Call to Arms (Black Fleet Trilogy, Book 2)

by Joshua Dalzelle

  “Yes!” Lieutenant Keller pumped his fist in the air. The rest of the bridge crew cheered and clapped as the Ares flew away unscathed, save for a discolored hull. Jackson let them carry on a moment longer before reasserting control.

  “We are still engaged, people,” he said sternly. “Get me status updates on the rest of the squadron, and prepare the ship to face Alpha-Two when we come around the planet.”

  Davis checked her Link statuses. “Atlas is unresponsive. Icarus is unresponsive. Artemis has taken damage, but nothing critical, and Hyperion is FMC. Artemis is reporting that Alpha-Two has departed the system.”

  “Coms, find out where in the hell my other two destroyers went,” Jackson said. “Tactical, begin scanning for debris along their last known flight path.” His insides twisted at the thought of losing forty percent of his force in the first real battle of what was becoming an inevitable war.

  “Plasma fire coming up from the surface!” Lieutenant Davis shouted. “Impact in seven seconds!”

  “Helm! Full emergency stop!” Jackson ordered. “Roll to port seventy degrees!”

  Even with the cutting edge artificial gravity generators, the crew was still thrown forward as the main engines reversed thrust and pushed mightily against Ares’s inertia. Jackson climbed quickly to his feet, having been tossed from his seat, and saw the nine plasma shots intended to destroy them streak past just off the port bow as the ship completed her roll maneuver.

  “All shots missed… barely,” Davis said.

  “All ahead full!” Jackson ordered. “Nav! Get me an orbital transfer and a path away from this damn planet. OPS, use our drone data, and coordinate with Tactical for a surface strike, use the two Shrikes we left in orbit.”

  When the Ares shot around the horizon at full power, she’d already climbed up to a transfer orbit in order to reach the altitude the Artemis and Hyperion were sitting at. Jackson had been more than a little shocked when he’d looked over the damage report for the Artemis. The destroyer had taken quiet a beating, including a direct hit with one of those Alpha missiles, but had managed to stay in the fight. Captain Forrest had requested permission to withdraw to a safe distance from Xi’an to begin effecting repairs. Jackson immediately approved and sent the Hyperion along with her as an escort.

  “How are we looking, Tactical?”

  “New flight profile has been sent to the Shrikes, Captain,” Barrett said. “They’ve got enough fuel left for a deorbit burn, and then they’ll freefall the rest of the way in.”

  “Air burst detonation?” Jackson asked.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Very good.” Jackson sat back in his seat. “How long until they’re in position?”

  “Deorbit burn will happen in another seventeen minutes,” Barrett said. “After that, it’ll be another six minutes to detonation.”

  “OPS, launch another drone,” Jackson said. “I want it loitering outside the impact zone at a safe distance, and when the blast subsides, let’s get some data on what’s left on the ground. Have it transmit the data as a burst and then self-destruct.”

  “Aye, sir,” Davis said. “Drone launching momentarily.”

  “Self-destruct?” Celesta asked.

  “We’re going to be steaming away from Xi’an by the time the area is safe for it to get in there,” Jackson explained. “While it’s true, we could put it back in orbit or land it on the surface for a potential later pickup, I don’t see a point in leaving it intact for the enemy to find if they come back. A lot can be learned about our level of technology and engineering methodologies by studying something as mundane as an automated drone, not to mention exactly which part of the EM spectrum we communicate on and how we perceive the universe around us.”

  “Of course, sir,” Celesta said. “I should have thought of that.”

  “Don’t worry, I have something more important for you to think about,” Jackson said. “I need you to find my missing ships. I can’t leave this system without knowing where two fifths of my squadron disappeared to. You’re authorized to pull from any departments and utilize any equipment you need, including long-range coms and high-power radar.”

  “Right away, sir.” She shot to her feet. “I’ll be in CIC.”

  “Missiles are entering the atmosphere now,” Barrett said after a few more minutes of relative calm on the bridge. “Standby for confirmation of detonation.”

