All the time the OrCon destroyer kept pace abeam of them, but was prepared to run if the pirates moved against it. As the pirates completed their one pass through the wreckage site, the enemy ship moved further away so as not to be a lone tempting target. Rafe pondered the dilemma. The destroyer was clearly going to dog his force. As they departed, the OrCons would move further out so as to stay well within sensor range, but well outside weapon engagement envelopes. If they were going to get him, now was the time.
He spoke to his two companions. “We will turn and rush the destroyer. He will move further out. We will return to our original vector. Once around the planet and briefly hidden from sensors, you both go subspace while I continue on. I’ll drop some noisemakers out to confuse him so as he comes around the planet he will hear them and think we are still together ahead of him. Once he figures out there is only one ship ahead of him, I’ll turn back and distract him. You come out and put some holes in our little shadow.”
Both captains nodded. They knew that ship had to be dealt with, and they had no problem doing the dealing.
The three ships turned and rushed at the lone pursuer but at only half speed. The OrCon took a few seconds to see the rush and recognize it before turning and running at full speed. The gap widened between the two opponents. The pirate trio turned back and ran at full speed to sweep around Naissance and depart. Again, it took the OrCons a few seconds to see and adjust accordingly. The destroyer turned and pursued.
The three ships rounded the planet and once the planet blocked the sensors of the OrCon destroyer, Nemesis and Vindictive went subspace. Predator continued around the planet. Rafe wanted to ensure that once the OrCons locked on again, she would take the most direct pursuit route toward him, and that, in turn, would bring him right to the subspace ambush. Predator dumped out four noisemakers to simulate engine noise for two more ships. At this close range, the ruse wouldn’t work for more than a few seconds but that was all that was needed.
The chasing destroyer came around the planet and set off after Predator. She was fooled by the noisemakers, but then began to slow down as she realized there was only one ship ahead of her. It was the right conclusion but came far too late. As soon as she slowed down, Predator reversed course and rushed at her. Three pirate missiles came at the destroyer. They had the exact effect desired. The missiles set off all the alerts on the bridge of the destroyer and drew their full attention. Behind the destroyer, the two hidden pirates had heard the missile firings and came out of subspace. They were five seconds of missile flight time behind the destroyer and could have taken incoming fire on their bare hulls, but this was a captain and crew that had never been in combat and, probably, never even done independent operations. Easy pickings. The two ships in back shot at their target at the cyclic rate. The destroyer’s shields were soon overwhelmed and multiple impacts were made on her hull with missiles and guns.
Long strings of flame came from Nemesis’ upper 125 mm upper turret. She was firing nova rounds. These rounds flew at a high speed and impacted the target’s hull. A stream of hot gas burned through the hull and a small tungsten ball entered the hull and ricocheted around the interior at high velocity. Such a round hitting an engine, engineering compartment, or a ship’s bridge could cause severe interior damage. The disadvantage is that the round’s high velocity generated immense heat, and greatly increased gun barrel wear. These were the first such rounds fired in this campaign. Coupled with missiles, the rounds did their job. The destroyer was wounded and one engine was down, but she kept firing at the two pirates behind her. The pirates switched to all guns for use against the non-maneuvering target. All three vessels went to nova rounds to make quick work of the lone ship. Tungsten balls had to be bouncing around in several locations within the ship.
“Quit shooting and we’ll quit shooting,” Rafe announced over an open net. He wanted to get on with a clean escape. At any moment, another patrol or rescue mission could come onto sensors.
The ship didn’t reply but stopped firing. The pirates also stopped. Nemesis and Vindictive passed the stationary destroyer and joined Predator. The trio departed at maximum speed. They moved away from Naissance in a straight line for three hours to ensure they were beyond sensor range, and then they turned to their real escape vector. Their escape route was exactly opposite of the escape route they took after their first attack.
