The Tanith Gambit

by Dietmar Wehr

  Captain and Strike Force Commander Chevalier looked at the tactical display and grinned. Eight ships! Only eight ships plus those 44 smaller what…pinnaces? If that was all Tanith had to fight with, this strike would be little more than a training exercise. Coming in at this speed was a damn good idea! His force was superior enough that those eight defending ships might well have surrendered the field of battle and accelerated away from Tanith, possibly even intending to reinforce Marduk and as Prince Viktor explained to Chavalier and the other 33 captains, Marduk was the real threat. If they could smash Trask’s base and his ships, that would be a bonus but on no account were they to stop here. Personally he preferred to smash those ships now and since they couldn’t escape, they had to fight.

  “Ah, it looks like those smaller ships are moving away from the battleships, sir.” said the Detection Technician. Chevalier looked closer.

  “Any idea where they’re heading to?” The Captain waited while his crewman examined the instruments.

  “Well, Captain…if I didn’t know better, I’d say that they were on a course to cross our projected path.” That didn’t make any sense. Pinnaces weren’t armed worth a damn. Even 44 of them couldn’t match the firepower of one battleship.

  “Are the other ships moving too?” asked Chevalier.

  “No, sir. But I’m detecting three more small ships coming up from the planet’s surface. They seem to be trying to rendezvous with the eight battleships.”What could Harkaman possibly be up to, thought Chevalier. He had no answer.

  “Well…keep an eye on them and let me know if they start doing anything else. Understood?”

  “Yes, Captain.” Chevalier nodded and walked over to his Guns and Missiles Officer.

  “How soon can we fire on the moon, Guns?”

  “We can fire now if you want to, Captain, but if you’re asking me when our accuracy is high enough to take out the mines with a minimal number of missiles, the answer is in about five minutes.” Chevalier smiled and nodded. His Guns and Missiles Officer was a cheeky bastard but he knew his stuff. Chevalier wanted to know if the mines on the moon were defended by counter-missile batteries.

  “Let’s fire one missile right now and see what reaction, if any, there is. I’ll buy you a bottle of Poictesme brandy if this missile gets thru and hits one of the mines.” The officer laughed.

  “You’re on, Captain!” Seconds later he said,

  “Missile away, Captain.” As the two of them watched the missile’s progress, the Detection Technician called out.

  “Somethings happening, Captain.” When Chevalier arrived at his station, the crewman continued. “A fourth small ship is on its way up from the planet and it and one of the other three, that lifted off a couple of minutes ago, are now following the 44 pinnaces. Those two are accelerating faster than the pinnaces too so they must be something different although as far as I can tell at this distance, they’re the same size as the other 44.” Chevalier shook his head in frustration. He had no idea of what Harkaman was doing and it irked him. The man had a reputation among Space Vikings as a superior tactician, which Chevalier had to admit was deserved but he considered himself to be a better than average strategist too and these moves made no sense at all. If Harkaman was sending 44 pinnace crews on unarmed ships in Harm’s Way, there had to be a reason. The range now was down to just over 200,000 miles. Chevalier still had the initiative and didn’t want to lose it. Without looking up, he called out.

  “Guns! Fire a missile barrage at the mining targets and then coordinate an all ship missile barrage to target the Tanith Base. Let me know when that’s ready to fire.” Stepping over to his Command Station, Chevalier opened a radio channel to all his ships and said.

  “Strike Force Commander to all ships. There’s going to be a change of plans. We’re not going to wait until we get closer. Harkaman is up to something and we’re not going to give him time to get it set up. As soon as our missile people can get a coordinated barrage set up, we are going to open fire! We’re going to keep on firing until I say otherwise. Chevalier out!”

  The flagship barrage targeting the moon, was following the single missile that was now coasting the rest of the way. When the multi-ship barrage was ready, Chevalier gave the order to fire. Fifteen seconds later the Strike Force fired another barrage and fifteen seconds after that a third and then a fourth. Chevalier ordered a stop after that to see how the well the first four barrages did. They wouldn’t know that for a few minutes. When the single missile reached the moon, no attempt was made to intercept it. It hit close enough to the intended target area that any mining equipment would have been destroyed. The eight missile barrage aimed at the moon also hit without interception. By this time, it was becoming clear that the 44 pinnaces and the two equally small ships, that had caught up to them, were maneuvering in order to approach the Strike Force from a reciprocal course. It was absurd but the only thing that Chevalier could think of was that they were going to ram his ships. If they didn’t break off their approach soon, he would order the Strike Force to fire on them. The first multi-ship barrage of 272 missiles was halfway to the planet by now. That was when Harkaman’s battleships fired. 64 missiles vectored off on an angle that puzzled Chevalier until the tactical computer figured out that the missiles would run out of power and coast to a point that the Strike Force would meet at exactly the same time. In other words, an attempt at a long distance interception that was totally pointless of course. As soon as the missiles used up their power and began to coast in a straight line, the Strike Force would make just enough of a course correction to make the missiles miss. His ships didn’t even have to bother launching counter-missiles at them. Harkaman’s first barrage was followed by more two more then suddenly stopped.

