The Nameless War

by Edmond Barrett

  "Negative Caesar, I want two taken out completely, not four damaged. Over"

  "Understood Anton, am engaging, over and out."

  Alanna pushed the engine back into plus ten over ride and brought up the missile firing computer and swore softly as JAMMED lit up on the screen.

  "Dhoni, they’re jamming all targeting frequencies, put the missiles into dumb fire mode."

  "How close are you planning on getting, skipper?"

  "As close as I can."

  Caesar came streaking in, only belatedly did the Nameless realise the danger. Missiles homed in from all sides only to self-destruct as Caesar’s radar signal merged with her target.

  "Let’s see how much of a bang we get out of this." Alanna muttered as she fired. There was a whirr as the rotary launcher spun round and missiles shot out. Caesar sowed missiles down the length of the tanker, ripping open and igniting the fuel cells. Caesar was buffeted as she flew through walls of flames. Fire flowed and surged over Caesar’s cockpit canopy as they pushed through. Then suddenly they were clear. Behind them the tanker was engulfed in flames. Ahead the third tanker was also in its death throes.

  "Wow! I always wanted to do that." Alanna breathed.

  "I didn’t!" Dhoni complained

  "Can you see Anton?

  "Yes, he’s at three, five, five dash zero, zero, three."

  "Forming up on him."

  Within a few seconds Caesar drew along side Anton close enough for Alanna to see Squadron Commander Devane give a thumbs up.

  "Caesar this is Anton, prepare a full spread of countermeasures and cut to silent running. We’re going to ghost out of here. Over."

  "Dhoni?" Alanna asked.

  "Countermeasures ready, skipper."

  "Anton this is Caesar, countermeasures ready on your mark."

  "Mark."

  Chaff and plasma flares fired left and right as both fighters cut their engines and disappeared into the night.

  ___________________________

  All four plasma bolts slammed into the Nameless ship, shattering hull plates and wreaking havoc in the hull beyond. Atmosphere and flames gushed out of the breaches as the alien’s forward velocity checked violently.

  "Fire Control, switch target to Alpha Three and engage." Willis barked out in a horse voice.

  "Roger, skipper, switching to Alpha three!" The gunner shouted back excitedly over the intercom. "We’ll nail this one too!"

  The gunner wasn’t the only one getting excited, everyone felt the same. After over an hour of being used as an overgrown live-fire target, they were finally getting a chance to hit back. As the aliens closed, they had finally got within the effective range of Hood’s antiquated fire control system. With the Nameless tracking directly up Hood’s wake their closing speed was low. The result was Hood’s firing, which had been wild and ineffective, becoming punishingly accurate. Added to this, the alien’s missile magazines were clearly starting to run dry; the massed salvos they had been throwing had diminished to the occasional shot. Of what they were firing, only the small missiles were being directed at the Geriatrics, the cap ship missiles were being aimed passed them at the rest of the fleet. Willis guessed that they were trying to get at the rest of the Home Fleet. They didn’t want to waste the few missiles they had on relics, but for the moment the aliens were checked by the ferocity of Hood’s fire.

  The nervous excitement was such that Willis kept wanting to jump out of her command chair. Only the seat restraints prevented her from bouncing off the deckhead. Hood’s turrets finished traversing round, there was a pause as the targeting computer made fine adjustments, then the four guns punched out again, ten thousand kilometres away the alien’s hull plating buckled and shattered.

  The distance between the two survivors of Cruiser Squadron Eighteen and the rest of the Home Fleet, was narrowing slowly. The distance had narrowed just enough, for the rear elements of the Home Fleet to fire back in support. Something Willis regarded as a bit of a mixed blessing, since several of the bolts had passed dangerously close. She’d been forced to send several sharp signals back at the fleet to watch their shooting. Hood herself wasn’t in direct danger due to Hurricane. But if she were hit, then at the very least her last engines would probably fail and that would be the end for Vince and his crew.

  "Coms, any luck on establishing a laser link up?" Willis asked.

