Chapter 7
by Dan Kirk
The darkness was absolute.
It lasted for all of about five seconds, seconds that seemed like an eternity to Garret Lars as he gripped the armrests of his command chair and franticly counted off moments in time within his head. One thousand eight hundred and six kilometers distant was a Federation carrier-cruiser launching fighters and other craft. It had no government markings, meaning pirate, or privateer gone pirate was using it most likely.
Four fighters, likely a Combat Space Patrol had been eight hundred kilometers distant and were advancing on their position at a speed of sixteen hundred kilometers per hour and increasing. The other ships in his fleet had appeared within seconds of the Adamant and were likely being disabled by the same virus that had just shut down most of his systems. The steady whir of ventilations fans, and the continued presence of gravity told him that life support was still on-line at least.
YES!
It was the exultant voice of the ship’s artificial intelligence computer, and it was crying out in victory. The cry of exultation was followed moments later by blue combat lighting coming back on in the bridge, and the various computer terminals returning to life. At the same time, the holographic tactical display came back online and he took stock of the combat environment. Certainly while he’d never been in command of a ship before during combat, he was neither ill-trained nor inexperienced.
“Verify status on all weapons systems.” Garret ordered his executive officer who was now leaning over the primary tactical station. A snap of her fingers saw her taking the seat vacated by an 07 model clone in enlisted short trousers. While her fingers flew over the console, Garret closed his eyes and imagined the various weapons activating. Forward and Aft, along both the upper and lower hulls, four great parabolic mirrors were now rising from the hull. From those locations, at least two of the great anti-ship lasers would be able to focus on a single target at any time. Dozens more smaller diamond-based parabolic mirrors rose from the hull. Their weaker point-defense lasers would focus on incoming fighters, missiles, torpedoes, and other solid objects. Over a dozen long-barreled, flechette firing point defense cannons also rose from the hull and tested their ability to train and elevate. Along the forward lower hull, four plates moved aside providing clear launching paths, two starboard and two port for the anti-ship torpedoes while below the bridge, a huge iris opened revealing the bore of the mass-driver cannon.
That system would take another five minutes to charge.
“Primary lasers online.” Harrington reported, as four blips got closer. They were already in range of the rail cannons, but not yet in range of the lasers. “All point defenses are active, torpedo tubes one through four are loading, twenty seconds until completion. Mass Driver is charging, another four minutes thirty-two seconds for completion.”
“Arjol, give me a report when all stations report combat ready.” Garret ordered tersely while activating the ship-wide intercom. “Attention all hands and passengers, this is the captain speaking. Prepare for space combat.”
“Engines are back on-line.” Westley reported with eagerness in his voice. Garret glanced once again at the tactical screen. Merlinda, Elaina, and Cynthia Rose were all floating in space, their reactors and life support still active, but everything else dead. If they were smart, they’d realize they still had power to the manual stations of their point defenses, but there was nothing he could do about that for now.
“Combat thrust, take us on a heading of zero-five-nine azimuth twenty-three degrees.” Garret ordered and actually relaxed as the ship surged under the eager hands of Westley. “Harrington, take those fighters out of my sky.”
“Aye aye sir.” Harrington’s voice held a hint of glee as she depressed a few buttons and the ship’s weapons began to fire. Point defenses created very little recoil effect, or noise, so his only indication they were firing came from the tactical display hovering in front of Westley’s position, and from the display board on his two computer panels to each side. He resisted the urge to see the viewpoint from the ship’s AI computer.
It was a good virus, a strong one, but not meant for a ship with an AI like me.
You did well. Garret sent the thought back to the ship. She was proud, as she should be that she’d beaten the virus so quickly. A thump reverberated along the hull, and he knew the fighters had reached the range for their heavy lasers. At maximum range like this, they wouldn’t even blacken the silver finish of the armored hull. Of far more concern were the squadron of heavy fighters, eight boarding shuttles, and six medium bombers that had lifted off from the cruiser-carrier. Even the cruiser was now maneuvering towards them and its two heavy anti-ship lasers, as well as any torpedoes she carried would be a big threat.
One
Two
Three
Four
Just like that the four fighters were obliterated as the Adamant’s point defense lasers fired in quick succession. With his ship building up speed, Garret paid close attention to the approaching enemy craft. He prayed they would all head off after him and leave the other three ships alone. Sure enough, their vectors were pointing towards Adamant, except for four of the boarding shuttles. Those headed for the freighters hanging dead in space.
