Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer)

by Hechtl, Chris

  “Okay,” Irons nodded, rubbing his chin. “Swap crew?” he asked. “Temporary?”

  “Could work. At least for the interim. I strongly suggest we get some down time soon though Admiral,” Firefly cautioned. “You organics aren't built for sustained work at these levels and for extended time periods. Marked loss in efficiency has been noted in the last two shifts.”

  “Right. We've got Warthog's drive sorted out as far as we can, and her hull is buttoned up. I see...” He looked at the HUD. “We've got her weapons up, all but the last point defense turret. Get her crew list sorted out with Captain Waters and have them start running diagnostics and start shaking things down to stamp out the bugs. Have our own people stand down at the end of this shift and rest.”

  “Aye aye,” Firefly said nodding. “You need the rest too Admiral, we need you ship shape as well for the battle.”

  “Agreed,” Irons sighed. He looked over to Harris. “You've got the bridge. Pass it over to Dan and then Janice in four hour increments. Get some down time now folks while we can. You'll need it soon enough. I want you all fresh, fed, and rested when the time comes.”

  He fought a yawn as he got up and stretched. “Carry on,” he nodded, exiting the compartment.

  Chapter 21

  "We've got hyper emergence from the Agnosta jump point. Globular formation, locus confirmed," the sensor tech looked up face tight.

  Irons nodded. "Ship types and course?" he asked. They had been on station for the past two days. It looked like their luck had finally run out. Firefly was low, at the bottom of the minefield. The gunships Maya and Warthog were on either flank of the field. Sun-Yat was at the top. All the ships were powered down in stealth mode, running as silent as they could.

  "Still gathering data now. It looks, yes, at least one destroyer Arboth class, two Manta class militia grade frigates, and at least a dozen civilian grade drives detected. We're picking up IFF on the destroyer and a factory ship now," she grimaced. "The destroyer... She's the Damocles sir, out of Haroth." Irons nodded.

  The sensor tech frowned, tweaking the feed. “Correction, three Frigates. Three. One of them was in the drive shadow of one of the freighters on the other side of the formation from us.”

  An Arboth class was a tough customer to face with anything less than a cruiser. The ship was a rough cylindrical shape, with flattened keel and top deck. Her stern had a cluster of eight fusion engines while her bow mounted the usual sensor suite and clusters of weapons.

  On her top and keel she had large kinetic energy turrets. Her flanks were studded with missile tubes, graser mounts, and a cruiser's point defense network. She was a fast and heavy hitter, but she had a limited weapons supply and only one large fusion reactor.

  He was pretty sure they didn't have her antimatter reactor up and running. If they had her energy reading would have been a hell of a lot higher. Judging from the patches on her hull she had seen better days.

  "And the factory ship?" he asked quietly.

  "She's the Hephaestus thirty three. The other civilian ships look like freighters and a yacht. One of the freighters is the Destiny. Sending data to your station now." The tech sent the mental command.

  He studied it for a moment. The destroyer was in the lead, the two frigates were on the flanks with the slower factory ship and freighters trailing. Most of the freighters were Clydesdales. A good hardy platform, the Clydesdales had been in service for centuries prior to the Xeno war with only periodic upgrades. They were quite common through out the galaxy. The Zanzibar class freighter was expected. The Demeter class agricultural ship was a surprise. He'd honestly thought that had been a miss identification. Either they had picked it up and kept it as a prize or they were using it as a logistics center.

  "We've got separation, looks like... " the tech frowned. "I thought it was parasite craft but they're too big sir." She looked over to him.

  "HKs," Firefly replied.

  "HKs?" Janice asked.

  "Hunter Killers. Gunboats. Sub-light ships about as powerful as our corvettes," Harris answered. "We've got six. They were spreading out around the formation, looks like one is playing shepherd over the freighters, the rest are moving into a conical formation in front of the fleet now."

  Irons nodded. "They are the hounds. The destroyer is the hunter. Makes sense." Harris grimaced. "They're good, I'll give them that. I didn't expect the HKs." He shook his head.

  "Are we in trouble?" Janice stage whispered.

  "When aren't we?" the sensor tech responded.

