Empty Casket Conspiracy (Terran Patrol Book 1)

by Lewis Dually

  I pointed at the sensor array. “You can’t figure out a way to cover it with the foam?”

  “No Sir. Not without rendering it useless and not with what we have to work with. We could build a deployable canopy to enclose and protect the array if we had time and a better equipped machine shop. We’re thinking about a design to do that but it will be very elaborate. It would need to deploy in one tenth of a second and that requires some serious hydraulics.”

  “Ok then.” I said “that’s something for the space dock to work on. How close to the satellite are you shooting for?”

  “About eight miles off. That should give us a two hundred gigawatt EMP. The same strength as the hit you took from the Wade. That will be a good test of the design.”

  I put my hands in my pockets and studied the turd for a moment. It really did look like a rock. Having a ship that looks like a rock could be a huge advantage in combat. As long as the ships EM signature could be hidden from enemy sensors.

  “Lloyd, will this stuff keep our EM signature from escaping into space? Basically hide us from other ships?”

  Lloyd studied the question for a moment and then replied. “If we turned off the sensor array and didn’t broadcast on the radios, Yes. But we would be blind. We could use visual scanning but that’s only good for what, ten or fifteen miles? But we would be totally invisible to any kind of sensor sweep. We would be a stealth ship.”

  Engineer Owens added. “If we fired our MTT’s they wouldn’t even get a read on the railguns.”

  The MTT’s or Multi Tracking Torpedoes were fired from torpedo tubes in the bow and stern of the ship. They were shot out of the tubes with compressed air and then armed outside of the ship. They could be set to arm on exit or out to one hundred miles. They used an ion pulse engine for propulsion and could track and hit a target using a variety of methods; heat seeking, light seeking, magnetic tracking, RF and EM tracking or laser guided. They packed a one megaton explosive charge but they didn’t have the penetration of a solid projectile and their range was limited. Sixty thousand miles and they ran out of fuel. The railguns on the other hand fired a single projectile using a magnetic pulse. They could fire a round at half the speed of light and they exacted a tremendous punch but their explosive charge was only one tenth of the torpedoes and they were not self-directing. You had to aim the gun at your target and if the target moved before the bullet got there, you missed. They also use a tremendous amount of electricity to fire. The magnetic pulse from the railguns would act as a beacon to any ship in the area, giving away our position no matter how camouflaged we were.

  “Well what are we waiting for?” I asked. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

  “One more thing Sir.” Chief Logan said. “I loaded one MTT on the shuttle. When we took the hit from the EMP it fried the tracking circuits in all of our torpedoes. We replaced all of them and they’re operational now but I want to be sure this shield protects them too. With all the tracking sensors in their nose they may be more susceptible to an EMP than the rest of our systems. I just want to make sure.”

  "Good thinking Cob. Well, let’s get this show on the road.” I said again.

  We all cleared the shuttle bay, closed the pressure doors and waited for it to decompress. When it finished, the bay doors pulled open and the shuttle lifted off the deck, turned and headed out to meet its fate. I left Owens and Lloyd to do their thing and went back to the bridge where Chaffey was busy positioning the shuttle exactly where Lloyd wanted it. Once the shuttle was positioned we broke orbit and headed for a safe zone where we could watch the fireworks without catching the sparks. It wasn’t necessary to be out of sight when the EMP hit. Neptune’s gravitational field would act as a lightning rod for the EMP, grabbing and redirecting it to the planet’s polls. We could be within sight of the blast and be protected from it. On the other hand we could be halfway around the planet and feel the EMP’s full force if we were in the gravity field’s pathway. Chaffey found the sweet spot he was looking for and positioned us thirty five miles from the satellite. “All set Sir.” He called out.

  I turned to Gale and asked “Are we ready Gale?”

  “Yes Sir. I have positioned the other satellites in safe zones and there are no other ships in the area.”

  “Chief are you ready down there?”

