Empty Casket Conspiracy (Terran Patrol Book 1)

by Lewis Dually

  “Fighters?”

  “Yes Sir. Fighter drones I think. Forty feet long, twelve feet wide. They’re still exiting the carrier Sir. I show forty separate radar signatures and counting.”

  “Set the Sea Wiz targeting parameters to include the drone’s signature. As soon as they’re set let them eat uranium.”

  Walters caught my attention from the science station. Sir, Commander Sprite is reporting two casualties and the Crimson Moon has a three minute ETA to his location.”

  “Copy that. Tell Gale to get her butt back here as soon as the Marines disembark.”

  “Yes Sir. Also receiving broadcasts from the Constellation. They have engaged the Krueg and are taking a beating Sir. The Krueg carriers have some kind of plasma cannon we haven’t seen before. The Constellation took two direct hits and it punched holes all the way through their midsection. They have significant losses.”

  As she said that, the Krueg carrier we were facing opened up with what I assumed was its plasma cannon. From two thousand miles away it fired two bright blue balls of light that came hurling at us at unbelievable speed. Hollister reacted before I could even think. He turned to face the oncoming blue fire balls while rotating the ship 90 degrees on its side and slipped us between them. He was almost successful in avoiding the two hot gas fireballs but our ship was just a little bit too big. One of the plasma balls creased our top deck and melted away our foam shielding exposing the EM sensitive hull plating. At the same time our Sea wiz cannons opened up on the approaching fighters. Thousands of white tracers shot out in front of us. Their long twisting flight paths arched and curved before our eyes as the fighters broke formation to evade the oncoming hail of bullets and our automated guns followed their targets with a relentless stream of spent uranium projectiles. One by one the fighter drones burst into fire balls as the thirty millimeter rounds tore into their fuel cells and ammo chambers. The on slot of destruction lasted a full minute until the last drone exploded not more than three thousand yards from us.

  “Incoming!” Blain Shouted. Just as she did an alarm sounded and the main viewer went dark. The computer voice announced an approaching EMP and the ship’s systems went into the automatic shutdown mode we had designed to minimize EMP damage. The problem was that our shielding had been damaged by the Krueg plasma weapon and our hull was now exposed to the energy blast. Unlatching my safety belt I leaped forward to the helm console and punched the emergency shut down button that killed every single powered system on the entire ship. Instantly the bridge went dark and gravity loosened its hold on me yet again. Hopefully with all systems turned off the damage from the EMP would be minimal. Unfortunately I still had a bit of forward momentum when I killed the power and without the pull of the gravity plates that momentum carried me forward over the helm console and into the forward view screen. I crashed into the view screen and bounced up toward the ceiling while feeling a sudden charge of static flood my body and set my hairs on end. One console on the far wall lit up as sparks sprayed out from somewhere beneath it. My own coms badge popped and let out a faint squeal of static before it died. Then I felt the hot sparks burning against my left breast and smelled a faint whiff of smoke from my scorched shirt. I slapped at it franticly trying to lessen the pain and to make sure I didn’t flame up while I tumbled toward the ceiling

  “Coms are down!” Shouted Blain.

  “Everything’s down!” Chaffey replied. “Everybody switch out your coms. Hollister, help me with this fire control console. Sir, you ok?”

  “Yes I’m fine.” I replied as I struggled to get down to the deck so my mag boots could get a grip. The bridge fell into utter darkness as the sparks from the fire control console faded out. Then a dull green glow erupted near the bridge door and silhouetted Walters’ upper torso and long pony tail as she broke the inner vials of the emergency chemlightss. I unzipped the front of my space suit and performed an awkward maneuver trying to reach the spare coms badge I had stowed in my right pants pocket. Good thing we weren’t depressurized because there would be no way to get the spare coms unit out of my trouser pocket with my arms secured in my space suit. Just as I managed to snake the coms badge out, my right shoulder slammed the floor and I dang near bit my tongue off as searing pain shot down my arm and seemed to radiate out of my fingertips. I bounced back up slowly, twisting and forcing my feet down until I finally got one mag boot on the deck and pulled myself upright with my left arm. Then I turned on the new coms badge and called the chief.

