The Nameless War

by Edmond Barrett

"Please get us off this ship would you?"

  The intercom crackled into life. The voice at the other end sounded just as shaken as she felt.

  "All fighters, standby to launch. Launching!"

  The docking lock light went green and Alanna slammed her finger down on the launch button, and to her immense relief, Caesar blasted clear. Once again she had some control over her own fate.

  "All fighters are clear, Ma’am."

  Emily nodded. Without comment as she studied the tactical holo. Out of the corner of her eye, she was aware of the crew casting her desperate looks. Each willing her to give the order to drop the mines and allow them to get the hell out. Aside from the near collision, the jump-in had been perfect. They were inside the outer screen with the main formation of the fleet a mere five thousand kilometres ahead.

  "Dump the mines."

  Lieutenant Kelly’s finger stabbed downwards. Small flashes rippled down Dauntless’s flanks as shaped charges severed the load bearing pins for the hanger hatches. Unsupported against the pressure pushing behind them, the hatches blasted out of their housings like corks out of bottles; following them came the mines tumbling almost gently in a cross formation with Dauntless at its centre. Emily held her breath as she watched; if a mine collided with a hatch or one of its fellows it could detonated. With them bunched so close, one explosion would take out half the mines, and probably Dauntless to.

  But fate continued to smile on them, all the mines cleared the bays safely and Emily let out a huge sigh of relief. On the display at the head of the bridge, a red LCD lit up displaying three minutes and started to count down. She turned to O’Malley.

  "Alright captain, you can now get us out of here."

  O’Malley gave a terse nod, before barking out orders.

  "Engines, all ahead emergency. Signals, order the destroyers to form up on us. Counter measures full spread. Point defence, commence, commence, commence."

  The three ships charged straight into the teeth of the Nameless Fleet. They couldn’t turn away, to do so, they would expose the flank of the carrier to the minefield cascading after them; Dauntless would be almost guaranteed to be taken out by one of her own mines. If they braked and allowed the mines to go ahead, Dauntless would be near stationary and a sitting duck. There was only one option, all ahead full, and race ahead of the mines like a surfer before a tidal wave. Plus hope to god that the IFF recognition systems in the mines worked properly, and that the hell that was about to break loose would distract the Nameless.

  Succeed or fail, the matter was now out of Brian’s hands. As Julius Caesar had so eloquently put it all those centuries ago ‘The die is cast’. Her ability to influence proceedings was now over. She had to sit back and allow Captain O’Malley to work his ship. Instead, she kept her attention focused on the tactical display, and watched with disappointment, but not much surprise, her fighter strike unravel.

  By any standards the squadron had performed well. By the standards of raw trainees, they had done miracles. But the near miss was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Two fighters immediately discharged their ordinance at the nearest enemy ship and bugged out. One started to run without even firing. Only two kept their heads and started weaving their way into the enemy fleet, seeking tankers

  A glance at the long-range display, told Brian that the three who had panicked had almost certainly sealed their own fates. The Nameless outer picket was in good order, approaching as three individuals they would be easy targets. As if to confirm her thoughts one of them abruptly blinked out.

  Also on the display, the alien fleet was starting to react to their arrival. The Nameless first swerved to avoid the ships charging into their midst, then to dodge each other as their tight formation disintegrated. The formation of the human ships was also shifting; Hammerhead and Piranha were drawing along side Dauntless to interpose their hulls between the enemy and the carrier.

  "Navigator – Engineering, prepare jump out sequence." O’Malley ordered.

  From the bows of the ship came a slowly rising whine as the drive started to spin up.

  "Nodes are hot, charge building. Jump out in four minutes and counting!" The Navigator called out.

  If we’re still alive! Emily thought to herself as she tightened her harness. The countdown for the mines was now nearly two minutes.

  Alanna found herself flying alone among groups of enemy ships. So many jammers and ECM’s so close together was playing hell with Caesar’s radar, to the point that she couldn’t see any of the other fighters and could barely make out the carrier she’d just left.