“Who are they?” Anova’s voice reminded him he had passengers on his bridge.
“They’re Federation ships, but they have no markings, so most likely pirates.” Garret answered her as his crew waited with bated breath for his next orders. His engines were rumbling now as they pushed the Adamant at one hundred and eight percent of rated thrust. “Engage engine boosters.”
“Boosters, aye.” Westley said with an unseen grimace, although he should know that Garret wasn’t running away. The special O’Leary boosters kicked in and the Adamant quickly passed fifteen thousand kilometers per hour. At this rate of thrust, they’d pass half-light speed and could jump away in just a few hours. With the added boost, not even the fighters screaming after them could get within weapons range.
“You’re running away?” Blashame snorted in disbelief. “What about my mining colony? What about my cargo on your other ships? What about your crews on those ships?”
“One, your space station is currently being boarded by a Federation Mother Ship.” Garret stated while pointing out the relevant points of light on the holographic display. “Just barely in view over the planet’s horizon, you can see a Republic Destroyer and Frigate engaging eight corvettes and a full squadron of fighters. As for my ships and crews, watch the display.”
“Sir, they’re falling behind.” Harrington said grimly, just a moment after the last station had reported the ship battle ready.
“We’re getting encrypted chatter between the capital ship and the smaller craft.” Markal, the exterior comms specialist said with a little surprise.
“Capital ship and all but eight fighters are breaking off and decelerating.” Petty Officer Molena reported from the sensors station. “Sir, Merlinda’s point defenses have opened fire on the boarding shuttles! Two down! Cynthia Rose is opening fire now! She’s got the others.”
“Good for them.” Garret said with a tight smile.
“Captain, the capital ship and escorts are continuing deceleration and pointing their noses towards the other freighters.” Molena continued her report.
“I see it Petty Officer.” Garret said to end her report. “Mr. Westley, prepare for an emergency deceleration by gravitic braking. When we’re stopped, flip the ship and engage maximum thrust along course one two eight azimuth negative forty-three.”
“Aye sir.” Westley’s voice was tight.
“All hands prepare for emergency braking.” Garret said over the intercom and then switched it back off. “Commander, give point defenses over to the other tactical station. Petty Officer Lukas, man that station and take those fighters out of my sky.”
“Yes sir.” Lukas, another of the 07 model clones said with a nod. Garret purposely didn’t look back. Sure, they were all clones, but Lukas liked to work his legs out with weights, and in those shorts his legs could be… distracting.
Garret let his ship continue accelerating away from the enemy for a little longer. He was waiting for two things to happen. While he waited, he spared a quick glance at his two guests. Blashame’s face was white with what was probably worry while Anova looked around excitedly, making sure her small camera caught everything that was happening on the bridge. Both of them gave him short nods of recognition, but stayed silent, which he appreciated. A glance back at the tactical screen showed him at least one of his conditions had been met.
“Sir, they’ve just sent an encrypted burst message towards the planet!” Markal’s voice was filled with excitement at that, and Garret knew both his conditions had been met. It was now time to get into the fight for real. The enemy fighters and bombers had already finished their deceleration and were now speeding towards the not-quite helpless freighters. With their point defenses active, they could hold off the attacking force for a few minutes, but not much more than that. The enemy cruiser-carrier had just decelerated to four thousand KPH though and was still slowing before turning to head back towards the freighters.
“Emergency Braking NOW!” Garret’s order was half-shouted in his eagerness. Westley executed the order immediately, and Garret along with everyone else on board was pushed back against his chair by gravity five times greater than normal. His ship decelerated from twenty-thousand five hundred and six kilometers per hour to a dead stop in fifteen seconds. Even the Adamant’s fine gravitic systems and inertial dampeners had failed to compensate for the force of the braking maneuver.
“We’ve lost containment on the swimming pool!” Zerov, one of the damage control engineers said as gravity returned to normal. “Flooding on the entertainment deck! The new drains are working though, so no seepage to lower decks.”
“Minor casualty reports coming in from several passenger cabins.” Arjol said from interior communications.
“Point Defense teams are ready.” Lukas reported from his tactical station. That was important because very soon they’d have to deal with more than just four fighters. The ship’s laser and rail point defense guns had local control rooms throughout the ship where groups of three crew members would take local control of a ‘bank’ consisting of two lasers and one rail gun. Each group would coordinate its fire at a target, selected by the main controller on the bridge, which was Lukas in this case. He would prioritize and assign targets to each ‘bank’.
