by Chris Hechtl
~~~^~~~
Myron saw the enemy carrier force split up. Even the screen broke off, racing ahead and off to their negative Z axis.
“What are they playing at? This is their worst idea yet! A pincer move? This early in the game?” he demanded.
“They are up to something,” Cyrano said warily in agreement.
“I hate it when someone gets cute. It usually means we're missing something or someone is too smart for their own good.”
“Let's hope it's them,” Jeremy muttered. Myron nodded.
~~~^~~~
Sedrick frantically scrambled to assess the enemy forces. Something had to be up. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Had they been reinforced so lightly? At best he was seeing an additional BC squadron, the two DNs, an extra fleet carrier, and some escorts. That didn't make sense. Surely they'd gotten more reinforcements than that? Could the vaunted Federation war machine be as strained as his own?
He looked over to where Berney was pulling Cyrano off to one side. He nodded once. If anyone could talk some sense into the admiral, it was the chief of staff. He wished him all the luck in doing so.
~~~^~~~
“Admiral, going up against this force, it's tantamount to suicide. You know that, right?”
“I've no intention of falling on my sword, Berney,” Cyrano replied with a shake of his head. “But I have to remember the honor of the flag.”
“Sir?”
“Not just the effect of running without even trying to engage them would have on our morale,” he saw Berney's stony expression, “but also back home. You know how court is. You saw Catherine's last letter. She's doing what she can but it's hanging by a thread.”
Berney frowned thoughtfully.
“Honor of the flag,” he finally murmured.
Cyrano smiled. “It was an old wet navy custom. When facing a superior opponent, the attacker would fire a broadside. Usually on the off-side facing away from the enemy. That way they could not be charged with cowardice later.”
Berney's eyes cleared. He slowly nodded in understanding.
“If we can blood their screen, then we'll save ourselves some headache from court. I'm not so much worried about our lives as I am of the image of running without even trying to engage and doing something will appear to everyone.”
“But you said you wouldn't engage a superior opponent,” Berney reminded him.
“And I'm not. We're going to take a chunk of them, their lightest units. I have a feeling they'll get smart and run when they realize they can't hit us. The screen I mean,” he explained, looking at the plot to check on things. “Also, Wong wants to hit their bombers. I want to give him that chance. If we can chew them up good and proper, we'll delay their advance in Garth by a couple months as they'll have to draw them from their stocks in the Federation. We're going to keep our main line well out of engagement range. We'll dangle it out there but yank it back the moment they take the bait.”
Berney nodded, but he was clearly unenthused by the idea.
"Look at it this way. Their reinforcements are green," Cyrano persisted, pointing to the split. Berney frowned as he looked at the image. The admiral shook his head. "Look at it!" He pointed to the two forces and how far apart they were. "They are splitting up. That means they will be outside of support range of each other! We're receiving reports of encrypted traffic between the forces. You don't do this; you don't split up in an obvious pincer when you lack the firepower! Not when the enemy is on par with you! They want to pin us with one or both forces. I know that. But we can turn that around and chew them up in the process before we pull out."
Berney reluctantly nodded. He hadn't gamed out what the home reaction would be. That was foolish of him he knew, but his focus was on the enemy force in front of them at the moment.
“Sir, we've got three targets to choose from. Do you have one in mind?” Myron asked, coming over to them.
“This one at the moment,” the admiral said, turning to the plot. He pointed to one of the groups. “She's got one less carrier. We can at least chew their ass and give them a going away present when we leave.”
“Let them know they've been kissed,” Berney murmured.
“So, we are retreating, sir?” Jeremy asked, clearly dismayed by the idea but more or less resigned to it.
“We have five DNs to their four DNs. They've got better fighters and the damn antimatter. I think so. But we'll play it by ear and see if they frack up some more,” the admiral explained. “For the moment, our primary targets are their bombers and screen. The more we chew them up the longer it will be for them to resupply and hit Garth. We're playing for time here.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
Chapter 55
Nate was confused by the sudden number of fresh faces—faces and bodies in flight suits. Also, his sensors were occluded. He couldn't understand why they'd been locked down. He more or less puttered around, running diagnostics over and over again without really doing much. Finally, he exhaled and got up the nerve to tap into the ship's exterior hull cameras.
He frowned when he found one that was blocked. It wasn't the signal; there was something over the camera putting it in the dark. He scowled and switched to another, and then another when those too were blocked.
Finally, he got the view from one of the bow cameras. It wasn't blocked but he could see something on the exterior hull of the ship. When he panned the camera, his jaw dropped.
“Well! That explains a few things,” he murmured thoughtfully.
~~~^~~~
Captain Tocci wasn't happy about the extra burden on her ship, nor the need to maintain their speed while so burdened. It was asking for trouble she knew. But that was the mission.
“This is nuts. Are we really doing this?” the TAO demanded.
“Yeah, Guns, it looks that way,” the captain replied with a feigned shrug. “You're just all pouty because your missile tubes and guns are obstructed,” she teased with a wicked gleam.
