he watched, a second salvo of bolts tore into the drones and three more exploded.
“Get those drones doing some evasive maneuvers,” James called out.
Malik obeyed just in time for the next round of plasma bolts washed over the drones just as the drones began to jink about. One more was destroyed.
“Second missile salvo is away,” Becket called out. She had tasked the ensign assisting her at the tactical station with preparing the second salvo and as soon as Endeavour was clear of the Indian missiles she had given him the final targeting data.
“The remaining frigate is pulling back,” Mallory said.
“It has done what it came to do,” James responded. With only a couple of drones running interference he knew the next Indian missile salvo was going to be deadly. There was nothing they could do now but wait and watch.
The Indian commander had his ships well trained. Just before Endeavour passed out of range another twenty-four missiles were launched from the ships defending the convoy. When the missiles caught up with the remaining frigate, it turned and added two more missiles to the salvo.
There was a small cheer on the bridge as the final penetrator missile allowed Becket’s second salvo to take out one more of the Indian troop transports. It was short lived however; everyone could see what was coming their way.
James felt the irony of his situation. He was the Captain of Endeavour, yet when she was about to face potential destruction there was nothing for him to do but watch while his crew fought the ship.
“Flak cannons engaging now,” Becket announced.
On the holo display James watched the shells from the flak cannons shooting off into space. Each cannon was loaded with fifty rounds and together both cannons concentrated their fire to fill the area of space directly in front of the incoming missiles with exploding shrapnel.
“Eight missiles down,” Malik called. “Eighteen remaining.”
There was silence on the bridge as everyone waited for the flak cannons to be reloaded.
“Firing again,” Becket said as a hundred more flak rounds shot towards the Indian missiles.
Before the final rounds exploded, the point defense plasma cannons opened up. Ten seconds later AM missiles leaped out of their launchers. As James watched, eighteen became ten and then six. A final flurry of AM missiles took out another three.
One of the Indian missiles looked like it was angling towards
the remaining drone. The other two however, had a firm lock on Endeavour. Before he could give the order to throw Endeavour into a series of last ditch evasive maneuvers, Sub Lieutenant Jennings had done so. James gripped his command chair as the inertial compensators struggled to cope with the sudden changes in momentum Jennings’ maneuvers were causing.
The first missile closed with Endeavour seconds later. When a turn from Jennings momentarily turned the ship away from the missile it detonated, sensing it wouldn’t get a direct hit. The explosion from the missile’s thermonuclear warhead bathed Endeavour in radiation, burning off armor and point defense nodes from her port amidships.
As the energy from the explosion hit his ship James was thrown around in his command chair. Before he could call out to check on the damage the second missile hit. The same maneuver that had allowed Endeavour to dodge the first missile allowed the second one to score a direct it on her nose section. The missile struck almost exactly the same spot as Admiral Harris’ months before. It penetrated the weakened valstronium armor and punched through two bulkhead sections before it exploded.