The Ganthoran Gambit (The First Admiral Series)

by Benning, William J.

  “We can intercept in ten seconds, sir,” the WATO recommended.

  “Okay,” Billy acknowledged, “take us within one thousand kilometres, full Force Shielding, prepare the Self-Defence Turrets and the Trionic Cannon.” Billy began the rapid-fire orders that would prepare the two Star-Destroyers for battle.

  The two Star-Destroyers moved rapidly away from their stations, in the four-by-four formation, and sped off towards the approaching Ganthoran. And, As the Star-Destroyers moved away, the Star-Cruiser formation began to break up to make their way to the Wormhole.

  “Have we got all of our Eagles through the Wormhole, Scanners?” Lokkrien swung into action for the first time.

  This was the role of the Chief of Staff in the War Room; this was the role that Marrhus Lokkrien enjoyed. He was there to make sure that Billy Caudwell’s tactical and strategic genius was made possible in the real world. And, part of that duty meant keeping him updated with the details of the operations currently underway.

  This was what Marrhus Lokkrien now lived for, this was what made him feel alive and with some purpose in the universe.

  “Almost complete, Admiral,” the Scanner Officer said.

  “Good,” Billy said, “get the Star-Cruisers through as quick as you can, WATO.”

  “Approaching Ganthoran Fleet now, sir,” the WATO announced.

  At one thousand kilometres of distance, the two Star-Destroyers halted in front of the advancing Ganthoran Combined Frontier Fleets. The three “Ring” formations emerged rapidly from the darkness of space, the ships quickly growing in size and stature as they approached.

  “Right, fasten your safety belts, everybody, this might be a rough one.” Billy tried to lower the tension in the War Room with some levity.

  “Activate the Self-Defence Turrets, and open fire with the Trionic Cannon,” Lokkrien ordered.

  “Yes, Admiral,” the WATO said.

  On the War Table image, Billy could see the approaching Frontier Fleets with the two huge Star-Destroyers placed strategically to prevent their access to the Wormhole and the remainder of his vessels. The two Trion Streams carved a lane of destruction through the centre of the advancing Ganthoran warships.

  “WATO, concentrate on the flanks of the enemy formation,” Billy ordered.

  “Why the flanks, sir?” Lokkrien asked. “There are more targets clustered in the centre of their formation.”

  “That’s true, Admiral, we have a saying back on Earth that goes: A chain is only as strong as its weakest link,” Billy explained. “If my calculations are correct, then our friend Sal’nor’s Frontier Fleet will hold the centre ground. Generals Kav’al and Timmeg, will have been subordinated, and, will be holding the flanks. That will anger them no end. If we target the flanks, it should feed into their resentments against General Sal’nor.”

  “Of course, divide and conquer.” Lokkrien smiled in appreciation. “Hammer the subordinates until they break ranks, and the whole formation falls apart?”

  “Something like that.” Billy watched as the lanes of destruction from the Trionic Cannons carved through the centre of Sal’nor’s forces.

  The question now was; how would the Frontier Fleets respond to this new Alliance challenge? The Ganthorans had already seen what the two Alliance Star Destroyers could do to their smaller Axe-Blade and Destroyer formations. Would they now dare to risk another all-out assault on these monstrous fortresses in space?

  “The enemy are stopping, sir. Range; eighteen hundred kilometres,” a Scanner Officer called from behind her console in the darkened War Room.

  “We’ve stopped them!” Lokkrien celebrated.

  “Yes, for the moment. We need to make sure that they’ll stay stopped. Full Force Shielding, WATO.” Billy looked on as another Trion Stream smashed through the flanks of the Ganthoran formation.

  Billy Caudwell did not share the jubilation of his Chief of Staff.

  The Ganthorans have halted, and they are definitely up to something, Billy considered.

  The two forces could stare at each other, at virtually point blank range, and every second that Billy could buy through sheer force of will and nerves of steel was another second that allowed the Star-Cruisers through to finalise the formation of his trap. But, it was what happened in the next few minutes that would determine the course of this battle. The running battle had brought them to the edge of the Wormhole, and Billy Caudwell needed the wily Frontier Fleet Generals to follow them through to Parbe’an.

