The Gathering Storm

by Chris Hechtl

  Another AU out was another Mercury class planet. Then several AU out was the class one Jovian with a host of moons and platforms. It looked like the Horathians had anchored the bulk of their fleet there, most likely because the planet was conveniently passing by both jump points. Currently it was halfway between the two.

  Another AU out from there was a rubble belt. It was thin; apparently, it had been picked over through the centuries. Or, it hadn't had a lot of resources to begin with. There was a reason the star system only had a small civilian repair yard after all.

  Further out on the other side of the star system was another class one Jovian. It had its own host of moons but no signs of life.

  He had considered the situation from De Gaulte's point of view. The repair yard and the planet were two natural places to defend. Both had platforms and stations around them, but the majority were around the planet. There was also radio traffic from minor mining outposts and gas refineries across the solar system. There was even some radio traffic from the rubble belt. It didn't have a lot.

  But that wasn't where De Gaulte's forces were. They were ready to fight or flee.

  As he stared at the plot, he snorted when the decoys came up around the planet. Sure enough, someone had tried to fool him once more with the dreadnoughts there. He shook his head.

  :::{)(}:::

  “I don't care! Get those decoys up. Keep them up. I want them to stay the hell away from the planet for as long as we can get them to,” Captain Abernly snarled into the radio.

  “Sir, we're doing that now, but overall command is ceded to Admiral De Gaulte during conflict,” the lieutenant warned.

  “Don't you sass me or I'll come up and crawl up one side of you and down the other. You'll wish you'd never been born by the time I'm done with you! The admiral is busy, so you'll have to put up with me. Do you have a problem with that?” he demanded icily.

  “No, sir,” the lieutenant said in a strangled voice.

  “Good. I thought not. Keep those decoys up.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I'm ordering all of the fighters on the planet to go to alert status. The same goes for any in transit or in orbit. All leaves are hereby canceled obviously. I'll let you know what to do with them when I know.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  :::{)(}:::

  Admiral De Gaulte frowned as he studied the plot. Once the prowler had left, the innermost class one Jovian gas giant had moved around the star system to give him an opportunity. He had anchored the majority of his forces there, in the shadow of the gas giant where he could take advantage of the fuel refineries. Her radiation gave his force some cover though he had to keep his ship's particle shields up at all times.

  The location also had strategic implications as well. From there he could reinforce the picket or pounce on any force moving in on the inner star system. Or if they were too much for him to handle, he could retreat to the Garth jump point.

  Not that he had any intention of telling his people that—not yet at least.

  Commodore Rabideau had control of the picket force made up of the tin cans, cruisers, and escorts as well as the six carrier fortress platforms and hoards of recon and defensive platforms at the Dd01ns jump zone. The commodore had considered Berney's weekly suggestion of transferring his flag to one of the carrier fortresses there but had rejected each.

  Cyrano couldn't blame the man; if he had, he would have been trapped in the immobile platform and mostly out of the fight.

  His frown deepened as he studied the incoming information. CIC was tentative about all of the IDs. He knew the range was long; the enemy had jumped into an unexpected spot a little over eight AU away. Call it 1.2 billion kilometers away from him.

  They were only two AU out from Commodore Rabideau's forces however—three hundred million kilometers. From where they were at above the plane of the ecliptic, they could come in to hit the yard and planet without ever getting into range of the fighters at the picket line.

  That sucked he thought as he realized the implications. “Order to Commodore Rabideau. We need to consolidate. Get your forces including the fighters from the platforms moving to me now. Stage as many of the fighters on your ships as you can. Strap them to your hulls if necessary. Get underway within thirty minutes. Message ends.”

  “Aye aye, sir,” a communications tech replied dutifully.

  “Numbers are still coming in, sir. I can tell you there are some big ships there but only two seem to be warships. One we've positively identified as Bismark,” Sedrick stated from his station.

  “And the other?”

  “The range is too long to confirm it as a dreadnought, sir. Sorry,” the staff intelligence officer replied.

  “So, we go off of what we do know.”

  “Oddly, they haven't been as reinforced as I would have expected, sir. They are almost on par with the force we faced in B-95a3,” Sedrick said as he pulled CIC's numbers onto a tablet and then came over to the admiral. He grunted when he saw the number of battle cruisers. “This can't be right. Why would they send such a small force?”

  “I think the pressure was on to do something. When they encountered Commodore Rabideau, they decided to act with what they had,” Cyrano rumbled thoughtfully.

  “Possible,” Berney replied, cocking his head. “Still, they have fewer ships than expected. Could they have stripped their yards to hit us the last time?”

  “It's possible. It's also possible something else is going on,” Cyrano replied. “Remember, the range is long and they might be using ECM to deceive us into a false sense of security,” he warned.

  “Understood, sir,” the chief of staff replied with a nod of sudden understanding.

  “I'm starting to regret not taking your idea to heart, Jeremy,” the admiral said. The staff navigator turned expectantly to him.

  “Which one was that, sir?”

  “The tanker one,” the admiral said frowning. “And the tugs,” he admitted.

