She turned away from the holo.
"What’s our jump status?"
"We deployed nodes just before they jumped in. We need another twelve minutes before we can jump."
Twelve minutes. They’d just needed another twelve shitty little minutes and they would have been clear. They had already survived so much, taken so many risks, yet now, just when the danger had seemed past… Brian forced herself to stop thinking. She needed to be taking action, not feeling sorry for herself. If they could see the Nameless, then the aliens already had them in missile range.
"I don’t understand how they even found us." O’Malley was muttering. "We had almost everything closed down. Unless they caught a glimpse of the radiators-"
"It doesn’t much matter." Brian said cutting him off. "They didn’t get a good enough fix to drop right in on top of us. That might give us some kind of a chance." She tried to believe her own words.
"Contact! Contact separation, we have missiles inbound! ETA three and half minutes." Called out a sensor operator.
"Tactical, what’s the state of point defence and counter measures?" O’Malley asked after visibly shaking himself.
"We have fifty seven percent point defence ammunition left; we’re putting the last of our chaff into the aft launchers, sir."
"We just need to buy eleven minutes." Brian said in a firm voice. "Captain, arm the fighters for space superiority, targeting priority, those big missiles.
"If the fighters are out, they might- no probably, won’t be able to get back." O’Malley objected. Behind him the operations officer hesitated.
"Get on with it, Lieutenant." She snapped at him, before looking back at O’Malley. "We’ve lost most of the squadron already Norman. This ships’ more replaceable than what’s left."
"Sensors, Bridge, Hammerhead is firing."
"Navigation, Bridge, we are ten minutes from jump capability."
A for Anton’s hanger was a hive of activity as the deck crew raced through the launch preparations. The fighter’s reactor was already running and with the radiators venting, the hanger was getting uncomfortably warm. A pair of armourers were trying to get a twisting belt of sustainer rods into the upper turret magazine, while below them other work crew manhandled Starstrike missiles onto their pylons with the fuses already in place. Dozens of safety protocols were being broken but Anton was going to be ready in record time. In a corner of the hanger, the last four squadron members were briefing.
"Shermer!" Moscoe snapped. Her head snapped back round towards the Commander. "Focus, damn it!"
"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir." She replied quickly.
"Right, we’ll be launching as soon as our birds are ready. Once we’re out, Anton will take the port, Caesar starboard. Stick tight to the carrier, no more than ten kay, but for Christ’s sake stay out of Dauntless’s firing lane; you get in the way, they aren’t going to stop shooting. Save your Starstrikes for any big missiles, guns for the small stuff. Try not to waste your fire on anything that’s going to miss-"
"Sir, fighter ready!" A shout from one of the hanger crew interrupted the Commander.
"All right." Turning to his gunner, Brengtsson, "Get her started up, I’ll be with you in a second." He turned back and looked Alanna straight in the eye. "Keep it tight out there. Once the jump drive is spun up, they aren’t going to wait around for any of us. But remember, if the carrier dies, so do we. Now get moving and good luck."
The deck crew were just finishing with Caesar as Alanna and Dhoni pulled themselves through the hatch. Procedure said they should do a visual inspection, but without communication between them both Alanna and Dhoni headed for the cockpit. Just as they pulled themselves up, there was a boom from a shockwave hitting the bay doors. Three small holes appeared in the hanger’s bay door and something whizzed past Alanna’s nose, the pressure alarm buzzed, as air started to rush noisily out into the void.
"That’s it, we’re out of here, all hands, clear the bay!" She shouted before snapping closed her suit visor. As the cockpit canopy closed she spoke again. "Launch control, we’re ready."
Launch control didn’t wait to depressurise the hanger, the bay door slammed open venting atmosphere and a few discarded tools out into space. A few more seconds and Caesar was away and clear. Their radar did a quick sweep and immediately found Hammerhead. The destroyer was already heavily engaged; she'd given up on zigzagging, instead the ship had done an about-face to present her armament and gone all-astern on engines.
"Skipper, look." Dhoni pointed at the visual display. It was a close up of Hammerhead; the angle was awkward but Alanna immediately saw what he was referring to. The destroyer’s bows, and the jump drive they had contained, were gone.
