Cerberus

by John Filcher

  LeCroy and Mueller chuckled, while they continued to watch the screen. The commlink beeped at LeCroy’s workstation to signal an incoming message from Bulldog 3, and he turned to answer it.

  “LeCroy here. Sitrep?”

  Both Ronin and Mueller listened to the situation report intensely.

  “This is Bulldog 3. Damage assessment as follows. Bulldog 1 drones caused minor damage to the destroyer, but notable for starboard thruster damage that decreased maneuvering effectiveness by an estimated 50 percent. Some port side turrets were destroyed. Grasshoppers destroyed two frigates. Two frigates are undamaged and are in an escort formation with the damaged destroyer. Estimated arrival at Wolf 184, the second marker, in two hours.”

  LeCroy sent and acknowledgment of the report, while Ronin and Mueller glanced at each other.

  “I have my doubts if the remaining enemy formation will even make it to the fifth marker, where we planned to let the Tomcat squadrons out to play,” Mueller concluded.

  “Agreed. The destroyer will be even more of a sitting duck than we hoped when it has to negotiate the sharp turn at the second marker. When Bulldog 2 returns for its re-arming, deploy them with Bulldogs 1 and 3 to the second marker vicinity as planned. Bulldog 4 will stay in a passive observation role for now to keep shadowing the enemy.” ordered Ronin.

  Ronin returned to his command chair while LeCroy and Mueller continued coordinating the various efforts. He observed Mueller’s body language for a moment. She still is reluctant to hit a vulnerable enemy, Ronin thought.

  Ronin opened a line to the Argo. “Captain Smith, this is Cerberus Actual. Have you finished your departure preparations?” Capt. Reggy Smith wasted no time in replying, his harried voice rising from Ronin’s chair arm commlink.

  “That’s affirmative, Cerberus,” said Smith. “We’re ready to shove off with our escort vessels as soon as you give the word.”

  Ronin was pleased with their progress. “The word is given, Captain. We’ll join you as soon as we can. Cerberus Actual, out.”

  The interesting thing about combat, Ronin mused as he waited for the next two hours to pass, is that it always has a hurry-up-and-wait aspect to it, no matter what century it is. Even with the dawn of the era of jump ship combat that drastically compressed the relative distances involved in combat actions, suddenly the flow of action ebbed for a few hours while they waited for the enemy to stumble into the next ambush. His thoughts were interrupted when Mueller walked over to stand next to him.

  “Bulldogs 1, 2 and 3, have redeployed to the second marker. They jumped to their predetermined hides behind the asteroids we moved into position with Cerberus so the enemy formation couldn’t see the jump flares.”

  Ronin nodded at the expected report, and glanced at his screen. “Now we wait,” he remarked.

  Ninety minutes crawled by with very little conversation on the bridge as they waited for round two to begin. Cerberus continued to actively scan the area around Yankee Station in a search for new threats.

  Bulldog 1 — At Foxtrot Station

  Johnson and Patterson appeared behind the pre-positioned asteroid designated Foxtrot Station. “Jump 1 complete,” she said, restarting the jump count because of their rearming return trip to Cerberus. The two of them quickly shut the Bulldog down, relying on the drone optics that had been likewise been pre-positioned.

  “The clock is at ninety minutes,” Patterson noted as they went dark. Foxtrot station appeared tranquil once again.

  Bulldog 2 — At Kilo Station

  At the same time Bulldog 1 appeared, Bulldog 2 appeared behind their own pre-positioned asteroid, which had been designated Kilo Station.

  “Jump 1 complete. Prepared to go dark,” Meyer announced.

  “Go dark in five. Four. Three. Two. One. Shutdown,” Schmidt counted down.

  Unknown to them, Bulldog 2 had set a speed record in going dark.

  Bulldog 3 — At Oscar Station

  Tony Russo and Michael Jonsey likewise appeared behind their own asteroid hide, that was designated Oscar Station during the mission planning.

  “Jump 1 complete. Ready to go dark,” Russo stated in a somewhat absentminded fashion as his attention was mostly occupied by his instruments.

  Seconds later, Jonsey counted down. “Dark in five. Four. Three. Two. One. Shutdown.”

  Russo glanced back at Jonsey for a moment before asking, “How’s the drone telemetry?”

