by Chris Hechtl
“We're going to take this one thing at a time. I'm not going to review the combat incidents; I understand a review board will handle that,” the lieutenant stated.
Shelby nodded. The questionable decisions in courting combat with a ship clearly above their throw weight was weighing heavily on her mind. There was confidence and then there was reckless stupidity.
But, Belfast's ability to scout Virgins Hole was big, very big. Not quite game changing but damn important.
“They've got a refueling station. It is around a class 1 gas giant. It's massive with plenty of fuel obviously,” the lieutenant stated, showing them a reconstructed 3D image of the base.
“They've added to it over the years; we've picked out some sections from other stations. Some of the ports look like they've had a ship grated on or something. It's quite vast but not as large as Tortuga.”
Shelby listened as the lieutenant went over the star system and defenders. “The system is a bit soupy because of its vicinity to the nebula. The nebula's material is being drawn in by the star's gravity. Belfast noted one tug harvesting some of the material with bussard scoops. It makes a lot of sense to have chemical works in the station.”
“Yard?”
“That is minor. No true shipyard, just the orbital docks and whatever factories and machine shops they've got internally.”
“Defenders?”
“At least a dozen warships. There are about two dozen ships in their prize row and forty ships in their boneyard.
“What about a picket?”
“None though they do keep some sort of watch. Based on what we know, they got in and out clean,” the lieutenant stated. “I ordered a check of our files and prisoners; none noted Belfast or an unknown ship arrival and departure at Virgin Holes while they were in port. So, the enemy doesn't know we have that intelligence.”
Shelby nodded and made a note on her tablet.
“One thing of note, there was no sighting of the missing Tauren dreadnought.”
“Darn,” Lieutenant Black murmured.
“I know,” Lieutenant Slattery replied with a shrug.
“We've confirmed it isn't in two locations. It isn't in Tortuga nor in this Virgin Holes. That leaves the other two star systems,” Shelby observed. “Two down, two to go.”
“Unless they have it in another location we don't know about,” Lieutenant Slattery stated.
Shelby raised an eyebrow. “Another base?”
“Not necessarily. The ship is, or I should say was, a derelict. They reportedly salvaged her at some point. They could just know the location or it could be in transit. If it is in deep space, it could eventually become a base if they decided to do that.”
Shelby nodded thoughtfully. “Okay, if they did we wouldn't know where. It's not in the war book?”
“No,” the spook replied. “My personal opinion and I admit this isn't supported by facts so it is purely speculation at this point, but my personal opinion is that only Admiral Ishmael and his closest followers know where the ship is. We've asked the prisoners we've got. None of them have seen it.”
“A hold card,” Shelby murmured with slight nod. All eyes turned to her. “It'd be like him to keep the best for himself. And what's better than a battlecruiser?”
Heads nodded grimly over that idea.
“I'm worried about it being out there. If it is immobile, it's not as big a threat at the moment,” Lieutenant Black stated slowly. “But it is there, hanging over us like that sword people keep talking about.”
“Sword of Damocles. We get the point. But it could also be a rallying point. If not many know about it, we wouldn't get the data unless we got lucky. Ishmael could use it as a new hidden base if he played his cards right. The hull could become a base.”
“Not a pleasant thought, ma'am.”
“I know. But, we've got to be thinking of these things now,” Shelby said with a resigned shake of her head.
<()>^<()>
Shelby wasn't the only one to celebrate the arrival of Rho Mercy Flight I in the capital. Everyone was grinning, mostly from relief at the news. Finally, things were about to change and hopefully for the better.
“As soon as they get here, I want them resupplied. I've got a mission for them,” she told Lieutenant Black.
Her flag lieutenant nodded. “Aye, ma'am. Are they going to get a liberty?”
“A week, no more. I want to send one or more of them with an escort after Janice. They'll go west. And we need to have someone go back and check the areas we missed. The star systems off the beaten trail or where we didn't visit to see if the plague got to them. We need to get out ahead of it and stop the spread.”