“Flip us and begin combat acceleration without boosters.” Garret ordered as the tactical hologram followed their maneuver and reoriented itself for the new positioning. “Begin plotting torpedo firing solution.”
“Accelerating now.” Westley confirmed as his fingers flew over his control board while from behind Garret his Executive Officer’s voice added “torpedo solution being computed.”
“What…what was this for?” Blashame asked in a slightly wheezy voice. The maneuver had to have been tough on him physically.
“Begin jamming of all communication frequencies, especially those used for that burst to the planet.” Garret ordered before turning to look at his most important passenger. His orders were acknowledged quickly. “Marko, they saw us running away and most likely sent a signal to their mother ship that we were running away too fast to be caught. Probably they also said the other freighters managed to get their point defenses on line so they were heading back there to take care of them. That capital ship out there, the chief threat to us, was decelerating as fast as they could, they don’t have the gravitic technology we do, and right at this moment they are heading away from us at two hundred kilometers per hour and increasing. We’re heading towards them at six hundred kilometers per hour and also increasing. They’re either going to have to flip back, decelerate again, although that won’t take long, and then head towards us, or they’re going to have to deal with the other freighters’ point defenses while we’re on their tail.”
“Sir, they’re flipping and decelerating.” Markal reported and Garret let loose with a fierce grin.
“Stupid mistake on their part.” Garret said reassuringly to his passengers. “Status of the torpedo solution computation?”
“Adjusting now for new course.” Harrington reported. “They’ll be in laser range in thirty seconds.”
“Fighters?” Garret asked.
“Half are heading back towards us and the others are continuing for the freighters!” Markal said excitedly.
“Torpedoes ready!” Harrington’s voice was excited as well. Garret let a small smile form on his face. Truth to tell, he was excited too. This was his first combat command as a ship captain, as well as his crew’s first action together as a crew. So far, he couldn’t have expected more from a crew on active-duty in a warship. When his mental count reached thirty, he gave the orders.
“Forward lasers, open fire!” Garret ordered, pleased to note how the beams of energy streaked out on the holo-display. “Torpedoes fire, all tubes!”
The ship actually shuddered as the torpedoes launched. With the ship’s initial speed of forty-two thousand kilometers per hour, they streaked out towards the large enemy ship with an addition twenty thousand kilometers initial thrust from their giant engines. All four corrected course almost immediately while the ship’s two forward laser cannons struck their target. It was accelerating towards them, providing less opportunity for them to dodge or shoot down the incoming torpedoes.
Torpedoes were large targets, and point defenses could easily take them out, given enough time to ‘burn through’ the armor on them. If the warship had not flipped around, it would have more time to dodge or shoot down the torpedoes, but the enemy captain had decided to face the renewed threat of Adamant and now would pay the price. The Adamant’s lasers hit the enemy ship on the forward section of the hull just as the enemy fired the single anti-ship laser they had facing Garret’s ship.
“Minor scraping of the armor, nothing else.” Zerov reported after the laser left a scorched mark on the Adamant’s silver hull.
“Maintain laser fire.” Garret ordered, satisfied their more powerful lasers were actually doing more than scraping the enemy’s hull. That was also due to the fact that Garret’s ship had Citeesium armor and theirs did not. More blasts shuddered out from the ship’s main forward lasers while the point defenses began firing at the incoming fighters and bombers. Here once again, Adamant had the advantage because she was now going faster than the enemy.
“Damn they got one!” Harrington exclaimed as a bright flare on the display announced one of the torpedoes had been destroyed by the enemy’s point defenses.
“Torpedoes being fired at us!” Markal shouted.
“Negative twenty degrees azimuth!” Garret ordered. “Commence jamming of higher-frequency sensors and allocate point defenses to incoming torpedoes!”
“Just two of them!” Lukas reported as the ship began its evasive maneuvers and his crew acknowledged his orders.
“Three hits!” Harrington shouted as she fired the forward and aft lasers on the upper hull. With his maneuver the forward laser on the bottom hull no longer could hit the target.
“They’re taking massive damage!” Markal reported with glee. “I see escape pods launching. Possible reactor breeches under way! She’s a dead ship!”