  "Dhoni, where the hell’s Devane?" She demanded

  "Bugged out." He replied sourly. "We’re on our own skip."

  "Well, we all saw that one comin-" The threat alarm screamed out, without conscious thought she yanked the nose up just in time to dodge a missile. She only pulled out of the turn when Caesars nose was pointing directly at the nearest Nameless ship. Slamming the engine into plus ten override, she charged directly at them.

  "Skipper!" Dhoni called out with alarm, as the enemy ship loomed large on their display.

  "Don’t worry. Just hang on and find me a target."

  The alarms gave a fresh whoop, as a pair of missiles curved round onto their tail. Their two turret mounted plasma guns spun round and blazed ineffectively back. The ship ahead launched another salvo directly at them. Alanna jinked the fighter left and right. With the range so short and changing to fast the firing solution was impossibly complex, all the missiles flashed past. As before, their proximity fuses fired too late to effect Caesar. The two on their tail however followed Alanna’s manoeuvres with easy curves. All the chaff and jammers around Caesar were still screwing up the gunnery radar, which was failing utterly to localise the two closing missiles. The impact was only seconds away and Caesar wasn’t going to be able to dodge these.

  The fighter flashed across the nose of the ship that had fired. A solution instantly presented itself to her. She forced Caesar round into a viciously tight turn, curving in behind the starship. The fighter’s frame groaned at the treatment and her peripheral vision darkened as the G-forces pressed down on her. Beside her, Dhoni gasped for breath. Then they were round, with the enemy ship between them and the missiles. The missiles self-destructed as their target disappeared and instead they found themselves facing a friendly contact.

  "Good move skipper!" Dhoni gasped. "I have a large contact at zero, three, seven dash three, four, three, it matches the profile of the tankers we saw before."

  "On it!" Alanna called back as she swung towards the next enemy ship.

  Steadily Caesar zigzagged across the combat zone skimming from one enemy ship to another.

  Chaff rockets burst and sparkled around Dauntless, as the human ships fired them off as fast as the crews could reload the launchers. The human ships had been in among the Nameless for nearly one hundred and seventy seconds and so far, the three ships had enjoyed an unreal immunity from destruction. Confusion reigned among the Nameless ships, the tight formation that had ruled out a conventional assault, was now working against them. Enemy fire had been scattered and light with only small missiles so far directed at them. But now order was beginning to reassert itself. Formations were re-establishing themselves, minor ships clearing the firing lanes of the larger vessels.

  "I have a tracking glitch on five."

  "Switching to band two."

  "God damn! Someone light a bloody fire underneath them. I need those launchers now!"

  "Two on the left!"

  Emily allowed the flow of orders and reports to wash over her as she watched the tactical display, but subconsciously she heard the stress in her officers voices rise. Abruptly one of the larger enemy ships turned and unleashed a full salvo at the fleeing humans. Four cap ship missiles and over twenty of their smaller companions, charged down on the three human ships.

  "Multiple inbounds!"

  "Targeting priority the larger missiles!" O’Malley snapped out. "Concentrat
e point defence, I want a wall of fragments into that arc!"

  The firing pattern of the point defence guns shifted, as they attempted to lay a wall of metal shrapnel into the path of the approaching missiles. The destroyer’s plasma cannons speared out at the large missiles. One, then another, blew as plasma bolts punched into them. Around them, more than two thirds of the small missiles died as impacts with shrapnel shattered them. Six found their way through and bore down on the Battlefleet ships.

  Dauntless lurched, as one went into the middle of the starboard side hangers and blew. The six hangers on that side were shredded and metal fragments from the hull were driven deep into the carrier. The Dauntless was still shuddering at the force of the impact when a second missile went in. The second hit the upper deck at a tight angle, gouging a twelve metre furrow in the plating before disintegrating. Automatically Brian’s eyes went to the main damage control display. Several sections were blinking red for fire; others blue as they haemorrhaged air. Damage so deep into the ship would have killed or maimed many of the crew but nothing truly critical had been hit. The reactor, engines and jump drive were still on line. Before Emily could feel any sense of relief, the other four plunged into Piranha.