  Jeremy nodded. He had suggested positioning a tanker with the picket force in order to allow greater mobility of the fighter compliment there. With modifications the tanker could have refueled an entire squadron at a time. She couldn't do anything to replenish their life support, power, or weapons, but it would have allowed their range to extend.

  Without those other things though, Cyrano had rejected the option. It would have taken a lot of engineering to get it right, and besides, none of the pilots had liked the idea of trying to belly up to a tanker on the fly.

  The tug option was a little better. He'd suggested the position sublight tugs to push one or more of the carrier fortress platforms, essentially turning them into fighter barges like the three in the inner star system. Captain Abernly had rejected the idea since they had only so many tugs to spare and they were in constant use. Positioning them at the picket line would have negated their use elsewhere. Cyrano had signed off on the decision.

  “Even if he moves in the next thirty minutes, it is going to take a day or more to get here, Admiral,” Berney stated.

  “If he leaves in thirty minutes, it will take thirty-four hours and twenty minutes,” Jeremy corrected.

  Berney shot him a mock glower. “Trust you to know.”

  Jeremy shrugged. “It's my job.”

  “Right,” Berney drawled, returning his attention to the admiral. “They will be out there, sir. If the enemy pounces on them …,” he frowned.

  “I'm actually hoping they do. Let's see which way they jump first though,” Admiral De Gaulte stated evenly.

  His staff nodded almost in unison.

  :::{)(}:::

  Amadeus stared at the icons of the enemy forces. At the range they were at, he couldn't trust anything they could see. The enemy's use of decoys told him he'd have to be careful.

  There were a few things he could easily see though, like the forces moving away from the Dd01ns jump zone to the gas giant. Obviously, De Gaulte was trying to consolidate his forces. That was smart of him.

/>   He was going to have to take a different approach if he was going to take advantage of the opening the movement was causing. For the moment, the picket forces were closer to him than to De Gaulte's forces.

  “Comm, raise Argus. Record,” he said.

  “Recording,” a tech replied.

  “Trajan, take your carrier force and hit that picket force underway. Shape your course to come in to meet up with us. No,” he paused. “Scratch that, come in under the gas giant on a different vector. We'll pincer him. Message ends.”

  “Good recording,” the tech replied after a beat. “Sending now, sir.”

  “Good. Raise Skale. Drew, take your force to raid the inner star system. I want you to just hit their defenses and force De Gaulte to commit one way or another. Don't strike the planet, platforms, or yard. I may want them intact,” he said.

  It was a classic problem. He was dividing his forces but going after multiple objectives that De Gaulte would be forced to defend. Either De Gaulte would split his own forces or concentrate to protect one of them.

  If he concentrated and tried to move to protect the inner star system against the Federation cruisers and destroyers, he would be moving into the system and away from the jump point. The faster Federation ships could easily avoid him.

  If he went to the rescue of his picket force, he'd pull himself out of position and be facing in the wrong direction, away from the Garth jump point. It would also leave the inner star system to the mercy of Skale and her consorts.

  “Aleck, make sure both forces have multiple running plots to call on as the situation changes,” he called out. Aleck nodded and turned his attention to his station.

  “Hammer and Anvil will be going in to strike De Gaulte directly. If he comes to meet us, we'll delay while the carriers reload and then hit him from the flank. Kyle, I'm leaving the fleet train here with two destroyer squadrons as an escort.”

  “You are certain you don't want them to come with us, sir? The carriers will shoot themselves dry quickly,” the OPS officer warned.

  “I don't want them to slow the carriers or us down. No, they stay put. Besides, they'll be out of the action.”

  “Aye aye, sir.”

  “Leopold, I know it's a long shot, but have your ilk start the cyberwarfare component. Do what you can to get intel and to infiltrate their systems. Bounce through them, whatever it takes.”

  “Aye aye, sir,” the A.I. replied. “They have air gapped their systems, so I doubt we'll get far.”

  “I'll take anything at this point.”

  “We have to be careful with any intel we get, sir. It could be booby trapped.”

  “Noted. Be careful,” the admiral replied with a nod.

  “Carrier force is getting underway, sir. Cruiser force is underway as well,” the CIC rating reported after a moment.

  “Good. Your move De Gaulte,” the Neochimp admiral said softly, brown eyes studying the plot.

  :::{)(}:::

  Renee looked on as Trajan's carrier force moved out. She turned and caught Dwight looking at her through the cameras.

  “Our turn will come,” he said.

  “I know.”

  “He'll be fine.”

  “I know. I'm not worried about him.”

  “Status?” Dwight asked, turning to all business.

  “All ships have reported in. Nominal. It is too early to prep the fighters or go to battle stations,” she replied. He nodded. “I'm having the fighters prepped as defensive since we don't know what we'll face.”

  “Understood. No doubt we'll get some of the enemy fighters.”

  “Yes, sir,” she replied with a nod. How are the sims going?”

  “I'm plugging the data in now of course. We're keeping an up-to-date plot and projections. So far they haven't moved.”

  “Ah,” She replied with a nod. “Hesitant or smart I wonder?”

  “We shall soon see,” Dwight replied with an indifferent shrug.

