“I’m sorry Admiral Bosworth,” Lisa said. “We cannot allow you to enter the Josaka system. The attack of your ambassador against our Prime Minister, the ambush and murder of New Alamo vessels and the previous invasion of the Josaka system do not give me any reason to trust your words, actions or accusations. I would strongly suggest you stand down. If you do not, we will accept your hostility and engage you in battle. If you continue to approach the wormhole, we will also accept your hostility and take appropriate action. Change course immediately to avoid hostility. Please.”
The seconds crawled into minutes as everyone watched the Jupiter ships. The Jupiter Alliance vessels were still twenty hours from the wormhole but Lisa had decided to take action before they had a chance, just in case the Pebble Muncher was tasked with providing targeting data to the fleet when they came through. Lisa didn’t want to give the Jupiter Alliance a chance to get ships to and then from Josaka.
They weren’t changing course, in fact, they were spreading out a little more and the drone carrier was launching drones.
“I think that is a no,” Captain Freedman sent.
“I think you are right,” Lisa replied. “It is time to teach them the error of their ways. Proceed with the attack.”
“Valorous copies,” Captain Freedman said.
“Cincinnatus copies,” Sonya replied.
“Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war,” Lisa muttered.
“Accelerate for ten minutes and launch a full spread of torpedoes,” Sonya said. That meant the Jupes should detect the launching missiles before they detected the Cincinnatus. “Target battleship number three.”
“Aye, aye Captain,” Harris said and checked to make sure the droids had it right.
The seconds and minutes counted down as the Cincinnatus accelerated from behind toward the Jupiter Alliance ships.
“Missiles launching,” the Cincinnatus reported.
“They are peeling away,” Harris said. “Their formation is breaking up. Missiles will impact in two minutes.”
“Good,” Sonya said. This was almost knife fighting range for the New Alamo ships. “Fire the next salvo at destroyers seven and eight.”
“Aye, aye Captain,” Harris said. Those two destroyers were peeling off to protect the battleship.
“Jupiter Alliance missile launch,” Harris reported, there was a smile in his voice. “The missiles will take time to turn around though, they are beginning their arc.”
“Good,” Sonya said. “Hard to port and drop twenty degrees. Let’s play chase.”
“Aye, Captain Harris said as the gravity compensator strained. The chair rotated to face into the direction of travel and pushed Sonya deeper into it as the gravity increased.
“Launch defensive fighter screen,” Sonya said. The gravity eased up and the screen showed two squadrons of fighters spilling out of the Cincinnatus, then the gravity increased again.
“Fighters away,” the Cincinnatus reported. “Deploying into defensive screen against enemy missiles.”
Sonya watched the display and the countdown. The countdown reached zero as the missiles from the Cincinnatus deployed their warheads. The Jupiter ships had been doing their best to stop the missiles, but they had been expecting an enemy from the front.
“Warheads have seventy percent deployment,” the Cincinnatus reported. Sonya watched the spheres flash on the holographic display. Too many of them flashed near the battleship. When they cleared the icon for the battleship changed from red to orange and then faded to a ghostly orange.
“Battleship number three is dead,” Cincinnatus reported. “Hull has sustained major damage and is in six major pieces, no power is detected.”
Sonya nodded, wondering how many people had died. Nobody felt like cheering.
The rest of the Jupiter Alliance was fighting with crushing acceleration as they tried to separate and make a more difficult target for the battle cruiser that had been coming up their tail pipe.
“Missile launch detected from the Gallant and Valorous,” the Cincinnatus reported. On the plot, the Jupiter Alliance was splitting into two groups, going in opposite directions and both trying to turn toward Sonya. The Gallant and Valorous were concentrating on the group with the drone carrier, a battleship and three destroyers. Swarms of missiles coming from the two battleships was blood chilling.
The two destroyers the Cincinnatus had targeted did their best to swat the missiles out of space but too many still got through. When the radiation cloud cleared only one destroyer was under power and Sonya knew its fighting days were over. Point defense turrets, sensors and everything else had been scoured from the hull. The remaining engine was not at full power and Sonya could see the hull was now warped. Too much acceleration could snap the spine.
“Maintain course,” Sonya said. “Rotate the ship and let's put plasma lance rounds on those cruisers.”
“Aye, aye Captain,” Harris said.
Acceleration ceased and on the view screen Sonya watched as her ship continued its course but rotated to face the two Jupiter Alliance cruisers that had been following the dead battleship.
“The enemy is firing a mass driver spread,” the Cincinnatus reported.
“Get me a solution and lance those cruisers,” Sonya said. “Ignore the mass drivers for now.”
Sonya watched, clutching the arm rests of her chair as the fighter screen picked off the incoming missiles. Three missiles made it through the screen but point defense weapons picked them off before the warheads could deploy.
The surviving Jupiter Alliance ships were scattering as the two New Alamo Battleships came at them, firing missiles and plasma lances. The Jupiter Alliance forces had been split and caught off guard. Frigates and a fighter screen shielded the two battleships from anything the Jupiter ships could throw at throw at them.