  “Yes Sir.” Engineer Owens responded.

  “Are you ready for a restart?”

  “Yes Sir. Letter rip.”

  I slipped two fingers of my left hand under the emergency shut down button and pulled it back up. The button clicked into place and the ships systems began to repower. Lights and view screens came to life as well as most of the control consoles around the bridge. Chaffey and Hollister had the fried fire control console removed and were lifting the replacement out of it storage container. As soon as they had it snapped down and plugged in, the bridge systems would be complete. However, glancing at the engineering console, I could see not all the ships systems were unscathed.

  “Chief, what’s up with the engines? My console shows a no go on start up.”

  “Not sure Sir. We have a dead circuit on the directional control system. We’re tracking it down. The reactor is coming on line now and everything else looks like a go.”

  As he said that the bridge lights got noticeably brighter as we switched from battery power to reactor power.

  “Copy that chief.” I replied. “Blain. Are the sensors up yet?”

  “Almost Sir. They’re resetting now.”

  “Walters. Get me a status report on all sections.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  “Sensors are up Sir.” Blain called out. “The Destroyer is still tumbling out of control and the Carrier has changed direction. They are heading out of the belt.”

  “To join the rest of their fleet?”

  “No Sir. Deep space! Their heading is 261 mark 89. Wait a second. Their jumping Sir. Warp bubble opening directly ahead of them.”

  Blain pulled up the main viewer to the departing Krueg Battle Carrier and we watched as it disappeared into a warp bubble and vanished.

  “Their running Sir!” Hollister announced gleefully.

  “No they’re not. Not from us anyway. They’re going somewhere. My guess is they found the vaccine ship. Can you tell where they are jumping to?”

  “Maybe. Let me try something Sir.”

  I watched Blain as she adjusted the sensor settings and flipped various switches all the while listening intently to her head set. Finally she looked up at me and said. “All I can give you is a general heading. Until they come out of the warp bubble I won’t be able to give you a destination. I can tell you their warp wave is a very tight single wave so their destination must be close.”

  “Keep scanning along their trajectory. Look for another ship. That’s the only reason for them to head off in that direction.”

  “Aye aye Sir.”

  “Fire control is up Sir.” Chaffey called out.

  “Good, good. Try to get the Crimson Moon on DTL.”

  As Chaffey aimed the Data Transfer Laser in Gale’s direction I sat down in my chair, reached my left arm across to the right chair arm and opened a channel to sick bay.

  “Hirsch. You have any casualties down there?”

  “Nary a one.” Hirsch replied.

  “Good. I could use a little doctoring up here then. I think I dislocated my shoulder.”

  Every head snapped around to stare at me and Walters jumped to her feet and sprinted to my side.

  “Sir. What can I do?”

  “Nothing. Just keep your station and let Hirsch fix it when he gets here.”

  Apparently no one had noticed that my right arm had been hanging limp by my side or that I grimaced with pain every time I moved. The hard bounce on the floor had pushed something to a place it wasn’t meant
to be and I hoped it was dislocated rather than just plain broke.

  “I have Gale on DTL Sir.” Chaffey announced.

  “On the main screen.” I replied.

  The image of deep space was replaced with a view of the Crimson Moon’s bridge. Gale was sitting in the command chair and stood up when she saw me.

  “We’re on the asteroid now Sir. The Marines have gone in to help Sprite and we’re waiting for two medical evacs. What’s your status?”

  “We knocked out the Destroyer and took down about fifty or so fighters from the Carrier before they hit us with an EMP. We just got most of our systems back on line but don’t have engines yet. The carrier has jumped out to deep space and we’re waiting for them to come out of warp. Hopefully we’ll be able to locate the exit bubble. They must have found the vaccine ship and are going to intercept it. The Destroyer is tumbling out of control for now but we’ll keep a close watch on them. How’s the fight going there?”

