by Daniel Gibbs
"All jump preparations complete," noted his executive officer, Commander Sterns.
"We'll jump at zero hour and not a second sooner," said Zervakos.
"Even with the last reports from Pluto Base?"
"Yes. The operation will be ruined if we arrive too early. I’m quite confident we can make short work of any privateers that try to interfere. They have nothing that can withstand the Marat's plasma batteries."
Sterns nodded in agreement and pursed his lips. "I look forward to going home," he said. "I haven't seen Mars in fifteen years."
"Ah. Twenty years for me," Zervakos noted. It wasn't often the League rotated personnel home to Orion. It was a privilege reserved for those deserving of a reward for great feats on behalf of society or to train officers and crew destined for Sagittarius. "I've given thought to settling on New Hope."
"Truly, sir?" Sterns envisioned the luscious garden world at the edge of the Sagittarius Arm closest to the Orion Spur. The first League colony in the Arm, considered a paradise. Crews longed to win the right to take leave there. The farmlands were fertile, the vistas grand. The cities were urban gardens. It was the model the League was building in this Arm, to demonstrate to its residents the superiority of society over both the rapacious capitalism or the broken, inefficient pre-society socialism practiced by the worlds of the exiles. "You'd rather not go back to Sol?"
Zervakos shrugged. "I can do more good here in Sagittarius, I think, and my family has relocated to this Arm anyway. Why not stay?"
The display timer flashed to ten minutes. The tension in the command center increased with every second. A desire permeated everyone to get it over with, to make the jump, and bring all of their work to fruition.
"Call the ship to general quarters at five minutes, Commander," Zervakos ordered.
"Aye, sir." That was cutting it close, but Sterns thought he saw the logic. The crew knew something was going to happen soon, but there was no point in stretching it out for them as well. Let them remain at standby stations until…
"Sir, we just picked up a wormhole opening. Ship jumping in."
"Distance?" Zervakos asked.
"A hundred and fifty thousand kilometers."
That was too close. They'd make identification before the ships jumped. If they reported seeing the squadron here, waiting, it would undermine the intended results of the entire operation. "Send the Peltast and the Hussar to intercept and destroy."
Sterns heard the order confirmed, and frowned.
The Shadow Wolf emerged from the wormhole ready for action. The moment the particle interference died down from the sensors, Piper was quick to identify the enemy squadron. The data Kepper sent from Li's ship was spot-on: the Leaguers were just a hundred and fifty thousand kilometers away. "Two of their destroyers are breaking away, burning toward us."
"Burn their way." Henry swallowed and tried to settle his gut. Everything was on the line here. "Cera, hit the fusion drives and prepare for evasive maneuvers."
"Aye, sir!" came Cera's enthusiastic reply.
The Shadow Wolf's fusion drive core came to life, and she shot forward. As her thrust increased, the G-forces on the crew did as well. "If we're going to keep doing this," Tia began, teeth clenched, "we need to install new inertial compensators!"
It was a sentiment Henry agreed with, but he was too focused on the holotank and the recorded distance. He wanted to drop the missiles at seventy-five thousand kilometers from that Rand-class cruiser. It was the sweet spot: far enough away to give the missiles time to get their accelerations up, but not so far away to provide point-defenses more time to get lucky. It would also ensure impact on the cruiser in twenty seconds, maybe less.
The downside was that burning toward the enemy meant those League destroyers were getting closer and quickly entering weapons range. A tone came from Piper's station. "Enemy missiles launching!"
"Engage the auto-turrets; keep on course!"
The Shadow Wolf plunged ahead toward missiles that might alone defeat her if enough of them impacted on her deflectors. Cera used the lateral maneuvering drives to strafe the ship side-by-side, complicating the incoming missiles' job and opening them up to be shot down. As the range closed, the auto-turrets on the Shadow Wolf tracked and opened fire. Streams of magnetically-propelled metal projectiles filled the area in front of the turrets. The missiles weren't as effective as Hunters, although they did have some anti-point defense evasion capability. They maneuvered hard to avoid the fire, but one by one, they still succumbed. Those that weren't claimed immediately missed, thanks to Cera's maneuvering, often sliding within a kilometer of the Shadow Wolf's deflector screen. They started coming about to re-engage, if they survived the auto-turrets or the quad-turret gunners firing into their path.