A grim smile came to Sonya’s lips as the Cincinnatus launched another spread of missiles at the cruisers and her plasma lance shattered one of the dodging ships.
“He didn’t stand a chance,” Harris said and Sonya knew he was taking no pleasure in the slaughter.
“He didn’t expect a battle cruiser coming up his tailpipe launching missiles. Jupiter ships lack maneuverability and they don’t carry a lot of rear facing weapons,” Sonya said.
“What would you have done?” Erica asked.
“Stopped acceleration and rotated the ships to bring weapons to bear,” Sonya said. “He panicked and thought we were the battle ships so he split his fleet to attack us from two angles.”
Harris shook his head as another Jupiter Alliance battleship died.
“Now?” asked Harris.
“We run them down and kill them,” Sonya said. “Like fleeing rats.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Failure
James used his palms to rub his temples as he stared at his desk.
“They didn’t take any damage?” James asked willing away the headache. The doctors said he shouldn’t be suffering, but he was. What did they know? Amateurs.
“Just some fighters and one of their frigates, but I’m told the frigates are automated,” Lee said.
“The three surviving cruisers won’t make it,” Lee said. “Those damned Namo ships are too fast.”
“What is to keep them from coming to Jupiter and finishing the job?” James asked.
“Well, we still have a decent fleet,” Lee said. “9th Guards Fleet was a probe to see what they are capable of. We still have three regular fleets and Project Defender.”
“We have lost a full third of our fighting forces,” James said pinning Lee down with his gaze. “Several thousand warriors are dead. This makes Project Defender and Gaia even more important. Will they attack?”
“No sir,” Lee said. “We are putting out hundreds of thousands of drones now. We are creating a massive sensor net that should catch them. First, we are seeding likely avenues of approach and then alternate avenues. The Namos were revealed when they attacked. Our scientists theorize their ste
alth only works at a distance, at lower speeds and if they use their gravity dampers to reduce their gravity foot print. They also must have some way to mask their heat signature. None of which are sustainable if the ship is maneuvering for combat.”
James nodded, “But what makes you think they won’t attack?”
“They haven’t yet,” Lee said. “They will find us a much tougher nut to crack. We have fixed emplacements that can fill the sky with missiles and mass driver rounds. We are re-tasking every recon probe and ship we have to watching the Namo’s since the Caliphate has been defeated. Jupiter’s radiation and gravity will make any fighting done here even more difficult.”
“How are the people taking it?” James asked.
“There is a good bit of news,” Lee said. “Recruiting is climbing to two percent. More people want to do their part. More pregnancies are being reported, that number is up point three percent, a tiny jump but noticeable. Lots of people are hating on the Namo’s and Athenians right now. They are believing the destruction of our ships were unprovoked attacks by the alien controlled Namos and Caliphate sympathizing Athenians.”
“Good,” James said. “Keep it up. Stay in contact with those three cruisers, play up their heroism, their sacrifice and their death. Let’s hope they die well. I hate cowardly deaths.”
“Yes sir,” Lee said standing up.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Vress Home world
“Transition,” Halsey said. “We are one light minute from the wormhole.”
Luke shook his head. That had been a rough transition.
The holographic display lit up with icons as the Tigress collected information on the system. It was a binary system with a G5 star, bright yellow, and the other star was a dying red dwarf that might have been easy to miss if you weren’t paying attention. There were two gas giants in the outer regions and the sensors picked up the gravity foot print of a dense planet in orbit around the G5 star. A small moon also orbited the rocky world and as telescoped focused on the planet Luke could see it was inhabited. It was the only planet in the inner belt.
“Enemy ships detected,” Halsey said. “Two cruisers on intercept. Amazon reports ready for battle.”
“Anything else?” Luke asked still taking in the icons. There were a lot of them.
“We are detecting numerous objects around the wormhole,” Halsey said. “I would guess they are mines or missiles. I am moving the frigates out to screen us from the cruisers.”
Luke glanced at Leonessa and she gave him a smile.
“Looks like a home world or major colony,” Leonessa said. “Now we need to know if we can do anything about it.”
“Well,” Halsey said. “It will take time to escape at any rate. They have been very busy fortifying that wormhole.”
“Launch a spread of missiles and destroy those cruisers,” Luke said. “I don’t want to be followed. Drop into stealth as soon as you can and let’s prepare for a run on the planet. I want to identify all their ship building facilities.”
“Aye, aye Commander,” Halsey said.
“What do the Tal do?” Luke asked turning to Shum.
“What do you mean?” Shum asked.
“Have the Tal ever dealt with mined wormholes?” Luke asked and Shum nodded as his eyes looked into the distance, perhaps at an InnerBuddy screen.
“In the distant past, before my time,” Shum said. “We still learn about the dangers. However, in most cases we jump near the wormhole not through it so we avoid the trap. We always attack in force and we have never been defeated. After the battle, it is easy enough to clean up the abandoned weapons.”
“The Tal just jump into a system and wipe out anything that opposes them,” Luke asked.
“There have been times we render the planet uninhabitable,” Shum said. “When the species was considered incompatible with peaceful prerogatives.”
“Missiles deploying warheads,” Halsey reported and Luke looked back at the screen.