  “Mexican standoff right now. The Krueg are hunkered down inside the asteroid and the Seals are holding position at the entrance to the bunker. Apparently there is only one way in or out of the place. We have two wounded but neither is life threatening. The Marines are heading in with their big guns so I’d say it will be over soon. Only question is will the Krueg surrender or fight to the death? Of course if they surrender, then they will die anyway. They’ll be exposed to the bird flu and that will be that.”

  “Yep. Unless they got the vaccine. The only reason for them to be in that rock is to recover the vaccine. That might be where the Croiddan were hiding the lab.”

  “We’ll know soon enough Sir. The Marines are going in! I’ll patch through the audio for you.”

  For the next few minutes we listened as the Marines and Seals fought it out with the Krueg. Gun fire, grenade explosions and rocket fire filled the broadcast along with shouts and sometimes screams as we took more hits. Sitting by and listening like this was pure torcher and I was glad for the distraction when Hirsch came in to check my shoulder.

  “You’re right! It ain’t where it’s supposed to be. We can go down to sickbay or do it here.”

  “Just do it. I can’t leave just now.”

  “Yeah I figured.” Hirsch replied. Then he motioned to the speaker and asked, “Am I going to get any work from all of that?”

  “Maybe. The Crimson Moon is on station but if they take too many casualties we’ll go help.”

  Hirsch lifted my arm up and held it straight out as he massaged my shoulder. Then with a sudden jerk he snapped my shoulder back in place. This was the third time I’d had a shoulder come out of socket and just like the other two it hurt a lot more going in than it did coming out. Hirsch pulled a needle out of his pocket, pulled the cap off with his teeth and jabbed it in me.

  “This is a Cortisone shot. It will keep the swelling down so your shoulder don’t freeze up.”

  “Thanks. This ain’t my first rodeo so I know what to expect.” I replied.

  “Ok then. I’m going to get ready for casualties. Let me know what to expect.”

  As Hirsch was leaving, Walters slipped up beside me and whispered in my ear.

  “The Shasta has taken command of the battle group. The Constellation has given order thirteen!”

  Order Thirteen. Abandon ship!

  CHAPTER 25: Back in the Fight.

  There are only two reasons for a Skipper to issue order 13. Either the ship is about to explode or burn up and you abandon ship to save the lives of your crew or you’ve been boarded and you destroy the ship to keep it out of enemy hands. In that instance you try to take the enemy with you. In either of those circumstances it is generally accepted that the Captain goes down with the ship. Captain Wayne Scott was on the verge of promotion to Admiral but he was also facing an uncertain future with his kidney disease. Going out in a blaze of glory while taking down an enemy battle carrier might not be a bad option in his eyes.

  “Get me an open channel to the Constellation.” I ordered Walters as I punched a button on my chair’s com pad to open a channel to engineering. “Chief, give me some good news on the engines.”

  “No news yet Skipper. We’re still tracking down the problem.” The chief replied.

  “Come on Chief. The whole dang fleet is in the fight of the century and I want to get in on it.”

  “Sir.” Walters interrupted. “I can’t get the Constellation but I have the Shasta.”

  “Put him on video.”

  The tiny ten inch monitor lit up and the Shasta’s bridge came into view. The air was filled with smoke and the bridge lights were about half lit. Leland was busy giving orders to rotate the ship so I waited for him to finish.

  “Sorry about that. It’s real hairy around here. What’s your situation?” Leland asked.

  “Dead in the water right now. You’re taking command over there?”

  “Yes. The Constellation is down. She’s completely depressurized and running on one reactor. Scott issued order 13 about four minutes ago. We’ve taken out five of the Krueg Destroyers but we’re not having much effect on this carrier. We’ve also lost the Texas and two of the Chinese ships. That plasma gun they have is a killer. I would ask for your help but honestly, I don’t know what good it will do.”

  “What about your GUTM warhead?”

