The Nameless War

by Edmond Barrett

  "RED ALERT! ALL HANDS BATTLESTATIONS!" He shouted as he leapt to his feet. The chair overbalanced and hit the deck with a clatter, Crowe ignored it as he yanked open the cabin hatch. Out in the corridor crewmen froze as the alarm screamed into life.

  "MAKE A HOLE!" Officers and ratings flatten themselves against the bulkhead as he sprinted past, the ladder up barely slowed him. The captain’s cabin was deliberately positioned close to the bridge. But for Crowe the dash was agonisingly slow.

  This is madness, a small part of him was saying and it was hard to disagree, but instinct had screamed a warning overruling the rational part of his mind.

  As he rushed in. The bridge crew were pulling on their survival suits. Colwell, his survival suit half on, spun to face Crowe with a mixture of relief and dread on his face.

  "I’m sorry sir, I don’t understand…" He started before Crowe motioned him to be quiet. The display from the camera was on the secondary bridge display and to Crowe it seemed more urgent. Deimos’s weapons board was only starting to light up as the tactical systems were brought on-line. The cruisers plasma cannons were a couple of minutes away from operational but the flak guns were much faster to power up.

  "Sir what is happening?" Colwell almost demanded.

  He didn’t meet the lieutenant’s eye. Christ, what have I done? Crowe thought to himself. He’d sent the ship to battle stations on the strength of nothing more than a gut feeling.

  He saw the lieutenant exchange a look with the Bosun. It was obvious that both were thinking the same thing, he’s lost it. If he was wrong this time there would be no coming back. His career wouldn’t have to wait for the end of Deimos’s tour; there could be no place on a warship for a captain who jumped at sensor ghosts.

  "Sir." He looked up at Colwell. "You’ll need to put on your suit for the drill."

  The lieutenant knew damn well that this was no drill; his suggestion was an attempt to protect his captain’s reputation. It wouldn’t work, the entire bridge crew had seen the way he’d entered the bridge, it would be around the ship in less than an hour that the skipper had flipped. Still he was grateful for the offer.

  "Captain," The speaker was one of the communication petty officers, "we’re receiving a voice transmission in the clear. Imbedded I.D. shows Harbinger."

  "Play it please." Crowe replied as he started to pull his suit from under the seat.

  "This is Harbinger; I am under attack by a Nameless ship!" The voice, a woman’s voice, was filled with terror. Everyone on the bridge froze in horror. "Repeat, this is Harbinger; I am under attack by a Nameless…" There was the start of a scream then the transmission cut out leaving just the hiss of static.

  "Oh my God. It’s real." Colwell murmured.

  "Captain… CAPTAIN!" Shouted another crew member, Crowe swung back towards the display. Where a second before the disruption had been, a wedge shaped ship erupted into real space. He recognised the design style instantly. It was the Nameless.

  "Contact bearing zero, seven, seven dash zero, eight, two range eight hundred clicks. Their missile ports are open; repeat their missile ports are open!"

  "Guns, reports!" Crowe demanded.

  "Fire control and flak guns online skipper."

  "Helm, roll to present starboard broadside, all guns, fire as you bear!"

  As Deimos rolled her flak guns blazed into action. Two missiles blasted out of the Nameless ships launchers, and met a wall of metal coming the other way. Deimos carried eight quad flak mounts, each one capable of putting out nearly five hundred rounds per minute. Four batteries were able to come to bear and the storm of fire obliterated the two missiles almost before they cleared their launchers. Flak guns weren’t generally considered to be an anti-ship weapons but at this short range, the effect wasn’t unlike a sandblaster. The front third of the ship simply dissolved under the hail of steel. Atmosphere gushed out of the ships shattered bows as riddled hull plating drifted away. The barrage continued, ripping mercilessly at the alien, working backwards. Secondary explosions added to the carnage. Then abruptly it proved too much and a huge explosion reduced what was left to fragments.

  For several seconds there was silence on Deimos’s bridge.