"God help them." Dhoni said quietly.
Alanna didn’t have time to think about that. They were reaching their assigned position and Caesar’s tactical systems were already tracking missiles entering their zone of control. There was no more time in which to think; instead she allowed training and instinct to take over. A few moments later their first Starstrike missile cleared its pylon.
On the bridge of Dauntless, Brian sat silent in the command chair, around her the officers and ratings worked their systems. They were still five minutes from jump out. The two fighters were out on either flank bobbing and weaving, while Hammerhead continued to bring up the rear. So far, aside from some fragment strikes, Dauntless had taken no hits, but for Hammerhead it was a different story. The destroyer was too far away to get anything more than her engines on visual but she could see the explosions bursting. The destroyer was dying on her feet, she’d been able to stop the incoming cap ship missiles but the small missiles were saturating point defence, taking her apart a piece at a time. This time there were no objections on the bridge of Dauntless, as the distance between the carrier and the beleaguered destroyer started to open.
But Brian watched the main holo, the situation was altering. The Nameless ships were firing as a group, slow, rippling salvos that sent a steady stream of missiles charging after the human ships. A mistake in her opinion, a single massive salvo from every launcher at once, would have left the humans with no way to stop, dodge or decoy them all. There would be a long gap between such salvos but by opting for a stready stream they might have made a tactical mistake, one that might allow Dauntless to get away. Her impassive expression twisted into a wince as another missile went into Hammerhead and one of her engines died. They were going to get the destroyer though; there was no way Dauntless’s clapped out jump drive could hold the portal open long enough for Hammerhead. Perhaps if the destroyer’s shuttle had survived the crew might be able to… Then abruptly, Hammerhead ceased to be part of the equation.
"Helm, ke… keep… keep the wreckage between us and the enemy." O’Malley stuttered out the order as twelve thousand kilometres astern Hammerhead died.
Even in death, Hammerhead continued to shield them, missiles already locked onto the destroyer continued the pile into the explosion. It bought them another two minutes, but the explosion cleared, leaving nothing between Dauntless and the Nameless.
"Three minutes! Caesar pull in tight! Keep it tight!" Alanna heard the order and obeyed.
"Confirmed Anton, pulling in." She responded.
"Skipper, I’m getting an overheat alarm on the dorsal gun." Dhoni snapped out.
"Roger, rolling." She replied tersely.
She briefly glanced up at Dauntless; her point defence was pouring weapons fire back. The pulse guns were sending out visible streams of plasma bolts, while the projectiles from the charge throwers were invisible until they detonated. Between that, the chaff and exploding missiles, it looked like one hell of a fireworks display.
"We’re nearly there skipper," Dhoni shouted, "we need to get closer to carrier to get into the jump conduit."
Caesar had been running all astern, with her nose pointed towards the aliens. Now she yanked Caesar round and side-slipped towards Dauntless’s scarred hull.
"Hang on D, this is
going to be a bumpy jump!" She called out.
"Just don’t get us smeared against the hull, that’s all I ask." He replied tersely.
"Jumping out in thirty seconds." Called out the Navigator.
No one was celebrating yet; the guns were still firing furiously and every few seconds the hull was shaken by near misses. They’d taken two hits from small missiles, the first had demolished four of the port side hangers and knocked out an engine, the second only stirred the exiting wreckage on the starboard side. The two fighters on either side, only fifty metres from the hull.
"Guns, keep firing! All hands, brace for ju-" O’Malley was shouting when there was a sudden screech of metal from the front of the ship and a small explosive report echoed through the hull. "What the hell-" He started to ask.
"Skipper!" The Navigator shouted, even through his helmet visor Brian could see the man’s face, it was white as a sheet. "Sir, the jump drive has just gone off line!"
Brian and O’Malley shared a look of horror.
"Oh my God! Engineering, report!" O’Malley bellowed into the intercom.
There was a burst of coughing at the other end of the line.
"Engineering what the hells going on?" O’Malley almost screamed down the link.