“Aye, ma’am. Definitely. A vaccination program?”
“Most likely,” Shelby replied with a nod. “But we'll see what the experts say.”
“Aye, ma’am.”
<()>^<()>
Lieutenant Black hadn't expected a lot of warships with either force. The commodore hadn't ordered them forward once they'd gotten into familiar territory either. At least some of them could have been advanced at their best speed to the capital, but Shelby had allowed them to remain with their respective convoys.
Many of the ships in the convoys would be needed to escort the hospital ships. In fact, if they were split up to take on multiple areas, she'd need to assign additional escorts for their own safety.
“Okay, so, we're on our own,” Lieutenant Black said, looking at the commodore for support.
Shelby nodded. “Pretty much,” she said, studying the group. “But,” Shelby said slowly.
Lieutenant Slattery stared at her and then cocked her head in inquiry. “But, ma'am?”
“But, we can take a page from Admiral Irons,” Shelby replied with a shrug, eyes gleaming.
“Ma'am?”
“Maine. Bounty, all of the others. He took them from the pirates,” Shelby said with an evil smile.
Slow dawning comprehension hit her staff. A few people seemed to relax and grin back.
“And, Tortuga is sitting right there, one jump away,” she said, indicating the map.
Lieutenant Fixer bobbed a human style nod. She now understood why the commodore had insisted she attend the meeting. “There are potentially dozens of hulls waiting there. All concentrated from what the pirates took or salvaged over the centuries—warships and civilian ships. We can save and free the slaves too. We'll have to compensate them, but that's fine.”
“Some might even join us!” Lieutenant Black stated.
“True. But we can't count on any of that,” Lieutenant Slattery stated. “And I don't think there are any slaves left in Tortuga. There might be some on the ships, but most probably died with the base,” she reminded them.
“Oh, I must have missed that,” Lieutenant Fixer stated, her antenna bobbing.
“Not your fault, you've been a tad busy,” Shelby stated. The bug's head turned to her and then nodded once.
“Do you think the virus hit them elsewhere?” Lieutenant Black asked, turning to their local spook for an answer.
The lieutenant frowned thoughtfully. “If they had any sense, no. They were spreading the filth. I doubt they'd do it to themselves though it would be a little poetic.”
“Both would. Taking Tortuga and their booty away and watching them suffer from the plague their people unleashed on the galaxy,” Lieutenant Fixer stated.
“Agreed. Hoisted on their own Petard as the saying goes,” Shelby stated. “No doubt they've got ships out there making the rounds. And, if they needed supplies or were just too ornery and stupid, they might ignore a warning and try to land on an infected world.” A few people stared at her. She shrugged. “They may or may not make it alive to their next port of call or even their base.”
“Talk about plague ships!”
“If we're lucky, they'll take themselves out of play for good. Get the plague and die in hyperspace somewhere. Like the pests they are,” Lieutenant Slattery said, catching on to the idea.
/> “Or, take it to their base like the commodore said. Boy, that really is poetic justice!” Lieutenant Fixer stated.
“Agreed. For the moment though, it's not our problem. I want us to start planning on a follow-up mission to Tortuga. That means we'll be setting up a temporary base there to go through their booty and then ship it and hulks here,” Shelby stated, looking at Abdul. “You are going to lose some support but get a lot more work.”
“Yes, ma’am. As long as we can prioritize the work, I think we'll be fine.”
She nodded. “Agreed. Obviously warships above other ships.”
“Other ships but not hospital ships,” Boni interjected.
Shelby nodded to her. “I stand corrected. Now …”
Chapter 25
Tortuga
Captain Otto Corbin's brown eyes were intent on the plot as his force dropped out of hyperspace. He listened with half an ear as the navigator confirmed they had dropped out in formation and where they wanted to be.
“Good job,” he murmured. “The Tortuga assault force has arrived. Status on the system?”
