Blockade

by Chris Hechtl

  In hyperspace

  Captain Sung stroked the girl in his cabin gently. She was a beauty, a slave brought in some time ago. Technically, he shouldn't have her in battlefleet anymore, but he'd refused to give her up. He'd turned it into something of a game, hiding her whenever there was an inspection. He'd even bribed a few people to get her on and off the ship while in port. Of course he had to bundle the girl up to do it, but she fit quite nicely in a suitcase since she was so tiny. And she knew better to complain. That was what he liked about her. She had a nice whimper but was smart enough to never say no or complain.

  He really should do the rounds on the ship. His light cruiser Blanco had been detailed with a difficult mission to jump out and scout H001 ahead of the fleet. He wasn't looking forward to it but had taken steps to make sure his ship came out well away from the established jump zone. In fact, they should be altering course soon.

  He frowned. He was tempted to reach over the girl's bound form to check the ship's status, but his hand instead wandered to her neck and breasts once more. "Ready for another round, my pretty?" he asked just as all things came to an abrupt end in an instant.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Admiral Knowles frowned thoughtfully as he considered what was about to happen. His ships were cycling down through the octaves to the lowest one of alpha band. They were two days out from H001. They would remain on the cusp of dropping out of hyper until Blanco returned after scouting the star system. There was no way, no way in hell he was going to drop out of hyper until he knew what was on the other side of the hyper wall waiting for him.

  He checked the status of Nemesis and then nodded. Everything was five by five as it should be. That was good, no problems or unforeseen engineering issues.

  They'd had their fair share of them on the trip, but fortunately, the fleet hadn't had any major ones. The last minute part supply from El Dorado had helped a lot in that regard. He even had a shipment of modern missiles in his capital ships. Unfortunately, the brass hadn't thought to order modern fighter ordinance or other munitions. It would have been nice to have had modern counter missiles to go with his offensive punch.

  But, beggars couldn't be choosers. At this point he'd take what he could get.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Captain Johnson had just finished breakfast and was on a leisurely stroll around his ship when something happened. One moment everything was normal, and the next his ship was, for a brief instant, a nightmare before his life was snuffed out once and for all along with his crew.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  "Sir, something happened to Hachiman," a female sensor tech reported, breaking through the admiral's train of thought.

  Hachiman was a new Imperial class super dreadnought named for the Japanese god of war. She had recently been completed four months ago, and this was her maiden hyperspace voyage.

  Much like many of the ships in his fleet the admiral thought as he strode over to the sensor section.

  "Define what sort of something," the admiral said, turning to the sensor tech.

  "I don't know, sir. She was there and then there was some sort of odd translation and she's gone."

  "Gone?"

  "Play it back," the staff navigational officer ordered, coming over to them. They watched the recording several times. Their hyper sensors weren't up to Federation grade so it took some enhancement. "It looks like her bow went up and then she just jumped." The commander shook his head. "I don't get it."

  "Where did she go?" the chief of staff asked. The commander shrugged.

  "No clue, sir."

  "More importantly, why did she jump? Could it be an engineering issue? One they didn't have time to report?" the admiral demanded.

  "Her fields didn't flutter until the end," the sensor tech stated.

  "An engineering casualty?" the chief of staff said.

  "It's looking more and more that way," the admiral stated heavily. One of the newer capital ships too. That wasn't going to play out well with home. They were on the eve of battle and now this.

  "It's almost as if they hit something," the commander murmured, watching the replay in slow motion. "See the ripple in her shield? And how her bow went up?" He overlaid a straight line on her course and then they watched the slow motion replay as the bow pitched up and to one side.

  "But there were no mass shadows or strings in her path," the admiral stated. "Right?"

  "No, sir. Just very small ones. That's consistent with the Kuiper Belt of any star system. The deeper we go in the more small mass shadows we are going to see." the tech reported. She pointed to a series of small dots on the plot ahead of them and then swore. "There goes another one, sir!" She pointed to a space where another ship had been. "And another! There goes Roosevelt! And Executioner!" she pointed to the two super dreadnaughts and then to a ship near the point, one of the cruisers assigned to screen the force. "What the devil is going on?!? Where are they going??!?"

  The admiral looked closer and then swore as a third ship vanished. "Mines! We've entered a minefield! All ships abort course! Translate back up and get the hell out of here!"

  Pandemonium immediately broke out as his staff reacted to the news and those orders. Signals went out to the other ships.

  Several ships continued to vanish.

  The rear ships began to translate upward and away. The admiral started to exhale in relief, but it died when his ship was torn apart.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Each antimatter mine was a one-meter diameter sphere weighing in at roughly one metric ton. They each had a micro hyper-sustainer in them and a dollop of antimatter. Some of the antimatter had come from Pyrax, but a lot had come from the hyper platforms and from other sources.

  A Liberty class ship could carry just over four million tons of cargo. Doing the math, they could carry roughly four million mines.

  Multiply that by twenty-four ships in each convoy.

