The Shattering War

by James Edward

They found out that most of the PRC ships were now contaminated with the invasive nanobots that when activated would start to destroy the drive systems and power plants of the ships that they infected. This was a gift from Conrad when the PRC had grabbed the tank farms just outside the orbits of Sempter and Omicron 2. These expropriated tank farms were salted with self-replicating nanobots mixed with the fuel, and they entered the ships through the fueling of the ships. They then started to replicate and spread throughout the engines and fuel systems. They attacked the metal of the fuel and power systems, eroding it and causing failures, which would eventually cause the engines to fail or critical power systems like weapons or life support or shields to fail. All a Conrad corvette had to do was activate a signal disguised as a sensor pulse to turn the metal-eating nanobots on.

  The stealth ships had managed to evade detection, mostly due to the fact that the PRC was not even looking for them and didn’t have the knowledge that most of their ships had been defeated by the stealth ships and mines. Being able to observe the comings and goings of the PRC warships had helped them build a picture of what was happening in the empire. They knew which worlds fell to the PRC and which were resisting.

  As it stood now, only the eight core worlds were holding out. Two more systems that had enough foresight to gear up and protect themselves were holding out. But they were out along the edge and didn’t have the support of the core worlds. There were six or so systems that had gone neutral but were slowly getting forced to join the PRC. The eight core worlds would be a tough nut for the PRC to crack, as they were the most industrial and the most technologically advanced. They also were the ones that most of the rebel ships had fled to, so most of them had a readymade fleet protecting their systems. Trade with the other holdout was helping them continue, but there was a strict embargo stopping any other systems or free worlds from going in to try to trade.

  The table went around and around with ideas, recommendations, and wild theories. Laughs and arguments broke out and resolved themselves as they worked on deciding whether to come to the aid of the beleaguered AGW or take a different stand and open a front against the PRC. Eventually, wild ideas and needs and wants settled into a couple of workable ideas to cause the PRC major damage and have them set back their plans. The best one was to destroy the ship and repair yards in all three systems at the same time. This would actually cripple the PRC and force them to slow their advance, giving the beleaguered some breathing room and some time to get their own shipyards in full production. Ray knew through Jeb Juliard that the PRC was already scavenging the Fleet bone yards for workable ships to replace their losses or free up their patrol ships for better action. By losing the bone yards and their own three shipyards, they would handicap the PRC.

  Soon an agreement was struck, and they started the onerous task of creating a plan that would hit all three yards at the same time. More arguments and more compromises ensued as they worked on three task forces. It was decided that the three battleships would each lead a task force, consisting of five ships, a battleship, heavy cruiser, cruiser, destroyer, and frigate.

  George was disappointed that he wasn’t given command of a task force, but he did understand that he was the latecomer. Still, he had participated in the planning of the strike and the development of the plan. It was enough for now, but there would come a time when he would want to lead a strike against the PRC. He sat in with Byron Weatherfew and watched the task forces get rigged up for the attack. The attack would take place in fifteen days. Task force Blue, under Olaf Trogsen, had the farthest to go, so they would leave first, followed by Bruce Duely with task force Orange and finally Ray with Green.

  There was concern that the system was vulnerable with fifteen of his ships gone, but they still had eighteen warships in the system, including the corvettes. The guard platforms and the Anaconda would be a tough nut to crack as the Anaconda had finally gotten their complement of fighters up to three hundred. Work was still progressing at the shipyard to produce the first Viper Series battleship. The holdup was the development of the hyper drive. It was still a problem, and it was causing sleepless nights for Sergie, but there was nothing they could do about it for now. The Viper Series Mamba battleship was pulled out of dock, and another ship’s skeleton was forming up. Every ship, along with the guard platforms and station fighter squadrons, would go on amber alert until the fleets returned.