  “Total waste! To keep out of the blast radius we had to fire the thing from four hundred miles out but the Krueg hit it with their plasma cannon. The thing just made a huge light show and fragged our coms. To get close enough for a kill shot would be suicide.”

  “Speaking of that, does Scott still have propulsion?”

  “I think so. Why?”

  “He might be getting ready to take down that carrier himself.”

  Leland looked up at his main view screen for a second and then back at me.

  “Dang! You think he’s gonna rammem?”

  “I would!”

  “Dang!” He said again.

  We listened to the fight for another four minutes as I waited for Cob to get my ship fixed. Sitting there helpless to do anything was maddening but if we could do something, I wouldn’t know which way to go. Chase the Krueg into deep space, run to the aid of Scott or go to the asteroid and backup Sprite & Gale. Finally Gale came across the DTL with some good news.

  “Sir. The Krueg have surrendered!”

  “Fantastic! What’s your status?”

  “We have six wounded, none life threatening at this time. The Krueg have seven dead, ten wounded and fifteen have surrendered and are in custody. Sprite is going to make a full report as soon as they secure the base.”

  I was just getting ready to ask Gale about the contents of the base when Walters caught my attention. She was listening to the battle group coms and started franticly waiving her hand at me.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “The Constellation just rammed the Krueg Battle Carrier!”

  My channel to the Shasta was still open and I could see Leland standing in front of his command chair and shouting orders into the ships address mic. “Emergency evac! Clear the area! I want a two hundred mile buffer zone between us and that Krueg ship. They may initiate a self-destruct.”

  “Leland! Are you copying me?” I shouted into the com.

  “Yes. I copy.”

  “What’s it look like? Can you get me a video feed?”

  Leland reached to his control console and flipped a switch. Instantly the view changed and I could see the Constellation sliding backwards out of the gaping hole it had just torn in the side of the Krueg Carrier. The front of the Constellation was crushed like a soda can. The damage ran all the way back to the number six bulkhead rivets. I knew the bulkheads on the Constellation were set at ninety six foot intervals which meant nearly six hundred feet of the ship had been destroyed. For all the damage to the Constellation the Krueg Carrier was just as bad. The breech in the carrier’s midsection ran from the bottom starboard corner of the bottom hull to just past the midline of the top deck. Ev
en as we watched, the carrier seemed to be buckling along the hull breach as vaporous clouds of white gas erupted violently from the open decks of the ship. Then the death blow came in the form of four MT400 torpedoes. Two appeared to come from the Shasta and two more from another ship off the Shasta’s port side. The four torpedoes snaked around the retreating Constellation and entered the enemy Battle Carrier through the open hull breach. The explosions widened the hull breach farther and blew out the port side of the Ship’s hull. Then the nose of the ship began to twist and sway as the superstructure broke apart under the strain. The ship sagged and then broke in half allowing the tail section to turn its gaping broken superstructure to the camera.

  “Are you seeing this?” Leland asked.

  “Yes but I’m not sure what I’m looking at. Is the center of that ship hollow?”

  “Looks that way. It’s like a giant open hanger in there.”

  The Shasta’s search lights came on and lit up the inside of the broken vessel as they moved forward to get a closer look. The broken end of the Carrier revealed an inner corridor that ran the entire length of the ship. I counted the decks to get an estimate of the size of the internal cavern.”

  “That’s what, about twenty decks high and maybe twice as wide?”

  “Yep. That’s what I count.” Leland Agreed. “About two hundred feet tall and four hundred wide. Looks like it runs the entire length of the ship. Not exactly how you’re supposed to build them.”

  “Not according to our engineers.” I agreed.

  “Man. If we could have gotten just one torpedo in that thing it would have done some serious damage.”

  “Oh yeah. Internal shock wave in a pressurized cabin like that. It would have blown out somewhere, that’s for sure. As big as that is we could have put a whole ship in there and really torn things up. Hey, don’t hang around there too long. When we took out those destroyers at Neptune one of them set off a self-destruct. Pull everybody back and radio them terms for surrender.”

  “Yes Sir. You think any of them are still alive?”