Hawkins spoke on his command net. “Pass my thanks to your crews. We run max all the way home. We accomplished our mission. I don’t want another fight on the way home. No upside for us doing that.” He looked at both captains intently. “You both, get some rest. Thanks for everything.”
Hawkins signed off before O’Hare could get a word out and switched to ship wide comm. “Get the relief watch standers in place,” Rafe commanded. He looked over the bridge crew. “When you are relieved, get some food and rest. You all did great, not only the last attack, but for the whole mission. We pulled off a big one here.”
He made no move to leave his chair. Tactical walked over and stood next to him. “Aren’t you included in the get-some-rest group?”
“After you and the rest of the crew.”
“Fine,” Tactical said, somewhat surprisingly. “I don’t want to argue this.” She turned and followed Baby Doll off the bridge. Logan took over at Ops and Blondie took intel. Rafe looked at her. She was dirty, clearly tired, and he knew she had been running between engineering and intel on double duty. He stared at her. “Blondie, you stand relieved. Get some rest.”
Blondie started to protest. “Captain, I’m fine. I can do a watch first.”
He continued to stare at her. Then he softened and smiled. “I know you could but there is no need.” He pivoted his chair. “Captain Mallory, please take the intel station.”
Sky took a second for the surprise to pass. “Aye, Captain.” She spoke in a respectful voice and then left her station for the intel station behind the captain’s chair. He nodded his thanks to her and turned to Blondie.
“Get off my bridge,” he stated in a light voice. As she departed, he called after her. “I’m going to call engineering and you better not be down there.” She turned and smiled as she approached the hatch. “Aye, Captain.” She was gone.
Mallory moved up behind Hawkins as Logan drifted away from his station and out of earshot. Hawkins shook his head slightly. His crew loved to look after him. Of course, since he ordered Mallory to the intel station, it would be easy for Logan to arrive at the conclusion his presence was needed down by helm and sensors so as to give the two of them a little privacy. Rafe had not intended that, but he would take it.
“Any more surprises?” Sky asked with a light tone in her voice.
“None from us. Don’t know about the OrCons. I’m not on their distribution list.” He smiled at her. “I wished I were. Hopefully, they are blocking the shortest and most obvious route home. They will also know that is the obvious way home, so will try to block other routes as well. Optimistically, they will run out of assets before they get to the less obvious routes like the one we intend to take home. Also, your Home Fleet raid near Batsur will get them to move assets over to meet it. Should help limit their choices on routes they can cover.”
“Home Fleet will do the raid up right. The support actions to get you into enemy territory at the start of this mission, and now this upcoming raid, are the first combats Home Fleet had seen. All the squadrons were climbing over each other to get the missions. They will be on time, on target. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Admiral took the widest possible interpretation of his orders and did a series of raids to support you.”
“I could live with that.” Rafe looked down at his computer for the universal time. “That attack should be happening in about twelve hours. The OrCons move to cover as a response and we loop around all the obvious routes and get home eventually. Hopefully.”
Sky nodded in agreement. “Now if the OrCons cooperate, we’ll be just fine.”
Rafe held up o
ne finger for a slight pause. He pressed engineering on his comm net. Joker’s, or Ace’s, image came up. Rafe smiled at him. “Is Blondie down there?”
Joker looked lost for a second and opened his mouth to reply, but Rafe cut him off. The pause gave him his answer. Joker didn’t want to sell her out, but didn’t want to lie to his Captain either, so Rafe rescued him from making a decision. “Put her on.” His voice had his command tone in it. Joker looked to his right off screen and then stepped out of the way as Blondie came on screen. Rafe spoke before she could. “You got one minute to call me from your stateroom intercom.” He pressed her image, ending the call.
Hawkins turned to Mallory. “She is dedicated. We’ll be happy to keep her after the mission.”
“I wish I could pull that off. I think she is happy with you and is doing more to win the war here than she will ever do on Sirocco.”