  It was another tense few minutes before they saw evidence of the nuclear detonation on the surface. The Ares was just coming around the terminator, crossing into the night side, when the horizon lit up with a tremendous flash. The light from the explosion diffused in the polluted atmosphere so it appeared to be a glow that encompassed half a continent.

  “Detonation, both missiles,” Barrett still reported, even though everyone had already seen it with their own eyes.

  “That’s it until the drone confirms the ground site has been eliminated,” Jackson said. “Stand down from general quarters. Nav, plot a course to rendezvous with the Artemis. Helm, you’re clear to engage… ahead two thirds. Let’s leave this godforsaken planet behind us.”

  Chapter 4

  “So, Captain, please show me the supplemental technical data you received from Tsuyo that led you to believe that a Starwolf-class starship was capable of being flown within a planet’s atmosphere.” Daya Singh pasted an obviously forced smile on his face.

  “Well, Commander, it was simple supposition based on first year academy physics.” Jackson took a sip of water. “She’s two thirds the weight of the old Raptor-class ship with over four times as much available engine power. Not only that, but with all her antennas and sensors retracted, she has a fairly slippery shape. I will admit it was a tad unnerving though.”

  “Seriously, Jack.” Singh dropped all pretense of joking. “What in the hell were you thinking?”

  “I was thinking that I was once again leading a woefully inadequate ship against a Phage Alpha,” Jackson said. “It was a calculated risk just slightly less insane than blindly flying around a planet directly into the damn thing’s field of fire.”

  “That’s why you’re a captain and I’m an engineer, I suppose.” Singh shrugged.

  The pair was sitting in the Captain’s Mess enjoying some down time and an evening meal while the Ares continued her leisurely flight back to the rest of the squadron where the Artemis’s crew was scrambling to get field repairs complete before they departed the system. Commander Wright was still trying to find the Icarus and Atlas and hadn’t taken a break since Jackson had tasked her with the project.

  “I’m going back to the bridge.” Jackson stood suddenly. “I want to be there when we meet up with the Artemis and Hyperion, and I’m not going to be able to relax until we find out what happened to the other two ships.”

  “I should probably get back to my work center as well.” Singh also stood. “Your little joyride through the Xi’an sky wasn’t without consequences. The external heat exchangers have dropped in efficiency since the engagement.”

  “Sounds relatively minor,” Jackson said. “Let me know what you find.”

  Even after trying to sit for a meal and calm himself down, Jackson was still wired, buzzed on adrenaline and fear. He’d left the bridge shortly after the Ares had broken orbit for the outer system, so the crew wouldn’t see that his hands were shaking after the encounter with the Alpha. They seemed to have all the confidence in the universe in his ability to get them through alive. Some of the crew aboard that had served on the Blue Jacket even seemed to look forward to the chance to kick some more alien ass.

  But the truth ate at him: eventually his luck was going to run out. The Phage adapted and learned from each encounter at a frightening rate, and he still relied on panic-fueled inspiration to find workarounds for the inadequacies of human weaponry against the Phage’s true big guns like the Alphas. To make matters worse, even after four years, much of what they thought they knew about their enemy was just best guess. Destroyed Phage ships offe
red little in the way of useful intel, other than that they were all crewless and were either a form of automaton or, more terrifyingly, were some sort of living machines.

  Jackson left that sort of speculation for the eggheads at Fleet Science and Engineering. He’d worked with CIS and CENTCOM to develop a set of tactics and standard operating procedures when engaging the Phage based on his own experience, but it all went out the window with every battle as they seemed to demonstrate a new ability or completely different behavior. The fact that the two Alphas seemed to have been mimicking Terran missiles and kinetic weapons instead of their usual directed plasma bursts was yet another wrinkle in trying to understand the Phage.

