by Kal Spriggs
Daniel's gaze went to where the Ghornath female stood. She seemed inordinately calm given the situation. “Very well, so you think she's the key. We'll do our best to finish this journey for you.” Daniel brought up the evasive courses plotted by navigation and chose one that gave them the best range advantage. It would be a longer pursuit, but they would emerge from the debris field with greater standoff to use their weapon systems to their best advantage.
“Thank you,” Burbeg said. “I will seek to rejoin you once I have dispatched these threats. Go with honor.” Burbeg cut the communication link.
“Engage Evasive Pattern Charlie,” Daniel said. The Constellation leapt from a relative crawl to near full speed. He saw Burbeg's ship reverse course and head back towards the Gateway. Daniel grinned as the enemy craft hesitated for a long moment. Got you, bastards.
***
We have been detected, Sidewinder sent to his ship commanders.
He felt shock as he saw the two ships split up. He would not have expected the slave-race to so easily abandon their allies. Regardless, the main target retreated to the Gateway... and his orders were clear.
Main group, pursue the primary target, Scouts Three, Two, and Six prevent the human ship from supporting the slave-race vessel, he sent. His ship leapt in pursuit of the slave-race vessel. Those who had successfully transited the portal were not to be allowed to live. They, like all those who had come before, would be killed.
His attention went back to the human ship and his three scout vessels detached to pursue it. The vessel was no threat, he knew. The humans would not be able to get past the defenses that awaited them. Without their allies, they would soon be trapped here, unable to escape. They would either die of starvation or die trying to escape the barrier.
Still, Sidewinder could not help a thread of worry as the human ship slipped away.
Drawing to engagement range, one of his ship commanders sent him.
Sidewinder's focus returned to the slave-race vessel. It was big and fast and he knew this fight would likely take all of his focus. Engage and destroy them, he sent, even as he prepared the weapons on his own craft.
***
The Constellation broke free of the debris field and her drives went to maximum acceleration.
Behind her, Daniel's sensors showed the three pursuing craft were maintaining the distance, even as they maneuvered to avoid debris. The ships weren't in range of his exotic particle cannons and he still couldn't engage them through the debris with missiles. “Tactical, what have we got?”
“Sir,” Ensign Perkins said, “All three vessels are corvette-sized. Energy signatures suggest they have gravitic-fusion powerplants, very high output and low margins for shielding.
Lieutenant Wohlberg spoke up, “Captain, looking at the data, if they have human crews... well, they won't last long with that sort of radiation, not without extensive medical support.”
“Noted,” Daniel nodded, “Weapons?”
“We haven't seen them fire, yet, sir,” Forrest said. “But the Ghornath sensor data indicated between three and five thousand kilometer engagement ranges. Assuming that's optimal, we're projecting a maximum effective range of nine thousand kilometers.”
That was about the normal range for small vessels like that, though the Ghornath had commented on the high power of the enemy energy weapons. It gave him considerably more range at twenty thousand kilometers for the EPCs. But we don't know how well-defended those vessels are, he thought.
“We'll focus fire on individual vessels,” Daniel said. “And I want a missile salvo, Mark V's, to hit their lead vessel as they come out of the debris.”
“Sir?” Forrest asked. Daniel didn't blame him for his confusion. The Mark V's hundred megaton warhead would be overkill against something the size of a corvette. But they didn't know the capabilities of the enemy ships... and this engagement was as good a chance as he'd get to estimate their power and capabilities.
“Lead vessel, single salvo,” Daniel said. “We need to see how they handle missiles.” Forrest nodded in reply, but his worried expression suggested he worried about their missile reserves. The big Mark V’s and the Moljnirs both used a lot of magazine capacity. A single salvo would represent ten percent of their magazine. While they had stock and key components to manufacture replacement missiles, they didn't have replacement warheads, which meant they would have to manufacture fusion warheads, with significantly less powerful warheads.
