“Navigation, anything on sensors?”
“No Captain. No vessels in the system, other than the ore hauler we sent ahead. She will enter the Purgatory stream in one hour. We have a five-hour trans-system trip to the same slipstream. Since the system star is a blue-white giant putting out a huge amount of energy, we should be able to reach almost maximum speed in the slipstreams. If my calculations are correct, we should enter the Purgatory system an hour after the ore hauler.”
“Excellent.”
“Captain, there is a message pod entering the system from Bickle’s star. It has our call signal and it is transmitting in Morse code. Message reads, “We are waiting.”
“Good then they are still alive. Pass that message to the entire ship. Secure from general quarters. Navigator, best speed to Purgatory slipstream.”
“Aye, sir.”
The Hayden fired her system engines and throttled them to maximum. By the time she entered the slipstream, she would be down fifty percent in fuel. Maneuvering in battle required more energy than crossing systems. Slone hoped he would have enough for a protracted combat if it came to that. In a wartime situation, extra fuel tanks would be carried and jettisoned as they were used, but when the Hayden left, they were at peace. It would have to do. The trans-system journey was uneventful, but Slone decided to stay on the bridge for the duration. They entered the Purgatory slipstream and deployed without problem. They achieved 1.9 light years per hour making the duration of the trip for the fifteen light years to Purgatory just less than eight hours. The ship entered its rest phase with only essential personnel on watch. This time even the engineers were told to get rest since they had done all they could to prepare for the coming battle. The Hayden sailed majestically into the Battle of Purgatory.
Chapter 4 - The Battle of Purgatory
The ship klaxon went off two hours before system arrival and the crew quickly went to their assigned areas. An hour before arrival they would go to general quarters, but most arrived at their stations already in battle gear. The marines met in the hangar bay, fully suited and ready for any contingency. The thermite grenades were waiting and each marine received five of them attached to a bandolier they wore over their left shoulder, across the chest to the right hip. This way they could quickly pull a grenade off the belt and use it as needed. They were in full body armor and each carried an automatic rocket gun and a rocket pistol on their belt. The usual armor piercing projectiles were replaced with explosive ones, since they were dealing with rock-like aliens. They found in their first encounter that the solid projectiles tended to ricochet without doing any damage. The new ammunition was rocket propelled and exploded forward on impact. They hoped this would gouge the silicate skin of the aliens. Major Sardac was reviewing her troops as Slone made his rounds of the ship to check readiness. He gave the marines thumbs up as he passed through the hangar area and went on to check the guns that were dismounted during the last battle. The guns were back on their carriages and the gun crews were standing at attention in the ammunition room next to the gun emplacement. Normally the crews are stationed in the ammunition room and they service the guns remotely. The shells come up from the magazine and they are then pushed into the loader. The loader carries them through a door in the wall and places them into the breach. When the guns were dismounted from battle damage, the feeder chutes were so damaged; there had been no time to replace them. As a result, the crews were required to load the weapons manually. This did not necessarily cause them to fire slower but did mean the crews had to wear space suits and stand in the gun compartment as they fired. All of this meant the blow back of the gas from the breach would hit them. They would also have to stand clear of the shell ejector. Slone’s next stop was the damaged bulkhead near the engine room. Horst Stravinsky and his damage crews had done a monumental job in shoring up the bulge in the bulkhead. As long as there was no direct hit in the area, they would be ok. As they approached an hour to system insertion, he arrived on the bridge and sat in the command chair. At one hour to arrival general quarters sounded through the ship and the bridge marine guard arrived.
“Navigator, what is our status?”
“The Hayden is handling normally and we are one hour to system insertion. We detected a large vessel in the slipstream ahead of us that just disappeared from our sensors. That should be our ore carrier coming out of the slipstream.”
“Good then we managed to be one hour behind as we wanted. Good job on those calculations. If the destroyers react the way the dreadnought did, they should move towards the ore ship and engage her. I’m hoping they will totally ignore us and go after the larger ship as a threat. What do you think, Ms. Sinclair?”
“They seem to have copied our ships but know nothing of our tactics. They equate size with threat and ignore weaponry. It’s like they have children at the controls.”
“I agree. All we can do now is wait.”
The hour passed slowly, as all times of anticipation tend to. To Slone, it was as if time slowed down to a maddening pace. He caught himself fidgeting in the chair. Finally, the time came for action. The Hayden reached the end of the slipstream and Slone ordered the depolarization and retraction of the sails. The ship dropped out of light speed and the Purgatory system came into view.
“Status report, navigator.”
“Sensors are picking up three ships. One is our ore hauler and the other two are much smaller and speeding rapidly towards it from the direction of the mining base. They’re not transmitting identification codes.”
“Any indication that they changed course when we arrived?”
“No, sir. They maintained course to the ore ship. They should intercept in just less than three hours at their current speed.”
“Match speeds with the ore hauler and keep us about an hour behind. I want them fully engaged before we move in.”
“Aye, sir.”