  Ray watched as each task force blinked its lights and headed out to the gate. He had a quiet dinner with Sinclair and enjoyed her company for the last night before boarding the ship. Ray finally disengaged himself from her embrace and got dressed. “You know, Sin, we need to get a bigger apartment. With the fleet getting bigger, it is becoming harder and harder to have enough room for the guests now. Maybe while I am gone you can talk to Bev or Lydia and see if we can get this unit expanded or get another one.”

  “I will see what can be done,” Sinclair answered, knowing that Ray was doing this to deflect her from worrying about him. “You just keep your head down.”

  “Will do, hon.” Ray kissed her again and went out the door. After a final briefing with his top advisors, Ray boarded his ship, and with the lights blinking, they headed for the gate.

  CHAPTER 16

  Causing Damage

  OLAF’S TASK FORCE, TASK FORCE Blue flashed into the Headlands system and quietly headed in a slow curve toward the Taal shipyards. This shipyard was bustling with activity ships and freighters coming and going. It was obvious that they were on a war footing and that the ships that were in the shipyard were new ones. These docks were enormous compared to Conrad’s yards. These yards could build five ships at a time and were going full tilt. Olaf was looking at his viewer as they circled closer.

  “They appear to be building cruisers and heavies here, XO. There are only eight warships here from the looks of our passive sensor readings,” Olaf said, stating the obvious. “We will target these ships first, then the new construction in the yard, then the yards themselves. I want all the freighters taken out and all the warehousing docks destroyed. We will engage the support ships as we leave.

  “Contact Darla. She with the Raptor will engage the picket cruiser at point Alpha. Brontus will engage the picket frigate near the yard entrance. Make that point Bravo. Marlin and Badger will attack the corvettes; we will engage the only cruiser and will assist with whoever needs help after we have killed the cruiser. Tell all ships we will fire in half an hour. Depending on what ships are left, either Darla with Raptor or the destroyer and frigates will engage the fleeing ships. All ships will engage the freighters and support ships. I want total destruction of as many ships as we can. We will engage the shipyard ourselves.”

  “Roger that, sir,” his XO said. “The order is going out to the task force now. Tactical is plotting a firing solution on the cruiser. We will be firing ship killers at the cruiser and the destroyer that is just on the other side of it.”

  “Excellent. Once the cruiser and destroyer are destroyed, target the frigate at point Gamma, this will be our path through the yard. All laser and particle batteries that are not on point defense are to target the yards. As soon as we launch, have the sensor send that code to activate the nanobots in this system’s ships,” Olaf stated.

  On the cruiser Darkscream, the sensor operator sat at his console and stared at the screen. It had been a long day, and he was due for relief in less than an hour. He was thinking more about the meal than the sensors. He was so bored that he didn’t even register the blips on the screen until the warning screen flashed. Taking a second to refocus and look at the blips, he was still unable to come to the realization that what was on his screen were missiles. Missiles! His mind screamed as his boredom turned to terror. He keyed his console and announced in a high, squeaky voice, “Missile launch, unknown location, six Tigers inbound, impact in seven seconds!”

  “Raise shields! Go to red alert! Captain to the bridge. Engineering, I want maximum
engines now!” shouted the bridge watch, a young lieutenant. “Helm, give me all possible speed at a heading of 80.4 relative and up angle sixteen degrees.”

  There was stunned silence from his skeleton bridge crew for a couple of wasted seconds before they started to work their consoles. But it was already too late, as the first of six Tigers tore into the undefended hull and exploded. The last Tiger didn’t explode, as all there was to target was expanding wreckage. But it did swing to lock on the destroyer that had managed to get its shields up and was trying to turn away from the wreckage.

  On the destroyer Impact, the XO happened to be on the bridge when they saw the missile launch. She had ordered the destroyer to go to maximum power and the helm to move in an evasive course. She called for tactical to load and fire at the origin of the missiles’ launch in hopes that whatever sent in those missiles would be too busy to worry about the destroyer. As they turned away, they failed to notice that a Tiger had locked onto them through the wreckage and started its run. It wasn’t until they began their turn that the tactical shouted out the missile track, and they saw the Tiger missile coming at them. Point defense and all the rail guns opened up to try to kill the missile, but once the missile had a lock, it became like a thinking machine and was able to jog out of the way of most of the fire. The missile impacted the shields just behind the engine room. The back end of the destroyer pitched up, and huge crack appeared around two-thirds of the hull, venting water, atmosphere, and bodies.