“Let’s hope so.” Garret muttered as he watched his own ship fight to keep fighters, bombers, and two torpedoes from hitting. A few of the fighters got off a few laser shots, a single bomber launched two anti-ship missiles that shook the entire ship when they hit and left a small hole in the ship’s armor. With the change in direction he’d ordered, the torpedoes were never a threat to his ship. They never even came within range for his point defenses to engage them. The fighters were another story, though, as were the bombers. It took another five minutes, with them decelerating the entire time for the fighters to give up the fight. The last three of them, as well as a single bomber peeled off and headed towards Lemos.
“Status report!” Garret demanded of his damage control teams.
“All weapon systems are fully operational and the torpedo tubes are reloaded.” Harrington’s voice was happy as they watched the tactical display and the broken cruiser-carrier bleeding air, water, fuel, and a dozen other gasses as escape pods sparkled away from the hull.
“Launch two shuttles to herd up those escape pods and keep them together until someone can take them aboard.” Garret ordered absently.
“Captain, all stations have reported.” Zerov said with justifiable smugness in his voice. “We’ve got two minor holes in the armor, some scarring and scorching but that’s all. No internal damage. Engines are a little stressed but well within limits. Ten passengers were injured during our braking maneuver because they were not strapped in properly or at all. Five crewmembers were injured when a power converter overloaded but all are expected to recover.”
“Very well.” Garret said with a smile. His ship and her crew had done well. We’re blooded now. The quiet feminine voice in the back of his head was quite pleased. Garret shared the pleasure. This was their first major business run, and they’d encountered a well-laid ambushed. Even as a fully military craft, the Adamant would have been outgunned by the cruiser-carrier and still they had defeated the enemy with no real losses.
“Congratulations, Captain.” Marko Blashame’s voice was tight still.
“A great victory.” Lelaine Anova added her own praise.
“It’s not over yet.” Garret said softly as he listened to the operations chatter as two shuttles were prepped for launch. A bright blip on the holo-display reminded him that there were still more enemy ships in the area, and they were still in fighting condition. “Helm, plot a course towards Lemos and begin deceleration/acceleration as soon as the shuttles are away. Communications, get me a laser line to the Merlinda.”
While they worked to follow his orders, Garret watched the tactical display, searching his mind for ideas on what to do now. A civilian ship and crew with passengers had no right seeking out battle, but there were bigger stakes at hand. This group of pirates, if that was what they really were, had too much in the way of resources to allow them to get their hands on the waiting Citeesium ore and the refined fuel in the Lemos Station’s bunkers. A mother ship like the one docked to the station now on the far side of the planet could use those resources to make new ships, or to fuel their vessels for months, maybe even years.
“Which part of Lemos?” Westley asked, interrupting Garret’s thoughts. Garret looked at the tactical display again and winced slightly at what he saw. The Republic destroyer was gone, it had been the flash just a moment ago. Two corvettes survived to harass the frigate, and two more were coming around the curve of the planet, heading towards the battle. The frigate was defending the military research installation on the planet, and he didn’t know enough about what was going on there to know its importance as compared to the ore and fuel on the space station.
“Let’s go to the aid of the frigate.” Garret decided with a sigh. It might mean giving up the element of surprise. “Set a high-speed intercept so we can take out those reinforcements before they arrive, hit the corvettes attacking the frigate and then slingshot around to where the mother ship and space station will be in orbit.”
“Can this ship take on a mother ship?” Anova’s voice held shock, but Garret shook his head.
“We can sting them, and if we catch them by surprise, we can sting them hard enough to force their retreat.” Garret answered her question. “If they know we’re coming, they can blow us up long before we have a chance. If we save that frigate before it gets too damaged, we might be able to survive.”
“I see.” Anova stated with a gulp.
“Shuttles are away.” Harrington stated at the same time Markal informed him Captain Luxon was available.
“How’s the damage, Merlinda?” Garret asked.
“Just a few scrapes.” Luxon’s voice was edged with worry over the tight beam transmission. At least that was operational for him. “We’ve almost got the virus rooted out of the computers, but we’re waiting until we can do a complete reboot before we do anything.”
“Get your ship and the others back online and wait here.” Garret ordered with a terse nod the other captain could not see because their transmission was audio only. “We’re going in to the planet to try and drive them off before they get too much ore and fuel.”
“I’d hate to imagine how dangerous pirate ships would be if they had good armor and plenty of fuel.” Luxon said over the line with a resigned sigh. “They could raid shipping lanes for years unless the Republic sent in two or three fleets to hunt them down.”