  "We nailed them!" Colwell whooped.

  A cheer went up from the entire bridge crew, fists punch the air, backs were slapped and hand shaken.

  "Silence on deck!" Crowe’s voice cut the cheering off abruptly. "Sensors give me a full sweep."

  The main holo display switch over to tactical mode, Crowe’s heart sank.

  Half a light second away was Baden itself. The strength of the return from the great asteroid was drowning out the signals from most of the ships docked there. A few could be clearly seen as green blips on the display, but that wasn’t what anyone was looking at. A mass of blue blips surrounded Baden, even as they watched more appeared.

  "Tactical?" He asked quietly.

  "We’re looking at fifty plus contacts, sir.

  "How the hell…" Colwell murmured.

  "Captain, we’re receiving multiple transmissions on the combat frequencies."

  "Put it up coms."

  The sound of dozens of voices filled the bridge.

  "Where the hell did they come fro… heavy fire we need back up… watch your six! Watch your si… ands abandon ship! All hands abandon ship…This Baden Command to all ships, we are under attack! All ships converge on Colossus, all ships are authorised to fire."

  "Coms, cut the feed."

  Silence returned to the bridge. Crowe felt the gaze of every person there as they waited for a decision.

  "Sir what should we do?" Colwell asked quietly.

  There was nothing within a hundred thousand kilometres of Deimos, nothing to stop them from turning and going hell for leather for the red line and jumping the hell out of there. In all probably that would be the wisest course. The situation around Baden was going to hell in a hand basket and in his heart Crowe knew that the base, and the fleet, were probably already beyond hope. How the hell could anyone have planned to repel an attack that broke the known laws of physics? Right here, right now he could ensure the survival of his own ship, but to do so would meaning living with the reputation of cowardice. He knew there was no decision to make, Deimos would charge in and probably share in a massacre.

  "Helm lay in a course for Colossus; Fire Control, don’t engage any target with flak guns until range drops below one thousand clicks, we’re going to need the ammunition. Engage with plasma cannons as I direct." Crowe ordered. He’d already been disgraced once and while this was almost definitely the wrong decision he knew to run away would require more strength than he had.

  ___________________________

  Five minutes into the attack and Baden already resembled a circle of hell. Most of the Nameless ships made real space re-entry within a few seconds of one another, then without pause they fired. Hundreds of personnel were killed as the opening salvo smashed into the base and the ships moored around it. One of the first missiles struck the recreation square in Baden, smashing through the great glass floor. Of the people in the square at that moment the lucky ones were those killed by the explosion, the rest were drawn to their death as the area depressurised. On one side of the base the destroyers Lancer and Samurai vanished in a single flash as one ship’s reactor breeched. At another mooring, the cruiser Australia vomited air and crew as the entire hull split in half. The Balder was driven back against the carrier Yorktown, trapping her. More and more chunks were ripped out of Baden’s great centrifuge and finally the load imbalance forced the safeties to stop its spin.

  Minutes passed, men and woman died as the Nameless continued to fire into the helpless fleet. Across the base men and woman, officers and crew with both courage and desperation started to fight back.

  In the number two fighter hanger of Baden, pilots and ground crew working side by side managed to get three fighters off the deck, before a pair of missiles blew them away. The flak cruiser Oberon, her engines shattered, bla
zed away swatting missiles and mauling one Nameless ship that dared venture too close. But in the end there were too many. The heavy cruiser Fenrir finding the airlock linking her to the base jammed, fired her engines and ripped herself clear. In the end it was the Flagship of the fleet, the battleship Colossus, that took the most desperate action. Trapped by wreckage she used her large calibre railguns to blast a clear path, through a dying support ship. Around the battleship, those ships that had got under way started trying to fight their way to Colossus but all the while the dying continued.

  ___________________________

  "Port fifteen, bows down five, guns target alpha five and engage." Crowe croaked out. Instantly the flak guns started to rattle and a few second later an incoming missile disappeared from the display.