  The minutes passed. Chevalier’s first wave of 272 missiles entered counter-missile range and Harkaman’s ships launched 134 counter-missiles, which should not have been possible for just eight battleships. The extra ones had to have come from those two smaller ships. This was confirmed three seconds later when another 54 counter-missiles appeared. Chevalier watched in disbelief as 54 additional counter-missiles appeared every three seconds plus an additional 80 every 15 seconds. What were those two small ships! Each wave of 272 anti-ship missiles was intercepted. Things seem to be happening fast now and Chevalier was torn between firing more missiles at the planet, as per the plan or taking out the ramming ships. He decided on both. The Strike Force started firing missile barrages every 15 seconds. The barrages alternated between targeting the planet and targeting the pinnaces. By now, all three of the 64 missile waves, fired by Harkaman at long range, were out of power and were coasting so Chavalier ordered minor course changes that would also force the pinnaces to adjust their vectors as well. The tactical display was getting crowded with icons. After two minutes of continuous missile fire, Chevalier’s Executive Officer notified him that the Strike Force had now used up 30% of their missile inventory. Chevalier told him to fire one more barrage then cease fire. Surely 12 waves of missiles should be enough to take out the pinnaces and maybe even get past the counter-missile shield protecting the planet!

  As the first wave of 272 missiles approached the pinnace group, 54 counter-missiles started appearing every three seconds. Chevalier pounded his fist on his Command Station’s armrest. Damn Trask and Harkaman and their bag of tricks! Then he noticed that his missile wave wasn’t being intercepted as fast as with the waves fired against the planet. Obviously the pinnaces themselves didn’t have counter-missile capability, just the two ships that had faster acceleration.How they managed to do that, he didn’t know but then a thought occurred to him. Pinnaces had collapsed matter armor just like the battleships and therefore they had similar acceleration profiles. The only way to make a ship that small accelerate faster would be to eliminate the armor. That would make them very vulnerable. Even a near miss by an atomic warhead would be dangerous. Turning his attention back to the display, he saw that the number of pinnaces was dropping. Good! That mea
nt that some of his missiles were getting thru. He checked the progress of the missile barrages targeting the planet. They still hadn’t gotten close enough for Harkaman’s ships to intercept them. And as for the missiles fired at long range by Harkaman’s ships, the first wave was just about to pass right thru his formation of ships. He was about to say so to his XO when the Detection Technician yelled in obvious panic.

  “Some of those missiles are maneuvering again!” Someone must have read Chevalier’s mind because the tactical display zoomed in on the incoming missile threat. Chevalier had just enough time to register the fact that 10 of that first wave were now accelerating AND maneuvering again! Before he could order counter-missile fire, those ten missiles hit their targets. Three ship icons disappeared altogether. Seven more turned amber and started flashing, indicating major damage.

  “Fire at the second and third waves!” yelled Chevalier. Luckily the Tactical Officer had already taken it upon himself to do exactly that but in his haste, he forgot to order the tactical computer to fire counter-missiles only against incoming threats that were maneuvering again so of the 10 counter-missiles fired by Chevalier’s flagship, 8 wasted themselves against coasting missiles, that would have missed anyway. The other 2 did intercept maneuving missiles but that still left 8 more that destroyed 4 more ships and damaged 4 others. By the time the third wave arrived, the Tac Officer had corrected his mistake and all 10 maneuvering missiles were intercepted.Chevalier realized that he was breathing hard and concentrated on slowing down his breathing. He had to stay calm despite the turn of events. Of his 34 ships, 7 were destroyed outright, 6 were cripples unable to maneuver or fight and 5 were heavily damaged and unable to fire but were still able to maneuver. Over half his force was out of action. Jumping to Marduk with 16 combat effective ships was now out of the question. Getting his ships out of this deathtrap was now his only objective and if Prince Viktor didn’t like it, then that was too bad! The only remaining threat now was the pinnace force and half of it was now gone too but estimated time to zero distance was less than two minutes. He had 21 ships that could maneuver but there were 6 ships out there that wouldn’t be able to avoid being rammed. It was highly likely that some of those crews were still alive and the only thing more important than crushing Marduk, was to avoid letting any of his ships’ crews be captured. The location of Prince Viktor’s new base had to be kept a secret at all costs! He quickly reviewed his options. He could fire more missiles at the pinnaces but even if he got them all, which wasn’t certain, he still had to somehow make sure that no living crewmen were captured from the cripples and boarding them to search the dozens of decks and hundreds of rooms on each ship, while the Strike Force was getting closer and closer to Harkaman’s small fleet of battleships, was not an option that looked promising. If Harkaman wanted to bring his battleships into action, he could and it would be 16 versus 8 but the 8 had those damned counter-missile pinnaces to blunt his attack and who knew what other tricks Harkaman had up his sleeve? No, searching the cripples for survivors wasn’t a viable option. If they missed finding even one, Viktor would have his head…literally! That left option two which was to maneuver away from the planet, Harkaman’s battleships and the remaining pinnaces and fire on his own cripples until there as nothing left of them but glowing shrapnel. The other Space Vikings wouldn’t like it but they would understand why. Chevalier gave the necessary orders and seconds later, with the rest of the Strike Force moving away, the 6 cripples were blown to atoms. Watching those icons disappear from the tactical display made Chevalier want to hit someone. He couldn’t really do that but he could do the next best thing.