Maybe that won't matter, he thought. Yet the very fact that there were enemy ships here now suggested that the Constellation would need every advantage to fight them in the near future.
“Enemy clearing the debris in five seconds,” Lieutenant Cassat said.
“Launch,” Daniel said. The standard Mark V’s streaked out at relatively short range of forty thousand kilometers. Even at relatively close range, the big missiles took almost a minute and a half to close the distance, the launch tubes having slowed the missiles relative velocity to zero and giving them a bit of relative velocity towards the enemy.
The enemy used that time to build up speed and without the need to dodge debris, they showed a raw acceleration that made Daniel grimace. In a straight-line acceleration they traveled faster than some of the United Colony's newest fighter designs. Nearly as fast of acceleration as the Mark V shipkiller missiles, in fact.
Even with their lead, the enemy ships would close the distance faster than Daniel liked. At least their race through the debris had separated them so they shouldn't be able to support each other against his salvo.
“Has the enemy begun jamming yet?” Daniel asked.
“Negative, sir,” Lieutenant Cassat said.
“Interesting,” Daniel muttered. He looked at Ensign Giovanni, “Alannis, go ahead and open a channel to them. It doesn't hurt to see if they'll talk to us.”
When she gave him a nod, he spoke into his display, “Unidentified ships, this is the UCS Constellation. We have detected hostile intent on your part and fired warning shots. Please respond.”
He waited a long moment before she finally shook her head, “No response, sir.”
Hardly surprising, he thought, even as he watched the missiles home in the last bit of distance.
At that point, the missiles flew so fast that the human eye couldn't make sense of what happened. At one instant the missiles were closing the distance and in the next they were gone. Pinpricks of light displayed where the four missiles had died. Three of them had been intercepted by fire from the lead corvette. The fourth, it seemed, had detonated in close proximity to the enemy corvette. While the detonation didn't tell him much about how tough the enemy vessel had been, it did tell him that a hundred megaton explosion of antimatter and matter meeting was sufficient to destroy one.
At that rate, he thought, I'll expend my entire magazine of Mark V’s to kill three of them.
“How's their point defense?” Daniel asked even as he watched the other two ships close with no hesitation. Clearly they didn't mind the loss of one vessel.
“Very nasty, sir,” Forrest said. “I was able to spoof their fire by hiding one missile behind another and masking the launch, but I don't think they'll fall for that again. They were three for three on the ones they saw. I detected twelve point defense batteries, which engaged at eight thousand kilometers.”
Daniel nodded. The enemy hadn't known how many missiles they could launch, but they would know now. They could launch their point defense missiles, but since they didn't know what missile capabilities they had, if any, Daniel didn't want to use those unless he had no other choice, especially not on the off chance that they could flood the enemy's point defense.
I hate fighting unknowns, Daniel thought, too much guessing, not enough facts. Fighting the Chxor had been simple. The Chxor never deviated from the pattern, especially not in combat.
Fighting the Balor had been far worse than this, they'd been outclassed in everything besides weight of ships and fire. At least they'd known they wer
e outclassed. These people, whoever they were, were a mystery.
“Engagement range in one minute,” Lieutenant Cassat said.
“Focus fire,” Forrest said, “we still don't know how tough these guys are and just because they haven't used jamming, it doesn't mean they aren't keeping that in reserve.” He highlighted a target, “Primary target is Gamma and secondary target is Beta.”
The enemy ships drew closer and then Forrest opened up with the EPCs. Unlike the Warshrike, the firing sequence didn't have the hum that had almost become familiar. I miss the old girl, he thought.
Three of the four shots seemed to hit the lead corvette, yet there was no sign of debris or outgassing. “Status of target?” Daniel asked.
“Negative impact,” Lieutenant Cassat replied. “We're seeing some significant energy emissions...”
“A shield,” Rory said excitedly. “They've managed to use human tech to produce a shield like the Balor or some of the precursor aliens.
Rory spoke so quickly that he stumbled over the words, “You have to, I insist, capture one of those ships. The things we could learn...”