The tone of the engineer’s voice told Brian all she needed know.
"Captain, the charging chamber just blew, I told you it was-"
"For Christ sake, never mind that! How long to repair?" O’Malley shouted him down.
"Skipper you don’t understand, it’s fried! The whole thing! The jump drive will never run again!"
The other bridge officers had heard the engineers report; they looked to their Captain for instruction. But O’Malley had froze up, his mouth was opening and closing like a beached fish.
"Norman!" Brian shouted at him but he merely goggled at her. She swore savagely before flicking her intercom onto the command channel. "All officers, be aware we just lost the jump drive. Engineering, put all power into the engines; we’re going to have to try to make a run for it in realspace. Operations, order the fighters back out onto our flanks. Coms, send out a distress signal, there might be a bit of the Home Fleet that can get to us." No one believed that last bit, herself least of all. "Download our logs into a message drone and the Black Box. Prepare them for launch."
"Sensors, bridge, we have cap ship missiles in bound.”
A groan went up across the command channel, those missiles had proved mostly immune to point defence guns. Only plasma guns and their own missiles had proven powerful enough and Dauntless had neither. As the old ship ran for her life, Brian could feel the deck plating start to tremble as the engines redlined.
Alanna had seen the explosion. It wasn’t a big one, but it had lit up the bows for a moment and sent a small piece of hull plating tumbling down past Caesar. She guessed immediately what had happened. She’d read Dauntless exploits in the Contact War when she was a child, now they’d finally asked too much of the old ship. The message from the carrier was they were having a problem with the Jump drive, they needed a few more minutes. Neither of them believed it for a moment.
"We aren’t getting out of this." Dhoni said so quietly she barely heard him.
"Yeah I know D," she replied as she pushed the button and their last missile blasted away, "we’ll make them work for it though."
Four big missiles, flanked by over a dozen small one closed on Dauntless; the two fighters dropped back from the carrier closing on them. Anton reached them first and started working through the small missiles, striving to reach the cap ship missiles at the centre of the wave. Then abruptly two small missiles turned on Anton, forcing her to defend herself as the cap ship missiles passed. Both the closing missiles were destroyed short of their target but the second blew far too close. On her head up display, Alanna saw the icon for Anton change as the fighter’s engines failed.
"Anton!" She shouted. "Anton, are you receiving me!"
"Confir… Caesar… can hear you. I’m hit b… engines destro…"
Alanna glanced at her radar, another two blips were closing on Anton.
"Anton, you have missiles inbound! Punch out! Punch out!" She screamed into the radio.
"Negative Caes… we’re not getting ta…n alive. We’re leaving now, goodbye Caesar and good lu-."
On the Head Up Display the icon for Anton blinked out. Dauntless last surviving pilot didn’t have time to grieve, the missiles were entering range. Tears streaming down her face, Alanna picked one and fired, even as the missile exploded she was targeting another, the turret guns claimed another two. The surviving small missiles turned towards the fighter. Alanna threw Caesar into a desperate spiral, around them, missiles died as their guns picked them off. All but one.
"Skipper, from belo-!" Dhoni shouted just before the missile swung in and exploded twenty metres below the fighter.
His last warning was broken off in a choked scream. A red spray hit the front of the canopy and Dhoni slumped across his instruments. Half of Alanna’s control board blanked out, the other half flashed red.
"Dhoni! D!" She twisted around and pulled him back; his eyes were open and staring, blood leaked out of a gaping hole in his suit. There was a hiss of atmosphere leaking from the cockpit.
"Oh god! Oh god!"
Movement outside caught her eye, the HUD flickered for a moment and stabilised. As she watched four cap ship missiles passed less than ten kilometres away. Then all power died, Caesar’s guns didn’t respond, nor did the engines. Helpless Alanna could only watch the missiles plunge after the fleeing carrier.
Brian had watched the last of the fighters die and knew that the last slender hope was gone. In the final seconds before impact, the missiles were spreading out, like a clawed hand opening leaving Dauntless with nowhere to go. There was only one more order to give.
