“Come on, Diego,” Strand whispered. “You’re almost there.”
Diego had managed to place the armored plate at the last second, just as the final incoming attack had gotten there. Strand yelled out as all the blips connected on his virtual map, indicating the young spacer’s drone was caught in the blast. “Diego, come in!”
No answer.
Strand slammed his armored fist on the control console. “God damn it!”
“Sir, I’m okay,” Diego’s voice said over the audio link. “I jumped out of the drone’s pod just as it got hit. I’m floating around in a bunch of molten stuff.”
Strand couldn’t help but grin. His strike team had done it. “Hang in there, I got your signal and I’m on my way to you.”
At the bridge of the USNS Wyvern, the weapons officer continued to stare intently at the tactical map on his console. “Commander, the last signal I got from the lancers was a possible contact in this part of the Mystic Mountain.” He relayed the coordinates to the ship’s command console.
Fleet Commander Duc Tran glanced at the readouts. “Plot all possible course changes from that contact, then pass them on to the other ships. I want a full sustained barrage of gauss cannon fire at the entire area.”
“Yes, sir.”
Tran could barely contain his impatience. He was seething inside, but he knew he had to keep his cool, for the crew looked to him as an example.
“All ships in the fleet have been notified, Commander,” the com officer said. “All weapons on standby.”
Tran cracked his knuckles. His four Matador-class cruisers were outfitted with external ordinance pods containing an extensive supply of gauss ammunition for their main guns. The combined firepower would create massive kill zones in a wide area, and sustain it for a longer time than a fleet of ships three times their number. “Begin bombardment.”
“Firing main guns,” the weapons officer said.
Commander Creull Bonecrusher drifted through the Nepenthe’s engineering deck using a modified thruster backpack. Both her arms were locked in place with nanocarbon casts to help facilitate healing, and she was unable to use them for gripping and pushing off in the null gravity. “What’s the status on the repairs?”
Chief Engineer Viniimn floated in front of her, his thick tail wrapped around one of the handholds near the core bulkhead. The damaged cyber-harness on his body had not yet been fully repaired. “We took a few hits from the enemy barrage these past few hours, but nothing major. The problem is, the nanite repair system was fouled up by the virus, so it’s taking longer than usual to fix things.”
Creull wished they had repaired the intermittent com-link system first so she didn’t need to leave the battlesphere to get an update, but the damage control teams had more pressing priorities. “Are we completely free of the virus now?”
“We’ll know soon enough,” Viniimn said. “Soessq will restart Sappho’s core systems in a minute. We didn’t have much time, but our preliminary sweep indicates we got rid of the last of the malware.”
“Let’s hope our luck changes for the better,” Creull said. “We’re using up the last of the heatsinks, and we need to head out of this nebula soon or we all fry.”
“That much is obvious,” Viniimn said. “I’ve already had the crew evacuate the non-essential modules, and vented some of the heat into them. I’d like to pull everyone out of the manufacturing decks too, but with the nanite repair not being fully functional, we’ve had to do the fixing by hand.”
“Pity we don’t have more spacers,” Creull said. “I’ll be doing a lot of recruiting if we can get ourselves out of this fix.”
“Where’s Puteri Sin? I haven’t seen her.”
“She’s dead,” Creull said.
“Zeno’s handiwork, I presume?”
“Yes,” Creull said. “I found her remains along with Benno Holmes’s in the recycler vats.”
“A pity. She was good at her job,” Viniimn said. “I hardly knew the other one.”
“Indeed,” Creull said. “We’ll mourn at the proper time, assuming we get out of this in one piece.”
Soessq’s voice came over their personal com-links. “I’m at the AI core node. Powering her up … now.”
For a few seconds there was a slight dimming of the room’s illumination, causing Creull to look around. “Was that good or bad?”
Sappho’s calm, soothing voice came over the ship’s general audio lines. “Startup complete. Initiating core systems. Done. Running anti-viral diagnostic. Complete. No signs of malware. All systems nominal.”