“Well, yeah,” he muttered but he couldn't help but grin a little at the byplay.
“Don't worry. Something tells me we'll have plenty of time to use them later.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a nod and gleam. “Now you're talking,” he said, rubbing his hands together.
She chuckled and shook her head as she turned away.
~~~^~~~
Trajan nodded. “Time for the next phase. Commander Bleakly, initiate smoke and mirrors one.”
“Aye aye, sir,” the CAG replied. He'd wanted to go out with the force, but the commodore had kept him on the carrier to execute the plan once it was clear they were the target. He regretted the decision, but he knew the real furball was coming up soon. “Boss,” he said, triggering his link to the flight boss. “We are a go for Smoke and Mirrors Alpha. I say again, Smoke and Mirrors Alpha. Launch the first Wild Weasel craft,” he ordered.
“Aye aye, sir.”
~~~^~~~
“Sir, the enemy is launching bombers and fighters,” CIC reported. Admiral De Gaulte finished his sip of coffee and then set it down gently in his cup holder. He scanned the plot and then nodded once.
“Myron. We need to dissuade them. Fire off a cloud of chaff and rail gun rounds. Make them jink. Jeremy, Zig Alpha,” he ordered.
“Aye aye, sir,” both officers said in unison. “Zig Alpha, aye, sir,” Jeremy said, pulling up the planned course deviation and then feeding it into the navigational system of the fleet. It flashed out through whisker lasers to the other ships. After a few seconds, each of the ships began to move like fish in a school, changing course abruptly to turn away from the threat and put some distance between them.
Berney nodded slowly. The enemy could launch refueling shuttles to try to extend the range of the bombers and other craft, but they'd just change course again if they saw it happening. What it was really doing was drawing the enemy's pilots out, tiring them and getting them frustrated. He knew the admiral had no intention of letting those ships get into range
of his forces.
~~~^~~~
Trajan saw the enemy's course change once the bombers had settled on a course to them. “It's like he knows,” he murmured with a grin in his voice. His staff looked at him and then smiled slightly themselves.
“Okay, we need to figure out how to get our remaining bombers in there in case this plan doesn't work. That means another furball,” he said with a shake of his head.
“I'm a bit light on craft at the moment, sir,” the CAG warned.
“I know. They'll see that and pounce on it. I'm expecting it. You're just going to have to take it until things change,” the commodore stated.
The CAG stared at him for a long moment.
“You can do that, right?” Trajan asked mildly.
“Yes, sir. We'll get it done,” the CAG said gruffly.
~~~^~~~
At the enemy's course change, Skale and her cruiser squadron along with a destroyer squadron broke ranks and made for the enemy's fleet train at their best speed. They were supposedly taking advantage of the enemy's course change as an opening to get a punch in or drive the fleet train off.
They were taking a hell of a chance with the additional mass slapped on to their ships. They were redlining the drives to make sure they kept their speed up to what it should be. She knew engineering wasn't happy. But they had a job to do. They had to make it look good.
That was the plan at any rate, Captain Tocci thought. “Fingers crossed this works,” she murmured.
~~~^~~~
“Okay people, this is where we start getting some payback,” Admiral Wong growled as fighters began to launch from Courageous and Nimitz. “The enemy has screwed up and split their forces. We're going to take advantage of their stupidity and chew them a new one. Remember, the plan is to go after the bombers. The bombers are the primary targets. Let the interceptors do their jobs. The rest of you stay on mission or I'll have your ears and asses and not in a nice way,” he growled.
~~~^~~~
Commander Bleakly wanted to shake his head, but he didn't want to distract himself from the vision in front of him. The enemy had a hell of a lot of fighters. They were also finally willing to commit themselves to battle but only in a running engagement.
Fine, that was fine with him. His people had ten minutes of play time before they had to pull back and return to refuel.
“Okay people, clock is ticking. Make it count. Don't go for the E class fighters; they've got good ECM. Go for the Raptors. Pick your targets and make sure you run your feed through the net and your squadron commander's Artoo before you commit. We need to make all the missiles count.”
A series of Rogers came from his squadron commanders.
~~~^~~~
Commander Conrad Giacometti grinned as his ship dropped her ECM from deception mode and switched to counter measures. It had worked. “By damn it worked!” he said out loud as his fighter launched counter missiles and went evasive.
By switching up with some of the Raptors, his E class fighters had been allowed to get in closer to the enemy than they'd expected. Everyone had known the Raptors would be the enemy's primary targets; after all, going after the easy hits first made sense.
Now he saw their plan come apart, and he grinned savagely. He cycled his fighter's missiles, lined up on a target, and then squeezed the trigger. “Fox one!” he called out.
~~~^~~~
Commander Bleakly had realized they'd been suckered when the E class fighters in the lead of one of the Raptor formations dropped their ECM and swatted his incoming missiles easily. They then returned fire, and it was his bird's turn to go evasive.
He hoped it was all worth it when he saw one of his birds explode all over the sky.