“My thoughts exactly.” Garret agreed. “If things go badly, take the other ships out of here. I’ve launched shuttles to round up the escape pods from the cruiser-carrier. Have Elaina and Cynthia Rose take them on when they’re back online. Put the pirate prisoners into a secure location and keep them under guard. Both of those ships have the room and former space marines in the crew.”
“Will do, and good luck Captain Lars.” Luxon said before signing off. Garret took a moment to look at his bridge crew and met their gazes with quiet pride before he activated the ship-wide intercom.
“Crew and passengers of the Adamant, this is Captain Lars.” He said in a proud, confident voice. The bridge crew was watching him as he spoke, as were his two passengers. “We’ve managed to come through a serious ambush relatively unscathed. Unfortunately, this ordeal is not yet over. In orbit over Lemos is a Federation Mother Ship and several corvettes. They are loading on ore and fuel, which will enable them to raid shipping lanes with impunity. We cannot allow this theft to go unchallenged, and so on behalf of the Elacrar Republic, we are about to engage them in battle. We are outgunned, but I am confident in this ship, and its crew. We have only been together a short time, but I tell you with all confidence that there’s not a warship in the fleet that could ask for a better crew. Prepare yourselves for an exhausting battle. With luck, and skill, we may survive long enough to tell this story over a pint or two.”
The bridge, and probably the ship, was filled with loud cheers at his words. Garret allowed a small smile on his face as he gave a nod to Westley who turned back to his station and engaged the ship’s engines at combat thrust. One of his instructors at the Academy had hammered into all the cadets that motivating a crew was an important part of winning any battle. A crew that was well-motivated fought harder, and would walk through fire and brimstone for a commander who spared a moment for a few words of praise. He could clearly see that in the faces of his bridge crew as their cheers ended and they turned back to their consoles with a quiet buzz.
“Thank you, Captain.” Blashame said in a soft whisper from Garret’s right.
“I meant what I said, Marko.” Garret responded just as softly. “The Republic cannot let these resources fall into pirate hands. Don’t worry, I’ll try to spare as much of your facilities as I can, but I’m doing it for the Republic as much as I am for your company.”
“I understand, but at least you’re willing to make the effort.” Blashame stated with a small shrug of his shoulders. “Even with a well-armed ship like this, few civilian captains would take the risk you are about to take.”
“Would you like to use an escape pod?” Garret asked him. “We can drop you and the other True Born passengers and the shuttles will pick you up, take you back to one of the other ships where you’ll be safer.”
“My people and I will ride with you into battle, Captain.” Blashame said with a gentle shake of his head. “It’s our company, and our people you’ll be saving if you succeed. It is only fitting we share the danger.”
“Five minutes until we enter firing range on the two corvettes.” Westley said from the helm station.
“Lelaine?” Garret asked the reporter. “Would you like to drop into an escape pod before this battle?”
“Not on your life, Captain.” Anova said with a fierce grin. “This is every journalist’s dream come true and it is well worth the possibility of death to record it for posterity.”
“It’s not all that.” Garret said while trying to keep from blushing. “It’s just what I was trained for is all.”
“So says the soft-spoken hero.” Anova countered and this time Garret’s cheeks turned redder while Westley snickered from his helm station.
“Prepare for combat action.” Garret announced ship-wide in order to get his blushing under control. The seconds ticked away, and he could see from the tactical display that the corvettes, already going at their maximum speed were now angling away from orbit to face him. By now their communications were being jammed by Adamant and without line of sight to the space station they could not warn the mother ship of the approaching danger. The frigate had managed to heavily damage one of the ships attacking her, and was now playing a game of long-range laser tag with the other while the damaged corvette sought enough distance to get a signal off to the mother ship.
“We’re in range.” Westley said with a grim satisfaction. He had every right to be pleased. The two corvettes had smaller lasers and could not yet reach the Adamant, but Garret’s ship was perfectly positioned to fire all four of its large lasers at one time. Harrington was exquisite with her aim and firing pattern, hitting both corvettes with two short bursts and a long cutting blast from the four main lasers. Within forty seconds of reaching maximum firing range for Adamant’s main lasers, the small corvettes were dead hulks, all life extinguished by massive oxygen-burning flames caused by Harrington’s laser blasts.