  The Trionic Cannon from the Colossus had just ploughed another furrow of annihilation through one of the Frontier Fleet formations on the right flank, when the entire right wing of the Ganthoran line began to move forwards.

  The Trionic Cannon stream had once again ripped indiscriminately through the Cruisers, Destroyers, and “Six-Cigar” Carriers of the right flank of the combined Frontier Fleets. After three Trionic Cannon Streams, one of the Frontier Generals; Kav’al, had taken enough punishment for one day, and now saw his only chance of survival being to attack the huge slowly-spinning Alliance warship with the nightmare weapon.

  Holding his breath, not daring to hope that his hare-brained scheme might actually be working, Billy watched the War Table image expectantly. Slowly, the left wing of the Ganthoran Combined Frontier Fleets began to move forwards. They were breaking station, and more importantly, breaking up the formation. In his mind’s-eye, Billy could imagine Frontier Generals Sal’nor and Timmeg calling for their comrade to maintain station, but their comrade had seen almost one third of his fleet vapourised. The Frontier General on the left flank had been goaded into action by his losses. He wasn’t prepared to stand his ground and be blasted to pieces.

  “He’s taken the bait!” a small Court staff officer squeaked with excitement.

  Billy Caudwell could see that the left flank elements of the Combined Frontier Fleets were moving forwards toward the Colossus.

  He’s buying it, or, at least one of them is, Billy thought as more and more of the left flank Frontier Fleet ships headed towards the Olympus and the Colossus.

  But, the part of his mind that was the dead Garmaurian First Admiral Teg Portan still urged caution.

  Sal’nor is no fool, he could easily detach only a small part of his entire force to attack the two Star-Destroyers, and take the rest of his ships to the Wormhole to crush the small contingent of Alliance vessels that were still trying to pass through. Was this a clever response by Sal’nor, or had one of the subordinate Generals broken ranks? Billy questioned.

  “Do we make our move now, sir?” Marrhus Lokkrien asked anxiously.

  In the short time that he had known this brilliant young human, he had learned that, in some circumstances, timing was absolutely vital.

  But, having dispatched most of the Universal Alliance contingent to what he hoped Sal’nor would consider some imagined safety, the remaining ships at the Wormhole were still horribly exposed and vulnerable.

  “No, not yet, Marrhus, we wait.” An outwardly calm Billy Caudwell smiled and folded his arms, with his hands tucked under his armpits. “We’ll let out friend General Sal’nor sweat it out for a bit. We need him to commit his entire force to the pursuit, not just a part of it.”

  Lokkrien knew that this was Billy Caudwell’s “tell”. When he was anxious or nervous in a battle situation, the First Admiral would fold his arms across his chest and bury his hands under his armpits. Sometimes, he would rub his left thumb down the pronounced cleft in his chin. And, Billy Caudwell had every reason to be anxious. If Sal’nor didn’t take the bait, he would return to Ganthus and claim a victory trying to intimidate the Imperial Guards with his success. He could then attempt to set himself up as Emperor. Fortunately, the other Frontier Fleet Generals would most probably not support him. If, however, they did support him, then the Universal Alliance would have to look forward to many years of hardship and bloodshed on the Ganthoran frontier. That would mean the loss of millions, possibly billions, of lives.

  To Billy Cau
dwell’s mind, enough lives had already been lost. This was possibly the only opportunity that he had to draw the combined Frontier Fleets onto territory of his choosing, and deliver them a decisive defeat that would bring the whole Ganthoran episode to a successful conclusion.

  “We need him to believe he can take us, that he can chase us anywhere, and also to believe that he can rescue whichever one of the Adjudicators is this mysterious rebel Emperor,” Billy said.

  This was not quite how he had envisioned his original plan going, but, with some clever improvisation, he was now in a position to lure the Ganthorans into his trap. Now, Billy could see that part of the Ganthoran force was advancing rapidly towards the two Alliance Star-Destroyers.