  It still took a lot of mines to seal each octave of hyperspace. Subspace was vast. Hyperspace folded space but it was still vast. The higher the octave or band and the less mines were needed over a given area.

  Each of the mines could communicate with their fellows if they were close enough. Therefore, the network could alert itself to an incoming ship or force and maneuver as needed to intercept them.

  They still drifted apart in hyper over time, so fresh mines needed to be added periodically, especially to the lower octaves of alpha band. But, when you knew where your enemy was going to be passing through or coming out at, it became easier to arrange a hemisphere of coverage.

  It only took one mine to destroy a ship, any ship. The mine sensed a ship, checked for an IFF, alerted its fellows, and then moved in until its hyper field interacted with the target. It only had to get to within a hundred kilometers of the other ship to be lethal. Then it dumped all of its power into the hyper emitter in a burst that ripped that section of the ship into a higher octave of hyperspace.

  But only that part of the ship. Disrupting their hyperfield even just a section of it tore the ship into component atoms that were either distributed in hyperspace or wound up being vomited back into real space somewhere.

  The Vengeance Fleet's carriers and fleet train managed to survive and escape the mines, but they were a disordered mess, falling out of contact with each other in their mad scramble to get away. Many of those ships saw no recourse but to turn back to Horath.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Admiral Zhen had just had a nice breakfast when word got to him that ships were scrambling and turning around. "What do you mean, something's happening? We just came from there!"

  "I don't know, sir! Ships are jumping up or turning back ahead of us! The fleet is breaking up," his bewildered flag captain reported. "What do we do?"

  The admiral frowned, but he knew he didn't have long to respond. "Halt our course and come about. We need to get clear. Something has spooked the ships ahead of us, and I'm not sailing fat dumb and happy into whatever is causing it."


  "Aye aye, sir. And the fleet?"

  "Pass the word for all ships to fall in with us. I'm assuming command until the flagship turns up."

  "Aye aye, sir."

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Once the collective intelligence network within the mines noted there were no further engagements, they ordered the nearest mines to close the gaps in their coverage.

  One mine was dispatched back to real space with a recording of the engagement.

  Chapter 54

  Horath

  The prowler flotilla arrived in a sparkle, timed to arrive all at the same time and all at within a specific window of time on the planet. Each of the thirty-six ships jumped in well outside the solar system. But their synchronized arrival was in an arch around the perimeter of the star system.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  It was a sign of the times that the Rico, Cartwright, and other naval families were on their way out, Rear Admiral Fergie Stuart thought as she took a sip of coffee. She was the night shift officer in charge of Command Fortress 1 at the Finagle jump point.

  She'd only had the job a month but was already wondering how long she'd keep it. Rumor had it that the emperor was getting sticky about females in command positions. Despite her bloodline she might find herself beached or shuffled off if a more appropriate male showed up to take her place.

  That was what she'd heard at any rate.

  Her hands cupped her cup as she idly scanned the logs and readouts. Her relaxed state ended abruptly, and the cup of coffee ended up on the deck as alarms went off. "Many incoming ships! This is not a drill!" A shrill voice said from the overhead.

  "Talk to me! I need numbers, people!" an officer barked as the general quarters alarm went off.

  "What are we looking at?" she demanded, looking at the plot as a sweep line began to update it. Fresh icons appeared but they were all over the place. It didn't make sense.

  Ships around the jump point were clearing for action she knew. "Someone find out if this is a drill!" she barked. The last thing she wanted to do was to shoot at their own ships and waste ammunition.

  "No drill!" another voice responded as people rushed to their stations. Some were only half dressed. Her eyes were intent on the plot however.

  "There is so many of them! Dozens!" a commander said in despair. "Nothing in range either! They knew where we were."

  "That many ships? How can they do that?"

  "They are the Federation. At this point I believe they can do damn well whatever they want apparently," Admiral Stuart said as she turned to see the vice admiral approaching with his entourage. Damned if we can stop them she thought to herself in the privacy of her own mind.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Captain Gino Hough flicked his ears in relief as his ship cleared her hyper wake and then cleared for stealth. So far so good, he thought. He waited patiently as the tachyon transceiver warmed up and the reports began to flood in. When the last report came in, he couldn't help but grin; no one had gotten caught or intercepted. The nearest ship was over ten million kilometers out.

  The ships that were the furthest out had water dweller helm teams on board. They had taken the most risks to get in as deep as they could. But they'd pulled it off.

  "Deploy the drones and pods. Then it's time to hide," he said in anticipation of what was to come.

  The pirates weren't going to like it. Not one least little bit he thought with a feral smile.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  The Horathian navy lacked a tachyon transceiver network so they were limited to light speed transmissions across the star system for most things.

  However, Elvira Varbossa had figured out how to flutter mass emitters to send simple coded signals from the pickets to the fortresses and station in orbit of the planet. The signal that got through took three tries but the receivers finally got the message. Omega One, the invasion had begun.