“Stand by for gravitic braking.” Westley’s voice rang directly over the ship’s announcement system and the next thing Garret knew he was being pushed back into his seat by three times normal gravity. It was an atmosphere bounce, both cutting down dramatically the speed of the ship and pushing them off at an angle that, along with an attitude adjustment via the port thrusters, put the Adamant at a perfect firing angle for the injured corvette trying to limp away from the Republic frigate. Harrington used one laser to turn the damaged corvette into space dust and the Adamant swung around so that both forward lasers reached out and burnt the life out of the surviving corvette. Garret was still pushed against his seat as Westley brought he ship to a complete halt before they went so far out of the planet’s shadow that the mother ship could spot them. It wasn’t quite what Garret had planned, but it still worked.
“Signal from the frigate!” Markal said excitedly. “Video and audio!”
“On screen.” Garret ordered and the tactical display was overridden by the image of a young Republic lieutenant in military overalls with the rank insignia of a Lieutenant on her shoulder boards. A gold ‘Command’ button graced her right chest and Garret actually smiled.
“By the little Buddha, it’s you!” Lieutenant Joan Marsters exclaimed. “As I live and breathe, Garret Lars, I never thought I’d see you riding to my rescue!”
“Sweet mercy, Joanie, it’s good to see you again.” Garret exclaimed with surprise. Joan Marsters had been one of the first True Born cadets to accept him – after Billy, of course. She was a tall black haired beauty of a woman with slightly almond eyes and a yellowish skin color, a hint of her Chinese-descended grandparents on her father’s side.
“I always thought you’d be the one ordering me on a suicide mission, not riding to my rescue, bloodthirsty Lars.” Joan Marsters stated with a wicked grin.
“What’s your condition?” Garret asked before frowning. “Excuse me, Lieutenant. I’m sorry, I forgot you’re ranking officer in this engagement.”
“Nonsense” She said with a wave of her hand. “You’re listed as inactive reserve if I remember correctly. Consider yourself reactivated, your ship and crew inducted into emergency service of the Republic. Your scores in tactical at the Academy were far better than mine and so you’re in charge as of this moment, all perfectly legal.”
“Gee, thanks.” Garret said with a barely suppressed smile. At least now he was guaranteed free replacement of weapons expended and repair to any damage his ship sustained.
“I heard from Derlan that you got yourself a nice ship with weapons on it, but this is a surprise.” Joan Marsters said next. “I’m reading a mass driver and four torp launchers on that thing!”
“Type 80s with class four launchers.” Garret stated with a shrug. “The driver is a type fourteen with high explosive projectiles instead of rocks.”
“Then we stand a chance after all.” She replied. “I’ve got a single class five speed launcher for a torpedo tube, one Type 83 loaded and three Type 83 reloads. I have a single class-six laser. That little fracas back there cost me a rail gun point defense cannon and two point defense lasers but the rest are still operational. Number two engine is a little bit shook up, only able to give eighty-three percent thrust. Number one engine is fully operational. Six of my crewmembers are dead and another dozen in my sick bay. We can provide cover for you, though. These damn pirates can’t have the ore and fuel, you know.”
“How’s your tactical link?” Garret asked with a smile.
“Operational, although it’s all but useless since they took out the Sprugle.” Marsters answered with a frown. “You should know, Albert Golan was in command of her.”
“Damn.” Garret cursed. Golan had been a year ahead of them at the Academy and another friend.
“What’s the plan, sir?” Joan asked him and Garret went through the options again in his head. Despite her damage, Joanie’s ship was in good enough shape to help, and would be damn useful.
“Can you send over the current codes for the tactical network?” Garret asked her. “We have a link but it’s non-operational without the current codes. Plus, I have a Type IX AI on board.”
“Holy shit!” Joan said with a fierce grin and a nod to someone on her bridge. “They let you keep a ship with a Type IX?”
“It surprised me as well.” Garret responded as the ship’s computer told him she’d gotten the codes and established the link. “Get your crew ready, Lieutenant, we’re going in harm’s way.”
“Roger that, Lieutenant Lars, the Feargus and her crew stand ready for your orders.” Joan Marsters said with a nod before the transmission winked out to be replaced with the tactical holo display. Garret pursed his lips in thought for a moment.
“Why did she call you Lieutenant?” Anova asked softly while Garret thought.
“My military rank in the reserves is ‘Lieutenant’.” Garret answered. “When she gave the order activating my commission, which she’s entitled to do in this situation, I resumed my military rank instead of the civilian merchant guild rank. I am Captain of this ship, but a Lieutenant in military rank. When the fight is over, I revert back to being a civilian again.”
“How interesting.” Anova said softly.
