Kelly Blake 3: Where the Stars Are Few and Far Between

by Rodney Smith

  “Has there been any sign of K’Rang combatants?”

  “Not a one, sir.”

  “Okay, I’m going to do some high-resolution scans of the moons to provide better targeting solutions for the attack ships. I expect the Angaerry Fleet here in about six hours. Kindly not shoot them, please.”

  Kelly ordered the Orion to close on G’Durin’s large moon and stand off 100,000km. When the navigator told him they were matching orbit with the moon and standing off 100,000km, Kelly ordered the sensor section to conduct high-resolution scanning of the moon, with emphasis on the defense facilities. After they collected for an entire rotation of the moon, he had them move to the next moon and repeat the scans. When the second moon completed its rotation, he ordered yet a final move to the third moon, which orbited on a different alignment than the other two.

  While the two prior moons were on parallel equatorial orbits, the third and smallest moon was on a 15-degree orbit that had it cross under one or both of the two larger moons during its five-day orbit.

  Kelly held off until the smaller moon passed the largest moon, and then ordered the Orion in to do the scans. After the scans were collected, Kelly moved the Orion outside the system. He called his Ops officer, Chief Blankenship, and his sensor chief into his cabin office to discuss what had been collected.

  “Chief Davis, tell me what we found.”

  Chief Davis, a tall blond with Nordic features, turned on the holographic display and called up a representation of the largest moon.

  “Sir, we found four facilities on the moon. Three gun emplacements and what we believe to be the control center. The gun emplacements are embedded 20 meters in the rock of the moon’s surface. They have opening blast doors that must cover the gun until right before elevating and firing. There’s a connecting tunnel between one of the guns and the control facility. The control facility is three stories high and buried beneath 30 meters of rock. It will be a tough nut to crack.”

  Kelly asked, “What about the next moon?”

  “We found three gun emplacements, but no control facility. We found the same arrangement on the small moon, just guns, and no control facility. It seems the K’Rang have all their eggs in one very deep basket.”

  Kelly thought for a second and asked, “How do they communicate with the other moons?”

  “They have buried antennae at all gun emplacements and wire connecting the antennae to all emplacements. Their comms is one place they have good redundancy.”

  Kelly pondered some more and asked, “How about power? Are they tied together or independent?”

  Chief Davis replied, “It looks like they have individual power generators, but they are all wired together, as with comms. I know what you are looking for, sir. Their Achilles heel is the single control facility. Take that out and we take down the whole system.”

  Kelly agreed and had Chief Davis put all this into a report to go to Admirals Haddock-Halloway and Chang, recommending targeting the command and control facility rather than the guns.

  Kelly had the Orion stand off for the Angaerry Fleet’s arrival. The space around G’Durin was about to get crowded.

  * * * * *

  K’Rel got lucky. The Grand Armada passed close enough for his sensors to pick up their passing and he set off in hot pursuit. He had a full FTL level advantage over the Grand Armada and caught up with them easily.

  When he was in normal comms range and matched velocity he called over to the flagship. A response said to put Baron J’Kol on to speak to Baron G’Rof.

  K’Rel responded that Baron J’Kol had been recalled to G’Durin and the Armada was now commanded by Shadow leader K’Rel. Baron G’Rof told K’Rel to stand by and await orders from G’Rof’s flag Ops officer.

  Baron G’Rof couldn’t believe his good fortune. This K’Rel, not knowing that all experts said it couldn’t be done, intercepted his Grand Armada in high FTL and rendezvoused with him. If the both of them survived, he would recommend K’Rel for a high award or maybe a title. This was worth a baronet, at least.

  G’Rof called his Ops officer in and gave him guidance on how to integrate the Armada into his formation. In five hours, with the Armada’s greater FTL speed, they were integrated into a much deadlier formation.

  G’Rof now had almost 400 ships in the deadlier arrowhead formation, with two wedges of cruisers and battle cruisers intersecting at a 90 degree angle and sheltering the rest of the formation. He could launch over 20,000 missiles per salvo if he caught the Humans massing.