  The destroyer rocked as the missiles slammed in. But the worst was yet to come. The two remaining cap ship missiles came in hard on the heels of their smaller brethren. Desperately the destroyer started to weave and throw out more chaff. But her foot was effectively nailed to the floor, by the need to shield the Dauntless. The first missed by less than a hundred metres. The second clipped the starboard engine and went off.

  A groan went up on the bridge of Dauntless, as Piranha staggered under the force of the impact. Debris tumbled away from the ship. Then with a fresh shudder, so violent that it was visible on Dauntless’s optical display, the entire starboard engine ripped loose and fell away astern. Immediately the destroyer started to fall behind. O’Malley looked towards Brian, the request was clear in his eyes, to give the order to cut acceleration and allow Piranha to keep up. Emily met his eye squarely, and gave a small shake of her head. She known from the outset that they could not wait, should one or both of the destroyers be damaged, she would not wait for a cripple. The small squadron could offer little protection to a lame duck, while cutting acceleration would give the Nameless a better chance to nail them all.

  Several officers on the bridge started to object, but a glare from Brian silenced them all. Mercifully, for her at least, Piranha also remained silent, understanding they’d just been written off. Or perhaps her coms systems were smashed. Either way, despite her remaining engine straining, the destroyer dropped steadily astern. The red numbered display in her armrest indicated that they were only one minute away from the mines going active. If the destroyer could only last that long they might stand a chance.

  It was a small faint hope that was quickly dashed. As the distance between them opened, the ability of Dauntless and Hammerhead to cover their battered companion declined. Despite her own point defence being gutted the destroyer tried desperately to defend itself. Her end was neither swift nor merciful; instead a hail of the smaller missiles slowly took her apart. Emily forced herself to watch as each missile slammed in. Finally it all proved too much. There was no flash of a reactor letting go, the destroyer simply came apart at the seams. Emily knew that in all likelihood some of her crew had probably still been alive when their ship disintegrated around them.

  "Mines go active in five seconds!" The tactical officer called out.

  Payback time. Emily thought to herself.

  The mines count down reached zero, immediately its passive sensors came on line. Nanoseconds passed as it processed the information the sensors provided. There were multiple contacts in the space all around it. The vast majority didn’t match known profiles, so were tagged as unknown, two contacts accelerating away registered as friendlies. The mine’s targeting computer compared the readings to its database, and found that the situation fell within the parameters of authorised attack.

  The small thrusters mounted along the outside of the spherical casing fired, swinging it to face the largest contact within two thousand kilometres. For the alien, there was no warning as a piece of apparently empty space suddenly belched out a missile. The Nameless capital ship, hadn’t even started to react when the missile slammed in and eviscerated it. All across the surrounding space, mines were going off like firecrackers. Most of the Nameless had being readying missiles to be launched at the fleeing humans. Instead they suddenly found they needed those same missiles for their own defence. Seconds were needed for fire control systems to calculate firing solutions on the approaching targets. Many ships didn’t get that long. All across the combat zone Nameless ships died.

  It was like a switch being thrown, one moment waves of missiles coming at them, the next all calm and serene. No one relaxed though, they were still in the middle of an enemy fleet. Alongside Dauntless, Hammerhead temporarily relieved of the need to defend, stabbed out with her own guns and missiles, adding in a small way to the havoc being wreaked. Much as she knew she should be displaying the calm aloof manner of a flag office who didn’t doubt her plan for a moment, Brian couldn’t help letting out a giant sigh of relief. Captain O’Malley reached over to her and offered his hand, Brian shook it firmly.

  "I honestly didn’t think that was going to work." He admitted.

  "Well I’m glad you’re wrong." She replied. "I think captain we’ve played our part and it’s time we took our leave."