  “Yes Sir, Skipper. Just give me the word and we’ll make some static. I have the reactor spooled up to one hundred and twenty percent so she should go off pretty quick when I remove the fail safes. I’m estimating about thirty seconds.”

  “Sounds good.” I replied. “Hit it.”

  Then I opened a ship wide channel and announced. “All hands prepare for test detonation in thirty seconds.”

  Then we all waited and listened as Owens started an audible count down over the coms. “Twenty-nine twenty-eight….”

  Perched on the edge of my seat I watched the forward view monitor. The satellite looked like just another star. At thirty-five miles away there was no visible detail to identify it. Just a red box on the heads up display marked its position and I concentrated on the center of the box as Owens neared the end of his count down.

  “Three, two, one, zero….plus one, plus two, three, four…”

  Nothing happened. Forcing a reactor breach wasn’t an exact science and it wasn’t as simple as detonating a bomb. The reactor had to be pushed beyond its limits until the core melted down allowing the matter and anti-matter of the GUT fuel cells to collide resulting in an explosion. Sometimes this took longer than expected and sometimes it didn’t take long enough.

  We all held our breath as Owens continued his count. “Nine, ten, eleven”

  The pinpoint of light in the forward view port erupted into a brilliant blue ball and then turned yellow red as it expanded in all directions. The silhouettes of Chaffey and Gale in front of me burned into my eyes as their shadows shown black against the rear bulkhead. For just a few milliseconds the room felt as if it were in the corona of the sun until the viewports auto dimming kicked in and brought it down to a manageable glare. Still everywhere I looked I could see the shadow of Chaffey and Gale temporarily burned into my retinas. A wave of static burst over the coms and then the light dissipated as quickly as it appeared.

  “Damage report.” I ordered.

  Gale and Chaffey studied their readouts for a moment. Finally Chaffey replied. “No damage here Sir. All readings are normal.”

  “Same here Sir.” Gale called out. “We had a burst of static on the coms but no damage.”

  Then Barnes shouted. “Incoming, dead ahead!”

  I looked up to see a three foot wide section of the satellite’s central housing flash overhead, missing the forward sensor array by no more than a foot.

  “Owens, what happened?” I asked into the coms mic.

  There was a short delay before Engineer Owens responded. “Sorry Skipper. The reactor core held longer than anticipated. We were expecting a four hundred megaton detonation but that was closer to six. It upped the EMP yield from two-hundred to about three-hundred gigawatts. If the shuttle survived that then we done good.”

  “Gale, do you have the shuttle?” I asked.

  “No Sir. I can’t find it and I’m getting no signal from its beacon.”

  “Ok, take us in and let’s see if we can find our stealth turd.”

  Chaffey maneuvered us toward the shuttle’s last known location and found it right where we left her. A long straight furrow had been torn across the shuttle’s mid-section, cutting about half way through the foam insulation. The surface of the insulation had also sustained some heat damage from the reactor blast but not enough to give us concern. All in all the turd looked relatively unscathed.

  “Still no response Sir.” Gale announced “I’m not reading anything from it!”

  An undetectable ship that looks like a rock, just what I’d hoped for, as long as the internal electronics weren’t smoking. “We need to keep this under wraps.” I said, as I opened a ship wide chann
el and announced.

  “Attention crew. This is the skipper speaking. Be it known that all information regarding the events of the past four hours and the device deployed for the test we just conducted are hereby classified. You will discuss this with no one!”

  Closing the channel I turned to Barnes and said. “You have the bridge. I’m going down to the shuttle bay. Line us up to receive the shuttle so we can bring her in with an EVA.”

  “Yes Sir.” Barnes replied.

  I reached the shuttle bay in time to see Sprite and Chief Hill jetting out into space in their EVA suits. Chief Hill was pulling a winch cable out to hook the shuttle and they covered the three hundred feet in about two minutes. Just as Hill hooked the tow line to the shuttle I heard the red alert siren.

  CHAPTER 12: Stalemate Busted.

  Lieutenant Barnes voice came over the P-A. “RED ALERT, BATTLE STATIONS!”