  "That's enough people. Let’s focus on the task at hand. Give me an ETA on the enemy task force to the minefield, and to the first colony. Tag the destroyer as bogey one, Each frigate as bogey two, three, and four, and the gunships as bogie's five through ten. Can we update the other ships without being detected?" Irons asked looking over to the comm. tech.

  "Yes sir, we've got a whisker on them now. They are several light minutes away though, it will take that long to update them and double that time to get a response," he said sounding guilty.

  "No problem. Give them an update. I think we're going to go with whiskey three alpha." Irons looked over to Harris who nodded confirmation. "Right, whiskey three alpha it is. Make sure they understand it."

  Whiskey three alpha was one of the plans he, Dan, Mayweather, and Harris had devised yesterday. They had only drilled it once as a team.

  "They've spotted the mine layers, some of the HKs, I mean bogeys, four and six are moving off in pursuit," the sensor tech said. Irons grimaced. Taking a decidedly still green crew into a combat situation was not something he was looking forward to doing. Then again, he didn't have a choice anymore.

  "Damn. Okay, we're going to have to sniper the HKs and frigates once the mines go off. Either kill or disable with KEWs the moment we start moving. Hit any still under power with beam weapons as we pass. I want a full spread on that big boy though, I don't like the looks of it," Irons said an hour later. The more he thought about it, the more he didn't like the odds. Three frigates, one tin can, and six HKs. Sure the Pyrax force was repaired, but they were nowhere near fighting trim. He knew an element to his unease was stage fright. It always kicked in before combat. He pointed to the destroyer. "Where the hell did they get something like that?" he muttered.

  "Probably the same place we did," Shelby said. She'd been surprised by the number of warships. They weren't well organized though, it had taken them an hour to shake down and launch their Hk's. Their passive readings were all over the place.

  He looked over to Firefly then shrugged. "Right. Helm. Come about to ten degrees by negative twenty point two. Let's keep them guessing about the attack. Time to mine field?" he asked.

  "Enemy ETA two minutes forty four seconds. The Valdez tug is running now. Tender has gotten underway but she's still streaming mines." Irons shook his head. Guiterrez had a set on him to keep doing that. Then again each mine he kicked out was less mass his drives had to push.

  "She's slower than all get out compared to a warship."

  He sighed. "Gutierrez and Jorge know what they are doing," Shelby said softly. He nodded. "We can't do anything but watch for now anyway," she said. He studied her profile then nodded again.

  "They're turning! Enemy is turning down hard!" the sensor tech said. He turned to the plot and swore softly.

  "Someone over there is smart. They figured it out," he said.

  "Damn." Shelby muttered.

  "It won’t help them much. Mines are in extreme attack range. Shall I activate them?" Harris at tactical asked.

  "Do it. But make sure they target the warships in range," Irons cautioned. Shelby looked over to him.

  "I want the freighters if we can catch them," he said. She raised an eyebrow. "Intel and prisoners," he expanded. She nodded suddenly.

  "Right." She turned back to her plot then sat back into her couch. "Jacking in," she murmured. He chuckled.

  “The lead elements are in attack range. Mines are active," the tac assistant inton
ed. “They are trying to maneuver to avoid the field.”

  “That's the fun part of inertia, it's a killer,” Irons muttered. The pirates were skidding into the minefield perimeter. They had stacked the field high, human nature being to pull up to avoid a sudden obstacle. So far that had paid off.

  The ships were trapped on their current bearing, a few of the ships that were faster on the helm had done an end over end flip to try to alter their speed and course but that still left their residual inertia to deal with.

  The holo field projected the probable course, speed, and attack range of the enemy ships and the mines. Firefly updated it every second. As ships drifted closer to the mine's final acquisition range the mine's sphere turned red to show they were locking on.

  "Target lock lost on to bogies five and seven on the enemy fleet's port side covering the freighters," Harris said softly. "We'll hit them with KEWs and grapeshot then finish with beams if we have to. Keep a running plot on them," he murmured.

  "Mines attacking. First detonations detected." Irons winced as the first mines erupted. They were detonating in a blinding flash just shy of the hunter killers. "Enemy point defense is hitting them too fast... wait, we got one!" the tac officer smiled.