  “Resume missile fire on those pinnaces!”His XO looked at him in surprise.

  “What about missile inventory?” Chevalier snarled his reply.

  “We’re not going to Marduk now so what difference does it make?”The chagrined XO nodded and was about to turn away to carry out his Captain’s orders when Chevalier added another one.

  “Keep firing until all the pinnaces AND those two counter-missile ships are destroyed!”Within seconds, the remaining 16 combat effective ships started firing 128 missiles every 15 seconds. The distance between the two groups of ships was dropping fast. The pinnaces maneuvered to match the vector changes of the evading ships, not all of which were able to accelerate at the normal rate of 6Gs. Chevalier felt sorry for those damaged ships. If they couldn’t destroy all the pinnaces in time, the remaining ones would surely go after the closest targets, which would be the damaged ships. He snarled again when more counter-missiles erupted from the pinnace group. Then the God of Chance intervened. 54 counter-missiles fired every three seconds should have been enough to intercept 128 missiles fired every 15 seconds but despite the odds, several counter-missiles missed and their target got close enough to damage one of the missile boats. With counter-missile fire suddenly dropping in half, more attack missiles got thru. Pinnaces started exploding in quick succession but not fast enough. Two of Chevalier’s damaged ships were rammed almost head on. With the velocities involved, even the collapsium armor couldn’t prevent the sudden release of kinetic energy from destroying both ships in spectacular fireballs of vaporized metal. All of a sudden there were no more pinnaces, just the two missile boats and only one of them was still maneuvering and firing. Chevalier’s ships were still firing a new barrage every 15 seconds and the next barrage targeted the missile boat that was still maneuvering. Unable to evade or stop the incoming wave, the missile boat fired its long range attack missiles and because of the virtually point blank range, two of those attack missiles hit their targets, one of which was Chevalier’s flagship. The sudden loss of communication between the flagship and the rest of the Strike Force was the only thing that saved the other damaged missile boat from annihilation. Within seconds, the Strike Force had flown past the damaged boat making further missile attacks problematic due to its high speed. The Battle of Tanith was over.

  Chapter XV

  The ramp seemed to take forever to drop down to the ground but finally it did and Trask strode quickly down to the small group that was waiting for him. It was Valkanhayn and the other captains. They saluted him as he stepped off the ramp and he returned the salute with extra care, then extended his hand to Valkanhayn.

  “It’s good to see you again, Boake. Congratulations to all of you on your victory.” Valkanhayn looked embarrassed but kept his cool.

  “Thank you, Your Highness. We just followed Admiral Harkaman’s orders but I have to admit, it feels good to be in the winning side.” Trask smiled and nodded.

  “And speaking of Otto, where is he being looked after?” Valkanhayn turned to point at a pinnace, that was about three quarters of a mile distant.

  “We’re using that pinnace as a makeshift hospital ship. I’ll take you there now, Your Highness.”

  “Very good, Boake. I’m anxious to see and talk to him. After that, I’ll want to sit down with all of you to discuss the battle and what we do next. Let’s do that in the Officer’s Lounge on the Nemesis.” The other captains acknowledged the order and returned to their own groundcars, that would take them to the Nemesis. Trask was about to follow Valkanhayn to his groundcar but stopped to look around him. Even though there were ships on the ground at the Rivington spaceport, the place had the feeling of a ghosttown. The city had no lights on at all and the cold wind was blowing debris and things that looked like tumbleweek across the spaceport landing area. It was still daylight but the sun was setting fast. It reminded him of the first time Nemesis had set down here during his hunt for Andray Dunnan. Don’t go there, he told himself. You’re not that man anymore. With a faint shrug, he walked quickly over to Valkanhayn’s groundcar and was surprised to see that Boake would be driving it himself. As Trask settled into the front passenger seat, Valkanhayn got behind the controls and the little vehicle was soon on its way to the hospital pinnace. The trip was so short that there wasn’t time to discuss anything.

  It wasn’t long before Trask was standing
beside Harkaman’s hospital bed in the pinnace’s medical bay. Harkaman’s injuries were serious but no longer life-threatening. There were bandages covering one eye plus that side of his head as well as his upper body on that side too. Harkaman had his other eye closed and Trask didn’t know if he was sleeping.

  “Are you awake, Otto?” Harkaman’s face turned in his direction and the eye opened.

  “Hello, Lucas. I guess it’s my turn now to lay in a hospital bed while you visit me.” Trask nodded. “At least I don’t look as bad as you did when Dunnan shot you.” said Harkaman as he smiled.

  “No, not quite as bad but bad enough.” Trask walked around the bed and sat down in the chair on the other side. “Exactlly how bad is it?” Harkaman propped himself up very carefully with his free arm and sighed.