  A second later Gale’s voice came over my coms badge. “Sir we have an unidentified ship off our starboard side closing at high speed. They just came out of warp and are eighteen hundred miles out and closing.”

  “You’re not picking up an identification beacon?” I asked.

  “No Sir. We’re getting nothing and they’re not answering our hails. It’s about twice our size and there’s nothing like it in our systems. Barnes thinks it’s an Alien ship.”

  “Owens, tell Sprite and Hill to disconnect that tow cable and get inside the shuttle. I can’t have them flopping around out there while we’re maneuvering.” I ordered and started sprinting to the bridge.

  On the way I called for the security detail to bring Antwon and Joydeus up. If it was an Alien ship maybe they could identify it, and if it was, what was it doing here? Maybe the detonation had peaked their interest. I entered the bridge to find the main view monitor zoomed in on the approaching vessel and I knew it was definitely not one of ours. The ship was long and slender with a smooth hull. It had forward mounted gun turrets on top, bottom and both sides and the ship was painted a shiny indigo blue with three red vertical strips running from the bottom front to the top rear.

  The bridge door opened behind me and Joydeus entered. “KRUEG DESTROYER!” He blurted out.

  “Turn us toward her.” I ordered the helm as I took the mic from Barnes and squeezed the transmit button.

  “Krueg vessel. This is the United Earth Space Cruiser Dawn Rising. You are on a collision course with our ship. Please alter your course and reduce your speed. Do you copy?”

  I waited thirty second for a response but received none.

  “Krueg vessel. Please identify yourself. You are approaching a United Earth Space Patrol Vessel without identifying yourself. Your action could be viewed as hostile.”

  Three seconds later the Krueg ship answered my call, not with radio communications but with their guns. All four of the forward mounted gun turrets fired simultaneously. Chaffey saw the ripple effect caused by their railguns firing and reacted before I could give the orders. He turned us hard to starboard and the inertia dampeners strained to keep us in our seats. Three of the shells passed by harmlessly but one hit us near the starboard cooling fins and the impact created a guttural echo throughout the ship.

  “RETURN FIRE!” I ordered. “Load the torpedoes!”

  Our own railguns fired a volley putting four APX rounds down range. I watched as two budding balls of fire erupted on the enemy ship’s hull and then dissipated. Neither round had penetrated. The other two rounds missed as the Krueg broke hard to their port putting us alongside of each other.

  “Load your tungsten steel rounds” I called to the gunners as the Krueg fired again and we took three of the four rounds in our starboard thrust rail. The Krueg guns were having little effect on our armor but ours weren’t doing much to them either.

  Chaffey was turning toward the Krueg to give the forward mounted railguns a higher impact speed when Gale shouted. “TORPEDO!”

  Instantly the Sea Wiz defense gun system activated and opened fire on the incoming torpedo. The anti-missile defense system first used to defend aircraft carriers a hundred years ago were now part of all Navy vessel defense platforms. It was a fully automated platform designed to shoot down incoming missiles and torpedoes. The Sea Wiz Gatling cannons fired seventy-five millimeter depleted uranium shells at two thousand rounds per minute. Every tenth round carried a tracer beacon and their brilliant white streaks reached out in front of us and touched the incoming torpedo. The sphere of fire that erupted from the torpedo’s destruction was emerald green with dark red arks of electricity radiating out from the center.

  “Give them two back!” I shouted to the torpedo room. Seconds later I watched two of our torpedoes leap out in front of us as their engines kicked in and they streaked off toward the Krueg ship. Almost immediately the Krueg opened up with its own version of Sea Wiz detonating both our torpedoes just short of their hull. Stalemate I thought to myself.

  Just then our two forward railguns fired and I held my breath as our new tungsten steel rounds struck the armor of the Krueg Destroyer. This time there were no explosions visible on the surface. The tungsten steel punched through their armor and was followed closely by two explosive rounds. Only a small hole would be visible if we were close enough to see it. All the damage was being done on the inside. I watched as a shockwave ran down the keel of the ship followed by a brilliant sliver of white light that shown between the hull and one of the gun turrets. The turret separated from the ship and shot strait up followed by a column of fire and debris. A second turret on the far side of the enemy ship let go and we could see it sailing off into the black void of empty space. The force of the blast pushed the bow of the Destroyer down and she started a very slow bow over stern tumble.

