by J. F. Holmes
“OK, here we go. Asote, execute,” he said, as calmly as he could.
The stars flickered, and on the view screen, instead of the deep black of space, there was the twinkle of light from a ship’s engines on standby, and far beyond the star of Miranda Prime.
“Box,” said the XO, “it’s on you. I’m not going to ask for updates on the stealth systems unless we have a problem. Stueben, the minute the target changes aspect, tell me, and jam the shit out of their signal. Guns, let me know when we’re in range. Alex, nice and steady, keep us straight in his blind side.”
****
Lin and Zlatcov stood outside their craft as the last set of missile pods were loaded on. Two heavy ship busters under each wing, shaped charges with tandem warheads.
“Just like old times, eh, Nadija?” asked Lin.
She smiled. Her final action in the CCCP Navy had been as a fighter jock, flying in the last great action of the Soviet - Manchu conflict. The Imperial battle fleet had jumped in close to her carrier and let loose three dozen shuttles, loaded with Marines for boarding. Both Zlatcov and Lin had been there, on opposite sides.
“Yes, like old times. Except I hope we do better than fifty percent casualties. You were good, damn you.”
Lin smiled. “Yes, so were you.”
“Let’s do this, Orient,” she said, offering her hand.
He returned her grip, and said, “Yes, let’s, Jumper.”
The walked to their respective craft, climbed in the cockpits, and strapped in. Schmetzer, standing between them on crutches, gave them a thumbs up, and sealed her helmet. On the ceiling, the pressure lights shifted from green to orange to red, and the huge doors started to roll back.
Zlatcov went first, peeling off left to stay in the shadow of the engines, and then Lin turned right.
Chapter 45
“Being painted by radar, Captain, I mean, XO,” said Box in his mechanical voice. “They have an idea, maybe, but no acquisition.”
Merrifield’s heart hammered in his chest, and he gave his first order sending men into battle. It was both thrilling and terrifying at the same time. “EXECUTE!” he called out, and the ship sprang to life.
Beneath their feet, the rail gun thrummed with power, sending shot after shot at the frigate’s engines, communication arrays, and defensive turrets, and Guns hammered out a salvo of smart missiles on an anticipated turning course. The two shuttles rocketed ahead, pulling eight Gs each, in a twisting, turning spiral course toward the target. “They’ve got us,” said Box.
“Guns, target their commo array, now.”
“Already did, way ahead of you.”
On screen, there was a spark as the frigate’s shield generator was hit. “SCORE!” shouted Guns, and he started hammering his keyboard.
“Incoming rail gun fire in five, four,” said Box, and McHale threw them hard over and maxed out the sublight, straining the inertial dampeners.
Merrifield let the crew do their jobs, saying nothing as he was thrown against his restraints. It was out of his hands now, and they would have to rely on training. The ship shuddered as something hammered into it, and alarms started screaming. “Hull breach deck three, forward,” said Buckley.
“Sparky,” said Merrifield, but the Chief was already heading down the ladder.
****
Close In Weapons Systems spat a hail of tungsten darts at the shuttles, punching holes in Zlatcov’s wing as she tried to anticipate the frigate’s turn. Her autocannon hammered back; range didn’t really matter in space, but the smaller gun just scratched the hull.
“Closer…closer,” she grunted, fighting against blackout as she maneuvered. Her targeting computer worked to anticipate the enemy’s turns, and she yelled as a railgun round from the Lexington hammered into the CIWS turret. It kept firing, though, the tracers reaching out
A green light flashed on the HUD, target in range of their missiles. “LIN, LET’S GO!”
“ROGER, STARTING M—” and his words were cut short.
She looked left just as her wingman’s shuttle fired off a missile at extreme range, then seemed to melt from the front forward. The frigate had fired a claymore, a dense cloud of depleted uranium pellets that acted as a giant shotgun blast. It shredded the shuttle and the missile in the same burst.
Lin’s emergency locator beacon started flashing on her screen, even as Zlatcov pushed the stick hard over, aiming for the underbelly of the ship. She had studied the Montcalm class extensively, and knew there was a wedge of space where neither the top nor bottom defensive turrets could converge, close in to the ship. Of course, it was full of hard radiation from the engines, but she’d never wanted to have kids anyway.
The G indicator spun rapidly, pushing past eight, then nine, and her vision tunneled, coming closer to blacking out. The flare of the engines grew in her vision, and beyond, she could see the Lexington, fires raging out into space from a hole blasted in the hull. The frigate had turned toward the Lex and was lining up her powerful spine mounted rails, not as heavy as battleship guns, but at 7kg, enough to pulverize the stealth ship.
“Davay, davay, come on, Jumper,” she sang to herself, spinning the engine nacelles and pushing the throttle to max in reverse thrust. Poison skidded to a stop in space relative to the frigate, just below the hull, and she hammered three of the missiles off, directly at the engine room. She watched as the first was splashed by defensive fire, and then the next as a claymore went off, also shattering her right wing. The third detonated on the hull, a blinding double flash of the tandem warhead. Then she let the last missile go, directly at the fading glow of the explosion, and turned tail to run on her one remaining engine, the craft shaking like a freight train.