Rafe nodded. “I know the chain of command is inviolate and she is not in yours, but look after her as much as you can after we get home and she goes back to the Royal Navy. No way Zerbe gives her fair treatment.”
Mallory didn’t respond directly to the charge as she did not want to speak ill of a fellow officer, but she knew Hawkins was right. She responded, “I’ll do what I can. Blondie deserves that.”
Hawkins nodded as his comm screen buzzed. He glanced down and stabbed at the air screen. He looked at the screen and spoke distinctly. “Go to bed… NOW. Good night, Blondie.” He smiled. “And thanks for all your hard work. We wouldn’t have gotten this far without you.”
Blondie spoke. “Thank you, Captain. I will turn in. Good night, sir.”
Hawkins let the sir pass by and gave her a good night in reply. He checked off the comm. He turned back to Mallory. “She’s a keeper. To be honest, I think she is going to have trouble adjusting back to your Navy when she gets home.”
Sky had already had the same thought. “I agree. I’ll do what I can, and I‘m sure the Admiral has noticed her and will keep tabs on her too. I don’t have any inside information, but I think your observations on his and Captain Zerbe’s relationship was close to the mark.”
Rafe agreed. “Zerbe would get Alexander the Great killed if she was his intel officer.” Both smiled at that.
Chapter 36
Several hours passed without incident as they fled the Gossamer system. The trio ran as one tight formation. If they appeared on long-range sensors, it would appear as one ship. The sensor return would only crystalize in three images as the range closed. There was no advantage to spreading out. It would just make it more likely one of them would be caught on sensors by a passing ship. The OrCons would investigate every sensor contact and verify all ships with eyes on before moving on. There would be few freighters or other commercial vessels out. News of the raid would have leaked out through comm messages, or somebody at other bases talking after word reached there. Trading ships and the like would have put into the nearest safe haven rather than risk becoming a target of opportunity. As this type of news travels, it expands exponentially so within twenty-four hours, the word will be a Zeke fleet of several hundred ships was on the prowl, had attacked five bases, and destroyed four hundred friendly vessels. Raferty hoped rumor growth would be the case here, as he didn’t want a lone merchant ship accidently getting them on sensors and reporting it. As was always true for the pirates, empty space was good space.
Crews were rested and injuries treated. The dead were placed in cold storage. They would not be left in enemy space but returned to the Badlands. Repairs were done as much as possible. Magazines were reloaded. Engine maintenance done. The ships were readied for combat. With the possible exception of Killian O’Hare, nobody wanted more combat, but they had to be prepared.
The formation departed the Gossamer system and entered the Nedril system. This was a huge system but sparsely populated. It would be a long flight across it and, hopefully, it would be very boring. It was not to be. Ten hours into the system, a single contact appeared on long-range sensors directly ahead of the pirates and headed their way. The formation turned away to get out of sensor range, and then arced around the contact outside of sensor range to continue to make progress home. They knew they had been painted and the contact would be past the sensor logs to the Orion Navy.
The one hope the pirates had was that this report would be one of hundreds of such reports going through the Orion military bureaucracy since the Murmansk attacks. Also, the OrCons would be responding to the Zeke raid at Batsur. They would have to move resources to the Batsur region, and take the Zeke attack seriously even if they thought it was a one-time event. Most of the forces from the base at Delphi would have to honor the threat. Hawkins hoped this lone contact would be lost in all the activity. His force took the long way around the contact and continued onward.
The contact came from the direction of the OrCon base at Delphi. Rafe hoped the forces from that base had been committed to the Zeke raid. If forces scrambled in response to the contact by the freighter, they could block the paths available to return to Zeke space. As the pirates continued on, there were no more contacts. Rafe gave a silent thanks to Admiral Barrett. He suspected Sky was right, and Barrett had done several raids to support his mission. Such raids would not only tie up the naval forces, but would also scare all the commerce from the area. The systems the pirates were passing through were far more vacant than they should have been.