  "Sorry skipper Hurricane keeps breaking the beam." Replied the coms officer. "No luck with the radio either Ma’am, there are still too many active jammers."

  "Next time we get a link up, I think we might be better to tell them to stop trying to support us." Commander Horan suggested. "If I have to get killed, I’d rather it was the enemy that did it."

  "I don’t know about that. A bit of supporting fire might encourage them to keep their distance. Next time we get a link up, give them firing solutions that put their shots well clear of-"

  "Sensors, Bridge; the main enemy fleet is turning. They’re holding a course parallel to that of the Home Fleet."

  "What range?"

  "Only ten thousand kilometres Ma’am."

  "The railguns are going to have field day against them at that range."

  "Surely they can’t be that stupid." Willis muttered to herself.

  "Ma’am?"

  Willis glanced at Horan with a slight frown on her face.

  "They must have realised how powerful we are at short range."

  "That’s not our problem for the moment skipper." He replied.

  "Sensors, Bridge. Two of the ships astern of our track have just gone full burn."

  "Sensors, what ships?" Willis asked quickly.

  "Ship Alpha Three and Alpha Seven.

  "How long since those ships fired?"

  "What?" The voice at the other end of the connection sounded confused by the question.

  "Damn it! Just answer the question." She snarled back.

  "Err…. Neither of those ships have fired for ten minutes."

  "Plotting, put up the projected course of A Three and A Seven on the main display."

  "What are you thinking?" Horan asked.

  "That they’ve used as many missiles on us as they’re willing to."

  On the main holo brackets appeared round the blips for the two aliens in question. A pair of lines appeared on the display, starting at the aliens and terminating at the blip representing Hood.

  "Profile matches ramming attack Ma’am."

  "No kidding." She muttered beneath her breath. "Sensors, bring up their trajectory on the main display. Helm, start running an evasion pattern."

  "Ma’am that really going screw up fire controls shooting."

  "That’s fire control’s problem, helm," Willis replied evenly, "you worry about your own job."

  "Yes Ma’am."

  Immediately Hood started to jerk left and right, up and down as the helmsman threw the cruiser about. On the main display the lines from the Nameless ships to Hood writhed as they attempted to follow the cruisers movements. One of the Nameless ships was masked behind the other. Using it as cover, Willis thought grimly to herself. Whatever the Nameless were, they weren’t reluctant to lose ships. Those two ships had emptied their mags and now they were going to take Hood out the only way they could. Yet in the face of such utter cold bloodedness, Willis felt strangely calm.

  "For God’s sakes, how the hell can they be willing to sacrifice a ship to take out this relic?" Asked Horan with honest bafflement in his voice.

  Willis shot a grim smile at him.

  "They’re running out of missiles, they’ve already fired more at us than we’re worth. They aren’t going to waste anymore, they’re going to try to smash us out of the way the only other way they can. Coms get on to Hurricane, order them to put some distance between us, I’m going to need some room to manoeuvre."

  "Roger, skipper."

  She flicked on her intercom to the engineering channel.

  "Bridge engineering; chief how we doing back there?"

 
; "Busy, busy, busy skipper. How are things going up front?"

  "Its getting fun; we have a pair of enemy ships lining up to try and ram us, I need a few minutes of absolute reliability from the engines."

  There was a long moment of silence.

  "Oh well, it’s always a good thing to face an enemy willing to die for their cause. That way you both have the same aim in mind." Guinness commented. There was an extra tension in his voice that hadn’t been there a moment before, but on the whole it was still remarkably even. Despite herself, Willis let out an amused snort.

  "How long till they arrive, skipper?"

  "Six minutes."

  "Right I’m cutting three out of load, I need to replace a couple of firing coils, you’ll have it back in four. Engineering out."

  "Skipper." Called out the helmsman. "Engine three just cut."

  "I know, the chief needs a few minutes, manage as best you can."

  Two shots from Hood punched into the lead Nameless ship. This time there was no recoil, the alien ship continued to close even as atmosphere streamed from its hull. The follow up salvo missed completely.