A loud cheer came from a small team of spacers working nearby. The Nepenthe’s AI network was fully functional once again.
Captain Lucien Dangard’s voice was heard over Viniimn’s com-link. “Okay, looks like we’re good to go. Can you initiate that plan of yours?”
“Yes, Captain,” Viniimn said. “Give me an hour to get things going.”
“Now that we’ve got com-links, I’m on my way back to the battlesphere,” Creull said.
Near the starboard side of the Wyvern’s bridge, the com officer nodded while receiving the message over her headset. “Commander, Belleau Wood is now entering the Mystic Mountain Nebula; would you like me to switch over to general audio?”
Tran shook his head. “Negative, my com-link only. Direct to their CO.”
“Yes, sir.”
Tran leaned forward on his chair. His four cruisers had expended all of their external ammunition pods and ejected them a few hours back. He had ordered the Belleau Wood into the nebula to investigate and confirm the Nepenthe’s destruction or disablement.
I hope she’s still in one piece, he thought. If we can get a few of those pirates alive, I’ll be promoted to star marshal for sure.
Ship Commander Yosh Nishimura’s voice came online with varying degrees of static. “This is Belleau Wood. We’re now … four hundred thous … klicks inside … nebula. Switch … to heatsinks.”
“I’m getting interference, but I can still hear you, Yosh,” Tran said. “How far are you from the Nepenthe’s suspected position?”
“Half … million klicks, sir,” Nishimura said. “Sensor …eadings … terrible.”
“Keep going, you’ll have to get in close,” Tran said. “Get your Spaceborne troop squads ready. You need to initiate boarding operations once you’re in range.”
“Wilco.”
“Tell your men I want them alive,” Tran said. “At least ten. If you can get any one of their officers in custody, so much the better.”
“…oger that … Command…”
Tran grinned. Of his four ships, the Belleau Wood had the largest contingent of soldiers and warbots, but he could easily dispatch an additional vessel into the Mystic Mountains if needed. He could already imagine himself standing in front of a bunch of senators while receiving his medals, the eyes of the Union on him.
Nishimura’s voice was heard over the com-link once more. “Possible … contact. Proceeding … stand by.”
Tense minutes passed. Tran knew his com officer was doing her best to keep the line free of distortions, but he could barely hear his subordinate now. “Yosh, come in. How far are you now?”
The com officer turned her head. She had a surprised look on her face. “Commander, I’m getting possible enemy contacts.”
Tran instinctively tried to rise to his feet, but the restraints on the command chair held him down. “What?”
Nishimura’s panicked voice came over his com-link. “We’re … hit! Taking … lancer … fire … quest … ass … tance.”
Tran grimaced while checking out his tactical map. The closest ship to the Belleau Wood’s last position was the Griffin. He punched in the com-link for a direct line to her commanding officer. “Maddox, get your ship moving. Yosh needs help.”
Less than a minute after Ship Commander Maddox’s acknowledgement, he could see the Griffin had begun to get in closer towards the edge of the nebula. Sweat began to form on Tran’s forehead. Time seemed to st
retch out into eternity as he anxiously waited while each contact on his tactical map moved slowly towards their intended positions.
Half an hour passed, and Maddox’s voice came online. “Found an enemy contact just inside the interior of the nebula, negative readings on our transponder sensors so she’s got to be the pirate ship. The heat spike seems to be from the Nepenthe—she’s venting off a lot of it just at the edge, trying to stay hidden. Request combined fire from the fleet.”
“Granted,” Tran said before glancing to his left. “Weapons officer. Coordinate and fire. All ships.”
“Locking in new fire zones with Griffin and Gaugemela,” the weapons officer said. “All main guns ready, sir.”
“Fire,” Tran said.
All three Union warships fired simultaneously at the now confirmed contact. Tran looked at the plotted trajectories of the unguided ordinance on his console display. It took just thirty minutes to reach their target. Watching the visual screen, he could see some faint shimmering in the opaque clouds of dust and gas along the sides of the Mystic Mountains, indicating where the shells had gone.