  Jonsey pressed a few buttons as he refined their data link. “Five by five, Russo. Optics synced with our systems, and the countdown clock is at ninety minutes and falling. Visual clarity is so high, we even have eyes on each of the drones out in their screen.”

  Russo smiled. “The Captain has us set up beautifully out here. All that scrambling around the past few weeks might have been worth it.”

  Jonsey nodded, murmuring “umm-hmm” softly as he watched the screen plot and chewed his mint gum.

  Chapter 17

  Yankee Station

  Some two hours later, Ronin and Mueller watched the Tacnet plot on the main view screen. Three remaining AC ships slowly approached the second marker, an ambush point that had been designated Wolf 184 during the mission planning.

  “I know they’ve been slowed down by the loss of their starboard maneuvering thrusters, but they’re even slower than we anticipated,” Mueller whispered.

  LeCroy overheard her as he approached them. “The destroyer’s name translated into American is The Dragon, but despite her name, our sensor readings from before the attack suggests The Dragon’s maintenance is in poor condition. The engines are way out of tune, and that has reduced thruster efficiency by 23 percent. In fact, the sensor readings of entire enemy fleet revealed them all to be in similar condition. One of the destroyed frigates even suffered a reactor mishap not long ago because the hull was still fairly radioactive. That crew was destined for an early grave.”

  Glancing at LeCroy, Ronin nodded in agreement. “That tells me the perennially weak economy of the Collective can’t keep their ships maintained properly anymore, and it is likely a sign their economy is collapsing. No one has any incentive to work or provide superior craftsmanship in a socialist or collectivist economy, so they always lag far behind in nearly all areas.”

  Mueller muttered in response, “Hopefully they don’t get desperate and do something stupid as their economy collapses.”

  Ronin turned to look at her as he nodded again. “Exactly what the Admiralty is afraid of. But all we can do is take care of the business we have in front of us today. Let’s worry about tomorrow when it’s time to start worrying.”

  A beeping on his station console drew LeCroy’s attention.

  “Captain, the Bulldogs are spinning up their jump drives. Targets are nearly stationary as they negotiate the turn. Missile launch in 45 seconds,” LeCroy reported.

  “OK, time to hammer down,” Ronin responded. “Lieutenant Perez, execute Jump 1.”

  Lt. Antonio Perez acknowledged the order, and jumped Cerberus to another pre-positioned asteroid designated Whiskey Station, which was its attack position behind near Wolf 184.

  “They had to wonder what that big flash was,” LeCroy commented, although spotting the larger jump flare coming from behind the rock couldn’t be helped. Cerberus was too big to completely hide in this area, so it had to wait until the trap sprung to jump in and participate in the combat.

  “Too late for them to do anything about it,” Ronin replied as Mueller started issuing the orders to reconfigure the jump drive gravity lensing to turn the ship into a rock pusher.

  Seconds passed before Mueller reported, “Reconfiguration complete, Captain. Commencing with the Potato Masher. Lieutenant Perez, proceed.”

  Mueller’s commanding attitude and lack of noticeable hesitation in ordering the Potato Masher to proceed surprised Ronin for a moment. Maybe she’s coming
’round, he told himself.

  Perez quickly pressed screen buttons on his console as he verbally replied, “Aye, aye, Commander.” Cerberus quickly turned to face the rock, before pushing its nose close to it as the ship slowly accelerated to make contact with its gravity field from the jump drives. Once the field had a steady grip on the asteroid, Perez began increasing power with the sub light fusion drive. The rock resisted the pressure for a few moments, then began to accelerate. Slowly for the first few seconds, rapidly picking up momentum as Cerberus’ fusion drive flared when it reached max power. The verbal reports came in quickly.

  “Captain, the Grasshoppers have destroyed the two frigates. One Grasshopper also damaged the destroyer. Looks like The Dragon’s engines were heavily damaged from the impact. Her thrust levels have dropped to about 10 percent,” said LeCroy as he read the report from Tacnet.

  Delacroix added, “Captain, The Dragon is nearly stationary. Bulldogs have jumped back behind their asteroids again.”

  Suddenly the acceleration gravities eased off as Perez reported, “Rock is released! Ready to jump away, Captain.”

  Ronin nodded briefly. “Mr. Perez, jump us back to Yankee Station.” Perez acknowledged by jumping the ship away.