The ore hauler was large enough to appear as a speck in the distance but the destroyers were too small. On the navigation tracking screens they showed up as two unknown dots and the identification number of the ore hauler on the third dot. As time passed, the smaller dots moved relentlessly towards the hauler. Just before the three hours were up, Slone could see flashes in the distance as the destroyers started their attack with missiles.
“Captain, they have engaged the hauler.”
“Where did you send the hauler?”
“I programmed her to stay clear of the base and head for the far side of the star.”
“Well done. Take us towards the port side of the hauler and rotate us so our ship bottom is facing its port side. Increase to battle speed.”
Slone could feel the ship increase her vibrations as she came up to battle speed. This speed allowed fast maneuvers, but also burned fuel more than normal transit speed. “How long to contact.”
“About a half hour at this speed.”
“Seal the bridge and clear the ship for action.”
The armor shielding went up to block the bridge windows and all eyes fixed on the instruments now. The gun ports swung open and the force fields turned on covering the ports. So far, the enemy was still ignoring the Hayden.
“Captain, sensors indicate they have boarded the ore ship. It won’t take them long to disable her.”
“Do we still have control of her?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Override her safeties and set her engines to overload.”
“That will cause her to explode.”
“That’s what I hope.”
The navigator did as ordered. On orders from Slone, the navigator slowed down the Hayden to stay clear of the blast. It did not take long before they saw the ore ship blip disappear from the monitors. That did not mean the ship was destroyed, but only that the control area was damaged and she could no longer transmit her recognition codes. The hope was that any aliens on or in her hull died in the blast.
“Resume course and give me video of the ore hauler.”
The navigator c
omplied and the screen that previously held the tactical map of the system now showed a wide-angle view outside the ship. There was the ore hauler with a large rupture where the engines and fuel tanks were. The rear ore holds must have been blown loose by the explosion and were propelled outward. One flew off into space but by a lucky coincidence, the second one flew into the bottom of one of the destroyers. Though the ship could still fight, she would never take the slipstream again as her back was broken. Her ability to move was severely compromised. Slone surmised she would favor missiles over cannons due to aiming difficulties.
“Bring us back to battle speed and head for the intact destroyer. Pass her on our starboard side. Communications, open the battle channel.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Attention crew and marines. We are about to engage the enemy who has been attacking our home. We will give them no quarter. Our objective is to destroy one enemy vessel and capture the other one. I know you will all do your best as you did against the dreadnought. Good hunting all.”
The Hayden swung to the outside of the cluster of vessels. They were now close enough to see a large number of methane breathers floating away from the ore hauler. Slone assumed these were the boarders, who had been clinging to the ore carrier. The explosion must have propelled them away from the ship. The damaged destroyer was trying to move with difficulty to come and face the new threat. Slone judged she would not be in time to help her sister ship. The Hayden planned to have the destroyer pass on her starboard side. The destroyer had two guns on each side, plus one forward and one back. What she lacked in guns she made up for in missiles. Destroyers are meant to rush in, fire ship killing missiles and retreat. They could not stand up to a ship-to-ship combat with anything. Battles between two destroyers ended in both destroyed. The damaged vessel began to come over the top of the ore ship as the Hayden moved within range of the undamaged ship.
“Forward missile batteries load anti-ship missiles.”
The missile crews jumped into action and loaded standard anti-ship missiles. The missiles have a solid metal tip to punch through hulls. When the tip contacted the hull of an enemy vessel, it activated an internal countdown that detonated the body of the missile twenty seconds after penetration. This allowed maximum penetration before detonation.
“Lock missiles on the nearest destroyer and fire.”
When Slone gave the order, two anti-ship missiles sprang from the forward tubes and began to close the gap between the ships. As soon as the Hayden fired, the nearest destroyer fired her four forward tubes and the missiles appeared to streak towards each other.
“Activate point defense,” Slone said as the missiles came closer. “Forward guns, fire as she bears.” The forward cannons fired and the speed of the projectiles quickly closed the distance to the destroyer. In an unbelievable quirk of fate, one of the cannon slugs hit an incoming missile and blew it up. “Now there’s a lucky shot.”
The words were hardly out of Slone’s mouth then he heard the point defense weapons throw up a cloud of lead. None of the missiles hit home nor did any of the Hayden’s, but the remaining cannon shot found its target and hit the front of the destroyer just below a missile tube. They must have had a new missile loaded already since there was an explosion that destroyed the tube. The angle of the forward gun also told Slone it was dismounted. They were fast coming along side of the enemy when the remaining forward and all side missile tubes fired, sending seven missiles heading towards the Hayden. Point defense took out all but three of them. Of the three, one broke up on impact making a small dent in the hull. The remaining two went in, one just under the bridge into the forward weapons deck and turned out to be a dud. The crew quickly patched the hull breach with a force field. The damage did not affect the operation of the forward weapons. The final missile penetrated to the crew’s quarters on the third deck in the forward third of the ship and detonated. The outward force of the explosion did the damage as it widened the site of penetration. The opening was too large for the portable force fields and the engineering crews isolated that section of the ship by closing all of the hatches leading into the damaged area.
As all of this was transpiring, the Hayden came abreast of the destroyer. “Starboard guns fire a broadside and all starboard missiles.”