  "Certainly I don’t think they’re going to remember us with any fondness." O’Malley agreed.

  "Sign of a job well done. Signal the courier to stay on station as long as they can and transmit their sensor data towards the Home Fleet."

  A glimmer of concern appeared in the captain’s eyes.

  "Do you think we’ve done enough?"

  Brian’s elation faded.

  "I hope so." She admitted. "Because I think we’ve pulled our last rabbit out of the hat."

  "Thirty seconds to jump out." Called out the Navigator.

  Before O’Malley could acknowledge, there was a sudden urgent buzz from the Engineering repeater board. The green icon for the jump drive suddenly went red.

  "Christ! Skipper, the jump drive has just gone off line!" Shouted the Navigator.

  Brian and O’Malley shared a look of pure horror.

  "Engineering, report!" He bellowed down the intercom.

  "We have an indicator light on the jump drive, it’s showing a fault on the intermix chamber. The safeties have cut it out of load." The intercom crackled back.

  O’Malley glanced toward his Navigator.

  "How long until Hammerhead’s drive-"

  "At least another ten minutes skippers!" The officer shouted back.

  "We don’t have that long." Brian snapped out. The main Nameless fleet was in chaos but their outer picket, the one Dauntless had bypassed by jumping in, was unshaken. In less than five minutes they were going to clear the back of the fleet and then they would be out in the open.

  "Bypass the safeties." O’Malley ordered.

  "Sir that breaches regulati-"

  "God damn it! I am not asking you mister! I am ordering you to bypass the bloody safeties, or I am going to come back there and shoot you!" He roared back.

  There was a pause.

  "Understood."

  Seconds crawled by. The jump drive availability indicator continued to glow red.

  "We have incoming!"

  On the tactical display missiles were coming in from the front. The Nameless picket locked on.

  "Tactical, how much chaff do we have?" O’Malley asked quietly.

  "Enough for two full spreads, sir."

  "Hold for my order."

  "Yes si…"

  "Drive back on line!" Butted in the Navigator

  The helmsman didn’t wait for the order as his finger stabbed down and the Dauntless and Hammerhead disappeared into the safety of jump space.

&nb
sp; "Skipper, the Dauntless has just jumped out." Dhoni reported.

  "Good, that means we’ll have somewhere to land." Alanna grunted. "Damn it D, I’ve lost track of the tanker, gimmie me a bearing."

  "…"

  "Dhoni?"

  "Working on it skipper, there’s a lot of interference out there."

  Alanna looked around frantically. Several Nameless ships were close enough to be seen with the naked eye. She desperately wanted to turn to bear and put her missiles into them and get the hell out. A mine’s missile whizzed past; instinctively Alanna jerked her control stick. C for Caesar was too small for the mines to target but there were now that many Nameless counter missiles flying about, they stood a good chance of getting pulverised by accident.

  "Whoa! We have a contact coming up astern… it’s the C.O."

  "Caesar this is Anton are you receiving me? Over." Crackled the radio.

  "Anton this is Caesar, receiving loud and clear. Good to see you, sir. We spotted an enemy tanker but we’ve lost track of them. Over."

  "We have them locked in, Caesar, form up on my wing. Over."

  "Roger leader."

  Alanna decelerated slightly to allow Anton to pass, before tucking in behind. Together the two fighters wove through the chaos of the enemy until suddenly a huge tanker appeared out of the darkness. On either side of it two small escort ships were firing frantically at mine missiles. They clearly hadn’t yet twigged the presence of something more dangerous.

  "All four of them are there skipper" Dhoni said. "Lead ship is carrying a wound."

  "I can only see one, D."

  "Skipper they’re in line astern, one after the other."

  "That saves us having to hunt around for the others." She grunted.

  "Caesar this Anton the first one looks to be on fire, you take the second one, I’ll take the third in line, over."

  "Anton you don’t want to hit all four? Over."