The Shadow Wolf hit the hundred-thousand-kilometer mark from its target and came under fire from the enemy destroyers' plasma cannons. This exceedingly complicated Cera's job, but she met the difficulty with the aplomb Henry was accustomed to seeing from her. Piper activated the Shadow Wolf's twin plasma cannons, which came out from their spaces at the "shoulders" of the hauler's forward upper deck to track on the destroyers. Purple bolts of energy erupted, the coloring from the specialized Karnon gas used in the Tal'mayan model weapons, streaking across space to either miss the enemy destroyers or impact on their deflectors. These hits had no direct effect and wouldn't unless they had a lot of time. Time the ship didn't have.
Zervakos watched the hauler captain burn toward his ship. He recognized the profile from the earlier reports from the Galway Clipper and the Peltast: it was the Shadow Wolf. Its captain was, according to the dossier, a disgraced Coalition officer. Zervakos was not surprised by it; while it would be frowned upon if he admitted it openly, he had absolute respect for the CDF. Whatever religious zealotry drove them, they always seemed to prove capable foes. Once that capability was brought over to the side of society, he felt many of them would serve the League with distinction.
He was therefore sure the Shadow Wolf's captain was not attempting some bizarre suicide run. "Task a third destroyer to the attack, bring engines to full burn, and have all point defense systems on standby," he ordered Sterns. "Also, continue jump preparations."
"Of course, sir. But what if we don't cripple them before we jump?"
"We'll leave a destroyer behind if necessary. Even one should be enough to run them down." Zervakos eyed the clock. Six minutes to go before they jumped.
Henry watched them reach the eighty-five-thousand-kilometer range. Just ten thousand more, and they'd be at the perfect spot. I could release earlier, but we're only getting one shot at this.
The ship shuddered. Deflector feedback from a direct hit. "Dorsal deflector arc still intact but weakening," said Tia. More plasma fire filled the void around them.
"Another enemy destroyer is on an intercept course."
"As good as I am, I don't think I can evade three of 'em at the same time, Capt’," Cera warned, her hands still busy with the Shadow Wolf's helm controls. Their course wasn't nearly as stable now as she had to maneuver in all three planes to evade the plasma cannon fire and renewed missile attacks.
Henry checked the distance. Eighty thousand. He swallowed and felt the G-forces that threatened to choke him in the attempt. His entire body ached from the force pinning him to his seat. He knew the rest of the crew felt the same way. Every minute they operated under this intense thrust, the more it wore everyone out.
But it had to be done right. There was no room for error, no room for chance. Indeed, never in his days in the CDF had Henry ever faced stakes this high and demanding.
Cera was doing her best, but the ship continued to shudder here and there as it took hits. The deflector indicators on Tia's displays showed the arcs all turning yellow. A few were already orange. Once they hit red, the Shadow Wolf was in serious trouble.
The range continued to close rapidly. The enemy cruiser was burning away from them, but the Shadow Wolf had built up too much speed and
thrust for their quarry to keep the distance open. As the seconds passed, the distance counter read shorter and shorter. Sweat in his eyes blurred Henry's vision of those numbers slightly, but not so much he couldn't see when they hit the number he needed. "Are the missiles tasked?" he asked, double-checking to reassure himself.
"I fed them the targeting data already," Piper said, while she was busy firing her plasma cannons into the intact shields of one of the enemy destroyers. It evaded well, making the most of her shots miss. "Cruiser is the priority target, destroyers secondary."
"Good." He saw the display and the number "77000" roll by, shrinking ever faster. His finger hit the intercom key. "Yanik, al-Lahim, stand by."
"We're ready," al-Lahim answered.
"Confirmed," added al-Lahim.
"Get ready," The number was swiftly approaching "76000."