  His comlink chirping made him stop midstride, just before he got to the hatch leading onto his bridge, a soft whine of protest coming from his left leg as he planted all his momentum on the prosthetic. The screen on the unit was a text only message informing him that Captain Forrest wanted to debrief him as soon as possible. He debated making her wait, but he had nothing pressing going on other than trying to come up with a plausible story in his head to explain to his superiors how in the fuck he lost two irreplaceable, top-of-the-line warships in their first real engagement with the enemy.

  He spun on the ball of his right foot and quickly made his way back to his office, confirming the request on his comlink and letting Captain Forrest know he’d be available within the next five minutes.

  “Senior Captain Wolfe.” Captain Olivia Forrest nodded respectfully, her entire demeanor much changed from all the other interactions Jackson had ever had with her. “Thank you for taking my request on such short notice, sir.”

  “Not a problem, Captain.” Jackson shifted in his seat. “Is there a particular reason you wanted a face to face? We’ll compile all of the Artemis’s mission data with our own when we submit the final mission report to CENTCOM.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said. “I wanted to apologize for allowing the Alpha to escape the system and for allowing my ship to be so badly damaged.”

  Jackson was surprised for a second time in as many minutes. Olivia Forrest apologized for nothing, especially her own mistakes. The more at fault she was, the more aggressive she became.

  “I think we were all taken by surprise, Captain,” he said carefully. “I’m not ascribing blame to anyone in particular for any of the missteps we made from the time those two Alphas appeared. We’ll parse through the data with a dispassionate eye and make adjustments so next time we don’t repeat our mistakes.”

  “That is very gracious of you, sir,” she said with no hint that she was being anything but sincere. “Your tactics against the other Alpha were inspired, if I may say.” She seemed to hesitate a moment before she continued, looking at each of the other captains before she did. “I also wished to speak with you so I could request permission to withdraw the Artemis back to uncontested space.”

  Jackson leaned back in his chair as he considered her request. The Artemis was banged up but still combat capable. Having her pull out of the system before he knew what had happened to the Icarus or Atlas might be foolish on his part.

  “Request denied, Captain,” he said. “We’re still missing two ships, and I’d rather keep the Artemis here in case we need her resources in the search… or the recovery. As soon as we locate them and ascertain their condition, I will revisit your request.”

  “Understood, sir.” Forrest’s mouth pinched. “Artemis out.”

  Jackson reflected on the exchange for a moment as well as the unexpected request. The crucible of combat, even the sterile type of combat done from the bridge of a starship over vast distances, tended to change a person… and change them almost immediately. It wasn’t that he was unsympathetic. He understood her desire to leave after surviving a firefight, but he didn’t have the luxury of indulging her discomfort.

  “Captain Wolfe to the bridge.” Celesta’s voice came over the intercom speaker in his office and from his comlink.

  “On my way,” he said, climbing out of his seat and slipping his comlink back into his pocket.

  ****

  “The Atlas has checked in, sir,” Celesta said as soon as he walked onto the bridge. “Systemic failure with main power is what they’re telling us. Apparently it killed everything: coms, propulsion, steerage… the works.”

  “I’m going to assume Captain Caruso didn’t activate the emergency beacon because he wasn’t sure if the enemy was still out there or not.” Jackson stared at the bright green dot representing the Atlas on the main display.

  “Correct, sir,” Celesta confirmed. “They informed us that they were ready to fire the mains and would be coming our way as soon as they were under power.”

  “And the Icarus?” Jackson asked.

  Celesta motioned for him to approach the terminal she was using at the back of the bridge. Wordlessly, she pointed to a message that had been sent to the Ares from Captain Jonathan Caruso, CO of the Atlas.

  Captain Wolfe,

  I am sending this message separate from our official communications regarding the Atlas’s power plant failure, as I am not sure how you will want to handle it. While I cannot tell you where the Icarus currently is, I can tell you that she is likely still in one piece. When we split from the formation to intercept the Alpha circling around Xi’an, the Icarus began to lag back slightly. We sent a message requesting that they get back on the line, but we were engaged by the enemy before we received an answer.