  "Ma’am, we might be better off steadying down our track, give the guns a better chance of hitting." Horan suggested.

  "No, no we wouldn’t." Willis replied sharply. "This bucket is none too manoeuvrable. We need some momentum; we can’t dodge from a standing start."

  Hood continued to lurch clumsily back and forth. On the holo display, the range between Hood and the Nameless dropped into four figures. Once again Hood’s guns punched holes in the nearest alien,

  "Engine three back online captain." The helmsman called out. Hood’s evasion became slightly more vigorous. Still the Nameless closed.

  "Helm, stand ready for instructions. I intend to favour the damaged enemy ship, the damage they have sustained should make their terminal manoeuvres slower. Countermeasures, prepared to fire a full spread of chaff right into their faces."

  "Yes Ma’am." The helmsman replied, his eyes locked on the display. Range dropped below a thousand kilometres. The second Nameless ship slid back into view on Hood’s starboard bow. At the same time it fired off a single cap ship missile. It arced out onto the opposite side of the wounded ship; offering on one side of the wounded ship a missile, and on the other a fully capable ship. Willis chose the missile.

  "Helm side-slip to port! Side-slip to port!" Willis snapped out. "Countermeasures now!"

  Thusters along the Hood’s flank fired furiously to push the cruiser out of the way. Chaff rockets burst out of their launchers and detonated directly in front of the closing missile. The thousands of strips of foil became a glittering wall in front of the approaching missile, scattering their radar signals. As it cleared the chaff, the missiles’ guidance system saw Hood again clearly and attempted to steer in. But it had lost precious seconds in which to make corrective course adjustments. It skimmed past only fifty metres from the hull, and blew several kilometres behind them. Unable to match Hoods manoeuvre, the damaged Nameless started to overshoot. The alien braked hard and swerved towards Hood, as it did so its velocity relative to the cruiser crashed downwards. Both Hood’s turrets swung round and put a broadside into it at point blank. A pillar of flames burst from the alien’s hull, then the entire ship disappeared in a flash as the reactor breached.

  When the Nameless ship detonated, it was less than thirty kilometres away from Hood, far too close to an exploding fusion reactor for comfort. The starboard wing folded, the upper and lower wings buckled under the force of the blow. Although the hull plating shielded the crew from the flash of radiation, they were violently buffeted. A piece of the alien’s hull tumbled out of the explosion and slammed into the starboard side hangars. A clang echoed through the hull and on the bridge, even the very deck plating seemed to jump. Deep within the engineering compartments, circuit breakers for the electrical systems did as they were designed and tripped.

  Radar, weapons, and engines all died instantly. Willis’s bridge was plunged into near total darkness as the tactical holo flickered out. All around the bridge ratings and officers found themselves facing blank screen.

  "Damage Control, report!" Willis called out.

  "All circuit breakers have tripped, we’ve lost everything!" Horan shouted back.

  Willis flicked on her suit radio.

  "Chief Engineer Guinness, are you receiving me?"

  The radio connection hissed.

  "Guinness here; we’re resetting all of the breaker right now. I’m sorry skipper, I didn’t test them, they got over sensiti…"

  "Never mind that now chief! How long to power?"

  The main lights flickered on again. Around her came the hum of electronics powering up again.

  "We’ve just reset the last of the breaker, all system should be coming back up."

  "Good work, chief."

  Willis looked towards her holo display, it was still blank. The screens around the bridge were filled with scrolling letters and numbers.

  "Chief!"

  "Oh Christ! Skipper, the main computer lost power! The backup battery didn’t kick in, the whole system has to reboot!"

  "How long?"

  "Two minutes."

  "We can’t wait that long!"

  "It’s a silicon system, it’s hardwired in, skipper! I can’t give you a better offer."

  Willis cut the connection.

  "Sensors do we have anything?" She shouted cross her bridge.

  "I have visual sensors Ma’am." A rating called out.

  "Put it up!"