On the Marat bridge, the jump countdown was below three minutes. But all attention was diverted to the small cargo ship still weaving its way around missiles and plasma fire. Zervakos took the threat seriously. But not so seriously that he would jump early.
"We could double-jump," Sterns proposed. "Get clear of the system without arriving at Lusitania too early."
Zervakos shook his head. "Double jumps carry risk. I can't justify it at this time." Maybe he’s right. It wouldn’t hurt to be prepared. "Astrogation, plot a secondary destination with a second jump to Lusitania."
"Plotting now."
"Enemy ship now at seventy-five thousand kilometers," another officer said. "They're entering effective missile range."
There were enough missiles flying around already, but Zervakos decided it would do no harm to add a few more. "Fire a salvo."
"Enemy cruiser launching missiles," said Piper, her voice close to breaking.
Henry didn't allow fear into his mind. The magic number hit. They were at seventy-five thousand kilometers from the Rand. He re-keyed the intercom. "Drop the Hunters now!"
The middle holds of the Shadow Wolf opened. From each side, eight missiles were blown out into space by decompression, representing the last of the remaining weapons al-Lahim gave them. A second after they were clear, their drives lit off, glowing white-hot as the short-lived fusion drives within sent the missiles flying at accelerations no inertial compensator could protect from. The missiles streaked forward toward their target.
"Cera, maneuver freely!" Henry shouted.
"Aye, sir!" She immediately obliged him. The Shadow Wolf's bow turned away from the distant League cruiser, changing her vector and further complicating the efforts of her attackers' gunnery officers.
The Hunters they'd dropped into space flew on.
The holotank tactical display beside Zervakos' station lit up with new contacts around the Shadow Wolf. They'd dropped missiles. "Ships like that don't have missile launchers," Sterns observed. "Most worlds don't let them."
"Dropped from their cargo holds and remotely triggered. Clever." Zervakos watched the approaching contacts and checked the jump timer. They were going to hit before the Marat could jump. But we can take a few missiles. Point-defense will claim the rest. "Focus all point-defense fire."
"Aye, sir."
Zervakos mostly returned his attention to the jump timer. But he kept enough of an eye on the display to see that the point-defenses were not taking any of the incoming missiles out. Seeing the missiles maneuver around the point-defense fire, the way they anticipated it and altered their trajectories, brought back memories from earlier fights with the Coalition. Much to his shock, he saw these weren't some cheap anti-ship missiles he'd expected independent spacers to have. "Coalition Hunters," he gasped in surprise.
"It's not possible…" Sterns said, his tone betraying shock. "Sixteen of them. If they track us—"
Zervakos shouted, "Astrogation, commence jump to secondary destination, prepare for immediate jump to primary!" They had no choice and were rapidly running out of time.
"Aye, sir!"
Energy surged through the Marat's systems, channeling into its Lawrence drive. With a burst of power, the ship created a wormhole in space. The vessel accelerated toward it.
Behind it, the destroyer still with them threw itself in the way of the missiles, as its close-range point-defense weapons blazed away. The Hunters' AI systems rapidly calculated new courses around the enemy. One missile, caught between streams of fire, came apart. The AIs of two others calculated they would be destroyed before they could strike their primary target and switched targets—to the vessel targeting them. They hit within five seconds of each other; one smashed down the destroyer's shields with enough bleed-through to inflict damage, and the second struck the almost directly amidships. Its powerful warhead exploded on impact. The resulting release of energy gutted the enemy vessel, incinerating or outright vaporizing hundreds of its crew.
Thirteen missiles maneuvered around the devastated wreck and on toward the cruiser approaching the nearly formed wormhole. Zervakos mourned for his slain colleagues and vowed they would be remembered for their sacrifices. But his primary worry was his ship. "Increase acceleration and get us through!" he ordered.
His helmsman obeyed. The Marat's speed increased until her bow entered the multi-colored wormhole.
Zervakos breathed a sigh of relief as the familiar sensation of a jump filled him. He'd done it. He'd gotten his ship clear. Now they just had to—
Henry's heart sank as the League cruiser’s bow slid into the wormhole. In that one moment, it felt like everything was for nothing. They'd failed, he'd failed, the League had won.