  Cerberus reappeared at the Yankee Station staging area, followed by Perez saying, “Jump 2 complete.”

  Ronin looked over at LeCroy. “Report, Mr. LeCroy.”

  LeCroy didn’t respond for a few seconds as the data link to Tacnet was reestablished. “Taking a reading now. The Dragon is attempting to avoid the incoming asteroid. Engine output just ceased, her engines couldn’t handle the demand. She’s adrift. Aim is good. Estimated time to impact, ten minutes.”

  Ronin responded quickly. “Recall Bulldogs 1 and 2 immediately. Keep 4 in an observation role as they’ve got the special optics pod. Keep 3 at Oscar Station in reserve for now.”

  LeCroy immediately sent a message. “Bulldogs 1 and 2, priority recall order. Bulldogs 1 and 2, this is a priority recall order. Execute immediately. Bulldog 4, continue observations.

  The Bulldogs confirmed receipt of the orders.

  Bulldog 1 — Yankee Station

  Bulldog 1 smoothly arrived in the Cerberus hangar bay, then taxied to its designated parking spot. As Johnson powered down the systems, Patterson noted, “Two minutes until impact, Johnson.”

  As she finished her task, Johnson called over her shoulder to Patterson, “I kind of wish we could’ve lingered to see the show, but it’s good to be home anyway.”

  Patterson laughed before he said, “Me too! Let’s hit the showers. We’re pretty ripe smelling after days in our suits.”

  As they exited and stepped down onto the Cerberus deck, deck chief Adam Taylor couldn’t resist taking a swipe at them. “Ripe? You two are ready to be pickled. Get off my deck before someone dies from the fumes,” Taylor said with a slightly evil grin.

  Patterson and Johnson laughed as they walked away. They turned to watch Bulldog 2 taxiing to the adjacent parking spot.

  Meyer and Schmidt soon exited and joined the waiting crew of Bulldog 1. Patterson had to start with the razzing as the four walked to the flight crew quarters. “Schmidt, when did you ditch Meyer and replace him with a wolf man?”

  Meyer laughed loudly, as he touched his now impressively thick blonde beard as he flashed a huge grin. “You just wish you were man enough to sprout this mane, girly man.”

  Now it was Patterson’s turn to laugh, this time along with the rest of them. “C’mon wolf man. Let’s hit the showers before you confuse the tears in our eyes with happiness to see you!”

  Up on the bridge, Ronin noted the arrival of Bulldogs 1 and 2, before LeCroy interrupted his thoughts. “Thirty seconds till impact, Captain. Tacnet plotting says it’ll be a glancing blow due to The Dragon’s accrued momentum before her engines flamed out.”

  The bridge fell silent at that, while Ronin eyed his screen plot and countdown timer.

  “Bulldog 4 reports the asteroid hit The Dragon, Captain.” LeCroy reported. “Damage assessment is she’s a total loss despite being a partial hit. Speed at impact was .1 lights.” LeCroy continued looking at the Tacnet report by the observation Bulldog for a few moments before adding, “Clarification. The Dragon was totally destroyed. Kinetic energy of the impact equaled about a 100-megaton nuclear warhead. Bulldogs 3 and 4 are jumping away to avoid the shockwave.”

  “Recall the Bulldogs and let’s get out in front of the Argo to scout for more threats,” Ronin ordered. LeCroy quickly ordered Bulldogs 3 and 4 back to the ship, while Perez plotted their next jump, this time to the new escape channel that Cerberus created a few weeks ago. Minutes later, the Bulldogs were parked in the hangar and Perez was ready.

  “Execute jump, Perez,” Ronin commanded. Cerberus jumped.

  Chapter 18

  November Station

  Cerberus appeared at the staging area previously designated November Station. This was the final waypoint before the Argo would leave the confines of the belt. Cerberus had placed a host of monitoring sensors and early Tacnet warning devices around the exit to let them know if the Collective was waiting for them.

  “Jump 3 complete, Captain,” announced Lieutenant Perez.

  Lieutenant LeCroy read Tacnet for a moment to confirm what the telemetry sent via the repeaters had reported. “No ships have been here since Cerberus last left the area, Captain,” noted LeCroy when Ronin looked over to his station with the question written on his face.