“I doubt that would be easy,” Daniel said. ”How effective are these shields of theirs?”
“Judging by the power output,” Rory said, “and the energy field shifts, they're about forty percent as effective as equivalent Balor ships would be.”
Daniel spoke calmly, even as he watched Forrest fire again, again to no apparent effect despite two definite hits. ”How many times do we need to hit them to knock out their shields?”
“Seven or eight solid hits,” Rory said. ”Give or take a standard factor of
“Seven or eight hits,” Daniel nodded at Forrest, “Hit them again.” Good thing we focused fire, he thought. Especially since the two ships had begun to evade. While their straight line acceleration was remarkable, neither ship seemed as maneuverable as he would have expected. He'd have to think about what that implied as far as fighting them, but he'd imagine it put them at a disadvantage against lighter vessels who could out-maneuver them.
The third round of EPC shots were dead on against the enemy's shields. The enemy corvette simply vanished, replaced by a pinprick of light to show that the fusion generator had lost containment.
“Captain, I said you need to capture...”
The other ship, however, had drawn within range. ”Enemy ship firing!” Lieutenant Cassat said from sensors.
It fired its main gun at the same time as Forrest engaged it. The entire ship lurched and damage alarms began to wail.
“Hit to starboard,” Commander Bowder said after a moment, “Damage to engine pods one and three, rear engineering took a hit, our rear defense screen is down...”
“Kill that ship, now!” Daniel barked.
Forrest opened up with the main weapons and the enemy corvette vanished in a ball of fire.
“Status of the other vessels?” Daniel asked.
“It appears that they followed Strike Leader Burbeg through the Gateway,” Lieutenant Cassat said after a moment. ”We're clear on enemy contacts.”
Daniel scanned over the updated damage report and he blanched a bit as he saw what one hit had done. ”What did they hit us with?”
“Some kind of pulsed energy weapon, sir,” Commander Bowder said.
“It's very interesting,” Feliks said. ”Did you notice the gamma output when they fired?”
“Yes, fascinating, really,” Rory replied, “They fit an extremely powerful weapon aboard such a tiny ship. I mean, we could learn a great deal from these people... assuming they stop trying to kill us long enough for me to study their tech. I'm amazed at what they've managed to do with human ship components.”
Daniel didn't bother to restrain his sigh. ”Department heads, to the conference room in one hour. All hands, stand down from battle stations.”
***
Chapter XVII
The Wastes of Argolim
The Sacred Stars
December 30, 2407
Against his better judgement, Daniel had allowed Rory and Feliks to sit in on his post-battle review.
“...we've repaired the damage to drive pod three, but pod one will require substantial repairs, sir.” Lieutenant Commander Voronkov said. ”I'd say a full rebuild is necessary, probably back at Faraday or Nova Roma shipyard.”
Daniel grimaced at that, though it wasn't much of a surprise. The damage the small enemy vessel had done was out of proportion to the craft's size. With the loss of a quarter of their engines, the Constellation effectively lost thirty percent of its maximum acceleration due to the need to cut back on thrust on the other three engine pods in order to balance the vessel better. On a fusion-plant ship, they could have transferred fuel around to act as ballast, but the Constellation had no fuel tanks. And we're also rather low on supplies, he thought, so moving those around won't help much.
“The defense screens are back online, the hit cut a power junction which we've replaced,” Lieutenant Commander Voronkov continued. ”So other than engines, we're back to full fighting capacity.”
“How are our wounded, Lieutenant Wohlberg?”
“Recovering as best as they can,” she replied. “Tech Specialist Gurney will be confined to his bed for the next few months. The hit he took to his spine will require extensive treatment to repair the nerve damage and then there will be physical therapy... it'll be some time until he's on his feet again.” She frowned, “Petty Officer Peck and Ensign Medica will require limb regrowth or possibly replacement. I'd like your permission to put them into temporary cold sleep until we get back home.”