“Still trying to clear our hyperspace wake, sir,” CIC warned.
“Roger that. Comm, get an omni broadcast with our IFF out to Xiphos. Let them know the cavalry has arrived.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
<()>^<()>
“That's it; there goes the neighborhood,” a rating said in disgust when CIC reported the arrival of three ships well outside the Tau-1252 jump point.
Captain Hochi frowned. A few sidelong looks were shot his way. He didn't say anything, not even when the plot was updated with tentative IDs by class.
“It's just two cruisers and a tin can, right?” the TAO asked. “We can take them, right?”
“Yeah, but there is a tin can running around here somewhere,” the tactical officer said in disgust. “If their ships are that good at stealth, it means they've got the full tech package. I don't want to tangle with them even if we had mass and firepower on our side.”
Captain Hochi nodded. He'd expected to hear as much. It was one thing to go after a fat helpless civilian ship or city, quite another to go after something that had teeth and bit back. They had turned two ships around. One had complained they hadn't the fuel to get to another base. That was their problem. As far as he saw it, they'd done their duty. It was time to go.
“The Feds are a bitch to fight. I'm not going to break the code,” he rumbled.
All eyes fell on him.
“The code, sir? Oh, fight to run away?” the tactical officer asked.
“Exactly. There is no profit in fighting them. We'd just end up with a beat-up ship afterward. It's time to run.”
“Aye.”
“What of our orders, sir? And of anyone else who comes in after we're gone?”
“Their problem. There is no profit in being dead.”
“Well, that's certainly true.”
“Helm, make for the 101 jump point. Let the other ships know it's time we be leavin,” the captain growled. “First come, first serve. Any who be laggin' be left behind.”
<()>^<()>
Xiphos's CIC reported the arrival of a larger than expected force at the Tau-1252 jump point.
Captain V'r'w'll had moved his ship off station and into position. Destroyers did not have tachyon transmitters, just receivers. They received an omni ping but couldn't respond without revealing their presence.
Each picket destroyer that had come into the star system had brought a small load of material with them. Fuel, a small caches of supplies, six missile pods, and two weapon platforms. Over the course of the past year, they had built up a small but growing stash in the star system, most of it in deep space around the Tau-1252 jump point. The idea was that they could use the material to resupply or take out a pirate if they had a problem.
The Veraxin captain had noted that things would be different once the enemy had left so had taken steps accordingly. When his ship had been left alone, Captain V'r'w'll and his crew had hit up on a plan. It had taken a bit of careful work. They'd had to draw on some of the stockpiled fuel, but they'd quietly made runs to move the weapons into position over the course of the past two weeks. They'd just finished their last run and had been sitting near their final ambush site when the relief force had arrived.
He was certain the enemy had gotten a sniff of them a time or two, like when the ship had occluded the local star but they hadn't been caught.
The enemy cruisers had been updated with better software and some equipment, but their crew skills were sorely lacking from actual training. They had also not changed their encryption randomly. Xiphos had easily intercepted the omni broadcasts between the distant ships. They had the encryption keys so had listened in to their chatter in real time.
At one point it had been sorely tempting to ambush one or more of the ships. But their orders had been to hold off and wait. When Strike in the Dark's force had arrived, that time had come.
In the intercepts the destroyer had picked up; they'd listened to a lot of griping. Picket duty was a lonely affair, best to gripe and joke with someone else to share the pain. But, along the way the cruiser crews had let slip their plan not to follow the admiral to Dead Man's Hand but to head to Virgin Holes.
Captain V'r'w'll had left the cache of supplies and fuel in the hiding spots near the Tau-1252 jump point but had moved the accumulated missile pods and weapon platforms to an ambush site near inner edge of the Tau-R6101 jump point zone. The 101 jump point was apparently a jump line shortcut between Tortuga and Virgin Holes. It crossed through a series of destroyed star systems to get to the other base.
Xiphos sailed in to her ambush point with exquisite care and then sat and waited like a spider at the center of a web.