Sixteen hours later, the formation closed on the planet Gelid, an icy ball in the middle of nowhere. As they moved near the planet, sensors picked up a contact on the port side at ten o‘clock and closing fast. This was not a freighter contact. Rafe increased speed by putting the engines in the red zone for the few minutes it would take to get behind the planet. The pirates scanned the planet to see if a remote sensor system was present. There was none. Once convinced they would be hidden from sensors when they gained the planet, Rafe addressed the problem.
“Did you get a bead on the contact?” Rafe asked over his shoulder.
“Got it,” Tactical replied. “Baby Doll analyzing.”
Baby Doll spoke up immediately. “One heavy, one light, one destroyer. If I had to bet, I would say they are the three we decoyed at the outer moon. Same classes of ships for sure. They probably got sent to scout the remote routes back to the Aurora Empire because the OrCons didn’t want to pull front line units this far out of the way.”
Raferty nodded. He had a plan forming. He didn’t like it because he wanted to smash those three ships, but this plan would have to do.
Once behind the planet, as they slowed down, a shape shimmered into view.
“Thought it would be you, but can’t be too careful.” Dylan Whitlock smiled over the comm link.
Rafe got right to it. “Good to see you too, but we got company closing.”
Whitlock was all business. “What can we do for you?”
“I want you to take off in a direct line for the Zeke border. Tie off four noisemakers, put them out your airlock, and drag them alongside your ship. Pulse your engine to make a bigger heat return. That far out on long range systems, your image return will be indistinct. We’ve been flying a tight formation so your sensor signature should be close to ours. I think you can make Penumbra on the edge of the system before they can catch you. Go around the planet and drop some mines. Then go subspace there. There is a sensor system on the planet. Your pursuers can tap into it and see you go around the planet and go subspace. They shouldn’t see the mine dumping if you don’t slow down. They’ll chase you around the planet but won’t know they’re after a spy ship. After going subspace, employ any means you want to get away. With luck they will attract a mine or two as they search for you.”
Whitlock nodded confidently. He was unconcerned with the challenge. He knew his ship could do it. He worried about the other three ships. “What about you?”
“We are going to drop some noisemakers here and hide here in subspace until our happy little trio of pursuers pass by while chasing you. They wer
e fooled by the noisemakers once so will not fall for it again. If they don’t quite buy your sensor return, they would search around here. I think once they heard the noisemakers and identify them, they will pass this place by and chase you. The noisemakers will convince them you are really us trying to get away after having left decoys here to confuse them. We’ll wait awhile and then move out on our original vector to return to Zeke space. We’ll see you at the rendezvous in the Perdition system.”
“Sounds good.” Whitlock gave a slight hand wave and was gone. Flicker pulled out immediately.
Rafe turned to his bridge staff. “Put out some noisemakers and activate them now. We and Flicker will be off the OrCon sensors as we keep the planet mass between us and them. Flicker will pull away and maintain the separation. As the OrCons close on us, they will pick up the noisemakers first and close in on us here. Flicker is not running directly away from them but at an angle, so as the enemy gets close to this planet, Flicker will pop up on their screens running away. They will scan here, see the noisemakers, conclude it is a trick and chase Flicker. I hope.”
The noisemakers were dispersed and the ships moved away from them as far as possible to clear their white phones. They waited as the OrCons closed on the planet.
“Now,” announced Tactical. As she was timing the closure rate of the three OrCons, the three ships went subspace. Then as the OrCons closed on the planet, the pirates slowly went under the planet and came up on the other side high enough to put the planet between themselves and the noisemakers. The white phones were clear now, and Maddie Hopkins immediately sounded off. “The OrCons are closing. They have got to hear the noisemakers.” Several minutes passed as Maddie called the enemy location as the ships closed on the pirates’ location, and then faded away as they passed.
Payback Is a Given: Pirates of the Badlands Series Book 2 Page 29