"Launch message drone and Black Box." She ordered before closing her helmet visor. She limped back to her command chair and seated herself. She looked up, the captain hadn’t moved since the jump drive failed. "We didn’t do bad." She said to his uncomprehending face.
The missiles arrived, crashing through the defensive barrage.
The first clipped one of the port engines before exploding. The force split the carrier in two just forward of the engineering space. The second hammered into the starboard side, crushing the hull like an eggshell. On the bridge, atmosphere howled out of tears in the hull men and women died at their posts, some shouting, other in silence. Brian looked up just in time to see a support beam come down on her.
Epilogue
The Price
6th August 2066, Earth Orbit
Dear Mr and Mrs Ermler
I regret that I must inform you that your daughter, Petty Officer Laura Ermler, was killed in action on the thirty first July twenty sixty six during an engagement with enemy forces in the Alpha Centauri system. Your daughter was under my command for only a short period and regrettably, I did not get a chance to personally know her. Her comrades have spoken well of her and I can assure you that she was killed instantly and did not suffer…
Willis hammered at the backspace key with increasing force, as she deleted the entire message. Getting to her feet she stretched, her hands striking the deckhead above her and glared at the computer screen. Two hours work and she had yet to find words that didn’t sound trite or indifferent. Worse still some of them were flat out lies.
She hadn’t expected or really even hoped to survive the action, with good cause. She’d taken a ship that was basically a museum piece, into the biggest battle the fleet had ever fought and brought it home with minor damage and five fatalities. Space had been alive with missiles and plasma bolts, yet laughably, the damage had been caused not by weapons fire but a piece of wreckage striking the hull.
The lump of alien hull had smashed into and through the two starboard side hangars, impacting the main armoured belt. The strike didn’t penetrate the belt itself, instead it dislodged a scab of armour plate massing, perhaps
half a ton and sent it crashing across the ship. The spray of metal splinters, sent out as the armour broke loose, cut down Ratings Dormy and Baudelaire. Lieutenant Hidaka was almost pulped as it smashed through the centreline bulkhead, while Rating Tuite was decapitated by a fragment of the metal. The final victim, Petty Officer Laura Ermler, was hit by a piece of a computer console before the mass of metal finally came to a halt, after putting a five centimetre deep dent in the armour on the opposite side of the ship.
Unlike the others, Laura Ermler not only could have, but should have survived. If Hood had carried a doctor she would have done. However in the dash to make the ship ready for action, one sickbay orderly, but no doctor, had been assigned to them. Medical supplies had been limited to out of date painkillers, and whatever else had been left in the ship when she’d been decommissioned. There hadn’t been time or means to transfer Laura to another ship before they jumped out to Earth. The sickbay orderly had been helpless to stop her internal bleeding, somewhere between Earth and Alpha Centauri she died in agony.
A tap at the door interrupted her line of thought.
"Who is it?" Willis snapped.
"Just me. Can I come in?" said a voice through the hatch.
"Certainly." A welcoming smile appeared on her face as Vincent stepped in. He was dressed in a borrowed and ill-fitting lieutenant’s uniform. He looked a hell of a lot better than he had a week earlier. Although for Willis, who knew him so well, he was still noticeably pale beneath his tan. While the haunted look in his eyes had faded, it wasn’t gone yet.
Within twenty minutes of the end of the Battle, the Home Fleet had jumped out for Earth. Hood plus the other cripples had been left behind, waiting for the tugs. They had busied themselves picking up escape pods and checking wreckage for survival suit distress beacons. The failure of their computer had fouled their plotting but finally Hood had come across what was left of Hurricane. Up close the cruiser had been a pitiful sight. Less than half the hull had remained and what was left, looked like a single touch might cause her final disintegration. Looking out at her Willis found herself doubting that even a single hull plate remained unbuckled. As gently as possible, they matched course and edged alongside the one remaining airlock. Technically she shouldn’t have abandoned her bridge to go over to Hurricane. There had been no guarantee that Nameless stragglers weren’t still in the system and it had been her duty to stay on her bridge. But she had to know for herself whether her friend had survived.
The Nameless War Page 37