  However, this appeared to be a co-ordinated response to the challenge of the two Star Destroyers. What was taking shape on the War Table image was an all-out attack by one of the Ganthoran flanks. The Ganthoran General, whether it was Sal’nor or one of the subordinates, had learned from their encounter with the Star-Destroyers previously. The Frontier General was moving his surviving Cruisers and Destroyers together in a horseshoe formation. The surviving Cruisers were arranged in a rectangle at the centre of the formation to provide the massive punch of “Screaming Death” that he hoped would break down the shielding that had frustrated all the other attacks so far. Then, sweeping out like the horns of a great bull, the Destroyers were set out in lines. The Destroyers were there to encircle and try to hold the great space fortresses in place, whilst the Cruisers pounded the shielding to uselessness. Then, the Destroyers would be able to sweep in and smash the great space giants to oblivion.

  But, to Billy Caudwell’s eyes, there were too few of them to make any impact on the massive Star-Destroyers. Surely, Sal’nor was clever enough to realise that if he wanted these big Alliance ships shattered he would, more or less, have to commit his entire force to do the job. To tame these big beasts, an underwhelming force like this would not be enough.

  Unless, Billy considered, it is simply a holding action to contain the two Star-Destroyers whilst the rest of the Ganthorans launch an attack on the Wormhole.

  Unfortunately, that simply didn’t make sense. The Star-Destroyers would shatter this flimsy Ganthoran cordon and join the rest of the Alliance forces at the Wormhole.

  No, Billy finally concluded, this has to be a breakaway formation from the main body.

  “WATO- full Force Shielding. Hold your ground,” Billy instructed.

  The name of the game was still to hold the Ganthorans at bay from the Wormhole. Olympus then fired her Trionic Cannon and cut another one hundred metre swathe through the advancing Ganthoran formation. Three Cruisers at the centre of the advance went through the classic flattening process before being smashed to smithereens by the internal explosion.

  “Enemy vessels firing, sir!” a Scanner Technician called.

  The shimmering haze of the wave of “Screaming Death” surged from the weapons pods of the thirty massed Ganthoran Cruisers and hurtled downrange towards the Olympus. Less than a second later, the wave struck the front face of the Olympus. Like a massive sledgehammer striking a bell, the crew of the Star-Destroyer was shaken and jolted from their action stations by the sonic wave hitting the Force Shielding. Billy Caudwell was forced, once again, to fiercely grip on to the edges of his War Table to maintain his balance, whilst Marrhus Lokkrien was flung to the floor; landing painfully on his left shoulder.

  “Damage!?” Lokkrien clutched his shoulder, wincing with the pain.

  “Minor damage on several decks, no reports of casualties, Admiral!” the WATO responded.

  “Enemy firing again, sir!” The Scanner Officer just had enough time to make his announcement, before the Olympus was shaken by another massive jolt.

  Billy, clinging on to the side of the War Table, saw the second shimmering wave of “Screaming Death” hurtle towards the Olympus on the flickering image of the Table.

  Once again, the Olympus shook under the violent impact of the sonic wave.

  “Navigation, take us back two thousand kilometres, one percent light speed!” After shouting his command, Billy was flung violently sideways.

  “Yes, sir!”

  The shuddering and shaking from the “Screaming Death” wave stopped almost immediately, and Billy was able to regain his composure.

  “Remind me to get one of those Personal Environment Suits of yours.” Lokkrien continued to clutch and stretch his shoulder.

  “You all right, Admiral?” Billy asked openly.

  “I’m getting too old for this, sir.” Lokkrien smiled, wincing through the pain.

  Around the War Room, Officers and Technicians were regaining their seats behind heir consoles, and helping colleagues and comrades, before checking that their systems and communications channels still functioned.

  “Maybe, but we’ve hopefully encouraged the Ganthorans to throw their entire Fleet at us the next time,” Billy said.

  “Next time!?” Lokkrien’s reply was slightly louder than he had intended.

  “Yes, Admiral, with any luck they’ll throw everything at us including the kitchen sink.” Billy smiled. “Are the Star-Cruisers through the Wormhole yet?”

  “Not quite, sir, maybe another couple of minutes,” a voice replied.

  “Well, tell them to hurry it up.” Billy began to get agitated. “We’re getting our backsides kicked out here!”

  “Sir, arriving new location,” another voice announced.