Daniel frowned at that. He'd already given permission for two of their burn victims to be put “on ice” for the trip home. The Constellation had ten cryogenic capsules for storing injured and sick crew who needed a full medical suite for support. While putting crew down for that would make their transition to healing much easier, what the Constellation didn't have was the capabilities to safely bring crew out of cryogenic sleep. Putting Petty Officer Peck and Ensign Medica in would effectively use up those two slots, which meant if they had more serious injuries later on, he might have crew who died because they couldn't survive without more serious medical attention.
“Hold off on that for now,” Daniel said. He held up a hand as she started to protest, “I know, doctor, that neither of them are functional. However, my concern is that we've not yet faced a sizable enemy force. If we do, we may take serious casualties and I'd like to keep as many cold sleep berths open.”
She gave a reluctant nod and Daniel turned his attention to Rory and Feliks, “Now then, we know how we're doing... what about the enemy?”
“We have only just begun to examine data,” Feliks hedged. ”It could take days, even weeks to draw up solid conclusions.”
“What can you tell me now?” Daniel asked.
“Well, it's obvious that they calibrated their shields to better counter the exotic particle emissions of Ghornath-based technology,” Rory waved a hand, as if that was something plain to see. “Therefore they either knew we were similarly armed or they expected to fight only the Ghornath.”
“So either they know more about us than we'd like or they didn't realize we'd be here,” Daniel nodded, “Which doesn't tell us much. What else?”
“The energy weapon is a surprisingly powerful energy projector,” Feliks said. “From what we can tell, they project high intensity focused gamma radiation, probably through use of multiple heavy-duty capacitors and gravitational lensing...”
“How do we defend against it?” Daniel asked. “They punched right through our defense screen.”
Rory and Feliks looked at each other, “I don't really see a defense,” Rory said after a moment, running a hand through his sparse hair. “This is an extremely powerful weapon, like what you'd expect to see on a battlecruiser or battleship, even. The power output is simply enormous.”
“The defense screen,” Feliks said, “it is a magnetically contained plasma, which can
deflect or defuse a certain gradient of projectile an energy weapons...”
“I know what a defense screen is,” Daniel said dryly.
“Right, sure you do,” Rory waved a hand. “Normal attacks, you see a scattering effect for energy weapons, until they punch through. What that does is decrease the overall power that reaches the armor and hull. Most times that's fifty to seventy percent decrease in overall power.”
“With this gamma pulse weapon,” Feliks said, “it is projecting energy at such a narrow wavelength that the vast majority of it completely bypasses the ionized plasma. In fact, the magnetic fields of the defense screens themselves are the only thing that provides any real protection and even that is relatively minimal.”
“Basically,” Rory said, “It's like trying to stop a high speed bullet with a pillow. We're talking about wavelengths in single digit picometers.” He shook his head, “They've got to be powering this thing off of directional fission and given the limited shielding on their power plant...”
“Their crews are either extremely resistant to genetic radiation damage or they are not concerned with long-term survival.” Lieutenant Wohlberg said.
“So,” Daniel said, “There's no effective defense. They opened fire at nine thousand kilometers, obviously we're better with some kind of standoff.” Yet the enemy had knocked down three of their four missiles. “What's the maximum effective range on this weapon of theirs?”
“I'd estimate no more than twelve thousand kilometers,” Rory said. “And that's not because of the weapon itself. I think if it was properly mounted you could get accuracy out to thirty thousand kilometers easily, but...”
Feliks nodded, “Yes, good point, they're using human technology that is commonly available. Even with custom designed mountings, they'd need a much larger vessel to gain more range. A cruiser or battlecruiser at least.”
Thirty thousand kilometers, he thought and he saw the faces of his officers blanch at the thought. This weapon system was absolutely devastating as it was. With the range extended that far and with multiple weapons per vessel, it would be a nightmare to face in any kinds of numbers. ”How many of these could they have?” Daniel asked.