  The main holo lit up but in place of the usual orderly of array of radar blips was the far more busy display of the sphere of space surrounding the ship. The visual display, while beautiful, was generally useless for tactical work since its range was so short. Which meant the second Nameless ship, that was visible, was right on top of them.

  Like the one they had destroyed, the alien ship had overshot Hood but was now braking hard for another attempt. The visual display couldn’t provide her with any information on range or velocity but it looked like the alien was going to make contact in a lot less than two minutes. This time they weren’t going to be able to dodge the Nameless, assuming the alien didn’t wise onto the fact that they were helpless and swing round and put a missile into them.

  Willis looked around the bridge… looked around her bridge. Her crew looked back at her. There was fear in most of their faces and Willis was shaken by the realisation, that she knew the names of less that ten of her people. People who were now looking to her for answers and she had not a damn thing to offer them. Her first ship, her first crew and she was going to lose both.

  She could save her crew, if she ordered them to abandon ship, there might be just enough time for them to reach the escape pods and get clear. But that would seal the ship’s fate. If they remained at their posts there was the chance, a slender chance, that Hood’s CPU would complete reboot in time for them to attempt evasive manoeuvres. But if the reboot wasn’t complete the crew wouldn’t stand a chance.

  The rest of the Home Fleet wasn’t visible on the visual display, but she could see explosions and the flashes of plasma cannon fire far astern of Hood. Off their bows another seven Nameless ships waited. Hood was the fleet’s rearguard if they abandoned ship, they would be abandoning that responsibility.

  "Steady everyone." She said quietly. "Steady. Boot up will be in time people."

  The range was dropping steadily. The Nameless ship was moving approximately along the same vector but was decelerating hard. It was going to be far from the classic ram. Both ships would be moving approximately in the same direction, but Hood would be going a lot faster when they ploughed into one another tail to tail.

  Then another engine flare appeared on the display. It was a single engine, going by the stutter in the plume one in its death throes. It was also very close to the Nameless ship.

  "Tactical, what ship." Horan called out.

  "It’s Hurricane." Willis replied quietly.<
br />
  "They must have patched up a gun."

  "No." Willis said shaking her head. "I don’t think they have."

  On the visual display, the two engine plumes edged towards each other. Hurricane was closing as fast as her engine could drive her. The alien’s initial charge had carried it beyond Hurricane as well as Hood. Then it had started to decelerate at maximum burn to close once again on Hood. But now Hurricane had interposed herself between the alien and its objective. Belatedly, the Nameless realised Hurricanes intentions, and started to manoeuvre away from the mutilated cruiser. But there were upper limits to their engine thrust, and concrete laws of physics were carrying them remorselessly towards the cripple.

  "If they have even one missile, they’re going to swat her like a fly." Horan murmured.

  "If they had a missile, they would have already let fly." Willis replied equally quietly.

  The Hood’s bridge had gone silent. In a sense they had been reduced from a warship, to a passive observer. Everyone present was now aware that their fate was now in the hands of a ship, that was little more than wreckage held together by inertia. It was obvious that the stutter in her engine was getting worse, but still Hurricane bobbed and wove, striving to match the alien’s manoeuvres.

  "Coms, can we speak to Hurricane?" Willis asked without taking her eyes off the display.

  "No, Ma’am. Not until we get the computer back." The reply was equally quiet.

  Hurricane was also decelerating. Her rate of deceleration was much lower than that of the alien but it did mean that they were converging only very slowly.

  "How much longer till reboot?"

  "Perhaps one minute, Ma’am."

  "Right…"

  Abruptly, the alien changed heading pointing its bows directly away from Hurricane, its engines still firing at full power. Willis felt some of the tension leak out of her body. Several of her crew also realised what had happened.

  "Looks like they’ve given up on trying to ram us." Said Horan

  “They’re willing to exchange a ship for us, but not for a cripple." Willis agreed quietly.

  "We’ll have rebooted by the time they’ve gone around and lined up for another go."

  Hurricane however was clearly not deflected by such concerns and continued to close. The aliens manoeuvring became more frantic as she closed.