  That hit the sleeping Admiralty like a bomb. There was an initial hysterical panic in some of the junior officers, but that was quelled by older and wiser heads. At least in a few cases, in others some of the older and wiser heads were prone to panic as well. The panic settled down when the number of enemy ships were noted and emphasized repeatedly.

  "There are too few ships. This is a scouting mission. They want to see what is here," Malwin stated. Word was still spreading through the government. He'd been awake, burning the midnight oil with some of the other staff. He wasn't looking forward to calling the emperor.

  Countess Newberry grimaced but nodded in agreement. "Now we know what they'd intended with all of those prowlers Zhen saw," she said.

  Malwin glanced at her and then nodded silently in agreement.

  "Sir, the palace operator is putting your call through now. They said they are waking the emperor," Malwin's chief of staff stated.

  "Oh goody, he's just going to be in an even more spectacular mood," Malwin murmured. The countess just rolled her eyes and mouthed better him than her.

  "Thanks," he muttered as he picked up the receiver.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  The emperor had just gone to bed and was not amused at being woken. "This had better be good or I'll have your head," he snarled, picking up the phone.

  "Sir, the Admiralty is online," the nervous palace phone operator stated. He really should have woken the chief of staff first and let him handle the emperor, but he would have really been up a creek if he'd delayed any longer with his dithering. "Sir, they are here," he said.

  "They? Who is they?" the emperor demanded just as there was the sound of a click and Malwin's voice started in.

  "Emperor, the Federation has sent a force of thirty-six ships," Malwin stated. "It looks like a pretty powerful and rather thorough scouting force," he stated.

  "They dare?!?" the emperor demanded, already fuming. "They dare?!?"

  "Yes, sire. We're working on running them down now."

  "Work harder and faster."

  "Yes, sire. This is already getting out though."

  "Damn! I'll address the empire momentarily," the emperor snarled as he tightened his robe. "But get on this situation Malwin or it will be the last frack up you ever oversee!"

  "We're doing our best, sire," Malwin said as the emperor hung up.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Like her father, Catherine and Elvira were in bed when they received the news. "This is bad, very bad," Elvira said as the princess's chief of staff briefed them over the speaker phone.

  "Damn right it is," Catherine said, thrusting the blankets aside to get to the shower and dressed. Elvira joined her.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Captain Hough watched the plot as it was continuously populated. That was the great thing about deploying so many pods and drones; they were getting tons of passive data. They had to keep a laser line on each pod for security, but that was fine as long as no one wandered into the line.

  He yawned softly. Everyone was on edge and they had every right to be. Just the arrival alone had been a boat load of stress. But it looked like they'd gotten in clean. Within a day they would be gliding through the outer edge of the Horathain's defensive grid.

  They were going to do so purely on a ballistic course of course. The process would take a week or more. While they did that, they would be building the most detailed picture of the star system and everything in it to date.

  All the while arranging a few … surprises along the way.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Admiral Rico was on hand to the virtual conference as the Admiralty shared what they knew after a day of frustration trying to track the intruders. "They are prowlers, we can't see them. They went into stealth and the picket forces lost track of them. They are trying to set up additional search patterns now. But every moment we don't have a solid track the search cone widens," Admiral Post stated, voice flat and professional. He was ever aware that he was on a razor's edge.

  "Here is a replay of their arrival," the operations admiral stated, showing them an image of the arrival
. The thirty-six ships appeared in a broad hemisphere, none anywhere near the established jump point zone. Some were pretty far inward, halfway around the star system from the jump point.

  "I'm betting they have water dweller crews on some of those ships," the countess volunteered. "They'd almost have to if they wanted to get that deep into an unknown star system."

  "Unless they have detailed intelligence on us already. Remember, they've been gathering databases and our people for years," Admiral Rico stated.

  "I haven't forgotten," the countess retorted. "The databases do not have navigational information this detailed however. Remember Garth? They thoroughly mapped it before attempting that jump with Second Fleet. No, this is something different."

  "It doesn't matter," the emperor rumbled. He noted the icons of the nearest ships to each arrival. Malwin was right, the enemy had picked their arrival points very carefully. By the time one of his ships was near enough to pick them up, they were already in stealth. No doubt they were long gone.

  "No warning is to go out," the emperor stated. "This is classified," he stated, ordering a suppression of any warning.

  "Sire?" Theo asked clearly confused.

  "You heard me. The public doesn't know. I don't want to start a panic. We need to run them down quickly and quietly."

  "Sire …"

  "I said, no warning is to go out. Period. Find them. Kill them."

  "Yes, sire."

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Elvira took Malwin's call but she just shook her head before his image could open its mouth.

  "That bad?" he asked.

  "Yes. I can't find them. Space is vast, Admiral; we have no way of running down a ship with an active cloak. Even their stealth is too good for us most times. The best thing we can do, and it's a long shot is to see them if they pass between a light source and the viewer."

  Malwin frowned thoughtfully. After a moment he nodded.

  "But, if they've got active camo, it won't matter much. They can pass the view right through them. I can look into ways to compare databases but this isn't my specialty, sir," she said apologetically.