by Jay Allan
The answer surprised him.
“Sir! I have Yellowjacket’s CO on the line.”
Shiloh nodded to him and heard the com channel switch over to a static filled line.
“Shiloh! Valley Forge has been shot to pieces! We were close enough to see it visually on our screens! Who’s in command of the Task Force now?”
Shiloh thought fast. “It’s Mbutu! Does he know about Yakamura?”
“Don’t know! Hanson! Contact Mbutu’s frigate. Notify him that Yakamura’s gone and he’s in command now! Victor, you still there?”
Shiloh nodded even though Frank Rolen couldn’t see him. “Yes, Frank. I’m still here. My squadron is still shaking down to Battle Stations! What’s your squadron’s status?”
“Not good. Dragonfly’s lost all power! Firefly’s not maneuvering anymore either, and we can’t raise her! My ship’s suffered a glancing hit! We’re losing fuel and atmosphere but we’re still underway! I want to jump my ships outta here, but I also don’t want to jump the gun if Yaka—Mbutu has other plans! God, Victor, where did these bastards come from?”
“I don’t know, Frank, but you can’t afford to wait for Mbutu to give you permission to jump. If your tankers are taken out, NONE of us will get back home! My advice is jump your ships away from here right now on your current heading, then dogleg it to the rendezvous point!”
“SHIT, VICTOR! Some of my ships still haven’t recovered their shuttles yet! We can’t leave them behind!”
Shiloh thought fast and replied. “We may have to, Frank! You may be able to pick those shuttles up later if the enemy leaves, and we come back here. If the tankers are destroyed, those shuttle crews are dead anyway!”
“You’re right, Victor. DAMN! Sprite’s just blown up! Okay! Hanson! Message to all tankers! Micro-jump immediately and proceed independently to the rendezvous point! Tell those shuttle crews we’ll try to come back and pick them up later! Victor, we’re outta here! See you at the rendezvous point!”
The channel cut off and Shiloh watched the green hexagon that was the tanker Yellowjacket fade out. Other tankers’ symbols also faded out, but two hexagons, Hummingbird’s and Pixie’s, broke into pieces indicating that the ships had been blown apart by internal explosions presumably caused by enemy fire. Shiloh checked his squadron’s status board and saw that all ships were at Battle Stations. He then looked back at the Tactical display. Switching back to the squadron Com channel he heard an angry voice.
“—when can we open fire, dammit?”
Shiloh replied before anyone else did.
“This is Shiloh. Here’s the situation. TF Flagship has been destroyed. We have to assume that Mbutu is TF Leader now. Those tankers that were still able to jump away have done so and are headed for the rendezvous point. I’m going to try to contact Mbutu. Standby.”
Shiloh cut short his message to the squadron when he noticed the Com Tech had switched Shiloh’s audio speakers to another channel with Task Force Leader Mbutu on it.
“This is Mbutu. I’ve taken command of the Task Force. Most of the tanker squadron has jumped away. My squadron and 102 are now taking laser fire from enemy ships! All squadrons are ordered to close with the enemy force and open fire! Squadron Leaders acknowledge these orders!”
As per standard operating procedure, squadrons replied in ascending order of squadron number.
When it was the 144th’s turn, Shiloh said, “144th acknowledges!” As soon as that was out of the way, Shiloh switched back to the squadron channel and said, “We’ve been ordered to close with the enemy force and open fire. Course changes will be downloaded shortly. Maneuvering will be by autopilot. We’ll use one recon drone from each ship to triangulate the exact position of enemy ships. Until that data is available, take your best shots, using passive sensors only. I repeat, passive sensors only. No sense letting the enemy pinpoint our location from our active sensors. Keep this channel open.”
Shiloh muted his microphone and looked over at Chenko. “XO! Plot a course change for the squadron that will put us on a heading we can use for a dogleg micro-jump closer to the rendezvous point if we should need to do that! You may also fire at will!”
“Acknowledged. Weapons Officer, you may open fire. Goran! Launch a recon drone and send it towards the enemy force at maximum speed. Begin active scanning as soon as possible. Course change is coming up! Course change is set and all ships have acknowledged receipt. Squadron is ready to change heading at your discretion, Sir!”