  He would dash at the heart of their fleet and let 10,000 missiles fly to take out one fleet and 10,000 for the other. It could be a quick victory. G’Rof thought he could kill enough of each fleet to be able to finish the survivors off with his guns, torpedoes, and drones.

  G’Rof was suddenly famished. He called for his orderly to bring him some delicacies he had brought along.

  * * * * *

  Kelly watched on his CIC screens as the 1st Combined Fleet dropped out of FTL. It covered quite a bit of space as it spread apart for survivability. In another 34 minutes, the 2nd Combined Fleet dropped out of FTL on the other side of G’Durin. It also spread out for survivability. Another hour and a half saw the Angaerry Fleet drop out of FTL and similarly spread its formation. There were now three allied fleets patrolling in large racetrack patterns near the K’Rang home system at approximately 120-degree separation, and one and a half billion km out from the orbital plane of the K’Rang home world’s planetary system.

  Admiral Chang chopped the 15th and 18th battle fleets to the Angaerry and gave the fleets three hours to prepare for A-76 attacks on the lunar defense facilities. Admiral Chang’s Flag Fighter Operations officer transmitted the targets for each squadron and run in times. CFWs all over the Allied Fleet prepared targeting instructions to their squadrons. Fighter CAPs launched and moved to patrol zones.

  At exactly three hours, the first A-76 squadrons launched and oriented on one of the three moons. Extra squadrons were apportioned to attack the command and control facility on the largest moon. Simultaneously, Alistair’s special task force raced to reach the backside of G’Durin and the start of its two-hour mission window.

  The first squadrons of A-76's hit the small moon first, destroying one gun emplacement and damaging another. The third gun tracked on a flight of four A-76's, destroying them en masse. The next two squadron attacks caused no damage to the remaining two guns. A fourth attack destroyed the damaged gun, leaving one functional gun on the small moon.

  The first attack on the middle-sized moon damaged two guns, but even after four squadron attacks, all guns were still functional. One A-76 of the 112th Attack Squadron ran into the beam of one of the guns and it dissolved the A-76 into thousands of pieces. The fifth squadron attack managed to jam one of the blast doors, taking the gun out of action.

  Squadrons assigned to attack the command and control facility fired missile after missile, but had no affect on the facility other than digging a small crater in the surface above it. Squadrons continued the attacks, but were turned to attacks against the guns when it was determined the missiles were not having any real effect against the command and control facility. Slowly, gun after gun was put out of action, until only one lone gun on each moon was still operational.

  Chapter Twenty

  The carriers Essex and Illustrious raced to the dawning side of G’Durin at just under FTL to launch their assault on the K’Rang Intelligence HQ. They arrived at the ingress/egress point for the AS-500s and launched them, their fighter CAP, and the close air support A-76's. The AS-500s dropped down to the surface exactly according to plan and flew low level in the morning light and shadows to the point where they were to jump over the mountain ridge and into the valley on the north side. One of the A-76's flew into a high-tension line and crashed against the mountainside. This was not a good omen.

  The AS-500s turned at the cut in the ridgeline and lined up on the Intel HQ building. Alpha Company’s AS-500 landed in the empty parkin
g lot to the east of the building and discharged its assault forces. The other AS-500 landed in the western parking lot, crushing a few cars, and disgorged its Bravo Company security force. A-76's flew protective orbits high above the building. Major Chen moved her team to collocate with the battalion command post and stood ready to provide any support needed.

  Alistair led the assault team as it breached the main entrance of the building. Disruptor guns on wide beam at close range made the locked double doors go away and a squad rushed in, killing two Shadow Warriors at the front security desk, and securing the lobby for the rest of the company to enter. A platoon secured the lobby, elevators and stairwells, as the remaining two platoons, the special team, and Alistair raced down the stairs to the first basement level. They entered a long hallway and caught five unarmed and unprepared K’Rang by surprise. They were quickly bound and gagged with cuff tape and left on the floor. Every door was breached and only supplies and empty office spaces were found. The company ran to the end of the hall and took a staircase down to the second basement. There they found what they had come for. Alistair read a sign on a vault door that said main computer center, authorized personnel only.