****
Buckley was screaming damage reports, and McHale still fought the controls as they were holed again, and again, number two sublight engine flaming out. Guns yelled in exaltation as a rail gun hit on a defensive turret, just as the frigate turned toward them.
Break off! screamed Merrifield’s brain at him. Run, save the ship! But if they did, Miranda station was sure to die, because one signal from the frigate with the station telemetry would bring the entire French fleet in system, knowing exactly where to strike. That, and they would know that Major LaFiere was dead, and there was no need to spare anyone.
Another hit, and power fluctuated wildly. The frigate was turning to bring its ship killers in range, and he was about to give the order to jump before they ate a heavy round. Then, unexpectedly, a gout of fire erupted from the rear section, and then the antimatter containment let go. The flash, so close in, blanked out their screen, and then the EMP killed the ship’s power close up, and the Lexington drifted onward, out of control and lifeless.
Epilogue
The star system was deep, deep in the Wilds, far beyond the Reach. Merrifield figured, with multiple jumps that strained their engines, they were close to a thousand light years beyond the nearest colonial settlements. Maybe more. Asote would know, but he didn’t ask the navigator; this was American business. A messenger had come to him from General Voronin, with a coded set of coordinates, as they waited outside the sickbay on Miranda Station.
“Major,” Merrifield read before the paper disintegrated, “if Colonel Meric survives his wounds, please tell him he has given enough, and someday has turned to now. From the many, come one.” He memorized the coordinates before grinding the ash under his boot, and waited for the doctors.
At each jump, there was another ship, waiting to confirm who they were, and give them coordinates to the next. This, to an M class star system, was hopefully the last. The system primary blazed hot and yellow, and they were immediately intercepted, stealth or no. Someone had gone through great trouble and expense to install a gravitic sensor net.
“Jesus, that’s a big sucker. Victory class battleship,” said McHale, recognizing the silhouette of the ship that sat ten kilometers away.
Nate Meric heard him, but he saw nothing. Since being wounded, his re
maining eye had been covered; a piece of steel still pressed against his optic nerve. They needed a neurosurgeon to remove it, and Doc Morano didn’t want to chance it.
“A.J.,” whispered Meric, but then he stopped, hearing the carrier wave of the hail.
“Chief Stueben, turn that up, can you?” There really was no need, though. Everyone had heard it.
In plain, unaccented Midwestern American English, the voice repeated, “This Captain Keri Imbutu, commanding the U.S.S. Iowa. You have entered a sovereign star system. Identify yourself or you will be fired on.”
“Jesus Christ!” exclaimed McHale, as a half a dozen other warships, manufactured in as many different systems, warped out of nullSpace. They were a generation out of date, but still powerful. Two French heavy cruisers. A Prussian Graf Spee superdreadnought. Two Britannic Pegasus class carriers, launching short range interceptors as soon as they translated. Behind them loomed the immense bulk of a Manchu mobile battle station, a hundred kilometers across.
McHale could see, as the battleship closed, the flag painted on the sides of the grey hull. Spotlights illuminated it, thirteen stars arraigned in circle on a blue field, with red and white stripes beside them. Besides the giant hull, the Lexingtons’ two combat shuttles, flying with all their lights on, seemed like tiny fireflies in the distance.
“This is,” began Nathanael Meric, but then he choked up. After a few seconds, he spoke, his voice louder. “This is Colonel Nathanael Meric, United States Army, commanding… commanding the…” and then he stopped, drawing in a deep breath.
“Commanding the U.S.S. Lexington.”
And his good eye wept as sobs wracked his body, for the answer was, “Welcome to America, Colonel. Welcome home.”
THE END.
And the beginning.
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The Invasion Series
The Irregular Scout Team Series:
Timeline for “Under a Different Sun,”
2032 AD – Selena Rinald invents nullSpace drive, building off the Alcubierre Faster Than Light concept, allowing travel between stars. Travel time is approximately one week of ship time & relative time per light year of distance. Technology limits prevent travel of more than 200 light years before major shipyard overhaul of components.
2036 AD – First manned exploratory ships reach nearby stars.
2045 AD – First colony ships launched to nearby stars. Beginning of Diaspora.
2047 AD – Cyber warfare erupts between United States and China, destroying both countries as viable states. Earth economic collapse. Limited nuclear exchange between China and the US results in massive casualties in both countries due to infrastructure collapse
2048 AD – United States and China become UN protectorates. Little work is done on reconstruction, due to world focus on colonization. Emigration from both countries banned as war reparations.
2052 AD – Relocation of United Kingdom Government to New London, establishment of the Star Kingdom of Britannia
2052–2150 AD – Most Earth Nations establish governments in interstellar colonies, transferring authority off planet. United Nations becomes a puppet Earth government, controlled by corporations and interstellar interests.