Or, more appropriately, a mantis waiting to strike.
<()>^<()>
The geometry of the star system had allowed the three pirate ships to make easy runs to the 101 jump point. That had been by design; they'd always known a federation force would arrive at some point. There was no point making it easy for them.
And, Captain Hochi wasn't at all surprised when the three ships had fallen into a stern chase. What he was surprised by was that the other ship, that damn tin can that had been lurking around the system, had yet to put in an appearance.
He never trusted someone when they did things his way. Not until he was damn sure it had all been done right and to his satisfaction.
<()>^<()>
As the plot solidified, it became clear to the tactical department in Xiphos that the enemy's approach to the jump zone wasn't quite what they'd hoped for. The three ships were coming in at their own best speed, not even attempting to form up. They were also coming in at different angles since they were coming in from the positions the picket ships had taken up in the star system. “Based on this, we've got good locks on Tango's Two and Three, moderate locks on Tango One. We'll go for the small fry. I'd rather get two birds in the bush over one,” the TAO stated, turning to the captain for confirmation.
The Veraxin captain flexed his mandibles and flicked his feathery antenna as he considered the tactical problem carefully. Normally they would concentrate their fire on one target, not two. Going for two meant they'd divide the finite number of missiles and graser shots. It would also be a bit trickier for his tactical computers to handle.
One leg ticked on the deck, a sure sign he was thinking. The bridge crew knew it was one of the captain's tells. Unfortunately for them, the skipper knew it and sometimes used it to bluff during their weekly poker games. “You don't want to shoot for the medium cruiser?”
“She's got better point defense, sir. And we don't quite have the right angle or range, sir. At best I can get two, maybe three of the missile pods to solidly lock on her. I'd considered concentrating everything we had on them but rejected it. Besides, the more cruisers we can kill or cripple here the less someone else has to face later.”
The captain studied the TAO and then nodded. “Under
stood. Fight the ship, Guns.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
“Tango Two about to enter the edge of the kill basket.”
“Roger that. Status on Tango Three?”
“Tango Three ETA three minutes.”
“Set up the shot for two minutes thirty seconds for Tango Two. Tango Three target package is to go off at the three-minute mark. We don't want to give them too much time to react and get to general quarters.”
“Aye aye, sir,” the ATO stated.
“Pity we couldn't coordinate with the other ships. If we could get them to act more like beaters, we could have fixated the enemy's eyes on them, and they'd really be in for a surprise,” the TAO stated, looking at the captain.
The Veraxin cocked his head as if he would seriously consider the idea but then shook it as his truehands signaled first-degree negation. “We're running ultra silent. And, as you just pointed out, there is no time.”
“Aye aye, sir,” the TAO said as he glanced at the clock and noted the cascading countdown.
<()>^<()>
One moment they were starting to feel relief over winning the race, or, about to win the race with the enemy force and the next thing all hell broke loose.
The CIC departments went from professional decorum to near bedlam as they reported the weapon's fire ahead and on either flank of them.
Initially, shock hit the crew before they rushed to battle stations.
The Tauren light cruiser Bitchin' had always been lax about her crew standards. They'd never had to deal with an enemy that could fight back let alone turn the tables on them. Her crew was still trying to close up and get to battle stations when the missiles went into final acquisition mode and began spitting out submunitions. Their point defense managed to pick off two missiles before the submunitions began to go off, tearing her shields and then her hull apart.
<()>^<()>
Captain Hochi swore as Bitchin' was torn apart. Red Horn was taking fire as well. His Brigadoon had started to take active lidar hits from what CIC and Tactical was reporting as weapon platforms. If they were anything like the weapon platforms reportedly encountered in Tau-1252, they spelled trouble. Only two missile pods had been targeted on his ship. He ordered his ship to fight for herself first. He was relieved to see Tactical had picked off a quarter of the missiles before they'd deployed their ECM or submunitions.