  Alistair motioned to the lead Marines and they used their disruptors to eat away at the heavy steel door and its casing until it fell into the room beyond. Three armed K’Rang were waiting for them and fired blast rifles into the hallway, killing two Marines and one of the interpreters. A hail of disruptor fire dropped them, where they huddled behind a storage cabinet. Alistair sprinted into the room, killing a fourth hiding behind a support column. The marines rushed the room and took captive a group of operators, cuffed and gagged them, and left them on the floor by the entrance, with two Marines to guard them.

  Alistair could not believe his luck. The system was still operational and the data files appeared to be intact. He put his special team to disconnecting the comms lines coming into the center and then had them copy every file they could and load every file they couldn’t. At the 30-minute mark from when the AS-500 landed, he did a status check and found the file copy work was at 75%. He told them to continue and heard gunfire from above. He turned to the company commander and released all but a squad from the two platoons and told him to see to his platoon in the lobby. The commander ran out the door and up the staircase, followed by the two platoons.

  Alistair had two of his fellow reporting officers rig the support columns with explosives set for the one-hour mark. He wanted to drop the ceiling on this center. He got a mission complete signal from his IT team and his interpreters and Alistair prepared to leave. He had the Marines drag the operators out to the staircase and left them under the bottom landing, where they would be safe from the debris. They ran up the stairs with their booty and stopped at the lobby door because of gunfire on the other side. The gunfire stopped and Alistair cautiously peeked around the door. All three elevators were open and the doors jammed with K’Rang bodies. Assorted weapons lay scattered among the bodies, attesting to the lethality of a Marine company.

  The company commander saw him and waved him out the front door. Alistair led his party of intel specialists across the lobby and out the door to the awaiting AS-500. The Marines disengaged and followed with the bodies of the two marines and interpreter. Alistair heard gunfire and explosions as Bravo Company held off angry Shadow Warriors from the surrounding residential area.

  Bravo Company disengaged after tossing smoke grenades and boarded their AS-500. As Mary, her team, and the battalion command post party ran to the AS-500, a lucky shot hit the battalion commander in the leg. Mary stopped, hiked him up on her shoulders, and carried him to the waiting transport. As they boarded, both AS-500s lifted off and ran due east out the end of the valley. They flew to the ingress/egress point and spiraled up to their awaiting carrier.

  Once they were safely aboard their carrier and headed back to the fleet, Alistair took stock of their situation. The casualties were two Marines and one interpreter Killed in Action and two Wounded in Action. The three deaths were a heavy weight on his heart, but they had accomplished the mission. He assigned his interpreters to start going through the data to ensure it was authentic, and not false data because they were expected.

  Alistair escorted the data to Fleet Intel, and did not return to the Orion.

  * * * * *

  Tammy briefed her squadron on their mission. They were to go in first to attack the command and control center with their hypervelocity missiles. The three moons were reduced to one gun per moon by hundreds of A-76 attacks. Allied Fleet tactical control was going to try and send them in when the moon’s orbits put the minimum guns able to target them on their attack runs. Tammy knew that guns able to bear or not, they were going to be sent in.

  Later, as Tammy sat on the end of the runway awaiting the go signal, she thought of all she had done to prepare her squadron. She was at peace and unconflicted. She had done all she could to prepare her crews for this mission. Hours in the simulator, followed by live firing actual missiles on the local moon, made them as ready as she could make them.

  The signal came and she applied power. Her ungainly June Bug waddled down the runway, slowly gaining speed as its engines strained under the full load of 24 missiles. She pulled back on the yoke and lifted up into the air. Once free of the ground, her ugly duckling became a swan. Tammy and her squadron climbed up through the atmosphere and into the jet black of space.