“Very good, XO. Here we go!”
Shiloh touched the electronic screen’s flashing red button that activated the autopilots on all eight ships to maneuver in sync. He looked at the Tactical display and heard Chenko say, “Squadron is coming around to the new heading!”
It was too soon to be able to confirm that from the larger scale of the Tactical display. Shiloh used his Command Station controls to rotate the Tactical display to get a better idea of the relative positions and vectors of all the various clusters of ships. The Task Force had emerged from hyperspace more or less above the orbit of the farthest planet with a heading that would take it even further from the system’s star. As each frigate squadron finished refueling, it pulled away from the Task Force and headed towards the planet where the enemy installations were expected to be. So from the Task Force’s point of view, the four fueled squadrons had angled ‘down’ and were now below the remaining two frigates.
The enemy force, meanwhile, was approaching the two frigate squadrons from below and off to one side, although the 98th’s and 102nd’s vectors were sufficiently fast that the enemy’s relative position to them was rapidly shifting to their rear. What this meant was that all four refueled squadrons had to ‘pull up sharply’ in order to narrow the range to the enemy ships. It was clear from listening to the Weapons Officer’s report of miss after miss, that at this range and with passive sensors only, Shiloh’s squadron was just too far away. Once the squadron deployed its recon drones and was able to triangulate their active scan data, they would be able to improve laser fire accuracy somewhat.
The only way to tell from the Tactical display if a ship was hit by laser fire was if the ship’s display symbol slowed down, moved erratically, or broke up altogether. While a few of the enemy ships were clearly damaged, the frigates of the two squadrons closest to the enemy force were taking crippling hits at a faster rate and falling behind the others as the damaged ships stopped accelerating. Shiloh winced as one of Mbutu’s ships broke up and disappeared. A few seconds later another frigate did the same thing. The enemy force appeared to concentrate their fire on one target at a time. It was clear that while the Task Force outnumbered the enemy in total number of ships, the frigates that were close enough to be hit were outnumbered almost two to one. When another of Mbutu’s frigates stopped maneuvering and fell behind, Shiloh called out to Chenko.
“XO! Check to see who’s next in line for command of the Task Force if Mbutu is taken out!”
Chenko checked and said, “Bettencourt is the next most senior, then Dejanus, Rolen, Cabrera, LaRoche and then yourself, Sir!”
“Thank you, XO.”
Shiloh manipulated his com channel controls. The channel to Mbutu was open but silent. “Shiloh to squadron. I’m monitoring communications with the Task Force Leader, but he’s not transmitting at the moment. I’m going to keep this channel open until further notice. We should start to get triangulated targeting data from our recon drones any second now. When we do, my Weapons Officer will designate a target, and I want the entire squadron to fire on that target and keep firing on it until a new target is designated.”
While he was talking, he noticed that Chenko quickly rushed over to the Weapons Station and huddled with Sen. Lt. Sykes.
Shiloh called to him. “Sykes!”
The Officer looked up, as did Chenko.
“Sir?”
“Your targeting priorities should be the ship closest to our frigates. As soon as the target loses the ability to keep up with th
eir formation, I want you to switch to another target. If we damage their ability to maneuver, then our ships will eventually pull out of their effective weapons range! Right now that’s all I’m going for.”
“Understood, Sir!”
Sykes and Chenko resumed their low-voiced consultation. One of Shiloh’s ship commanders responded.
“Even if we cripple some of their ships, those cripples might still be able to fire! We should keep firing on the same target until it’s completely destroyed!”
Shiloh bit back a curse just in time and said, “Negative! We could end up wasting shots on a lifeless hulk that refuses to blow up! We need to even the odds against the 98th and 102nd as fast as possible, and that means knocking as many enemy ships out of the fight as we can. When we whittle them down enough, I think they’ll break off the attack altogether, and then we can pick off the stragglers at our leisure!”