  The Atlas took a glancing blow from two of the Phage missiles, something I was unaware they even had, and when we tried to energize the forward laser projectors for point defense, the main power bus failed to the forward sections. We accelerated out and past Xi’an and requested that the Icarus cover our withdrawal until we could fix the problem. They never answered. A review of the sensor logs shows that as we were fired upon, the Icarus turned from the engagement and accelerated away from Xi’an at max burn. Our power plant went into safe mode and shut us down before we could track their trajectory.

  I do not know where Captain Levitt and his ship are. All I do know is that he abandoned us as soon as the shooting started. As I said, I am not sure how you will wish to handle this, so I am keeping it off of official records for now.

  Captain Caruso

  CO, TCS Atlas

  “Oh, this isn’t fucking good.” Jackson muttered under his breath, running a hand through his short, dark hair.

  “Indeed,” Celesta said just as softly. “Right now, we’re the only two people who have seen this, and I’m sending it to your personal directory.”

  “Thank you,” Jackson said. “First, we need to find the damn ship. Once that happens, I can figure out what I’m going to do. Obviously we can’t just let him keep it but I don’t know who I can stick in the chair for the duration of the mission.” Despite the seriousness of what Levitt was being accused of, Jackson couldn’t help but feel enormously relieved that the Icarus was intact and not destroyed or captured.

  “I’m scanning the entire system with the high-power array,” Celesta said. “Even if they’re running silent, we know exactly what sort of return to look for from the ship’s hull material. It may take a bit, but we’ll find her.”

  “That’s assuming she hasn’t already warped out of the system while we were engaged,” Jackson said quietly. “Keep looking, and update me with every detail on my comlink if I’m not on the bridge.”

  “Yes, sir.”.

  As it turned out, it didn’t take them nearly as long to find the ship as they’d feared it would. It was less than an hour after Jackson and Celesta had spoke when the com beacon for the Icarus lit up on their display, chirping out the destroyer’s position and status loud and proud. The beacon was followed shortly by a terse com message from a terrified looking lieutenant commander.

  “This is Lieutenant Commander Nimski, tactical officer of the TCS Icarus.” His voice shook. “I’ve assumed command of this ship and have had Captain Levitt and Commander Carlton taken into custody. I wo
uld like to speak with whoever is currently commanding Confederate forces in the system.”

  “Coms! Tell Commander Nimski to rendezvous with the rest of the squadron.” Jackson leaned forward, vigorously rubbing his temples with the heels of his hands. “Provide coordinates. Let him know if he needs assistance we can help him further.”

  “Aye, sir,” the young ensign at the com station said.

  “You have the bridge, Commander Wright,” Jackson said. “I’ll be in my office. Just get that ship back into the formation so we can get the hell out of this system.”

  “Yes, sir.” Celesta slid into the command seat.

  ****

  The single knock at his door made Jackson jump as he was so focused on his task. “Enter!”

  “Sir, the Icarus has rejoined the formation.” Celesta stepped in through the hatchway. “The Artemis has sent over two requests to withdraw since… are you well, sir?”

  “Yes, yes.” Jackson waved her off. “Just trying to stitch together all the sensor logs from the squadron into a cohesive picture of the encounter.”

  “We have an entire team of analysts down in CIC doing just that.” Celesta frowned. “Is there something in particular you’re looking for?”

  “I want an unfiltered view,” Jackson said. “The analysts are always trying to be helpful by excluding what they deem to be extraneous, but you and I both know a small detail that seems unimportant can actually be the key to understanding the thing as a whole.”

  “You’re worried about something specific.” She walked in and closed the hatch.

  “I had a suspicion,” Jackson said. “I didn’t know for sure until I synced up all the time codes and played the logs from the Ares and the Artemis simultaneously.

  “The reason the Artemis never got a killing shot in on their target is that at the exact instant our missiles impacted the first Alpha, the second wheeled and fled at what I previously would have considered an impossible rate of acceleration for that type.”

  “Our target warned the other we had new weapons and tactics,” Celesta offered.