“Mr. Westley, have Feargus assume port outguard position.” Garret ordered. That would put the frigate on their forward port quarter, giving them the ability to intercept incoming torpedoes or fighter/bombers. “Plot a course towards the mother ship at maximum thrust for the Feargus, taking us close in to the planet’s atmosphere with another bump to slow us as we clear the horizon to the mother ship.”
“Aye sir, plotted.” Westley said with a chuckle and turned back to give Garret a wink. “No offense sir, but I anticipated that course. You like it sneaky on approach and a nice big flashy entrance. I take it we’ll be using the big gun?”
“You got it, Mr. Westley.” Garret stated using the ancient nautical term of ‘Mister’. Military crews always loved that term.
“We’re ready to go sir.” Westley replied.
“Commander?” Garret asked over his shoulder.
“All weapons including the big boy are ready, sir.” Harrington replied with anticipation clear in her voice.
“Target the central core where it meets whatever arm is closest to us.” Garret ordered and she nodded. Mother Ships were like big starfish, arms spoked out from a central hub. Usually when a mother ship lost an arm, it fled as fast as it could, which was what Garret was hoping would happen. “Follow up with torps from us and the Feargus as soon as we get a mass driver hit.”
“Roger that.” Harrington replied.
“Mr. Westley, engage engines at combat thrust.” Garret ordered. His ship lurched forward, in formation with the Feargus.
“Captain, we’re getting data feeds now from the military satellite network.” Zerov reported crisply and Garret ordered the data added to their tactical display. They could now see around the shadow of the planet and knew exactly where their target was located. Two more corvettes were still docked with the Mother Ship, but there was no indication they were about to be launched. Twelve fighters and four bombers flew around the Mother Ship and the tall, cylindrical Lemos space station. Small tug transports were offloading the square cargo containers of ore and fuel from the station’s cargo bays. Sensor data suggested only a few cargo containers had been loaded aboard the Mother Ship so far. Apparently a detachment of Marines on board the station had put up a hell of a fight against the Mother Ship’s boarding parties.
Garret closed his eyes and wondered what that had been like, with twelve 09 model military clones and a single True Born officer holding off ten times their number in boarders for two whole hours. All of them had been wearing full combat armor, so the satellite memory cores held the data from their suit transmitters. By order of their True Born officer, they had kept their comm. links on during the combat, and so each of their deaths were recorded.
Garret realized as he opened his eyes that the ship’s AI had pulled the data out of the satellite memory core and uploaded it to him through his implants. He returned to the present and made sure Westley had made some slight adjustments to their course. It would aid the targeting of the Mother Ship.
“Prepare to fire.” Garret ordered as the ship began its atmospheric bounce. Next to them the Feargus was doing a similar maneuver so that they stayed in formation. The Adamant shook for a moment with the turbulence, and there was a slight increase in gravity pushing them into their seats, but it was nowhere near as bad as earlier maneuvers and the two ships were soon around the curve of the planet, almost at a dead stop, facing the massive Mother Ship.
Lemos Space Station wasn’t exactly huge, but neither was it the smallest station ever built. Nearly a quarter mile long, and eighty feet wide it was a great cylinder hanging above the equatorial arc of the planet below. Spokes struck out at various levels and several directions, each a docking point for various types of ships. It had several large cargo bays, and two decent-size docking bays for transport shuttles. Currently, one of the great arms of the Mother Ship was attached to its hull directly, providing an ingress point for the boarding parties.
The Mother Ship was a starfish-shaped monstrosity with five arms jutting out from a central core at least forty decks high. The arms tapered from forty decks down to single-deck size, and each held several different launch and landing bays for various types of small craft. On the top of the central hub were eight docking slips for corvettes. The positioning of those slips would allow a corvette to add its own engine thrust to that of the Mother Ship’s. That was important because while the Mother Ship could stand toe to toe with a Republic Battleship in a straight-out fight, it was extremely slow and extremely limited in its maneuverability.
“Fire torpedoes.” Garret ordered in that one perfect moment where both ships hung motionless, just outside the curve of the planet, with a perfect shot at the Mother Ship with almost no risk of hitting the space station. “Fire all lasers.”
“Fighters incoming!” Zerov commented as the combat space patrol of their enemy all streaked for them. Garret waited, allowing his two forward lasers to begin hammering the point defenses along the nearest arms of the Mother Ships. When the torpedoes had covered half the distance between them and the Mother Ship he gave his next orders. While he spoke, the point defenses began firing at the incoming fighters, with Feargus providing an added layer of fire hunting after the incoming bombers.