  “Engineering warm up the reactors and engines. Lets keep the wedge and shields down and see how close we can get,” Irons growled.

  "Maneuvering execute helm order one," Harris called. The ship lurched as it lunged forward and down under the enemy formation then arched up to slash at them...

  "KEWs fired, KEWs on target. Firing second volley at secondary targets in range. Grapeshot fired. Missiles one and two fired," Harris intoned. “One minute to impact.”

  "Helm pitch up twenty degrees port three point four degrees. Then give me a lazy roll," Irons said. “Shields on standby.”

  "Aye aye. Pitching up twenty degrees yaw three point four degrees then rolling to port," Janice replied.

  “We've been detected. Kew's incoming.”

  “Raise shields. Drop stealth protocols. Full battle alert,” Irons said. Dan nodded.

  "Hits on bogies one and two. Their shields are down. One looks like it is out of control," Firefly reported. "Entering beam range... firing. Bogie two destroyed. Secondary targets disabled," Firefly reported. Irons nodded. That was one civilian freighter disabled.

  "Good firing guns!" Shelby called exuberant.

  Harris didn't even acknowledge the compliment. "Think they'll stick around to try to recover the freighters?" he asked. The other freighters had been disabled by the KEWs of the other ships by now. Harris waited then shook his head. "No, either they'll abandon them or they'll destroy them," he grimaced. Irons did as well. Maya disabled the factory ship with a single burst into her drive then jinked up, rolling around the massive ship to take on the bogy three frigate trying to run.

  "Let's see if we can keep that from happening," he studied the plot. "Helm jink up two degrees with emergency thrusters then yaw eight zero degrees to starboard." Firefly and Sun-Yat were scissoring up and down through the enemy formation slashing at them while the gunships scissored on the X plane. They couldn't remain on the same course bearing for long, it made for an inviting target. The corvette and gunships were detailed to take out the HK's and frigates, leaving Damocles to Firefly.

  "Missiles detonated. Looks like they have some additional point defense and ECM. I'm updating the threat profiles now," Harris said.

  "Destroyer is rolling to port now. She's trying to come around for a broadside," Firefly reported.

  Harris grunted. "She can try. We're already there. Helm roll twenty degrees starboard. Starboard batteries prepare to fire." He looked up from his holo projectors with a tigers grin as the pie shaped firing arch closed to the destroyer then changed to red. "She's toast. Fire!" he called.

  Firefly's broadside missile tubes each fired a missile volley, then a second, then the beam weapons fired. "Helm take her to one hundred eleven percent emergency power and pitch down twenty degrees. Then roll to keep the destroyer on our flank," Irons called. The grasers and gravity beams lashed out, slashing at targets of opportunity on the destroyer's hull.

  "Aye answering helm order." He watched as Janice executed the maneuver.

  "She's slow on the helm Admiral," Firefly said. The avatar watched the enemy ship. "Dazzlers are up. Deploying defensive drones," Firefly reported. On the plot they could see the destroyer fuzzed out by the intense flares of the first broadside. Harris had fired most of the dazzlers to bring their plot down. The destroyer tried to jink down and away, clearly trying for maneuvering room. Some of the late grasers dug into its flanks away from their target locations. A few missed all together.

  "Load grapeshot and KEWs," Harris intoned. Damocles tried to spray sand along her exposed flank.

  "Grapeshot loaded and ready," Firefly reported.

  "Plot their course..." He pointed to a plot ahead and slightly above where the ship was going to be.

  "Target locked."

  "Then fire," Harris said.

  "We've got three hits on her stern Admiral. She's slowing down. Shields are fluctuating," Harris announced after a moment.

  "Good. Keep up the good work guns." Irons turned to the plot. There were still one frigate and two HK's out there on the other side of the formation, along with the disabled ships.

  "Sun-Yat is moving, she's firing on one bogey one," Firefly reported. Irons pulled up the CIC feed and nodded. “She's a manta. Good speed and she's got one heck of a bow shield.”

  "Which isn't doing her any good since she's running from Sun-Yat right now. All enemy units are turning. It looks like they're trying to run," Harris said. "Damn!" He suddenly pounded his arm rest.