  Two corvettes sped toward the shipyard from just outside the orbit of Taal. Olaf’s Blue task force destroyer Marlin and frigate Badger engaged the corvettes. Marlin fired on the first corvette with four ship-to-ship missiles. These would be the lesser Eagle missiles. The corvette went into a sharp climb to avoid the Eagles, but these missiles had their own tracking system and once locked on could only be destroyed, not dodged or outrun. As it climbed, it tried everything in its point defense arsenal to kill the missiles and was lucky enough to destroy two, but the other two found their mark, and another debris field resulted. Taal would be witnessing a meteor shower over the next week as chunks of the corvette fell into the atmosphere.

  The second corvette turned and started to move away, but Badger was already on an intercept course. The corvette fired a complete range of missiles in the general direction of the Badger, which kept Badger’s point defense and rail guns busy, but her main weapons started to fire on the corvette. She fired four ship-to-ship Eagles and followed up with lasers and particle beams. The detonation of two of the Eagle missiles a thousand meters from the corvette smashed in her shields, collapsing them, and the lasers started to carve deep holes into the hull. Hull breaches were erupting all over the corvette as the other two missiles impacted into the side. That ship joined its sister as a debris field and a meteor shower.

  The heavy cruiser Raptor fired on the cruiser that was on picket duty on the other side of the shipyard. Again they were caught by surprise and only managed to raise their shields before the shields were destroyed. The captain of the cruiser was experienced and immediately rolled his ship while screaming for maximum power. He ordered all point defenses to find, track, and kill the missiles, but as much as he was a seasoned fighter, his crew was green and not used to violent warfare. One of the reasons he was there on picket duty was to allow his crew some space time before going out to engage the rebels. It took too long for the point defense and tactical to get into the battle. By that time, they had taken another hit from a Tiger in the midships. The cruiser broke in half, venting atmosphere, water, bodies, and debris. As Darla pulled past the broken ship, she put an Eagle missile into the two pieces of the broken ship, destroying anything that could have been salvageable. She then fired a full broadside of Falcon missiles at the fleeing freighters and tugs. Most of these missiles would destroy their assigned targets. Tugs and freighters weren’t equipped with the type of shield emitters that would be able to lessen the missile impacts. Local system freighters and tugs were hardly shielded at all.

  At the same time that Olaf and Darla fired at the cruiser. Brontus, who had made its way closer to the entrance and within eight thousand kilometers of the picket ship Jackal, fired. Jackal had barely five seconds before they were hit by three Tigers. They were so surprised at the attack that they didn’t even move, didn’t raise shields or fire back. Carol Standborn, the captain of the Brontus, figured the bridge crew was sleeping so never did get the alarm until it was already a dying ship.

  Olaf and Darla started their run on the shipyard and warehousing facilities, firing missile after missile into the newly constructed ships, ship hulls, warehouse holding bays, and enclosed construction areas. The heavy particle beams and lasers carved up the structure of the shipyard construction bays. They traversed through the drifting wreckage twice, firing on anything of any size and anything that looked intact.

  “Have we accomplished our mission?” Olaf asked his XO. “Six of their warships killed, freighters and tugs destroyed, and the shipyards are ruined. It will take them ten years to rebuild that scrap yard. What became of the last two picket ships?”

  “Badger and Marlin are in pursuit. I don’t think they will catch them, as they rabbited as soon as there was a missile launch. Badger is asking whether to continue or rejoin the task force,” his XO stated.

  “No, we have completed our objective. Have them form up with us. Launch a couple of observation and communication satellites and have Badger do the same where he is now. We might as well see what they will do with this mess. When they are with us, we will leave. Have you prepared the communiqué to broadcast up departing?”