A shout from Sykes told Shiloh that they now had more precise targeting data from their recon drones. Shiloh noticed from the Tactical display that the other three squadrons had also followed his lead and launched their own recon drones. Enemy ships started falling behind at a noticeably faster rate now, although by this time Mbutu’s squadron was down to only four ships still able to accelerate away, and Bettencourt’s squadron was down to just three. Chenko had finished coaching Sykes and was back at the Helm. Shiloh did a quick recount of the remaining enemy ships still able to keep up with the frigates. That total was now down to 18. The range from squadron 144 to the enemy was starting to drop much faster as the squadron’s heading was steep enough that it would eventually pass behind the enemy formation, unless those ships made their own radical course change, which is exactly what they proceeded to do.
“They’ve broken off!” yelled Chenko.
Shiloh had enough presence of mind to realize that this was the first time he had seen Chenko get excited about anything. He checked the display and saw that Chenko was correct. The projected course of the enemy’s main body of ships was now swinging away from all six frigate squadrons. Shiloh was about to speak when he heard Cmdr. Mbutu’s voice.
“All squadrons, the enemy is attempting to break away! Victor, Jessica, and Hiram, I want your squadrons to pursue the enemy main body. Raph, rejoin the Task Force while we collect our stragglers, and take out any enemy cripples that are in range!”
Shiloh responded with, “Squadron 144 will pursue enemy main body as per Task Force Leader’s order, along with the 51st and the 153rd. Shiloh to squadron. Let’s keep our recon drones on their tails! You’ll be receiving a new course change for your autopilots momentarily. XO, you know what has to be done?”
“Yes, Sir! I’ll have that new course computed in a few seconds!”
But before Shiloh could implement Chenko’s new course change, all of the enemy ships, except for two stragglers, micro-jumped away. Shiloh was taken aback by the change in alien strategy but when he thought about it, it suddenly made sense. As soon as the enemy fleet had started suffering more damage than they were dishing out, their Commander had made the correct decision to cut their losses and disengage via a micro-jump. With the other four squadrons rapidly making their superior numbers felt, the odds had shifted in favor of their enemy, and they knew it. Shiloh wondered if Mbutu would still order the planned attack on the enemy installations. He was thinking over the pros and cons when Mbutu come back on the com channel.
“Mbutu to all ships. It appears that we have our second tactical victory as the enemy has left the field of battle! In light of the reduced strength of the 98th and 102nd squadrons, plus the fact that the number of apparently undamaged enemy ships is equal to two full strength squadrons, I’ve decided that we will not split up into individual squadrons as per the planned attack. We’ll keep the Task Force together, recover any survivors from our crippled ships and then reunite with the tanker squadron at the rendezvous point.”
As Mbutu kept on talking, Shiloh noticed that Chenko had an alarmed look on her face. He motioned for her to come over to his Command Station. When she got there, he switched his com channel pickup to mute before speaking to her.
“What’s bothering you, XO?”
She hesitated for only a second and then said, “I can’t help wondering how they knew we were here so quickly!”
“Well, it must have been a lucky fluke that they happened to be in the vicinity of our emergence from hyperspace. Right?”
“And what if it wasn’t a lucky fluke? What if they DETECTED our emergence from hyperspace?”
“Then that’s a problem alright, but I don’t see—”
Chenko interrupted. “If they detected our emergence, then they can probably detect the tanker squadron’s emergence from their micro-jump too!”
Shiloh was stunned by Chenko’s conclusion. He quickly decided that it wasn’t a risk worth taking. Turning the audio pickup back on, he heard Cmdr. Cabrera ask who would run down the two enemy stragglers. Before Mbutu could respond, Shiloh jumped in.
“Commander Mbutu, my XO has just raised a disturbing possibility that I think needs to be brought to your attention immediately.”
“Go ahead, Victor.”
“The fact that a concentrated force of enemy vessels was able to arrive at our location so quickly after emerging from hyperspace, raises the possibility that they can detect when and where ships emerge from hyperspace, and if that’s true, then our tanker squadron is in deadly danger as well! I urgently recommend that at least two squadrons be ordered to proceed to the rendezvous point as fast as possible!”