2135 AD – Complete environmental collapse of Old Earth, colonization directly from Earth discontinued. Unofficial smuggling and looting continues, Earth’s population drops to less than 500 million.
2095–2245 AD – Emergence of Star Kingdoms among the various cultural groups that existed because of settlement patterns from Old Earth. Multi-system nations such as Republic de France, Britannia, Nueva España, Prussia and other smaller nation-states emerge from the chaos and become rivals. Intermittent warfare continues as new nations battle over control of trade routes and solar systems.
2242 AD – Russian speaking colonies united under Communist government.
~ 2345 AD – Improvement of nullSpace drive enables ships to cross the Rift, a gap of three hundred light years, to the Galactic West of the settled areas. Rush to establish colonies on habitable M class stars.
~ 2345 AD – Explorers discover the areas west of the Rift to be populated with human beings, living with primitive technology. Archeologists discover remains of an alien star faring civilization that existed approximately 30,000 years prior to present. No evidence of living alien space flight capable civilization remains.
2355 AD – Miranda System on the edge of The Rift becomes a haven for pirate ships and privateers.
2357 AD – Discovery of first alien civilization on Veri III. Steam age technology.
2358 + AD – Discovery of several more alien civilizations. None have developed to the technological level of star travel.
2373 AD – Nate Meric manages to escape Earth on a smuggler ship after being involved in a failed revolt against the American UN Protectorate. Lives for two years on an aboriginal planet west of the Rift, hiding out.
2375 AD – War erupts between Britannia and the Kingdom of New France. Fighting spills over into the colonies. Nate Meric begins salvage job in the new colonies.
2378 AD – Meric discovers the wreck of a French stealth ship. Returns two years later to claim as salvage, recommissions it as the “Lexington”.
2382 AD – Captain Nate Meric and the crew of the privateer / pirate ship “Lexington” encounter the wreck of the privateer “Indomitable”.
Ships’ Crew
Lexington
Captain: Nate Meric
XO: Commander A.J. Merrifield
Chief of Boat: Master Chief Annie Sparks
Senior Pilot: Lt. CDR Alex McHale
Weapons: Guns (no other name given)
Intelligence Officer: Lt. CDR Jason Solbliatski
Sensor Operations: Warrant Officer Johan Stueben
Astrogation: Chief Warrant Officer Asote
Stealth Systems: Ensign Box
Systems Admin / Hacker. Commo: Warrant Officer Chris McCann
Apprentice Pilot: Midshipman Amanda “Bats” Schmetzer
Attack Shuttle POISON
Pilot: Ensign Nadija Zlatcov (from Star Nation CCCP)
Poison Six: Sergeant Major Rob Knight (from Star Nation of Britannia)
Heavy Suit: Sergeant Bjorn Stenger
Specialist Dennis Yee
Specialist Scott Orr
Medic Hailey Shupe
Recruit Jimmy Cahr
Attack Shuttle KNIFE
Pilot: Lieutenant Jenny O’Neill
Knife Six: Sergeant Major Tommy “Old Man” Stedham
Heavy Suit: Sergeant Peter “Frenchie” Martel (from New Turin, French Colonies)
Specialist Nate David
Specialist T’hic
Medic Sarah Elizabeth
Specialist Benjamin Blacklock
Attack Shuttle Scout
Pilot Chao Lin
Commander Nick Agostine
Rob Hamilton
Brit O’Neill
Ahmed Yassir
Sasha Zivcovic
Liam Jones
Tibalt
Breaching Team
Senior Demo: Sergeant Major Nate Atkinson
Asst. Demo: Recruit Nick Holmes
Ship’s Crew
Surgeon: Doctor Danielle Morano
Surgeon’s Mate: Petty Officer Emily Titon
Cook: Petty Officer Lyna Alexendrova
Specialist (Assistant Cook) “Billy” T’acha
Recruit (Assistant Cook) Jack Carpenter
Ship’s Purser: Lloyd Behm
Engineering
Lt. CDR Pat Lynch
Lieutenant Bryant Turnage
Chief Warrant Robert Mühlbauer
Warrant Officer Brandon Jackson
Specialist Chet D’Silva
Recru
it John Hamill
Starboard Watch:
Ensign Robin Beck
Chief Petty Officer
Petty Officer Leif Dolan
Petty Officer Gar
Specialist Enrique Torres
Specialist Indira Singh
Specialist Travis Cox
Private T’hait
Private Emmet Fitz-Hume
Recruit Jean-Pierre Guerin
Larboard Watch:
Lieutenant John Strasser
Chief Petty Officer Tiffany Reynolds
Petty Officer Shin Lao
Petty Officer: Neethu Cherian
Specialist Nate McClearn
Specialist Doug Cahill
Specialist Felicity Dal
Specialist Alan Pellington
Private Daniel Elling
Recruit: N’gh