  Lieutenant Delacroix finished his more thorough scans. “Confirmed, Captain. No exhaust residue from passing Collective ships found by the sensors. Task force is showing up on our sensors. Arrival in ten hours,” he said.

  Ronin nodded acknowledgment. “Let’s keep our Bulldog crews home for now and they can grab some rest while our sensor net does the heavy lifting.” Mueller passed Ronin’s order along to the pilot ready room.

  “Captain, incoming message from Captain Toft,” announced Lieutenant Delgado from the bridge’s main commlink station.

  “Send it through to my console,” Ronin ordered. He answered the soft beep.

  “Cerberus Actual, this is Ike Actual. Tacnet reports all enemy ships destroyed. Is that for real?”

  Ronin smiled slightly, the corner of his mouth turning up in a half smirk. “That’s affirm, Mark.” The commlink was silent for a few moments before Captain Toft spoke again.

  “Dan, I don’t understand. How could you have wiped them out in just a few hours? That’s not possible!” This time Ronin’s smile spread wider as Mueller also glanced over with a smirk on her face.

  “Remember when I said you wouldn’t believe what Cerberus could do if I told you? We’re the new sheriffs in town.”

  “You’re enjoying not telling me, aren’t you?” Toft said in a half-teasing voice.

  “Oooh, I’m taking so much pleasure in not telling you. That much enjoyment should probably be illegal! Cerberus Actual, out.” Ronin closed the line before speaking to the bridge crew:

  “We have a slow period coming on. Call in your replacements, and go get some rest. We’re not out of the woods yet.”

  Over on the Ike, Toft shook his head slightly as he glanced up at his new XO, Christine Hansen. A capable veteran of both fleet politics and multiple engagements, Johnson had been on the Ike for three years before Toft chose her as the new XO.

  “What do you suppose Captain Ronin meant by that?” she asked Toft.

  “I don’t know. Captain Ronin isn’t usually so cryptic, unless there’s a security reason for it. The way he’s phrasing his response tells me there is a big security reason for it. Cerberus must be really fast to cover so much ground that quickly.”

  Hansen nodded, commenting, “Heavily gunned too. I’ve never heard of anything that could wipe out a fleet coming in from two widely separated directions in a matter of hours.”

 
Now it was Toft’s turn to nod. “Yeah. It would have taken us days just to cover the distance, and we would still have been too late to stop the second group from reaching Argo. And how did they manage to do it without being damaged at all?”

  While Toft and Hansen were trying to noodle out how Cerberus seemed to pull off the impossible, Ronin had changed clothes and was walking into the gym when he spotted his sparring partners, Kowalski and Blackwater.

  “Ready to work up a sweat and trade a few lumps, Captain?” Blackwater said with a predatory smile while Kowalski was still putting on his sparring pads.

  “You betcha! Been sitting still for hours. Got a need to work off some stress here,” Ronin replied as he started putting on his own pads.

  Blackwater and Kowalski knew exactly what Ronin meant. Ronin just wished he were down in the pilot ready room to partake in quaffing one of Sunderland’s home-brewed celebration beers that he figured would be served at the debriefing.

  Mueller noticed the time as she walked to her family’s quarters, which prompted her to walk quicker. They should all still be awake and she wanted to get some time in before everyone got some sleep. She was only two steps inside the hatchway when Sophia and Sonya attacked with hugs and excited cries of “Mommy!”

  As she soaked in the love, Mueller sighed and said, “I really needed this!”

  After the hugs, Karl held out a plain brown bottle that had a note attached. “Lieutenant Sunderland said I should give this to you. He said you’d know what it is?” Karl said in a tone that was both statement and question.

  “Honey, get the beer mugs!” Diane said excitedly when she saw what Karl was holding.

  Delacroix decided to relax the way he loved best. That meant a trip to the impromptu poker table that was temporarily set up in Marine Country, which is the section of Cerberus occupied by the Marines. In their briefing room, the Marines often had the ship’s poker tournament going on.

  Interestingly, while there was a personal note on file from the captain of Achéron on Delacroix’s last tour to beware Delacroix’s poker skills unless you’d like to become bankrupt, only Ronin seemed aware of the cautionary warning in the file. Ronin had promised Delacroix that he would tell no one about Delacroix’s talent, but not to be surprised if Ronin would have a need to draw upon Delacroix’s poker skills someday.