  It had taken nearly twenty five agonising minutes to close on the base. For most of the run in they had been left relatively unmolested, only having to swat aside the occasional missile. But now they had reached the fight proper.

  But of course that was the wrong word, fight would imply a two way contest but this had been a massacre. Ships large and small lay either gutted or burning at their moorings. There was sporadic firing from a few of the bases defences but the great centrifuge was still and silent. Above the base a few ships were still fighting. On Deimos’s tactical display each of the blue blips signified a human ship, the brackets surrounding each one showed the ships condition, green for fully combat worthy, orange for damaged, red for seriously damaged. Even as Crowe watched the brackets around one blip went from green through orange into red and then disappeared, all in a matter of seconds. There were now very few green bracketed ships left and those that remained were mounting individual and hopeless last stands.

  The Nameless had also suffered losses, a ring of wreckage surrounded Colossus but repeated hits were wearing the battleship down and her destruction could only be a matter of time. A few unarmed support ships were also still operational. Each one trying to stay close to a protector but not block its fire. The repair ship Samaritan had by some miracle remained undamaged and was now sticking as close to Deimos as possible.

  "Captain, fleet wide signal from Baden, audio only." Called out the coms officer.

  "Play it."

  "This Admir… …amile on Baden… base lost… ships are to scatter …ke your way to Earth at …t speed."

  Several individuals on Deimos groaned but Crowe was filled with a deep sense of relief, he could get his ship and his crew away without facing damnation. Searching the display he spotted a point where the victorious Nameless were weakest.

  "Coms instruct Colossus to come to heading three, two, zero, dash zero, zero, zero and run for the red line we’ll cover their retreat. We’re getting out of here."

  ___________________________

  In zero gravity small fires are little danger, without a clearly defined ‘up’, convection currents don’t form and a fire tends to suffocate itself. Major fires are however terrible to behold. Up and down corridors, into cabins, barracks and work areas fire rolled like golden orange syrup across every surface, consuming everything and everyone that got in its way.

  "No use! This ways blocked as well!" Keaveney screamed over the roar of the fire as he strained to force the hatch closed again. The massive blaze had over pressurised the section and Keaveney was forced to brace himself between bulkhead and the uncomfortably warm hatch to close it. When it finally clicked closed he pushed himself back down the corridor back towards the intersection. Down another corridor Piper was floating. When he saw Keaveney he shook his head.

  "That ways no good, it’s no good." He shouted.

  "What now PO?"

  Piper looked around him uncertainty clear on his face. The pair had failed to make it to their station. Time and again they found their course blocked by fire, wreckage or hard vacuum. Since neither of them had their survival suits this offered the most impassable barrier. They were passed by scores of others all trying to reach their own stations. Finally they were stopped by an officer and told that Primary Damage Control was gone. He ordered them to follow him to the Secondary D.C. All the while, Baden continued to take hits and the imbalance vibrations got worse. Then abruptly the centrifuge ground to a halt hurling them against the bulkhead. Piper hurt his knee, Keaveney cut his face. The officer split his head open. They left his body drifting.

  "What now PO?" Keaveney repeated his tone defeated.

  Piper hesitated; he knew what he wanted, find an officer or anyone that could tell him what the hell to do. Alternatively they could head for the nearest escape pod and get the hell out of there. But do that before the order was given and questions would be asked. The lights were flickering badly now as the power system started to break down. They hadn’t heard anything from the PA system in nearly ten minutes. For all they knew the order to evacuate had already been given. His eyes searched desperately for an answer on the wall-mounted map of the station beside him.

  "We’ll head down this way that might get us to secondary damag …"

  The scream cut Piper off. Both men automatically pushed themselves down the corridor. Just as they reached a junction a human figure tumbled past like a blazing meteor.

  "Jesus! Put him out! Put him out!"

  Keaveney ripped an extinguisher off its bracket and squeezed the handle. The blast of gas promptly sent him tumbling in the opposite direction.

