“Missiles away, captain.” The dim battery-fed lights on the bridge suddenly brightened as the reactor started up and fed power into the ship’s circuits. “Engineer Hinkle reports reactor up and running at 100%.” A slight pause as Garravick listened to the engineer’s report. “No problems…reactor is functioning normally.”
“All crew activate acceleration couches.” She leaned back and winced as her couch injected the drugs into her arm. She’d flinched a little, and the needle had gone in at a painful angle. Her couch expanded and wrapped around her snugly, just as she started to feel the sluggishness from the drugs.
“Crew secured, captain.” Garravick sounded a little more ragged than before. The drugs did that to everyone. The injections helped humans survive forces they were never meant to endure, but it came at a cost.
“Broadsword control…execute attack plan Alpha.”
Jarvis lost her breath for an instant as Broadsword’s engines blasted at 20g. She knew the AI would choose the optimum target, and at 20g, Broadsword would quickly build velocity. If the ECM decoys confused the enemy enough, Broadsword would get into range and empty its weapons into the target. If not, the ship would get sliced to pieces by the enemy particle accelerator beams.
“Enemy firing their energy weapon.” Garravick was struggling to speak under the 20g pressure, and he sounded a lot more afraid than he had before. “Captain…it looks like they’re targeting the ECM units!”
Good, she thought, but it was still a lottery. The enemy would have time to target ten ships, maybe twelve before Broadsword fired. The ECM missiles were well-designed…they even carried a small warhead to simulate a ship’s destruction. But even if the enemy bought into them entirely, it was still a dozen 1 in 60 chances they’d target Broadsword before she fired. And Jarvis and her people wouldn’t know until it happened. There was nothing to do but lay there half-crushed and wait to see if they survived.
“Captain, scanners report multiple antimatter explosions.” Garravick’s fear temporarily gave way to excitement. “It looks like Wolfhound took out a Gargoyle!”
“Good for you, Joann.” Jarvis spoke softly to herself, smiling the whole time. Joann Grissom was Wolfhound’s skipper…and one of Jarvis’ oldest friends. Another transfer from the cruiser service, Grissom and her team had executed their attack run perfectly.
Jarvis was counting off the seconds. She knew roughly when they’d be in range. It was a useless exercise, but at least it kept her mind occupied. In the end, she was a bit slow. She was still counting down from 30 when the bridge lights dimmed and all of Broadsword’s power diverted to the plasma torpedoes.
“Firing now.” Broadsword’s AI calmly announced. The ship shook wildly as it ejected the massive plasma bolt and again a few seconds later as its array of short-ranged rockets launched.
The lights dimmed again as the ship’s AI executed the escape protocol, diverting all power to the straining engines. Jarvis winced a little as Broadsword’s acceleration increased to 28g. They were on a vector almost opposite that of the enemy fleet. If we’re lucky, she thought, they won’t bother to pursue us. We’re hardly worth the effort.
“Broadsword Control - damage assessment.” It was a struggle to get the words out at 28g. Jarvis knew she’d set up a good shot; now she wanted to know how they’d done.
“We scored a direct hit, captain.” The AI’s voice was even and methodical. “It appears that we inflicted moderate localized damage to the enemy vessel. They seem to have jettisoned their antimatter ordnance before our attack hit.”
Damn, she thought…looks like Joann won the big honors. She was sorry they hadn’t taken out the enemy vessel, but at least Broadsword’s attack had stripped it of its heaviest weaponry. If the talk of enemy logistical problems was true, they might not be able to re-arm before they hit Farpoint. In that case, her people had probably saved a lot of their comrades’ lives.
They’d done what they could for the fleet…now they were working for themselves. She closed her eyes and tried to force herself to remain coherent while the AI flew the ship. Now, if they just leave us alone, she thought hazily, maybe we’ll make it out of this.
She started to drift in and out of awareness, and she didn’t hear the AI when it announced that one of the enemy ships was decelerating and beginning a vector change.
Chapter 24
Third Fleet was arrayed for battle just past the orbit of the ninth planet, positioned to intercept an attack from either of the two Rimward warp gates. It appeared to be Third Fleet, at least, though most of the vessels were phantoms, creations of almost two hundred ECM drones positioned around less than twenty actual ships.
Admiral Sam Clark sat in the command chair of the cruiser Sussex. His mission was simple, at least in theory…trick the enemy into launching its antimatter ordnance and then get the hell out of there. He didn’t think the first part would be all that simple in practice…and the last was likely to be nearly impossible.
Clark didn’t know which warp gate the enemy would use to attack, so he’d had to position his forces to cover both. It could have been either – the invaders had occupied the systems on the other side of both of them. Now his question had been answered. Enemy ships had transited from the gate to Nu Ophiuchi, and they were bearing down on his “fleet,” coming in at 0.04c.
“They’re launching, sir.” Barrett James was Clark’s tactical officer. “Massive salvo incoming.” A brief pause. “Missiles accelerating at 205g, sir.”
Good, Clark thought. Those had to be the antimatter weapons. Hopefully it was all of them. “Very well, commander. All ships, full evasive maneuvers now. We’ve done our job; now let’s get the hell out of here.” Clark leaned back in his couch as the system activated and enveloped him. The rest of his staff was doing the same. Captain Wren would be engaging Sussex’s engines any time now, and the ship’s AI would do its best to get them out of this.
“Attention all personnel. Prepare for high g maneuvers in three zero seconds.” Wren’s deep voice boomed from the ship’s com system. They’d prepped their escape well, placing counter-measures drones all along the projected lines of retreat. The missiles that didn’t go after phantom ships would run into a deep defensive belt before they closed on Clark’s actual vessels.
“Admiral…we have energy readings from the Delta Ursae Minoris warp gate.” James’ voice was alarmed. “Ships transiting, sir.”
“Damn.” Clark was whispering to himself. He’d planned for an enemy attack from either warp gate, but he hadn’t expected them to launch a coordinated assault through both. It was a notoriously difficult operation, one Alliance tacticians found almost impossible to execute. But this enemy seemed to have a communications system that could transmit right through warp gates, making it much faster than the Alliance’s Commnet. Maybe that allowed them to coordinate disparate task forces.
“We have four Gargoyles transited so far and ten Gremlins.” The smaller enemy vessels had been dubbed Gremlins. No one was sure who had first come up with the name, but it had become standard. “Five Gargoyles…six….wait…something else, sir…it looks like…” James went silent, staring at his screen with a stunned expression.
“What is it?” Clark instinctively tried to look over at James, but it was a futile effort strapped into his couch. He waited a few seconds, but there was still no response. “Commander James…report immediately.” Clark, like most flag officers, had a decided lack of patience…especially in the middle of a fight.
“Sorry, sir…” The tactical officer pulled out of his distraction, but his voice was distant, preoccupied. “Sir, we have a new enemy ship type…estimated mass 650,000 tons.”