The rest of him quickly smacked sense into his heart just as the first missile slammed into the aft section of the Rand-class vessel.
Soon the other Hunters impacted as well. The cruiser's deflectors quickly went down from the salvo's effectiveness, and the following hits blew flame and debris from the ship's stern sections. The rear drives of the ship died, robbing it of acceleration that might’ve carried it through before more missiles struck home.
Instead, many of the warheads hit in such quick proximity, the Rand never got a chance to finish going through the wormhole. A blinding flash engulfed the rear of the ship, and the wormhole it had nearly finished traversing fell apart.
It was rare one saw a wormhole collapse like that. It was a sight to remember as energy flared from the destabilized periphery of the portal. It snapped inward like a door slamming shut. Two missiles flew through the debris field and started coming around, acquiring secondary targets.
Cera was too busy evading fire, but Piper and Tia watched it happen with Henry. "Holy crap, what just happened?" Piper asked. "I've never seen a wormhole do that before."
"We blew their main cores and destabilized their drive. That messed up the wormhole generator. It closed before they'd fully transitioned." Henry shook his head, the simple action a labor due to the 2.5 Gs they were pulling at the moment. "Even if they made it through successfully, they won't be in any shape to fight."
The ship rocked again. At least two of the shield arcs showing on Tia's display were now orange. "So job's done, right?" she asked. "Let's get out of here."
"Right. Cera, get us a clear vector and jump for Lusitania."
"Tryin'!"
Under Cera's control, the Shadow Wolf maneuvered in ways its designers never imagined their ships would one day move. They would’ve had nightmares about it, in fact, given the strain put on the frame to make such maneuvers. But all was necessary as three League Lancer-class destroyers were making it their mission to stamp the Shadow Wolf out of existence—and despite her best efforts, they were still landing hits.
There was return fire, of course. The auto-turrets were shooting down missiles as they came in, as were the crew manning the quad turrets. Whenever she had a clear shot, Piper let them have it with the plasma cannons. There was no clear shot with the neutron cannon yet, and odds were against getting one.
Henry watched the three destroyers like a hawk. Whoever was in charge now, they were taking this
seriously. With every second, they were moving into positions to keep the Shadow Wolf under the gun no matter what direction it took. Time was running out to escape.
"Cera, burn us toward that refueling station!" Henry shouted.
"Yes, sir!"
Tia asked the obvious question. "What are you doing? If we burn in-system, we can't jump!"
"We can't jump in this situation anyway," Henry pointed out. "We need some breathing room."
As he spoke, Henry watched the remaining two Hunters tracking back. The point defense of their foes roared away, trying to catch them. Thankfully, League destroyers lacked the number of PD mounts needed to engage Hunters by themselves. There were too many vectors the onboard AIs could pick to get around the defensive fire.
The two missiles decided to engage the nearest destroyer in tandem, their onboard AIs networking, and calculating it was the most likely means to take out an enemy ship. The League destroyer immediately implemented evasive maneuvers every bit as daring as Cera's, but with a vessel built for such. Henry grudgingly acknowledged the skill of the pilot as they struggled to keep away from the Hunters' unrelenting pursuit. Two hits would certainly take them out.
Unfortunately, the Hunters' chosen target was still firing where they could at the Shadow Wolf, as were their two compatriots. Henry's new direction was at least opening some distance between them, making Cera's job easier. But the military drives on the League ships gave them impressive acceleration, enough that the range was not growing sufficiently.
Not nearly enough, in fact, as some shots still struck them. "Aft deflectors are critical," Tia said.
"I'm doin' what I can!"
Henry was already confident it wouldn't be enough. Cera was good, but the Leaguers only had to get one shot in.
A missile struck home on the deflectors toward the rear and detonated. The blast did more than eliminate the deflectors, as its energies radiated through the ship. Hull plates buckled and broke. On Tia's screen, an entire rear patch of the Shadow Wolf turned red. "Major hull breach, Sections G and H, upper deck. I'm showing systems damage!"