Seconds later the two Vress cruisers faded from the screen.
“After heat dump, we will mask heat sources, activate radiation warping and reducing gravity,” Halsey said.
Luke watched the active sensors drink in everything they could before they shut off and went passive.
“Tigress is running silent,” Leonessa said.
Luke noted the gravity had dropped.
“Amazon and frigates are running silent,” Halsey reported. “Fleet is running silent.”
“Good,” Luke said looking things over. “Put us on a random course to the first planet and collect information. Let’s see what we are dealing with.”
Luke stared at the display floating in the combat information center. So peaceful on the display but it was likely a nightmare in person.
“I would have expected more,” Pavlis said staring at it like it might attack him. “But if they went from barbarian to space faring civilization in a few hundred years, I suppose it is no surprise. Everything we’ve seen appears to be geared toward war. Aside from mining facilities in the asteroid belts I’m not seeing anything that doesn’t appear to be militarized.”
Morals stood by along with most of the crew. Brita, Jeremy and Amanda were also present as holograms displayed by InnerBuddies.
“As far as fleet tonnage,” Pavlis said. “We have detected about fifteen battleships in the medium range, on average they are about forty-eight hundred gravons. We are still picking up plenty of cruisers, destroyers and frigates. There might be a fleet of battleships conducting maneuvers in deep space out past the heliopause, or stealthed, but we aren’t seeing anything definite yet.”
“What is their reaction to our arrival?” Luke asked.
“They are pulling as much as they can in toward the planet,” Pavlis said. “Obviously to protect their ship yards and home world. They have several impressive layers of patrols. I don’t know how effective their detection systems are but I don’t think we will can sneak in.”
“What about the wormhole?” Luke asked.
“There are actually five wormholes in this binary system,” Pavlis said. “The one we came through is the most heavily guarded. There are six battleships, with an array of destroyers and cruisers now guarding it. The other wormholes do not appear to be guarded.”
Luke nodded.
“According to our prisoner those wormholes are irrelevant, going to unoccupied or toward allied systems,” Pavlis said.
“Allied systems,” Brita said. “Which is not encouraging since they might assist or reinforce the Vress.”
Luke nodded.
“First, we need to open our escape route,” Luke said looking around. “Then we will see what’s left and whether they want to keep the escape route closed. How much time will we have before reinforcements can get to us from Vress One if we attack the wormhole?”
“Based on observed speeds,” Halsey said. “The wormhole is four days hard travel from Vress One. Unless they have an ace up their sleeve, we should be able to handle it.”
“On the flip side,” Brita said. “They have all those missiles they can re-task.”
“I think we can take care of the missiles pretty easy,” Luke said with a smile. “We have mass drivers too.”
“The mass drivers aboard this ship are light and designed for anti-fighter work,” Shum said. “While they might work on missiles, the lasers would work better and getting in range could be fatal.”
Luke smiled at the Pral, “not with what I have in mind.”
A week later, indistinguishable from regular space debris to the missiles, the drones slipped through the missile field undetected, marking positions, and transmitting the location, speed and trajectory to the Tigress and Amazon. The missiles were on standby power, waiting for a command from one of the sentry ships to power up and seek a target. Without that command, they drifted through the void, invisible at a distance.
Days later thousands of rail gun pellets lanced through the missile field, timed for maximum impact
s per second. The furthest missile was the first to be fired upon, followed by the second furthest missile. With computer precision, tens of thousands of missiles were targeted and fired upon in seconds by the high velocity coil guns of the Tigress, Amazon and support frigates. When the pellets hit, the field of drifting missiles erupted like they had all been hit at once. The Vress panicked and sent a command for all the missiles to power up and shift. Fewer died, but they had to keep moving and that required fuel, which was not unlimited.
The drones, now able to drift through the wreckage unnoticed continued to mark any missiles that powered down for too long and shortly thereafter a rail gun pellet slammed into it from the distant ships.
A day later the missile field was extinct.
CHAPTER FORTY
Bronkaw Secundus
Bruce walked onto his combat information center as the droids called the deck to attention. The ship felt like a ghost ship.
“Carry on,” Bruce said and then realized he had been talking to droids. ‘XO’ the droid he had tasked with running the massive Knight looked at him.
“What?” Bruce said.
“How can I help sir,” XO said.
Bruce scowled at the white droid and sank into his command chair.
“What part of carry on did you not understand?” Bruce asked looking at the display.
“We were just carrying out a fire mission on a concentration of Vress on the planet below,” XO said. “It is a routine matter. Your presence indicates it is not routine or something is wrong.”
“I’m bored,” Bruce said looking at the plot. XO remained silent.
“Shit,” Bruce said. “I’m talking to a droid. Now I know why Admiral Kishi is crazy.”
“The Admiral is crazy?” XO asked and Bruce looked up at the ceiling with a sigh.
“Is Nowak awake?” Bruce asked. Nowak had been Bruce’s engineering officer aboard the Crusader and Infidel. Now he was acting 2nd in command of the Knight while Erica and Kevin managed the Crusader.
New Empires: Conglomerate Series Book 3 Page 17