“Engines to twelve percent forward thrust.” Garret ordered first. “Fire the mass driver.”
“Aye sir.” Westley said confidently as Harrington said the same thing. Seconds later the ship was filled with a loud rumbling sound, and began to shake slightly. Then there was an almost unheard howl and the bright symbol of a mass driver round appeared on the Tactical display, heading for the Mother Ship. Garret smiled, almost feeling the confusion, rage, and fear emanating from the crew of the Mother Ship.
During the war, a Federation Mother Ship and Republic Battleship had been caught docked with each other. Both had been damaged in earlier combat and were joining crews in an effort to fix their ships before the enemy found them. Unfortunately, two Earther ships had found them. Both of the Imperial ships were equipped with mass drivers about half the size of Adamant’s. Mass drivers packed a lot of punch, but were easily evaded and took a long time to recharge after a few discharges. Normally, the battleship alone would have been able to crush both of the Imperial ships without any troubles at all, mass driver or no mass driver. All a battleship, or Mother Ship had to do was evade the first few shots and then fire their main lasers to obliterate whatever vessel was attacking them.
The two Imperial medium cruisers had found the Republic and Federation ships docked together, with their main drives offline for repairs. The first four mass driver rounds had nearly destroyed both ships. The two cruisers had moved in with impunity, firing torpedo after torpedo into both ships until their reactor cores had exploded. Then they’d rounded up life pods, examining each one to remove any True Born survivors and then re-launching them for target practice with any clone crewers still inside.
A rumble recalled Garret’s attention to the present and he let a feral smile loose on his face as his ship fired the second mass driver round. The force of the shot pushed the ship back in space, but the thrusters returned them to their original position before the next round was ready to fire. Adamant’s mass driver could fire three shots before the capacitors were totally drained, and he waited for the rumble of the third shot before checking the tactical display.
“Fire torpedoes.” Garret ordered, noting the tubes had been reloaded already. The ship shook a little, and more torpedoes were on their way, five in total. Four from Adamant and one from Feargus. None of the enemy fighters had broken through their point defense yet either.
“First round’s gonna miss.” Westley muttered, stating something anyone could see from the tactical display. The first fifty-ton projectile was arcing high and would pass just over the central hub of the Mother Ship. The first round of torpedoes were now close enough that the Mother Ship was firing lasers at them. One of them exploded almost immediately from all the defensive fire, but its explosion was soon eclipsed as the second mass-driver round hit the Mother Ship right where one of the arms connected to the hub. Three surviving torpedoes flew into the same spot, adding their own explosive might to the great explosion that nearly blanked out Garret’s tactical display with its fury.
“Merciful skies, that’s…” Marko Blashame started to say but his voice trailed off as the tactical display did go white this time, for at least thirty seconds as the third mass driver shot hit exactly fifty meters to the right of the last round. When the display cleared, the Mother Ship was drifting thirty kilometers from the space station, it’s arm still attached to the station but no longer attached to the Mother Ship. Half the central hub was aflame and crumpled. That was when the second round of five torpedoes followed their guidance programs to the new location of the Mother Ship and flew into the gaping hole before exploding.
This time the screen went white again, but cleared in time to show the results of the massive explosion from the Mother Ship. The largest piece left was the arm still attached to the space station. Already pieces of the dead Mother Ship pelted the Space Station or spiraled into an unstable orbit, dropping onto the planet below. A small courier ship, just large enough for a wave-fold guide engine shot out of the wreckage at massive speeds and Garret frowned before smiling. At full repair, the Feargus might catch them, but not the Adamant. At least whoever was on that courier ship could go back and warn his masters that raiding a Republic depot was not a good idea after all.
“Unbelievable.” Anova whispered as she watched the wreckage of the Mother Ship start to become shooting stars in the atmosphere of Lemos.
“That’s why the earthies always feared going up against Academy graduates.” Harrington said from where she now stood behind Garret’s chair. “Give an Academy graduate a screw driver and a bit of chewing gum and he’ll figure out how to blow up a planet, or a mother ship.”
“I’m afraid that’s all hype. Even an Academy graduate can’t blow up a planet with a screw driver and one piece of gum. We’d need a little more than that to do a job that big.” Garret joked, earning himself some wild looks. Then again maybe it was the wicked smirk on his face. “Maybe two pieces of chewing gum.”