  It sometimes astonished Billy Caudwell that a vessel could cover thousands of kilometres in a few seconds.

  It had been just over a year ago that it had taken him the better part of an hour to walk the three kilometres from school to his home, and the fastest he had ever travelled was at over one hundred and sixty kilometres per hour in his grandfather’s car. Now, covering vast distances in space were a common occurrence for First Admiral Caudwell.

  The War Table image quickly stabilised as the shaken and jolted systems quickly re-established themselves. And, the image that Billy saw could hardly have been better. The thirty Ganthoran Cruisers from the left wing of the formation were being joined by the remaining Cruisers from the other two Frontier Fleets. Two good heavy blasts of “Screaming Death” had driven the two Alliance space fortresses away in confusion. General Sal’nor was now massing every Cruiser he could find into one massive spearhead, with four pincers of Destroyers. The two pincers to the flanks were joined by a further two pincers above and below the Cruisers in formation.

  Billy, or the part of his mind that was Teg Portan, immediately recognised that the Ganthorans would use the Cruisers to shake and rattle the two Star-Destroyers, whilst the four pincers would reach out, like a claw, to attack from the four directions simultaneously. It was exactly what Billy Caudwell would have done. However, the part of his mind that was Teg Portan would probably have included the single-seat fighters to add extra nuisance value to the defenders of the space fortresses.

  However, Sal’nor was moving far too quickly to launch his Axe-Blade fighters. The Ganthoran Scanners would be showing the last of the Alliance Star-Cruisers passing through the Wormhole, and the tactician in Sal’nor would want to catch at least some of the enemy ships away from the rest of their Fleet. Time was now of the essence for Sal’nor.

  He had seen the space fortresses shaken by the “Screaming Death”, and he had been encouraged by the success of the Cruisers. Now, he was going to throw everything at the Alliance ships and sweep them away in flaming and exploding ruin. But, Billy Caudwell had other ideas on the matter.

  “Enemy within range of Trionic Cannon, sir,” the WATO announced.

  “Open fire, WATO,” Billy said, “target those Cruisers in the centre!”

  The Trionic Cannons aboard Olympus and Colossus both fired at exactly the same moment, and scythed their way through five Ganthoran Cruisers. The explosions of the Cruisers lit up the centre of the Ganthoran formation like a massive sunburst. But, already, Billy could see the horde of Des
troyers quickly moving to cut off the line of retreat for the two Star-Destroyers. Grim faced, Billy stared at the War Table image and the dancing numerals on the margins. The numbers weren’t going to add up. The Ganthorans would reach position of the two Star-Destroyers before the Star-Cruisers were clear of the Wormhole. That meant that Colossus and Olympus would have to stand and fight, and that meant taking a pounding from the Ganthoran “Screaming Death”.

  “Coming into range of enemy weapons, sir!” the Scanner Officer called.

  “Very well,” Billy replied, “WATO, full Force Shielding, and activate the Self-Defence Turrets and link them to the Tactical Computers, please.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And Comms, I want to know the instant that the last of our Star-Cruisers reaches its designated position on the other side of the Wormhole.”

  “Very good, sir.”

  Billy knew that the last time he had tied the Self-Defence Turrets to the Tactical Computers, it had ended up being a battle of movement, where had had used the offensive capabilities of the Star-Destroyers. Now, it was going to be a static battle; he would have to hold his ground and deny his enemy the space that he occupied. It was a defensive battle, and this would show up the major design flaw of the Star-Destroyers. For thousands of years, the Garmaurians had been the masters of everything that they had surveyed. There was no one to challenge their military dominance, until the outbreak of the Garmaurian civil war.

  When the civil war had broken down into a stalemate, both sides began to build massive battle fleets. And, sound military logic told the Garmaurian commanders that you could only deal with the enemy’s massive fleets by using your own massive fleet. The Star-Destroyer had been created as a colossal Force Shielded fortress to house the Command Structure of the Fleet and to combat the enemy’s Star-Destroyers. They were the only vessels large enough to carry the Trionic Cannon whilst being the anchor point for the rest of the fleet. Everything was designed to revolve around the Star-Destroyer.