  “Yes, sir. Com has the communiqué ready, ordering Badger and Marlin to rejoin us now,” the Xo replied.

  As the task force moved out toward the gate, Olaf had the communiqué sent to all stations on Taal and to Longstat, the other inhabited planet in the Headlands system. The communiqué was a digital image that read a statement saying, “This is the CSWS Valkyrie. This attack was a reprisal for the unprovoked and deliberate attack on our system. This shipyard was being used to build ships to be used against us and our system. This will no longer be tolerated. While we regret the loss of human life, we do not regret any of the subsequent damage or destruction. Anyone that follows the dictates of the Parliamentary Ruling Council or its enforcers will from now on be subject to the same degree of aggression as what the PRC is or has imposed on free systems. As of now, a state of war exists between the PRC and our system, and any and all ships flying the PRC flag will be dealt with by deadly force.”

  “Entering the Solvent system now, sir,” Bruce’s XO reported as they slipped unseen through the gate.

  “Very well, XO,” Bruce replied. “I believe that Sigma Five’s shipyard is between the two planets. That will make it easy to hit, but we will need to be watchful of picket ships. Do we have a count of warships in the system?”

  “The count is twelve warships. Eight are corvettes, three are frigates that are on picket duty, and one is a cruiser that is docked at the platform in front of the yards. We do have three more ships that appear to be in repair bays. They are a heavy cruiser and two light cruisers. The yards themselves seem to have six ships under construction; all appear to be cruisers,” the sensor operator stated.

  “Very well. Coms, tell Jackspar to engage the frigates at his discretion. Inform Wolf Fang that he can target the corvettes. We will take the cruiser. Destroyer Everglade can assist with the frigates at the direction of Jackspar, and Wolf can assist with the corvettes. When all are neutralized, we will target the yards and the repair facilities,” Bruce instructed. “We will strike in an hour. All will tight beam when in position, and all will wait on my missile launch.”

  Each ship acknowledged its orders and started its missile run, timing it to the launch of Victorious missiles.

  The PRC cruiser Hawkspur was sitting docked to the administration wing of the shipyards. They were actually just
visiting and not on guard duty. The captain knew the chief of administration on the station and had dropped by to visit while they waited in line for the repair bay to open up. His XO was also in the station cafeteria enjoying a meal. The bridge watch was a junior lieutenant who was in the middle of her shift, the captain leaving her in charge while anchored to the station. She was very nervous of her first shift at the helm of a warship and so was on guard against everything and anything. She was sitting in the captain’s chair looking intently at her screens, watching the freighters and tugs go about their business.

  “Sensors, what does your screen say about eighty-six alpha?” she asked the sensor operator.

  The sensor operator was used to overzealous and nervous officers in command and decided to humor her by actually looking. “Sensors return no anomalies, ma’am,” he replied.

  “Roger. I thought I saw a difference in the star field for a second there—like a shimmer—but I guess it was nothing,” she replied.

  A minute later, the sensor operator jerked upright. “Missile launch, six Tigers inbound from the eighty-six alpha coordinates, impact in fourteen seconds.”

  “Raise shields and disengage us from the station. Go to red alert. Helm, full power to the engines. Put us on a heading thirty degree relative from the station. Tactical, free up all automatic point defense, target those missiles, and re-plot back to missile appearance,” she shouted! “Inform the station that we are under attack and are moving away from the station.”

  On the station, the captain was relaxing in a very comfortable chair while he sipped an expensive whiskey. He was enjoying his visit with an old mentor when the station claxon start up. He jerked up out of the chair and started running toward his ship when he heard the docking bolts explode and the areas blast doors slammed shut. “What the hell is going on?” he shouted over the din.

  The station manager was listening to his ear bud and looking at the captain. He straightened stared in shock and then headed for the door. “We are under attack. Your ship has broken away from the station and is turning to engage the attacker.”