  :::{)(}:::

  Commodore Rabideau noted the plot change and swore over and over again. He'd anticipated it. So had Cyrano. He was effectively bait.

  That didn't mean he had to like it. Especially when he knew what usually happened to bait. Being chewed up wasn't on his list of things to do today. “Frack,” he muttered.

  “Yeah, I'd say we are,” someone behind him said. He turned a ferocious glower on the culprit who ducked his head and looked away.

  :::{)(}:::

  Cyrano noted the enemy force split up. Most likely there was a carrier force coming for Antuan. He had actually anticipated it in his planning. Wordlessly Berney and Sedrick turned to him, expecting an order.

  He nodded once. “Order the carriers forward, operation W is in effect,” he stated.

  “Operation W? Yes, sir,” Berney replied as he turned and pulled the plan up. He scanned it carefully and then began to softly issue orders into his hush mike.

  “We're getting better numbers and types, sir. The force headed for Commodore Rabideau is largely made up of carriers of all types. There are nine CEV, one CLV, and what looks like a fleet carrier, sir. They are screened by a flotilla of tin cans. The tin cans are of the type we encountered before but do not match anything in our database,” Sedrick said as he came over to him. He handed the admiral a tablet.

  The admiral took it and scanned it. Sedrick was of course right. The normal compliment on a fleet carrier was three hundred sixty craft. Antuan had three hundred sixty fighters all told but all but one or two were the emergency fighter type. That was a problem since there were more than just the single fleet carrier coming at him.

  “The force headed into the inner system is made up of cruisers and destroyers,” Sedrick said in a carefully neutral voice.

  “Undoubtedly a raiding force,” Cyrano rumbled thoughtfully as he scanned the numbers. “They either want us to follow or want us to watch as they blow the guts out of the system. If they do blow the yard, then there is no point standing and fighting,” he mused as he looked at the numbers of the main body. He shook his head. “This can't be right though, they are down a dreadnought and have the same number of battle cruisers as before?” he frowned and looked up to the intelligence officer.

  Sedrick shrugged and then spread his hands apart in supplication. “I don't know, sir.”

  “Punch some recon drones in their direction. Find out.”

  “Aye aye, sir,” Sedrick said as he took the tablet back. “I'll do the same for the other forces. I've got the spy satellites scanning them now, but we have to be careful about any incoming data.”

  “Good, do that. And alert the inner system defenses that they've got incoming.”

  “Aye aye, sir.”

  “The data? You mean they've started attacking the networks?” the admiral asked. The intelligence officer nodded. “Okay. Make sure everything is locked down.”

  “Already done, sir. But I'll double-check and remind our people not to open any unauthorized channels.”

  “Good. And be careful of the recon drone data stream.”

  “Yes, sir,” the intelligence officer replied with a sharp nod. “We shifted encryption but they have adapted.”

  “Okay. If we have to, we'll go to strict air-gapping and voice only protocols,” the admiral replied.

  Sedrick grimaced but then nodded. It was better than letting a potential virus in to ravage their network.

  Chapter 64

  Now the fun part, waiting, Amadeus thought as the various forces crept across the solar system. Trajan's carrier force had been underway for an hour. The carriers could easily match the speed of the Horathian cruisers and destroyers and had enough in reserve to overhaul them if necessary. For the moment, Trajan was keeping that in reserve and playing it safe.

  He couldn't blame the human for being conservative. He didn't know which way the cruiser force would jump. If you got too ahead of yourself and went for a full burn, it meant you had to slow down and adjust if your target changed course or speed later. Besides,
the point of the carrier force was to get their wings into striking distance, not to ram themselves all the way in.

  So far, the Horathian main body had yet to react. He knew there was something of a time lag between seeing his moves at the distances involved, even with gravitronic and neutrino detectors.

  Should he have factored in a time delay in Admiral De Gaulte's reactions? He wasn't certain. He frowned thoughtfully.

  “Penny for your thoughts, sir?” Kelly asked.

  “I'm wondering what sort of range and resolution the enemy's gravitronic and neutrino detectors have,” he said, turning to the Neogorilla.

  She nodded and pulled the data up and then frowned. “It depends on the unit. We haven't examined anything above the size of a battle cruiser. There are also differences in the Gather Fleet and Battle Fleet. Based on what we've seen, I'd say they are about 70 percent on range as our own give or take 5 percent.”

  He nodded slowly as he played with the plot. He created a sphere out from each of the enemy ship formations, then scaled it appropriately. “And the resolution?” he asked.

  “That's where things get tricky, sir. We have only examined Gather Fleet hardware and well, it sucked. Part of the process relies on software obviously. But a grav spike and Neutrino spike are enough to tell anyone something is there. Give them enough plots and they can get a general bearing, range, and course of the target.”

  “But not a good resolution?”

  “Unknown. They didn't spot the prowler after all, but she had heavy stealth involved,” Kelly mused. “There have been reports of our ships getting in pretty close to theirs without being seen. Some of them have gotten into missile range. But again, those were Gather Fleet ships.”

  “Understood. Nothing from the encounters we've had?”

  “Most of what we've had to examine was wreckage, sir. I don't see any notations from ONI about interrogated personnel.”