Mbutu was silent for what seemed like a long time. None of the other squadron leaders spoke. Finally Mbutu spoke.
“I hope you’re wrong, Victor but prudence demands that we err on the side of caution. So you and Hiram take your squadrons to the rendezvous point asap and link up with the tanker squadron. Send a message drone back here when you arrive. Until the rest of the Task Force arrives there, Commander Rolen will be in charge. Is that clear?”
Both LaRoche and Shiloh said that Mbutu’s orders were clear.
CHAPTER 8: The Other Shoe Drops
Even though Chenko, with Lt. Verlander’s help, calculated the required course change and micro-jump in record time, getting to the point of being able to make the micro-jump seemed to take much longer than usual. Shiloh knew that his sense of time was off, likely because of the adrenaline rush of the combat and anxiety over whether the tanker squadron might be under attack. The actual micro-jump took only seconds. Shiloh’s squadron arrived first and began to actively scan the area. It wasn’t long before they picked up the tanker squadron’s homing beacon operating as per standard orders. The rendezvous point was sufficiently far from any of the suspected locations of alien infrastructure that it would take hours for the homing signal to reach any of them. The tanker squadron was almost half a light second away. Once both squadrons achieved contact with each other, arrangements were made to join up. When SFE153 arrived and made contact, it too adjusted its heading to link up. Shiloh briefed Frank Rolen about the outcome of the battle. Rolen sounded relieved to hear that the crews of the tankers and shuttles left behind would be picked up, but then Shiloh explained the fear that the aliens were able to track ships emerging from hyperspace.
“Oh God, Victor, that’s all we need! This mission is rapidly turning into a clusterfuck! I’m worried about what we should do if that enemy force turns up here before the rest of the Task Force arrives.”
“Well Frank, first of all it won’t be like last time because both LaRoche’s squadron and mine are actively scanning the area, which means that the enemy force won’t be able to sneak up on us undetected. Second, to avoid being caught at close range if they should happen to jump that accurately, I recommend we make a radical course change and leave behind a message drone as a communications relay. Third, in the unlikely event that your tankers are taking laser fire, we should have a backup plan for your squadron to jump to Zebra 7 for a new rendezvous there. We’d have to check ever
yone’s fuel situation to make sure, but I think everyone should have enough fuel to get to Zebra 7. How’s that sound?”
There was silence for a few seconds, then Rolen said, “Yes, that sounds good, Victor, especially in light of the fact that my squadron is down to just five tankers. Can you believe it? FIVE! Yellowjacket is damaged and unable to skim gas giants but still has enough fuel to get to Zebra 7. And if we take the time to seal off the damaged sections, she can carry fuel that the other tankers can skim and transfer over. As far as everyone else being able to get to Zebra 7 is concerned, unless they sustained damage to their fuel storage, they should be okay, too. What’s your opinion, Hiram?”
“I would actually go further than Victor and recommend that you take your tankers to Zebra 7 right NOW and take both frigate squadrons with you to ride shotgun. Refuel at Zebra 7 and wait for the Task Force to catch up. When Mbutu and the Task Force gets here, a message drone will update them, and they’ll know where to find us.”
Before Rolen could respond, Shiloh spoke.
“I would advise against that, Frank. If we’re right about the aliens being able to detect ships emerging from hyperspace, then the enemy force might be waiting here in ambush when the rest of the Task Force, with its under-strength squadrons, arrives. We should try to unite the Task Force if at all possible because there’s safety in numbers. Besides, with a little luck, Mbutu and his ships will arrive first, and then we might be able to ambush the enemy force for a change.”
Rolen started to reply when the sensor alarm on board both Shiloh’s and LaRoche’s ships started wailing. As Shiloh looked up at the Tactical display, he saw a cluster of red triangles emerging from hyperspace behind the tanker and the two frigate squadrons. Turning back to the view screen with Rolen on it, Shiloh spoke quickly.
“Frank, they’re here! No time to debate things! You’ve got to get your tankers to safety! Let’s rendezvous at the gas giant in Zebra 7!”