A few minutes later, his tactical display emitted a loud beep. Tran looked at the virtual screen and watched in horror as incoming lancer missile warheads broke through the top cover of the nebula and raced down towards the Griffin. Ship Commander Maddox attempted an evasive maneuver, but it was too late. More than thirty of the hypervelocity projectiles had impacted on the side of the Griffin, severely damaging her.
Tran roared with rage. “Full alert! The Nepenthe is still alive!”
31 Battle of Attrition
Commander Creull was back in the Nepenthe’s battlesphere, strapped into her divan-shaped chair while looking at her console. “Cruiser ahead of us has taken some hits, but we’ve pretty much expended all the lancers we deployed inside the nebula.”
Captain Lucien Dangard checked the virtual screen beside his command chair. He had ordered Garrett Strand’s team to deploy the missile launchers outside of the ship. “We’ve had to. Firing our main guns without radiators would have made things a little too hot inside this ship.”
Spacer Sergeant Oana Florescu continued to pilot the vessel. “We’ll be out of the thickest part of the nebula in under two minutes.”
“Activate all radiators the moment we’re out,” Dangard said. “We’ve got too much internal heat as it is.” He glanced over at his executive officer. “Can you still control the weapons systems without the use of your arms, Creull?”
Creull gave an irritable growl. “I don’t need my hands to target our enemies. With my neural link to Sappho restored, I can enter all commands using my thoughts.”
Dangard chuckled. “Just checking.”
Oana glanced back briefly in surprise. It was the first time she had ever heard the captain make a joke. “Breaking cloud cover … now. Activating radiators and increasing to three-gee acceleration.”
“Weapons free,” Creull said. “Targeting main guns at the enemy up ahead. And … firing.”
At the bridge of the USNS Wyvern, Fleet Commander Duc Tran bared his teeth in frustration. His sister cruiser Griffin had been so badly damaged she was pretty much out of the contest. His fourth ship the Belleau Wood was no doubt disabled somewhere inside the thickest part of the nebula. Forget them. You still have the advantage.
He punched in new coordinates on his map and relayed them to the helmsman. “Begin maneuvering to this area.” Tran glanced to his side. “Weapons, continue to link with Gaugemela and coordinate our fields of fire.”
“Yes, sir,” the weapons officer said.
“Accelerating to three-gees,” the chief helmsman said.
Tran was pushed back into his chair by the force of gravity. He needed to get the Nepenthe in between both his remaining ships and hammer her with the main guns. Their overlapping fire corridors would make the enemy’s evasive maneuvering that much harder. His ships still had close to a full complement of their gauss ammunition, and he hoped it would be enough.
“Enemy vessel accelerating downwards towards the lower base of the Mystic Mountains,” the Wyvern’s tactical officer said. “Looks like she’s making a run at the Gaugemela.”
“Commander Maddox of the Griffin is on our com-link channel, sir,” the com officer said. “He’s requesting help.”
“Cut him off from all com-links,” Tran said. “Keep our channels open with Gaugemela only. I’ve got a battle to win.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Helm, pursue the Nepenthe,” Tran said. “Keep them in range of our guns.”
The helmsman nodded. “Yes, sir. Altering course.”
For a brief moment, the entire room seemed to shudder. The Nepenthe was firing at them too.
“Damage control,” Tran said. “What’s our status?”
The ship’s damage control officer studied the readouts on his console. “We took a few hits from their gauss cannons. Mostly superficial. AI reports all systems normal.”
“They’re just trying to keep us honest,” Tran said. “Tactical, what’s the status of our deployed lancer batteries in the area?”
The tactical officer pored over the virtual map on his console. “We’ve expended most of our lancers from the initial salvo, Commander. We have two missile batteries left at half full. I’m relaying their coordinates to your console.”
Tran looked down at the virtual screen and rubbed his chin. Yes, I can still win this.
The internal gyros of the Nepenthe’s battlesphere instantly adjusted as the vessel took some hits, keeping the reverberations inside the command module to a minimum.