  “She’s dead Sir!” Barnes proclaimed.

  “Who are they?” I heard from behind and turned to see Walters standing with Antwon and Joydeus.

  “That is a Krueg Destroyer.” Antwon replied. “They are heavily armed. I did not think you could win a fight with the Krueg. I have underestimated your ability.”

  As Antwon finished speaking Gale called out. “Another ship, make that two ships coming out warp, Sir. Directly ahead at two thousand miles, closing fast.”

  “Hard to port!” I ordered. “Get them on the monitor.”

  The main view monitor zoomed in on the two ships which were identical to the first.

  “They’re firing Sir.” Gale announced. “Impact in seven seconds.”

  Chaffey didn’t wait for a command. He pulled up sharply and headed for the disabled Krueg Destroyer causing the eight rounds to miss us by a sizable margin.

  Barnes remarked. “That’s not very good battle tactics. They should have closed the gap before firing. All they did was give away their position.”

  “They’re trying to draw us away from the downed ship.” I said. “They can forget that. Toe to toe open field combat against over whelming odds ain’t my idea of good combat tactics either. Let’s teach them about Guerrilla Warfare. Chaffey, take us right up behind the downed ship and use it for cover. Gale keep a close eye on the sensors. We don’t want this hunk of Krueg scrap going critical while we’re this close in.”

  I considered backing off and letting the Krueg attend to their downed ship while I picked up the shuttle and got out of Dodge. But I knew I couldn’t do that. The Krueg had attacked us in our own system without provocation or warning and we had won. Maybe we were lucky, maybe we were good. The fact was we had just killed one of their six Destroyers but I had a chance to kill three of them. That would effectively eliminate half of their fleet and that was an opportunity we couldn’t afford to pass up.

  “Warren.” I called out. “Send a burst transmission to United Earth One with our flight data recordings up to this point. If we don’t survive this they’ll need to know what’s coming. And try raising them on the new subspace coms. Maybe they have one working now. We could use some help out here.”

  “On it Sir.” Warren replied.

&nbs
p; “Chaffey, keep us close to this ship. Let’s play peekaboo with the other two. Gunners, hold your fire until you can see the joints in their deck plates and then let them eat steel.”

  I looked back at Walters who was standing between Antwon and Joydeus. “You better take a seat and strap yourselves in.”

  She responded by pushing Antwon and Joydeus to the observation seats and helping them with the restraint belts.

  “Here they come Sir.” Gale called out.

  Chaffey had been tracking the Krueg ships with our sensors and turned us to line up a shot as they approached. We all watched the monitor as the two ships appeared above us when they cruised past their downed comrades.

  “FIRE!” I ordered the gunners. Both of our front railguns opened up with two shots each and I watched as the nearest ship took two direct hits in her keel. She started to turn and then seemed to lose control and slipped into a spiraling roll as she sped off toward Neptune. The second ship took one hit at the very end of her bow. An explosion ripped through her hull and took out a sizable chunk of her starboard bow section. The lights on her bow section flickered and then died but she wasn’t done yet. She turned hard to port and started back at us opening up with four rounds from her forward gun turrets.

  “Incoming!” Gale shouted.

  Our own guns fired a second volley as three of their shells hit us point blank in our top deck. We felt a tremendous shock wave throughout the ship and the hull breach alarms sounded. The impact knocked us backwards causing our own shots to miss their target.

  “FIRE!” I ordered again and we sent two more rounds down range. This time the Krueg ship broke hard to port. One of our rounds missed her by a few feet but the other hit her starboard mounted gun turret. The turret exploded from within knocking the front of the ship sideways and putting her in a spin as she passed over head and disappeared behind the disabled Destroyer.