  "Damn it you bloody idiot! Brace yourself first." Piper snarled before grabbing another extinguisher and hosing down the burning figure.

  "Is he still alive?" Keaveney.

  "Just about. It’s an officer." Piper replied turning the smoking figure. "And it’s a woman. We need to get her to the infirmary." Her hair was mostly gone and face looked red and sticky. Going on what was left of her uniform she was a sub lieutenant.

  "If it’s still there!"

  Another explosion shook the station, but this one was different, a groaning sound continued long after the explosion report. It sounded like metal being pushed to breaking point and beyond. Piper’s colour hadn’t improved since the first weapon hit and now he went even paler.

  "Oh Jesus! Cascade structural failure! This place is coming apart at the seams! We’ve got to get out of here!" He shouted.

  "What about her?"

  Piper hesitated, the officer was horribly burnt and probably already a goner, but you always tried to take your wounded. Not for heroics or any belief that a comrade should never be left behind but in the hope that if you got hit someone would do the same for you.

  "Grab her, we’re out of here!"

  Grabbing an arm each the two men frantically used their arms and legs to pull themselves and the officer along the corridor towards the nearest set of escape pods. With every second the vibrations and the screams of tortured metal became more and more severe. With their lungs burning and hearts hammering they reached an escape pod silo. Even as they arrived a pod blasted out of its silo and away, leaving two still in their places. The lieutenant was roughly shoved through the hatch before Keaveney and Piper followed. Piper turned to close the hatch. Shouting caused him to pause; three more ratings were pulling themselves down the corridor.

  "Move yourselves!" He shouted.

  The bulkheads were now visibly shaking and the sound was almost deafening. Then suddenly it all came apart. The three ratings were sucked screaming into the void as the bulkheads around them just folded and tumbled away. For a split second there was nothing between Piper and open space. Then the drop in pressure caused the hatch to swing closed violently and the pod blasted clear as the silo came apart around it.

  ___________________________

  "Report!" Crowe shouted as he shook his head to clear it.

  "It went into the port side reactor room. Number Two reactor has gone down, both the generators are down!" Colwell reported. "The batteries have kicked in but we’ve lost damn near all the electrics!"

  "Get one of those generators going again or we’re dead!"

 
; They’d managed to push through the Nameless warships, but as they broke the perimeter Colossus took several more hits. Three of the battleships four reactors were knocked out and everything that last reactor could produce was being channelled to the engines. Ahead of Colossus, Samaritan was running at maximum acceleration ready to open a jump conduit the moment they crossed the Red Line. On either side of the battleship were a pair of supply ships ready to brace the conduit.

  They had made most of the way to the Red Line with only light opposition. With Battlefleet ships fleeing the Nameless were trying to cover a lot of different directions at once. Only as the five ships got within fifteen thousand kilometres did they seem to realise that that one of the plum targets was slipping their grasp. Missiles had started to home in on them in earnest. Dozens had been swatted aside by Deimos’s flak and point defence guns; others had been spoofed by the decoys and curtains of chaff the cruiser was laying down. But any defence could be saturated and the hail of missiles was too much: one got through.

  They would have nailed it but when the turret assigned to deal with it brought its weapon to bear nothing happen. After nearly forty minutes of firing, the reloading system abruptly failed. On the bridge Crowe didn’t have time to react before it went in.

  Deimos was effectively unarmoured and the missile easily punched through the outer hull before detonating and sending out a spray of shrapnel inside the port reactor room. Several pieces of shrapnel struck the starboard reactor cracking the outer casing. The reactor room crew were already dead but the safeties immediately activated the emergency purge, releasing a blanket of fire astern. Another metal fragment drilled its way through the bulkhead between the two reactor rooms and struck the second generator. All across the ship the electrical system died. The engines and plasma cannons ran directly off the plasma siphoned from the fusion reactors but the computers, radars and flak guns all needed the generators to convert plasma energy into electrical power. But without commands from helm the engines went to standby.