Captain Dangard leaned forward slightly and activated the com-link to the engineering deck. “How are we doing?”
Viniimn’s syrupy voice was heard over the com network. “We’ve taken a few hits but they’re manageable so far. One lucky shell took out the main port of the topmost radiator, and the nanites are working to fix it. I would suggest we take a break, but I have a feeling it isn’t possible right now.”
“Not while we have two enemy ships firing at us,” Dangard said.
Creull roared in exclamation. “The ship below us took a few more hits of their own. Looks like they’re slowing down.”
Dangard switched com-link channels to the hangar bay. “Garrett, have your drones been resupplied yet?”
Lieutenant Garrett Strand’s voice came over the com-link. “Almost done, Cap. Give us two minutes.”
“You’ve got one,” Dangard said before glancing up at the pilot’s station. “How are we doing, Oana?”
Oana kept her eyes on the console in front of her. “I’ve had to decelerate slightly because of the loss of one of our main radiators. Both enemy ships are trying to keep us in between them. Other than that, things are just peachy.”
“Atta girl, we’ll make a proper pilot of you yet,” Dangard said.
“Okay, my strike team is ready to deploy,” Strand said over the com-link.
“Stand by,” Creull said as she mentally set up another kill zone and fired the Nepenthe’s main guns once more.
Strand was pressed back into the rearward part of the battle drone’s storage pod as he accelerated out of the Nepenthe’s hangar bay for the third time during the battle. The moment he cleared the point defense zone, he immediately commanded the drone to alter course, close to the edge of the ionized clouds of the nebula. The mass of his battle drone had doubled, since it carried part of the last contingent of lancer missiles using an external pod, and its overall acceleration was hampered by it.
He activated the com-link to his team. “Check in, boys and girls.”
“We’re up, LT,” Spacer Ratana said. “Right next to you.”
“Okay, stand by and stay stealthy,” Strand said. “With the thick part of the nebula and our small mass, hopefully they won’t detect us in time.”
Diego Rodriguez’s voice reverberated in everyone’s audio. “Woo-hoo, this is gonna be good!”
“Yeah, right,” Ratana
said.
“Stay off com-links for now,” Strand said. Battle drones and other small craft had to use stealth and trickery when involved in capital ship battles. Current warships simply had too many point defense systems that could destroy them easily at standoff range, and even AI-controlled fighters had largely disappeared, with militaries from all major factions preferring to build ever larger ships that could dish out major damage while repairing themselves during combat.
Although automated missile and laser platforms were still in heavy use due to their expendability, only the most desperate or foolhardy made use of manned small craft in space engagements. Casualty rates in these types of units were high, and for good reason.
Strand continued to check his tactical map, and sure enough, the pursuing cruiser was heading closer. He activated the com-links to his team. “Okay, here she comes; you all know what to do. If your drones can’t evade their weapons fire then eject. I promise that you’ll get picked up, provided we win this.”
The weapons officer inside the Wyvern’s bridge narrowed his eyes while staring into his console. “Commander, we’re getting farther from optimum range. It looks like the Nepenthe has accelerated to five-gees.”
“Helm,” Tran said. “Match velocities with the enemy. We need to stay in range to keep pounding at them.”
“Yes, sir,” the helmsman said. “Accelerating to five-and-a-half-gees.”
Tran was pressed further back into his seat. The faster they went, the more fuel it took to maneuver. It looked like the pirates were so intent on taking out the Gaugemela, it seemed they had forgotten about them. Looks like they made their first big mistake, he thought.
Strand toggled the command to deploy the lancer pod attached to his battle drone. The enemy ship was bearing down towards their position, and it didn’t look like they’d been noticed. “Strikers, go to weapons free. At my mark, prepare to fire.”
“Ready, LT,” Ratana said.
Strand held his breath. The anticipation was eating him up inside, but he kept his focus. Come on. Nearly there.
Nepenthe Rising (Stars in Shadow Book 1) Page 33