The Hayden lurched to port as she recoiled from the shot and missile launches. Six cannon shots and four missiles leapt from the Hayden and sped the short distance to the destroyer. The gap was narrowed to the point the Hayden shots hit home before the destroyer had time to react. The shot slammed into the enemy followed by the missiles. The cannon shots penetrated deeply and detonated in the control centers of the ship as well as the engine room. The missiles did the final, fatal blows by hitting the remaining fuel. The destroyer came apart at the seams as one explosion after another rocked the vessel. The bodies of aliens poured out of the fractures in the hull and none had any indication of breathing apparatus. No escape pods were spotted. The first enemy ship and crew were dead.
“Bring us about and position us so the enemy passes on our port side.”
“Captain, the final destroyer just shut down her engines and powered down all internal structures.”
“Odd. She may be damaged but she can still fight. Any attempt to communicate?”
“No sir but she is dead in space, slowly drifting clear of the ore ship.”
Slone reached over and pushed a button on his intercom. “Major Sardac, prepare your troops for a boarding action. Leave about twenty here in case this is a trap. Be careful, the enemy appears helpless but they could be playing possum.”
“Aye, sir. Ready in ten.”
Major Sardac took all but twenty of her marines and mounted the boarding skiffs. She was ready in five and headed over to the powered down enemy ship. Her marines dispersed in the usual manner, half to the bridge under Captain Takeda and half to the hangar deck under the Major. “Captain Takeda, enter the bridge as soon as you arrive, don’t wait for orders. We don’t want a repeat of the self-destruction we had with the dreadnought.”
“Aye, sir.”
Both groups reached their objectives about the same time and the bridge group penetrated immediately. “This bridge is the same as on the dreadnought, Major. It’s a mockup. I doubt the ship was controlled from here.”
As the Captain gave his report, Sardac heard a sudden noise of shouting and firing in the background and then she heard the detonation of a thermite grenade. “Report, Captain,” she said anxiously into her helmet com unit.
“Some resistance as we breached the first bulkhead. We have two wounded going back to the Hayden. Suit rips so need to get them patched up and the suits fixed. Three aliens dead. Two died when the methane came out and one had a breathing unit on. We took that one out with a charge. Split it open like a grape.”
“Good work, Captain, carry on.” The Major and her troops reached the hangar deck and saw right off that it was a fake opening. “Hayden, are you seeing this. There’s no hangar deck opening. It’s only made to look that way from a distance. We’ll have to blast our way in. Joseph, set the charges.”
A trooper broke away from the group and set several charges against the hull next to the fake hangar door. As the rest of the marines held back, he left the hull and detonated the charges. A piece of hull measuring about ten feet square flew off into space and with it a large volume of smoky, orange atmosphere. A few alien bodies also came out. Corporal Joseph was nearest the opening and moved in only to be hit by several rapid projectile shots that went through his suit and body, sending him careening into space.
“Look sharp, we have resistance ahead.”
Major Sardac led her marines along the hull towards the opening. The marines tossed several smoke grenades into the breach and then the marines moved in and dodged some wild shots. They were trained to keep close to a wall or floor to throw off the aim, since this was a three dimensional battle in weightlessness. They had traded their magnetic boots for suction ones, which adhere
d to the hull samples from the dreadnought. There was sudden movement seen through the smoke and the marines fired at it. Shots returned and another marine went down wounded. As a medic sealed the suit breach and helped him to cover, the rest of the marines started to fan out, returning fire as they went. The explosive rocket projectiles they were firing started to find their targets and do the intended damage. Fragments chipped off the skin of the aliens and their reaction indicated they felt the impacts. As the smoke cleared, they could see three aliens with breathing apparatus. Others, without the breathing apparatus were floating weightless in the large chamber they had entered. The three defenders were in the middle of the room using one of their five appendages each to hold onto any structure that would keep them from floating. At the ends of their other appendages, they held some kinds of weapons and on the whip-like appendage near what appeared to be their mouths there was a pointed object. Sardac assumed this was some kind of weapon also. As the marines moved in, the firing became more intense and the aliens started to whither under the explosive projectiles. Two more marines went down, this time never to get up again. Finally, Sardac felt they were close enough to throw the charges. In a weightless situation, you had to be almost on top of them to throw straight, since arcs were not possible. Several marines pulled the thermite charges from their bandoliers and removed the covering on the adhesive. They threw seven charges while keeping up their fire. Five stuck and two flew off to the other side of the room. When the five detonated, the three defenders all split open and ended up partially dismembered. As noticed before, there was no blood arising from the fragmentation of their bodies. The two charges that hit the wall split it open into the next chamber, which emptied of methane and killed the two aliens hiding there. The Major ordered half of her troops aft to the engine room and half forward to hook up with the bridge attack group. They still had to deal with some resistance, and two more marines were lost, one to enemy fire and one to a thermite misfire, which turned the marine to ash. Finally, all of the troops met in front of what appeared to be a magnetically sealed door made of metal in a metal wall. This material was different from the rest of the ship.
Voyage of the Hayden (The Adventures of Christopher Slone Book 1) Page 8