  "Missed?" Shelby asked looking over to him.

  "Most of them yeah," Harris sounded disgusted. "That's what I hate about grapeshot and KEWs, you can't maneuver them." He shook his head. "Take that!" he fired a second volley.

  "Missiles incoming. Ten missiles at zero point four by nine by twelve," Firefly reported, highlighting the sensor feeds. "Drones deploying. We need to move..eta to impact nineteen seconds and counting."

  Irons nodded. "Helm put us bow on to the missile spread. Engineering enhance the bow shields. Defense..."

  "We're on it Admiral," Dan the ECM officer replied. "Firing point defense missiles now. Grapeshot targeting. I doubt these are test shots or ECM," he said.

  "Yeah, but then again, we don't have much to work with," Harris replied. “I'm getting low on missiles too.”

  "First missile detonated. Second... second is a spoof. Damn!” Dan snarled. “She's sucked in three of my birds. Bringing up point defense lasers now."

  "Admiral one of those missiles has a gravity warhead," Firefly warned urgently.

  "Are you sure?" Harris said suddenly anxious. "Dan get that thing now," he snarled.

  "Can't, too late," the ECM officer said sweating.

  "Cut all engines. Emergency blow RCS down and to port maximum burn! Reinforce the shields. Sound collision!" Irons said.

  "Roger." The ship bucked and the crew jerked in their seats. They could feel an itching sensation as the warhead went off, ripping at the ship's shields and sensors.

  "Shields down to ten percent. We've lost several of the defense drones, our wedge has destabilized and the emergency cut outs have shut it down," Shelby said. Irons nodded.

  "I think that was their best shot though," Harris said. "Entering maximum beam range again in twenty seconds Admiral. Should we give them a broadside?" he asked looking over to Irons.

  Irons shook his head. "No, helm give me a burn twenty percent above her plane then pitch up and roll around her. Harris, shell game in twenty seconds," he looked over to the tac officer who whistled. Their shields fluctuated then slowly started to climb as Firefly and engineering compensated.

  "Right, shell game." He tapped his link issuing the commands. "We're ready," he nodded.

  "Launch decoys. Helm execute that last order," Irons ordered. The ship's
fusion engines lurched forward then cut off. As she moved decoys launched and came up, then started to mimic the ship, but going in other directions.

  Each decoy mimicked Firefly's neutrino and ion signature perfectly for a few seconds. Just long enough for the destroyer to lose track of who was who.

  "The destroyer is rolling down, no she's stopped. She's trying to come back on her previous course," Firefly stated.

  "That's all we needed. Helm bow on. Tactical..."

  "Right, beam weapons firing!" They watched as the ship thrummed, slamming energy into the enemy ship. Her shields sparkled with impacts then went down. The beams reached her armored hull and then began to rip into it. Plasma streamed off in all directions. "Let's just see what a little grapeshot can do too," Harris said gleefully as he added that to the mix. Ball bearings burst from blunderbuss along the ships nose, slamming into the remaining dust cloud, scouring it away. Follow up rounds tore into the hull or ablated when they were hit by the beams. Panicked point defense fire from the destroyer swept around then hit their shields.

  "Shields down to nine percent and dropping," Firefly warned.

  "Helm keep us here," Irons said.

  "Locking position aye." He watched as the beams slashed into the hull of the destroyer.

  "Something’s gotta give... Her shield pods are bursting like over ripe Menkalinan melons," Harris said softly.

  "Her armor is thick," Dan said.

  "She's a destroyer, of course it is," Harris said never taking his eyes from the plot. Tractors slashed at each ship. Firefly's delta shape was keeping her perfectly on the target though, the destroyer couldn't keep up. One by one her weapons, sensors, and drive pods facing Firefly were scoured away.

  "Hull breach, she's been breached," Firefly reported. Debris vomited from the ships flank. After a moment her ports blasted outward. Her fusion plant's neutrino signature fluctuated wildly then fell like a stone. After a moment the emergency panels covering her vitals blew open. There was a brief flash nearly a kilometer from the ship. Most likely her power plant had been blown clear just before it blew.