~~~^~~~
Admiral De Gaulte nodded when the reports came in. Wong had done well; they'd blunted the enemy attack and had taken out a swath of their bombers in the process. Even better, they hadn't taken many losses in the engagement and both surviving groups were headed to their respective ships. He was pretty sure the Feds were doing so with their collective tails between their legs.
Skull squadron had finally gotten a down payment on restoring their reputation and honor. Now they needed to get payment in full.
~~~^~~~
Trajan got the report of the losses and grimaced. The bombers were bad but not as bad as the enemy thought. Two thirds of the losses had been drones being towed by the other bombers. But they had still lost a couple of the bombers before Commander Bleakly had ordered them to withdraw.
He was tempted to have the other carriers launch and drop their stealth but fought the impulse. He needed the enemy to continue to commit, to continue to think they had the edge.
He watched as they changed course again, bending away from Dawning Hunger's flotilla some more. “Helm, we need to keep them interested. Keep after them,” he ordered, voice rough. Fatigue had yet to set in, but he knew he was going to be exhausted soon.
But no matter how much he tried he was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to sleep a wink.
~~~^~~~
Four hours into the operation Admiral De Gaulte ordered the launch of another cloud of rail gun rounds and then another course evasion. But when the carriers used recon drones as early warning and dodged, the admiral ordered that to be curtailed to conserve ammo.
“We can't cut through the jamming, sir. And we are getting cyber-attacks on all known frequencies,” Berney stated in frustration.
“I know. Don't bother for the moment. We can't punch a direct signal through with a laser anyway; there are too many planetary bodies in the way of us and Command 1,” Cyrano said as Berney turned to the plot.
“Sir, the cruisers …,” Berney stated, pointing to a detachment of heavy cruisers that had gone to flank speed and were busy cutting around his force just out of extreme engagement range to try to get between them and their fleet train. “Should we order the fleet train to jump?”
“Not yet. Signal to Obliterator,” the admiral stated.
When the signal light came on, he nodded. “Scott, we've got some people trying to get cute. They are trying to get behind us and give us a reaming without asking nicely.”
“Yes, sir. They look like they are trying to play with the big boys,” Admiral Mueller stated with a nod.
“Good. Hang back and dissuade our new friends from getting cheeky.”
“Understood,” Admiral Mueller replied with a nod.
~~~^~~~
“They are settling in on a course for us, sir. Several of the dreadnoughts are hanging back and moving to intercept the cruiser force though.”
“As expected,” Trajan replied with a nod.
“Enemy carriers are launching their broods,” a CIC rating reported.
“Sir, should we turn and run?” Four Eyes asked.
“We will not. Not at this time. But pass the order to the CAG to begin air OPS,” he said.
~~~^~~~
Captain Valdez scowled when they didn't get the order to turn and run. He looked at the plot and the swarm of enemy fighters stacking up against them. The odds were not good. Sure, they had better fighters, but it looked like the enemy had more of them. It made sense; they most likely packed their carriers with their Raptors since they didn't have any bombers in production.
He shook his head. He didn't know what the admiral was up to, and he didn't like that—admiral or Trajan, he suddenly thought. One of them were playing their cards awfully close to their vest.
~~~^~~~
Sedrick received the CIC report that something was off about the cruisers. His main attention had been on the enemy fighters and bombers, but it looked like Wong's people had them bottled up for once. He frowned as he pulled up the report and looked at the numbers. As the enemy ships got closer, their sensors were getting better at penetrating their ECM. CIC had noted the cruiser's mass readings were wrong. He shook his head.
He ran the numbers for the Resolution class and then compared it to what they had observed before. They knew
that the ships they were facing were new construction and something had been done to improve them.
“Log it for further analysis later. It's not important,” he said finally.
~~~^~~~
“We got you as close as we can. Good luck and good hunting,” Captain Tocci said to the squadron leaders.
“Thanks for the ride, ma'am.”
“Next time let's find you a bigger ship though,” the captain said as the lieutenant saluted her. She returned the salute and then watched him leave.
She switched to an internal camera as pilots and some of the crew exited the boat bays and airlocks and made their way to the planes attached to her ship's hull. Skale looked like she was covered in butterflies. But, not for much longer she thought as she idly watched the crews climb into their craft.
Skale hadn't had much room in her interior. Her shuttles had been dispatched to Argus to make room, but that still hadn't been enough to fit everyone onboard, hence the exterior docking.
And it wasn't just on her ship. Each of the cruisers had a load of bombers and fighters onboard. Not a lot but enough to hopefully do the job.
“Bombers are launching,” the A.I. reported. She flinched slightly and then her eyes refocused as she watched the first of the bombers warm up their engines and then detach. Slowly, at first in ones and then twos they drifted clear of the ship. The shields were down so they easily drifted off into the night.
“Good luck. You'll need it,” she murmured.
~~~^~~~
Admiral De Gaulte heard the repeat of the report of odd mass readings. Sedrick angrily waved it off, cutting the rating off. He sipped at his cup of coffee, wondering about it until he had a sinking sensation something was wrong about it. Suddenly it hit him. It could be ECM, but it could be something else, he realized as he sat up.