  They quickly assembled, oriented on the ring and moved through, in flights of six, into space outside the K’Rang home system. Allied Tactical Control gave them the wait signal as the rest of her wing appeared behind them through the ring. Tammy looked at her monitor screen, oriented herself on the star at the center of the system, and counted out four planets.

  There was G’Durin, the K’Rang home world. She didn’t have enough resolution at this range to pick out the moons, but she knew they were there, waiting for her squadron as she was waiting for the go signal. The signal came through and she applied power.

  * * * * *

  Shadow Leader G’Motta was proud of his command. Although they had lost all but a third of their firepower, they were still inflicting losses to the enemy. His engineers were working feverishly in hour-long shifts to unjam the doors of two of his guns, to bring them back into the fight.

  His control center had been shaken by the attacks, but none of the hundreds of missiles had even tripped a circuit breaker. He felt confident that in three hours he would have five guns he could bring to bear. As long as he was operational with at least one gun, the Humans couldn’t bombard the planet or conduct a large-scale invasion.

  He had reports of the raid on the Intel HQ, but that was only a raid. The Shadow Force should have anticipated that and evacuated to their cavern emergency center. Alas, hindsight is always 20/20.

  G’Motta started as alarms went off on his monitors. The sensor view from two moons showed a large concentration of ships lining up for another attack. He looked at the symbols showing speed and heading and correctly deduced these were not the small carrier-launched attack craft. He had seen this profile before. These were the large slow attack ships, a wing of them, zeroing in on him.

  He had three guns, of which two were not in range or aligned to fire on them. His one gun able to fire on them would pass out of alignment just after they reached maximum range. He ordered it to fire anyway, in hopes of hitting one or more ships with a burst of energy. It had happened three times since the attacks started. Luck was sometimes on their side today.

  G’Motta called up the range and tracking prediction screen, and saw three aircraft of the first grouping might pass through the range fan of his gun, and he prepared to fill that patch of space with energy bolts. Just a few more seconds and he would know the results.

  His gunner below him in the control room stabbed the fire button and pulses of destructive energy reached out for the four ships within its cone of fire. Two ships burst into gouts of orange flame and pinwheeled through space; the
rest flew on. That was all he could do as the guns passed out of alignment with the oncoming attack ships. Now he braced for the incoming attack.

  Two engineers in bulky environmental suits cut away at tangled metal with portable cutting units, attempting to free the blast doors on the gun nearest to the control center. The doors had fused together from the power of the antimatter warheads fired by the small attack ships. The engineers worked feverishly to cut away the fused section and free the workable gun underneath. They looked up to see orange bursts of light against the inky blackness of space, as the incoming attack ships ripple fired their missiles. The first impacts of the Human missiles resulted in shock waves so great the engineers were blown off the moon’s surface and out into space, sealing their doom.

  The first 24 missiles hit just above the control center and blasted away at the solid rock covering it. G’Motta could feel the explosions through the floor. He discerned this was something new and bigger than he had experienced before. The Humans had a penetrator missile that was attempting to dig him out. His surface sensors had long ago been destroyed during the hundreds of prior missile strikes, so he had to imagine how long before these new missiles took away his ability to continue the fight. He determined that if the roof started caving in or his systems went offline from the shock, he would order his subordinates to the escape pods. If they could reach G’Durin's surface, they could help defend the capital against the invasion he knew was coming. Better that than dying uselessly in the vacuum of space.

  * * * * *

  Tammy’s ripple fire of 24 missiles created a larger crater than before, but several of the missiles detonated on the large debris expelled from the crater, reducing the effectiveness. She instructed her following ships to not ripple fire and fire half their missiles at a time with a two-second delay between. This should give the debris a chance to move out of the way and create fewer sympathetic detonations. She called Captain Tanaka and tactical control and said she would be making another run at the target and to hold the following squadrons back out of range.